Channel Plex: Mahjong

Max stood on the promenade deck; he was leaning with his back against the railing. His hand holding a red pen, writing along the margins of the script. 

Damn, these hacks couldn't write worth beans. He was constantly changing things, adding colons, fixing up the words here and there, and changing the details to make things more cohesive and clearer for the audience. 

"Finished yet?" Simon said as he approached. He was carrying two cups of coffee and offered one to Max. "You've been out here for over an hour. I figured you needed this." 

"It's not easy turning crap into gold," Max replied as he put the cap on the red pen and clipped it to the page he was editing. He accepted the cup and took a pull from it. 

"What's the scoop?" Simon inquired. "We shooting this scene today or not?" 

"We're three days late as it is," Max replied. 

"Logollos is dancing around the producers," Simon said. "He's working his magic in order for this movie to be finished on time." 

"Christ, we're over budget as well," Max said. "I hope to hell this doesn't end up as another Heaven's Gate fiasco." 

The ship chugged along the river as Max took another pull of the coffee. "Here comes The Professor now," Simon said under his breath. 

"Are you finished with the changes, Max?" The Professor asked. He was dressed in a windbreaker and had on a baseball cap that read Cube Productions. "We need to shoot the next few scenes now before the weather changes again. The lightning and the weather is a good mood-setter for this."

Channel Plex: Pilot

Max wakes up in bed, alone.

He doesn't recognize the room. A motel?

There are seven laptops placed on the floor, the end-table, an ironing-board, the bed beside him. They each have different screensavers: The Avengers, Supernatural, Buffy, Doctor Who, The Matrix Trilogy, The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Bourne Trilogy. Max recognizes the images but can't recall the plots of any of them.

He pulls back the covers, he's dressed in baggy pants and a white t-shirt, no image.

The movement is enough to cancel the screensavers on the two laptops on the bed; the Avengers vanish and Max can see an icon for a music file, and when the Winchesters disappear it reveals an icon for a video file.

Max feels tired, feels tempted to pull up the covers and go to sleep. Go back to sleep? Had he been sleeping? He leans forward to open the music file...

A cell phone buzzes on the pillow beside his. He can see the text on the screen. It says: DON'T.

Leaving Purgatory

Max and Maggie were already gone before The They arrived to investigate the disruptive incidents that had happened in Purgatory. The digitized healing of structures and objects was well underway, knitting together the fabrics that were damaged, erasing and modifying memories of those involved.

The They hovered over the lifeless husk of Morganfokker in the apartment and consumed it.

Several blocks away in a diner.

"Mmmm," Max said as he put down the coffee mug. He had the nature of a child in his posture. "Man, I'm ever going to miss this!"

Maggie let out a chuckle.

"You knew all along what was going on?" he said. "This was all a trap to ensnare you."

"I don't just get by on my good lucks," Maggie stated. She took a sip of her tea and smiled. She glanced up at the clock on the diner wall. "You better finish up, it's time to go."

Max chugged the remaining bit of coffee and his body quivered with delight; he might have to make a special trip back here now and then just for the coffee.

Maggie took Max into her arms and they embraced.

"Answer me this," he began. "If we're in Purgatory, what happens if we died here?"

"Well, let's just say it's the final chapter," she told him. "Though, on another note there's something you should know..."

"Oh," Max replied. 

"Prepare for some change when you leave here," she told him.

"Oh," he repeated, his curiosity piqued now. 

"What colour do you like, pink or blue?" she asked. 

Max pondered a few seconds before his eyes widened like a dawning of a new day. Maggie embraced him and they kissed just as their world brightened up.

Max disappeared in a blinding flash of light.

Maggie's avatar fell to the floor of the diner.

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.

Code Hunter

Maggie ran up the flight of stairs; she was too impatient to wait for the elevator. She was going to fly up but then realized that would probably trigger an alarm.

Then The They would come to fix it.

The last time she had dealt with The They was a long, long time ago and that hadn't ended up too good for anybody.

