DarkFoxKit: Alright, we have another chapter for you all! We hope you're enjoying the story so far. I will say, there won't be any heavy focus on Digimon until after My Brother's Keeper, just in case you're waiting for it.
ZAFT: And it is Halloween, so enjoy a spooky update~ :3
DarkFoxKit: Dang it, I've been neglecting on Halloween… uh… here's a treat for you guys, enjoy!
(Two symbols, one red, and one blue, spin before colliding and flaring with light as they do so, showing the title)
Digital Phantom!
(Shows six forms in shadow before they are revealed to be Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Takuya Kanbara, Andy Fenton, 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, a shadowed form with blue eyes 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)
Let's go… EVOLUTION
(Sam is shown with her Fenton Lipstick, firing it at a different ghost)
As our worlds collide
(Jazz is shown beside Andy, her hand on his shoulder as Andy looked shell-shocked by something)
We stand as one
(Jack and Maddie Fenton are shown, with the Fenton Works logo behind them as it glows green)
Growing strong
(A shadowed form is shown with blue eyes and a glowing white blade erupting from what looks like a giant weapon in the form's hands)
As we move along
(Danny is shown walking down the street with those closest to him appearing one by one; Andy, Tucke, 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, 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 8: Invitation
After the Skulker incident, Andy had been insistent on having Danny, Tucker, and Sam train in the lab with them whenever their parents were out. Takuya joined in on the training as well, but as his human self, he figured it would be good for his human self to learn how to dodge and fight in case he wasn't able to spirit evolve for whatever reason.
Andy made sure to give everyone their own ghost weapon they could easily hide and use. For Sam, it was a Fenton Lipstick. It fired out ghost rays similar to Phantom's ghost ray. For Tucker, he had gotten a wrist gun. It was similar to the Fenton Lipstick, but it was weaker. To make up for the weakened power, however, the wrist gun fired with more precision and accuracy, it was also quieter than the Fenton Lipstick.
Danny insisted he only wanted the Fenton Thermos as his Fenton gadget, Andy wasn't sure if it was the best gadget for self defense, as the ghosts could easily dodge or break out of the Fenton Thermos's suction if they weren't weakened enough or caught off guard, but Andy decided to let it go since Danny had been working hard to be able to dodge attacks. If Andy didn't know any better, he would've thought Danny was genuinely worried about actually being hit by the guns in the lab, even though they couldn't hurt humans.
As for Takuya, he had been given a Fenton Rod as well, much to his surprise. But Takuya decided to go with it, given how athletic he was. It made sense too, because he could dodge easier than the others and whack a ghost just as hard.
Andy himself kept his Fenton Rod, but he also added a Fenton Pistol to his arsenal. The pistol itself looked like a toy gun, despite its high tech appearance. It shot out ecto bullets, which would bounce off of a human harmlessly, but it was designed to sting ghosts. Andy figured it would be good for long range without seriously hurting the ghost.
After the group trained with each other using their equipment, Tucker and Sam had to go home for the night. They would train more together later when they weren't so tired and sore.
The next day, Andy was going to check on something in the lab. Danny decided to follow Andy. Takuya went to the kitchen to get something to eat.
Unfortunately for Takuya, Jazz decided to take a tutoring side job, and she was using the kitchen's table.
Takuya walked in. "Hey, Jazz-AH!" He yelped when he saw Dash. "W-what's Dash doing here?!"
"Hey, Takuya, don't mind Dash. I've been doing a thesis that nobody is untutorable, that Dash is making that impossible," Jazz groaned.
Dash frowned as he looked at Takuya. It was clear Dash didn't like Takuya, but he also respected the older boy. Takuya wasn't a push over, and he was certainly not at the bottom of the popularity scale.
"Whatever you want, just get it and leave us be," Dash grumbled.
"Uh… sure…" Takuya said as he grabbed a sandwich for himself before leaving the kitchen in a hurry. "Sorry about the interruption!"
Andy and Danny were coming into the kitchen to get to the lab, and both of them stopped when they saw Dash.
Dash froze when he saw Andy. Andy just remembered that Dash was still scared of him. The awkwardness was so tense that one could cut through the atmosphere with a knife.
"Uh… Dash? What are you doing here?" Danny spoke up.
"Just… getting tutored!" Dash replied quickly, not wanting to make Andy angry.
"Which I'm still trying to do," Jazz grumbled.
"Maybe the kitchen isn't the best place to tutor someone, Jazz," Andy pointed out. "Also, Dash, we need to talk."
"No, we don't. You just go about your business," Dash quickly said.
Andy frowned, but he also knew this was probably not the best time with Jazz here, she would think he was crazy if he mentioned the dragon incident now. Soon… I promise, I'll get out of this soon…
Andy and Danny went down into the lab, leaving Dash and Jazz alone. Andy needed to talk to Danny about this anyways.
"Now that those two are out of the way…" Dash began, feeling relieved when Andy left before he reached for something in his leather jacket, and took out a card. "I'd like to invite you to my party this Saturday night."
Dash handed Jazz the invitation and he grinned. "It'll give you a chance to see me in my rightful setting, the King of Casper High~"
Jazz looked at the invite with a frown. "And a great place to work on my thesis on the effects of being mean to my brothers and then asking me out." She snarked back before looking at the invite with some thought. "Hmmm…."
Jazz gave a mischievous grin of her own, despite what she said about being a mature adult in the family, she was still a Fenton deep down. This also gave her a chance to see how her brothers would react to suddenly getting such invitations. "I'll go, on two conditions~"
Meanwhile, Andy and Danny were standing on the stairs.
"I need to convince Dash that the whole dragon thing was a hoax," Andy said.
"Why?" Danny asked. "With Dash being afraid you'd go dragon on him, we could totally take advantage of this. It'll be easy to prank him and get him back for all the bullying he did to us since elementary school."
"I'm not into revenge, at least not in that way," Andy huffed. "I don't want Dash thinking I'll turn into a fire breathing, roaring dragon if I get mad or something. If I want to get back at Dash, I want to do it on my own terms, not because of some magical ghost artifact."
Danny frowned. "Aw, c'mon, bro! Why do you have to be such a worry wart?"
"Let me paint you a picture, bro," Andy said. "It starts with being shaken up by the fact a nerd you used to beat up suddenly turned into this large monster that could snap you like a twig. But that same nerd suddenly acts like nothing ever happened the next day, but you wait for it. But then time passes, the nerd never transforms. You start to feel like you're going crazy. You try to ask your friends about the monster transformation. They're too scared to agree with you, or they do, but you don't know if they mean it or if they're just saying that to make you feel better. You start to grow paranoid, and begin to watch that nerd like a hawk, stalking him, trying everything you can to see him transform again to prove it happened. Then what do you get? A seriously messed up child who may or may not end up in the nuthouse. Do you want that for Dash?"
Danny frowned, now actually feeling bad for Dash of all people. "When you put it that way, no…"
"There's also the fact he could somehow prove it, or at least he might find out I'm hanging out with Phantom, that won't be good for Phantom either," Andy added.
"Okay, you've made your point, bro," Danny sighed. "What do you plan to do about it?"
"I don't know yet. I might need to get a dragon suit or something so I can 'prove' that transformation was fake," Andy muttered. "Maybe I can ask Dad or Mom if they could make one?"
"Um… maybe…" Danny said, not sure if their parents would even go for the idea. "We may have to find another way to prove it was 'fake' if Mom and Dad don't help with the dragon costume/suit or whatever."
"I'm sure they will, you just have to use the right words," Andy said as they went into the lab to see their dad was there.
