A/N: Hiya, dear readers! I hope you had a great week (really, I do!) And I hope you're eager for more of this story. Things are beginning to ramp up now so I hope you'll stay with me, especially when you haven't had to read about my OCs for a couple of chapters! XD Enjoy the show!
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Entanglement—Chapter 7—On Edge
Night had finally wrestled most of the light from the day when Tucker finally reached his designation. He was completely out-of-breath and leaned over and rested his hands on his partially-flexed knees in an effort to slow his breathing down. But he couldn't. After all, he was still very upset. Finally, after a few more minutes, he was finally able to slow some his gulps down and he straightened himself back up. He reflexively glanced back in the direction from whence he had come and now hoped that his friends wouldn't find him because he didn't want to see them right now.
Little did he know that his wish had been granted, for Danny and Sam hadn't tried to follow him at this point; and so, they had no idea where he had gone. And his emotions were so much on fire right now that his friends wouldn't be able to reach him telepathically, either. Still, he needed to talk to someone about his messed-up head and heart and so, he could only think of one person: his girlfriend, Valerie.
Unfortunately, Valerie was working, but he was here at the back of her work all the same. Then again, maybe that was good news, for that meant that his friends wouldn't think of looking here first because they also knew that Valerie had to work tonight.
He started to squirm. That didn't appease him at all. He didn't really want to wait for his girl to get off work. Still, he had no choice.
Before he knew it, he was pacing anxiously in the alley behind the Nasty Burger. The excruciatingly slow passage of time seemed to rake his trouble-filled heart. Even the small lamppost near the back door of the fast-food restaurant irritated him because the shadows it created played havoc on his movement and nerves.
Every once in a while, he stopped and looked at the back door of the fast-food place in vain. His already irrational thinking began to deepen, and he now wondered if Valerie was still in there, which only made him more anxious.
Each of the boy's footsteps not only pounded the asphalt, but also pounded at his head since they reminded him that he still had to wait without relief. The lamp-lit shadows stretched out more menacingly toward him as the sun fully set, further threatening to fully engulf him in the painful darkness that fully surrounded his heart.
Finally, after what seemed like hours but had only been about thirty minutes, the back door of Nasty Burger slowly opened and a form cloaked mostly in shadow emerged and headed toward a bicycle that was nearby.
In his agitated and illogical state, Tucker frantically yelled her name and practically pounced on his girlfriend from out of the shadows—only to find himself flat on his back and looking up at her frantic face before he knew it.
"Tucker!" she yelled as she helped him back up. She then said a bit nervously, "I'm sorry, but I didn't know it was you! You scared me; and I just, uhm, reacted, you know. I've gotten lots of practice with all of that ghost-fighting!"
But her boyfriend didn't laugh or even smile at her awkward stab at humor. But when she finally got a good look at his face, her eyes widen in worry. He was about to cry! She anxiously blurted out, "Ohmigosh! I didn't hurt you, did I?"
"No!" he almost growled; and Valerie actually startled at his reply.
Suddenly, Tucker brushed past her and began to pace again as his emotions ramped back up.
Valerie frowned at his odd behavior, especially when she could see that his breathing had increased to the point that she could swear he might explode. She then gasped. Something awful must have happened!
She ran up to him, pulled him closer to the small lamppost, grabbed him firmly by both of his shoulders, looked him straight in the eyes and feverishly asked, "What's wrong, Tucker?"
Looking at her with distress covering his face, he loudly wailed, "My…My…PDA! My PDA! It-It-It's been totally destroyed and D-Danny did it!"
"What?" Valerie gasped in disbelief as she squeezed his shoulders a bit. "Why? How? I can't believe it! Danny wouldn't do something like that!"
"He would if he was showing off, which he was!" the boy countered, pulling away from her.
"Then, it was just a stupid accident, Tucker," Valerie countered back with a frown as she stepped back into his personal space. "I'm sure he's just as upset as you are about it. What did he say about it?"
"Nothin'," Tucker moaned.
"Nothing?" Valerie gasped. "I still can't believe that. What did you say back to him?"
"Nothin'," Tucker grumbled as he turned away from her. He really didn't want to explain everything right now.
