Tension...
The team waits for more robots to arrive. But the hall stays the same. "Something doesn't feel right," Bree says, looking behind them.
"Yeah," Leo says, looking around, "it's quiet."
"Too quiet," Adam answers. "Wait, what if the robots are invisible? That would mean they are here… but we just can't hear them." He looks at his siblings to support his theory, only to be met with annoyed expressions.
Then the door opens. All the bionics turn to face whatever is next, only to find Chase standing there. "Chase!"
"Thank goodness, now we can leave," Leo says, turning around. Adam grabs his shoulder as he passes.
Bree sees what he notices too, "Chase…? You okay?" He hasn't moved to join them. He hasn't said anything.
Chase hears Giselle on the other end of the comm she put in his ear, "Do it Chase."
He ignites his bo staff and goes to Bree first. She didn't expect it, so she hits the wall behind her. "Chase!"
Adam goes over to him, but Chase uses his agility to gain an advantage over Adam's larger frame. He flips Leo off his feet, knowing which leg didn't have bionics.
'I'm sorry guys,' he thinks, but he can't say it out loud. Giselle would hear. He looks around the room as he fights back, looking for some way to show the team that he needs their help.
"I don't want to do this Chasey," Adam says, preparing his fist. Chase ducks, his bo staff burning the floor.
'That will work,' he decides.
Bree speeds in front of him, "Why are you doing this? We're your family!" Chase keeps the end of his bo staff longer behind him as he uses it in front as well. He hears it graze the floor.
He pins her to one of the canisters, "This will hurt less than the alternative," he says. She pushes him away. He lands and makes another cut in the floor.
"Repeat after me," Giselle says.
Chase hesitates, giving Leo a chance to aim a blast at him, but it misses, because Leo couldn't bring himself to hurt Chase.
"Leave me alone," Chase finally recites, "I am appreciated here. I'm actually wanted."
To Chase's dismay, they don't react how he thought. There was some belief in their eyes.
'It's not true!' He wants to yell. But he doesn't. He's keeping them safe this way.
He takes on one at a time, knocking out Leo, then Bree. Adam is the last one, so Chase gets a hold of his collar. "Chase..."
'Please see it,' Chase says, pointing with his eyes to the floor. Adam finally gets it and looks down. Chase can't wait to see if he saw it and hits a pressure point. Adam collapses to the ground.
Robots walk in and pick up the bionics. "Good job, Chase," Giselle says through the comm. "Take them to my other facility," she then orders over the speakers.
"Wait-" Chase says, "let them go. They won't come back here."
"That's ridiculous," Giselle says back. But then she thinks, "although, if I don't have them around, then I can't use them against you."
She orders the robots to leave the Davenports at the mansion. Chase walks back to the laboratory, an android behind him.
When he arrives, Giselle is looking over the hologram. "Your speech could use a little work," she comments, not even looking at him, "and I could tell you weren't trying your hardest, except for the end when you knocked them all out. And you were very clumsy, more so than usual, with your bo staff on the floor."
"What are you talking about?"
Giselle looks at him, "I'm questioning your acting, Chase. It was quite the performance, but I wouldn't have hired you."
"Then why am I here?"
Giselle shuts the hologram off. With that sudden action, Chase watches Giselle with more caution, standing stiff. "…You know, Chase," she says, walking over slowly, "I find that vast intellect of yours very… useful. But we're steadily getting to the point where I'm finding it irritating when paired with your mouth."
'I do not like where this is going,' Chase thinks to himself. He refuses to look anywhere else, scared of what she might do.
"It's a problem I dearly need to solve," Giselle adds, then walks to the console and starts looking something over.
"There are many things you could mean by that," Chase says to himself, but Giselle catches it.
"Really?" She asks, "what are they? They are probably much better ideas than mine."
He starts to thank her for understanding his genius, but then realizes she's using his ego against him. "Not going to happen," he says.
Giselle dances her fingers around the switch, making them get closer and closer. She watches Chase visibly tense up even more than before. She laughs, "It looks like I found your crutch."
"Being alone is the real crutch," Chase says back, "you have no one but androids."
"And now I have you. The difference is I don't care about you. Now tell me your proposed solutions to my problem."
Chase stares at the switch, keeping his mouth closed.
"Come on Chase," Giselle eggs on, touching the switch with two fingers, "Humor me. Your family is just dying for me to know."
'Now I wish I didn't have super intelligence,' Chase thinks for the first time, 'this is degrading.'
I may have put 'Chase is the master of snark' a little too heavily in this story. But, that's something he has in common with Douglas. They talk to hide fear.
~CtW