Douglas was asleep in the hospital bed. Chase hadn't left his side since he found him in mission control on his death bed. He placed his face in his hands and sighed. "I'm such an idiot." He whispers to himself.
"You're the smartest man in the world." A weak voice says. Chase looks up and sees Douglas smile at him. "In no possible way could you be an idiot." Chase goes over to his bed.
"But this is all-" Chase starts and Douglas rolls his eyes.
"It's not your fault!" He scolds and coughs a bit.
"But I should have been more cautious. I shouldn't have just trusted Reese so willingly. Especially after what happened with Sebastian. If I'm so smart how come I can't figure out who's evil and who's not?"
"Because you're smart, not perfect." Douglas reminds him. "They were excellent at deception. It's not like you could have read their minds and known what they were planning." Chase sighs and looks down.
"I suppose not." He says.
"F.I.O.N.A on the other hand can." Douglas adds and Chase's head snaps back up to Douglas.
"What!?" He exclaims. Douglas smiles softly. "What the heck is an F.I.O.N.A!"
"She's a bionic girl I made that I sent Skylar and Bree to get. They're also getting her sister Eve, the strongest woman in the world. I'm recruiting them to join the force." Chase's mouth opened and closed.
"When were you planning on telling me this!" He exclaims and jumps a bit. Douglas smiled more. He loved seeing Chase's little freak outs when he learned something new.
"Once I found them again." Douglas explains. "They both ran away from the lab when they were kids because F.I.O.N.A found out that we were going to kill them."
"You were going to kill them!" Chase screams. Kaz and Oliver came running in.
"Oh hey Doug you're up!" Kaz smiles. "What's this about killing people?"
"He ordered two bionic girls to be killed!" Chase exclaims.
"They escaped beforehand!" Douglas argued.
"You still ordered them to be killed!" Chase yelled.
"Chase I think you should calm down." Oliver suggests. "You're increasing Douglas's heart rate." Chase takes a few breaths.
"Sorry. I've just been a bit tense lately." He says.
"Who are the two bionic girls you guys are talking about?" Kaz asks.
"Subjects E and F. Also known as Eve and F.I.O.N.A. I've sent Bree and Skylar to recruit them for the Elite Force." Douglas says.
"What does F.I.O.N.A stand for?" Oliver asks.
"Female Intelligence Over Normal Ability." Douglas says. This catches Chase's attention.
"So you gave her increased intelligence too?" Chase asks.
"Yep. She's got the same bionics as you Chase. She's the smartest woman in the world." He says.
"Wow. I never knew I had a younger sister who was as smart as me." Chase says and smiles a bit.
"Oh you guys aren't related." Douglas quickly adds.
"Hey Chase, maybe now you'll have a girl that can actually tolerate being around you." Kaz jokes then notices Chase's eyes start to get misty. "Too soon."
"Yeah." Chase says curtly and leaves, slamming the door behind him.
"He's still not over Reese is he?" Douglas asks. Kaz and Oliver shake their heads. Douglas sighs. "Well I'm not surprised. This is the second time he's been tricked into trusting someone who was actually evil. He's going to be kicking himself for awhile."
"He still blames this all on himself." Kaz says.
"Well then we'll have to find a way to let him fix it so that he can have closure." Douglas says. "Maybe F.I.O.N.A can help with that. The minds of the two smartest people in the world are better than one. They'll be able to accomplish a lot more together than they ever could apart." Douglas chuckles.
"How do you know that?" Oliver asks. Douglas smiles and settles back into a comfortable sleeping position.
"Because that's the way I made her." Douglas says before falling asleep again.
That night, the girls set up camp again in the woods. "If my calculations are correct-" Fiona says then corrects herself "Wait what do I mean if? I know they're correct." She laughs everyone gives her a blank expression. "We'll get there tomorrow."
"Great." Bree smiles. "Do you think I should let the guys know that Eve's a giant so Chase can come up with some way to keep her hidden or something like that?"
