Avatar Online Launch Read online

  Launch

  Avatar Online

  William Nix

  Published by William Nix, 2017.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  LAUNCH

  First edition. December 25, 2017.

  Copyright © 2017 William Nix.

  Written by William Nix.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Author’s Notes

  Chapter One

  Mara heard the bell ring. She finished writing on the whiteboard, turned and said to her students, "Okay, everyone! Enjoy your Christmas vacation. See you in January!"

  The students were already bustling around the room, grabbing up books and jackets and talking amongst themselves. Several of the sixth-graders told her to have a Merry Christmas as well and waved as they walked out the door.

  I plan to. She thought to herself with a smile. Once they were gone, the room was blissfully quiet until her best friend Kitty walked in.

  "Are you almost ready to go?" Kitty asked.

  "Almost," Mara said, "I can't wait to play the game tomorrow! I think I’m more excited about the break than the kids this year."

  "Me too! It's still hard to believe that you won us a place in the Launch. I've been reading up on the forums on the library's computer all day... Well, at least when I wasn't helping the students of course."

  Mara smiled. "Of course! Mr. Henderson doesn't give you any crap about surfing the web all day?"

  Kitty shrugged and waved away the question. "Honestly, I don't think he really cares what I do as long as I flirt with him a little when he comes by the library... Not that I'm interested, of course."

  Mara chuckled. "Yeah, I imagine his wife would be a little bit upset if you were."

  Kitty's face darkened a bit and she said, "Not interested in married men... or even single ones, for now. I seem to have crummy taste in guys. What's wrong with me anyway?"

  Mara's heart fell. She felt so badly for Kitty. She had really had a rough time lately, with her ex-boyfriend Darren being such a colossal ass. Over the summer Mara had been called to the hospital to help her and take her home. She hadn't realized how bad things were with Darren. Kitty had been her best friend since middle school, but the last couple of years she hadn't seen as much of her. Darren didn't like Kitty having friends of her own. Mara had never liked him, but she didn't realize that he was hitting her. Mara took Kitty back to her apartment when they released her from the hospital and helped her get her stuff back from Darren. She was better these days, but still wasn't the wickedly funny little sprite that Mara knew and loved. Mara wrapped her in a hug and said, "Honey, you’re beautiful and you know it. Too beautiful for that oversexed adulterer! Anyway, let's get out of here!"

  “You’re right. I should get my mind off things and enjoy the break. In the game I can be strong and beautiful, no matter how I feel in real life, especially with my best friend with me.” Kitty hugged her back. “I don’t know how I could have made it through everything these last few months, Mara. I think you saved my life.”

  Mara returned the hug and said, “I’m just glad you finally called me and that I could help. You’re stronger than you think, but everyone needs some help sometime. I might need your help, someday.”

  Kitty drew back and picked up her purse and jacket and said, “Not like that, you won’t. But, I’ll always be there for you no matter what happens. Now, let’s pick up some pizza on the way home so we don’t starve to death, okay?”

  Mara laughed. “No problem, we’ve got a big day ahead of us tomorrow. We need to keep up our strength. You can tell me what you learned on the forums about the game.”

  Logan stepped off the plane and into the terminal, pausing to look for his brother Ian. Not seeing him, Logan took out his claim ticket and went over to the luggage area to collect his stuff. He spotted his duffel bag and went to grab it, then turned and ran right into his brother Ian.

  "Whoa, slow down! Not planning to duck out on me, are you?" Ian said with a grin, putting his hands up.

  "Ian! I wasn't sure if you were going to make it." Logan said, turning the movement into an awkward hug. "I know you’ve got to be pretty busy, these days."

  Ian clapped him on the shoulder and said, "Never too busy to pick up my baby brother. So, how did the Army treat you?"

  "Fine, but I'm glad to be done with it to tell you the truth. I'm ready to move on with my life. Never having a home or family kinda sucks, you know?"

  Ian grimaced. "What, you’re thinking about settling down? You're in the prime of your life, in great shape, and you’re my brother. Don’t worry, I can hook you up with a regular supply of hot girls. This is the time to carve some notches in the bedboard, not think about settling down."

  "I don't know, Ian. I appreciate the thought, but I've carved a few notches on my bedboard while I was in the Army. I do want to meet women, but I'm hoping for something with a chance of a little more permanency, if you know what I mean. You know, a nice girl and not just in the sack."

  Ian looked at him like he’d lost his mind. "Well, shit." He shook his head and gestured at several women in the immediate vicinity. "Look around you, man! All this fine-looking ass around and you want to stick with just one? That's crazy! To each their own, I suppose. More for me, I guess!" He said with a laugh. "Still, maybe you'll change your mind."

