(Dakotas POV)
Life had really got so much better in the week and a half after we defeated Traeger. We felt teenagers again especially me and Ryan. We got so much time to do our things we love to do. Mark really got to spend more time with Georgia. Only a few days after we defeated Traeger I found out I had the opportunity to go to the SLS (Street League Skateboarding) Championship Qualifiers. I really wanted to continue spending more time with everyone know that we had our lives back, but Ryan and the rest of them insisted I go. Qualifiers were in San Antonio, Texas, If I qualified then the championship would be a months later in Los Angeles. Kendall and I flew to San Antonio on Friday, I kicked butt and took home gold on Saturday and planned to fly home on Monday morning.
(Ryans POV)
"Ooh! My fiefdom is fief-dope!" I said before punch in Spyder in the arm since he was just telling me I suck at the game we're playing.
"Easy dude I'm still feeling a little-"
"Stupid for wearing that hat?" Mark finished for him.
"Ha." Spyder said, not amused. "No, I like this had, its just still feelin' a little barfy."
"Really cause I feel great." I continued. "Mm, defeat Traeger, check. Defeat all of you at this game? In progress."
"Not so fast kid okay?" Leo laughed. "I've been playin this game so long, I have moves they haven't even invented yet."
"Surprising confidence when Ryans kicking your butt." Harris added.
"That's a first." Spyder continues. "Usually Ryan eats it at this game."
"And we never get past the first round because all we do is hassle him." Harris laughed.
"How is this any different?" I asked.
"Because this time we're celebrating Traeger's loss, instead of playing a game Ryan loses." Mark answered.
"Not this time." I said while Leo laughed. "Boom! Trance! Skip, your, turn." Spyder tried not to vomit as I laughed in Leos face.
"See. Food poisoning. Happens when you keep fish sticks in your locker." Harris scolded.
"Yeah didn't Veracity throw those away?" I asked.
"Not all of them." Spyder answered sitting up straight.
"Hey where is Veracity anyway?" Leo asked. "She was supposed to teach me gram-o-gram. Have you guys heard of this thing called memes." We were all silent until Leo realized. "Oh you've all heard of it?"
"Veracity is turning a school that for genius's thats never invited Harris." Spyder answered him.
"Because its a all-girls school." Harris corrected. "My petition is working its way through the court system right now."
"What about Dakota?" Leo asked. "It's not really a 'celebration of Traeger's demise' without the whole team."
"Well if you had showed up to the watch party last night." I said turning the tv in the room on with my powers to clips of the competition last night. "You would have been able to see her place first in the SLS Championship qualifiers, with one of the best scores they have ever seen."
"How's it feel to be back at SLS?" A reporter asked Dakota on screen.
"Feels amazing honestly." She answered. "I've been to the SLS Championships 2 times and I've never won so hopefully we gold home this time around. Really looking forward to LA."
"So the championship is in LA but where is she now?" Leo asked.
"San Antonio." I answered "She's not flying in till early tomorrow morning, she's spending today with her sister in Texas."
"It's gonna be a chiller, and a thriller, and a killer, when I burn down your vill." Leo says rolling the dice. "Age. Village."
"What's that ticking sound?" Harris asked. We we're all silent until Leo said,
"Ah thats me, I make the ticking sounds when I think, I'm concentrating I make sounds with my mouth."
"Stop that." I said when it was my turn to roll. "Ha, who's been playing this game before I was born now!"
"It's still me Ryan, thats not how time works." Leo says. "Oh but also I have a little surprise for everyone, steal!" He yells slamming the card on the table.
"You can't do that!"
"Oh yes I can!" Leo responds. "Oh and speaking of 'can' if anyone needs me, I will be in left ankle, do not disturb."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, the left, the left ankle is the ankle is the bathroom." Spyder says.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"So nobody go in the right ankle." He answered.
"Dude are you okay?" I asked Spyder when he tried to hold back throw up again.
"Yeah- No I'm fine I'm just trying to work the fish sticks through." He says hunching over under the table.
"That's disgusting." I said.
"I regret nothing!" Spyder groans. "Okay so guys, would food poisoning cause me to like- see things? Like some sort of cool but scary bomb under the table?"
"Spyder you're seeing things." Mark said brushing it off.
"You don't look so good, maybe you should lie down?" Harris suggested.
"No, I'm fine just look under the table!" He yelled. All four of hit the deck looking under the table to see exactly what Spyder said screwed to the table.
"Ryan can you stop it?" Spyder asked me.
"I'm trying its not working!" I said as Mark slid under the floor to get a better look at it.
"No electric components?" Harris suggested.
"Harris get me my drill from my toolbox, the small one." Mark orders. "Spyder, go to the left ankle and pull a torken fetter from the access panel."
"I don't know what that is but I'll pull everything." Spyder says running off with Harris while I crawled under the table with him."
"There's no such things as a torken fetter is there?" I asked while Mark examined the bomb.
"I've seen Spyder drop several explosives." Mark answered. "And we're done rolling dice now."
"Here you go." Harris says when she came back handing Mark the drill. He drilled a small whole in the casing around the bomb hoping to jam the gears.
