Kale followed every Axel meticulously. Or at least he thought he was.
It was far different from copying his sheets during an exam.
Not only was he already a few steps behind Axel, he had next to no idea what he was doing.
Putting his hopes on Axel and his own luck, Kale soon assembled the device.
The device in question was a small cube with a small circular platform attached to it.
"There are a total of thirty lights from here to that wall." Kale suddenly whispered to Axel, the latter confused at the statement.
"I got confused and lost mid assembly so I counted the number of lights between us and the closest wall." He explained.
"Wait. Really?!"
"Nah man, just kidding. But to think that you care about me this much is heart warming."
Axel just chuckled before focusing on the approaching Miss Cayenne.
"Do you people know exactly what the device you just attempted to build actually does?" She reached for her coat's pocket and pulled out an object.
A cylindrical metallic object rested neatly in her hand.
She took calm and precise steps to the person closest to her and placed the cylinder over the circular platform.
The platform pulled in the cylinder like it had a magnet attached.
At the moment of contact, a small, flickering blue dome covered the cube for an instant before it dissipated.
"A force field. That's what the device does. It generates a force field to repel incoming attacks or projectiles." She took back the cylinder and moved to the next student.
Axel and Kale's eyes widened.
'Did she just say force field?! Like an actual force field? The one used in movies?!' Kale's jaw dropped.
He turned to look at Kale to confirm what he heard but saw the latter's eyes. They held the same if not a greater amount of shock than him.
Slowly, she tested the force field generator of everyone, leaving Kale and Axel for last.
She ignored Kale and went straight to Axel.
Her eyes traced the force field generator and then Axel a few times over before she placed the cylinder on the attachment.
A bold, thick and bright blue dome completely covered the cube.
Miss Cayenne tapped the dome and took some notes on her tablet.
"Axel, is it? I can feel a weak repulsion even before my hand touches the force field. Why exactly is that?" She stared.
"Well in the tutorial, we were asked to connect the JB- circuit to the inductor but I figured that I could add another fuse before that and then place the inductor."
"Not only would this save power but it has a high chance of giving a greater efficiency." Axel explained.
"Interesting view. And how exactly did you know that it would work and not blow up in your face?" She resumed her interrogation.
"Because the circuitry is not too different from that of a standard military-grade drone." Axel leaned against the table and let out a small smirk.
"Oh. How do you know the schematics for a military grade drone?" Miss Cayenne seemed almost interested.
"Simple. Not too long ago, I 'accidentally' hacked into your network and when I realized, I decided to take a souvenir to remember my 'trip'."
"And you built the drone?"
"No. I just studied it and improved it in areas it was lacking."
"..."
Miss Cayenne wrote something on her tablet before focusing on Kale.
Her eyes twinged with a bit of expectation.
It was only natural that Axel's friend's force field generator would be the same if not better than his.
Miss Cayenne placed the cylinder on the platform.
Her eyes lit with anticipation as the device powered up.
A blue sphere surrounded the cube and she nodded in approval. She was about to touch it when she noticed the smoke coming off the cube.
The smoke was trapped in the sphere, which in turn started to compress.
Kale and Axel glanced at each other.
The sphere reached a diameter barely enough to cover the cube and then it exploded, sending parts flying everywhere.
________
"I can't believe you almost killed everyone." Axel sighed as he set his glasses down, trying to fluff his pillow.
Kale laid on the bottom bunk and placed his hands behind his head.
"It wasn't my intention, okay?"
After the explosion, they had left the facility and had been taken to a ship waiting for them by the shore of a beach.
Luckily, no one was hurt but unfortunately for Kale, he had failed that test woefully.
Now they were on the ship sailing to only God knew where.
The only benefit was the change of scenery and the two people per room format and as usual, Axel and Kale were roommates.
"How do you think everyone is fairing?" Kale asked.
"Everyone?"
"Yeah. You know other survivors, those in states unaffected or those that are still in the chaos of what is happening?"
"Oh, them? It's best not to think too much about it?"
"Answer bro. I can take an honest response."
Before Axel could respond, a deafening rumble shook the ship and created giant waves that crashed against the ship and threatened to capsize it.
The two ran out of their rooms and saw others also panicking.
They ran to the deck to look out because as far as they knew, the skies were clear.
When they got to the deck, they saw only one person there.
She was no longer wearing the body suit but a tracksuit. It was Ming Lee.
But she hadn't noticed them, instead looking at something in the distance.
Kale and Axel followed her line of sight and they froze in shock.
A massive tiger-like creature with glowing stripes and three heads was swimming in the waters far from them.
Its titanic body looked like a normal sized tiger from their point of view but the fact that kilometers separated them told the true story of its size.
Its stripes lit up and it let out a mighty roar that caused the ship to tremble once more.
More waves crashed on the ship and caused all three teens on the deck to fall.
"You wanted my answer?" Axel's voice broke the silence.
"They are all fucking doomed."