DarkFoxKit: Alright, another chapter. I think we're getting pretty close to the end? We still have quite a bit of chapters left, but in terms of season 1, it's getting close to the end.
ZAFT: Yeah, but it will be a fun ride to the end! XD We hope you will enjoy the last several chapters!
DarkFoxKit: Yup, and it'd be nice to hear your guys' thoughts on the story. Once we're finished with season 1, we might take a bit of a break from updating. After all, we've been updating all of this pretty much every week, give or take a little later than a week, so a break would be nice.
ZAFT: So when we take a break, we hope you will be waiting for the next season when we get back to it!
DarkFoxKit: For now, let's get into the story.
Chapter 69: The Raging Dragon
BurningGreymon was slowly moving around in the simulation chamber, but it was clear it was Takuya who was in control at the moment. So far so good… But I'm still slowly losing control…
The other Legendary Warriors were watching as well. "Takuya seems to be in control so far." Koichi noted. "But that will change."
"How will we know when he's losing control?" Zoe asked.
"His eyes will change from blue to red." Koichi replied. "It's not a quick change either. It slowly happens."
Tommy looked quite uncertain about what was being said. "Are Beast Spirits really that hard to control?"
Takuya was trying to figure out how to hold on to his humanity. He started trying to think back on his memories, about his friends, his family, and the family he left in Japan, his little brother Shibuya, his mother, and father.
"It depends on the individual and the Beast Spirit themselves," Koichi answered Tommy. "Some of the Beast Spirits are calmer than others."
"In the legend, the Warrior of Flame was said to have a powerful Beast Spirit, but it had a very hot temper and was prone to violence," Koji stated. "So that explains why Takuya is having trouble with BurningGreymon."
Takuya could feel himself seeming to calm down, but the loss of control was only slowed down. I can't lose control… I… How would Tommy react if he saw me go wild? I don't want to scare him… Not like I did before as Agunimon…
"Well, he's doing good so far," JP noted. "But we're still not sure how he'll react if he sees someone else."
"Bring in his reflection," Koji suggested. "That'll be the best way to test it."
"Alright," JP said as he pushed more buttons.
A big pond of water appeared near BurningGreymon, it was as clear as the sky.
Curious, BurningGreymon made his way over. Takuya felt he had good control at the moment, and he did want to see what he looked like as BurningGreymon.
He peered at the water, seeing his own reflection. However, when he saw his own reflection staring back at him, something inside him started to rear its head and his eyes shifted from blue to purple, and then to a glowing red. BurningGreymon began to tense up, flaring his wings to try and intimidate the reflection he was seeing. A low growl escaped him as he tried to make himself look bigger than he already was by puffing up his feathers.
The reflection of BurningGreymon was doing the same thing.
Seeing how his intimidation attempts were not working, BurningGreymon primed his cannons to fire at his reflection before letting loose with his fire power.
This caused the water to splash all over him, drenching him wet.
"He does know that's just his reflection, doesn't he?" Tommy frowned as he watched this.
"It's obvious to us, yeah, but most animals don't usually realize they're looking at their reflection," Koji pointed out.
"So he's already losing himself to the beast," Zoe sighed. "Figures… I guess it couldn't be that easy."
"It's not that simple for Takuya. Remember, his Beast and Human Spirits were worlds apart. That has to play a role in it, at least partially. The Spirits were never meant to be worlds apart." Koichi pointed out.
As BurningGreymon was drenched in water, he began to get angrier, as he didn't like being cold or wet. He let out a roar, thinking the other beast did that on purpose to sabotage him.
"S-shouldn't we do something? He's starting to sound less human," Tommy worriedly asked.
"I think we should." Koichi agreed. "While the training room can handle our Beast Spirits, it's only a matter of time before he breaks the glass to this room."
Koji sighed. Normally he would want to wait and see if Takuya could regain control, but it would be dangerous if he broke the glass.
"Shut it down, JP, we're going in to knock him out," Koji quickly said.
JP nodded. "Right."
Koji was already taking out his white and dark blue D-Tector. "This is going to be a pain, but we have to do it."
JP shut down the simulation, then made his way to Koji's side.
The other 4 used their D-Tectors to evolve into forms Tommy had never seen before himself, though the evolutions were so bright and clustered together that he had to shut his eyes to avoid going blind. When he was able to open his eyes again, he could only see the 4 other beasts in silhouettes due to how bright their evolutions had been. They went into the simulation room. Tommy rubbed his eyes and he heard the loud roaring noises going on in the simulation room. He checked the glass window. He didn't get a good look at the other beasts, though he saw a glimpse of a white, robotic looking wolf tackling BurningGreymon down before he fired off a bright attack from his maw, making Tommy have to shut his eyes again.
"Hold him down!" Tommy heard what sounded like Zoe's voice shouting.
"I got him!" Tommy heard what sounded like JP's voice.
"I'll knock him out." Koichi's voice stated calmly.
There was a loud roar coming from BurningGreymon… and all went silent. Tommy blinked open his eyes again and looked at the glass window, seeing the other 4 were back in their human forms. Aww man, I didn't get to see their Beast Forms!
But that little frustration was replaced with concern when Tommy saw BurningGreymon lying unconscious on the floor. Seeing this, Tommy hurried into the simulation room, wanting to check on Takuya. Although, when he got close, he couldn't help but notice just how big BurningGreymon was compared to him. He was huge.
"Is… is he okay…?" Tommy asked the others.
"He should be, yeah." Koji replied. "Beast Spirits can take much more damage than a Human Spirit anyway."
Fractal code surrounded BurningGreymon and he reverted back to being Takuya. Takuya groaned as he woke up, rubbing at his head. "Ouch… Ugh… I thought I was doing well in control too… I guess my control was flimsy if I don't remember what happened after seeing my reflection…"
"You started trying to look bigger than it, and when your reflection did the same, you took it as a challenge… and got yourself wet, and that got you angrier," Zoe explained.
"Trying to be the bigger man?" JP teased.
"Ugh… And I was doing much better than before too." Takuya groaned. "No wonder the Beast Spirits are known as such. It's like you're a wild animal!"
"How about we take a lunch break?" Koichi suggested. "We can think about what to do while we eat."
"That sounds like a good idea," Koji agreed.
Takuya gave a small nod, though he looked over at Tommy, hoping he didn't scare the little guy too much. Tommy looked up at Takuya in concern, he didn't seem scared, just worried for Takuya.
"Sorry about that…" Takuya said at last. "I… I didn't expect to lose control like that. I… I didn't scare you, did I?"
"Only for you," Tommy answered. "I've had my share of giant angry monsters chasing after me already. I was more worried that you losing yourself would've been permanent."
Takuya sighed before shivering at the thought of losing control permanently. "That doesn't sound fun…"
"Well, once you gain control, it will be far easier than you think to use your Beast Spirit." JP reassured Takuya.
"For now, let's go out to eat, it'll be easier to think when you've had some food in your belly," Zoe chuckled. "And using your Beast Spirit can take a lot out of you."
"We're going out? We're not eating here?" Tommy asked.
"We often go out to get food. When we first arrived in the Digital World, we had to learn to forage for our food. Digimon didn't give us handouts without money," Koji explained. "We don't want to get rusty from being able to gather food for ourselves in case such a time were to happen again."
"Ah, right!" Takuya remembered. "You were teaching that, Koichi."
Koichi smiled at the memory. "Yeah, but you seemed to do better when it came to fishing than actually foraging for the edible plants."
"Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses," JP chuckled. "I suck at fishing, but I seem to do pretty well with gathering mushrooms, and being able to tell which ones are poisonous."
"I'm pretty good with gathering wood to make a fire," Zoe said. "Sometimes Digimon would nicely help me if I ask."
Tommy definitely remembered seeing Takuya and Koichi cooking fish near a river when he first met them, the fish was what drew Tommy to them in the first place. Foraging for food didn't sound like it would be something he would be good at, but he did help find the meat apples back in the TV Forest, so maybe he could try his hand at it. Not to mention it gave him the opportunity to do something for himself that his parents couldn't ruin by doing it for him.
