Helooooo again, my absolutely flippin' awesome readers! :D Here's the next chapter, and it's quite a bit darker than the last one. :l (I may or may not have made myself cry while writing it. XD) Great big thank-you to everyone who favorited and followed my story, and an even bigger thank-you to my awesome reviewers:
Teeloganroryflan, (sorry, no real Chase angst, :( ) Fanfiction456 (why thank you, m'dear! :D That's awfully sweet of you) PurpleNicole531 (again: Thank you so much for the sweet review, and yes, Bree definitely owes them an apology!) and huoairbender1 (Squeeeee! Thank you so much! You don't know how utterly happy I felt after hearing that! :D) You all get cookies, confetti, and a new chapter! :D
Bree threw the chip extractor back into it's drawer and stalked towards the door, trying to avoid looking at the smoking remains of her cell phone. Adam was climbing out of his capsule, rubbing the back of his neck. There was no question about it, Mr. Davenport was a lot gentler about removing his bionic chip, and he always assured the teenagers that they'd get their chips back as soon as he'd fixed whatever problem prompted him to remove them in the first place.
Bree had made no such promise to her older brother. In fact, Adam wasn't at all sure that his sister wasn't going to go throw his chip into the Grand Canyon - not that he knew exactly where (or even what,) the Grand Canyon was, but distance wouldn't matter to the girl with super speed, and if he didn't know where it was, that would make it all the better for disposing of his bionics.
"Um, Bree, where are you taking my chip?" he inquired nervously, still rubbing the back of his neck. He vaguely noticed that Chase was trying to quietly blend into the wall, in case he was next in line for a brutal extraction - not the easiest thing to do when one was sporting a purple and green plaid shirt against a dark blue wall.
"Somewhere you'll never find it," the middle Davenport growled her older brother, "so that we'll all - and by that, I mean I - will be safe until you've gotten over your cold."
Yep, definitely the Grand Canyon.
"Ohhhh, please don't dump my chip in the Grand Canyon," he pleaded. "Think of how much trouble you'll be in with Mr. Davenport if you do that!" Bree gave him a strange look that was half blank, half scowling.
"I'm not going to dump it in the Grand Canyon, I'm going to put it in Leo's closet," she snapped. "Really Adam, grow a brain!"
Adam's eyebrows drew together in befuddlement. "What's the Grand Canyon doing in Leo's closet?" he asked, puzzled. (Over in the corner, Chase opened his mouth to say something, then seemed to think better of it and maintained a prudent silence.) "Or is Leo's closet in the Grand Canyon? ...I'm confused." He gave his head a slight shake and looked up at his sister, hoping for an explanation, but she just rolled her eyes and turned away, heading for the exit.
Just as she reached it, the steel doors slid open to reveal a bald, bearded man, dressed all in black, with a sinisterly mutilated face. He was smiling, perhaps for the first time, and in a way that none of the bionic teenagers liked.
Adam's chip fell unheeded from her limp fingers. "Victor Krane!" she gasped. The bionic billionaire's evil smile widened.
"Hello, Bree Davenport," he said with a dark chuckle. Moving faster than the eye could follow, his arm whipped up and he seized her by the throat. "Goodbye, Bree Davenport."
Bree struggled in his grip, fighting to draw breath as he slowly crushed her windpipe with what could only be his super strength. Black spots popped in front of her eyes, and she was seconds away from passing out when she and her captor were distracted by a shout of "Let my sister go, you freak!" There was a dull, meaty thud followed by a minor crash as Adam's cocoa cup bounced off Krane's pate and broke on the floor.
Krane snarled in anger and flung the girl aside like a rag doll, turning to the eldest sibling. Bree landed painfully on the floor, gasping, and massaged her aching neck as she tried to replenish her starved lungs. She looked up in alarm as the evil man picked up Leo's desk with one hand and faced her older brother.
"You're next," he grated out. Adam smiled, completely oblivious to the danger.
"If you're going to throw that at me, I'll just catch it," he said cheerfully. "You're not the only one with super strength here."
"Adam!" All three heads turned to Chase, who had shouted. Unmitigated fear was etched all over his youthful face. He didn't say anything else; the look on his face reminded Adam that the villainous man was, in fact, currently the only one in the room with super strength.
