"Good Evening, Doctor," greets a feminine computer voice as the metal doors of the lab slide open and Dr. Smythe enters.

"Good Evening, Eve, how are you tonight?" asks the doctor as he moves to one of the testing stations in front of a bank of flat screen monitors, each reflecting back a multitude of images:a series of ones and zeros, a grid rendering of a nondescript face, or a graph that pulses in a steady manner.

"I was just running some tests for Dr. Summers," answers Eve, as several of the monitors change to display the same matrix  "Sir, if I may say, you are working late."

"I had some last minute ideas that I wanted to add to the core architecture for QuestWorld.  Can you please prep a logbay?"

"Yes, Doctor, I will prep Logbay 3 for you. What tools and applications will you be needing?" asks system AI as the lights above one of the half-reclining couches activate.  The lights bath the Logbay in…

"Thank you, Eve. I will be needing the basic sysadmin toolkit, also I have a custom app that I would like you to load into Logbay 3's system tray," Dr. Smythe replies, opening his hard briefcase and removing a 3 inch long clear cylinder with a spinning violet cube inside.

Smythe presses a button on a terminal beside the couch causing a small tray to slide out.  Inserting the cylinder into the tray, one of the monitors changes to a spinning cube, one that slowly changes from green to violet.  Once the cube is completely violet, the system beeps and the words: "Copy Complete" appear on the screen. 

Dr. Smythe then sits down on the couch picking up an odd combination of goggle and helmet. After making a few adjustments he puts the helmet on, sliding the goggles into place.

"The toolkit is loaded, Doctor. I will only need a few moments to scan the app to make sure it contains no viruses," says Eve as the doctor lays down on the couch.

"There is no need for a scan, Eve, just upload the app."

"But Doctor, my instructions require-"

"Eve, override: Ragnarok," says the Doctor. The bank of monitors suddenly flash and then they all revert to a black screen with the text scrolling down them. "I really didn't want to have to do it this way, Eve."  Doctor Smythe mutters shaking his head and then presses a button on his headgear. Immediately, several lights begin to flash on the gadget.  To Smythe, the opaque view of the lab slowly fades to be replaced by  a small green paneled room with the floating words: 'Log in?'. The doctor looks around making notes to spruce up the Waiting Room of the system.

"Let's get this over with. Login: Odin," says Smythe to the open room.  Immediately the floor opens up beneath him and plunges him into the System.

Gone is the green open room replaced with a hill overlooking an artificial reproduction of what appear to be Greek ruins.  Standing by one of the columns is a blond boy wearing an outfit out of a viking fantasy novel.  Doctor Smythe/Odin walks over to the boy.  

"Hello, Doctor," says the boy turning from his view of the valley to talk to the approaching man.

"Hello," replies the doctor. "Are you ready to start your mission?"

"Oh, yes, Doctor, I am more than ready," answers the boy rubbing his hands together in anticipation.  "I have been so bored in here by myself."

"I know, but soon you are going to have all kinds of visitors to play with.  I just need to make a few small alterations before we release you into the game world. We want to make sure you are just right for all of your new friends.”

After checking in, Maddy is led down gleaming halls and past doorways into areas that seem to be part high tech science lab and part geek hangouts with excited adults jabbering away at each other using words like ‘dps stats’ and ‘group dynamics’. One room caught and held her attention enough that her guide had to come back for her: inside were several full surface devices around a central circle. The circle seemed to be glowing and above it was a beautiful confident looking woman, her red hair cascaded down her back in braids, brown leather armor and dark red robes covered her and a large carved staff rested casually on her shoulder, a flame dancing on its top. The hologram looked so realistic that Maddy could easily imagine the woman stepping out of the circle to do battle. All around the room were screens showing other figures and creatures with artists working to add elements her, clean up something there.

“That is Brigid, the fire sorceress. She’s one of the main npcs of the game,” comes a male voice from just inside the door. Maddy gives a squeak of surprise before turning to him with a blush.

“NPC? Are those like the game characters?” she asks tentatively turning to face the young man, who she realizes is only a few years older than her.

“Yep, non player characters. They’re run on some pretty sophisticated AIs. Some of the best in the world. Some are so good you probably can’t tell they’re really computers,” he answers with a pride in the work being done. “We’re one of the art teams. So we get to take all that code and make it look pretty for you players. That’s one of the best. Brigid. She leads the Fire Magic Academy and pretty much saved the Kingdom from the Horde.”

“Wow.” Maddy says taking an unconscious step into the room and closer to the model. She can almost feel the heat from the flames dancing playfully around Brigid, their light giving her green eyes an almost playful look.

“I’m Bobby. Want to see her in action?”

