Fractures

Chapter One:

Adam, Bree and Chase get on each other's nerves in the lab. They bicker, until something goes horribly wrong...

Chase Davenport loved his bionics: that was a fact. But, if he had to isolate one single ability as his least favourite, it had to be his hyper hearing. Was it useful? Yes. Did it prove itself invaluable on missions? Absolutely! But in moments like these, moments on Sunday afternoons in the Lab, when Bree and Adam were energised from their lunch with nothing to do but act dumb, Chase hated - and by that he meant seriously loathed - his bionic hearing.

He was used to ticking clocks, to ringing phones, traffic, the buzz of electricity, and you would think after fifteen years of sharing a lab with them, Chase mused, he would be able to tune Bree and Adam out too. But, he sighed, as hard as he had worked on it, he was unable to get rid of them completely. He would just have to try harder to concentrate.

"C'mon, Adam, throw it higher!" Bree's pitchy laughs at her oldest brother's basketball experiments shattered through the wall of concentration in Chase's mind. He scrolled back up on the tablet in front of him, rereading the paragraph he had just read in the latest issue of 'Statistical Analysis of Quadratics in Quantum Physics' Magazine.

With the collection of latest data - Chase read - NASA theoretical physicists are safely able to predict the curve of quantum relativity in relation to -

"Awesome!" Adam gasped, as a basketball pinged off the top of his capsule and burst with the force of his superstrength. Chase sighed; he shook his head to block them out.

NASA theoretical physicists are safely able to predict the curve of -

"Hey, Chase?"

…are safely able to predict the curve of -

"Chase?"

…NASA theoretical physi -

"Chase! Earth to Chase!"

"Oh my god, what?!" Chase snapped his head around to face his siblings, who were standing, arms folded with infuriatingly nonchalant grins, against the control table. Adam had a deflated basketball between two hands, and Bree raised an eyebrow with a lopsided smirk. "Can't you see I'm reading? I know you two are cave people, but that doesn't mean the more refined among us don't want to expand our minds! What could you two possibly have to say that would interest me at all?"

Adam blinked. "Do you want to play bionic basketball with us? Bree was gonna superspeed you around the lab whilst I used you as a basket."

"No I do not want to - ugh…" Chase felt his fist whiten and he unlocked the tablet again, getting back to his article. Why couldn't he have just one nerdy sibling. It was so unfair.

But just as he was getting back to his reading, his hearing betrayed him again. It started slowly at first: Step… step… step… but then got closer, quickened, step, step, step… and without looking up, he heard the footsteps he recognised to be Bree's stop an inch away from him.

"Aw," she sneered, peering over him, exaggeratingly sticking out her bottom lip. "Does wittle baby Chasey want to read his bedtime story?"

"It's not a bedtime story, Bree, it's theoretical quantum physics."

"Pah - yeah," Adam scoffed, "Like we would fall for made-up words. How dumb do you think we are, Chase?" Chase looked up to find Adam standing on his other side, planting Chase firmly in the middle of his two siblings, who, in their boredom, had turned to teasing. "C'mon, Chase, just five minutes as the net?"

"No! Go away, Adam," Chase stood up and pressed his feet to carry him to the other end of the lab, his tablet clutched in his hands.

Whoosh!

Chase blinked, and Bree was stood in front of him, her hands on her hips.

"Don't storm off, baby Chasey!" Her hand reached up and she pinched his cheek, a laugh escaping her as Adam ruffled his hair; he squirmed, swatted, but his siblings were faster. "We just want to be friends. Best friends!"

"Group hug!" Adam taunted, and Chase was pressed in a blob between his siblings. "Hey, maybe I should read your bedtime story."

Before Chase could react, his tablet was plucked from his hands. He whirled around to see Adam dangling the silver slate above Chase's head; Bree's cackle taunted him and rang in his ears. He found himself jumping but his feet barely gave him any height to combat his brother's tree-trunk stature.

"Give it back!" Chase snapped, "Adam, that's not funny!"

"Bree, go long!" Adam pointed and Bree sped to the capsules. Chase's jaw dropped when the tablet soared through the air; he couldn't take his eyes away, it flying almost in slow motion.

Bree caught it safely between two hands, and Chase let out half a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Bree," he started forwards, keeping his voice as monotone as he could to control his emotions. The last thing he needed was to give them the satisfaction of losing his cool. But Bree pouted at him again and it sent rage through him that only someone's sister could trigger. "Bree!" He darted but she sped to his left; he lunged again, she sped back. "Bree, give it back!"

