It took a bit of doing but I slipped away from the official cortege by rolling out of the limo while taking a corner - nobody noticed as I fell out of the car, even my new drinkng buddy... what a bunch of poseurs! Pixel girl was out there and I would find her even if it meant giving up my first person POV...

...and as Tincup fell out of the limo, Bill Pullman leaned forward to steady him, and knocked his head on the back of the front seat, which set his toupee askew, and the edges of his mask showed underneath.  With a deft movement of his hand, Tincup pulled off the mask, to reveal someone who looked just like SirDave, but actually was....

. 

... a clone of SirDave's long-lost, evil twin brother named Number Two. 

Number Two was the anti-Myst sherrif. He was evil in every way, because his biggest goal in life was to destroy every node-based, non-violent adventure game based on exploration and puzzles that was ever created.

To this end, he bought all the game disks he could find and smashed them; but the internet thwarted this plan of his, by offering game downloads.  So Number Two had devised a new plan:  a huge virus that would eat up all Myst-like adventure games that were ever let loose on the internet.

'Wow' said Caroline staring at Trav and Helen.  'This plot is bigger than Ben Hur'.

'I know,' muttered Helen, surrepititously finishing off the last of the chocolate. 'How on earth will we cope with so many evil protagonists?'

'I think I have the answer!' replied Trav rising from her seat and carefully picking the chocolate flakes from her clothes and eating them.

'You do?' they chorused.  'Tell us'.

But they were talking to thin air because Trav had moved faster than a hungry dieter at a chocolate sale and was out of the door and gone.... 

'Did she leave her chocolate?' asked Helen.

'Naaaah' replied Caroline rummaging around Trav's desk.  'She made a lot of notes though.  Wonder where she's gone....?'

"Darn!"  grumbled Trav, while she was jogging to the confectionary shop at the corner, "Why does that pesky Caroline always make me crave chocolate so much?  I'm usually good when she's not around. I even forget that chocolate exists when she's not around...

She does manage to elicit a sad state of decadence in me..."

"what the Hell" Helen said. "she could have at least left a few morsels to tide us over"

"we're gonna need all the energy we can muster to fight this battle"

A nod of total understanding passed between them and the decision was instantly unanimous: they would leave their post watching the security screens and just pop down to the store for some essential supplies.  No sooner had Caroline and Helen gone than someone they'd been looking for wandered across their screens - and what he was doing really needed to be reported immediately.....

. 

The shadowy figure lurked in an dark allyway leading to the back entrance of the JustAdventure world headquarters (aka the new owner's Mom's basement). 

He was carrying a strange electronic device surrounded by a powerful magnetic field, possibly tuned to the frequency shared by a global network of servers hosting all known adventure-game developers. 

If activated, it could send a devastating pulse across the planet - wiping out all traces of puzzle code and crippling the entire genre. 

He HAD to be stopped! 

Meanwhile, Trav was just finishing up at the candy store, when she realized she had forgotten her wallet back in the uinderground bunker.  "Darnit!"  she grumbled.  "When Caroline sets me off salivating for chocolate, all my good sense flies out the window.  Now i'm going to have to run back to that bunker, and i really needed chocolate ALREADY!"

. 

With the adventure-game security forces completely absorbed by its paralyzing urge for chocolaty goodness, responsibility for emergency intervention fell upon the Myst Squad. 

Led by SirDave, the ever-alert team of dedicated code protectors sprang into action and launched a swift surgical strike against the attacker using a pulse-repelling buffer.

But the evil, anti-game terrorist proved too clever for such an obvious counter measure and his electromagnetic beam quickly morphed into an omni-directional wave sweeping across the full range of wireless network frequencies.  

Fortunately, the Myst Squad had simultanenously implemented an intricate series of heavily reinforced firewalls on all adventure-game-developer servers worldwide. 

The puzzle-code-eating virus was stopped dead in its tracks and quaratined on a special iron-trap drive deep within the Just Adventure headquarters. 

The disaster was averted, for now....

Cheers, Terry 

There had to be some chocolate down here.. Wandering the unending network of long-abandoned underground dungeons for the last few weeks I'd subsisted quite handily on club soda and Slim Jims of which I found in vast quantities strewn about amongst the equally vast number of empty Captain Morgan bottles. The previous denizens of this warren were extrememly heavy drinkers that much was apparent - no use for mixers, and apparently no need for food either. What kind of demons were they - and why had they left this place? And why my sudden obsession for chocolate? Did it have something to do with that weird low frequency sound that seemed to permiate the passageways a few hours ago? Questions without answers, and no chocolate to be found. Maybe Pixel Girl knew of a stash but for that I would have to find her...  

Although Tincup had originally felt no use for Pixelgirl, he now started to have a strong feeling that she might be able to help somehow.  For one thing, she hadn't been drinking anything- let alone Captain Morgan when he had met her. Perhaps if he retraced his steps to that mysterious, pub-sign -like door....

In the meantime, Trav arrived back at the bunker just in time to see all hell break loose on the underground screens.  Picking up the emergency radio transmitter she tried to contact her wayward chockaholic friends...

. 

Drunk on the intoxicating rush of fine Belgian chocolate, Caroline and Helen were in no shape to help Trav coordinate a global recovery program for the farflung adventure game community.  

She would have to handle the delicate, intercontinental communications by herself. 

"Okay" she said with a steely determination, "let's begin with a A's. Come in AGD Interactive. Game Security Central here with instructions on puzzle-code retrieval from the network buffer system. Do you read..." 