"Hey boys!" Jack greeted, holding some kind of vacuum. He had the thing strapped to his side, and he was holding the hose. "Check out my latest invention, I call it the Fenton Weasel. It collects ambient ghost energy."
"Don't you already have the Fenton Thermos for that?" Andy asked.
"Well, yes, but it doesn't hurt to have more than one way to catch a ghost." Jack replied. "What if the Fenton Thermos is damaged or something? We would need a back-up method to catch ghosts if that happens."
"And you're using a vacuum cleaner instead of just making more Fenton Thermoses?" Andy questioned.
"This baby will work just as well as any Fenton Thermos, just watch!" Jack smiled as he turned on the Fenton Weasel.
However, as soon as Jack turned it on, the Fenton Weasel began to suck up everything around it, from papers to paper clips, etc.
Danny stayed behind his dad, not wanting to risk getting sucked into the Fenton Weasel himself.
"Turn it off!" Andy yelled over the loud suction.
Before Jack could turn off the Fenton Weasel, a Fenton Thermos he had on the shelf, ironically, got caught up in the suction and ended up blocking the Fenton Weasel's hose.
"Ah… well that didn't work out so well…" Jack frowned as he pushed the 'reverse' button on the Fenton Weasel.
The Fenton Weasel spat out the thermos, which it then hit a button on the Fenton Portal, opening its doors.
"I guess the suction was too strong… back to the drawing board…" Jack sighed. "You boys don't stay down here too long."
Jack began walking back upstairs.
"Huh… I wonder why Dad decided to work on this thing instead of making more Fenton Thermoses…" Danny remarked.
"He was so busy trying to show it off that I didn't get a chance to ask him about the-" Andy began to grumble when he was interrupted by a loud laughter.
The boys looked back as a ghost emerged from the open Fenton Portal. "Children, you have freed me, Technus, ghost master of science and electrical technology!"
"Another ghost, seriously?" Andy groaned. We just dealt with Skulker two days ago!
"Oh no you don't!" Danny shouted. "You're not using the technology in this lab to take over the world!"
"What?" Technus blinked before he looked around, and realizing the kid was right. "That's a great idea! Have you considered tutoring?"
"Bro! Why did you tell him that!?" Andy hissed.
"H-hey! I was just reacting in the moment!" Danny exclaimed, blushing a bit now.
Andy saw he still had the Fenton Weasel, they could end this now before Technus could use anything against them. The boy grabbed the vacuum and turned it on quickly. "Help me hold this steady! This thing's got a kick!"
Danny grabbed Andy's arms to help him use the Fenton Weasel. "Geez! You weren't kidding!" Danny exclaimed, feeling the Fenton Weasel's suction kicking in.
Technus was quickly caught up in the suction, and he tried to struggle out of it, but the suction was too powerful. Technus was soon caught up in the Fenton Weasel's hose and he was soon swallowed up by it and pushed into the vacuum's body, which didn't look like it could hold much more after that.
"Danny… uh… can we turn it off?" Andy asked worriedly.
Danny could try, but with how much this thing was kicking, he was scared that the hose would go all over the place if they let go of it to turn it off, and Danny would get caught up in the suction. He tried to kick the machine to get it to turn off.
"Danny!" Andy urgently yelled as the Fenton Weasel sucked in more lab equipment, causing the vacuum's body to expand unnaturally. "She's gonna blow!"
Andy let go of the hose and wrapped his arms around his head, shutting his eyes. Danny quickly grabbed onto Andy's shoulders while he had his eyes closed and turned both of them intangible just before the Fenton Weasel exploded.
The Fenton Weasel exploded, splattering ectoplasm all over the lab, save for the twins. Danny returned himself and Andy to a tangible state, much to his relief. Whew… I can't believe that worked!
Andy blinked open his eyes in surprise and disbelief. He saw the entire lab was covered with ectoplasm and debris, yet he and Danny were… somehow untouched, even though they had been right next to the thing that just exploded.
"How… did we get away from that explosion…? And the mess?" Andy questioned, confused.
"Just lucky I suppose." Danny said, trying to cover up what he had just done. "I guess the explosive force pushed the ecto-mess away from us."
That doesn't make any sense… Andy frowned. Did Phantom help us? Why would he be here now?
"Alright, I think I got it, boys!" Jack's voice called from the stairs.
"Oh… crud…" Andy paled, realizing how much trouble they would be in if Jack saw his latest invention exploded and left the lab looking like this. "Run!"
Danny didn't hesitate to grab Andy's arm and run. He didn't care if Andy protested. They had to get out of the lab before Jack came back down!
Danny turned both of them invisible as Jack was coming down the stairs, but he kept to the walls, making it look like he and Andy were going by unnoticed, and quickly dropped the invisibility before Andy could notice.
"Let's go hide in our room," Andy suggested. "I can always ask Dad about the dragon suit later."
Danny nodded. "Good idea." He agreed as the two boys made their way up the lab stairs. "I don't want to be around Dad if he sees the lab a mess."
Little did the brothers know, Jack was actually pleased when he saw the lab. "I don't know what happened, but now this gives me plenty of ectoplasmic samples to work with!"
Later that day, after school, Danny, Andy, Tucker, Sam, and Takuya decided to meet up at the Nasty Burger. Andy thought Takuya would like to eat at this restaurant, since he knew his cousin liked his burgers. And they all could use some down time from training and ghost fighting.
"So, what are our Saturday night plans?" Sam asked. "I was thinking we could hit the amusement park. I hear the roller coaster has a free fall drop that will take 3 years off your life expectancy."
"As fun as that sounds, it costs 40 bucks just to get in there, not including food and stuff," Tucker replied. "I only get so many allowances a week."
Takuya was enjoying a big, juicy burger, so he couldn't answer with his mouth full.
"Hey, if you need the cash, I can lend it to you." Sam replied.
"Lend means 'repay' and 'repay' is out of my reach," Tucker stated.
Andy was eating his own burger, and fries, it was a combo meal he usually ordered when he ate at the Nasty Burger, it was cheap and filling enough. "Maybe we could go to the movies to save up the cash?"
"No way, we went to the movies last week, nothing new is showing right now," Sam sighed before getting an idea. "But I might have some movies we could watch at my place."
"Your place? You never invite us to your place. Your parents never seem to like us," Andy pointed out.
"Yeah, well… That's just how they are." Sam sighed. "But they will be out of town for a couple of days, so why not take advantage of their absence and ask you guys to come over?"
"That sounds like a good idea, I've never seen your place either." Tucker smiled. "Isn't that exciting Danny?"
Danny didn't give an answer.
"Danny? Hello!?" Tucker called.
Andy and Sam looked at Danny, seeing that he was staring at something. They looked over to see what he was looking at. They saw Dash handing out invitations to the other popular kids in their school who were also all hanging out at the Nasty Burger. Despite them not being at the bottom of the popularity rank, they weren't considered that popular either by their peers.
"Great, it's the hottest party of the school year, and we're not going." Danny grumbled. "We never get invited to any cool places."
Dash even gave Paulina an invitation. Apparently Paulina learned that Dash was actually the top jock at Casper High, so she soon let go of the fact he 'scrubbed his mother's feet'. As long as Dash didn't do that in public, she didn't care what his hobbies were at home. Dash also gave an invitation to Valerie, someone Andy hadn't talked to since the school dance. He had been too shy, and quite frankly, ashamed to face her again after what happened.
"Why don't we get invited to the cool parties?" Tucker asked. "I mean what does it take? Charm? Good looks? Style? I have those anyways."
"And yet you couldn't get a date to the dance…" Andy muttered.
