A/N: HAPPY "BACK TO THE FUTURE" DAY EVERYONE!

To celebrate what I hope is the end of my writer's block, I am posting this chapter earlier than I'd originally planned. This one is a bit shorter, but a few important things will be revealed (although you might not realize most of them until later on). So, once again, thank you everyone who is reading/following this and I really appreciate the support!

Dirtkid123: Sorry, can't answer that quite yet. Soon though, I promise. Thank you so much for your continued support and thoughtful reviews!
Stardust16: Okay, I will be answering part of your questions in this chapter, just not all of them quite yet. I'm so glad you like Andy. And I really appreciate your reviews. They help me figure out what works/doesn't work so I can improve my writing. Thank you so much!
Asori: Aww, thanks! Yeah, hard to tell right now isn't it? More answers will be coming soon though, as promised. Thank you again!
Sarcasmisinmyblood: Oh my, thank you SO MUCH! It means a lot and I'm really glad you're enjoying it.
PurpleNicole531: Thanks! I'm glad the flashback scenes worked, I wasn't sure about how they sounded, so that means a lot. Thank you!
daphrose: Oh, wow, thank you! That made me so happy! I was really nervous about including an OC, so that makes me feel very relieved.
BasketballQueen: XD Thanks so much! Wow, poor Leo! And I'm glad to hear that you felt at least a little payback for all those times you left us on cliffhangers. ;) Glad Chase approves; I'm assuming he'd point it out if I was too inaccurate in my portrayal of androids, so that's a relief! Now to keep you in suspense just a little bit longer...

"Failure is not falling down. Failure is refusing to stand back up."

Chapter 5: A New Enemy

One of the men moved forward and fastened a metal ring to Chase's wrist before shoving him onto a nearby crate. Chase immediately felt his systems go offline and knew that the device was some sort of bionic signal interrupter. The man then walked over and attached one to Andy's wrist as well.

So, they know about Andy's abilities, too. The question is, though, who exactly are "they"?

Chase knew these weren't FBI agents. They looked more like the kind of black ops unit you'd see in a spy movie. All four of the men were dressed in black with assault rifles, holstered sidearms, radios, and an array of other devices and strange-looking weapons attached to their belts. The leader pulled out a satphone and dialed a number on it. He stepped outside the car to talk, but Chase could still hear the conversation fairly well. Unfortunately, without the aid of his bionic hearing, he could only hear one side of the conversation.

"Nova Base, this is Typhon. We have captured the target," the man said into the phone. "He was escaping DC by train. There is a complication, though. He was traveling with another kid, and we have reason to believe that the other kid is bionic as well." There was a brief pause as he listened to whatever orders were being told him. "I understand, sir. We'll report back as soon as it's done."

There was a beeping sound as the man hung up the phone. Chase heard him walk over to the helicopter and say something to the pilot; the next sound he heard was the chopper taking off and flying away. A moment later, the man was walking back through the boxcar door.

"Alright," he said, standing in front of Chase, "tell me where you hid it and this will all be over. You've got exactly one minute to talk."

Chase's mind was racing to figure out what these men were after. Did he steal something from them?

Yes, and they want it enough to kill for it. They can't have it, though. My family needs me to keep it safe. This is the mission I need to complete.

Chase looked up at the group leader and shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The man glared at him. "Wrong answer," he said grimly. He reached down and grabbed Chase's arm, pulling him off the crate and onto the floor. Twisting his arm around so it was behind his back at a bad angle, the man said again, "Tell me where you hid it."

Under normal circumstances, Chase wouldn't have hesitated to fight back and take this jerk down. But with his bionics offline, his ribs feeling like they'd caved in on him, and his entire left arm completely useless, there was no chance of taking out even one of the men before somebody shot him or Andy. The man twisted his arm farther around, and Chase had to bite his lip to keep from yelling with the sudden pain it caused. Mr. Davenport had taught them how to handle these sort of interrogations; he just needed to follow his training. Chase took a few deep breaths to steady his nerves and refocus his thoughts. He concentrated on the ache in his ribs instead so he wouldn't notice the pain in his arm as much.

