"What are you saying?" Angst asked Frank. "You are saying that Maggie is not who she says she is?"
Frank
was sitting on a chair in the kitchen; he leaned closer to Angst and
shook his head. "No. I'm just saying that she is older than she
looks."
Angst leaned back in her chair, giving Frank a weird look.
"After all the shit I've seen and the places we've been and the stuff
that we've been through, it doesn't surprise me one bit."
Frank
grabbed a smoke from the table and lit it. He took a long satisfactory
puff. Angst wasn't getting at what he was saying. So he might have to
illustrate the point.
"Look," he started. "You and I have traveled
realities and shifts and even been to the first gates of hell. But we
are getting older, aging."
"So?" Angst stated. She was trying to reach the depth that Frank was swimming at.
"So," Frank said. "But Maggie has been something like this for a long, long time."
"Meaning?" Angst asked; she was missing the point.
20130823
} Somewhere Between Page 1 and Page 4 - for J.D.
"You okay, Mags?" Aqua asked her, after tapping her on the shoulder.
Maggie snapped out of her daydream and shot Aqua a smile. "Yeah, sorry, was drifting off there for a minute."
"You sure picked a hell of a time to go off on a tangent," Aqua told her.
"Sorry," Mags apologized.
Both girls were sitting down on the ground, behind a concrete wall. Mags shook the cobwebs from her brain and started to asses the situation at hand. Aqua was flexing her fingers in the gauntlets she was wearing.
"We only got one shot at this," Aqua said. "And I don't want to end it like Butch & Sundance did."
"But didn't they have fun doing that?" Mags said with a sly, wry smile.
Like Butch and Sundance... But With More Irony
The shell ejected from the gun, tumbling into the air for a few seconds, before landing on the marble floor. It joined his brothers on the floor. With both guns blazing Max was making sure that the mooks around him knew who they were dealing with.
"Don't you die on me you bastard," Max told the crumpled figure on the floor.
He was surveying the area and he was vastly outnumbered. No matter how many he took out, it seemed like two would take the place of one fallen comrade. It looked like this time that these mooks would rather face death than report back to their bossman of a failure.
"I ain't going to die just yet," the crumpled figure said. "There's still plenty of things to do."
"Who are these guys?" Max asked.
"Why they belong to your counterpoint..." the figure replied.
"Ain't you my counterpart?" Max questioned the figure on the floor. Max had always figured that Control was behind most of the stuff he had been through; after all he was Control.
"No," Control said. "I'm not your Anti-Max."
Nothing Lasts Forever Including Cyberain
Apple City 2123 AD
The rain fell in the cold predawn morning and she didn't care. She stood on the lip of the doorway looking down the street, remaining partially hidden from the casting of lights. She watched a diner's neon lights begin to flicker and that's when she stepped out into the cold embrace of the rain.
The neon lighting declared the diner to be "Now Open".
She entered the establishment. The doors parting like the red sea for Moses and she stepped inside the comforting embrace of mercury lighting. She slid into a booth and her fingers danced on the table top.
A sound emanating from the back, indicating that her order was received and would be processed.
She moved her hand over and a holographic screen emerged on the table, two news anchors reporting the events of the hour as they happened. She waited for her order and turned as she heard the door open and watched three kids enter the place. They all were dressed in black slickers.
An Asimo 451 waitress appeared with her order. Rolling across the floor with built-in wheels, gliding like a mechanical angel over clouds.
"Here you go, Maggie," the Asimo 451 model said.
"Thanks Jen," Maggie replied; she motioned towards the slicker trio and said, "Prepare for trouble."
Jen's head turned slightly, her sensors picking up on the trio. "How can you tell?"
"When you've been around the block a couple of times you can make an educated guess," Maggie replied with a wink that wasn't lost to Jen.
The rain fell in the cold predawn morning and she didn't care. She stood on the lip of the doorway looking down the street, remaining partially hidden from the casting of lights. She watched a diner's neon lights begin to flicker and that's when she stepped out into the cold embrace of the rain.
The neon lighting declared the diner to be "Now Open".
She entered the establishment. The doors parting like the red sea for Moses and she stepped inside the comforting embrace of mercury lighting. She slid into a booth and her fingers danced on the table top.
A sound emanating from the back, indicating that her order was received and would be processed.
She moved her hand over and a holographic screen emerged on the table, two news anchors reporting the events of the hour as they happened. She waited for her order and turned as she heard the door open and watched three kids enter the place. They all were dressed in black slickers.
An Asimo 451 waitress appeared with her order. Rolling across the floor with built-in wheels, gliding like a mechanical angel over clouds.
"Here you go, Maggie," the Asimo 451 model said.
"Thanks Jen," Maggie replied; she motioned towards the slicker trio and said, "Prepare for trouble."
Jen's head turned slightly, her sensors picking up on the trio. "How can you tell?"
"When you've been around the block a couple of times you can make an educated guess," Maggie replied with a wink that wasn't lost to Jen.
Like Hoboes in the Night
The train shunted along the tracks. An ambient sound which could be
heard from the inside of the car. Here they were like hoboes hitching
around, on a car with a side door open enjoying the country view.
"It's times like these that make it all worthwhile," said Frank; his black suit was dirty and he had tried his best to look presentable. He leaned up against the open door, a smoke in his hands and he was watching the starry sky.
Max was sitting on the ledge; he was in that exact frame of mind that Frank was in. Though he was splattered with enough blood to make a CSI happy. He didn't reply at all, content with the knowledge that someone else was feeling what he thought.
The car that they were in was empty, except for Angst sleeping off to one side. She was using Frank's jacket as a pillow.
"Well, I hope Pretty can get that for me," Frank wondered aloud.
"He's good," Max replied still staring up at the night sky, his eyes seemed a million miles away. "He's like Felix The Cat - all he has to do is reach into his bag of tricks."
Frank chuckled.
"It's times like these that make it all worthwhile," said Frank; his black suit was dirty and he had tried his best to look presentable. He leaned up against the open door, a smoke in his hands and he was watching the starry sky.
Max was sitting on the ledge; he was in that exact frame of mind that Frank was in. Though he was splattered with enough blood to make a CSI happy. He didn't reply at all, content with the knowledge that someone else was feeling what he thought.
The car that they were in was empty, except for Angst sleeping off to one side. She was using Frank's jacket as a pillow.
"Well, I hope Pretty can get that for me," Frank wondered aloud.
"He's good," Max replied still staring up at the night sky, his eyes seemed a million miles away. "He's like Felix The Cat - all he has to do is reach into his bag of tricks."
Frank chuckled.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)