CHAPTER FIVE, rats on a train

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Standing in the lab, Donald began to explain to the bionic siblings about what he was planning for their training that day. "Okay, guys. The next phase of your training is handling extreme climates. So we'll frost Chase, bake Bree, and submerge Adam." He paused before continuing, "That's not part of the training, I just got one of those carnival dunk tanks and I can't wait to try it out. Okay, Chase, I'm setting your tube on 'Antarctic.' If it gets to be too much, just give me a sign."

"Bring it!" Chase exclaimed, running to get inside his capsule.

Leo frowned. "Hey, that's not fair. I want to be abused by weather."

"Leo, if you really want to be abused, try standing over here next to Adam's morning breath." Bree gestured towards her brother who looked at her as if he was offended. "I don't have morning breath." He scoffed before a rather proud smile rested at his lips. "It smells like that all day."

A look of disgust crossed Emilia's face. "Yeah, that's not a good thing."

Donald turned to his stepson before informing him. "Leo, these guys are genetically engineered to handle these kind of climates. You're not."

"I can handle extreme cold." Leo scoffed in offence, though he was only proven wrong as Emilia turned to him in reminder. "Are you sure about that? Because you get brain freeze from chewing mint gum."

This made the others chuckle as Leo sent her a playful glare before Donald's phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket to answer it.

"Davenport. What?!" Donald gasped walking as he started pacing back and forth with the others following him. "Well, that's terrible! I mean, that's awesome, but that's terrible! I- I gotta do something." He put his phone down just as Adam asked. "What's going on? What's so terrible?"

"I created the world's fastest train, but now it's speeding out of control full of highly explosive nuclonium towards downtown Welkerville!"

"Well, then what was awesome?" Bree looked at the man confused, who smiled like a five-year old before answering. "It's going like 400 miles an hour." The others smiled in amazement before Donald walked towards the computer. "My entire career is riding or perhaps crashing on this train! I don't understand it! My design was flawless!"

"So flawless you forgot to include an emergency brake?" Leo questioned.

Donald pointed at his computer, stepping away as he replied. "No. I never counted on the conductor dropping his papaya smoothie all over the controls and then jumping off the train."

Adam looked at him before gesturing to himself as he said. "Well, if I were to build a high-speed train, the first thing I would have put in was a cup holder. Oh! And one of those bumper stickers on the back that says, 'I brake for cows'."

Donald walked around Adam before ranting to the others. "When stuff like this happens, they always blame the scientist. This is human error. Scientists don't make mistakes."

A tapping noise was heard behind them and they looked to see that Chase was still in his capsule, making Emilia turn to Donald. "You were saying?"

Donald sighed. "Chase. Now I have to explain the whole train story again." This made Emilia shake her head, muttering under her breath as she went to help Chase out of the capsule. "Unbelievable."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Trying to keep Chase warm, the boy wrapped himself up with a blanket with Emilia next to him. Donald rushed in with a black duffel bag as he explained. "The good news is, whenever I invent something, I always create a backup device to support it."

Chase looked at him with a remark. "As opposed to just building it right the first time."

"Ya know, I think I liked you better frozen." The Davenport man retorted to Chase before opening the black duffel bag and pulled out the decelerator. "My auxiliary decelerator will stop anything— Ocean liners, freight trains, tanks, eighteen-wheelers, twelve-wheelers—"

"Does it stop unnecessarily long explanations?"

"Apparently so." Donald nodded at Leo before continuing. "Only problem is, I can't figure out how to get it on the train."

"Uh oh." Emilia mumbled, noticing the looks on the trio's faces.

Bree looked at her brothers in excitement. "You guys thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?"

"Our first mission!"

"I want a pet pig!"

"Can we just take him to the farm?" The Hunter girl questioned, pointing at Adam with her thumb after hearing his claim.

Adam smiled in excitement while Donald had a small smile on his face before turning back to the bionic trio as he protested. "No. No, no, no. You are not prepared for this kind of mission. It is a highly volatile situation. Down the line— Fingers crossed— There will be plenty of other horrible disasters."

Chase walked towards him, trying to convince the man. "Yeah, but... you need to stop this train now. And you need us to help you do it. Your career depends on it."

"Please, Mr. Davenport. This is what you trained us for." Bree told him.

Donald thought about it for a moment before sighing. "All right, you gotta leave the nest sometime. Okay, get in your capsules, guys. I can't believe I'm saying this—" He placed his hand on Chase's shoulder before choking up. "It's time to upgrade your mission suits."

The trio rushed to their capsules bar Adam who stopped to turn around, telling Donald. "I hope you addressed the chafing problem."

Donald, Emilia and Leo shared a strange look as Adam stepped into his capsule before Donald powered up the tubes and the trio were in completely different new mission suits. They all stepped out as Adam let out. "Sweet! Ooh! I see you put in seat warmers."

"All right..." Donald said, clapping his hands before walking back over to the desk before pulling out a box. He looked at the others before explaining. "We'll be able to use these earpieces to communicate, and I'll monitor your progress on the train surveillance system. That way if you blow yourselves up in a fiery explosion I can watch it unfold in glorious HD." The teens looked at him strangely before Donald realised what he said and added. "That came out wrong."

