Max pulled the car over. Country road, sunny day. He had forgotten where he was going. There was a duffel bag in the back seat. The car smelled like vinegar. He felt nervous. He checked his cellphone. There was a text from Control, timestamp was 33 minutes ago. It said: KEEP DRIVING. There was a link in the text: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backbone_network "Hm." Max started driving again, turned on the radio, recognized the beginning of the song. "Hm."
Max stepped into the room; it was early afternoon and the bar was particularly empty. It didn't tend to pick up until evening when the bands take to the stage. He glanced around and saw an old friend sitting in a booth and sipping Jack Daniels on the rocks. Max could see several cigarettes butted out in the ashtray as well, with several sheets of paper scattered about.
"Yo, Jimbo" Max said as he approached. He slid into the booth across from him.
"Max!" the fellow said as he saw his old friend approach him. "What you've been up to?"
"Oh, traveling," Max told him. "You know, like opening doors to here and there."
It's been three days since I was brought into this secret club. A club of warriors, fighters, criminals, madmen (and also madwomen as well). What madness have I gotten myself into? I'm scared, I'm happy, I think I'm in a dream world and will wake up soon as well; but I don't want to!!! Diary I got to admit this to you. The past three days have been awesome! Terrifying as well, but mostly awesome! We've been studying Norse literature in school, and this got me thinking! I think Max is the god Loki in disguise!!! He has to be. I have discovered three things... wait... gotta go... subway is finally stopping and it looks like it's gonna be a big one. Will update later.... maybe...
"What are we going to call this operation?" Darius wanted to know. "We should give it a cool name... you know, for the files."
Max leaned back in the chair and reached out for a book behind him; he closed his eyes and flipped the book open and stopped at a page. He then put a finger down on the page and then opened his eyes to see what word he had picked.
"Backbone," Max stated.
"Backbone?" Darius questioned. "What kind of a stupid-ass name is that for an assignment?"
He wandered through the city streets, looking for the symbols on the side of buildings. Letting him know where the safe haven was. It'd been three days since he had been here and he was getting to the point where he thought he would be stuck here forever.
Well, it wouldn't be a bad thing, since it was kind of nice here. The coffee was good, the smokes were to die for and the people were friendly. But he missed the adventure, his companions, and most of all he missed her.
"You look lost mister?" someone asked.
"Yeah," he replied. "I am."
"Maybe this will help," the young kid told him, holding up a map of the 'stars'.
Max saw the map that the young girl was holding and he saw the symbols on them and he cracked a huge smile; he glanced up at the heavens and said, "Thank you Universe!"
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Plantiff vs CHETWOOD ROBERT HENDORS, Defendant
Page 7 of 122
HENDORS: He walked right past me as if he didn't recognize me.
LAWYER: You mean he ignored you.
HENDORS: Yeah, I guess so.
LAWYER: So what did you do then?
HENDORS: Well, I ran up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. I said, "Max, what the hell is going on with you?" He said, "Sorry fellow but I think you have the wrong person."
LAWYER: And what did you do next?
HENDORS: I kind of stood there shocked. Since I knew this fellow from when we were kids growing up in Queens. He was my best friend. So when he went into the subway station, I followed him. Because I knew that I was right as rain it was him.
LAWYER: And what happened next?
HENDORS: On the platform there were just three others. Max stood there waiting for the subway and I ran up to him and said, "Max it's me, Chet!" And that's when he smiled at me and told me, "I'm not the Max you are looking for."
LAWYER: So what does this incident have to do with...
HENDORS: It was one of the chain of events that led me up to it. Max was always a quiet fellow, though this one it seemed was like.... You ever see that sci-fi show about a man who leaps through time in other physical bodies? I presume it's like that: this version of Max was from another time or place or whatever and had leapt into my Max's body...
I am the night I am the moon I am the calling of the loon
I am the sun I am the stars I am the gasoline in your car
I am Me I am You I am the person next to you
I am who I am That's what I am.
Maggie put the piece of paper back down on the table and glanced around the apartment. There was no sign of Max. He had called her up fifteen minutes ago; his voice had sounded strange and weird, like someone talking in a huge empty room.
She walked into the bedroom and saw that it was made, as if it hadn't been slept in. She noticed the ashtray by the bed had one broken unsmoked cigarette in it.
"Weird," she muttered.
"Weird," a voice echoed back from another room.
Maggie left the bedroom and entered the living room. That's where she saw Taku sitting on his perch in the cage.
"I suppose you don't know what happened here," she asked the parrot.
"That I can," Frank replied. He sat up and reached up to take Max's arm.
