When I heard voices coming in my direction I got excited. They must be here. And Douglas hadn't knocked them out. I wonder how he managed to pull that off.
I became confused when Donald walked in, along with Adam, Bree, and Chase. Where's Douglas? All three teens stopped when they saw me.
"Harper?" I smiled thinly and waved at them.
"Great, everyone's here. Now it's a party." Mr. Davenport glanced at me briefly and the look he gave me said to knock it off. But there was something weird about his face...
"Mr. Davenport, what's going on?" Chase asked, making the man chuckle darkly, which was very uncharacteristic. He pressed the side of his neck and Davenport's face faded and revealed Douglas'. Cyber mask, clever.
"Guess who." He asked tauntingly. Bree and Chase were shocked while Adam was oblivious like always.
"Whoa! Awesome mask, Mr. Davenport! He looks just like his evil brother who captured us." He said to his siblings.
"That is his evil brother." Chase deadpanned.
"And he did just capture us." Bree said in the same manner. Adam oh'd making all of us roll our eyes.
"I don't get it. I thought you were an ice cube in Mr. Davenport's warehouse. How did you get out?" Chase demanded.
"It's best if you don't ask that." I said to him and Douglas gave me another look to which I shrugged and raised an eyebrow, silently giving him attitude. He turned back to the three siblings.
"I had a little help."
"It doesn't matter. We'll destroy this rat trap just like your last one." Bree told him and Douglas scoffed.
"Yeah, thanks for that. I didn't even have time to back up my music. Twenty years of up-tempo jazz, gone!" I spent a lot of time listening to that music when I was in Douglas's captivity and wasn't as upset as Douglas was for losing it.
"Yeah? Well I know something else that's about to be gone." Chase said and Adam nodded.
"Yeah. Let's get his reggae too." After getting looks from his siblings they all faced Douglas and got in battle stances. Douglas didn't look the tiniest bit afraid and I knew what was about to happen next.
"Now!" Douglas called out and I hated the fact I was trapped and couldn't do anything.
"Guys get out of here!" I yelled as Krane walked out, wearing the white mask. I repeated myself but they didn't listen and it was too late. Krane electrocuted them and they all fell, unconscious.
"Told you I had a little help." Douglas said even though the three couldn't hear him. I threw my hands up, irritated that no one had listened to me.
"There goes my only hope of getting out of here." I said, mostly to myself but Douglas and Krane both heard me and the latter gave me a death glare before walking away. Douglas went over to his desk.
"It's lights out for you too." Douglas said and before I could process what he meant the floor beneath me glowed before an electric shock went through me and I too passed out.
How many times do I have to be knocked out?
I wondered this as I regained consciousness.
"Wakey-wakey. Eggs and bac-y." I quietly groaned. Douglas's gravelly voice was not the first thing I liked to hear when waking up. "Actually it's just an expression. All we have to eat around here are nuts, berries and... The occasional barbequed iguana."
"Taunting us with non-existent breakfast foods? You really are evil!" I heard Adam say, not motivated enough yet to open my eyes. I knew I was still trapped.
"Wait! Who was that guy?" Chase asked.
"Oh, that's right. You haven't been formally introduced to my partner. Krane, come say hi to the kids."
"Wait, now we have three dads?" I ignored Adam's stupid question and opened my eyes as I heard Krane enter the room.
"After I was booted from Davenport Industries I needed cash to continue my research. Luckily, I found a billionaire who believed in hello to my colleague, benefactor, and all-around bad guy, Victor Krane." I got into a sitting position just as Krane took off his mask and revealed his horribly disfigured face.
Everyone grimaced with disgust, even Douglas. I guess it's safe to say that no one can get used to seeing Krane's face.
"Dude, I have got to get you into a dermatologist." Douglas said with minor concern. He reached a hand closer to Krane's face and retracted it when the latter gave him a death stare.
"What is that stuff all over his face?" Chase asked and Krane smirked.
"You are no longer the only humans with bionics." He answered.
