Happy Halloween 3

Previously on Halloween...

The Dragons' Costumes (version.Sense8)

(Max, Tatter, Suki, Goner, Frank, Angst, Marshal, Maggie)

The Professor and Morganfokker's Costumes (version.Sense8)

Morganfokker's Costume (vesrion.HalfLife)

Max's Costume (version.Multiversity)

Continuity

Control says, "Current analysis of the newest Iteration of the Metaplex suggests that there are increased levels of Continuity occurring between events... That there are higher amounts of cause and effect... That things are starting to connect, to make more sense... Whether this is helpful or harmful to Max remains to be seen." 

The Professor says, “Don't pretend that this isn't all part of your design. Whatever your intentions, I have to believe that by achieving Continuity Max will finally have some peace...” 

Morganfokker says, “Continuity is the greatest of all lies, and the greatest of all traps.” 

Maggie says, “Maybe it means something finally coming true, for better or worse.” 

Max says, “I barely remember it now, being in the mansion, fighting that monstrous cyborg, and hoping that maybe it would be the thing... I was hallucinating messages from a television producer, or maybe the cyborg was the hallucination... I believed that if things worked out we would get picked up, if we were a TV series, or get to stay together if we were a team of supernatural warriors... I kissed a girl – was it Maggie? I hoped that the romance would make it count more, mean more. I wanted it all to mean something. To matter. I wanted Continuity more than anything. Now, sometimes, it scares me... I can't make up my mind.”

Neo Static: The Permutation Particles Polka - End

Aqua was in the middle of the tunnels; she was cut up and badly bruised but she kept swinging. It wasn't long before Suki was with her and she let her know that the job was done.

Darius, Twofeathers and Suki ran through the complex as Ul'ran zombies clambered after them. Wanting them to join the party.

Frank looked at the countdown on his chronometer. Only 18 more seconds to go before they were all aligned.

Angst, Ruffo and Angelissa sat at a table sipping tea as others walked past.

Max hovered off the floor, his fingers moving about seeing the data-streams of timelines before him and shaking his head 'no', dropping a few strings and gathering more and shaking his head 'no'.

Dan picked up the dice once again as everyone around the table waited for what was going to happen. It all resulted in this dice roll. It was all or nothing on this one.

"It's about time you joined the fight," Aqua shot at Suki.

"Sure thing, girlfriend," Suki said. "You think what I was doing was a picnic?"

"Yeah," Aqua replied. She took out a huge beastie with a punch, sending it sprawling back into its buddies. "Now, let's see if we can hold them off!"

"Madness," Twofeathers replied. No matter what corner they turned or what room they entered it seemed that the Ul'ran were already there. "This is madness."

"You don't know the half of it, sister," Suki said. She was rubbing her elbow; her arm was sore after dispensing a lot of charges with the Godhammer. She hoped Max was correct with whatever he was doing since it seemed like it was going to be the end.

Darius took out his cross necklace and gave it a kiss for luck. Twofeathers did a double-take at him and then she let out a chuckle.

Frank checked the shotgun and was about to join Suki and Aqua in the tunnels.

"There's nothing you can do there," Max said to him.

"What?" Frank looked at him. "You're kidding right?"

"Frank, when have I ever misled you?" Max asked.

"The question is when haven't you misled me," Frank said. His impulse was to go and help the kids out in a overwhelming battle. But he trusted Max to the very end of his life.

"Can I get you ladies anything else?" the waiter asked.

Angst nodded and flashed him a smile and the waiter turned a little shade of red.

"Mom," Angelissa said.

"I'm not your mother," Angst said to her, "Well, I... I could be your mother... Wait... I am your mother?"

"What are we doing waiting here?" Ruffo asked. She had a sound of agitation in her voice. She didn't know where they were and what they were doing but it was nice just to sit and catch their breath for a little while. "What are we suppose to be waiting for?"

"You will know when you see it," Angst said. She leaned over and gave Angelissa a kiss on the cheek, letting her know full well that she would be the mother she would never know.

Max's fingers were moving across like he was playing a huge harp. That's when he noticed blood on the tips of his fingers.

"Now you know how Bryan Adams felt," Maggie whispered.

Max noticed that his fingertips had thin slices like papercuts but it wasn't stinging at all.

