Chapter 27
"You look," Tucker paused as he searched for the right word to describe his friend's haggard appearance, "tired." He winced, knowing tired was very much the understatement. Danny's raven hair stood up at odd angles like he was too rushed that morning to even run a brush through his hair. Bags were under his blue eyes like he was getting even less sleep than usual. Tucker frowned, growing more worried about his friend. He was pretty tired himself from late nights studying and finishing off homework, but from the way his friend looked, Tucker would almost think that Danny had ten times the amount of homework.
"Just a lot on my mind," Danny mumbled then sighed in exhaustion. Whatever was on his friend's mind was clearly troubling him.
"Anything I can help with?" Tucker opened his locker to grab the textbooks that he would need for homework that night. He groaned internally as he remembered that he needed to study for a German test tomorrow and work on a sewing project for class that was due tomorrow. Thanks to Sam's prodding, Tucker spent far too much of his time trying to unravel the mystery of Phantom's coding. She was helping him with notes for reviewing later when he did his homework, which was good, but the decoding was taking longer than he expected. Even with his expertise, the Phantom coding made little sense.
Danny shook his head as he searched through his own locker for what he needed for his homework. "Just that thing with my parents' old friend," he mumbled before he turned his head and glanced over his shoulder.
At the expression on Danny's face, the almost guilt in his eyes, Tucker followed his friend's gaze to see that Danny was staring at Valerie walking alone down the hall. Frowning, he gave his friend a shove in the shoulder, not too hard. "Dude!" he complained as Danny turned his head back around to give his friend a confused look. "You know I like her."
Danny blinked then laughed as some life seemed to return to his eyes, which Tucker sighed in relief to see. "I'm not interested in Valerie like that. She's all yours." Ribbing his friend, Danny chuckled. "If she'll fall for those lame pickup lines you always use. Dude, I'm telling you, you should just act like yourself. Stop trying to use those dumb lines and just talk to her like a normal person. Oh, and try not to point out that she's now a loser like us. She'll probably punch you in the face for that."
"Ha ha," Tucker grumbled, glowering at his friend. "And I should take your advice on getting a girlfriend, why?" He lifted an eyebrow at his friend with skepticism in his green eyes. "You aren't exactly Mr. Suave with the ladies." A smirk slipped onto his face. "So when are you making your move on Sam?"
It didn't surprise Tucker to see the rosy color tingeing Danny's cheeks at the question. Luckily for the pair, Sam was delayed in joining them for getting into an argument with the A list during gym and got caught by Tetslaff while holding Star pinned to the gym floor and practically seconds from ripping a large chunk of blonde hair from the woman's head. She refused to tell them what started the argument or how it escalated to hair pulling at lunch, but now she had detention for two weeks. Tucker wondered what could possibly have set his friend off, though with the In crowd, it could have simply been a look that incited her wrath.
"There's nothing between Sam and me," Danny argued, shoving books into his bag before he closed his locker. "Sure. We may have thought about it. But come on. Our friendship is too important to ruin it. And," he shrugged, "I'm not interested in her like that anymore."
Tucker gawked as his friend, blinking a few times in his surprise. He could have sworn his two friends were still harboring feelings for each other. They never were good at hiding it, and they continued to blush whenever it came up or someone referred to them as lovebirds. Tucker scratched at his head in confusion over this new bit of information.
"Well, if you don't like Sam, who do you like?" Since he always thought his friends were going to eventually hook up, Tucker never really thought about questioning Danny about his crushes. He was a hundred percent certain that he would have to listen to Danny rambling on about his secret love for Sam if he ever did ask.
Danny slung his bag over his shoulder as he shrugged. "No one, I guess."
"Dude, seriously?" Tucker's mouth hung open wide in shock. "There's no girl in school you like? Not even Paulina?"
All the men in school had some kind of crush on Paulina. Tucker even still had a lingering crush on her, as silly as it was, but he knew it was hopeless for him, a techno geek loser, to even consider possibly dating the most beautiful woman in school. And he knew that crush was completely superficial while his interest in Valerie was based on real feelings, though up until recently she was out of his reach. Now that they were in the same loser social circle, Tucker thought he stood a better chance of at least catching her eye.
