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.

71. Strange Days

DarkFoxKit: Alright, here is another update to Digital Phantom. January is almost over. Hopefully 2024 is going good for you guys.

ZAFT: We're so close to the end, I hope you will enjoy the final set of chapters! We will be taking a break after we finish this season, but we hope you will read the next segment/season when it comes out!

DarkFoxKit: We'll post an update to let you guys know when we get the next season out. It might be a little tricky to find because of… the nature of the next season, so we'll try to let you know how to find it too. But until then, please enjoy this chapter.

---

Chapter 71: Strange Days

"Hey Andy?"

Andy groaned a little. He was having a nice dream, for once in a long time, and he didn't like being woken up out of it.

"Andy, wake up."

"Lopmon, I told you, if you're hungry, just go to the kitchen and grab something. Mom and Dad made it so you and Patamon can open the fridge on your own now…" Andy groggily grumbled.

"It's not that," Lopmon said in a worried tone. "I went to check Takuya's room… and he still isn't there."

That got Andy's attention. "What?"

Andy got out of bed, though it looked like Danny and Patamon were still asleep. Patamon must be tired from using that new ghost form of his, after all, Danny used to crash when he had to use his ghost powers too many times before. These days, Danny seemed to be able to use his ghost form without getting too tired now. Andy wanted to contemplate that more, but he had a more important matter to attend to.

Andy and Lopmon hurried downstairs and went into the room Takuya was staying in. There was no sign of the older boy.

"He never came back?" Andy frowned.

"No." Lopmon replied. "The computer on his desk is as cool as a cucumber. There's no sign of it being used."

Andy looked at Takuya's bed, seeing how nobody had laid in it at all last night. "Considering the time differences in the Digital World, he really should've been back by now, even if something interrupted his training session. Two or so weeks, at least, should've gone by in the Digital World. Surely Takuya hadn't lost track of time that much…"

"Maybe he couldn't get back for whatever reason?" Lopmon asked.

Andy looked over at the monitor. "Isn't there a way to contact him while he's in the Digital World?"

Andy took out his D-Arc and started to push some buttons. The D-Arc beeped a few times, but didn't start calling Takuya or anything. "I wish I knew how to use this thing more…"

"Should we… go into the Digital World and look for him?" Lopmon asked.

"We should-"

"Takuya!" Maddie called, knocking on the door, making Andy and Lopmon jump. "It's time to get up! I'm going to wake up the boys next, you better be up by the time I'm done!"

Crud! Why does this have to happen!? Andy groaned.

Andy looked over at the bed and quickly grabbed the blanket. "Hide Lopmon!"

Lopmon jumped onto the bed as Andy scrambled onto the bed himself, and covered him and Lopmon with the blanket. And not a moment too soon, Maddie opened up the door.

"Takuya! You'd better get out of bed!" Maddie scolded as she walked into the room.

Andy knew he couldn't quite imitate Takuya's voice, so he opted to try grunting in a deep voice to make it sound like he was waking up, but not give himself away. He almost moved a little under the covers to show he was 'waking up'. Please don't check under the covers, please don't check under the covers…

Maddie frowned, but didn't walk any closer. "It's about time you got up. Don't be late to breakfast." She said as she turned and left the room, closing the door.

Andy and Lopmon waited a minute or two after Maddie closed the door to make sure she wouldn't suddenly open the door again. After Andy was sure his mom wasn't going to come back in right away, he pulled the covers off of himself and Lopmon.

"This is troubling. Even with the time difference, I won't have time to go to school and search for Takuya if something did happen to him." Andy frowned.

"Maybe Takuya's fine and he lost track of time," Lopmon suggested. "Or maybe you can ask your parents to look for him? I'm sure they'd be ecstatic to go back to the Digital World."

"But they can't go to the Digital World without a D-Tector or a D-Arc," Andy pointed out. "And I don't want them to worry…"

"But Takuya could be in danger, are you sure you want to keep this a secret?" Lopmon asked.

Andy hesitated. He knew finding Takuya was more important than school, especially since he knew something might've happened to Takuya for him to not come back last night.

Suddenly, there was static on his D-Arc which caught his attention. Andy looked at the D-Arc and saw the symbol of Agunimon on it.

"Takuya!?"

"Andy?" Takuya's voice said over the D-Arc. "How did you get through to my D-Tector?"

"Nevermind that now. Are you okay, Takuya?" Andy quickly asked. "Where are you?"

"I'm fine, and I'm… back at Seraphimon's Castle." Takuya replied. "Why?"

"Why? You never-" Andy started to say, but the symbol of Agunimon disappeared, and static took over. "Takuya? Hello? Can you hear me!?"

Andy pushed more buttons on his D-Arc, but he wasn't able to get Takuya back on. "Darn it! The connection cut off!"

"Hey, at least Takuya's fine." Lopmon pointed out, trying to reassure Andy.

"Yeah, that's good, but… if he's okay, why isn't he coming back?" Andy frowned. "Surely he knows how long he's been gone, doesn't he?"

"Maybe there was a mission while he was training and lost track of time?" Lopmon suggested.

"That doesn't seem like Takuya. Sure he can get in the zone sometimes, but he knows not to worry his family," Andy said.

"He says he's fine, and he's back at Seraphimon's Castle… so maybe he'll come back by the time you guys have to go to school," Lopmon suggested. "And if he doesn't, you know where he's going to be, right?"

"Yeah…" Andy slowly replied.

"Then no worries. If he doesn't come back by the time you get home from school, then go to Seraphimon's Castle and yank him back out here." Lopmon smiled.

Andy crossed his arms and nodded. "Yeah, fine. I'm not Takuya's babysitter, if he can't be responsible enough to go to school when he should, then that's on him."

"You can scold him when he gets back~" Lopmon grinned.

"Oh I will, and I'll bring Jazz into the mix, she's usually better at scolding people than I am," Andy said.

"Even better than your parents?" Lopmon asked.

"Eh… it depends really," Andy said. "Oh, speaking of which, I better get ready before Mom comes down here."

"Are you going to tell them the truth or… cover for Takuya?" Lopmon asked.

Andy contemplated that for a moment. "I'll give Takuya one more day, if he's not back by then, then I'll either tell them or see if I can bring him back before that becomes a problem."

Lopmon sighed. "Okay… but this had better not backfire on us."

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that," Andy said.

"You think it won't backfire on us?" Lopmon asked.

"Oh, no… I can almost guarantee it will. I'm just preparing for it," Andy shrugged. "But one problem at a time."

Lopmon groaned. "Things always seem to backfire on us in spectacular ways."

---

Breakfast was a little stressful for Andy and Lopmon. They haven't had a chance to tell Danny and Patamon about Takuya, not with their parents, and Jazz, being there. Andy decided not to tell Jazz right now either, because she had a tendency to go into overprotective mode herself.

"Where's Takuya? He was supposed to be up by the time you two came down for breakfast," Maddie asked.

"Just us two? What about Jazz?" Danny asked, yawning, he had been a little too excited about the fact Patamon is now a halfa just like him to sleep last night.

"You know I'm always the first one here, even before our parents," Jazz replied.

"Right, you're such an early bird…" Danny grumbled.

"Could one of you boys get Takuya?" Jack asked.

"No, I'll get him, he was supposed to wake up when I woke up the boys," Maddie grumbled.

"Ah, n-no need for that, Mom," Andy spoke up. "I saw Takuya earlier. He said he'll be heading to school early, for… a project he needed to do. He said the school had better materials for him to work with, and he'll have breakfast on the way there."

Maddie blinked. "I didn't see him leave the house."

Jack laughed a hearty laugh. "It's fine Mads. Takuya probably left before you got down here. At least that boy's taking his education seriously!"

"I suppose…" Maddie said, though she wasn't sure if she bought that. When she woke Takuya up earlier, he wouldn't even answer her, and just grunted. It would've taken someone in that state at least 5 minutes to even get out of bed, let alone get ready and head out by the time she was finished waking up the twins.

"Oh, Patamon, Lopmon, I saved you some extra waffles to make sure you two will be nice and full, and ready to defend our children in case a ghost tries to attack the school again!" Jack smiled.

Lopmon smiled. "Thanks, Uncle Jack! I love waffles!"

"I prefer pancakes myself," Patamon remarked. "But waffles will do."

Danny grinned. "Waffles are so good, especially Mom's waffles!"

"It's one of the few things they cook that doesn't come to life," Jazz remarked.

"Oh, come on, Jazz, it was just the wieners, and we were experimenting with the new cooking device," Jack pointed out. "We got rid of the wieners, and we made sure to purify any ectoplasmic residue that was in the machine."

"Do I need to point out the killer turkey?" Jazz raised an eyebrow.

"That was 10 years ago…" Jack pouted.

"Yeah, but that thing almost killed me!" Danny exclaimed. "I will never eat turkey as a result of that…"

"I still like turkey," Andy said.

"Because you're weird," Danny huffed. "You like toast too."

"Come on, what's wrong with toast? You're the one who's weird, who doesn't like toast with some butter and jam in the morning? Apparently you," Andy huffed back. "Besides, you used to like toast."

Danny grimaced. He hated toast because it reminded him too much of his accident in the portal. It made him sick to his stomach. "I have my reasons…"

It was something Danny never really shared with Andy because he felt it was rather embarrassing, but also he didn't want to worry Andy, and Jazz, about how his accident may have affected him psychologically. The last thing he needed was for both of them to start psychoanalyzing him about it.

"I didn't know your partner was so picky, then again, you're pretty picky yourself, so maybe you two are made for each other," Lopmon remarked to Patamon.

Patamon grumbled. "It's not bad to be a bit picky…"

"Must've come with being a C-, erm, an important Digimon. You get spoiled with all sorts of ritzy food~" Lopmon teased.