Meanwhile, deep in the catacombs beneath the museum, Tincup carefully retraced his steps back to the small chamber where he first encountered Pixel Girl. 

She was nowhwere in sight. However, he detected a faint vibration in the air and an even fainter trail of lavender-hued light particles leading off in the direction of an air vent in the far wall. 

Tincup sensed the echo of her alluring presence growing stronger as he opened the filtration panel and peered into a long, dark shaft. 

"Quick, take a half step to your left!" appeared in a text bubble over my head. I did and Pixel Girl immediately came into view in all her 2.5 dimensional glory.. "There's chocolate in the wooden locker over there, then we need to talk"... Texless I went to the chest and grabed a bar - hmmm.. Cadbury Dairy Milk, and still fresh. I turned to enter a reply in the bubble, but she had vansihed...

. 

Momentarily despondent at losing Pixel Girl again so quickly, Tincup took little solace in the rich, soothing chocolate bar. 

But his mood changed just as quickly when he heard her voice beckoning him to follow down a newly opened corridor with a brighter lavender glow lighting the way. 

He entered to hallway and started running toward the light, but the faster he went, the longer the passage grew. 

After many minutes of dashing ahead at full speed, the newly re-energized Tincup began to tire. Each step got harder as if he was ascending an ever-steeper ramp. 

Just when he was about to give up, the incline suddenly became a declining surface and he slid effortlessly down to the bottom. 

What he saw next was truly astonshing...

As Tincup looked up, there before him stood this enormous giant of a man, easily over 6 1/2 ft tall and 300 pounds heavy, with an official-looking officer's hat that had 'SECURITY' printed on it while on his left upper chest was a large bronze star with 'Officer PENROD' imprinted on it. There was only one thing for Tincup to do.

Penrod? Down here? Last time I saw Penrod he was calling roll on the hovercraft back at the Island... Something was wrong, very wrong. "Penrod, nice to bump into you"...

. 

Officer Penrod it turmed out was not related to yours truly.

In fact, he wasn't even a carbon-based lifeform. 

The hulking security agent was actually a cyber representation of the collective JustAdventure forum community merged with the traits of a composite game character borne of many different genres. 

Once Tincup and SirDave realized this, they became suspicious of the muscular avatar's motives and confered in whispered tones. 

"Do you think we can trust him?" SirDave asked. 

"Not sure" Tincup replied. "So we had better be ready for anything." 

"I agree and just to be safe, let's not mention politics or religion to him" SirDave urged. 

As they cautiously approached the amazingly well rendered officer, Pixel Girl suddenly reappeared out of nowhere. 

"Be careful, guys", she hastily warned. "The last time real humans interfaced with him while the safety protcols were down, they got fragged by his BFG." 

Now Tincup, SirDave and Pixel Girl conferred in whispered tones even though SirDave was uncomfortable with conferring in whispered tones. Pixel Girl said, 'I have a plan'. The three of them turned in unison to face officer Penrod, but Pixel Girl had meanwhile pulled her top down tightly while at the same time arching her shoulders.

Penrod was taken aback by what appeared to be some major cleavage, but it was so pixelated he couldn't be sure. In any event, she had succeeded at distracting the corpulent security guard and Tincup and SirDave took advantage of it by...

. 

... simultaneously casting level nine freeze spells, temporarily encasing the giant officer in a prison of ice. 

and rendered further helpless but certainly more refreshing by a good pour from my trusty bottle of club soda and a healthy shot of some Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum I'd been holding onto for just the right moment. SirDave offered a glass to Pixel Girl. "Nice job guys" she said from one half a dimension away somehow managing to take of sip of the cocktail...  

. 

Perhaps it was the alcohol or maybe it was caused by viewing the same 3D figure from two different angles - but to SirDave, Pixel Girl started to resembled a 22-year-old Jennifer Aniston.

However, she looked like an entirely different fantasy girl to Tincup. 

Neverthless, both men felt an irresistable attraction to her and each sensed fierce competition from the other. 

"I saw her first!" exclaimed a lustful SirDave. 

"Bull, I saw her before you ever fell into this weird cyber reality" Tincup snapped back. 

Things were getting pretty intense when Pixel Girl interceded, "Guys, guys... calm down. There's plenty of me to go around." 

..and anyway, I'm already taken, beamed Pixelgirl as the real Terry Penrod rode in on his intergalactic starcycle.  As she gleefully hopped onto the back of his supercharged vehicle, wrapping her arms around Terty lustfully, he revved his engine and flashed a huge, glinty smile at SirDave & co.

"See ya, suckers!"  he shouted over his shoulder as he rode off into the sunset starscape with the curvy Pixelgirl wrapped all over him.

Ah Pixel Girl..., as inspiring as she might have been when you looked at her from a right angle she had even less dimension to her than a sheet of paper. "Shall we call it even SirDave?", "and how did you think of trying the catacombs beneath the museum in the first place?!".. And so, regaining the trail of Slim Jims began the search for the way back out of this odd and curiously appointed place...

"Hold on Tincup - I think "Fabio" (SirDave wiggled his fingers like fake quotation marks) dropped his wallet zooming outta here!" In the center of the chamber there was a lump on the floor - he  picked it up and rifled through it. "No, wait a minute, I think it's yours TC... now that's weird..."

Hovercraft to catacombs and merely Penrod's unwitting wingmen in his trans-galactic hunt for Pixel Girl...