The swishing palm trees provided meagre protection from the blistering sun as they drove into downtown Los Angeles. Buildings stretched to the clouds in various shining colours, as holo-screens waved in between them. Holographic ads for anything from basketball shoes to perfume to the newest android models played on billboards and huge holograms for the large crowds travelling beneath them. As they gazed through the hills, the huge and ancient Hollywood sign peeked from the green hilltops that cascaded to meet the city.

“We’re here!” Eniola exclaimed, gazing at the streets as they rode, autocars driving by them. The streets were filled with different people, including the androids who followed behind their fast-paced, rich owners.

“Let’s look around!” Iris quickly suggested. “The opening ceremony isn’t for a few hours.”

“We have to sign in to the dorms first,” Theo politely shut down. And it was so unfamiliar to Eniola until it wasn’t. Dorms. Players who didn’t live in the hosting city could stay in the SCOPE dormitory for free. They had never lived in dorms as all the competitions they had gone to were in their city.

And there they were, half an hour later, calling their bikes back into the micro-holding of the orbs, looking at the dorms. The bottom was a sleek white dome, and stretching upwards was a colourful tower of red and gold that stretched up to the sky, surrounded by holograms. But it was practically a ghost town, as they were the only ones there. They were either late or early.

Suddenly, the doors slid open, revealing an assistant-droid. A beam of blue light radiated out from its vision and scanning over them. “Welcome, Rogue.”

The assistant-droid came forward, and then its hand morphed into a stamp. It pressed its hand onto Eniola first and left the image of the SCOPE logo; the disk shaped like a crowd of people.

“Hey!” Jay said uneasily. “What is this?”

“They’re used to identify players,” Theo explained, and Eniola saw Jay relax a little.

The android led them through the door, and into a huge huge domed foyer that looked grand inside, then led them through a door that went outside. It suddenly opened into a huge courtyard bustling with players, edged with lush palm trees.

They gathered the crowd of players from all over California toward the front of the courtyard, all bustling with excitement. Eniola’s heart stopped when she recognized teams like Inferno and Omega Riders moving away from the crowd. But most of these people she had not seen yet. Newbies. Some looked young like they were 11 or 12, but then she noticed some older players who looked to be pushing 30. Some people noticed Rogue, but most congregated among themselves.

“Everybody, start weeding out the competition,” Theo reminded them, and Eniola began. She could practically sniff out rookies. Young, giddy and excited, but also with a hint of nervousness. But it took one to know one. She took her cell phone out and pointed her camera at them. In a second, the stats of certain players began popping up. Most were rookies and had been playing for just a season or two, but some for a few seasons and had just won the qualifiers. These people came from many places all over California. Eniola scanned the crowd, looking for a particular person, then turned the camera off. Iris, however, seemed to be uber-focused on the crowds, looking like she was soaking in the presence of everyone. Then Eniola remembered that this girl’s brain was half-computer. She could store information technologically.

“What have you found?” Eniola whispered up to her.

“Lots of these people are really good,” she said to her, still observing. “They are crazy good!”

“Woah!” Eniola said, observing a newly formed team called the Black Infinity. “70 all-player wins just this season!” That was crazy good.

“Hey, Iris!” Theo called quietly. “Find out what crack they’re smoking!” They all burst out laughing.

“How many do we have?” Jay asked.

“56,” Eniola replied to him, ignoring the fact that it was only on four-player terms. Technically, it was zero. Jay joined like two days ago. It wasn’t a small number, and it was good for a small team like Rogue. But if most of the official teams and the fantastic independent teams were pushing 80, 90, and even 100, they needed to be much higher to even stand a chance.

“If we can find out their strengths and weaknesses, we can use them,” Theo said. The problem was, most of these teams were good. Great. At this rate, they were going to have to watch every team.

Suddenly, everything paused and went quiet. Then the world fizzed like it was moving in between realities. And for a split second, Eniola swore she saw a figure in dark green. Just like she saw in San Francisco.

Eniola blinked right before the familiar loudness came back to her again. Everything was just as it was supposed to be. It must’ve been vertigo. Eniola was tired from the long journey.

The door to the dorms slid open, and everyone began pouring in.

“We have room 42,” Theo explained. “We should be on the top level since there are 10 rooms per level.” Eniola counted 10 elevators, which were all being used, and eventually, they got into one. It was transparent, letting you see everything. Eniola gulped as it ascended rapidly to the top.

The elevator stopped at their level, and everyone inside poured off to their own dorms. Things looked irregular. Instead of straight corridors, the rooms were in random parts of the level like a maze. The floors were all clear, and Eniola could see all the way down through the other levels, and when she looked out, could see how high they were above the city. Eniola gulped again and turned away, trying not to look down. Just don’t look down. She convinced herself the floors would not break.

“How are we going to find our dorms?” Lucia said, scanning the room. “This place is like a maze.”

“Wait, I can download the layout,” Iris said, and her brain was scanning. “This way.”

“I don’t like the floors.” Eniola trembled. “Let’s find our rooms as quickly as we can.” Eniola latched onto Lucia’s arm and held on for dear life, only to become confused when this arm didn’t feel like Lucia and she saw Lucia on the other side of Theo who was on the other side of Iris.

She mentally cursed, eyes flying up to Jay, who seemed unfazed yet entertained by her sudden clinginess.

