AN: Hi friends, I'm here with a little adventure one-shot set shortly(ish) after You Posted What?! from Season 3 of Lab Rats. This idea came to me one night, and there was no way I could pass up the idea. So here you go - enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Lab Rats or any of the named characters, just the plot.
"Mr. Davenport, what's wrong with him?"
Bree looked to her father figure with questioning eyes before turning back to her still brother. She shook his arm, but there was no response.
"I don't know – this has never happened to any of you before," Mr. Davenport replied, the words tumbling from his mouth in his haste. He was at the cyber-desk, searching through files as if his life depended on it. "Just make sure you keep a close eye on him."
"No worries," she mumbled. Staring at her brother's limp body sprawled on the floor, she shuddered at how close it appeared to death. She adjusted his position in the vain attempt to make him more comfortable.
"Come on, Chase," she said to him softly, waving her hand in front of his wide-open eyes. They only stared straight at the ceiling, unmoving and unseeing.
Bree found herself compelled to check his pulse again, to feel his chest rising and falling with breath. If he was dead….
No, he wasn't dead. The pulse was strong, and he had no trouble breathing – his mouth was slightly ajar, allowing easy air flow.
Then why aren't you awake? Why aren't you moving? Bree silently asked him. He had been the only one of her brothers to walk home with her today – Adam and Leo had caused some form of mischief to get themselves detention again – and she and Chase had just arrived in the lab when he suddenly collapsed, falling into his current state of stasis.
She stared into his hazel eyes, and their glassy, lifeless look gave her chills. Reaching forward, she gently closed them.
Chase rose to consciousness, and immediately he noticed the silence. This wasn't the silence of a quiet room, but the deafening silence that makes a heart stop.
It must have made Chase's stop, because he didn't hear a heartbeat.
He would have started hyperventilating if he could breathe. But he couldn't – he hadn't been – and he didn't feel the need to.
He couldn't hear his breathing either.
Gone were the noises of machinery from the mansion and the surrounding houses. Gone were sounds of voices, vehicles, animals. Even the sound of wind, rustling leaves, lapping water – it was all gone. Chase should have been able to hear everything for miles around.
But there was nothing.
And he was terrified.
I've got to see, I've got to move. He tried opening his eyes, but to his rising panic, there weren't any eyes to open. He had no fingers to lift, no limbs to move.
There was nothing to feel, nothing to taste, nothing to smell. No air movement, temperature, nothing.
He wasn't even seeing blackness or whiteness, or any color. It wasn't even gray. It. Was. Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
What's going on? Am I dead?
In all honesty, Chase wanted to cry out of terror and anguish. He was certain that this was it – this was all that would remain for him for the rest of eternity.
It didn't take long for Chase to discover that there was no escape from this cruel punishment. He could not sink into unconsciousness, and he couldn't actually do anything. He just was.
He was telling himself how sorry he was for himself when his existence exploded with light and color. He was thoroughly startled by this, but his hunger for something related to life gripped him, forcing upon him a captivation for what he saw before him.
Surrounding him were waves of binary code, flowing walls flickering green in the nothingness. His essence spread out and absorbed the coding, relishing it as if it were air.
A strong notion rose within him. This is the key to my freedom – if I solve the coding, I can return to life.
Chase set to work.
"Sir – Mr. President!" a man burst into the oval office as the guards opened the doors for him.
The president of the United States stood, attempting to wipe off the tired mask that was molding his face with every passing day. "I heard. What are the details?"
"Whoever it is, they're a genius – we deal with hackers every day, but none like this one. This hacker is fast, and the precision is unparalleled."
"Will they get through?" the president asked.
The man looked him right in the eyes. "Yes."
Almost there… almost there…. Chase's very being leaned forward – as much as one can lean forward in a directionless expanse of nothing. He had to admit, this was one of the most challenging puzzles he'd ever had to crack, but it was coming.
It was coming….
As the last digit locked in place, his existence once again flashed stunningly, and he was flooded with an overwhelming amount of information. There was so much – even for his bionic brain – that he was unable to comprehend any of it.
With a new onslaught of terror, Chase forced himself to focus on something, anything. He opted for the most visible aspect of the information – scenes playing like movies, all at once, right on top of each other. He forced himself to sift through them, all the while hoping he didn't go insane from this bombardment.
What just happened? Why am I not free?
