Chapter 21

Owl POV: Diesel

       After staying up most of the night thinking about S.H.R.E.W.D's scan and why they clearly wanted the Coyotes to take a tour of their HQ, I think I had an answer. We still had to find out exactly what the scan was going to be used for but following the theory of the androids, I had my suspicion.

       And it wasn't a good one.

       Since I was closest with Astrid in the group, she was the first person I went to find. The first place I checked was the Tiger's house but she wasn't there. Uriah wasn't there either considering Wayne was the one who opened the door and shortly slammed it in my face, claiming that all other houses were inferior and weren't allowed to talk to them.

       The Tigers who voted for Uriah to be the new captain definitely made the right choice, especially because he never tried using his captaincy to intimidate anyone.

       I found Astrid walking through the front door of the school right as I walked down the stairs. She immediately smiled at me. "Diesel, hey," she said.

       "Hi," I said. "So I wanted to talk to you about S.H.R.E.W.D. Actually, I wanted to talk to everyone about S.H.R.E.W.D but I'm not really close with anyone else even though they asked for me to be in the group and help them so I didn't know how to ask them to meet up."

       "We really need to start a group chat then," Astrid said as she pulled out her cell phone. "I'll send Piano a text and he'll forward it to everyone since he has everyone's cell phone numbers."

       I furrowed my eyebrows. "But... I don't remember ever giving Piano my phone number."

       "Yeah, it's best not to question how Piano knows everything," Astrid said. "We'll never get the answer." After sending a text, she shortly received one. "Okay, Piano said he'll text everyone to meet up at the cafeteria."

       Astrid and I went to the cafeteria and sat down at our regular table as we waited for everyone else to arrive. We might have to find a better place to meet up since this place wasn't exactly inconspicuous.

       Pearl and Ester were the first two to show up, followed by Piano and Alvin. And then we were waiting a while for Uriah and Levi.

       Astrid sighed impatiently. "I'm tempting to break the two of them up. They never spend their time without each other."

       "Oh, come on, it's cute," Ester said. "I've never seen Uriah so happy. Let him just live his happily, in love life."

       "Ester and I were inseparable when we started dating," Pearl said. "And it must be harder for Uriah and Levi since they're in different houses."

       "I'm still going to try breaking them up," Astrid said before sending multiple texts to either Uriah or Levi until she finally got a reply. "They're on their way now. Finally. You know, it's never a good idea for one of your siblings to date your best friend because you just end up hating the both of them very easily."

       "That's... a very interesting thought process," Alvin said. 

       Once Uriah and Levi showed up, Astrid glared at the both of them. "Nice of you to show up," she said.

       "We were napping on the hammock out back," Levi said. "Leave us alone."

       "So what's this meeting about?" Alvin asked.

       "Diesel said he wanted to talk about S.H.R.E.W.D with everyone," Astrid said.

       "Yeah, I thought about something last night," I said. "About the scan. S.H.R.E.W.D clearly wanted the Coyotes to take the scan for some reason so I tried thinking what the reason could be. Coyotes are the artistic people. Dancers, musicians, artists. So they're genuinely more in touch with their emotions. If S.H.R.E.W.D is planning on making androids like we thought..."

       "Then the scan of our brains would help them be more in touch with their emotions," Levi said. "Make them more human-like."

       "And the Coyotes are some of the most artistic and creative people in this country," Pearl said. "That will definitely help making the androids more human-like."

       "That's not all I thought about," I said. "What if they don't want to just take a scan of the Coyotes' brain? What if they want to scan all of our brains?"

       "Why would they want to?" Uriah asked.

       "We're in a school for the gifted," Pearl said. "If they scan all of our brains, imagine what kind of androids they will have. They will have all of our abilities. All. Not only will they be more human-like because of the Coyotes' emotions, they'll have all of our abilities combined."

       "Shit," Uriah cursed. "So what can we do about it?"

       "Not get scanned," Astrid said. "Obviously."

       "I know that," Uriah said. "But if Mr. Hicks is working with S.H.R.E.W.D, he's going to find a way to get us all scanned. And if we keep finding a way out of it or refuse to do it, he'll know we're on to him."

       "So we just get scanned anyway?" Astrid asked. "That's an idiotic plan, Uriah."

       "I'm not saying that we should get scanned anyway," Uriah said. "I'm saying it's going to be hard for us not to get scanned. I think the Coyotes are safe from now. The only way the scan can take place, that we know of, is at the HQ."

       "Right," Piano said. "The scan was at the end of the tour. We were going to leave after that so there wasn't anything else to look at. If Mr. Hicks tries to make us go again, I'll just say that we basically finished the tour anyway and if he insists, I'll ask what's so special about the scan? He won't have an answer so he'll just get flustered and let us Coyotes stay."

       "So... What about everyone else?" Pearl asked.

       I thought for a bit, trying to find a solution. But I couldn't think of any good ones. We couldn't let Mr. Hicks and S.H.R.E.W.D know we were on to them. I didn't know what they would do if they found out but whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

       There was only one thing to do.

       "I think..." I said slowly. "The best thing to do is just try our best to stay away from the scan but if the worst happens and we don't have a choice, we should at least try to make it so only one person from each house takes the scan. That way, they'll somewhat get what they want but they still won't have scanned all of our brains for the android to there's a chance we can still have the upper hand."

       "He's right," Astrid agreed. "If they have all of our brains scanned, then the androids will be... very exceptional. But if it's only one person from each house, they will still have their weaknesses."

       "Whatever happens, Levi can't be scanned," Uriah said.

       "I agree with that because I'm terrified, but why?" Levi asked.

       "Yeah, now isn't the time to go all protective boyfriend," Astrid said.

       "I'm not saying it because I'm his boyfriend," Uriah said. "I'm saying it because of his eidetic memory. The androids will also be taking our memories. Sure, it will be easier for them to access since they're basically computers but there should still be some memories that are hard for them to access after taking the scan. Not Levi. He still remembers every little detail about his life. They can use that against us."

       "Same with Piano," Alvin said. "He knows everything about everyone in this school. They can use his memories against us as well."

       "This is going to be a horrible decision if it comes to that," Pearl said. "How can we decide who will have their memories, their everything, taken from them and be matched into an android?"

       Nobody answered because we simply didn't have an answer. And we might not ever get one.

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oof things are starting to get more dramatic.

i really want to focus on this book more because i have a lot planned that will play with your emotions OOF

at least i'm not neglecting this anymore. if only that could be said for my other books :( 

i should really start placing books on hold BUT I DON'T HAVE THE HEART TO DO THAT.