Maggie
fired several shots into the darkness. Spent shells ejected from the
gun and danced on the floor around her.
Angst
was still reloading another clip into the uzi. Her cheerleader outfit
ripped and torn and splattered with dried blood and what looked to be
brain matter as well.
"So
you think you got the hang of it?" Maggie asked her. "Because
if you're looking for more pointers, it will have to wait."
Angst
looked at Maggie, with a look of bewilderment in her eyes. She
couldn't believe that she had stepped into a chapter of the twilight
zone.
Izzard
smiled. He always smiled when he knew something the others didn't. It
made him cocky that way.
"What
is it?" Aqua questioned. She leaned forward on the table to eye
the device more clearly. "Is it a clock of some sort?"
The
device was in the shape of an alarm clock, with gears on the outside
rotating round and round. It looked like some high school kid's
perpetual motion machine project.
Dexter
eyed Izzard carefully, reading his body movements. Gestures and
facial expressions. They were entrenched skills he had developed over
the years he had served on the NYPD. He wasn't sure that he really trusted
that bum in the first place.
"Be
careful," Dexter warned. "For all we know it could be an
explosive of some kind."
That
made Izzard's smile grow more. Dexter hefted his bat up to have it
ready to send that mechanical device flying.
Aqua
touched the object and it seemed to shiver. Her eyes opened up in
surprise. "It's alive."
"You
okay, Max?" the fellow asked him. Max's head was still swimming,
lost in a fog of thoughts and memories which seemed to be in a swirl
of dreamlike spools.
"I
think so," he asked, his voice husky as if coming from an
antiquated stereo system. "What happened?"
The
fellow looked over at Max and a smile spread across his lips. Max
couldn't place where he had met this man before, though the eyes had
that haunting familiarity about them; but in the Metaplex anything
was possible.
"Don't
you remember anything?" the man asked. "The snake men? The
giant robot? The enchantress?"
Max shook his head no to each question; his brain seemed to be blank much
like a switchboard after the operator had gone for a coffee break.
"Not really. Though I do have a vague dream-like deja vu about
it."
Max's
eyes were adjusting to the dim light around him. He could tell they
were inside someplace vast and dark, and that he was lying on a hard
cold stone floor.
He
brought up his hand to rub his eyes and that's when he noticed his
fingernails, and that's when he realized he had breasts.
"Surprise," the man said and Max could tell with the hint in the
voice that it was Maggie.
Max
just wanted to have a cup of coffee and a smoke; he didn't want to
get into fight, but damned if he was just going to sit and let
something like this go unchecked.
"Oh
look the old timer is getting upset," Hood said mockingly.
"What's the matter old man? You want me to get off your lawn?"
Hood
had turned back to give a wink back at his other two buddies, which
gave Max the second he needed. His hand reached up and grabbed
Hood's earring and tore it from its once secured place.
Hood
screamed out in pain. Max stepped forward and brought up his right
hand and connected with Hood's jaw, sending him spinning around like
a lopsided top.
Hood's
two young friends started to come forward but stopped dead in their
tracks.
Kelly,
the waitress, had appeared over the counter holding onto an axe
handle and told them point blankly, "I would turn around and
walk out that door now."
Hood
staggered away from Max, giving Kelly the evil eye as he passed her.
He made a detour around her as he did so.
"You
want another mug, Max?" Kelly asked of Max as the door closed
and the thugs ran off.
"I
would like another cup if you don't mind," Max said as he took
out his cellphone and hit a speed dial number; he knew well enough by
now that those bangers would be back in full force. It was time to
fight fire with fire.
President
Mallory Morphus smiled as she stood up from behind her desk and
walked over to sit on the chair beside him. It was a move
designed to impose. "I guess you are wondering why I summoned
you here."
"I
was beginning to wonder, Madam President," Max replied. He
showed his cool, calm ease. Much akin to a superspy facing a
superior. He had faced many dangers on many worlds, and he was
hardened from it.
The
President had seen fit to call Max from one of his many tasks of
trying to correct some of the rippling mistakes that have occurred.
But, Max knew this was going to be a first contact meeting, for
all she knew was that Max was sort of a "dirty tricks" man.
President
Morphus was impressed that this fellow didn't flinch or seem to be
bothered by her presence at all. She leaned forward, violating his
airspace but he didn't seem to budge.
"Mr.
Cube, I summoned you here for a reason," she said with an air of
command and confidence.
"And
that reason is?" Max asked with a pique of interest.
