Disclaimer: I do not own the Disney XD series: Lab Rats. **aloha**

Lethal

"Huh"

The masked man scoffs, a gloved hand clutched around the trigger. The fighting stances among the bionic siblings barely waver. The youngest of the three keeps a hard eye on the finger that itches ever so slowly to pull. What a tease.

"Police send you in here first to do all the dirty work?"

The question elicits no response, just a hardened stare. The three-floored building that houses their company is abandoned. Shattered glass windows line the wall from the ceiling to the floor. It is an old factory at the edge of the city, long unused and overlooked.

No wonder this psycho thought it was a good place to set up fort.

"It would be in your best favor to put the weapon down sir"

The masked man only sneers in response, letting a long drawn out laugh escape as his body bends with the weight of exaggeration. He clutches his stomach in what would be considered impossible joy, before quickly straightening out and cocking his gun in the direction of the heroes.

"Come and catch me, mutants" the man tests, rolling his tongue to spit the word out from his mouth.

"We're bionic, sir, and not afraid to use force to restrain you-"

"Bionic. The crap that people spew these days to get away with playing God. You guys are freaks of nature." the man steps closer to them, his boot-clad foot crushing already demolished debris. Adam takes a protective stance in front of his younger siblings. Whether that be out of fear or habit, he would not know. "Do you really think that the world, our world, would so easily open up to the likes of you? They're throwing you into the crime world...this world to pick up the trash first. Why? Because you're monsters!"

The man growls the words from the deepest cavity of his chest, shaking the weapon in his hand. Between the slits in his face mask, his eyes seem to flicker with barely restrained rage.

"We're doing our part to protect the world. One that you're hurting" Bree speaks up from behind Adam's shoulders. Her eyes are just leveled to meet those of the masked man. Adam's left arm slightly circles around his younger sister, willing everyone to just be quiet again so they could get the mission over with.

"I'm simply living. That may be a hard concept to follow for you all. Being bionic is it, how close to a machine is that?"

"Bionic humans, we're bionic humans-" Chase wants to scream, but the level of his voice can't match to the crazed tone of the man before them.

"You're human tanks! That's it!-"

"If you would only put your weapon down and listen to us, the authorities have already scoured the area and will be in here any minute now. We can have an easy escort out-"

"There's nothing easy with machines.-"

"Why do you keep saying that?! We're bionic humans. HUMANS!" Adam flinches at Bree's sudden outburst.

The bullet flies just as Chase surrounds the three of them with a force field. The gunshot echoes in the empty floor, one of the loudest sounds he has ever heard. Chase drops the forcefield as Adam's ragged breathing enters his ears. He falls to his knees beside his brother, who has dropped heavily to the floor. The man's hand is shaking as he holds the gun.

"A-Adam..." Chase stutters helplessly. His older brother is leaned onto him, breathing quickly with his eyes scrunched shut. Bree is beside herself, eyes watery where she kneels in front of Adam. She touches her older brother everywhere, hands flying lightly around and about but never on the wound. Their oldest just looks towards Chase, a dopey smile on his face. Only Adam would try to give a semblance of reassurance in moments like this.

"I'm okay..." it's a breathless whisper from Adam's mouth, but it's enough seconds to have Bree's super-speed pin the masked shooter across the room, gun tossed carelessly across the floor. The middle child has saddled the man's waist, pinning every possible limb from movement. Her eyes are hard and teary as she stares into the man's face.

"Don't test my generosity in holding back my bionics." Bree's words are soft, but a fresh warning.

"Give your best shot. I'm surprised that you even stopped-"

With her super speed, Bree sends a blinding punch to the man's jaw. It snapped to the left mid-word, face slamming into the dirtied floor with a crunch. The masked man huffs a heavy breath, the open slit for his mouth darkening with red at the edges. Bree's eyes swim in tears, but she steadies her fist, aiming it again. The stare-off between them is short, as he spits blood at her. It misses the aimed direction of her face, but splatters at the side of the shoulder, dripping down her arm.

"You want to know why they send you here first? You call yourselves heroes..? Police know better. You're all disposable. More than human life..." the man rasps steadily, his words fueling the hatred that was beginning to grow in the middle bionic. Bree grits her teeth behind her closed lip, though her face is an image of seriousness. Within a blink, her superspeed had injected a tranquilizer shot into the man's arm. The masked individual withers beneath her at the realization but soon falls into the effects of the injection.

