Whelp, here it is. Chapter nine. It's a biggy. I'm happy to announce that things are picking up around here.

I hope you enjoy this chapter.

...I know I did. *evil laughter*


When I looked around I saw none and heard of none

like me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth from which

all men fled and whom all men disowned?

-Frankenstein


"Sir."

Douglas didn't turn at the call. He sat in his chair, watching something on his tablet.

The agent shifted uneasily, then continued. "We have an intruder."

Douglas smiled. "I know."

"Well... What do you want us to do?"

Douglas finally turned around, facing his agent. "Absolutely nothing."

He glanced down at the screen, at the figure that was darting from shadow to shadow on his roof.

"It's him." He looked up at the other man. "Let's hold off on the welcoming committee for now. I don't want to get off on the wrong foot."

The agent nodded and left to relay Douglas's orders.

Douglas turned back to the screen with a gleeful look, rubbing his chin in carefully contained excitement. "Finally."


Bree was dying from boredom.

You'd think she would be afraid, being held in an unknown place for unknown reasons, but no.

She almost wished the maniac would come back. At least she'd have something to distract herself from the boring white walls and the boring silence.

That was the worst - the silence. Her breathing was the loudest thing in the room as she sat on the floor against the wall facing the door. When she moved, it was like thunder. Well, not really, but it was loud.

So that was why she jumped a mile high when the door suddenly clicked open, the sound so unexpected and loud. A moment later, a figure slipped in, dressed in black.

Bree's mouth hung open and she climbed to her feet. "You," she whispered, suddenly numb. The person tossed her a smirk - how dare he? - and she lost it.

"You!" she yelled and threw herself at him, her fist flying. He ducked, but she pressed on, years of training kicking in. Her punches and kicks were fueled by years of suppressed anger and hurt but she couldn't land a solid hit.

"Bree, come on! Cut it out!" Her victim was entirely on defense, blocking her fists and feet and shoving her back only for her to lunge at him again.

"Don't tell me cut it out!" she snapped, pausing to catch her breath. "You deserve to lose a few teeth for what you did!" Suddenly her feet were knocked out from under her and she found herself on her back as the figure stood from the leg sweep he'd just performed.

She startled at the amount of anger in his eyes and how dark his expression was. But then his eyes widened and the scary glint in his gaze faded away, his face frowning apologetically. "You're still mad about that?" he asked.

"Yes! I am!" She stood, brushing herself off. Tears began to blur her vision. "Do you know how much you hurt us?" She hated the fact that her voice shook. Why did she always cry?

"Look, I'm sorry! I-"

Bree cut him off when she pulled him into a fierce hug. "Chase, I can't believe it's you," she whispered, relief flooding her heart to be holding her baby brother again. She almost frowned when Chase didn't return the hug but then she felt his arms wrap around her, squeezing just as tightly. For several seconds, they held onto each other, then Bree pushed away, standing back to look over her brother.

She almost couldn't believe it. The last time she saw her brother, he was sixteen. He was young and still so innocent. But the eighteen-year-old standing before her was nothing like that. His eyes were too serious and haunted and shadowed by dark rings. He no longer gave off the sense of innocence.. The changes scared her, but she tried to push them out of her mind and forced a smile.

"You've gotten taller!" she commented.

Chase ducked his head, chuckling. "Yeah, an inch or two."

"More like three or four." Besides the height, she noticed several other physical changes. He was leaner than she remembered, and tan too. His hair had grown longer, but not enough that he couldn't still spike it. "Where have you been?" she asked, hurt resurfacing. "What did you do?"

Chase's expression closed off and he looked away, shrugging. "I had some things to sort out."

Bree felt the anger coming back too. "Yeah? And did you 'sort them out'?"

"Look, we don't have time for this. We need t-"

"No!" Bree interrupted, punching Chase in the shoulder. "You're going to tell me! You never came back, never called, never wrote. We were so worried about you, Chase!" She saw the guilt cross his face, but she ignored it. "Why, Chase? What happened?"

