Sixteen-year-old Skater Gamer girl STEVIE is angry at the world. After the sudden death of her father, Stevie, her exhausted mother, and her hyperactive ten-year-old brother STANK leave the city behind to start over in a quiet small town. Stevie resents the move, misses her old friends, and buries her grief behind sarcasm, skateboarding, and endless online gaming sessions. Stank idolizes his older sister and constantly begs her to play games with him. Stevie, trying to escape her responsibilities, mostly pushes him away. While exploring garage sales in their new town, Lisa discovers an old boxed gaming system being sold by a mysterious elderly woman. The dusty console includes strange cartridges, handwritten notebooks filled with mathematical formulas and coded notes, and a warning label that appears to have been scratched away. To keep Stank occupied, they buy the unusual system. Back home, Stank eagerly hooks up the console expecting classic games. Instead, he finds highly sophisticated military simulations and strategy programs unlike anything he's ever seen. Frustrated, he asks Stevie for help. As Stevie explores the system, she unknowingly connects it to the internet, activating a hidden access portal buried deep within the software. A message appears on the screen. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, DR. RIVERS?" Confused, Stevie responds. I'm not Dr. Rivers." The system pauses. Then replies: IDENTITY UNKNOWN. ADAPTATION PROTOCOL INITIATED." Stevie has just awakened BRIAN.