(Not me trying to proofread all the chapters up to my next hiatus).

Year Three: Change of Plans

Camp SHIELD - 10:08 AM

While the cadets are doing drills on the field, Xavier walks by the sidelines. Along the way, he sees James sitting in front of one of the Sci-Tech cabins with his fellow counsellors in their matching bright green windbreakers. They're chatting, possibly conspiring, but Xavier joins his fellow counsellors.

"So, any plans for what to do with the cadets?" Joseph asks him. "I heard that Sci-Tech's counsellors changed all their clocks, even on their phones and Communications gave them their schedules in reverse."

Rowan scoffs. "Those are so tame. When I was a cadet, my cabin was flooded."

"I had to streak," Xavier adds. Merida was in Rowan's cabin since hers flooded too.

Priya's brows shoot up. "How is that bad?"

Joseph glances at her. "Keep it in your pants, Priya."

Xavier watches his cadets (his cadets. He can't believe he said that) on the field and lights up. "I came up with a better idea."

Xavier turns to face the other counsellors. He shares his plan and they glance at each other before nodding excitedly. Xavier runs onto the field once the drills are done. The other counsellors follow as the cadets gather around their counsellors.

"Look," Xavier starts, "some upper years might've told you that the counsellors will give you crap. You've probably heard that Sci-Tech's and Communications' cadets have already been screwed with, but we've chosen not to do anything to you on one condition. We need to team up and take down Sci-Tech."

"Is that because the head counsellor of Sci-Tech is sleeping with your twin?" A cadet asks.

Xavier pauses as he hears all the cadets and even the counsellors snickering to themselves. He'll be stuck with this for the rest

" … what is it with everyone and bringing that up?" Xavier asks.

-o-

Wakanda's Palace, Royal Estates - 11:09 AM

Iqadi rarely had time to go outside, except for days when she had business outside the palace wall, trained outdoors, or visited Imanu's family. They lived in a house on the royal estates and have been since they've been engaged. It's a small neighbourhood behind the palace walls where the neighbours were palace staff and council officials.

Ever since the meeting with her father, the growing storm in Fiji has been on her mind. She checked reports this morning and it's growing stronger and closer. It'll hit land in two days at most.

It'll destroy the small country, one heavily dependant on tourism for its economy, and Iqadi knows she can do something about it.

"I plan to visit Emily soon," Iqadi tells Imanu.

Imanu glances up at her from doing lawn work. "Oh really? When are you leaving?"

"Soon, actually. She wants to show me around Milan and has a few wedding dresses she wants my take on."

"I'm not invited, am I?"

Iqadi's heart stops but she doesn't dare show it on her face. "You don't want to come to that."

"I know. I'm making sure."

Iqadi smiles a laugh, feeling a pit growing in her stomach for lying to him.

-o-

Academy Courtyard - 11:46 AM

"You have a lot of blonde friends, perky ones too," Victoria comments.

Merida looks over and sees Angela and Orchid approaching them, both with big animated smiles as they talk. Merida stares strangely, noticing that aside from those two, she does have a lot of very positive friends. It doesn't help that a good handful of them are blond.

"I'm aware," Merida says with a sour taste in her mouth. Angela. Orchid. Brody. Xavier. Britney. Apollo. Blonds.

Once Orchid and Angela approach them, they share pleasantries with Victoria who gave them the same charm as she did Merida but without the snide side comments.

"What could you two be talking about that you're so happy?" Victoria asks them.

"My mom's been nagging me about birth control for a while," Angela responds. "I honestly don't know which one is best and am still debating options."

Victoria smiles brightly which doesn't surprise Merida. "Pill or insertion?"

Angela shrugs. "What do you use?"

"Pill," Orchid answers.

"IUD," Victoria responds.

"Abstinence," Merida adds although she knows Angela wasn't asking her.

Victoria glances at her. "Please, Barton, the only beautiful part of a period is when it's over."

"But when it comes and you realize you're not pregnant, it's great," Orchid says. "Back home, before I was on the pill, there was a time I kept on throwing up and I was late. I thought I was pregnant. My granny said I was having a spiritual battle within me and I thought that my baby was cursed by God or something because I did the nasty before marriage."