"It's speeding up, I can't jam it." Mark said setting down the drill. "One minute left." Mark said as we heard Spyder rambling on the other end of the Mech-links.
"Listen cut the blue wire, its always the blue wire." Leo says.
"There aren't any wires." Mark answered.
"Cut the red wire?"
"It's just gears." Mark said. "What if we freeze it, with the coolant from the power system."
"I'm on it." I said hoping up from under the table running to the panel down the hall pulling the coolant. I ran back pushing him the container so he could spray the coolant, freezing all the gears.
—————
"Who could have done this, its has to be Harper." I said one Mark pulled the bomb of the table and we took it apart.
"It can't be. The bomb used and egg timer so it had to be placed in the last hour. Harper ghosted days ago." Harris adds.
"Grey?" I suggested.
"Impossible, Mark and I build a security system specifically designed to keep her out." Leo responds. "While you guys saved Ryans bio dad from the mine collapse before the city black out, man that was a crazy twenty four hours."
"We have to check the security footage, see if anybody got in." I said leaving the room.
"Wa- wai- wait!" Spyder yelled. "There are cameras in this robot."
"Spyder is okay." I laughed, "We know you sleep here four days a week."
—————
"Look the time code jumps from 6:09 to 6:42." Mark says while he pulled up the footage. "The last half hour of footage was wiped but just on the interior cameras."
"And the exterior cameras didn't show anything." I continued. "Which means, no one came in or out."
"So what you're saying is it was one of us?" Harris asks. "One of us planted the bomb?" I used my powers shutting the doors all around us."
"And no one leaves till we find out who."
"Are you insane?" Mark says. "You think one of us planted the bomb?"
"There's no other explanation, no one came in or out." I answered.
"That doesn't make any sense." Harris adds "we were all in the robot. It could have taken any of us out."
"Guys we've done some crazy things. I went nuts in the Arctic." I continued. "Harris turned into a monster."
"Harper gave Ryans mom a mind-controlling brain bug." Spyder points out. "Couldn't he have done that to any of us? I mean, am I even in control?"
"Bro!" Leo said when Spyder smacked his juice out of his hands. "Thats my juice."
"I think so."
"I gotta get another one, and the fridge is all the way over there." Leo says annoyed.
"Hey one of us did this, we need to stay here until we figure out what's going on."
"Okay you guys? We just need to uh, take a deep breath. Think of things that will calm us down." Mark says as we followed Leo back into the X-deck. "Sophomore year, spring playoffs. Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark..."
"Wow, thanks for lifting all of our spirits Mark." Leo says sarcastically.
"What are you doing to figure this out?" Mark asks.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, we can't turn on each other." Leo says. "We're a team."
"He's right. We just need to go over exactly where we we're before we played the game during the deleted security footage." Harris agreed.
"If one of us did it, wouldn't they just lie about where they were?" Mark suggested.
"Yeah and when we find the hole in their story, we'll know who tried to kill us." I said.
"I'll go first." Mark volunteers. "This afternoon I was in my workshop, working on a sick engine rebuild. Wow I look good in my memory." He says kinda lost in thought while he explains everything to us in an overly dramatic way. "I saw Ryan to."
"Oh yeah I remember that."
"Said he wants to be when he grows up."
"What?"
"Well I don't remember exactly what you said." Mark shrugs.
"Well did you do anything else?" I asked.
"Uh, I needed a wrench so I headed over to Leo's." Mark answers. "He'll back me up. Oh Leo wants to be me to when he grows up."
"Okay I think we get it, Mark borrowed a tool from Leo and has a disturbing amount of self esteem." Harris says. "Leo you back up Marks story? At least the parts he wasn't embellishing?"
"Yes, but there are two problems with Marks story." Leo begins. "One, when I grow up I want to be Tina Fey. And two the tool you borrowed from me wasn't a wrench. It wasn't even a tool you would use on an engine at all."
"Well what was it?" I asked.
"A needle." Leo answers. "Used for boring small holes."
"Small holes, like at the center of gears in the device?" I asked my brother.
"No, no no no! You guys, I promise I would never-"
"Hey, just show us the engine." I said. "You're my brother I know you wouldn't do this."
"No." He said quietly. Well that left me with one option. Push him out of the way and sprint to his workshop. He caught up with me just as I ripped a sheet of a table, revealing not a car engine, but a sewing machine, pillows with his face on it and a ridiculous amount of thread.
"What is this?" I asked.
"Just leave it alone its nothing-"
"It's an embroidery station." I said. "What a relief?"
"I didn't want you to find out this way. Or at all." Mark explains. "Georgia got me into embroidery for cosplay, and we do it while we watch basketball. It's romantic."
"Is it though?" I asked examining his work.
"Yes, what exactly do you do with Kota thats so romantic huh?" He asked in response.
"Sneak out once a week and skate at night under the lights, walk the beach if its not cold, lay on the roof at night." I listed leaving Mark thinking of something else to say to that.
"He's got you there buddy." Spyder laughed.
"Well good news is the machine is still warm, so Mark must have worked on this before the game." Harris says touching the machine. "It's not him"
"Okay lets go and never speak of this again." Mark says trying to get us out of the room.
"Oh yeah sure man, just let me send this to Kota do you prefer portrait or landscape?"