"After
reading through your file I've decided that I'm invoking Section 13,
Paragraph 11A, Line 14 of the Patriotic Contract that you signed,"
she told him.
Max's
jaw dropped; here he was a hero of the nation who fought off several
alien hordes of the invading Taglidites at Bunker Square, he thought
nothing could faze him at this point of time... "I'm being
Traded?"
I,
Mar Hallow, Librarian of Past Futures Division do hereby acknowledge
this entry to be significant data. It is at the request of the
council that I dictate this;
Scanning
through the past, I have noticed seismic ripples which have occurred in
the latter part of the 20th Century, notable from Tangent Vector
Region and washing out to many other lines. Not just contaminating one
or two other lines, but by my calculations if they are correct, about a
million. And it's infectious as well, spreading like a viral
intruder.
It's
my civic duty to chronicle these ripples in the water of time and to
see what is causing these disturbances. Since the human civilization
at that time didn't have the means to slip in and out of other linear
tracks, it has been a great concern of the council to understand what
the cause was of these effects.
I
am sending a research team into the prime infectious regions to
collect data and transmission, trying to locate the true source.
Max lay across a row of chairs; he couldn't
sleep and hadn't been sleeping properly for the past few nights.
Though he didn't feel tired at all; he hadn't been since the events
that had transpired a few weeks ago.
If I truly fall asleep
I will slip away from here.
He didn't want that. He was
growing into this comfort zone, he was liking the company, the
adventure he was having, and he would die if this reality faded away
into the nothingness, like a dream after waking.
He'd grown
accustomed to the shunting of the train, and the companions he had
met along the way. For the first time in what seemed liked an
eternity he felt the feelings of bondship.
It would be
shame if I were to disappear.
And
then one of the voices – he could never be sure which was which,
and they were more of a feeling than an actual voice – said: You
know it will end some time.
clickety-clack
A
few seats away, Goner plopped down beside Suki. "What's going on
at the moment?" he asked.
"A
whole lotta nothin'," Suki replied with a smile. She was sipping
on a soda and watching the platforms passing by, merging realities
into one plureality. "Just watching the worlds meld before me.
It's better than television!"
Goner
chuckled. He had begun to miss some of the shows he had grown
accustomed to.
"We've
been traveling for a long while without any stops," Goner noted.
"I
know," Suki said. "And I have to go to the bathroom!"
clickety-clack
On
a subway platform several men in dark suits took position. They began
ushering out people waiting for a train; flashing ID's and assuring
them that all was going to be okay. Andy and Jeremiah kept strumming
their guitars, cases open before them with a scattering of coins
inside, each wearing their busker permit around their neck. They
exchanged a wary glance when they saw the swarm of suited men.
clickety-clack
Suki
fished a comic book out of her school-bag, the latest adventure of a
group of mutants who were at a special school due to their gifts. She
enjoyed reading since it helped pass the time between here and there.
Depending on where there was and how long it took to get there, she
would indulge in a trivial form of reading.
Her
attention was focused on the sound bubble of each page, reading the
story that unfolded. Drawing her in deeper and deeper into the
continued story arc.
She was just
getting to a good part when she flipped the page and the story arc
was To be continued...
and that irked her to no end.
“What's
the matter?” Goner asked.
“They
just met this cool new hero named Raven – she's got this awesome
sortof telepathic reality-warping power – and now I'll never get to
find out what happens next! The chances of finding the next issue in
the next version are pretty slim...”
Goner
nodded. Living a life broken up into strange fragments and shifting
moments, it always felt like things were 'to be continued'. You
always knew that eventually things would get weird, or dangerous, or
both.
clickety-clack
The
suits continued their sweep of the platform; Lee wasn't buying it. He
knew the type, knew that their motives were usually suspect, and he
was pretty sure that the ID's they were flashing were fake. He looked
around, trying to see if there was anyone nearby who wouldn't think
he was just being paranoid...
Adam
watched the suits on the march, then noticed Lee, the suspicious look
on his face, that rare moment when you know for certain that someone
else is thinking the exact same thing as you...
clickety-clack
Angst
sat looking out the window, watching the blur and listening to her
mp3 player. She was listening to a classic song and moved her head to
the rhythmic beat.
Suki
sat behind her re-reading the comic book and sipping on a soda...
clickety-clack
Kelly
gently nudged the group of children along the platform. The teacher
had gone to the washroom, which left her and the other volunteer in
charge of the field trip, and now these strange men in suits were
herding everyone.
"What's
going on?" the other volunteer asked. "Terrorists?"
