Velveteen Dream quirks an eyebrow as Drake Maverick examines the group of them, teeth worrying his bottom lip. The man is always a bit anxious, his hands fluttering at his sides as he thinks about what to do next, but so far, he's been a fine, fair leader, even among their ridiculous group, full of opposing view points and clashing attitudes. Still. Something's up. "So what is this?" he finally asks, voice smooth but with a bite of impatience under it. He feels the weight of being a digidestined on his shoulders but he will always be Velveteen Dream, and Dream's time is too precious to be wasted by whatever this is.

"Are we doing enough?" he asks suddenly, surprising the group. "Can we be doing more to support the Raw and Smackdown teams? Any ideas on what else can be done?"

Dream sits and listens as the others respond as best as they can, Dakota's boisterous suggestions underlined by Damien Priest's low grumble, their ideas nothing special to the Dream, just background noise as he considers Drake's questions. Ciampa, Rhea and he are the only ones not jumping in with suggestions, and Dream tilts his head, examining them quietly.

"We could," Dream says slowly, smirking as all eyes shift to stare at him, "perhaps begin to visit areas not sending active distress alerts. Try to see if anyone's seen anything mysterious, or sensed anything off around them. Maybe cut some of this off before anything can actually happen."

Drake blinks, hard. On one hand, it would just be more work for all of them. On the other hand, perhaps making inroads with new areas, instilling trust here and there, starting a chain of communication wouldn't be a bad thing. "Brilliant," he breathes out. Dream may be a strange character hard to pin down, but he's become quite vital at Drake's side through all of this, more confident and secure in himself than Drake thinks he ever will be.

"Where do we start though?" Dakota wonders. "Without a problem reflecting on the map, we won't know where to go."

"Take it land by land. I'm sure Luke has a proper map he'd be willing to let us look at."

"Right," she says slowly. "I imagine he would."

When they go to see him, Luke is, as always, quite accomodating, and searches around his collection of various things that he's found over the years. "Aha," his voice echoes back, muffled, and Drake exchanges a glance with Dream before they turn back towards where Luke had disappeared, not too surprised when the man returns with exactly what they'd asked for. "It might be a little dated, the digiworld is always evolving and changing, after all, but this is the most recent map I've got of this world." He holds it out to Drake. "I like your idea, but please be careful in certain spots. Even I'm not sure what is in certain lands."

Drake nods, taking the map from him. "Don't worry, we will be."

Luke smiles at them and watches them go, exhaling slowly. "I hope this wasn't a mistake," he mumbles to himself before reluctantly returning to his own responsibilities.

Drake leads the others out into the sunlight and once they can see, he sprawls the map out over a nearby bench, kneeling down to explore the different markings designating lands and paths. Dream and Dakota are also looking it over, searching for something, somewhere to go first. "Wow," he mutters. "This world is much more vast than I expected." And it doesn't even include the Dark Ocean, which he guesses makes sense seeing it's a whole different plane of existence and no one here really knows what it's like or how to map it out.

Speaking of Dark things, his sharp blue eyes trail over a part of the map south of where they're at labeled Dark Area. What looks like Luke's handwriting is scribbled in the sides of the map close to where the Area is designated. Hell, it reads simply."What is this?" he wonders, gingerly tracing it with his finger. It's close to the Net Ocean, and he wonders. Looking up at the others, he exhales. "Awhile ago, Dolph Ziggler was losing himself to guilt about something to do with all of the digimon who'd been destroyed, their data lost in the digital sea. I wonder if perhaps it is related to this."

"Is he still affected by it?" Dakota wonders and Drake shakes his head, shrugging.

"I honestly don't know," he says, still swayed by curiosity of the Dark Area. But they're all so underleveled, his digimon the only one to have actually battled, and digivolved, and even then, he's only made it to the first level of strength past Rookie...! He closes his eyes. "Alright, everyone, where should we go then?"

Dakota says something but her words are drowned out by Dream looking him square in the eye and declaring, "We should obviously go to the Dark Area."

Drake sputters. "Wh- why should we do that? It's clearly a place to avoid, especially considering we've only been a team for a couple weeks, none of your digimon have evolved yet, and you all are still learning the ways of the Digiworld. Why would any of you want to jump in the deep end like this?"

