Thanks for being patient! I'm really going to try and stick to the Thursday schedule but you know I'll probably miss once in a while.

A little bit of R-rated language in this one, but otherwise PG-13!

Thanks for sticking with me and enjoy this next chapter in the DevTucker arc!


TUESDAY

On Tuesday, Tucker awoke to five missed text messages from Mikey, all sent sometime between midnight and two in the morning.

M: Tuck, this rig is insane! Thanks, man!

Tucker smiled, feeling awesome. Then things changed.

M: Hey, something weird happened - the computer turned off all on its own. Plz tell me this is fixable? I'm outta cash for any more parts.

Tucker's heart seemed to fall into his stomach. He continued reading.

M: bro, wtf? Did you rig some kind of program to prank me?

M: Okay fine, I'll play.

M: Tucker. Something's wrong.

The text messages stopped there.

Tucker leaped out of bed and got dressed. He collected his things and bypassed his mother who, in the kitchen, had attempted to lecture him for staying out late without calling.

"Just because you're seventeen-!" her cries went out the door with him as he raced to the bus stop. He was too early for the bus to arrive.

"No, come on, come on, bus…"

Tucker dialed Danny's number without a second thought.

"Yeah?" Danny asked, his voice half-muffled with sleepiness.

"Mikey. Something's wrong. Computer ghost, I'm sure of it."

Shuffling sounds echoed back at Tucker through Danny's cell.

"Where are you?"

"Bus stop by my house."

"Be there soon."

The call disconnected and Tucker could only sit and wait.

The bus would be there in about fifteen minutes, but Danny could fly so he got there first. He emerged from behind someone's backyard fence and trotted up to Tucker looking like a normal high school kid.

"Whoa, that was fast," Tucker said. "How'd you get so good at flying?"

Danny was panting hard. "I dunno… adrenaline? I think… I need to start… jogging more."

Tucker wanted to mention that Danny had super strength and, therefore, should have some kind of super cardio, but there was no time. He showed Danny the texts he'd received and Danny's expression grew serious.

"Where does Mikey live?"

"On 8th, like three streets away from the Nasty Burger."

"That's on the other side of town."

"I know."

Danny sighed and glanced at his phone. The bus would arrive in five minutes. "I guess we're skipping class this morning."

Tucker shrugged, but he looked frightened. "We'll sneak back into school at lunchtime."

"Hopefully."

The bus finally arrived and they hopped on, but when they got to school they hopped right back off again and started running north toward the Nasty Burger. No one tried to stop them, though a few students gave them strange looks. There was no time to call Sam and clue her in like she'd asked. They were on their own.

"Jogging," Danny wheezed when they finally made it to 8th street. "I'm gonna… take up… jogging!"

Tucker was no better off. He raised his arms above his head and paced outside Mikey's house, his cheeks warm and his breath visible in the cool October air.

"What's the point," he panted, "of having… driver's licenses… if we don't have cars?"

Danny shook his head, unable to form words. Then he started shivering all over.

"O-oh no," he said, teeth chattering. "It's here."

Tucker paled. "You're sure?"

Danny narrowed his eyes at 345 N 8th street. The little suburban split-level with dull brown bricks and a bright red door stood eerily quiet. Carved jack-o-lanterns lined the stone steps leading up to the door. A pirate skeleton stood sentinel on the porch, no doubt motion-activated to reach out and grab you as you went by.

Both parents' cars were in the driveway. None of the lights were on, though it was almost eight-thirty in the morning. They avoided the pirate skeleton and, when Tucker tried the front door, it swung open easily. A cold blast of air shot through Danny as if it were the north arctic wind, though Tucker didn't seem to feel anything. From within the house, an oppressive presence overtook him, but he set his jaw, determined to go in anyway.

"Yeah, I'm sure it's here," Danny said.

Danny stepped inside first. With a flash, he was no longer his normal self, but the other one. The ghostly one - a self now becoming so close to him it was like a second skin. He no longer blinked in surprise when a flash of white hair fell over his face. He no longer jumped back from mirrors when his eyes glowed green.

Instead, he stood with confidence inside the cold, quiet home of Mikey Baker and waited.