Victor Krane looked between them, then down at the glittering, silver object on the floor. A completely sadistic smile spread rapidly over his face, and he brought his heel crashing down onto the chip, grinding it into powder before looking up again and launching the titanium desk across the room.
Bree managed a hoarse shriek as Adam went down, his face completely devoid of expression.
The evil billionaire rounded on her, eyes glittering malignantly. "Not gone yet?" he growled. "I can fix that." He reached into his long, leather coat and pulled out a knife, the blade glinting in the lights of the lab. Too tired to move, the teenaged girl could only watch in terror as he skillfully took aim and threw the blade.
"No!" The word exploded from Chase's mouth with vehement fury. There was a slight buzzing noise as he activated his magnetism, and the speeding weapon changed directions without missing a beat, whirring towards him instead. He had no time to deflect it, and Bree's mouth opened in a silent scream as the knife buried itself up to the hilt in her brother's abdomen. He swayed for a moment, pain-filled brown eyes locked on hers, before crumpling out of sight behind the cyberdesk.
A harsh, guttural scream of pure grief and rage tore out of Bree's ravaged throat, and she pulled herself to her feet, strength - or perhaps just adrenaline born of an excess of negative emotions - coursing through her body. Before Krane could do more than mentally process what had just taken place, she had flung herself forward, speeding around him in a circle, faster than she'd ever gone before. Caught in the center of the vortex, the billionaire psychopath was rapidly running out of oxygen. He tried to use his own super speed to dash out of the way, but Bree was faster, pushing herself harder than she ever had before. He stuck out an arm to interrupt her rotation, but the super-agile girl merely ducked under the outstretched limb, not even breaking stride.
Krane gasped, struggling to draw breath in the airless vortex, but to no avail; there was simply no oxygen left. His vision bypassed spots, opting instead to set off black fireworks that quickly spread, like ink from a cephalopod, to swallow him up in cold darkness.
His legs folded up under him, and he oozed to the floor, neither noticing nor caring that he was kicked in the head no less than seventy-three times before the girl stopped running.
Bree slid to a halt, panting for breath, and stared at her fallen enemy for a few seconds before kicking him aside and racing over to her brothers. She could tell at a quick glance that one was already dead, the other dying. The bionic girl dropped to her knees beside Chase, taking his limp hand in hers and pressing it to her cheek.
"No... Chasey, stay with me," she begged. "Please, don't die...you've got to hang on!" Chase's eyelids flutter slightly as he tried to bring his sister's face into focus. She was blurring and shifting above him, and it was making him dizzy. The effort of staying awake was draining him; he felt rather like the time when he had to use his molecularkenisis and magnetism at the same time.
Bree could see the light going out of her little brother's eyes as he faded away. "No, Chase, please, I..." Her voice caught on a sob as his body went slack in her arms. "...love you," she choked out, just a half second too late. She, who could talk as fast as she could run, hadn't been able to save her brothers, hadn't even been able to tell Chase she loved him before he died without a word.
Curling over on herself, her brother's body still cradled in her arms, the bionic teenager poured out her grief in a scream of utter misery. So great was her pain that tears wouldn't even come to her eyes, and guilt bore down on her chest like a physical weight.
Bree turned agonized eyes to Adam's peaceful face, reaching out and brushing the dark hair off his damp forehead. She slid her hand down his arm, twining her fingers in his while keeping a firm grip on Chase, and let all her pain and rage go tearing out of her in a torrent of strident vocalization. She didn't even notice as the lab started crumbling around her, didn't even care when a giant chunk of the ceiling came rushing down towards her and her brothers...
Drenched in sweat and shaking like a leaf, Bree jolted awake.
Yep, that's right! It was all a dream! xD Surely you didn't think I was going to really kill them, did you? The show hasn't even ended! 0_0 Sheesh...
And yes, I am aware that the first lab was already blown up by the time they first encountered Victor Krane. Like I said, it might be slightly AU when it comes to the order of events. XD You're all welcome to envision them at the second lab if you want, but good luck with the dark blue walls. xD
Anyway. Last chapter will hopefully be posted soon!
