A/N: Ahh this was slighly longer than expected just because I wasn't sure where to cut off. I'll be honest, I kind of forgot about this story and my direction from Writer's Block struck me hard. But I'm back on track. Yes, some of this will be out there. But I got sidetracked watching another show so I incorportated into this story. Here goes and please review...it actually encourages me to write more.
Growing up, Leo was always fascinated with superheroes and all their special abilities. When his mother married Donald and they moved in, he was thrilled in discovering he now had siblings, but he was even more amazed when he found out that they were their own kind of superheroes. Douglas explained that Sarah had a few screws missing but he honestly didn't think the kids were in any danger as long as they were with her.
"I think you should just stay in the car." Douglas muttered knowing full well that this kid would be resilient and fight him in this decision.
Leo chuckled "Two is better than one, right? I can help. My arm can throw some kind of distraction." Leo looked from a distance at the warehouse contemplating how he and Douglas could pull off this rescue. "This place is huge, there is way too much ground to cover. You need me."
Douglas scoffed at his step nephew "Yeah I need you to not get killed. There are guards everywhere, they see you throw a fireball and you'll be the next one locked up. I need this to be a rescue of three not four." Douglas admired the kid for his courage, but this was even too much for himself to handle. "Besides she's expecting me, not you. If she sees you, she might freak and who knows what could happen. Just leave it alone, Leo."
"This isn't fair. For all the good they've done and they get locked up like criminals, like science experiments!" Hanging his head down, he glanced at his phone of a picture of his siblings. "It's just not right" Leo spoke as he brushed the lone tear away.
"I know that Leo. Listen, I just need to talk to her-"
Raising his voice, Leo prided himself with his street smarts. "Yeah, speaking of-how do we even know we actually trust her? This could be a trap. I mean I remember they trusted Marcus, and I saw that coming!"
Shaking his head, he knew Leo actually did have a point. "I told you I was shocked when she abandoned them. We had disagreements on how to raise the kids, but she was very protective of them. " Douglas thought back to happier times, she was that one girl who could make him change. She was the one who made him see these kids as kids and not experiments " Believe it or not, there were moments when we were all content and practically like a regular family. When I used the Triton App on the kids and it failed, Krane made it his mission to destroy those kids. I'm not saying this is what happened, but when he nearly killed me the first time, he muttered something about how we destroyed his family and how was going to destroy mine."
"Destroyed his family? What? How?" Leo was puzzled with questions. Of course Douglas was perfect for omitting vital information. "You didn't care to mention this till now?"
"Hello! Considering Krane was crushing my airway, I'm sorry that I didn't fully grasp what he was saying as I slipped out of consciousness." Douglas replied sarcastically.
"So did you ever figure out what happened? "
"Not really. Krane did have a brother though." Leo shook his head
"You know for such a genius, you're not really the brightest. You even said it yourself! When the Triton App failed, he wanted to destroy them..."Leo tried playing all these scenarios thru his head. I mean if Krane had S1, who is to say he didn't have an entire army? Obviously, he perfected the Triton App so why was he still hellbent on killing Adam, Bree and Chase? Unless..." What if it's her he's after?" Leo expressed in such amazement it was almost like he had solved the puzzle on Wheel of Fortune.
"He never mentioned her"
Staring out with his mouth dropped, Leo was shocked that Douglas could be so oblivious "If she loved Adam, Bree and Chase, she wouldn't have left unless she had to, right?" Douglas shrugged, he guess she wouldn't. Then again, she always kind of did what she wanted. Strangely, at times the kids would remind him of that, especially when Bree destroyed her chip or when Chase took off to prove himself. "I'm thinking something must have happened between her and his brother."
For the first time, the wheels started to turn in Douglas' mind. Things were starting to make sense: Krane had advance knowledge of bionics. When they talked about the Triton App, Krane had once mentioned he had his mission, his own score to grind using those kids. Douglas never thought much about it because they were the bad guys, it's what they do. Thankfully, he came to his senses, but if didn't rescue those kids then they would all be doomed as there was no telling what else Krane was capable of doing.
