Eniola was not floating in the vast expanse of space for a long stretch of time.

Instead, her body struck a soft surface as she crashed-landed from the weird portal that Zaira had created from Enigma. She groaned as she rolled over and faced the stars. It reminded her of the days when she'd have to do espionage in order to play SCOPE.

Eniola wasn't the only one. Everyone fell beside her at just the right time. Zaira sprung up immediately as if this was just another normal Tuesday for her. Lucia groaned next to her as she rolled over, too. Iris didn't seem fazed at all as she sat up with a blank expression on her face. Maybe there's some sort of cyborg anti-crash landing protection thing.

Jay landed flat on his face and Eniola thought it was funny, only after she moved and breathed. He rolled over and sighed, and Theo, like Zaira, gained a random burst of energy and stood up with Zaira.

Everyone looked dazed yet so stressed and sad at the same time. Eniola's heart was still feeding off the adrenaline of the night as she sat up. Eniola registered where they were. They were on some grass, tucked into the corner of a tall building in a high-profile district. How had they gotten here?

"Where the hell do we go?" Jay asked. "And what just happened?"

"Paradox tricked us," Lucia said, looking into space, before standing up. "And we just caused a break-in we didn't cause."

"Surely we can explain?" Iris mentioned. "Right?"

"Yeah," Eniola haphazardly agreed. "There's probably not any footage of us entering the building."

"We have to leave," Zaira said, ignoring them. "It's not safe anymore for you or for me. We're right outside the building. We have to move somewhere."

"We shouldn't do anything drastic," Iris began, cutting her off. "We have to think this through. Maybe the cops will let us explain and-

"Look!" Zaira yelled, over to the bright street corner filled with holo-screens that had only blurred into focus now. Eniola's hand immediately flew to her mouth.

This holo-screen wasn't trying to sell anyone a nose job or anything. All 5 of their faces, all 5 of their passport photos, were all projected on the screen for everyone to see above their names. But that's not what got Eniola. It was the "WANTED" text in red that made her jump. How quick were they?

Her heart sank. Physically sank. It was like someone had twisted adrenaline too slowly, yet made her heart erratic with feelings she couldn't even describe. All 5 of them were there. They were 'WANTED'. In a country, Eniola had barely been in.

Eniola broke her gaze away. Everyone's eyes were now glued to the screen, accusing them of something that they had never done. Zaira's face was still frozen in fascinated horror. Jay and Theo wore blank expressions on their faces. Lucia kept her widened gaze glued to the ground. A tear dropped from Iris's cheek.

It was because of Paradox.

"See?" Zaira strained. "They are going to find us, and Paradox is going to get away. We have to leave South Korea. Now."

"Where will we go?" Eniola asked. "The airports are closed and not to mention, we're wanted now." Eniola took in deep breaths, but her stomach pained with rising stress, ready to carve its way all over her body. How was this happening? She dug a hand into her curls and held them there.

Theo kept on tapping his foot on the ground, and his tongue darted to the corners of his mouth. He ran a hand through his brown hair.

Eniola gulped. Theo was always the last to crack. It was his leader persona everyone, but he knew he put on. And it was cracking. Lucia leaned into him before he put his arm around her.

"Guys we have to go!" Zaira stressed. "Chances are, the military is just down the street and ready to arrest us."

But where? Eniola didn't say it out loud. They had one option. The dorms. And that was probably the first place someone was going to look.

"I have an idea," Jay said out of the blue. Eniola turned to him. She thought he'd never been here before. How would he know a place? She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Follow me," he said, standing up, but no one matched his weird enthusiasm, instead they gave him a look of skepticism.

And so they went.

They followed Jay like he was their guide into the dark night. Eniola prayed he knew what he was doing. The only thing that lit their way was the holo-boards that had already got the news of their break-in. Eniola swallowed dryly. They all changed into what looked like an impromptu newscast to Eniola. They glued her eyes to the screen. A lady perfectly symmetrical in the face takes up the screen and does some cliche introduction Eniola was too dazed and muddled to listen to. Only she walked forward, leaning into Lucia.

"5 members of the SCOPE USA team have been revealed to be Matrix Man and have been caught stealing confidential cyber-security from the head Cyber-Security office in Seoul at almost midnight. The authorities have not taken them in as searches continue," the lady on the screen said. She's perfectly calm, unlike the rest of them.

