It was just an average sunny weekend day in bay city. The small city was awakening, but for one certain 15 year old boy, this was no ordinary day, this was the day he got to see both of his birth parents, together.
Ryan had woken up very early to get ready, he was even the one to get Mark up for once!
"Hey Mark get up!" Ryan happily yelled.
"What is it dingus?" Mark groaned.
"Bro, it's the day!" He shouted back. He couldn't contain his excitement.
"Haha I know, let's go." Mark said while hopping out of bed. He was extremely happy for his little brother. Ryan has been waiting for this day for weeks, Leo was finally able to arrange a safe date for them to meet up.

Once they were ready, they got into Mark's car and headed over to the robot to meet Harris and Spyder. It was a quick ride, but it felt like ages to Ryan. Once they arrived, Ryan and Mark went into the robot where they were greeted by their two happy teammates.
"Hey Ryan! It's the day!" Spyder exclaimed.
"I know!" Ryan chuckled. He found it funny how happy his friends were for him, he actually really enjoyed it.
"Are you ready?" Harris asked. Ryan was supposed to meet his parents at their secret location in 20 minutes.
"I think so...I'm just so happy and scared and nervous" Ryan explained.
"That's normal bro. You'll know what to say when you see em" Mark said while squeezing his brothers shoulder as a sign of encouragement. Ryan breathed deeply, releasing some of his stress. Just then Leo walked in.
"Hey Ry. You ready to go meet your birth parents?" Leo asked.
"Yea!" Ryan cheered as he walked into the elevator with Leo. The team chuckled and synced their mech links with Ryan's so he could contact them if he needed to.

Once Ryan and Leo arrived, Leo took Ryan into a dark alley.
"This is...creepy." Ryan said.
"It's the address your parents gave me." Leo shrugged.
"Where are they anyways?" Ryan asked. Just then he heard a female voice come from the darkness.
"Hello? Who's there?"
"Umm Leo and Ryan" Ryan said.
"Ryan!?" The voice said. They saw a beautiful woman with long brown hair and hazel eyes emerge from the darkness. She looked so much like Ryan, it was his mother.
"Ryan! My baby!" She said while running over. Ryan smiled and said.
"So you're my mom?"
"Yes. I am." She happily replied.
"I'll leave you two alone for awhile." Leo said as he walked away.
"I'll meet you back at the robot Okay Ryan?" He said. The robot wasn't far from here so Ryan could easily walk back. He only drove over since they were late.
"Sounds good." Ryan said.
Leo left.

"So Ryan," his mother started.
"Yea?"
"How are you? I mean I haven't seen you in fifteen years..." his mother asked.
"I'm very good actually. How about you?" He answered.
"I'm alright. When did you find out about your powers?" His mom asked.
Ryan was shocked at the question. He didn't even know his moms name yet and she was already pushing about powers and stuff.
"Woah...umm I was hoping we could get to know one another better...and I could see my birth father?" He replied timidly.
"I'm afraid he won't be joining us." She said, "oh... and my name is Violet."
"Why isn't he coming?" Ryan asked.
"Well aren't you just full of questions," she started. She was walking closer towards Ryan. "I'm afraid he had a little accident so he won't be able to meet you yet." She said with a smirk. Ryan had a bad feeling about this lady, whom he was supposed to think of as his mother.

Ryan was fully against a wall now. His mother was hovering over him with a grin on her face. Ryan looked scared. Just then his mom burst out laughing and stepped back.
"Ahaha I got you! I'm just joking Ryan, he's just over there. We wanted to pull a joke on you so you could  see our personality!" She laughed. Just then another figure, this one male, walked out of the shadows.
"Hello son. My name is Randall." He said. "Sorry about the joke, it was your mother's idea." He laughed. Ryan relaxed a little and chuckled too.
"Hi Randall. I'm so glad to finally meet you both!"
His parents looked at one another and smiled.
"Wanna go out for ice cream?" They asked.
"Sure!" Ryan happily answered. He was so happy to finally be back with his birth parents. He hoped he could make up for the 15 years they were missing from his life.

