Yeah, so here's chapter 2. More of a filler thing, but it's there. I'm not necessarily pleased with it, but I am pleased with where the story will hopefully end up. I am, however, a bit warm and fuzzy at the reviews, favorites, and follows.

Guest: Rock on! Don't let the man keep us down!

Drake Cox: I sent a few answers you your PM. Hopefully that helps. :)

KrisKat: Isn't he just a bundle of freaking awesome?

Klausgirl4055 and Beverlie4055: Thanks.

.life426(It won't let me type your full name, I'm afraid): Hopefully, this chapter sates some of your curiosity.

Vampire Girl: The demons are coming and - *clears throat* - I'm not going to throw in a fucking cuss word in every god damned sentence just to amuse you. Shit! (Enjoy. ;3)

AllAmericanSlurp: Aye, demons. Who doesn't love 'em sometimes? :3 Evil little buggers.

Thanks to all of the above, and those of you who didn't review but still like the story. Or didn't, but read it anyways. :D

So, Warning: Demons, Cussing; You know, teen stuff.

Hmmm...who to get to do it this time...I think I'll let -

"Lab Rats and anything you recognize isn't Zara's! If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers!"

o_o Or Leo can do it. That works, too.

"Some people will never ever appreciate your presence until your absence becomes permanent."

Terry Mark

"In difficult times, we're not supposed to quit believing; we're not supposed to quit growing."

Joel Osteen

Chapter Two – Cat and Sparrow

Leo

Everyone was uncharacteristically quiet. Adam was half-heartedly watching some stupid cartoon, sitting on the couch upside down, his legs hanging over the top and his head almost on the floor. Bree was watching her phone, which hadn't rang or buzzed with messages for a few weeks now.

Leo had to forcibly restrain himself from screaming at the top of his lungs at his two remaining siblings. He had to bite down the demand that they do something. Because he missed Chase, too. They weren't the only ones suffering! Month-aversaries sucked – Chase's missing month-aversary was yesterday - but moping about wouldn't bring Chase home. He wanted to urge them to go out, hunt harder, search farther.

But he didn't. He couldn't. They had run themselves ragged for a week after Chase vanished. Mr. Davenport literally had to lock them in their capsules for a day just to get them to rest for once. After that, the search had continued, but more slowly. Their efforts started to lack enthusiasm, their determination began to fade to pessimism. As Mr. Davenport worked to track Chase down – the shock from whatever that burnt shell of a machine was had taken out a few parts of Chase's bionics, including the GPS – Adam's and Bree's will to find their younger brother faded into blind hope that he would just come home.

And they thought they had it bad? Leo had been banned from looking by his mother, who was a bit over-protective after the whole "Krane" incident. He had been forced to either mope around, watch Mr. Davenport work, or try to maintain some routine in this time of crisis.

Because that's what it was: A crisis. No one wanted to say it, but everyone was silently agreeing that Chase was most likely dead or close to it.

Why? Because Krane was still out there. Somewhere. And who knew where the hell Douglas stood in all of this?! He was a tricky guy.

That was part of what made the search so difficult: No one wanted to let Douglas and Krane know that one of them had separated and was now an easier target. So there was no help for them. No volunteers, no police, no "have-you-seen-this-kid?" hunts, no nothing. Just relentless searching – which had been given up on about a month before – and Mr. Davenport's false dream that he could actually repair Chase's bionics remotely.

In the meantime, they could do nothing. And Leo was watching it eat them all alive.

Maybe he couldn't pull Chase out of thin air, but….

A second more passed before Leo finally stood up from his seat at the dining table, his mind made up. He quickly walked to the kitchen island where Bree was seated and picked up her phone. "Hey!" she snapped, instantly reaching for it. The result was a minute-long struggle for possession of the item, during which Leo was typing madly.

"Get 'im, Bree!" Adam cheered from the couch, watching this display like he had never seen anything so entertaining. He actually ended up slipping from his semi-precarious perch and landing on his side on the floor as he craned his head to watch. The resulting crash distracted Bree long enough for Leo to finally hit send.

"Ha!" he triumphantly declared, holding the phone high in the air.

Bree snatched it from his hand with a huff and immediately searched through it. "What did you do, you little…." Her eyes widened when she finally saw what Leo had done. After a second, she glared at him, looking angry and almost horrified. "I can't go on a date!"

"You can now," Leo declared stubbornly. "Look, you've been all pouty and upset for a while now. And, quite frankly, it's driving me up a wall. Yes, I'm sad he's gone, too. But would he want you to stop living and be sad forever just for him?" When she didn't answer, Leo continued, rapidly gaining steam. "No, he wouldn't! He would want you to go do something to make yourself happy!"

Bree stared at him for a long moment before she sighed. "Right," she replied, still looking miserable.

