Future's Chance

Outside the window and far below on the street, in the park, there were people of all kinds. Each one had a story, each had a life. It had been so long since Max felt he had a life. He used to be a person, but now he didn't act in the great play; he just observed the actors and their struggling. The mom who was late taking her two boys to soccer practice. The homeless man wasting away his life in the filth of the dumpsters. The businessman in his finely polished dress shoes and sharp-looking suit.

And, of course, the children. He seemed to watch them the most, when he did watch at all. They skipped and ran, pushed each other and laughed. They just enjoyed life, not knowing they had but a short time until their childish thoughts shifted to worldly ambitions. Then they would forget all about the simple pleasures of running through a sprinkler on a hot day, rolling on the grass with a puppy, even the incredible flavor of an ice cream cone eaten while sitting with their moms in the park.

Of course, life must move on. No one can stay the same forever….

At least, that’s what he was thinking as his blissful silence was broken by a buzz. It was not loud, but he had come to hate that sound, finding it worse then a thousand dentist drills. With a sigh he turned from the window, spun around in his tall-backed chair, and touched the flashing red button on the phone in front of him.

"Yes, Jennifer, what is it?" he said coldly into the phone.

"Sorry to bother you during lunch, but Mr. Osaka is on line three. I told him you were busy, but he insisted on talking with you right away."

Internally he groaned. This wasn’t what he needed when he was so drawn inward. He took a long lunch break for a reason. He considered doling out harsh words to his secretary, but in the end decided against it, knowing it would just stress their already tenuous relationship and perhaps snap it. Jennifer was the closest thing he had to a friend right now, and that he didn’t think he could afford to lose.

"No apologies necessary," he said, thinking back to a simpler time. "Pipe him through, Jenn."

"Yes, Mr. James. Right away."

He chuckled, a rare occurrence for him nowadays, then picked up the phone. He endured the familiar three- or four-second wait until the earpiece crackled into life, and he heard the agitated voice of Mr. Hiban Osaka. "Did you think you could just avoid me for the rest of this quarter, Max? You told me Intagrid would be ready the first of this year, and it’s already February…!"

Max opened his mouth to respond, but getting a word in when Hiban was this upset was next to impossible. More than ever he wanted to go home, to just forget about his deadlines and obligations.

God, the man was still talking. More plague then human, in Max’s opinion.

".…foolish, absolutely foolish. You try explaining something like that to your board of directors. If I don’t get some solid proof that this can be sold commercially, and I mean yesterday, I’m dropping our contract!"

The Japanese man finally stopped long enough to breath. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Max leaned back in his chair and spoke in a calm voice. "Hiban, listen to me. Do you think I want to make a fool out of you?" Well, it might be a little satisfying, he reflected silently. "I have a lot riding on the success of this as well, but how is it going to look when we release Intagrid into stores and six months later it starts killing our customers and trying to take over the world? You ever seen the Terminator?"

Max was just trying to be humorous, something else he hadn’t been for a long time, but Hiban’s response on the other end was definitely not amused. "Maxwell, this is not a matter I take whatsoever lightly. My company’s continued survival depends solely on you completing Intagrid. If it is not done by the end of next week, I’ll…."

"You’ll wait another week," Max said, finishing the other man’s sentence in a calm, stern voice. "Enough of being polite. You and I both know that you will wait as long as it takes, because in your own words your company’s future depends on this. I’ve sat though enough of these verbal bashings." Shifting in his chair, Max sat up straighter and tightened his grip on the phone’s handle. He swiveled around and looked out the large window once more. Then he continued in the same tone of voice: "You came to me because I’m the best at what I do. I’ve been contracted by hundreds of others from companies like yours, as well as the military. You know why those people come to me?"

Dead silence on the other end.

Max took a breath. "Because I do it well and I do it right." With his free hand he rubbed the bridge of his noise as if he were wearing glasses. "You asked me to build a home security system that would make people think they lived in old Fort Knox, that was cheap enough for the average middle-class consumer, AND that would be ready to be mass produced in only a year. Now I may be a whiz at this, but that’s a tall order. I had to invent several of the components from scratch to make this work the way you wanted. You have my guarantee that the second it’s ready for commercial use, you’ll know."

Max watched the flight of a passing bird and waited for some kind of response. Really, the hardest part of this was trying to sound sincere in what he said, when first, he felt so dead inside, incapable of being sincere, and second, it was mostly crap. He had technology a hundred generations more advanced then what he was making for Hiban and his company, but he couldn’t introduce it without everyone and their uncles asking how he came up with it. Being considered a genius only took you so far.

"Very well, Max." The stubborn Hiban’s voice held barely a trace of the anger he was surely feeling. "Get it to me as soon as you can, but make no mistake…. I’ll only wait for so long. I do have other options, after all." With that there was a click, then a dead line.

Gah, the man is truly annoying, Max thought, swiveling around in his chair. He swore he’d screen his contractors better in the future. The desire to go home was now exploding inside him, but he knew he had to finish some critical paperwork, then go down to R&D before he could even consider taking a break, let alone go home. He closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose again, trying to summon up the strength to go on.

Just as he started to rise from his chair, another sound shattered the silence. This time it emanated from the small cell phone in his pocket. Almost cursing, he took it out, flipped it open, then pressed the receive button and put it to his ear and mouth. "Max here. Make it good." He didn’t need to be polite or businesslike at all on this phone. Only a few people had the number, and they only used it when it was important.

The voice on the other end of the line was deep and somewhat strained. "Is that any way to greet friends, Lukan?"

It took Max a moment to place the voice, the delay in recognition only because of the surprise at someone using his true name. The smallest trace of a smile touched his lips, and his tone warmed slightly. "Solace, you arrogant bastard, what have you been up to? It’s been far too long since I’ve heard that scary-ass voice of yours."

The laugh on the other end was just as strained as the speech. "Lukan, I want to catch up with ya, but I have a big problem, and I need your help like right now to fix it."

Max’s faint smile vanished, to be replaced by the emotionless look he typically wore. He shook his head to himself as he settled back in his chair. "The answer is no. I know that tone of voice, and I know I won’t like whatever you’re about to say."

