CHAPTER EIGHTY, simulation manipulation

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Chase felt disappointed. Embarrassed, you might say at the recent observations when him and his brother competed against each other when their students were to complete certain tasks — and Chase was the one failing so far. He just hoped his team would improve throughout the next two tasks.

"Listen up, roomies." Leo brought Adam, Emilia and Chase out of their conversation, holding a mop and a bucket. Mainly looking between the boys since Emilia didn't live with them in the mentors headquarters, Leo continued. "You've got another person living with you now. You need to respect that. I have been scrubbing our room for the past six hours. I've got pruney fingers."

"Why didn't you just wear gloves?"

"I did." Leo gritted his teeth, holding up one of his hands with the glove almost ripped off. "I don't care which one of you is making the mess. Just stop." He threw the cleaning equipment to the floor including his glove before confidently walking out of the common area.

"Now who's making a mess?" Adam retorted just as Emilia went down to pick them off the floor in habit until Chase stopped her, pulling her away from the cleaning equipment as Donald approached the group.

"Okay, everybody gather round and listen up. It is time for the second challenge. Everybody to your work stations."

"Good luck, babe." Emilia turned to Chase before kissing him on the cheek making him smile. A teasing one at that as his smile widened. "I get the cheek? What about—"

"Later." Emilia was quick to shut him up, kissing him softly on the lips before leaving him to go to his work station with his students.

Emilia moved to stand by Donald who activated the explosives for both teams. "Each team will have sixty seconds to defuse their 3D virtual explosive device."

"This is going to be so easy. Like taking dynamite from a baby." Chase grinned confidently towards his students, his choice of words made Donald look at him in question before pointing out to both teams. "Even though the explosives are fake, the potential for humiliation is very real."

"Don't forget to work together as a team." Donald reminded the teams before activating the barriers around their work stations. "Your sixty seconds starts... now."

"Okay, guys, all you have to do is cut one of these wires. But choose carefully, because it's a life or death decision." Adam instructed his students before asking. "Now, who's favourite colour's red?" He put his hand up along with some of his students. "Who's favourite colour's blue? Well, don't look at me. I like them both."

"Okay guys, we've been through this a million times. Once you've assessed the detonator's eternal architecture, remove the Doris plate, expose the motherboard, clip the primary command mode then the fiering mechanism will deactivate. Got that?" Chase's students simply stared at him as they didn't understand his instructions, causing him to grunt in frustration.

"Wow." Emilia muttered to Donald as the two of them observed both work stations, with Adam next to speak up. "Aww, great thinking! We'll cut the wire that combines red and blue. Gold."

Emilia looked at Donald beside her with a baffled expression. "What did you teach them when they were kids?!" The man didn't respond as Adam's tactic seemed to have worked on accident after they managed to defuse the explosive first.

"Congratulations on defusing the device." Donald interrupted their cheers as he and Emilia went over to them, the latter of the two chiming in with. "And more impressively, not knowing that red and blue make purple."

"Don't worry. We have plenty of time."

"Five seconds." Donald proved Chase wrong who immediately pushed past his team to defuse the explosive himself. "Out of my way! You're all useless!"

"Three...two..."

"No! Wait! I need more..." Chase was cut off by his explosive exploding. Seeing this, Adam slowly walked over to his work station with a smirk before finishing his sentence. "Time?"

"Don't worry, Chase. I'm not going to say I'm disappointed." Donald and Emilia walked over to his work station, the man leaning forward to whisper the next part. "Just know I'm thinking it." His comment earned a whack on the stomach by Emilia.

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After watching the security footage that Leo had captured from his tablet to catch the culprits in the act — who he assumed was the boys were the ones making the mess, the boys and Emilia then discovered that it was in fact Bree, who was responsible for the disaster that their living space was currently in.

Although, if Chase and Adam didn't have one last challenge to focus on as part of Donald testing them to see if their teams have made any progress, they would probably be more bothered about the state the mentor headquarters was in then they actually were.

