DarkFoxKit: Here's another chapter.
Andy: You feeling okay?
DarkFoxKit: As fine as I could be right now. I'm just hoping for some peace of mind soon.
ZAFT: Me too. This sucks, and that one 'specialist' didn't help much. XP
Andy: And to think you were charged 500 dollars just to see this guy. The nerve of it all!
Takuya: Want me to burn them?
ZAFT: NO! Back to the chapter you go! *Shoves Takuya into chapter*
Andy: I better go watch him. I wish you the best of luck, Kit.
DarkFoxKit: Thanks. Let's just get into the chapter.
Chapter 27: Rock Their World
"What do you mean Doggymon digivolved?" Takuya frowned as he was talking to Koji and Koichi on the outskirts of Amity Park that night.
"I saw him," Koji stated. "He was running out of Amity Park though. I think he's planning something."
Koichi nodded. "And Ophanimon did mention that the Digital World barrier was getting weaker, making more Digimon appear here in the Real World, not just in Amity Park."
Takuya frowned again. "So that means we have to split up?"
Koichi nodded sadly. "For now, yes. It's needed in order to get a handle on these Digimon appearing."
Koji gave a grunt. "It sucks, but the threat of the Digimon comes first. We've already talked to JP, Zoe, and Tommy about it. They're going to try to find a way to deal with Digimon in Japan until they can travel around easier."
Takuya nodded. "Okay." He then sighed. "This bites…"
"Don't worry about it, we may not be in Amity Park anymore, but we'll still be in the states, if you need us, let us know and we'll be here as fast as we can," Koichi encouraged. "Besides, you have a lot of help here already, even if they still need a bit more training."
Takuya gave a chuckle. "Yeah, you're right." He then smiled. "Just be careful you two."
"We can say the same to you," Koji said. "Good luck with the ghosts and the Digimon. We'll be sure to keep you updated on things."
Takuya nodded. "Thanks."
That conversation was about two days ago, Takuya couldn't help but let out a sigh as he laid in bed, staring at the ceiling. He wished Koji and Koichi could've stayed, but they were needed elsewhere right now.
Sitting up, Takuya took out his D-Tector and frowned to himself. Is someone trying to split us Legendary Warriors up? He had to admit, that was a possible reason for that Doggymon evolving and running out of the town, but he didn't want to rule out anything else either.
Meanwhile, Andy and Dorimon were in the living room, seeing Danny coming back from the lab. He was shivering a little, like he was cold.
"You okay, Danny?" Andy asked in concern.
"Y-yeah… just… c-can a ghost get frostbite?" Danny questioned.
"What?" Andy blinked before frowning. "What happened?"
Danny sighed. "I wanted to try to map out the Ghost Zone a little… then I got attacked by a ghost called Klemper who… has a very odd obsession with wanting to be a friend."
"Oh… is that really bad?" Andy asked, raising an eyebrow. "Wait, you went into the Ghost Zone?"
"Yeah, to map it out." Danny replied. "But I was careful to avoid Walker's area!" He added to reassure Andy.
"Still, why did you go without telling me?" Andy pouted. "I would've loved to see more of the Ghost Zone!"
"Eeh? Really? Even though you almost got yourself killed in there?" Danny frowned.
"Hey, that's not going to deter me. Besides, you half died in the portal, yet you're still going in there," Andy pointed out.
Danny grumbled. "Don't remind me…" He crossed his arms in a pout almost.
"I just think it'd be fascinating to learn more about the ghost's world, you know? The first time it was scary, yeah, but I was mostly focused on trying to find you, as well as Tucker and Sam. But if we go in there just to map it out, I'd love to study it more," Andy remarked. "I mean it's not every day you get to see what a completely different world is like."
"There's the Digital World, it's a lot less… crazy than the ghost world," Dorimon spoke up from the couch.
Danny chuckled. "Two unknown worlds to explore. I bet your mind is going to be overloaded with excitement and knowledge~"
"Well I am the son of two brilliant scientists, I had to inherit something from them," Andy chuckled. "By the way, why did that friendly ghost make you cold?"
"He has ice powers, and tried to freeze me. Not to mention he was really creepy, trying to crush me in a hug, and not in a good way," Danny shivered.
"Did you bring anyone with you to the Ghost Zone?" Andy asked.
"Yeah. Tucker was with me, as was Sam." Danny replied.
"Oh good, you brought them, but not me," Andy rolled his eyes. "So did Tucker ever tell you why he disappeared that night when we were at the Axion Labs?"
"Tucker apparently went home after he got bored waiting for us." Danny replied. "He said he had a new song he wanted to listen to."
"That doesn't sound like Tucker… wanting to leave in the middle of a mission like that I mean." Andy frowned.
"Yeah, but I didn't question it when he told me." Danny replied with a bit of a frown as well. "It's odd, now that I think about it."
"I guess we'll talk to him about it later," Andy remarked. "But… the next time you decide to go to the Ghost Zone, you better take me with you."
"Should be fun traversing through the Ghost Zone now that I can actually become big and fly," Dorimon chuckled.
Danny chuckled as well. "As long as you don't tick off any ghosts, you should be fine."
Dorimon giggled at that.
"Jazz?" Lopmon looked at his human partner, who was lying on her stomach on her bed, and appeared to be listening to some kind of music, but she had those earmuffs on her ears.
Lopmon hopped up onto Jazz's bed, seeing the earmuffs had a wire, and it was connected to a radio. Lopmon plucked the earmuffs off of Jazz, who looked up from her book in surprise.
"What? I was listening to that!" Jazz exclaimed. "Why did you remove my headphones?"
