Chapter 07
Danny dropped into his seat at the kitchen table the next morning with an exhausted sigh. He was up for most of the night trying to finish all of his homework. The report took a lot longer than he expected, and the calculus problems were still making his head spin. Somehow, he managed to get it all done and still get a few hours of sleep. But a few hours wasn't enough to erase the drained feeling he had. He struggled to pull himself out of bed, weighed down not only from tiredness but from the miserable memory of what he saw when he spied on Kwan's bedroom. He dropped his head into his hands, wondering how he was going to act around Kwan in class now.
"What's the matter, Danny boy?" Jack asked, far too chipper for the early morning as he landed a large hand on his son's back.
At the noise of something clunking on the tabletop, Danny lifted his head from his hands. His bright blue eyes landed on the gun like item that his father placed on the table. It had that strange futuristic look that most of his parents' inventions had in comparison to some of the things their competitors created. A government agency existed to combat the threat of viruses on the NetZone, and Danny encountered the Guys in White more times than he cared to count. But they still seemed far behind in their inventions compared to his parents.
"What's that?" Danny asked, eying the weapon warily.
"This," Jack said with immense pride in his voice as he picked up the gun, "is our latest invention. The Fenton Data Deleter." He held the gun out, aiming it far too closely in his son's direction. "One pull of the trigger, and," he clucked with his tongue, pretending like he pulled the trigger, "goodbye virus. Not even a nanobyte of data will remain."
Danny sat as still as possible, trying not to let on to his terror in that moment. He tried to keep his heart from racing, to stop his eyes from widening even a fraction, praying neither of his parents noticed the tight grip his hands had on the sides of his chair, knuckles whitening as the joints started to ache. His parents made a number of inventions that failed to work, or in many of those cases simply didn't work the way they expected. Danny frequently got tangled up with their inventions too many times in the past years, often leading to him being placed in rather dangerous situations. He had a growing list in his head of which inventions to avoid. The Data Deleter sounded like one that would go straight to the top of that list. Having it pointed in his general direction made him uncomfortable, even if it wasn't proven to work yet.
"It's still only a prototype," Maddie said as she set a bowl of hot, mushy oatmeal with blueberries mixed into it in front of Danny.
"And once we get our hands on that rogue virus Phantom, we'll have our first test subject for this baby." Grin stretching wide across his face, Jack patted the Data Deleter. He, thankfully, missed his son nearly choking on a mouthful of oatmeal.
"Jack dear," Maddie said as she took the weapon from her husband's hands. "If we manage to get our hands on that nuisance, our first objective will be to analyze his data. If we can trace him back to where he was created, we can discover who created him and put them out of business from creating more viruses like him."
Danny swallowed his oatmeal, which went down his throat like a thick wad of sludge trying to squeeze though an infinitely too small pathway. That was the way of things with his parents: catch the virus, study it to death, and destroy it. They may not have a very high success rate, but that didn't stop the thought of being captured from sending chills through Danny. He went down into his parents laboratory countless times in the past. He knew what sort of things awaited any virus that his parents caught, and he hoped he would never be one of those viruses.
"But isn't Phantom the good guy?" Danny asked tentatively and regretted it immediately when his parents gaped at him like he announced that he wanted to drop out of high school and become a mime or something equally ridiculous. "I just - I've only caught a few of the clips from the news, but it always looked like he was trying to help. You know, like he was fighting off the viruses. Doesn't that mean he's good?"
"Oh, Danny." Maddie sighed as she brushed her fingers through his raven locks.
"He's a virus," Jack stated firmly. "Viruses are never good. Viruses exist to cause ruin to the NetZone. They seek to steal information and corrupt innocent programs. If a virus isn't dealt with, it affects those in the real world. Now that they've discovered a way to break out of the NetZone and attack in the real world, they're even more dangerous. They're malicious programming, and they and the people that created them must be stopped."
Danny cringed inwardly with every word his father spoke. He knew that was how his parents saw him, the other him. Phantom was just another virus that needed to be erased from the NetZone in their eyes. No matter how much good he did, how many viruses he fought to protect the NetZone, he would never be anything but a virus. That knowledge only made him feel even more miserable.
"I should probably head to school," Danny announced, pushing away what remained of his breakfast. He didn't have the appetite to eat anymore of the oatmeal. Before he could make it out of the kitchen, his mother pulled him into a tight hug.
"We just want you to know we're so proud of you," Maddie said, kissing him on the forehead, which Danny then wiped at in embarrassment, thanking any deity that was listening that she didn't do that in public. Dash would certainly use it as fuel for bullying him, or Danny thought he would. Maybe. It was hard to tell with Dash not being as much of a bully recently. "We were so worried about your grades, but you seem to have turned things around this past year."
