Realm part two

Chloe was exhausted. Sweat dripped from her brow, soaked her short cropped hair, stained the front of her t-shirt in a dark vee. She was breathing hard, a rasp sounding in her every breath, and leaning forward, her hands on her knees.
She was standing alone, in a shaft of light that poured down from a high skylight in the ceiling of the dusty old building she was working out in. A dangerous building it was - with rotten beems bowing down dangerously under the wieght of years and the roof. And yet it was a discreet place to train.
This place wasn't far from her home, so it was only a little distance for her to walk after leaving the game. The disoreintation sickness had taken her badly for a while, but it was getting easier to re-adjust. Even so, it was still much easier to re-orient herself with the training.
She'd been playing Realm for quite a while, nearly three years now, but from the very beginning she had felt it to be the best game she'd ever played.
But so hard.
So demanding.
Then suddenly there was a noise - she heard it clearly. Just the scraping of a boot over the rough concrete floor, but it was enough to bring her to alert. Her time of playing the game sharpened her senses in quite noticeable ways.
A face loomed at her from the darkness, making her breath catch. She took a step back from it.
"Chloe Yavin, I do believe," the face spoke, in carefully neutral tones.
Chloe nodded, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. She found herself staring at her own eyes in the perfectly reflective glasses that the face was wearing. It was unnerving, and she could see fear in her eyes.
The face stepped into the light then, bringing the rest of itself in view with a smart click of it's heels. She stiffened immediatley at the sight of the shiny, PVC of an enforcers uniform. The governments special guard dedicated to preventing breaking of internet law.
"Well Miss Yavin, I am going to ask you to accompany us back to headquarters," he said, his voice was icily calm, menacing, "I advise you to come calmly and quietly. We just want to have a little talk with you,"
Chloe straightened up and tried to look him in the eye.
"I'll come with you, but I warn you I know my rights. I hold a degree in internet law," she said, pulling herself back into a semblance of her lawyerly calm.
The enforcer smiled quietly to himself then.
"Good, then we'll be able to have a good understanding with each other," he answered.
He made a signal with his hand and two ordinary police officers appeared and fell in beside Chloe.
"This isn't an arrest?" she asked, eyeing the two policemen.
"No Miss Yavin," he began, "At least not yet. Think of them as a form of encouragement."
They led her out of the warehouse then into the dark street beyond. A streetlight flickered making the dark shape of the Enforcers black car seem more ominous. Rain drizzled down too, but rain reminsicint of the soft, mostly warm rain that fell inside Realm.
As she climbed into the back seat of the car, Chloe felt her heart sink. Internet Lawyer or no, she knew fine well she had been breaking that law and if they wanted to "chat" with her it was very likely they knew she had been breaking that law too. If it had been something they wanted to discuss about one of her cases, which they often did, they would have said so straight away.
Which ever way she looked at it, this was bad. No charges had been placed, yet, but she felt a dread of certainty that there would be.
The Enforcers car slunk silently through mostly empty streets. People didn't bother to go out anywhere near as much as they had once done, and in fact large parts of the cities were beginning to empty now. It had been easy for Chloe to find her workout place, she herself lived in an area of town where many of the houses lay derelict.
Work World had given a lot of people the freedom to live wherever they wanted to live.
Suddenly the driver slammed on the brakes and Chloe was wrenched from her thoughts. She craned her neck to see what had happened and saw a group of people standing silently in front of the car.
She could tell immediately from the shabby, greyed and heaped clothing, the unwashed, unkempt look about their faces and the marks of disease and brain infection (puffy eyes and scars and scabs running down thier necks from where the interface socket had been put in)that these were "rejects". Her heart lurched in pity at the sight.
The Enforcer who had come to pick her up got out of the car, and walked round the hood to face the silent group. She could hear him quite clearly in the hush of the city.
"Move off the road, your causing a disruption," he told them in the same icy tones he had addressed her.
They stared back at him silently, almost as if they didn't understand what he had said.
She saw him shake his head and heard him mumble "Just like dumb animals". Then she saw him reach into his jacket. For a moment she had the awful vision that he was literally going to gun them down in the street, and he did indeed pull out his gun. She jumped in her seat as she heard it fire, but felt almost dizzy with relief when she realised he'd fired it into the air.
The silent group scattered in panic, fleeing into the dark and silent buildings looming over the road. The Enforcer stood in the middle of the road, turning about and watching them flee. Then he walked back round the hood of the car and got back in, holstering his gun.
"Let's go," he said to the driver.
As they began to move off, Chloe caught a glimpse of a grimy face peering from the shadows, watching them steadily. It was a woman, probably as old as Chloe herself was, but some kind of infection had eaten away one of her eyes.
As they led her from the car into the big, bleak ediface of the Enforcer HQ, she kept her head down for fear she would be recognised by someone she knew, for even now people had business to do in the real world. Particuarly people who worked in her field...
She was lead then to a holding cell, where she knew they could keep her for up 48 hours without charges, and she was left to wait.

