ZAFT: Another update on a Sunday it seems. :)
DarkFoxKit: Yup. We've been writing a lot of chapters lately, so we've been updating weekly.
Andy: Will you two slow down?
ZAFT: Hmmm… Maybe… Maybe not~ We have a pretty good backlog of chapters. :P
DarkFoxKit: As long as I'm feeling motivated to write, we'll likely be writing a lot.
Andy: Aren't you supposed to be busy with other projects?
DarkFoxKit: That doesn't mean I can't write this.
ZAFT: That's true. It's called multitasking. I am doing it right now. And let Fox write it if she wants to and is motivated. :)
Andy: I'm going to go in my room now. Maybe next time I should throw Takuya on here.
ZAFT: I would like that~ *Grins evilly*
Chapter 19: Yin and Yang
It was dawn, Amity Park was still covered in darkness, but the skies were lightning up a bit from the sun that would soon rise in a couple of hours. A familiar rabbit creature was running through the quiet streets of Amity Park.
"Ophanimon, please… why won't you answer me?" The bunny creature frowned. "Can I not reach her here?"
Then the bunny creature gasped when they heard something, they quickly squeezed themselves between two small buildings.
A man staggered by, looking a bit drunk. He paid no heed to the small rabbit-like creature that was hiding between the buildings. The rabbit-like creature watched the man go and frowned.
Is this what most humans are like? Or is that just one individual? No, I shouldn't judge an entire species based off of one individual. After all, those kids were anything but weak, helpless, and… smelly. The rabbit creature scrunched up his nose a little.
The rabbit creature looked around, then looked up, he shrunk himself down as much as he could when he saw a few bat-like creatures flying by.
DemiDevimon… I can't believe Seraphimon of all Digimon are using those little monsters as scouts now… The rabbit creature frowned.
The DemiDevimon were not able to see the rabbit creature thankfully due to how the shadows that were being cast ended up being due to the sunlight beginning to rise over the horizon.
While that did give the rabbit creature a reprieve, it would not last for long, as soon, the sun would rise and would expose the entire area to light. The rabbit creature would have to find shelter and soon, lest they be discovered by their pursuers.
Where else can I go? The rabbit creature frowned as he began moving.
"Where do you think you're going, Cherubimon?" A voice suddenly spoke up.
The rabbit creature gasped as he turned around, seeing a much bigger rabbit-like creature, this one wore blue pants, and its hands had what looked like Gatling guns on them. It had a bullet belt around its torso, green upper face with a single horn in the center of its forehead and a small red diamond shape below that. Two marks per cheek, red in color, could be seen, and the green part of its head went down almost all the way on its ears, which were long and floppy with three points on them. The rest of the creature was a creamy color, and it had black eyes.
"Or should I call you Lopmon now?" The armored rabbit chuckled.
"Gargomon, what are you doing?" The smaller rabbit creature, who was called Lopmon, questioned. "You were once one of my most loyal military guards. Why are you chasing after me?"
"You should be afraid, Lopmon," Gargomon said as he aimed one of his guns at Lopmon. "I won't let you take over the Digital World again!"
Lopmon frowned. "But I'm not-"
Lopmon was cut off as Gargomon took aim with the second gun.
"It's time for you to be purified, once and for all, Lopmon," Gargomon hissed. "Gargo Pellets!"
Gargomon began firing rabid green energy bullets at Lopmon. Lopmon began running, trying to get away from the trigger happy rabbit.
Lopmon was scared now. He had to find a place to hide to escape from Gargomon. But where? Where can I hide?
Lopmon yelped as he was hit by one of Gargomon's Gargo Pellets, and was blasted up into the sky. Lopmon stretched out his ears and puffed them out to try to glide through the air. From the sky, Lopmon could see the morning sun was starting to rise up, bringing in light to the sleepy town of Amity Park.
"Hey! There he is!" Lopmon heard a DemiDevimon shouting.
Lopmon narrowed his eyes as he was starting to get surrounded by DemiDevimon. "Tiny Twister!"
Lopmon began spinning himself quickly, knocking back the DemiDevimon with his long ears, and created a small tornado that caught up the other dark Rookies into it. Lopmon quickly began gliding downwards, and he saw he was heading towards a building that was apparently called 'Casper High'.
"Maybe I can hide there…" Lopmon mused as he continued his glide. It certainly seems big enough to hide in anyway.
"You're not getting away, Lopmon!" Lopmon heard Gargomon shouting.
Gargomon stopped before he got too close to Casper High. "This would never work… I was told not to be seen by humans. There must be a way to get to Lopmon without being seen…"
Gargomon frowned a little. "I may have to talk to my superior about this."
With that said, the military rabbit slunk off into the shadows as the morning sun fully rose in the sky, and humans were starting to come out of their houses and apartments.
When Takuya woke up, he couldn't help but notice how quiet the house was. Maddie and Jack were in the lab this morning, but he still expected the siblings to start talking or getting on each other's nerves, but there was nothing. Andy and Dorimon were the only ones at the table in the kitchen, no signs of Danny or Jazz anywhere.
Yawning, Takuya made his way into the kitchen. "Where is everyone?"
"Danny and Jazz left early. Danny left earlier though, and Jazz went to go follow him," Andy answered as he was munching on his cereal.
"Jazz had this… worried look in her eyes when she left after Danny did," Dorimon informed as he bit into some burnt toast before sticking his tongue out in disgust, then proceeded to eat the metal plate the burnt toast was on instead.
Takuya chuckled when he saw Dorimon just eat the plate. "I don't think Aunt Maddie will be happy you ate one of her plates."
"Too bad. I don't want burnt toast." Dorimon grumbled.
