Judy

Judy hated waiting. It was the one variable she couldn't control. And today, that variable was a boy who'd decided to be late on his very first day.

Ava stood dutifully beside her in the atrium, shifting her weight from one foot to the other as her eyes scanned the entrance. "How long till he gets here?"

"Any second now." Judy pulled up the tracker window on her wristphone and pointed into the empty air. "He's right outside."

"Judy, you're not sharing your display," Ava reminded her.

"Right. My bad." Judy tapped a quick sequence in the air, casting the holographic map to Ava's lenses.

The glowing marker was practically vibrating against the school's front gates. The moment it crossed, Judy minimized the screen and straightened up.

Right on cue, a boy burst through the entrance. He had a deep brown complexion framed by a messy mop of ruffled black hair. His casual t-shirt and pants looked slightly askew.

"You know what to do," Judy whispered, giving Ava a gentle push forward.

Judy buried her face in her screen, pretending to be engrossed, while stealing glances through her display.

The new kid stopped in the centre of the atrium, looking around the towering architecture with a confused squint, and then at the schedule on his phone.

Ava walked over to him, taking slow steps and casually twirling a strand of her purple hair.

"Hi," she said, waving lightly. "Are you new here?"

"Uh, yeah," the boy blinked. "I'm Drew."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Ava," she said smoothly. "Here, let me see your schedule."

Drew tilted his wrist, sharing his screen projection toward her. Ava leaned in, pretending to study the schedule, which she and Judy had already memorised hours ago.

"Look at that," Ava said, her voice dropping into a cheerful tone. "We have the same class next. Come on, I'll show you the way."

Judy watched as they walked off with Ava in the lead, asking him questions about where he was from—the answers to which she knew already.

Deciding her part was done, Judy turned and headed towards her own lecture. Along the way, she spotted Zack cutting through the crowded hallway. He offered her a subtle nod before disappearing around a corner with Kelly and a new kid.

By the time Judy entered her classroom, the lecture was already underway. She settled into an empty row where their group usually sat. Everyone else was still out hunting for recruits.

She tried to tune into the professor's lecture, who was droning on mercilessly, ignoring the bored faces of the class.

"...And so, humanity began their greatest project – Zora II. After the catastrophes..."

Her attention drifted, only snapping back when the doors slid open, and Zack strolled in, pounced on immediately by Mr. Jefkins.

"Late again," Jefkins said dryly, pausing his lecture. "Though, I suppose you're earlier than yesterday. Keep this up, and you might actually show up on time."

"I don't give a damn," Zack muttered.

"I'm still marking you absent, by the way," Jekfins added smoothly. "So, if you have no interest in my 'ramblings', feel free to walk out."

Zack almost turned, until his eyes met Judy, sitting by herself. "Fine, I'll stay."

"You're not doing me a favour," Jefkins called after Zack as he walked up the steps.

Judy watched him climb to the back row, feeling slightly glad when he dropped into the seat right next to her.

"How did it go?" Zack murmured, leaning in immediately.

"Ava is taking care of him. They have a class together," Judy replied in a low voice. "What about your target?"

"I don't know about him being a potential recruit. But he's definitely boring. I dumped him on Kelly."

Judy smirked, raising an eyebrow. "So boring that you actually preferred a history lecture over him?"

"Yeah. Honestly? That boring," Zack chuckled.

He leaned back, turning his gaze toward the front of the room where an enormous, rotating projection of a spaceship floated above Mr. Jefkins' hands.

The rest of the hour passed in relative silence. Every now and then, Judy could feel Zack stealing sideways glances at her. She kept her eyes locked firmly on the floating spaceship, pretending not to notice.

**

After classes, Judy met up with the rest of the group at a cramped, brightly lit fast-food joint.

"Alright everyone, status report," she said without missing a beat, sliding into the booth and immediately diving her fingers into a shared plate of fries.

"Well, he definitely seems to be a supporter," Ava offered, leaning forward. "I casually pulled up one of our viral clips on my phone and said, 'Aren't these guys doing great work?' He nodded along. But later on, when the conversation shifted to the actual war, he completely shut down, saying it's all hopeless."

"So, he's a supporter, but not a believer?" Judy guessed.

"What is it with this kid anyway?" Kelly asked, crossing his massive arms on the table and inadvertently flexing his muscles. "Why did your algorithm flag him as a near-perfect match?"

Judy swallowed a fry, her expression turning serious. "Because his father was forcefully recruited by the Mekkan army, and was later killed by the Kingston army. He has suffered at the hands of both sides of this war."

"Poor kid," Kelly murmured. The table went quiet for a moment.

