DarkFoxKit: It's another hot, hot day where I am. How's it looking for you, ZAFT?
ZAFT: Muggy and hot, but not too bad. :P
Andy: Uuugh, I hate hot days.
Takuya: I don't see what the problem is. I think it's refreshing.
Andy: Says the pyro maniac.
ZAFT: No arguing you two. I don't want to experience a fire fight between you two. ^^'
Andy: Did you mean that literally? Because I'm not half ghost, so I don't have a fire c-
DarkFoxKit: Upupup! No spoilers, Andy! You're not supposed to know about that either.
ZAFT: I meant figuratively… ^^'
Takuya: Well choose your words a little more carefully, because that was a nice hot pun.
Andy: No it wasn't, and you just said that for the sake of saying a fire pun!
ZAFT: Should we get to the chapter before these two burn the A/Ns? ^^'
DarkFoxKit: Yes, let's. I'm going to go get a fire extinguisher just to be safe though.
Chapter 24: Who Let the Dogs Out?
Gargomon found himself bowing to a very angry goat-like Digimon with bat-like wings.
"Tell me, Gargomon, what good are you if you couldn't even hunt down Cherubimon while he was trapped in his weaker, Rookie form?" The goat-like Digimon growled.
"I apologize, Mephistomon, but Cherubimon had escaped into a school while the sun was rising. I couldn't go in there without being exposed," Gargomon quickly apologized.
Mephistomon raised a hand in anger and smacked Gargomon across the face, sending the Champion-level Digimon to the ground. "SILENCE!"
Gargomon whimpered as he tried not to move around too much.
"Cherubimon is a menace to all, as you know! If he is allowed to roam free, then everything and everyone will be corrupted just like before!" Mephistomon snapped.
"I-I understand, Mephistomon, but we weren't allowed to be seen by humans, it would cause a mass wide panic!" Gargomon quickly said.
"That will not matter if Cherubimon manages to get his hands on the Legendary Warriors! He could corrupt their power to his side and then no one would be safe!" Mephistomon countered.
"B-but what can I do? I can't move around much in the city of humans like this!" Gargomon explained.
Mephistomon growled before taking a deep breath to calm himself. "Yes, you are right. It is important that humans have as little exposure to Digimon as possible. It would be dangerous if our existence is discovered. You may don on a human disguise while you look for Cherubimon. But if you fail again, I will degenerate you, and send you back to the Crater."
Gargomon shivered with fear at those words, and bowed his head. "I promise I won't fail you this time, Mephistomon." But how will I disguise myself as a human?
"See to it that you don't," Mephistomon hissed, before there was a little chime that wrung throughout the room. "My partner is calling me. Get out, and get back to Amity Park."
Fractal data formed around Mephistomon before it got much, much smaller, smaller than Gargomon even, before the data dispersed, revealing Tsukaimon.
"I won't tolerate failure again," Tsukiamon warned before he flew away, leaving the now very worried gun rabbit alone.
Gargomon looked down, unsure of what to actually do, or where to begin his search.
At Casper High
Danny found himself running away from a very angry jock, who got a D on his spelling test. It wasn't Dash, surprisingly enough, but it was Calvin.
"I'm gonna take this D I got on our spelling test out on your hide, Fenton #1!" Calvin yelled as he ran after Danny.
"Why does every jock who fails decides to come after me!? Do I have some kind of neon sign on my back that only jocks can see whenever they get angry!?" Danny groaned as he kept running.
Calvin just let out an angry shout as he continued to chase Danny.
Danny turned around a corner, darting past Andy and Takuya who were coming from another class. The two of them blinked in surprise when they saw a white and blue blur running past them, and not that far behind was Calvin, who was roaring louder than any Digimon they've ever heard.
Andy and Takuya looked at each other, their eyes wide, before they started running after Calvin and Danny to try to stop the inevitable beat up Calvin was sure to do as soon as he caught Danny.
However, as Danny was running, he missed the 'wet floor' sign he was passing by, and he was coming up to a small group of popular kids. Paulina was drinking hot chocolate she got from the school cafeteria, standing beside Kwan. Valerie approached them with a proud smile on her face, wearing a new purple blouse.
"Hey Valerie. Like, I so like that top you're wearing," Paulina complimented before sipping up her hot chocolate.
"Isn't it sweet? $579 dollars and worth every one of my dad's pennies." Valerie replied with pride.
Just then, Danny turned the corner, and saw he was about to run into them. He quickly tried to stop, but the floor was wet, freshly mopped by the janitor earlier, and thus, Danny was unable to stop right away as his feet slid across the floor until he all but crashed into Paulina, who let out a yelp as she accidentally let go of the cup she was holding. The cup's lid came loose before it splattered all over Valerie's face and blouse.
Valerie gave a shout of anger before she looked at Kwan with anger in her eyes. "Please hurt him, Popular Boy, for me!"
"Hey, it was just an accident." Kwan said, but then when Valerie pulled his shirt so she could glare into his eyes, he relented. "Alright, alright!"
Kwan looked over at Danny, slightly apologetic, but knowing he had to do this, Danny quickly began running back the way he came while Kwan called out. "FENTON NUMBER ONE!"
Danny now found himself sandwiched between Kwan and Calvin.
Calvin was about to pounce Danny as Danny stopped, knowing he had nowhere to go. He could use his ghost powers, but he was too close to both jocks, they were certain to see something if he tried to escape with his ghost powers now.
Suddenly a purple and white ball was thrown at Calvin's head. Though Calvin couldn't see it, something purple and furry covered up his face, making Calvin panic and squeal like a girl.
"AHHH! SOMETHING'S ON MY FACE! GET IT OFF BEFORE IT LAYS EGGS IN MY LUNGS!" Calvin screamed and jumped around.
As Calvin ran around, a leg stuck out from the next hallway over and Calvin wound up tripping to the ground, the furry ball rolling off of the jock's face and away from the now dizzy Calvin.
Kwan was staring in shock at the fallen Calvin, which distracted him enough for Danny to see Andy down the hallway, waving his arms, gesturing for him to follow him.
Danny took the chance and ran down towards Andy's location. The furry ball rolled along beside him, making Danny wonder if that was Dorimon. When Danny got close to Andy, Andy kept gesturing for him to follow. Danny followed Andy, with the furry ball bouncing after them, outside of the school. Both brothers, and the ball, headed towards the back of the school.
"Okay, we should be safe here until the heat dies down a little," Andy concluded. "Good work, Dorimon~"
The furry ball popped out a face, ears, and legs, giving a proud smile. "That was fun, let's do it again some time!"
Danny looked at Dorimon. "Um… Okay? Did you throw Dorimon onto Calvin's face, bro?"
"Yeah, I had a clear aim since he was just running straight towards you," Andy answered. "And Dorimon had some… face sticking experience before."
Danny blinked. "Do I want to know about that?"
"... No," Andy shortly answered.
"Heh… let's just say it was how I showed affection before I could talk," Dorimon blushed.
Then suddenly, a blue mist came out of Danny's mouth, and Dorimon turned his head, glaring at something. Andy was quickly on alert, knowing these signs meant a ghost was nearby.
Looking around, Danny was ready to turn into his ghost form when he looked down and saw what looked like a little puppy, except this puppy was glowing green with red irises. Its tail looked wispy, and its tongue was purple instead of pink or red.
Danny, Andy, and Dorimon blinked at the strange little puppy ghost. Andy noticed that the ghost pup had a collar around its neck, a black spiked collar, and a metallic tag with what appeared to be a neon blue capitalized letter 'A', there appeared to be electrons around the 'A'. Andy squinted his eyes, he felt like he saw that kind of 'A' somewhere before.
Danny smiled and reached down, picking up the puppy ghost. "It's like Calvin, but with better breath." He smiled as the puppy licked his face happily.
"Hold on, two things, one, did you just call Calvin a dog? And two, why the heck did you pick it up?" Andy deadpanned.
"Well, Calvin charged at me like a pitbull for one, and two, this ghost is harmless." Danny said in a reassuring tone to Andy.
"Really… to me it sounded like Calvin was trying to imitate the T-Rex from the movie. And it's a ghost, Danny, they're never harmless!" Andy hissed as Danny put the puppy down.
Dorimon was looking at the ghost pup himself, feeling on edge.
"This is something I can handle easily, bro." Danny said confidently as the puppy ghost started to glow, before growing to a giant size, and Danny then realized what he had just said. "Or… maybe not…"
"I hate my life," Andy groaned.
Takuya hoped that the brothers managed to get away. He was to step in and try to redirect Calvin and Kwan after Andy and Dorimon managed to get Danny out of the building.
"Where is Fenton?" Kwan asked.
Calvin was rubbing his face. "And what hit me!? Whoever did that is going to pay!"
