DarkFoxKit: We seem to be late with a lot of our chapters lately. Probably doesn't help that I keep forgetting about the schedule and get very distracted with other things.
ZAFT: True. But that's life. :P
DarkFoxKit: It's still no excuse to be late all the time. It's more responsibility than anything. Well, at least we're getting it out now.
ZAFT: True. That is what counts.
Chapter 10: A Haunted Locker
Takuya looked back at the glowing shaver. "Okay, please tell me I can evolve to burn that thing to a crisp!"
The giant butcher knife came down, narrowly missing them. Dorumon's tail fur got a little shaved off.
"If you even have time to spirit evolve before this guillotine comes down on you!" Dorumon yelped, grabbing onto his tail.
Andy then had an idea. "We head back to my house! We can send this thing back to the Ghost Zone!"
Dash looked at Andy. "You sure that will work?!"
"What other options do we have?!" Andy shot back, pointing at the giant butcher knife. "It's too fast, neither you nor Takuya have time to spirit evolve before it comes down on you!"
"It's worth a shot!" Takuya agreed.
"Let's just hope that it doesn't decide to go after someone else once we get there." Andy frowned.
"It won't, I'll keep its attention on us if I have to!" Dorumon reassured, still holding his tail.
The three of them hurried to Fenton Works.
"The door is closed! How are we going to get it open?" Takuya asked when he saw the door was closed to Fenton Works.
"Dorumon, can you slow that blade down?" Andy asked.
"I'll try my best," Dorumon replied as he turned to face the blade. "Metal Cannon!" He shot out a few iron balls at the blade, aiming to slow it down. Takuya and Dash used their Fenton Rods to try to swing it back when it got too close.
Andy hurried up to the door, before taking out a spare key from under the welcome mat, then he shoved the key into the knob to unlock the door and pushed it open. "Hurry, this way!"
Dorumon stopped his attacks before rushing inside with Andy, Takuya, and Dash, the blade went after them.
As the foursome ran by, Jazz was in the living room, reading a book. As she heard them yelling, she looked up, confused. Jazz closed her book and looked around but Andy, Dash, Dorumon, and Takuya were already in the kitchen. Then, she saw the glowing green blade that emerged through the door. Jazz screamed as she saw that, ducking down behind the couch.
"Jazz!?" Maddie and Jack, wearing their PJs, came running down from their room.
"What's wrong, Jazzypants?" Jack asked in concern, seeing how his daughter was shaking behind the couch.
The glowing green blade was nowhere in sight.
"Wh-where did it go?" Jazz wondered as she poked her head out from behind the couch. Looking at her book, Jazz placed a hand to her head. "Maybe it was a hallucination induced by too much studying…"
"What did you think you saw, Jazz?" Maddie asked worriedly.
"Was it a ghost!?" Jack looked around eagerly.
"I probably imagined a glowing green blade emerging from the door." Jazz grumbled. "It was just something my mind induced because I was studying too hard."
Jack and Maddie looked at each other in question. Jack shrugged while Maddie was trying to figure out what her daughter meant by 'a glowing green blade'.
Meanwhile, Takuya, Dash, Andy, and Dorumon came barreling into the lab, the green blade right above them. They yelped as they scrambled away from its deadly chop.
"Open the Ghost Portal!" Andy yelled, seeing that the doors for the Ghost Portal were currently closed.
Takuya looked around, only to see the buttons next to the portal. "Dash, get ready! We'll need a good swing with your Fenton Rod to send it in!" With that, he hit the OPEN button.
The glowing blade turned back into its shaver form to move faster. Dash quickly got in front of it with his Fenton Rod.
The doors opened. As the glowing shaver flew at him, Dash swung the rod and hit the shaver, sending it tumbling into the Ghost Portal.
Dorumon jumped over at the CLOSE button, and tapped it with his paw, causing the doors to the Ghost Portal close. They all waited a minute to see if the shaver would somehow phase through the doors or claw its way through. But after a minute of nothing happening, they all began to relax.
"Oh thank goodness it's finally gone!" Andy cheered.
Takuya chuckled. "Not bad for teamwork, eh?"
Dash also laughed. "Yeah, that was intense!"
Dorumon was jumping around, doing small flips in happiness. "We won!"
"What's going on down here!?" All four of them jumped when they heard Jack's voice booming from the stairs.
Andy, Takuya, Dash, and Dorumon all looked at each other in a slight panic, before the three human children stood in front of Dorumon to keep him hidden as Jack and Maddie came rushing down into the lab, still in their PJs.
"Andy? Takuya? What are you two doing down here? Is this a friend of yours?" Maddie questioned, looking at Dash.
"Y-yeah! Uh…" Andy looked nervous. "We just… were…" He looked around and his eyes landed on Dash's Fenton Rod. "Showing Dash some of your newest weapons!"
"Oh, yeah! We were doing that, weren't we?" Takuya looked at Dash, who caught on to the lie.
"Y-yeah! I wanted to see what you were working on because… I… am interested in learning about… how to defeat ghosts!" Dash agreed.
"Really? Someone is actually showing interest in our line of work?" Jack smiled excitedly.
Maddie frowned at her husband, who frowned back, before he cleared his throat to try to sound stern. "Uh… I mean… you kids should've known better than coming down here without permission. It's, uh… dangerous!"
"Next time you two want to show a new friend the lab, you need to tell us. Tucker and Sam are practically family, but if you make new friends, we'd like to meet them first," Maddie scolded. "Do you two understand?"
"Y-yes, Mom…" Andy bowed his head.
"Understood, Aunt Maddie," Takuya said as he bowed his head too. "We won't make that mistake again."
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Fenton, I promise I didn't mess anything up," Dash apologized.
"It's fine, as long as you boys understand. Whatever you were doing, you scared Jazz, so be more careful next time," Maddie said.
"We promise we will, Mom," Andy answered.
"You kids better head to bed, it's already getting late," Jack stated.
"Do you need help getting home, Dash?" Maddie asked.
"Oh, no, I can get home myself, Mrs. Fenton," Dash answered.
Jack and Maddie then left the lab, going back upstairs to reassure Jazz that things were alright, and what she saw was likely a prank the boys made to scare her. Takuya, Andy, and Dash all looked at one another, each with a worried look on their faces.
"That was too close…" Takuya sighed.
"Tell me about it…" Dash muttered.
"At least we came out of it okay," Andy remarked.
"Yeah, and it was pretty fun working together like that," Dorumon chuckled from behind them.
Takuya then looked at Andy. "You had better return Dorumon to his In-Training form before we head upstairs."
Dash looked at Andy. "You can do that?"
"Yeah," Andy took out his D-Arc and the Degeneration card.
The card spun before Andy caught it with two fingers, looking up from the shadows. He then held up his D-Arc, the card slot facing down towards his head and connected the card with the slot. He pulled the D-Arc to the right, and the card to the left. "Digi Modify!" The card was swiped through fully as the D-Arc and card were separated on either side of his body. "Degeneration Activate!"
Dorumon glowed before he shrank down, fractal code surrounding him before it dispersed, revealing him back as Dorimon.
"Oh wow, that card sliding thing was pretty cool!" Dash smiled.
Andy blushed at the comment. "Heh… Glad you think so."
"You should probably get home soon, Dash, or else your parents will worry," Takuya spoke up. "I think we've got everything wrapped up here. We can meet back up at school during lunch on Monday and talk about training again soon."
Dash gave a nod at his friends and fellow Warrior. "Okay. Sounds good." He then made his way to the stairs and proceeded to head up them and out of the lab.
"Well, that was some party," Andy chuckled. "Do you think all popular kid's parties are that insane?"
"Being attacked by ghosts and Digimon? I sure hope not. But then I preferred that over the crazy human girls," Dorimon commented.
Takuya chuckled. "I doubt parties are that crazy, but then again, when you live our lives, it's kind of expected we will encounter crazy stuff like that."
Andy picked up Dorimon. "I better go check to see if Danny came home… I just hope he didn't get hurt when Phantom took over him… well, you know, assuming that is what's going on anyways. We still don't know enough to say for sure, but I didn't see Danny at the party anymore when that Technus ghost took over Dash's computer."
Hearing that, Takuya frowned. "Yeah, I hope so too." He then looked back up the stairs. "If Danny is host to Phantom, I hope Phantom knows to keep himself out of sight. Who knows what Aunt Maddie and Uncle Jack may do if they found out."
"If only there was some way to know… and to possibly separate Danny from Phantom if they are in the same body," Andy sighed.
"Hey, don't worry. If Danny isn't hurt or in any pain, then whatever Phantom is doing, it's not hurting him, right?" Dorimon spoke up, hoping to reassure his partner.
Andy looked at Dorimon for a moment, before giving a small nod, hoping that his Digimon partner was right.
