The morning after the ULTRA victory was a tough one to bear. The ride home last night was in stark silence in the autocar. At that same time, their game tattoos had faded into grey. No one had wanted to address what happened that night. Now in the morning, they all slumped onto the couch simultaneously, wading in awkward silence. The Top 3 comprised The Black Infinity, ULTRA, and Inferno. Rogue was going home. At least last year they had Keone leaving as an excuse. But here, they just lost.

Eniola wanted to scream out all the emotion bottled up inside of her. She was so close. So close to winning and finally proving to her parents that she could play SCOPE and be successful! The emotions tormented her.

“I’m sorry!” Eniola was the first one to yell, and she buried her face in her hands.

“It wasn’t your fault, Eni,” Lucia came over and reassured her.

“Yes, it was!” Eniola insisted, then she explained what happened.

“I remember before I fell, Kinesis touched me on my head and then I felt so much pain,” Eniola explained. “It was like the world glitched or something.”

“They trapped you under the water,” Iris told her. “They hacked you.”

She looked up to face her teammates. “They trapped me in a dark room with Keone. If I had somehow resisted it, I would—”

“No!” Lucia shouted. “I will not listen to you blame yourself for something that wasn’t your fault.”

“I think that game twist was totally unnecessary,” Jay brought up. “What’s the point of swapping teammates?”

“I think it was supposed to observe enemy weakness and instead of playing to win, make you play to lose,” Theo brought up. “It doesn’t matter at this point. We lost the game.”

Eniola was going to go home a loser. Her SCOPE career was over before it could even begin. Because after seeing she’d lost, her parents would force her to become a doctor. She was so close to following her dreams. Now they had been crushed.

“What do we do now?” Jay asked.

“They’re kicking us out tomorrow,” Theo told them. “We have a day to pack,” he continued but didn’t seem to finish. “Don’t worry guys, fifth place is still a huge accomplishment.”

“We were here last year,” Iris mourned. “Then lost.” The room went silent again.

“I think we should tell,” Lucia said.

“Rogue is at risk,” Jay reminded her. “If they go down, then we go too.”

“What’s worse?” Lucia said. “Losing our team for a while, or watch while Keone unleashes a device that could be possibly lethal to the game and the world?” The room went silent after that.

“This is an issue beyond SCOPE,” Eniola broke the silence. “It’s not like we were the ones meant to stop it. We just knew about it. Anyways, I’m just going to pack and get some rest if I can.” Then their poppy anime doorbell rang.

“Who’s here?” Jay asked.

“Probably the androids here to boot us out,” Lucia said, while Theo came for the door.

“I thought we had till tomorrow?” Jay recalled as Theo opened the doors on the button. Eniola expected a couple of androids together to get their stuff, but instead, Howie had appeared at their door.

“Rogue!” Howie exclaimed. “Can I come in?” She looked at them confusedly, who all said nothing out of shock. “I’m going to enter anyway because I have news for you.” She stepped inside, before she plopped down into the bean bag, making herself at home.

Howie was here. This is close to them. In their dorm. Eniola began reaching out to touch her before Lucia moved her hand back. Eniola felt her cheeks swell with heat. Why did she do that?

“Howie!” Lucia exclaimed. “How nice to meet you. What are you doing here?”

“As I said, I have good news,” she exclaimed giddily. “You guys lost last night.”

“How is that good news? And we already knew that,” Iris said.

“To make a long story short, you’re back in,” she announced with jazz hands.

“What?” Eniola said unbelievably. “What did you say?”

“Turns out we caught Inferno hacking and changing the algorithm specifically so they would score higher,” Howie explained to their surprise. Did Howie find out that they were involved with ALTSCOPE? How close were they to being just like them? “Since you guys were the runner-up to that trifling team, you will take their place in the Top 3.”

Theo repeatedly blinked if that were to hear better. “Are you for real?”

“I’m not joking,” Howie said.

Suddenly, Eniola felt a shock on her wrist. The colour of the disk tattoos was fading back. Eniola wondered if the hack was still there. “You guys are now in the Top 3 with ULTRA and the Black Infinity. Congratulations.” Howie got up, and they immediately attacked her with hugs, Eniola going first, sending tons of thank you’s her way.

“Alright, alright,” she said, smiling. “Don’t suffocate me, I still have to commentate for the finals.” They all separated, sending beaming smiles at her.

“Good luck guys!” she said. “You’ve proved me wrong!” Then she exited out the door. When she left, they all gathered and jumped up and down like giddy little kids.

“Rogue is back, baby!” Theo exclaimed as they all jumped again.

Eniola felt her phone vibrate and took it out. It was her parents again. Her heart sped up.

“Gotta take this,” she barely got out before running back to her room.

Out of breath, she finally took the call. Her parents’ projected images popped up looking at her. “Hey mom, hey dad!”

Her mom squinted at her with a raised eyebrow. “Why are you breathing so fast? Who is chasing you?”

“Nothing, no one,” she panted. “We ran from the university because we missed our bus. Great workout.”

“Oh, I see.” Her dad peered at her. “How was looking at college today?”

Eniola lied once again. Today they went to Berkely and analyzed their wide course selection. They had gone nowhere outside of the hotel that much. Eniola felt the guilt wrap around her and suffocated her as the words left her.

Eniola remembered Lucia wanted her to tell her parents that she was in the Top 3. With Howie just leaving, this was perfect timing.

“I have something to tell you,” Eniola began.

“What is it?” her mom asked.

Eniola froze for a while, contemplating. This was just the make-or-break. “Uh. Thank you for letting me come here and support Lucia. I’m really thankful.”

Her parents both smiled and nodded as her dad spoke up. “It was needed for you and Lucia.”

Even with their smiles, it seemed like something was just itching to get off their chests. “So what’s going on?” Eniola asked.

“We have good news!” they both said once in a turnaround of emotions.

Eniola felt their excitement. “What’s happening?”

“Well,” her mom began, smiling brightly. “The lady who was retiring went earlier than expected, and now me and your father are needed. We are leaving for New York early.”

Eniola froze in her place as her lips formed into a mute ‘o’. It was only August, and it was one month until September. They were moving in September, not August. Why were they moving now?

“How soon?” Eniola croaked.

“Three days,” her mom confirmed. She felt as if her true dreams were already hanging by a thread, and that thread had just been ripped without remorse.

The finals were three days away, and if they made it, they could win. And now Eniola had to be on her way to New York?

“Eniola, we need you to come home soon,” her mom told her. “We’ve put you on the next maglev to Los Angeles already. You should come home by this evening.”

“What?” she said, but the words didn’t come out. Eniola felt an immense surge of fear shoot through her body. Of course. Just as everything was finally going right, something just had to come in and swoop down on her.

“What?” her mom said.

“Maybe I could stay in California for a few more months?” she warily suggested, even though she’d known it would be turned down. “I have stuff to finish. I have a job and friends here. Perhaps I could stay with Lucia until the end of summer?”

“Nonsense!” her dad yelled, stopping her.

“We can’t just leave you alone in the city,” her mom argued. “You are coming home, end of story!”

Eniola didn’t protest. “Okay!” she said, and they said their goodbyes before their image disappeared. Eniola stopped, staring into imminent space, having an existential crisis, wondering why it had to be her. She couldn’t just abandon her teammates when they had this opportunity.

She eventually got up and left the room and emerged into the living room joining Lucia where Iris was playing another round of Rise of Shadows together.

Eniola thought back to what she had been told countless times. Tell her parents and stick up for her dreams. It was time to do that and not be lukewarm. And she already made her mind up to the risky decision.

She wasn’t going to go home.