Author's Note: This was written at midnight last night, and inspired by daphrose's new chapter of Daddy's Little Lab Rats. All I ask is that you keep in mind, young Donald isn't like the one we know and love, and his logic is a little skewered. But he tries.
Hope you enjoy, please review or favorite if you do. :)
"There is no refuge from memory and remorse in this world. The spirits of our foolish deeds haunt us, with or without repentance." -Gilbert Parker.
"Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." -Stephen King.
Donald Davenport looked at three bionic children, absolutely giddy to show them his new invention. The simulator would allow them to hone and practice the martial arts he had taught them, all the while giving them a sliver of a chance of injury. The perfect marriage of fatherly protectiveness and his duty to make them heroes. While he had trained them in martial arts since they were physically able to, it was time he started testing them in scenarios, learn their methods, patterns, and reactions. See what needed to be improved and what they needed less of. See who would be leader. With the youngest of the trio at a ripe seven years of age, Donal was sure they were ready for this. They were superhuman after all.
"Just step on and put on the glasses, and you'll figure out everything else." With wary but trusting looks, they followed his orders. He could have told them what the scenario was, but he needed to see how they reacted in high-stress situations with no instruction. He looked on his monitor. The scenario was a bank robbery, with a dozen hostages spread throughout the bank. It would progress to the robbers setting the bank on fire to cover their escape. A successful mission for the children would require the baddies to be caught and the civilians secure. Bonus points if they stopped the fire, but Donald didn't expect them to, as they were children after all.
It started out fine, though oddly enough the youngest, Chase, took command. Chase generated forcefields around the robbers in the main room, while Adam took out ones near the door to the vault. Bree super-sped through the building, counting the hostages and checking on their condition. As programmed, one of the robbers managed to set the building ablaze. Adam and Bree, as ordered by their younger sibling, worked civilian evacuation. Chase pursued the robbers into the back alley, where he trapped them in a force field. However, he didn't count on there being a fourth hidden in the shadows with a gun, awaiting a cop. Instead of knocking out his opponent as he had been trained to, Chase simply broke his wrist by kicking it against a dumpster. Donald ended the simulation, having obtained much of the knowledge he needed. Especially in regards to what needed fixing.
"The scenario was a success. Adam, Bree, go have play time," In spite of their destiny to be heroes, they were still children and Donald wasn't heartless. "Chase, I need a word with you." The timid, insecure, shy seven year old diverted his gaze to the ground, a solemn look on his face that said he expected punishment.
"You were a great leader and you used your powers well," Donald decided to start with the good news and end with the bad. "but the fourth robber...why didn't you knock him out?" There was no room for mercy or compassion in the world of crime-fighting, and if this boy was going to be leader, he had to be willing to make and follow through with hard decisions.
"He didn't have a mask," Chase whispered, and Donald almost wanted to punch something for the sheer lack of logic that statement held. But it wasn't all Chase had to say. "I didn't see a criminal. I saw a man with people who loved him. I may not be as strong as Adam, but I know I'm stronger than most. What if I had hurt the man?" Donald wanted to sob at the wasted potential and talents. The skill of leadership and tactics, brilliant use of bionics...all useless because of a bleeding heart.
"He could have hurt you or innocents had he gotten the gun in his other hand. You need to start thinking of others. Stop being so weak." Chase's eyes filled with tears that fell silently as he turned and walked away. It was a hard lesson, but one that needed to be learned.
Failure was not an option.
A week later, Donald re-ran the simulation. This time it was a theft in a warehouse. Once again, Chase refused to attack the head, simply trapping the man in a force field. Donald sighed as he ended the simulation. Chase's borderline pacifism was putting the team and their mission at risk. He had to solve it. With a wave of his hand, he dismissed Adam and Bree. Chase's shoulders slumped, for he knew what would come next. At least what normally would come next. Though Chase could be a pushover, the boy had a core of steel he rarely used, save a few ideals most important to him, which this pacifistic-like ideal clearly was.
"You failed again, Chase," No anger, no accusation. Just a barren, emotionless, state-of-the-fact yet casual tone. The boy clearly wouldn't fix himself, so the responsibility fell to Donald. "I'll fix it." The world needed this. Failure was not an option.
