Capítulo XVI- Una Trampa

Douglas, Leo, and Patience sprinted into their high school. Falling down the lab's storage compartments was something she wouldn't recommend. Her butt ached from landing on it after barely any warning from Leo.

They stopped to catch their breath in the middle of the main hallway. Douglas stated, "We'll hide here till we figure out our next move."

"You know things are bad if school is my safe place," Leo motioned around him.

Patience nodded her head agreeing. She drifted to the circular bench to rest, but clattering caught her attention. She averted her gaze to Perry searching through Bree's locker. "Principal Perry?"

Perry instantaneously held her hands up in surrender and slammed them against her locker. She parted her feet as if someone was going to check her for a weapon. Realizing it was only her two students and Douglas, she peeled herself off and shut Bree's locker.

"Why are you looking through Bree's locker?" Patience asked.

"Certainly not stealing stuff to sell at my bionic souvenir shop. Ooh, I see you brought the one family member who doesn't disgust me." She pushed Leo and Patience aside and curtsied in front of Douglas, "Hello."

Douglas placed his hand out before she could get closer. "Principal Perry, we need your help."

"Please, call me Terry. It's easy to remember because it rhymes with marry," she put up her hand, fiddling her fingers.

"Yeah. If it's okay, I'd still like to call you principal because it rhymes with... I have a girlfriend."

Patience pursed her lips at Douglas and Perry. Leo interjected, "Special agents took over the house and have Adam, Bree, and Chase in custody."

"Put a sock in it! Mama's trying to get her groove back!" Principal Perry snapped.

"It's true. For all we know, they're being grilled by the feds," Douglas confirmed.

"No, no, no. If the feds find out I was in on this, I'm cooked. Well, I guess there's only one thing left to do." Perry withdrew her phone from her pocket, "Trade you three for my freedom."

Patience snatched Perry's phone out of her hand, "I'm sorry, but I have to." She hid behind Douglas.

"Why are you hiding behind me?"

"Because she wouldn't lay a scratch on you."

Douglas sighed, taking the phone from Patience. He positioned his hands out in front of Perry. "You're our only friend right now."

"Well, who can say no to a man with such hairy knuckles?" Perry grasped her phone and rubbed Douglas's hand against her cheek.

Leo and Patience grimaced. He stepped forward, "We don't think the bionic video was an accident." Leo showed Perry the photo of the girl on his phone. "This is the girl who did it. Have you seen her?"

"No, but email me the picture and I'll run it through our student-faculty database. It's supposed to be used for transcripts, but I use it to play the ugly-face-ugly-name game. Be back in a flash my little love troll," Perry growled at Douglas as she proceeded to her office.

Leo and Patience's eyes widened in disgust. They shook their heads off. "If the mission alert was for a burst pipeline because of seismic activity how come we didn't receive any readings for an earthquake?"

Leo read over his phone's screen. "That's weird, this geological website says there was no significant seismic activity yesterday."

Perry walked out, holding a piece of paper in her hand. Douglas hid behind Leo and Patience. "Nothing came up on your gal. The records say she doesn't exist. But check out the horse face on this French teacher from Modesto. Bonjour, Matilda Flart." She jumped scared the trio with the photo.

Leo scratched his head, beginning his sentence, "So no seismic activity, no trace of the girl-"

"That mission was a setup," Patience concluded.

Douglas pointed at the duo, "If we could find evidence that the pipe was sabotaged, that would prove it. Let's go check the mission site."

"Wait!" The trio stopped at Perry's call. "There's one other thing you should know. The school board frowns on parents dating teachers, but let's be honest. You ain't no parent, and I ain't no teacher."

Douglas didn't say anything, he only pointed at the door. The three picked up their pace, leaving Perry behind.

Patience followed Bree's superspeed trail. It followed along the pipeline, she checked for any more cracks nearby. The only one that was visible or cracked was the section Adam and Chase fixed. Patience returned back to Douglas and Leo.

Leo motioned in front of the bush the girl hid behind, "Hey, check this out. That looks like a superspeed trail."

Douglas and Patience ran to Leo's side. Douglas stood on his tippy toes to see further, "Yeah, you're right. That couldn't be Bree's."

"Bree's goes down the pipeline and to the east. This one's going south," Patience observed.

"Wait, isn't that the bush the girl was hiding behind?" Leo pointed to the area.

Douglas stood beside it. He copied the girl's movements, "Yeah."

"But, if the trail isn't Bree's, then it must be hers. Could she be bionic?"