"Stay forward. We need to move quickly," Theo reminded, as Jay led them through the chilly night. The streets were practically empty this time, but that didn't mean everyone was home. There were search parties out by now, waiting to pounce on them.

Eniola lost count of where they were going. She guessed the place was close, but Jay had them in unique twists and turns to avoid meeting authorities and to throw people off. They separated into groups, just in case anyone suspected a group taking a casual walk in the night and then met again at certain paths before they separated. They had gone from the inner-city and into fewer metropolis-type areas that had dingy alleyways and damp roads.

Eniola wanted to feel tired, but that fear and uncertainty only trickled down her spine and left a sense of impending doom lingering over her replaced. Paradox had got them into all of this, and this could cost them everything. She didn't even know where they would be going. She didn't know why Jay had made them walk through the night. And she wanted to know.

Then they stopped after they emerged from yet another alleyway, onto the side of a side road in an industrial area. A barbed wire separated Eniola and her friends from an abundance of cars. Or at least cars adjacent. She raised an eyebrow.

There were what looked like autocars. Some had their headlights or their windows smashed out or had the paint and steel eaten away by rust. They tattooed some in graffiti while some were stacked on top of each other in huge piles. They all looked really old, even like the first models of autocars.

"What are we doing here?" Theo asked.

"I heard about an abandoned used car lot in Seoul and I didn't remember it until an hour ago," Jay revealed. "This is going to be our way of Seoul."

"These cars are broken," Theo said, looking at the cars as they passed through an open entrance onto dirt floors as they entered the array of cars. Some looked like they could explode on contact.

"It's mostly a junkyard, but I think we can find some gems here," Jay said. "We're going to find a car, fix it up and drive away to Beijing."

"Hold up, why Beijing?" Lucia asked suddenly. "We haven't even come up with an escape plan."

"It's a good place to hide. There are lots of people, so we can blend in." Jay said as stress laced his voice. He walked ahead of all of them before he stopped in front of a clunky black auto-van.

"It's of good quality," Jay revealed. "Iris, can you find a blueprint of this? Can you scan it or something? I'm sure this model isn't too old."

"Of course," she said hesitantly, as her eye moved side to side. He stopped as a holographic image of a blueprint of a car projected out of her eye.

"Thanks," he said. "Zaira, I need some tools and parts. Can your synthetic atoms do that?"

Zaira took out her computer before programming away.

"Since when do you know anything about cars?"

"I took some mechanical classes in high school," he admitted. "But before that, I've always been interested in them and I did it as a hobby. I'd never thought I'd need it." Eniola simply nodded.

"I'd never thought he'd know how to do this," Lucia mentioned to her. "What else do you think he's good at?"

"Making out," Eniola said without hesitation. Lucia snorted.

"What do we do?" Theo asked. "I don't like standing around."

"Someone needs to watch out at the door," Jay said. "And I need help." He looked at Eniola with an eyebrow raised.

"Fine," she caved in, before moving over towards the van.

"If we yell cake, get the hell out of here," Theo said, and Jay nodded. Theo and Lucia went to the front of the entrance and watched out in the night.

Eniola couldn't help but feel as if all these invisible eyes were on her, ready to report all of them. Unease pooled in her stomach. As of now, she was a fugitive. A vagabond of the law. She was in the same category as Kain now.

She grimaced at the thought.

A line of tools Eniola didn't recognize suddenly materialized in a perfect line just before Jay. He thanked Zaira.

"Don't mention it," Zaira said, before the computer collapsed in on itself, before shifting into a black pendant. Zaira looped it around her neck and tucked it into her shirt. Jay got to work on the car immediately, which Eniola watched intensely for reasons that didn't relate to the well-being of the car, and wondered if he'd know what she was doing. She liked him when he focused intensely on each inner working of the van. She bit down on her lip before dragging it back.

It wasn't completely busted up, but some parts needed to be replaced and fine-tuned because they did this thing called "rusting over". But Zaira took care of making the additional parts, and Eniola helped by handing him tools and continuing to watch intensely.

"When will it be ready?" she asked, straining her ears to hear a loud saying of cake.

"Soon," Jay admitted, pulling out from the front with some grease on his face. It had definitely been a long while since they were here. Eniola didn't realize the nerves had distorted her sense of time.

