Chapter 7: Come Back Adam

It was only a couple weeks later and school had started. Adam and his sibling had only seen each other a few times since he had left. He was glad to get to see them on a daily basis at school. He noticed they looked tired a lot, but they didn't act like anything was wrong. He didn't ask them about missions and to his relief they didn't bring them up around him. He had made a whole list of pranks to do on them and had every intention of carrying out every one of them.

Leo, to his surprise was glad they were back in school. He liked getting to hang out with Adam at school even if caused him to get pranked more times than he could count. "So A what is this my mom tells me about you and her taking a cooking class together?" Leo asked. He was glad that Adam and his mom were getting along, but he was also a little jealous.

Adam blushed. He and Tasha had taken a few days to get comfortable around each other. The first thing he had learned was that Tasha hated pranks, but was really good at pranking back. Almost to good, so they had to call a truce before one of them got severely injured. The second thing he had learned about Tasha was that she loved to cook but couldn't. When Tasha learned how much Adam just loved food in general she had suggested they do the cooking class together and he thought it sounded fun and agreed. "Yeah we're fixing y'all a dinner Friday. So don't make any plans." Adam answered Leo excitedly.

Chase and Bree had walked up in time to also hear the invite. Leo and Chase quickly said they would be there, but Bree hesitated. She finally had a date with Blane, the guy she had had an on again off again crush on for the past two years. Now her brothers were together and ruining her life again.

"Bree before you get all huffy and say I'm ruining your life I already invited Blane and he accepted if you would be there too. So I told him you would." Adam said with a big gloating grin.

"You hi-jacked my date? Typical." Bree said. Then she saw the grin on Adam's face start to slip away. "What a great idea. Now I can do both." Bree said forcing a smile. She just hoped her family wouldn't embarrass her.

"Then it's set Friday for dinner." Adam said and hopped to class on his crutches.

Chase, Bree, and Leo just looked at each other exhausted. Since school had started back two weeks before they had been mentoring and training at the academy after school and on the weekends when they weren't on missions at all hours. Donald had finally gotten a group of students to run the less urgent or difficult missions. The only problem with that was they still got the hard missions where they needed Adam most. Adam didn't ask about the missions and they didn't bring them up. It was just by luck they had completed the last two missions successfully.

"You guys we have got to talk to Mr. Davenport about running these missions without Adam. I'm so stressed I'm getting split ends." Bree said showing Chase and Leo a strand of hair. "Adam said therapy is going good and that he might get off the crutches at this week's session." She flopped on their couch and rolled her eyes to Chase.

Leo flopped down next to her. "I agree. These missions have been grueling I mean if that fuse hadn't have reignited itself we would have been goners." Then he also rolled his eyes toward Chase.

Chase had sat down in the chair and was about to zone out when he realized both Bree and Leo were looking at him. He was almost too tired to answer, but he used the last of his strength and did. "I completely agree. I've used my bionics so much my chip hurts." Then he slowly stood back up. "This heavy lifting thing is killing me. I can barely move. I overslept this morning and missed first period. We had a test and I missed it. Now I have to make up the test and do extra credit." Chase complained.

Bree and Leo new if Chase was complaining about extra credit he was tired. Usually he did extra credit the teacher hadn't even assigned. "Ok that does it." Bree said and jumped up from the couch. "I'm telling Mr. Davenport we can't take it anymore."

Meanwhile Tasha and Adam were getting Adam's cast off and getting a boot he would be able to walk on as soon as his knee had enough strength. "Adam this is great. Soon you will be off on the crutches all together, start training, and running missions again." Tasha said excitedly but was also a little disappointed knowing he would go back to the island once he could start running missions again.

Adam didn't respond at first. He seemed to be worried about something. When he realized Tasha was waiting for some kind of response he forced a smile. "Yeah, Yay." He said sarcastically.

Tasha gave Adam a concerned look, "Adam aren't you happy? What's the matter? I figured you would be practically jumping out of your skin. It won't be too much longer and you will be back running missions with Bree, Chase, and Leo."

"I know. I am happy. I miss them a lot. I even miss the missions, but what if I go back and I'm not the same as I was before? Not as good. What if I endanger the team or let them down?" Adam said.

"You can't think that way. You will go back just like before." Was all Tasha knew to tell Adam. Tasha knew something had been bothering Adam, but she didn't think it was as big as being afraid to go on missions again. This was something Donald would've have handled if had been there. She knew she would have to talk to Donald about what Adam had told her. She figured she could at dinner the next night.

Bree stormed into the training area where Donald and Douglas were working on a new project. Chase and Leo were right behind her. "Mr. Davenport we need to talk." Bree demanded.

