*drum roll* Chapter 8! This was a little more difficult muse and idea wise for me, but I managed. Tell me what you think, guys!

DirtKid123- WE'LL HAVE TO SEE, AHHH.

Casey Storm- And I knew you knew. So smart((: Questions, so many questions, yet I will answer only one: Yes, I do like to keep the suspense alive. Thank youuu!

Leo Corp- I read your first line and I was like "oh no!", but than I continued and was relieved. Thank you, and I'm sorry you had to catch up, but also not sorry, so it's a 'sorry, not sorry' moment. Your reviews mean a lot, thank you for reviewing each chapter as you read and caught up!

PurpleNicole531- Only time will truly tell, and only time will truly reveal the answers. Muahahaha. Anyway, thank you so much!

Dancer4Jesus- NeW rEvIeWeR! Thank you for catching interest in my fanfic, it means so much!

As of today I can greet another follower, so yay!

Moving on

"Daddy, why do people do bad things?" Lexi sighed, fingering the bedtime story book her father had open on his lap. There was a man in the story that betrayed his best friend for a couple extra rations of grain. This bothered the five year old.

"Well, Lexi," Chase said, bringing the girl closer to his chest with his free arm. His hand was clasped around his daughter's small, bony shoulder. "There's not always a clear cut explanation to that. Bad stuff exists in this world, and sometimes people get too wrapped up in themselves to see the damage they are doing." Alexa's wide brown eyes stared at her father with an intense interest, soaking up his words.

"I want to be a superhero to the bad guys one day," Alexa murmured dreamily. "I want to show them the good world."

Chase smiled, circling his daughter's cheek bones with his forefinger. "That's very noble."

"And if that doesn't work," Lexi continued in her serious tone. "I'll punch their lights out!" She pounded her little fists together, eyebrows furrowing together.

Chase hid another smile, trying to not encourage such talk. "I think you've been spending too much time with Uncle Adam lately." He tickled his little girl's belly, sending her into a fit of giggles.

"I like Uncle Adam," she retorted, after her father somehow managed to settle her down again. "I like everybody, there's no room for badness in my world so there shouldn't be any anywhere."

Chase's expression grew serious as he looked at Lexi. He never dreamed of being a father, but now that he was he couldn't dream of not being one. He got this strange sense of pride whenever he looked at his little girl, always looking forward to an opportunity to show her off to the world.

Closing their eyes, the father/daughter duo lay in silence for a bit, enjoying the other's company. Chase held Lexi in a one-armed hug, and Lexi's skinny arms wrapped around his torso.

"I love you, Daddy," Alexa broke the quiet. "I love you a whole lot."

"I love you, too, Lexi-Bear," Chase whispered. "Perhaps even more than a whole lot."

"That's a ton!" Lexi exclaimed quietly, nestling her head deeper into the crevice between her father's chest and his arm.

"Indeed it is."

"Wha- How- I," Bree searched for the right words to express how she was feeling, but they didn't yet exist in her time. Maybe in the future, 18 years from now.

"Wait ..." Adam concentrated for a long second. "How is that even possible?"

Alexa tilted her head, not understanding what he meant. Her uncle wasn't as dumb in her time line than he was here, so her brain didn't immediately do a heavy sigh whenever he spoke.

Luckily, the others were use to this kind of thing. "She's from the future Adam," Leo mumbled, thwarted from his own reaction to deal with his step-brother. "and- WHAT!" His squeal took charge of his volume range, eyes bulging.

Davenport held tight to his jaw so it wouldn't gape, unable to risk speaking. If he talked now they'd be stumbled over, confused words that no one would understand. He knew one day his kids would be grown up, possibly with children of their own, but this felt like a too-soon experience. Of course, most grandpas got a heads up before meeting their grandchild, and for normal people it wouldn't be one 'visiting' from the future. Sadly, this was a first-time for anybody, so there wasn't intructions on how to construct your face and mannerisms to deal.

Not saying anything wasn't working well, however, as Alexa's trademark eyes became disappointed in the silence. "Yes, well, hi," he waved awkwardly. Greetings were far out of the way at this point, but the girl standing in front of him was completely different than a few minutes ago.