Takuya made his way towards the stairs. "C'mon. We need to see if Danny got home okay."
Andy and Dorimon looked at one another before Andy followed after his cousin. "Wait up!"
The three of them saw Jack and Maddie talking to Jazz in the living room, though Jazz still looked a little shaken up, she did calm down a bit. They couldn't do much to reassure her anyways, so they just left her to Maddie and Jack, and headed upstairs.
When Andy opened the door to his and Danny's room, the two boys were relieved to see Danny was already there, sleeping on his bed.
"Heh… I guess he got exhausted," Andy softly chuckled, seeing his brother sleeping peacefully in his bed.
Takuya smiled as well. "Yeah. We should probably let him sleep. I think we all need to sleep." A yawn escaped his mouth as soon as he said that.
Dorimon yawned as well. "I wouldn't mind some sleep myself."
Andy nodded in agreement. "Then I guess it's goodnight, Takuya."
Takuya nodded as he gave a wave while walking down to his room. "Goodnight, Andy, Dorimon."
Takuya sighed tiredly when he was in his room, glad to just hit the bed, but he knew he had to shower first, that last battle caused him to sweat a bit.
After Takuya finished showering, and changed into his pajamas, he was about to call it a night when his D-Tector suddenly began beeping.
Takuya looked at it, confused for a moment before he picked it up and brought up the communication function. "Hello?"
The symbol for the Warrior of Light appeared on the screen before Koji's appeared. "Takuya? Good, I finally got a hold of you. Koichi told me about what's been going on, and we just recently heard from Ophanimon that there's someone who just inherited the Warrior of Wood in your area. Is that true?"
Sighing as he fell onto the bed, Takuya replied. "Yeah, it's true. He's a good person, but a little rough around the edges." He looked at Koji's image. "But I didn't expect to have a new Warrior come in. Either way, it can only be good for us, considering what's been going on."
"It's still surprising though. I didn't think we'd find anyone else who would inherit one of the Spirits of the Legendary Warriors. Do you think there'll be more?" Koji asked.
"I can't say for certain, but if there are, it will be interesting to see." Takuya chuckled.
"I'm also glad to hear from Ophanimon again, it seems things are still as peaceful as ever in the Digital World. But I am a bit concerned about Seraphimon and Cherubimon. According to Ophanimon, it was likely there was a battle between those two before they disappeared. I'm worried Cherubimon might've gotten corrupted again and is in hiding right now while holding Seraphimon hostage," Koji remarked in concern.
"Yeah, same here." Takuya admitted, also concerned. But something seemed off. "However, Ophanimon mentioned that Seraphimon began to act weird before he disappeared. That is what concerns me."
"I guess we won't know until we can figure out where they are. Until then, let's hope nothing too bad happens. If it was just ghost attacks, then you might have it covered, especially since you have Arbormon and Andy with his Digimon partner backing you up now. But the Digimon coming into our world still has me concerned. Didn't Bokomon once tell us that Digimon can't survive in the real world?" Koji asked.
"Yeah, he did." Takuya confirmed. "But maybe, since they apparently can, it was a lie told to Digimon to keep them from heading to the human world." He then shrugged. "That's the only thing that makes sense."
Koji put his fingers on his chin. "Maybe… well… we'll keep trying to find something out on our end. You just make sure you keep everyone in Amity Park safe from these ghost and Digimon attacks."
Takuya nodded. "Okay. Just be careful." The line then went dead as his D-Tector fell from his grasp onto the bed next to him.
Monday Morning At Casper High
"How did we let you talk us into this, Sam?" Andy grumbled.
Andy, Danny, Tucker, Sam, and Takuya were all carrying heavy boxes with the label "Save The Frogs" on it, as well as a picture of a frog with a red circle with a diagonal line through it.
"It's for frogs' rights!" Sam said as she looked at Andy. "We have to stop dissecting frogs in our school's biology labs. And at today's assembly, I'm going to demonstrate a humane alternative." She flipped her box around, revealing the top.
"'I can't believe it's not a frog cadaver'?" Tucker asked as he read the top label.
Sam smiled as she took out a mechanical frog from the box she was carrying. "Ribbit! Please remove my detachable three-chambered heart! Ribbit!" The frog spoke up.
"Eew… it's all slimey… how is it secreting slime like that?" Takuya asked, completely grossed out.
"Well… it is supposed to be a replacement for actual frogs," Sam stated.
"Hey, look on the bright side… it… uh… might not be real slime," Danny chuckled sheepishly.
"Well, what could it be then?" Takuya commented sarcastically.
"Don't worry about the slime, Takuya," Sam assured him. "This is way better than using real frogs, which is way grosser if you ask me."
"Of course it is," Tucker sighed.
Suddenly, a familiar light blue mist came out of Danny's mouth, at the same time, Takuya felt heat, and Dorimon shivered in Andy's backpack. Andy gasped as the box he was carrying glowed green, and he quickly dropped it. The box didn't fall, however, instead it floated up and Andy quickly backed away.
The top burst open, just as a green smoke came out from it. The smoke startled Sam so she threw the mechanical frog away so that it landed on Tucker's head. The smoke took on a form, only to reveal itself as the glowing blue-skinned Box Ghost.
"Oh great…" Danny groaned. "Him again?"
"Isn't that the Box Ghost that attacked the school last week?" Andy questioned, recognizing the ghost.
"I AM THE BOX GHOST!" Boxie declared.
"Yup, that's him…" Takuya sighed, remembering the declaration of the Box Ghost all too well.
Sam pulled the robot frog off of Tucker's head, and Tucker was coated in green slime.
"Eeew! This is so gross!" Tucker groaned.
Looking at Boxie, Takuya wondered if evolving would be worth it, but decided against it. The box-obsessed ghost didn't seem like he was worth the effort. Instead, he looked back at Sam. "Is this guy that obsessed with his cardboard boxes?"
"From what I've seen of Boxie? Yeah, he is," Sam answered.
Danny looked at his friends and brother, frowning a bit. "Guys, we should… uh… go and hide before this ghost does something!"
Takuya looked at Danny, frowning to himself. But, he decided to play along with it. "Okay, we'll… go and hide…" He said as he nudged Andy.
"Y-yeah, let's go!" Andy agreed.
Andy, Takuya, Tucker, and Sam scattered, Danny pretended to run for a few seconds, but he stopped as he watched Andy and Takuya run out of sight so he could change. Unfortunately, the Box Ghost wasn't willing to let Andy go so easily.
"Where do you think you are going!? Tremble before my awesome power!" Boxie shouted before he lifted up a box that had scalpel knives in it.
Because the knives were in a box, the Box Ghost could control the scalpels, and he grinned before he had the knives aimed at Andy.
"ANDY! LOOK OUT!" Danny shouted, seeing that the knives were going after him.
"Wah?" Andy looked back, and gasped.
With a split second reaction time, Andy managed to get down and roll, barely avoiding the knives, but they did cut the straps on his backpack, and caused his backpack and Dorimon to go rolling away.
"Ah! My backpack!" Andy yelled as he scrambled onto his feet to run after his backpack and his partner.
Takuya saw that and looked back as he gasped. More knives were coming at Andy. That feral look flashed in Takuya's eyes before he pulled out his Fenton Rod and extended it, then spun the rod around to deflect the knives coming at his cousin. "You're not hurting him!"
The backpack stopped at Danny's locker, and Andy rushed up to the backpack, seeing Dorimon lift up his head, and had circles in his eyes.
"Is… the ride… overrrrr?" Dorimon groaned.
"You're going be okay, Dorimon…" Andy whispered as he picked up the backpack, not seeing the Box Ghost flying towards him.
"Bro! Look out!" Danny warned before he ran over to his brother and pushed him away.
Boxie ended up slamming into Danny, who went intangible by instinct to avoid the brunt of the attack, so his body went through the locker and quite a few walls. Andy looked back from where Danny just pushed him, shocked that Danny's body literally went through the locker.
Takuya ran at the Box Ghost, his Fenton Rod out and still extended. "Eat this!" He swung the rod at Boxie, aiming for his stomach while spinning said rod in his hand.
Looking around, Andy saw there was a Fenton Thermos on the floor. Did Danny have one on him?
Deciding not to question it now, Andy carefully set his backpack and his still disorientated partner on the floor, before he rushed over to the Fenton Thermos and picked it up. Takuya was still fighting Boxie with his Fenton Rod.
"You cannot defeat me with that stick!" Boxie shouted before Takuya slammed it into his cheek. "Ow! Hey! That's not fair!"
"I don't care what's fair or not! You are going down!" Takuya shouted as he ran at Boxie again, bringing the Fenton Rod down on his head.
The Box Ghost lifted up more frog boxes and threw them at Takuya. Takuya yelped as he was suddenly buried in boxes.
"HAHAHA! You foolish human! You cannot hope to compare to me, THE BOX GHOST!" Boxie laughed.
