I don't know how long it's been. I don't want to know how long it's been. My sincerest apologies to all my loyal readers, and if you are still reading this, thank you so, so much. I haven't been writing very much fanfiction over the past several months ("Oh, really, Rosie? We haven't noticed.), and most of what I have written is for Zootopia. A lot of my latest ideas have been for original fiction, which I'm very excited about. However, that doesn't mean I've given up on Lab Rats. Give me time. Please, have patience. I love War Torn, and believe me, it will be finished.

So I believe I left you guys on a cliffhanger last time, didn't I? Whoopsie. Well, just be glad I left you hanging on chapter 6 and not on chapter 7. Oh, this one's a doozy. ;)

Remember, Krane's got several bombs set to go off around Plenus (a highly populated and politically significant planet) in a few minutes. You may want to go back and read the last few chapters in case you've forgotten stuff. My fault, not yours. ^^;

I have been dreaming of this chapter for ages (nearly two years), and so I really hope you enjoy, even if it's long overdue. The soundtrack for this chapter is my favorite song of all time, and the chapter title comes from one of its lines. The chapter title also comes from one of my favorite fanfictions ever, "Fight Forever" by crystaltears24. If you've never read it . . . what are you doing with your life?! Go read it now, now, NOW!

I don't own Lab Rats, never have, never will. I do own any characters, worlds, objects, etc. that you don't recognize. The plot of this story is entirely mine. Enjoy.

Chapter 7 soundtrack: "Not Gonna Die" by Skillet.

* * * Chapter 7: Fight Forever * * *

15:00

We ran through the hallways, hardly believing our luck. No one came out; no guards, no Krane, no Douglas, no Marcus. Every corridor we went down was completely deserted.

"This is easy," Adam said as we took another turn.

"Too easy," Chase muttered. "And we still haven't found Krane's main control room."

Adam skidded to a stop ahead of me and Chase. He looked into a room on our right that didn't have a door. "I think we just did."

Chase and I ran up, looking in. There stood Krane amidst several computer screens and other illegal-looking lab equipment. He turned around and grinned at us. "Come to see my work firsthand?" he said.

"More like come to stop you," Chase said as we took our fighting stances.

"Good luck with that. I've already won. You can't stop what I've started!"

"I accept that challenge."

As we got ready to move in on Krane, however, we heard footsteps behind us. There stood Douglas and Marcus, fists raised and ready for a fight. Adam, Chase, and I moved closer together, trying to keep an eye on all our enemies. We weren't outnumbered, but I had yet to figure out if we were outmatched—though admittedly Douglas did not seem particularly dangerous.

"No, no," Krane said, waving his hand. "I want to fight them alone."

Douglas and Marcus took a step back, looking shocked. Douglas's face paled. "Alone?" he repeated, looking between us and Krane.

"Yes. Get out, Douglas."

Douglas took another step back, but he didn't seem to want to leave. "Just don't hurt—"

"Out!" Krane growled.

Marcus grabbed Douglas's shoulder and together they walked out of the room. Marcus shot me a cool glare before they left, and I took a deep breath.

"They say pride goes before a fall," Chase quipped.

"And you're about to fall hard!" Adam shouted, a goofy grin sliding across his face.

Krane chuckled. "Enough talking." He sent out a blast wave that knocked us all off our feet. Adam hopped up first and charged at Krane, wrestling him around the room.

"You and Adam keep Krane distracted," Chase whispered to me. "I'll figure out how to deactivate the computer."

"Fine, but hurry!" I said.

Up on the wall was a screen with a similar image to the one in our cell. All those people still wandered around, and we didn't have long at all before their innocent lives would be cut short.

10:00

I leapt to my feet, as did Chase. He ran over to the main computer along the left wall and frantically began typing. I charged at Adam and Krane, ready to be a distraction.

Adam had pushed Krane back against the wall, but our opponent growled and threw Adam to the other side of the room. I frowned and began running in a vortex around Krane. He only shot a fireball at me, knocking me over and deactivating my speed.

Adam ran back up and shot his heat vision at Krane's head. Krane held up his hands and collected the fire, shooting it back at Adam. I attacked him from behind, but he only threw me off with an impressive amount of strength.

After a minute or two of this, Krane set his sights on a new victim: Chase. He sent a blast wave at my younger brother, slamming him into the computer screens. Chase moaned, but neither he nor the screens looked damaged.

