Dictation Vacation - Summer's Recollection

Summer watched the stars appear in the evening sky one by one as if someone was pricking holes in the fabric. Venus and Mars appeared near the crescent moon in the heavens above. The waves lapping on the shore gave her a sense of calm and serenity, something that she needed after the events that had happened.

A lone gull called out in the night and she was shaken from her daydreaming.

She continued dictating into the tape recorder.

"It feels dream-like at times. More like the sensation one feels after waking up from a dream and their mind is trying to sweep the dream away so the brain can focus on the tasks at hand; get up, go to the bathroom, make the coffee, the dull day-to-day things we do and take for granted.

"The girl they called Tatter... Well, I don't know if she really was a girl at that - she was trans, but that's not what I mean: transgirls are girls... I mean that she was alien-esque in nature, was rather strange and unique. She had the appearance of a teen but it seemed like a mask she had on. Though you could see the illusion if you looked at her through the corner of your eye."

Incident Report A-2271

INCIDENT REPORT ALPHA NUMERIC TWO TWO SEVEN ONE

SUBJECT: INFRACTURE REBOOT

STATUS: IN PROCESS

OUTCOME: STILL UNKNOWN


TO: ------------------------

IN THE PROCESS OF ELIMINATIONS ONE CANNOT FULLY COMPREHEND THE BALANCE THE HAPPENS TO EVEN THINGS OUT. TO EVERY TIMELINE THAT ERASES SEVERAL MORE SPRING UP.

THIS PHENOMENON IS STRANGE AND WE HAVEN'T FACTORED IN --------------- ------------------- ----------  OR EVEN ---------------------------------------- -------------   BUT ONE THING THAT REMAINS IS ONE THING AND THAT IS ---------------------------

END OF REPORT

----------------------------------

MANANA    F

"Things'll Get Brighter" [version.Upgrade]

Max looked around the classroom, movie posters on the walls, quotes from Toni Morrison on the chalkboard. The sound of the students playing in the yard; recess on a sunny, spring day. 

"It's great, Dex," he said.

Dexter leaned back in the chair behind the desk at the front of the room. Smiled and nodded. He had let his hair grow in; it made him look a little younger. Maybe he was younger, somehow, this time.

Max perched on the edge of one of the student's desks, looked at his longtime ally. His friend? 

"This wasn't a shift, was it? You chose this, made it happen."

Dexter nodded again. "I got too tired of too many folks with the same skin colour as me getting killed by too many folks with the same badge as me."

"Well, you've taught me a lot over the years; might as well share. They're lucky to have you."

"Thanks, Max. When I'm not at school I do a lot of community organizing, activist-type stuff."

"Those protests at the new LEGACY site downtown?"

Dexter smiled.

A Night At The Lab

Max stepped out of the car and walked around to the entrance as he tossed the keys to a young fellow rushing up to pull the car into a private lot. Max opened to door for Maggie who was dressed to kill in a red Baroness Lumiche dress with a dazzling necklace by Ammon Pryce that cost as much as a small nation.

Max looked spiffy in his Hugo Nass suit, diamond cufflinks and tie pin as well. His $3000 hairstyle didn't even budge in the slight breeze. Glancing at him one would think that he was a dead ringer for that 80's icon, Max Headroom.

"Max over here!" he could hear the ladies calling him. All with fPhones ready to snap a picture of him and flood the intrawebs sites like Fall'n, Tweetie and Novelhead. His agent said it was golden to be snapped up around town and his ratings would hit the roof, making his brand even more known.

Tonight was the opening of the hottest club in town, The Lab, owned by Morganfokker Productions and catering to the filthy rich and lavishing luxury. The place was going to be all over the news in the morning...

A Recollection Of A Reflection - Summer's Recollection

Summer sat on the bluff overlooking the sea, enjoying the gentle breeze as it caressed her skin and whisked her hair about. The sun was setting upon the horizon which painted the sky with a reddish glow which reminded her of a Bloody Mary.

She poured herself a cup of coffee from the thermos beside her and took a sip.

She then placed the cup down and picked up the mic of the cassette recorder and pressed the play and record button at the same time. She could see the wheels of the cassette moving which told her that she could speak. She brought the mic up to her mouth and let out a breath.

"I don't have anything else to add, since the events beforehand are just jumbled fragments of memories. Did any of it happen? I couldn't tell you. It felt real, it felt dream-like, it felt like images on a silver screen projected before my eyes."