"Way to take my thunder. I thought I was the first to break that track record." If looks could kill, I'd be killed, then killed again, followed by four more times by Krane. Chase seemed to be the only one amused by my witty remarks. I gave him a smirk and ignored the weird way my stomach felt when he smirked back. Our little moment ended when Douglas spoke.
"Krane agreed to fund my work so long as I shared my research with him." Douglas began explaining, trying to ease the tension I had created, and prevent Krane from murdering me, "He implants every piece of bionic technology I design to make himself more powerful."
"Well, I hope he's got a good personality, 'cause what's on the outside- Yikes." Chase jokes and I'm smirking again. He and I are on a roll.
"Tell me about it." I said with a chuckle.
"Enough!" Krane shouted, silencing us. Then his head seemed to twitch for a second. I wondered just how unstable Krane's bionics were. Once it stopped he looked at Douglas. "Let's go. You have work to do." When he left Douglas pointed in his direction and laughed like a little child.
"Isn't he cool?" He asked excitedly. Bree scoffed.
"You can cart out all the freaks you want. It's not going to keep us here." Douglas chuckled and headed to his computer. I wondered if Bree was grouping me with the freaks she referred to.
"Oh, I beg to differ." Before I could tell the siblings to get out of here, a button was pressed and two titanium rings raised from the floor, spinning around Adam, Bree, and Chase.
"Whoa, cool. Giant ring toss! Gotta give you credit, you're evil, but fun!"
"They're titanium energy rings. They create an impenetrable force field that nothing can escape."
"I smell a challenge." Adam taunted before he stupidly kicked the rings and cried out in pain when the force field shocked him.
"I smell burning flesh." Douglas taunted back.
"What do you want with us this time, Douglas?" Bree demanded.
"Oh no, I'm not falling for that. First I tell you my plan, then something goes wrong, then you use it against me, not gonna happen!" I loved how unhinged Douglas got to the point where he was yelling and had to walk a few feet away to calm himself down.
"It doesn't matter what you're planning. I'm sure that Mr. Davenport is looking for us already. He'll be here any minute to take us home." Instead of being relieved, anger bubbled up when I remembered what I had discovered before getting kidnapped. Chase must have been thinking the same thing because he glanced at me briefly after saying what he did. I just looked away.
"Oh yeah, there's no place like home." Douglas said while chuckling and grabbing a tablet from the desk. "No, seriously. There's no place like home. I blew it up!" He flipped the tablet around. We watched in horror as a video played and it was the lab being engulfed in flames.
"You destroyed our lab?" Bree asked, hoping it wasn't true like I did.
"Yup. Hope you backed up your music libraries."
"Ok, now you've taken it to far Douglas." I said angrily.
"I can't believe the lab is gone. That's our home."
"If anything happened to our family I will end you." Chase threatened.
"Yeah! Then we'll put your body in an old-lady dress so everyone laughs during your funeral." Adam said, like that would make the whole situation better.
"Guys, guys, I understand you're mad. But what's done is done! So let's focus on moving forward together. First order of business, what do you say we make Mondays family game night?" This guy was insane. Unfortunately, Adam thought otherwise.
"This guy, still evil, still fun."
"You are out of your mind!" I yelled at Douglas as he left the room.
"Guys, something's happening to me. I'm getting a tingling sensation." I looked at Chase weirdly.
"Aw, you here that Bree? Pretty soon he'll have a baby mustache." Bree aww'd with Adam. I imagined Chase with a mustache and wrinkled my nose, not liking what I envisioned.
"No! I'm getting a software update on my chip. That's really weird. Why would I just- Wait. Mr. Davenport must be trying to send us a message."
"Then play it!" I exclaimed impatiently. A holographic image of Mr. Davenport projected from Chase's eye.
"Guys, Leo and I are doing everything we can to find you. But if you can escape, come home. Perry has agreed to keep our bionics secret. Can we do that again? I just feel like this hologram makes me look fat."
"Mr. Davenport's okay!" Chase exclaimed after the hologram faded away. Even though I was mad at Davenport, I was relieved that Douglas hadn't killed him. But at the same time, I couldn't believe Perry knew about our bionics! How did she find out?
