Digital Phantom

by ZAFT Convoy

DP Rebooted: Twins Danny and Andy have their lives torn upside down when Danny gets into an accident with the Fenton Ghost Portal. Takuya Kanbara just wanted to have a normal high school life until he found an odd figurine. The three boys have to navigate high school, ghosts, and Plasmius's plans while trying to master their unique powers.

68. Mental Training

ZAFT: Another update today, and I have snow in my area. Supposed to get over a foot.

DarkFoxKit: I get a lot of rain and lightning, but no snow. Seriously, couldn't sleep because of how loud the thunder was last night.

ZAFT: Ooof… That sucks. I swear, I think Tommy is training with Kumamon's Spirit if I am getting this much snow! DX

DarkFoxKit: Send him over here please. But anyways, let's just get into the chapter.

---

Chapter 68: Mental Training

"We had about half an hour to meet up with Valerie, and you're choosing to use it to prank one of the jocks?" Andy deadpanned.

"More specifically, Calvin and his stupid face," Danny said.

They were standing in Amity's movie theater. Apparently, according to Danny, Calvin was here to see the latest Dead Teacher movie, and Danny thought this was the perfect time to get a little bit of revenge on one of the bigger jocks. He thought of doing this to Dash, but since Dash hadn't been messing with them for a while, and he had been trying to change his ways, he decided to go for the second biggest jock of Casper High.

"Couldn't we have done something more productive? Like see how well you can use your… talents outside of a ghost attack?" Andy asked.

"I don't know, I think this is a good chance for him to test out his ghost powers on normal humans without causing too much mischief and panic," Lopmon whispered in Andy's backpack.

"This isn't up for debate," Andy grumbled. "I can't believe Patamon is letting you do this."

"I'm actually interested to see what he'll do," Patamon said from Danny's backpack. "I know he won't do anything truly malicious."

"Both of you are just… uuugh…" Andy groaned.

Danny chuckled. "It's fine, bro. It's just harmless pranks. It's fine, I swear. Besides, this is way more tame than that dragon prank you pulled."

"That was a one time thing, and it was because I had to," Andy argued. "Just don't get mad if another Poindexter ghost tries to go after you because he thinks you're bullying someone."

"So what, you think there's a popcorn ghost who gets mad if another ghost pranks someone?" Danny asked.

"Considering the world we live in, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a popcorn ghost like that," Andy replied.

"Mmm…I wonder if a popcorn ghost would taste like actual popcorn…" Lopmon drooled.

"No eating ghosts, even if they're made of food," Andy grumbled.

"At least someone is a father figure to Lopmon…" Patamon muttered under his breath

"I was kidding, jeez," Lopmon grumbled.

"Oh, here they come." Danny grinned. "Looks like Calvin brought his posse too, this will be fun~"

"You're going to cause Mom and Dad to come over here," Andy sighed.

"Hey, it would be more fun~" Danny grinned.

"Yeah, provided your parents don't catch you." Patamon pointed out.

"Hey, it will be quick, I promise." Danny reassured Patamon.

"Well, let's get this over with," Andy sighed. "You owe me, bro."

"Sure, sure," Danny replied before Andy stood over Danny to cover for him.

Danny turned himself invisible and began to move, and Andy began walking closer to the posse.

Andy 'accidentally' bumped into Calvin, which caused Calvin to drop his popcorn.

"Oh, uh, h-hi, Calvin… I d-didn't see y-you there," Andy said, doing his best to stutter and sound nervous.

"What do you want, nerd?" Calvin growled. "You're gonna have to buy me new popcorn."

"I was just looking for my brother," Andy replied. "Have you seen him?"

"No, why would I?" Calvin grumbled. "You two look so alike, save for your clothes colors, if I see one of you, I see the other."

"Oh, well, sorry to bother you then," Andy said before he began walking away.

Calvin grabbed onto Andy's shirt and pulled him up. "Where do you think you're going? You still owe me new popcorn!"

"But I didn't bring enough money to buy a monster size popcorn," Andy replied, trying to sound nervous.

While Andy didn't like to be bullied, compared to the likes of Freakshow, Vlad, Megadramon, BurningGreymon, and pretty much all the ghosts and Digimon they had faced in the past several months, this was pretty tame. And he knew Danny wasn't going to let Calvin just hurt him, and even if he didn't, he knew Lopmon would jump into action. Although Andy would rather Lopmon didn't show himself in the real world if he could help it.

"Well, too bad. I'm going to need that popcorn." Calvin snickered.

Danny, who was invisible, decided now would be the perfect time to try to prank Calvin, if only so Andy didn't get a wedgie or something worse. What should I do to him? Hmm… So many choices~

"Why don't you just take his wallet, maybe he's bluffing about not having enough money," One of the other jocks suggested.

"Wasn't he that Dragon Boy kid?" Another jock asked.

"Yeah, either that or his clone brother."

"Well, it doesn't matter, he needs to learn his place. And buying me new popcorn is a good place to start." Calvin grinned. "But if I do have to take this loser's wallet, I will."

"Isn't that stealing though?" Andy whimpered.

"Nah, it's more like a… 'friendly' helping hand~" Calvin snickered at Andy.

He wants a wallet? I can help with that~ Danny thought sneakily. Slowly, while invisible, Danny reached out towards Calvin's back pocket. Danny turned his hand intangible and reached into Calvin's pocket, pulling out his own wallet. Danny then returned his hand to a tangible state, but still invisible. Then, he began to float off the ground a bit. Danny then floated out in front of Calvin, wallet in hand.

Lopmon, from inside Andy's backpack, saw the floating wallet and wrapped his big ears around his mouth to keep from laughing.

Calvin blinked when he saw what looked like a floating wallet. "H-huh? H-Hey! That's my wallet!"

"Are you sure? It looks like your wallet is haunted!" Andy yelped.

"D-did you tick off a ghost?" One of the jocks nervously asked.

"No! I mean why would a ghost care about me?" Calvin hissed. "This is just some trick you're pulling! I'm not falling for it!"

Calvin reached up with his free hand to grab the wallet.

The wallet just floated higher. Danny snickered mentally. This was too much fun. Let's see how high you can jump!

Danny took Calvin's wallet even higher, forcing Calvin to jump for it, but just barely out of reach.

"Get back here! I need you for my popcorn!" Calvin shouted at the 'wallet'.

Calvin dropped Andy, too focused on getting his wallet back. The other jocks didn't really know what to do, as they didn't expect to deal with apparently a haunted wallet.

Andy rubbed his chest for a moment before standing up. "Maybe you should help him before the ghost gets angry with him."

The other jocks nodded before one of them spoke to Calvin.

"Hey, Calvin? How about we help you get that monster popcorn instead of wasting your time making some nerd do it?" One jock suggested.

"Yeah, I doubt the dweeb had any money on him anyway." Another jock added.

Calvin grumbled as he looked at his fellow jocks. "Alright, fine… If it will satisfy the ghost, I'll let this one slide."

Danny grinned as he then dropped Calvin's wallet, but right into the drink of another jock.

"Ah!"

"I told you to get a lid for that drink!"

While the jocks were yelling at each other, and Calvin was trying to get his now soda soaked wallet from the drink, Danny walked over to the spilled popcorn, and picked up the monster bucket. There was still plenty of popcorn left in the bucket. Danny was grinning as he floated over to the jocks, which had been gathered to try to fix up Calvin's sticky wallet. Danny floated over the group and turned the bucket of popcorn upside down, letting the popcorn spill all over them.

"Gah! That's it! We're leaving this nerd alone!" Calvin shouted at last. "C'mon, guys! We don't need to be harassed by a nerd with psychic powers!"

The jocks all began to leave the area, and Andy, so they didn't get bothered by the ghost or the 'psychic' kid.

Danny landed on the floor and returned to a visible state with a big grin on his face. "How was that little show?~"

"It seems you haven't lost your touch since you became a halfa, bro," Andy chuckled, he had some trouble keeping himself from laughing during all of that. "Or maybe you got an overpowered cheat since you can literally turn invisible, intangible, and can fly. It takes real skill to pull a prank off without all of that."

Danny then bowed. "I'm glad I could please you, bro~"

Lopmon wormed his head out of Andy's backpack. "I loved that prank! It was so awesome!"

Patamon poked out of hiding as well. "I must admit, I'm impressed you pulled that off." He said with a small grin on his face.

"Of course, now you changed my reputation from being Dragon Boy to Psychic Boy," Andy sighed. "I think I'm going to end up as the school's biggest freak by the end of the year."

"I mean, is that really bad? It means you're unique, and not boring, right?" Lopmon asked.

"It's only bad when the other students start using it as a reason to torment me in any way they could. Well, either that or they'll be too afraid of me to approach me," Andy chuckled slightly.

"I think you would be glad if it was the latter." Danny chuckled as well. "At least it would mean no more bullying for you."

Andy rolled his eyes. "You know that will never happen."

"Hey, hey, can we eat some of that popcorn Calvin dropped? It smells good and it'd be a waste to leave it there, right?" Lopmon requested.

Andy frowned as he looked down at the popcorn on the floor.

As Andy bent down to pick some up and put the popcorn into his backpack for Lopmon to eat, one of the employees looked at him. Andy looked over at the employee.

"I don't get a lot of allowance," Andy explained.