Kelly frowned; some people were so eager to believe some lies and so
reluctant to believe some truths.
One
of the suits barked at one of the kids to move along and Mark stepped
in, back from the washroom, eyes locking on the man's sunglasses.
“There's no need for that,” Mark said.
clickety-clack
"No
way," Goner said. He had moved on down the subway car to where
Frank was sitting. "Did you even watch the same game as I did?"
"Yeah,
I did," Frank said. "You must be watching some fantasy
version in your head."
"Clearly
Redgrin had the ball in his possession before the whistle blew,"
Goner stated.
"The
whistle blew before Redgrin could do the recovery," Frank
grinned. "You are just a sore loser. You still owe me."
"Well,
I don't have the cash on me," Goner said. "Wait to see if
there's an ATM at the next stop and I will get it to you."
Frank
rolled his eyes back and said, "That's if you do have an account
in this version."
clickety-clack
Debashis
and Joy stepped off the escalator onto the platform. “Consequences
aren't merely arbitrary effects designated by the person with the
power, they become the way that the person being helped understands
that their actions are significant and important, as long as the
person with the power is exercising it with self-awareness...”
Debashis was saying.
“Or
as we say on the frontline, 'shit's gotta mean shit',” Joy replied.
Debashis laughed, until he saw the scene playing out before them and
a suit started walking menacingly towards them.
Joy's
cell made a strange beeping noise...
clickety-clack
Mags
was sitting beside Bishop's booth, keeping the conductor company. She
knew better than to ask him when their next stop was going to be. She
hummed a tune as she dragged the whetstone along the blade of her
katana. And then a strange feeling came over her...
She
stared down the length of car, Max dozing, Suki reading, Angst
listening to music, Frank and Goner chatting, the new girl Summer
knitting. And someone else, a man sitting at the far end of the car;
he was writing in a notebook and paused to roll some oddly-shaped
dice. When he did, Maggie suddenly noticed a soft grey glow around
Summer, then Frank, then a darker one around Suki...
clickety-clack
Chance
and Peyton were listening to the buskers and talking about anime when
the suits began their push. They watched for a moment then looked to
each other. “Do they look familiar to you?” Peyton asked.
Chance
nodded. “Do you feel that? It's the same feeling... from years
ago...”
Peyton's
eyes widened. “I remember,” she said. Then looked down at her
hands, where two massive battle-gauntlets had appeared. Then at
Chance's chest, where a gold cross suddenly materialized.
clickety-clack
Tim
rolled the dice again.
clickety-clack
Most
of the crowd had been chased off. Another LEGACY cell moved onto the
platform, carrying some cases and setting them down. They moved with
the purpose of a strike team. Opening up the cases revealing heavy
weapons. They began to mount them on the platform, quick and
efficient; with pressurized drills they were putting the mounts into
the floor.
Anthony
had been waiting on a bench, reading Nagel's 'What is it Like to be a
Bat?'. He had watched the first LEGACY cell move in and begin
clearing the platform. It was as if he could see it from different
angles. He had noticed the way that the buskers' playing provided a
soundtrack for the scene. And he had started having these brief
flashes, like jump-cuts, to the interior of an approaching subway
car, a strange group on board. A sense of tension rising.
And
when the second team appeared and began setting the weapons, that's
when the music stopped. And the silence was as loud and as profound
as the noise had been. And that's when the shouting started and
Anthony knew something very bad was about to happen.
clickety-clack
There
were three dozen LEGACY members waiting. Three mounted cannons and
each soldier armed to the hilt with weapons.
Jeremiah
and Andy were standing now, clutching their guitars. The appearance
of the weapons had surprised them, but not as much as seeing the
cross materialize around Chance's neck and the gauntlets on Peyton's
hands.
“That's
very cool,” Jeremiah said.
Andy
looked to the LEGACY team, then back to Chance and Peyton. “I think
we're with you guys on this.”
Lee
and Adam had instinctively moved towards each other. They were
staring down a handful of the suits, who seemed surprised that the
two men hadn't followed the order to leave. Close enough now that Lee
could see some of the devices that they were carrying. “Dark Tek,”
he whispered.
Adam
held up a pack of handmade Tarot cards, cutting the deck and handing
half to Lee. “Light tech.”
When
the LEGACY suit tried to shove Mark backwards he got himself
rugby-tackled. The kids behind Kelly cheered, “Yay Mr. Haskins!”
The other volunteer started to run. Kelly sighed. “Alright kids,
stay behind me!” And she faced the oncoming soldiers, and noticed
that the suit Mark had tackled had dropped a device...
