"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" I stared at Jackson as if he had just sprouted another head.

He rolled his eyes. "Will you pay attention? My mother's best friend's sister's baby brother has been working on a video game for the past year but he needs people to beta test the game first. My mom thought it would be a good idea to volunteer me."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"You're my best friend which means you have to come along and suffer with me." He tried to grab my hand but I pulled back, scowling at him.

"I don't wanna."

"Neither do I!"

"So go complain to your mom about it."

"You know I can't do that~" he frowned, tugging at my hand. "Please, Jen? We'll just go and test the game for an hour or two and then we can leave and get some tacos."

I perked up at that and, even though my mind had been made up with that one magical word, I decided to act as if I was still unsure just to torture him. "I don't know, man."

"I'm buying."

"Deal."

"You agreed too quickly! Cheapskate."

I shrugged, stuffing my hands into my pocket as I headed for the door. "You comin' or not?"

Clicking his tongue, he followed after me, shoving his feet into his sneakers before rushing out the door before I could.

━━━━━━༻*༺━━━━━━

I frowned as I stared at the white building in front of us, feeling a prickling at the back of my mind. It was a shady ass building down by the docks, tucked into the corner. It was made of aluminum, I think, rattling every time the wind blew and it was built in the shape of a rectangle. Only one car was parked in front of the building and it was an old, beat-up station wagon. 

"Are you sure this is the right place?"

Jackson rubbed the back of his head, tugging his phone from his pocket. "This is the address my mom sent."

"I think she's setting you up to be murdered, bro"

"She would never do something like that." He jabbed me in the ribs. "She wouldn't set me up to be murdered, she'd murder me herself."

My head snapped to him in surprise, never having heard him say anything like that about his mom. He never complained about her or said anything bad about her, so hearing him confirm that she would murder her own son instead of having someone else murder him was strange. Before I could question it, though, the door of the building opened up, the metal squeaking loudly.

A man wearing a black suit stepped out and, even though his eyes were hidden behind thick, black sunglasses, I could just feel him staring at us. He started toward us and my shoulders tensed up, sensing the danger of this man that was quickly closing the distance between us.

"Shit," Jackson muttered, grabbing my arm. "I think she set me up to be murdered."

"Man, that means I'm gonna be killed too," I scowled at him. "You're a terrible best friend."

"Like I knew this would happen!"

The man came to a stop in front of us and I realized just how big he was. Standing at least six feet tall, his body was full of muscle, looking as if he could easily crush us like a soda can if he wanted to. "Jackson Xu?" His voice was deep and baritone. "I'll need to see your ID for confirmation."

Jackson slowly nodded, pulling out his wallet so he could prove his identity.

The man's head moved the tiniest bit and I felt his eyes burning into me from behind the sunglasses. "Who are you? Only Jackson Xu has clearance to be here."

"Cool. Good luck, Jacks." I pulled my arm away from him in one swift movement before turning on my heel and beginning to walk away. He wasn't having this, grabbing the back of my shirt and using all his strength to force me back toward him. I nearly lost my balance so I stepped hard on his foot in revenge.

He winced in pain but was too nervous for our usual banter. Instead, he gave the man a nervous smile, clearing his throat. "Jen has to stay."

"Why?" he demanded.

"Uh, because..."

"Because why?" The man's voice dropped an octave and it was obvious he was growing annoyed.

"Because..." Jackson bit his lip hard as he tried to think of an excuse that the man would accept. "She's my... emotional support human..."

I slapped my hand against my face in disbelief. Of all the stupid excuses he could have used, that's the one he went with? A two-year-old could have come up with something better.

"Don't move," he ordered, turning around and taking a few steps away from us before bringing his fingers to his ear. I could hear him speaking, but his voice was too low to make out the words.

"What's he doing?" Jackson whispered, his brow furrowed.

"I think he has an earpiece in."

"Like the movies?"

"Yes, Jackson, like the movies."

The man turned back toward us, lifting his large hand and beckoning us forward before he started toward the building. We exchanged a look, silently discussing if this was a good idea or if we should just take our chances by running away. Before we could come to a conclusion, the man took notice that we hadn't moved an inch.

"Move!" he barked angrily, making Jackson jump into action, tugging me along behind him as he closed the distance between us and the man. The door had to be opened with a key card and I noticed the domed camera nestled beside the door.