She paused for a few moments, letting the wheels spin away, dragging the fabric of tape before she brought the mic up once again.

"I'm convinced of whatever happened and the world keeps spinning. I'm grateful to the powers that be that opened my eyes to the frailty of what is real and what is truth. I'm only making this recording of what happened as a personal journal, a record of events that happened and now the traces have been wiped away by the Monitors of Time. Who knows, maybe when the next time someone presses play on this thing all they will get is static..."

Poem For the Postmortem Mind

If the answer's in the wind
What is the question?
Nothing is sacred
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Sayings etched on the walls of the mind
Truth revelations hidden in scrawls
Lies conceal the truth that matters
We are who we are
Or who we think we are
When we think what we've become
It's just the tip of the iceberg.
Underneath we are layered
like onions on a counter top
waiting to be sliced or chopped
and put into a sauce.
Universes in my coffee cup
Sipping away billions of what ifs
Merging with the meta life
One can only forgive.

A Chance Meeting

Desmond Hill sat at the table reading the paper as he waited for the breakfast special to arrive. He had been doing this routine for the past six decades now and it was good to know that some things never change in life.

"So what's the scoop for today?" Marley Bishop asked him as she approached with a fresh pot of coffee.

"Oh, the same thing that went on yesterday," he replied and slid his cup over to her.

Marley topped it off and dug into her apron and put two 11% creamers and a packet of sweetener on the table. Then she wandered off to the next table to see if the two truckers wanted a top-up and Desmond went back to scanning the obituaries.

He saw that George Neilson Jr had passed away the other day and he was hit with a wave of sadness. He got to wondering when the last time was that he had chatted with George. Maybe it was a little over two years, but they had constantly waved when they passed each other on the streets or highway.

"Damn," he muttered. He made a note to attend the wake tomorrow. After all, it was the least he could do for an old friend.

The restaurant door opened and set off a jingle as the chimes were activated, snapping him out of his thoughts. He glanced at the door to see a young lad enter and his mind went to a spot of recognition but it was blurred by time. The fellow was in his late 20's or early 30's, white with a thin frame. His dirty blonde hair was spiked up some; Desmond thought the 90's were coming back again - it seemed it was the style back then.

But by gum he thought he knew this fellow from somewhere, or perhaps he could be the son of someone he knew but he couldn't exactly place it at the moment. The young fellow spotted him and Desmond could see the look of recognition in the fellow's eyes as he saw him and he let out a smile.

"Desmond Hill!" the lad said as he approached. "There ya be!"

"Here I be," Desmond replied. Desmond didn't want to ask the fellow his name; he wanted to see if his memory would kick in. "So what brings you here?"

"I heard the news and I had to come," the fellow said. "He's being waked tomorrow."

Aha, Desmond thought, he's George's grandson. Though the fellow could be just a close friend of the family, as well. Still there was something about him that was familiar.

"I just came in to grab a coffee and was about to swing by your place," the youth said. "Just wanted to see how you were doing as well, since it's been a while."

"It's been more than that," Desmond bluffed. His mind still trying to pin a name to the fellow.

"Yeah, you're right," the man said with a slight nod. "I knew that you and George grew up together and ended up being in the same unit..."

The unit he was talking about was in Viet Nam back in '69 when the robotic rebellion...

"Yo Max!" a Japanese girl called out to him as she entered. "The gang is waiting for you!"

"Cube?" Desmond asked. Then it dawned on him; the fellow in front of him was Sgt. Cube. How the hell was this possible?

"Look Des, I got to hit the road - there's a matter of importance that's not too far from here and I will swing by tomorrow and we'll get caught up..." Max said. He got up and headed for the door leaving Desmond stunned and wondering how this was possible.

C2IP - WaveAnomalyEcho Cubed

The sound of static fading...

“Hello Max,” Control said.

“What do you want?” Max asked.

“Relax for a second. It was very hard for me to reach you, but we have time now. Have a coffee. I don't mind if you smoke.”

Max poured himself a cup of coffee. He wasn't sure that he smoked anymore. He took a sip. “It was really hard for me to get here, too. What's going on? Things feel stranger since...”

“Purgatory,” Control said. “Max, I need you to consider the possibility that you are still in Purgatory.”

Max had considered it. He took another sip of coffee.

