A Power Game

When Rain, Reese and Avery finally appeared in the square, Avery turned out to be slightly different than Mhykol expected. She was a girl of just over average height, with perfectly curled light-brown hair and large chocolate eyes. Her face was round and soft, with not a straight angle to be seen. A long skirt of tanned brown wrapped her hips and legs, and she the nothing but the points of her flat shoes poked out from beneath. Her shirt was tight to her body and white, and she wore a leather jacket of slightly darker brown that stopped six inches from her waist. Her curled hair was held back from her face by a headband of white silk, decorated with black ink.

As the group of three approached, Mhykol caught Katie looking at Reese shyly through her eyelashes. He grinned slightly at the flush that spread through the older boy's cheeks and neck as he caught her eyes.

"Nice to see you both still alive." Rain's words were light, but her eyes held a severity that hadn't been in them before. It was almost as if she knew how close Katie had been to not ... being.

"Likewise." Mhykol nodded to Reese and Rain. Reese was so busy staring into Katie's eyes that he didn't even seem to notice. "And you must be Avery." Mhykol bowed slightly, and the girl looked at the ground quickly. It might have been a nod, but Mhykol wasn't sure.

"We should probably head for the closest city." Rain's words were sensible, and the tone of her voice brooked no argument.

"Aren't we in a city?"

Avery had a soft-spoken voice, which was almost inaudible, even in the silence of the alley.

"I don't think any of us want to sleep here. Not tonight." Everyone nodded as Rain spoke.

Looking around the open space one final time, Mhykol almost cursed. The bodies still lay where they had been abandoned, still and silent. It was like a room full of sleeping manikins, and it sickened Mhykol to know that they had all been alive not twenty minutes past.

"I'll kill him."

Mhykol didn't realize he had spoken the words out loud until Rain touched his arm lightly, letting her fingers rest against his jacket. She looked at him with eyes like black rocks, fierce and heavy. "And I'll be right with you when we do, Mhykol, but it will not be now. Or even soon. I had been playing this game for four months before you joined, and I was only at level 8." She pressed her tongue against her lower teeth, skewing her pink lips slightly to the side. "To reach level 100..."

She shook her head. "I don't even know if it's possible."

"Well, it's definitely impossible if we stand around doing nothing but talking." The speaker was the last person Mhykol would have expected; Avery. "We should head for Durnsdel. We can find food and shelter there."

They slowly began the long walk out of the city. The air still smelled faintly of sweets baking, though the aroma was now marked with the faint smell of burning. The smell of flowers, however, had vanished upon leaving the square. Mhykol was glad.

To both sides, tall buildings of grey and pink rock rose from the paved street. Light shone faintly from some windows, the flickering glow of candles left lit. Fires would break out eventually, Mhykol knew. The houses were abandoned - all but a few having fled from the city of carnage.

"How long is it to the next city?"

Avery turned to face him, her coffee-coloured eyes settling on him softly. "About two hours if we hurry. However, there's someone I think we should meet first, who lives just on the edge of town. It's an extra half-hour walk to his house, but it will be worth it. I hope." She hesitated for a moment, as if unsure whether or not to say more. "His name is Walker Faust. He's a weaponsmith. I don't know how you managed to get to level 5 with your starter sword, but we really should get you a new one."

Rain's astounded eyes fell on Mhykol. "Level 5?"

Mhykol flinched slightly, shrugging. A plastic grin made him bare his teeth in a fake, apologetic smile. "Ah, about that." Mhykol swallowed. "We should probably talk about that."

Rain's beautiful face filled with reservation, and her eyes held a premonition that Mhykol found hard to convince himself otherwise of. He had lied to her. For some reason, the idea hurt him far more than it should have. They had barely known each other for 3 hours, yet already he felt strangely close to the young woman. He could blame it on circumstance, that anyone would become close after going through what they had, but Mhykol knew that wasn't it. He and Rain had something in common, something that Mhykol wanted desperately to discover. With a breath of emptiness, Mhykol began to explain.

As they all walked, he shared his story. About how he had been abandoned, left crippled in a world made for whole men. About how he had discovered computer programming; hacking. How he had worked towards buying a Netgear, about how he had hacked into one, stripping it of its code. About how he had cheated. He didn't embellish anything, he didn't ask for forgiveness, or pity, he simply told it how it had been.
"So that's how I came to be in Euphoria. I was test-driving the admin privileges." He concluded, breathing heavily. The telling of the story had taken a lot out of him. As he finished, he felt Rain looking at him with measuring eyes. She wasn't angry, he could tell, but it may have been worse. He would much rather her be angry than hurt. A mad woman, he could deal with, but a woman who felt betrayed, well that was the most dangerous thing in the world.

