A/N: Wow, I'm really shocked (and obviously very happy, too!) with how much response I received from the first chapter. Thank you so much everyone! I was sick the day I posted it, so you guys really made my day. Also, you made me actually post this next chapter on time instead of putting it off for later. So, thanks again!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Also, I wanted to warn everyone that I've been having some issues with the PM feature on my account lately, so if you're expecting a PM from me or sent one to me that you never received a reply to, that is probably why. I'm trying to remedy the problem by using a different device to send PMs through. Sorry about any confusion it may have caused.

Unknowndiva: Aww, thank you so much! As someone who is very insecure about my writing style, that means so much to me!
Stardust16: Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
BasketballQueen: XD Can't give anything away yet, but it's probably not for the reasons you think. And thank you so much! Your reviews always make my day.
Dirtkid123: Thanks! Btw, love your new profile pic. It's so cool!
tennisgirl77: Thank you! Unfortunately, you'll have to wait a bit longer for the answers to those questions...
PurpleNicole531: Sorry, the mystery won't be solved quite yet. That would make things too boring. ;)
Asori: Wow, thanks! I'm really glad you like the story so far. I'm going to try to update on at least a somewhat regular schedule.
girlface187: Hi! Thank you so much for the review and the fav! I hope you enjoy the rest of the story as well.
daphrose: Stormtrooper aim. XD Thanks so much for the review! Lots more twists to the story coming up!

Thanks so much everyone for the support and encouragement. You help keep me motivated when life gets chaotic. Okay, enough holding everyone up. Here's chapter two...

Chapter 2: The Unlikely Ally

I'm going to die.

He knew that, at this point, it was almost inevitable. Either the agents would overtake and shoot him, or he would run himself to death. Neither one sounded like a particularly pleasant way to end the night.

Chase kept one hand pressed tightly over his shoulder in a vain attempt to make it stop bleeding. His left hand dangled uselessly at his side. Even his head wound was pulsating with a never-ending pain. All of his injuries seemed to be competing to see which one could cause the most discomfort. And right now it was an even match. He knew he needed medical attention or he wouldn't last through the night. Too bad that wasn't really an option at the moment.

Turning a corner, he found himself in a narrow alley where the moonlight couldn't quite penetrate. The deep shadows would provide good cover for him. He charged down the alley as quickly as he could. Unfortunately, the darkness also hid obstacles in his path, including a rock that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. There wasn't enough time to catch his balance before he fell forward. It took all of his will power not to scream as his wounded shoulder hit the pavement first. Dark patches appeared in his vision and clouded in around his consciousness.

No, this can't happen now. I need to keep moving.

He was fast losing the fight to stay awake. His bionic hearing was picking up all kinds of noises, but his mind was too fuzzy to sort through them. There was someone standing over him. He didn't recognize their voice. There were more people coming, lots of people. They were entering the alley at top speed.

For a brief moment, his mind cleared and Chase found himself leaning against the alley wall with someone helping support his weight. He didn't know who the person was, but they were probably an enemy. He didn't have any friends right now, but he couldn't remember why. Chase tried to step away from the stranger and kicked out at him.

"Shh," the person hissed as quietly as possible. "They're coming. Stay still."

Although he wasn't sure why, Chase did as the person said. He could see now that the newcomer was a young boy who barely came up to his shoulder. The boy pulled him close against the wall again and then reached out his hand in front of them. Chase saw the air immediately around them glow a weird color and then the outside world went blurry. He realized that the boy was somehow projecting a force field that made the two of them invisible to outside eyes.

The FBI agents ran through just then. They must have been the other footsteps Chase had heard. The agents were all wearing night-vision goggles and they had their rifles held at the ready. They defintely meant business.

With the invisible shield protecting them, the agents never saw them. As soon as the enemy was out of hearing distance (even for Chase), the boy lowered the force field and reached over to help ease Chase onto a crate.

"Thanks," Chase whispered. He hoped he didn't just get someone else in trouble with the FBI. This situation was difficult enough without having to deal with the guilt of what might happen to this boy.

