Author's Note: We're coming down to the wire! Thanks for reading! :)
CHAPTER EIGHT- The Battle
Adam and Bree cautiously entered the front door of the house. It looked very odd, standing all alone out in the middle of the desert, but it matched the coordinates Mr. Davenport had given them. Inside, it looked like any ordinary home. Then again, so had Douglas's original hideout. There was no one around, but they could hear the faint hum of machinery coming from somewhere.
"Are you sure this is the place?" Adam asked softly.
"It matches the coordinates, and there's nothing else out here," Bree answered, speaking just as quietly as as her brother. Something about this empty place made them both feel like they needed to whisper. She looked around, then motioned to an open door at the far end of the room. She and Adam could see stairs leading down, presumably into the basement.
"Down there," she whispered, and Adam nodded. He took the lead and she followed him down nervously. Having to descend the stairs gave whoever was at the bottom a tremendous advantage. He would be able to see them before they could see him.
But there were no surprise attacks, traps, or explosions on the way down. As they stepped onto the basement floor, Bree and Adam could see Douglas standing behind a desk covered in controls. Chase was on the other side of it, standing completely still.
"Adam! Bree!" Douglas said happily. "Welcome! Long time, no see."
"This isn't a social call, Douglas," Bree said angrily.
Douglas made a 'tsk' sound with his tongue. "Is that any way to talk to your creator?"
"Just give us back our brother," Adam said.
"I'm hurt," Douglas said, placing his hand on his heart. "But if you want your brother, go ahead and get him."
Adam and Bree turned to look at Chase, who was still standing motionless in front of the desk.
"Come on, Chase. Let's go," Bree said. But Chase didn't move and didn't respond to her voice at all.
"Chase?" Adam said questioningly. He took a few steps across the room, until he was only a few feet in front of his brother. "Let's get out of here."
Finally, Chase turned to face him. With one swift movement he lunged forward, grabbed Adam, lifted him up, and threw him across the room.
"Adam!" Bree cried, rushing to his side and kneeling down to check on him. Adam appeared dazed, but not terribly hurt. As she stood back up, Bree saw Chase rushing towards her. She barely had time to speed to the side and out of Chase's grasp. He rushed her again, and again she dodged away. Several times they repeated this dance. Clearly he still had both super speed and strength.
Finally, she dodged the wrong way and ended up in the far corner at the front of room. Chase was directly in front of her. He placed one arm on each side of her, blocking her escape.
Bree looked directly into her brother's eyes. She now understood what Adam had been talking about before. They looked cold and lifeless. There was no familiarity when he looked at her.
"Chase…please. Stop. You don't want to do this."
No sign of recognition crossed her brother's face. Chase clearly viewed her as a threat, an enemy who had to be stopped.
He grabbed both of her arms and quickly flipped her around so she was facing away from him, towards the wall. Chase lifted her up and began to carry her away, towards where Douglas was. She struggled weakly, but his grip was too strong. She could feel his fingers digging into her arms, sending pain radiating up and down from her shoulders to her fingers.
They had only gone a few feet when she heard Chase grunt and felt herself being released. She stumbled, but caught herself and whirled around. Adam had recovered enough to get to his feet and come up behind Chase, grabbing him around the waist. Chase had let go of his sister and was now furiously struggling against his older brother. He managed to jerk himself free and turned to face him.
In the past, this fight would have been comically one-sided. But now Adam and Chase had the same strength. Bree watched with confused fascination as her brothers punched, kicked, and dodged. Both had the same training and were very familiar with each other's fighting style. Adam would throw a punch, which Chase would duck under. Then Chase would try to sweep Adam's legs out from under him, but Adam would easily jump over his brother's leg. She could tell that Adam was holding back a bit, not really wanting to hurt his little brother. But Chase had no such reservations.
"Adam!" Bree called out. "You have to stop him!"
