Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Marcus slowly opens his eyes and the first thing he notices is that he’s not in a million mechanical pieces, crushed into oblivion by the debris.

The second thing he notices is that he’s restrained.

Looking down at his arm, it seems to be held back by some kind of metal cable wrapped around his upper arms. Obviously, his immediate course of action is to break out.

This should be easy. He has super strength, after all.

He goes to pull his arms free and…

Nothing happens.

It’s a little humiliating, the rush of panic that immediately courses through him but, surely, he just didn’t pull hard enough. So he does it again. Still nothing.

His power source thrums worriedly in his chest. Fine. It’s fine. This isn’t a big deal. There are plenty of other ways to break out of simple cables. It’s at this point he actually inspects his arm closer, and notices the lower half of his arm is mechanical. It’s an awkward fix, clearly whoever or whatever had patched him up wasn’t finished yet.

It’s a little gross, the synth-skin only reaching down to his elbow before it gives away to nothing but an android skeleton but- again, not a big deal. Marcus has seen his own android skeleton before- this isn’t anything new. The more pressing matter is who is trying to fix him.

“Marcus, look out!”

He’d barely had time to react. He’d thought he was a goner for sure but, no, here he is, still active, still functional… still…

It’s at this point it finally dawns on him where he is. He knows the machinery, the walls, the capsules, the table, the digital screens, he’s seen it all before.

He’s in Davenport’s lab.

It doesn’t immediately process at first, for awhile he just sits there, not quite believing that what he’s seeing are his actual surroundings. Is he glitching? Is he hallucinating? Is this the afterlife for androids? Is this hell?

He must have said the last part out loud because a high-pitched voice responds to his query with, “Nope, but sometimes it sure does feel like it!”

Marcus turns his head at all angles, desperately trying to pinpoint the source of the voice, but there's no one around. Not a soul in sight. Is he starting to hear things?

“Over here!”

It’s at this point he finally realizes where the voice is coming from- some… thing in the wall. A small screen with an emoticon is within his sight, and is clearly the source of the voice. He has to squint a little with it being over on the other side of the lab, but he’s sure he isn’t mistaken. Their home security system. A pretty incompetent one, from
what he’d seen so far. It had been laughably easy to break into the lab. It was almost like the security system hadn’t even cared there’d been a breach in, you know, security.

He had a million questions, most of which he’s having trouble articulating because his mind is racing at the speed of light in an attempt to even process this scenario, but he settles on a simple,

“Why am I here?”

“Pretty simple. Cause Donnie ‘felt bad.’ His words are not mine! Didn’t do the most precise job though, don’t look down if you don’t wanna see your left leg put back together with duct tape. He was kinda rushing through putting you back together.”

Because he felt bad. Felt bad. How laughable. Marcus absentmindedly yanks himself forward, feeling the cables yank but not give away.

“I wouldn’t bother! He took out your bionics hours ago.”

Marcus quits his struggling, his entire body stilling. He did what? Took out his bionics? Just like that? Like flipping a switch? Suddenly just- no more bionics?

His bionics had been with him from the moment he’d been created. They were the reason he was able to carry himself confidently through his many endeavours with no worries. He would always be able to defeat his opponent- always.

Although.

His mind flashes back for a moment, when energy had coiled and circled it’s way around Adam’s body, seemingly flowing through him, before bursting outwards in every direction.

In that moment, he felt as if all his internal systems had momentarily shut down- and as if a strong electrical shock had been delivered to his power source. But in that moment it hadn’t been the most important thing- the most important thing had been winning the fight. So his systems had quickly rebooted themselves as fast as they could as he stood up in a last ditch effort, to save the fight, to do what he was made to do-

Then the rubble had fallen down on him. Now he’s here.

Donald Davenport must have been an even stupider man than he’d been led to believe, to attempt to do something like this. Because he felt bad.

Marcus was having a hard time believing that. His processors raced with different possibilities, trying to calculate what exactly the man would even want with him. Taking him here. Removing his bionics. Leaving him defenseless.

What could possibly be his end goal in all this? What was he hoping to achieve?

Marcus supposed he could grill the thing in the wall for more answers, but he had a suspicion he had already told him everything he knew about the situation. Or at least, everything he thought he knew.