"Lukan…."

"It’s Max now, Solace," he interrupted swiftly. "I am not Lukan, I am not Chance. All I am… is Max." A long time ago it might have hurt him to speak those words, but he was far beyond hurt now. He no longer felt much of anything. It was like a broken circuit; the feelings occurred, but along the way they met a dead space and the emotions just never made it to the part of him that cared.

There was real pain in the other man’s voice as he started speaking again. "Fine, Max then, but no matter who you say you are, I need you."

Solace sounded so…desperate. Max had been with the man before, in battle. Bullets had flown past them, bodies of dead friends littered the ground, but Solace had never sounded like this before. "All right, you have my full attention. What is it you need me to do?"

Relief flooded Solace’s voice. "Well, Destiny is in trouble, and you’re the only one I’m sure can help her."

Max blinked at the name. Destiny was Solace’s younger sister and had been a close friend of his. People had often made fun of the pair when he went by his old name, Chance Fate. But with names like theirs, it couldn’t have been avoided. The thought of Destiny in trouble stirred up something in him and he knew he had to do what he could. "Tell me exactly what’s wrong."

Solace continued quickly, sounding far better, though worry was still plain in his tone. "Something is seriously wrong with her, like a sickness. She nearly set the Doss on fire an hour ago. If I don’t do something soon I think she might…. she might not make it."

Anyone else might have assumed Destiny was a mentally ill pyromaniac, but Max knew better then that. Panic started to rise in him, knowing why Solace needed him; he so badly wanted to say no but was unable to. His heart may have grown cold, but he was not so inhuman as to not feel compassion in this situation.

Despite this, Max wanted to strike Solace for making him come to this decision. But his anger was not reflected in his voice as he responded. "Very well, I’ll do what I can for her. Give me a few minuets to tie up loose ends that might arise here, and I’ll…."

The sound of an explosion cracked though the cell phone, along with a scream that most certainly belonged to his friend.

"Solace!" Max jumped to his feet with awesome swiftness and moved to the center of his office.

There was no response on the other end except for a faint sizzling sound.

Max dropped the phone on the floor and raised a hand in front of him as if willing an invisible force to move out of his way.

The quickness and power of the energy that suddenly flooded him was not surprising in the least. He knew that over the years the power he wielded had only gotten stronger; he just never tapped it anymore. His right arm started to glow blue, almost like a flashlight had been turned on under his skin. It’s like riding a bicycle, he thought as the fabric of reality started to bend in front of him—molecules rearranging to connect two points in space. Anyone standing next to him would have seen a blurry circle form about a foot away from his hand. It rippled like a drop of water hitting the surface of a pond.

Max didn’t know precisely where in the Doss Solace was, but he hoped the doorway was close enough to him and Destiny. In seconds it had finished forming, and he raced forward to enter his creation.

He had done this many times in his past, but after so long he knew there would be some dizzying effects from the travel. He did not, however, expect that the second he started to pass though the doorway, he would be slammed backwards as if a brick wall had run into him. So shocked was he by his failure to enter the doorway that at first he didn’t notice Jennifer standing in the real doorway of his office, her jaw practically on the floor. But he saw her quickly enough.

This can be salvaged, he thought, a second before the cause of his fall came though the doorway, a very large and badly burned troll carrying a woman in her twenties. As the troll lightly dropped the young girl on the ground two things became clear. Her body was totally engulfed in fire without a burn on her… and she was completely naked.

Thoughts of salvaging the situation were gone as a streak of fire flew upwards and slammed into the ceiling. An explosion very similar to the one he had heard over the cell phone now loudly resounded in his office.

Max didn’t have time to look at Jennifer, but he could imagine her reaction. His hand was up in front of him and glowing bright blue in moments. Everything except for himself and Destiny were quickly pushed from his mind. Pulsing with energy, he did the first thing that came to his mind.

The air surrounding Destiny started to change. Though no one in the room but Max could see the change, an invisible bubble formed around the naked girl. Another streak of fire snaked out from her body, but it met the hardened field around her and dissipated.

Max snapped his gaze to Solace. "What the hell is going on?"

Standing at just under eight feet tall, Solace easily dwarfed everyone in the room, looking especially tall in comparison to the human girl he carried in. A loose-fitting gray jacket covered almost his entire body, hiding anything he had on under it. His thick black boots made a loud thud every time he moved. His eyes were ice blue, and an orange shock of coarse hair lay atop his head. He looked at Max and seemed overwhelmed with relief, which was quickly replaced by panic as he turned back to his sister. "I don’t know, chummer. Like I told you, she’s been like this all day now. I sure as hell can’t do anything about it."

Max nodded at Solace, then flicked his glance to Jennifer and sighed. "Solace, make sure she doesn’t leave here." Then he moved over to Destiny’s trapped form. Streaks of fire were still shooting from her body, hitting the field around her, then vanishing. With every attack he could feel a part of him weaken, but not so much that he would be affected in any short-term way.

As he laid his hands gently on the field he heard muffled screams behind him; he didn’t need to look to know Solace was doing what he needed to do. Max couldn’t blame Jenn for struggling. After all, she had no idea what was going on.

Destiny lunged at Max but bounced off the kinetic field and ended up flat on her back. He winced and quickly set to work trying to find the problem. Closing his eyes, he extended his mind outwards, trying to force a telepathic bond between himself and Destiny. While he was quite strong in other areas, mental abilities had always been one of his weakest points. Despite both his mother and father being abnormally powerful with mental magic, he had never been given the proper training as a child to strengthen those innate gifts and had never reached his full potential.

However, the strength of his mental power peaked and he suddenly felt Destiny. He recoiled from the field and took a sharp breath. Normally he could only read surface thoughts and emotions from a person at such a low level of connection, but Destiny’s every thought WAS on the surface. Rage, depression, fear, paranoia—all rolled off her in crashing waves of raw emotion. He wanted to break the link and move away, but he could not let her down, nor her brother.