After Donald finally gave the teams some time to prepare themselves, he gathered them all in the training area, playing some cheesy game show music at his announcement. "Welcome to the third and final challenge."

Emilia rolled her eyes at his antics, watching in amusement as the man put on a game show host voice while explaining to the mentors. "Adam Davenport, you have an opportunity to lead your team to a third victory. Chase Davenport, you and your team have one last chance to save yourself from a lifetime of ridicule from... your brother, me... and Emilia."

"I don't want any part of this!" Emilia called from behind Donald and Adam, the latter of the three wearing a smug smile on his face as he added on to Donald's comment to mention. "And Bree. She's not here, but I'm pretty sure she'd want in on some of this."

"Now, this last test will challenge both your mental and physical prowess. So there will be a brief warm-up period of brisk exercise."

"No movement!" Chase suddenly yelled, earning questionable looks from his family. "I mean, stretching's overrated. What's the worst that can happen? Torn hamstring. Pssh."

"Okay, suit yourself." Donald stepped forward to pat Chase on the arm, making him swing to the right slightly, his students copying his actions for some reason.

Donald looked at his team, squinting his eyes in confusion before walking away and towards the Hunter girl who watched him, and as if she knew what he was going to ask, she told him. "Don't look at me. I don't know what's up with him either. Probably just nervous."

Donald sighed before turning back to the teams, walking over to the monitor while putting on his game show host voice again. "Deep in the bowels of the academy is a high-tech maze, complete with obstacles that I control with this tablet." He stood by the monitor that showed the outlines of the virtual maze. "Electric walls, ninja stars, and my own personal favorite, flaming balls of fury! The first team to complete the maze wins, but before we start, I need to see both mentors. Adam, Chase, over here."

Glancing behind Chase, Donald scrunched up his eyebrows at the students just a step behind them, causing him to remind. "Guys, give us a second? Guys!"

"I've got this. Back it up, nerd herd!" Adam used his arms to forcefully push Chase's students back so they could have a more private conversation as Donald informed the mentors. "For this challenge, it's just the students."

"What?! No!" Emilia glanced at her boyfriend in question at his odd behaviour as she carefully studied his facial expressions, ignoring Donald as he went on. "Teams, I hope you've studied the maze carefully...If not, too bad."

Donald pressed on his tablet to open up the trap doors making the students drop below the training area. Chase yelped in response causing Donald to look at him in assumption. "Don't worry, Chase. We can track their progress from over here."

Emilia and Adam followed the man so they could track the students' progress on the monitor to see Adam's team were the only ones who have even started the race. "Adam, your team is off to a great start. Chase, your team hasn't moved at all."

"Ha!" Adam turned around to look at Chase with a teasing grin. "Looks like you guys are gonna lose again."

"Not if I can help it." Chase muttered under his breath before looking at the monitor to see the virtual maze so he could start mimicking going around an obstacle, including all sorts of jumps and dances so his team would at least be moving forward in the race — curtesy of his plan to cheat had gone wrong.

Chase stopped for a moment when he noticed the questionable stares he received from the three, quick to come up with an excuse. "What? They keep losing. I have to do my 'good luck' dance."

Once they'd turned to face the monitor, the boy continued on from what he was doing, panting as he did so.

"Chase's team is winning." Emilia gaped at the screen happily, even though she had already started to piece together why Chase was running in place, that seemed to concern her the more his breathing became heavier.

At that, Adam instantly began mimicking Chase as if he believed what he was doing was helping his team to go faster in the maze.

"Adam, what are you doing?" Donald asked the boy who seemed to be just as confused. "I don't know, but it's working for Chase."

Emilia looked towards Donald with wide eyes, filled with concern. "Can we be finished with this already? That boy is sweating like crazy!"

The Davenport man winced before turning to the monitor in thought. "Let's see. How can I make this more interesting? I know. Flash bombs." He grinned at his own idea, setting the flash bombs off as Adam finally stopped copying Chase who covered his eyes to mimic himself being in his students' situation.

