In which Mark and Sara's adventure really begins

"Looks like a lot of math," Sara noted.  She knew well enough what role-playing games were, but she liked to needle her boyfriend with complaints she had voiced a hundred times before.

"Not a lot of calculation," Mark said, sounding like the grad student he was.  "The software takes care of all of that.  You just have to divide up a number of points into attributes and powers to craft exactly the character you want.  See, if you wanted your character to be super-strong, we just slide this indicator along the strength attribute, so that the strength score goes up. See how the total character points go down?  That's to make sure the characters are balanced.  You might be the strongest being on the planet, but you would be clumsy, dumb, and rude."

Sara pouted a little.  "That's not fun.  I don't just want her to be strong, I want her to be fast, brilliant, and sexy, like that Maxima chick.  I want lasers to shoot of her eyes and I want her to be able to fly."

"And immune to damage, I take it."

"You read my mind.  Oh, and she can read minds.  And can turn invisible and is immortal."

"Anything else?" Mark asked, eyebrow arching.

"What, am I being greedy?"

"Did I say that? Here, I can give your character all of those powers. But they're all going to be at a pretty low level.  Look.  She has an eight rating for strength.  That means she can lift a car, with effort."

"I want to lift a battleship, too. You say Maxima has a twenty strength?"

"Yep."

"Why does she get to have it all?"

"Because he's an experienced, high-level character," Mark explained.  "Starting character..." But he was cut off by Sara, who shoved her way onto his chair, sharing it with him.  She took over the mouse and keyboard.

"Well, that just won't do.  If I'm going to play your little hero game, I want to play a character that people look up to.  How can I crank her up?"

"You can't.  Starting characters begin with only a hundred development points..."

"So what's this then?" Sara asked.  She found a button marked "Point Override."

Mark shrugged.  "I dunno.  It wasn't in the earlier version.  Must be a diamond feature."

"Well, it's letting me go over a hundred character points.  Look!  It's allowing me to make my strength go up to fifty!"

Mark scowled.  "Well, that shouldn't happen.  Twenty is the maximum.  Its a logarithmic scale.  Fifty would be like...well, a billion times more than Maxima could lift."

"So...my hero could lift a billion battleships at once?"

"I guess."

"Cool!"

Mark sighed.  "Look, I'm glad you're getting into this.  But there's this concept called play balance.  If you make a hero too powerful, there's no fun to be had.  You can beat anything without breaking a sweat.  Real gamers like a challenge."

Sara would have none of it.  She was practically drooling as she shaped her hero on the screen.  "Poop.  You and your game balance. If I had the powers this chick I'm making has, I'd have fun.  I'd make my own fun."

"Yeah, but..." Mark started to protest.  He had always wanted his girlfriend to take an interest in role-playing games.  Now he was starting to regret it.

"Hey, what's this? Cool, I can make a character portrait!" Sure enough, Sara had found a part of the program that allowed her to make a 3-D model of her character.  "I love this!  It's like superhero dress-up."  She started playing with her avatar, giving her a variety of body types before settling on one.

"Really?" Mark asked incredulously. "You went for the super-stacked Playmate type? Are you sure you're not a thirteen-year old boy?"

Sara stuck out her tongue.  "It's my fantasy alter-ego.  Besides, you would love it if I looked like this, wouldn't you?"

"You know the boyfriend code prohibits me from answering that, don't you?"

"Of course, sweetie," Sara said, giving him a peck on the cheek.  "You think H cups are too much?"

"No," Mark said a little too quickly, and they shared another laugh.  "You know she's way too powerful for a game, right?"

Sara sighed.  "I suppose I have to follow your rules if I'm going to play in your game." reluctantly, she got up from the cramped chair.  "I'll make a new character in just a second.  But first I have to go to the bathroom."

She started to go, and Mark was about to delete the overpowered being she had made to start from scratch. Before he could do so, Sara called from the bathroom.  "But save that first hero.  I might want to play with her from time to time."

Mark shrugged, He didn't really see the point, but his girlfriend was finally going to game with him, and he was not about to argue.  "Sure thing.  You got a name for her?"

"How about 'Ms. Infinity'?" Sara said from the bathroom.  Mark entered the name and his 'save.' A second after he did, there was a shout from the bathroom.

"Oh...my...God!"  Sara sounded shocked and alarmed.  Mark swiveled the chair to see what was going on.  Sara stood in the doorway, but the girlfriend he had known was no longer there.  In her place stood the most dazzling vision of female power and beauty he could imagine.  Sara had become Ms. Infinity.

For a while, Mark could focus on nothing but Sara's breasts.  He couldn't help it.  They were huge and firm and abundant.  A man could get lost in that cleavage, he found himself thinking.  It was only gradually that he realized that he was looking up at Sara's breasts.  She now stood over seven feet tall, and she had to duck under the doorframe as she emerged from the bathroom.  Her legs were long, toned, and topped with a set of sexy hips that screamed feminine power with every step Sara took.  A narrow waist and taut belly led Mark back to Sara's breasts.  She giggled when she saw Mark staring at her chest, and Mark realized that she had been posing for him.  There was a trace of her old face remaining, but everything seemed more refined, more flawless.  She was perfect. That was all there was to it.