Disclaimer: I own nothing.
The Mech X4 fandom has been such a ghost town lately, so I thought I'd try to bring some life back to that ghost town with some oneshots. Reviews make me happy (*Hint, hint*). Thank you, and I hope you enjoy the story. No specific timeline for this story; it takes place in season 1, sometime before they find Leo.
Title: Malfunction
Summary: When Mech X4 starts to have a problem with the circuits in the neck of the robot, Ryan starts having breathing troubles. But why?
It wasn't everyday that Ryan woke up feeling like there was an elephant sitting on his chest.
Ryan coughed as he awakened, and his hand immediately sought out his chest, twisting in the fabric of his night shirt as he searched for the reason why he felt like someone was sitting on his chest.
He found nothing, but the tightness in his chest didn't lessen.
Ryan inhaled, and a soft wheeze sounded before it turned into a dry cough as he exhaled.
"Hey, man!" Mark exclaimed as he appeared at the doorway. "Why aren't you dressed? We're supposed to be at the robot in fifteen minutes."
Ryan's eyes widened, and he checked his alarm clock.
9:45 am
"Shitake mushrooms!" Ryan yelled as he rolled out of bed. The sudden exertion made his chest feel tighter than ever, but Ryan ignored it as his brother laughed at him, and he scrambled to find some pants.
After all, it was just a cold. Nothing to worry about…
Right?
"Hey, guys," Mark said as he walked into the main control center for Mech X4. "I was doing a routine check up on the robot, and I noticed that there's a malfunction in the circuits in the neck."
"Can you fix it?" Ryan asked.
Mark nodded. "Yeah. I'll do it in a little bit. It's not a vital thing to fix. Let's start training to make sure there's nothing else wrong, though."
Ryan nodded before connecting himself to the cords by clipping the belt around his waist, and he smiled (he loved saying his catchphrase) as he crossed his arms in an X shape over his rapidly tightening chest.
"Mech X-ecute!" he shouted before coughing as the robot shifted into gear.
A heavy weight was settling on his lungs, and when Ryan exhaled, a long, uninterrupted whistle sounded.
Harris and Mark frowned as they leaned forward to try and get a closer look at Ryan.
"Why are you whistling?" Spyder, always the oblivious one, asked.
Ryan went to respond, but before he could get a word out, the weight on his chest grew heavier, and his breathing grew shallow. It felt like there was no air entering his lungs now, and the light headed feeling that came with the small amount of oxygen he was receiving dragged him down until his knees hit the floor.
"Ryan!" Mark yelled, leaping over the railing that overlooked the control center and dropping to the ground before darting towards his little brother.
The wheezing was growing louder with each breath Ryan tried (and failed) to draw in, and he was coughing more and more often as a fist seemed to grip his lungs in a vice grip.
"Ryan?" Mark asked as he knelt at his brother's side. "What's wrong, buddy? Come on, tell me!"
Mark was slipping into a panicked state as his brother wheezed once again.
"Can't… breathe…" Ryan managed.
Mark nodded. "Okay. We'll take you to the hospital. Just… stay as calm as you can, okay?"
"Mark," Harris hissed in his ear so that Ryan wouldn't hear. "It might help Ryan stay calm if you stop panicking."
Mark nodded. "Good point."
Mark tried to keep his tone even and slow his rapid breathing as he whispered soothing words to his fearful little brother and lifted Ryan off of the ground with one arm under his knees and the other around his shoulders.
Mark, Harris, and Spyder rushed into the elevator and rocketed towards the ground. Mark ignored the mounting dizziness the speed caused and dashed outside towards his car.
"Chest hurts," Ryan choked out, gripping his chest and letting out a rattling wheeze.
"I know," Mark mumbled as he rested his little brother in the back seat of his car. "I know. We'll be at the hospital soon."
Spyder crawled into the back seat with Ryan and laid Ryan on his back with his waist twisted so that his legs hung limply off the edge of the seat. It seemed to help Ryan breath better, so Spyder didn't protest when Ryan rested his head in Spyder's lap (whether his best friend was aware of doing that, Spyder wasn't completely sure).
Mark pulled out of the junkyard and began to speed down the street.
Harris cried out as he pressed himself against the seat.
The speed limit was forty-five. Mark was going at least seventy.
"Mark, slow down!" Harris shouted over the squealing tires.
"My little brother can't breathe, and you want me to slow down?" Mark demanded.
"Ryan won't get help if we die in a car accident or crash the car and have no method of transportation!" Harris pointed out.
"Calm down! I do this all the time at home!" Mark said.
"You do?" Harris asked in shock.
"Video game," Ryan clarified from the back seat, coughing.