Whatever. He’d only been active for a couple minutes and his systems were already starting to lag and slow down. When he feels his eyelids starting to slip shut, he tries to stay awake just a little longer, but he can already feel himself going into recharge mode.

Which is going to be a bit more difficult considering he’s subsisting off a battery and doesn’t have his capsule.

His last thought before everything around him goes dark is that he needs to construct a plan in order to deal with what’s going.

Once he figures out what’s even going on.

—

—

Marcus can hear people talking around him.

It’s one of the perks of being an android- being entirely aware of your surroundings even when outwardly you appear to be asleep.

It’s a feature he’d been installed with just in case of unforeseen attacks when one's guard is down. Even when he’s recharging his thermal scanner is aware of the presence of humans near him, and an internal alarm is set that will go off if they get too close.

They’re very much way too close, standing only six feet away from him. He thinks to himself how stupid they are for getting so close. His thermal scan reveals one of the humans nearby is Leo.

I could pulverize you. he thinks, before remembering his current lack of bionics and groaning internally.

This really sucks.

“Big-D, what were you thinking bringing him back here?” Leo says incredulously, and for once Marcus has to agree with him on something. He is also wondering about the answer to that question.

Donald sighs, like he doesn’t quite know what to say, and Marcus’s thermal scanner indicates movement, like he’s running his hand through his hair.

“I’m not asking any of you to trust him, or like him, or even have to be around him. Him being in the lab is just a temporary situation.” Another sigh. “I’m repairing him because it seems to me that he’s just as sentient as any one of you.

I’m not saying I trust Marcus, he was made by Douglas of all people, but… he’s your guy’s age. If it was any one of you, the idea of any one of you being left to die somewhere…”

“Yeah, except the main difference between him and us is that we aren’t evil lunatics!” Marcus’s thermal scanner is indicating movement again, fast blurs indicating Leo is waving his arms around.

“I mean if you wanted to bring him back that badly you coulda just taken his parts and turned into him a non-threatening toaster or something! Or maybe a coffee machine!”

In his head, Marcus visualizes kicking Leo down a flight of stairs.

“Listen, Leo, the situation is only temporary, I promise. He’s only here while I repair him and after that’s done… we decide what to do from there. I was acting a bit impulsively. I won't lie to you, it was a rash decision. I’m working as fast as I can. All I ask is that you stay calm and stay awake from Marcus, for your own safety.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice.”

If Marcus was active, he’d grin at the fact that even without his bionics he still is enough of a threat that the warning is needed.

There’s the sound of footsteps, and Leo is on his way out of the lab, power-walking at a brisk pace, muttering under his breath about, “how freaked out Adam, Bree and Chase are going to be about this…”

There’s more movement and someone is walking towards him, with a tool in hand. Probably on his way to continue his repairs. This seems like the perfect moment for his eyes to suddenly snap
open and for him to jerk his body forward as if he’s about to lunge at Davenport.

Not that he could, being restrained and all, but. The thought is nice.

Donald startles at the sight, which makes a sense of satisfaction swell inside Marcus’s chest cavity. The scientist had practically leaped backwards, he was so surprised.

“You’re awake.” he states, obviously attempting to keep his voice unreadable despite how clearly nervous and apprehensive it sounds.

“Yeah. I am.” Marcus affirms sarcastically because what else would be, “And I have some questions for you.”

“And I’ll try to answer those questions to the… best of my ability.”

Donald must be relieved that Marcus is seemingly acting somewhat calm about the situation, and he continues to walk forward, reaching out towards Marcus’s arm, the one that’s lacking synth-skin from the elbow down. For some reason this makes Marcus unreasonably mad.

He isn’t calm about the situation. What’s going on right now is absolute insanity. How dare he act like Marcus suddenly just isn’t a threat anymore? He leans forward as if he’s about to attack, and then remembers- yet again, because it keeps slipping his mind- no abilities.

He desperately wishes he had his biconics. Speaking of which- he almost asks, “Why did you take out my bionics?” as his question before stopping himself. He knows why Davenport took out his biconics.

“What are you hoping to achieve with this?”