“Max,” Control said. “I need you to consider the possibility that you are still in the motel room, with the laptops.”

Max had considered it. He took another sip of pop.

“Max,” Control said. “I need you to consider the possibility that you are still in the Lab.”

Max always considered it. He took another sip of tea.

Control glanced at the screens on the wall. “Alright then... Max, it's time that... You need to be made aware of something called The System. It is an organization that seeks to govern plureality. Using advanced Neo-Linguistic Programming, Noo Media techniques and Omega Magic it attempts to participate in the versioning process in such a way that allows it to direct and exploit the possibilities of Noo-Mo Omniism in accordance with its own agenda, the main goal of which is to sustain itself at all costs.”

“They sound like Legacy.”

“The System is what agencies like Legacy, MJ-13 and MK-Omega aspire to be. It operates on an entirely different level. Its activities can manifest as overt authoritarianism or subtle forms of oppression. Its operations are both visible and invisible. It created the Subway, the Elevator, the UFO and the XXXXXXXXX using technology stolen from The They. A great deal of the information that travels between versions is controlled by The System.”

“And you work for them...?”

“There is another organization, designated the Counter-System. Its agenda is even less clear, but it often acts in ways that mediate or even contradict the workings of The System while using many of the same methods. It is suspected that the Counter-System may be involved in maintaining key elements of Continuity as a form of resistance to The System's ultra-colonial goals. For instance, locations such as the Diner, the Bookstore, and the Brownstone. Or items such as uniforms and weapons. It is the likely source of the Metafesto. It may also be behind a pirate data broadcast known as 'Faux News'.”

“Okay, so you work for them...?”

“Current analysis suggests that the Subway has been under the control of a Counter-System operative known as Bishop for quite some time. The System recently undertook a direct action to retake the Subway. It has also deployed a squad of agents to capture a team of Dragons, although that order appears to have been upgraded to kill.”

Max frowned. “So? So why are you telling me all this? After all this time? If any of it is even true.”

“The System is on the move, Max. It is reacting to something. Something is coming. A threat. I'm telling you this as a favour. 

"As a warning.”

Crisis In Infinite Plexes - Echo Squared

v.Reunion

Please stop, Angst thought. There was only static coming through the cell phone now. The bathroom was still empty. Max was gone. Angst wasn't a quitter but she needed things to pause; maybe after seven years she was just out of practice with the violence and lunacy and chaos. Maybe I can't do this anymore.

But then she realized that things had stopped...

Thirty seconds earlier Suki shouted, "Here they come!" as the mysterious agents launched their final assault on the motel room.

Right when Goner and Frank finally returned, the stolen car swerving into the parking lot, crashing into one of the agents' vehicles, crushing one of the agents, the engine revving and tires squealing, Frank at the wheel ready to drive into more of the attackers. The car was the only weapon they had; the equipment cache they were hoping to find didn't exist in this version.

"Thatta boy Frankie!" Suki shouted, firing her gun, the agents firing back.

Frank spun the wheel and swiped two more agents but they were still outnumbered and outgunned. Bullet holes erupted in the front and rear windshields. Goner cracked his knuckles, knowing they'd have to jump out soon and go hand-to-hand. Frank had seen Suki returning fire but not Angst...

Then the damnedest thing happened. A stuttering flash of light, a sound like thunder, and a subway car tore into the parking lot, materializing out of thin air, crashing onto the pavement, sparks flying, slamming into and scattering a lot of the attackers. And before it had skidded to a stop, the doors slid apart and Aqua and Akimoto, her in her signature cowboy hat, him wearing his trademarked army jacket/tropical shirt combo, leapt out, Akimoto swinging his broadsword and Aqua throwing punches with her gauntlets.

When Angst stepped out of the bathroom her friends were gathered in the parking lot, in the calm after the carnage, the sound of sirens fading in. She looked at Aki and Aqua and at the subway car. 

Everyone was smiling.

"I guess things are about to get weird," she said, and joined them.

"Sing it," Suki said.

Crisis In Infinite Plexes - Anomaly Squared

v.Thespian

"Please stop!" Charlotte whispered harshly as she adjusted the costume. Mick was fidgety, more nervous than he wanted to admit. Marshal was in full-blown stage-fright but trying to deep-breathe it away. Simon actually looked relaxed, but he had swallowed two pink pills about fifteen minutes ago.