"What exactly are you testing, Mr. Davenport?" The boy asked. Adam and Bree were asleep, for Donald wanted to test his new invention in secret.
"It's an enhancement," Donald answered, feeling slightly guilty even though it was the truth. To him, at least. "To make you better." Chase looked at him with those skeptical yet trusting eyes that seemed to see into his soul. The boy had a mindset of needing to make proud of him everyone he knew, due to his own lack of pride in himself. That mindset was what had stopped him from panicking and alerting Adam and Bree to this less than unsuspicious procedure.
"Okay. I trust you." Chase stepped inside his capsule, and his chip began downloading the Commando App, as Donald had dubbed it. When the process was over, Donald motioned him over to the simulator. Chase stepped in with his glasses on. Donald programmed the scenario with Adam and Bree in it. During the busting of the perps, Chase displayed his usual pacifism. The Commando App did not take over. Donald had Adam and Bree shot and killed. With tears of grief in his eyes and a cry of vengeance in his throat, Chase gave in to the Commando App. Where it was programmed to be stronger than Chase, it became absolutely ruthless and bloodthirsty. Not one of the perps lived longer than a minute after the Commando App took over. Only when the last body had fallen did Chase re-take control, and he sank to his knees sobbing. Donald ended the simulation, realizing he'd programmed the Commando App too perfectly. He'd made it lack the traits Chase had in abundance, compassion and justice, in the hopes of creating a balance. Instead he had created a monster he couldn't undo. Donald sat down and wrapped an arm around the shaking seven year old.
"What did you do?" Chase gasped out between sobs. "I killed those people. I felt so angry and scared...whatever you gave me, take it back." The raw pain in the boy's voice sliced Donald's heart to pieces, his heart beating to the rhythm of that of the Tell-Tale heart.
"I can't take it away, not without you losing your bionics." And given how badly Adam and Bree needed a leader and how powerful Chase was, that was never going to happen. "I think that the Commando App only...did what it did because of your grief and desire for vengeance. I don't think you'll ever kill again. And I think the Commando App will mellow out with age, so you might even be able to control it." All of these were theories, and Heaven have mercy if Donald was wrong and had implanted the most powerful bionic with a ruthless killer personality.
"You said it was to make me better...all it did was make me a killer." Chase's voice broke and hardened at the same time on the final word. It may have been a simulation, but it showed what the Commando App was capable of.
"It only comes out when you're afraid," Donald said, grateful he had added that clause into the Commando App, which now seemed more like he'd played with fire and Chase had been burned. "That means you're going to have to be braver than anyone. Not arrogant, but brave. Even when you want to be afraid, you can't." Guilt ate away at Donald's being as he realized the true damage he had done to the child: Even with the burden of being bionic superheroes, Chase would always have the added burden of fearing himself, worried the Commando App might come out.
"Why did you give me...it. What did I do to deserve this?" Chase wanted an answer, a reason. He deserved a great and just one, but the reality of it was, Donald's impatience was the reason.
"You wouldn't knock people out for fear of hurting them. Instead of working on it patiently...I decided to make something that would get the job done for you." Donald paused to give Chase time to accept the information, then spoke straight from the heart. "I am so, so sorry." But 'sorry' wouldn't fix this. 'Sorry' wasn't worth a dime.
"What's done is done, right?" Chase said weakly. "Better me than Adam or Bree." Donald froze. How do I tell them what I've done to their little brother? How can I live with what I've done to a son I was supposed to protect? "Please don't tell them. They'll figure out someday, which is soon enough for me. I don't want them to think this...thing is me."
"I promise I won't tell them," Especially the part about Donald killing their simulation selves just to test a reaction. "But I will do everything I can to help you control, and hopefully one day, destroy it."
"'It', 'Thing'...it needs a name. To distinguish it. I vote Spike, the most classic dog name. This Spike, it's a guard dog I can never let off its leash."
Failure was not an option.
Author's Note: So there it is. Hope you enjoyed, if you did, pleas review or favorite. Thanks!