Capítulo XVII - Los presentó a Spikette

Patience glanced over Douglas's shoulder to view the bionics listed on the device. Her students were up first to test the device he made to view their list of abilities. Her students were a bit weary of her trying the device after his past creations like the Stabber 2000, Plague in a Bottle, and the torturing lie detector test Bob once experienced. So to have her students feel secure, she stood by Douglas's side and supervised him.

Silvia cut her conversation with Apollo behind her as her turn was next. She was the sixth person in line for the testing and so far no one has had any side effects. The suspicion was no longer in her eyes as she tilted her head away from the device. Douglas hovered it over her exposed neck. A small beep came after the click and Douglas read over the two words on the screen.

Patience said, typing onto her tablet, "You have invisibility!"

"Wait, really?" Silvia reached for the device and turned it to herself. "I do! That is gonna come in so handy."

"I don't trust you one bit with that app," Apollo stated, taking a step back.

"Why's that?"

"'Cause, you're always hitting me."

"That's cause you're always doing stupid things."

Xue raised her hand, "I can second that as a witness."

Apollo crossed his arms and sent her a side-eye. "Don't look at her like that. You know it's true, you're attitude is nasty 8 out of 10 times," Silvia defended.

Douglas nodded, "You're really moody, it's kinda sad sometimes."

"Okay," Patience clapped her hands. She didn't know how to deal with their arguments and cringed when Apollo and Xue spoke. It was something she would need to work on between them. "We can debate on Apollo's politeness later. We're holding up the line."

Silvia stepped to the side. Apollo exposed his neck as he rolled his eyes at Douglas. "What's up, Douglas? Doing a price check on bionic kids?" Leo asked, popping up behind him.

"Ooh, I wonder how much I'm worth," Adam questioned.

"Well, we could sell you for parts and find out," Chase crossed his arms, grinning.

"All right. Well, just don't sell the part that does this!" He drew his fist back and punched Chase on his arm.

Chase clutched his shoulder, "Ow!"

Patience put some space between Adam and Chase. She explained, "Douglas is cataloging everyone's bionic abilities. We started with my students and I'm noting down their abilities for their future training."

"Oh, cool, count me in," Adam said.

Bree placed her hands on her hips and shrugged. "Adam, we already know what your abilities are."

"Ugh, okay, you got me. I just really like waiting in lines," he said, jumping in front of Xue.

Xue held her arm out, "Hey, you can be at the end of the line with Bob and Spin."

"But they're all the way in the back."

"You just said you like waiting in lines?" her eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah, I did. You got me," he smiled. "I'll be with Bob and Spin."

Xue held a confused look on her face as she watched him walk to the end of the line to the talking boys. She then looked at Bree and Patience, gesturing her thumb to him. Bree sighed, standing next to her, "Yeah, I give him that look more often than anyone."

"In addition to the bionics we know they have," Douglas returned to the topic, "Krane also gave them a lot of weird hidden abilities. Just trying to get a grip on what we're dealing with. We just found out Silvia has invisibility."

"With training, we can help her unlock it. She might need to go to some of your classes, Bree," Patience stated.

"That's so awesome! She's like a ghost!" Leo exclaimed. He pointed at her, "That'll be your codename for missions."

Silvia stuck her hip out, "I'm sure we can think of something a little more creative."

"No, I like it. That's your codename," he didn't let it go. "It's an idea."

Patience turned her tablet on and pressed in the passcode. "What did Apollo get?"

Douglas listed, "Hydrokinesis and oh, that's interesting." His change of tone captured the teenagers' full attention. He hummed, "Water Healing?" Apollo exchanged glances with Silvia. The mentors gathered around Douglas and read the letters on the small screen, Water Healing. "I didn't know, Krane was researching that."

"He can heal too?" Patience beamed.

"Water healing? What even is that?" Apollo asked. "I can heal myself if I go for a swim?"

"It could be." He raised his finger, "We'd have to do some research on this, but hypothetically, you can use water to heal yourself and maybe others too."

"Apollo, that's amazing!" Chase elaborated, "You know, a lot of cultures actually use water to heal themselves whether it'd be cleansing the body or the soul. That'll come in handy in missions or rescues. Though, I don't know how long it'll take to discover how to utilize that ability."

Apollo interjected, "Let me get the hang of my Hydrokinesis or whatever it's called first before I do that. I'd rather not be arrested for another crime I didn't have control over."

