ZAFT: We need to work on updating on Mondays more consistently… ^^'
DarkFoxKit: This isn't so bad, it's been a while since we forgot to update on Monday. I'll admit, I got a little too into a game I was playing.
Andy: Now I know where I get some of my own obsessions from…
DarkFoxKit: Wah? I'm not your mom, Maddie is!
Andy: Maddie's my mom in the story's universe, but in reality, you did create me, sooooo…
Takuya: Oh gosh! That is so true! XD
ZAFT: No one asked you, fire boy… Now, onto the chapter!
DarkFoxKit: *Is totally not having a small bit of a crisis as to whether or not she's Andy's 'mother'*
(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 black-haired boy 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, Tucker, Sam, Takuya, and Jazz.)
CHOU… SHINKA!
(Fractal code is shown before it dissipates to reveal Agunimon lunging out of the dissipating data, fire around his left fist)
Let's go… EVOLUTION!
(The group is shown facing down Plasmius, who looms above them with hands outstretched as a dark form appears behind Plasmius himself.)
Nothing will stand in our way!
(Andy, 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 23: Rocking the Rock Star
Danny, Sam, and Takuya followed Danny to his locker, where he opened the locker to get the Fenton Thermos out. "I can't believe my brother is affected by Ember's music too…"
"Well… I'm more surprised it took him this long to really be affected by it without the Fenton Earphones," Sam noted. "Don't you think that's a bit odd?"
"Yeah, it certainly is." Takuya agreed. "It's like something gave him a slight resistance to it or something."
"Either that or it really was just not to his taste and that is what made it take so long to affect him." Danny theorized. "Then again, Andy never had anything against rock… if anyone did, it was Jazz, and she fell for it much quicker than Andy did."
"Maybe you overshadowing him gave him some small ghost traits that protected him?" Sam theorized. "I mean you haven't really overshadowed us, or if you did, it wasn't nearly as long as you had with Andy."
Danny paused. "You think so? Huh… I didn't think about that as a possibility."
"You did mention how overshadowing Andy in the Ghost Zone made others think he was a ghost too," Takuya pointed out. "So maybe… but I guess it doesn't matter now. We should-"
"Not so fast you 3!" Mr. Lancer spoke up. "You 2 love birds, and your plus one may be the only students left in school-"
"We're not love birds!" Both Danny and Sam shouted.
"I'm a plus one?" Takuya frowned.
"But that's not going to stop me from giving you an education!" Mr. Lancer stated stubbornly, grabbing Danny and Sam's hands in one one, and Takuya's in the other, then he started dragging them with him down the hall.
Danny looked at Sam, who was on his right, and Takuya, who was on his left. Danny grabbed Sam's hand with his free one while Takuya grabbed Danny's arm with his own free hand.
Danny then turned all three of them intangible, and they were able to pull their arms free from Mr. Lancer's grip. Once they were free, Danny walked them through the wall of the school.
"Okay. I can carry us to the music store," Danny said to Takuya and Sam. "But both of you will have to hang on to me."
"That's fine." Takuya said as Sam nodded in agreement.
Danny grinned. "Then Phantom Air is taking off~"
Danny transformed into his ghost form and then took flight, with Takuya holding onto Danny's left hand and Sam holding onto Danny's right hand.
Sam looked down as the trio was flying along, seeing the yards of many houses below them. It was so surreal, flying over everything and seeing it from the view of a bird in a way. Sam then looked up at Danny, and saw the sun was shining on him in an ethereal way, making his snow white hair look golden, and she felt herself blushing at seeing this.
Takuya himself never really had the chance to fly. The whole rocket feet thing just wasn't working so well for him. He was holding onto Danny's hand tightly. Wow… Flying really is something else… I really wish I could fly as Agunimon, but if I can't… I guess I just have to accept it. But at least Danny can help me fly, even if I have to hold his hand to do so. The boy had to admit, seeing things from the sky was pretty cool. It all looked smaller from higher in the sky than it did on the ground.
Takuya then looked up at Sam, and saw her staring at Danny for some reason, what looked like a love-sick look on her face. He blinked before feeling a grin cross his face. "See something you like, Sam~?"
"Huh? Oh! It's just flying's… really nice, that's all," Sam quickly said, snapping out of her little daze.
"We're almost there, you two," Danny spoke up. "Get ready, we're likely going to be in for a fight."
Takuya and Sam nodded. Danny came in for a landing on the roof, landing with no issues. He set Sam and Takuya down first before landing on his feet.
"Jeez, look at that giant cardboard statue of Ember, it's bigger than most billboards," Sam grumbled. "Someone's full of themselves."
"At least we know we're in the right place," Takuya remarked. But how should I handle this? I could evolve into Agunimon, but with Sam here, she'll get suspicious if I disappear and Agunimon suddenly appears. Not to mention fighting with fire in a large crowd of people is a very bad idea…
"We should get into the store, and see what we can do to stop Ember." Danny suggested. "I can phase us through the roof and walls, but we need to find a way to distract Ember's 'fans' so we can stop her."
"They'll probably be unable to take criticism to their favorite singer," Sam muttered. "Maybe Takuya and I should draw on her big billboard face or something."
Danny looked at Takuya for a moment. He would be more helpful as Agunimon than as Takuya, and Danny may need all the help he could get.
"Why don't you do that, Sam? I have something else in mind for Takuya," Danny suggested.
Sam grinned. "I think I have an idea on how to get Ember's precious fan riled up~" She snickered before growing a bit. "What will Takuya be doing though?"
"He'll keep an eye on things outside," Danny answered. "Just to make sure there aren't any more ghosts or more people coming this way."
"Ah, an extra pair of eyes on the door. I like it." Sam grinned. "That's very smart, Danny."
Danny blushed a bit. "You… think so?"
Sam blushed a bit as well, realizing she had just complimented Danny on something.
"Um… so are you two going to need a moment or can we start?" Takuya asked.
Both Danny and Sam quickly looked away from each other.
"Y-yeah, let's do it," Danny quickly said, he gave Takuya a knowing look before he phased Sam through the building.
Takuya knew why Danny had him be the 'lookout', it wasn't to be an extra pair of eyes, but it was to give him the perfect excuse to 'not be there' when Agunimon arrives.
Takuya sighed before he reached into his pocket and took out his transformation device. He 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 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. 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 canine teeth were sharper than a human's as well. He landed, crying out his name. "Agunimon!"
Now as Agunimon, the Digimon knew he had to find a way inside, without setting off Ember's fans. Time to see if I can get in somehow.
Agunimon heard a window opening up, he looked down from the roof to see a black tail from the window. Danny likely opened the window to help him get in easier.
Deciding to take the offer of the open window, Agunimon made his way over and climbed inside, trying to stay out of sight as best he could. Geez… look at the crowd, it's huge!… I hope Danny knows what he's doing…
There was a large screen showing Ember herself as the large crowd of people were cheering loudly. Even Jazz was in the crowd, and she also had the black eye tattoos, and a rock punk clothing that just didn't fit Jazz at all. But Jazz didn't care, she was too sucked into Ember's music like everyone else was.
Ember herself came up on a high platform. She grinned as she held out several tickets that might as well have been as precious as gold to these people. She threw down the tickets, and the crowd began scrambling around to grab a ticket themselves.
"Tell me who you love!" Ember called out.
Immediately the crowd began chanting Ember's name while still trying to pick up a ticket for themselves. While the crowd was chanting Ember's name, Agunimon noticed something concerning. Not only was the fiery ponytail on Ember's head getting bigger, her body was glowing brighter as well. She looked more energized as the crowd kept chanting her name.
Is… she getting… stronger? Is the chanting making her more powerful? Agunimon wondered worriedly. If that was the case, then he doubted Danny would be able to stand up to her so easily. No wonder Danny wants my help… but… I hope that the two of us can stand up to her…
But then the crowd suddenly stopped chanting Ember's name when they saw one of Ember's giant cardboard's face had a silly thing drawn on it. She had a pair of glasses, a curly mustache, and a small goatee under her chin.
"Hey everyone, look! It's Ember McLAME!" Sam called out.
Agunimon couldn't help it, a chuckle escaped him before he coughed to force it to go away. Stay focused, Takuya, don't let anything distract you… He told himself, despite how funny Sam's actions were.
