The Goddess Quest

by Lawrence Ambrose

  An interesting trap, thought Alex. If she said nothing she risked discovery at some point, making Dionysus a coward and a liar in the minds of many. Yet to confess was to expose Dionysus to the rebuke of millions. He could probably ameliorate that by pointing out that Athena had just killed his partner in a naked and unwarranted act of aggression, but in Alex's experience, trying to explain yourself just made you appear weak. Dionysus's policy – her policy – was to never explain or apologize. He was a god, and gods just did things and let mere mortals sort them out.

  Alex had little doubt she could defeat Athena in battle. Dionysus ranked higher than Athena did on every world she knew of, including the Parallel Worlds. But even in victory, she would lose – her anonymity, her ability to cruise freely through the worlds her wonders to perform. Brandon – avatar name, Hector – would lose his anonymity as well. That wasn't as important to him, but still. Alex could always design another avatar, but the thought of giving up her beloved Dionysus, so lovingly, painstakingly, and expensively constructed – galled her.

  A text appeared on her cell. Brandon, wanting to know what she was going to do. She texted back: Don't see much choice but to accept. I'll pm her. Maybe I can talk her out of it. I'll let you know the details.

  Alex dragged her computer into her lap and started to compose her acceptance email.

  IF ALEX had known the League of Combat Honor would end up hosting and refereeing their battle with all the pomp and circumstance the wealthy and popular organization could muster – renting the Hollywood Bowl, no less! – she might've been more enthusiastic about accepting Athena's challenge.

  Now, ancient gladiatorial trumpets blared and the crowds roared – all real avatars eager for blood as far as she could tell – while she and Athena (with their seconds, Hector and Hestia) waited in full battle garb on either end of the field. Athena was stunning in her white ruby and emerald-embroidered robe and her gold shield flashing in the brilliant southern California sun. Dionysus more than matched her in his gorgeous flowing bone-white robe and his diamond-studded shield. His hair was a mass of golden tangles sprouting from the edges of his shining silver helmet. Athena's hair was long, raven-black, and braided to hang over her shoulders. She wore a gold helmet bearing a single large ruby on either side.

  They'd begin the first round with spears, which Hector/Brandon and Hestia, as ceremonial seconds, were holding – the second and third rounds, if necessary, to be fought with swords and chains. Each round was three minutes, and if they both survived the three rounds, it was a draw. Alex very much doubted it would go past the first round, but one never knew.

  The President and founder of the League of Combat Honor, John Wisdom, addressed the combatants and the crowd from a podium in the center of the field.

  "We are gathered today to witness a battle to the death under Default Power Simple Weapons Rules," stated President Wisdom. "That means no awarded powers aside from pure skill with the chosen weapons is allowed. This contest is all about good, clean fun, but may involve realistic blood and gore. This event has a Violence Level 6 rating. The minimum age for attendance is sixteen. Fair warning: If you are under sixteen and have managed to sneak past our event-screening engine, you will receive a five hundred OD fine if we discover you, and your event fee will also be non-refundable."

  Wisdom raised his hands and smiled beneficently up on the crowd, performing a slow circle to view everyone in the standing-room only stadium. He turn to Alex with a swirl of his long black and white robes

  "Now let me introduce the combatants, who for most of you require no introduction..."

  Alex felt a chill as President Wisdom listed her accolades. She'd received plenty of praise in the Boards – along with an occasional flame war – but this was the first time she'd experienced it live and in public. There had to be thousands of people here, all willing to pay a minimum of three hundred OD for the bleachers up to one thousand for front-row "blood-spray" seats! She knew her avatar was popular, but she'd never truly envisioned what that meant. Dionysus and Athena were major draws! They like me, they really like me! Or mostly herself, Alex guessed.

  "Let the games begin!" President Wisdom concluded in a roaring shout.

  Alex jogged toward Athena, buoyed on the roar of the crowd, imagining herself as Brad Pitt's Achilles in his opening charge, only prettier. But Athena was no snarling, mindless brute. This called for some subtlety. It occurred to Alex how few times and how long it had been since she'd engaged in ritual combat. Mano y mano fights were usually for newbies or lowbrows. But they were where she'd earned her original points and coin, and she, in the form of her expensively sculpted Dionysus, had never lost.