"I lost a sister, that's what happened," he hissed, fury shining in his eyes. "A sister, Bree."

Bree felt the tears coming back at the mention of Damia. "Don't you pin this on her," she said, pointing at Chase. "Don't you dare. You think losing her was hard? I lost a sister and a brother!"

Chase's brows furrowed and the anger died down enough for her to see the worry in his eyes. "Wh-"

"You, you idiot!" she cried, shoving him in the chest. "Do you know how much it hurt to lose you too?"

"But I didn't die!" he argued, gesturing to himself.

"But you weren't there, either!" she sobbed. "You left us."

She studied his expression, expecting to see remorse but not finding any. Instead, his features were blank, save for the anger in his eyes.

"It was for the best," he said, turning away.

Bree's mouth gaped, shocked. "Wha- How can you say that? Are you that selfish?!"

Chase whirled around to face her and she actually backed away at the murderous look on his face. "I'm dangerous, Bree! Something-" he raised his hands to his chest, pointing at himself "-something's wrong with me. I-I can feel it," he hissed. "You guys weren't safe."

"So you left?" Bree asked, incredulous.

Chase made a sound of exasperation and turned away, then turned back. "I don't expect you to understand. But now is not the time. I came to get you out of here." He went over to the open door and gestured to the hallway beyond. "Are you coming or not?"

Bree crossed her arms, glaring at him. Then she sighed and stormed through the opening. When she passed him, she said, "This isn't over."

Chase didn't respond, shutting the door quietly behind her and taking the lead. "I'm surprised your screaming didn't bring the guards down on us," he muttered.

Bree glanced at him sharply. "Yeah? Well I wasn't the only one screaming."

Chase met her gaze and they glared at each other. Then Chase broke away and walked faster. "Let's just get the others."

Bree lifted her chin. "Fine by me." Underneath her anger, she felt sadness. She never imagined their reunion like this. She always thought she and the others would be sitting at home, and Chase would come walking through the front door - unhurt and unchanged.

Not every dream comes true.


The other reunions were surprisingly easy.

Adam simply enveloped his little brother in a crushing hug and followed him and Bree to rescue the others.

They rescued Tasha and Leo next, both surprised and pleased to see Chase again. Tasha embraced him with tears shining in her eyes, and Leo and Chase clasped hands and pulled each other into a one-armed hug, clapping each other on the back.

They found Donald last, Chase leading the way.

Bree noticed that he didn't open the door first, like he did with everyone else. But it didn't seem that obvious because Tasha rushed forward and turned the handle.

"Donald!" she gasped, and she hugged her husband tightly, the inventor gathering her in his arms (yes, there was a lot of hugging going on).

"Tasha!" Donald pulled away and smiled at her, but then his eyebrows knit in confusion. "How'd you get away?"

Tasha grinned then stepped aside, looking to the door. Adam, Bree, and Leo did the same, revealing Chase, who was suddenly very fascinated with the white-tiled floor.

Donald's face paled in shock as he stared at his son... this young man standing before him. He let go of Tasha to slowly approach the youngest bionic.

Chase scuffed his feet on the floor, his hands tucked into his pockets. It frustrated him how guilty Davenport made him feel just by being near him. He was afraid to face him.

Why are you afraid, you idiot? a traitorous voice whispered in his mind. You have no ne-

Chase frowned and shoved the voice away. A sound before him made him look up just as Donald's arms wrapped around him and pulled him close. For a moment, surprise held him still, then he returned the embrace.

It was as if the two years of missing his father came back all at once, and he found himself clinging tightly to Donald. He didn't cry though, even when he just wanted to give in and be a little boy again, safe and sheltered in the man's arms.

Grow up, that voice hissed. You're not a little boy anymore. You don't need them-

Chase pushed himself away to shut up the voice, and he knew he surprised Donald. But he couldn't think about that now.

"We need to go," he said, pulling away from Donald and walking down the hall. He'd memorized the schematics for the building and-

Chase turned a corner and froze.