"We have to be smart about this. All I'm asking for is an hour, Leo. If I haven't come back by then, then I need you to create some kind of distraction." He handed Leo a com set "And for the love of God, don't do anything stupid." Douglas nodded his head to the backseat where they took some of the weapons left back home.
"Relax, I'll play it cool...In case you haven't noticed, I'm an expert at playing it cool. I once convinced my-"
"Ok I get it. Although, I wouldn't necessarily call you an expert." Douglas opened the car door, taking in a deep breath. Glancing one last time at Leo before heading towards the warehouse he quietly muttered "This has to work."
Leo could sense from Douglas' voice that he was nervous. He also knew that Douglas giving him the mission to hack into their systems was a useless attempt to get him away from the rescue. As he began to type encryptions on the laptop, he wondered if Big D got the hologram message he left for him. While Douglas gathered supplies, Leo made a quick hologram video explaining what they knew about Adam, Bree, and Chase. Gazing at his phone he saw once more that they were out of signal range, what kind of place puts you out of cell range? He could only hope and pray that Big D would get the message.
The pain still rocked his body, his vision was still blurry. As he rested, he began to work on an escape plan. He recalled a movie that they once watched around Christmas time where a boy was left alone on Christmas and had to fight off the criminals. It wasn't that he wasn't fond of the movie, it just wasn't realistic. I mean some of the stuff the kid did, should have left those guys knocked down with no getting back up. But I guess that's Hollywood. Maybe without his bionics he wasn't the smartest, but he still had enough sense to know what needed to be done. And there was no way in hell he was going to have Krane's virus take him out (if she was even telling the truth).
"Get up!" A guard ordered Chase as he came into the room. Chase rolled his eyes, they still didn't get it.
"Let me guess, another round? Oh who am I kidding, you don't have a brain of your own." Chase got up on his feet and allowed the guard to usher him out of the room "Get your hands off of me" Anger filled his voice as the guard shoved him forward, it was mind boggling how these stupid guards didn't comprehend the danger they were in.
Observing the guard's uniform, Chase knew instantly that the guard's badge would give him access, or at least access out of the building. Mr. Davenport could figure out what to do if they could just find an escape. Even with the martial art skills they were taught, it would be careless to try anything yet. Bionics or not, strength comes in numbers and Chase couldn't do this without Adam, Spin, and Bob. Not to mention, there was no way in hell he was leaving this place without Bree.
When they finally arrived, Chase was relieved that they had brought him back to his room.
Adam was laying on the cot throwing one of those small stress balls up in the air when he immediately stopped as they pushed Chase into the room.
"Dude, you're ok?!" Adam began scanning over Chase, trying to see if there were any visible bruises. "You were gone so long, I started to w-"
"I'm ok, Adam. I promise." Spin and Bob walked over to the pair in hopes of hearing Chase's version of his stimulation.
"So what happened?" Spin abruptly questioned.
"Spike's gone. Or at least i think he is. I don't really know." Adam stood bewildered.
Chase could see the confusion written on Adam's face. "No offense Chase but there was a reason you were given the commando app." Adam laughed
"Would you for two seconds get serious?" Adam stood with his back against the wall, there was a reason Chase was the mission leader. It wasn't because he was the smartest. It was because he was the flash glue, he held them together.
"Ok fine. It was a joke anyway, I mean yes could probably take out everyone in the warehouse but whatever "Adam patted Chase on the shoulder. "So anyway,did you find out anything?"
"Hmm how about a lifetime of therapy if we ever get out of here? Remember how I told you when we got here, I was having visions of this woman? Well she's real and the worse thing is, it's our own mother who's behind this."
"Wait, what?! Chase, did you hit your head or something because that doesn't make any sense?"