  A Simple Weapons fight under default powers was as close to real-life combat as it got in the Verse. Just as in real life, it came down to quickness, coordination, and skill – except their strength was, in theory, precisely equal. Alex trained regularly in avatar form: martial arts, weapons, boxing, gymnastics, and eskrima. Her philosophy was that you had to train both the body and the mind. Or maybe it was just the joy of being an athlete instead of a gimp. Whatever the case, very few players subscribed to that philosophy. Now, with any luck, it was about to pay off.

  Athena thrust her spear at him as they closed within striking distance. Alex resisted the reflexive urge to block it with her shield – instead, twisting around it and faking a thrust for Athena's head. As expected, Athena took the feint, throwing up her shield and ducking. Alex slammed his shield into hers, knocking her on her butt. Athena lost hold of her spear. Her shield shot up too late to block Alex's thrust. The point of her spear paused just below Athena's jaw. A trickle of blood ran down to her throat, staining the collar of her robe.

  "Baby girl," said Alex, "you should stick with slaying sim-dragons."

  "Fuck you."

  An interesting thought. Alex gazed down at her ripe body, the robe inching up her long, tanned legs, while Dionysus's long, hard spear threatened penetration. The symbolism was a bit over the top.

  "Do you yield?" Alex asked.

  "Not a chance. Go ahead and kill me, if you have the balls."

  Alex leaned forward. Her spearhead buried itself in the ground beside Athena's head. Athena gasped loudly enough to create an echo.

  "Draw agreed?" Alex asked. "No penalties or coins exchanged?"

  "You're showing me mercy?"

  "It is the prerogative of the gods."

  Athena sighed. "All right. Agreed."

  Alex extended her hand. After a small hesitation, Athena gripped it. Alex hauled her to her feet. The crowd's applause and cheering sounded rather tepid. They'd wanted blood, Alex supposed. Plus, all the bets were off.

  "You train for personal combat," Athena stated. "Or was that just luck?"

  "I train for everything." Alex's avatar smiled his white-toothed smile at her.

  "Everything?" A hint of color invaded the war goddess's cheeks.

  "Believe it."

  They turned in a full circle to acknowledge the crowd's rapidly diminishing applause, standing close but not touching. Close enough, Alex thought, to feel Athena's body heat. Close enough for her tawdry imagination to be piqued. She could sense the beginnings of an erection. Strange, but no stranger than many things in their brave new virtual world.

  Athena glanced at her. Was that a hint of longing in her topaz-brown eyes? She was expensively rigged, no doubt about that. Gen 2 AFIRM? She, like Alex, could be "fully loaded." One way to find out.

  "You may be a misogynous bastard," Athena murmured, "but I do appreciate what you did. No hard feelings."

  "I wish I could say the same."

  "You have hard feelings?"

  "I'm afraid so." Alex's gaze pointed to her groin, where the robe was developing a suggestive arch.

  Athena giggled. "God, you are some piece of work."

  "Thanks."

  "Do you want to get a drink? Maybe talk a little?"

  "Nope. I want to get a room. Afterward, if you insist, we can talk
a little."

  "I can't believe how full of yourself you are!"

  "I'd be happy to fill you up with me, too. I'm a sharing kind of guy."

  Athena smiled acridly and shook her head. "Is it possible to say anything to you that you don't turn into a double entendre?"

  "The fact that you would say 'double entendre' makes me doubly horny."

  Athena stared at Alex/Dionysus as if weighing the arguments pro and con.

  "Assuming you're fully loaded, of course," Alex added. "Gen 2, right?"

  "Good guess."

  "That will work. I'm Generation Three."

  "Probably why you kicked my ass. The thought-processing is faster, better."

  "Minimally. The result was more about your lack of training. But we digress."

  People were filing down from the bleachers to shake hands and jabber at them. Alex met Brandon's gaze and acknowledged his questioning shrug with a nod. She could practically hear Bran's resigned sigh from where they stood.

  "Just for the record, I'm no farm animal," said Athena. "I'm five-eight, 127 pounds. I go to the gym regularly. My avatar might be a bit better-looking, but I think I could hang with her."