Oh. Crap.

Dozens of lasers were trained on his chest, while dozens of men armed to the teeth aimed guns at him and his family, who joined him around the corner and stopped.

Chase looked back the way they came and saw just as many men closing off their only escape.

Chase let out a huff of frustration, looking ahead again.

Crap.


"Well, well, well... What do we have here?"

Chase turned at the sound of the sneering voice. His hands were cuffed behind his back, like the rest of his family who were being escorted in behind him. He shrugged off the hand gripping his arm with a glare at his "bodyguard" as he did.

"Chase, it's nice to see you again." Chase rolled his eyes at the annoying voice, which belonged to the man who was sitting on a throne-like chair at the short end of a reasonably large rectangular room.

It was Donald's voice, though, that surprised Chase.

"Wait... Again?" Chase glanced back at the inventor to see his eyes flicking between him and the other man before finally settling on Chase. "You know Douglas?"

"Chase and I had... business," Douglas said, standing up and approaching them. He stopped several feet in front of the youngest bionic, both glaring at each other and both not wanting to break away first. "Still do."

Chase snorted. "No, we don't."

Douglas's expression darkened for the briefest of moments, then he smiled. "It doesn't matter anyway. I always get what I want." There were several countertops of built-in computers, much like the ones in Donald's lab, and Douglas moved behind on of them. He made a gesture with his hand and the men escorting his family manhandled them to the center of the room, inside a circle of small gadgets that were placed on the floor at even intervals. A glance upward revealed a similar circle.

His family made sounds of protest and struggled to get away but none of them could. A heavy hand landed on Chase's shoulder, effectively holding him in place.

No sooner had the men left the ring of strange devices did Douglas tap something on the countertop, and a ring of lasers sealed his family in from ceiling to floor, the bars stretching from their respective projectors on the ceiling to the receivers on the floor.

"What are you doing?" Chase asked, and somewhere deep inside, he flinched at the lack of emotion in his voice. But he couldn't worry about that right now.

Douglas glanced at him and smiled. "I want your family to see this without interrupting."

His gut sank, and chills wracked his body.

Weakling. Do it now.

He moved, catching the man guarding him with an uppercut, his neck snapping back with the force of his blow. Also, it could have something to do with his metal fist. Who knew.

As the man fell back - unconscious or dead, it didn't matter - Chase stared at Douglas with his expression blank save for a small frown. The metal coating his right hand slid off his skin and morphed into the handcuffs that had previously been used to restrain him.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Chase asked, looking down at the cuffs that he rolled over in his hand. His voice was detached, but inside, he could feel the darkness wriggling faster in his chest.

For once - he didn't try to suppress it.

He looked up at Douglas, who was trying to act indifferent, but Chase could see the fear in his eyes.

He walked towards the man, holding the cuffs away from him and looking at them again. "It's funny how my sister controlled electricity and I control the properties of metal." He looked up at Douglas, who took a step back for every step Chase took forward. "Metals are great conductors of electricity. Together, Damia and I would have been unstoppable. Alone..." Chase shrugged, a small, dark smirk stealing over his face. "We can still rip monsters like you apart."

The handcuffs melted in his hand and he launched the blob of shimmering metal at Douglas, who ducked behind his master computer system.

"Chase! No!"

Chase ignored Bree, suddenly finding himself surrounded by Douglas's men. He stood calmly in their circle.

Then the men were on their knees around him, screaming in pain and clutching their heads. Chase had one hand raised and clenched tightly, staring at the men with hatred. He squeezed his fist and the men's cries reach a new level. Some were puking, some were convulsing on the floor, some were digging at their brains.

With a twist of his wrist, the screams were cut off. The men were strewn on the floor around him, their eyes open and unseeing. The cause of death wasn't broken necks... but ruptured blood vessels in the brain.

Chase turned to see his family staring at him in horror, but he couldn't feel guilty. Not yet.

You're doing this for them. He was beginning to like that voice whispering in his mind.

