Chapter 15
The week hadn't gone very well for her. From having that loser Tucker bump into at the start of school on Tuesday to that afternoon when stupid Danny spilled her soda and ruined her four hundred dollar shirt, that she just bought, Valerie was in a foul mood for the rest of the week. Thursday nights was one of many nights over the week where Valerie would pick up dinner for her father and bring it to him while he worked. Her father wouldn't get to eat, being so busy with his job, until near midnight when he returned home from work if she didn't bring him something. It was their rare chance to spend time together over a meal, and Valerie grabbed at the opportunity to keep some connection to her father beyond his credit card.
Valerie entered the building of Axion Labs, toting a plastic bag with take out from a Chinese restaurant that her father liked best. The woman at the front desk greeted her with a kind smile. On occasion when her father was too busy with work to watch over when she was younger and he didn't want her home alone, Valerie would spend time with Shelia, who would watch over her. They grew to know each other quite well over the years, and when Valerie turned up at Axion Labs, Shelia didn't bother to ask her why she was there. Shelia already knew the reason: to see her father. Valerie waved to her as she walked past Shelia on her way toward the office of the head of security.
She didn't cross paths when anyone working there as she walked to the office. When she reached it with a sign engraved with: Head of Security, Damon Gray, Valerie knocked on the door. In a moment, her father opened the door and smiled when he spotted her.
"What's on the menu tonight?" Mr. Gray asked, needing no explanation from his daughter for her reason for being there. He held the door open for her to enter his office.
He dressed in his usual suit with the red tie that Valerie's mother gave him years ago when Valerie was still only a child. He took very good care of it, always making sure it never got stained or became ratty with age. When she hugged him and he leaned his head down into the crook of her neck, holding her close, his bushy mustache tickled her like always. Mr. Gray stood up straight after she pulled away, and he adjusted the half moon glasses that he wore.
"Chinese," Valerie announced as she walked over to his desk and set the plastic bag down on it. Her gaze drifted over the work laid out over her father's desk. "Looks like you've been busy." She picked up a paper, glancing over the writing on the page that she didn't fully understand. It looked like coding and writing detailing something about security.
"I just oversaw the implementation of a new security system," Mr. Gray explained, plucking the paper from his daughter's hands. Gathering up the rest of the papers, he cleared off space on his desk for them to eat. He filed away the papers before returning to his desk and opening up the bag, breathing in the strong aroma of General Tso's chicken and Low Mein.
"A new security system?" Valerie parroted, only half interested as they took out the white boxes of food. She often asked her father about his work, though she didn't pay too much attention to what he said. With all the rambling she did about her own life, she could spend a few minutes pretending to care about her father's work.
"With this new system, we shouldn't have to worry about viruses hacking into our computers and will make my job easier if anyone tries to break in." Mr. Gray speared a chunk of General Tso's chicken with his plastic fork. "It took us the majority of the last few days to finish setting it all up. If all goes well, I might be looking at a raise for pushing the implementation of this new system."
The mention of a raise caught Valerie's attention. "Does that mean you'll let me get those front row tickets for the Humpty Dumpty concert when they go on sale next week?" she questioned while wearing a hopeful look. When she asked about the concert two weeks ago, Mr. Gray was still on the fence about her buying tickets for herself and a select few of the A list crowd. The tickets were fairly expensive, and Mr. Gray didn't seem quite willing for the four teenagers to attend the concert alone, even though they were all eighteen and didn't need constant adult supervision. Valerie knew it was only because he worried about her safety, but sometimes it frustrated her.
"We'll see," Mr. Gray answered noncommittally as he continued eating his dinner.
Valerie sighed, poking at her box of Low Mein. She was really hoping for some good news after the week she had with losers being clumsy idiots. Her mind turned back to Monday and the conversation after school with her friends. She couldn't believe Dash would actually allow Danny into his house, but she realized at that point that the blond jock seemed to pound on Danny a lot less recently. The tines of her white plastic fork was trapped between her lips as she pondered over that point. Dash still made jokes at Danny's expense, teasing the loser, but the jock didn't seem to go out of the way to hunt down Danny and push him around like he would in the past. Her green eyes narrowed down into her food as she wondered when exactly that change occurred. But the more important question in her mind was why Dash's attitude changed. Was it simply because they grew up and he matured over the years? She shook her head, not believing that to be the answer, but it still left her with the big mystery surrounding Dash.
At the sudden, loud siren filling the building, Valerie tensed as she snapped her gaze toward her father. Mr. Gray was already out of his seat and heading for the door of his office. Swallowing the mouthful of food she was eating, Valerie got up to follow him out of the room, but her father placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her from moving farther.
