Chapter 16
He wasn't looking forward to this meeting, really didn't want to see his old college friends, and knew their son wouldn't want to see him. But with the house already towering over him with the large sign reading Fenton Works, which looked like a horrible eyesore but was so totally and utterly Jack that it hardly surprised him, Vlad decided it was too late to turn around now. He stood before the front door, hesitant about actually ringing the doorbell and alerting the family to his presence. On the rare few times that he dared to leave the NetZone, Vlad only dealt with reporters wanting an interview or speaking with his board and staff. Meeting with old friends, having casual conversations, became a completely foreign concept to him after all his years alone within the NetZone with only Cujo for company.
Taking a deep breath, Vlad lifted his hand and pressed a finger to the doorbell. He could hear the ring echoing in the house and part of him hoped that perhaps they wouldn't be home, but the big assault vehicle parked outside told him that they were presently within their home. He was already regretting that message as he folded his arms behind his back and waited for some member of the family to open the door. His dark blue eyes glared flatly at the door in front of him, and he prayed it wouldn't be Jack that arrived at the door first. His old friend and college roommate could be quite the handful for his boisterous enthusiasm. Back breaking enthusiasm at times.
"Hell-" The door promptly slammed shut before the one who answered it could even finish the greeting. Vlad stared blandly at the door with a slight pursing of his lips. The young man was certainly lacking in manners with that type of behavior. In half a moment, the door opened again to the familiar, and still lovely, face of Maddie Lan- Fenton. Vlad still cursed the fact that Jack managed to win Maddie's heart over him, but trying to woo her away from him would be a pointless venture.
"Vlad," Maddie greeted with a pleasant smile as she opened to door wider and stepped aside to allow him to enter her home.
"Lovely to see you as always, Maddie." With a false smile, Vlad entered the house, taking one of Maddie's hands in his own as he brought it to his mouth and placed a gentle kiss upon the back.
"Vladdie!"
Barely even a second after the shout, Vlad found himself swept into the large arms of his old college roommate. He cringed, swearing he heard pops along his back as Jack crushed him in the tight embrace. "Nice to see you too, Jack," he wheezed, struggling to breathe. When he was finally released, Vlad coughed a few times before regaining his composure.
"You should have told us you were dropping in today," Jack said with a pout on his face. "Oh! Let me show you our lab!" He stepped behind Vlad, dropping his larger hands onto the silver haired man's shoulders as he started directing his friend toward their laboratory.
"We'll have plenty of time for that." Vlad brushed Jack's hands off his shoulders. He had no intention of staying long enough to see what crazy contraptions his old friends were inventing now. "I didn't come here to talk shop after all." He turned around to face his old friends as he straightened his suit jacket. He turned his gaze to sweep about the house that he could see from the front hall. It looked very homey, having that average lived in feel of a normal family of the middle class. Vlad had a castle with fancy furnishings and Packers paraphernalia that now sat empty and unused after his confinement to the NetZone. He only maintained the castle in Wisconsin to keep up appearances since it would look strange if he didn't have a place of residency.
Then his gaze fell upon Jack and Maddie again. A thick arm wrapped around Maddie's waist, holding her close to the large body of her husband. Vlad bit his tongue as the bitterness of seeing them together rose up in the back of his throat like a foul taste. They just looked so - Vlad's hand clenched tightly at his sides - happy together. Why couldn't it have been him? The question filled his mind for years, wondering why he had to end up with this digital form, why he had to get caught up in that accident, why he had to lose out on finding love and happiness in his life. It was hardly fair, but he learned to swallow that bitter pill and forced himself to accept that life was never fair. Not for everyone, and apparently especially not for him.
"I am so sorry about the way our son reacted when he answered the door," Maddie apologized with a frown as she placed a hand to her face. "I don't know what got into him. He doesn't usually act rudely like that."
"It's quite all right." Vlad put on a charming smile for Maddie and found it easy to pretend to be polite if he thought of this as simply another business meeting instead of a visit with old friends. "Teenagers, if I recall correctly, don't always have the best of manners." His attempt to smooth things over didn't rid the woman of her frown.
"I'll go get him," Maddie announced before she headed up the stairs to the second floor. Vlad's gaze followed her until she disappeared, and he hoped Daniel wasn't stupid enough to do something like jump into the NetZone after seeing Vlad upon his doorstep. He hoped the young man had enough sense in him, but Daniel's past grades didn't leave Vlad with a lot of confidence, though they had improved since the beginning of the current school year.
"Well, Vladdie," Jack said, slinging his thick arm around Vlad as he guided his college roommate into the front room of the house. The decor made Vlad wrinkle his nose in distaste, but he kept his opinions to himself. "I," the larger man wore a frown on his face as they took a seat on the sofa, "hope there's no blood between us after all these years."
