Far from Lightforge's store, the sun was streaming in through another window on a very precise path. After all, the secret bases weren't actually located in the city itself. They were pocket dimensions, so the sun always shone in the way every single day. The path was carefully calculated so that you couldn't sleep on the couch without getting a few early morning rays straight into your sleeping face. It was a natural alarm clock.

Except that this particular base's resident was sleeping on a pull out bed that they'd found inside the couch. Normally this wouldn't change anything; the sun would still come streaming across your face sooner or later. Others in this world had come up with various solutions to this problem, but this particular resident had opted for the simplest; they had simply switched which end of the bed to rest their head on.

And so it was that, slowly, the heroine known as Sunbird woke up in her base. While technically conscious, she hadn't opened her eyes yet. It was a skill that she'd developed over time, and she took a deep breath as she used it now. Ever so slowly, she reached her hand over the edge of the bed, searching blindly for something that should have been right beside her. Her hand found nothing, and her eyes snapped open.

She took in the sight of her small, dingy base and broke into a wide smile. With a grunt of satisfaction she rolled herself off the bed, landing on the floor in a mess of blankets and blonde hair. She didn't bother to rise, that would have been too much work. Instead she simply scooted across the floor like a worm inside her blankets.

In time she arrived in the bathroom, having forgotten a very important aspect of that room. It was equipped with motion sensors attached to the light switch. A motion sensor that she'd forgotten to turn off the night before. Bright light flooded the room, assaulting her half-open eyes and making her shriek.

Much stumbling and tripping ensued as she repeatedly attempted to leap to her feet while still wrapped in her covers. Each attempt seemed to make the tangled mess even worse, and it took nearly a full minute before she was able to extricate herself from the fabric. She grumbled in frustration and half-heartedly kicked the pile of blankets out of the bathroom before half stumbling, half falling in the general direction of the shower.

She emerged from the shower nearly half an hour later, finally awake. There were only a few small yawns as she got dressed and gott herself something to eat. Idly, she wondered what her friends thought of the outfits that they all wore. They were typical superhero faire, lots of bright, stretchy material that was too tight to be properly comfortable. It showed off her body in a way that should have been embarrassing.

Oddly, she found that she didn't mind as much as she would have expected. Yes, it was frustrating when other people (mostly men) sat around ogling at her. But they weren't looking at her, at least not really. They were looking at the toned supermodel that looked vaguely like her. All the little things about her body that she'd been self-conscious about simply weren't there anymore. And while she would probably discover new blemishes in time, for the moment her new form still had an incredible effect on her confidence.

That train of thought lasted through breakfast, which consisted of cold cereal. She saw no problem with spending what money she had to make her life here more pleasant, and she liked cereal. But then the meal was over, and she turned to look at her bed.

She couldn't help but smile at the sight of the pull out bed. It was an Easter egg that had been added by Piotr Komenov, the same developer who had insisted on including a bathroom in every player's base. Sunbird had met him once, and his personal obsession was making the game world feel real and lived in. While she had always agreed with that mindset in general, now she was beyond grateful for the additions.

After piling her covers on the bed and folding it up for the day, she spent a few minutes stretching and loosening her body in preparation for whatever the day had in store for her. The smile that had started earlier was back, and her eyes practically glowed with excitement as she completed the final part of her morning routine: checking her stats screen.

Name: Sunbird

Alignment: Hero

Level: 6

Powerset 1: Energy Blaster

Powerset 2: Flight

Stats:

HP: 614/614

AP: 370/370

Strength: 11

Agility: 26

Intelligence: 15

Aura: 16

She looked over the numbers and sighed; she still regretted the way she'd allocated her first few levels' worth of points, but there was nothing to be done about it now. The last few days had made it painfully clear that she needed stopping power. Nothing quite drove that point home quite like taking potshots at enemies while Cannoneer seemed to kill something with every shot.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

She sighed again and closed the screen. The only solution at this point was to keep leveling up and be more thoughtful about how she distributed the points from now on. Absently she pushed the button to open the gateway and stepped out of her base.

Her foot found nothing but air and she squawked as she began to fall. She had dropped about five feet when she caught herself and began to float. Her heart was suddenly pounding in her ears and she leaned back in midair to brace herself against the wall where she'd just emerged. She focused on taking slow, deep breaths as she tried to slow her racing pulse.

Other people kept their portal safe by hiding it or moving around a lot. Those people couldn't fly. Sunbird kept her base entrance safe by placing it five stories up on the side of a high rise. Reaching it involved either flight or dropping a rope from the roof. As far as she was concerned, it was perfect. The only problem was that she occasionally forgot and fell.