"Right! Hydrokinesis first," Patience nodded. "One step at a time."

Apollo stepped out of his place in line. He and Silvia lingered for Xue's abilities to be shared. The device revealed Xue to have Resistance to Fire and Hot Environments. The small friend group collected Xue by their side and let everyone pass until Bob, Spin, and Kate.

Unfortunately to Bob, he didn't have a new ability. Only Spin's results represented that he could create gales with his rapid gyration. It was a sub-ability to one he already had. Most of Patience's students had abilities to go on par with the ones they already had. However, Kate was a different case. When the Commando App appeared on the screen, Patience tried to keep a smile on her face. Douglas hid the screen away from Kate when her results were revealed and lied about holding a different ability yet to be discovered.

As Patience reviewed the data with Douglas during lunch, they spoke about removing the app. Guilt built in Patience hiding the app in Kate's chip. She couldn't forget the smile beaming on Kate's face after being the only one without a specific bionic ability. She did her best to push it away remembering the dangerous app. The Commando App was unpredictable and the one thing Kate hated was the unexpected.

Silvia once put Kate as Anxiety if it had feet, which wasn't too inaccurate.

"Chase," Patience called out. He turned around as he set his water down. He and Bree were sitting together eating their lunch in the cafeteria. "Chase, we just found out someone else has the Commando App."

He leaned his arm against the back of his chair, "What? I thought I was the only one with that app."

"Yeah," Douglas lowered himself and placed a hand on his shoulder, "you're not that special."

Chase turned to Patience and Bree. Bree motioned to herself, "Don't look at me, I've been trying to tell you that for years."

"Don't listen to them," Patience said. "We found someone in my class with the app."

"Is it Apollo?" He acknowledged, "If you look at him wrong, his eye will start twitching at you."

"Yeah, we're working on his attitude," Patience, nodded, pursing her lips. "But no, it's not him."

Douglas lightly elbowed her and whispered, "And good thing it isn't 'cause we would've been at the bottom of the ocean months ago." The three mentors agreed with him, nodding. "The real identity of her is Kate."

They glanced at Kate. Her face scrunched up attempting to open the ketchup bottle as she grunted. "Open!"

"Kate?" he gestured to her. "She's the most timid girl in the whole academy! I've seen her run from her own shadow."

"That was a misunderstanding," Patience defended her. "It was one time. She thought she saw a ghost 'cause Spin was trying to scare Bob into doing his chores."

"She still ran from her own shadow."

"... yeah. But she was just caught off guard."

Douglas grinned, "That's the beauty of the Commando App. The enemy is caught off guard by a non-threatening subject."

Chase pointed to himself, "But I have the Commando App."

He laughed, "Yes you do." He composed himself and stated, "Look, we didn't want to scare Kate, so I told her she had a phosphorescence ability instead. So until I can figure out a way to remove the app, make sure nothing triggers it and sets off... Spikette."

"Spike-ette?"

"Catchy, right?"

Bree's mouth twisted as she gave him a side-eye. Patience informed, "I told him to be more creative and pulled out a list of baby names. He was already too stuck on it."

Douglas firmly said, "I like it and I'm keeping it." He whipped around and walked off before Patience could request another name.

Bree stood up and grabbed her finished plate. Chase stopped her, "Oh, this is perfect." She dumped the excess food in the trash. Both girls faced Chase as he continued, "I've never seen my Commando App in action. If I can activate Spikette, maybe I can figure out a way to control it, which would help the both of us."

"No," Patience immediately rejected. "Kate isn't an experiment and the Cammando app is too dangerous for that to happen."

"But I can-"

Bree interjected, "No, Chase! You heard Douglas and Patience. We are not here to experiment on the students. We're here to help them. Listen to your girlfriend, she's Kate's mentor."

He sighed, "Fine."

"Thank you," Patience smiled. "Bree and I are gonna go talk to the students about their new abilities."

"Well, just Xue and Silvia," she corrected.

Patience said, "Apollo might tag along because of Silvia..." The girls stuck to each other's side drifting toward the exit of the cafeteria. The volume of their voices slowly dying the further they left Chase's range.

Chase was left scooting his chair back into place. He grabbed his water bottle and before he could leave the cafeteria, Kate politely requested, "Excuse me, Chase? Can you help me open this?" She showed him the ketchup bottle.

"Sure." He wrapped his hand around the bottle cap, however, he halted. "Wait...did you just ask for my help?"