Patamon rolled his eyes. "You would get spoiled too." And would probably agree with me if you remembered your past, Lopmon.

"What? Was I reborn as a prince Digimon or something?" Lopmon chuckled. "Ooh, maybe Andy kidnapped a prince-to-be then, huh?"

Andy nearly choked on his waffle.

"I was just kidding, Andy, jeez." Lopmon rolled his eyes.

Danny laughed. "Your expression is priceless, bro!"

"Hardy har har," Andy grumbled. "Just don't forget what we're going to be dealing with at school today."

Danny stopped laughing at the memory of Paulina and her seeing his secret. Crud… I forgot about that!

---

Andy was rather relieved that they were walking to school today. Jazz offered to drive them, but Andy said he and Danny would rather exercise. But Andy needed to talk to Danny, and Patamon, alone.

Patamon and Lopmon were safely tucked away in Danny and Andy's backpack.

"You think we should tell Jazz, Tucker, and Sam about Patamon's new ghost form?" Danny asked.

"With Tucker and Sam, yeah, when we're alone," Andy answered. "With Jazz? Maybe later, when we get home and Mom and Dad aren't around to hear the word 'ghost'."

Danny grimaced. "Yikes… I'd hate to see how they react to Patamon's ghostly form. Mom and Dad already think 'Phantom' is bad, so I would rather keep Patamon's ghostly form a secret for as long as possible."

"Well, if Patamon is to help you in your ghost fights, it won't be long until they see Phantom having a little ghostly companion with him," Andy pointed out.

"I guess…" Danny sighed. "We should also tell Takuya when we get to school."

"Uh, yeah, about Takuya, bro…" Andy frowned. "Now, try not to get your pants in a twist about this, but… he never came back home last night. I lied when I said I saw him leave earlier."

Danny paled. "Wait… Really? Why didn't he come home? Is he okay?"

"I managed to get in contact with him earlier with my D-Arc, somehow… but the connection didn't last long. I just know he sounds okay, and he was heading to Seraphimon's Castle," Andy answered. "But I don't understand why he didn't come home last night, nor why he didn't seem to be worried about coming home when I managed to get into contact with him."

"Patamon, do you think something might've happened that would make the Digital World's time slow down or something?" Lopmon asked from Andy's backpack.

"You think something caused time to slow down in the Digital World?" Danny asked.

"I don't know… I just think it could be a possibility," Lopmon answered.

"I don't think so, the Digital World's time never really changed as far as I know," Patamon replied. "But then again, this is the first time I had access to two worlds with different time differences. For all we know, time shifting between the two worlds could be something that happens after… a certain amount of time."

Danny frowned. "Time changes between worlds is confusing. Maybe Takuya forgot about the fact that time is faster in the Digital World?"

"If that was the case, he would've come home after about an hour of being in the Digital World," Andy pointed out. "He probably would've stayed at the Digital World for a day or two for training, so he should've come back after two or three hours in our time. The fact he never did for the entire night is very concerning, don't you think? That'd be like if he stayed in the Digital World for half a month or so. That's longer than any of us had been in the Digital World."

"So that's why Lopmon figured there could've been a change in the time shift between this world and the Digital World," Patamon noted.

"Yeah, that seems to be the best explanation I could come up with. Takuya losing track of time is one thing, but for half a month? Even if someone didn't keep track of time that well, they would've noticed they've stayed for way too long," Lopmon pointed out. "Besides, he had the other Legendary Warriors there who seem to be responsible enough to know when they need to get back to the real world, so it bothers me that none of them would've noticed how much time had passed in the real world."

"Then… if time has slowed down somehow in the Digital World, that would explain why Takuya didn't come home last night. He has no idea time is moving slower!" Danny realized.

"But… why now?" Andy frowned. "Why is time moving slower in the Digital World now?"

"That's something we'll probably have to figure out later. If time truly is moving slower in the Digital World now, you two will need to get back home as soon as possible, and not make any plans for a while if you want to go to the Digital World and find Takuya, and the other Legendary Warriors. Because now being in the Digital World means we'll lose a lot of time here," Patamon warned.

Danny frowned. "Being away from home for so long… Yeah, I can see why you don't want us to leave for the Digital World." Although being gone for so long might not be a bad idea if Paulina decides to spill the beans…

"I'd say our best bet is going to the Digital World during the weekend, because then we'll have 2 free days to find out what's going on in the Digital World," Andy suggested.

"Are you sure you want to wait until the weekend?" Lopmon asked.

"If time is moving slow in the Digital World, then Takuya likely won't notice how long it's been," Andy said.

"But that means Takuya will have to make up for lost time at school, and Mom and Dad will be worried about him…" Danny pointed out.

"That's the problem…" Andy sighed. "We also don't know just how slow time is moving in the Digital World either. An hour here could be one second there. Going there without at least letting our parents know, means we risk them missing us too, not just Takuya."

"Not to mention the other Legendary Warriors' families and friends are probably worried about them too," Lopmon added softly.

"But how is waiting until the weekend going to help?" Danny asked.

"It'll give us time to know for sure if time in the Digital World has slowed down, and if Takuya will come back before then," Andy said. "Going into the Digital World right now would be risky, considering we could end up as 'missing' if we do. We also don't know for sure if time has slowed down in the Digital World. Perhaps me coming into contact with Takuya earlier will have him remember he has to come home now, or maybe he was already on his way back to come home."

Danny sighed. "Okay. We'll see what happens. But I will admit, I'm kinda jealous of Takuya right now. At least he doesn't have to worry about the most popular girl in school knowing his secret."

"You'll have to deal with it eventually, bro," Andy said. "I warned you about transforming in a public place."

"I really regret not listening to you now…" Danny groaned.

"I'll admit, I got a bit careless myself. I was just so surprised at my new form that I didn't think about who could be watching us when we transformed," Patamon sighed.

"Let's just hope this isn't a mistake we can't fix," Andy said. "On the plus side, at least we'll have Tucker and Sam helping us out."

"Do they know about the incident?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, I called them about it last night," Andy answered.

Danny sighed. "That's a relief. At least we have them to back us up. I'd hate to face this with just you, bro."

"Are you saying I'm not enough? Thanks, bro." Andy rolled his eyes. "That's the last time I jump off a running train to help you."

"H-hey! I appreciate what you did for me, Andy! I just think this is something that needs more than one extra person to help me with!" Danny exclaimed, trying to calm Andy down.

Andy was snickering to himself, he can still get Danny with his sarcasm it would seem. "Jeez, bro, relax, apparently you can't catch sarcasm anymore."

Danny blushed. "I… I didn't know you were being sarcastic…" He muttered.

"I think you should have a little more faith in your brother. He'd jump off a burning building if it meant saving you," Lopmon chuckled.

Danny frowned, while Lopmon was mostly kidding, Danny didn't doubt that Andy would actually do that if he felt it would save Danny. After all, Andy did some pretty crazy crap while trying to save him and Takuya from Freakshow. Andy almost died, perhaps several times, during the Freakshow incident. That worried Danny, he rather Andy didn't pull such crazy stunts, even if it was to save him. Andy may not get so lucky the next time.

Before Danny could voice his concerns, two familiar faces showed up in front of them.

"Hey guys! It's good to finally be out of the house after being grounded all weekend!" Tucker smiled.

"Tell me about it, I was so ready to tear my way out the door. Biyomon and my grandmother were the only ones keeping me sane," Sam remarked.

"Your parents need to lighten up." Tucker joked.

Sam gave Tucker a glare, making the other boy gulp. "Um… shutting up now."

"Where are your Digimon partners?" Danny curiously asked.

"They're staying home. Kokuwamon is a bit too big and heavy for me to carry around in my backpack," Tucker said.

"And Biyomon likes staying with my grandmother, my grandma thinks she's am exotic pet bird and knows how to care for her feathers. And also, I just would rather not bring a 'pink stuffed animal' to school if I can help it. I may be considered a loser at school, but I still have a reputation as a goth to hold up," Sam remarked.

Danny snickered. "Yeah, the big bad goth vibes you try so hard to put out."

"Says the one who is a literal ghost boy." Sam snarked back. "Aren't you trying to put up a good reputation too?"

"Kinda hard to do that right now with Mom and Dad after my ghost half." Danny grumbled.

"Speaking of which, we have something we need to show you two, but not here," Andy said. "We'll show you guys either during lunch or after school, or if there's a ghost attack… you'll likely see it then."

"Oh, does it have something to do with the fact Ms. Most Popular Girl In School saw Danny transform?" Sam asked.

Danny groaned. "Why I had to get careless, I don't know, but now I really regret it…"

"We both got a bit distracted with something," Patamon grumbled.

"Well… not much we can do about it now but see what happens, right?" Tucker asked.

"I don't trust Paulina," Sam grumbled. "It wouldn't surprise me if she put Danny's secret up on every social media-"

"Not helping, Sam," Andy spoke up.

Sam paused. "Maybe she's not as bad as that… maybe… But if need be, I can create a disguise for you, Danny."

Danny sighed. "If I have to have a disguise, it'd better not be something stupid."

"Give me a bit more credit, Danny." Sam grumbled back.

"Good luck becoming a goth, Danny," Andy teased.

Danny grumbled.

"But you know, I have to ask… why did you go to Floody Waters without us?" Tucker whined.

"We can go next weekend," Danny said, before he remembered about Takuya. "Maybe… hopefully… or you know, the weekend after that. I'm up for discussion."

"By the way, where's Takuya? I know Jazz likes to drive her car, but Takuya usually likes walking with you guys," Sam asked.

"That's also something we'll need to discuss after school," Andy sighed.

The 4 of them were right up at Casper High's doorsteps.

"For now, let's just focus on getting through the day," Andy added.

