I nodded, feeling a little better. Thank goodness we met Starr and she ended up on our team. I could already tell she was worth more than ten Joshes put together.
“Okay,” the mission commander barked. “The rules of this game are simple. Capture the other team’s orb and bring it back to your base. Meanwhile make sure to protect your own orb. The first team to capture the other team’s orb twice will be declared the winner.” He looked over at us. “Sound good?”
“Stellar,” Josh replied with over-the-top fake enthusiasm.
The mission commander sighed. From his look I was guessing this wasn’t the first time he’d gotten stuck with Josh. “All right,” he said. “Hang on to your helmets, space cadets. You are now clear for launch.”
He reached out and pressed a red button affixed to the wall, cutting the lights. A moment later the room around me vanished, and I was plunged into pitch-darkness without even a pinprick of illumination. I looked around, my heart beating fast in my chest, trying to see something—anything. But the blackness was unending. It was eerily quiet, too. Like that old Alien movie my dad always quoted. In space, no one can hear you scream.
Honestly, I really wanted to scream. What was going on? Were we in the game? No one had mentioned it would be dark. Was there a way to turn on the lights? I fumbled for menu settings but came up blank. There was nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
And then… a prick of light. Tiny at first, like the head of a pin. Then it grew a little larger. And larger. Like a light at the end of a long tunnel. Growing wider and wider and—
Liftoff! a voice whispered in my ear.
This time I did scream as my body suddenly rocketed toward the light, like a space shuttle hurtling into open space. It was so fast and so real that my stomach dropped out from under me and I was positive I was going to vomit all over myself back in the real world. I thought this game wasn’t supposed to make you sick!
I waved my arms, trying to slow myself down. But I found I had no control as I shot through the air toward a now huge, glowing white hole. Until—
WHOOSH. I was sucked into the ball of light. And everything went blank once more.
When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer spiraling uncontrollably through space. Instead, I had been dropped into a decrepit old warehouse that looked as if it had been hit by a bomb. The crumbling walls were scorched with black soot and covered in old graffiti, and the cracked cement ground was piled high with trash and twisted pieces of metal.
Whoa. I turned around slowly, taking it all in. It looked so real. Just like Dragon Ops had. But unlike Dragon Ops, I was walking around in a body that wasn’t my own. It felt so weird. Not like any other VR I’d tried before, where you were still aware of your regular body and could still move your arms and legs and feel them when you did. Here it felt as if we’d entered another plane of existence entirely. Become another person. It was disorienting and strange but also, I had to admit, kind of cool.
I spotted our orb at the back of the warehouse, shining bright and spinning in midair. It was golden, about the size of a soccer ball, and really beautiful. I had to resist the urge to pick it up and turn it over in my hands. Did it feel warm or cold? Hard or soft as silk? I couldn’t tell by looking at it.
“Amazing!”
I turned to see Lilli had appeared beside me. She was dressed in a golden jumpsuit with zippered pockets all over it and a pink belt buckled around her waist. Her normally short brown hair was now bright pink and piled high in a ponytail on the top of her head. Her skin was shiny—almost metallic looking.
“This is so cool,” she breathed. “I feel like I’m really here.”
“Me too,” I agreed. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Starr appeared next, blinking into the room. She was dressed similarly to Lilli, but she was no longer in a wheelchair. Instead, she was hovering two inches off the ground, held up by what appeared to be a shiny pair of metal wings. I’d seen them when we were picking our armor, but hadn’t chosen them—as I’d already spent all my starting game cash on my cool helmet. Which now I totally regretted. I’d thought the wings were just decorative—I had no idea they actually worked!
Starr fluttered her wings, her eyes shining. “Sweet!” she said. “I like this game already!”
Josh appeared next, unfortunately. I’d hoped he’d changed his mind and bailed at the last second. But there he was, decked out in some sort of super fancy purple space armor I hadn’t seen on sale in the shop, complete with a shiny metallic breastplate and matching elbow and kneepads. On his head, he wore a silver helmet shaped like Rocky the Robot’s. I had to admit, he looked supercool. Not that I’d ever admit that to him.
“Wow,” Lilli said, looking impressed. “I didn’t see that armor in the store. I totally would have picked it myself.”
Josh pushed up his helmet’s visor and winked at her. His character was ten times bulkier than his normally skinny real-life self. “It’s custom,” he explained. “I had some of the artists design it for me a few months ago. I figure if I’m going to be stuck playing this game, I at least ought to look good.”
Of course. The kid who didn’t even care about the game was the best dressed—and best equipped, I bet—of our whole group. Totally not fair. But whatever. As long as his playing was as good as his look.
“Enemy approaching.
