"Freeze, Spike!" Donald shouted as he and Douglas stormed into the room, slamming the door open for effect.
"Oh goodie, a couple of easy targets to cool me down," Spike sneered, turning away from the fallen bionics. So much for Bree and Adam helping us, Donald thought to himself grimly after he recovered from his initial shock and controlled his worry. He wouldn't be able to help Adam and Bree until Spike was defeated, so he had better focus on the task at hand.
"You wish," Douglas retaliated, pressing a button on his little remote.
Spike laughed, saying "Let's get on with it, ladies."
The brothers briefly made eye contact with each other in determination before looking back at the app smugly as he tried and failed to use his super speed.
"Hey! What's going on?" Spike bellowed, and without waiting for an answer, he charged at the tech moguls. But to his dismay, he found that his super strength was also gone. He was back at level one.
With Donald and Douglas working together, they gave the app a real run for his money. For every blow Spike dished out, he got two in return. And the brothers were not your ordinary tech moguls either – they were both quite skilled in the martial arts. It wasn't long before it turned into a competition.
"Ha! Did you see that hit?" Douglas bragged as his stiffened hand knocked back Spike's desperate swing, causing the app to momentarily lose his balance.
"No, because I was too busy taking him down with this!" Donald replied, making to round-house kick a still-recovering Spike, who just barely ducked out of the way.
Needless to say, for all Spike's fighting dexterity, he was no match for two of the finest marshal artists he'd ever meet (when they were working together), and the brothers made quick work of the commando app.
"That was easy," Donald commented, helping his younger brother drag the groaning commando-app-possessed-bionic to one of the capsules, where they shoved him inside and locked it up. Douglas promptly typed a few commands into his surprisingly undamaged cyber desk, and within moments, Chase's chip had been extracted.
With that taken care of, the two hurried over to Adam and Bree, who were still on the floor. Adam was awake, but Bree was out cold.
"Whoa, you two kicked Spike's butt! I thought you'd be creamed!" Adam said in awe as he gingerly held his midsection.
"Thanks. I think," Donald Davenport said with a frown. "Are you alright?"
Adam winced, saying "I don't know, I think so."
Mr. Davenport bent over the oldest bionic, pressing in certain places. Adam hissed in pain a few times, and the billionaire concluded that there were several broken ribs, a sprained wrist, and minor internal bleeding.
Mr. Davenport went over to where Douglas was attending to Bree, asking "Is she alright?"
"Yes, but she's got a broken jaw, a few fractured bones, she probably has a slight concussion, and will have quite a bit of bruising," Douglas said reluctantly.
Mr. Davenport's countenance darkened, and he said quietly "Get out, Douglas. Get out of here."
"What about our teamwork thing just now?" Douglas whined.
"If you know what's good for you, get out of here and don't show your face to us ever again," Mr. Davenport growled, stepping towards his brother threateningly.
"Alright, alright, a guy can take a hint," Douglas sulked, and he got up and left without looking back.
"What's going on?" Mr. Davenport heard from behind him, and he turned to see Chase weakly leaning on the side of the capsule.
"It's alright, Chase, everything is fine now," Mr. Davenport said, walking over to the cyber desk to unlock the capsule door before going over to the youngest bionic, letting him out.
"What happened here?" Chase asked dimly, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.
"What do you remember?" Mr. Davenport asked patiently.
Chase's face screwed up as he thought hard, saying "I was glitching a lot, I quarantined myself –" his eyes widened. "I went with Douglas so that he could remove Spike, but then I realized too late that he had tricked me! And that's the last thing I can remember," Chase said worriedly. "Where'd Douglas go? You let him go?" He looked down at his siblings, asking in horror "Did I do that?"
Mr. Davenport chose not to answer any of his questions, instead asking "Do you know how to get out of here?"
Chase shook his head.
Mr. Davenport sighed, saying "Stay here with your siblings and watch over them, I'll be right back. I'm going to go get Tasha and Leo."