"Hey! It's not my fault I'm too hot for the ladies." Tucker moped, making Takuya snicker as he hid his mouth behind his burger.
"You wish," Sam grumbled. "Despite that whole genius magazine thing, our social circuit is as invisible as Phantom. I mean it's not like it'll matter when we graduate, right?"
"Right…" Andy began. "But you have to admit, having to spend 4 years with these people would be torture if they treat us like a pariah."
Takuya finally calmed himself down enough to speak. "Well, that may change, Who knows what the next 4 years can bring? For all you know, the popularity scale could change as you get through high school."
"Did you go through something like that in your school?" Danny asked curiously.
Takuya chuckled. "I may have been somewhat popular, but not as high as the jocks here. It was more like I was in the middle. Not enough to be the top tier, but not low enough to be considered the bottom of the food chain. Mostly because of my soccer club status."
"I guess you have to be an athlete to be popular in school," Tucker grumbled. "Just my luck to inherit the brains instead of the brawns."
"Hey, at least you're not a stick," Andy grumbled. "Although I should be thankful we're not in our dad's gene pool…"
Takuya blinked. "Why? Uncle Jack seems to be the biggest guy I know. If anything, it would probably work out for you if you were in the gene pool."
"I don't want to be big, not like that. Dad loves his fudge, and I rather not stuff myself with fudge to get as big as him," Andy groaned. "I just meant I'd like to have a natural talent for sports."
"Ah…" Takuya trailed off in realization. "Yeah… that can kinda suck, not having athletic skills." He conceded.
"I don't know, bro, you seem to be getting pretty good at running and dodging with all the training we've been doing," Danny pointed out. "Maybe you could try for the school's football team this season?"
"And turn myself into mashed potatoes? Training for ghosts is one thing, but the actual football?" Andy frowned. "There's no dodging a stampede of angry rhinos. At least with ghosts I have Agunimon and Phantom to back me up."
Danny grimaced. "Way to use food and animals as comparisons, bro." He grumbled.
Andy just started sipping his soda.
"I think he's still sour about his animal collection models," Takuya whispered.
"Here!"
Dash's hands slapped Danny and Andy's mouths with something, causing Andy to nearly choke on his soda.
"Your sister made me invite you two!" Dash growled at Danny before looking at Andy with some nervousness. "Which I was happy to do!"
Danny noticed Dash's nervousness and felt sorry for the jock now that he was seeing how Dash was acting. Wow, now I can see why Andy wants to clear things up with Dash.
Jeez, if you were 'happy' to invite us, why did you nearly make me choke on my soda? Andy grumbled. "Wait, did you say you invited us?"
"Yes," Dash answered before looking at Tucker, Sam, and Takuya, who were looking at him.
Dash pointed at the twins. "Just you two. All you have to do is show up, not embarrass me, and go home. Nothing more, nothing less."
With that, Dash walked off, mostly to get away from the 'dragon boy' before he could possibly get angry at him. Maybe inviting him to the party isn't such a bad idea, after all, who else could say they invited a dragon to their party? Perhaps if Dash played his cards right, Andy would use that dragon form for him. Maybe. Dash wasn't really the manipulation type.
After Dash had walked away, the other popular kids began to take notice of the twins.
"Hey Danny, hey Andy." A girl greeted them as she walked by their table.
"What's up, Fentons? PARTY!" Kwan shouted all excitedly. "Better bring a roaring time, am I right?"
Andy chose not to say anything to that comment.
"See you both on Saturday, boys~" Paulina winked at the two, clearly remembering them.
Danny couldn't help but smile at that. Andy found this intriguing.
"I… I can't believe it! We're… Andy and I were invited!" Danny exclaimed happily as he hugged the invite close to his chest.
"And just like that, people are starting to treat us differently," Andy noted.
"Swell… are you going to let this go to your heads?" Sam asked, rather annoyed by this.
"Relax, Sam. We won't let it get to our heads." Danny said reassuringly.
"Although I am looking forward to seeing how this affects us going forward," Andy remarked, looking rather excited himself.
"You've been reading Jazz's books again, haven't you?" Danny grumbled.
"What? It's interesting," Andy pouted. "Also, did Dash just invite us because of Jazz or is he still scared of me going dragon on him that he felt he had to invite us?"
"I think it may be both." Danny noted with some curiosity himself. "But there is only one way to find out for sure! We're going to that party! It'll be a great opportunity for you to clear up that whole dragon business with Dash too, bro!"
"I guess that's true," Andy realized. "But what about-"
"Come on, bro! We need to get ready for this party!" Danny smiled as he grabbed Andy's hand and all but dragged him out of the Nasty Burger.
Andy hadn't noticed before, but Danny's strength was a lot stronger than usual as he almost felt like his arm was being pulled by a bulky arm wrestler champion. Maybe Danny has been training in secret?
"C'mon, bro! We need to figure out what to wear to the party!" Danny exclaimed as he pulled Andy along.
"Jeez, take it easy, bro, we have all week! And you're pulling my arm way too hard!" Andy yelped.
Danny came to a stop, releasing Andy's arm as he did so. "Oh… Oops… I guess I got too excited there, bro." Danny said sheepishly. "And… sorry about pulling your arm so hard…"
Andy rubbed his arm. "Jeez, you haven't told me you were training your upper body strength. Were you lifting weights or something? Was it to impress Paulina?"
"Um… yeah! Yeah, I decided to work out my upper body!" Danny said, trying to cover for his unnatural strength. Aw man… Way to go, Fenton! You didn't bother to keep your ghostly strength in check!
"I better start working out too, can't have you leave me behind like that," Andy chuckled.
Danny chuckled sheepishly.
The next day at school, Andy had yet to ask his parents about the dragon suit thing. He and Danny had been so excited about being invited to the hottest party of the year that it slipped his mind. Andy was going to have to write it down in his notebook so he would remember to ask them after school today.
Danny, Andy, Tucker, Sam, and Takuya were walking together outside of school. It was currently break time, so the students were enjoying themselves right now.
"Seriously, Danny. Ever since you and Andy got invited to that party, you've been all about the 'in crowd'." Tucker said as the group walked down the sidewalk outside.
"I've been hearing it each day." Takuya grumbled.
"I was doing it for research," Andy said. "But come on, you can't deny the fact that being a part of the 'in crowd' isn't a new, exciting experience for us."
"Besides, it's not that bad," Danny said before he shouted out to someone. "KWAN! Looking good!"
"Fenton-meister! Whoo-hoo!" Kwan called back.
"H-hey Valerie," Andy sheepishly waved to the girl standing next to Kwan.
"Andy, hey, haven't seen you since the school dance. Was getting worried you got eaten by this imaginary dragon," Valerie chuckled.
Danny noticed Andy's reaction and snickered. "Wow, bro. You had a girl worried~" He teased.
Andy's face turned a little red. "She was kidding!" I'm never going to live down that dragon incident, am I?
Takuya grinned like an idiot. "I think she likes you~" He teased Andy.
"She was just teasing! What does that have to do with liking me?" Andy hissed, his face becoming even redder.
Valerie couldn't help but laugh, Andy was getting teased by his friends, but she couldn't help but find the way he got flustered being quite cute. Not that she was going to say that to anyone.
"Oh, then why is your face all red?" Takuya grinned. Wow, his face is almost as red as my armor in my Agunimon form!
Andy grumbled as he crossed his arms. "Maybe I should've kept that amulet then."
"Maybe you should try talking to her?" Tucker grinned. "I mean you are a part of the in-crowd now."
Sam rolled her eyes at their antics.
