Chapter Three

Violetwall had been known for its many gaming centres and light shows. For a cosmopolitan metropolis with a population of roughly eight million, it was safe to say that the majority possessed a liking for virtual reality and artificial worlds. Sugarplum Boulevard, in particular, had the largest arcade amongst them all; so large, in fact, that during the winter of 2105 the city issued heavy funding to turn it into a light-show-game-centre hybrid. It had been built during the discovery of light-powered machinery. 

The Spire, although this was not confirmed, had been known for creating new technology to aid in the evolution of light machines. Phoenix believed they worked on weaponry; Andy thought they dissected aliens and used them for research; and Alex, who never really discussed this with anyone, was convinced that the building had been used to create robots. Perhaps, even, nanosuits. They were useful after all, and it's not like their only purpose was to transport people into a virtual reality game. 

The evening sky had been darkening when Alex stepped off the bus to West Ample Street. The reddish orange luminescence of the sun was receding fast across Sugarplum, across the high-rise buildings and the smooth, spotless roads, predominated by a faint smell of petrichor left over from the earlier rainfall. The gales from the near oceanside swooped down along the thoroughfare.

Alex wore the usual: a black jacket, a scarf, and a pair of cotton gloves. Nothing too spectacular. This was just another Sunday with her friends, after all. 

She stuffed her hands in her pockets and paced towards the arcade. It was just across the road, standing about as tall as a factory. The width, she thought, was what shocked her the most when it first opened. It was far, far wider than a football field; the surface area had been similar to that of a stadium. And from the roof came four – maybe even six, it was hard to tell – red lasers that beamed up into the sky.

Alex grinned, listening to the sound of the retro music beat on from the building.

Surfacing in the red and blue lights of the Retrove Centre, she glanced over at the opposite side of the road and saw Phoenix and Andy, sitting on a wall and staring into their phones. Probably talking about the UFO still. 

But she could sense their excitement as she proceeded across the intersection of Main Street. By the time she got there, she had already begun imagining what they were chatting about: a narrowing pencil beam of light shoots through the sky and a continuous whooshing sound circles in the air. The alien invasion. Circular discs of metallic steel surround the perimeter in an orderly fashion, and amongst the sky: the skyline of celestial entities that—

"Look who it is!" Andy yelled over to Alex, who responded with a smile and a middle finger. 

Phoenix's legs dangled over the wall (he was a short boy; 5'3", or around the same height as Alex). 

He smiled and said, "Bout time, dude." He wore that silver jacket from yesterday night, and a long, grey scarf over his neck. He pulled it up a little to cover the lower part of his face. 

Alex hopped on the sidewalk and danced to the sound of the beat. "Ay, ay, whaddup!"

"Oh, God," Andy said. "Alex, just, no."

"What?" Alex said enthusiastically. "Just because you can't dance to save your life."

Andy scoffed with a grin. He'd been wearing a grey sweatshirt that silhouetted against the sunset. He also made sure to bring along a beanie in case it started raining again (It would probably diminish his ginger hair, Alex thought).

Phoenix chuckled a little. "Nah," he said. "Stawwwp."

Alex stopped, still smiling. "What the hell you guys talkin' about before I got here?"

"Bruh," Phoenix said jokingly. He had been swiping through social media on his phone. "When you singlehandedly reduce the average grade by eight per cent." He raised his arm and scowled. "I HAVE NO LIMITS!" he said in a deep voice, like those knights who swore to protect their lady. 

"My G." Andy laughed. "You dumb as fuck."

"'My G.'" Phoenix imitated his voice squeakily. "Oh God, don't say that. Cringe. And to answer your question, Al, Andy here was being a nervous Nellie about the UFO picture. Think he thinks it's real."

"Yeah, bro, yeah," Andy said. "That was me right, yeah."

"See? His ADHD is at it again." Phoenix jumped hopped off the wall. "Anyway, we should prolly get goin'." He stuffed his phone in his pocket. 

Alex watched as Phoenix's Afro bobbed, jiggled, and danced upon landing. "Phoenix, you kinda look like a paintbrush with your stickin' up like that. Not gonna lie." Alex let out a hearty laugh. 

"Stop stallin'," he said. 

"Okay, let's head inside then," Alex said through giggles. 

Phoenix looked back up at Andy and added, "Unless Andy has to go home now because of his curfew that he mamma set for him."

"Bro!" Andy jumped down from the wall. "What do YOU MEAN?!"

                                        ~"AMONGST THE SKY"~

Retro ray sounds played back and forth as the sound of people's laughter drew Phoenix into the building. Alex and Andy followed him. 

Inside, the Retrove Centre had been occupied by a crowd of people, each playing arcade games and chortling about like happy children. 