"What? Didn't you talk to him?" she asked incredulously.
He firmly shook his head.
"How about Sam?"
Again, he shook his head.
"Then, how can you be sure he meant to do that?" his girlfriend pressed.
But Tucker only angrily challenged, "Don't give him an out, Valerie! You've been too busy all these weeks to see what a jerk he's been! And I've had it! And now look what he did!
"Wait. He's been a jerk? I can't believe that, either," She insisted before she admitted, "Yeah, I know I've been so busy for a while now that I've only been able to see Danny a few times, but he seemed okay. And you haven't told me that he's been a jerk, only about his being under some stress, like all of us; and, oh, about some cool new things he could do. You didn't make a big deal out of that, so, what gives?"
"I didn't realize until now that he's really been a real mega-jerk, that's what gives! And h-he didn't even look where his ectoplasmic ray went!" Tucker growled back and Valerie had to hitch in a gasp with his very angry tone.
The girl paused in worry. Though she had no doubt how upset her boyfriend was, she was still confused about all this stuff with Danny, especially when her boyfriend hadn't complained about his friend before and hadn't mentioned how Danny had destroyed his PDA until now.
Hoping to calm him down and get more information, she dared to say, "Wait a minute. So, was he fighting a ghost when, uh, you know, that, uh, thing happened?"
"Yeah, but so what? He didn't even care to see what he did!"
"Then, it was still an accident, Tucker," she said almost pleadingly because she could plainly see that he was still very upset. She stepped closer to him and scooped up one of his hands. "You know how crazy everything gets when we're fighting ghosts!"
But he violently pulled his hand away and started pacing again before he practically yelled, "I don't care if it was or wasn't an accident because I don't have my PDA anymore! It was the only thing that made me able to fight ghosts!"
"That's not true, Tucker!" she insisted, not trying to get any closer, but keeping her eye on him as he moved about in agitation. "You're great at fighting ghosts because you're smart! The PDA is only one of many weapons you have used. You can always get another one."
"You don't understand, Valerie," he insisted back, his voice cracking a bit with his distress. "I had everything—all that tech I use to fight and research ghosts—on that PDA!"
This time, Valerie skirted over to her boyfriend and began to walk with him the best she could without getting in his way. "Don't you have a back-up PDA?" she offered.
"No, that's just it," he helplessly replied, though he didn't stop pacing. "You know that I got that futuristic PDA from Skulker 9.9 in that ghost war I told you about that you couldn't know about because….oh, darn! Who cares?" He then increased in anxiety and the rate of his anguished speech, "But that PDA 's memory capacity was awesome. None of my other PDAs ever had that much storage and programs. And so, I transferred all of the stuff I had on my old PDAs…." He paused before he choked on his next words, "A-And now…it's gone! E-Everything's gone, don't you understand? I'm useless now! M-My PDA was the only thing that made me as special as Danny and even Sam! Danny's got his superpowers and Sam has those spirit powers! And I had my superpower-like PDA. But what do I have now? Nothing!"
"Wait, Tucker," Valerie seriously said just as she grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop. "Didn't you say that you, Danny and Sam have some kind of telepathic connection?"
He shrugged his shoulders as if that wasn't important.
"Isn't that kinda like a superpower? That should count for something."
"It's stupid," he grumbled.
Valerie bit her lower lip before she pressed, "So, are you saying that just because you don't have those powers like Danny and Sam that you can't help them anymore?"
He nodded before dropping his head.
"For real, Tucker?" Valerie almost chided him. "I don't have any superpowers, either, but I help them fight ghosts the best that I can!"
He looked up at her with a frown and hotly countered, "But you have special gear for that! What special gear do I have now?"
Valerie poked him in the chest this time and firmly replied, "Hello? Your brain! How many times did you help me improve my gear? Or help fix stuff up for Danny's folks? And don't you remember that you told me that you helped solve the Spectre mystery a few months ago? You did that without your PDA!"
But Tucker wouldn't—and really, hadn't—been listening to her; and just before he started to pace again, he pointed out, "That doesn't count 'cause the Fentons had a cool computer that they let me use. And I fixed your stuff up with my PDA!"
"Only because there was a brain behind it," she insisted back as he brushed past her to resume his pacing.
