Everything will be in Leo's POV unless stated otherwise
Chapter 1: Bionic Assistance!
It's been a whole month since the attack on Krane and his bionic soldiers and a week since the Bionic Academy first started. And everybody is as happy as they could have ever been.
Well, scratch that, everyone but me. Ever since the start of the Academy, it has been full of ups and downs. First of all, I was forced to be a student, and not only that, I was sent to the Beginner level despite knowing a lot more about bionics than most of them. Second of all, everyone in the academy had been ignoring me, since I'm not full bionic like they were, they treat me like an outsider. What's even worse is that ever since Adam, Bree and Chase were given mentorship, they had no time for me anymore as they have to help the other bionic kids. In fact, they don't even treat me like a brother anymore. Meanwhile, Big D wouldn't even help me train since he's too busy going back to the Davenport Industry, and the only person who would help me train my bionics was Douglas, my uncle, the person who gave me bionics in the first place.
He would help me train my Laser Sphere's accuracy and power by placing targets for me to hit, but even then I wasn't able to improve with those. I even get beat up by Spin, a bionic kid that's much younger than I was, in practise. But he had people to help him train while I had to train all by myself.
It wasn't fair. All because I was slightly different than everyone else, I was treated like an outcast and I hated it badly.
I just wished there was someone bionic that would help me train my ability.
Later that day, after training was over, I decided to head back home to Mission Creek with Big D, to visit my mom since Big D had some business to do in Davenport Industries for three days, so I managed to convince him to bring me back with him.
"Oh Leo, honey, you're back." Mom said as she hugged me, something which I returned.
"Ahem, I'm here too." Big D said, wanting attention as well as he had his arms open, causing me to roll my eyes as I broke the hug with my mom as she went over to give her husband some love.
I decided to head back to my room for some rest, after all, I've been training for weeks without any proper rest.
A few hours after getting my much needed rest, I decided to leave the house for some fresh air. I decided to head over to the one place where I can always find solace. A place where no one had discovered it, giving me the chance to have some precious alone time. And considering the fact I was always surrounded by people, it was necessary.
It was located nearby the house, in fact it was just a five minutes' walk from home. It was located in a small forest and at the end of it…..well I wouldn't want to spoil it just yet.
I then entered the dense forest and pushed my way towards the end, with difficulty I may add, and saw light coming from the end.
I then arrived at my destination with a smile on my face. The sight of the place always makes me smile and calms my mind from whatever problem that I faced. Like the time when Trent would bully me or when Marcus revealed his bionic abilities to me.
It even helped me ease the pain of my breakup with Janelle.
The place I was talking about was a small clearing with a small, pristine river and waterfall in the distance. The place truly shows the beauty of nature, and what was even better is that it's always empty, meaning I can enjoy the beauty and serenity of this place all to myself.
But to my surprise, I saw a figure sitting down at the edge of the lake, and based on the figure alone, I could tell it was a girl.
I frowned, realizing that I had to share this place with a random stranger. So, not wanting to miss out on the serenity, I called out to the girl.
"Hey there." When the girl turned towards me I was in for the shock of my life.
It was S-1, Krane's lead and most powerful bionic soldier, whom I thought I destroyed with my Energy Transference ability.
"You!" I said, getting into a battle stance as she got up, a fearful look on her face.
"I'm sorry but do I know you?" she asked as I narrowed my eyes at her.
"Nice try, but it's going to take a lot more than that to fool me." I said to her as I generated a laser sphere in my right hand before tossing it at her, hitting her directly, sending her flying into the river.
It took me a while to realize that she wasn't getting up and probably lost conscious so I quickly jumped into the river to help her before she drowned. Even though she tried to kill me, no one deserves to die…..as weird as that sounded. Also, as I learned from Big D and Douglas, everyone deserved a second chance.
I then pulled her out of the water and brought her to land before I checked her pulse to see whether she was breathing, and luckily enough, she was.
I then took off the jacket I was wearing and placed it over her soaked body, in a small attempt to keep her body warm. I sighed before sitting down next to her, waiting for her to get up. Well, there goes my afternoon plans.
It took her an hour before she finally woke up and when she did, she immediately jumped back, getting some distance between us, but I could detect the slight fear in her eyes, also she was gripping onto my jacket, rather tightly. Something I never expected to see from the very same girl who ruthlessly broke my arm.
"Are you okay?" I asked her in worry, hoping that I didn't hurt her badly.
"I'm fine, but how did you do that with your arm? Are you bionic too?" she asked and I looked at her weirdly before shaking my head as I raised my bionic arm at her.