"Was he wearing guy-liner?" Bree asked.
"Now we just have to find a way to get out of here." Chase said, ignoring his sister's question.
"What if I use my blast wave abilities to destroy the rings?" Adam suggested.
"But if you do that, you'll destroy the rings and everything around us- including us!" Bree told him, but Adam was oblivious to the actual danger.
"But we'll be free." He insisted.
"I already tried blasting them with lightning and anything you hit it with will bounce back." I said, shutting Adam's idea down for good.
"Here's an idea: How 'bout we come up with a plan where we escape and survive?" Chase suggested and Bree looked like she thought of something.
"Wait a second, if these rings are titanium, can't you just use your magnetism app to repel them apart?"
"Douglas would expect that, just like he would expect me to use my molecular kinesis to manipulate them."
"So do both. He wouldn't expect that." I was surprised that Adam had thought of the same idea I had.
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing except I don't currently have those abilities." I inputted.
"Guys, you can't use two abilities at the same time."
"Why not?" Bree asked.
"Because," Chase paused as he tried to think of a reason, "...I don't know." He said finally. "We've never tried it before."
"Well, I say you try it now and if your head explodes, the survivors will move on to Plan B."
"Adam!" I hissed. He just shrugged. Chase pondered what his siblings said, making me grow concerned if he was actually thinking about doing this.
" ...Okay. I'll give it a try." He said finally. I spoke up without thinking.
"Wait, maybe we should think of something else. What if your head does explode?"
"Do you have a better idea?" Chase asked and I didn't have a response. "I'll be fine." He assured me, but of course he wouldn't know that. I knew I couldn't stop him and just nodded. "Activating Magnetism App." After a few seconds he spoke again. "And Molecular Kinesis."
"Focus, Chase." Chase sighed and dropped his hands.
"When you tell me to focus it makes me not focus!" He raised his hands again and his two siblings turned away, in case Chase exploded.
"You can do it!" Bree encouraged.
"Stop talking!" Chase and I exclaimed, shutting the both of them up. I started to bite my nails as Chase began to concentrate on the rings again and they began to bend. Please don't explode. Please don't explode.
I jumped when the rings busted apart and the force field was disabled.
"Way to go, Chase!" Bree cheered.
"That was awesome!" I added.
"Oh, man. Thought for sure his head was gonna explode." Chase then proceeded to fall to the ground.
"Eh, that's better than nothing."
"Is he still breathing?!" I yelled and Bree hurried to check his pulse.
"Yep." After a sigh of relief I pointed to the desk.
"Ok, now turn off my forcefield and let's get out of here before Douglas and Darth Vader get back."
Bree hurried over and deactivated the forcefield.
"Help me carry him!" Bree told me. She grabbed his foot and paused. "Oh, wait. He's light. I got it." I gave Bree an exasperated look and grabbed the other foot so we could escape faster.
I never thought I'd be so happy to be back at the Davenport Mansion.
"We're home!" Bree announced after opening the door and we all came inside.
"Well, that didn't take long." Leo commented as Davenport and Tasha rushed over. Leo set down the box he was carrying and came over to join the hugging fest. No one has ever been excited to see me and it was kind of nice.
"Oh, I'm so glad you're safe. I was so worried." Tasha said as she hugged Bree then Adam then me. I accepted her hug but when Davenport tried to hug me I held a hand out to stop him and after looking at me weirdly he hugged Chase. Leo gave me a side hug and I wondered if he somehow grew an inch or two while we were gone because suddenly it was me who was the shorter one.
"You guys okay?" Donald asked.
"We're fine, but Douglas has a new partner." Chase informed him.
"Eh, give it six months. Big one's super high maintenance." I nodded, agreeing with Adam.
"He's some crazy billionaire named Victor Krane, and he's implanting himself with bionics. His face is disturbing!"
"He must be the guy who freed Douglas from the block of ice." Leo said and I nodded.
"He is." I confirmed before shuddering. "But trust me, that white mask is nothing compared to his real face." I shuddered again.
