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By Chad Descoteaux

After getting the biggest disappointment of her life, studious bookworm Lauren Craft has to rescue her gamer brother from a warlord who has kidnapped him...in the video game world, a place she knows little about.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chad Descoteaux
• Release date: Sep 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005583958

Chad Descoteaux

I am a self-published, mildly autistic science fiction author who combines quirky sci-fi elements with issues that we can all relate to. Check out my official website www.turtlerocketbooks.com

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by Chad Descoteaux

Copyright Turtle Rocket Books 2021

Check out turtlerocketbooks.com for more sci-fi.

Somewhere in Rhode Island.

Sometime in the 90’s.

Bookish fourteen-year-old middle school student Lauren Craft was, as always, immersed in her studies. Having an assignment where the teacher said she could write about absolutely any subject she wanted to, she decided to pull all the books she had on her favorite subject.

Archeology.

Her fascination with the ancient Pharaohs and hieroglyphics fueled the way she worked on this report. She blocked out every semblance of noise from the outside world as she scribbled down a rough draft of her report with a pencil. She blocked out the noise her brother Matt was making, in his bedroom, playing (and debating) video games (and video game history) with a visiting friend named George.

See, that’s one thing Mind-Bend-O has that the Game Station and the Dream Cube never will, Matt said to his friend, game controller in hand. The focus on fun. They’ll make a game that looks like it was made for a three-year-old and sucker older gamers into playing it because the game play is on point and it’s so stinkin’ fun!

I don’t mind games that have a gritty feel to them, but a lot of games that have adult content have little or no substance, George said, eating Cracker Jacks while waiting his turn. The gory stuff is a marketing ploy to shock people and sell the game, but there’s no ‘replay value.’ Heck, I still play Trash Man every once in a while. Just because something is old, doesn’t mean it’s worthless.

That’s why they still have these big international Mule Kong tournaments for Billy Mitchell to cheat at, Matt replied, making George guffaw. I’m glad the old characters and franchises are still around. Tempo the Hamster. Super Pedro Brothers. Brain-Sucking Jellyfish Prime.

Lauren’s concentration was broken by the mouth-watering aroma of her mother’s cooking, as it filtered in from downstairs. It only took a few seconds for her mother to yell upstairs, Dinner is ready!

The entire upper floor of the Craft family house shook when both Matt and George ran across the floor and through Matt’s bedroom door, playfully pushing each other out of the way, trying to get to the kitchen first. Matt rudely pushed his sister out of the way, shouting, Out of the way, Nerdzilla!

Lauren wrapped her hand around Matt’s ankle as he was running, tripping him and then kneeling on him as he lay on his stomach. Lauren pressed her knee down hard in the middle of Matt’s back as he let out a scream, banging his fists on the floor and screaming for George to help him.

George tried to hit Lauren with a pillow. Lauren grabbed the pillow and pulled George towards her, grabbing yet another pillow and pounding him in the face with it over and over again. George laughed until he hiccupped. It was only Mom’s voice, yelling, What’s going on up there? that broke up this incredibly one-sided pillow fight.

During dinner, Matt and George told Matt’s parents about a contest being put on by the Mind-Bend-O game company. It was advertised in the latest issue of the video game magazine, Sore Thumbs. Basically, all the kids who have the new Smash Crocodile game save their progress on memory cards and send the high scores in to the company, Matt explained to his dad. The winner gets to be the first to try the new Virtual Mind-Bend-O HELMET!!!

It’s this helmet where the screen covers your eyes and it makes you feel like you’re really inside the game, George mansplained to Lauren as she looked down at her food, avoiding eye contact.

I’ve been reading a lot about Mind-Bend-O in the financial pages, Matt’s dad chimed in as his wife placed a plate of fried chicken in the middle of the table. They bought out a lot of other video game companies recently.

Yeah, Matt replied. I heard about that. Game Station and Dream Cube are just going to be game developers for Mind-Bend-O. They won’t have home consoles of their own.

How cool is that? George said. They’ll have all the best characters on one system.

So, honey, Dad turned his attention to his studious daughter. How is your report coming?

Great, Dad! Lauren replied, nodding before stabbing a leg of chicken with her fork. Easiest A I ever got!

The Corporate Offices of the Mind-Bend-O Video Game Company.

Flipping through the financial pages, the president of the Mind-Bend-O Company smiled at how high his stock had risen since the last time he checked it. This contest is the best idea that has ever emerged from the bowels of the video game industry! a bold Burgess Langley stated with an enormous grin on his face, surrounded by well-dressed executives who strangely had no pupils in their eyes. And I will gladly take credit for it…because the person who actually came up with the idea has been paid handsomely.

With that, all the executives mindlessly applauded their unquestioned lord and master. Someone passed out cigars. Little did Burgess Langley know that one of his executives was, in fact, a spy with white contact lenses, working for the F.B.I. A small transmitter hidden in the chandelier above Mr. Langley’s desk transmitted every word to a van parked outside a local ice cream parlor.

Inside this van, three F.B.I. agents recorded this board meeting. We have anything incriminating yet? asked one agent, James Caprice.

Naw, replied a second agent, a balding man with headphones. He hasn’t mentioned the old guy. Not yet. Caprice picked up an envelope and removed two or three snapshots of Mind-Bend-O President Langley meeting in Central Park in New York City with a man who was very close to the top of the F.B.I.’s most wanted list.

He was an elderly, wild-eyed scientist with