The arena was roaring again when another ALTSCOPE team had taken the lead. Eniola and her friends had all watched, blending into the monotonous crowd once again after they left the dorms. Eniola blew out a breath and stayed huddled with her friends. The market didn’t seem to be full, and the last thing they wanted to do was be suspicious. Eniola felt her heart pounding in her chest once again. Paradox might be here. His lackeys liked to loom around here. She could still feel the jolt of his touch and the pain rushed itself up her arm like lightning, and she flinched in the air.

THE X eventually took the other team, The Wraiths, down, and the arena roared violently. They left the losers on the ground before green-armoured figures came and took them out. Eniola swallowed a gulp and turned her gaze away to Rogue.

“Let’s go!” Theo into their linking earpieces as they migrated together down below before entering the ALTSCOPE market. It occurred to Eniola that everyone looked the same. How would they know who wanted to meet them with all the people crowded in there looking for illegal power-ups? She suddenly had a terrible feeling, like she was walking in front of maglev tracks.

“Where are they?” Eniola whispering.

“Just keep looking,” Theo instructed. “For now, we can just get their power-up.” They all diverted off course, with Eniola following Iris. They pretended to analyze power-ups, so they didn’t look suspicious standing here.

Another match was called, and people began pouring out and went back to the playing pit, leaving Rogue alone. However, when Eniola looked to her side, she saw another figure looming in the corner. He wasn’t in the game disguise but dark green armour.

Eniola inhaled a sharp breath before backing away, before bumping into Iris.

“Eni, what’s wrong?” Iris began saying, before stopping mid-air. Paradox simply stood there.

“It’s nice isn’t it,” their distorted voices boomed. “The synthetic atoms.”

“Wait,” Lucia spoke up. “Is it you? Are you the messenger?”

“Yes,” they answered. “I believe I have something you want.”

“You do,” Lucia tells them. “What do you have to say?”

“I think I’d rather show you,” they said before the world turned to dark. Eniola would’ve been surprised, but this happened too many times for her to feel uncomfortable. She was now standing in an ocean of black with her friends and Maybe-Paradox, and it was still ominous.

“Why are you helping us?” Theo asked. “What do you want?”

“I thought the synthetic atoms would be a good idea, to merge virtual reality and the actual world, but it’s not,” they begin, and Eniola swears she can hear a waver in their voice. “But what Paradox is doing is dangerous.”

“What do you mean?” Eniola asked nervously.

“This is just the starting point,” they began. “But if this technology gets into the wrong hands, it could be sinister. It could destroy reality as we know it.”

Eniola gulped and simply stood there rigidly. Destroy reality? Could that even work? Keone destroying reality? Everything ceases to exist. A chill ran down her spine.

“Why should we believe you?” Jay started. “How do we know you aren’t Paradox himself?”

Suddenly the armour shield around their face fizzed and then pixelated away. A girl who took its place appeared with dark green hair and light blue eyes. Eniola recognized her in a heartbeat.

“Bloom?” Eniola said loudly. She looked less intimidating and more human to her. Eniola had always had some fear of her, but instead of looking scary and proud, she looked confused and timid.

“My actual name is Vannessa,” she revealed. “Everyone knows that.”

“You’re a Paradox minion or something?” Jay said. “What about Inferno?”

“We’re here too,” she revealed. “We thought Paradox was going to be doing something revolutionary, but it’s going to be dangerous.”

“How did you get involved?” Theo asked. “And why?”

“I can’t answer that,” Vanessa told them. “But I have something I can show you. Before that, give me your tattoo.”

“Why?” Jay asked hesitantly. “The whole tattoo thing freaked me out at first, so I don’t exactly feel comfortable with you doing it.”

Iris held out hers first, then brushed a thumb over it until it flashed green. When the lights wisped away, Eniola anticlimactically found it looked the same.

“What did you do?” Iris asked.

“You decide to ask that after she branded you?” Jay exclaimed.

“It will protect you,” Vanessa said.

“From what?” Lucia asked.

“Everything,” Vanessa said. Eniola exchanged glances with the rest of Rogue before allowing themselves to be marked by Bloom. When it was Eniola’s turn, she brushed the thumb over the tattoo and it glowed. Eniola winced, expecting to feel pain, but then felt nothing.

“So you’re going to tell us about this whole Paradox thing?” Lucia asked.

Vanessa suddenly pixelated away and the landscape swirled into another one. This time they appeared to be in some lab. It looked like it had snowed and was left like that. It was white all over, ranging from the neatly placed floor tiles to the tables and equipment and even up to the clear glass panels on the top. Eniola shook as she spotted Paradox’s symbol enlarged on the wall. She raised an eyebrow and peered forward.

