DAY NINETEEN 21:18PM

Match Made In 

Max closed the lid to the laptop. "Ok, I've gotta make a run for some coffee." He looked around the motel room; there was no one else there. 

The cellphone rang again. He let it.

DAY NINETEEN 20:59PM

Point And Match

"Craptacular," Max said. He butted out a cigarette and glanced at his watch. He was dying for a coffee, since his head had begun to hurt.

DAY NINETEEN 20:33PM

Return of No Point 

Small specks of snow began to fall from the sky; not enough to warrant a shelter, just enough to let them know that winter was still here. 

"Shit," Suki said. She looked at all of them and shook her head. "It's worse than I thought."

"What do you - waitaminute..." Donnelly looked around at the others. "What's happening?" 

Suki frowned. She snapped the cell phone closed - no signal to the Professor either. "I told you, there's some sort of threshold event occurring. Or is about to occur. Or just occurred." She looked to Scorpio. "Somewhere in that LEGACY-tailored brain of yours is the all the data on your ex-team's shift protocols. Frank had it stored in his, you gotta have it buried somewhere in yours."

"And so what if I do? How did this Frank-guy remember these whatever-you-called-them?" 

"We need any stable reference points we can get if there's a shiftstorm happening - safe-houses, phone numbers, records, contacts, anything. Or we could all get lost." Suki smiled, with a hint of sadness. "Frank's recovery involved a warlock, a tattoo-artist and a bungee-jump..."

Father Donnelly looked around, scanning the rest stop. The barren trees, the faux-wood exteriors of the washrooms, the picnic tables gently frosted with white, all slow-cooked in the orange of the lamp-post. 

His voice sounded high-pitched when he finally spoke. "Where's Mayganne?"

DAY NINETEEN 19:33PM

Point Of No Return

Small droplets of water began to fall from the sky; not enough to warrant a shelter, just enough to let them know that spring was finally arriving. 

"Fuck," Suki said. She looked around at them all and shook her head. "It's worse than I thought."

"What do you mean?" Donnelly asked. 

"Means there is a lot more brewing here than the Professor informed me about!" Suki said. It was the first time Scorpio saw the woman snarl. And it scared the hell out of him. "Fuck, this is bigger than Version Orion."

"Version Orion?" said Scorpio. The mention of that name stirred something in his memory, but he couldn't quite place it. 

Suki tried the cellphone again, her thumb dancing over the keys and bringing it up to her ear. She shook her head. "There must be several major shifts going on; whatever has happened has caused a shitstorm in the plureality."

Donnelly glanced at Suki. Even though he had just met her a few hours ago, he knew in his gut that she was a good soul. He chuckled at that thought. 

"Max is lying low isn't he?" Mayganne inquired.

"Max doesn't lie low," Suki replied. "He stirs the pot."

DAY NINETEEN 15:33PM

Vector

"Thank you for meeting with me, Agent Light," Greg Logollos said, taking a seat across from the young man. He looked crisp and clean in his expensive three-piece suit. At the tables surrounding them other patrons of the Azure restaurant carried on their own quiet conversations. A background whisper of deals and bargains and secrets.

Simon tapped a key on his PDA, opening a file to take notes. "You have some information regarding a current investigation?" 

Greg poured a cup of coffee from the urn on the table and offered it to Simon.

"No thank you. I don't drink coffee." 

Greg smiled. "No, of course not. But yes, we do feel we can be helpful in certain matters, yes." Something about the man's smooth tone made Simon miss the gruff detectives from the other day. "LEGACY has always enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with all of the agencies such as yours. What is the current slang? The Alphabet crews? We've worked with the FBI, CIA, CSIS, NSA, DEA, MI6-"

"I understand, Mr. Logollos. Please, I don't have a lot of time." Things hadn't quieted down since he was first tapped to check out some potential terrorist activity. The diner, the building downtown - some sort of makeshift hostel based on the remains - both burnt down. The mutilated bodies, complete with a small arsenal of cutting-edge gear, splattered inside the warehouse. The body of Lon Lugerelli, killed execution-style. The appearance of the Fujimoria woman, taken off their watch-lists over five years ago when she was reported dead. The body of Aaron Quipton, found in an apartment along with signs of a kidnapping, killed by an as-yet-unidentified energy weapon. The action-movie-car-chase-gunfight on the interstate four days ago. A strange and violent set of tracks that Simon was trying to follow to whatever beast was stalking his territory. 