They got to the ice cream parlour and they all ordered the same thing.
Cookie dough ice cream.
"Wow we're so alike!" Ryan mentioned.
"Of course we are. We're family." His mother said. Randall nodded in agreement.
"Hey Ry. We have something to show you." His father said.
"Okay what is it?" Ryan asked.
"It's a place. Very special to us." His mother explained.
They began to walk over to the place. Ryan couldn't help but get lost in his thoughts while they walked. He loved his birth parents. He had only known them for a few hours, but it felt like he knew them all his life. He just connected with them. They were better than he could have ever imagined. He so badly wanted to be a family with them. He couldn't wait to tell his team about his amazing night. He was snapped out of his thoughts when his father spoke up.
"We're here!"
It was a dark abandoned factory.
"What is this place?" Ryan asked.
"Home." His mother replied. They walked over and Ryan slowly followed. He was a little nervous, but if his parents thought it was safe, why should he worry?

Ryan looked around and saw huge metal tables with different pieces of technology around. It was super advanced.
"Woah what is this place?" He asked.
"It's our testing room." His mother replied coldly.
Ryan spun around quickly, but it was too late. His father locked all of the doors and his mother grabbed ahold of him by his arms.
"Oh yes, I think I should let you in on something sweetheart, we're evil."

"Wait what!?" Ryan yelled. He could tell they weren't joking. His parents strapped him to one of the tables using rope and gathered an assortment of metal objects.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Ryan panicked.
"Why don't I explain to you what's going on here," his father started.
"Please do." Ryan added.
"Well when we agreed to be Leo's test subjects, we were doing it thinking we would be able to get the power to control technology. With that power we could take over the world! But then the experiment failed and we were furious. Leo ruined our lives! We had to go into hiding. But when we had you, well, we noticed your power immediately and we knew that we had to give you away to gain Leo's trust, so in the future, we could be able to either gain you as an ally, or take your power from you." His father coldly explained.
Ryan's jaw dropped. The people he thought sent him to safety because they cared, only did it for their thirst for power.
"We don't want to hurt you Ryan, but we will if we have too." His mother explained.
"But...But I'm your son!" Ryan yelled.
"I don't really care." His mother shrugged. "We want that power and we will do anything to get it."
"But I thought you said you loved me!"
Ryan was so upset. His birth parents were trying to hurt him.
"Listen kiddo, we don't actually care about you at all, all that love stuff? We just wanted to gain your trust. If anything i hate you because of all the trouble you're causing." His father said while rolling his eyes. Ryan was speechless. He didn't know what to say.
"But that can change!" His mother said.
Ryan looked up, "what do you mean?"
"Well, if you join us... then we can destroy the world as a family!" She beamed. His father laughed.
"We'll leave you to think about it." They said before walking out.
Ryan knew that he was never going to join them, he was just so upset that they were awful people. They seemed so perfect, too good to be due he figured. He needed to escape, otherwise they were going to experiment on him, and he didn't want that.
He looked down to see his mech link still on his wrist.  Harris programmed them to have their own stealth mode so enemies wouldn't see them on their wrists. Ryan looked down and realized his mech link had been recording ever since he was captured. It must have hit against something when his parents tied him up. He would have to show Leo this, if he got free...
He pushed a button that Harris installed that would send out a silent distress signal to the team with his exact coordinates. At this moment he was very thankful for the overthinking the child genius did.
Just as he pressed it, his parents walked in once more.
"So, What will it be kiddo?" His father asked.
"I wanted to love you guys... I wanted us to be a real family and do normal family things, but I can never join you. I am bay city's protector, and if that means losing my dream of having my birth parents love me, so be it." Ryan snapped back.
"Shame..." that was all his mother said.
"We'll be back. We're gonna let the electrocution drones warm you up for us first though." His father said as he activated two drones that Ryan could not deactivate. They shot electricity waves at Ryan, painfully shocking him each time. Ryan looked around, he hoped his teammates would be there soon...