Danny sighed tiredly at the question. "Nope. None."
Tucker stared at his friend, green eyes bulging slightly at that admission. Danny had no interest in any of the women at their school? How was that even possible? Frowning, Tucker glanced around briefly before stepping in close to his friend. In a lower voice, he asked, "A guy then?"
"What? No!" Danny jerked back a step, shocked by the question, his face scrunching up at the suggestion.
"Hey, there's nothing wrong with it if you do." Tucker shrugged. "I mean, it won't change anything. We'll still be best buds." He wore his usual goofy grin, hoping Danny would know it was the truth. If Danny turned out to be gay, Tucker wouldn't abandoned him. They were bros for life, no matter what.
"I'm not-" Danny sighed and shook his head. "I've never really given that much thought." He raked a hand through his hair, frowning as the idea of homosexuality seemed to sink in for him. "But I don't really have the time to think about dating."
"I know we have a lot of homework, but surely that shouldn't stop you from at least looking." Tucker frowned again at that tired expression on his friend's face. "And you should be able to break away from studying to go on a date over the weekend at least."
"It's not just homework." Danny didn't look like he would give any further explanation, and the growl coming from his wrist interrupted anything more they would have said.
"Did you watch just growl?" Tucker asked, frowning and pointing at his friend's wrist.
"Yeah," Danny mumbled as he glanced down at the watch. "Uh, weird thing my dad invented." He shrugged, like it was the usual thing, and for his family, it generally was. "I better get going." He waved the hand with the watch. "Chores and stuff to do before homework. I'll catch you later." Danny darted down the hall before his friend could say anything.
Tucker sighed as he watched his friend disappear down the hall in the fading crowd of students. With Sam stuck in detention and Danny running off home, he had nothing to do with his afternoon. He was looking forward to their usual trip to the Nasty Burger, but that was out now, which left him with the choices of waiting around in the high school for Sam to get out of detention or walking home.
Adjusting the book bag over his shoulder, Tucker dug into his pocket and pulled out his PDA. He tapped at the screen as he walked leisurely toward the exit of the school. The coding continued to puzzle him, baffling him by its impossible structure. It didn't look like any other coding he had ever seen, virus or program. Tucker's brow pinched as he studied the information on the screen of his PDA.
A noise made him lift his head. Wrinkles appeared over his brow as he tried to discern the whining noise and skittering scratching. Turning his head, Tucker barely had time to scramble out of the way before a burst of pink energy slammed into the spidery virus racing down the hall. The virus banged into the lockers, denting the metal, right where Tucker stood only moments before the impact.
Tucker swiveled his head around quickly to stare at the woman dressed in a black and red suit. The helmet she wore hid her face behind a dark mask. The red circuitry design over the black of her suit formed a triangle in the center of her chest. Tucker stumbled away as she approached a gun within her hand and aimed at the spider struggling to get back onto its eight spiny legs. He gulped, clutching his PDA to his chest as he watched her fire her weapon. The shot pierced through the spider, clear liquid oozing from its body as it slumped unmoving to the ground. Was there another rogue program out there like Phantom hunting viruses?
"I suggest you get out of here," the female program said, her voice sounding strange through the helmet. She didn't take her gaze away from the lifeless virus. "Before you end up getting hurt."
Her gun snapped toward Tucker, who with a startled shout tripped over his feet and landed on his butt. He flinched as the firearm discharged another shot. At the thump, his green eyes cracked open to see another spider virus, twitching its legs, right in front of him. A beeping drew his gaze back up to the woman, who twisted around to stare down the hall.
"Finally showing your face, Phantom." She smirked. Tucker didn't need to see behind the dark visor to know the woman was smirking. "Your time is running short." She took off down the hall, ignoring Tucker's presence in her rush to chase down her prey.
Tucker watched her go, heart still hammering in his chest over the encounter. He was never up close and personal with a virus fight like that. Even at the football game where he and Sam had to be saved by the jocks, he was still far removed from the actual battle. He didn't have a gun pointed directly at his head at almost point blank range. Swallowing thickly, he dropped his gaze to the twitching spider. Her words rang out in his head. "Your time is running short." He snapped his head around toward where she ran off, and panic surged through him. She was going to try to kill Phantom!