"Not a full one, but I have a bionic arm. Don't you remember since you were the one that broke it?" she then shook her head as she frowned, placing a hand on her head.
"I don't remember anything like that ever happening." She said.
"Then what do you remember?" I questioned as she turned to me.
"All I remember is waking up at a field and this family decided to take me in and when they discovered the fact that I was bionic they freaked out, so I decided to run away." It was at that moment when I chose to sit beside her.
"And you managed to stumble upon here?" I asked, getting a nod for confirmation, so I chuckled.
"Well, you must have some amazing sense of direction to get here. Tell me, is that one of your bionic abilities?" I asked jokingly as she chuckled at my joke.
"I was just lucky to stumble upon here. So, what about you? Did you just so happen to find this place by accident?" I just shrugged my shoulder.
"I found this place long ago, so I guess you can say it was by accident, I was running away from some bullies that were desperate to give me a wedgie." I said as she chuckled.
"I don't understand why you would need to run away with that arm." She said, confused.
"That was long ago, back when I had no bionics, so I couldn't defend myself."
"I can see that, with your scrawny body." She said with a smirk as I glared at her for that.
Suddenly, she grabbed her head in pain as I looked at her in worry.
"Hey, are you alright?" I asked and in a short while she dropped her hands tiredly.
"I'm fine." She said, panting a bit.
It was then silent between the two of us as we stared off into the river. It was silent until S-1 decided to break it.
"Do you know of a guy called Victor Krane?" she asked as I felt my blood run cold for a bit after hearing that name again as I turned to her.
"Why'd you want to know?" I asked as she placed her knees in front of her.
"I keep having flashbacks about him and whenever I do, my head would start hurting, like you just saw." She said and I was curious.
"What do you normally see in those flashbacks?" I asked and I saw her shuddering a bit.
"He was always so angry, so dark, and he would hurt me each time I made a mistake." S-1 said as she clenched her fists tightly, but I could tell that she was feeling a bit scared, so I placed a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.
"Hey, it's alright, he won't be able to hurt you anymore." I said as she smiled softly at me before asking me again, and this time I decided to answer her.
"Well, Krane, from what I know is a psycho whackjob whobelieved that bionic people are more superior compared to normal humans and wanted to rule over the world, you know the classic evil villain goal. He was also your creator, and he didn't just create you, but he also created tons of bionic people to be a part of his army." I explained to her.
"So….I must have hurt a lot of people, huh?" she asked, looking down in shame but I wasn't going to let that happen.
"No." she then looked up at me in confusion. "You didn't hurt people, Krane was the one that hurt them, and you were under his control and because of that, he used you as a way to hurt others." I told her, but she didn't look convinced with what I say.
"Tell me then, did you want to hurt others? Did you enjoy them being in pain?" I asked and she immediately frowned at that thought.
"Of course I don't! I would never want to hurt them." I smiled at her response.
"Then there's your answer, S-1. You wouldn't want to hurt people, but Krane controlled you to do so, so it wasn't your fault." She then smiled at me and I felt glad that I was able to help.
"So, whatever happened to him in the end?" she asked as I shrugged.
"Last I heard about him, Adam, Bree and Chase fused their abilities in order to defeat him, after that, I'm not so sure." I said, but I could still sense some worry from her so I gave her a smile.
"Don't worry, if he ever shows up again, I'll send him packing with these guns." I then started flexing to her.
"I'm really trying to believe you but after seeing that, it's really hard to." She teased as I gave her a short glare, but that just caused her to start laughing and soon after, I joined her in the laughter.
It felt nice to laugh it all out again. I almost forgotten the feeling since joining the academy.
"Thanks for everything, and I'm sorry for breaking your arm."
"It's fine, you had no control of yourself, and I'm sorry for knocking you out like that before." I said with a sheepish grin as she waved it off.
"It's fine, at least you weren't using your bionics at full force." She said as I chuckled uneasily.
"Right, not with full force, because you know, I have to dial it down for the ladies." I said awkwardly as I rubbed the back of my neck.
"So, does this mean that we can finally put our past behind us, because I don't think I'm in the mood to knock you to the ground." She said with a smirk as I rolled my eyes at what she said.
"Maybe, we should just start anew?" I suggested and she seemed confused by what I said.
"What I mean is that, maybe we should start again. From the beginning, and put our past behind us. That is, only if you want to." I explained and she seemed happy with the suggestion and nodded her head happily as I extended my hand towards her.
"My name is Leo Dooley and it's nice to meet you." I said as she took my hand in hers and shook it.
"I guess my name is S-1 for now, and it's nice to meet you too." She said as we smiled at each other.
I guess the line "Yesterday's enemies, today's friends" makes a whole lot more sense now than it ever did.
