Digital Phantom

by ZAFT Convoy

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

20. The Price of Misery

DarkFoxKit: Hey, hey, look at who's here~

Andy: Hey everyone. It's been a while since I was on here.

DarkFoxKit: How've you been?

Andy: Oh, you know, it's been going pretty well. Though I'm kind of glad to be back here. I needed a break from the D-

DarkFoxKit: Ah-ah-ah! Spoilers, Andy!

Andy: What? Oh right, the readers haven't gotten that far yet. Well regardless, it's nice to have a break.

Takuya: And I'm back too! Wow! It's been what… a month or two since we were last here? I missed this. ^^

ZAFT: Don't get too comfortable you two~ There's lots more to come, if you know what I mean~! :3

Takuya: Well, yeah, I guess so. But-

DarkFoxKit: Anyways, it's time to move on to the chapter!

Takuya: W-wait! I didn't even get to say much yet! WAIT-

---

(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, showing Danny 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 20: The Price of Misery

Andy didn't know what he expected when he reached the gym. He saw all the students there, but they were all messy, pale, and, quite frankly, looking depressed as heck. Nobody was cheering, nobody was really doing anything but watching with unhappy faces. The cheerleaders, who were supposed to cheer before Jazz's speech in order to pump up everyone, only spoke in a monotone voice.

"2… 4… 6… 8… why does this even matter?" The cheerleaders asked like hiveminds.

Jazz, who was watching, was a bit freaked out by the whole school acting like everything was done for, but she hid it as best she could, because she didn't want to ruin the Spirit Speech.

Mr. Lancer stormed over to the cheerleaders. "What's the matter with you kids? That's not a cheer!" He exclaimed before taking a pair of pompoms from one of the cheerleaders to do his own cheer in front of a large domino set.

"We've got the spirit, yes we do! We've got the spirit, how about you?" Mr. Lancer cheered as he jumped around with the pompoms in hand before landing on his feet and grinning at the students.

None of the students looked particularly impressed, just sitting there with sour looks on their faces.

Jazz, for her part, kept her cool, but she did find a teacher cheering a bit… weird. But it still disturbed her more to see how effective Spectra was with everyone in just a few days. If she could cause this much damage in under a week, I'd hate to imagine how much more damage she could do if she stayed for a whole semester.

Andy looked over at Jazz, he could see the 'spirit sparklers' on each side of Jazz looked… big, imposing, and a bit off. He wasn't sure if spirit sparklers were supposed to look like that. Andy walked over, but Mr. Lancer stopped him.

"What are you doing, Mr. Fenton?" Mr. Lancer asked.

"I need to talk to my sister about something," Andy answered.

"That'll have to wait until after her speech," Mr. Lancer replied. "Go to your seat now."

"But-" Andy began to argue as Mr. Lancer pushed him away from the stage. Are you freaking kidding me?!

Jazz looked over and gave Andy a small wave before returning her gaze to the students before her, ready to give her speech.

"Now, take your seat, Mr. Fenton." Mr. Lancer said as he gave Andy a gentle shove to sit next to Sam and Tucker, who also weren't looking so good.

"Wow, you two have seen better days," Andy commented.

"Whatever, man…" Tucker grumbled.

"Nothing really matters…" Sam sighed.

Andy frowned. "What did Spectra even tell you two?"

---

Spectra and Bertrand were walking together down the hallway. They were heading to the gym to watch the girl get vaporized before the school.

"After we've destroyed everything, you up for a cappuccino?" Bertrand asked, looking hopeful.

"Oh, that's a marvelous idea." Spectra agreed, quite happy with how things were going so far. "It would be a great way to end our plans off~"

Bertrand grinned, he had always wanted to go on a proper date with Spectra, and Spectra seemed to be in a good enough mood to take him up on it once their plans finished.

Suddenly, Bertrand was blasted away a few feet by an ecto blast in the face. This surprised Spectra a bit, not having anticipated an attack, but she turned around to see who attacked them and saw Danny Phantom floating there with his fist glowing green, showing he was the one who shot that ghost ray at Bertrand.

"We've figured it out, finally. You feed on misery, don't you?" Danny frowned.

"I'm sorry, can I help you?" Spectra asked, trying to play dumb, but another voice cut her off.

"Apparently you can't." The male voice said as Spectra turned to see Agunimon standing against the wall. "I should've guessed you were behind this, but somehow you hid it well, even having your little leech of an assistant hiding from my ability to sense ghosts."

Bertrand stood back up, not seeming too phased by the ghost ray earlier.

Spectra reached out to grab Danny, but Danny was faster due to his training and flew up out of her reach, and floated behind her. "It's just like Andy said. You find that one thing a kid's most afraid of. Their future, their looks, their confidence. You continually pick at it to damage their psyche to the point they're a shadow of themselves, and your little ghost assistant helps feed on it like a garbage disposal."

"Hey! I don't eat garbage!" Bertrand snapped, feeling slightly insulted.

Agunimon couldn't help but give a slight chuckle.

Spectra grinned and began clapping slowly. "Very good!" She said before her eyes turned red and a sneer crossed her face. "But I'm afraid you forgot a few details!" She grinned evilly as dark black fire appeared around her, outlined in an ectoplasmic green glow.

The fire then encircled Spectra's body, transforming her into a flaming, black shadow ghost.

Agunimon saw this and growled to himself. "So ghosts can hide themselves from my senses…" He noted with some unease.

"You're quite the troublesome one," The shadow ghost that was Spectra remarked as she glared at Agunimon. "I knew I sensed that digital energy within you. I wouldn't be able to feed off of your misery, so you were lucky enough to be let go. But that's okay, because now Bertrand and I can finally finish you off!"

Danny was about to fight Spectra when Bertrand, in the form of the ghost cougar, pounced on Danny. Both Bertrand and Danny turned intangible as they went through a wall.

Agunimon knew Danny could handle himself, so, even if he was worried about Danny, he focused his attention onto Spectra. "You will regret trying to feed on those kids!" Agunimon growled as he lunged at Spectra, fire coating one of his fists.

"I think you'll be the one regretting that, since feeding on misery makes me stronger!" Spectra grinned, licking her lips.

Spectra flew over Agunimon, and her hands shot out purple electricity at Agunimon. The electricity was too fast for Agunimon to dodge, and he let out a cry of pain as the ghostly electricity ripped through his body and armor.

"Looks like your armor can't handle electricity very well~" Spectra grinned sinisterly.

Agunimon regained his senses and looked back up at Spectra. As much as he hated to admit it, the misery leech was right. He needed to get the advantage or he would be in serious trouble. But it looks like I already am… Agunimon mused to himself mentally.

Not wanting to let Spectra get the upper hand again, Agunimon called on his Pyro Darts attack, throwing small bits of flame at her. He wasn't going to risk using his more powerful attacks while still inside the school.

Spectra was able to dodge most of the Pyro Darts, though a few did manage to scrap her tail. Getting rather angry now, she fired a strong ghost ray at Agunimon, sending him back to the same wall Bertrand pounced Danny through. Spectra grinned before she flung herself at Agunimon, grabbing onto his shoulders before turning both of them intangible and flew through the wall, going outside. Once they were outside, Spectra tossed Agunimon into a tree.

Agunimon groaned when he slammed into the tree's trunk, and he saw Danny pushing back Bertrand, who was still in his cougar form.

Agunimon, not even thinking, just reacted and hit Bertrand away from Danny with a fire-coated fist.

"Thanks…" Danny said once he felt Bertrand's weight gone from him.

"Spectra's a powerful one, watch out for her," Agunimon warned.

Suddenly, purple electricity shot across the area. Danny pushed Agunimon away before getting shocked himself. "Argh!"

Danny fell to his knees, his body twitching a bit.

"D-Danny!" Agunimon exclaimed as he got to his feet. He wanted to help Danny, but then Bertrand pounced on Agunimon, pinning him down to the ground on his back. "H-hey! Get off, you misery leech!"

"Not until I finish you off, you meddling digital being!" Bertrand growled. "Do you honestly think you and your cousin could finish us off!? You're both nothing more than frightened little kids!"

Bertrand's claws slashed at Agunimon's armor.

Agunimon grunted as he felt his chest armor get penetrated, but no blood was drawn yet, thankfully. "You're wrong! We're not frightened kids!" He exclaimed, but he could feel his heart/whatever was in his chest racing frantically. Agunimon was sure his voice also betrayed his fear, despite his best efforts to sound confident and not scared.

Danny flew up, having recovered from the electric shock earlier. He grabbed his Fenton Thermos, intending to catch Bertrand while he was distracted with Agunimon. However, Spectra grabbed him from behind. Danny yelped as Spectra dragged him to a window of the school building.

"Let go of me!" Danny shouted as he struggled against Spectra's hold.

"Why would I do that? Your doubt, your misery, it's delicious!" Spectra purred, keeping an iron grip on the ghost boy. "And I'm going to make sure you witness the death of your sister~"

In the gym, Jazz was making her speech. At the same time, Spectra brought Danny up to the window to make sure he could see, and hear, the speech Jazz was making.

"In this, our centennial year, we pay tribute to the past with these ceremonial dominoes, each of which will fall into the next one and finally trigger the ceremonial Spirit Sparklers." Jazz said as she gave her opening speech before pointing at the 'Spirit Sparklers', which were in reality just giant death lasers.

Mr. Lancer gave a cheer when no one else did at the end of the speech, before frowning and just pushing over the first domino to begin the chain of events.

As the dominos were falling, Jazz continued with her speech. "But it's more than just paying tribute to the past. Spirit week is also about how one person can help another raise their spirits. Many people may not realize it, their own emotional and mental health can affect those around them, whether positively or negatively. It's important to pay attention to one's mind and emotions just as much as studying, working, and scoring a touchdown in Football. How does one become an A student? Or a star quarterback? They would need the proper mindset, and people around them to lift them up when they're feeling down. I know people who try their hardest to help those in need without expecting anything back. They have strong hearts and spirits, but they can also break. That's why it's important for people to raise each other up rather than try to tear each other down. Never forget that you're your own individual, and you decide your own fate, your own future, not anyone else."

