Chase watched through the first half of the movie just reminiscing about what he loved about this movie.
"This guy was always so sick. I wish I could've been more like him." Chase thought to himself, even though he knew that was what he said during all of his favorite action movies.
The movie entered the iconic shooting range scene.
"Oh! Oh!" Chase sped up, slowed down, and rewinded the scene on repeat. He tried to get a good look at each angle of the gun. He saw how the slide shot back when the gun fired. He looked at the shape of the magazine when RoboCop emptied it.
Chase started to channel his Spirit into his hands to begin the journey of manifesting a gun. He specifically wanted to manifest RoboCop's pistol, since that was what he was basing the parts off of.
Chase closed his eyes and focused in. He tried for about ten minutes to manifest the handgun, to no avail.
"Of course I couldn't do it." Chase told himself. He laid down on his bed he was watching the movie from and looked up at the ceiling.
When he thought back to the things Bloom and Milo had told him, it clicked.
"Remember to take it one piece at a time." Bloom's words echoed through Chase as he felt an A-ha moment come on.
"Just one." Chase thought to himself. Chase focused and tried to manifest a single bullet.
Even though it seemed easy, he still hadn't yet overcome the hurdle of manifesting anything at all. All that Chase knew himself capable of was channeling his Spirit.
Chase nervously focused as he channeled his Spirit into his hands.
"If I can't even do this…" Chase worried. He tried to make the nervousness subside as he tried to give all his focus to the task at hand.
Chase jolted back in surprise as he felt cold metal touch his palm. He looked down to find a single bullet in his hand.
"Haha, you dare doubt yourself, Chase?!" Chase talked to himself with excitement. Deep down he felt like shedding a tear. The fact that he could manifest at all was a big weight off of his shoulders.
"You're not there yet, Chase. Onto the next." Chase hyped himself up. The bullet had his confidence back up as he rewinded the movie scene to see what he should manifest next.
He decided on the magazine. Chase locked in for a second time. He closed his eyes and imagined the different sides of the magazine, the inside, the texture of the outside.
Chase felt the cold metal hit his palm once again. This time it was surprisingly less time than before.
"I'm amazing!" Chase laughed victoriously as he looked inside the magazine. He was even more amazed that he was able to manifest the magazine with a full chamber of bullets.
He guessed that, since he had already manifested that part and they were the easiest to imagine, he had great ease adding it to another part of the gun.
Chase repeated this method of manifestation for about another ten rounds. He manifested the slide, the grip, the muzzle, until he had a full handgun. It was a replica of RoboCop's handgun since that is what he was looking at the whole time.
The only problem was that it was in pieces.
"Ah… I thought this would be easier." Chase said. He scratched his head, trying to find a solution to his problem.
"It's not like I'm some Marine…" Chase's exclamation of defeat turned into his second A-ha moment of the day. Chase turned to the stack of VHS tapes and started looking through it.
"Jeez.. Where was it…" Chase stopped at one towards the bottom and pulled it out.
A copy of Full Metal Jacket was held in his hand.
Chase quickly put it in the television's VHS slot and sped through the first few scenes. He looked intently at the screen, looking for something.
"Got it!" Chase paused on a scene depicting two of the Marine characters practicing putting their rifle together. He thought that it was close enough to learn something from.
He replayed the actions the characters took, just with his futuristic pistol instead of the classic rifle.
After about an hour of trial, error, and playing the scene back over and over again, Chase was able to put together his first gun.
He didn't allow himself to celebrate just yet as he didn't know if he had actually assembled it right, or if he had even manifested the parts correctly.
In a spur of the moment decision, Chase decided to go out to the courtyard to test out his weapon by shooting it into the air.
Chase took his gun, putting it in the waistband of his pants, and left his room, starting the walk towards the courtyard.
Chase walked past the gymnasium, peaking into the windows to see what was going on.
Bloom seemed to be teaching Amora some kind of breathing technique. And to his surprise, the three boys and Alex had joined them as they cooled off from their heated training.
"Perfect." Chase thought. That would mean he had the courtyard to himself.
Chase continued his walk towards the courtyard until he opened the doors that lead straight to it. He walked as close to the center as he could without having the willow tree's leaves cover the area above him.
Chase took a deep breath.
"Here goes nothing." Chase pointed his gun into the air, making sure he wouldn't hit the compound's walls by accident.
Chase pulled the trigger. A single gunshot was heard. Chase was surprised. He looked at the gun for any signs of damage, but there was none.