Lopmon frowned, he wasn't quite up to date with human technology, but that wasn't his main concern right now. "You've been listening to this music for the past 2 days now. It's unusual for someone to be listening to the same thing over and over again without getting sick of it. I'm also getting worried for you. I've noticed that you…"
Lopmon looked at the book Jazz was reading, it wasn't actually a book, but a cover for a magazine Jazz was actually reading. "You've been… neglecting your studies… which is really unlike you."
"So? This song is amazing!" Jazz replied. "I mean, the singer is so good, I can't focus on anything else!"
"And that right there is the problem! This isn't normal!" Lopmon spoke up. "Let me hear that song."
Jazz smiled. "Really? That's great!" She shoved the earmuffs, or headphones rather, onto Lopmon's ears and he listened to the song for a while, but there was nothing out of the ordinary that he could pick up on.
Lopmon removed the earmuffs and looked at Jazz. "I don't understand what is so impressive about that song."
Jazz scoffed. "I figured you wouldn't." She took the earmuffs and put them back on. Lopmon didn't like what was going on.
Since Jazz was obviously too into it, Lopmon decided to go talk to someone who wasn't mindlessly listening to the same song over and over again.
"Aren't you a little more worried about the fact your cousin won't stop listening to the same music over and over?" Lopmon questioned the Warrior of Flame.
Takuya sighed. "It's just a teenage girl thing. They like to get into all sorts of new pop stars when one comes up. It's normal."
Lopmon frowned. "I guess… do a lot of humans get into these kinds of… singers easily?"
"Sure. It happens a lot." Takuya replied as he sat back down on his bed. "It's normal for humans to get into certain songs or groups easily, especially if they find it suits their taste in music."
"Jazz didn't seem to be the type to be into rock or roll… or is it star and rock?" Lopmon frowned.
"You were right the first time. It's rock and roll." Takuya pointed out. "And I'm sure Jazz is just fine. She may have found this new singer is just her type of artist."
Lopmon frowned a little before he started to leave the room. "Even if you think it's normal, I'm going to keep an eye on Jazz."
Takuya watched as the little brown and pink bunny Digimon left his room. He couldn't believe that Lopmon was the same Cherubimon he had battled against all those years ago. Lopmon was almost acting like a protective hen with Jazz.
Heh… It's funny that Cherubimon, or rather Lopmon, is like a mother hen with Jazz. It feels like he's a different Digimon now. Takuya mused as he sighed to himself. I mean of course he's different, he's not all corrupted like he was back then. But I feel bad for suspecting him of being behind all those Digimon coming to this world.
"So you're worried about Jazz?" Dorimon asked when Lopmon decided to talk to him about his worries.
"Takuya says it's normal, but I don't know. It just doesn't seem like Jazz to skip her studies to listen to a song over and over," Lopmon remarked.
Dorimon blinked. "Well, maybe just keep an eye on her. It can't be that bad, but if you're worried, it may help to do that."
"I guess… Where's your partner?" Lopmon asked.
"He's in the lab with Danny, talking about a bunch of ghostly stuff. I decided to stay here until they bring me some snacks," Dorimon answered.
"I was going to talk to them about their sister. They seem to know her more than Takuya does," Lopmon muttered.
"Yeah, Takuya lived in Japan since he was… I think 8 years old? Danny and Andy lived with Jazz all their lives," Dorimon explained.
"I'll try to talk to them tomorrow then. I don't want to keep them up on a school night," Lopmon sighed. "If anything happens, I'll let you guys know as soon as possible."
Dorimon nodded. "Okay. That sounds good."
The next morning at Casper High
"Tucker… where did you get that T-shirt? And that barrett?" Danny asked his techno friend.
Tucker was wearing a black T-Shirt with a blue flame design in the front. He was also wearing a purple barrett with a similar blue flame at the front.
"I bought it." Tucker replied. "Ember is the best!"
"Ember? You mean that music you were listening to in the Specter Speeder while we were mapping out the Ghost Zone?" Sam frowned, wearing some kind of earphones in her ears.
"Yeah." Tucker replied. "She is so amazingly good!"
"What? Who's Ember?" Andy asked.
Tucker gasped. "You don't know who Ember is!?"
"Uh… no?" Andy blinked.
Tucker quickly pulled out his PDA. "Then you must listen to her song right now!"
Danny blinked. "Tucker, I'm sure Andy doesn't want to hear the song right now."
But Tucker ignored him and pushed the play button. The song began playing in a loud blaring way, Danny was sure half the school could hear it.
"~Ooooh, Ember, you will remember! Ooooh, Ember, you will remember my name~!" The song was so loud, it seemed impossible to believe it came from the small PDA.
Andy blinked as he listened to the song. Then something in his pocket beeped for a second. Andy reached into his pocket and looked at his D-Arc. The screen on the D-Arc was glowing green for some reason. Dorimon wasn't reacting in his backpack, however, and Danny's ghost sense wasn't going off, so it likely wasn't because a ghost was nearby.
"What do you think, Andy? She's the greatest, isn't she?" Tucker smiled.
"I don't get it though," Danny spoke up, trying to talk over the loud playing music. "This Ember shows up out of nowhere and suddenly she's the hottest thing since the Nintendo Switch. It's kind of…"
"Infuriating how mindless prepacked corporate bubblegum is keeping true musical artists from being heard?" Sam asked.
"I was going to say 'weird', but that works too," Danny chuckled.
"Andy, back me up here," Tucker said. "Maybe you could say something to get these two understand just how important Ember is in life."
Andy blinked. The song was pretty good, but he wouldn't go as far to say she was so good that she was important to everyone's lives like Tucker seemed to be making her out to be.
"She's… okay, I guess? But why is she such a big deal? Does she have any other songs?" Andy asked.
Tucker blinked. "Of course she does! But this song is one of the best, and it's considered her signature song!"