“Honestly?” Donald sighs, as he begins to work on Marcus’s arm- which makes him think about how easy it would be to throw him across the room if he just had his super strength- working carefully with the wiring and metal as not to damage it further. “I don’t know. It’s not exactly as if we could turn you over the police- they might ask questions.
Also, unleashing you to regular human society feels like a mistake we probably shouldn’t make. But…”

He makes an annoyed noise, like what he’s about to say is aggravating to even state. “As horrible and evil as he is… Douglas is still my brother. And you’re his creation. So that almost kind of makes you like my…”

He squints, clearly trying to find the right word.

“Nephew?…. Sure, let’s go with that. An evil, messed up, nephew.”

Even though the logic is sound- the idea of being related to Donald of all people makes him want to throw up, and he internally fake-gags at the idea.

“I couldn’t just leave you there. God. Against all my better judgement, I couldn’t just… leave you there.”

Marcus grins a little. The Davenport family is full of a bunch of softies. Maybe if he played his cards right, acted the right way, wormed his way into being trusted by them again-

“But you need to know this.”

Marcus suddenly remembers that the expression he’s making is actually visible to the world and stops. He meets Davenport’s gaze, which had turned into a hard, unforgiving glare.

“You hurt my kids. Badly. And even though you’re here, right now. At any time.” He grips the arm he’s repairing more tightly as he’s working on it.

Marcus can’t feel pain, not in the traditional human sense, but the sensation of solid pressure being applied to the metal and wires in his arm is, well, it’s not exactly pleasant.

“At any time that could change- and the second, you get the idea of hurting them again-“

Davenport leans forward, so that their faces are level with one another.

“You’re out of here. Understand?”

Marcus feels indignant. Why is he the one being bossed around by Donald Davenport of all people? Him! He’d been laughably easy to capture, they’d been able to overpower him in seconds.

His power source stutters and throbs- like the energy humming in it was sinking in and out.

Dragging him away to their lair had been a cakewalk. There was no one in the universe who Marcus was less afraid of than Donald Davenport.

Back when he still had his bionics.

Right now, he suddenly feels weak- and it’s making him mad. He wants to yell, he wants to punch Davenport across the face, he wants to blast him away with an energy blast and smile as defeating him takes no effort, he wants to lunge forward and do something-

But he can’t. He’s restrained, and he has no bionics. It pains him to admit but at this point he’s basically just a hunk of metal, at least until he gets his bionics back- which he will.

He wants desperately to think that even without his biconics, he could take all of them on and bust out here and then he’ll- he’ll… well, he hasn’t actually thought that far ahead, but this is just humiliating!

For some reason his power source is still stuttering, almost as if it’s struggling to sustain itself, which… he’s had problems with his power source before but none had ever been this consistent. He feels faint, as if his systems are about to shut down, which he can’t do, because that would make this situation ten times more humiliating than it already is!

Donald is still staring at him, his eyes hard. He hasn’t let go of Marcus’s arm. He doesn’t actually have a clue how much time has passed- it seems to have just been a couple seconds but it feels like hours.

“Understand?”

Marcus glares as hard as he can. It’s humiliating, he feels like a petulant child, where all he can do is simply silently try to explode Davenport’s head with his mind through sheer force of will- to no effect. He tries to instill his gaze with as much fire as he can, which doesn’t seem to be doing anything for him or Donald.

The man’s expression is still firm and unmoving and Marcus still feels as if his power source is about to give out for some reason. He still feels faint, so he simply gives a nod after what feels like an eternity of not wanting to admit defeat.

Davenport’s eyes widen, and he opens his mouth as if he’s about to say something, then-

And then Marcus blacks out.

Chapter Text

When Marcus came to, Donald was leaning over him, hands literally poking around inside his chest cavity.

So he felt entirely justified in head-butting him so hard he was sure he heard something crack in the man’s skull, propelling him backward and causing him to drop the tool he was using in the process.

“Marcus-“

“My bad.” the android responded dryly, not even sounding slightly sorry.

“You need to let me do my work, although… ” he frowns, clearly about to say something, but stopping himself at the last second.

“What.”

“Well… there’s a problem.”

“Yes, I think we’re both aware, there’s a ‘problem’. Anyone with two eyes could see that.”

“It’s your power source.”

Marcus blinks. Then frowns. “What about it?”

