Adam, Bree, Chase and Amber rounded the stairs landing at school as Bree let out a sigh of relief. “I am so glad school is over. Mrs Thistle talked for an hour in history.” Turning to the others she went on. “She’s ninety… I mean, should she really be wasting all that breath?” Amber smirked slightly amused at the observation. They finished descending the stairs and turned to the hallway, then pausing, all of them a little confused.
Principal Perry held a bucket to a student standing in a line leading to the door and the lunch ladies-hair masks, aprons, and all- now held metal detectors they were waving over another student's body close to the door to the school. A table nearby had a sign taped to the front bearing the words “security checkpoint”.
“What’s all this?” Chase asked as they approached their always strange principal. What is she up to now? Amber wondered with annoyance.
Not looking at them, Principal Perry launched into an explanation. “Listen up, frog spawn, security check. Put all metal objects in the bucket, then proceed to the wands for a more thorough search.” At the mention of wands, she spun towards them and gave one of her creepier smiles and her body was poised as if in anticipation of what might be found. Chase and Adam exchanged a skeptical glance before returning their glance to Perry. Bree’s hands went to her hips as she asked what was going on. Amber started to worry. If she expected the Davenports to go through the security checkpoint with metal detectors… what would that do to their bionics?
“Someone’s been stealing laptops from the computer lab,” she started with a head bob showing her usual attitude. “So I’m gonna bust the perp… or perps” she finished with narrowed eyes at them. They all exchanged uneasy glances before looking back at the principal, who now was raising the hand not occupied with the bucket to emphasize her next phrase. “Bottom line, no one leaves this school without going through those metal detectors.” After gesturing to the line already being wanded, her free hand now dipped into the bucket. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to sort through this loose change and have a heart to heart with the vending machine.”
After she walked off, Bree finally had the chance to voice her fear, gripping Adam’s arm and pushing them slightly away from the line and the wands. “Guys, we cannot get wanded! Those things will go crazy when they detect our bionics!”
“Well what’re we going to do?” Chase countered. “She’s totally going to bust us.”
“Bust ya for what?” Perry said from behind him. Chase turned around in alarm, obviously dreading that she’d heard that, but still keeping a serious more grounded expression. “What are ya hidin’ Little Bo Peep?” He took a slight step back, more for personal space than intimidation, since Perry had never been the most considerate of that, or anything else.
Bree gave a nervous laugh as she stepped closer to her younger brother, placing her hand on his arm. “Hiding? He’s not hiding anything.”
Adam finally chimed in. “Well, he does have an unusually large birthmark on his left hip.” Chase just stared at him, marveling again at the stupidity of his brother. “You stare at it long enough and it kinda looks like Justin Beiber.” Now Chase showed some frustration.
“Why were you looking at it long enough to figure that out anyway?” Amber asked, smacking him on the back of the head, barely able to reach with the height difference, but she managed it. Chase shot her a brief grateful glance before Principal Perry grabbed his arm and pushed him toward the women bearing the security wands saying “Let’s go.” He didn’t seem to offer much resistance as he walked, but the trapped look on his face told her he didn’t know what else to do. “Empty your pockets.”
“Principal Perry I-” he started as he turned to face his siblings and friend, trying to get out of this somehow.
“COMPLY PERP!” She barked, getting in his face briefly before giving them room to use the wands. “Wand him.” Unfortunately, they obeyed, and as the wands came up to his neck, they started beeping, as they’d all known it would. The dread on all their faces were stifling. All of them would set it off. Well, not Amber, but it would look suspicious if she stayed there with them when all of them set it off. She didn’t think there was anything she could do to help them here. But maybe…”Well, waddya know we got one.” She’d been turned away as they wanded him, but now she whirled to face him as she barked more orders. “Flank him girls. The little ones always put up a fight.” The two lunch ladies/henchmen stepped even closer to Chase as he eyed them nervously. “But let’s not forget the others. Flo, wand these three,” she pointed to Adam, Bree and Amber.
Seeing her chance, Amber stepped up to be wanded. If I can get to their house, I can at least give their dad a head’s up about Perry’s metal detectors and the possibility of being found out. Or at the very least, hear how it went afterwards. She passed Perry’s security screen and tentatively headed for the door. When she was sure no one was looking, she called to Chase, but keeping her voice to a whisper, hoping his bionic hearing would pick it up. “Chase?” His face reacted only slightly, just a slight nod to let her know he’d heard. “I’ll give your dad a head’s up… I don’t know how else to help and it’ll probably look suspicious if I stay…” He just turned his head to face her and gave a small grim smile. “Good luck.” His face pulled a bit tighter and gave another slight nod.
______________________________________________________________________________
Amber knocked on the Davenports door, but went in without waiting, seeing Mr Davenport at his desk observing one of his paperweights. Just as she came in, Leo came downstairs, holding a box of kleenex. “What are you doing here?” Mr Davenport asked as he noticed the two of them.
Leo gave a duh look briefly before saying “I live here.” Mr Davenport’s expression drooped from the obvious sarcasm. Amber could practically hear him thinking, Oh he’s going to be a smartass about it… “I’m the one you didn’t cobble together in your basement.”
Mr Davenport rose from his seat somewhat indulgently. “I mean why aren’t you at school?”
“Got a little head cold,” Leo replied as he and Amber approached the desk, Leo fishing out another kleenex. “I sneezed in class and I dunno what came out, but I walked out two pounds lighter.” At hearing this, Amber and Mr Davenport made disgusted faces.
“Alright, what about you? Not that you’re not welcome over here, but you look like there’s a specific reason.”
Before Amber could open her mouth, Tasha came in and immediately addressed her husband. “Donald? I think there’s something wrong with your credit card. When I went to buy groceries, it was declined.” She approached the desk, still sounding very matter of fact, not showing concern or other emotions, just seemed very… focused at the moment.
“Declined? How could that be?” He asked before typing on his computer.
“Let me spill it out for you: She spent all your money!” Eddy chimed in. Amber grimaced and rolled her eyes. Great, Eddy was the last thing they needed.
Tasha narrowed her eyes at Eddy and answered “I did not spend all his money,” again in a matter of fact voice that was meant to try to end an argument before it began.
“Oh, saving a little for a face lift?” Eddy replied in his infuriating whiny voice. Tasha tried to get to Eddy’s spot on the wall sputtering unintelligibly as Leo held her back.