The 6 human-Legendary Warriors were taking a nice stroll outside of the castle. They split up into groups of 2. Koji went with Zoe, Koichi went with JP, Takuya and Tommy were put together to see how well the two newbies could work with gathering food. Koichi also wanted to have Takuya teach Tommy what he had taught Takuya.
It turns out, Tommy had a keen eye for spotting fruits, or possibly meat tasting fruits and vegetables, growing in certain places of the forest. Takuya decided to have them near the river, so he could fish while Tommy gathered the plants.
After Tommy gathered a good amount of apples, berries, and some edible looking leaves, he sat down next to Takuya while Takuya was fishing.
"I never imagined getting my Beast Spirit would be so much trouble." Takuya admitted after a few moments of silence. "I thought it would be a good thing and yet… once I got it, all it's done for me is cause me to hurt others… Like my cousin Andy. When I was out of control and chasing him, he hurt his foot trying to avoid me. But I lost control on Andy twice, and he's had to knock me out twice."
"I can't even imagine what it must've been like to be worried and scared you'll hurt someone just for using your Beast Spirit," Tommy said softly. "But I've experienced similar feelings when I found Kumamon's Spirit. The people who were my friends saw me differently. Others were scared of me when Sir Michael would use me to battle them. And I had that feeling again when other Legendary Warriors began to go after me. Then there was that Nightmare Syndrome incident where it came to a boiling point. I've done… a lot of bad things since I got Kumamon… I'm not even sure if I'm worthy of keeping his Spirit to be honest."
Takuya looked down at Tommy. "You only did those things because you were under Sir Michael's orders." He pointed out before sighing. "But… I can't say I can understand how that must've felt for you either. I was…" Takuya trailed off as he realized he actually could understand how Tommy felt in a way. "Actually… I think I can understand that to an extent. It… wasn't of my own free will but… I did do some bad things too."
"What happened?" Tommy asked. "Or would you rather not talk about it?"
"It… in a way, I do want to talk about it, but I would also like to avoid it because I could've hurt someone and not realized it." Takuya admitted. "Mind-control is never a fun thing to be the victim of."
"You were mind controlled?" Tommy frowned. "Like… with a slave collar?"
"Not exactly." Takuya admitted. "It was… with a crystal ball staff used by some crazy circus ringmaster, back in Amity Park…"
Tommy's eyes went wide. "How did you get out of that ringmaster's control?"
"I had some friends to help me out," Takuya answered. "Especially one who did some crazy stunts to save me and… someone else who's also close to him."
"Heh… I don't blame him. I might've done the same thing to try to save you if I knew what was going on," Tommy chuckled slightly.
"Be glad you didn't." Takuya grumbled. "Then the team would've had two Legendary Warriors to face, as well as another ally of mine."
"I guess that's true. If someone can control Digimon without a slave collar, and in the real world, then that's… definitely a cause for concern," Tommy sighed.
"He's behind bars now, as far as I know, and the crystal ball was destroyed," Takuya reassured.
"That's good, but we shouldn't let our guard down," Tommy said. "If one object could control a Digimon, another could exist, or be made."
"Yeah." Takuya agreed. "But, the point is, I can understand how you must feel to an extent. However, the Spirit of Kumamon wouldn't have chosen you if you weren't worthy of it."
"I guess… I just don't feel like I've earned Kumamon's choice…" Tommy sighed.
"Sometimes I feel the same way," Takuya chuckled.
"I guess this is what we get for missing out on that big Digimon adventure the others had," Tommy grumbled. "They already know what to do, and have full control over their Spirits, while we're struggling just trying to figure out what we even were when we got our Spirits. We're just a couple of clueless boys."
"Hey, if anyone was clueless, it was me when I first found my Spirit." Takuya grinned. "I had to find out what I was able to become from a ghost of all things."
Tommy chuckled. "Yeah, true, you found yours in the real world after all."
Tommy took out his D-Tector and looked at it for a while, thinking back to when his phone turned into this thing and absorbed Kumamon's Spirit. He had felt so different back then, so powerful and confident, like he could do anything. But now he felt like he had a weight put on him every time he tried to use Kumamon, even knowing what Kumamon actually was. Before, he felt the weight of being a bad Digimon, now he felt the weight of not being worthy of being a Legendary Warrior. Then there was also the Beast Spirit matter…
"I'm not sure if I really want my Beast Spirit," Tommy commented.
Takuya looked at Tommy in surprise. "What?" He hadn't expected that from the other boy. "Why?"
"If it's really that hard to control, it might be best if I left it alone," Tommy said. "So far, my greatest weapon and asset, and what helped me survive in the Digital World, was my mind. If the Beast Spirit took that away from me, then I'd be nothing more than a wild animal who brute forces his way through others. Besides, I'm already trying to learn how to be Kumamon, I don't want to have to deal with trying to control a Beast Spirit on top of that."
Takuya frowned. "Yeah, but if you don't have your Beast Spirit, it's like trying to fight at half of your full power." He then sighed. "I get where you're coming from; seeing me lose control can't have been easy. But… What if you encounter a Digimon far beyond your current strength? It would be nice to have that extra power then and there. If you don't want your Beast Spirit, that's fine. But sooner or later, you will have to look for it."
"I've been getting along just fine without it," Tommy said. "Besides, I don't want to give people more of a reason to call me a monster."
"You've been hanging out with the wrong people, Tommy," Takuya pointed out. "You saw the others evolve into their Beast Forms, didn't you? Wouldn't you like to be more like them?"
Tommy gave a sigh. "I don't know what I want, Takuya. Right now… I just want to try to make up for my past mistakes."
Takuya frowned, but nodded. "Okay. We'll drop the subject for now." He said at last, turning his attention back to the fishing.
There was not even a nibble. Takuya grumbled. "Aw c'mon… really? The fish just have to ignore me, don't they?"
"There might be an easier way to get the fish out of the water," Tommy said. "After all… we have the powers of Digimon on our side, why do things the old fashion way?"
Takuya grinned. "I like the way you think~" He took out his D-Tector.
Standing up, Takuya held out his D-Tector and the blue digital form of his first Spirit appeared visible on the screen of his D-Tector as he formed the familiar fractal coding on his left hand. He swiped the D-Tector over the coding, calling out the familiar phrase he knew by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" His clothes ripped away as his body became digital, and the process began. Coding surrounded him as the power of the Spirit flowed into his body. Red armor formed and latched onto his body as his hair changed to blonde and became long and wild. His height increased, as did his strength and agility. His eyes snapped open, now a brilliant blue instead of brown, and his teeth were sharper than a human's as well. He landed, crying out his name. "Agunimon!"
Tommy held up his own D-Tector. The light green digital form of his first Spirit appeared on the screen of his D-Tector and he formed the familiar ring of fractal coding around his left hand. He swiped the D-Tector over the coding, calling out the familiar phrase he would come to know by heart. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" His clothes ripped away as his body became digital and the process began. Coding surrounded him as the power of the Spirit flowed into his body. He lost his hair and his body became white as snow. His fingers became like paws almost and he gained a more cub-like appearance to his body. Green chest armor formed on his body and his feet gained green and red boots. A headband that had the image of a bear on it formed on his head, and he gained a shoulder pad on each side, but one was red while the other was gray in color. He slid down and landed as a mushy pile before he reformed and grinned, calling out his name. "Kumamon!"
It still felt so much better to evolve with his heart rather than doing it quickly and silently, Kumamon noted.
Kumamon walked over to the stream before he decided to try something out. Instead of using his usual attacks, Kumamon wanted to see if he could blow out ice from his hands. The ice didn't have to be strong, just enough to freeze some of the water. Kumamon watched as ice crystals formed out of his hands and onto the water, freezing parts of it. The fish were trying to swim away from the ice, gathering into one spot of the water.
Agunimon, seeing what Kumamon was doing, grinned as an idea came to him. He knelt down by where the fish were gathering and held up a hand, fire coating it. He then thrust his hand into the water, sending multiple fish out and onto the cold ice. The fish flopped around helplessly once out of the water.
"Now that's what I call fishing~" Agunimon grinned.
"This is definitely more efficient than trying to fish them up with a rod," Kumamon chuckled.
Kumamon and Agunimon were gathering up the fish, when they heard Koji calling out to them, sounding frantic. "Hey! Are you two in a battle!?"
