Avatar Online Launch Read online

  Can I have your attention, please! Welcome to this historic Launch of Avatar Online! We are sure that you will find yourself enraptured by a gaming experience unlike anything you have ever had an opportunity to participate in before. You will be able to experience the life of your alter ego in another world. It will be as real to you is any experience you've ever had, perhaps even more so. I invite you to take full advantage of the opportunities you must enjoy the game world that is selected for you today. Please check your pass and ensure that the number printed upon it matches the number over the door in front of you. Once you are instructed to do so, step into the pod and shut the door firmly behind you. It will lock automatically so you will not be disturbed during the process. Once inside, you will notice to your left a cabinet and directly in front of you several steps that leads up to an open hatchway. Please remove all your clothing and all jewelry, including watches and other accessories. No foreign objects may enter the vat with you. Place these items into the cabinet to your left and then go up the steps and lower yourself into the liquid within the vat. Please do not be alarmed. The liquid is fully oxygenated and will not harm you even if some of it were to be inhaled. It should initially reach somewhere between your waist and your shoulders, depending upon your height. If you are you are incapable of proceeding with the Launch, please press the button next to the door that says refusal and wait for an attendant. They will come and talk with you and see if they can help you enjoy the Launch experience. If not, alternates are available to take your place. Once you have entered the vat you will find you are immersed in more than liquid... You are immersed into an experience of alternate reality beyond that otherwise available. Our sensors will be able to digitally replicate your body in every way, with necessary adjustments, within the game. All your physical needs will be taken care of automatically by the pod for an extended gaming experience. You will have approximately a six-hour jump on anyone else that has purchased game access, which should greatly benefit you since time perception is significantly different in the game meaning that you will have several days in the game before others join you. Now, please proceed into the pod and enjoy your Avatar Online experience!

  Now a little nervous, Mara looked over at Kitty who was obviously nervous as well. They gave each other a tight smile and headed toward the door that matched their numbers. Once inside, Mara could see that it was exactly as it was described. She undressed with a little apprehension, then put all her clothing and shoes into the cabinet with her jewelry and watch in one of her shoes. She made her way up the three steps and slid into warm liquid that seemed a little thicker than water. Once her feet touched the bottom she noticed the hatch began to slide shut above her and the few dim lights inside the container began to fade to black. Before long, it was obvious that the liquid inside the vat was rising and she began to float, which was quite relaxing. She seemed to doze off as the liquid almost felt as though it massaged her skin. Mara never even noticed when it slipped completely over her head and entered her lungs. She was already in another world...

  Chapter Four

  Blackness surrounded Mara. It was as deep and dark as if death had folded in upon itself and was a bit scary, until words came flashing into space to roll away to the sound of an orchestra, like the opening of Star Wars.

  There are many worlds to explore within Avatar Online.

  The world you will explore is known as Amirus, a land of fantasy and romance.

  The Great Empire of Marakesh once dominated all the continent of Jakunn.

  That stopped being true over a thousand years ago when the Empire began to fracture.

  Now many nation-states are spread across the land and the Empire struggles to reclaim its glorious past and power.

  One of these nation-states is the Kingdom of Arax, which borders the Empire on one side and the Fallen Lands on the other.

  You begin in Jarvis, the capital city of Arax, at the market.

  You must seek a Quest at the Adventurers Guild nearby.

  Once Mara had finished reading the message she felt herself falling out of the dark void and toward a planet spinning below. She had little opportunity to memorize the details before a medieval city on the coast began to grow increasingly large. The closer she was to it the brighter the air around her until there was a lurch and a flash. As the flash cleared from her vision, a notification appeared:

  QUEST: Find the Adventurers Guild and secure a quest.

  Difficulty: 2

  Success: Using whatever means necessary, locate the Adventurers Guild and secure a contract.

  Failure: Unemployment, poverty, and feelings of desperation.

  Reward: A small amount of experience and the opportunity to earn gold and glory.

  The sensation of falling abruptly stopped and the world around her began to clear. The sunlight was bright in Mara's eyes, so the first thing she could distinctly make out was the smell of fresh bread. Then the sounds of a medieval city began to fade in. She felt a breeze against her skin. She blinked her eyes and shook her head and looked around to find that she was standing in a sort of gazebo-like structure that blended in with its surroundings well. It appeared to be right in the middle of a busy marketplace. The sights and smells were so incredibly real. The smell of that bread made her mouth water. She reached up and touched her face and she honestly couldn't tell the difference from the way it would've felt in real life.

  Looking to her side, she noticed that Kitty strongly resembled her real-life self, as they had been told she would. Kitty was a little smaller and had pointed ears, but otherwise looked like herself. She looked like a 4'8" tall Half-Elven Goth girl! "I love it!" Mara said.

  Kitty was looking all around her. "I know, right?" She looked over at Mara. "What? Do I look weird?"

  "You look awesome! A little on the short side, though..." Mara said, cocking her head.

  "I'm supposed to be a Half-Dark-Elven Rogue. What you think I should look like?" Kitty asked.

