Mutation 46: Time Voyagers

by tempus fugit

Bucky Ogden's lag grenade knocked him out of time and space. Unfortunately, that merely knocked him back in time. Time and space still existed, and had been horribly damaged by the GFP, that is, Bucky's accidental slaying of his n-great grandfather Ogden. Now, some theorists believe that the best authors merely have a link to other universes, and the reason why they can create such realistic worlds is that they aren't creating so much as recreating. More on this later.

From his room in the Tavern of the Rising Sun, the newly named Maximum Evil (nee Bucky Ogden) suddenly heard a voice from the direction of Gillian's house. "Max-imum..." ... "Max-imum... Evil!" The voice resembled that of Lord Cool from the sketchy briefings he'd had. As he dashed down the stairs, the world seemed to go... fluid... for a moment, and a ripple of probability washed over him.

You see, authors do have a link to other universes. But the link goes both ways. Usually, a universe doesn't have a whole lot of need for another author, but with the death of Tavernkeeper Ogden, this particular universe needed patching. Ogden couldn't be allowed to die, so he must not have been there. Ever.

As Max dashed out, instead of seeing the usual Ogden, Dong called out, "Greetings good master, welcome to the Dungeon of the Diving Dragon." Max paused briefly to study the gangly, pimply faced youth of no more than 16 or 17. The new/old Dungeoneer Dong had a pencil tucked behind his ear, a folder filled with papers in one hand, and were those dice in his other hand? The ripple of probability insisted that Dong had always been there, but Max, far outside his own time and still out of sync due to the lag grenade, resisted.

He still noticed the wave as it passed over Gillan, and was startled to see her morph into a new form as well. The replacement was maybe 17 years old, and wore an extremely thin blouse and skintight trousers.  Seeing him, she perkily said, "Good day, how may I... serve... you?" to the stunned Max and oblivious Dong. A pattern of tarnished silver birds pointed out the young woman's obvious assets.

Beyond her, an armored figure whirled around. Pointing at him, it roared, "What name do you want on your tombstone?" Max blinked.

"I am Maximum Evil!"

"I am Maximum Evil!"

They stared at each other for a long moment before Max(Bucky Ogden) broke the silence with, "I have not known that I had a brother."

Max (Shannon Cool) shouted, "I hated my brothers!"

Max BO hastily popped the pin on a lag grenade, and flipped it off his sword blade. It skimmed along just above the ground, trailing blue fire. And bounced off Max SC's shield. Max SC yelled, "You stinker!" and hurled a stream of fireballs at Max BO. Golden spheres appeared over their heads, and both charged into battle.

Rapid sword blows bounced harmlessly away from unbreakable armor. Blasts of fire and lightning were absorbed by the dark volcanic glass rings both wore. The two Maxes hacked away ineffectively, for even the few blows that got past their godly armor were rendered harmless by the mana shields.

Checking the mouse powering his armor's right arm, Max SC saw that it was almost ready to collapse from exhaustion. Drawing upon the god of evil, he invoked the erratic Godkill blow. Simultaneously, the golden spheres winked out as it affected both Maxes. Max BO was no true combat specialist. He had no shield. He was unprepared. In short, he lost his head.

As blue lightnings played over the fallen body, Max SC raised his sword to the sky and proclaimed, "There... can... be... only one... Maximum Evil!"

As the blue bolts of discharging lag played across the town square other voices could be heard. "Dong, hold me, I'm scared!"

"If I roll a 3 or more on these 3 dice, I'll meet a girl... 1, 1..." Zap! "Hey, that 20-sider cost me 50 gold from Wirt! Quit crowding me, Raven girl, can't you see I'm busy?"