Chapter 6: Adam's Sacrifice
In the med unit Donald was doing a scan of Adam's leg with a very content look on his face. "Adam everything looks great. The nano-bites have repaired your tibia completely and have now moved down to your ankle."
"That's great, but what's my tibia? I thought they were supposed to be fixing my leg? That's where it's been hurting." Adam said trying to look at Donald's scanner.
Donald jerked the scanner away from Adam. "That is your leg. It's the shin bone in your leg. You know, the one you broke?" Donald said slowly so Adam would understand rolling his eyes in the process.
"Ohhh, I get it." Adam said nodding and grinning.
"So here pretty soon you'll be able to out of the cast and inot a boot so you can start your therapy again. "Donald told Adam.
Adams smile went away. "Why do I have to do that again? It's boring, and hard." Adam asked. He knew the therapy wasn't going as they wanted before the second surgery and nano-bites. "What if it went bad again? Would he be off the team for good?" Adam thought as Mr. Davenport started explaining all the reasons he had to do his therapy. He only heard the last and most important part.
"The more therapy you do the faster you can get back on the team and running missions again. Do you understand? It's for your own good." Mr. Davenport asked looking at a zoned out Adam.
Adam realized Mr. Davenport had stopped talking and shook himself out of his thoughts. "No therapy, no missions."
"That's right." Mr. Davenport said then the alarms from the helipad went off. Douglas came running in and held up a his tablet showing a picture of the crashed Davencopter C-12. The helicopter malfunctioned and the kids just crashed on the landing pad." Douglas said, already out of breath. Both him and Donald took off running toward the landing pad.
When they stepped onto the landing pad they saw Leo and Bree coming toward them with an unconscious Chase draped between them. Donald rand straight to them and helped lay Chase on the ground. "What's wrong with him?" Donald asked Bree and Leo.
The two were still out of breath and a little dazed. Once Bree had caught her breath she answered Mr. Davenport. "I'm not sure. He wss fine when we got there. Then he sneezed a few thousand times. He has the most obnoxious sneeze…" Bree began to wonder.
Donald interrupted her. "Bree!"
"Oh. He said his head and chi were hurting and he started glitching. The headaches kept getting stronger and more frequent." Bree explained.
As soon as she finished another pain hit Chase. When he opened his eyes he saw Mr. Davenport. "Mr. Davenport. You have got to help me." Chase groaned grabbing Donald's shirt and collapsed again.
"We have got to get him to the med unit now. We need to scan his chip. There must be something the nano-bites missed." Donald said to Douglas. In a flash Bree had grabbed Chase and taken him to the med unit and returned.
"He is in the bed next to Adam." Bree said glad there was something she was finally able to do to help her brother. Feeling helpless was getting on her nerves.
When they got down to the med unit Donald scanned Chase. The expression on his face told Bree and Leo something was wrong. It also showed he was confused by whatever it was too. Then when he made them leave they knew something was really wrong. "I will let you know something when I figure this out." Was all Mr. Davenport told them before going back into the med-unit.
Douglas had run test after test and kept getting the same result. It was not a result he wanted. The results showed that somehow when Donald had reprogrammed Adams nano-bites Chase's nano-bites had reprogrammed too. The problem was Chase didn't have injuries so the nano-bites malfunctioned and instead of just shutting down the nano-bites had reprogrammed themselves and were attacking Chase's chip as if it were a foreign object that needed removing.
Donald was in the training area working on a way to adjust some of the training programs to figure in Adam's injury in hopes of taking his mind off Chase while Douglas did his scans. He knew Adam would be in a boot for a while even after the nano-bites healed the bones in his ankle. As he designed Adam's new mission suite Douglas came in and cleared his throat to get Donald's attention. The look on Douglas's face and lack of enthusiasm that Douglas usually had when finding something told Donald that whatever Douglas had found was bad. Donald immediately stopped what he had been doing. "Douglas what did you find out?"
Douglas motioned Donald over to the side of the room. Neither of them realized Adam was right on the other side of the door they were standing beside about to come in but stopped when he heard their voices.
Douglas shifted nervously and explained to Donald the situation. Donald had a sick look on his face. "Big bro you're going to have to decide. Keep the nano-bites working in Adam to get him healed faster so he could rejoin the team and possibly damage Chase permanently or deactivate the only nano-bites we have, which are unable to be reactivated, hopefully in time to save Chase but slow down Adam's healing lessening his chances of ever returning to the team. Either way you could lose one or both of them from the team."
Adam couldn't believe what he was hearing. There was no way he was letting Chase be permanently damaged for him. Plus Leo, Bree, and Chase seemed to be handling the mission's fine without him so far. He quietly hopped back to the med unit where the nano-bite control panel was. He was about to hit the deactivate button on the panel when Bree came up behind him. "What ya doin?" Bree asked putting her arm around her brother and smiling.