"Hey Box Ghost!" Andy suddenly called out, holding the Fenton Thermos in his direction. "Time to stuff you into a non-box-like thermos!"
The Fenton Thermos shot out blue energy at the Box Ghost, and it began to pull him inside.
"NOOOOO! NOT THE CYLINDER CONTAINER!" Boxie shouted as he was pulled inside.
The Box Ghost was sucked in, and Andy slammed the lid on the top, grinning as he held it up. "Sweet! So that's how it works!"
Takuya popped his head out from the boxes. "Gah! I hate that Box Ghost!" He exclaimed as he climbed out from the boxes.
"Uh… you're covered in frog slime…" Andy sweatdropped.
Takuya looked himself over before groaning. "Great… Just when I got cleaned up the night before too…" He smacked his head against the wall.
Andy shook his head with an amuse chuckle before he went over to his backpack, seeing Dorimon was still in there.
"Hey, you okay?" Andy asked.
"I think so, but the room is spinninggggggg…" Dorimon moaned, still with swirls in his eyes.
"Just take a moment to rest a bit," Andy said before he looked at the damage of the straps of his backpack. "Great… the knives cut right through this… I'm going to need some duct tape…"
Then Andy looked over at Danny's locker, seeing it was dented so inwardly that the door couldn't be opened, and the boy was willing to bet that the inside got pretty messed up too. But what concerned him was Danny. Andy knew he saw Danny getting tackled into the locker, but he doubted Danny was inside the locker itself. Andy knocked against the destroyed door, then put his head on it, trying to listen for breathing, or whining, or anything that might show there was someone in the smooshed locker. There was nothing but complete silence.
Takuya walked over, still covered in that slime. "Is Danny in there?" He was concerned about his younger cousin now, as he had seen Danny get slammed into the locker as well.
Andy wasn't sure if Danny was in the locker or not, so he decided to turn to Dorimon. He picked up the little Digimon since nobody else was around.
"Dorimon, can you try to melt this door with your acid bubbles attack?" Andy asked.
Dorimon had recovered from his little roll across the floor by now and looked at Andy. "Are you sure? You might get in trouble."
"With how busted this locker is, Danny's going to be assigned a new one anyways. But if he's in there, he might be suffocating," Andy said. "We need to get him out."
Dorimon frowned, but knew he had to help his partner, so he nodded. "Okay." He faced the locker door. "Acid Bubbles!" He opened his mouth and the pink bubbles came out, floating over to the locker door and popping against it. The acidic bubbles melted away the door, revealing nothing but smashed up books, broken pencil, and a destroyed notebook or two.
"Wait… he's not in there?" Takuya asked in surprise. "But I know we saw him getting tackled in there!"
"Hmm…" Andy had suspected this, which was why he wasn't so frantic to get the locker door opened, but he had to be sure just in case Danny really was in the locker. "Not necessarily… it was for a split second, but to me, it looked like Danny's body became see-thru… transparent, before he was tackled through. If he was transparent, then it was likely he went through not just the locker, but the walls behind the locker too."
Takuya blinked. "So you think Phantom's powers came into play then?" It was looking more like Danny was host to Phantom if that was the case. "Or was it Phantom himself turning Danny transparent?"
"I don't know. I'm hoping it was just Phantom was watching us while invisible, and decided to save Danny at the last second," Andy answered.
"What do we do for now then?" Dorimon asked.
Andy looked at Takuya. "Danny could've fallen anywhere. But if he's alright, then chances are he might make his way to Sam's assembly. So maybe we should head to the auditorium."
Takuya nodded. "Good idea. It's better than just searching randomly around the school for him."
Andy nodded before he opened his own locker door, which was next to Danny's destroyed one, and took out some duct tape. "But first… could you help me tape up the straps of my backpack?"
Takuya sweatdropped. "Uh… sure."
The assembly wasn't quite the success Sam had been hoping it would be. Apparently, Danny had fallen backstage after the Box Ghost had shoved him, and he landed on a box that was filled with costumes, and as luck would have it, Danny ended up wearing a pink, floof dress, complete with a curly hair wig, and a pink hat. Andy and Takuya had no idea how those clothes ended up on Danny if he had just fallen into the box. But this distracted everyone from Sam's speech to save the frogs, and were now laughing at 'Little Bo Peep Danny'.
Later, after Takuya got a good shower at the boy's locker room, and Danny got all the costume off of him, and was assigned a new locker by Mr. Lancer, they all met up in the hallway after class. Some of the students were still laughing when they saw Danny walking by.
"Okay, that's enough! It wasn't that funny, people!" Andy shouted, getting fed up with all the laughing.
A few continued to laugh, but the majority seemed to settle down, having gotten it out of their system. Takuya looked at Danny. "Wow. I can only say sorry about what happened."
Dorimon had been growling at the laughing from Andy's backpack, but it was so soft, only Andy could have heard it. "I don't like those humans." The small In-Training Digimon was in a huffy mood because of it, well and the roll he had suffered when that Box Ghost attacked.
Andy sighed a little.
"Great, my assembly was a total bust because of your little costume party," Sam grumbled, clearly in a bad mood.
"Well, hopefully this will blow over soon," Tucker remarked. "Though I gotta say, you don't look good in a bra, dude."
Danny rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, I'm the one taking the biggest hit here. And because that stupid Box Ghost trashed my locker, I've been assigned a new one."
"What is your new locker anyways, bro?" Andy questioned curiously.
"Uh… It's locker 724." Danny replied as he looked at the paper that had his new locker assignment.
Sam and Tucker seemed to gain worried looks on their faces at that. Tucker pointed behind Danny, and Danny turned around, seeing an old, beaten up locker with the numbers '724' written on it. It stood out due to how little maintenance the locker itself had.
Danny approached the old locker. "Guys, what's wrong?" He looked back at his two friends and Andy.
"Jeez, it looks like this locker could fall apart at any minute," Takuya commented, looking at the locker door himself.
"There was a myth surrounding this locker," Andy spoke up, studying the door himself. "It was probably why nobody bothered to maintain it over the years."
"What myth?" Danny asked, raising an eyebrow. "And how do you know about it, bro?"
"Hello!? How could you not know about it?" Tucker questioned, surprised that Danny didn't know.
Takuya raised an eyebrow as he looked at Tucker. "Myth?" He questioned.
Tucker looked at him. "Well, you I can understand not knowing the myth, but Danny? No way!"
"Well what is this myth then?" Danny asked.
"Some say that Locker 724 is cursed," Sam spoke up. "Because it used to be owned by a Poindexter kid back in the 50s."
"A Poindexter?" Danny blinked.
"Legend has it that he was bullied, a lot. Probably the most bullied kid in the history of Casper High," Andy informed. "There were rumors about how picking on him was a graduation requirement. He got stuffed into his locker so many times, it was believed that his spirit still inhabits it to this very day."
Dorimon listened in, intrigued but also confused.
Takuya looked at the locker, not sure what to expect. On one hand, he was not sensing a ghost from the locker, but hearing that legend made his skin crawl. He shivered at the feeling. "Glad I don't have that locker."
Danny frowned. "Come on, it's just a locker. If there was a ghost haunting it, I think we would know by now."
Danny opened the locker door, it gave a loud squeak when he did. There were some cobwebs inside, but otherwise there was nothing but an old looking mirror that was hanging at the back of the locker's wall.
Takuya frowned at seeing the mirror, but he didn't say anything about it. Still, he gazed at the mirror for a second before he looked away and at Danny. "Are you sure you're okay with this? I mean, if the locker is haunted, who knows what could happen?"
"Well, it's the only locker around here that's available, otherwise I'd have to go all the way to the band room," Danny responded. "I think I'll be fine, one little haunted locker isn't going to scare me away. I'd say I'm more worried about how my parents will react to it."
Takuya cringed at memories he did not want to remember. "Yeah… I think we'll worry about that instead."
Suddenly, someone put the pink hat with the curly wig onto Danny's head.
"Hey nerd, you left something back at the assembly!"
A dark skinned jock with black hair laughed, he wasn't as muscular as Dash, but he was still pretty buff, and like with all jocks in the school, he also wore a red and white leather jacket. He had some other jocks behind him, laughing.
Danny looked back at the jock with a glare, but the jock just smirked at him. "Let's see if it fits in your new locker, like you!" The jock picked up Danny and stuffed him into the locker, wig and all, before slamming the door and walking off laughing with his fellow jocks behind him.
Andy sighed at seeing that. "Great… Now Calvin gets in on the act too…"
Tucker opened the locker, just as Danny fell out. "I was going to warn you about Calvin too, but I think you figured that out."
Takuya reached down and helped Danny to his feet. "I'm getting the feeling you getting stuffed into lockers is a common thing around here."