But despite the clearness, everyone here looks anything but scientists. They remind Eniola of the people who claimed themselves to be hackers in high school and hid in seedy parts of town, allegedly doing some extensive work. But the screens and graphics spinning in the air look an awful lot like what Keone was showing at the arena. The atoms, along with some other scientific components. They seemed chained to their work and enveloped in it, only looking up to engage in a little mutter of chatter.

“Boss,” an olive-skinned girl with a dark red hijab circling her face yells out, squinting into a screen to the back. Someone stands up. Eniola doesn’t know why she expects some looming evil overlord to rise from the shadows in a black cloak. Instead, a girl who looks like she’s in her early-20’s, college-age steps out. She’s simply in a dark blue hoodie and black jeans and sneakers. She has high cheekbones, light-brown skin with close-set eyes and hair that spills out in dark brown ringlets of curls down her back.

“For the millionth time, you don’t have to call me that, Fatima,” she says with a smile. “It’s Zaira.”

“I just like getting a laugh out of you,” she said, and Zaira rolled her eyes. “And you are technically the whole leader of this thing.”

“So are you just going to be infuriating or do you have something to say to me?” Zaira asked, stepping off the platform and walking close to the girl. Fatima analyzes a screen on a tablet, while Zaira seems to analyze her with deep eyes in a way that seemed more special for a simple labmate. Maybe they were more than friends.

“Someone wants to be admitted into the lab,” Fatima said, pulling up a screen.

Zaira raises a thick eyebrow. “They shouldn’t even know it exists. Who is it?”

“It’s a guy who says he wants to meet with you,” she explains. “He says if you don’t he’s going to reveal you.

Zaira looks conflicted. “Enact extra security and let whoever this guy is come down.” Fatima nodded before moving to a wall. She put a tablet over it before a small panel suddenly opened. She then pressed a button on the wall, before jumping back onto the main lab.

Eniola wondered what was going on before it seemed like the main lab was lowering down onto the floor. Nobody looked fazed and kept going on into their work like this was a regular occurrence.

“What is this?” Lucia whispered. The lab plunged into the ground before another layer came up. It looked like an apartment. Clear netscreen, kitchen area, and some couches. Even the android popped back up. The doors on the side seemed to carry the illusion that they led somewhere else in this fake apartment. Eniola almost nodded impressively.

The hidden door split open, and someone began walking out. Eniola held her breath as she saw Keone walking through, gazing around curiously.

“Hey,” Zaira said casually. “What are you doing in my apartment? I’m not expecting visitors today.”

“Apartment,” he said slowly observing. “Is that what secret labs are called nowadays?”

If Zaira was scared, she didn’t show it. “What are you talking about? I’m just a university student living here. If you’re here to accuse me, then you might as well leave. This is my home after all.”

He smiled like this was a challenge. He probably did think it was. “Oh, really?”

“Yes,” she lied, ignoring the fact that some lab was downstairs. This Zaira girl was a good liar.

“This is a fake residence,” Keone accused. “There is a lab here somehow.”

“You’ve got the wrong place,” she said, her voice now wavering. “I’m not running some secret lab down here.”

“I want to help you,” he said. “I’m not here to play games, I know about the synthetic atoms. I’ve seen them before.”

She raised an eyebrow and so did Eniola. So Keone didn’t come up with them? Of course, he wasn’t that smart. “I don’t even know what those are!”

“But I know that you’ve been stealing from your university to make your illegal research site,” he accused. “You’ve been illegally hacking to help with your projects. If all of this was revealed, you’d lose your scholarship and possibly get into trouble. Zaira Khalif-Yang. Top astrophysics student at Stanford turned to disgrace.”

She paused, then gulped. “I still don’t know what you’re talking about.” He then sauntered away from her, and Eniola could practically feel her new nervousness. Guess she wasn’t keeping it up for long.

He then suddenly ran off before stopping in front of the panel on her wall that transferred the lab downstairs. She reached out and then caught him.

“So you are hiding something?” he smirked. “I knew it.”

She reached behind her back and pulled something out. It was a gun, and Eniola gulped nervously and she was pointing at Keone, who didn’t look fazed instead stood there. “Listen here, leave and tell no one about this.”

“You won’t do it,” he taunted. “But I need your help.”

“With what?” she said, still holding the gun. “I’m going to put this bullet into your head if you don’t leave.”

“Put your weapon away and I just might tell you,” he said, but she looked down and reluctantly put the gun back, but still kept a lingering hand hovering over it.

“What do you want?” she yelled.

“I want your research and all your data,” he said. “And I want to help you. Become a labmate.”

