Author's Note: I'm glad some of you like this so far, although now it's time to get a bit serious. I can't delve on Marcus and Chase smut forever, although I'm sure some of you would like me to. Anyways thank you to "Ben" (I don't know your last name, sorry!) for sending me a picture to use as a cover since I was too lazy/busy to do it myself, thanks so much! And here's the next chapter, hope it doesn't come off as AU.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lab Rats

Chapter 3 – Close Call

The knocking on Chase's door made his eyes snap open and he lurched himself up with a horrified look on his face. Once more Bree knocked, calling for him, and when he looked back down his fear was realized: Marcus was still here.

"Marcus!" Chase hissed, and the other brunette opened his eyes. "What are you doing? You're supposed to be gone!" Chase growled out in frustration. The smirk Marcus gave him did not dampen Chase anger in the least. "You broke down, again. What sort of lover would I be if I left you to cry yourself to sleep, all alone?" Marcus asks teasingly.

Chase's face colored and he launched himself out of the bed, grabbing clothes off the floor hurriedly. "I'm here, Bree! Just… give me a minute!" Chase shouted out as he haphazardly slipped into his body suit, strapped on his waist armor and put on a vest with one hand as he threw the rest of the clothes at Marcus.

He ignored the deep chuckle Marcus did for some reason and grabbed a brush off a nearby night stand. Luckily his hair never developed tight knots, and he had it orderly in no time. He slammed the switch for the barrier without even looking at Marcus, going off stupidly placed trust he'd leave. Chase heard Marcus teleport away and rushed to the door, opening it and pretended to be putting on his gauntlets.

Bree's smile faltered when she looked at him and her eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Is that your vest?" she asked. Such a random question made Chase blink, then when he looked down, he nearly yelled out in frustration. No wonder Marcus was laughing, he had put on the bastard's vest instead of his own! The black color on this one seemed too dark, as if it were darker than the normal color black and even seemed sinister to be a part of Chase's usual uniform.

"Y-yeah…" Chase muttered, going back to his gauntlets. "That… form system capsule I had back in the lab, I still have a couple of them, guess it messed up…" Chase mutters. "The form system was practically flawless…" Bree points out. "Obviously not if I ditched the majority of it. Besides didn't it give me your bra one time." Chase muttered. Although his tone was not sharp, it still made Bree winced, and he hated the pathetic puppy look she adopted when he did not particularly agree with her. "Is there something you need, Bree?" Chase asks trying to change the subject.

"N-no… just that… it's almost noon and you didn't come out, and you're usually up and about early before anybody else." Bree says noticing Chase's shocked look, Bree again furrowed her brow. "Were you that exhausted from the mission?" Bree asks concerned. "I… I guess…" Chase said absently, mentally berating himself.

He had woken up an hour or so before dawn, which Marcus was taking his sweet time in getting ready to leave. Watching Marcus stretch triggered some stupid emotional response in Chase's retarded brain, and as the android had said, he broke down in uncontrollable tears. Chase didn't remember much else other than that, and the sex before then.

Bree suddenly reaching for him made Chase jerk back from her, and she looked even more worried. "Your entire face is red, Chase. Are you all right? Bionics glitching at all? Do you need a defragmentation?" Bree continues. "I'm fine. Just fine. What needs to get done?" Chase asks frantically, trying to change the subject.

"If you were so…" Bree starts before Chase shook his head furiously. "No, I can't waste any more time. What needs to get done? What's Douglas's next move?" Chase asks. Bree frowned, but she knew better than to argue with Chase, unlike others. "No much has really been going on and Douglas has been pretty still, aside from analysis sweeps like us. There was a reading in a nuclear factory near Sacramento, although we're not sure what." Bree explains. "Alright I'll go check it out, stay here and keep an eye on the analysis sweeps." Chase says making the move to push past her, but then stopped and looked down at himself.

Chase wasn't sure if it was shame or anger, but something overcame him and he growled, making Bree take a step back. Savagely he grabbed at the dark black vest with both hands and ripped it right off his body, throwing it to the ground before whirling around to the armor cleaner against the opposite wall. He grabbed a clean vest, freshly woven with new reflective micro-fibers, and shrugged it on. Without another word or look to Bree he grabbed his weapons belt and left the room, leaving the torn vest on the floor.