"Oh, one more thing," Ava added, breaking the silence as she looked around at the group. "He actually seems to know a good deal about electronics and engineering."

"Makes sense," Judy noted, tapping her wristphone to review the file. "His father was recruited to design weapons for the Mekkan military. If Drew shares that talent, he could be an incredible asset to us."

Ava let out a light laugh. "Are you saying I might finally be able to have an intelligent conversation with someone around here?"

"You know it's just that we choose not to listen," Kelly chimed in.

"Yeah, right," Ava shot back. "In that case, you don't get to use my gadgets anymore."

"Lovely discussion, guys," Zack interrupted, speaking up for the first time. "But I think I'll head down to the base. You guys coming?"

"Not me and Ava," Judy said, turning away from her screen. "I think we'll do a bit more spying."

Once Zack and Kelly took off, Ava turned to Judy, who was already glued to her screen again. "Alright, what's our plan?"

"Drew seems to be back at his apartment," Judy replied, studying the flashing marker on her map. "Let's follow him."

They emerged from the diner just as the rush hour hit, choking the pedestrian lanes with hundreds of commuters. The crowd quickly engulfed them, forcing them along the path.

Both girls breathed a sigh of relief when the narrow street finally opened up into a massive, sprawling plaza. Hyperloop tunnels drifted overhead, rising and falling at random intervals against the skyline.

With the pathway clearing out, Ava tapped a button on her wristphone. Instantly, her violet boots clicked in response as tiny motorized wheels emerged from the soles. A sudden force tugged at her feet, smoothly propelling her forward.

Judy followed Ava's example, deploying her own set of skates. They picked up speed, rapidly slicing their way through the city traffic, controlling their high-speed turns with subtle twists of their wrists. They weren't the only ones on skates—dozens of kids their age raced alongside them.

Their skates slowed to a smooth halt just outside a massive skyscraper. A digital screen flashed at the front, proudly advertising its name: SKYREACH.

"Alright, we're here," Judy announced. "His apartment is on the 205th floor."

Ava fished a tiny, disc-shaped drone out of her bag. The moment her fingers touched it, the drone's surface morphed, taking on the exact tone of her dark palm.

She tossed it into the air, watching as it shifted to the blue and golden shades of the evening sky, completely disappearing from sight.

Ava pulled up the camera feed on her wristphone, watching as the drone soared up the side of the skyscraper. It finally stabilized, hovering silently outside a hexagonal window.

Through the feed, she spotted Drew sitting at a desk, completely lost in his own world. He was hunched over, cautiously attaching a cluster of wires to a circuit board that lay in front of him.

"Look at that," Ava smiled. "He really is a techie."

"What's he making?" Judy leaned closer.

Ava zoomed the drone's lens, carefully inspecting the circuit board and mapping out the specific modules Drew was linking together. Her eyes widened slightly when he slotted in a heavy transformer module. Suddenly, the connections started making sense.

"Whatever he's building, it's some kind of high-voltage, shock-based weapon," Ava murmured in disbelief. "And not just some toy. But how?"

Through the feed, Drew paused, staring down at a connection with a frustrated frown. He muttered an inaudible command, and a moment later, a tiny, red robot rolled into view.

The little machine kept its back turned to the window, blocking their line of sight. But the second it rolled away, Drew seemed to instantly know what to do. He picked up his tools and began racing through the wiring with renewed confidence.

"Whoa, what just happened?" Judy exclaimed. "Did that toy just guide him?"

"Can you hack it?" Ava asked.

"Give me a second." Judy's fingers flew across her wristphone, scanning nearby devices. She was presented with a list of thousands of active devices from the skyscraper.

"Whoa, too many," she muttered, her brow furrowing.

She filtered based on distance, using the altitude of Ava's drone as a reference point. She rapidly narrowed the results, tossing out Drew's personal wristphone until only one single, unknown device remained.

With a decisive swipe, Judy launched an automated script, deploying a sequence of common exploits while a loading bar crawled across her vision.

Vulnerability detected.

The terminal flashed green, and a window with the robot's internal files popped up.

"You're a genius," Ava leaned over Judy's shoulder as she began scrolling through the data. The vast majority of the storage was occupied by video recordings.

She hit play on one of them. A video popped open, revealing the face of a middle-aged man with a striking resemblance to Drew. The camera then panned down to a cluttered worktable as the man began explaining a complex schematic in a warm voice.

"Unbelievable... there are hundreds of these," Judy gasped, scrolling frantically through the files.

"His dad basically left him a step-by-step tutorial library for building military tech," Ava stated, staring at the screen in pure awe.

"We have to tell Bogart and Zack about this," Judy declared, closing the window with a sharp swipe. "He isn't just a potential recruit anymore. We need him on our side."