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

M.O.M.

The floor was hard and cold; it was the colour of an overcast sky. His head ached, a dull throbbing pain which seemed to echo inside his skull. Probably due to the gun butt that had struck him there. His eyes spotted the shiny black boots before him, so polished to perfection that he could see his reflection in them.

"Who are you?" the voice asked.

He didn't answer.

"Who are you?" the voice asked.

He didn't know what to say so he kept quiet.

"Who do you work for?"

He sat up and looked at the crisp, clear figure before him. Noticing that his hands were shackled before him.

"Your mom," he replied.

That's when the stranger's boot kicked him.

Ultraplex: Assessment

"Max! Focus!" the voice shouted.

Max was flipping through the nineteen folders. He was confused; they were filled with looseleaf pages of handwritten notes and pieces of graph paper covered with hand-drawn maps.

"Okay, let's talk about another time when you did choose to intervene."

A file folder appeared on the table in front of Max with symbols on it that Max couldn't decipher.

He flipped open the folder and scanned the documents inside.

[Halogrhin Excerpt]

"The records on your actions in World: Halogrhin are, of course, spotty. Are you able to give us any insight into the process by which you and the Dragons became aware of the threat, the means by which you access the -"

Max interrupted. "Can I get a coffee? I need a coffee. How much longer is this going to take?"

A different voice (was that three now?) shouted: "Mr. Montgomery, you are in no position to -"

Max interrupted again. "It's math! It's just math alright. You identify the risks and you identify the protections. If there's more of the former than the latter we go. We help. That's all. No big secret, no complex magic formula. We're variables in an equation. We don't care where the monster came from, unless learning that helps us kill it. We don't care what the monster wants unless that helps us kill it. We show up, kill the monster, balance the equation, and then we're gone."

The Prefalta folder, the Halogrhin folder and the nineteen other folders were gone. There were five new folders on the table.

One of the voices said, "We understand that you want it to be that simple. That the 'equation model' allows you to compartmentalize the work you do in the Ultraplex and prevent yourself from becoming overwhelmed. But is it really so straightforward as 'balancing the math'? How does that explain these records?"

[Capsille Excerpt]

[Verkatruuda Excerpt]

[Turm Excerpt]

[Anreeyal Excerpt]

[Prio Excerpt]

Psychoplex: The Hanged Man

Cognitive

The Hanged Man arcana functions as a symbolic map of my experiences of being both bound to the world and apart from it. The Tree represents the world, both physically and experientially, all the branches and roots are the repeating fractal patterns of possibility. The world is diverse and complex, strong and vital, but the Hanged Man is bound to it, not climbing it but also not cutting it down. So he has access to it all but isn’t free to leave or fly away. He is also inverted, so even though he has direct contact with the world he experiences it from a distorted or reversed way, seeing first the roots rather than the branches, always forced to understand the tangled web of causes that grow all the effects. From his position the Hanged Man can look out and up at the stars, other worlds, but cannot reach them. His binding is a prison but a ritual one, because the inversion and sacrifice are what gives him this special vision – he can see more than the tangled branches and rough bark. He is trapped between worlds but has access to both. A constant liminal magical state. But he can’t easily act in either world.

How It Feels To Hang

* feeling suspended between worlds

* not understanding the nature of reality, of events surrounding me, their causes and effects

* unable to extrapolate a course of action because I want to act towards a type of truth but I’m not sure what it is

* no sense of ground, of a foundation to make decisions and judgments from

* seeing extreme possibilities, even contradictory versions of events and interactions, leaves me unsure which way to move, which way to respond

* In this sense I am bound to the world > I can’t act only from my own wishes, desires, needs – I need to have feedback, validation, harmony with the way (I think) the world works

* Feeling hanging at the edge of the Otherworld – total fantasy, delusion, magic, dream, madness, imagination > unable to float away because of my need/desire to find truth, my doubt, skepticism, my sense of responsibility

* Feeling deep philosophical uncertainty about my experiences and perceptions

Omniplex: CD Four

The Passion of the Cube
The Original Soundtrack for the Mind

(interior artwork: Max engaged in a fierce gun battle, firing Joy and Pain at unseen enemies. Caption: 'COMING SOON')

Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows
Go Home Productions - Beatleg Bootles Part 1
Nicknack - Crystal's Better Tomorrow
Dropbass - Big beat mania
Jx - Fark the Farking Rohypnol (Blacksmoke vs Prodigy Mix)
djbc - Golden Peace Frog
DJ Tripp - Spin Me Harder
Jirob - Wheres Your Talking Head At
Instamatic - GodLife
Lenlow - Chocolate Cake
Laptop Orchestra - Plastic Orchestra
Jet Set Willy - Failed Weekamix
Lenlow - Vegas Baby
London Symphony Orchestra - Hey Joe

C2IP Update.3

Marshal stepped into Mick's apartment. He had used a Neo-Linguistic Programming technique from a library book to convince the superintendent to give him access. Mick had only disappeared a few days ago but somehow there was already a thick layer of dust coating every surface, almost like ash. 

