Portal Protocol

"And what is that?" Tatterdemalion asked, her voice echoing in the chamber.

"It's the Metaplex, represented as a four-dimensional object. That's why it appears to change shape over time but still retain cohesion."

"It hurts my head, looking at it."

"It's even worse when you are inside it. Don't you remember?"

Tatter stared at the pulsing, morphing substance hovering in the centre of the room. The colour changed, sometimes shiny, others muted.

"It's like a strange attractor..." Tatter whispered.

"Well, it most certainly attracts the strange. You'll observe three recurring patterns on the sides of the object. Interacting with it at each of these will produce a different experience."

Pattern One: Fragments

Pattern Two: Iteration

Pattern Three: Crisis

Tatter squinted. "I... I think I see a fourth pattern..."

C2IP Update.4

"I'm sorry, Professor. I'm still experiencing some residue from the shift."

"That's okay. Even the abnormal has been exceptionally abnormal of late. I was asking you the Ruffo-Haskins screening questions to determine what your Prime Version was prior to my experiment."

"Did you identify it? Wait, what experiment?"

"I transmitted a vector-feedback signal into the XXXXXXplex in order to generate a pulse of Continuity in the hopes of creating the conditions for one of the Dragons' to discover the source of the current Agenda War. And yes, I believe you had recently escaped some sort of facility in which you had undergone an Upgrade of some kind?"

"Yeah, that does sound familiar... And yes, it worked. Your experiment. Did Aki make it out?"

"His arrival seems to have been an iteration of an event that occurred earlier in one of the beginnings of the current Crisis, when he intervened on the Subway to thwart an Agent that was attacking Aqua. If I am interpreting the data correctly."

"So he's not here? Where is here, exactly?"

"We've gone Liminal. It's not ideal but it's the only way I've been able to maintain any perspective on the Crisis. Akimoto is one of the signals that I have had a great deal of difficulty tracking. His and Darius'. Oh, and Suki's."

"Who do you have a lock on, then?"

"Records show a number of intersections with Angst, Frank and Goner, Aqua too, all Upgraded as well. And Wraith, Dex and Callan appear to be in a parallel stream... There's also these sporadic but intense signals regarding someone named Summer. Everything has gone a bit bonkers, honestly."

"The War, like you said. The Metaplex is at war. The System vs The Counter-System vs The Anti-System."

"It's a good thing I know some truly excellent warriors," the Professor said with a smile. Maggie was handed a cup of tea.

"Thanks."

"I'll download you a copy of the most recent analyses and then we need to start working on what might be the most important question."

Maggie sipped the tea, glanced at the files downloading onto the tablet on the table in the cafe. "What's that?" she asked. The person seated at the table beside at her glanced over, then away.

Analysis One

Analysis Two

Analysis Three

"Whose side is Max on?"

C2IP: The Agenda War X - Final

The Masked Man was shouting, a voice raw with rage. "None of you really care! None of you give a shit!"

She feels dizzy, feels for a moment as if she is back on The Horsebreeder's Ranch, the night it burned. Maybe I died there and now I'm a ghost...

The dizziness keeps her from noticing Brogan staggering out of the flames, pistol in hand.

The Masked Man draws on Brogan but Brogan squeezes first and a burst of blood erupts from the Masked Man's head.

Brogan's gun sounds strange. Mags remembers the rumours, that the gun Logollos shot Sugarcube with had sounded strange. It's bringing her back, the sound, the question of it, bringing her back from the ranch, but too slowly.

Brogan already turning to face her, gun raised.

And part of her mind, staggering out of the flames from that night at the ranch into the flames that are swallowing Omega, part of her is trying to see if she can see, now that their hat is knocked off from the gunshot, if she can see who The Masked Man is...

Even as she, reflexes kicking in, raises her own gun at Brogan, but still too slow.

Maybe I am going to find out what happened to Sugarcube after all.