Joy
was trying to understand how an app that she had dreamed about –
there had been a spooky well, and this weird guy, who she somehow
knew – was now actually installed on her phone and warning her that
an 'OMEGA CLASS ANOMALY' was being detected. Debashis had advanced and
was trying to negotiate with an approaching suit, with little effect.
Joy was tapping the screen, trying to understand the strange
software, trying to remember the dream, the odd conversations she had
had with the weird guy...
Debashis, using every counseling trick he
had to try and connect with the expressionless agent before him, had
his own dreamy memory – a pathworking ritual, years ago, a vision
of some trolls attacking a defenseless deer, and the knowledge that
sometimes you had to stand up to the bullies...
Anthony
stood up. And there was a woman beside him. She was looking at the
chaos erupting before them on the platform. Anthony asked, “Aren't
you a character from a comic book? A friend of mine reads a lot of
them...”
Raven
looked thoughtful. “I might be, in this version. What do you say?
Shall we watch or shall we join in?”
Anthony
smiled back. “Fight scene?”
Raven
smiled. “After you, Butch.”
Anthony
nodded. “My pleasure, Sundance.”
Kelly
grabbed the device, thin like a pen but with a glowing light on the
end. Mark was on his feet again, throwing a block at another agent.
“You know how to use that thing?” he asked.
Kelly
smiled. “I watch a lot of sci-fi.”
Adam
smiled as he drew the first card from his deck and began accessing
the necessary trance-state to engage the symbolic interface for tulpa
summoning. “Do you know how to use those?” he asked Lee.
“I'll
figure it out,” Lee said. “I play a lot of role-playing games.”
He smiled.
Debashis
turned back to Joy. “I'm gonna punch this guy out, if you're okay
with that?”
Joy
smiled as she finally figured out how to use the app to send a signal
over-ride to the LEGACY heavy weapons systems, effectively shutting
them down. “I accept that,” she answered.
Chance
smiled at Peyton. “Alright, just like the old days!” And he
charged the agents.
“Follow
us!” Peyton shouted at Jeremiah and Andy, and she followed Chance
into the fray, gauntlets swinging wildly.
“This
is some pretty weird shit,” Jeremiah said, smiling. “I'm kinda
freaked out but kinda excited.”
Andy
nodded. “'It's the duplicitous edge which we all walk upon'.”
They
raised their guitars and charged.
clickety-clack
clickety-clack
clickety clack
“Hey,”
Suki said, tapping Angst on the shoulder. “Did you see that?"
Angst
popped out her earphones. “Yeah... The last station we passed
through, some kind of crazy battle going on... Did you guys see
that?”
Frank
and Goner were playing cards. They shook their heads in sync. Summer
was still knitting; it was the first time that she looked even a
little bit relaxed since they had brought her aboard the subway car.
“How
about you, Maggie?” Suki asked. “Should we wake up Max?”
Mags
watched as the strange glows surrounding Summer, Frank and Suki faded
away. She looked to the end of the car where Tim was packing up his
dice and notes.
Maggie
smiled. “Let him sleep for a while longer.”
Epilogue:
Bailey skipped down the escalator. She was worried that she was going to get in trouble for getting separated from the rest of the kids on the field trip but she had been sure that woman had been the actress who played Katniss and she wasn't going to miss the chance for an autograph. Not her though, so now she was late with nothing to show for it. Mr. Haskins was a cool teacher but he would probably still be upset.
When she arrived on the platform she was amazed at what she found. Dozens of unconscious men in suits scattered about. Some bullet-holes and scorch-marks on the walls. A group of people were gathered at the far end of the platform, shaking hands and laughing. Mr. Haskins was there, and Kelly the volunteer. And was that her sister, Peyton?
Bailey wondered what had happened. Then she noticed that one of the men in a suit was still moving... His hand was reaching slowly towards a weird device that looked like some kind of futuristic bomb. No one in the group noticed...
His hand was almost on the button when Bailey stepped over him and punched him squarely in the face. Knocked him out cold. She pulled a bunch of wires out of the device so that it wasn't a threat anymore and headed towards the group. It had been quite a field trip.
Pretty
George stood there biting his thumbnail. He really had no idea what
the heck he was supposed to do next or where to go.
He
leaned up in the bus shelter, his duffel bag by his side. He was on
sentinel duty for a bus that wouldn't come until morning.
He
had finished his tour and was home, but home wasn't there no more.
While he was away his grandmother passed on and the house where he was
raised was razed and turned into a mini-mart.
