Digital Phantom

by ZAFT Convoy

Three worlds coexist side by side yet never interacting; one of life, one of death, and one artificial. Twins Andy and Danny are roped in when an accident occurs and a relative returns from Japan. But the twins are on opposite sides; Danny on the world of death, Andy on the artificial. Can they find out how the three worlds rely on each other? Or will they fall to an enemy in wait?

28. Remember Ember's Name

DarkFoxKit: Have you seen Andy or Takuya ZAFT?

ZAFT: I think I saw Andy and Takuya playing with Dorimon.

DarkFoxKit: Wait… Dorimon is here now as well? This isn't a hang-out place for our characters! This is supposed to be a place for us to do the pre-author stuff before the story begins.

ZAFT: Ugh… Okay, Dorimon goes back you two. *Puts Dorimon back in chapter*

Andy: Hey! We were just about to feed Dorimon all that scrap metal we don't need! He looked so happy too…

DarkFoxKit: Don't go bringing friends here without our permission. We don't want to clutter up the ANs.

ZAFT: We have to keep this area clean for pre-chapter stuff. :P

Takuya: Well, it was fun while it lasted.

DarkFoxKit: Come on, let's get the readers into the chapter.

---

Chapter 28: Remember Ember's Name

Although Danny came back quickly and gave Jazz the Fenton Earphones, none of them had heard from Ember again outside of her song being played by someone at school at random times. Later that night, Danny, Agunimon, and Arbormon patrolled around the city to try to find that teen rock star ghost, but there was strangely no sight of her. Since it was late, Danny told Andy, Sam, and Tucker to stay home and get some sleep while he finished up the patrol.

Danny frowned as he landed near the closed Nasty Burger. "You'd think a rock star like Ember would be pretty easy to find, yet I haven't seen her at all since yesterday afternoon…"

Danny heard some heavy sounding footsteps, and an annoyed grunt on the other side of the Nasty Burger building. Curious, Danny poked his head from the corner of the Nasty Burger, surprised to see that Agunimon Digimon resting there, leaning against the wall. He had that Arbormon Digimon with him as well.

"What up with those two?" Danny muttered to himself.

Danny turned himself invisible and slowly floated closer to them so they wouldn't hear his footsteps.

"-n't find that Ember ghost anywhere in town," Arbormon stated. "Have you talked to Koji or Koichi in the next town if they've heard of her?"

Agunimon shook his head. "No. They reported nothing." He then stretched.

How do they know about Koji and Koichi? Danny wondered.

"So much for that." Arbormon muttered. "You think she would be more noticed given how much of a star she is."

"Yeah, and nobody else thinks this is weird," Agunimon grumbled.

"Considering that she's using mind control to gain her fans, that's probably not hard to figure out why," Arbormon pointed out.

"Can't you sense Ember like you did with Andy before?" Agunimon asked.

"No, I've tried that already. It's like she vanished from the face of the planet," Arbormon answered. "It's already 11 something, we should call it a night and turn in. I don't know about you, but I would rather not be too tired for school tomorrow."

Agunimon nodded. "Yeah, I guess we should." As soon as he said that, the Warrior of Flame felt a yawn escape him, which revealed his sharp fangs. "I'm already feeling sleep coming up on me."

So they can sleep… I suppose that makes sense, Dorimon and Lopmon sleep too. Danny noted.

Agunimon and Arbormon stood back up and began to move quickly away from the area. Danny thought about following them, but he remembered that Digimon had ways to sense when a ghost was nearby. He was lucky they didn't sense him, they were likely too distracted talking to each other to notice him, and he hadn't been exerting a lot of ghostly powers near them. Danny landed on the ground and let go of his invisibility as he watched them go.

"I wonder about them… why do they keep showing up sometimes…?" Danny asked himself. "They seem to want to help with the Ember issue as well… if I could just talk to them…"

The ghost boy thought to himself for a moment. He remembered how Andy would usually be near Agunimon during the battles they've faced. Takuya was never around though, even though he was usually with Andy before the fighting started. Not only that, but Agunimon used fire as his main attacks, and Tucker mentioned something about Takuya being protected by walls of fire when he tried to overshadow him. I wonder… does Takuya have some kind of connection with Agunimon?

Danny decided to call it a night himself, figuring he could find out more tomorrow. With a yawn, Danny then turned invisible and took off back towards Fenton Works.

---

The next day at school, the Ember craze was at an all time high. The school was now covered in decorations for Ember. There were posters of Ember all over the place, all the school text books were replaced with Ember magazines. Although there wasn't a dress code in Casper High, the school staff weren't too happy to see almost all their students were wearing something Ember related, including make-up and hair wigs.

Mr. Lancer in particular was not happy at all, as his swear of "Chicken Soup For the Soul!" indicated.

Danny and Sam, along with Andy and Dorimon, who was comfortably laying in Andy's backpack, made their way to Tucker, who had an Ember wig on his head, as well as the black eyeliner, and his clothes. "You're starting to creep me out, Tuck." Danny remarked. "And I fight ghosts."

"It's an Ember thing, you wouldn't understand it," Tucker remarked.

"Dude, seriously? We just had this discussion yesterday," Andy sighed.

"Yeah, but he's so into Ember that he doesn't care," Sam grumbled. "We probably need to find Tucker his own Digimon or something to snap him out of it."

"Why… would Tucker have a Digimon of his own?" Andy asked nervously.

"It was just a remark, Andy. No need to get nervous," Sam said, not really sure why Andy was acting that way. "By the way, how has Jazz been?"

"It looks like she's able to snap out of it, she doesn't seem to care about listening to Ember's music anymore since I gave her the Fenton Earphones and Lopmon had been working to detox her of Ember's song," Danny answered.

Sam smiled. "That's good to hear."

"Good for her, I guess, but even if you 'snapped me out of it', I would always be an Ember fan, you can't take that away from me!" Tucker proudly announced.

"How do you know you actually like Ember yourself or if it's her mind controlling music that's making you like her?" Andy questioned.

"I just do!" Tucker exclaimed with pride before a voice spoke up.

"Wow. What's with the wig?" Tucker jumped and turned, only to see Takuya behind him.

"It's an Ember thing, you wouldn't understand it," Tucker said, repeating what he told Danny earlier.

"Dude… that's creepy." Danny muttered. "He just repeated himself."

Takuya looked at Danny. "Really? Then I guess Ember's mind control is making Tucker into an android then."

"No, that was just the best answer I had for you," Tucker grumbled.

"We've pretty much lost him to the Ember side," Sam sighed.

Suddenly, Paulina walked up to the group. Takuya and Andy barely recognized her because of all the make-up she had put on her face, and her clothes were almost exactly identical to Ember's, even her hair looked like Ember with the wig she was wearing.

"Hey everyone! Ember's giving away free concert tickets at Buckey's Music Megastore! We need to get there now or we'll miss out!" Paulina announced before she noticed Tucker's wig. "Nice hair!"

Andy, Sam, and Takuya stared in shock, Paulina never complimented anyone outside of the popularity circle.

"Okay… I think that's a sign Ember is a mind-controlling ghost for sure…" Takuya muttered.

"Or the world's ending…" Andy added.

"Thanks! Nice hair!" Tucker said back before he ran to join the crowd that was rushing to get to the music store for the tickets.

The crowd were all chanting Ember's name as they were running towards the door. Mr. Lancer quickly blocked the door with his body. "You people aren't going anywhere except de-"

The crowd ignored the teacher and ran him over as they shoved the door opened.

"TENTIOOONNN!" Mr. Lancer finished as he was trampled by the students.

As for Tucker, he was quickly grabbed by Danny and Andy, who had grabbed one of each of his arms. Sam grabbed onto Danny's waist to help him pull Tucker back, while Takuya grabbed Andy's waist. Tucker was surprisingly strong when he was motivated to try to get somewhere, he was practically dragging the four teens with him.

"Must. have. Ember. ticks…" Tucker exclaimed with grunts.

"Who knew Tucker was strong like this?" Takuya grunted as he tried to keep his footing.

"I think the janitor just mopped the floor…" Andy grunted.

"We're going to have to de-program Tucker…" Sam said.

"But how? He doesn't have a Digimon partner of his own to de-program him," Danny asked.

"I might have an idea," Sam replied. "He may not have a Digimon partner with him, but we do have something that can help. Remember those computer helmets Mr. Lancer was going to have us use to study for that upcoming test?"

Takuya nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

"Oh, I think I get it," Andy spoke up. "The computer helmet sends data directly into the human brain, or that's the theory anyways. If we could put in different programs into Tucker's brain, it'll have to expel Ember's music to make room for the extra data."

"Exactly," Sam agreed.

Takuya blinked. "Huh. Well, if that's what we have to do, then let's do it."

Danny smiled at Sam, before noticing the position they were in. Sam noticed it too, and they both let go of Tucker and each other, they started to whistle innocently.

"Guys! Don't let go!" Andy yelped when Tucker gained a sudden boost of strength because Danny and Sam let go.

Danny realized their mistake. "Oh! Sorry bro!" He grabbed Tucker's arm again and began to pull the determined boy back from the door. "Let's get him to the classroom, before he bolts on us."

"Yes, please," Andy groaned. "Sam, since you're not holding Tucker back, can you find us a rope or something?"

Sam nodded. "Sure." She ran off to find one, and find one she did, in the wood-work shop. She came back with it. "I found this in the wood-work shop. I think it will be of use to us."

"Great, now let's get Tucker to Mr. Lancer's classroom," Danny remarked.

"No! You can't do this to me!" Tucker yelled.

Danny, Andy, and Takuya picked up Tucker and hefted him over their heads before they carried him like a primitive tribe of people.

"Wow… We must look stupid for carrying Tucker like this…" Takuya remarked.

"You're telling me…" Danny grumbled.

They carried Tucker into the classroom before sitting him down in a chair and Sam used the rope to tie Tucker to the chair as Takuya shoved the helmet onto Tucker's head.

Andy turned on the computer and let it start its teachings to Tucker.

"This is where the healing begins," Sam stated.

"I hope it heals him and not mess him up," Andy frowned.

Danny frowned as well. I hope Tucker gets better soon...

Takuya frowned himself. This is a desperate gamble. I hope it doesn't mess up Tucker…

The older boy then looked around at everyone. "So, do we go and try to stop Ember?"

"We're going to have to try, yes, we can't just let her roam free if she keeps mind controlling everyone. Or the teens I guess, the adults are going to be worried too, not to mention in danger if Ember has them attack people," Andy stated.

"I'll be sure to help stop her," Dorimon promised, looking at Tucker from Andy's backpack, finding it sad to see the boy in such a state.

"We now know where Ember is, at least for now," Danny agreed. "I'm going to go pick up the Fenton Thermos in my locker, we're going to need it to catch Ember."

Takuya nodded. "Good idea." He then had a thought. "Maybe one of us should go to see if Ember is still there."

"Takuya and I can go and see if Ember is still there," Andy volunteered. "Danny, you and Sam get what you need and meet us at the Music Megastore."

