Maeve, Adam, Bree, and Chase walked through the school after their last classes. Leo was home sick, so it was just the four of them.

"I am so glad that school's over," Bree said. "Mrs. Thistle talked for an hour in history. She's ninety- should she really be wasting all that breath?"

"In her defense, she's witnessed, like, centuries come and go, so she's the best source there is," Maeve shrugged.

They walked down the stairs to see students standing in a line. The lunch ladies were using metal detectors to scan each student, one by one, while Principal Perry collected phones.

"What's this?" Chase asked.

"Listen up, frog spawn!" Perry said. "Security check. Put all metal objects in the bucket, then proceed to the wands for a more... thorough search."

"Principal Perry, what's going on?" asked Bree.

"Someone's been stealing laptops from the computer lab, so I'm gonna busy the perp," Perry explained. She then eyed Maeve and her friends suspiciously. "Or perps. Bottom line, no one leaves this school without going through those metal detectors! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna sort through your loose change and have a little heart-to-heart with the vending machine."

"Guys," Bree said, pulling her friends to the side. "We cannot get wanded. Those things will go off like crazy when they detect our bionics."

"Well, what are we gonna do? She's totally gonna bust us," Chase frowned.

"Bust ya for what?" Perry ran up to him. "What are you hiding, Little Bo Peep?"

"Uh," Bree laughed nervously. "He's not hiding anything!"

"Well, he does have an unusually large birthmark on his left hip," Adam said. "You stare at it long enough and it kinda looks like Justin Bieber."

Perry rolled her eyes and grabbed Chase's arm, ushering him to the security check. "Let's go. Empty your pockets!"

"Principal Perry, I-" Chase stammered.

"Comply, perp! Wand him."

Chase stood, nervously fidgeting his fingers as the lunch ladies wanded him. When they reached his neck, the detectors began to beep.

"Well, what do you know? We got one," Perry smirked. "Flank him, girls. The little ones always put up a fight!"

Three more wandings and a borderline violating pat-down later, Perry had Maeve and her friends stand against the wall.

"Everyone else cleared the checkpoint hours ago," Perry said, pacing back and forth. "So why do you four fleshbags keep setting it off?! You may not have the laptops, but you're hiding something. Maybe another pat-down from Carol and Deb will make you talk."

The lunch ladies ground their fists menacingly.

"No, no," Maeve laughed nervously. "We're good, the first one already scarred me for life."

She and her friends tried to walk off.

"Don't move!" Perry snapped. "No one's going anywhere till I get to the bottom of this." She pulled out her phone and walked into her office.

"Guys, we have got to get out of here," Chase said.

"Relax," Adam said. "We just have to wait her out. There's no way Perry can actually see our bionics unless she rips her skin off."

"Have you met Carol and Deb?" Bree questioned. "I'm pretty sure it's in their wheelhouse."

Perry walked out of the office. "Great news!"

"Wha- you're letting us go?" Bree smiled.

"No!" Perry laughed. "I made a little call over to my friend Chet over at airport security, and he's gonna let me borrow an x-ray machine."

"You have a friend at the airport? Well, ask him if he'll let me pass out peanuts on the 5:10 to Denver!" Adam said.

Perry rolled her eyes. "Once I get that machine, it'll show me whatever it is you're hiding, wherever it is you're hiding it."

-

An hour or so later, Perry led Maeve and her friends into the gym, where a large x-ray machine was set up.

Perry chuckled gleefully. "I should've thought of this x-ray machine a long time ago. Now I can bust you four and find out what that stabbing pain in my kidney is! Just gotta power it up."

"There must be a way to break this machine," Chase whispered as Perry stepped up to it.

"Hey, what if I use my blast wave ability?" Adam suggested. "You know, where I concentrate really hard and everything around me falls apart?"

"Oh, that's right!" Bree laughed. "I just keep forgetting that you're not completely useless."

Maeve frowned. "Wait, isn't that... what you did at my old lair?"

Adam nodded.

She thought back to that night, how Adam had destroyed the lair. How it had caused the ceiling to cave in, how she couldn't save Marcus.

Chase looked at Maeve, concerned.

"Okay, Jumbo, get in there!" Perry suddenly yelled to Adam. "Your day of reckoning has come."

The lunch ladies pushed a nervous Adam towards the machine.