"Sorry, I haven't learned how to cook," Andy sheepishly apologized. "Whenever Mom and Dad were busy, Jazz would do the cooking, but… well… she's not here right now. I'm a bit surprised though, I thought she wanted to talk to me about what had her so worried the other day. Either she forgot about it, or she thinks I wouldn't be honest about it… to be fair, that is a plausible way of thinking. You and Danny weren't very honest when I tried talking to you two about your secrets after all."
Takuya rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, to be fair, you would not have believed me if I told you beforehand. At least, before you met Dorimon anyway…"
"Hehe, I helped you think more outside the box~" Dorimon smiled proudly.
Andy chuckled as he pet Dorimon's head fondly. "Yeah, yeah you did."
Takuya then grabbed his own bowl and poured his own cereal, he had a choice between Cornflakes, and Fruit Loops.
Takuya looked between the two cereal choices before he reached for the Cornflakes. He would rather eat a bland cereal instead of something that reminded him of Vlad. I never imagined I would want to avoid a cereal brand like the plague...
Though Takuya noticed that Andy was eating Fruit Loops himself. Either Andy didn't care that he and Danny called Vlad a 'Fruit Loop', or Andy didn't think about it. Takuya decided he didn't want to ruin the cereal for Andy though.
Takuya then looked at Andy. "So, is there anything going on at school this week?"
"Yup," Andy answered. "Dorimon, want to explain it to Takuya?"
Dorimon smiled, giving a confident and proud look. "Of course! So, Andy told me about this the other day. Starting today, it's Casper High's Spirit Week! There's going to be a motivational speech at the end of the week, then after that, they do this amazing domino picture then, before the last domino falls on a trigger that makes the 'spirit sparklers' go off. It pumps everyone up, and it sounds like a fun time! … Did I get everything right?"
Andy nodded and smiled. "Yup, I knew you were a smart Digimon~"
Dorimon looked so happy that his eyes were sparkling.
Takuya blinked. "Okay, that sounds fun." He then paused. "You know, it's ironic. This thing is called Spirit Week, and I use Spirits to become a Digimon. I am not sure if this is a jab at that, or if it is coincidence."
"Let's not forget the other irony of it," Andy chuckled. "Sometimes ghosts can be referred to as 'spirits' themselves. Even though there are actual differences between ghosts and spirits."
Takuya sighed. "Okay, I think this has to be some kind of jab towards me, Dash, and Danny."
Andy snickered. "Maybe. Though what do you know of Danny's secret? Are you still going off of the theory I had about him and Phantom?"
Takuya nodded. "Yeah. I mean, it seems to be the most likely scenario here." He then looked at Andy. "Why?"
"I think that's… relatively close to the actual truth," Andy chuckled nervously.
"No kidding… like I'm surprised at how close you were to the truth. If you had the final puzzle piece, you would've figured it out on your own," Dorimon noted.
Takuya blinked, but didn't ask any questions. If Andy's first guess about Danny's secret was close to the truth, maybe it is that Phantom is inside of Danny. However, something felt off about that thought, and that made Takuya frown a bit. Wait… Dorimon mentioned Andy was missing a piece of the puzzle. Is it possible that I am too? If so, what is it?
"By the way, why did Danny leave early today? I can understand Jazz leaving early, probably to prepare for the Spirit Week stuff," Takuya remarked. "But why did Danny?"
"He had volunteered to help set up for the Spirit Week speech at the gym, so he had to leave early to get an early start," Dorimon answered.
"Why?" Takuya questioned. "I mean not that I don't think Danny couldn't be charitable, it's just… why?"
"I talked him into it." Andy grinned.
Takuya looked at Andy. "... Okay… but again… why?"
"Think of it as a small punishment for Danny going into the Ghost Zone without telling me," Andy answered.
Takuya felt himself sweating at that comment. Yeah… I need to remember to stay on Andy's good side… He can be really evil if he wants to be...
"I will say that Mr. Lancer gets quite pumped up during Spirit Week," Andy chuckled.
"Really?" Takuya asked. "I didn't think he could get excited given how he drones on and on in English."
"Me neither," Dorimon agreed.
Andy finished up his Fruit Loops. "We should probably get to school soon."
Takuya gulped down his Cornflakes and nodded, wiping his mouth. "Yeah. I don't want to be late."
"You gonna eat that spoon?" Dorimon asked, eyeing Takuya's silverware.
"Um… No. And no, you can't eat it." Takuya said as he put the spoon into the sink. "We already lost a plate to you."
Dorimon pouted.
"I'll get you something more to eat at school," Andy promised the little Digimon.
When Takuya and Andy reached Casper High, they were surprised to see Mr. Lancer bouncing on a trampoline while talking to Jazz, who was standing to the side of the trampoline.
Takuya blinked. "Okay… I believe you about Mr. Lancer getting pumped up." He then gave a slight grimace. "That is just weird…"
"It's the one time of year that Mr. Lancer is truly pumped," Andy chuckled.
Then Mr. Lancer stopped bouncing on the trampoline and got off, he and Jazz seemed to be discussing a serious topic judging from the look of concern on Mr. Lancer's face.
"Huh… I wonder what has Jazz and Mr. Lancer all concerned." Takuya wondered as he and Andy approached the school's entrance.
Dorimon popped his head out from Andy's backpack and twitched his ears. "Seems she's concerned about Danny, Takuya, and you, Andy."
Andy sighed. "Of course… not that I can blame her. I was in the same position she was not that long ago."
"I think we should get to class." Takuya said as he looked at Andy and Dorimon. "Jazz's concern is probably just something she is trying to justify since she doesn't know our secrets. She is probably trying to convince herself that it is something bad, or at least worrisome."
Andy frowned a little. "Are you sure we shouldn't try talking to her? I don't want to leave her hanging like this."
"But what can we tell her?" Takuya pointed out. "Danny's secret is his, and she would never believe my secret or yours."
"She would…" Andy looked at Takuya. "That is… if you were willing to show her."