Except there are suddenly hoofbeats like thunder and a horse and rider charge out of the smoke. Right behind Brogan. And the rider, a massive man, shirtless and bloodied, long blond hair tangled and damp with sweat, hacks Brogan's head off with a giant sword.

"Maggie!" the rider roars, a savage grin on his face. "It's time to go!"

And she remembers him, another wave of dizziness, a wave of memories, enough to drown her - Vlad, he was called, and Akimoto - and the dizziness overtakes her, starting to fall, and the memories, remembering what it feels like to shift.

C2IP: The Agenda War IX

Mags and The Masked Man surrounded by fire and screams and blood.

Sugarcube used to love this town, she thinks, feeling her heart breaking again.

"The Mayor and the oil and the companies and the Law," the Masked Man shouts. "Drawing their lines and digging their holes and dispensing and withholding. This town's fortune and fate in their hands and everyone here is just a resource to them. Another means to an end. Sucking up life and love and dreams like the crude stuff and leaving ruined desperate husks. And Que will die and Mode and someone else will take their place. Let's call it The System. But the truth is there's no homes here, no jobs, no future without them.

"And the Wagoners with their hopes and their ideas and their ideals, doing what they can to get people well, keep them safe, make things better and stronger. Maybe make a change. Let's call it The Counter-System. All the ways they argue and fight it out. Who's using the schools and the papers and the places of gathering for what ends.

"Truth is, Maggie, and you know this in your heart, in your bones... It's all lies, all of it. This whole damn town is an infection, an open sore. This was free land once and a whole other people lived on it and with it and were murdered for it and enslaved. Omega Canyon, Temperance City, all the ranchers and cowboys, all the bounty hunters and Marshals, all the gamblers and the priests, all of it is a plague, a shadow, all of it rooted in native blood and suffering. If there's ever going to be any real future all this has to be torn down and burned away and the truth be owned and shared. That's the only way anything real is ever going to happen. 

"That's why the only safe place in Omega Canyon is Judgement Grotto. The only part of this cursed enterprise that's even a little bit real: the graveyard.

"So that's why we're here. We're finally going to make everything real and send it all to the grave."

Maggie understood it now. Understood why things were in crisis.

Anti-System.

C2IP: The Agenda War VIII

Mags, the smoke thick in the night, steps over Mode's corpse, the blood leaking from his gut reflecting the firelight, the flames thick in the night. She has the sudden thought that she's somehow killed this man before.

The citizens of Omega Canyon are screaming.

After shooting their way out of The Emperor, Dex ran for the schoolhouse, Wraith for the Star office, Cal for the old Hanged Man. They knew already, in their bones, that they were all already burning. People still needed protecting though.

Mags shoots another man who is about to shoot her. She's trying to size things up, make a count of things. Who started the shooting?

She can see, in the distance, the smoke parting like a curtain in the hot wind conjured up by the fire, that Que's manor is burning too. Glancing back, through more gunfire and screams, she sees that The Emperor is on fire.

War's come to Omega.

And then a figure in the midst of it, standing opposite Mags. She realizes that she's wandered into the main street, where Sugarcube and Logollos had drawn on each other. Do some things have beginnings?

Their hat is pulled low, a bandana pulled up high, face covered, thick duster and smoke and firelight making it hard to measure size, posture.

"You see what's happenin', Maggie?" they shout. Something about the voice. A knowing in it.

She thinks for a moment that it's Darius. Then she wonders if it's him, if Sugarcube's come back. She knows that she should know, that she should be able to tell, feels embarrassed that she can't. Truth is that things have never been quite right since the journey to the Horsebreeder's ranch.

"Tell me what's happenin', stranger!" Mags shouts back.

C2IP: The Agenda War VII

"Well, the bounty hunter was already there. She had rode in the night before, took a room at The Emperor. After checkin' The Hanged Man and learnin' it was shut down.