Greg nodded. "Indeed. Agent Light, you're aware of the recent incident at our research facility. We believe it is directly connected to your current pursuit of Ms. Suki Fujimoria for questioning in a number of deaths and incidents of arson."

Simon arched an eyebrow. "Connected how?" 

"In a number of ways, possibly. Most importantly, we believe that she is currently trying to locate the man who is the cause of all the recent... chaos."

"That's a man I would be interested in meeting. What's your interest? This person was somehow responsible for the damage to your facility?" 

Greg nodded. He sipped his own coffee. For a moment he stared at the liquid in the cup. "Our principle concern is this man's recent attempts to sabotage an ongoing experiment being conducted by LEGACY. An act of corporate espionage, if you will."

"Who is he?" 

"His name is Max Cube."

Simon shrugged. "Should I know the name?" 

Greg studied the agent for a moment. "I thought you might."

"We'll need everything you have on him, of course," Simon said, tapping his PDA. 

"Of course," Greg nodded. "I am pleased to be able to inform you that we have a lead on the Fujimoria woman."

"Really?" 

Greg leaned in closer and explained to Simon that an employee of LEGACY was currently being held hostage by Fujimoria, and that by using some classified satellite technology and an employee genetic-tagging system, they were in the process of locating them.

Greg smiled. "We'll have coordinates for you within 24 hours."

DAY NINETEEN 4:07AM

The Universes In My Coffee Cup
 
"You shouldn't be here," Suki said to Scorpio in a matter-of-fact tone. Scorpio could tell by her voice that she wasn't being smug; it sounded more like a teacher to a pupil. 

Scorpio looked at the woman and smiled; it was the first time it felt genuine. "I have no other options left. You made sure of that."

"No, you SHOULDN'T be here," Suki emphasized as she placed her coffee cup down on the table. The roadside diner was nearly empty at this time of the morning, except for a trio of truckers sitting at the counter and a young couple sitting a few booths down. 

"What do you mean?" Scorpio questioned. He hadn't touched his coffee; it sat in front of him black and cold. He couldn't drink anything since his mind was racing over the past few days. However now his curiousity was piqued about what she was going to say.

"First answer a question. And then I will explain it to you," Suki replied. She had taken the sugar packages and some creamers from the bowl at the far side of the table and placed them beside Scorpio's untouched coffee. "What do you remember of your life?"

Images and memories of his past came popping through his mind. As if a switch had gone on in a theatre and the movie began to roll. He remembered growing up an orphan, going from foster home to foster home. He remembered his first kiss with Jenny McRae underneath a huge oak tree in a park. He remembered while in college he was approached by a man in a black suit and how he joined the LEGACY fold. He also remembered his first kill, a middle-aged woman who was supposed to be responsible for the loss of many lives. He shook the last image away like someone brushing dirt off a jacket. "Standard stuff, why?" 

"Look at this coffee cup," Suki said as she pointed at Scorpio's untouched coffee. "Imagine this to be a version of reality; better yet your version of reality as you see it."

Scorpio nodded. Because, after all, it was just coffee. 

Suki brought up a sugar packet and tore one end and held it before her. "Now think of each of these individual crystals inside this packet as variables. And when added to this reality here, it changes."

She poured the contents of the packet slowly into the cup, making sure that Scorpio was watching the sugar dissolve as it sank into the depths of the dark liquid. 

"That reality is different now. It became different when we added variables. Instead of a dark bitter world, we now have a little flavour," she said with a slight smile. Scorpio watched with interest. "These variables change when added into the fold; it changes the world but you can't see it. It changes everything, but still it's unseen."

She placed the empty packet down and brought up the cream and she added just a tiny drop. "Now think of this as Max. See what happens to the coffee. It changes. It's not dark anymore but has gained a speck of colour. And watch what happens when more is added. So this reality changes. 

"A dark unseasoned version, spiced up with variables and changed by an introduction of another element to change it completely," Suki said.

"And?" Scorpio asked. 

"Just think of yourself as a variable, changed by the introduction of an element," Suki told him.