Danny, upon hearing this speech, felt bad he had been lashing out because of Spectra. But at the same time, he could tell Jazz was proud of him, but he needed to be able to accept her help, as well as the help of his friends.

While Danny was starting to have his epiphany, Spectra decided to try to bring him back down. "When that silly speech is over, and the last domino falls on the activation button, the machines will vaporize the speaker. There will be nothing you can do about it, and you'll be sure it'll be all your fault~ You're nothing but a failure after all~"

"No… No, I'm not a failure…" Danny muttered to himself. "I am so tired of you dumping on me, and I am tired of dumping on myself." He then looked at Jazz who was watching the dominoes fall. "Jazz never did that, nor did Andy, even when he was shocked and disheartened. Takuya never did that either, and I won't let them down!"

Danny suddenly got a burst of energy and was able to throw Spectra off of him.

Spectra frowned, she hadn't expected Danny to be able to push her off like that. "Don't think you're going to get off so easily!"

"And I'll make sure you'll never work as any kind of therapist ever again!" Danny shouted back.

Agunimon managed to kick Bertrand off of him, and he heard Danny's shout. It was different from before, it sounded full of conviction and determination.

Getting to his feet, Agunimon looked up and saw Danny seemed to have regained his senses, which was a relief to the Digimon. A grin crossed Agunimon's face at this. Maybe we can beat these two after all!

"Same goes for me!" Agunimon added as his face became serious as he shouted to Spectra as well. "You're too toxic to the kids here!"

Bertrand shook his head a bit and decided to try a different form. He transformed himself into a stereotypical ninja, with a nunchuck. He swung his nunchuck around to show off a bit to Agunimon.

Agunimon just rolled his blue eyes at the attempted intimidation trick before he jumped up and began to call forth fire from his armor on his shoulders, wrists, knees, and ankles. "Time to end this! Pyro Tornado!" Fire enveloped Agunimon as it became a fiery twister.

Bertrand yelped, not having expected such a powerful fire attack. He was quickly sucked into the fiery tornado, which burned most of his body.

When Agunimon finished his attack, Bertrand fell to the ground, turning back to his blob form. Danny, seeing this, opened his Fenton Thermos and pointed it at the weakened Bertrand. The light from the thermos shot out and grabbed onto Bertrand, who was too weak to resist the pull, and was quickly sucked into the thermos in front of Spectra.

Danny closed the Fenton Thermos and looked at Spectra. "Doesn't feel so good to lose someone you're close to, does it?"

Spectra had watched this with horror on her face before she lunged at Danny. "You… little brat!" She shouted only for Danny to dodge her attempt to grab him.

While that was going on, Agunimon saw Spectra flying over him and reached up, grabbing her tail. "It's time for you to stop telling those kids your sweet lies!" He hissed before he threw Spectra into a dumpster. "And stay in there, with the rest of your trash!"

Spectra, of course, wasn't going to be taken out so easily. She phased out of the dumpster and glared. Her hands sparked with strong electricity. "Say goodnight."

Meanwhile, Andy saw the dominos falling. He knew he had to do something soon. He got up from his seat on the bleacher, and started moving towards the stage. Mr. Lancer was currently distracted with the dominos, so Andy hoped he could use the distraction to his advantage.

Andy had to move slowly so Mr. Lancer wouldn't notice him, but he couldn't move too slow or his sister would be vaporized before he could get to her. The clock was ticking with each domino that fell. What I wouldn't give for ghost powers right now!

Not that Andy meant that, but having the ability to be invisible would've been really handy right now.

There weren't that many dominoes left, at the rate Andy was going, it was going to be too late. Eff it!

Andy, seeing that his sister's life was on the line, didn't care about getting in trouble with Mr. Lancer. The boy booked it towards the stage. Mr. Lancer looked up, seeing Andy running to the stage. "Hey! Where are you going?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Lancer, but I have to save Jazz!" Andy quickly said, knowing there wasn't time to explain.

Mr. Lancer wanted to run to stop Andy, but the last domino was falling now and he wanted to see the Spirit Sparklers go off too, so he was torn on what to do.

The last domino seemed to fall in slow motion as Andy raced to save Jazz.

The Spirit Sparklers powered up as the last domino hit the activation button. But there was something… off… with the Spirit Sparklers, as the lights seemed to get bigger and more concentrated, pointed at Jazz instead of up into the air.

"Jazz!" Andy shouted.

At the very last second, Andy shoved Jazz out of the way with his momentum as he jumped to shove her away. The two of them were knocked to the floor as the 'Spirit Sparklers' shot out giant beams that hit where Jazz had been standing mere milliseconds earlier.

Jazz yelped when Andy pushed her down. However, things weren't quite over yet. A shadow hand reached up from the ground and grabbed onto Jazz's leg. Since Andy was still on Jazz, both he and Jazz were turned intangible and dragged down.

Both of them yelped when they hit the floor and some boxes.

"Ow…" Jazz groaned. "What the heck just happened?"

Andy frowned, rubbing his sore body. Is this the storage room? How'd we get down here?

"Andy? What did you do?" Jazz asked.

"You were about to be vaporized by the 'spirit sparklers'," Andy answered. "I pushed you out of the way, but… I don't know how we ended up here."

"Wait… what?" Jazz blinked, feeling like her brain was having a disconnect. "I could've died back there?" Her brain was trying to process what had just nearly happened to her. "That's… got to be a joke… right? I mean… that can't be possible, right?"

"Get a hold of yourself, Jazz!" Andy spoke up, trying to calm his sister down. "This isn't the time to be freaking out. I don't think we got down here by normal means…"

Jazz, realizing Andy was right, took a few deep breaths before she calmed down. "Okay, you're right. I can't freak out right now." She then looked around them both, taking in their location. "How did we get down here?"

Before Andy could make a guess, black claws suddenly grabbed his shoulders, which was also quite painful to the boy, and dragged him out of the room. Andy let out a surprised scream as he was being dragged out, and pinned against a wall in the hallway.

The heck!? Andy frowned as he managed to see his assailant.

It was some kind of shadow ghost with piercing red eyes. It looked feminine somehow though, with purple… lipstick? There was something familiar about this ghost.

"Look at you," The ghost stated in a very… Spectra-like voice. "Look at how helpless you are. Not a genius in the family, not someone with any kind of special powers, you're just an ordinary boy trying too hard to play hero. What do you think will happen once your brother and cousin start to realize you're no help to them? Just a burden to them?"

"I'm not a burden!" Andy argued, though inwardly he wasn't sure, he hadn't been sure if he had been all that helpful to Agunimon or Phantom. It was why he had been pushing to train with them so much, he wanted to be useful to them.

"Oh, you're not? Then why do they always feel like they have to protect you or worry about you? Because you can't take care of yourself, you're too weak! Who would want someone as weak as you in a battle against superior beings like me?" Spectra grinned as she absorbed Andy's doubt and insecurities, making her feel younger and stronger.

Andy began to feel like he was in a daze. He could almost hear Danny and Takuya's voices telling him he should stay back while they handle everything. That he was just human, he should stay behind. After all, he did have to convince them both earlier that he could take care of Jazz. Maybe he really was just a burden to them.

"Hey! Let Andy go!" Jazz's voice shouted at Spectra. "He's not a burden to anyone!"

Jazz knew she had to do something. The ghost didn't look like she was inclined to let Andy go, and Andy didn't look like he was going to put up much of a struggle with how much she was eating away at his psyche. I guess now's as good a time as any to try out that Fenton Peeler.

Jazz took out the Fenton Peeler and held it in her hand. "I hope this works." She muttered to herself as she pressed the activation button. Armor began to come out of the Fenton Peeler and cover Jazz's body. Jazz watched the process in fascination. "This is… interesting… and weird…"

Finally, the armor fully formed as the helmet came over Jazz's head and a clear glass face covering came down over her face to protect it from ecto-radiation.

Jazz fired the Fenton Peeler at Spectra, who let go of Andy when she saw this. The Fenton Peeler shot out a green blast of energy at Spectra, who let out a scream of pain and agony as her body suddenly split like a banana peel, revealing the human skin she wore, but then it peeled off of her too, showing an older looking human version of her. Then the skin peeled more and more, showing an older version each time of the ghost, until all that was left was a frail, old woman with white hair, and very wrinkly skin.

Andy coughed a bit, having taken some of the ecto-radiation from the blast due to being so close to it without any protection. Dang it… I'll need to check for radiation poisoning when we get back home.

Although, Andy was more focused on Spectra herself, or what became of her by the time the Peeler was done with her. "Oh jeez… is that what Spectra actually looks like?"

Jazz, who had seen the whole thing happen in front of her, felt disturbed. "Wow, no wonder she was feeding on misery." Jazz commented, not sure what to make of this.

"Ah! Noooo! I am nothing without my youth!" The old lady that was Spectra yelled in despair.

Andy and Jazz looked at Spectra for a moment, confused.

"But… I thought you're a ghost… How are you so old?" Andy asked.

"I'm not a ghost, you rude little brat! I'm human! I…" Spectra frowned. "Well I'm not really a human anymore, not since I sold my soul to a powerful ghost who promised me I would have the ability to be young forever!"

Jazz frowned. Is that possible? Well, one of my baby brothers is half ghost, so it may not be impossible for a human to get ghostly powers for a reason like that. But it's still disturbing to say the least.

"I guess ghosts can come into existence in all sorts of ways…" Andy frowned, feeling more pity for Spectra than anything. "One who feeds on misery is miserable themselves."

Spectra glared. "I can still suck you dry!"

Spectra began to, weakly, reach out for Andy and Jazz, but then a sudden blue light grabbed her. Spectra screamed as she was suddenly sucked into the blue light, which went into… a Fenton Thermos.

Andy and Jazz blinked, surprised, but relieved to see Danny standing there. He looked a little beaten up, and his hair was extra spiky, but he looked overall fine. Agunimon was behind him, his own blonde hair looking spikier than usual as well.

"Is everyone alright?" Agunimon asked as he finally stepped forwards a bit more. He wasn't sure if Andy was really alright or not, and he just wanted to run and hug the boy.