The box was made from metal, a metal that Goner didn't recognize; it was smooth like silk to the touch and the weight of it was very light. He and Frank had picked it up and a jolt, which looked like lightning, had hit Frank in the chest and sent him flying against the bulkhead. The box dropped but there was a rustling sound coming from within as if something was alive.
"What the hell," Goner said. "Is there something in there?"
Maggie emerged from the other room when she heard the clatter and her mouth dropped open.
"Is this it?" Max asked her. He had pulled out Pain and Joy and aimed them at the box.
"Sweetie," Maggie said to him as she brushed past him, waving him to put away his children back into their holsters. "Those things wouldn't penetrate its skin, even with the Pope's blessing."
Frank answered his phone. Suki answered her phone. The rain was heavy, the sky dark, cracked with lightning strikes.
They both hung up at the same time. Looked at each other.
She's just a kid, Frank thought. She never should have been brought into this mess.
He's too old, Suki thought. He shouldn't have to do this kinda stuff anymore.
“You first, Suki.”
“After you, Frank.”
Thunder. They were soaked.
“It was Mags,” he said. “She's at the crossroads of Eighth and Tenth. There's an entire horde manifesting there – infernals, oni, yaoguai, vucari – and if we don't get over there to back her up the entire city will fall. Maybe even the planet.”
Suki nodded. “It was Max. He's at the crossroads of Ninth and Twelfth. All the synchronicities and calculations are showing that the portal is going to open there. If we don't make it in time...”
“We could be trapped. Or disappear. Or this whole version could disintegrate. Or the next version could collapse.”
It's almost time for the Annual Morningstar Festival of One-Act Plays and the Jones Heights community theatre troupe Noo Media Productions needs a hit. For the last five years they have come in last in the competition, while popular (and well-funded) groups like Legacy Stage or The Angus Mode Players take home the trophies. It's all supposed to be a fun, friendly contest, but it's theatre and that means a lot of feelings and a lot of egos are involved... So how are NMP looking this year? Well, the Board decided to bring in a first-time Director, Mallory Magrielle. And she decided to mount a production of a notoriously difficult play called 'Maxed to the Third Power'. Will great risk bring great reward? Except that the Set Designer Miguel Rogen and the Costume Designer Charlotte Stang are constantly arguing over what period the story is set in, while the Director refuses to weigh in because she feels that "conflict is essential to the creation of great art". Which has left Suki Fujimoria, the Stage Manager, over-worked and highly stressed - and Suki is known for her temper. No one has seen the Musical Director (and local DJ) Vlad Tiamook in over week; apparently he is furiously remixing the entire soundtrack to a create a "meta-temporal vibe" that will fit with whichever setting wins out, Rogen's or Stang's. As for the cast... Ms. Magrielle gave the Lead Female role to Jones Heights' only (semi)famous citizen, Marnie Waters, who had a (semi)successful stint as a pop diva. Pandering or a subtle critique of celebrity? And instead of giving the Lead Male role to the long-standing, well-respected, troupe mainstay Frank Thamin - who thought the part could be his Prospero, but will instead be playing the Narrator - Ms. Magrielle cast THREE unknowns. That's right, she's having one character played by three different actors! How exactly Marshal Montgomery, Simon Light and Mick Scribe will split up the dialogue and action remains a closely-guarded secret. Will opening night bring triumph or tragedy? Rave reviews or farcical folly?
The last time that the drifter they called 'Sugarcube' - some stories said it was his sweet disposition, others involved a penchant for using treats to lure horses away from their rightful owners - had been through Omega Canyon it'd been a quiet, restful place. A good town to find a bit o' work or to lay low if need be, for whatever such reasons as a wanderin' soul with a knack for trouble-makin', or at least trouble-findin', might have. The folk of Omega were welcoming and not likely to inquire, so long as the trouble stayed out o' the Canyon. But, as is the way of things, the town had changed. A mysterious landowner had moved in and he had brought a lot of two things with him: money and bad intentions. Wasn't long before the man they called Logollos had bent the will and the ways of the Canyon to a murkier, downright poisonous, disposition. So when Sugarcube returned and voiced his distaste with the new cruelties he found in the former haven, well, it led, as it often does, to a showdown in the main street. Whether Logollos won the draw fair-and-square or whether there was some species o' chicanery involved was a truth kept hidden by the townsfolk. And whether that was outta spite or fear was another mystery in itself. But truth always has its seekers, and mysteries beg to be solved... And so it was that some weeks after Sugarcube was gunned down in the street that a misfit gang of gunfighters rode into Omega Canyon lookin' to avenge the death of their friend. A bounty hunter, a sheriff, a gambler, a marshal, and a preacher. And, to borrow a phrase, Hell followed with them.
