Meanwhile in a warehouse in Vista del Rey, the last group of Minis had arrived, at the point where the test would take place.
When they arrived they were greeted by "FUCK, IT'S ABOUT TIME. We can finally get this shit started!" a foul-mouthed voice that did not fit at all with the small pale body that generated them, with two pigtails at the sides dressed in a big coat with the colors of the Minis as if it were a dress.
Judy and the group of Minis from Watson High School were greeted by the words of one of the Minis already in the warehouse, inside there were about 25 minis, chosen by the leaders from each distric, to participate of all the members they had.
"We came all the way from Watson, it's normal for us to take longer, I'm Selena ``Q'' leader of the Watson Minis." Said Selena in her usual Mox outfit, with a dark blue jacket and fuchsia on the inside, a tank top with the Mox symbol and a visor without a cap pulling back her afro hair.
"Tch, And what do I care??" replied the girl who looked much smaller and cute if it weren't for the expressions she put on and her way of speaking.
"...." Leaving Selena speechless, starting to piss her off.
"Don't pay attention to Rebecca, think of her as the bad-mouthed Mini-pet of the Santo Domingo Minis, I'm Skyler the leader." Said Skyler cheerfully, a 17 year old girl, leaning with one hand on a bat on the floor, blonde hair and pigtails too, of different colors on the sides one blue and one red, a two piece dress. Totally transparent top and skirt that you could see a culotte and a bra covering her as underwear.
"Heh, she's kind of weird, but you get it honey quick, I'm Angel the leader of the Heywood Minis welcome to the district, honey" Said a MAN, Angel with a clear gay tone in his voice, short hair and colorful BITCH Brand men's clothing with tight shorts.
"The team will be ready in about 15, so we have to keep waiting, ah, you're already here?.... I am Rossy leader of the Westrock District Minis and the ones who have been screwed all week with the story you have been telling, the Watson Minis" said Rossy who was returning from talking to the Minis who were assembling the equipment for the tryout, discovering Selena and the rest.
She spoke slowly, unmotivated and with a certain rancor, Rossy is a small girl of about 16 years old with a short jacket showing her belly button and tight jeans, she was wearing a cap with her high ponytail coming out of it and a mask with a flowery colored drawing of the MOX symbol on it, covering her face.
"Well let's talk about that later first let's introduce our candidates and then let's talk about band issues" Selena said after hearing Rossy's complaints.
"Sounds good to me" Replied Skyler
"Me too" Along with Angel, "Whatever" and Rossy.
"I don't care" And for some reason Rebecca, who spoke up again without anyone asking her.
"Well since, I proposed the idea, I'll start, this is Judy Alvarez she is the one chosen by Watson's Minis, other than being a brainiac in high school, I myself have seen the robot dog she programmed herself and I believe" Said Selena trying to make Judy look good
"Hi everyone my name is Judy, the Robot that Selena talks about was built by my boyfriend, and I upgraded the operating system, I think he is better at technical stuff, while I would say I'm better at coding and programming" Judy said trying to clarify the inaccurate presentation that Selena had said, that Judy didn't imagine that anyone besides Selena would feel bad about what she had said.
"Why are you suddenly naming your boyfriend, you want to brag that you have one huh? you want to put those of us who don't, in a bad light or what?" Rebecca said annoyed she interrupted again.
"Huh? No I just wanted to-"Said Judy, being caught off guard by where the complaints were coming from.
"Stop it Rebecca." Said the girl next to her, who had caught Judy's attention, for three reasons,
The first, was that in Judy's 14 years old, she had never met any girl at her age who was equal to or better than her in tech and code, And Judy knew that this girl could become difficult to beat at the test if she remained interested in the job.
Secondly, she was wearing a gray tube scarf with lights on it, but not the crappy ones she'd seen on high school girls, this one was well made, looking like a real one, as if Judy herself had made it. Which annoyed her.
And the third and the one that bothered Judy the most was, this girl was dressing.... nicely, in a tight black t-shirt with black pants, short jacket covering her arms with matching pink sneakers. While she was wearing her usual comfortable clothes, the bottom part of a jumpsuit and a white tank top.
Bothering Judy because she knew that this girl was not a 'Mini,' she definitely had to be someone who had been selected like her, and also Judy knew that this girl was good, even possibly better than herself. And at the same time... looking more put together and pretty, making Judy remember Sora's teasing about her comfortable clothing, since Judy thought that no other girl like her would care so much about appearance.
'Damn grandma' coming to blame her grandmother for her bad habit of not dressing up, realizing that it's not as she imagined and that there are smart and knowledgeable girls who don't reject their femininity, and also like to dress nicely.
"Well, now that you've spoken, let me introduce the candidate from Santo Domingo, she is Sasha Yakovleva, the best code and programming student at our institute," said Skyler, introducing a cute brunette girl with blue eyes named Sasha.
