DarkFoxKit: Here's the next update for DP. It's September now, hopefully things are starting to cool off.

ZAFT: Tell me about it. The heat was nasty for the last part of summer. ^^'

DarkFoxKit: I hope the heat doesn't get worse next summer. I always dread summer because of that.

ZAFT: Well, we'll see what happens. Anyway, onto the chapter!


(Two symbols, one red, and one blue, spin before colliding and flaring with light as they do so, showing the title)

Digital Phantom!

(Shows several forms in shadow before they are revealed to be Danny Fenton and Patamon, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Takuya Kanbara, Andy Fenton and Lopmon, and Jazz Fenton)

Falling into destiny

(A swirling green portal is shown, followed by the sky and cities of the living world before a computer monitor is zoomed in on, revealing another world of lush greenery through that)

Reaching across new boundaries

(Andy Fenton appears with Jazz beside him. Takuya Kanbara appears behind him as well, the form of Agunimon appearing behind Takuya himself)

Let our stories come together

(Andy is shown with the form of Phantom beside him, his twin brother Danny Fenton behind the ghost boy)

Growing stronger

(Andy looks on at Phantom fighting before running to help the ghost boy by taking out his Fenton Rod)

Our pasts intertwine

(Six glowing orbs of light are shown, each of a different color (red, teal, lavender, dark purple, white, and yellow) before the red orb speeds towards Takuya)

Showing our future

(Takuya holds up his D-Tector before fractal code surrounds him, dissipating as fire erupts from it, revealing him as Agunimon, lunging out from the fire as Plasmius fires off ecto-rays at him, only for a glowing orange orb to appear around Agunimon and deflect the beams)

As we evolve

(The blasts speed past the screen as Tucker is shown with a Fenton Wrist ray being fired at a ghost, Kokuwamon shown behind him)

Let's go… EVOLUTION

(Sam is shown with her Fenton Lipstick, firing it at a different ghost, with Biyomon shown behind her)

As our worlds collide

(Jazz is shown beside Andy, the form of Lopmon behind Andy while a shadowed form is behind Jazz)

We stand as one

(Jack and Maddie Fenton are shown, with the Fenton Works logo behind them as it glows green)

Growing strong

(Ghosts are shown flying all around Amity Park as the shadowy form of Walker is shown atop a building and sneering down)

As we move along

(Danny is shown walking down the street with those closest to him appearing one by one; Andy and Lopmon, Patamon, Tucker, Sam, Takuya, and Jazz)

CHOU… SHINKA!

(Fractal code is shown before it dissipates to reveal Agunimon lunging out of the dissipating data, fire around his left fist)

Let's go… EVOLUTION!

(The group is shown facing down Plasmius, who looms above them with hands outstretched as a dark form appears behind Plasmius himself)

Nothing will stand in our way!

(Andy, Lopmon, Danny, Tucker, Sam, Jazz, and Takuya all appear with ribbons of fractal code streaming out from behind them, a swirling green orb behind the ribbons of fractal code)

Digital Phantom!


Chapter 52: The Mystery of the Green Fog

Danny was looking over the plane with a worried expression.

"Is something wrong? You suddenly got an uneasy look on your face," Takuya asked.

"I'm not sure… I just felt worried about something all of a sudden," Danny replied.

Takuya frowned a bit. "What is it? Is it related to Andy or something?" He didn't like the fact Danny was looking worried, as it made him feel worried as well.

"I think so… I mean, I am Andy's twin brother… We have that unique connection between twins and all, so…" Danny trailed off. "I just… hope Andy isn't doing anything stupid or crazy…"

"Do you think he would?" Tommy asked.

Danny frowned as he looked down, thinking back to all those times Andy had done something considered stupid and crazy. "Yes… very… very much so, yes…" Maybe I shouldn't have split up from him.

Takuya grumbled. "Andy is always doing something that is crazy, or he has crazy plans that seem to work. But… Andy is smart, so he knows what he's doing." Takuya then paused. "Erm… most of the time anyway…"

Danny groaned. "I just know my brother is up to something dumb, crazy, stupid, or all three even…"

"He sounds like a riot," Tommy chuckled.

"Please… don't follow his example, Tommy…" Takuya begged.


Andy and Lopmon were looking around.

"Are we… still swimming?" Lopmon asked. "I don't feel any water on us."

"I think we are still swimming, just… in the air, I think…" Andy replied. "I can't see anything but thick fog… so we're deep into it."

"I wonder how far this goes." Lopmon frowned.

"Wait… I think I see something up ahead," Andy pointed out.

Both of them began to swim through the air, moving forward. Until eventually they landed on something hard and solid.

"Ow…" Andy groaned. "I landed on my face…"

"Did we hit a rock or something?" Lopmon grumbled as he reached around with his small hands/paws to feel where they were, and what they were on. "Because we shouldn't be that close to the Continent of Light after traveling for only a few hours…"

"I don't think we're at the Continent of Light…" Andy said as he pushed himself up to his feet, he was trying to get a feel on where they could be. "The ground here doesn't look natural… it's got grass, but it looks like it's… glowing? Are there any grass in the Digital World that glows?"

"I think there are some rare flowers that glow blue, or mushrooms that come in different glowing colors, but nothing like this," Lopmon replied.

"And look… the non-grassy areas are… black, and as hard as a rock instead of soil or dirt," Andy noted. "I don't think that's normal either. It's like we're on top of a giant coal or something. I doubt grass could grow from coal."

"Th-that's not all… look at the sky," Lopmon pointed up.

Andy looked up at the sky, and his eyes went wide in horror. The sky wasn't blue, or dark blue, or filled with stars, or anything of the sort. Instead, all Andy could see was a spiral of green and black that seemed to stretch on endlessly. There was only one place Andy saw which had a sky like that, if it could be called a 'sky'.

"Lopmon… I don't think we're in the Digital World anymore… or the real world for that matter…" Andy paled.

"Then… where… are we…?" Lopmon murmured, getting a bad feeling deep inside his Digi-Core. It felt familiar, and vile. He knew the scent, which was all around him. It was that terrible smell… and it permeated everywhere… "Oh no… I'm smelling ectoplasm all around us…"

Lopmon held onto his nose, it felt like it was burning.

Andy turned around, trying to find the fog that had brought them here, but there was no sign of the fog anywhere. "Of all the places that fog could've taken us… why did it take us into the Ghost Zone?"

"This is the Ghost Zone!?" Lopmon yelled, still holding his nose.

"Shhh!" Andy quickly bent down and covered Lopmon's mouth. "We don't know who, or what, is near us. Don't start yelling and drawing attention to us."

"Sorry…" Lopmon muttered in a bit of a whisper, still holding onto his nose. "This place feels so off to me… I don't like it at all…"

Andy frowned. "I don't like it either… humans aren't supposed to be exposed to the Ghost Zone for long periods of time without some kind of protection… I don't know what will happen to us if we stay here too long. But it doesn't look like we can go back the way we came, the fog is gone."

Lopmon frowned. "So we're essentially stuck here then?" He asked. "That doesn't sound like a good thing…"

"It isn't…" Andy replied. "I have to wonder though… is this where Digimon end up if the fog catches them? And… if they did end up in the Ghost Zone… what happens to them?"

"I… don't feel comfortable thinking about that…" Lopmon frowned.

"Let's look around," Andy suggested. "It's possible Valerie and Salamon could be here somewhere, and maybe we'll be able to find a way back."

Lopmon frowned, but nodded. "Okay. It will be better than just sitting around here." He then paused. "Um… how will we move around in the Ghost Zone…?"

"There seems to be gravity here, enough for us to walk normally," Andy pointed out. "But as for if we had to get off of this… uh… island? That… remains to be seen."

Lopmon frowned, and so did Andy.

"Come on, let's not think about that right now, let's see if Valerie and Salamon are here first," Andy suggested. "They likely had to go the same way we did if they were heading to the Continent of Light, so it's also likely they ended up in the same place we did."

"Then we should start looking for any signs of a human and Digimon having been here." Lopmon suggested. "Maybe like a small rest site or something they left behind."

"Can't you find them by scent like you did with Patamon?" Andy questioned.

"Um… I'll try…" Lopmon replied as he took his hands off his nose.

Andy looked at his D-Arc and frowned as Lopmon began to choke on the air. There was an error sign on the D-Arc. "Nevermind, cover your nose! Don't take too many deep breaths while we're here, the ectoplasm is far too heavy here…"

Lopmon did cover his nose again. "Gah… The stench of ectoplasm is too thick anyway… I can't smell anything else…"

Andy covered his own nose and mouth with his free hand. It'll be too dangerous for me to breathe in the air for too long as well… I could suffer ectoplasmic poisoning if we stay here too long. Valerie has her suit, that could filter out the ectoplasm. Though I'm not sure if Salamon would be okay without protection.

"Lopmon, try to keep talking to a minimum. Talking causes us to breathe more of the toxic air," Andy warned. "We have a limited time to be here before… let's try to find Valerie and Salamon as quickly as possible."

Lopmon nodded in agreement, deciding to follow Andy's advice on keeping talking to a minimum. It was already tough to breathe with the thick ectoplasmic stench in the air.

