When the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, Adam, Bree, Chase and Harper walked down the stairs.

Harper linked her arm with Chase's and leaned her head on his shoulder, seeking comfort from both of them. Her hand traveled down his forearm to reach his hand, lacing her fingers with his.

"I'm so glad school's over! Ms. Thistle talked for an hour in history. I mean, she's ninety. Should she really be wasting all that breath?" Bree complained.

The four stopped at the bottom of the staircase, noticing a single file line of students extending throughout the hall as the lunch ladies scanned their belongings and conducted a thorough search at the entrance of the school.

"What's all this" Chase wondered.

"Listen up, frogspawn! Security check. Put all metal objects in the bucket, then proceed to the wands for a more thorough search." Perry announced as she collected the student's phones onto her bucket.

Harper's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Principal Perry, what's going on?"

"Someone's been stealing laptops from the computer lab, so I'm gonna bust the perp. Or perps." Principal Perry explained, eyeing the four teenagers. "Bottom line, nobody leaves this school without going through those metal detectors. And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sort through your loose change and have a little heart to heart with the vending machine."

With that, Perry made her way over to the vending machine in the hallway. Bree quickly pulled Adam, Chase and Harper away from the lunch ladies earshot.

"Guys, we cannot get wanded. Those things will go off like crazy when they detect our bionics." Bree said nervously.

"Well, what are we going to do? She's totally going to bust us." Chase whispered.

"Bust you for what?" Perry questioned, sneaking up behind them. "What are you hiding little bo peep?"

Harper nervously huffed. "He's not hiding anything. We're also not doing anything suspicious, Principal Perry. We're just four totally normal teenagers."

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

Harper pursed her lips and nodded slowly. "I can actually confirm that."

Chase's cheeks heated up, giving her a pointed look. "Really?"

"Let's go." Principal Perry demanded, taking Chase by the forearm and leading him towards the lunch ladies. "Empty your pockets."

"Principal Perry, I-"

"Comply, perp!" She yelled at him. "Wand him." The lunch ladies gradually scanned Chase from bottom to top. The devices beeped loudly at the back of Chase's neck, detecting his bionic chip. Perry smirked. "Well, what do you know? We got one. Flank him, girls. The little ones always put up a fight!"

The lunch ladies formed around Chase, making the four teenagers exchange nervous glances.

It was now Adam, Bree and Harper's turn to get searched. They removed their devices or any objects in their pockets, dumping them in the red bucket the lunch lady held.

The lunch ladies scanned Adam, Bree and Harper. Of course, Harper was the only one who didn't set off the metal detectors.

Principal Perry still kept her there because she was close friends with, Adam, Bree and Chase.

Harper being the nearest, they patted her down first. She raised her arms to her side as they searched her from top to bottom and vice-versa. They did the same to Adam, Bree and Chase as well and none of them had any belongings on them.

Perry kept the four of them in the corner of the hall as she scanned the rest of the students. None of them were caught with stolen computers or school property.

"Everyone else cleared the checkpoint hours ago... so why do you three fleshbags keep settin' it off?!" Perry demanded, pacing in front of them. "You may not have the laptops, but you're hiding something." She gasped slightly. "Maybe another pat-down from Carol and Deb will make ya talk."

"No, no." Bree declined with an innocent smile. "We're good. The first one already scarred me for life."

As the four teenagers stepped away, Perry instantly called them back. "Don't move! No one's going anywhere till I get to the bottom of this."

With that, she grabbed her phone out of her pocket, dialing someone and trekked into her office.

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

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

"Have you met Carol and Deb?" Bree questioned, motioning towards the lunch ladies, who were practicing their fighting skill in the middle of the hall. "I'm pretty sure it's in their wheelhouse."

Perry walked out of her office with a smug expression. "Great news!"

"You're letting us go?" Bree guessed happily.

"No!" Perry responded, laughing. "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 insisted with a grin.

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

••••

As Perry waited for the x-ray machine, Adam, Bree and Chase tried to come up with a plan. However, the plans they came up with involved exposing their bionics, getting caught by the lunch ladies, or facing consequences from Principal Perry.

The four teenagers followed Perry into the gym where the x-ray machine was placed.

Perry chuckled gleefully. "I should have thought of this x-ray machine a long time ago. Now I can bust your four, and find out what that stabbing pain in my kidney is. Just got to power it up."

