Eniola falls again, but this time it’s not on a flat surface. Instead, she falls on top of someone. Rather multiple people. She flipped over quickly observing the fallen bodies.

Rogue.

“Guys!” she says as they all get on their knees and hug each other. “I thought I lost you!”

“That was a mind trip,” Jay mumbled. “I feel like I’m doing such weird shit.”

“Did you guys see anything in there?” Lucia asked. “I saw some stuff from my past.”

“Me too,” Eniola said, and everyone followed. “So did we all see something of our pasts?”

“Yeah,” Theo mumbles. “Where are we?”

“It feels like a SCOPE world,” Iris said. “But it’s just some black stuff. But it’s linked to somewhere.”

“Where?” Eniola asks Iris.

“To Paradox,” Iris reveals. “I think we’re connected to him. He used our memories to get back at us.”

“So how do we get out?” Jay asks. “Wait, how did Paradox even get access to us in the first place?”

“I don’t know,” Lucia said. “But how do we get out?”

“We have to win,” Lucia boldly. At that moment, five figures in dark green pop out and stand there.

“You have to win,” one of them echoes in a distorted voice. Eniola immediately whipped her head around, to see the five figures, gaze lingering through their emotionless mask. Rogue all get up and stand next to each other. Then an alarm goes off, but it sounds like the distorted one based on the original SCOPE game.

“Where are we?” Eniola yelled out.

“You are inside the exact coding of the SCOPE games,” one of them says, then steps forward. The masks dissolve, revealing one familiar face.

“Are you ready to play?” Keone asked, a teasing smirk on his face.

Immediately, Keone ran for Eniola before she ducked out of the way and rolled over onto the floor, before slowly lifting herself back up again. He jumped over her as her hands grazed the computer attached to his belt barely before he rolled behind her. She took off running in the other direction, before bumping into Theo and him levelling her. Everyone dispersed again, taking positions in the black landscape as they did in a SCOPE game.

They were literally inside the physical coding, and Keone just used a computer to hack SCOPE and save it onto the computer. He was downloading a new reality. And they had to stop him.

The other humanoid computer SCOPE things came straight for Eniola but she dipped down and crawled under their legs as its hand grazed over her. Another one came in her direction and now they were both cornering her. Quickly, she jumped into the air before falling over them. They both then disappeared like a wisp of air, before she fell onto her knees. Her breaths heaved and hitched.

Eniola collided with Lucia, who grabbed an avatar and ended up in a swinging battle with it before Theo came in front and threw it away from her. Iris and Jay had ganged up on one that they were fighting with. Jay swung his leg out before kicking it, before Iris planted her foot on its chest, pressed her cyborg hand to it before it glowed.

Eniola felt grabbed again from the back before it slammed her down. Another avatar was standing over her, but instead of attacking, it held her down with its grip before grazing its hand over her forearm. The tattoo tingled against her arm.

She looked into its blank eyes covered by the armour.

Vanessa.

“What do we do?” Lucia asked loudly. Without the microphone, they couldn’t see what other people were doing or hear them.

Eniola was suddenly attacked from the back and brought down before another face was looming over her Keone. Jay ran over to her, before pushing Keone over with a grunt and having him fall to the side. Theo came to the side to help her back up, before running across the room again away from the avatars. Now they were surrounded by each other, purely driven by a desire to fight.

The world immediately becomes a fusion of things again, and they get blown back by the sheer energy. Keone reaches for her, but he stops in mid-air.

“What are you going to do?” Keone asked, but suddenly a figure behind him materializes but instead of just a green-armoured figure, it’s a bright blue flash of hair with her. An avatar stayed next to her, before running to the side. He quickly turns around, before Iris’s hand glows blue and presses her hand to his computer.

“Play God!” she screamed, and immediately a ray of technicolour light burst out from the area, and a blast shook the earth beneath them sending them toppling. Quickly, Eniola stepped up again to say rays of lights beaming down on her. Bright blue lights swirl and fuse in the air and then explode, creating blue lights.