"... and that's when you notice the cuts on Max's fingertips, each finger that he's been weaving with has left tiny droplets of his blood in it..." Tim said.

Dan's mouth dropped and everyone around the table looked up and he added, "You mean?"

"Yep," Tim stated with a sly smile. "Exactly. Now make your roll and let's just see how well the code was written."

Dan shook the dice in his hands and let them drop onto the table. They did their dance: the negative dice landed on a 1 (which was good to see) and the positive dice landed on a 6 and this meant he rolled it again and added it to the total.

Dan picked up the die to roll, Tim turned his attention to Peyton.

Aqua had taken a critical wound to the neck. Blood was pumping out due to her adrenaline being pushed to the limits, but she cracked a smile since she was going out on her own terms. She grabbed the huge beast in front of her and with all her might snapped its neck like a twig, letting out a primeval scream of victory before she staggered back.

A wall of beasties swarmed toward her.

"Nooo!" Suki screamed and that's when her face changed from a tween to a woman of rage. Mustering every ounce of strength she had she took the Godhammer in her hands and snapped it in two. "She you losers in hell!"

The explosion ripped through the tunnel.

"What is it?" Darius asked of Suki. She stood still for a second and let out a gasp.

"I don't know," she replied honestly. "It just .... I don't want this to sound corny... but I felt like something bad happened."

There was the sound of an implosion echoing off in the distance. A ripple and a wave of energy began washing through the area.

"Sweet," Twofeathers said. "Now what!"

Frank let the shotgun drop to the floor and he hung his head in shame. "Was this all for naught?"

The waiter placed another round of ice tea in front of the ladies, and they all smiled and raised their glasses in a toast.

"Ha! I win," Morganfokker whispered. "You lose, like the failure that you are!"

"Would it kill you to know that this was the game plan all along?" Maggie said with a knowing smile. "A sleight of hand so simple that you'd not be paying attention to what the other hand was doing."

"What?" Morganfokker said. "No, it can't be."

Max let the strings go from his bloody fingertips and let out a sigh of relief.

"Game. Set. And Match, Morganfokker!"

It was a sound like someone receiving a call on their cellphone, a little ding that seem to echo about the realms. Max hovered off the ground, light shining around him like beams from multiple lighthouses as cracks began to appear across his body. The ultimate sacrifice, he turned to the apparition of Morganfokker and lifted up a hand and simply waved at him, like he was waving to a friend who was moving away... and that's when Max seemed to implode on himself... creating a black hole sucking in the streams, data, and other realities with him.

Before everything went dark...

Neo Static: Neo Static: The Permutation Particles Polka VI

No matter how much tried to manipulate the strings the outcome was virtually the same: very bad. There was a solution to the task at hand and he was simply winging it as he went along. It was all gut instinct.

"Just let it go, Max. You've done as much as you can do," Morganfokker whispered.

"Don't listen to him," Maggie said. "He's still holding a grudge after having his head blown off."

Max chuckled.

A bead of sweat streaked down his cheek as he was playing the strings and working a tangent. He now knew how DJs felt on the stage working their magic from other peoples' sounds to make music. It was skill, inspiration and all heart. Max could see himself floating in a tube; he could also see many versions of himself aware of what is happening around him.

That's why I stopped for a fraction of a second in Rio. He knew that pieces of the puzzle were still missing but a large chunk of the picture was there. That also explains the hiccup in ... Why didn't I see this before?

It's so simple that children see it and when they get older they are blinded by the cold world around them, Maggie said. Now, you are seeing it... you can see it... since this

This Transmission Is Coming To You.

Neo Static: What May Be, What Might Be, What It Is IV

Max could see it all and everything, his mind alert to all possible realities and situations that unfolded in the now. Even though it seemed like eternity it was only mere seconds in his mind. Relaying images from various possibilities and situations that were related to what was happening in this particular thread he was in.

He took in a deep breath and let it out as gently as a summer breeze; he could hear the klaxon going off and he could sense the imminent threat that was going on around him in this tiny fabric.

"Just let it go," a voice told him. "This teeny tiny micro-thin slice of a world is of no significance what so ever upon the billions and billions of others that are going on."

That voice, Max thought. I've heard it before.

"Max, my old friend," the voice continued. "Just let this one fade with the other lines, it will make no difference if this is lost amongst the timelines."