Lopmon decided to climb up onto Andy's head. He put one of his ears on Andy's mouth and nose, acting like a makeshift gas mask, while Lopmon used his other ear to cover his own mouth and nose. Andy was grateful for Lopmon trying to help out. He gave his partner an acknowledging nod before he moved forward.

From what Andy could deduce as he was walking, this appeared to be some kind of wild, jungle-like area. But there seemed to be a lack of animals, which was creepy. This place looked like it could be a place where animals could thrive… well, ghost animals anyways. He saw a river, but the river was a putrid green color, it almost looked acidic.

Andy kept going, trying to keep breathing to a minimum. But as he moved, he was starting to feel a little nauseous. His body had adapted to a lot of ectoplasm, but even then, he was still only human. Too much ectoplasm entering his system would kill him. And he was already starting to feel some of the effects.

If I had known the green fog would take me into the Ghost Zone… I would've suggested Danny going through instead. His body, despite being half human, thrives here. He could use his ghost powers to look for Valerie and Salamon, he's able to fly freely here. But I'm stuck walking, like a slug, on a time limit. But no matter how much I walk, I feel I'm getting no closer to where I'm supposed to go. It's only a matter of time before the Ghost Zone takes me, becoming another victim, perhaps another ghost, lost to time. What happens if one becomes a pure ghost though? Would I lose my memories of who I was as a human? Would I be someone else entirely? Would I still be me? Or… would I not even become a ghost at all? Would Valerie even be here still? She could use her hoverboard to fly away. She could be far away from here for all I know…

As Andy continued to walk through the island, and he started to grow weaker, doubt began to cloud his mind. Why did I come here? Why did I think going through the fog would make me a hero? Is it because I wanted to be like Danny? Like Takuya? I could've gone back with Dash and Labramon… but I chose to come here instead, putting myself in danger. I'm only human… coming here only puts me in danger. I shouldn't have let pride get in the way of my safety. I should've gone back to the others… and let Danny come here instead… Ah, but it's too late for regrets, isn't it?

Lopmon noticed Andy seemed to be slowing down and gave Andy's hair a slight yank to make him snap out of his slightly dazed state.

"Wah?" Andy blinked when Lopmon snapped out him out of his daze.

"Don't fall asleep on me," Lopmon said through his ear.

Andy blinked again, surprised that he didn't feel as nauseous as he did earlier. Was that a placebo effect? … Even so, I don't think we can stay here for too much longer.

Andy wondered if he should tell Lopmon about his doubts, even though he said to keep talking to a minimum, he wasn't sure if he could stand the silence too much longer with how much unwanted thoughts started intruding into his head.

Andy pulled back some bushes and was surprised to see a giant rock in the shape of a skull. There appeared to be multiple openings into the skull shaped rock.

Lopmon blinked, unsure of what to make of the skull-shaped rock. He wanted to ask Andy what it was supposed to mean, but he kept his mouth shut, so as to not breathe in the ectoplasmic air.

A skull rock… Are we on some kind of pirate island? Andy wondered. If Valerie and Salamon are still here, somehow… that might be the best place for them to hide in.

Andy began walking toward the skull-shaped rock, when suddenly he heard what sounded like something being fired. With how quiet it had been earlier, the sound was particularly loud. Andy's eyes went wide before he quickly jumped to the side, barely avoiding the ghost ray that had been fired at him and Lopmon.

Something bulky floated over them, causing Andy and Lopmon to look up.

"Well, hello there, whelp." A familiar robot ghost sneered. "What brings you to my domain? You know, you would be fun to test my hunting skills on~"

Skulker? Andy blinked in shock. Why is… Wait, this place we're in… he said it was his domain? We're on Skulker's domain!?

Skulker cocked his head a little as he looked at Lopmon covering Andy's mouth and nose, as well as his own. That was strange, Digimon didn't normally come to the Ghost Zone, let alone on his domain. Then again there was that girl with her own digital beast that he had been looking for.

"Interesting. You too seem to have a digital beast of your own." He then grinned. "I think this will be the most interesting hunt~ Seeking out prey with two digital beasts as a bonus will be quite the thrill~"

Does he not recognize me? He thinks I'm Danny? Andy gulped.

Skulker was holding out his arms, getting missiles ready to fire.

Crud, crud, crud, crud! Andy mentally screamed.

Lopmon jumped, trying to attack Skulker, but Andy quickly grabbed onto Lopmon and made a run for it. Lopmon wouldn't stand a chance against Skulker as he was now, and there was no way Lopmon was going to be able to digivolve in the Ghost Zone. Skulker fired out his missiles, Andy was frantically looking for a place to hide.

Lopmon had managed to get back onto Andy's head and was looking for a place to hide as well. He then saw a tree that looked like it had a hole in the trunk. He yanked Andy's hair on the left side of Andy's head and pointed at the tree.

Ow! I'm not a freaking horse! Andy inwardly yelped at the hair pull.

Andy wasn't sure if the tree was going to help them hide, however, it wasn't like they could go through the tree like in the Digital W- I'm an idiot.

Andy ran at the tree. I hope this works with Lopmon!

Andy and Lopmon phased through the tree, going inside it, as the missiles hit the tree, rocks, ground, and other places in the area. The tree was surprisingly stable, then again, it was a ghost tree growing on Skulker's island. It was likely made to take missile explosions.

Lopmon grinned when he saw they were hiding in the tree before he shivered a bit. Wow, going through an object like a tree is… weird… especially when it's not a hiding tree…

Both of them stayed quiet, hoping Skulker wouldn't think to look inside a tree. Andy and Lopmon could hear Skulker flying just outside of the tree.

"Hmm, that's odd. I thought the whelp came through here…" Skulker muttered. "What else is odd is how he's not using his ghost powers, nor is he making wise cracks at me like he usually does. Perhaps something is going on with him? Then again, it's strange the whelp would have a digital beast beside him."

Yeah, well, he does have a Digimon partner… even if he's not with Danny right now. So hah to you and your stupid assumptions. Andy childishly grumbled.

Lopmon could see Andy's expression was annoyed and snickered to himself. Andy is probably thinking something sassy right now, not that I can blame him…

Skulker looked around again. "Either way, I need to find that whelp, his pelt will be mine eventually. Though it will be harder to hunt him if he finds that girl and her digital beast. Then again, that might be a fun challenge too. That human girl has been too good at eluding me in my own domain, even if I had disabled most of her weapons."

Girl and her digital beast? Andy blinked before hope began to shine in his eyes. That has to be Valerie and Salamon! So they are here!

Lopmon was thinking the same thing as Andy. We can't stay here, we need to find Valerie and Salamon! It sounds like they are here, so that's good news for us!

They waited a little bit longer until they couldn't hear Skulker anymore. Andy was a little worried that Skulker pretended to go silent, and was waiting for them to come out. However, Skulker hadn't shown any indication that he would realize 'Danny' could utilize his human half to hide inside trees. Andy slowly peeked outside of the tree, trying to spot that hunter anywhere. After a moment of hesitation, and not seeing Skulker anywhere, Andy finally stepped out of the tree.

As soon as Andy was out, with Lopmon still on his head, the boy quickly made his way back to the skull rock. He hoped Valerie and Salamon were there. Isn't it kind of an obvious hiding place though? Then again, sometimes the best hiding place is in plain sight.

Hoping to work on that logic, Andy hurried into the mouth of the skull rock.

Lopmon clung to Andy's head, hoping they would be able to find Valerie and Salamon in the skull rock. Please, oh please let us find them in that rocky skull…

Andy hoped the skull rock wasn't too deep, or too long. He didn't know how much longer he could last- "Whoa!"

Andy tripped over something and fell on his stomach, with Lopmon pulling on Andy's hair to keep from falling off of his head.

What did I just trip? Andy turned back. … A trip wire?

"Ah-hah! Now I've-"

Andy blinked as he looked at who was speaking, before seeing Valerie, wearing her red suit, pointing a stick at him.

Valerie paused as she blinked, seeing what looked like Andy, and Lopmon, on the ground before her. "Wait… Andy? Lopmon?" She asked, but she was on alert in case Andy was overshadowed or something, but if that was the case, then Lopmon wouldn't be with Andy… right?

Andy and Lopmon silently waved to Valerie.

Valerie frowned at the lack of a verbal response. "Are you okay?" She asked.

Andy quickly scrambled back up to his feet, and pulled Lopmon's ear from his mouth a little to speak. "Can't talk, too much ectoplasm in the air."

Andy put the ear back over his mouth.

Valerie frowned when she heard that, but realized Andy and Lopmon were likely trying to limit their exposure to the ectoplasm. "Oh… I see." She then frowned some more.

Valerie had her suit's helmet on for this very reason, it filtered out the ectoplasm. Not all of the ectoplasm, she doubted even the most advanced of technology could do that in this ghost filled place, but enough that shouldn't be a danger to her for a while. With Andy, he was completely exposed.

"Come with me, quickly, before that hunter ghost finds us," Valerie quickly said, taking Andy's hand and all but pulled him with her deeper into the cavern.