Danny nodded. "Okay. I think that's a solid plan."

"Be careful you two," Sam said in concern. "I'd rather you didn't become Ember fan nuts yourselves."

Takuya gave a mysterious smirk. "We have our ways."

With that, he looked at Andy. "Okay, let's go, Andy."

Andy nodded to Takuya before the older boy hurried out of the classroom.

"Try not to take too long, alright?" Andy said to Danny and Sam before he went after Takuya.

"See you there!" Dorimon waved.

---

Once outside of Casper High, Andy and Dorimon looked around for a moment. "The streets are pretty empty… it's kind of creepy." Andy noted.

"Yeah, but convenient, we can Spirit Evolve and Digivolve without people seeing us," Dorimon remarked.

"True… But I think we should be cautious anyway." Takuya pointed out. "I mean, not all people are obsessed with Ember. She seems to be more towards our age group."

"Yeah," Andy agreed. "Dorimon, you digivolve into Dorugamon and fly us over to Buckey's Music Megastore, but fly high in the sky as it would give people less chances of seeing you."

Dorimon gave a nod. "Okay. I can do that easily."

Dorimon digivolved into Dorumon, before Andy's D-Arc glowed.

"DIGIVOLUTION." Dorumon was surrounded by fractal code as he felt the energy of Andy's will fill him. His skin began to peel away from his face and head, then his stomach and his tail was last to lose the skin. But as he regained his skin, his claws and legs came back first, then his wings came back with skin, flaring open to reveal their larger size, his tail swung around once as it regained the skin, and then his head and face were last to regain their skin. "Dorugamon!"

With Dorugamon, Andy hopped onto his back. "Takuya, you should get on Dorugamon's back. It would be too noticeable if there are two giant flying dragons in the air."

Takuya nodded. "Sure." He climbed up onto Dorugamon's back as well, sitting right behind Andy. He made sure to hold onto Andy's waist so he didn't fall off. "Okay… I'm good."

With Takuya and Andy secured on his back, Dorugamon opened his wings before he flapped them to get off the ground, and flew up into the sky. As Andy had requested, Dorugamon flew up high to try to avoid wandering eyes from seeing him. Hopefully if anyone did look up, they would think he was a plane or a big bird.

Takuya looked down, and clutched Andy's waist a bit tighter. Sure, flying was nice, but he felt safer when he did it himself as BurningGreymon. Flying on Dorugamon's back made him a bit nervous, even though he knew that the Digimon wouldn't let him fall.

---

Jazz went with the rest of the crowd when they bulldozed their way out of school to get to Buckey's Music Megastore. She didn't go because she wanted the tickets, but she needed to find a way to stop Ember. She knew her brothers and cousin would find a way to capture Ember, but something told her that it wouldn't be that easy.

Lopmon was riding on Jazz's head as they made their way to the store. "So, what's the plan for when we get to the music store?"

"No clue," Jazz answered.

"You don't have a plan!?" Lopmon frowned.

"Hey, I'm sort of making this up as I go along. I haven't exactly been trained on how to battle mind controlling ghosts," Jazz grumbled.

Lopmon sighed. "Well, a plan, even if not fully thought out, is better than having nothing."

"Right now the plan is to observe Ember and see what she can do, maybe we'll find out what her weakness is," Jazz replied. "Going into a battle blindly is dangerous."

Lopmon gave a nod of approval. "That's a very good observation. It may help the others too if we can find out Ember's weakness."

Jazz gave a small smile at the praise.

The crowd had eventually come up to the megastore as Jazz predicted. She tried to blend in with the crowd by pretending to be another crazed fan. Jazz didn't want to get too close to Ember, however, since Andy had warned her that their Digimon partner can only protect them from Ember's song if she's not concentrating a lot of her ghostly power into her mind controlling spell. The closer she was to Ember, the more risk she would take at being put under Ember's control again.

"This is a big crowd… of teens," Jazz muttered, finding herself surrounded by people around her age.

Lopmon frowned. "Yeah… It's like Ember is more focused on your age group…"

"But why? Does her power only work on people around 13 to 20, or is she choosing to only get people around that age group? And if she is choosing it, why?" Jazz wondered. "Hmm… maybe she just doesn't like adults?"

"I'm unsure about that." Lopmon noted. "It could be, but we don't know for sure."

Then Lopmon's ears rose when he sensed something. "Heads up, Jazz, we're not alone. There are Digimon around."

"What? Who?" Jazz asked, keeping an eye out for anything that seemed like a Digimon attack.

Lopmon looked around before seeing something orange and white getting on the big stage that Ember was going to show up at. "There!"

Jazz blinked, surprised to see a big monkey man wearing sunglasses, and had some kind of yellow teddy bear on his waist.

"Welcome everyone! Thank you all so much for coming to my concert!" The monkey Digimon spoke up into a microphone.

The Digimon was met with severe confusion however.

"What the?"

"A monkey? I came here for Ember, not a man in a monkey suit!"

"Where is Ember!?"

"I want Ember! Who is this guy!?"

"Who is that?" Jazz asked Lopmon. "And what is he going on about? This is not his concert… is it?"

"Look at your D-Arc…" Lopmon instructed as he looked at the Digimon.

Jazz checked her D-Arc as a hologram of the Digimon appeared. "Etemon, Ultimate level, and is a Virus type Digimon. Etemon is a Puppet Digimon. It is an unidentified Digimon that suddenly appeared in the Digital World. It calls itself the "King of Digimon", and its fighting strength is beyond imagination. And, well, it's rumored that it pulls the strings of the mysterious Digimon "Monzaemon"."

Looking back up at Etemon, Jazz frowned. "Great… We have to deal with an Ultimate level Digimon again? I don't think Ember is going to be showing up here for a while."

"It's possible Etemon had his cronies detained Ember so he could take center stage. Etemon loves performing concerts himself, but unlike Ember, his singing voice is awful, so awful that it actually hurts," Lopmon warned. "I'm not kidding, one of his attacks is singing terribly."

Jazz gave a grimace at the thought of that. "Okay, I don't think we should let him get off his singing then."

"It would appear Andy and Takuya aren't here yet, neither is Danny, we may have to go into battle ourselves." Lopmon frowned.

"I guess we may have to." Jazz agreed. "But we need to find a place for you to Digivolve without being seen if that is the case. And this place is so packed, it won't be easy to do that."

The crowd, angry at this 'man in a monkey suit', began to throw random objects at him, shouting that they wanted Ember.

Etemon, getting frustrated with the crowd's harsh treatment, shouted into the mic. "Alright, if that's the way you want to do it, I'll be performing my special Dark Musical!"

Etemon began singing so loud and so terrible and off-key that it began to hurt everyone's ears. Soon, their heads began to ache badly, so much so that many of them were starting to fall on their knees.

Jazz gave a loud groan as her hands flew to her ears. "Ow! That hurts!"

"I warned you..." Lopmon remarked with a groan himself, wrapping his big ears around himself in an attempt to block out as much of the noise as possible.

With everyone on the ground, trying to survive Etemon's Dark Musical attack, Jazz started to fiddle with her Fenton Earphones, while they were designed to filter out ghost sound based powers, she hoped that by turning up the level would help with a Digimon's sound based powers. It did work, although not as great as Jazz had hoped, it kept the singing from making her head feel like it would explode, but it still hurt. She managed to get on her feet.

"Lopmon! You need to stop him!" Jazz shouted through the noise.

Lopmon nodded. "Right!" He jumped off Jazz's head as her D-Arc began to glow.

"DIGIVOLUTION!"

"Lopmon, digivolve to…" Lopmon began to lose his own skin, on his face, and then his legs lost their skin as well. His ears also lost their skin before his skin began to come back, but on his legs and feet first. Lopmon's legs gained shoes and yellow pants with a belt and yellow top that matched, two blades appeared as his hands regained their skin and red gloves, grasping the blades in both hands. The skin on Lopmon's head and face came back, just as a blue bandanna appeared around his neck as well. "Turuiemon!"

With Lopmon now digivolved to Turuiemon, he jumped high and fast, aiming one of his blades at the still singing Etemon. "Gauntlet Claw!"

Turuiemon smashed his claws into Etemon, shutting up the monkey Digimon, making him drop the mic and causing a loud feedback.

"OW!" Etemon yelped before he looked at Turuiemon in anger. "Why you little bunny! I will make you pay for that! No one interrupts the concert of the King of Digimon! Uh-huh!"

Etemon jumped at Turuiemon. "Monkey Kick!"

"Gauntlet Claw!" Turuiemon countered with his blades.

The two attacks slammed into each other. Turuiemon managed to nick Etemon's feet, but Etemon's body was tough, even with the direct hit from Turuiemon's blade, Etemon managed to get his foot right into Turuiemon's face, knocking him several feet back.

"Ooof!" Turuiemon slammed into a wall, making an imprint of his body in it. "He's strong, stronger than I thought…"

"Turuiemon, are you okay!?" Jazz called out in concern.

"Yes, I am." Turuiemon replied before he pushed off the wall and towards Etemon again. "Ninja Fist!"

Etemon saw the Champion rabbit coming and gave a smirk. "Come on now, I expect an actual fight. Dark Network!"

Etemon created a black sphere on the palm of his hand before throwing it at Turuiemon. Turuiemon gasped as the dark sphere slammed into him. Turuiemon let out a cry of pain as the sphere was eating away at him, his body started to get a little glitchy.

Jazz, knowing she had to do something, pulled out a card from her D-Arc in hopes of it saving her partner.

The card spun around before two fingers caught it, Jazz's face emerging from the shadows from the left as she looked up. She then held up her D-Arc above her head before swiping the card down through the slot towards the ground. "Digi-Modify! Soulmon's Dark Claw Activate!"

Turuiemon's blades turned into a dark, shadowy version of themselves, they looked sharper, longer, and deadlier. Turuiemon clenched his teeth as he used whatever strength he had left to use the Dark Claw to slash through the dark sphere, cutting it open, and he was able to fall out of it.

Although Turuiemon was able to get out of the dark sphere, he was still severely weakened from it. If only I could become Cherubimon again, this stupid monkey would be a Digi-Egg faster than he could sing his first note!

Jazz frowned to herself as she took note of her partner's state. I only have one card to help with...

"Look at you, you can barely stand after that attack," Etemon snickered. "You really think you're a match for me little bunny?"

Turuiemon clenched his fists, still ready to fight.

"Well then, I suppose this last attack will put you back as a Digi-Egg so I can finally continue my concert," Etemon remarked and started to form the dark sphere again.

Suddenly, a strum of a guitar was heard, and a large purple fist made of ghost energy suddenly came out of nowhere and punched Etemon so hard that he was flung into a wall.

"How dare you try to upstage me, monkey man!" Ember shouted as she appeared in ecto-green smoke. "This is my concert! Not yours!"

The crowd, hearing Ember's voice, looked up. Their heads were still aching from Etemon's awful singing. They seemed surprised and clueless to who this Ember was.

"Why… are we here again?" Someone asked.

