Chapter 12
The firewall sealed itself, leaving no sign of weakness that a virus could exploit to penetrate his private domain within the NetZone, after the young program left. Vlad stared at place where the "door" opened to allow Phantom to storm out of his domain. Several silent moments passed before he twisted around with a rage filled roar as a blast of red, because he refused to acknowledge it as pink, energy burst from his hand. The security program yelped in surprise and bounded away before the energy ball could hit the desk, destroying the piece of furniture within the space. A fair sized hole tore through the desk, splintering it into two separate pieces as smoke rose from the damaged center. He could always recreate the desk later. That was one advantage to being a program on the NetZone: whatever he destroyed in a fit could easily be recoded and recreated. He constantly manipulated the surroundings of his domain to fit his needs.
He turned his gaze away from the destruction when he heard the whimper of his security program. "Sorry, Cujo," Vlad mumbled tiredly as he leaned back against the firewall. Sliding down to the floor, he balanced his elbows on his knees. He bowed his head, clasping his hands tightly behind his neck. Barely an instant passed before he felt the wet nose of the dog at his side. With a sigh, he lifted his head as he reached over to scratch behind Cujo's ears. The dog's tongue hung from its mouth, and its tag wagged excitedly.
He never would have predicted that he would be put in a situation like this one in all his life. How could he ever plan for something like this to happen? He tried his hardest to keep his old college friends out of his mind, as impossible as that was, ever since the incident twenty-four years ago that resulted in him developing this digital form that kept him a prisoner of the NetZone. For several years after the incident, he pined for Maddie's love, built an empire that made him a billionaire so that when he won her hand they could live comfortably together. He was rich and smart and successful. That should be enough for her to see him as the better man, but instead, she chose Jack over him. During their college days, Vlad never saw any hint that Maddie had any affection toward the bumbling idiot that he once considered his best, and only actual, friend in his college days. But the incident twisted his feelings into bitter rage for the other man, only fueled more by the fact that Jack stole away the woman Vlad believed himself to love.
Years of practice gave him control over his powers with this new digital form. Vlad found he could accomplish so many things with these powers. The data flowing through the NetZone could be easily manipulated when one knew how to do it properly. He was careful about it, though. He knew it wouldn't be wise to give himself away by shooting to the top in one fell swoop. Too many questions would arise if his company became number one over night. He found the weaknesses in his competitors through the data he collected, and with that information, he struck at them, bit by bit, tearing them down until his company stood supreme.
So many ambitious plans he had! With his fame and fortune, his castle in Wisconsin, he began to put his schemes into action to steal Maddie away from Jack. He had plans to destroy Jack's life, leaving the larger man to know the sting of losing everything, having his happiness ripped away from him from the man that he thought was his best friend. He received letters from them over the years, happy news from the blissful couple, even a wedding invitation came to him. But he barely skimmed through them most of the time, never considered to reply as he perfected his plans before finally putting them into action. Right when he was on the cusp of getting everything he wanted, he discovered a fatal flaw to his plan: He was dying.
With all the time he spent outside of the NetZone, Vlad couldn't survive. He weakened drastically to the point of collapsing during a board meeting. Everyone present was in a panic when his legs suddenly gave out under him and he hit the floor. They rushed him quickly to the emergency room, but the doctors were utterly baffled, lacking any idea of what caused his deteriorating state. All they could tell him when he woke in one of their rooms was that his body was failing him. It would only be a matter of days before he died if no change in his condition occurred. They were trying their best to figure out what was wrong with him, find a cure to save him, but the situation looked grim.
Thinking it likely his only choice at that point, Vlad climbed out of his hospital bed and stumbled his way to the nearest access point to hop into the NetZone. Immediately after he was inside the NetZone, he felt stronger. It took months for him to regain his power to what it was prior to his collapsing. All his planning, all his wealth, everything that he worked to accomplish suddenly meant nothing as it sank in and he understood fully what everything that happened meant. He could exist outside the NetZone under a human guise for short periods at a time when necessary, but his life would be mostly restricted to the NetZone. Even if he believed in his love for Maddie, he would never be able to be truly with her. He couldn't remain at her side for always. Not the way Jack could. That point hurt him for several years, digging the knife into his heart.
Six years. That was how long it took from his accident for him to uncover the truth about his existence. It was, as he learned later, also the same year that Jack and Maddie had their second child. Two years prior, they had their first child, a daughter named Jasmine. Vlad couldn't erase the bitterness he felt at discovering the two children his old friends had together, the loneliness that consumed him. He could watch his old friends from within the NetZone, learn about their lives from the shadows. They were so happy together, so in love with each other as they created a family. He was jealous of that. He wanted love. He wanted a family. But confined to the NetZone, or risk death, he would never be able to have those things. The only comfort he had in the NetZone was his security program that he crafted to look like a dog, a long ago memory of the Saint Bernard that his family had when he was young.
Vlad frowned as he scratched at the dog's head, currently in his friendly puppy mode. "I might have a job for you," he said quietly, tiredly. He didn't really want to give up Cujo, but the cause would be worth it. Daniel left in a fit of rage. Vlad wanted to convince the young man to stay, knowing the fate that would await him if Daniel tried to continue his life outside the NetZone. But after learning the truth of whom Phantom was, Vlad wanted him gone. He couldn't look at that young man without the pain stabbing at him.
He learned after his fateful collapsing that just shortly before his incident, Maddie gave birth to a second child, a son this time that they named Daniel. It was pointless to keep even a small thread of connection to his old friends when it only caused him misery. But he was continuously drawn to them. Jack and Maddie were, after all, the only people that he ever cared about in the world beyond his parents. He tried over the years to ignore them, but he always went back to them.
