@kiddangers @sunbeameyes Davenpage Oneshot of a Spike Introduction
Something was wrong. She could feel it. Sure, Chase’s eyes lit up the moment he saw her face in the morning and when he pressed his forehead to hers and strummed his fingers through her curls, it was no more intimate than the hundreds of times he did so before. But, the temperature was a few degrees off, the scent in the air wasn’t exactly as it typically was, and the sounds of the house were different. If she noticed these things, Chase definitely had. He had heightened senses. “I’ll make breakfast, since you have a mission alert,” she said. And there! His face. There was something in it for a split second before he smiled and thanked her. Now, she was worried. What was wrong and why wasn’t he telling her? “Are you okay?” She asked, straight up.
He returned to her arms and held her tightly. That was surely a ‘no,’ though he didn’t answer. He didn’t actually have to, because in a moment, she heard a loud, “That will NEVER not be weird to see!” Chase’s entire body tensed up around her whenever his older brother came into the room and she turned her head to see Adam laughing, next to Bree. “You sure you aren’t a robot that he built to be loyal to him?” He asked and winked at her. Chase’s fists clenched her clothes and she gently took his hands and squeezed them, earning her eye contact.
Now, she understood. She had heard in passing about how obnoxious his brother could be, but from his reaction, she was thinking that maybe she had heard a censored version.
“She’s definitely real, but… I honestly don’t get it either,” Bree said.
Charlotte told them, “Okay. The next person that insults my man like this, I’m gonna swing on.” Chase felt a little more relaxed at that declaration, and tentatively sat at the island. He began to look over the details of the mission and Charlotte started on breakfast.
Adam taunted, “Awwww. He finally bought himself a tiny little bodyguard!” And Charlotte set the eggs down, marched over and punched him in the chest. “OUCH!” How did such a tiny hand actually hurt?”
“I took it easy. Next time, I’m gonna hurt you. Leave him alone, Dude,” Charlotte warned, pointing at Adam. She threw Bree a look to let her know that went for her, too.
After breakfast, Charlotte headed for mobile command, which was a state of the art surveillance van with everything that she needed to run tech and keep up with the teams. “Henry and Jasper just picked up Leo. I’ve sent them coordinates for the showdown,” she said, tapping on her forearm.
Chase took a deep breath, stressed out, “I think I should be in the command station with you.”
“They’ll need you out there,” she said.
“No, we won’t!” Adam cheered. She glared at him and he ducked behind Bree.
Quiter, Charlotte told him, “Don’t let him get to you. If you want, I’ll switch you and Henry.”
“We can’t do that. There’s no way that in a mission this dangerous Jasper, Leo and I make a better team than I do with them, or even than Henry and Jasper are. Leo was a nice touch to that dynamic, by the way. You’re so smart.”
“Leo is the new me of that dynamic, and I feel really bad for doing it to him,” she said. “For good luck on my first mission without Davenport in my ear,” she tiptoed slightly and Chase met her kiss. She cupped his face. “I’ll make you proud.”
“You always do,” he said, smiling.
“How are there so many of them?” Charlotte heard Henry ask.
“I’m zapping every one that I can from command, but they keep coming from that jet. Leo, strike it from the east, Adam, strike it from the west. If we can take out that jet, AT LEAST, more of these robots won’t come out of it.”
“Mr. Davenport wants to try to salvage the jet,” Chase reminded her.
“Mr. Davenport isn’t here watching that robot factory beat the living hell out of all of you.”
“Yeah, CHASE! Your girlfriend is in charge this time, not you!” Adam said.
Softer, she told them, “If it’s possible to incapacitate the jet and keep it intact, try. But, not at the expense of the team, or anyone on it. Chase, if you have to, override Adam and hit it in the right spot, with his plasma grenades. Leo… I trust you.”
Chase turned to Adam and asked, “Think you can do it?”
Adam rolled his eyes and elbowed him aside. Chase activated a forcefield for the west battlefield team and Henry activated one on the east. Charlotte pinpointed exactly where Adam and Leo needed to launch their weapons at the jet for minimal damage, but to cease the robot production for now. They struck and she held her breath until she clarified, “Good job, Gentlemen. That jet will not be producing robots. Now, take the others down so that we can bring it in…”
Weapons came from the sides of the jet while the others were beginning to fight the robots, and Charlotte prepared her lasers to fire at the barrels of those, but they launched before she could take them out (she did), but not before a rocket fired upon mobile command. The team heard her scream and saw an explosion hit the van and set it on fire, as it repeatedly flipped over and crash landed on it's side.