Shooting to his feet, barely even noticing the way the spider viruses seemed to be inching closer to each other, Tucker raced down the hall, praying he could reach them in time to do something, anything, to keep the strange female virus from killing Phantom.
It wasn't hard to find them. Not with the sound of a body slamming into the lockers with a clanging rattle of the doors. Tucker rounded the corner to see Phantom struggling to his feet, a nasty burn seared through his clothing, showing bruised and reddened skin beneath it on his left side. The female virus held her gun pointed in his direction, already firing another shot. Phantom dodged, the pink burst missing him to scorch the metal of the lockers. Launching toward her, Phantom darted, zigzagging to avoid being hit again. When he reached her, his fist raised high, ready to dropped it down in a hard blow, but the female caught it, twisting swiftly and utilizing his own strength against him as she threw him over her shoulder, down the hall, much like a karate move Tucker recalled from a number of different movies in that genre that he loved to watch.
She approached him slowly, stalking Phantom down the hall like a lion preparing to pounce on an unsuspecting gazelle. Tucker needed to do something before she could hurt Phantom. But what could he do? He wasn't like Danny's parents. He didn't have weapons that he could use to fight against viruses within the real world. He wished he did, but he was powerless in this situation. It was the first thing to come to his mind. He screamed.
When both Phantom and the virus turned to him, Tucker pointed a hand down the hall with a fearful expression. "There's a virus attacking some poor nerd in the library!"
The female virus turned back to Phantom, staring at him for a moment like she was debating what to do. "You just dodged a bullet." Then she rushed off down the hall in pursuit of the virus that was harming an innocent person.
Tucker waited for her to leave before rushing over to Phantom, who stood with a hand held to his waist. "That looks pretty bad." He winced at what he could see of the wound.
"You lied." It wasn't a question. Phantom spotted the lie to drive off the woman right away, but it was a huge gamble. The virus might have decided that killing off Phantom was more important than saving a human. Why should a virus care about a human anyway? Tucker was surprised by the relief that showed in Phantom's eerily glowing green eyes.
His form turned blocky, becoming fuzzy like a glitch, and panic flashed over Phantom's face. Spinning on his feet, the program tried to run away, escape from the human, but Tucker refused to let him get away. He grabbed hold of the program, seizing Phantom around the waist and tackling him to the ground. Phantom grunted under him and struggled to crawl his way out from under the human, but it was too late. The blocky appearance dispersed, leaving behind not the white haired program that Tucker expected to see but a raven haired man.
"Danny?" Tucker questioned, his voice barely above a shocked whisper.
"I can explain this," Danny said quickly.
"Really?"
"Okay. No." Danny sighed, dropping his head to bang on the tiled floor.
"How? When? What?" Tucker tried to form a complete thought, but he couldn't seem to think straight after seeing Phantom transform into his friend.
"Before explanations, can you get off me?"
"Oh. Sorry." Tucker flushed in embarrassment as he climbed off his friend. He stuck out a hand to help Danny back to his feet. Seeing the wince, Tucker frowned as his gaze dropped to his friend's left side where he could see a bit of red staining through his shirt. It hit him hard, and he gasped out loud like being punched by one of the jocks. "Oh god," he breathed out. "She was going to kill you. She was going to kill my best friend!" He grabbed hold of Danny, yanking him into a crushing embraced as that fact spun through his head. If he hadn't done something, his friend could have been killed.
"Just a little banged up," Danny said with a weak laugh as he patted Tucker on the back. "I'll live."
"No, Danny!" Tucker snapped firmly as he pulled back, gripping his friend by the upper arms and giving him a sharp shake. "She killed those spidery viruses earlier. Right. In. Front. Of. Me." His green eyes burned into the surprised blue eyes of his friend. "She said it. She said your time was running short. She's seriously out for blood."
"Oh man." Danny's fingers threaded through his hair as he dropped his gaze, the realization hitting him as hard as it hit Tucker. "She didn't seem to like me, but I didn't realize she would actually want to kill Phantom. I still don't even know how Valerie got that suit."