"No need to remind me…" Danny grumbled, clearly not happy about it. "Well, Calvin may just regret messing with me. I've had just about enough of being pushed around."
"What are you going to do?" Andy asked, frowning.
Danny hesitated a little. "I don't know yet, but it'll be something."
"Hey, Takuya?" Tucker pointed at Takuya's cell phone. "Do you have any games on your cell phone?"
Takuya looked down at his phone. "Uh… Not really. Why?"
"Oh, just wanted to know if you had any. Maybe I could show you how to download some," Tucker stated.
"Andy? What happened to your backpack?" Sam asked, seeing the duct tape on his straps.
"The Box Ghost cut it with a box full of scalpels. You know, if Box Ghost is going to be showing up a lot, maybe we shouldn't put dangerous things in boxes anymore," Andy grumbled.
Neither Andy or Takuya noticed that Danny had turned invisible, nor did they notice him flying down the hallway and flew into Calvin's body. But they did notice that Calvin was suddenly smashing himself against other lockers a few times, before ducking his head into a janitor's cleaning water.
"Uh… was Calvin under some kind of dare or something?" Andy asked in confusion.
"No clue…" Takuya murmured. He had no idea himself. What was that about?
Tucker was trying to keep a grin off his face while Sam seemed to be disapproving of something. Danny suddenly reappeared back in the group, not that Takuya or Andy noticed he had left earlier.
"Wow, that was pretty amazing, maybe it was karma, or the locker really is haunted and decided to spread its curse on Calvin," Danny chuckled before giving Tucker a high five.
"I don't know…" Takuya remarked. "That was odd, but I don't think it was a curse."
Danny rolled his eyes. "Well, whatever it was, it worked out to our advantage."
"Let's just get out of here before something else weird happens," Andy grumbled, he was not in the mood to deal with more ghosts today.
At the outskirts of town...
"Pyro Darts!" Agunimon fired out small fiery darts at Arbormon, Andy, and Dorumon, all three of them jumped out of the way.
Andy looked at Dorumon and gave a grin. "Ready?"
Dorumon nodded. "Metal Cannon!" He launched a few iron balls at Agunimon, only for the Warrior of Flame to kick them back at him, Andy, and Arbormon.
Arbormon smacked a fist into his open palm with a grin, even if it was not visible on his face. "Let's see you counter this! Roundhouse Punt!" He kicked the balls back at Agunimon, who wound up jumping back to avoid getting hit with them.
Andy and Dorumon ran up towards Agunimon, Agunimon braced himself for a possible melee combat. Andy took out his Fenton Rod and extended it. He and Agunimon began to go at it, armored fists with metal rod clanging together. Dorumon joined with his claws. Arbormon joined in the fight, though it was a free-for-all, so Andy and Dorumon had to block or dodge his punches and kicks as well. Andy, being the weakest of the group, was pushed back rather quickly. Shortly after, Dorumon was punched away as well, leaving the two Warriors to go at it.
Now with just the two of them, Agunimon and Arbormon were eager to get into it.
"Let's see how well you can stand on your own, Dash." Agunimon said. "I will warn you, I have more experience than you, so don't expect it to be easy."
Arbormon chuckled at that. "We'll see…"
With that said, Agunimon rushed at Arbormon, throwing out a back kick, but Arbormon was quick to counter it by grabbing the Warrior's foot. He then threw Agunimon back, only for the more experienced Warrior to flip and land on his feet. Arbormon rushed at Agunimon with a fist drawn back, only for the Warrior of Flame to block it with his right arm before countering with a few punches of his own.
Arbormon was forced to block or dodge the punches before he caught Agunimon's left arm under his own. He drew his head back and slammed his forehead against Agunimon's own.
Andy and Dorumon cringed at the blow, which made Agunimon stumble back.
"Ow…" The Warrior of Flame groaned as he rubbed at where he had been hit.
"Not bad for a beginner, right?" Arbormon smirked.
Andy looked at the two of them, seeing they were standing right next to Dorumon's Metal Cannon balls from earlier. Andy raised his hand to Dorumon, giving a signal. Dorumon nodded before his forehead gem glowed.
"Metal Morph!"
Suddenly, the iron balls next to Arbormon and Agunimon's feet melted, slathering themselves onto the Legendary Warriors' feet. Then as soon as they did, the melted metal hardened, keeping them stuck in one place. Arbormon and Agunimon looked down, seeing two small pieces of paper stuck to the metal.
"You know… you two should've learned by now… never take your eyes off an opponent," Andy said, before he rolled the last iron ball towards the two stuck Warriors.
Arbormon and Agunimon stared at the iron ball and gulped, knowing what was about to happen next.
Andy raised his hand to Dorumon.
"Metal Explosion!" Dorumon called out.
The iron ball that rolled between Arbormon and Agunimon exploded. Though the explosion wasn't big, it was enough to cause some damage.
The explosion had also destroyed the metal around their feet, freeing both Warriors, although they had been blown back by the force of the explosion. Agunimon groaned from his spot on the ground. He was up against a tree, his legs against the tree trunk while his back was on the ground. As for Arbormon, he was on his stomach nearby.
"Ugh… Sometimes I wonder if Andy is just that sneaky, or if he plans ahead…" Agunimon muttered.
Andy looked at the two fallen Warriors. "Uh… sorry, did I overdo it with the explosion?"
"No… We're good." Arbormon confirmed. "It just caught us by surprise."
"Heh, considering we're not quite at your levels yet, we do have to work smarter rather than harder," Dorumon stated. "Andy's idea to have me use Metal Cannon so Agunimon would deflect them was a good way for us to get a chance to put the code papers on them."
"Us getting knocked out during the melee fight was a good way to keep suspicion off of us while you two went at it," Andy added.
Agunimon grunted as he flipped off the tree and landed so he was in a kneeling position before standing up. "Okay, I will admit it. That was pretty good." He chuckled.
"Yeah, but this is something I want you two to keep in mind. There might be times we'll face against a more intelligent opponent, you can't always use just brute force to fight back," Andy informed. "It would be dangerous to take your eyes off an enemy just because you think they're weaker, and focus on a 'stronger' opponent, as you just saw what happened now."
Agunimon nodded. "Yeah. I guess I should." He then rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I'm not that tactical though…"
"Yeah… me neither…" Arbormon sheepishly admitted. "I might be the football captain, but I mostly prefer crushing our opponents than outsmarting them."
Agunimon rolled his eyes at that. "Okay, we'll work on using our brains more."
"You don't have to rely on it, just work on it. Like how I have to work out on getting stronger and faster in a battle," Andy said. "You two are our heavy hitters, Dorumon and I are more for supporting or back-up. At least until Dorumon can Digivolve."
The two Warriors had to agree with Andy on that one. Agunimon was actually coming up with a plan for when they resumed sparring, not that anyone knew it at the time.
When it was getting late, Agunimon and Arbormon reverted back to their human forms. All four of them were sitting down near a tree, needing to catch their breath.
"I think… we've gotten a lot… stronger now…" Takuya commented while panting.
"It helps… to have… another Legendary… Warrior… on our side…" Andy agreed.
Dash chuckled, despite being just as exhausted as the other three. "Glad… I could be… of some help… to you guys…"
Dorumon could only nod in agreement, he was too tired to speak.
They rested there for a moment, drinking some bottled water they brought with them.
"I've noticed that Calvin has been getting more bold lately with the bullying," Andy spoke up. "What's been going on with him?"
Dash frowned at that. "I think he's trying to become the 'King of Casper High'. I know I am known as that because I am captain of the football team, but Calvin wants to be the one who is respected by the popular kids because he thinks I am 'too soft' as he puts it."
"Too soft?" Takuya frowned.
"Ever since I became friends with you guys, I've stopped bullying the other students, and because of that, the other jocks are starting to see me as 'going soft'. I am still the football captain, but because I haven't been picking on the other kids lately, they think I'm losing my nerve," Dash sighed. "I was… hesitant about not bullying the other students anymore, but after our battle with WaruMonzaemon, and my realization of being weak due to peer pressure, I don't care anymore. I'm not going to hurt others just to make myself look good or feel better. It's not worth it. I can still be a good football captain without hurting others and putting them down."
Andy, Takuya, and Dorumon smiled at that conviction.
"I'm glad you see it that way, Dash." Andy grinned.
"I don't get why humans feel they have to be mean to each other to be at the top. The Celestial Digimon are at the top in the Digital World because they're not just powerful, but compassionate. When one of them lets power consume them, then the world starts to fall apart," Dorumon stated.
Takuya nodded at Dorumon's words. "That is true. Digimon are more about power, but some know compassion is just as strong as power." He then looked down at his D-Tector. "And when the Warriors were around, they were some seriously strong, if not compassionate Digimon too."