"He loves his popcorn," Danny added.

The employee frowned before rolling his eyes. "I don't get paid enough for this…" He muttered as he turned away from Andy and Danny.

"Great, now I have a reputation as Garbage Boy," Andy groaned.

"You could've just told Lopmon 'no'," Danny pointed out.

"Well, he's right, it'd be a waste to leave the popcorn on the floor," Andy grumbled.

"Isn't it dirty?" Danny asked.

"The theater's floor is full of butter anyways," Andy shrugged. "Trust me, Lopmon can eat just about anything and have the stomach for it."

Lopmon beamed. "You bet I do!"

Danny however, felt his stomach twist at the fact Lopmon was eating popcorn off of a dirty floor that had who knew what on it. "I swear, Lopmon is like a garbage disposal…"

"What? I like food!" Lopmon pouted.

"Maybe a bit too much." Patamon noted.

"Shouldn't we head to the park now?" Danny asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, we need to talk about how you'll talk to Valerie when she gets there," Andy agreed.

Danny groaned. "I thought I was talking to her as Phantom."

"You are, but this is to make sure you don't… say the wrong thing and give her the wrong idea," Andy said.

Danny frowned. "What could I say that would give her the wrong idea? I was able to convince you just fine that I wasn't a bad ghost."

"Well, I didn't have a bunch of ghost weapons ready at my disposal if I felt you were a threat to me," Andy pointed out.

Danny flinched. "Good point…"

"So, what will Danny have to say to Valerie?" Patamon asked out of curiosity.

"It's not like I can just blurt out 'Sorry for ruining your life by trying to stop the ghost of a former Axion Labs guard dog'." Danny grumbled.

"Maybe don't start with that, but you may have to bring it up during the conversation," Andy said. "Come on, let's head to the park first."

---

The boys were at central park. It was mostly empty despite it being noon. Not a lot of people liked coming to central park these days.

"This is a good time to practice," Andy decided. "Since we're mostly alone here."

"So can we come out of hiding?" Lopmon asked.

"Yeah, just don't go far," Andy answered.

As Patamon and Lopmon left to run around and stretch their legs, Danny groaned. "This is going to be so awkward…"

"Just try to act natural," Andy said. "Okay, turn into your ghost form and pretend I'm Valerie."

Danny grumbled, but did as Andy instructed by turning into Phantom. However, he was feeling quite uneasy about the whole thing, and just trying to pretend Andy was Valerie made his mind come to a halt. "I… Um… Gah! I can't do this! I can't pretend you're Valerie, bro! I just can't!"

"What seems to be the problem?" Andy asked. "Do I need to wear a red hood for it to work?"

"No, it's just… I can't pretend you are Valerie, or anyone else for that matter." Danny grumbled. "I… it's like my mind won't let me do that."

Andy remembered, for a brief moment, that he had been in Danny's mind before when Freakshow was controlling him. A part of Andy would like to study such a phenomenon, but he wasn't sure if it would happen again. And he didn't like the idea of rummaging through his brother's mind.

Andy shook his head, trying not to think about that. "Then at least tell me what you plan to tell her."

"I plan to at least apologize for not stopping the guard dog's ghost, and explain to her I wasn't exactly all that experienced, that I was a 'newly formed ghost' at the time." Danny admitted.

"Okay, not a bad idea," Andy replied. "But there's the question of how you would deliver it."

"What do you mean?" Danny asked.

"Like if you try to say it in a joking way, Valerie would think you're not taking her seriously, and she'll get mad," Andy explained. "Or if you act all timid and scared about it, Valerie will view you as pathetic, and will have a hard time taking you seriously."

"You think I'd joke about the guard dog's ghost?" Danny huffed. "I feel bad enough I couldn't get that dog under control! I would never joke about that."

"I didn't say you'd joke about it, I meant if you said it in a way that sounded light hearted to try to keep the tension off of you. I mean, you do do that a lot with your enemies, with the witty banter stuff," Andy pointed out.

Danny blinked before rubbing the back of his head. "I… guess I do, huh? I mean, it just comes naturally to me, but I guess you have a point, bro."

Andy studied Danny for a moment. "Although, I suppose acting like a natural teenager will help Valerie feel a bit more comfortable around you. It worked on me after all. It might help her see that you're not that different from the other teenagers she interacts with on a daily basis. After all, people are scared of what they don't understand, what they can't relate to."

"I'm starting to feel like you're seeing this as some kind of psychological project," Danny deadpanned.

"Hey, I just want to make sure this works out. I don't want Valerie to be hunting you because she still blames you for what happened to her," Andy grumbled.

Danny folded his arms in a pout. "You still like to study me… I swear, Jazz is rubbing off on you more and more!"

"Well, you have to admit, you are in a situation that not many have ever experienced," Andy remarked. "And as your twin brother, I wanna make sure you're in a good mindset and a healthy place. Especially since your powers could possibly become unstable if you aren't in the best of mindsets. At least according to some of the manga I read in regards to super or unnatural powers and abilities. I'm covering all my bases, bro."

"Even still, I don't like being psychoanalyzed!" Danny pouted. He turned invisible without any prompting.

"Come on, Danny, don't start going 'invisible brother' on me," Andy groaned. "We still have to prepare for Valerie, and I don't want her seeing me talk to the 'air', and think I've lost it!"

Danny grumbled, but he did return to visibility. "I hate this… but if I have to do it to get her off of my butt, I will."

"Danny's stubbornness almost reminds me of you," Lopmon grinned to Patamon. "No wonder you two ended up as partners."

"I'm not that immature," Patamon grumbled. "I only had that bond with Danny because he fed and took care of me while I was in the real world."

"Sure, like you totally haven't been thinking about him when you went back to the Digital World. I mean why else would you come back to the real world?" Lopmon questioned.

Patamon just looked away from Lopmon, trying to hide how he really felt about Danny. "I only came back to help keep him out of trouble, nothing more."

"Then why did you want to help him out of trouble if you didn't care about him?" Lopmon asked, still grinning.

"You're as insufferable as Andy," Patamon grumbled. "I don't have to answer that."

"For now, but you will eventually~" Lopmon grinned even more.

Andy pulled a book out of his backpack and opened it. Danny looked over his brother's shoulder.

"What are you reading?" Danny asked.

"How to Talk to a Teenage Girl if You Made Her Angry," Andy answered

"They… have a book for that?" Danny blinked in surprise.

"They have a book for everything," Andy replied. "Except how to be half ghost."

"I wonder if they have a book on how to be a Digimon, for Takuya." Danny joked.

"They do, in the Digital World," Patamon answered. "It's for the young Digimon."

"I'm more surprised Andy even has a book like that," Lopmon said.

"Did you get it for a future girlfriend?~" Danny asked in a teasing tone.

"It was meant for if you ticked off Sam and she does something she regrets, like saying a wish while Desriee is around," Andy said.

"That's… very specific," Danny replied.

"Eh… it was just a weird dream I had the other day," Andy shrugged. "Now can you be quiet, please? I'm trying to read."

"What? Andy! If you have dreams like that, you need to tell me! Considering your dreams have been coming true and all!" Danny pointed out.

Andy grumbled before he closed the book. "Look, even if it was a vision from the future, I don't know when it will happen, or if it'll happen in the same way. Stop worrying so much!"

Andy bonked Danny on the head with the book.

"Ow!" Danny yelped, holding his head. "Geez, you can really hit hard when you want to!"

Andy blinked in surprise at Danny's reaction. "That… hurt?"

"Well yeah! You bonking someone on the head with a book kinda hurts a little bit," Danny grumbled.

Andy furrowed his eyebrows for a moment before he tossed the book at Danny suddenly. Danny didn't expect Andy to do that, so the book ended up going through his chest, and onto the ground.

"And yet when I throw the book at you, it goes through you," Andy noted.

"Huh… The same thing happened when Sam threw that dog book at me." Danny noted as well. "That's kinda strange…"

"Besides, even if I was able to smack you with the book, I didn't think it would hurt you since you can take things like being smashed into the pavement or a building just fine and walk it off," Andy continued.

"Maybe it has to do with the mind?" Lopmon suggested. "You wanted to bonk him on the head for worrying about a potential future vision, so you did. But when you threw the book at him, you expected it to go through him?"

"He's a ghost, not a… thought," Andy grumbled.

"I guess it's more of an instinctual thing?" Danny suggested. "I don't know how my ghostly physiology works that well."

"Or it could be special for you two, being twins and all," Patamon suggested. "After all, Digimon and partners work like that to some level. Lopmon and I were able to feel your desires when we digivolve. It's what fuels most of our powers."

"True." Danny conceded. "But I still don't get how that would tie into my ghostly physiology. It's just… I know so little about being half ghost and the only other one who could possibly understand wants me to renounce my dad and have me as his evil apprentice/son and our mom as his wife."

"You know, it's really too bad Vlad wants to be evil. Imagine if he was actually a good person? He'd be able to train Danny on everything he knows, and he wouldn't be so lonely anymore." Lopmon smiled.

"That's, unfortunately, wishful thinking," Patamon grumbled.

"Maybe we should find a way to study ghost culture and how their physiology works," Andy suggested. "It might help us understand why these ghosts like to target Amity Park so much, and get them to leave us alone."