Agunimon and Kumamon looked up in question.
"Battle? No, we were just fishing," Kumamon answered. "Why? What's wrong?"
Agunimon frowned when he saw Koji was looking frantic. "Did something happen?"
Zoe, JP, and Koichi ran over as well, all looking worried about something.
"Were you two fighting with the thief?" Zoe quickly asked.
"Thief?" Both Agunimon and Kumamon asked at the same time.
"You mean you didn't Spirit Evolve to fight someone?" JP frowned.
"No…" Agunimon said, his voice trailing off. "What… exactly happened?"
"Our D-Tectors are missing," Koichi quickly explained. "While we were gathering food, we noticed that our D-Tectors were gone. They wouldn't just fall out, it's more likely someone took them!"
Agunimon felt his heart leap into his throat when he heard that. "Someone stole your D-Tectors?"
"Why else would we be looking for the thief?" Koji grumbled.
They heard what sounded like grumbling, and snickering. The group turned to the source, seeing Grumblemon coming up from the ground, his back facing them as he was looking at some colorful, familiar looking gadgets in his hands.
"Take most Spirits away from humans, free the Spirits from their control!" Grumblemon stated to himself.
Crap… Agunimon thought as he realized what had likely happened. Of all the dirty tricks that gnome could pull, this is definitely a new one. He also realized Grumblemon's back was turned. It was really tempting to pull a sneak attack on the Warrior of Earth…
Kumamon had thought the same things, because he was already slowly walking towards the gnome. He was ready to freeze Grumblemon frozen solid.
However, before Kumamon could make his move, the ice on the water suddenly shattered. The water itself formed into a large wave out of nowhere, catching the group by surprise. Kumamon, Agunimon, Koichi, Koji, JP, and Zoe were caught by the wave.
"My goodness, Grumblemon, you can be so clever, yet so careless. Those humans almost got ya~" A feminine voice spoke from the water.
Grumblemon turned to the speaker. "You back me up despite me no wanting it. Me grateful for help though, Ranamon."
Agunimon grunted as he pushed himself up from the ground slightly. "Ugh… That was one powerful attack…"
"Oh, honey, if you thought that was powerful, you ain't seen nothing yet~" Ranamon grinned as she came up from the water, showing them in all her glory.
Kumamon definitely remembered Ranamon, she gave him, Jazz, Zoe, and Kiwimon a hard time back on the KaratsukiNumemon's mountain.
"You! What are you doing here!?" Clearly, Zoe remembered her all too well.
"Why, I'm flattered you remember me, hon~" Ranamon chuckled. "Too bad it's too late for little old you and your Spirits~"
"We free Spirits from control of humans!" Grumblemon declared as he grinned at the group. "No longer yours, humans!"
"Oh yeah!? You're still missing two Spirits, buddy!" Agunimon shouted. "And we're going to get them back from you!"
"Go ahead and try~" Ranamon grinned.
"Be careful you two, they are Legendary Warriors too!" Koji warned.
"Duly noted," Kumamon said.
Agunimon knew how tough Grumblemon was, having fought him before. But Ranamon was a whole new opponent to him, and he wasn't sure if he could take her on.
"Agunimon, have you faced these two before? I know you've battled Grumblemon, but what about her?" Kumamon asked as they stood in front of their friends.
"Grumblemon I have experience with, but not the new one." Agunimon replied, confirming Ranamon was a new opponent for him.
"Her name is Ranamon, she's the Legendary Warrior of Water," Kumamon explained. "I haven't seen her at her full strength, but from what I've seen, she's able to make a storm that can drain your strength, be careful of her."
Agunimon nodded. "I'll keep that in mind." However, his heart was racing now. At least, I hope I can take her… I know nothing about her abilities save for what Kumamon told me.
"Me beat you and take your Spirits!" Grumblemon shouted as he put the D-Tectors he stole away into his fractal code, much like how Patamon held onto some things with his fractal code.
Grumblemon pulled out his sledgehammer from the ground.
Seeing Grumblemon pull out his hammer, Agunimon and Kumamon got ready for combat.
Great… here we go… Agunimon mused to himself as he got into a fighting stance.
"Come over here, cutie pie~" Ranamon grinned before she raised up her arms and created a dark cloud around Agunimon. "Dark Vapor!"
Seeing the dark cloud of vapor surrounding him, Agunimon decided to dispel the cloud with his own attack. "Nice try!" He said as fire flared from his armor on his shoulders, wrists, knees, and ankles. Agunimon spun around, fire enveloping him in a twister. "Pyro Tornado!"
The fiery twister managed to dispel the Dark Vapor attack due to the rotation of the attack. The dark cloud gone, Agunimon let his Pyro Tornado dissipate, landing on his feet easily.
"Seismic Sledge!" Grumblemon jumped up from behind Agunimon, intending to hit him with his sledge hammer.
But Grumblemon got quickly pelted by Kumamon's snowballs. Kumamon was using his blaster gun to fire out rapid snowballs, shoving Grumblemon away.
"Well that's not very nice of you!" Ranamon huffed.
"It's not nice of you to steal our friends' Spirits," Kumamon retorted.
"And we'll get them back." Agunimon added as he slammed his fists together, creating fireballs around his hands. "Pyro Punch!" He launched the fireballs at Grumblemon directly.
"Oh, no you don't, sugar. Draining Rain!" Ranamon summoned a rain cloud over Agunimon, which immediately poured rain on him, weakening him, and putting out the flame on his fists.
Kumamon, seeing this, jumped over Ranamon, transforming his body into a giant icicle. Ranamon yelped as she felt something heavy and cold stabbing into her back. The icicle, however, wasn't big or sharp enough to hit her Digi-Core, but it still hurt enough for her to lose focus on her Draining Rain cloud. Kumamon quickly hopped off of Ranamon before she could do anything else. Unfortunately for Agunimon, that was still enough for Grumblemon to get away from him and burrow underground.
Shaking his head, Agunimon managed to regain his senses and get back to his feet. "Thanks…" He said to Kumamon before facing Ranamon again. He knew he had to get the upper hand on one of these rogue Warriors, but both were so strong. Agunimon decided to try playing it safe instead of just attacking recklessly like he had before. Fire flared from his silver wrist brace on his right hand, and he threw the small bits of flame at Ranamon. "Pyro Darts!"
"Honey, please, when it's fire vs water, water always wins~" Ranamon grinned as she brought up water whips from the dew on the grass to put out the Pyro Darts with ease.
Huh? She didn't even say her attack name. Agunimon realized.
"Maybe so, but ice can freeze water," Kumamon stated, holding out his gun at her.
However, instead of firing at Ranamon, Kumamon suddenly moved the gun at the ground and fired snowballs at it. Grumblemon came up from the ground, his face covered in snowballs.
"Gah! How you do that?!" Grumblemon exclaimed, trying to get the snow off of his face.
"You make a lot of noise when you tunnel through the ground," Kumamon replied. "These bear-like ears of mine aren't just for show."
Agunimon smirked at Kumamon's remark. He turned his attention back to Ranamon though, figuring Kumamon could handle Grumblemon. I can't just attack recklessly, but playing it safe doesn't work either… He thought to himself. What can I do?
"Grumblemon, can you keep that nasty bear away?" Ranamon requested before she smiled at Agunimon. "I'd like to handle fire boy over here."
"You are picky, Ranamon!" Grumblemon grumbled. "But very well. Little bear can't keep fighting forever. His attacks not very strong! Seismic Sledge!"
Grumblemon charged at Kumamon with his sledge hammer, Kumamon began moving to get out of the way from the attack. Though Agunimon knew if Kumamon wanted to, he could trap Grumblemon with his body like he did with Agunimon during their spar. He decided to focus on Ranamon.
"So, do you think your little pyro tactics will work on me?" Ranamon grinned.
"Don't let her confident attitude fool you, Agunimon!" Zoe shouted.
Agunimon nodded at Zoe, not taking his gaze off of Ranamon. "I won't." He replied. I just need to catch her off-guard. It can't be too hard. Agunimon decided to try something. If Kumamon can cause ice to come from his hands… couldn't I do the same, but with my feet? Andy did say I could flying that way, but it failed. But… could I do it in combat?