"Excuse me?" Vlad lifted one eyebrow at him, and the show of confusion wasn't completely false.
Jack sighed as he lifted a hand to rake through his raven locks that were turning white on the bottom half of his head. "I know you always kind of had a thing for Maddie in college, and I really never meant to betray you like that. But," he shrugged, turning a frown onto the man beside him, "you can't always stop your heart from feeling the way it does. I fell in love with her, and she fell in love with me. I hope you can forgive us."
No was what Vlad wanted to bite out bitterly, and he struggled not to curl his hands into fists or clench his teeth or glare furiously at Jack for stealing way the woman that he loved in college. As much as he tried to get over it, those feelings still remained, lingering inside him and twisting about his heart.
"I can't fault you for being the one she chose." But Vlad did! Some part of him would probably always blame Jack for his lost chance at winning Maddie's heart.
"Really now. I don't know what's gotten into you." Maddie's voice drifted down from the second floor as mother and son came down the stairs together with Maddie urging the young man forward.
All protests her son had went ignored. When they reached the front room, Daniel's gaze landed on Vlad, and he glared at the other digital being, looking clearly like he wanted to yell at him or shout out the truth about what Vlad was. Vlad smirked inwardly when Daniel remained silently fuming to himself.
"This is our son Danny," Maddie announced proudly, hugging an arm around her son, who wore a disgruntled look as she pressed the sides of their heads together.
"Sorry you can't meet Jazz." Jack frowned in his disappointment over that fact. "She's still away at college. But hey," he grinned widely as an idea came to him and slapped his large hand over Vlad's back, knocking the wind out of his old college friend, "maybe if you stay to visit for the Christmas holiday, you'll get to meet her."
"Yes," Vlad said stiffly, subtly putting a few inches of space between him and Jack, "that would be lovely."
"Right," Daniel said, giving Vlad a sideways glare as he turned to his mother. "Well, you all can have fun rehashing the old days, or whatever. I was planning on going to the game tonight."
"Football!" Jack shot up from the sofa as dread drained the color from Daniel's face. "What do you say, Vladdie? Want to go watch them play? Remember all those old football moves we used to have?"
No, Vlad thought with another rise of anger. Jack might have had football moves with the right solid build, but Vlad was much smaller in size and lacked that same overpowering strength to make him anything more than a good practice dummy for the team to tackle. He gritted his teeth at the memory of being slammed into the ground, repeatedly, when Jack tackled him. But he turned his attention onto Daniel, who looked like he was praying for some miracle to save him from the embarrassment of his parents showing up at the high school football game.
"I do enjoy a good game," Vlad said, smirking at the seething glare he received from Daniel, though he was impressed that Daniel managed to keep his eyes from shifting to the glowing green of his digital form with the rage clearly shown on his face. "It probably won't be as exciting at the Green Bay Packers games that I'm used to attending, but it should be charming in its own quaint way, I suppose."
"To assault vehicle!" Jack shouted gleefully as he pointed toward the front door, which only made his son look even more mortified. Then he turned toward his college friend, and his eager grin made Vlad feel somewhat wary. "You're going to love it! We've decked out with all our latest virus fighting weapons."
Vlad stood, feeling even more worried about stepping foot into that possible death trap. His gaze turned to Daniel as he wondered how terrified the young man was about all the potentially harmful weaponry in his home. By the time Vlad reached the front door, Jack and Maddie were already outside and climbing into the assault vehicle. Daniel blocked the open doorway, his bright blue eyes narrowing at him.
"I don't know what you're up to," Daniel said, trying to summon up what he probably thought to be his most threatening tone, but Vlad only stared down at him dully, "but after tonight, you leave and you don't come back. Ever."
Vlad snorted as he leaned down until his face was right before Daniel's, their eyes at the same level and their breaths mingling as they exhaled. "What do you think I'm doing here? Trying to steal your mother? Kill your father?" His mouth stretched wide over his face in a smirk when Daniel's anger faltered, fear inching into his eyes. Vlad laughed as he stood up straight. "How small minded." He folded his arms behind his back. "I wasn't going to bother following through with that message I sent them. That was simply a ruse."
"What?" Daniel blinked in puzzlement. A yip came from the watch upon the man's wrist, and Daniel lifted his arm, staring at it with equal confusion. After a click of a button, a holograph appeared over the watch, displaying the green puppy of Vlad's security program Cujo. The puppy barked happily, dancing about in a circle. Daniel snapped furious eyes onto Vlad. "You bugged me?" he demanded, managing not to shout at the other digital being. Jack and Maddie were out of ear shot, but they would probably be alerted to something being wrong if they heard their son shouting.
