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Ralph tiptoed down from the loft. He couldn’t sleep, all he could think about was the level of the game he was on and he was sure he’d finally figured it out. The problem was he wasn’t supposed to play the game without Walter, or someone else from Scorpion watching him since it was on the Dark Web, and after what happened with Overt Target he wasn’t allowed to use the Dark Web without Scorpion supervision. Normally when he was sleeping over at the loft and couldn’t sleep, he would just wake up Walter, since Walter never minded if he woke him, especially for intellectual pursuits. However, his mum had grounded him from the internet after she’d caught him playing the game without Walter or anyone else from Scorpion to monitor him. It was just such a good game, a really tricky game. He had learned his lesson; he didn’t talk to anyone about it, but it was a hacking and coding game and he was learning so much.
He got down to the main floor and went over to Walter’s laptop, sliding it off Walter’s desk and tucking it under his arm to carry it back up to what had become his bedroom for when he stayed with Walter. He climbed back into bed and logged on to Walter’s laptop, he was the only one on the team allowed Walter’s passwords and to know how to get onto his laptop because Walter trusted him. He was only going to play the next level, the one he’d been stuck on and trying hard to figure out a solution in his head for, that was all, just the one level and then he’d put Walter’s laptop back and go to sleep.
Getting back on the Dark Web was easy, especially on Walter’s laptop as it was set up specifically for it. Ralph quickly found the game, but had to start from the beginning, he was sure it wouldn’t take him long to get back to the level he’d been stuck on though. He almost lost himself in the game, but a sudden noise pulled his concentration. He stopped what he was doing as the light came on outside his room. Slowly, carefully, he shut down Walter’s laptop and closed it, sliding it under his pillow and shifting back down in his bed so he could pretend to be asleep.
Listening nervously he tried to figure out what Walter was doing and why he was awake, if Scorpion had gotten a call then Walter would need his laptop and then Ralph knew he’d be in big trouble. He didn’t want Walter to be mad at him. He looked up to Walter more than he’d ever looked up to anyone and Walter’s opinion of him meant everything to him. Tears welled up in his eyes as he shut them tight and willed Walter to just go back to bed. As soon as he did, Ralph was going to put the laptop back and he would just wait until he was ungrounded to do the level, this was stupid.
His door bursting open made him jump and let out a noise of surprise, completely ruining his attempt to hide that he was even awake from Walter. He didn’t know how he was going to hide that he’d been on Walter’s laptop if Walter was going to tell him that Scorpion had gotten a call and had an emergency to deal with.
“Ralph! You’re okay. Good. You need to stay here. Someone broke in and stole my laptop. I don’t know how or why, but we need to stay here, in this room, because I don’t know if whoever broke in is still here. I’m going to call Cabe, and he’s going to come here and make sure no one else is here. Don’t worry. Everything is going to be fine,” Walter said in a rush, not really looking at Ralph.
Ralph watched Walter open up his phone. He couldn’t let Walter call Cabe, not when he knew no one had broken in. “Walter, wait,” he whispered.
“Everything will be fine, Ralph. Trust me,” Walter assured him.
“Don’t call Cabe. I- no one broke in,” Ralph murmured. He shifted up in bed and reached under his pillow, pulling out Walter’s laptop.
Walter looked at the laptop, an almost uncomprehending look on his face. “Ralph?”
“I figured out the solution to the level of the game I was stuck on, or I think I did. I just wanted to see if I was right,” Ralph admitted. He couldn’t look at Walter as he spoke, instead looking at the top of the closed laptop. When Walter didn’t say anything for a long minute Ralph turned his head slightly to look at him. Walter looked like he did when he was presented with a new puzzle and he was trying to work it out.
“This game, is it the one your mum found you playing when you shouldn’t have been? The one on the Dark Web? The one your mum grounded you for playing without supervision from an adult member of Scorpion?” Walter asked, his tone blank.
Ralph’s eyes shined with tears as he nodded guiltily.