Dream smirks at him. "The Dream has no interest in swimming, but he is intrigued by such a place." He looks once more at the map and Drake again finds himself conflicted by how to feel about the young man. "If we are to make inroads in figuring out where evil originates in this world, wouldn't that be the place to begin?"

"Well," Drake hesitates. "Probably, yes, but-"

"But if we want answers this is the perfect place to go," Damien Priest speaks up, startling Drake.

"Oh come on!" he cries out, turning desperate eyes to Ciampa, Rhea, Dakota. "You have to understand how poorly of an idea this truly is?"

"Maybe," Ciampa says slowly. "But I think it has some merits. Maybe if we go in quickly, take a look around, then take whatever knowledge we gain there and make a gameplan for when our digimon are stronger..."

Drake buries his face in his hands, digs his fingers into his eyes. "This world doesn't work like that! Especially in a place like the Dark Area! We will attract attention as soon as we arrive, and they will attack us! Do you really want that?"

Dream shrugs. "You said we need to help the other teams, I don't see how this isn't. If the Dark Area is the origin of evil in this world, and we figure out why evil is bred here, and find a way to stop it, what better way than that to help?"

Drake grits his teeth, seeing some logic to that, but hating himself for it. He looks helplessly down into Gabumon's large eyes. "What do you think?"

Gabumon, who's only managed one digivolution in Drake's time as digidestined, Gabumon who's seen a lot of his fellow digimon fall and be deleted and reborn as digieggs, Gabumon who would have to defend all of them if something goes wrong. He frets with his claws and finally says, "I see both points of view." He looks kind of lost, glancing at Dream before turning back to Drake. "I think, maybe, we should go, just to look the area over. I'm pretty fast in my Garurumon form, perhaps... we can run in, look around, and return here with the others before we're spotted."

It's not a great solution, but Drake thinks it has some merits as a plan. "Ok," he whispers unhappily. "I suppose we can give it a try."

So they go. But Drake puts his foot down when they're on the outskirts of what is clearly where Dark Area begins, everything looking so grim and horrible past this one spiral of mountains. "You all stay here," he informs the others, Dream crossing his arms over his chest and staring back at him with a disgusted look in his eye. "I mean it. All of your digimon are still very young and can't help in battle, and I won't have any of you getting into trouble on my watch. We'll be back soon." He nods at Garurumon, who kneels down on his haunches, and allows Drake to climb up unsteadily. "Ok, let's go," he tells the wolf type Digimon.

Garurumon races off, deep into the dreary looking area beyond, and Dream makes a loud, dissatisfied noise before turning sharply and walking off. "Hey!" Dakota calls after him, still feeling vulnerable even though the sun is shining on them and the breeze is soothing against her skin. "We need to stay together!"

He doesn't go far, however, just settles down on the cleanest patch of ground he could find, Impmon settling in next to him. "This is pathetic," he mumbles. "It was my idea and I don't even get to go in myself."

Impmon blinks at him. "Probably next time, once we all have a little more battle experience."

"How are we supposed to get battle experience if Maverick won't let us do anything?" His voice is drowning in bitterness and frustration, and Impmon thinks he senses a lot of resentment lingering there from forces beyond the Digiworld.

He can't think of anything to say, not knowing Dream well enough to know how to possibly console him, so they sit quietly, and they wait. And watch Dakota, Rhea, and Damien wander around. Like them, Ciampa is standing very still against a mountain, his arms crossed over his chest, a bored look on his pale face, Guilmon waiting patiently by his side.

Eventually Dakota looks up and exhales. "Isn't this taking too long? It feels like it's been close to half an hour. He said he'd be in and out. This doesn't feel like in and out to me." She meets Dream's dull gaze and breathes out, "Do you think he's in trouble?"

Dream shrugs. "How should I know? He thought he could 'keep us out of trouble', so what's it to me if he was wrong?"

Dakota swallows. "You don't mean that," she whispers, her accent thick as she stares back into the Dark Area. "Drake, come on... please."

But nothing happens. He doesn't come.

Dream grumbles as uncomfortable sensations poke at him and he closes his eyes. "Shit," he grunts, standing up and dusting his purple swirled jeans off. "Come on," he tells Impmon, who scrambles to join him.

"Wh- where are you going?" Dakota asks, voice highpitched with worry.