Agunimon concentrated on his fire, focusing it on his feet. When he felt the heat building up, Agunimon jumped into the air and then kicked out, causing fiery shockwaves to come from his kicks, right at Ranamon.
Ranamon let out a screech at the sudden flames from Agunimon's kick, she definitely hadn't been expecting him to do that. She summoned water from the ground to shoot up and push Agunimon away from her.
"You little imp! You burned my perfect skin!" Ranamon shouted in anger.
Agunimon got back to his feet, grunting as he did so. A smirk crossed his face. "Heh, you underestimated me. When you play with fire, you're bound to get burned."
"When you mess with water, you're bound to drown!" Ranamon hissed. "Dark Vapor!"
Agunimon was getting covered by the black clouds around him. However, when he went to dispel it like before…
"Draining Rain!"
A rain cloud appeared over Agunimon's head and began to pour on him. Agunimon found himself unable to use his attacks as he felt his energy quickly leaving him.
"Aww, what's the matter? Too soaked to use your flames?" Ranamon teased.
"Agunimon! Get out of there!" Koji called out. "We have to do something!"
"If we get involve, we'll just get in their way," JP pointed out. "And caught up in the crossfire!"
"We still have to do something! Kumamon is too busy with Grumblemon to help Agunimon right now!" Koichi spoke up.
"Can't we distract Ranamon somehow or get her attention off of Agunimon?" Zoe asked worriedly.
"We better try something soon, she's about to knock Agunimon out!" Koichi quickly said.
The humans rushed towards Ranamon as she was walking up to the weakened Agunimon.
"I must say, you definitely tried to put up a fight, but you're nothing compared to us real Legendary Warriors," Ranamon said. "I'll be taking back the Spirit you took now."
"Hey! Ugly!" JP called out.
"WHAT WAS THAT!?" Ranamon shouted in anger, immediately turning to JP.
Kumamon turned to them for a moment, but had to keep his eyes on Grumblemon who tried to hit him with his sledgehammer again.
"You heard me!" JP retorted. "You look so ugly with that big burn on your face and side, I bet you'll need to cover it up!"
"You humans have no right to say that about me!" Ranamon shouted.
"Please, I've met human women who are way prettier, and more mature, than you," Zoe huffed.
The Dark Vapor and Draining Rain dissipated as Ranamon became more focused on the two insulting her. Koji ran at Ranamon and tackled her as hard as he could, while Koichi went over to Agunimon to help him get back up.
"Can you still fight?" Koichi asked in concern.
Agunimon nodded as Koichi helped him to stand. "Yeah… I can. I just need to be careful." He replied. "Thanks for the help."
Seeing Koji was struggling against Ranamon, Agunimon decided to take the chance and tackle Ranamon himself. He ran at Ranamon, just as she pushed Koji away with a water whip and got back to her feet. Agunimon tackled Ranamon hard, knocking her back to the ground. While Agunimon had been running at Ranamon, he had called forth his Plasma Sphere around his hands. As soon as he tackled Ranamon to the ground, Agunimon gave her a punch to the face with one of his Plasma Sphere covered hands.
While this was going on, Grumblemon was pushed into the air. He was about to burrow underground again when Kumamon decided to take the opportunity he was waiting for.
"Crystal Breeze!" Kumamon shot out his icy wind on the ground Grumblemon was going to, covering it in dense and thick ice.
Grumblemon let out a shout of distress before his face smashed into the ice, unable to burrow through it.
"Give us back the Spirits," Kumamon demanded, holding out his gun at Grumblemon. "Or I'll take them back by force."
"Me free Spirit from you, boy, you do not deserve it," Grumblemon hissed.
Kumamon hesitated, he had still been in doubt as to whether or not he actually deserved Kumamon's Spirit.
"You seem to think the same," Grumblemon noted with a grin.
"It doesn't matter. You'd say that to anyone who was using Kumamon's Spirit," Kumamon retorted.
"You think you so smart? You forget that me have more than just one Spirit," Grumblemon replied before his body was covered in fractal code.
Kumamon's eyes went wide as he remembered the Beast Spirit, he knew Grumblemon had another form, but it was only recently he learned what that form was. Oh crab cakes…
"You know what!?" Ranamon shouted. "I've had about enough of you! No more games!"
Fractal code surrounded Ranamon, which caused the other kids to quickly back away.
"She's turning into her Beast Form! Look out!" Koji warned.
Agunimon had backed off as well, and was now feeling nervous. He knew personally how difficult fighting a Beast Spirit was, thanks to fighting Koji once before.
The fractal code dissipated, revealing the Beast Spirit of Water. The lower half of the body looked like a squid's upper head, but flipped upside down and there was a female humanoid upper body emerging from where the mouth would be on the upside-down squid head. The hair on the humanoid part was purple, the skin was a pale blue color, and the eyes were red. There were gray plates on her shoulders, head, and even on the chest and lower arms, acting like armor. Tentacles emerged from all around the humanoid half.
Koji grimaced. He didn't like the look of the Beast Spirit of Water.
Agunimon stood his ground, but he swallowed nervously. Crap… This is going to be difficult…
"Tectonic Slam!"
Agunimon heard Kumamon screaming, and suddenly something white and cold landed on Agunimon's back with enough force to send him on the ground.
"Ow…" Kumamon groaned from on top of Agunimon's back. "That smarts…"
"You okay?" Agunimon asked Kumamon, although his voice was somewhat raspy due to having the wind almost knocked out of his lungs.
"Gigasmon hits like a truck…" Kumamon groaned as he got off of Agunimon's back.
"About time you beat Kumamon," The giant squid that was Ranamon said to Gigasmon.
"Tougher than he look," Gigasmon said. "Seems you had to use your Beast Spirit too, Calmaramon."
Agunimon got to his feet. "Great… Two Beast Spirits at once… This is going to be more difficult than I thought…"
"How dare you make me use my Beast Spirit! I'm going to make sure you pay!" Calmaramon shouted. "Acid Ink!"
Calmaramon spat out black ink from her mouth. Agunimon and Kumamon quickly ran back, dodging the ink, which sizzled and dissolved some of the ground it landed on.
Agunimon felt his face growing pale. Geez… No wonder it's called Acid Ink…
However, he was distracted, which allowed Calmaramon to have one of her tentacles wrap itself around Agunimon's torso, pinning his arms to his sides and lifting him off the ground.
"H-hey! Let go!" Agunimon exclaimed as he squirmed in Calmaramon's hold.
"Not until I liberate the Spirits you're keeping captive!" Calmaramon snapped.
Kumamon ran at Calmaramon, but Gigasmon jumped and landed on top of Kumamon, pinning him down.
"Where you think you going?" Gigasmon sneered.
"Not here…" Kumamon hissed before he melted his body and moved out from under Gigasmon.
Gigasmon glared as Kumamon slipped out from under him before reforming back into his bear form. "Cute, but what you think you can do?"
"Crystal Breeze!" Kumamon shot out his icy wind at Gigasmon.
Gigasmon's body was starting to turn to ice, but Gigasmon only grinned. Kumamon's attack was strong, but Gigasmon was stronger. "Quagmire Twister!"
Gigasmon twisted his body, breaking through the ice with ease. Kumamon stopped blowing out his Crystal Breeze and tried to run, but he was quickly caught up in the twister. Kumamon let out a yell as he was struggling against Gigasmon's twister attack.
Agunimon was doing his best to try to get out of Calmaramon's tentacle. He was trying to burn through her tentacle, but he was doused with water that poured out from her tentacles whenever he tried. Despite their best efforts, Agunimon knew he and Kumamon were truly no match for these Beast Spirits.
Thinking fast, Agunimon tried to call forth his Plasma Sphere close to his body so that it was almost like armor. C'mon… let go of me already!
Unfortunately, Agunimon realized that the last Draining Rain made him too tired to summon a strong enough Plasma Sphere to push the tentacle off of him. … Shi-
"Meteor Squall!"
"Flower Cannon!"
A barrage of meteors suddenly came down on Calmaramon, and quite a few of them hit the tentacle that was holding Agunimon, forcing her to let go of him. A large green ball of energy came from the sky, and slammed into the twister that was Gigasmon, stopping his attack, and dropped Kumamon to the ground.