Takuya didn't say anything to that, then Andy started walking past him.
"Come on, we're going to be late," Andy said.
Takuya sighed as he put his hands into his pockets, following Andy. He ran his hand along his D-Tector, wondering if Andy was right. Is it really worth keeping it a secret from Jazz?
When they got into first period, something surprising happened. Mr. Lancer, who was smiling like a giddy school girl, came to the front of the class.
"Alright, class. Today we are having two new students joining us from Japan on the exchange program." Mr. Lancer said as he gave the class a smile. "I would like you to meet Koji Minamoto and Koichi Kimura. They are twin brothers, and I would like you to make them feel welcome."
Takuya, who had been half-asleep, jolted awake when he heard the two names. What?!
Sure enough, at the front of the room, were two twin boys as they came in. One wore a dark navy blue and black bandanna, a white T-shirt under a navy blue jacket, black pants, and white and blue sneakers on while the other twin wore a dark-grey hoodie that had a maroon shirt under it, matching pants, and grey and gold sneakers. The first boy had his hair long and pulled back into a ponytail and had blue eyes while the second twin had shorter hair and the same blue eyes as his brother.
The other students were surprised that there were two more students from Japan joining their school. Andy was staring in surprise as well. Besides him and Danny, Andy had yet to meet another pair of twins before.
Takuya hadn't expected to see the twins here, so he was understandably shocked. What are they doing here? I thought they were back in Japan!
"Why don't you two take a seat around the room?" Mr. Lancer suggested. "The spots near Ms. Manson and Mr. Fenton are open."
Koji gave a nod and walked over, taking a seat next to Sam on her left while on Danny's right, Koichi took his seat.
Danny was surprised to see another pair of twins as well, and he wondered if this is what he and Andy looked like to other people.
Of course, all questions would have to wait until the end of class, which felt like an eternity to Takuya since he needed to know when and how Koji and Koichi came to America.
As class went on, Takuya could feel himself wanting to drift off to sleep, as Mr. Lancer's voice had that effect. If he was a Digimon, his voice could be called Drone of Sleep.
Takuya didn't realize he had dozed off until he was suddenly woken up by Andy.
"Hey, Takuya… the new twins wanted to talk to you," Andy said.
"Wh… Oh. Okay." Takuya said with a yawn. "Thanks for waking me by the way. Mr. Lancer really can make people fall asleep."
"Don't I know it…" Danny muttered.
"Hey, don't you have something you need to do?" Andy raised an eyebrow at Danny.
Danny sighed. "Alright, alright, I'm going bro."
Takuya then got up from his chair and walked over to where Koji and Koichi were standing. "This is certainly a surprise."
"It was a surprise for us too," Koichi chuckled sheepishly.
"Have you heard from Ophanimon lately?" Koji asked, speaking in Japanese instead of English.
Takuya blinked at the sudden switch to Japanese, but followed suit. "No. I haven't for a while. Why do you ask?"
"We were sent here due to Ophanimon's request," Koichi answered, also speaking in Japanese. "But when she was talking to us, there was a sudden disturbance on the communication."
"She suddenly let out what we assumed to be a gasp, before there was a loud noise on the other line, then we were cut off. We tried to get a hold of Ophanimon again, but we were unable to, and we hadn't heard back from her since," Koji explained.
Takuya frowned. "You think she was kidnapped or something?"
"We think it's a possibility," Koji answered. "We heard what sounded like someone saying Cherubimon's name before the cut off."
"So you think Cherubimon is behind this then?" Takuya asked. "You think he corrupted Seraphimon? Because that's what it sounds like to me."
"It's highly likely, since Cherubimon was corrupted before, he may be vulnerable to corruption," Koichi answered grimly. "Problem is, we don't know who's behind the corruption this time. There haven't been any traces or hints of Lucemon anywhere."
"Thatis worrisome." Takuya noted with a frown. "If it isn't Lucemon, then we are in the dark on this one. It also doesn't help that there have been Digimon coming to the real world now too."
"Speaking of which, didn't you say that you had a cousin with a Digimon partner? And that someone else inherited the Warrior of Wood?" Koji asked.
Takuya nodded. "Yeah. My cousin, Andy, does have a Digimon partner, and the Warrior of Wood is a jock by the name of Dash Baxter. He is a good guy though, so don't worry about it. He also knows of Digimon, so he is clean with us."
"Sounds like you've been busy," Koichi chuckled. "Is there anything else we need to hear about?"
"Uh… yeah, there's a few things I need to tell you two about," Takuya sighed.
While the three were talking, the other students were looking in awe at hearing them speaking in fluent Japanese.
"Do you have any idea what they're saying?" Tucker asked.
"Not a clue," Andy shook his head.
"I know a little bit of Japanese, but not enough to follow that conversation," Sam sighed.
Danny chuckled. "Well, it's kind of obvious we can't understand what the three are talking about in Japanese since Takuya did live there for a while and can speak it fluently."
Sam gave Danny a slight smack on the head, but not enough to hurt. "Hey! What was that for?"
"For being Captain Obvious," Sam replied.
"Kind of wish my PDA could be a translator too," Tucker grumbled.
They must be talking about important Digimon stuff, I don't see any other reason why they'd be speaking in Japanese so much otherwise. The twins were able to speak English just fine, and I doubt they're doing this just to show off. Andy analyzed.
Andy didn't know it, but he was right on the money with his analysis.
"Anyway, the Digimon attacks here have been a bit of a problem, and I don't know why there are Digimon coming through the barrier between the Digital and real worlds." Takuya said with a sigh.
"Sounds like you've also had to deal with ghosts too, not just Digimon," Koichi noted. "You ran into any Phantomon yet? It would be troublesome if ghost and ghost Digimon were to team up with each other."