She broke eye contact with him and looked back at him confused, "Yes?"

He gestured to himself and Kate, "So you want me to help you?

"Uh, huh..."

"Me, Chase," he once again gestured to himself and Kate, "is gonna help you, Kate?"

Kate knew the students were judgemental of Chase because of the strict way he taught compared to the other teachers and she knew he was a little weird. But she had some faith in him because he and Patience were dating. It took one conversation between and she could tell how gentle his behavior could be.

However, she slowly threw the ideas out the window as he strangely motioned between himself and her. Her forehead creased as her foot took a step back. "Okay. Maybe I should just ask someone else," she took the bottle from his hands.

"Oh, no! You asked for my help and you're getting it!" He hauled Kate by the wrist as he grinned, "There's no turning back!"

Kate wished she could turn back. Chase took her to the training room and placed her on a chair. One second he was thinking to himself and the next he was yelling at her face. Kate drew her face back to avoid her questions, attempting to answer him with honest answers. She couldn't look at him in the face as he circled her. She feared if she did, she might cry.

It was an unnecessary intimidation over a ketchup bottle she wanted to open. She winced every time his voice rose to a higher level, shrinking in her chair. Kate wanted to get up and return to the lunch she nearly finished. She should have accepted Silvia's invitation to hang out at lunchtime, but she just wanted to avoid Apollo.

Currently, Kate would rather sit awkwardly next to Apollo because she didn't know how she was able to let Chase convince her into a clown suit moments later. She stood in front of a group of students in the hydroloop area, staring at her feet.

Chase paced back and forth, rubbing his forehead, "What does it take to trigger this app? We've tried fear, intimidation–"

As the students laughed at Kate, her face crumpled, "Embarrassment. I don't mean to be rude, but how is this helping me open a bottle of ketchup."

"Oh, ketchup, you're still on that? This is a life lesson," he demanded, "Use mustard!"

She held her hands out, "Okay, I'll go find some."

Kate's suit bounced as she jogged toward the kitchen. She ignored the stares of the students as she made her way through the tunnels and rooms in the academy. Even when she saw the familiar figures in the cafeteria by her tray. She couldn't let them see her in the outfit. Kate was scolding herself for not removing it before she searched for the bottle of mustard.

Until Apollo asked, "Kate? What are you wearing?"

She stopped and looked at him. She was surprised to see the concern on his face. She expected him to chuckle just like Bob was. "Kate, why are you wearing a clown costume?" Bob gasped, "Is it my birthday, already?"

Apollo, Bob, Patience, Silvia, Spin, and Xue all looked at her. Xue scoffed at the younger boy, "It's not your birthday, Bob."

"Aw."

Silvia said, "We've been looking for you. Where have you been?"

"Oh, I've been trying to open a bottle of ketchup," she wiggled the bottle in her hand. "So, I'm getting mustard instead."

Patience asked, eyebrows furrowing, "What does ketchup and mustard have to do with a clown costume?"

"Yeah, you don't really have other friends to throw a party with," Spin pointed out. The four older teenagers looked down at him and he shrugged, "What? I'm just as confused as everyone else."

"Well, you see, I asked Chase to help me open this bottle of ketchup thirty minutes ago. Then he started acting really weird- not to be rude, Patience."

"It's okay. None, taken." She gave a half-shrug, "We've been dating for almost a year, I know how he is."

"He started asking if I needed his help and I said "Yeah". Then he took me to the training area, told me to sit in a chair, and yelled at me for 30 minutes. Then he told me to put this costume on to see if humiliation would help trigger something," her forehead creased and her hands moved around, recalling the events. "But my ketchup bottle isn't open. Patience, I'm really confused."

Patience's lips downturned to a deep frown, "I'm not. I know exactly what's happening."

"What is it?" Silvia asked.

"I can't really say just yet. But I'll explain later. Kate, can you tell me where Chase is?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "He's in the hydroloop room."

With three steps, Patience was already ahead of her students. She didn't glance back to see if they were following. She was too caught up in her disappointment to tell them to stay.

It was a simple request to not interfere with Kate's Commando App. Chase couldn't even tell Kate what was happening leaving the poor girl to humiliate herself in front of the academy. She heard the whispers of her students behind her as she got closer to her destination.

Kate couldn't reply anything other than, "I don't know."

Adam throttled Chase and Patience raised her eyebrows at the two brothers. The two brothers disputed as they stood by the door. Kate held the squeezable mustard bottle in her hands. Her head twitched to the side. Her eyebrows furrowed as Adam threw him up rougher and Chase pushed his hands off, screaming.

