Misty was a little weirded out as she made her way to the UA server. From every person she passed, she picked up emotions and thoughts. She was used to that in Real Life and had learned to filter it out... but she wasn't prepared for it here.

In addition to her "unique gifts", Misty was also exceptionally intelligent. She had scored high in the Mensa range with her IQ. She reasoned that her new Interface had brought some of her RL talents into the electronic world. She took a few minutes to run through the breathing exercises she used in RL to keep her focus... and was happy to discover they worked here as well.

She walked into the UA lounge and saw Draxx sitting there. She was immediately struck by the complete absence of any emotion or thoughts in the space he occupied. It was like he was a human shaped void in the sea of feelings she had been navigating through.

"Hey, Misty," he greeted, "glad to see you could make it. Feel like making a run to Desperation tonight"?

"Desperation?? Are you nuts?? That place is overrun with PKs"!!

"Yah, but we're better players than they are, and I have to meet some people there".

"Who the hell do you have to meet in Desperation? You know I'm not into the whole PvP thing."

"Look," he almost shouted, "I need your help! I'm going to Desperation... are you going to come with me or not"?? What was that? A glimmer of anger?... indignation??

Misty thought about the person behind the avatar... the lonely, heavyweight girl who shunned contact with the outside world.

"Well... ok... but we better not get PKed".

"Don't worry," said Draxx, "we're smarter than they are".

Misty moved to the game gateway and inserted her member card. Everything went black as it read her user id and password. The transition was not nearly as smooth as she when she first plugged into her new system. She chose her GM Blacksmith/Dex Monkey from the character selection menu.

***Connecting***

***Entering Ultimate Adventure***

Abruptly, she stood in the ground level of their tower. She was taken aback by the detail of the graphics, things you just couldn't appreciate with a flat screen... this is how the game was meant to be played.

Draxx's GM Mage appeared in the big comfy chair on the other side of the room. Briefly, the name "Jerry Cornelius" appeared in blue over his head. He sat there motionless.

"Hello?" she said, and received no reply.

She took a minute to examine herself in the mirror. Her regular avatar had been exchanged for that of her character. She was tall, with flaming red hair and bronze skin. The name "Bridget" appeared in blue.

"Sorry," came the voice from behind her, "I lagged out for a minute".

"'sokay," she said.

She opened up an iron chest and started to take out her armor. It was form fitting in a way that is normally reserved for beach wear... and it appeared to have been forged from solid gold. Relative hardness of different metals didn't mean much in UA, and gold armor was just as strong as steel. She had made the armor herself, with this character.

Knowing that Draxx, or Jerry, was actually female, she boldly stripped off her clothes and began putting on her armor. What was that?? Desire??

She eyed Jerry suspiciously for a second, and continued dressing with her back turned. Not that it mattered much, she had guessed by now that he was using a flat screen and could still see everything from the 3rd person view. This was also probably why she couldn't pick up on his emotions very well.

She finished dressing, selected her weapons, and got some first aid bandages. Jerry stocked up on regs and potions.

Misty opened the big metal doors to the tower and walked outside.

"Raaaaaaaarrrrgggghhhhhh!!!"

A two-headed nightmare called an ettin waited just outside for them.

The creature was about as twice as tall as a star basketball player, and about 4 times as wide... and it was just plain uuuuuuugggglllyyyy.

It showed a grey aura, indicating that it could be attacked freely without penalty. More often than not, they attacked first.

"Por Ort Grav!!" shouted Jerry, and called lightning down from the sky.

The first thing Misty discovered, was that the fighting skills she had built in game previously, now meant diddly. As far as her brain was concerned, she was in her own body and that's the skills she would use. The big two-handed war hammer she hefted, would not be her weapon of choice in RL. But... her natural skills were enhanced by properly adjusting her thinking. Just like when she faced off against the bangers in the alley.

Misty/Bridget jumped straight up into the air and delivered a split kick that broke both of the monster's noses. Stunned, it dropped it's club and fell to it's knees, one hand grasping each damaged proboscis. She then executed a flawless spinning hook kick. The monster's two heads collided together and knocked it out could.

Jerry cocked his head and eyed her, "ummm... when did you take up wrestling"?

"Yah... ummm... I have to do something real quick.. brb".

Bridget ran back into the tower and returned with two gleaming kris swords.

"Now we're gonna have some fun," she said, "maybe Desperation is not such a bad idea after all."

Continue