CHAPTER SEVEN, scramble the orbs

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"Okay, why do I have to be here?" Emilia walked up to Chase and Bree who were stood behind one of the counters. She leant her arm on the counter while resting her head in her palm and looked at the siblings when Chase answered. "Because we want you here."

He leaned down quickly to kiss her on the lips as Bree, who stood beside him, added on. "Plus, you bring here stops me from hitting Chase."

Emilia looked up at the girl amused, unlike Chase who scoffed before they were pulled out of their conversation when their boss, Scott, walked over to them, looking at the Davenport siblings as he greeted. "Well, if it isn't my employee of the week and my weak employee."

Emilia chuckled in annoyance. "This guy."

"Good one, Scott." The Davenport boy laughed as he caught the insult towards Bree. "It's funny because she's bad at her job."

Bree looked at her brother before she opened her mouth and shot back. "Yeah, well, I mean, I'd be better at it but I have things that get in the way like friends and a life." Scott turned around and let out a whistle, indicating for everyone in the store to gather around him.

"Listen up, guys. It's time for Tech Town's annual design-your-own-app contest!" He announced.

"Does the fun ever end around here?" Bree asked sarcastically and responding to that, Scott looked at her and laughed. "Yeah, usually when you show up."

Chase attempted to imitate his laugh, when Scott turned to him. "Don't do my laugh." He looked back at everyone, the customers and employees before explaining more on the app contest. "All entrants have 24 hours to upload their app to our website. Whoever has the most downloads by Friday wins a $500 gift card." He pulled the card out of his sock. "And please apply yourselves this year, I am so sick of winning."

"Don't you worry, Scott." Chase walked after him, creating a pun. "I am definitely going to app-ply myself."

"Uh, no more tech puns." Scott told him. "A lady complained to corporate."

Emilia chuckled and leaned closer to Bree before whispering. "That was me." The girl snickered in response, spotting her brother look between the two suspiciously.

The Hunter girl looked over at the clock to check the time before she let out an 'ooh' sound, seeing it was time to leave. "I have to leave. I promised Adam I'd watch him practice for his play. I'll be back later." She kissed Chase on the lips and said bye to Bree before she backed away and walked out of the store.

"Wait, Adam's in a play?"

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Emilia and Tasha had situated themselves on the couch in the living room, with Adam in front of them so they could watch him practice his lines for the play.

He clicked his tongue before he pointed to Tasha and spoke in a different accent. "Ma'am, you're standing in it." He sighed before he tried again, repeating the same line but differently. "No, wait. You're standing in it. You're standing in it!" He smiled as Tasha and Emilia pointed at it. "What do you think? Did you feel like you were standing in it?"

Emilia nodded. "All 76 times."

Tasha sighed before she stood up from the couch and looked at Adam. "Honey, you're gonna be fine. It's just one line." She tried to reassure the boy who gasped at the last part.

"The most important one line of the whole play. Without me, she never finds Mission Creek. It's the entire emotional thrust of the second act, Tasha." Adam defended.

Donald walked through the front door and Tasha looked at him. "Donald, don't forget the school play is tomorrow night." She reminded her husband who didn't think twice before trying to make his escape.

"Goodbye." Donald tried to leave by walking back out the front door when Tasha stopped him and insisted. "You're going."

"Ah, come on." The Davenport man sighed before asking "Shouldn't we be discouraging his acting career?" He pointed over to Adam who was still practicing his line.

Chase then walked in, with his work uniform still on, and pulled their attention away from Adam as he announced. "Okay, guys, prepare to wowed! My new app: Dirt Alert! It tells you the precise type of rock or soil that's beneath you and how long it's been there. You want to try?"

"No, I can't. I got to go pretend to care about his play." Donald excused before Adam pushed his brother aside so he could talk to Donald. "Would you help me practice my line?" He asked.

Donald smiled sarcastically. "And miss the thrill of seeing it live?" He slapped him softly on the shoulder before telling him. "Not a chance."

"Ma'am, you're standing in it." Adam continued to call out his line as he followed the man out the front door, just as Leo walked into the room and caught Emilia and his mother setting up the table for dinner.

"Hey mom." The Dooley boy chirped and strolled into the living room when Tasha stopped her son from walking any further. "Don't 'Hey, mom' me, mister." She scolded. "I got a call from the school saying you tormented the gym teacher with some crazy devices. What have I told you about taking things like that to school?"

Leo shrugged his shoulders. "Well, technically, I didn't take them to school."

Tasha raised her brows in disbelief. "Oh, so they just showed up on their own?"

Leo hummed and nodded his head. "Exactly. We good here?" He asked, making Emilia, who stood by the table, shake her head, knowing her friend was in trouble.

Before he could walk away, Tasha pulled her son back by his hood. "We're not finished. Are these the devices?" She wondered as the two orbs Leo was talking about had suddenly appeared.

"Mom, stand five feet away from me." Leo looked scared as he said that, not wanting her to be hurt after he saw what they did to Trent earlier at school. However, the look of fear went unnoticed by his mother who assumed he was just talking back to her. "Excuse me, you do not tell me what to do. I will stand wherever—"

Emilia suddenly froze in her spot, and as her eyes glowed blue, she shouted. "Tasha, look out!" She didn't hesitate to super speed towards the mother and son duo, before pushing Tasha aside, to let herself get shot by the orbs instead and she was thrown across the room.

"Emilia!" Leo yelled, running towards the Hunter with his mother beside him. "Sweetheart, are you okay?" She asked with concern as Emilia groaned in pain before taking their hands to help her off the floor. After sitting Emilia on the couch, Tasha then turned to her son with a scowl. "What just happened?"

