Chase blinked owlishly several times, shuddering from the experience of growing younger so quickly. He looked up to see his siblings' dazed looks, and he frowned in confusion. "What?" he asked.
But Chase also froze in shock – his voice was wrong. Very wrong. It was much too high pitched.
"Nooo," he moaned, smacking his hand to his forehead. "You turned me too young!"
The other three seemed to be shaken from their stupor at that, and smiles crept to their faces.
"You look like you're seven now," Bree said with a giggle.
Chase scowled, and with a huff of frustration, he crossed his arms angrily. This made his siblings break into laughter.
"Were all of you this adorable as little kids?" Leo asked, barely able to talk through his grin.
Chase's scowl deepened. "Turn me back now!" he demanded.
"Sorry Chase, but we can't – the invention is broken," Bree said, sounding far from sorry.
"You mean I'm stuck like this?" Chase shrieked, still not used to controlling his voice as it currently was. The others nodded, and Chase climbed to his feet, saying "Ugh! I can't believe you guys!" His ridiculously large clothes hung off him loosely.
"Technically you started it," Leo said. "And Adam was the one who went back too far."
"I panicked!" Adam said in an effort to defend himself. "I thought you were going to die!"
"What? Why?" Chase asked, confused.
"Because you were having a heart attack, don't you remember?" Bree asked suspiciously.
"Oh yeah," Chase said with an amused smile. "You guys totally fell for it."
"Fell for what?" Adam asked, bewildered.
Bree and Leo only looked at Chase angrily, Leo exclaiming "That was a trick?"
"You had us seriously worried!" Bree added furiously.
"Did you leave me with much choice?" Chase asked with a shrug.
Bree gave her smallest brother the evil eye, saying "You deserved to be turned into a little kid, then."
Chase rolled his eyes, attempting to stalk away from the others, but he tripped on his clothing, falling to the floor with an "Oof!" Snickers erupted from his siblings.
"Earlier today you needed my clothes, but once again they're too big for you!" Adam laughed.
His face flushed, Chase asked "Does Mr. Davenport still have any of our old clothes?"
The others shrugged, Adam saying "Let's just ask him."
"No! Big D can't find out about this!" Leo replied quickly. "We'll be in so much trouble if he finds out."
"Oh, Mr. Davenport is definitely finding out about this," Chase growled, glaring first at Leo before letting his glower fall on Adam and Bree as well.
"No, Chase, don't tell him!" Leo begged. "Just fix the machine and you can be turned back to normal, alright?"
"Why shouldn't I tell him?" Chase asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Because you're always a tattletale," Leo automatically replied without thinking, and Chase's face grew darker. Realizing his mistake, Leo attempted to atone for his thoughtless comment. "I mean, you're cooler than that, so you shouldn't stoop to that level...?"
Chase still looked unconvinced and considerably offended.
"Look, I'll give you anything you want, I'll do anything you want, just don't tell Davenport," Leo said, trying to bribe the smallest bionic.
After a tense moment, Chase finally said "I don't want anything from you or for you to do anything. But I won't tell Mr. Davenport."
"Oh, thank you Chase!" Leo said with great relief.
"But," Chase said, and Leo froze. "Adam and Bree need to promise not to tease me about my height when all of this is over."
"No promises there," Adam said. Chase and Leo shot the oldest bionic a glare as Bree elbowed him, and he relented, saying "Okay, I won't tease you anymore."
"Neither will I," Bree sighed.
"Good," Chase said with a firm nod. "I'm going to get to work, then." He tried to walk, but he tripped again, sprawling across the floor. "But I'll need some smaller clothes first," he conceded from the floor as he sat up.
"Where are we going to find them?" Bree asked.
"No worries, guys, Chase can just wear what he normally wears," Adam said with a grin. Chase shot him a look of complete lack of amusement.
"I wonder if my capsule would still have clothes my current size," Chase thought aloud, and he got to his feet again. Holding up his clothes and taking each step carefully, he made his way to his capsule, climbing in. In a flash that took a little longer than usual, Chase was dressed in more appropriately sized clothes.
"That's better," Chase said as he stepped out of his capsule, grimacing at the fact that he was wearing clothes he hadn't worn in eight or nine years. He went over to the broken Transjuvenator and hefted it up, finding it difficult to hold onto the invention with his short arms and small hands. With a grunt, he heaved it up onto the cyber desk and struggled to climb up onto the nearest stool. He had to kneel on the stool in order to be tall enough to work on the machine.
Meanwhile Adam, Bree, and Leo had been watching Chase, stifling their laughter. But now that the smallest bionic was at work on the invention, his siblings grew bored of watching him and left to go do other various activities. They had no doubt in their minds that Chase could fix the Transjuvenator.
AN: Is the end in sight? Nope.
So Chase isn't as young as some predicted...yet...? I suppose we'll find out in the coming chapters.
Oh, and I forgot to ask this earlier, but is anyone a Latin/Greek root buff? If so, did you see what I did with the name of the invention (and title of the story)? If not, here's an explanation: trans is a Latin root meaning change or to cross over, seen in words like translate, transportation, transition, etc. Juv(en) is the Latin root for young/youth, found in words like juvenile and rejuvenate. And then -ator is what fictional scientists/inventors like Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb tack onto the ends of the names of their crazy machines. So Transjuvenator pretty much directly translates to mean 'machine that changes things/people to be younger'. If you didn't already know that, there's your fun fact for the day :P
Anywho, like always, you all are amazing! All the support this story has received already makes my day whenever I think about it. Once again, thank you! :D
And with that, I invite you to stick around for Chapter 7!