"What now!?" Gigasmon shouted in annoyance.
Agunimon and Kumamon looked up, and were surprised, and relieved, to see the attacks came from Sorcermon and Lillymon. Koji, Koichi, Zoe, and JP were standing beside them, they had likely went back to the castle to get some help.
"Give the chosen ones back their Legendary Warrior's Spirits and leave at once!" Sorcermon stated firmly to the two Rogue Warriors.
"Why would you work with these pests, Sorcermon!? You're supposed to be on our side! What would Seraphimon think?" Calmaramon shouted angrily.
"He would be disappointed in you." Sorcermon replied simply. "I've worked with Seraphimon too long to disappoint him myself."
Agunimon got back to his feet. "Nice timing, Sorcermon!" He called as a relieved grin crossed his face.
"We can take them, can't we?" Calmaramon asked. "Obviously these players brainwashed Sorcermon. We'd be setting him free."
"Not on my watch!" Lillymon warned. "Do you think you can take us all on? Especially since we have backup coming as we speak?"
Gigasmon and Calmaramon froze up at that. If back-up was coming, then there was only one thing that the two of them could do at the moment, even if they didn't like it.
"We have 4 out of 6 of the kidnapped Spirits anyways, it's best we retreat and come back for the other two some other time then," Calmaramon suggested to Gigasmon. "Cutting our losses will be better than getting defeated and being forced to work with these humans."
Gigasmon grumbled, but agreed with the assessment from Calmaramon. "Me no like it, but me agree."
Gigasmon then began to tunnel through the ground to escape, with Calmaramon withdrawing her humanoid half into the squid half and beginning to escape through the air.
"Wait! No you don't!" Lillymon flew after them.
Sorcermon ran forward as well, but Gigasmon was already gone underground, and Calmaramon twisted her body, spinning around like a twister herself, and zipped through the air rather quickly, too fast for Lillymon to catch up.
"They're gone." Lillymon frowned.
"They sure can move fast when running away…" JP frowned.
"Nevermind them now. Lillymon, you'll need to look after Agunimon and Kumamon, make sure they didn't suffer too much damage from that fight," Sorcermon stated.
Lillymon nodded. "Sure thing."
Agunimon frowned. "But they got away with the D-Tectors. Shouldn't we go after them?" Truth be told, he was more than willing to go after the two rogue Warriors, but he wasn't sure if that was a good idea.
"You can't go anywhere in your condition right now," Lillymon warned. "Let's get you two some food first, and let me make sure your Digi-Cores didn't get damaged in that fight."
"As much as I want to go after them myself, Gigasmon did a number on me," Kumamon admitted.
"And Ranamon drained most of your energy," Koji pointed out to Agunimon.
Agunimon frowned, but he knew Koji was right. He then sighed. "Yeah, good point…" He admitted. He looked down at one of his hands, clenching it into a fist, but he couldn't even get a flicker of fire to come forth. "Okay… We'll… we'll get checked over…"
"We'll help you back to the castle then," Zoe said.
JP and Koji helped Agunimon up, while Koichi and Zoe helped up Kumamon, who was smaller and lighter than Agunimon.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Andy, Danny, Valerie, and their Digimon partners, just finished eating at the Mexican restaurant. They were walking out after paying for their meal.
"That was really good, we should start coming here more often," Danny complimented.
"But their food is more expensive than Nasty Burger. I'm completely broke now, especially since Lopmon kept ordering more tacos," Andy grumbled. "I think the waitress wondered how I could be so thin yet eat so much."
"You could've always said 'no' when Lopmon kept asking," Valerie chuckled.
"You try saying that when Lopmon gives you his bunny doll eyes," Andy grumbled.
Danny chuckled. "I guess we found Lopmon's secret weapon then~"
Patamon rolled his eyes while inside Danny's backpack.
"I think he learned it from you," Andy pointed at Danny.
"What do you mean?" Danny asked.
"You often have those big adorable eyes when you ask for something," Andy huffed.
"Come on, it's just my natural charm," Danny replied.
"Who knew tacos could be so good?" Lopmon giggled. "We definitely have to eat there more often."
"Try to control your appetite, please," Salamon said from Valerie's backpack.
"So, what do you two plan to do now?" Valerie asked, though she was hoping to do more with Andy today… and Danny too, of course. Her dad hadn't let her out of the apartment in a while other than for school.
Danny rubbed some sweat from his brow. "It's pretty hot today, isn't it?"
"We have a warm front coming in today," Andy noted, looking up at the sky. "Not a single cloud in the sky."
"Maybe we could go somewhere to cool off?" Valerie suggested, though she noticed Danny was sweating more than either her or Andy, he must not deal with heat too well.
"I guess it didn't help that you had some spicy food earlier too," Patamon noted.
"I know where we could go," Danny spoke up smiling. "I wanted to wait until Tucker and Sam weren't grounded anymore, but we could go to Floody Waters. I heard they got a new attraction there called 'Terror Mountain' that's like a water roller coaster, and take away some of your life expectancies."
"Why would you want that?" Andy raised an eyebrow.
"Don't pretend you wouldn't, and considering the things you do, bro, I'd say that attraction would be tame for you," Danny pointed out.
Lopmon grinned. "Danny has a point, Andy~ I think jumping off a moving train would make this ride seem like a little kid's dream."
"I told you, I was desperate and I was tunnel visioning! This will be different, okay?" Andy huffed. "And stop bringing that up, please. I don't do big thriller rides that well."
"Really?" Valerie blinked. "You seemed like the type of person who'd enjoy that."
"He's just being stubborn," Danny grinned. "Come on, why don't we go to Floody Waters?"
"What about Tucker and Sam?" Andy asked.
"We can take them with us next weekend, but they'll be sooooo jealous to know we got to experience the ride first~" Danny grinned.
Lopmon grinned at Danny. "You'd better have some way to make it up to Sam at least~"
Danny went red in the cheeks at that comment. "L-Lopmon! Drop it! I don't like Sam like that! I…" Danny realized he couldn't hide it from Lopmon, not since Andy knew Danny liked Sam as more than a friend. "Aw crud… I can't hide it from you…"
"I'll give you a break on that today," Andy decided. "Lopmon's had a bit too much spicy food today."
Valerie smiled. "You know, I wouldn't mind going to Floody Waters with you guys. Gives me a chance to try out the new swim suit I got. And this Terror Mountain attraction sounds like it will be fun."
"What about us? I doubt you'd be able to wear your backpacks in a place where you have to strip down to your swimming wear," Salamon asked.
"We'll think of something." Danny reassured Salamon.
"We can take our bags with us, we just have to put them in a safe place before we can get on the rides," Andy said.
"Aww, does that mean we can't join you on those crazy rides?" Lopmon pouted.
"I'm sure they'll figure something out," Patamon said. "Besides, it might be good to not worry about falling into the depths of the waters and potentially drown."
"You're always a bucket of sunshine, aren't you?" Lopmon grumbled.
Andy rolled his eyes. "If we're going to Floody Waters, we'll need to go home to get into our swimsuits. Would your dad be okay with you coming back home and going back out, Val?"
Valerie nodded. "Yeah, he would. I don't think he'll mind me going to the water park to have some fun with you two."
Danny grinned. "Then I think that settles it!"
"Yeah, but remember, Valerie is going with two boys to the water park." Patamon pointed out. "Her father will be wanting her to be safe from any teenage behavior."
"Patamon! We're not creeps like that!" Danny blushed.
"I'm pretty sure Mr. Gray knows we mean no harm to Valerie anyways," Andy reassured. "She's been out with popular boys before after all, who were way more likely to… have teenage behavior."
"And it's not like they'll be the only ones there, right? It's a public park after all," Lopmon added.
Valerie was trying hard not to blush, imagining Andy and her being alone with nothing but their swimsuits and swim trunks on. Actually, Valerie had never seen Andy or Danny's top half of their body before. So this should be interesting…
Valerie was wearing a purple one-piece swimsuit. It was kind of similar to the purple top she wore just before the ghost dog thing happened. Though this swimsuit was cheap, it had to be for her to afford it, it had good material. She had a bag she wore close to her hip where she was keeping Salamon. She walked up to Floody Waters since the boys said they would meet her there. Since she lived so far away, she had to use her hoverboard to get here quickly, though she made sure nobody saw her as the Red Huntress.