Ember saw this and frowned. "Oh great, a critic…" She said before smirking. "Maybe you'll like my next song better!"
Ember turned a knob on her guitar. Agunimon frowned, wondering if she was planning to blast Sam with an attack. Luckily, Danny was there. Danny shot a ghost ray at Ember before she could do anything to Sam, blowing her back a few feet.
"Nice song, do you take requests?" Danny asked. "How about 'beat it'?"
Agunimon grinned at hearing the witty quip.
Ember just hovered up, recovering from being blasted like it was nothing. Agunimon frowned when he saw the ectoblasts hadn't done any damage to Ember.
"How about I just lay down a few power chords instead, dipstick?" Ember snarked before strumming her guitar and sending a green wave of energy at Danny, the energy wave having flaming green skulls in it. Danny saw this and gulped before he turned intangible on instinct.
Ember strummed her guitar before her ponytail extended around her body, causing her to disappear, laughing. Danny frowned, but he sensed where Ember was. She didn't go far, she was back on the roof.
"It would be nice if I had someone who could resist fire was helping me out!" Danny yelled out before he flew up to the roof.
Agunimon knew that was his cue. He ran back to the window and climbed out. He saw Ember on the roof and began to creep towards her, hoping to get the jump on her.
Danny saw Agunimon and decided to try to distract Ember while Agunimon was trying to sneak up on her. "Dipstick? Ho, ho, who writes your insults? The same hack who writes your songs?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Ember snarked.
Agunimon could see he was now in range to get the jump on Ember. He lunged for the rock star ghost before he made contact with her. "How about no one?"
Ember growled as this unknown assailant seemed to have come out of nowhere, and was holding her down. "What the heck are you doing here!? Go back to your own world!"
"Funny coming from a ghost who should be in her own world too!" Agunimon argued back.
Danny was getting his Thermos out to suck Ember into it. The stunt with Valerie before showed that Agunimon wouldn't get sucked into the Fenton Thermos, so Danny knew he could suck Ember into the thermos without accidentally sucking in his cousin as well.
"Ember~ Ember~ Ember~" The crowd began chanting loudly.
Ember's fiery ponytail hair lit up and she suddenly had enough power to start pushing Agunimon off of her, and before Danny could open the Thermos, she kicked Agunimon in the gut, forcing him to let her go.
Agunimon stumbled back, holding where he had been kicked. Shit… it seems I was right…"You… got stronger… Chanting, right?"
Danny was attempting to use the Thermos to suck her in anyways, but Ember was easily dodging the suction beam. She grinned. "You got that right, fiery head. The more kids chanting, the stronger I get~"
Ember fired two flaming fists at Danny and Agunimon. Agunimon yelped as he was hit and sent flying one way while Danny dodged the other flaming fist, but he quickly flew at Agunimon to stop him from flying off somewhere. But this resulted in both of them smacking into the giant Ember cardboard, causing it to fall on the edge of the roof.
"Ugh… I knew she was strong, but I didn't think she would be that strong…" Agunimon muttered as he got to one knee after he and Danny landed on the roof. He then glanced at Danny. "Thanks for the save."
"Yeah, no sweat," Danny groaned, rubbing his head.
"You think I'm strong now? Just wait until midnight, when my concert goes global. Then the whole world is chanting my name, then you'll all be my slaves!" Ember grinned as she fired a sound wave at them from her guitar.
"Look out!" Danny shouted as he pushed Agunimon away from the blast, but he ended up getting hit by it.
Danny let out a scream of pain before he reverted back to his human form.
"Danny!" Agunimon cried when he saw this as he looked back over his shoulder. He got to his feet and ran over, just as Sam came out the emergency exit door to the roof.
"Danny!" Sam cried when she saw Danny was back in his human form. She ran over to keep Ember from going after Danny and Agunimon.
Not that Sam was going to stop Ember from doing what she wanted. Ember grinned, seeing a good chance to really screw the ghost boy she heard about over.
"Aww, teen love. They say it never lasts, but nothing distracts teenagers more than hormones. I need to keep you busy for about 8 hours~" Ember grinned as she turned a knob on her guitar to a heart shaped symbol. "I have more than just music for you."
No… no way… Danny frowned as he quickly realized what Ember was planning to do. "Sam, move! Move now!"
"Now that they're chanting my name, my music can affect you~" Ember stated.
"Agunimon! Do something!" Danny shouted.
Agunimon ran up to Ember, his fists on fire. "Pyro Punch!"
Agunimon managed to punch Ember's side, stopping her from strumming her guitar. She gave an annoyed look at Agunimon.
"Okay, fiery head, I guess I should take care of you first," Ember grumbled as she turned her knob again, this time to a vortex looking symbol. "Let's see if this new module works with how many people are chanting my name. Maybe you'll finally be out of everybody's hair!"
"Wah?" Agunimon blinked just before Ember strummed her guitar at Agunimon.
A wave of blue energy flew at Agunimon. Danny and Sam tried to run over to him, but they were too slow, the wave hit Agunimon. Agunimon yelped as he fell back, but it didn't feel like he was falling. He wasn't sure what was happening. His body felt weird, and he couldn't move. He felt like something was trying to pull him somewhere.
"Takuya!" Takuya heard someone shouting his name.
"Takuya?" Sam blinked, shocked as she watched Agunimon being dragged into a bright blue portal, and disappeared.
"No!" Danny cried out in shock. "Takuya!"
Danny turned to Ember. "What did you do to him!?"
"I merely sent him back to his world~" Ember grinned. "And now… with him out of the way, I can keep you two busy for the next 8 hours~"
"Sent him back to his world?" Danny frowned. "What does that even mean?"
"Danny! We have to go!" Sam shouted as Ember turned the knob back to the heart.
Sam grabbed Danny's arm and started running.
"W-wait! What about Ta- the D- Agunimon?" Danny asked, mostly in distress over what happened to his cousin.
"We'll worry about him later!" Sam replied quickly.
"Now where do you two think you're going? How about you stick around for a love song!?" Ember shouted as she strummed her guitar, letting out pink energy with hearts coming towards them.
Danny saw the strange pink blast coming towards them. I have to… dodge… dodge… DODGE!
Danny quickly transformed into his ghost form and flew up while still holding onto Sam, barely dodging the blast. Danny didn't stop, he brought Sam up and held onto her with both of his hands before he flew off faster, needing to get away from Ember. She was too strong, and they just lost Takuya, they needed to retreat and regroup.
Ember laughed. "Aw, they didn't like my song. Ah well, at least the ghost boy's out of my hair for a while." She grinned before going intangible and back into the music store with a laugh.
As Danny was flying away, Sam had so many questions on her mind. "Danny… what's happened? Where did Agunimon go? And why did you yell Takuya's name?"
Danny frowned as he was making a beeline back to Casper High. He was going to need Andy and Tucker's help, he just hoped they were de-programed from Ember's spell by now. "I'll explain everything when we get to the others. All I know is that my cousin just disappeared before my eyes! I just… need a moment to wrap my mind around what happened. Just… be glad Andy was so adamant about me dodging, otherwise… we probably would've gotten hit by that 'love song'."
Sam frowned, but nodded. "Yeah, as much as I don't like his drill sergeant ways, it did pay off in this case."
Danny soon reached Casper High. It was mostly empty by now. That didn't surprise Danny, the sun was already starting to go down, so the staff likely left by now. He turned himself and Sam intangible before going into the building. He didn't stop until they entered the room they left Tucker and Andy in.
To Danny and Sam's surprise, however, both Andy and Tucker were typing on their keyboard instead of just looking at the screens.
"Oh, you guys finally came back," Andy noted.
"Um… what are you two doing?" Danny asked, not sure he liked seeing his brother and Tucker on the computers. "I thought you two were using the mind helmets to get cured."
"We are," Tucker replied. "Did you think this was not an interactable activity? Why do you think these keyboards are here?"
"Um… good point…" Danny conceded.
"Look you guys! Ember is getting more and more powerful!" Sam said urgently. "She's already powerful enough to match Danny in his ghost form!"
"Whoa, slow down," Andy spoke up. "Tell us what happened, and… where's Takuya?"