"We're alright now. You guys got some good timing." Andy smiled. "You should've seen what Jazz did though! She used the Fenton Peeler and was all cool with it, peeling Spectra into nothing but a miserable old lady!"

Jazz was blushing. "I-it wasn't that amazing. I just couldn't stand by and let her rip your psyche apart like that."

Danny winced. "I guess Dad wasn't lying when he said the Fenton Peeler peels a ghost like an onion." He muttered. "I'd hate to be on the receiving end of that."

Agunimon blinked before he busted out laughing. "Seriously?! That's awesome! Talk about a deserving punishment!"

"Although, Spectra said she was human," Andy said as he frowned. "But she gave her soul away just so she could stay young forever, or at least have the ability to make herself stay young. I guess that meant gaining ghost traits, as well as a ghostly form like with Danny. That would explain why she became old when Jazz used the Peeler on her."

Agunimon's laughter stopped as he heard Andy's words and a slight frown crossed his own face. "Then, she became part ghost in a way? That's… freaky… even for me to hear."

Danny frowned as well. "Now I feel somewhat sorry for Spectra, even if what she did was cruel to the other students here."

"Spectra made her choice though," Andy sighed. "But hopefully being in the Ghost Zone will help her become a better ghost and not rely on sucking people dry of emotions to remain young and happy. This is just a theory, but maybe the ectoplasm in the Ghost Zone will help her maintain her body better."

"I'll be sure to put her and Bertrand there once we go home," Danny promised.

"For now, I should get Jazz back to the gym. I'm sure a lot of people are worried about her," Andy suggested. "And you need to find a place to de-transform. And Agunimon, you… uh, need to leave before someone sees you."

Agunimon nodded before he looked back at Jazz one last time, a concerned look on his face before it became a small smile and he waved at her before running off.

Danny, on the other hand, transformed back to his human form. "Whew… That was a bit of a tough fight, but I'm glad you were able to save Jazz, bro."

I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing Phantom become Danny and vice versa. Andy thought. Then again, I think I will, it'll just take some time to get used to it.

Jazz seemed a little surprised that Danny transformed, even though she knew it was him. She wasn't quite used to it either.

"It was a close call," Andy admitted. "Jazz didn't take it too well."

"I mean I almost died," Jazz replied, remembering that she had a near death experience. "No offense, Danny, but I would rather not add another ghost child to our family any time soon."

Is it okay to make dead jokes like that around Danny? Andy blinked.

Danny blinked before he chuckled a bit. "I get what you mean. Having one ghost around is bad enough, but two? No thanks."

Andy rolled his eyes. "We should-"

"There you are!" Mr. Lancer spoke up, holding a couple of pom-poms as he ran over to the Fenton siblings. "Oh, I see your brothers are here too. Well done on the disappearing act, Ms. Fenton. Everyone's waiting for you~"

Jazz blinked before she remembered the students and her speech. "Oh! Right! The speech! Let's go, boys!"

Mr. Lancer, Jazz, Andy, and Danny rushed to the gym. Takuya came out from a janitor's closet, groaning a bit since he had some cleaning spray on him. He coughed a bit, and saw everyone rushing to the gym. The boy ran after them.

When the group reached the gym, Jazz was surprised, and happy to see all the students on the bleachers were cheering for Jazz. Their gloomy expressions were gone, their vibrant color appeared to have returned to them as well.

"Hey! There she is!" Tucker pointed out, looking much happier himself.

"Huh… I wonder if taking Spectra's youth away made it so everyone forgot what she said to them," Andy remarked in interest.

Danny smiled. "Well, whatever the cause, I'm just glad everyone is back to normal." He said with a grin. "It was getting a bit much with all the gloom and doom hanging over everyone."

"I know, right?" Takuya chuckled.

"Takuya? Where'd you come from?" Jazz asked, surprised by her cousin's appearance.

"Um… I got stuffed in a janitor's closet…" Takuya muttered, rubbing the back of his head, sheepishly.

"How… oh, nevermind," Jazz shook her head.

"It's nice to see everyone's mood is lifted, as though some gloomy malevolence had been shooed away," Mr. Lancer commented in relief, he had been getting very worried for the students. "I didn't know you and your brothers had a disappearing act set up for the speech, but it worked marvelously. Everyone's got their spirit back."

"Well, it was more of an improv than a staged act," Andy replied sheepishly. "But it's good to see it worked out."

"Whatever works, I'm just glad everyone's cheerful again." Jazz smiled.

Danny smiled too. Seeing how Jazz, Andy, and Takuya now knew his secret, he felt a weight that had been on him for a while had lifted. He no longer had to keep his identity as Danny and Phantom separate from his brother, and while that did cause some turmoil between him and Andy, he knew they would be alright. Things could've turned out a lot worse if he had handled that poorly. Hopefully this means things will look up in the future for them.

---

Later that night, after Danny released Bertrand and Spectra into the Ghost Zone, Danny decided to do some night flying. It wasn't just for patrol, however, he really felt like he could just fly around and enjoy the night sky. Since Andy now knew his secret, he told Andy he would be out for about an hour.

Andy looked out the window to see his brother flying around in the sky in a much more carefree way than he had ever seen Phantom fly before. Although Andy needed to get used to calling 'Phantom' 'Danny' now, they were the same person after all, and he still needed to get used to the fact that Phantom was his brother.

Since Ph- Danny was out right now, Andy gave a bored sigh. He couldn't exactly train without Danny, at least not effectively, and since he knew Phantom wasn't going to be waiting for him at the park anymore, he decided to turn on his computer and surf the internet. It had been a while since Andy focused on any kind of gaming since the lab accident, he had been a bit too hyper focused on helping Phantom with his goal of catching ghosts to help Amity Park. It was mostly because Andy had been worried about Phantom being lonely, and he didn't want Phantom to end up thinking nobody cared about him.

But since now Andy knew Phantom was Danny (it was still weird thinking that), Andy didn't have to worry about that anymore. It was a bit sad, but also very relieving knowing that Phantom wasn't alone and just waiting for either a ghost to attack or Andy to visit him. It gave Andy a chance to relax and focus a little more on himself again. Andy hadn't realized how often he had been focusing on ghosts and Phantom until he actually sat down to look at the usual websites he liked going to. It had been a few months since he looked on the websites and saw a lot of new updates and contents.

One website he was looking at sold new video games, mostly games one would play on a computer. Andy could see there was a new shooter game called 'Doomed'. It was mostly a multiplayer online game. Though Andy had never really been interested in shooter games, that was more Danny's shtick. There was one game that caught his attention, however, it was a game he had been following since last year. It was supposedly an MMO game called Ruler of the Digital World. It was advertised to have several different monsters, though players could only have one. The monster and the player supposedly must choose each other, then they would go on a grand adventure together to fight against bad monsters that want to harm them and the Digital World. There were going to be a lot of side quests from NPC monsters that live in the world. The only humans they would see are other players. They could befriend or battle against other players, they could even team up with other players and their monsters. The players are to also take care of their monsters, almost like a 'raise your monster' kind of simulation. The monster could evolve differently depending on how well they're cared for.

The game, however, was still in development last time Andy checked. It had sounded really interesting to him, so he had been waiting to hear about the game's progress. So he was surprised to see the devs were going to release a beta of Rules of the Digital World soon.

Andy smiled when he saw that they also prepared a trailer for the upcoming beta. He was about to click on it when Takuya suddenly walked into his room, groaning.

"I'm kinda bored…" Takuya muttered.

"Really? You can't think of anything else to do?" Andy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I got so used to going out or training that it's weird having all this free time now," Takuya admitted sheepishly.

"Well, how about you check out this trailer for Ruler of the Digital World?" Andy suggested. "It'll give you something to look forward to. I know you're a bit of a sucker for monster games, you used to have that Tamagachi that you wouldn't even let Shinya borrow."

Takuya blushed at the reminder of his antics towards his little brother. "Don't go there…" He muttered before he processed the rest of Andy's words. "Wait… There's a trailer for something called 'Rules of the Digital World'? Let me see!" He exclaimed as he pushed his way into Andy's personal space.

"Hey, hey! Don't smash yourself into me! Go grab Danny's computer chair and roll it over here!" Andy grumbled, pushing Takuya back a bit.

Takuya grabbed Danny's chair and rolled it over before sitting down. "Let's see this trailer then. I haven't heard of a game similar to those Tamagotchi I used to have before."

"Well it's more than just a Tamagachi, but I'll let the trailer speak for itself," Andy chuckled before he clicked to view the trailer.

The trailer began to play. The camera was panning across a forest-like world, then it would fade out, and fade back in to show the ocean, then it would do the same thing as it showcase more parts of the Digital World. There was a big grassy field, a beach, islands scattered around the ocean, mountains, deserts, places covered in snow, and a huge jungle. Then the camera showed a large castle in the distance, and buildings of what looked like a town. The camera didn't get close to the town, but from what Andy and Takuya could make out, there were monsters in the town living like any civilization would.

Big fancy words began to pop on screen that read out 'Explore', then it showed the camera swiping across a grassy field while the sun was setting.

'Find a Monster', the camera showed what looked to be a pink bird monster flying in the air, then a yellow caterpillar monster climbing up a tree, and then a yellow looking lizard wearing some kind of wolf pelt on its upper half, with a unicorn-like horn sticking out of its head.

'Battle and Evolve!' The camera then showed a rock looking monster glowing brightly, covering itself in some kind of ribbon-like cocoon… that looked an awful lot like the cocoon Takuya was always covered in whenever he Spirit Evolved into Agunimon. Once the cocoon dissipated, the rock monster was now a huge four-legged dinosaur that looked similar to a triceratops, only it wasn't a triceratops, it was a different kind of dinosaur. But it wasn't like Andy memorized every single dinosaur's name. But it was rather amazing how much the monster had changed upon evolving. The camera showed another rock monster that also evolved, but instead of becoming the four-legged dinosaur, it became a bigger rock monster, but was a brighter shade of gray.