The two of us kept on talking about random things until the sun was going down and I thought I would have hated S-1's company, but I was wrong. S-1 turned out to be a better companion than most of the bionic people I know in the academy.
"Hey, we should probably get going before my mom tries to find us." I said as I helped her up.
"Are you sure your mom and dad won't freak out when the see me? I mean, I was the one who hurt your family." She said with a frown.
"Hey, don't worry about it, besides, you weren't in control of yourself. Krane was controlling you using his Triton App, so it wasn't necessarily your fault." I reassured her and she decided to comply with it, and with that, we headed towards home.
As soon as we arrived, I was immediately engulfed in a hug, correction, a rather tight hug, by mom, completely ignoring the fact that S-1 was right behind me. I was pretty sure I heard her snicker from behind.
"Oh Leo, where were you this entire time? I was so worried about you." Mom said in a worried tone.
"Mom, I'm fine, I was just out for some fresh air." I said as she broke the hug, much to my relief.
"Oh, and I brought over a friend. I was wondering if she could stay with us for tonight." I said as S-1 walked over and waved awkwardly at my mom, who looked at her in shock and a bit of fear.
"Hey there, Mrs. Davenport." S-1 said with a small smile on her face and I was pretty sure mom was about to freak out, had it not been for someone that beat her to it.
"Ahh!" someone shouted, rather girlishly I might add, as we turned to the source of the voice and saw Big D at the end of the hallway.
"What is she doing here?" Big D pointed at S-1, before walking up to her, but I stopped him as I got in front of her.
"Relax Big D, she's with me. I brought her over here." I tried to reassure him, but that didn't do much at all.
"Leo, do you have any idea who she is?" Big D asked me with a frown and I saw the look of sadness on S-1's face so I nodded my head.
"Of course I do, she's S-1, Krane's former lead soldier who, like the rest of his army, was under Krane's control." I said as Big D shook his head as he pulled me closer to him.
"Leo, are you sure that we can trust her? Like you said, she's Krane's former lead soldier. You may never know if she would start attacking us again." Big D whispered.
"You don't have to worry about a single thing Big D, she said it herself that she regretted what she did, even though she wasn't even in control." I said but he still looked a bit sceptical with the idea of letting the person who almost killed his family in the house.
"Fine, but you better be sure that she won't try to kill us again or something." And with that Big D walked off, probably back to the lab as mom motioned for S-1 to help her in the kitchen as I decided to head back to my room for a shower.
Later that night, mom called us all out for dinner and I was amazed at the amazing amount of food on the dining table. In fact, it wasn't just the sight, the savoury aroma of the food was drawing me towards them.
"Woah mom, what's the special event?" I asked as I sat across from my mom and beside S-1.
"Well, it's not every day that I get to see my little boy, so I decided to have a feast." My mom explained with a smile and heck, I wasn't complaining and not a moment later, Big D appeared from the lab as well and joined us for dinner.
Dinner was, as expected, eventful, as mom kept on questioning S-1, to which the former soldier tried to answer as best she could. It was amusing to see the former bionic solider stutter so nervously, but it wasn't amusing when she used her fingernails to hurt me underneath the table.
It was later that night where both S-1 and I were sitting down at the living room, watching some movies she'd never seen before.
"Wow, do people really jump off twenty story buildings like that?" she asked, her eyes never leaving the screen, completely engrossed with the movie.
"Of course not, that's what people like to call, the power of editing." I said as a thought came to my mind.
"Hey, S-1, don't you want a name of your own, you know, besides S-1? All your bionic brothers and sisters have a name of their own back at the academy." S-1 then paused the movie and turned over to me as she shrugged.
"I've got no idea. I don't feel like I really have much options to choose from. I'll probably just take whatever name anyone gives me." She said as I took a good look at her for a short while.
"How about Charlotte?" S-1's face cringed at the suggestion as she looked at me.
"I take that back, I won't take whatever name someone gives me." She said as I rolled my eyes at what she said before suggesting a few more names at her.
"How about Laura?" "Nope." "Jessica?" "No." "Oh, I got it, Blade!"
"What makes you think I want to be called Blade?" she asked as I shrugged.
"Because it sounds cool and you're as sharp as one?" S-1 then gave me a glare as I avoided her gaze and coughed into my hand.
"So what kind of name do you want anyways?" I asked and she sighed and leaned on the couch.
"Maybe something easy and short? It doesn't necessarily need to have any special meaning behind it." S-1 said as I placed a hand under my chin as I started thinking of names in my head.
A name suddenly popped in my head as I flicked my finger.
"What about Taylor?"
