It took a moment for Eniola to register the intense screaming of the audience and the bright lights flashing filling her eyes. She was still high on the intense adrenaline of the game and Paradox. She turned her eyes over to the bright lights of the screen and their avatars.

Then it hit her. Rogue won.

Rogue won SCOPE. They won this year. Rogue were the winners.

They were champions.

The next thing she knew, Rogue had all squeezed each other into a hug, and they jumped and rejoiced together. The arena was practically screaming their name and chanting Rogue like it was their native tongue. Eniola was rushing with adrenaline-filled euphoria, her heart shrugged in happiness and she was practically paralyzed with happiness.

This was real. It was happening.

Everything was going to change now.

The arena was loud, and the next thing she knew they were swarming with screens and interviewers asking them questions. They figured out that the Black Infinity had come in 2nd and ULTRA in 3rd.

Eniola whipped her head around, and the Black Infinity came to congratulate them, and they exchanged thankful hugs. ULTRA loomed awkwardly in the corner. Why hadn’t they been apprehended? Was the worldwide glitch tracked back here? The excitement warped into fear and in nervousness, her joy leaped down.

Keone caught her gaze before smirking at her. The world glitched again, just like it had at the beginning. Eniola turned away, breathing heavily until she caught sight of Howie, a huge smile on her face as she looked at them.

She came down from her platform and joined their little hugging circle, mumbling words of praise Eniola was too wrapped up in nervousness and excitement to hear. Instead, she froze, trying to pry herself away from the circle and back into reality. Another game maker in black came down holding the glittery trophy. It was a shimmery, golden life-sized yeon attached to a golden platform.

The five of them took the trophy simultaneously and struck it up into the air in victory, chanting their names. Small flecks of tears hung in her eyes and everyone’s too.

This was just the beginning of a bright future for Rogue.

🎮

“That was epic!” Theo yelled as they all piled into the dorms, logging the trophy with them before setting it down on the floor. So much happened. The closing ceremony happened and the top 3 teams were honoured and had their celebration. Old SCOPE teams and previously eliminated groups came to congratulate them. There was a flurry of fans who asked for autographs and pictures, telling them that Rogue was their inspiration. Then they went for an interview with a media outlet that came and had many more scheduled along the way. And Eniola collapsed onto the couch in celebration of the moment they got back late at night, still feeling the leftover energy running through her veins.

Now that they have won and officially become an official team, they’d boost in popularity. They’d now get paid more and more often. And now they could draft players. Perhaps a sub-player could do them well.

“We’ve made it everyone!” Lucia exclaimed.

“What now?” Jay asked, a smile still worn on his face.

“I’m now 40,000 dollars richer,” Jay exclaimed, referencing the prize money. They could do tons of things with 200,000 dollars. Maybe they could even get team uniforms.

“How did you pull through, Eniola?” Lucia asked. “What did your parents say?”

She forgot to tell them. “I escaped again.”

“Of course,” Lucia huffed. “What does this mean for us?”

“I don’t know,” Eniola said. “But I’m hellbent on staying.”

“Not here though,” Theo reminded. “We won, but we have to leave the dorms since the championships are over.” Eniola never thought of what she would do when the finals were over. After they split the prize money, she had 40,000 dollars to her name. She could easily find a place. But she was still 16 and underage. But Olu’s offer was still an option.

“We’re trending!” Iris noticed, reading with her cyborg’s eye. Eniola quickly moved over to her. “This is the first time in 6 years an independent team has won!” As they read, that wasn’t the only thing that was trending. The whole glitch freaked everyone out too, and Eniola’s heart dropped.

The theories were wild. People thought aliens had finally come to rule over the earth and this was their warning. Some thought it was a worldwide issue from holo-screens. Some even said it was witchcraft. But Eniola and the 4 of them knew it was Paradox.

“Where are we going after this?” Jay asked.

“Back to San Francisco, hopefully,” Theo said. “We still have the rest of the summer to come back to Los Angeles. We’re a full team.”

“Does this mean you’re going to stay?” Jay asked, eyes lingering on her. Her cheeks went hot.

“Hopeful,” Eniola said, shrugging. “I don’t know about my parents.”

“I think you should stand up to them,” Jay said. “I don’t want them to take you away from SCOPE.”

“Been there, done that,” she said. “I just want to have a conversation with them.”

“Then just let it out,” Jay said, moving closer.

“Of course,” she said, taking her hand in his hand while holding it at an awkward distance. She shyly pulled away. Eniola looked over to Lucia who shyly smiled.

Her phone buzzed from under her, and she mumbled something about having to take it, before running back to the room. It was Olu. It was a phone call and Eniola accepted and pressed it to her ear.

“Olu, hey!” Eniola exclaimed. “Guess what!”

“Eniola!” he said a nervous waver shaking his voice. Eniola froze at his energy. “Something just happened!”

“What? Was it the glitch?” she asked. “Is everything alright?”

“No,” he said. “May just went into labour.” Labour? Like labour? Baby coming into labour?

“Isn’t the baby not due for six weeks?” Eniola asked, fear creeping into her voice. “It’s not right?”

“That’s what I thought,” he says. “We’re at the hospital. I’ll send you the address. Can you just please come?” Suddenly a huge groan came from the background, and Eniola froze in chills as she recognized May. It sounded mangled like she was in desperate pain. Olu frantically took his voice away from the phone and began trying to soothe calming words to her, but they didn’t sound calming.

“Of course!” Eniola shouted. Eniola panicked. It was one thing for the baby to come early, but with May’s condition, everything was now at risk.

She bolted out of her room, through the living room before all eyes turned to her panicked, crazy state, pacing around the room with an overwhelming sense dead.

“What’s wrong?” Lucia asked, getting up and observing her.

