Three's A Crowd

Preparations

The City of Virtual London, or London-V as everyone called it, was covered in the sounds of chatter and commotion, as avatars walked the streets. Throughout the Aether you could choose whatever you wanted to look like, from video game characters, actors and actresses, even two dimensional characters. Among the streets, however, three avatars stood out from the crowd. Instead of looking down on the streets where the local virtual businesses were located, they were looking up at one of the massive starships hovering above The Shard.

A woman whose avatar resembled that of a brown winged angel. Her dark brown wings, robe, and hair glistened against the virtual sun, with her pale skin glowing. On her right was a man in a slim black suit and dress shoes, with a 1600 plague doctor's mask covering his face. To the woman's left was another man, wearing baggy camo joggers black combat boots, and a plain black tank top with a white theater mask also covering his face. His long, shaggy blonde hair pouring out from the back of his mask.

"So, you think our target is up there, Mariah?" The man on the left asked, pointing to the starship. His accent was Australian, which was rare among the London crowd since the majority of civilians that logged into the London-V servers were mainly British.

The woman, named Mariah, nodded, "According to Kenny, that's Dante Penns luxury dreadnought. Or as people call it...'The Painful Pleasure'," She said, looking down at her wrist which showed a display of the starship the group was looking up at. "Come on you two, let's catch a ride and head up." She said, walking to one of the nearby vehicle depots.

As they walked through the streets of London-V's rural area, the three avatars came across an advertisement board, promoting some of the new add-ons that were going to be released later in the year. "And finally, coming in early December, D4C will be introducing the new 'Königs Schatz Raid'!" A female avatar announced through the advertisement board, "According to James Valentine, President of D4C, this will be a new activity among the Aether in which players will have to group up and take on a gauntlet of challenges and many other things." She explained, catching the attention of many avatars in the area.

"Huh? Looks like everyone is getting riled up about this new, Konings...Shat...whatever it's called?" The avatar with the Australian accent said, poorly pronouncing the newly announced raid name.

Mariah shook her head, "Königs Schatz, it means King's Treasure in German. Looks like the company's been busy developing these announcements, huh, James?" She asked, looking at her plague mask wearing companion.

James looked over to Mariah and nodded, "Yes, the development team has been working non-stop, but let's get back at the mission on hand. Elijah, how much further to the nearest depot?" He asked, looking at his Australian companion.

"A few more meters, let's just hope that this stealth mod I have is compatible with whatever we can find at this trash heap," Elijah said, leading the group towards the nearest vehicle depot.

The vehicle depot was nothing fancy, like the more high end depots near the core of London-V. There were a few speeders, landcrafts and personal starships, with most of them looking run down and ready to be scrapped for parts. The group made their way to the front desk of the building in front of the depot, with only a few avatars walking though, looking at what they can get out of some vehicles. They made their way to the front desk, where a service bot was seen giving an avatar the card key to one of the vehicles.

"Hello, and welcome to Rusty's Depot. How may I be of assistance to you

today?" The bot asked the group. He was covered in a rust red paint, with his optical sensors painted white.

"Are there any hover transports still available, specifically any that can be used with a

stealth modifier?" Mariah asked, browsing through a digital catalogue on the desk.

The bot raised its metal body upright, as it scanned through the digital inventory. It made

a few beeping noises, and its optical sensors glowed red. A few minutes later, a loud 'ding' came from the service bot, "You are in luck, we have one available transport that is compatible with that version of stealth modifiers. However, it is a gunship class if that is acceptable?" The service bot said, showing a hologram of the gunship. The ship had four engines on the back of the hull, with two S-foils extending outwards, past the cockpit.

"A UT-60D supportcraft, or the U-wing as people call it," Elijah said, who then turned to his angel companion. "You think this is good enough for our mission, Mariah?" He asked.

"Yeah, we'll take it," Mariah said, hitting the accept button next to the hologram.

"Excellent! That'll be 2,000 credits, do you wish to pay an extra 250 for insurance?" The bot asked, as Mariah pulled out a credit card out of thin air.

Mariah shook her head as she pressed the decline button for insurance. Her card then glowed green, indicating that the transaction was complete. She turned to her companions, "James, Elijah, go and install the stealth modifier onto the U-wing, I'll join you shortly," She said.

Both of them nodded, and walked out to the landing zone in the back of the depot. Meanwhile, Mariah walked out to the front of the building and pulled out an earpiece and scrolled through her contacts list until she stopped at the name 'Kenny'. Mariah dialed the contact, gently tapping her foot as she was waiting for Kenny to pick up.

After a few minutes of waiting, the line picked up, and Mariah's ear was filled with the

sound of a groggy voice, "Ugh, what is it now, Mariah?" Kenny asked, sounding tired.

"Ohhh, am I interrupting one of your naps?" Mariah asked with a sarcastic tone. From

the first time Mariah had met Kenny, back in the real world, he was known for always being exhausted. However, this setback was no problem to Mariah because of his information gathering.

"As a matter of fact, you are! Now, what the hell do you want?" Kenny asked, in an annoyed tone.

A smile grew over Mariah's face, knowing Kenny will always submit to a conversation, especially when his best client is calling. "Good, now that I have your attention, I want you to know that we're about to board Dante's dreadnought," Mariah explained.

"Yes, you, the merc, and ...the President," Kenny said, putting heavy emphasis on 'President'. "So...want me to tell our employer the bounty is to be gathered on schedule?" He asked.

"Heh, tell him it's on its way, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk about my friends like that," Mariah said, hanging up the call. She smiled to herself, knowing she's going to be paid soon and walked off to the back of the depot. "Don't worry mom, one last job and we'll be free from our living hell." She thought to herself walking back.