AN: Um, hi guys. I'm sorry this is so very late! College is apparently not the best time for attempting to do anything continuous whatsoever, but I am a little glad I was able to wait a bit to write this next chapter. When I first saw Bionic Showdown, I fell in love with Douglas which created a problem for this story. Thankfully, now that I've waited we've been introduced to Krane who will play a great role in this story and we've gotten to see so many more dimensions for Douglas, which makes me very happy :D So, I guess this story is officially AU because I'm smushing the timeline together and changing some stuff little stuff about like Marcus and that kind of thing. I'm just really happy because I finally feel solidified in each character and I changed the plot to fit each of them, so I'm really hoping I won't be giving any OOC moments! Anyway, rambling done for now, I think its about time I got on with the chapter, haha :)

Chapter 3: Drastic Measures and Waxing Days

-A few hours earlier-

Chase huffed as he stepped into his very silent house. He had figured Adam and Bree would likely be skipping class if they had managed to rid themselves of Leo, but he had thought they would be home by the time school was supposed to be over. Sure, Davenport was getting… something… waxed today, but both his siblings knew they were supposed to start training in half an hour. Considering how long it took Bree to "de-school" her appearance and Adam to eat half the content of the kitchen for his midday snack, he had wanted both to be in the house by the time he got home.

Tossing his backpack on the couch lightly, Chase pulled his phone out of his pocket as he made his way to the kitchen to retrieve an apple. If Adam and Bree were going to waste time, he would just have to call them and let them know how much of a pain they were being. Before he could dial Bree's number, however, his phone lit up as "Radioactive" began playing on his ringer. Grinning at the ringtone he remembered Marcus setting up two days prior after a heated discussion about good music with great guitar chords, Chase answered the phone.

"Dude, I just saw you ten minutes ago," Chase joked, taking a large bite of his apple and plopping down on one of the bar stools in the kitchen.

"I miss you already," Marcus joked back with a chuckle over the speakers and Chase's grin lit up. Sure, Marcus was friends with all of the bionic siblings (and even Davenport a little bit) but Chase knew he was closer to Marcus than any of his siblings. It felt great to know he had such a great friend who was normal and who just liked hanging out with him for himself. "So, what are you doing over there? I'm bored out of my mind over here," Marcus continued, cutting off Chase's thoughts.

"Eating an apple and wondering where my irresponsible siblings are," Chase replied in a monotone voice, causing Marcus to laugh.

"Knowing Adam, they could be anywhere, bro."

"I know," Chase mumbled with an eye roll before taking his frustration out in his next bite of his apple.

"Well, stop angsting about it then. Come hang out with me, I'm only slightly irresponsible," Marcus replied in a light voice. Chase laughed and almost wanted to accept, but he knew he needed to be responsible if his siblings weren't going to be.

"Dude, I can't. Adam, Bree and I were supposed to be helping our dad with some of his inventions since he's gone today," Chase lied flawlessly. He could practically hear the pout in Marcus's voice as he replied with a "Why wasn't I invited?"

"As much as my dad loves you, we've been doing this for years."

"I understand," Marcus replied with an overly dramatic sigh. "I'm just not special enough," he continued dramatically, causing Chase to smile.

"Oh you're plenty special," Chase joked, his dark mood gone as he bit into his apple again. Suddenly, Chase heard a booming voice in the background of wherever Marcus was, asking Marcus where he was. Chase winced in sympathy, having heard enough of Marcus's dad to know the man was pretty similar to his own father.

"I'm on the phone, dad!" Marcus yelped in reply, his voice echoing back into the receiver. The voices were muffled like Marcus was holding his hand over the receiver in his phone, but Chase's super hearing allowed him to pick up everything Marcus and his father were saying. Therefore, the next thing he heard was crystal clear, but he still wondered if perhaps he had heard incorrectly.

"Well hurry up, I finally perfected that damn triton app. We'll finally be able to control their bionics!"

Chase automatically stifled his own gasp as his brain went on overdrive. Marcus's father couldn't know about bionics, could he? And why wouldn't Marcus have said something?

"I'm talking to Chase right now, dad! Just give me a second!"

Chase was finding it hard to breathe as the pieces began to fit in his mind, his hand coming up to grip the counter. At the very least, it was now highly likely that Leo had been telling the truth about Marcus. Why else would Marcus have hid something like this from him, especially when he was so into following Mr. Davenport's work? Sometimes I hate being the smartest person alive.

"Chase, you still there?"

Chase nearly choked on his own breath but managed to get himself under control to add, rather coherently, "yeah, did you go somewhere? Couldn't hear you for a second there." He was already searching his own database for 'triton app' his eyes widening as he got results that were classified under Davenport's authority. What?

"Yeah sorry, my dad came home. He wanted to go get a pizza."

And doesn't that make things more interesting, Chase thought as he hastily tried to decode the firewall protecting the files. Marcus is definitely lying to me.

"O-oh, it's cool. I was too busy eating this apple," Chase tried to joke, his voice becoming less and less convincing as he struggled to concentrate on decoding Davenport's files. "You can go get that pizza if you want to."

There was a pause and a small noise like Marcus was turning something on. "Are you okay, Chase?" Marcus asked, and Chase could practically see the quirk of his eyebrow in his mind's eye. He didn't have time to think about that, however, as he hastily made his way to the lab. The firewalls protecting the files were difficult to crack, which was unusual for Chase. He needed to connect to Davenport's holo-desk and decrypt the codes manually.