“For what?” she asked.

“Zaira, you’ve made a breakthrough down here. You’re practically extended and gone beyond the laws of physics. You have created a way to spin realities in life,” he said. “Why?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she grumbled.

He stopped. “That’s why I’m here.”

“The world’s a crappy place,” she began. “We almost ended ourselves with climate change, and if nobody stepped, the earth would slowly suffocate us to death. Not only that, but look at all the issues in our world. Terrorism moved from being physical to cyber. People still can’t be who they are without getting discriminated against. People go hungry and yet there are still people trying to justify billionaires.”

“So you’re trying to change reality?” he said, and she nodded. “I hear the activist thing is easier, but I don’t judge.”

“So what do you want?” she asked.

“I admire what you’re trying to do,” Keone tells her, and Eniola just has to hold back a laugh. It would be a miracle if he cared about something that wasn’t his. “And I want to help.”

“By doing what?” she said.

“Many people feel the way you do, but they feel helpless,” he said. “What this technology can do can change the world. And people need to be united. There needs to be a symbol or some representative of this new reality.”

“What are you talking about?” she said. “Do you mean like some movement?”

“Yes!” he exclaimed. “Someone needs to advocate and unite the people for this new reality, and I think I should be the one to do it.”

“What makes you so sure?” she began. “If anyone, it should be me. This is my passion project, anyway.”

“It won’t be me,” he further explained. “It will be someone else. Someone who is neutral and isn’t biased and will be the recognizable face of this new revolution.”

“Having someone fully unbiased trying to move the world into a biased system is some weird-ass paradox,” Zaira explained, and it felt like a moment of realization was on them.

“It is,” Keone said, before the landscape swirled again into black and Vanessa was standing in front of them again.

“So Keone didn’t create the synthetic atoms?” Iris asked. “It was some girl.”

“He was never really that smart,” Lucia agreed, and they all hummed in agreement.

“Zaira is the only one who can stop it,” Vanessa said. “She knows the ins and outs of this, but Keone has corrupted it into something else.”

“Where is this Zaira girl anyways?” Jay questioned.

Vanessa stayed silent. “She passed away in a car crash last year.”

“Car accidents are so rare, though,” Theo began. “Why her?”

“Things happen, Theo,” Iris mumbled. “So our one lead is dead?”

“Yeah,” Vanessa sighed. “Keone stole her technology and is making SCOPE real. When they unleash this, there’s no telling what will happen. It’s not a quick fix to deconstruct it as you think.”

“But how do we do it?” Lucia asked.

“Let me give you this,” Vanessa said before she froze suddenly. She then pixelated into nothing and so did the landscape which put them back in the ALTSCOPE market.

“Great,” Iris deadpanned. “Just as we were just about to find out everything, she disappeared.”

“I think our original plan might work,” Theo told them. “It’s not a quick fix, but I think we can do it. Take the power-up to gain control of the game, then shut it down. If we can’t do it from the outside, take it out from within.”

Iris turned her gaze closer to the power-up. It looked like a misshapen cube bursting with glitches. She pressed her hand into it as all the info came up. Eniola and Lucia covered her so no one would see. Iris closed her eyes like she was meditating before it glowed against her hand. This was going to take a long time, and they need it as much as ever.

“Are you in yet?” Lucia whispered, and Iris nodded. It almost baffled her that Iris was practically half computer and could essentially hack into things with the simple focus of her mind.

“20%,” she whispered to Eniola. “I’m 20% there.” Suddenly Iris jerked up and down and groaned.

“What’s wrong?” Eniola frantically asked, holding her steady. “Are you still in?”

“It’s nothing,” Iris clearly lied. “I’m fine. 30%.” Eniola stayed close to her and watched, just in case something else happened.

“I hear something,” Jay said. Eniola peered up to listen and heard clamouring and yelling that felt like it was moving. Someone probably won something.

But as she listened, it didn’t sound celebratory. It sounded fearful. A scream tore through the air, followed by more screams.

“60%,” Iris strained. Then somehow appeared out of thin air. Figures clad in dark green armour swarmed the entrance. They all screamed in fear. She opened her eyes for a bit and a faint glow came from her left eye.

“70%,” Iris said, before leaning to the side and stumbling.

“Stay with it, Iris?” Lucia began, almost pleading. “Please.”

SCOPE weapons started forming into the hands of the group of Paradox lookalikes, that Eniola confusedly recognized from the game. It was for a split second.

“Wait,” Theo began. “If they can use weapons.” He started staring at his hand really hard before a flaming sword came into his hands. One of them dodged for him, but he bent back before swiping it in the foot.

