The car ride was an awkward mess. Eniola sat in the front seat back when drivers had used to sit when cars still needed drivers and sat next to Lucia but barely talked to her, which was rare because they always had something to talk about.

Eniola had tried to sneak a peek at Jay, who spent most of his time looking out of the window, ignoring everyone, but rarely every time she had looked, his gaze landed right on hers, prompting her to turn back swiftly.

By the time they came to the real arena, they walked through the inner alcoves of the SCOPE arena, led by one of Howie’s assi-droids. It seemed empty compared to the whole ALTSCOPE thing that went down. Eniola peeked a glance at Jay as she had for the last half hour. He was still staring out the window. His usually cocky and bold self was quiet after the whole ordeal with the lady.

His mom.

He had called her for the first time and she seemed frazzled like maybe she was drunk and wound up here by accident. But if it was his mom, why had he been so quick to drop her and not acknowledge her like that? What was wrong?

As they arrived, the assi-droid led them down a hallway Eniola had never seen before. Probably because it was hidden off for special people. There were moving photos all over the place showing a whole evolution of SCOPE from former players, pictures of a younger Howie talking to people, and the building of the first SCOPE arena. The one they were in right now.

The assi-droid came to a halt in front of a black door before it slid open. It was pretty empty, except for the screens everywhere. There was an ovular desk that curved around the room, filled with tons of screens and people working behind them. In the front was a set of couches.

“Welcome to my mini-lab slash office,” Howie said, coming out from one corner. Her hair was not in braids but two curled pigtails sitting high on her head. “Take a seat.” She motioned to the couch, and they all did. Eniola stared longer, jaw hanging open and eyes glittering before Lucia pulled her down to a seat.

“Rogue,” Howie addressed them all. “Pleasure seeing you here.”

“Thank you!” Theo said, with a nervous yet excited smile. “Mrs. Huata, why have we been called here?”

“Cut the Mrs,” Howie playfully scoffed. “I’m only Mrs when my wife is around. I’m not into all those formalities. So old-school, right?”

Everyone except Jay nodded at her simultaneously, with wide smiles.

“Okay, Howie,” Theo said, rolling the name off his tongue. “Why are we called here today?”

“Oh, yeah,” she exclaimed as if she forgot. “We’ve reported an issue with your gameplay.” Issue? Eniola leaned forward with an eyebrow raised. They’ve been playing all fine. Or maybe she’d figured it out about ALTSCOPE.

“Like what?” Jay said. “And where did the issue come from?”

“With her,” Howie said, pointing a finger at Iris who pushed her head back in confusion.

“Me?” Iris questioned. “What did I do?”

“It’s not about what you’ve done, but who you are,” Howie said. “You’re a cyborg.”

“So?” Iris said, still not getting the point. “What does being a cyborg have to do with the game?”

Howie snapped her fingers, and then a holo-screen popped to life, showing Rogue’s gameplay. It was the first round while they were figuring out the map. The video showed something coming out of Irises eye projector: the map of the dorms. The video played repeatedly in a loop.

“You used your cyborg features to extract external clues, instead of your knowledge,” Howie explains. “I could see this as cheating.”

“But you said clues were where we least expected it,” Theo defended. “Iris had the memory like everyone else, and she just recorded it a different way. We didn’t cheat. We used our strengths.”

Howie raised an eyebrow. “But some players are concerned about you.”

“Like who?” Theo asked.

“ULTRA wondered if it was fair to have a cyborg on a team,” Howie explains. “They suspect it could pose an unfair advantage. Did you know you’re one of the only teams right now that have a cyborg?

Of course, it was ULTRA. Keone’s team. “They don’t need to be concerned with us, they’re the best players. And Keone was on our team before, yet he played with us without a complaint.” Theo said. “I don’t even think it’s against cyborgs to compete.”

Howie looked to the ground. “Not exactly.”

“So why are we here?” Theo asked.

“Well, if you want to continue to compete, then Iris must play like a regular person,” Howie said, implying that Iris was abnormal.

“Fine,” Iris said. “I’ll turn off my cyborg features or whatever.”

“That’s all I request,” Howie finished. “Thank you for coming.” They all waved goodbye, except for Iris, before leaving.

🎮

Eniola was lying on her bed, staring at the holo-screen above her as it streamed an old-timey drama.

“Eniola?” Iris asked. Eniola closed the screen and peeped back into the bottom bed where Iris was simply sitting there. Eniola had guessed Iris had taken the entire ordeal hard. But Eniola knew if ULTRA said nothing, this wouldn’t even be an issue.

“What’s up, Iris?” Eniola asked.

“Do you think I’m abnormal?”

“No!” Eniola quickly replied. “Why would you think that?”

“I just wanted to know,” Iris asked. “When I became a cyborg, people started looking at me differently. I mean, I had two gangly metal limbs now attached to me, and everyone started treating me like I was different.”