At the mech...

The team had just been chilling out on the X-deck, waiting for Ryan to come back. It was getting late and he wasn't back, so Mark started to worry.
"Where is he?" He asked to no one in particular.
"He's probably just enjoying himself with his birth parents,  after all, he hasn't seen them since he was a baby." Harris explained.
Mark nodded. Just then they received an alert on the TV in the X-deck.
It was an distress signal from Ryan, with his coordinates underneath.
"Oh my god no." Harris said.
"Let's go! We have to get him!" Mark shouted. They all nodded and grabbed some weapons to defend themselves with. They had no idea what they were facing, but they figured since Ryan had to silently alert them, it was bad.

At the factory...

The drones had stopped, but his parents were no where to be seen. Just then he heard a voice boom through the room.
"We'll be back shortly, we have a mission to complete, but when we're back you will suffer!" He heard his father yell. Then he heard an engine roar and he assumed they had left. There were four surveillance drones that had shockers on them as well. Ryan thought he could have peace, but then the drones came back and continued to painfully zap him.

Not too long after, he saw four faces outside the door. He was still being shocked, but he had to warn his team about the drones. He nodded his head in the drones' direction, and Mark understood and nodded back.
"Okay guys, we have to take out those drones if we want to save Ryan." Mark said. It was just the three boys, Leo had stayed back in the robot awaiting their arrival.
They busted into the door and quickly ran to knock out the security drones before they could alert their creator. Mark smashed two with a swift kick, Harris threw a gravity puck at his, and Spyder hit his with a metal rod.
Spyder ran up to the drones that were sill zapping Ryan and smashed them to bits. Mark ran over and untied his little brother.
"Ryan what's going on! Where are your parents?" Mark asked.
"I'll explain when we get to the robot, just now we have to get out of here!" Ryan yelled.
His friends held him up as they hobbled out of the factory and into the robot.
When Leo saw that they were all back, he turned on autopilot and took them back to their base.

Ryan and the crew sat down on the couch and Ryan explained everything that had just happened to them;
"So when Leo left, we went around town and had such an amazing time together, I actually thought we were going to be a real family. But then... this happened..." he didn't have the heart to speak about what his parents had said, so he just played the recording for them instead.
"They brought me to some abandoned factory and said this"
"Well when we agreed to be Leo's test subjects, we were doing it thinking we would be able to get the power to control technology. With that power we could take over the world! But then the experiment failed and we were furious. Leo ruined our lives! We had to go into hiding. But when we had you, well, we noticed your power immediately and we knew that we had to give you away to gain Leo's trust, so in the future, we could be able to either gain you as an ally, or take your power from you."
"Oh Ryan... I had no idea..." Leo started.
"It's okay... just keep listening." He played the rest of the recording:
"Listen kiddo, we don't actually care about you at all, all that love stuff? We just wanted to gain your trust. If anything i hate you because of all the trouble you're causing!"
That was the end of the recording. Ryan looked up to see the sad faces of his teammates.
"Oh Ryan..." Mark said.
"It's fine. I don't really wanna talk about it... I would just like to move on." Ryan said. He got up and went into another room. He shut the door and began to cry. He let everything out. He was so upset. His own parents wanted to kill him! His life was so messed up. The only good thing was his team, the robot, and Mark. Just as he thought that, Mark walked into the room.
He saw his little brother on the ground, crying, and he sat down beside him  and hugged him.
"I'm so sorry Ryan. I know how badly you wanted to have your family back." Mark said.
"Don't be. I have you and mom and the team. That's more than I could ever want." Ryan said smiling. He hugged his brother back and they stayed there for awhile.
He knew he would be alright. He had everyone who cared for him there to support him...

Woahhh this was so fun to write! I know that this doesn't really follow much of the episodes with Ryan's birth parents, but I figured I would write something original! This was 2500 words! Thanks for reading. See u next time!
~K