You're doing it to end this. He flicked his hand and all the cuffs fell off of his family's wrists and gathered in one liquid mass, sliding over to him on the floor.

You can't do that if you're weak. He stepped over the bodies of the men he'd murdered in cold blood, but he could care less about them.

You need to be strong for them. Why didn't he listen to this voice before? Maybe if he had, his family wouldn't be in this mess. He'd checked up on them occasionally. They had a good life going. He wished they hadn't been dragged into this again.

You know what you need to do. He could hear his family calling him back, but he ignored them. His eyes were focused on Douglas, who was backing away, one arm hidden behind his back.

You've known for a while. Of course, like an idiot, he'd tried to disregard the obvious. The blob of metal floated up to his hand, molding into a smooth javelin.

Do it. He raised his hand holding the javelin, pulling back his arm.

Do it. The screams of his family fell on deaf ears.

DO IT. He whipped his arm forward, his hand releasing the metal rod and-

And scowled.

Douglas produced a rusted pipe, which he conveniently had lying around for him to grab. He deflected Chase's metal rod with surprising speed, the javelin landing on the floor with a loud clang.

He smiled at Chase. "Is that all you got?"

Deep down inside, the rational part of Chase was screaming at himself.

Wake up, you idiot! He wants you to attack him!

But the irrational part of him just felt so good.

With a yell, he launched himself forward, using his molecular kinesis to give him an extra boost. Douglas swung the pipe at him, but Chase knocked it off course with a wave of his hand and he barreled into Douglas, both men knocked to the floor.

Chase landed several feet away from the other man, rolling to a stop. Before he could get up, Douglas was on him, pinning him down with hands to the eighteen-year-old's throat.

Douglas's eyes were full of sick glee. "Now I've got you!" He let go with one hand to reach behind him and pull out a syringe that was filled with a black liquid. He raised it high in the air, light glinting off the needle.

Chase's eyes widened and he thrust a palm out, sending the man flying off of him with a burst of molecular kinesis. He rolled onto his side, clutching his throat and gasping and coughing.

Get up, weakling.

Chase pushed himself to his feet and turned to come face to face with Douglas, who reached out and whipped the bionic around to wrap him in a headlock.

Chase grappled with the arm crushing his windpipe, but it was no use.

Use your abilities, the voice hissed angrily in his mind. But before he could, his head was forced to tilt to one side, and something sharp was stabbed into his exposed neck.

"I gave you the chance to join me willingly," Douglas snarled in his ear as the syringe's contents were emptied into Chase. "But you wouldn't listen." He pulled the needle out and tossed Chase carelessly to the floor.

"Chase!"

Bree's scream was muffled in Chase's ears, because he suddenly found that his head was pounding.

He groaned from his place on the floor, one hand gripping his head, the other hand trying to push him up.

What did he do to me?

He made it to his hands and knees when his body tensed in pain, sending him to the floor again. He felt like he was burning up, but the cool tiles below him were like ice to his skin and he shivered.

He stretched out a hand, wanting to reach for something, but the pain made his fingers curl into a fist until his nails dug into his palm. The pain was like fire, spreading throughout his body. His muscles spasmed in cramps unlike any he'd ever experienced before.

It was unbearable.

The place where the needle went in was burning and itching. He could... he could feel something spreading in his veins, if that was even possible. It started down his arms, down his torso, down his legs. It all happened in minutes - or hours - yet it felt like it took a lifetime to reach his heart.

With a cry of agony, he convulsed on the floor, his back arching off the ground when his heart clenched painfully. His chest seemed to be tightening, making harder to breathe, and it just hurt so bad-

And then it was over.

The pain faded into an unpleasant ache. It disappeared from his legs and body and arms - his neck and back and joints were stiff, and for a moment, he couldn't turn his head.

So he just lied there on his side, his forehead pressed to the cold tile as he drew in ragged breaths.

Something was... something was wrong.