"Yup, that's me," said Sasha, smiling, gesturing with her hands. "I'm not interested in the world of Night City gangs, but let's just say my hobby is expensive and I need Eddis, that's why I'm here. I am an acquaintance of Rebecca and I'm here by her recommendation."
"Next up is the Westbrock candidate, her name is Beatrice Ellen..."
...
..
When the rest of the introductions were over...
"Since the presentations are over, put on some music to liven this place up, we while we're going to talk about the status of the Minis, you have until the testing equipment is ready! Enjoy girls/BoYs!" Selena said as she and the rest of the Minis leaders stepped aside to talk amongst themselves.
With those words from Selena the rest of the Minis from the different institutes began to talk to each other and others played music over the speakers in the warehouse, while some of the Minis continued to prepare the equipment needed to carry out the test.
After Sasha's presentation, Judy's attention was not drawn to any of the other participants from the other high schools they had chosen. She approached Sasha and Rebecca as they were talking to each other.
"You couldn't have said friend...we've known each other since freshman year of high school.... it's annoying you know" Said Rebecca complaining about how Sasha had presented herself.
"I've told you many times Rebecca that in this world we're on our own, everyone has to make do" Sasha replied pragmatically.
"Tch, you don't have to be like that" Rebecca said somewhat saddened by the loner mentality her friend, Sasha, had.
Judy noting that they were done talking "Excuse me, I'd like to-"
"What!. What would you like?" Rebecca said in a bad tone noticing Judy's intervention, still annoyed with Judy for her presentation earlier, and also annoyed with Sasha, both of them paying, with Judy.
Judy seeing Rebecca's attitude if it had been before she would have shut up and backed off but now, Judy was different, coming to think `what would he do'.
"I would like to ask if you are a Sunless. My friend saw a documentary about people living in Anchorage, the subterranean mining Megacity in Alaska, and kept talking about it for weeks. When I saw your skin color, it reminded me of his comments about the Sunless. Do you mind?" Judy asked, undeterred, blurting out the first thing that came to her mind, making something up, partly because of Rebecca's interruption, even though she had fabricated it a few years ago.
Sora had watched a documentary about the Sunless and had told Judy about people who spent most of their lives in subterranean megacities, never seeing the sun.
The documentary Sora watched was about the underground megacity of "Anchorage," located in Alaska. The city experienced rapid growth due to the discovery of a large cobalt deposit in the 2020s, leading to extensive mining activities that gradually moved the city underground. It was the corporations' idea to construct underground housing for their workers to save time going up and down, thus increasing ore extraction. Over time, not only miners but also their families and various small businesses catering to them chose to live underground.
However, the inhabitants of these mining cities are exposed to large amounts of toxic heavy metals
The corporations that operated the mine developed a more cost-effective treatment for exposure to these metals than dialysis. Instead of removing the metals from the body, the treatment involves relocating them to a less harmful area. The organ of choice for this was people's skin, causing the pale residents of the subway cities to gain a pale bluish or grayish hue due to the cobalt in their skin, a lasting effect resulting from the corporations' cost-effective solution to ensure the continued extraction of cobalt.
Following this, subterranean mining cities thrived in various parts of the world, prompting other corporations to emulate the practices established in Anchorage. Humans with a variety of metallic skin tones began emerging gradually and are now considered a common sight. Some even claim to have developed a certain resistance to Cyberpsychosis as a result.
Rebecca was taken by surprise at the question and said, "Eh? Well, it doesn't really bother me. Few people know or ask about it, but yeah, my brother Pilar and I are both orphans from Anchorage. When we had enough money, we got out of there and found a place with perpetual sunshine, ending up in Nc... No! Wait, why am I telling you all this?" Rebecca was friendly at first when talking to Judy but then got frustrated when she realized she was revealing so much.
"And you, that scarf you're wearing is really great, it looks ALMOST like the original, you know?" Judy said turning to Sasha ignoring Rebecca's tantrum.
"Oh! How do you know it's not the original?" Sasha smiled, amused, at Judy's assertion.
"I just know" Judy said smiling back at Sasha.
A duel of glances ensued between Judy and Sasha, as if a rivalry had just been born. This left Rebecca feeling annoyed, yet simultaneously caught in the midst of the stares she couldn't participate in due to her short height.
From that point on, Judy initiated conversations with both Sasha and Rebecca. She discussed Tech and Hacking with Sasha, discovering that Sasha was truly proficient in the latter. With Rebecca, they talked about the Minis, and Judy was taken aback by how seemingly unhinged Rebecca was when she learned that Rebecca had joined the Minis in the hopes of being able to harm someone. In response, Judy suggested that she might be better off as a Merc, a point that Rebecca couldn't deny.
Before they knew it, 20 minutes had passed, and the tryout hadn't even begun, which left Rebecca feeling annoyed. She left Judy and Sasha to approach the girls who were assembling the equipment and running late.