This guy that we're supposed to be meeting is a fucking video game creator, what's with this security? It seems a bit excessive and paranoid which made me wonder just what kind of guy we were about to be involved with.

The hallway was dark, lit only by dull yellow lights spaced too far apart, and it seemed to stretch on for ages before finally opening up. It looked  like an old airport hangar. The left wall was covered with monitors showing graphs and numbers I couldn't understand. Desks lined the wall, holding various keyboards and computer towers. To the right of the hangar was...

"What the fuck..."

Jackson followed my gaze, his eyes widening. "Holy shit. Is that what I think it is?"

"A spaceship?"

"Jen!" Jackson turned his back to the man, not that he was paying us any attention anyway, and grabbed me by the shoulders. "This guy is an alien and he's going to abduct us!"

I snorted. "So, your mom set you up to be taken to space and probed instead of murdered. Nice."

"I knew she wouldn't try to murder me!"

"I don't think alien abduction is much better than murder, mate."

"Be quiet!" The man snapped, turning to glare at us.

I scowled at him, starting to feel annoyed by being kept in the dark. "Why are you still wearing sunglasses? We're indoors and it's dark as fuck in this place. Did you not get the memo that wearing sunglasses indoors stopped being cool like ten years ago?"

"Jen!" Jackson hissed in warning, smacking my shoulder. "Don't make the man in black angry, you fool!"

"If he's going to do something to us, it doesn't matter what we do or don't say. No way in hell am I going down without a fight." I guess my words lit a fire under his ass because Jackson nodded, the fear dying from his eyes as he straightened his back, standing shoulder-to-shoulder beside me.

Several tense moments passed by with the man staring us down and vice versa.

"Thank you for watching them, Steve. You can go now."

I looked around for the sound of the voice. Standing atop a small set of stairs beside the monitors was a thin, Asian man with big, round glasses. He looked to be in his early twenties, standing at about five feet, five inches and wearing a long lab coat. 

The burly man didn't hesitate to follow the man's order, nodding his head toward him before disappearing down the hallway we had used to get here.

Mr. Lab Coat gave us a nervous smile as he approached, fiddling with his fingers. "Hello, thank you for coming. My name is Joshua Jiang. Nice to meet you." He bowed politely.

We exchanged a look, not quite knowing how to feel about this man.

I cleared my throat. "Name's Jen and this is Jackson. Can you tell us why we're here? We were told we were gonna help with a video game, but..." I glanced at the space ship and he followed my gaze. "Why the fuck do you have a spaceship? And what's with this shady ass building, man?"

"Do you work for the government?" Jackson interjected curiously.

"Ah..." Joshua adjusted his glasses. "Please don't misunderstand, I definitely do not work for the government. I'm a video game developer specializing in virtual reality technology. I'm currently working on a project for my midterm exams." He walked quickly over to one of the monitors. "The game I'm currently creating is a science fiction game that takes place in space. It's actually perfect that there are two of you!"

"And why's that?" I questioned, approaching one of the monitors to get a better look. It was just a bunch of random numbers and made no sense to me whatsoever.

"The main characters of my game are a girl named Monica and a boy named Marco. They are heroes who save the universe from destruction!"

"Okay... but why the spaceship?"

"It's all part of the virtual reality!" He was growing more excited as he spoke and it was obvious he was very passionate about this. He quickly entered something into the computer, adjusting his glasses as he turned and started to walk toward the ship. "Please come with me, I'll show you exactly how it works!"

I ran a hand through my hair, trying to decide if we should trust this guy or not. Not that it matters because something tells me that burly bastard is waiting nearby for us in case we tried anything. Jackson didn't share my sentiments, following the shorter male with no caution at all. It was obvious he wanted a better look at the ship, but damn. Reluctantly, I followed after them, keeping an eye on the shorter male in case he tried anything.

"I built this spaceship because I wanted the virtual reality to feel as real as possible."

"Woah, you built this?" Jackson's eyes widened in amazement.

"I did! It took a few years to complete it because I was so busy with school, but I'm quite proud of how it turned out."

"That's incredible. Does it work?"

"Unfortunately not," Joshua frowned, adjusting his glasses as he tapped a sequence of numbers onto the keypad beside the ship's door. "It has been rigged to shake and move in response to what's happening within the virtual world, however."

"And we get to try it out?" Jackson looked at him hopefully as the door opened outward before lowering to the floor.