S-1 then pondered over the name for a bit before she smiled.
"Taylor, yeah. I like the sound of that." Taylor said happily.
"I think that it suits you." I said and she suddenly turned away from me, but I could see a tint of red dust her cheeks. I wonder what's up with her.
"T-thanks."
"No problem, so, what do you plan on doing after this?" I asked and she shrugged.
"I don't know, I'll probably find a job somewhere and live a normal life." She said and I chuckled at that.
"I'm pretty sure that you won't be able to live a normal life with bionics. Believe me, I had to live with it for a few months, and my life isn't normal." I said jokingly as she chuckled slightly.
"So, where can I go?" I pondered at her question for a bit before I had a great idea.
"I know, you can come with me and Big D back to the Bionic Academy." Taylor then turned to me with her eyes widened.
"What?"
"It'll be awesome, Adam, Bree and Chase are great mentors, and they'll be able to teach you a whole lot of stuff!" I said excitedly but she didn't share my excitement.
"Leo, I'm really thankful for all that you've done for me so far, but, are you sure that you trust me enough to bring me to the Bionic Academy?" she questioned and I placed my hand on her shoulders as I gave her my best serious look.
"Taylor, you've got to understand that you were being controlled. It wasn't you that hurt people."
"But I could've fought the Triton App." Taylor countered as she looked away from me.
"Adam, Bree and Chase weren't able to fight off the Triton App on their own as well, and they've come to accept that fact, so why don't you?" Taylor then turned to me as I gave her a smile.
"I'm sure that your brothers and sisters would be happy to see you again." It was at that moment when she smiled back and chuckled.
"Didn't expect you to be fine with words." She said and I felt offended by what she said.
"Excuse me, I'm great at EVERYTHING I do." I said and she snorted as if she didn't believe me but she smiled.
"Alright, I'll go to the Bionic Academy with you." I then cheered inwardly when she said that while I shrugged it off on the outside.
I then yawned, finally feeling the exhaustion of my body.
"Well, it's time to go to bed, you can sleep in Bree's capsule for now." Taylor then got up, cleaned up the mess before we headed for the lab. I had to follow her otherwise Big D would complain about it to me, and listening to his complaints are the worst things ever! Well, besides listening to his egoistic-self speak.
Taylor then entered Bree's capsule and as soon as I was about to leave her to sleep, she called me out.
"Hey Leo." I then turned back to her.
"Thanks for helping me, most people would have just beaten me up and sent me to the government or something." She said with a smile which I returned.
"No problem, I was happy to help." I then turned off the lights to the lab before exiting it, leaving Taylor alone to sleep.
The Next Day
I was together with Taylor at the lab, having a small sparring match, for some training. And since we were in the lab, we couldn't use our bionics, in order to avoid breaking anything.
Taylor then sent a leg sweep at me while I moved back in order to dodge it, but that proved to be a mistake as Taylor came charging at me.
I tried to send a punch at her, but she caught it before having me in an arm lock before pushing me to the ground.
"Do you give up?" she asked me with a teasing grin as she sat on my back.
"Okay, I give!" I squeaked out and as soon as I did, she released me and I quickly got up, holding my aching hand.
"You know, you've got to learn how to fight without using bionics." Taylor said as she wiped off some of the sweat falling from her face as I sighed.
"I know that, but before I do that, I need to learn how to control my own bionics, much less, learning how to fight without it." I said and she looked at me curiously.
"Learn how to control your bionics? Don't you already know how to use it?"
"I do, but I still have some problems when using it. I don't know how to use them to its full potential." I said sadly as I grabbed a bottle of water to rehydrate myself.
"Why don't you have your mentors help you with that? I mean, aren't they there to help?" Taylor asked as she stood beside me as I shrugged.
"Sure, but they're too busy helping out the other bionic kids with their training." I said nonchalantly as I was about to head out of the lab but Taylor stopped me.
"Wait, so no one helps you train your bionics?" Taylor asked and I shook my head.
"Not really, I mean Douglas helps me train my bionics from time to time, but it doesn't really help me improve. But hey, it's a start." I said with a smile and tried to leave again but Taylor stops me, yet again.
"And you're okay with all of that?"
"Of course not, I mean, there's nothing that I can do about it, so it's better to just accept it as it is." I shrugged, not understanding as to why she was upset over it.
"Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore." I the raised an eyebrow at her.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I'll be helping you train your bionics." Taylor said and I suddenly felt reluctant at the idea. It felt as if I would be using her.
"Are you sure about that?" she then frowned at me.
"What? You don't like the idea?" she asked and I quickly shook my head.