"So she's sittin' at the table in the corner with her rifle laid right out in front o' her, like she's darin' anyone to cross her. See, the clientelle was a lot o' hired guns workin' for the oil folks, mostly to guard shipments and the like, and sometimes keep the workin' folk in line. They were generally a fairly surly group, the kind you'd reasonably 'spect to trouble a lady sittin' by her lonesome in a Saloon.

"None of 'em troubled Mags Magenta though.

"And after a time the other three showed up and it was almost a reunion of the posse from the Incident last year, 'cept the Preacher wasn't there. The ex-sheriff, the ex-Marshal and the ex-gambler. They got to talkin' - I figures they were catchin' the bounty hunter up on all that had come to pass. The oil, the Mayor, the Law and the Wagoners.

"Part o' me woulda loved to been eavesdroppin' on that chat, just to know how exactly all this mess sounded in the tellin'. If any of it made any gorram sense or whether it was sense that died the day of the Logollos-Sugarcube showdown, if it was the corpse of normalcy and reason and right-thinkin' that they found in that coffin...

"The part left o' me though, if I'm to be truthful, is glad I never heard just what they said. They were an odd bunch, spooky and dangerous. For some reason, imaginin' what their conversation woulda been like makes me feel like when Pa would tell us ghost stories 'round the fire on cold winter nights.

"It wasn't long after that when the gents seated by the window began whisperin' that the Sheriff was outside.

"And then the first explosion happened.

"And then the shootin' started."

C2IP: The Agenda War VI

Weldwood Que, Mayor of Omega Canyon, poured himself a second brandy. He liked the way the light from the chandelier reflected in the liquid. "What exactly is the problem?"

Brogan Mirk, Sheriff of Omega Canyon, brushed some dust off his boot. "Their activities are creating a general air of dissent. Flyers and posters are appearing through the town, around some of the drill sites, even on some of the ranches on the North and South plateaus of the canyon. Manifesto-type writings, questioning the future of the area, questioning the benefits of the oil boom..."

Angus Mode, Deputy Sheriff, wiped some gravy from his moustache with a silk handkerchief. "Questioning the decisions and leadership of the Mayor."

Brogan shot Angus a look.

Mr. Throckmorton, local liaison to the Oil Companies from Temperance City, helped himself to the bottle of brandy. Servants were not allowed in these meetings. "Workers are beginnin' to hold meetings, talkin' about safety conditions, fair compensation, other such nonsense. Plus there's these weird symbols croppin' up, sometimes etched, like with a knife, sometimes painted, on some of the drillin' rigs or foreman cabins. Not really sure what that's all about."

Mr. Lanight, chief editor of The Omega Times, added, "The symbols have appeared on our building as well, and The Emperor Saloon."

Brogan interjected. "The symbols are repeated on many of the flyers and posters. It seems like a way to be reminding folks about the messages."

Que was frowning.

Brogan continued. "None of them are saying anything downright traitorous or treasonous. They're claiming to be a voice for the people of the Canyon."

"And have you identified any of the authors of the messages? Or the vandals defacing these buildings?"

"If the budget to the Sheriff's Office were to be increased," Brogan replied, "I could easily hire on some more men to keep a better watch. We may also want to consider a curfew."

Throckmorton added, "I'm certain the Temperance folks would endorse and maybe even kick in for an increase in security."

"The fact is," Angus said, "we've got two darkies and a slant-eye living in this Canyon, all of whom have reason to dislike the current way of things. One of them is good with letters, one of them has access to a printing press and one of them made a career on deceit and trickery. I think it's obvious who's behind this Wagoners business!"

Brogan sighed. Angus was a hothead but the Mayor was feeling the pressure and Brogan knew he was looking for a target. Not the best time for more troubling news, but - he chugged back his own glass of brandy - why not?

"You should also know, Mayor Que, that the bounty hunter Mags Magenta returned to Omega Canyon last night."

C2IP: The Agenda War V

Some say the War started way back when Sugarcube and Logollos had their showdown in the main street of Omega Canyon.

