CHAPTER SEVENTEEN, brother battle

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Adam Davenport! Put Chase down now!" Emilia stopped on one of the steps, seeing her boyfriend hung over Adam's shoulder.

Donald had just walked through the front door to the house, and hearing what Emilia said, Donald shut the door behind him and spoke up. "Yes, that's how people get hurt."

"Good point." Adam hummed. "I should probably stretch first." He threw Chase to the ground and walked off.

Emilia sighed before rushing down the stairs and ran over to help Chase off the floor. He let out a sigh and turned to Donald. "Man, I'm so tired of him. So far this week, I've been his weight set, his football and his jump rope."

Donald let out a breathily chuckle. "On the bright side, you've never looked more fit." He smiled at Chase, whacking him softly on the arm, getting a look from Emilia.

"I'm serious." Chase told him. "He's always using his strength to make my life miserable."

Douglas leant against one of the pillars, when he called. "Why don't you get even?"

Chase turned around to look at him, throwing his arm out as he argued. "How? None of my abilities can compete with his strength." He slowly turned his head, looking back at Donald. "And it's hard to torture him with brain teasers when he doesn't have a brain."

"Maybe I can unlock a new ability." Douglas then suggested. "Give you something you've never had before, the upper hand."

At his brother's words, Donald instantly widened his eyes, unlike Chase who seemed to be agreeing with this idea. "Yes! Let's do it!" He accepted the man's deal, making Donald quickly step in.

"No, let's not." Donald disagreed and moved over to stand between Douglas and Chase. "Absolutely finito. Forget it."

"Why not?" Douglas furrowed his brows.

"Because I said so." His brother said firmly. "You live under my roof, you play by my rules. End of discussion."

Douglas watched him run upstairs before turning to the couple beside him, echoing Donald's words in a mocking way. "You live under my roof, you play by my—"

"I can hear you!" Donald shouted from upstairs.

Adam walked into the room. "All right, Chase, my hammies are loose." He slapped his hands down on his pants. "I'm ready for round two."

"Uh, uh, uh," Chase stopped him. "Mr Davenport said you can't bench press me anymore."

"Yeah, but he didn't say anything about you being my shot-put." Adam beamed. "Come on, let's go for gold!" Chase quickly went to run to the front door to make his escape, but stopped himself and turned around before making a different way out and he ran out the room. "Starting with sprints. I like it."

Emilia sighed as Adam ran out the room to chase after his brother. "Adam Charles Davenport! Stop torturing your brother!" She yelled before super-speeding away to follow after the boys.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Emilia and Leo were in the sitting area of the lab, drinking on their iced teas as Leo was watching something on his tablet when Bree entered from the tunnel before slumping onto the chair next to them with a sigh. "I am so glad to be home. I just worked a twelve hour shift at Tech Town."

"I hear ya." Leo nodded at his head, sounding like he was in the same boat as her. "It's been pretty crazy around here, too. I made a pitcher of iced tea, but then I changed the water filter, so I had to go back and make another pitcher of iced tea, but then I realised I forgot the lemons..." Doesn't sound like he is though. "Like I said, it's been a whirlwind."

"I don't think she cares, bro. She had a long shift, where your thing was just you being stupid." The auburn-haired girl gave him a baffled look.

Bree chuckled softly at the girl's remark before it faltered. "Well, it's better than being badgered by tech nerds obsessed with our stupid contest." She stood up from the chair and went to walk out the room, when Leo stopped her.

"Contest? What contest?"

Bree turned around before sighing. "We're about to hit our one millionth customer, and whoever that is, wins the grand prize: an all-expense paid trip to go meet Tech Town's founder, Franz Minsk."

"Wait. Wait." Leo quickly climbed over his friend to get to Bree. "The Franz Minsk? The man who's designing a billion dollar tech theme park with the world's first anti-gravity roller coaster?"

"No, she means the other Franz Minsk." Emilia's words were spoken with sarcasm as she walked over to them. Bree chuckled and turned around to leave but Leo ran in front of her.

"Oh, man. I've always wanted to meet him. This is the coolest contest ever." Leo looked at the girl with a beaming smile. "Maybe I can be the first person to throw up on his roller coaster."

"Leo," Bree smiled slightly as she retorted. "with your delicate little stomach, you'll probably throw up in line."

