The name's Praelia. Alyssa Praelia. I am a seventeen-year-old teenage girl and a student of Los Angeles City College. Today is the first day of summer and it feels like the first real break I've had in a while. The whole school year was feeling endless, not gonna lie. I've almost been seeing nothing but textbooks, notebooks, equations, you get the picture. I've been wanting to do something else then just study for ten hours. A lot of other students are going out doing a bunch of dumb teenage student stuff like hanging out at the mall all day, watching a few movies, even doing some weird challenges just 'cause they're "trending". Well I'm not doing any of that. I'm spending this summer playing video games, the one activity I've been wanting to do all year.

Now, in case you'd like to know more about me. Do I have friends? Yes I do. One of them named Dave was actually leaving to his home city of California to spend the summer with his family. He initially invited me earlier to join me but I said I'd be fine staying at the college building. "Suit yourself," he said. We saluted each other before he hauled up his bags and drove away (dude's got his own car; actually everybody's got their own car around here).

As for what I look like and what I wear; I often have a mixed fashion sense. Sometimes I like to wear my long auburn hair in a ponytail or a bun or even in a braid sometimes because some have said I look good with my hair like that; albeit sometimes I just like to have it free, and that's how I'm wearing it today. Today I'm wearing an orange crop top with a blue sando underneath. I'm also wearing a red and pink skirt with a black belt, and long white socks and long black boots.

Right now though, there's something I'd like to do before playing my supply of video games from home. Everybody should know by now that girls are very fond of shopping. Downtown, there's a small flea market that my sister found online. We were just chatting the other day and she just told me about it. I have been wanting to stretch my legs and get a few stuff. Plus, a bit of exercise before sitting for a few possible hours was definitely needed. I grabbed a few things to go, put on one of my favorite songs ("Good Time" by Owl City and Carly Jae Rapsen) and set off with my bike. While I do have my own car, I'd rather save the atmosphere from a few dangerous fuels. Plus, that kind of travel sometimes makes me feel lazy.


When I got to the flea market, I was already getting pretty excited, especially since I already knew what I wanted to get first. I wanted a new kind of jewelry, something I could wear around my neck; so I went to the first jewelry stall display I could find. And there it was.

On display was a strange but cool-looking medallion that looked like a pixelated game controller. Being a huge fan of video games, I wanted it cause it reminded me of a few older games in 8- and 16-bit.

"Hey lady," I said to the woman attending to the stall. She turned around and observed me up and down. She was an old lady with gray hair in a bun with a light green dress and purple glasses.

"Ah, welcome, welcome," she greeted warmly. "If new accessories are what you need, then welcome to Elly's Jewelries."

'Man, she reminds me of those NPC sellers in-game,' I thought. I coughed to recover myself and asked, "Hey um, how much is the medallion over there?"

She bent down to have a look at what I was pointing at. She stood up and sighed. ""A fair price of 40 dollars."

'I wonder what kind of amulet this is,' I thought as I handed over the 40 dollars. "Wait, wouldn't something like this be worth more than 40 bucks?" I asked her.

"I suppose so," Elly sighed. "It just looks a little too strange, even for me. I''ve wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible."

I slightly shuddered at the thought of it "being a little too strange", as she said. But I didn't hesitate to buy it, cause I came to get something, and I wasn't gonna turn down a low price and leave empty-handed. I put it on, thanked the lady, and continued my shopping.


When I got back to college a few short hours later, I didn't have much on me. I wanted to save as much money as possible in case something cool came up that I'd want to get (and of course if an emergency came up; always be prepared) After I put my new stuff away, I sat down to start deciding which game to play, when I noticed a glow from my chest. I pulled out my new medallion from under my shirt which seemed to be glowing for some reason. It was pretty bright, so I went to get my sunglasses to block the brightness. When I went over to my closet, I noticed the medallion was no longer glowing. Frowning, I returned to my game collection to pick, and it glowed again. I took the medallion to and from my video games and noticed it was glowing only when it ws near them. Before I had time to think, it glowed even brighter and I let go of it, stumbling backwards and falling onto the floor. I covered my eyes until the glow subsided, and the medallion was on the floor, no longer glowing. I looked up and saw a pixelated character on screen. I shrieked in shock and asked to myself, "What is that thing?!" I didn't even realize I was saying it aloud until the character said, "Hey, I am not a thing! My name is Data, and I'm an adventurer and a historian created to monitor the events in the Pixelverse!"