  "Well, I suppose you're rocking it then." Mara said with a smile. She looked around at the people who were going about their business normally. "It doesn't seem like anybody is paying attention to us, does it?"

  "No, there must be some sort of thing that makes them ignore the structure completely. I mean, they seem to be walking right around it, but other than that they're not paying any attention to anything we say or do. Much less the fact that we must have appeared here out of thin air!"

  Mara nodded. "I guess that makes sense, really. There is supposed to be quite a few of these points set up throughout the world. If we're supposed to enter the world and operate normally that it would make sense that people wouldn't be allowed to see us come and go. But I wonder how they do that out in the field? After all, we can log out wherever we are at unless we are in some sort of combat situation."

  Kitty said, "Well, I guess it is what it is. We don't have to understand all the science behind it to play the game, right?"

  Mara smiled. "Right! Let's go."

  They stepped down off the gazebo. Mara glanced back and saw that the gazebo was now kind of faded, as though it wasn't there at all. People noticed them now though.

  "Ladies!" A teenage boy called from a booth that they were near. "You look both beautiful and hungry! Perhaps I could interest you in some fresh bread, scrumptious meat, with vegetables. It is something new called... A sandwich!" He said with a flourish of one hand. He looked about as though they were in some sort of joint conspiracy. "For ladies as lovely as you two, only 1/2 silver today."

  They were both amused. Mara said, "1/2 silver? That seems a bit high for a sandwich. Perhaps you don't really think we’re all that beautiful after all?"

  "Oh, did I say half silver? I meant... Three coppers." The young vendor said.

  They both just laughed and started to walk away. "Not today, but thank you."

  "You know, sooner or later were going to probably want to try some food. Without any money, that's going to be kind of difficult. We had better find
the Adventurers Guild, like our instruction said." Mara whispered to Kitty.

  Kitty turned back toward the young vendor and asked, "Do you happen to know where the Adventurers Guild is?"

  The boy grinned. "Of course!" He pointed straight across the street at a large, imposing building. "It's right in front of you."

  The girls looked at each other and, with a grin on their faces, walked through the ornate double doors of the Adventurers Guild. It was cool inside, like it might be in a basement. That made sense as the floors were of marble. Walls and high ceilings were wooden but just simply made it shaded and cool. Someone had sunk a good bit of coin into this place, in game terms. In the center of the room was a counter manned by an attendant who was helping a couple of adventurers when they approached. They could hear the attendant speaking to them. "I'm sorry, but you must have a party of four to take this job. I don't have anything for two adventurers right now. Everyone swept in here this morning and took almost every job I had!"

  Mara glanced over at her friend. They certainly didn't want to get stuck without anything to do and lose a whole day of gaming. "Excuse me," she said, "we just happen to be here for a job too! Perhaps the four of us could take the job?"

  The attendant looked relieved. "Fine with me! It's yours!"

  QUEST: Free Hillsford Keep

  The Adventurer’s Guild of Jarvis has offered you an opportunity to serve the Crown by freeing Hillsford Keep from bandits.

  Difficulty: 8

  Success: Defeat the bandits and recover the Throne and Control Item of Hillsford Keep in the name of the King.

  Failure: Die or be captured.

  Reward: The gratitude of the King and commensurate rewards to be named.

  WITHOUT READING THE details of the quest, Mara touched the Confirm button before anyone could object. Then she realized she had taken a very difficult quest. She glanced at Kitty, who was staring at her own pop-up in shock. Kitty looked over at her, rolled her eyes and confirmed the quest as well. Then she looked at her new party members. There was an instant shock of recognition, for the man standing in front of her in adventurers’ garb was none other than Logan Martinez with his brother Ian Landry.

  "What the hell?" She said as Logan tore his eyes away from her and confirmed the quest. "Are you two following us?" she asked.

  Ian started to laugh as he also confirmed the quest. "How the hell would we manage that? Even if we wanted to... we're in a game."

  Logan seemed a little annoyed as he glanced over at his brother, but he turned back to her and said, "No... We're not following you, I promise. But, it seems that we're working together now."

  Mara did her best to control her reaction, which was comical to watch. Kitty looked at her with amazement at the way she scrunched up her face. Logan was most amused by the whole thing. Mara couldn't really back out now. She had confirmed the quest and was stuck with it. "I suppose for this one job we can do that. What is the job, anyway?" she said, as she looked over the specifics of the task before them. Difficulty 8! That was a little harder than Mara had planned for her first quest! She could hear Ian continuing to drone on about how he had been in the Beta for the game, giving him advantages. Since he did know some things that might be useful, she decided she should pay attention.

  "So, after that, I managed to make it on my own for a while without the assistance of the other player characters. There's a lot of experience points available in those group quests, but you can also run a lot of experience through individual quests. Now I've made it to third level and some of the better quests are starting reveal themselves. In this case, I got us this quest. It's a little bit of a stretch probably for even third level characters, but you and I are both experienced players Logan. We should be able to carry the girls through this and make it okay. Especially if we grind some levels before we try to clear Hillsford Keep." Ian said.

  Logan replied, "I don't know if I would say that we know what kind of experience they have or whether they'll have to be carried to do anything! Maybe we should ask them what skills they have and how much they played?" Logan said.