Chase put his fist in the air victoriously. He had wanted to get in a situation to hit that pose since he and his friends watched Breakfast Club back at the Frewin's.
After a few seconds of victory posing, an alarm went off. Chase stumbled back in surprise.
"Are the Correctional Forces here?" Chase thought to himself. The alarm blared as he waited for the rudimentary intercom the compound had to tell the residents what was happening.
Chase's heart sank as he thought about the violence that might be right on the horizon. He hadn't gotten to master his Mode at all, how would he protect is friends against the Correctional Forces?
Chase grabbed his chest as he began to hyperventilate.
"Stay on alert. A single gunshot has been heard somewhere in the compound. Be ready for an attack." Jessica's voice came over the intercom.
Chase's face of dread turned into one of shameful realization.
"Alex is gonna kick my ass." Chase thought to himself. He frowned and curled into a ball under the willow tree, hoping no one would see him.
Bloom sped through the courtyard doors in a blur as she stopped next to the curled up Chase.
"There you are. I got so scared when you weren't in your room. What are you doing here? Let's get somewhere safe. Your friends are all hiding in the gymnasium-" Bloom's worried rambling stopped as she saw Chase's futuristic pistol and the frown on his face.
Bloom's worried look twisted into a look that screamed "You've gone and done it, now.".
Bloom grabbed Chase's ear and dragged him by it as she made her way towards the gymnasium.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow." Chase's whining stayed constant the whole way through the halls.
Bloom opened the doors to the gymnasium, where Alex was going over the safety preparations with the rest of the kids.
Bloom let go of Chase's ear, stared at Alex and pointed towards Chase, still holding the gun. Alex got the message.
"Let's go tell everyone it's safe." Alex sighed as she picked Chase up from his collar.
"I'm sorry." Chase whined as he, Alex, and Bloom saw themselves out of the gymnasium.
The rest of the kids turned to each other, letting their anxious panic over the alarm subside. As it did, the teens began to burst out into laughter.
Amora chuckled, but she felt a sense of happiness grow inside as she realized something.
"If Chase was holding a gun, then that means…" Amora smiled to herself as she realized Chase's training must have gone well.
Bloom sighed at her, and Alex walked down the hallway towards the intercom's room. Chase was still being dragged by his collar.
"Even though you did something that stupid, I'm glad your training worked." Bloom let out a slight smile, trying not to give Chase the idea that he was being let off of any blame.
"What movies did you end up watching?" Alex became genuinely curious since Bloom had told her about Chase's training when she got back to the gymnasium.
Chase grinned to himself without making it obvious.
"No, I can't… But I really want to… But I'm in trouble… But it's the perfect setup…" Chase contemplated his decision before finally answering Alex.
"Well, there were a couple good ones. I watched RoboCop, Full Metal Jacket, and this one indie flick called A Love Letter to Alex." Chase's words made both girls' faces go pale.
"You didn't…" Alex looked at Bloom.
"I don't really know who the person reading the poem was, but it seemed like the two main characters really loved each other." Chase played dumb as Bloom's eyes widened.
"It was only on for a couple seconds! It just so happened to end up in the stack of VHS tapes Milo had." Bloom chuckled nervously as she fidgeted with her fingers.
"MILO HAD IT?!" Alex asked in complete embarrassment.
"I'm going to our room. Goodnight." Alex sped walked off in shame.
"Wait! Babe!" Bloom followed her.
Chase got up from his dragged position and wiped off his clothes. He looked around to see if anyone saw that interaction. After making sure the coast was clear, he walked back to the gymnasium and acted like nothing happened.
Once Chase got back to the gym, he witnessed the end of his friends' laughing fits.
"What's so funny?" Chase furrowed his brow.
"You!" Akilah's laughter began to pick up again.
"You really took us for a loop, Chase." Vida chuckled.
"You guys are just jealous of my Mode. I get it, you don't have to confess it." Chase crossed his arms and smiled.
"Sure." Hendrix's one word response made the entire group burst into laughter once again.
"Hurry up and catch up to us guys. I want to show you I'm better than you already." Kai chuckled.
"Why only the guys?" Akilah looked over to Kai.
"Oh! I'm sorry for offending you, beautiful. Maybe I can take you out on a date to apologize!" Kai smiled an innocent smile. Akilah couldn't ignore the sincerity of Kai's face, but she faked a gag as the group laughed in response.
Hendrix looked around at his laughing friends and smiled.
"When was the last time I laughed this hard?" Hendrix thought.
He remembered what he was fighting for.