I could vividly hear my the clacking of my shoes on the dark blue tiled floor of the echoing hallway. I was alone, but it wasn't usual that I was. Most of the time there would be three or four others along with me, but they must've been assigned earlier today. The technology was getting better and better, and more jobs were being assigned every day. It wouldn't surprise me if the Company started hiring more.

I knocked on a door near the end of the hall, with the name Cornelius Baker inscribed on a golden plaque on the door.

"Who is it?" I heard a deep husky voice call out.

"Angela, sir," I called back through the door. He scoffed.

"You took your own damn time getting here. Get inside."

I sighed and opened the door, facing my superior. He was a short, middle-aged man, with balding gray hair and soft wrinkles throughout his face. He wore the Company's brown business suit attire with a printed blue and black striped tie. His deep blue, obviously annoyed eyes seemed to stare straight into my soul. If I wasn't so used to it, I might have been scared.

"Angela, how long have you been working here?" He tapped his fingers on the desk he sat at. Man, how I hated that sound.

"A long time, sir," I answered, already knowing his response.

"Can you give me an exact number, so that I'll know you haven't lost your damn mind?" I shut my eyes for a moment, preventing myself from rolling them. I opened them back slowly.

"Eight years, sir."

"Eight years... Seems like a pretty long time to put up with your incompetence," he gnashed his teeth together. "What time do I remember telling you to be in my office?"

I played with my hands nervously, my courage leaving me, "8:00, sir."

"Yes, I remember now, I told you 8:00," he motioned to a digital clock on the wall. "You mind reading that clock for me, Miss Angela?"

I swallowed, "8:32, sir."

"Do I have to remind you, woman, that if you were anyone else, I'd have you fired?!" He stood up, pointing at my face. I flinched.

"No, sir. I am deeply, deeply sorry," my voice whined. I quickly cleared my throat and tried again, "I won't let it happen again."

He huffed, sitting back down. "Damn right, you won't," he murmured.

He opened a drawer, pulling out a file. I relaxed. Now he's getting back to business.

"You familiar with the game 'Final Fantasy VII' series?" he asked, opening the file.

I raised an eyebrow. "No, sir." Is he making small talk?

"The science team found another Destination through the Portal. Turns out it's a whole world, almost exactly set up like the world in the game." He glanced up at me, pulling out a sheet from the file. "Here's a list of the games and a movie in that particular series. Research it. I want all of this done before tomorrow."

I took the sheet from his hands, scanning the list. I glanced back up at him. "How is that even possible, sir? The Portal opens worlds in alternate space, not into some person's fantasy land."

He scratched his chin, flipping through a few more pages in the file. "We're not exactly sure about that either. Surprised us, actually. We've gotten government permission to arrest some of the people within the game development company called Square Enix. We plan on questioning them and seeing what they know." He glanced back at me. "Don't worry about staying here today. Go home, find out what you can." He slammed the file back on the desk. "And you must be here at 8:00, or I will assign this job to another Jumper. Do I make myself clear?"

I nodded a little too quickly. "I'll make sure of it."

I read over the list again as I walked into a nearby video store a few blocks away from my apartment. A bell rang out as I pushed open the glass door. There were a few people around, some looking at video games, some at movies. I disregarded them and walked straight up to the checkout and information desk in the center of the store. There were two women and a man working there, one of the women and the man assisting two other customers. I approached the other woman, an overweight woman probably in her late twenties, her face delicate and naturally beautiful, but her hair was frizzy and pulled back into a messy bun.

She smiled, "How may I help you today?"

I smiled back at her. "I was curious as to if you had any of the items on this list in stock?"

She took the paper from my hands, looking over it. "Sure, I'll just run this through the computer." She laughed as she typed. "These are some old ones," she purred. "This first one on the list was made twenty years ago. I remember playing it as a kid. Made in 1997."

"Wow," I said, a little shocked, leaning on the counter. "I had no idea." I looked up at her. "Someone referred these to me. I don't know much about them. Could you help me out some so I won't be so confused?"