"I've never even heard of him, but I'm gonna find out who he is and how to stop him." Davenport said.
"You guys must be starving. I'll get dinner started." Tasha hurried to the kitchen.
"Look at this. Things are finally getting back to normal." Leo said happily. Bree and Adam went to help unpack whatever food that could be found.
"At least normal for your family." I said as Leo, Chase, and I sat on the couch. Chase was being unusually quiet but I didn't think too much about it. Maybe he's still feeling off after using two of his abilities at the same time. "How did you find out Douglas escaped?"
"He hacked all of Big D's facilities and stole all of his money. Davenport Industries is ruined. Then the lab blew up and we got trapped in the elevator. Big D confided his deepest secrets with me. Hiding those three in the basement, not even the top ten." I shook my head but wasn't surprised. Chase abruptly got up from the couch and walked around the couch so he was staring down at Leo.
His expression had no emotion.
"Hey, what's up with your eyes?" Chase grabbed Leo's shirt and pulled him off the armrest, "Hey! Hey! Easy on the chest hairs. I only have two." I now noticed that Chase's eyes were glowing green.
Before I could ask what his problem was, everything went dark.
Triton App Activated
Third P.O.V.
Harper's eyes were now green like Chase's, and Adam and Bree's soon followed. They all stood up.
"This fridge is empty. Why don't I just whip up a little tuna surprise?" Tasha asked her husband, oblivious to what was going on until Adam walked up behind Donald and shoved him aside. "Adam, please don't throw him. You know how delicate your father is."
"What's happening?" Leo asked, still being held with his feet off the ground by Chase. Harper circled the pair as if stalking her prey, which in this case was Leo.
"Douglas must've enabled their Triton app. Look at their eyes. He's controlling them." Leo noticed Bree was about to charge after his mother.
"Mom, watch out!" He warned and Tasha was barely able to move out of the way as Bree super sped in her direction. She missed Tasha and jumped over the counter, knocking aside some of the boxes.
"Forget the tuna, I'm about to open up a can of Bree surprise." Tasha said angrily. Bree got up, unharmed and Tasha yelped before running off, Donald and Leo close behind her.
They all grouped together in front of the elevator a few minutes later.
"I think we lost them." The elevator doors opened to reveal Adam. They screamed and ran back into the kitchen as heat vision was fired at them.
"Why are they trying to hurt us?" Tasha exclaimed after a small explosion caused by the heat vision.
"It's not them, it's Douglas. Let's get out of here." Donald pushed them towards the door but one of the large wooden boxes was moved to block it by Chase. Leo let out something close to a sob as they turned to run to the hallway but Bree super sped to block their path.
"Okay, you and your brother just need to hug this out!" Leo shouted at Donald. They all ducked when Harper shot lightning at them from the stairs.
The bionic teens managed to separate Leo from his parents and Harper and Chase were the ones going after him.
"Why aren't you going after Adam? He's the one who' always picks on you. Quick, Adam! Make a short joke! Tell him he's got a doll-like body!" By now Leo was trapped between a wall and wooden boxes stacked on both sides of him. Chase used his molecular kinesis to lift one of them and it now floated above Leo. "No, no, no. Chase, no." Harper generated lightning in her hand while watching from Chase's side. "Come on Harper, now would be a good time for you to get insanely protective. He's trying to hurt me." Leo thought he saw something change in Harper's eyes, but it was only for a brief moment.
Davenport and Tasha were crouching behind the island in the kitchen while Adam was shooting at them with his heat vision. Tasha saw her son being cornered by Chase and Harper.
"Donald! Do something!" She shouted pointing to Leo.
"Chase don't drop it!" Chase turned his head but still had the box ready to crush Leo. "Guys, listen to me. The Triton app only controls your bionics. Not your human side. You have to fight it!" Chase and Harper glanced at each other, pondering Davenport's words.
"Yes, Chase. Remember? All the great times we had? All the cool inventions we built? The time Trent made us bob for apples in the bathroom?" Donald and Tasha silently told him that wasn't a good memory to mention. "Okay, that wasn't really cool, but we did it together." The box lowered a few inches but Chase wasn't letting it fall...yet. "It's not working!" Leo exclaimed.