  Logan just shook his head. He was a little amused, but also a little worried that Ian hadn't changed. Back in the day, Ian had been the guy that dated whoever he wanted and did whatever he wanted. He was the Favored Son of the richest man in town and nobody wanted to cross him, not even Logan. As Ian had reminded Logan on a few occasions over the years, he was a bastard. The son of a maid who became a mistress, then was fired when she got pregnant with Logan. Logan's racist father had blackballed her in the area and she couldn’t even find a job until she moved. Logan’s mother ended up dying in abject poverty. He refused to acknowledge Logan as his son until after Logan's mother died in an accident and the state ordered a paternity test. Then he had no choice but to take the Logan in. Regardless, Logan was never close to his father and had never gotten much help from him, other than what the court said he had to give. As soon as Logan graduated high school and turned eighteen he joined the Army to get away from him. Logan always figured the old man was ready to throw him out on the street as soon as he turned eighteen anyway. His dad died a couple of years back but there were still a lot of bad memories in this town. Still, Ian was his brother and hadn't completely been an ass to him. At least not if Logan did what he said, which for the most part Logan did throughout middle and high school.

  With that in mind, Logan knew that he had been a bit of an ass at times himself. He felt guilty about that now because he knew that he and Ian had hurt people. To a teenage Ian, other people were there for his enjoyment. He had learned that from their father. There wasn't any amount of trouble that they could get into that their father couldn't get them out of. Logan believed that he wouldn't have gotten special treatment if it was just him, but since Ian was always involved, Logan got bailed out too.

  There were only two reasons for him to come back here. For one thing, he really did want to get to know Ian again and see whether they could have a normal sibling relationship. He knew that Ian very likely
still had some rough edges, but Logan had been gone for five years. Surely, Ian had matured during that time. The second reason was a little more complicated. As fucked up as his childhood had been, this was home and he had missed it. He knew that he had made mistakes growing up and he wanted to come home and prove to everyone here that being Thomas Landry's bastard son was not going to define his life. Since he still carried his mother's name everyone wouldn't know who he was. Unfortunately, those that did would probably hate his ass. Hopefully, Logan would be able to prove to people that he wasn't the same as he used to be, and that he wasn’t anything like his father. He hoped that Ian would choose to be a different man than his father as well.

  Ian used his remote to cut off the car alarm and open the doors of his Porsche 911 and Logan tossed his duffel into the back seat and climbed in.

  "So, how about we grab some pizza on the way home?" Ian asked.

  Logan nodded. "Sounds good! Let's go."

  Ian pulled out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell. He blew right past the patrol officer who bumped his siren and flashed his lights for a second. Ian laughed and waved at the cop as he went by. The cop didn't follow them.

  "Looks like things haven't changed much in town." Logan said.

  “Nah, the cops around here still know better than to mess with the Landry boys. Man, it's good to have you home again. A lot of people didn't come back after college, so it's just been kinda weird around here lately." He glanced over at Logan. "But, with you around, it'll almost be like old times again.

  I hope not. Logan thought.

  Chapter Two

  Mara and Kitty arrived at the Pizza Shack about 4 o'clock. It was a little early for dinner, but that was okay. They ordered their usual: half all the way and half vegetarian. The vegetarian half was for Kitty. She had decided recently that she was going to go veggie... except for the occasional steak dinner, hamburger, pork chop or anything else that suited her fancy when she didn't have the willpower to say no. Kitty was a lousy vegetarian.

  It took about half an hour for the pizza to finally get there and they spent the time chatting away about Christmas and New Year's, but mostly about the game and what sort of characters they wanted to play. Avatar Online was the latest and greatest virtual reality game. Now about to fully release, it was supposed to be the most realistic experience that one can have outside of real life. Some of those that had participated in the Alpha and the current Beta claimed that you couldn't tell that you were in a game, except for the character screens when you called them up. It was said to be so real that any pain or pleasure could be found there. You could enjoy a meal, swimming in the ocean, a kiss or even more... If you believed the claims. Of course, you also felt about half the pain if you were stabbed or punched. Basically, just like real life except you got to play the hero and getting killed there didn't mean that you died. There would be penalties, of course, but that just gave you incentive to be careful.

  Mara and Kitty were both dying to get in there and live out their fantasies, but Mara did have a little bit of concern that some people might find this so addictive that they wouldn't want to live real life. That was a big risk that had been debated in the media, so the game had finally been restricted throughout the world to 18+ adults only. The decision had caused teenagers to march in the streets at the company headquarters, not that it had done any good. Personally, Mara was glad for the decision. At least this way if she decided to have an in-game fling she didn't have to worry that she was corrupting some underage boy that managed to pass himself off as older. One other restriction was that a player would resemble himself or herself in the game itself, at least in the beginning. Whether that was going to be permanent was flaming chat boards across the world. A lot of people didn't like it and Mara could understand that. After all, part of the appeal of playing a videogame was to be able to crawl inside the skin of someone different for a while. The other argument was that's it was better for people to be who they were, with all their bits somewhat improved, rather than pretending to be something they weren't. That would be too much like online dating. With that in mind, the game engine evaluated each player and made suggestions. The company said the player could override some of the suggestions, but not all of them. They argued that people would get more satisfaction out of their characters this way then they would if they simply made up some strange, totally different person.