  "Good to know. I'll fantasize about her when I'm fucking you."

  She shook her head again and made soft clucking sounds. "So sure of yourself. Yet I notice you haven't told me anything about your non-virtual self."

  Alex hesitated. Telling the truth, of course, was out of the question. "I'm blond and fairly tall but not quite as well-hung."

  Athena smirked. "That goes without saying."

  "I'm leaving," said Alex. "Are you with me?"

  Athena seemed to catch her breath before nodding. "Where?"

  "Let me surprise you."

  Alex received transport authorization and in their next breath they were standing on a sandy beach on a crystal-blue lake surrounded by mountains. It was one of Alex's favorite hideouts, based on Maroon Bells in Colorado. Her only changes were deleting the roads and structures by the lake, replacing the gravel-strewn beach with fine sand, and warming the air and water to a mellow 78 degrees.

  "Nice," said Athena, looking around.

  "Up for some skinny-dipping?"

  "Sure. Why not?"

  They stripped. Unlike in real-life, Alex loved getting naked as Dionysus. Nothing to be ashamed of, to put it mildly. All muscle, perfect proportions, smooth, bronzed skin, a wreath of short-cropped golden curls cradling his thick, blue-veined porn star-sized manhood.

  Athena's body – a study in athletic, toned curves, long beach-volleyball legs and rounded ass – didn't concede much to his perfection. Alex appreciated that she hadn't gone overboard with her ample but medium-sized breasts and athletic but not overdone musculature. Alex also appreciated the modest line of crotch fur that pointed like an arrow to her gateways of pleasure. Just staring at her was giving her a hard-on. The cognitive dissonance just turned on Alex that much more. Fuck the rules. Here she could be and do exactly what the fuck she or he pleased.

  Alex turned from her, seeing the desire in her eyes, and wanting to tease her – raise their temperatures a bit – before "stuffing the salami." For her, avatar sex was hit or miss – often more miss – but usually a combination of the two. Not that she had any real-life experience for comparison. Strange that her only sexual experience was as a virtual man, but such was life.

  Now she about to have virtual sex with someone who'd probably had multiple partners in real and virtual life. Fortunately, everyone made allowances for virtual sex, and from a plenitude of virtual experience, Alex had learned one great truth: sex was predominately mental. Lucky for her.

  Alex swam out toward the center of the lake. The water was "like butter," as Mike Myers would say. Athena glided up beside her with long, confident strokes.

  "I love what you've done with the place," she said with a quiet laugh. "How much of it is yours?"

  "Not much. It's off-the-shelf, mostly."

  "But top of the shelf." They were both treading water. "Just like your avatar. Either your family has money or you have it. Which means you're either young or you're some older dude." She cocked an eyebrow. "Maybe out to get a little young pussy without your wife knowing?"

  Alex laughed. "You're right – I am old, nearly ancient. Twenty-four years old and I haven't even graduated from college yet."

  "A real slacker, huh?" Athena laughed with her. "Don't sweat it, big guy. I'm twenty-six and I have a sociology degree that I'm putting to good use bartending in a restaurant. My parents are ready to disown me."

  "Sociology degree? Shit, you're lucky to have a bartending job."

  "Ha-ha. Sad to say, that's probably a good point."

  Alex smiled, struck by a sudden sense of solidarity and a slightly disturbing revelation: I think I might actually like her. She hadn't expected that. An anonymous, shallow friendliness bereft of any true personal connection was fine. Anything more was trouble. Brandon was her only true friend since high school, and she had no plans to change that.

  Dionysus held Athena in his powerful arms and they kissed. As always, Alex felt somewhat like a spectator in a film, experiencing the actors' feelings. Her lips tingled and Athena moaned. The soft but firm reception of her body against his rigid hardness. Floating in a warm, liquid cocoon, Alex thought they might burst into butterflies.

  "Let's swim back to shore," Athena breathed in her ear.

  "I have another idea."

  Perhaps she'd been thinking it subconsciously when she chose the lake, but this was the perfect time to exercise a new power. She accessed it in a blink and then rose with Athena in her arms until they stood upon the water. Alex swung her off her feet, cradling her, and started walking back to shore.