"Keep trying! It's our only chance!" Leo nodded at his step father and focused on Chase and Harper.
"I'm the one who showed you the real world, Chase. I taught you what it means to be a brother. A good one. Not like Adam is to you." Chase's face twitched slightly, and Leo continued, "Remember when I found you in the lab? Our first day of school? When we won the robot throw down? Oh, I still have the picture!" He pulled out his phone and showed Chase. " Here. See? Harper, you're the one who took it!" Harper's head tilted the slightest and she ripped the phone from Leo's hand to get a better look, Chase looking at it also."
"Try and remember, guys." Donald coaxed.
"Yeah, see? You, me? Together? Brothers?" Chase's face became a little sad as the real Chase started to fight the Triton App. "Come on, Chase. I know my brother's in there. Where is he, Chase? Where is my brother?" After a few tense seconds, the green glow disappeared and Chase, after noticing the box hovering above Leo, threw it away. Then he fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Honestly, I did not think that was gonna work." Donny commented, earning a slap in the shoulder from his wife. But Leo wasn't out of danger yet.
Harper looked at Chase and then back at Leo who looked at her, a slight fear in his eyes which stirred something inside the girl. The green glow flickered but didn't disappear.
"Harper, don't do this. You hate seeing other people get hurt. Remember what happened with Trent? And when you saved me from Marcus when I broke into Douglas's Lair? I know that was you. Come on, I know you can fight this!"
Harper closed her eyes and fought an internal battle with herself. Her lightning began to die down as the memories flashed through her mind, one after the other.
"Come on Harper. I know you're in there."
Opening her eyes, she looked at the phone and seeing the picture of the two boys she deeply cared about, made the glow in her eyes go away along with the lighting and she fainted, landing beside Chase who was just starting to wake up.
Harper's P.O.V.
I awoke to someone shaking my shoulder. It was Leo and immediately I became alert.
"What's going on?" I asked while getting up, feeling an extreme headache come on as I did.
"You need to help Chase fight Adam and Bree!"
I looked to the left just as Adam got sandwiched between a box and the wall. But Adam was able to push it aside and activated his heat vision.
Chase activated his forcefield to block it but was being forced to walk backwards. I was too preoccupied with being shocked at how Adam and Bree were acting. They were like robots.
"Adam's too strong! Chase can't hold out much longer!" Looking back at Chase who was struggling to keep his force field up with Adam's heat vision making it difficult. I took this as my que to go help Chase. I super sped over to him and touched his arm to gain his abilities. I quickly activated my own forcefield and combined it with Chase's to make it stronger.
Within seconds my strength began to fade little by little. I grunted as I put all my willpower into keeping the force field up.
"You should have shot him with your lightning!" Leo shouted at me.
"I'm not in full control of it. I could kill him!"
"Adam, stop! You're hurting him!" Davenport's order fell on deaf ears though. Instead, Adam's heat vision seemed to get stronger.
"Can't you just talk him out of it like Leo did with Chase?" Tasha asked her husband.
"There's no time!"
"Wait, if Douglas is controlling them, can't Chase do the same thing?" Leo asked and I perked at the suggestion. "He's got that override app that takes over their bionics in emergencies."
"It's too dangerous, he can't use two abilities at the same time!"
" No! I've done it before." Chase told him.
"Wait, why would you do that?! It puts too much stress on your system, you're lucky to be alive!"
"Hey, why don't you yell at him when he's not FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE!" Leo shouted at Donald.
"I've got no choice! I have to try!" I shook my head.
"No I'll do it because doing it a second time might actually blow up your head!" I couldn't let that happen. Not if I could help it.
"No-"
"Don't argue! I'm not letting you risk your life again!" I shouted, barely keeping my voice from breaking. My forcefield faltered as my emotions got the better of me and I quickly shut them down. Keep it together!
"Fine!" After taking a deep and shaky breath, I was about to activate the override app when Leo broke my focus.