She went to walk away again, and to no surprise, Leo grabbed her arm, stopping her again, making Emilia sigh. "Boy, would you just let her leave so she doesn't have to listen to you gush about Franz Minsk." She groaned.

But Leo seemed to ignore her. "Oh, I am winning that contest. How close are you to a million?" He wondered.

"I have no idea." Bree shrugged. "You just have to buy something and hope you're lucky."

Leo hummed. "Well, maybe a hundred dollar bill will ensure I get lucky." He pulled a wallet out of his pocket.

Bree scoffed. "You do not have a hundred dollar bill." She reminded him before walking out of the lab with Emilia.

"Touché." He agreed before following them out.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

After her conversation with her boss, Bree turned around once Scott ran off like a superhero, only to be met with Leo and Emilia who approached the counter. "Hey, you two. What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for the contest." Leo grinned.

"And I'm here to babysit him." Emilia nodded her head to Leo, letting out a soft chuckle.

"I told you, Leo. You have to buy something." The Davenport girl reminded him.

"Oh, well, I have been in the market for some AA batteries." Leo spotted a pack of batteries off the shelf and picked them up. "Ooh, alkaline. Fancy. Ring 'em up."

"Fine. That's $4.99." Bree grabbed the card out of his hand before swiping it on the machine. When it beeped, she looked back at him. "Sorry, you're not a winner."

"I'll take another one." Leo grabbed another pack off the shelf.

Bree swiped the card again. "Sorry, you're not a winner."

Leo placed down another pack of batteries on the counter, so Bree could swipe the card once again, on the machine. This carried on until Leo gave up and tipped all the battery packs out onto the counter to see if buying that many would get him to be their millionth customer.

Emilia widened her eyes at the amount of battery packs before turning to her friend with a look of concern. "Leo, you know those are a choking hazard, right?" She reminded him.

"Thank you for the warning, Emilia." Leo feigned a smile.

Emilia and Bree looked at each other with raised brows before the latter looked back at Leo and spoke for Emilia. "Yeah, it wasn't a warning."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Excuse me, ma'am. Do you work here?" Leo had approached Bree for the second time, acting like a stranger.

Following Leo, Emilia stopped beside him with a groan. "Leo, stop bothering her or I'll physically drag you out the store myself." She looked over at Bree with an apologetic smile.

"Oh, good." Bree faked a chuckle. "You're here to not win again."

"Actually, I'm broke." Leo told her. "So, I'm here to return everything I bought." He let out a grunt as he lifted the basket full of battery packs onto the counter.

"Wait." Bree looked at him incredulously. "You're gonna make me put all of those back on the shelf?"

"No. That'd be crazy. I'm gonna leave them right here so I can re-buy them." Leo sent the girl an innocent smile.

The girls left Leo to himself, most likely to sneak around, and turned around to see Perry talking to Scott on the other side of the counter. "Another one of your internet boxes conked out on me."

Bree scoffed before mentioning. "Funny how that always seems to happen on the last day of the warranty."

"Yeah, that's probably something you should look into." Perry advised Bree who sent her a sarcastic smile.

Scott picked up Perry's laptop, with him and Bree quickly backing away in disgust when something poured out of it and onto the floor.

"Is that..." Scott sniffed it. "chicken grease?"

"Stay out of my personal life!" Perry exclaimed at him. "Now just sprinkle some of your geek dust on it and fix it."

Scott continued to grimace before turning to Bree who stood next to her. "Bree, I'm gonna leave this in your incapable hands." He passed the laptop to Bree who was barely holding onto it.

Emilia watched with a wince as Bree walked past her, coughing from the smell. The Hunter stood alone, watching as Leo and Perry talked until the manager to this place made an announcement to the customers.

"Keep buying, everyone!" Scott called as he stood at the front of the store where the Franz Minsk cutout was. "One of you could be moments away from meeting Franz Minsk. Now the winner gets to meet him, but I keep the cutout. I need a 'plus one' for... everything."

"Who needs an imaginary friend when you've got a cardboard cut-out that you can take everywhere with you?" Emilia hummed in amusement, with Bree who stood next to her, laughing.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Sorry, you're still a loser." Bree passed Leo back his card again after he failed to be their millionth customer.

This made Emilia laugh before Perry walked over to them, practically pushing Leo out the way with her trolley with a snicker. "Don't need a register to tell you that."

"How can you afford all of this?" Leo scanned all the items in her trolley. "Big D stopped paying you off."

