Chapter 40

After taking a break from his homework to hang out with his friends at the Nasty Burger for a quick lunch, Danny headed back to his house. He still had a few assignments left to finish, but he felt pretty confident that they could be done rather quickly, which was why they were shoved to the bottom of his homework to do list. He decided after the movie yesterday to focus on the homework that would take him the longest to finish, that being his math assignment which always felt like a nightmare to him. It still took him quite some time to complete all the problems, but remembering his lesson with Vlad the prior day, Danny actually felt somewhat confident as he puzzled at the answers.

Closing the door behind him, Danny started to head up the stairs again to his room when he heard voices from the front room. He walked to the doorway and blinked in surprise to find Vlad sitting on the couch with his father. His parents came home late last night, neither one in a good mood after being denied permission to close the school down in the search for viruses. Beyond the destruction done to the football field, those spider viruses that kept popping up all over the high school weren't doing anything harmful. At least, not that the mayor knew about. The mayor didn't want to shut down the school unless students were in real physical danger. Apparently the soonest the mayor would allow his parents access to the school was over the winter break when students and faculty wouldn't be in the building.

"Danny, my boy!" Jack grinned widely when he spotted his son standing in the doorway to the front room. "You remember my good old buddy Vladdie." He patted the other man on the back, nearly knocking Vlad over with the force of it. His father never seemed to realize just how strong he was and tended to put more strength into something than he should. His hugs could feel deadly when his crushing arms felt like they would rupture internal organs or shatter bones.

Vlad coughed as he sat up straight, smoothing out his suit. "We were just having a nice little chat about you."

Danny's mouth parted as he stared in disbelief at the silver haired man. Why was Vlad speaking to his father about him? He eyed the man nervously. "It's a shame you got called away on business last time."

"Well, it was important business so you'll have to forgive me," Vlad said, easily playing the part of a man meeting his old college friend's son for the second time. It was almost scary, in a way, how the man could easily slip on the masks and act out a role, making Danny wonder if the man was ever involved in theater before the accident that left him with digital powers.

"You should stay for dinner!" Jack grinned proudly at his suggestion.

"I'm afraid this was just a quick visit, Jack," Vlad said as he stood. "I'm quite a busy man, and I must get back to tending to the details of a new project." His dark blue eyes slid toward Danny, who realized the man's "new project" was training him.

"Yeah, and I've got a lot of homework I still have to finish," Danny said, backing out of the front room. It was only a small lie since the rest of his homework could be done fairly quickly.

"But, V-man!" Jack frowned, almost pouting over the fact that his friend was going to leave.

"Jack, dear," Maddie said as she entered the front room from the kitchen entrance. She wore a frown, holding the Data Deleter in her hands. Danny unconsciously shuddered when he saw it, recalling how much it hurt to be shot with that weapon. "Were you messing around in the lab earlier?" The Data Delete was held up like it was proof to his misdeeds, and she was waiting for him to confess to his crimes.

"No. Why?" Jack looked genuinely baffled by her inquiry, and nervousness bubbled up inside Danny. It probably would have been wise to check on everything in the laboratory before he left for the movies yesterday with Tucker and Sam, but at the time, Danny was far more concerned with getting Sam out of the house and convincing her that he didn't need to go to the hospital after being shot by the Data Deleter. He still had an ugly round red mark in the center of his chest, but the aching, thankfully, lessened since yesterday.

"I was just down there," Maddie explained, giving the weapon in her hands a suspicious look, "and the Data Deleter wasn't on the stand like it was supposed to be. And," her expression turned severe as she adjusted her hold on the weapon, displaying the damage done to it for those in the room to see, "it wasn't like this before we left yesterday." Her violet eyes turned sharply toward her son, and Danny jerked back a step.

"I went out with Tuck and Sam yesterday," Danny said as it was the only part that wasn't a completely lie. "And when I got back, I headed up to my room to do homework." He could see Vlad out of the corner of his eye. The man wore half a smirk, and Danny suspected Vlad guessed that he was lying through omission of facts.

Maddie frowned, puzzling over the mystery of the damaged weapon. "I don't think we have the specific parts to fix the damage."