“Why did you do this, Ralph? We set up the rules together and you agreed to them. You know the Dark Web is dangerous now. That’s why we set up the rules we have so you can still go on it, but safely,” Walter asked.
“I just wanted to test my solution to the level,” Ralph explained. He looked back down at Walter’s laptop, the guilt feeling heavy in his stomach. “I’m really sorry, Walter. Please don’t be mad at me,” he whispered.
“I’m not mad, Ralph. I understand wanting to immediately test a theory you’ve come up with, but you have to be as safe as you can whilst you test them. You weren’t safe and you broke the rules. Plus your mum said you were grounded from using computers, specifically for playing that game when you weren’t supposed to, that was very disrespectful” Walter stated. He ran a hand over his face, clearly thinking.
Ralph dropped his head lower as a tear dripped down his cheek. Walter saying he’d been unsafe and disrespectful made him feel even more guilty.
Walter was silent for a long minute, just looking at Ralph. “Grounding you from using computers was clearly not a sufficient deterrent to prevent you from breaking the rules put in place to protect you. You need a stronger deterrent to provide adequate incentive not to use the Dark Web without myself or another adult member of Scorpion with you.”
Ralph looked up at Walter anxiously, more tears dripping down his cheeks. “I really am sorry, Walter.”
Walter nodded, “I do not doubt that you are remorseful, Ralph. That does not change the fact that you were grounded from using computers by your mum and broke that grounding, or the fact that you broke the Dark Web usage rules, which are in place for your protection and to keep you safe, again, when you had already been punished for breaking those rules.” He paused, looking like he was carefully considering his next words, coming to some kind of decision. He nodded to himself before looking directly at Ralph. “I am going to spank you to provide you with an efficient incentive to avoid repeating this rule breaking again.” He crossed over to the bed and sat on it, patting his lap. “You need to come and lay over my lap,” he instructed.
Ralph had been spanked a few times by his mum, when she felt he’d done something particularly naughty, and since becoming a member of Scorpion he’d also been spanked by Cabe a couple times when he’d done something dangerous. But had never even been told off by Walter before, always praised and encouraged. The fact that Walter felt he needed a spanking, hit Ralph hard. More tears ran down his cheeks as he got out from under the covers and crawled across the bed to put himself over Walter’s lap. He wanted to apologise again, but Walter already knew he was sorry, so he just stayed as quiet as he could over his hero’s lap, trying not to start crying before the spanking even started, but unable to help a few tears dripping down his cheeks.
“You are smarter than this Ralph, you are smarter than everyone here at Scorpion, including me. But if you are not safe when you are using the Dark Web, you know how badly that can turn out, and that is not being smart. You do not want to end up in serious trouble again, because that can have very severe and life altering consequences. You could ruin your future. You have unlimited potential, Ralph, who knows what you could achieve once you are grown, but one wrong move when you are on the Dark Web and you could be permanently barred from all online access, which will destroy your future. This is why we have the safety rules in place for you, so you are protected,” Walter scolded.
Ralph cried softly, Walter’s words cutting through him and making him feel even more ashamed of his behavior than he had been. He felt Walter’s hand starting to come down on his pajama clad bottom. He wiggled and squirmed over Walter’s lap as he cried and kicked his legs against the fierce sting Walter was spanking into his bottom.
“You will obey the safety rules regarding the Dark Web and if your mum grounds you from using computers, you will stay off them. Yes, Ralph?” Walter asked.
Ralph nodded his head rapidly. “Yes, Walter! I will!” He promised, crying hard.
Walter brought his hand down two more times on Ralph’s sit spots then stopped and rubbed his back gently. “I believe you Ralph. I believe this to be a sufficient deterrent against breaking the Dark Web safety rules again,” he stated.
Ralph nodded again, “It is, I won’t go on the Dark Web without you or another member of Scorpion to supervise again.” The pain of the knowledge that he’d let Walter down, made the man he looked up to and wanted to be just like feel he needed a spanking, hurting far more than his bottom did, although it did sting. He was never going to break the Dark Web safety rules again, he never wanted to do anything to make Walter feel he needed a spanking again.