Takuya gave a wince at that. "No, I haven't yet. And that would be bad news if they did team up."
"I think that's why Ophanimon sent us here, and why Dash and your cousin were chosen, to be able to help you face with this new and unknown threat," Koji theorized.
"The others, J.P., Tommy, and Zoey may end up coming here too eventually, we were just the first since our parents wanted us to have the chance to go to the same school together," Koichi explained. "Although, Tommy may have to go to a different school since this is a high school, and he's only in middle school right now."
Takuya nodded. "Yeah, that does make sense for Tommy since he is younger than us."
The warning bell rang.
"We'll have to continue this conversation later," Koji said, now speaking English.
Takuya gave a nod and switched back to English as well. "Okay. I hope you two can find your next class by yourselves."
"Don't worry, we have plenty of people willing to help us out." Koichi smiled.
As if on cue, to Takuya's surprise, the Japanese twins were surrounded by girls, the popular girls.
"We'll show you the way to the next class, Koji~"
"You can stick with me, Koichi, I promise not to steer you wrong~"
Takuya blinked, taken surprised by Koji and Koichi's popularity with the ladies here.
Koichi looked a bit uneasy while Koji just gave off his 'whatever' air as a self-defense thing.
"Um… Sorry, but we just got here, and we don't want to be a bother to anyone." Koichi said as he held up his hands while a sweat-drop ran down the side of his head.
"Not interested." Koji remarked, looking like he didn't care.
This, however, only seemed to cause the girls to fawn over them more.
"Okay, what do they have that I don't have?" Tucker whined.
"Twins are all the rage these days," A blonde haired girl said.
Andy and Danny looked at her.
"Oh, sorry, I meant imported twins, and twins who are actually hot," The girl stated.
"That's harsh, Star," Andy grumbled.
Takuya smacked his face with his hand at hearing the blonde haired girl, Star's, words. Sometimes I wonder if the popular kids are really that shallow...
Danny and Andy were going down the hallway to put away their books and grab the ones they needed for the next class. Andy felt Dorimon wiggling around in his backpack.
"H-hey, you better not be eating anything in there, Dorimon. I told you to try to wait until lunch," Andy whispered.
"Dorimon is hungry?" Danny asked.
"I couldn't make toast…" Andy grumbled. "We also might need to buy another plate soon."
Danny blinked. "Wait… why do we need a new plate?"
"Dorimon ate one." Andy admitted. "He's a metal eater."
"... Wait, seriously?" Danny asked, surprised.
Before Andy could reply, Dorimon popped out of his backpack and was frowning. At the same time, a light blue and a red mist came out of Danny's mouth.
"Uh… wait, I thought your ghost sense was just light blue, why did a red mist come out?" Andy questioned, and was on high alert.
"I sense them… a ghost, and a Digimon nearby," Dorimon warned.
"I… I do too…" Danny realized. "And the mist thing is new to me too. I didn't even know I had a red ghost sense. It has always been blue, save for one time at the dance…"
"You had a red mist at the dance? That was when…" Andy frowned as he looked at Danny. "... Keep me posted on when you see that red mist again later. For now… Dorimon, where do you sense the ghost and the Digimon?"
"In there," Dorimon pointed with his little stubby foot at a nearby door, which was Penelope's office, their new student counselor.
Andy looked over, as did Danny. Andy frowned. "In the student counselor's office?"
"Yeah." Dorimon confirmed.
Danny and Andy opened the door just a crack in order to peek inside. They saw a formless blob neon green figure inside, the blob did appear to have arms and claw-like hands though, it had glowing red eyes and a mouth with sharp teeth. There was also some fog in the office. The blob ghost was smirking as, what appeared to be, another ghost coming out of the fog. This ghost was white, it looked more like a white sheet that was torn at the bottom, there were several holes and tatters at the bottom of the sheet-like ghost. Its eyes were covered by the black witch-like hat it wore on its head. And it had a mouth full of sharp teeth.
"Um… Is that a Digimon, bro?" Danny asked, pointing at the white ghost-like creature.
Dorimon's eyes flashed as he was looking at the white sheet-like ghost. Andy took out his D-Arc before a hologram of the ghost appeared.
"Yeah… apparently it is," Andy said before he began to read the information on the Digimon. "Soulmon is a Ghost Digimon. A Ghost Digimon constructed from a cursed virus program. It's a Champion level, and a Virus type."
Danny frowned at hearing that information from Andy. "So… Digimon can have different 'levels' and types? That's new to me." He then blinked. "Wait… a ghost Digimon? Can Digimon even become ghosts?"
The twins backed away from the door so they could talk easier. "I need to teach you more about Digimon later. But the quick version is Digimon do come in stages, or levels. Right now, Dorimon is at the In-Training stage, one of the weaker stages. When he becomes Dorumon, he 'digivolves' into the next stage, which is Rookie level. Champion level is after that, so that makes Soulmon a higher level than Dorumon. There are three attributes of Digimon, and they go kind of like in a rock-paper-scissors way. There are Virus, Vaccine, and Data attributes. Virus are strong against Data, Data are strong against Vaccine, and Vaccine are strong against Virus. There are also different species of Digimon, like beast, bird, dragon, humanoid, holy, insectoid, and ghost types."
Danny nodded. "Okay, so we're dealing with a Champion level, ghost type, virus attribute Digimon and a real ghost. Great… wait, what attribute is Dorimon?"
"He's Data," Andy answered.
"Heh… I'm not a great match up to this Soulmon…" Dorimon gulped.
"Well, remember, it's not about how strong you are. It's how you think to overcome your opponent." Andy reminded Dorimon.
"Why is that ghost smiling at that Soulmon?" Danny asked.
"Maybe that ghost summoned it," Andy guessed. "In any case, it would be dangerous if they decide to work together. We don't need another Vlad incident here."