"To the store!" Jack shouted with enthusiasm as he rose to his feet with one arm lifted above his head and a finger pointed at the ceiling. His expression fell, and he glanced toward Vlad. "Uh, about dinner-"

"Quite all right, Jack." Vlad shook his head with a smile to show no hard feelings. "I should be heading out now anyway."

"Then to the RV!" The enthusiasm returned swiftly as Jack grabbed his wife by the arm and led her toward the front door. Vlad walked to the door with them and followed them outside.

Moving to sit on the bottom step, Danny leaned back against the stairs with his blue eyes trained on the front door. He heard the RV's engine rev up, a loud rumbling noise that usually bugged the neighbors. The sound faded into the distance as his parents drove away, and moments after he couldn't hear the RV anymore, the front door opened again. Vlad stepped into the house, and there was no reason to question why he was visiting Fenton Works.

"You could have just messaged me if you wanted to schedule more training," Danny said as he stood.

"You think I don't occasionally miss getting to speak with old friends?" Vlad questioned, frowning with a dry stare.

"You could have contacted them at any point," Danny snapped back before biting his tongue. His eyes lowered, drifting to one side, as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I just mean that my parents would have been happy just getting a simply letter from you over the years."

"I wasn't in the best frame of mind to be speaking with them." Vlad's voice was strained as he spoke.

Danny looked up at him and frowned as he observed the tension in the man's expression, trying too hard to keep it calm and neutral. "What exactly happened between you and my parents?"

His mouth pressed together, and Vlad looked like he didn't want to talk about it, least of all with Danny. "I had feelings for your mother," he confessed, and Danny felt strangely overly aware that he used the term feelings rather than saying he was in love with her. "My whole plan was to confess to her after the success of our Proto Materialization Portal." Vlad sighed tiredly. "And as you know, that test didn't exactly go well for me. Up until I collapsed during a meeting, I made many plots to win Maddie. I blamed everything on Jack, angry at him for doing this to me and stealing away your mother. You can't imagine the anger I felt for so many years, Daniel. But if years spent isolated from almost everything has taught me anything, it's to finally let go of some of that anger." He crossed over to the nearest access point. "Now, shall we get on with today's lesson?"

Danny sighed, pretending to sound put out by the idea of another training session. He followed Vlad into the NetZone, feeling excited about what new things the man would teach him this time. Friday night was spent practicing some more with healing and shields as well as working on Danny's fighting technique. He even managed to produced an electrified energy ball, and Vlad showed him that he could do more with the plates of energies beyond simply using them like a shield. He could make a platform to stand on or create stairs, something he thought would have been quite useful to know when he fell into the under level. He could have put up a field of energy plates to stop his fall and made stairs to climb back out before he fell beyond the point of no return.

"So what's on the agenda today?" Danny asked, stretching his arms over his head. He liked being able to heal now, but taking a pounding from the other man wasn't exactly on his list of fun things.

"I thought a little field trip." Vlad led the way through the NetZone.

Danny felt hesitant after hearing that answer. "A field trip? Where exactly are we going?" He eyed the man with a certain amount of suspicion. It didn't seem like Vlad cared all that much about leaving his domain, and Danny wasn't sure this surprise field trip was going to be something he would like. Surprises tended not to be a good thing for him, like the accident with the Material Portal and the incident with EMP and Tucker shooting him with the Data Deleter. Danny stared dully at the man walking half a step ahead of him to his left. Surprises tended to very bad things in his case.

"You'll have to wait until we get there."

His mouth pursed. Danny definitely didn't like that answer. They walked on in silence until they arrived at a tube like structure that rose up high into the "sky" of the NetZone. Danny tilted his head back, but he couldn't see the end of it. Vlad approached the tube, and a screen asking for a password popped up in front of him. He quickly typed it out before Danny could even catch what it was.

"After you," Vlad said, almost bowing as a doorway opened within the tube.

"What exactly is this place?" Frowning, Danny passed him and entered the tube. Vlad acting like that, doing that sort of gentlemanly bow, was weird to him. Inside the tube, the room was plain without any sort of decoration within it. Only comfortable seating wrapped around the room. Danny crossed it and dropped onto the cushy seat.

"An elevator." Vlad sat down, leaving plenty of space between them as the door slid shut.