"Valerie?" Tucker shouted, wondering how many more shocks his system could take.
Danny nodded with a frown, his brow pinching in thought. "The other day during lunch, viruses attacked, and she got mixed up in things. I tried to get her away to some place safe, and we just," he shrugged, uncertainty in his eyes, "popped into the NetZone. Now she has that crazy suit thing and has been showing up any time viruses do, but more importantly whenever Phantom shows up."
"Dude, you've really got to be careful then." Tucker felt shaky. He really needed to sit down before his legs turned completely to jelly and he simply collapsed. "You know she basically had a black belt in karate before high school started, right?"
"Well, that would explain that throw she did." Danny paled at the mention of Valerie's skill in martial arts.
Tucker dropped his gaze to Danny's left side again, not liking the growing red spots. "We should get that looked at." He took Danny's hand, leading him down the hall toward the nurse's office as his friend merely nodded in response, holding his other hand pressed to his injury. At least it wouldn't be too unbelievable to blame the wound on a virus attack. "How did you even end up as Phantom?" Tucker turned to stare at his friend, baffled by that fact.
"You know that crazy invention my parents spent practically all my life building?" After Tucker nodded, Danny took a deep breath before continuing. "Well, they tested it, right before freshmen year, but it didn't work. I was stupid and just peeked inside it." He cringed, pain lacing his expression. "Somehow, I got it working, and I ended up with this ability to turn digital."
"Is that what happened with Valerie? Is she the same as you now?"
Danny shook his head with an uncertain frown. "I don't think so. I mean - I don't know. I'm not sure what this makes her."
They were close to the nurse's office now, and Tucker knew he had little time to ask questions before they entered. "Why didn't you ever just tell us? We could have helped, you know."
"I do know." Danny sighed tiredly at Tucker's confusion. "I didn't want you getting dragged into this, getting hurt. You're my friends. I want to protect you."
"And you're our friend. We want to protect you too." Tucker grinned at his friend, and Danny managed a smile in return. "Oh man! Sam is going to flip when she finds out." He laughed, already imagining her face. But when he thought about their earlier conversation, Tucker glanced at Danny. Sam clearly still had some lingering feelings toward Danny, and she seemed to have somewhat of a crush on Phantom. Learning that they were one in the same, Tucker wondered how that would go over with the Goth.
"No," Danny stated firmly as he shook his head. "You know she'll just go all in on the whole idea of fighting viruses with me."
"She already wants to meet with Phantom to give him your parents' inventions." Tucker frowned down at his PDA. "She's already pushing me into trying to figure out a way to keep tabs on Phantom's location."
Danny snatched the PDA from his friend's hand, ignoring the protest. After a few taps on the screen, he handed it back. "Oops, all that data about Phantom got eaten by a virus."
Tucker pouted as they reached the nurse's office. "I was still trying to figure out that coding!"
swagdanny: 8D Can't resist throwing in a little Dash love.
DARKLOVEFORFANFICTION123: Haha. XD Danny should try to listen to advice people give him. Maybe Kwan does~ =) *keeps it secret*
Just Will: Kind of makes her come off as pretty self-centered, huh? orz They probably could have done a lot more with her character as she lost some of her anger after realizing Phantom isn't her enemy and that Vlad's been lying to her/using her the whole time. It would have been cool to see if she decided to team up with Phantom to help fight off the real evil ghosts or something. Haha, yeah. XD Vlad could alter his appearance to look any age, but kind of figures why bother while living in the NetZone so he just doesn't age himself. They're making it seem very difficult that they'll ever get together, doesn't it? *stares at them* XD Kwan and Tucker probably would have figured it all out a lot sooner if they worked together. Dash will find someone! Maybe. orz Haha, yeah. This, uh, exploded again. D8 I didn't think it would end up this long, but then things just kept happening. orz Why do my stories keep doing this?
Sammi: XD I'm glad you liked it! =)
midnight: *pinches Dash's cheeks* It's so adorable~ XD
maltese: All the drama~ XD Now if only they would all start being more honest with their feelings!