He
spat out a little chunk of nail, and then he fished through his
pockets looking for a sheet of paper.
The
problem was that he had tons of pieces of torn paper in various
locations about his body. The trick was finding the right one.
He
found the piece of paper he was looking for: Max 555-555-5555 right
straight across the board. He reached inside his pocket to get a coin
and headed towards the phone.
Suki
sat on the seat reading the latest adventures of a group of mutants
who were at a special school due to their gifts. She enjoyed reading
since it helped pass the time between here and there. Depending on
where there was and how long it took to get there, she would
indulge in a trivial form of reading.
Her
attention was focused on the sound bubble of each page, reading the
story that unfolded. Drawing her in deeper and deeper into the
continued story arc.
She
was just getting to a good part when she flipped the page and the
story arc was To be continued... and that irked her to
no end. She picked up a sharpie and turned to the front cover
and wrote down the date and a few numbers on the upper left corner.
"You
know that devalues the price," Goner commented.
"Well
duh," she shot back.
"Then
why are you doing it?" he inquired.
"Just
in case the next shift doesn't carry over this copy," she
replied matter-of-factly. "I know that if ever I get back to
this shift or a version similar to it that has this line of
comic I can pick up where I left off."
Max
gripped the rifle, his eyes looking around at the others, looking
through their eyes and reading their souls.
He
glanced down at the valley below where hordes of cyborgnetic
humanoids were congealing below. He didn't like the odds one bit.
Frank
rested a hand on his good friend's shoulder. "You thinking about
going Butch and Sundance, are you?"
Max
let slip a laugh. It was the first time in a while that he had a good
little chuckle. Somehow, it relieved the gravity of their situation a
little.
"Well
Butch," Frank said as he checked the rounds that he had left in his guns. "You take the horde to the right, and I'll take the horde
on the left."
Before
he even reacted the creature clamped its teeth around Max's leg and
jerked him into the water. He didn't even get a chance to shout out
before the water was over him like a blanket on a very cold day.
Max
could feel the creature's incredible power, flailing him around like
a kite in a strong wind, dragging him away from the shore and into
the heart of the river. He struggled to hold his breath, but he knew
that was next to impossible.
He
managed to get his fingers onto a butt of one of his guns, but the
creature twisted him around, making him lose his grip. The .45 slipped
from his fingers and into the murky water.
Max
knew that he had precious moments to spare and that his time would come to
an end if he couldn't get from of the creature's power grip. He could
feel the teeth serrate his leg.
This
is so stupid, he thought. He banked on the hope that someone at
camp heard and saw what happened.
Simon
Light turned in the swivel chair to look at his superior. Simon was
an Arcana 16 Rank Psychic. He had recently undergone his Tower Ordeal
and was being briefed on the mission that would earn him his Star, a
prestigious feat for a LEGACY Agent.
“There’s
something I’m not sure about…”
“Yes
Simon?”
“I’ve
been studying the files we have on the target’s recent activities
in the Plex… Theory Division is speculating that there’s been an
overall increase in Continuity and a corresponding decrease in
Liminality in the target’s experiences…”
“There
seems to be,” replied his superior. “More stable recall between
shifts, recurrence of allies, that sort of thing.”
“If
it’s accurate, shouldn’t we maybe hold off for a while, and let
Cube be subsumed by the Status Quo? Wouldn’t it be easier to take
him out then?”
The
Professor smirked under his bushy mustache. “Agent Light, leave
the questions about Continuity to Theory. You just keep trying to
figure out a way to read Cube’s mind.”
It was the sound of thunder that woke Max. His eyes opened as nature's
freight train rattled the windows. He heard the rain fall hard against
the pane, a violent love affair streaking down the glass.
"Saigon. Shit, I am still in Saigon," he muttered to himself and then chuckled.
He
got up and stretched and headed out of his bedroom and down into
the kitchen. He opened his fridge and saw a solitary beer bottle; it was
a sign and he took it. Twisting the cap and flicking it onto the
counter, he took a long pull and went to his laptop.
He
lifted the lid and the screen began to glow its radiant glow once
again. As soon as the operating system kicked in he received a message Magnum: Hi QT! I've been waiting for u.
Max smiled and than proceed to type: CubeSquared: Morning. Magnum: This is freaky isn't it? CubeSquared: That it is. This has to be a first. Magnum: It could be. But then again we could have done this before and a shift wiped any memories of ever doing this. :P
She
had a point there. But this shift was kind of different since it
had shattered the team into different realities, but everyone was still
connected via the internet.