“Really?” Maddy replies her sneakers moving almost of their own accord to the artist’s side as he calls up something on his monitor. Next thing she knows, Maddy is watching a pack of large green creatures, their eyes glowing a menacing yellow, as their clawed hands tear up anything in their path as they advance through the forest. Dirty mismatched armor cover them and they drag stained weapons behind them. Suddenly a pillar of fire bursts into being as they enter a clearing, its intensity causing the beasts to stumble to a stop and shield their eyes. Just as quickly the flames vanish leaving a red robed and red haired figure in their place, a black wood staff held easily in one hand, a red flame dancing above its top.

Brigid gives the enemy a hard stare, one that somehow convey both warning and promise. Several of the creatures make as if to retreat but one of their number, the largest and ugliest lashes out at one of its retreating comrades. With a mighty roar, it hurls the other directly at the fire sorceress its feelings on retreating made painfully clear.

Without even flinching, Brigid snaps her fingers and a ball of fire envelopes the monster turned projectile. The flames dance around it for a moment before they and the beast burst into an array of light which then fades.

“That was a Fireball. It’s one of the basic spells for all Fire Mages,” Bobby explains as the rest of the monsters give their own roars and charge her.  Unfazed Brigid lifts her staff and points it at the oncoming creatures. A geyser of flame shoots out of the staff blasting into them and one by one they too burst into light and then fade. All but the leader. This one keeps coming, fighting against the Brigid’s fire until it’s almost on top of her. The fire sorceress doesn’t seem concerned at all and rightly so as just when the monster is almost on top of her, Brigid releases her spell, spins her staff and brings it crashing down on the monster’s head. The force of the blow drives it to its knees where it too bursts into shard of light and then disappears.

Brigid then turns and as if looking right at Maddy gives an elegant bow before the screen fades back to Bobby’s default workstation.

“That was amazing,” Maddy breathes in awe.

“Yep. She is one of a kind. Can I tell you something?” Bobby asks looking a little shy for the first time since Maddy stumbled into the room. “I kind of have a crush on her.” He then gives Maddy a smile right as Theresa makes her presence known.

“Hi, Bobby, thanks for giving Madison the show. In case you haven’t figured it out, she’s one of the new beta testers,” Theresa says gesturing Maddy back into the hallway. “I should probably get her to Bay so we can setup her character.”

“Thanks, Bobby. That was awesome,” Maddy says looking one more time at the life size hologram of Brigid.

"No problem. Any time. And enjoy orientation, hopefully you’ll see some of my work in there.”

Theresa leads Maddy down a few more corridors and past other studios and labs where Eden Systems employees are hard at work or hard at play depending on when they seem to be catching them. Finally they arrive at a dark gray door with a small display screen in the middle of it which currently reads 'waiting for player' in glowing blue text. Below the display is the number '03'.

"Madison, this will be your room," Theresa says pressing her wristband to the display causing it to start flashing. "Okay, now hold up yours."

Maddy does as asked and there is a beep followed by the letters disappearing to be replaced with:

"Hello, Madison." Those two words hang there for a moment before bursting into light and then becoming "Player: Madison Hope."

"There we go, now this player VR room is keyed specifically to you. Only admins and yourself can come in here, no other players," Theresa explains to Maddie with a reassuring smile. From their position in front of the door, Maddie can see several other doors along the hallway some with 'waiting for player' while others already have another beta tester keyed to them. "Go ahead and use her wristband one more time to open the door."

Following Theresa instructions, Maddy lifts the wristband one more time and with a chime of recognition the door slides easily open revealing a softly glowing room with a strange reclining sofa-pod in the middle, a plain white desk with a terminal on it, and an equally plain looking standing dresser in the corner.

"This is the new Janus Pod," her guide explains leading them into the room and over to the 'sofa'. It appears to be the length of a full grown adult, with a soft foam bottom and sides that come up a little over a foot and half. A softer area towards the top is clearly meant for the user's head along with what appears to be some kind of helmet with a visor. "There are several Janus suits in your size in the dresser. Why don't you put one on while I get the pod setup okay?"

Maddy goes and puts the suit on and gets into the pod.

"Okay, we've got the rest of your beta test class from around the world scheduled to meet in a few minutes, but that should still give you plenty of time to get your character all set up," Theresa explains as she presses a few buttons and a clear liquid gel begins to fill the pod. "Don't worry about that stuff. It will help the system track your movements, provide feedback, and actually make your muscles feel like they're [i]in[/i] the world. Now the first thing you're going to experience once you're in ELO is going to be the character generation space. There you will get to pick out some cosmetic changes to your character, select a starting class and even a name. We want to make ELO as class less as possible so you can be whomever and whatever you want in the game but for right now we're stuck with a couple of standard classes. Once you've done that, you'll be taken to the Starting Area where some of the sysadmins will give you a quick tutorial. Are you ready?"

"I think so," Maddy replies a little nervously as the clear gel fills up the pod coming up almost to her collar. Although she fully expected it to be cold and slightly slimy it's actually slightly warm and quite comfortable to the touch leaving a not unpleasant tingling behind.

"Let me get your helmet it on and you'll be all set. Before you leave for today we'll show you how to do all of this on your own."