"We know you were the one who took it," the man practically growled. "If you don't give me its location, I have orders to shoot you."

"Go ahead," Chase said. "You know as well as I do that you can't really kill me. If you do, you'll never get what you're after."

The man suddenly released his arm and Chase fell forward, relief flooding over him. He managed to sit up so he could try to rub some feeling back into his arm. At least it hadn't been his left one.

Without any warning, the man rushed up behind him and slid a metal bar across Chase's throat. Chase felt his airway closing up at the pressure the bar was placing on it. The man continued to choke him while saying, "Maybe. Or maybe we can just get the information from your family instead. That's entirely up to you."

He tried to fight back as best he could, but he simply didn't have enough energy. He could feel his lungs burning as he tried desparately to get some air into them. Kicking his leg back against the man's ankle, Chase tried to knock him off his feet, but it was a losing battle and he knew it. He could feel himself blacking out and realized that he might not wake back up. He reached up and grabbed the back of the man's neck. With one last burst of energy, he managed to pull down hard enough to flip the man forward and onto the floor. Air flooded into his system and Chase took a moment to breath it in before dodging another attacker. He was hopelessly outnumbered and in no condition to take out a group of angry captors, but Chase was also determined to not go down without a fight.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the men on the opposite side of the car pull out his pistol and aim it directly towards Chase. Out of reflex, he tried to activate his force field - and that was when he realized he was still wearing the inhibitor wristband.

Something small and thin suddenly crashed into the man's side and sent him tumbling to the ground. The pistol flew out the open door and disappeared from sight. Chase stared in surprise as he realized the new addition to the ruckus was none other than Andy.

The little android jumped onto his prey and punched him hard in the face. One more punch was enough to put the man temporarily out of commission. Leaping to his feet, he sighted the nearest enemy and charged him with an expression of dark anger. That man took a moment to get over his surprise at seeing the tiny attacker, but when he did recover he quickly pulled out a small device and fired it straight at Andy. The weapon emitted some kind of blast wave that sent Andy flying backwards into a pile of boxes. Whatever was inside the boxes had been packed in sawdust for protection and the air was immediately filled with a thick haze of the smelly dust.

Chase ran forward and kicked the group leader in the stomach, sending him back against a wall. The man recovered quickly and charged back at him with a series of karate moves. Chase countered his opponent's moves and then maneuvered around him to get in a few hits of his own. The man had obviously been trained well, but Chase had been training in martial arts all of his life. It was only a matter of minutes before the man was lying unconcsious on the floor.

Chase turned around to see that Andy had already taken out his second opponent and moved on to the last one in the boxcar. The little android was holding the poor guy against the wall with both his hands wrapped tightly around his victim's neck; even though he had to stand on tip toes to reach the guy's throat, he still looked rather intimidating. Chase ran forward and tried to pry Andy off of the man, who looked like he was already seeing stars.

"Andy!" he called, trying to break the android's grip on the man. "Andy, let him go!"

As if he just now realized what he was doing, Andy suddenly looked down at his hands in shock. He slowly released the man and stepped away to let him fall the rest of the way to the floor. The android surveyed the evidence of the fight with mild confusion before his eyes fell on Chase.

"Chase?" he asked hesitantly. "You are okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine now. They're all knocked out."

The two stood for a moment, looking at the unconscious forms of their ex-captors. Chase suddenly felt dizzy and decided it would be best to sit down against one of the walls. His body was starting to shake and he couldn't figure out if it was because of how much he was hurting or because he just now realized how close they'd both come to being killed.

Andy seemed to notice because he rushed over and knelt down beside him. "You do not look well," he said. "I'm sorry. I attempted to get my systems back online sooner, but something was preventing me."

Chase remembered seeing the strange weapon that man had used on Andy back when they'd first arrived. "I think one of those guys used some kind of disruptor on you."

"That makes sense. It must have temporarily deactivated me."

"But what about the bionic inhibitors they put on us? Shouldn't that have turned off your bionic abilities as well?"

"No, I was designed to operate on a different signal frequency. Bionic inhibitors do not have an effect on me unless they are specifically built to block my signal alone," Andy explained. As if to demonstrate, he used his super-strength to break his inhibitor off his wrist and then did the same to the one on Chase. "And you should not be speaking right now. Your voice sounds rather hoarse."