"Hey, Fentons! Come here! I… need to tell you something," Dash called, trying not to sound nervous, he needed to maintain his image after all.
Danny grabbed Andy's arm and darted over to Dash eagerly.
"Wow… who knew Danny could move so fast?" Takuya noted as he blinked in surprise at Danny's sudden movement.
"And now we're ignored like we're not even here." Sam sighed.
"Relax, Sam, they do need to hear what Dash has to say," Tucker explained. "Though I guess Danny is pretty excited about this."
Dash looked at Danny and Andy. "If you two are coming to my party, you'll have to look the part. This is what we'll be wearing Saturday. Very high end, very hip, very Dash."
Dash held out a magazine for the boys to look at. Danny took the magazine as he and Andy studied it. The clothes themselves appeared to be white leather jackets, black shirt underneath, a gold bling around their neck, white leathered pants, and blue shoes. Danny was starting to get worried when he saw what kind of clothes they would have to wear.
"You two do have one for each of you, right?" Dash asked, tempted to add that he would change it if they didn't, since he didn't want to risk another dragon attack, but he kept quiet since he had to look tough in front of Calvin and another jock he was with.
"Uh…" Danny wasn't sure what to say, his mind racing. He wanted to impress Dash, but he wasn't sure what to say, since lying would look bad.
"We don't," Andy admitted. "But we can try getting those outfits if they're a requirement."
"Well good, make sure you get those clothes then," Dash said. "Try not to embarrass me, this is your only chance to prove you can be among the A-List."
"Don't worry! We'll get the clothes!" Danny said eagerly.
Dash only gave a nod before he walked away. Calvin and the other jock followed Dash.
"Are you sure inviting dragon boy is a good idea, Dash?" Calvin asked as they were walking away.
"Of course. Who wouldn't want a dragon at their party?" Dash grinned.
The other two jocks grinned, they actually hadn't thought about it like that.
Danny looked at the image of the clothes. "Oh man… where are we going to get the money for these? These must cost a fortune! I doubt I'd be able to afford just one of these outfits, but two? That's impossible!"
Sam frowned a little as she, Tucker, and Takuya approached them.
"We can always do odd jobs to get money," Andy suggested.
"That's not going to be enough for these outfits by Saturday," Danny pointed out.
"Maybe I can flex my 'dragon' self and get Dash to change the dress code," Andy jokingly said. "We could always say we're going for a fashion statement, but I guess that wouldn't land us in the A-List's good books."
Sam looked down, almost hesitant. "Well… I hate to offer, but…" She began, not sure how to explain her idea to Danny and Andy since they didn't know her family's status.
"Hey Danny! Andy! Wanna listen to my new CD? It's really kronk!" Paulina called.
Danny smiled, he hadn't been able to truly get a good dance in with Paulina before the dragon thing happened, this was like a second chance. "Be right there!"
Danny rushed over to Paulina.
"You two have fun!" Andy called.
Sam frowned. "Okay, this is getting really annoying." She grumbled as she looked at Tucker, Takuya, and Andy.
"Eh, it's Danny, he does still have that crush on Paulina," Andy shrugged. "Judging from how much more open Paulina, and the other popular kids, have been towards us since the invitation, I'd say this is normal behavior for a teenager not quite used to this kind of attention."
Takuya groaned. "Why do I feel like I will never hear the end of this from Danny? He's been on this high since you two got the invites, and it's driving me nuts!"
"How come you're not that bothered by it, Andy?" Tucker asked.
"I suspected this would happen, it usually does in TV shows," Andy answered. "I'll admit, it is pretty hard to ignore the attention the popular kids are giving us. We do want to try to get higher in the popularity rank. And hey, maybe if we're lucky, that'll get you guys up in the rank as well."
"How are you not as…" Sam hesitated. "Driven into the attention as Danny is?"
"Hmm?" Andy grinned a little. "I mean I do like the attention, but these people aren't my friends. We probably won't have much to say to each other if we ever actually tried to chat."
Sam blinked before smiling a bit. "At least you have kept a level head in this. I think that's good."
"Yeah, and maybe you can try to rein Danny in." Takuya muttered. "If I hear one more time about how great it is to be part of the A-List, I will go nuts!"
"You could just ignore him until he calms down, that's what Jazz is doing," Andy chuckled. "But I'll talk to him. I can't guarantee he'll listen, sometimes teens have to learn lessons the hard way for it to sink in, but I'll see what I can do." The only reason I know this lesson is because of anime teaching me this lesson a lot, and also what Valerie told me during the dance, about how these people aren't really her friends, and they would cut the top dogs down if they faltered. I don't need to be on top of the popularity rank, just decently high enough where we're not treated like garbage.
"Let's just get through the rest of the day." Takuya sighed. "I want to just get back to Fenton Works so I can find a way to drown out Danny's constant chatter about the A-List."
"Maybe I can also talk to Phantom about this?" Andy suggested. "Maybe he could-"
"Maybe not, Phantom wouldn't want to be bothered by something like this," Sam quickly said.
"Yeah, Phantom's got his own things to deal with," Tucker chuckled sheepishly. "So don't bother him about this. You might remind him of his days at school."
Andy frowned. "I… guess you have a point there…"
Andy, Danny, and Takuya were in the living room of Fenton Works. Maddie and Jack were going to make hot dogs for dinner tonight.
"Can't you wait until after Saturday to ask about the dragon suit?" Danny asked. "We'll need Mom and Dad's approval for these outfits."
"I don't know if they'd be willing to pay for these. The computer was one thing, and they just bought me a new one not that long ago," Andy pointed out.
"C'mon, bro! We need to get these so we can make a good impression!" Danny whined, looking like a hurt puppy so he could convince Andy.
"Come on, bro, not the puppy dog pout," Andy whimpered, he hated how he had a big weakness for the puppy dog pout, it probably came from his own love of animals, though he didn't take it as far as Sam did. "Fine, we'll ask them about the outfits, but you're helping me with the dragon suit later, capiche?"
Danny grinned. "Thanks, bro!" He said as he hugged Andy.
Andy shivered in Danny's hug. "Jeez, bro! Warn me before you hug me!"
Takuya chuckled. "That puppy dog pout works every time, doesn't it~"
Danny sheepishly grinned as he released Andy. "Sorry, bro…"
Andy sighed, wondering if his puppy dog pout was as effective as Danny's, not that he had a reason to use it much. "Come on, I think I'm starting to smell dinner."
Suddenly, Takuya tensed up as he gasped, feeling those hot and chilly feelings run down his spine. "Ah shit… I got that feeling again…"
"What feeling?" Both brothers asked.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Maddie was testing out something new to cook their dinner tonight. Although a part of her wasn't sure if this was the best idea, she wanted to make sure the food would be safe for her family to eat. But this was meant to help with cooking their food faster. She had the wieners in place of the device before she closed it and activated the device.
Jazz raised an eyebrow. "What are you making, Mom?"
"Hot dogs." Maddie said with pride.
"We invented a way to cook them 10 times faster than the microwave." Jack explained as he pointed at the device that was cooking the hot dogs.
"Of course this is only a test run to see if this works," Maddie added before the device DINGed.
Maddie opened up the device, and smiled when she saw cooked, steaming wieners… until the wieners suddenly came up and started biting wildly. The wieners had grown faces, and were very vicious to boot. Maddie, Jack, and Jazz were quite shocked by this before Maddie slammed the device shut.
"Great… you put the 'Frank' back in 'Frankenstein…" Jazz grumbled.
"I don't know, I thought Frankenstein was a fine fellow," Andy spoke up when he and the others walked into the kitchen. "Oh, you meant his monster."