Takuya looked at the two jocks. "I have no idea where Danny went, and as to what hit you Calvin, I have no idea." Oh, I know alright. It's just I'm not saying what it was. It was funny too~
"You're useless, Kanbara!" Calvin snapped before shoving Takuya aside to storm off.
Kwan sighed in relief at not having to beat Danny up over a girl's clothes.
Takuya looked on as Calvin stormed off before glancing at Kwan. "You seem relieved, Kwan."
"No, I just didn't feel like chasing after Fenton," Kwan quickly covered. "Don't mention it!"
Kwan then walked away, trying to retain his tough guy act.
"What was all that about?" Takuya heard Koji asking from nearby.
Takuya looked back at the Warrior of Light and sighed. "Someone wanted to beat up my cousin Danny because of a bad grade, then someone else wanted Kwan, who just walked off, to beat up Danny for another reason, but I don't know what that reason is."
"Does your cousin always get targeted by bullies?" Koji asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Pretty much." Takuya admitted.
"Why? Did he do something to get on their bad side?" Koji asked.
"Not that I'm aware of," Takuya sighed. "Andy just told me that he and Danny are the lowest when it comes to the 'popularity scale' of the school, so the jocks tend to go after them."
Koji rolled his eyes. "Seriously? That's the reason? And the school staff is allowing this?"
"They… more or less, turn a blind eye to it," Takuya sheepishly replied.
Koji frowned at hearing that. "Why is that?"
"Something to do with the popular kids and funding." Takuya replied as he rubbed the back of his head. "I'm not really sure how it works, but that's the reasoning Mr. Lancer told us before."
"That's stupid," Koji said. "School is supposed to be a place for kids to learn, not be harassed on a daily basis just because their parents aren't funding the school. Someone really needs to do something about this."
"Believe me, I would have tried, but here, we are just students, kids who don't know much of anything and our words go unheeded." Takuya admitted. "I don't like it anymore than you do, but we just have to find a way to deal with it for now."
"Yeah, well, there's always petitions, I guess… not that those ever go anywhere," Koji grumbled. "Shouldn't you go check your cousins?"
Takuya gave a thoughtful nod. "Yeah, I'd better before something else happens. Knowing them, trouble always seems to find them."
Takuya hurried off to find his cousins. Koji, however, began to walk down the hall, before he spotted another fellow student, who was also Takuya's cousin. Jasmine Fenton, if Koji remembered right.
Though it wasn't Jasmine herself who caught Koji's attention, but rather the 'stuffed animal' she had in her backpack. He could see the ears poking out.
Hold on… Why would Jasmine have a stuffed animal with her? Koji wondered, deciding to follow her and see what was up.
School was already over for the day, so most of the students were heading home. Jazz often stayed in school longer for extracurricular activities. However, Jazz wasn't going to any clubs at the moment, she was going into an empty classroom.
Surprised at this, Koji went towards the empty classroom, opening the door slightly. His eyes widened when he saw Jazz taking her 'stuffed animal' out of her backpack, and gave it some kind of granola bar.
Koji watched as the 'toy' took the food and began to nibble on the granola bar. Wait… Is that a Digimon?! The thought was not impossible, but as far as Koji knew, there was only one Digimon partner here and that was Andy's. Since when did Jazz here get a Digimon partner?
"Once we get home, I can get you some better food," Jazz said to the Digimon.
"Thanks. This will hold me over until then," The Digimon answered back.
Though the voice was different, it sounded familiar to Koji.
Where have I heard that voice before? Koji wondered with a slight frown on his face. I know it sounds familiar, but why?
Valerie liked to think she wasn't super spoiled like Paulina. She wasn't going to deny that she was pretty spoiled. Her dad was a high up employee for Axion Labs, the owner seemed to favor him as their security system operator. Because of this, he got paid quite handsomely. While Valerie didn't always go showing off her father's wealth in school, there were times she wanted to pick something nice up for herself, like the blouse she saw at the mall the other day, and was hoping to get a little bit higher in the popular rank with it. Paulina looked like she liked it, and Valerie was excited.
That was, until that Fenton kid came and ruined it for her. Valerie sighed, she knew she was a bit harsh on Fenton, he is, after all, Andy's brother, and while Andy was the one who spent time to talk to her, she knew Danny can be as nice as Andy was, even if he was a little shy with talking to someone like her. But in a bout of anger, Valerie just couldn't resist sending Kwan after him for ruining the expensive blouse she just bought, and was about to climb higher in the popular ranks.
I'm sure Fenton will be fine, he's used to this, right? Valerie thought to herself, trying to ease her guilt a little as she was sitting on her chair, not able to focus on her homework.
"Valerie," Damon, Valerie's dad, spoke up. "Hey, sweetheart, had a rough day at school? I see you got a nasty stain on that new blouse you bought yesterday."
Valerie sighed. "Don't remind me…"
"Hey, why don't you come with me to tour the lab? I'm about to show off my hard work to the boss." Damon said with a smile. "It might cheer you up."
Valerie looked back at her homework, seeing how she really couldn't muster up the motivation or concentration to deal with it right now. "Yeah, I guess having some time away from school and homework would be good for me."
Damon smiled. "Great, get ready to go, we leave in a few minutes." He turned to leave, but not before he gave Valerie a warm smile. "I just want my baby girl to be happy again, not this sad mess you are now. If my boss is impressed with the new security system I came up with, I might be able to get you something to replace that blouse of yours."
"Thanks, Dad, you're the best." Valerie smiled.
So now, Valerie found herself walking down a very impressive hallway in the Axion Labs. Damon's boss was walking beside him while Damon went on, telling his boss what he came up with for their newest security system for Axion Labs. Valerie couldn't help but feel a little out of place when she looked at the two, tall, buff, uniform wearing guards behind her.
But Valerie was relieved, from the sound of it, Damon's boss was impressed.
"Well done, Damon, you can feel free to bill me the remainder of your fee," The boss said.
Valerie smiled. Which means, I can replace this blouse. The day started out rocky, but now I can find something better than this blouse!
Unfortunately for Valerie, things were about to get worse for her, much worse.
Outside the Axion Labs
"For a big dog, this thing is hard to hit!" Andy groaned.
Andy was currently riding on Dorugamon's back, since they had to chase a flying enemy across the skies. He didn't want to remain grounded or behind, and he didn't want to burden Danny by carrying him, so riding on Dorugamon was the best option to keep up with Danny and the big ghost dog.
"You're telling me!" Dorugamon grumbled. "I'm the one who has to shoot at it, aside from your brother of course." Sure enough, three of his Cannonball attacks had either missed, or had gone through the ghost dog when it went intangible.
"I really need to get a longer range weapon better than this tiny wrist gun." Andy frowned.
The wrist gun wasn't all that useful since it could only fire a weak, small beam of ecto energy, it wasn't very long range either. Andy's only other weapons were ecto grenades, that would very easily miss in a chase like this one, and the Fenton Rod, which was a combat melee weapon. Andy also couldn't add in codes to Dorugamon's Cannonballs while he was riding on him in the air.
"Maybe we could try cutting off the ghost dog." Dorugamon suggested. "Besides long range attacks lacking, we are still faster than the ghost dog, so we could try and herd it towards your brother so he can blast it."
"Yeah, let's try that," Andy agreed before he raised up his voice to call over to Danny. "DANNY!"
Danny blinked, stopping his ghost rays when he heard Andy calling to him. Danny flew closer to Dorugamon. "Yeah!?"
We really need a better way to communicate when we're flying. Andy thoughtfully decided. "Dorugamon and I will try to fly on ahead to cut off the ghost dog's route, we'll see if we can herd it back towards you!"
Danny blinked before nodding. "That sounds like a good idea! Let's try it!"
"Let's go, Dorugamon!" Andy shouted.
"On it!" Dorugamon began to fly ahead, almost making a whistling sound, but not quite.
The ghost dog kept running through the air, seeming to be heading somewhere. Dorugamon flew faster over the dog's head. Andy noticed a large, high tech looking building not that far in the distance. Is the dog heading there?
When Dorugamon was now ahead of the ghost dog, he flew down to try to stop the ghost dog head on. The ghost dog slammed into a tackle, Dorugamon holding it back. Danny flew in close, ready to use the Fenton Thermos to catch the dog in, however, the ghost dog suddenly turned intangible and flew right through Dorugamon and Andy, both of them were shivering from the sudden intangible ghost passing through them.
"Okay… That is disturbing!" Dorugamon exclaimed once the feeling had passed.
"Ugh! I can't believe I didn't take something as obvious as intangibility into account!" Andy groaned, facepalming himself.
"I forgot about it too, you know!" Dorugamon deadpanned.
"Nevermind that! The dog is getting away!" Danny called out, flying past them.