'But can you find, and defeat, the 3 Celestial Monsters?' The camera showed shots of 3 different castles in 3 different locations. The camera showed 3 large silhouettes, two of them looked like some kind of angelic figures with several wings. But the last one looked to be the biggest one of them all, and this one looked like some kind of rabbit monster with the long ears, though it seemed to have very large hands on the side.

'Whoever can defeat the 3 Celestial Monsters will be crowned as the Ruler of the Digital World! You must team up, battle, train, collect resources, and explore to become the number 1 player, and ruler, of the Digital World!'

The camera faded to black, showing the trailer had ended.

Takuya had been staring in shock at what he had seen, mostly about that rock monster evolving. It had been so similar to his own evolution, it was uncanny. "No… way…" He breathed before he felt himself shaking with some kind of emotion. Whether it was excitement or nervousness, he didn't care.

"Andy!" Takuya exclaimed as he grabbed Andy by his shoulders. "We have to check out that game when it comes out!"

"Dude, calm down before you start shaking me!" Andy yelped. "Jeez, I knew you'd be excited, but you're acting like this is going to be the biggest thing in the world."

Takuya grinned sheepishly as he released Andy's shoulders. "Sorry, Andy. I guess I just got caught up in the excitement." He chuckled sheepishly. "But you have to admit, seeing that one rock monster evolve… It reminded me of how I evolve when I become Agunimon. Maybe… Maybe this might give us some answers on why I can become a Digimon. I mean… don't you find it odd that a human like me has this… ability?"

"I found it odd since you picked up that figurine that was apparently hidden in the school's meat locker," Andy deadpanned. "Asking me if I find it odd now is just an obvious question. We hardly know anything about it, or about Digimon in general. You as Agunimon have been the only Digimon we had seen, and we wouldn't even know it if Vlad hadn't told us."

Takuya blushed a little.

"But I'm not sure how your spirit evolving and that rock monster evolving are connected. Sure they look similar during the process, but it's a game that isn't even out yet," Andy pointed out.

"It's just… weird how the process looks so similar to my evolution," Takuya admitted. "Are you sure it's just a coincidence?"

Andy frowned a little. "Well… what exactly are you hoping for?"

"I'm… kinda hoping I can get a better understanding of what I can do… and… what a Digimon really is." Takuya admitted. "And this game sounds like it may be a step forward in that. I don't know how, but… I just have a feeling this game has more to it than it seems."

Takuya wondered if Andy thought he may sound crazy since he was looking far too deep into a trailer of a game that hasn't even come out yet. Andy looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I suppose the only way to find out is to play the beta when it comes out then," Andy shrugged. "I had always planned to play it once it came out."

Takuya grinned. "Really? That's great. I… Um… would you mind if I joined you when you play?"

"You'll have to get it on your own computer to create your own avatar in the Digital World," Andy replied. "Playing it on my computer would result in only one of us being able to play it."

Takuya blushed pink at that. "Oh… right…" He muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well… It's not a problem then, since I have my own laptop I brought with me."

"You should have at least about 30 dollars," Andy said. "The game is going to cost about 29.99, and it comes with a virtual helmet that you'll need to play the game."

"30 dollars?" Takuya blinked. "For a beta version of the game?"

"I mean the game looks pretty advanced for a beta version, and it comes with a physical item that's needed to play it. If anything, I think 30 dollars is a steal," Andy chuckled sheepishly. "Normally for something like the virtual helmet alone would be hundreds of dollars."

Takuya rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I guess I can cough up 30 dollars then for the beta. It would be worth it if this game was as advertised."

"Yeah. I've been saving up all the money I got from doing chores and odd jobs since last year," Andy chuckled. "Mom and Dad don't give allowances, so I had to earn the money somehow."

Takuya grinned back. "Hey, at least the game will be more worth all that hard work then since you earned that money yourself~" He teased.

"Heh, yeah, I suppose so," Andy chuckled sheepishly. "Sometimes they'll give us small bits of cash if we ask for it to get a quick meal at the Nasty Burger or something though. Although I wonder if Danny is interested in the Ruler of the Digital World? I told him about it, but he hadn't really said anything about it. He said he was interested in Doomed."

"I don't know. I think he might be, but who knows?" Takuya shrugged. "Danny seems to be more into games like Doomed, but we'll see."

"Well, at least we know Danny's feeling pretty free right now," Andy chuckled.

Takuya sighed when he saw Danny flying in the sky out the window. "It'd be nice to fly."

"Yeah, I'm sure it would be," Andy agreed. "You can keep trying to work on the whole rocket feet thing, but it'd be easier if you were built for flying."

"Yeah, it would," Takuya agreed with a grumble. "I mean, sure, Agunimon is powerful and fast, but flight in that form is just not easy. If only I had wings or something in that form…"

"Well hey, if you are like the monsters in Ruler of the Digital World, maybe you'll keep evolving until you get a form that lets you fly," Andy optimistically pointed out.

Takuya grinned at hearing that. "Maybe I will~ That would be sweet if I could!" He grinned. "I really can't wait to try out that game now!"

---

It looked like things were going well… that is until the next day at Casper High, the bell rang for the end of a class. Danny, however, bolted out of the door screaming before he took off running. Then a tall, dark skinned jock came running out screaming as well, but he was screaming for a different reason. He was squeezing a piece of paper in his hand, wrinkling it badly. The jock ran after Danny.

"You can keep running, Fenton, but I will catch you and take this D I got on our math test out of your hide!" The jock shouted angrily.

"If it's not Dash, it's Calvin…" Danny groaned. "Why do these jocks always gotta come after me whenever they fail!?"

As Calvin chased Danny, Valerie was walking up to Paulina and Kwan, wearing a nice designer purple t-shirt and looking quite proud of it.

"Hey, Valerie!" Paulina said before she saw the shirt Valerie was wearing. "Oh, my gosh! I so love that top!"

"Isn't it sweet?" Valerie agreed. "Almost 600 dollars, and worth every one of my dad's pennies!"

Dash and Kwan were standing next to each other. Dash was glaring at the D he got in his math test, he had been tempted to beat up Fenton for it, but one of the Fenton twins still scared him. He assured everyone it was just a prank, but Dash remembered what he saw. Andy had turned into a real dragon, he was bigger than the school, and was easily destroying the walls like they were nothing. The school had construction work on the walls, that was no special effect. So to make sure he didn't anger a potential dragon, Dash decided not to go chasing anyone and just deal with his own failing grade. If any jock was foolish enough to chase after one of the Fentons, they were dragon chow.

Danny came running down the hallway, but he didn't see the small crowd ahead of him and was trying to stop before he ran into them. However, the janitor just finished mopping the floor, so the floor was a bit too slippery and Danny couldn't stop right away, instead, he slid right into Paulina. Paulina yelped as she ended up slamming into Valerie, which caused Valerie to fall onto the wet floor with her new top.

Valerie looked quite unhappy at seeing her new top ruined. "Ugh… Great… My new top is ruined!" She groaned while glaring at Danny. She wanted to have Kwan or Dash beat up Danny, but Dash had been playing careful around the Fenton twins lately, and she was not sure if Kwan would do as she asked.

Kwan looked at Valerie. "Valerie, accidents happen, it's not like he did it on purpose."

Hearing this, Valerie groaned. "I know, but it still cost me my new top!"

"If it'll make you feel better, I can rough him up a bit," Kwan sighed.

"Then do it!" Valerie snapped.

Danny was already running in the opposite direction. Kwan called out, "FENTON!"

"Dude, you're dragon chow," Dash muttered, but didn't stop Kwan from chasing after Danny.

Of course, with Kwan coming after him, and Calvin still running at him, Danny was sandwiched between the two, and he was in trouble. Even if he used his ghost powers to escape, they would catch him in the act.

"Yes, that button right there," Tucker said to Andy, who was just around the corner.

"Okay, Takuya, now!" Andy quickly said.

Andy pushed a button on Tucker's PDA, showing a holograph of a dragon. It roared at Kwan and Calvin. Danny stopped and Andy grabbed him from behind, pulling him away from the jocks. At the same time, Takuya, as Agunimon hiding in the shadows, used his Pyro Darts to make the holographic dragon's fire breath appear real.

Dash, seeing the 'dragon', screamed as did Calvin and Kwan. All three boys ran away from the 'dragon', which faded.

Danny peered out, seeing that the three jocks were gone. He sighed in relief. "Wow… that was close…" He muttered before looking at Andy. "Man, bro, you're milking this dragon thing for all its worth."

"I didn't know it was going to be a dragon," Andy huffed in annoyance. "Tucker, you said it was going to be a holograph of a man using a flamethrower!"

"Hey, a dragon is way more effective considering your little dragon incident~" Tucker grinned.

"I don't need people thinking I'm still pulling a stupid dragon prank!" Andy grumbled.

Takuya, who reverted back to his human form, came up with a goofy grin. "He's right though. The dragon does seem to be more effective~ Look how fast it made those three jocks run away from you~"

"Next time I'm going to check the holograph myself before I use it," Andy huffed.

"At least you got Danny away from them," Tucker pointed out. "So that's all that counts, right?"

"Hey! That dragon was just a prank!" They heard Calvin shout. "Let's teach those punks a lesson for trying to trick us!"

"We might want to get away from here," Andy quickly said. "Danny? Maybe you can use your ghost powers to get us-"

"Already on it!" Danny quickly said as he grabbed onto Andy, Tucker, and Takuya before turning them all intangible and dragged through through the wall, bringing them outside.

Once outside, Danny returned everyone to a tangible state. "There we are~ Hope you enjoyed Phantom Flight~"

Takuya grumbled. "I hate going through walls and stuff…" He muttered, shivering at the idea of it. "As cool as it is being able to become intangible, it feels weird going through structures and the ground."

"Couldn't you have just used your powers to turn us invisible?" Andy asked, rubbing himself to make sure all of his body parts made it through the wall.

"Oh… I thought you wanted us to get away from there," Danny chuckled sheepishly.

"But hey, going through walls isn't too bad," Tucker remarked. "I mean I've done it before."

