When she put on the helmet, Leila felt a force pressing down on her as she tried to concentrate and not lose her emotional balance. Sheila and Martha watched her from a distance, looking a bit more composed, saying: — "Oh no, now our time has come. Surely, with this, we'll get fired and bring down the agency," they said resignedly, because there was nothing they could do about it. With the helmet on, Leila could hear the voices and minds of all the people, even her teammates, who were also wearing visors and suffering greatly from the machine's power, which was draining their energies more intensely than before. Inside her, she began to tell herself: — "Come on, concentrate, relax." A memory came to her mind, in which she heard: — "Leila, transform the pain into happiness, relax, pay more attention to what surrounds you. Don't let your power consume you; it's yours and part of you, use it" —she remembered her boss, Azulema, teaching her to control her power. Azulema knew that Leila's power was enormous but uncontrollable, so she sought ways and means to ensure the girl was not a time bomb that would destroy everything in her path, but rather that she would master what she carried within and not be mastered by it. She practiced with her over and over again, almost every day, without ceasing, so that she would become one with her power before Mark's arrival. Leila used to be her favorite, it seemed. — "Come on, come on, you can do it. You're not useless. I'm strong, and can control my psychic strength," she told herself repeatedly. After a while of memories and mixed feelings, she felt as if several neural networks joined into one, giving her the synchronization she needed with the device. The images and all the reality created by Azulema returned to normal. —"We're back," Leila indicated. — "Well done, girl. I almost didn't have faith in you," Rachel admitted, raising her thumb and sending a mental image to Margaret, who was almost fainting on the floor. —"How are we doing with the count?" the boss asked. —"We're regaining the audience: forty, thirty, twenty, and the gap is closing," Rachel said cheerfully. At the military base, they were forgetting about the matter before sending more people to battle, as they were watching the broadcast while the battle between Podbe and Urion continued.
The three who accompanied Leila in the machine were almost kneeling on the ground, even Mark, with blood on his nose just like the other two. Azulema told them: —"Marky, take off that visor." — "No, boss, we must support Leila. She can't do it alone." —"Yes, it's true," the other two indicated to their boss—. "We can't leave all the work to Leila. We'll keep supporting her." The boss was happy, and a tear of emotion rolled down her cheek, knowing that her entire team was united. —"How happy you make me, my girls," she indicated—. "And my Marky," she added.
Upon hearing that conversation, Sheila was upset by how they were cheering for Leila. Consumed by anger, she accidentally moved her index finger, releasing a small burst of telekinetic power that caused the machine to increase from level nine to ten, the strongest and most critical.
— "Alert, alert. Critical levels are increasing. Level ten is activated. All commands are now locked. The machine will cool down in five minutes. During this time, no functions can be used, only results can be viewed. It is recommended to remove users from the machine."
—"But how could this happen?" Rachel wondered as she saw the machine's console closed, leaving only the screen showing the number of people accepting this new reality.
The five people, including Azulema, began to feel unwell, with nausea and dizziness, causing them all to fall completely to the floor. The broadcast continued, but the image of Melisa appeared frozen, as did the people created around her.
— "But how can this be possible? Isn't there something to deactivate it?" Rachel screamed desperately, seeing her friends in that state. She tried to remove the boy's visor but felt a strong current that pushed her hard against a wall.
—"What did you do?" Martha asked Sheila, who had seen her move her finger.
—"No, nothing," Sheila said.
— "Don't lie, I saw you. You did something with your finger, and the machine switched to level ten," Martha said, looking at her seriously.
— "I didn't mean to, it was an accident. It was that girl's fault, she's to blame for all of this," Sheila responded, too nervous and stammering.
— "Sheila, I am your friend, but I never thought you'd go this far with your stubbornness and take it this far. Revenge is not right, maybe a harmless game like the ones we used to play, but this... Now others are paying for your foolishness. I accompanied you to do a couple of small things, but this is going too far."
