“Are you ready?” Sonya asked later that afternoon.

“Yeah,” Zoe replied.

“Don’t activate VR yet,” Sonya said as she reclined back in a lounge chair next to Zoe. “Give me just a minute or so to set things up.”

“Ok,” Zoe replied. She was starting to feel anxious. Not the bad way, just in the excited to try something new way.

“All done. Activate your VR mode and join me,” the nurse and slicer said.

“Will I just appear where you are?” Zoe asked.

“We’ll appear in the clinic’s Fortress since we’re using the clinic’s network,” Sonya replied.

“How? I thought Fortress was just some ICE.”

“You’ll see,” Sonya promised.

“Alright,” Zoe shrugged. “Here goes nothing.”

She activated the new mode, and her vision went dark. A second later she was standing in a room instead of sitting. Zoe looked around. The room’s walls, floor, and ceiling were a mixture of black background with a green honeycomb pattern. In or just above the honeycomb, words and numbers scrolled across it.

Zoe looked down at her hands. They gave off a greenish glow. So did the rest of her.

“What the?” Zoe muttered.

“There you are,” Sonya said as she just appeared. Unlike Zoe, she looked like her regular self. “You can keep that default avatar or change it. I just use my real looks.”

“I don’t see an option to change the way I look,” Zoe replied. She then pointed at the nearest wall. “And why does this room look like that?”

Sonya laughed. “As I told you, we are inside the clinic’s Fortress. I like this color scheme, so that’s why it’s green and black.”

“You can change the way it looks too?” Zoe asked.

“Of course,” Sonya replied. “In virtual cyberspace, you can be anything, make your Angel, ICE, and daemons look any way you want, or even have them nonvisible. MR cyberspace tends to leave things as they really are.”

“But the honeycomb, words, and numbers?” Zoe asked.

“The honeycomb represents Fortress’ defense. All ICE has it. If you look close enough at yourself, you’ll notice a tiny honeycomb pattern on your skin. The data is just that, data representing the clinic’s offerings, hours, customers, and the like,” Sonya explained.

“So, if we were to look at a shopping site, it would have the honeycomb pattern and data representing its offerings,” Zoe concluded.

“Exactly. Then, depending on the site, you could even try on clothing for example on your avatar just like you can in Mixed Reality,” Sonya said. “Some cheaper sites don’t offer that since VR is still in the early stages of commercial use.”

“I guess once they get the prices where they want it, the corporations will release MR and VR to more regular folks,” Zoe said.

“That’s a good guess and what everything I’ve seen and read points too,” Sonya agreed. “Now, let’s change that avatar unless you want to keep the basic one.”

“I’d rather look like my regular self,” Zoe replied.

“Alright. Here’s how to change those settings,” Sonya said. She spent a couple of minutes teaching Zoe how to change her appearance, and those of her ICE, daemons, and Angel.

“Much better,” Zoe said. “Neat! It even changes my appearance to match if I change my hair color in real time.”

“Yeah, yeah. Come on, let’s go down the street,” Sonya said while leading Zoe out a drawbridge.

“It’s an actual drawbridge!” Zoe laughed. Her Archangel, Gabriel, was now a tiny little semi-transparent cartoon hovering over her right shoulder.

“Fortress is a castle, so, it needed a drawbridge,” Sonya replied. “Look down at your feet.”

“Wow!” Zoe exclaimed after looking down and walking in a circle. “Bastion looks like a miniature star shaped fortress that stays under my feet. Why doesn’t that happen in MR?”

“Probably so users won’t get distracted even more than they normally do,” Sonya shrugged. She led Zoe along the street. They examined different buildings. It was almost like cyberspace was one of those movie sets that just had the fake building fronts with a few extremely well-done exceptions. Grocery stores looked mostly like their real-world counterparts or plain websites. Most high-end clothing shops had varied appearances with a wide array of colors depending on their theme and clientele. The same was true for automobile dealerships. Most of them offered virtual test drives too.

“That’s just another excuse to play games and simulations,” Zoe said after checking out the Stefani Motors site.

“Probably,” Sonya agreed as she led Zoe back to Fortress and up an observation tower.

“The speed of movement is freaky,” Zoe commented.

“You’ll get used to it in no time,” Sonya assured her once they reached the top of the tower and gazed out over the virtual New York City. Daemons, Dragons, and the like could be seen on buildings or flying around.

“I think I see another reason the corporations haven’t pushed VR as much,” Zoe said.

“Oh?”

“This is an idyllic, mostly empty, version of the city without the crime, trash, homeless, and problems,” Zoe replied. “Why would the executives and investors want to share that?”

“Huh. You might have a point, but the wish to profit from VR cyberspace will win out in the end,” Sonya said. “Profiting always wins.”

“True,” Zoe agreed.

“Well, I’m going to leave you here to explore for a bit,” Sonya said after a few minutes. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep tabs on you though.”

“Thanks Sonya,” Zoe replied as the nurse waved and faded from sight.