Mr Davenport stared at his computer screen shaking his head slightly in confusion. “This card is completely maxed out with purchases I didn’t make. A plane ticket, a speed boat, two thousand dollars worth of hair dye and colored contact lenses.” Leo, Tasha and Amber just squinted at him incredulously, all of them sharing the opinion that those were things that he might spend the money on. He raised his hands on either side of his head, knowing what they were thinking. “This time it was not me.” Now Tasha looked slightly amused, but Leo had started looking serious, starting to move on with this new knowledge.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Leo tapped away on the computer at his mission specialist desk, while Mr Davenport batted away at locked -and therefore useless- files on his cyberdesk growing more and more frustrated. Amber simply paced the lab, not knowing how to help. “Leo, any luck tracing those hackers?”
He shook his head still focused on his task. “No, every ip address you gave me leads to a dead end.” He turned to face his step dad as he added “These people really covered their tracks,” then turned back to his computer to resume typing. No one looked up when Eddy bleeped on screen.
“I don’t have any fingerprints or evidence, but I’ve drawn a police sketch of what I think the suspect looks like.” No one was surprised when a picture of Tasha came on the screen. Would their constant bickering ever end? Amber shook her head.
Mr Davenport didn’t even respond to Eddy, just tried again, futilely, to pull things up on his cyberdesk. “I can’t access anything. All the contents of my cyberdesk have been wiped clean,” he stated as he came around the desk grabbing his tablet on the way. As he did, alarms started to go off, and he looked at the new information he was seeing on the screen. “This is worse than I thought. Every one of my facilities worldwide has been hacked.” He scrolled through more information on the screen as he spoke. “Every database- the entire infrastructure of Davenport Industries is gone!” With that realization, he half dropped the tablet next to Leo on his desk, Leo absorbing the information while looking concerned.
Amber felt helpless. She didn’t know what to do for them. His company, the reason he was so rich had been hacked, and now he couldn’t even see any of his work files. But Amber knew nothing about business, money, or half the stuff he worked with. She’d never felt more useless, but she couldn’t leave until she knew Adam, Bree, and Chase were okay. But now she wasn’t sure she wanted to add that to his already bad day and give him more to worry about. They still hadn’t come home, and she had no idea how they were going to get out of there after going through the metal detectors.
Mr Davenport paced slightly and slowly, analyzing all the information they had so far. “This is not some run-of-the-mill computer hacker, Leo. This is obviously someone who hates me and wants to ruin my life,” he finished with a conclusive voice.
“Well that could be anyone,” Leo threw in sarcastically, somewhat absently.
“Alright,” Mr Davenport retorted back, not happy with the sarcasm right now.
“What are you gonna do?” Amber finally asked.
Mr Davenport pulled his phone out of his back pocket. “I’m gonna have to call my friend at the FBI.”
Now Amber and Leo were impressed. “You have a friend at the FBI?” Leo asked in disbelief. “That’s so cool.” Amber nodded in agreement.
Mr Davenport did too, preoccupied. “Yeah, we’re yoga buddies.”
That killed it. “And now its not cool,” Leo said as he turned back to the computer.
______________________________________________________________________________
Leo and Amber came back out of his room. Amber had just called her mom to let her know where she was and that she’d been invited to stay over for a few days. Her mom had not been happy about it, but gave her permission, saying they needed to talk when she got home. She’d been spending so much time at the Davenports, she was barely home lately, so she got aggravated that now she was spending even more time away from her family. Amber shook her head; She’d think about that later. Right now she was worried about the Davenports.
Mr Davenport was closing the front door as they got downstairs. “Hey, Big D, what happened with your friend at the FBI?”
He gestured to the door as he turned to answer Leo. “He just left. I gave him all the information, but he said this hacking is beyond anything he’s ever seen before.” He moved past Leo as if to sit on the couch, looking very stressed but a knock on the door stopped him. He raised his hands in defeat and went to answer the door, only to see Perry behind it, which of course did nothing to lift his spirits. Amber’s heart couldn’t decide between freezing in place or sinking to her shoes in dread. “Principal Perry, what are you doing here?” Amber was afraid to find out. Had Perry discovered their secret? Was she coming to tell them she was turning them in? She should’ve warned him- that’s why she came here in the first place wasn’t it? She bit her lip as she glanced at Leo.
“Does our front gate even have a code?” He asked in disbelief.
“You don’t run a women’s correctional facility without learning how to scale a few walls. “Anywho…” she continued in a much more friendly, nonchalant tone moving farther into the living room. Amber was instantly even more terrified. Perry trying to come off as casual could only mean more trouble. “I just wanted to stop by… say hello… and tell you that I KNOW YOUR KIDS ARE BIONIC!”
Now Leo’s and Mr Davenports faces looked terrified as well, not speaking for a moment as Perry nodded, confirming that she had just said what they thought she had. Amber wondered if any of them (including herself) were still breathing, but after she nodded, Mr Davenport and Leo forced a laugh, and Amber forced herself to try to do the same. “Ha ha ha ha! Bionic!”
“Yeah… very funny Principal Perry, you had me there for a minute.”
Mr Davenport continued to stammer as Leo simply got caught up in gesturing agreements with his stepdad. “-I mean just because a child says they’re bionic-”
Perry interrupted. “The big one shot lasers from his eyes, the girl ran faster than lightning, and the stubby one could move things with his mind.” Gesturing along with what she was saying.
Their faces turned more serious. This was for real, they were caught. By PERRY...Always an advocate for the obvious, Leo looked at Mr Davenport and stated, “Oh yeah, she’s got you.”
Mr Davenport looked like he was trying to strangle a frustrated scream with his jaw clenched so tight. Perry poked Leo’s arm lightly. “Is he bionic too?”
Mr Davenport didn’t stop to think. “Seriously? Look at him.” Pointing to Leo to emphasize his point, who showed offense to this reply on his face. “You two, go downstairs and bring Adam, Bree and Chase up here now.” They didn’t wait to be told again. They rushed to the lab as fast as they could.
The lab looked the same as always, but they didn’t find their bionic friends. As Amber raised her hands to her hair, not knowing what to do, something on the cyberdesk caught her eye. It looked like a webcam, and seemed to be placed deliberately so they would look at it. “Leo, what’s this?” He looked back at her from the back door of the lab, then approached her, putting slight pressure on the front of the top surface, causing a holovid to appear in front of them.
It was the three people they were looking for, but the grim expressions on their faces
tightened her stomach even further. Adam was bent towards the camera, saying “Hello? Testing… Testing, echo… echo,” before a frustrated bree pulled on his arm to get him to stop and step back. As he did, Chase stepped forward slightly.
“Mr Davenport… we really messed up.”