Oh fuck no, Max thought.

Morganfokker!

Happy Halloween 2

 Previously on Halloween...

Morganfokker and Max's Costumes (version.Hannibal)

Maggie's Costume (version.Vikings)

The Dragons' Costumes (version.Vesperia)

[Trump, Goner, Suki, Max, Maggie, Simon, Angst, Frank]

The Children of the Revolution (You Won't Fool)

Max lay back on the couch, feeling like a cliché. It reminded him of the Lab for a moment, a shiver, tried to steady his breathing.

"I guess it's always been a question of trying to figure out who is sending the transmissions," he said. "If it's Control or the Professor, or if it's Morganfokker. If it's an order, or an insight, or a delusion. Their voices often sound alike and the frequencies are always changing. So I try to listen and hope the only people that get hurt are people who need to get hurt.

"But lately I got one message, from one of them, The Professor I think: It's a question of trying to synchronize the inside of you with the outside of you with what's outside of you.

"I thought that if those were even each only a variable between say 1 and 10, the chances of having them all land on the same number at any given moment... I guess that's life as slot machine. But I figure it's closer to say a game of chess where only one combination of the 32 pieces is an accurate representation of how things are - the relationships between royalty and clergy and soldiers and such, be they desires and fears and drives, or whatever (Professor, Morganfokker, Control?) - and there's actually 3 boards you're playing on, against 3 different players. And you're supposed to get each board in sync, all 32 pieces in the same position, in the same move.

"And that's when it happens I guess. Has it happened to you?"

Origin Stories

Sometimes The Professor finds you first. Cryptic signs and mysterious messages. Clues and riddles. Tuning you into the different frequencies that reveal secret worlds hidden in plain sight. The Professor gives you guidance.


Sometimes Morganfokker finds you first. Painful surgeries and terrible sacrifices. Injections and dissections. Implanting you with the knowledge that everything you know is a lie. Morganfokker tests you and experiments on you.


Sometimes Maggie finds you first. Her hand on your shoulder, gentle and strong. Standing watch over you while you stare in shock as the world turns to ruins around you and demons charge forth from your darkest places. Maggie protects you.


Sometimes Max finds you first. He makes a joke, tells you a story. He probably has some crazy theory about what's happening. One minute he's ranting, the next he's tearing up when you play him your favourite song. Max makes things stranger or more normal or both.


No matter who finds you first, or who comes next, to clean up the mess or bind the wounds or offer explanations, to make you feel better or worse about it all, once you are in it you are in it for good. The only way out is to get dead, and even that might not last – just ask Suki or Goner.


And, of course, because that's the way of things here, you could be found first a few times, by a few different people, different combinations, different versions, some you remember and some you can't but they're all still somehow yours. They're all still somehow you.


I was abducted from the Eighth Tribe on a planet far away from Earth by an army of Fokkerbots; Max rescued me. I also went to college and met a girl named Maggie who got me into role-playing games and introduced me to the Professor. I might have been part of a girl named Kitty. Sometimes I've been here since the beginning, and other times I'm the newest recruit.


My name is Tatterdemalion and one day I will tell you the story of how I destroyed the Metaplex.

Fallen Six

Previously in the Metaplex... 

“Things had gotten strange. Even stranger, I guess. And they had gotten desperate. More fragmented than ever. Things were happening out of order. Max was experiencing different versions with a different team. One of them had died but they got her back. Then another was killed. The man they called The Professor was experimenting with something they called Plexotron technology, remixing events like they were music. And another man was hunting Max, a man called Morganfokker. 

“It seemed like everywhere we went Morganfokker was waiting, and people started to get hurt. Memphis, Precious, Summer, Amber... He got to all of them. As a way to get to us. And Max thought he had figured it out. Morganfokker was able to track us through plureality because we were a convergence. Our signals were amplified because we were all in sync. So the answer was to separate.

“We needed to hide, to go our own ways. Go to dark places, dangerous places. So that Morganfokker couldn't find us. It was the only way we could keep each other safe, keep other people from being used as pawns against us. That's why we broke into the Temple, fought our way to the final chamber. The Seven Lotus Portals were our way out. It was an escape plan. 

“We would keep seeking, keep trying to find a way to fight back, and hopefully reunite someday. In the meantime, no one else would get hurt. 

