AN: Hey friends! As many of you know, I am unable to write any more multi-chaptered stories due to time (see my profile for details), so this is one of my favorite ideas that I take the most pride in, and I wanted to share select scenes of my imagination with you. Trust me, I am really sad that I can't write it myself D': There are a lot of blanks between scenes, and that is because I just don't have the time to hash it out. It takes place in Season 4 of Lab Rats assuming that Daniel doesn't exist. This one-shot doesn't do the story justice, so I am putting this out there as inspiration so that somebody can write about it and make an amazing story. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Lab Rats or any of the canon characters, just the plot and my original characters.
The island shook, and Chase grabbed onto one of the support beams. "Guys, what was that?" he asked into the com.
"That's my team," Adam's voice crackled breathlessly. "They're working together – against us."
"I don't understand it – why did they all turn against us?" Bree asked. She sounded strained even across the com.
"Are you sure it's them?" Chase asked. "They seem too organized…"
"Well done, Chase," a new voice said, and it wasn't through the com.
Chase whipped around, his eyes landing on the speaker. His jaw dropped almost as fast as his stomach did.
"Recognize me? Of course you do – I'm you."
Chase looked at each of his siblings, clenching his teeth in anger. Adam laid with his back to the ground, his teeth gritted in pain. Some invisible force was pinning him, and it was all he could do to not let himself be crushed.
Bree was on Chase's other side, and she seemed to be frozen in time. She was mid-step, her mouth slightly open.
Chase looked to their captors – the oldest who looked almost exactly as Adam had five years ago had his arm out and a nasty grin of pleasure on his face as he crushed his older self. The second oldest who looked like a younger version of Bree had extended both her arms, frowning in concentration to keep her older self trapped.
"We're subjects D, E, and F," Chase's lookalike said. "Your brother's clone is Derek, and he can control the gravity a bionic experiences. Perfect for stopping super strength. Your sister's clone is Ellie, and she can control the time flow a bionic experiences. Perfect for stopping super speed. I'm Fletcher, your clone, and I'm the one who turned all of your students against you." He shrugged as if it wasn't such a big deal.
It was strange for Chase to watch a thirteen-year-old version of himself act so evil and mature when he was still so small and awkward looking. "How did you turn them? We've been through a rebellion before, and they chose to remain loyal to us."
"That's the difference – they don't have a choice. Not when I have the most powerful override app the world has ever seen."
"Cute, but I have it too." Chase immediately tried to connect to Fletcher's chip, but to his shock, he was easily swatted away by an internal assistant system.
"Say hello to Ned. He's the one who defends my chip and controls the overridden bionics according to my will so that I can focus on other things, like making you upset before I take you over." Fletcher's expression was smug.
"Come on, do you really want to do this?" Chase appealed. "What do you get out of taking over the island and your originals?"
Fletcher shrugged. "World domination. I like having control." With that, he mentally seized Chase's chip, overriding it. With a wave at his fellow clones, they released Adam and Bree, who stood up straight next to Chase. They had been overridden too. Chase internally seethed, trapped within his body.
"Won't it be such a surprise for your family – and everyone else at that – when you three become the ones destroying the world?"
"Guys, it's us, please try to fight it!" Leo pleaded, swinging the bionic signal interrupter around at his three step-siblings. He glanced back, gulping at how unconscious Big D and Douglas looked.
Bree stalked forward, and Leo began machine-gunning the button on his little device. Bree froze in place and remained that way.
Adam and Chase leapt in to grab the BSI from Leo, who screamed and backpedalled. Chase lunged after him, grabbing him and slamming him to the ground. Leo weakly pressed the button, staring into his brother's eyes.
Chase's eyes hardened, and he leaned down right into Leo's face. "I'm going to rip off your hands and make them into a fly swatter," he growled in a deep, gravelly voice.
"Spike?" Leo squeaked.
"I don't know what's going on here, but I'm going to smash your face in, snowflake."
"Smash his face in – he punched you!" Leo pointed to Adam.
Spike looked back at the oldest bionic and snarled. "You messed with the wrong guy, nuggethead!" With that, the app sprung to his feet and began pummeling a surprised Adam.
Leo fell limp in relief, watching the brothers fight each other. He glanced down at the BSI, silently thanking it. It could freeze Bree and probably Adam and the students, and it brought out Spike in Chase. Apparently an override app couldn't trump a commando app. Now if only he could survive the commando app...
Leo closed the closet door after Spike had dragged Mr. Davenport and Douglas in, and the youngest flipped the lights on.
"How do we wake them up?" Leo asked.