They came and ambushed them from all sides. Eniola and Lucia lowered down and pushed their arms over Iris, who was still loading information. Another sword glowed to life in Jay’s and he began swinging that thing life he was the master of the sword. He put off all of them and dodge attacks like he was born for this.

Theo and Jay were great together, taking out most of the lookalikes. Theo finished them with an upper-hand attack.

“Iris, update!” Eniola yelled.

“95%,” she said, trailing off like she was falling asleep.

“Iris, wait!” Eniola said frantically. Iris then vibrated like a phone, her left eye shining. This happened for a second until she crumpled back into Eniola’s arm.

“We need to leave!” Lucia screamed. They both threw Iris over their backs and staggered. Despite her lithe-looking frame, her cybernetic limbs had added much more weight to her than meets the eye.

Jay then pulled Iris onto his back and the rest of them all ran out there like track-stars. They made it as far as the exit until more figures caught up to them, blocking their paths.

“What are we doing now?” Jay trembled, struggling to keep Iris’ weight afloat.

“We jump!” Eniola exclaimed as Jay was taken aback.

“I’m not jumping,” Theo insisted. “Not with Iris!’

“Do we have another choice?” Eniola said, fueled up. “Let’s go!” And then they ran, feet having a mind of their own as they were building up momentum. And when they finally left the edge of the platform, the only thing that could keep them down was gravity.

Eniola was shocked when her feet felt the hard ground, and she groaned as she felt everyone fall behind her. They threw their bike orbs on the ground, before strapping Iris onto the back of Jay’s. They all soon drove out through the alleyway before emerging onto the streets in the night.

It wasn’t long before a cluster of bikes began trailing behind them. Eniola cursed as they all swerved and the bikes followed. The lookalikes had respawned.

She gulped as she realized they were THE X. They came running towards them with their weapons coming for them. Eniola lurched sideways as the arrow came.

“I have an idea,” Theo yelled. “Start cloak!” Then he disappeared into thin air like a phantom. This must’ve looked weird to the public eye. Eniola yelled it out and suddenly she was cloaked. Everyone else followed, disappearing into thin air. Except for Iris, who was still unconscious and looked to be floating in the air.

The people came for her because Iris was still their only lead. Theo sped forward.

“What are you doing?” Lucia asked before he called his bike back and ran into an alleyway. They all followed him, and Jay took Iris off before he ran with them. They all crouched behind a dumpster before they heard the fast whirr of bikes run past them. Eniola sighed in relief.

They eventually reached the dorms back on foot, dashing through their door. Jay was holding Iris in a bridal position before softly setting her down on the couch as she was semi-conscious and mumbling something incoherent.

Wendy practically barged down from the hallway, “I registered four mild injuries and one cyborg injury. You do not need to see a doctor. But you are hurt.” She said, accessing all of them at the same time. Especially Iris.

“Her mainframe is overheating,” Wendy explained. “She needs to be cooled.” Quickly, Wendy flipped Iris over onto her back in one swift motion before feeling around the back of her head. A metallic piece of Iris’s head flipped open, revealing a combination of wires and melded into flesh.

Eniola turned away immediately. She hated to grimace at her friend, but she never saw something like that so close up. She didn’t want to invade Iris’s privacy like that.

Wendy pulled a wire from Iris’s head, and then a small panel opened with a plug and Wendy put it there. The wire began rushing with blue energy.

“Her mainframe is overheated and overwhelmed. It has caused the same effect as a nervous breakdown,” Wendy explained. “She should be just fine after being rebooted.” It felt so weird seeing Iris shut down randomly and need to be rebooted to consciousness.

Eniola had never known Iris before she had become a cyborg, as she was twelve and barely adjusting to the process the day Rogue had met. All Iris had said was that she was in a car accident, and the next thing she knew she had cybernetic limbs and a computer wired into her brain.

“She is at 30% energy,” Wendy explained. “31…32…”

“I knew this would be dangerous,” Theo said back to himself, clearing the view. “Iris, can you hear me?”

She mumbled incoherently as Wendy kept counting on the percentage. Eniola had to remind herself to breathe. Even though Iris would be fine, Eniola still felt nervous that Iris was hurt. Maybe she should’ve never brought up the idea of the power-up anyway.

Iris then jolted upright, blinking rapidly. She began rubbing her temples as she closed her eyes. “What happened?”

Theo then explained everything that happened between her fainting and now.

“I got the power-up,” Iris tells them.

“What matters is that you should rest for a bit,” Lucia said. “The finals are in two days.”

“So it’s official,” Iris said. “We’re stopping Paradox.”

“Now all we need to do is get to the Top 3 and win,” Jay summarized. “Easy.”

But it would not be.