“Oh god,” Eniola said, flustered, quickly breaking away before Jay pulled her back.

“It’s fine,” he said, with a teasing glint in his eye. She looked over at Lucia, who looked like she was having the absolute time of her life. It would never happen. And she wasn’t on his arm because she liked him. They were god knows how many feet up in the air and had a very clear view of it. The floor could just break and she’d fall through and be done for.

People always joked about her fear of heights and always suggested she was afraid of heights because she was so short. How original.

But that didn’t change the fact that her heart broke into a dance number as she looked into his deep brown eyes.

Snap out of it, she yelled at herself in her mind. Be normal.

After her whole mental dilemma, Rogue began walking, trying to figure out the maze of tunnels so that they could get to their dorm with Iris partly guiding them, but even she looked confused. Eniola still held on to Jay’s arm as they navigated the tunnels, passing by different numbered rooms that were decidedly not in order.

They finally reached 46, and Theo scanned his wrist tattoo, making the doors slide open. As they entered, a mini screen sitting on a table glowed to life. “Welcome, Rogue, to your complimentary dorm,” it announced in the crisp voice that came with every android. “These well-equipped and spacious dorms are for you to share. This includes two bathrooms, two bedrooms, a kitchen, a lounge area, and a balcony.”

It paused and continued. “Your wrist stamp can also be scanned and used as the key to your room and all the games at the arena during the Championships. When you get eliminated, the stamp will transform into general admission in one day, leaving you time to pack.”

“There’s more. These panels on the side of the primary building are solar panels that power unlimited Wi-Fi and electricity. The dorms also include a gym, a spa, a pool, a training centre, a lounge area, and a map has been sent to you.”

“They make this place sound heavenly,” Jay suddenly whispered into her ear, as the front of his lips accidentally brushed onto a small part of her ear. Eniola froze.

The assi-droid closed. “Please enjoy your stay, but follow the rules.”

Then it came in a blow-by-blow list. No smoking, keep the place clean, if you break it you buy it, no spying on other teams, and all that jazz. There’s also a curfew for underage players at midnight and you have to check-in.

“That’s like what I had with my sister,” Lucia groaned. “If we want to have a girls’ night out, it will have to be girls’ afternoon out.” That’s much later than she ever hoped her parents would give her, so Eniola didn’t complain.

She observed, and the lounge area looked fine. There was a big holo-screen in the middle of the room, like in those old movie theatres people used to go to. Lines of blue plasma lights ran across the ceiling and into the rest of the dorm.

Their compact living room started with a cream-coloured couch and a few bean bags arranged around the floor, with a stark white table in the middle with potted plants and five consoles. Eniola scrunched her feet in the soft carpet covering the floor. The large window panels gave them a stellar view of the entire city bathed in the golden evening light

On the other side was a kitchen, with a steel island surrounded by five chairs. Eniola hauled her half-empty cooler over and pressed the button that slid open the fridge. She stocked the fridge with the remaining meals.

They walked down the hallway, splitting into two rooms on either side of the hallway. It was a coincidence because the room the girls chose has three bed capsules all neatly made. Two were on the ground, while it was attached to the wall above one of them.

Lucia immediately dove for the single bed and sprawled out like a starfish. “This one is mine,” she immediately announced.

“Hey, we didn’t even get to choose!” Iris exclaimed.

“I’m 17, the oldest,” she said, claiming that as her evidence. Eniola took the top and Iris took the bottom. A door was in the corner, and out of curiosity, she slid it open, only to find a basic bathroom. There was one shower on the side, a toilet, and a sink. Eniola wondered how this was going to work for the three of them but she figured they’d know once they got to that point. They’d begun unpacking when the door practically flew open.

A house-droid wheeled into their room. It looked just like Bola, except its exterior was pink and it had been given makeshift pink pigtails.

“My name is Wendy,” it—she—introduced herself. “I’ll be Rogue’s house-droid for your stay. Please enjoy yourself. I will take it from here and unpack your stuff.” She waited there patiently as they scrammed out and let Wendy take over.

“We get our house-droid,” Lucia gushed. “They practically treat us like royalty here.”

“They do,” Eniola agreed.

“So,” Lucia began slowly. “You and Jay, huh?” she said suggestively, raising her eyebrows. Eniola opened his eyes wide in shock.

“No, no, no,” Eniola stammered. “I was scared. We’re like tons of feet up in the air.”

“Okay,” she said, still not convinced. “You guys just act so damn shippable.”

“We don’t,” Eniola argued, raising her hands in protest.

“Yes, you do!” She smiled.

They emerged in the living room where Theo and Jay had already made themselves comfortable looking at the netscreen showing an action scene from some anime, which she then recognized as Sailor Moon. What made it weird was that they both seemed to have memorized the words and recited them with emotion and integrity as if they were sacred.

Eniola realized her parents would combust if they knew she was staying in the same place as boys. They would combust if they knew what she was doing in general. However, they would probably spend most of their free time inside hanging out, unless Theo and Lucia wanted to do something. She hoped they didn’t.

“This show is ancient,” Iris said. “It’s from like 50 years ago.”

“And still iconic?” Theo put out.

“Amen,” Jay responded to him.

Lucia threw a couch pillow at them and knocked them out of their trance. “Come on, weebs, we have a championship to go and win.”