She giggled. "I'd hate to spoil it for you. Much of the game is storyline, unlike these newer games where you just run around trying to make yourself stronger. It's a good balance of the two in this particular one, keeps it interesting."

I smiled, discarding everything she just said as unnecessary. "What is the storyline about?"

She glanced up at me, smirking. "Nope, I can't tell you that. It'll ruin it for you." The computer buzzed. "Oh, lucky for you!" she exclaimed. "We've actually got at least one copy of everything on that list." She sighed. "If I had known we had those games, I would've gotten a copy." The computer buzzed again. "Oh, we've got the Advent Children movie as well! More than one copy!" She got a dreamy look in her eyes.

I cleared my throat. "I'll just take one copy of each game and the movie then." This girl was starting to get... weird.

"Sure, sure," she nodded. "I'll just go get them from the back. Most people don't buy old stuff like this, so it's always hidden away," she laughed. I nodded, smiling awkwardly. I don't speak gamer, I sighed inwardly.

She came back out a few minutes later, smiling. She checked me out rather quickly, but it took maybe another fifteen minutes to leave, since she was insistent on giving me advice on each game that I couldn't even remember seconds after she told me. After leaving, I looked through the cases and read the summaries on the backs of the games. When I looked into the Final Fantasy VII case, I almost fainted. There were three discs in there. Three! There was no way I was gonna get through all these games, let alone through that game alone. I sighed. Sometimes, I just hate my job.

I rushed up the stairs of my shared apartment building, taking two steps at a time. When I reached the second floor, I veered left down the hall to my door, unlocking it and letting myself inside. I got my laptop out of my room and wirelessly connected it to my television. After a bit of searching and researching, I was able to find a Playstation emulator that could play the games (illegally, probably) and downloaded it. Then, using my hardware printer, I put in a design code from a similar website to create a Playstation controller, and plugged it into my computer. Then I lounged on my couch that sucked in anyone that sat on it and put the first disc of the first game into the computer, and I began to play.

At first it looked interesting enough, but quickly my good first impression failed as I saw the main character was a man made of toothpicks and colored shaped marshmallows named after the puffy cotton balls that the floated in the sky (which I changed to Blondie after I realized I could). Then, after all of the pointless running around and random people attacking me, I reached the giant tractor I was supposed to defeat, and then immediately died.

I got really angry with it and turned it off before I broke all the stuff I just bought. I jumped up and ran into the kitchen to make a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich and sat down to cool off.

After I finished the sandwich, I wandered back into the living room, picking up the stack of games I bought. I glanced over at the movie and picked it up. "This isn't in the right order to do first," I murmured to myself, but I knew I was already convinced. I had to watch the movie first, no matter the order they were made in. I'm just not a gamer, I told myself. I can't do that stuff.

I put the movie into my computer and pulled it up on my television screen. And I have to admit, that was so much better than playing that game. Less hassle, and was done within a few hours.

The only complaint I had was with the storyline, which I knew nothing of. Obviously, this dude on the motorcycle with the spiky blonde hair must be Blondie (or Cloud, as the game and movie called him). Then there were all these people with gray hair, two of them looked like women, but were supposedly men, and the last guy was supposed to be super evil without a doubt, but of course, like all superhero stories, Blondie beat him.

Then there was these guys in suits and this guy who was supposed to be dying and wasn't really... or something like that. And they all wanted their mom.

I sighed. Again, I'm clueless. Then, the most unrealistic idea popped into my mind:

Why don't you just Google it?

I sat there, just thinking about how incredibly simple the thought was. And then I laughed, kneeling down to gather up all the games I bought strewn across the floor. I carried them over to a shelf where I had all my videos and put them together near the end, ordering them in order of release dates so I wouldn't forget. I smiled, "I'll come back to you guys another day. For now, I have work to do."

Then I took my laptop down to the floor with me and began to work on my research.