"I didn't hurt them too, did I?" he asked, panicking.
"No, they're fine," Mr. Davenport assured him, quickly leaving before Chase could ask any more questions.
As the tech mogul jogged around the corner, he bumped into someone, who screamed in terror.
"Leo?" Mr. Davenport asked incredulously, and sure enough it was his step-son, clinging desperately to a large contraption. "Is that my new and improved cryoblaster?" the billionaire asked suspiciously.
"Oh, so that's what it is?" Tasha asked from behind her son. "We found it in the trunk of the car. Why was that in there?"
"Oh, uh, I forgot it in there after a tech conference," Mr. Davenport said, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably.
Leo seemed to have gotten his wits about him again, saying "I thought you were Spike!"
"No, we took care of Spike," Mr. Davenport said. "What do you two think you're doing?"
"We decided we were going to be helpful and guard the entrance – and we were helpful there because we just blasted Douglas as he tried to escape!" Leo said proudly, puffing up his chest.
Mr. Davenport smacked his forehead, saying "I was letting him go!"
"You were? What for?" Leo asked in bewilderment.
"Long story," Mr. Davenport said without elucidation. "I guess this works to; he won't be going anywhere and getting himself in trouble again. Come on, I need your help getting Adam, Bree, and Chase out of here."
The other two nodded, following Mr. Davenport back to the lab. When they walked in, they were met with the sight of a distraught Chase, who was listening with shock to Adam's description of the last twenty minutes. When Adam saw them, he stopped talking; Chase, picking up from Adam that someone had come, looked over his shoulder and saw the rest of his family before quickly ducking his head.
"What happened?" Tasha exclaimed, looking at the injured bionics anxiously. She rushed over to them, looking ready to cry at the sight of Bree.
Leo was just as stunned, kneeling down next to Adam and Chase, asking "Are you guys okay? Is Bree okay?"
"I've got a few broken bones and bruises," Adam said with idiotic pride.
"I'm just bruised and kind of sore," Chase said shamefacedly.
"And Bree might have a concussion, broken bones, and bruising," Adam added. Chase cringed.
"At least you're alive," Leo pointed out, and Chase looked away, taking deep breaths to remain calm and controlled. Leo tactfully didn't say anything else.
"The best thing we can do is get you three" Mr. Davenport gestured to the bionics "back to the lab. Adam and Bree will heal best in their capsules, but I'm not sure about what to do with you, Chase. If you don't keep your chip in, you'll die, and if we keep it in, you'll always be Spike," Mr. Davenport said apprehensively.
"No worries, Mr. Davenport," Chase said tiredly. "If I spend some quality time in my capsule, it will reset the settings on my chip to default."
"How do you know that?" Mr. Davenport asked.
"Well, Douglas told me," Chase said awkwardly. "He said that one of the reasons it didn't work when you tried to take out Spike is that you didn't also alter the settings for my capsule. It tried to fix the chip, and since it didn't finish, my chip was stuck in an in-between stage, so that's why I kept glitching."
"I don't know if we should trust anything his brother says," Leo said, looking at Mr. Davenport warily.
"Do we have anything to lose?" Chase asked. "If it doesn't work, I'll just go to another off-shore facility and stay there for good. No harm done."
His family (minus Bree) shared a knowing look, Mr. Davenport saying "No Chase, we won't send you away or let you isolate yourself again. We'll find a way to make it work."
"You really want to keep me around after the last couple days?" Chase asked, dumbfounded.
"It might seem like we don't care, but the last few days without you around was, well, awful," Leo stated simply.
"Yeah, we didn't have anyone to pick on," Adam added humorously.
Chase scowled, but a look of confusion took over his facial expression. "A few days?"
"Um, yeah, Douglas took you three days ago," Leo said.
"I've been Spike for days?" Chase asked, swallowing at the implications. He groaned angrily. "Let's just get back home," he finally grumbled after a few moments of silence.