"It's worth the $40,000 in credit card debt just to see you lose."

Making another announcement, Scott had called out to all the customers. "Okay, folks! I'm not supposed to say anything because it could trigger a dangerous buying frenzy, but we're nearing our one millionth customer!"

At his announcement, all the customers began to run around the store and grab whatever they could.

Meanwhile, Bree walked over to Scott and tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, Scott. Is now a bad time to give you my two weeks notice?"

"Make it one week and you've got yourself a deal."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"We're getting closer!" Scott announced, through the loud crowd. "Closer! Even closer!"

"Gotta be faster than that, Dooley." Perry pushed in front of Leo who finally found something that he could buy.

"Look! Robotic cats!" Leo yelled in attempt to get her out the line, making her turn around.

"Ooh, where?" Perry believed his distraction and stepped out of her place in line that Leo was now stood in as he passed Scott his item.

"Ring me up, Scotty." Leo held out his card.

Scott grabbed Leo's card before swiping it on the machine, when this time, a loud alarm blared in the store. On instinct, Perry kneeled down to the floor with her hands behind her head. "Oh! I was gonna pay for it!" She exclaimed.

"Congratulations!" Scott smiled at the Dooley boy at his announcement. "You're Tech Town's one millionth customer!" At this result, Leo cheered, wearing a beaming grin on his face before it was quick to fall as Scott said. "Yes. But unfortunately relatives of employees are ineligible."

"What?!" Leo screamed in shock before grabbing his card off Scott and turned to Bree. "Bree... did you know about this?"

Emilia stood next to Leo with a wince before Bree answered. "I've only got one week left. I'm pretty much checked out."

Scott looked at Leo, almost pitifully. "Looks like someone didn't read page eight, section four of the terms and conditions." A wince escaped his lips before he carried on speaking. "By default, the prize goes to the next customer, who is—"

"Me, me, me, me, me, me, me!" Perry did a dance move whilst cheering happily.

"Oh, goodness, it won." Scott deadpanned.

"I get to meet Frank Moskowitz!" Perry grinned, mispronouncing the name, making Leo turn to her in anger.

"It's Franz Minsk." He corrected.

"Call him whatever you want." Perry shrugged at him, just wanting to rub it in his face that he had lost. "You're not gonna meet him."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Back at the lab, Chase looked over at Donald who had just thrown Douglas across the room with a device. "Wow, that was harsh." He scoffed, like he hadn't just had a fight like that with Adam.

"Yeah. It's ugly when brothers fight, isn't it?" The raven-haired Davenport rhetorically asked.

Adam gestured between the two. "Yeah, but with you guys it's also dangerous 'cause you're super old and you could die." He pointed out, getting a pointed look in return.

"Look," Donald sighed. "I know you two are polar opposites, but you're brothers and you have to start learning to respect each other."

Chase scoffed. "Oh, you mean like you two do?"

"Well, Douglas and I, you know, that's different." Donald struggled to come up with an answer to defend themselves. "Look, we're adults and we've earned the right to act like children. This behaviour has got to stop."

Once the boys agreed to stop, Douglas pointed to his brother. "Good one, Donny. Way to nail 'em."

"Oh, no. You're not off the hook." He stopped his brother from walking away. "You can't just go around handing out bionic abilities."

Douglas furrowed his brows. "But that's why they like me more than you." He pointed over to the boys who shook their heads when Donald looked their way.

As soon as he turned back, Donald didn't see the boys nod at Douglas. "Look, I know you're trying to help, but you have to let me take the lead when it comes to the kids." Donald sighed.

"Okay, fine. I'm sorry." Douglas apologised.

"From now on, any major decisions have to go by me first." Donald told him.

"Absolutely." Douglas nodded. "But we're gonna have to start that tomorrow 'cause I kinda made Bree invisible like Emilia." He looked at Donald with a nervous smile.

"What?"

"It's true." Emilia called out, and the guys turned around to see the Hunter girl was nowhere to be seen.

"We've been standing here the whole time." Bree chimed in, as Adam stepped forward and waved his arms around to try and find where the girls were standing.

"Oh! Oh, I got them. I got— No, that's air. That was air."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

MEGAN SPEAKS !

hope you enjoyed reading this
chapter! the next one is spike fright,
hope you're ready for that one!
thanks for reading, i love you all!! <33