A/N: Happy Halloween, loyal readers! As promised, here is the first chapter of the rewrite of Bittersweet and Strange! As usual, I don't own WIR! I do however own Sammy Shields, and her boss and colleagues, so... :) Enjoy. And yes, I am still working on B+S, but like I said, the story does vary a little drastically, so...You can read that, then this! But please, be sure to review so I know what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong! Also, before I forget, the cover art is the work of the always lovely Calhoun-mun and is used with permission from her!
Sammy Shields did not see herself as one to radiate confidence like the character she'd created. Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun was everything that Sammy wasn't. She was statuesque, certain of herself, eloquent (in her own roundabout way – one thing was for certain, the marine got what she needed), just to name a few qualities. Shaking in her custom-painted cybug canvas shoes, she addressed the high schoolers in the auditorium. "Hey, hey, good morning!" She greeted cheerfully.
If you couldn't fake it, you couldn't make it.
"Who here wants to go into video games as a career?" She asked into the microphone, a slight echo to her words. She wondered if she'd ever get used to speaking into one, or really, public speaking at all. An orator, she was not.
Twelve out of fifty-seven hands shot up.
"Good, good, about….twelve of you?" Sammy asked as she craned her neck and counted with her pointer finger at various teenagers in the audience, most decked out in some form of Hero's Duty merchandise or another. "Anyone in back? No? Okay. Well, guys, this is Tobikomi. Uh…more specifically, the Wreck-it Studios division."
So she still had the crowd. Good sign.
"Okay. Would anyone like to tell me our most popular game?"
"Oh! Oh!" A girl with honey-colored hair and glasses, wearing a baby cybug plush hat, frantically waved her hand in the air. "I know!"
"Yes, you? In the back?" Sammy asked, turning on her heels as she faced the girl.
"Hero's Duty!"
"Right! You ever played?"
"Of course I've played!" She indicated the hat.
"I'm so glad to hear that," Sammy said sincerely as she jumped off the stage. "And today, we're gonna see the development of the sequel! Hero's Duty: Apex of the Cyren!"
"What's a 'cyren'?" A girl asked.
"A cyren…how many of you are familiar with Sergeant Calhoun's backstory?"
Firm agreement by the students.
"So you're familiar with the concept of cybrids, then."
"Yep!"
"A cyren is just a female cybrid. Primary differences are the absence of wings in female – they're used for breeding stock, so it wouldn't do them any good to be able to escape – cybrids, thinner forelegs than their male counterparts, and the ability to hypnotize any cybug, whether it is part of her colony or not."
"Wow!"
"The sequel will be more story-based, rather than the shoot-'em-up I originally developed five long years ago. You will be doing a dangerous job, my friends."
Friends. The word rolled off her tongue now, sounding oh so less foreign than she expected it to. Sure, she had work acquaintances, but it was strictly business.
"What job?"
"You will be freeing Sergeant Calhoun herself from the curse of the cyren."
"What?"
"Oh yes. Driven by the desire to avenge her fiancé, Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun-" Sammy paused as she lowered the brightness of the overhead lights and turned her head to face the projector screen. The Tobikomi logo splash, with a smiling Fix-it Felix, Jr. and the slogan 'Tobikomi – Jumping into Play' appeared. "Ah, give me just one moment, please."
Sammy wiggled the mouse belonging to the computer connected to the projector. It slowly buffered to life. "Ah, here we go. Driven by the desire to avenge her fiancé, Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun ventures into a cybrid's lair. The cybrid, of course, is her wounded – but not down for the count – fiancé. Things do not go expected for our dynamite gal, and she finds herself devoured – and turned into one of the beasts."
Sammy clicked over to the next slide, showing the cybrid Calhoun. "Thirty feet long, kids. Note the tails, which are prehensile and capable of strangling the cybrid's victims. The claws, too, aid in gouging out of throats and other innards."
A collective gasp of the crowd.
"Would anyone like to beta test?"
The same twelve hands shot up, almost on the instinct that served Sammy so well and propelled her into the doors of her employer.