Some say it started during the Incident at Judgement Grotto. They'll say it was already being fought when Mayor Weldwood Que appointed Angus Mode, a man of dubious reputation, as Deputy Sheriff (rumours had it that Dexter Washington had turned down the job). That the launch of The Omega Times newspaper, in direct competition with the existing Canyon Star and with a generous government grant, was a battle in that War. That another battle was the closing of The Hanged Man Saloon after its liquor license was revoked, leaving The Emperor Saloon to cater to the needs of all the oil workers newly arrived to the Canyon.

The oil was flowing and business, for some, was booming. Trade coming through the Canyon was on the rise but most local shops couldn't compete with the merchants from the Coast and Temperance City who'd arrived once the drilling began. Most of the money, like the oil, was being sucked out of the Canyon.

Farmers who had sold their land to the drills (rumours of strong-arming were plenty) found themselves living in the increasingly cramped town in shoddily-built houses (the building crews managed by Temperance businessmen who didn't even live in the Canyon). Much the same lot for the oil workers, who earned only enough to pay rent to well-to-do landlords and drink their troubles away at The Emperor. Folks resorted to a lot of black market trade, which the Deputy Sheriff was in charge of stamping out; when seen in the streets in his finely-tailored suits he would half-heartedly lament the lack of success on "poor cooperation from the community".

The Mayor proposed consolidating the handful of small schoolhouses into one institution, in a new building funded by donations from the oil merchants, to "ensure a consistent education for the future leaders of Omega Canyon".

The Hanged Man Saloon was converted into cheap rooms for oil workers.

The Omega Times ran story after story about the dawning of a new age of prosperity for the Canyon. 

Battles fought? 

Some say the War didn't really begin until The Wagoners appeared...

C2IP: The Agenda War IV

Brogan set the empty glass on the bar. "That's a quality drink, Mr. Lokk."

Callan held up the bottle of whisky, offering a second shot, but Brogan shook his head.

"At least when I give you my money now," he went on with a smirk, "I get something in return, unlike the many times I gave it to you at the poker table."

Callan chuckled. "My apologies."

"None necessary. You out-played me."

"Since we're not gambling now, why don't we go ahead and put all our cards on the table right away? I'm aware that Mr. Que is planning to propose that one of the two saloons in the Canyon have its liquor license revoked. He will claim he is concerned about the effects of unchecked drinking given the influx of new workers to the region."

Brogan gestured to the bottle and Callan poured a second shot as he continued speaking.

"And I'm aware that the saloon he allows to continue operating will undoubtedly be the one he feels will best support his goals as Mayor."

Brogan took a sip. "We both know that the kind of talk that is either encouraged or discouraged at the local watering hole can have a profound impact on the opinions of a community. And that the support of a Mayor is beneficial for anyone doing business in said community..."

C2IP: The Agenda War III

"You're a woman."

Wraith stared at Brogan.

"And you're not even white."

Stared.

"What I'm saying is, Ms. Wraith, is that your appointment as a Marshal was nothing sort of miraculous and I consider it irrefutable evidence of your dedication and skill. That you should have retired from the position is, to me, only another indication that your full worth is as yet untapped. And I believe that your journalistic endeavours will only serve to validate that suspicion."

"Are you auditioning for a column in the paper, Mirk? We don't pay by the word, I'm afraid."
He smiled.

"Not exactly. I have been, however, urged to discuss the future of your publication by the new Mayor, who sees the value in a reliable source of news for the residents of the Canyon. So much so, in fact, that he is proposing that you and your partner receive a government grant to upgrade your printing equipment and a small tax exemption to offset the cost of materials. The goal being an increase in both quality and distribution."

Wraith's eyes narrowed slightly.

Brogan continued, "Now that the drilling operations have begun it will be even more essential for Omega to have a strong, clear voice..."

C2IP: The Agenda War II

"I think it's obvious that the Office of Frontier Affairs will be taking an active interest in the growth and prosperity of Omega Canyon, given the news."

"Undoubtedly."

