THE MOMENT
“You want me to fight that!!??” Artie was fortunately too disoriented to panic too much, but he managed to panic just the right amount. He’d been minding his own business playing a video game when he was suddenly somewhere else. The mecha on screen were gone, along with his controller, and he found himself in a white room surrounded by important-looking people in uniforms. “I can’t! I’m just a normal, average human!” he needed to make it clear how ill-equipped he was.
“We know,” Justice nodded. She was the teenage girl, looking somewhat younger than Artie’s 24 years, with pink twin braids and a crisp white suit. She was the only one who had bothered to speak to Artie, but she introduced herself with a smile before pointing at the rampaging Kaiju on a large screen. “You were chosen because-,”
“Is this real?” He was sure he was somewhere else, but maybe he’d actually blacked out. Was he dead? “Why me??? I can’t even walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded. Send me back and get someone else.” He was trying to split his attention between everyone in the room and the destruction happening on the monitor. It looked like it was really happening. He briefly considered it might be some elaborate hoax, but he couldn’t reason how he got teleported there to begin with. And, the footage on the screen looked like an authentic, tragic event. The generals and scientists standing around didn’t seem too concerned about his reluctance. Naturally, he didn’t know if they were actually high-ranking generals, but they certainly looked the part with an abundance of ribbons and medals.
“We can, but first I want to explain-,”
“You can!??” Artie was surprised she admitted it, but he wasn’t going to let that chance go. He didn’t know why he was there, and didn’t want to be there, and he’d just learned he didn’t have to be. “Send me back,” he said. “Whatever this is, I refuse.”
“But you’re missing some important-,” Justice started to reply, but one of the scientists spoke up.
“We’re on a schedule,” he said curtly. Justice sighed and nodded without acknowledging the scientist.
“On behalf of Sharp Development, I apologize for the inconvenience. You will be returned to your home and rewarded with a small financial sum for your time. Goodbye, and good luck.” Artie was back home before he could ask anything else.
Seconds later, a new normal average human appeared in the room. He looked around, confused, the same as Artie had, and Justice approached him with a customer service smile. This time, though, she was going to get right to the point. She’d underestimated how surprising their tactics were and decided to open with the important parts.
“Congratulations, Mr. Dean Smith,” she said. “Because of your interest in Sharp’s Mecha-Combat Sim, you’ve been randomly selected to trial run a super-immersive ‘Real’ version,” she pointed at the kaiju rampaging on screen. “We’ve released this wild Kaiju in an abandoned city, and you’ll have the opportunity to outfit a custom mecha with loadouts similar to what we have in the game.”
“Is it dangerous?” the newcomer asked out the side of his mouth as he looked around the room taking in the assembled authorities.
“It feels real to a point…,” Justice warned him with a stern nod. “... but it is a game, you will respawn should you fail. And you’re welcome to try as many times as you like.”
“What do I get if I win?” he asked.
“You get to keep your mech,” Justice grinned. Things seemed to finally be on track.
“Alright, I’ll give it a shot,” he nodded with a shrug.