"Hey Valerie! Over here!" Valerie heard Andy's voice calling out to her in the crowd of people.
Valerie got a little excited, she wondered if under those baggy clothes the brothers wore might be muscle tone, especially since they apparently get involved in a lot of ghost fighting themselves. If Andy was crazy enough to jump off of a moving train, and who knows what else, he was likely capable of doing a lot of things.
However, when Valerie found Danny and Andy, she was disappointed in what she saw. The boys wore swimming trunks, however, they also wore a white shirt over their top. Danny wore a light blue swimming trunks. Andy was wearing red swimming trunks. They also had bags around them for their Digimon partner.
"Hey, Valerie." Danny said with a smile. "Looking good in that swimsuit." Danny covered his mouth when he realized what he had just said. Crud! Danny blushed beet red.
"Why is the first thing you say having you put your foot in your mouth?" Patamon asked.
"What? Doesn't she look good though?" Lopmon innocently asked.
"Quiet you two," Andy whispered.
"Thanks," Valerie said to Danny, not seeming too bothered by the compliment. "I'm surprised you guys are wearing those white shirts."
"We get sunburnt pretty easily," Andy explained. Though we're also uncomfortable with showing off our bodies.
"It looks like we weren't the only ones from our school who thought of coming here today. I can see a lot of the jocks are running around here too," Danny noted. "That could be troublesome."
"Calvin and his posse must've decided to come here after the movie fiasco," Andy remarked.
"Well, I hope they don't try anything." Valerie grumbled.
"Hey, if the 'haunted wallet' was any indication, I think they'll leave Andy alone." Danny chuckled mysteriously.
"Haunted wallet? What did you two do this time?" Valerie asked, knowing about the twins' tendency to prank people.
"Oh, maybe Phantom may have helped Andy out when he was getting picked on~" Danny grinned innocently. "Andy told me all about it."
"Phantom likes to pull pranks?" Valerie asked.
Andy grumbled a little at Danny before looking at Valerie. "Most ghosts do, that's how people got scared of them in the first place."
"So it's more of mischief, and not malice? That's… kinda cool, albeit a bit unnerving." Valerie admitted. "I didn't know that. I guess I'm learning all over the place today."
"Well, some ghosts are malicious, but not all of them are is what I mean," Andy said.
"Hey, let's not talk about ghosts right now. We need to get in line if we want to ride Terror Mountain before it gets too late," Danny spoke up, pointing at a line of people. "Come on!"
Danny ran to get in line, with Valerie and Andy following behind him.
"Wow, who knew the line would get this long?" Valerie noted as people lined up behind the trio.
"It's a new attraction, marketed as a big thriller ride that gets people excited," Andy chuckled. "It'd be more surprising if the line didn't get this long."
"So you're gonna stand under the sun waiting in line for this thing?" Lopmon frowned.
"You can read a book I put in there for you," Andy pointed out.
Valerie wondered when was the last time she actually relaxed or just went somewhere to have a good time with friends. Not since she was kicked out of the A-List, that was for sure. But seeing how she was with two people who were more genuine than anyone from the A-List, who didn't mind joking around with her, it felt nice. The Digimon with them helped liven things up as well. Not to mention hearing what Andy did, he blew what any jock did out of the water, at least for her. She doubted any of those big, tough jocks would've had the balls to do what Andy did for his cousin and friend.
"Jeez it's hot…" Danny grumbled.
"If you'd like, I could swing by a vendor and get you some cold water to drink while we wait," Valerie offered.
"Actually, that would be nice." Danny admitted with a relieved smile. "I don't know why the heat is getting to me so badly lately."
"Then I'll be right back," Valerie said as she walked away.
Salamon poked her head out from the bag. "When will you talk to Andy about how you feel?"
"W-what do you mean?" Valerie asked. "He's just a friend."
"But I can tell you want to see him as more than just that," Salamon replied. "I can hear your heart beating faster when you talk to him."
Valerie blushed. "I… I don't know… I… I want to talk to him but… what if I scare him off?"
"You can at least try asking him if he's interested in going on one date with you. Nothing will happen if you don't ever take that step. Look at Danny and Sam, they're just skirting around it," Salamon pointed out.
Valerie sighed. "I guess… you have a point… I just don't know how I'd go about asking him."
"Is that a doggy!?" A child asked when they saw Salamon.
Salamon blinked as more people were looking at her. "Uh… woof?"
"Um… yeah. She is." Valerie said, thinking fast. "But she's very shy when crowded, so please keep your distance from her, okay?"
Meanwhile, Danny and Andy were standing in line.
"What's taking Valerie so long? Is there a line at the vendor too?" Danny asked.
"I wonder if your intolerance to heat has anything to do with you being a ghost?" Patamon remarked curiously. "After all, you are a lot colder than humans are."
"I… you know, I never thought about it like that before." Danny admitted. "I guess I still have a lot to learn about my own physiology."
"If we had the proper equipment, we could do some testing on you to figure out more about your other half," Andy suggested. "Well, by 'proper equipment', I more mean the lab equipment that doesn't try to rip you molecule by molecule."
"Your parents have issues," Lopmon remarked.
"I think they got too deep into their idea of what ghosts are and should be, so much so they closed off their minds of any other possibilities," Andy sighed. "Doesn't help that the only really friendly ghost they ever encounter is Danny, and they think he's just faking it to manipulate people."
"Let's not worry about that right now," Patamon said.
"Yeah, we're supposed to relax, bro," Danny said. "You don't want Jazz getting on your case, do you?"
Andy rolled his eyes. "I think you're just happy that you could take me on that vacation you promised me."
Danny grinned smugly. "It worked out, didn't it?~"
"I'm telling you Kwan, just relax."
Danny and Andy heard Dash's voice. They saw Dash and Kwan together, both wearing swimming trunks. Their muscles were being shown off due to the lack of a top.
"But Sir Michael will kick me out after that latest blunder, how can I relax?" Kwan asked.
"Look, the Digimon was obviously too strong for you. If this Sir Michael can't understand that, maybe you should ditch him and find a better group to join," Dash replied. "Besides, we're not here to talk about Ruler of the Digital World, we're here to have fun and forget our worries."
Kwan sighed. "Okay. I guess it does ruin the mood here."
Dash and Kwan walked up to the line and saw Danny and Andy there. The pairs looked at each other, both sides feeling a bit awkward. Though Kwan wasn't sure what had been going on between Dash and the Fenton twins.
"Aren't we going to tell them to hold our place in line or something?" Kwan asked Dash.
"No," Dash replied before looking at the twins. "You two are here for the Terror Mountain attraction?"
"Yeah, I guess it's safe to assume you two are here for that as well?" Andy asked.
"I've heard the terrifying things about it." Dash replied. "Didn't figure you to be an adrenaline junkie. You or your twin."
"Danny definitely is," Andy replied.
"You have no room to talk, bro, do I need to remind you of the train incident?" Danny pointed out.
"What train incident?" Dash raised an eyebrow.
"Hush," Andy grumbled at his brother. "The circumstances were different, we're just doing this for fun."
"Well… how've you guys been since we last saw each other?" Dash asked. "Got caught up in anymore fogs?"
"We haven't seen anymore fogs lately, thankfully," Andy replied.
Kwan blinked. "Dash… are you having a normal conversation with the Fenton Twins?"
"What? Is it really that odd?" Dash retorted. "I can talk normally to anyone I want."
"I guess, but… to these two?" Kwan asked.
"What is it about us specifically that makes it weird to have a normal conversation with?" Andy asked.
"You two aren't exactly…" Kwan hesitated.
"High on the popularity chain?" Danny asked. "In case you haven't noticed, we're not in school right now. The popularity chain means nothing here."
"And we're all here for the same reason, right? To have fun and cool down from the hot day," Andy added. "So let's just try to get along while we're here."
"I'm okay with that. It's tiring to have to select someone to bully just to keep up the image," Dash agreed.