Danny frowned before he pulled up his collar over his nose and mouth, looking like he was wearing a mask, in a desperate hope that nobody would recognize him. Patamon and Lopmon needed to stay quiet and hidden in the backpack now.

When the 4 friends entered the school, they began walking down the hallway, where most of the students were hanging around their lockers and chatting. Some of them curiously glanced at Danny.

"Is anybody looking at me funny?" Danny cautiously asked.

Tucker chuckled. "Yeah, but that's because you look like you're trying to eat your way out of your shirt. Lighten up. We'll help you through this."

"How can I lighten up?" Danny grimaced. "Paulina knows I'm half ghost!" He hissed. "I mean, I know she said she'd keep the secret, but how can I trust her? She's… well… the most popular girl in school!"

"Didn't we have this discussion already?" Sam asked.

"It didn't help you put those thoughts into his head," Andy pointed out.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Okay, I'll see if I can fix it. Danny, try to relax, okay? Paulina's not exactly the brightest girl in school. As long as nothing else weird happens, and you lay low for a while, maybe she'll forget all about it."

"Paulina may not be a nerd, but she's not stupid. And even if she was, I doubt she'd forget about seeing a human turning into a ghost… or, I guess vice versa," Andy grumbled.

"Do you want to help Danny feel better or not?" Sam huffed.

"I do want him to feel better, but not by lying," Andy huffed back.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Let's just see if we can stop this from getting worse. I doubt Danny wants to be freaking out all day."

"Guys, I'm right here, don't talk about me like I'm not," Danny huffed.

Suddenly, a familiar cold mist came out of Danny's mouth.

"I think there's a ghost nearby…" Patamon whispered in Danny's backpack.

"So… what was that about 'as long as nothing weird happens'?" Andy asked Sam.

"I didn't mean it literally!" Sam huffed. "Geez, it's like I'm the jinx here!"

Tucker looked back, seeing a random kid getting a drink from the water fountain, only for the water to stop coming out. Then the shadow ghost from the day before came out. "I'd say something about that, but I think I know where the ghost came from."

Danny looked back, as did Andy, Lopmon, Sam, and Patamon.

"Why did the shadow ghost come from the water fountain?" Danny asked.

"You drained him into the town sewage, didn't you?" Andy asked.

"... I'm never drinking from the water fountain again," Sam blanched.

The shadow ghost flew past them. Danny gritted his teeth as his eyes glowed green. He's making it really hard for me to lay a low profile…

Normally if a ghost was confronting them, they could have their Digimon fight back. But the shadow ghost wasn't, he was flying rather quickly through the school. None of them had the speed to keep up with him, at least without digivolution. Lopmon could, in no way, digivolve here in public. His sudden appearance would cause a lot of unwanted attention in school. So Danny Phantom it was.

Danny rushed to the bathroom, not wasting any time to rush into an empty stall, and shutting the door. He transformed into his ghost form, turning Patamon into his ghost form as well. They had been practicing on Patamon's intangibility and invisibility last night. Due to Patamon being connected to Danny, it came rather easy for Patamon to be able to use intangibility and invisibility. It was like it came naturally to him, which was good because it would be a major headache if Patamon couldn't control his intangibility and would randomly fall out of Danny's backpack.

Both of them turned intangible and flew out of the bathroom together, and hurried to where the shadow ghost was. Patamon was taken back by how fast he could fly without needing to digivolve.

Phantom and Patamon caught up to the shadow ghost. "You really like making it hard to lay low, don't you?" He growled out.

In response, the shadow ghost grinned sinisterly before splitting in half to try and squash Danny and Patamon between the two halves.

Both of them flipped through the hallway and hit a door. Patamon shook his head, noticing his endurance was a lot better than when he was just a normal Patamon. He looked up at the door they crashed into, seeing the words 'Science Lab' written on it.

"Danny, didn't you say the shadow ghost is weak to artificial light?" Patamon asked.

Danny blinked before he grinned. "Yeah, I did." He said. "I think we can defeat it if we use our ghost ray and ecto-bubble."

"Lead him outside, I'll meet you there," Patamon said, getting an idea.

Danny nodded before he saw the shadow ghost coming at them. "Hey, dark and ugly! Come and get me!" He taunted before turning intangible and flying out through the ceiling of the classroom.

The shadow ghost quickly followed Danny through the ceiling. Patamon turned himself intangible and invisible, he went through the door. He went invisible so nobody would freak out upon seeing him. The students in the science lab seemed to be working on their own projects, so they didn't notice what was going on outside. Patamon rolled his eyes at them, seeing how they lacked awareness. Patamon quickly flew around the room, looking for something. He managed to find a magnifying glass that nobody was using. So he quickly snatched it and turned it invisible so nobody would suddenly see a floating magnifying glass. Patamon hurried and flew up through the ceiling.

Danny was doing a good job at holding off the shadow ghost, though the shadow ghost was being quite brutal. It was clawing at Danny, and Danny had to push back with his ghost ray. Patamon quickly flew over before expanding himself.

"Ecto Bubble!" Patamon shot out the ecto bubble at the shadow, which caused the shadow to fall back quite a bit.

"Here, try using this with your ghost ray's light," Patamon said as he tossed the magnifying glass to Danny.

Danny grinned as he reached up and caught the magnifying glass. "Thanks!" He exclaimed before holding the magnifying glass up to his finger and fired off a ghost ray at the glass. The magnifying glass amplified the ghost ray's energy and the ecto-ray covered the shadow ghost in green energy.

The shadow ghost let out a screech of pain as its body was being burned apart by the light. It soon vanished, not able to take it anymore. Seeing how the shadow ghost was gone, Danny let out a sigh of relief. "Let's hope that takes care of that."

"Yeah. I don't think the shadow ghost did too much damage in the school, so let's get back before you're missed," Patamon said.

Danny nodded. "Okay, and hopefully Paulina didn't see anything." He added, feeling nervous.

"We haven't even seen her yet," Patamon said.

"I know… I guess I better face the music sooner rather than later…" Danny sighed before he and Patamon flew back down to the school.

Danny and Patamon saw Tucker, Sam, and Andy standing in front of Danny's locker. That was an ideal place to change back.

The two of them flew back into Danny's locker and transformed back. Danny then opened the door, with Patamon back in his backpack. Danny smiled, feeling like he was home free.

"I'm starting to feel like we're trained soldiers when this happens," Tucker muttered.

"Unfortunately when a ghost flies away, there isn't much we can do without a ghost of our own," Andy sighed. I hate that feeling of being useless.

Danny frowned. "Well, at least we handled it, even if the ghost got away."

"By the way, was that Patamon following you? He looked different," Sam asked.

"Yeah, that was one of the things we wanted to show you," Andy said. "Apparently Patamon gained a ghost form whenever Danny transforms."

"Wait, really? That's so cool! How does that work?" Tucker asked, excited to hear more about this new form.

However, reality reared its ugly head at that point.

"Great job, Danny!" A familiar female voice said.

That voice made everyone in the group jump as they didn't expect to hear Paulina either.

"W-where did you come from?" Danny asked as he closed the locker door behind him.

We didn't see her until she walked up to us. Are we sure she's not a ghost herself? Andy frowned.

Then Mr. Lancer walked up. "Mr. Danny Fenton, there you are!" The portly teacher said as he held up some erasers. "You were due to smack the erasers 5 minutes ago. Where were you?"

"Class hasn't even started yet, Mr. Lancer," Andy pointed out.

"He was supposed to smack the erasers before class started," Mr. Lancer pointed out. "I mentioned this on Friday."

"Yeah, Friday… who's gonna remember that?" Sam muttered.

"Don't worry, Mr. Lancer, he was with me!" Paulina smiled. "Danny Fenton and I are dating now!"

When Paulina made this announcement, it was like the world slowed down. All the students in the area let out gasps of shock as they stared with wide eyes, and jaws opened. One kid even dropped their textbook and pencil to the ground at how unbelievable that announcement was. Another kid, who was standing in front of his locker that had a… creepy, dedicated shrine to Paulina, screamed out 'Noooooo!'

Danny himself was staring in disbelief at what he just heard. Tucker and Sam were staring as well, but none of them came close to the shock that Andy was experiencing. He was so much in shock that his backpack actually slipped off of his arms and fell to the ground, with a soft 'ouch' from Lopmon inside, though everyone was too in shock to hear that.

Paulina grinned at Danny as she wrapped her arms around his. Danny hadn't been sure about how he felt about Paulina lately, but seeing this, his mind no longer cared, and he was just ecstatic that the most popular girl in school, and that he admittedly still had a crush on, was now in love with him. And she had no shame announcing that she was dating him, in front of everyone.

Mr. Lancer grinned, as if this was a good thing. "Well… that ups your street cred, Mr. Fenton." He then turned to Tucker and Andy. "Mr. Andy Fenton, Mr. Foley, you two are not dating anyone out of your league, so one of you two can smack the erasers together." He then threw the erasers at Tucker and Andy.

"Hey, how is that fair?" Tucker frowned.

Andy wanted to argue how this was really dumb and it didn't make sense why Danny suddenly didn't have to do the job just because he was now dating a popular girl, but when Mr. Lancer tossed the erasers into their hands, a cloud of chalk covered his face, making him choke on it.

What the heck just happened? Andy mentally demanded.

"You two lovebirds enjoy lunch~" Mr. Lancer smiled at Danny and Paulina.

LUNCH!? Classes haven't even started yet! Do popular kids just have lunch whenever they want? Andy mentally yelled.

While Andy was going through his little crisis, Tucker noticed the very sour look on a certain goth's face.

"Um… are you okay?" Tucker asked.

"Of course I'm fine!" Sam snapped back. "Why would I not be okay? Look how happy he is!" Sam then turned and punched the nearest locker door, leaving a dent in the door.

