"Great! Just great!" Morris remarked in sarcasm.
He smacked the table.
"How in the world is that robot back? It blew up in space," Grey inquired in anger. She looked over at Seth, who wasn't sharing that same reaction as they were, "was this a trick? Did you set us up?"
"Hell no," Seth retorted while he crossed his arms, "that's too obvious. Haven't you two met me? Pure genius over here."
"Yeah, you surprise people sometimes," Morris agreed. He sighed, "so how do we take this thing down? Tregear's gone and he was a huge asset to the team."
"Breaking up the team from the inside didn't work, blowing up the robot didn't work, and taking the love ones associated with the pilots didn't work," Grey listed. She shook her head, "those are key factors. If they survive that, we have to hit hard."
Harper was quiet. There was no way he was going to suggest anything. He couldn't hurt those kids. Not again. A light bulb suddenly went off in one of the antagonists heads. He turned his head and smiled at the bad guy gone good.
"You have to tell him." Morris decided.
Harper raised an eyebrow.
"Tell who what?" He queried.
"Him," Morris emphasized, "break him. Do whatever you can. You were bad once, you can do it again."
"No way," Harper refused, "much as I love a good plot twist, he doesn't need to know."
"Or you can tell your best friend instead, I don't really care," Morris continued, "Either way, he needs to know. You're gonna be looked upon as an insult anyway. Why not throw this into the mix?"
Seth glared at him.
"It'll be fun." Grey sided with Morris.
"How is this gonna be fun?" Harper inquired.
"Fun for us," Morris clarified, "not for you. Face it, you've been a screw up since day one and you're still one now. He hates you. They all do."
"And while you're at it, try coming up with new ideas," Grey added with a smile, "because not cooperating with us only makes it worse for both of you."
With a heavy sigh, the billionaire knew he was going to seriously loathe this.
***************
Harris was busy scanning his bud. He was laying down on the bed while the others stood around him. The oldest of the five however was sitting down in a chair. It didn't take long for the problem to be found. The female brains of the team had been busy patching up the bruised body part.
"Your vitals are okay and your blood flow isn't too rapid," Harris spoke up, which got the attention of the group, "but thank god we got you to the bed in time. You would've lost a lot more blood than that if we didn't."
The youngest Walker family member didn't respond as Veracity finished wrapping him up.
"Why didn't you tell us about your powers?" Spyder quickly asked.
His friend let out a sigh and shrugged.
"I didn't want you guys to know," Ry admitted, "I mean, I didn't think I would have to use them again anyway. Besides you were all happy about your normal lives and I didn't wanna ruin that."
He waited for one of them to reply, but none of them did. This puzzled the young technopath.
"What?" Ryan questioned, "why aren't you guys-"
"I was soooo bored!" Spyder exaggerated loudly.
Sitting up a little bit, the pilot shot him a look.
"Huh?" Ryan inquired.
"To be honest, I missed this place," Veracity agreed with the deliquent, "it didn't feel right without it."
"Yeah, I liked being able to just come here and relax sometimes and not be at my house fighting for the remote," Harris joined in. The others gave him a strange look, "my sisters fight over wanting to watch Riverdale when I want to see what's happening on the Discovery Channel."
"And you wonder why they fight you for it." Spyder riposted, making the only young lady in the robot chuckle.
"And I love working with you guys." Mark muttered quietly.
The gang stared at him in shock.
"What did you say?" Veracity quizzed as if she heard wrong.
"What?" Mark returned in question before trying to cover up what he had said, "oh! Oh I said I missed this place too."
"No you didn't," Ry stated while a smirk began to show, "you said you loved us."
The head of the jocks looked away from the team. His feet shuffled a little in the air.
"So?" He retorted.
"Aww!" Everyone collectively teased him.
"Yeah yeah, shut up," Mark shut them down, "I'll deny everything if you tell anyone."
"Oh right," Harris remarked, "can't damage your ego."
Mark smiled.
"I just got it back, why knock it down?" He implied.
Standing up, the varsity captain leaned against the wall.
"Why do you think a monster showed up?" Spyder brought up a good question.
"Take a guess," Ryan replied, "who else would make monsters?"
"We can't just assume-"
"I don't wanna hear that bull," Ry cut Harris off, "he's the one who started it all. He's not in the city anymore and we haven't heard from him in weeks. Put the clues together."
"Lose the tude okay?" Harris answered back. Ryan rolled his eyes, "All I'm saying is that he turned over a new leaf. Why would he go back on that?"
"He's a flip flopper dude," Spyder told him, "he plays both sides. I know I defended him before, but Ry has a point. Kind of seen this before."
"I'd disagree but, this is the guy who flew me into a mountain." Mark mentioned.
"At a moutain." Harris corrected.
"Whatever." Mark responded.
"Fact is, who else knows the ooze better than Harper and his followers?" Veracity made a valid point.
Harris nodded.
"True." He couldn't go against that.
"It sucks but, we need to be prepared," Ryan grabbed the team's attention back, "who knows what he has up his sleeves."
"Which is why having another scientist on the squad is a good idea." A voice spoke up.
Looking back, the group of teens watched as a familiar face approached them. His hands were in his pockets as he joined them.
"Leo!" Both Harris and Spyder reacted in joy.
The two ran up to him. The creator of Mech X high fived the shortest member of the team as he side hugged the daredevil. Him and Veracity did the same as the sixteen year old patted his shoulder. Due to his wound, the brown eyed hero couldn't completely stand. Understanding that, the odd technopathy inventor sat down beside him on the bed.
"Look...I didn't-"
Leo put a hand up.
"Save it," he said, "I got your message. No need to repeat it."
Ryan smiled a little and nodded.
"I uh," Mark brought himself into that conversation, "I'm sorry too. Kinda blamed you first. I should've trusted you more."
"Eh you were protecting the team Mark," Leo retorted, "I can't blame you for that."
The star athlete fist bumped him.
"Are we good?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah we're good," Leo confirmed, "besides, you guys are gonna need some back up if we're going up against some bad guys."
"Don't worry," Ryan assured him, "we're gonna make sure Harper goes down."
***********
"I couldn't agree with you more." Someone sided with the hero.
Although the Mech X crew could not see him, he was watching. Walking around his place, the young man crossed his arms and thought this through.
"We really are so much alike," he realized, "we should get together someday."
Turning back, his eyes went to the various pictures on the table. Going back to them, he picked up a familiar photo. Excluding one of the group members, he tilted his head and smiled a little. Looking up, he slammed the photograph back down.
"And when we do, we're gonna have a lot of fun." He stated with a smirk.