"Okay. The orbs I invented that were about to aim at you, but shot Emilia across the room since she pushed you out the way, they can't tell the difference between a real threat and a mom threat." Leo explained, receiving a glare from his mother. "I am not saying you're not threatening. You're scary, just like Emilia is."

"I want you to get rid of them. Now!"

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The next day, Emilia was on her way to see Chase and Bree at Tech Town when she caught Donald on her way, who had told her about an employee at the store had copied Eddy in one of their apps, so he marched into the store with Emilia in toe.

She had an idea on who it was though.

"Uh oh. It's scary inventor man." Emilia followed after the man before stopping beside him as they turned to Bree and Chase, with the latter asking Donald more than Emilia. "What are you doing here?"

"You're not gonna believe this but somebody stole Eddy and is selling him as Cheddy on the Tech Town website." Donald informed.

"What? That's terrible." Chase let out in a high-pitched voice that made Emilia narrow her eyes in suspicion.

Yep. It was Chase.

Donald held his arms out in the air and replied in the same high-pitched voice. "I know, it's terrible."

"You should go home and rest." Chase started to advise. "I'll call the app police." He went to push him away to lead him out the store, but Donald brushed past him and headed over to one of the counters. "Oh, no, no. I'm not leaving until I find out who did it." He jumped to sit on the counter before continuing. "You know what? Perhaps I should speak to a manager."

"Oh, no. There's no—" Chase tried to tell him and avoid confrontation, when Bree interrupted and volunteered. "I'll get him." She walked over and pulled Scott towards them. "May I help— Oh, it's you." The manager stopped when he recognised the Davenport man.

Donald hummed before jumping off the counter so he was standing and told the man. "It's me and I have a problem with Cheddy."

"Oh, hear that, Chase?" Scott raised a brow and looked at the teenager with a laugh. "He has a problem with your Cheddy app. I'll let you handle this one." He kicked his leg in the air, almost hitting Emilia who dodged it in time, giving him a sharp glare making him walk away faster.

"Chase, I am really disappointed in you." Donald sighed. "You stole Eddy."

"Oh, no, Mr Davenport, you're not listening." The Davenport girl stepped in. "It's Cheddy." She mocked, making Donald purse his lips at the girl.

"Look, I know you're angry." Chase started to say before continuing. "But if you hadn't invented Eddy, then I couldn't have invented Cheddy, so in a way this is all on you."

"Taking credit for what isn't yours is wrong." The man reminded him. "Especially when what isn't yours is mine."

"Yes. I know, but everybody loves Cheddy and if I tell them that it wasn't mine then it could crush my reputation."

"You're young. You'll recover." Donald reassured him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Or maybe you won't. I really don't care."

Bree smirked, stepping in once again. "Again, I'll go get the manager." She said, turning around to pull Scott back over to them.

"This is really difficult for me to say." Chase said, starting off, but being impatient, Bree confessed for him. "He didn't create the Cheddy app, he stole it. See? Easy."

"It's Mr Davenport's." Chase explained. "I didn't want to lose, so I tried to pass his technology off as my own."

"You know, Chase, admitting that was very big of... your sister." Scott said, gesturing over to Bree. "Now it's time for my victory lap." He laughed, running around the store.

"Uh oh." Emilia winced, looking around at all the customers as she approached the boys with Bree who wore a smug smile. "Good news, Chase, your night's about to get worse. Everybody who bought the Cheddy app wants their money back."

Chase furrowed his brows. "What, why?"

"Tickets to a movie? Sure. Which of your imaginary friends will be joining you?"

"Nice shirt. Too bad about the face."

"Daily reminder. No one likes you!"

"Oh no." Chase panicked before he turned to the man next to him. "Cheddy is using the computing power of all these devices to evolve into snarky Eddy faster."

"Never mind that." Donald pulled his phone out and started to explain. "You also forgot that Eddy's software is self-replicating." He started walking over to another counter. "He's gonna start infecting other devices soon."

"Uh, I think he already has." The auburn-haired girl was first to point out as the teenagers looked around at all of the screens in the store.

"Hey, look! Now I'm annoying in HD!"

"How are we gonna shut this thing down?" Chase wondered, gesturing to the screen and Donald looked back at his phone in attempt to solve the problem. "Well, we're gonna have to delete the app at its source. I can reset Eddy's mainframe from here unless you stole my app that does that, too. Okay, as soon as I shut down and reboot the lab's network, we should all be Cheddy free." He pressed something on his phone and suddenly, Eddy started pixelating.

"What's happening? I'm pixelating!"

Donald sighed in relief. "Okay. The Cheddy app is deleted. Crisis averted." He then pointed a finger at Chase, to continue scolding him. "Except for you, your crisis is just beginning."

"Whoo-hoo!" Bree raised her arms in the air with a cheer. "Victory lap! Come on, Emilia." The girl pulled her with her and mimicked Scott's victory lap from earlier as they ran out the store — with Bree excited that Chase could get a punishment.

"Hello." Donald answered his phone after Emilia called him, furrowing his brows when he heard her panicked grumbles, overlapping her heavy breaths over the phone as she continued chasing Bree. "Yep, okay. We're coming now." He put the phone down and looked at Chase. "It seems we are late for Adam's play, so we better get going."

Chase laughed. "Why? Are you scared of Emilia?"

"No. I'm scared of my wife." Donald admitted to the boy before they set off running and caught up with the girls as they made their way to the school and ran into the hall just in time to see the place in one hell of a mess.

"What'd we miss?" Donald asked, which received a look from Tasha before they looked towards the stage when Adam had finally called out as he remembered his line. "Oh. Ma'am, you're standing in it."

Emilia pursed her lips before smiling proudly at the Davenport and started to clap before the other three joined in.

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MEGAN SPEAKS !

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