"Ouch…" Sam grumbled, rubbing her fist.

Tucker shivered, deciding it would be in his best interest to not anger Sam today. He looked at Andy. "Uh… are you okay?"

"NOTHING MAKES SENSE ANYMORE!" Andy shouted, throwing the erasers in the air, only for the erasers to hit him on the head, and cover him in chalk.

"... My two friends are losing it, and one of my friends is dating a popular girl… awesome…" Tucker muttered.

---

When it was actually lunch time now, which Andy was glad because he could not focus at all on his classes right now, he didn't see where Danny went. He met up with Tucker and Sam, and they went to the cafeteria together. That was when they saw Danny and Paulina. They were sitting at a table together, and a lot of people were staring at them.

"Danny does know we need to talk in private, right?" Andy grumbled.

Sam grumbled. "He'd better remember that…"

Tucker groaned. "Why do I get the feeling this whole thing will just make this complicated for us?"

Danny tried to act cool, since this was the first time he was on an actual date with someone, and not just taking them to a school dance or something. "I'm really glad you're cool with this, Paulina. But, uh… everyone's kinda staring at us."

"That's because you're with me now." Paulina said in a dreamy voice.

The blonde kid with the Paulina shrine started crying as he ran off, his hopes of being with her dashed.

"And speaking of that," Paulina continued. "How would you like to come with me to a bowling party on Friday night?"

Danny perked up. "You mean like a date?"

"Not like a date." Paulina said with a smile. "A date."

Danny smiled more. It was like he was living in a dream.

Calvin practically pushed Dash forward. Dash frowned, remembering the conversation he had with Kwan not that long ago. He didn't want to be the one to make the announcement, it was like he was hurting Kwan himself, much like when Labramon had to finish off Firamon. But this was different, with Labramon, that was for a good cause. With this… Dash hesitated to call this good at all. While Dash did want to change to be a better person, peer pressure was still something he struggled hard with. He wished Labramon was here, but she was back in the Digital World.

Since Dash was still the top jock in the school, of course that made him responsible to make the announcement, as much as he didn't want to. Though maybe not for the reasons the other kids would think.

"As much as it pains me to say it, Fenton, now that Paulina likes you… you're officially a cool kid. In other words, you've climbed up the ladder enough to be a part of the A-List," Dash announced.

Dash didn't doubt Fenton himself was cool, especially after getting to know him and Andy, considering Andy willingly went into the unknown fog to save Valerie. If anything, both Fentons deserved to be on the A-List. But, that still came at a cost. And Dash wasn't sure if the Fentons really wanted to… or should be in the A-List, considering how ruthless the A-List could be.

"Wait, so… the A-List is like a club?" Danny asked, he had heard about the A-List before, but he never thought it was an actual club, he thought it was more of a way to distinguish the popular kids from the elites.

"Well… yeah, I suppose you can say it's a club," Dash replied. "In any case, you actually do get a membership package. No, I'm not joking, it really is a thing."

Dash gave Danny a folder that had the label 'A-List' on it.

Danny blinked. "Wow… I didn't think that was legit. Cool!"

"Dash, don't forget the other thing," Calvin spoke up, putting more pressure on Dash.

Dash let out a sigh. This was a thing he had been using less and less, but still… the nerds themselves volunteered to do this, so they were part of the package. And they do it for protection from being bullied, so Dash was partially responsible for creating this system in the first place. But he wasn't quite brave enough to go against it.

"Okay… Mikey, come over here," Dash called.

Mikey frowned, but he walked over to Dash.

"This is Mikey, one of the smartest… and… uh, nerdiest, kid in school. He specializes in getting straight As. You can ask- make him, and a handful of other nerds, to do your homework for you, and give you cheat sheets for tests if you're lucky enough to be sitting in the back or the middle of the class," Dash explained, feeling quite dirty about this, Labramon would be frowning at him right now.

"Hi Danny." Mikey said with a smile, but inwardly, Mikey was seething with rage. Oh, wait until I get back to the game… Then I will make these jocks pay for this!

"You… don't talk to him. You're not cool enough." Dash said, but he didn't throw Mikey aside. He just gave Mikey a rough, but gentle shove away from Danny.

Dash then held up a hall pass. "And here is your free hall pass. After the hall monitor stamps it ten times, you get a free frozen yogurt."

"Wow, that's pretty cool." Danny smiled, though he didn't know how to feel about Mikey, or getting the nerds to do his homework for him as part of the package. I can probably live without that one. Besides, Jazz and Andy would never allow it.

"Welcome to the A-List, Fenton," Dash finished the, for all intents and purposes, speech.

"Wait, Fenton's cool now?" Kwan asked worriedly. "I thought we didn't have room for new members."

This was the worst part, the part Dash dreaded. He remembered when they kicked Valerie out when she lost her wealth due to circumstances that were out of her control. Dash really began to wonder if this was all worth it, because it definitely didn't feel like it.

"Kwan… maybe you should branch out a bit more… meet some new people, maybe make some new friends?" Dash suggested, hoping that this would hurt Kwan less.

Kwan frowned. "I guess, but… why all of the sudden? I…" He then trailed off. "Oh…" Dread filled his gut in an icy chill.

Of course, Danny had no idea about Kwan's position, or how much he had been dreading this day. He was too busy looking through the A-List package and rules. Apparently the cafeteria lady gave way better lunches to the A-Lists only, no wonder she was hiding all the good stuff from the rest of them.

Mikey walked over to Kwan. "Perhaps we can work something out later."

Kwan frowned. "I suppose…" He didn't like that he had been kicked out of the A-List, but at the same time, it was expected because of how ruthless it could be.

"On the plus side, Kwan, at least you won't have the distraction of being popular and maintaining it anymore, for… other goals," Mikey remarked.

Kwan looked down in thought. "That's true…" He admitted. Now that he was not burdened by being popular anymore, maybe there were other things he could focus on. "This may be a good thing then."

Mikey gave a small grin as he started to walk away. Someone who has nothing to lose can be very dangerous.

Unaware of what Mikey was planning, Andy, Tucker, and Sam were watching all of this unfold by their table.

"I don't think Danny's coming," Sam grumbled.

"Talk about cutthroat." Tucker commented. "I knew the A-List was ruthless because of what they did to Valerie, but this just reminds me of that all over again."

"Speaking of Valerie, where is she?" Andy asked.

"Dunno, maybe checking things out in the Digital World again?" Sam asked.

"She told me yesterday her dad has been keeping an eye on her, so she hasn't been able to go into the Digital World for a while," Andy said. "She might be having lunch by herself outside."

"Are you planning to talk to her?" Tucker asked.

"I might as well, I rather not be here and watch everyone ogle at my brother while he and Paulina are eating lunch together," Andy grumbled.

Tucker sighed. "At least you have someone else to talk to. Sam and I are the loners as usual."

Sam grumbled. "No need to remind me, Tucker."

"Maybe you two could branch out, get to know more people?" Andy suggested. "Kwan looks like he could use a friend, or maybe you'd rather talk to Star?"

"Star? Why bring her up?" Sam asked.

"She's Paulina's best friend, but I haven't seen her with Paulina since she started dating Danny," Andy shrugged.

Sam sighed. "I guess. We… have been kinda stuck together lately. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it may be a good idea to try branching out, like you said."

"Man, I never thought I would need to," Tucker remarked. "Maybe this could be a good chance to make my move on the Satellite~"

"Satellite?" Sam deadpanned.

"That's Star, cause she was Paulina's satellite, always hovering over her until now," Tucker chuckled.

Andy rolled his eyes. "Just don't call her that to her face."

---

Andy walked outside of the cafeteria, wanting to find Valerie. He put a big ham sandwich into his backpack for Lopmon to eat. Andy hoped Danny remembered to feed Patamon, though he supposed it would look weird for Danny to put food into his backpack in front of everyone. Then again, with how popular he was becoming, maybe Danny would end up starting a new trend of putting food into backpacks.

Andy saw someone sitting on a table outside by themselves. He approached them, hoping they were Valerie.

"Hey V-" Andy began to greet, only to stop when he saw blonde hair instead of black, and a completely different person. "Oh, Star… sorry, I thought you were someone else."

Star looked up, seeing Andy. "Oh, what do you want?" She grumbled, obviously not in a good mood.

"I'm looking for Valerie, have you seen her?" Andy asked.

"She's not out here, I can tell you that," Star said.

"Okay, sorry to bother you," Andy sighed, and began to turn around to walk away when Star spoke up.

"Hey, Fenton, where's that techno geek friend of yours?" Star asked.

"Tucker? He's in the cafeteria, why do you ask?" Andy asked.

Star looked away. "No reason." She muttered.

Andy looked at Star for a moment. "Are you… waiting for him to make his move on you?"

"Of course!" Star retorted. "He should have done it hours ago." She looked away from Andy again. "What's a girl gotta do to get a decent date around here?"

"You could… ask him?" Andy pointed out. "It's… not that hard."

"That's not how it works. I may not be as popular as I once was now that Paulina's got herself a boyfriend, but I'm not going to stoop down to asking the unpopular boy out myself," Star grumbled.

"Okay, then don't ask him." Andy rolled his eyes.

"What's with that attitude?" Star asked.

"What attitude?" Andy frowned.

"The one you're giving me right now," Star pointed out.

"It's called 'annoyance'," Andy replied.

"And why are you showing me annoyance?" Star asked.

"Because you're annoying me," Andy bluntly said.

Star blinked. "I'm annoying you?" She hadn't expected that.

"Look, you're telling me you don't want to ask Tucker, who's one of my best friends by the way, to go on a date with you. Yet you're waiting for him to come to you, so you can have him do whatever you want. And you're giving me attitude about it, forgive me for feeling a little annoyed," Andy pointed out. "This is why I don't deal with popular kids."