"Like this." The app pulled Douglas up a little and smacked him in the face.
"Yowhoooo!" the man howled, scrambling away from the app. He blinked up at the two of them, demanding "Leo? Chase? What was that for?"
"It's Spike, pipsqueak," Spike snarled.
Douglas gulped. "What's going on?"
"What do you remember?" Leo asked.
"My clones of Adam, Bree, and Chase have taken over the island. They work for my once-best friend Vincent Deil and are taking over bionics and the world." Douglas shrugged.
"You need to stop making friends," Leo deadpanned.
Douglas groaned, shaking his head. He climbed to his feet and turned to Spike. "Why are you activated, and why aren't you under Fletcher's control?"
"I interrupted Chase's chip and so Spike activated. I guess that an override app can't control a commando app," Leo explained for Spike.
Douglas snapped his fingers in pleasant realization. "Genius! With Spike helping us, we actually have a chance of taking down the clones."
"Hey," Leo pouted.
Douglas shrugged. "You're only partly bionic – which is why they can't control you – but it also means that you really aren't very intimidating. Dang it, it's times like these that I wish that I'd at least given you a spine."
Leo scowled.
"Who says I'm going to help you guys?" Spike asked, crossing his arms. "What's in it for me?"
"If you were on their side, you'd only get to fight us three. What kind of fight is that? If you're on our side, you get to fight all of them," Douglas told him.
Spike licked his lips. "True. It sounds more fun this way."
"Great, the fate of the world rests on the shoulders of a maniacal commando app," Leo sighed.
"At least it doesn't rest on yours," Douglas said.
"Why would you even create clones?" Leo turned on his step-uncle.
Douglas shrunk a little. "I was bitter about losing Adam, Bree, and Chase, so I found my rich college buddy and used him to create the clones so that I could subdue the originals and get them back under my control. But then the lab blew up one day while Deil was down there, and I thought that he and clones were dead. At that point, I gave up until I created Marcus.
"I realize now that the explosion was just a cover up so that Deil could take the clones and train them to be his own. Too bad their abilities only work on bionics; that's why he needs Adam, Bree, Chase, and the students if he wants to take over the world."
"Again, stop making friends!" Leo shouted at him. Douglas gave him a sulky look.
"So what do we do now?" Leo asked once he'd regained his temper.
"I don't know; communications and all ways off the island have been cut off, so we can't get help. We could start by waking Donnie." Douglas bent over and sat him up, crouching so that he could get a good angle at slapping the unconscious man's face. He paused before standing back up. "You know, Spike should do it, because that really hurt. I want to see my brother's face."
"I can't believe we were actually able to break into the weapons vault and not get killed," Leo said with a grin as the four of them settled down in the sand. "Ever wonder if we train our students too well?"
"It was when Adam came in that I got worried," Donald commented, pulling off his armored vest.
"I never lost faith in our personal tank machine," Douglas said, clapping Spike on the shoulder. The app shrugged him off, continuing to cover the laser guns and BSIs.
"What do we do now?" Leo asked. "I'm exhausted."
"You didn't hardly do anything," Spike snapped.
"We're going to have to get some sleep," Donald said. "We can't keep going on zero energy."
"Sleep only does so much good – what about food?" Douglas pointed out.
"Let's hope that we win this thing before we starve. Otherwise we might have to do another raid – on the kitchen," Donald said wryly.
Leo yawned. "So let's sleep and kick butt tomorrow. Who's taking first watch?"
Looking around their group, Douglas reluctantly raised his hand. "I'll take first watch. Donnie, you're second."
"Why me?" the mogul whined.
"Because I said so," Douglas snapped. "Now all of you go to sleep."
The other three finished what they were doing, lying down in the sand and shifting to get comfortable. With the rolling waves of the ocean as their lullaby, it wasn't long before all but Douglas sunk into sleep.
Douglas turned away from their group to stare up at the stars. They twinkled, giving their light to illuminate any intruders. He was thankful for them.
Scraping in the sand alerted him, and Douglas turned to see Spike standing up, looking over their group.
"Spike, what are you doing?" Douglas hissed, and the bionic's gaze shot to meet his biological father's. "You're supposed to be sleeping."
Spike didn't say a word, breaking into a trot right at Douglas. When he was near enough, he swung at the man, who ducked with a yelp.
"Spike! What are you doing?" Douglas cried out, scrambling around a rock.
At the sound of Douglas' voice, Donald woke from the dreams he had just entered, mumbling "Wha…?"
Douglas leapt back from a kick. "Donnie, Spike's trying to kill me!" To Spike, he said "And by the way, that was a pathetic kick. You're fighting like a girl."
