AAOOOSC! Rivalry!

Searching Spiritedly

With the challenge on the clock, the NWHL power players are working hard to find Auston's location and train to supernaturally battle against him:

Nicole and Hilary are emitting their powers at dummies in their basement training room. Katie is in her room behind her laptop with glasses on, scrolling through rows and rows of code, searching for Auston's location. And Emily is spying on the CWHL's progress.

"They're training!" Emily cries out to Hilary as she appears in the training room. She immediately disappears, then reappears with an update: "I almost got struck by Howe!" She vanishes in a blink of an eye and materializes back into view. "They can't find Auston!" She then becomes invisible and visible, throwing out different updates on their rivals:

"Spooner almost blew me up!"

"Still can't find Auston!"

"Burns barely impaled me!"

"They're packing!"

"Téllez almost set me on fire!"

"They still can't find Auston!"

Emily then pads back into the training room, clearly exhausted. "Julie led me to come back here."

The ladies are now back in the brightly lit meeting around, sitting in their usual places with the absence of Dani. Hilary peers diagonally across the table, catching the sight of Katie absorbed in her laptop, who is furiously typing on her keyboard.

"Katie?" she calls out to her.

Without tearing her eyes away from the many windows of black and green code and maps she has opened, Katie reports: "I am doing my utmost to trace where Auston's call came from, but the location either comes out as extremely vague or unknown. I cannot detect a specific location."

"Well, he has to be calling from a specific location, right?" Nicole asks with a shrug from next to her.

Katie halts her type and turns to her. "Correct." She adjusts her glasses. "He must've bugged the detector to befuddle me." She turns back to her laptop and resumes her mad typing.

The other goalie furrows her eyebrows at the screen. "Can't you call him back?"

Katie halts her typing. "Possibly."

From across the table, Hilary calls out, "I'll do so." She then holds her wrist at eye level, bringing her intercom into view. She pulls back Auston's call and calls back the number.

Immediately, two green words flash on the black screen: Number Invalid.

"Guys," Hilary grumbles, "it says the number's invalid."

Katie perks up at the Master with a bewildered expression. Hilary holds her wrist out at her, showing her the words on the intercom. The goalie takes a good look at them before returning to her laptop.

"The number he used doesn't exist." She hits more buttons harshly. "He must've suspend it." She halts her typing, peering up at the others. "That explains the whole lot:" --she tears off her glasses-- "How can I trace him down through his call if the number doesn't exist anymore?"

Hilary scowls at the table's surface. "Dang it."

"He must be some tech freak like you, Fitz!" Emily blurts out, her arms out at the goalie.

Katie narrows her eyes at her, slamming her laptop's screen closed against the keyboard.

The small skater shrinks into her large swivel chair while turning red. "In a good way...!"