"I… don't know…? Something about a ticket?" Another replied sounding just as unsure.

Jazz took notice of the crowd's confusion.

Ember, thinking fast, quickly wrapped her body with her fiery hair, teleporting herself onto the stage before she took the mic. She began to play her guitar before her back-up band appeared behind her in a puff of purple smoke. This quickly got the crowd's attention as Ember began singing her song.

They began to chant her name again, making her more powerful.

Etemon, having finally recovered from the attack, growled as he rubbed his face. "That was a cheap shot! I demand a proper battle!"

"Why would I bother battling with a monkey man?" Ember questioned.

"Not a barbaric fight! I mean a true battle against musicians!" Etemon challenged.

Ember smirked confidently. "Then show me what you can do, monkey man."

"The name's Etemon!" Etemon snapped.

Turuiemon stumbled over to Jazz. The crowd was so focused on Ember that none of them noticed the giant rabbit in clothing, and wearing blades on its hands. Jazz hurried over to her partner just as fractal code surrounded Turuiemon, degenerating him back to Lopmon. Jazz picked up the tired out Lopmon.

"Are you okay, Lopmon?" Jazz asked in concern.

"I'm fine…" Lopmon panted. "I just didn't expect that Dark Network attack to be so strong…"

Jazz nodded in agreement before she looked at Ember, who was grinning at Etemon. "If there's one good thing that came out of this… I just found out that there is a weakness to Ember's spell after all."

---

Dorugamon finally arrived at the Music Megastore, though by the time he reached there, he, Andy, and Takuya could hear Ember singing, but then shortly after, a horrid voice was yelling into the mic, they sounded so off-key that it was giving them a bit of a headache.

"Okay, that's not normal." Dorugamon frowned.

"It sounds terrible." Takuya agreed, feeling his head aching. "Ouch…"

The horrid singing was abruptly cut off, however, and Ember's voice took over again, though she sounded a little more frantic than before.

Takuya noticed that, but it didn't seem to be something to wonder about. He just took it as Ember was worried about losing her fans to a horrible singer.

"Ugh, let's hurry and get down there. Whoever is singing besides Ember is obviously not human…" Andy frowned.

Dorugamon flew down. The people were too focused on the sing off to notice a fox dragon coming down for a landing.

"Dorugamon, stay out here for a minute, alright?" Andy instructed. "We may need to get back on you if a fight breaks loose."

Dorugamon nodded. "Sure, Andy."

Takuya hopped off. "So what now? We head in?"

"Yeah, we need to find out what's going on," Andy answered. "And hope our ears don't bleed in the process."

Takuya groaned. "Great… I can't wait to head in there when I am Spirit Evolved…" This was said in sarcasm because of his enhanced senses he had when evolved as a Digimon.

"Stay human for now," Andy suggested. "We need to assess how bad the situation is first before we go in all fire ablazing."

"You wanted to say that, didn't you?" Takuya asked with a deadpan look.

"Maybe?" Andy chuckled.

The two of them went into the store, they could already hear the crowd chanting Ember's name. And Ember was grinning at a monkey person, who was gritting his teeth.

"What is that?" Andy asked, looking at the monkey person.

Takuya frowned. "I don't know. I've never seen anything like it…" He was cut off as he felt the flash of heat from his Spirits that signified a Digimon in the area. "Oh great… It's a Digimon…"

"Takuya? Andy!? What are you two doing here?" Jazz yelled from the crowd, carrying an injured Lopmon in her arms.

"Jazz!? What are you doing here?" Andy asked in surprise at seeing his sister there. "And what happened to Lopmon?"

"Oh! I came here to see if I could find out what Ember's weakness is, but then this odd monkey Digimon came out of nowhere and started to sing… badly. Calls himself Etemon, and Lopmon wound up fighting him." Jazz replied.

"He was stronger than expected…" Lopmon panted. "And then Ember showed up and began a sing-off with Etemon… Etemon is… an Ultimate level Digimon."

"Figures, we've been facing a lot of Ultimate level Digimon lately," Andy grumbled. "We need to get Ember and Etemon out of here."

Takuya frowned. "Yeah… We do, somehow." But I'm wondering if I should go with my Fusion Evolution because of Etemon being an Ultimate. BurningGreymon is too large to fit inside through the doors, and Agunimon may not cut it.

"But it's too dangerous to take on both Ember and Etemon at once." Jazz frowned. "Where's Danny?"

"He… uh… are you talking about Fenton or Phantom?" Andy awkwardly asked, remembering his cousin still didn't know Danny's secret.

Jazz looked at Andy with a confused look. "Why do you ask? We need Danny Phantom."

"Just wanted to make sure I know who you're talking about," Andy replied. "He… should be here soon, I mean Danny Phantom likely senses Ember here, and with all this loud music going on, I'm pretty sure all of Amity Park can hear them."

Jazz nodded. "Okay. That makes sense."

Lopmon didn't look too good, Takuya noted. "I think you should get Lopmon back home. He looks pretty beat up, and most likely needs some medical attention."

"I'll be fine… we can't just leave… not right now…" Lopmon frowned.

Andy looked up for a moment, seeing something flying towards the roof. "Okay, I'm going to go get Dorugamon. We'll see if we can get Etemon out of here, while Danny Phantom handles Ember."

Takuya looked at Andy. "What do you want me to do?" He had his hand around his D-Tector in his pocket in case he had to evolve.

Andy looked at Takuya, then at Jazz for a moment, then back at Takuya again. "Wait until Dorugamon and I get Etemon outside, then you… do what you need to do after that, so you'll have more… room to move around."

Takuya nodded. "Okay. I can do that." And while Andy does that, I can figure out my plan for attack, including which evolution form to use.

Jazz raised an eyebrow at Andy's instructions to Takuya, but she didn't think much of it at the moment. They had more pressing matters to worry about anyway.

"Jazz… keep Lopmon somewhere safe, alright? If he recovers enough, he can help us out in battle if it becomes necessary," Andy instructed to his sister.

Jazz looked at Andy and nodded. "Sure, Andy. That's no problem."

With the plan laid out, Andy hurried out to get to Dorugamon. Takuya went over to the door to wait for his chance to run out and evolve. Jazz stayed at a corner, waiting to see what would happen.

There was a sudden sound like someone just scratched a record. The music stopped, which caused the sing off to stop as well.

"Hey! What happened to the music!?" Ember shouted.

"I can't get my groove on without any music," Etemon grumbled.

The crowd looked up, gasping. Jazz looked up as well, and was surprised to see Sam was up on a large cardboard cutout of Ember, and drew glasses, mustaches, and a little goatee on Ember's cutout face with a red marker.

"Hey, look! It's Ember McLame!" Sam exclaimed with a smirk.

"Heh, looks like not everyone is your fan." Etemon grinned.

Ember hissed. "Well, maybe you'll like my new song better!"

Ember turned the knob that was on her guitar.

But before she could strum the guitar, green ecto-blasts slammed into her and knocked her away. It was Danny Phantom, and he was not happy. "Hey, do you take requests? How about beat it?"

Etemon started laughing. "Looks like you've got some really upset fans. Now I'm going to take center stage."

Danny frowned, and was confused by this monkey man. Etemon took a deep breath with his microphone. He began singing really off-key, using his Dark Musical attack. Everyone in the store all yelled as they covered their ears. Even Danny was getting weakened by the attack, because it was a Digimon attack. He began to fall from the air.

"Hurry, Dorugamon!" Andy yelled as a purple, white, and red blur went past Danny.

"Cannonball!" A large iron ball slammed into Etemon's face at high speed, it quickly shut the monkey man up.

With Etemon down, the room fell into silence. However, Ember had recovered from Danny's attack, and Danny recovered from Etemon's attack. Danny managed to stop himself from falling, and rubbed his head a little.

"Ugh… Wow. That was horrible singing…" Danny muttered as he regained his senses.

Dorugamon flew over to Danny with Andy on his back.

"Be careful, Danny, that monkey man? That's an Ultimate level Digimon called Etemon," Andy warned.

Danny felt his eyes grow wide. "Really? Wow. That would explain the power behind that terrible singing then."

"I've had enough of these interruptions! This is my light, and I'm not sharing it with anyone!" Ember shouted as she strummed her guitar, a purple glow washing over the crowd.

Takuya and Jazz felt it, the ghostly power going through them. Jazz's D-Arc glowed green, while Takuya felt his spirits burning, expelling the ghost power quickly.

Takuya could feel his Spirits almost screaming at him to evolve, but he refrained. It wasn't time to do that yet.

The rest of the crowd, however, immediately began chanting Ember's name. Ember's hair fire suddenly became larger and taller. She gave a devilish grin at Etemon before she strummed her guitar, knocking him back more. Then she turned her attention to Danny and Andy.

"My, what a cute pet you have there," Ember remarked, looking at Dorugamon. "I wouldn't mind having a dragon to ride of my own."

"Uh… thanks?" Andy blinked, he certainly hadn't been expecting a compliment from Ember.

Danny frowned. "Yeah, no. I don't think that 'dragon' would like listening to you."

"I wasn't talking to you, dipstick," Ember snapped before she turned a knob on her guitar. "In fact, get out of this store! You're not invited to my concert!"

Ember strummed her guitar, which slammed into Danny, throwing him several feet back.

"Danny!" Andy called out in concern.

"Watch out!" Dorugamon shouted before he flew up, barely avoiding another guitar song attack from Ember.

Below them, Takuya could feel the urging of his Spirits getting stronger. He gritted his teeth. Should I continue waiting or just do it now?

Danny regained his flight and came to a stop in the air. "Andy!" He flew back to help his brother.

"Dark Network!" Etemon's voice shouted.

A dark sphere of energy was suddenly thrown. Dorguamon pushed Danny to get him and himself and Andy out of the sphere's way, before it slammed into a wall, creating a hole.

"Let's… not get hit by that…" Andy gulped.

"I agree," Dorugamon replied.

Danny gaped. "Okay… That would be a painful result…"

Takuya also gaped. Wow… smart move Dorugamon...

"Ember~ Ember~ Ember~" The crowd was constantly chatting, not seeming to care about the battle that was going on.

Andy noticed that Ember's flames were getting brighter and hotter. "... The chanting… is it making her stronger…?"

Ember turned to Etemon, then smirked. "You're never going to win against me, not in a sing off and not in a battle either."

Etemon, angered by Ember's comment, began to throw a tantrum, using his Monkey Kick on the store's structure, which was causing the store to start falling apart.

"Dorugamon, get Etemon out of here, hurry!" Andy yelled in alarm.

Dorugamon dove at the rampaging monkey. Etemon didn't even notice Dorugamon until he was right up on him. Dorugamon tackled Etemon into a wall, before grabbing him with his claws and quickly started flying out of the store.

"Danny! You handle Ember! We'll take care of the monkey man here!" Andy shouted to his brother as Dorugamon flew to the exit.

Danny nodded. "Okay! Be careful, Andy!" As soon as Andy was gone, Danny turned back to face Ember. "Now that we have that nuisance monkey out of the way, our battle has just begun!" He let loose with some ecto-blasts on Ember.