“Except that when we went through the portals we all ended up here, together. Trapped. And the Demon invasion had already started. So we did what we were used to doing, teamed up and fought back. And the invasion became a war."

Darius didn't have any answers about the Eyes, the Grids, the Gutters, what the world had been like before the Demons came. The Dragons learned what they could about the rules of this reality and helped build Frontline. They helped create Haven ("How old are all of you?" "Don't get me started about time and plureality.") They helped keep the Demons back long enough for the Arcana to start forging a new world amidst the ruins of the old.

He told Marshal about Aqua's Sacrifice, about Callan's Transformation, about Wraith's Curse, and about Dexter's Sickness. He told him about Maggie's Fall ("Dark Maggie, like Dark Willow, or Dark Phoenix I guess, if you want to go that far back - it must be a Magical Redhead trope." "I don't understand what any of that means..."). There were wins and a lot of losses. There were different theories about why they were here. Had something gone wrong with the Portals? Had Max made a mistake? Had Control tricked them? Was this what the world looked like without Morganfokker?

And then Darius told Marshal about the Disappearance of Max Cube.

Queen Takes Bishop

"You can stay here then," Maggie said as she pulled the trigger.

Half of Morganfokker's skull disappeared in a spray of red, grey and goo.

"I've had enough of your shit to last me a lifetime, jerk."

Bishop Takes Knight

Before Max had a chance to bring up the weapons he realized that he had fallen right into Morganfokker's plan, once again, all along. He was being played like a piece on a chess board, which made him even more angry.

Morganfokker brought up his hands; both were cupped like a grail, and unleashed a blast so powerful it was blinding - in a brief instant of memory it reminded Max of that old Japanese animation show where they channelled power. And that's what Morganfokker was doing the whole time, channelling power.

The blast caught Max in the upper torso and blew him back through his apartment window, across the 50 feet chasm of the street into another building, through that building as Max crashed through living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, knocking people about, destroying things in the process until finally coming to rest on the ground floor of the complex.

Morganfokker walked to the edge of the open window and peered at the feat he had just accomplished.

"I'm going to love it here," he muttered....

Knight Takes Pawns

The dam had finally busted and a flood of memories - old, new and some not even born yet - flashed through his head. Like a slide projector malfunction at an event, images appeared and disappeared and seemed to merge together.

"I'm Max," he said. "Though which version am I?"

His arms snapped out and took the two paramedics down, hitting them in their pressure points and they dropped to the floor like sacks of flour.

"Ah, Max," Morganfokker said. "Good, good. It's nice to see that you haven't lost your touch... Maybe your mind... but not your touch."

"You," Max said; his voice couldn't mask the rage and the hostility in it. "You did this to me!"

Morganfokker just smiled and nodded. As Max glanced around his surroundings it began to dawn on him what was going on.

"But this isn't about me, is it," he said matter of factly, clasping his hands behind his back. And as he did Pain and Joy were in the process of digitizing in. They were his signature weapons of choice and they felt good in his hands, the sensation was almost orgasmic in nature.

Purgatory had a way of amplifying senses.

"You, my dear old friend, were just the bait to get her here," Morganfokker said. "And it worked like a charm. I'm sad to say that we should have thought of this earlier."

Max brought the weapons up and around...

Code Red

The paramedic ripped open Max's shirt and started feeling the chest; he had the needle in his hand like a stabbing instrument.

"He's going," said the other paramedic. "Time to hit him!"

The paramedic with the syringe was about to bring down the needle, but his hands were stopped in the air.

"Let him be," the fellow told them.

"But, but he's going to know!" one of the paramedics said.

"Yes," the fellow said. "That's been the plan all along."

"What do you mean?" the paramedic asked.

"We had to bring her here somehow," Morganfokker said.

Operation: Glass Vial

Morganfokker got up from the table and looked into the eyes of those he had summoned. The looks that they returned told him all he needed to know. He gathered up the folders and slid them into his briefcase before Ms. Morningstar stood up and walked toward him.

"Am I to believe that what transpired a few months ago has rippled outward?" she inquired. "That the very fabric of all existence is unwinding faster than a spool of yarn? That all of this right now will cease to be in a few years?"