Valerie was now getting more and more worried about her boyfriend. She had never seen him this upset and upset for this long before! For one thing, he usually didn't get upset. But when he did, he would usually calm down in much, much less time than now. This was very serious. Still, she wanted to help him get out of his funk.
When he drew near enough, this time the girl blocked the path that he had virtually made with all that pacing he had been doing for the last several minutes.
"C'mon, honey," she gently and encouragingly said. "It's not the end of the world!"
"Yes, it is!" he practically yelled back.
Valerie's eyes widened in fear. She was really spooked by the wildness she saw in his eyes, and she couldn't blame it on the weak light surrounding them. He really had been too obsessive with that PDA, though she had to admit that it had been a very cool and unique one.
Still, she was determined to make him see reason and replied, "Look, honey. The PDA didn't make the man; the man made the PDA and he can do that again with any other PDA."
Tucker vigorously shook his head in disagreement, but she continued all the more encouragingly, "Hey, I know you really haven't been in tune with all of the new tech stuff out there since you got that cool PDA, but there are some really mega-cool new upgraded PDAs now. Why don't we go and check them out?"
She looked at him pleadingly when he didn't respond right away. Now more desperate to have him calm down, she nervously offered, "I-I even have some of the programs that you can copy, like that invisibility program."
But she knew by his response that he really hadn't been listening all this while and was still upset when he almost demanded, "You have the invisibility program?"
She tried to make light of it by almost flippantly saying, "Duh! You programmed it into my suit, remember? I'm sure you'll be able to download it onto any new PDA you get."
Her suggestion actually fired up his brain cells into coming up with another idea than the one she had suggested. In fact, that idea was rapidly firming up in his mind and actually calmed him enough for him to say in a nearly normal tone of voice, "No, I want to download it onto one of my old PDAs."
Valerie was so relieved that he seemed to have calmed down that she readily agreed, "Oh. Okay, Tucker, and that's great! See? Things worked out!"
But, he hadn't calmed down. In fact, he continued as if he hadn't even acknowledged what she had said and was really talking to himself, "And once I do download it on my old PDA, can I use your jetboard and a couple of weapons?"
"S-Sure," she began in confusion at such an odd question. "But, why?"
Suddenly, he grabbed her by her shoulders, looked her straight in her eyes and firmly asked, "Do you trust me, Valerie?"
"You know that you don't have to ask that, honey," she answered.
"Do you?" he almost growled back.
She could feel her eyes begin to water when she realized that he wasn't calming down like she had hoped. But she nevertheless assuredly said, "Yes, of course I do!"
He continued in a tone of voice that was still clearly on edge, "Then, trust me to take care of your board and your stuff, and I'll get it back to you as soon as I can. And when can I get them?"
Valerie didn't like how this was sounding, but she replied, "A-Anytime, Tucker…Please…"
But he rudely cut her off and firmly directed, "Then, I'll meet you at your house in thirty minutes, since I have to get some stuff from my house." He then sarcastically added, "I'd get there a lot sooner, but I can't do that anymore because I don't have my cool PDA for making portals anymore."
Valerie swallowed a lump that had suddenly formed. She didn't like this one bit. He hadn't really been listening to her and now she was afraid that he might be planning something rash.
She dared to say, "I know that you're hurting about all of this, honey, but maybe…"
Cutting her off yet again, he growled back, "Are you going to help me or not?"
"Okay, Tucker. I'll drop it for now. But I hope you get your head back together when we meet back in thirty minutes," she replied in a huff before she unlocked and then hopped on her bicycle and rode off.
Tucker hadn't been in the least mollified or affected by what Valerie had said. His mind was filled with feeling useless without his futuristic PDA. He really had been so obsessive with it more than he or anyone knew that his mind was now irrationally focused on that one idea he had thought about a few minutes ago. He hurried home, grabbed his old PDA, brusquely brushed the dust off of it, stuffed some needed items in his backpack, and hurried to Valerie's home…
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"Hi, Tucker," Mr. Gray cheerfully began as he opened the door and let the boy in, "How—"
But Tucker rudely interrupted him, ''Hi, Mr. Gray. I just need to see Valerie for a sec, okay?"