"Huh… seems you're really into her," Andy chuckled.
"Of course! Besides, she's also an expression of my unique individuality~" Tucker smiled as they turned the corner in the hallway.
The four of them stopped when they saw the rest of the school was covered in Ember posters. All the students, including Valerie and Jazz, were wearing Ember T-Shirts and pants. Andy had to admit that Valerie looked pretty good in those black shirts and pants with the blue flames. Though Takuya and Dash were the only ones wearing normal clothes, besides Andy, Danny, and Sam.
Danny blinked. "Okay… That's weird…"
Sam was not impressed. "Oh, yeah, you're one of a kind, every single one of you…"
Then Paulina approached them. Andy frowned at the girl. Paulina looked at him for a moment, and at Sam. Andy was still holding his D-Arc in his hand.
"Nice earrings, and nice digital pet," Paulina remarked, referring to the Fenton earphones in Sam's ears, and the D-Arc in Andy's hand. "Did you get those at the 89 cents store, or did you just pick those up at the lost and found?"
"For your information, Paulina, the earrings are a gift. Danny gave them to me." Sam said as she walked up beside Danny.
Danny gave a sheepish grin, he didn't want Paulina thinking he and Sam were dating.
"Really? He gave you earrings?" Paulina blinked. "Wow, I always knew you two losers would end up together. And you…" Paulina looked at Andy. "You really need to stop playing with such childish toys."
"We're not losers!" Sam snapped.
"And we're not together," Danny quickly corrected.
Andy gritted his teeth. "I'll show you a digital pet…"
But before Andy could do anything, Tucker cut in with his song. "Ember! Go Ember! Remember! Go Ember!"
"WILL YOU KEEP IT DOWN!?" Danny, Sam, and even Andy all shouted at Tucker at the same time.
Tucker gave a sheepish grin. "Uh… sorry."
Meanwhile, Takuya and Dash felt out of place around the other students. Dash was looking at Kwan, who was wearing a purple and white leather jacket instead of the usual red and red leather jacket, as well as a black shirt with a big blue flame on it with the letter 'e' inside it.
"I'm actually surprised you didn't get one of these yourself, Dash," Kwan admitted. "Did you not hear Ember's radical song?"
"I heard it, I just… didn't see what the big deal was," Dash admitted.
"Maybe we should kick you out of the club," Calvin muttered, who was also wearing the same purple jacket and blue flaming shirt.
Dash frowned. "Look, I just don't get the big deal. The song is good ,yes, but it's nothing to worship this Ember over."
The other jocks gasped at this, as if Dash just said something forbidden.
"Okay, I'm just gonna go over to my locker and get ready for class…" Dash quickly said before he sidestepped away.
While Takuya did tell Lopmon this was normal, he was starting to think maybe this was going a little overboard.
The Warrior of Flame wasn't liking this. Okay… Maybe I was wrong about the whole Ember thing being a phase for Jazz. It certainly can't be a phase if the whole school is this obsessed with her.
Takuya walked over to where Andy, Sam, Tucker, and Danny were. "Is it just me, or is the whole school crazy for this Ember?"
"You just don't understand Ember like the rest of us do," Tucker grumbled before he walked away from the group.
Takuya frowned, seeing Tucker had fallen for the Ember craze as well.
"I did say it was pretty weird," Danny admitted.
"But what can we do? It's not like we could just stop this Ember from rising to stardom if people like her music that much," Sam grumbled. "Even if they are just mindless corporation music."
Andy was studying his D-Arc, trying to figure out why it was glowing green, but when Tucker walked away, it stopped.
Takuya saw Andy had out his D-Arc. "Something wrong, Andy? You've been staring at that for a while."
"Yeah, bro, is something wrong?" Danny asked.
"I'm not sure. It was glowing green for a while, then it just stopped. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it though," Andy said as he looked his D-Arc over for any possible damages, but it looked to be in perfect condition.
"Huh… That's odd." Takuya said as he looked at it as well. Then he paused in his thoughts. Wait… Why am I not falling into this Ember craze? I mean, the music is catchy yes, but it's certainly nothing to be crazy over...
"Just keep an eye on it. If Dorimon is acting weird, or if it starts to glow again, maybe try having a mechanic check it out or something," Sam suggested.
"It's a device created by something not of this world. I highly doubt an ordinary mechanic would be able to fix it," Andy stated.
Takuya sighed. "Andy's right. That D-Arc is from the Digital World. Human technology will not mesh with it well, nor will a human be able to understand the mechanics behind it."
"So… what do you do if your D-Arc or whatever gets a glitch or something?" Sam asked.
Andy and Takuya looked at each other, that was a good question.
With class starting, everyone took their seats in Mr. Lancer's classroom. Unfortunately, it was that time of year again, and Mr. Lancer turned up his strict mode due to it.
"As you know, the Northwestern Nine Standardized Testing starts in two days, and because my bonus is proportional to your grades, we've installed the Cram-Tastic Mark V, the latest in state of the art subliminal study aid technology." Mr. Lancer said as everyone sat at their desks, with odd helmets on their heads that were wired right to the machine he was standing next to.
I'm like… 75% sure this is illegal… Andy frowned, looking at the three monitor screens that were flashing 'stand by' in front of him, and the helmet felt uncomfortable on his head. It almost feels like this is going to brainwash us.
Not that far off, Takuya was looking nervous as heck. Okay… I don't think this is normal… He wanted to rip off the helmet and get to studying the old-fashioned way instead.
Even most of the nerds who were usually the smartest when it came to school were looking around nervously. It was likely they believed the machine was going to melt their brains.
"Let the learning begin!" Mr. Lancer grinned as he pushed a red button on the machine beside him.
