Marcus' Sixteenth Birthday

I Can't Do It

Chase's pov:

"Marcus! Where are you going?" I ran after him but he was too fast, he used his super speed and was long gone before I even reached the door. "Marcus!" I called again.

"What's wrong? And what the heck happened to the door and that window?" Bree inquired, entering the room.

"I... I don't know..." I had never seen Marcus so sad before, well of course he had cried before. His father threw him out and the first time we met him he had pretended to be sad too, but not like this. Never like this, this seemed different... much worse.

"Ehm Chase?" I turned around to look at Bree, she was holding a letter and frowned at it. "I think Marcus wasn't really lying this time."

"Let me see it," I commanded, pulling the letter out of her hands. I opened the letter and read what it said.

Dear Marcus,

There is something you need to know.

I know I should've told you before but I couldn't. I want you to know that I haven't forgotten you birthday, I know it's tomorrow and I knew that last year too and the year before... It just became hard for me to celebrate, because it isn't something I can celebrate anymore. And it's time that you know that too.

You know that you're an android and you're aware of your enormous strength too, but what you don't know is that such strength wasn't easy to achieve and also not something that could've been done without a compromise. Your chip has an expiration date, if I can call it that way. I've tried, Marcus, I really did... but I couldn't make it last longer than sixteen years. I'm sorry.

Goodbye, my dear son.

"What?" I exclaimed after re-reading it three times. "This must be a joke right? He can't be serious about this."

"I don't know Chase, it seems pretty serious to me and Marcus seems to think so too."

"It can't be so simple, there has to be a solution. There's always a solution!" But Douglas obviously didn't know one, or did he? No, he wouldn't leave his son to die if there was a chance of saving him, right? "Can't we just give him a new chip?" I thought out loud.

"A new chip, do you even know what you're saying?" Bree answered. I was glad to notice that she actually seemed a bit worried about Marcus. No matter how much you hate your enemies, never wish them death, 'cause then you're about as bad as they are, or seem.

"I know! I know, alright but we have to do something. We can at least try."

"Do you even know how to build a new chip?" I shook my head, I didn't. I've never build a chip before and it wasn't something you can just simply find on the internet.

"Big D must have some old descriptions of it. If I can find them I can maybe solve it." I wished Mr. Davenport was home himself but he wasn't. He was gone on some business trip, to show some important guy one of his new inventions. He's probably not coming home before midnight. "We have to try, Bree." She nodded.

"I know, let's search them then." We went to the lab and searched the whole place. We searched in his digital files, we searched the few paper files he had but there was nothing about our chips.

"What are we looking for?" The sound of Leo's voice startled me. I was so concentrated I hadn't noticed him. That was rare for me.

"Files," I answered, without further explanation. Bree got up from the place she was searching.

"We need files about our chips, we need to know how Mr. Davenport made them." Bree explained to Leo.

"Oohh... wait what for?"