The beginning

Strange but true (in an alternate universe)...

"Calm down, Mark, it's only a game," Sara said as her boyfriend practically danced around the room, looking for a knife with which to open the package that the mailman had just delivered.

Mark looked hurt.  "Sara, checkers is just a game.  Stratego is just a game.  Mazes and Maniacs is just a game.  But this..." he shook the still-sealed box for emphasis "...is the limited diamond edition Capes and Tights, with deluxe CD-Rom Character Builder Plus." 

Sara looked amused. "So, like you and 499 other nerds now have an overpriced roleplaying game?"  Sara was indulgent of Mark's geeky hobbies.  She even played Settlers of Catan and read a comic book now and then.  But she was nowhere near the hardcore nerd that her boyfriend was.

"Try like, the only one in existence," Mark said. He had finally found a knife and carefully opened the box, going slowly to avoid any chance he might damage the contents. "I won a contest, remember?  This is a one-of-a-kind collectible.  I've already received offers of over a thousand dollars to...dammit!"  While he was talking, he had inadvertently cut the shrink wrap.

"No more mint?" Sara asked.

Mark sighed. "You know, that's all right.  I really wanted to keep this one.  This is for me, not for some future collector."

Sara came up behind him and gave him a hug.  "That's very mature of you, my adorable little man-child."  Mark was tense, but her relaxed at his girlfriend's touch.  He wondered how a computer-jockey like him had ever managed to land a babe like her.  Though she had stopped swimming after graduating college two years ago, she still had an athlete's body, and a fresh elfin face that belonged on a Noxema ad.

Mark carefully cracked the book.  Sara looked over his shoulder, not really understanding the numbers and statistics, but admiring the artwork.

"What's her power?  Super-cleavage?" she teased.  Mark blushed in response. 

"Yeah.  Comic artists are perpetual thirteen year olds.  I believe you've made that point once or twice."

"Or maybe a dozen times.  Hey, that's cool.  Is she lifting a battleship?"

Relieved that his girlfriend was off the topic of comic boobs, Mark smiled.  "Yeah, that's Maxima.  She's the strongest hero in the comicverse.  With a 20 Strength, she's over a million times stronger than the average person."

"Cool."

"Don't humor me."

"No, I mean it.  I would love to be that strong."

Mark looked dubious.  "I thought you didn't like superhero comics?"

"Well, I never really got into the stories.  Too emo, if you ask me.  And no matter how powerful the women got, they always seemed to take a back seat to the male heroes."

"But Wonder Woman..."

"Yeah.  How many Wonder Woman movies got made?  Compared to Batman, Superman, even Daredevil, for crying out loud."

"Touche."

"If I had strength like that, I wouldn't take crap from anyone."

"But you'd dress more conservatively, right?"

Sara smiled cryptically.  "Mm, I don't know.  I mean, with all that power, I might want to show off, you know?  Of course, with a rack like hers, I'd probably flaunt it at every opportunity."

Mark looked at his girlfriend quizzically.  He was half-convinced she was putting him on.  She had never talked this much about superheroes with him.    "Tell you what, let's make a character for you.  You can make the superhero exactly like you would be if you were a superhero."

Sara's eyes narrowed.  "Are you trying to get me to play one of your make-believe games?"

"Yup.  But we don't have to if you don't want to.  Sometimes it's fun just to make up a character."

Sara agreed, and they popped the CD out of the jewel case.  Sara tapped the case  suspiciously.  "I don't think this is plastic," she observed.  "More like crystal or...well, kind of like diamond."  

"Don't be silly," Mark said. "'Diamond Edition' is just marketing. There's no way they could cut a diamond in the shape of a jewel case.  And it would be worth a thousand times more than the game itself." He took the CD and loaded it onto his laptop.  


Sara then took the jewel case and dragged it across the window.  It left a clearly visible scratch.  Then she etched a heart, and wrote "M+S" inside of it.  She looked to Mark, as if she had proved her point.

"Doesn't mean anything," Mark said.  "Lots of things scratch glass."

"Believe what you want.  I think you got more than you know in that box," Sara said.

"Whatever.  I still have to load it," Mark said.  The install was taking an inordinately long time, so Sara went and got some tea for the two of them.  When she returned, Mark was just opening the new software.