He puts his hands in his pockets and sneers at her. "Guess I'm going to save our prestigeous leader." He walks towards the grey, gloomy mass of land before them, turning slowly to face the others. "No point in all of us doing this. Stay here, if I don't come out, go to Luke's. Tell him, and bring back someone else to do this. Alright?"

Dakota looks close to tears, glances at the others, and- finding no comfort or support from them- gives in to Dream's suggestions. "Alright," she says wearily, shoulders slumped.

He looks down at Impmon. "Ready?"

"Yes," his partner says, no hesitation or qualms in his tone. Dream's lips twitch, slightly, and they walk side by side into the unknown.

It's shocking how quickly things turn from warm and sunny to chilly and dim. There is no light here, everything feels smothered by creepy sensations that leave Dream wishing he'd dressed a little warmer today. Impmon sticks close and they venture further into the gloom, Dream trying to keep an eye out for their missing leader. "Dream," Impmon whispers to him. "Sometimes the digivices will lead you to a fellow digidestined."

It seems like a bad idea to bring out a glowing, beeping device in this quiet, dark maelstrom, but Dream has no other idea on how to locate Drake, so he does it. Impmon reaches up and presses a button, and the screens shift. Dream blinks, hard, as the positions of the dots change, now showing a group of dots behind him- and one, dimly flickering dot to his left. "Drake," he breathes out, turning to follow it.

It takes longer than he expected to find his way over to Drake, reinforcing just how big this area truly is, and when he makes it, he stops short. Drake is sprawled out, unconscious, on the ground, Garurumon collapsed not far away, and these bizarre little beasts with tiny red wings and sleepy looking eyes are surrounding him. "What the..."

Impmon's claws suddenly dig into his hand and he hisses, looking down in confusion, before he points straight ahead. "Dream," he says frantically, and Dream squints into the gloom, just to freeze. Beyond the group of rookie digimon, there's a taller, purple beast type creature with spikes forming out of its arms and legs, strange tubes poking from the top of its skull and mouth. Even in this gloom, its skin glints as if some sort of armor is coating its entire body. "It's a group of Phascomon and their evolution form, Porcupamon."

"Is that supposed to mean anything to me?" he wonders, already overwhelmed by all of this. His earlier idea was so poor, and only now he sees just what Drake actually meant. "Shit, what do we do?"

Impmon hesitates and looks up at him. "We have to try to get Drake and Garurumon out of here," he finally says and Dream groans.

"Yes, clearly, but how?"

Impmon exhales and suddenly, before Dream could figure out what his plan was, he lunges forward. Fireballs blast from his claws and strikes a couple of the Phascomon, causing the others to scatter and give Drake and Garurumon a little space. Dream watches closely, relieved when Porcupamon makes no sudden movement to defend the others, and Impmon avoids the Phascomon as he lands on the edge of a small hill and leaps back off, more fire shooting from his fingers. "Dream!" he cries out. "Now!"

Dream moves as quickly as he can, lunging for Drake and grabbing him under the arms. "C'mon, man. You're lucky you're small." He hoists him up and gets him over his shoulders in a fireman's carry, frowning down at Garurumon. "What am I supposed to do with you?" Kneeling down, Drake's weight barely restricting any of his movements, he rests a hand on Garurumon's battered side. "Come on, man, help me out here, huh?"

He thinks he feels a sudden movement against his back and there's a faint glow as Garurumon dedigivolves all the way down to a small, furry digimon with a long, blue and white striped tail. "Oh," Dream mumbles, blinking at the little guy before hoisting him up. He's just stood to try to see if Impmon can safely join them, so they can escape, when-

Porcupamon chooses that moment to join the fray after Impmon leapt a little too close to him while trying to avoid the Phascomon. He slashes out at Impmon and- claws imbed in Impmon's side, and...

"IMPMON!" Dream yells for his partner, horror paralyzing him as he gapes on.

"Dr- Dream," Impmon chokes out, data pouring from his wound heavily once Porcupamon viciously tears his claws free. He collapses and Dream forgets Drake, he forgets Wanyamon, nothing matters but that the partner that he's just met, the partner that was mischevious and purple and strangely perfect for him in such a way that he was just beginning to think he wouldn't really mind sharing the spotlight with him, sometimes, maybe, is now sprawled out on the ground, dying, and it's all because of him and his stubborn ideas.

