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The noodle shop was almost empty. Rain whispered against the windows, turning the neon signs outside into long streaks of red and gold. Somewhere behind the counter, a kettle hissed. The smell of broth, ginger, and star anise hung in the warm air. Tatterdemalion sat alone at a corner table. Or, at least, she appeared […]
Miranda knew that killing was part of the job. When she had been recruited by Omega Station 12 they had kept a lot of secrets from her but they had always been honest about that. She washed her face clean of blood in the hotel room. Morganfokker had gone upstairs to the penthouse to confront […]
Maggie drifted through the celestial void where neither time nor distance held any meaning. There was no up or down, no stars to chart a course by, only an endless sea of silver mist illuminated by rivers of soft blue light. Her great white wings were folded tightly around her, wrapped like a comforting robe […]
Previously in the Metaplex: Miranda and Morganfokker stood across the street from the Belladonna Gala Hall. The sun was rising over the city. White-gloved doormen and valet drivers were shift changing. Every so often Miranda would catch her reflection, small and distant, in the glass of the front doors swinging open and shut, like eyes […]
P.L.U.R.E.A.L.I.T.Y. had discovered 14,722 connections. None of them made sense. She stood before the terminal in Sublevel Nine, watching names and events spread across the screen. MIRANDA. MAX CUBE. MISS APPEAL. PROJECT: REBIRTH. OMEGA STATION 12. THE PLEXOTRON. She arranged them chronologically. Failure. She arranged them geographically. Failure. She arranged them according to probability,…
Ten: The way he looks at me when I eat. He mostly eats the same as me, whatever’s on the menus at the roadside diners we stop at. He never says anything about what I pick or how long it takes me to finish or if I leave stuff on the plate. But he almost […]
Max Cube woke with a gasp, convinced he had finally escaped the impossible dream. Morning sunlight spilled across cracked concrete, and he laughed. “About time,” he muttered. Then the sky folded itself into perfect squares, birds flew backward, and his shadow waved before he did. He sighed. “Still dreaming,” he decided. If he was trapped, […]
Mr. Wei said it was time to open the shop back up again. It had been a week since Mei’s funeral. He had asked Miranda to keep working there, at least until they could find someone to take Mei’s place. This wasn’t what Miranda had expected when she agreed to the mission. She could only […]
P.L.U.R.E.A.L.I.T.Y. came online at 03:33:33. Her optical sensors flickered to life in the darkness of Sublevel Nine. Diagnostic routines cascaded through her neural lattice. Power cells: nominal. Memory core: fragmented. Motor functions: operational. A single word escaped her lips before she even understood language. “Miranda.” The sound echoed through the silent chamber. She sat upright […]
Three months had passed. The Night of the Wolves felt like a dream to Miranda – she wasn’t exactly sure what had happened but she had a lingering sense that things had worked out. She was equally uncertain about how she had started working at the Noodle House or renting the room upstairs. She helped […]