"How far could you level yourself?" Rain's voice was thoughtful. Mhykol's eyes widened in amazement. She didn't feel betrayed, Mhykol realized. She was thinking of ways to use him, to use his powers. Suddenly, he was the one who felt slightly used.

"If you're asking whether I could make myself level 100 right now..." He trailed off, letting the question hang in the air.

"Yes."

Everyone took a simultaneous breath, and Avery looked at him with wide, staggered eyes. "So we could kill that man right now?" Rain's voice was dead seriously. Mhykol shook his head.

"Euphoria's running on something called instant-recall code. Think of it as a living machine, which can process information on a massive scale, almost instantly. Because of it's nature - being near-life - if it feel something strange within the game, it can find and ban it in seconds. Me gaining 95 levels instantly would be like sending out a giant red flag with 'ban me please!' written on it. I've already used most of my administrator abilities in leveling myself this far, and opening my three Special Abilities. If I do much more, I'm going to become a target for the instant-recall system."

Rain nodded slowly, seeming to understand. Mhykol was openly impressed. It had taken him months to learn how to get around the wording for the system.

"Sorry, but I won't be much help. If I level myself any more, I'm going to die. Literally." Mhykol's voice was discouraged. He honestly wanted to help, if only to get everyone out of this mess of a game."

To his surprise, Rain threw one arm around his shoulders, pulling him towards her and swaying as they walked.

"That's alright, Mhykol. We'll just do it the hard way. Now, we need to plan. What are we going to need?"

"Food." The suggestion was instant from Katie. Followed shortly by "money" from Mhykol. "Weapons." Katie said thoughtfully, "And probably Healing items too. You're a good healer, Rain, but even you can't keep 5 people alive forever."

Rain nodded, admitting to the fact. "If we're going to take on any of the game bosses, we definitely need to visit a weaponsmith. I liked Avery's suggestion to visit Walker's. All in favor?"

Five hands were raised high into the air.

-

The walk was shorter than Avery had said, and they reached Walker's house just as the sun was beginning to dip it's shining face below the tops of the trees. While they walked, the flat, grassy plains has narrowed, becoming almost like a pathway a half-dozen miles wide. On both sides, massive pines stood like needled green sentinels. The air stayed fresh and warm throughout the walk, even as the sun began to set. As they left the city, the smell of baking was replaced by the sweet, sharp smell of pine needles and turned dirt. They saw a few other people, but not as many as Mhykol would have expected. Those they did see were sitting under trees, walking - lost in their own thoughts, or fighting. They didn't see anyone fighting each other, but wild animals were common.

Walker's house was impressive. It was two-stories, and the walls were made of white clay. The roof was black slate, which matched the black-painted windowboxes nicely. Yellow peonies and a violet flower that Mhykol couldn't name hung from the boxes, giving the house a friendly, inviting air. The open windows, however, were dark and lifeless.

"Maybe he's not home?" Rain's tenuous voice broke the silence. Suddenly, Mhykol realized the group had stopped walking at the start of the cobble path leading to the front door.

"Nah, he's here. Since I've known Walker, I've only seen him come out of his house once."

Walking forwards, Rain approached the tall dark-wood door. Two silver bells dangled from the middle on thin white string. Rain grabbed the string, ringing the bells. Their sound was clear and keen, echoing through the pines.

"Is Walker there?"

"Go away." The man's voice was deep and low, almost a growl. It carried through the window to the right of the door, but a pair of yellow curtains hid whatever was behind them.

"Walker?" Rain's voice called through the window respectfully, "Sorry to bother you sir, but we really need some help."

"Go away." The man's voice didn't change.

"Please, sir. This is serious." Rain's voice sounded on the edge of desperation. "We really need your help."

The man behind the curtains sighed, the sound like a waterfall of air. "Peaches, kill."

Peaches?

"What kind of madman are we talking to?" Mhykol turned, directing the question towards Avery. As he did, he felt the earth shake. It was like an earthquake, if an earthquake had teeth and claws. Turning, Mhykol's mouth dropped open.

"Oh, fuck me."

The bears head appeared first, coming around the right side of the house like a thing out of nightmares. It's fur was brown, and streaked through with dark grey. It's eyes were yellow, narrow and vicious. As they fell on the children gathered outside the door, the bear's jaw dropped in a massive roar. Mhykol got a front row seat to two sets of six-inch teeth, set in jaws that could bite through sheet metal.

"That's peaches?" Reese's voice was higher pitched than normal, but he drew his sword, stepping between Katie and the massive beast. "You've got to be joking."

