1 Fast Chase and Lazy Girl

Out in the depths of space a light streams from the edge of the solar system, careening through the outer belt of comets and asteroids, bending through the void of empty space. The light passes through the incomprehensible distance through the orbit of the outer planets, swirling through the rings of Saturn and breaking into a shower of incandescent motes.

There was a simple pattern formed by the interplay of light, a chase formed and played out ten thousand times a second. Wherever a mote shone a hue of purple another would emerge from the rain of light and crash into it. Green and Purple lights chased each other, scattering out into a cloud like dust blown off an old book.

Most of these lights faded and danced about each other as they passed through countless meteoroids before breaking into the inner solar system. What few stray rays remained after their dance of destruction spread out in scattered beams racing towards the stars, but one trail tracked towards the blue marble of the solar system. The light was racing towards escape.

It was a crisp Autumn evening in the city, the shades of twilight almost faded from the sky, and the lights from every car and building overshone all but the most stubborn of stars. Those lights danced and shone a million vibrant hues, twinkling to the beat of ten thousand heartbeats roaming through the last few Sunday hours before the weekly humdrum began again.

Drinking, dancing and partying, young blood flowed to the brightest parts of the city searching for the liberties of youth. All of this was happening as Hitomi sat curled up in bed, her phone's screen the only light in her entire world.

She was not going out. As if she had anywhere at all to be, which she didn't. It's not that she didn't have friends, the weekend was just the best time to catch up on all the things she'd missed during the week. Shows and games, mostly. She'd turned her covers over a dozen times in the last hour rolling around, working at the latest puzzle maps standing between her and the next level of the rest of her life.

Finishing this game would be the latest in a line of non accomplishments, but not finishing it would make it a black mark she could never escape. And so here she was on a Sunday night, half dressed with frazzled hair and bloodshot eyes, ready to spend another few hours clearing geometric shapes on her phone's screen.

The lights raced towards Earth, darting and streaming through each other's trails as they cascaded past the moon and traced paths past the satellites in orbit. They rocketed and jolted through the atmosphere, racing like dogfighters. Every turn and pivot of the two beams of light happened in milliseconds, with the slightest of delay's altering the space between the two dogged motes by less than a fraction of a nanometer.

Ten thousand changes in course happened in seconds. Twelve million maneuvers occurred in the first full circle around the planet. All while the persistent distance between flashes of purple and green stayed constant. Then a shift occurred in the delicate equations guiding both of the lights. As Purple descended towards the planet's surface the air sparked and glowed, charged with enough energy to scatter the very atoms of the air itself, and Green charged straight through the burning wake in direct pursuit.

Within the span of time it took to complete half of half of a blink the lights had flown over every continent and major city in the world, touching the sky over billions of people. Having passed through countless lands and environments the last entanglement occurred in a city flushed with countless signals and currents. One single distraction would be all it would take to shift the balance.

They danced again in a vibrant stream of lights before it happened. An error in processing, a random movement of currents or particles changed the formula of the chaser. It lasted one one-hundredth of a second, but by the time the course was corrected the chase was over, the beam of brilliant purple raced past the horizon.

[System Analysis] [Results: Energy 98.9997% Depleted] [Structural Integrity: Critical] [Threat of Discovery: High] [Conclusion: Enable Recovery Systems] [Establishing Security Measures] [Environmental Scan Analysis: Complete] [Viable Conduits: 17] [Establishing Secure Data Transit]

Hitomi flipped her shit. Exciting things just didn't happen to her. On a field trip to an aquarium once, all of the flashier fish hid themselves in the kelp when her group went by. That was the perfect summary of her life so far. So what was with this notification?

'Greetings valued player! Due to your playtime in Candy Mush 2: Chocolate Rain you have been randomly selected for participation in our newest project! A VR Alternate Reality resource management game played out in the real world, with social clan building aspects. We also feature an involved, masterfully crafted story for active participants. As an initial player, numerous benefits and rewards are available to you alone. As an avid player of our previous titles, we have included the download in the automatically scheduled updates of all currently installed software. Thank you for your participation.'

"What?" she squeaked out to her empty room, throwing her blankets off her bed in surprise. "Hey, no no no, I don't need any more shady stuff." She scrolled over the notification, looking for a way to refuse.

Obviously there needed to at least be a EULA she could close out of. As she scrolled down, however, the notification and her game closed and a loading circle opened over her screen. It looped as she hammered on the home button.

Nothing changed, the loading circle just continued to loop. "Hey, no, what the fuck, no, no no, what are you doing?" But the cold, uncaring phone did not respond, it just continued to load. She continued trying to get out of the unintended download until the only thing she could think of was to turn the phone off entirely. Hopefully that would reset it.

And it did turn off. But… what was left for her to do now? No phone, no game. No game, nothing to do. She rested her head on her knees and stayed like that for several minutes before a little grumble roused her. "Oh, fine, you win stomach." She peeled herself off her bed and threw on something decent without enthusiasm. "I'll try restarting this thing after I get a snack."