  Mara felt a gust of cold air as the door opened and two guys walked in.

  "Oh shit!" Mara said as she saw who had walked in.

  "Who is it?" Kitty asked, twisting in her seat to see who came in.

  "No! Don't look!" Mara said in a harsh whisper. "Ian Landry just came in with some other guy. I don't want that asshole messing up our evening."

  Unfortunately, the guy that was with Ian seemed to notice Kitty turn and looked over towards them. A look of recognition crossed his face and he started walking toward them. He looked vaguely familiar, but Mara couldn't place him. He was a pretty big guy. About an inch shorter than Ian, but he probably had 30 pounds more muscle on that tight frame. Frankly, he looked damn good and he had a bright smile on his face as he walked over. Who the hell is this guy? Mara thought.

  The stranger and his muscles walked up to their table like he owned the place. In the background, Mara could see Ian placing an order at the counter. Thank heaven for small favors. She thought. Kitty leaned back in her chair, pretty much ogling the guy. He didn't seem to be noticing it or maybe he was just used to it. He was certainly hot enough to get used to it, but it probably had more to do with the fact that he was staring right at Mara the whole time.

  "Mara? Kitty? It's been a long time!" The strange, good-looking guy said. He seemed nice enough, but Mara figured he was probably an asshole just screwing with them, since he was hanging out with Ian.

  "I'm sorry, do we know you?" Mara asked. The temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees.

  The stranger turned a little red and glanced away, then caught her eye again. "Yeah, I'm Logan. Logan Martinez. We went to school together, remember?"

  Mara was taken aback. She looked closely up at him. The scruffy, scrawny guy she remembered was barely reflected in his face, but he was there. What the hell had happened to him? Steroids? She thought. That wouldn’t be good. Logan was a big enough asshole without adding roid rage to the equation.

  Mara could see Ian coming up behind them now, obviously curious. As he saw who it was he grinned like a cat with a canary. It was the same sort of grin that he used to get when he fucked with Mara and Kitty almost every day for 12 years. Remembering those times still pissed Mara off and her eyes lit up like a bonfire as she stared from one to the other. "Oh yeah, I remember you... asshole!" she said.

  Logan looked a bit startled and started to hold his hands up as if to calm her down and make peace, but Ian just laughed as he walked up beside him. "I see you're getting reacquainted with old friends, Logan. Sounds like she missed your charm" Ian said, clapping him on the back just like he used to do when they were in school. Mara remembered how Logan used to help torment them with encouragement from his older brother. Mara crossed her arms over her chest, which had the unintended consequence of causing both brothers to notice that aspect of her body. She hurriedly put her arms back down, turning a bit pink in the process.

  "Since we’re not in high school anymore, and I'm sure you two haven't changed, why don't you just go away and leave us to enjoy our food." Mara said.

  "Well, that's kind of rude, isn't it?" Ian said. "It's been a long time. Surely we can put everything in the past and share a meal together!"

  "Yeah, I don't think so. If you won't leave, then we will. Come on Kitty!" Mara picked up the pizza box and walked out the door, trusting that Kitty would be right behind her. The last thing either of them needed was any crap from those two.

  As they walked out, Mara heard Ian laugh and say, “That went well. I think they missed us!”

  Mara turned and shot them a bird as she walked out the
door, backwards.

  Chapter Three

  Mara and Kitty were excited as they pulled up to the gate leading into the Launch Facility. The man at the guardhouse looked at their invitations and ID’s then raised the barrier and gave them directions. Mara pulled into the numbered parking space that they had been assigned to and clipped the permit onto the rear-view mirror, as she had been instructed. Each of them had been given a badge on a lanyard, which they placed around their necks as they got out of the car. It was obvious where to go from here, so they headed toward the double doors leading into the old warehouse that had been converted for the companies use as a Launch facility.

  The inside of the Launch facility was quite well organized. Signs clearly showed the direction they should head in to find their assigned VR Pod. Watching the numbers over the tops of the doors leading into the pod area, the two girls walked slowly down the open court past people gathered near the pod doors waiting for instructions. Since Mara had one the tickets and was sharing hers with Kitty, their pods were right next to each other. As they were approaching their own pods, Mara heard a familiar voice call out to them.

  "Well, well! Who do we have here?" Mara looked toward the voice and saw that one of her least favorite people, Ian Landry, was standing there with his despicable brother, Logan. "Logan, I didn't think would be running in to them again quite so quickly... Did you?" He said.

  "No, of course not." Logan looked pleased to see them, but in a less wolfish way than Ian dead. "You guys got tickets! Maybe we'll see you inside the game."

  Ian smirked and said, "I doubt they're really on our level of play, even if we do."

  Mara glared at him. "No, we wouldn't sink to that level."

  Ian glared at her, but she noticed Logan grinning. Ian began to sputter out an angry response, but Logan put his hand on his shoulder and said, "Let it go. She got you, don't be pissed about it." Ian turned an annoyed look toward his brother, but the speakers interrupted the little exchange between the two.