"Of course, son. She's in her room."
The teen didn't even thank the man and hurried up the stairs.
Though it was clear to Mr. Gray that Tucker wasn't acting himself, he gave the boy a pass. After all, the teen usually went overboard with being polite in their encounters. And that was because that Tucker liked and respected Valerie's father.
Tucker impatiently rapped on Valerie's door.
And since she knew who that had to be, she answered, "C'mon in, Tucker."
He almost jerked the door open, came in and firmly shut the door without slamming it.
Valerie didn't like the way Tucker looked or was acting. She could tell that he was still very distraught about the loss of his PDA and was very serious about what he was going to do about it. Still, her boyfriend didn't give her the opportunity to comment.
"Thanks for your help, Valerie," he began, though the tone of his voice was still edgy.
But before Valerie could respond, he pushed on, "But, let's get down to it."
Valerie offered, "I've already hooked up my wrist control band to a connector for your PDA, honey."
But Tucker didn't say another word as he connected the two devices and began the download. He frowned in irritation when the old PDA began to heat up and spark a little from the rush and amount of data that Valerie's gizmo was feeding it. After more minutes than it would have taken his futuristic PDA to download any program, it was finished.
Tucker quickly checked the program and grunted a bit in dissatisfaction.
"It'll have to do," he muttered before he looked up at his girlfriend and said in half-demand, "Remember, you promised to let me use your jetboard."
"Tucker," she seriously said, still trying to reach the logical side of him.
But he cut her off yet again, "Look, Valerie. I appreciate what you might say. But I've got to do this."
"But do what, Tucker?" she pleadingly asked as she suddenly grasped his arm.
For once since he had seen her behind the Nasty Burger, he actually noticed her. And her distressed and worried face suddenly tugged on his heartstrings. Still, he was driven with his plans. Even still, he said a bit more softly, "I can't tell you right now, okay? Please trust me on this."
"Okay, Tucker," she replied, though she was growing more upset. After all, they had built their relationship upon being honest and open with each other; and he was definitely being neither at the moment.
Still, she did trust him more than how he was acting right now. She finally gave him a smaller mechanism which controlled only her jetboard.
"Thanks, Valerie, for understanding," he then replied without emotion before he took the small control device from her. But then he gently grabbed that same hand, pulled her a little closer, gave her a very quick peck, and abruptly said, "Gotta go!"
Valerie blinked away her tears as he left the room. She was stunned. She, the Red Huntress, didn't know how to handle the situation. Of course, she had never seen her boyfriend this upset or irrational as this before. Why hadn't he talked to Danny and Sam about this? He was used to doing that before she came into the picture.
But then, she answered her own question, "Because he's thinking all crazy, that's why! But I'm not! And I've got to talk to Danny and Sam!"
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Tucker looked as if he was staring blankly at an advertisement billboard that showed an extreme close-up of a boy's opened mouth that was about to take a bite out of a Nasty burger. But the red-bereted boy was, in fact, staring at it in anticipation.
"C'mon, c'mon," he grumbled impatiently as time ticked.
"Yes!" he erupted when what he had been waiting for started to happen.
Tucker already knew all about portals that opened to the Ghost Zone. Most of the naturally occurring ones were stationary and opened at specific times. While others were non-stationary and were unpredictable as to when they would form. Still others, were unpredictable in time but not place.
But he and his friends had discovered that this portal which he was in front of was the most stable and predictable of them all.
Goading himself, Tucker remarked under his breath, "Even though I still hate going through some paper dude's mouth, here goes nothing!"
He jumped on Valerie's jetboard and plunged right into the ripe portal...
All during the travel to his designation, he mapped out more specifics about the plan he had. He knew it was extremely risky and could fail at any part of the plan. But at this point, he didn't care. If he didn't at least try, he couldn't live with the fact that he had settled for second best—or nothing at all.
When he finally saw his target looming in the near distance, Tucker felt his resolve falter a bit.
"You're depending on too many things to go your way, dude," he argued with himself.
He grunted in irritation at his sudden cold feet.
"Your plan will work, so clear those cobwebs in your head," he commanded himself.