All of a sudden, a face of what appeared to be a teenage girl wearing white makeup on her skin, black eyeliner under her green eyes, her black leather suit that was exposing a lot of skin, holding a glowing looking purple guitar, as well as what appears to be green-blue flaming hair, began singing loudly into a microphone came on the computer screens.
"~Ember, so warm and tender! You will remember my name~!"
Everyone stood up and started cheering for the image of the singer, well, everyone save for Andy, Danny, Sam, Takuya, and Dash. They just removed their helmets because the loud blaring music was giving them a headache. Andy's D-Arc beeped again, and he took out, seeing the screen was glowing green once more.
Mr. Lancer turned off the machine, and opened the disc opener. He pulled out a CD and gritted his teeth in anger. It wasn't the educational CD, it was a live Ember concert CD. Just as Mr. Lancer pulled it out and demanded to know who put the CD in there, there was a loud drumming noise.
Mr. Lancer's eyes narrowed in on Tucker. "FOLLY! TURN OFF THAT BLASTED PDA!"
Then Mr. Lancer threw the CD like a ninja throwing a shuriken, and it perfectly hit Tucker's hand that made him drop his PDA.
What the heck? Is Mr. Lancer secretly a ninja or something? Andy blinked. … At this point, it wouldn't surprise me.
Andy looked between his half ghost brother, and his Warrior of Flame cousin.
"It's not me, it's coming from outside!" Tucker exclaimed before he took off his helmet, then stood up and ran to the open windows, everyone else doing the same thing.
A large stage truck pulled up on the driveway, there were a couple of giant stereos that were blasting out the music they were hearing.
Then, in a flash of purple smoke, the same teenage girl that had appeared on the computer screens appeared in person. She was smiling as her band members appeared behind her in puffs of purple smoke as well. They were a drummer, and two other guitarists.
Then, the teenage girl began to play her purple and blue guitar. "~Yeah! Ooooohhhh~!"
At hearing her voice, the other students in the classroom suddenly eyed the door to the exit. Andy paled when he realized he was standing a little too close to the door. Oh…. crud!
Andy yelped as he quickly tried to move out of the way just before the stampede went running out the door like wildebeests.
People from Casper High began to flow out into the street, cheering for the teenage rocker.
Up in the classroom, Takuya ran to Andy's side. "Andy! Are you okay?"
Dorimon had rolled out of his backpack just when Andy got flattened in the stampede. Danny was also by his twin's side in concern.
Andy groaned as he was lying facedown on the floor. "I… hate… this… craze…"
Takuya and Danny looked at each other before they both picked up Andy and started moving outside. Sam picked up Dorimon since he had to keep pretending he was a toy.
"I didn't think the other students would be this crazy…" Takuya muttered as he held Andy's right arm over his shoulders, Danny holding Andy's left over his shoulders.
"Me neither… the more I think about it, the weirder it is," Danny agreed.
Andy grumbled as he looked up at them. "I didn't get a good look… but I could've sworn Ember's hair was literally on fire."
Hearing that, Takuya paused. "Huh?"
"Let's go out and see this Ember ourselves," Sam spoke up, getting suspicious as she held onto Dorimon.
The group walked outside. Andy got back on his feet. "I can stand, thanks guys."
Takuya and Danny looked at Andy in concern, but did let go of the boy before they drew their attention to Ember herself. So many teenagers were outside, giving loud cheering.
The teenage rocker, who had to be Ember, smiled at the cheering. "Hello, Casper High! Tell me who you love!"
As the teenagers chanted her name, Ember relished in the cheers of the crowd before her. The flame of her ponytail suddenly flared up, yet people kept chanting her name as if that was completely normal.
"That's right, say my name!" Ember smiled. "Are you ready for a little youth revolution!?"
The crowd rushed forward, just as Tucker came rushing out and tried to jump onto their hands so they could carry him, but he fell. Despite this, the crowd picked him up and started carrying him closer to Ember.
"We love you, Ember!" Tucker cheered.
"That's because I fill an empty void in your lives!" Ember said, as if answering Tucker.
Takuya then felt a sudden flash of heat in his body as he gasped. "Uh oh…"
At the same time, a familiar blue mist came out of Danny's mouth. Dorimon shivered in Sam's arms, growling a little at Ember and her band.
"Yup, her hair is definitely on fire," Andy sighed.
Takuya frowned. "Either Ember is something not human, or that is just a stage trick, but I doubt it's the latter."
"Of course she's not human, she's a ghost," Dorimon hissed.
Lopmon suddenly came running towards them, squeezing himself through the crowd of people. Nobody seemed to be paying any attention to the walking rabbit.
"This is bad, I didn't know that this Ember was a ghost!" Lopmon frowned. "These humans are in danger!"
Takuya looked at Andy. "Andy…" His voice said it all. Should I evolve?
Mr. Lancer then ran into the middle of the crowd, and held up a megaphone. "Attention freakishly dressed teen idol! I order you to cease and desist!"
"Get inside and do what you need to do," Andy said to Takuya. "Danny, you better… do what you need to do before Mr. Lancer gets himself hurt. Dorimon, come with me."
Dorimon hopped out of Sam's arms and followed Andy around the crowd. Takuya hurried into the building, not hearing what Danny and Sam said after Andy and Dorimon ran off. He nearly ran right into Dash.
"Whoa, Takuya, where's the fire?" Dash asked.
Takuya looked at Dash. "Ember. She's the 'fire' so to speak. I got a flash of heat from my Spirits. They normally do that when a ghost is around."
Dash blinked. "Wait… She's a ghost?!"
"Yes! Now I have to evolve before she does something! You better evolve too, Dash, I might need your help," Takuya quickly said.
"R-right!" Dash pulled out his D-Tector.