Donald and Douglas had been very into their project and when Bree spoke she startled both of them almost causing them to drop the project. Donald and Douglas cringed then carefully set the project on the table. They both took a sigh of relief. "Bree! What is it? You almost caused us to drop the particle separator." Donald said aggravated.

"Yeah, and if that thing had broken it would have released micro particle enzymes in the facility that would have torn us apart from the inside." Douglas added.

Bree just shook her head. "Mr. Davenport this is important. We can't take it anymore. We have got to have Adam back. These missions are too hard without him." Bree said.

Donald looked at Leo and Chase. "Do you too feel this way too?" Donald asked.

Chase dropped his shoulders. "Yes. We have for a while. We just didn't want to give you something else to worry about."

"Guys if you're having a problem that could affect the team ability to complete missions you should tell me. I would much rather worry about that then about one of you if you are injured on a mission." Donald said. He was completely caught off guard by what they said. They had seemed to be doing everything fine without Adam.

At that Friday night dinner everyone seemed to be in a good mood. They all had fun together and played pranks on each other like they had always done. The only differences was Bree's crush was there and had joined in and that Adam was still on crutches which gave Chase a slight advantage, but not much.

Leo sat back on the couch and rubbed his stomach. "Mom, Adam, that was one of the best meals I have ever had."

"I agree. That was excellent." Donald agreed.

"Thank you. We worked hard on it." Tasha said with a big grin on her face.

"At least I know something I paid for went to good use." Donald joked with a cheesy grin on his face. Tasha just glared at him.

While Adam, Bree, Chase, and Leo sat in the living room talking with Blane Donald took Tasha down to the lab to talk. It was the only place in the house they could go that Chase's bionic hearing wouldn't be able hear them talking. Donald explained to Tasha she needed to talk to Adam about wanting to get back to the missions as soon as possible.

Then Tasha told Donald what Adam had said about being afraid he wouldn't be the same and would hold the team back.

"I was afraid he would think that." Donald said. Then he walked over to a control panel. "So I redesigned his mission suit to work with his injury. It distributes his weight different so there is hardly any stress on his ankle. Plus it has a boot built in." Donald said pointing to the diagram of the suit on the screen on the control panel.

"Donald that's wonderful. I'm sure he will excited about it." Tasha said hoping she was right.

They all spent the weekend at the house and luckily only had one mission to run.

It was only a few more days and Adam no longer had to use the crutches. Bree, Chase, and Leo seemed more excited than Adam about it.

"Adam this is great. Now you can start your training again. Then A will be back on the team." Leo said excitedly when Adam came to school that day not sporting his crutches.

Adam forced a smile. "Yeah, but I got cooking classes for another two weeks." He said and limped to class.

Leo just stood watching Adam walk away with his mouth gaped open. "A bug is going to fly in." Chase said walking up beside Leo. "What is wrong with you?" Chase then asked Leo.

"I think Adam just blew the team off for cooking classes." Leo said.

Bree walked up just in time to hear Leo. "What? Oh no." She started to go after Adam, but Chase stopped her.

"Bree. Don't. Let him go. Give him a chance to start his training again. We all know from our own experiences that if we don't want to be on a mission we will mess it up.'' Chase said. Both Leo and Bree agreed.

The three were still standing in the hall thinking about Adam when their mission alerts went off. The three started out the door.

"Hold it twerps." Trent shouted out to them.

The three stopped. "Trent, we have to go on a mission."

"Does it look like I care if you have a mission?" Trent said moving between them and the door.

"Maybe you should. Usually if a mission is important enough for Mr. Davenport to call us out of school it's to save the world. You know the one you live on?" Chase said.

Trent didn't budge. Leo rolled his eyes. "Hey Trent, is that Michael Jordan?" Leo said pointing into the gym.

"What?" Trent said and ran toward the gym.

The three quickly slipped out the door and headed toward the island. "I'm going to pay for that tomorrow." Leo said.

When they got to the island Donald met them at the hydraloope almost in a panic. "C'mon we got to hurry." Donald said leading them to the mission computer. "We have a big problem guys. There is a nuclear plant here." Donald said pointing to a map on the screen. "This morning there was an explosion to the east of the plant. Now there is an underground volcano erupting and the lava is heading toward the plant. If it reaches the plant it will overheat and have a meltdown. Then we will have a nuclear disaster on our hand that could cost hundreds maybe thousands of lives." Donald said briefing them.

"What do we need to do?" Bree asked.

"I've scanned all the underground tunnels around the volcano. You three will need to set up explosives that will cause the tunnels leading toward the plant to collapse. Then we will rout the lava to run out this tunnel into the bay." Donald answered Bree once again pointing to the map.

"How long do we have?" Leo asked already getting nervous.

