Capítulo XVII- Von Schtopp

     Ever since Leo and Patience escaped the lair, she didn't feel comfortable in her own home. Marcus breaking into her home was one thing, but installing cameras in her home own was another. Her privacy was invaded and she didn't know when she could feel comfortable again.

     Patience couldn't even defend herself if she tried. A purple and yellow hue bruise was marked on her right wrist. She couldn't hide it with bracelets without her wrist aching from their weight, so she wore long-sleeved clothing. The bruise wasn't as bad as it was, she treated it by icing it whenever she could and putting ointment.

     Marcus hadn't acted on anything since the lair incident. That didn't stop Patience from looking over her shoulder. She was afraid of what he could do. She did feel much better hanging around Adam, Bree, and Chase, Patience stuck around them a little bit more than she usually does.

     The one problem was that Dante didn't know what was happening. She was worried that Marcus could strike on her father any moment and she wouldn't know. It wasn't like she could text him every second of the day to know his whereabouts. As long as he texted her every day wondering where she was, it lifted a bit of weight on her shoulders.

     Mr. Davenport called Adam, Bree, Chase, Leo, and Patience into the great room. A glint of curiosity gleamed in Patience's eyes when they fixed to the object covered by a grey tarp. She stood in front of it as Mr. Davenport did a little dance.

     "Hey, guys, check this out. I picked this up at auction today, and it only cost me a million dollars," Mr. Davenport beamed.

     Adam furrowed his eyebrows, "What- For a sheet? Boy, I guess I'd better start saving up if I'm gonna be a ghost for Halloween."

     Mr. Davenport corrected him, "It's a painting, Adam, by a very famous artist named Von Schtopp," he unveiled the warm multi-colored abstract painting.

     Leo hummed, "I wish I would have been there to 'Von Schtopp' you from buying it." Mr. Davenport glared at Leo.

     "What is it?"

     "It's abstract art, Adam. It's whatever you think it is," answered Mr. Davenport.

     Bree tilted her head, observing the painting, "I think it's a crying woman."

     Patience pursed her lips, stepping forward, "It kinda looks like tiny aliens."

     "I think it's a storm at sea," Chase pitched in.

     Leo remarked, "I think someone just blew a million bucks."

     Mr. Davenport's ringtone blasted. He withdrew his phone from his front pocket, "That's me. Davenport Industries. Hello? Uh-huh. Oh, boy. All right." He hung up. "Looks like I've got to put out a fire at work."

     Chase asked, "What happened?"

     "Betty from accounting got her head caught in the positron collider again."

     "Again?" Patience said, perplexed.

     "Yeah, that's gonna be messy," Mr. Davenport proceeded to the front door. "Can you guys put that in the art vault for me?

     "Wait, you have an art vault?" Leo turned to Mr. Davenport.

     "When are you guys gonna learn? I have uh everything," Mr. Davenport chuckled, "But whatever you do, do not touch the Davenportraits."

     "What's a Davenportrait?"

     Patience expected Mr. Davenport to have a lot of anomalous things. An art room full of copied paintings with his face painted on them was not expected. You could say that Mr. Davenport was very eccentric after encountering his secret art vault above the lab or very conceited.

     Agape, Leo had his hands on his cheeks like The Scream painting. Patience waved her hand in front of his face. "Am I screaming out loud or just inside my head?" he asked her.

     Patience nonchalantly replied, "In your head."

     "I'm just gonna say it," Chase shook his head, "Davenport is one weird dude."

     Patience glanced up at Chase, "He is a list of many things." Chase and Patience nodded their heads.

     Adam positioned the painting on the wooden easel that was ready for its new painting to sit on. "Ah. Voila. The Van Scht-" Adam turned around to sneeze. The group groaned telling him to turn someplace else to avoid getting sneezed on. Adam faced the painting sneezing and burned a hole in it.

     Their eyes widened at the hole in the center of the painting. Chase rushed to the canvas, "Adam, what did you do?"

     Adam harshly blinked, "Oh, I think that sneeze accidentally triggered my heat vision!"

     Leo walked to the painting examining the ruined art, "Big D is going to freak out!"

     "Okay, okay, let's not freak out right now. There should be something that can fix this," Patience asserted.

     Chase added, "This hole is barely noticeable." Adam sneezed again, blasting at the painting again. "That, however, is incredibly noticeable!" Chase exclaimed. He put a hand on his hip and rubbed his forehead with the other.

     Patience sucked in a breath, crossing her arms, "Oh, this is bad, really bad."

     "Adam, if you're going to destroy paintings, do it to those!" Leo gestured to the art vault of the Davenportraits.

     Chase stood behind the painting, looking through the hole. He stepped out and exclaimed, "Adam, I cannot believe you just destroyed Mr. Davenport's million-dollar painting!"

     Bree scoffed. "Mr. Davenport's gonna kill us when he sees what happened."

     Adam shrugged his right shoulder, "Okay, well, maybe he won't notice if we fill the room with things that look much more hideous."

     "More hideous? Have you seen the Daven Lisa?" Bree pointed to the painting across the room.