"That sounds like a good idea, actually." Danny agreed. "But for now, we need to focus on Valerie and getting her to stop hunting me."

Andy picked up the book he threw passed Danny. "Okay, well, usually when a girl is mad at you, and you want to apologize to her, a good way to do that is to see if she is willing to talk to you first. If she is, then try to approach the subject as tenderly as possible. Maybe compliment her to try to get on her good side."

Danny blushed a bit, his cheeks turning green slightly. "B-But what if I say the wrong thing?"

"What? Are you worried she'll end up falling for you instead?" Andy grinned. "And then you'll have to break her heart by saying 'sorry, but my non-existing heart was already taken by someone else'?"

"N-no!" Danny squeaked out, turning as green as a Christmas light.

"Then you'll be the Phantom of Heartbreaks!" Andy continued. "I can see the headlines now, Phantom breaking up with the Red Huntress, over before it begun!?"

"S-stop it, Andy!" Danny squeaked out, feeling like he wanted to just crawl into a hole and hide there. His face was so green, he looked like a Christmas Tree now instead.

"Sorry, I've been holding in my inner mischievousness for a while!" Andy laughed like a maniac. "But you should see the look on your face! At least we know ghosts can blush!"

"You are such a troll!" Danny groaned out.

"Uh… guys?" Lopmon spoke up. "You're not alone…"

"Huh?"

"Did we come at a bad time?" Salamon asked, grinning a bit at the boys.

Valerie was holding Salamon, both an amused and confused look on her face.

"Ah, V-Valerie! We… uh… didn't see you there…" Andy awkwardly said, quickly shoving the book into his backpack. "... How much of that did you see?'

"Enough to realize a ghost is capable of blushing." Valerie said, feeling a grin trying to tug at her mouth.

Danny was now covering his face with his gloved hands. He could sense ghosts, but not humans, and how he wished he was able to sense humans.

"I'm surprised… you seem to be pretty close to the ghost boy, Andy," Valerie noted. "I guess I can see why you wanted me to talk to him."

"Uh… yeah," Andy replied, not having expected Valerie to see his interactions with Phantom.

"... Wait… no… was he that friend of yours you told me about before?" Valerie asked, her eyes lighting up as she remembered Andy telling her he used to visit a friend in central park.

"Hey! This isn't about me and him! This is about you and him! I mean you and him having a chat about what happened!" Andy quickly said, having a little trouble talking from the awkwardness, and he felt his cheeks heating up.

Danny caught sight of Andy's blush and he wanted to taunt Andy so badly, but Valerie being there would not make a good impression, so he kept it squashed for the moment. "Y-yeah… I… just didn't expect you there myself…" Danny admitted, feeling so embarrassed she had seen his blushing. "Um… I didn't mean to look like a Christmas Tree back there…"

"I think it was… strange, but maybe in a good way. It… was humanizing," Valerie explained.

"Why don't you let Salamon play with Lopmon and Patamon?" Andy suggested, hoping to break the tension a little. "I'm sure Salamon would like some exercise."

Valerie looked down at Salamon, who gave her an encouraging nod. Valerie took in a breath and let it out before putting Salamon down to run around. "Okay… Have fun, Salamon."

Salamon smiled at Valerie before running off to play with Lopmon and Patamon.

Valerie knew she had to do this. If she didn't, then she would never truly start to get over her hatred of ghosts. "I… guess we have some stuff to talk about, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess we do…" Danny added awkwardly.

Danny looked back at Andy for a moment as Andy was walking away from them. Andy noticed Danny was looking at him, and Andy gave a bit of an eyeroll.

"How about we start with why do you hate ghosts so much despite having a pretty good impression with Phantom before?" Andy suggested, hoping to get the ball rolling.

"I guess… it's because that was the only positive thing we had since we last met," Valerie began. "But I hadn't had any more interactions with you other than the aftermath of your battles with other ghosts since then. I kept thinking about what happened to my dad and I after the ghost dog incident, and what kept happening after. Not only did I lose everything I had owned, I lost my spot in the popularity chain at school, my so-called friends left me. Only Star really kept in touch with me, but only when we're not seen in public. And I began thinking maybe you were just trying to use your charm to trick me and Andy into believing that you were a good ghost, and you only wanted to get away with it unscathed. After all, ghosts lie, they deceive, in order to get what they want. That is what the Fentons say all the time, right? And aren't they the ghost experts? After that, I wanted to get stronger, so I could hunt you, and the other ghosts down, to show you the consequences of lying and using people. But I kept that side of me hidden while I was trying to help Salamon and the Digital World… it wasn't until that Skulker ghost kept me and Salamon from leaving his stupid island that it came to a boiling point…"

Valerie looked over at Salamon, who was on Lopmon's head, and Patamon was on Salamon's head.

"I… turned poor, sweet Salamon into a true monster… a being formed out of my hatred for ghosts… for you, ghost boy," Valerie admitted. "After seeing what I did… I realized this was a problem I needed to solve. And Andy said the best way to do that… is to go to the source of the problem."

Valerie looked at Phantom in the eyes. "I don't know if you were lying, I have no proof of that… but I need to know, did you mean what you said before? About trying to stop the ghost dog before, and trying to help people?"

Danny, as Phantom, sighed. "I was trying to stop that dog. He only wanted his squeaky toy that he had had when he was still alive. And… I just can't avoid helping people. It's… like it's a part of me. If someone is in trouble because of a ghost attack, I'm the only one who has a chance of stopping it." He then chuckled a bit. "The Fentons may be ghost experts, but a lot of what they claim about ghosts is based on faulty data. Ghosts can be just as complex as humans. I even met the Dairy King's ghost, and he just wanted to be left to live in his old castle."

"And if I truly only wanted to use humans, and not care about them, why would I get along so well with Andy?" Danny continued. "While it was… embarrassing that you saw us teasing each other, the fact of the matter is that if our relationship was purely because I manipulated him, we wouldn't be this comfortable around each other. No malicious person, ghost, human, or Digimon, could truly act as natural as we did to each other. The aftermath of my battle… I'm afraid I can't help that. Collateral damages are near impossible to avoid when it comes to fighting with other ghosts who have the power to destroy buildings on a whim. But I do try my best to avoid as much collateral damage as possible. Unfortunately, it's not always the case. I've gotten better with it over time, but the ghost dog was too strong for me to handle back then, not to mention he was really determined to find that toy of his."

"Okay…" Valerie said after a while, still looking at Phantom's eyes. "You… don't seem like you're lying, and I get the feeling Andy would vouch for you."

"I would," Andy confirmed. "But I know there's something else you want to talk about, something that happened recently."

"Yeah…" Valerie sighed. "I would like an explanation about… those footages we saw, of you, these other ghosts, and Agunimon stealing things from museums and banks. If it had just been you, ghost boy, and those other ghosts, I wouldn't have thought too much about it other than it was you showing your true nature. But I also saw Agunimon there. And I knew something was really wrong."

Danny groaned. "You know that Circus Gothica ringmaster, Freakshow? It turns out he had a crystal ball staff that can… err… could control ghosts, and Digimon. Agunimon and I were his latest victims. But my mind is so fuzzy, I only know I was made to do bad stuff. Andy had to fill me in on what I did while under mind-control."

"What? Mind control? Someone can do that to ghosts and Digimon?" Valerie frowned.

"Could," Andy spoke up. "The crystal ball that was used to control Phantom and Agunimon fell into a ravine and was likely shattered."

"But… wait… how did that happen? I mean… if it could control Digimon, who stopped Freakshow then if he had you and one of the Legendary Warriors under his control? Did he just… clumsily drop his crystal ball thingy into the ravine?" Valerie questioned.

"No, but let's just say the fight to stop Freakyboy wasn't one I'm willing to do again." Lopmon muttered.

Danny gave a sheepish chuckle. "Lopmon's right. I vaguely remember fighting Lopmon, Patamon, and Sam and Tucker's Digimon partners as well."

"What?" Valerie blinked before she looked over at Lopmon, Patamon, and Salamon for a moment, then she looked at Andy. "Wait… you fought with Phantom and Agunimon?"

"With Tucker, Sam, and our Digimon partners," Andy quickly added. "So it wasn't just me. But please don't tell anyone about that at school."

"Wait, I thought you said the crystal ball controlled Digimon? How were you able to have your partners fight back?" Valerie asked.

"The mind control seems to not work on partner Digimon. Agunimon is technically not a partner Digimon, so it worked on him, but not Lopmon and the others," Andy explained. "It's like in the Digital World, there seems to be a rule that one can't control partner Digimon."

"So that explains why your Digimon partners were unaffected." Valerie realized. "That's a very clever work around, Andy. But why didn't you call me? I could've helped."

"Would you? You'd have to sneak away from your dad at night, and that meant helping Phantom, whom you still had pretty bad feelings for," Andy pointed. "Besides, I wasn't sure what… state you and Salamon were in. I didn't want to put you two into unnecessary danger like that."

Valerie had to admit, that was a valid point. "Actually… when put like that, I'm actually glad you didn't call on me then… I would've just attacked Phantom…"

"And no offense, but your blasts at me really do hurt." Danny added. "Your aim could give m… Errr… Andy's mom a run for her money."

Valerie chuckled a little before she looked at Andy. "But… you actually confronted Phantom and Agunimon while they were mind controlled?"