Dorugamon quickly flew after Danny.
But they were getting too close to the Axion Labs. "Wait! Stop!" Andy called out.
Dorugamon landed, and Danny stopped as well, floating down towards them. "What's wrong?"
Andy frowned when he saw the ghost dog had phased itself into the Axion Labs. "Dorugamon and I can't go in there. Too much security and strong walls. And it's also dangerous, there's a lot of high tech experiments going on in there."
Danny frowned upon hearing that. "Yeah, that is a problem…"
"You're not thinking about going in there alone, are you?" Andy asked in concern.
"I have to, bro, that dog is in there and it could be causing all sorts of chaos, and might even put people's lives in danger," Danny pointed out.
"You could put yourself at danger if you go in there," Andy argued.
"Yeah, I know, but I'm also the only one who can, bro." Danny pointed out. "Besides, of the two of us, I have the best chance of getting at that ghost dog right now."
Andy frowned. "But-"
"I'll be back soon, okay? You and Dorugamon just wait out here in case the dog comes back out," Danny stated before he turned intangible and flew through the walls, going into the Axion Labs before Andy could argue.
"... That heroic idiot…" Andy frowned.
"He has a point though." Dorugamon said. "I hate to admit it, but Danny is the only one who can chase down that ghost dog. I'm a giant fox-like dragon. I would probably set off that security. Danny, as a half-ghost, won't."
Andy sighed, rubbing his head a little, feeling a little dizzy all of a sudden. Dorugamon noticed Andy wobbling a little.
"Andy? Are you okay?" Dorugamon asked in concern.
Andy suddenly saw an image of someone wearing a red suit, and a mask covering their face, they were riding on a metallic hoverboard, and were shooting some kind of gun at Danny and the ghost dog.
Andy shook his head for a moment, the images disappearing. "Y-yeah… I'm okay." What was that?
"Are you sure? You looked dizzy for a moment." Dorugamon said as he looked at Andy's face, concern showing in his yellow eyes.
"Yeah… I guess I'm just not used to high speed flying chases yet," Andy answered, trying to assure his partner.
Dorugamon frowned, but he didn't press the issue. "Okay…"
Danny liked animals, he also liked Digimon, at least the ones that didn't attack him or his family. He even wanted a puppy at one point. But now, Danny hated this dog. It kept loudly shouting random words, like, "Toy!" "Where is my toy!" "I want to play!" "Give me my toy back!" "Fetch toy!"
Danny managed to find the ghost dog as it was sniffing around the lab. "Hey, you're not supposed to be in here, boy!"
The ghost dog gave a snarl to Danny. "TOY!" To others, it might have sounded like a bark, but to Danny, he heard words instead.
Not that hearing words made much of a difference, Danny couldn't understand what this ghost dog was trying to do. The ghost dog then tackled Danny, which caused Danny to fall towards a closed door. Danny activated his intangibility before falling through the steel door, before his intangibility dropped and he hit the ground instead. Danny was surprised to see people, and they were looking down at him in surprise and confusion. Two buff looking uniformed guards, a middle aged man who looked half bald, wearing glasses, and a fancy suit, a dark skinned younger looking man wearing a normal suit, and a familiar teenage girl with a stained blouse were staring at him.
It was the girl who spoke up. "What are you!?"
Before Danny could answer, the ghost dog stepped up, before shaking its head and sending ecto-goop everywhere, even on the assembled humans.
Trying to lighten things up a little, Danny stood up and answered Valerie's question. "I'll tell you what I'm not; coated in dog saliva."
This made Valerie scream out in anger.
Okay, maybe not the best time for jokes… Danny realized.
The ghost dog lunged at the two teenagers, forcing Danny to shove Valerie aside before chasing after the dog himself. "No...bad dog! Get back here!"
"Toy must be close! Must keep looking!" The ghost dog shouted as it turned intangible, heading straight for another sealed door.
Seeing this, Danny turned intangible himself, before both ghosts phased through the door. The dog just came into the room, and was already wrecking havoc. The dog was pouncing on the people's chair, pushing them out of it, grabbing onto a skeleton model that was hanging on some lockers, pulling it and causing the lockers to fall over, which in turn, caused a domino effect and slammed into other things, which slammed into another thing. Thankfully, the people were fast enough to get away before being crushed.
Danny jumped onto the ghost dog's neck, clinging to the collar it wore. But the attempt to slow it down did nothing to stop the dog's rampage.
"Slow down! You're causing a lot of trouble!" Danny shouted, trying to get the ghost dog to stop.
"Fetch! Must fetch!" The ghost dog shouted.
"Fetch what?! Fetch what?!" Danny demanded. "Slow down!"
"Halt! HALT!" Danny heard someone shouting, not that he could turn to see who was yelling at them to 'halt'.
Trust me, I wish I could halt! Danny groaned.
Then red lasers were being fired at them, though whoever was aiming was doing a lousy job at hitting them, and instead was hitting the pillars, causing the top observant floor to fall down. Then there was a loud alarm as some kind of black and red disco ball came down from the ceiling, and it began firing red lasers everywhere. The other people in the lab quickly scrambled to get under something for protection. However, since these were just lasers, and not ecto lasers, all the ghost dog and Danny had to do was go intangible and they were perfectly fine.
A net launcher came down from the ceiling and fired off a net to catch the two, but because both Danny and the ghost dog were intangible, they just went right through the net instead of getting caught. Danny hoped that the people would be alright as the dog ran through another wall.
Takuya ran to the outside of Casper High, looking for Danny and Andy, but he didn't see any sign of the twins. Huh… I swear Andy and Danny were supposed to be here.
Takuya then stepped on something gooey. He frowned before lifting up his shoe, seeing green glowing ectoplasm on his shoe, and on the ground.
What the…? Was there a ghost here? Takuya wondered, seeing the green ectoplasm. That would explain where the ectoplasm came from… as well as where Andy and Danny possibly went! His eyes widened at that last thought.
Takuya was about to run off to try to find where his cousins were, but he ran into someone.
"Oof! Ouch… jeez, Takuya, you didn't have to run into me…"
Takuya recognized that voice, it was Dash. Dash was rubbing his chest, which was what Takuya had bumped into.
"Sorry, Dash…" Takuya apologized, rubbing the back of his head. "I didn't see you there."
"You okay? You look worried about something. Though I heard what you did to Calvin earlier, that was pretty funny," Dash chuckled.
"Yeah, it was." Takuya agreed before he sighed. "I was about to go find my cousins. I think they went off to fight a ghost."
Dash frowned. "Another ghost? These things just pop up everywhere. Well… I think I might be able to help you find them. I've been working on a few tricks with my Digimon form."
"Really? What kind of tricks?" Takuya asked, curious now and wondering how it could help find Andy and Danny.
"Let's… go somewhere private first," Dash said quietly.
Takuya realized what Dash meant and nodded. "Sure. Just lead the way."
Dash led Takuya somewhere to central park, a place filled with nature. With so few people around, it made it easy for Dash and Takuya to find a place to hide. "Now… watch this."
Dash held up his D-Tector as the dark tan colored form of his second Spirit emerged on the screen and a ball of Fractal code appeared around his left hand. Dash then swiped the coding over his D-Tector and called out the phrase he could come to know by heart. "Execute! Beast Spirit Evolution!" The fractal code surrounded Dash as he cried out, the energy of the evolution making him do so. His skin became bark-like, and he fell onto his hands and knees, his feet becoming more like the hind legs of an animal while his arms and hands became like the front legs of one. A tail grew from his spine as leaves sprouted from his back, and a large flower appeared around his neck. His head became like a large iguana's almost, and his tail sprouted large thorn-like needles from it. He landed, crying out his name."Petaldramon!"
"Wow, nice, you managed to Spirit Evolve into your beast form," Takuya chuckled.
"Not what I wanted to show you," Petaldramon rolled his eyes. "Now stay quiet for a moment, I need to concentrate."
Takuya did so, wondering what Petaldramon was up to.
Petaldramon stood on his hind legs, and dug his two tails into the earth. He closed his eyes as the breeze blew through the leaves on his neck. To Takuya, Petaldramon almost resembled a tree with the way he was standing there so still.
After about a minute, Petaldramon opened his eyes. "I see them, or at least Andy and Dorugamon. They're on a hill, near the Axion Labs' building."
Takuya blinked. "Okay, I'm impressed! How did you do that?"
"I am the Warrior of Wood, which is another way of saying I'm the Warrior of Nature. I realize I can talk to plant-life, like trees, flowers, bushes, even the grass. I can connect with the nature around me. We don't talk in the normal sense like you and I do, but I can hear their voices and thoughts, and they let me see what they see. That was how I found Andy and Dorugamon. Danny is likely inside a building somewhere, where I can't see him," Petaldramon explained.