He had to give her credit, her timing was impeccable. "Spin, Bob, will you excuse us?" Both boys stood puzzled, unsure if they wanted to leave considering the news bomb that was just dropped on them. "Now boys. You guys are welcome to the gaming area. Go! Before I change my mind."
Spin and Bob hurriedly left as she was clearly in some mood that they definitely didn't want to be on the end of.
"I owe you an explanation." Chase went to his cot, refusing to listen to even more of her lies.
"Adam, she can't be trusted." Chase could only pray his brother would heed his warning.
"Ok will someone tell me what's going on?"
Shutting the door, she walked towards the two boys but observing their expressions, she agreed distance was probably best. "I am your mother. But there's more to the story-"
Chase picked up the stress ball that Adam had lying on the bed, he immediately began to throw it in the air. Of course she would come in, she knew exactly that he would talk to Adam and Adam was easy to be manipulated. "Just remember Adam, this is the same person who is keeping Bree away from us."
"Yeah, he's right. Why should we listen to you? Bring Bree to us and then you can talk all you want."
"Adam, you were always so much more than your strength. But I'm sorry I can't do that right now."
"Why not?"
"It's complicated."
"You know Adam may not be the brightest, but even he's not dumb enough to fall for anything you say. You're wasting your time, anyway."
"Chase that's enough." She scoldest her youngest son. "Adam, I can't do that right now because she's not doing well." Adam felt like his heart stopped, what did she mean? Chase immediately sat into a sitting position. "She's stable. She must have recently damaged her chip, correct?"
"Yes. But Mr. Davenport and Douglas fixed it." Adam breathed out. Chase was urging him to not trust her, and he was right in that but regardless of their feelings, she had answers.
"They did, but it's not the original so it's more sustainable to the virus." Staring at Adam who was in such disbelief, she often questioned what it would have been like had she raised the boys? "I'm aware that Douglas worked with Krane and they once had you three under the Triton App."
"Mr. Davenport blocked the Triton App on our chips."
"Chase, please stop and listen to me. Krane is working on an army, but he sees you three as a threat. Yes, there is a block on your chips but it doesn't mean that your bodies haven't been affected. The virus is like cancer to your chips. He didn't want it quck and painless, he wants to afflict as much pain as possible. That's why I removed your chips. To keep you alive longer until I figured something out."
"I know I'm not the smartest, but why now? You want us to trust you. But you really haven't given us a reason to." Adam said in such a soft tone, that he Chase wondered if he heard him correctly.
"You're right" She hung her head down before looking at her two sons "You two deserve answers." She took a seat on the cot. " I used to work with Krane's brother. At one time, we were even good friends. I was being blackmailed, though. Deckard and I were working on a project that was going to be a science breakthrough. You guys are aware of S.H.I.E.L.D, right?"
"You work for the Avengers, that's so cool!"
'Adam!"
"The movies kind of turned it into a joke, but S.H.I.E.L.D. does exist." Chase got off the bed intrigued with where she was going with this. "The world was in need of superheroes. In college, Douglas and I had an engineering class that was informative on robotics."
"Androids?" At the mention of robotics, Chase immediately thought back to Marcus.
"Yes. There was a problem there, androids burnt out too quickly. So Douglas and I had dated for a while, and we were going to make a scientific breakthrough. Bionics in humans. Of course, Douglas was set on his bad boy ways and I was working for S.H.I.E.L.D. which made this very top secret. Of course, they are always two steps ahead of you."
"Yeah of course, let's just stick a chip into these kid's necks. Let's just pray it doesn't kill them." Chase replied in such a sarcastic tone.
"If our chips are supposed to kill us, can't you just recreate us a new one?"
"Yeah Adam, because that's working so well for Bree right now." Chase said angrily.
"You see there's that tone! Speaking of Bree-"
"I'm not going to let anything happen to you three. Do you understand? "
"Just get to the point about Krane." Chase spoke in such disdain that even Sarah was hesitant over this side of Chase.