Star blinked again. "You can be really blunt, you know that?" She grumbled. "Are all unpopular kids so blunt?"

"I don't know about that. I'm just blunt because I don't see any reason to sugar coat it," Andy answered. "I've got more important things to deal with than dancing around how the popularity chains expect me to act."

Star blinked as she looked at Andy. "Like finding Valerie?" She asked. "Why do you want to talk to her anyway?"

"She's a friend of mine," Andy answered. "I'm worried about her too. Did you even know she went missing a few weeks ago? Nobody really talked about it. If I hadn't found her when I did, who knows what could've happened to her."

"What? You found her when she was missing?" Star asked, surprised.

Andy frowned, he didn't know why he just told Star that, it wasn't like it was a secret, but it wasn't something he usually went around telling people about.

"Someone had to," Andy said. "It sure wasn't going to be anyone else in this school, who are more worried about makeup and sports than another person's life."

Star looked down, feeling a bit ashamed. She hadn't really thought about anything other than makeup, fashion, or even popularity in general before.

Now that Star looked up at Andy again, she could tell he had seen some things not many did. She usually only saw people looking like that when they went through hell. She only knew one other person with that look, and that was her grandfather, who had once fought in a war. She wondered just what Andy went through exactly, and if his brother experienced the same thing. That may explain why Paulina suddenly fell for Danny.

It would also explain why Andy didn't seem to care about how the other students saw him. Star didn't know why, but… she liked that. A boy who didn't care about popularity, and just wanted to be himself, while also focusing on things that were… in all rights, more important than school and popularity.

"Sorry about chastising you," Andy sighed after a while of silence. "I just haven't been in the best of moods today."

"No… I… I think I needed to hear that." Star said after a moment of hesitation. "I never considered anything other than what was needed to be popular before." She hated to admit it, but Andy had some very good points he had made, despite his blunt attitude.

"Maybe that's the problem then, everybody's too afraid to speak up," Andy replied. "Listen, I can tell Tucker you're out here if you want him to ask you out on a date."

Star frowned for a moment before she decided to try her luck. "Actually… instead of him, how about you?"

"Me?" Andy blinked. "Me what?"

Star swallowed before she decided to try what Andy had suggested she do with Tucker. "Do you want to… go on a date with me?" It felt weird to ask an unpopular boy on a date, but it also felt… kinda good too, like she was more in control.

"You're asking me to go on a date?" Andy asked, clearly very surprised by this turn of events. "Even though I had been blunt and rude to you earlier?"

"Maybe… I can learn a thing or two from you." Star admitted, feeling a slight blush on her face. "I mean… You were just in a bad mood. It's not a horrible thing, right?"

Andy definitely hadn't expected for Star to ask him out on a date. He wasn't sure why she was blushing, though maybe she was embarrassed to be the one asking him out. He hadn't been planning to go on a date though, he needed to be ready to go to the Digital World to drag Takuya back. But… that wasn't until Saturday morning… so he had some time to… maybe experience what it was like to go on a real date with a girl. Andy may have more important things to think about, but he was still a 14 year old boy who had never had a real date before.

"If I said 'yes', what would we be doing?" Andy asked, being cautious, but also curious.

"Well, I like to bowl on Friday nights," Star said. "I heard Paulina is planning to go bowling too with your brother, as well as with a few other students. Maybe this would be a good chance for us to go against them to let out some of our anger at their abandonment in a healthy way?"

Andy blinked at that, but gave a small smile. "I like the way you think. I suppose I'm free on Friday night, and anything to remind Danny that we exist is a good time for me."

Star smiled back. "Then I'll see you on Friday night?" She felt a bit giddy at the idea of having a good time herself.

"At 6 or 7?" Andy asked.

"Let's say 6:30," Star answered.

"I'll see you at the bowling alley at 6:30 on Friday then," Andy stated.

Star smiled. "Then it's a date."

---

Despite Takuya missing, the days started to flow quickly for both brothers. Danny was having too much fun going out with Paulina. And Andy was plotting. Patamon had been trying to tell Danny that they should focus on other things, but Danny had been too focused on Paulina to really listen to his partner, which was quite frustrating for Patamon. Andy had been able to cover for Takuya by saying he was either staying at a friend's house, or checking out something in the Digital World, but he knew that won't work forever.

Tucker and Sam were trying to hang out with Kwan. But apparently Kwan was difficult to hang out with. Kwan didn't know his own strength, and more often than not, ended up accidentally crushing Tucker and Sam when he tried to hug them to show affection. Or he would accidentally push them to the floor by trying to playfully punch them. He tried to play football with them at some point. That ended up pretty painful, even for someone as athletic as Sam.

Andy saw Tucker and Sam in the hallway. They looked like they were looking around cautiously before they opened two lockers and quickly hid in them. Andy walked over to the lockers they were hiding in.

"Uh… are you two pretending to be spies?" Andy asked.

Sam opened the locker she was hiding in. "Oh sure. We're pretending to be spies for fun and not hiding from Kwan." She remarked sarcastically.

Tucker's locker opened as well. "Yeah, no offense to Kwan, but he needs to work on watching his strength." Tucker remarked as he peered out cautiously.

"Wow, I'm surprised you guys are hanging out with Kwan," Andy said. "Is that what you two have been doing this week?"

"Yes! And barely surviving!" Tucker whined.

"We're only doing it because you told us to branch out and meet with new people, like Kwan," Sam huffed.

"I didn't say you had to hang out with him," Andy sweatdropped.

"Shhh! Don't let Kwan know we're here," Sam hissed before she and Tucker closed the locker doors they were in.

"But I haven't seen you two in a while. I needed to tell you about Takuya, and-" Andy began to say.

"Hey, Fenton, what are you doing? Talking to a locker?" Dash asked when he saw Andy.

"Yes, I'm talking to a locker because I'm hearing voices," Andy sarcastically said.

Tucker fell out of the first locker. "Ow!"

Dash blinked. "What's Foley doing in the locker?"

"Oh… don't mind me, just doing… nerdy stuff…" Tucker chuckled sheepishly.

"Oh, Dash, have you been to the Digital World lately?" Andy asked, seeing how Dash was here, he might as well enlist his help.

Before Dash could answer, another voice spoke up.

"What's Tucker doing on the floor?" Valerie's voice asked as she walked up.

"Just… being my nerdy self!" Tucker quickly said as he stood up and went back into the locker. "Pretend you never saw me!"

"Tucker, Sam, I need to talk to you-" Andy began.

"Hey! Has anyone seen Manson or Foley? I was supposed to teach them how to play football today!" Kwan called.

"Sorry Andy, that'll have to be later," Sam whispered.

Andy groaned before he looked at Dash and Valerie. "Okay… you two, I need to talk to you. It's got to do with the Digital World, so some privacy would be appreciated."

Dash and Valerie both nodded at Andy's words, knowing he had a good reason.

Dash looked back at Kwan. "Sorry, haven't seen them around." Dash said with a shrug. "Then again, why would I care where the losers go?"

"Right… but couldn't I just ask Fenton?" Kwan asked, pointing at Andy. "Wait, is he the popular one dating Paulina?"

"Dude, can you really not tell which one I am?" Andy deadpanned.

"O-oh, sorry, it's just… you two kinda look alike, and Dash is hanging out with you without shoving you into a locker, so I… erm, I'll be going now," Kwan awkwardly said, quickly walking away.

Valerie chuckled. "Well, I think that worked out better than I thought."

Dash chuckled as well. "You two being twins can have some advantages."

"Yeah, well, again, I need to talk to you guys," Andy said. "And this isn't the best place where everyone can hear us. Is there an empty classroom or a hideout where we can talk somewhere?"

Dash pointed at the unoccupied science classroom just down the hall. "We can talk there. Class isn't in session for that room."

"I think we should have Sam and Tucker come too, since this pertains to the Digital World." Valerie suggested.

"If Kwan is out of sight, we'll come out," Tucker said.

"He's gone, but he'll be back, I suggest you two come out now before he comes back," Andy said.

The locker doors opened up, and Tucker and Sam quickly shuffled to the science lab. Dash, Valerie, and Andy followed them. Andy looked back to make sure nobody else followed them before closing the door.

"So what's this thing you've been wanting to tell us?" Sam asked.

"It's about Takuya. You've noticed how he hasn't been around lately, haven't you?" Andy asked.

Lopmon and Salamon came out of their partners' backpacks, seeing how they were alone, and they wanted to stretch out their legs.

"Wah!?" Dash yelped, being the only one in the room who didn't know they were here. "The Digimon! How are they here?"

"Hi Dash," Lopmon waved.

"Well, Lopmon and Salamon can come into the real world because they are our partners." Valerie pointed out. "And we're the only ones who have the means to travel between the Digital World and this world physically, without that helmet. And by 'we', I mean me, Andy, and Danny."

"What? How?" Dash asked.

"With these," Andy said, holding up his D-Arc. "We call them D-Arcs. They're mysterious devices that appeared to us. Using these, we're able to open a portal to the Digital World using a monitor of some kind as a medium, and vice versa to our world. They also seem to be capable of being used for communication, and for finding lost Digimon."

"Really?" Dash blinked. "Sounds kinda handy."

"We're not really sure why these D-Arcs only appeared for Danny, Andy, and Valerie, since the rest of us don't have one," Tucker explained. "So we usually have to rely on at least one of them to take us into the Digital World and back."

"So that's how you guys get there and back." Dash whistled. "Talk about impressive."

"Yes, well… I think we need to get back on topic." Valerie said. "What's this about Takuya not being here, Andy?"

"Last Sunday, Takuya went to the Digital World for some training," Andy answered. "And to see some new friends he made there. But he never returned."