"Aw, baby Chasey," Bree was in hysterics, "Baby Chasey needs his binky."

"I'm not a baby, give it back!"

"Does baby need his bottle?"

"Bree!"

"Is baby gonna cry?"

"Bree - no I'm not going to -"

"Aw, baby's crying!"

"I am not crying!" Chase yelled, his arms stiffening; "I hate you sometimes! Just give it back or I'll -"

Bree gasped feign terror, clutching a hand melodramatically to his chest. "Or you'll what?"

"Or, I'll…" he faultered, "I'll…"

"Uhuh?"

"I'll… um… I'll-" he felt himself getting nervous, suddenly shrinking smaller than his siblings. His intellect didn't matter; in this moment, they controlled him. His anger shot out of every one of his pores, and in that second, it focused on his stupid sister, with her stupid smirk and her… her… her stupid hair and her stupid face. Chase felt himself getting red; his fury rolled over his brain, blanketing every organ, and before he could hitch another breath, it settled over his eyes. He wasn't feeling anything by the time his hands were trembling, and when the activation of his commando app blinked in his vision, Chase wasn't there anymore. There was one thing in his line of sight; he had one enemy to destroy.

And that enemy was Bree.

"Oops."

The squeak left Bree's mouth a fraction of a second too late as she realised they had taken it too far. Chase - well, not Chase - swung with a flying fist. She ducked and dodged, spinning to her left, as she heard Adam yell.

"Chase! Stop it." Adam warned; Bree sped behind the control desk as Chase snapped his head to face her. He strode towards her, his eyes burning holes through her as she cowered backwards.

Chase lept the control desk with one fell jump. He landed a foot in front of her; she made to run away but his fist held a vice on her arm.

"Chase…" Bree mumbled, her nerves bubbling up to fizz in her voice, "Chase, c'mon, it's just me. It's Bree."

"Shut it, Princess."

"Let go of her, Chase!" Adam leapt forwards, clamping his arms around his brother from behind. Bree tugged, her skin burning at the friction as Chase's knuckles whitened with the pressure. Adam tried to yank him back, but Chase was firmly planted on the ground. Bree squirmed.

"You wanna try your luck again?" Chase hissed, his spitting lips inches from her face. She screwed her eyes, pulling back.

"Chase! Get off her, I mean it!" Adam raised his voice, but Chase was too quick. One single back hand collided against Adam's nose with such a defined smack that even his super strength was caught off guard. Adam cried out, recoiling backwards, his head thudding against the control desk.

"Adam!"

"And now to deal with you…" Chase gripped Bree's other arm, pulling her closer. Adam raised a dazed hand from the floor to signal he was recovering.

"Chase, please don't hurt me," Bree felt hot tears prick at her eyes, "Please, you're scaring me."

"Scaring you?" Chase let out a low rumble of a snicker, "Well then I'll have to try harder."

Before Bree could think, Chase spun her sideways. His hand clamped fiercely on her shoulder; pressing her downwards so she was bent double. He pulled at her arm with his other hand and she screamed despite herself. Her fingers bent in unnatural directions, her elbow extended at its max and her wrist was an inch from snapping. Warning shots of pain fired up her arms to her locked shoulder.

"Chase! Chase -" she gasped for breath, tears falling, "Ch-"

Air left her lungs as he slammed her chest into the floor. He yanked her wrist and she felt something snap.

"Bree!" She heard Adam's voice get fainter as a fist boxed her ears. "Mr Davenport! Come quick!"

"Say it again," Chase sneered; Bree's inhale was blocked with Chase's knee on her back. Blood rushed around her body, her spine crunching as her lungs lay trapped underneath her brother's force. "I told you to say it again!" He demanded; her hair yanked back in his hands as her head pulled upwards. "Speak!"

"I -" she tried to gasp, slithers of oxygen doing the work of an entire lung, "Can't -" Bree begun to see dots; saliva choked her, "Breathe -"

"Chase Davenport! What the hell are you doing?"

A zap from across the room preceded a slump of pressure off Bree. She finally breathed freely, blinking focus back into her eyes.

"Chase Davenport! What the hell are you doing?"

Adam's heart was in his mouth by the time Mr Davenport ran in through the sliding doors. His own ears ringing and his balance faltered, Adam could do nothing but watch Chase pin his sister to the floor, so when his father's fingers slammed against the control desk, zapping something in seconds that made Chase's eyes roll backwards, Adam's relief was incomprehensible. Chase slumped to the floor beside Bree, defeated, but leaving her crumpled on her floor; it took less than a second of Chase's disarming for Adam to leap to Bree's side.