The girls stare at her with the blankest face. They're not sure how to respond to that or even if they should.

"You're very weird," Victoria states just as Ashton and Brody approach them.

"What are you guys talking about?" Ashton asks.

"Birth control and Orchid's spiritual battle," Merida responds.

"It was food poisoning," Orchid explains to them.

Ashton and Brody look at each other.

"We'll see you in class," Brody says.

They've never left a conversation so quickly.

"It's strange to sit and talk to boys who have seen your boobs," Victoria says as she watches them go.

"You're also weird," Angela says.

"Hold up," Merida says to Victoria, "what?"

-o-

Edison Residence - 12:49 AM

When Keith said he'll come up with a strategy to help them discuss their hacking mystery, Daniel only had one thing to do. He had to get a list of the top ten ranked students for Keith. Daniel managed that by meeting with his academic counsellor and saying how he overheard the agents talk to Keith about the hacked grades and he was concerned.

His counsellor couldn't tell him much about the crisis but showed him the top ten list before the problem and reassured him that his grades haven't been tampered.

Daniel memorized the list and told Keith later.

Daniel left Keith alone for a few hours while he went to class and came back to Keith's dorm to see a murder board on a cork-board with headshots of a few Sci-Tech student ID photos printed and pinned in various places. Daniel saw strings of yellow, green, and red laced across the board.

"I was at Walmart and did some things," Keith says, gesturing to the board.

Daniel gets a closer look and sees that everyone from the list is on the board, including him and Keith but excluding James. Daniel's stomach plummets. It's a cork-board plastered with photos and notes and evidence.

"Why is my face on there?" Daniel asks offended.

"That's classified," Keith responds.

"Where did you get the photos?"

"Also classified."

"And what about all the yarn?"

"Classified, and on sale." Keith sighs contently. "My photo is up there because I don't trust myself and it covers my ass if anyone finds this."

"What about James?"

"Okay, James was third which was probably a hacking issue we don't know about because how the fuck is he ahead of me?" Keith exclaims. "And as if James had could actually pull this off."

Daniel shrugs. He's best friends with James and is his roommate which means he's seen his class and study ethic, which doesn't exist. How he's in the top three, just two places below him is unbelievable. All top ten Sci-Tech students. Daniel's first, a string of yellow yarn tied into a bow as a placeholder of James in third, Keith in seventh. Other classmates fill the open spots, many faces he recognizes.

"Also, I would never print a photo of James," Keith states, nearly offended at the idea.

"True," Daniel responds, examining the board again, "so what have you discovered?"

"Our victims are two girls our year, one in Sci-Tech and the other in Communications. We'll just focus on our side since it'll probably lead to the other."

It does and doesn't help that there aren't many girls in the top ten. Only three.

"Any names?"

"Nah. If I know who they are, then SHIELD will lock me up. Besides, we can't confuse Transcript Victims with who they are in real life. Their little Academy avatars were reprogrammed but not their real personalities, hopefully. I set up a program to anonymously match them so we don't run into more conflicts of interest."

"True, and if we see any girls in our classes or dorms freaking out about all this, we'd find out."

"Her photo is on the board which gives us three names."

"However, they could also be at Camp."

"So they might not even know about this."

"But we're assuming that they'll be freaking out in public and telling others. Nobody here would want to admit their grades have been messed up."

Keith nods. "Also true. Why are people so complicated?"

Daniel holds up a finger. "What if our guy is at Camp?"

Keith pauses, having not thought that through. "Fingers-crossed that Operations kills him in the prank war. I know they have no cell service there but you'll tell Xavier to do that, right?"

Daniel is scared when he sees how serious Keith is about that request. "No."

"Worth a shot."

"I'm worried for James at Camp."

Keith scoffs. "And not Xavier?"

"He'll be fine. He's Operations. Don't they practise blowing each other up and bouncing back? I know James is Operations too but it's James."

"And James is sleeping with Angela."

"Exactly."

"I'm hoping James blows Xavier up."

Daniel pauses. " … okay that would be funny."

Keith laughs a little. "But consider Xavier blowing up James."

"And then Angela blowing up at Xavier. It's like when Angela and James broke up but in reverse."

Keith claps his hands together, keeping his eyes on the messy board of photos and yarn. "This just got so much better."