"Stay here," Mr. Gray ordered firmly with a sternness in his green gaze. Then he turned to leave the office, going to see what caused the alarm on the new security system to go off.
With a frown, Valerie folded her arms as she wondered who would be breaking into Axion Labs. Her eyes glanced about the office before she came to a decision. She slipped out of the office and checked both ways down the hall. Then she crept through the halls of the building, searching for where the break in occurred. She knew her father was very good at his job, but she hardly ever had the opportunity to really see him in action. All the times that she visited before, there was never a real break in to building. A virus might attempt to break through their firewall, but that usually didn't require Mr. Gray to do anything more than get one of the tech employees to come in and fight off the virus.
A noise from one of the rooms made her stop in the middle of the hall. Valerie gulped at the sound of something smashing and breaking apart like someone was in the room beating on the machinery with a metal baseball bat. Her eyes swept around the hall but there were no night guards or personnel in this section of the building. Hesitantly, almost too scared to approach where she heard the noise, Valerie steeled her nerves and walked toward the room from where the noise continued to come. The door was already ajar, and she pressed her head close to the frame as she nudged the door open a little more for a better look inside to the room. Beyond the door, the room was filled with various tech that she couldn't even identify aside from the computer console in front of a wide glass pane. Her father never told her much about what Axion Labs really did in terms of their development of new technology, but she also never actually asked about it. Technology beyond the latest computer and cell phone and tablet was of little interest to her. She wasn't a techno geek like Tucker, after all.
At the sight of the room, her breath caught. All the strange tech was in ruin. Parts of whatever was being worked on lay scattered across the floor. Wires dangled from machines that sparked with electricity after having something smashed into it. She gaped at the destruction, wondering what sort of person would break into a company like Axion Labs and bash up all the equipment in one of their laboratories.
A groan drew her attention away from the destruction, and she dragged her gaze over to where someone was sitting up from a pile of rubble, shifting the broken parts of a shattered machine with the action. Her green eyes grew wider when she recognized the stranger. Everyone in Amity Park knew about the rogue program known as Phantom. The Guys in White and the Fentons hunted him down like a menace to society, wanting to protect the town from his destructive ways. Reports on the television about virus outbreaks usually painted him a bad light, making him sound as bad as the virus that was attacking the town. Some of the other students at Casper High liked to idolize the rogue program as some kind of hero. Valerie knew that Dash, especially, was a huge fan of Phantom. She never cared enough about him to pay attention to his activity.
Phantom shook his head, flinging tiny bits of electronics from his white hair as he stood. His glowing green eyes narrowed in rage behind the cracked visor that he wore. The angry look on his face stayed with Valerie even after the program jumped through the undamaged computer console, entering the NetZone after leaving the laboratory in ruins.
Valerie shoved the door open, letting it bang against the wall as she glowered at the computer. What kind of hero came into a company and destroyed everything? After seeing that display, Valerie couldn't see why anyone would consider Phantom a hero when he looked like merely another virus to her.
"Valerie!"
At the shocked gasp, Valerie twisted around to find her father coming down the hall with three of the night guards behind him. Mr. Gray wore a very unhappy look on his face as he stared at his daughter. With a gulp, Valerie stumbled back half a step as the group approached when she stood. Already, she was wincing internally when she thought about her father's reaction to what happened to the laboratory.
"I told you stay in my office," Mr. Gray said, disappointment underlying his voice. The frown on his face was the same one that he always wore when she was in trouble. Disobeying his order probably wasn't the wisest move that she could have made, but Valerie couldn't deny her curiosity and wanting to see her father doing his job, when she could actually understand it. All the technical jargon about security measures tended to go over her head whenever she did try to listen to him.
"Uh, Sir," said a pimply faced night guard that looked like he was barely in his twenties. His blue eyes were locked on the room where Valerie saw Phantom trashing the machinery.
Mr. Gray ripped his eyes away from his daughter, snapping his gaze toward the room. He jerked in surprise at the state of the machines that greeted him, mouth falling agape. "What happened here?"
"I didn't do it!" Valerie shouted immediately, her eyes narrowing angrily. She wasn't going to be the one taking the blame for something some stupid virus did.
"I know you didn't," Mr. Gray said, but he still looked shocked by the destruction done to the laboratory. He turned to his men and instructed them to look for evidence mixed in with the mess of broken parts.