"Yes! You'll be the first two people to test it. I'm quite excited to see if it will work as intended and if you will enjoy the experience. Please, go ahead." He motioned toward the open door and Jackson didn't hesitate to step onto the mini stairs and into the ship. Joshua looked at me, a small smile on his face.

I still don't fully trust this situation, but I can't let Jackson tackle this alone. If he's going to get himself killed, I may as well try and stop it at least. I narrowed my eyes at him before stepping up onto the ship. Even the inside had been built, making it look like a real spaceship that you'd see in the movies.

"If you'll please have a seat at the front, we can get the simulation going."

I followed Jackson to the front of the ship and we took our seats, me on the right and him on the left. The console was covered with knobs and dials and buttons with a console dead center displaying data that I couldn't make any sense of.

"Let's get you strapped in."

"What?" I scowled at him as he started to secure straps across each of Jackson's shoulders, like he was a toddler incapable of doing it himself.

"Don't worry, it's perfectly safe!"

Perfectly safe, my ass! He said himself that we're the first one to test this shit, there's no way he can know if it's safe.

"Don't be such a spoilsport, Jen," Jackson scowled, smacking my arm.

"Fine. Don't complain when you're killed."

"I'm going to haunt you until the end of time."

"I will exorcise your ass so fast your head will spin."

Joshua cleared his throat. "Right, well... I'll just finish strapping you in." And then he pulled a metal helmet from the ceiling, settling it on top of Jackson's head. Wires of various colors connected the top of the helmet to the ceiling and it had long sides that covered his cheeks with a strap beneath his chin.

I'm no expert, but this looks a lot like an electric chair...

He turned toward me, reaching for the straps but I glared at him, swatting his hand away. I think I can manage to put my arms through a strap without assistance. 

He sent me a nervous smile before reaching for the helmet, tugging it down onto my head. It was a snug fit and I could feel something on the inside of the cheek flaps. It wasn't quite as rough as sandpaper, but it was far from soft and felt kind of bumpy or wavy. Finally, he pulled two metal bracelets from the pocket of his lab coat, handing one to each of us.

"Please place it on your left wrist, with the sensor against the inside of your wrist. I'll go and start up the program. One moment, please!"

I inspected the bracelet but there was nothing interesting about it. It was literally just a metal ring with a small sensor on the inside. I pressed the tiny button and the bracelet split apart, allowing me to slip it around my wrist. Just like the helmet, it fit snugly.

Microphone feedback echoed through the ship before Joshua's voice reached us. "Can you hear me?"

"Yep," Jackson replied.

"Excellent. Please open the small compartment on either side of the center console."

Jackson didn't even hesitate to reach forward, pressing on the small door beside the console. It clicked open, revealing a pair of what looked like snow goggles. I opened the compartment on my side of the console, tugging the goggles out so I could inspect them. The band was thick and the goggles had been blacked out by something, making it impossible to see anything through them.

"Please place the glasses on, securing them snugly against your face."

I scoffed. "Oi, don't you think we should have put the glasses on before the helmet?"

"No. It is imperative that you put them on around the helmet."

"That makes zero sense, man."

Jackson shrugged, undoing the clip at the back of the glasses before he brought them to his face, struggling to stretch the band around the bulky helmet but he managed to secure it, holding his thumb up. I sighed, bringing them up to my face and securing them behind my head. I definitely do not like not being able to see anything, not even the tiniest bit of light. It's disorienting and it's putting me on edge.

"I'm starting the program. Please standby."

The ship started to shake violently and I gripped the armrest tightly.

"What's happening?!" Jackson cried, but it was barely audible over the loud sound that filled the ship, akin to someone humming and something buzzing at the same time.

"I don't know!" I yelled back, feeling my heart beating violently against my ribs as if trying to escape this situation. I was just about to rip the glasses off when a bright, white light blinded me, making me wince and close my eyes. The sound faded and the violent shaking reduced to light turbulence.

"Holy shit..."

I opened my eyes, expecting to still see darkness but that's not what I saw. Instead of seeing the hangar through the front window of the ship, I now saw vast, endless space dotted with stars and planets. I've never been much of a Sci-Fi person and I've never had much of an interest in space, but goddamn... if this is what space is like, it's fucking beautiful.

"Jen, are you seeing this?"

"Yeah..." I glanced over at him and blinked in confusion. Instead of seeing my Chinese best friend, I saw an African American boy and he wasn't wearing the helmet or the glasses. "Who are you?"

