On The Fly

In this episode,  Chapter Ten – The Signal Box Confrontation ( Previous episode) – Shadows in the Grid. The Signal Box pulsed, an illicit, violet-blue heart beating in the blackout. As Marvin and Norman approached, its solitary glow washed over the empty, darkened street, the only building in Greenwood still humming with power, a defiant beacon in the sudden silence. Inside, the air shimmered with synthetic sound—music loops, digital chatter, the faint hiss of cooling fans. Screens lined the walls, and teenagers sprawled in clusters, their shouts and laughter echoing from visors and haptic gloves. For them, the blackout might as well have been on another planet; in here, their world pulsed . Marvin raised his voice, the sound thin against the digital hum. “Do you even realize what’s happening outside? Families are sitting in the dark. Fires are burning, and GridBot’s doing nothing to stop it.” A boy with sharp, bloodshot eyes stepped forward, his tone clipped.   “GridBot keep...