Miguel dropped down from one of the lighting scaffolds. "They're starting to get restless."

They all looked to Suki. She looked up from her clipboard. Frank could tell that they all wanted her to give the go ahead but he knew that she wouldn't until Mallory had called. The show didn't start until the director told them all to "break a leg", whether she was backstage or in the hospital.

The murmurs of dissatisfaction were growing louder from the audience.

Frank believed in the play that they were about to perform, but he also knew that it was a risky piece and that if they started off with a grumpy, hostile audience that it might not work. Something needed to happen.

Then Marnie stepped in - she always entered as if there was a spotlight shining on her. Vlad was flanking her, holding up a CD.

"He's got the music of To Be Continued," she said with a sly smirk. If she was bothered that Vlad had a copy of her only hit single with her vocals removed it didn't show. "It'll buy us four and half minutes, five with applause."

Suki grinned. "Sing it."

Crisis In Infinite Plexes - Wave Squared

The dragon is discovered.

The transmission is received.

The powers are merged.

The grave is opened.

The object is decoded.

And Max doses on Plex and enters the Portal.

*

As Aqua was about to throw the first punch there was suddenly light coming in the windows on her right side - a station! But the subway car was not slowing down, in seconds it would clear the platform and return to the dark. 

In those seconds one of the windows smashed inwards, Aqua dropped into a crouch, the man turning in surprise, and Akimoto crashed into the car, thudding into one of the poles in the aisle, keeping his footing amidst the sprinkling shards of glass.

The man produced a pistol from inside his jacket and with a smooth, simple motion of his broadsword Akimoto chopped the man's hand off. The subway had passed through the station and was back in the dark of the tunnel. Aqua felt a strange pulse of emotions about having missed a chance to stop and exit the car, but she didn't let it distract her from launching a massive Superman-punch at the man as he watched his hand fall away from his wrist. He quickly joined his hand in a bloody pile on the floor.

"Check on Bishop!" Aqua shouted - the noise of the train was louder through the broken window. She began searching the body of the man. Generic dark clothing, generic weapon and ammunition, no identification or markings. For some reason he reminded her of those agents that Jason Bourne was always running up against in the movies.

"He's breathing!" Akimoto reported. 

Aqua adjusted her cowboy hat. "What's going on, big man?"

"I'm on a mission from the gods!" the barbarian roared, a wild look in his eyes. "We have to rally the Dragons!"

"And how do we do that?" She looked at the unconscious body of Bishop.

Akimoto grinned. "Play your favourite song on that tiny music maker of yours and hold on." 

He looked at the emergency stop button.

Crisis In Infinite Plexes - Third Echo

v.Fallen

Dexter ordered two more salvos aimed at the latest breach in the wall, rubble exploding as the cannons' shells crashed into the charging bulk of the Demons, some of the creatures still slipping through to be met with the eponymous weapons of the Swords on the ground. Commanding the Haven forces in defence against the Demons' siege – the Arcana had unanimously elected him to the role – reminded Dex of conducting an investigation. You had limited resources - evidence analysis, witness interviews, confidential informants, suspect interrogations – or in this case the skills, talents and tech of the Staves, Swords, Cups and Coins, and you had to decide where to direct them and what to give attention to, what leads to pursue that would most likely lead you to the truth. Dexter's truth today was the survival of the people of Haven. Dex had been a decent cop, along time ago, and he was doing a better-than-decent job at directing the forces at hand, but the Demons were vicious, they were mighty, and they were many. It was not so different than the fighting he had endured at Frontline, but Frontline had fallen...

Dexter pointed with his staff to the northern tower. It was an order to Callan, who was down on the ground, in the thick of the fighting, but always watching for guidance from the commander. It was, based on the patterns of attack so far, where Dexter suspected the next surge of Demons would strike. The staff was the one that Marshal had given him, the strange man they had met in the wasteland. Dexter wondered in every spare moment what had become of him and Wraith. And he still wondered why the Arcana had sanctioned his quest – they said that they would explain once (and if) Haven was safe. Dexter was used to mysteries; the lifetimes he had spent adventuring with the Dragons had forced him to make some sort of peace with unsolved cases.

And he had made peace with death. He had certainly sent enough enemies to the grave, some more deserving than others. And since contracting the Sickness he knew that his end was coming sooner rather than later, regardless of how long he could fight off Demons. The people though, the citizens of Haven, they deserved a chance at a longer life, a better life, and so he would do what he could to give it to them.