Bree chimed in. “We didn’t mean to expose our bionics to Perry, but she was in danger and we had no choice.” Amber knew that even as awful as Perry was at times, if she’d been in danger, they wouldn’t quite forgive themselves for letting it happen. They were heroes, always trying to save people, so they saved her.
Chase spoke again. “You always trained us to handle any mission. Well right now… the mission is survival- yours and ours.”
Adam nodded and added “I mean, if we’re not around, there’s no proof that we exist so… we’re leaving… “ Amber’s breath left her immediately. Leaving?! “... for good.” For good? NO! They can’t!
She barely heard Bree’s voice as it said “Thank you... for all that you’ve done for us. You made us who we are. We’re sorry we let you down.” A moment later, the holovid disappeared, its message delivered. Leo immediately went to his desk and started typing something, Amber just stood there, frozen. Leaving? They’re gone? Chase had looked so grim, so resigned to their fate. She couldn’t accept that. She couldn’t accept that she would never see them, see Chase, ever again. She’d never been able to work up the nerve to tell him how she felt.
“No, no no no no NO!” Amber turned to look at Leo, whose hands had gone to his head in defeat. “They disabled their GPS locators. I can’t find them anywhere.” He shook his head in disbelief.
Amber looked at the floor for a moment. Mr Davenport, who had already been having an absolutely rotten day so far, was going to be crushed. “Come on, Big D should know about this.”
He lowered his hands and nodded slightly, heading upstairs. As soon as they got to the living room, she burst out “We have a problem.”
Mr Davenport looked even worse, and Perry was nowhere in sight, the front door wide open. “Amber, where are Adam, Bree, and Chase.”
She put the camera on the coffee table and pressed on the front as Leo had done, “We found this in the lab.”
Mr Davenport looked more and more downcast as the message played. After it deactivated, he shook his head slightly, looking slightly in shock. “I’ve gotta find them.”
“I already tried,” Leo told him. His step dad stared at him. “They must have disabled their GPS locators, there’s no trace of them anywhere… They’re gone,” he said with a finality that was crushing because he still couldn’t believe it. Mr Davenport just sagged slightly as his arm went around Tasha, whose arms went around his neck in a hug.
________________________________________________________________________
Donald stood at the door of Bree’s capsule, holding it open, staring inside it as if she would suddenly appear inside her capsule and they would find out all of this was some practical joke. While Amber and Leo had been looking for the others, people from the bank had come to the door to inform him he was broke, and they were seizing all his assets. The house, his cars, planes, money, his company… everything he owned was gone. That had been a huge shock, everything had kept adding up to a horrible day. Then Leo and Amber had returned with that recording… he had nearly broken right there when Leo said they were gone and there was nothing they could do to find them. Up till then, he’d thought as long as he had his family, they could get through this and figure something out. But now he knew they were gone… but he couldn’t grasp it. They had been part of his life for so long now. He knew he wasn’t their father, but with how much effort he’d put into them, saving them from Douglas, building the lab to protect them, raising them, training them, taking care of colds, broken bones, bruises, and ouchies, nightmares, changing their diapers when they were that small… He was their dad, and they were no less his children, neither was Leo for that matter. He loved Tasha and Leo more than he could say, and they’d added a lot to the family he hadn’t realized he’d needed until it was suddenly there. An outside perspective, a mother’s view, and a brother for his kids that accepted them for who and what they were, and loved them just the same.
He suddenly heard Leo’s voice behind him. “The bank wants us out,” he said in a resigned voice. “They’re changing the locks on all the doors.”
Donald released the capsule door and aimlessly turned around. “I… can’t believe they’re gone,” he heard himself say in a quiet voice.
“I was supposed to be at school today.” Leo said shaking his head. “Its my job to watch out for them and I didn’t, its all my fault,” the words tumbled out.
“No,” Amber interrupted, “I was actually there, I should’ve tried harder to protect them, but I just came here instead. I should’ve done something.” Her hands went up to her hair in distress.
“This is not your fault,” he insisted, looking back at the capsules for a moment. They had blamed themselves too. “And its not theirs either, I have to find them.” His cyberdesk would have the answers he needed- he took a few determined steps towards the desk and tried to pull up the files again, but only succeeded in reminding himself he had no access to any of his files, the power wasn’t even on. “I can’t even use my cyberdesk, who is DOING THIS to me?” He pushed himself away from his cyberdesk and walked around it, frustration still building, he hadn’t known he could get more frustrated right then.
Leo’s voice sounded very quiet and analytical in his answer. “It’s obviously a tech wiz… who would do anything to destroy you… Someone with intimate knowledge of your life and Davenport industries and... “ Donald turned to look at him as he paused. “Wait a minute, I know who it is.” Donald was startled, how could already know who it is? “Its your brother.”
Impossible. “Leo, that’s impossible. He’s frozen in a block of ice in my most secure facility, look.” He held up his tablet and found the feed to where he was kept with Amber looking over their shoulders, but was shocked to see only the bottom half of the block of ice remaining, holes where Douglas’ legs used to be. “He’s gone. How?”
“Rewind the footage.” Leo answered quickly. The footage reversed speedily until they reached what they needed. “Wait, back up, there it is.” They watched as a probably powerfully built stranger in a hoodie and mask overpowered the guards and punched the ice releasing Douglas. “There’s another bionic dude?” Leo asked in disbelief.
“I dunno who that is…” Donald answered.
Douglas simply stood there a moment before collapsing on the man, who flipped him over his shoulder and carried him out of the room. The tablet suddenly felt much heavier since revealing that his brother who had caused so much trouble, and was a danger to his whole family was out there and taking his revenge right now. There was no telling how far he would go this time, with how far he’d gone already…
“If Douglas is free, Adam, Bree, and Chase are in real danger, we all are.”
Static sounded a moment before the screens all lit up with his brother’s face on them. “You sure are, Donnie.” He said gleefully before laughing. “I’m baaaaaaaack…”
Donald had so little room left for emotion, and at the moment he was grateful. If he’d still had room for more, he probably would’ve lost it. “Yeah Leo already figured that out.” Now Douglas looked annoyed at so little reaction. Good.
“Anyway, I just thought you should know that it was me who did this to ya. And now that I’m out, I think I’ll spend some quality time with my three wonderful kids.”
That was it. His brother always knew the right button to push to rile him up again.. He lost it. “You go anywhere near them it’ll be the last thing you ever do!” He yelled back at his brother.
“They’re mine, Donnie.” Douglas spat back.
Donald rolled his shoulders, ready for a fight. “I’ll find them first.”
Douglas smiled. “Good luck, that’ll be a little hard without your lab.” As he spoke he raised a hand holding a detonator, and pushed the button.