Bree watched him walk away before slowly going to the room, picking up the scraps of cloth and staring at them pensively. If this was part of his form system, the color would've reverted to normal. She rubbed the fabric between her fingers. It wasn't stained with anything, it was made to be this color. Where did Chase get it? What's going on?

Chase cautiously stepped out of the chopper onto the nuclear base, yet upon creeping into the building, found nothing. No droids, no traps, not even security cameras. It only made him more tense and apprehensive as he carefully treaded his way through, looking sharply for anything out of place.

But it was completely empty. Not even any signs of nuclear waste was in the drop bay. Chase stood in the middle of the massive bay, deactivated saber in his hand as he looked around dumbfounded. Bree said they saw something on the radar, but there was no sign of Douglas's Droids, Marcus or Douglas himself, the place was clean.

It was like a ripple in the air, Chase's own internal radar making him spin around with his saber activated. A second later the familiar light of someone transferring in flashed, and once the light cleared, Chase was stared down by a pair of heated red eyes. "State your business," Adam hissed, "and be gone." Chase's shoulders tensed as he met Adam's challenging gaze, eyes narrowing. "I don't believe it's any of your concern what my business is." Chase responded. "Oh really, but it most certainly is. One of Davenport's dogs, sniffing around personal property," Adam stated, drawing his blades. Chase raised his own, ready for him. "Such beasts need to be put down!" Adam growled out, before firing his heat vision.

Chase flung his body to the side just as a pair of red lasers crashed into the spot he was at, shooting out into the wall behind and slamming into it with a gut-wrenching sound of metal being melted by raw power. Adam flung another set of lasers and once more at the last possible second, Chase dodged. Chase then rolled under Adam's form, kicking up an undamaged wall until he was in line with him. Kicking off the wall Chase launched himself at Adam, grabbing his head between his knees as he knocked Adam over, before landing on his feet.

Adam quickly recovering before ducking right under as Chase jumped over him, Adam then surprising him by attacking him in midair. Chase grunted in pain as Adam cut slightly into both sides of his gut and he went flying into the ceiling, cracking his back and head against the metal roof before falling to the ground on his stomach. His bionics protesting to activate his commando app but activated his self-repair instead, and Chase slowly pushed his upper body up, one eye clenched closed as the other glared at Adam.

Adam landed smoothly on the ground before him, deactivating his sabers and letting the wrist compartments of his gloves open. He slid the handles into the compartments, and as they closed, he held one hand out to Chase, whose glare only increased in intensity. "Good thing your body's tough enough to handle it," Adam mused when Chase finally accepted his hand, and he carefully lifted him up. "It crushed that camera pretty good." Adam sighed.

"I was wondering if you were being a real douche or just playing," Chase ground out, still wincing. "So now that I know you're still on my side, what's going on in your end? What's with this place?" Chase asked before he sat down heavily, content to just let his body repair itself. For a bionic body, it took care of itself pretty well. The thought made Chase wince again, but luckily being in pain was a good enough excuse for the expression. Adam crossed his arms over his chest, looking toward the other side of the empty dropping bay.

"Truth be told, I can't give you much information anymore. That new cheap copy of Marcus, called Mark, that Douglas made has officially stripped all authority from almost everyone. Gave it all to Douglas and his little pet, Marcus." Adam explained spitting out Marcus's name, and Chase's face colored a faint pink. "Douglas's just in a damn frenzy with some new mega-android called Andromeda which I have a copy of the blueprints for in this flash drive, and Marcus keeps disappearing every now and then." Adam explains, pulling out a flash drive from his belt, handing it over to Chase.

'If only you knew what was in that armor…' Chase thinks to himself at the mention of Marcus. "I'd assume he's on Douglas's orders to track down Andromeda." Adam growls out. "Well, that's a no brainer. What worries me is that he usually emits the same energy pattern as Andromeda, yet there are times he just vanishes. What kind of android can turn off their energy pattern and remain functional?" Adam asks.

"Who knows," Chase shrugged. Lying was starting to become too familiar, like a second nature, and Chase hated he had to lie to someone he's grown up with, like Adam. "But what do you mean track down? Douglas lost a mega-android?!" Chase asks. "Well it's not just any android Chase, the blueprints should explain it, but Andromeda's also kind of like an upgrade for Marcus I guess… like in transformers or power rangers, she just sort of builds him up and makes him better. And she just ran away." Adam tries explaining.

