CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO, spider island

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"Oh, hey girls." Leo rushed over towards Emilia and Bree as they walked into the common area ready to spend their day off. "I ditched the field trip so I could hang out with you guys. What should we do on our day off?"

"I'm sorry our?" The Hunter girl wanted to see if she heard him right with Bree nodding along, gesturing between herself and Emilia. "I mean this is our day off and we've already got it all planned out. I am gonna sit by the pool and read a book. I'd ask you to join me, but I live and work with my family, so I'm sick of all of you apart from Emilia."

"That's my girl." The dark-haired brunette smiled as she wrapped her arms around Bree's neck, pulling her closer to kiss her on the cheek.

"Excuse me. Sorry." Chase, who had just walked in, stepped between the two girls intentionally before turning to Emilia, kissing her softly on the lips. "Hey, baby."

Bree rolled her eyes at the boy's jealousy, making eye contact with a laughing Emilia, mouthing to her when Chase wasn't looking. He is so jealous.

"So Chase, wanna hang out?" Leo turned to look at the boy, his eyes glancing between him and Emilia, grimacing slightly. "Unless if you two are doing something together then count me out."

Chase shook his head. "Sorry, Leo, gotta make the most of my day off." He said before beginning to list off what he has done so far. "I already organised the weapons vault, alkalised the island's water system and taught a cute little group of dolphins with Lia to wave hello."

"I love dolphins." Emilia muttered softly as she grinned from ear-to-ear.

"I know you do, sweetie." Chase patted her softly on the head before sighing. "Next up, some light reading. Oh." He grabbed one of Bree's books out of her hands, speed reading through it. "She ended up marrying the vampire? I did not see that coming."

As Bree snatched her book back from Chase with a scowl, Adam walked in and instantly, Leo approached. "Hey, Adam."

"No." Adam circled around the Dooley and faced Emilia and his siblings, going to tell them about the rock he was holding when Leo interjected beforehand. "I didn't even ask you anything yet."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead." Adam looked back at Leo with a smile who thanked him and went to ask if they could hang out, although Adam stopped him before he could finish. "No."

"Guys, check out this rock I found on shore. I had to dig it out from under a wooden box of old yellow coins and jewelry."

"Adam, this isn't a rock." Chase corrected once he had gotten a closer look at it. "It's a fossil. Let me see that." The two brothers started to fight with the fossil until Chase managed to grasp it into his hands, and place it onto the console and scanned it with his bionic eye. He let out a gasp, looking around at everyone as he informed. "This is a prehistoric sea spider. It went extinct millions of years ago."

Adam sighed in annoyance. "Way to go, Chase. You made my rock boring."

"Cool. I love spiders." Leo shared with the group, smiling proudly. "You know, back in high school, they used to call me Spider Legs." He paused for a moment when he noticed the looks he received, making him add. "And now, I'm realising that's a bad thing."

"You're damn right, Spider Legs." Emilia winked playfully, clicking her fingers towards the Dooley boy who narrowed his eyes.

Douglas leaned forward to get a closer look at the fossil before thinking out loud. "It looks like it's from the Cretaceous period."

"You're right, Douglas." Chase patted the man on the back. "It's from the Valanginian subdivision. I would've loved to have seen this spider when it was alive."

"Maybe you can." Douglas gasped, pointing his finger at the boy. "You know before I got into bionics, I dabbled in biology. I was trying to use fossils to bring extinct species back to life."

Bree shared a look with Emilia before chiming in with a remark. "And that explains why there's still no Mrs. Douglas Davenport."

Although the man ignored her comment, since he was too focused on looking at the fossil in awe as Chase continued to explain. "This specimen is almost perfectly preserved."

Douglas stood back up straight before directing his next words towards Chase. "You know I was never able to crack it on my own, but maybe with your help, I can."

Leo smiled. "I'm pretty sure you're not looking at me, but I am in." He counted himself in to help Chase and Douglas with the project when Adam returned, ringing the bell on the bike he was riding. "Hey, Leo, it was rude of me to just say no when you asked if I wanted to do something earlier."