Kwan nodded, not entirely sure of how to handle the situation, but he decided to just run along with it. "True…"
Danny let out a sigh of relief that nobody was getting bullied now, however, as he let out his breath, he saw a familiar blue mist coming out of his mouth. Patamon and Lopmon started to move a little in their bags, likely sensing it too.
A shadow suddenly moved on its own before it rose up from the ground, revealing itself to the people. The strange thing about the shadow was that it wasn't weakened by the sunlight. The people all began to scream in a panic when they saw the shadowy ghost growling at them. Kwan ran away in fear while Dash's eyes went wide. Though Dash didn't run away right away, but he knew he was powerless against ghosts without Labramon, who was back at the Digital World right now.
"Everyone run!" Dash called out.
"Isn't that Johnny 13's shadow?" Andy frowned. "What's he doing here?"
"We'll find out later! We gotta move!" Danny quickly said.
Andy and Danny ended up splitting up. Danny rushed to the nearest bathroom, but in his rush, he accidentally ran into the ladies room.
Star pushed Danny out of the ladies room. Paulina was beside her, also looking miffed.
"Uh, hello? Ladies room!" Star exclaimed angrily, pointing at the sign.
"I'd tell you to go to the men's room, but I don't think you qualify," Paulina remarked in a teasing yet malicious tone.
Danny frowned at the burn. Wow, that was cruel of Paulina… What do I see in her?
But Danny didn't have time to deal with snobby girls right now, he had a ghost to take care of. He ran in the opposite direction of the bathroom, this time going behind a large map of the public area. It was enough to cover him.
Danny grimaced as he felt the pavement burn on his feet. Pushing through the pain, Danny called forth the white rings around his torso and turned into his ghostly form.
Something strange happened when Danny changed, however, his bag that he had Patamon in had vanished. It wasn't the most unusual thing as his clothes and anything he wore usually got replaced with his ghostly forms when he transformed. However, because his bag disappeared, that left Patamon out in the open. However, Patamon had a strange ghostly glow on him just like Danny did now. But Patamon had a more obvious change than just the ghostly glow. His orange top was now black, and his bottom was more white. His colors were matching Danny Phantom's hazmat suit colors now.
"Hmm?" Patamon studied himself for a moment. "What happened to me?"
Danny looked over, only to see Patamon as slightly glowing. "Uh… okay… That's new…"
"We'll have to figure it out later, we better get to that ghost," Patamon said.
It was strange, it was the first time Patamon actually went with Danny in his ghost form. Danny wasn't sure if Ptamon would be fast enough to keep up with him in his ghost form, but he decided to trust the little Digimon. Danny flew up into the air, and Patamon was keeping up with him quite easily. Patamon's flight seemed to be a little different than normal, instead of flapping his wings, he used them to stabilize himself in the air. There seemed to be another power that allowed Patamon to fly without having to use his wings.
Of course, Danny didn't have time to try to figure this out right now. He and Patamon flew at the shadow that was terrorizing people. He didn't see Andy or Lopmon anywhere, though it was likely they wouldn't be able to directly join in the fight in such a public area. Knowing Andy, he was waiting and watching somewhere in case he needed to jump in to help.
"Hey, dark and formless! Remember me?" Danny quipped as he flew at the shadow ghost.
The shadow ghost reached up to grab Danny, however Patamon zipped to the side, seeing the incoming danger, and expanded himself before shooting out what was supposed to be a Boom Bubble attack, however, the air bubble was green and bright, much like Danny's ghost rays. The strange looking Boom Bubble hit the shadow ghost's chest and exploded.
"Whoa! What was that?" Danny asked.
"I… don't know? That's never happened before," Patamon admitted, looking just as surprised and confused as Danny did.
"Well, whatever it was, that seemed to work." Danny noted as he looked back at the shadow ghost in front of them. "It looks like that was a direct hit."
The shadow had been split apart when Patamon had shot him with that weird green Boom Bubble attack, though the shadow wasn't done yet. It put itself back together and growled, though the attack had clearly weakened it. The shadow launched itself at Danny and Patamon, grabbing both of them with its claws.
"Seems this shadow isn't weakened by sunlight," Patamon noted, not seeming to be in too big of a distress at being grabbed. "How curious."
"Maybe it's artificial light that weakens it," Danny remarked, also not seeming to be in distress either.
The shadow hissed before it began to fly down, trying to stab the two on the pointy fence below.
"Hey, what are you doing anyways!? Isn't Johnny supposed to be back home with his girlfriend or something?" Danny asked, though the shadow didn't seem interested in answering. "Alright, fine, you ask for it. Patamon, let's see how well this shadow mixes with water!"
"I get the feeling this is going to be quite disgusting," Patamon grumbled.
Danny and Patamon used their strength to push back the shadow ghost, making it unable to hold onto them so easily. Danny noted that Patamon appeared to be physically stronger in this new form of his, and that was without digivolving into Angemon. Patamon grabbed onto the shadow's hand, while Danny grabbed the other, and both of them flew around, facing the water below, and threw the shadow down into the water with a big SPLASH.
The shadow struggled to get out, but his form was being liquified by the water, spreading him out more like a black puddle.
"Yeah, that is definitely gross," Patamon blanched.
Danny grinned before he kicked the drain lever, having found it as he emerged from a brick wall while intangible. The water began to drain from the pool. "Enjoy your trip through the sewers!" He quipped. "Oh, and if you see Monday's Meatloaf, say hi!"
"You're making it grosser," Patamon grumbled.
"Sorry, couldn't resist," Danny chuckled.
With the danger passed, Danny gave a curious look at Patamon. "But… what happened to you? It kinda looks like you gained ghost powers yourself. I mean you're floating without using your wings, your green eyes are glowing more, you got the ghostly glow around you, your colors changed, and you used that… ecto bubble boom thing earlier."
"It… appears…" Patamon began as he frowned. "I may have gotten some ghost powers from our bond, when I fully accepted you as my partner. But I need… some time to figure this out before I try to speculate."
"Then… what will happen when I transform back? Will you still be like this?" Danny asked.
"... Well… the easiest way to find out is to transform back," Patamon answered.
Danny nodded before he floated to the edge of the pool and focused on his human form. The rings reappeared and split, returning him to human form.
When Danny returned to human form, mini white rings appeared around Patamon, reverting him back to his normal form as well. Not only that, but now Patamon's eyes were back to being blue as well.
"Looks like I turn back to normal when you do," Patamon noted.
"Yeah… hey, even your eyes are normal now. They're blue again," Danny pointed out.
"Hmm, perhaps what happened before was considered an incomplete transformation that my data was stuck in until the true transformation was finally finished," Patamon speculated.
Before Danny could reply to that, he heard a familiar voice… and saw a familiar face.
"Danny!? You're the ghost boy? And you have a cute little pet with you?" Paulina smiled, looking quite excited and giddy.
Danny grew pale in the face. "Oh no…" He muttered. He was so busted…
Meanwhile, Andy and Lopmon were climbing up from another pool away from the battle.
"Admit it, Lopmon… we got lost in the crowd and couldn't find Danny or that shadow ghost…" Andy groaned.
"I didn't think we'd get split up like that." Lopmon admitted. "I was sure Danny and that shadow ghost were around here."
"This place is pretty big. When there's a large crowd of people running in a panic, it gets hard to find anything, even a ghost attack," Andy sighed. "But it seems quiet now, so maybe Danny and Patamon were able to handle it."
"What about Valerie and Salamon?" Lopmon asked. "Weren't they getting some refreshments or something while we were waiting in line?"
"I get the feeling she's not happy right now…" Andy frowned. "Having missed a ghost attack."
"Where did everybody go?" Valerie asked.
"Do you think those kids petting me held us up long enough for them to get on the ride?" Salamon asked worriedly.
"Maybe." Valerie frowned. "But the line is gone… Did something happen while we were held up? This place kinda looks like a mess."
"There's some humans over there… carrying electronic stuff? To a water park?" Salamon frowned.
Valerie recognized these people as the TV crew, something definitely happened since they were coming here. "Quick, hide in my bag, Salamon!"
Salamon jumped into Valerie's back just as the TV crew set up the cameras. A woman wearing a pink dress uniform, and black hair, stood in front of the camera with a microphone. Valerie decided to listen to what she had to say to figure out what happened.