"What? No, no, of course not. I'm not that crazy, I just let Lopmon handle most of it…" Andy sheepishly chuckled.

Both Patamon and Lopmon gave Andy the 'you are that crazy' look as they had both witnessed what lengths the boy did in order to break the plasma shield around Freakshow. Riding on Birdramon, dive bombing the train, jumping off of the train, and getting thrown back on by a robot with missiles surrounding him.

Even Valerie was looking skeptical at Andy as she recalled the crazy stunts he pulled while they were facing Skulker, and when Salamon became BlackGatomon.

"Um… no offense, Andy, but you are that crazy." Danny admitted. "Especially if I am in trouble."

Lopmon rolled his eyes. "Don't deny it, Andy. Everyone here knows you're just that crazy."

"Shush, both of you," Andy huffed. "I'm perfectly normal. That was just a one time thing, alright? We are not talking about it. Besides, it's not like you know what happened, D- erm, Phantom."

"Um… I had to catch you from falling off a cliff, Andy." Danny pointed out.

"Exactly, I fell, anybody could've fallen off a cliff," Andy huffed.

"From a moving train," Patamon added.

"After being thrown by a Gaurdromon with missiles," Lopmon added as well.

"Really?" Salamon blinked. "Are you sure he's human? I've never heard of such a human doing things like that."

"Uugh, guys! Please!" Andy groaned. "Can we please change the subject?"

"Andy, did you really do all of that?" Valerie asked, shocked at what she was hearing.

"They're overexaggerating," Andy quickly said.

"If anything, we're underexaggerating it," Patamon remarked.

Valerie folded her arms. "Andy, it's official. You are the craziest boy I have ever met!" She scolded him, but she also felt… odd… like she was appreciating the lengths Andy would go to for his friends and family, not that she was going to let him see that right now. "You did all of that for a ghost boy?"

"H-hey, he's my friend! And I was also saving my cousin!" Andy huffed. "Besides, Sam and Tucker were just as crazy as I was! … A-and Danny, since… uh, you know, he was there too."

"Really? What did he do?" Valerie asked, raising an eyebrow.

Danny, as Phantom, was internally panicking. Crap, crap, crap! I didn't think she would ask that!

"He was fighting, like the others were," Andy rolled his eyes like it was a simple answer. "What did you think? It's not like I was recording the battle as it was happening."

Valerie chuckled. "True. But boy, you have some crazy tendencies, Andy."

"Tucker, Sam… and, uh, Danny, were mostly following Andy anyways, he even had Jazz helping out by showing the cops the footage of that freakyboy's Digimon partner being Devimon, and the treasure he stole! So that helps put Phantom and Agunimon's reputation into question," Lopmon explained.

"No, no, that wasn't all my plan. Tucker thought of the footage part, and Sam was the one who wanted to go to Circus Gothica, that was where we saw Phantom being mind controlled," Andy quickly explained, wishing he could duct tape Lopmon's mouth shut.

Valerie laughed even more. "I don't know what's more unbelievable; your stunts during a battle, or your crazy ideas in general! I mean… you're the first Fenton who willingly befriended a ghost!"

"Yeah, well… sometimes people are seen as crazy when they need to do what's right," Andy grumbled. "What others see as crazy, I see as progress. I mean people have been afraid of ghosts for as long as the human race could remember. Imagine how much this will change if people could co-exist with the very beings they had feared since the beginning of time."

"Oh geez… That would be something to see!" Valerie grinned before her face became somber. "I guess… I really was wrong about you, gh… err… Phantom. You're not some evil ghost or just a mimic of a human. You really are a sentient being."

Phantom felt himself relax upon hearing that. There was no trick or skepticism in Valerie's voice, she seemed to genuinely want to give Phantom a chance.

"Really? Th-thanks," Phantom said.

"I'd say it might be good if we tried working together to keep Amity Park safe from the bad ghosts," Valerie said. "Just to see how much truth there is to your words when it comes to battling and the collateral damages. Besides, maybe if you had more help, there would be less collateral damage. And I… can learn more about you. Perhaps it'll also help me unlock Salamon's true digivolution. I also… want to see what Andy sees in you."

Danny, as Phantom, felt his cheeks turning a bit green again. "Err… S-sure…" He stammered out.

"You're turning green again," Valerie pointed out while chuckling.

"He's not used to getting compliments from a girl his age," Andy teased a little.

"H-Hey! I am too!" Danny pouted, trying to hide his growing blush as he folded his arms in a huff.

"Wow! A ghost who acts like a teenager! Who knew?" Valerie teased as well.

"Well I am a teenager, I'm just… ghostly, that's all," Danny pointed out.

"Valerie, are you able to hunt ghosts again?" Andy asked. "Didn't you say your dad had been keeping an eye on you lately?"

"I did, yeah." Valerie admitted. "But I told him I was going to hang out with a friend for a while today. I think… If I can show him I am more responsible, I can get back into ghost hunting. It might take a while, but… hopefully he'll trust me to be out on my own again."

"Until then, try to remember that not all ghosts are bad this time," Andy said.

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind." Valerie replied as she gave a smile. "But you know, the way you two act, you could almost be like brothers. Speaking of which, where's Danny? Wasn't he with you? And isn't his partner over there with Salamon and Lopmon?"

"Um… yeah… I saw Danny running to the boy's room." Danny, as Phantom, replied. "I was just… watching Andy and Danny come here, and well… Danny isn't that comfortable around me, so I keep my distance when Andy and Danny are together."

"Really? Even though Andy seems to hang out with you enough to be comfortable around you, his brother isn't?" Valerie asked, skeptical.

"Danny's afraid of ghosts," Andy explained. "It's not easy for him to overcome that fear."

"Then… Why was he able to confront the ghost boy and the other 3 ghosts when they were being mind controlled?" Valerie asked.

"Danny can be brave when it's needed," Andy said before he quickly changed the subject. "Oh, it's starting to get a bit late. Don't you want to hang out with me and Danny before you have to go back home?"

Valerie grinned. "Why else would I be here? I've needed to get out and about for a while now."

"Great, I'll leave you two alone while you wait for Danny to get back," Phantom quickly said, relieved this was over.

"Wait… ghost boy, I do have one more question," Valerie spoke up as Phantom was starting to float away.

"What is it?" Phantom asked.

"Where… do you go when you're not fighting ghosts?" Valerie asked. "Do you… go back to the Ghost Zone and just come back out here when a ghost is invading? Or… do you have a haunt somewhere here that you use to conceal your ectoplasmic signature?"

"Um… I do have a place here, but I'd rather not say where I go." Danny replied quickly. "You know… to keep a low profile and all, what with the Fentons after me… Can't be too careful!"

"Right… I guess that makes sense," Valerie said.

"Anyways, bye-bye," Danny said before he flew off quickly, hoping to get out of earshot so he wouldn't have to answer any more questions.

"Has he always been that awkward?" Valerie asked Andy after Phantom flew away.

"No more awkward than any other teenager would be," Andy shrugged. "I think he's just relieved you're not out to get him."

"Well, I would be too if I was in his shoes… err… place." Valerie chuckled.

"Yeah. Guess we'll just wait for Danny to get back. So we were thinking about going to the mall to eat, since we always go to the Nasty Burger," Andy said. "Got any place in mind?"

"You mean like a date?" Valerie asked.

"What?" Andy blinked.

"What-what? I-I mean a good place to eat up to this date, r-right?" Valerie quickly amended, blushing. What's wrong with me!?

"Uh… yes, I guess?" Andy replied, blinking.

"I… I mean… you're asking me for a good place to eat, right?" Valerie tried again. "Um… I know of a good Mexican place we can try. I've heard they have some killer tacos. Um… not in the ghostly way of course!"

"Tacos, huh? I haven't had tacos in a while, it'll be good to eat something different from the Nasty Burger," Andy chuckled.

"Yeah… um… So was it true? I mean… what you did to, uh… save the ghost boy and your cousin?" Valerie asked, trying not to sound as awkward as she felt.

Andy frowned before he looked at the Digimon nearby for a moment, they were all looking at them, then he looked at Valerie. "I get the feeling even if I denied it, either Lopmon or Patamon will blurt everything out anyways."

Andy gave a sigh. "Look… I was… desperate when it happened. I thought… I would never see my b- my cousin and my friend again when Freakshow took them away, and made them steal priceless artifacts and money. It didn't just happen in one night, it happened over the course of a few nights. We also had some problems with Sam's parents, and my parents were trying to investigate the circus themselves. But they were getting suspicious on why Takuya was gone for so long. I brought Biyomon and Kokuwamon to the real world using my D-Arc, because I knew we were going to need their help."

"When we confronted Freakshow, we were on the train. He was trying to leave while trapping our parents, and other adults, in his tent," Andy continued after taking a moment to breathe. "It was… pretty much a 'now or never' situation. We weren't doing that great against D- the ghost boy, and the other 3 ghosts, as well as Agunimon himself. We put up a good fight, but again, it was against 4 ghosts, and a Legendary Warrior, on top of a moving train. Not to mention Freakshow had a Digimon partner himself to worry about. Our only advantage was the fact Freakshow saw us as nothing but kids who were in over their heads. I used that to surprise him alright. It… nearly cost my life, several times probably, but it worked. I knew of the dangers, but it was all I had to save them or lose them forever."

