Seth enjoys being leader. Usually. He thinks it suits him, and Luke backs him up, so unlike on earth, people will actually listen to him. Usually. It helps that he's done this since nearly the beginning, outlasting so many other Digidestined who either got injured or fired or anything else in between. Still, not everyone finds it that easy to fall in line, so he's not surprised to find himself facing off with Aleister Black, their partners keeping a distance from their heated glowering. "I told you not to-"
"And I told you it made no sense-" Aleister never backs down, glaring back at Seth, his teeth all but bared as Seth scoffs and raises a hand, frustration in his gaze growing when Aleister doesn't even flinch at the abrupt move.
"You're going to get us all killed if you keep refusing to just LISTEN!" he yells back, losing control over himself for the first time in a long time. He pauses, surprised by the burst of emotions, how right it feels. Aleister sneers at him and he shakes his head, trying to regain control of the narrative. "I-"
"I will do no such thing," he says calmly. "I have my own methods of dealing with problems here, it's just you do not understand them-"
"I understand your methods just fine!" Seth exclaims. "Anything and everything you can do to disrupt my attempts at helping these villages out, to be a good leader, you will clearly go out of your way to do!"
"If that is how you truly feel," Aleister says, his gaze cold and a sort of danger in his voice, "perhaps you are not meant to be leader after all."
"HEY!" Asuka yells, pushing between the two of them and shutting them up with her abrupt, brisk speech. "Look!"
They look. And stop short, jaws dropping almost simultaneously. "No way," Seth exhales, eyes widening as he takes in the renewed attack that's suddenly barreling towards them, towards the village they were already a little too late to save. "Where... how...?" He's frozen in place, watching this cascade of energy lighting up the area around them. "MOVE!" he suddenly comes back to himself and grips Asuka's wrist, pulling her as far away from the sweep of bullets as he can.
Aleister just barely escapes the torrent of attacks as well, the ground quickly growing pitted with the force of the energy bullets. "What was that?" he breathes out and Seth opts to ignore him for now, quickly checking on the others.
Owens, Asuka, Aleister, all accounted for, thankfully. He breathes a little easier before turning to Betamon. "Try to figure that out, please," Seth requests and his partner nods, flooded with glowing power as he digivolves. Once Seadramon has moved away to try to scout out the origin of that attack, he turns to frown at Aleister. "I know you value your solitude. I am aware a group setting isn't your thing, and your methods are whatever. But it doesn't matter what you think about me, or how I choose to lead, or anything else. This world is large, and many of the digimon here outclass all of us in power. We have to work together or risk losing big time." He clenches his teeth, nails biting into his palm, and again he finds himself wishing Luke had chosen Buddy. "I refuse to let you get yourself hurt or killed just because you don't like me."
Aleister scoffs and turns his back on Seth, not bothering to even dignify that with a response, and he's about to walk off when-
"Seth!" Seadramon calls out, hurrying back to them. "It's a ... a Beelzebubmon! But he seems to have fused with a Revolvermon? So he has two guns. It... it looks bad." He drapes himself at Seth's feet and catches his breath as his partner strokes his fingers up and down his side.
Seth closes his eyes and shakes his head. "This just keeps getting better and better. Fine, guys, come on." Asuka immediately perks up, Owens remaining impassive as he shifts forward to follow. Aleister is the only one who doesn't move, Seth's annoyed gaze resting on his rigid shoulders. "You're not gonna bother to help, huh? Just wander off and do whatever while we actually fight to save this world? And you're supposed to be the good guy while I'm just a blasphemous guy out to do nothing but save myself. Amazing."
Aleister doesn't bother to respond, moving over to sit quietly by a rock wall, his eyes closed, fingers lightly pressed together, as he meditates. Herissmon hesitates but eventually joins him, even though it's clear he's desperate to go help in the battle as well. Aleister remains quiet, lost in the flow of his own breathing, and Seth huffs, shaking his head in disgust, before storming off, the other digidestined following.