Ember glared, annoyed that she kept getting one annoyance after another, she strummed her guitar again, this time creating two energy fists at Danny. Danny yelped and tried to dodge. He did dodge one of the fists, but the other one hit him. Danny turned intangible to avoid slamming into the ceiling above, and he phased through the ceiling, finding himself now on the roof. Ember had followed him up there.

"And the battle is just about to end, dipstick, you hear there?" Ember smirked. "Everyone is chanting my name. And soon, the whole world will be chanting my name when my concert will go global tonight, and I will be remembered forever! Then you'll all be my slaves!"

Danny glared at her. "We'll see!"

Takuya, having seen Danny, Ember, Andy, Dorugamon, and Etemon heading outside, had run out of the store as well, and was now making his way to find a hiding spot to evolve. "C'mon… where can I hide…?"

Danny managed to get another hit on Ember with his ghost ray, but she was being powered up by the crowd's chanting that his attack didn't do much. Ember smirked before she strummed her guitar again, and Danny fell into another giant cardboard cutout of Ember, which fell onto the edge of the roof. Danny groaned, his powers weakened from Ember's attacks, and Etemon's earlier attack. He reverted back to human form. Sam, having seen Danny going to the roof earlier, kicked open the door, holding the Fenton Thermos.

"Hey! Stay away from him!" Sam exclaimed as she ran out to help Danny, getting in front of him.

"Sam!" Danny yelled. "Get out of here! This is too dangerous for you!"

Sam wasn't budging though, just glaring at Ember.

"Aww, teen love, they say it never lasts, but nothing distracts teenagers more than hormones~" Ember smirked as she began to turn the knob on her guitar. "And I need you out of my hair for the next 8 hours. I have more than just music for you. Now that they're chanting my name, my music can affect other ghosts and digital beings!"

Meanwhile, Andy and Dorugamon managed to get Etemon out of the music store. He was about to have Dorugamon fly up to attack with a full powered Cannonball again, when suddenly his head got dizzy. Without warning, he saw his brother Danny, in human form, on the roof, and Sam standing in front of him. Ember was in front of them, smirking. She then strummed her guitar, and the energy she blasted out this time was pink, and it had hearts in the energy as well.

The pink energy glowed through Sam and Danny, though the song was so powerful, it flung Sam over on top of Ember's cutout, while Danny's eyes spiraled pink and white. After the song ended, Danny suddenly turned to Sam with a sudden dreamy, lovesick smile.

"Well, I think I'll leave the new couple alone~" Ember ginned before she phased through the roof to get back into the music store.

Andy blinked as he came out of the sudden vision. "What… what was that…?"

"Andy? Are you okay?" Dorugamon asked in concern.

Andy looked up at the roof, and saw the Ember cutout hanging from the edge, but Sam wasn't on there yet. "Is… is it going to happen now…? Dorugamon, don't worry about Etemon right now, get to the roof, hurry!"

Though Dorugamon didn't know why Andy suddenly wanted him to get to the roof, the urgency in Andy's tone told him that now wasn't the time to ask questions. Dorugamon flew up to the roof quickly, just in time for Andy to see Danny, in human form, and Sam standing in front of him, with Ember smirking at them, just like in the vision he saw a few seconds ago.

"Grab Danny and Sam, hurry!" Andy instructed frantically.

Not hesitating for a second, Dorugamon flew down to Danny and Sam just as Ember strummed her guitar and the pink energy beam came out.

"How about a love song!?" Ember grinned.

It felt as if the world was moving in slow motion. Andy wasn't sure if he'd get to his brother and Sam in time before the song reached them.

Danny and Sam were about to be hit, but Dorugamon reached out and grabbed Danny and Sam's shirts before lifting both off the roof and to safety, his dive pulling up sharply. They narrowly dodged the love song.

Ember sighed a little. "This is way more trouble than it's worth. But I already gave my concert tickets to this crowd. Let's see them try to stop me now."

Ember turned intangible and phased through the roof.

Dorugamon flew through the sky, still hanging onto Danny and Sam, careful not to let his claws touch them. "Are you two alright?"

Danny looked up and nodded. "Yeah. Thanks. We would have probably been obsessed with each other if not for your timely arrival."

Sam sighed. "And I would have probably fallen from that cutout if that had happened because of the results."

Andy sighed in relief to see they were able to make it in time to avoid Ember's love spell, though it did make him wonder how he saw it coming. Could Lopmon have been right? Could I really see into the future…?

Andy shook his head, deciding now wasn't the time to think about it. "Let's get back down. Etemon is likely still on a rampage. I don't know where Ember went, I doubt she stuck around."

Dorugamon nodded as he started to fly down. However, as he was flying down, Danny noticed someone moving from the corner of his eye. Danny looked over at an alleyway, and saw Takuya pulling out some sort of device from his pocket.

Is that Takuya? What is he doing? Danny wondered to himself.

However, Danny was shocked by what he saw next. A shimmering ball of what he recalled was fractal code appeared around his cousin's left hand before Takuya swiped the device over the coding, and then a cocoon of it appeared around his body before bursting not even a few second later, revealing that Digimon that was called BurningGreymon.

"What the!?" Danny yelled, startling Sam, Dorugamon, and Andy.

"What? What's wrong?" Sam asked. "Is it Ember?"

"No! I… I just saw Takuya turning into a dragon! That fiery, burning… gray mon or whatever it was called!" Danny frantically said, his mind all jumbled from what he just witnessed.

"What?" Andy frowned as he looked down.

"Uh…" Dorugamon saw BurningGreymon flying from the alleyway, where Danny had the full view of. "Oh… Oh dear…"

Andy facepalmed himself when he saw BurningGreymon as well. Way to be thorough Takuya, I guess Danny wasn't the only careless one here.

BurningGreymon flew up and saw Danny and Sam in Dorugamon's claws. "Are they okay?"

Danny was staring at BurningGreymon, Sam was skeptical, she wasn't sure if Danny actually saw Takuya turning into this dragon, eagle creature, but she also knew better than to keep a closed mind about these things, especially considering Danny can turn into a ghost.

"Yes… they're fine, if a little shaken up," Dorugamon answered, deciding not to tell BurningGreymon that Danny just saw him evolve for now.

"Good." BurningGreymon sighed before he glanced around. "I sensed another Digimon nearby. Where is it?"

As if on cue, Etemon started singing that terrible off key song with his Dark Musical attack. Danny groaned, feeling the effects more than the average person due to his half ghost nature.

"I think you can find it…" Andy frowned, covering his own ears.

Looking off to his left, BurningGreymon saw Etemon on top of another building. "Wow… He sings horribly."

"You're telling me…" Danny groaned.

BurningGreymon flew down and opened fire on Etemon. "Pyro Barrage!"

Etemon let out a screeching noise when he was hit by the flames. "You annoying little pyro! I'll teach you for trying to stop my concert! Dark Network!"

Etemon fired a dark sphere at BurningGreymon.

Seeing the Dark Network attack coming at him, the draconic Digimon flew around it before firing his Pyro Barrage at the attack so it wouldn't hit Andy, Sam, Danny, or Dorugamon. The sphere exploded harmlessly away from them before it got within range.

Dorugamon flew down to the ground while BurningGreymon was battling it out with Etemon, putting Sam and Danny down.

"What is… going on? Is my cousin a Digimon!?" Danny finally yelled when he managed to get over the speechless part of his shock.

"Calm down, Danny… are you sure you saw Takuya turning into that BurningGreymon?" Sam asked.

"Yes! I'm sure!" Danny answered, still freaking out a little. "Andy! Didn't you see it? You had to have seen it!"

Andy frowned a little. "Uh… well…" What should I say? This is Takuya's secret, but Danny just saw him evolve.

Luckily, Andy was saved from anymore questions when Lopmon came running out to them, and Jazz was running after him.

"We need to get Etemon out of here now. A team of humans are on their way here, we can't let them get involved with Etemon," Lopmon spoke up.

"Lopmon says he could hear sirens coming this way," Jazz explained.

Danny froze. "Uh oh…"

Sam looked at Andy, Jazz, and Lopmon. "What do we do to get that monkey brain out of the area?!"

"I'll distract him," Lopmon spoke up. "Dorugamon, you and BurningGreymon hit Etemon with your strongest attacks while I keep him distracted."

"That could put you in danger too," Andy pointed out.

"There's no time to worry about me, just hurry!" Lopmon replied before he started running towards Etemon.

"Lopmon!" Jazz frowned.

"Danny," Andy spoke up. "We'll talk about Takuya later, I need you to do something for me."

Danny frowned. "Okay… what do you need me to do?"

---

Lopmon got in front of Etemon and spoke up. "Etemon! I am a huge fan of yours, won't you please sing me your song?"

That got Etemon's attention immediately.

"Huh? You really like my songs?" The monkey seemed quite thrilled at this. "Uh huh! This will show that pop chick I do have fans!"

Etemon began singing with Dark Musical again. It hurt Lopmon, but he stood his ground to provide the distraction.

Dorugamon flew over to BurningGreymon.

"We have to attack Etemon with our strongest attacks now," Dorugamon said.

"There are people coming this way, if we don't get Etemon out of here, they're all going to get caught up in Etemon's singing," Andy warned.

"But… Lopmon is right there, he could get hit," BurningGreymon pointed out.

"Don't worry, Lopmon will be fine, we need to attack now," Andy quickly said.

"Don't hesitate," Dorugamon added. "We need to finish Etemon and turn him into a Digi-Egg in one blow."

BurningGreymon nodded, he began to ready his attack while Dorugamon flew higher into the sky.

"Higher… higher…" Andy whispered. "Okay, now dive!"

Dorugamon flipped in the air, turning his body around to Etemon, and began to dive down, making a whistling noise in the air. BurningGreymon finished charging up his attack, his body was in flames.

"Wildfire Tsunami!" BurningGreymon dove down as well, flames surrounding him so that he looked like a giant meteor.

"Cannonball!"Dorugamon shouted as he shot out a big iron ball.

Lopmon saw the attacks coming and braced himself, but then he suddenly felt something cold grab onto him, and his body turned intangible before he sunk under the concrete. Etemon was surprised, not seeing the two massive attacks coming.

"Eh? Where'd you go?" Etemon questioned before the Wildfire Tsunami and the Cannonball engulfed him.

Etemon let out a loud cry as his fractal code appeared around his body. Dorugamon flew in close since he had already been diving towards Etemon. Andy held out his D-Arc.

"Time for your singing career to retire," Andy said before he began scanning the code. "Fractal Code Digitized!"

A card appeared in the D-Arc's slot as Etemon turned into a Digi-Egg. Andy looked at the card he got, which was 'Dark Network'.

BurningGreymon flared his large orange wings and came to a hover. "Wow. That was a close one…"

"We should leave," Andy said, already hearing the sirens himself. "Take Etemon's egg and get him to the Trailmon."

Andy then whispered something to Dorugamon.