“CHAR!” Henry screamed over the comm. Chase scanned to try to figure out if she was okay. His brain was on high alert. He had already been anxious about her doing this on her own, and now, he wasn’t finding her and she didn’t answer Henry over the comm. He was going to rush over, but Adam grabbed him and told him, “You can’t go check on her right now. I know that you feel like shit for telling us not to destroy the jet that probably just killed her, but…” Adam felt his hand removed from Chase’s shoulder and the next thing he knew, he’d flown across the field.
Bree had rushed to the van and helped pull Charlotte out, but Chase was unaware. Spike was in full effect. “Are you okay?” Bree asked Charlotte, while Spike ravaged through the robots on the battlefield. Charlotte held herself in pain and she knew that she had some injuries that would need medical attention; but, she would live. She nodded and activated manual control through her forearm to put out the fire and turn her bracelet into the gauntlet that would allow her enhancements. Bree rushed back to the fight while Charlotte turned the van upright and exhaustedly climbed back inside to try to see what was happening over there.
“Has anybody been able to see about Charlotte?” she heard Henry ask.
“I’m okay,” she answered, sounding like death.
Leo commented, “I’m gonna destroy that jet.”
“NO! I already took out the weapons. After this disaster, the only thing that will keep Davenport for making sure I never work in this place again will be retrieving that jet,” Charlotte said. Leo kept forgetting that she wasn’t one of “his kids.”
“Chase, what’s going on?” Charlotte asked, looking at his vitals in confusion.
Bree answered, “Oh, yeah… About that… That’s actually… Spike. When the van got hit, Chase kinda lost it…”
Charlotte took a deep breath, nodded her head and instructed everyone, “Help clear out all of the robots until the threat is eliminated. Maybe that’ll help to get Chase back.”
“Gotcha!” “On it!” “¡Comprendo!”
Whenever the robots were cleared, Spike didn’t seem to really have calmed down much. He looked around the grounds at the others, clearing away the robots. He generally recognized everyone. He knew them. Not in the same way that their person did, but very similar. So, he wasn’t going to bulldoze them like he had done the robots. In fact, he was about to head over to that van. There was something very important there that he needed to go see about, though he wasn’t completely sure what.
Then, he felt the big, stupid one clap him on the shoulder and announce, “At least he turned out to be good for something!” He laughed joyously. Bree laughed, a little, more relieved that this was over than anything else, but once again, Spike took Adam’s hand off of his shoulder and prepared to throw him.
Adam’s eyes widened as he realized that Spike was still there. He intended to fight back! “Adam!” Bree yelled.
Charlotte zoomed in on the fight and asked, “What the hell is going on?”
“Spike is gonna kill Adam!”
“My research says that Spike doesn’t cause fatal harm to anyone important to Chase!” Charlotte said, already getting out of the van.
“But he ragged on him while he’s already in Commando mode and I don’t know if Spike knows the difference right now! We could all be perceived as a threat.”
“Everybody clear the area. Leave Adam. He’ll be fine,” Charlotte ordered. They began to follow the order, but then noticed her heading towards the fight.
“Charlotte, what are you doing?” Henry wondered.
“Just retreat. I know what I’m doing.”
“I don’t believe that you really do,” Leo said.
“I do. I told Adam to stop picking on my man…” She said before taking off into a sprint, jumping into the air and punching Adam in exactly the right spot in his head to knock him out. Spike turned around and aggressively closed in on her.
She let out a tiny yelp of surprise, because… God, he looked different. She didn’t even know that Chase’s face had those features. The scowl was furious. His teeth were bared. She lifted both of her hands in the air and kneeled. “The threat has been neutralized,” she said. She wanted her breathing to be steadier, but she was already injured, upset that Chase was going through this and terrified that she might have honestly just really hurt Adam. He fell like a ton of bricks!
“You seem to be a threat yourself. You just bagged him. He’s not an easy foe to take down,” he said.
“Well… He had been fighting you for a few minutes and you’re the ultimate fighter. The only reason he lasted so long with you is because you had fought an army of robots, almost single handedly… But, they’re gone, he’s down, and I’m not gonna hurt you.”She looked up at him and promised, “I would never hurt you.”