—"Sorry, sorry," Sheila said, pulling at her hair and kneeling—. "It's just that I..."
— "You don't have to ask me for anything. I just hope they come out of this alive, and after that, you'll apologize to Leila for everything."
Margaret overheard their conversation and said:
—"I'll talk to both of you later."
They both swallowed hard.
— "Now I want you to help me create a containment field, like a shield, to remove those helmets. I don't think they can endure that pain for five minutes," Margaret expressed.
—"And the quest?" Sheila said in a low voice.
— "Are you still asking? It might not have been completed, and we seem to have failed," Margaret replied.
In so much pain, Leila began trying to create a mental shield over her entire body, which ultimately turned into an armor, while she heard the danger alarm mentioned by the machine in her mind. What she had created was protecting her from mental pain but not physical pain, and externally she writhed as if possessed by a demon, just like the others.
—"Guys," she said as she saw the other three trembling and her boss trying to stand up—. "What do I do now?" she said—. "Maybe if I create a shield like mine, it could ease their pain."
The girl tried to create the same shield she had, but without success. She decided to approach them to touch them. Maybe that way she could envelop them and protect them. She floated and floated towards each one of them and touched Rosa, who no longer felt pain upon being touched.
—"How did you do that?" Rosa asked.
—"I don't know, I just thought about it," Leila responded.
—"Let me see if I can create one," Rosa said, and she tried, creating an armor similar to a medieval one.
— "Wow! Rosa, you're incredible," Leila indicated.
— "Well, it's just concentration and technique, but there's no time to waste. Let's go to the others," Rosa indicated.
— "Yes," Leila responded.
Rosa went to Ada and Leila to Mark. Both did the same as Rosa, but not the transparent armor of Leila.
—"Why is mine transparent?" Leila asked.
—"Well, but it's great that you did that," Mark said.
—"I don't want your pity," Leila responded, looking distressed.
—"Let's go to the boss," Ada indicated.
The four, holding hands, approached Azulema, or rather, her mental representation, and gathered around her, which made her react and create more magnificent red armor than all of theirs.
— "Not fair," Leila indicated.
—"How did you manage this block?" the boss asked.
—"This was thanks to Leila," Rosa responded.
—"Well, well, young lady, you sure have your tricks," Azulema said, smiling and hugging Leila.
—"Thank you, ma'am, but you're choking me," the girl indicated, almost out of breath.
Then, seeing Mark, she hugged him too. The boy blushed a lot.
—"Okay, where are we?" Azulema asked.
— "From what I see, we're inside the machine itself," Ada answered.
—"And how do we get out of here?"
— "From what I see, there's a timer. We have to hold out for five minutes," Rosa said, seeing what looked like a yellow sky.
—"With these barriers, we can resist," Azulema indicated—. "But I don't know if our bodies can hold out," she added.
— "Look, there's a screen showing the number of people left. It looks like it's three percent," Ada indicated.
—"Yes, that three percent is tough," Rosa indicated.
—"But we have to complete the quest," Leila said nervously.
— "But how do you plan to do that? Our minds are inside the machine," Mark said.
— "Look, another monitor lit up in the sky. It's our friends, they're trying to create something. It's Margaret, Martha, and Sheila. I wonder if we can communicate with them to create an armor like ours in the real world using their telekinesis," Ada indicated.
—"Well, it's a matter of trying," the boss said, concentrating her mind to call Margaret—. "Margaret, Margaret, can you hear me?"
—"No, nothing, no response," Azulema indicated.
—"Try again," Ada suggested.
Azulema called her friends outside again, but there was no response.
—"I know," Rosa indicated—, "if Leila does it, she should have more range. Besides, you always said her powers are great, boss."
—"Well, then..." Azulema said—. "Try it, girl. Contact one of the girls."
Leila concentrated and called Margaret, but there was no response until she heard a scared voice:
—"Is that you, Leila?"
— "Eh, yes! Who are you?" Leila asked.