Danny frowned, knowing he was going to have to explain everything now. Since Sam likely knew, because of his slip up, he might as well tell Tucker too. It wouldn't be fair to keep Tucker in the dark.
"Well, first, I need to tell you and Sam something important,Tucker," Danny sighed. "Takuya… was kind of like me. He was hiding a secret identity."
"He was Agunimon, wasn't he?" Sam frowned.
"Yeah… pretty much…" Danny confirmed. "It… I don't know the whole story, but I do know he can somehow become a digital being called Agunimon, and can fight ghosts on an even footing. You see… During the fight with Ember, she opened a portal to some unknown place and the next thing I know, Agunimon was pulled into it. The portal then closed up, and… he was gone. Ember was apparently strong enough to open a portal to another place thanks to her power growing."
Tucker frowned. "For real? And now Aguni-...err… Takuya is gone?"
"You're not as surprised about Takuya being Agunimon as I thought you'd be," Danny noted.
"To be honest, I suspected it for a while," Tucker admitted. "You think I didn't notice him disappearing whenever Agunimon came along? And how Agunimon always came whenever you needed to go ghost?"
Sam felt like a bit of an idiot for not noticing that. "Now that you mention it…" She admitted. "That was kinda odd…"
"Admittedly, I only started suspecting it when Agunimon started showing up to stop me when Desiree was turning me into a mutant ghost," Tucker sheepishly confessed.
"Can we get back on topic?" Andy spoke up before he looked at Danny. "You said that Ember opened up a portal and Takuya disappeared into it? Do you think she sent him to the Ghost Zone?" It's a relief to not have to keep hiding Takuya's identity, it's just too bad it's under these circumstances.
"No." Danny said somberly. "Ember said something about sending Takuya back to 'his world', as Takuya was in… his digital form at the time. There's no way a Digimon would be sent to the Ghost Zone."
Andy frowned. "She thought he was just a Digimon, most likely… back to his world?"
"We don't know what that means though." Sam frowned. "He could be anywhere."
Andy looked at the computer screens. "She… may have sent him to the Digital World…"
"What? You mean that game you've been talking about for the past few days?" Danny asked. "That's just a game, bro, how could that be its own world? It's not even out yet."
"The night before, Takuya got a strange call with the device that holds Agunimon's powers. It sounded like a woman's voice, and she seemed to know about Agunimon, and who Takuya was. She said they would talk in the Digital World," Andy explained. At least that's what we think she said.
"Are you sure that wasn't just some early access player hacking into Takuya's device to try to get him to meet them in the Digital World?" Tucker asked. "She could be a stalker."
"If she was a stalker, she'd want to meet him for real, not in a game world." Andy frowned. "And why would a stalker risk meeting with someone who can transform into a being that can use fire?"
Tucker grimaced. "Actually, that's a good point. Meeting in an online game would make more sense if that is the case."
"But that doesn't change what you said then," Sam pointed out. "She could still be a stalker, meeting with Takuya in an online game would be the safest option."
"I… don't think she was a stalker." Andy frowned. "But we don't really know who she was either… In any case, what if the Digital World is real? How else could Ember send him there?"
"We don't know if she sent him to the Digital World, bro," Danny reminded. "That's just speculation."
"Well, either way, we just lost someone who could've been a real help to us with Ember, so we have to figure this out on our own." Sam grumbled. "And with Ember's powers growing, we could be in real trouble."
"Not only that, but we have no idea how to get Takuya back." Andy frowned. "How are we going to face Mom and Dad without him?" What if he's in danger wherever he is? Is there no way to get him back?
"Things just keep getting worse…" Danny groaned.
"Maybe not," Tucker spoke up. "Ember was the one who opened that portal, right? Maybe we just have to get her to open it again to get Takuya out."
"I don't know… Ember was pretty strong when we fought her." Danny admitted. "It appears she gets stronger when people chant her name. She even confirmed it to Takuya."
"Well, that's just great." Sam groaned. "We lost one of our powerhouses to a portal that could lead somewhere we can't reach, and the cause of it all is a ghost that gets her power from people chanting her name like some sort of posse!"
There was a sudden, squeaky voice coming from Andy's monitors. "I'm hungry!"
Everyone stopped as they looked at the monitors, and Andy's face was beet red. Tucker was the only one who didn't look surprised, but he looked sheepish.
Danny and Sam looked at the monitor, seeing some kind of light brown creature. It had three horns on the top of its head, small floppy ears hanging down from its head, beady black eyes, one small fang sticking out of its mouth, and its lower body from the neck down looked like a small sheet.
"Aww, that's so cute." Sam smiled.
"Andy, what is this?" Danny asked. "I thought you and Tucker were doing… I don't know, school stuff on this thing?"
"And waste my hours studying all that useless knowledge that I'm never going to use again?" Andy grumbled. "I realized these helmets we're using were similar to the ones that were said to come with Ruler of the Digital World… so I asked Tucker if he could log me in to a demo of it while we were here. The demo supposedly gives you a random monster from a young age and lets you raise and take care of them. So later on they can be nice and strong when I get the beta release of the game. So, uh… meet Kokomon, guys. Apparently Kokomon was recently added to the demo, so I guess I got lucky with him."
"It looked like fun, so I tried it out myself." Tucker grinned.
Danny and Sam saw Tucker's little monster. It was a small dark blue and light blue monster. The tail was bushy with alternating light blue and dark blue stripes on it in rings, and a light blue face. It had amber eyes, and wore a silver helmet over the top of its head, and the helmet had two spikes sticking out of it, one on each side.
"We can worry about the game later. We need to stop Ember." Danny said seriously. "Then you two can go back to your game."
"Well it's more of a virtual pet than a game right now," Andy muttered. "But alright. I think the virtual pet kept our minds busy enough for Ember's spell to wear off. We better get back home first, I don't know how safe I feel being in an empty school right now, and Fenton Works have tools we can work with."
Andy clicked on a food bowl to give to Kokomon, letting him eat his fill while he was talking, and was using the mouse to gently pet Kokomon.
"Okay, Fenton Works should be a good base of operations to plan for how to take down Ember." Danny agreed. "Let's go before anyone gets suspicious of us being in the school after hours."
"Oh, hold on, I have to clean up Kapurimon's poo," Tucker said as he clicked on the poo to clean it up.
"Seriously?" Sam frowned. "The world's going to end in about less than 8 hours, and you're more worried about your virtual pets?"
Andy rolled his eyes. "Sorry, Kokomon, but we have to save the world. I'll come back and check on you later."
Andy logged out of the demo and turned off the computer before taking off the virtual helmet.
Tucker sighed as he logged out of the demo as well. "I'll see you soon, Kapurimon, and I'll make sure you don't miss your feeding time!"
Danny smiled. "Don't worry, they will be there when this Ember thing is over with. Just think of defeating Ember as a reason to get back to those two little guys."
Tucker was grinning. "I'm in on that!"
"Okay… can you take all of us to Fenton Works?" Andy asked.
"I can carry you 4 pretty easily," Danny said.
"I'm sure you could lift us easily, but can you carry all of us while flying?" Andy questioned, raising an eyebrow.
Danny frowned a little. "Good point…"
"I know what you can do~" Sam grinned mischievously.
So Andy was flying through the sky, holding onto Tucker and Sam in each hand… Wait, Andy was flying?
"I don't like this, I don't like this at all! Can't you go invisible or something? What if someone sees me flying!?" Andy mentally complained.
"Just be glad this actually works out, bro. I would've had to make two trips to the school and back otherwise." Danny complained back. "And it's getting close to night, so no one is really paying attention right now."
"But why did it have to be me again? Do you know how many times I've been overshadowed by ghosts at this point? You couldn't have used Tucker as the meat puppet this time?" Andy whined.
"Hey, you're the only one I know who doesn't black out when I overshadow them. And… since you're my twin, you're just more comfortable to overshadow than anyone else," Danny replied.
"Don't make it sound like I'm the most comfortable suit you wear, that's creepy," Andy groaned.
Judging from the facial expressions 'Andy' was giving off, it was easy for Tucker and Sam to see he was having an 'inner conflict', literally.
"You sure that was a good idea, Sam?" Tucker asked.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time…" Sam muttered sheepishly.