Brogan Mirk adjusted the brim of his hat. "I've been given permission to share with you, Mr. Washington, that the initial meetings have already taken place."

Dex smirked. "So the article in The Canyon Star was accurate."

"To a point."

"Why no public meetings?"

"Mr. Washington, I have been a residence of the Canyon for many, many years and am deeply invested in ensuring the prosperity of the town and its people. You and I shared a mutual acquaintance, the dear departed Mr. Sugarcube. Your honourable history in law enforcement is known to me. It was at my insistence that the OFA agreed to this discussion."

Dexter listened briefly to the sound of the students playing outside. Laughter, no shouting or crying. "And what exactly are we discussing, Mr. Mirk?"

"A gentleman from Temperance City by the name of Weldwood Que is being installed as the new Mayor of the Canyon. I will be appointed as the new Sheriff. The discussion before us today, Mr. Washington, is about whether or not I can convince you to accept the position of Deputy..."

C2IP: The Agenda War I

Previously in v.Western...

*

It was a dark time for Omega Canyon.

A year had passed since The Incident at Judgement Grotto. The rumours about what had happened far outnumbered the facts and the townsfolk were content to let the tales be, as if telling them was like to summon trouble. 

While the certainties about what had transpired in the graveyard that night - and about how it had led to the ranch of a mysterious horsebreeder being burned down - were few, there were some details about what followed that were plainly agreed upon.

Logollos and his corrupt ways were gone. Driven out or shot down, folks wouldn't offer a guess either way. He wasn't missed.

The lawman Dexter Washington had given up his badge and taken up residence in the Canyon, opening a small schoolhouse.

The marshal Wednesday Wraith had also unpinned her star and become a part-owner of the local printing press. She had began publishing a newspaper.

Callan Lokk had won The Hanged Man Saloon in a card game, kept the original owner in his employ, and given up gambling.

A new graveyard had been fenced-off and consecrated - the final act of the priest Darius Angelus before he disappeared.

The last of the strangers who had ridden into town the day before The Incident had also disappeared, the bounty hunter Mags Magenta. 

Those were the handful of facts but out of the many, many rumours one was generally considered to be true: that when the grave of the strange drifter Sugarcube had been opened that mysterious night it was not his body they found inside.

However odd, The Incident and what came of it had actually changed the fortune of the Canyon for the better. The reversal of that fortune, and the cause of the current troubles, began shortly after when the Office of Frontier Affairs arrived and announced the discovery of oil in the land surrounding Omega...

to be continued

Chronoplex: Domino

She handed her phone to Yuri.

"If I'm not back in an hour call the number saved on the screen."

"Okay gramma."

They'll be fine, she lied to herself.

*

Less than five minutes up the path she saw the first marking, a sigil carved into the trunk of a tree.

She remembered.

*

The next sigil was scraped onto a rocky outcropping where the path took a sharp curve. She glanced back but couldn't see where the car was parked through the veil of trees.

She looked back at the sigil.

*

Twenty minutes in and the sun was going down. The third sigil still caught her eye though, scratched into the dirt. She wondered if other hikers had noticed the markings, what they might mean to them.

It reminded her of a clock.

*

She almost didn't notice the last one. Blamed that on the twilight and her aged eyes. She had stopped to have a smoke and realized that the branches of the tree she was leaning against had been woven into a pattern.

Patterns, art, clues.

*

She knew the next one would be the last one.

In The Writer's Room

"What do you mean they are giving us another season?" Brad said. He entered the room and tossed a briefcase on the table. "We wrapped everything up in that two hour finale in May! Now they want us to continue on?"

Allison sat at the table and glanced at the white board up on the wall; they were brainstorming ideas for another season to see what they could come up with. She was afraid to put forth the idea she'd been wanting to run ever since they shot it down in Season Three.

"I wished the network would of given us a heads-up," Brad stated. "Freakin' Morley moved on over to the Ultra-Men series after. They snapped him up like that."

"Ultra-Men also hired Angst as a recurring character as well this season," Benjamin added.

