Limbering up was not hard for Henri. He ran through the early morning exercise routine pretty fast. Fabien and the twins were right with him. Calvin, Guy and Adam just lagged behind as usual. Fabien had been doing this for a long time so he was used to it all by now. Henri and the twins were humans with superhuman levels of strength, speed and stamina. These little exercises were not enough to even make them break a sweat. Calvin and Guy did not have those advantages. Calvin was doing them at the pace of the average person their age. Guy was not athletic or particularly fit, so it took him longer to do it. He had to take longer breaks between certain things. Adam was living up to his reputation. He was going slow on purpose. He also tried to cut corners by doing less than what was assigned to them. Fabien or Henri would call him out if they caught him. That did not keep the slacker from trying. They were not the first squad scheduled to go to the simulator. In the meantime, they were expected to do some minor chores around their base. Adam dragged their squad down, as usual.
It was soon time to go in. Henri liked to lead the charge. He went inside the mock cockpit first every time. That had forced Adam to follow. Now it was Remi at his side. As they got the equipment from the staff, it was pretty hard for him to keep all of the nerves down. On one level, it was just another attempt to synchronize with his squad mate. On another level, he would need to wrangle with Remi. It was clear that the twins were planning something. A child could tell that they did not have the redhead's best interest at heart. They sat butt to butt. Once the visors fell over their eyes, the simulated room began to form around both of them. Remi got on the bed and assumed the position. He was the Bottom. Henri let him get ready. The sooner that he could get this done, the sooner that it would be over. He only had to last until the 3 minute mark. If there were any complications, it would continue until all the time elapsed for the session. Even then, that was only 2 minutes longer. Henri just closed his eyes and shut out everything around him. It was useless to dwell on that kind of stuff.
Making a big scene definitely would not help the situation. He was here to make things work out for himself. He noticed that Remi's Black Pulse was not increasing like it should. It was steady at 35. "What's wrong with you!? It's not going up any." he asked the blond. Normally he would not care about Remi's well being. This matter directly concerned him however. Remi just smirked. "Took you long enough to realize. I know you've never broken past 35 in either pulse. It's up to you to make the connection here, not me. Noel and I can go around you. You need us." That was the game they were playing. It was deliberate sabotage. They could easily put out a pulse of 100. It was a matter of principle that they were not. They would rather eat the 2 failures than let Henri succeed. You needed a combined score of 102 to pass the simulation. If the hybrid Remi was only putting out a 35, Henri had to pick up the slack to get it to work. A White Pulse of 67 was a tough ask at the best of times. Especially for a boy who had never cracked 40 before. Henri growled. "There it is. That monster's in you."