What did I just do?
"Drop everything and put your hands up!"
Mr. Davenport and Bree immediately leapt away from everything around them, putting their hands in the air. Both their hearts pounded with fright – the intruders had burst in by surprise.
"This is the FBI! You are surrounded!" shouted the squad leader.
Bree whirled around, taking in the twenty men whom had swarmed into the room to ring them. Guns were up and aimed.
"What's going on?!" Mr. Davenport exclaimed. "We're the good guys!"
"Where's the computer?" the squad leader demanded, and his men bristled.
"What?"
"Where's the computer you used to hack the U.S. government?"
"Someone hacked the U.S. government? That's impossible!" Mr. Davenport's face was long with awe. "We didn't do it – why would you think it's us?"
"We tracked the signal to this location. Now tell us where the computer is!"
Bree met Mr. Davenport's eyes. He turned to the FBI. "We didn't do it, we swear."
The squad leader clenched his jaw. "We have warrant to arrest everyone in this household."
"Even him?" Bree asked, pointing to Chase, who was still lying motionless on the floor.
"What's wrong with him?" the squad leader asked.
"We don't know – he's been like this for the last forty-five minutes," Mr. Davenport answered. "He's unresponsive."
With the gesture of two fingers, the squad leader sent two of his men to investigate the unconscious bionic.
Bree met Mr. Davenport's eyes again. "Could it be…?" she mouthed.
Mr. Davenport's face took on a stone-like quality. He glanced to Chase, and then to the squad leader. "I know who it is, and I know how we need to contact them. Tell your guys at the capitol to type into any mainframe. Tell them to type the message 'Why are you doing this, Chase Davenport?' "
_WHY_ARE_YOU_DOING_THIS_CHASE_ DAVENPORT_
Chase would have blinked in surprise if he'd had eyes to blink. The message had popped up before him, and it made him pause in his furious attempt to control the inflow of information. With a great amount of concentration, he replied.
_WHAT_AM_I_DOING_
_YOU_HAVE_HACKED_THE_UNITED_STATES_GOVERNMENT_YOU_ARE_UNDER_ARREST_
Chase would have fainted if he'd been able to.
_I_AM_SO_SORRY_I_SWEAR_I_DID_NOT_KNOW_WHAT_I_WAS_DOING_
Donald Davenport resisted the urge to curse something on someone when he read Chase's response. He'd been allowed to witness the dealings with Chase in the federal government representative office of California in the state capitol, and right then he wanted to strangle the boy. "How do you not know that you're hacking the most powerful government in the world? Dang it, Chase!"
Just then another message from Chase appeared on the computer screen. _I_AM_STUCK_IN_SOME_SORT_OF_VIRTUAL_STATE_AND_I_THOUGHT_THE_CODING_WAS_THE_WAY_OUT_
A moment later, Chase added _GET_DONALD_AND_DOUGLAS_DAVENPORT_THEY_CAN_HELP_
The men standing around Donald all looked at him, and he shrugged, putting his hands up in cluelessness. This was more up Douglas' ally.
"We need to call my brother."
Douglas paced back and forth, listening to his older brother rant.
"How does he get stuck in a virtual world? That might be why his body isn't responding, but how does that even happen? And then, better yet, how does he hack the government of the United States of America BY ACCIDENT?!"
Douglas snapped his fingers. "He was hacked."
"I know the president was hacked, what do you think I am? We're talk-"
"Donald!" Douglas cut him off. "Chase was hacked."
"What!"
"His chip was hacked and through his bionics, he was cut off from sensory information. Whoever hacked his chip exposed him to the U.S. government's virtual database and set Chase to hack it. With the kid's super-intelligence, he got through it in a snap," Douglas explained.
"How were you able to figure that out?" Donald asked bluntly, his tone colored with disbelief.
"Because I would've done something like that," Douglas answered sheepishly. "I just didn't realize how powerful of a hacking system I created in that boy's mind."
_CHASE_WE_ARE_GOING_TO_FREE_YOU_BUT_FIRST_YOU_NEED_TO_TRACK_THE_HACKER_
Chase's confusion ramped up a little. _I_THOUGHT_I_WAS_THE_HACKER_
_YOUR_CHIP_WAS_HACKED_
That statement hit Chase like a punch to the gut. If he'd had a gut to be punched. But when he analyzed it, he knew that was the answer. It made sense.
