"Hellcat here! Zara is letting me do the intro for today! Well, she actually isn't, but she didn't say no, either. That says yes to me! :D

"She wanted me to tell you guys something. She has some fun facts about the Hybrid Universe listed on her profile! These don't really pertain to any plot lines, but they're nice for a trivia thing. But the list is short, so feel free to ask questions if you want to know something else.

"Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone who ever clicked on this story. :3 I know it's a bit broad, but who cares? I'm awesome enough to pull it off."

AllAmericanSlurp: "...I didn't ask you to be my girlfriend. I was making a sexual joke for the crowd's amusement. Guess it failed. Also, exorcisms don't work on demons. Sorry to burst your bubble."

Gg180000: "I don't want to freak Tasha out. :c"

Mia-Teresa-Davenport: "Hold up, Hellcat; I got this one." *clears his throat* "What in the hell could you possibly ask that's so important that it requires you poking me?!"

"Anyways, Zara doesn't own Lab Rats or anything you recognize. If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers."

"The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without a teacher."

Elbert Hubbard

"Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity. Force him to reveal himself, so as to find out his vulnerable spots."

Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Leo

"For Christ's sake, Leo," Chase hissed, pinning his ears. "Keep your hands up! How can you guard yourself if your hands are by your stomach?"

Leo frowned, bringing his fists up in front of his face.

"Too high." Chase pushed Leo's arms down an inch or two. "You'll want to guard your chest, too, if you get in a fight."

Leo furrowed his brow. "I don't want to get in a fight."

"Tell that to a jock and see how he reacts," Oly countered from her perch on Chase's shoulder. "He'll turn your ass into a grease stain."

"He'll do that, anyways," Leo protested. "Even if I could hit him, it would just tickle!"

"Then use your elbows," Bree advised from her seat at the cyber desk. Ysthry was curled up on the desk itself, her neck arched while Bree rubbed it with her fingertips. "You can put more force behind them."

"If I'm not dead first," Leo huffed, lowering his arms.

"Keep your fists up," Chase growled.

"But it hurts," Leo whined. His upper arms were starting to burn.

"That's the point." Chase crossed his arms. "It builds muscle. You need some muscle to fight."

Leo ground his teeth, aggravated. "You're supposed to be teaching me how to fight, not how to build muscle for a fight!"

"You're not going to learn overnight," Bree pointed out.

Chase glared at Bree. "Who's the teacher here?"

"What could you teach him?" Bree challenged. "How to stand in one place while your opponent dances around you?"

Chase narrowed his eyes at her, but stayed quiet, his half-tail lashing with irritation as Oly started laughing.

Leo looked between the two siblings. Bree had a point; Chase - although he used to be the best at hand-to-hand combat out of the three - was the best no longer. An afrit destroyed that when it decided to tear a chunk out of Chase's leg. It didn't pose much of a problem when he was walking. Sure, he limped a bit, but he got around just fine.

When it came to fighting, though, it made itself known.

The sudden, drastic motions involved in martial arts aggravated the old injury to the point where it hurt too much for him to put weight on it for a while. As a result, he could only move a bit, often keeping himself inside the area of a square foot and waiting for his opponent to come to him. He started to rely more heavily on his other abilities and various demonic powers to catch someone at a distance, but it took him several seconds longer to aim with his bionics than what was safe in a fight.

Talk about kicking his legs out from under him.

Leo's arms started burning as the silence stretched from seconds to minutes. He wanted to drop them to his sides. The more he thought about it, the worse it became. No matter how hard he tried to focus on whatever was going on between Chase and Bree, his thoughts always came back to the pain in his muscles.

Why did Douglas have to put the training idea in Chase's head?

Chase finally hissed. "Then you teach him." Despite the concession, though, Chase looked a bit upset at being reminded of his limitations.

Bree sat straighter in her chair, frowning. "I'm not much of a teacher."

Ysthry rolled her neck so that Bree was rubbing the other side as she spoke. "If Half-Breed can't do it, then that leaves you and Adam."

Bree sighed. "Adam can't teach for crap. Fine; I'll do it."

As she stood up, Leo couldn't help but see the apologetic smile Bree sent towards Chase, who was trying not to look as sad as he probably was. Oly patted his shoulder a bit, but he didn't say anything as he backed up. Bree took her place in front of Leo and waved her hands a bit. "You can put your arms down."

Leo let them drop like weights immediately. "Thank you!"

What came after that was – in Leo's opinion – worse. Bree had Leo going through very basic movements so slowly that his muscles ached and he found it hard to balance. No wonder his siblings had muscles; fighting was hard! He wasn't even doing it that fast! While he was suffering through this, Adam had shown up and was standing by Chase, remaining surprisingly quiet. Yahn was nowhere to be found.

As Bree had Leo standing on the balls of his feet to work on leg strength, he didn't pay much attention to the background. The only thing he noticed more than once was Oly, who occasionally laughed or had a remark ready when he messed up. He wished that he could order her to shut up multiple times, but he just ground his teeth and bore it. He figured that Bree would get bored of teaching him and the lessons would likely only last a few days. Then, everything would go back to normal. He would be able to cower in peace.