Before anyone could reply to that, Danny's ghost sense came out of his mouth, quickly alerting the group that a ghost was nearby.

Takuya perked up as he felt the chills and heat run down his spine, but it was not as intense as it usually was.

Tucker saw Danny's ghost sense go off and became a bit worried. "Um… a ghost attack right now?"

"I hope not…" Danny muttered before he looked down and saw what looked like a glowing green puppy that had a black spiked collar around its neck and red irises in its eyes. It had its purple tongue hanging out of its mouth and its tail was wagging happily.

"Is that… a dog?" Tucker blinked.

"Awww, it's a cute little puppy!" Takuya cooed.

The little green puppy looked friendly, despite the eerie glow of its skin, and the eerie red pupils it had. Although Andy looked at the tag on its collar. It had the same logo as the Axion Labs. That made Andy feel a little… queasy on what a ghost puppy with a collar with that logo meant.

"It could be dangerous," Andy warned. "What should we do with it?"

"I don't know, but we can't just leave it here." Danny said as he picked up the ghostly puppy.

Takuya reached out to pat the puppy on the head. "Hey, there~ Aren't you the cute one~"

Danny grinned as the puppy began to lick his face as Takuya patted its head.

"Now this I can handle easily. It's just a ghost puppy, right?" Danny chuckled to the others.

The ghost pup began sniffing around, like it was looking for something. Then it got some kind of scent that seemed to anger it. The ghost pup growled before it suddenly grew in size, making it larger than a truck, and it looked a lot more vicious too.

"You were saying?" Tucker frowned, looking at Danny.

If Danny had a curse word right now, that would've been the perfect time to use it.

---

At Axion Labs, Damon Gray was walking through the halls with his boss, Valerie, and some of their security team behind him. "Digital surveillance, retinal access portals, titanium doors, and laser deterrents. As promised, this is the most secure facility in the United States."

While Valerie was walking along and listening to the security system her father was listing off, still wearing her new, yet messed up top from the incident at school today, she couldn't help but look back a bit. She could see the buffed security guards walking behind her. They looked like they meant business, and she did feel a little uncomfortable around them. But something else was nagging at her.

Valerie may not be the smartest cookie at school, those would be the nerds who did most of the popular kids' homework. Although Valerie herself usually preferred doing her own homework because if she didn't, she would never be prepared for the actual tests. But even she knew it was a bit weird how much her father was relying on technology to keep everything safe. Not because she didn't think it wouldn't work well, but because these days, there had been a lot of very skilled hackers that were able to hack through even the most secure system. Maybe she was overthinking it and watched too much TV. But that wasn't the only thing that bothered her, not that she was going to say anything.

"Well done, Damon." The bald Caucasian man in the light gray suit said. "You can feel free to bill me the remainder of your fee."

Valerie grinned at hearing that news. "And that means I can replace this top!" She said with a bit of glee.

Although Valerie was happy she could replace the top, she was still a bit ticked off that she just bought it for almost 600 dollars only for it to get ruined the next day. She supposed that was how high school was, chaotic, especially with the strange things that had been going on lately, like the weird monster attacks, and thinking suddenly seemingly coming to life at school. Perhaps she shouldn't be wearing such expensive, new clothing to school for a while.

"It's good to know those smelly security dogs are a thing of the past," The bald man remarked with a grin.

There was the other thing that had bothered Valerie about all of this. While the man didn't outright say it, she couldn't help but worry about what happened to the security dogs that were 'no longer needed'. She hoped that the dogs were just retired and were taken home by the people who trained them, or at the very least, put up for adoption. However, she also knew it was more likely the dogs were taken to be 'put to sleep'. But she tried not to think about that. After all, Damon's technology that replaced the dogs was what was keeping them from going broke. So it was either the dogs or them, Valerie supposed, though she wished there was a way for both of them to 'win', so to speak.

But as soon as the bald man had said those words, there was loud barking as the solid titanium doors were suddenly attacked. The doors looked like they were giving under some sort of strong force, and many dents could be seen.

Suddenly, something fell through the door as if the door was a hologram or something. The being fell just in front of Valerie and the security guards. Everyone was looking down at the being in shock, it looked like a teenage boy, but there was something very off about him. He had this strange glow to him that wasn't normal, he also had glowing green, neon pupils that Valerie had never seen on any normal human before, and his hair was as white as snow, which made Valerie unsure if he was meant to be some kind of miniature grandpa that looked young. Not to mention the weird, tacky black and white jumpsuit he was wearing.

Since the adults were too in shock at the fact some teenager went through the titanium door, Valerie was the first one to speak up. "What are you? Some kind of weirdo going to a costume party?"

The teenager blinked. "Um… is this really the best time to ask me questions?" He asked as he stood up. "You'd better get out of here before those doors give out!"

"That's impossible! Nothing short of military might could get through those-" Damon began to say when the doors were busted open.

Danny quickly pushed the humans down before the doors could slam into them. Beyond the broken doors was a giant, neon green and black looking bulldog. Its pure red eyes were glaring at them in anger, but especially at Damon and the bald man. However, the dog didn't attack them, instead it started to leak out some kind of green liquid from its mouth before it shook its head, causing the green liquid to go all over the place, splattering a few people, including Valerie.

Danny wanted to make a quip to Valerie, but he held his tongue, because he didn't want to make her mad at him anymore than she probably was.

"Um… don't worry. That can wash out…" Danny said nervously.

But Valerie only yelled, though Danny couldn't tell if it was out of anger or shock, most likely it was both. Danny wanted to help her, but the dog was on the move. And unfortunately for him, neither Andy nor Takuya could follow him into the Axion Lab due to all the security, so Danny had to handle this alone.

"Um… No, bad dog! Hey! Heel! Get back here!" Danny called as he ran after the dog, which took off down the hall.

The giant ghost dog appeared to be ignoring Danny as it kept running forward. Danny could see the dog was turning itself intangible as it was approaching another solid looking door, so Danny turned intangible as well as he could keep chasing after the dog.

Why am I running? It'd be a lot faster to fly after the dog. Danny frowned to himself as he realized he had just been running instead of flying. Andy would be going Testlaff on me if he saw this.

Danny jumped and flew after the dog, catching up to it, but even though he grabbed the dog's collar, the ghost dog kept going. Both of them went through the door, and the dog grabbed onto a model skeleton right away, probably thinking it looked good to chew on. But the dog's immense strength caused… a lot of chaos. There were scientists in the room doing research, and none of them had been prepared for two ghosts to suddenly enter the room. Cabinet shelves started falling over like dominos, desks and tables were being crushed, papers and vials were flying everywhere.

Darn it! Why is this dog so strong!? Danny groaned.

Danny was very tempted to turn the dog intangible so it wouldn't hurt anyone or destroy anything else, but before he could, the door opened and in came the security team. "Halt! HALT!" One of the guards said before firing a red laser ray at Danny and the ghost dog.

"Cut it out, you stupid mutt!" Danny whined, not enjoying being shot at while being dragged around on a giant green ghost dog.

Valerie had no idea what was going on, or why this was happening. All she knew was that this weird teenager and his dog were destroying everything and seemed to be evading every security system known to man.

"Stand back everyone, the state of the art security system can stop anything!" Damon quickly said, though he was a little hesitant because he didn't want to hurt a teenager, but he can see this may not be a teenager but something that looked like a teen.

Whatever the case may be, Damon had to stop them or he was fired. The man pushed a button on the wall, the alarms went off and a black disco ball looking thing came down from the ceiling and started firing red lasers everywhere. If this didn't stop the boy and his mutt, nothing would.

The green dog looked concerned before it turned itself, and Danny, intangible as the lasers passed through the duo. A net launcher came down and launched a green net at the two ghosts, but they just phased through the net with ease. Once out of danger, the two ghosts vanished through the wall, leaving behind a destroyed facility.

Although the disco laser ball just fell down from the ceiling for some reason after it stopped firing, which didn't seem like a very good security system.

Valerie, who was stuck in the net with her father, the bald man, and the security team, didn't like what had just happened. It seemed like whatever that teenager and his dog were had not been able to be stopped by the security system.

"Looks like your 'state of the art security system' was a failure if it couldn't stop a pasty-faced teenager and his dog," The bald man calmly, but angrily, stated.

That was clearly no ordinary teenager or dog, not if they had that kind of strength, and ways to dodge all the lasers. Valerie frowned.

Although the bald man should be more angry at the fact the security system did more damage to the place rather than not stopping the two strange beings, he seemed more angry about the latter.

"I'm fired, aren't I?" Damon muttered, clearly not that thrilled about the failure either.

"Oh, not just fired." The bald man hissed. "You're ruined."

Damon and Valerie looked at each other, both fearing for their near futures.

---

Andy frowned when he looked at the state Valerie and her dad were in. This was the next day, and Danny told him and his friends about the disaster that happened at the lab. Danny knew he screwed up, so he wanted to check in on Valerie to see how she was doing. Andy, Takuya, Sam, and Tucker decided to go with him. Jazz promised to cover for them if their parents asked them where they were, and she also had her own stuff to do at home.

From what the group could see, Valerie and Damon were selling a lot of things they owned in a yard sale, while the more necessary things were being taken into a moving truck, like most of their furniture. Even Valerie's fancy almost 600 dollar top was being sold for a measly 20 bucks. That was rock bottom if Andy ever saw it. To make things worse, they were the only ones who bothered to come check in on Valerie, there weren't any signs of Valerie's 'friends' checking up on her.

"Geez… talk about a low point." Takuya said as he saw what was going on. "I feel bad for Valerie."

"So do I." Danny admitted as he reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. "If I'd been able to stop that ghost dog, none of this would've happened."

"Where was your thermos?" Andy asked.

"I didn't have it with me." Danny frowned.

"I thought we agreed you always carry the Fenton Thermos with you," Andy pointed out.

"I did, but then Calvin started chasing me, and I left it behind," Danny grumbled.

"Can we not argue about the Thermos being left behind?" Sam muttered. "Right now, Valerie's having a rough time!"

"She could probably use some support during this time." Tucker noted before he had an idea cross his slightly perverted mind. "Oh, maybe this means I could get her as a girlfriend!"

