Foundations and Fault Lines

The hum of MIT's research lab filled the air, punctuated by the rhythmic tapping of keyboards and the occasional frustrated sigh. Team EVO's workspace was a controlled mess—a sea of whiteboards covered in dense equations, hardware parts scattered across desks, and three half-empty coffee cups near a laptop running a simulation. The competition was still weeks away, but the pressure was already suffocating.

Esterio ran his hands through his hair as he stared at the screen. "EVO is still struggling with adaptive logic. It learns too aggressively in some cases and not at all in others."

Elliot, seated across from him, didn't look up from the prototype circuit board he was adjusting. "That's because it's trying to overwrite instead of refine. Right now, EVO is acting like a kid smashing legos instead of actually building something stable."

Marcus walked in, tablet in hand, looking unusually smug. "Well, while you two were buried in code, I actually did something useful."

Elliot raised an eyebrow. "You? Useful? This I gotta hear."

Marcus ignored the jab and tossed his tablet onto the table. "Found us a place to work. A warehouse in New York."

Esterio and Elliot both looked up. "Wait, what?"

Marcus grinned. "One of my dad's friends owns an old warehouse in Brooklyn, barely used. He said we can set up shop there. It's got high-speed fiber, plenty of space, and—most importantly—privacy."

Elliot leaned forward, intrigued. "Brooklyn? That's a solid move. We can get there fast."

Esterio frowned. "We still have classes. How are we supposed to just leave MIT?"

Marcus tapped his screen. "Already handled it. MIT knows we're competing in Hyperion's event, and since this is considered research-related, we got approval for temporary remote access."

Elliot's eyes widened. "Wait, you actually convinced them?"

Marcus smirked. "Let's just say a professor in the AI department backed us up. They want MIT to look good, so they're letting us work remotely—as long as we submit progress reports."

Esterio still looked skeptical. "And we're just supposed to pack up and move?"

Marcus scrolled further. "Spring Break is in four days. That gives us a two-week window to set up in New York and make real progress. After that, we can split time between MIT and the warehouse when needed."

Elliot nodded. "And New York is only a train ride away. We can come back when needed."

Esterio exhaled. It actually made sense. They needed dedicated space—somewhere they could push EVO further without distractions. He glanced at Elliot. "What do you think?"

Elliot grinned. "Dude, I've been dying for more room to work. I vote yes."

Esterio nodded. "Alright, let's do it. We move EVO to New York."

Marcus smirked. "I'll book the tickets." For the first time in weeks, they felt like they were one step ahead instead of scrambling to keep up.

Later that evening, Esterio stepped out of the lab for the first time in hours. The cold MIT air hit his skin, a welcome contrast to the heat of stress building in his chest. He needed to clear his head. A few minutes later, he arrived at a familiar café—a quiet, old-school spot that served tea in ceramic cups instead of paper ones. His younger sister, Lia, had called earlier, asking to meet.

Lia had always been the sharp one in the family. While Esterio obsessed over AI and complex systems, Lia had taken a different path—biomedical research. She had a habit of breaking problems down to their simplest form, something Esterio both admired and envied. When he walked in, she was already seated by the window, flipping through something on her tablet, a half-finished green tea beside her.

"You look like you've been living in a server room," she remarked, not looking up.

Esterio smirked. "Not far off."

She finally glanced up, scanning his face. "You're pushing yourself too hard."

He stirred his coffee absentmindedly. "We have to. EVO isn't just another AI project—it's something that could change the game."

Lia raised an eyebrow. "And why do you need to change the game?"

He hesitated. Because winning this competition wasn't just about prestige. It was about Hyperion, about understanding why they were investing so much into this. It was about something bigger than just an AI contest. But he couldn't tell her that.

Instead, he sighed. "Because we're competing against the best. And if we don't push forward, we'll be left behind."

Lia sipped her tea, watching him. "Just don't lose yourself in it, okay? The best discoveries aren't made by people who forget why they started."

Her words lingered as he walked back to the lab.

Back in the lab, Elliot had made some progress. "I tweaked EVO's meta-learning parameters," he announced, typing rapidly. "Now it doesn't just rewrite—it validates before modifying itself. We give it a dataset, and instead of blindly rewriting code, it predicts whether a change improves its efficiency first."

Marcus raised an eyebrow. "So we just gave EVO a conscience?"

Elliot grinned. "More like a sanity check."

Esterio watched as EVO processed a test dataset. It no longer made wild, erratic changes. Instead, it adapted step by step, recognizing patterns but also rejecting faulty logic. The screen beeped. Processing complete. Accuracy: 96.4%.

A noticeable jump from before. Esterio exhaled. They were finally getting somewhere. But they all knew this was just the beginning.

Marcus, still scrolling through the competition details, suddenly frowned. "Hold up. There's something else here."

Elliot groaned. "Great. What now?"

Marcus turned his screen to them. "Hyperion isn't just monitoring our results. They'll have their own internal AI team competing alongside us."

Esterio's jaw tightened. So Hyperion wasn't just looking for an outsider to win—they were comparing all of their competitors against something they already had.

Elliot rubbed his forehead. "They're not just testing us. They're testing whether we're better than whatever they're already building."

Marcus exhaled. "This just got a lot more complicated."

Esterio leaned back, deep in thought. Hyperion wasn't just picking the best AI team. They were looking for something more. And if they were putting this much effort into the competition… what were they really preparing for?

The move to New York was set. The train tickets were booked. And in a few days, Team EVO would leave MIT behind.