Takuya blinked before he grinned. "That's amazing!" Then he frowned. "But why are Andy and Dorugamon outside this Axion Labs place? Maybe I should evolve and head down there."
"Then you better make it fast, I feel something is coming out of the Axion Labs, and it isn't human, whatever it is," Petaldramon narrowed his eyes.
Takuya nodded. "Okay." Takuya then invoked the power of his Beast Spirit. The red outline of his second Spirit roared and appeared on the screen of his D-Tector as he invoked a ball of fractal coding on his left hand. Takuya swiped the D-Tector over the coding and called out the phrase he knew by heart. "Execute! Beast Spirit Evolution!" He felt the primal power of his Beast Spirit flowing into him as his clothes ripped away and his body became surrounded by the coding. Takuya cried out as the power flooded into his body. His body grew in strength and power as well as size, with red, yellow, black, and white armor forming on his body. A tail extended out from the base of his spine as two large orange wings appeared on his body. His head became like a dragon's almost, but not exactly, and the top of his head was white. His eyes turned sky blue, but had a feral edge to them as well. He landed, crying out his name. "BurningGreymon!"
Now evolved, BurningGreymon flared his orange wings and took flight, hoping to find Andy before things got out of hand.
"You want me to come with you or would you prefer to handle this yourself?" Petaldramon asked.
Looking down, BurningGreymon had to consider for a moment. Finally, he sighed. "If you think you can stay out of sight, back-up would be useful."
"Of course," Petaldramon chuckled before he surrounded himself with fractal code. "Slide evolution! Arbormon!"
"I'm much less noticeable like this, and I can even ride you," Arbormon stated.
BurningGreymon chuckled. "Yes, yes you can." He held out a hand and helped Arbormon onto his back, making sure the Warrior of Wood was seated between his wings. "Now let's go. Andy may need our help."
Jazz was walking towards the exit of the school, when Mikey, a school nerd, suddenly called out to her.
"Jazz? Where are you going? You haven't attended the math club at all this week," Mikey said.
"Oh, sorry, Mikey, I may have to start cutting some of my extracurricular activities," Jazz apologized.
"Why?" Mikey asked with a frown. "You're not one to normally do that."
"I know… and I'm sorry. But… things have started becoming busier for me. College is only one and a half years away, and it's starting to get a little overwhelming with all the extracurricular activities I've been doing. And with all this… weird stuff going on lately, my parents want me to be better prepared for it. You know how it is, right?" Jazz said.
"Yeah, I guess you have a point." Mikey admitted. "I know you have said you want to get into the best colleges possible, so that can be tough."
Jazz nodded. "Yeah. I'm confident enough that I have more than enough for what I need to get into the best colleges though, but I still need to prepare for my future. Thanks for all those great times I had in the math club, you really know your numbers, Mikey."
Mikey smiled. "I wish you luck then, Jazz. I hope your future plans work out."
Jazz gave a wave to Mikey before she walked out of the school.
"You know… while one's future is important, it shouldn't be the only thing you think about," Lopmon spoke up as Jazz walked away from school. "Because the best thing you can do is enjoy the present time you have now, because once it passes, that's it, you never get it back again."
Jazz looked at her partner Digimon. "That is true. That's another part of why I decided to drop out of some of the clubs I am in. I figured that if I am to be helping my brothers with these ghosts and Digimon, I need to be free to do so."
"I'm very glad to hear that." Lopmon smiled before frowning. "Hmm… seems you're not walking home alone…"
Jazz looked back, not seeing anyone at first. "I don't see anyone."
"But I can sense someone following you." Lopmon said, looking in a direction away from Jazz.
Jazz glanced in that direction, only to stop walking when she saw a shadow of a person that was out of sight. "Oh…"
Jazz turned towards the shadow. "Whoever you are, come on out! You shouldn't be stalking after a girl, you know, it's creepy."
From behind a building came a male student who wore a bandanna that was dark blue with black stripes on it, almost like claw marks, a dark blue jacket with a white T-shirt underneath it, dark grey pants and blue and white sneakers on. He had long black hair tied back at the nape of his neck, and he had blue eyes as well. "How was I supposed to know what I was doing was stalking?"
"I know that you came from Japan, but you really should look up on what 'stalking' means, because you following me in the shadows is pretty much what it is," Jazz pointed out. "Why were you following me anyways?"
The boy froze, unsure of what to say to that. His face showed a nervous expression, which told Jazz many things, some of which she assumed were not good.
Finally, the boy turned his head. "I don't have to answer to you."
"I have the right to know since you were the one who was stalking me," Jazz pointed out.
In the boy's mind, he was trying to come up with a convincing lie. Crap… What can I tell her that won't sound outlandish or creepy?
After a moment of hesitation, Lopmon came out of Jazz's backpack. "It's… okay, Jazz. I don't think this boy meant any harm."
Jazz looked down at Lopmon. "Are you sure?"
"I've met with this boy before," Lopmon answered.
Koji looked at Lopmon, surprised that the Digimon was so willing to talk in front of him, and even admitted to knowing him.
"You… have?" Jazz asked, remembering what Lopmon had told her about the Legendary Warriors having human identities. Is it possible this boy is one of these Legendary Warrior Spirit holders?
Lopmon looked at Koji and sighed. "I apologize. If you were concerned for this girl, then just know you don't have to be. I am her partner, thus it is my duty to keep her safe."
Koji frowned. I only followed to find out who this Digimon was, but if he is her partner, I guess it's okay. "Feh… whatever."
"Don't try to act all tough and cool," Jazz spoke up. "You were really curious about Lopmon, weren't you?"
Koji froze. Crap… "... So what if I was? It's not a crime to be curious."
"Perhaps not. But now I'm curious," Jazz stated, picking up Lopmon. "As to how you knew Lopmon and what Digimon were."
Koji literally looked a bit panicked now. His mind raced as he tried to come up with a cover. Then, one idea hit him. It was a bit crazy, but it was possible it could work. Koji regained his composure after a couple of deep breaths. He then looked up at Jazz. "I was once called to the Digital World, but only remained for a short time before being sent back. I 'wasn't compatible', or so I was told, whatever that means." I hope she buys that lie.
Lopmon raised an eyebrow, it was obvious the little Rookie knew Koji enough to know he was lying, but he didn't say anything about it.
"Oh, I see…" Jazz commented, remembering that Lopmon did tell her how Ophanimon did call in a lot of humans before sending them back home since they weren't chosen to wield a Spirit of a Legendary Warrior.
"That is how I know of Digimon." Koji continued. "Although I thought it was all a dream at first. But apparently, it was not."
"Well… I guess that makes sense, but next time, don't try to sneakily follow someone like that, they'll think you're stalking them," Jazz lightly teased.
"I won't." Koji promised. "I found out what I needed to know anyway." With that, Koji turned and left around the corner and out of sight. Once out of sight though, Koji pulled out his black and blue D-Tector, gripping it tightly. That was too close...
However, with Jazz and Lopmon, Lopmon was frowning to himself. That was definitely the Warrior of Light. And I can understand why he lied, but still...
Jazz turned around and began heading back home, unaware of Lopmon's thoughts.
Dorugamon sensed something else nearby shortly after Danny went into the Axion Labs, and he began growling in a direction.
"What's wrong, Dorugamon?" Andy asked in concern. "Another ghost?"
"Not a ghost… it's a Digimon," Dorugamon informed.
Sure enough, there was a shadow hiding nearby, right where Dorugamon was looking.
Dorugamon narrowed his yellow eyes as he peered at the form in the shadows. It was a Digimon that was a yellowish-orange color, with a small white 'D' on its chest, sharp fangs, dark blue ears and tail, and it stood on two legs while it had three 'fingers' per paw, with white claws on each paw and on each of its feet. This Digimon also had a black nose and looked like a dog in appearance.
Andy blinked at this strange looking Digimon before Dorugamon's eyes flashed. A hologram of the Digimon appeared on his D-Arc's screen.
"Doggymon is a Puppet Digimon. It was produced from an American cartoon TV database. Because its body is very soft and strong, and can expand and contract like rubber, it completely absorbs every attack. It's Data type, and Champion level," Andy read.
Dorugamon narrowed his eyes some more. "What's a Doggymon doing here?"
Doggymon was snickering about something.
"Are you here to cause trouble?" Andy asked the Doggymon. "Or are you lost?"
Andy didn't like how the Doggymon was snickering, it looked anything but lost.
"I don't think this Doggymon is here because it wants help." Dorugamon frowned.
"You know that big green ghost dog that's wrecking havoc in that lab right now?" Doggymon asked, his grin getting wider. "I set that dog loose. So if you ever wanted to know who let the dog out, it was Doggymon!"