Tucker was about to rush towards Valerie when Takuya reached out and grabbed the back of his shirt, stopping him. "I would rather you didn't go up to her with that mindset."

Andy rolled his eyes before he walked towards Valerie himself, who was carrying a large cardboard box that was labeled 'Valerie's clothes'.

"Hey Val, we, uh… heard what happened," Andy said softly.

Valerie frowned, feeling like this week was getting worse and worse. She was already having it bad enough, but now dragon boy was here too?

"Great… Word's already oozed its way down to the bottom of the social grapevine…" Valerie muttered, but she didn't mean it in any real mean nature, she was just frustrated with the way the week was going.

"Hey, the bottom of the grapevine is pretty delicious, and just as good as the top," Andy pouted.

Despite Valerie's frustration, that comment actually got a small chuckle out of her.

"And anyways, we wanted to check up on you. It looks like you and your dad are having a rough week," Andy continued, being serious again. "Would you like some help moving things around?"

"That… would actually be nice." Valerie admitted. "But, why do you want to help me? Feeling pity for me? Or are you happy to see one of the A-List kicked down to the lowest rungs of the social ladder?"

"Hey, Val, don't be like that." Danny said. "We genuinely just want to help. No feelings of pity or anything like that."

"Speak for yourself," Sam huffed, though she did feel bad for Valerie, she wasn't going to just forgive her for giving them all a hard time like every popular kid did and still do.

"But most of us are willing to help you out," Takuya spoke up, not wanting Sam's sour answer to muddle their concern for Valerie.

"Thanks, but I'll pass," Valerie grumbled, while she did appreciate that they were willing to help, she still had her pride. She didn't want to risk being seen with these losers at school helping her out.

"You can't still be thinking about your social ladder at school, are you?" Andy frowned, seeing right through her.

Valerie actually stared at Andy. "Are you sure you're not a mind reader?" She asked in disbelief.

Takuya and Danny snickered at the look of disbelief on Valerie's face.

"Nah. Andy's just good at reading people." Danny said, reassuring Valerie and her concerns about 'mind-reading' Andy. Sometimes a little too good.

"You were making it obvious by your demeanor. You called us the 'bottom of the social grapevine', and you were snubbing us like you would in school," Andy pointed out. "During hard times, things like social structure shouldn't matter. Although we can't force our help on you if you don't want it, I at least want you to think about what kind of people you want to hang out with while you're going through this."

Valerie rolled her eyes. "Whatever, just leave me alone so I can finish packing up everything."

Danny frowned at Valerie's response. "I guess some things won't change." He muttered under his breath. He had been hoping Valerie would be a bit more accepting of their help, but apparently it wasn't going to happen right away.

Andy didn't seem too bothered by it, he likely expected Valerie's response.

Suddenly, Danny felt the familiar chill coming up from his throat, and the blue mist came out of his mouth. At the same time, Takuya felt a flash of heat going through him.

"Uh… yeah, that's fine. I think we should leave Valerie to her work if she doesn't want our help." Danny said as he glanced back, as if trying to find the ghost he had sensed. "We have stuff to do anyway."

"Yeah… We… have… some plans." Takuya added slowly, not sure of what else to say. Aw man! Why did I have to sense a ghost now?

Danny grabbed Andy's hand. "Let's go, bro. If Valerie doesn't want our help, we shouldn't bother her anymore."

"What?" Andy asked, who didn't see Danny's ghost sense go off.

Danny suddenly dragged Andy with him, and with his strength, Andy had no way of resisting as Danny ran off somewhere like he was in a hurry.

"You two can stay here, keep an eye on things," Takuya quickly said to Sam and Tucker.

The two of them blinked, but seeing how fast Danny sped off with his brother, both of them knew it had to be related to ghosts. So they both nodded, knowing they may need to keep Valerie and her dad safe.

Once the twins and Takuya were away from Valerie's house, the ground suddenly began to shake. Looking back, Sam, Tucker, and Valerie were staring as the large green ghost dog from before came bursting out of the ground from underneath the stuff Valerie and her dad were selling. It was growling and barking as it pulled itself out of the ground.

Valerie gasped when her clothes fell on the sidewalk near the streets, and a car drove by, which splashed a puddle on the road. The puddle splashed all over Valerie's clothes. This, of course, angered Valerie since she couldn't afford to buy anymore clothes now.

The dog wasn't concerned about that, however, it was concerned about other things. It began sniffing the ground as if it was looking for something.

"Tell me again why you dragged me with you," Andy grumbled when Danny, who was now Danny Phantom, was standing beside him behind the house. "I don't have a transformation like you and Takuya have."

"I didn't want you to get hurt, bro." Danny said apologetically. "That ghost dog would've probably mistaken you for me or something."

Takuya, who had become Agunimon now, ran up beside the brothers. "Don't we have a ghost to deal with right now? We should probably focus on that first."

"I can see that. I got it back to the Ghost Zone yesterday, how did it get out?" Danny frowned. "Don't go charging at it, Agunimon, you'll just make it run off and cause more chaos. This needs to be handled gently."

"Geez, I'm not that reckless…" Agunimon grumbled in a pout.

"It's a dog, right?" Andy asked. "Maybe you could try coaxing it a bit like you would any dog?"

"How does one coax a dog?" Danny asked. "Mom and Dad wouldn't let us have pets."

"You could try feeding it something." Andy suggested.

"Do ghost dogs eat?" Agunimon asked.

"Um… maybe you could pet it? Show it you're not a threat?" Andy suggested again, not knowing if ghost dogs were interested in food.

Danny shrugged. "May as well try it. We got nothing better to try." Danny then paused. "Although, I hope Valerie doesn't see this ghost dog as mine if I do that…"

"Oh, dear sweet brother of mine…" Andy grinned, patting Danny's shoulder, ignoring how icy cold he felt. "She will."

Danny paled. "Andy! Do you want her to see that dog as mine?!"

"Do you want the dog to go on another rampage?" Andy asked back. "You better do something soon, it looks like it's about to jump the moving truck."

Danny paled before he groaned. "You'll be the full death of me one day, bro…" He muttered before he hovered off the ground and flew towards the ghost dog, hoping his petting trick would calm the dog down.

Agunimon frowned. "What should I be doing? Am I on standby in case this doesn't work or something?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Andy replied, which caused Agunimon to deadpan.

"Really?" Agunimon whined. "That's it?"

"We want to avoid a fight with this dog if we can. It's not talking like some of the other ghosts we've seen, so it's likely thinking more like a feral animal," Andy explained. "If it is working on mostly instinct, then it'll likely go on the attack the second it sees you. Ghosts don't seem to like Digimon very much after all."

Agunimon sighed. "I guess you have a point." He admitted.

Meanwhile, with Danny, he came up behind the ghost dog. "Um… hey there, big guy…" He said sheepishly as he reached out to pet the ghost dog on the head. "Why are you out of the Ghost Zone? Are you looking for something?" He began to pet the ghost dog on the head.

The ghost dog began to wag its tail at being petted on the head. The ghost dog began to pant happily before it shrank down into its small puppy form, the large collar shrinking around its neck last.

Danny smiled in relief to see Andy was right about the ghost dog being like a dog. Danny landed in front of the dog with the intent on picking it up, but he noticed he stepped on something warm and squishy. He froze for a moment before he realized what he stepped in. Invisible dog poo? Really?

However, before Danny could do anything, a very angry Valerie marched up to him.

"Listen, whatever you are! Get out of here! You and your stupid dog have done enough!" Valerie snapped angrily.

Danny was about to explain that the dog wasn't his, but the ghost puppy bit down on Danny's boot and began to drag Danny around excitedly.

"Wha! Hey!" Danny whined as he was dragged around like a big chew toy. "C'mon! Not again!"

The ghost puppy dragged poor Danny into the moving truck, the door slamming shut behind them.

Andy was off to the side laughing, which Agunimon found concerning. He wondered if Andy was doing this as some kind of subtle revenge on Danny.

"Um… Andy? Are you sure Danny will be fine?" Agunimon asked in concern. "I mean…" He trailed off, not sure if he should just rush to the truck and yank open the back to get Danny and that ghost puppy out.

"The ghost dog doesn't mean any actual harm," Andy explained. "Although it would definitely hurt a human by just playing around. Hence why I didn't go to the dog myself. And it would attack you if you went. So Danny was the best choice to take care of it. Unfortunately… uh…"

Andy frowned when he saw the state the truck was in. "The dog decided to play roughly in the truck full of very human furniture."

Agunimon frowned, as Andy had a point, but it still didn't sit right with him. "I guess…"

Suddenly, Agunimon got the flash of heat and cold down his spine again and he gasped at the feeling. "Ah… I hate that feeling…"

Looking back, Agunimon saw Danny and that ghost puppy emerge from the moving van before Danny flew off, holding the ghost puppy under his arm. Danny looked like he was in a hurry to get away from the moving truck.

"If you're worried, then go after Danny to make sure the dog doesn't go anywhere," Andy said to Agunimon.

Agunimon gave a nod to Andy before taking off after Danny and that ghost dog. This had better not result in any more trouble for Danny…

Back at the moving truck, Damon opened the back of the truck, only to see the stuff inside was completely trashed. "What the heck happened here?!"

Valerie frowned, now thoroughly ticked off. "I don't know, but I'm going to find out!" She hissed.

Andy walked over, seeing the state the truck was in. Oh… maybe I should've done something more to help to avoid this… I didn't think the ghost pup would've gone into the moving truck.

Andy definitely didn't want this to happen, he thought sending just Danny to handle the dog in a more peaceful way was the best way to go about it. But it was as if the universe was out for Valerie this week.

Tucker and Sam decided it was best to just leave while Valerie was steaming right now. They wanted to help, but with Valerie how she was now, she was more likely to rip into them. Andy sighed, wishing he stopped the dog from messing up more of Valerie's already limited stuff, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

---

Agunimon ran all the way to Fenton Works when he saw Danny heading in that direction. Not being able to fly was definitely biting him in the butt. While he could run fast as Agunimon, he still couldn't keep up with Danny whenever he flew.