"I told you that we were opening up a can of worms on this one. Yet you ignored the data in my initial report," he stated. "Things like this cannot be controlled. You of ALL people should know that." Morganfokker kept his cool.

Ms. Morningstar smiled. A bittersweet one at that made Morganfokker cringe inside. That smile was a smile that ate worlds for breakfast and spat them out.

Ms. Morningstar sat at the edge of the table; she looked straight into Morganfokker's eyes, leaned forward towards his ear and said in a sexy voice, "You know what you must do now..."

He damn well knew what needed to be done. Hopefully it isn't too late, he thought as he snapped the lid shut on the briefcase.

OMEGA STATION TWELVE

55-B-2457
ee.dh.99

"Sir, I think you should come see this," an aide said with a hint of urgency. 

Morganfokker looked up from his desk; he was in the final stages of preparing his report. "Yes?"

"You're not going to like what's going on, sir," the aide nervously said. 

Morganfokker stood up, his hand swinging and knocking a snowglobe off the edge of his desk.

Before he could react, the globe hit the floor and shattered into several pieces, water spilling about the floor as well as thousands of tiny specks.

OMEGA STATION TWELVE

54.A-2457
ee.dx.98 

“At this point the Cube’s implants will have become active. They will have been triggered by his use of tactical engagement against LEGACY. He will be doubting his course of action, feeling responsible for bringing conflict to the Aggregation of Variables. He will feel remorse at having to resort to violence. He will start to feel lost and alone. 

“The Cube will employ his standard array of Trances: Hunter to seek out LEGACY, Sage to analyze their agenda, Shadow to evade capture. The implants will continue to emit disruption frequencies targeting each Trance. He will wonder why he must always end up fighting, what choices he has made that always lead him back to the war. He will suspect that his belief in a LEGACY agenda for the church is a lie to mask his guilt over disrupting their sanctuary; that he secretly resents them for having something he never did. That he tricked them into running because he couldn’t bear to be with them. 

“The implants will begin tagging and enhancing any neuroforms that ascribe Causality to the Cube. That make him the source of what went wrong. He will begin to doubt the ontological status of any memories he has that provide Continuity, including the Dragons, the Metaplex, even Plureality. If he remains isolated enough for long enough, Version Null will begin to generate. 

“The threat of LEGACY will become the only Certainty, the only ground to the figure of his thoughts and actions. He will need them, like an addict. This is the standard equation. This is how it always happens. The trajectories launched by this iteration of the Cube will with 100 percent probability intersect with the vectors of Simon Light.”

Morganfokker pauses from dictating his report. His eyes look briefly haunted. 

“And that will be the end of Max.”

Wink

Morganfokker slid the open folder towards Adella Cube. Adella looked at it and her eyes widened in mock surprise with a hint of knowledge.

"When Mrs. Henricks asked Max to draw a picture of his home, this is what your son came up with."

She glanced at the picture that Max drew: it depicted a multi-coloured gateway shimmering in the mirror and Max had drawn himself looking in and what looked like to be millions of images of himself looking in other directions.

"Mrs. Cube..." Morganfokker began. 

"That's Ms.," she corrected. She glanced over at Max who was sitting there looking at his sneakers. She could see that he was ashamed, as if he was caught with his hands in the cookie jar. "Max's father disappeared a while back.

"Well, now I am beginning to understand why he is borderline EI," Morganfokker said. "I would like to see your son for more testing. Not that it's mandatory, strictly volunteer. I want to get deeper into his pysche."

+ PLEX TOURS .1 The Lab

• The Bunker
• The Lab Level Two
• The Cast
• The Bookstore
• The Brownstone
• The Subway
• Metafesto
• The Diner
• Chronoplex

Suki lowered her voice as they stepped from the hallway into the room. “This is the Lab.” 

Tatterdemalion shivered; it was cold in the room, or creepy, or both. The banks of machines, tubes arcing and twisting in the corners, the sounds of chemicals and calculations. Sterile smells. Her brow furrowed.

Suki noticed. “It’s familiar to you because this is where your Plex-unit was implanted. The memory won’t be conscious, of course.” 

Tatter suddenly felt ridiculous. Standing in this super-sci-fi hi-tech room in her baggy sweater, listening to a uniformed schoolgirl with a massive handgun perched on her hip tell her about brainwashing and psychological modifications.