Once they were deeper in the cave, Valerie let go of Andy's hand, gesturing for him to follow her. Since Andy wanted to speak as little as possible, she figured communicating with hand gestures would be best.

She led them to what Andy believed may be the center of the skull rock. It was rather dark and hard to see the further in they went. He wondered where Salamon was, and he hoped she was okay.

Valerie stopped for a moment. "Salamon, you can come out. I'm back. I didn't catch us any food, but I caught someone who could use our help."

That trip wire was to catch food? Andy blinked in surprise. Can… can she even eat anything in the Ghost Zone? Is there anything safe for human consumption here? How long has she been here?

Salamon emerged from hiding behind a rock. "Who did you find?" However, that question was quickly answered when she saw Andy and Lopmon with Valerie. "Oh…"

"Yeah. Apparently these two got caught up in the same fog as we did. That's my guess to how and why they're here, unprotected," Valerie said.

Andy frowned before he reached for his backpack and was getting something out. He took out a notepad and a pen he brought with him. He was going to use it to take notes, but most of the time he forgot he even had it with him. But now he was glad he had it because it helped keep talking to a minimum, and it would help him communicate. He wrote something down before showing it to Valerie.

'Val, are you and Salamon okay? How long have you two been here?' Andy asked on paper.

Valerie read the message and groaned. "Yes, Salamon and I are fine. As for that second question… How should I know how long we've been here? I can't even tell if it's day or night thanks to that never changing sky!"

"But if I had to guess, it may have been a few days to a week," Salamon added. "And sorry about Valerie, she's been stressed out since we got here."

Valerie sighed. "We don't really know where we are exactly, but I think it's safe to say this is the ghost world. Salamon noticed a lot of ectoplasm in the air, too much to be considered healthy for either humans or Digimon. So she had me put my helmet on and keep it on while we're here. We've been stuck in this place for a while. But we can't exactly leave. There's an endless abyss waiting for us at the edges of this good forsaken island."

'What about your hoverboard?' Andy wrote.

"That… ghostly hunter disabled most of my weapons and even my hoverboard." Valerie grumbled. "I would love to get it activated again, but that's been difficult to accomplish…"

Andy raised an eyebrow, he remembered hearing Skulker saying how he disabled Valerie's weapons, but… 'How did he disable your weapons and hoverboard?'

Valerie sighed before she held up her left hand. Andy hadn't noticed it on her earlier, but now he could see some kind of blue glowing bracelet on her wrist.

"This thing. I can't seem to get it off." Valerie grumbled. "I've tried bashing it with a rock, tried to slip it off with a stick, and even asked Salamon to try and chew it off."

"Unfortunately it doesn't seem possible to get it off without a key of some kind," Salamon sighed.

Andy frowned, he wanted to ask some questions before doing anything else. 'How is Salamon fine? I'm glad she is, but how has the ectoplasm not hurt her?'

"It's not that the ectoplasm hasn't hurt her… I have to use my D-Arc to purify her of ectoplasm if it gets to be too much." Valerie replied. "It's like changing a bandaid, it can only hold the issue back."

We can purify a Digimon's data with our D-Arc? Andy blinked, surprised to hear that. I thought only the D-Tector was capable of doing that. I suppose that's good to know for the future.

'I take it you and Salamon got here when you got engulfed by a mysterious green fog?' Andy asked to be sure that was what happened.

"Yeah, and I take it the same thing happened to you and Lopmon?" Valerie replied.

'Sort of. We purposefully went in to try to find you two when nobody had heard from you in a while,' Andy answered. 'We didn't know it would take us to the Ghost Zone though.'

"Wait… the Ghost Zone?" Valerie blinked. "You know where we are?"

'I don't know our exact location. But I have been to this place before,' Andy confirmed. 'This is what we call the 'Ghost Zone', basically the world the ghosts inhabit.'

"While the name doesn't sound that original, it's good to at least know where we are now." Valerie muttered. "But how will we get out of here? It's not like we…" Valerie then paused. "Wait… Andy, didn't your parents build a portal in your basement? I think you mentioned that…"

Andy responded with a nod before writing his full answer. 'They do, but we'd need to be able to fly to travel here.'

Valerie groaned. "Great… Then I guess we need to find the key to this bracelet so I can get my weapons and hoverboard back in use…"

"The key is likely with that ghost hunter," Salamon grimly stated. "He was the one who got that bracelet on you after all."

Andy tilted his head before writing. 'You were likely here for days to a week, right? What did you do for food or water?'

Lopmon was also curious about that, since he doubted any Digimon would've been able to survive this long without being able to eat for a day. He was sure humans were the same.

"There is some… food on this island. It's kind of like a jungle," Valerie hesitantly replied.

'Don't tell me you actually ate food here,' Andy deadpanned.

"I didn't," Valerie said. "I had some food in my backpack. But it was only enough to last for a few days, I guess, between me and Salamon. I started to make traps for potential food, because I knew it was only a matter of time before we were desperate enough to need to eat something here."

'I doubt you'd be able to eat ghost animals,' Andy remarked.

Valerie actually became disgusted. "Is that all there is here? Gross! I don't want to eat ectoplasm!"

'It'd likely kill you if you did,' Andy agreed.

"So maybe it's best we find a way to get out today then, not just for our sakes, but for yours," Salamon said, looking at Andy and Lopmon.

Lopmon nodded in agreement to Salamon's words.

Valerie looked at that bracelet on her wrist again. "And the first thing to do is get that key so I can get this thing off and then get us all out of here."

"But the problem is getting the key from that hunter ghost," Salamon grimly said. "If we could've fought him, we would've gotten the key and been out of this place a long time ago. But with Valerie's weapons disabled, and me being weak in this ghostly world, there wasn't much we could do against him."

Andy had to agree. Maybe to another ghost, or a strong Digimon, Skulker wasn't too threatening. But to a human, and a weak Digimon, Skulker had missiles, guns, lasers, his own ghost powers. He was quite the large threat. And with Lopmon being unable to digivolve into his Champion form, they were stuck with two Rookie level Digimon to deal with Skulker.

'This is quite the problem. But I think we can get the key from Skulker.' Andy wrote.

Valerie's eyebrows rose in surprise. "That hunter ghost has a name? I'm surprised you know that."

"Or is that the name you gave the hunter ghost, so we can better identify him?" Salamon asked.

Andy sweatdropped before he wrote down something. 'I forgot you weren't there. But I had dealt with some ghosts before the Digital World became a thing in our world. Skulker was one of them. I had some help though, Takuya had found Agunimon's Spirit by that point, so I wasn't completely defenseless when Skulker attacked us.'

"Why would Skulker attack you?" Valerie asked, concerned for Andy now.

'He thinks I'm the ghost boy, because we look a little identical,' Andy explained. 'And he likes hunting the ghost boy because he thinks he's a rare species, and can put up a fight, so that makes the hunt more fun for Skulker. Even right now, he thinks I'm the ghost boy, just using a 'human form' to try to trick him.'

Valerie sweatdropped. "You do look a bit like that ghost kid… But not exactly… He glows, has white hair, and green eyes. You don't. But… I can see why this Skulker thinks you are the ghost boy in a way…"

'But it's a problem because he goes all out on me, thinking I can handle it. But if any of his weapons hit me, I'd be torn to shreds, or liquified,' Andy shivered.

Valerie shuddered at those images in her mind. "Yeah… I can see why then…" She hated to admit it, but Andy was in real danger here. "You are so reckless sometimes, Andy." Valerie grumbled.

'It's not my fault Skulker comes after me with guns blazing,' Andy huffed. 'But we're getting off track. We need to focus on how we'll get the key from Skulker without getting caught or blasted.'

Valerie nodded. "Right, on topic. So… how do you think we should do that? Skulker is not going to be so easy to trick, not if he is as great a hunter as he claims to be."

Andy gave a moment of thought before writing something in the notepad. 'Skulker can be clever, but I don't think he's as intelligent as he claims he is. We have managed to trick him before. And I think that's our greatest weapon, outsmarting the hunter. He thinks I'm the ghost boy, that will be his biggest downfall.'

Valerie grinned. "And how will that bring down the hunter?" She asked, eager to hear Andy's plan.

"This should be interesting to hear." Salamon noted with a small grin of her own.

'Have you noticed yet that you can go through walls in the Ghost Zone?' Andy asked.

Valerie raised an eyebrow. "Yes, how do you think Salamon and I have managed to elude him for so long?"

'It's not just walls, you can go through trees as well. And unless properly equipped, ghosts can't touch humans with their bare hands,' Andy explained. 'Skulker doesn't seem to realize that the ghost boy would be capable of doing that.' Or at least, not think to do that. Danny is smart, but he can miss the obvious most of the time.

"So… we can use that…" Valerie noted as she looked down in thought. Then her brain caught up to the rest of Andy's message. "Wait… The ghost boy can do that?!"

Andy tapped the side of his head with his pen for a moment, trying to think of a way to excuse that. 'I did say the ghost boy was considered a rare species among ghosts. Perhaps that ability is one of the reasons why.'