His heart - it was beating rapidly, the only source where he still felt some pain. He could just picture the muscle scarred and ripped from the strain it just went under. It felt like he'd aged twenty years in twenty seconds. Yet... yet that wasn't the only thing.

His head... It was still pounding, but this time he knew it was from adrenaline. He found it hard to focus on one thing, but what he could focus on was the emotion swelling in his chest.

It was like that feeling he got when dark voice whispered things to him, only ten times stronger.

He used to hate that feeling, but now... now he kinda liked it.

A laugh bubbled from his lips, half part insane, half part bitter.

Oh, man - was he bitter. And angry.

His hand, which was pressed to the tiles in front of his eyes, curled into a fist, shaking slightly from the effort. His strength was gradually returning.

He felt a wicked grin split his face.

He felt more powerful that ever. He could practically feel his bionic abilities tingling in his fingertips, desperate to be released.

No one can stop you now, that voice whispered, and Chase agreed.

He'd discovered nearly two years ago, several months after he left home, that he was more powerful than he'd ever imagined. For years he was afraid of himself, afraid he'd hurt somebody. But now he saw how stupid he was to fear.

He'd sort of guessed that he was different when he was able to break Harrison's bionic nullifiers... with his bionics. He knew it shouldn't have been possible, but he did it. And then Harrison hinted that he and Damiana were both different - special.

But Damiana was weak.

Yeah, she was.

She couldn't overpower the nullifiers in her hospital room.

That's right: she couldn't.

That's why she died. Because she was weak.

Yeah, but not like him. He was strong.

Prove it.

How?

Get up.

He gathered his arms under him and pushed himself up, his shoulder blades sticking up from his body. His body shook from the effort, but he clenched his jaw and forced his arms to straighten, his palms pressed against the cool floor.

He drew his knees up one at a time, soon crouching on his feet. He left one arm stretched out, his fingers balancing his weight on the floor. His other arm rested on one of his knees, the hand dangling limp in the air.

His head was ducked as he tried to steady his breathing. The pounding in his head wouldn't go away, and the adrenaline that was still pumping was making him dizzy.

But he didn't mind. He felt more awake than he'd ever been in his life.

Another grin tugged at his lips, and he slowly began to push himself to his feet.

He was almost standing tall and straight when a wave of dizziness sent him off balance. He fell backwards, but one of his flailing arms slammed on top of something, and he clung to it, holding himself up.

Douglas's computer.

He used the counter to help himself to his feet and steady himself. Looking around, everything seemed different. The adrenaline heightened his senses, objects sharper and more detailed.

Then his eyes landed on several figures staring at him in horror from behind laser bars.

Who are they?

His eyes narrowed as he tried to remember. Oh, yeah... That was his family. His sister, brother, stepbrother, stepmom, and dad.

Should they mean anything to him?

No. You don't need them anymore.

That's true.

They never needed you anyway.

Also true. So why should he care?

He overlooked his family and spotted Douglas. His eyes narrowed again, a cold fury washing over him.

He lashed out an arm and cupped his hand, grasping Douglas with his molecular kinesis. He snapped his arm back, yanking the other man across the room, suspended in the air before Chase.

"Give me one good reason not to crush you," Chase snarled, his head pounding faster.

Douglas's eyes weren't full of fear, but sincerity. "Because I'm like you, Chase. In more ways than one. I know what you're feeling. It feels good, doesn't it?"

Chase studied the other man warily, then gave a small, quick nod.

"You can do anything you want, Chase. You have so much power, right at your fingertips. I'm not going to ask you to spare me, because ultimately, it doesn't matter what I want."

Chase held the other man's gaze, shifting his weight slightly. Then his hand relaxed and Douglas fell to the floor.

He said nothing, didn't even look at his family, which meant nothing to him now.

He was new and improved, and didn't need anyone anymore.


Chapter soundtrack: Rising from the Depth by Sub Pub Music.

Haha, how was that? I have to say, my heart rate sped up a bit while writing this chapter.

So, let me know what you think, I love hearing your thoughts. And hopefully chapter ten will be written and up soon.