"No! I mean, no, it doesn't mean that way, the idea sounds nice and all, but I don't want to bother you." I said, rubbing my neck awkwardly as she gave me an amused look.
"Leo, I should be the one to say that. You've already helped me a lot in just two days, consider this as me returning the favour. Oh, and I won't take no for an answer." She said with a smile and I sighed, but deep inside I felt insanely happy.
Finally there would be someone that could help me with my bionics!
"So what do I have to do?" I asked, excitement clearly laced in my voice, but I didn't care.
"First, I want to see how you'll do against a moving object." Taylor said as she started stretching, causing me to raise my eyebrow at her.
"So what are you going to do, toss a ball and want me to hit it?" I asked and she shook her head and pointed at herself.
"No, I'm going to be the target."
"Wait, so you want me to hit you?" She then shook her head and gave me a confident grin.
"I want to see IF you can hit me." She said as she took a few steps back, creating a small distance between us.
I was still a bit reluctant to do it since I was worried that I might hurt her, but since she was so confident, I decided to go along with it as I generated a laser sphere in my hand before firing it at Taylor. I was about to ask her to move, but Taylor did exactly that as she used her super speed to get out of the way safely.
I look at her in shock while she gave me a confident grin.
"What's wrong? You missed me." She teased before she started running in a straight line as I generated another sphere before firing it at her, but once again, I missed the target.
I was starting to get a bit angry, so I quickly fired the spheres at Taylor who avoided them all with ease.
"Come on Leo, I'm just standing right here~." Taylor taunted before starting to move around at very fast speed that it made her look like a blur.
I then focused my eyes on the blur as I generated a sphere in my right hand, ready to throw it. I then waited for the right opportunity before throwing it.
The blast managed to catch Taylor's legs as she tripped and fell to the ground.
"Alright, I did it!" I cheered but not before helping her up.
"Nice throw, but you've still got lots of work to do." She commented as I sighed at that.
Taylor then placed a hand on my shoulder and gave me a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry about it Leo, I'll be training you from here on out, and there's nothing you can say that'll make me change my mind." Taylor said as I thought about it.
"How about a hundred dollar bill?" I asked as I took out my wallet she then rolled her eyes at me.
"No, but I'm pretty sure you don't have a hundred dollar bill anyways." I quickly put my wallet back as I figured that she was right.
"So, you'll come to the Bionic Academy?" she just shrugged her shoulders.
"I mean, you've already convinced me too, besides, if I'm going to have to train you every day of your life, and the first things I'm going to have you to do are exercises that will build up your stamina." I groaned when I heard that. It was bad enough I was forced to do it in training at the academy and now Taylor's going to have me do that too?
"Is there no way I can convince you otherwise now?" I asked jokingly and she suddenly stood right in front of me and flicked my nose.
"Nope, you're going to have to deal with me." She gave me a smile before walking back, I walked after her but I somehow managed to trip myself and began falling, Taylor turned back and suddenly I fell on her.
"Ouch my head." I moaned in pain as I held my aching head.
"Taylor are you-" My mind then stopped as I realized the position I was in.
Taylor was beneath me and our faces were inches apart from one another, I could even feel her hot breath on my face.
The both of us remained unmoving before I quickly realized that I've been staying in that position for way too long, so, I quickly got up.
"A-are you okay?" I inwardly cursed my stutter, extending a hand out to Taylor who slowly grabbed it.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine." She responded as an awkward silence filled the room as the two of us looked away from each other as I silently cursed my foot for what happened.
'Thanks a lot foot, now she's going to kill me!' I flinched at the thought as I shakily turned back to see Taylor looking away from me, so I couldn't see how she was reacting to what just happened, which is kind of good.
"Hey Taylor, I'm sorry about…that. I didn't mean it." I quickly added the last part, hoping it would save me.
"It's fine." She responded nonchalantly, so I couldn't tell what she was thinking about.
"Uhh, I think I heard my mom calling me, I'll see you later!" I lied as I quickly ran off exiting the lab, leaving Taylor all alone.
Whatever she was thinking about, must NOT be good.
(Switch to Normal POV)
Unknown to Leo, Taylor placed a hand on her chest and found that her heart was pounding uncontrollably.
'What is this feeling? Why am I feeling it?' Taylor thought to herself, but she realized that she didn't dislike the feeling, in fact, she enjoys it, it makes her feel….safe and warm.
Taylor then shrugged it off before heading upstairs to find Leo.
End Chapter
Looks like Leo makes a brand new friend and teacher in the form of his former enemy, S-1, or Taylor, as we all know her by. What will everyone's reaction be when he brings her to the Bionic Academy? Or, how will one sister react to this? Find that out in the next chapter