Locked in

After three or four pained tries, Ms. O'Neill, under Lucas's full control, seems to give up. "It's stuck, it's not going to budge. How the hell does it even attach?"

Principal Iverson held his hand out for Anne to calm down. "Alright, Lucas, let's just take a breath." Anne did take a deep breath; James couldn't help but wonder whose breath that really was in this case. It's Miss O'Neill's lungs, but if Luke's in full control, is it his nerves in that body? Or was the panic being driven by the beautiful teacher subjected to a student's full control?

Like a good inquisitive student, James had already grabbed the manual booklet for the Ascend V5, flipping rapidly through it. "Says here... it's a powerful static cling that holds it to you, from hundreds of these little metal beads on the inside. Once charged, it's a passive effect, so it works even when the unit loses power, but it says here the headset should disengage when you pull it from the bottom like you were doing." James flipped to a troubleshooting section. "Okay, so... unit won't come off, blah blah... try to disengage multiple times, yeah, did that... okay, so it says there might be a faulty relay between the detection circuitry for the unlock mechanism. A Hideki representative is needed to reset the relay in person, call a number and schedule an appointment. Wait time is usually between five and seven business days."

Anne frowned, and slumped in a chair. "I take it back, this plan sucks. So now the mask is stuck on our chemistry teacher for a week, which is a week I won't get back for this grade stuff!"

"Now, now, hold on." Principal Iverson took the manual from James, thumbing through it himself. "There's still hope, Lucas. James will probably just have to bring you homework for a week in person, and then we'll delay things a bit longer. Ah, here we go, is Miss O'Neill in there with you? Mentally, that is. You should be able to hear an internal voice while her thoughts are re-routed to a sort of virtual space."

Anne shook her head. "No, nothing. She's dormant, sir. Can I just disconnect now and then she's stuck with the mask for a while?"

The principal flipped through a few pages to see what that might mean as far as troubleshooting goes, and his face paled. "I wouldn't recommend that. It seems like there's something defective about the unit if it's set her fully ****. If you disconnect, your teacher will be fully comatose until Hideki can fix it. For her sake, Lucas, you need to stay connected. I know you're on intravenous nutrients, so you could at least remain connected to her longer term."

An even more distraught Anne dug her fingers into her hair in shock. "No... this is like a nightmare, James, this is insane! Figure something out!"

Despite James being a smart student, he was no Hideki engineer, and this wasn't like rebooting a router or fixing his grandfather's computer with a hundred viruses on it. "Sorry man, I don't know. It sounds like you're Miss O'Neill for the week." When the principal set the manual down to think, James picked it back up, again looking through the pages. "Warning: do not use with makeup with conductive metal ingredients, as this can disrupt normal functionality in multiple systems. That sounds like a good culprit for these problems..." James quickly checked his phone for makeup ingredients while Anne slumped further, looking like she was melting into her chair with each passing minute and each bit of news that sounded worse than the last. "Foundation might have zinc oxide, which is also a transparent conductive material like what might be found in solar cells."

It explained everything, but didn't offer much by way of a solution.

Principal Iverson slammed a fist into the palm of his other hand as he had a moment of inspiration. "The tandem mode! I saw that when glancing through the manual. If we can maybe boot up the AscendOS on the system, maybe we could make this work by routing some of Lucas's mind through Miss O'Neill's own consciousness, so it's sort of like him guiding her behaviors. If that works, then I can temporarily reassign her to a sort of 'special audit' of the classes Mr. Grisham is taking. I have the teachers occasionally take tests and do homework alongside students to make sure teachers are giving out fair assignments. A weeklong classroom audit schedule, with Lucas providing the answers via this tandem mode while outwardly it's Miss O'Neill's personality, might be strange but I'll accept those grades as his own."

Anne and James stared at Mr. Iverson. Was he serious? While there was no way to know that this would even work if Anne's mind was **** at the start, the principal wasn't just handing the keys to Anne's body over to Lucas this way--he was handing Anne herself over! James realized this, his face blushing at the idea of an Anne-puppet with an eighteen year old boy pulling the strings, but he said nothing.

That nothing was just enough for the principal to make the decision to proceed. "AscendOS override protocol Doll mode, passcode 1234."

Anne's body suddenly sat straight up, as her face relaxed, and then morphed into a solid screen with various settings floating along it. James jumped back in surprise--it was like he was staring at some sexy red-headed robot now! Mr. Iverson wasted no time in seeking through the settings, poking and prodding at the mask on Anne's face. "Where do I... ah, this must be it. No, is it? Maybe this one."

With both Luke and Anne ****, James would have been the ideal one to figure out the settings, instead of Mr. Iverson. James tried to point out a few settings on occasion, but he was shot down by the principal who seemed intent on remaining the authority in the room. "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I got it. I've set it to Tandem Mode, with seventy percent influence on behaviors and cognition by Mr. Grisham, so that way the thirty percent of Miss O'Neill could still make proper decisions related to things outside the classroom. I'm leaving her awareness off, so you're not to say a word to Anne when she awakens, understood Mr. Hunter?" James nodded silently, and the principal smiled, feeling like he'd steered this ship through a storm successfully. "Good, then it's settled. Your friend will still be in there, it'll probably just be a bit different for how you interact with them for a while. Just be patient with them."

After fiddling with a few more settings to ensure that this strange mix of teacher and student would function seamlessly, with any luck at least, Principal Iverson stood back. "AscendOS exit Doll mode." And all James and the principal could do was wait.