Dash held up his D-Tector as the tan digital form of his first Spirit appeared visible on the screen of his D-Tector as he held up his hand with the fractal coding around it. He swiped the D-Tector over the coding, calling out the familiar phrase he would come to know by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" His clothes ripped away as his body became digital, and the process began. Coding surrounded him as the power of the Spirit flowed into his body. Dash felt his body increase in strength and power as he felt his skin become more like wood and he felt his senses increase in sharpness and sensitivity. His eyes turned a golden color as he finally landed, crying out his name as he did so. "Arbormon!"
Takuya held up his own D-Tector as the blue digital form of his first Spirit appeared visible on the screen of his D-Tector as he formed the familiar fractal coding on his left hand. He swiped the D-Tector over the coding, calling out the familiar phrase he knew by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" His clothes ripped away as his body became digital, and the process began. Coding surrounded him as the power of the Spirit flowed into his body. Red armor formed and latched onto his body as his hair changed to blonde and became long and wild. His height increased, as did his strength and agility. His eyes snapped open, now a brilliant blue instead of brown, and his teeth were sharper than a human's as well. He landed, crying out his name. "Agunimon!"
As soon as the two Warriors finished evolving, they hurried back outside.
However, while the Warriors were evolving, they didn't quite see what happened before. Ember was smirking evilly at Mr. Lancer, who turned a notch on her guitar. "Desist this, grandpa!"
Ember strummed her guitar, releasing a spiral of purple ghost energy into the crowd. Andy and Dorimon were caught up in it as they had been running toward the crowd. Dorimon and Andy let out gasps as they fell to the ground. The D-Arc's screen was flashing green and red, Dorimon looked weakened.
"Ugh… I don't feel so good…" Dorimon groaned.
Andy heard voices in his head, they sounded like whispers of something. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but he couldn't get them to shut up. He curled in on himself as he gripped on his head, scared that he might be going crazy.
Danny noticed something was wrong with Andy, but he could see that the crowd was under Ember's control. Their eyes were glowing red, and they all turned to Mr. Lancer with such venom that Danny didn't doubt they would literally tear the teacher apart as soon as they got a hold of him.
"Oh my gosh…" Danny exclaimed. "This is really bad!" He then tapped into his ghostly core and turned into his Phantom form. "I gotta save Mr. Lancer! Then check on Andy… Sam, you stay here with Lopmon."
Sam didn't have time to say anything, because Danny flew off. Danny hurried over to Mr. Lancer who was getting quickly surrounded. Danny touched Mr. Lancer's back and turned him intangible. He waited as the crowd of mind controlled students ran right through them. Mr. Lancer had his eyes shut, so he didn't know that the people were passing through him. Danny had to wait a little bit since there were so many people, but when they all finally ran past them, Danny released Mr. Lancer and flew over to Andy. He was more concerned for his brother than Ember right now.
"Andy, you okay, bro?" Danny asked as he hovered down beside his twin.
Andy groaned, still gripping his head. Dorimon looked like he could barely move. Danny noticed that Andy's D-Arc was lying beside him, and the screen was flashing between green and red.
Agunimon and Arbormon noticed that the crowd of students looked like angry mobs with red eyes. They were homing in on the school staff, surrounding the teachers with such hate in their eyes that it scared them they would really hurt these people.
"Oh boy…" Agunimon muttered. "This is going to get tricky…"
"How so?" Arbormon asked.
"Using our attacks is out of the question because we could really hurt someone." Agunimon clarified. "We'll have to get somewhat physical if we're to keep the students away from the teachers."
Arbormon frowned at that. "I guess that makes sense."
Both of them split up to try to take care of the crowd of rabid fans. Due to their immense strength, they were able to push back or grab some of the bolder students away from the school staff.
Agunimon grunted as he pushed a few students back, trying to keep himself from actually hurting anyone. "This is nuts! It's like they're being mind-controlled or something!"
"No, really? I'm pretty sure the red eyes give it away, genius." Arbormon noted as he pulled a few students back as well.
The red-armored Digimon just rolled his blue eyes at the sarcastic remark before returning his mind to the task at hand.
Meanwhile, Danny knew something was wrong with his brother, and whatever it was, it wasn't external. The older twin was torn between fighting with Ember or helping Andy fight off whatever was going on with him. Deciding to follow his heart, Danny turned himself intangible and flew into Andy's body.
When Danny found Andy's soul, he saw it being attacked by fire, or at least some kind of ghostly fire. The flames seemed to be whispering something to him.
Danny flew over, and, considering he was inside Andy's body, hesitated on using his ghost ray. So, because he didn't want to hurt his twin's soul, decided to try and shoo the flames out of his brother's body. "Okay! Go on! Shoo!"
The flames hissed, they didn't seem to want to cooperate. Danny noticed something else, however. There was some kind of code, like data, code he would see on Dorumon whenever he would digivolve or regenerate. The code was wrapping itself around the flames, almost as if trying to squeeze them and fight back. Danny then got an idea, he allowed his ghost ray to appear on his gloved hands, making them glow. He didn't fire his ghost rays, but he did move his hands close to the flames. The flames hissed at his hands, getting further and further away.
Danny continued to float towards the flames, moving them away from Andy's soul and towards the code, which was now getting more aggressive with the ghostly flames and wrapping itself around them even more. Danny wasn't sure how, but he felt like he recognized the code.
The code kept wrapping around the ghostly flames until the flames were completely engulfed in the code. Then, the code seemed to squeeze tightly, as if trying to snuff out the ghostly flames. The flames hissed and tried to escape, but the code's presence only seemed to extinguish the flames the moment they touched it. Once the flames were completely extinguished, the code unwrapped itself, and circled around Danny for a moment.