Danny shivered at the memory of that fight. "Yeah… good idea."
Andy looked around them, seeing that there were other students walking in the hall. He then opened his locker and put Dorimon inside. "Try to digivolve in there, the light of your fractal code should be hidden inside the locker."
Dorimon nodded, but he didn't like it. "I just hope I don't get squished in here."
When Andy shut the locker door, Dorimon's fractal code came out and he digivolved into Dorumon. As soon as Dorumon came out, Danny suddenly jumped into the locker himself. Andy blinked, he was rather impressed that Danny could fit inside the locker like that. After Danny closed the door, there was a small bit of a flash of light before Danny phased out of the locker door in his ghost form.
"Come on, bro," Danny said to Andy.
Andy was thankful the other students were distracted with their own things to notice the sudden ghost boy floating in front of him and the fox creature standing beside him. Maybe I should've called Takuya for backup, I don't know if Danny, Dorumon, and I can handle this ghost and Digimon by ourselves.
Danny grabbed Andy and Dorumon, turning them all intangible and phasing them into the student counselor's office through the door.
As soon as the threesome were in the office, Danny set Andy and Dorumon down. Andy had out his D-Arc, and was ready to use a card if the need arose. The card in question was the one he had obtained from Devidramon when fighting against him and Vlad, the Red Eyes card.
The ghost hadn't noticed them coming in, he was grinning at the Soulmon floating before him.
"Good, good, with you helping me, this school will be-" The ghost began to say before he noticed Soulmon was looking behind him. "What is it?"
The ghost turned around and saw Danny, Andy, and Dorumon. The ghost glared at them.
"Come to interfere with me already, ghost boy?" The ghost hissed before looking at Andy. "And you…"
Andy raised an eyebrow, the ghost sounded like he had met Andy before, but Andy was sure he never saw the ghost before.
"What?" Andy asked.
The ghost shook its head as if trying to banish a thought before speaking. "I see you have one of those Digital Beings with you."
"And so do you," Dorumon said back. "Why would a ghost have a Digimon with them?"
"That's none of your business," The ghost answered. "Now you can either leave, or this could get ugly."
Danny glared. "You're the one invading our school, so we're going to drive you and your… Digimon friend out!"
Andy gave a look at the Soulmon and the blob ghost. He knew next to nothing about the blob ghost, save for it had the usual ghost powers, but the Soulmon was right up his alley, so to speak. "Danny, I can handle that Soulmon with Dorumon. Think you can handle the blob there?"
"Of course I can, bro." Danny smirked as his hands glowed with ecto energy.
"I'll make sure you three will regret this," The blob hissed. "Soulmon, attack!"
The Soulmon flew towards Andy and Dorumon.
Andy smirked as he saw that. Then, the card spun before Andy caught it in two fingers, looking up from the shadows. He then held the device over his head, the card slot facing down towards his head. He stuck the card's edge into the slot and dragged it through, the card being pulled towards the right side of his body and the device towards the left side of his body. "Digi-Modify!" Andy called out. He pulled the device and card apart from each other. "Devidramon's Red Eyes activate!"
Dorumon grinned as his eyes began to glow red as he glared at the incoming Soulmon. "Red Eyes!"
However, Soulmon didn't look to be affected by it, it kept moving.
"What? Why didn't it work?" Andy frowned.
"Dark Claw." Soulmon held out a black clawed hand from its sheet and grabbed onto Dorumon's neck.
"Dorumon!" Andy called out.
Danny tried to fly over to Dorumon, but the other ghost tackled him away.
"Ah-ah-ah, child, you're dealing with me," The ghost sneered.
Andy was panicking now. His initial strategy had backfired big time, and now he was worried about Dorumon. What can I do?! Wait! Maybe the Fridgimon card could help… If I can just get Dorumon to get free, we may have a chance still...
Andy then remembered that he had a way to fight back himself. He grabbed onto the Fenton Rod he kept in his pocket and extended it. While the Fenton Rod was designed to fight against ghosts, it could still pack a wallop on Digimon, especially ghost type Digimon since they shared many similarities with actual ghosts.
"Let go of Dorumon!" Andy shouted as he swung the Fenton Rod at Soulmon's face.
Soulmon let out a hiss as it let go of Dorumon and fell back.
Dorumon panted as he landed on his feet, giving Andy a grateful look. "Thanks."
Andy gave a smile back. "Of course, I wasn't going to let him hurt you."
Danny meanwhile, was fighting the blob ghost, trying to keep it away from Andy and Dorumon. "What's wrong? Got no game?" He quipped to the blob.
"Well, aren't you the clever one?" The blob retorted back.
The blob ghost fired his own ghost ray at Danny, pushing the ghost boy into a wall, slamming his back.
"Oof!" Danny fell down to his knees with that hit. "Okay… Maybe I should save the quips for a while." He rubbed his head a bit. With that, he got to his feet and fired off an ecto-ray again at the blob.
While Danny was handling the ghost, Soulmon flew in close to Andy and Dorumon.
"Ghost Chop." In a creepily dead tone, Soulmon began attacking the two of them with chops of its clawed hands.
Andy and Dorumon were trying to dodge or block each attack with their rod or claws. As they were dodging, Andy noticed something. With Soulmon being so close, he realized he couldn't even see the undead Digimon's eyes under the hat.
That's it! That's why the Red Eyes didn't work! Soulmon's eyes were blocked by the hat! He must be using his other senses to see where we are. Andy realized.
When the claws slammed into Andy's rod, Andy groaned as he managed to push the ghost Digimon back.
"Dorumon, try attacking Soulmon's hat," Andy instructed.
"Okay!" Dorumon faced Soulmon directly. "Metal Cannon!"
Dorumon shot out an iron ball at Soulmon, who quickly flew up, avoiding the attack. The iron ball ended up hitting a desk, breaking it.