“I need to be somewhere,” Eniola said, erratically, she pushed her curls back from her forehead. “I’ll explain later, okay?”

Before they could respond, Eniola erratically pressed the door open before she ran through the hallways, not caring if the floors were transparent glass and made it into the elevator, pacing fast as if that could make it go further. It opened and Eniola ran outside, before she emerged into the street, got onto her bike and raced out. the elevator.

Eniola imported the address into her bike as she sped down the road. The adrenaline, excitement, and nervousness mixed within herself, so much she didn’t register the beeping of her GPS when she approached it. She looked to the side to see a tall, sleek, white building, with a huge opening in the front. Auto-ambulances, med-droids, and the blue and red sirens fill the air. Eniola hopped off and called her bike in, before steering clear of the action and entering the hospital. She was in the lobby, which had also committed to the white design. There were nurse-droids wheeling around, as well as people.

Eniola almost rammed into the front desk with how fast she was going. The android was a basic white model that would’ve blended into the walls too.

“Hello. Welcome to Cambridge Hospital,” it said in a crisp white voice. “What can I do?”

“My brother and his wife checked in to give birth,” Eniola explained quickly. “Olufemi Adeyemi. He’ll let me in.”

The android looked into the main screen before circling on his familiar name. “He’s notified you are here and has accepted you. Please go up to floor 4, which is the maternity ward.” Eniola immediately goes for an elevator and then it takes her to level four.

When she comes out, she sees multiple women with enormous bellies screaming while trying to calm down by nurse-droids and their spouses. There seem to be other people sitting down in the vast rows of seats. Another nurse-droid wheeled passed and Eniola it.

“I’m the sister of Olufemi Adeyemi,” she says. “What’s the status of his baby?”

The android gives her the rundown on everything. It tells Eniola that May’s labour is high-risk and it gives her some other quantitative stuff Eniola blocked out into white noise before it wheeled away like it didn’t just leave Eniola hanging by a thread.

May had to survive. The baby had to survive. Eniola stepped back and plopped onto the seats. But Eniola could do nothing except pray. She sat down on one chair and just began pouring it out passionately.

When she was done, she sat there hollow. Today was supposed to be a good day. Rogue won the whole SCOPE championships. She should be elated and celebrating with Olu and May and her teammates.

But May and her baby were at risk. Eniola couldn’t help but feel guilty every time she felt happy about SCOPE when she was at a hospital not knowing anything about them. Quickly, a nurse-droid whizzed past and Eniola quickly ran to it before asking for an update.

It gives Eniola the exact same boring, unfeeling update. She gritted her teeth before she plopped down again. Eniola soon got up and asked more times and still got the same automatic responses from nurses with no emotions. Then she went and paced around the room before she occupied herself with calling Olu and having it go to voicemail before finally giving up.

Eniola was truly stranded with herself now, and despite wanting to take over and do anything, she couldn’t. It was far from the grasp of her control and now she could painfully wait in nervous suspense. She thought trying to take down Paradox was truly the scariest thing she had done up until an hour ago.

And then slowly the minutes on the clock turned into some hours and those hours weighed on Eniola heavily, before her eyes fluttered to a close and her body curled up on the seats, in a dreamless and half-awake sleep. The sounds still moved from the outside, blocking her moment of serenity.

Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and her head whipped up.

“Eniola?” someone said, and Eniola turned out blurry figures. She blinked away tears she didn’t realize she had and then saw all of them.

Rogue. Her friends.

“Eniola?” Lucia asked, before wrapping her into a hug. “What are you doing in a hospital?”

“How did you even know I was here?” Eniola asked.

“We have the Find Friends feature,” Lucia said, waving her phone. “Remember?”

“Oh,” Eniola said with a wry laugh, forgetting. They had always kept it on their phones just in case an emergency happened, like someone getting abducted by an alien.

“What’s wrong, Eni?” Theo asked, and then she explained everything to them about Olu and May in a wavering voice.

“Oh, my gosh!” Iris said. “That’s terrible.”

“It is,” Eniola says. “And no one’s even giving me information.”

They all sigh and then wrap her in a hug. It fills the hollow in her, feeling all the warmth come that filled to hollowness. “Thank you guys for coming. You didn’t have to.”

“Yes, we did,” Lucia said. “We’re Rogue. Teammates on and off the arena. We always need to be there for one another.”

“Thank you,” she croaked. “I’m hungry.”

And that’s how they all find themselves in the hospital cafeteria, all eating and soaking in each other’s presence. It felt relieving not to be talking about Paradox or how to win SCOPE, which added to her anxieties. Now that was behind them and they were simply friends. It doesn’t completely take away her sadness, but it fills her with warmth.

“Remember the perm you had,” Lucia said, pointing to Theo who has his arm around her. “I almost lost all feelings for you.”

They all laugh. “Like that could happen,” Iris mumbles.

“Ever since I saw myself really, I got rid of it,” Theo admits, and they laugh. He picks at his food again. It’s processed spaghetti. “This food is so bad it’s good.”

“When we’re SCOPE legends, we’ll be eating like kings,” Eniola claims. “I just wish we won on a different day.”

“It’ll be fine,” Jay comforted quietly so that only she could hear.

Then her phone pings and Eniola looked at it. It’s from the nurse-droids. She now remembered asking them to text her.

“Something has happened,” Eniola said, excitement moving into her voice and in her body. “They want me there!”

“Then go!” Lucia shouted, before getting up and hugging her. “You’ll be fine.”

“Of course,” Eniola said before running back to the nurse-droid out of the cafeteria, holding a tablet.

“We have the news of May Adeyemi’s baby delivery,” the android says, as Eniola sucked in a nervous breath. She could just run away now, to not have to fear whether it would be good or bad news.

“May had a successful delivery,” the android said. “Follow me right this way.”