"You have something," Eniola said, smiling.

He looked at his face through the car's exterior before groaning and quickly wiping it off his face.

"How are we going to get to China?" Eniola asked.

"I've found a back road that connects to 3 countries," Iris explained. "It's our best bet if we want to get to China without being detected."

"Everyone gather around," Jay yelled, and everyone did, observing the car.

It was in way better shape than it was a couple of hours ago. Black paint had covered the sleek black interior, and the wheels and windows were more intact than they had always been. Jay really did something.

"So now, we see if it will work," Jay said, before hitting the exterior of the car, popping it open into a slide. So it was very rusty if it didn't open automatically.

Jay climbed into the car and into the front seat before looking down and toggling with some unseen things. The car's engine ignited soon after that.

He popped his head out. "It works."

Everyone exchanged a glance with one another before hesitantly moving into the car like it was going to explode on contact. Eniola climbed in to see 4 three gray and crusty-looking seats stretched out across the car in rows. It smelled musty.

It looked cold and desolate, just like everyone else was.

Eniola took a seat right next to Jay, toggling with the blue holo-screens floating above the dash and the one placed in front of the window. Eniola tried to understand, but she couldn't. She still held onto faith that Jay actually knew what he was doing.

"Hey," he said quickly before going back to the screens. Eniola nodded not too long ago.

"Can they track us?" Zaira asked from the seat in the back.

"I don't think so," Jay said. "I took out the tracking parts, so I don't think they'll find us."

"Then let's hit the road, Yoony," Theo said semi-enthusiastically.

"Ok," Jay said before the screens shifted into 2 different circles. He spun his fingers around on them and the car lurched in motion.

"Are you..." Eniola began, squinting. "Driving?"

He sighed. "When I took out the tracking, somehow it messed with the automatic part, so I had to either manually drive this thing or we would get caught."

"Suddenly I don't feel safe," Lucia said.

"We were never safe before when we battled police androids and encountered Paradox," Zaira said. "Let's just go. Every time we stay further, the more likely the authorities will be on our tail."

"Sending over directions now," Iris told before the screen in front of Jay pinged with a location.

Jay slid his fingers more, which was slow and steady at first. That was the opposite of what they needed to be right now. Suddenly, the van bumped, which sent Eniola jumping in her seat. She gripped onto the side of the doors and snapped her gaze towards Jay.

"I thought you said you could drive!" Zaira said louder, more annoyed than scared. She said what Eniola was already going to say.

"I said I could try," Jay corrected. "There's a difference!"

"Did you know teenagers back then always used to see driving as some rite of passage?" Iris informed randomly.

"Cool," Eniola replied, before Jay spun the car in a jagged motion, as everyone moved to one side abruptly, hitting the side of the car.

Eniola felt another jolt rock her in her seat, before looking backward. Jay was driving away from the barbed fence. She mentally cursed. Someone was going to find them.

Jay lurched forward before zig-zagging out of the car lot haphazardly. Eniola gripped on further as they moved out onto the road, where their faces were still projected.

"I said not to kill us!" Lucia yelled, but in response, Jay kept acting like they were going to kill them. He jaggedly drove between neat rows of autocars, as Eniola's heart lurched like the car. As Jay continued his haphazard driving through the roads of neat autocars. Surely someone would notice a supposed autocar veering down the road.

Eventually, it seemed like Jay seemed to get controlled, but she couldn't take chances. She never let go from the side of the car. They had left the glowing building and holo-screens in downtown Seoul and favoured more back roads and side rows the GPS led them to and the glowing road signs above. It filled them with fewer holo-screens that, of course, showed their wanted photos. Panic rose through her chest. Getting to the edge of Seoul would take a long time, and getting to China would take even longer.

Eniola wanted to relax but just couldn't. Everything had changed now. They were wanted fugitives who the world would soon know, escaping in a car that barely worked and by a driver that barely knew how to drive and going to a place they didn't know the reason they were going to.

Eniola looked at Jay before sighing again and looking away. How did she feel tired, yet so electrified at the same time? She was like a dimming bulb that randomly regained bursts of light. She looked back at everyone, who wore the same blank expressions.

Taking down Paradox wouldn't be easy, but Eniola couldn't help but feel like someone had thrown a sack of burdens at her to weigh her down. And despite her efforts, could not remove it.