Welcome back to the wonderful world of demons!
As you may have already guessed, this is a prequel to Hybrid.
Because how did Chase go from Chase to Hellcat, right?
Before we start this, it's important to note that this takes place immediately after "Taken." The rest never happened.
Also, this is way AU and OOC. There's cussing and demons and various lewd remarks. You were warned.
The beautiful part about this, though, is that you don't really need to read Hybrid to understand it. If you want to start here before moving to the trilogy, then go for it. This preceded all of that.
However, I'm rambling. Let's get started with Homeless! Chase?
"Zara doesn't own Lab Rats or anything you recognize. If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers."
"There had been times when he knew, somewhere in him, that he would get used to it, whatever it was, because he had learnt that some hard things became softer after a very little while."
Nick Hornby, About a Boy
"It's hard to stay positive when nothing ever goes right."
Unknown
Ra'Zara the First proudly presents "Homeless."
Chase
"It's not here!"
Adam's voice echoed up from the storage area beneath the Lab, reverberating against the metallic walls a bit. I sighed as Mr. Davenport leaned over the opening in the floor and called out, "Are you sure? Do you know what it looks like?"
"I'm pretty sure I know what a roll of red wire looks like," Adam huffed back after a second.
Mr. Davenport frowned. "Adam? You're supposed to be looking for a dremel."
Silence, and then: "What's a dremel?"
"It's like a drill," Mr. Davenport called back.
"Oh, okay. And a drill is what, again?"
I sighed. Honestly, I wasn't all that surprised that Adam was having trouble, a thought that annoyed me greatly. Adam was clever, and I didn't understand why he couldn't use that obvious intelligence all the time. It seemed like such a waste.
"Come back up, Adam," Mr. Davenport sighed, rubbing his eyes. "I'll find it later."
"Can I bring this ring - thingy up?" Adam asked.
Mr. Davenport squinted into the hole. "What ring - thingy?"
"I'll just bring it up," Adam responded, answering his own question for us.
"Bring what up?" Leo asked as he walked into the Lab, catching the end of the conversation.
I shrugged as Mr. Davenport closed the floor panel (Adam would be taking the stairs). "Who knows? Something Adam found."
Leo nodded, leaning against the cyber desk beside me. "Why was he down there, anyways?"
"Looking for a dremel," I answered.
Leo frowned and nodded towards the desk. "There's a dremel right there."
Mr. Davenport picked it up. "Yeah, but there's no power behind it anymore. I think the battery died."
Leo looked ready to say something else - most likely to suggest that the battery be charged - but was interrupted by Adam, who finally came through the tunnel. In his hands was a metal ring fixed to a base that had dozens of buttons on it. He put it down on the cyber desk with a grin. "See, I was thinking that we could teach Chase to jump through it. Then, we could actually use him on missions as a distraction instead of a third wheel."
I scowled. I could maybe fit my head through it, but that was all. And I was plenty useful.
"We'll have to lower it, though," Adam went on. "It's probably too high for him to reach." He punched my arm "playfully." I, however, had to stop myself from crying out. Grand, I just got a new bruise. Grinding my teeth, I punched Adam on the chest.
Don't look at me like that; I had a right to defend myself.
Adam scowled and swung back harder. I caught his punch with my hand - I could feel the bones in one of my fingers crack - when Mr. Davenport - not even looking away from the ring - absently said, "Stop picking fights, Chase."
I bit back the observation that Adam had been the one who started it rather than me. It wasn't worth it to protest anymore. Nothing would ever be done about it. Instead, I ignored Adam's smug smile as I checked the flexibility of my fingers, wincing when one wouldn't move. Fantastic. Just what I wanted. A broken finger. When I turned my attention back to everyone else, Leo was shooting me a sympathetic look. However, he said nothing.
He never did. No one ever did.
As I crossed the Lab to the cabinets to find a splint and some bandages - I didn't need their help to handle a broken finger - Mr. Davenport finally sighed and poked a button on the base of the ring. When nothing happened, he sighed again. "We never could get this thing to work."
"What is that thing?" Leo asked while I wrapped my finger up.
"It's just an old invention Douglas and I made together back in college," Mr. Davenport explained. "It was supposed to open a portal to a different world."
"A Daven-portal?" I commented.
"Technically, a Daven-demon portal," Mr. Davenport answered.
"A what?" Adam asked, tilting his head.
Mr. Davenport shrugged. "We were trying to punch a hole into the demon world."
"Okay, but why?" Leo asked.
"Because we were stupid college kids who thought demons existed." Mr. Davenport smiled slightly. "Besides, that was before Douglas turned evil."