As Max tried to delve deeper into Destiny’s mind to find the source of this irrational behavior, he considered that had he kept up his training, things like this would not be so much of a shock to his system. There was a reason he had changed his name and tried to stay out of the public eye. He had many enemies, but if he was not able to call forth his powers reliably if he was attacked, he would be dead quickly. Training would also have helped in cases such as this.

Things suddenly snapped into focus for Max, as clear as if a sign was stapled to Destiny’s forehead for him to read. He muttered in a toneless voice "Solace, an outside force is controlling her." His eyes snapped open, and he looked at the portal he had made. It was still open, which meant that who or whatever was controlling her had a window to her. The Psion or mental mage that was doing this would have to be in close proximity to her, and with the portal still open, it was as if she was still inside the Doss. If Max closed it, an entire realm would separate her and the force controlling her… but if the being still had control of her after the portal closed, there was no way he’d be able to stop a link that powerful anyway.

Max lifted his hand once more and snapped it shut like squeezing something in his hand. Abruptly the portal closed. The sounds of fiery explosions ceased. Looking at Destiny, he saw that she was no longer emitting fire. In fact, she appeared to be unconscious. The bubble around her vanished, and Solace was at her side within a second. Max looked to the doorway to see Jenn’s mouth gagged and arms and legs tied up. He shook his head once more and muttered "This could have turned out better."

Then he was at Destiny’s side as well, looking at Solace with a mix of compassion for what he must be feeling and happiness at seeing him. Had Jenn not been bound and gagged, she would have been shocked to see the smile that crossed his face. It was warm and genuine, nothing like the coldness usually associated with him. His body was spent and he felt a bit dizzy, but he had not felt this good for a while.

Solace’s deep voice suddenly boomed, though his gaze didn’t move from his sister. "Will she be all right, chummer?"

Max nodded, still smiling, "Yeah, she’s going to be fine. You’re going to have to find out who’s doing this to her, but until that happens you two will stay at my house here in the Mundane. She can’t go back to the Shadows until the person doing this is dead or has their powers stripped."

The troll nodded and clapped Max hard on the back, nearly causing him to fall on his face. Max looked down at Destiny, now acutely aware that she was naked. He blushed slightly and looked away, causing Solace to laugh. "You still carry a torch for her, chummer? I’m sure she’d be happy to hear so when she wakes up."

Max regained his composure and shook his head, the thought bringing up his defenses fast and hard. He stood up and brushed his shirt and pants smooth.

Solace could almost feel the change in his attitude and shut up quickly. Picking up his naked sister he held her close, then looked at Max. "I want to get her dressed and in a bed. I still worry about her. The two of us can’t exactly go though the front door. How can we get to a safe place?"

Max looked at the center of his office. A new Portal suddenly appeared there. He looked to his friend and his sister and nodded towards it. "Take her through there. It leads right into the guest room of my house. You’ll be safe there, I guarantee. Wraiths will take care of anything you need. You’ll see me soon enough. I need to take care of some things around here—first, though, obviously…." He gestured at Jenn.

The troll nodded, and his face split in a grin "Thank you, Lukan, this means more to me than you know."

Max nearly argued about the name, but Solace was though the doorway quicker then one might expect for such a large frame. A small smile pulled at the corners of his mouth, and he closed the Portal behind them.

Whatever happiness he’d experienced vanished as he turned and saw Jennifer staring at him with wide, scared eyes. She was not struggling with her binds, probably thinking it would be futile to try and escape after all she had just seen him do.

He swallowed softly and said, "I don’t suppose there’s any chance you’d want to take the blue pill?"

He was referring to another movie, The Matrix. She had to have understood the joke because he had gotten it for her as a birthday present just about a year ago.

She did not look amused.

Not amused was quite an understatement, actually. There was a mixture of anger and fear in her eyes that he admired… well, the anger part, at least. Any normal human capable of showing anything but terror in a situation like this was someone to admire. Max considered voicing that compliment but decided it would only make the situation worse.

A pin could have been heard dropping in the office as he crossed the room and moved over to the doorway where Jenn was tied up. The two were usually the only ones on this floor of the building, a fact that he was very thankful for at the moment. They were on the 14th floor in fact, another thing he considered lucky, because the only thing above them was the roof. Unless someone was up there now, no one would have heard the noises that had come from his office.

Jennifer barely reacted as he knelt next to her and looked her in the eyes. Besides the mixed look she gave him, she seemed fairly calm, at least more so then when she had walked in earlier. He tried to think of what to say, but nothing came to mind. What does one tell another person when that person has just witnessed him opening portals and creating invisible force fields?

"I can only imagine what you’re thinking right now… but it’s not as bad as it seems. I assure you I’m no threat to you."

She just continued to stare at him.

"If you’re wondering why you didn’t catch on to any of this sooner, it’s because this is the first time in a long while I've used my powers."

She still just looked at him, her face not even changing expressions.

He cleared his throat a bit. "Look I don’t want you to be uncomfortable… you promise not to scream if I take the gag off?" It occurred to him how clichéd that sounded, but it was already out of his mouth, so no worrying about it now.

Jenn looked at him very closely, then nodded. Smiling slightly, he reached behind her head and quickly untied the knot in back. Slowly he pulled his hands away, gag in fist, and looked at her. She worked her jaw back and forth slowly, then looked him in the eyes. "What the hell are you?" she asked coolly.

"A lover and a fighter," he replied immediately.

The cold look she gave him indicated she definitely was not in the mood for jokes, and he really didn’t understand why he was making them in the first place. No amount of laughter was going to get him out of this.

"I’m a human like you," he said after a moment, figuring there was no point in lies now. "But I’m also part dragon and part demon. No joking this time." He added the last because of the angry glance she gave him once again.

Either because she decided she believed him, or because she was not going to get a straight answer, she moved on. "That… thing… he called you Lukan. Is that your real name?"

Max nodded slowly, grudgingly. "It was the name I was given at birth… though that was another lifetime ago. I’d appreciate it if you just called me Max."

Jenn’s gaze turned questioning, curiosity brewing within her hazel depths.

Turning away from her, Max stood up and smoothed out his pants, speaking once more as he looked out the window behind his desk. "Lukan died a long time ago, Jennifer. I put everything in that life behind me… well, almost everything. You can’t just sever the friendships you’ve made over decades."