Benjamin was tapping the pen in his hands on a pad of paper. He had written: 

Season 12 ideas:

• Max travels across the land with a dog.
• The Ark of the Covenant is found in an attic.
• Maggie discovers who her mysterious benefactor truly is.
• Introducing a new character: Oliver Cousins!  No... not that.
• A musical episode where everyone sings?
• Frank is killed. Again. And brought back as a demon. --- nope, nope, nope.
• Introducing the Soda Wars.

Synchroplex: Real Problems Gather for the Regular Playing Group

Tim said, "I'm really sorry to hear that."

Dexter said, "Please don't take it personally, my friend. I've loved every minute I've sat at this table."

"You've been a great addition to the group, Dex. Congratulations though! Getting accepted to university is a big deal."

"I'm excited. And nervous. I've always wanted to get out of this town, but I'll miss it at the same time."

"I get it. It's complicated."

Dex smiled. "Very. Very 'metaplex' as Max would say. Not being able to game is another downer."

"There will always be a seat for you here and the coffee will always be on."

*

"So, what are you going to do with Frank then?" Wednesday asked.

Tim winked. "Now that would be telling. Actually, since Frank is Dexter's character I'm going to let him decide, and I will adjust the campaign around that."

"This is maybe a bad time to bring it up, but... Well, it looks like my promotion might be going through."

"That's great news!"

"Except it means I will be travelling every other weekend..."

"Ah."

"So we may have to figure out a reason for Angst to be missing every other session... If you think that would even work?"

"We'll make it work somehow."

*

Callan sighed. "I suppose I wonder if it all still works. The overall story, I mean. If Frank gets written out, and Angst only appears occasionally... Maybe it's time we start a new campaign?"

"But what happens to Goner and Suki then? Are you tired of playing Goner?" Tim asked.

"Not at all. The new cyborg angle has been really interesting. But how many changes can you make to a story before it doesn't make sense anymore?"

"Games aren't stories, though."

Callan smiled. "And we're back to the central question, aren't we? When we get together every Saturday night what exactly are we doing? Playing a game or telling a story?"

"Or is it a magical ritual, as Max would say?"

*

Tim sipped at his coffee. "So it comes down to you, Darius. Dexter's leaving, Wednesday's only going to be able to play half as often, and Cal is having some doubts about the story continuing. What do you think? Keep going with the adventures of Goner and Suki and sometimes Angst? Start a new game?"

Darius sipped at his coffee. "Actually Tim, I have some news..."

Paraplex: Archival

The third punch knocked the heavy metal door off its hinges. After the clanging, silence. Some oddly coloured vapours drifted from the dimly lit room. Strange smelling too but since the Upgrade toxins didn't seem to affect her anymore.

She was here to try and understand how and why the Upgrade had happened. She was here to try and learn what was happening to Max, if he was having another breakdown or if everyone else was or both.

A man named Marshal had texted her this location. She thought she recognized the name but couldn't be sure. Couldn't be sure if her memories of being a secret operative throughout history were real or just TV shows she had watched once. Had she always been like this or was this something Max had done to her?

Stepping into the chamber. 

Six suspension-tanks. Not unlike the ones she and Max had climbed out of in the Atlantis base one of the first times they had met. I think I was blonde then. She couldn't make out the figures floating inside them but each one had a digital screen.

Riveta - Status Unknown

Stone - Version Indigo

Scorpio - Version Elephant Tiger

Mayganne - Version Sting Ray

Donnelly - Signal Lost

Susanna - Signal Corrupted

That made her feel sad. She had vague, dream-like memories of a woman with that name who took care of her at a time she was lost and alone and hurting.

Beyond the tanks and the clusters of wires and tubing that fed into them were four doors. Each had a label.

PROJECT ELLIPSES

PROJECT HORIZON

PROJECT BEAST

SUBJECT A-443-C 

Maggie suddenly felt afraid.

Max Not Max

Germany, 1977.