“Guys that’s a detonator! Run!” He pushed them towards the elevator, but time seemed to slow to a crawl as they ran. He heard the explosion as they ran, felt the heat of the fire on his back… He stayed behind the kids to be sure both of them made it to the elevator before him, which they did, and the doors closed behind them just in time. As they all stared at the doors, then each other, the expressions were full of shock and bewilderment. What do we do now?
He had to come up with a plan and fast. Douglas may already have a jump on them. The building’s sprinkler system would probably put out the fires from the blast, but they still had to get out of the elevator. He had to find a place for them to stay since they couldn’t stay at the house. Did Douglas know about Leo’s college fund? Unlikely- there was no mention of it in any Davenport Industry files, or even on his cyberdesk really. It was one thing he liked about having one son who was normal. He didn’t need a lot of passwords or protections for him. Maybe they could tap into that to get into a hotel for a bit to stay off the streets until they could get this sorted out. They’d be more comfortable, the hotel would likely have wifi so he might have more chances of tracking at least the last known locations of the kids, and they’d be off the streets and hopefully away from further harm. With all that had already happened, he really couldn’t handle something happening to Leo and Tasha too. He tried to pull on a brave composed face as he reached for the phone in the elevator, knowing the kids were still watching him, but couldn’t get through to anyone. Amber looked nearly paralyzed, and Leo had pulled his knees close to his chest in a sitting position. After a minute, Amber sat up more and imitated Leo’s position, leaning her head back on the elevator wall, eyes still unbelieving.
“What are we going to do?” Leo asked.
He wasn’t quite ready for the questions he’d known were coming, but he worked to keep his voice calm and level anyway. “I’m working on it Leo. Hopefully my sprinkler system will put out the fire.”
“Well hurry up! We’ve gotta get outa here and get to Adam, Bree and Chase before Douglas does.” Leo sounded as frantic as he felt. He forced his voice to stay calm anyway, just added a slight edge to insist it would be alright, even if he wasn’t sure yet.
“I’m working on it Leo…We’ll find them.” Amber just looked at him, her face tight with concern, but not speaking. Leo however…
“How? Your cars are gone, your planes are gone, your money’s gone…”
How much longer was he going to keep this up anyway? “I will figure something out Leo…”
But of course Leo had to top it off with one last thought. “And to top it all off, you’re completely broke.”
That was it….. His limit. He crumbled to the floor, one knee to his chest, starting to sob. Embarrassing. Especially when Leo and Amber gave him sidelong looks about the sobs starting after him mentioning being broke. Well, he couldn’t have them believing that could he? “I’m crying about the kids…” They just exchanged brief unbelieving glances and returned to their own thoughts.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Amber, Leo, Tasha and Davenport stood just inside what remained of the lab, looking at the wreckage Douglas had caused. Amber couldn’t believe this. Every time they had thought they day couldn’t get worse, it just had to keep proving them wrong. Hadn’t they had enough?
“It’s worse than I thought,” she heard Davenport say.
“I can’t believe your brother would do this,” Tasha said. “He could have killed Leo…” Davenport turned around when she didn’t say him, she noticed. “... and you.” She winced at how she’d omitted that, then seemed to realise she’d still forgotten someone. Amber crossed her arms and stepped up from behind to be level with them. “And Amber.” She winced more, and there was silence for a few more minutes.
“The blast took out everything.” Leo murmured, surveying the devastated lab. He looked to the wall behind Amber. “Even Eddie’s gone.”
“YES!!” Tasha burst out. Davenport turned to look at her again. “Yes… he will be missed…” she amended half heartedly. Not likely, Amber thought. At least not by anyone but Davenport. The emote was a long list of four letter words Amber did not bother to think of right now, instead she just did her best to hide a smirk from the approaching Davenport who was looking past her at where Eddie would be, regret etched on his face.
With a slight nod, he gestured to the wall. “He was my best friend.”
Tasha looked offended. “I thought I was your best friend.”
He looked at her for a moment, but proceeded with, “No it was him.”
Tasha pursed her lips and looked away.
Leo was already moving on. “My mission specialist desk…” was destroyed along with everything else. “Alright, this just got real. I’m gonna go hurt Douglas where he lives.” He turned around as if to go to find him, then turned in his tracks and continued… “As soon as I find out where he lives.”
Amber, her arms still crossed, nodded. “Well as soon as you find out, I’m there too. I want to help get back at him for this.”
This seemed to remind Davenport of something. “Are your parents expecting you home? Are they going to be worried about you?”
“Leo invited me to stay for a few days before Perry came over. My parents said it was okay.” She hesitated, opening her arms and lowered them, mostly, but slightly raised in an almost pleading position. “I know you’re having a really rough day here, but I would like to stay here until I know they’re okay. I won’t be able to stay calm just waiting at home to find out about them, I want to help if I can.”
Davenport just nodded, a grim smile on his face. “Thanks. I don’t know what you can do, but thanks. I appreciate it.”
Tasha interjected at this point. “What can we do?”
Davenport just shook his head, again, looking defeated. Amber hated that look being on his face. He’d raised her best friends to be heroes, had trained them for every possible scenario, and he didn’t know what to do. “Not much. The house isn’t even ours anymore.”
At this Tasha winced. “Speaking of which, the bank wants us out. I’ll go get what’s left of our things.” She headed upstairs as the others remained and took a last look before they left the lab.
“All your hard work… Billions of dollars worth of equipment… gone.” Leo reflected.
Davenport looked determined again. “All this stuff can be replaced. Adam, Bree and Chase can’t. We’ve gotta get to them before Douglas does.”
Amber shrugged. “How? They turned off their GPS locators, they could be anywhere by now.”
He raised his hand in an almost placating gesture saying “I know the frequencies they would be on. If we can get to a computer and pinpoint their last location, we’ll at least have a clue of where to look.” Amber thought for a moment, then nodded. “Let’s go.”
They waited upstairs in the empty living room for Tasha to bring down their things, too numb it seemed to do anything else. Tasha brought suitcase after suitcase after suitcase downstairs, finally saying “Almost ready. Just three more bags.”
“Tasha, we’re homeless. Do you really need all these clothes?” he asked in disbelief.
Tasha stared at him while she answered. “These are yours.”
He didn’t answer. Amber tried, unsuccessfully to hide a smirk. No one noticed.
“I can’t believe they’re just kicking us out.” Leo ranted. “Where are we going to go?”
“Look there is a five star hotel downtown, we can stay there until we can prove my account was hacked,” Davenport said calmly and most of his confidence intact.