He winced after saying that, knowing he was just digging himself a deeper and deeper pit. At most he looked about 25 years old, though those who truly knew him had known him for many more years than that.

"What are you going to do to me?"

Max turned around quickly and blinked, both startled by the question and the tone it was delivered in. Whatever strength Jennifer had before had waned. The fear he had first seen when he looked at her was back again. She didn’t look like she was about to break down crying, but like anyone in her situation, she was struggling to make sense of what was going on and what was going to happen.

He licked his lips slowly. "Well… there’s no point in lying to you. I’m going to have to call in a favor and get someone here to erase your memory. I don’t want to hurt you by trying to do it myself."

Pausing, he looked at her shocked face, and he frowned because he had hoped she wouldn’t take it so hard. Before she could say anything, he said quickly, "You don’t need to worry about anything. It won’t hurt, and you’ll come in tomorrow like none of this ever happened."

Her lips moved silently for a moment, as if trying to force out words. Then she said quietly, "You… you can’t do that. You can’t just go into my head and wipe this away!"

"Jenn, I have no choice. You know something that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. You now know there are forces in this world that are by no means normal. Maybe you don’t realize what I’ve been telling you…but I’m a dragon. I’m over a hundred years old. That "thing," as you called him, is a troll from another reality. I can rip open the very fabric of matter and play with it. Hell, my cell phone has a chip in it that lets me talk to wizards, fairies, and forces of evil so dark that just gazing on them would make you want to rip your eyes out! Now you tell me if you want that knowledge. You tell me if you can go on every day of your life until you die, knowing all this."

He had not expected to address her in such a blunt way, but something inside him was hurting, a part of him that he had neglected for a very long time. He couldn’t stand the thought of Jenn having to feel the kind of pain that came from knowing so much.

She became absolutely silent again after he spoke, apparently mulling his words over in her mind. Finally her answer came in the form of a slow shake of her head.

While she was thinking it over he had already retrieved his cell phone and was dialing a number on it. As he did so he said, "I’m sorry it has to be like this Jenn, I really am, but even if you had wanted to remember I couldn’t allow it." He put the cell phone up to his ear. "While I trust you more then anyone else I know…the possibility of you telling the wrong person and getting both of us killed is just too risky. I hope you know I’m doing this because I care." Someone answered on the other end, and he said, "Yeah, I need to talk to the Starshine Girl."

Jenn looked up and blinked. Seeing her listening, Max moved a bit further away from her and talked more softly by the window of his office. "Yeah, tell her it’s… Chance, and it’s urgent. Yes. Yes. No, I can’t, it has to be soon. A memory wipe. Fine, just tell her it’s urgent. Yeah. Bye."

He pressed the disconnect button on the phone, then slid it in his pocket, cursing that woman’s busy schedule. She had plenty of free time 50 years ago; what did she do with her time these days? Shaking his head, he walked back over to Jenn and knelt by her once more. "Well you’re going to have to wait a little bit. Please, don’t try and be too torn up over it," he added dryly. "StarshineGirl is a busy person."

"Her name is StarshineGirl?"

For a woman about to have her memory erased she sounded damn calm. Hopefully because she’s accepted what’s going to happen, Max thought. "Well, no… but that’s what everyone calls her. She’s StarshineGirl as much as I’m Max. She doesn’t work in as… public a setting, so she doesn’t need people to think her "normal." She uses her powers much more freely."

He wasn’t sure why he just told Jenn all that when a simple "yes" would have stopped the subject. But she was going to lose her memories soon enough, so it really didn’t matter what he said.

Jenn cleared her throat. "Tell me about yourself, Max. I want to know the truth…who you really are. I… I’ve worked with you for such a long time. I want to know… anything. Do you have parents?"

He was already standing after her first sentence and making his way back to his desk. But at the mention of parents he froze. Flashes of his mother’s face suddenly haunted him, filling his mind with memories he had long ago decided to bury. He spun around and opened his mouth with the intention of saying no. However, what came out was, "Do you really want to know? Or are you hoping to soften me up and escape?"

"My arms and legs are tied together, and I’m in a room with a man who just summoned a giant troll from a glowing portal in the center of his office. Do you really think I’m going anywhere?"

Max almost laughed at that, and would have if the question she asked hadn’t been so sobering. He made his way back to her and quickly sat on the floor in front of her. "The story of my dad would take far too long. If you really want to know about my mom, though… well, she was a wonderfully kind woman… but she was a warrior to the core. A ‘battle-hardened bitch,’ as she liked to refer to herself. I was taken from her at birth, but fate brought us back together again. For many, many years we were happy together. She raised me to be just like her. She tempered the darkness inside of me, teaching me control, discipline, and, most of all, how to live life. We were both in a dangerous profession, one she had taught me. We took down people and corporations for people who hired us. At any time we could have been killed, and one day… our luck just ran out."

Max definitely hadn’t expected to say all that, but something inside of him had burst, and now he had to talk to someone or just explode.

Jenn looked at him with real concern on her face. "What happened to her?"

Once more he looked her deep in the eyes and asked, "Do you really want to know?"

She nodded, and he sighed. "Then look into my eyes Jenn… look deep into my eyes if you want to see what happened."

She didn’t hesitate like he thought she would, but gazed into his eyes much more intently than before. Taking that as a sign she understood what would happen, he concentrated. His mind extended once more, but this time not in a link with Jenn, but only towards her, like a movie projection screen. She let out a slight shutter; then the two of them froze in place where they sat.

She now saw what he himself had kept hidden from himself for over 40 years.


*

"Duck!"

Moving like lightning, Chance dived down on the floor and rolled several times before pushing up hard on his palms, propelling himself to his feet nearly three meters from the spot he was at just half a second ago. The woman behind the desk looked at him intensely… then laughed hard and leaned back in her plush chair. Before she could say anything, though, he spoke up with a large grin.