Danny rolled his eyes at her. The only reason his grades suffered so much at the beginning of high school was because of the viruses. He could have easily ignored them, let them run amok and cause chaos to the NetZone, but he had these powers for a reason, and he believed that reason was to protect the NetZone. That first year especially was rough, learning how to use his powers, developing new abilities. Getting his ass kicked every week wasn't exactly fun. The next years were a little easier as he figured out how to manage his time better so that he could fight viruses and still be able to get his homework done without completely neglecting his friends. But it wasn't until this year that his grades actually started to improve.
"Sorry I can't be more like Jazz," Danny mumbled, looking away from his mother as he shoved his hands into his pockets. It was a sore point that always dug into him like a painful barb. His family was made up of geniuses, even though his father sometimes came off looking like an idiot when his enthusiasm got the better of him. Jack always thought outside the box, came up with crazy inventions, but Maddie always found a way to refine the idea into something that made sense. Danny was the dud of the family. He didn't share their genius. He was average, in terms of intelligence. When people looked at their family, they always had that look of pity, like they were sorry that someone like Danny wound up in the Fenton family, like it was completely baffling how he could be the son of Jack and Maddie.
"Danny," Maddie took his face in his hands, forcing his head back around to meet with her violet eyes, "we don't expect you to be like Jazz." Her voice was very firm, like she was trying to drill her words into his head. "We never wanted you to feel like you have to push yourself to be like Jazz. You're a bright boy. We know it. We just want you to see what we see."
Danny blinked in surprise at his mother. He always felt like a great disappointment to his parents. Hearing those words from his mother, he didn't how to respond. His parents actually thought he was bright? He jerked out of his stunned thoughts when he heard a honk from outside.
"Oh, that's Sam!" Danny dashed out of the kitchen to grab his book bag waiting at the bottom of the stairs. "Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!" He heard his parents respond with "bye" and "have a good day" as he left the house. After shutting the front door, Danny jogged down the walkway and hopped into the waiting black convertible. He grinned as he greeted his friends sitting in the front seats of the car.
Sam was the only one of them that was able to afford a car, and the convertible actually sat in her parents' garage for the seven years leading up to her sixteenth birthday. Tucker almost had enough to be able to afford a used car, being only about three thousand dollars short, which he was trying to make up by taking on whatever odd jobs he could around town. If he had more time, Danny would join him, hoping to earn up enough for a car as well. Currently, it didn't seem likely that Danny would ever get a car unless he somehow won the lottery.
"Did you get that history report finished last night?" Tucker asked as he turned around in the passenger's seat to face Danny. "I was up all night trying to get it finished."
"That's why I told you both not to wait until the last minute," Sam said with exasperation in her voice as she pulled her car away from the curb and started driving toward the high school. "Again," she added with a glare of violet eyes in Tucker's direction.
Tucker rolled his eyes. "We're not all such good, studious students like you, Sam."
"I thought you had that whole schedule thing planned out on your precious PDA." Sam raised an eyebrow at her friend. She grew her hair out over the past four years but still kept to the same general hairstyle, pulling her hair back into a half ponytail. The Goth attire never changed, which they all knew was a source of annoyance to her parents, who always hoped she would grow out of the phase.
"It didn't quite work out," Tucker said, his green eyes looking away as he frowned. Danny almost wanted to ask if Tucker had a lovers spat with his PDA, but he thought against it when it occurred to him that he might have something thrown at him for the teasing inquiry. Everyone in school was aware of how big a techno geek Tucker was, and many of the bullies in the school used that fact to tease him. It didn't help that he was always carrying around tons of various technologies from his PDA to his iPod to his laptop.
"I tried to get it done sooner," Danny said, raking a hand through his raven locks. "But I got swamped with everything, and it kind of got shuffled off to the last minute." He really did try to get it done after the assignment was given to them, but then a virus attacked and he had other homework due before the report. He almost forgot that he even had to write the history report until he checked his calendar and saw it written there in big bold red letters. Freshmen year, he didn't even bother keeping a calendar to make notes of when assignments were due, and it caused him to forget what he needed to get done and when. He rubbed tiredly at his face when he thought back to that first year.
Sam parked her car in her usual spot at school, which happened to be right beside the cherry red sports car that belonged to none other than Casper High's football hero Dash Baxter. Danny was about to sink down in the back seat until he realized that the car's owner wasn't actually present. Sighing in relief, he followed his friends out of the car.
"Didn't become best buddies after yesterday?" Sam questioned, nudging Danny in the ribs as they walked toward the entrance of the school.
"He didn't try to shove my head in a toilet at least. Did you know-" Danny caught himself before he finished the question. Simply because he found out something that didn't mean he needed to spread it around. He thought quickly for something else to ask because Tucker and Sam were looking at him expectantly. "That Dash has this dinky little Chihuahua? It's named Pooky." He caught sight of the yappy little dog when he was leaving Dash's house. There was another dog, a big golden retriever as well, but the image of Dash walking around with the Chihuahua in his sports bag like one of those crazy celebrities that always carried their dogs in their purses was hilarious in his mind.
"That's the only dirt you dug up on him while you were in his house?" Sam shook her head in disappointment. She probably would have uncovered loads of blackmail material if she was given five minutes to search through Dash's room.