Slowly, an invisible force drags them, and Eniola swallows before screaming and clawing at the solid ground which was now being taken away in ripples of pixels. Her entire body was shaky with nervous energy, as the light slowly became searing and she was pulled into the light show.

It slowly drew them in closer, before Eniola collided in a hot searing light. She thought she would burn apart before a huge colliding sound occurred and her body spread out like a starfish before floating through the vast amounts of space.

And then she landed on solid ground with a thud.

Slowly, she got up, breathing heavily, blue light in front of her. It materializes into a blue cube Eniola soon recognized.

The SCOPEverse.

It’s back.

Suddenly the simulation recedes, and they’re back in the arena. They can hear the screams of people even from outside, and everyone in the visible audience looked panicked. Eniola slowly got up and straightened herself out, surrounding herself with her teammates.

“What happened?” Eniola asked.

“A worldwide glitch,” Iris says, reading her vision. “It happened for two seconds. But it freaked everyone out.”

“What do you mean?” Eniola asked. “The world glitched?”

“The world somehow glitched for 2 seconds,” Iris explained, mouth open wide and shocked that then transferred to the other people. Eniola slowly gazed out trying to see everyone else. She could spot Black Infinity close to them, but ULTRA was farther out. Her heart started beating widely in her chest.

“All the technology went out before everything exploded and the world glitched like a computer. Everyone was freaking out.” So this was more than just a SCOPE thing? Did it affect the entire world?

Was it about them?

“They paused the game,” Theo mentioned. “That has never happened?”

“And where did you get the extra power-up?” Eniola asked.

“I got an extra back-up,” she explained. “You can never be too careful.” Is that why she fainted? Was the sheer force of two illegal power-ups weighing on her?

“SCOPE will restart in 5 seconds,” Howie’s voice comes back, and then a 5-second countdown flashes over the vision of everyone. They were still in the heart of the game. “Please, calm down.”

“What are we waiting for?” Theo exclaimed. “We need to keep moving through this passage.” And they did. Eniola still felt leftover electricity, as they somehow began ascending, until she felt the burning of flames cascade around her and the bright glow of orange falling over them. Eniola slightly stepped back at it, like it still might be lethal, even though they were back in the simulation.

They were in the mountain’s heart.

They walked inside as the shining of the disk glowed from far above.

“How are we going to get that?” Theo asked.

“It’s high,” Jay said. “Very.” She smiled at his nonchalance.

“We can’t just jump,” Eniola said, and a small sound came from the tunnel. She quickly shot her blaster at the sound. Everyone ducked out immediately.

“What was that for?” Theo said.

“Thought I heard something,” Eniola mumbled. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Theo said quickly. “Even though I almost got blasted backwards.”

“Aha!” Jay exclaimed in a moment of realization.

“What?” Eniola prodded.

“The phasers can blast vast amounts of power,” Jay explained. “Maybe it can blast one of us up.”

Theo looked to think. “That’s not a bad idea.”

“If someone holds the thing in their feet, then hypothetically it can blast someone upwards and whoever goes up can quickly get the disk.”

“That could work,” Eniola analyzed, looking up. “Who volunteers?”

Everyone exchanged glances before looking directly at her. “You should. You’re the smallest, so it’d work with you.”

“Fine,” she huffed. She brought out her phaser and held it between her feet.

“Theo, do the thing,” she said, and he bent down and pressed the trigger.

Eniola felt weightless as she shot up with a blast of energy. She reached her arms out but fell short as she barely touched the disk. She fell again. But not onto the hard ground, but into a pair of semi-brawny arms in a bridal position. She looked up. Of course, Jay caught her.

“That didn’t work,” Jay said.

“No way,” Eniola responded sarcastically. “I need more power.”

Theo gasped. “Superweapon! Do a superweapon!”

“Activate superweapon!” Eniola called out. The force sent her into the air with an even larger jolt. She felt weightless and rushed with adrenaline. Her hands brushed against the disk, and she grabbed it and fell with it.