Summary: Marcus' dad comes home one day, with a newborn baby in his arms.
Rating: General
Warnings: ---
Publish date: June 10, 2020
Words: 2,205

Note:
This is set VERY pre-canon. Marcus is 6 and 7.

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The door to my room opened and I sprang off my bed.

"You're back!" I yelled as I saw my dad walk into the room. i ran up to him and gave him a big hug.

He patted me on the back and said, "Yes I am. And I'm proud of you, too, Marcus! You kept the whole house in tact!"

I let go and rubbed the back of my neck nervously, "Yeahh, about that..." Dad's been gone for about a week now, so of course I broke something!

I was playing catch with myself in the lab a couple days ago. But we don't have any balls light enough to go super high, so I started throwing around one of his anti-gravity balls. Let's just say, you should probably turn the ball on before throwing it.

But instead of telling all that to dad; "Where were you anyway?" I asked.

Dad smiled and rolled a baby blue baby carriage into my room, "Meet your new baby brother!"

I gasped and ran up to the baby carriage. I was so excited to see what the new baby looked like! Did he look like me? Did he look like Dad? I couldn't believe Dad had a baby!

I peeked into the carriage and was disappointed to see that the baby didn't look like anyone. He was just really small and really hairless. "Oh he's ugly."

"Marcus!" My dad yelled, walked up beside me, "He's a baby!"

"So?" I said, poking the baby's cheek.

Dad sighed and picked up the baby, "His name's Daniel."

I nodded, "That sounds like your name."

"Well- I- He-" Dad stuttered, "I- I guess it does."

He rocked Daniel back and forth, as he started to open his eyes a bit. Dad looked at me looking at him and asked, "Do you want to hold him?"

My eyes widened. I looked at my tiny hands, then back at the tiny baby. As much as I wanted to hold baby Daniel, the numbers didn't add up. I would drop him.

"Don't be shy!"

I sat on the ground, that way I wouldn't drop Daniel far, and motioned for Dad to pass him over. The baby slowly slid into my arms, and I held him tight. He looked up at me curiously, his big brown eyes glistening somehow, despite the fact that the light source in the room was steady.

His eyes started turning red, and I jerked out of the way just in time, as lasers shot up at my bedroom ceiling.

"OK, that's enough Marcus time!" Dad said, taking Daniel out of my hands.

I smiled, "You need to start teaching that baby right away, dad!"

He laughed, "No, he has power replication, so I-" He turned to me, seeing my confused look. He sighed, "He's just a baby."

- - -

"Marcus come down quick!" I heard my dad shout. I immediately perked up from what I was doing and ran out the door, riding down the stairs' railing and shoving myself into the living room.

"Ok I'm here what's wrong!?" I asked rushed. My dad doesn't usually call me like that unless he's in trouble, so, needless to say, I was worried.

But my dad didn't seem to be in trouble. He was sitting on the ground as Daniel walked back and forth between him and his favorite yellow firetruck. "Look at him, Marcus!" He faked whipping a tear off his face, "He's walking."

I crossed my arms, "You mean to tell me that you called me all the way down here, for Daniel walking!?"

"He's walking for the first time!" He continued, before looking up at me excitedly, "THE FIRST TIME!!"

I sighed and sat on the couch, watch as Daniel walked from left to right from left to right. I'm surprised his speed isn't going out of control. My dad told me all the time about how when I first learned to walk, I knocked over so many nick-knacks by bumping into counters and bookshelves.

"How is he doing that?" I asked.

"Doing what?"

I pointed to Daniel, "Walking! And not Speeding!"

Dad's face turned into a slightly worried expression, and he sighed, "Daniel's not like you, Marcus." He explained, "He..."

"...he what?" I prompted.

"...Doesn't have speed!" Dad said, "Yeah! That's right! No speed!"

I raised an eyebrow, but decided not to say anything. Dad was acting a tad fishy, but it's probably just the stress of parenting.

Because it's not like he's done THAT before!

- - -

I walked into the lab to do my weekly checks. Every week, I'm supposed to sort through Adam, Bree, and Chase's chips to see if there's been any "unusual activity." Dad never explained to me what exactly that means, but I assume I'll know when I find it.

I'm also not sure why I only check Adam, Bree, and Chase's. Like, what make them so special? Why don't I check everyone's chip?

But Dad only seems interested in Adam, Bree, and Chase. I don't know who they are, but Dad seems to keep watch on them. Maybe they're his friends, and he's trying to figure out the best way to ask them over?

I hope I can meet them one day. Maybe I could help Dad plan a playdate.

Something is off about the lab today, and I notice it almost immediately. In the center of the lab, Daniel is playing with a remote control helicopter.

"Danny no!" I shout, immediately surprised by the nickname I used. I sprinted to where Daniel sat and yanked the controller out his hand, redirecting the helicopter to land peacefully on the ground.

He looked at me sadly, and I sighed, sitting down beside him. "You can't play with things in here." I said.

"Wy?"

I smiled. Daniel had recently just learned to talk, and he really seems to be getting the hang of it. "Because it's dangerous. You might get hurt."

Daniel stared at me for a moment extra, before, "oak kay, Marcos."

I felt something inside of me do a little happy explosion. Marcos. It wasn't perfectly correct, but Daniel had just said my name for the first time.

"Marcus." I corrected, but Daniel just tilted his head in confusion.

I turned the toy helicopter around in my hand, surprised to see that there wasn't even a scratch.

Dad had started teaching me when I was 9 months. Or at least that's what he says. Daniel is 20 months now, he should be taught now, too!