"Damn straight, I'm right!" Leo declared. He pointed towards the Lab's hidden elevator. "Mr. Davenport will make sure to call you if something comes up. Until then, go do something. You're making me depressed!" He winced. "I mean, I already have enough problems fitting in. I don't need you to turn emo."

Bree smiled a bit and punched his shoulder gently. "I'm not turning emo!"

Leo smiled made a shooing motion with his hands. "Then go have fun with your boyfriend! Owen expects to pick you up in –" he checked the clock – "one hour."

"One hour!?" Bree screeched, looking panicked. "You didn't tell him two? I can't get ready in one hour!" She vanished down to the Lab in a whirlwind of color and sound.

One down, Leo thought as he turned to Adam, who was picking himself up off the floor. "You and I," he said, "are going to the yogurt shop."

Adam scrunched his nose up in confusion. "Why?"

Leo threw his arms wide. "Hello? They have yogurt."

Adam broke into a wide grin. Leo was relieved; he didn't see Adam smile as much as he used to. "Good enough for me," Adam informed him. He tossed his head to crack his neck – which was no doubt stiff, since he had been upside down on the couch for thirty minutes – before nodding at the door. "Come on."

Leo nodded and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Mom," he called. "Adam and I are going to the yogurt shop!"

Tasha's response came from upstairs. "Be home by eight!"

"Got it, Tasha!" Adam called out. "I'll guard you, Buddy," he said more quietly to Leo.

"I wasn't worried about it, but okay," Leo said with a shrug. Ever since Chase went missing, Adam had kept a very close eye and Leo and Bree. Leo liked to think that it was because Adam was oldest.

Leo also had to acknowledge that it was most likely because Adam didn't want to lose another sibling on his watch. He had felt bad enough watching the footage of Chase running away – a blurry, fiery mess that took all of a split second and surprised even Bree with how short the time between the shock and Chase being out the door was – and seemed to cling to their sides after that. Maybe to ease the guilt that he was a bit hard on his other younger brother?

Don't worry about it right now, Leo thought forcefully as he followed Adam out the door to the elder's car. Neither said anything to one another, but Leo could tell that Adam was a bit relieved to be focusing on something other than Chase for once. And, as Adam pulled out of the driveway and started babbling randomly about Spongebob – "Snails don't meow!" – Leo half-listened and let his eyes wander across the lawn, occasionally nodding to appease the elder. He almost sighed. The grass was green and lovely. The sky was clear and blue. A gentle breeze blew through the area, ruffling the fur of a small, care-free black cat that was nipping its side near the gate. It was all just so peaceful, like nothing was wrong.

If only, Leo thought with a slight bitterness at the irony of the scene. If only.

"Tired of being stepped on, tired of being unappreciated and so fucking tired of being disrespected by everyone."

Unknown

"Don't worry about how you will get there, just trust that your Angels are helping you on your way."

Unknown

Chase

You know, it's kind of nice to sit back and not care sometimes.

At least, that's how I justified lazily sitting by the front gate of the Davenport mansion in the guise of a cat. I couldn't go in the yard without Eddy hitting me with the sprinklers or Bree declaring that I was her new pet, but I could watch them from out here. I mean, I couldn't stay a cat forever. And I was pretty sure that they wouldn't let me back into the family fold that easily, with the whole "Douglas" situation and all. But I could haunt their gate like good demons do.

Because we haunt stuff. Because we're awesome like that.

With that simple logic, I ended up outside the gate for an hour. Partially to waste time until Douglas got back to his small house – he was running some kind of "Let's hunt Krane down!" errand or something like that (I didn't really pay attention, since it was unlikely to go anywhere so soon) – but mostly to still feel close to them. I mean, it wasn't like I had run away or anything. Not I!

A particularly fierce itch flared up on my left side. Right near my freaking tail. With a frustrated sigh, I sat up and started nipping at it.

That right there is why I couldn't stay looking like my old self all the time. Holding a form other than our own becomes quite painful after a few hours. Sure, it starts with an itch, but it progresses to a throb. Then a hard pinch. Then friggin' stabbing, after a while. It gets pretty bad. And that, kiddos, is why I couldn't maintain my old appearance. No, the stupid demonic parts were here to stay.

What can you do, really?

Of course, right in the middle of scratching said itch, the gate opens and Adam's car rolls past. I look up after a few seconds just to find out that Leo had watched me practically chewing on my ass for a moment. Trust me, if a cat could blush, I'd be all over it. I mean, come on. Leo might not know it's me, but I sure did. Take one point from the demon etiquette board or whatever the hell happened in that stupid Harry Potter series when someone messed up.

And can I just go on a rant here? Humans can't do magic! Not the flashy kind, anyways. If you see someone shoot a fireball from their hands, there is likely an imp sitting on their shoulder making it happen. I mean, shields, magic lights, fire balls, so on: All us, baby. But do we get the credit?

