Sorry about the wait everyone. Been busy at school and stuff, but I finally got this chapter written. I hope everyone likes it alright.

Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Apprehension

Professor Utonium yawned loudly as he cleaned his dirty beakers and pulled off his rubber gloves for the night. He rubbed his eyes sleepily, taking one last look through his microscope before placing his tiny sample of pure chemical X that he had saved before creating Brio back into storage.

He yawned again as he walked out of the X Lab, closing and locking the door behind him. He stood in silence, seemingly surveying the laboratory around him. All of his life's works, his greatest inventions. The power copying machine, D.Y.N.A.M.O., the machine that switched bodies and caused all sorts of chaos throughout all of Townsville... all of his life's "greatest" works seemed to be nothing more than disasters.

His only feelings of pride and joy came from thoughts of chemical X and his three girls, and now his new son. Sure the girls' creation had been nothing more than an accident... Dick Hardly, the polluted chemical X, Jojo's wild behavior and sudden push... everything that helped create the girls was a mere moment of fluke and happenstance... and yet, he had never dreamed of being this happy in life.

And Brio. A father had never before been so proud of his son. Professor Utonium had seen his dreams crushed beneath the treachery of Professor Hardly, who ran away with all the fame, glory, money; leaving the Professor stranded with nothing more than a bottle of polluted, toxic, seemingly useless black chemical. He had planned on being lonely his entire life, and he considered himself fortunate to have three girls to call his own, much less a son bursting with innocent joy, love, and life.

How did he deserve any of it?

The Professor's feelings of pride soon melted into regret and sorrow. How close he had been to creating the pure chemical X long ago, how close he had come to receiving all the fame, glory, and money that Hardly had so wrongfully taken. But ever since it disappeared it was as though his mind had grown old and stale, and the formulas were completely erased from his memory. He clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes in sudden anger.

"Hardly.." He growled the name of the nemesis who ruined him in bitter resentment.

He looked over towards several towering file cabinets; their drawers in disarray and countless papers scattered everywhere. During the past few weeks Professor Utonium had searched frantically for some kind of notes about pure chemical X back from college. Anything that might jog his memory of how to create it, and perhaps how to perfect it. If only there was a way of making it even more powerful, he could protect his girls from anything... become the perfect father.

He sighed and began walking up the stairs towards the door.

"What am I thinking? How could I perfect it now?" He said to himself hopelessly, "I can't even be a good father."

He stopped suddenly as he felt a cold hand grab him on the back of his neck. Before he could scream or even gasp, it had all gone black.

Brio lay relaxing on a fluffy white cloud, peering down at the sparkling city below. He had finally worn himself out to a state where he could relax for a few minutes, but he knew it wouldn't last long before he was itching to run off again.

The boy was a scientist's dream. Nearly infinite energy at his disposal, the essence of life in a physical form. During the days since the big fight, Professor Utonium was living that dream. Running test after test on Brio's physical composition opened a new door to thousands of unbelievable scientific possibilities.

Professor Utonium was baffled at this kind of impossible strength and stamina that showed up in the testing, and he longed to explain its source. Brio knew of his unusual nature, but not nearly of its magnitude.

He knew something felt very wrong, however, during the fight with Quasi. Brio vividly remembered the sensation of his energy decreasing and his body becoming exhausted as he poured it out against this villain and to restore Blossom's life. Such a feeling was foreign to him. Brio bombarded the Professor day after day with countless questions about why he felt this way. It disturbed him so much to feel empty or weak, and the horrid memory was embossed in his mind too deeply to forget.

The Professor longed, too, to discover how Brio had lost so much energy so easily. He had no answer, unfortunately, and instead told Brio of the endless possibilities regarding his power.

"Brio," Professor Utonium had explained with wide, excited eyes, "If only we could find a way to harness this type of power and make it available to the entire world, it would mark the beginning of an entire new era in modern medicine."

Brio, however, couldn't care less about any of these things. His inner drive was simply to live to protect. Even since the battle, other villains had caused many problems throughout the city. Brio's nature wasn't to beat up and destroy these evil-doers, but rather he felt greatly disturbed by the evil things they had done. He felt merciful towards the worst of villains, a virtue that dumbfounded his sisters.

His spirit was so wild and free from all the emotional distresses of a normal human, such as anger or jealousy, and all he knew was to care for and help others, live life to the extreme, and to not leave anything undiscovered.

His curious nature was that of a child, his heart, greater than that of a saint.

He leapt up without warning from his relaxed position, his body only needing one or two minutes to reach full power. He then shot off into the darkness of the night sky again, into the unknown.

The girls were sleeping peacefully in their bed, the nighttime silence only disturbed by the click of their bedside clock and their soft breathing as they slept. The moonlight streamed in through the windows in silver beams, creating eerie shadows across the room.

One particular shadow moved slowly and silently, forming itself into a shape. The shape was floating in the air, for it had no feet. One half of its cranium looked to be missing, and both of its arms were nonexistent.

It stepped forward silently, the missing part of its head, two arms and two feet materializing from its shadow-like body. One arm was almost completely metal, while the other was mostly dark and obscure like the rest of its body.

It advanced on the girls' bed, its metal hybrid form now completely visible in the moonlight. It silently reached its metallic hand into its black, shadow-like torso and pulled out a black and red-glowing laser cannon, seemingly from nowhere.

He faded back into the shadows of the room, wrapped his finger tightly around the trigger, and in three quick, precise blasts...

Brio gasped and stopped suddenly, his heart skipping a beat. He simply stopped flying and floated in midair, his eyes wide in surprise. He had just experienced an array of new emotions; emotions foreign to his young, pure mind. Shock, fear, worry; each created a nauseous sensation deep in his stomach. Something was very, very wrong.

He didn't know why, but he knew he needed to go back home. So without another thought he turned around and rocketed towards home, his heart beating loudly in his ears.

Thanks for reading :)