Never Gonna Give You Up

Day 1: Technology

"C'mon, Tucker. It's time."

"No."

"It's almost been 6 years."

"So?"

"Well, we thought you liked being up-to-date on this kind of stuff."

"Yes, for THIS. But not…those."

"It's basically the same thing, and more."

"So is Danny versus a normal human being. He can be the 'more' thing in my life."

"You're being ridiculous."

Sam and Tucker had been sitting around the Foleys' dining room table for the past fifteen minutes, waiting for Danny to arrive so the trio could go to the mall together. During that time, Sam had been trying desperately to convince Tucker that it was time for him to upgrade to an iPhone already and retire his PDA. He had been a PDA advocate ever since his first model that he'd gotten for his birthday in the 6th grade, and had continuously kept up with the latest models of the now-outdated device. Sam couldn't think of one other person that used PDAs, save for Technus when he overshadowed Tucker's.

Finally, the doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of Danny. Sam got up to let him in as Tucker just continued to stare at his PDA laying in the middle of the table, a forlorn look on his face.

"You know, for a boy that can fly, you sure do have a knack for getting to things late," Sam said with a smirk as she saw Danny's wind-whipped hair.

"Hello to you to, gorgeous," Danny replied as he pecked her on the lips before following her in to sit next to Tucker. "Hey Tuck! Still in love with the PDA?"

Tucker sighed wearily and looked up from his technology. "Do I have to do this?"

"You do if you want all your other devices to be in sync with your mobile one."

"Hey! The PDA can sync with my other things!" Tucker answered defensively.

"But you have to boot up 3 different programs to do so, and that's just on your main desktop," Sam chimed in.

"Doesn't bother me. I have that down to a science now."

"Tucker! Get real! You don't even have to plug in an iPhone to sync it. You don't even have to press any buttons if you don't want to. It's all automatic now. You know, in the cloud," Danny informed him. "You'd think a techno geek like you would be more excited about that, hmm?"

Tucker hesitated for a brief second - it did sound enticing - but this was his baby they were talking about. The two had been through a lot, and he wasn't ready to give that up yet. He had to keep stalling the inevitable.

"Think back, Tucker," Sam began. "Remember when you didn't want to upgrade to a PS3 from GameCube, but then you ended up loving the PS3? This is just like that. We promise."

"But that was-"

"No it wasn't."

"But I love-"

"And you'll love this one as well."

His friends were already two steps ahead of him. Tucker was fighting a lost battle. But he still had a trick or two up his sleeve.

"Well…what if Skulker comes back and we need to hack into his system again?"

"Dude, even Skulker has upgraded his suit. The PDA won't work on him anymore," Danny told him.

This got to Tucker. He knew his PDA and other tech were important to ghost fights, but hearing that made him realize that it may really be time to retire the ol' girl. "So you're saying…if I don't upgrade, then I'm putting us all at a greater risk against ghosts?"

"I- Well, yes. Yes I am saying that. If you don't upgrade from the PDA, we're all in grave danger," Danny answered with a resounding fold of his arms.

Sam giggled quietly to herself at that before adding, "Yeah. And we all know your PDA - and hopefully yourself - wouldn't be able to live with that guilt. It's for the best, Tucker." She brought her hand up to pat his arm comfortingly.

Checkmate. With a sigh, Tucker took a long look at each of his friends, before finally standing up and carefully gathering his PDA in his hands. "Alright, I guess I'll go…put her to rest…"

The other two rolled their eyes at his over-dramatizing, but smiled up at him anyway as he began the trek up to his room to add the old device to his not-so-secret shoebox of outdated technology. The couple stared at each other silently until they heard the ominous click of Tucker's bedroom door. With that, Danny stood up and transformed into his Phantom self.

"Gonna go make sure he doesn't climb out the window and run away?" Sam asked knowingly.

"You bet. Meet us at the Apple store. We'll be there in five." Danny said as he floated up through the ceiling to Tucker's room.

Sam got up and began the walk to the mall to beat the boys there. Danny was going to need all the muscle he could obtain to get Tucker into that store.

The first of seven parts I wrote for Tucker Appreciation Week! :)