Cragbridge Hall, Volume 2: The Avatar Battle

Other Books in the Cragbridge Hall Series
Book 1: The Inventor’s Secret

Text © 2014 Chad Morris
Illustrations © 2014 Brandon Dorman

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Shadow Mountain®, at [email protected]. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of Shadow Mountain.

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This is a work of fiction. Characters and events in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are represented fictitiously.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Morris, Chad, author.
The avatar battle / Chad Morris.
pages cm. — (Cragbridge Hall ; book 2)

Summary: The evil Muns tries to convert Abby into helping him change the history of the world while her and Derick’s grandfather asks Derick to finish a challenge that a trusted teacher was never able to finish.

ISBN 978-1-60907-809-6 (hardbound : alk. paper)
[1. Space and time—Fiction. 2. Boarding schools—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction. 4. Twins—Fiction. 5. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 6. Grandfathers—Fiction.] I. Title. II. Series: Morris, Chad. Cragbridge Hall ; book 2.
PZ7.M827248Av 2014
[Fic]—dc232013038732
Printed in the United States of America
Publishers Printing, Salt Lake City, UT
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my brave daughter.

And to everyone who helped spread the word about
The Inventor’s Secret
when I couldn’t.

1

Gift

Derick pushed his bulky legs forward, running with his head slightly lowered and his two-foot horn leading the way. He barreled ahead, feeling the weight of his steps, the thickness of the skin at the top of his legs rubbing against his tough body. It wasn’t really him, of course. Derick’s real body was hooked up to sensors and straps suspending him from the ceiling in an avatar lab. The high-tech equipment allowed his movements to control the robot avatar. What he did, the rhino did. And what it felt, he felt. It was as though Derick really was a hulking beast.

“11 . . . 10 . . . 9,” Dr. Mackleprank counted down. “You’d better hurry, Derick. You’re doing better than ever, but I’m not sure it will be enough. A real white rhino can run up to thirty miles per hour and Rafa may be able to go that fast.” As the teacher spoke, Derick could hear his classmates cheering him on from behind the viewing window. It was definitely one of the louder days in Zoology. Their yells fueled him to move faster. He knew they were all gathered in one of the large rooms outside the created animal habitat, watching intently. The habitat, complete with trees, boulders, and watering holes, was a place where they could practice being animals. If they studied hard, passed all their tests, and excelled enough with the avatars, they could one day interact and play with the real animals nearby in the school’s zoo.

Derick leaned and rounded a boulder. He could see the tree with two monkeys sitting completely still at its base—the first switch point. He was almost there. But he wanted more than cheers. He wanted to win.

“Three. Two. One. Rafa, go!” Dr. Mackleprank shouted. Derick’s head start was over.

He could hear another rhino bounding forward behind him. He didn’t have time to look. Rafa was fast, extremely fast.

Derick’s rhino skidded to a stop, nearly tumbling over onto the monkeys.

“Careful, Derick,” Dr. Mackleprank’s voice warned over the speaker. The avatars were made to help some of the best students in the world improve, fulfilling Cragbridge Hall’s mission to prepare youth to change the future of the world for the better. And Dr. Mackleprank didn’t want them broken.

Derick guided his mind away from the massive rhino robot and focused on his real human body in the avatar lab. He pressed the button on the back of his neck. His virtual connection with the robot animal severed; the rhino in the practice field fell limp, a huge heavy mound on the dirt. For a moment, Derick looked out of his own human eyes at the simple white walls of one of the booths in the avatar lab. There were no windows. He didn’t need them—the booth was designed for him to connect with an avatar and look out of robot animal eyes. He blinked hard and adjusted the suspension system from holding him horizontally—ideal for moving like a rhino—to holding him in a mostly upright position, compensating for a tail. It was time to be a squirrel monkey.

With the flick of a finger, Derick selected his monkey, Goggles. He had named it that because the white fur around the squirrel monkey’s eyes made it look like it was wearing goggles.

Derick pressed the button on the back of his neck again. After a wave of dizziness, his point of view changed. He looked up at a massive tree towering above him. It was slightly disorienting to see the world from a lower perspective, but he had done it many times before—it was still awesome. He used his small furry hands to dig into the bark and nimbly climb the trunk. He loved the feeling of being so light and limber, a little trapeze artist.

Rafa. The thought nagged at him. Derick was the best at the avatars in his class and maybe his whole grade, but Rafa, the zoology teacher’s assistant, was the best Derick had seen—maybe the best in the school. He was a total prodigy. And he was gaining on him during the last zoology class of the semester—Derick’s final chance to beat him.

Derick ran along a branch and leapt to another—four more trees to cross. He launched himself again. Squirrel monkeys can jump nearly six feet, and Derick could almost match that distance with his avatar.

“Rafa has his monkey,” Dr. Mackleprank announced. “This is his best time yet, Derick. Hurry, but no jumping from the branches to the ground. I don’t want to have to make any more repairs.” Hollers from his classmates nearly drowned out their teacher. Derick found more energy. He could beat Rafa. This would be no different from when he finally beat Jax Carlson at one-on-one basketball, even though Jax was over a year older than him. Or when he conquered the virtual game Mitchell had designed pitting Vikings against a mutant sea monster before even Mitchell did. Derick usually won. At least he used to. He needed this.

Derick shimmied down the final tree. He could hear the soft sounds of branches moving and swaying with the light weight of a monkey behind him. Rafa wouldn’t let up; that was for sure. Derick jumped the last few feet, willing to brave what Dr. Mackleprank might say. He landed next to a gorilla, pushing the button on the back of his neck only a second later. “C’mon, Kong. We can do this,” he spoke to the avatar as he changed perspective once again. Then he was up and running the last leg of the race. Using his long arms and short legs to barrel forward, he heard the grunt of another gorilla behind him. He didn’t have much of a lead after all.

He bounded up a thick metal ladder and swung across the overhead bars of the obstacle course, skipping handholds where he could. On one swing, he caught a glimpse of a black furry shadow close behind him. No. He wouldn’t lose. No more failing. Derick grunted as he hit the ground and raced forward.

Ten feet to go. He used his arms and legs in a fast rhythm across the ground, the gorilla’s raw power pushing him forward. He wouldn’t look back. Five feet. Four. Rafa was nearly even with him. Three. Two. Derick let out a roar and lunged for the finish. One.

Less than a minute later, Derick and Rafa were unhooking their gear and putting it back in its place on the wall. Derick rubbed his hand through his short dark hair, scratching his scalp.

“
Muito bem, rapaz.
” Rafa slapped Derick on the shoulder. He stood a few inches taller than Derick, but he was two grades older as well. A smile crossed the Brazilian’s bronze face.