"So wait. You've never gone this fast in real life?" Harris raised an eyebrow.
"Don't try to speak," Mark told Ryan before responding to Harris's question. "Uh… no, but how different can it be?"
"A video game and real life are a lot different!" Spyder yelled. "Even I know that!"
Mark shrugged. "Oh, well. Hang on!"
Spyder and Harris yelped as Mark sped up even more, and seconds later, they were squealing into the parking lot of Bay City Hospital.
Mark was out of the car before he'd even pulled to a complete stop, and Harris turned the key to shut off the car before pulling the key out of the ignition and sticking it in his pocket.
Mark threw open the back door to the car and picked Ryan up. Mark's panic increased ten fold when he saw the blue tinge to Ryan's lips as the barley conscious boy rested his head against Mark's shoulder. His little brother was limp, almost boneless, as he rolled into Mark's arms, and Mark was sure his heart was about to beat out of his chest.
Mark bolted towards the hospital doors and walked through the automatic sliding doors.
"Help!" he shouted, causing several heads in the waiting room to turn. "My brother can't breathe!"
Nurses rushed up to him with a gurney, and Mark laid Ryan down on the gurney, watching as a male nurse shined a light down his throat.
"What have we got here?" the same male nurse asked.
"I don't know," Mark rushed to say. "He can't breathe. I don't know what's wrong."
The male nurse nodded as he clicked off the light.
"Let's move him!" the nurse told the others.
"Ryan!" Mark cried, trying to follow as they wheeled his brother through some swinging doors.
"Sir, you need to stay here," an older female nurse told him.
Mark was about to protest when Spyder and Harris appeared at his side and gently tugged Mark towards the waiting area.
"Do you think he's okay?" Mark asked.
Harris pursed his lips. "You know… Ryan is connected to the robot."
Mark nodded. "Yes, Harris. We've known that for a while now," Mark deadpanned.
"No. I mean, the robot was malfunctioning in the circuits in the neck, right?" Harris asked.
Mark nodded.
"Would that malfunction manifest itself as breathing difficulties for Ryan?" Harris questioned.
Mark's eyes widened before he slumped forward and rested his head in his hands. "If only I had fixed it as soon as I noticed it…"
Harris sighed. "Mark, you can't blame yourself. We didn't know this would happen, but we need to fix it as soon as possible. You go fix the robot. Spyder and I will stay here, and we'll call if we know anything."
Mark nodded. He was reluctant to leave his brother, but if that robot was causing the problems, fixing the robot could save Ryan's life.
As he was fixing up the robot, Mark had a lot of time to think.
What if Ryan wouldn't be okay? What if he died? What if it was all Mark's fault because he hadn't fixed the robot when he first saw the issue in the circuits in the neck?
Mark finished fixing the robot before leaning against the wall and waiting.
A few moments after he finished up, his phone buzzed in his pocket; the caller ID confirmed it to be Harris, and Mark answered the phone with lightning fast reflexes.
"How is he?" Mark asked, trying to stay cool and failing miserably.
"He's stabilized. The doctors believe it was an asthma attack, but I think you fixed the robot as soon as they tried the asthma medication, and when they saw his breathing was fine afterwards, they labeled it as asthma," Harris answered.
"Okay," Mark responded. "I'll call my mom to tell her about Ryan. She's probably wondering why we aren't home yet. I'll be on my way momentarily."
Mark hung up before calling his mom and listening to the tones play as he waited for her to pick up.
"Mark, why aren't you and Ryan home yet?" his mother asked. "Do you know how worried I was?"
"You had a reason to be worried," Mark replied. "I had to take Ryan to the hospital."
"Why?" his mother demanded. "Is he okay?"
"He is now," Mark told her. "According to the doctors, he had an asthma attack, but he's stabilized now."
"Good. Bay City Hospital, right?"
"Yes."
"I'll be there in ten minutes, tops," she told him.
Mark said goodbye and hung up before getting in the car and speeding to the hospital while carefully avoiding any cops who might pull him over and slow him down.
Mark pulled up in front of the hospital and walked inside to find Harris and Spyder waiting for him. They'd probably heard the loud vroom of his car when he screamed into the parking lot like a Nascar driver.
"We can see him," Harris said right off the bat. "Room 19."
Mark nodded and walked into the room Harris gestured to without hesitating for a single second. Harris and Spyder opted to wait outside the room a little longer to give the brothers some time to talk.
Mark smiled when he saw Ryan laying in the bed, conscious and back to his regular color instead of that awful blue shade he'd become as Ryan brought him inside the hospital.