"Well, think about that the next time you have such an idea again." Tucker grumbled, pointing at 'Andy' making facial expressions. "It's really creepy, and we hang out with a ghost kid on a regular basis."
"You think that's creepy? Greeeeat, imagine how I must be feeling right now…" Andy… at least they think it was Andy, replied in a grumpy tone.
"Oh come on, it's saving us time, isn't it?" Sam huffed.
Andy sighed. "At least it isn't for long."
Fenton Works was coming up to view. However, as 'Andy' was coming in for a landing, he quickly had to turn himself, and his friends, invisible. They saw a van that was labeled 'SWAT'.
"The heck is a SWAT team doing at our house? Did our parents do something bad?" Andy asked in concern.
"I don't know, but we have to be careful." Danny admitted to Andy mentally. "I hope Mom and Dad didn't do anything to warrant a SWAT team…"
"This doesn't look good…" Sam muttered.
"Yeah. Why the heck is SWAT here? It's not like Fenton Works is doing anything bad." Tucker frowned.
"Shh, we're going to find out," 'Andy' replied to them.
'Andy' flew in close to see the men in uniform bringing out Jazz, and pretty much threw her into the house. As soon as they did that, they closed the door, went back to their van, and drove away. 'Andy' blinked before he looked at the house. The Ghost Shield wasn't on right now, so that made it easy for 'Andy' to go intangible and slipped through the door.
Maddie and Jack were standing over Jazz, both of them frowning.
"What is the matter with you, Jazz?" Jack frowned.
"You need to be preparing for the Northwestern Nine Standardized testing tomorrow! You should know better, Jazz, you were always such a good student. What's going on with you?" Maddie asked in concern. "And where are your brothers and cousin? They should be back by now too."
"How can I focus on studying? Ember is more important!" Jazz grumbled. "And who knows where those three are? They're probably off doing something somewhere."
"Well I'm thinking about putting you 4 into the Fenton Stockades," Jack threatened.
"You do know the medieval contaminants are meant for ghosts, right?" Maddie asked.
"Yeah, I wasn't being serious, but Jazz, you're definitely grounded tonight," Jack stated. "And so are your brothers and cousin for coming home so late."
"Well, sounds like we're in trouble, and we haven't done anything wrong!" Andy groaned.
"Speak for yourself, Mr. Virtual Pet when you should've been studying," Danny huffed back.
"Kokomon is so worth getting in trouble for," Andy remarked stubbornly.
"Right now, we need to get Sam and Tucker into the house and we need to plan for how to beat Ember." Danny groaned. "Then you can visit your little pet."
"That's all fine and dandy, but how are we going to get in and explain ourselves? Especially since Takuya isn't with us." Andy asked.
"Of course you would bring that up…" Danny grumbled mentally. "So much for a simple plan to get into the house…"
"Well we have to go in some time," Andy sighed. "Let's just rip off the bandaid…"
'Andy' landed behind the house, putting down Tucker and Sam.
"Okay, since our parents are likely going to ground us, you two will need to wait out here until we get to our room. After that, I… well, as Danny, will come and pick you up into our room," 'Andy' instructed.
Sam and Tucker both nodded. "Okay, we can do that." Tucker said.
"Just be quick about it." Sam said. "The longer we wait, the more powerful Ember will get."
Danny came out of Andy's body and transformed back into a human. "Well, bro, let's do this."
"Yeah… this should be… 'fun'..." Andy sighed.
Danny and Andy went to the front door of Fenton Works. Andy used his house keys to unlock the door, and they slowly opened it.
"Um… Mom? Dad? We're home…" Andy spoke up. At least we didn't have a SWAT team bring us back. That should win us some points with Mom and Dad.
"There you two are!" Maddie scolded. "Where have you been?! Your father and I were worried you would be brought home by the SWAT team!"
"What were you two doing out so late? And where is your cousin? Wasn't he with you?" Jack asked as he folded his arms.
"Ah, Takuya decided to stay at the library to, uh… study," Danny sheepishly said.
"Why? He doesn't have the Northwestern Nine Standardized test tomorrow." Maddie frowned.
"He wanted to set a good example for us, and he's preparing for any possible tests he might have in the future," Andy spoke up. "We were studying too, but lost track of time."
"Well, I guess we can give you two a pass on this for once." Maddie sighed. "At least you two are trying to get good grades, unlike your sister over here."
"Hey!" Jazz pouted. "Ember's more important than some stupid test, or even studying in general!"
"I don't know what's gotten into you, Jazzypants, but this will not be tolerated." Jack said sternly.
Dang, Ember has her good. Danny frowned.
"Fine! Then I'll lock myself up in my room like you wanted!" Jazz snapped, throwing a tantrum like a normal teenager would, and stomped upstairs to her room, slamming the door shut.
"Is Jazz… alright?" Andy asked in concern, though he knew what was going on, he had to act like he didn't.
"I don't know, Andyroo, but it's very concerning." Jack sighed. "Jazzypants has never acted like this."
"She could just be going through a phase," Maddie suggested. "I just hope it doesn't become something worse later."
"There was this craze going on with this singer called Ember McLain," Danny explained. "I'm sure once the craze dies down, Jazz will be back to her normal, annoying, know-it-all self."
"You'd better be right, Danno. Seeing Jazz becoming obsessed like this is disconcerting to say the least." Jack groaned.
"It will wear off soon. Just give it time." Danny said reassuringly.
"But for now, we'll be in our room to… continue studying for the rest of the night," Andy stated. "So no need to worry about us."
"What about dinner?" Maddie asked.
"We ate on the way back," Andy lied, though now that Maddie mentioned it, he hadn't gotten to eat much today. Lunch had been pretty much canceled due to Ember. Better not think about that right now. We have to stay focused.
"Okay, we'll let you boys get to studying then." Maddie said. "Just don't stay up too late while studying."
"Thanks, Mom, we'll be fine," Danny said before he and Andy went upstairs, trying to look casual, but they were walking pretty quickly.
As soon as the two were in their room, Andy closed the door behind him while Danny went ghost to go out and pick up Tucker and Sam.
I should've been there… maybe I could've prevented Takuya from being transported into another world entirely… Andy frowned, feeling guilty that this happened while he was playing with Kokomon back at school.
Danny came back with Sam and Tucker a few moments later. He turned all three of them tangible and let Sam and Tucker go before landing and turning back to his human form. "Okay, it looks like we're all here now." Danny said as he sat down on his bed.
"So, what do we do now? We don't have much time to stop Ember." Sam grumbled.
"We could try crashing the concert," Tucker suggested.
"With how powerful Ember is, that's gonna be really difficult to do," Danny sighed.
"Too bad there isn't a quick way to just break the spell," Andy remarked. "Even if we could somehow subject every single person to a virtual pet or something, Ember's singing would keep them in her spell."
"But what would work then? It's not like we have someone who's singing is terrible enough to make others cover their ears." Tucker grumbled.
Everyone looked at Tucker.
"Why are you looking at me? I sing great!" Tucker frowned.
"We don't know if it would work for sure though…" Sam remarked.
"Even if it did, we'd still have to deal with Ember herself," Andy pointed out.
"Well, let's just try to snap people out of the spell first. That should be our main priority." Danny sighed. "Then we can worry about Ember. Without the people chanting her name, she won't be as powerful."
"Nice thinking, bro, I told you that you were smart~" Andy complimented.
Danny blushed and tried not to acknowledge that comment.
"So do you want to take the chance with Tucker's singing?" Sam asked.
"It's our best shot," Danny answered.
"If it doesn't work, maybe we could challenge Ember to a sing off," Andy chuckled.
Danny groaned. "Let's just focus right now! We're running out of time! We have to stop the concert before it goes global at midnight! We have about… less than 5 hours remaining!"
"Why are you shouting? You're wasting more time reminding us that we're running out of time!" Andy grumbled. "What was wrong with my suggestion anyways? I was exploring any options we have!"
"A sing-off may not be a bad idea." Sam grinned. "It would at least give us a chance to suck her into the Fenton Thermos."
"But who will do this sing-off if we do go through with it?" Danny asked.
"It's just a back-up idea in case the awful singing doesn't work," Andy pointed out. "We have to be prepared for anything."
"You better not be talking about me for the 'awful singing' part," Tucker huffed.