The kitchenette was a mess of take-out packaging. The living room was a ruin of videogame cases and controllers (many smashed in rage), cigarette butts, CD cases, sketches and hand-written poetry.

In the small bedroom (just a sleeping bag on the floor) Marshal found the map Mick had been working on, pages pasted to the wall with lines and circles connecting them, a shot straight out of a conspiracy movie. It was the outline for Mick's next novel. 

Marshal had read Illiciterati and Evanjaculist and had been eagerly awaiting Mick's newest book. Except he had been having all these strange dreams and when he performed his ritual meditations to Odin and Merlin the gods had been telling him that something more was happening, that Mick was involved in something deeper. Then Marshal had started having these really potent daydreams at work, imagining uncovering a covert war between something called The System and a group calling themselves Counter, and it was all connected to Mick's writing. The dreams and visions and daydreams became more and more intense until he was compelled to come here...

One page was titled 'Chronoplex'. The name 'Suki', 'version GrownUp?', 'version Grandma?'. 'Project Realtime?'. 'Can we access the Missing Season?'. 'Can we learn what happened during the Millennium Incident?'.

Another page labelled 'Paraplex'. 'So what happened to the Initiated Dragons?'.

The next: 'Ultraplex'. 'Are these reports that the Counter-System was broadcasting? Or are they made up? Propaganda or just fiction?'.

'Hyperplex'. 'The Plureality Dragons Upgraded'. 'The Diner Dragons?', crossed out. 'Darius?', circled and crossed out.

'Omniplex'. 'Art, journals, music, RPGs?'. 'Project Horizon?'.

'Synchroplex'. A list of dates.


'Manaplex'. Mostly illegible. 'New job?' circled. 'Project Ellipses?'.

And in marker, scrawled over many of the pages: 'BETRAYAL'.

Marshal had no idea what any of it meant but could feel that it somehow explained everything.

He also noticed a copy of a magazine on the floor. Profile Celebrations. The cover story was about a man named Vlad Akimoto. Marshal scanned the article:

International fitness business empire mogul. Founder of "The Timeless Warrior" training regime, based on ancient lost arts of body purification through testing one's physical limits, combined with the introduction into your healthy diet of designer herbal infused beverages. Proposed by some in the fashion industry that Akimoto was the father of the "hipster" movement. Rumoured a) to be majority owner in the up and coming "Citadel" independent music label, b) to have founded the online "Barbarian" clothing line which specializes in custom design t-shirts, c) to own a number of fashionable craft beer eateries in Tokyo, St Petersburg and Munich.

Why was Mick researching this guy?

The Battle for the Hyperplex Part One: E.S.P.ionage

The intel indicated that the Ashen Tradition was seeking a powerful relic called The Hyperplex.

Collateral information referenced the Hyperplex in contradictory fashion; sometimes it was described as a Staff, others a Chalice, sometimes a Sword and, of course, a Disc. Max had lots of ideas about what the Hyperplex could be, what it might mean, how it might relate to the other Plexes they were learning about; he was the idea guy, after all. 

The rest of the team knew that ideas were important but sometimes not as important as taking action. So Max hunkered down to try and figure things out and the other Dragons went to work.

Angst learned from a contact in the Ultraviolet Lodge that the Tradition had a large-scale portal operation running in a secret sub-basement of the local Museum. 

Frank conducted some psychic eavesdropping on people entering and exiting the Museum; he confirmed that the portal was indeed active but could not determine where it led to. 

Goner was able to hack the Museum's security and Angst was able to counter the protective wards that the Tradition had set up. 

They had put the call out to Aqua and to Maggie, anticipating that things would likely get hostile once they made a move on the portal. 

When the team gathered, after a few minutes of warm reunion, they prepared to enter the Museum...

Miles To Go

The kids had finally fallen asleep, sprawled on the motel bed. She had let them watch a late night talk show and snack on candy bars from the vending machine. Yeah, maybe she was going a bit soft. 

Suki stepped out the door but left it open a crack so she could still hear the cute little snores. Scanned the parking lot. She had started learning counter-surveillance habits when she had been roughly the same age as Yuri and Hira; she wondered if she should start teaching them.