"Bree! Oh my God, Bree…" Adam slowly helped her stand, anchoring her as she shook to her feet. Moans and grunts of pain left her as she wheezed; her hair was matted in a bunch behind her head, a scarlet bruise blossoming on her cheekbone. Her lips cracked and her chest rose and fell in short bursts as she kept her shock at bay. She was paler than he had seen her in a long time, one hand to her chest to calm her breathing and the other…

Adam looked down at her other hand and nearly dropped his jaw in shock. Three of her fingers were snapped dislocated, her wrist pale and lumpy, leaving her hand to dangle limply by her side. It was already bruising, slightly thicker with swelling than her other, and when Bree saw it, a whimper escaped her.

"Oh my God," she cried, "Oh my God, oh my God."

"Bree!" Mr Davenport rushed to her other side, helping Adam hold her steady. "Come on, sit down, let me take a look. I'm pretty sure it's broken."

"Oh my God," she said again, the shock coming out in a whisper. Adam held her shoulders as she sunk onto a chair, not letting his gaze shift from her. She slumped into him, too weak to hold herself up. Davenport gently took her wrist in his hand; she hissed in pain. "Oh my God," she said again.

"I know, Bree, it hurts. I'll give you some anaesthetic to numb the pain."

"No, I'm fine," Bree hissed. "I don't mean me. Where's Chase? Is he okay?"

"Chase just attacked you!" Adam spat, "We need to make sure you're okay."

"It wasn't him," Bree breathed, looking away as Davenport produced a needle of anaesthetic. "It was Spike. We made him mad and his commando app overrode him. It's not his fault it's -" she hissed as the needle pricked her.

"It doesn't matter whose fault it was," Davenport typed some keys into the command desk, whirring a portable x-ray in the corner of the room to life. "Let's get that wrist looked at, alright, sweetheart? I want to scan your chest as well, make sure there's nothing else damaged."

"Damaged? What do you mean 'damaged'? Is someone hurt?"

Adam, Bree and Davenport turned their heads to a confused grunt in the corner of the room. Adam's breath hitched as Chase rose to his feet, steadying himself on a table as he looked around the room. He blinked away his daze, visibly trying to piece together the few minutes he was out.

"What happened?" Chase said again, looking between his father and siblings, and finally towards the space where he was last himself, arguing with Bree over a stupid tablet. Adam fought his own guilt; he shouldn't have bothered Chase in the first place. But Chase stared at them and asked again, his voice rising in panic as his eyes locked onto Bree's bruises, her misshapen arm. "Someone tell me what happened, now!"

"Chase," Davenport stepped forwards with a placaiting tone, "Chase, Bree's okay."

"What happened to her?"

"You happened!" Adam bit, his hand locked onto Bree's shoulder, lest someone snatch her away. He parted his feet on the floor to prepare himself to jump into action at any moment. "You and your dumbass commando app happened and nearly killed Bree! Good going, nerd."

"Adam," Davenport tried.

"Well, he did!" Adam wasn't backing down. Chase's whole posture dropped backwards a step. "Smartest guy alive mistook my sister for a supervillain, what do you want me to do?"

"I…" Chase's mouth pulsed in shock; his eyes went glassy. "Bree… did I…" he stared.

"I haven't heard a "sorry" yet!" Adam prompted, but Bree shifted in his grasp.

"Adam," she tried, her voice hoarse, "Adam, come on, it wasn't his fault."

"Bree…" Chase started forwards, his arms out to touch the bruises, the fractures. "I'm so, so sorry, I -"

"No, get away from her!" Adam stood, blocking Chase's path. He jammed his finger against Chase's chest, sending him stumbling a few paces backwards. Adam folded his arms, watching Chase's horrified expression contort into stunned silence.

"Adam, please -" a watery line fell down Chase's cheek in defeat.

"Get away!" he said again.

A horrible silence fell on the lab, broken only by Bree's pained shuffling and Adam's breathing. He didn't let his gaze drop from Chase's, watching him swallow guilt as he tried to peer behind Adam to look at Bree.

"Chase," Davenport finally broke the silence, "Buddy, maybe you should wait upstairs for now. Go see if Tasha needs help with dinner."

"But I can -"

"Chase," Davenport's hand found Chase's shoulder. "Come on, she's going to be fine. I promise."