He drops to his knees, he feels Drake slide slowly down his back and waits only for as long as it takes for him to slip onto the ground before settling Wanyamon down as well to crawl towards his partner. "Impmon," he breathes, reaching out for him. "I'm here, it's- it's gonna be ok." He shivers, feeling ill inside as he approaches. "It's ok."

Impmon gasps for air and lets out a weak sigh. "Dream. All I ever wanted was to be partner to a digidestined." He stares into Dream's eyes and smiles. "At least I... accomplished that, right? I can... accept this, but I'm sorry I'm leaving you so soon." He closes his eyes. "Find a way out of here, alright? I know you can do it- you're... you're strong and... I know... you'll find a way."

Dream's hands tremble as he touches him, feeling Impmon's vulnerability, how close to fading away he is, under his fingers. "No, there has to be something- some way... please, Impmon, don't do this," he mumbles, never one to really beg, but finding that he'd do anything to keep this from happening. "Please-"

There's a blinding flash of light. From within, from without. Impmon gasps, his eyes fluttering shut against the force of it, and Dream blinks hard, staring down at his fingers. Glowing purple, flashing against his partner's jaw, there's an intense kind of power building within him that Dream's never truly felt before. It even keeps Phascomon at bay, Porcupamon also lumbering backwards in response. "Wha- what's happening?" Impmon asks in a daze and Dream wishes he knew how to answer him, wishes he knew himself. "Dream- Dream..."

He feels different, somehow, the power coursing through his veins in a way he's never felt before. Yes, he's felt invincible in the past before- fighting against and ultimately teaming with Aleister, the night he won the North American championship, it had all felt like he was on the cusp of something great, but this... this feels like whatever barrier that was keeping him from achieving his ultimate strength has crumbled to dust around him and revealed the origins of his true abilities. Am I like Luke? What am I? What is happening? but there's no time to ponder it, there's no time to even respond to Impmon, Dream leaning into the flow of power as it strips him away, sends Impmon into a digivolution cycle unlike any ever seen before.

Purple mist surrounds Impmon, immediately stops the data pouring from his shredded body, and sends energy flowing through him as he begins to glow brightly, his body reforming as a massive bird with a large wingspan, with lighting shaped tips. He has bright red and yellow talons and a large beak, and as he flies up high into the air, he squeeches loud enough to attract the attention of the digidestined still waiting back at the barrier. "Bio Thunderbirdmon!"

Phascomon grow frantic, scrambling around, but Porcupamon barely blinks at the sudden digivolution. Bio Thundermon swoops down and hovers close to the rookie digimon, watching shrewdly as they try to attack, various poisons and sleeping agents drifting around him. He gives a few good flaps of his wings, however, and sends the attacks back at the vicious little creatures, watching with some satisfaction as they're all felled by their own abilities. This done, Bio Thunderbirdmon turns his focus onto Porcupamon.

"You're quite ugly, aren't you?" The voice is a strange mesh of Impmon and Dream's, and as weird as it sounds, it oddly fits well together. He flies close, moving swiftly back out of the way when Porcupamon takes a swipe at him, the massive spikes on his arms enough to give any digimon pause, and Bio Thundermon clucks at him. "Nice try. It wasn't enough. I'm not sure why you chose to attack Drake, but I'm here now, and I'm not going to let that go." His body sparkles with a beautiful flood of energy, all spiraling around his wings, and electricity pours forward, streaking straight towards Porcupamon, who tries to swipe it away with his armored fists. He fails, however, and the electricity seems to pour through his spikes, into the gaps of the tubes surrounding his ears and mouth, and he's thoroughly electrocuted within seconds, hitting the ground hard.

Bio Thundermon hovers for a few more moments, watching his body slowly disintegrate into data particulars that blow away, before sinking slowly to the ground next to Drake. It's awkward, he has to be careful with the body that he's still learning how to control, but eventually he gets under him and gently maneuvers him onto his back. "Hang on, Drake, we'll get you both out of here," he promises, carefully collecting Wanyamon with his talon before taking to the skies once more.

The flight, all in all, doesn't take long, Bio Thundermon breathes a little easier once he spots the other digidestined, still scattered close to where he'd instructed them to stay. Dakota cries out as he lands next to her, and then again when she spots Drake's unconscious form, running towards him. "Drake!" she gently tugs him off of the bird creature's back and supports him down to the ground. "Oh my God, what happened?"