Phoenix, bobbing his head to the disco beat, glanced over at the VR Centre. It had its own area in the arcade with glass walls surrounding the track. The inky hall looked completely different from this point of view. He couldn't see the other players or Scott or God knows who else worked there. Couldn't even hear it over the sound of people in the main building – the 90s Retro Playback area. 

The room had been filled to the brim with dance stages, racing games, and shooters. One game in particular caught Alex's glimmering eye – Space Invaders.

There was a smell of spilt soda throughout the place. It wasn't too strong for Phoenix, who kept his nose nice and snug underneath his scarf. 

Andy took off his beanie and revealed his ginger hair.

"I smell fire," Phoenix joked. "Oh wait."

Andy laughed ruefully. "Absolute genius."

Phoenix stopped bobbing. "What you guys tryna do?"

Alex gazed at the VR Centre. She used to play that game years back. "Do you still use that hover-board?" she asked Phoenix.

"Nah, it literally broke today," Phoenix responded. 

"Nice one." Andy shook his head. "Moron."

Alex looked over at the far right side of the arcade and saw the dance stages. Her hair had been kept neatly cut that evening. "Oh, you know what we doin' tonight."

Phoenix looked over at the stages and groaned. "Ah, not this shit again." His silver jacket reflected the great red lights of the arcade. Alex nudged him by the shoulder and directed him towards the stages. Andy followed behind, looking into his phone, putting his beanie in his pantleg.

They shoved through the crowd of people, listening as the EDM closed in on them.

Each stage had been occupied by two people dancing to songs of their choice. 

Long beams of blue light darted across the room. Phoenix and Alex huddled together through a bunch of teenagers who had been inhabiting a line of shooter games leading up to the stages in front of the glass walls of the VR Centre.

"I remember you dancing here before," Alex told Phoenix, then nodded.

"Never have," Phoenix lied, and coughed.

"A couple of years ago. You were dancing to Illenium."

Phoenix shook his head.

"No? Nothing? You're breaking my heart here, Phoenix." She knew he could remember. 

But that wasn't what Phoenix wanted to forget. He wanted to forget the time he slipped off the stage and hit his head off the steps. "Oh my God, are you okay?!" Alex laughed then. "Perfectly fine," he had told her. 

Treading her way towards the game, Alex saw that two occupants were finished on their dance stage.

"Destroyed," the first said.

"Game's busted, dude," the other responded.

"Looks like you guys are up," Andy said. 

The occupants hopped off and left the arcade. 

Phoenix looked through the glass walls of the VR Centre and saw the large windows on the other side. The sky outside was beginning to really darken now. In about thirty minutes it would return to the same colour it had been the night before: black with a sky full of stars. Of course, Phoenix wouldn't mind; he loved the stars, had loved them ever since he was a child. 

But he wasn't sure if he enjoyed dancing. He was still shocked that she remembered that night when they were thirteen. Because – still smiling – he believed she'd forget how they used to hang out late until they got a call from either one of their parents. And how they wouldn't answer until the third ring. 

The memory made him smirk. 

Alex rushed up on the stage and immediately put in a one-dollar bill. 

Phoenix did the same. His face bathed in the blue laser lights, features reducing to ocean gleam: his forehead was drenched with an overbearing azure that continued down his cheekbones.

Alex swiftly arrowed her fingers through the song selection playlist, looked up I-L-L-E-N-I-U-M and hit the first song she could see – Sound of Walking Away. The two stood alongside each other on the stage, viewing separate screens that had yellow silhouettes of people preparing to dance. The objective of the game was clear: copy them.

"You finna get whooped though." Phoenix laughed at her.

"We'll see, Newman." She grinned, her braces covered by the immaculate blue lights.

"Okay, okay," he said. "I see how it is."

The voice of the game, the same as the one in the VR Centre: Get Ready! Set! Dance!

The song played, at first as slow as love music, then a cache of dubstep.

Phoenix stared at the yellow body dancing in front of him and copied it with near-perfect emulation.

In the back Andy had been still scrolling through his phone. He knew that they would probably make him dance next; if not, they would maybe head to the racing section of the arcade. Or maybe Alex would want to play Space Invaders until morning came around. But on his phone, he got a notification. A notification on SUP-X from Gecko (he had a profile picture of Maui from Moana) online: a link to a post. He tapped it and waited for it to load . . .

"No. Fucking. Way!" he said aloud.

NASA had posted a new image, this time with no caption other than the image credit. His mouth gaped open. He stared at the black rings of the image, the disc in the sky, stars amongst it, and at the top, the triangular prism. The UFO was now just outside of Earth's orbit