"Erm…" Andy cleared his throat. "The only other option that could possibly disrupt Ember is if a ghost used a stronger ghostly sound attack that overwrites Ember's. But that doesn't seem very likely."
"Yeah, that's too bad." Danny sighed. "Still, it seems we have some sort of a plan in place now. The awful singing could work, but if that fails, then a sing-off is up next." He rubbed the back of his neck. "It's not much of a plan, but it's better than nothing at least."
"There's one other option we could try…" Andy hesitated. "But I'm not sure how… it would work out, but it could be our best bet of possibly getting Takuya back if it does work."
"And what would that be?" Sam asked.
"Instead of defeating her… maybe we could try talking to her? Work something out?" Andy suggested.
Danny blinked, as did Sam and Tucker.
"Actually… that may work." Danny said at last. "But… if it doesn't… At the very least we have some back-up options." He then sighed. "Okay, here's what we do. We will try talking to Ember, make her see reason. If that fails, we will fall back to the awful singing trick to snap people out of it. If that fails, we will do the sing-off, but if that fails, we will fight Ember."
"Let's just hope that something we do will work," Sam sighed. "I rather not have the world become Ember's mindless slave…"
"What is it with these ghosts and wanting to take over the world anyways? Doesn't that seem a little too ambitious for people who died?" Tucker grumbled.
"You can ask Ember that if you want," Andy said. "For now, we should make our way to her concert before she starts it."
"Where is her concert taking place?" Sam asked. "None of us grabbed her tickets, so we don't know where she's having it."
"I told you you should've let me grab a ticket, bro…" Andy grumbled.
"Now I'm really regretting that…" Danny grumbled as well before an idea hit him. "Wait… Ember said her concert was going global at midnight, and I'm sure some of the other students grabbed a ticket or two. Maybe we could follow one of the other students. They would likely know where the concert is."
Andy looked out the window. "Or… we could follow Jazz…"
Andy pointed out to show Jazz was swinging on a grappling hook of all things, going after a van that had Ember's face painted on it, as well as a giant fake flame on top of its roof. It was also blaring out Ember's song through some megaphone speakers.
"Where did your sister get a grappling hook…?" Tucker blinked.
"How should I know?" Danny replied back. "But yeah… we should follow Jazz."
"We better go now before we lose sight of her then," Sam quickly said.
"Okay," Danny said before he turned intangible and flew into Andy's body again.
As soon as Danny took over Andy, he picked up Tucker and Sam before flying out of the house to go after Jazz.
"I know we were short on time, but a little warning would've been nice before you go diving into my body." Andy grumbled.
"What can I say? You're the one who accepts my ghost powers the easiest." Danny replied. "At least this way you can fly and see the sights~"
"I feel like I would enjoy it more if we weren't only flying like this to make sure the ghost doesn't completely take over the world or something," Andy huffed. "Wait, what did you mean I accept your ghost powers the easiest?"
"I mean, your body doesn't black out, and you don't put up any resistance to me using my ghostly powers." Danny replied with a mental shrug. "Even if I took over Tucker, his body and mind puts up a bit of a resistance, and Tucker blacks out. So I can't communicate with him like I could with you."
"Did you take over Tucker before?" Andy asked.
"... Maybe once or twice as a prank…" Danny sheepishly admitted.
"And you call me the chaotic twin," Andy mentally rolled his eyes.
"... I may have been a bit… mischievous that time…" Danny muttered in embarrassment. "I mean, I was still getting used to my ghost powers, so I wanted to prank Tucker with them a couple of times…"
"I see having ghost powers didn't diminish your mischievous side," Andy chuckled. "Or maybe they amplified it a little bit? I mean there's a lot you could do with your ghost powers than just save people. You could- well, actually, I think Tucker did most of the pranking when he had ghost powers."
"I don't want to think about that…" Danny muttered grumpily. "Anyway, we need to focus on following Jazz. We can't lose sight of her."
"Oh relax, you've been keeping up with her the entire time we were talking," Andy remarked. "Besides, our little chat is helping you calm down. You were so tense earlier."
"I guess it did." Danny agreed with a chuckle. "At least it took my mind off of what happened earlier."
"Yeah, and you'll make more mistakes if you're too tense," Andy stated.
"Whoa… look at that crowd of people gathering behind that van," Tucker noted.
"Yeah, it's like the van has them on an invisible leash," Sam remarked in concern.
Indeed, there were more people now than just Jazz running after the van that was playing Ember's music. But all of them seemed to be younger than the age of 30. Most of them were teens, and young adults. Though it was the teens that were sneaking out of their houses since their parents were forbidding them from leaving this late at night to go see a concert, especially since it was a school night.
"Looks like we found where the concert is going to be held," Andy noted when they started seeing the bright lights from an upcoming stadium.
"Wow… I guess following Jazz really helped us this time." Danny chuckled. "And she says we're too nosy at times~ Being nosy helped us find Ember~"
"Eh, she's nosy on us too, so it evens out," Andy mentally shrugged.
Once they reached the stadium, 'Andy' kept going while intangible, bringing them backstage.
"Huh… you know, since we're back here, we could use Tucker's hacking skills to shut all of this off," Andy noted, seeing a large control panel and computers hooked up in front of them. "We have the perfect opportunity to."
"It would shut down the whole concert before it begins." Tucker agreed. A grin crossed his face. "This is my time to shine~"
Tucker hurried over to the control panel, however, when he was about to work his magic, the screens started to glitch out suddenly. Tucker jumped back.
"Whoa! What's wrong with this thing?" Tucker yelped as the PA system was turned on.
"I don't know!" Sam exclaimed. She then covered her mouth, realizing the PA system had broadcasted her voice over the speakers.
Tucker stared in shock before he glared at Sam. "Way to go, Sam… You just gave us away…"
Andy's eyes went wide when he saw something familiar was appearing on the glitching screen. It looked like the symbol that was on Takuya's device's screen when that voice was talking to him. What… Why is that-
"WE LOVE YOU EMBER!"
"I heard you the 12th time, now bag em and gag em!" Ember's voice grumbled.
"Run!" Andy shouted.
Danny was still in Andy's body, so he flew up as security guards ran in to grab them. 'Andy' frowned as he saw the guards grabbing Tucker and Sam, one of the guards was dragging Tucker away from the control panel.
"Danny, land quickly so they think I just jumped really high," Andy instructed. "Let them catch you. We can take them by surprise if we need to later. We don't want to lose sight of Tucker and Sam."
Danny frowned mentally, but nodded. "Okay, Andy. I hope you know what you're doing though…" He said before he came down and landed on the ground in front of the guards.
The guards quickly grabbed 'Andy', then they brought them over to Ember. Ember grinned at them while someone was counting down something on a monitor.
"You'll be live in 10, 9…"
"Later losers," Ember said to the group. "I've gotta go rock my world. And when I say my world, I mean my world~"
Ember walked away to head on stage. With Ember out of sight, 'Andy' could finally do something.
"Okay, I'm going to see if I can talk to Ember. But just in case things go sour, you two will have to try to shut everything down," 'Andy' stated to Tucker and Sam.
"Right. We can do that." Tucker said as Sam nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, we'll keep an eye on things here while you do your thing." Sam agreed.
'Andy' nodded before he turned intangible, grinning while he did so, making the guard let go. The guard looked confused, then 'Andy' went into his body before knocking the man out. 'Andy' came out of the guard's body and flew into the other security guard's bodies, knocking all of them out quickly and harmlessly.
"Oh gosh… that was such a weird experience… is that what you call body inception?" Andy commented.
"Worry about it later, bro. Right now we need to focus on stopping Ember, hopefully without fighting her or resorting to our backup plans." Danny said seriously.
"Yeah, about that… why are you still-" Andy began to ask, but Danny already had them rush out on stage. "Nevermind, I'll ask later."
"Ember!" 'Andy' called out.
Ember looked back. "What do you want, dipstick?"
"It's not too late to stop this," 'Andy' stated. "You don't have to go through with this."
"You're acting like I'm doing this because I don't have a choice. But I'm choosing to do this, dipstick!" Ember snapped. "And you're getting in my way!"
"What I mean is, is taking over the world really what you want?" 'Andy' clarified. "Was that what you wanted to do when you were human?"
