Chapter 34

Vlad frowned at the information displayed on the screen before him. It took him sometime to unravel the data that made up that scrap of coding he pulled from Daniel's injury. It was complex, and nothing that a human could have developed. Not a normal human anyway. It was too much like something that only a virus could create, a sophisticated coding and something that Vlad feared in the back of his mind would come about after the viruses learned the ability to hop from the NetZone into the real world. It was a trap placed on Daniel in the attack. But to what purpose?

Vlad traced the virus coding back as far as he could, and the result that glared at him from the screen left an unsettling feeling inside him. Were they truly that mad? Turning away from the screen, he began pacing before the desk in his domain. His mind ran over it again and again, trying to understand the purpose. The obvious answer, of course, always came right back to Phantom. Vlad sighed as he paused and ran a hand over his face. That was the problem with making a name for himself, becoming too big, too known. In this world, where digital beings are only seen as viruses, since programs never had the interest of attempting to leave the NetZone, Phantom could only be considered another virus that should be erased.

"This shouldn't be the life for him," Vlad mumbled tiredly as he closed the screen, growing sick of staring at the data that refused to change and give him another answer. "He should be allowed to be a carefree teenager like the rest." At the soft mew, he lowered his gaze to the white cat sitting before him on the desk. A smile tugged at his mouth as Vlad reached down and scratched her behind the ears, gaining a purr from the attention.

This wasn't the life he imagined for himself either, but it was what life dealt for him. He could rage against it all he liked, scream to the sky about the unfairness of being prisoner to the NetZone, but it would get him nowhere. Life was what it was, and he simply had to accept it. Life in the NetZone wasn't all that bad though. He could do things that normal humans could only dream of being able to do. It wasn't a full life, but at least it wasn't death. It felt like death sometimes to him over the last twenty-four years of living alone in his domain.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Vlad stared at the firewall as the knock echoed through the emptiness of his domain. His latest security program didn't react to the presence of someone outside the firewall, which meant that it could only be one person coming to visit him. There was only one person that would visit him anyway, a fact that made him frown.

Sighing, Vlad walked over to the firewall and opened a doorway to allow the other into his home on the NetZone. The small green form of Cujo bounded happily into his domain, and thankfully, the dog didn't immediately go chasing after the cat program. His prior warning apparently took root inside them and stopped them from behaving like their living counterparts. Daniel kept his green eyes averted as he remained standing awkwardly outside the firewall.

"Well, this is a small improvement," Vlad said, folding his arms behind his back as he stared down at the snow white haired digital being. "You actually managed to knock this time. But still can't say a simple hello?" He stepped aside to allow the young man to enter.

"This-" Daniel closed his eyes, clenched his gloved hands, and took a breath before releasing it in a sigh. "This isn't exactly easy for me." He hesitated before stepping through the firewall, which sealed seamlessly behind him. A frown pulled down at the corners of his mouth as he landed his gaze upon Vlad. "We didn't get off to a very good start, and I know, in a large part, I'm to blame for that."

"I see you've picked up some manners." Vlad could see the young man was struggling with his words, but the dig came out far too easily for him. Since their first encounter, kind words were few and far between for them. It was a sad day for him when his security program had to snap him out of a downward spiral into acting like a five year old.

Daniel narrowed his eyes as he frowned. "Do you have to be such a je-" He snapped his mouth shut, taking several deep breaths through flared nostrils before he could speak again with less rage in his voice. "I'm trying to apologize," he said in a strained tone. "I didn't handle things all that well, and I was," he rolled his eyes upward as he huffed out a breath, "pretty much a little brat with the way I acted."

"Indeed, you were," Vlad agreed, his eyebrows lifting in mild surprised that the young man was able to admit it.

Annoyance flashed in the green eyes, and Daniel's jaw set tightly. "I wasn't looking at things from your perspective. But you also have to understand that having something like that said to me - Well, anyone wouldn't want to be told that they're dying. I got angry. I'm sorry for that. But you have to understand what I was feeling."

"I do understand what you felt," Vlad snapped, his hand squeezing around the other wrist as he clenched his teeth. Anger washed through him as he listened to Daniel's poor attempt at an apology. "Or did you think it was a bed of roses for me when I found out the truth? Do you think it was all sunshine and lollipops while I lay there in the hospital slowly wasting away with no hope of being saved until I jumped back into the NetZone? I was furious, Daniel! I was angry for a very long time."

"I know!" Daniel sighed, pressing the palms of his hands into his eyes. "I know," he repeated in a softer tone as he lowered his arms. "And I was being self centered by not pausing even once to think about how you felt. I was a selfish, spoiled brat only thinking about myself. I don't like having to accept that part as truth."

Conflict raged in Daniel's eyes, and it gave Vlad pause to watch the struggle for acceptance. "Something happened," he said, realizing it as he stared at Daniel, brow drawing together and mouth frowning.