Spike remained silent and blankfaced, taking another swing at Douglas.
"That's not Spike," Donald realized as he came fully awake. "He must have relaxed enough that he deactivated – and Fletcher's got control of him again!"
"Then do something!" Douglas shrieked as he slid under a roundhouse kick and tripped, falling on his side. He looked back in time to watch the bionic's foot come in towards his face. He cringed, but the foot stopped.
"What's going on?" a deep gravelly voice demanded. Douglas looked up to see Spike's familiar scowl. Donald was pointing a BSI at the app.
Douglas picked himself up and brushed the sand off of himself. It was everywhere. "You deactivated when you fell asleep, and Fletcher took control again."
"We're going to have to move – they know where we are now," Donald wrinkled his nose.
"Wake Leo, we've got to go. Spike, no more sleeping for you," Douglas said.
"How am I supposed to function without sleep?" Spike asked. His tone was as stingy as ever, but his shoulders were slumped in defeat.
Douglas sighed. "I don't know, but the world is relying on you to stay awake. You're our only hope. If you deactivate, we're doomed."
"Spike, buddy, we need you to stay awake and not hallucinate!" Douglas said loudly into the app's ear, gently slapping his face. He and Donald were practically dragging the app across the island.
"Nooo," Spike moaned, trying his best to slog along. "Three days without sleep – I'm dying!"
"No you're not, you're a bionic hero and bionic heroes don't die," Douglas told him. Donald shot him a look – lies weren't going to make it better. If they didn't win this fight soon, the app was either going to die fighting for the world or die under the control of Fletcher. There was no rest for the weary commando app any other way.
"Spike, you're a machine, a powerhouse – you don't need sleep," Douglas told him. "We'll find a way to shock some energy into you, and then you'll be rearing to go – you kick those little clone butts."
"I don't want to anymore," Spike whined. His steps faltered, and the brothers dragged him back up and forward. The app's feet found their way again.
"We're going to get them today, and then it will all be over."
"If we can even get to Fletcher – he's surrounded himself," Donald stated.
"Stop it! I'm trying to pep him up!" Douglas snapped.
"It's not working," Spike groaned.
"Guys, we've got students coming!" Leo shouted back at them. Spike whimpered.
"No!" Fletcher's scream echoed across the island, bouncing on the water. The clone collapsed next to Derek and Ellie, and the students around him staggered as they regained control of themselves. Adam and Bree shook themselves, grins breaking out on their faces.
"Spike! You're a hero!" Bree exclaimed, running over and squeezing the exhausted app. Adam was close behind.
"Hey, am I chopped liver?" Leo cried indignantly.
"And what about us?" Douglas demanded, gesturing to himself and his older brother, who were handcuffing the clones.
Adam and Bree let go of their younger brother. "Thank you, thank you so much guys. That was so awful – I was afraid, afraid…" Bree trailed off, and Adam squeezed her shoulder.
Spike swayed in place only a moment before he crumpled, fainting onto the floor. Bree immediately bent down. "Spike? Spike? What's wrong with him?"
"The only way to keep him from Fletcher's control was to keep him activated the whole time – which means that he hasn't slept at all since this whole mess began," Douglas explained. "He's fine now – he's resting. Chase will just feel terrible when he wakes up."
"There won't be much time for that," Fletcher said darkly. "You had better be scared, because Gina's coming. If Deil can't have the bionics, no one can."
Douglas eyed the youngest clone. "Who's Gina?"
"Subject G, Deil's own daughter. He gave her bionics to keep us and them in line," Fletcher elaborated. "She's got a scream that can shatter capsules and the ability to render all of us helpless for the rest of our lives. She is a walking, talking LEMP, the most powerful kind you'll find anywhere. And she's coming, so if you're bionic even in any way," he looked to Leo "you'd better be scared."
AN: So yeah, I'm kind of proud of this idea. If anyone wants to adopt this, go for it - and if you want more of an idea of what's going on in my head (regarding this story), shoot me a PM and I will get you the details. And I can't forget to mention that the sequel is also up for grabs - how will the rats handle a bionic doomsday? What will happen to the clones?
Oh, and some of you might be wondering at Spike's response to sleep deprivation... I've gone just a little more than two stressful days without a wink of sleep, and it's awful. The streak of being awake for me ended with a hallucination and falling unconscious. For Spike, in this one-shot, he'd been without sleep for 3+ days and had very little food while still burning an immense amount of calories from physical activity, mental strain, and high stress levels. Not a good combination; don't try this at home, kids.
So yeah, good stuff. See ya around. Asori out.