Bio Thundermon shakes his head before looking down at her. "He was attacked by a group of Phascomon. I think they just put him to sleep, he should be waking up shortly."

Dakota blinks up at him. "Dr-... Dream? Is that... you in there?"

"I think so," he says quietly, his voice overtaking Impmon's for a moment. "I don't know how but Impmon was on the brink of dying, and the next thing I knew, we had... digivolved together?" It had felt so natural, he almost doesn't want to overthink it, but he would like answers."We should return to Luke's. Make sure Drake's ok." See how I can return back to my usual form... if I can...

He's barely finished thinking as much when his body begins to glow sharply and he feels himself growing smaller, back to his usual, human shape. He stares blankly at his hands for a few moments before looking down at Impmon. "Leave the digivolution stuff to me," his partner tells him with a cheeky little grin.

Dream closes his eyes and exhales slowly, overwhelmed by everything that's just happened in the last hour, before kneeling down and tugging Impmon close, hugging him tightly. "Don't ever do that again," he mumbles.

Impmon chuckles weakly. "I'll try not to."

-x

Drake wakes up slowly. He blinks against the sunlight pouring onto his face and groans weakly, batting uselessly at the glow. When he finally opens his eyes fully, he finds Dream sitting next to him, his arms crossed over his chest, a bored look on his face. They regard each other quietly for a few moments and Drake finally mutters, "What happened?"

"Where should I begin?" Dream asks, slowly untucking himself from where he was sitting and stepping forward to look closely at Drake. "I was something of a stubborn fool and forced you into a dangerous situation. In the process of trying to get you out of said situation, I nearly got Impmon killed as well, and ultimately ended up turning into pure energy and aiding his digivolution into a large bird creature with the power of thunder. We destroyed the digimon who had nearly killed him, and rescued you. Thankfully they merely put you to sleep instead of poisoning you, and thus here we are, back safe and sound at Luke's compound. Like nothing ever happened."

Drake's jaw drops as he examines Dream, sensing there is something different about him. "... Could you repeat that?"

Dream's lips twitch as he sits down next to Drake and exhales. "Luke says it appears that some of the things I've accomplished in wrestling..." He lifts his hand and purple swirls around his finger tips, trailing forward and tracing almost teasingly against Drake's nose, making him scrunch up his nose as he tries not to sneeze. "Some of the visually pleasing asthetics I can manage for segments and sometimes matches are due to dormant power within me. No idea where it came from, or how, or much else. But there it is, it's enough that I can somehow fuse together with Impmon when he needs to digivolve."

Drake stares at him. "That... that's incredible. What does it feel like?" he wonders, fingers twitching as he imagines fighting as one with Gabumon. Dread suddenly washes over him and he sits up, startling Dream. "Wait, where's Gabumon? Is he-"

"He's fine," Dream says, reaching over and scooping up the baby digimon that is more tail than body and resting Wanyamon in Drake's arms. "Think he was just too exhausted and weak to maintain his normal form."

Drake melts back into his pillows and exhales, hugging Wanyamon close. "Thank you," he mumbles to Dream, rubbing his face into his partner's fur.

"No need to thank me," Dream says, looking uncharacteristically uncomfortable. "I suppose I should apologize." When Drake looks up at him, surprised, he exhales. "Even the Dream can recognize when he makes a mistake. Sending you alone into a place like the Dark Area definitely tops that list at the moment. You were right about our digimon and how strong they need to be to handle something like that. It's no excuse, but I'm still learning the ins and outs of all of this."

Drake nods. "I know. We all are, in varying ways. We have to learn to be a cohesive team, we have to learn to work together with our digimon, there's a lot to sort out. We're all going to try and fail, and try again. I don't hold it against you, Dream. You did come to rescue me when you realized things had gone wrong, after all. That means a lot."

Dream's lips twitch into something resembling a smile and he stands. "I'm going to go, let you shake off the last of that sleep attack. Whenever you're ready, Luke says we're all clear to return back to earth."

Drake nods, watching him leave. "Alright," he says softly, stroking his fingers through Wanyamon's fur as he sleeps on, undisturbed by everything going on around him. "You know, I think we're going to be just fine," he whispers to his partner.