"Yes, yes, it is duck. I thought you deserved something special for agreeing to do this with me." With a smirk, Chance crossed the distance between them, hopped up on a corner of the desk, and gestured to the silver platter containing roasted duck, steamed carrots and a chilled glass of white wine. He couldn’t help but laugh at his own joke, knowing his mother hadn’t expected him to do what he’d done the moment after he lifted the lid off the tray for her.

"You damn well better believe I do," she said archly. "However, I would’ve gladly accepted diamonds or even rubies in place of this… blatant attempt to butter me up." The tone of her voice was most definitely amused, and he took the jab in the spirit in which it was intended—lovingly.

Chance leaped off the desk, taking a moment to look his mother over as she talked. In his eyes she was the embodiment of beauty, grace, and strength. Others might have made other observations, such as, "I wonder how many cows you had to kill to get that much leather to wear." Those people might be right, but it would never change the way he saw her. She was 6’5" and over 300 lbs. of solid muscle. Long red hair, almost like burnished copper, hung past her shoulders, somehow making her green/gray eyes incredibly noticeable. They drew you in, making you want to look at them all day.

However, most people seeing her for the first time couldn’t get over her imposing stature. They knew trouble when they saw it. But her friends just accepted as second nature the trouble that came with knowing her.

"Yeah, well…." Chance said, picking up the conversation without losing a beat, "when this is over you can buy as much expensive jewelry as your heart desires. Until then, just enjoy lunch and I’ll brief you on our objective."

She laughed as he took a seat across from her. Then, as if a light switch had been turned off, both their faces grew serious. Chance took nibbles of duck and carrots every so often as he talked.

"As you know, we’re going to be infiltrating Kethra Corp." He pressed the button on a small black box resting at his side. Suddenly the holographic projectors in the room kicked in and projected a 3-D model of the corporation. It looked unremarkable, really—a normal office building with large letters spelling out "Kethra Corp" on the top of one wall. "This is the best image I could generate from such sketchy information. It has fifty floors and guards enough for a Corp three times its size. There’s an advanced security system encompassing every damn room that puts Shinto’s system to shame. There are multiple checkpoints requiring retinal and blood scans."

The more Chance went on, the grimmer his mother looked and in truth he felt worried as well. Not for fear of dying. He was an incredibly accomplished Decker, using his knowledge of computers to hack his way though Corp computers and the ‘Trix. On a Run his life was cannon fodder… at least to the people who hired him. No, what he was worried about was his mother. She had given this stuff up many years ago, but once a fighter, always a fighter. Despite being over 190 years old, she had the appearance of a 30-year-old and the reflexes of a trained killing machine. The truth was, Chance needed some muscle for this job, and he couldn’t think of anyone else he’d rather with him. He was an incredibly accomplished Decker, using his knowledge of computers to hack his way though Corp computers and the ‘Trix—but he still needed someone watching his back.

"Now, as for the scans, I of course will take care of them beforehand. I have the retinal scans and blood work of an employee of the Corp who’s… out sick for a while." It was a nice way of saying he had had the person killed. His mother knew what he meant and merely nodded. "I’ll alter your eyes to pass the scan, and I’ll simply follow you in."

She raised an eyebrow and seemed ready to ask him how he was going to pull that off, but was stopped by a ripple of light around his body. Within seconds he went from about twenty years old in appearance to around six. Both of them grinned over the brief shared memory of the first time they had pulled off something like this.

As he continued, his voice reflected his new age, making him quite comical to listen to. "Once inside I’m going to just blend into the background… well, into the daycare center, more accurately."

His mother definitely looked like she was going to crack up now; her voice dripped with repressed laughter. "Yeah I can see it now, Kethra Corp taken down by toddler with a sharpened graham cracker, news byte at 11."

Chance laughed hard and shifted back to his original age. "Well, that’s the point; they’re never going to see it coming." His face hardened. "This is going to be do or die. The only reason we need to bother entering so peacefully is because the daycare center is close to this air duct."

He pressed the button on his side once again, and the picture of the Corp shifted to the 23rd floor near the middle of the building. It continued to zoom in until the spot he was talking about flashed between solid and transparent looking. "From there it’ll be a fun crawl though a couple hundred feet of small enclosed space until we get here." For the third time the image shifted, displaying the rough layout of a small laboratory with computer equipment nearly filling it. "Once inside, we’re going to have to take out the guards and any workers inside. Then you’ll set explosives while I infect the computers inside with a virus, one that’ll hopefully be transmitted throughout the Corp’s network before we blow the room to dust."

Grinning slightly, he pressed the button once more, and the image vanished. He turned to give his mother a serious look. "From there I can teleport the two of us out of the room. By then it won’t matter if any Kethra security mages sense that great a use of power, because we’ll be gone. Then we can come back here and have more duck."

She chuckled grimly. "I’m going to be honest with you, Chance, I don’t like the lack of real intelligence we have on this job. While it’s perfectly planned out, I’m not sure if we aren’t just hanging ‘Shoot me’ signs on our backs."

In a quiet voice he said, "Yeah, I had much the same thought, but the Angel is willing to pay quite handsomely for this, three million credits each. Now, while we certainly don’t need the money, I still want to do this. I’m convinced this is on the level. You know how hard it is to get good info on a place as secure as this. I wouldn’t bring you in on this if I thought I’d be throwing your life away."

She nodded, a smile tugging at her lips again. "Yeah I know. OK, then, let’s do it. I trust you have everything set up?"

Chance hopped up from his chair and stretched. "Yes. We leave first thing tomorrow morning, if that works for you. We’re only going to have to walk a few blocks to get to the Corp. I can get us pretty close to it without anyone noticing us. Then it’ll just be a cake walk."

Chance’s mother got up and hugged him tightly. Though it had been a long time since anyone had thought of Chance as a child, he never had stopped wanting affection from his mother. While most children tried to distance themselves from such things out of embarrassment, he had never gotten over the thrill of having someone who truly loved and cared for him. From birth to ten years old he hadn’t even been treated as a real person, so now he just soaked in whatever he could get.

"All right," his mother said as she pulled away, "tomorrow it is. I’ll see you back at the house?"

He shook his head. "Not tonight. I have to get things prepared. Final arrangements and all. I’m going to sleep here when I’m done. Just meet me here at 5:00 tomorrow morning."