"Krane's brother found out about you three. He was such a wildcard but then he talked about liquid bionics. He had seen that the chip worked but he wanted to push it further. Deckard was a loose cannon, a traitor to be more concise. Redemption was never something he wanted for himself. Some people just want to watch the world burn. Well, there was an explosion in the lab."
"That's why you gave us up. To protect yourself?" Adam questioned.
"No I did it to protect you three. Donald was never thrilled with the idea of bionics in children, honestly now I understand why he was so against it. I failed you three as a parent because I didn't see you as kids. I saw you as an answer to a solution. But Douglas was spiraling out of control, he was having money problems and Donald had kicked him out of Davenport Industries because he found out about you three. At the time, Douglas stood for everything I was against. I didn't want you three as Bionic Thugs or Villians. I wanted you three to be heroes."
"But yet we're locked up? That doesn't really make a whole lot of sense." Adam sighed, he wanted desperately to believe her. I mean they were able to forgive Douglas. She was redeemable, right?
"I did a horrible thing, I know. But all I could think about was you three. I had called Donald to come get you kids and explained that Douglas was out of his mind at that point and I had to go away. I made him promise that he would never mention me to you three because you all deserved better. He promised he would raise you as heroes. Considering the world had never seen bionic heroes, that's why he hid you in the basement. I know it wasn't ideal. But honestly, Donald was so young when he took you three in and the whole concept of the government coming in and taking you away was too much for him. Let's face it your Uncle Donald-"
"Our father-" Chase and Adam both replied. Yes, they learned to forgive Douglas but Donald was the one who raised him, he had earned the right to be called their father. Besides, Douglas liked being the cool Uncle. He didn't like the idea of fatherly responsibilities anyway.
"Your right he did raise you and I'm so proud of how you three turned out. I just meant this was all new. And unknowingly it still spiraled out of control. I was young and I was scared. Krane is doing this because of me and he's going to try to take the same route and annihilate the world we live in. He wants to destroy us, and the rest of the world he just wants to control. I'm trying to fix this. But you have to trust me."
"What about Bob and Spin? Where do they fit in this?" Chase questioned, Adam stared deeply at Sarah wondering what response she would cook up. There was doubt in his eyes as he tried to understand her. First, there was Marcus: who pretended to be their friend. Then there was Douglas who originally wanted to control them, thankfully he came around. But could she be trusted?
"Krane is working on an army. They've already stolen equipment from the Pentagon. Those boys don't realize this but the Triton App had little effect on them. When we found them, their chips had been fried. I was able to fix their chips but they have no recollection of their pasts and we have no clue into who they even were. I thought if we could train them but Bob has no desire to fight anyone unless it's over who took the last cupcake. And Spin well we call him Spin because that's what he does."
"So how are we supposed to take on Krane's army in here?" Sarah's phone beeped, a sad smile was plastered on her face as she looked up at the phone to see it was a text from Douglas replying he was there
"That's the thing...you're not. This doesn't have to be a prison. Until I can come with a fix for this virus, you three aren't going anywhere. I'll make arrangements for you two to visit Bree. But neither of you two are ready to fight anyone. Chase, you destroyed a vital piece of your chip: your commando app. You're lucky you didn't take out yourself. Adam, your heart rate and blood pressure went thru the roof. Fighting will just get you two killed faster. And that's one chance I'm not willing to take. I'm working on a temporary fix. Now if you'll excuse me." It was painfully clear in both of their eyes that they hated her, that they saw her as the warden. If she couldn't get them to forgive her, she could always make new memories for them. Once Krane was out of the picture, they could finally be the family they should have been all those years ago.
"Chase, do you believe her?"
"Some of it does make sense, but I don't know. Adam, she erased memories from when we were growing up and she's keeping us locked up."
"True. But Evil Uncle Daddy did the same and we forgave him." Well surprisingly, Adam did have a point.
"I heard her talking and she plans on killing Krane's army. Those kids are just under the Triton App, I mean we didn't know what we were doing when we were under. Killing them is not the answer, we just need to contain his soldiers. But I'll tell you what, we're getting out of here, that's for sure."