Dorugamon then spoke quietly to BurningGreymon. "We'll see you at FentonWorks later… there's something we need to talk about."

BurningGreymon looked at Dorugamon and Andy in confusion, but he nodded. "Sure."

With that, BurningGreymon turned and flew off, no doubt to go to meet a Trailmon and drop off Etemon's Digi-Egg.

Dorugamon landed and Andy jumped off of him. Andy quickly scanned the degeneration card on his D-Arc to have Dorugamon degenerate back into Dorimon before the people came.

Andy was glad he degenerated Dorugamon, because the people that came weren't just cops, oh no, there was an entire SWAT team surrounding the students of Casper High. There was also a school bus, and Mr. Lander standing on top of it with a megaphone. Andy wasn't paying Mr. Lancer too much attention, though he did hear him say something about 'grounding act' and that they would be under 'house arrest'. The SWAT team were grabbing each student and tossing them into different vehicles of the SWAT team.

Wait, is that even legal? Is that an actual thing? Andy found himself questioning as he held onto Dorimon and was looking for Danny, Jazz, Sam, or Tucker.

"You will be returned to your homes and await parental punishment. And as for your precious Ember, she is going down!" Mr. Lancer was finishing saying. However, as soon as he finished saying that, the large cutout of Ember wound up falling off the music store's roof, and crashed into the bus, which Mr. Lancer had to dive off of.

Dorimon found himself wondering how a human as pudgy as Mr. Lancer could avoid that falling cutout with ease. I don't think that is supposed to be normal for a human...

Andy tried to move away from the SWAT team, he didn't want to be grabbed and thrown into a van before finding his friends or siblings. Where are they? Did Danny go ghost and left already? But I don't see Jazz, Tucker, or Sam either.

Then Andy heard Sam grumbling. He turned to where he heard her just in time to see a buff man in a uniform taking her to one of the vehicles rather than mandhandling her like everyone else. Andy could guess it was likely due to the fact her parents were rich and would not be happy if they found out how they treated her daughter if they were rough with her. Everyone else was fair game though.

Another guy grabbed Kwan and threw him into another van, just like with everyone else. Andy then saw a flash of orange, and he smiled when he saw it was Jazz. She was hiding in the building, though it was only a matter of time before the SWAT team ran out of students to throw into their vans and come get the rest who were hiding inside the store. Though it would buy them some time.

Andy hurried into the building, finding Jazz sitting on a counter with Lopmon on her lap. Danny was there too, currently in his ghost form.

"I still can't believe you actually saved me before the attacks hit," Lopmon said quietly to the ghost boy.

"Yeah… well, to be honest, I wouldn't have thought of doing it if it weren't for Andy's idea, you should be thanking him," Danny sheepishly replied.

Lopmon looked at Andy. "I guess I owe you a big thank you for that idea of yours."

"Technically it was both of us. If Danny wasn't able to pull it off, then my idea would've been useless," Andy chuckled. "Takuya's taking Etemon's egg to a Trailmon. How are you holding up?"

Lopmon smiled. "I'm going to be alright. I just need some time to recover, that's all."

"I'm glad… but it would seem Ultimate level Digimon would be too much for Lopmon alone," Jazz sighed. "And that Ember girl is still out there."

"Not to mention there's no telling how powerful she'll become once her broadcast goes live to the entire world. People chanting her name makes her stronger." Danny frowned.

Lopmon frowned at that. "That is a problem. I didn't think ghosts could get strong off of that kind of energy."

Jazz looked down at her partner. "Ghosts can, apparently, feed off of human emotions to an extent, as we saw that with Spectra. Maybe that is what Ember is doing?"

"It's possible," Dorimon spoke up. "From what I've experienced with ghosts so far, there are a variety of them that exist for different reasons. Like that Poindexter kid being the spirit of a child who was unable to move on from his bullying days, haunted the school to take revenge on other bullies. Spectra being someone who feeds off of young people's misery to stay young, or young looking. Skulker who hunts rare species, be they ghost, human, or even Digimon. Ember might have her own reasons for wanting to hear people chant her name than just simply to be strong. There must be a reason why it makes her stronger."

"Wow Dorimon, that was incredibly insightful of you," Andy chuckled, which made Dorimon blush a little.

"I… just observed what was going on with the ghosts…" Dorimon admitted. "It was nothing special…"

"You bring up some good points about ghosts I never really noticed before myself," Danny noted before he summoned his bright ring of light on his torso that split horizontally, changing him back to his human form. "Whatever Ember's reasoning may be, maybe it'll help convince her to stop if we could just talk her out of it instead of having to fight her. Fighting her will just make her into an enemy, another one I would have to deal with later on."

Jazz smiled at hearing Danny's words. "You're taking a more mature approach, bro. I can't be any prouder of you for that."

Danny blushed as Lopmon and Dorimon giggled at the sight.

Andy was chuckling as well. "That's a good idea, bro. We'll see if we can do some research on Ember at home, and try to find a way to talk her out of it. It may have something to do with how she died, or how she lived in life, it could've formed some kind of Obsession in her that's making her do all this in the first place."

Dorimon looked at Andy. "Her Obsession? You mean something that she wants?"

"In a sense… I'm more talking about Ghost Obsessions," Andy answered.

"From what our parents taught us, all ghosts have an Obsession that ties them to this world," Jazz explained further. "These Obsessions likely formed from their lives when they were still alive. It could be anything, a person, an object, an emotional reasoning, regret. Their ghost powers could also be from what their Obsession could be as well."

"In Ember's case, being a rock star who mind controls people into loving her and chanting her name to make her stronger," Danny added.

"That… makes sense…" Dorimon murmured. "Wow. I learned something new about ghosts today!"

"Ghosts are quite fascinating, aren't they?" Lopmon chuckled. "We have ghost type Digimon, but we don't usually get actual ghosts in our world. Ghost type Digimon are similar, but are also very different from actual ghosts."

Dorimon grinned. "Yep. But learning about real ghosts can be just as interesting."

"We should-" Danny began to say before the doors suddenly slammed open.

The three Fentons cringed before they turned to the door to see the SWAT team decided to come into the building to search for stragglers, and their sunglasses eyes fell on them.

"Oh… crap…" Danny muttered upon seeing the SWAT team. "So much for getting out unseen…"

Andy yelped as the big, buff men in uniform grabbed onto them and dragged them outside to their vehicles. Jazz, who was being dragged beside him, suddenly looked worried.

"Oh no… our parents… they're going to ground us for this!" Jazz frowned.

"Why are you worried about that?" Danny asked, who was also being dragged beside his siblings. "We have bigger problems to worry about.

"You don't understand! If our parents ground us, they won't let us use the computer!" Jazz explained.

Andy frowned. "And without being able to use the computer, we won't be able to do research on Ember."

Danny frowned as well. "And that means we won't be able to find anything that could help us with stopping her either."

They knew they were screwed as the SWAT team threw them into the van. Once they were in the van, the SWAT team shut the door.

"That's the last of the students accounted for," One of the men in uniform said.

"Good. Let's get these students home and let their parents sort out their behavior." Another SWAT officer said before he grumbled. "This seems like a waste of our time, being asked to round up teenagers when we could be out doing our real jobs."

"To be fair, we've been having a slow day." Another one shrugged.

Andy looked out through the bars of the window, and the sirens that went off as the SWAT team began to drive off. "Why does it feel like we're being arrested?"

"We sort of are," Jazz sighed. "Didn't you hear Mr. Lancer? We're under 'house arrest'."

"I could phase us out of here," Danny offered quietly, because there were other students in the back of the van too.

"No, that would get us into more trouble since Mr. Lancer likely let our parents know we're being brought home. And we have too many eyes here," Andy pointed out.

"Good point… Sam's likely going to hear it from her parents worst of all though." Danny frowned.

"And they'll likely blame us for it, knowing how their logic works." Andy rolled his eyes. "'Oh, it's not our precious daughter's fault, it's the fault of those bad influences she call her 'friends'' fault.'"

Dorimon blinked. "Are her parents that bad?"

Jazz sighed. "No, but her relationship with them is complicated to say the least."

"Let's hope you never have to meet them," Danny sighed.

Dorimon shivered a bit. "I hope I don't either…"

Lopmon frowned a little, but didn't say anything on the matter.

---

Takuya sighed in relief, after having one of the Trailmon take Etemon's egg back to the Digital World. He was going to head on home since Andy said they would meet with him back there, however, he got a call from Dash on his D-Tector.

"Takuya, could you come over to Casper High? And come over to Mr. Lancer's classroom," Dash requested.

"Huh?" Takuya was confused. "Uh… Sure?"

"Try to hurry too, this is… getting really weird," Dash said before hanging up.

Takuya frowned before he pocketed his D-Tector and ran out of the abandoned subway station before racing down to Casper High. What could be getting weird at the school?

Takuya, who was currently Agunimon, slide evolved into his beast form, BurningGreymon, and flew to Casper High since that would be the quickest way there. There weren't a lot of people outside, so it was easy for Takuya to fly to Casper High without worrying about someone looking up and seeing him. The night sky also helped keep him covered from view.

Takuya, as BurningGreymon, flew down and landed before letting his evolution go and returning to human form. He opened the doors to Casper High and entered the school. Is everything okay? I hope Danny, Andy, Dorimon, Jazz, and Lopmon are alright...

When Takuya ran through the hallways, which were dark and creepy, he saw there was a bit of light in the room Dash told him to go to. Takuya walked into the room, and his eyes went wide as he saw what was in the room that Dash was telling him about. He had completely forgotten about Tucker. Tucker was still tied up to the chair, still looking at the computer monitors with the helmet on his head. Dash was there, looking in concern.

"Crap!" Takuya swore as he ran over to Tucker. "Aw man! I completely forgot! Tucker!" He yanked the helmet off Tucker and began to untie him. "Are you okay?!"

"You tied him up there?" Dash asked, hearing what Takuya was implying.

"9 hours… of cramtastic crash session…" Tucker said, his pupils shrunk. "I… should definitely be ready… for that test…"

"It was Sam's idea." Takuya replied. "She thought it was best to deprogram him from Ember's spell by using that machine Mr. Lancer had set up for studying from."

"Oh… jeez, didn't realize how… harsh that Sam girl could be," Dash muttered. "I was trying to find where everyone went, and I noticed… um… there was light in here, and went to check it out. And I saw this geek all tied up with the computer helmet on him. I thought someone was trying to brainwash him, and was a bit… unsure about touching the rope in case it was booby trapped. That's why I called you, I figured you could burn the rope or something."

Takuya nodded. "I could have, but this was no booby-trap. It was just a forgotten mistake."

Tucker shook his head as Takuya removed the helmet. "Whoa… that was so weird."

"Are you okay, Tucker?" Takuya asked in concern.

"I think so…" Tucker replied. "But I feel like my brain was muddled before being reprogrammed, if that makes any sense."

"So… are you a robot now?" Dash questioned.

Tucker blinked, surprised to see Dash of all people here, and looking worried about him no less.

"Uh… No." Tucker said, a bit wary, which was understandable since Dash had been Danny and Andy's bully before becoming a Legendary Warrior himself.