"Uh-oh…" Andy sweatdropped. "We're so going to get in trouble for this…"
Soulmon smirked, and laughed. "Necro Magic." Before Andy and Dorumon, the Soulmon gathered energy into its clawed hands, but Andy swore he could hear faint cries from the energy, like it was not just ghostly Digital energy but… Before he could contemplate further, the energy was thrown at him and Dorumon, almost rushing around the two as they were pelted by small orbs of energy.
Andy felt nauseous by whatever this attack was, and he fell on his hands and feet. He groaned a bit as Dorumon stood in front of him, trying to protect him from the brunt of the attack, but Dorumon wasn't looking too good either. Andy frowned before he looked over at Danny, seeing that Danny was having trouble against the blob ghost. The sounds of the orbs of energy seem to be disrupting Danny's concentration.
Then Soulmon grabbed Dorumon again. "Energy Drain."
Dorumon's body glowed a dark aura, and his struggles started to slow down. Knowing that his partner was in trouble, and he felt too weak to help, he looked over at Danny. Gripping onto the Fenton Rod, Andy knew he was only going to have one shot at this.
The blob ghost was busy with Danny, and didn't notice what the other brother was about to do.
"Seriously kid, is this all you've got?" The ghost taunted after Danny used his hand to chop through the ghost's torso, only for the ghost to easily reconnect himself.
"No, I have a few other tricks!" Danny taunted back before he flipped over the blob and then blasted it in the back with an ecto-ray.
The blast hit the blob away. Angry now, the ghost launched himself towards Danny, but he didn't see the incoming Fenton Rod until it slammed into him. The ghost yelped in shock and pain as he splattered against the wall.
Danny blinked, he didn't expect that to happen.
"Danny! Help Dorumon!" Andy called from the ground.
Danny nodded and flew down towards the Soulmon. "Let my brother's partner go!" He fired off an ecto-ray towards Soulmon's face.
Soulmon hissed as it was forced to let go of Dorumon.
The ghost flew over to Soulmon and put a clawed hand on its back. Soulmon stopped for a moment as its body glowed green for a second.
The ghost gave a smirk before he and Soulmon suddenly flew up into the ceiling, disappearing.
Danny blinked as he stared at where the two had gone. "Where did they go?" He had not been expecting a retreat like that.
Dorumon groaned, feeling weak from the Energy Drain, and he degenerated back into Dorimon. Andy pushed himself up before he stumbled over to Dorimon and picked him up.
"You okay…?" Andy asked in concern.
"Tired…" Dorimon answered weakly.
Danny flew down and landed, turning back to his human form. "Did that Soulmon thing do something to him?"
"He drained Dorumon's energy," Andy replied. "I should've been more careful. But I didn't expect it to use something that would weaken both of us."
Danny frowned. "You couldn't have known that would happen, bro. Besides, it was as you mentioned; the Soulmon was a Champion level. You just need to get stronger."
"We've taken on Digimon stronger than one Champion level before," Andy said. "... I don't know, I think the battle with Vlad, and what happened in the Ghost Zone still has me a bit shaken up."
Before Danny could reply to that, the door suddenly opened. Mr. Lancer and Jazz stood there, looking at the destroyed office in shock, before looking at the two boys. Andy and Danny froze, realizing what it looked like to them.
"We're dead…" Andy frowned.
"Oh boy…" Danny muttered as he felt nervousness cross his face.
Mr. Lancer suddenly grabbed both Danny and Andy's shirt and pulled them towards him.
Takuya yawned a bit, he felt like he hadn't been getting enough sleep lately. What with his senses constantly waking him up due to ghosts or Digimon in the middle of the night. He was sitting at the lunch table, but he noticed that his cousins weren't here with him. Tucker and Sam were standing in line of the serving line, but Takuya didn't see Danny or Andy anywhere in the cafeteria.
That's odd. Where are Andy and Danny? Takuya wondered. It's not like them to be late for lunch.
"Hey, Takuya!" Takuya perked up at hearing Koichi's voice. "Do you mind if Koji and I sit here with you?"
Takuya smiled. "Not at all!" He waved the Yin-Yang twins over.
Koichi and Koji smiled at the invite before they set down their lunch boxes. They had brought their own lunches to school.
"So, how are you liking Casper High?" Takuya asked as he looked at the Yin-Yang twins.
"It's okay, it would be better if we didn't keep getting surrounded by shallow girls," Koji muttered. "Especially that Paulina girl. I can already tell she just wants both of us just to up her status more."
Takuya grimaced at that. "Yeah… that sounds just like her…" He then sighed. "I can't tell you how many times she has insulted my cousins just because they are not popular."
"Speaking of your cousins, they were the other twins we saw in class, right? We haven't had a chance to talk to them yet," Koichi replied. "We were hoping to get to know them more during lunch."
"But where are they? We thought they would sit with you," Koji asked, looking around.
"I was wondering that too." Takuya admitted. "It's not like them to miss lunch. Especially since Andy has Dorimon as his partner, and the little guy likes to eat…" He added this in a whisper to Koji and Koichi.
"Most Digimon like to eat, at least the ones we've met," Koji remarked.
"Hmm… you don't think they might've gotten into trouble, do you?" Koichi asked. "Digimon battles can leave quite the destructive mess after all."
Takuya perked up when Koichi mentioned that. "I hope not… Although… I haven't sensed any Digimon or ghosts today so far, so I don't know if they have run into trouble or not."
"Takuya?"
Takuya looked up to see Tucker and Sam had come over to his table. They usually sat with him, Danny, and Andy lately after Danny had told Andy his secret. Despite Takuya not knowing Danny's secret, Andy had been stubborn enough to make sure his cousin was included with them.
"Hey, Sam, Tucker." Takuya greeted with a wave. "What's going on?"