But how was he supposed to track this guy?
Think, Chase, think.
Processing... processing...
I know what to do!
He spread his consciousness again, cringing at how much information besieged him. But he trained his focus on the coding, on the feel of it, searching for the pattern….
Gotcha!
_I_FOUND_THE_HACKER_ With the message, Chase also sent the coordinates.
"Got 'em!" Douglas clapped. Orders were shouted by the government workers, and within seconds another FBI unit in the vicinity of the coordinates was deployed.
"We should have the real culprit within the hour," the government guy in charge notified Douglas and Donald. "But, I have to warn you, the boy will still face charges for cooperation."
"Ridiculous! He said so himself – he didn't intend to commit any crime! He was tricked!" Douglas exclaimed.
"You expect us to drop charges just because he claims he's innocent?" the man asked. "There are liars in this world, Mr. Davenport."
"Yeah, you're telling that to one of them," Donald said with amusement. He turned to his brother. "Drop it, Douglas." To the government worker, he said "We'll pay the fine."
The man nodded promptly, turning back to his work.
"Wait 'til we get our hands on that hacker," Douglas growled.
"The hacker is in custody."
Donald and Douglas both leapt out of their seats, hurrying after the government official to a conference room. On the far wall was a large screen where a live video call was being projected. On the screen were two guards holding a third, much smaller person in the middle. They removed the burlap sack from the hacker's head.
"What?" Douglas' jaw dropped. Donald didn't say anything, simply staring in incredulity. "Who are you?" Douglas asked.
The short young woman swung her bangs out of her face. "I don't have anything against you or your family. I consider myself to be one of the best hackers in the world, and I wanted to see if I could accomplish the impossible; hack the U.S. government without being caught. And I almost did it."
"None of the information she received was exported from her computer, and we destroyed her server," the present government representative stated.
"It was simply a personal challenge," the woman smirked.
"And now you will be sentenced to solitary confinement in prison for a very long time," a man off screen said dryly.
"Your game's up, lady, so now you need to release Chase," Douglas interjected into the conversation.
"My server was destroyed – I have no hold of him. If you reset his chip, he should be fine."
"Alright, Douglas, let's go. We're done here," Donald said, grabbing his younger brother and dragging him out of the room.
Douglas looked back, throwing her one last parting glare. "Don't touch my kids ever again."
"Chaaase. Come on Chase, wake up buddy."
Chase groaned, blinking his eyes open blearily. He was half supported by the wall of his capsule, and half supported by Douglas, who was gently shaking him. The rest of the family all stood around, looking on with worry.
"Hey Chase, how are you feeling?" Donald asked.
Chase groaned again. "That was awful. All these sounds, sights, smells, all back… it's giving me a headache."
"You'd think that hacking the government would be enough to give you a headache all by itself," Bree chuckled. Chase managed a small smile in response.
"What's it like being hacked?" Leo asked.
"It was like being dead," Chase replied without hesitation.
"What was it like being dead?" Adam asked with wide eyes.
"I don't know," Chase spluttered. "I wasn't actually dead, so how am I to tell?"
"But you said it was like being dead," Adam argued.
"He's right," Leo shrugged.
"Ah, forget it," Chase moaned, slapping his hand to his forehead.
"Should we let you rest, honey?" Tasha asked him.
"We probably should," Donald replied for him. "Everyone else, we're going upstairs to give Chase some recovery time. The others nodded, and all but Chase and Douglas ambled out of the lab.
"Did you ever get the guy?" Chase asked, little energy to his demeanor.
"Yeah, we did. Everything's fine now, it turned out that it was just to prove a point. You were the tool," Douglas answered.
"Great," Chase muttered.
"Hey, that wasn't even the worst part. But I'll let you get some rest now; we'll talk more tomorrow." Douglas let go of Chase, closing and stepping away from the capsule.
"Wait, what?" Chase frowned, finding the energy to support himself and press against the glass anxiously. "What's the worst part?"
Douglas was walking out of the lab when he paused, looking back at the bionic briefly. A smirk graced his lips, and by his facial features, it was clear that he couldn't contain himself any longer. "Okay fine, I'll tell you. Guess what?"
"What?"
"You got hacked and manipulated by a girl."
"What?"
"Goodnight!"
"Douglas!"