Dash noticed the wariness and rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, I'm not going to wail on you or anything. Though it was weird to see you all tied up with that helmet on your head."

Tucker blinked before he perked up. "I guess that… would freak anybody out."

"Tucker, how do you feel right now? Do you feel like you want to go see Ember and chant her name or something?" Takuya asked, wanting Tucker to focus on the important question.

Tucker looked back at Takuya. "Now that you mention it, no, I don't. I don't feel like I want to chant her name." He then froze. "Chant. A verb that describes saying something over and over again in joy or excitement." Tucker shook his head. "Wow… That was weird."

Dash and Takuya looked at each other in concern, before looking back at Tucker.

"Well… at least you're cured…" Takuya hesitantly said.

"And needs to be cured of being reprogrammed like a dictionary," Dash sighed.

Tucker grumbled. "I think we can blame Sam for that one… Wait… does Dash know what's going on?"

"Uh… yeah, sort of," Takuya replied, trying to figure out what to say. "He wasn't under Ember's spell, so he knew something weird was going on."

Tucker then remembered how Takuya had this D-monster - no, Digimon - data inside him. While that explained how Takuya was not under Ember's spell, it didn't explain how Dash wasn't brainwashed either. "Okay…"

"Don't think too hard on it, techno geek," Dash spoke up, seeing the gears turning in Tucker's head. "Your brain could use some relaxation before it explodes from information overload."

Tucker blinked in surprise, not able to stop his mouth from falling open at the comment from Dash. Takuya smacked his own face with his hand in exasperation.

"What? Just because the techno geek didn't think I know what some things are doesn't mean it's fact," Dash grumbled. "And anyways, we should all head home, it's getting late, and I'm sure our parents are starting to get worried."

Tucker snapped out of his staring state and shook his head. "Oh. Right. Yeah. We probably should."

Takuya frowned a bit to himself. "Okay. Besides, I hope Danny and Andy got home okay, and Andy wanted to talk to me about something anyway."

---

The SWAT van parked in front of Fenton Works. Andy and Jazz kept their Digimon partners close to their chest so they wouldn't lose them as the men in uniform opened their van's doors. They roughly dragged Jazz, Danny, and Andy out of the vehicle. Then they marched up to Fenton Works' door, kicked open the door, before they all but tossed the three teens into the floor of their living room. Jack and Maddie watched in surprise as they watched the process before their eyes. As soon as the kids were dumped in their house, the men in uniform closed the door and went on their way.

"Okay… that was painful…" Danny groaned.

"Gonna feel that in the morning…" Andy groaned as well, though he felt bad for Dorimon since he had sort of landed on Dorimon due to the way he was thrown into the living room.

"Ouch…" Jazz muttered, feeling her body aching, but that was most likely due to landing on Lopmon because of how she was thrown into the room. She hoped he wasn't too badly hurt by that.

"What is the matter with you kids?" Jack asked, likely having already gotten the call from Mr. Lancer due to the lack of a surprised look on his face from how they were literally thrown into the living room by a SWAT team.

"You need to be preparing for the North Western Nine testing tomorrow!" Maddie scolded.

That's it? We're just getting scolded despite the mandhandling we just endured? They aren't a little bit shocked about us just being thrown in front of them like that? Andy groaned, having pulled Dorimon out from under him.

Danny was a bit surprised too. Okay, I was sure we would be getting worse than just a scolding.

"Sorry Mom, sorry Dad, but we need to do some research about Ember," Jazz started as she stood up.

Of course, Jazz mentioning Ember gave Maddie and Jack the wrong idea about her intentions with Ember.

"Jazz, please, of all kids, we thought you'd be the most responsible to not fall under the whole Ember craze we've been hearing about." Maddie frowned in disappointment.

Jazz blinked. "What? Mom, it's not like that!" But her protests fell on deaf ears.

"Oh Jack, where did we go wrong?" Maddie frowned.

"Don't worry, Maddie, we just need to use the correct amount of discipline and they'll be back to being good kids in no time at all!" Jack promised.

"But Mom, Dad, that Ember is a g-" Danny started to say, only to get interrupted.

The door then opened, cutting Danny off. Takuya entered, looking around. "What's going on?"

Jack and Maddie looked at Takuya.

"At least he wasn't brought here by the SWAT team…" Maddie mumbled.

Takuya looked at his aunt in confusion. "What SWAT team?"

"Just about everyone in Casper High had to be taken by the SWAT team to get them back home, us included," Jazz explained.

"So we're kind of in trouble right now," Andy added.

Danny was looking at Takuya, he wasn't sure what to say right now.

Takuya saw the way Danny was looking at him and raised an eyebrow. "What? Is there something on my face?"

"Uh… no…" Danny hesitantly answered.

"What are we going to do with you three?" Maddie frowned, still upset that her kids went off on a concert when they needed to be studying for the big test tomorrow.

"I know what we can do with them!" Jack smiled. "I've been keeping a certain thing for this day!"

"What thing?" Maddie asked.

Jack led the family into a different room. It was a lower room, but it wasn't the lab. Takuya had never been to this part of the house before. There was a spiral of stairs leading down. When they got to the bottom, however, Takuya's eyes went wide. The room was pretty small, but he could see chains, shackles, and a large silver and green containment big enough to fit even Jack himself. It looked like a small dungeon of some kind.

What is this? Is everyone in my family here crazy?! Takuya thought as he shook a bit with fright. It wasn't helping that his hand went to his D-Tector, which was in his pocket.

"Takuya, relax, this is just a place meant for ghosts if Dad ever caught one and didn't have room in his lab," Andy whispered to Takuya, seeing him tensing up. "Though Dad could also have another reason he doesn't want to say…"

"Not helping…" Takuya whispered back.

Maddie looked at the container before opening it, seeing spikes of steel inside. "Jack, we can't lock the kids in some medieval containment device."

Jack seemed to pout at that. "Okay, fine. Let's ground them then, like any other parent would."

"When you say 'ground', what does that entail?" Jazz cautiously asked.

"You three are going to your rooms, with no access to the internet." Maddie said sternly. "You're not allowed to leave this house either. Instead, you will be studying for the test."

"But what if we need the internet to study for the test?" Andy asked.

At that, Maddie and Jack paused for a moment.

"It is a very hard test to study for without any internet to do research after all," Danny added, seeing what his brother was doing.

Jazz caught on too. "It would help us, but if you want to make sure we are doing just that, maybe Takuya can keep an eye on us."

"Fine, you can use the internet only for studying," Maddie finally said.

"And your more responsible cousin has to keep an eye on you," Jack added.

"And you're only allowed to use one computer," Maddie added as well. "You three can study together."

Takuya blinked. "Uh… I don't get a say in this, do I?"

"Because you came home without being brought back by the SWAT team, you are the mature one here, so you will be making sure they study and study only." Maddie said as she looked at her nephew. "Besides, you also need to study for that test as well."

Takuya groaned at that, but he did relent. "Okay. I will do it." At least it will be better than using that helmet machine thing Mr. Lancer tried to have us use for studying.

"But if you kids use the internet for anything else, or you leave the house at all tonight, we'll be putting you in the Fenton Stockades as punishment." Jack grinned.

Maddie glared at Jack. "Keep that up, and I'll be putting you into the Fenton Stockades!"

Takuya grinned at the way his uncle shut his mouth. Nice, Aunt Maddie!

Everyone began making their way upstairs. Andy, who was in front of Takuya, stopped for a moment, watching the rest of the family going upstairs. Andy turned back to Takuya. "Listen… we're going to need some time to prepare, so wait for us in the living room, alright? You can make yourself some dinner in the kitchen if you're hungry."

Takuya blinked, but nodded. "Okay. And I think I will get some food. I always seem to get extra hungry after my evolutions are dispersed."

Andy nodded before he went upstairs.

---

With Takuya in the kitchen making some dinner, Andy met up with Danny and Jazz in Danny's room.

"So which computer will we be using?" Jazz asked. "My computer runs pretty well."

"We could use mine or Andy's as well." Danny pointed out. "But, I think we will go with yours, Jazz, since you offered first."

"Mine is also a good computer for research. You usually use yours for playing games," Jazz pointed out.

"Then it's decided, we will do research on Ember on Jazz's computer," Andy stated.

"Sounds like a good idea," Lopmon agreed.

Andy then sighed. "Alright, Jazz, you and Lopmon go ahead and set up the computer. Danny, Dorimon, and I will be there in a little bit."

"Alright, we'll be back soon," Jazz said as she picked up Lopmon.

Jazz left to go get her laptop, leaving Danny with Andy and Dorimon.

Danny looked at his twin. "So, what's on your mind, bro?"

"Danny… you said you saw Takuya become a Digimon, right?" Andy asked. "The one called BurningGreymon?"

Danny then remembered that incident. "Ah! That's right! I did see that! What happened with that? Our cousin is a Digimon?!"

"Shhh! Keep your voice down! He'll be able to hear you if you're screaming that loud!" Andy hissed.

Dorimon quickly hopped over to the door and tackled it to close it. "There, hopefully that'll help keep the voice muffled a bit."

Danny took in a deep breath to calm down and lowered his voice as well. "Sorry, I'm just a bit freaked out about that right now…"

"No kidding?" Andy sighed, rolling his eyes sarcastically. "I don't blame you though, I probably wasn't much better when I saw Takuya suddenly evolving for the first time. Jazz was just as shocked when she suddenly saw you transformed."

Danny chuckled sheepishly a bit. "I guess it runs in the family…" He then paused as Andy's words ran through his head and clicked. "Wait… You saw him become a Digimon too?!" Danny managed to keep his voice volume lower, but it was still a bit loud.

"No, I just said that to troll you, of course I saw him become a Digimon," Andy replied. "It was… probably around the time Skulker was hunting you. Skulker thought I was you, so Takuya had to evolve to protect me. Dorimon was still a baby at the time, he couldn't do much yet."

Danny was a bit surprised. "Takuya did that to protect you from… Skulker was after you?! W-why didn't you mention that to me?!"

Andy put his hands on Danny's shoulder. "Bro, listen to me carefully; calm down before you end up falling through the floor."

Danny blinked before looking down, he yelped when he noticed his legs were starting to become transparent.

"Oh… Sorry!" Danny exclaimed in embarrassment. "I thought I had a handle on that…" He mumbled as he returned his legs to their tangible state. He then took a deep breath and let it out in order to calm down somewhat. "Okay… I'm better now…"

"You two really are twins…" Dorimon muttered. "Andy was freaking out all over the place when he was trying to figure out the relationship between you and your ghost form."

"Dorimon, please, this isn't the time," Andy hissed, blushing in embarrassment.

Dorimon just giggled in response.

Andy sighed before he looked at his brother. "I didn't tell you about Skulker because I didn't want to worry you at the time. And I just sort of forgot about it after a while. There hadn't been any reason to bring it up."

Danny nodded. "I guess that's understandable, given what we were doing and all that. So… do you know how Takuya can become a Digimon? And what are his forms?"