"Guys, a little help!" he shouted.

Adam and I threw ourselves at Krane, but he only shrugged us off as if we were insects. It got pretty irritating. How could one man be so powerful?

Krane began lifting various objects in the lab with telekinesis. He threw a table at Adam, pinning my brother to the floor. Adam's head lolled back and I scurried over, whispering his name. He looked up and me and coughed. With a tremendous sigh he pushed over the table. Adam sat up, gripping his side while wiping some blood off his neck.

"Krane can throw a punch," he muttered.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Eh, I've been worse. Hey, Chase, maybe you could help us more if you were a bit stronger!"

"Now, Adam, now?" Chase shouted. He had his force field up in front of him, blocking the various objects Krane threw his way. "You're not helping!"

Chase's force field faltered and finally dropped. Krane hurled a metal box at him and Chase yelped, falling backwards on the keyboards. He pushed himself up, his arm shaking. Drops of blood rolled down his forehead like thick red tears. With a scream he used his molecularkinesis to pick up the box, sending it flying at his adversary. Krane fell back onto the floor, but it was obvious that he was far from being down for good.

Adam leapt on him and pounded on his back, but Krane rolled over and hit Adam in the stomach, causing my brother to roll over in pain.

I ran up to Krane as he stood, throwing a hundred punches a minute with my super-speed. I caught him in the jaw, the chest, and the stomach, but it hardly seemed to faze him. Once he recovered the from the shock, he punched me several times with his own speed. Finally I took a step back, gasping for breath.

5:00

"How's it going, Chase?" Adam shouted.

"I need a few more minutes!"

"We don't have that many!" I reminded him.

Krane looked up, a sick grin sliding across his face. He sent another blast wave at me and Adam, sending us back into the wall. Then he used his telekinesis to pick up metal objects from around the lab and contort them to wrap around our wrists and torsos, anchoring us to the wall. Adam and I struggled, but it was no use.

Krane marched over to Chase, who hastily threw another metal object behind him. Krane ducked to avoid it, and my brother spun around to face him. He threw a few punches and one kick, but Krane dodged them all. Chase took one more swing, and the bionic man grabbed his wrist—and shoved.

Chase yelped, and I looked away. Still, the sound of bones cracking echoed throughout the room. Chase dropped to his knees. Krane continued to push; he continued to scream. When he finally stopped, I looked up to see my baby brother on the floor, clutching his hand to his chest.

"Chase!" Adam screamed. His body shaking with rage, he wrested himself free of the metal and then broke me free as well. I sped over to Chase as Adam took on Krane once more.

"Are you okay?" I asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Chase nodded, the blood on his forehead glinting in the light. Without a word he ripped off the cuffs of his pants and began to use them to wrap up his hand. I caught a glimpse of his bloody and deformed hand, and the breath hitched in my throat.

"Just a flesh wound," he said with a teasing grin.

Chase stood up, his right hand pinned between his side and his left arm. He staggered over to the computer and began typing with one hand.

"Are you sure you can even do that?" I asked.

"I have to try, don't I?"

"Krane just crushed your hand!"

Chase looked at me, his expression solemn. "And he'll do a lot worse to all those people if we don't stop him. So get out there and watch my back!"

I nodded and ran over to join Adam, but I couldn't help looking back at Chase every few seconds. Every motion he made showed how much pain he was in. Hey, I might tease Chase a lot—and find him incredibly annoying—but that doesn't mean I don't care for him!

My concern for Chase gave Krane an opening; he used my preoccupation to his advantage and threw me across the room. I groaned, rolling over and silently begging Adam to take that maniac down.

Adam roared and charged Krane, but he was ready. Krane grabbed my brother's neck and brought a knee up into his stomach, then a fist into his back. Adam collapsed, but he was up again almost immediately.

Krane held up his hand and shot electricity at Adam. My older brother stumbled back, shaking his head in pain. Krane did it again, and again. Finally Adam sank to his knees, shuddering and moaning.

Meanwhile, Chase still typed away with one hand, the sweat now mixing with the blood on his forehead. His shook with even the slightest movement, but he kept pushing forward because it's what he does. Still, seeing him in so much pain—and now Adam, too—cut me to the core.

"That's it!" I shouted, jumping to my feet and speeding at Krane, tackling him to the floor.