While Perry walked over to the machine, Harper rested her head against her boyfriend's shoulder, a sigh escaping her mouth. Chase simply wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close to him

Chase turned to face the others nervously. "There must be a way for us to break this machine."

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

Bree let out a small laugh. "Oh! That's right, I just keep forgetting that you're not completely useless."

"Okay, jumbo." Perry called out to Adam, motioning to the machine. "Get in there! Your day of reckoning has come!'

As Carol and Deb forced Adam towards the machine, he quickly pointed at the corner across the gym. "Uh... hey, look! There's a little birdy in here!"

"Oh, I'll get it! My cats love it when mama brings 'em home a treat!" Perry said as she rushed to the other side of the gym with Carol and Deb.

"Quickly, Adam." Harper whispered.

Bree, Chase and Harper took a step back as Adam concentrated, powering up his blast wave. A surge of blue energy coursed through his hands and with one push outward, he directed the blast wave at the x-ray machine.

The building shook due to the strong force, causing chairs to fall from their stacks and the lights to flicker.

"Whoa! Earthquake!" Perry shouted in distress. "Cover me! Cover me!"

Carol and Deb huddled around Perry as a protective barrier, while Harper grabbed hold of Chase's arm for stability. Once the building had stopped shaking, the teenagers let out a nervous chuckle.

"Wow. That was some jolt." Bree commented sarcastically.

"Oh, that was nothin'. 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!" Perry explained before turning to face the destroyed x-ray machine. "Ohh! Puppy heads! The earthquake broke my machine!"

Harper pursed her lips. "Oh, no. That is terrible. Well, see ya."

With that, the four of them quickly made their way towards the doors.

"Aah! Not so fast, Pixie!" Perry shouted, causing the four teens to stop in their tracks. "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 simply.

The four of them moved to the side of the gym as Perry went to get her tools to fix the x-ray machine. Carol and Deb stayed behind to guard the teenagers.

Harper wished Leo was here right now, maybe he could come up with some idea to get them out of this situation. He was out sick with a head cold. He texted her during third-period that he sneezed and somehow managed to walk out of class two pounds lighter.

"All rightie. Lefty-loosey, right.... CRAM IT IN THERE!" Perry yelled, ramming her screwdriver into the control panel. She groaned in defeat. "Uhhh! 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 and the four of them sprinted out of the gym.

"Hold it!" Perry exclaimed, barely exiting the gym. The four teenagers stopped in the middle of the hallway, their shoes squeaking. "You four got lucky, but I know you're up to somethin."

Tiny sparks of electricity sprinkled above Principal Perry. She covered her eyes from the incoming electricity from the electrical box on the ceiling.

"Your blast wave must have loosened the electrical box." Chase told his older brother.

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

Then all of a sudden, the cord bounced in the air, snapping off and jolts of electricity headed towards her.

"Look out!" Bree warned, using her super speed to push Perry out of the way.

Chase pulled Adam and Harper back to a secure area. He quickly moved Harper behind the stairwell before turning his attention back to the problem.

"We gotta stop that wire before someone gets electrocuted! I'll stabilize it, you sever it!" Chase instructed before using his molecular kinesis to keep the cord from bouncing place to place. "Okay, now!"

Adam fired his heat vision to cut the cord. Chase tossed the broke wire across the hall. The two brothers celebrated their victory.

"Yeah!"

"Yes!"

Harper popped out of her spot and noticed Perry staring at Chase and Adam in shock. "And... that's our magic show. Ta-da!"

The four teenagers posed, sending smiles at Perry.

Principal Perry shrieked and ran into a nearby classroom. The four of them huddled together, realizing what had just happened.

"Uh-oh."

"Oh, no."

"We're dead."

"Wow. I have never seen her run." Adam commented. Bree, Chase and Harper glared up at him with unimpressed looks.

The lights flickered back on, lighting the hallway up again. Harper inhaled a deep breath and walked over to the classroom door, the bionic teens following after her, and knocked lightly.

"Principal Perry, you can come out, it's okay! We're not gonna hurt you." Harper reassured.

"Yeah, what she means is it'll only be for a second and then you'll probably pass out." Adam said, standing behind her. Harper turned around and smacked him in the shoulder.

Perry finally opened the door, holding a pool stick and jabbed at them to step back. "Stand back, freaks! I always knew there was something off about you four, but now I know the truth. You're Martians!"

The four teenagers looked at each other, nodding.

"Yeees, we're Martians. You don't see a head like that on a human." Chase lied, gesturing to Adam.