Startled Adam almost lost his balance on the crutches. "Bree." He said quickly smiling. "Look at all these buttons." Then Adam continued to start to hit the button he thought would deactivate the nano-bites. Bree super sped and stopped his hand.
"No Adam. That button will deactivate the nano-bites and they will stop working. They can't be turned back on either." Bree said.
"This one?" Adam asked then took a serious tone. "I thought so." And hit the button. Donald and Douglas walked in as he did.
"Adam, what have you done?" Donald asked.
"I heard you and Douglas talking. I couldn't let Chase get hurt on my account." Adam said and left the med unit. Bree started to go after Adam, but Douglas stopped her.
"Give him a little bit. He just made a big decision." Douglas said.
Leo met Adam on his way into the med unit, but Adam had not even acknowledged him. "What's wrong with Adam?" Leo asked the others as he entered the med unit.
"Oh he just deactivated his nano-bites so Chase would get better. That's all. Bree said upset.
They were all distracted by a moan from Chase who was waking up. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. He looked around the room and wondered why he was back in the med unit. Then he noticed everyone staring at him. "Hey guys. What happened?"
For a moment they exchanged glances between each other which told Chase something was up. Then finally everyone but Donald left. Donald explained that somehow Chase's nano-bites had reprogrammed when Adam's had.
Chase remembered the shock both him and Adam had gotten while Mr. Davenport was programming Adam's nano-bites. He didn't mention it though. He knew that Mr. Davenport would just get mad because him and Adam had been playing around.
Then Mr. Davenport explained to Chase how the reprogramming had caused his nano-bites had attacked his chip and caused him to glitch and how him, Bree, and Leo had crashed the Davencopter C-12. Then Mr. Davenport stopped.
Chase could tell there was more. He waited for Mr. Davenport to continue for as long as he could. "What aren't you telling me?" Chase finally asked. "Is something wrong with Adam?"
"Well." Donald squeaked. "Not so much as wrong with, but it going to take him a little longer than we had estimated for him to be ready to return to the team."
Chase thought a moment putting the pieces together in his mind. It didn't take him long to figure out what Adam had done for him. He didn't know how to react. He had no idea Adam cared for him that much. Most of the time it seemed Adam was looking ways to hurt him.
"Well I should probably go talk to your brother now. And I'm sure Leo is dying to tell you how he almost landed the helicopter himself." Donald said and left the med unit.
Bree and Leo rushed in as Donald left. They told Chase all about the mission. "I have to admit he was pretty amazing. He would have had us landed if you hadn't glitched again." Bree told Chase.
"Hear that, amazing." Leo said then pulled out his phone. "Hey Bree, Would you repeat that one more time right here into the phone?"
Since he had saved their lives she humored him and rolling her eyes said into the phone. "Leo was amazing."
"I'm just glad you two weren't hurt. Sorry guys." Chase said. "What are we going to do about Adam?"
"I guess we'll see what he says to Mr. Davenport first" Bree said.
When Donald walked into the Rats room Adam was gathering together his things.
"Adam. What are you doing?" Donald asked surprising Adam.
"I'm packing. I think I can do my therapy better at home. It won't be so distracting there." Adam said.
Donald didn't want Adam to go, but he thought maybe the change of scenery would help. And maybe not having to hear about mission stuff all day would cheer him up some. He also considered the team and Bree, Chase, and Leo all said they were doing ok on the missions without Adam for now. Neither of them had told him how they really felt and how hard the missions really were without Adam. Donald took a deep breath. "Well, if you really think that going back home will be better for you, but remember you can come back to the team as soon as you are ready."
Donald called Tasha and told her Adam would be coming home and staying there instead of at the academy to finish his therapy. Tasha was glad to hear she wouldn't be alone every evening now while Donald was at the academy or on missions with the kids so she gladly agreed.
Donald helped Adam finish packing while Adam went and said his goodbyes to Bree, Chase, and Leo. He never told them why he was going home just that he had to. He had mad Donald promise not to tell them either.
'It's not so bad. We'll still see each other at school and family dinners." Adam said
Bree, Chase, and Leo were devastated. They would miss Adam, but they were also worried about having to go on even more missions without Adam. It almost seemed like Adam didn't want to come back. Bree had tears streaming down her face. "And when you finish your therapy and come back to the team."
Chase especially felt bad. He knew what Adam had done for him even after it was his glitch that had injured Adam in the first place. "Yeah it won't be any time at all." Chase added choking back his own tears.
Adam just smiled. As he got on the hydroloop he waved goodbye. Then the hydroloop closed and Adam was gone. Will Bree, Chase, and Leo come clean about how hard missions are without Adam? Will Adam come back?