Bright light was the first thing I was aware of. The second was someone holding my eye open to shine said light into it. I squinted and tried to turn my head away, raising an arm to shield my eyes. "Finally coming to. Sir, please stay still."

The light left my field of vision, and I felt a hand on my shoulder. Was I lying down? What happened? Owwww, why do I have such a headache? I thought, moving my hand to rub my head. I felt a twinge in my left arm as I moved it. Wait. Didn't I hurt that arm?

My eyes shot wide as the events that transpired in Alien: Isolation came back to me. I tried to sit up, but the hand on my shoulder remained firm, keeping me down. It took me a moment to realize how small the person attached to that hand was. Well, petite. The EMT put a surprising amount of force into keeping my shoulder in place, though she couldn't have been more than half my weight. I blinked at the blonde in surprise and gave up.

"Sir, can you tell me your name?" The EMT asked, letting up on my shoulder once she decided I wasn't going to move.

"X33N. What's going on? Where's Meza? Gwen?" I asked, craning my neck to look around. Meza and Devon were talking to a cop a short distance away, and Gwen was leaning against a rolling cart of VR equipment, answering questions from another EMT. We were still at the Alien VR booth at the convention. The rest of the exhibit hall looked abandoned, and I wondered if it had been cleared out for the crime scene or if we'd just been in the game that long.

We made it out. I relaxed at the realization, letting my head rest on the carpeted floor again.

"You would know the answer to that better than I would," the EMT admitted. She shook her head, making the curls in her ponytail bounce. "This all strikes me as more science fiction than science; murder and attempted murder by hacking a video game? I don't envy the cops that have to write this one up."

I laughed despite myself. That did sound pretty ridiculous. "So what's your part in this?" I asked.

"I'm supposed to make sure nothing up here," She said, tapping my forehead with the penlight she'd shone in my eyes earlier. "Got fried. Also need to check you for a concussion; your friend says you hit your head on your way down. Cooperate, and we'll get this out of the way quickly."

"Yes, nurse," I said submissively, earning an amused eye roll from the EMT.

Gwen got cleared to go before I did, and she was spirited away by police to give some statement or be interrogated as to why her invention had killed her brother. I hoped it wasn't the latter. She'd had a bad enough day. As entertaining as the thought of her going postal on a police officer was, I knew that wouldn't end well for anyone involved.

As the EMT finished running me through a series of coordination tests, I caught sight of two cops leading a handcuffed Caden out a side door. Good. They'd caught him. He had a lot to answer for. "Alright, X33N. Looks like you're all clear to go. Just need your signature here and here showing you declined transport to the hospital and further testing and treatment," She said, handing me a pen and a clipboard with papers on it.

After giving my signatures and a quick statement to the cop who was still present, I joined Meza. Devon had disappeared when I wasn't looking. "Well, that was...something," Meza said tiredly.

"Yeah. It's a thing. At least you have a good story for when you get back," I pointed out.

"Hmm." Meza hummed noncommittally. "And you? Going to tell anyone what happened?"

My initial reaction was yes, but the more I thought about it, the more hesitant I was. "I'm never going to hear the end of this if my discord finds out. Saved by chickens!" I groaned, rubbing a hand over my face. That was only part of the reason though. Another part of me was worried what this story would do to Gwen's career and the launch of the VR tech. The only reason it was dangerous was because someone on the production team sabotaged it. I could bet there would be more safeguards in place before it hit sales, if it ever did.

"Well, you've still got a few days here at the convention to think about it," Meza said. "Let's go. I think we could both use a drink after today."

"Yeah," I said, distractedly. I was busy thinking about tomorrow.

---

The main stage area was packed out by the time I arrived. I guess word got out about the VR, I thought when I overheard snippets of the conversations going on. Most of the details were still secret, but everyone knew that the tech had been compromised by a hacker. I briefly wondered if "hacker" was even the right term, since Caden had just used his admin login to access the system remotely. He hadn't had to "hack" at all.