That fact didn't mean he enjoyed the hour-long lesson. It probably would have gone on longer if Bree hadn't noticed that Chase had left the Lab. She was in the middle of demonstrating a balanced defensive crouch when she looked around, appearing confused. Her eyes finally landed on Adam, who now had Oly perched on his shoulder. "Where did Hellcat go?"

Adam shrugged. "I think he got bored."

Bree frowned and straightened up, looking a bit guilty. She brushed off her shirt a bit and nodded before she looked back at Leo. "You're going to be sore tomorrow, anyways. We should probably stop."

Leo rubbed his shoulder, rolling it a bit. "Looking forward to that," he muttered. On the cyber desk, Ysthry shifted from one foot to the other repeatedly before she took off into the air and landed on Leo's shoulder, folding her wings close against herself.

"You're as graceful as a three-legged, drunk cat," Oly commented, laughing loudly.

Leo rolled his eyes. He hadn't even been moving that time.

Adam smiled a bit. "Ignore her. You're doing just fine."

Now that was more like it. Leo couldn't fight off his prideful smirk at that.

"But you can't win a fight like that," Adam continued. "You don't have the muscle to back it up."

Bree's eyes lit up suddenly. "Strategy! You need to learn strategy."

Leo raised an eyebrow. "I'm good at strategy."

"Battle strategy?" Bree challenged.

Leo opened his mouth, thinking of several ways his opponent to attack and different ways he could counter. However, he could think of ways to counter his counter moves, too. He had no answer for those. Finally, he nodded. "Then how do I learn strategy?"

"Hellcat's the strategy guy," Adam noted with a shrug.

"Go ask him to teach you that," Bree instantly said, latching onto this opportunity. Maybe she was hoping to make Chase feel a bit better after she essentially stole his self-defense class.

Leo hesitated for a moment – did he really want to get a lecture on how to think in a fight? – but he ended up walking through the tunnel to find Chase. At the very least, it would be useful information, right? He completely ignored Yahn scurrying into the Lab with a paper clutched in his hands as he made a beeline towards where Chase liked to hide when he was upset: The back porch.

"Study the past if you would define the future."

Confucius

"You count the hours you could have spent with your mother, it's a lifetime in itself."

Mitch Albom, For One More Day

Adam

In his hands was the certificate of abandonment.

It felt so light, like paper always did. It was hard to believe that the simple form – and a signature – had the power to disown a child.

Adam still hadn't opened it.

It was folded in half and ripped a bit on the edges, betraying its age and the poor treatment it had been subjected to. If Douglas had to keep moving, though, it made sense that the document would be slightly damaged.

Adam stared at it, as he had been for the past hour. With a sigh, he looked up and let his eyes drift over the room, eyeing his reflection in every mirror. Honestly, he didn't know why he chose to come into Mr. Davenport's mirror room. Maybe it was so he could see his reaction? Or look for his mother in his features? Either way, all he saw was a nervous man, holding a piece of paper.

A piece of paper that could change his life.

In his lap, Yahn was making faces at a mirror directly in front of him. Adam wanted to join him, but he couldn't. For some reason, he felt that he needed to be very serious about this moment. This was his mother, after all.

Whose last actions to him basically said that she didn't care about him.

Quit being a bitch and just open it, he chastised himself firmly. It was just her name. Who cared if she abandoned him?

Oh, right; for some reason, he cared.

Adam looked at the form again, frowning. Was there some drastic reason his mother left him alone with Douglas? Was it necessary? Did she panic when she found out that she was a mother, causing her to act before thinking? Or was she just a deadbeat mom?

Why the hell did it even matter to him?

He bit his lip. It just did.

Yahn patted Adam's knee. "Do you want me to take it back and forget this ever happened?"

Adam turned the certificate over in his hands. That would make things easier. However, now that he had the opportunity to find the answer to a question he had been wondering about for years, did he really want to let it go?

Shaking his head, Adam took a deep breath, braced himself, and unfolded the paper. It was full of legal jargon that he didn't understand – he doubted that anyone could, really – but he was more interested in the signature at the bottom. In neat cursive, the name "Sandra Pike" was written on the line for the mother's name.

Sandra Pike.

His mother's name was Sandra Pike.

Adam stared at the form for a long while before folding it again. Now that he knew her name, he didn't know what to do about it. Did he want to find her? Would she even want to see him?

Why did life have to be so damn hard?

Sorry. Hellcat begged…and begged…and left a rotten egg in my shoe…and begged some more….So I finally just let him do the intro.

Anywho, I would have posted this two days ago, but I would always be in the middle of writing it when the Sandman hit me upside the head with his crap and I konked out.

But not today! Oh, no! I'm eating apples and peanut butter and drinking some hard lemonade. :P Honestly, this is probably about as calm as I can get.

And I'm pretty keyed up still. But I got the chapter written, anyways, so yay!

Feel free to review. Or don't. I usually couldn't care less, but my give-a-damn is broken to the extreme right now. xD

Enjoy. :3

Give me Heaven or give me Hellcat!

*Bows and exits*