"Or we could not tell them and have Eve scare the crap out of them!" Skylar suggests.
"Wouldn't that be mean?" Fiona asks.
"No it's hilarious! Especially when you hear Chase and Oliver's high pitched girly screams!" Skylar mentions and she and Bree both laugh. Fiona smiled a bit. She had to admit, the way the girls described pulling a prank on the boys did seem amusing to her, even though she had never met them and could therefore have no opinions of her own on them. But she knew of the nature of pranks and how people found them amusing. She may be the smartest girl in the world, but unfortunately emotions were the one thing she just couldn't seem to understand. She had tried experiments, research, anything to try to find a scientific answer to the problem she had been presented with. But she never found a way. Her feelings were just too complex. No matter how many research papers she read on endorphins or the neurological studies of emotions, nothing could seem to explain the joy she felt when Eve got excited over a bird using her as a perch, or how safe and warm she felt when she rested up against her sister at night. Or even the wonder she felt when they walked to Colorado and she saw the vast expanse of space from the Grand Canyon. Science couldn't explain any of it. And that's how she started thinking that perhaps there was more to life than just finding out how it works.
"You know, it's kind of nice to be out here." Bree says and smiles at her friends. "Just us four girls, out in the woods, no troubles in the world." She says and looks around. "It's relaxing. It's made me feel a lot better after the attack."
"Me too." Skylar agrees and looks around. "I feel like I can think a lot clearer now."
"Yeah. It's like all of that stress and fear just went away and now our minds are more open." Bree says. "Now I feel like I can do anything."
"We should take the guys camping." Skylar suggests and Bree gets an idea.
"Wait! Skylar you're a genius!" Bree exclaims.
"I am?" She asks.
"I thought I was the genius here?" Fiona asks.
"You still are, but Skylar just gave me an awesome idea!" Bree says. "We should have a team retreat! We could all come camping and clear our heads and relax before we regroup and take down Rodissius!" Bree exclaims.
"That's a great idea!" Skylar says. "But I'm not too sure how much Oliver is going to like being out in the woods. He is easily frightened after all."
"Yeah and I'm not sure how Chase is going to react to not being around technology 24/7." Bree says. "I'm not even sure if he'd know what to do with himself!" She laughs. "I mean it's not like any of us have ever been camping before! The only times we ever go anywhere are for missions. There's so much of the world that I want to see. So much that I want to do." Bree says and looks up at the starry sky. "I just wish there weren't so many problems in the world, so many things that I have to step in and do. I just wish I could have a break you know. So I could enjoy myself and be normal for once." Everyone looked at Bree sympathetically.
"So then it's settled. We tell the boys tomorrow that we're going to go on a retreat sometime to regroup." Skylar says. Eve yawns and rubs her eye sleepily.
"I think it's time we hit the hay." Fiona says.
"Yeah I'm getting tired too." Skylar says and Eve lays down and the girls find comfortable spots on the ground in the space between her legs and her body and slowly fall asleep. After everyone had fallen fast asleep, Fiona suddenly jolted awake. She looked off into the woods in the distance and quickly got up and ran in that direction. As she left, Skylar woke up and watched her run off. She got up and slowly followed her. Fiona darted around trees, and through the brush until suddenly she saw a flash of light and held out her hand and stopped it. (Yes like Kylo Ren XD) It was a laser of some sort. Skylar ducked down behind the bushes and watched, amazed by Fiona's power.
"Who are you?" Fiona asks calmly, wanting to know who her attacker was. A girl steps out from behind a tree. She had dark short hair and olive skin. Reese. Skylar identifies in her mind when she sees her. "You're one of them aren't you? A shapeshifter." Fiona asks. Reese frowned slightly but quickly regained her air of confidence.
"How did you know?" She asks and smirks.
"I'm very intuitive." Fiona says simply. Reese smiles and starts to circle around Fiona who was still blocking her laser.
"How did you know I was here and wake up so quickly?" She asks.