Of all times… Ugh… That's it! After this, I am going to insist that Danny and Andy help me learn to fly! Agunimon grumbled to himself.

Agunimon finally reached Fenton Works before he ran behind the house. Deeming it safe after looking around just in case, Agunimon let his evolution go and became Takuya again. Now human once more, Takuya ran into the house, hoping he could find Danny and that ghost dog. He had a feeling that Danny would probably be in the lab to return the ghost dog to the Ghost Zone, so Takuya made his way down to the lab.

Takuya made it into the lab in time to see Danny standing in front of the open Ghost Portal. Danny looked down at the dog in annoyance.

"Okay, Cujo, in you go!" Danny said as he threw the ghost pup into the portal.

The ghost pup just barked happily as it went into the portal. Danny grumbled as he looked down at his gloved hands. He was thankful he was wearing gloves right now, because he saw it was covered in ghost dog saliva. "Okay, that's it, if I ever do get a pet, it's going to be a hamster."

Takuya ran up to Danny. "There you are! I saw you return the dog to the Ghost Zone just now. I hope that's the last we see of that ghost dog." He said as Danny looked back at him.

"Yeah, me too," Danny sighed. "Wait, did you follow me home?"

"I wanted to make sure nothing else happened while you were taking the dog here," Takuya answered. "I was also a bit concerned about how Andy handled things."

"What do you mean?" Danny asked.

"I mean… I knew he was being logical when he had you handle the ghost dog," Takuya said. "But he could've come up with a better plan. Like have me be ready to jump in and grab the dog should it go out of control, or have you use the thermos to catch the dog instead of just trying to coax it. It would've prevented more disasters if he was more cautious, but he treated it like some kind of funny prank."

Danny frowned a little before sighing. "That… actually sounds more like Andy."

"What?" Takuya blinked.

"He was being more cautious when he thought I was a separate being from Danny, and he was treating ghosts as the threats they were," Danny admitted. "But he does have a more chaotic side to him. Some of the things he suggested were more on the reckless side, like having you try flying with fire coming out of your feet. Sometimes he just likes to see how things play out even if it's not the best idea. I guess it was more obvious this time since he's relaxed more."

Takuya groaned. "That… does make sense I guess… But boy, did it come back to bite him in the rear this time, since there was more damage than if he had just been coming up with better plans."

"I do agree with that. I'm sure he regretted what happened, but I guess he was just tired of always being so cautious," Danny sighed before turning back to his human form. "But what's done is done… I just hope Valerie will be alright."

Takuya nodded. "Yeah, same here…" He sighed as well, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean… I feel bad she lost a lot of her stuff."

Takuya wondered if he should talk to Andy, he didn't want the boy to just let things fall to chaos just because he felt like it.

---

Later that night, Takuya decided to talk to Andy after all. From what Danny told him, Andy had only been more cautious recently after the accident, and that was what saved their hides so many times. But the minute Andy let himself be reckless, it completely screwed Valerie over. Takuya needed to make sure Andy knew he couldn't just let things be chaotic, especially when it came to ghosts.

"Andy? Can we talk for a moment?" Takuya asked as soon as he found Andy.

Andy was in his room when Takuya found him. Takuya didn't see Danny anywhere, so he assumed Danny went out flying on patrol or something.

"Sure, what is it?" Andy asked.

"It's about what happened today." Takuya replied. "What I saw… it was… concerning, when you were laughing at Danny having trouble with that ghost dog in the moving van."

"I didn't expect the ghost dog to mess up the moving truck, but you had to admit, it was pretty funny with how the dog was dragging Danny around like that," Andy snickered when he thought back to it.

"Yes, that was kind of funny, but the ghost dog still dragged Danny into the moving van and messed up Valerie's remaining possessions." Takuya pointed out. "Both that, and the incident at Axion Labs, could've been prevented if you had planned things out better. Valerie wouldn't've lost her stuff, and her dad wouldn't've lost his job."

"What did you expect me to do?" Andy asked.

"You could've brought Danny's Fenton Thermos, knowing he left it behind when Calvin was chasing him," Takuya pointed out. "You could've suggested that Danny grab onto me and turn me intangible to help back him up with the dog when it went into the Axion Labs. Instead, you just told me to hang back a bit and see how Danny handles it. Did you want to just see what Danny does without help or something? Didn't you know how dangerous that was?"

"You can't expect me to think of everything. It's easy to think of that after the fact, but do you really think that would've crossed my mind as it was happening?" Andy frowned.

"You seemed pretty good at that before, thinking of smart ideas and strategies on the spot," Takuya reminded. "But now it's as if you're slacking on it."

Andy gave a sigh. "Well sometimes I don't want to plan out for every little microscopic thing that could happen. Maybe sometimes it's good to just let things play out."

"And look what happened! Valerie and her dad lost almost everything!" Takuya grumbled. "It cost them Mr, Gray's job, their home, and now their remaining possessions!"

Andy frowned and wanted to argue, but he couldn't deny that Takuya wasn't wrong. Valerie and Damon lost a lot of things due to his poor planning. It was just one ghost dog, so he thought Danny and Takuya could've handled it. Not to mention, he thought it would be pretty fun to see things play out. But doing that only brought trouble and misfortune to other people. Andy wasn't one for pure chaos, of course, but he was also a believer that things usually happen for a reason. Look at what happened to Danny and Takuya, they didn't plan for them to become Danny Phantom and Agunimon, it just happened.

"I'm sorry about what happened with Valerie and Mr. Gray," Andy finally said. "I'll try to do better next time. Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Pretty much." Takuya admitted. "It's just… seeing all of that unfolding… It bothered me greatly. I couldn't just sit back and not say anything."

"If you're that concerned about it, then go start training," Andy stated. "You don't need me to hold your hand for training."

Takuya frowned. "I… I guess…" He said. He turned to leave, but before he did, he looked back at Andy one last time. "But Andy? Please… try to exercise more caution next time…" He said softly before leaving the room at last.

Andy looked down at his keyboard. Exercise more caution, he says… as if that's going to help us with ghosts. If I exercise more caution, then I'd just run and hide like everyone else.

---

The next day, it was lunch time at Casper High. All the high school students were having lunch at the cafeteria. The popular kids were wearing black and purple Dumpty Humpy t-shirts. The shirts themselves had a big egg in the center that was cracked open, with the words 'Dumpty Humpty' written on the egg.

"This is what I'll be wearing for the concert~" Paulina grinned proudly. "I'm going to look better than ever!"

"I've been waiting weeks for this! Dumpty Humpty rocks!" Dash agreed as he began to play air guitar excitedly. No way is dragon boy going to ruin this for me!

Then Valerie approached the group, wearing her old clothing, which was surprisingly still in good shape. She was holding nothing but a bag lunch instead of the fancy stuff the lunch lady usually gave to the popular kids.

"Hey Valerie, we're down for the concert, right?" Kwan asked.

Valerie soon realized the popular kids didn't actually know about her situation. She frowned a little. "Sorry guys, I had to sell my ticket online to help pay for the moving truck. Things are… kinda tight now, you know?"

Valerie hoped maybe the friends she had hung out with since the beginning of the semester would understand, and maybe either help her out or comfort her.

"Not really," Dash replied.

"Tight? As in you're struggling for money now?" Paulina blinked, looking clueless.

"Um… maybe…" Valerie admitted, feeling a bit ashamed now.

Kwan frowned a bit. He actually did feel bad for Valerie now that he knew she was tight on cash, but he hadn't heard about her situation until now.

Valerie was about to sit down when Paulina spoke up. "Sorry, Valerie, but this table is for the popular kids only."

Valerie stopped and frowned before she saw Paulina pointing over at the table where the losers sat, specifically the 5 most people ignored. Danny, Andy, Tucker, Sam, and Takuya, who were just enjoying their own lunch. Although Andy didn't look like he was eating much, and he looked tired.

But Valerie was more concerned about the fact she had been demoted from being on the popular foodchain, to being near the bottom of it just like that. "I get it…"

"Hey Valerie, did you at least sell your tickets to someone cool? We don't want to sit next to any losers at the concert," Paulina remarked.

Dash felt kind of bad, but that was how the popularity chain worked. He didn't say anything, because he still had that fear that Andy would do something if he openly pushed Valerie away, even though Andy didn't have any connections to Valerie.

Valerie didn't respond to Paulina, and instead just walked to an empty table by the window. It was then Valerie remembered what Andy said, about thinking about the people she hung out with during these hard times. She was beginning to see what he meant. Her so-called 'friends' dumped her the minute they found out about her situation.

With the 5 at their table, Takuya frowned when he saw what was going on. "I think Valerie just got burned by her former friends." He noted.

Tucker snickered. "You and your fire puns."

"I'm serious!" Takuya snapped back at Tucker.

Tucker winced at Takuya's harsh tone. "Sorry, dude! I was just trying to lighten the mood!"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Maybe Valerie just needs better friends."

Tucker got an idea in his mind, and was about to race over when Sam grabbed his arm. "And no, that is not an invitation to rush over there for your dating scheme." She warned Tucker.

"Oh, come on! Can't I at least try?" Tucker whined.

Andy let out a yawn before he sipped his soda to try to wake himself up.

"Wow, bro, I don't know who looks worse right now. You or Valerie," Danny commented.

"I was up late last night," Andy admitted.

"I know, you were still awake even after I came back from patrol, and that was midnight," Danny remarked. "Why were you up so late? It couldn't have just been homework."

"I was just trying to figure some things out," Andy replied. "Like how to help Valerie with her situation. But most of the plan involved putting you in danger, so none of it was any good."

Danny blinked. "Wait, really?" He hadn't expected Andy to try to come up with a way to help Valerie. "W-wow… I… I didn't expect that from you, bro. I mean… I didn't think you'd care about Valerie that much."

"It's partially my fault that Valerie ended up this way," Andy sighed. "The least I could do was try to make it up to her."

Andy looked over at Valerie, seeing she was looking very lonely. He looked over at the popular kids who were laughing together. Karma's going to bite them in the butt one day…

Andy stood up from his table.

