Author's Notes: Thank you to all who reviewed the fic.
Chapter X: Discovery
Danyal Masters
"So why did you come to Japan," the man asked father as I remained invisible in the shadows. I had no time to deal with these fools, not with Danielle being here. No doubt Daniel and his friends are close by threatening father's brilliant plans.
"I think I better see what our friends are doing," I said as I phased through the floor and made my way to the lab. I could see Mr. Oikawa typing something on the computer. On the screen was a feed of the streets outside where his two cronies were at.
"What do you mean you can't find him," Oikawa snapped at his one minions, the one called Mummymon, "we have to find him before those Digi-Brats weasel some information from him," he told him tapping his foot on the ground impatiently.
"I better find him first," I said as I phased out the roomto find the wayward hunter myself.
I flew through the air invisibly so not to attract attention to myself trying to trace Skulker's signature. "Come on you stupid gho…," I began to say until I saw something on the street. It was Arukenimon and Mummymon looking for those kids.
"What if that hunter guy took them," Mummymon asked his ally confused, "you know that Vlad could have ulterior motives," he said searching the area. He reminds of that idiot Box Ghost only more powerful.
"The boss would have stopped Vlad if he smelt something fishy," Arukenimon snapped at him as I laughed at their stupidity and continued my search.
Ken Ichijouji
"I'm still not sure about this, if Elecmon said she's responsible then who are we to think differently," Cody told Davis as we continued down the hall. He had a point, this girl was found with that ectoplasm on her clothes and was near a large amount of this stuff, then she had to do it.
"Look, unless any of you saw this girl spreading the stuff, I don't believe that she could do it," Davis said sternly that was one thing about him that either you admired or hated- he was unwilling to be swayed by hearsay and will give anyone the benefit of the doubt.
"Look up a head," Wormmon said to pointing a cell up ahead, "I think that's her," he told us Davis walked up to the cell.
"Come on," he said as I followed him and saw the girl propped up against the wall. Tears ran down her cheeks as she hyperventilated from fear. "Izzy, can you open the cell?" Davis asks as Izzy types away on his laptop until the door disappeared and we walked in.
"Careful Davis," Yolei said he knelt down beside and removed the Digiropes from her mouth.
"I didn't do it! I didn't even know where I am," she screamed until Davis shushed her.
"Easy, it's okay we're here to help you," he said, "I'm Davis and these are my friends Ken, Yolei, Izzy and Cody," he said as the girl tried to calm down a bit.
"I'm Danielle," she said in between her sobs, "You have to get me out of here, I'm not the one spreading the ectoplasm all over this place, I don't even know where I am," she defended herself as Davis gave her a strange look.
"You don't know about the Digital World?" he asked her astonished, this was certainly as shock. If she didn't know about the Digital World how did she come here?
"No, I was thrown in her by Vlad's 'son' Danyal," she told us as I looked nervously at Davis.
"Did you say Vlad as in Vlad Masters?" I asked her astonished as she nodded. Suddenly this became a whole lot stranger.
"I think you should come with us, we can catch you up on what's going on and help clear things up for us," Davis said as he untied the rest of ropes and help Danielle on her feet before making our way out of the dungeon.
Skulker
"Stupid whelps," I said walking through the streets collecting various pieces of armor. Those wretched kids had used some sort of link up to sync up the PDA in my armor to their computer (As soon I get back to Amity Park, I'm personally going to skin the ghost boy's friend for doing this to me) and would have blasted me back to the Ghost Zone if I didn't activate the self destruct and ejected from the armor.
I hated being without my armor, it reminds of who I was in life- a little gopher for a Mafioso. I had wanted to rise up the ranks and become a big time boss but was constantly ignored. One day I tried to strike out for myself and try to take over the organization but the boss had me killed.
When I awoke I was in the Ghost Zone and vowed if no one would respect me life then they would fear me in death. I had a suit of battle armor made and took on a new identity- Skulker-the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter. I was finally feared and respected until that accursed ghost boy made a fool out of me.
"I will have his pelt!" I fumed as I snapped back to the present and continued collecting armor when I saw something in the sky. "Well, looks I don't have wait to go back to the States to continue my hunt," I said smiling getting an ecto pistol out from one of my gauntlets and aiming at the child.
"Don't even think about it hunter or father will have you locked up in Walker's prison with the Box Ghost as your cell mate," Plasmius' clone/son said as he landed beside me. "What happened anyway," he asked seeing my armor strewn over the place and stifling a laugh at seeing my true form.
