You Gonna Eat That?

Maggie fired blindly into the darkness; she didn't care if she hit anything or not. She just wanted them to know that she was still here and that she meant business. 

Angst was cursing to herself; the uzis were lying on the ground, empty and useless. She felt naked without them. She knew that she had spent too many bullets in the previous incursion. 

"This bites," she muttered. "How many bullets you got left?" 

"I'll save two just in case Max doesn't get us shifted," Maggie confessed. "They like their meat bruised and battered. And I'm going to make sure that what they get of me is just plain leathery jerky."

Panopticon

The cell phone rang.

Max put it to his ear, watched his vision blur. Watched a thousand screens blossom in the air around him, neon petals suspended, holographic lotus bloom, simulated samsara. Then a thousand signals streaming, mega-multi-meta-mashup. Like that trailer for the first Mass Effect, when all the distress calls start coming in at once.

"Max?" Somehow the sounds and visions were amplifying and interfering within his ajna chakra and his crypto-cortex implant to form the name, always a question.

It sounded like the Professor's voice. And that meant another mission.

Purgatides

The first thing they heard was the music playing. A mellow dance tune.

"Bingo," Max said.

"Are you sure this time?" inquired Angst. She doubled check the uzis to make sure they were ready if needed. 

"Positive," he answered. "They group in places like this." Max kicked open the door to the warehouse; smoke and the smell of burnt flesh assaulted his nostrils. He was right on the money with this one. The music was loud and actually danceable.

Angst turned away from the smell, the heat from the nightclub was overbearing as well.

"Purgatides," Max muttered. 

They stepped into the nightclub to see a huge mass of beings dancing about.

"Well now," Angst replied. It was an infectious song. "Isn't this just groovy."

"Stay focused. Their leader should be close by as well," Max said.

MORGANFOKKER SAYS THAT YOU WILL NEVER REALLY KNOW OR UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER

Maximum Effect

"Go for it," Maggie told Max. She sat across from him, her arms folded on the table, a look of angelic serenity on her face betraying no emotion whatsoever. She knew that he was wrestling with his thoughts on this one.

"You think I should?" Max asked her. He butted out a cigarette and reached for another.

"Look, opportunities like this only come once every few realities," she said with a smile. "You miss out on a chance like this and then you will be wondering for the rest of your life if you had done the right thing."

Max sat in the booth and glanced out the window; the wind had picked up a bit and was scattering debris about on the city street.

"It might have a butterfly effect though," he said.

"What's the sense of being a butterfly if you can't flap your wings," she told him.

The Comic Book

"Hey kiddo," Max said. He plopped down on the seat infront of Suki.

"Heya Maximum," Suki replied. She looked up from the comic book she was reading. 

"What ya doing?" Max asked, peering at the book. 

"Nothing at the moment," Suki replied. "Just reading."

"Getting cultured I see," Max intoned. "You digging the X-men?"

"Indeedios," she chirped. She gave him a wink and went back to her reading.

"Well, happy reading, let me know when you get up to the Apocalypse Redux series and then will have a serious chatfest," Max said as he got up and proceeded down the aisle. 

The train moving through the tunnels showing midnight in the otherwhens, otherwheres and otherlives.

Arctic Reception

"Man, it's cold outside," Goner said after stepping in from the arctic wind. He stood there shivering through his winter parka. 

"You really are such a downer, Gonzo," Suki told him. "First you complain that it's too hot, now it's too cold. You are starting to sound like Goldilocks!" 

Max gave a chuckle and shot Suki a wink. That little pixie was picking up on some of his bad habits.