Adam furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "We're not Martians. We're humans with bionic abilities. I have super strength, she has super speed, and Chase... what do you do again?"

"You're bionic?" Perry questioned before poking the pool stick at Harper's arm. "You're not one of them?"

Harper shook her head. "Nope."

"I've seen movies about you people You act all nice and then an hour in, you turn and try to kill Will Smith!" Perry exclaimed, holding out the pool stick in a threatening manner towards Adam, Bree and Chase.

"No. We use our abilities for good things. Like life-saving missions. For instance, the way we just saved yours." Bree explained, reaching out to place a hand on Perry's arm.

Perry quickly dashed forward, refraining from Bree's touch. "Aaah! Stay away from me! I've gotta call the cops! Or the FBI! Or... Or the fire department! Think Terry, what about Will Smith do?"

Perry repeatedly hit her forehead before rushing to her office, leaving Adam, Bree, Chase and Harper standing in their spots, unaware of what to do next.

••••

Adam, Bree, Chase and Harper had no other option but to run. It felt like the longest run to the Davenport mansion for Harper. The four of them sprinted through the front door and Adam instantly went over to the kitchen.

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

Adam grabbed a handful of pudding cups from the cupboards. "Our normal lives are over. I have to say goodbye to my pudding."

Harper rolled her eyes and turned to face Chase and Bree. "Okay, what are we gonna do?"

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

"Right." Bree said in agreement, calming her breathing. "Let's just tell him and get it over with.

Chase's eyes widened. "Are you crazy?! We can't tell Mr. Davenport!"

"It was your idea!"

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

Then suddenly the doorbell rang.

"Wait. Don't answer it. It could be the authorities." Harper told the bionic teens.

"Or we won a sweepstakes." Adam added. The others turned to stare at him, unimpressed. "I know it's a long shot, but I'm willing to take the risk."

Tasha walked into the living room after the doorbell had rung again.

"Am I the only person capable of answering the door?" She wondered, making her way to the front door and opened it.

Harper's eyes widened when she saw a man in a blue coat with yellow lettering imprinted on the front.

"FBI. I need to see Donald Davenport."

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

Without hesitation, Bree grabbed Adam, Chase and Harper and used her super speed to drag them down to the lab. The breeze blew Harper's hair into her eyes.

"Guys! What are we gonna do?!" Chase asked desperately.

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

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

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

"Will you stop it?" Harper said, stepping in between Adam and Chase. "The FBI is upstairs."

"And who knows what they'll do to Mr. Davenport! We have to do something. Fast." Bree added worriedly.

"Do you guys remember the conversation we had a long time ago... when we first started living as normal kids?" Chase asked, glancing between Adam and Bree, avoiding eye contact with Harper.

"The one you told me to forget and never bring up? No." Adam responded and winked.

Chase sighed. "The one where we made a 'last resort' pact if anyone ever discovered our bionic secret."

Harper frowned, realizing what Chase was saying. At that moment she chose to ignore the fact that they had run away and cut off their communication with them forever. There had to be some other way. She knew deep down there had to be, right?

Adam shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I don't know what you want me to say. Did you not see me wink?"

"It's time. We have to protect ourselves and Mr. Davenport. Are you in?" Chase asked and stuck his hand out.

Adam nodded and placed his hand on top of Chase's. "I'm in."

"Bree?" Chase wondered.

"Our lives will change forever." Bree said softly.

"I know."

"But there's just gotta be another way to-"

"Bree. We have no other choice." Chase told his sister.

Bree stepped forward and placed her hand on top of Adam's. "I'm in."

The bionic teenagers lowered their arms, and Bree immedaitely embraced Harper. Tears welled up in Harper's eyes as she wrapped her arms around her best friend.

After releasing each other, they exchanged a small smile.

Harper moved over to Adam and hugged him. If they had more time, she would have shared something meaningful with him, but the FBI was upstairs ready to raid the place in search of Adam, Bree and Chase.

As Harper reached Chase, he enveloped her in a tight hug. She closed her eyes and sniffled as a tear trickled down her cheek.

"I need you to give Mr. Davenport a message for us." Chase said as they separated.

Harper nodded. "Yeah, okay."

Chase grabbed a device and placed it on the ground. Harper hit play and Adam, Bree and Chase recorded the message.

"Hello. Testing, testing. Echo. Echo!" Adam repeated, causing Bree to hit him in the shoulder.