"Nothing, we're just a bit surprised to see the new students were sitting here," Tucker answered.
Sam looked at the two before giving a smile. "I believe we haven't introduced ourselves yet. I'm Sam Manson, and this is a friend of mine, Tucker Foley."
"Hi, nice to meet you," Tucker greeted.
Koichi gave a grin back. "It's nice to meet you too."
Koji just gave a grunt of acknowledgement, but he did nod at Sam and Tucker to show he had heard them and was responding.
"They're actually friends of mine," Takuya said to Tucker and Sam. "Friends from Japan. Koji, Koichi, these two are friends of mine here, in America."
Koji nodded as Koichi gave another grin.
"A friend of Takuya's is a friend of ours." Koichi said with a warm smile.
Tucker and Sam sat down next to Takuya.
"So what do you guys do in Japan?" Sam asked with interest. "I actually grow some plants imported from Japan in my personal Greenhouse."
"That's cool," Koichi said. "And Koji here does Kendo while I am more the one who likes to cook."
"Do you guys have any cool technology over there that we don't here?" Tucker asked.
"Tucker is very enthusiastic about technology," Takuya chuckled.
Koji looked at Tucker with a deadpan look before he sighed. "It's kind of hard to miss that enthusiasm."
Koichi smiled. "As for what we have in Japan technology-wise, we do have more advanced computers, like small ones. You could call them laptops here."
Tucker gave a big smile at that. "Please, tell me more~"
Sam rolled her eyes at her geeky friend.
Takuya was just happy that his American friends seemed to be getting along with his Japan friends.
Koichi suddenly looked a bit uncomfortable. "Um…" He looked at Koji and Takuya for some help.
"Don't mind him," Sam spoke up, seeing Koichi's unease. "He's harmless."
"Sure…" Koichi muttered. "He sure loves anything with technology, doesn't he?"
"Hey, I do have other interests," Tucker spoke up. "For example, did you know that the meat in this school is-"
"Tucker! They don't need to know that!" Sam hissed. "Where are Danny and Andy? They should've been here by now."
Takuya had never been so grateful to Sam's timely topic change. "Actually, Koji, Koichi and I were wondering the same thing. It's not like Andy and Danny to be this late."
Tucker frowned for a moment, he and Sam both getting the same idea.
"We'll be right back," Tucker said before he and Sam stood up and hurried out of the cafeteria.
Takuya, Koji, and Koichi looked at each other in confusion.
"What was that about?" Koji asked.
"I don't know, but I'm beginning to think we should go and find out ourselves." Takuya said as he began to stand up himself.
Takuya, Koji, and Koichi didn't see a certain brown and pink rabbit creature that was standing in the shadows, watching them carefully.
The humans are here… The Warriors are here… maybe they can help me. Lopmon thought to himself as he was about to approach them. But…
Lopmon had images going through his head, images of Takuya and Koji Unified Spirit Evolved in order to take him down. What if they think I'm evil again? What if they attack me before I get a chance to explain? Gargomon did the same thing, and he was one of my most loyal soldiers. These kids have no reason to trust me.
With a discouraged frown, Lopmon slinked off into the shadows, trying to find a safer place.
Takuya, Koji, and Koichi stood up and began to head out of the cafeteria themselves, hoping to find Andy and Danny before things got too hairy.
Why… why… why are we here? Andy inwardly groaned.
Andy was freezing his butt off in the destroyed office of Penelope Spectra. Mr. Lancer had held him and Danny until Penelope came into the office herself. Jazz was sitting on a chair while Penelope was giving a creepy cheery smile. Dorimon was shivering in Andy's arms. Danny didn't seem as bothered by the cold as Andy did though, but Danny looked more annoyed than Andy did.
"Is it always so cold in this room?" Jazz asked as she shivered a bit. It didn't make much sense to her that the office was so cold.
"Of course~" Penelope smiled as she turned up the AC. "I always find that cold temperature keeps the mind icy sharp."
Andy noticed that a blue mist came out of Danny's mouth, and was almost on high alert until he noticed the same blue mist came out of his own mouth… and Jazz's… and Mr. Lancer… and Penelope. Must just be because it's so cold here that we can see our own breath. Funny though, I didn't think our breaths would look like Danny's ghost sense.
Penelope then corrected a picture so it was no longer leaning over to one side and sat down in her broken desk, picking up the iron ball Dorumon shot out earlier. "And don't worry about this mess of an office. Stuff happens, right Jasmine?"
"It's just Jazz, please, everyone calls me Jazz," Jazz corrected.
"Yeah? Well, your brother calls you 'fink'!" Danny shot back at Jazz. He was mad that a ghost and Digimon had slipped away, not to mention Andy and Dorimon had almost been hurt badly.
"Hmm…? What's… 'fink'?" Dorimon whispered to Andy.
"Fink is a slang term for calling someone a snitch, a tattle tell," Andy answered back in a whisper.
"Oh… is that why Danny is mad at her?" Dorimon asked in concern.
"He's probably mad that Jazz had been talking to Mr. Lancer about us behind our backs," Andy guessed.
"C'mon, Danny. I'm just trying to help you and Andy." Jazz said in concern. "We used to talk all the time."
"Yeah, when we were 8 and you weren't such a fink!" Danny retorted, his tone filled with anger.
"Danny, cool yourself," Andy spoke up, frowning. "I know that you're annoyed at what Jazz did, but she is worried about you." And not that long ago, I was exactly in her shoes.
Danny sighed. "Sorry, bro. I'm just under a lot of stress lately."
Andy looked over at Mr. Lancer. "What's our punishment, Mr. Lancer?"
Mr. Lancer gave a small sigh, he had been expecting to calmly tell the brothers to get to class, but it would seem that was unnecessary now. "Ms. Spectra and I will need some time to discuss your boys' punishment. You two go ahead and get to class for the time being."