I put the helicopter on a nearby desk and pointed to it, "Shoot?" I prompted. I wasn't exactly sure how to teach a toddler, but hey.

Daniel tilted his head at me, so I decided to do a demonstration.

"Woahh." Daniel awed.

I smiled, "Now you shoot." I directed. Daniel looked at the helicopter and squinted his eyes, but nothing came out.

"Come on!" I mumbled, "I know you can do it! I've seen you!"

Daniel stopped trying and looked at the ground. "No Marcos."

I felt my heart drop and I walked up to Daniel, giving him a hug. But the second I touched him, he lit up. I let out a startled yelp and backed away from him.

And then he stood up and shot the helicopter.

"Marcus, what's going on-" My dad poked his head in the doorway just as the helicopter fell to the floor. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

I smiled proudly, "Teaching Daniel!"

"You can't do that Marcus!" He shouted, running up and picking up Daniel.

"Why not?" I asked, starting to feel myself get a little angry,

"He's a baby-"

"You started teaching me when I was 9 months old!" I yelled.

"I'm protecting him!" He defended.

"Oh, so you weren't protecting me?!" I shouted.

Dad went quiet.

I continued, angry, and quite frankly enjoying lashing out for once, "I wasn't worth protecting to you? Your first son, not worth protecting? What, was I not cute enough?"

Daniel started to cry.

Dad just pat his back, "Mark look-"

"Don't Mark me!" I cross my arms, "You never even used nicknames until Daniel was born!" I decided not to include the fact that I had just used a nickname on Daniel like 10 minutes ago.

He sighed, "Marcus, I didn't want to have this talk now, but I feel like you need to know." He switched Daniel over to his other shoulder, "You're bionic. You're not as normal as I play you off to be."

I quieted. So did Daniel.

"Not everyone has chips in the back of their heads." He explained, "And not everyone can Speed and Shoot and Tinker."

He'd never told me this. My entire life I went around thinking other kids could run at 200mph, shoot lasers from their eyes, and precisely calculate how much whipped cream they can eat before spontaneously combusting. But apparently not.

Dad sighed, noticing my expression, which was currently a mix of fear, confusion, and hurt, "I implant bionics into Daniel before I got a chance to think about it." He elaborated, "But I realised that I wanted a normal kid."

"Of course," I said quietly, hurt by his words, "Because I'm not normal enough for my own father." And with that, I stomped past him and up to my room.

- - -

I woke up the next morning, my body and thoughts refreshed.

I've gotten into the habit of checking on Daniel when I first wake up, especially since I usually wake up before him. So I got out of bed, not even bothering to change yet, and walked to his room.

The first thing I noticed was that his nightlight was off. Odd, since Daniel can never sleep without his nightlight.

Then I walked up to the crib and noticed it was empty. "Danny?" I whispered, the somewhat new nickname catching on.

I assumed he was with Dad downstairs, but I really didn't feel like confronting Dad after our argument last night. So I just tried to pretend it didn't happen as I walked downstairs.

I walked into the living room and was greeted by my dad on the couch, reading a book titled, "How To Be A Rich, Handsome, AND Talented Man! (you can't, it's kinda my thing)."

But there was no Daniel.

"Dad?" I asked, shocked to hear that my voice already sounded slightly panicked, "Where's Daniel?

Dad didn't even look up from his book, "I sent him away." He said casually.

"WHAT?" I screamed.

He just shrugged, "I disabled his bionics for good and sent him to a nice, normal family."

There's that word again. Normal. Cuz that's sure something I'll never be.

"And you didn't even think to ask me?" I felt some of my anger from yesterday rekindling to the surface, but for an entirely different reason.

"You're my son, Marcus." He said, closing his book and putting it to the side, "I don't need to run all my plans by you."

I shot him a look of angry confusion and retorted, "Yeah, but maybe you could've mentioned it?"

"Look," He kept his tone quiet, but he was starting to get annoyed. Either that, or he just didn't care anymore, "He's my son-"

"And he's my brother!" I cut him off, starting to feel tears prick at my eyelids. Oh no, I was not going to cry over an infant.

"Stop it Marcus." He commanded simply.

"You just sent my brother away!"

"Cut it out Marcus!" He warned.

"And you didn't even give me a chance to say bye!"

"Marcus!" His tone was serious, and he was definitely going to send me to my chamber if I said another word. But I couldn't not say anything.

"I LOVED HIM, DAD!" I finally shouted, and the tears that were building up suddenly started flowing. When my dad didn't say anything, I continued, "He's the only brother I'll ever have. I was... I felt like a big brother. I felt like I was... shaping the little guy. I was starting to think about... about this life we'd live together." I collapsed to the ground, not knowing if it was because I was just tired of standing, or because I couldn't take the weight of the world in that moment.

"I would finally have someone to play with. And tell secrets to. And maybe jam with, if he ever learnt the drums..."

"...I'm sorry Marcus."

I sniffed, realizing that I was, like, crying-crying, "Yeah."

"But please realize that this pains me, too." He said, "Daniel was my son just as much as he was your brother."

I nodded. I understood, but it didn't make me any less upset.

"I was scared for his wellbeing here. He wasn't supposed to be bionic."

And I was?

I stood up, about to leave, when a thought occurred to me, "Hey Dad?" I asked, and he hummed in response, "Are there any other secrets you're hiding from me?"

He looked up at me for a second, before looking back down at his book, "Yes."

When I realized he wouldn't continue, I just nodded and headed up to my room, hoping one day maybe I'd be able to reunite with my baby brother.

- - -

I haven't seen him since.