As I approached the reserved seats up front, I looked over the stage. Gwen's VR tech looked to be first in the exhibit lineup. Everything from the booth was set up and ready to go. Devon was running a few system checks at the console. The dark circles under his eyes made me suspect he'd been up most of the night undoing Caden's revenge. The audience lighting dimmed soon after, the lights on the stage brightening in contrast to draw attention. The crowd hushed, and one of the convention spokesmen detailed the agenda for today. Then he introduced Gwen.

Gwen strode out from behind the curtain at stage right, head held high, heels clicking against the stage. She looked much the same as Devon, though she'd made an effort to hide the evidence with makeup. For all my knowledge that she'd been through hell and back yesterday, she looked like this was any normal day. She thanked the speaker and took the microphone. Her spiel was practiced, and she blatantly avoided the topic of what happened at the booth. Then she approached the VR setup. "As much as I can say with words, a picture is worth far more, and no exhibition is complete without a demonstration."

A murmur ran through the crowd at that. I was surprised too, and sat up straighter in my chair, disbelieving. Everything that had happened less than a day ago, and she was diving back in? Gwen handed Devon the mic and picked up the waiting black helmet. I could just see her hands trembling as she slid it on over her head, booting up the game as she activated the handheld controls. The gameplay popped up on the main stage screen.

Devon had apparently built a microphone into this helmet, because we could still hear Gwen loud and clear as she listed off features of both the VR and the AI remake, stumbling in her words at first. After a few minutes that same enthusiasm she'd shown me yesterday crept back into her voice, and she found her stride. She pointed out some of the detail enhancement that I'd noticed, and Devon typed something on his computer, bringing up a split screen with the original game showing on the left and the remake on the right. The original looked stark in comparison to the VR edition. She went on to cover some of the multiplayer features, including the multiplayer story mode and a hide-and-seek game mode where one person got to play the part of the Alien and the others played humans trying to survive until the end of the countdown. Most importantly in my mind, she took the helmet off at the end of the demonstration with no difficulties—aside from a mild case of helmet hair.

The spokesman walked back out onto the stage while Gwen apologized for not being able to stay to take questions, citing a family emergency for her sudden departure. Her voice cracked slightly at the end, and she hurried to leave the stage. There was a commotion at that, but the speaker quickly recaptured their attention and directed it to the next exhibit. I was standing and heading for backstage before Gwen disappeared behind the curtain. The security guard stationed there eyed me menacingly until Devon told him I was cool. Yeesh, they stepped up security.

"Gwen!" I called to get her attention. She was already halfway to a back exit.

She stopped and turned to face me. Her face brightened a little at seeing me, though a haze of grief and unshed tears didn't quite leave her eyes. "X33N, glad you could make the presentation," She said in a forced cheerful tone.

"Yeah, that was really good. What you did back there took balls."

One corner of her mouth twitched in a hint of a grin, but it vanished nearly as soon as it appeared. She sighed. "I really do have to go. I have to arrange Michael's funeral and clean my place before our parents fly in, and..." She trailed off, fighting back emotion.

Finally she shook her head, as if she could banish all her troubles with the gesture. "See you at the next convention?" She asked, surprising me yet again. That seemed to be a pattern with her.

"I mean, it doesn't have to be that long. We could skype and watch Prometheus on Netflix sometime." When she gave me a confused look, I elaborated. "Well, you loved the Alien ship in AI so much, I figured you'd like to see what it looked like before it was a ruin."

Her eyes brightened in interest and a faint smile played across her lips. "I'd like that."

The End

~~~~~~~~~~End Credits~~~~~~~~~~

(to the tune of "City Electric" by Anberlin)

https://youtu.be/YegaICCjV7M

~Muse Poker, Plot Guru, and Editor Extraordinaire~

rizapheonyxx

Special thanks to my friends in discord who helped me stay motivated and tracked down my muse when it tried to run off. Your encouraging words and advice have meant a lot. Much love. <3

14,463 words and 28 pages later, here we are. I didn't stick to my original deadline on this one; I was a little overambitious. :P I'll try to be more realistic with my timeline next time for my and the story's sakes. xD

No literary adventure would be complete without a huge thank you to the content creator who made a fan fiction possible in the first place: X33N. Here's to you. *raises a toast* May your future endeavors turn out better than you expect, and may you always have what you need.