Danny shrugged awkwardly in response because he certainly couldn't tell his friends about spying into Dash's bedroom through the webcam on his computer. That time was truly an accident, and he didn't even mean to do it, but it still made him curious about Dash's sister and his apparent comic about Phantom. Maybe Dash had it posted online somewhere. He shook that thought from his head as they walked down the hallways to their lockers.
"Hey, but at least you have an excuse to stare at Paulina," Tucker said with a wide grin. Even after four years, he still had that ridiculous crush on Paulina, despite that he had no chance of actually going on a date with her.
"With Dash there?" Sam scoffed as her expression turned foul. Whenever Paulina came up in conversation, Sam's mood immediately soured. The two women were never on the best of terms. From the very start, they were at each other's throat, ready to claw at the other's eyes. "Dash would probably do a lot worse than give him a swirly if he caught Danny staring at Paulina like some love sick puppy."
"You're just jealous that Danny doesn't look at you like that," Tucker commented offhandedly as he opened his locker, missing the flush that colored his friends' faces. Everyone teased them about it since freshmen year, and they went through an awkward phase in their sophomore year when they thought about dating, but in the end, they never did go on that date. People still referred to them as "the lovebirds."
"I don't want Danny giving me that stupid love sick look," Sam argued as she yanked open her locker.
"Hey!" Danny protested. "You don't have to say it like that." He grabbed what he needed for class from his own locker.
"It's okay, Danny. She's just in denial." Tucker chuckled until Sam punched him, hard, in the shoulder and made him stumble. His arms flailed outward as he tried to catch his balance, but it wasn't enough to stop him from slamming into the woman next to him. Books and papers spilled from her opened book bag.
"Tucker, you!" Valerie shouted, her green eyes flashing angrily.
"I'm sorry! It was an accident," Tucker said in a rush, trying to appease her.
"Hey, it's no big deal," said Kwan, who was standing with Valerie when Tucker bumped into her. He already knelt down to gather up the fallen books and papers.
Valerie snatched them from his hands, her anger not quelled in the slightest. "Kwan," she snapped as she pointed a well manicured finger at Tucker, "get him."
"But-"
"Hit," Valerie ordered, cutting off the jock's protest, "now!"
"See you guys later!" Tucker started to run down the hallway when Kwan turned toward him.
"At least I'm not getting 'hit on' by some dumb jock!" Sam called after Tucker, grinning as her friend fled in an attempt to escape the jock. She folded her arms with a smug look. "Maybe that'll teach him not to tease about our love lives."
Danny frowned as he watched Kwan disappear around the corner that Tucker turned down only moments before the jock. He doubted any of the others noticed the brief hesitation that flashed across Kwan's face, a look that said he didn't really want to follow Valerie's command. It was something that easily got overlooked, especially when he was the victim of the In crowd's harassment. But catching it now, Danny couldn't stop wondering if that hesitation had anything to do with what he saw last night between Kwan and his father. He bit down hard on his lip. It wasn't any of his business. He shouldn't have acted immaturely and spied on people. But was it right to sit back and ignore something like that if he did know about it? He knew questions would be asked, they would want to know how he knew, but he couldn't simply wipe out what he saw from his memory. He didn't see any injuries on Kwan though. Maybe it wasn't as bad as his mind was making it out to be. He hoped it wasn't at least.
"Hey!" Valerie glared darkly at Sam. "Kwan isn't some dumb jock."
Sam snorted as she closed her locker, then after a moment decided to be nice and closed Tucker's locker as well. "Yeah, following some spoiled brat's commands like a loyal dog makes him such a genius."
After closing his own locker, Danny grabbed hold of Sam's arm. "Come on. We're going to be late for class." He pulled her down the hallway before Sam could start to really get into it with Valerie. When Sam started arguments with the In crowd, things could get ugly, and that usually meant trouble for all three of them.
jeanette9a: Poor Boxie. No one likes him. But even he won't be friends with Kempler.
DB-KT: Aw man! I had the chance to go on last night and the chat was empty! I wanna see it! 8D Haha, because Danny messing around with screens would be awesome~ That poor laptop. =( Lancer's like "Teachers don't make a lot of money, you know! *angry face*" Kwan's going to have a rude awakening? Haha, I don't think the agents' boss is ever happy though. XD
midnight: XD I love the way Lancer always shouts in book titles! That was so awesome!
Sammi: I hope I don't disappoint you! D:
XD: Mean old Agent E! He's just jealous of Lancer's awesomeness! *high fives* 8D I love when things seem to suddenly all fit together. XD;; Aw~ *pets Kwan* Why is he always alone~? Well, Kwan and Val are close friends. XD I'm not sure that they'd hook up though? I haven't even thought about whether or not Sam and Tucker will friend people to hook up with. orz ;; Yay suspense! Dash will write the story of Danny in comic form! XD;; Thanks! X3 I'm glad it was funny!