Andy hoped that made it sound like he had seen the ghost boy do it before, but he himself doesn't know why, so Valerie wouldn't keep asking questions.

To Andy's relief, Valerie seemed to accept that explanation. "I guess that's possible. If this ghost boy is a rare species, it makes sense he would have abilities most ghosts may not." She conceded.

Andy took a little while writing down the next bit, and after Valerie read it, she could see why.

'Getting back on topic. Since there's 4 of us now, we should be able to work together to bring Skulker down, or at least get the key from him. Lopmon and I can be the bait. Skulker will likely have more interest in me, thinking I'm the bigger game here. Meanwhile, you and Salamon take that opportunity to shoot a surprise attack at Skulker. But don't confront him directly, that would only put you two in danger. When he turns to see who hit him, go to the nearest tree or rock to hide. Lopmon will take the opportunity to attack when he's distracted looking for you. Then we'll hide ourselves. The tactic is to hit, hide, distract, hit, hide, distract. We're not strong enough to face him head on, but we can weaken him and his battle armor bit by bit, as long as he doesn't catch us.'

Valerie was grinning as soon as she finished reading Andy's message. "Andy, this plan may work. I think you are the bigger threat here."

Andy shook his head before he wrote out. 'It's not the best plan. It's still risky, and if one of us gets caught, the plan falls apart. We have to be really careful if we want this to work.'

Valerie nodded. "Right. So after I attack with Salamon, we then hide, and Lopmon does his thing, then you and he will hide. Then we repeat the whole thing. I think that's doable."

"By the way, Andy, do you still have that rod you usually carry with you?" Salamon asked.

Andy nodded. 'I usually have it with me wherever I go in case I have to fight.'

"Then that's one weapon we have against Skulker," Salamon noted.

'It's a back-up, in case Skulker catches us,' Andy admitted. 'I'm hoping I won't have to use it.'

"Well, in any case, it's still something we can use if it comes down to it." Valerie assured Andy. "Don't worry about it. If you have to use it, then we can't change that."

Andy nodded. 'If we're doing this, then let's get out of here. The skull rock won't help us much, it's too cramped in here. We need to go somewhere where there's a lot of space, and places for us to hide.'

Valerie grinned. "I think I saw a place that fit those criteria when Salamon and I first ended up here. I can lead us there."

Valerie then grabbed Andy's hand that was holding the notepad, and began to lead them all out of the cave.

Let's hope this plan of yours works. Lopmon thought to himself, looking down at Andy.

Andy was also worried the plan could go awry, because there was far too much room for error. But they were desperate, and they didn't have a lot to work with. Andy also blamed the lack of proper oxygen for his brain to not be able to think of better plans.

Finally, the small group was out of that skull rock formation. Valerie led Andy to a large area that had lots of hiding spaces and had enough space to run from one hiding spot to the next.

"This is it, do you think this place will work?" Valerie asked.

'It'll work,' Andy confirmed on his notepad.

"Now the question is, how will we get Skulker to come over here?" Salamon asked.

Andy frowned for a moment. 'Leave that to me. We want him to see us as the 'only prey' in the area.'

Valerie frowned as well, but if this plan was to work, she had to let Andy do what he needed to do. "Okay. Just… be careful, please."

'Same to you.' Andy responded before giving Valerie and Salamon a thumbs up.

Lopmon gave his own thumbs up as well, hoping to reassure them.

'Now find a place to hide. It's important he doesn't know you or Salamon are here,' Andy instructed.

Valerie grinned. "I will, don't you worry~" She then turned and ran to find a good hiding spot, Salamon right behind her.

With them going into hiding, Andy ran in the opposite direction, wanting to make sure Skulker wasn't too close to them when he got the hunter's attention. I hope Danny and Takuya don't kill me for this…


Meanwhile, back in the Digital World… Danny, Tommy, and Takuya were finally back at the Flame Terminal after the ToyAgumon landed the plane. After saying their goodbyes, the ToyAgumon took off into the sky again to head back to Toy Island.

They met up with Tucker and Sam.

"Hey, wow, didn't know you guys were coming from a toy plane," Sam chuckled.

"It's a long story." Takuya sighed. "But the gist of it is, we found someone I had been wanting to check up on on a large flying island, and Danny and I had to pretty much… well… we had to save the inhabitants of the island."

Tucker and Sam looked down, noticing they had an extra person with them.

"Oh, hello, who are you?" Sam asked.

Tommy looked up at them a little nervously. "Uh… hello… I'm Tomoki Himi. But you can call me Tommy."

"Oh, so you're the little friend Takuya told us about." Tucker smiled. "I can see why Takuya was so worried about you. An 8 year old shouldn't be wandering the Digital World alone."

"I'm 11 years old… why does everyone think I'm 8?" Tommy grumbled.

"Wait, you're 11? You look a bit… um… small for an 11 year old." Tucker said.

"Hey, don't blame Tommy for that. Some kids are just like that until they hit their growth spurt." Takuya said in a slightly scolding manner.

"Sorry," Tucker apologized. "I'm Tucker Foley by the way. This is my partner, Kokuwamon."

"Greetings, it's nice to meet you," Kokuwamon greeted.

"I'm Sam Manson, and this is my partner, Biyomon." Sam introduced.

"Nice to meet you, Tommy." Biyomon said with a smile.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you too," Tommy greeted back.

"So you don't have a Digimon partner?" Sam asked.

"N-no, I guess I don't," Tommy replied.

"Huh… So does that mean you're like Takuya then?" Tucker questioned.

"Like Takuya?" Tommy blinked. Do they know about his Legendary Warrior form? I guess Danny did. I just didn't think Takuya told them as well.

Takuya blinked, surprised at what Tucker had asked. Then again, Takuya knew Tommy didn't have a Digimon partner of his own, but for Tucker to ask if Tommy was like him… was a bit strange.

"Um… yeah… Tommy is still looking for his Digimon partner." Takuya said awkwardly. But… Takuya remembered the fact that Kumamon had a D-Tector. Now that he was thinking about it… Tommy always seemed to appear whenever Kumamon disappeared, and vice versa.

But why? Am I missing something? Takuya thought to himself as he looked down.

"Well… if that's the case, then there might be a chance that it could be Tommy…" Sam muttered.

"It could be me for what?" Tommy asked.

"Perhaps you should inform them of your findings," Kokuwamon suggested.

"Right, well we-" Tucker began before he was interrupted by Dash, which surprised him as he didn't know Dash was here, and Labramon.

"H-hey!" Dash panted, looking a quite exhausted.

Labramon was panting as well. It looked like they had been in a hurry to get here.

"D-Dash? W-what are you doing here?" Sam asked before frowning a bit. "And… why do you look so worn out?"

Takuya groaned. "I think that everything is going to need some explaining from all of us…"

"There's… a… situ…ation…" Dash coughed a bit.

"Biyomon, can you get him a cup of water?" Sam requested.

"Yeah, I'll be quick," Biyomon said before she flew away from the group while Dash and Labramon were trying to catch their breath.

Biyomon came back before long, holding a cup of water in her talons. She held it out for Dash. Dash took the cup of water and downed it quickly, which helped soothed his throat.

"Thanks." Dash sighed in relief. "I didn't think I would wear myself out so much running."

"Welcome to the Digital World, where walking is the main method of transportation." Takuya chuckled.

"It must be pretty bad if the football star wore himself out running," Tucker noted.

"What happened?" Danny questioned. He had been feeling uneasy for a while, and he hoped whatever Dash was about to tell him wasn't about to confirm why he had been feeling uneasy. "Wasn't Andy looking for Labramon…?"

"Yeah… He was." Dash confirmed. "He found her, as well as me. We were looking for any leads on Valerie when Andy came across us. We… got information Valerie and Salamon had been seen heading to Ophanimon's castle on the Continent of Light, and we tried to head there across the ocean on a raft. But… before we could get that far, that eerie green fog showed up."

Dash paused for a breath before continuing. "Andy and Lopmon went into the fog… He tried to send a message to you guys, but it didn't go through, so he had me and Labramon head back to let you know about what is going on."

Danny felt his world breaking when he heard Andy went into that fog alone. "And you didn't stop him!? Who knows what that fog would do to him! He could die!"

Dash winced. "I wanted to go with him, but he was insistent that I stay here and not go with. If… If Valerie and Salamon got swallowed up by that fog, then someone going after them made sense. I didn't think to stop Andy because he seemed to know what he was doing, he assured me of that!"

"He has a way to convince people to let him do reckless things…" Sam muttered.

"He should know better! I can't believe he would do that! He could be in danger right now!" Danny paced, getting really stressed out now. "I have to go after him! I think he needs help!"

"Danny, calm down!" Takuya exclaimed. "I know you're worried, but we can't just have you running off! Andy's smart, he can handle himself, He wouldn't like it if you just ran off into the green fog yourself. We need to remain calm and not panic."

"First Jazz and now Andy! I can't just stand by and let my family get lost in that fog!" Danny snapped.

Danny frowned for a moment, seeing that he was losing his cool. "Sorry… I… I can't help but worry about them…"

"It's okay, Danny, we're worried about them too," Sam said softly.