"Mr. Davenport... we really messed up." Chase began.

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

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

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

"Thank you..." Bree said gratefully, trying to keep her voice steady. "For all that you've done for us. You made us who we are. We're sorry we let you down."

Chase signaled Harper to stop recording. She turned it off and picked it off the ground.

"We need to go." Chase reminded.

Harper couldn't believe what was happening. She shook her head, her throat closing up. This wasn't real. This couldn't be real.

"There's not something we can do?" Harper asked frantically. "We cant come up with a plan, or something? We always come up with a plan. There's always something we can do...."

"There's nothing we can do." Chase said, his voice a soft, broken whisper.

A few tears trickled down Harper's cheeks. She felt the urge to scream or throw something. She couldn't bear the thought of losing Chase. Tears began streaming down her face as she watched the most important person in her life preparing to walk away.

"I don't want you to leave." She whimpered, pleading. "I don't wanna.... please, don't leave."

Chase was now in tears. He wiped them away and held Harper's hand. "It's going to be okay." He reassured her. She shook her head, feeling uncertain. "I promise it will be okay."

Harper didn't try to hide her tears, and his heart broke seeing her like this.

"Hey." Chase gently said, moving closer to her and wiped away a tear with his knuckle. Another tear quickly took its place. "It's okay. I promise I'll come back when everything is back to normal."

Harper leaned in closer, resting her forehead against his, wanting to cherish every moment with him. She wanted to remember every laugh, kiss, hug and tear shared with Chase Davenport.

Chase sighed reluctantly to let her go.

He kissed her, pulling her close around her waist and holding her tightly. Harper whimpered against his lips, wrapping her arms around his neck, drawing him nearer. They kissed passionately, as if the world was coming to an end, a poignant moment for them.

Harper savoured the kiss, her arms gently falling as her fingertips traced Chase's jaw. She pressed her lips against his once more, tenderly memorizing the sensation for the precious final moments they had together.

"I... I...I..." She stammered.

To be honest, she was terrified to even utter the words love to another boy she had been with because she always feared painful rejection. Her relationship with Chase meant everything to her and she didn't want to risk losing what they had.

Chase nodded in understanding. "I know. I do too."

He then stepped back, giving her a reassuring smile. He held onto her hand for as long as he could, their fingers lingering until he eventually released her.

The bionic teenagers left the lab through the back without a second glance. However, Chase paused and glanced back. Harper smiled and nodded. His smile brightened one last time before he hurried after his brother and sister.

Harper wiped away her tears as she made her way to her mission specialist desk and sat down on the swivel chairs. She folded her arms on the glass desk and rested her head on them, enveloped in silence.

"Harper?" Leo called out, rushing into the lab. "Where are Adam, Bree and Chase?"

Harper lifted her eyes from her arms and sniffed. "They're gone. Principal Perry found out about their bionics and she called the FBI."

"What? Mr. Davenport was the one who called the FBI, not Perry. He was hacked so he called his friend at the FBI." Leo explained.

Harper shot up from her seat and narrowed her eyes. "Wait, Perry never called the FBI."

"No, she's upstairs with my mum and Mr. Davenport. He asked me to come get you guys."

"I don't know where Adam, Bree and Chase went."

Leo inhaled deeply before walking to his desk and began typing into his laptop. "We could track their GPS from here."

"Yeah, but Chase most likely disabled their GPS so we couldn't track them down." Harper told him.

Leo groaned. "There's no sign of them."

"They left this behind." Harper said, holding the same device. "It's a message for Mr. Davenport. I need to give this to him, it explains everything."

With that, she made her way to the elevator with Leo following behind. The elevator zipped them upstairs and the two teenagers dashed into the living room where Mr. Davenport and Tasha stood.

"Big D, we have a problem." Leo told his step-father.

"Leo, Harper, where are Adam, Bree and Chase?" Mr. Davenport asked sternly while Tasha stood behind him sharing the same level of concern.

"Chase told me to give this to you." Harper said, motioning to the device in her hand. She placed it in Mr. Davenport's hand.

Mr. Davenport set it on the table and hit play. Blue holograms of Adam, Bree and Chase shot out of the device, showing the recorded message. When it was over, it closed up.

"I've got to find them." Mr. Davenport breathed out.

"Leo already tried." Harper informed sadly, looking up at him. "They disabled their GPS signals."

"There's no trace of them anyway. They're gone." Leo announced.