Adam still looked uncertain. He was barely able to dodge Chase's next punch. He grabbed Chase's arm, but the younger boy jerked it free. Clearly tired of the stalemate, Chase used his speed to rush forward and tackle Adam around the waist, sending them both to the ground. Locked together, they struggled for a moment. Then Adam managed to push Chase off with his legs, sending him flying backwards. Chase landed on his back on the concrete floor.
Bree rushed over to try to intervene. Just as she reached Chase, he kicked his leg up, hitting her hard in the stomach. Bree bent forward and grunted in pain. She saw Chase jump up. Saw him lunge towards her. She knew he meant to grab her again, and she knew she must not get caught in his grasp.
Bree dropped to the floor, and Chase's arms encircled nothing but thin air. From the ground she could see Adam standing, trying to find the best place to attack. Bree managed to roll back, out of the way, and she saw Adam rush forward and tackle his brother. Now all three of them were on the floor.
Bree stood up and for the first time since the fight began, took note of Douglas. He was still standing at the desk, watching the fight with his usual smirk. She saw him discreetly reach down and punch something in on the desk. As soon as he did, Chase got a hold of Adam and threw him off once again. He seemed even more intense than he had before.
Of course. Douglas is controlling him. They didn't need to take out Chase. They needed to stop Douglas!
Bree rushed across the room to her uncle and pushed him away from the desk. He glared at her and threw a punch, but she dodged it and grabbed him again, speeding them both away. They came to rest up against the wall, face to face.
Douglas glared down at her. "Not smart, Princess," he said softly, his tone deadly.
"Don't call me that," Bree growled through clenched teeth. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw what looked like Marcus' old capsule, in the middle of the room.
Bree tightened her grip and rushed her uncle back towards the capsule. In a split-second, he was inside and she was rushing out and slamming the door shut. She hit a button on the edge of the door, hoping desperately that it activated the door lock. She was rewarded with a loud "click." Douglas gave an aggravated cry and slammed into the door several times, but the lock held firm.
Bree grinned and turned to see where Adam and Chase were. She could still here them struggling at the front of the room. She was just in time to see Chase produce a large force field, which he smashed down into a ball of light that pulsated between his hands. He threw it, and the ball slammed into Adam, sending him crashing against the wall. Bree watched in horror as her older brother slid down the wall slowly and groaned.
She glanced at the desk. Though Douglas was not putting in new commands, Chase was still clearly under the control of whatever program Douglas had been running before. She rushed to the desk and desperately scanned the controls, trying to make sense of them, but they were overwhelming. Buttons, levers, keypads, switches…
"Adam!" she cried. She heard him moan again and saw him try to push himself back up into a standing position. But her shout had also caught Chase's attention.
"Adam! The desk! The controls! Blast-"
She felt the rush of air and Chase was standing next to her.
Then his hand was around her throat.
Chase's hand felt like a steel vice gripping her neck. Bree couldn't speak, couldn't finish telling Adam that he needed to blast the controls. Chase lifted her up off the ground so that her feet dangled and held her there, suspended. He stared right into her eyes with that same unknowing look he had before.
As she struggled against him, he tightened his grip even more. Bree knew that, with his newfound strength, he could snap her neck with the tiniest movement. She could barely get any air in now. And she had lost track of Adam, as he was no longer in her line of vision. All she could see was Chase cruelly glaring at her.
Bree knew Adam's first instinct would probably be to save her, but she hoped he would go for the controls. They had to destroy them or this fight might go on forever. Weakly, she raised her right arm and pointed to her eyes, then back at the desk, hoping Adam would understand what she meant. She tried to repeat the motion, but found she could no longer lift her arm. Her whole body was tingling, and her head was dizzy….black spots were flashing in front of her eyes…
Dimly, Bree felt a blast of heat behind her. She heard several pops and a loud bang, but it sounded far away. "Chase…" she tried to whisper, but nothing would come out.
Chase came out of the darkness quickly. It was like being asleep and being jerked awake by a sudden and unexpected noise. Where there had been nothing, it was suddenly replaced by lights and sounds. He blinked, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
He was still in Douglas's lab. Somehow, Bree was directly in front of him, looking like she was about to pass out. A hand was clamped around her throat.
It was his hand.