"Andy? What are you doing?" Sam asked.

"Since I can't fix the problem, I might as well do something to help Valerie a little bit," Andy said before he walked over to the table Valerie was sitting on.

Valerie looked up as Andy approached her. "What do you want?" Valerie asked with a bit of disdain. She may not have been popular anymore, but she still had her pride.

Andy could tell Valerie wouldn't want to be invited to sit with the 'losers', so instead, Andy sat down on the seat across from Valerie. He wasn't sitting too close to her, but he wasn't leaving her alone either, nor was he inviting her to the 'loser' table.

"You looked like you could use the company," Andy answered.

"I guess…" Valerie grumbled. She didn't feel too comfortable with one of the 'losers' sitting near her, but at least he wasn't dragging her to his table, which she considered a good thing.

Valerie waited for dragon boy to say something, but he remained quiet. Valerie wasn't sure why he bothered to sit at the table she was at if he wasn't going to say something.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Valerie asked.

"Only if you're okay with it," Andy replied. "I didn't want to overstep my boundaries by chatting if you wanted peace and quiet."

Valerie blinked. While she would like to have the 'dragon boy' leave her alone and go back to his loser table, a part of her did appreciate the consideration, but only a part of her. She still thought he was a freaky loser. "Whatever." She huffed.

"I'll take that as permission to speak freely." Andy grinned.

Valerie didn't know what she expected, but the boy seemed a bit too easy going around her, at least considering she was a former popular kid who would snub him and look down on him.

"Were you and your dad able to move in safely?" Andy asked.

"Yeah, we were. Without that weird kid and his weird dog ruining things, we were able to get into our new place just fine." Valerie replied, spitting out the words 'weird kid' like they were sour in her mouth.

"You really don't know what they are?" Andy questioned.

"No, why would I?" Valerie asked.

"We've been facing several beings like them in the past few months," Andy replied. "The news and media try to cover it up, but those beings are as real as we are. You saw them go through solid objects, and have unnatural immense strength. They can even fly and go invisible."

Valerie paused, knowing Andy was right.

"They're ghosts," Andy bluntly stated. "Simple as that."

"Wait… the weird kid and his dog were ghosts?!" Valerie almost shouted, only keeping her voice under control so she didn't sound crazy if it was heard by everyone in the lunchroom.

"Yeah, they were," Andy confirmed. "Ghosts don't follow the same laws that humans do, nor do they follow the same laws of physics. Your father could've built the best security system in the whole world and it still would've done nothing to ghosts. You would need special technology to deal with ghosts."

Valerie frowned. "Then… all of my dad's work was for nothing? Ghosts were what did his career in? Those… vile beings?!" She hissed, feeling a need she had never felt before, the need to get back at that ghost kid and its similar dog.

Valerie paused, seeing that people were starting to stare at her. She looked down at her lap, hoping they would just ignore her and get back to their own lunches.

"Not for nothing," Andy continued after Valerie calmed down a bit. "From what I know, Mr. Gray was a highly respected man in his field of work. There's a chance he might get a second chance once the heat blows over, and the boss realizes that those weren't ordinary beings that destroyed the lab. And considering what's been happening in Amity Park lately, that's very likely. The news and media can't cover this up forever after all."

Valerie sighed. "Yeah, I know, but it… I just… It's just that ghosts were what attacked! And I can't get over the fact that ghost and its dog ruined my life!"

Before Andy could respond, the familiar giant ghost dog phased through the window and bit down on Valerie's bag lunch and shook it around like a chew toy, destroying whatever lunch Valerie had brought. Of course, despite Valerie's anger, she was still faced with a creature that could rip her apart. The dog was growling. Andy grabbed the frozen Valerie and ducked under the table just as the dog pounced, barely missing them.

The entire cafeteria was in chaos as the ghost dog was jumping from table to table, causing a huge mess, and a panic among the students. The students ran out of the cafeteria, screaming their heads off. Only a handful of people were left in the cafeteria, that being Danny, Tucker, Sam, Takuya, Andy, Valerie, and the lunch lady herself.

"Why can't that ghost dog leave me alone?! Why is it after me?!" Valerie exclaimed, looking quite panicked now after Andy had saved her hide.

"Shh! The dog can still hear you," Andy shushed, and also because he couldn't answer Valerie's question. Either he thinks Valerie smells familiar, or the dog is following someone else.

Andy looked over at where his brother was sitting. Takuya and Tucker ran off somewhere, Danny and Sam were under their own table. There has to be someway to make the situation better…

Unfortunately for Andy, Danny did end up going ghost in order to try to stop the dog. And as soon as Danny Phantom showed up to the dog, the dog stopped harassing the poor tables and looked quite happy to see him. Which didn't help Andy's case because he was trying to tell Valerie that the ghost kid was trying to stop the ghost dog, not that he owned the ghost dog.

"Um… Bad dog! Don't attack anyone here!" Danny said, but the ghost dog just jumped on Danny, who turned himself and the ghost dog intangible as he was pushed out of the lunch room by the ghost dog's pounce.

Valerie frowned. "Does that ghost really think its fooling anyone?! That dog is clearly owned by that ghost!"

Andy sighed as Valerie crawled out from the table and ran outside. "Welp… one thing's for sure, Danny's going to have a new enemy to watch out for soon…" Maybe I should ask Dad where he put the Fenton Fisher, that dog clearly needs a leash…

---

Valerie wasn't sure what to do at this point. After the disaster at school, everyone was told to go home early while the school asked animal control to find this giant dog. The lunch lady was in hysterics about it. But Valerie knew better, now that Andy had laid it out for her, she realized that animal control wouldn't be able to do squat about a ghost dog. A part of her wondered if that dog was coming back for vengeance, after all, judging from the collar around the dog's neck, it was clearly one of the security dogs of the Axion Labs that was put down recently. But she didn't know why it seemed to be coming after her, she had nothing to do with the security dogs' deaths.

Or maybe it was that teenage ghost's fault, after all, he owns the dog. Valerie was more angry at this point about it, and wanted nothing more than to teach those ghosts a lesson, to show them just because they were ghosts, it didn' mean they were above consequences.

Valerie had been steaming as she wrote in her diary in her… 'new' room at the apartment she and her dad moved into recently.

Damon came over to her, and he looked more easy going than worried. "Great news honey! I got a call from my boss. I'm getting a second chance."

Valerie looked up, surprised, but also relieved. "That's great!" She exclaimed.

"Yup, I managed to convince him to let me guard what's left of the research lab while they rebuild," Damon explained, smiling.

"How many of your employees can you put on it?" Valerie asked excitedly.

Damon's face fell from its smile. "I don't have any more employees. I have to guard it myself, alone at night, in that guard uniform…" He said as he pointed at said uniform hanging on the door.

Valerie frowned, realizing that her dad had a more… modest job… or a more blunt way to put it, a low paying job. "Great… and if things get worse, you could use that uniform to deliver packages…"

"Oh! Speaking of packages…" Damon said as he walked over to a box that was sitting on the table. "This arrived while you were at school, from Wisconsin. I don't know what it is or who it is from though."

"Is it safe to open?" Valerie asked.

Damon chuckled. "I'm sure it is. Whoever sent it to you must be a good friend. Anyways, I better go, sweetie. Please, try not to lose hope, okay? I'm sure things will get better soon."

As Damon ran off to work, grabbing the uniform and leaving, Valerie opened the box, curious about what was in it. She peered inside, seeing a note in the box on top of what looked like a suit and some metal parts that were hidden in the bubblewrap. "'Heard about your recent ghost troubles, hope this helps, Vlad'." Valerie put the note down and lifted up one of the metal parts, now revealed to be a gun of some kind.

Valerie grinned at seeing this weapon in her hand. "Don't know who you are, 'Vlad', but if this thing does what I think it does, I can't say that I care." She smirked before the weapon accidentally fired. "Whoops!"

Thankfully, the blast missed anything important in the room, but it still startled Valerie. "Okay… I need to be more careful with this thing…"

Valerie saw there were instructions on the letter on how to use the equipment. These were some advanced stuff. A small part of Valerie knew she should be cautious about this, she had no idea who this Vlad person was, or why they sent these expensive looking gadgets to her just because she had some ghost problems. But Valerie's anger, and need to teach those ghosts a lesson outweighed her cautious side. If these worked, then Valerie couldn't care less who this Vlad was, or why he sent these things to her. All that mattered was she now had the tools she needed to bring those ghosts to justice.

---

Titanic X: ZAFT: Andy's surprised shouts are too much fun! XD

Son Sandy: ZAFT: Glad you liked the reveal! And the dreams are too much fun! XD As for the Digimon… just wait. We'll get there… ;3

DarkFoxKit: Yeah, unfortunately teachers being indifferent to bullies at school is a common occurrence. They only interfere if the victim who's being bullied starts to fight back, and usually it's the victim who gets in trouble rather than the bully.

pokemon fan 1991: ZAFT: You will see what happens concerning the Digimon soon. Just hang in there a bit longer, okay.

DarkFoxKit: … Bold of you to assume that Dorumon is still going to be Andy's partner.

CT7567Rules: ZAFT: Oooof… Sorry about what happened to you in your school days. That sucks. Yeah, I can see why you felt that way then. As for the Digimon, just hang in there for a few more chapters, okay. You'll see what happens concerning the Digimon soon, I promise.

DarkFoxKit: To build off of what ZAFT said, yes, it really does suck that schools often treat those who get bullied unfairly, and punish them for trying to fight back while the bully gets no punishment in return. It's a real problem in the education system, and people wonder why the next generation gets dumber and dumber, they suck at teaching or making a safe environment to focus enough to learn anything.

A lot of people have been asking us about when Digimon will start appearing in the story. All I can say is that it will be soon, but asking us isn't going to yield a straight answer. ^^' We wanted to focus on Danny Phantom's story first, build up the characters, establish their goals, powers, personality, and settle into their current way of life before we start bringing in the Digimon stuff. So I apologize that it's going slower than the original idea, we just didn't want to fall into the same traps as the original idea.