The foyer was silent. Family photos lined the walls. A fresh bouquet of flowers sat on a little table next to the stair rail. Those stairs led upwards to the second-floor landing. To the left was a living room painted burgundy red. To the right, a kitchen. Nothing jumped out, nothing shouted "boo!" and so Tucker crept up behind Danny, his cell phone flashlight beaming into the dark house.

"Mikey?" Tucker called quietly. "You here?"

There was no answer.

"Should we split up?" Danny asked.

"Oh, you mean should the guy with superpowers abandon the guy armed only with a cell phone? No. We should not split up, Danny."

Danny was too tense to smile. The goosebumps on his skin were a constant reminder that he was in danger.

"Let's go this way," Tucker said, and he turned right toward the archway which led to the kitchen.

The kitchen was modern industrial style. It was in stark contrast to the rest of the house's aesthetic, which screamed: "Hallmark movie." The stove had huge spider burners and a griddle built-in, and the countertops were stainless steel. Appliances of all kinds framed the room, glistening and freshly washed. It looked like a Food Network set from Hell's Kitchen. Danny half expected Gordon Ramsey to jump out from behind the island and call him an idiot sandwich.

"Nice place."

"Mikey's dad is a chef," Tucker explained. "He brings his work home with him."

Danny noticed that the fridge was a smart fridge, with a low-light blue screen shining at them from one end of the room. On the screen were daily schedules for the whole family. Today, Mikey's mom should be enjoying her day off. That made the empty house even eerier.

"Someone should be here," Danny whispered. "Come on."

He left the kitchen and returned to the foyer. From there he could see through to the living room, which had a large flat-screen TV set on the wall in front of two automatic leather recliners and a soft-looking loveseat. That room was also empty.

Tucker opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the slamming of the front door and the beep-beep sound of the house's security system turning on by itself. They both jumped, and Tucker almost shrieked but he bit his tongue instead.

The ghost was here, and it didn't seem friendly.

"Where's Mikey's room?"

"Upstairs, second on the left."

Danny flew upstairs. Tucker was right behind him. Danny reached the landing and rushed down the hall, yanking open the door to Mikey's room.

Inside he found Mikey and his parents. They sat on the bed, their mouths hanging open as if they were sleeping. On their faces were a set of three VR headsets, headphones firmly over their ears. They looked possessed.

Tucker glanced around wildly but didn't see a ghost. He stepped toward Mikey carefully and gently shook his shoulders. "Mikey? Hey, Mike!"

Danny investigated the room. The desktop monitor was flickering rapidly, like a movie projector. An eerie green glow emanated from within it. The overwhelming presence of another ghost seemed to leak out of the computer, so Danny approached slowly, hesitant to touch it. He unzipped his backpack and produced the Fenton Thermos, and let it rest in his right hand while he reached out his left.

With a firm knock on the monitor screen, he said, "Hey, you in there?"

The computer's frantic blinking stopped suddenly. Danny withdrew his left hand.

From the monitor, several pixelated shapes began to emerge. First, two eyes framed by a pair of spectacles, a nose, and finally, a mouth. The face grimaced at him, and he saw that the pixelated teeth were crooked and gapped.

"Good morning, to you, too," Danny said to the face. "What did you do to Mikey and his parents?"

From out of the speakers came an accented voice, high-pitched and irritated.

"How have you come to walk among them so easily?" asked the face. Its eyes narrowed and looked Danny up and down.

"Pardon?"

Tucker was trying to pry the VR headset off of Mikey, but it wouldn't budge.

"Don't trifle with me, child," the computer ghost snapped. "I, Technus, have been trapped within the BBS since 1978, and I will have my freedom today. How did you come to possess a tangible form? Is it your original, or did you take it?"

"You've been in the what now?" Danny asked. He was still trying to process "BBS."

"The bulletin board systems," Tucker informed him, still trying to pry the headset off of Mikey's face. It wouldn't move. "He's talking about the internet forums."

The face in the computer - Technus, it seemed - snapped its eyes quickly to Tucker and grinned.

"You. You are the one who clicked on the file. I thought perhaps that you would allow me to take over, so to speak, but you declined."

"So you jump-skipped over to Mikey's computer and… what?" Danny interrupted. "Brainwashed him and his parents?"

