| abstract | - Aquerna and Rhiannon take their swimming qualification test in the morning. Team Kimba gets their introduction to the sims. At the same time, Overclock and Make get smuggled into the sim center by Farrago. Farrago is surprised that they've brought a third person (who turns out to be Stygian). Team Kimba gets into their suits and gets the introduction to how the sim booths work. Then they do a check to make sure everything's set up. Overclock and Make introduce a glitch in Tennyo's check to give themselves a little more time to set up. Then it's time to take the Introductory Whateley Tour. The trap Overclock and Make set triggers at the same time Everheart is called out to handle some of the shoulder angel messes. Team Kimba finds themselves in a deserted mall without holdouts or their costumes, and facing the New Olympians. The trap lineup is: Lancer vs Cytherea, Tennyo vs Stygian, Chaka vs Majestic, Phase vs Knick-Knack, Generator vs Prism, Bladedancer vs Counterpoint and Shroud vs Judicator. Without their holdouts and in dead zones so Fey and Chaka can't get more power. Generator breaks loose from Prism and takes out Cytherea, freeing Lancer. Then the trap unravels progressively. Meanwhile, Everheart notices that the control room is being presented with a loop and gets the external mess organized. Bardue gets to Tennyo's sim room in time to hear Stygian mention Overclock. Mrs. Carson expels Overclock and Make, giving them an hour to pack and get off campus, and drops Farrago from the course with an "F." Team Kimba rallies around Tennyo, who has taken major psychological damage from the ghosts of the Destroyer's past battles. Phase tells the real Imperious and Majestic that it was their templates that had been used in the attack -- and they failed. Generator has Bunny alert the workshop crew to what happened. After the simulator trap, Chou has to call Dorjee and call their date off. Nex continues his plan to kill Bladedancer, making an arrangement with Nephandus to eliminate surveillance in the critical area. Loophole and Phase have a long talk on the vehicle testing range, and reach a rapprochement. Aquerna works with the grounds crew inspecting trees for snow damage. They have a great time. Various devisors and gadgeteers in the Workshop express their extreme displeasure in person, several in particularly physical ways, as well as deliver messages from one or another personage. At the end, Jericho uses Visio's teleporter to deliver them to the MCO offices in Berlin. They beg for the MCO to not send them back. Loophole's brother has emerged, and chosen the name Monolith. He's now at Whateley. (Flashback to May 3, 2005, where he's feeling put upon.) Loophole gets talked (well, dragooned) into paying for him. Loophole teaches Monolith a much needed lesson on exactly how invulnerable he is. Kodiak manages to apologize to Loophole over Monolith's interference. At the 5:00 assembly, Ms. Hartford and Mrs. Carson shut down the entire shoulder angel thing. The fact that Circe has stuck Mrs. Carson with shoulder angels might have had something to do with the vigor she used in expressing the order. Dyffid and Amelia Hartford have a date, and he gives her some advice about letting things flow a bit. Aquerna goes on her date with Jerry. They have pizza and see a movie, and she listens to Jerry tell her a lot of interesting stuff. Later that night, Elite League is called out of bed for a special simulation run against what they're calling Dark Tennyo.
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