Noooooooooooooo.

It's the awesome conjurer's doing. Never the demons'. Isn't life fun sometimes?

You could cause the car to burst into flames!

Did this voice ever stop? I'm not going to light the car on fire.

The small one humiliated you, my little "friend" hissed. Make him pay for it.

I flicked my ears. He did not. He had no idea that I'm me.

If you listened to me, the world would know who you were.

I snorted and started tapping my tail irritably. No. If I listened to you, half the city would be ashes.

I'm not seeing the problem with that.

I rose to all fours and shook myself vigorously, now ignoring my inner voice. I decided to follow Leo – and presumably Adam, since it was his car – to at least slightly appease myself. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little peeved that they were going somewhere when I was still out here. Selfish, I know, but like I said before: They never bothered to look. I feel like I'm entitled to a slight bit of a pity party here. I let cat guise weaken, eventually feeling like I could literally be carried away on the breeze like a puff of smoke before I pulled myself together as a small raven. It'd be easier to keep up with them if I was flying, after all. Flapping oh-so-gracefully (not) until I caught an updraft, I started flying after them. It wasn't that hard to keep up. I could avoid traffic, unlike them.

Unless a random flock of real birds flew by.

I wonder what would happen if I ate one? Just snatched it out of midair. Would the rest scatter? Or would they be too stupid to realize that one of their own – me - is actually a predator?

Note to self: Find the answer to this question someday.

Yes, I did occasionally get the urge to randomly eat things – not that I ever indulged it, mind you. Particularly rodents and small birds. Better than full demons, who preyed on smaller demonic beings at times.

So bite me, over-zealous PETA fanatics. Fish gotta swim, demon's gotta eat. It's nature.

And can I just mention how many demons there were running around? I mean, on the first few planes, some guy could be walking his dog or a fly could be sitting on your table like a nuisance. But on the lower planes, the dog could be a strong demon known as an afrit – these critters were far stronger than I was – guarding his summoner, or the fly could be an imp – weak little buggers that wished they were as strong as I am – sent to spy. It got pretty strange, seeing the world like that for the first time. I was taken aback by how many of us there were. Granted, I was used to it now, but day one, it was a totally mind-blowing experience. In fact, two or three other birds I passed while following Adam and Leo were demons themselves, rushing off a various forced errands.

….Except for one sparrow, who seemed to be following Adam and Leo, too….

That was a slightly alarming development.

Flitting through the planes – it was only a sparrow on planes 1 – 6 – I noted that it was a weak little imp. Also that it wasn't one of the two that Douglas tended to keep around for small things. So who did it answer to? Me being badass without even knowing it, I had ended up behind the bugger. Which meant, since it wasn't aware that I was around, it was spy time for me, as well! What fun! That's totally what I wanted to waste my time on today: Tracking a stupid imp.

You could just kill it.

I watched Adam and Leo pull into the parking lot of the little yogurt shop that had opened barely a year or so back while thinking about that suggestion. It was actually a good idea, even if it disturbed me a bit. I took the opportunity to land on the sidewalk outside the store. Adam and Leo exited the vehicle – god, I sounded like a safety video there – and passed me without a second glance. Of course they would. I was just a little raven, sitting on the sidewalk, minding my own business. I tried to ignore them talking – they seemed happy enough, which should've made me happy, but ironically didn't – and focused instead on the imp.

Who screeched in terror and veered off upon noticing me.

I didn't blame the little thing. I mean, I was more powerful than it was. And it didn't even have to know where I came from. We could just tell where we stood compared to one another.

I watched it fly away and elected to just let it go this time, since I really wasn't fond of the idea of killing anything. Besides, at least it would let its summoner know that these two were guarded.

Yes, my voice hissed sarcastically. You let an imp go with the story that a half-breed is guarding these oblivious mortals.

What's wrong with that? I ruffled my feathers a bit indignantly. It should fear me. I'm me, for christ's sake.

Until its master sends something bigger than you along just to take their guard out, came the very logical response.

It was followed by a lot of cussing in my mind that amounted to: I should've killed the thing. I fucked up because it knows I exist now.

And I couldn't guard my family forever. I had to rest at some point.

So I needed backup. And, as I took off into the air again, I had a feeling I knew someone who would be rather interested to learn that demons were being sent after his kids.

There it is. Chapter two.

Review. Or don't. Whatever works. :)

The thing is, I probably won't update all that fast. Maybe once a week or so, usually a Tuesday or Wednesday. But I will try to get it up as I get it written.

Flames welcome. (Haters gonna hate. :3)

Note to readers: I have issues writing about the Davenport family. Not sure why. It's difficult for me. So it's rather short up there with them. Sorry.

Enjoy.

*bows and exits*