The world was turning lop-sided again and Chase felt himself hovering somewhere between consciousness and sleep. The boy was asking him something, but he didn't hear what it was. It didn't matter. He needed to lie down. He could feel the boy helping him into a nearby doorway, but his senses were dulled enough at this point that he barely registered the change of location. A moment later, he was being gently placed on the wood floor. He didn't care how hard the surface was. After all he'd been through, Chase only wanted one thing: sleep. The boy was talking again, but he'd long since given up listening. He let himself slide the rest of the way into the welcoming darkness.

He is running. There are sounds of fighting all around. People are getting hurt. His family is getting hurt. This needs to stop.

There's an alley and he runs down it. He can hear the men chasing him. If only he can reach the end of this alley, everything will be okay. Suddenly, it isn't an alley anymore. It's a hallway. He emerges into a darkened living room that feels eerily familiar. This is his living room. He needs to get out of here. Why is it so dark?

The room isn't empty. There are people everywhere. He sees his family on the other side of the room. They are fighting, too. He needs to help them, but he can't. There is something he must do first. What is it?

There's the front door. He runs toward it. If he can get out of here, everything will be okay. He can stop this, but not from here. He reaches for the doorknob when a dark figure steps in front of him. He recognizes the figure right away. It's Adam. So why does he feel so scared of him? This is his brother.

No, this is the enemy.

He doesn't know why, but he knows it is true. He must take down the enemy and escape. He activates his laser bow and approaches cautiously.

His brother - no, his enemy - grins down at him and activates his laser vision. With a few quick moves, he uses his laser bow to deflect the deadly blasts. Then he charges forward.

This is the enemy.

He suddenly has a gun in his hand. He points it straight at the enemy. He pulls the trigger.

Chase awoke with a start. His pulse was moving at an alarmingly rapid pace and he could feel his heart beating wildly. He quickly looked around the room and relaxed when he saw that there were no immediate threats. His dream must have been what spooked him. He wished he could remember what the dream had been about.

Sitting up slowly, he decided to take a more casual sweep of the room. It wasn't a very big room and there were no windows. The skylight above was too dusty to admit any light. The walls and floor were all made of rotting wood and the only door was a metal sheet tied across a large hole in the wall. In the center of the room was a metal bucket with a small fire burning inside. A boy was bent over the bucket, using the flame to cook a can of ravioli. Chase recognized him as the boy from the alley.

"Oh, hey," the boy said, glancing up at him. "I didn't realize you were awake. You were out of it for a while there. I thought you were going to die on me; which, you know, wouldn't have been very nice after I took the trouble to save you."

The straightforward way in which the boy spoke made it obvious that he wasn't joking. Chase rolled his eyes and said, "Yeah, I decided not to die just so you wouldn't be offended."

The boy tilted his head curiously and stared for a moment. Finally, he shrugged and turned back to his cooking. "Are you hungry?"

"Not especially." Actually, he felt rather nauseous. He wondered if the sick feeling came from his head wound or his shoulder. Maybe a little of both. "I don't suppose you have any Aspirin on hand, do you?"

The boy set down the can of food and walked over. Crouching down in front of Chase, he said, "No, sorry. It was all I could do to find these bandages. Let me check your hand. It probably needs some more ointment. That is a nasty burn on there."

Chase looked down and noticed for the first time that his left hand was wrapped in gauze. There was also a large amount of the material pressed against his shoulder with medical tape. "Did you do that?" he asked.

"Yes. You stayed unconscious long enough for me to remove the bullet and apply some bandages. Unfortunately, the cut on your head is in a place that made it too hard to cover. I cleaned it out, though, and I believe it should be okay. Let me see your hand now."

Chase leaned back against a cardboard box and let the boy work on his hand. Up close, he could tell that the youth was hardly more than eleven or twelve years old. Yet he spoke in such a matter-of-fact way that didn't really fit with his age. He was short for his age and on the thin side with sandy-blond hair and large brown eyes. His hair was cut rather short and was somewhere between messy and spiky. The boy was wearing only a tee shirt and jeans despite the cold air blowing in from outside.

"You used some sort of invisibility shield in that alley," Chase said. "Are you a bionic person?"