Eniola could guess what it was like for Iris. Sometimes when they walked down the street, Iris would get called “half-human” or other slurs from people who thought cyborgs were lesser.

“I feel like I’m too different for society,” Iris admitted. “I’ve been denied from playing sports at school because my limbs would give me an advantage. I had to move to a “changed” school because they thought my new brain would give me an advantage over the other kids. SCOPE was the one place where I’ve always felt accepted, and now even the damn creator of this game is eyeing me because I’m a cyborg.”

Eniola would never know what it meant to be a cyborg, but she knew that SCOPE was the one place where she could feel accepted and not have pressure from everyone.

“I think you’re an amazing friend, cyborg or not,” Eniola affirmed. “It doesn’t matter what people say. You deserve everything you have and you deserve to be on Rogue.”

“Thanks,” Iris said. Eniola slipped down to hug her.

The door slid open all of a sudden, and Eniola sucked in a breath when she saw Jay standing in the doorway.

“Hey, Jay!” Iris beamed. “What’s going on? Have you converted to veganism yet?”

“No. I’m not that desperate,” he laughed. “I’m here to talk to you.” He looked at Eniola.

Eniola’s cheeks heated. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he said, before just stopping and staring blankly at Iris.

“Talk away,” Iris said obliviously. “I think I’m going to catch up on the show I’m watching.”

“I was hoping we could talk alone,” Jay added, and her heart picked up.

“Oh,” Iris said, looking around. “Oh.” Iris sprung up from her spot next to Eniola, before ducking past Jay and walking out. She turned back briefly and raised her eyebrows knowingly before Eniola widened her eyes.

“What’s up?” she asked nonchalantly, even though she was freaking out. He looked around before taking a seat on Lucia’s bed across from her.

“Earlier today, before we went to the arena,” Jay said. “How much of that did you see?”

“Uh,” she stammered. “What happened earlier?”

“Don’t play dumb Eniola, I saw you,” he deadpanned. “But how much did you see?”

She quit lying and sighed. “All of it. I’m sorry.”

“Of course,” he said, shaking his head.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop!” Eniola defended. “I just wanted to wait for you.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “Don’t be sorry. I’m not here to confront you or anything.”

“Really?” Eniola asked.

“It’s fine,” Jay said. “It’s not like I can take the memory away from you.”

She took a risk and inhaled sharply. “Do you want to talk about it? Your mother?”

He met her gaze, and this time it felt intense instead of carefree. “She isn’t my mom,” Jay snapped, his expression hardened.

“Then who is she?” Eniola asked. “Do you know her?”

“Soyeon gave birth to me,” Jay told her. “But she isn’t my mother. There’s a difference.”

“Is she…?” Eniola trailed off, not sure about what she was asking.

“An addict?” Jay responded. “Yes, she is.”

“I’m sorry,” Eniola said. “That must be hard.”

“It was hard for like two years when I was eight,” Jay explained. “But then when I was ten, she left me and my father. I haven’t seen her in eight years.”

“Oh my gosh,” Eniola said. “I’m so sorry.”

“Soyeon wasn’t always like this,” Jay said. “She used to be so sweet and kind, but then she lost her job. She didn’t tell my Dad until two months after it happened. And then we learned in those two months instead of going to work, she spent her time in online gambling dens and then ended up in a shit ton of debt. We ended up having to move. It took a toll on her, and then she got into a bunch of drugs, which led to more problems. My parents started fighting and fighting, and then one day she just got up and left.

“Then one day, someone threw a rock into our window and we found out someone was targeting my mom,” he explained with a slightly quavering voice. “She knew we were being targeted and left saying nothing. She just abandoned us to fend for ourselves. Then we had to move again.”

“How did she find you here then?” Eniola asked.

“I honestly don’t know how,” Jay replied. “Maybe she recognized me from the SCOPE streams.”

“Don’t you want to talk with her?” Eniola asked. “She’s your mother.”

“I don’t have parents like you,” Jay says. “My dad has barely called me since I came here. I’m not ready to face my mom again. Not after what she did.”

“Don’t think you’re the only one who doesn’t have perfect parents,” Eniola mumbled. “Things are hard for me too. Maybe not like you, but differently.”

“How so?” he asked.

“I feel like I have to act a certain way in front of my parents,” Eniola admitted. “Sometimes, I just feel like I can’t really say what I want.”

“I can relate,” Jay admitted. “It feels so cramped sometimes. You would just want to let it out. But it’s different for me.”

“Yeah,” Eniola agreed. Compared to him, her problems seemed trivial. She didn’t know what it was like to have her parents simply get up and abandon her. Suddenly she felt bad for wishing her parents would simply leave her alone sometimes.

“You’re a great SCOPE player,” Jay told her. “I hope everything works out.”

“Me too,” Eniola said, smiling.

“See you?” he said, beginning to get up and leave.

“See you,” Eniola replied as he left. Of course, they were going to see each other again.