Ryan had been changed into a hospital gown and was covered in the stiff white blankets. An oxygen mask covered his face.
"They said I have to keep this on to get my oxygen levels back up," Ryan told Mark, pointing at the oxygen mask. His voice sounded muffled under the plastic of the clear mask.
Mark nodded. "Good. You better not turn blue again."
Ryan nodded. "I won't. The doctors say I have asthma, so I have to use this thing," he told his older brother, holding up a blue inhaler.
"You don't have asthma," Mark disagreed. "There was a malfunction in the circuits of the robot's neck, and since you're bonded to the robot, it caused you to have some problems in your airways, resulting in the difficulty breathing. But it's fixed now, so you shouldn't have any other episodes."
Ryan shrugged. "Good, but hey, if we let everyone think it's asthma, I have an excuse to get out of gym class."
Mark laughed. "Leave it to you to find the bright side of almost dying."
Ryan chuckled. "Someone has to."
Mark nodded. "Good point."
"How are you holding up?" Ryan asked.
Mark sputtered. "Me? You're the one in a hospital bed."
Ryan shrugged. "Yeah, but I didn't have a panic attack."
Mark sighed. "All right," he muttered, leaning back in the chair he'd claimed at Ryan's bed side. "How am I feeling? Well, let's see… I watched as my baby brother collapsed from not being able to breathe. I mimicked a video game by driving over seventy miles an hour to get to the hospital. I watched as my brother turned blue and was taken away on a gurney while having no idea what was causing your difficulty breathing, and then, I found out that the malfunction in the circuits in Mech X4 might have caused your breathing problems. I also realized that if I had fixed the malfunction the minute I discovered it, this whole scary fiasco could've been avoided and you wouldn't have almost died. So how am I feeling?"
Ryan pursed his lips. "I get your point. It was a stupid question, but I'm fine now. Thanks to you."
Mark raised an eyebrow. "Me? I was practically the one that put you here by putting off the repairs I should've done immediately."
Ryan sighed. "Mark, I'm literally bonded to Mech X4. I didn't know that my bond to the robot could have that much of an effect on me. How could you have known?"
Mark sighed. "It's a big brother thing. I'm supposed to protect you."
Ryan laughed. "Mark, you can't protect me from medical emergencies like this. If I had cancer or a seizure, would you be blaming yourself and thinking you could've prevented it?"
"Don't say stuff like that. You've worried me enough today," Mark told him, "but you do have a point. Still, if you ever feel like something isn't right, you tell me. Immediately. Those circuits have been messed up since this morning at least. That means you've been having trouble breathing for at least a few hours, and you didn't tell me until I had to rush you to the hospital. Next time- although I hope there won't be a next time- don't brush it off. Tell me. Okay?"
Ryan nodded. "I will."
The door opened behind them, and Mark turned as Ryan leaned up to see who was standing in the doorway.
"How are you feeling, Ry-Guy?" their mom asked as she sat on the end of his bed.
Ryan smiled. "Better. Tired, but my breathing's okay. I got to the hospital in time, thanks to Mark."
Their mom smiled at her oldest son. "You did great today, Mark. You handled the situation like an adult."
Three laughs sounded as Harris and Spyder appeared. Ryan and his two best friends burst out laughing at his mom's compliment.
"Hey!" Mark exclaimed, a little offended.
"You nearly drove us off the road!" Harris pointed out.
"You told me to stay calm while you were having a panic attack," Ryan pointed out.
"And you went so far over the speed limit, even I wouldn't dare to do that," Spyder finished.
"I still got you to the hospital safe and sound," Mark told Ryan.
Harris frowned. "Am I the only one that notices the irony in that statement?"
"I noticed it, too," Ryan chuckled. "Anyway, I wouldn't say he handled it like an adult, but he certainly handled it, which is more than what most sixteen year olds would've done."
"That's more like it, dingus," Mark chuckled, ruffling Ryan's hair.
"Anyway, when do I get out of here?" Ryan asked.
His mom laughed. "I just spoke with the doctor. Since this is your first attack, he wants to keep you over night for observation, but we can leave first thing in the morning."
"Don't worry, Ryan," Spyder said. "We can entertain you."
The boy withdrew a deck of cards from his pants pocket (Spyder always had a deck of cards, a pen, and a paperclip in his pocket without fail; nobody really knew why, not even Spyder).
"Let's play Go Fish," Spyder suggested. "I'll shuffle the cards."
Spyder tried to shuffle the cards, but when he went to do the bridge, the cards exploded into the air and drifted to the floor of the hospital.
Everyone stared at Spyder, who smiled, sheepishly.
"Ta-da?" he said, making everyone laugh.