He squatted to look at her face to face. Her brown eyes bore into his and they were there for a while. She had forgotten her injuries and her exhaustion, and her breath as she remained on her knees with her hands lifted and her head bowed. But, her body didn’t. She toppled over and fell forward onto him. “Hey!” She heard his raspy voice cry out out and he shifted her, picked her up and looked at her. She was dizzy and felt like she would pass out, but she needed to see Chase. He scanned over her and whenever she leaned her head against his chest and touched his cheek, she saw him blinking and then coming to.
“Chase?” She said softly.
“Charlotte!” He said and examined her. She had multiple injuries and needed immediate medical attention. “Did… did Spike do this to you?” He asked in a horrified whisper.
“No. He tried to help me…” she said and her head fell back when she went unconscious.
“Yo…” Charlotte’s voice croaked. Chase gasped and took her hand, quickly. Henry, Jasper and Leo were in the room, but trying not to hover around the bed.
“Thank goodness you’re okay,” Chase said, holding on to her hand as though he couldn’t bear to part with it.
She nodded, then gasped, “How is Adam?”
“Have you met Adam?” Leo asked. “He was awake and getting on my nerves before we even got you back to the lab.”
“And… How are you?” She asked Chase, looking at him, curiously. Henry patted Chase on the shoulder and gestured to the others to leave the room with him.
Whenever the door closed, Chase asked, “Are you sure? Are you sure I didn’t hurt you when my Commando App was activated?”
“I’m positive,” she said, sitting up. “If anything, he was curious or confused as to why I was there.”
“You know… I think we have at least that one thing in common,” Chase said, a little more sternly than he had been speaking before now. “Why would you go towards that kind of danger, Charlotte?”
She furrowed her eyebrows and scoffed, “There’s no kind of danger that I’m worried about more than your safety. You could have killed Adam. He’s an idiot. He was going to keep fighting you until one of you was down or until Spike left and Spike wasn’t going to leave while the threat was still present, was he? Not from everything that I’ve researched and studied about him. Somebody had to try to bring you back and who else could have?”
“Leo? Bree? One of your lasers could have knocked me out…”
“Bree thought that you were too far gone. Leo was on the other side of the…” She laughed, “Chase… I made a decision and it worked out. Are you upset about what I did or about the situation itself?”
“Everything. I’m upset about everything. He hasn’t shown up as long as you and I have been together, and the first time he does, you rush up to him and look him in the face? You… I never wanted you to see that part of me. That alien persona that I can’t stop or control. He’s a raging beast and you could have been killed.”
She gathered both of his hands and held them close to her chest. “Not to be corny and cheesy, but… There’s no part of you that I would ever not want to know. There’s no part of you that I would ever be afraid of or presume would hurt me. I know that you hate the fact that he’s a part of you and after seeing what happened, I even understand you feeling that way. But, as long as he’s a part of you… He’s something that I’ll just love you through. I could have been killed in the van. Being in front of Spike was one of the safest spots I was in all night. Being around you, I’ll always feel safe. Even when you feel like you’re at your lowest.” She pulled his hands to make him come forward and gave him a hug.
“I haven’t felt like myself the whole time we’ve been here.”
“I know. I knew something was wrong.”
“I’m glad that you’ll love me no matter what, but I want him gone. I don’t want to lose time, not knowing what happened and then have to wake up with you crumbling in my arms. I was so scared. I was so scared that I…”
She rubbed her fingers through his hair. “Sorry. You’re right. It’s not… but, between the two of us, we’ll make it okay, right?” She leaned back enough to look at his face, but not enough to move her head off of his body. His eyes were warm and soft on her as he nodded. “All we can do is our best, to get through the things that happen when we’re our worst.” She snuggled back into him and her nose was on his neck.
“Oh… hey… also… There was something else. Whenever I assessed you for damages…”
“I’ve already gotten all the treatment I need, right?”
“Yes, but you’ve got something else, too…” She sat up and stared at him, concerned. He touched her belly gently and said, “Or, I guess, I should say “someone.” He smiled and his eyes moved to her face to see how she was going to take that news. She smiled back and let out a sigh of relief.
“Do not scare me like that! I thought you were going to say something bad!” Her hands covered his and they both looked at their hands. Right now, nothing was wrong. She could feel it.