Lexi bit her lip for a moment of uncertainty, before being thoroughly done with the situation and saying, "Look, I'm still me and I'm still the person disappearing, so take five more seconds to be surprised and move on. Chase needs you ... I need you." It was a lot to ask of someone, but loitering was not an option anymore. The others had to get a grip on themselves, now.

Bree nodded twice, her whole body vibrating as she was obviously superspeeding in place to give herself extra time to process. Leo, Adam, and Davenport didn't have that privilege, and by the time Bree slowed down to the rest of their speed, she was the only one ready to handle anything.

"Okay, we know their coordinates, so I say let's storm the castle."

"No, too risky," Lexi mused, inwardly relieved that she had someone to talk to normally again.

Yes, mission talk was normal.

Bree screwed her face, thinking it over, before having to agree that her plan was a dud – she knew it from the beginning, but when it came to family, she was restless.

"It won't help Chase if we go in emotional and without a clear idea in mind about what we do when we get in, if we can get in," Alexa continued, brushing a few loose strands of hair from her face.

Adam and Leo were the next to come out of their initial shock and questions, Davenport slowly following behind.

"It won't help you if we wait too long, either," Bree retorted, obviously trying not to stare at the girl's hands, the palms being half see-through now. Lexi wanted to comply with the first plan, very much, but she and everyone knew that it'd just end in disaster. If this was it for her, she'd go down fighting smart.

"I don't mean to discourage you, but we," she gestured to everyone in turn, "have been battling these guys for too long in the future, some of us-" Alexa managed to realize the stupid thing she was about to say, and stopped her sentence short. "Not many of the past tactics worked; but in a way, you guys can go in with a fresher perspective. Think it through, and maybe we can finally end this once and for all."

"Without really knowing what we're ending," Davenport added, surprising himself by smiling.

Alexa bore into his eyes for a brief pause, before nodding humorously, "Exactly, that will be a burden only I will have to bare after this is done."

"That's a little unfair," Adam murmured quietly, appearing mildly concerned for his future niece. This was the side of Adam Lexi knew best, so she embraced it like she had missed it dearly. Hugging him out of the blue, Alexa felt the oldest bionic soon melt into it and wrap his arms around her too.

"It won't be a sacrifice that heavy if we can all live happily," Alexa looked up at Adam, than around at everyone else. "You all deserve so much more than that." She spat the last word out angrily. Breaking the hug, Lexi fixed her gloves and indicated for the rest to follow her to the control panel. "Sadly, the newest members of the army aren't under our tracker, but the four most powerful and dangerous, one of whom has to be the leader, are." Alexa grew sullen, her norm since being in the past. "Yet, that hardly helps us when we don't know where the others are positioned ..."

"I could use my superspeed and invisibilty at the same time, getting a tracker on each of them," Bree suggested. "Or just to map out their whereabouts so we can move in."

"No, no I can't let you do that," Davenport argued. "The last time Chase used two of his bionics at once, he passed out and we were lucky he woke up."

"What about just invisibilty?" Leo asked, glancing at Mr. Davenport with a raised eyebrow.

"That could work," Lexi said softly. "It'd take a lot longer and run the risk of her being discovered, though."

"Just superspeed?" Adam tried. Options weren't something that grew on trees, and they were running out of them.

"Then they'd know we were coming, and we'd lose the element of surprise," Davenport said.

"Well, we have to do something!" Bree yelled. "Even if the only thing we have left to do is running in blind!"

Davenport went silent, eyes shut tightly closed as he drew himself into deep thinking. "The cloak!" he finally voiced, face lighting up in an eureka moment.

"What?" Adam questioned, unsure.

"My invisibility cloak! Bree can use it instead of her bionics and by superspeeding around the perimetre of the four coordinates, she can mark out for us where the others are," Davenport explained. His finger was at his lips, as he reviewed the idea over in his head. His tone dropped to murmuring, thoughtful whispers "We don't have time ... urgent issues must be tended to first ... Chase and Lexi, yes ..."

