CHAPTER ELEVEN, which father knows best

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The bionic team were in the lab, watching Donald continue his focus on trying to fix Bree's bionic chip. The man had found one solution, hoping it would work.

But they were about to find out. "Well, Bree, you smashed your chip so badly, it's useless, but I was able to replicate my brother's original chip, and like my face, it's flawless."

"Forget the chip." Leo pulled a face at this, as did Emilia and Adam. "We need to get this dude a mirror."

Bree looked hopeful. "Wait, so I'm actually gonna be bionic again?" She asked Donald who sent her a soft smile before nodding. "Yep."

"Yes!" The smile on Bree's face widened, stepping forward to wrap her arms around him tightly to express her relief. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Donald chuckled, looking down at the cyber-desk before he patted her hand. "Ooh, your chip's almost ready." He noticed, and they pulled away from the hug as the chip fabricator made a noise, causing Adam to grin.

"Ooh, snacks are done." He was first to approach the machine, with Donald following behind with a sigh. "For the last time, this is not a microwave. It's a chip fabricator." He reminded the teenager.

"Hey, call it whatever you want. I'm still making my mini pizzas in here."

Ignoring Adam, Donald pulled the chip out of the machine before holding it in front of Bree with a smile. "Okay, Bree, hop in your capsule when you're ready for your new chip." The girl beamed at him before she took the chip out of his hand and walked inside the capsule.

Leo looked up at Donald who was now stood next to him at the cyber-desk, and not so subtly, Leo suggested. "You know, Big D, if this works, maybe you can make a chip for me."

"Please." Emilia laughed at her best friend. "Your body can't handle high-fiber cereal." Leo looked at her offended, though couldn't respond once he saw Bree step out of her capsule once her bionic chip was inserted back into her neck.

"So, how does it feel?"

Bree stopped in front of Donald. "Like a piece of metal just got jammed into my neck and fused to my nervous system." She explained, making the man raise his arms in the air with a cheer.

"Whoo!" Donald clapped his hands. "Success! All right. Now give it a try, see how it worked." He said, whilst guiding Bree over to the big space in the middle of the lab.

"Okay." Bree took a deep breath before activating her super-speed, which unfortunately, didn't go well as they expected, after the girl ran up to the ceiling and sped across there until she crashed to the ground, along with other things.

"Well, she's still more useful than Chase." Adam shrugged, making the four standing beside him, all look at him incredulously. After that, he along with everyone else went over to Bree, the eldest-sibling picking her up over his shoulder before he moved over to place her down on the stool.

"You know, technically speaking, your bionics are working." Donald tried to excuse, making Bree open her mouth in shock.

"You call this working?!" Everyone widened their eyes at the deep distorted voice through Bree's words. "I can't control my vocal manipulation. I can't control anything."

"I'm so close. It just needs a few tweaks." Donald wrapped a strap around Bree's neck as Chase had pulled his brother aside to speak to him as Emilia and Leo watched the man attempt to fix her chip once again.

"No offence, Big D. But if your brother's the one who created her original chip, then maybe we should just call—" Donald turned his head to look at his step-son, and interrupted him before he could finish. "No, forget about it. I never wanna see that waste of space again."

"But he's our only hope, and he's not all bad. He did help Emilia save us from Krane." Chase came to Leo's defence as it wasn't really a bad idea, and if it meant that Bree could be bionic again, they would do anything.

Though, still having bad blood with the guy, plus, he hadn't forgiven him for what he did to them in the past, Donald still didn't trust him. "Yeah, you know what else he did?" He snapped. "He blew up the lab, kidnapped you and stole all my money."

Not seeing the point of what he was saying, Adam mentioned. "All I'm hearing is adventure and excitement."

"Look, I do not need any help from Douglas." The man insisted. "I will fix this. Okay. Give me a little credit. I happen to be a tech genius." He had pulled the neck strap off Bree. "Okay. Let's give it another go."