He glanced at me, blinked, and then freaked out. "Who the hell are you?! Why do you sound like Jen?"

My brow furrowed. "Jackson?"

"How do you know my name? Why do you sound like that?"

A burst of strange laughter filled the ship before Joshua's voice came through. "You're seeing the characters as I designed them! Marco is an African American young man from Chicago and Monica is a Mexican young woman from New York. They first met each other when a natural disaster forced humanity to speed up their plans to live on other planets. Earth began to fall apart and the government shipped off groups of humans to find inhabitable planets within the solar system. Marco and Monica were on the same ship!"

"It's so realistic," Jackson commented, reaching forward to touch one of the handles on the dash.

Joshua hummed. "That's why the replica of the ship is so important!"

"But it only works when we're sitting down," I guessed, knowing I was right when it took him a moment to reply.

"...well, yes. I haven't planned that far quite yet but I'm working hard on the solution!"

I felt Jackson smack me and Marco's character was giving me a look that clearly said, 'Shut up, don't ruin this.' I scoffed but kept the rest of my comments to myself.

"What else can this thing do?" Jackson wondered.

"Here, let me show you!"

━━━━━━༻*༺━━━━━━

"Shit!" I scowled when a rocket hit the ship, causing one of the replicators to explode. The whole ship shook violently, the lights flickering on and off as a warning that something had gone very wrong. "Damn, Grox and Sellena are really relentless!"

"For real, though," Jackson complained from behind me, lounging on the sofa and reading manga as if two space pirates weren't trying to kill us. "They've been on our ass since Sector 931."

They fired more rockets at us and the lights inside the ship turned red, a clear indication that things were going downhill fast. I glanced to my right where Keith sat under the visage of a young Japanese man named Naoko, his face full of focus as he dodged the rockets with quick and graceful movements, one of the things that made him the best pilot in the galaxy!

I leaned my arm over the back of the chair, peering through the glass at the sheer amount of vast space that surrounded us. The next planet wasn't close enough to make a clean escape from the two pirates, but... I chewed on my lip for a moment before finally making my decision. "Naoko, hit that wormhole."

"Are you crazy, Jen?!" Jackson cried out and I glared at him and he realized his mistake. "Uh... on my home planet, Jen is another way of saying Monica..."

"We're from the same planet, dumbass."

Keith lightly smacked my leg, his voice barely above a whisper. "It's a PG-13 game, remember? Don't cuss."

I clicked my tongue in annoyance, getting back on topic. My reply was confident. "Glimmering can handle it!" 'At least I hope he can,' I thought as I patted the console affectionately.

Keith pretended to fly toward an abandoned space station before faking them out at the last moment, turning the ship toward the giant wormhole in the distance. "Hey, captain? Do you remember when we used to holiday on Helios?"

"Yeah, I do."

"If we survive this... let's go there again."

"Yeah, let's do that."

"W-Wait a minute!" Jackson cried. "We can talk about this, can't w -"

But Keith ignored him, pushing the throttle to its max and sending us shooting forward at an alarming rate, right into the wormhole.

"And~ CUT!" Joshua's voice came over the speaker, followed by his clapping. "That was excellent, guys! This trailer is going to look amazing!"

I scoffed, standing up straight. "Except Jackson messed up his line."

"I'm sorry, I'm not a professional voice actor!"

"Neither are we but we didn't mess up our lines, mate."

"Which means you're not human because humans make mistakes. I knew you were a demon."

"Oh, I'll show you a demon -"

Keith threw his arm around my shoulder to keep me from tackling Jackson. "Everyone did a good job. Just think of it this way, Jen - since he made a mistake, we get to enjoy the sequence again."

"Yeah, see? I did you a favor!" Jackson grinned proudly. "Admit it, Jen, you're having fun with this~"

I scoffed as if that was the single most absurd thing I had ever heard but, the truth is, I really am enjoying it. It's fun pretending to be the captain of a spaceship, dodging pirates and trying to reunite humanity from some overwhelming villain. 

Plus, Joshua was willing to write in a character for Keith so he could join us. If I admitted this to Jackson, though, he'd never let me live it down. I folded my arms over my chest. "Oi, if we keep having to do this, you're gonna have to pay us!"

Joshua giggled over the speaker. "I was planning on paying you once the project is complete."

"That's more like it! Let's get this done so I can get paid."

Keith smiled, sending me a knowing look which I blatantly ignored.