"Yeah, but we'll find both of them." Tucker reassured Danny. "It's hard, yeah, but in the end, we always seem to find each other, right? I mean, last time we were split up, we all managed to find each other."

Takuya nodded. "Yeah, I mean, when I got sent here to the Digital World, Andy found me and we managed to make our way back to the real world."

"He did?" Tommy blinked, surprised.

"Yeah, he has a knack for taking risks and working them out somehow," Takuya confirmed. "I have no idea how he does it."

"What should we do though?" Tucker asked. "I doubt we're just going to let this go until Andy comes back to us."

"Maybe we can go into one of the green fogs ourselves?" Biyomon asked.

"I don't think just going into any of the fog would work," Labramon spoke up, finally catching her own breath. "The fog could take you to specific places depending on where the fog formed. At least that was Andy's theory when he went into the fog, hoping to find Valerie and Salamon there."

Danny paled. "Then Andy could be anywhere!"

"Dude, calm down!" Takuya exclaimed as he grabbed Danny's shoulders. "I know you're worried, but panicking won't help bring Andy back! We have to trust he will come back to us somehow, that's all we can do!"

Danny took in a breath before letting it out. "You're right… Andy… he will find a way out. I know he will."

"Maybe we should focus on finding Jazz." Takuya suggested. "I mean, we still have to find her right now."

"But we don't have any leads on where Jazz could be, do we?" Biyomon asked.

Tommy was looking over at Dash while the others were talking among themselves. Dash looked at the kid, not having seen him before. Just one look, and Tommy could tell Dash was a sports person, probably popular in school. He has quite the muscle tone, and was very athletic. Though from the way others reacted to him, it wasn't out of friendship, but out of just simply knowing each other. They didn't seem to be very close to Dash. So it was likely Dash either had been a neutral person to them, or he had been mean to them before. He also figured something out the others had either ignored or didn't think to talk about.

"Why didn't you tell them?" Tommy asked Dash. "That they would find Andy if they just went to the fog you and him had been to?"

"Andy told me he would be going in with Lopmon alone." Dash replied. "And… I don't know what the fog will do if they go to it… The others may end up somewhere else for all I know. And then we would have an even bigger search to handle."

"You seem pretty smart for a young boy though. I'm surprised you thought about that, but not the others," Labramon noted.

"I think their worry for Andy is making it hard for them to think straight," Tommy concluded. "I've only met with Andy once. So he and I aren't particularly close. But I am worried about him. How long do you think they can wait until they start taking reckless actions to find him?"

Dash looked at the group behind him. "I… can't say for sure… But… maybe a few hours? I don't know really…"

"I can't say I disagree with Dash, but again, we don't know how long the others can wait…" Labramon replied.

"Let's hope Andy will turn up soon. If he doesn't… we might end up going into another fog to find him…" Tommy frowned.

Danny especially wasn't going to let anyone stop him from finding his brother. They were on a time limit to how patient the boy could be before his worry for his brother made him throw any sense of logic out the window.


So, if time in the real world passes by much slower than in the Digital World… What about the time in the Ghost Zone? Andy couldn't help but wonder as he tried to keep track how long it had been since he and Lopmon arrived in the Ghost Zone. Time doesn't seem to pass here like it does in either world. I suppose that makes sense. This is a realm where the dead reside, time means nothing to them.

Andy looked up. I just hope that Danny doesn't do something reckless when Dash tells him what happened to me and Lopmon. … He totally would though, his ghostly instincts would likely kick in soon if I don't hurry my butt up.

Andy took Lopmon's ear from his mouth, and gently moved it away. I'm so… so going to regret doing this… please try not to give out on me, body…

Andy had to take a deep breath, unwillingly inhaling all that ectoplasm.

"W-what are you doing?" Lopmon asked in concern.

"Cover your ears…" Andy warned.

Andy then let out the loudest shout he could muster. "SKULKER! I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE! WHY DON'T YOU COME AND GET ME!? I'M RIGHT HERE!"

There was nothing but silence for a few moments. Then, Andy heard it, the sound of engines that were overhead. Skulker's form flew into view. Skulker looked down and grinned. "Well, my prey finally shows himself. How sporting~ Come to give me more of a hunt, ghost child?"

"If you think you can catch me while I'm human~" Andy taunted. "Or do you think you can't even catch me as a human?"

"Oh, I will definitely catch you as a human! You seem to relish the challenge of avoiding me without using your powers, ghost child, so I will play along~" Skulker grinned sinisterly.

Andy took Lopmon's ear and put it back over his mouth. I hope I didn't just take away 20 years of my life expectancy there.

Andy began running as Skulker began chasing after him. Skulker began to aim at Andy, if he was lucky he could get the digital beast's pelt too. To dodge an incoming shot, Andy jumped into some of the thick bushes, and rolled around in them. Lopmon held onto Andy's head tightly to not fall off.

Oh man, oh man, oh man! This had better not backfire on us! Lopmon thought as he clung tightly to Andy's hair with his small paws/hands.

In her hiding spot, Valerie waited for Andy to come back. Salamon was also hiding with Valerie, waiting for the right time to strike.

Valerie and Salamon could hear the lasers and guns firing not too far away. Andy already got Skulker's attention, and they were getting closer.

Valerie and Salamon looked out from their hiding place, seeing Skulker getting closer.

"You can't hide from me, ghost boy!" Skulker shouted.

Valerie knew it was almost time. She held up a hand, the signal to get ready to attack. Salamon tensed up, ready to unleash one of her attacks at Skulker when he went by.

Finally, they saw Andy running by, and Skulker was flying behind him. Valerie gave the signal to attack.

Normally, a Digimon would shout out their attacks when they did them for full power, but since they were trying to be sneaky here, Salamon had to forgo on shouting her attack this time. She jumped at Skulker, doing a Petit Punch with her paw on his back. This got Skulker to stop, and Salamon quickly ran back to Valerie before he could see her.

"Hey! Who dares to attack me, Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter, from behind?!" Skulker demanded as he looked around for his attacker.

Valerie was snickering silently as she watched Skulker looking for Salamon, but to no avail. Salamon was now back beside Valerie, feeling a bit smug at the successful sneak attack.

Andy smirked, seeing that the plan was now put into motion. He picked up Lopmon from his head, holding him up high.

Lopmon, knowing what Andy wanted, had no choice but to take in a breath of ectoplasmic air, and blew out his Blazing Ice attack. The icy wind froze some of Skulker's fiery mohawk. Andy ran into a tree, hiding in it before Skulker to turn back around.

"H-hey! Stop that!" Skulker exclaimed, trying to find the attacker. "Where are you?! Come out and fight like a ghost! This is not a fair hunt!"

Andy moved around Skulker, now using the domain as his hunting ground for the hunter. The island was clearly made for hunting ghosts, but not humans. In this world, humans were the ghosts.

"I think it's plenty fair," Andy said through the thickets of the trees and bushes. "After all, I am on your domain, am I not?"

"Your ice powers shouldn't have been awakened yet, according to my scanners your core is still too young and immature!" Skulker shouted. "So how did you use your ice powers!?"

Ice powers? Danny doesn't have ice powers… does he? Andy blinked, confused by that statement. Maybe Skulker's just confused and he's trying to think of why 'Danny' just hit him with an ice attack?

Deciding to roll with it, Andy chuckled, making sure to have it echo through the bushes. "Who knows? Maybe I just grew stronger while you were busy working with your rich partner."

Skulker frowned. "You couldn't have awakened your ice powers this soon. Your core isn't mature enough yet. And yet you used ice on me…" Is it possible? A ghost as young as him can't awaken their elemental powers this early… Can they? Could it be due to his halfa biology? But my boss's core didn't awaken its element until much later on.

Seeing that Skulker was deep in thought, Andy saw this was a perfect opportunity to go on the attack again. Andy threw Lopmon closer to Skulker. Lopmon shot out another Blazing Ice attack on Skulker's side. Skulker yelped before Andy came from behind, whacking Skulker's back with the Fenton Rod, before he and Lopmon ran into another tree.

Valerie was snickering silently at seeing how confused Skulker was becoming. She held up a hand and then Salamon got ready to attack. Salamon knew what attack to use this time. She ran out and hit Skulker in the back from behind using her Sledge Crash attack. The force of the headbutt attack threw Skulker to the ground on his face.

Salamon was in motion as soon as Skulker hit the ground and ran into the bushes again, hiding beside Valerie once more.

This is too much fun! I never thought turning the tables on this hunter ghost could be so amusing! Valerie thought to herself.

Skulker got back to his feet, spitting out some grass. "Ugh… You are clearly much sneakier than I thought, ghost child…" He then grinned sinisterly. "This will make my victory much more enjoyable~"

Skulker wondered if the ghost child had managed to learn to duplicate himself. Maybe that was why he was getting attacked on different sides. No matter, he had ways to deal with duplicating ghosts.

Skulker opened something on his back, showing more missiles. "If you think attacking me from behind is going to keep working, then you best work on your own hunting skills!"

This is where it gets harder. Andy noted. He's more on guard than before.