"Yep, definitely fine. Just, urm, almost choked on my apple," he said and hastily added a fake chuckle afterward. He quickly reached the holo-desk and connected his finger to the USB port. The desk hummed to life and he reached his arms out. Jerking them upward, his eyes widened as the codes became visual in the holo-desk. He quickly worked through them, his mind in a whirr. He frowned as Marcus seemed to pause before speaking again.

"You don't sound okay."

Chase nearly cursed but luckily held it at bay, his hand grasping pieces of the code and flinging them to the side in a flourish of numbers and binary. He gasped as he finally broke through the decryption and reached the files, his eyes blowing wide as he tried to take in as much information at one time as he could. Douglas Davenport, bionic project, genetically engineered kids, termination. His finger quivered as it hovered over a picture file simply titled 'Davenport Industries Project Bionics'.

"Chase, what are you doing?"

Marcus's slightly panicked voice (why is he panicking, what?) startled Chase enough for his finger to press the file, causing a huge picture to pop up virtually out of the desk. Chase nearly forgot how to breathe at the picture of Adam, Bree and himself with a Davenport, but not Mr. Davenport. The picture was clearly from security footage, and was quite old. Chase himself looked to be two years old, his side facing the camera as the man behind him held a device to his neck. Right where my chip is Chase thought as his super senses picked up on the words on the computer screen that was connected to the device the man held. Most of it appeared to be coding, but two words stood out perfectly well. 'Triton App'. "Shit."

As soon as the word had left his lips, all of the monitors in the room flickered before shutting off. Looking up quickly, Chase turned to Eddy only to find him shut off as well. "Eddy? What's going on?" Chase asked nervously, not even noticing that his phone call with Marcus had ended. He'd been so focused on his findings, he hadn't even paid attention to the call. Chase tried not to panic as he stepped into his capsule and allowed it to suit him up, but it was hard not to. Eddy controlled the security forces for the estate, so if he was shut down then someone was breaking in. And Chase was the only one home. As he stepped out of his capsule, Chase threw his fists up in a futile gesture and began walking towards the door of the lab.

He didn't have to go far before the elevator doors opened with a ding, sounding much too casual for Chase's freaked out mind. His arms stiffened as Marcus stepped out of the elevator, followed by the man from the photo. Douglas Davenport. Marcus walked with a grim look on his face, even if he walked with determination. Douglas had a giddy grin on his face as he casually crossed his arms and leaned against the wall nearest him, the wall where Eddy had been.

"Marcus, what is this?" Chase asked in a desperate voice. Now that he'd found out so much, he knew Marcus couldn't be trusted but surely there was some explanation? Marcus was his friend.

The boy in question quirked an eyebrow and spread his arms wide. "Oh come on, Chase, you're smarter than that. I'm sure you've already figured quite a bit of it out." Chase narrowed his eyes and squinted at the man behind Marcus, Douglas.

"You want to control our bionics. But I don't understand why you're here; I'm the only one here right now and you haven't made a move all these weeks we've known Marcus." Douglas chuckled as a smirk crossed his face, moving his body to stand upward. Chase couldn't really tell if the guy was evil or not, he was a Davenport after all. And the files had said the bionic project was terminated, but it hadn't said why, or why none of his family knew about Douglas. He was their uncle, it was odd that Mr. Davenport hadn't deigned to mention him.

"Tsk tsk, Chase, I thought you were supposed to be the smartest person on the planet? Don't you know what happens when someone finds something they're not supposed to?"

Chase suddenly felt a chill go down his spine. Okay evil, definitely evil. "B-But you wouldn't kill me if you want to control my bionics," Chase yelped, swallowing down his fear as he readied himself for a fight. He wouldn't go down without one, of course.

"Enough talking," Douglas said, and suddenly Marcus covered the distance between he and Chase. The bionic boy yelped in surprise.

"You're bionic?" he asked in an incredulous voice, his hands coming up to block Marcus's as the other boy tried to grab him.

"Yep," Marcus replied with a grin, throwing a punch at Chase's chest. Chase threw up a force field just in time and planted his feet, causing Marcus to fall backward a few steps. Not wanting to be on the defense, Chase used his magnetism app to easily force Leo's mission specialist desk into Marcus. The other teen quickly hopped over the desk and landed lithely on his feet as the desk smashed into a row of inventions along the wall. A quick flash of green was the only warning Chase had to throw up his force field before Marcus lit up his heat vision. Chase grunted as he took the brunt of the attack on his force field before he dived behind the counter in front of the capsules. Marcus's heat vision sliced threw a chunk of the wall before flickering off as Marcus sped behind the desk. Chase yelped and scrambled backward on his hands and knees, occasionally using his molecular kinesis to send random objects flying at Marcus. The other teen didn't seem to notice as he continued toward Chase, using his heat vision to destroy the objects before they could reach their target.

Finally getting a foothold, Chase performed a backflip and landed cat-like on his feet, his force field coming up as he realized he was trapped between Marcus and the wall. Apparently growing annoyed, Marcus threw his arms to the side and Chase thought he had won. He kept the force field up but before he could say anything, a huge rolling wave of electricity came speeding towards him. It easily dissolved his force field and before he could do anything about it, the wave hit Chase hard and he instantly fell unconscious. His last thought was for Adam and Bree, whom he desperately hoped would be irresponsible for just a little longer so they would be out of harm's way.