Dexter trusted that Callan would be directing the Swords to the new position at the northern tower. He broke away from the scene below him to check in with his team. The Chief Stave gave him a quick rundown of scouting reports from the western wall. The Chief Coin rattled off a list of remaining munitions. The Chief Sword offered a brief analysis of troop distribution. The Chief Cup had a message – Arcana Seventeen wanted to see Dexter.

In her chamber in the central tower, the sounds of the battle outside faint whispers, the Arcana showed Dexter a device, a relic from the founding of Haven.

“I remember that,” Dex said. He felt tense, needed to get back to the fight, but had a sense that something important was happening here. “We had found it in the ruins, thought it was maybe a piece of a Grid.”

“And the first Seventeen kept it and passed it on to each of us who filled the role after her, as a reminder that there was a world, a world of possibilities that had existed before the coming of the Demon Army. That we may one day return to.”

Dexter nodded. He realized that he had long ago stopped dreaming of better worlds, only of survival instead, and he felt a great sadness.

The Arcana continued. “Less than an hour ago, Commander Washington, the device began receiving a signal. An audio message... I wrote down what she said, as best I could.”

Dexter took the sheet of paper, read the precise handwriting.

If I am right about what this is then the Arcana should have a similar device stored somewhere, from when Haven was founded...I have been trying to send that device a signal from this one, and now this one has received a transmission, so now I think I understand how it works... If I do and this is transmitting... Dammit, it's always so complicated... Here goes: It's Wraith, I'm with Darius... And we are at the Portal, where the Demons came from... And we received a transmission here, on our device... It was strange but he figured it out, Max did...

Dexter's eyes went wide. He kept reading, had a brief flash of memory, of reading a science fiction novel when he was a teenager.

Marshal was Max... I wonder if the Arcana knew, somehow? Max deciphered the message – he said it was from Control. That he needed to meet with Control. And then he went into the Portal...

'Of course he did,' Dexter thought with a smirk.

So if you are somehow receiving this, please get this message to Dexter or Callan or the Arcana, please let them know that something is happening... please tell them to keep fighting.

Crisis In Infinite Plexes - Anomaly Three

v.Reunion

Suki blind-fired two rounds through the window, glass shattering outwards and inwards, the attackers' weapons appeared to be using normal bullets this time, just lots of them, shredding the curtains, chewing up the bed, the opposite wall. She was talking with them, two shots like nodding politely during conversation, letting them know that she was still hearing them, still paying attention – Max once told her that gunfights were just another form of communication, usually an argument, but they could also be a debate or a confession or a lecture or even therapy, and that all the standard techniques of active listening applied. So Suki was listening and replying while she was also trying to puzzle out why they had reverted to standard ammo after using those weird mind-guns before, trying to understand the point they were trying to make... And she was also waiting for Max to come out of the bathroom, Joy and Pain blasting, a moment she had waited years for, except that Joy and Pain, like the Godhammer, had yet to manifest during any shifts and Max, despite the spectacular eruption of violence in the motel room, was still nowhere to be seen.

“I'm going to check on him!” Angst shouted from where she was crouched beside the bed, holding a scavenged hunting rifle instead of her uzis. Suki had missed this, when they all became borderline telepathic during combat. She blind-fired another three rounds, interjecting to change the flow of the exchange.

Angst had not kept up with her cheerleading but she could still round off a wicked one-handed cartwheel that had her at the bathroom door in a smooth second, then slipping through.

No Max.

And a pause in the enemy's gunfire, a moment of silence while they gathered their thoughts, prepared to articulate the real point that they were trying to make. Suki reloaded; she was pretty sure that she knew what they were going to say.

Angst looked at the empty tub. Her heart was aching. Her cellphone buzzed.

Suki shouted, “Here they come!”

The gunfire resumed, more intense. Angst answered.

A voice she didn't recognize. Bullets started splintering the bathroom door. “Beware the Morganfokker.”

“Who is this?” she asked. “Professor?”

Suki was shouting something. The voice said, “What the KLF is going on?”

“Max?”

“To be continued.”

Suki was still shouting, gunfire like thunder. Angst shouted into the phone, “WHO IS THIS?”

The motel room went quiet. The voice said, “This is Control. Is Max there please?”