"I believe in you Harper!" He yelled.
"Stop talking!" I shouted before focusing again. "Activating override app." I raise my left hand and press two fingers to my temple like Chase always does. I connect to Bree and I can't describe how much pain and effort it took to disable the Triton app. But I did and she faints and black dots swarmed in my vision but I didn't pass out, though I knew I was fading fast.
"Hurry! Your forcefield's about to collapse!" Leo cried, like I didn't notice that already. Donald said something that I didn't hear.
"Shut it!" He and his mom shouted.
"Come on Harper! You can do it!" Chase encouraged. My fingers were visibly shaking when I pressed them to my temple again and I connected to Adam and his Triton App disabled.
I deactivated my forcefield and was breathing heavily while everyone cheered.
"You did it!" Chase exclaimed, pulling me into a hug. I had expected to pass out, but it didn't happen. Chase pulled away and must have thought the same thing by the confused look he wore, "Wait, why didn't you faint like I did?"
"I don't know, but I need to sit down." I said shakily. My whole body was numb and tingly, and I felt exhausted. My legs almost gave out and Chase helped me to the couch and kept an arm around my shoulders as we sat down. I dropped my head into my hands and tried to control my breathing. "I am never doing that again." I said breathlessly.
Later on after I had felt a little better, we all went down to see the lab, or what used to be the lab.
"Wow." Bree said, voicing what everyone was thinking.
"The whole reason I built this place was to protect you, and I couldn't even do that. I feel like I failed you." Davenport admitted sadly.
"Well, I'm glad someone said it." I smacked Adam's arm.
"You didn't fail us." Chase assured his father. "If you hadn't brought us together as a family, and let us live like normal kids, we would never have been able to defeat the Triton App." Donald smiled and put his arm around Chase's shoulder while everyone else drew closer together. I watched a few feet away, a sad smile on my face.
"Thanks, guys. You're right. I am handsome and brilliant."
"I didn't—"
"No, no. Let him go, it's how he copes." Leo said. They all grouped together in a hug while I took in all the damage that was done. I can't believe Douglas did this. But it wasn't him I was angry with. Chase broke away from the hug and came to stand next to me.
"Hey, you ok?"
"This is all my fault." I said quietly.
"Why would you think that?"
"Because I helped him find the lab. And then froze him in ice which probably made him furious and he got revenge by blowing this place up." I grabbed a chunk of concrete nearby and threw it as hard as I could. It landed where the capsules used to be and caused some sparks to fly but I didn't care. I went to grab another one to throw but Chase took ahold of my wrists before I could.
"Hey, it is not your fault." He said firmly.
"Yes it is!" Donald came over and put a hand on my shoulder.
"No, Chase is right. Douglas would have found the lab without your help." He said, trying to comfort me but it had the opposite effect. He's the last person I wanted to be comforted by.
"But I did help him."
"No one here is blaming you for this." I roughly pushed his hand off my shoulder, now directing my anger at him.
"And I'm supposed to believe that coming from you? When you've been lying to me for the past few weeks?" I asked, finally snapping.
"What are you talking about?" He asked, and I pointed an accusing finger at him.
"Don't play dumb with me. You lied to me about my bionic chip, saying it couldn't be removed."
"It can't be removed." He insisted and I scoffed loudly.
"Oh that is a bunch of-"
"Harper." I glanced at Chase who gave me a look. I bit back the string of curse words wanting to leave my mouth and spoke semi - calmly again. "I saw the schematics. Do you have anything to say?" He looked like a deer caught in the headlights for a second before it registered what I had revealed and he got upset like me.
"How did you see those? I had it blocked so no one could get to it."
"It doesn't matter."
"So you went behind my back and hacked into my top secret files instead of coming to me."
"Don't turn this around on me. Are you going to admit that you lied?" When Donald refused to answer I laughed dryly and shook my head. "You're unbelievable. Maybe Krane was right, I can't trust you. Thanks for confirming it."
I stalked out of the lab, ignoring Chase who called out my name and I punched the elevator button that would take me to the main floor.