Bree took a deep breath before she activating her super-speed once again, only this time, she sped backwards and out of the lab before she crashed into something in the distance, causing everyone to wince at the sound.

"So, Bree gets cool new super speeding styles and I don't? How rude." Emilia playfully scoffed and shrugged innocently as Donald sent her a pointed look. "What?"

Adam chuckled. "Oh, Mr. Davenport, you are not good at your job." He said, as Donald and Emilia ran off to help Bree.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

As Donald was still struggling to fix Bree's bionic chip, he decided to leave the house and go on a walk to help clear his head. Chase was currently with Adam, doing god knows what, while Emilia stayed with Bree, doing everything she could to try and cheer the girl up.

They started making their way into the lab, when they suddenly stopped in their tracks, their eyes widening in shock when they spotted Douglas in the room with Leo.

Douglas stood, looking over the chip fabricator as Emilia and Bree walked further into the lab and stopped beside Leo, Bree asking first. "Leo, what is he doing here?"

"It's okay. I brought him." Leo quickly explained before directing his next words to Bree. "He's the only one who can help you."

But they still looked unsure. "I don't know about this." Bree voiced her thoughts.

"We don't have a choice. Do you wanna be bionic or not?" Leo gave her an ultimatum, which made her think. They looked over at Douglas after the chip fabricator made a sound. "Ah, chip's ready if you are." The man pulled it out of the machine with a grin before sniffing it. "Why does it smell like pepperoni?"

"Adam treats it as a microwave." Emilia told him, making Douglas pull a strange look, although not surprised.

"Okay, fine." Bree sighed, finally giving in before looking at Leo to add. "But this better work." She walked over to grab the bionic chip off Douglas, but before she touched it, she retracted her arm and looked at the man in question. "Wait. You're not gonna like, turn me evil, are you?"

"He better not." Emilia called.

"I already tried. Didn't take." Douglas held it out to Bree who glared at him before taking the chip from his hand and walked over to her capsule to step inside it.

"Don't worry, Bree. I think we can trust him." Leo mumbled with food in his mouth. "What bad guy makes Baba Ghanoush this good?" He turned to his best friend. "Emmy, you have got to try some of this!"

"I'm good, thank you though." The Hunter girl let out a chuckle before looking to where Bree was in the capsule.

Douglas smiled at the two teenagers. "Got a really good feeling about this." He felt confident that it was going to finally work before typing into the cyber-desk, letting the chip be inserted back into Bree's neck. "Okay, go ahead. Test it out."

He guided Bree into the middle of the room, and stood behind her with Emilia and Leo, watching as she let out a breath before she super-speeded through the tunnels. This caused the others to smile, assuming it had worked as Leo turned to Douglas and high-fived him. "Yes! You did it!"

He was suddenly proven wrong, as a gust of wind flew past them, revealing Bree who couldn't seem to control her super-speed. "I can't stop!" The girl screamed through the tunnels, making Emilia wince.

"Or not." She shrugged.

"I thought you knew what you were doing." Leo exclaimed at Douglas who held his arms out to the sides, quick to defend himself as he shouted back at Leo. "I'm a little rusty, okay?!"

At the sound of footsteps, they turned around to see Donald who stood in shock, pointing a finger at his brother before he spat out. "How did he get in here?"

"Leo did it." Emilia was quick to blame him. But it wasn't like she lied as Leo said himself, he was hold accountable for bringing Douglas into the lab in the first place.

"She's right. I let him in." Leo had admitted to his step-father. "But... before you get mad, you've got to taste this." He held out the Baba Ghanoush to the man who furrowed his brows, looking from the food to the cart.

Emilia turned to her friend. "Leo, there are more important things going on here, than obsessing over your stupid Baba Ghanoush." She grumbled, just as Bree came whizzing past Donald and the others, screaming. "Help me!"

"Case in point." Emilia gestured behind her at the tunnels where Bree had just gone through for the third time. Donald looked back at Leo, pointing a finger at him as he snapped. "I specifically told you not to contact him. How could you betray me?"