“It’s… it’s…” Donald gestures uselessly with his hands, as if that would make his point more clear. “It’s…” he throws his arms up in the air.

“I don’t know! I don’t know what’s wrong with it, that’s the problem.”

Marcus keeps his expression outwardly unreadable, but internally he let just a tiny bit of dread creep into his system.

“What do you mean, ‘you don’t know’? Not very smart after all, huh?”

“I am smart!” Donald cries indignantly, like a child no older than the age of five. “And a genius, I’ll have you know, it’s just…”

He sighs, once again making a face like what he’s about to say is paining him to admit. “Your power source is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. There’s clearly something wrong with it, but I have no clue what.

I’m completely out of my element. I’ve done everything I can in terms of repairing you physically but, your power source is…” He looks extremely frustrated that he has to admit to a technological problem being beyond him. “Something I don’t know how to deal with.”

He looks off to the side, whining to nobody in particular, complaining about how he “hates not knowing things.”

“So that’s it?” Marcus complains. “You’ve done everything you can? You’re the guy whose face I’d see in magazines, touted as ‘the most intelligent man in the world’ and you can’t even fix a robot right?”

Donald grins stupidly a little, suddenly distracted. “Which magazine was it? Cause I have a hard time keeping track of them all. Was it like Inventors Weekly or-“

“That’s not the point!” Marcus rolls his eyes. “If you’re so much of a genius, how is this so beyond you?”

Donald sighs, putting his hands on his hips. “I’ve dealt with robots before, but… your entire model and infrastructure is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s honestly a miracle I was able to repair you this well. And your power source… I don’t even recognize it at all, I’ve never seen anything like it before…

And it’s just that… I didn’t build you.”

Marcus does not like where this sentence is going.

“Douglas did.”

Douglas.

Douglas.

Marcus hadn’t even thought about him this entire time. He’d been so busy processing the situation he hadn’t even had time for the man to cross his mind.

Despite his photographic memory, it was almost like his system had lagged and it had taken a while before the memory had fully rendered, but now that he was thinking about it. He. He.

He imagines meeting up with Douglas. He imagines his power source getting fixed by Douglas. It would probably be easy, after all no
one knew the inner workings of Marcus’s systems and machinery better than the man who’d designed and built him. He’d be done fixing him after only a day probably, much faster than this moron Donald. He’d have him
up and running like nothing happened. Douglas might even be able to give him his bionics back.

He thinks that if that happened, it’d only be about two seconds before he used his heat vision to burn a hole right between Douglas’s eyes.

The thought of seeing him is making all his systems go haywire, and he’s clenching his fists so hard he can feel the android exoskeleton threatening to tear through the newly-repaired synth-skin on his knuckles.

“I don’t want to see him.” is all he says.

His internal coolant system is working overdrive to filter in enough oxygen to keep his mechanical components from overheating. His power source once again feels strained, vibrating intensely in his chest cavity and he thinks that he might just be on the verge of passing out again.

“Good, cause I did not want to track him down and ask for help. I’m smart enough to deal with this on my own. And I never wanna see his face again.” Donald says, the disgust evident in his voice.

Marcus un-clenches his fist a bit, trying to think or something that isn’t Douglas before his entire system shuts down. For some reason lately whenever he starts to get really worked up, it feels as if his entire system is about to explode, overworking itself for some reason. It’s a weird bug, one he’s never dealt with before.

But if there’s one thing he knows Donald Davenport will not be able to back down from, it’s a challenge. In his head, he thanks whatever powers that be in the universe that Donald and Douglas are both egotistical children with a need to prove themselves smarter than the other.

Works out in his favor.

—————————————

After a long day of being poked, prodded, and meddled with by a guy who talks to himself the more frustrated he gets, Marcus wishes more than ever that he had his bionics so he could throw Donald across the room with his mind.

For hours on end, Donald would suddenly become intensely focused, his eyes would light up and he’d exclaim that he got it, he knew what he was doing. And then after a couple minutes of careful work, he’d get even more frustrated and end up pacing in circles while complaining aloud to himself before going back to working. It was an endless cycle, and it was starting to make Marcus feel like he was losing his mind.

