Pilot – Part One

There were doctors and dancers everywhere. People she didn't know smiled, waved and talked to her like they were old friends. It was becoming a very uncomfortable birthday, and the two women responsible for that were too busy making out on their couch to do anything about it.

Rachel Berry was not having any fun with this party. And that guy with strange hair kept asking for a dance when there was no music on. He was seriously creeping her out.

Let's see how it all started.

10 PM, Yesterday

"A birthday party? San, I am very grateful but I have to decline. You know I don't really have many friends, and to be honest I would prefer to just hang out with Mike and my Xbox." Rachel said from her spot behind the kitchen counter.

"See, that's the problem. You prefer to shoot zombies with your other geek half instead of hooking up," her sister Santana said, receiving a slap on the arm from her fiancée whom she was cuddling with. "Ouch, Britts!"

"San is just worried about you, Rach. You haven't got any sweet lady kisses since Janey dumped you right after college graduation." Brittany said, frowning.

"And that was fucking ages ago. You need to get laid, lil sis, and fast." she pointed out, smirking at the blush forming Rachel's face.

"That is really inappropriate of you, Santana. And I'd like to inform you that Janey did not dump me. We both agreed that our lives would take very different paths once we graduated and that trying a distance relationship would be foolish. She went to Chicago, I came back to Burbank. End of story." She rolled her eyes. It wasn't ages ago. Only three years.

"Whatever, back to the topic: You need sex."

"What I need is to get to work, so if you excuse me," she said, grabbing her keys and heading to the door. But as she did so, Santana quickly moved and blocked her way.

"You're throwing that damn birthday party and if you try to say no I will do unspeakable things to those action figures you love so much," she said and smiled sweetly at the horror on Rachel's face.

"You wouldn't dare," Rachel said, but even she could hear the doubt in her own voice.

"Wouldn't I? See you later sis. Oh, and none of those Buy More losers will be invited. Docs and dancers only." With that, Santana went back to her morning cuddles with Brittany.

"Shit." Rachel murmured as she walked out of the Echo Park complex and into her Nerd Herd car.

Present Time

Deciding she needed support if she was getting out of this socialization hell, Rachel typed a quick text to Mike and waited. Some redhead dancer tried to make conversation with her. The girl was very attractive, yes, and had a little resemblance to Janey, but her electronic music tendencies were boring the petite woman to death. Finally, after a long half hour, Mike showed up and found her by the fountain.

"Hey, what's going on? Brittana threw you a birthday party again?" the boy asked, impressed by the amount of female presence. Trust Santana to find over thirty women interested in her baby sister, and bring them to her party.

"What did you think? C'mon, cover for me so we can get to my bedroom." Rachel said, looking around and marching towards the apartment, dragging Mike along with her.

They were both relieved to see that the 'Mike Door', as they dubbed Rachel's bedroom window, was wide open. Quickly entering the space, they closed the window and sat on the bed, already turning on the PlayStation, since Santana had confiscated the Xbox for the duration of the party.

Just as they celebrated Rachel's perfect score for Free Bird on Expert, an alert came from Rachel's computer.

"Ooh, blast from the past! Look who remembered your b-day, Rach!" Mike exclaimed as he read the email's author.

"Bryce?" Rachel asked herself with surprise. She hadn't heard of her friend ever since both graduated from Stanford. She clicked open the email and then the attached file. The screen went black and only one line was visible. The terrible troll raises his sword.

"What's that?"

"You know that old game, Zork? Well, Bryce and I made our own version of it while we were at college." Rachel answered, trying hard to remember what command she was supposed to use.

"That's, like, really cool." The boy said and looked at the screen with expectation.

"Time to go home, Mike."

"Really?" His attention wandered from the screen to Rachel, to the screen again.

"Really." She nodded without taking her eyes off her expensive computer setup.

"Okay then, night Rach," he said as he put one leg out of the now open window.

"Pedal safe," she yelled amusedly before turning back to the screen.

The words struck her then. Attack troll with nasty knife. She typed the command and pressed enter after only a small moment of hesitation.

Suddenly, images started to flash through the screen. One by one, thousands and thousands of images flashed and she couldn't look away, even if she tried. It went on for a good fifteen minutes, though the girl barely noticed time passing, and the screen went blank again. As Rachel's eyes rolled to the back of her head, she fainted on the hard floor.

And just like that, she was found by her best friend Mike the morning after.

"Hey, are you okay?" her friend asked with concern as he helped her get up. "You wouldn't answer my texts. We're going to be late."

"Yeah, I just… had a weird night," she replied, still a little dizzy and with a pounding headache. "I have to go and shower, can you wait for me in the living room?"

"If I can spend some time with Satan and her angelic half? Sure, I guess," he said, only half-joking. After growing up with Rachel as his best friend, Mike definitely still feared her big sister.

Rachel showered and put on the Nerd Herd uniform, placing her ID carefully on her breast pocket. She grabbed her keys to the 'Nerd Herder', as the employees dubbed the car that was given by the Buy More during service hours, greeted Brittany on the kitchen, and assumed Santana was either working at the hospital or throwing up.

Driving to the Buy More with Mike following suit on his bike, she kept having these weird visions of last night. Turning on the radio, she shuffled through the stations until she found a good one. The news started and as she stopped the car at a red light, she heard a name and suddenly flashed .

"This morning, Jacob Woodhouse, CEO of Stockfort, will be arriving to Los Angeles for the first time in months. He'll be attending the annual gala held in honor of his father, Sir Edward Woodhouse."

A tower

A house

Jacob talking to a man at a coffee shop.

A house

A tower

As the flash ended, she was startled by honks and yells and realized the light had already turned green. Rachel hurried and it was only a few more minutes before the car was parked in the service lot of the Buy More. As she closed the doors, Mike approached her with worry on his face.

"Hey, what was that? You just zoned out in the middle of the streets!"

"Nothing, I just didn't sleep well, okay? Let's go."

Both entered the store through the service doors. Mike was wearing the traditional 'green shirt' uniform and the security guy let Rachel enter as soon as her name tag was visible. They were greeted by Tina, who was already sitting on the Nerd Herd desk. Finn and Sam showed up with their green shirts covered in milk and chocolate. Nobody asked any questions.

Rachel sighed as Ms. Sylvester screamed orders at the poor employees, and tried to look interested in her work so as to not aggravate the mad woman. So far, everything was normal at Burbank Buy More. Costumers were complaining, workers weren't doing their work, and Mike sat beside her, deeply involved with the PSP on his hands.

She thought that maybe it could be a normal, calm day at work. That is, until a guy with a Mohawk walked into the store, smirking at her with his phone on his hands.