"I don't want to talk about," I fumed looking up at him, "what are you doing here anyway?" I asked him curiously. Vlad never sends out a minion just to see if another one is okay. There had be some ulterior motive.
"Father wanted me to find you before Yukio did," he said glaring at me, "now come on father's water," he said as I opened up a portal from my built in ghost portal Vlad installed in my armor and threw into the Ghost Zone before following Danyal back to Vlad's
Yolei Inoue
"How did you get here anyway if you don't know about the Digital World?" Davis asked this Danielle curiously, "It's not like it's something you can stumble upon it by accident?" he asked her. While he seemed to believe this girl was on our side something didn't seem right to me. What if Yukio sent her to capture us and she is merely feigning her ignorance until she was ready to strike.
"I was spying on Masters when…," she said before Ken held up his hand.
"Why were you spying on Masters?" he asked her, "while he is creepy still there's very little to suspect he's doing anything?" he told her as we walked outside.
"Vlad's a crazed up Fruit Loop, he torments me and my cousin all the time," she told him, "I followed him here from the States to see what him and his creepy friends are doing," she explained as Davis raised an eyebrow.
"Did one of these friends wear a purple trench coat?" he asked her trying to piece together her story in his head.
"Yeah, I think somehow that he's behind Danyal's infection," she continues as Davis frowns.
"Infection?" I ask her, I still don't trust her, but like everyone else I wanted to find out what Masters and Oikawa were up to and if Yukio was the one who told Vlad about the Digital World.
"Yeah, I saw Vlad run a scan on him and found he was infected by something called the 'Dark Spore?'" she told us as Davis and Ken looked at each other. "Have you heard of it?" she asked seeing their expressions.
"Yes, and if Vlad's son has it then Vlad and Yukio are defiantly working together," Ken said as Danielle raised an eyebrow at the name 'Yukio.' "Yukio is Yukio Oikawa that guy in the purple trench coat and he needs to be stopped at once," he said as Davis nodded in agreement.
"Wait a second, how do we know you're telling us the truth?" I asked as I turned around, "You seem to know a lot about Masters, for all we know you're working with him," I told her as she looked hurt at my words.
"Yolei!" Davis snapped at me but Danielle raised her hand to interrupt.
"Trust me, I'm not with Vlad after what he did to me…," she said as voice started to break and a tear formed in her eye. "Sorry, it's still kind of painful for me to talk about it," she told me as we exited the courtroom and walked through Primary Village. The tone of her voice seemed sincere but still I think we should be weary of her.
Sam
"I've tried every trick I know," Tucker said exhausted her, "I've searched all over Japan and even paid 45.00 dollars to download that high resolution satelaite program," he tell me turning around with a sad expression on his face. "We've completely lost Danielle," he said.
"There has to be something we haven't tried?" I ask him refusing to give up on Danni, I won't let Vlad capture her again," I said as I pushed him out of the seat and sat down myself, "Maybe she's in the Ghost Zone," I tell him homing in on the Ghost Zone but find something else. "Hmmm," I say placing a finger on my lips in thought.
"What is it?" Tucker asked standing up and looked at the screen confused.
"It's picking up her signal but it's too faint to be in the Ghost Zone," I explain, "can you get this relic to amplify and locate the signal?" I asked him as he thought for a second.
"I can try, and this isn't a relic, I bought this for Danny for his birthday," he says in between the rhythmic tapping of the keys. Please let her be okay.
TK Takashi
I rolled my eyes in boredom as dad and Mr. Masters talked about all sorts of thing. I still had to find out what Vlad and Yukio were doing here and how they know each other in first place.
"…So when I heard of this floundering Japanese software firm, I took it under my wing and thus LDAV was born," he said laughing as I sighed in agony.
"Are you okay?" Patomon asked concerned seeing my expression, "I know this isn't the most interesting conversation but you might learn something about why Masters and Oikawa are best friends," he suggested trying to keep me awake.
"I doubt it, this Vlad isn't one…," I began to say until I saw what looked like a secret exit, "Bingo," I said happily as Patomon made a face.
"What are you doing," he asks as I sneak past my dad and Masters to the exit, "what if you get caught again?" he warns me as I take out my D-Terminal and send my friend Kari a message.
"That's why I have back up," I said as I uncovered the passage and made my get away so I can meet up with her and tell her what's going on.