Chapter 6

3rd Person POV

When Chase regained consciousness, he felt an unbelievable rush of disorientation.

The last thing he remembered was falling to the dry, dusty earth, the shriveled grass itching against his hands.

He looked upwards, then to his sides. Brown bars were inter winded around him and traveling upward, forming a sort of curved come shape.

Jarringly, he realized that it was exactly like the one Marcus had recharged in.

Chase was no idiot. This last acknowledgement forced him to face the fact that he indeed had been captured by Douglas.

Instead of shouting, or shaking the bars, Chase chose something that would give Douglas no satisfaction. He simply stood.

A chair swiveled around. Chase heard a few furious mutters and footsteps that seemed to stab the ground, but a frowning Douglas eventually came into view.

"Won't tell me that you're up? Make me wait, watching everything you do for two hours like some kind of deranged psycho?"

Chase arched an eyebrow pointedly.

Douglas shrugged it off. "I was going to wait a few more weeks before I went for you? Why were you out in the open like that?" Douglas asked suspiciously.

"I know Donald told you that I escaped-that's obvious. So why would you leave the house, alone?" Douglas squinted his eyes.

Chase said nothing, and even crossed his arms.

"Family issues?" Douglas asked, somewhat hopefully.

Chase just glared at him.

"Been there," Douglas sighed sympathetically. "There was always something up with him..and I trust it carried over to Adam and Bree?"

Chase said nothing, but he knew that this silence gave him away. Had he really meant to defend his siblings, he would have said something after Douglas said that.

"Haven't you always wondered why Adam and Bree seemed to team up against you? Have you be the odd man out? Their bond seem almost like THEY were the siblings and you were some kind of adopted child?"

Chase yet again stood in silence, but a flash of agreement crossed his face.

"Chase, to show you I mean you no harm-It's true!" Douglas said when Chase snorted, disbelieving."I want to team up with you badly. I originally was intending to use anything nessecary to get that to happen, but now I see I don't have to be ruthless-just honest," he stated simply.

Chase snorted again, not buying any of it, so it was no minuscule shock when Douglas opened the capsule.

"Why should I trust you? I know you're out to make me believe that my family is comprised of horrible people," Chase pointed out.

Silence. "If you want to leave after I've said what I'm going to say, you can," Douglas said finally.

"I have some information that might be useful to you," he added.

Chase hesitated, then waited. He had always had a weakness for information.

"The reason Adam and Bree seem so different from you is because you are not full siblings. You had the same mother, but Donald was their father, I am yours,".

And though he did not go unconscious, Chase re-experienced the peculiar-ness yet utter bliss of nothing, nothing at all.

They waited ten, twenty, thirty, fourty, fifty minutes for the youngest bionic to return.

At sixty minutes, Mr. Davenport gave up hope of Chase coming home without assistance.

He switched on the cyberdesk, and everyone peered at it, waiting to spot Chase's GPS app.

Nothing.

"WHAT!?" everyone shrieked.

"If it's off, either the building cut off the signal, he turned it off, or..."Bree couldn't bring herself to say it.

"Oar? Like he's on a boat? C'mon Bree, We've already done that! He wouldn't do it twice!" Adam yelled, exasperated.

If they were all near tears, Adam's earnest response lightened the mood SOMEWHAT.

Refocusing his attention to Bree's question, he hesitated ever so slightly before answering.

"The recent software update I installed in your chips makes it impossible, especially with my highly-sensitive satellites, for your chips not to register because of a building or wave interference from ANYTHING else. So the only possible answer is...Chase's chip, or at least the location and GPS app, was shut off,".

"Chase wouldn't shut that off, just because of some words, risking his life."Leo said, but it almost sounded like a question.

Mr. Davenport nodded. "Chase wouldn't do that. Which means that someone else-someone with the ability to do that-did,".

Bree shut her eyes, squeezing them impossibly tight, in the hopes of reopening them to find that she had been in a dream.

But she new it was futile. There was no denying the truth.

Chase was in the hands of Douglas.

Bree could, and positively had ALL RIGHTS too feel every emotion in the book. But she only initially felt

two-relief and regret.

Relief that Chase knew exactly what was being thrown at him.

Regret because she almost prevented him from knowing that.