Leo nodded at him. "Well, it's nice to see you've come to your senses." He started to walk over to him as if he was getting on the second seat of the bike when Adam interrupted. "What I should've said was 'no, thank you'."

"I see he's learning his manners." Emilia pointed out, continuing to tease Leo who whipped his head towards her and began to ran at her, only forgetting that she had super-speed as the girl simply circled around them and jumped onto Chase's back in a second — wrapping her arms around his body like a koala.

"Yeah, I'm not even gonna bother with that."

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Since Chase had basically replaced Emilia with a sea spider, the Hunter girl started to continue on with her day off by spending time with Bree at the pool — only to be soon interrupted by Adam disrupting Bree and Emilia's reading.

The Hunter girl wasn't as bothered though since she had already finished her book and went to go get another one, when Chase had ran in to announce for them all to gather in the common area, since him and Douglas had finished with their sea spider experiment.

"Behold, one of the greatest achievements in the history of science." Douglas pulled off the black sheet to reveal a glass box underneath that held an alive sea spider.

"Ah! Spider! I'll get it!" Adam shrieked and took off his shoe to throw it at the spider when Emilia and Chase held him back. Once Adam had finally calmed down, Chase then went on to explain to the group. "Douglas and I were able to extract the DNA from the fossil and reanimate the sea spider."

"Wait. So you brought a million-year-old creature back to life in one day?" Bree raised her brows at her brother who smirked, crossing his arms over his chest with a comeback. "What'd you do with your day off?"

Bree narrowed her eyes, taking a quick glance at Emilia beside her when she remembered what happened earlier making her smirk. "I hung out with your girlfriend." She told Chase, her smirk widening as she added. "I think we grew even more closer because of that."

"You didn't." Chase narrowed his eyes at Bree as Emilia facepalmed at their antics, shrugging her shoulders at Douglas who sent her a pointed look before going over to Chase, interrupting their glaring competition.

"Alright Chase, stop being jealous of Bree stealing Emilia. Now back on topic, to answer your question Bree, I would say, when you take a lot of shortcuts and conduct dangerous experiments without any safety precautions, you can do anything in a day."

"Can you believe it?" Chase grinned at them, with Bree raising a brow, answering him. "That you'd spend your whole day off with your weird uncle, playing with a dead spider? Yeah, I believe it."

"This is just the beginning." Douglas smiled and slapped Chase softly on the shoulder as he circled around him. "Think of all the other things extinct animals we can bring back to life. Dinosaurs. Ooh, dodo birds."

"Camels." Adam chimed in, making Douglas and Chase furrow their brows at him, the latter of the two first to remind him. "Adam, camels aren't extinct."

Adam raised his brows in question. "Oh, yeah? Then how come I've never seen one?"

"That thing is nasty." Leo described with Emilia nodding along with him, backing away slightly with a grimace. Leo grinned, stepping closer to look at the sea spider. "Can I touch it?"

"No."

"Oh, but you guys can touch it?" Leo stood back up straight, narrowing his eyes at the two people who iced him out of the experiment earlier.

Chase held his arm out in front of him, quick to interject and explain to Leo. "Look, we can't risk anything happening to it. This spider's very existence could change everything."

"And make me famous around the world." The Davenport man added, smiling proudly.

"And what about me?" Chase looked at the man with an offended expression, with Douglas quick to wave him off with a mutter. "I'm sure you'll end up on somebody's blog." He reached for the lid before placing it on top of the glass box and locked the sea spider inside. "There. That should keep our little friend safe."

"Well, I'm gonna go somewhere quiet and enjoy the rest of my day off." Emilia sighed, telling the group as she began to walk off with Bree following behind. "But mainly so I can't see that thing anymore." She added, referring to the sea spider.

"And I'm gonna go somewhere quiet and make some noise." Adam announced, following the two girls who scowled, well more specifically Bree.

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Due to Leo's mistake of not putting the cover on right on the glass box, the sea spider escaped and now could be anywhere on the island. The last place the group are positive it's been, is the mentors headquarters, after assuming the spider was responsible for the gigantic bite filled with poison on Adam's back.

"Now the spider is really dangerous, so we have to be very careful that we don't get bitten." Chase informed Bree and Emilia as they creeped into the common area, with each of them holding a defence weapon of their own.