Valerie felt her heart racing slightly when she heard what Andy had done. "Andy, I still don't know if you're crazy or insane, but whatever the reason, it worked. And… I'm glad it did." What's going on? Why do I feel like my heart is racing when around Andy?

"Yeah, well… I can't promise I won't do it again if something like that were to happen again," Andy admitted. "I don't want to lose my… friend and cousin. I only survived because of my friends' support. And that I was able to break D- the ghost boy out of his trance enough for him to save me from falling into the ravine. I'm… sorry if this puts a damper on our friendship, Val. I hope you don't have to see that side of me yourself."

"I… might've seen that side of you when you were helping me with Skulker," Valerie reminded.

Andy sighed. "Sorry… I guess it's hard not to act like that when we're in danger."

"Well, anyone would be under pressure if someone was in danger." Valerie admitted. Not to mention when you show that side of you, it makes you look h- Oh gosh! What am I thinking!? Andy is just a friend, nothing more! He was a loser before too, right? I shouldn't be thinking such things! "B-but there's nothing wrong with it. It means you show your serious side when those you care about are in danger."

Andy looked over at Valerie, and Valerie felt her heart thumping against her chest. "You think so?"

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

"Oh dear…" Salamon muttered, only Lopmon and Patamon could hear her.

"What is it?" Lopmon whispered.

"I think Valerie may have gotten the case of the crush," Salamon answered.

"The crush?" Patamon frowned.

"I believe it's a term for when a human likes another human… more than just a friend," Salamon explained.

Patamon smiled a little. "I know of someone who would love to tease Andy over it…" He said as he watched Danny, now as a human again, walking back towards Andy and Valerie.

"You really think Valerie likes Andy in that way?" Lopmon asked quietly. "Should I tell him then?"

"No, I think this is something Valerie needs to tell Andy herself," Salamon answered.

"Hey Valerie! Sorry I missed you, I really had to go," Danny chuckled sheepishly. "Did I interrupt anything?"

"We were just chatting about some things," Andy replied. "Valerie knows a good Mexican place we can eat at."

"Although with how often you go to the bathroom, maybe the last thing you need is spicy food," Valerie remarked to Danny, relieved that she was able to calm down now that someone else walked in.

"Me? Nah, it's fine. I've wanted to have tacos for a while now." Danny replied. "Nasty Burger is good, but it's nice to change it up every now and then."

Patamon flew over to Danny and settled down on top of his head. "You shouldn't just run off like that again, Danny. Trouble always seems to find you."

"You're looking to be far more accepting to Danny now than when I last saw you, Patamon~" Salamon smiled.

"A lot of things happened since we last saw each other, Salamon," Patamon replied.

"Oh… you guys mentioned Freakshow had a Digimon too, right?" Valerie asked as that just sunk into her brain now that she wasn't thinking about how awesome- crazy Andy was.

"Yeah, we're not sure how, but he had a DemiDevimon with him that could digivolve into a Devimon," Lopmon answered. "We were already weakened by the time Devimon stepped in, but luckily Patamon was able to digivolve into Angemon and chase him off."

Valerie looked at Patamon in surprise. "Really? He became an angel Digimon? But Patamon is a little hamster with wings!"

"Well, I'm a puppy in your terms, yet I could become a cat upon digivolution," Salamon pointed out.

"Digivolution doesn't always mean we'll turn into something you'll expect," Patamon sweatdropped. "Under different circumstances, I could've become a Pegasusmon instead, a horse Digimon with wings, and wears golden armor."

Valerie chuckled. "True. But that's the awesome thing about Digimon. You never know what you guys will become when you evolve."

"Heeeey, can we eat now? I'm hungry! I wanna try these 'tacos'," Lopmon whined.

"But you just had popcorn earlier," Andy pointed out.

"That was just a tiny snack," Lopmon argued.

"Never get between a Digimon and his meal," Valerie chuckled as Andy picked up Lopmon.

Lopmon climbed up onto Andy's head and relaxed.

"I guess Danny and I shopped at the same 'hat store'," Andy sighed.

Valerie chuckled as she picked up Salamon. "Do I want to know where Lopmon got some popcorn?"

"No, you don't." Danny grumbled.

"What? Movie theater popcorn tastes good! Even off of the floor!" Lopmon pouted.

Valerie blinked at hearing that.

"Okay! Let's not talk about this anymore!" Andy spoke up. "Okay? Good, okay. Valerie, please lead us to the Mexican restaurant before Lopmon says anything else out of delirious hunger."

"... Good idea. It sounds like Lopmon could use some real food." Valerie agreed, trying to not look grossed out.

Patamon sighed. "Lopmon really needs to learn to keep his mouth shut on certain subjects…"

"It's part of my charm~" Lopmon chuckled.

"So you admit you do it on purpose," Andy grumbled.

"Don't pretend you wouldn't~" Lopmon grinned.

"Let's just get going." Valerie grumbled as well before leading the boys out of central park and to the mall.

---

"Hey, Takuya, Tommy, it's been a while since we've seen you two," Zoe greeted the two as she, JP, and Koji walked into Seraphimon's castle.

"Yeah, we were starting to worry if we'd ever get back together," JP chuckled.

"Well, we're here now." Takuya grinned. Inwardly, he hoped the others wouldn't hold his little 'mind-control' incident against him if they found out about it.

"Since we're all here, we need to clear up a few things," Koji spoke up. "If we're going to be working as a team, we need to have trust in each other."

"Koji had to learn that the hard way, he used to try to act all macho and work alone, but that almost got him killed a few times," Zoe chuckled.

"Why did you have to bring that up?!" Koji groaned. "I learned my lesson!"

"Not until we saved you from some enemy Digimon." JP chuckled as well.

"In my defense, I was looking for my brother when we got separated," Koji huffed. "But in any case! What I'm trying to say is that it'll be good if we used this time to tell each other more about ourselves. What we hope to accomplish as Legendary Warriors, what our hopes and dreams are. We don't have to tell each other everything, but it'll be good to know what we're working with."

"I do have to agree. Because of our miscommunication, I was assumed to be a rogue Warrior for the longest time, and I didn't know anything about Legendary Warriors other than their story of defeating Lucemon," Tommy agreed.

Takuya grimaced. "And I had absolutely no idea what I could turn into until a ghost told me, and even then I didn't know Agunimon was a Legendary Warrior either until later." He admitted.

"Then that only proves my point." Koji grinned back smugly.

"Luckily, we won't have to worry about mistaking someone for a rogue Warrior anymore. There are 10 Legendary Warriors in total, we each have 6 of the Legendary Warriors, and we know the other 4 are working for Cherubimon… well, the past Cherubimon," Koichi said.

"I know… the Cherubimon we have now is so sweet it's hard to believe he was the same Cherubimon who despised humans," Zoe pouted.

"Don't forget, Cherubimon doesn't have his memories of his past lives yet, that could change when he does start remembering," Koji warned.

"Yeah, but that could change." Takuya admitted. "I mean, he's Andy's partner right now. I doubt he'd see Andy as a threat."

"I suppose only time will tell," Koichi said.

"For now, let's focus on the present, no point in worrying about how hot the food will be until it's cooked, right?" JP chuckled. "I can start us off with sharing time. Let's see… my name is Junpei Shibayama, though many call me 'JP', I'm 16 years old, and I'm a high school student. I don't have a lot of friends at school, but Zoe and I go to the same school, so I'm not too worried about it. I like to practice simple magic tricks for a hobby, and I also like chocolate. Sometimes I would carry around some chocolate bars with me in case of emergencies. As a Legendary Warrior, I want to help protect the Digital World the best I can. Out of our group, I seem to be able to tank hits the best, while dishing out lightning and thunder. My dreams for the future is to maybe one day own a restaurant in the real world, and maybe learn more about the culinary arts in the Digital World since the food grows differently here than in our world."

"Well, I guess I'm next." Zoe said. "My name is Izumi Orimoto, but I like to be called Zoe. I am 15 years old and I go to high school like JP. I do like to hang out with my friends and I am quite the athlete, when it comes to gymnastics of course. I like to cook as well, mostly Italian food because I'm half Italian. As a Legendary Warrior, I also want to help keep the Digital World safe. I may not be the best attacker of our group, but I can hold my own well enough due to being able to dodge most attacks. I'm light on my feet, and able to move fast. I hope to one day find someone to settle down with, but if I can't, then I guess traveling around the world is a fun thing to do as well."

Koji grunted. "My name is Koji Minamoto. I am 15 years old, and I am also in high school. I like to do kendo and martial arts. I also like to hang out with my twin brother Koichi. I do like to be on my own though as well. As a Legendary Warrior, I want to keep the Digital World safe from threats like evil Digimon and players. I am the close range expert of the group. I tend to blitz my opponents with my swords, making sure to strike them quickly. I… actually don't know what I want to do in the future, but I do know I want to help others somehow."

Koichi decided to go next. "My name is Koichi Minamoto. I'm 15 years old as well, also in high school. Unlike my brother, I don't do a lot of kendo or martial arts, though sometimes I work with Koji with those. I mostly do chores around the house to help our sick mother while our father is at work. I cook and clean, though I find it to be enjoyable at times, it helps me destress myself after a long day at school or in the Digital World. As a Legendary Warrior, of course I want to help those in need, but I also want to try to understand myself, and my element of Darkness more. Darkness doesn't have to mean it's evil and scary, and I want to help others realize that. As for what I want to do in the future, I don't have anything official yet, but I've played around with the idea of being a doctor for Digimon at the very least."

