Olympus: It's Not Just a Game

Chapter 2

Karl waited a moment to build suspense. Then he said, slowly and significantly, "I just killed a dragon in Olympus."

She stared at him. "What's Olympus?"

Karl was shocked. "What's Olympus?" he laughed. "That's a joke, right?" She peered anxiously at him. "You know, Olympus, like on MTV? Olympus, like at the video arcade? Olympus, like, everybody at school is talking about Olympus?"

"I'm home schooled," she said, cautiously.

Now he was really shocked. He figured that Jacob had brought this girl from school to show off the cybersuit. But one of those home schoolers? That would explain the church stuff. He eyed her critically. She didn't look too strange-she wasn't wearing a funny hat or anything. But where had she come from? "What are you doing in my basement?" he demanded. "Who are you?"

"I'm Nancy Avery," she replied. "My dad is upstairs in your father's office, installing some computer equipment." He just goggled at her. "I'm here, helping him." He still stared. She retreated one step. "I came downstairs when your brother Jacob started telling me about you."

"What did he say?" Karl snorted.

Nancy got one foot onto the bottom step. From there, she had a clear path up the stairs. "He said he had a twin brother they kept locked in the basement."

"He said that?" Karl roared.

Nancy skipped part way up the stairs. She considered escaping altogether, but he hadn't moved since they started talking. She guessed it was still safe enough. "I didn't believe him, at first, but then he brought me down here, and ... there you were." There was an awkward silence. "Well, what was I to think?" she asked, a little defensively. "What is that thing, anyway?"

"This is my cybersuit," Karl answered proudly.

"Cybersuit," she said slowly, trying the word on her tongue. "Jacob said it was an automatic straitjacket."

Karl scowled. "That insect! I'll get him for that."

Nancy was getting more curious. "What does it do?"

"Here, let me strap you in. I'll show you how it works."

"No way!" said Nancy, taking another step backwards. It was bad enough to face the lunatic brother in the basement. Now he wanted to strap her into this-this thing. He didn't move, though, so she stopped on the stairs. He didn't look immediately dangerous. "Just tell me how it works."

"Well," said Karl, "You strap your legs in here, and slide your hands into the gauntlets. Buckle up the arm straps and slip on the helmet, with this visor over your eyes. Then every movement you make in the suit goes through that computer over there." He pointed into the red gloom of the darkened basement. "Wait a second," he muttered. "Let me switch the overheads on." He moved slowly, being careful not to frighten her, and flipped a switch on a post at the foot of the stairs. A long row of fluorescent lights hummed and flickered, and the room was flooded with bright, cold light.

Karl pointed to a gray box, like a fat plastic suitcase, in the corner. "Here's the main computer unit. This baby is wired into the Internet with a three-megabit modem. It can download an entire alternate universe in a minute and a half!"

"Oh," said Nancy. Light finally dawned. Maybe he wasn't crazy after all. "And is that alternate universe this Olympus you keep talking about? Olympus is a video game?"

"Not just a video game!" protested Karl. "A place of wonder and mystery. Swords and sorcerers, magic and monsters. You should try it, really!"

So the mad brother in the basement was just a teenager with a new toy. The slight thrill of terror drained out of her, leaving her empty and oddly disappointed. "Sounds like a video game to me," said Nancy disdainfully. "Just a very expensive one."

Karl gritted his teeth. "You sound like my dad."

There was a thump of footsteps overhead, and a voice called out, "Nancy!"

"I'm down here," she answered, "In the basement."

The door opened, and lanky legs appeared at the top of the stairs, as Nancy's older brother descended. He always reminded Nancy a little of their collie-long and thin and not totally with it. He seemed barely awake, peering about through spectacles that dangled at the end of a long, thin nose. "Oh, there you are," he said. Then he blinked and looked around the basement. "What's all this?" he asked.

"Hi, Noah," said Nancy.

"Hey-is that a cybersuit?" Noah gawked.

"It sure is," Karl boasted. "I bought it myself."

"Wow," whistled Noah. He trotted down the stairs and eyeballed the suit. "Dad has been telling me about these things," he said to Nancy. "Dad's into computers and stuff," he explained to Karl. "Can I try it?"

Nancy sniffed. The adrenaline was draining away quickly, leaving her in a bad mood. "I suppose boys have nothing better to do than to play around with video games."

Noah responded mildly. "Now, sis, from what Dad has said, this is a lot more than a video game. This is the door into virtual reality. It's-it's an Imagination Station. With these cybersuits, anything can happen."

Karl nodded. The girl might be from another planet, but the brother seemed to be an Earthling. "It's magic. This is the wave of the future."