"Uh, hey, look! There's a little birdy in here!" Adam pointed away from the machine.

Perry whipped her head around to the direction Adam was pointing in. "Ooh, I'll get it! My cats love it when mama brings them home a treat!"

She and the lunch ladies ran off a few steps.

"Now!" Chase elbowed Adam, who steadied himself. Adam raised his arms, blue electricity sparking around his fists. When he had generated enough current, he pushed his arms towards the x-ray machine. The lights flickered and the room shook as blue electricity flooded the room.

Maeve's breath caught in her throat and she grabbed Chase's arm. She could feel her heart pounding, so loud it was almost all she could hear.

"Earthquake! Cover me! Cover me!" Perry shouted from the opposite end of the room, the lunch ladies surrounding her.

After a few moments, the shaking stopped and the room settled.

"Wow! That was some jolt!" Bree exclaimed.

"Oh, that was nothing," Perry said, walking back over to them. "I once got trapped in my car underneath a parking garage - had to survive by eating three cans of cat food and the leather from my bucket seats. Longest two hours of my life!"

Bree rolled her eyes. Maeve exhaled deeply, slowly letting go of Chase's arm, avoiding his gaze.

Perry turned around to see the broken x-ray machine. "Oh, puppy heads! The earthquake broke my machine!"

"Oh, no, that is terrible," Bree frowned. "Good luck with that!"

Bree, Maeve, Adam, and Chase turned to leave.

"Ahh, not so fast, pixie!" Perry snapped. "I can fix this. You may not know it, but I work weekends as a lumber girl down at the tool tent. Nobody knows their way around a claw hammer better than I do."

"...I do not doubt that," Chase said.

Perry retrieved a few basic tools and tried to fix the machine.

"Alrighty, lefty-loosey, righty-CRAM IT IN THERE!" Perry forcefully jammed the screwdriver into the power box of the machine, to no avail. "Ugh, I can't fix it!"

"You know, as much as we'd all love to sit here and watch you master the art of screwdriving, we're gonna go," Chase said. They ran out into the foyer.

The room was a mess, lights still flickering from the blast wave. Lockers were open, books spilt on the floor.

Perry followed them out. "Hold it! You four got lucky, but I know you're up to something."

The lights flickered more violently. Something on the ceiling began to spark.

"Your blast wave must have loosened the electrical box," Chase whispered to Adam.

A thick wire dangled from the ceiling, sparking heavily.

"Eh, just a little fire hazard," Perry shrugged. "I'll fix it next week."

Suddenly, the wire dropped even closer to the ground. It began to twist around erratically, moving dangerously close to Perry, who screamed.

"Look out!" Bree shouted, super-speeding over to Perry and moving her out of harm's way.

"We gotta stop that wire before someone gets electrocuted!" Chase exclaimed. "I'll stabilize it. Adam, sever it. Maeve, make sure those sparks don't spread!"

Maeve raised her hands, controlling the atmosphere around the wire. She created a protective bubble to prevent the wire's sparks from flying around. Chase used his molecular kinesis to stop the wire from moving, and Adam used his heat vision to sever it. Chase moved it safely out of the way.

Perry stared at them, wide-eyed.

"...And that's our magic show!" Chase said.

"Ta-da!" Maeve added, nervously.

Perry screamed and ran into an empty classroom.

Maeve and her friends looked at each other, scared.

"Uh oh," Chase said.

"We're dead," Bree frowned.

"Wow," Adam breathed, "I have never seen her run."

They walked up to the classroom Perry had locked herself in.

"Principal Perry, you can come out, it's okay!" Bree said to the door. "We're not gonna hurt you."

"Yeah, what she means is it'll only hurt for a second and then you'll probably pass out!" Adam said. Bree hit him.

Perry opened the door, carrying a sharpened stick. "Stand back, freaks! I always knew there was something off about you four, but now I know the truth - you're martians!"

"...Yes!" Chase nodded. "We're martians. You don't see a head like that on a human," he pointed to Adam.

"We're not martians," Adam shook his head. "We're humans with bionic abilities. I have super strength, Maeve controls nature, Bree has super speed, and Chase... what do you do again?"

"You're bionic?" Perry questioned. "I've seen movies about you people. You act all nice and then an hour in, you turn and try to kill Will Smith!"