While Andy knew the distraction could only last for so long, his main goal was Skulker's head. He remembered that when Agunimon was able to knock Skulker's head off, it revealed the true body inside the suit. Andy just hoped that the real Skulker was still in the head, and not in the chest cavity somewhere.

Valerie gulped, seeing the missiles. I hope you know what you're doing, Andy… Those missiles look dangerous…

Skulker grinned. "Time to finish the hunt!" He let loose his missiles, aiming at where he thought Andy and his 'duplicate' were hiding.

However, due to Andy and Valerie each having moved around, the missiles were off target and missed them.

Valerie knew it would be dangerous for Salamon to get too close to the ghost, so instead… "Try using a sound base attack."

Salamon nodded. She took a deep breath and used her Puppy Howling this time. This caused Skulker to shout as the digital sound attack was causing his suit to start going a little haywire. "W-what's this!?"

Andy was surprised to see this as well. That sound attack is messing up his suit? … Of course, ectoplasm may mess up Digimon… but the same could be said vice versa. Digimon and data can mess up ghosts and their ectoplasm!

Valerie blinked before she felt a grin crossing her face. I think we have more of an advantage than we first thought… This changes things for us~

Valerie gave Salamon a pat on the head, showing she was proud of Salamon and what she had done.

Lopmon was grinning behind his ear over his mouth. Wow, that will show that big mean ghost to not hunt Andy~

Of course, this caused Valerie and Salamon to get a bit too confident. Instead of running to hide again, Valerie had Salamon use her Puppy Howling on the ghost once more. This caused him to finally see what had been attacking him. It wasn't Danny, or his duplicates, as he first thought. Skulker realized it had been that human girl, her Digimon, and the boy's Digimon that had been attacking him the past few minutes.

"Valerie, hide!" Andy shouted a warning.

Skulker grinned before he shot out a net at Valerie and Salamon, trapping them both.

"H-hey!" Valerie squirmed in the net. "No fair!"

Lopmon groaned to himself. Why do our plans always backfire?!

Skulker looked back at Andy and Lopmon and frowned. "If you were truly the ghost boy, you wouldn't be relying on your friend, or these digital beasts to fight me. No… you aren't the ghost boy, are you? You're just his useless twin brother."

Lopmon and Andy froze. Crap… this is not good… Lopmon thought in alarm.

Andy knew he had to do something, or Skulker may skin Valerie and Salamon. He took out his Fenton Rod.

"Pathetic, do you honestly think you could hope to pose as a challenge to me? Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter?" Skulker laughed.

Andy removed Lopmon's ear from his mouth before he replied. "You haven't been able to catch me yet, and you thought you were hunting down the ghost boy. I'd say that's pretty pathetic for the 'Ghost Zone's greatest hunter' when an ordinary human child is able to evade you."

Skulker growled at that. "You dare to insult me?! I will prove I am the greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone, and then even you won't be able to deny it!"

Lopmon could only hope Andy knew what he was doing. Things seemed to be falling apart, but if Andy could salvage things, then they had a chance of getting out of the Ghost Zone alive.

"Do you have a plan?" Lopmon questioned as Andy was now on the move to try to dodge Skulker's ghost rays and guns.

"Not exactly!" Andy replied, hiding behind a tree, not in it, from some of Skulker's attacks.

"Then what can we do? Valerie and Salamon need us, and we need to get that key so we can get out of here!" Lopmon pointed out.

"I'm working on it! Right now I'm just trying to not die!" Andy responded back.

Skulker moved around the tree, and was ready to shoot at Andy again. Andy ran for it while Skulker shot at the tree.

Andy needed a place to think, trying to dodge Skulker's attacks made it difficult for him to think of a plan. Andy jumped into a big rock, hoping that would buy him some time before he had to keep Skulker away from Valerie and Salamon.

"You can't hide from me forever!" Skulker shouted. "I will catch you, and I will use you as bait to bring out my real prize!"

Okay, think, Andy! Andy to himself frantically. What do I know that could help us here? Skulker is weak to digital attacks. Even with Lopmon and Salamon as Rookies, they can still do some damage, or at the very least, mess his suit up. If we could slow him down and power down his suit…

The rock was suddenly kicked away, leaving Andy and Lopmon vulnerable. Skulker grinned as he aimed at the two.

"Tiny Twister!" Lopmon didn't hesitate to spin into a small tornado at Skulker, pushing him away from Andy.

Skulker got hit by the Tiny Twister attack, being pushed back at the same time. "H-hey! Stop that, you digital beast!"

But Lopmon did not let up on the attack. He shot out his Blazing Ice right at Skulker's face, covering his eyes with ice. "You little pest… I can't see!"

"That's the whole point!" Lopmon snapped.

"Way to go, Lopmon!" Andy spoke up before he ran over to Valerie and Salamon to try to get them out of the net.

"You're okay…" Salamon smiled.

Andy blinked, noticing that Salamon's eyes were turning green, and the collar around her neck was starting to turn green as well. I better get them out of here quickly.

Andy used the Fenton Rod to break them out of the ecto-net. "Come on, we should-"

There was a loud explosion, and a loud scream. Andy gasped when he saw an injured Lopmon falling to the ground.

"Lopmon!" Andy called out in concern.

Andy ran to Lopmon, and Valerie saw Skulker appearing behind Andy. "Look out!"

Andy gasped before Skulker grabbed him from behind, lifting him up.

"Now I got you, human child~" Skulker sneered. "You thought you could outhunt me? Too bad for you, it looks like I'm still the better hunter~"

Andy was struggling to get out of Skulker's hold, and was coughing. He was breathing in too much ectoplasm.

"Aww, what's the matter? Can't handle the ectoplasm?" Skulker taunted. "You are definitely not the ghost boy. All you're good for is being used as bait."

"Put him down!" Valerie shouted.

She saw an injured Lopmon lying unconscious on the ground, and Andy choking on the air itself while being insulted by this deranged ghost. Her anger and hatred for ghosts was starting to rise as her blood began to boil. She couldn't believe this. Not only was she powerless, but she was the only one in the group who couldn't get Salamon to digivolve. Why was someone as meatheaded and selfish as Dash was able to get his Digimon to digivolve in such a short amount of time when she couldn't? She had been helping the Digimon far longer than any of them had. Was she really that weak? Was she nothing without her materials?

"Valerie…" Salamon groaned, feeling the dark desire in Valerie's heart.

While it was normally impossible for Digimon to digivolve in a place heavy with ectoplasm, because it interfered with their natural data, Salamon had been tainted by ectoplasm. It had been a while since Valerie last purified her, and because of this, her data was beginning to adapt to being in a heavily ectoplasmic place. A black fog began to surround Salamon. Though Valerie didn't notice, she was still so angry at what was going on.

I… I need to save Andy and Lopmon from this ghost… This… vile… evil… putrid ghost… Ghosts are not meant to be friendly… they only hurt… and take pleasure from it… Valerie thought to herself. That's what this one is doing, and that is what all ghosts tend to do… I… I can't believe this… I… Andy needs my help… I need to get back at this ghost… I need to! For Andy's sake, for Lopmon's sake… For Salamon's sake… For my sake… I need to teach this vile ghost a lesson!

Andy took notice of the black fog surrounding Salamon and Valerie. That fog… wasn't that the same fog on me and Lopmon when Kumamon snapped us out of it?

"Hmm? What's going on now?" Skulker growled, noticing his scanners going haywire.

"Salamon… I don't care what it takes. I want you to take out that vile ghost right now!" Valerie shouted.

Valerie's D-Arc's screen gave a black glow. Black light surrounded Salamon's body. Whatever was going on, it was sending an ominous chill down Andy's spine.

"Uuuuuwaaaaagh!" Salamon screamed, sounding to be in agony.

Suddenly, the ribbons of fractal code appeared around Salamon, but the fractal code was tainted with dark energy. "Salamon, digivolve to…" Salamon's skin was ripped away, as were her ears and limbs. Then, her skin came back, but it was covered in dark, black fur. Her ears came back, but they were also covered in black fur. The tips were a purple color. Her limbs came back, covered in black fur, but her paws had purple gloves on them. Her tail was covered in black fur, but with alternating purple stripes and the tip was also purple. Her eyes were a yellow color in the iris as well. The fractal code dissipated, showing the new Digimon. "BlackGatomon!"

Valerie didn't even notice. "Take out that vile ghost now!" She shouted again.

BlackGatomon smirked. "With pleasure~" She said with a purr in her voice.

BlackGatomon moved so fast that she was on top of Skulker in a blink of an eye. Andy's eyes went wide in shock.

"Lightning Paw~" BlackGatomon grinned before she punched through Skulker's chest, easily punching a hole through his mechanical body.

"Lightning Kick~" BlackGatomon didn't just stop there, she used her foot to kick Skulker's arm that was holding Andy.

This caused Skulker to drop Andy. Something was wrong. Champion Digimon had always been strong, but they should be weak in this ectoplasmic world. Not only that, Andy looked at BlackGatomon's eyes. They had turned neon green rather quickly, and he couldn't tell if she was friend or foe. She was taking great, sadistic pleasure in toying with Skulker. Ripping him to pieces, even if that wasn't his real body, it was still quite a horror to witness.