"I thought it wise to keep an eye on you." Vlad managed only a small sneer at the young man as he thought, Since you seem insistent on ignoring my warning. "And it seems I made the right choice after you broke into my company here."
"Your company-" Danny jerked, standing up a little straighter. "You own Axion Labs? I thought your company was Vlad Tech." He stared in complete bafflement over this new information.
Vlad sighed, almost tiredly at having to explain things to the young man. "I have several companies. My main and most known about company is, of course, Vlad Tech which deals in designing new operating systems and computers and protection for those computers and is located in Wisconsin. But I also have companies in several other states around the country, including Axion Labs here in Amity Park."
Daniel narrowed his eyes, the gears working in his head as he clicked a button on the watch to make the holograph of Cujo vanish. "Because you're obsessed with my mother?"
Vlad sniffed at him. "In the past, yes." He leaned toward Daniel. "But my reason for being here is because of you. I believe there's a young lady in your school by the name of Valerie Gray." He had no need to question it after having already looked into the Gray family after the incident that occurred last night at Axion Labs.
Daniel stepped up close to Vlad with a threatening glare in his blue eyes that hardly made the silver haired man flinch. "I might not be the best of friends with Valerie, but you keep away from her."
"I have no interest in the young lady." Vlad's mouth thinned as he watched Daniel's reaction. That temper of his could lead the young man into trouble if he wasn't careful. "But her father was head of security at Axion Labs."
A narrowing of eyes suggested Daniel was struggling to put it together. "What do you mean 'was?'"
"Naturally, he had to be let go. Fired," Vlad smirked, "in case that brain of yours can't understand such a simple idea."
"But it wasn't his fault," Daniel argued. "It was that virus."
Vlad took a deep breath before releasing it slowly. "Daniel, Mr. Gray was in charge of security. He created new security measures to protect against viruses attacking the company, and those new measures failed. Not only that, but because of your fight with that virus, millions of dollars worth of equipment was destroyed. Since he spearheaded this whole new security system, the blame for the incident falls on his shoulders."
"But that isn't fair!"
"Life, you'll come to find, Daniel, is not always fair." Vlad narrowed his eyes down at the young man, feeling bitterness at how unfair his own life seemed. "Do you see now how your silly heroics affect other people? You chase down the virus, destroy property in the process, and the humans left behind take the fall. Perhaps the consequences have never been of great concern to you, but now look what's happened. Your classmate's father is jobless. They'll probably have to sell their home. And it's all your fault."
"Okay. I get it." Anger burned in Daniel's blue eyes, his fists clenching tightly at his sides. "I'm sorry for wrecking your stuff. But would you rather I left that virus to mess around at your company?"
"Simply saying sorry doesn't solve everything." Though Vlad did admit he was partially thankful that Daniel chased off the virus from Axion Labs. "And apologizing certainly isn't going to help your classmate with this problem you've landed on her family."
"Then give Mr. Gray his job back," Daniel ordered like it was that simple.
Vlad stared flatly at the young man. "He failed at his job. It was your fault," a smirk tried to stretch across his face at the heated glare from Daniel, "but that doesn't excuse his failure. Now he must suffer the consequences of that failure."
"Can't he have, like, a second chance?" Daniel frowned, and Vlad could see this new knowledge was greatly affecting him. It tore the raven haired man up inside to realize that he cost someone their job with his actions, and that was what Vlad hoped to accomplish with this conversation.
"I suppose he could return at a much lower paying job. A night guard, perhaps." Up until this incident, Mr. Gray did fairly good work at his job as head of security for Axion Labs. Vlad didn't exactly wish to go through the process of hiring someone new to fill his place because of one little slip up, but he couldn't simply allow Mr. Gray to return as head of security after the incident. "But he would probably still have to make some major adjustments to his life. His pay would be far lower than what he was used to."
Daniel scowled, his mouth opening to snap back at the older man when a honk interrupted their conversation. They both turned to see Jack waving his large hand out the driver's side window at them to hurry up. Vlad passed by the young man without a second glance as he made his way toward that dreadful looking contraption.
swagdanny: It's... It's trying to get there! D8 Vlad and Danny are just being stubborn and difficult. orz *sobs*
Sammi: Danny always seems to get in trouble with Valerie, doesn't he? orz
midnight: I'm glad you liked the chapters. =) *whispers* The Huntress will rise~
DB-KT: XD Haha! You should know who did it~ But shh! It's secret!
Anon: Does it seem sudden? Valerie's completely in the dark about it, though Paulina and Kwan both know. Dash's dad? At Axion Labs? I don't believe so.