"Heh… yeah… I've learned that lesson when I became Arbormon," Dash admitted. "But unfortunately, a lot of people will think showing compassion will make you weak, especially the jocks at Casper High. I can try to discourage the bullying, but I can't control what the other jocks will do."
"As long as you try, that's all we can ask for." Takuya sighed. He then looked up. "I think it's time we head back. It's nearly dark, and we don't want to get caught out too late."
"Yeah, we also don't want to come back home too beaten up," Andy chuckled sheepishly.
The next morning at Fenton Works
Andy yawned as he walked into the kitchen, he was still feeling sore from his spar yesterday. He walked over to the cabinets to get a box of cereal. Danny walked beside him, not looking as sore or tired as Andy, but he did look pretty tired.
Takuya came in as well, with a serious case of bed-hair. He yawned, feeling some hidden bruises aching as he stretched, trying to hide his wince of pain.
"What's up with you three? You look like you didn't get any sleep last night," Jazz questioned, looking at her brothers and cousin.
"Just a rough night…" Andy muttered through a yawn. "I had some trouble sleeping…"
"Yeah, same here…" Danny yawned himself.
"Me three…" Takuya muttered.
Jazz raised an eyebrow. "You all had trouble sleeping? That's odd…"
"Don't worry about it, Jazz…" Takuya said. "It could be just a one-time thing…" Another yawn escaped him.
Maddie was working on another gadget, so she wasn't paying them much attention. And Jack was enjoying his bacon and eggs breakfast. He then looked at Danny. "So Danny, what's this I hear of you getting a new locker?"
"Oh, it's nothing, Dad. My old locker kind of got damaged, so I was assigned a new one. Nothing for you and Mom to get obsessive with," Danny assured his parents.
"Why?" Jack asked, serious as could be. "Is it haunted?!"
Takuya slapped his face with his hand at that question from his uncle.
"Don't worry, son, you'll barely even notice us while we're staking out that locker during normal school hours!" Maddie assured Danny, causing Andy to cringe at that.
"Wait, why would you two assume the locker was haunted?" Andy asked, speaking up.
"We've heard about the legend of Sydney Poindexter who used to own the locker," Maddie explained. "And that it's apparently cursed. So, we want to go down there and make sure nothing happens to one of our little boys."
Great, now I have to deal with Aunt Maddie and Uncle Jack at school too? Having to keep Dorimon hidden is hard enough as it is… Takuya thought. "Just what we need…"
Jazz perked up when she heard that. "What?" She looked up from her book in surprise.
"Uncle Jack and Aunt Maddie are going to the school to stake out Danny's locker," Takuya answered.
"No!" Jazz put down her book before she ran over to Danny and grabbed him in a hug. "Danny is already considered a clumsy nerd with weird ghost hunting parents. The last thing he needs is you two confirming it. And not to mention how this could also affect Andy and his peers."
"What am I? Chopped liver?" Takuya pouted.
"Well, you don't share the last name, and you're Japanese, so you get off easier than we do," Andy pointed out.
Takuya sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He had to admit, Andy did raise a good point.
"Jazz, you are really bad at giving pep talks," Danny grumbled.
Jack suddenly grabbed the mechanical gloves that Maddie was working on, then he put on the gloves, causing them to spark with electricity as he slammed both of his fists together. He was enjoying showing off how much power the gloves were giving off.
"And the best part is, thanks to the new Ghost Gloves, when that ghost comes out of that locker, I can spar with it, mano-to-ghosto!" Jack said as he did a few punching moves as though he was fighting a real ghost.
For some reason, Takuya felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up at that. Is he serious?! He could get hurt if he tried that!
Unlike Takuya, however, Andy was looking at the Ghost Gloves with interest. Those could be useful for future battles. They pack a lot of power, and I'll bet even Digimon would get hurt from being punched by metal gloves with electricity.
Jack then held up his fists as though he had won a fight, a big grin on his face. "Those ghosts won't stand a chance!"
"Don't worry, maybe girls will talk to you in college," Jazz shrugged.
"I mean Sam talks to him, does she not count?" Andy questioned.
Jazz looked at Andy. "She does, but I mean in the romantic sense." She then put her hand on Andy's shoulder. "Teens tend to avoid those whom they deem freaky, and Danny right now is going through that. Once out of high school, teens are more mature, and then Danny will find someone."
Andy groaned, and Danny didn't look much happier. Although Jazz was talking about Danny, both twins knew she was referring to both of them.
At Casper High
Things weren't much better in school. The kids mostly stopped laughing at Danny now, because him being dressed as a girl was yesterday's news. They moved on to other nerds however. Danny was in a foul mood after this morning, and seeing Calvin and his buddy bullying someone from the band, the one who played a tuba, just made him more bitter. Danny shut his locker door and walked away, debating with himself on whether or not he should do something to Calvin.
Andy, who was on the other side due to his locker being further away from Danny's current locker, noticed his brother's foul mood, and was a little uneasy. He looked over at Calvin and his buddy, tossing the band member's hat around.
However, when the other jock threw the hat away and Calvin went to catch it, the locker door suddenly swung open, clocking Calvin in the face and sending him to the ground with a black eye and a missing tooth, the hat fell on his hat perfectly. Andy blinked, surprised at what he had just witnessed. Okay… did that locker door just open… on it's own?!
Deciding to stay away from the potentially dangerous locker, Andy walked to class, keeping Dorimon safely tucked away in his backpack.
Then later, after class, Andy and Takuya were at their lockers, getting something out for the next class, when Andy suddenly bristled at hearing an all too familiar voice.
"I'm so fascinated with, like, AV equipment, could you tell me more about them?" Paulina sweetly asked a nerdy looking kid who was rolling a projector down the hall when Paulina stopped him near the trophy shelf.
Behind the nerd, Kwan was sneaking up on him and reached down, untying his shoelaces before retying the nerd's laces together into one big bow.
Then, the locker began to glow slightly before a trophy was knocked down onto Kwan's head and he staggered back, knocking into a fire extinguisher and causing it to spray foam everywhere, some of which landed in Paulina's hair. Then, the nerd's shoe laces were returned to their normal state before the nerd looked around, confused. He then shrugged and continued on his way down the hall.
"... The heck…? Takuya, did you see that?" Andy asked, shocked at what he just witnessed. Though admittedly, it felt immensely satisfying seeing Paulina getting sprayed by the fire extinguisher.
Takuya could only nod. "Uh huh…" He was just as surprised as Andy. That was weird!
Andy looked at the rusted locker door for a moment. "Um… should… should we check it out?"
Looking at the locker door himself, Takuya frowned a bit. He wasn't sure about it, but if that what happened was not normal, then it would stand to reason a ghost was behind it. "I don't know… but I think we should, just so Aunt Maddie and Uncle Jack don't get the same idea."
Takuya walked over to the locker, slowly putting a hand on it. He touched the locker door, expecting the thing to lash out at him. Nothing happened, which made him relieved.
Andy walked over to Takuya, before he looked at the locker himself. "Do you sense anything unusual?"
"No, I don't…" Takuya muttered with a frown. "Maybe we can get a better look after lunch. I think the ghost might have gone dormant or something."
The warning bell rang, and Andy sighed. "Yeah, you're right. We don't want to get in trouble for being late. As long as nothing big happens, I think we can afford to leave it alone for now."
Later, when it was lunchtime, most of the students were in the cafeteria. Calvin was talking to his jock buddies and the popular girls at their table, he mentioned how the locker door suddenly opened up and slammed into his face. Paulina was whining about how she was going to be brushing foam out of her hair for a week. Kwan was uneasy, feeling like the school was haunted now.
Sam was looking at Danny with a disapproving look. "Someone has been busy…" She grumbled to Danny.
Of course, being seated away from Danny, Sam, and Tucker at another table, Andy, Takuya, Dorimon, and Dash didn't hear what the trio was talking about.
"You know, you two don't have to sit away from them," Dash mentioned as he was eating his mac and cheese.
"I know we don't have to, but they seem to want to talk about something that they rather keep secret from us," Andy stated, a little bit of bitterness in his tone. "Besides… we also have something to talk about that we don't want them to hear either."
Dash remembered what it was as he saw Dorimon munching away on a piece of ham that Andy had snuck the little guy. "Yeah, I can see your point." He then chuckled. "You're feeding it right now."
"Well, that and something ghost related," Takuya added.
Dash frowned a little, he was still scared around ghosts.
"I see…" He murmured. "And you don't want to talk to them about it because…?"
"It may freak them out." Takuya replied. "And Andy wants to be sure of this issue before we go further into detail."
"What is it then?" Dash questioned.
"You know how everyone is talking about how these odd things are happening?" Andy asked, and Dash nodded. "Well, Takuya and I saw Danny's locker responsible for these things. It swung itself open into Calvin's face, it used some kind of green, ghostly energy to drop the trophy on Kwan's head, and untied the nerd's shoelaces that Kwan tied together earlier. And who knows what else it's been doing. Takuya and I were going to investigate after we were done eating, and we were hoping you would come with us since it could get dangerous."