"We get our first mission!" Chase cheered before Bree added. "And we get to save lives!"

"Seriously, I want a pig!" Adam exclaimed causing Emilia to facepalm.

Donald started to hand out the earpieces out to the trio. "Bree... Chase... Adam." However, Leo managed to grab Adam's before he could causing him to loudly gasp. "Hey!"

Donald looked over and sighed. "Leo!"

"What am I supposed to use, two cans and a string?" Leo questioned causing Emilia to shake her head at him. He looked over at his stepfather and sighed before passing Adam his earpiece.

Tasha walked into the lab, announcing, "Well, your favorite news reporter just got their big break." The trio responded by calling out different reporter names, causing Tasha to sigh before saying. "No, me! I am done reporting on singing dogs and babies who look like ex-presidents. The network finally gave me a real assignment. I'm covering a runaway train!"

"Huh?" Emilia gasped as everyone shared an awkward look apart from Adam who gasped. "No way! Ain't that a coinky-dink? Mr. Davenport—"

Donald cut Adam off before he could go any further. "Is, uh— is, uh, so proud of you, honey."

"Will you watch Leo and Emilia? I have a train to catch." Tasha told her husband who started to guide her out of the lab, explaining. "Absolutely. And don't forget, be balanced and fair, collect all the facts, and blame the conductor— he's an idiot."

After Tasha had let the lab, Leo sighed. "This stinks. Everybody gets to go on an adventure but me."

A look of disbelief crossed Emilia's face as she looked at the others. "It's like I'm invisible."

Donald chuckled before turning to his stepson and told him. "Leo, just because you can't go on the train doesn't mean we can't have fun here. I'll pop in the Gooby the Spunky Caboose DVD for you."

"I'm fourteen." Leo deadpanned at the man who shrugged in response. "Okay, then pop it in yourself. Come on, guys. We don't have a lot of time. We gotta get you in your gear."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

After chilling in her room, Emilia made her way back down to the lab and saw Donald sitting in a chair as he watched the three bionics on the train. She walked around him to grab an earpiece before listening in with him. "Hey people."

"Emilia?" Chase called out.

"Yeah, it's me, your favourite person in the whole entire world." The auburn-haired girl innocently grinned.

"Anyway," Donald interjected before starting to explain what the bionic siblings needed to do on the train. "Chase, locate the onboard braking system. Bree, inspect the tanks for leaks, and Adam, get a picture of the speedometer for my web page. Wow!"

Emilia was playing with her hair, sat down in boredom when she saw the bag moving. "Hey Davenport?" She called out, making the man turn to her in question, seeing the girl gesture to the black duffel bag on the floor of the train. "Did you put something alive in that bag?"

Donald furrowed his brows in confusion before looking back at the screen to see Leo come out of the bag instead of the decelerator. "Leo!"

"Which way is the dining car? I'd like to get a bite to eat before I save the town of Welkerville." Leo questioned, doing a superhero pose.

"Oh, you're all doomed." Emilia grumbled before muttering to herself. "Don't scream Emilia, everything's fine."

"Leo, what are you doing here?" Bree asked from the train.

Leo smiled. "Joining the mission. I want to be like you guys."

"But Leo, you're not like us." Adam reminded the Dooley boy. "And I don't mean that in a bad way, we just have really cool, super-fun features, and you don't."

"Uh, Leo, where's the decelerator we need to stop this train?" Chase questioned, after checking the black duffel bag. With a nervous look on his face, Leo asked. "You mean the pointy metal thing that was poking me in the butt?"

"It's right here!!!" Donald yelled through their ear-pieces as he held the decelerator with an angered look.

"Leo, I am supposed to be watching you!" Donald said, looking at the camera.

Leo looked over at it from the train, reciting what the man had said earlier. "And you are— in glorious HD!"

"Leo, without the decelerator, we can't stop the train." Chase told him.

"Mr. Davenport, what are we gonna do?" Bree asked the man who began to get out of his seat and frantically responded. "I'm coming to get Leo. If he blows up on that train, I'm gonna have to get Tasha a puppy!"

"Yay puppy!" Emilia gasped, a bright smile appearing on her face.

"I'll bring the decelerator in my high-speed helicopter. Wow! How many guys can say that they have to chase their high-speed train in their high-speed helicopter? I'm awesome! Okay, I'll be right there." Donald then turned to Emilia in question. "Emilia, are you alright to stay here and watch or do you want to come with me?"

"I'll stay, it's okay." Emilia basically reassured the man that she wouldn't go anywhere so he didn't have to deal with another child roaming free from his sight.

The girl was only by herself for a few hours which was spent by her dancing around the lab, listening to music, and playing games by herself until she ended up collapsing onto the cyber desk as she was too exhausted to move.

Thankfully, it wasn't much longer after that until the rest of the group walked in, and just as Tasha went to grab the girl and carry her up to her room seeing as she was in the wrong state to have dinner, Leo being himself, woke the girl up on purpose that made her roll off the cyber-desk and fall to the floor.

"I hate you, Dooley."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───