"What's… in there?" Takuya asked as he pointed at the device on the table.
"Well… it was our dinner," Maddie sheepishly answered. "But… they sort of came to life…"
"So it's like the turkey incident?" Danny deadpanned.
"Yes, I'm sorry about that sweetie. I thought we got better at avoiding bringing food to life," Maddie sighed. "Shall I order take out?"
"So that was what I sensed…" Takuya groaned. "Yeah… Take out may be best, given the food was brought to life…"
"You sensed it?" Jack questioned. "What, like some sort of sixth sense?"
"Takuya is just being dramatic, and has trouble knowing when not to say something goofy," Andy said, covering for the older boy.
Takuya blinked at Andy, but gave him a grin of relief. Wow, thanks for the save, Andy. He thought.
"Aww… That would've been cool if you had a sixth sense for ghosts." Jack groaned.
Takuya chose not to say anything, because Jack pretty much hit the money on that one. Although he wasn't sure why he sensed the wieners, they weren't ghosts, just a bio-mutation.
"How did those wieners get brought to life?" Andy asked.
"I was trying to use some of the ectoplasmic residues we found at our lab," Maddie explained. "I was using it as a power source for this device, but I guess the ectoplasm leaked into the food, and mutated them. I suppose it's a good thing it did, otherwise we would be eating poison tonight."
Takuya paled when he heard that. Ectoplasm? Isn't that what ghosts are made of? Wait… does that mean those wieners are now ghostly? No wonder I sensed them!
"Wow, we dodged a bullet with that one." Danny said as he looked at the device.
Danny realized now was probably a good time to ask his parents about the sweats. "So… um… Mom, Dad? Could I ask you to lend us some cash? Andy and I have to buy some clothes for Saturday."
Jack chuckled. "Boys, as inventors, your mother and I have plenty of money. But as your parents, we should be teaching you the value of money."
"If you want to get money, you have to earn it." Maddie added with a smile. "We wouldn't be doing our job as parents if we just hand you money every time you ask for it."
"But how can we earn money?" Danny asked. "Getting odd jobs wouldn't pay us enough to get what we need by Saturday."
"You could try selling something," Jack suggested. "Like your old comic books-"
"No!" Andy suddenly spoke up. "I've already lost half my manga collection, I'm not selling off the rest of them!"
"Well then sell some other junk you don't need." Jack said.
Maddie then frowned as she looked at the junk in boxes near the door, all covered in ectoplasmic residue. "Speaking of junk, the remains from the Fenton Weasel explosion need to be brought out to the shed. If there's room… that old place hasn't been cleaned out in years."
"I've been busy with other things, Maddie," Jack pouted. "Besides, this old junk has valuable ectoplasmic residues that we can study. Sure they may not be as good as a 'live' specimen, relatively speaking since ghosts aren't alive to begin with, but still, it's the most we've had since the Ghost Portal came on."
Maddie frowned, but had to admit, her husband had a valid point. She sighed. "As long as you can get that ectoplasm off of the stuff, we can see what we can do with it."
"Maybe we can help with cleaning off the ectoplasm stuff?" Danny volunteered. "I can probably sell some of this stuff off."
"Hmm… that's probably not a bad idea, Danno!" Jack smiled. "I get the ectoplasmic samples, and we get rid of this junk!"
"Jack! If you're going to have the kids help you clean it off, make sure they're wearing hazmat suits! I will not have my kids suffer from ectoplasmic poisoning!" Maddie said firmly.
"Alright, alright." Jack sighed, but he did agree with his wife. "You heard your mother, kids. Get some hazmat suits and suit up. We have ectoplasmic samples to collect! That includes you, Takuya. Find a hazmat suit and get suited up!"
Takuya didn't like the sound of that, but he wasn't about to disappoint his teddy-bear of an uncle. "Okay, Uncle Jack."
Danny frowned as he couldn't use the hazmat suit he had before, mostly because it was stuck on his ghost form now. Not that anyone else in his family knew that. Andy was in his white and dark blue hazmat suit, Takuya was wearing a mostly red and orange hazmat suit that Jack had made for him.
"Where's your hazmat suit?" Andy asked Danny.
"I… um… seemed to have lost it?" Danny sheepishly replied.
Andy frowned, the last time he remembered Danny wearing his hazmat suit was… in the accident. But when Tucker and Sam had him laid out on the lab's floor, Danny wasn't wearing his hazmat suit anymore, and nobody had seen that hazmat suit since. Andy wondered if the portal somehow destroyed Danny's hazmat suit.
"Maybe you could borrow one of Mom's or Dad's suits?" Andy suggested.
"Uh… sure. I could do that." Danny agreed, but he felt awkward for not having his hazmat suit. Crap… I can't explain that I am always wearing the hazmat suit in my ghost form.
Danny grabbed a smaller orange and black hazmat suit, one that would fit his skinny frame, and slipped it on. "I look like a pumpkin, don't I?"
Despite the smaller orange and black hazmat suit, it was still really loose on Danny. Jack had this suit made when they were babies, Jack kind of thought they would grow as big as he would, so he had accounted for their size to be roughly closer to his by this age.
Andy and Takuya were trying not to laugh at how ridiculous Danny looked.
"Erm… can you… still pick up things in that?" Andy asked, trying not to laugh.
'Of course I can!" Danny pouted, reaching for a device to show he could still do that.
Danny's loose gloves made it rather difficult to keep hold of the device.
"Maybe we should use those… gloves for cleaning off the ectoplasm," Takuya suggested. "We'll handle picking things up."
"That's probably a good idea," Andy agreed. "So, maybe I should add Danny's hazmat suit on the list of things to ask for our parents to make."
"Y-yeah… probably…" Danny muttered, feeling embarrassed. Aw man, Dad! Why did you have to make this hazmat suit too big for me?!
Jack came down into the lab with a big smile on his face, he always liked seeing his boys, Takuya included, in their hazmat suits. Although Danny was wearing the one he made long ago, and it didn't quite fit him.
"Danny? Where's your white hazmat suit?" Jack asked.
"I… lost it?" Danny said, trying to make it sound more like a statement than a question.
"You… lost it?" Jack frowned.
"It might've gotten disintegrated in the accident, since he wore it before he went into the portal," Andy explained.
"Oh, I see…" Jack frowned. "Guess Maddie and I better make you a new one then. For now, let's work with what we've got."
"Yeah, let's…" Danny grumbled, unable to believe he had to wear the larger hazmat suit. At the same time though, Danny was glad Andy covered for him despite not knowing his big secret. Although I owe Andy one for that.
So the boys got to work in the lab. Danny did most of the cleaning, with Andy helping by holding a bucket for the ectoplasm to be pushed into. Takuya and Jack handled the heavy lifting, since they were stronger than Danny and Andy, at least stronger than them as humans. Jack and Takuya put the supposedly cleaned up stuff into other boxes, meant to be sold off in a garage sale later. Unbeknownst to them, however, while Danny and Andy were getting most of the ectoplasm out, some of the smaller ones were absorbed into these gadgets.
After a long night of work and organizing, the boys went to bed rather late that night. But that was fine as it was a Friday night, the next day was the weekend, which also meant they would have to hurry and make the money they needed on that day.
The next day, Danny, Andy, and Takuya set everything up outside of Fenton Works for the garage sale. Jack and Maddie helped them out by setting up a big banner to let people know they were having a garage sale. Sam and Tucker decided to help out by giving advertisements to people. Tucker spread the word with his computer, while Sam handed fliers to people.
As they finished setting everything up, Andy decided to talk to Danny.