Davenport seemed to be losing his mind as well, getting more and more unhinged as the day went on, culminating in him throwing whatever tool he was using down on his table so hard it bounced, and declaring that he needs a break, just a short break, that’s all. He’d stomped off, hadn’t returned for a half hour, and had come back looking somehow even more unhinged.

He looks like he’s about to finally snap, hair unkempt and eyes wide and bloodshot. Honestly, Marcus almost kinda hopes he does snap. Just to see it.

His internal clock reads 8:00 PM, and he absentmindedly thinks about how this is around the time when an average human would go to bed.

Donald seems to realize it too, cause he says something about how sleep will do him good before starting to clean up his equipment for the night.

It is also at this point that Adam, Bree and Chase enter the lab, presumably to sleep, and it’s also at the moment that it dawns on Marcus that, oh right, they live here.

“Mr.Davenport-,” Chase starts, like he’s about to ask something, before he grimaces like he just ate a lemon. “-wow, you somehow look even worse than when we saw you earlier.”

His eyes dart over towards Marcus for a split second, and an expression that is undoubtedly unease crosses his face, and Marcus feels a little vindicated at the sight. Being restrained and without his bionics is a setback for sure, but at least they’re still scared of him. He still has some of his dignity.

“Wow, Leo really wasn’t joking around,” Adam says, his face also betraying the fact that Marcus’s presence in the lab is making him uncomfortable- all of them, actually. They’re all looking at him like he’s some feral animal that could bite them at any time. Good. That’s good.

“Mr. Davenport…” Chase says, staring at Marcus just a second longer before breaking eye contact to look at his father. He says the second part in a quieter tone, but not quiet enough, because even without bionic hearing Marcus is easily able to make out what he’s saying. “Are you really sure about this? I mean…”

Donald runs a hand over his face, sighs and admits, “No, I’m not really sure. But… I mean what else am I supposed to do?”

“I mean, you could’ve just left him here.” Bree says, crossing her arms.

“Yeah, that is something you could’ve done.” Adam echoes her sentiment, nodding sagely as if she had made some kind of deep revelation, and it’s starting to grate on Marcus’s nerves that they’re all talking about him like he isn’t in the room.

“You know, I’m right here.” he says, knowing full-well that they do not care.

“Yes, we know. We are all painfully aware.” Bree says, raising her eyebrows at him and making a ‘I wish you were dead and buried in the ground’ face, to which Marcus makes one right back.

“And I’ll tell you what I told Leo, this is just a temporary situation while I figure out what to do. I’m not asking you guys to be all buddy-buddy-“

Marcus, for a split second, imagines them all holding hands and running off into the sunset and rolls his eyes. Like that would ever happen.

“-but just… trust me. I’m handling this situation the best that I can, so I’m asking you guys to just … trust me.”

“Even though you just admitted you have no idea what you’re doing?” Chase points out, clearly not okay with the situation.

Donald’s face scrunches up, and he squints a little, gestures with his hands uselessly, before releasing a long, weary sigh.

“Yeah.”

Chase doesn’t respond at first, he just glances over to Marcus. When their eyes meet, Marcus makes sure to level him with a glare that comes across as threatening as best he can, but Chase doesn’t even look that scared, just annoyed. Marcus wants so badly to make it so that isn’t the case, but he can’t really… do anything, so he just sits there and stews in his annoyance. Now they’re both annoyed. Mutual annoyance.

“So now an evil robot who betrayed us and tried to kill us… is our roommate, left is right, up is down, I’m going to sleep, I’ve had enough for one day.” Bree says, when the silence in the room has gone on for too long. She walks off in the direction of her capsule.

“Yeah, me too. My brain hurts.” Adam says, walking off as well.

Chase stays for a moment, staring directly at Marcus. It’s at this point Marcus suddenly remembers that the panel on the back of his neck is still open, and the synth-skin around the circumference of his entire neck is also gone. Which is probably another reason why they were all staring at him so weird. They’re probably not used to seeing the internal workings of an android.

Chase stares a moment longer, before looking at his father again. “Alright. I trust you, Mr. Davenport.” He places a hand on the man’s shoulder for a second before beginning to walk off. He turns back for a second, saying, “But seriously, you look horrible. Go to bed.”

Donald just nods, and Chase walks off to his capsule finally.