Daniel shifted awkwardly as he looked away. "There have been quite a few attacks at the high school recently," he explained, and the news only made Vlad more concerned with what he discovered. "My parents barged in, declaring a level nine virus contamination, and they used an EMP to shut down everything electronic."

That sounded like a natural course of action. Vlad could understand their reasoning, though it was a bit extreme without taking the proper course of action beforehand, like evacuating everyone from the area first. If a live virus was operating in the high school, they could track it down and the virus would be unable to escape after the EMP nullified their movements. But as he stared at Daniel, Vlad realized the significance of what he was trying to say.

"It shut you down as well." Vlad didn't even need to question it, and he saw the way Daniel tensed up after hearing Vlad's words. A grim look flitted across his face. That was certainly a big jolt that was sure to wake the young man out of his selfish rage and see the truth of things. Vlad hated that it had to come about through such a hard lesson. But another thought crossed his mind, and he frowned more darkly. "How did you escape that unnoticed?" Because a teenager suddenly collapsing at the exact moment an EMP went off was bound to draw suspicion, especially if, as Vlad suspected, that teenager showed no vital signs when checked.

The look in Daniel's eyes spoke volumes, and Vlad's mouth dropped open, unable to find the words to scream at him for being so stupid as to get caught, to have his secret exposed to anyone. Did Daniel not understand the seriousness of the situation? Did he not understand the threat it posed to both of them to have someone find out what they were? Could he not fathom the danger of letting his parents and the Guys in White discover that something like them existed?

"I know this looks bad," Daniel said, holding up his arms before him and probably not understanding the severe understatement of that comment. "But I trust him to keep this secret. I knew after the EMP that it would probably be wise to come and talk to you, but Lancer encouraged me to come here. He helped me escape when the Guys in White agent was seconds away from finding me in his office. He's a good guy. He's not going to tell anyone."

"You'll have to forgive me if I don't share your faith in him," Vlad said dryly.

"I don't expect you to."

"But how exactly did you manage to escape?" Vlad eyed the young man with great curiosity. "The EMP should have kept you paralyzed for quite some time, and unless this Lancer person crammed you in a closet for the duration, I don't see how you could have gotten away."

"That was another thing I wanted to discuss with you." Daniel rubbed awkwardly at the back of his neck. "See, um. I don't really know what happened. I felt like I was back in the under level when that EMP knocked me out. Then just, this surge of electricity went through me, and I broke through the, uh, stasis, I guess you could call it."

"Interesting," Vlad murmured, placing a hand to his chin in thought over that curious tidbit. "The accident altered your biological makeup and made you mostly a digital being." Daniel's glare showed that he still didn't want to accept the fate awaiting him. "But you're not an average program or virus. Your humanity makes you unique. The digital entities of the NetZone can mimic the human form, but they would never be able to overcome an EMP. That's something that only you would be capable of doing."

"And you," Daniel returned seriously.

Vlad blinked in surprise to realize he no longer thought of himself as human in any way, shape, or form. He engrossed himself so much into the digital world of the NetZone that he tended to think his own humanity lost for good. "Yes," he agreed with barely a smile.

"There's still something else I should probably talk to you about." The awkwardness returned as Daniel shifted his weight. "It's about why I came here last time."

"Ah, yes, young Miss Gray." Vlad nodded, a smirk creeping onto his face as Daniel gaped in surprise. He walked over to the desk where the virus data remained contained. "I'm sure you recognize what this is."

Daniel stumbled briefly on his way over to the desk, and Vlad sighed inwardly at his clumsiness. "That's," he said, blinking bright green eyes at the marble sized bit of data that continued to give off the whitish green sparks, "what you pulled out of my injury." He touched a gloved hand to his left eye like the scar remained there after the virus attack.

"I've been analyzing the data from it." Vlad frowned at the sparks dancing over the bit of coding. "The virus that created this intentionally made certain that you would become a carrier for this particular," he hesitated, "virus, for lack of a better term."

"What do you mean by that?" Daniel's brow naturally pinched in his confusion.

"It means that those attacks at the high school weren't simply about you." Vlad placed a finger to Daniel's lips, silencing him before he could interrupt with another question. "Miss Gray was the perfect target for this plan. She already had cause to hate Phantom after seeing you at Axion Labs before you could hop back into the NetZone. I've seen the security feeds from that night, though your opponent only appeared as some shadowy spider like creature."

Daniel grabbed hold of Vlad's wrist and yanked the hand away from his mouth. "I didn't get a very good look at it while it was throwing me around like a ragdoll, but it was definitely not one I've ever met until now."

"Naturally, it was only recently created, though I don't think it's creators meant for it do all of this." That was a fact that disturbed Vlad. People didn't think too much about how their programs, their viruses, could evolve once unleashed into the NetZone. "That attack at the football game only served to help further Miss Gray's dislike for Phantom. Clearly since she felt it necessary to knock you out when you were trying to protect her."

