episode 9
~ taken ~
"so, why do you think?"
"i think you're begging for a gang of bikers to do rotten things to you," chase replied, glancing down at the motorcycle in front of him.
"are those my pants?" bree exclaimed.
"not anymore. i call it 'a daven-cycle'. she's got autopilot, laser guided weapon systems, and tiny little flower vase to brighten your day."
"woah, cool. throw in a tiny basket for chase to ride in and we're good to go."
"hello? anybody home?" douglas appeared on the screen, confusing everybody.
"he hacked you again? would it kill you to spend forty bucks on some security software?"
"love the new lab, donnie. ooh, tunnels! industrial, yet classy."
"take a hint, ex-brother. there's a reason why none of us accepted your buddy requests."
"yeah, why did i even get one? i'm not part of the family," val spoke up, raising her hand but bree slapped it, causing it to hit the cyber desk. "ouch."
"oh, i accepted it," adam informed. "what? his updates are hilarious! 'looking forward to a weekend of evil, winky-face.'"
"listen, i don't have a lot of time. krane'll be back soon. he went out to get his head waxed, and he dragged chris with him. doesn't want the boy thinking about his family long enough to make him change his mind."
"fascinating, it might sound like i'm hanging up-"
"wait!" val and douglas said in unison.
"wait, wait, wait. this isn't another trick! you're in danger! krane has completely lost it!"
"oh, wow! so, the guy who keep implanting himself with bionics is unstable? who could've seen that coming?" chase inquired, sarcasm lacing his voice.
"i'm serious! krane is using my technology to give himself new abilities i didn't even know were possible!"
"what about chris?"
"it didn't work for some reason, but krane's a ticking time-bomb, and he sees you four as a threat!"
"hey! what about me? i'm dangerous!"
"calm down, power ranger," the hispanic mumbled, placing her hand on leo's shoulder so he wouldn't return his arms to his side.
"yeah, there's always a chance you might faint on somebody."
"look, adam, bree, chase, valerie—and leo, can handle anything, and after all you've done to this family, why should we trust you?"
"well, i—give me a minute."
"take all the time you want."
"oh, thanks, i-"
douglas was interrupted by mister davenport hanging up, static echoing for a moment.
"douglas is up to something. he's obviously trying to distract us with this krane guy."
"well, maybe so, but what if he's telling the truth?"
"yeah, we've seen krane face-to-face. he's a total creep."
"yeah," adam agreed. "nice eyes, though."
"trust me, this is exactly what douglas wants. don't fall for his trap. my brother is the real threat."
ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ
"i heard leo's girly yell, what happened?" val questioned. "i was on the other side of the school, so this better—douglas?"
"relax."
"i am relaxed. i'm very relaxed! let's do this spiky! let's get real!"
leo started punching the older man, but the latter easily blocked every single swing.
"you done?"
"oh, giving up, i see. what do you want?"
"you're smart, leo. you knew about me and marcus before anybody else, and you got valerie on your side pretty easily. so you two have to believe me about krane."
"alright, talk," val ordered while crossing her arms.
"krane and i used to be on the same page; get my kids back, use 'em to rob banks, pull scares, you know, garden variety bad guy stuff. but i was never gonna hurt them."
"marcus tried to kill me!" leo shouted.
"i said them! listen, krane is completely out of control! he's got a serious score to settle with the world, and now he has the bionics to do it."
"why does he want adam, bree, chase and val?"
"he doesn't want them, he wants to destroy them!"
"oh, how lovely," the girl scrunched up her face.
"they're the only ones who can stand in his way. he's probably gonna destroy chris when he's done using him as a little puppet. look, i'm scared, and you should be, too. watch this."
douglas pulled out his phone, causing the teenagers to move closer. instead of seeing something that could help them believe donald's brother, a video of him dancing played.
"oh, sorry. that's my fortieth birthday party. we had a burger truck."
"stop it," leo muttered with a fake smile.
"this is it," douglas said after swiping.
this time, a video of power surging through krane played.
"yeah, that dude's no joke. so."
"so, what are we supposed to do?"
"talk to my brother. he'll believe valerie. i gotta get back before krane blows a gasket. literally. he has one right under here."
"give me your phone."
"why?"
"you heard the porcupine. mister davenport's gonna believe me."
"you got sent to voicemail, didn't you?" leo asked after val tossed him his phone and took out her own.
ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ
"hey, sissy," chris smirked, turning visible as his twin ran up the driveway of the davenport mansion.
"why are you here?"
before any more words could come out of the boy's mouth, his eyes turned a shade of green and his back straightened. harshly grabbing val's arm, he geo-leaped the duo to an old abandoned building.
in the distance, she could hear leo and tasha's screams. valerie's first instinct was to find them, but chris kicked her to the ground.
"hey, buddy, i think krane's using the triton app."
no answer. no emotion appeared on chris' face as he fired his heat vision.
"oh, i really wish i had the override app," val groaned, using her invisibility to get out of the way.
while he looked around for her, she used her molecular kinesis to throw her brother into the wall.
"why don't i learn from chase?"
once chris recovered, he geo-leaped in front of val and punched her, the former blocking it and kicking his leg. in a swift movement, she flipped him over.
"please, chris. this isn't you and you know that, deep down. you don't want to be on this side. you regret it. i know you do."
no reaction.
he threw her into some metal bins and prepared to blast wave her, which would most likely knock her out.
remembering what leo did with chase a few weeks ago, val slowly looked up at her twin brother. the boy who used to be her best friend.
"do you remember, in like third grade, when we had a trampoline? and there was this girl who wanted to use it so badly, but dad only allowed jenna to go on it? and so when we told—what was her name? katherine? anyways, when we told katherine no, she could super mad and destroyed the trampoline the next time we weren't home. the two of us were so mad, and we told jenna. so, every time we played cops and robbers or something, the three of us would always target that bitch."
noticing his blast wave slightly falter, valerie realized it was working, so she tried even harder.
"i miss those days. the days when the three of us were inseparable. that changed when we started high school. you became a complete dick, but we miss you. we want that friendship back. me, you, jenna and leo. god, i bet there's so many things that kid is waiting to do with us. you always know how to have fun. i bet we'd probably get kicked out of so many places with you. please, chris. come back to us. we need you. i love you."
"family's always and forever, right?"
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yes, i'm gonna give chris some character development. what about it?