"Hey, in my defense, I'm just a little boy." Donald pursed his lips at his step-son's excuse.

"Oh, lay off the kid." Douglas piped up, coming to Leo's defence. "He was just trying to help." At his brother stepping towards him in anger, Douglas backed away, listening to Donald's words. "Help her? She's worse off than she was before. I was this close to fixing this."

"I saw your chip." Douglas scoffed. "You were not close." Donald responded by mocking him — the two brothers bickering as Bree came back again, super-speeding past while screaming. "Do something!"

"Bree, do you mind? The adults are trying to have a conversation."

Emilia scoffed at Donald, gesturing between both of them. "You two? Adults?"

The two supposed adults in the room, gave her a look before Donald changed the subject. "We're never gonna be able to fix that chip, unless we can get Bree to stay in one place."

"How are we supposed to stop someone running at the speed of sound?"

"Spike strip?" Douglas suggested.

Donald turned around to face his brother. "Sure, why not?" He nodded sarcastically. "It worked for Wile E. Coyote." They all flinched again as Bree whizzed past and back through the tunnels while screaming for help. "Maybe we can construct some sort of giant air bag."

"Oh, yeah, 'cause that's not cartoony at all."

"Spike strip— where'd you get that idea, your hair?"

"Where'd you get the air bag idea— your belly?"

Donald gasped in offence, pressing his hand onto his stomach. "I'll have you know I lost that Christmas weight—"

"Shut up!" Emilia interrupted, making them both stop and turn to the annoyed teenagers. "Leo and I have an idea."

"Ballistic Gel." Leo suggested.

"What?"

"The gel that forensics labs use to test firearms."

"That's not a bad idea." Donald looked in thought before Douglas turned to him, resuming their childish bickering. "I thought it wasn't a bad idea before you did."

Donald scoffed. "Spike strip."

Douglas mirrored his action. "Air bag."

"Let's just get this set up." Emilia muttered to her friend who nodded before doing as she said. And once it was finally done, Leo put the block in the middle and stood back up straight. "Okay, it's set. Next time she runs through here, she'll get stuck in there like a rat."

The brothers smiled at him, only having to wait a second before Bree came speeding into the room and successfully got caught in the trap, making her stop. "Yes!" She cheered in relief.

"It worked!" Leo smiled, stepping over to the two adults.

"I know. I'm a genius." As they spoke at the same time, Donald and Douglas both glared at each other before whispering over to Leo, once again in sync. "I'm a genius."

"Like brother, like brother." Emilia muttered to herself, referring to their big egos.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

After checking up on Adam and Chase, as well as taking a few pictures of the two trying different positions of how they could both fit on Donald's motorcycle, Emilia returned to the lab to see Bree now hanging up on what looked like a baby bouncer, while her feet were moving rapidly by the second due to the affect of her super-speed.

With sweat coating all over, Bree begged. "Can somebody please do something?"

"Her heart rate's at 200 and rising. While I'm not a doctor, I feel that's unsafe." Leo panicked, just as Emilia ran over to read what was on the tablet, at the same time, Donald turned to Douglas and angrily spat out. "This is all your fault. You overloaded her chip."

Douglas turned around as Donald walked past to get to the cyber-desk. "My fault?" He scoffed. "It was your chip I was trying to fix, which was flawed, much like your original nose."

Donald looked up at him with a gasp, making the banshee roll her eyes, muttering. "Oh, here we go again." She glanced over at Bree in worry who spoke through her panting breaths. "Get this chip out of me!"

Donald ran over to Bree and explained. "We can't remove your chip while your bionics are in use, but we can reprogram it wirelessly with this." He held up something before putting it in her neck and ran back to the cyber-desk.

"Will you hurry up?! She's red lining!" Emilia was more than worried now, finding herself biting her nails at Leo's words. "If you don't do something, her heart could—"

"My heart could what?" Bree had overheard Leo, looking over at them sharply. This caused more panic in Leo as he looked back at Donald, not so quietly asking. "What's another word for explode?"