"So, Danny, if we aren't able to make enough money for those sweats, would you still want to go to the party?" Andy asked.
Danny hesitated before answering. "To be honest, yeah, I do. I mean, I don't want to not go and be rude to Dash."
"I do have a solution if we're not able to afford those sweats," Andy said.
"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Danny asked.
"We buy dragon suits." Andy grinned.
Danny groaned. "Andy, you're more mischievous than I am." He muttered. More so than I am in my ghost form anyway. "What if we can't afford dragon suits?"
"Then we'll buy materials to make one," Andy replied. "Look, I'm not saying that to be mischievous, I think bringing the dragon suits to the party will help show Dash that the whole dragon thing was one big prank. But I need to show him the 'dragon' part first so he'll believe me when I say that. And it would certainly get the attention of the other popular kids."
Danny sighed. "You really want to clear that up, huh?" He muttered. "Not that I can blame you. But wouldn't we be put on the bad list of the popular kids for that?"
"The way I see it, we would either be ranked high for it, because we had the gall to scorch the football field, and scare the daylights out of the top dogs of Casper High with our little 'prank', or we would be put on the hit list by the popular kids, mainly the top dogs themselves, for the rest of our school lives," Andy answered. "It depends on how they would take it really. And that also brings up something else, if that's how it is on the popularity scale, then-"
"Excuse me? How much for this lava lamp?" A woman asked, being their first customer.
"Hold that thought, bro," Danny said, excited to get business started as he went up to the woman.
"That lava lamp would be about 6 dollars." Danny said as he reached the woman's side. "It's been used before, but it's still in great shape!"
"My son would like this, it's in the shape of a puppet." The woman smiled.
"It's the shape of a gho-" Danny began before Takuya elbowed him. "I mean yeah, a puppet."
"I will take it." The woman said as she handed Danny 6 dollars.
Danny smiled. "I hope your son enjoys it."
The woman left with the 'puppet' lava lamp, happy to have something for her son.
Soon, more customers started coming in. Danny smiled, perhaps at this rate they would be able to buy those sweats.
After a while of doing business, Jack and Maddie decided to leave the teens to their business, they had to get back to working on something in their lab. Which was fine, they had this handled pretty well. Tucker, Sam, Takuya, Andy, and Danny were more than enough to handle the customers.
"It's a perfectly good vacuum motor, Mr. Lancer, it's only been used once," Danny pitched the sale as he held the very same motor that had been used in the Fenton Weasel before it exploded. "It'll be about 10 bucks."
"It looks to be in fine shape." Mr. Lancer said as he took the vacuum motor. "This should fix my Hair Hornet nicely." He handed Danny ten dollars.
Tucker, who had been watching, was about to make a joking comment about how Mr. Lancer didn't have hair for his Hair Hornet, at least on his head, but he wisely chose to stay quiet. The last thing he needed was to get on one of his teacher's bad sides.
Mr. Lancer walked off, happy with his new purchase. Danny looked back at Tucker. "Wow, Tuck. I didn't think you would keep from making a joke about Mr. Lancer and not having hair, that was a golden opportunity."
"Hey! Give me some credit! I'm not that crazy to piss off a teacher." Tucker pouted.
"Just sold a toaster," Sam said as she gave Danny a 5 dollar bill. "You know, I'm surprised your dad is letting you sell off his stuff, he can be such a pack rat."
"Well… Dad finally decided it was time to get rid of some of the stuff in the shed." Danny admitted. "If Andy, Takuya and I helped clean off ectoplasmic residue, we would be able to sell the junk. It was a win-win in my books."
"And Uncle Jack and Aunt Maddie were finally able to get their hands on some ectoplasm to study," Takuya added. "Probably their first actual ghost samples."
"I'm quite pleased with how things turned out today, we're doing a really brisk business~" Tucker smiled, unfolding a mirror to catch the sunlight's light to shine on him.
Danny was now counting the stack of money he made. "Hmm… I'm still about 40 bucks short of those sweats. That's quite a lot considering we're only selling things at a bargain price here."
"You and Andy are still welcome to hang with me and Tucker." Sam said. "Mega Movie Marathon at my place."
Andy was talking to Dash, who was looking for something for his computer.
"Jazz had given me so much extra homework that my computer's overloaded, got anything to make it work?" Dash asked.
"Well, if you're not going to get a new computer or a new hard drive, then…" Andy picked out an old motherboard that was on his old computer before Skulker and Phantom destroyed it, and the Portals XL software that he didn't really need anymore. "You can use this motherboard to replace the one you're using, and you can use this Portals XL to help boost its speed."
Dash took the Portals XL software as well as the motherboard, indicating he was interested. He also didn't want to piss off the dragon boy again. "How much will this be?"
Andy didn't like how Dash was still being cautious around him, but he decided to just go with it for now. "20 bucks is about the best deal I can give you, and I'll even throw in this up-grade disc if you still need something for your computer."
Andy held up the up-grade disc, which again, was something he had planned to use for his old computer before it broke. So now that he had a new computer, he had no more need for it.
"Done. And I will see you two tonight then." Dash said as he handed Andy 20 dollars before turning and walking off.
Andy smiled as he brought over the 20 bucks to Danny. "I managed to make 20 dollars from Dash. We should have enough for a high quality dragon suit."
Danny blinked. "Wait, you really want to do the dragon suit and not the sweats?" He asked, surprised. "I thought…" Danny trailed off before he looked down in thought. "Actually… your idea may be better than just buying the sweats and looking like fools if the dress code gets changed."
"Why would you think the dress code will change?" Takuya curiously asked.
"It's a popularity thing, they can get finicky with clothes and fashion," Tucker answered.
Takuya frowned, but accepted the explanation. He didn't like it, but it was how things worked with being popular he supposed.
"Besides, those sweats don't really fit our style," Andy decided. "At least with dragons, their style never dies off."
"That's true, dragons are popular mythical creatures for a reason," Sam agreed.
"But what if we end up just painting a target on our backs by doing this?" Danny nervously asked. "Wouldn't this be better after the party? We might embarrass Dash."
"Like I was saying before, if the popular kids decide our little prank is enough to be shoved to the bottom of the barrel and targeted, then we wouldn't want to be on the popular scale," Andy pointed out. "What's the point if you can't really be yourself without feeling like you're being judged all the time, waiting to get taken down?"
Danny blinked as he thought about Andy's words. "You know… that's a good point. If we're going to be cast down to the bottom of the popularity chain, we may as well do it in a big way."
"Exactly, and besides, the party may have popular kids, but they wouldn't have our friends there," Andy said, gesturing to Tucker, Sam, and even Takuya. "It would probably get boring after the initial greetings."
Danny frowned, he had never thought about it like that before. He had been greeting the other popular kids because it was fun having them actually acknowledge him and answer back, but after that, he didn't really have much to say to them, not even to Paulina. The music she liked was questionable, and she only talked about how she wished to meet the boy bands that played them. He wasn't sure if he wanted to be stuck at a party with these people all night long. At least with Tucker and Sam, they would have plenty of things to talk about, and maybe goof around to have fun that may not be seen as acceptable behavior by the popular kids.
"Yeah, that's a good point." Danny admitted after he processed Andy's words. "I guess I got so caught up in the idea of the party and being popular, that never crossed my mind."
"And that was why I hadn't said anything about it until this point," Andy chuckled.
"What do you mean?" Sam asked, surprised to hear that, but now that she thought about it, Andy always had the right idea, he just didn't talk to Danny about it until now.