"You're almost there," the voice on the blue tooth told her. "Just three more floors to go."

"Hope I'm not too late," Maggie whispered. She was second guessing herself and thought she should have "winged" out and dealt with the problem when it happened.

Unlocking Codes

Max felt better; he was lying on the floor of his apartment staring up at the ceiling. He was counting the dots on the tile, it was the only way to stay focused. There was a pounding sound and he figured it was from the door.

Hira must have called the paramedics when he had screamed.

The door to his apartment opened. The manager of the complex had the key code and unlocked it for the responders. And they rushed right in, stretcher and all.

"I'm fine now," Max said but no one listened.

He glanced to see Hira peering in from the door, a look of horror on her face. Hira's mother came and covered the child's eyes.

"Look," Max said as he reached for the counter; a pack of smokes digitally appeared there. "See, that's how that works."

The paramedics knelt over him; one them took out a syringe and prepared to embed it into Max's chest.

The Tethered

"The tether is still holding," the voice on the blue-tooth said. "You've got another 24 hours to find him or else you're stuck there as well."

Maggie unconsciously felt for it behind her but didn't feel a thing. She had fought demons, devils, other angels, alien monstrosities, lawyers and worse. She had been through hell a few times, as well as the battlefields of heavens. Though this was the first time she had ever been in

Purgatory.

The Good, The Bad, And The Pixelated

His head hurt, the constant ringing in his ears seemed to unleash a migraine. He downed three extra-strength aspirin and chased it with a shot of brandy. He opened his eyes to see everything as if they were in pixels. He equated it to a photo blown up where you could see the squares in it.

"What's happening to me?" he muttered. He placed the glass down onto the coffee table and it shattered, breaking into static then disappearing.

"Mr. Koob, are you okay?" he heard Hira ask from the door of his apartment.

He stood up and the migraine in his head seemed to stab through his brain. He slumped back into the chair, defeated, crying like an athlete going for gold but ending up being disqualified.

"What's wrong with me," he whispered. "What's happening?"

Your Time Is Gonna Come, Maggie

Drive me insane, trouble is gonna come to you,
One of these days and it won't be long,
You'll look for me but baby, I'll be gone.
This is all I gotta say to you woman...

Maggie strolled through the mall, the headphones in and she had the volume cranked and she felt like dancing like no one one was watching. Tortelvis was wailing away on the Dread Zeppelin song. She blamed Max for this since he got her hooked on this fringe cover band.

She had asked Max where he had discovered them and he told her some old Native fellow whom he had sat down with at a bus shelter one evening and talked about iterations of worlds. The Native fellow told Max that all realities eventually bleed into each other. Like coffee rings on a coaster or table. Each ring blends together forming another whole.

She wondered if the ritual had worked.

It had been three hours since it was cast. It might take some time to weave. But, as soon as the ritual was completed she had the urge to listen to some Dread.

"Mags," the voice said from the blue-tooth device that was now in the breast pocket of her jacket.

"Mags?"

Still no answer.

"Crap on a stick," the voice said.

"Your time is gonna come," Mags sang.

"It's working," the voice said, sounding relieved.

Your Time Is Gonna Come

Lyin', cheatin', hurtin, that's all you seem to do. 

Max looked out the window of his office and scratched the back of his head. He wasn't sure what he was feeling at the moment since a jumbled amount of thoughts where dancing around his head. The problem was that he wasn't sure if they were his thoughts to begin with. 

Messin' around with every guy in town, 

He could hear music playing in the distance. He finally put it together that it was a soundtrack in his head. Max wasn't sure if it was Elvis singing this song but it sounded like him. 

Puttin' me down for thinkin' of someone new. 

The buzzer on his desk chimed. He ignored it. 

Always the same, playin' your game, 

It was maddening, like a sore festering in your mind for days and unable to scratch it. He figured something was damned up in his mind but he could not pinpoint it. 

Drive me insane, trouble is gonna come to you.