"I'll enable a diagnostic app that will help us isolate the problem areas in the code."

Douglas glanced at Donald. "We don't have time for that. I'll fix the code." He shoved his brother harshly to the side, who only pushed him back so he could do it himself. "No, you fixed enough. I got it."

"Oh, no, what's wrong with her head?" Douglas fake gasped to pull Donald's attention away from the cyber-desk, which worked, giving the man the chance to shove Donald aside so he could have access to the cyber-desk.

"Stop! We're running out of time!" Leo screamed, both teenagers staring at the siblings bickering in annoyance.

"Wait. This line of code hasn't been debugged."

Donald widened his eyes. "That's why her neural array keeps re-indexing." He realised what his brother was trying to say.

Not understanding them, Emilia looked between them incredulously. "What the fuck does that mean?!"

"I found the problem!" The siblings spoke, again at the same time, making them glare at each other before they started typing into the cyber-desk. "Complex asterisk P equals Null. Value equals one."

"Here goes." Donald sighed before they pressed a button, and thankfully, Bree started to slow down until she eventually stopped.

"Yes! Her heart rate's going down. It's headed for normal." Leo informed as Emilia began heading towards Bree.

"Yay." The out-of-breath teenager called. Emilia stood beside Bree, looking over as they watched Donald and Douglas do a handshake before they started showing off their dance moves.

"I wish my heart exploded before I saw that." The Davenport girl pointed out, reacting similarly to Emilia and Leo.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Hey, guys, guess what." Leo announced as Adam and Chase walked through the front door. Before they could answer though, Bree super-speeded into the room, causing Leo to let out a scream as Emilia laughed at him.

"I'm back, losers." Bree revealed to her brothers, showing she was bionic again, which they were beyond happy about.

"You got your speed back." Chase pulled her into a hug, happy about the news, unlike Adam who in an awkward manner, spoke. "That's too bad, 'cause we kinda already moved on."

"To Davenport's motorcycle." Emilia held out her phone to show one of the pictures that she took of them earlier. Bree gapped as she looked at the screen before letting out a laugh, along with Leo.

"Bub." Chase pouted at his girlfriend. "You said you would delete those."

Emilia shrugged at him. "I would, but you look so cute in that helmet." She beamed, and suddenly, Chase was okay with her keeping those photos in her phone.

Donald and Douglas then walked in to the living room with the latter greeting, "Hey, boys." They looked at them in surprise, more specifically that Douglas was there.

"Douglas?" Chase furrowed his brows. "What's going on?"

Leo smiled at this. "He fixed her chip."

Correcting him, Douglas pointed out. "Actually, we fixed her chip. That's right. The Davenport boys, together again." He said, wrapping his arm around Donald with a grin on his face. However, that quickly fell at Donald next words, correcting him.

"Yeah, not quite." He sighed. "Look, I'm grateful for your help, and I couldn't have done it without you, but I can't forgive you for what you've done to this family. You should go."

"Oh." Douglas let out in disappointment.

"You can't throw your own brother out on the street."

"Why not? I do it to you." Adam told his brother, getting a whack on the arm from Emilia.

"He's tried to hurt us too many times." Donald reminded the children.

Bree was next to come to Douglas' defence. "But he's also saved our lives. Twice."

"He also helped me escape the warehouse when I got kidnapped with Leo." Emilia remembered.

"Plus, dude can cook." This reminded Douglas as he pointed a finger at him. "Speaking of, you've eaten sixty bucks worth of my food. Pay up." He told the teenager, who was quick to change his opinion at that. "You heard the man. Out!"

Douglas sighed before starting to make his way to the front door, with Adam speaking up. "Come on, Mr Davenport, let the guy stay."

"Give him a chance."

"This isn't fair."