"Dad says that by the time we're his age, we may spend most of our lives in these things," Noah said, awkwardly fitting one foot into a boot.

"Not me!" Nancy exploded.

"I mean, we the people," Noah explained, slipping one fist into a gauntlet.

"Your father said that?" Karl gasped. "I wish he would talk to mine. My Dad hates cyberspace. He says it's a total waste of time." He strapped Noah into the suit and slipped the helmet over his head.

"Wow!" came Noah's voice out of the suit. "This is amazing!"

"Look over to your left. You should see the dragon I just killed."

"Hey! That's pretty extreme," Noah said. His legs pedaled through the air. He went through the motions of walking without going anywhere, because the suit was suspended off the ground by a metal boom. "This beast is at least forty feet long!" He bent over to look at the dead dragon in the other world. Then he stood up and turned around, slowly. "The graphics aren't very realistic, though."

"What do you mean?" asked Karl. "They aren't perfect, of course, but they're pretty good."

"Well, then why are all the trees red? And why is the sky black?"

"The trees are green, and the sky is blue!"

"Funny-it doesn't look like that. And why is everything shimmering and swirling like this?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. Give me that helmet!" Karl ripped the helmet off Noah's head, and placed it on his own. Now Noah's face stuck out of the suit; Karl's body stuck out of the helmet. "Oh, no! It's a forest fire! Run! Run!"

"Run where?" asked Noah, looking around the basement.

"That way!" yelled Karl from inside the helmet, pointing left. "No, no! Jump over that log!" He groaned. "Too late!" Noah was surprised to find himself sprawling in mid-air. He staggered up and kept running.

"Now go right!" yelled the helmet. "No, hard right!"

The cybersuit slammed into something invisible. "What was that?" Noah asked, stunned.

"A tree. A burning tree! And a burning branch just fell on my head. Get it off!" Karl was waving his hands, beating on the helmet, so Noah imitated his motions. He waved his hands through the air until Karl shouted, "Stop wasting time! Run!"

Noah began jogging in space again. "Just point which way you want me to go," he said helpfully.

Karl waved frantically to the left, then to the right, then threw both hands up in the air in despair.

"Straight up?" asked Noah. "Can I do that?"

"No-it's hopeless," Karl despaired. "We're surrounded by flames."

"Oh," said Noah. "Can I stop running?" He stood still. Then the suit began to wobble from side to side. "What's happening?"

"Everything's burning," moaned Karl.

Noah was surprised to find himself toppling over gracefully to the left. The cybersuit went rigid. The helmet went dark. Karl took it off. "Oh, great," he mourned. He started to unbuckle Noah. "We just died. There go five thousand drachmas! I killed the dragon, but I forgot about the forest fire. Now I have to start all over. I've been working on this game for three weeks! And I lost my sword!" he wailed.

"Gee, that's too bad," sympathized Noah. "But it was great! I mean, except for getting burned to death." He looked at Karl, who seemed really distressed. "Hey, I'm sorry about the forest fire." He hesitated. "Was it my fault?"

"No," sighed Karl. "I mean, yes and no." He walked morosely over to one wallof the basement and flicked on a large monitor. It hummed to life, revealing an inferno of flame. He stared into it. "I should have remembered that the dragon had set the forest on fire. Once you put the suit back on, you were right in the middle of it. If I had put it on, I would have had the same problem. But now I have to start all over."

Noah emerged from the cybersuit. "You want some company?"

"Hey, you want to? Sure! It would be a lot more fun with two. Or three!" he added, looking at Nancy.

"Oh, no, not me," retorted Nancy, tossing her head regally. She instantly regretted it-her untamed locks had a bad habit of getting in her mouth when she did that. It was hard to look regal picking curls out of your teeth, but she tried. "What a colossal waste of time."

"Look," reasoned Noah. "You've prejudged this thing. What does Dad say about new things?"

"Dad says we should test everything, and keep that which is good. But that can't include video games!"

"You watch!" replied her brother. "This is worth trying out!"

"Oh, sure," snickered Nancy. "If Dad says I should, I will-but...I just know he isn't going to tell me to play some video game!"

"Fine," said Noah. "Let me talk to him about it. He'll say yes!"

"Great," answered Karl. "We'll need two-maybe three-cybersuits, so we'd better go down to the video arcade. There's a whole wall of them down there."

"The video arcade?" Nancy yelped. "No way is Dad is going to take us to the arcade!"

"We'll just have to ask him," Noah answered optimistically.

"You'll have to ask your Dad, too," Nancy said to Karl.

"Oh," said Karl, with a sinking feeling. "Right. Dad."