Leo, pointing out the obvious again, asked “How? You have no money, no credit cards, nothing.” All very valid points, Amber noted as she turned back to Davenport. So did Tasha.
At this he didn’t look quite as comfortable. “Well yeah, I just thought we’d tap into your college fund.” Tasha looked aghast at this option. “Well once we get my money back I’ll replenish it, but at least for now its better than nothing.” She still didn’t look convinced but they couldn’t discuss it further thanks to another knock on the door. From the look on Leo’s face, she figured he was just waiting to find out what other troubles would come from this visitor. Certainly none of the others had brought good news that day.
Opening the door revealed Principal Perry looking in asking “Sup’ Dooley?”
“Oh no…” and what seemed as almost a reflex, Leo tried to close the door in her face. They wrestled with that for a moment until Perry dug in her heels and pushed the door, and Leo back far enough for her to walk in. Seeing that she was already past him, Leo closed the door. “Well,” he remarked. “I see you did your squats today,” he snipped, looking tired. No wonder wrestling a bear like Principal Perry for the door would get anyone that way.
At this, Perry flexed her arms and went on one of her routine bragging bullshit. Amber was glad her mother couldn’t hear that thought however. “That’s the power of protein. I eat three whole chickens a day.” She finished flexing with a grunt before stepping up to Davenport.
“Principal Perry,” Tasha almost whined, then asked pointedly “What do you want?”
Perry just scowled at her. “Nothing from you Betty Blue.” Tasha gave an I don’t have time for this look and walked away. “I just came to shake down Donnie for my hush money. Keeping a bionic secret really takes it out of a gal.” She said as she browsed through one of the Davenports bags, pulling out what Amber thought was either a large wallet or makeup holder.
Davenport took it out of her hands, righted it from whatever Perry had done as he answered and put it back in the bag. “And here I thought you were just winded from walking up the driveway,” he retorted snappishly. “Look, you know I”m broke.”
“Well, then I guess I’ll have to find another way to get my money.” Perry started threatening. “Maybe a tell all book: How one a-dorkable principal saved america from three bionic freaks.” Amber felt her face grow rigid. She hated that word. She didn’t care that her friends were different. Freaks made it sound so ugly, and that was something her friends were not. She bit her tongue and looked away to control the rising anger before she said something she regretted.
“Look, I’ll get you your hush money,” Davenport assured her. “But first, we need a place to live,” he finished as he gestured to emphasize the empty house. “And then we need to find Adam, Bree, and Chase.”
“Who?” Perry asked. She wasn’t kidding, if the blank look on her face was any indication.
“The freaks!” Leo burst out, unable to believe she’d forget their names.
“Can we please stop calling them freaks?” Amber burst out with a glare. Perry simply put her hand at different levels in the air as if placing the names to the faces in her mind, not paying attention, but finally grasping who they were talking about. After she put it together she turned around, just as Tasha returned to the room.
“So you’re telling me, the sooner you find a place, the sooner I get my money.”
Seeming satisfied that she was finally grasping the concept, Leo answered. “That’s right TP. You help us out, we help you out. You wash our back we- ooh…” His face left no doubt why he didn’t finish that statement. The idea of washing any part of Perry was enough to make anyone gag. Davenport seemed to share that sentiment. At least it wasn’t just the young ones showing their disgust with the idea, Amber noted as she held her nose and swallowed.
“Alright I’m in. You can stay at my place. As long as you don’t mind sharing the john with eight cats and the occasional semi pro bowler.” Hmm. That option wasn’t sounding very appetizing either. The others didn’t bother to hide their opinion very hard, until Tasha voice a much better idea.
“What if we stayed at the school temporarily? Like when you set up the shelter after the big storm last year.”
“Oooh, so that’s why everyone was banging on the door, trying to get in.” Tasha kept the smile pasted to her face, but Amber could tell it was an effort. “Alright, you can stay at the school.”
Davenport breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh good, well, you wanna help us with our bags?” he asked.
“My pleasure.” With that, she took two suitcases, walked them out the door, and all they could hear after that was the car starting and her driving away.
Davenport just pursed his lips, accepting his error. “We’re never going to see those bags again are we?” Not that an answer was required, but Leo shook his head matter of factly anyway.
_______________________________________________________________________
Perry had set up cots at the school gym by the time Amber and the Davenports got there. As they started unpacking some of their necessities, Perry was just finishing putting sheets on them. “There you go, four cots.” She straightened up and looked at them as she spoke now. “This takes me back to the good old days in the prison infirmary.” She placed a hand on her heart as she looked to the ceiling as if she really did treasure those days.
Tasha looked confused. “You were a nurse?”
“No, I was in prison.” Her tone left the impression that Tasha should’ve known better. “Okay, you kids settle in. I’m gonna go try and find some less crusty blankets.” Before she could get away, Tasha approached from behind with a suitcase and a question.
“Is there someplace we can store our things?”
“Sure, you can take the gym locker next to mine. You might want to wear slip-ons in the shower. I got something in between my toes that just won’t quit.”
Cringing, Tasha followed Perry out of the gym. Amber simply put her backpack on the last cot and half fell half sat on the cot herself. Davenport seemed to be trying to pretend he hadn’t heard Perry as Leo backed through the other gym door, pulling a computer cart with him.
“Good news, Big D.” Amber stood back up and strode over to hear whatever good news he had. They could all use some right now. Although, finding a place to sleep that night had been at least a step in the right direction. “I got some of this stuff from the computer lab. Maybe you can use it to track Adam, Bree, and Chase’s last GPS location,” he offered as he pushed it where Davenport could see it easily.
“Or judging by its age, the last location of King Tut,” Davenport replied with some dismay. As if realizing that Leo was just trying to help and he was being negative, he tried to do better. “I’m sorry Leo, I’m just frustrated. Without my stuff, without my lab this is hopeless.”
Leo wasn’t accepting that. “Come on Big D, you’re a tech titan. You built an empire out of nothing,” he pointed out.
“Yeah but it was so hard,” Davenport replied as he sat on the cot behind him with a hint of a pout.
Leo leaned closer to the now sitting Davenport for emphasis as he answered. “But you did it. And if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. You’re brilliant,” he finished while gripping Davenports shoulder in a light but affirming grip.
“You know what?” He stood up again and looked Leo in the face. “You’re right Leo.” He looked back at the computers as he put his hand on Leo’s shoulder now. “I am handsome. And brilliant.” Amber and Leo frowned. Nowhere in that pep talk had they remembered him saying anything about how he looked.