Chase nodded, rubbing a hand over his bruised throat. Right now, all he wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep forever. But he knew they needed to get out of here before more enemy forces showed up. "Come on," he said. "We have to make a run for it."

Andy placed a restraining hand on his chest to keep him from standing up. "You need medical attention," he said.

"There isn't time. We have to get moving before these guys wake up. I don't know who they are working for, which means that I also don't know how soon the backup will arrive. Not to mention the fact that we still have the FBI trying to locate us."

The android turned and ran a scan over the unconscious group. Turning back to Chase, he said, "They will not wake up for at least an hour. And you will not be able to move with speed or efficiency in your current state. I will take care of your injuries first, then we can escape. Does that sound reasonable?"

Chase finally relented and leaned back against the wall again. It was frustratingly hard to argue with a walking computer. Besides, he had to admit that he didn't feel too good. What he couldn't figure out was why his bionics hadn't already healed his injuries. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't even be bothered by what was now practically crippling him. After all, he'd survived being tossed around rather brutally by Adam ever since they were little kids; this shouldn't feel too much different.

Andy opened up their backpack and pulled out the remaining medical supplies. As gently as he could, he lifted Chase's sweatshirt to reveal a large patch of black and blue skin resting over his ribcage. He felt the area carefully to determine whether or not the bones were actually broken. He relaxed in obvious relief. "Only bruised," he reported. "Your bionics should help heal that within a few hours."

Unfortunately, the rest of the news was not as promising. The wound on Chase's shoulder had been reopened when the man punched it and now the blood in that area had an unnaturally dark tinge to it. Andy cleaned the area as well as he could and applied a fresh gauze pad over the injury. He also rebandaged Chase's burnt hand and checked to make sure no serious injuries had been added during the fight. Thankfully, there were only a few bruises and minor cuts to add to the list of previous pains. Andy pulled out the jar of ointment he'd used on Chase's burns the day before and opened the lid. Dipping his hand into the medical salve, he began applying it to the bruises on his friend's neck and throat.

Chase was about to thank Andy when he glanced up and noticed a strange moistness in the young boy's eyes. "Andy?" he asked. "Are you crying?"

"Androids do not have emotions," Andy said, refusing to make eye contact. "It is merely the sawdust getting into my eyes."

Chase decided not to mention the fact that the sawdust had long since cleared out of the boxcar's air. "I'm fine, Andy, honest. My siblings and I get into situations like this on a regular basis. And usually we're fighting some sort of overly-powerful nutcase with a world domination scheme; so, in comparison, this is actually pretty mild."

Andy looked at him in confusion. "So, you do not blame me?"

Now it was Chase's turn to be confused. "Okay, first off, why in the world would this be considered your fault?"

"I was permitted to accompany you under the provision that I provide protection and medical care. I let you get hurt, so I have failed that mission."

"Now you sound more like a robot than an AI," Chase told him with a smile. "And, no, there is no way I blame you for what happened. I hate to admit it, but I'd probably be dead right now if you hadn't jumped that guy with the gun. And, believe me, if I really thought you were to blame, I'd be the first to let you know."

"You are certain?"

"Honest. Just ask any of my students back at the Academy. Now, come on, let's get out of here while we still have the chance."

Andy nodded and shoved the medical supplies into the backpack. Sliding his arms through the shoulder-straps, he leapt to his feet and reached down to help Chase up as well. The two exited the boxcar and found themselves in a thickly wooded area with mountains just barely visible in the distance.

"Okay," Chase said. "Let's go find Mission Creek."

A/N: Okay, for those of you asking for answers, quite a bit of information will start being thrown at you during the next three chapters. Thanks for being patient for so long!

After watching Agents of Shield and The Flash last night (Tuesday night is BEST night of the entire week!) I now have so many cool ideas for stories about those shows. But I promised myself I wouldn't work on anything else until this one is finished, so you have my word that I'm making this take top priority. I won't post any other stories until the last chapter of this one is posted.

NEXT CHAPTER:"The Incident"
It will probably be ready by Sunday night.