"That is… very concerning." Salamon frowned. "Do you think something happened to him?"

"My D-Arc managed to get into contact with him for a brief moment. He sounded fine, so I don't think anything bad happened to him, but I don't think he's aware of how much time has passed in our world," Andy explained.

"I think something happened that caused time to slow down in the Digital World, even slower than this world's time," Lopmon spoke up.

"Wait… Seriously?" Valerie asked. "Is that even possible?"

"It's a time difference between two worlds, Valerie. Anything can happen." Tucker pointed out.

"That's strange… I don't know if such a thing happened before, because this is my first time being out of the Digital World for a while," Salamon admitted.

"Patamon said the same thing." Lopmon frowned.

"So you think time got slower in the Digital World because Takuya didn't sound distressed at all?" Dash asked.

"That seems to be the most logical conclusion we can think of," Andy answered. "I know my cousin, even if he lost track of time, he would know better than to stay in the Digital World for, what could be, months by now."

"So you want us to go to the Digital World to see if he's okay?" Sam asked.

"Yes, but… there's a problem," Andy pointed out. "If Lopmon's theory is right, and the Digital World's time really has slowed down…"

"Then that means if we go to the Digital World, we're likely to lose a lot of time in this world," Salamon finished.

Tucker frowned. "Then I think we need to wait until we have no school days and time to waste. Like the weekend."

"That's what I was thinking. I'm planning to go to the Digital World with Lopmon first thing on Saturday morning. I was planning to go with Danny and Patamon too, but I'm not sure if he even remembers the plan right now," Andy sighed.

Sam grumbled. "I don't think he remembers anything other than Paulina right now."

"I'm still shocked that he's even dating her in the first place," Valerie admitted. "I wasn't in the cafeteria when it was announced, but I heard about it later. It's the latest gossip right now, it's pretty hard not to know about Casper High's most famous couple."

"Yeah…" Dash sighed. "I feel bad about Kwan though. I really didn't want to kick him out, but there can only be so many members of the A-List. If there wasn't a limit, then just about anyone could become popular."

"And Kwan is trying to fill that hole by hanging out with me and Tucker… a bit too much," Sam grumbled.

"I guess I get the limit thing…" Valerie grumbled. "But I still don't think it's fair."

"Of course it's not fair. In order to remain high up on the hierarchy, only certain people are allowed to be at the top. Not just school does it, but adults too. Look at what happened with kings and queens, not to mention our modern day government," Sam huffed.

"Kwan can be a little… emotional," Dash awkwardly said. "Because he tends to show his softer side more often, he was considered to be at the bottom of the A-List, which was why he was the one to get kicked out when Fenton climbed onto the A-List."

"Doesn't anyone find it strange that we're including one of the top A-List into this plan?" Tucker commented.

"No stranger than Danny dating Paulina of all people," Andy pointed out.

"I'm more surprised you're not annoyed with Dash for setting your brother up to the A-List," Sam remarked.

"Hey, if it wasn't Dash, then someone else would, it was inevitable," Andy shrugged. "Paulina's way too popular to be knocked down from the popularity chain just for dating someone who was considered a loser. Besides, Dash is one of the few people who know about Takuya's ability to transform into a Digimon, and we may need all the help we can get."

"And don't forget me." Valerie replied. "Kinda hard to forget when Takuya turned into a weaker form of Agunimon in an attempt to hide his identity. That was kinda funny."

"He was able to do that?" Dash asked.

"It's Digimon logic, they're all strange," Sam shrugged.

"Well excuse us for being strange," Salamon huffed.

"In a good way!" Sam quickly added.

"Wouldn't it be better to wait until Takuya comes back home himself? You did say he didn't sound like he was in any danger, right?" Dash asked. "Surely he would want to return home soon anyways, right?"

"That's another reason why I wanted to wait until the weekend, to see if he would come home himself," Andy explained. "Although, my parents, and Jazz, are getting suspicious as to why they haven't seen Takuya for most of the week, and I'm running out of excuses. I'm probably going to have to tell them if it comes down to it."

Tucker looked a bit unsure. "Do… we know how Mr. and Mrs. Fenton would react to Takuya being a Digimon, if not a Legendary Warrior?"

"Probably better than if they thought Takuya turned into a ghost," Lopmon remarked.

"I'd be pretty horrified if I thought Takuya was turning into a ghost," Valerie shivered. "He'd likely start losing his humanity after a while."

Andy tried not to let that worry him. "I meant to tell them that Takuya is in the Digital World. They'll notice for sure I'm not home if I don't come back after a day or two. At least this way they know what's going on and may even be able to cover for the rest of you if it comes down to it."

"Ah. okay." Tucker replied. "Yeah, that may be a good idea if we have to tell them something."

"At least it's better than your parents finding out Takuya can become a Digimon." Sam remarked. "I'd hate to see how they'd react to that."

"So… if we go to the Digital World this weekend, we'll need to be prepared if time has indeed slowed down." Valerie said. "We don't know the time difference this time around, so we can't be too careless."

"Yeah." Andy nodded. "It might be a good idea to keep someone on the outside too, to monitor us and see what the time differences are, so we would have a better idea of what we're dealing with."

"Kokuwamon and I would probably be best for that," Tucker volunteered.

"Are you sure, Tucker?" Andy asked.

"Yeah… I'm not exactly in the best of shape like the rest of you are, and you know technology and computers are my, and Kokuwamon's, specialty. We'd be better off monitoring you guys and the time differences than going out there and slowing you down, you'll need all the speed you can get right now," Tucker pointed out.

Sam frowned, as did Dash and Valerie, but Sam knew Tucker was right.

"He's right." Sam said. "If anyone can monitor the situation with the time difference, it's Tucker and Kokuwamon."

"Yeah, that makes the most sense," Valerie agreed.

"Have you guys been doing stuff like this for long?" Dash asked. "It almost sounds like you've been preparing for war, like you have experience."

"I wouldn't say for long, but… we have experience," Sam answered.

"Trying to save a world from ending tends to toughen up people," Lopmon commented. "Maybe we should make our own club, the club of players of the Digital World. We'll call it the Digidestined! Eh? Eh? Sounds pretty cool, right? It's 'Digimon' plus 'destiny'."

Tucker blinked. "Really? That does sound kinda cool…"

Sam scoffed. "Destiny? Why throw that in? It sounds like we're destined to save the Digital World or something."

"I just thought it sounded cool, and you know, using destiny as like a cool lore for our club, or guild, or whatever, would bring in more people, don't you think?" Lopmon chuckled.

"Well… we do need a name for our potential future guild," Andy remarked. "But… that should be for later, we should focus on finding Takuya, and what the time differences are between our world and the Digital World."

"And we're doing this on Saturday morning, right?" Dash asked.

"Yeah, preferably around 6 AM," Andy answered.

"Isn't that a little too early?" Tucker whined.

"Considering we don't know how much time we could lose by going into the Digital World, we'll need as much time as we can get," Valerie pointed out.

Tucker pouted. "If Takuya weren't gone for so long, I'd be sleeping in on the weekend… I can't exactly say 'no' though, not when a friend is in trouble."

"Although I guess we're quite used to having to save someone when they're in trouble at this point," Sam chuckled. "It seems to happen all the time with us."

"Yeah, I still remembered how Andy and Lopmon ended up pulling me and Salamon out of the Ghost Zone when we were being hunted by a ghost hunter," Valerie shivered.

"And how he saved Takuya and Danny from a mind controlling ring master by jumping off of a moving train, and jumping with missiles surrounding him," Tucker added.

"What? Okay, I know you're messing with me with that last one," Dash said.

"No… it's true, we saw Andy doing just that," Sam said in a serious tone.

"Guys, please stop telling everyone about that," Andy grumbled. "What if rumors start to spread?"

"I… hate to admit it, but Andy has a point." Dash admitted. "If rumors did start to spread, I don't think even I would be able to stop it."

"Okay, we'll stop, for now," Sam grinned, making Andy roll his eyes.

"Okay, first off… Dash, how well do you know your Digimon?" Andy asked. "I've made copies of a list of what we know about a Digimon's evolution, and how they work with their partners. I think it could help benefit you and Labramon."

"I know Labramon can track down others with sniffing, she has the ability to heal others by licking them, and she can digivolve into Dobermon." Dash replied. "She's also quite fast when evolved as Dobermon."

"Do you know why she was able to become Dobermon?" Andy asked.

"I know she mentioned it had to do with my desire to be a better person," Dash answered. "But…"

"I think it would be beneficial to have you read the notes I made," Andy said.

"Salamon and I made notes as well, as we had been in the Digital World longer than you guys had," Valerie said.

"Maybe we should form a club, that'll make trading information a lot easier without worrying about the prying eyes of school," Sam remarked.

Andy looked at the time on his D-Arc. "Speaking of school, we should get ready for the next class soon. Hey, Dash, Valerie? Would you two mind following me to my locker? I'm going to give you some copies of my notes on Digimon. There might be some stuff in there you may not have known about, Val."

Valerie and Dash nodded.

Sam sighed. "Then I guess Tucker and I will go back to hiding from Kwan between classes."

"Yeah, but it is good exercise in stealth." Tucker pointed out. "Which… I never knew we needed until now."

"Guys, for the love of the Celestials, talk to Kwan," Andy groaned.

"Maybe I'll talk to him," Dash sighed. "I am his best friend after all… maybe his only real friend."

"I thought an A-List like you wouldn't be seen with losers?" Valerie remarked.

"I can still talk to him." Dash grumbled. "After all, I am still the king of Casper High. Talking to one loser isn't the end of the world for me. It takes more than that to dethrone me."

Maybe he could one day be brave enough to change the system of the A-List then. Andy thought to himself. I can only hope…

"Until then, we'll… see what we can do about Kwan ourselves," Sam sighed.