Davenport closes the panel on the back of Marcus’s neck, making sure his wiring is in place first, and then begins to clean up his work area. The bags under his eyes are deep, and Marcus begins to feel himself getting worried.

No, not about Davenport. But rather, about himself. He had no doubts that the man would run himself into the ground over his ego, to prove a point, but was that going to be enough? What if he really was too much of a moron to figure this out? Then Marcus would be toast for sure. He might just end up shutting down.

What a stupid way to die, saved from the rubble only to shut down cause some dumb inventor isn’t intelligent enough to fix a robot right.

“Marcus, look out!”

The building was falling apart but he hadn’t cared. The debris had come down before he even knew what was happening.

Speaking of shutting down…

He does a full scan of his systems. It’s been awhile since he’d recharged…

That’s not good.

“By the way.” Marcus says, trying to sound casual about it, as his life isn’t on the line. “Not that you aren’t ‘the most talented inventor in the world’-“ his wrists are still unrestrained enough for him to move them within reason, so he makes air quotes with his hands. “-but all your efforts to prove that you're smarter than your brother and that you know how to fix a robot right, are going to be in vain if I just end up shutting down cause I don’t have a capsule.”

Donald is finishing up putting his stuff away, but he stills suddenly, as if the thought that Marcus needs to recharge hadn’t crossed his mind. Wow, he really is an idiot. He’s also making an expression as if Marcus had somehow had something incorrect, but Marcus didn’t say anything incorrect, so he has no idea what that look is about.

“Capsule?” he says quietly, like the idea hadn’t even crossed his mind. Wow, he really is tired. Even a toddler would have figured this out.

“Yes. Capsule. Like the ones for Adam, Bree and Chase.” He motions with his head towards the sleeping bionic teens, who are fast asleep in their respective capsules.

“But instead, one for me. Usually I would recharge in my capsule, but as you can see, I don’t exactly have that right now. So I’m subsisting off of a battery. WIthout a capsule to recharge, I might start to glitch too.

Which’ll be unfortunate for your progress if the thing you’re trying to fix is malfunctioning. Are you able to comprehend that, Mr. Most Intelligent Man In The World?”

Donald’s expression is absolutely unreadable, and he suddenly looks deep in thought. He looks like he’d just remembered something important, and Marcus narrows his eyes. He hates getting the feeling that information is being kept from him, but it’s better to play his cards right just long enough so he can be fully repaired- and then bust out of here.

And then he’ll…

He doesn’t really know, actually, but anything’s better than this.

“Alright, I’ll…. consider it.” the man says, running his hand through his hair.

“Consider it?”

“Yeah. Consider it.”

The scientist then abruptly spins on his heel and leaves.

He doesn’t say, goodnight, sweet dreams, have a good recharge, he just walks off, rubbing at his eyes. He disappears around a corner, there’s the clicking noise of a switch being flipped, and the lights in the lab are out.

Marcus almost wants to yell after him, threaten him, say that if he doesn’t do what Marcus wants there’ll be consequences but… he knows it would just be in vain, so he just purses his lips and watches the man go. Like he’d be able to convince the man he had the upper hand when he’s in this sorry state.

He makes sure his thermal detector which will alert him of nearby humans is still active, and once he’s sure it is, he lets his head hang, and powers off for the night.

Chapter Text

To be frank, I kinda have no clue where I am going with this fic, and the more I re-read the previous two chapters the less satisfied I am with them. I don’t want to delete the fic, but… I’m just unsure where to go from here.

Well, that’s not exactly true. I do have plenty of ideas for this story, I’m just dissatisfied with how the fic is coming out so far to the degree where the idea of continuing it stresses me. I might start working on other fics (which, rest assured, are literally all about Marcus) but they might be… less attached to Lab Rats, if that makes any sense. This fic has appearances from several main Lab Rats characters, because I wanted to pull in fans of the show, but, I’m still not at a point where I feel confident in my characterization of them. So, I’m sorry but it may be awhile before this fic is revisited.

However, I will reiterate, I do plan on making more fics about Marcus. Whenever those are written, I hope anyone who liked the two chapters I did so far for this fic enjoy those. Even if they’re more Marcus-centric… he invades my every though so the ratio of ideas I have for fics about Marcus versus everyone else is like . Extremely unbalanced.

That’s all. Have a good day.