When they came for her she had just woken up from sleeping. She felt incredibly groggy from having fallen asleep on the hard bench of the cell. She was cold all the way through as well, and she was aware of the beginnings of a headache centered around the area of her implant.
The Enforcer strode into her cell and gave her a rough shake.
"Come along Miss Yavin, it's time for our chat,"
She had to blink rapidly as they escorted her out into the corridor. The cell had been dimly lit compared to the harsh neon lighting outside and her tired eyes felt almost bruised from the nap she'd had. She was beginning to wonder if she hadn't come down with flu or something, feeling the way she did.
They didn't walk very far before they came to the interview room, and she was shown to a seat on the far side of the simple desk in there.
The Enforcer sat down opposite her and leaned back casually in his chair, watching her openly.
"You are an interesting study, Miss Yavin. I've been watching you for quite a long time,"
She stared back at him, as coldy as she could muster at the thought of what he'd just revealed. He smiled at her, and leaned forward, obviously senseing her discomfort.
"A young, promising Lawyer, specialising in Internet Law and compensation claims against Microsoft," he chuckled then, "You don't win many cases though do you?"
She gritted her teeth. That wasn't the point most of the time. Winning wasn't the point....
"The odds are always stacked against my clients and they know it as well as I do," she said tightly.
He grinned at her, then leaned even further forward so that his face was inches from hers. She shrank back, to find the two policemen placing their heavy hands on her shoulders, keeping her still.
"I know what you do in your spare time, Miss Yavin. I know the name of your character in Realm......."
Chloe felt her skin go cold. The enforcer seemed to almost hover right before her a moment, drinking in the fear she was exuding. Then he sat back, leaning one elbow on the back of his chair.
"Unfortunately for me...... I can't prove it."
Chloe's heart hammered in her chest. This couldn't be right and she knew it. He had to know that telling her that would mean that she would say nothing or do nothing to help him.
"Of course you can't prove it," she said, dry mouthed, "Because you are wrong. I'm an Interent Lawyer, I know far better than most what the risks are of playing that game,"
He smiled back at her with an oily smile. Chloe wished that this was over with suddenly very very much.
"Am I wrong indeed?" He said softly, then very suddenly he sprang to his feet.
"Am I? " His voice was definately rising and Chloe found herself leaning further back in her chair again, trying to inch away from the menace he was exuding.
"If I am so wrong, Miss Yavin... what were you doing in that warehouse when I came to get you???" He shouted the last phrase, his voice thick with challenge.
But fortunately Chloe was indeed a good lawyer, and while she might have been very afraid, her mind pushed it aside to deal with this challenge.
"I work all day via Work World, sir and I find that I need to exercise, like so many people do. If you've been watching me you will know well enough that I have a very small house. The warehouse gives me plenty of room to work out,"
Her tone was cold, efficient, her mind now working very quickly to find her way out of this situation.
"And that exercise routine?" he demanded
How long had he been watching her, a part of her brain cried.
" I took if off the net because it's designed for people who use VR studio a great deal, and it suits my need for a demanding exercise regime,"
He sat down then, quickly returning to the pose of relaxed menace he had had before. That worried her a great deal, as he seemed happy that he had attempted to interrogate her.
"Well, Miss Yavin, it seems very much to me that we are at an impasse. I am going to have to let you go, as I've been told there is no reason for me to be holding you," he looked down at the ground then, away from the wave of relief that passed across her face.
"But... " he went on, still looking at the floor, "I will keep watching you."
He looked at her.
"If you log onto that game.... remember I know you are doing it. And soon, I will have that evidence."
She returned his stare, her mind reeling but her gaze steady.
"I'm ready to leave now if you can't hold me any longer," she retorted.
He sat back, sagging in his chair and waved to the two policemen.
"Show her out," he said tersely.

Atricus the Fair stood in front of the Portal door, rummaging through his bag for a portal key - Realms security system against bugs, viruses and discovery from the Work World side of the Partition. He pulled it out after some time searching, then put his back pack securely on his back. He shoved the key in the lock and stepped through.
He could feel the change instantly, the tingle in his scalp that always made him smooth back his black hair. His muscles ached, the way they always did when his brain realised he actually had some, he flexed his shoulders, hearing the rustle of his coarse clothed black suit all too clearly after his soft silken elven clothes.
He blinked his eyes, hating the way he could see now with less definition. For the first while it would seem like the world was dull in colour and slightly fuzzy, until his brain got used to his human physiology again.
Dull slow reflexes too, how he hated them. Sometimes he could even see how slowly he was reacting to things in the first while after leaving the Realm. He could actually notice the difference in time it took for his muscles to react. More so since the Special Skills Patch, he thought. His charecter had been one oof the first to recieve the "Stepping Between" skill. And now, in real life it was like now he could sometimes see the moments that other people were too slow in the brain to notice. He was really beginning to wonder if he could actually teach his real self to use that time, train his muscles to move faster and so on, but he had already decided that it must actually be impossible outwith the Physics of the Realm - otherwise he'd already be doing it.