"Okay, so that's all of us, now it's your and Tommy's turn," Koji said, looking at Takuya and Tommy.

Takuya decided to go first since he was the oldest between him and Tommy.

"My name is Takuya Kanbara." Takuya began. "I'm 15 years old, and I'm also in high school. I came to America on an exchange program. I like to play soccer, and I find myself the victim of my cousins' pranks. I love my family, but they can get a bit much sometimes. As a Legendary Warrior, I hope to be able to protect the Digital World like the rest of you, and also learn more about my own abilities as one. For my fighting style, I normally rely on fighting my enemies at close range, and I have a shield to deflect attacks. For what I want to do in the future, I may play soccer professionally, or if not that, I may see about being a manga artist."

"A manga artist? Wow, I'd love to see the kind of things you draw then." Zoe smiled, making Takuya blush.

"Err… yeah, I'm not that good yet…" Takuya admitted.

"So, uh…" Tommy began speaking up. "My name is Tomoki Himi, but I like being called Tommy. I'm 11 years old, and I'm in middle school. I like to play video games, I'm good at all sorts of genres. I even beat my big brother in a few video games. I don't have a lot of friends at school, usually I get bullied in school. My parents can be a bit… overbearing. That's why it took a while for me to get back here. As a Legendary Warrior, I want to learn more about how to actually be a Legendary Warrior, and to truly be proud of being a Legendary Warrior. For my dreams of the future… haven't really thought about it. But I guess I like the idea of being a hero like you guys."

Despite all of his cleverness, Tommy was still a young kid after all, he wasn't even a teenager yet.

"Well, don't worry. We can help you guys out." JP grinned. "Being a Legendary Warrior is a big responsibility, but I think you two can handle it."

"Okay, so now what do we do?" Takuya asked.

"Now we need to know how much you two know about how to use your Legendary Warrior Spirits," Koji answered.

"This is so weird, we never had to train someone how to use their Spirits before," JP admitted.

"How did you guys figure it out?" Tommy asked.

"We sort of had to learn as we went," Koichi explained. "We didn't have anyone to teach us."

"So how do we determine what we know with our Spirits?" Takuya asked.

"There's the training room," Zoe pointed out. "The fastest way we'll be able to see how well you two can use your Spirits is to spar with you."

"Or we could have Takuya and Tommy spar with each other, we'd be able to see what they're both capable of at the same time," Koji suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea." JP agreed. "This way we can also determine what they need to work on."

Takuya and Tommy looked at one another for a moment, not sure what to think of that idea.

"C'mon, you two! It will be good for you both." Zoe encouraged.

"It's just… the last time we fought each other, we weren't exactly on the best terms," Tommy timidly said.

"That is true, but how are you going to get over it if you never try?" Koichi asked. "Besides, when we train, we often spar with each other to make sure we don't get too rusty. So you two will need to get used to this eventually."

"But don't worry Tommy, I'm sure Takuya isn't going to go all out on you now that he knows you're not a rogue Warrior bent on destroying… uh… yourself," JP chuckled sheepishly.

Takuya gave a sheepish grin. "Yeah, I… I won't hurt you, Tommy… I promise."

"Well, thanks, Takuya, but that wasn't what I was worried about," Tommy sheepishly said.

"Come on, the training room is this way!" Koji called from down the hall.

"Someone sure is eager," JP muttered.

The group headed down to the training room, following Koji's lead.

Takuya could feel himself getting a bit excited. True, he hadn't fought another Legendary Warrior often, and the last few times he had it had been either a misunderstanding, or because one of them was mind controlled. But now he would get to fight them in a more friendly manner! He just hoped Tommy wasn't too worried about the battle ahead of them.

"I have to say, it's a surprise that a Legendary Warrior picked someone younger than we were 4 years ago," JP commented as they were on their way to the training room.

"The Spirits of the Legendary Warriors are mysterious beings," Zoe shrugged. "I mean Takuya found his Spirit in the real world."

"So were we just lucky then?" Takuya asked.

"I doubt luck had anything to do with it. If the Spirit of Agunimon didn't choose you, it wouldn't have given you its power," Koji replied.

Takuya chuckled. "True. And boy, did I need the Spirit's power when I got it. Fighting a ghostly meat monster is quite a way to awaken a Spirit."

Tommy couldn't even begin to fathom why a Legendary Warrior would choose Tommy himself. Before Kumamon, and before he got sucked into the Digital World, Tommy had just been living a normal, everyday life. Maybe the Spirit saw something in him that he didn't.

The group led Takuya and Tommy into a large room. Takuya remembered this room, it was the simulation room Koichi led him to in order to try to help him control his Beast Spirit.

"I'm sure you remember this room, Takuya, but I'll repeat it for the sake of Tommy," Koichi said. "This is a simulation room. Sorcermon used his magic to create this. It's meant to help us, and other warrior Digimon, to train without the fear of breaking anything. It also helps us prepare for battling on any possible terrain as well."

"Really? That's awesome!" Tommy said, his eyes lighting up. "I didn't know that was possible!"

"In the Digital World, lots of things are possible." Koichi chuckled.

"So what are the rules here?" Takuya asked.

"You two will go at it until one of you gives up, loses consciousness, or if you think the battle is going too far. We will come in and stop the battle ourselves if we feel the battle is going too far," Koji listed.

"That sounds reasonable." Takuya agreed.

Tommy nodded as well. The rules sounded fair.

"Alright then, you two go ahead and spirit evolve. I'll set up the simulation," JP stated.

"And you two stand to the far side from each other, that way you're both a good distance away from each other before the battle starts," Koji suggested.

Takuya and Tommy nodded before they walked to the edges of the room. Takuya on the right side, and Tommy on the left side.

Takuya took out his D-Tector, as did Tommy. Both of them held onto their D-Tectors, something they both found comfort in lately. The others walked out of the simulation room in order to observe from the window. JP turned on the simulation room, making it look like a big wasteland.

"You ready, Tommy?" Takuya called.

"As ready as you are, Takuya," Tommy replied.

Takuya held out his D-Tector and the blue digital form of his first Spirit appeared visible on the screen of his D-Tector as he formed the familiar fractal coding on his left hand. He swiped the D-Tector over the coding, calling out the familiar phrase he knew by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" His clothes ripped away as his body became digital, and the process began. Coding surrounded him as the power of the Spirit flowed into his body. Red armor formed and latched onto his body as his hair changed to blonde and became long and wild. His height increased, as did his strength and agility. His eyes snapped open, now a brilliant blue instead of brown, and his teeth were sharper than a human's as well. He landed, crying out his name. "Agunimon!"

"Alright, it's your turn, Tommy." Agunimon smiled.

Tommy was a bit surprised at how passionate Takuya was with his evolution. Seeing how Takuya was doing it, instead of just doing it quick and silent like he had been doing, Tommy decided to let his heart take over for the evolution, something he hadn't done since the first time he spirit evolved into Kumamon. After all, it wouldn't be a good look for him if he wasn't as passionate about it as Takuya was.

Tommy held up his own D-Tector. The light green digital form of his first Spirit appeared on the screen of his D-Tector and he formed the familiar ring of fractal coding around his left hand. He swiped the D-Tector over the coding, calling out the familiar phrase he would come to know by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" His clothes ripped away as his body became digital and the process began. Coding surrounded him as the power of the Spirit flowed into his body. He lost his hair and his body became white as snow. His fingers became like paws almost and he gained a more cub-like appearance to his body. Green chest armor formed on his body and his feet gained green and red boots. A headband that had the image of a bear on it formed on his head, and he gained a shoulder pad on each side, but one was red while the other was gray in color. He slid down and landed as a mushy pile before he reformed and grinned, calling out his name. "Kumamon!"

Now that the two of them had evolved, the spar had begun. Kumamon waited to see what Agunimon was going to do.

Agunimon wasn't one to normally play it safe, but in this case, he decided it was best to start off with his weakest attack since that was his most accurate, and his safest. He held up his left silver wrist brace and fire flared from the openings on it. "Pyro Darts!"

Kumamon ran to the side to avoid the Pyro Darts. He continued to run as Agunimon was firing out his Pyro Darts at him. Kumamon was small, but he was fast. At first, Agunimon thought Kumamon was just running to dodge his Pyro Darts, however, Kumamon was actually moving in closer to Agunimon.

While he was running, Kumamon took a deep breath when he got in close enough and blew out his icy wind attack on the ground, turning parts of the ground around Agunimon to ice, as well as freezing some of Agunimon's feet.

Agunimon felt the cold and looked down, realizing he had been trapped. "Crap…" He hissed through his teeth. However, a similar situation came to mind, when Lopmon had frozen the path to the Digi-School during that race. Agunimon had heated up his feet then. Wait… Maybe…

Agunimon focused on his power over fire and on his feet like he had at that time. His feet heated up, melting the ice that had frozen on his feet.

"Heh, as expected from the Legendary Warrior of Flame," Kumamon complimented as he saw this was happening.