Danny stood, or rather floated, completely still, hoping the code wouldn't try to squeeze him to death. The code, however, seemed to not deem him as a threat, and moved away from him before it began to circle around Andy's soul. Danny blinked as he watched the code then slowed down, and just continued to circle around Andy's soul in a calm manner. It almost reminded Danny of the ring of Saturn in a way.
Is this code acting like some kind of barrier to Andy's soul? Danny wondered. That might be it, it must be trying to protect him from whatever spell Ember was using, but it wasn't strong enough this time, that's why it suddenly became a struggle here.
Seeing that his brother's soul was safe for now, Danny left his brother's body. As soon as he did, he looked down at Andy. Andy looked up at Danny for a moment.
"Thanks… whatever you did, it seemed to have stopped the voices," Andy said gratefully.
Danny held out a hand to help Andy up. "No problem, bro."
Andy took his brother's gloved hand. "Oh jeez, you're really cold!"
Danny rolled his eyes as he helped Andy onto his feet. "Well I am a ghost."
Dorimon yawned, looking much better now before getting back on all fours. "We should probably do something about that pop princess."
Danny looked back. "Yeah, we probably should… Huh?" He blinked. "W-where did she go?"
Andy looked too, and was surprised to see not only Ember, but the entire band, as well as the stage truck, were all gone. All the students in the area looked to be in a daze, their eyes were no longer red either. Agunimon and Arbormon could finally breathe easy, seeing how the other students weren't trying to kill the school staff anymore.
"Okay…? That's odd…" Agunimon noted, seeing how the students seemed to be fine now, if not dazed. "They're back to normal now…"
"I think I know why. That Ember rock star is gone," Arbormon pointed out. "Guess she took her evil mind controlling powers with her."
Sam, who was holding Lopmon now, approached Tucker and Jazz, who were also in a daze as well.
"Are you two okay?" Sam asked in concern.
"No encore? What's that about?" Tucker pouted.
"No. There was no encore!" Jazz exclaimed in an indignant manner.
"Encore? You don't need an encore from her!" Lopmon snapped.
Sam quickly put a hand on Lopmon's head, mindful of the three spikes on top, before returning her attention back to Jazz and Tucker. "Listen, we need to talk. In private. With Danny, Andy, and Takuya."
"Okay…?" Jazz questioned.
Tucker frowned. "Okay. I guess we can."
While the school staff was cleaning up the aftermath of Ember's little stunt, Danny and Sam brought their little group to the back of the school to talk in private. Danny, Andy, Dorimon, Sam, Lopmon, Jazz, Tucker, and Takuya were fathered around. Dash, since he was a jock, and only Takuya, Andy, and Dorimon knew about his Warrior status, he had to get back in the school building.
"So you're saying Ember is a ghost… who has the power to use music to mind control people?" Jazz frowned.
Danny nodded. "Yeah. Apparently she is. I saw her manipulate the student body to attack the staff here when she strummed that guitar of hers. The eyes of every student turned red, including you and Tucker."
"Wow, she's definitely hot." Tucker smiled.
"She's a mind controlling ghost, the only thing hot about her is the fact she can control fire apparently," Andy grumbled.
Takuya frowned. "I don't know about you guys, but this screams 'danger' to me."
"But you say the same thing about Paulina," Tucker pointed out.
"You know, he has a point," Danny agreed.
"First off, Paulina isn't a ghost with supernatural powers… that we know of right now anyways," Andy muttered. "Second, that comment really isn't helping right now, Danny. Third, the fact that Tucker isn't taking this seriously shows how much of a hold Ember has on him already. You should be a little more concerned right now."
Danny frowned. "Yeah, I guess you do have a point, bro."
"What I don't understand is… if Ember really is mind controlling us with her music…" Jazz spoke up, seeming to understand the situation better than Tucker did, despite having fallen for Ember's spell. "Then why aren't all of you affected?"
Hearing that, Takuya froze. Oh… crap… How are we going to explain that?
"I could guess that Danny's… unique relationship with Phantom makes him either immune or resistant to Ember's song," Lopmon spoke up. "A ghost's power doesn't work as well on other ghosts as they do on mortal beings like humans and animals. But that's not to say that other ghosts can't be affected by ghost powers either, so you better be careful not to get overexposed, Danny."
Danny gave a nod. "Yeah, that is understandable. But it doesn't explain why Andy and Takuya aren't affected either."
"Takuya… might have something protecting him…" Tucker spoke up a little quietly, likely remembering his experience when he tried to overshadow Takuya before.
Danny remembered what Tucker had told him at that point as well. "Oh… right. But what about Andy and Sam?"
Danny then remembered seeing Dorimon's code that was surrounding Andy's soul when he went into Andy's body earlier when he saw his brother in distress.
"I'm not sure why, I should be falling for Ember's music just as Jazz and Tucker are…" Andy said, just as clueless.
"I think it might be because we're more mature than everyone else is, and our taste in music being different," Sam shrugged.
Andy looked at Sam. "That wouldn't matter when it comes to mind control… though I see you're still wearing those Fenton Earphones… you sure those don't have something to do with it?"
Takuya saw the earphones and snickered. "Did Danny give those to you as a gift?"
Danny and Sam both blushed at that.
"Well, yeah, I wanted to make sure Sam and Tucker were safe from ghostly noises, though I can see Tucker didn't bother keeping his," Danny grumbled.
"They're a fashion don't." Tucker rolled his eyes.
Hearing that, Takuya frowned. "Well, if Sam isn't under mind control, those earphones could have an effect of possibly blocking the noise."
"I don't like that Ember's music, it makes my body feel all stingy," Dorimon grumbled.
"How dare you not like her music? She's awesome!" Tucker frowned.