"Danny needed to experience this for himself. And I wanted to see what it was like too," Andy explained. "Thanks to some research on psychology, and Valerie's talk with me during the dance, I knew what the cost of being popular would be. But I wanted to know what it was like to be included, and I knew Danny would too. I was just careful not to let it go to my head, and see how the popular kids react to us when we try talking to them. They never had much to say to us after we greeted them. And they wanted to talk more about themselves and their own interests rather than listen to what we wanted to talk about. I noticed when Danny tried to talk to Paulina about something, she would interrupt him and say they should keep listening to more of the music she liked. Once I was sure Danny had enough experience with how these popular kids worked, I would point it out to him so he would see just how they actually are, and how they're not our friends. If I had told him sooner, he wouldn't listen to me."
Takuya grinned. "That was pretty clever of you, Andy." He said with a grin.
Danny blushed. "A-Andy!" He squeaked out. "You didn't have to word it like that! It makes me feel like you were psychoanalyzing me!"
"Hey, I know you really well, bro, I knew you would be too excited at that point to want to hear about me lecturing you about popular kids not being our friends. So I had to wait and let you experience it for yourself," Andy chuckled. "Besides, I can't deny that it is a rush to be acknowledged by others, so I also didn't want to spoil the fun too soon."
Danny smiled at hearing that. "Well, it seems you had fun being popular too then." He said jokingly.
Andy blushed. "Well… as Jazz would tell me, I am a teenager too, who wants to be acknowledged by his peers. But I'm not going to this party to be acknowledged, I'm going to fix a past mistake. That is, if you guys are willing to help."
Andy looked at Sam, Tucker, and Takuya. "And yes, I am including all of you. I can't pull this off by myself."
Takuya blinked, but then grinned. "Sounds fun. You know I can't resist a prank with you guys." He said, showing his Fenton side.
Sam snickered. "Spoiling a party of popular kids? How can I pass it up?"
Tucker smiled as well. "It may ruin our reputations, but it should be fun to see what we can do."
"Great." Andy smiled before he looked at Danny. "Are you in, bro?"
Danny smiled that familiar mischievous grin. "If we are going to be social outcasts, we may as well do it with style~"
"But how are the rest of us going to get into Dash's party? We're not invited," Sam pointed out.
"I could ask for some help with that," Andy said. "I'll just have to ask Phantom if he's willing to help. I know it's not his style to prank people with his ghost powers, but maybe he could do me this favor just this once?"
Danny blinked. He had never thought about it before, but then he gave a small smile. "Who knows? Phantom may just do something to help with this. I mean, didn't you mention to me he is a teenager? What teenager wouldn't like pranks?"
"You know, using ghost powers to get us in is a brilliant idea," Tucker complimented. "I'm sure Phantom would be more than willing to help~"
"You all seem pretty confident that Phantom will help," Andy chuckled.
"Well, it's because we know Phantom a bit better than you." Sam chuckled as well. "But yeah, he would be willing to help."
Andy raised an eyebrow, wondering how they could know Phantom better than him, since as far as he knew, he was the only human who hung out with Phantom when not training. But that wasn't his concern right now, now he needed to get ready. This was going to be an extravagant prank for an extravagant party.
While Tucker and Sam hadn't expected to go to Dash's party tonight, they were pretty excited about it. Andy had told them the plan as they were cleaning up the garage sale. Tucker was in charge of special effects, making it look like he was 'turning into' a dragon while he and Danny put the costume on. Takuya was in charge of using fire, which Andy made up some kind of Fenton gadget that would let him do that, though in reality Takuya was supposed to use Agunimon's Pyro Darts to make it look like the dragon suit was breathing fire. He was also in charge of putting out the flames so it wouldn't actually cause a house fire.
Sam was in charge of customizing the dragon costume. It needed to look exactly like the dragon form Andy had when he transformed. Andy himself didn't know what the dragon looked like, since he was the dragon and it wasn't like he saw his reflection or anything during his rampage. Danny had to make sure to describe the dragon form in detail to Sam.
Danny and Andy went to the mall with their money to buy the largest, highest quality dragon costume they could find. Making sure to get the one that resembled Andy's dragon form the most in terms of shape. It was a large costume alright, they would both have to wear it. One of them would have to be the dragon's butt, and the other would be the dragon's head. The boys did take some time to practice walking around in their new costume, since they needed to be able to walk around in it decently well for the prank to work.
Tucker had to record them in the dragon suit at their house to get a holographic animation of them 'flying' later once they 'escaped' the house. They needed to make it look as realistic as possible before they 'come clean' with the prank.
It took most of the afternoon to get everything done and ready, and evening was starting to come upon them. Tucker, Sam, and Takuya were going ahead to Dash's place to meet up with them later. Phantom told Andy he would bring them in once he got the signal. Andy was a little surprised at how quick Phantom was to accept this, but that just made things easier at least.
Andy and Danny put their dragon suit into a suitcase, making sure to fold it up so it wouldn't get damaged. They smiled as they walked into the kitchen, there was still one more thing they needed to take into account, and that was why they were in the kitchen now.
Jazz opened the fridge to look for something to eat, but she saw those angry wieners were in there. She let out a scream and shut the fridge's door.
"Great, leftovers." Jazz muttered, not sure what to do about the mutated hot dogs in the fridge. "Why did Mom and Dad put them in the fridge?"
"Hey Jazz!" Jazz heard Danny's voice and turned around.
Danny and Andy were standing there with a suitcase beside them. She noticed they were wearing their usual clothes rather than anything fancy for the party.
"Are you two wearing that for the party?" Jazz asked.
"Nah, we have our party outfits in the suitcase," Andy answered. "We didn't want it getting dirty while we were on our way to the party."
Jazz sighed. "As long as you two don't do anything embarrassing, I guess that makes sense."
"So… we were wondering…" Danny started, noticing Jazz was also in her usual attire. "When are you changing?"
"Not going." Jazz said as she folded her arms.
The twins blinked at that answer. They were going to let Jazz in on their prank because they didn't want her to get caught up in it, but she was just straight up not going.
"What? But you were the reason why Dash invited us in the first place," Danny pointed out.
"Not caring." Jazz said, still not moving in her answers.
"I think you do," Andy suddenly said.
Jazz blinked. "Why do you say that?"
"Why would you go to the trouble of having Dash invite us in the first place if you never planned to go or cared about it?" Andy pointed out. "You're totally doing a thesis on how we'd react to suddenly being popular, aren't you?"
Jazz blinked before she tried to hide her blush by coughing. "I am… totally not doing a thesis on how you would be reacting to being popular…"
"Come on, Jazz, I've read your books, and I know you've been trying to test out different theses for a while now," Andy chuckled. "You can't hide this from me. Besides, I was actually there when we were starting to get popular, I even wrote down how it felt, and how Danny reacted, all in this little notebook~"
Andy held up his notebook, and Jazz was staring at it with a longing expression.
Jazz finally conceded and snatched the notebook. "Do not mention this to anyone!" She warned.
"The next time you get invited to a party, leave us out of it and you've got a deal," Andy said.
"Fine, I promise," Jazz said before she put the notebook in her pocket. "Wait, aren't you two happy to go to the party?"
"Let's just say this is more about taking care of some loose ends than about the party itself~" Andy grinned.
Danny sweatdropped, he wondered if Andy somehow inherited both traits of himself and Jazz.
Jazz blinked, but decided to not push the question. She wasn't sure if Andy's grin was a good thing or a bad thing, given how her brothers were mischievous. But she decided it was best to stay out of it, and just go to her room to study the research Andy just gave to her. That was her idea of a good Saturday night.
"Then try not to get into too much trouble," Jazz said.