"Well, I did experience something similar before." Agunimon chuckled before he then began to run towards the ice, his feet still heated up. Let's see if I can actually pull this off. As soon as his feet touched the ice, Agunimon was moving much faster, almost seeming to skate around easily.

Agunimon smiled to see it was working. He looked up and… Kumamon was gone.

"Never take your eyes off the enemy," Kumamon's voice said from behind Agunimon.

Agunimon was suddenly pelted by snowballs. The snowballs were making him very cold, making it difficult to focus on his inner fire. Agunimon quickly turned around, seeing Kumamon holding his gun, and he had something long under his boots. Kumamon was currently wearing skis.

"Shit…" Agunimon muttered under his breath. He focused on his power over fire again, managing to call forth his shield. "Plasma Sphere!" He was now forced onto the defensive instead.

Kumamon saw the sphere that Agunimon just created on himself, and his snowballs were pelting the sphere, but not Agunimon. A defensive technique.

Kumamon stopped firing his snowballs and put his gun back into his backpack. Since his powers weren't all that powerful, he would need to find another way around the shield. He wasn't sure if Agunimon could attack him while that shield was up, however, so maybe if he could bait Agunimon into attacking him, he might have an opportunity.

Kumamon took an even bigger breath than before, expanding his stomach a bit before he blew out more of his icy wind. Although this one was stronger than the last one, it still paled in comparison to when he used his attack on them when he had been under Tapirmon's Nightmare Syndrome. But it was enough to get the job done, Kumamon was able to cover most of the ground in ice. Agunimon could melt the ice, but that would take time, and Kumamon had the advantage of mobility.

"You'll never get anywhere if you stay on the defensive, Agunimon!" Kumamon called out.

Agunimon knew Kumamon was right. But he had seen the ice forming on the ground, and as it was, he was aware he was at a disadvantage. Agunimon did drop his shield, but he wasn't going to take any chances. This is… it's like fighting Andy almost…

Agunimon knew he couldn't just stand around either. He had to do something… Let's see if Kumamon can handle a fireball onslaught. He slammed his fists together, creating fireballs around his fists. "Pyro Punch!"

Agunimon was coming in at Kumamon, but he ended up losing his balance on the ice as he wasn't used to trying to punch someone while ice skating at the same time. Kumamon just skated to the side while Agunimon nearly fell on his face. His fiery punch hit the icy floor instead, melting a big chunk.

Wait, that's it! It would take too long to melt the ice by heating up my feet, or using my weaker fire moves. I'll have to really heat things up to regain the advantage. Agunimon thought to himself.

Agunimon smirked before fire began to flicker from his armor on his shoulders, wrists, knees, and ankles. "Let's see how you can handle the heat!" He declared before spinning around, enveloping himself in fire. "Pyro Tornado!"

Kumamon's eyes went wide as Agunimon engulfed himself in a fiery vortex. He didn't expect the fire power to be so strong. Of course, he should've, Agunimon wasn't the Legendary Warrior of Flame for nothing. The ice in the area quickly melted and evaporated from the intense heat.

Agunimon stopped spinning, the fire dissipating from around him. He grinned. "What did you think?"

"Heh, not bad, you definitely have a lot of fire power," Kumamon replied. Now the question is… what do you plan to do next?

Agunimon, seeing that the ice was gone, ran at Kumamon. He wasn't about to underestimate Kumamon. He knew the smaller Legendary Warrior was fast, so that meant he couldn't fight like he normally would. Since Kumamon is smaller than I am, and faster, I need to get into close range.

Kumamon saw Agunimon coming in. His usual tactics wouldn't work that well on Agunimon, so, like how Agunimon surprised him with his determination and strength, Kumamon needed to surprise Agunimon with his own tenacity. Even if that meant taking a risk.

Instead of running away from Agunimon, Kumamon let Agunimon approach him. If Agunimon was coming in close, that meant it was likely Agunimon was going to use a melee attack, which Kumamon was counting on.

Agunimon got within close range and had fire coat one of his fists before he threw the punch at Kumamon. Of course, he had no idea Kumamon had been counting on him getting in close though. So Kumamon's next move would surprise him.

Right when Agunimon went to punch him, just like when WaruMonzeamon punched him, Kumamon softened his body to the point that it was like punching through goo. Agunimon's eyes went wide as his fist went through Kumamon's body, and the natural coldness of Kumamon's body put out the flame on Agunimon's fist. Of course, this was no cakewalk for Kumamon either, he definitely felt the pain, and the burn, from Agunimon's Pyro Punch. But he was determined to see this through. Kumamon turned his body into ice, trying to trap Agunimon in a big icicle spear. Agunimon gasped as he tried to pull away, if Kumamon kept growing out his body like this, one of the spiked ice would pierce through his armor.

Thinking fast, Agunimon called forth his Plasma Sphere again, this time the sphere was not so spread out and seemed to concentrate around his arm, but it was only for a few seconds. But that was enough time to pull his arm free and jump back.

That was close… Any later and I'd have my armor pierced! Agunimon thought.

Kumamon reverted back to his bear form, though when he did, Agunimon noticed a burn mark on Kumamon's stomach. Kumamon's body was malleable, and was able to absorb hits pretty well, but he wasn't invincible even in his more gooey form.

Kumamon rubbed his burnt stomach for a moment before he looked at Agunimon and gave a smile. "You really are strong, Agunimon. I'm done, if we keep going anymore, we might really hurt each other."

Agunimon blinked before he smiled a bit. "Yeah, I guess we are." He conceded. But… why? Why is Kumamon done? I know I hurt him but… It doesn't make any sense. He could've gone all out, but… why? Why did he hold back?

The simulation turned off, causing the wasteland to disappear. The other 4 came into the room.

"That was some pretty good fighting there. Other than maybe Koichi, we don't really have anyone who fights quite like Tommy does," JP complimented.

"Yeah, I was getting worried that both of you would get hurt when Kumamon trapped your Pyro Punch earlier," Zoe admitted.

"It wasn't easy trying to hold onto Agunimon's punch, that really hurt," Kumamon chuckled sheepishly.

"But had I not gotten out, you'd have penetrated my armor." Agunimon pointed out. "I had to use my Plasma Sphere just to get enough space to get out at all."

"That was pretty clever, I didn't know you could use your Plasma Sphere on one part of your body like that," Kumamon admitted.

"It seems you two have definitely seen your share of battles," Koji remarked. "Good, so we don't have to go over the basics with you. Although there are some things we do need to work on. Like Agunimon, you have a lot of fire power, but you could also try other things with them. And Kumamon… I have to ask, were you trying to hold back during that whole battle?"

That got Agunimon's attention, he had been wondering the same thing as Kumamon's attacks hadn't been nearly as potent as they were when Kumamon had been under Tapirmon's Nightmare Syndrome.

"I don't think so," Kumamon replied. "I mean the only other times I had to fight before was for survival. Before that, I was fighting battles I didn't really want to fight. Why do you think I was holding back?"

"You weren't saying your attack names." Koichi replied. "You see, for a Digimon, if they say the name of an attack they're using, that's how they channel more power into it."

Kumamon stared at Koichi for a moment as his brain was trying to process what he just said. "... What?"

"You… didn't know?" Koichi sweatdropped.

"No… no I didn't know that…" Kumamon answered. "I thought Kumamon just didn't have a lot of power."

"Surely your instincts would've told you that," Zoe pointed out. "That was how we knew shouting the names made our attacks stronger."

"I didn't want to sound like a Digimon around Sir Michael too much, so I began doing less… 'Digimon-ish' things, like shouting the name of my attack," Kumamon admitted. "I hadn't really studied what I could do as Kumamon before."

"You were trying to seem less like a Digimon." Agunimon murmured softly. He looked down, clenching his fists. He had never really considered Sir Michael much of a threat before, but now he was seriously considering going after Sir Michael himself.

"That explains it then… you've been trying to ignore your Digimon instincts, so your powers got weaker," Koji noted. "When you had been under Tapirmon's Nightmare Syndrome, you were following your Digimon instincts a lot more, and you were probably out to kill us, so that also increased your power."

Kumamon let out a sigh. "I don't remember much while being under the Nightmare Syndrome. Maybe if I did, I would've noticed a sudden spike in my power when I shouted the name."

"I didn't know shouting the attack names made them stronger either." Agunimon admitted. "I just do it without thinking."

"So shouting the name makes the move stronger? … May I try it?" Kumamon requested.

"Go ahead, the simulation room can take your attacks," Koichi encouraged.

Kumamon turned away from everyone, and decided to do his primary attack without shouting the name first. He let out an icy wind from his mouth, freezing the floor.

Then, Kumamon decided to do it again, this time shouting the name. "Crystal Breeze!"

This time, the icy wind was more like a blizzard coming out of his mouth, not only freezing the floor ahead of him, but most of the area as well. The ice was a lot more dense than the ice next to it.

"Whoa… you weren't kidding, that really is a much bigger improvement," Kumamon noted, surprised to see how much of a difference it was.

Agunimon felt a shiver run down his spine at seeing the power. No wonder the others said he was holding back. I noticed it too, but this…? Talk about power!

"Even if your power is considered weak compared to some of us, you are still a Legendary Warrior. All Legendary Warriors have powerful attacks," Koichi explained.

Kumamon gave a sheepish chuckle. "I guess this would've been really nice to know a lot sooner."