"Guys, it's okay." Douglas interjected. "He's right. I messed up. I'll see you around." He turned back around before walking out the door.

Bree turned to the Dooley boy. "Thank you, Leo. I mean, if not for you, none of this would've ever worked out." She then approached Donald. "I promise I will never do anything that stupid ever again."

"It's okay. We all make mistakes. And everybody deserves a second chance." Bree took a glance at the front door before looking back at him, and referring to Douglas, she echoed. "Everybody?"

"Oh, snap!"

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The next day, Leo had brought the group over to where he met Douglas when he asked him about fixing Bree's chip. "Hey, Douglas." He greeted the old woman behind the cart, causing the others to share a look of confusion.

"I don't think that's Douglas."

"Yeah, she has much bigger hands."

Emilia turned to Donald. "I told you if he ate too much Baba Ghanoush, it will mess him up." She sighed, her words obviously being a joke.

"Trust me, guys. This is no lady." Leo looked sure about this before reaching his fingers to touch her neck, expecting the lady to be a cyber-mask.

"Get off me!" The woman slapped his hand away, making Leo widen his eyes before scoffing out a chuckle, thinking it was still Douglas. "Come on, Douglas. Ditch the mask. Where's the button on this thing?"

The old lady grabbed his wrists and pulled them away before grabbing her rings and held them in front of Leo in a threatening way. "I'm warning you, kid. Stop poking me or you're gonna meet the wrong end of these tongs."

Bree and Emilia both stifled a laugh before seeing Douglas pop up from behind the bushes. "It's okay, Greta. They're with me." He reassured the woman, making Leo shriek, once he realised he had not been posing as the old-lady.

So that's Douglas." Leo stated awkwardly.

"Uh-huh." The woman nodded.

"And you're a real lady." Leo added, with the old woman repeating the same sound. He turned his head around to look at the others. "Help me!"

Emilia stepped forward with an apologetic smile as she looked at the woman. "Hi, I'm sorry about him." She gestured towards Leo, remembering his excuse to Donald earlier. "But in his defence, he's just a little boy. So he doesn't understand much."

At this, Bree hid her face in Emilia's shoulder to stop herself from laughing. She may have been speeding around the lab at that time, but Emilia had recapped their conversation during that time once her bionic chip was fixed.

Leo stared at the two girls unamused, before his attention was pulled away by Douglas who now stood alone. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Uh, we..." Donald stepped forward, seeing as he was there to apologise, but froze. "we're going on a family jog. You know, Leo gets winded on the last mile, so we all have to carry him. Can't go alone. Bye."

"Oh, no, you don't." Bree pushed the man back to stop him from escaping. Donald gave in, turning around to look at his brother with a sigh. "Okay, I may have been a little harsh yesterday."

Douglas scoffed. "A little?"

"Don't push it. You're sleeping in a bush." Leo reminded the man.

"Continue." Douglas said, knowing what Leo said was true.

"I realise that everybody deserves a second chance. Even you. So as soon as you apologise for all the things you've done to hurt our family, and say that I'm better than you, maybe you can come stay with us for a while. If you don't want to, you don't have to."

"No, no, it's... clear that you need me. So... I'm sorry. And thank you. Now, let's go home."

"Okay. I only brought the motorcycle, so you're gonna have to ride on back." The siblings began to bicker again as they started to walk off.

Douglas shrugged. "That's okay. I'll just drive it."

"Drive my motorcycle?" Donald scoffed. "I don't think so. Everybody knows the big guy rides in front."

"Well, I'm not just sitting there with my arms wrapped around you." Douglas argued.

"I'm not crazy about it myself."

"I'm not touching your tummy!"

"Wow! So immature." Chase scoffed, watching as they walked ahead of them.

"Yeah. Who acts like that?" Adam played along.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

MEGAN SPEAKS !

i hope you enjoyed reading this
chapter! this episode was quite funny
to write, especially with emilia's constant
funny remarks to leo. thanks for reading, i
love you all!! <33