"Everything is gravitating here to Dash's house. Looks like whatever fun Danny's having will come to an end soon." Something hit the concrete. Looked like the fun had already started. Before I could register, Danny went flying and hit a brick wall behind us. It cracked.
"Hi Sam. Hi Tuck. Glad you could make it." Danny said weakly before sliding to the street. He must've hit it pretty hard because he was out. Okay, starting to freak out a bit. Me and Tucker looked in the direction Danny came flying from. A giant robot the size of the buildings surrounding it squeezed through the alley.
"I am Technus! Master of technology, and destroyer of worlds." I highly doubted this guy could hold a candle to Zool, that guy from Ghostbusters. "Behold my awesome electronic fury! Who's your Daddy?" Not the guy with a clothes dryer for a bellybutton. Danny must've woken up because he flew into action and punched the metal hunk as hard as he could. Yeah! You go, kid! He simply bounced off and grabbed his hand in pain. Now I was really scared. How were we gonna beat this thing? Danny came back and booted it, but it didn't budge. He started punching it really quickly, and the metal made really high-pitches pings that sorta sounded like a song. Technus lifted his arm and slapped Danny downward. He slammed the concrete in front of it. I would've cringed if I wasn't so sour about his partygoing.
"Guys? Help!" He took off again, and Tucker and I crossed our arms and turned the other way. What would we get in return? I heard the metal hitting Danny again. "Come on, Guys?" He was hit again. "Guys! Come on, seriously!" I heard the robot's arms swinging around and lasers firing. "I'm sorry I chose hanging with the popular kids over you guys it was stupid and shallow and I'll never do it AGAIN!" There you go. I heard another whack and he landed on the concrete in front of us again. Tucker and I smiled at each other triumphantly with our hands on our hips.
"How can we be of assistance?" Danny sprang up quickly.
"He's running an old version of Portals XL." Danny slouched. I scoffed.
"That piece of vapour-ware? It's the worst software ever." Tucker looked like he had a plan.
"Keep him busy! I think I know how you can beat him!" Danny grew a confident look.
"That, I can do." He took off. "Get back, you... hunk of my dad's junk!" Technus resented that.
"Could mere junk do this?"A remote that came out of the clothes dryer changed Danny's clothes like it was switching channels. First, he became a cowboy, then a woman, then Spock.I tried not to laugh at that one.
"Gimmie that!" Danny got a hold of the remote and changed back to himself. He was detained by a giant metal claw. "Tucker, any time!" Right, the plan. What was the plan?
"I'm trying, I'm trying!" He was frantically pressing buttons on his PDA.
"What's wrong?" Other than the fact that Danny was being beaten to a pulp.
"I'm trying to bypass the program but I can't! He must've upgraded!"
"What do we do?" At this point I was trying not to panic.
"We need the latest version of Portals XL! But where are we gonna get it this time of night?" I knew how.
"Leave it to me." I whipped out my cell phone and dialed the express delivery number. I know, cell phones are mainstream, but that didn't prevent them from being useful.
"Hello, this is the After-Hours delivery service, how may I help you?"
"Tracy, I need the latest portals XL pronto!"
"Sure thing." She rolled up on a scooter before I could hang up. "Here you go, Sam." We exchanged money and software.
"Thanks, Tracy." Tucker looked amazed again as he walked up to Tracy.
"Wow! You have access to the latest technology after hours?""Yep." Tracy smiled warmly. It seemed that the only mean people I knew were at school. Tucker got excited.
"What else can you do after hours?"Her smile faded into a worried look.I know he wasn't looking at me, but he might've turned to stone if he saw the look of horror on my face. I couldn't even move. Definetly not PG material.
"Just sign the voucher, sir." She held up a clip board. Tucker signed his name.
"Sam! Get the ghost talking, distract him! I'd say Danny could use a break. Oh, and plug this into him!" I picked up the cord.
"Got it!"Tracy got back on her scooter as I ran out to meet the monster.
"Uh, Excuse me? I'm Sam. I don't believe I caught your name."I might as well find out what it wanted. "Perhaps you should scream it really loud and shout out your motive." He seemed dull enough.
"Hello." He totally was. "I AM TECHNUS, MANIPULATOR OF MACHINES, LORD OF ALL GADGETRY, WIZARD OF INTEGRATED CIRCUITRY!" I picked up a cord that was connected to the robot. Keep him busy... Where was Danny? I hadn't seen him. Maybe he was lying in wait.
"Go on, is there more you'd like to tell me?" It fit, so I plugged it in.
"Oh, yes! I am also master of all..." His voice became warped as he was overridden.
"What's happening?" Oh. Danny was still pinned to a wall by a robotic claw. How long had he been there?
"Portals XL is happening! everybody knows that every new version of Portals XL has a gigantic hole in it's security system." The giant robot writhed.
"What? NOOOO!" The claw released Danny.
"Yes!" He grabbed the flailing arm. "Process this!" He shoved it into a giant disc port on the body above the dryer.
"Wait! That doesn't go there!" Technus' eyes had melded into the flashing words ERROR! ERROR!
I had regrouped with Tucker so that I wouldn't get crushed by random flying debris. When Technus had finally been totally overridden, Tucker got ready for the last joke. "And for my final trick..." He threw Danny the Thermos, who in turn captured the ghost. He tightened the lid and the robot crumbled into a pile of junk.
"Nice goin' Tuck."
"Don't thank me," Tucker looked at Danny. Was he going to thank Danny? He held up the Portals XL disc. "Thank lousy software." Nope.
************************************************************************************
The bell had rung, and we were headed off to class. "So, what's the damage from this weekend? Did you get in trouble for takin' your folks' stuff?" Danny grabbed his right backpack strap.
"Not really. I hauled it all back to the shed yesterday while they were out. My Dad's checking every piece for government surveillance devices."
"Sounds like you got off pretty easily." I tightened my grip on the textbook I was carrying.
"Well, I do have to return those stupid sweats so I can refund everybody's money." We stopped walking. "And I still feel terrible about the way I treated you guys. Of all people, I should know how it feels to be invisible." He looked disappointed in himself. Did he salvage anything from this experience? I leaned up against a locker.
"So, would you say you've learned a lesson from all this?" Danny smirked and looked over at Dash, who was opening his locker. Hundreds of cute pink and fluffy stuffed bears came spilling out.
Dash blushed, then the rest of his face turned red as he yelled "FENTOOOOOOON!"
"Yep. That one person's trash...is another person's revenge." We all laughed. Oh, man. Dash was never gonna live that down!
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