Ember frowned before she huffed. "Please, babypop. I didn't want to take over the world when I was a human. I wanted to be a rock star."
"Okay, but why are you trying to take over the world now?" 'Andy' asked. "Why not just play your music without the mind control?"
"I was forgotten by everyone after I died. Why do you think I am using mind control? I want to be remembered forever!" Ember exclaimed.
Andy's eyes changed from neon green to normal emerald green, though the change was difficult to notice. "What do you think will happen once you can't keep broadcasting your music though? Will everyone still remember you for your song and you? Or would they only remember you for as long as the spell forces them to?"
Ember actually hesitated for a moment. She then shook her head. "I know what you're trying to do, dipstick, and it won't work!" But she was looking a little more unsure now.
"What do you think I'm trying to do?" Andy asked.
"You're trying to stop me from taking over the world," Ember pointed out.
"Well, duh, of course I am. But how does that invalidate anything I've said at all?" Andy questioned. "You wanted to be a rock star, not some megalomaniac who only cares about mind controlling people into being their slaves, and having to renew the song again and again just to make sure you wouldn't be forgotten."
"That was when I was alive, dipstick!" Ember snapped back. "Things change when one becomes a ghost!"
Andy's eyes turned back to neon green.
"Do they, really?" Danny asked. "I may not be… fully like you, but you know I'm very much like you by now, don't you?"
Ember frowned. She could definitely sense the boy in front of her was a ghost, and had a ghostly core inside him.
"Even after dying, I didn't feel the need to get vengeance on the world for something that only happened to me. Picking on the living, or making them fuel for me, isn't something I want to do, or feel like doing," Danny pointed out. "What you do, as human or ghost, is your own choice. I won't force you to change your mind, Ember, but I am hoping to reason with you. You can still be a rock star, but only if you stop trying to mind control everyone."
Ember hesitated again, looking a bit more unsure of her plan. She was also unsure of what to say. It seemed like she was torn on what to do now.
"You can go out there now and sing to your heart's content… and by that I mean a metaphorical heart… and see if you can truly have fans who like your music without the mind control," Andy, who was now speaking this time.
Then Danny took over once more. "But if you feel you must use your mind control and go through with this, then I will have to stop you. After all, I'm here to protect people from ghosts who try to hurt them, or take over them in this case."
Ember looked down, actually thinking this time. On one hand, she knew this kid was right, but on the other, she didn't want to be forgotten, unremembered.
Despite what Danny and Andy were saying though, Ember felt she could not just stop what she was doing. She had already come too far to stop now, she was already on the brink. There was no way she was letting this weirdo ghost-yet-not-ghost boy stop her.
"I hate to break it to you, dipstick, but I'm not going to just stop just because you are pleading with me to." She said at last. "I've come too far to back down now, and nothing will stop me, not even some punk kid!"
"I guess talking is out the window…" Andy sighed to Danny.
"At least we gave it a shot." Danny admitted. "It was better than just fighting her to say the least, but now it's time for plan B."
"Now get off of the stage!" Ember shouted as she strummed her guitar, firing off ghostly soundwaves at the boys.
Andy suddenly took control back and somersaulted away from the soundwaves, he rushed off the stage.
"If you're going to fight, please do it out of my body, bro," Andy quickly said. "I don't want people seeing me flying around, firing ghost rays from my hands."
Danny emerged from Andy's body, intangible. He then became tangible. "Sorry, bro." He apologized before turning to Ember. "But find somewhere to hide at least, okay? I don't want you to get hurt."
"You just do your thing, don't worry about me," Andy replied. "And you better hurry, she's about to sing."
Ember's band was already starting the song up.
Danny knew what he had to do. He flew at where Ember was now preparing to sing her song. "Not today, pop princess! No songs from you!" He exclaimed as he yanked away her microphone.
Ember glared at Danny. He had changed, he looked far more ghostly than he did before like last time. But that wasn't surprising, a lot of ghosts were capable of changing their appearances. But she was angry that he was trying to stop her when she was so close to fulfilling her lifelong dream, even if she wasn't technically alive anymore.
"Get this through your head, dipstick, you will not stop me from fulfilling my dream!" Ember shouted as the flames on her head grew.
The audience who were watching were cheering. Their minds were so brainwashed that they believed this was just a cool show Ember was giving them, including Jazz, despite knowing that was her brother fighting with Ember.
Ember shot out ghostly fire at Danny. Danny gasped, feeling danger in his chest at the sight of the flames, like something in him knew getting hit by those flames would hurt, a lot more than anything else Ember could possibly throw at him. Danny quickly dodged the flames. He fired his ghost ray at Ember, who used her guitar to deflect the ghost ray away before she fired another stream of flames at him.
Danny yelped as he dove down, turning intangible and phasing into the floor. Aw man! The only one who could stand up to Ember's fire is missing, and I am barely dodging her flames as it is! Danny thought in a panic. Danny emerged behind Ember and returned to a tangible state before firing off another ghost ray at her from behind.
While the two ghost teens were going at it, Andy was running backstage. He saw Tucker was still working on the control panel, and Sam was standing guard beside him.
"What's going on out there?" Sam frowned.
"Ember's fighting with Danny," Andy quickly explained. "We tried to talk her out of it, but I guess her Obsession is too strong. Tucker, are you able to shut this thing off?"
"I've been trying, but it keeps rejecting my input." Tucker frowned. "Ember probably had someone put in a really strong firewall or something."
"Then what can we do? Use something like a chair to smash it?" Sam huffed. "As much as I like a good protest, causing damage doesn't really help much."
"Besides, it looks pretty durable," Andy grumbled. "There has to be something we can do!"
Andy looked at Tucker. "Maybe you can try singing out there?"
"You mean our first back-up plan?" Sam grinned.
Tucker groaned. "Aw man… My singing is not that horrible! I sing awesome!"
"Well if we don't try something, Danny's going to become Danny Barbecue!" Andy pointed out.
There was a loud explosion on the stage, causing the walls to break. Andy, Tucker, and Sam looked out at the broken walls, seeing the crowd cheering for Ember, making her stronger. Danny was trapped in some kind of fiery tornado.
"Okay, fine! They want a show, I'll give them a show!" Tucker said with determination in his voice. Although he was acting confident, Tucker was actually quite nervous. Aw man… I hope my singing isn't as bad as Andy and the others make it out to be. I will be embarrassing myself world-wide if it is as bad as they claim…
Tucker ran out on stage, he took a deep breath, about to start singing when Ember looked at him. "You want to burn too?"
Tucker squeaked and began to back away.
Sam frowned before she shot the Fenton Lipstick at Ember away from Tucker. "Start singing, Tucker, hurry!"
"No! You won't!" Ember shouted as she recovered from the lipstick's laser, and launched at Tucker.
Tucker shut his eyes and covered his head with his hands. Andy reacted quickly and extended his Fenton Rod before running out there, blocking Ember's charge. Ember tried to push against Andy, however, while her flames and energy were powerful, her physical strength was easier to handle than Danny's. Andy managed to push her back.
"You're not going to hurt Tucker!" Andy snapped.
"What? You!? I thought I trapped you!" Ember shouted in disbelief before she glanced at the fiery tornado prison she made, only to see the ghost boy was indeed still in there. "Who the heck are you!? Are you a duplicate? … No, I never saw the ghost boy duplicate himself, nor do you feel like a fragment of his power."
"Ever heard of a twin, Ember?" Andy questioned.
While Ember was busy with Andy, Tucker grabbed the microphone and picked it up. It was now or never. Please have this work so no one remembers my singing… He pleaded mentally before he began to sing Ember's song.
"Ember, you will remember… my name!" Tucker sang, his voice screeching across the stadium's speakers out into the audience.
Sam covered her ears with her hands, feeling kinda bad for Tucker, who was doing this in front of cameras that were sending the concert all over the world. Well, you can't say Tucker isn't willing to do things like this…
"SHUT UP!" Ember screeched at the bad singer.
The crowd who were hearing the 'song' stopped chanting and looked to be in a confused daze.
Ember frowned, without the chanting, she wasn't as strong as she would like to be. But she was still a ghost, and she still had powers with or without chanting. And she was going to make darn sure these pests would pay.
"Look out! She's not finished yet!" Danny warned.