"Yes, Mr. Lancer," Andy bowed his head before turning to Danny. "Come on, bro."
Danny gave one last glance at Jazz, looking somewhat moody before he followed Andy out of the office.
Jazz couldn't help but sigh, while she had good intentions, she understood why Danny was upset with her. Andy was being more understanding about this, but Jazz knew Andy wasn't any happier about what she did himself. She saw him clutching to that 'plushy' in his arms, and she was still unsure if it was actually alive or not.
There had been a few moments Jazz swore Andy had been whispering to his 'plushy', but she didn't pay much attention to it at first, figuring Andy was thinking it to be something he could just vent to, but now she was not so sure. It seemed odd that the 'plushy' would move when Andy whispered to it.
"Jazz here is one of Casper High's brightest and most promising students," Mr. Lancer stated with a proud smile. "Her brothers also have some pretty good grades themselves, but they don't seem to share Jazz's talent for school."
Jazz looked back at Mr. Lancer, unsure if she should be smiling at the praise or just acting humble about it. True, she was smart, but Danny and Andy could be too when they put their minds to it.
"Jazz here will be giving the keynote pep speech at our centennial spiritathon on Friday," Mr. Lancer informed, still giving a proud smile.
Jazz just smiled at the praise, because it was true. She figured a bit of pride wouldn't hurt.
Penelope gave a big smile at that. "Right on! And that's why I'm here, of course. I love pumping up the spirit."
Penelope then showed the pictures on her wall, to which made Jazz raise an eyebrow. The pictures were of Penelope with some teens, but the teens looked sick, miserable, depressed even.
That sent some worry through Jazz. Why are those kids miserable in those pictures? It was alarming to her, and she was not even a psychologist herself! Well, not yet anyways.
"Jazz, Ms. Spectra is a highly renowned and respected teen psychologist and motivational speaker. She's also agreed to help pump up the volume, so to speak, on that old Casper High Spirit Week," Mr. Lancer informed.
Jazz noticed something moving in the corner of her eye. Blinking, she turned her head to a bookcase that was, surprisingly, still intact, she still didn't know how her brothers could destroy an entire office. She saw what looked like a strange looking rabbit creature, looking back at her with intelligent and curious eyes.
Jazz blinked, surprised at what she was seeing. Hold on… What is that? She was so caught up in her thoughts and what she was seeing she didn't even pay attention to Penelope introducing someone else.
Jazz vaguely noticed a short man wearing a suit, he was holding a picture that had some kind of dominos that spelled out 'Casper Spirit'. Jazz heard Penelope call him 'Bertrand', and then went on talking about her idea of using the domino's effects to show how a student's spirit could affect the other they touched, or something like that. Jazz was more interested in the strange rabbit though.
The rabbit itself was looking at Jazz, then it looked over at Bertrand and Penelope for a moment and shivered. The rabbit didn't seem to like them for whatever reason.
Jazz wondered if the rabbit creature was disturbed by how Bertrand and Penelope were acting, but that was just weird to her. Unless the idea animals can pick up human emotions holds some validity… but I'm not sure if this is an ordinary animal. What kind of rabbit has three horns on its head? I wonder… if this rabbit is like that plushy Andy is holding...
"And the spirit sparklers go off after that, right?" Mr. Lancer asked in a bit of a worried tone.
"Of course!" Penelope said as she stood up on her desk. "After all, what is Spirit week without Spirit Sparklers?"
Penelope held out a couple of sticks that had sparklers going off.
Jazz frowned a bit as she debated with herself on what to do. She is a renowned teen psychologist… but I don't know, she kind of creeps me out, and that… rabbit creature doesn't seem to like her either. Would having her talk to my brothers be a good idea?
"I can have your brothers talk to her," Mr. Lancer spoke up to Jazz. "You did bring up some good points about their repressed frustration, especially if they trashed the office over a possible argument that got out of hand. Besides, it might be the best way to punish them as well as help them."
What Mr. Lancer said did make sense to Jazz, if nothing else, she could try it and see if it would help her brothers.
"Maybe…" Jazz said, still sounding a bit unsure. "But I doubt Danny would listen to me right now."
"But he will listen to me." Mr. Lancer said in a serious tone.
Jazz looked back at the rabbit creature, but frowned when she saw it wasn't there anymore. What was that?
Titanic X: ZAFT: Misunderstandings can be fun if done right. ;3
Luna Lillyth: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, they're trying to keep their secrets while almost slipping up on them at the same time.
ZAFT: It can be quite funny and interesting. :)
GirlFish: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, it's the first time Danny meets Walker. And yes, it's very likely Walker will try to frame Danny again later. As for if he would do that to Takuya… we haven't talked about it yet, but it's likely to happen.
ZAFT: As for Freakshow, we have yet to get to that, so we will see what happens. ;)
DarkFoxKit: I don't know if Freakshow is capable of controlling Digimon, but as ZAFT said, we will see when we get there. As for how ghosts know about Digimon… I'll let ZAFT answer that one. It was originally their idea after all.
ZAFT: It's because human data leaked into the Ghost Zone. The data mixed with ectoplasm and lost most of its ghostly qualities, save for being formless. As the data is normally invisible with no physical form, the ectoplasm gives it that form upon fusing with it. But the ectoplasm is now more… shall we say… alive due to the data coming from the human world. The lack of a fixed physical form for ectoplasm, which is normally just a gooey substance, basically allows Digimon to take many forms, including the talking rocks known as Gotsumon. The Ghost Zone became cut off from the human world when this zone, known as the Digital World, formed, and sometimes Ghosts and Digimon would come across one another, so that is how ghosts know of Digimon. Sorry if this got a bit long… ^^'
DarkFoxKit: Explanations can get long. I don't think they would mind it though.
ZAFT: Good point.