"They panicked when I asked them to release me. They declined so I silenced their screaming with a little… white noise, if you will."

Danny could almost see the events unfolding. Mikey shouting, his parents rushing to his side. He pictured the VR headsets flying fast toward the family, clamping over their faces to possess them, to silence their screams.

"Who are you?"

"I told you, I am Technus! Genius and prisoner. I died a long time ago, yet too soon to realize my life's work. Technology was not nearly where it needed to be in my time. But in my death, I attempted to enter your human computers, where I thought my real power would finally be realized," Technus said, his voice reaching a screeching pitch. "Alas, that was decades ago, and I was accidentally trapped within a closed network beyond my understanding. It would be years before your internet was born, yet I built the tech forum that you use today," he said, pointing his nose at Tucker again. "Now, I cannot escape the cage of my own creation."

"That forum is connected to the internet," Tucker said, though he wasn't sure why he was telling the ghost that. Especially since he didn't want to know what the ghost's 'real power' was, or to help him realize it.

"Perhaps," Technus agreed, "but not for me. Not for this form which is outdated and useless for navigating the world-wide web. It cannot go beyond the confines of the BBS. So, I need a new one."

Danny was surprised at the willing monologue that the ghost was giving them.

"Let Mikey and his parents go," Danny growled.

Technus eyed Danny warily. "You are an odd specimen. A ghost among humans? What strange company you keep. Can you not cross back into the Ghost Zone?"

The Ghost Zone? Danny and Tucker thought at the same time.

"Or have you never been there?" Technus continued. "Perhaps you are a new death? Someone who can't quite let go of living?"

Danny shivered. "No. I'm neither."

"You cannot be neither," Technus said. The keyboard on the desk started to shake a little. "Either you are dead or you are not."

Danny unscrewed the top of the Fenton Thermos and pointed it at Technus' face.

"I'm not. Let them go."

Technus looked confused. The entire computer was shaking now. Tucker stepped over to it and then jerked back.

"It's getting hot," he said. "Danny-?"

"Let them go," Danny said again. "Or I'll give you what you want and send you back to the Ghost Zone where you came from!"

"I do not want the Ghost Zone, child!" Technus cried. "I want freedom. I want a release from this closed network of torture. I want to walk among the living and their mechanical creations! I want to build the future!"

"Not with them," Danny growled, pointing at Mikey and his parents. "Let them go or I'll take you down."

The whole house felt like it was shaking now.

"You cannot harm me, child! Whatever contraption you hold in your hand is useless. I am not really here before you. This is simply a projection. Where I am is trapped within this closed circuit. Release me onto this mortal plane, and I assure you, it would be a much fairer fight."

An options screen came up on the computer monitor. Danny saw that it was a simple request:

[Y/N to Release]

A selection bar blinked slowly under the "Y," begging to be pressed. Danny, who didn't want to fall for any tricks, took a deep breath. He pressed the button on the Fenton Thermos.

Yet nothing happened. No ghost appeared or was sucked up into the thermos. Mikey and his parents were not released from their hypnosis.

The computer cackled. A spark came from the outlet where the computer was plugged in. Tucker began to panic. What if there was a fire?

"Danny!" Tucker cried again. "That thing is gonna-!"

Without thinking, Danny pressed [Enter] on the keyboard, prepared for the ghost to appear and ready to use the thermos as soon as it did.

But the computer screen sparked and strobed, blinking so rapidly that Danny had to look away. Finally, the glass of the screen cracked and then went dark. An acrid smell of burning metal and wires came from it. Danny felt the cold, ghostly presence of the room leave, but he could tell it hadn't gone far. As it did, all three VR headsets went dead. The members of the Baker family collapsed onto the bed, out cold, but breathing. Downstairs, they heard the sound of a microwave turning on.

"Oh no," Danny said, thinking about the kitchen and all its technological wonders.

"What," Tucker demanded, incredulous, "did you just do?"

"Probably fucked up," Danny said. "Stay here. Make sure they're all right and call an ambulance, just in case. I'll try and catch Technus as fast as I can."

"What if you get caught?" Tucker asked. "Worse! What if it kills you?"

Danny swallowed. He had no idea.

"I can't let it hurt anyone else."

Then he was gone, phasing through the floor and down to the ground level below.