"Amity Park was rocked today by another random attack from that pasty-faced ghost known as Spectrec-Al." The news lady began.
Valerie frowned as she heard that. She had just been around the ghost kid, known as Phantom, and he didn't seem like he would do an attack just randomly at all. He was too… good-hearted to do such a thing.
"It was said that Spectrec-Al also had a creature with him helping him terrorize the civilians. It could be a pet, or a familiar summoned by this ghost kid," The reporter continued.
Valerie then saw Andy running across the camera, holding onto a wet Lopmon. Lopmon being wet was probably why Andy didn't have him in his bag. Valerie went over to Andy seeing how he was still here, he may know about what just happened.
"Andy? What happened?" Valerie asked as she ran over to him with Salamon in her bag still.
"You didn't know?" Andy asked, surprised that Valerie was asking him.
"Didn't know what?" Valerie frowned.
"There was a ghost attack near Terror Mountain," Andy answered. "Everyone ran away, and Phantom came in to take care of it. Lopmon and I were trying to find a good spot to help, but we ended up getting lost in the crowd of panicking people."
"And almost drowned in another pool of water," Lopmon said.
"Shh! There's a TV crew nearby, Lopmon, I don't want anyone to see you talking," Andy hissed.
Valerie frowned before looking at Andy. "Sorry I got held up. Some kids wanted to pet Salamon…"
"I thought Floody Waters had a 'no pet' rule," Andy chuckled. "Surprised the kids didn't mention that."
"They thought she was too cute to be taken out of the park," Valerie sighed. "If I knew there was a ghost attack here, I'd be sure to make them pay for disturbing everyone."
"I'm sure Phantom's already got that covered," Andy said before remembering something. "Wait… did the reporter call him 'Spectrec-Al' earlier?"
"She did." Valerie confirmed. "I swear, that ghost kid needs a publicist."
"Would a publicist work for a ghost?" Andy asked. "Especially a ghost teenager?"
"Andy! I've got a problem!" Danny called, running to them like something was chasing after him.
Valerie could see Patamon's wings sticking out of Danny's bag.
"What's wrong?" Andy asked.
"Ah…" Danny looked at Valerie. "It's uh… a private guy problem…"
"Ah… I'll let you two talk it out, Salamon and I will look around to see how much damage the ghost attack caused," Valerie quickly said.
As Valerie quickly left, Danny looked at Andy. "Andy… Paulina saw…"
"Dude, I told you to get new swimming trunks if the old one is loose," Andy sighed.
"What? No! Not that! She saw me transform! She knows I'm half ghost!" Danny exclaimed.
Andy quickly put a hand on Danny's mouth. "Do you want to announce that to the entire world!?"
Andy pointed at the TV crew nearby.
Danny furrowed his eyebrows, it seemed he was getting pretty careless a lot lately. Andy removed his hand from Danny's mouth.
"You said Paulina saw the other half of you?" Andy frowned.
"Yeah! I finally get to see Paulina in a bathing suit and I can't even enjoy it," Danny whined.
"Priorities," Patamon hissed from the bag.
"This is bad, it's really bad…" Danny groaned.
"Okay, just calm down. Maybe we can salvage this," Andy said, trying not to panic. He didn't expect his brother's secret to get caught by someone else so soon, especially by one of the most popular kids in school. I knew I shouldn't have left him alone.
"Danny! And… his brother, hi!" Paulina called as she ran over to them.
"You know my name, and I don't know what you think you saw, but we need to have a little talk, in private, about whatever it is you may or may not have seen," Andy warned.
"Oh don't get your swimming trunks in a bundle," Paulina grumbled at Andy before she gave a little wave to Danny, who was now behind him. "Danny, why'd you run? I know I freaked you out when I discovered your secret, but… I won't tell. And I love that cute unique winged hamster you have in that bag of yours~"
Danny blushed. "Ah… thanks…" He stammered out awkwardly. Oh man… How can she be so nice after that burn she gave me? It was so uncalled for!
"How do we know we can trust you?" Andy frowned. "Surely the second you can, you'll post this knowledge all over the social media, and gossip about it in school."
"You can totally trust me, because it's not just Danny's secret, it's my secret now too. Which makes this…" Paulina smiled as she walked around Andy, and tapped Danny on the nose. "Our secret~"
Any ill feelings Danny had to Paulina instantly vanished, and was replaced with a fog of happiness.
"You've got to be kidding me," Andy deadpanned.
Andy's comment was promptly ignored.
"You… think it's cool I have these… powers?" Danny asked Paulina as Patamon looked up from the bag.
"Cool? No…" Paulina gave Danny a smile. "I think it's hot~"
Danny felt a blush come to his face. "You… think I'm… hot?"
"Definitely~" Paulina sang before she waved good-bye to Danny. "See ya, Danny~"
Danny stared after Paulina for a moment before her words sank into his head. "I'm… Hot? A girl thinks I'm hot!"
"Go into the water and cool off," Andy pushed Danny forward.
"Oh come on, bro, are you jealous?" Danny asked.
"I'm irritated. Out of all the girls who could've seen you transform and fallen for you, why'd it have to be Paulina?" Andy groaned. "You know how toxic she is from the school dance, remember?"
"I know that!" Danny grumbled as well. "But can you blame me? I'm only 14!"
"So am I, you don't see me pining for Paulina," Andy pointed out.
"Look… maybe Paulina and I got off on the wrong foot. There's nothing wrong with giving her a second chance," Danny said. "Maybe things will turn out for the better this way."
"Danny, this is serious. Another person knows your secret now, aren't you worried about that?" Andy asked. "That's the second time you unknowingly transformed in front of someone. The first being me and Jazz."
"The first time with you and Jazz doesn't count!" Danny pouted.
"Actually this would be the third time, since the second time was with me," Patamon spoke up.
"Uh-huh… and what if you transform in front of someone who wouldn't be so willing to keep your secret?" Andy asked. "We might need to ask Mom and Dad to make a memory erase potion or something."
"Look, what's done is done, if Paulina is willing to keep it a secret, then things should be fine… right?" Danny asked.
Andy groaned as he rubbed his face. I hate teenage hormones…
"I saw Paulina talking to you guys, is everything alright?" Valerie asked as she came back over.
"I don't know about that. We might end up having quite the stressful day at school tomorrow…" Andy sighed.
"That bad?" Valerie asked.
"It may not be so bad, we don't know what will happen at school," Danny said, trying to remain positive.
"I'm gonna call Tucker and Sam later," Andy said.
"So… what about the rest of our fun day?" Valerie asked.
"If they don't close down, maybe we might still be able to have some fun here?" Danny sheepishly said. I need to talk to Andy and tell him about Patamon's transformation. He might be able to help us understand it more.
Titanic X: ZAFT: What can I say? He is too easy to embarrass.
DarkFoxKit: Danny should probably stop calling himself a Christmas Tree and come up with new material. He says that pretty much every time he blushes. As for the training with Takuya, well, you saw how well it went.
pokemon fan 1991: ZAFT: Yeah, it was nice to see Valerie interact with the twins. Those two are fun to write out. XD And Valerie seeing Phantom as a human-like being was quite fun to write out. XD
DarkFoxKit: Danny didn't appreciate Calvin picking on his brother. As for making the rule for Digimon shouting their attacks to make them stronger, it was more to explain why they do it so much in the anime when it would be more practical to just attack without announcing what you're doing. It's why Tommy doesn't always shout his attacks, it catches his opponent by surprise, even if his attacks are weaker for it.
The Digimon movies are a bit of an oddball, I don't know if we should consider it canon, especially Hurricane Touchdown. I mean Patamon and Gatomon just warped digivolved into their Mega forms kinda casually and out of nowhere, and they never mention this again… like what's up with that?
I'm not sure what you're asking with that last one, you worded it very strangely. About Digimon ghost game? What? And humans shouting their Digimon partners attack? I've never seen that happen. ^^' So you completely lost me.
As for Valerie and Star, we haven't shown it on screen, but they are at least still talking to each other.
ZAFT: I think they meant how does humans shouting out their partners' attacks work? It was just how the anime did things. I watched it myself, and I didn't bother to think about the 'why' for that… ^^'