"Oh, not good enough. Better try my flaming balls of fury." Donald cackled before setting them off from his tablet causing Chase to cry out before continuing his movements which Donald didn't acknowledge as he grinned at the screen. "Burn, baby, burn!"

"I asked how can you make them finish the maze quicker, not how to bedazzle the layout!" Emilia groaned at the man before looking at the monitor in relief. "Chase, your team is almost out!"

This caused the boy to stop for a second, smiling as he spoke. "Oh. Great. Go, team." Once Donald had turned his head back around who smiled at him, he carried on running, in order to get his students to the finish line.

"Almost there. Almost there. Almost there. Almost there! They made it!"

As soon as the bell rang, Chase collapsed to the floor with Adam groaning in defeat. "Ah, come on!" He followed Donald towards the centre of the room who clicked on his tablet to bring the students back up to their floor.

"Bub, you okay?" Emilia crouched beside Chase, looking at him in concern. Although she never got a response as the boy was quick to get up to his feet after hearing Donald question why the winning team wasn't celebrating.

Chase raised his arms in the air before starting to jump backwards near the students who mimicked his action. "Yeah! Whoo! Oh, yeah! We won, we won, we won!"

"Wait a minute." Adam yelled, interrupting their celebrating to point out. "Something's goin' on here."

"Yeah. It's called failure." Chase pulled a face at his brother in attempt to act natural, although Emilia didn't notice due to the sweat coated on her boyfriend's body and hair attracting her more than usual.

"No, it's not that. I know that really well." Adam slowly walked towards his brother who watched him nervously. "What are you doing?"

Adam put his glasses on before starting to circle Chase. "Professor Adam is about to conduct a science experiment." He stepped on Chase's foot who yelled out, grabbing his foot in pain which the students mirrored. "Just as I thought. This proves they messed with something that caused something to happen, I think."

"Chase, care to explain?" Donald walked towards the boy who smiled nervously before running away with his students following behind.

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"Cheating? What were you thinking?" Donald inquired after him and Adam walked into the common area to find Chase and Emilia sat by the cyber-desks.

Chase frowned. "I don't know. I guess I just got carried away."

"Chase, these tests were designed to measure your students' progress, and instead, you turned it into a competition between you and your brother." Donald reminded, gesturing to Adam behind him who was quick to chime in whilst bragging. "Which I won."

"And handily." Donald added, receiving a sharp look from Emilia making him sigh. "That's not the point. If you'd been less focused on beating Adam and more focused on being a good teacher, your team would've had the tools to win for themselves."

"Okay. You're right. But just in case, can I have a new team?" Chase looked up at the man with a hopeful expression, when Donald denied his request making him throw his head onto the desk, hiding his face with his arms. "Fine. I'll work on becoming a better teacher."

Emilia rubbed his back in comfort, softly patting him on the back for him to sit back up as Donald went to respond. "Good. Now there's just one last thing for you to do."

"Don't worry. I'll make it up to my team."

"Oh, I know you will." Donald nodded. "But your punishment for cheating is gonna be to find out what it feels like to have someone control you with the override app."

"What? Who?"

"Me." Adam answered for Donald who stepped forward to type into the cyber-desk to activate the override app for Adam, letting him know it's done before walking out the room.

"Don't mind if I do." Adam smiled before starting to punch himself, making Chase mimic his action before soon stopping with Adam chuckling in response. "This is fun."

"You do realise you're hurting yourself too?"

"Oh, yeah." Adam realised. "Now we'll see who's hurting who." He started to punch Chase who once again copied his action to make him punch Adam who groaned, forgetting that he was controlling Chase. "Cut it out. Quit it. I'm not gonna stop until you do."

"Ah jeez." Emilia muttered under her breath, not sure whether she should interrupt them before they get themselves hurt or let it play out due to Chase's punishment.

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megan speaks!

i hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter! i am gonna try focus on this book more for you all as i am so close to finishing this... sadly :(

don't forget to comment if you would like as i absolutely adore reading them! thanks for reading, i love you all!! <33