Andy glared. "You let that ghost dog loose!? Why?"
"I thought it would be fun." Doggymon snickered.
Dorugamon felt his fur bristling at that revelation. "You're not funny, you know that?"
"Then you just don't have a sense of humor, fox boy!" Doggymon laughed.
Dorugamon growled in annoyance.
"Easy, Dorugamon, he's likely trying to rile us up," Andy quickly stepped in.
Dorugamon stopped growling, but he didn't take his glare off Doggymon.
"You've had your fun, you should take that ghost dog back to the Ghost Zone, and head for the tunnels so I can call for a Trailmon to take you back to the Digital World," Andy stated.
"Hmmm… no~" Doggymon smirked. "I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get to this world, and bringing that toy obsessed dog with me. I'm not going back now just because you told me to."
Andy glared. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way, and I prefer the easy way. Digimon aren't allowed to cause trouble here."
"Oh? I don't see anyone stopping me~" Doggymon snickered.
Dorugamon charged at Doggymon, and Doggymon flipped into the air with his rubbery body, dodging Dorugamon's claws.
"Have to try better than that, fox boy!" Doggymon laughed.
Before Dorugamon could try launching himself at Doggymon again, a green blur came out of the Axion Labs' walls, and tackled Dorugamon down. Andy blinked, shocked at what just happened, before Doggymon suddenly landed behind him. Andy turned just in time for Doggymon to kick him in the shin, making Andy yelp and fall over.
Dorugamon was pinned by the ghost dog, giving a glare as he growled at the ghostly dog. "Let me go!"
The dog barked as Danny was clinging onto its collar.
"Come on, you stupid mutt!" Danny yelled, trying to pull the dog.
Andy grabbed his Fenton Rod and made to swing at Doggymon, who kept dodging Andy's attacks by stretching out his body and moving around so sporadically that Andy was having trouble trying to keep up with him. "Hold still, you stupid mutt!"
As Andy was struggling with Doggymon and Danny was having trouble with the ghost dog that was pinning down Dorugamon, two more forms were coming in towards them, and fast. The larger form of BurningGreymon came in for a landing, using the force of his wings flaring to get the attention of the two dog-like entities fighting Danny, Andy, and Dorugamon.
The big green dog growled hostility at BurningGreymon, though Doggymon quickly 'nope'd' out of there. Andy blinked, seeing how Doggymon quickly ran away. With the big ghost dog's attention on BurningGreymon, however, Danny quickly got out his Fenton Thermos and sucked the dog into it.
BurningGreymon looked down at Danny and Andy. "You didn't need my help after all, it seems."
Dorugamon grumbled as he stood up. "No, we were just dealing with a couple of annoyances, nothing too threatening…"
"Heh, well at least I know my talents are good for something when we need to track you guys down," Arbormon, who was on BurningGreymon's shoulder, noted.
"You tracked us?" Andy asked, surprised.
"He is the Warrior of Wood." BurningGreymon chuckled. Then he remembered seeing the Digimon that fled. "By the way, who was that Digimon that fled?" BurningGreymon knew that Digimon seemed familiar, but he wanted to be sure.
"That was Doggymon, a very annoying, rubbery, fast, mischievous Digimon who set that ghost dog loose," Andy grumbled, clearly annoyed that the Digimon got away.
"There's a Digimon called Doggymon? And that thing was the one who let Cujo loose?" Danny asked.
"Cujo?" Dorugamon questioned.
"That's the name I decided to give this ghost dog. There was a movie revolving around a ghost dog named Cujo, so I thought 'why not?' Makes it easier than referring to him as 'ghost dog,'" Danny shrugged.
BurningGreymon frowned a bit. "I remember encountering a Doggymon before. It may be the same one if the way he fled was any indication."
There was a sudden alarm going off at the lab that was near them.
"We should go before we get caught up in whatever happened in the Axion Labs," Andy quickly said.
Danny paled. "Cujo really made a mess of things…"
Andy quickly hurried onto Dorugamon's back as they heard sirens coming.
BurningGreymon took flight while Arbormon was still on his back. There was no way he was sticking around when police showed up!
Dorugamon also took flight, not wanting Andy to get caught up in this either. Danny quickly followed them into the sky, none of them wanting to get caught up in that mess.
Back at Fenton Works, Danny placed the thermos on the machine of the Ghost Portal, releasing Cujo back into the Ghost Zone. He was back in his human form, and Dorugamon was back to being Dorimon, lying comfortably on top of Andy's head. Takuya was standing beside them.
"So what exactly happened? When I came out, neither of you were there," Takuya asked.
Danny sighed. "A ghost dog happened. It made a mess of the Axion Labs building, and that's not counting a rogue Digimon called Doggymon appearing either."
Takuya blinked. "A ghost dog and a Digimon? Wow, you sound like you had your hands full."
"Well, like I said, they were more annoyances than actual threats," Dorimon spoke up. "Though I guess that ghost dog did make quite a bit of a mess at Axion Labs."
Andy frowned. "That's not good… it may not have been life threatening, but we didn't come out of this unscathed. Doggymon is still loose somewhere out there, and Valerie's dad works at the Axion Labs as the main security guy. The fact that his security system failed to stop a boy and his big dog really looks bad for the guy."
"Why? It's not his fault that a couple of ghosts came into the Axion Labs, I'm also pretty sure his contractor said nothing about making defenses against ghosts," Danny pointed out.
"That may be, but the boss doesn't know that you and Cujo were ghosts, and even if he did, people can be cruel. The security system failed, that's all the boss needed to see to count it as a failure," Andy remarked back.
Takuya frowned. "I don't like the implications for Valerie and her father if that is the case."
"We can only hope that the boss would be understanding and not fire Mr. Gray…" Andy sighed.
Takuya sighed and ran a hand through his hair. I hope so too...
"You know… if you want, I could…" Danny hesitated for a moment. "Um…"
Andy looked at Danny, before figuring out what he wanted to suggest. "Go ahead, but make sure you keep yourself safe, alright?"
Takuya looked at Andy. "What did Danny want to do?"
"Look out for a friend," Andy shrugged.
Takuya blinked, but he didn't press the issue. "Okay. I guess that makes sense."
Danny smiled. "Thanks."
"You sure it's safe?" Dorimon asked.
"It should be, but still, watch yourself, bro," Andy replied. "Takuya, Dorimon, and I won't be there to bail you out of trouble again if you get yourself caught."
Danny nodded. "I will, bro. Don't worry."
Valerie didn't like to think she was too materialistic like Spectra told her she was, she only bought things to spoil herself once in a while, like when she did well on a test, or she managed to climb higher on the social scale, she deserved it after all. However, it had hit Valerie hard when her dad was fired after the weird boy and his dog completely messed up the Axion Labs.
Now that Damon was fired, they had no more income. Not only that, but Damon had to pay for the damages the dog and his owner did out of his own pockets. So now, Damon and Valerie barely had any money left. They couldn't afford to pay for their house anymore. They had to move out to live in one of the cheap apartments. Valerie had to sell most of her stuff in a yard sale to pay for the moving truck, and food for later on. She was going to try to keep as much of her valuables as she could, but she knew she couldn't keep much.
Unbeknownst to Valerie, a form was watching her, albeit invisibly. Danny, in his ghost form, was worried about Valerie, hence why he was observing her right now. He felt bad about how Cujo had ruined her dad's job.
Talk about rock bottom… I wish I could've stopped Cujo sooner. This shouldn't have happened… Andy's going to feel so bad for Valerie too… Danny frowned.
Danny didn't talk to Valerie that much, but he did find her to be the most down to earth of the popular girls, and he knew his brother was on good terms with her.
Maybe if I had been faster, or more of a dog trainer, I could have done better… Danny thought sadly. Or maybe if I had planned things out more… there wasn't much Andy and Dorugamon could've done, they don't have as much experience with dealing with ghosts. The intangibility makes it nearly impossible for them to be able to use their attacks or weapons properly. But I'm a ghost myself, I should've been able to catch that dog.
The ghost boy watched as Valerie had to help her father carry some of their essentials to the moving truck, like their mattress and clothes.
But then suddenly, Danny's ghost sense went off. Oh-no, no, no, no, not now!
Looking around, Danny tried to find the ghost, but he wasn't seeing anything so far. Where is it-
Suddenly the ground began to shake. Valerie yelped as she lost her balance and dropped her box of clothes. Suddenly, the ground cracked, before a familiar large green dog came up from underground.
Aw c'mon! Danny thought in exasperation. This dog again?!
Valerie quickly backed away from the dog, seeing that it was big and mean looking, and it was the one who destroyed most of the security system at the Axion Labs. The dog, however, didn't seem all that interested in Valerie, instead, it was sniffing the ground as if it was looking for something. Danny approached the ghost dog, dropping his invisibility.