She's breathing harshly, trying to calm her heart. Its beat rages loud in her ears, shaking her head, her vision.

" M-Mr. Daven-enport..."

"...He's shot...real...bad"

Those words are enough to ground her again, steadying her swaying vision. She quickly turns behind her to look at Chase, who has one hand pressed tightly to Adam's stomach, the other reached to his ear. The commset light is blinking a bright green. She super speeds to her two brothers again, a bit of dust billowing around her in the mid-afternoon light.

"...I'm using my hand to put pressure on the wound...but..." She's never heard Chase sound so frightened, so unsure. Not only was he the mission leader, but he was also the smartest man in the world. So when Bree's eyes flicker to the blooming red on her brother's abdomen, she knows it doesn't take a genius to figure out what to do next.

"Let's super-speed him home. We'll get there in no time, Chase..." Bree begins as she reaches her hand under Adam to get a grip on his waist. To her surprise, Chase shoulders her away, she falls onto her butt.

"Chase!", her voice must be angrier than she sounds because she notices the small shiver in between her younger brother's shoulders.

"You'll move him around too much. He's losing enough blood as it is, I don't want him to lose anymore..." Chase's explanation is soft, but he clutches onto his older brother in his arms harder. Bree lets out a hard breath as she slides her way in front of Adam. He's been so quiet the entire time. Considering his personality, it is the most abnormal thing he has ever done. Staring at him now, she sees why.

Adam has his open eyes fixed on something across the room. He's using Chase's hand to hold the pressure steady on his dripping wound, his super strength both a curse and a blessing in this moment. His brow is dotted with sweat. The rise and fall of his chest are so soft; he's barely tugging at the game of consciousness.

She hates it.

"...I am not letting him bleed out here. We have to move him..."

"No!" Chase is practically livid, his entire body working as a wall to shield away from the one person that wants to help. It is a burst of screaming and pushing. Bree knows that Chase is just scared, he's a worrier at heart, but she's scared too. The building shouting match simmers down when Bree notices Adam's small squeeze on Chase's hand.

Chase's head whips away from Bree's piercing gaze, eyes quickly running over his older brother's body.

"Does any else hurt? Is the pain worse? Do you need-"

"Take me home," Adam whispers, his voice a soft plea in the midst of the dusty factory floor. Chase's eyes flicker and his mouth stutters uselessly.

"I'll be fine...Just take me home..."

~x~

Time moves as if suspended in a jar of honey.

Nights spent in capsules are sleepless without the presence of their eldest brother. Bree cannot stop pacing, her feet wearing a line in the lab floor. Chase skips meals, his appetite to eat replaced by the gnawing feeling of anxiety and guilt.

If only I had noticed the man's finger on the trigger...

If only I had seen the gun when we first met...

If only we had scoured the building better for his hiding place...

If only we had not gone on the mission at all...

If only...

If only...

It is a few days later, a week to be exact, when is Chase wrapped in another anxiousness pacing, thoughts of that moment. So much that he doesn't notice the hissing of the lab doors, signaling an entrance. In the middle of his nervous pacing and guilt-riddled mind, he can barely hear the heavy limping footsteps into the lab. Adam is quiet as he enters. Not intentionally, who would ever want to be intentionally quiet, but then again he had just recovered.

"You looking for something?"

It's the only explanation that the oldest can think of as to match his younger brother's appearance. Frantic, pacing and even a little teary-eyed.

Adam is barely prepared when his youngest sibling launches himself into his arms and begins to cry.

"Shh-shh...Hey...Hey...Chase"

His little brother's mumbled words in between hiccuped tears is a scene that he never thought he would ever revisit. There are only a few moments like this, one being when Chase was much much younger, locked in the little chest of fond memories in the back of his mind. He sees it before him now, in a weird, nostalgic, dejavu sort of lenses. Even though his brother is nearly as high as his chest, all Adam can see is a bawling toddler, crying during his first night in the middle of an electricity outage.

"Adam..."

He hears his sister's wavery voice before another body smashes into him from behind.

It's moments like this when he's glad he's bionic. With a body that is far from being invincible, it is durable. It has wounds but it heals with time.

That's the human part.

"...Luckily bullets aren't lethal." Adam says airily, the sigh of relief from his siblings besides him the best answer.

found this little piece in my drafts.

i was actually quite surprised that i had this finished piece lying around.

but i hope that you enjoyed it!

thank you so much for reading. :)

until next time,
your writer.