A jerk jolted Danny, and Vlad smirked at the startled reaction the movement of the elevator produced in the other man. Danny scowled at him then folded his arms as he turned his head away. As much he wanted to question the man, it seemed obvious that Vlad wasn't going to give him any details about what his little surprise field trip was. His green eyes swept around the room, but there really wasn't much of anything to see. It didn't even have windows so that he could look out and see how far up they traveled. When he glanced at the other man, Danny frowned at the calm, peaceful expression on Vlad as he sat there with his arms folded, one leg crossed over the other, and his eyes closed. For some reason, that pissed him off. Vlad was all relaxed about wherever they were going while Danny started to feel even more like he would hate whatever this surprise was.

Hours could have passed in the silence of that room. Danny's leg started shaking out of boredom and impatience. Sitting still with nothing to do grated on him. He thought several times about breaking the silence, starting up a conversation, but he hesitated, not knowing what to even say.

The elevator came a stop suddenly, and Danny tried to brace himself without much luck. He, at least, managed not to jump idiotically again, but he still thought he saw a smirk on Vlad's face. Getting to his feet, he followed the man out of the elevator. Green eyes drifted around the unfamiliar surroundings, spotting several programs moving about and working on something. When they spotted Vlad, the programs halted to salute him before jumping right back to their work.

"Care to clue me in at any point?" Danny didn't know what to think as they walked through this section of the NetZone.

"This is my personal satellite," Vlad explained in an offhanded sort of way that made it seem like he was trying to sound nonchalant about the whole thing, like owning his own satellite was insignificant. He halted in front of an access point, and Danny thought it was kind of weird that a satellite would have one. But then, most places had access points, so maybe it wasn't all that strange in the end. "Do you think you can manage this?"

Danny watched as coding appeared around Vlad's head. In a moment, the binary makeup shattered, the broken pieces of the ones and zeroes turning fuzzy as they faded out of existence. He blinked at the helmet that was left behind, looking like something that would help the man breathe in an environment low in oxygen.

"I'm," Danny started slowly as his brow pinched, "not even sure how you did that."

Vlad breathed in, annoyance passing through his red eyes behind the shaded visor of his helmet, but he managed to resist sighing out. "It's a simply matter of drawing up energy and giving form to it. When you summon an energy ball, you don't put much thought into it." He held up a hand as a ball of pinkish red energy gathered within his palm. "Electrifying it takes a little more thought." Whitish pink sparks danced over the ball before he closed his hand, extinguishing it. "It's the same principal. Just focus on an oxygen mask like this one," he tapped at the helmet he wore, "while you're calling up your energy."

Danny gave him a doubtful look, frowning at how simple that sounded. Sighing, he closed his eyes and focused on doing as Vlad described. Nothing happened at first, and he could practically feel the impatient glare boring into him, which didn't help him keep his concentration.

"Excellent."

Danny blinked his eyes open when Vlad's commented distracted him. The man wore that half smirk that always came off looking smug, but as he stared at it, Danny thought he saw a bit of pride in Vlad's expression. He reached up a white gloved hand and touched it to the side of his head, realizing with a start that a helmet much like Vlad's now encased his head.

"I did it," Danny mumbled in his surprise, taking much too long to digest that simple fact.

"Not so difficult, is it?" Vlad held out a hand to him. "Shall we then?"

Danny stared at the proffered hand, still feeling hesitant about this whole thing. What exactly did Vlad have planned? Uncertainly, he took hold of the hand, and Vlad pulled him through the access point. He didn't know what to expect when they left the NetZone. Axion Labs, maybe? He found he couldn't really think of anywhere that Vlad would want to take him on this "field trip." He actually didn't really know all that much about the man beyond that he was a billionaire running one of the most successful companies in the world, that accident that happened to him, and his feelings toward Maddie. The last point poked at him like a thorn to the side. Despite his feelings, though, Vlad at least seemed to be stepping back and letting his old friends be happy together. But that made Danny wonder how different things would be if Vlad hadn't discovered his limitations to living outside the NetZone. Would Vlad still be trying to take Maddie away from Jack and plotting ways to kill off Jack?