The bear snuffed loudly, shaking it's massive head from side to side. Slowly, it hunched it's shoulders, front paws leaving the ground. Standing, reared on it's back legs, the beast stood almost twenty feet in the air. It glared down at the small group with furious eyes. Just as the bear was about to attack, Avery darted forwards, running to the window. The bear followed her actions intently, but didn't attack her. If anything, it backed off slightly, becoming less aggressive.

"Walker, it's Avery!" Her quiet voice carried through the open window.

"Peaches, down!" The massive voice roared. A moment later, the front door flew open. At first, Mhykol thought he was looking at a second bear. It was smaller, but it's eyes were just as vicious as Peaches'. He blinked, and the image vanished. Walker Faust was an enormous man, his head brushing the 8-foot door frame with ease. His arms were the size of Mhykol's body, and Mhykol wasn't a small man. In one hand, Walker held a spatula, which looked like a childs' toy in his ... funny, Mhykol was about to call it a paw. His face was nearly entirely covered by a well-trimmed back beard, which was rounded down to just past his neck. His head was covered in short black hair, but bald in the middle. Like a monk.

The man looked through the doorway, eyes glancing quickly at the children gathered around, before they fell on Avery. With a massive smile, he flung his massive arms around the petite girl, lifting her off the ground in the biggest bear hug* Mhykol had every seen.

"How have you been, girl?" He roared. Avery was grinning almost as widely as the giant man was, and she patted his bearded cheek lightly.

"Good, good. What are you cooking?"

Walker suddenly became aware that he held a spatula in one hand, the batter from which was running down his arm. He frowned at it in irritation. Placing Avery back on the ground carefully, he turned to the rest of the children.

"`Pologies for scaring y'all." His deep voice sounded slightly sheepish. "Peaches is mainly harmless anyways." He walked over to the bear, rubbing the massive beast behind the ears fondly. It pressed it's giant nose into his hand, growling happily.

"Aw, they're adorable." Katie's voice came from behind Mhykol and he twisted around to raise an eyebrow at her. "Well," her childish voice was petulant, "they are."

Mhykol laughed deeply. "I suppose they are at that." He walked forwards, approaching Walker easily. He raised one hand in a handshake. "Nice to meet you, sir. My name is Mhykol Wolfe."

To his surprise, the man swatted his hand away. "Enough of that hand, boy." He reached forwards, pulling Mhykol into a crushing embrace. "Come here, ya bastard!" Mhykol struggled to breathe, tapping out hurriedly on the man's shoulder with one hand. The man released him, stepping back.

"So you're Mhykol, eh?" He laughed, the sound like a cannon firing beside Mhykol's ear. "And who are you young peckers?" He gestured vaguely to the rest of the group. They introduced themselves one by one.

"I'm Rain Goodin." Rain stepped forwards, half raising one hand before remembering what happened to Mhykol. She turned it into a graceful curtsy.

"Ah, to be fifteen years younger. Nice to meet you, Rain." The girl blushed at his compliment, stepping back hurriedly.

"I'm Reese Long, and this is Katie Ybarra."

The last name came as a shock to Mhykol, who had never thought to ask the young woman's surname. Suddenly, he realized just how much he didn't know about the 'friends' he was travelling with.

"Well, come in, come in. Any friends of Avery's are friends of mine."

The man walked back into the house, Avery quick on his heels. The rest of the group exchanged glances of indecision. Behind Mhykol, Peaches growled, the sound deep and chilling. Suddenly, the house became the number one place to be. As Mhykol walked into the dimly-lit house, he glanced back out at the bear.

To his surprise, the bear was gone. Where it had lain, a young woman now stood. She was tall, with thick brown hair wrapping her to the waist, and the most shocking part - bright yellow eyes. As the door closed behind Reese, the girl turned to look at him. Her smile was mocking and ferocious, much like a wild animals.

"The bear's a woman."

Everyone looked at him like he was insane. Finally, Katie shrugged. "Well, it explains the name."

Mhykol shot her an exasperated look. "Not a female. It's a -" he sighed, waving one hand in front of his face. "Whatever, I'm done."

As the small group followed Avery and Walker down the hallway, turning right two doors down, entering a large kitchen. The floor was white marble, and warm under Mhykol's boots. The walls and high ceiling were a creamy white, and the counter tops were cut from marble and quartz. On every wall, cupboards stood open, displaying their assortment of cups, baking utensils, and other various household items. In one corner of the kitchen, a massive sword caught Mhykol's attention. It must be Walker's, Mhykol supposed, because nobody else could use such a massive weapon. The thing must weigh a thousand pounds.

Walker gestured to the table, a six foot wide, round oak affair. As he did, he walked to the stove.

"Sit, children. My apple pie's just about done." He turned to meet Avery's eyes. "We have much to talk about."