"Did you make more bionic people that we don't know of?" Patience asked Douglas.

"No, impossible. The only other person with bionics is... is Krane."

"But how could Krane be the girl?" Leo sent Douglas a look, "Wait, did you give him a cyber mask?"

"I might have."

Patience crossed her arms, "Is there any more secrets you'd like to tell us?"

"And I also might have given him a full-body cyber cloak, too. But he was only supposed to use it on Halloween! Last year, we went as Brad and Angelina."

Patience smiled, "No way, really?"

"Yeah, we signed tons of fake autographs and got into fancy restaurants."

"Anyway," Leo rose his voice. "So the girl who took the video is actually Krane. What do we do now?"

"I don't know about you, but I'm slapping on a cyber mask and selling apples by the highway," Douglas bolted. Leo and Patience glanced at each other as Douglas took off.

"And that's why Krane cloaked himself as the girl and posted the video. He knew the feds would take Adam, Bree, and Chase out of the picture," Leo explained to Principal Perry.

"Quick question. At any point during your dealings with this Krane guy, did my name come up?"

"No, why?" Patience asked.

"Then get out of my school!" Perry pushed them to the front doors.

"Stop!" Perry dropped her hands. "Look, we need to tell someone about Krane. It may not free our family, but maybe the feds can stop him," Leo informed.

Patience continued, "Principal Perry, we can't waste any more time."

"Totally agree. Dooley, Valmorida, you go back to the house," Perry demanded, "while me and Douglas hunker down in a remote cabin, very remote, where no one will hear your screams." Douglas backed away from her.

The school doors slammed open. Krane held his hands out, pointing at Douglas, Leo, and Patience, "There you are." Leo and Patience stiffened, the pair stepped back. "It's always the last place you look, isn't it?"

"If you're the new health inspector, the money's on my desk in an envelope marked 'Art Supplies'," Perry instructed.

Douglas tapped Leo's back, telling him to tell Perry about Krane. "That's Krane," Leo mumbled.

Perry grabbed Leo and Patience's shoulder, propelling them to Krane, "Please, take the defenseless children, but leave me the dreamboat of a man."

Douglas ignored the older woman's hug, stepping next to Leo and Patience. "How did you know we were here?"

"I've had someone keeping tabs on you. S-1!" Krane called out. A tan-skinned girl entered the building, her ponytail swung back and forth ambling to them.

"You weren't wearing a cyber mask at the mission sight. It was an actual girl?" Patience's eyebrows furrowed. She complimented, "And she's pretty too."

"You're too kind." S-1 returned the compliment, holding a hard glare. "A shame you are too."

"Awe, thank you. Wait- why?"

Krane cut in the two girls' conversation. "S-1's no mere girl. She's a genetically engineered super-soldier." He strode closer to the group of four.

Douglas pointed at S-1, "She's bionic, too?"

"You should be proud. Your technology has come in very handy. I've also upgraded your triton app so that I can control her abilities directly from my brain." They glanced at her and S-1's eyes glowed green.

Leo faced Douglas, "Wait, if she's a bionic human, how come she doesn't have a heat signature?"

Krane replied, "It's one of her many abilities. She can manipulate her body temperature to adapt to her surroundings."

"Where is this going, Krane?" Douglas pressed, "What's your plan?"

Krane darkly chuckled, "The world will find out soon enough, but you won't." Electricity sparked from Krane's fingertips. Patience hooked her arm with Leo stepping aside near the exit.

Perry pulled the fire alarm, its loud siren penetrated the halls. "Ha! The fire department will be here any minute!"

"Good, then they can clean up the mess." Krane gathered an electric blast in his left hand and released its energy at Douglas and Perry. They groaned, collapsing to the ground.

"No!" Leo and Patience shouted. Their hearts pounded against their chest backing away.

S-1 raised her hand, "Can I take care of one of them?'

"Of course, just make it hurt."

Leo and Patience sprinted to the door, but a force stopped them. A blue bubble surrounded Leo and Patience was stopped by Krane's molecular kinesis. "Let us go!" they begged. An evil smirk appeared on Krane's face.

S-1 charged a blue ball in her right hand while the other held Leo in place. She threw one at one end of the support beam above Leo and Patience. She threw the other on the other side. The beam cracked, sending dust particles to blind some of Patience's vision.

Krane used his free hand to drop the support beam with his molecular kinesis. Leo and Patience shouted as they were crushed by the beam. An intense pain struck up Patience's lower body and she heard her name being shouted by Leo before she blacked out.