"Hey! How did you get out of the Ghost Zone?" Danny questioned.
The ghost dog turned to face Danny with a growl, but then, in an effort to try to calm the dog down, Danny began to scratch its chin with a finger, making Cujo pant happily before he shrank down to his tiny puppy form again.
Whew, glad I remembered hearing Cujo saying he likes someone to scratch under his chin. Good thing Andy wasn't here or he'd be scolding me how Cujo could've bitten my hand off for that… Danny thought to himself before landing in front of the puppy Cujo, and his boots touched something squishy. … Did… did I just step on invisible dog poop…?
Valerie walked up, looking mad. "Whatever you are, get out of here! You and your stupid dog have done enough damage!"
"Trust me, I want to get this dog and get out of your hair as soon as-" Danny started to say before he felt something sharp grab his leg, and he was suddenly pulled on the ground by a very excited puppy. "Argh! Stop! Stop it now! Bad dog!"
Danny tried to pull his leg free, only to remember he could turn intangible. He did so, and got free of Cujo's teeth before grabbing the puppy ghost. Whew! Good thing I remembered my intangibility… I didn't need to destroy the stuff in the moving truck...
Then suddenly something rubbery grabbed onto Danny's foot and pulled him down on the sidewalk. "Oof!"
There was snickering behind him. Danny looked back, seeing the Digimon that had gotten away from Andy. "Oh great… You again…" He turned intangible and got out from Doggymon's grip. "Why don't you just go back to the world you came from?!"
"Because there would be no fun in that~" Doggymon snickered.
"What's going on here?" Damon questioned as he came out of the house, only to see that boy, the dog in his arm, and another strange looking dog snickering.
Thinking fast, Danny turned himself invisible and flew up. Doggymon stopped snickering and frowned, unable to see Danny. Danny then used his free hand to grab onto Doggymon's arm and pulled him up, making Doggymon yelp and struggle. Danny concentrated to turn Doggymon invisible too as Damon rushed outside to Valerie.
Danny succeeded in turning Doggymon invisible, just as Damon reached Valerie's side. He looked around, confused. "Okay… I could have sworn I saw two dogs and a boy." Damon then scratched at his head with one hand. "Maybe I was seeing things."
Valerie frowned. "Um… Yeah, maybe we were seeing things… Or maybe we weren't. I'm going to find out what the heck is going on."
Danny gulped, knowing that Valerie was determined to know what had been going on, what the media had been covering up all this time. But Danny couldn't stick around for long, he had to get Cujo back to the Ghost Zone, and he had to take Doggymon to his brother and Takuya.
Danny looked down at Doggymon. "You had better get back to your world without much of a fight this time, okay?" He then turned and flew off towards Fenton Works.
However, as Danny was flying, Doggymon stretched out his body and grabbed onto the nearest building. Danny hadn't expected that, and this caused him to let go of Doggymon. "H-hey!"
Doggymon was already on the run, snickering along the way. "He'll be back, maybe more than once~"
Danny groaned, but he had more pressing issues with Cujo, who was now yipping happily in his grasp. "Okay, I can worry about that Doggymon later. Let's just get you back to the Ghost Zone, little guy."
Takuya didn't expect too much action today, other than maybe going on a hunt for Doggymon. But he and Andy had decided to let Dash handle tracking down the flexible dog. Takuya remembered Doggymon pretty well, so he assured Andy Doggymon wouldn't cause too much trouble on his own. So Takuya was thankful for the downtime.
That is, until he saw Danny Phantom suddenly flying into the house, and flew down under the floor, likely heading directly into the lab. Takuya had seen Phantom holding onto a green puppy dog in his arm as well.
Getting up from the couch, Takuya ran for the lab, hoping to see what was going on. Why is Phantom coming here with a green puppy? Is it a ghost?
Takuya poked his head out from the wall of the stairs, seeing Phantom opening up the Ghost Portal's doors.
"Okay, Cujo, in you go! I would appreciate it if you stopped causing problems for the people of this world," Phantom grumbled as he tossed the puppy into the Ghost Zone.
Okay, it looks like he was dropping off a ghost. Takuya noted as he watched that.
As soon as Phantom had tossed Cujo into the Ghost Zone, the doors closed. Danny noticed his gloves were moist, looking down, he noticed his gloves were covered in green drool. "Blech… that's it, I'm either getting a hamster, or find my own Digimon partner…"
Takuya blinked when he overheard that. Wait… Why would Phantom ponder getting a Digimon partner? Isn't that a bit unusual? Memories of Vlad came back and Takuya winced at that. Okay… maybe it's not that unusual...
Phantom flew up through the ceiling, not noticing Takuya there. However, before Takuya could leave, he saw the puppy phasing out of the gate of the Fenton Portal. Takuya blinked before the ghost dog flew up through the ceiling as well.
Okay…? I don't think we're done with that ghost dog yet… Takuya thought with a bit of dismay.
Danny sighed as he came up into his room and transformed back to his human form.
"Hey, bro, how's Valerie and Mr. Gray?" Andy asked.
"Let's just say Valerie has to sell a lot of her stuff because they have to move." Danny sighed. "Thanks to Cujo's mess, the boss not only fired Mr. Gray, but made him pay for the damages… Valerie and Mr. Gray don't have a lot of money left…"
Andy frowned. "I was worried about that… it's… going to be really tough for Valerie."
"Yeah… I just…" Danny sighed again. "If only I was able to catch Cujo sooner…"
"Don't blame yourself, Danny. I should've remembered Cujo was a ghost, so trying to stop him head on wasn't going to work. We should probably get our parents to make more Fenton Thermoses so each of us could have one," Andy remarked.
Danny smiled. "Yeah, that might be a good idea. We should make sure Takuya has one too. Same for Jazz. It wouldn't hurt."
"Yeah, it would definitely make things easier," Andy agreed before looking a Dorimon, who was lying on bed. "And no, you are not allowed to eat it."
"Eating ghost technology is gross anyways," Dorimon rolled his eyes.
Danny chuckled. "Well, you are a metal muncher~"
"Yeah, but I don't like ectoplasm, which the Fenton inventions have a lot of," Dorimon shrugged.
"I'm pretty sure ectoplasm is poisonous for you, and for me," Andy shivered.
Danny raised an eyebrow. "How would it be poisonous to you, bro? You're not a Digimon."
"Haven't you heard Mom's lecture about ectoplasm?" Andy asked. "They are deadly to humans. I think the only reason we're okay is because we've been exposed to a lot of it since we were young, but it would still be dangerous for us to consume it. Although, considering you're half ghost… it may not be dangerous to you."
Danny blinked. "Huh. I never considered that." He then shivered a bit. "Although I'm not exactly keen to test that theory out."
Andy shook his head. "Regardless, we should try to be there for Valerie when she comes back to school. The popularity chain is going to knock her down big time."
Danny sighed. "Yeah, you're right. High school can be merciless."
"Takuya," Jazz spoke up, catching her cousin's attention.
"Hmm?" Takuya looked at her, seeing Lopmon in her arms.
"I have a question for you," Jazz stated. "You know Koji, one of the Japanese transfer students, don't you?"
Takuya blinked, unsure of where Jazz was going with this. "Yeah, I do. He's one of my friends. Why?"
"Did you know he was stalking me earlier?" Jazz questioned.
Takuya blinked in surprise. "No. I didn't." His mind was racing at that point. Why would Koji stalk Jazz? Was it because he saw Lopmon? He's not one to do something like that without a good reason.
"Yeah, apparently he and Lopmon had a history," Jazz said. "Is there something about Lopmon you're not telling me?"
"Nothing I haven't told you myself…" Lopmon remarked quietly.
"Or rather…" Jazz changed the question. "Is there something about you and Koji you're not telling me?"
Takuya felt his face grow pale at hearing that, although to his credit, he kept his face neutral. Aw man… Is Jazz trying to pry for information?! His mind raced for an explanation, but nothing came to him. "No, there isn't."
But Jazz had a glint in her eyes. "I see… well, thanks for that then."
With that, Jazz walked away.
Takuya blinked as Jazz walked off. What… was that about?
The next day at Casper High
"Why is it so noisy in the cafeteria today?" Andy grumbled.
"Haven't you heard?" Sam asked, walking beside him. "The Dumpty Humpty band is having a concert in Amity Park tonight."
Danny looked at Sam. "Really? That's cool! Did you get us tickets?"
"Are you kidding?" Tucker spoke up. "Tickets have already been sold out everywhere!"
"Jeez, we've been so wrapped up with ghost attacks and Digimon that we haven't been keeping track of where the Dumpty Humpty band were," Andy noted.
Danny sighed. "Great… Now we'll miss seeing the band."