Lopmon looked up, having regained consciousness, and was surprised to see a BlackGatomon was ripping Skulker's battle suit apart with ease.

"I-is that… Salamon?" Lopmon asked in fear.

Andy hurried over to Lopmon to pick him up. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine… but what happened to Salamon?" Lopmon asked.

"I'm not sure… I think she digivolved, but… she's very ruthless, something's not right…" Andy frowned. "I saw that black fog on her and Valerie."

Lopmon felt his fur bristle at that information. "Andy… Do you think… Salamon dark digivolved…?"

Andy looked over at Valerie, wondering what she was thinking right now. It was difficult to tell her what her expression was from behind that helmet, but she didn't sound worried. "That's right, rip him apart! Show him that no ghost can mess with us!"

With how Valerie was, Andy could imagine an insane smile behind that helmet. "We have to snap her out of it before it gets too far!"

"But how? BlackGatomon is much stronger than I am, and I can't even digivolve…" Lopmon pointed out. "How did she digivolve?"

Andy frowned. "Her data must've been exposed to the ectoplasm so much that it adapted to it, that's what I think happened. But at this rate… it might kill her…"

Andy looked over at Valerie, his vision was beginning to get blurry. His lungs were starting to burn from breathing in too much ectoplasm. I have to stop this now…

Andy ran over to Valerie while BlackGatomon was still tearing up the battlesuit. Skulker had already hit the eject button, his small body exiting out of the battlesuit while the wild digital cat and her crazy partner were still focused on his suit. Skulker knew when to give up a hunt to survive for another day.

"Valerie! You have to stop!" Andy called out to Valerie. "The battle's over, you already won!"

Valerie looked over at Andy. "Andy?! How… How did you get free?! Last I saw that ghost was holding you!"

"Don't you remember what happened?" Andy asked. "Look at what happened to Salamon in your bloodlust to hurt the ghost!"

Valerie paused before looking over at BlackGatomon. Her eyes went wide as she took in the dark-furred Champion-level Digimon. While Valerie was at first thrilled Salamon had somehow digivolved, what ruined the moment was the ominous feeling she got from BlackGatomon. Not only that, there was no sign of the warmth Salamon usually emitted from her presence. All that remained was a sinister feeling that Valerie was slowly coming to dread. "Oh…"

BlackGatomon finally dropped what was left of the scrap metal that used to be Skulker's battle suit. She turned her attention to Valerie, her eyes as green as the ectoplasm.

"What's the matter, Valerie? Isn't this what you wanted? A ghost killing machine? Someone who can digivolve in the Ghost Zone and rip apart all those vile ghosts who hurt you so much?" BlackGatomon asked in a tone of voice that showed she wanted more bloodlust, or rather, ectolust. "Allow me to sink my claws into more ectoplasm. I'll bring you back the core of every ghost I rip apart."

Valerie, for her part, actually felt a bit horrified. Yes, she hated ghosts, but… what she was witnessing right now was more than she could handle. She didn't want to have Salamon, sweet Salamon, become… this… That was supposed to be her, not Salamon! She, Valerie the human, was supposed to hate ghosts, not have sweet Salamon become something so… so… Valerie began to shake slightly.

Andy and Lopmon were also horrified at what sweet little Salamon became. This is what dark digivolution can do to Digimon? What would've happened to Lopmon if he had dark digivolved back then?

Andy was terrified to think of what his pure hearted little Lopmon could've become if he went through with the dark digivolution.

BlackGatomon was nothing like who she was before. She wanted to seek out more ghosts and slash them, maul them, torture them, do whatever she could to make them as miserable as they made Valerie.

"Come on, Valerie, let's get that key from that vile ghost's leftovers. Then let's go hunt down every last ghost until there's no more left~" BlackGatomon grinned, almost looking like a serial killer.

There wasn't any blood on BlackGatomon's claws, but they were instead dripping with ectoplasm. Valerie could easily imagine that as blood. Even if ghosts were vile beings… Valerie couldn't stop shaking, even if her Digimon killed a vile human being… she still took pleasure in killing, or at least, hurting a being with conscious thoughts.

Isn't there any way to reverse this? Andy frowned as he looked down at Lopmon. There has to be, right…?

Lopmon looked up at Andy before nodding, knowing what they had to do to save Valerie from the darkness, and Salamon… from Valerie's darkness. Andy squeezed Lopmon a little, he was scared for his partner. Lopmon squeezed Andy's shirt, he was scared too, but he knew they had to do this.

"Valerie… we will try to bring Salamon back, okay?" Andy said softly.

Valerie nodded, hoping Andy was right. "Okay… I just hope you're right… That she can be brought back…" This… this is all my fault… I turned Salamon into… into… that… Digimon…

Andy took out food and healing ointment from his backpack. He had packed up some medicine for something like this. He fed some of the food to Lopmon, while applying the healing ointment on his wounds, which healed him really quickly.

Lopmon hopped out of Andy's arms, and faced down BlackGatomon.

"What's this? You really want to stand in my and Valerie's desire to destroy these ghosts?" BlackGatomon hissed.

"This isn't you, Salamon," Lopmon said. "I'm going to try to help bring you back."

"Why? It's what Valerie desired, isn't it? Isn't that why I'm in the form?" BlackGatomon asked in a purr, but it was not a joyful one. No, it was filled with promises of revenge and a desire to hunt down each and every ghost she saw.

Lopmon looked scared, but he didn't stand down. "You're only in this form because of Valerie's anger and hatred of ghosts."

"I'd advise you to stand down, old friend. If you don't, I'm afraid I will have to hurt you," BlackGatomon warned.

"Do what you will. I'm not afraid," Lopmon responded back.

BlackGatomon let out a hiss as she launched herself at Lopmon. Lopmon defended himself by wrapping his ears around his body.

Andy coughed a bit in his hands, seeing a bit of blood coming out. He tried to keep it hidden from Valerie, he had to stay strong.

"Valerie…" Andy began, seeing that she was looking devastated by what happened to Salamon. "You know why Salamon took on that form, don't you?"

Valerie wanted to shake her head 'no', to lie to Andy, but… she found she could not… And she knew why… She knew exactly why Salamon took on that form… It had been burning in her, crying out for vengeance. "It was me… my anger… my … hatred and rage…" She murmured at last. "I… I was so driven by the thought of revenge… I wanted to save you no matter what it took… Even… if I had to get rid of all ghosts to save you… And… I wanted her to digivolve… I couldn't figure out why she was the only one in our group who wasn't able to digivolve, despite me being in the Digital World longer than any of you…"

She still hated ghosts? Didn't we come to an understanding that not all ghosts were evil before? Andy frowned.

So it was more than just her hatred for ghosts, she was envious, and she felt useless. Andy understood the feeling, it was a feeling he tried to bury around his brother and cousin. A feeling he tried to use to be productive instead, which was where the whole dodge training came into play, and to be able to fight back with the Fenton Rod.

"I understand how you feel," Andy said softly.

Lopmon fired a Blazing Ice attack at BlackGatomon, trying to slow her down, but she was too fast and dodged his ice attack. Lopmon was mostly on the defensive, trying his best to block her attacks.

"While I don't hate ghosts, I understand the feeling of being useless to those around you, feeling like no matter what you do, you could never catch up to the people who had more power than you," Andy admitted. "But… as what a friend once asked me… don't you think you're selling yourself short?"

Valerie paused at Andy's words. "W-what do you mean? I mean… I hunt ghosts, I'm a very high-ranked martial artist, I help Digimon in the Digital World, and yet I couldn't get Salamon to digivolve…"

"And yet you were able to handle yourself just fine, didn't you?" Andy asked. "Think back to when our Digimon partners digivolved. They did it because we were in danger, and we couldn't handle ourselves. But it was also because of our own desire to get stronger, to change, to be able to be someone we want to be. You're already strong, you've made up your mind on what you want to do. There wasn't much room for growth, so that's why Salamon has been having trouble to digivolve. You didn't need her to… and you didn't feel the need to change or grow. From what I've observed, Digimon partners respond to their human partners' hearts and desires. We are responsible for how our Digimon turn out."

Valerie felt her gut twisting uncomfortably. "Oh crud… Then… That's what happened with Salamon… It was my fault she became that… BlackGatomon…"

"And that's why… I believe you have to be the one to bring her back," Andy said grimly. "But I don't think that'll be easy. You may want her to be the sweet Salamon again, but she hasn't turned back. And… I can only think of one reason why…"

Lopmon used his Tiny Twister, as it was his only attack that could reasonably hit BlackGatomon since she seemed to only be capable of using melee attacks, so she had to get in close to hit him. But even so, BlackGatomon was able to take the hits with ease. She then kicked him a few feet away.

Valerie gulped. "My rage towards ghosts… and my… feelings of being, feeling useless… right?"

"Yes," Andy answered. "From the way I see it, there's only one of two ways we can bring Salamon back. Either Lopmon and I defeat her in battle and purify her fractal code, which should theoretically turn her back to normal… or turn her back into an egg… or you let go of your hatred towards ghosts." And believe me, I know that's going to be near impossible if you're anything like my parents.