"It was that Phantom virus," Valerie explained almost with a growl in her voice. "I saw him. He hopped back into the NetZone after he finished trashing the place."
Mr. Gray sighed as he turned back to his daughter and placed his hands on her shoulders. "We still have to go through everything and gather up evidence and file a report about this incident."
Another night guard jogged up the hall, holding a hand to his head to keep his hat from flying off. His wispy blond hair peeked out from under the gray hat. He was out of breath when he finally reached them, pausing with a hand to his chest as he tried to regain his breath.
"Mr. Peterson wants to see you right away," the night guard said when he wasn't so winded anymore.
His expression turned grave when Mr. Gray heard that announcement. "You," he said in a stern voice as he pointed a finger at his daughter, "are to return to my office and stay there until I come." His tone left no room for argument. "Make sure she gets back to my office without any delays, John," he added, directing his attention to the wispy haired night guard, who saluted him as Mr. Gray walked off down the hall.
"Great," Valerie grumbled as she folded her arms. She glowered at the guard that led her back to her father's office. "Stuck with a baby sitter."
"Maybe you wouldn't need a baby sitter if you acted your age and did as you were told," muttered the night guard as he narrowed his blue eyes down at her.
With a withering look, Valerie decided she definitely would never like this man. When they reached her father's office, she was more than happy to slam the door in the man's face. She could always figure out a way to escape from the office, if she got desperate enough, but her father would probably return soon enough. Walking over to the desk, she sat down and started poking at what remained of their dinner. The food was only lukewarm now, but at least it wasn't cold. She ate some bites here and there as she watched the clock. The minutes ticked by slowly until at one point she thought the clock might have broken as it took an increasingly longer time to click to the next minute.
When the door finally opened, Valerie jerked out of her mind numbing stupor. She dropped the plastic fork back into the box of Low Mein that she was eating as she twisted around in the chair. Her father stepped into the office, closing the door behind him. At his weary look, Valerie frowned at her father. He seemed more exhausted than usually.
"What did Mr. Peterson want?" Valerie asked, watching her father walk over to the desk.
"Don't worry about it, Sweetie," Mr. Gray said with his gaze lowered as he closed the lid of the box filled with General Tso's chicken. "We can heat this up at home."
Her brow pinched as Valerie stared at her father. "What do you mean at home? Doesn't your shift end at eleven?"
"Not tonight, Sweetie." Mr. Gray picked up the box of Low Mein, deftly folding the flaps shut before he stuffed it into the plastic bag along with the other boxes of Chinese food.
Valerie didn't like the sound of that, and she didn't move from the chair when he father walked toward the office door. "What happened, Dad?" She landed him with that hard look she reserved for when she meant business. She wasn't moving from that chair until her father explained everything to her. It was a tactic that worked well in the past, even if it sometimes made her come off looking like a spoiled brat to outsiders.
Mr. Gray stared at his daughter with a miserable dimness to his green eyes. His shoulders lifted as he took a deep breath then exhaled a defeated sigh. "I was fired."
It was only three simple words, but they shocked her system. Valerie sat up ram rod straight on the chair as she gawked at her father. He got fired all because some stupid virus got in and wrecked some machines? Her hands curled tightly at her sides, swearing vengeance against that wannabe hero Phantom.
firelily18: Well, I've already got up to chapter 23 written. XD;;; And I have, like, all day free to do nothing but write. orz ;; I'm glad you liked the chapter~ =)
DB-KT: *pats* XD He hacks without even knowing he's hacking. XD;;
Anon: True, true. XD;; But he's still going to be curious about it. Nooo~ Don't think about it~ D: *pets Danny*
Sammi: 8D Haha, I don't think Danny's looking forward to it.
jeanette9a: Well, Jazz is away at college, and Kwan can't think of why Danny's parents would do something like that, so the logical conclusion to him was Danny.
deadlyslumber: I like being able to update quickly. 8) Yay! I'm glad you're enjoying the idea of this story~ =)
maltese: Haha, yup. =) NetZone is basically the Ghost Zone but on the internet. XD;; Data is, like, the entire makeup of the NetZone. Everything is data and it can be transferred from program/virus to another program/virus. Or it can be stolen. It's information and coding. It be manipulated to craft "homes" and such. It can be corrupted. Data is their life but can be used like money. It has many uses within the NetZone. XD;; Aren't they off to a great start? XD Thanks! =) I'm glad it's logical and easy to accept. *pets Kwan* My poor, lovable teddy bear of a jock~ Haha, yeah. XD;; Danny was never great at the whole covering up with lies thing. XD;;