Andy yelped as Ember strummed her guitar, sending out two giant, purple, energy fists coming at them.
"Move, Tucker!" Andy shouted.
Tucker stopped singing and rolled away from the big fists. "Okay, dodge training is saving my life right now!"
"What do we do?" Sam asked as she tried to hold off Ember by firing more lasers with the Fenton Lipstick, though Ember was dodging her attacks.
"We need to try to free Danny, fighting against a ghost ourselves is way out of our league," Andy quickly said.
"But how?! The only other one who could free Danny is gone!" Sam yelled back.
"We have to try something!" Tucker shot back.
Danny was trying to fire his ghost rays at the fiery tornado prison, but his attacks were doing nothing.
"Give it up, baby pop, even without the chanting, that prison twister is made to hold even Skulker in his battle suit." Ember grinned. "You're not getting out of that."
Ember laughed as she strummed her guitar again at the 3 people. They could only dodge, though the loud sound was hurting their ears too. Andy felt like his head was ringing as Ember continued to try to hit them like ducks in a barrel. They couldn't keep dodging forever, and Ember didn't seem to be slowing down. The audience, while they had stopped chanting, were still in a daze.
"Don't think you can dodge me forever. My ghostly energy is still charged from all the chanting! I can do this all night!" Ember shouted.
Tucker, Sam, and Andy had the gut feeling Ember was not just bluffing. As mere humans, they didn't have the stamina to dodge Ember's attacks all night.
"What can we do? We're outmatched!" Tucker wailed.
"Can't Danny just phase through the floor to get out of that twister?" Sam grumbled.
"I've already tried that! I can't go intangible here!" Danny shouted. "I start to burn when I do, and it hurts!"
Sam paled. "Crap…"
Tucker groaned. "I guess this is the end for us…" He whimpered.
"Don't say that!" Sam protested. "I'm sure something will happen and save our butts!"
"What do you think will happen, some big, ripped hero is going to come out of the sky and save our sorry butts?" Andy cynically grumbled.
"Say goodnight, kiddies!" Ember grinned as she floated above the 3, ready to finish them off.
"Howling Laser!"
The white laser came out of nowhere and slammed into Ember before a form landed in front of the three humans, a white lightsaber-like sword in one hand. The form looked like a male human in a white bodysuit, wearing armor that was modeled after a wolf's form in a way. The boots had three black claws extending from the toes, and the armor was white with light blue accents on it. His helmet was in the shape of a wolf's head, and covered the upper part of his head, leaving only his red eyes, lower face, and short blonde hair exposed. Finally, the form had a long light blue scarf on that had darker blue slash marks on it. On his shoulder armor was a symbol that looked like the Kanji for light as well.
"You won't be doing anything to these three." The form hissed in a male voice, getting into a fighting stance.
"What the?" Ember frowned, looking up from the ground as the band she created disappeared in a puff of smoke. "W-what are you doing here!?"
"Who's… he?" Danny frowned, not sure if this new guy was friend or foe, but… there was something about him that reminded him of Agunimon.
"What I'm doing here is none of your business, but when I saw you about to hurt those three… I couldn't just sit back and let you get away with it." The unknown man replied in a hard tone.
"I don't know who this guy is, but he sure saved our butts." Tucker said jokingly, relief obvious in his voice.
"Looks like your sarcastic wish came true." Sam grinned at Andy.
"Yeah, maybe next time you should say a lot of tasty meat falls from the sky~" Tucker grinned.
"That could be the Lunch Lady if meat starts falling from the sky," Andy huffed.
"I should send you back where you came from, ghost," The unknown man hissed at Ember as he slowly drew out another sword that appeared to be made of light. "Lobo Kendo!"
"You want a fight? Then I'll give you a fight!" Ember shouted as she strummed her guitar at the mysterious man.
Using his twin swords, the unknown man slashed through the massive fists that came at him. "Never underestimate a Legendary Warrior, ghost!" The mysterious 'Legendary Warrior' exclaimed. "Time for the light to send you back where you came from!"
The Legendary Warrior came down at Ember with his swords drawn back, but Ember blocked the blow with her guitar instead.
"Nice try!" Ember sneered as she swung her guitar at the Legendary Warrior.
The mysterious Legendary Warrior grunted as he ducked the blow that would've knocked him out. He then swung his first sword up at Ember, but she twisted her body to the side, making his blow miss.
Ember then kicked the Legendary Warrior in the gut, sending him back towards the three humans.
Realizing with Ember distracted, Andy had a golden opportunity. He rushed over to Danny, who was still trapped in the fiery tornado.
"Andy?" Danny blinked, surprised to see his brother approaching the fiery tornado. "Stop! Don't come too close, this could really hurt you!"
"I'm going to try to get you out," Andy quickly said. "You might be able to end this once and for all."
Danny blinked again. "Wait, Andy! Are you sure?! You could get burned for all we know!"
While Andy was with Danny trying to get Danny out of that fiery twister prison, the Legendary Warrior was getting back to his feet. He knew he had to keep this ghost busy, but she was quite strong. Luckily, he wasn't the Legendary Warrior of Light for nothing.
The Legendary Warrior held his ground as he hefted his twin swords into a defensive stance.
Andy gripped the Fenton Rod tightly. "She said it's to keep ghosts in, right? What about humans and anti-ghost weapons?"
Andy shoved the Fenton Rod into the base of the fiery twister, causing a bright spark of light and flames, and the fiery tornado began to flicker out of existence due to being unstable.
Danny blinked in surprise before he grinned. "Andy, bro, you never cease to amaze me~" He grinned.
The fiery vortex began to blink out more and more and Andy had to drop the Fenton Rod because of how hot it became. "Ouch! Hot! Hot! Hot!"
Now free of the twister, Danny floated up into the air. "Let's see how Ember likes a little ghostly intermission~"
With Ember still distracted with the mysterious, self proclaimed Legendary Warrior, Danny took out the Fenton Thermos he kept on him, and opened it. If he was right, this Legendary Warrior was indeed like Takuya as Agunimon, and therefore, the Fenton Thermos wouldn't affect him. Danny pointed the Fenton Thermos at Ember, and the thermos shot out a beam of light at Ember.
Ember let out a scream as the beam of light caught her back, and began to pull her in. "No! This isn't over!"
Ember was soon pulled into the Fenton Thermos, and Danny quickly closed it, finally putting an end to this.
Looking back, the Legendary Warrior saw Danny hovering there. He could clearly see the ghostly glow around the boy, and the glowing green eyes didn't make it any easier to ignore his ghostly status. And yet… this ghostly boy had helped defeat that other ghost. Not to mention the ghost boy didn't appear to be hostile to the other humans.
The Legendary Warrior slowly walked towards Danny and Andy, his red eyes scanning the two of them closely. Finally, he reached the twins. "Your help… was appreciated." He said to Danny at last.
"Uh… yeah, actually your help was appreciated. You kept my… um… the kids here safe from Ember," Danny replied back, feeling awkward.
The Legendary Warrior was surprised about… something. "You don't fear me? Or hate me being near you at all?"
"Uh… no? Why would I be?" Danny blinked, confused by that comment.
"I'm a Legendary Warrior, a digital being." The Legendary Warrior explained. "Every ghost I've seen either hates me or doesn't want me near them."
"A Legendary Warrior, and a digital being… So do you know Agunimon then?" Danny asked.
A look of confusion crossed the Legendary Warrior's face. "Agunimon? I've never heard of anyone called that."
"Then who are you?" Andy asked, walking next to Danny, which also confused the Legendary Warrior. People didn't just walk up beside a ghost.
"My name is Lobomon, and I am the Legendary Warrior of Light." The Legendary Warrior, Lobomon, introduced himself at last.
Lobomon then jumped high, getting on the roof of the building.
"Wait, where are you going? What are you doing here?" Andy asked. "Where do you come from? Is there a world where there are more of you!?"
"I'm not here to answer questions. I shouldn't even have shown myself to you. Just go about your day, and pretend none of this happened. After all, I'm sure the audience aren't going to remember, despite that ghost's song," Lobomon replied before he disappeared in a flash of light.
"Whoa, did he just teleport?" Tucker blinked, surprised.
"He was our one shot at finding out where Takuya went…" Andy frowned.