Angst put her hand on Tatter’s shoulder. “Breathe. Do your visualizations.” 

Tatter jumped a bit at the touch of the cheerleader, but did as she said, and felt a little calmer.

Angst slipped her arm through Tatter’s, gave a comforting squeeze. “That feeling of absurdity, the doubt about the reality of what’s happening to you… That’s residue from the equipment.” 

Suki was watching some of the screens flash arcane equations. “Morganfokker’s tech emits fields that destabilize the mind’s sense of ontological certainty.” She smirked. “That’s how the Professor describes it anyway.”

Tatter shivered again. “So who’s this Morganfokker?” 

Angst led her over to one of the machines. A steel frame housing hundreds of slender glass vials, threads of light weaving across their surfaces. “We’re not exactly sure. He’s like Max and Maggie.” 

“In what way?” Tatter asked. 

Suki answered. “Well, you know how the Dragons have what the Prof calls 'Continuity'? I’m me, Frank’s Frank, Goner’s-“ 

“-a spaz,” Angst interjected, and the three girls shared a giggle. 

“But Maggie and most of all Max can be, like, all sorts of people? How they change during shifts, not just the place?”

Tatter sighed. “I’m not sure I follow…” She was remembering the day that she was abducted from her homeworld… but staticky flashes of another scene kept interrupting. Her parents dropping her off at University… Meeting her dorm-mate Maggie, talking about role-playing games… 

Angst scanned the vials. Her eyes looked sad. “In one of these I had a baby….”

Suki looked at Tatter with a serious expression. “He can give you things, and he can take them away. He can make you dream, and he can wake you up.” 

Suddenly all the screens in the Lab flickered. Flashed. The machines started to hum and thrum and whine. 

“What’s happening?” Tatter shouted. 

“We shouldn’t have come here,” Angst said, echoes of tears in her eyes.

Suki was staring at the strange, swirling patterns that were storming across the monitors. “I see… It’s Max… He needs our help.”

Brainwash Interruptus

"Not all of consciousness is this strange," the Fokkerbot assured the young woman, its synthetic voice approximating a soothing tone. "Of course parts are stranger." 

"This... It's like one of the stories the Eighth Tribe used to tell," Tatterdemalion said, her eyes roving about the polished-steel surfaces of the Lab. Her eyes were lined with tattooed lace-work, thick like goth eyeliner. Her black hair was still damp with goo from the bizarre extraction pod that had swallowed her off the planet.

The Fokkerbot angled its polished-steel head. "The abduction legends of the Eighth Tribe are actually based in fact. Although they themselves do not realize it." Tatter rolled dreamily onto her side. The long polished-steel table felt oddly comfortable. Clean. 

"Can you make... Can you make me like this place?" she asked. "I want to..."

"You're tired of feeling soft and dirty. I can make you like polished steel." 

Tatter tried to focus her gaze on the other person who had just quietly entered the room. The Fokkerbot continued. "I will forge you into a weapon. And you will hunt my prey." The lights on the robot's face blinked some more as it called up an image of a man, stubbly and tired looking, on a screen. The pic was labelled 'Cube'. 

"Oh," Tatter said. "You mean the guy right behind you?"

The Nowheresville Garage Depot Blues

"Looks like your rad's shot, ma'am," the mechanic said as he was leaning over the engine block and also peering down into the motor as well. "And it seems like you got no oil in your pan as well." 

"Oh poo," Maggie said as she leaned her head on the steering wheel.

"I told you we should have did that overhaul thing-a-jiggy," Angst told her. Angst was sitting in the passenger seat of the car, looking at the visor mirror while applying ruby red lipstick. "Now we are stuck in the middle of nowheresville." 

The hood of the car slammed down into its place and the mechanic walked around to the driver side door, wiping his hands on a dirty cloth. "Looks like you're not going anywhere for a bit at least."

"Well, thanks for that update..." Maggie said as she looked at the mechanic's name badge, "Max." 

"So you ladies heading somewhere in a hurry?" Max questioned them.

"Yo, Max!" Morganfokker shouted as he stepped from the shadows of the garage. "I got the Legacy's on the blower. They want to know if you have their car ready." 

"It's sitting in the shade now," Max replied. He shot Maggie a wink and then he turned to face Morganfokker. "They can come by anytime and pick it up."