Restless. The Digidestined behind them keep shifting, whispering amongst themselves, waiting. The group has changed thanks to the draft- some have left, others have joined, but Shinsuke can barely focus on getting to know them because his eyes will not leave Seth Rollins' smirking face as they stand off before the digiport, Shinsuke's eye twitching ever so slightly. He has long been the leader, they've all accepted it seeing as he was a digidestined long before this all happened, but Seth is not backing down, his months as Raw Digidestined leader tempering his ability to read the situation.
"You've done a fine job," he says, Betamon nodding along enthusiastically by his side. "By what I can tell, you're a very capable leader and have many things to be proud of, but you don't have to do it any longer. I'm here now, and I can lead the Smackdown digidestined into the future. Let me take that mantle on."
Mokumon looks as frustrated as Shinsuke is feeling about all of this, but he squeezes the baby digimon and slowly shakes his head. "No, I like this mantle," he says slowly, watching as Seth's face twists, briefly, in frustration. "You were very good leader for Raw, but we are fine the way we are." He casts a glance back at the digidestined lurking behind them and exhales when it looks like Aleister and Owens are on his side, Ziggler too lost in his own world to care about much else beyond himself and his digimon. He just wishes some of the remaining Smackdown digidestined were present to assist him in convincing Seth to drop this so they could move.
"I-" Seth is going to continue to argue, and Shinsuke grits his teeth.
"We have no time to go in circles," Shinsuke declares, lifting his digivice. "Digiport open!" There's a snapping kind of command to his voice and the digiport responds in kind, immediately opening and sending them spiraling through into the world waiting for their assistance.
They have been so delayed, Shinsuke decides to hold off on visiting Luke as they usually do, immediately looking at the red dots on the map of the digiworld and picking one. "Let's go," he says, finding another waiting digiport and directing it to where they need to go. Seth has no time to say or do anything, having to follow along quickly or risk getting left behind, and it's almost nice until they arrive in this new area of the digiworld in time for Shinsuke to get taken down immediately by an attack, a flood of sticky, disgusting feeling water knocking him clean off of his feet. The others don't look much better, but their digimon partners are much bigger than his and he scrambles, looking for Mokumon in the sudden torrent.
Seth appears in his line of vision and Shinsuke is about to snap at him, but instead of continuing their argument, he holds out Mokumon and Shinsuke's lips part in surprise as he takes the small digimon from him, hugging him close in relief. Then Betamon and he are gone, and all Shinsuke can do is watch in amazement as Betamon uses the water to his advantage, the light from Seth's digivice urging him into a smooth digivolution sequence, Seadramon's roar echoing out to the heavens as he lunges at the odd shape just visible in the distance.
Shinsuke squints to try to see better, wiping the nonstop water out of his eyes, and Seth drops back to talk to him. "Did you do something to piss off a bunch of Numemon?" he asks, almost sounding amused.
"No," Shinsuke shakes his head. "Perhaps NXT?" The three groups barely communicate about what they're doing, but he can assume. If it was Raw, Seth would probably know more than he.
"Ah. Yes, perhaps," Seth murmurs. "Well, they are heated." He smirks and looks up at the huge Numemon that Shinsuke can now just barely make out towering in the distance, the rain easing up as Seadramon moves around it in a serpentine dance, avoiding all of its worst attacks, still trying to poison him.
Dolph, Aleister and Owens are waiting nearby, their digimon content to wait and see what Seth and Seadramon can accomplish, since none of them would do very well in this rain. Shinsuke grips Mokumon tighter, wishing he could do more. Something. Anything.
Ice pours from Seadramon's jaws, freezing the rain around them, and clinging to Giant Numemon's skin, coating him in ice and leaving him writhing in pain. "No! Make it stop!" More poisonous clouds pour from his body, desperate to soak into Seadramon with the rain, but Seadramon moves, digivolves suddenly, and his power grows, his attacks become larger, and Giant Numemon screams as he begins to freeze solid, lulled by the humidity and the nonstop rain.
As soon as he's coated fully, the rain eases into little more than a mist, and MegaSeadramon tosses his magestic head haughtingly. "THUNDER JAVELIN!" he roars out, the blasts of electricity tearing through Numemon and leaving him shattering into pieces of data that pours out in large rivulets.
Seth steps closer, watching as his partner slowly devolves back to Betamon. "Great job," Seth exclaims, grabbing his partner out of thin air and holding him close. "I knew you could do it." He hugs him tightly and Betamon giggles, snuggling into Seth's warmth.
The rain has stopped completely by now and Shinsuke exhales, staring down at Mokumon with a troubled look on his face. Seth and Seadramon's abilities are without question, but it does little to comfort Shinsuke as he feels his argument for leadership slipping even further as his partner has yet to digivolve past its baby form since reformating. He exhales slowly and squeezes Mokumon, trying not to dwell on that fact for now.
There is still much to be done, many villages requiring their assistance, no matter what his position in the digidestined will be from now on, and that's the important thing to focus on in this moment.