"Well, we know there are more digital beings out there at least." Sam sighed.
"Yeah, but the one we came across wasn't that helpful in finding our cousin." Danny grumbled.
"But he did save our butts." Tucker grinned.
"Yes, he saved us, but he just left too with barely anything to go off of." Sam frowned.
"We can talk about this later, let's just get out of here because the audience starts coming around," Andy spoke up. "I don't want them thinking we're part of some band on a fancy stadium stage."
"Good idea." Danny agreed. "I can take all of us back to Fenton Works if that is okay."
"Anything is better than here." Sam grumbled.
"I just want to get away from here so I can forget I was singing in front of the world…" Tucker groaned.
"I just hope Ember will at least think about what we said…" Andy sighed. Although… I guess nothing can really beat a ghost's Obsession. I wonder if Danny has an Obsession… I used to think Phantom had an Obsession relating to protecting the town, but that could just be Danny wanting to keep everyone safe. I don't know if I'd call that an Obsession.
"Hey, bro… I'm gonna need to borrow your body again," Danny said.
"Are you going to overshadow him while you're holding the thermos?" Tucker asked. "If you do, would that mean Ember is technically going to be in Andy's body too?"
Andy and Danny looked at Tucker for a moment before Andy took the Fenton Thermos from Danny. "I'll hold on to that, thank you very much."
Danny sighed. "Okay, I'll just… do my thing then…" He said before turning intangible and entering Andy's body once again.
"I hope I'm not making you feel like a meat suit, bro." Danny said mentally to Andy.
"It's fine, bro. Just… try not to make a habit out of this," Andy grumbled.
Titanic X: ZAFT: Glad you liked it! XD
DarkFoxKit: If you've seen Digimon Frontier, it should be pretty obvious who that voice was. But glad we could hook you in.
pokemon fan 1991: DarkFoxKit: The relationship between Danny and Sam? Are you talking about like how they just suddenly got together at the end of the series? I mean there had been hints before that the two liked each other, but I think what bothered most people about it was the fact there was never any real build up to it. There were hints they liked each other, but not much else. They never really advanced in their relationship, they never tried to date each other before to see if they were compatible. They were just a boy and a girl who were best friends since childhood, and people like to tease that they're a couple. Not to mention, Sam herself is a bit… too self righteous most of the time, and I felt Danny and Valerie were a far better couple. However, we do recognize that Danny and Sam have feelings for each other. Though we are not focused on their romantic feelings for each other right now, if we do decide to have them together, we will do our best to build it up properly.
ZAFT: Well said, Kit. Very well said. And as for Ember, yeah, we decided to give her more of a background to make her more believable.
: DarkFoxKit: Uh… well, I can't answer the part with Valerie, because you will see for yourself if that's the case. But Ophanimon was trying to find a way to contact the one who has Agunimon's Spirit, and Danny was usually close to him, alongside with how Danny himself has powers.
ZAFT: You will see if only Andy is involved or if others join them as the story moves along. :3
Kittylover05: ZAFT: Oh boy… a couple of big reviews, one of which is from Kitty!
DarkFoxKit: To start off, the episode was quite fun, we do have a few like that, where we write out the episode and just have fun with it rather than trying to be too serious or try to think of how to drastically change it. Sometimes it's just fun to go with the flow and see how the characters would react. Heh, we figured we should show how Jazz got into Ember's music, rather than just having her show up halfway in the episode. And having Danny know Jazz knows early on creates some interesting dynamics between them. I wouldn't say we have anything huge planned for that, we just thought it'd be nicer, and a little more convenient, if all the major characters knew Danny's secret at the same time.
ZAFT: Andy with his merch obsession was fun! XD The banter was also a ton of fun. :3
DarkFoxKit: I think the banter worked since they knew Danny could handle Klemper, and it brings some fun little comedy into the mix. And also, Andy wanting Ember merch is more of how I felt when I saw some of her merch in the show, and how cool it would've been to have some of those in real life. Like the flaming wig, come on, that's pretty cool. I mean look at what Dark Danny/Dan has when he fused with Vlad, a flaming hair. Personally I love Danny's signature hair more, but still, flaming hair.
ZAFT: Andy getting the merch would be funny. And bribing Andy is definitely something Danny would do. :3 XD Now, as for the end of the chapter with Andy… you will see what happens~ :3 The female voice will be revealed in time. :3
DarkFoxKit:Andy wanting Ember's merch is adorable too. It's also vague as to whether or not he's under Ember's spell due to this, which I like. And, as you saw in this chapter, Andy didn't plan to escape. You were close when you mentioned he was looking for the early access, but more for the free website to get him his Digimon partner to play with.
Ah, well, while there will be lines of 'I wish', we're not gonna use Desiree a lot unless we need her for a specific thing or plot. It would throw everything out of order if Desiree did something every time someone said 'I wish'.
Enjoy your guessing for what's going on with Valerie, the answer won't be revealed for a while.
ZAFT: Mysteries are fun. XD And the mysteries will continue~ :3 The cartoon logic does still exist, it just shows up when we want it to. XD
DarkFoxKit: But it is fun to have characters point out the simpler, cartoonish part of the plot, while we bring in the more… interesting and different plot.
Dion Comic Wiz: ZAFT: Once more, we love your big reviews~
DarkFoxKit: Especially since it's rare we get people mentioning the stuff we write in detail. So yeah, it's nice to see reviews like this. The characters being nonchalant about Danny's plight with Klemper was pretty funny, they knew Danny could handle him if he decided to get dangerous, and it was just nice to have something funny to write out.
ZAFT: As for the mystery voice, that was fun to do. But it will serve a purpose for later. :3 And Valerie's role will be revealed in due time. :3
DarkFoxKit: Ember's backstory really is quite heartbreaking. We kind of skimmed over it in this story, but we went into more detail in our previous run of the story. We just didn't feel that was necessary this time, however, which was why it was kind of skimmed over this time. But it's pretty much the same. As for Andy's little plot, it was nothing quite that nefarious, the boy is a bit unpredictable, but he usually does the things he does within reason.
ZAFT: As for what Andy is up to, you will see. Those were three good guesses. You will have to see which one will be revealed. :3 And I'm glad you think our pacing is good. :3 That is our goal to be consistent in the length of each 'episode' being 2-3 chapters long. As for spin-offs, we haven't thought about it, but that does sound interesting.
DarkFoxKit: We had one 'spin off'ish story in the making, but it's probably been discontinued. But as for original chapters, there's a lot of them. In fact… I'm kinda worried your praise for us having a good pacing may come to an end when we start getting into those. ^^' But regardless, we do hope you enjoy those once we get into it.
The inspiration for Spectra becoming a ghost through a supernatural deal was something I was thinking about because of her odd desire to be young forever. As far as we know, ghosts don't age, or at least they shouldn't. So I just thought it was odd a ghost would want to feed off of misery to be young. When you think of a ghost feeding off of someone, you think they were using it for energy or food, not… to be young. So I thought Spectra being a ghost that ages made more sense if she got it through a deal rather than her already being a ghost. Though she isn't a human-ghost hybrid, she's a ghost that ages like a human because of the deal she made. It took away her humanity entirely, the only thing human about her left was her aging. Although I suppose with the Ghost Peeler, it revealed what she really was under all those supernatural powers, that also kind of inspired the whole thing.
Thank you very much for your review, and we hope that our future chapters continue to please.
CT7567: ZAFT: The intro we use is indeed custom. My sister wrote it, and I put in the scenes. XD And you will see if the voice is a good thing or a bad thing. And the Cramtastic Mark V may have been a bit questionable… but Mr. Lancer does try to get his students an education. XD And Ember's music may not be for everyone, but I find it catchy. XD
DarkFoxKit: Huh, it's rare to see someone disliking Ember. Usually when I see a video that does a 'top 10 Danny Phantom enemies' or 'episodes', Ember is usually one of the top 3. Though I myself like her song, I feel she's a bit overrated as she was only a main villain once in the show, and was a side/secondary villain every other time we see her. Not to mention her motivation to take over the world was… non-existent. I mean if she wanted to be the star, she can do that without mind controlling people. Sorry, I'm rambling. My point is that while I liked the episode and Ember herself just fine, I usually find her overrated when others talk about how good she is.