She frowned but nodded and walked to the door that led out into the main room of the tavern they were in, The Lair. They co-owned it. "All right, but you damn well better rest. You know you have to be sharp and alert tomorrow."

"Bah, all six-year-olds look kinda dopey and sleepy in the morning," he said with a grin.

A ghost of a smile passed over her lips, and she slipped outside and closed the door behind her.

Chance ate the last piece of duck, then set to work on the computer at his mom’s desk, typing away for a long while after.


*

A ringing sounded though the office, breaking the fine concentration it took to maintain the memory link between Max and Jennifer. Simultaneously they blinked their eyes and looked at his front pocket. Max shook his head and fished out the cell phone, flicked it open and put it to his ear. "Hello," he said, more a statement then a question.

"Well you certainly know how to talk to a gal that you want a favor from," a soft female voice said.

"Yes, well, I’d think after all the things I’ve done for you, a favor once in a while would be only a small token of your affection," Max said dryly. While appreciative that his phone call had been returned, the interruption between himself and Jenn annoyed him. At this moment he could almost pretend he was back in time, that he still lived that life… that he still had his mom.

Looking at Jenn, he saw her shaking her head, no doubt trying to get over the aftereffects of the link. Musical laughter echoed in his ear, "Fine, well, I see you’re in no mood for small talk, so why don’t you tell me exactly what you need?"

Damn, he loved her—not in a romantic way, but Amy, known to most everyone else as Starshine Girl, had to be one of the most understanding people he knew. She knew when to cut the pleasantries.

Max said, "Well, Solace had a little incident with his sister, and… well, things didn’t go terribly well."

"Oh no…" Amy said worriedly. "They’re OK now, aren’t they?"

"Mmm, well, for the time being, yes. Someone was trying to control her… or perhaps just drive her mad and watch the kill count rise. The problem is being worked on. Unfortunately they ended up in my office in the Mundane with fireballs shooting off her."

Max could just barely make out softly laughter as Amy held the phone away from her face before responding "So what do you need my help for?"

"Well, unfortunately, my personal secretary walked in while things happened."

"Oh… well, I assume you have her knocked out for now?"

He shook his head as he glanced at Jennifer, seeing her now listening intently. Turning away from her, he lowered his voice. "No, not exactly… but she is contained. What I need is a good memory wipe. I could do it myself if forced, but I couldn’t do it as selectively or rebuild them like you. She might end up losing a whole week… and I don’t know how I’d explain that away."

"Well, I’m taking care of some business here, but I should be able to come along fairly soon," Amy said. "You sure the situation is contained? She isn’t a danger?"

"Yes, I’m sure. No worries there, I assure you. Just get here when you can. I’ll be here."

That wonderful musical laughter filled his ear again, though only a soft chuckle this time "OK. See you then."

The line went dead, and Max closed the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. Slowly he turned back to Jenn and saw she was fully recovered from the shock of the mental projection. He once more sat in front of her.

She spoke softly to him. "That was…wow. I’ve never experienced anything like that before. How did you… no… never mind, I’m not going to remember anyway. Just show me what happened next."

Max was surprised; he didn’t understand why she wasn’t frightened. Then he smiled slightly, once more admiring this courage in a normal human. But his face turned much more serious as he realized the first half of the memory was nothing compared to what came next. "Jenn, I don’t think that’s a good idea. You like the shared memory so much because what I’ve shown you so far has been all pleasant… but it wasn’t all like that. It just… wasn’t." He sounded sad, almost weary, as if energy was draining from him just by talking to her.

She, however, persisted. "Max, in a little while none of this is going to matter anyway… but this is the only time I’m ever going to be able to experience something like this. What’s the worst that could happen? I could freak out and have to live with what you experienced for however long it takes for your friend to come. Besides… I want to know what happened… with you and your mom."

Max had to admit it was a convincing argument. He nodded, then spoke softly. "Well to make a long story short…we met up in the morning at the same tavern. I had gotten enough rest and was ready to go when she came. The specifics of how we got in are inconsequential. All that matters is everything was going as planed. We got inside without incident and were inside the air duct and… well…."

He paused, then looked deeply into her eyes again. Picking up on his nonverbal cue, Jenn looked intently into the depths of his blue/gray eyes…and once more the office was gone to them both, replaced by another time, another life.

It was insanely hot inside the air duct. What his information had failed to mention was that this was one of the main heating vents for the building’s central heating. At the moment it was unfortunately quite active, pumping heated air though out the entire twothreerd floor. His mother, while sweating slightly from the increased temperature, was doing just fine. He, on the other hand, had a slightly harder problem to get over.

"Gods, I should have let you go first. I coulda just closed my eyes and pretended I was swimming or something… in a large open area pool… lots of visible sky." Though it had been more than four0 years since he had been tortured by being locked in a small closet as a form of punishment, he was still deathly claustrophobic. In this line of work a fear like that could get you killed, but he had managed to suppress it during Runs. Unfortunately, it couldn’t just be shut off. Venting about it helped take the pressure off, mainly because he knew his mother was supportive of his problem.

"Yeah, I know," she replied softly, keeping a careful eye out for spots where they had to stop talking or risk being heard. "You could always buy a football stadium after this is over and fill it with water. You’ll have plenty of money to do so."

Chance nodded and continued crawling, navigating the mazelike turns of the vents by memory alone. He had not yet bothered to change back to his original form, instead staying five so the walls of the vents didn’t seem to be closing in on him so much. He was sure his mother was silently laughing her ass off as she watched him from behind.

Admittedly, he must have looked pretty funny, a small boy wearing an all-black body suit. The suit acted as an advanced form of protection from physical attacks. If he was stabbed or shot, tiny nanobots were released from the cloth and went to work repairing his wounds. This wouldn’t help if he were hit with a shotgun point-blank in the chest, but it gave excellent protection against most small firearms.