"I guess in a way it makes sense. If Andromeda wants to keep way from Douglas, and she knows only she has a certain energy pattern. Now suddenly something is coming after her that reads the same pattern like her? I'd assume Andromeda isn't mindless. Marcus might even just be equipped with a reader canceller." Chase hypothesizes.

Adam had sharp ears and he narrowed his eyes at Chase. "What are you hiding?" he frowned, kneeling down so he was face to face with Chase, staring into his eyes. Chase tried to hold the stare, yet old-fashioned guilt and shame made him avert his eyes ever so slightly so he looked at the space between Adam's eyes. "Chase?"

"Nothing." Chase lied between his teeth. "Why do you think I'm hiding something? I thought we agreed to have trust, we're brothers remember." Chase points out. "Hard to trust that agreement if you can't even look at me in the eye right now." Adam responds back. Chase inwardly cursed the wise-cracking trait that Adam never seemed to grow out of. "It has nothing to do with our battle," Except that's another lie. Keeping Marcus safe is putting the world in danger. "I haven't recovered from yesterday's mission and now you just kicked my ass." Chase continued.

Adam's frown grew severe. "You're distracted, Chase. What's going on? Is it something else back at the house? Has something happened?" Adam asks. Chase grabbed a handful of his vest over his core, shutting his eyes tightly and finding himself trying to breathe through clenched teeth. The house, everybody in the house, even himself was in danger because of his own selfish wants and lusts. As if it weren't bad enough he left Adam alone to spy on Douglas and his plans for all of them. Now he was letting the very monster that they fought against together go free! And in their own house, the same house they grew up in! To hell if anyone else found out about his shame, but if the family knew…

"Chase!" Adam shouted, bringing Chase back from his thoughts.

"Everything's fine as far as I know." Chase snapped. Chase had to hold back the emotional overload his chip tried to trigger and he swallowed hard, not wanting to split and end up with Spike coming back again. "It's just… I can't talk about it right now, Adam. I just can't, all right? I can't." Chase admitted. Adam snorted and rose to his feet. "You can, you just won't. What happened to that strong mission leader that always wanted to prove he was the best to everyone? What happened to him, who fought not just for some skewed vision of justice but what was right?" Adam asked tauntingly.

'Shut up! Shut up shut up you don't know you don't understand you don't have my life you don't have the urges I do! Quit looking at me stop it stop it quit-' "Quit looking at me!" Chase exploded, his thoughts erupting into his words, and Adam took a step back in surprise. He had only seen Spike burst before, and with Chase it was unnerving. Chase pulled his knees to his chest, his hands grasping his head as he pressed his forehead to his knees. "I'm just really messed up right now," he said, much calmer, much quieter. "A lot of things are… rushing back and forth in my head lately. I can't tell what's happening with the family and the mission. And Davenport… Bree, they… for me and I…" Chase says hysterically, breaking down more and more with each word.

Adam was at a loss, but he couldn't just leave Chase like this. "This isn't the time to let your emotions cloud you, Chase. We need to just put away our emotions and do our duty. Afterwards we can have our break downs, but not now. We need your help if we're to get rid of Douglas, Marcus, and the threat of Andromeda." Adam said, playing the role of big brother. Chase swallowed, letting Adam's words sink in. Adam was right, for once, and Chase slowly uncurled his body with a long exhale. He took in a deep breath, and then released it as his hands dropped from his head and he leaned his head back, eyes closed.

A few seconds later, when he opened his eyes, Adam was relieved to find the old, emotionless Chase back. "Get back to Douglas," Chase said, softly but coldly. "Make sure you bust yourself up before you get back. Report our fight and that I managed to escape, but whatever it is you're hiding here, I didn't find it. Keep in touch the old way." Chase finished.

"You know, a particular snake has been asking about you." Adam smirked at the code. Go figure Bree made it up. "Tell her the usual." Chase stood and brushed himself off, masking the aching pain in his injuries the best he could. "Until then, Adam."

"Till then, Chase" Adam said before walking away, leaving Chase alone in the compound. When the silence fully registered to Chase he shuddered, hating it and the loneliness it brought. At least with Adam, he…

Again Chase shuddered and he left the compound, although he did not return to the house. No, he didn't want to face the others, not with his guilt so fresh and raw at the surface of his flimsy mask. Chase needed a distraction…