"I still need to get me a date," Tucker mumbled.

"For what?" Valerie asked.

"Well, just about everyone is going bowling Friday night. Might as well have some fun before we go on a 'search and rescue' mission for Takuya, right?" Tucker replied.

"Who'd be available in less than 2 days?" Sam asked.

Valerie gave it some thought before speaking up. "I can go bowling with you on Friday night."

Tucker blinked as he looked at Valerie. "Wait, really?" This surprised him, as he hadn't expected to get a date to the bowling party like that.

"Are you sure, Valerie? What about your dad?" Salamon asked.

"That's… pretty much the reason why. I don't want to be cooped up at home again, especially on a Friday night," Valerie sighed. "At least if my dad knew I was going out with someone, preferably one of my classmates, then he's more likely to let me go."

Tucker blinked before pouting. "Well, thanks." He grumbled before sighing. "But… I guess I will take what I can get."

Valerie chuckled a little, though she looked at Andy for a moment. A part of her was hoping he would speak up, and maybe say he would take her instead of Tucker. But Andy didn't say anything.

The warning school bell started to ring.

"We should go if we want to make it to our lockers before the next class starts," Andy said.

Lopmon and Salamon hopped into their partner's backpacks.

The group walked out of the science lab, with Tucker and Sam leaving first. Star, who had been walking down the hall, stopped when she saw Tucker and Sam coming out of the supposed empty science lab. Then she saw Andy, Dash, and Valerie coming out.

Star was confused to why Andy was in the science lab. Tucker and Sam she could get, because she knew they were his friends. But she was a lot more confused as to why Dash and Valerie were with them.

"Andy?" Star spoke up. "Why are you… uh… hanging out with the king of Casper High? Is he going to throw you into a locker?"

"I was just leaving," Dash muttered.

Star raised an eyebrow before she looked at Valerie. "And… why were you with Valerie?"

"Like I said, Valerie is a friend of mine," Andy replied. "Come on, you and Valerie used to talk all the time when you weren't around Paulina."

Star frowned, remembering that as well. But that had been before Valerie had been kicked out of the A-List. "Yeah… I remember that."

"But we don't talk now since I was booted out of the A-List." Valerie grumbled. "After all, A-List don't talk to losers, right?"

Star frowned, feeling guilty when she heard that.

"Well, Star is no longer a part of the A-List, so now you two can talk again, right?" Andy asked. "What's holding you back now?"

Valerie raised an eyebrow. "Really? I didn't hear about that."

Star grumbled. "Paulina dating Danny Fenton really didn't let me hang out with her anymore. It's like she's forgotten about me. All she can think about is Danny Fenton."

"Wow… the girl's got it bad then," Valerie remarked, though she only knew about that because… sometimes she had trouble getting Andy out of her head.

"I know, I don't think Paulina's ever had it this bad with anyone before, not even her previous boyfriends," Star giggled.

"Ah, good, you two are already bonding," Andy chuckled.

The two girls looked at one another before Valerie chuckled a bit. "I guess… reconnecting wouldn't hurt. I mean, you gotta have someone to hang out with now that you're out of the A-List, and I do get a bit lonely at times."

Star smiled a bit at the offer. "That… would be nice actually."

"How about you two hang out for a bit? I can give you the information list later, Val," Andy suggested.

"Oh, uh, sure, yeah," Valerie answered.

Andy smiled before he walked away, and Dash followed after him.

"'Val'? He already has a nickname for you?" Star asked Valerie after Andy was out of earshot.

Valerie blushed a bit. "It's… just something he calls me. It doesn't mean anything!"

Star blinked, noticing Valerie's blush and her mannerism. "... Tell me… what do you think of Andy Fenton? Do you think he's hot? Do you think he's brave? That he's different from the other boys who try to act all macho and tough?"

Valerie blushed even harder. "No! I mean yes! I mean… Um… He's… a good friend?"

Star smiled. "Oh good, I'm glad to know you're only good friends, because I asked him out on a date. So me and him will be bowling Friday night."

Valerie blinked, feeling her heart acting all funny. On one hand, she was jealous of Star for going on a date with Andy, but on the other hand, she felt relieved as well as happy for Andy, so it was an interesting mix of emotions. "R-Really? T-that's… nice… Wait, you asked him?"

"There's just something about him that… struck me," Star answered. "He was pretty rude and blunt when I saw him on Monday. But that was just it, he didn't care about how I saw him, and he was honest with his feelings. When was the last time I saw someone being so… comfortable with themselves?"

"Heh… you don't know the half of it…" Valerie chuckled softly. "I guess I'll be seeing you and Andy at the bowling alley on Friday myself."

Star blinked. "Really? Who did you ask to the bowling party?"

Valerie gave a small smile of her own. "Tucker Foley. He's one of Andy's friends, and quite smart."

"Ah, the techno geek. I was actually waiting for him to ask me, but then Andy came along," Star began.

Andy reached his locker and opened it up. He took out a folder before opening it up. He then took out some papers that were stapled together. He handed the papers to Dash, who was standing beside him.

"Here, this should give you the information you need to know more about how Digimon partners work," Andy said. "It might also help your relationship with Labramon when you see her again."

"Thanks." Dash smiled as he took the papers.

Some kids were staring in shock that Andy was just casually giving Dash some papers, and Dash wasn't shoving him in his locker. The kids who were witnessing this began whispering to each other, wondering if this Fenton was actually Danny, since that would make more sense than if it was the unpopular twin.

Andy took notice of the staring. "Don't you all have a class to get to?!"

The kids started going back to their classes, not wanting to get in trouble.

"I don't blame them too much. After all, you are talking to the king of Casper High," Dash chuckled. "It's probably just as shocking as your brother dating the most popular girl in school, who's pretty much the queen of Casper High."

"Yeah? Well don't go making announcements for another new member to the A-List," Andy said as he closed his locker door. "We probably won't be seen together until we head to the Digital World after this."

Dash nodded. "I'll keep it quiet." He promised before grinning as he held up the papers. "And thanks. This will be helpful, I'm sure."

---

Danny was enjoying being around Paulina, he really was. But she was being a bit… clingy, he found out much to his displeasure.

"Hey, Paulina?" Danny spoke up while they were at his locker together. "Would you mind if I went to talk to my friends?"

Danny was hoping to get some alone time to talk to Patamon too. He hadn't been able to feed Patamon as much during lunch time due to all the eyes on him lately, and he wanted to speak with his friends again. They still needed to discuss what they were going to do about Takuya.

"Awww…" Paulina pouted. "Why? You should be focusing on me. After all, aren't we the cutest couple?~"

"I-I mean, yeah, of course we are," Danny quickly said, blushing a bit. "It's just… I haven't really been talking to Tucker and Sam much lately, so…"

"You can see them any time you want, Danny. But we only get such a limited time together," Paulina said, before taking out a photo of her and Danny together. "In fact, why don't you put this into your locker? That way we can keep seeing each other whenever you open your locker?~"

Danny took the picture. "Thanks, Paulina, but don't we already have enough pictures together?"

"This will always remind you of me though~" Paulina grinned. "I know I have my picture of us in my locker~"

"Well, uh, thanks, Paulina," Danny said sheepishly as he opened the door to his locker, seeing a picture of himself, with Tucker, Sam, and Andy together. That picture was taken last year, before Takuya was staying with them.

Danny didn't want to replace that picture with this one, so he just taped the picture under the picture of him and his friends and twin brother.

"Want to go get some Nasty Burgers after school, Danny?~" Paulina smiled.

"I'd love to, but we've been going there after school for the past few days," Danny said. "Maybe it wouldn't hurt if I-"

"Sure, we can go somewhere else instead. How about the mall?" Paulina suggested, interrupting Danny.

"But-"

"Please, Danny? I want to be able to spend as much time with you as possible," Paulina begged while giving Danny the 'puppy dog' eyes.

Danny groaned. He was never able to resist the 'puppy-dog eyes', no matter how hard he tried. "Okay, fine… We'll go to the mall…" Who knew Paulina could be so high maintenance?

---

Friday night arrived both slowly, and quickly. Danny already left, mostly due to being able to turn ghost and fly out of the house undetected. However, Andy still needed to use the front door like a normal person. And that was when his mother caught him.

"Andy, where are you going?" Maddie asked.

"Out, to hang out with some friends," Andy answered. "It's Friday night, Mom, there's nothing wrong with that, is there?"

"No, but… I need to know something… where has Takuya been?" Maddie questioned. "I haven't seen him at home since Sunday, and you keep telling me he was always somewhere else. But I checked his bedroom recently, and it looks like it's been untouched for a while. Andy… please don't lie to me, where is Takuya?"

Andy frowned. He was hoping his mother, or his father, or his sister, wouldn't ask him this question now. But he supposed it was going to happen sooner or later. Takuya likely wouldn't come back home tonight, and he needed to leave in the morning… so this was probably the best time to tell any way.

"Okay…" Andy said before he did a quick check of the clock on the wall. It's 5:02 right now. I have roughly an hour and a half before I have to meet with Star at the bowling alley. "You might want to get Dad, and Jazz if she's home."

Maddie frowned, but nodded. "I guess." She said before looking back over her shoulder. "Jack, Jazz? Can you come in here?"

"Sure!" Jack's boisterous voice boomed. "C'mon, Jazzypants!"

Jazz grumbled as Jack came into the room with Jazz next to him. "This had better be important. I was working on a paper for school!"

"Takuya's missing," Andy bluntly said.

"... Okay, that is definitely in the important category," Jazz said as her annoyance quickly shifted to concern.

"What do you mean Takuya's missing?" Maddie frowned.

"Well, he's not missing exactly," Andy sighed.

Lopmon came out of Andy's backpack. "He's in the Digital World, and has been since Sunday."