Maeve shook her head. "No. We use our abilities for good things."

"Well, Maeve, you did kidnap us once," Adam shrugged. Chase elbowed him.

"Adam!" Bree hissed. "Ignore him. We use our bionics for live-saving missions... for instance, the way we just saved yours."

"Stay away from me!" Perry backed away from them. "I've gotta go call the cops! Or the FBI! Or the fire department! Think, Terry! What would Will Smith do?"

Perry ran off. Maeve and her friends ran home.

They burst through the front door of their house. Adam ran to the cupboard and grabbed three packs of pudding.

"Adam, what are you doing?!" Bree exclaimed.

"Our normal lives are over! I have to say goodbye to my pudding," Adam responded.

Maeve turned to Chase and Bree. "What are we gonna do?"

Chase sighed. "We have to tell Mr. Davenport."

"Right," Bree nodded. "Let's just tell him and get it over with."

"Are you crazy?! We can't tell Mr. Davenport!" Chase cried.

"It was your idea!" Bree yelled.

"Oh, so now you're gonna start listening to me?!"

The doorbell rang.

"Wait," Chase said. "Don't answer it. It could be the authorities."

"Or we won a sweepstakes," Adam smiled. "I know it's a long shot, but I'm willing to take the risk."

The doorbell rang again.

Tasha entered the living room. "Am I the only person capable of answering the door?"

She opened the door. A man in a blue FBI jacked stood there. Chase and Maeve exchanged worried glances.

"FBI. I need to see Donald Davenport," the man said.

"Donald!" Tasha called, smiling nervously. "You better come downstairs! The FBI is here!"

Bree grabbed onto her friends and super-sped them down to the lab.

"Guys, what are we gonna do?!" Chase exclaimed.

"Oh, what are you worried about?" Adam asked. "You're so small they probably won't even see you."

"Adam, is this really the time to be making short jokes?" Chase frowned.

"Chase, there is never not a time, because just like you, life is short."

"Will you stop it?!" Maeve said.

Bree nodded. "The FBI is upstairs ready to drag us away and who knows what they'll do to Mr. Davenport! We have to do something, fast."

Chase sighed. "Do you guys remember the conversation we had a long time ago... when we first started living as normal kids?"

"No," Maeve said.

"We made a 'last resort' pact if anyone ever discovered our bionic secret," Chase explained. "It's time. We have to protect ourselves and Mr. Davenport. Are you in?"

Chase slowly put his hand in the middle.

"I'm in," Adam said, sad, but determined. He put his hand on top of Chase's.

"Our lives will change forever," Bree frowned.

"I know," Chase said.

"There's just gotta be another way to-"

"Bree," Chase shook his head. "We have no other choice."

Bree paused, then put her hand in the middle, followed by Maeve.

"We're in," Bree said.

"So, what are we doing?" Maeve asked.

"We need to leave," Chase answered. "We need to disable our GPS signals."

"Won't that also turn off our bionics?" Adam asked.

Chase nodded. He walked over to the cyberdesk and clicked a few buttons, deactivating all of their bionic chips.

"I can't believe this is happening," Bree said. Maeve put an arm around her.

"We have to," Chase said. "What else can we do? Think about Mr. Davenport. Think about Leo. If we don't leave, what's gonna happen to them?"

"He's right," Maeve said after a moment. "This is what's best for everyone."

"Are we just gonna leave without saying goodbye?" Adam questioned.

"Can we at least record a message for them?" Bree suggested.

Chase nodded. "We can set up a hologram device and explain what's happening."

Chase retrieved a small device and set it up to record the four of them.

"Hello, testing, testing," Adam said to the camera. "Echo, echo."

Bree hit him.

"Mr. Davenport," Chase started. "We really messed up."

"We didn't mean to expose our bionics to Perry, but she was in danger and we had no choice," Bree explained.

"You always trained us to handle any mission, and right now, the mission is survival. Yours and ours," Chase said.

"I mean, if we're not around, there's no proof that we exist, so... we're leaving," said Adam. "For good."

"Thank you," Maeve said. "For all that you've done... for me, for us."

Bree nodded sadly. "You made us who we are. We're sorry we let you down."

The recording ended. The four looked at each other.

"It's time," Chase said.