"Right." The girls nodded before slowly going up the stairs at a crouched height. Emilia huffed out a breath and turned around when she felt Chase pushing against her back. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

"Protecting you two?" Chase answered, although it came out more like a question. "Oh, come on, I'm the bigger loss and we both know it."

Bree scoffed. "You are bionic and you're afraid of a spider?" She and Emilia approached Chase who was quick to protest. "Of course not. I made it. I'm not afraid of it."

Emilia rolled her eyes before looking down at his arm, getting an idea in her head that made her share a smirk with Bree. The Hunter girl reached her hand to Chase's before running her fingers in a walking motion up his arm to mimic the movements of a spider.

Instantly, Chase jumped out of his skin. "Get it off me, get it off me!" He screamed, running out of the room, leaving the two girls laughing and share a high-five.

As the group continued to search around for this sea spider, they soon all gathered back in the common area, growing in frustration when it seemed that none of them had found the spider.

Bree groaned. "Okay, the spider could not have just disappeared."

At that, a loud crash echoed, making the academy shake for a second, making them panic more as Bree held the plunger up, asking. "Wait. What was that?"

"Uh guys. I think I found the problem." Emilia called out to the group in panic as she stared out the big window with Douglas, Leo, Chase and Bree approaching from behind.

"Is that?..." Leo trailed off as they stared out the window with their mouths open in shock before the Hunter girl stammered nervously. "The spider? Yes, yes it is."

The spider itself had somehow grown to fifty-feet before it appeared in front of the window and let out a ferocious roar that sent the whole group screaming and running out the room.

"That spider did not look like that this morning. What happened?"

"I don't know."

"Why is it so big?"

"I don't know."

"Why don't you know?"

"I don't know!"

"Okay!" Emilia stepped in between them, looking between Leo and Bree and stopped them from asking Chase any more questions. "Why don't we ease back on the throttle here, yeah?" She glanced back just in time to see Douglas trying to make his escape. "Freeze Douglas!"

The man stopped in place and turned around to face the teenagers with a scoff. "Okay, fine." He sighed in defeat before confessing. "Remember how... you wanted to make the spider more resilient so that it wouldn't go extinct again?"

"I remember you wanted to do that."

"And, uh, we talked about giving it growth hormones."

"And I said, do not do that."

Douglas mentally winced. "Which could be interpreted many different ways." He pointed out making Chase groan. "I didn't know it would get this big."

"Oh, yeah." Chase snapped, yelling through a rhetorical question. "Who knew that growth hormones would make something grow?"

Douglas pointed accusingly at Chase. "You're just mad 'cause I didn't save any for you."

"Ooh." Leo and Bree let out, unlike Emilia who rolled her eyes at the situation, stepping between her boyfriend and Douglas to interject. "Alright that's enough! Both of you, shut up."

"Emilia's right." Bree agreed, nodding along with the Hunter girl. "Stop. There's no need to kill each other. Although, that was a good one, Uncle Dougie."

The sea spider caused another mini earthquake to the island making Emilia huff. "Guys stop and let's save the unnecessary reminders about Chase's height later, because if we don't stop that thing, it's gonna destroy the entire fucking academy!"

"No, wait. We can't kill it yet." Douglas stopped to tell her. "The venom's no good to Adam if we extract it when the spider's dead."

"Great. Now we just need to find someone who knows how to milk a 50-foot spider." The Dooley boy scoffed in annoyance when Douglas picked something up to show them. "No, no, we don't have to milk it. We have to extract the spider's venom with this. This should be sharp enough to puncture the venom's sac."

Chase softly nudged Emilia's shoulder to tell the girl. "Check the security feed to see if it's still out there." At his instruction, the brunette narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend, who sighed before adding. "Please."

"There you go." Emilia nodded before doing as he said, turning to inform him once she found the location of the spider. "It's by the living quarters."

"Great. Let's go."

"Remember, we have to get as close as we can to make sure we get a good shot." Douglas informed the teenagers, making Leo furrow his brows in question. "So you want us to sidle up next to a giant, angry, deadly spider and poke it with a needle."