The group sat down at their usual table.
"Where's Takuya?" Tucker asked.
"He decided to sit with Koji and Koichi, something about catching up and all that," Danny answered.
Sam looked over at where the three boys were sitting and talking. "Well, at least he has some familiar friends to catch up with now."
Andy then noticed Valerie was walking over to the popular table, the table where the top of the 'food chain' students sat, like Paulina, Calvin, and Kwan were. Dash used to sit with them, but he mostly sat with the other jocks to talk to them better, get to know them, and speak possible strategy for their next big game like a good leader should, instead of just mindlessly chatting about the hottest thing with the other popular kids. Andy lightly elbowed Danny, and tilted his head over at Valerie.
Danny looked over and saw Valerie walking over, a frown crossing his face. "Oh boy… This won't end well…"
"Hey Val, we're down for the concert, right?" They heard Kwan asking, not seeming to know about Valerie's current predicament.
"Sorry, guys." Valerie apologized. "I had to sell my tickets online to help pay for the moving truck. Money's been… kind of tight, you know?"
"Really? What do you mean?" Calvin asked.
"Wait… this doesn't mean what I think it means, does it?" Paulina asked.
Valerie frowned, looking at her bag lunch. "I'm… afraid it does."
Calvin then gave a sneer. "And speaking of tight…" He glanced at where Danny, Andy, Tucker, and Sam were sitting, the group quickly looked away so it wouldn't look like they had been watching them. "You know what that means! No money, no sitting here!"
Valerie let out a gasp before she growled. "I get it. Good looking out, guys."
"By the way, Valerie, did you at least sell your tickets to somebody cool?" Paulina asked. "We don't want to have to sit to any losers at the concert."
Valerie just looked away and walked off to another table, feeling upset now that she had been spurned by those she once called her friends.
"Whoa… brutal…" Tucker commented.
"Wow… Valerie just got disowned by her friends…" Danny frowned.
"She needs better friends." Sam rolled her eyes.
"They were never her friends," Andy grumbled.
Danny frowned again. "That is a good point…"
"Well, maybe we can be her new friends." Tucker said gleefully before darting over to Valerie's table.
"What do you want?" Valerie groaned, not in the mood for Tucker right now.
"I thought you'd want to join me- us, for lunch, since you're-" Andy came up beside Tucker, interrupting him.
"What Tucker means is that… maybe you'd like some company?" Andy asked.
"Yeah. What Andy said." Tucker agreed, glad his friend had come through for him. Thanks, Andy! You saved my butt from embarrassment.
Valerie sighed. "Yeah… I guess so… I… hate to admit it, Andy, but you were right… popularity isn't all that it's cracked up to be."
Andy sat down beside Valerie while Tucker motioned for Danny and Sam to come over. "They hit you hard, huh?"
"Yeah… I mean I worked hard to get as high as I did on the social grapevine, only to be knocked down to the bottom because of one incident that I had no control over," Valerie said.
"That's harsh." Danny said as he sat down beside the threesome. "No one deserves that."
"While I can't say I ever really liked you, even I have to admit that you didn't deserve that," Sam remarked, sitting down beside Danny.
Andy then smiled. "But, if you'd like, while we may not be high on the popularity scale, we could be your friends-"
"Friends is a strong word," Sam interrupted.
Andy cleared his throat. "As I was saying… we could be your friends, if you give us the chance to be. Sam will come around, she's just a sourpuss about everything. And with us, we wouldn't care about your wealth or what you're wearing, you can just be yourself."
Valerie gave a small smile. "Thanks, Andy."
Danny smiled at seeing the way Valerie was smiling at Andy. Does she like Andy? I bet she does~
However, before Danny could say anything, a familiar blue mist came out of his mouth, and Andy's backpack was vibrating, which made Andy's smile turn strained. Ohhhhh… shit….
Danny gave a glance around, trying to find the source of his ghost sense going off. Come on… where is it? I know I can sense ghosts, but I can't tell where they are! If only I could...
Suddenly, a familiar big green dog appeared just outside the window of the cafeteria. Andy, Tucker, Sam, and Danny paled at this. Valerie didn't seem to notice the dog since she was digging out her lunch from her bag.
"Um… V-Valerie?" Tucker stammered out. "You might want to look behind you…"
"Wha-" Valerie looked up and saw the dog phasing through the window, and it chomped down on her bag lunch with its sharp teeth. "AAAAH! It's back!"
The ghost dog shook the bag before growling and barking while jumping from table to table, scaring all the students in the lunchroom.
"Get down!" Andy yelled, pulling Valerie under the table just before the big ghost dog jumped on the table, and jumped again, flipping over the other tables, or splattering food on people, mostly the popular kids since they were sitting closer to the window.
Students ran for their lives, screaming as they streamed out of the building as the ghost dog continued to rampage around the cafeteria.
Takuya, Koji, and Koichi had run off upon seeing the ghost dog come into the cafeteria, no doubt to evolve and take on the ghost. Dash was nowhere to be seen either.
That was proven true when one of the Legendary Warriors came in. It was none other than Agunimon, and he was unsure of what to make of the big glowing green dog.
"Wait!" Someone called out to Agunimon as he was contemplating on what to do.
Agunimon saw Danny Phantom flying over to him. "Don't hurt that dog. He's not malevolent, I think he's looking for something."
Agunimon frowned slightly. "But why is it here then?"
"I'm not sure," Phantom answered with a frown. "I'm going to try to find out."
Lobomon and Loweemon then came in, both of the Legendary Warriors ready to fight if the ghost dog began to attack any humans that remained in the room. However, the Warrior of Light had a frown on his face for some reason as he eyed the ghost dog.
Cujo gave a growl at the three Legendary Warriors. Danny quickly flew in front of Cujo. "Nice dog, take it easy, boy. Why don't you just calm down and-"
Cujo looked very happy at seeing Danny and jumped towards him.
"Wah!" Danny yelped, going intangible just before Cujo pounced him, who also went intangible at the same time, which caused both ghosts to phase through the wall outside of the cafeteria.
Andy took notice of that. Interesting, so if both ghosts were intangible, they can still hit each other.
Agunimon blinked. "Okay… That was weird…" We didn't even need to get involved this time...
"Is something wrong, Lobomon? You look troubled," Loweemon asked, looking at his brother.
"I'm getting the feeling that the ghost dog was not alone." Lobomon replied at last, looking around. "But if that is the case, then what else could be around here?"
Lobomon had one of his hands on the holder for his beam swords, feeling like someone or something was watching them.
"You okay?" Andy asked, pulling Valerie out from under the table.
Tucker and Sam came out from under the table as well.
"Really glad I didn't have gravy today," Tucker commented.
"I'm fine, but what the heck is that dog and that boy? How could they just go through stuff like that?" Valerie asked, looking confused. "And what do they want? Why do they keep appearing everywhere I go?"
"You really don't know what they are?" Sam questioned, looking surprised at Valerie's naivety.
Valerie frowned before she looked at the three Legendary Warriors. "And what are they? Some kind of comic book superhero cosplayers or something?"
Tucker blinked before sighing and placing a hand on Valerie's shoulder. "Valerie, you have a lot to learn about what is going on right now…"
"Is that big ghost dog gone?" Another voice asked, before Dorimon popped out of Andy's backpack.
Valerie froze as she stared at the 'talking plushy' or 'talking animal'.
Andy just moved his hand back and pushed Dorimon down in his backpack, not taking his eyes off of the stunned girl, before giving a sheepish grin.
Valerie blinked. "Um… did that toy… uh… thing just… talk?"
"Uh… cutting edge technology for a toy, right?" Andy replied.
SMACK! That was the sound of Agunimon's hand hitting his own head in exasperation.
"You're going to give yourself a headache if you keep doing that," Loweemon commented, looking at Agunimon.
"Don't remind me…" The Warrior of Flame grumbled. How does Andy keep getting himself into such awkward situations…?
Andy felt Dorimon moving around in his backpack, likely sensing something other than the ghost dog. "Uh, okay, um… Tucker, Sam, why don't you calm Valerie down? I'm going to go see if those ghosts have left the school grounds yet."
"Wait… ghosts?" Valerie spoke up as Andy started moving away. "Those were GHOSTS!?"
"Obviously, what did you think those ethereal beings are that can literally go through walls?" Sam asked, rolling her eyes.
Tucker looked at Andy. "Why don't you go do that? Sam and I can handle Valerie."
Andy nodded before he quickly rushed out of the cafeteria, only to run right into something yellow and rubbery. Andy let out a surprised yelp as the rubber wrapped around his body, and a familiar snicker hissed in his ear.
Upon hearing Andy's yelp, Lobomon, Agunimon, and Loweemon ran out, only to see Doggymon before them.