"Yeah," Daniel said as he rubbed at the back of his head like he was remembering how much that hurt. "But why go through all of this? Why make Valerie hate me?"

"To use her as a pawn." Vlad sighed at Daniel's puzzled scrunching of his face. "This," he pointed at the marble of data, "was all intended to provide Miss Gray with weaponry for her to use against viruses, specifically you. The whole point is to distract you with fighting a human instead of concentrating on the viruses."

"But I don't want to fight Valerie!"

"Naturally not. But the virus doesn't know of your humanity. It thinks you're just some random program with the strange coding to fight against viruses though much different from the usual security programs." Vlad leaned against the desk as he folded his arms. "And I doubt Miss Gray will care if you don't want to fight her."

"No kidding," Daniel muttered then sighed. "She's completely out for blood, and I don't think she'll listen if I try to explain anything to her."

"Of course. She sees you as an enemy. Much like the Guys in White and your parents only see Phantom as another virus." Vlad paused, wincing internally when he saw the flash of pain wash through Daniel's eyes. "I only mean-"

"No," Daniel stopped him, raising a hand. "It's fine. I hear it from my parents often enough at home." He frowned miserably with his eyes lowered. That look actually made Vlad's heart hurt, only able to imagine how much it pained Daniel to hear those words directly from his parents. "You mentioned something about the virus' creators," Daniel said, shifting the conversation away from that uncomfortable topic. "What were they intending to achieve with this virus?"

Vlad stared at the young man for a brief moment, lost in his thoughts before returning to the more important topic. "The Guys in White, I'm certain, expected the virus to merely target you and acquire you so that they could perform their research on you."

Daniel nodded until it hit him. His wide eyes snapped toward Vlad as his mouth worked open and shut, too shocked to speak at first. "The Guys in White?" he questioned with a slight crack in his voice. "They created this thing just to come after me?"

"There's a price to pay with fame, Daniel. Especially when your image is seen in a bad light by those with the capability to do something about you."

"So what happened?" Daniel inquired, looking rather distraught over this news. "Clearly, the Guys in White never intended to get a human involved in this. And certainly wouldn't want her ending up with that suit thing she has now."

"It escaped." Vlad sighed, shaking his head at the organization for their continued ineptitude. "They've kept it very hush hush. Only the top level agents know anything about it, and of course, the people that designed it. It would be quite embarrassing for the public to learn that the Guys in White accidentally let this virus out into the NetZone. Once it escaped from them, it started to evolve." His mouth thinned, liking that fact less and less.

"And the suit?" Daniel cringed back with worry. "Will it harm Valerie?"

"From what I've decoded from this," Vlad pointed to the scrap of virus data, "the suit merely coats her with data, giving her the ability to control it and produce weapons to fight against viruses and protects her should she enter the NetZone somehow. It doesn't look like it will cause her any long term damage, but I still think it wise if we figure out a way to remove it from her. While it looks harmless, that doesn't necessarily mean it is harmless. If the suit were to evolve in some manner-"

"Got it," Daniel cut off the explanation. "Best scenario: eliminate her suit." He nodded sharply in determination. Hesitation surfaced as he glanced away. "Um, there was another reason to come visit you."

Vlad waited patiently, having suspected something of that nature.

"Do you think," Daniel chewed on his lip, scratching absently behind one ear, "you could train me? Valerie's really good at karate, and after our last fight, I clearly need to learn how to fight better. Especially shields, since I can't seem to get those to be strong enough to protect myself. Oh, and that healing thing! Because that would really come in handy."

An amused smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. "Daniel, you only ever had to ask."

swagdanny: XD It's okay~ Yes! I like the idea that by senior year, they've matured and start getting along with the trio. Well, Paulina, Kwan, and Dash. XD;;; I imagine there's some of the A list that would still be jerks.

Sammi: Woo Danny knows~ XD;; *pets Dash* Poor guy not having his feelings returned.

DB-KT: Yush! Training and bonding time for them! 8D Yay~ That's good that computer is okay!

midnight: Haha, well, Danny has had other things on his mind. XD;;; But yeah, he's pretty dense when it comes to someone liking him.

Silluevenperrosygatos: Yay Paulina is liked! 8D Yes~ Lancer is all around awesome. I love him! =) I still think it would have been so awesome to have him find out in the show about Danny. Impending doom~ XD He'll make it through somehow. There is indeed a Paulina PoV coming up. =) Aw, thanks~ X3 I'm happy to hear that! I might have a problem with putting Danny in a dress. XD This certainly isn't the first time it's happened to him in my stories. Danny's face will probably be a permanent red by the end of the week.

DARKLOVEFORFANFICTION123: Thanks! =) I'm glad people are liking the way I write Paulina.