The stage was set for the band to hit, Max was sitting at the bar sipping a lager and tapping out a cigarette from the Morley Brand smokes he kept in his pocket. It was the end of summer, a hint of fall was in the air but that didn't matter at all when you were deep indoors a pub that was underground.

"Ein anderes?" the comely bartender asked him.

"Ich werde eine andere," he replied as he glanced at his watch. His contact was late.

He didn't know when he picked up German but he presumed it was all part of the package deal. The words sounded strange and foreign to his ears but it conveyed his answer. He didn't know who this contact was and why he was supposed to meet them here. His brain was a hazy fog of jumbled memories and strange flashbacks as well.

He felt like Jason Bourne but then he remembered that couldn't be right since 'The Bourne Identity' was written in 1980. That was three years from now. Why did he know this?

There was a sound of high heels on the hardwood floor approaching and he turned to see who was coming and then he realized...

Hyperplex: Battle Part Two

Shortly after the Dragons began infiltrating the Museum the building came under attack from a LEGACY tactical team. A furious three-way battle erupted.

The Ashen Tradition deployed their psycho-theurgic toxins, transforming infected LEGACY soldiers into ravenous human-beast hybrids that turned on each other.

LEGACY operatives fired swarms of nano-enhanced smart-rounds that used echolocation-sensors and micro-fluid architecture to course-correct in mid-flight and track their targets.

Aqua, safe in the armour of her Mech, alternated pulses of autonic energy to disrupt the AT toxin fields and quantum-chaff to destabilize the trajectories of the LEGACY munitions.

Goner fired bursts of energy from his upgraded arm and Angst evoked designer combat-spirits from Liminal Space.

And Mags jumped into the middle of it all, punching and throwing and kicking.

From the shadows, Frank scanned the minds of the Tradition Mages and the LEGACY Agents, infiltrating their psychic defences like a ninja or occasionally smashing through their conditioning like a tank.

He learned that the source of intel that had tipped off the Ultraviolet Lodge to the Tradition's portal was someone they had pegged for a System operative. Which suggested that the Tradition were in sync with Counter... Except that more hidden thoughts revealed that the Tradition had been pointed to the Hyperplex by another operative who also seemed to be serving System. And that same operative appeared to be the one who leaked the Tradition's plan to LEGACY.

Was one of the leaks actually a Counter agent? Or had the System set all of this up as a trap for the Dragons? Or did they want the Dragons to reach the Hyperplex?

An Addenda

Sheet of paper found on the floor of an abandoned business:

                                               -5-
Addenda To Joint Report 

I met Max Cube, editor of Metaplex Magazine, in Copley.  He is a very knowledgeable fellow and has a huge reference of science fiction and fantasy novels.  I also believe, that he was the ghost writer of several episodes of  Morganfokker's Follies as well. Though, he would not admit to it and just alluded to the possibility.  Max mentioned to me that he was currently working on a science fantasy novel with an interesting concept and left it at that. 

Manaplex: Merlin

My teacher of Magic, the ancient multi-dimensional wizard from legend. An older man with brown hair and a beard, typically in robes, sometimes in a suit. Occasionally gruff and bossy and harsh and demanding. Wise and very smart. Knows much lore. Able to fashion magic objects. 

Lesson of the Key, Lesson of the Staff, Lesson of the Amulet, Lesson of the Scroll*

Role: guides during magical work for self and others. Provides knowledge and inspiration and technical expertise. Motivates and inspires and teaches.

Feelings: reasonable, urgency, frustration, authority, clarity

Conditions: working on design ideas, talking about magical work or therapeutic work

Symbols: staff

Signs: voice and language tone

Abilities: casting spells, designing rituals, analyzing patterns, teaching lessons and mysteries, teaching techniques, binding demons, naming spirits, recognizing omens and signs

Blessing: useful and creative and energizing

Curse: lack of compassion, overly technical

Tools: staff – will, secondary appraisal, detachment, direction