"Why on Earth would I give my enemy the logistics of my bionics?" Fiona asks. The girl turns to face her.
"So you are one of them now?" She asks and smirks. "A member of the Elite Force?" Fiona nods. Reese laughs. "For someone who's so smart, you're actions are so foolish." She mocks. Fiona smirks and releases Reese's laser and sends it back at her. Reese shrieks and ducks out of the way. The laser hit the tree and burned out.
"Foolish like that?" Fiona asks and smirks. Reese got an angry look on her face and stood back up.
"I have 11 other siblings aside from myself. And we can take any form, and have multiple powers that are unpredictable." She says and gets right in Fiona's face. "You and your freak sister have no idea what you'll be up against."
"And neither do you." Fiona says and suddenly Reese is sent back into a tree and Fiona is standing there with some red energy in her hand. "Never call my sister a freak again." She warns.
"You'll regret that." Reese warns. "If you go through with joining the Elite Force, my siblings and I will destroy you!"
"And I can't wait to see you try." Fiona smiles. Reese turns into a swarm and flies away into the night. "You can come out now Skylar, it's safe." Skylar's eyes widened and she stood up to face Fiona, and made her way over to her.
"How did you know she was here? How I was here?" She asks. Fiona touches her temple and her bionic eye activates and shows a virtual grid around them.
"An alert feature that was added to my bionics. Anything that comes within 50 yards of me I'll be able to detect. And since my encounters with Roman and Riker, my system can identify shape shifters now. So I'll know if one is near us. And since they're classified as a threat I'll automatically wake up if I sense one." She explains.
"Wow. That'll be really helpful!" Skylar says and laughs a bit. She notices something on Fiona's chest. "What's that?" She asks. Fiona looks down and sees the necklace that her nurse had given her.
"To be honest I'm not really sure. One of the nurses that took care of me when I was in the lab gave it to me." Fiona explains. "Why do you ask?"
"Because something about it seems familiar..." Skylar says and tilts her head and looks at it. Suddenly Bree comes running over to them.
"Guys! We need to get back to Centium City now!" She tells them urgently.
"What's wrong?!" Skylar asks.
"It's Douglas. He's dying..." She says and Eve comes up behind her. A wave of silence rolls over the four girls.
"I'll get you guys back there." Eve says.
"But how are we going to get you inside the city?" Bree asks. "When people see you they'll freak out and they might try to hurt you."
"Then I'll just get you as close to the city as possible and you guys can fly the rest of the way there. You can come back for me after." Eve says.
"Eve are you sure about this?" Fiona asks, not liking the idea of leaving her sister alone. She nods.
"I'll be fine Fifi. I'm a giant. I can protect myself." She assures her. "Now everyone get in my hand." She instructs.
"Wait what?" Bree asks.
"I'm going to throw you to the city." Eve says.
"You're going to do what!?" Bree and Skylar exclaim.
"We'd die!" Bree says.
"Well me and Fiona can fly." Skylar reminds her. "So once Eve throws us, we can fly at top speed to the hospital in Centium City. I'll carry you."
"It's the fastest way." Fiona tells Bree. She looks up at Eve.
"Alright. If it gets us there quickly." Bree says and everyone holds onto each other and Eve picks them up.
"I'll meet you guys there." Eve says and then gets a running start to increase the force of her throw so they'll go faster and then she lets go and they go flying off at an unimaginable speed. (I got the idea to have Eve throw them from a scene in the anime Seven Deadly Sins). Fiona used her energy to give her a boost so she could keep up with Skylar as she held onto Bree and soon the city was in sight. The girls landed in front of the hospital.
"I should probably wait out here." Fiona says. "I'll let you guys have your time with him."
"He raised you Fiona." Bree says. "I'm sure he'd want to see you one last time." Tears slid down her cheeks.
"The thing is, I'm not sure if I can handle seeing him one last time..." Fiona says. "I'll come in if I feel up to it."