Kate roughly grunted tearing off her clown costume. She threw it to the side along with the hat and mustard bottle. Her fists clenched and she demanded in an unpleasing familiar voice, "Drop the boy-child before I rip your tonsils out of your nose!"

The teenagers behind her besides Patience jumped back. Adam dropped Chase and pointed at the angry girl glaring at him, "What is that?"

"That's Spikette," Patience confirmed.

"Really? Huh, this whole time I've been calling her Janet."

Hearing Patience's voice, Chase's head snapped up from the floor. "Patience! How was training?" he sheepishly smiled up at her.

Spikette curled her fists around Adam's jacket and spun him around. She threw the bigger man across the room. He groaned when his back smacked on the ground. A nervous laugh escaped Chase's lips. Patience tilted her head and frowned, a dull gaze in her eyes. He said, standing up, "I had no idea the Commando App was so-"

Spikette grabbed Chase, leading him to the steps. She laid him down on her lap and rocked him back and forth, cooing, "Shhh. Baby good now."

His face burnt red in embarrassment but he wasn't the only one afraid of the lethal woman that held him. Patience's students huddled behind her in the training room as they watched the scene unfold. He pled, "Patience, a little help here, please?"

Instead, she huffed, "I can't believe you tried triggering her Commando App." Patience tried to remain calm to speak to Chase. If she raised her voice, Spikette would probably throw her across the room with Adam.

"Technically, Adam triggered it," he justified.

"Don't try to find a way around this. You disregarded what not only Douglas said, but what I said. You used Kate as an experiment. We found her in her clown costume and she explained what you've been doing?"

"I'm sorry, okay? I didn't think it'd be this bad."

Patience's eyebrows rose. "You didn't think it'd get this bad? Chase, you know every story about Spike!"

Kate stopped rocking Chase. Her nostrils flared as she put him to the side, rising from her seat, "You yell at baby!"

Patience held her hands up in defense. "Easy, Spikette. I don't want to fight."

"You make baby upset!" She growled and lunged at Patience.

Silvia latched onto Patience's shoulders from behind and Kate's hands went right through her. Patience cringed at the odd feeling of Spikette's hands phasing through her chest. She pulled Patience back as Spikette glanced down at her hands. When she looked back up, Silvia had Patience in the training room with the doors closing.

Patience flinched when Spikette banged her fists on the other side of the metal door. Silvia questioned in disbelief, "Were you going to let Kate throw you like that?"

"She's still my student. I don't want to hurt her."

Apollo scoffed, "That's not Kate in there."

"It's still Kate, just with an alternate personality managing her every emotion."

Xue fretted, "That makes no sense!"

"Chase has the same app. Except they're triggered differently. Mr. Davenport once described it as a Devil-wolverine-shark-lion hybrid. If Chase gets humiliated or you push him over, the Commando App gets triggered. With Kate, it's like a protective instinct."

"But they're both just as scary and deadly," Bob addressed.

"Yeah, they are. Not even Adam can take him down," Patience admitted.

Silvia placed her hands on her hips, drawing her head back, "But we can?"

"We've been training for almost half a year and so has Kate," Spin countered. "We can take her down."

"I like the confidence, Spin," Patience patted his head. "But we need to think of a plan or else- well, you can guys what will happen. Let's head back to Chase and see if he knows anything. Try to keep your distance from Kate. If you don't do anything to intimidate her, there's an 80% chance she won't attack you."

"Be so serious?" Silvia frowned.

"Yeah, unfortunately, I am. You guys can stay here and I'll deal with it," Patience offered.

Apollo declined, "We're helping." The group turned to him in surprise. "What are you looking at?"

"Well, I think we're all surprised you're helping Kate," Bob noted, tilting his head at him.

"Isn't she our friend? Isn't that what friends do?"

"Kate's ripping the room apart, Apollo is showing kindness?" Silvia gasped, covering her mouth, "I'm in an alternate universe. Xue do you see this?"

Xue lifted her glasses and rubbed an eye. "I think I do."

"Oh, my- Can we go back to helping Kate?" Apollo asked, facing Patience.

She pointed at him, "Yes! Everyone stay behind me." She nodded her head toward the tunnels and picked up a light jog.

"And when you mean everyone, you mean, everyone?" Bob repeated and they halted. "Cause I can support you all just fine right here."