"I like her music too," Jazz stated. "But… if she is able to mind control us, then maybe I don't really like her music, I just think I do…"
Danny frowned. "If that's the case, then why is she trying to mind control people?"
"Maybe she just wants to be famous and popular, that would totally be something I'd do with sick guitar skills and mind controlling powers." Tucker smiled before he noticed angry eyes were on him. "Err… n-not that I would! Just trying to think like an evil, awesome, guitar playing, hot teenage ghost girl."
Takuya's glare was even worse. "That's not funny, Tucker!" He then sighed. "Can't we find a way to snap Tucker out of this state?"
"What about Jazz?" Lopmon asked. "She's not able to think straight with that ghost's spell on her."
"We'll find a way to break Ember's spell on them," Andy promised. "But we really need to grab more Fenton Earphones in case Ember comes back. I don't know why I wasn't completely affected by Ember's music, but if she does that strong guitar strum like she did before, I might end up falling for her spell as well. Whatever's protecting me wouldn't be strong enough to protect me forever if Ember gets stronger."
Takuya nodded. "More Fenton Earphones would work out."
"There's only one problem, there's only two pairs of the Fenton Earphones. The one I gave to Sam, and the other I gave to Tucker," Danny warned. "That means only one other person can wear them for protection."
Takuya looked down. "Then who will get them?"
"I've got it!" Lopmon spoke up. "If you can give those Fenton Earphones to Jazz, I should be able to purify her mind of Ember's spell through the D-Arc."
"You can do that?" Sam asked, surprised.
Takuya blinked as well. "That's the first I have heard of that." That sounds like what I tend to do when I use my D-Tector.
"Yes. Jazz and I are linked to each other since we became partners. I wasn't able to protect her from Ember's music because she had already overexposed herself to it before I was aware of it," Lopmon explained.
"Oh, that would explain why Andy hasn't been affected yet," Dorimon spoke up. "I've been protecting him subconsciously."
Andy blinked before he remembered those times his D-Arc's screen would glow green whenever Ember's music started playing. "That's right, I think you have, Dorimon."
Takuya gave a smirk at Dorimon. "That's a sneaky trick, but a good one too."
Dorimon blushed. "W-well, you know… gotta protect my partner."
"That would explain Dorimon's code ring I saw around Andy's soul…" Danny muttered.
"I can already feel parts of my data trying to purify Jazz's mind from Ember's spell right now, but because she's been overexposed, and the fact Ember played more of her accursed music, and the fact it's being played constantly at school, I've been having trouble getting rid of that spell." Lopmon frowned.
"It's… true, Ember's music is playing just about everywhere," Jazz admitted.
"Then Jazz gets the Earphones." Takuya replied. "That way we can stop Ember's music from controlling her."
"I'll hurry back to the house and get them then," Danny offered. "I can get there and back the quickest."
Before Takuya could ask, Danny answered. "I have my ways."
Nobody else seemed to be arguing or questioning Danny, so Takuya decided to let it die.
As Danny turned and ran off to get the Fenton Earphones, Takuya looked at Sam. "So… what do we do about Ember? I mean, she can control people's minds."
"I don't know yet. I've always said how rock stars and idols like her usually mind control people with their music, preventing true musical artists from being heard, but I didn't think it was literal in this case," Sam answered back.
"The best way to deal with a ghost is to suck them up in a Fenton Thermos and release them into the Ghost Zone, or at least that's how Danny Phantom had been doing it," Jazz remarked. "But I'm not sure about Ember, it might be difficult for Danny… uh, Phantom to get that close to her without getting hit by her music attacks, and if what Lopmon said is true, then there's a chance that Danny Phantom could get mind controlled as well."
"That's the last thing we need, our best ghost hunter being mind controlled by a ghost," Andy shivered.
Takuya then had a thought, but he was unsure of how to explain it without sounding like he knew too much. Ugh… great… I can't say what I want to say without sounding like I know too much. In this case, I would offer about the 'Legendary Warriors', but I don't know how I can do that without making it look like I know about them.
"I'd say just let Ember sing, she might just want attention is all," Tucker said, not liking the idea of having to suck his favorite idol into a Fenton Thermos.
"And risk others falling under Ember's control? Forget it!" Takuya snapped back, not that he liked snapping at Tucker. It was not the techno-geek's fault he was under mind control, but it was still an annoyance nonetheless.
Tucker frowned. "Jeez, no need to bite my head off, pyro boy. You know what? You can stay out here, discussing all you want about Ember. I'm going back to the school where true Ember fans can appreciate her."
Hearing Tucker call him 'pyro boy' made Takuya tense up on instinct. He had completely forgotten that Tucker had tried to overshadow him before. Tucker got up from the group and walked away.
"Wait, Tucker!" Sam frowned. "You guys go ahead and keep planning, I'll go make sure Tucker doesn't do something stupid."
"We'll have to find a way to break Ember's spell off of him too." Andy frowned.
"When we figure that out, we'll do just that," Sam sighed before she went after Tucker, leaving Andy, Dorimon, Jazz, and Lopmon with Takuya.
Takuya sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "Wow… I could have handled that better, huh?"
"Yes, yes you should have," Jazz sighed. "I know that you're annoyed with him, but to Tucker, and to me to an extent, Ember is someone we look up to. We don't like people bad mouthing her, and we get all defensive about it. I'm trying not to let that blind me to the fact Ember is a ghost, a dangerous one at that, with mind controlling music."
"It also helps you have someone who's trying to get rid of Ember's spell on you as well, Tucker doesn't have someone like that." Andy frowned.
Takuya sighed again. "Well, we can't just sit back and do nothing. I hope Danny gets back with those earphones soon too. The more help we have, the better."