"Yep." Douglas placed his hand on Leo's shoulder before telling them. "And if we can do it before my brother returns, that would be great."

The group rushed to the living headquarters with Leo first to volunteer in extracting the spider's venom, using the harpoon.

"Leo, what are you doing?" Douglas looked at the Dooley boy in question who grinned through his answer. "Saving the day. You know, doing my Leo thing."

Douglas then went to inform. "Not like that, you aren't. Your angle's all off." Not even a second later, one of the spider's legs struck out towards him and sent the man flying back.

"Now, that's karma." Leo chuckled as the Hunter girl went to check and see if Douglas was okay, of course being wary of the spider herself.

"No, stop. Douglas was right." Chase tried to pull the harpoon away from Leo who didn't take his hands off it. "Your angle is completely off."

"I am not giving the harpoon to somebody who started all this."

"Again, you started all this." Chase reminded the boy before they started fighting over the harpoon that had both girls groan in frustration.

"And I'm about to end it!" Bree snatched it away from the boys before starting to walk forward to get a better aim, ignoring Chase who muttered from behind her. "You know, suddenly, I feel sorry for the spider."

It didn't even take a second before Emilia was by Chase's side to smack him upside the head. The three watched as Bree prepared herself, aiming the harpoon up high before pulling the trigger and shot towards the spider's venom sac.

Sensing what might happen, Emilia ran towards Bree to get her away before the spider released it's venom, although it seemed like she got there just in time for the spider to release it's venom and land on both girls.

"Got it."

"Perfect." Douglas approached the girls, grinning happily. "This should be more than enough venom."

"Ya think?" Bree spat out with sarcasm as her and Emilia pulled looks of disbelief.

However, Douglas ignored her comment before pulling something out to use to scrap some of the venom off of the girls' faces who grimaced in disgust.

"Well, let's go make that antidote." Chase clapped his hands, receiving a baffled look from his girlfriend, who turned around with a smirk now at her lips. "Chase, can I have a hug before you go?"

"Umm... no, we can do it later." The boy started to back away from his girlfriend who began to approach him with a teasing look. "Why not now? Come on, Bub. Don't you wanna give your girlfriend a hug?"

"No!" Chase whipped around and started to run out the room with Emilia chasing him, letting out a laugh as she shouted. "I think you're forgetting that I have super speed, Chase!"

"Ah!" She went to laugh at the sound of the boy's scream before pulling a look of disgust, having to spit some of the yellow goo out that touched her lips. The girl sighed before leaving her boyfriend to believe she was still chasing her and went to go in another direction to grab some towels for her and Bree, who was still in the living-quarters left alone with no help until Emilia returned.

A few hours later, the girls were thankfully dry after cleaning all the spider goo off of themselves, and Adam was still recovering from the antidote the boys gave him earlier.

Once he was well enough, Emilia, who went to go check on Adam, helped him as they headed towards the cafe where the others were waiting for them.

"Adam, you look great." Bree smiled once she saw her brother looked a lot better than he was before the antidote.

"Thanks. You look like you always do." Emilia shook her head at Adam's response and walked over to the table, ruffling Chase's hair who went to point out. "Wow, that antidote worked quickly."

"Then, why does he still have a giant boil on his back?" Leo squinted his eyes slightly in concern before getting out of his seat just as Emilia took a seat beside Bree.

Douglas and Chase stood up and followed Leo to Adam so they could get a closer look at the boil on his back before Douglas softly poked at it, informing the group. "It's just excess fluid. Should be gone in a few days."

"Or I can just pop it right now." Adam shrugged before reaching his hands over to pop it, not giving them any warning to take cover but luckily, Emilia activated her force-field just in time to cover herself and Bree from the goo that flew onto the boys who groaned in disgust.

Adam sighed in relief. "Ah, I feel better already."

"So do we." Emilia and Bree smirked proudly as they got revenge without even planning anything, watching as the boys continued to gag in disgust.

At least they knew for next time to not let another fossil rock get in between them ever again.

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megan speaks!

i hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter!

chase continuing to be jealous over his sister spending time with emilia is so real 😭

ALSO, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 261K READS!!

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