Dash wasn't sure he wanted to go since it had a ghost involved, but since they were his friends, he decided to go with them. "I… I really don't want to, but if you guys are right, then you will need my help." He made a point to show his D-Tector discreetly.
Andy and Takuya smiled at that.
"Alright, then let's finish our food quickly so we'll have time to check out that locker," Andy said.
There was suddenly laughing coming from Danny's table. The three of them looked over to see Danny was just pelted by a lot of meat in the face. Calvin and his posse of jocks had just thrown meat at Danny, and were laughing.
"Hey guys, let's meat my new locker neighbor!" Calvin laughed, feeling proud of his little pun
"That is so wrong… if anything, Fenton is my locker neighbor," Dash grumbled.
Takuya groaned. "Not to mention what a bad pun that was…"
"I thought the pun was good…" Dash mumbled.
Andy frowned, he didn't like seeing someone picking on his brother. Danny threw the meat off his face, and he glared dangerously at Calvin. Takuya blinked, he could've sworn he saw Danny's eyes glowing green for a second, before Sam put her hand on Danny's shoulder to try to calm him down.
However, that backfired because meat, cheese, veggies, and a large bun were all thrown at Danny's face next, the bun landing on his head.
"Oh gosh, they just threw an entire sub sandwich at him," Takuya noted.
"What a waste of a sandwich," Dash grumbled.
"Waste of a sandwich? I'd say it's a huge annoyance that they're picking on Danny like that," Andy huffed. "If I wasn't hiding Dorimon, I'd have him spit iron beads at them right now."
Takuya had an idea. "Or maybe…" He looked at Dorimon. "We could use some of those iron beads and 'send him on his way', if you get my meaning." He looked at Andy with a grin.
Andy blinked before getting what Takuya meant. "Subtle, I like it. See, you can think with your brain pretty well, cuz~"
Takuya blushed a bit at that. "Hehe…" He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
Andy picked up Dorimon. "Okay, Dorimon, aim at the floor, just behind those jocks."
"This better not backfire on us…" Dorimon sighed before he shot out little iron beads at the floor, they rolled around like small marbles.
Calvin and his posse made their way towards the 'marbles', only to wind up slipping on the iron beads and falling, or in the case of a few jocks, sliding around like they were in a cartoon.
The other kids looked at them in shock, though several of them started to laugh, several others didn't in fear for their health and safety. Andy, Takuya, and Dash all started eating their lunch innocently, Andy had Dorimon under the table.
Takuya, as a treat, handed Dorimon a chocolate bar, allowing the small In-Training Digimon to eat it up.
"Whoa… wonder who actually put marbles on the floor behind those guys," Tucker whistled, impressed.
"I'd say that felt good, but it's not enough," Danny remarked, still messy from being pelted with a whole sandwich. "Wonder how Calvin would feel with having 12 frogs in his pants…"
Sam frowned as she held up the frog box. "Oh, no! You are not using innocent amphibians for a juvenile revenge scheme!" She had a scolding tone to her voice as she said that.
But Danny had other ideas as his eyes flashed green and a smirk appeared on his face.
"Why do I suddenly have a very ominous feeling going up my spine?" Andy frowned.
After Andy, Dash, Takuya, and Dorimon ate their lunch, they headed into the hallway. It was mostly empty due to everyone else wanting to stay at the cafeteria or outside until lunch was over. So it made it easy for the four of them to just head to the locker without being all secretive.
"There it is," Andy pointed at the rusted locker. "From what I've seen, it targets kids when they're picking on other kids."
Takuya, Andy, Dorimon, and Dash approached the locker. Takuya grabbed the door and opened it, but there was only the old mirror inside it, along with Danny's books. "Huh… There's just this old dusty mirror."
"Let me take a look," Andy stated.
Takuya moved away to let Andy look inside. He peered at the mirror, before he reached his hand out and, cautiously, touched the mirror. There didn't seem to be anything unusual, it was just a mirror.
"Hmm… I can't tell if there's something supernatural about the mirror or not, it seems to just be an ordinary mirror," Andy muttered.
Dash frowned. "Well, if it's just a mirror, then what is going on?" He was wondering how the locker could be haunted if there was a normal mirror inside it.
Andy pulled away before holding Dorimon up to the mirror. "Well… maybe Dorimon should check it out. He can fit into the locker, and Digimon have an easier time sensing ghosts."
Takuya and Dash had to admit that Andy had a point. Dorimon wriggled out of Andy's grasp and into the locker before sniffing at the mirror. He didn't smell anything unusual, but then his fur bristled. "Ghost energy…"
"You sense ghost energy? From the mirror?" Andy asked.
"Yes… Faint, but there." Dorimon confirmed as he moved back towards Andy, who then picked him up in his arms.
Andy turned to Takuya and Dash. "Okay, so that mirror is definitely haunted. But that leaves the question of… what do we do now?"
Just then, Takuya felt a flash of heat and cold in his body before he looked back and saw Calvin at his locker, which was close to Danny's, but not as close as Dash's was. Behind Calvin was Phantom's form, holding a box of frogs. "I think we have ghostly company…"
Dorimon wasn't growling like he usually was when they felt ghostly energy, but he gave a curious look. Dash yelped at seeing the ghost boy and ran to the nearest empty classroom door before opening it and going into the classroom to hide.
"Dash! Where are you going?" Andy asked, before he lost sight of Phantom. "Hey… where did the ghost boy go-"
Suddenly, Calvin's pants was pulled open from behind, and his underwear was pulled onto his head, then a floating box poured frogs into Calvin's pants.
In a fit of pain and agony, Calvin's head burst out from his underwear and he ran down the hall, holding his behind as the frogs moved about in his pants.
"Buuuulllieeeees!" A voice from the haunted locker spoke up.
Takuya, Andy, and Dorimon all looked at the locker. Takuya suddenly felt another flash of heat, while Dorimon started to growl at the locker.
"Uh-oh…" Andy frowned.
Then a ghost boy popped out of the locker's door. The ghost was gray in color, and he definitely looked like a nerd, with the glasses, the bowl cut hair, and the buckteeth, and the way he wore his clothes.
Takuya was surprised, but he didn't react. Dorimon remained in Andy's arms as he growled.
The nerdy ghost then spoke. "Hey! I'm free! Finally, the doorway's been opened!" The ghost even sounded like a nerd in the way he spoke.
Then the ghost, seeming to be ignoring Takuya and Andy's presence, was glaring at something invisible. "You think that was funny, Buster Browns?"
"Huh? You can see me?" A familiar voice asked in confusion.
"Yeah, that's right, bub!" The grey ghost nerd snapped.
Phantom reappeared from his invisibility as he looked at the ghost before him.
Andy and Takuya were looking at each other, not sure what to do. The two ghosts were having a conversation about something. Though they stopped listening as they were trying to figure out what to do. They couldn't tell if this nerdy ghost was dangerous or not.
"You're the bully from where I'm standing," The ghost nerd said that caught their attention.
"Uh… floating," Phantom pointed at the ghost nerd's feet, which were floating off of the ground.
"Let's see how you like getting bullied!" The nerdy ghost declared as he raised his hands up into the air, only for lockers all around them to begin to glow. The nerd ghost's eyes turned red, and books, pens, pencils, and notebooks all shot out of the lockers at Phantom.
Before Andy and Takuya could even think of doing something, Dash suddenly ran out of the classroom he was hiding in, grabbed Andy and Takuya's arms, before he dragged them away from the fight.
"It's too dangerous to be in the crossfire between ghosts!" Dash warned as he was dragging them down the hallway.
Takuya was trying to get away, as his mind was on the ghost fight. "I know, but we need to stop it! That ghost could hurt someone!"
Dorimon wriggled in Andy's grasp. "The ghost is bad news!"
Dorimon started to run down the hall.
"Wait! Don't go by yourself, Dorimon!" Andy shouted. "Dash, let go! We can't let Dorimon take on the ghost by himself!"
Takuya yanked his arm out of Dash's grip and ran after Dorimon before grabbing the little guy. "Don't just rush in there! We need a plan first before we do anything!"
The entire school was panicking, the ghost nerd's power likely caused everyone's books and pencils to go flying all over the place. Some of them ran out through the front door. Andy cringed when he heard what sounded like Jack's yell from the front door. "Move Maddie, move!"
"Great, just what we need…" Andy groaned as Dash let go of Andy. "Come on, Dash, we have to get in there!"
"B-but…" Dash frowned before shaking his head. "A-alright…"
Andy ran past Takuya and Dorimon. Takuya looked up before he hurried after Andy. Dash was lagging behind, it was clear he was terrified of ghosts.