Andy and Danny were on their mopeds, heading to Dash's house. Danny was holding the suitcase since he was physically stronger than Andy was, and could carry it around easier.
"I can't believe you actually challenged Jazz about the whole thesis thing back there," Danny said.
"I know the kind of things that makes her tick," Andy chuckled. "She shares similar interests to me when it comes to psychology, so it wasn't that hard to figure out."
"If I didn't know any better, you sounded like a master spy manipulator back there." Danny said jokingly with a grin.
"You'd be surprised how much spies, at least on TV, use psychology to get into someone's head so they can infiltrate them and get close to them," Andy chuckled. "Maybe I should teach Agunimon and Phantom how to use psychology to get into a ghost's mind so fighting can be kept to a minimum."
"Ah… I don't know…" Danny said hesitantly. "Ghosts… we don't know how they truly think. It's kinda hard to use psychology on a ghost if we don't know how one thinks."
"That's true, we still don't know too much about ghosts unfortunately," Andy sighed. "Or how different each ghost is from one another. The best thing we can do is keep them from harming the town."
"Yeah." Danny agreed. "But at least we have two powerful beings on our side to help with that."
Danny then suddenly let out a gasp when the blue mist came out of his mouth. That wasn't a good sign. Danny stopped his moped, and Andy took notice and stopped too.
"What's the matter?" Andy asked.
"Uh… you can go on ahead, bro. I'll catch up with you." Danny said, not sure of how to best explain it.
"I kind of need you to be with me when I get there," Andy pointed out. "Remember? It's a two person suit?"
Before Danny could reply, a green glowing mechanical claw thing with a long wire sticking out, flew at them, knocking down Danny and Andy's helmets.
"What the?" Andy gasped at the sudden appearance of this clawed glowing thing.
The glowing mechanical claw flew at Andy before wrapping its wire around his waist, pulling him up into the air.
"Andy!" Danny shouted. Aw crap! What a time for my ghost sense to go off… And for a ghost attack too! But why is that claw thing glowing? It almost looks like a shaver…
Andy gasped when the claw pointed itself at his face. Andy reacted quickly and grabbed the claw's wire with his feet, trying to hold it back as much as possible. The shaver stretched out its claws at Andy's face, trying to reach the boy. Andy tried to move his head back from the extending claws, though he felt the wire trying to push itself from his feet. It was only thanks to his training that he was able to move his body enough to barely dodge getting impaled by those metal claws, but he didn't know how long he could keep this up.
"H-hold on, bro! I'll go get help!" Danny shouted, and quickly ran to the nearest building to get out of sight.
"What!? Why can't you attempt to use the Thermos on this thing!? Danny!" Andy shouted, but he couldn't afford to look back at where his brother went.
The claw then lost its patience, and turned itself into a huge butcher knife. Andy paled at that. "Oh… crap baskets…"
Suddenly, a familiar black and white blur came in and punched the claw/knife thing away from Andy. "Leave him alone, you giant meat cleaver!" Phantom exclaimed. "Time to put you back in the butcher shop!"
"Ph-Phantom?" Andy blinked, confused to what this ghost boy was doing here, he thought he was waiting at Dash's house like everyone else.
"Hey, sorry, Andy." Phantom said as he faced Andy. "But Danny called Sam and Tucker and told them to send me because you were in trouble."
"Wow… I'm glad you came quickly, I almost lost my head here… literally," Andy said. "Can you phase me out of this thing's wires?"
"I can, yeah." Phantom said as he flew over to Andy and turned him intangible before phasing the boy out of the wires. "There we go."
The claw however, did not like that and tried to slam itself down on the two in its butcher knife form. However, as they were intangible, the blade passed through the boys without causing them harm.
Andy was not used to this, and yelped, thinking the blade cut through him for a second. Phantom pulled Andy away from the blade.
"You're okay, don't worry," Phantom reassured Andy, who was frantically rubbing his chest.
"R-right… intangibility," Andy sighed in relief before he saw the claw thing reverting back to its regular form, and was coming at them. "Here it comes!"
"H-hold on!" Phantom exclaimed before he flew off, trying to lure the claw thing away from any humans that could be in the area. "Do you have your Fenton Rod on you, Andy?! Maybe you can send that thing flying!"
"Y-yeah, I do!" Andy replied. "But it's too far for me to hit it!"
"What about the Fenton Pistol then?" Phantom asked.
Andy reached into his pocket to take out the small Fenton Pistol. Andy aimed the pistol at the incoming claw, but it was rather difficult with how much they were moving. Andy didn't exactly train to aim while being flown around. Andy fired the pistol, shooting out small ghost ray-like bullets. But he missed a few times.
"Darn it! We can't hit that thing if it keeps moving!" Phantom hissed as he saw the ecto-bullets were missing the claw thing chasing them.
"Let it get closer," Andy instructed.
"Are you sure?" Phantom asked.
"Yeah, I'll have an easier time," Andy answered.
Phantom wasn't sure about that, but he slowed down. Andy was aiming the pistol as the claw got closer.
Hold… hold… Andy told himself.
The claw was almost right up on him, then Andy fired. The ecto bullet slammed into the claw, leaving a hole in it, causing electricity to spark from it. Andy shot more while the claw was stunned, leaving more holes in it, and electricity sparked until it exploded into small pieces.
"W-wow… Nice shooting there, Andy!" Phantom exclaimed with a big grin on his face. "That was awesome!"
Andy sighed in relief to see it was over. "Yeah, that was a close one. But I didn't think we'd see a ghost shaver."
"Neither did I." Phantom admitted. "But then again, anything can happen around Amity Park it seems."
Phantom flew back down to the ground and landed, setting Andy down as well. "I'd better get back to Dash's house for that prank. Do you think you can still get there?"
"I'll need to look for Danny," Andy said before he furrowed his eyebrows a little. "Though he might show up once you leave, he tends to do that."
"Uh… yeah…" Phantom said, trying to not look nervous. "He must still be nervous around me. Well, I'll get going then, see you at Dash's house."
Phantom quickly flew away.
Andy looked down at the mopeds, glad that the suitcase was still in one piece. He saw the glowing wire that was cut off of the ghost shaver before. We might need to be more concerned about this. But we've worked hard to make sure the prank goes off… hopefully this is something that can wait until after the party.
Danny then came out from behind the building he had run and hidden behind. "Hey, bro! Are you okay?" He asked as he reached Andy's side.
"I almost had my head cut off, but I'm fine thanks to Phantom," Andy replied. "Good job on calling the others to send him over here so fast."
Danny blushed a bit. "I didn't want to see you get hurt, and I knew Phantom would help, so… I just called them to send him over. It was the first thing that I thought of."
But why didn't Takuya come running too as Agunimon? Knowing my cousin, he wouldn't just let Phantom try to save me if he knew I was in trouble. Andy noted suspiciously. So why rely only on Phantom to save me? I'll have to ask him about it later.
Titanic X: ZAFT: Glad you liked the fight with Skulker. That was fun to write out. :3
DarkFoxKit: Originally, the gorilla was gonna fight Skulker, but we figured this was a good time for Agunimon to learn a strong attacking move.
Son Sandy: ZAFT: You will see what changes we made as you read. :3
DarkFoxKit: I'm glad to see you're excited for Andy to get his own special thing. I am too, but there's also something fun about him being the only ordinary one of the group, not counting Tucker and Sam of course.
CT7567Rules: ZAFT: We will see if the kick to the nuts thing happens, but you will like these changed chapters, no doubt. :3
DarkFoxKit: For now, here's hoping you'll enjoy what we brought to the table.