"Come on, Bob!" Spin demanded. Bob groaned, tossing his head back, and jogged behind his team.

     Patience crept up behind Chase and tapped his shoulder. He flinched whipping around and holding the tablet up to his face. When he realized it was Patience and her students behind her, he lowered it. She placed a hand on his shoulder and her thumb smoothed over the side of his neck to calm him down out of habit. She can hear his heart booming against his chest.

Spin remarked, "You have a forcefield and you choose a tablet to protect yourself?"

"No," he scoffed. "I was trying to read Kate's hormones."

He furrowed his eyebrows, tilting his head, "Sure you were."

He rolled his eyes and asked, "What are you guys doing?"

"We're helping our friend get out of something you caused," Xue answered.

"What did Chase do?" Bree questioned, eyeing the students running from Kate. Spikette screamed and held up a chair, chasing two students into the training room. "He activated Kate's Commando App, didn't he?"

She received a chorus of six replies, "Yeah."

Chase held the tablet with one hand. His free finger pointed to himself, whinging, "Okay, technically I didn't do it! Adam did when he attacked me."

"Wait, what? That doesn't make any sense. Why would her Commando App kick in if you were the one who was getting attacked?"

"It must be triggered by some kind of mama bear instinct. And now it's glitching like crazy. First, she's trying to baby me," he listed on his hand, "and then, she's trying to destroy everything in sight!"

Spikette threw a chair in their direction. They ducked and it hit the wall behind them. The group moved behind the support beam and Bree hit his shoulder, "What were you thinking?"

Spikette gripped onto Bree's bicep. She harshly pulled her away from Chase, "Stay away from baby!"

"Yes, ma'am." Bree nervously avoided her eyes, tucking her hair behind her ear, "I-I-I'm sorry." Spikette growled and ran off toward the hydroloop.

"I don't get it! My Commando App would've shut down a while ago." He pointed at Kate's information on the screen, "But Kate's adrenaline levels are going through the roof!"

"Okay. Then just shut her down!"

"Oh, that's a great idea, you know, I hadn't thought of that." He yelled, "I CAN'T! I DON'T KNOW HOW!"

"OKAY, STOP!" Patience's sudden burst turned all faces to her, especially Bree and Chase. "Please, this isn't helping. While we find a way to get Kate back, we need to keep her contaminated."

Spikette grunted, wiggling the support beam loose. Rubble fell from the ceiling and she blinked the small specs away. She tore the beam off and grinned at Chase. Holding it, she walked to him, "Baby want toy?"

They scooted back and Chase glanced at Patience. He nervously smiled, "You know, for a maniac, her maternal instincts are dead on."

Patience didn't reply to him. Instead, she commanded, "Chase, you'll stay here. She won't leave your side and you can try to keep her here, since she may only listen to you. Everyone else, we can think of a plan to take her down. Is there anything else you know about Kate?"

Chase's smile collapsed as she avoided his eyes. His shoulders tensed back as he put a serious front in front of the students. "No, there isn't."

Apollo sharply motioned to the missing beam, "She tore a whole structure out of place. What are we supposed to do?"

"You guys are a whole team of unique abilities!" Her students seemed unconvinced by her words. Patience was overly optimistic and didn't want to give them a rational reason. If, they were honest, Kate, or Spikette could take them down in seconds if they slip up once. "I need a minute to think of a plan that'll work. Let's go to the tunnels."

Chase placed a hand out, "Wait, I can help-"

"You are helping by keeping her here," she shortly replied. "You can keep anyone from coming in and out of here. As long as you don't threaten her, Spikette won't do any harm to you. She would've already if she wanted to."

Chase stayed silent. The tension between the couple caused the students and Bree to exchange glances. The sound of Spikette grunting and screaming filled the void. Chase wanted to offer help one more time but her feelings were far too exposed. One more plead to help would push Patience over the edge.

"Ooooh, Mom and Dad are fighting," Bob sang out.

"Bob!" Silvia harshly whispered.

"I'm sorry." He shook his head, "It was just too awkward."

Patience waved, "Let's go, Bree."

The bionic teenagers left the hydroloop area with Chase leaning against one of the beams. The only time he had seen Patience snap in anger was when Agent Graham was using them for his fame and promotion. She could be pushed over and over and she would let people walk all over, however, when it came to other people, she would fight back. In this case, she was fighting for Kate and he was the selfish one using her for an experiment.