As the foursome ran back to the battle, Takuya wasn't sure of what to think of this situation. On one hand, the nerdy ghost was right about bullying, but on the other, Phantom had just been getting payback at Calvin. Maybe we could talk to the ghost?
Takuya then looked at Andy. "So, what do we do when we get to the battle?" He wasn't sure about just rushing in when there was stuff flying around.
"I don't know yet," Andy answered. "But we need to see how hostile this ghost is first."
When they reached where the ghost nerd and Phantom were, they were surprised to see Sam and Tucker were there as well. Sam was putting the frogs back into the box, while Tucker approached the ghost nerd.
"I am Sydney Poindexter! And whenever there's a nerd in need, I shall be there!" The ghost nerd, who called himself Poindexter, announced proudly as he gestured to Tucker.
"Hey, who are you calling a nerd?" Tucker asked as he pointed at Poindexter.
Phantom, looking annoyed now, flew towards Poindexter, likely to tackle him. Poindexter turned himself transparent, making Phantom fly straight through him, and he ended up ramming into Tucker instead. The two of them flew into a wall.
"Oof… that looked painful…" Andy cringed.
Dorimon, who had jumped back into Andy's arms, winced. "Ow…"
"That's the guy who once had your locker!" Tucker said once he regained his senses. Hearing that, Poindexter seemed to smirk. He then faced Phantom.
"In your face, skeptic!" Tucker exclaimed with a laugh.
Phantom frowned at Tucker, he had been skeptical about the myth, but he didn't need to hear it from Tucker.
Poindexter seemed to think Tucker was talking to him and held out a pen. "In his face? What a swell idea!"
Poindexter then aimed the pen at Phantom and let the ink fly into his face. Poindexter then started to laugh.
"Eew… ink in the face… I hope that's not too hard to wash off…" Takuya muttered.
Annoyed, Phantom suddenly turned himself transparent before he tackled the laughing Poindexter ghost, and both of them went under the floor.
"Looks like they just went down into the boiler room…" Andy frowned. "Either that or they went down into the underground."
"Shouldn't we go after them?" Takuya asked.
"Hey! What are you two doing here?" Sam called out, seeing Andy and Takuya. "And… you brought your stuffed animal?"
Sam looked at Dorimon in Andy's arms.
"Uh…" Andy hesitated, not sure how to answer.
"Is that Dash?" Tucker asked in worry, seeing the football captain himself standing a few feet behind them.
"Yes! And I was just on my way to class when I saw you nerds all gathered here," Dash said, trying to sound tough.
Andy frowned. "Where's Danny? Wasn't he with you two?"
Takuya looked around, seeing that Danny was indeed missing. "Did something happen to him?"
"Uh… we… don't know where he went?" Tucker said, making it sound more like a question.
"Smooth," Sam sarcastically grumbled. "He went to do something else. Meanwhile I'm cleaning up after his mess. There you go little froggies, you'll be safe in here…"
Sam was still putting frogs back into the box.
Dash and Andy shook their heads as Takuya rolled his eyes. It seemed Sam would never change.
"Well, I'm uh… going to go… get a soda," Dash awkwardly said, knowing that Andy had wanted to keep their friendship a secret, but Dash didn't want to be a bully anymore either, not even by pretending, so he just excused himself and walked away.
Andy looked at the floor where he saw Phantom shoving Poindexter through. While Tucker and Sam were busy with the frogs, Andy looked over at Takuya and whispered. "We could probably try going to the boiler room… but… if those ghosts hit something down there, there's a good chance this entire school will explode."
Takuya paled at hearing that. "Then we should hurry…" He whispered back. "We don't want others to be hurt or worse." I don't like this...
Dorimon shivered at hearing Andy's words. "The school will go boom?"
"It's a possibility, I don't know for sure," Andy said. "We can take the sta-"
Andy suddenly stopped, he felt a sudden weird sensation in his chest that he couldn't explain. He then began to shiver like he was cold.
Takuya looked at Andy worriedly. "Andy?"
"Andy!" Dorimon exclaimed, feeling the shaking of his partner, as Andy was holding him. It felt weird to Dorimon, like he was vibrating now.
Andy suddenly dropped Dorimon, though Dorimon hit the floor, he wasn't hurt all that much, he was more worried about Andy. Andy let out a gasp before he stumbled back, hitting the lockers. He suddenly felt like he was having trouble breathing, like someone was strangling his lungs. Takuya and Dorimon rushed up to Andy, not knowing what was going on with him. Andy was struggling and flailing around now, like he was fighting something that was invisible and trying to crush him.
"Andy, calm down!" Takuya exclaimed as he grabbed Andy's shoulders. "Just calm down!" He was not showing it, but the older boy was panicking inside as he tried to get Andy to settle down.
Dorimon walked up next to Andy and nudged his leg. "Andy…"
Andy didn't seem to be able to hear them, he kept flailing around while Takuya was trying to hold him down. If Andy was breathing, Takuya was sure he'd be screaming as well.
Then after what felt like an eternity to Takuya and Dorimon, Andy suddenly stopped, he closed his eyes and went limp.
Takuya felt his heart leap into his throat as Andy went limp in his grasp. He was panicking now, as memories of Koichi's still form came to mind. This was just like that, and he had witnessed it this time. "ANDY!"
Dorimon was on the verge of tears now. "Wake up…" His plea was so weak and heartbroken, it hurt Takuya to hear it.
Takuya quickly tried to calm himself down, he remembered the best way to tell if a person was still alive was to check for a pulse.
He wasn't entirely sure where to check for a pulse, but he figured the neck would be a good place to start. He put two fingers to Andy's neck, only to feel a pulse. He visibly relaxed when he felt Andy's pulse, but it was racy and quick, which concerned him.
"He has a pulse… but it's racy and rapid." Takuya reported.
"What happened to him?" Dorimon asked in worry.
"I'm not sure…" Takuya admitted. He ran a hand through his hair. "This is the first time I saw something like this."
"Hey, what's going on?" Tucker asked as he noticed Takuya was standing over an unconscious Andy. "Andy? Did he pass out?"
Dorimon went still, remembering he had to act like a toy around others.
Takuya froze when he heard Tucker's voice. A quick glance revealed Dorimon was pretending to be a toy, so Takuya turned his attention to Tucker. "I don't know. One moment Andy was fine and the next, he was flailing around like he was suffocating. Then he passed out. I don't know what happened to him to cause that, and I want to be sure he's alright and-" He was cut off by Sam.
"Whoa! Just calm down." Sam said as she looked at the panicking Takuya. "Did you say Andy was flailing around like he was suffocating?"
"Yes! It freaked me out!" Takuya exclaimed, trying not to freak out at what he just saw his cousin went through.
Tucker and Sam frowned as they moved closer to Andy, seeing he was out cold.
"That's weird… I don't think he had an asthma or heart attack, I mean he doesn't have asthma… maybe an anxiety attack?" Sam guessed. "Whatever the case may be, we better get him to the nurse's office and hope it was nothing serious."
Takuya nodded. "Yeah… We probably should." He looked at Sam and Tucker. "Can you pick up Andy's backpack and put his toy into it? I think he would want it when he wakes up." Takuya then picked up Andy and put him onto his back, giving the unconscious boy a piggyback ride, before heading down to the nurse's office.
Tucker picked up Dorimon. "... I'd like to get a toy like this. It looks like something out of an anime."
"This isn't the time for one of your geekiness, Tucker, put it into the backpack and let's go. I'm worried about Andy," Sam huffed, holding out Andy's backpack. "One of us should tell Danny too when he gets back."
Tucker pouted, but did as Sam asked, slipping Dorimon into the backpack before closing it. "Okay, let's go."
Takuya had no idea how long it had been since they brought Andy to the nurse. It felt like hours, but it could've only been a few minutes. The nurse was checking Andy out, trying to find signs for anything abnormal. Takuya himself was pacing, he had no idea what happened to his cousin, but it did scare him. Dorimon was worried too, but unlike Takuya, he wasn't allowed to show it since Tucker and Sam were there as well.
Sam was looking worried as she sat in one of the chairs while Tucker was biting his lower lip as he fidgeted with his PDA's stylus in hand. Sam was flicking two of her fingers together as they waited for the nurse's word on Andy's condition.
Takuya was constantly running the scenario in his mind, how Andy suddenly acted like he was cold before he suddenly started to flail around wildly, looking to be unable to breathe. Then how Andy suddenly passed out. Takuya had no idea what kind of disease, if it was a disease, that would cause that. Or if a ghost or Digimon was involved, but Takuya hadn't felt either of those nearby other than Dorimon when it happened, and Dorimon was just as scared and clueless as he was about this.
What caused that? I know it wasn't a ghost, but… what else could it have been? I just don't know! Takuya was too caught up in his own thoughts to pay attention to anything else. I know Andy was fine one moment, and the next, he isn't. And where is Danny? He is Andy's twin! Surely he would have felt something was wrong! Besides, aren't twins supposed to be half of each other's soul?
