The destruction is wide spread. Horrible to look at. Not just one village, but a group of them have been decimated. Shinsuke thinks he sees at least three just from this vantage point, with clear signs of more beyond that, considering the large plumes of smoke drifting into the air in the distance. "It... looks like a warzone," Miz mutters from next to him, and he nods grimly.

There are no better ways to describe it, truly. His grip on the digiegg tightens, Shinsuke gazing down at it. I wish you had hatched already, my friend, he thinks, before squaring his shoulders and turning to face the others. "Let's go."

They go from village to village, searching the wreckage for anyone in need of assistance, or just any clue to the creature responsible for all of this. "Do we think there's only one?" John asks suddenly and they all glance over at him. "May... maybe it was a group assault?"

Retribution is fresh on all of their minds, and Shinsuke shrugs. "Perhaps, but we'll see," he finally responds, shifting over some rock with his boot and sighing when he finds nothing worthwhile.

They've been through two of the villages, about to go to the third, when something large explodes very, very close to them. Shinsuke hits the ground hard from the aftershocks and he lays there for a few moments, dazed, before looking up at the others. "Are you ok?!"

Mike moves first, a look of horror on his face. "John!" he scrambles over to his tag partner. "John, are you ok?"

There's a weak mumble and John grips Mike's arm, but he seems down for the count, Mike looking up and around. "Monodramon!" he cries out, and his partner responds immediately, digivolving as soon as he's back on his feet.

Justimon leaps forward, searching for the cause of the attacks, when Shinsuke senses it, a sharp whistling noise. "JUSTIMON!" he yells out. "To your left!"

Justimon stops in his tracks and looks over in time to see a massive missile bearing down right on the already downed Digidestined. "Shit!" he cries, leaping towards it and slicing through it with his arm, propelled forward when it explodes in midair, harming no one below it.

Shinsuke pulls himself upright and stumbles forward, staring fixedly at where he'd heard the missile come from. "Here," he says. "The digimon doing this is in this direction."

Justimon nods, leaping in that direction, already preparing to attack again, when-

"WAIT!" Shinsuke cries, but it's too late- another missile appears and explodes in a direct hit against Justimon's chest, downing him immediately and sending him spiraling back to the ground as Ketamon.

"NO!" Mike cries, reluctantly leaving John to rush forward and just barely snag the baby Digimon from the sky before it can hit the ground.

"I... I'm sorry," Ketamon breathes against his jaw.

"No, you have nothing to apologize for, you did great," Mike murmurs to him, just to look up in horror as Shinsuke yells again and- another of those missiles are looming closer and closer. He squeezes his eyes shut, hugging Ketamon close, and-

It explodes in an incredible shower of flames and steel, just missing Mike by a few feet. He gawks at the particles of the missile, at FlaWizardmon hovering overhead, before twisting to look on in shock as John leans up from the ground, a weak but determined look in his eye as they stare at each other. "I... I won't let them hurt you," he chokes out, what little energy he has left failing him as he collapses forward into the dirt.

"John!" Mike cries out, crawling back over to him to check on him. The man's still breathing, just unconscious, and Mike presses his forehead between John's shoulderblades. "Thank you," he whispers.

FlaWizardmon approaches and Mike stares up at him, his eyes wet and unfocused. "What can we do?" he asks, resting a hand on John's forehead while addressing Mike.

AJ suddenly joins the fray, JewelBeemon hovering next to FlaWizardmon. "Leave that to me," he says, taking off at amazing speeds. Another missile comes after him, but he slices through it with ease and Mike huffs a little as AJ sneers over at him.

JewelBeemon makes it to the third village and searches it quickly from above, before seeing... something. "Wait a minute," he mutters, squinting closer. There's a repetitive flashing on what remains of one of the buildings, and he approaches, just to realize as another missile is sent at point blank towards him. "Shit!" he gasps, diving aside and letting it fly past harmlessly.

A Rocketmon is leaning off of one of the concrete slabs, and the sun reflects off of the missiles adorning his body every time he moves. "Aw you found me," he says, not sounding nearly as disappointed as his words might hint. Before JewelBeemon could even get in position to attack, Rocketmon detaches from the building and lunges forward, his speed shocking the digimon.

"Wait, what?!" he snaps, only just avoiding the ramming creature. "What happened to your missiles?"

But as Rocketmon continues trying to blast into him, it's clear he is the missile now, as JewelBeemon only just avoided him, the creature barreling into a cliff and destroying the entire thing in one, simple explosion.

"Hm," JewelBeemon mutters, unsettled. "You are pretty fast. Luckily, I am too!" He spins his spear quickly, gaining enough speed that it's soon little more than a blur in his hands, Rocketmon quickly growing enthrawled with the colorful weapon flashing faster and faster, but his focus is soon deviated as a massive shockwave bursts from the weapon and knocks him back a fair distance.

He only just avoids as JewelBeemon lunges at him, combo-ing as many attacks as he can think of with the spear, finally slamming it forward and puncturing two of the missiles surrounding Rocketmon's body in one go.

"Ah hell yeah," JewelBeemon says as they explode, severely weakening Rocketmon. "Two more to go, I see." He switches sides, about to repeat his attack, when Rocketmon slams forward at speeds that are astounding, exploding against JewelBeemon with so much force that he flies so far back that he can hear the digidestined chattering and trying to support him. He struggles upright once more, staring on as Rocketmon approaches, a tense look in his eye.

"It ends here," he announces, taking one last rush at his opponent- when there's a bright explosion and Rocketmon deletes in mid-air, JewelBeemon's spear the only thing that remains as the last two missiles disintregate as well.

"It sure did," JewelBeemon gasps, collapsing back into the dirt as he laughs weakly, arm dropping back to his side. "Damn... that was brutal..."

He dedigivolves in time for AJ to scoop him up and hold him close, whispering gratitude to him, before they trudge back over to the others. "He gonna be ok?" AJ asks, nodding towards where Mike is clinging to John, repetitively tapping his jaw to get him to wake up the rest of the way.

"I think so," Shinsuke says quietly, his lips quirking up as John begins trying to push Mike's hand away. "I looked him over as best as I could, his injuries don't seem serious, thankfully. Nothing Luke can't take care of once we get him back."

"Good," AJ responds, before smiling down at Modoki Betamon, giving him another pleased little squeeze.