Despite locking himself away in his private domain, he wasn't ignorant of the happenings around the NetZone. He needed to be in the know, needed to learn what worked to protect against viruses so that he could create better firewalls to distribute to the masses, though at this point it really didn't feel necessary. What was the point of his wealth when he lacked any need for money? Living within the NetZone left him little need for material things. Even if he left to make a live appearance at a board meeting or a press conference, he could digitally alter his human appearance. He did it all the time to make himself appear the proper age of a man in his forties.
"Three years," he mumbled, thinking back onto what Daniel told him about the incident that caused his powers, to his taking up the identity of Phantom. That left the young man three more years before his human body started to deteriorate to the point that he wouldn't be able to live any longer in the real world. If he refused to believe Vlad's warning by that time, then Daniel would risk death for his stubbornness.
"Not my business," Vlad muttered as he stood up, making Cujo hop onto all fours with a bark. Red eyes narrowed down flatly at the dog. "Are you going to tell me you liked that young man?" At the happy bark he received in response, Vlad sighed, lifting up his visor to pinch at his nose. "That's just as well, I suppose." He brought up a screen, quickly typing out a message on the keyboard that appeared before him.
After all these years and every attempt they made to communicate with him, now Vlad was the one reaching out to them. It was a short, simple message, informing his former friends that he would be making a trip to Amity Park in the near future. He could have made an appearance there any time he wanted since his private domain was already located within the Amity Park NetZone.
In his early years after the incident, he created the space to remain close to where Maddie lived in order to quickly act upon his plans after he put them into action. When he discovered that he couldn't live in the real world any longer, he retired to this place rather than setting up a new domain closer to Wisconsin. He could oversee his company in Wisconsin perfectly fine from Amity Park, and he could travel quickly through the NetZone to Wisconsin if he needed to make an appearance in the real world.
His mouth pursed, thinning as he gazed at the words glowing upon the translucent screen. The debate raged in his head, wondering if he really wanted to open this line of communication. Contacting his old friends meant that they would want to talk with him. They would want to meet with him, which meant spending time outside the NetZone. Vlad doubted that Daniel would want anything to do with him after the way he left filled with such rage. He could understand the feeling the young man had after being told living in the real world was killing him, having experienced the anger and frustration of learning that fact himself the hard way. At the very least, Daniel had someone to offer him the warning, even if he refused to heed it.
"Ungrateful brat," Vlad spat out, nostrils flaring at the spark of anger. He could have easily turned the young man away or left him to the fate of dealing with the security program. The name Phantom was spread wide over the NetZone, song in praises of his victories over the viruses. Naturally when he spied Phantom outside his domain, Vlad couldn't ignore his curiosity to learn what reason the rogue program had for trying to break into his private space. He never imagined that it would turn out that Phantom was the son of his college friends.
Why did they have to continue that foolish research into creating a device that could force a virus to manifest a human form in the real world? Bitterness boiled through him as his eyes narrowed at the screen. They learned nothing from the accident with the prototype, but they never actually learned the cost of that folly. Now their obsession with viruses and the NetZone and trying to get a physical form of a virus in the real world to study cost them the life of their very own son. Vlad's hands clenched painfully tight. He should have stopped them all those years ago. If only he wasn't as obsessed with the NetZone and the viruses and uncovering the secrets hidden within the coding, then maybe he could have seen what fools they were. But it was only in looking back on everything that he came to see the truth.
"Well, Cujo," Vlad said as he crouched and picked up the small dog. When Vlad stood up straight, Cujo licked sloppily at the man's face, leaving a dripping trail of drool. Vlad huffed a sigh at that. "I want you to keep a watch on Daniel. He's growing weaker already, but he won't acknowledge it. He thinks the viruses have merely grown a lot stronger, which is in part true."
Phantom's appearance, his ability to move in and out of the NetZone sparked the idea within the viruses. The Materializer Portal they developed in college, and now the one that Jack and Maddie finalized, provided the viruses with the knowledge of how to jump out of the NetZone much like the rogue program that kept thwarting their efforts of stealing and corrupting data. Their attempts to find methods of destroying the viruses gave the artificial life forms of the NetZone new ideas for what they could accomplish. The users that coded programs and viruses knew so little of what their creations could really do.
Now that viruses could appear in physical forms in the real world, Vlad dreaded to think what other terrors they could think up beyond simply trashing the real world. His expression turned grim as he narrowed his eyes at the screen. If the viruses ever thought to use the humans-
A bark broke his train of thoughts, and Vlad dropped his gaze back to the green furred dog. "Back to the matter at hand then," Vlad said, patting the dog on its head. "Return to me if Daniel's condition worsens." He attached the security program to the message, hiding it well so that Jack and Maddie would never be able to notice that anything more was added to the message. His finger hesitated over the send button. Without Cujo, he would be left alone again. Heaving a sigh, he hit the button, and the screen blinked out, the message flying through the NetZone to the Fenton's house.
Silence reigned over his domain, much too quiet without the yips of the security program seeking his attention. Perhaps he would create a new one to serve in Cujo's place for the time being. If Cujo decided to stay with Daniel permanently, he would need a new program to protect his sanctum within the NetZone. Vlad cracked his knuckles before getting to work on the security program.
jeanette9a: Yup, Danny's in total denial. =( Vlad always needs a hug. XD
firelily18: 8D Shocking twist!
DB-KT: Ha... ha... Please don't hurt me! *runs away* Vlad's warnings are forever ignored! D8 *pats him* You just go about it in all the wrong ways. Well, he does have his smarts... He just hasn't gotten to apply them to his school work because of the viruses.
midnight: I'm glad it brought a smile to your face. =)
Sammi: *clings to Danny* He needs to listen to Vlad! D:
