Sloth: Hoooo nelly this is a big one. It's probably my biggest chapter yet. Mostly because I condensed two chapters into one. hope you all catch the references here. A side note, It has been so long since I originally conceptualized this that I legitimately forgot who was who in one of the mysteries. If you had been following, in this universe, Douglas had two sons. I legitimately forgot which son was which. So, I just kind of made an Easter egg before solidifying which son was born first. If you figure out who the sons are, please comment in your review. Again, the original mystery was way different, but I totally lost all the notes. So here's to improve writing!
The Scientist
Marcus's foot crashed into Chase's force field, the force of his kick sending out a shockwave that reverberated through out the lab. Chase countered by pushing forward, throwing the other boy back. As Marcus's foot landed, Bree ran forward, rushing past Chase as her younger brother dropped his force field. She ran past Marcus, her leg sweeping under him. But as fast as she was, Marcus was able to match her pace and jumped over her sweeping leg. He landed and attempted to stomp on Bree but was intercepted by laser to his chest.
Adam charged with a battle cry, meeting Marcus in the middle. The two clashed in a deadlock, grappling for control. Adam's height and weight gave him a natural advantaged. He used it, using his bionic strength to push Marcus backwards until they were near Leo's mission desk. The momentum only stopped when Marcus drove his foot into the ground, actually digging a hole into the concrete floor. Still, Adam pushed forward, pushing with all his strength. Marcus seemed to struggle, his back arching and knees buckling.
Seeing an opportunity, Chase dashed forward. He ran up to Adam, using his brother's broad back and a means to jump higher into the air. He flipped over the pair thanks to his higher altitude, landing gracefully onto his hands and feet. Extractor in hand, Chase went to shove the device into Marcus's neck. But before he could, Marcus's strength seemed to increase. He grabbed Adam and pulled him backwards and over. The larger teen was flipping onto his back, colliding with Chase and bringing the smaller boy to the floor.
Marcus jumped to his feet, turning around quickly, his leg coming down towards the extractor.
A wild battle cry echoed in the lab as Leo tackled Marcus to the floor.
"Leo, be careful!"
"I got this Big D," Leo grinned. "Or should I this destabilizer's got this." Leo held up an electro-field destabilizer. The very same that he and Chase had used to take down the exoskeleton last year. Marcus stood back up, wrenching the device out of Leo's hand. However, instead of looking worried, Leo just smiled. He pulled a metal wrench from his pocket and tapped the metal to the destabilizer.
Marcus was blasted back by a burst of electricity, a scream of surprise coming out of him.
"Its so much funnier when its someone else," Leo laughed.
Bree helped her brothers up, the two of them groaning in pain as they steadied themselves. As they got themselves together, an electrical spark filled the air. It was followed by a groan. Marcus slowly picked himself up, shaking his head, blinking until his brown eyes appeared again.
"Ok. Who hit me this time? Because that hurt!"
Everyone stopped, watching and wait as Marcus looked around in confusion. Adam was the one who broke the silence by asking, "Is that Marcus-Marcus or Evil-Mind-Controlled-Marcus?"
"Adam what are you talking about? I'm – "
Marcus was cut off again, his eyes flickering back to their bionic green. His confused face relaxed before his express turned into an angry scowl.
"Yup, still Evil-Mind-Controlled-Marcus," Adam sighed.
Marcus held his hand out, a chair rolling to him. He stopped it with his foot, kicking it to the floor. With bionic strength, he kicked it up into the air before delivering a spinning back kick with all his bionic strength. The chair was launched towards the four siblings at a dangerous speed. Adam caught it but was still thrown backwards due to the sheer force of the chair's momentum.
The bionic soldier charged, rearing his arm back as his fist started to glow white. Chase intercepted, quickly throwing up his force field. Marcus's fist contacted the shield and a powerful shock wave ripped through the lab. It shattered Chase's force field and repelled Marcus into the air. Leo caught his stepbrother, while the renegade soldier landed on his feet after back flipping in the air.
"He used his energy transference to turn his punches into neutron powered punches," Davenport gasped. "That's so awesome!"
"Hello! Fighting for ours lives," Bree called out in annoyance. Marcus charged at her, forcing her to counter and push him back. "Could you try not to be impressed by the walking drone?"
"Sorry. But I just got an idea. Leo, I need your help. You three, distract him."
"What do you think we've been doing?" the girl asked rhetorically. With a roll of her eyes, she quickly sped to Marcus, stopping him from getting to Mr. Davenport. "No hard feelings, right?"
She feinted a punch, kicking Marcus as he predictably guarded her attack. She continued her assault, not giving him time to recover. She struck him at his side with a jab. She followed it up with a side kick to the shin. As he felt down, she caught him by the collar of his shirt and lifted him up to deliver a swift kick to the chest. Marcus flew back, right into Adam's waiting arms.
Adam wrapped his arms around Marcus, pinning the boy's arms to his side. He lifted Marcus off the floor, not giving him anything he could use to propel himself around. But he didn't get to hold him for long. Marcus managed to wiggle his hands close together. His hands started to glow, the energy in his body coming to his palm.
"Adam let go!"
Adam dropped Marcus, just as the boy clapped his hands together to pop the ball of energy. Another powerful shockwave ripped through the lab. This time they were ready, the three teens adjusting their bodies to take less impact. Bree landed gracefully by the capsules while Chase stood in front of Adam with a force field. Chase brought his hands together, the force field condensing into a ball that he threw at his friend.
Marcus countered with his own force field, the green wall catching and disintegrating the blue ball. Marcus brought his hands together and condensed his force field. He turned around and threw the ball at Bree, who cartwheeled away. The ball slammed into her capsule, but thankfully the strong polymer panel withstood the attack.
"Ok, is it me or is he getting better?"
"The longer Henderson's in control, the easier it must for him to control Marcus," Chase hypothesized. "We need to stop him now."
Marcus flipped over the cyber desk, landing with a direct line towards the fence generator. He super speed towards him. His fingers were just inches from the device when Bree grabbed him. She pulled his arm away, turning him to face her. He threw a punch, which she dodged and countered. He caught her fist and pushed her back. Once again, he went got the generator, but this time Chase intercepted him by grabbing him by the collar and pulling him away.
Marcus scowled. He kicked the extractor out of Chase's hand, eyes getting brighter as he prepared to fire lasers. Chase quickly called the device to his hand via molecular kinesis, saving it from destruction at the last second. Adam dropped down next to Marcus and kicked at him. Marcus stumbled. He was surrounded, Adam, Bree, and Chase positioned around him.
"Give up, Henderson. We're taking you down," Chase declared.
"Its three against one," Bree added. "Couldn't beat us before, and you can't beat us now."
"Yeah, what they said!"
Marcus's expression hardened. He stuck out his arms. Blue energy formed in his hands. The balls crackled with electricity before a bolt fired from each other. The bolts collided in the air, merging together to form a large sphere of unstable energy. Marcus brought his arms together, the three orbs came together, crashing into his body before they exploded into a violent blast. This time the three of them were unprepared and were knocked to the ground, the raw energy ripping through their bodies, shocking their system.
"Ok, no one told me he could do that," Adam groaned in pain.
Marcus stood over Chase, his foot coming down on the extractor and crushed it to pieces. He glared at the mission leader, green eyes seeming to burn with intense hatred.
"S-2 has a myriad of bionic abilities stored within his data-bank even he doesn't know about." Marcus told them. His voice was accompanied by an electronic female voice. "Abilities even you three can't prepare for."
Chase attempted to stand up, only to have Marcus's foot come down on his chest.
"You think you can save S-2? When we're done, you'll be joining him."
Marcus held up his right hand. It sparked to like, energy forming between his fingertips. The energy bounced between his fingers until they came together. It went faster and faster until a spinning ball of energy, no bigger than a soft ball, formed in his hands. He grinned down at Chase, his expression twisted and inhuman. Chase stared into the glowing green eyes, grabbing hold of the other boy's leg in a desperate attempt to push him off.
"Hey, SHODAN!"
Marcus's head whipped around to find Leo and Davenport standing side by side, the two humans blocking the fence generator. More importantly however, was the quickly cobbled together machine nn between them. The machine looked like a vacuum cleaner with the electro-field destabilizer attached to one end and the neutron power cell attached to the other.
Leo held up a metal wrench before smugly saying, "get out of our friend."
Leo brought a wrench to the tip of the machine. The destabilizer sparked and the electricity was quickly absorbed into the machine. The power cell hummed to life. A powerful bolt of raw electricity shot out from the destabilizer and slammed into Marcus's chest, sending him off Chase. As he was thrown into the air, electricity snaked into Marcus's system. The unstable energy snaked through his bionic infrastructure, making its way to his chip. One the electricity met the chip, the chip started to violently spark. It cracked with energy, sparks flying from Marcus's neck.
His vision glitched. His body shook. A digital message appeared before him.
"Connection Unstable."
….
…
..
"Connection Unstable."
"What? No! No!" S-1 shouted angrily. She tapped the screen, trying to get the Triton App connection to work. "Work!"
"Signal Lost. Triton App disengaged."
"No! Argh!" she threw the tablet in a rage. She had been so close! But Davenport and his stepson had once again ruined everything. She held her face in her hands, tears threatening to fall. No. She wouldn't allow herself to do so. She needed to be a leader, to focus on the missions.
"Hey! That almost hit me!" S-8, her youngest brother, shouted. She turned to S-8 and S-3, the latter looking smug as ever.
"Looks like someone's plan didn't work," S-3 chuckled. "Told you, should have gone with the dynamite in the lab plan."
"Does this mean I can go back to my movie with Uncle D?" S-8 asked. She scowled at his admiration for their captive.
"No," S-1 admonished sternly. They weren't going to continue the patient game anymore. They were doing this tonight. They had come to far. "Get S-4. I'm going to talk to the good doctor. And then we're going to do things the hard way."
….
…
..
He felt the pain before he could even open his eyes. Every muscle in Marcus's body ached and protested as he started to move. He could feel the heat of the lights on him and he forced himself to open his eyes. He was promptly met with the blinding lights of the med bay.
"Ugh. Turn that off."
"He's waking up."
Marcus blinked a few times. His vision still a little blurry. It took a few seconds for the spots to clear and his vision soon corrected itself. Brown eyes scanned the room in confusion. He was definitely in the med bay. It was a small room, almost about the same size as the nurse's in school. He was laying down in one of the beds, a monitor hooked to his wrist. Adam, Bree, Chase, Leo, and Davenport were huddled around him, concern and worry written across their faces. Marcus raised an eyebrow, annoyance written across his face. He sat up, his confusion only rising when they took a step back.
"Did Adam throw me again? Because if he did, I know where his barrel of expired meat is and I'm afraid to us it again him."
"He's back!" Chase laughed.
Marcus suddenly found himself in the center of a five-teen group hug, which he promptly started to squirm out of.
"Hey, hey, hey! I thought we agreed, I don't join in group hugs. And why do I smell burnt toast?"
"Alright, buy, give him some room," Davenport told them, gesturing for them to step back. Marcus rolled his shoulder, hissing in pain. His whole body ached.
"Why does everything hurt?"
"What do you remember?" Chase asked.
Marcus raised an eyebrow. He went to answer but stopped himself. He tried to think. His memory was fuzzier than normal. He could usually remember everything that happened in a day, but his recent memory was off. Like it was trying to look in through a window that hadn't been washed in decades. He tried his best, but all he got were fuzzy flashes that were accompanied by muted dialogue.
"Uh…Something about a Christmas tree and…a unicorn…my inhibitor. My inhibitor." Marcus looked down at his wrist. The inhibitor was gone. He blinked a few times, his hand touching the bare skin. It was a little lighter than the rest of his skin, softer too. A faint smile formed on his face. It was gone. And yet, he still felt incomplete. "Uh, wait…I don't feel different. What happened?"
"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" Chase asked with cocky smirk on his face. Marcus stared unamused.
"How about the answer where you don't beat around the bush. And try speaking English this time."
Chase glared at the raven-haired teen. He turned to his siblings to ask them, "remind me why I saved him again?"
"I'm adorable," Marcus sassed, his own cocky smirk plastered on his face. He had no idea what Chase was talking about, but he never missed an opportunity to tease the other boy.
"A puppy is adorable. You're more like a raccoon that's been run over by the mail truck," Chase countered.
"At least I don't look like Principal Perry's rejected high school picture."
"Urgh! Why are you such a jerk?!"
"Because you're a bitch."
"Can't say I missed this," Bree sighed as he crossed her arms in annoyance.
"I dunno, Marcus still looks fishy to me," Adam said, narrowing his eyes as he leaned closer. He leaned in close enough to Marcus to distract the power from his verbal spat with Chase. Marcus leaned away and pushed Adam away, a look of annoyance across his face. Chase seemed to take that as a personal victory and turned to Davenport, his expression turning a little more serious.
"How did you guys figure out how to get rid of the Triton App?" Chase asked Davenport and Leo.
"Actually, we have Marcus's glitch to thank for that," the patriarch answered as he went to check Marcus's vitals.
"I don't glitch."
"I have a hole in my Double-Chin Chuck doll that says otherwise," Bree reminded him. Marcus pouted and just let Davenport continue his work.
"When you guys use your bionics, your chips send electrical signals to your bionics," Davenport explained as he did a quick diagnostic over his patient. "When Marcus glitches, instead of going to his bionics, those electrical signal shoots out of him. That's why he's been sparking whenever he gets mad. I noticed whenever he was glitching, the Triton App would fail momentarily. So, I theorized that a strong enough electric current would shut off his chip momentarily."
Marcus blinked. He had no idea what happened. Or what they were all talking about. But he was smart enough to put context clues together. Something had happened to him and it involved something called the Triton app. And somehow, he ended up with a few volts of electricity to get rid of it. Actually, that last part would explain why the tips of his hair felt a little crispy.
Davenport finally finished his check up and Marcus hopped out of bed. Bree steady him when he almost stumbled, giving him a good look at her. His stomach suddenly sank. He took the opportunity to get a good look at everyone. He didn't need microscopic vision to see the bruises slowly forming. Bionic people were tough. They didn't bruise easily. Hell, the only time Marcus ever got bruised was when he fought other bionic humans.
His stomach suddenly grew cold.
"I did something didn't I?" Marcus realized. Everyone grew quiet, staring at him. He let out a half-hearted laugh. "I'll take that as a yes."
"Marcus, it wasn't your fault," Bree tried, but the boy just shook his head.
"Yeah? What, did I activate a commando app or something?" he asked sarcastically. Adam scoffed.
"No. Henderson took over your brain and made you attack us."
"Adam!"
"I mean, you did NOT have your brain taken over and attack us," Adam corrected himself. He leaned closer to his siblings and loudly whispered, "saved it."
"Took over my brain?" The cold dread in his stomach grew. His mind started to go over what the sentence meant and what he came up with, he didn't like. A distant memory flashed in his head. He was suddenly 8 again. The faceless man once again stood over, giving him orders. Orders he didn't want to commit to. But then again, he never had a say in anything. He scowled at the memory.
"We think someone hacked into your chip and uploaded a new app that gave them control over," Chase finally answered.
"Big D and I managed to short circuit your chip and disable the app," Leo explained. "But uh…" He paused, looking at Davenport allowing the inventor to take over the explanation.
"I tried to fix your chip, Marcus. But there were…complications."
Marcus was quiet for a moment, his mind processing the words. After a few seconds he asked, "what kind of complications?"
Davenport looked nervous. Marcus repeated the question, his expression hard. Anger was written across his face, but no matter how intimidating he looked, his voice said otherwise. It cracked with nervousness, his lips trembling with uncertainty. Hundreds of different scenarios ran through his mind, none of which made him feel any better.
Finally, Davenport sighed sadly. He walked to a desk and picked up something. He returned, showing Marcus what it was. It was 10 mm by 10 mm chip. His eyes scanned the delicate item, its emerald green body was charred around the sides. Dark scorch marks littered across its body, blotting out the golden S that was in the center of the chip. The connector pins were burnt and smelled of brunt metal. He wanted to reach for it, to snatch it from Davenport and hold it in his own hands. But as he stared at it, he couldn't find the ability to move.
"What?"
"Most of the damage came from when your chip first initialized its detonation sequence," Davenport explained, his tone solemn and serious. "But the connectors were fried when we disable the Triton app. I was able to isolate the Triton app and remove it from your chip…but…"
"B-but what?" Marcus asked rhetorically. He could already see the conclusion to it, but he held onto a shred of hope that he was wrong. The quiet atmosphere was telling, however, and his grip on hope was slipping.
"In its current condition, putting this chip back in you could cause irreversible damage to your body and bionic infrastructure."
"But you can fix it, right?" he asked, his voice cracking. "You can fix it, Mr. Davenport?"
"I'm sorry, Marcus. I can't."
….
…
..
In his 40 years of life, Douglas Davenport never imagined that he would be stuck in an underground lab watching a cinematic adaptation of one of his favorite comic books. Neither would he have ever guest that he would be spending most of his time baby sitting some bionic teens after being kidnapped almost 15 years ago. For years he had been locked up, forced to work for a lunatic who kidnapped kids off the street in some insane plan for bionic immortality.
Sometimes he wondered what would have happened if he had partnered with Victor Krane all those years ago. The man seemed nice enough, and he was really interested in using bionics for medical research. But as fate would have it, he had to listen to his brother and instead hired Daniel Henderson. Now look at him: genius playboy philanthropist turned scientist for a supervillain.
"Screw the plane, Cap. Just go back to the girl. You'll regret it," Douglas told the TV before taking a swing from his beer can. His mind briefly flashed to his late wife and the little family they had. He wondered if maybe his oldest had the same taste in comics. Or maybe if things had been different, he wondered if his kids would be into music like their mother.
His trip down memory lane was interrupted as the TV was shut off. He sat up, turning around angrily. "I was watching that!"
"Don't you know TV rots the brain?" S-1 asked rhetorically. The teenage girl marched up to him, her long black hair bouncing with each step. She was dressed in her mission gear, which was mostly black camo and a leather jacket.
He wasn't as uninformed as those bionic punks thought he was. He knew about their little plan and he couldn't help the smug smirk form on his face. If she was here, then that only meant the Triton App failed.
"You know, if you're planning on going out, it's a little late for all black. You could get hit by a car," he told her with a sarcastic grin on his face. She didn't look amused, but Douglas mentally clapped himself on the back.
"You're Triton App failed."
"Really? I don't hear screaming and shouting from S-4. Seems like its working fine to me."
"Your brother and his stepson managed to disable the Triton App on S-2."
"Just like Donny. Always ruining my stuff," Douglas said, feigning angry. Mentally though, he was doing a dance. As rocky as his relationship with his brother was, he'd still prefer Donald finding a solution to his perfect viral app. Especially when it came to Marcus. Still, as much as he wanted to celebrate, he wasn't going to show S-1 that. Not when she was still loyal to Henderson. And especially not when she could kick his ass from here to Sunday.
"So, what? You want me to update the app?" He asked her.
"No," she answered, and Douglas turned in confusion. They had spent years torturing him to perfect a viral computer app and now they didn't even want him to continue. Something didn't sit right with him.
S-1 simply stared at him, a confident smile forming on her face as her eyes flashed green. It was just a sad reminded of what she really was. Just another child taken from a good home and converted into one of Henderson's bionic soldiers. A soldier that had been mentally broken and rebuilt into a loyal servant. And the best of the best. Sometimes he forgot, under all that youthful appearance and sweetness was the number one killer in Henderson's entire army.
"So…. what are you going to do?" he asked her cautious, trying to gauge what her plans were.
"What do you think? They could have just made it easier on themselves. But instead they chose to defy us. To fight us. Well now, we're going to bring the fight to them. Tonight."
"You can't do that, Taylor."
"My name is S-1," she snapped coldly, eyes blazing green. But Douglas found his spine. He tried to reason with her, to break the hold Henderson had on her.
"Your name is Taylor Crane! You are a girl from rural California who had a puppy named Otis! You're not just some bionic soldier Henderson made."
"My father didn't make me. He saved me!"
"He brainwashed you!"
"Enough! Speak ill of my father again and I'll make sure to kill your son right in front of us."
Douglas stepped back. His mind fell on his baby boy. His little Cole, a baby he thought he'd never see again. When he had though, the boy had been found by Henderson. His son was used as an incentive to keep working. For years he had to watch as his son grew up and became a deadly soldier. A soldier that Henderson could reset after every mission. His son had no identity, every new mission a new life and memories would be implanted into him and the deleted once he completed his job.
It was Henderson's way of reminding Douglas who was in control.
But his son had failed his last mission. He was living with Donny, thinking he was abandoned by his father, thinking his name was Marcus Henderson. But he was safe. Safe with Donny and Adam, Bree, and Chase. He was safe from Henderson and his insanity. Confident in his brother and the bionic trio to keep his son safe, Douglas straightened his back and stood firm.
"You really think you can get to S-2 so easily?"
S-1 smirked, her expression only darkening.
"Oh Douglas," she started, her tone playful. "You forget, we have bionic agents everywhere. And some of them keep their eyes on other targets."
She held up her cellphone. Douglas looked at the screen, where a picture was displayed. The picture was of three kids at a comic book store, two boys and a girl. His eyes fell on the boy in the middle. The kid looked like him if Douglas was younger and styled his hair like Donny. The kid had a large smile that was a dead copy of Douglas's while his eyes mirrored his late Kimberly-Anne. Douglas turned from the picture and looked at S-1's grinning face.
"He's cute," she complimented playfully. "Definitely looked like his daddy."
"How did you find him?"
"All you need to know is one quick phone call, and my brothers and sisters will end him before the night's done."
He felt cold.
"Now that you remember who's in charge, I'm going to give you two lovely options, ok? Get ready to remove Adam, Bree, and Chase's bionics, or lose your sons."
"Taylor…"
"You've two hours."
She left. But not before using sending him two pictures from her phone. The pictures came up on his TV. There were pictures of his sons, Mateus and Cole, fully grown teenagers. One a normal teenager living a happy and safe life, the other bionic solider that was finally free from a living hell. He was alone with nothing but his thoughts and a cold reminder of who held all the cards in the game.
….
…
..
The atmosphere in the Davenport home was solemn. Even Adam had enough social aptitude to know not to say anything outlandish. The Adam, Chase, and Leo were sitting in the living room, their eyes glued to the television but their minds too preoccupied to really pay attention to it. Bree was by the windows, looking out to the pool where the fifth teen of the household was currently sitting. She finally tore herself from her view, sighing as she made her way to her brothers.
"He hasn't moved since he ran out there," she informed them before sitting down next to Leo.
"How long do you think he'll be out there?" Leo asked, his head briefly turning to the window despite the lack of a view. "It's getting pretty cold."
"We could build a fire and camp out there," Adam suggested before occupying himself with his chip bowl.
"I don't think s'mores and campfire stories is going to help," Chase countered. "But, nice suggestion, Adam."
"Oh, I wasn't saying it would cheer him up. I just want to go camping."
"And you ruined the moment."
"Guys, we've got to do something," Bree told them. She rubbed her legs to calm her jitters. Her mind bounced between Davenport's revelation and Marcus's uncharacteristically silent exit from the lab. She'd never seen him so defeated. There had always been a fire, a sense of retaliation whenever he was presented with some sort of challenge. His silent resignation unnerved her to the point where she'd rather face off against the version of him from five months ago. "I don't know what I would do if I wasn't bionic anymore."
"Bree, its not that we don't want to help," Chase started, finally tearing himself away from the TV to look at her. "I just don't know what we can do. Marcus can't use his chip without hurting himself. And it's not like we can just make him a new one."
"Why don't we?" Leo asked. Chase sighed in annoyance. His annoyance was mostly directed at the situation rather than at Leo.
"Creating a chip takes time. Not to mention Marcus's chip was designed completely different from ours. Any chip we make might not even work with his bionics. Or it could take us months, or even years to make one that could remotely work. Even then it wouldn't be the same."
"But it's at least something right?" Bree reasoned.
"Why don't we give him Chase's chip?" Adam asked through a mouthful of chips. "Bet he'd be a better mission leader."
Chase turned to stare at Adam, his restraint slowly wearing down.
"I'm not giving him my chip."
"Well aren't you selfish," Adam said. Chase growled. The only thing preventing him from jumping across the couch to attack Adam was Leo gently pushing Chase back onto the couch.
"Hey. Hey. Think happy thought. Happy thoughts."
"Adam, Chase is right. Marcus needs his own chip," Bree said. "I mean, how would you feel if something happened to your chip and you weren't bionic anymore?"
Adam paused his chewing. After finally thinking about it, he swallowed his snack and sighed. "Yeah you're right. I'd feel bad. Mostly because I wouldn't be able to use Chase as my barbell. Ah who am I kidding? I probably still could."
Before Chase could push Leo out of the way to attack Adam, the sound of the back door opening drew everyone's attention. They all turned to see Marcus coming back inside. Even from where they sat on the couch, they could see the redness in his eyes. His cheeks were damp and splotchy. Despite that, he walked in standing tall. But his bravado seemed to only last a few seconds. The minute everyone's eyes fell on him, his shoulders sagged, and he stared at the floor.
"I-I'm going to head to bed."
"Wait, Marcus," Bree stood up, walking around the couch to intercept him. As she moved, the doorbell rang. Chase reluctantly stood up and headed to the door. As Bree tried to talk to Marcus, who was politely trying to ask her to get out of his way, Chase opened the door to find Sebastian standing on the other side.
"Sebastian. Hey, what are you doing here?"
"I came to see my best friend. I wanted to know if you wanted to play this new game my dad bought me before school starts," the other boy said as he walked past Chase and into the room. Sebastian looked around the room and when his eyes fell on Marcus, Sebastian asked, "Marcus are you ok? What happened?"
"Uh, Sebastian, now's not a really good time," Chase told his friend. Sebastian didn't seem to get the cue. Instead of talking to Chase, Sebastian focused on Marcus.
"You look like somebody died," he said, his smirk just growing. Seeing the arrogant, grinning face, Marcus felt his blood start to boil.
"Chase, get your boyfriend out of here before I throw him out the window," Marcus warned, his voice hard and deadly despite the slight crack in it. The comment just seemed to make Sebastian's smirk grow even wider.
"Sebastian, its been a really bad day and maybe we can play another time," Chase said. He gently grabbed the taller boy by the arm, trying to persuade him to leave. But Sebastian stood firm, rooting himself into place.
"No, I want to see Marcus try and throw me out the window. He barely looks like he could lift a basketball let alone me."
"Sebastian, what's gotten into you," Chase asked.
The house suddenly shook. A loud explosive noise echoed through the entire building. The lights flickered briefly while dust fell from the ceiling. Everyone looked on in confusion, but Sebastian stayed rooted in his spot. His daze was solely on Marcus, even as he placed a hand on Chase's shoulder to support him.
"What was that?" Bree asked before another blast rocked the house.
"That," Sebastian started, "was my brother trying to get into your lab."
"If he wanted to get in the lab he could have just asked," Adam said as he stood up, crossing his arms over his chest in annoyance. When he realized what he just said, he attempted to correct himself. "And we would say 'no' because we don't have a lab. Saved it."
Another explosion rocked the building, the force managing to topple some chairs down.
"What's going on?"
"Oh, Chase," Sebastian turned to the smaller boy, his grin turning predatory as his eyes turned a violent green. "It's called an ambush."
Raw energy collected into Sebastian's hands. He brought it together and formed a small plasma ball that he shoved into Chase's chest. Caught off guard, Chase was launched into the air, soaring over the couch and into Bree and Marcus. The two were unprepared and were taken down by the flying bionic teen. They all fell into a heap, groaning in pain. Seeing this, Leo let out a yelp of surprise and horror before dashing behind the couch.
"No way! He's a Super Saiyan!" Adam gasped. Bree pulled herself out from the pile of limbs and glared at her brother.
"Adam! He's bionic!"
"Oh. Yeah that makes more sense."
"Ok, first Marcus, now Sebastian? Any other bionic teenagers out there?" Leo asked rhetorically.
"Funny you should mention that," Sebastian said, his predatory grin never leaving. It seemed to only get wider and his electric emerald eyes stared at the teens. He held his arm out and clutched his hand. With a fluid motion, he sent the couch flying out of the living room and down the hall. With nothing standing between them and Sebastian, the four bionic teens got into a fighting stance while Leo hid behind them.
The windows started to rattle. Outside, the wind picked up, whipping violently against the windowpanes. After another concussive blast shook the house, one of the windows exploded inwardly. A spinning vortex entered the house through the newly made doorway. It whipped towards the teens faster than they could predict. In the blink of an eye, the miniature tornado slammed into all five teens, knocking them into the air and across the room. As they all came crashing to the floor, the tornado finally stopped, Spin coming to a halt right next to Sebastian. Despite what he had just done, Spin had an excited smile on his face.
"That was awesome! You see that! I took them all down!"
"Spin?" Marcus groaned as he sat up. His ribs protested, but he fought through the pain. He suddenly knew what Chase was going through. The little ball of energy he had been babysitting and befriended was bionic. And apparently, he was here with Sebastian to attack them.
"I knew it," Leo snarled. "I told you he was three feet of evil."
"It's still three against two," Chase growled. He jumped back to his feet; his face hardened with anger. Marcus got up and stood next to Chase.
"Four against two," Marcus clarified. "Even without bionics, I can still kick his ass."
"Make that five," Leo said as he joined in. Everyone turned to Leo, confusion on their faces. "Four and a half?"
"Fine by me," Spin laughed before taking on what he thought looked like an intimidating stance. It came off more like he was pretending to be dinosaur. It actually would have looked adorable if it weren't for his eyes glowing a sinister green. "I've been wanting to kick your butt since we met."
"Oh, bring it on, Tiny Tim."
"Enough."
Heads turned to the doorway. The tall, slim figure of Sebastian and Spin's older sister, Susan, was leaning against the door. Her usual preppy attire was replaced by dark camo and a black leather jacket. He pushed herself off the doorframe before sauntering with the confidence and precision of a military leader. She came to a stop in front of her brothers, turning to the Daven-Dooley kids.
"Let me guess, you're bionic too," Bree retorted with a passive aggressive smile.
"The best bionic soldier to be precise," Susan gloated.
"They must have been the ones who attacked a few months ago," Chase theorized. He was most betting on Sebastian and Susan. The two of them fit the body type of the attackers, the voice, the genders. He felt so stupid. How could he have never realized it. "Why wait until now?"
"Simple answer? We were waiting on you to mess up," Susan answered. Her eyes turned to Marcus and while she didn't show off her own bionic green eyes, she still held the same sinister gaze. "We couldn't get in thanks to your fortified defenses, but we could let you unlock S-2's chip and use him to destroy your defenses from the inside."
Marcus growled at the answer. He clenched his fists, wishing he could fire lasers at the moment.
"You were the ones who used the Triton app," Chase stated.
"Wow, there's that impeccable genius," Susan mocked, clapping slowly. The house rocked harder, the five teens almost loosing their footing. "We wanted to do this the easy way, but now we have to play dirty."
"And pretending to be our friends wasn't dirty enough?" Chase argued. Bree scoffed.
"Yeah, she and I were never friends."
"Feelings mutual," Susan shot back. "Now, we can still do this the easy way. We're just here to clean up S-2's mistake and bring you three back with us."
"Yeah, there's just a few things wrong with that," Marcus shot back. "One, the name is Marcus."
"And two, we're not going anywhere," Chase finished.
"Shame," Sebastian sighed, his smirk turning into a pout. "I really did like you Chase. But I like my family more than our relationship."
"Yeah, well just so you know, we're over," Chase shot back. He extended out his arms, his force field coming online. In one fluid motion, he condensed it into a ball and hurled it towards the trio. Sebastian quickly summoned a two-pronged laser bo staff and quickly brought it down into the ball of energy, slicing it cleanly in half.
The teens, sans Leo, raced towards Sebastian, Spin, and Susan. Before they could clash, the air warped and twisted in front of them. A fourth bionic teen appeared, clapping his hands and unleashing a powerful electrically charged sonic boom that blasted Adam, Bree, Chase, and Marcus backwards. They hit the floor, pain ripping through their bodies.
"Excellent timing, S-4," Susan complimented the new arrival.
Bree was the first to notice the new arrival. Her heart stopped upon seeing him. His hair was slicked back. His clothing looked out of place, black cargo pants and a tight-fitting black t-shirt a complete contrast to everything she had grown accustomed to. There was no color, no individuality. Cold green eyes looked down on them. But it was the robotic, emotionless expression that made her blood run cold.
"Owen?"
"Target acquired," he told Susan, completely ignoring Bree. "Awaiting further instructions."
"Proceed with Order 99," Susan instructed before holding out her hand. A ball of white lightning started to form. Sebastian followed suit, the same ball forming in his. Owen did the same and a third ball formed. Electricity arched between them, connecting the three balls.
Marcus stared. Something in his stirred. "That…"
"W-wait. I thought you guys said we were bringing S-2 home," Spin stammered, fear in his eyes. He took a step back as the room got brighter and brighter.
Electricity sparked violently across the room. Bolts shot out, destroying chairs and monitors. The electric balls started to spin around, more bolts of electricity shooting out, charring the ceiling. It spun faster and faster. Chase put up a force field, siblings behind him. Lighting cracked around it, charging the air and cracking the foundation of the mansion.
Marcus watched mesmerized. He felt something was missing. Like there should be another person next to them, someone to help anchor the attack. His mind flashed, images of destruction and charred bodies. His instincts started to act up, shouting at him, telling him to run. The shield wouldn't be strong enough. He knew it wouldn't.
Time started to slow down as his body moved.
"GET DOWN!"
The chain lighting launched out of their hands, drilling through the air. Marcus raced towards Chase, shoving Adam, Bree, Chase, and Leo out of the way. The shield flickered as Chase fell to the ground. The chain lightning slammed into the shield.
BOOOOM!
A blinding white light enveloped the room before an earth-shattering explosion rocked through the building. The shockwave caused all the lighting the city to flicker on and off like a wave of dominos. A lone body was hurled out of the building, the blast propelling them out into the night sky. Gravity caught them and Marcus fell down to the pool below. He crashed into the water, his last conscious moments were spent looking at the night sky, the stars distorted by the water that wrapped around him as he sank.