Donald punched some buttons on the control panel. "It looks like if the lava keep going at the current rate you will need to have it rerouted within the next six hours. That sound like a lot of time, but each explosive will have to be calculated and calibrated just right by Chase. Then Bree will have to set it up exactly as Chase instructs. Leo you will have to lift and carry the equipment. You also may have to use your laser ball to blow holes to place the explosives in or absorb the energy from an accidental explosion. There is seven tunnels that need to be shut off." Donald answered Leo.

After hearing it Leo was almost sorry he had asked.

The three quickly got into their mission suites and were packed and ready to go when Douglas walked in. "I'm going with them." Douglas said. He was almost as surprised to hear the words come out of his own mouth as Donald who was staring at him in disbelief. He usually wasn't the one to go to a dangerous situation.

"So you want to go with the kids?" Donald asked double checking.

"Yes I do. I know I can't believe I'm saying either. What have you people done to me?' Donald said. "No I feel like this is partially my fault." He added.

"I'm going too. Kids lets go. We'll take the Davencopter C-12, which I just finished repairing." Donald said.

They quickly got to the helicopter and headed on their way. When they arrived to the nuclear plant all the alarms were going off. "Big D I thought you said we had hours to get this done before the plant was in danger?" Leo asked covering his ears.

Chase was on the floor covering his ears. He had never heard a sound that pounded through his entire head like these alarms. "What kind of alarms are these?" Chase asked.

"I did. Leo something is off. Here are the coordinates to the tunnels. You and Bree get Chase out of here and start setting up. Douglas and me will figure this out here." Donald said pulling out his tablet.

Leo agreed and he and Bree helped Chase out. As soon as they were gone Douglas began looking at one of the control panels to his left with great interest. "Donnie does something here look off to you?" Douglas asked.

Meanwhile Bree, Chase, and Leo had made it to the tunnels and was almost done setting up the first tunnel. "Are you getting a funny feeling about this?" Leo asked setting down the equipment and looking around.

Bree stopped a moment and also looked around. She had a creepy feeling to, but she wasn't about to admit she agreed with Leo. "Well let's just get this done so we can get out of here." Bree said.

Chase put his fingers up to his fingers up to his temple. "I'm running a scan now." Chase said. After a moment a confused look came on his face. "I thought Mr. Davenport said these tunnels were empty?" Chase asked putting his fingers back up to his temple and scanned again.

"He did. What is it?" Leo asked.

Chase pointed to the ceiling of the tunnel. "My scans show there is wiring running all through the tunnels."

"Couldn't it just be old wire?" Bree asked

Chase shook his head. "I don't think so. The scan showed the wire has a slight current. And it's made of new components. I'm talking components that have to be specially made or ordered. Like Mr. Davenport would use."

"Oh great. Well I'm done setting this one up. Let's move on and get out of here before something bad happens." Bree said.

As Bree and Chase packed up to move to the next tunnel Leo wondered further into the tunnel. When he turned the corner he saw a sight that made him gasp. "Oh mommy." Leo said then ran back to Bree and Chase. "You two got to come see this."

He led Bree and Chase to where he had been. "Is this what I think it is?" Leo asked.

"Well if you think it is a giant bomb it is." Chase said.

"Oh mommy." Leo whined again. Then the bomb lite up and began to beep rapidly.

"Run!" Chase yelled.

Back at the nuclear plant Douglas showed Donald the control panel that had caught his interest. "Donnie according to this those alarms are fake and this plant is in no danger of meltdown at all."

"I'm going to run another scan of the tunnels. I got a bad feeling about this." Donald said. As he did the ground shook below them.

"What was that?" Douglas asked.

Donald frantically tapped on his tablet. "According to my scans one of the tunnels just exploded. But it wasn't by us."

"What about the kids?" Douglas asked.

"I still see their life signs, but they aren't moving and they are in the same tunnel that exploded." Donald said. Then he tried to reach them on the comm. "Chase, Bree, Leo. Are you there?" He waited, but didn't a get an answer. "Douglas we have got to get down there. They may be trapped." Donald said. He wasn't about to mention that they might be hurt or worse. If he said it, it might make it real. He and Douglas quickly gathered their stuff and ran to the helicopter.

Once they were on the helicopter Donald got on the comm to Spin and Bob who were manning the mission computer at the time. He told them to keep trying to reach Bree, Chase, and Leo on the comm. and to do another scan of the three's vitals and to stay in contact with him.

As Donald and Douglas flew to the site where Bree, Chase, and Leo were another explosion went off right under where they were flying. The explosion sent large rock and debris flying out of the ground. Donald tried to pilot the helicopter out of the way, but wasn't fast enough and rock slammed into the helicopter hitting the fuel tank. It caused the helicopter to dump all its fuel. Douglas looked at the control panel where the fuel gage was flashing red. "Um Donny."

"I know we're going down." Donald said.

The helicopter spun out of control crashing into the deep crater the explosion in the ground had just caused.