That was when Takuya realized something that made him turn pale. What… oh-no… what if something happened to Danny and that resulted in Andy's sudden suffocation attack?
Now Takuya was almost certain whatever happened had to do with Danny. Or what if it was Phantom that did something to Danny?! That thought scared him. What if Phantom isn't a good ghost after all?! What if he hurt Danny?!
Before Takuya could go into a panic attack of his own, the nurse suddenly approached him, Tucker, and Sam.
"I've ran all the diagnosis I can on Andrew Fenton," The nurse said as she looked at her clipboard. "He seems perfectly healthy. I'm afraid I can't find what caused him to suddenly pass out."
Takuya frowned at that. That seems to confirm it was something with Danny. He thought. "Okay… Thanks anyway. We were just so worried about Andy that we brought him here. We didn't know what else to do."
Sam and Tucker nodded in agreement.
"I will say that his pulse seems faster than normal," The nurse stated. "He could have passed out from stress, but that's my best diagnosis on him suddenly passing out. For now, we will wait until he wakes up. If he doesn't wake up soon, or if he suddenly gets worse, I will have to transport him to Amity Hospital."
Tucker got pale at hearing the world 'hospital'. "Oh no…" He looked like he was going to faint himself. "I hate hospitals…"
While Tucker was fretting about the hospital, Sam and Takuya were more concerned with the fact that their friend and cousin, was possibly going to be hospitalized. For Sam it was worse, since she had to go through Danny being hospitalized when everyone thought he was dead.
Takuya on the other hand was also worried, since this was his family member. He had heard of Danny's accident yes, but to see Andy so still and lifeless had reminded him of Koichi's own accident and how he had wound up in the Digital World. Koichi had been essentially a spirit himself, and this scared Takuya, because Andy could be going through being in a coma like Koichi had been. Sometimes he still had nightmares about that.
"You three should get back to class, I'll keep watch over Andrew," The nurse stated.
Takuya, Tucker, and Sam all nodded, even though they didn't want to leave Andy. Takuya picked up Dorimon from Andy's backpack and put him beside Andy. Takuya knew Dorimon would want to be next to his partner until he woke up, and the nurse shouldn't mind a 'stuffed toy' being with the unconscious patient.
"Okay… just… keep us informed please…" Takuya said as he stood up, his eyes now hidden by his hair. Andy… please… wake up soon… Unseen by anyone else, tears were running down his cheeks.
Sam and Tucker looked at Takuya in concern, but they too were worried for Andy. He looked too much like Danny when he was brought to the hospital after the accident; completely lifeless.
"Hey… I'm sure… I'm sure Andy will be alright," Sam said, hoping to reassure Takuya, though she sounded unsure herself.
Takuya nodded. "Yeah… He should be…" Takuya then turned and left, not wanting to spend any more time near his unconscious cousin. Not when this reminds me of Koichi's own accident...
Class dragged on longer than it usually did. Takuya couldn't stop this feeling of worry. He hadn't seen Danny at all either. He was itching to investigate, he needed to know if both of his cousins were alright.
So by the time class was over, Takuya all but ran into the hallway, he had to find Danny, or at least Phantom. He needed to know. He then ran into Mr. Lancer, who was carrying a box of frogs, likely found it from Sam, and when Takuya smashed into him, Mr. Lancer dropped the box. Gasping, Mr. Lancer ran after the frogs.
"Sorry about that!" Takuya called back, not bothering to stop and help pick up the frogs. He had more important things to worry about.
Takuya then saw his uncle and aunt looking around the lockers.
"The kids said they've witnessed a ghost attack, but they didn't say where…" Maddie frowned, holding up a device in her hands.
"Fear not, Maddie, we won't be leaving this school until we find that ghost!" Jack assured.
Takuya was about to walk away from them when he suddenly saw Danny right behind him. Danny gave a confused look at Takuya, his eyes seemed a little off. They appeared to be dark gray instead of the baby blue eyes Takuya came to know.
"D-Danny?" Takuya asked, not sure what to make of this. What's going on? Why are Danny's eyes gray instead of blue?
Danny, or who was supposed to be Danny, looked at him. "Do I know- uh, yes, of course! Hi there, uh… my friend!"
Takuya blinked. It was obvious this was not Danny, since Danny would know he was his cousin. He frowned. "I'm your cousin…"
"Oh! Right, of course, I knew that!" 'Danny' smiled.
Before Takuya could say anything else, however, Tucker and Sam ran over to them.
"Danny, there you are dude!" Tucker said. "Where've you been? Your brother is in the nurse's office!"
'Danny' blinked. "My… brother…?"
"Yeah, Andy." Takuya replied. "He passed out and is now unconscious. We wanted to let you know since you two are brothers." He was not trusting this being pretending to be Danny though. If that was Danny, he would be panicked over his twin, but he's not. So it can't be Danny.
"Oh-oh! Right, my brother! What happened to him? Is he sick?" 'Danny' asked in concern.
"No, just… passed out from stress." Takuya replied in a flat tone as he looked at 'Danny' with a glare.
"Danny? Are you okay? You sound kind of… off," Sam asked, raising her eyebrow.
Takuya just realized that 'Danny's' voice did sound off, it sounded too high pitched to be Danny's voice, and he had a bit of a different accent.
"Uh… um… going through puberty," 'Danny' excused.
Takuya didn't buy that for a moment, but he didn't say anything on it. Instead, he just looked at 'Danny' before grabbing his arm. "Sam, Tucker, can I speak to 'Danny' alone please?" With that, he dragged 'Danny' off.
"Whoa, whoa, what are you doing, buddy? That's rough!" 'Danny' whined as Takuya brought him around the corner.
Takuya sighed and let 'Danny's' arm go. He so wanted to evolve and deal with this imposter, but that would not help Andy in the slightest. What would Andy do? He mused.
"Gather information." Takuya imagined Andy's voice telling him.
Taking that to heart, Takuya took a deep breath and calmed himself down so he wouldn't have that feral look in his eyes before facing 'Danny'. "Okay, I know you are not my cousin." Takuya folded his arms over his chest. "I want to know who you are. Don't try to say you are Danny, because I know you are not. My cousin has blue eyes, and yours are gray. Plus, your voice is off. It's too high pitched, and the accent is off too."
'Danny' frowned, looking a little uncomfortable. "Uh… oh… jeez, I… didn't think I would be caught this quickly…"
"Well, when it comes to fooling family members, it isn't that easy." Takuya chuckled. "Save for my aunt and uncle. They would have fallen for it easily."
'Danny' looked a little more at ease seeing Takuya chuckling. "Oh, I guess that's true… my own family picks on me…. Oh, uh, I'm Sydney Poindexter, the spirit of Sydney Poindexter to be exact. I took over your cousin's body because he was being a bully to an innocent kid."
Takuya sighed here. "And that is where the issue is. Danny wasn't being the bully; he's the victim of bullying. He was just doing some harmless payback." He ran a hand through his hair. "Ugh… This is going to be a long day…"
"Wait… really? That… was payback?" Poindexter asked in surprise.
"Didn't he tell you or did you just assume he was being a bully?" Takuya asked. "Danny is actually the victim of bullying. I guess he just wanted some payback after all this time."
"O-oh… jeez… I didn't know…" Poindexter frowned, looking down.
Takuya felt somewhat more at ease now that he was actually talking to the ghost in his cousin's body. Heh… I guess gathering information works better than I thought. "Look, I don't blame you for thinking that, but making an assumption like that not only hurt my other cousin, Andy, but it has me worried about what could be happening to Danny. I mean I'm not sure how you taking over Danny's body caused Andy to suddenly go comatose but… could you come out of Danny's body now?"
Poindexter looked up at Takuya with a wide-eye realization, the kind of realization that Takuya knew was bad news. "I… uh… can't… See, I may have… um… well… when I took over his body, there was… an unexpected development… somehow Danny's spirit reacted in such a way to my presence that it left his body when I took control. I think it went into the mirror… to my lair… the lair that I've been trapped in for the past… uh… however long it's been since I was alive."
Takuya felt like pinching the bridge of his nose would alleviate some of the urge to evolve, so he did just that. "Okay… great… Now I need to figure out how to save Danny from the mirror. Some day this is turning out to be…" I guess now I know what happened. Andy and Danny are two halves of the same soul, so when Poindexter accidentally ripped Danny's soul out of his body, it affected Andy as well… that would explain the sudden comatose state. I guess when Danny's soul was being ripped out, Andy felt its effects, hence why he suddenly started flailing around…
Titanic X: ZAFT: Glad you like it. :)
Luna Lillyth: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, their teamwork is a working progress.
ZAFT: But it will get better over time. :)