A super gun was all well and good, but for one-on-one fights a small handgun or at most a rifle was required for fast and accurate shooting. Chance wore a small handgun at his side. It was hidden at the moment due to the molecular rearrangement he had used to become a small boy—and that his mother had used to get them past the security checkpoints. It fired condensed cobalt particles at incredible speeds, making them much more efficient than normal bullets. He had adapted the technology from an earlier version he’d purchased when he was younger. His mother had one as well. Weapon development was a hobby of his, so to speak.

Suddenly he came to a stop, causing his mother to nearly crash into him. "We’re here, moms. The vent to enter is right in front of me." He whispered so softly that even her heightened senses almost couldn’t pick his words up.

This was going to be the hard part. Chance had to see how many men were in the room; then he and his mother had to move quickly to dispatch them, all before anyone could hit an alarm or… well… kill them.

It was almost impossible to get a good view from where he was, but if he leaned over the grate too far there was a greater possibility he’d be seen. The lab was not terribly big, so at least he could see more than three-quarters of it from where he was. His eyes darted from one place to another. Silently he reached a hand behind him and held up four fingers, then made a silent snapping gesture. Next he made a fist and raised two fingers after a moment. He had just told his mother there were four guards and two lab techs inside the room.

She tapped him once on the back to indicate she understood, then withdrew her arm and drew her weapon. Doing the same, he touched a spot on his side, and seemingly from thin air withdrew a small silver handgun. He waited a moment more to watch the guards’ movements, then tensed, preparing for the drop into the lab.

He wished he could use his mental powers to speak with his mother, but almost every major Corp nowadays had mages to sense that kind of activity. It was why he had changed before teleporting to the spot they would approach the Corp from, and the other main reason he had not shifted back to his normal form as they crawled though the vents.

When on a Run his mother and he worked almost as one body. They could almost sense what the other was going to do, so it was easy to improvise when necessary. Of course, they had a roughly drafted-out plan. First and foremost, the guards would be taken out. If all went as planned he would take out two, as would she. After that the lab techs would either be killed or knocked out, depending on their ability at self-defense. Ideally, the whole thing would take about five seconds, assuming they took out the guards without any crossfire or interference.

Chance’s mother, seeing him ready to go, tensed as well, knowing it was Chance’s job to knock the vent out, then start firing. She would then drop and land back-to-back with him, eliminating the guards on his opposite side. They would then take down one of the lab techs.

Chance raised his hand behind him once more and put three fingers up, then two, then one. As his hand turned to a fist he leaped forward and put his entire five-year-old weight on the grate separating the vent from the lab. There was a loud clang as it dropped to the floor, followed immediately by himself. As he fell he naturally turned to his right and leveled the cobalt pistol at the first of the two guards. As he hit the floor his shot rang out, hitting the startled guard square in the forehead. Unfortunately, Chance also landed right on the fallen grate and slipped backwards in what would have been a comical way if people hadn’t started shooting at him.

300-plus pounds of muscle dropped down right after him, nearly crushing his head as he floundered both to move away from where his mother would land and to target the second guard on the right side. He had no thoughts at all of the other two guards on the left. They were his mother’s responsibility, and he hoped for both their sakes she’d not make as stupid a mistake as he just had. Even after all the years he’d been doing this, a mistake or two was inevitable, but slipping on the grate had to be his worst in a while.

But no time to think about that, as he felt a bullet penetrate his left shoulder. Had it been even the slightest bit lower, he would be bleeding seriously right now, but thanks to dumb luck his attempts to get back up and fire moved him just out of the guard’s shot. Purely by instinct his arm moved in a blur, aimed where he heard the shot come from, and fired.

A muffled scream was followed by two louder ones behind him. Leaping to his feet, he twisted around and saw the second guard he’d aimed at, shot in the throat. No more fire came from his mother, so he assumed her guards were dead as well. His eyes instantly flicked to the lab techs not more than ten feet away. They were starring at the two of them incredulously.

"Come here, now!" Chance barked, watching their hands very carefully to make sure they didn’t push any buttons on the consoles they were near. His mother was quickly at his side doing the same. The techs, however, just continued to stare blankly.

"I said now!"

Once again the techs didn’t respond. But… something was off. "Moms, something is wrong here… very wrong. I don’t like this."

In response his mother fired off shots at both techs, aiming right for their heads. Instead of ripping them apart, the shots passed though them, making them flicker for a moment. Holograms!

But they were more than mere images. The mechanisms that created them sensed the cobalt particles passing through them, and….

"Oh, drek!" was all Chance had time to scream as the lab exploded in a blaze of fire and shrapnel.

Acting purely on instinct, he snapped his hand up and tried to erect a force field to protect himself and his mother, but he was about half a second too late in forming it. The field could only act as a cushion as he was thrown hard against the back wall.

Vision blurred by the intense heat in the room, the last thing he saw before feeling many of his ribs and vertebrae crack was what seemed to be a piece of metal that slammed into his mother’s chest, nearly cutting her in half. He tried to scream but was unable to move, let alone force breath from his lungs.

This was it. He could feel himself dying. I can’t possibly survive this, he thought foggily as everything came to a stop. But he was wrong. The partially formed field had given him just enough protection to last though the blast.

Chance tried to look around, but all he could see was red. From what little he could feel he was on the floor… which meant there still was a floor, along with the wall he had hit. The room had to be lined with titanium or some kind of very heavy steel. Enough to keep the explosion contained to this one room.

Neither his arms or legs would respond. He was likely paralyzed and would probably die if he didn’t find a way out of the room now. The weird thing was that despite being blown into a wall and seeing his mother cut in half he felt no pain, no grief… at least not at the moment. All that would come later, no doubt.

Everything seemed so logical, so very clear to him as his combat training kicked in. Nothing would stand in the way of his escape. His mother was just a casualty. Breathe in. Breathe out. Escape. Escape. Escape.

As he was unable to move, running was not an option. Instead, he reverted back to the original plan. Not bothering to close his eyes because he couldn’t see anyway, he started to concentrate, hard. The power he was so accustomed to using as easily as breathing now burned through his body like an inferno. The slightest buildup was excruciating; the mere thought of applying it terrifying to him. If he didn’t die here it was very likely he would die escaping.