Despite the distance of the battle, Aleister can sense when it starts- the sudden rush of power that slowly ebbs as the digimon digivolve, the clash of data as the battle begins in earnest. Beelzebubmon is brutal, making the most of each attack with both guns that have taken the place of his arms now, and there's just no easy opening for any of them- MetalSeadramon takes a shot head on, sent flying into a cliff and slumping down, motionless. Lotusmon gets shot repeatedly right in the chest and dedigivolves immediately, Asuka desperately rushing to get her partner off of the ground, and hugging her close with tears pouring down her face. Mach Gaogomon tries to fight back, but he's so much underleveled in comparison that he barely gets a few blasts off before he's struck with a volley of bullets and forced to dedigivolve as well.
Aleister's eyes open, glowing with a silvery kind of energy, and Herissmon stares at him, confused but enthralled. "Aleister?" he breathes out, following slowly as his partner stands and walks in the direction that Seth and the others had gone to. It takes time that they probably do not have to arrive on foot, but when they do, the battle is all but over- MetalSeadramon is incapacitated, the others are all barely holding on in their rookie leveled forms, and Beelzebubmon is hovering over Seth, his pistol aimed right between the man's eyes.
"Do it," Seth snaps at him. "I dare you-"
Beelzebubmon is laughing at him, the pistol cocking like it's about to blast, and-
"HERISSMON!" Aleister yells, attracting attention of everyone on the field, as-
Light blasts from Aleister's digivice, circles Herissmon, strips his data away so suddenly that Herissmon can barely breathe. "Herissmon digivolve to..." His data reforms into a larger body, quills and claws more defined, his eyes flashing as he smirks and stretches his wrists out, enjoying the tug of the tape wrapped snugly around them. "Filmon!"
Filmon is still undersized in comparison to Beelzebubmon, obviously, but it distracts Beelzebubmon from Seth, and Aleister stares menacingly at the man, eyes still glinting a sharp silver, and Seth stumbles back and away, MetalSeadramon slowly finding the strength to pry himself out from the cliff he'd collapsed into earlier. "Filmon," he calls out. "We need to work together. It's down to us."
Filmon nods, barely taking his eyes off of Beelzebubmon. "Sounds good to me," he says, sneering as Beelzebubmon immediately aims his guns again, one at MetalSeadramon and one at him.
MetalSeadramon is still clearly in pain, moving slower than usual, but it's enough. Filmon slashes at Beelzebubmon, not enough to hurt, but enough to distract, and he's quick enough to avoid a few blasts from the gun, giving MetalSeadramon enough time to get into position, wrapping his serpent like body around Beelzebubmon and squeezing tightly. Beelzebubmon roars, tries to break free, aiming his pistols here and there, shooting off blasts carelessly, and MetalSeadramon clings even tighter to him. "Filmon! Now!"
"On it!" Filmon calls back, quickly spiraling into position, slicing into Beelzebubmon's silver armor with his terribly sharp claws, tearing it to shreds. Beelzebubmon is still roaring out in agony from that when Filmon twists and embeds his quills into the gaps, body tensing up as they begin to glow, energy flowing from each spike into Beelzebubmon's flesh.
MetalSeadramon quickly releases him and Filmon hits the ground, putting more distance between them. Aleister and Seth watch, holding their breath, as Beelzebubmon's data destabilizes due to Filmon's energy, and his pistols collapse into nothingness, leaving him slowly deleting right before them. "Nooooo!" he roars out into the dreary sky overhead, finally exploding into small particles of data that disappear on the wind.
Aleister blinks a few times before his eyes fade into their normal, grey shade. He immediately sinks to the ground, his head bowed as Filmon rushes to him. "Aleister!"
Seth doesn't bother getting too close, but he does keep an eye on the two, his teeth gnashing together until Aleister slowly looks up and pets Filmon's fur, avoiding his quills carefully. "I'm fine," Aleister mumbles to his partner, and Seth's jaw unclenches before he turns away to go check on MetalSeadramon and the others. "Rollins," Aleister calls out suddenly. Seth doesn't turn to look at him, but he does stop. "In a way you were right. Our methods work best when used together."
Seth digests these words for a moment before scoffing quietly and continuing on his way, still confused by everything he'd just seen from Aleister in this battle.