••••

Harper helped Mr. Davenport, Leo and Tasha pack their belongings. According to Leo, the person who hacked Mr. Davenport also stole all his money and took control of his company. The bank had forced them out of their home now that Mr. Davenport was broke.

Leo and Harper had come down to the lab one last time and saw Mr. Davenport staring at Bree's capsule with his hand on the door.

"The guy from the bank says we need to leave now. They're changing the locks on all the doors." Leo informed his step-dad.

Mr. Davenport sighed and closed Bree's capsule. "I can't believe they're gone."

"I'm really sorry about what happened, Mr. Davenport. I tried, but obviously failed. It's my fault they left." Harper said, fumbling with her hands.

"No. I should have been there with you guys. This is all my fault." Leo said, blaming himself.

"No, it's not. It's neither of your guys' fault. It's not theirs, either. I gotta find them." Mr. Davenport said as he walked over to the cyber desk and tried to pull up any information, but it wouldn't turn on. He slammed his hands in frustration. "I can't even use my cyber desk. Who is doing this to me?"

Leo sighed. "It's obviously a tech whiz who will do anything to destroy you, someone who has intimate knowledge of your life and Davenport Industries and-"

"Wait a minute." Harper interjected, her eyes widening when she realized who was behind everything. "I know who it is. It's your brother."

"Leo, that's impossible. We froze Douglas in a block of ice. He's under twenty-four hour security at my remote offshore facility. See?" Mr. Davenport said as he pulled up the video surveillance on his tablet and Douglas was gone. "He's gone. But... how?"

"Rewind the footage." Leo said. Mr. Davenport did as he was told. "Go back. There it is."

A man covered from top to bottom with black clothing and a white mask broke into the freezer room. A security guard lunged at him but the unknown man dodged his punch and held his other fist in his hand.

He squeezed the security guard's hand and kicked him back. Another guard attempted to fight against him but the unknown man jabbed his abdomen, grabbed his arm and threw him across the room with his inhuman strength.

Harper's eyes widened. "There's another bionic person?"

"I don't know who that is." Mr. Davenport mumbled. The masked man retracted his fist and hit the block of ice Douglas was frozen in. It shattered in one hit, and the man threw Douglas' over his shoulder and left the freezer. Mr. Davenport turned the screen off and sighed. "If Douglas escaped, that means Adam, Bree and Chase are in real danger. We all are."

The black screens in Mr. Davenport's lab glitched and Douglas' face appeared.

"You sure are, Donnie! I'm back!" Douglas cackled.

Mr. Davenport nodded. "Yeah, Leo and Harper already figured that out."

"Anyway, I just thought you should know that it was me who did this to ya. Well, I had a little help. And now that I'm free, I think I'll spend some quality time with my three wonderful kids."

"You go anywhere near them, it'll be the last thing you ever do!"

"They're mine, Donnie!"

"I'll find them first."

"Good luck. That's gonna be a little hard to do without your lab." Douglas said, lifting his arm to reveal a gadget in his hand. He let out a laugh and pressed the button.

"That's a detonator! Run!" Mr. Davenport exclaimed, pushing Leo and Harper forward.

The three of them quickly sprinted into the elevator as the detonator went off. The doors shut before the fire reached them. Leo and Harper blankly looked at the elevator doors in shock, sitting beside each other and held hands.

The lights in the elevator turned off except for the one red blinking light at the top.

Mr. Davenport got up and dialed the emergency phone, nothing coming from the other line. "The phone is dead. Hopefully, my sprinkler system extinguished the fire before it spread to the house."

"So, we're trapped in here? What are we gonna do?" Leo wondered.

"I'm working on it, Leo."

"Well, hurry up. I mean, if we don't get out of here, Douglas and that creepy mask guy are gonna beat us to Adam, Bree and Chase." Harper told him.

"I will figure something out, Harper."

"How?! Your lab is gone, your cars are gone, Davenport Industries is ruined!" Leo exclaimed.

"I got it, Leo!"

"And to top it all off you're broke!"

Mr. Davenport leaned against the wall and glided down, sobbing. Both Harper and Leo turned to him with an unimpressed look.

Mr. Davenport let go of his face. "I'm crying about the kids!"

Harper rolled her eyes and rested her head against the wall, the three of them glancing up at the ceiling waiting for help.

_______________
PUBLISHED: 24.6.24
DEDICATIONS: Peters_suit_lady ItchyAgalea