The girls go inside and find Kaz and Oliver comforting Chase. He had tears rolling down his cheeks. "It's all my fault. It's all my fault!" He exclaims and then Bree and Skylar come over.
"Chase it's not your fault. Reese was the one who struck him." Bree tells him.
"And I was the one who let her into the house!" Chase reminds her.
"Chase she was exceptionally good at deceiving people. There was no way you could have known she was evil." Skylar tells him.
"Maybe if I wasn't so desperate for love I wouldn't have been so blind." Chase tells himself. Bree hugs him and so do the other heroes.
"Don't blame yourself. Douglas wouldn't want that." Bree says.
"He's in bad shape." Kaz says. "Apparently as his system was recovering, some sort of lingering shock reignited in his already weak body and now he's got one foot in the grave."
"We just have to pray for a miracle." Oliver says and they all hug again. None of them noticed the red energy slowly creeping into the room. It went through everyone's minds and froze them in place, as if they were frozen in time. Fiona walked in. She looked at the Elite Force and gave a small smile.
"Don't worry. I'll save him." She says softly and makes her way into the Emergency wing. Her energy entered the nurse's and doctors heads, telling them that it was okay for her to be there so they let her pass. She finally reached Douglas's room and instructed the doctors and nurse's to back away, with her mind. They obeyed and Fiona looked at Douglas.
"Look how far you have fallen now. I remember when I was on a hospital bed, in pain, and you instructed the scientists to ignore my screams of pain and keep upgrading my chip, no matter how much it hurt. All you wanted was money. A weapon. That's all you ever thought of me. My wish to save you defies all logic, every rational thought in my head says I should let you die, as karma for what you did to me and my sister for all those years. And yet, I find that I still have some sort of fondness for you. There were small flickers, small moments when you acted like a father to us. Gave me and Eve dolls, snuck me into your private lab one night to let me use your equipment to run an experiment. I remember those days. Those moments. And now that I know there is no more evil in your heart, for some reason that defies all reason, I'm going to use the powers you unintentionally created to save your life." She says and places her hand over his heart. She uses her mind and visualizes the inside of his body, the veins were burnt and the heart had stopped beating. She started to command the molecules in his body to rebuild themselves, and the blood to start flowing again. The veins in his body started glowing red with her energy. She moved up to his brain and started putting the molecules back together there, so electrical signals could be sent to his heart once more. The brain restarted and soon she could hear his heart beating and the faint beep of the monitor, showing that his heart was beating, and soon he would stabilize. Fiona gently removed her hand from him and started to back away, keeping her energy there, commanding the molecules to continue rebuilding, and healing his body. Douglas started to open his eyes. He looked at her and she felt a pang in her heart. He smiled a bit.
"You came back..." He smiles at her. She let a small one slip but did not falter her stoic composure. She left the room and released her hold on the doctors. They all looked shocked and started murmuring when they looked and found their nearly dead patient alive, awake and almost completely healed. Fiona retraced her steps, releasing people one by one. She stopped and looked at the Elite Force in the waiting room.
"I'll come back." She promises and then leaves.
"Did anyone else just feel something weird happen?" Kaz asks as Fiona's energy leaves them. They all look confused then a doctor comes in. Their hearts sink, assuming the worst.
"Has he? You know..." Chase chokes out and stands up to see the doctor. He would be mature and strong about this. He had to be for his team, no matter how much it hurt him on the inside.
"Actually I was going to tell you the opposite. It's a miracle! He's now almost fully recovered! He'll be good to go home tomorrow!" The doctor says. Everyone's jaws dropped.
"Seriously!" Chase exclaimed. "That's great thank you so much!" He says and hugs the doctor. The doctor stiffens a bit at first but then hugs the teen back and pats his back.
"Very well then, I'll leave you all to celebrate." He says and leaves while the team cheers and rejoices.
"Looks like we still have some hope after all." Skylar says and Bree smiles.
"All thanks to our new 'sisters'." Bree says and the two girls smile at each other and the boys just look confused.
A/N: To be continued in Part 2! The Power of Love