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“Are you freaking kidding me?” Oliver hissed under his breath. He was holding a laundry basket of clothes piled up to his chin. Now, his superstrength meant that the heaviness of the ridiculous load wasn’t the problem. The problem was that he needed both arms to not topple it all over. And the door to the bedroom he shared with the other two boys was locked.
He kicked the bottom of it with his socked toe. “Very funny, Kaz! Let me in!”
No answer.
Oliver kicked it harder, more insistent. He knew any more force could damage it, but he was a little too pissed off to care. “Kaz!” The basket slipped out of his fingers, spilling onto the sleek hardwood floor that made up the upstairs hallway. “Oh, come on!”
Oliver groaned, crouching down to begin shoveling the clothes back into the bin. This was what he got for skipping his laundry day the week before. He didn’t have any idea why the door was locked in the first place. Chase had been working on his laptop, sitting over the comforter on Kaz’s bed. Kaz himself was snoring on the other side of the bed, still pretty exhausted from his recovery. Oliver had left for maybe two minutes to get his laundry. Certainly they weren’t doing anything that traumatizing in such a short amount of time, not anything worthy of locking the door at least. So his natural assumption was that Kaz, knowing how much he would have to carry back, had locked the door to be funny. Oliver would personally wring his neck.
“Chase?” he tried, elbowing the door as he continued gathering his clothes. A faint shimmer caught his eye. Blue? Over the door? It looked similar to Chase’s forcefield. Okay, Chase wouldn’t prank him like this, though. His pranks were decently clever. Did Kaz seriously steal Davenport’s shield technology for this stupid reason? Oliver had half a mind to go knock on the girls’ door and ask Skylar to break theirs down. She’d probably say yes with very little thought.
He stood back up without his basket, opening his mouth to begin yelling at Kaz again.
Oliver took a breath, cutting it off sharply. His vision faded.
~*~
Chase was rubbing Kaz’s bare back as it faced him with one hand, clicking through prototype logs with his other. He was careful around his ribcage area, even though Kaz had gotten the all clear from Douglas a few days ago. The only remnant of his extreme injury from six weeks before was the brace he kept around his wrist. Kaz still felt discomfort with moving it, which made sense as that arm was his worst injury. Imagining Blood Chief’s face still made Chase curl his lip.
“You okay?” The gravelly question surprised him. Kaz rolled over, yawning. He draped his braced arm over Chase’s lap, pushing his face into his side and squinting at the laptop screen. His voice was thick from sleep. “Your hand got a little shaky.”
“Yeah, fine,” Chase shrugged. “Just… thinking, y’know.”
“I don’t, actually,” Kaz snorted.
“Uh-huh,” Chase rolled his eyes fondly. He began stroking Kaz’s hair, perking up when he heard Oliver outside the door. It sounded like he dropped something heavy, followed by curses and kicking at the door. “Uh… what the hell? Kaz, did you lock the door?” he looked at him accusingly.
“Babe, I’ve been right here,” Kaz pointed out. “Would’ve been funny, though.”
“No, it wouldn’t have,” Chase corrected. He wormed himself out of Kaz’s hold, shutting his laptop and sliding on his slippers to go open the door.
Before he made it, something much heavier dropped. It sounded far too heavy to be clothes. He and Kaz exchanged a look. Chase rushed the last few steps, grabbing the handle to pull it. The door didn’t budge.
~*~
Bree was on her stomach on her mini inflatable couch, sketching away.
She brushed eraser flecks off the page as the bathroom door opened. Skylar had her hair in a towel, hovering over. She bent down to press a peck to Bree’s lips, making her smile a little too much for a proper kiss.
“Jeez, babe,” Bree snickered. “The sauna is crazy,” she pointed to the hefty amount of steam wafting out of the bathroom.
“Well, I used to bathe in geysers,” Skylar shrugged. “Earth water isn’t shit.”
Bree sat up, patting the space beside her. Skylar obliged, sitting next to her with an arm slung over the back. Bree immediately settled into her side, halfway sitting on her, as the couch wasn’t meant to accommodate two people– especially when one was a ripped alien warrior.
Bree continued sketching in the comfortable silence while Skylar scrolled through her phone.
“You’re so talented, babe.”
“Hm?”
Skylar nodded at her sketching. She was currently drawing Naomi– based on a picture Tasha had sent. Bree blushed a little. “Well, not really–”
“Mhm. Shut up and take my compliment.”
“How cruel of you. Complimenting me like this,” Bree dramatically threw herself into Skylar.
“Yeah, I know. Truly awful,” Skylar matched her, also swooning.
The two girls laughed, sharing another kiss.
Bree raised an eyebrow when Skylar pulled away abruptly. She saw her pointed ear twitch. “Did you… hear that?”
Bree listened for a moment.
“Sounded like someone dropped something,” Skylar shrugged. “Wasn’t expecting that, is all.”
“Oh,” Bree nodded, turning back to her sketching.
A much louder thud startled her.
They glanced at each other, starting for the door.
Bree tried to open it, frowning in confusion when she couldn’t.
“What the–”
Skylar scowled. “Stand back.”