On the bright side, the brief drop had banished any sleepiness that might have been clinging to the insides of her brain. She was wide awake and ready for the day. With a giant smile plastered across her face, she drifted away from the building and performed a few flips in the air around her. In a way that was also a part of her morning routine. It was the reminder of what she could do in this world.

Energy was bubbling up inside her body, making her vibrate in anticipation of the day’s activities. She needed to move. It wasn’t a passing fancy or an idle desire. It was embedded deep into her bones; she needed to move and she needed to do it now.

Without another thought she looked up into the sky and shot towards the clouds. There was nothing up there; she’d discovered that on her first day in this world, to her great dismay. What was the point of a superhero universe without floating islands, sky bases, and alien spacecraft flying all over the place? It was such a waste.

Even with the distressing lack of anything, she still enjoyed soaring high above the city. It was a perspective that most people would never get the chance to see. With the somewhat random power assignments, there actually weren’t many people with flight. She saw one from time to time, but it wasn’t enough to make her worry about running into people if she stopped paying attention.

No, no. Losing focus wouldn’t lead to a crash with another person. But it could end with a crash into a brick wall. That had resulted in her first death, when she’d been trying to figure out how to control her speed and maneuvering. She grimaced at the memory. She still held that it hadn’t been her fault.

Back when this was a game, all of her characters had super speed. By default, that power set included the ability to perceive time differently, to see the world moving in slow motion around you. It was an ease of use feature that protected you from running into walls all the time. I had learned the hard way that flight, which could be almost as fast, had no such protection built into it.

She came level with the few clouds that dotted the sky on the beautiful sunny morning. She passed through one of them, shivering as the cool mist surrounded her for just a few moments. Then she paused, floating in midair as she looked down on the city far below.

Paramount City was enormous. There were 18 zones of various difficulties, of which Chancery Hills was only one. They were spread out over the roughly circular area of the city, each one a small town unto itself. But from here it was all small. The buildings were little more than shapes on the ground, and the people looked like bugs. Actually, from this height she struggled to see people at all. She kept her gaze focused directly below her, not wanting to look around. She knew that she would, but she always wanted to put it off for as long as possible.

Curiosity finally won out, and she turned to look at the areas surrounding the city. Places that were hinted at but never seen. Referenced without making an official appearance. Places that weren’t a part of the game’s map. That’s what should have been outside the city limits. And from the ground that’s what it looked like. Mountains, forests, highways, and other cities appeared in the distance, hazy but there.

That wasn’t the case from up here. From her lofty vantage point, she could see the truth. The hazy images of far off places sat like stained glass windows around the perimeter of the city, tantalizing but ultimately just images. From up here she could see behind the windows. And what was there?

Nothing. The landscape faded away into darkness, leaving the city floating in a sea of endless nothingness. It was the single most videogame-like thing that she’d seen so far. The map was all that existed, and there was absolutely nothing else.

Even now, the very thought of that filled her with a bone-deep existential dread. This wasn’t a fully realized world, just a pale imitation of one. All the same, she forced herself to come up here and look at it every single day.

At first it had been a reminder of where she was. A reminder that this wasn’t the real world, and that she needed to get back home no matter what it took.

That had been her only reason until she noticed the changes. Little by little, the area around the city was expanding. With each passing day the darkness retreated another few feet, ceding ground a world that seemed determined to become more real. She had suspicions about what that would mean for the city below her, but she didn’t like to dwell on it.

In fact, she wasn’t one to dwell on any of the big questions that plagued this world. She would happily leave such issues to others who were more interested in it than she was. But even if she wasn’t interested, she knew that it was important. So she continued to come up here and look.

She forced her gaze away from the maddening nothingness beyond the city and closed her eyes. She focused on the things around her, the things that were real in this world. The soft breeze on her skin, the warmth of the sun on her face, and the faint echoes of sound from the city below. Those mattered, and those were the things that she was going to protect.

She took a deep breath, which she recognized was far too easy. She knew that at this altitude there shouldn’t be enough oxygen for her to breathe easily. And it should be pretty cold. Neither was true, but she couldn’t tell if that was due to her powers or the nature of this world. Maybe she should bring someone up with her next time? That could be entertaining. Even more so if it was Cannoneer. He was resistant to damage, right?

Then again, she was probably high enough that it wouldn’t make a difference.

At the top of her lungs she shouted, “Good morning, Paramount City! Let’s have some fun!”

She flipped around and dove like a meteor towards the ground, a mad grin already forming on her lips. Today was going to be a great day.