"Okay, I'm sorry," I said humbly, standing up and still trying to recover. But it was difficult to recover with what she mentioned about a Pixelverse. It sounded like the perfect location for a video game yet to be made, especially a boss fight.

"All right," I said, a little more quietly so that someone outside wouldn't hear. "So Data, I believe we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Alyssa, and I apologize for the shock earlier. It's not every day someone sees a strange made-of-pixels character appear on their TV." Data sighed and said, "It's fine. It has been a pretty long time since someone put on that medallion. Forty years, I believe."

"Mhmm, okay," I said. "You said something about something called the Pixelverse. What the heck is that and what is all of this about?"

"I'm glad you asked, Alisha," said Data.

"It's Alyssa," I corrected her, but Data kept talking. "I've been wanting to tell this to someone for a very long time! Anyway, I'll show you." She said smiling as she projected an image of the entire history of the Pixelverse. "In the beginning, as some historians say, there was order. The Pixelverse was created, unknowingly, by humans with the advancement of computer technology at their disposal. But the real story begins in the year 1972. In your world, the Magnaox Odyssey, the first video game console was released, but in the Pixelverse, the very first king was crowned. King Odyssius. King Odyssius ruled over the land for 3 years, until the Magnavox company discontinued the Odyssey console in your world in the year 1975; while in our world, King Odyssius fell ill and died. But during those three years, many warriors rallied under King Odyssius as protectors of his highness, until the great Pong War began. What was the great Pong War? Well, in your time, up until the year 1977, many companies released dedicated systems that played just one game, Pong, which originally came out in arcades in 1972 by the company you know as Atari. Between the years 1975 and 1977, the great Pong War raged across the Pixelverse, many battles were fought, with the kingdom, or company in your world, of Atari being the most dominant faction. But battles were raged across different plains in the Pixelverse as well."

"Okay, that's all fine and dandy," I said, trying to hide my disinterest, "But what exactly is the Pixelverse? I didn't ask for a history lesson. It was kinda interesting though."

"Alright then," said Data. She projected another image of it on the screen. "The Pixelverse is a MASSIVE multiverse inhabited by all of the video game characters in your world, even characters from game adaptations. They are all kept in the universes of their own games; namely, the respective companies they belong to in your world, and the settings of the games and the characters are kept in mini pocket dimensions. If this is hard to wrap your head around, think of Nintendo as a universe for franchises like Mario and Pokémon, and think of the franchises as mini-pocket dimensions, and lastly, think of the settings of their respective games as planets of where they take place."

"Ah, that makes a lot more sense," I nodded.

"So you get the story?"

"I think so. In a nutshell, what you're saying is: you come from a place called the Pixelverse that is the home of every video game character and is influenced by the video game industry of my world, right?" Alyssa responded.

"That's right. You're definitely smarter than any human I ever met," Data said,snootily.

"Hey!" I said, somewhat offended.

"Sorry about that. But if you want me to prove my powers to transport whoever wears that amulet into a video game, go ahead and pick a game and play. Your body will remain here as part of the safety protocols, but your mind and attention will be digitized into the game until you actually find yourself in the world the game is based in."

I slowly nodded in understanding as I went through my collection. I decided to go for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. I'd heard from my friends that it was a good game in terms of story, even though the gameplay often feels a little too simplified. I connected my Xbox 360 to the television in my room, powered it on, turned on the system itself, opened the disc drive, put the game disc in, and within moments, the medallion began glowing and I started feeling strange.

"Data, what's happening?" I asked.

"Don't worry." Data said reassuringly. "All that's going to happen is your mind and attention are about to be digitized, meaning that you'll look through the player's character's eyes, feel like you're in their body and control their body, powers and abilites. Are you ready?"

I nodded nervously as the strange feeling increased. It was quite an experince for me, and it was something I had never thought would be possible. But would the experience be painful? Would every blow I recieve in the game be and feel real? Would death be death in reality? I took a deep breath and smiled with confidence. A new adventure was about to begin, an adventure I never thought could ever be possible.