     The elevator dinged, Bree tossed Adam the tarp to cover it up. The five teenagers pretended to be focused on different paintings on the wall. Mr. Davenport eyed them suspiciously. They dropped the act, stepping towards Davenport.

     "Hey, Big D. What are you doing back?" inquired Leo.

     "Uh, I forgot something. I forgot that I left my million-dollar painting in the hands of the five most destructive teenagers in the world! Please tell me it's okay."

     "It's fine."

     "Looks great."

     "It's fine. Great."

     Mr. Davenport shrugged, walking to his painting. Leo hustled in front of him, "Hey, wait. Hey. We've already seen this one, and it's boring." He turned to another painting, "I would like to know more about this beautiful... what are we looking at?"

     "Yeah, I remember posing for that one. You know it took us hours to get the fruit positioned just right?" Mr. Davenport and Leo cocked their heads to the side, studying the painting.

     Patience stepped to the side to get a better look at it. It was a regular fruit bowl painting except it had Mr. Davenport's face on the apple. She squinted her eyes, making sure her eyes weren't deceiving her.

     "Well, you've just killed apples for me," Leo said.

     "I was gonna be the big banana, but I thought that'd be a little too much."

     Mr. Davenport went back to his newly bought painting. Adam, Bree, Chase, and Patience blocked his way. "Don't do that!" Chase held his hands up.

     "Why not?"

     "Uh, because. B-because have an idea. You should pose for a Daven-Sculpture." Chase put an arm around Mr. Davenport's shoulder, escorting him away from the painting.

     "Daven-Sculpture! Yes!" Davenport grabbed Chase's shoulders, "Chase, your brilliance is only matched by your good taste. I'm gonna get to work on that right away. Oh! Get ready, guys, for six feet of stone-cold me!" Mr. Davenport jogged into the elevator.

     Bree crossed her arms, "Six feet?"

     "There's a pedestal!"

     Chase came out of the elevator doors with the painting in his hands. "Okay, Mr. Davenport's gonna be at the sculptor's studio for a few more hours. They're only up to his knees," he informed everyone.

     "How do you know that?" Bree asked.

     "Because he's giving me a photo play-by-play," Chase showed them the picture on his phone. They grimaced and groaned, pulling away from him.

     Leo began, "Okay, there's got to be some way to fix this painting."

     Patience rose a finger, "I was thinking we could maybe buy or make a replica."

     Chase piped up, "I can pull an image of the painting from my internal hard drive and project it onto a blank canvas. Then we can trace it and paint over it."

     Leo disagreed, "That'll never work. We can't paint that fast."

     Bree cleared her throat. Adam retorted, "Hey, do you mind? We're trying to think over here."

     "I can paint that fast," Bree rolled her eyes.

     "Good for you. Quit bragging and help us come up with a solution."

     Adam, Bree, Chase, Leo, and Patience came back from the art store just downtown. They bought the same size canvas as the original work, acrylics, and the finest paintbrushes they could find. They set the easel down and Chase rested the painting on it.

     "All right, here we go," Chase touched the side of his temple, finding the image of the original artwork. He moved in front of the blank canvas and projected the artwork, "All right, Bree, do your thing."

     Bree took the ready paint palette and brush from Patience's hands. She used her super-speed to copy the exact replica within seconds. Bree stepped beside it, "Done and done. What do you think?"

     "It's perfect."

     "Can't tell the difference."

     "I could see the little aliens again."

     "Still ugly."

     "All right, well, we don't have much time. We'll go hang the replica. Adam, you take care of the original," Chase instructed.

     "What? What am I supposed to do with it?"

     "Hide it someplace that Mr. Davenport will never find it. Make it disappear!" Chase handed Adam the ravaged canvas.

     "Okay, but I'm gonna need a magic wand and a volunteer from the audience." Adam crouched, smiling at Bree, "How 'bout you, young lady?

     Bree commanded, "Just go."

     Adam left the lab and Chase picked up the canvas as Patience took the easel. The four shuffled to the elevator and pressed the button for the level above. The elevator dinged, opening its doors. Patience returned the easel to its exact position it was before.

     Chase set the art on the easel, "There."

     Patience examined the painting, "Isn't it upside down?"

     Chase shrugged, "Mr. Davenport will never know the difference."

     "Ok, Let's be honest," Leo put out his two hands, "if it's not a mirror or his bank account he's not really paying attention."

     "Hey!" Mr. Davenport entered the art vault. The four teens fixed their posture. "What are you doing down here?"

     "What are we doing down here," Chase uncomfortably chuckled, "Well we're down here because your painting really spoke to us."

     Bree smiled, "That's right and it said, uh, uh, I'm lonely. Come hang out with me. It's a lot like you that way."

     Mr. Davenport rose his eyebrows at Bree's response. He narrowed his eyes at the painting, the quartet glanced at each other. Mr. Davenport faced them, "Did you guys really think I wouldn't notice?"

     "What do you mean?" asked Chase.

     "You are looking at this upside down," Davenport flipped his painting right side up. Patience smiled saying, 'I knew it' at Chase who merely pursed his lips, hiding a smile.

-

The fact that Chase and Patience's names mean the exact opposite of each other and I didn't even do that on purpose. I noticed I did it on accident writing halfway through act one and it hit me again.

-Aithusa