She grabbed the handle, pulling it once. Nothing. She pulled it again. Skylar’s scowl deepened. She clenched her jaw, pulling harder. Blue shimmered over the mahogany. Bree felt her heart spike. Skylar readjusted her grip, yanking hard.
The door was ripped right off its hinges. A small metal cylinder rolled next to Bree’s foot. “Mr. Davenport’s tech?” she muttered to herself. It looked like one of his shield generators.
The moment she acknowledged the clothes pouring out of a basket across the hall, there was a bang on the boys’ door, making her jump. A similar blue shine covered it.
“Guys!” Skylar flew over, beginning to pull at their door.
“Oliver!” Bree heard her brother shout back.
Bree quickly scanned the hallway, turning on her heel to speed down the stairs.
Time slowed as she blurred into the common room, looking over the space. She started toward the hyperlift to check Mission Command and their underground tunnel network.
Her stomach dropped. The slowly shifting figure of a person in a dark cloak was running toward the balcony doors. With Oliver slung over their shoulder.
All rational thought vacated as she charged right for the figure, barreling into their body at a speed great enough to tear a human in half. The person flew to the doors, smacking against the edge and staggering onto the balcony. Bree shot her arms out, catching Oliver before he hit the ground. She maneuvered them, propping his back against her chest and feeling for a pulse under his jaw. There was a small hole below her fingers. He was fully limp. His eyes were wide open, but empty-looking, making her breath skip.
When she looked back up, the figure was gone. A breeze gently blew in from the open doors, ruffling the kitchen curtains.
There was a moment of silence. Footsteps thundered on the stairs. The other three dashed into the living space, pausing in shock when they saw Bree and Oliver.
“Call Douglas,” she managed.
~*~
Oliver shot up with a gasp. His head pounded in tandem with his heart, shooting him full of adrenaline.
Arms grabbed him. His body calmed. Skylar. As soon as his vision cleared, he saw he was right, being held by his friend. He took a breath, seeing the others surrounding his bed in the infirmary.
“You okay, kid?” Douglas asked, coming into view.
He choked a little, gladly taking the water bottle Kaz offered him. He took a sip and another breath, relaxing his shaking to the best of his ability. “What… happened…?”
“A paralytic,” Douglas held up a tiny shard of metal between his new prosthetic fingers. “You’re gonna be feeling the effects for a little while.”
“...Huh?” Oliver exhaled. Skylar released him, just keeping her hand on his back. Kaz came to his other side, doing the same.
“How much do you remember?” Douglas tilted his head, setting the projectile aside.
Oliver touched the bandage on the side of his neck. “...Laundry?”
Douglas looked at his kids, sighing. “Show him.”
Chase summoned a blue holographic screen. Oliver realized it was security footage of the upstairs hallway. He saw himself drop his basket of clothes, then regather them. He, with a queasy feeling, saw himself go rigid and keel over into the clothes. A shadowy figure came into view, throwing him over their shoulder and hurrying toward the stairs, right as the girls’ door went flying.
Oliver’s mouth went dry again. Oliver felt both Skylar and Kaz come closer. He welcomed it.
“Bree got you just in time,” Douglas folded his arms. Oliver glanced at Bree, unable to begin expressing his thanks. She smiled and waved him off from under Chase’s arm, making Oliver return a tinier smile. “Bastard stole tech from down here to block the others in. Thankfully, they’re stupid enough to not understand the difference between prototypes and finished products. The signature doesn’t seem to be a shapeshifter, but we’ve already sent the footage to Diaz to cross-reference. That and a sample of the paralytic.”
“...Okay,” was all Oliver could say.
“I’ve already tightened security tenfold with AJ’s help,” Chase added. “No one gets in or out without my system being alerted.”
Oliver nodded.
“Okay, let him process all this shit,” Bree interjected, holding her hands up to stop her family.
“Right, sorry,” Douglas scratched the back of his head. “Alright, I gotta go again. Please call me if you need me. And call Diaz before he has a heart attack.”
“I barely stopped him from wormholing here mid-surgery,” Kaz stage-whispered to Oliver. Oliver couldn’t help but laugh.
“Yeah, I don’t wanna be his patient again,” Douglas cringed. “Bye now. Stop getting into trouble.”
“Nope,” Bree popped the “p”.
“Oliver, how do you feel?” Chase asked, coming closer.
“Not sure,” he admitted. “My head hurts.”
Kaz grabbed a bottle of anti-inflammatory pills from the cart beside him, shaking a couple into the cap to give him. Oliver took them with a swig of water.
“I… almost got kidnapped,” Oliver said stupidly. His throat felt tight. Skylar fully hugged him. Kaz joined them. Oliver’s eyes watered as he held onto them.
“It won’t happen again,” Chase promised. “Anyone. In or out.”
“O…Okay.”
~*~
“Sonnuva bitch, that hurt.”
“Sir,” worried attendants surrounded him as he hissed, holding his battered side from the Davenport girl hitting him. “Stay still.”
“We’ve got confirmation that Terror’s son is still alive,” Mort’s snake tongue flickered over his lips. “That complicates things.”