Chapter 20

Dolphin POV: Alvin

       The day after the relay race was when the Coyotes were going to be given a tour of S.H.R.E.W.D's Vancouver headquarters. Uriah told me that the relay race was definitely rigged for the Coyotes to win so there had to be a reason Mr. Hicks wanted them to go to S.H.R.E.W.D.

       I had been trying to hack into S.H.R.E.W.D's database all night so I only got an hour of sleep. But if there really was something wrong with S.H.R.E.W.D, then a lot of people were in trouble, including my twin sister.

       When they were about to leave, I went to talk to Valerie. I couldn't tell her everything but I had to tell her something. "Val, you need to be careful when you're at the headquarters."

       Valerie furrowed her eyebrows. "Why? It's just a tour."

       I sighed. "I know but... I don't have much time to explain but Mr. Hicks wants you all to go with him now so I will tell you this. Whatever Piano and Levi say, you have to listen to them."

       "Alvin, what's going on?" Valerie asked.

       "I can't tell you," I said. "You really have to go now but seriously, just listen to Piano and Levi."

       Okay," Valerie said, sounding very confused but I couldn't tell her the truth right now. 

       Valerie went to where the other Coyotes and Mr. Hicks were. As soon as they left the school, I went to the cafeteria where the rest of our investigation team was, minus Piano and Levi.

       We had to find something out before things got out of hand.

       I sat down at the table, setting my laptop down as well and opening it. "I've been trying to get into S.H.R.E.W.D's database all night," I said. "And no luck. Well, maybe a bit of luck. I'm closer than I was before but there's still a chance I might not get in there."

       "What are you waiting for?" Uriah asked. "Get back to work."

       "You can be more polite to the only person who has a chance of getting into S.H.R.E.W.D's database," Astrid said.

       "Not when there's a chance my boyfriend is in trouble," Uriah said.

       "Levi's my brother and you don't see me being rude to Alvin," Astrid said.

       "Yeah, whatever."

       I didn't even pay attention to Uriah's urgency to me getting back to trying to hack S.H.R.E.W.D's database. I was wanting to do it as soon as possible too since both my sister and my best friend were heading to their headquarters.

       However, the more time that went on, the harder it was getting for me to concentrate on the computer screen. My eyes kept trying to close because of the limited amount of sleep I had.

       I rubbed my eyes as I sighed. "Sorry, I'm just really tired."

       "Need some coffee?" Pearl asked. "I can get you some."

       "Yes, please," I said. "I really need to stay awake."

       I still continued to work even while Pearl was getting me coffee. I just had to take a break every few seconds to rub my eyes, which definitely wasn't helping me get any work done.

       Pearl didn't take long to return and she ended up bringing coffee for everyone except Uriah. Not to be mean but because he didn't drink coffee.

       We all thanked her and I took a few sips out of my coffee before getting back to work. Slowly but surely, I was starting to feel more awake. Maybe I could actually do this.

       Hopefully I could actually do it.

       "What if we don't find out what S.H.R.E.W.D is planning?" Ester asked. "Or why Mr. Hicks wanted the Coyotes to win?"

       "We will find out," Uriah said. "And if we don't, then I will personally go to the headquarters and whoop their asses."

       "That won't solve anything," Astrid said.

       "It will solve the anger I have towards them if they ever touch my boyfriend."

       "You know, you're really protective over Levi."

       "And you should be grateful for that because now you know nobody will ever be able to hurt him because if they do, they wont be able to walk for months."

       Note to self: Never cross Levi or Uriah. Both ways, Uriah would probably kill me.

       I kept working and working as everyone else tried to find anything about S.H.R.E.W.D on the internet. Soon enough, Uriah got a text from Levi saying they arrived at the headquarters.

       We didn't have much time left.

       "I hate not being able to find anything," Pearl said. "What good is the internet for if we can't find what we need?"

       "I blame Uriah," Astrid said.

       Uriah flipped Astrid off before looking back at his phone. Their friendship was so confusing.

       Then again, so was my and Piano's friendship but that was only because Piano was a confusing person.

       My laptop suddenly beeped and before I knew it, I was staring at S.H.R.E.W.D's database. "I'm in," I said. "I'm in the database."

       "Wait, really?" Astrid asked.

       "Yes, really," I said. "Now it's time to really see if they're up to no good."

       Uriah, Astrid, Pearl, Ester, and Diesel gathered around so they could look at the screen as well, just in case they noticed something I didn't. It took a while but eventually, Ester pointed something out. "What's that?" she asked. "The A.I.D Scan?"

       I clicked on it but not information was pulled up on it and the information that was there was a bit too complicated for me. "Alright, Diesel, we need your brains here," I said. "What are the basics of the A.I.D Scan?"

       Diesel read the information on the screen before saying, "Well, it basically takes a thorough scan of your brain and it's able to copy everything into some sort of A.I."

       "Some sort of A.I?" Uriah asked. "Like what?"

        "I don't know," Diesel said. "It doesn't say. They do have some programs where you can talk to A.Is just for fun so it could be something like that, where the personality of the person they scanned is shown."

       "What does A.I.D stand for?" Pearl asked.