"I can't say I know the specific details on how Takuya's evolution works, but from what he told me, he has these spirits of two Digimon in his D-Tector. He uses the D-Tector to scan his… um… data code-"

"What?" Danny blinked. "Data code? What is this, the Matrix?"

"Takuya has bits of fractal codes inside him due to his relationship with his spirits," Dorimon explained. "That's… the best explanation I could give about it."

"Fractal codes, in case you were wondering, is physical data that takes the form of a Digimon or a thing in a digital world. Like how in video games, you travel through the forest or desert with an avatar, those are all 'fractal codes' basically," Andy informed.

Danny nodded. "So fractal code is a physical form of data. Okay. And Takuya uses his… fractal codes to become a Digimon?"

"In a sense, I believe the spirits digitize a part of Takuya in order to have a fractal code exist within him. You see, Takuya needs to have the fractal code appear on his hand, then have the D-Tector scan it. Once he does that, that will enable him to evolve into one of his Digimon forms. I'm guessing the spirits use the fractal code in order to fuse their body onto him, allowing Takuya to use their body," Andy speculated. "But again, I don't know all the details, I'm just speculating at this point. The point is, he has two Digimon forms; a human spirit, and a beast spirit. The beast spirit is BurningGreymon, the one you saw him turn into, it's a more feral type of Digimon where they resemble beasts. His human spirit is Agunimon, which you had seen before. The human spirit is… well, more human-like as you could probably guess."

"Take me for example, I'm more of a beast type Digimon, so most of my Digivolutions are going to be more beast-like," Dorimon added.

Danny nodded, taking in the information. However, he then remembered the times he had seen Agunimon. "Wait… so, when 'Agunimon' has shown up, that was Takuya? He was literally fighting ghosts and those Digimon? He could have gotten hurt or worse!" Danny almost shouted again, but he brought his voice back under control. "Sorry… This is… just hard for me to take in right now…"

Andy pat Danny's back. "I understand. I felt the same way when I first saw Takuya turn into a Digimon. I also felt like that with you when I figured you and Phantom had some kind of relationship with each other. Jazz definitely felt like that when she was suspecting we were doing something unusual. But you're a hero who fights with ghosts as well. I'm sure you, of all people, would be able to understand why Takuya does what he does. Keeping his identity a secret even from his family, fighting dangerous battles against ghosts and Digimon, in order to protect people. You do the same thing. You and him aren't all that different after all."

Danny gave a smile to Andy at that. "You're right, bro. I shouldn't panic just because of what I have heard recently. I'm sure Takuya has his reasons why he didn't say anything to me. And I will respect his decision until he is ready to tell me himself. And if he does tell me… I'll tell him about me and Phantom as well. I… uh… he doesn't actually know I am Phantom, does he?"

Andy shook his head. "As far as I'm aware, he doesn't. The closest he knows about you and Phantom is that Phantom is likely inside your body who takes over you when you need him to. He thinks Phantom is a separate entity though, so he doesn't know you and him are one in the same."

Danny sighed before he gave Andy a mischievous look. "Just like you did before I told you my secret?"

The younger brother pouted a little. "Hey, you becoming 'half ghost' wasn't a possibility that crossed my mind, alright? What was I supposed to think? That you were actually full ghost? That would imply you were… dead…"

Danny saw Andy's face fall and hugged his brother. "I'm sorry about teasing like that. And… we'll tell Takuya when the time is right. Whether he tells me his secret, or he discovers mine, or someone else tells him for one reason or another."

"Considering our track record, he's going to find out soon," Andy chuckled as he hugged Danny back.

Dorimon teared up a little. "It's times like these I wish I had a brother too."

Danny looked at Dorimon. "You can have brothers?"

Danny looked at Andy, and Andy shrugged. "Don't look at me, I don't know much about Digimon families. I just hatched his egg here."

Danny grinned. "What was that like?"

Andy remembered how Dodomon used to always try to 'eat his face' as soon as he came out of the egg. "... You ever been kissed by a Digimon before, bro?"

"Uh… no?" Danny remarked, raising an eyebrow.

"Show him, Dorimon." Andy smirked mischievously.

"Wha-" Danny looked over at Dorimon to ask what Andy meant, when Dorimon suddenly jumped at Danny's face, doing the same thing he did to Andy back then.

Danny fell backwards, yelping.

"Alright, so I have the lap-" Jazz began to say when she opened the door, only to see a purple fluff ball latched onto Danny's face, and Andy laughing like a maniac. "... Okay, I can see you guys are a little busy right now. Come and get me when you're… uh… finished."

Lopmon was laughing on top of Jazz's head as Jazz closed the door.

Danny sat up and yanked Dorimon off of his face. "Bleh! That's gross!"

"So yeah, that's what it was like~" Andy grinned.

"I'm a great kisser, so what's the problem?~" Dorimon smiled.

Danny grumbled. "Sometimes I wonder if you are the more mischievous one of us…"

"It's not a question of who's the more mischievous one," Andy remarked, picking up Dorimon. "It's just a matter of what our mood is and what opportunity rises."

Danny sighed. "Let's just get Jazz and go do some research on Ember."

"Oh, one more thing I need to tell you," Andy spoke up.

"Yeah?" Danny asked.

"You… remember how Dorugamon and I came in and saved you and Sam from Ember's love song?" Andy asked. "If I hadn't… that would've affected you."

Danny blinked. "Uh, yeah, I remember that. Why?"

"Well… haven't you asked… how in the world would I know to save you two from Ember's music when I was somewhere else entirely when that was going on?" Andy pointed out.

"Well, a bit yes, but I was more freaked about Takuya becoming BurningGreymon than I was curious about how you knew what Ember was doing." Danny admitted. "But now that you brought it up… how did you know?"

"I… saw it play out… before it actually happened," Andy answered hesitantly. "I saw it in my head… I can't really explain how or why though."

Danny blinked. "You… saw it in your head… before it happened?" He then rubbed the back of his neck. "That… sounds a bit odd, bro."

"We have a theory that Andy might be a seer," Dorimon spoke up. "Someone who can see into the future."

"Isn't that a psychic?" Danny asked.

"A psychic is a bit vague, cause it could mean they could read your mind, or make stuff move with their minds. A seer is just strictly someone who can see into the future," Dorimon explained.

Danny looked at Andy. "Wow. I didn't think you would be able to see the future, bro."

Andy frowned. "I can't, nobody should be able to. I don't know what that is, but I'm not going say it was some kind of prophetic vision. It was probably just a fluke, maybe something in the air with all the ghost and Digimon energy going on. It might've just caused me to hallucinate for all I know."

Danny chuckled. "You live with ghost hunters for parents, and yet you don't believe in the idea of being able to see the future. That's an odd combination if you ask me. Besides, that must've been a very accurate future hallucination you had since it actually happened."

Andy rolled his eyes. "One or two 'predictions' doesn't make me a seer, bro. Besides, I didn't have 'visions' before."

"We did also say that it's possible Andy's visions started to wake up after your accident triggered it," Dorimon informed.

"Dorimon, please, Danny doesn't need to be hearing stories about his brother maybe seeing into the future," Andy grumbled.

Danny chuckled. "Sure, I don't, bro~" He rubbed Andy's hair. "C'mon. Jazz is waiting for us."

"Yeah, yeah… So you've decided on not letting Takuya know you know, bro?" Andy asked as they were walking out of their room.

"Yeah. If he decides to tell me, that's his choice. He will tell me soon enough." Danny replied.

"Okay, then I won't tell him you know," Andy promised. Though I am getting tired of keeping both of your secrets from each other. Maybe this is a sign that the universe is telling you two knuckleheads to just tell each other already.

Danny smiled. "Thanks, bro."

---

Danny was in Jazz's room with Jazz and Lopmon. The two of them were waiting for Andy to get Takuya.

"So Andy just had Dorimon started kissing you like that?" Jazz asked.

"Yup. I probably walked right into that one though," Danny grumbled.

Jazz chuckled. "Dorimon probably stole your first kiss~"

Danny blushed at that. "H-hey! Being kissed by a Digimon is like being kissed by your dog, it doesn't count!"

Jazz chuckled again, Lopmon barely staying on her head with his own laughter.

"Newborn Digimon can get a bit attached to the first person they see," Lopmon chuckled. "Though Dorimon sounded particularly lively."

Danny groaned. "Great… I wonder if my Digimon partner will be that clingy…"

"Oh? Are you planning to get a partner Digimon one day, Danny?" Jazz asked, surprised by the comment.

"Well, if you get a partner, and if Andy has a partner, what's to say I won't get one as well?" Danny replied with a shrug.

"But… you're half ghost… would a Digimon be able to become your partner?" Jazz asked.

Danny frowned. "Need I remind you how Bertrand had all those Soulmon working for him? And let's not forget about Vlad, the other half ghost crazy fruit loop, who has a Digimon partner as well, who's just as fruit loopy as Vlad himself."

Jazz blushed a bit. "Oh… right…"

Lopmon became a little somber at the mention of Vlad's Digimon partner. "That Digimon… Tsukaimon he calls himself now? I'd like to know what exactly happened to him. He was my friend, almost like a brother to me…"

Danny blinked. "He was?" This was the first he had heard of Lopmon's connection to Vlad's partner, so he was not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Tsukaimon was once a Digimon called Seraphimon," Jazz explained. "Um… is it alright if I told him, Lopmon?"

Lopmon nodded. "It's best that our allies know what's going on, leaving them in the dark is a dangerous move."

Jazz nodded before she looked back at Danny. "Basically, Danny, Lopmon was once a Celestial Angel Digimon called Cherubimon. He ruled the Digital World alongside his two fellow Angel Digimon, Seraphimon and Ophanimon. There were some events that caused Cherubimon to become evil, but thanks to the efforts of the Legendary Warriors, he was saved and returned to normal. The cause of Cherubimon's corruption was defeated, and the Digital World was saved. But, after a peaceful period, something went wrong. Seraphimon began to act strange, and wanted to head to the human world. Cherubimon went to stop him and the two fought, but somehow wound up here in our world. After that, well, events led to where we are now."

Danny took a deep breath and let it out. "Wow… that's… a lot to take in."

Lopmon nodded. "If you'd like to tell your two closest friends about this, that would be fine as well. They could help us, and maybe they'll find their own Digimon partners as well. Things seem to work differently here than they did in the Digital World."

"What do you mean?" Danny asked.

"In the Digital World, one had to be chosen in order to partner up with a Digimon, or… become Digimon in some cases," Lopmon answered. "Here, however, it would seem the human and the Digimon can choose each other, they can choose their own destiny, rather than destiny choosing them. I noticed this when Jazz and I became partners."

Danny blinked. "Huh… So it's not about fate when it comes to Digimon partners, at least in our world. That's interesting."

"I think Andy figured that out too when he and Dorimon became partners," Jazz admitted. "It's not really something you're told, it's just something you figure out when you become partners."

"Sounds really deep," Danny chuckled.