He looked around himself, to see where the portal had brought him out in Work World. A quick glance round told him he was in the Branson Complex - a mainly British Sphere of Work World. He was standing in an Exit Portal on one of the main shopping precincts. He looked down at his left hand and removed the Realm ring that was there, the ring that allowed him to enter Realm through hacked portals in Work World. If he were to try and use the exit portal without taking the ring off he would return to Realm and be Atricus again. That was always an inviting prospect, but he had a life to live in the Real World, and of course he had a job to go to in Work World.
Before stepping through the Exit Portal he looked up at the people walking along the Street, and was shocked to see how slowly they seemed to be moving. To him they looked dreamlike, floating slowly along the street, virtual clothing and hair stirring lazily with their passage through the world. He tried to decide exaclty how much more slowly they were moving than him, and something spectacular occured to him.
He waved his hand in front of his face, trying not to force his muscles to behave, but concentrating on how slowly the other people were moving. He realised that it was relative, and all he had to do was move at normal speed. He had already done as much without thinking about it, and he had never seen such a large difference between his rate of thought and the rate of the ordinary human world.
He felt an incredible buzz of excitement when he achieved his aim. His hand waved in front of his eyes at seemingly normal speed. Smiling at this, he decided to be a little more adventurous and walked out into the stream of moving people. He giggled lightly as he sliped in about them, marveling breifly at their faces, at the deep, slow way they spoke to each other, at the slow way in which they reacted to his moving about them.
With regret, and certainly all too soon for his liking, he began to notice that they seemed to be speeding up in relation to him - which really meant he was slowing down. When his mind and body finally dropped down to normal human speed, he felt incredible fatigue growing over him.
He slipped back through the throng, trying to understand what was happening and wondering to himself, not for the first time, if he was finally losing it after playing too much Realm. He felt a strange sense of foreboding as he turned to look back at the street one last time before entering the Exit Portal.

Chloe sat staring at the VR studio, unsure of how she felt. They knew now that she played Realm. Of that there had to be no doubt. They must also be watching her, waiting for enough proof to charge her for it. It was definately to risky to go and play.
She caught a curl of her dark hair between her fingers, and began twisting it nervously. The VR studio seemed to leer at her across the room. She knew too that she would have to go into it when it came time to go to work.
She would have to go into it every day. To work.
Never again to play Realm.
Damn.
She'd have to get up and do something constructive, or she'd go mad. There were case notes to look over for the morning, in the study. And she could do with a coffee too.
Yup, time to get up and stop moping about it. Lucky they hadn't just charged her - she'd have no job now and it wouldn't be long before she'd be in prison.
A minute passed before she realised she was still staring hard at the VR studio. She cursed under her breath.
She looked up at the clock in an effort to motivate herself.
"Bloody thing's stopped," she muttered to herself and managed to get up to look at it more closely.
"Damn ancient technology,"
But it hadn't stopped. As she approached it she could hear it's persistant ticking. She picked it up and checked it over. The hands weren't stuck - as they had been known to - and it appeared to be keeping perfect time. Which couldn't be possible, because it meant she'd only been home 5 minutes.
Keeping it in her hand she headed for the study to check it against her computer clock. The computer had exactly the same time on it, though now they both reckoned she'd been home for 6 minutes. The clock on the computer couldn't be wrong.
Just then she felt a sharp pain stab at her behind her left ear, just where the implant was. She put her hand up to it, inhaling sharply at it, but before she got her hand to it, the pain was totally gone.
But she kept rubbing the area absentmindedly, trying to dispel her longing to go and play Realm.
Just too dangerous. She couldn't possibly risk it.
Clutching the clock in her right hand close too her chest, she wandered back to her sitting room, telling herself she'd put the clock back and go and make a coffee. She wasn't going back to stare at the VR studio and tempt herself pointlessly.
She found herself suddenly standing in front of the mantleshelf, her hand hovering infront of it with the clock in it, her eyes locked on the VR studio. It felt like she had been standing there for an inordinate amount of time, but when she managed to look at the clock only another 2 minutes had elapsed.
Once again she felt that stab behind her ear, sharp and breath takingly quick. On the heels of it came a wild thought. They didn't have enough evidence to charge her did they?
How were they going to get any more substantial evidence from her?
She'd had the VR studio log tampered with so it didn't log any of her time on Realm after all. What else could convict her outright?
She was a Lawyer for christsakes. Any extra-curricular time she did in the studio could be her working extra at the office on a case.
She was covered, they could do nothing. If she wanted to play, she could and they could be damned.
She put the clock down and strode over to the studio, getting herself comfortable in the chair and tapping the controls.
Soon she was locked in and settling back into the chair ready for the the VR studio to plug itself into her brain. There was a blinding flash of light for a second and then she was standing in a busy street yards away from her office. She reached into the pocket of her dark dress suit and pulled out her Realm ring. Slipping it onto her index finger on her left hand, she was instantly aware of where the portals were at that time. She walked quickly towards the nearest teleport point and within seconds of logging on she was standing infront of a Realm portal. A little flush of fear ran through her, trying to remind her just how much trouble she was in over the game, but she laid it aside, having convinced herself now that there was nothing they could do to her.
She opened the door.