Chapter 2: Something's Wrong

Leo and Mr. Davenport were waiting in the lab when the team arrived back from their mission. As usual, Adam was already congratulating himself on a job well done.

Leo ran over and high-fived Adam victoriously. "Yeah, we did it!"

"We?" Bree repeated skeptically.

"Well, as your official Mission Consultant, I feel we should share the glory with you lowly ground troops," Leo teased. "But if you'd rather let us take all the credit, I'm fine with that. After all, I like to think of myself as the brains behind the team."

"Yeah right," Bree laughed.

"Okay," Davenport interrupted. "You guys did a great job on this mission. The nuclear reactor is safely neutralized and you managed to keep from blowing anything up this time."

"Yeah, that last part was a bit of a disappointment," Adam said. "But I figured I could make up for that after we got home."

"Tasha is upstairs, and she just redecorated," Davenport warned him. "So I think you'd better keep your destructive tendencies at check until she leaves to visit her mother next week."

"Fine," Adam sighed. "Then let's go eat dinner."

"Change out of your mission suits first," Davenport reminded them.

Adam and Bree led the way to their capsules and had the doors closed in only a second. Chase, who was lagging a bit behind, was the last one to climb into his center capsule before Davenport hit the button to activate the changing sequence. The teens emerged in their everyday clothes and the group headed towards the elevator.

Davenport noticed that Chase was unusually quiet and asked him, "Hey, Chase, you feeling okay?"

It took Chase a second to realize he'd been spoken to. He quickly said, "Yeah, Mr. Davenport, I'm fine. Just a little tired I guess."

Davenport looked at him doubtfully. It wasn't characteristic of Chase to be either quiet or slow, but he decided not to press the issue. "Just make sure you get to bed early tonight, then," he said before joining the others on the elevator. Glancing back at Chase, he asked, "You coming?"

"Yeah," Chase said. "I'll be up in a minute. I just want to check on something."

As soon as the elevator doors had closed, Chase walked back into the main lab area and headed for the capsule control panel. He set the controls to run a diagnostic check and then stepped inside his capsule to let the machine scan him. Stepping back out, he went over to the cyber-desk and pulled up a holographic display showing the scan's results. According to the computer, all of his bionics were functioning correctly.

And yet, he didn't feel right. It wasn't that he felt sick, just slow. It was like his brain wasn't running at the same speed as his body. Chase had always been proud of his super-human intelligence and super-senses. It was weird to feel like this. There was almost a constant cloudy feeling in his mind, keeping him from using part of his computer-like brain.

"I'm probably just tired," he tried to convince himself.

Chase deactivated the cyber-desk and headed for the elevator. According to the computer, there was nothing wrong with him. He would probably feel all better by morning...

Bree woke up the next morning with a groan. Since today wasn't a school day, she and Leo had stayed up late the night before watching a movie marathon on tv. But, even when they didn't have school to go to, they still needed to get up early for their daily training excercises. Mr. Davenport was always very strict when it came to their training.

Rubbing the sleepiness out of her eyes, Bree looked out the glass walls of her capsule at the lab. The bright overhead lights were already turned on, which meant that it was almost time for their training session to begin. Eddy - the computer that acted as a combination home security system and housekeeper - always got the lab up and running before Mr. Davenport arrived each morning.

"Rise and shine, boys," she called to the other two. She heard Adam mumble something in response.

Bree glanced casually over at their capsules right before stepping out of her own - and she immediately froze in her tracks. Chase was slumped on the floor of his capsule, unconscious.

"Adam!" she called urgently, running out of her capsule. She hurried to the center capsule and flung open the door. "Adam," she called again. "Come help me over here. I think Chase is hurt."

That was all Adam needed to hear before he burst out of his own capsule and shoved Bree aside. He grabbed his younger brother and laid him down on the floor just outside the capsules. "Chasey, get up," Adam pleaded in a worried voice. Turning to Bree, he asked, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," Bree admitted. She called over to the wall monitor, "Eddy, get Mr. Davenport down here immediately."

For once, the computer didn't argue with her. He sent the message upstairs to where the others were eating breakfast and in less than a minute Davenport came rushing into the lab, followed closely by Leo and Douglas.

"Chase!" Davenport exclaimed, seeing the teen laying so lifelessly on the floor. He rushed over and began checking Chase's vital signs. Looking up at Bree, he asked, "What happened?"

"I don't know," Bree said. "We woke up and found him unconscious."

"Is he okay?" Leo asked.

Davenport shook his head and looked over at Douglas in concern. "I don't think he's breathing."

A/N: So, what do you think so far? Please leave a review to let me know what you thought, or to give tips on how to improve this. Thank you!