Horrified, Chase let go and scrambled back so quickly that he tripped and fell. Both he and his sister hit the ground almost at the same time. He leaned up on his elbows and looked around desperately, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
Bree was coughing and trying to take in large gasps of air. Adam knelt beside her, looking concerned. She finally recovered and got her breathing under control, and Adam helped her to her feet.
Then they both looked down at their brother, who was still watching them from the floor.
"Where's Douglas?" Chase asked, looking around nervously.
Neither Adam nor Bree answered, but Adam pointed towards the capsule. Chase looked over and saw his uncle locked up in the same place he had been for the past day. He felt himself relax a bit.
Chase looked back up at his brother and sister. When he saw the look in their eyes, his heart sank. They're afraid of me.
"Guys," he said shakily. "It's…me. Just me. I promise."
Adam and Bree looked at each other. Finally, Adam took a step forward and extended his hand. Chase reached up for it and found himself being jerked to his feet and pulled forward into a huge hug from his brother. The tension in his body seemed to evaporate at that moment. After a moment's hesitation, he felt Bree work her way in-between, with one arm around each of her brothers.
He couldn't bear to look at her, but Chase leaned over and whispered in her ear.
"I'm sorry….I'm sorry….I'm so sorry…"
"It's OK," she murmured back. "It wasn't you."
They were so engrossed in their hug that none of them noticed Donald creep quietly down the stairs. He surveyed the scene with satisfaction, particularly when he saw his brother locked up in the capsule. He crossed the room and stood directly in front of the door, so they were face to face.
Donald motioned to the siblings. "That's what you could have had," he said sadly. "Three wonderful kids. A real family. But you treated them like weapons."
"They ARE weapons," Douglas spat out coldly.
"They are HUMAN BEINGS!" Donald cried, so loudly that the three kids looked up in surprise. "Wonderful human beings. But you'll never know who they really are. You're going to jail for a long, long time."
"He is?" Bree asked.
Donald nodded. "Douglas has been making and selling illegal weapons to terrorists and rebel groups all over the world for the past 15 years. He's wanted by the FBI, CIA, Interpol, the Federales, Mossad…if an international law-enforcement agency has a list, he's on it. I had Leo call my FBI contact after I left. He texted me a few minutes ago saying they're on their way." Donald looked back at his brother. "He won't be able to bother us again. Ever."
"That's what you think, Donnie," Douglas said softly, his mouth turning up into a smirk.
The kids had turned away and were checking each other for injuries, so they didn't hear Douglas's remark. But Donald did. He studied his brother, eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"
Douglas slowly moved his right hand down to his waist. For the first time, Donald noticed a small black plastic box with a single button on it, clipped to his belt. Donald frowned. How many remotes does this guy have?
"Don't you remember, Donnie? Always have a last resort plan," Douglas said cryptically.
Desperately, Donald searched the memory banks of his mind, trying to figure out what Douglas was getting at. Vaguely, he remembered a conversation from years ago, when they were still working together, creating technology that would forever change mankind, for better or for worse.
"A self-destruct button? Like in cartoons? That's the dumbest idea you've had yet, Douglas."
"It's not a dumb idea! This technology could do a lot of damage in the wrong hands. It could also be stolen and reproduced. We need to protect ourselves, our hard work, and our investment!"
"How is blowing up what we worked so hard to create 'protecting our investment?'"
"I'm telling you, Donnie. You don't want this stuff to fall into the wrong hands."
It had been much later before Donald had realized that Douglas's hands were the wrong hands. He looked up at his brother, with a panicked look on his face.
"You wouldn't…"
"If I can't have him, then neither can you," Douglas said quietly.
He began to laugh, softly at first, but gradually growing louder as he pressed the button.
Donald whirled around to look at his kids, his heart in his throat. They seemed OK at first. But Chase's expression quickly changed to one of confusion. He looked down, like he was dizzy, and reached out a hand and took Adam's arm, steadying himself.
"Mr. Davenport?" Chase asked weakly. "I….I don't feel so good…"
END CHAPTER