"So, uh, can I get a Fix-it fish sandwich," Sammy began as she got into the hot lunch line. She had to speak loudly to be heard over the cafeteria's din, something that didn't suit her at all. She wasn't loud, she wasn't public, she was invisible. "um….a Sugar Rush strawberry cheesecake, and a Cy-trus soda?" Sammy asked as she moved down the line in the cafeteria. "Thanks, man," she said as she paid and grabbed an apple from the free produce basket. She bit into it, coughing as she felt the wind knocked out of her.
"Hiya Sammy!"
"Chantrea," Sammy rasped. "You asshole, I was chewing something!" She beat her fist against her chest, trying to loosen the stuck piece of fruit in her esophagus. "Jesus Christ."
"Aw come on, it's all in good fun! How's the tour coming?"
"Yeah, your 'all in good fun' pranks have ended with me in the hospital before," Sammy said after taking a bite of her fish sandwich. "Tour's going great. They're going to test 'Cyren' after we're done eating, then the person who cures Calhoun first gets a prize."
"What's the prize? Bet it can't beat the news I have for you!" Chantrea giggled, twirling her Niceland Nicoise salad.
"Oh yeah? What's that?" Sammy asked, her voice dull. Chantrea's personality was too bubbly. True this place was laid back, but there was no reason to be that excitable all the time.
"The big boss is in the building – the Tobikomi president – and he wants you to test something for him!"
"Me?" Sammy asked as she blinked incredulously, her sentence punctuated by a drip of tartar sauce escaping her sandwich and onto the plate. "Why me?"
"Because Hero's Duty is the best selling arcade game! The console port even more!" Chantrea said, unceremoniously sticking forkful after forkful of lettuce in her mouth and swallowing. "Boss-man said I could take your place in the tour!"
"But you're on the Felix team."
"I know enough from watching you, sourpuss."
"Please don't call me that," Sammy said dryly.
"Aw, see? No fun!" Chantrea said. "You know what your problem is? You lack confidence. But you have every right to have it! You're awesome."
"Chantrea."
Her college roommate was more of a babysitting project than the twenty-seven-year-old developer Sammy thought she ought to be.
But maybe she was right. Maybe there was more than just going through the motions of day-to-day life.
"When do they want me to show up?" Sammy asked, plastering on what she hoped to be an enthused smile.
"Ahh, Miss Shields. Come right in." John Moore said. "Yes, yes, don't be shy, come now, you've worked for me for six years now."
Feeling intrepid for once in her life, Sammy stepped forward.
"Sammy, this is Mrs. Meminger from our European localization office and Ishiyama-san from our Japanese headquarters."
"Wow, it's an honor," Sammy said sincerely. Now these were people to be enthused about. Her smile was genuine but slight, not wanting to appear overeager. These people would advance her career – if they were here, she was on her way to success.
"The pleasure is all ours," Mrs. Meminger replied in thick-accented English.
"We've brought you here, Sammy, because we think you can help us."
"Me?" Sammy asked. "Help you?"
"Of course. We think you would enjoy the opportunity we're about to give you."
"Opportunity? Am I being relocated?"
"You could say that," Ishiyama-san said.
"We've worked on a virtual reality machine that's far more immersive than ever before. It can literally put your subconscious into the game, into an avatar."
"But…I don't understand."
"We can put you in a video game. We want to have someone literally on the inside check in on things."
Sammy blinked, staring at her superiors and cursing herself mentally for such an unprofessional move. Of course they weren't tricking her, this had to be the real deal.
"Is it dangerous?"
"Not at all. Your body won't go anywhere, we'll measure all of your vitals and make sure you're completely safe. Now, we can send your in-game avatar to any arcade's wireless network. Did you have an arcade in your hometown?"
"Yes," Sammy answered, closing her eyes and fondly reminiscing of the days she'd spent that would later be cashed in to provide hot meals and shelter. "Litwak's Family Fun Center." She felt herself loosen, she was no longer the schoolmarm Chantrea claimed her to be, she was relaxed and ready to take on the arcade world, especially if it meant a glance back home – however slight.
"Ah, yes, I'd have a feeling you'd want to go there. It's where you grew up, isn't it?"
"Yes," Sammy answered. "It'll be good to go back home."
"Then let's get you loaded into the machine!"