  "I've never been with a man who could walk on water before," Athena said with a grin. "Mythic."

  "I'm all about the myth, baby."

  Strolling with her in her arms, her erection pointing to the wispy clouds drifting timidly through the iridescent-blue sky overhead, Alex had recovered her macho manhood. Lost in clean, brutal, mindless male lust. Just the way she liked it.

  Athena smiled up at her as she lowered her on a beach towel that had appeared on Alex's silent command. Their eyes locked. Alex's dribbling king snake cock pressed against Athena's moistened gate. Athena spread her legs a fraction: not to so much an invitation as a dare. That was all Dionysus needed.

  The slick penetration and withdrawal was delicious and more real than usual. Athena's cries were music to her ears. Perhaps because she was getting more skilled or Athena had more experience – the experience of a hot girl – as opposed to the usual clumsy, virginal nerds Alex fucked. Or maybe it was the two top-end immersion modules doing their thing? For whatever reason, this was the best it had ever been, she decided. An orgasm built with each thrust and burst like a backpack nuke in her brain. Alex grunted, and, with all the meticulous reality of the AFIRM GEN 3, spurted repeatedly into Athena's clenching vessel.

  Alex followed off her onto the warm, pliant sand and smiled up at the sky.

  "Oh..." Athena whispered. "God..."

  They said nothing a minute or two while breezes blew in off the lake and caressed their naked bodies.

  "What other powers do you have?" Athena asked.

  "Too many to name without appearing immodest. You?"

  "Same answer. Not that I could do anything here with your guest basic powers limiter in place."

  "My world. My rules."

  "A gentleman would let the lady decide."

  "I'm no gentleman."

  She surprised him with a laugh. "Good. Because I'm no lady."

  "I think we've established that."

  Athena propped herself up one elbow and stared at him. Alex wondered if she'd offended her, but resisted the urge to qualify her comment.

  "It's strange," said Athena. "You're not like any virtual guy I've ever met. You seem like an actual man. I have to admit, that's kind of cool. I get so sick of hanging with sissies."
<
br />   Alex laughed. "Being a sissy really isn't my thing."

  "One problem with my theory: real men don't usually geek out in here."

  "Do real women?"

  "If by 'real' you mean 'hot, full-blooded female,' then yes. I'm proof of that. But nerd guys, not so much. Even if they're not bad looking, they're usually still wimpy. At least, the guys around my age. I know, because I've hung out with them since I was a kid."

  "You must've broken a lot of hearts."

  "Yup. And I'm not proud of that." She raised her brow. "You said you're working on a degree? What's your poison?"

  "This." Alex raised her arms to embrace the sky. "Virtual reality design."

  "Computer science? Programming? Content design?"

  "That last."

  "Awesome. The great Dionysus will help construct our new reality. Who better than one of us?"

  Alex gave her a tepid smile.

  "I tried taking a programming class once. I totally sucked." Athena stretched her arms and sighed. "Sometimes, I wish it could always be like this. That I never had to leave."

  You and two or three billion other people. Alex stopped her scowl. She hated that her deepest innermost desire was shared by one-third of humanity or more – especially by an attractive young woman with a degree and a stable of broken hearts and wealthy or well-to-do parents and yet who imagined she was suffering horribly in the Real.

  "What are you thinking?" Athena asked, half-frowning at Alex.

  "I was just thinking..." Dionysus leaned over and engulfed her nearest breast with his full, Adonis lips, savoring her lifelike skin and her moaning gasp. "A little less conversation..."

  Chapter 3

  "YOUR SHOULDERS ARE HUNCHING," Brad Tiller warned Alex as she shoved the bars upward on the shoulder press machine. Several machines down in the UCJ gym, Brandon was performing pull-ups with weights strapped to his waist. Unlike her, he had admirable upper body strength and coordination – was even a star of the University Wheelchair Basketball League (UWBL) – the cocky little bastard.

  "The point is that you're causing yourself unnecessary physical stress." Brad's big, warm hands rested on Alex's tensed shoulders. "You're fighting your own body motions and creating residual tension. That's why your shoulders ache and you have a chronically stiff neck."