We wrestled around for a few moments until both of us stood up. I frowned and ran circles around Krane—literally. Every so often I threw an unseen punch to catch him off guard. These were the times where I wished I had more abilities, but I would have to make do with what I had.

Krane growled and grabbed me with his telekinesis. I struggled, but it didn't do any good. Krane threw me back into the wall—hard. I sank to the floor, holding my head. He walked up and looked down at me.

"You, my dear, are the only thing standing between me and ruling the galaxy," he growled. "You and your brothers will fall."

"Not a chance," I growled back. "You'll have to kill us first."

"That can be arranged." He held up his hands and shot lightning at me. I screamed and fell forward, gasping for breath.

Before Krane could react, I stood and raced across the room. He turned and walked toward me, shooting lightning again. I stood my ground, figuring if Chase could stand the pain, so could I.

Then the lightning stopped, and instead Krane picked me up again. He telekinetically threw me into the wall, and the stone groaned underneath me. My ears began to ring, but I ignored the irritating buzzing. I started to get up, but Krane grabbed me again and threw me into the wall once more. I could feel the blood trickling down the back of my head and my vision grew fuzzy.

"Just a minute more!" Chase shouted, but he sounded very far away.

Adam stood and shot heat vision at Krane's back, but it did no good. Krane turned and sent a blast at Adam, knocking him off his feet once more. Then Krane spun around and grinned at me—the evil kind of grin that makes chills run down your spine.

I tried to get to my feet, but Krane picked me up again and threw me like a rag doll. My neck snapped backward so far I thought it would break clean in two. My head hit the wall before anything else and the world went black for a moment.

It felt as if someone had shoved a hammer into my brain. At this point, I couldn't even keep my eyes open. Krane had gone as far as he could possibly go, and my limbs wouldn't respond to the command to get up. My vision grew worse and I could feel the darkness settling in. Everything felt surreal—everything but the pain. I could feel myself slipping away.

No, not now! Not now! People need you! You need to stop Krane! You can't stop now!

I thought that perhaps, deep down, there was a smidgen of strength that I could use to get up and fight back, to push myself up and charge Krane like the bionic hero I am. I searched for it, and, at the moment I was ready to give up, I found it. My arms moved to push my body upwards, my legs took up some of the work, and I looked up to see Adam fighting back against Krane a few feet away away from where I stood.

As I finally staggered to my feet, however, Krane noticed me. He threw Adam back and stood with his arms raised and eyes closed. Debris began to rain down from the ceiling, and I knew Krane would loosen as much as he could and bring it down on top of me. My legs weakened and gave way under me, dropping me face-first into the cement.

Somewhere deep inside I knew that I had to run, that I had to get up and move away, but I just couldn't. Next thing I knew, several good-sized rocks fell on me, crushing what seemed to be every area of my body. This must be what it feels like to be buried alive, I thought, biting my lip to keep from screaming—not that I thought I had the strength for even that.

"Bree!"

"Bree!"

I heard my name called twice, but the rocks had knocked all sense—all will—straight out of my head. Everything hurt too much. I couldn't possibly get up now. My strength was gone.

Sorry, Adam and Chase.

Sorry, Davenport.

Sorry, Plenus.

Right as I closed my eyes and let the darkness take over, I saw the timer on the wall click over from a one to a zero.

0:00

Oh . . . oh . . . you thought I was going to let them win? Haha, you guys are a riot! Let them win. Ha!

This story has hardly begun. I'm hoping it'll get up to around 50 chapters or so. I'm not starting it off with them winning. No way!

Hmm, probably not my best work. I wrote this several months ago. (Maybe a year or so? Whoops.) My writing's improved a lot, I think, but I didn't feel like going back to rewrite that all. XD But it's passable, right? Hope you still enjoyed it.

Reviews are welcomed but not required. But they do often remind me to update stories I've almost forgotten about. Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like. Hopefully I won't keep you guys waiting another half-a-year to find out what happens, but, unfortunately, no promises. :( Starting my junior year of high school, planning for college, participating in NaNoWriMo in November to work on my original stuff, reading books so I can write better (I've read 12 books this summer and I've still got 8 more that I haven't read yet!) . . . yeah. But I will try my hardest. Pinky-promise. Yes, reviews may help. ;)

With that awful cliffhanger fresh in your mind, I hopefully won't make you wait long to find out the twists coming up in Chapter 8: Welcome to the War. Love you all! Bye!