Andy closed his eyes for a moment, his head feeling a little fuzzy. Then an image popped into his mind, he saw another rabbit-like Digimon who seemed to resemble Lopmon, only this Digimon was white and green as opposed to brown and pink. The Lopmon-look-alike was on Tucker's head, smiling at Tucker while Tucker was smiling back at him.
Andy blinked open his eyes, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.
Takuya looked at Andy, noticing his confused look and frowned to himself. "Andy? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine…" Andy answered before he looked at Lopmon. "Lopmon… are there any Digimon that looks kind of like you but with one horn, and is primarily white with green on him? Does Tucker have anyone like that with him?"
"What? That sounds like… Terriermon?" Lopmon blinked. "But why would Tucker have Terriermon with him?"
"I didn't smell any Digimon on Tucker, at least not any new ones," Dorimon stated.
"Why do you ask, Andy?" Lopmon questioned. "How do you even know about Terriermon?"
Takuya frowned at that. I'm wondering that too.
Andy shook his head. "I don't know… I just… I thought I saw… well, maybe I imagined it? I saw Tucker with this Terriermon on his head in my head just a minute ago."
"Really?" Dorimon blinked. "But how? Why?'
"I don't know," Andy sighed. "Come to think of it… something similar happened when I saw Tsukaimon and Vlad before we even met them. And again when I saw Valerie as the Red Huntress before she was even the Red Huntress…"
Takuya blinked. "Huh? You… saw things before they even happened?" Okay… this is getting somewhat freaky for me…
"That's impossible though, seeing into the future is mostly a hoax people make up to scam others out of their money," Jazz said before she looked at her little brother. "But Andy has no reason to lie about this. And considering ghosts and Digimon exist… who am I to say such a power can't exist, right?"
"Wait… see the future?" Andy frowned. "No, I can't see the future, that's impossible. I'm not a psychic or anything."
"The fact you saw Valerie as the Red Huntress before she became the Red Huntress should say otherwise." Takuya pointed out. "Not to mention that dream you had about that ghost that took over Vlad, and Tsukaimon before we even met them."
"I think you mentioned something about the Red Huntress to me too, when we were outside of Axion Labs and Danny was dealing with Cujo," Dorimon remembered.
Andy frowned, he hadn't thought too much about those images since he just figured they were weird daydreams, but the fact that they had come true before he even knew about them…
"Let's see," Lopmon spoke up. "If Terriermon ends up meeting with Tucker, and maybe even become his partner since that is what it seems like will happen according to what Andy told us, then we will have to accept the possibility that Andy here might be a seer."
"Seer?" Takuya asked.
"A seer is someone who can see into the future," Lopmon explained. "If Andy can see into the future, that would make him a seer."
"Oooh! That would be so cool! Having a seer as a partner!" Dorimon smiled as his eyes sparkled.
Andy frowned. "I still don't believe it. I'm sure there are real seers out there, but there's no way in the Ghost Zone I'm a seer."
"Three events coming true three times seems too much to be a mere coincidence." Jazz pointed out.
"There's no way this random daydream I saw of a Terriermon becoming Tucker's partner is going to come true," Andy retorted.
"Indeed, last time we saw Terriermon, he was a Gargomon trying to hunt me down," Lopmon agreed. "The fact he might become Tucker's partner is very unlikely. So if it does come true, then we'll know for sure you are able to see into the future, whether you want to admit it or not."
The boy frowned again, feeling rather uncomfortable at the idea he might be a seer. "14 years, and I'm apparently some kind of seer? I mean I've never had these supposed 'future visions' until recently."
"Most seers don't usually get visions until something awakens that power within them," Lopmon explained. "Something recently must've happened that caused yours to wake up."
"Don't talk like you're already sure I am a seer," Andy grumbled.
Jazz nodded. "I would wait until this event comes to pass or not to determine if Andy is a seer."
"But… what's wrong with being a seer?" Dorimon asked, noticing his partner's unease.
"It's just… it's not really something people can usually do," Andy said quietly. "I would've expected some kind of trained psychic or medium would be a seer, not some normal kid like me."
"A seer is usually born, not made," Lopmon pointed out. "Though I guess there have been cases of humans able to open their minds up to time itself to receive visions of the future, it's extremely rare and unlikely though."
"I guess it'll be something we worry about later then," Dorimon spoke up. "Because we have to deal with the Ember issue right now."
Andy was thankful for the subject change. "When Danny gets back with those Earphones, we'll see what we can do about Ember."
Takuya nodded. "Good idea. I don't want a mind-controlling ghost running around if we can help it."
"Agreed," Andy, Lopmon, and Dorimon all said at the same time while Jazz nonchalantly nodded.
Titanic X: ZAFT: Here you go.
Luna Lillyth: DarkFoxKit: Andy is an important character. Most of the story is sort of in his point of view, though sometimes it does need to be shifted with another character.
ZAFT: That is true. :3 Twists can be fun~ :3
DarkFoxKit: Dorimon is indeed adorable. But here's to hoping he can be more than just that.
GirlFish: ZAFT: Okay, regarding a new partner for Vlad, that is going into spoilers, so just keep reading. :3 As for Andy's reaction, that was the idea. XD
DarkFoxKit: Are you talking about the holy water? Cause no, Takuya doesn't have it anymore. The reason why it didn't affect Andy is because the 'spirit' in Andy isn't a ghost, it's just Andy's own soul. You know, like what people usually have. Andy only ended up acting like a cat was because Danny was comforting his soul, it had nothing to do with the holy water itself.
Vlad becoming Mayor of Amity Park doesn't happen until season 3, and we're still in season 1, soooo…. Yeah, that's gonna be a while. We're not going to be thinking about that plot point until we get to it.