But those thoughts were banished to the far reaches of his mind as he glanced around, his mouth gaping open. All around him were thousands of stars like diamonds set against a black backdrop. He could pick out various constellations, and the moon was so big floating off toward their right. Dropping his gaze, he gasped in wonder to see the Earth from such a far distance away. He had only seen an image like this in books and on television. But those mediums didn't compare to the beauty of staring at it with his own eyes.

"This is amazing," Danny whispered, unable to tear his gaze away from the view for several long moments, drinking it in like it might vanish in an instant. When he could look away, he turned his wide eyed surprise on Vlad, who still held onto his hand, anchoring him to the satellite so that he would drift off into space. "I don't understand." His brow furrowed as he frowned at the man, his awe shifting rapidly to confusion.

"Admittedly, I wasn't expecting to run into your father today," Vlad said with only a mild frown. "But since you were out at the time, I thought I would take advantage of the moment and make inquiries about you to your father."

"Because asking me would have been so very hard?" Danny narrowed his eyes a touch. Something about the idea of Vlad gathering information on him through his father felt unsettling.

"And ruin the surprise?" An almost roguish smirk played across Vlad's face. "And it hardly seemed out of the ordinary. After all, I've missed out on eighteen years of your life. It would only be natural for me to want to ask about you. Your father probably thought I was trying to figure out what best to get you as a gift to make up that lost time."

"And were you going to get me a gift?" Danny still didn't think he liked the whole idea, even if Vlad was trying to do something nice. They were getting along better now after he made his apologies, but Danny didn't think they crossed into gift giving territory, or if there even was such territory between them.

Vlad stared dully at him for several moments that made Danny start to feel uncomfortable under his gaze. "This doesn't seem like enough of a gift to you?" He arched in eyebrow in question.

"No, that's not - I mean-" His cheeks were growing warm with embarrassment, and Danny turned his head away, absently scratching at the side of his helmet as he forgot that it was there. Who even did something like this? His dream since he could remember was to be an astronaut, but he never imagined being brought into space as some sort of gift. "It's, um - Thanks. I really appreciate this." It surprised him when Vlad smiled. Not that smug looking smirk, but an actual, genuine smile. Danny had to look away again.

"Your father did mention that you had a love for space," Vlad explained as he glanced out around at the starry darkness surrounding them. "I thought bringing you here would be a good way to make amends." He sighed as he tugged on Danny's arm, reigning him back in close to the satellite. "I may have been cruel springing that information on you like that. And I responded to your natural reaction of being angry by acting in turn like a child. I could have been a little more delicate with that information. I only wished for you to be informed about that aspect of being what we are. I didn't want you to go through that same terrifying experience that I did. You can't imagine what I felt when that happened to me, and I was all alone in going through it."

Danny thought about that, pictured things from Vlad's perspective like Lancer suggested, and he frowned. The idea of collapsing and being told that he was dying while the doctors couldn't determine even what was happening to him was indeed terrifying. And going through it alone made it seem a thousand times worse.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that alone."

Vlad eyed him before nodding, like he had to take the moment to determine if Danny was being sincere or not. "When your father told me about your dream of being an astronaut," he said, drawing the conversation back around to why they were there, "I thought this would be a good opportunity to bring you here. It's not quite the same as being an astronaut. But being a digital being doesn't mean you can't experience traveling among the stars."

His mouth parted slightly as Danny stared at Vlad, absorbing those words. Was Vlad trying to comfort him? His mind didn't know what to do with that fact. It was on the same level as finding out that Dash had a crush on him. "Thanks," he repeated. "I mean, this," he turned again to stare at the Earth and space, "is really amazing. Thanks for bringing me here."

maltese: Haha, well, it's not like anyone in the show was really all that great at secret keeping. XD;;

Sammi: Ah, the start of a beautiful techy friendship~ 8D

midnight: Well, to be fair, Tucker really did think that Kwan had already put all the pieces together. orz

DB-KT: We're supposed to be nice to Danny? XD I must have missed that memo!

Just Will: Who knows? Maybe? I do still have quite a bit to go. Haha, when do they ever learn not to mess with stuff? XD;;; They're always getting into trouble with stuff in the series. Woo for the tech team! =)