Then there was a knock on the door. The room became silent before Andy opened the door. Dorimon was sitting comfortably on Andy's head. Takuya was behind him.

"Sorry that took so long, I wanted to finish eating my dinner before coming up here," Takuya chuckled sheepishly.

"He ate five bowls of chili, and three big frozen hamburgers," Andy mumbled.

Danny blinked at hearing that. He remembered Takuya could become a Digimon, and wondered if his cousin eating so much was the result of that. Huh… Do Takuya's evolutions take up a lot of energy? They must if he has to eat a lot… I wonder if that means my ghost powers might start taking a lot of energy if I use them more?

Takuya then walked into the room. "So, do you have the computer you want to use with you guys?"

"Yeah, we'll be using Jazz's computer since her computer is pretty much made for doing research," Andy answered.

"And I hope you know we're not going to waste time studying for some human test tomorrow," Lopmon spoke up. "This is to find out more about Ember in order to stop her from broadcasting her music to the world."

"And mind controlling everyone to chant her name, which, by the way, makes her stronger," Dorimon added.

"Which means it would be very, very bad if we don't stop her," Danny finished.

Takuya nodded. Even though he was supposed to keep his cousins on studying, Ember came first. "Okay. Let's get to it then." He then looked at them all. "By the way, the way you all spoke, saying one thing after another, it was a bit creepy."

"We might all be a bit in sync right now," Jazz chuckled sheepishly. "We all have one goal in mind, we also have the same knowledge on how to achieve that goal. We were just telling you about it."

Takuya sighed. "Okay, let's get on it then."

Jazz opened her laptop and put it out of sleep mode. Everyone watched the screen as much as they could without being too close, they knew better than to invade personal space if they could help it. Jazz opened an internet browser and typed in Ember McLain's name.

When the name was typed in, up came a few article links, one of which mentioned a house fire and someone with the same last name who died in it. Takuya saw that and blinked. "Hey, could we try that link?"

"Yeah, I'll click on it," Jazz answered before she clicked on the link.

The link took them to a news article. There was a picture of a house on fire, parts of it was falling apart due to the flames. There was another picture at the bottom, showing a girl who had third degree burns, on a stretcher. She was so badly burnt that she was hardly recognizable. Her head was burnt and nearly bald as well. It was likely her hair was on fire before she was rescued. Everyone cringed when they saw the state the poor girl was in. Takuya, someone who had seen fire as his element, couldn't help but feel slightly guilty about it despite it not being his fault or connected to his spirits in any way. It was a brutal reminder that fire and humans didn't mix.

Jazz began reading the article about the house fire. "19 year-old aspiring rock star Amber McLain dies after terrible house fire. The fire, which started due to a defective guitar amplifier, was so bad it left her barely clinging to life with third degree burns. She was the only one rescued from the fire alive before succumbing to her injuries the next day."

"Amber McLain?" Danny asked.

"That must've been Ember's human name," Andy theorized. "She likely changed the spelling when she became a ghost. Likely to distance herself from her life, and also because it's more fitting considering she's… well, a fire ghost."

Danny frowned. "That's… tragic, with what happened to her."

"There's more," Jazz said, scrolling down.

"We interviewed the people Amber McLain came in contact with before the house fire. One of them was a boy who was about 19 years old. According to him, he and Amber were dating. The last time he saw her was a few hours just before the house fire. He claimed that he and Amber were supposed to go to a dance together, but he stood her up due to wanting to break up with her, but was too timid to break up with her to her face. So he had hoped by standing her up, she would get the hint. But he began to apologize, not realizing that Amber would die tragically that night."

"So that's it…" Jazz frowned. "Ember wants everyone to remember her. She was aspiring to be a rock star before she died. A boy she liked stood her up. She didn't want to die as a nobody."

"That explains her motivation and Obsession," Andy muttered.

"And it also explains why she is a fire ghost…" Takuya added. "She died in a fire."

"That's… really sad." Danny frowned.

"Well, when people die, it's usually sad, bro," Andy said before looking at his brother. "And tragic…"

Though Andy left it unsaid, Danny could tell that Andy still felt scared whenever he thought about the accident, the accident that could've so easily killed Danny, that Andy could've easily assumed Danny's ghost form was him having died in the accident.

Danny reached out and squeezed Andy's hand to reassure his twin he was still alive.

Jazz looked back at them for a moment, having a ghost of a smile on her lips before she spoke up. "Alright, now that we know Ember's motivations, what do we do from here?"

"We find her, and try to talk to her. She may be a ghost, but she can still be reasoned with, regardless of what our parents taught us," Danny stated in determination.

Takuya nodded. "Yeah. I can vouch for that." He remembered Poindexter and how he had tried to reason with the poor ghost.

"I couldn't have said it better myself," Andy chuckled. "But if we're doing this, only one of us should try to talk to her. If there's too many of us, she'll see us as a threat rather than people trying to make peace. I would suggest that Danny would talk to her. He's…"

Andy paused for a moment, looking at Takuya, then at Danny. "He's the least threatening one to Ember."

Though in reality, Andy's reasoning was because Danny's ghost half would likely resonate with Ember more than with them and their Digimon partners, or in Takuya's case, being a Digimon.

Danny got the idea right away, making that connection. "Yeah. I think it would be best if I did it."

"The rest of us could be on standby in case Ember does decide to get violent," Andy continued.

"We should stay out of sight, and not too close in case Ember will sense us," Lopmon added.

Danny nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. And I would feel better knowing if you guys were there, even if out of sight, in case things get bad."

"The only problem is finding her, she has the ability to teleport." Dorimon frowned.

"Wait… she has that midnight concert, right? We could go to it early and try to talk to her before she starts it," Andy spoke up. "Does anyone have her ticket so we know where it is?"

Danny shook his head. Takuya pulled out empty pockets.

"I do," Jazz said. "I was there when she threw her tickets during her and Etemon's sing off."

Takuya looked at Jazz. "Wow. Nice save for us. And… good thing you were in there in general. Although I don't think it must have been good to hear that terrible singing…"

"It wasn't… dear gosh, it wasn't," Jazz groaned.

Jazz took out a piece of paper from her pocket. "Let's see… the concert is being held at Amity Stadium."

"Great, we know where the concert is, now the only problem is sneaking out without our parents knowing," Andy remarked.

Suddenly, they could hear what sounded like drums being played outside the window. Jazz had the window open due to it being a nice cool night, and the breeze felt nice. They quickly rushed to the window, nearly bumping into each other's heads. Andy had to stand on his tiptoes to look over Jazz's head, while Danny had to push Takuya to the side just to see out the window.

A van with a large-scale mock-up of Ember's guitar on top of it drove by, playing her song 'Remember'. There were a lot of teens running after the van, cheering loudly.

"Great, she's brainwashing more people as she goes to her concert," Dorimon groaned.

"But we can follow that van." Takuya pointed out. "Err… at least, we can follow the teenagers anyway…"

"We still haven't answered the question to how we're getting out of here," Andy pointed out.

"No problem," Jazz smirked before she bent down and took out a grappling hook from behind one of her stuffed animals.

"... Jazz… why do you have a grappling hook?" Danny asked.

"You think that's surprising, wait until you see what she has stashed under her bed, and behind her bookshelf," Lopmon muttered.

Takuya blinked. "Okay… I don't want to know…"

"What? It's good to keep these things around, you never know when you might need them," Jazz said like it was no big deal. "Like now for instance."

Jazz shot the grappling hook out her window. The hook grabbed onto the nearest street light, then Jazz jumped out of her window and swung like an ape man.

"Okay… remember when I said our sister was boring?" Danny asked.

"Yeah?" Andy replied, staring in shock.

"I take that back now," Danny stated, also staring in shock.

"This family is crazy…" Takuya muttered.

"Which you're a part of, if I must remind you," Andy pointed out.

Takuya sighed. "Yeah, I know I am."

"Wait… JAZZ! HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET OUT!? WE DON'T HAVE GRAPPLING HOOKS!" Danny shouted.

"You have your own ways! I'll meet you at the concert!" Jazz called back, getting drowned by the stampede of teens.

"I'll make sure she's okay," Lopmon sighed before he hopped out of the window, his ears inflating like balloons as he began to float through the sky, over the sea of teenagers.

Takuya looked at Andy and Danny. "Okay… I think we may need to sneak out somehow."

"Okay…" Andy sighed, knowing that Takuya and Danny could easily sneak out with their own powers. "I have an idea. Takuya, you go to our room, and do your… special thing to go out the window. Danny, Dorimon, and I will meet you at the concert. I will have Dorimon digivolve to float us out the window, but he has to be Dorumon, because Dorugamon is too big to fit through the window. Dorumon can still float us a little with his wings though."

Takuya nodded. "Okay. I can do that. I'll… meet you guys there."

Takuya then turned and ran out of the room, no doubt to do his evolution thing.

Danny looked at Andy. "Nice bro."

"You don't live through your cousin's and brother's super hero lives without being clever," Andy muttered. "Thankfully, him knowing about Dorimon, and him knowing you know about Dorimon does make it easier. You can fly us both to the concert directly."

Danny nodded. "Okay. But, one question. Which Digimon form do you think Takuya will use?"

"Probably Agunimon first to jump out the window, then he'll go into BurningGreymon to fly there," Dorimon guessed.

"We should wait a few minutes, otherwise Takuya will get suspicious about how we got there so quick," Andy suggested.

Danny nodded. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea." He looked out the window again, and sure enough, Danny saw the form of Agunimon landing from the window before coding surrounded him and he became BurningGreymon. Once that was done, the Legendary Warrior took to the sky and flew off towards Amity Stadium.

"It's funny, now that I know Takuya is Agunimon and BurningGreymon, it's a lot easier to see him transform… err, evolve," Danny remarked.

"Yeah… that tends to happen," Andy chuckled. "Come on, let's go to your room. I don't think Jazz would like it if we stayed here too long. Also…"

Andy glared at the teddy bear that was sitting on Jazz's bed. "He is watching us."

Danny chuckled. "Relax, bro. Bearbert won't hurt you."

"That's what he wants you to think," Andy hissed.

Dorimon frowned as Andy began walking out of Jazz's room. "I could eat that teddy bear if it bothers you so much."

"Noooo, no, no, no, you do not eat devils, Dorimon. Besides, Jazz would be really upset if you did," Andy warned.

Dorimon pouted. "Awww…"

Danny gave a pat to Dorimon. "It's okay. We can get you some metal to eat later."

The brothers headed to their room, preparing to head to Ember's concert.

---

Titanic X: ZAFT: Trust me, it will become clear here. :3

DarkFoxKit: I wouldn't worry too much about Jazz and Tucker.

Luna Lillyth: ZAFT: Thank you~ :3

DarkFoxKit: Yeah, the teens usually keep their personalities under the hypnotism, they've just become obsessive fans of Ember. In some extreme cases, Ember would make them do something like attack Mr. Lancer in the episode, but otherwise she usually let them keep their core personalities.

ZAFT: It makes it more believable and a bit scarier too, since the core personalities are intact. :3