"Once more I realize I'm not the smartest cookie out there, but how do you plan on getting us out of here when we don't have our bionics?"
"I wish Bob and Spin were here right now but we're just going to have to wing it. At dinner, I want you to distract the guard. Make a scene of some sort and swipe his badge."
"Oh like Leo's magic tricks?"
"Exactly. Then we'll go get Bree and we'll get out of this place. Once we're out, and Douglas can work on our chips and then we can take out Krane's army."
"Not exactly the best plan but it's all we got so worth a short." Adam could sense the frustration and worry from Chase. He remembered at one time he thought grunting could get them place to place faster, but this was much bigger than that. If this plan failed, they would separate them. Worry already was etched on his face at the thought of Bree sick and in trouble. What would he do without Chase? God, he missed , Tasha, Douglas and Leo. Now, was definitely one of those times he would do anything for help from Leo.
"Alright you two, it's dinner time. And apparently you've been given privileges to see your sister. Any funny business and I guarantee I'll take that away faster than you think."
"You just love this, don't you? All we've ever done is save people, we put our lives on the line for people like you and you still think we're the bad guy. Tell me Graham, I go to sleep at night knowing I've done good. How do you sleep at night?"
Chase's question should have guilted him, but it had little effect on him. "I sleep at night knowing that you three will get me a big fat paycheck, fame and publicity. Even superheroes have to answer to someone. You won't be here forever, and just as soon as you get out, you three will work for me."
"Yeah that's not going to happen." Adam blurted out, a laugh escaped as this guy seriously thought they would ever turn to him for leadership.
"We'll see about that." Graham mocked.
The hallways were not properly lit, but her silhouette still lit up in his eyes as she walked closer towards them. "Hello Douglas."
Her long dark hair cascaded down her back, she was still as beautiful as he rememberd. Douglas tried his best to throw away that thought as the kids were his main concern "Where are the kids?"
"I realize how this looks, but Douglas this is in their best interests."
"Locking them up? I've done some rotten some things, but this is low even for you."
"Low? You wanna talk about low? I busted my ass to get on this case. When low and behold I assess their chips, only to find a doomsday virus implanted there. The virus is like cancer to their systems, I can take their chips out but the damage has already been done. I can't stop this but I can slow it down. And I don't even have the research to rebuild their chips. I'm excellent with androids but this was always your speciality."
"So if I tell you how to fix their chips, you'll let them go? You'll let them come back home?"
"It's not that simple, Douglas! This is all Krane-this isn't about you or even the kids. This is about getting revenge for something I did. He will kill us all. And now thanks to you, he's implanted himself with bionics! I did what I had to do! The only regret I have is what it's doing to them now. I can't believe you would be so stupid to work with him. "
"Me? Seriously? You're seriously going there?
"We're terrible people who do terrible things. Help me, Dougie. We can all be a family again, isn't that what you want, too? We just have to eliminate Krane. We can do this." She reached her hand out towards Douglas, in a quick instant he allowed himself to be led off towards her lab.
Time was going by so slow, had it really only been 20 minutes? Patience was never his strong suit, his mind began to play all sorts of different scenarios. 'I have bionics' Leo continually repeated "I can do this. And no one is going to mess with my family.' He was aware of the promise he made Douglas but whether or not they cared to admit it, they needed him. Grabbing one of the weapons, Leo examined his new bionic arm. 'I can do this.'
The serum began to work thru Bree's veins, her body was no longer as weak as it was but truthfully she still felt like a freight train slammed into her body. She tried to get up to go search for her brothers when dizziness struck her. She must have stood up too fast because she soon found herself nearly falling.
As she looked up to see who had caught her, fear crept into her body as the two locked eyes. "It can't be."
So hopefully that didn't suck too bad? Next chapter is the big escape and danger is still around the corner. Not to mention, who's with Bree?