"Initializing profile: zh20e98f72hez...
Initialization complete. Profile for applicant zh20e98f72hez acquired.
Name: Zen, Elena.
Age: 17.
Gender: Female
Occupation: Burger Dome Cashier.
Skills: Math and Science.
Hobbies: Calc-"

"She sounds great. I choose her."

"But Dexter, I have not given you all of her data…"

"I'm tired of reviewing applications, computress!" Dexter exclaimed. "She sounds fine, I'll just choose her. There shouldn't be any problem. Send her the information regarding the experiment."

"Yes, Dexter."

Elena sighed as she pulled out her keys to enter her house. Her parents would be working all night again. She was hungry, but she was too tired from work to prepare anything for dinner. She scolded herself for not grabbing anything at Burger Dome before she had left. Then again, she was a little sick of all of the fast food she'd been eating recently.

Too exhausted to do anything else, she plopped down in front of her best friend, AKA her laptop. She logged in to her e-mail account and deleted junk mail. She never got much worthwhile e-mail. One caught her eye, though. It was from DexLabs. She sighed. It was probably a rejection letter.

She was getting nothing but rejection letters lately. Harvard didn't want her. Yale certainly didn't want her. Princeton? Forget about it. It wasn't that she wasn't smart. She was in the top five percent in her class. She just didn't have much of a life. She wasn't in any clubs. She wasn't in the band. She never volunteered for anything, never helped anyone in class, and she didn't even have any friends. She didn't really stand out. Well, not counting her hair.

When Elena was in middle school, she was tired of everyone ignoring her and taking her for granted, so she decided to make a statement. She was going to dye her hair. She wasn't stupid, though. She knew that no one would notice unless it was really odd. She decided to bleach it white. It hurt like hell and she had to do it repeatedly, but it worked. Her strawberry-blonde hair was turned to snow. She shocked her mother, classmates, and teachers. They talked about it for days. It didn't last though. After about a week, the effect wore off and Elena was back where she started. She never tried to stand out after that. It was simply too much work. She kept her hair white, though, as a sort of symbol of victory. Plus, she liked the way it looked. Her skin was light, but dark enough to pull it off.

Elena opened the e-mail and her eyes lit up for the first time in a long time. She had been selected! She wondered how on Earth she was chosen. She decided that she didn't care, though. She was finally accepted for something! She actually had something to look forward to.

"Who are you?" A red-haired woman asked. Elena stood on the other side of the door.

"My name's Elena. Um, is Dexter here?"

"Oh yes," the woman, presumably Dexter's mother, said. "One moment. Dexter!"

A red-headed teenager appeared in the doorway. "You must be Elena. I'm Dexter."

It was hard to not stare. Elena had pictured an old geezer living by himself, not a short and geeky teenager playing scientist. Was that really a lab coat he was wearing? And what was up with that accent? Dexter was also staring at Elena. Her white hair gave her quite the striking appearance.

"Come with me," Dexter said after a moment.

"Well, you keep busy," Elena said, looking around Dexter's laboratory.

Dexter shrugged. "It's a business." He led her to a big machine.

"The e-mail I sent should have explained the procedure thoroughly. Do you have any questions?"

"No," Elena said. She just hoped this worked. She couldn't bear yet another disappointment in her life.

"Go on, then."

Elena did. She clambered into the machine. Dexter explained a few more last minute things. The last thing she heard was a girl saying, "Ooh, what does this button do?"

Then there was blackness and a message saying:

Error: Timeskip Malfunction

A/N: I hope you liked the first chapter! I'll try to finish this up soon before I get sick of Fusion Fall.

I'd like to admit right here, right now that I've always kind of had a crush on Dexter. There, I've said it. Yes, even when he was a little box with hands I had a crush on him. He's just so brilliant. And cute.
I've always had a thing for redheads. And glasses, too. So you can imagine how I felt when I started playing Fusion Fall. Kyaa! X3 He's so hot!

Ahem. Anyway, Elena Zen is my real character's name. She also has white hair. Please don't pull a Mary Sue card out on me, I know what they are and I'm against them. I just really want to use my character because I love her so much. I'm trying to give her a good non-Sue personality.

Okay, so at this point in the story, Dexter is about 13 years old. There are absolutely no romantic sparks between them. Dexter wants his invention tested out, and Elena wants some adventure in her otherwise boring life. That is the extent of their relationship at this point. It will progress very gradually, as it should with the characters' personalities. Neither is looking for love, after all.

I play Fusion Fall daily with Elena and, when I'm not on a mission, I usually hang out around Tech Square (for obvious reasons…). If you see Elena, be sure to say hi!