He pulled out his old PDA as he stepped on the accelerator of Valerie's jetboard. He waited until he was close enough to clearly see the entrance when he pushed the last command of the PDA.
His muscles tensed when the old PDA began to spark like it did at Valerie's house.
But then, he felt his shoulders relax when the invisibility program finally kicked in and cloaked him and the flying wing.
"First step, check," he mentally said before commanding the jetboard to throttle to full power. He knew he had limited time to do the next step.
Finally, when the jetboard suddenly moved awkwardly, he completely cut off all power and let its forward momentum continue in a silent glide to the entrance of his destination.
After the tip of the surfboard-like rocket slightly bumped the threshold of the large door in front of him, the teen just floated on it there and stared up at it for several seconds.
Now what?
He felt a tightness in his chest again when he knew he could no longer could make this easy like he had in the past with the program he once had that unlocked and opened doors. But at least he had rehearsed what his excuse would be for being here. He stepped off of the jetboard and onto the threshold. He hesitated yet again.
"Well, you've come this far; and what you're goin' to say is good enough," he mentally goaded himself once more. "So, just try the door, dude!"
He grabbed the door knob of the smaller door built into the much larger one and stifled his gasp of surprise when it was unlocked!
"O-O-k-k-a-a-y-y," he drew out in a mixture of confusion and amazement. "Step two, check."
He then hesitantly slinked in and quietly closed the door behind him.
Though he remained invisible, Tucker crept cautiously forward, heading to the familiar room. He kept his eyes peeled for anything and everything. He bit his lower lip and slowed his pace to a near crawl when he noticed that being invisible didn't hide sound, the sound of his footsteps, that is. And even though the old PDA wasn't as fancy as the one that Danny destroyed, Tucker still hoped that he had enough time to get into that room unseen.
Finally, after an excruciatingly long time, the teen was at the door of the room he was seeking. He slowly turned the knob; and scanning all around him and beyond, he stepped into the room.
"Where is he?" he mused only to himself. "And for that matter, why isn't he here?"
But then, his thoughts shifted gears and he added, "Just check this step off, then, dude, 'cause you're lucky that you somehow timed it right when he was out for some reason."
Nevertheless, Tucker still crept closer to the area of the room he had to go to first before his next step.
He found the stack of disc-like items and started sorting through them, scanning all around him every once in a while. Though he couldn't believe his luck, he still had to be on-guard.
Finally, he smirked a little when he found what he wanted and slipped it into a nearby receptacle.
An image surrounded by an aura made of light immediately popped up. Tucker could feel his nerves getting on edge as he thought, "Are you sure about this, dude?"
But then, he growled a bit under his breath in irritation with himself, "It has gone more than according to plan so far. Let's just finish this, dude!"
He had just one more thing to do…He turned around and scanned the room. It didn't take him any time to see what he was looking for.
But just as he was near enough to the neatly arranged display mounted on pegs to grasp what he wanted, Tucker hitched in a gasp and twisted violently toward the direction where he heard a loud noise not too far from entrance to the room!
However, in his anxiety and skittishness about being here in the first place, and hearing the noise grow louder, he had underestimated just how close he was to the mounted display. The next thing he knew, his backpack had become tangled in the pegs of the display, which, of course, were sticking out from the rest of the open board.
And in the boy's struggle to get his backpack loose, it popped open under the stress. Still, his entwined backpack violently shook the pegboard and all of the things that had been hanging on the pegs came crashing to the floor.
Now panicking, Tucker grabbed one of the items off of the floor and dove right into the portal he had activated only moments before.
He was totally unaware that several of those items he had knocked down had also fallen into his backpack….
Meanwhile, all the noise had stopped; and the door to this room slowly opened.
After one look around the room, Clockwork sighed, "And so, now it begins," before he turned to his Time Viewing Orb that Tucker had activated…
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A/N: Oh, man, I sure feel sorry for Tucker. He is acting very reckless and rashly. Of course, this is not like him, but he has shown a hint of this insecurity, recklessness and impulsivity in two episodes: King Tut and What You Want. But darn it, I want that sweet, funny Tucker back! So, we'll just have to see what happens! I'd love to hear all of your thoughts, so deposit them into the receptacle down below that does not open up a portal! Until next time, dear readers!