The boy looked up with a blank expression. "I am an android." He noted Chase's surprise and said, "You don't like androids."

"I haven't had any good experiences with them."

"Neither have I," the boy said. He pulled out a small bottle containing some kind of pasty substance and began applying it to the burned skin on Chase's hand. "You are bionic?"

"Yeah."

"I didn't know there were any bionic people left."

Chase looked at him in shock. "What do you mean?" he asked. "What happened to the academy? Where are the other bionic people?"

"Gone," the boy said with a frown. "I don't know where. You don't remember?"

"I can't remember anything recent," Chase admitted. "Nothing from the last few days. What happened?"

"According to the news, quite a bit. But I'm not the one you should ask. My last few days have been a bit..." he paused as if searching for the right word. "Cluttered. I'm not sure what caused everything to happen, but this city has seen the worst of the effects. Are you the one they are searching for all over the place?"

"I guess. What city are we in?"

"Washington, D.C. They are using helicopters to aid the search."

What have I done? Why do they want me?

Chase could tell the boy wasn't being completely open with him, but he was also fairly certain that this wasn't an enemy. He decided to trust him, for now. "What's your name?"

"39-DELTA-451AX7G," the boy responded. He began wrapping a new sheet of gauze around the injured hand.

"That's not really a name," Chase told him. "Why don't I call you Andy? You know, short for android."

"That is okay with me. And your name?"

"Chase."

Andy finished wrapping the hand and secured the piece of gauze with a few strips of medical tape. "Nice to make your acquaintence, Chase. May I ask what your plans are for the immediate future?"

Chase couldn't help smiling. There was something oddly robotic in Andy's manner of speech. He was used to androids sounding and acting exactly like humans. "I'm not sure, actually. With this amnesia, I can't remember anything about all of this. I don't know why those people are chasing me or why I'm in Washington, D.C. The only thing I can remember is that I was doing something really important before I woke up in that warehouse. Whatever it is, I need to finish it."

"That would be rather difficult," Andy pointed out, "considering that you don't know what you are supposed to do."

"I know. That's the really annoying thing. I wish I could remember details, but instead I only have these vague ideas floating around in my brain. I think my family is in trouble, though."

"Maybe you're supposed to go save them."

Chase shook his head. "No, it was something in this city I was supposed to do. I think it has to do with the president."

"The president is dead."

Chase felt like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on him. "What?!"

"The president is dead," Andy repeated. "He was shot yesterday morning on the lawn in front of the capitol building. There was a large crowd of reporters present during the shooting because the president had been about to make an announcement. No one knows what he was going to say, though. The shooter and his accomplice got away."

He felt dizzy. His vision was starting to blur as a brief memory flooded into his head and crowded out everything else.

There is a large lawn. A huge crowd of people are there. They're all shouting and scared. He is shouting something back at them. A warning? The president is standing up front. He looks scared, too. Something isn't right about this. Something is missing. What is it?

"Chase!" a concerned shout brings him back to the present. "Are you okay?"

Chase took a deep breath and brought his heartbeat back to a normal speed. He looked at Andy with what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. You just reminded me of something."

"Okay," Andy said. Chase couldn't tell if the boy believed him or not. "I'm going to check the outside perimeter to make sure we are clear. The sun will be coming up soon."

As soon as the android was gone, Chase leaned back against the box and let all of his concerns flood to the surface. Andy's words had merely reminded him of something he already knew. He knew about the shooting because he'd been there. And, for some reason, the memory of the shooting brought an uncontrollable fear to his heart.

What have I done?

A/N: Okay, in case you couldn't guess, Andy is the OC I warned about in the beginning of this story. But, as stated, you definitely won't have to worry about an OCxCharacter sort of plot because I do NOT write romances. Sorry, I just really stink at that sort of thing. Besides, Andy is an android. (Yeah, I don't ship Marcus/Bree either. Sorry.)

Anyway, I hope you still enjoyed the chapter. Thank you so much for reading!

NEXT CHAPTER: "Cover of Darkness" - Chase begins looking for answers...
I'll be posting it either late Sunday night or early Monday morning. Depends on how late I get back from my trip.