Hi everyone! So it's been almost a year since I've posted and so I made another big-ish chapter. I've finally pushed past some of my writer's block and have some more writing done for the next chapter. Here we go...
"Whoa," Daniel said after Bree finished telling him what had happened. "So, what do we do now?"
"That's just it," Bree started. "There's nothing to do. I can't do anything without severe damage to my brain."
"Well, There's gotta be something we can try. We just gotta think of a way to get your chip out," Daniel said. "I wish we could see it somehow. Then we could know what we're dealing with."
"Wait, that could work," Max said, going over to his rack of stuff. He started rummaging through the chest under his ray guns. After a minute of searching, he pulled out what looked like a see-through scroll with buttons on the cylinders. "I used this when I was pulling a prank on Greg Forlynd a few years ago so I could pull the strings from the other side of the wall. If it can see through walls, I'll bet it can see through human tissue."
Bree watched cautiously as he walked behind her and held up the scroll to the back of her head. "Are we sure this won't release any radiation into my head?" she asked him.
"Oh believe me, if this thing was poisonous, it would be in a completely secure box," he told her as Danny came over to see what he was looking at.
"Whoa, That looks nasty," Daniel said, regretting his choice of coming over as he tried to keep his lunch down.
"What? Why?" Bree asked quickly. She'd never actually known the severity of her injury and had never really wanted to know but now it was all she was wondering.
"Okay, So they were right," Max started, "your chip was lodged into your skull and you do have about 2 millimeters of bone between it and your brain. What you probably didn't know was that there are some fragments that were dislodged and some that are semi-attached."
"What?" she repeated, far more scared than before.
"So now, we come up with a plan to deal with that," Daniel told her as reassuringly as he could. "We now know what we're dealing with so now we just need a plan. So we know that operating is bad and we can't turn on the chip. We also know that if we can get the chip out, we'd need to repair the damage and take care of the fragments."
"Do you have an idea on how to do that? Because right now I can't think of anything other than my skull update," Bree questioned as she let her head fall into her hands.
"Oh my gosh, I got it! My nanobots," Max realized.
"Your what?" Bree asked with about a billion worries swirling through her head.
"That could work!" Daniel agreed. "But can you get them to do all that?"
"I think I can. I just need to install some of the necessary equipment in order to make that happen. I'll need to install some better grips on them so that they can get the chip out without breaking anything and something that will cement the fragments back together," Max explained as he sat down at his computer and opened up the program to his nanobots. "I'll need to get them all back here first but in the meantime, I can start working on a biofriendly compound that will adhere the fragments together."
"How long do you think that's going to take?" Daniel asked him as he came over to look at the program with Max.
"Getting all the nanobots here will take a couple of hours," he answered the first question, calling all the bots back with the program. "Developing an adhesive, and fitting all of the bots with the necessary equipment is going to take longer. Probably three days to get the bots upgraded and programmed. There are some bone adhesives in the developing stage but nothing being used in the field. If I can get some of the chemical formulas from their labs, that will definitely speed things up. Unfortunately, I have no idea where I would even begin to look with that. Bree, do you think your brother could… Bree?"
She looked empty as she stared out into space, unable to hear them. Max hadn't seen her quite like this before. He'd seen her disheartened and scared before but this didn't fit. It was as if she was cut off from the world entirely. He looked to Daniel for some help but he was just as clueless as himself.
"Bree?" Daniel called to her again, seeing if he could break the hold.
Her head shot up and looked towards them. Her breathing was slightly irregular as she seemed to return to them.
She hadn't meant to space out like that. It was just… there was so much to take in. She still hadn't fully processed everything yet. Truckloads of information and possibilities were swirling around in her head with a heavy mix of good and bad. She pulled her mind back to the two worried boys looking at her. "Sorry, what?" she asked, trying to catch up with what was going on.
"Your brother Chase still has a working chip right? One with a Mental Database?" Max asked her, letting what just happened go for the time being until they were done planning.
"Uh, yeah, yeah," she responded a little slowly. "Why?"
"Can you contact him and ask him to send you any chemical formulas for bone adhesive he can find? That way I won't be starting from scratch," he answered concerned.
"I, I can try," she responded a little more together. "I haven't talked with any of my brothers in a while. I'm not sure Chase will even want to help."
"He's your brother isn't he?" Daniel asked her, confused. "Why wouldn't he help you?"
"Because he's already tried," Bree explained. "When my chip was inserted wrong, my dad and uncle shut everything down. My dad, my uncle, and Chase spent months trying to figure out how to fix me but eventually, they had to give up and they accepted that I was unfixable. Chase couldn't handle it if something happened to me. As he puts it, he won't help me do anything that could harm me in any way."
"That is going to be a hard one to get around," Max admitted as he leaned back into his chair. While he was a very good chemist, he was usually trying to destroy, goop, or decimate things rather than repair them. Not to mention that this was not something he was just going to hodgepodge together in hopes of working. If Chase couldn't help them then… oh rats. "I might have a contact who could help but don't get your hopes up yet. In the meantime, Daniel, you should get your chip reinserted. Keep suspicion as low as possible. We'll meet up tomorrow for training."