To be honest, I wasn't totally sold on the evil thing anymore. He had saved our lives. He saved mine twice. Still, though...
Douglas was a generally confusing person, I supposed. I was still trying to figure him out.
"Demons don't exist," Leo pointed out.
Mr. Davenport shot him a look. "I know."
"Anyways, Mom said dinner's ready," Leo informed us.
Adam was instantly out of the Lab. Mr. Davenport rolled his eyes and followed him with Leo. I, on the other hand, lingered. As they all turned the corner and vanished, I approached the inoperable portal. It made no sense to me, honestly. Mr. Davenport had always been rational. So why would he ever think that demons existed? They were just mythical creatures thought up to scare little children into eating their vegetables and going to bed on time.
I touched the base of the portal, my fingers lingering over the buttons. It might not work now, but I could probably fix that. I didn't know what would happen, since there wasn't a demon world to break into, but it couldn't be that bad. More importantly, instead of being told to lay off Adam, I might be thanked for once.
That would be nice.
Giving the portal one last look, I moved away from it. I could fix it later, when my finger didn't hurt so badly. A few hours in my capsule would have it good as new, anyways. Resolving to work on it tomorrow, I boarded the elevator, watching the portal until the doors blocked it from view.
Upstairs was the usual mad house. Adam was eating enough for a small army while Bree was practically glued to her phone, texting who-cared-how-many people at once. Leo and Mr. Davenport were in some kind of contest to see who could eat their meal the fastest - at least, I think that was what was going on - and Tasha was watching all of this with an expression of hopelessness.
At least she accepted the chaos for what it was: Family dinner with the Davenports.
I slid into the empty seat by Tasha, shooting her a sympathetic smile. I was actually very surprised when she stuck around after we were introduced. Most women would have left Mr. Davenport the second we were found in the basement because we had been kept a secret.
No one wanted someone who kept secrets that big, right?
Congratulations! Now that we're married, I have a confession: You have three new kids!
Wait, what?!
I love you, dear?
Tasha Davenport: Just rolling with the punches.
Instead of saying hi, though, Tasha instantly grabbed my hand. "What happened to your finger?"
I shrugged, picking up my fork. "You know, just some stupid stuff went down."
Her eyes instantly flooded with concern. "Are you all right?"
It was nice that someone cared. I nodded, giving her a reassuring smile. "It'll be fine."
"Did you set it?"
She was just question central today, wasn't she? I guess it was a mother thing. "It only cracked. Nothing was out of place."
She finally released my hand. "Want some Advil or something?"
Dear God, yes! This thing throbbed constantly. I felt like it was about to fall off.
I shook my head. "It's fine." If I took something, Adam would try to "beat the weakness out of me." I didn't want another set of bruises to hide. Besides, I was no stranger to pain. I could handle it.
Tasha gave me a reproachful look. "You don't have to be strong all the time, you know."
Unfortunately, Tasha, I lived in a house where I kind of did have to be strong all the time. I wouldn't make it otherwise. I smiled at her. "I'm fine. I promise."
She sighed and dropped the subject, opting instead to huff at Adam for abandoning silverware for his fingers. I thought we were done with it, but desert rolled around and, silently, the subject came up in the form of two pills nestled in my ice cream bowl. I stared at them for a second before I finally caught on to what Tasha was trying to do. If I ate the pills with the ice cream, no one would actually know I took them.
In seconds, I popped the pills in my mouth and swallowed like it was just a spoonful of ice cream. Tasha winked discreetly at me, and I shot her an incredibly grateful smile. Clever woman. Maybe she understood the dynamics of the house more than I thought.
After dinner, I passed on the family television marathon. Instead, I sat in my capsule, letting the regenerative properties of the device work its magic on my finger while I read a Stephen King novel Leo had let me borrow. I knew that the stories weren't real, but the horror genre had been particularly interesting to me of late. It was strange to think that an actual person had a mind so twisted that they could come up with something so bizarre.
Like the Daven-demon portal, I supposed.
I glanced across the Lab at it, the strange metallic ring catching the light. Why Mr. Davenport made it out of silver was a mystery to me. Seemed like a waste of money. Steel -or any other metal, really - would have worked just as well, in my opinion.
Oh, well. I wasn't going to poke holes in his designs. I was just going to make the thing work.
Tomorrow, of course. After I could use my finger again. I returned my attention to the book in my hands, smiling slightly.
I'd fix the portal tomorrow.
There you have it. Most of you probably know what happens next. For those of you who don't, however, it gets weird.
Really weird.
But we'll worry about that next time, right?
Until then, feel free to review. Or don't. Whatever.
And, of course, enjoy.
*Bows and exits*