Agunimon groaned. "Not you again…"
Doggymon let go of Andy before flipping out of the building. Agunimon, annoyed, ran after the annoying rubbery Digimon. Lobomon and Loweemon ran right behind him.
"When I get my hands on that Digimon, I will make sure he doesn't come back here…" Agunimon growled. "He is such an annoyance!"
Andy could agree with that, but since 3 Legendary Warriors were going after Doggymon, Andy decided he should use this time to check on Danny, he didn't need to join in on the chase, it would be overkill for one, mischievous Champion level Digimon.
When Andy got outside, he saw Danny petting the now puppy sized Cujo to keep him calm. Andy walked over to Danny.
"Hey," Andy said. "What are you going to do with that dog?"
Cujo blinked as he looked at Andy, surprised to see him and Danny, likely not remembering the two when they were chasing after him the first time.
"I don't know what to do with this little guy!" Danny sighed at last. "When I try to put him back in the Ghost Zone, he just keeps coming back! It's obvious he wants something, but what it is, I don't know really. I just keep hearing he wants a toy of some kind."
"You're… hearing he wants a toy?" Andy repeated, sounding confused.
Dorimon popped out of the backpack and looked at Cujo. Cujo looked back at Dorimon.
"I can't explain why, but that's basically it." Danny replied as he ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know how it works, just that I can hear certain words from Cujo here."
"Wait, you can hear WORDS coming from this dog?" Andy asked, surprised. "Like actual words? All I've been hearing is barking and growling noises."
"Well, I think it comes with being half-ghost." Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Because I know I have been hearing words."
Before Andy could say anything about that, Cujo suddenly grew into his bigger form and growled at Dorimon. Dorimon, surprisingly for a small In-Training Digimon, gave a loud roar at Cujo before biting Cujo's nose. Cujo let out a yelp and a whine before running around in a panic with Dorimon on his nose.
"Wah!? Dorimon! Let go of that dog's nose!" Andy yelled as he started running after them.
"Cujo! Down boy! Down boy!" Danny yelled as well.
Dorimon let go at Andy's shout, falling back onto the ground, rolling at least a few times before he got to his small feet. Cujo seemed to settle down once Dorimon let go of his nose as well.
Cujo shrunk back down to his puppy size, whimpering as he rubbed his nose. Danny picked him up while Andy picked up Dorimon.
"I need to keep you away from dogs…" Andy grumbled.
Dorimon grumbled as well. "I don't like dogs…"
"Really? I didn't know that after you roared at that fireman's dalmation," Andy sarcastically replied.
"I'm going to try to take Cujo back to the Ghost Zone again," Danny sighed. "I think he's caused enough damage for one day."
"Please do so!" Dorimon snarked while glaring at Cujo's small puppy-sized form. Cujo shrank back from Dorimon's glare in fright.
Shortly after Danny flew away with Cujo, Dorimon gave a surprised look before Arbormon came along.
"Dash…?" Andy blinked, surprised at seeing Arbormon. "How long have you been there?"
"Long enough to watch Dorimon clamp his teeth on that ghost dog's nose," Arbormon chuckled. "But I gotta say, I"m surprised that you seem to be quite cool around that ghost boy."
"Uh… yeah… he's helped me and Danny out a few times…" Andy said, trying not to sound nervous.
"Anyway, I came to see if you needed help, but I think you had it under control." Arbormon continued.
"Yeah, for now… seems like we've been on dog duty lately though," Andy sighed. So apparently Danny can understand Cujo… can ghosts understand each other? Do ghosts have different languages or dialects, or do they all share a universal language that only they can understand? I need to find out more about this.
"Andy? You okay, dude?" Arbormon asked, noticing Andy's thoughtful look on his face.
"Don't worry, he's just thinking," Dorimon chuckled. "That's normal for him."
Arbormon chuckled. "It seems so, then."
"Oh, shouldn't you go after Doggymon?" Andy asked.
"Nah, he's already gotten away from Agunimon and the others. That is one slippery dog," Arbormon sighed. "I can try to track him down, but catching him is a whole different matter."
"Yeah, if only there was some way to catch a rubber being," Andy sighed.
Dorimon grumbled. "Doggymon is a sneaky one…"
"Tell me about it." Arbormon agreed.
Later that day…
Danny was in ghost form, and he was currently flying towards Elmertron, it was quite an ugly part of Amity Park. There were run down apartments, there was trash all over the place. In other words, it looked like a dump. But it was the only place Valerie and Damon could afford to live in now.
After the ghost boy threw Cujo back into the Ghost Zone, Andy talked to him about keeping an eye out for Doggymon and possibly Valerie to see how she was doing. Danny agreed, while he had no idea where Doggymon was, he decided he could at least check on Valerie for his brother. Danny himself still felt guilty since Valerie ended up like this because of his folly.
He flew down lower towards the apartments, still remaining invisible. Danny flew around, trying to find out which apartment she was in. He hoped she was doing okay.
Then he saw someone opening up a window. Danny flew over there, and smiled when he saw he found the Gray residence. Damon had just opened the window, smiling despite their situation.
"Great news, sweetheart," Damon said to Valerie, who was sitting on an old looking green couch. "I'm getting one last chance. I've managed to convince my boss to let me guard what's left of the research lab while they rebuild."
Valerie smiled upon hearing that. "That's great! How many of your employees can you put on it?" Then she remembered her father's job had been ruined. "Oh…"
"Yeah… I'll have to guard it myself, at night, in that," Damon pointed at a blue guard uniform that was hanging on the closet door.
Danny did smile a little. Yeah, that is a downgrade, but at least he's getting another chance. Maybe if he does well, his boss will take him back as the head of the security maintenance again, or whatever he was before.
"Nice…" Valerie sighed. "And if things get worse, you can use that to deliver packages." She didn't mean to be snarky, but given how she had experienced a rough week, it was somewhat justified.
A blue mist suddenly came out of Danny's mouth, he frowned, it didn't feel like Cujo this time, but it did feel familiar, and strong. Thinking fast, Danny flew down and flattened himself on the ground, remaining invisible, hoping the other ghost wouldn't notice him. There was another ghost, flying towards the apartment's window. Danny's eyes widened when he saw it was Vlad Plasmius.
What…? What the heck is Vlad doing here? Danny questioned in alarm.
Vlad was peering in the window, where Danny could hear Damon's voice speaking to Valerie. "Which reminds me, this arrived for you while you were at school today." Damon came back with a package for Valerie. "From Wisconsin."
Danny couldn't see the package, but he did hear a beep.
"Whoa, don't want to be late. Bye sweetie, I'll be home before dinner," Damon said before Danny heard his footsteps rushing out.
Danny could barely hear Valerie rustling around with the package, but then he heard her voice speaking. "'Heard about your recent ghost troubles. Hope this helps. Vlad'."
Danny glared at the ghost floating just outside Valerie's window, he could see Vlad smirking. Just what is he planning? What did he send to Valerie?
Vlad then suddenly disappeared in a green flash of light. Danny blinked, he waited for another minute before he hesitantly flew back up to the window, still invisible. Where did he go…? Did he teleport? … Dang, I gotta learn how to do that.
Danny peered in the window and saw Valerie smirking. "Don't know who you are, Vlad, but if this thing does what I think it does, I can't say that I care about that." She lifted out a gun, only to fire off a pinkish ecto-energy blast from it on accident.
"Valerie!?" Damon called from outside the door in concern.
"I'm okay!" Valerie quickly assured before she smirked at the gun in her hand.
Danny paled, he recognized the pink ecto energy. Vlad… what have you done!? You sent Valerie ghost weapons? Oh no… this is dangerous. Not for me, but for her. Valerie doesn't know how to handle ghosts! Why would Vlad send her ghost weapons? How does he even know Valerie's been having issues with ghosts lately? He must have some reason for doing this… and I'm going to find out what it is. But first…
Danny flew away from the apartment and started rushing back to Fenton Works. This isn't something I should think about on my own. I need to tell Andy and Jazz about this too. They might be able to help me figure out what the heck Vlad is planning. Tucker and Sam don't know how dangerous Vlad is, they weren't there during the reunion… I'll tell them about it at school tomorrow.
Having made up his mind, Danny continued on back to Fenton Works. Hope Jazz and Andy will have an idea on what Vlad might be up to, because I sure don't… Whatever that fruit loop is planning, it can't be good.
Titanic X: ZAFT: I am glad you found it funny. :3
ChloeTheKitsune: DarkFoxKit: Thank you, glad you're enjoying it.
ZAFT: There will be more yet to come~ :D
Luna Lillyth: DarkFoxKit: Indeed. Andy being the cute kitty while Takuya sprays him for no apparent reason. XD
ZAFT: I am glad you liked that! That was one of my favorite scenes to write~