“Level 1,” Theo calls. The simulation room recedes, and instead, the image swirls into a basic layout of Solai for their training session.

All of their avatars resemble them, but Lucia’s is clad in a gaudy avatar outfit that reflects light like she’s a human disco ball. It’s the outfit heavily promoted in the SCOPE market. Jay still has his helmet on in the simulation, even though they know his identity. Eniola wants to tell him to change it if he wants success in SCOPE. But something about him seemed aloof, like this must just be some other task.

Five milky-white figures sprung up from the ground in front of where they’re standing, by the crumbling Corinthian ruins.

They readied their weapons as the alarm went off, and ran in a choreographed pattern. Eniola and Iris’s job was to collect power-ups and yeons and defend the disk. Theo and Lucia stayed on offence and ran after the other team’s disk. Jay just came so they put him on defence with Eniola and Iris. A white avatar came after her, but Eniola dropped to the ground and threw her hoplon at it, making it disappear.

A row of Spartans suddenly appeared in a huge wave, before the girls closed in on them. Lucia took her sword and slashed it through them, slaying multiple of them at once, and Eniola and Iris followed suit. They all go down easily.

“Eniola!” Theo called. Eniola spun around and saw a white avatar standing before her, ready to attack. She swiftly turned around before dodging and getting it in the foot. Eniola ran sideways to collide with a blue cube. Extra-speed. As an avatar came right by her, she rushed away and then around it, taking it out for now. Theo wove through the arena, shooting flaming stones from his slingshot, while Jay and Lucia followed him. The white avatars respawned now, and Theo took advantage of this and ran for the ruin. Avatars came beneath him, but Jay and Lucia took them out easily, which allowed Theo to climb and grab the disk.

The world suddenly paused, and a message appeared in midair saying “Level Over.” The message quickly changed to. “Starting Level 2,” and a 5-second timer appeared beneath it. Eniola quickly sighed smugly at the ease they just won at.

They readied themselves again, and they worked through the levels. It got harder as they went, and they certainly didn’t win easily, but they made it through. It was using teamwork, but Eniola couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

Rather, someone.

During the 8th level, Eniola turned back to Jay, who was no longer on defence. His absence stunned her before she spotted him of offence. Iris had hastily moved from her position to take his spot.

“Jay!” Theo yelled through the microphone embedded into their lenses. “Stay on defence. You are protecting our disk!” Nothing happened, as Jay still abandoned his defence spot and was on offence, leaving them alone. She huffed.

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He dodged over an avatar before landing and taking it out with his sword, then ran for their disk instead of protecting their own. Eniola tried running back and forth, but she was too slow before an avatar snuck up on her and took her out. Eniola respawned on her base. She tried using her speed to get back, but it was already too late. Two of the white figures clutched onto their disk and pried it from its place.

The game paused, and the screen reappeared. “Game lost.” It morphed again to read, “Start again?”

“No,” Theo said, making the screen go away. “We’ve used all of our time, anyway.”

“Hey, what was that?” Lucia called as she ran to Jay. “You were supposed to stay on defence.”

“Yeah,” Eniola agreed. “Theo put you on defence. You left me and Iris all alone.”

“But they were coming for our disk,” Jay defended himself. “I decided it would be better to get their disk before they got ours.”

“You were supposed to defend the disk if you wanted them to not get it!” Eniola corrected loudly, before calming herself with a deep breath. “And you don’t get to decide. We decide as a team how we’re going to play a game. You can’t just go off on your own.”

“Sorry,” Jay apologized sarcastically. “I’ve never played SCOPE on a team before.”

“Well, Rogue isn’t solo, man,” Theo told him, sounding annoyed. “I’ll let it slide since it is only our first training session, but the first game tonight and you have to learn how to work on a team. Whatever we, as a group decide, goes. It doesn’t matter what you might feel.”

Jay took all of this in, then sighed. “Fine. Sorry. I’ll listen to you more.”

“Not more, all the time,” Eniola corrected.

“Okay,” he agreed before walking forward without them. They didn’t speak after that, but Eniola could just read them. Everyone looked annoyed.

“Are you sure he was the right choice?” Eniola whispered, leaning over to them. “We only really took him in because we needed someone, not because he was good.”

“I think we should give him a chance,” Iris told her. “This is his first time playing in a group. He needs time to adjust.”

“Yeah, don’t write him off,” Lucia said. “We’ll continue to look at him.”

Eniola didn’t want her past judgements to come out right now, but she couldn’t be settled at the moment.

Eniola didn’t realize it, but another team had come through the receding doors. Eniola recognized them all as the Lunas, one of the few all-girl teams. And Jay had noticed this. When they approached, she heard faint giggles.

“You’re new on Rogue, right?” one of them asked.

“Yeah,” he replied, and he scratched his hair sheepishly. “So I’ll see you tonight?”

“Yes, you will,” the one in the front said. She had deep bronze skin and long black hair and huge green eyes. Eniola recognized her as Priya Patel, the captain. She moved closer to him, “What are you doing after?”

“Just hanging out,” he said, feet pointing away from her. “I actually have some new stuff to learn about SCOPE, so I’m booked. But I’ll keep you updated.” He winked, and Eniola wanted to gag. He turned back to face her as the girls further entered.

“I think you played well today,” Jay said, turning to her.

“You didn’t,” Eniola said flatly. “Please, just learn how to play on a team with people. If you’re going to be on Rogue, you need to take this seriously.”

He looked down. “Of course.”

“It’s not just about flirting with girls or getting attention,” Eniola continued, ignoring him. “It’s hard work and we’ve come too far for it to come to waste. SCOPE is important to all of us. Please, just make this easy for yourself, and it will be easy for us.”

“I was just being nice,” he defended. “I wasn’t flirting.”

Eniola scoffed. “Did you see the way she looked at you? And you too?” Something more about this ticked her off, but she was too frustrated to unpack it.

Eniola continued. “Anyway, just listen to everything I say. You’re on Rogue, so it’s time to actually act like it.”