  Mara started to steam. "You got a lot of nerve, Ian! I'll have you know that Kitty and I've been playing RPG's for a long ass time. You don't worry about us being able to hold up our end of things."

  Ian chuckled and replied, "Don't get all worked up, Mara. I'm sure you girls will be useful, but I've already had experience playing this game in the Beta, as well as years of experience playing other VR RPG’s. And Logan... he's an Army Veteran. He already knows how to kick ass and he used to be pretty good with the RPG's himself. No insult intended"

  Before any more remarks were made the group reached a gate in the inner wall. They simply nodded at the guards and continued to a courtyard that lay beyond. Mara could see there was another, larger gate in the main wall a few hundred feet away and the courtyard itself had Stables inside. It was obvious that this could be used to not only to hold the horses during peacetime, but was an efficient killing ground if an invader made it through the city walls or the main gate.

  Ian said, "Wait here and I'll get horses."

  Ian walked over to talk to the stabler, who greeted him with the same sort of ass-kissing that he was accustomed to in the real world. That left the two girls alone with Logan.

  Logan surprised Mara bit by turning around and speaking to them while Ian was gone, in a low voice. "Ah, I'm sorry about Ian's comments. You know he can be a little... overbearing at times. I hope we can all just get along and have some fun."

  Mara looked at him. He seemed to be sincere, but she had trust issues with him. "Yeah, I suppose it’s not your fault he’s being an ass, but that doesn't mean that you’ve turned into a saint, Logan. It would be surprising for a leopard to change its spots, true?"

  Logan looked a bit taken aback by Mara statement. He reddened and looked away for a second and then looked back and caught her eye. "I won't claim to be a saint. You know I wasn’t when we were in high school. I'm not that guy anymore and I’m trying to be a decent person. Could you give me a little credit for that?"

  Mara's mouth dropped open and looked at Kitty. She was genuinely surprised. She would have never expected Logan to act like a decent human being or to accept responsibility in any way for the wrongs that he had done. This wasn't exactly a grand apology where he was begging her forgiveness for all the shit that he had piled on her over the years, but the implication was clear that he knew that he had been wrong in the past. He appeared to be ashamed of himself. This created a seed of doubt in Mara's mind about things and about Logan. She still didn't have any doubt about Ian though. It was obvious that he in was still the same asshole that he had always been, just older and better at it. She looked Logan in the eye and said, "Okay... Fair enough. We’ll take this when one step at a time."

  Logan met her stare and said, "That's all I ask," with a ghost of a smile.

  He looks nice when he smiles, she thought as the moment stretched.

  Ian was coming back over with two horses. He handed the reins of big black stallion to Logan and swung himself in the saddle of another just like it. Kitty looked up at him and said, "What about us? Don’t we get horses?"

  Ian grinned. "Well, there might some others available from that man I was just talking to, if you have the funds. My adventures have given me enough to afford a horse for myself and my brother. Sorry, I don't have the cash in this world to provide you girls with your own horses, but I'm happy to give one of you a ride! Kitty, give me your hand." Kitty took his hand automatically and he swung her up into the saddle. Mara noticed she looked uncomfortable sitting in front of Ian, as though she just realized what she had gotten herself into. As much as Mara loved Kitty, she tended to do what people told her to, especially guys. The bad thing is that Ian is like a more intense version of her ex-boyfriend Darren. That's the kind of guy she tends to be drawn to. Mara thought. Mara was pretty sure Kitty didn't even realize that she was obeying him until she started doing it. It was just her nature.
I suppose it wouldn’t be so bad if she could find a guy that would guide her without taking advantage of her... A guy that didn’t put her down and abuse her, just because he could.

  Logan looked over to her and asked, "Would you share a horse with me?"

  Mara looked at him a bit askance, but considering his recent speech it was hard for her to say no, so she simply nodded. He swung up onto the horse first and then reached down for helping her into the saddle in front of him. As he did, she became hyper-aware of his strength. He had lifted her without conscious effort or thought, one-handed it that. Now that she was in front of him, he took the reins and she held onto the saddle. She found herself leaning back against his chest and could feel the strength in his arms as they almost wrapped around her. It gave her a quiver down deep inside. She knew this was all digital, but it felt so real and she knew that his real-life build was very similar. Her bodies reaction annoyed her because it was purely physical. Logan might be a better man than he had been a teenager but that didn't mean that she wanted to sleep with him. Unfortunately, it seems that her body had different ideas. She was reacting to him and she didn't like it one bit. As they rode through the second set of gates and out into the countryside, Mara realize that it was possible that Logan was reacting to her as well. She felt that there was a growing hardness pressed against the back of her ass. She was almost sitting in his lap and it was obvious that he was having that physical reaction to her. She shifted uncomfortably. It kind of pissed her off, but what could she say? Plus, she wasn't doing any better, it was just less obvious. Anyway, it was just like guys to have reactions like that at the drop of a hat. Just they turned each other on didn't mean that either one of them wanted a relationship. That was completely out of the question. She was sure that the only thing Logan would like to do is screw her silly.