“Hold on, I didn’t-”
“I’m back.” Davenport declared. Leo and Amber just decided to let it go. Must be a coping thing.
They had the computers set up in no time, but the internet was dragging, so they sent Leo to find out why. While they waited, Davenport told her what to do to find their GPS locations for when it was working. At least she was able to help with that. A few minutes later, Leo strode back through the door confidently. “Principal Perry was hogging the internet in her office, so I snuck in, plugged in our wire instead. Turns out, she’s a day trader for the japanese stock market.” Amber and Davenport just shook their heads. How many jobs does that woman have anyway?
Davenport turned back to the computers. “That did it. We are now able to pinpoint their exact location when they turned of their GPS.” He stood for a moment, turning to Leo. “You know Leo, between my genius and your ability to follow wiring, we make a great team.” Then turned around and saw Amber. “And thanks for working with the other computer. After all, I only have two hands… for now.” What… no, I don’t want to ask. He turned his attention back to the computers. “Their last known location was at the port. They must have jumped on a ship.”
Leo checked his computer. “It says there were three freighters that left around the same time. They must be on one of them.”
“But if you can find their last known location, can’t Douglas do the same thing and get to them first?” Amber pointed out.
Davenport put his hand on her shoulder. “You’re right, Douglas probably has a jump on us, we have to act fast.”
“But even if we know which freighter it is, how are we going to get to it?” Leo asked.
Davenport looked around as if making sure no one else could hear them before gripping both their shoulders and saying. “I have a secret. I have a helicopter I keep stashed away for special occasions and nobody knows about it! Ha!” Only Davenport…
Leo looked like he was bracing himself for trouble and faking enthusiasm as he said “I have a secret too! I know I use it on weekends.” The guilty look did nothing to help Davenports reaction, which was surprised soundless stuttering.
“Either way, let’s go get them,” Amber grabbed her sweater. She didn’t like heights, but she couldn’t see herself just waiting for them to find her friends, or at least hear some word.
“One minute,” Davenport said as he turned back to the computer and pulled his phone out of his pocket. After tapping on the keyboard and his phone, Leo and Amber were sent a tracking app to their phones. “There, now we can track them from our phones while we’re on the helicopter. Let’s go. And Leo, this is the last time you’re allowed on my helicopter.” Leo deflated as he walked. He’d obviously hoped Davenport had forgotten.
Hours later, after searching the ocean and one of the freighters, they still hadn’t found them. Aside from the fear of heights, which wasn’t really bothering her at the moment since it was too dark out to really see how high they were, she was discovering a new fear: claustrophobia. This chopper was small. Whenever she found herself focused on that, her breathing turned shallow and faster, but if she focused on looking for any ships out the window, the anxiety lessened. At least, the anxiety from the space, she was still worried about her friends. And while they’d been on that ship and she realised how small the spaces were there too…. She made a note to never become a sailor. She’d never survive if she had to stay in spaces that small.
“Well searching that first ship was a bust,” Leo finally said. “This is going to take us all night.”
Davenport nodded. “Well at least we have the radio,” he replied as he flipped the on switch. After it was turned on, she could still hear his voice, even though he’d stopped talking. “You’re listening to another Donald Davenport audiobook, how to make a billion dollars.” Amber rolled her eyes. He really does love the sound of his own voice… jeeze louise… To her dismay, Leo turned it up.
“Oh we need to turn this up, you could use a refresher.” Of course Davenport didn’t argue with that, but Amber supposed Leo did have a point after they’d lost all their money.
Suddenly, they heard beeping from all of their phones. Leo and Amber took theirs out to find that Chase had turned his GPS locator on. Amber knew that considering the circumstances, he would only do that if there was an emergency. They were in trouble. Leo told Davenport it was on, and Davenport echoed Amber’s belief about them being in trouble, heading for the signal and trying to squeeze more speed out of the chopper. A few minutes later, Davenport seemed to think they were close, then Leo and Amber spotted the ship off to the right. Was it port or …. What was the other one? Oh well, she didn’t care. As long as they actually found them. Davenport found a place to land on the ship, and they all got out to look for them, but stayed together. What was frustrating was that they still couldn’t find them. “I don’t get it,” Davenport vented as he opened a door onto the deck. “How could they not be here?”
Amber spotted a man near a set of stairs not a few feet away from them. “Hey, we’re looking for three kids that may have jumped on your ship. Two boys and a girl, have you seen them?”
The man had a towel around his shoulders, and looked overall grumpy as he approached. “Of course I’ve seen ‘em. They just got on a chopper.” He eyed Davenport closely as he finished. “With you.”
Davenport backed up from the man’s intensive scrutiny, obvious confusion on his face. She could understand that. How the heck had they supposedly got on a chopper with Davenport if they were still looking for them. Something must have dawned on Davenport and Leo though, because they shared a glance that meant trouble before rushing back to the chopper. Amber barely got out a thank you to the man before she followed them. As she got to the chopper and buckled in, she was finally able to ask what had just happened.
Leo explained. “Big D invented something called a cybermask. It lets you wear a mask of someone else’s face. Douglas must have the same thing and wore one of his brother’s face to pick them up from this ship.”
Amber groaned audibly. “So now Douglas has them.”
“Yeah.” Davenport’s face looked worried and livid at the same time. Amber thought for a moment. Douglas had saved Chase’s life in Antarctica, and he always seemed to be talking about family. Maybe he wouldn’t hurt them. They flew for hours to get back to the coast, then Davenport got a text, Leo pulled his phone out for him so he wouldn’t have to take his hands off the controls. They were flying over houses at this point.
“Mom says hurry home,” Leo relayed to Davenport. They were suddenly lurching in another direction as Leo’s stomach rebelled right out the window onto one of the roofs they were above at the time. Amber realized they were flying back to the roof of their house. Did they get it back? She hoped so; they could really use some good news right now.
They hurried inside to see Tasha with the suitcases, and Davenport went straight to give his wife a hug as Leo held his stomach. “Please don’t tell him to ‘hurry home’ when we’re in a helicopter. I left my lunch all over the Rosenblatts roof.” Davenport and Tasha pulled away from each other and Tasha looked around confused.
“So what happened? Where are the kids?”
“Douglas got to them before we did,” Davenport reported.
Tasha looked pretty exasperated with this news. “Your brother? Again? Alright you are done complaining about my mother.” Well, Amber could definitely understand that. Although, her mother was quite a pill herself, she’d noticed from the times she’d visited.
“We have no idea where they are, but they’re smart, they will figure out a way to escape.” Davenport looked back at Leo and Amber at the end of that statement, who gave him doubtful glances, both thinking of the oldest. “Well, two of them will,” he amended turning back to Tasha.