       "Let's find out," I said, scrolling through the database before finding the answer. "Artificial Intelligence Droid."

       "Droid?" Uriah repeated. "Like android? Like robots? So the scans they use are for what? To create robots?"

       "Don't overreact, Uriah," Astrid said. "There has to be a simple explanation."

       "The A.I.D Scan is to copy everything from the scans into some sort of A.I," Uriah said. "You know what's an A.I? Droids. I'm calling Levi."

       Uriah pulled out his phone to call Levi and as he did, I said, "Even if the purpose of the A.I.D Scan isn't to create robots, it's better to be safe than sorry. Meaning we're not letting any Coyotes take the scan when they're some of the most creatively inclined people ever."

       When Levi answered Uriah's call, he put him on speaker for everyone to hear. "Okay, Levi, you're going to have to listen very carefully," he said. "There's this thing S.H.R.E.W.D has called the A.I.D Scan."

       "The A.I.D Scan?" Levi repeated.

       "Yeah, and it stands for Artificial Intelligence Droid," I said. "Diesel said it scans your brains and is able to copy everything down into some sort of A.I. Meaning they'll have an exact replica of how your brain works. We don't know the purpose yet but..."

       "But it's best not to do the scan," Uriah interrupted. "So if it comes to it, don't let them force you to do it."

       "Well, what about everyone else?" Astrid asked. "There are seven other people there."

       "Levi is the only one I care about," Uriah said.

       "Yeah, still here," Levi said on the other line of the phone. "And... We're actually at the end of the tour where we're looking at the A.I.D Scan. And they said we get to take our turns to try it out."

       "What?" Uriah asked. "You can't do the scan."

       "I can't just sneak out or say I can't do it or anything," Levi said.

       "Levi, I swear, if you do that scan, you can forgot about us going into town tomorrow because I will break up with you," Uriah said.

       "Then tell me how to get out of it," Levi said. "How to get use all out of it."

       "You can tell Mr. Hicks that there's an emergency here and he needs to help sort it," Diesel suggested. "You know, since he drove all of you there so you'll have to leave with him. And so he won't catch on, we can make some kind of emergency here. I don't know yet but we'll figure things out. Possibly."

       "That's a great idea," Levi said. "I'll do that. I'll text you an update, Uriah. But I also might text Astrid the update because you threatened to break up with me."

       "Just go tell Mr. Hicks there's an emergency," Uriah said.

       "Aye aye, captain," Levi said.

       As they hung up the call, I took my notebook out of my backpack so I could write down everything we needed to know because chances are, I might not be able to get back into the database once I exit out of it.

       "I thought Piano didn't want us to take notes," Pearl said. "Just in case someone finds it."

       "I know," I said. "But our note holder isn't here so I'm just writing down what we need to know, I'll keep it with me the whole time, and when Levi comes back I'll get him to read it and then destroy it. And while I am taking notes, you should all figure out a way to make some kind of emergency."

       "I have the perfect thing," Uriah said. "So who would like to get into a fight with Wayne? Fists and everything?"

       "We're not going to start a fight," Pearl said. "We have to think of a more civil emergency."

       "Then why am I here?" Uriah asked.

       "To save your boyfriend in a civil way," Pearl said. "So no fighting. No violence."

       "Yeah, real boring," Uriah said. "What else can we do?"

       "Start a flood," Astrid said.

       "What?" Uriah asked. "How could we... What?"

       "We need an emergency that involves the school's state otherwise we could have gotten anyone else to fix it," Astrid said. "So we break one of the pipes in the washroom and cause a flood."

       "Where did you even get that idea from?" Uriah asked.

       Astrid shrugged. "Where does anyone ever get their ideas from?"

       "Okay, less philosophical time and more emergency time," Ester said. "Uriah, go to the closest washroom and destroy one of the pipes."

       "Don't mind if I do," Uriah said, getting up from the table and doing exactly that. 

      I took as much notes about the A.I.D Scan as I could before scrolling through the database to see if I could find anything else that was suspicious. 

       I couldn't. Even in their database, they didn't keep much information.

       They really were up to no good.

       Uriah came back with a smile on his face. "That was fun," he said. "Oh, and Levi texted me back. He was able to get them out of it so they're on their way back now. Now we sit back and wait."

       When Mr. Hicks and the Coyotes returned, Mr. Hicks, Levi, Piano and Dove showed up to the cafeteria. "So what's this emergency?" he asked.

       "Some plumbing burst in the guys' washroom," Uriah said. "It's pretty much flooding all over the place."

       Mr. Hicks sighed heavily. "And one of you tried anything to stop it?"

       "Why should we?" Uriah asked. "We're not plumbers."

        "What Uriah meant to say is we tried," I said. "We were constantly wiping up the water that was leaking into the hallway but it was no use. That's why we called."

        Mr. Hicks sighed again before heading out of the cafeteria to check the flooding. Once he was for sure out of earshot, Levi looked at us and asked, "Did you really cause a flood?"

       "But of course," Uriah said. "We were serious about getting you all out of there. S.H.R.E.W.D is up to some creepy shit and none of us are getting involved."

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oof is all i have to say

i really don't know what to say in the author's note so i'll just say hi my name is laeti and i love food