To Capture a Heart • Chase Davenport

35| BIONIC SHOWDOWN: PART 2

Harper knocked on the wall. "There's gotta be some sort of trigger mechanism to make the hidden entryway appear."

"Why don't you try banging your little wagon against it?" Eddy mocked.

"Enough with the wagon!" Leo exclaimed in frustration.

Suddenly, the hidden door was unveiled.

"Hello, Leo, Harper." Marcus greeted, leaning against the door frame. Leo screamed, causing Harper to jump in her spot. They took a step away from him. "Sorry you came all this way, but uh, we're kind of busy."

"Oh, yeah?" Leo questioned. He grabbed a blaster from the wagon. "Well, I've got this."

Marcus used his molecular kinesis to toss the weapon out of Leo's hands. "No, you had that."

"Oh, yeah? Well, we've still got all of these." Leo pointed out, motioning to all their weapons in the wagon. Marcus used his heat vision to disintegrate all of them, including the wagon. "No!"

Harper pursed her lips. "Leo... next time we go against someone, don't tell them our only backup plan."

"Goodbyes are tough. So, I'll make this easy." Marcus said, generating green lightning in his hands and aimed it at Leo.

Harper gasped as she watched Leo fly back into the bushes. Before she could run over, Marcus used his super speed to appear in front of her.

"Was this the plan all along? You and me?" She wondered nervously, taking a step back.

"Partially. When the plan began, we didn't know you existed. Once we began to know who you are, my father insisted I should get closer to you... and well, now we're here." Marcus explained simply.

Harper inhaled a deep breath. "So, everything we did together; frozen yogurt, movies, getting closer to one another... that was one big lie?"

"Not all of it." He admitted quietly with a stern look. "Look, Harper I truly do have feeling for you. But not enough to follow through with the plan. I'm sorry. I did what I had to do."

Without another word, Marcus threw a kick at Harper's head. She ducked, sliding easily into a leg-sweep, knocking his support from under him. The ground smashed into his back. He rolled to his feet and closed in on her.

Harper blocked as many of the blows as she could, her arms jarring in their sockets every time she did, her ribs and face blossoming with pain every time she didn't block. She missed one block and that cost her a punch to the head.

Harper was knocked unconscious.

••••

Marcus picked up Harper, gripping the back of her knees as her arms dangled, slightly swinging left to right while she was on his shoulder.

When he returned to the lair, Douglas had already set up the metal operation table on the other side of the room, near Marcus' capsule.

Marcus strapped her onto the table.

"What are you doing to my sister?!" Lyla demanded, her hands nearly touching the bars.

Lyla and Mr. Davenport had been locked in the cell for hours and Douglas hadn't given them a straight answer as to why he kidnapped Lyla and what he wanted with Harper.

"Well, why waste great potential when I could add her to my bionic army?" Douglas wondered with a wicked smirk. "I've been watching your every move. When I realized that Harper was apart of their group, I had to have her. I knew she wouldn't agree to it. So, I have you as bait."