The pain just kept growing in intensity until he was sure he could feel his bones splitting apart. He screamed, feeling as if someone was ripping every bit of skin off him and salting his unprotected flesh, as if lightning bolts rained down on him.

Why hadn’t he passed out by now? No living being should be able to stay awake during this.

However, his pain paid off as a blinding bright blue light seeped out of his body and slowly ate him away from the room. That’s what it felt like, in fact, but in his shattered state, creating a true portal was impossible. In seconds he was no longer in the room; the only evidence that he’d been there was a large pool of warm blood on the floor.


***

A wet warmth ran down his face. Sucking in a deep breath of air, Max got up from the office floor and touched his cheek. He half expected to see thick blood coating his hand, but they were only tears—tears of pain he could not longer keep inside. It took him a moment to remember what was going on. When he did, he looked down at Jennifer.

Tears ran down her face as well. While she had felt nowhere near the level of reality he had experienced, she had still felt his basic emotions. To him it was almost like he had relived it, but to her she’d been merely a visitor in his body, seeing everything though his eyes—the difference between being in the movie and watching it.

Quiet sobs racked her body as she spoke. "I’m so sorry for you, Chance… so sorry. I had no idea. I’m… so sorry."

He felt like sobbing himself, but no sound came from him. Being called Chance again so soon after the memory was a slap across the face. It had been so many years since he’d felt anything like this. He wanted no part of that life any more.

When he was finally able to speak again, he whispered to Jenn, "Af… after that I reappeared in a Doss not to far away from the Corp. I was unconscious. When I woke up my entire body was numb… but I was cleaned up and lying on my back in a bed. I… I had made a mistake. I wasn’t in the safe Doss I had set up for after the mission. That… that was actually the first day I met Solace. He and his little sister had bandaged up some of my wounds… and had even gotten a Wagemage at great price to themselves to heal me. If they hadn’t I would most likely be dead or paralyzed today."

Jennifer had turned her gaze from the floor up to him. Even though he knew she probably didn’t understand most of what he was talking about he could not stop. A floodgate had opened, and he could not close it.

"See… in the shadows it’s dangerous to take chances like that. If Solace hadn’t been a runner like I was… or if he’d just decided not to take the time to help… I wouldn’t be here now. I owe him my life. God, I owe so many people my life. So many lives… to many lifetimes."

He stopped himself then, knowing he was going over the edge. He had to calm down. Biting his lip, he turned away from Jenn and stared out the window behind his desk. When he spoke again, his voice was stronger.

"It took a few days before I was feeling well enough to walk. I spent over two months with Solace and Destiny. They rehabilitated me as best they could. While my body was quick in healing, my mind was not. I drifted in and out of consciousness. When I was awake, I barely talked. During that time I was able to think about everything that had happened. For weeks I waited for my mom to show up… to find me. I had hoped she had survived… that somehow she made it out… but she never showed up… and I can only guess she died in that room. I never saw it clearly… there was always a doubt in my mind."

Max coughed into his hand and wiped his eyes once more, still staring out the window as if the answer to the pain he was feeling could be discovered out there. "That doubt faded as the years went by. ten, then twenty, then forty… and now… now it’s been over sixty years. I moved on. I left the realm I lived in and just stayed in this one. I was a runner for many years after that day… but I finally couldn’t do it anymore. The last run I ever did was taking out that Corp. I went in by myself and I personally killed the president… the man I later found out had set up the trap." He sounded satisfied when he said that, but he was weighed down by all his grief from the rest of the memories.

"I tried to distance myself from all that. I never used my powers any more. I tried to forget everything… and this… this is the first time I’ve talked about it with anyone."

Turning to face Jennifer, he was surprised to find her standing right behind him, though she was still tied by her wrists and ankles. She looked ready to topple, and he put out an arm quickly to balance her.

She looked into his eyes. "Chance… I am so sorry for your loss. I wish I had known all this sooner… I wish I had known who you really were."

He tried to smile but could not, his heart too grim for her words of kindness to touch him. "No, Jenn… you would not have wanted to know all this sooner. What good would it have done you?"

She looked down at the ground, seeming to try and find the words. "Well, had I known all this sooner… I could have…."

Her form suddenly blurred, faster than Max himself could have moved in such a short time. Before he could even think of reacting, excruciating pain filled his chest. As Jenn’s form came to a stop, he saw a hateful smirk on her face, followed by a view of the handle of a dagger that had been plunged into his heart. Questions filled his mind, but he was unable to move, let alone voice any of them. He fell to the ground and stared up blankly, seeing everything grow dark.

Jennifer stepped over to his side and looked down at him contemptuously. "Don’t bother trying to move, Max." She spat the name out. "The tip of that dagger is coated with various toxins that have been introduced directly into your bloodstream, thanks to some good stabbing on my part. You should have about thirty seconds left to live."

Max tried to ask Why? How? But he could feel his muscles and mind being eaten away.

With a snarl, Jennifer knelt next to him. "My name is not Jennifer Craig, it’s Juliet Kethra, daughter of Donald Kethra, the man who you killed and whose Corp you destroyed."

An announcement like that should have shocked him, but in his current state he could barely feel anything. He could only stare up at the woman who had been his secretary for almost a year.

She stood up and looked down at him, spat into his face.

"It took me years to track you down, and when I did I knew I had to wait for just the right time. I had to make sure you were really the right person. I guess this was just my lucky day. I’m glad to know that your final moments of life will be dominated by the memories of the mother you let die!"

Max’s eyes would no longer stay open. Everything was fading to black. As the last bits of consciousness drifted away from him he whispered with his last breath, "I… ggget to see m… my mother any second now… b… but your… d… dad will st… still be… dead and… you’ll… be alive to… feel that… pain."

Enraged screeching was the most beautiful sound imaginable to him as everything went blissfully black.
__________________________________________________

Maxwell James was never heard from again, nor was Jennifer Craig. Some speculated that perhaps the two had run off and gotten married. Some say they were kidnapped and just never discovered. But one other man swears to this day he saw Max’s body taken by a woman who vanished with it amidst golden rays of light.

Of course no one believed him. For that would have been magic… and they all knew that magic doesn’t really exist….

Right?