Adam and Leo rolled their eyes; Bree glanced down at her watch nervously as the second hand kept ticking away.

"Avoid everyone," Davenport spoke again like he was addressing everyone once more. He was passing out ear pieces. "We don't have time to fight; get in, get Chase, and get out."

Bree and Alexa exchanged worried looks.

"Okay," Lexi's voice was breathy. "But we cannot ignore confrontation forever, a better plan must be thought up soon to save the future. This isn't a problem that just goes away." The future bionic put air quotations on the last part.

"This is merely a rescue mission," Davenport confirmed, nodding at Alexa. "For both you and Chase. The other stuff will come later."

Chase sat on the cold bench in his make-shift cell. The bars reached all the way up to the cemented, dripping ceiling, and extended across a surface of 3 by 5 feet. He wriggled around uncomfortably, eyes straining on M1, who had been enlisted as his new guard.

"How are you even here? Why do you look older?" Chase scrunched his nose up, pulling at the parts of his bionic brain that had not been effected by the serum. Sadly, those parts were few and far between. He was just a regular, sick human locked away for unknown reasons and intentions. That bothered him more than his aching joints, burning back, and swollen neck virus.

M1's shoulders stiffened, but he kept his head facing opposite of the cell doors. The prisoner inched farther off his stone bed, hands clasped restlessly in his lap. "Do you have a plan of escape?" the bionic tried again, wondering why he wasn't answering him.

This question seemed to have disturbed something in the guard, for M1 turned to him with burning anger in his eyes. "Quiet! Why in the hell would I help you escape?" the captor hissed, teeth clenched together as he spit out the words. Chase was a little taken aback, and he knew that if his brain wasn't functioning on low quality at the moment, he'd probably have already figured out what was going on with this 'M1'. Frowning in disappointment, the boy felt his heart sink as M1 turned to face the other direction again.

The sick bionic teen had to cope with his slow processing head, no matter how frustrated and desperate it made him, so he fell back on the hard bench and shut his eyes for a minute or two. Chase was thankful he didn't have to deal with such a lag on any given day, it'd drive him to insanity. He held his hands to his mouth, knees bent slightly and folded them over each other.

"You don't know who I am, do you?" the words suddenly fluttered from his mouth, after being examined for a good five minutes in his head. Blinking his eyes open again, Chase watched as the guard tilted his head in question, and spun around to face the thick bars holding his captive. The expression on M1's face was unregistering to the inquiry, confused. It made his features soften a little for that brief moment, which was a relief to see.

"Of course I do," the voice that came out was gruff, and the delicate expression switched back to aggression and wavering frustration. "Chase Davenport, bionic teen hero. A menace to my boss, and a force that must be exposed of."

Chase tried to hide the watery tears forming under his eyelids, but it was unnecessary since M1 abruptly turned on his heels to face the dark nothingness in front of him.

"You are my master's enemy."

"I'm not your enemy," Chase choked.

"Enemies of my master are my own," M1 murmured robotically. During their short conversation, the captive had hoped that that drone-like tone wouldn't appear back in M1's voice, but it was inevitable. He was being controlled, everyone here was.

That thought was not a relief to Chase, it just brought to light the strength and power this leader guy chasing the past was. Whatever he wanted to do here, whatever the amount of damage that he felt had to be done, it scared the prisoner. The man of the future had capabilities far from his small understanding; capabilities to turn someone Chase loved into a brainless minion.

"You're not you," Chase sniffed, laying down again. "Your boss did something to you."

"Of course he did," M1 growled. "and I'm all the better for it."

No, you're not, Chase said in his head, too exhausted from being contradicted and argued with to say it to M1's face. Despite his growing tiredness, he resolved to save that which he had lost.

"You came from the future?" Chase questioned, having tossed that one over multiple times, wondering if perhaps that was the case. No other explanation made sense.

A grunt indicated a yes, and doubled as a silence, so the bionic teen released a heavy breath and instantly let sleep overcome his weak body.

So perhaps M1 isn't who you've all been thinking? Who is he than? All I can say as a non-fellow reader is "Whaaaa?!"