Valerie paled. She knew what ghosts could do, how vile they could be. One of them even ruined her life, for crying out loud! And yet… Flashes of the ghost boy came to her mind. He was just a kid… one who had died and become a ghost yes, but he was first and foremost a kid… right? Didn't she promise to spar with that ghost kid when Andy and that ghost kid helped the ghost dog move on? And yet…

"You said you'd promise to give the ghost kid a chance before… what happened?" Andy asked. "Why did you go back to hating him? Or hating ghosts so much?"

"I… I don't know…" Valerie hesitated. "He ruined my life, and my dad's life. How can I just forgive him for that? And… we never did run into each other again after that. With the whole thing with the Digital World and ghost attacks… I never got to spar with him and judge him for myself. And I guess… after a while, I started to think that he was just trying to trick you, acting all nice and everything to you. I mean that's what your parents always say, ghosts are evil and they only act nice to manipulate you."

"No… he's not only acting nice. If that were the case, he would've stopped a long time ago. I think the biggest issue is you never really got to know him… and your exposure to other ghosts had been nothing but hostility since then, especially now with Skulker hunting you and Salamon down for presumingly days. And the fact the ghost boy never really showed up to talk to you again, it's only natural you start to lose faith in his good will," Andy said as Lopmon continued to be on the defensive. "If you did… if you could… talk to him… and see the ghost boy is more than just a ghost, and why he 'ruined' your life… then maybe… Would you be willing to at least talk to him?"

Valerie looked down. Part of her wanted to say 'no', to not give the ghost boy a chance after giving him a chance before, and not getting anything from him but silence, but…

"I need an answer soon, Valerie," Andy spoke up. "I doubt Lopmon will last much longer."

Valerie shook her head. She felt so torn. But, remembering Salamon's happy face and sweet attitude seemed to calm her down. Valerie took a deep breath and let it out. "I… I don't really want to… but… if I don't do things I don't want to or feel uncomfortable with, I will never grow much as a person, now will I? And Salamon will keep suffering, embodying my hatred."

Andy looked at her. "Do you really mean that?"

"Yes, I do. If it means getting Salamon back, and conquering this darkness… I will do what I can," Valerie answered with conviction.

Andy smiled. "Then let's get Salamon back, shall we? Lopmon has breathed in a lot of ectoplasm by now… I think his data should've adapted to it. So… Lopmon, it's time! Digivolve!"

Andy held out his D-Arc as the screen began to glow. Andy didn't notice it, but his own eyes flashed purple for a second.

Lopmon was surprised when he felt the energy to digivolve coming from Andy, but he was not complaining. "Time to even things up!" He grinned. Fractal code surrounded his body. "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!"

The fractal code dissipated, revealing the Champion-level Digimon in Lopmon's place.

This time, Turuiemon's eyes were green from the ectoplasmic exposure.

"Don't think that because you digivolved means you'll be able to defeat me in battle!" BlackGatomon screeched.

BlackGatomon was smaller, but she was a force to be reckoned with. She was fast and she hit hard. Turuiemon was fast as well, though even he was still having trouble keeping up with her. Both of them ended up punching each other in the face, causing the other to fall back several feet.

BlackGatomon hissed angrily, though she could take more, she was in pain. It wasn't from the punch, her body was starting to glitch out. She howled in agony.

"W-what's wrong with her?" Valerie asked in worry.

"I'm guessing it's the ectoplasm. The more she breathes in, the more it harms her fractal code. Digimon can only take in so much ectoplasm before it hurts them," Andy concluded.

"Then… We need to act fast before it hurts Turuiemon as well." Valerie realized, feeling her heart racing. If… no, when we get out of here… I plan to find a way to let go of my hatred of ghosts… And the best way to do that is start with the source…

"If you want the suffering to stop, then let us purify you," Turuiemon said to BlackGatomon as he approached her.

"No! Never! I will be useful to Valerie's desires!" BlackGatomon hissed, still wanting to fight despite the burning of the ectoplasm in her data.

Andy coughed into his hand again. He wasn't looking too good himself, which Valerie was beginning to notice.

"Andy… are you okay?" Valerie asked in concern.

Andy frowned as he looked at his hand, seeing more blood. He squeezed his hand shut. "Val… if we're to end this quickly… will you trust me?"

"Y-yeah, of course," Valerie quickly said.

Andy ran over to Skulker's scraps, and he began to frantically dig out for something. He was grateful to find what he was looking for, and that BlackGatomon hadn't torn it to pieces. It looked like a big, glowing key, which had the same glowing properties as the bracelet around Valerie's wrist.

"Come over here," Andy called to Valerie.

Valerie ran over to Andy. "What is it?"

"Hold your wrist, the one with the bracelet," Andy instructed.

Valerie did so, only to see what was in Andy's hand. "Wait… Is that the key?!"

Andy held the key over the bracelet. He thought he would have to find a keyhole, but the key just released an energy onto the bracelet, causing it to disappear. "Huh… I guess that works."

Valerie blinked before she realized the bracelet was gone now. Cautiously, Valerie tried calling out her hoverboard, only for the silver flying contraption to come out of her boots, much to her surprise and relief. "Hey… I have access to my equipment again!"

"Okay… do you mind doing something for me?" Andy requested before he began coughing again. "... I can help you give you the edge you need to conquer your darkness, but the rest will be up to you."

Valerie blinked, before nodding.

Turuiemon was trying his best to hold off BlackGatomon, but she had gotten to the point where she was disregarding her own safety. She was just attacking wildly and rapidly, leaving Turuiemon no room for attack.

"I will destroy the ghosts! You won't stand in my way!" BlackGatomon shouted as her body was glitching out.

"Please stop! You're only hurting yourself!" Turuiemon shouted worriedly.

Then Turuiemon saw Valerie and Andy coming in on Valerie's hoverboard. Andy was standing in front, holding his Fenton Rod. Seeing this, Turuiemon knew what had to be done. He reached out and grabbed onto BlackGatomon, holding her as tight as he could as she screeched and slashed at him.

Andy closed his eyes for a moment, feeling guilty about what he was about to do, but it had to be done. He pushed a small button on the Fenton Rod, letting the tip of it crackle with electricity. "I'm really sorry about this…"

Andy jumped from Valerie's hoverboard as they got close, and he stabbed BlackGatomon in the back with the electrified Fenton Rod, shocking her body. He hoped that would be enough to knock the fractal code out of her.

Andy yanked the Fenton Rod out after a second or two. And much to his relief, instead of forcing BlackGatomon into an egg, a ring of her fractal code came out. It was dripping in ectoplasm, and the code itself was fizzling unnaturally. "Valerie! You know what to do!"

Valerie nodded, taking out her D-Arc. "Salamon… I'm sorry for what I did to you, but I will make it right as of now. Time to return you to your normal self!" She scanned the fractal code with her D-Arc. "Fractal Code… Digitize!" The D-Arc finished scanning the fractal code, cleansing it of all the ectoplasm in it. Now freed of the ectoplasm's taint, BlackGatomon became surrounded by fractal code before it dissipated, revealing Salamon in BlackGatomon's place.

Salamon fell unconscious, having used most of her strength and energy as BlackGatomon.

"It's over… good…" Andy smiled as he laid on the floor.

Turuiemon reverted back into Lopmon, frowning as he looked at Andy. "We have to leave, now…"

Valerie knew that Andy wasn't looking good. She picked up Salamon and flew over to him. "Come on, Andy, we have to get out."

"Yeah… okay…" Andy took Valerie's free hand as she pulled him up onto her hoverboard.

Lopmon quickly jumped onto the hoverboard, climbing up onto Andy's head. He put his ear on Andy's mouth, trying to help him not breathe in too much more ectoplasm. Valerie held onto Salamon with one arm, while she had the other arm around Andy's shoulders, trying to keep him stable on her before she moved the hoverboard away from Skulker's island.

Skulker himself had watched them after BlackGatomon tore down his battlesuit. I better keep an eye on that boy. He may only be human, but he's far more dangerous than he appears…


Titanic X: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, I suppose Tommy planned it well.

ZAFT: Yep! XD Shows Tommy's planning skills!

Son Sandy: DarkFoxKit: I'm glad you like the character growth, it's something I love doing. I'm not always super great with plot or details, but characters are where I shine. I always love making characters that underestimate themselves, which is why I made Andy the way he is. And yeah, Lopmon is indeed a Heavenly Digimon.

We Are Phantoms is in a state of uncertainty right now. Might end up rebooting that story instead of continuing it. I wrote that story years ago, and there are some things I wish to change, or wish I could've added or tweaked more. And I'm not sure if I like the direction it's headed in currently. And it also doesn't help my co-writer for that had changed twice, and my current one is having trouble writing lately.

ZAFT: As for the prophecy, Patamon is conflicted, as we have mentioned before. But that doesn't mean there may not be another way to avert it. XD What this is will be revealed in time though. :3 The prophecy could mean anything, from the literal end of the worlds to a new era beginning. Poor Patamon just assumes it means the worst. XD