She just changed the subject, and Amber found herself grateful. “I do have some good news. The FBI finished their investigation and proved you were cyberhat.”
Davenport finally looked excited. “So I’m getting all my money back?” he asked, wringing his hands together.
Her face now looked a bit downcast. “No, all the money was stolen, you’re still broke.”
Davenport seemed to be working to find more positives in the situation. “But I’m getting all my stuff back, right? My boats, my cars, my planes?” He walked past them as he spoke, turning back for the answer.
“Just the house,” she answered, somewhat half heartedly. Davenport seemed to deflate a bit before Tasha went on. “But the good news is that now we can all move back in together.” She put her arm around Leo as the two of them tried to pull off impressive grins while still looking so half hearted. It didn’t work.
“Not even like a jet-ski or a motorcycle with one wheel?” he asked, still hoping for something more.
Tasha turned back to a more pressing subject. “So what’re you going to do about the kids?”
Amber chimed in at this point. “Well they’re not going to come back here cause they still don’t think it’s safe.” They’d filled her in on Perry’s agreement to keep their secret, but Adam, Bree, and Chase still didn’t know that.
Leo nodded. “I just wish there was some way we could get a message to them and let them know everything’s alright.”
“Well the only thing I can do remotely is update Chase’s software…” Amber could practically see the light bulb turn on above Davenports head as he said the last few words. “Wait, maybe that’s it. Maybe I can embed a cyber message into the update. Leo find us a computer.”
“Got it,” Leo said quickly before they both remembered the house was empty and that might be a bit harder than they’d thought.
“Is there anything I can do?” Tasha asked. Davenport just put a hand on her shoulder for a moment before answering.
“Tasha, now is not the time for jokes.” Tasha looked livid, but they found the equipment they needed to send the update, as delivery men came to bring crates of their furniture and other possessions. So while Davenport and Leo were working on the update, Tasha and Amber helped get the living room set back up. The couch was unwrapped, crates were all over the place, but they weren’t able to move them. So they settled for unpacking what they could out of the crates first.
“Still no word from the kids?” she heard Tasha asked as footsteps approached. Amber joined Tasha as Davenport and Leo returned from sending the update.
“No.”
Tasha looked frustrated again. “You’re a tech wiz. Isn’t there something else you can do? Like send them a text alert or a friend request or have them paged.” She said the last few words as if that would solve all of their problems. Leo and Davenport exchanged confused glances while Amber just stared at Tasha with a raised eyebrow.
“I’ll be honest, sometimes I wonder how you two ended up together,” Leo remarked, starting on one of the boxes.
Davenport reassuringly took his wife’s hands in his own and led her to sit on the couch as he spoke. “Look all we can do is hope they got the cyber message. Until then, we just have to wait.”
Just as they were sitting on the couch, they heard the door open and Bree’s voice say “We’re home!” As she and her brothers bounded through the door.
“Well that didn’t take long,” Leo observed as he put a box back down. They rushed in for hugs, Chase starting with Davenport and Bree with Tasha.
“We were so worried,”Tasha sighed in relief. Davenport took his turn hugging Bree as Chase hugged his step brother and then awkwardly almost hugged Amber, before they settled for pats on the back.
“You guys okay?” Davenport asked his bionic children. That gave Chase something other than awkwardness to focus on as he turned back to Davenport.
“We’re fine. But Douglas has a new partner,” Chase said warily.
“Eh, give it six months. Big one’s super high maintenence,” Adam chimed in before walking to the kitchen. That boy, always thinking with his stomach.
Chase went on. “He’s some crazy billionaire named Victor Crane, and he’s implanting himself with bionics.” That sounded like trouble. Amber knew that Douglas had actually created her friends, and they had turned out to be good, but that was with Davenport raising them. If this Crane was implanting himself with them, what would stop him from creating more bionic people for evil? And what kind of bionics did he have? What kind of damage could he do with them and how much?
“I’ve never even heard of him,” Davenport said quickly. “But I’m going to find out who he is and how to stop him,” he said decisively as he walked out of the room, probably to get a head start on that.
Tasha turned her attention to more immediate and practical concerns. “You guys must be starving. I’ll get dinner started,” she said with more of a spring in her step. The kids were here and she finally had something she could do to help. The others stepped up to the kitchen, Leo and Chase hanging back.
“Look at this,” Leo declared. “Things are finally getting back to normal.” The others in the kitchen laughed with him in relief. Amber was helping Tasha with the plates as she glanced at Chase, who was just standing there where everyone had been a minute ago. Amber got the nagging feeling something was wrong there, but then someone asked her to pass them something and she forgot all about it. After they’d unpacked some of the kitchen stuff, Tasha and Davenport stayed in the kitchen as the kids returned to the couch, finally sitting down. Leo on the arm of the couch, and Amber could just feel her own mother cringe at that. She was always telling her not to sit on the arm of the couch. Chase just sat at that end of the couch with his hands on his knees, Amber sat on the next cushion, wishing she felt comfortable enough to sit closer to him, but not wanting to crowd him or scare him away. Bree sat on the last cushion, leaning back and relaxing and Adam squeezed in next to her on that end. Leo had been filling them in on what had happened here since the last time they’d seen them.
“Then the lab blew up and we got trapped in the elevator...Big D confided his deepest secrets with me.” Adam looked up at Leo, interested in this. “HIding you three in the basement, not even top ten.” Adam and Bree exchanged considering looks before Chase abruptly stood up and faced Leo, staring at him for a moment.
Amber’s eyes narrowed as she noticed something. “Hey, what’s up with your eyes?” she asked Chase, who suddenly grabbed Leo by the shirt and lifted him over his head.
“He-eey, easy on the chest hairs, I only have two.”
Amber felt Adam and Bree shift on the couch and when she looked they were just as abruptly sitting at attention. Tasha and Davenport were still in the kitchen when Adam stood and pushed Davenport out of the way. Tasha had been saying something, but Amber wasn’t sure what it was. “Adam, please don’t throw him, you know how delicate your father is.” Amber saw Davenport sit up slightly from being thrown to the floor and look at Adam to see what the problem was. Amber just sat there, rigid, but ready to jump into action, wishing she knew what a safe action was.
“What’s happening?” Leo asked still being held by his shirt in front of Chase.
“Douglas must’ve enabled their triton app. Look at their eyes, he’s controlling them!”
“Mom watch out!” Leo called as Bree zipped towards Tasha who dodged, sending Bree speeding over the counter and into the kitchen.