Lightning flashed in the dark, still miles away.

She lit a cigarette and took out her phone. The screenshot was a selfie of her and Olivia from... seven years ago? A few less wrinkles. Olivia was kissing her on the cheek and Suki was frowning, pretending to be irritated, but her eyes betrayed her, the sparkle in them. Suki suddenly missed her so bad it felt like a bullet in her heart. Actually, Suki knew what that felt like and this was worse. Just to brush her fingers across her cheek...

She shoved the phone back in her pocket and took another drag.

Spilling Milk

Mags Qute looked up from the book she was reading and over at Axie and waited for him to speak. His bright blond hair stood up in messy tufts as the sun streaked through the dark room. Providing light in the abandoned house.

"We've been here for three days now," she stated. Or has it been longer? Placing the tome on the table as she reached for the coffee. "When do we move again?"

Haven't we moved already?

Axie glanced at her and smiled. He had been sharpening his knife on a whetstone. "As soon as Franz and Loner return."

"Maybe they got captured?" Mags stated. They've been captured already, we know they have, so what are we doing here? Back here? "Then what do we do?"

"I guess we can cry over the spilled milk then," he replied.

No, not again...

What was that Barthes' essay about killing writers?

When they came for him none of his neighbours were surprised. 

For years Mick had been a 6.6-on-the-Richter-scale nuisance in the building. Loud music, loud video-games, loud movies, loud shouting at various gods and goddesses. Aileeza, the tenant in 2B ("Or not to be!" Mick would always shout at her when they passed in the hallway) would often point out that his whole shtick was a knock-off of that character in Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan. The other tenants didn't get the reference but they got the fact that Mick hated Warren Ellis and therefore hated the comparison, and they took some pleasure in that. Petty maybe, but they had endured and were entitled to some small retributions.

Evicting Mick wasn't an option, despite it being a cause that would have unified Democrat and Republican, Israeli and Palestinian, Team Angel and Team Spike. Mick's residency was secured due to the funding agreements as arranged by the local Arts Council and the local Mental Health Agency. Mick's presence was what kept the rent so low and ensured the other tenants could continue living there. 

"'There is no war, there is only the Dalang!'" Mick would shout about the way he both embodied and transcended the dualities of the situation, to which Aileeza would point out that he was only quoting Grant Morrison, another comic writer whom Mick rather liked but nevertheless resented being accused of imitating (although he most certainly was).

And so it had continued until the day it stopped. When they finally came for him. The other tenants weren't sure exactly who 'they' were, or what Mick had done to finally warrant apprehension - for all his sound and fury he never signified anything actually violent. 

Of course he did a fair bit of shouting as the men and women in nondescript clothing (the kind of outfits that operatives in those Bourne movies always wore) took him away in their black SUV. 

"I fucking made Max! He's nothing without me! If I had never taken that assignment for Opi8 he'd still just be a figment of your fucking imaginations! And who do you think has protected him all this time? Do you have any fucking clue how hard it is for him to even be in the world? If I hadn't kept all you assholes distracted with my rants and my jokes you would have seen right through him and he'd be thrice as fucked as he already is! So you thinking you're helping Max? You're fucking killing him!"

Three or four days later the tenants began commenting to each other on how unsettling the quiet was.

CD Two

Max Cube vs The Interdimensional 

Corporate Mofo's

The Soundtrack

(interior artwork: Max suspended upside-down in the position of The Hanged Man from Arcana 12 of the Tarot in front the Tree of Life from the Kabbalah, with the Sephirot replaced by popular icons: Keter = Yin-Yang, Binah = Radioactive, Hokhmah = Watchmen clock, Gevurah = The Invisibles' blank badge, Hesed = The Bat-signal, Tiferet = Peace symbol (on Max's shirt), Hod = Warning sign, Netzah = Crosshairs, Yesod = X-men symbol, Malkhut = Happy Face)

Track 01: ReFlex - The Politics of Dancing
Track 02: Crystal Method - Comin' Back
Track 03: Rolling Stones - Shattered
Track 04: Cardigans - Erase Rewind
Track 05: Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff
Track 06: Fishbone Beat - Goza Goza
Track 07: Air - Talisman
Track 08: Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus (Pump Mix)
Track 09: The Doors - Maggie McGill
Track 10: Juno Reactor - Conga Fury
Track 11: Kajagoogoo - Too Shy
Track 12: Destiny's Child - Bootylicious
Track 13: David Holmes - Gritty Shaker
Track 14: Cornershop - Brimful of Asha (Fatboy Slim remix)
Track 15: Queen - Now I'm Here