— "It's me, Sheila. Where are you? Did you die? Is your soul haunting me from the psychic beyond now?" Sheila asked, frightened.
—"No, I'm still alive, well, inside the machine with the others," Leila replied.
—"Hello," the others indicated through Leila's link.
—"I'm sorry for hurting you so much in the past and for increasing the machine's level unintentionally because I was annoyed with you," Sheila said, sad and crying—. "Can you forgive me? I'm very sorry," she added.
—"So it was you," Ada said, upset.
—"Well, I don't forgive you," Leila stated.
—"Leila..." Rosa said, looking at her and scolding her, knowing that she was not like that and always forgave everything.
—"Yes, Sheila, I forgive you," Leila said.
—"We'll talk later, Sheila," Azulema indicated—, "but now I want you to do the following to each of our bodies."
— "Who are you talking to, Sheila? Focus on creating the gloves and taking them out of those things," Margaret indicated, angry because they had already tried to make the gloves, but they were repelled.
—"With Leila and the others."
—"How so?" Martha asked.
— "Their minds are trapped in the machine. They told me they tried to contact you, Margaret, but they couldn't. I don't know how, but they managed to contact me. Now we need to do the following."
— "Probably because my power is low, they couldn't contact me. But it's good to know they are alive, or at least their minds. Here their bodies move like contortionists," Margaret said.
— "That's why we need to do the following to cover their bodies while those five minutes pass," Sheila indicated excitedly.
— "Okay, what do they want?" Margaret asked.
—"We need to create some kind of armor," Sheila indicated.
— "Maybe in the dimension they're in, it can be done, but here we can only manage protective force fields," Margaret indicated.
—"That might work," Ada said through Sheila, who passed the message to the others outside.
—"No time to lose," the three indicated, starting to create force fields with their telekinesis.
—"Four minutes left," Sheila indicated, while projecting the field to Leila and Rosa. Martha did it to Mark and Ada, and Margaret to her boss.
—"I don't think I can hold on for much longer," Margaret indicated, feeling faint from the prolonged use of the visor.
At that moment, she saw someone lifting her up. It was Rachel, who had recovered after the discharge they gave her, and she asked:
—"What should I do?"
They also heard the voices of the three, who usually only spoke among themselves. Sheila passed the information through the mental chat, and they all began to support them.
—"Three minutes to cool down," the machine began to say.
— "Ma'am, we still haven't finished the job. It seems that three percent is an increase, and some are already about to pay or change the news because the image has frozen," Ada indicated.
—"We can still achieve this," Leila indicated.
— "Really? How do you plan to do that, girl?" her leader asked.
— "If we're still inside the machine or connected to it, we can continue the broadcast. All you need to do is project yourselves onto me, and we'll manage it, like I did to connect with Sheila."
The boss looked at her.
— "Well, girl, I like your plan. You've matured a bit in such a short time. I'm glad."
—"Well, it's been three years, boss," Rosa said, laughing.
—"Okay, let's get to work, everyone."
The five of them held hands and closed their eyes, thinking about how they could end the story they had created and make it believable to everyone. If there were any diseases, they had to be forgotten or sent on long vacations. Of course, everyone was sad and felt some guilt for having to hide these things from people or make people disappear as if they never existed, although most Radar workers were single or lived their lives away from their families. But their boss gave them the courage to do it and accepted all that responsibility, and if they needed to forget it, she could help them.
—"One minute," the machine began to say.
The two teams, one inside the machine fighting to change the story and the other outside protecting their companions, were at the limit of their strength.
—"We're almost finished, only one percent left," Rosa said.
The countdown began: ten seconds.
—"Hurry up, girls," Azulema indicated, while Leila sweated from the amount of force she had to use.
—"Don't worry, keep going, boss," Leila indicated, winking at her.
Both teams were exhausted. Margaret's team was tired of using their power with those in the machine, feeling like they were going to faint and give up, but she, as the second in command, gave them the strength to continue.
—"Cooling sequence initiated in three, two, one..."