“Forget the tuna, I’m about to open up a can of Bree surprise!” Tasha responded, pulling back immediately after Bree stood up, just as well as if she hadn’t tripped over the counter. Oh yeah, super agility, Amber noted. They did the only sensible thing they could after that, they ran, All over the house, hiding when they could, running again whenever they were found. Amber didn’t know about the others, but she’d never been much of a runner, and she was getting exhausted. This continued for some time, sometimes they were all together, sometimes they split up, but Tasha and Davenport ended up hiding behind a couch, and Leo and Amber ended up near the door that had been blocked over the course of their hiding and seeking. Chase had them cornered by the door, his eyes shining an unnaturally bright green color. Leo tried to deflect him by reminding him that Adam was the one who always picked on him, but to no avail. Adam shot his laser vision at Davenport who used a skillet to deflect it. Amber had barely noticed this before Chase used his molecular kenisis to lift one of the crates nearby over Leo and Amber’s heads. Oh no…
“No no, no Chase no…” Leo objected looking above his head. Amber couldn’t speak, didn’t know what to say if she did. She vaguely heard Tasha crying out for Davenport to do something, but she kindof heard his answer.
“Chase, don’t drop it! Listen to me.” Miraculously, Chase’s head turned to look at the man who’d raised them. “The triton app only controls your bionics, not your human side. You have to fight it!”
Yes! If they could convince his human side… Chase loved his family, she knew he did. “Yes, Chase remember?” Leo started. “All the great times we had, all the cool inventions we built?” Chase still looked menacing. “The time Trent made us bob for apples in the bathroom.” Amber elbowed Leo in the ribs, hard. Seriously? That’s supposed to help? Chase actually looked slightly confused for a moment about the same thing. “Okay… that wasn’t ...really cool, but we did it together.” The crate lowered slightly. “Its not working!”
“Keep trying!” Davenport insisted, “Its our only chance!”
“Leo’s the one, who showed you the real world Chase,” Amber pointed out.
“That’s right. I … showed you what it means to be a brother. A good one, not like Adam is to you. Remember when I found you in the lab? Our first day of school? When we won the robot throwdown? Oh!” he looked inspired for a moment as he reached in his pocket. “I still have the picture!” He found it on his phone and held it up for Chase to see. “Here, see?” Chase’s face got more of a nostalgic expression at the picture.
“Try and remember, Chase,” Amber pleaded.
“Yeah see?” Leo went on. “You? Me? Together? Brothers?” Chase took a deep breath at this, looking sad. “Come on Chase, I know my brother’s in there.” Leo lowered his phone and started almost demanding. “Where is he Chase? Where is my brother?” Chase closed his eyes for a long moment, and when he opened them again, his eyes still showed that unnatural green, and the crate continued to inch lower for a moment more. She kept watching him. He had to remember. Then she saw it, his face wavered and the green disappeared. The blue and natural green mix of his eyes returned as he looked at what he was holding above their heads before tossing it away. Amber jumped up to give him a hug, but just as she could reach him, he fell to the floor, his bionics having drained his energy to that point.
Amber wasn’t sure why, but Adam and Bree actually let Tasha and Davenport closer to where she, Chase and Leo were.They helped Chase up, who rubbed the back of his head. “My head is killing me,” he murmured.
“It was Douglas’ Triton app,” Leo explained.
“He probably doesn’t remember anything,” Davenport mused aloud.
They were interrupted by Bree jumping over the kitchen counter with her usual speed, reminding them that there were still two teens controlled by that dangerous app.
“Bree? What’s wrong with your eyes?” Chase asked his sister while looking to Davenport for an explanation.
“Douglas is controlling them, you have to fight back,” Davenport explained as he bent over like he was about to duck for cover.
“I can’t fight them, they’re my-” whatever he had meant to say was stopped by Adam firing his laser vision right at Chase’s midsection, making him crash into the wall he was just backing Leo and Amber into.
“Fight!” Leo yelled as he and the others hid behind the couch. At this direct attack and Leo’s demand to fight, Chase stepped forward ready to do just that. After pushing a crate and Adam along with it into the kitchen counters, the others finally thought it was looking up, until Adam pushed it away from him and it crashed at the other side of the room. Then he used his heat vision again but this time Chase was able to block it with his force shield. Adam kept it up, and stepping forward as he did, Chase backing up at the same pace.
“Adam’s too strong,” Davenport said with some dismay. “Chase can’t hold out much longer.” Unfortunately, Amber agreed. What were they going to do? Adam and bree kept advancing on Chase, who continued to back up to the wall, force field up the whole time.
“I have a question,” Tasha interjected. “Why am I holding you in my arms?” Leo, Amber and Davenport glanced at Tasha’s arms, sure enough, around Davenports shoulder’s. They all moved to crouch behind the couch instead.
“Adam stop, you’re hurting him,” Amber called.
“Can’t you talk him out of it like Leo did with Chase?” Tasha asked her husband.
“There’s no time,” he answered urgently.
“Wait…” Amber turned to Davenport. “If Douglas is controlling them, can’t Chase do the same thing? With that Override App of his?”
“Its too dangerous,” Davenport insisted. “He can’t use two abilities at the same time.”
“No!” Chase yelled, still straining against his siblings. “I’ve done it before!”
“Wait, why would you do that?” Davenport asked shakily. “It puts too much stress on your system, you’re lucky to be alive.”
Leo caught his attention at this point. “Hey, why don’t you yell at him, when he’s not FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE!” he finished with a yell. Tasha bit her lip at that.
“I’ve got no choice, I have to try!” They heard Chase yell. Amber watched as he held the shield with one hand and put the other hand to his temple, trying to focus.
“I believe in you Chase,” Leo called.
“Stop talking!” Chase yelled back. He took a deep breath, gathered his strength, and looked at Bree. “Activating override app…” he said in a more even voice. A moment later, Bree fell to the floor.
“Hurry, your force field is about to collapse!” Amber warned him.
“See I told you. When he uses two abilities at once-” Davenport tried to emphasize.
“Shut it!” Leo, Tasha and Amber yelled at once.
A moment later, Adam collapsed on the floor next to his sister, the force field dissolved, and Chase swayed on his feet, exhausted from the triton app, and then the effort of fighting his siblings. Amber got up to give him a hug before she thought, and after they were actually in a hug, she realized what they were doing, and she backed up again. His face had turned slightly pink, or was that just him looking flush from what had been happening? He had a slight smile on his face as he nodded a thanks however, so she returned the smile as she helped the other two get back up. After they finished filling them in on the events they’d missed, they went downstairs to see what the damage was.
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