Although, maybe there are some merits to not always shouting the name. For one, it gives me the element of surprise, the enemy wouldn't know what I'm about to do. And not using as much power saves me more energy too. Not to mention that it can also cause the enemy to think that's all I have, so it'd be a bigger shock to them if I pull out my full power. Perhaps I should keep my habit of not shouting the name of my attack all the time, and use it sparingly. By not relying too much on my power, I've learned to fight more creatively too. Kumamon concluded as his mind was wrapping around the fact he had a lot more power than he realized.

Agunimon looked down at Kumamon. "Had you gone full power, you certainly may have beaten me." He chuckled sheepishly.

"I think Kumamon was also hesitant on beating you even if he didn't know he was holding back," Koji pointed out. "I've been in enough fights to know when someone is being hesitant in battle."

Agunimon looked at Kumamon again. "But why? Why were you hesitant, Kumamon?" He asked, his voice holding some concern.

Kumamon didn't look directly at Agunimon, he gave a small frown. "Like I said… every battle I've been in so far had been in battles I didn't want to be in, or it was for survival… I wasn't really sure how much to hold back, or how much I should go all out in a friendly spar. I wanted to make sure it was over before we went too far. I know I've… turned many Digimon into eggs when I was working under Sir Michael. I don't want that to happen again."

"Oh… you poor boy, you've really been through a lot, haven't you?" Zoe frowned.

Agunimon felt his heart… err… Digi-Core clenched at hearing Kumamon's voice. It sounded so… sad. He looked down before he knelt down and gently hugged Kumamon. "Don't worry… You won't have to do that again…" He said gently.

"Ow… still have the burn mark," Kumamon hissed in a bit of pain.

"Whoops, sorry!" Agunimon quickly apologized as he let go of Kumamon.

"I'm definitely going to have to work on the whole 'trapping the opponent with my body' thing," Kumamon sighed.

"For now, you two should release your Spirits so they can rest and recover," Koichi suggested.

Both Agunimon and Kumamon nodded. Fractal code surrounded both of them before it dissipated, revealing them in their human forms.

Takuya looked at Tommy. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, Takuya, really. I don't feel the burn anymore," Tommy reassured Takuya as he rubbed his stomach. "It seems the wounds on our Digimon selves don't carry over to our human selves."

"There are some exceptions to that, but hopefully you won't have to worry about it," JP warned.

Takuya frowned. "Yeah, I doubt that would be fun." He admitted.

"So, aside from Tommy needing to work on his attack power, I think the only thing Takuya needs to work on is using his fire attacks more creatively." Zoe summarized.

"I say that because Human Spirits often rely on their minds to fight against stronger opponents," Koji explained. "Tommy's already gotten that down easily. For fighting with raw power, however, that's when we pull out our Beast Spirits."

"The Beast Spirits?" Tommy blinked, this wasn't his first time hearing about those, but he hadn't gotten a lot of information about those yet, and it had been a while since he heard about them.

"Yeah. There are two Spirits for each of the Legendary Warriors." Koichi explained. "The Human Spirit, which you already have, and then the Beast Spirit, which is the more powerful, but primal form. The majority of us here have our Beast Spirits as well as control over them. Well, save for Takuya, who just got his recently."

Takuya grumbled. "And it's definitely hard to control. I've lost control of myself what… twice when using it?"

"Three times if you count the time I tried to train you with it." Koichi pointed out.

"These Beast Spirits… they turn you into a beast Digimon, I'm guessing?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah, but there's more to it than that. Unlike when you turn into Kumamon, or Takuya turns into Agunimon, if you use your Beast Spirit, it changes your instincts far more than the Human Spirits does. Your essence becomes much closer to that of a beast in order for the Spirit to fit you like a glove, otherwise, your own spirit and the Beast Spirit would end up destroying each other," Koichi explained. "But because of the change, it makes it so much harder to control. Your mind starts to think more like a beast, it's easy to lose yourself to the animal instincts. In most cases, you could end up becoming violent, as that is what the Legendary Warrior's beast forms were for; war. But in other cases, you could just end up ignoring everything around you and do your own thing, like any untrained animal would."

"I got lucky, my Beast Spirit is closer to a Human Spirit, so it wasn't too hard to control, but even then I had to watch myself since I get a lot more snippy as a Beast," Zoe remarked.

Takuya snickered. "At least you had a better time than most of us."

"Says the one without control right now." Zoe retorted with a grin of her own.

"What? I was agreeing with you," Takuya grumbled.

"But… I don't think I have anything like a Beast Spirit," Tommy said as he looked at his D-Tector. "I mean… Kumamon is a bear, but I don't think that counts."

"Kumamon is the Human Spirit," JP answered. "Trust me, you'd know if you were using your Beast Spirit."

"Yeah, you'd lose control if you had your Beast Spirit." Takuya agreed. "It's not hard to realize what Spirit you're using."

"Then… how do I get my Beast Spirit? Do I even have one?" Tommy asked.

"All Legendary Warriors have a Human and a Beast Spirit," Zoe answered. "But you have to find it first."

"Speaking of which, maybe that should be our next part of the training," Koji said as he looked at Takuya. "Since Tommy doesn't have his Beast Spirit yet, we'll have to focus this one on you, Takuya. It's too dangerous to have a Legendary Warrior with little control over his Beast Spirit running around. It might be in our best interest to help Takuya learn to control his Beast Spirit before we do anything else."

Koichi nodded. "I did notice he starts out in control, but then he starts to lose that control the longer he is in his Beast Spirit form. From what I've seen, when Takuya uses his Beast Spirit, he gets a lot more violent than any of you did. The only one who had been more violent than Takuya was me."

"You?" Tommy blinked, surprised.

Koichi always seemed to be the cool headed one of the group, so it was weird to think of him as being very violent as a beast.

"It… was more of a different situation than Takuya's," Koichi answered.

"One that we'd rather not talk about," Koji added.

Takuya had some sympathy for Koichi now at least. "But what I don't get is why I seem to get so violent when as a beast."

"It might have to do with the fact your two Spirits were separated from one another, literally in this case. You found your Human Spirit in the real world, right?" Koichi pointed out.

"Yeah, I did." Takuya confirmed.

"Then maybe the Beast Spirit is lashing out in a way because your Spirits were literally worlds apart." Koichi concluded.

"It could also just be one part of a reason why his Beast Spirit is so violent," Koji said. "His element is flame after all, when fire goes out of control, it's naturally aggressive, and destroys."

"It could also have something to do with your personality too," JP wondered. "You do seem to be the type to jump first and ask questions later."

"It could be a combination of all three," Zoe added.

Takuya frowned. "So how do I get control over it?"

"The best thing to do right now is to try to get used to being a beast. You'll learn to gain control over yourself the more you use it," Koji answered. "There are ways to make it so you could gain control over your beast form faster, but it's different for every individual."

"I guess." Takuya sighed. "I just hope I can get control soon. I don't like being such a wild card."

"If you want, we can see where you are right now in controlling your Beast Spirit," JP suggested. "Besides, I'd like to see it for myself."

"Okay…" Takuya said, albeit hesitantly. "Just… make sure none of you are in the area. I don't want to hurt you guys."

"We'll be watching from the outside," Koji said.

Zoe smiled as she looked over at Tommy. "Come on, Tommy, let's go."

Tommy nodded. He was interested in seeing what this Beast Spirit thing was all about. He followed the outside of the simulation room. Tommy was impressed at how clear he could see Takuya from the glass window.

JP turned on the simulation room, using the wasteland area once again.

Takuya swallowed nervously before he held up his D-Tector. Takuya invoked the power of his Beast Spirit. The red outline of his second Spirit roared and appeared on the screen of his D-Tector as he invoked a ball of fractal coding on his left hand. Takuya swiped the D-Tector over the coding and called out the phrase he would come to know by heart. "Execute! Beast Spirit Evolution!" He felt the primal power of his Beast Spirit flowing into him as his clothes ripped away and his body became surrounded by the coding. Takuya cried out as the power flooded into his body. His body grew in strength and power as well as size, with red, yellow, black, and white armor forming on his body. A tail extended out from the base of his spine as two large orange wings appeared on his body. His head became like a dragon's almost, but not exactly, and the top of his head was white. His eyes turned sky blue, but had a feral edge to them as well. He landed, crying out his name. "BurningGreymon!"

Now evolved as BurningGreymon, Takuya could feel his control starting to slip away slowly, but he tried to hold on to it.

Tommy was shocked when he witnessed the evolution, and the new form Takuya took on. Tommy didn't really know what he was expecting, but he didn't know Takuya could turn into a large draconic being. Not to mention the scream Takuya made while he was turning into BurningGreymon. The evolution definitely looked painful and wild, not like the Human Spirit evolution.

That's… the Beast Spirit? Tommy frowned, getting an uneasy feeling as he looked at BurningGreymon.

---

Titanic X: ZAFT: Oh, the training will help to a degree, but we have a plan on how Takuya gains control. XD

DarkFoxKit: Let's not forget about Tommy, the boy needs to train as well.

pokemon fan 1991: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, Valerie needed this talk anyways. At least Andy is making sure things don't escalate between them like it did in canon. Andy is also hoping to do the same for their parents. The boy may not have super powers, but he's definitely trying hard.

ZAFT: But Jack and Maddie will have some development soon too~ XD