"Sounds like a good idea," he said as he stuffed his chip into his hoodie pocket and headed for the door. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"See ya," Max waved before Daniel left. Now that Daniel was gone, Max could talk to Bree about what was going on. "Bree, are you okay?"
She squirmed in her seat as she tried to figure it out for herself, "I'm better than I was earlier. I just have a lot of things I need to process."
"I get that," he told her as he fidgeted with one of the pens from his desk. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"I think I've done enough talking for the day," she lightly smiled at him. "Thanks."
"You know I'm here for you anytime, right?" he asked/reminded her.
"I do," she nodded. She looked over at the clock. It was getting late but she couldn't bring herself to get up. She should go. She should say goodbye and check-in with Harvey before he starts looking for her. Yet she couldn't even get out of her chair. Everything was telling her to stay right where she was. She couldn't remember the last time she felt this relaxed. Her whole body just felt safe here. "Do you mind if I just hang out here for a while? Get caught up on some homework while you work on your nanobots?"
"Sure," he said happily as he grabbed something out of his ray gun chest. He smiled as he sat back down. "Feel free to stay as long as you want."
"Thanks," she smiled back at him as she pulled her backpack onto her lap to get her homework out before the two of them worked in comfortable silence.
Max was awakened by the ringing of his phone. He groaned as he searched around for his phone. He squinted at the bright light until he could make out the word Dad on the screen. What was his dad doing calling him so early in the morning? He hit the answer button and quickly got the light out of his face. "Hello?" he asked, wondering whether or not his dad had butt-dialed him or something.
"Max! Hey buddy! Good to hear your voice again," his dad beamed through the phone.
Obviously not a butt-dial. Hey dad, What's going on?" he asked, still groggy.
"I'm doing a check-in and I also wanted to see how you're doing," he told him. "How are things going?"
"Well, I've had some setbacks actually," he told him as he sat up. There was no point in trying to go back to sleep now anyway.
"What's happened? Are you okay?" panic running through his voice.
"No, no, dad, I'm fine. I just," he sighed as he tried to figure out what to say this time around. "You remember how I'm friends with Daniel Aronheart and Bree Davenport?"
"Yeah, I remember. Didn't you say last time you had to go break up a fight between Daniel and someone? Is he okay?" he asked less panicked than before.
"We're all okay, well, kind of," he shook his head as he realized what he just said. Thankfully he remembered something else that he could say. "Daniel and I were suspended from the team until Coach Douglas can see the tapes and see we acted in self-defense. We're still training and all so we can keep up."
"Oh son, I'm sorry to hear that. I know how excited you were about that," he genuinely sympathized for his son and Max could hear it through the phone.
"It'll all get sorted out. I know it will," he told him, believing in it. If he was honest, that really didn't matter to him as much as it used to. There was so much on his mind. He decided to do something he hadn't done in a long time. "Hey, dad?"
"Yeah?" he answered back, noting the change in his son's voice.
"Can I ask you something?" his body tightened as he wasn't sure exactly what he was going to ask him to begin with.
"Always," he promised him with the voice Max knew was the one that told him he was being taken seriously.
"It's about Bree Davenport," he started nervously. "She's got a lot of things going wrong for her right now. Nothing illegal or anything like that, she's just stuck in some really awful situations. She can't get out of them and worst of all she feels like she deserves to feel the way she does because she thinks it's her fault when it's not. Every time I see her, something blows up around her. I hate watching her go through this because she's really a wonderful person and she doesn't deserve any of this. All I can think about is how to fix everything but the thing is it's super risky. Dad, I'm really worried about her. All I want to do is take her pain away but right now, I can't. What do I do?"
"Well son," his father sounded like he eased back into his chair. The air hung heavy as he waited for his advice. "First, I want you to make sure that you don't get sucked down into something that will drag you somewhere you don't want to be. My first priority is you and I will always try to protect you. Second, Just be there for her. If you can't solve her problem, let her know that you will still be there for her. Sometimes people just need to be listened to or just need to be in the company of a good friend. Third, try to get her to talk to a teacher about what's going on. The adults there are on your side. Does that help you at all?"
"Yeah, thanks dad," he sighed as he felt more relaxed. It was reassuring to know that he was doing all he could for Bree.
"Anytime," he told him, just as relieved. "I miss you, Max. The whole family misses you."
"I miss you guys too," he returned, finding that he really did actually miss them sometimes. Unfortunately, he had to ask for some help from the member he missed the least. "Hey, Is Phoebe around? I need to ask her something too. It's got to do with a prank I'm setting up here."
Thanks for reading! Remember to favorite, follow and review! I will hopefully have another chapter up within the next 2-3 weeks if work doesn't clog up my whole time. See you next time.