"Huh?" Jack, Jazz, and Maddie blinked.

"But… How?" Maddie asked. "I thought time moves faster in the Digital World. He should have been back well before today."

"Yeah." Jazz agreed. "Takuya may not be that bright, but even he knows when to come home on time."

"And why did you try to hide the fact that Takuya was gone for such a long time?" Jack frowned. "He could be in trouble."

"I don't think he's in trouble," Andy said. "I managed to get into brief contact with him with my D-Arc, though I don't know how to get back into contact with him with it. He sounded fine, like it was just another regular day. I don't think he realized how long it's been for us."

"We think that time suddenly slowed down in the Digital World," Lopmon explained. "We were hoping to give Takuya a week to get back to us, but also because if this theory is right, and we tried to get Takuya ourselves…"

"We could end up losing a lot of time here," Andy finished.

Jack frowned. "But what could cause time to slow down in the Digital World? As far as I know, the time difference means the Digital World is faster than our world's time."

"We don't know, we haven't been to the Digital World ourselves to check," Andy said. "We only suspected it due to Takuya not being here after a while, and how he sounded on the D-Arc."

"Maybe we can get in contact with our Digimon partners to pass the message onto Takuya, after all, aren't Wormmon and Veemon working at the castle he usually goes to?" Maddie suggested.

"Great idea! This way we don't have to risk going there ourselves," Jack agreed.

"But we also need to go to the Digital World to see what's causing the time shift," Lopmon pointed out. "And how much of a time difference there is between this world and the Digital World. Because eventually we'll need to go back to the Digital World, so it would be nice to know how much time we're losing in the real world."

Maddie frowned. "That makes sense. It's one thing to be told of the difference, it's quite another to experience it."

Jack sighed. "I guess we can't exactly talk you out of this, huh?"

"Mom, Dad, you'd have a better time catching the ghost boy than trying to talk Andy out of this," Jazz pointed out. "And besides, I want to help find Takuya too."

"Couldn't we all go?" Maddie asked.

"That might be too dangerous. Too big of a group might cause unease in the Digital World, especially when there's too many humans together. Players will mistake us for a guild, and Digimon will be scared of us," Andy explained. "And besides, we might need you to stay here to cover for… the rest of us, in case worried parents might start calling. Tucker, Sam, Dash, and Valerie are planning to come with me and Lopmon."

"Wait, what about Danny and Patamon?" Maddie asked.

"I think Danny's head is in the clouds…" Andy grumbled.

Maddie, Jack, and Jazz blinked at that.

"He means Danny's been too distracted with a girl he's been dating," Lopmon translated.

Maddie and Jack both beamed at hearing that.

"Danny has a girlfriend?! Oh that is so cute!" Maddie squealed with delight.

"One of my boys is finally experiencing love!" Jack beamed with pride.

"Mom! Dad! Focus!" Andy spoke up. Best not to tell them about my date with Star tonight.

"Right… we'll at least inform Wormmon and Veemon about this," Maddie said. "This way they can at least tell Takuya about this."

"And we'll know that Takuya is still doing okay," Jack added.

"I'll stay here and keep an eye on Danny if he's really not going. And also… I can make better excuses than 'the ghosts kidnapped the children' if the worried parents starts to call," Jazz said as she looked at her parents.

"What? It's a valid excuse," Jack pouted.

"Yes, but not for every time a child goes missing." Jazz replied as she folded her arms. "We also don't want them to worry and start panicking."

"Jazz is right, Jack, we have to be more tactful about this if we want to cause as minimum panic as possible," Maddie said softly before remembering something Andy said. "Wait… I know who Tucker and Sam are, but… who's Valerie and Dash?"

"They're friends… who've been helping us in the Digital World from time to time," Andy answered. "I figured I would enlist their help."

Jack grinned. "Been forming your own guild, son?"

Lopmon grinned as well. "You could say that~"

"Well, Andy, we respect your decision to make sure everything's alright. But try not to put everything on your shoulders, you are still a kid after all. And… try not to keep any more secrets from us, alright?" Maddie said softly. "We're a family, we're supposed to stick together and help each other when we need it."

Andy frowned, knowing there were still two rather big secrets he, and also Jazz, were keeping from them. "Some secrets… aren't for me to tell… But… I understand. I'll try not to keep such secrets anymore, especially since you guys are in on the Digital World thing too now."

Jack and Maddie smiled at Andy.

"We'll hold you to that then." Jack said. He was so proud of Andy for what he was doing, and it showed on his face clearly.

"When will you be leaving for the Digital World?" Jazz asked.

"Tomorrow at 6 AM," Andy answered.

"I promise I'll keep Andy safe while we're in the Digital World," Lopmon promised.

"We'll count on you then, Lopmon." Maddie said. "Keep our baby boy safe."

Andy blushed. "Come on, Mom, I'm not a baby…"

Jazz grinned a little. She wished she could do more, but she also knew she needed to trust that her little brothers knew what they were doing, and to only go if she was needed.

"So… uh… can I go hang out with my friends now?" Andy asked. "I don't want to be late."

"Oh… is this Valerie your date?~" Maddie teased.

"N-no! She's going with Tucker, not me!" Andy quickly said, trying his best not to blush.

"So Tucker has a date too then?" Jack raised his eyebrow.

"Then is Sam the girl who's been going out with Danny?" Maddie asked.

"Mom, that's something you'll have to talk to Danny about," Andy groaned. "And no, it's not Sam."

"That's funny it's not her, because even I can tell that Sam and Danny like each other." Jack grinned.

"So who are you going out then?" Jazz asked.

"Why does everyone keep assuming I'm going out with someone?" Andy questioned.

"Aren't you going out with that Star girl?" Lopmon spoke up.

"So you are going out with someone!" Jack beamed.

No more chocolate for you, Lopmon… Andy inwardly growled. "It's not a serious date, it's just a one time date, okay? Don't make a big deal out of it."

"Of course, Andy." Maddie said with a smile. "But I hope you have fun on your date~"

"Don't stay out too late and escort her home!" Jack added with a big grin of his own.

"And make sure you're polite to her~" Jazz added.

"Yes… thank you, for your information on how to handle a girl while on a date," Andy grumbled before picking up Lopmon. "I'm sure she'll fall for my charm once she sees the cutie that is Lopmon."

Lopmon balked. "W-wait! I was only joking around!"

Andy ignored Lopmon and walked outside while holding Lopmon in his arms for all to see.

"Should we be worried?" Jazz asked.

"Nah. Andy's smart, and Lopmon knows the rules for when he is out and visible with Andy." Jack chuckled.

"For now, let's get into contact with our Digimon," Maddie said.

---

Titanic X: ZAFT: Yeah, we had to keep that in because it was definitely in Tommy's nature to do something like that. XD

pokemon fan 1991: ZAFT: Ah, yeah, phones can be tricky like that. As for Takuya and Tommy, it's definitely fun to have Tommy help Takuya control his Beast Spirit. The kid's brave for sure!

DarkFoxKit: I will say that originally we did think about having Tommy use his Beast Spirit to fight back against Takuya's Beast Spirit, but Takuya's struggle is trying to control his Beast Spirit. Getting beaten into submission wouldn't do any good. It would just turn him back to Takuya and he would be back to square one. And Tommy wouldn't know how to control his Beast Spirit yet either. So we decided to follow what canon did, and have Tommy talk BurningGreymon down. Their bond definitely helped, and Tommy's understanding due to what happened with Tapirmon's Nightmare Syndrome also came back to help remind BurningGreymon's humanity.

ZAFT: As for Paulina… you will see what happens. XD No spoilers though~

As for Patamon's ghost form… it's kinda like a mode change/slide evolution. That was a unique idea we had and it will make things much more interesting that way. XD

DarkFoxKit: Like I said before, our biggest challenge with giving Danny a Digimon partner is the fact that Danny really didn't need one, at least in a traditional sense. We couldn't really give him a Rookie Digimon, because the Rookie wouldn't be able to keep up with him. So one way to solve that issue was giving Patamon his own ghost form, which does work like a slide evolution. Though Patamon can only access that form if his partner uses his ghost form. We don't want to completely overshadow Patamon's digivolutions due to this. But the ghost form is, as you say, a different form. It doesn't really have a traditional level, so it's not really a Rookie Digimon anymore. I guess it's more… of a Hybrid level, like with the Legendary Warriors. This way Patamon can keep up with Danny as a ghost.

I don't know much about Shoutmon, I tried watching that season, but it bored me so much I couldn't bring myself to keep going. As for DNA Digivolving, we do have some plans for it, but I don't know if we'll be using it a lot. I guess it depends on what happens in the story.

Akhemphi: ZAFT: Maybe we will, we will see, but we have a question for you…

DarkFoxKit: What exactly gave you hope to see ghost dragon Andy again? Was it Takuya's Beast Spirit or something else? And if I did end up giving Andy a ghost dragon form, it would look very different from the one used in the show. I just think that was the default dragon form for anyone wearing the amulet.

ZAFT: Now for the prophecy, it's funny you should mention it possibly referring to Andy, because we didn't even think of that.

DarkFoxKit: Well… technically we did. I even mentioned we tweak the prophecy to make it sound like it could be Andy or Danny.

ZAFT: Whoops! My bad! I forgot about that! XD

DarkFoxKit: As for if we decide to give Andy ghost powers, honestly we didn't think about him getting it outside of going through the portal again since the story you read before technically never happened. The Crown of Fire wouldn't turn someone into a halfa, that doesn't make any sense. It just gives the wearer powers. Turning someone into a halfa seems to be very specific. Both times it involved a portal accident, and getting shocked by it. If you don't want us to use the portal accident to transform Andy, you might be disappointed in that regard, and I do apologize for that.