FLUX AND ICE CREAM

JACK OF ALL DIAMONDS

Chapter 1- Joker

"I remember when my life was simpler. Back before I related the taste of ice cream to great
leaps through time and space. Back before I met a woman who could shoot you to death with a
sword. Back before I met a man so abnormal he had a document declaring him medically sane
and his own translator. Before I met the gang of uh... interesting characters I ended up calling my
work colleagues. Back before I was drawn into what I'll politely call a 'zany' quest chasing magic
gems from one end of the multiverse to the other, gems that changed shape, but only if you were
the only one looking at them. Back, basically, before I had ever heard the word 'Flux.'"
- Short Autumn: Audio Log 12/1/2054 (Flux management reminds its employees that the sharing of any
information pertaining to or involving (directly or indirectly) Flux/ the flux/ Flux employees/any other
sensitive material decided by the discretion of the Flux board with anyone other than registered Flux
personnel is a prosecutable offense punishable by English law under the Flux Data Protection Act of
2040)

12/01/2053 HOME
Short Autumn was having a good day. It's probably surprising to hear that someone who carries
around a gun with him, someone who lives in constant fear of accidentally setting off a long-forgotten
mine hidden in the ground can actually have a good day. Heck, it's probably surprising that someone
unlucky enough to be called Short Autumn can have a good day. But, as Autumn lifted the shining stone
from the rubble he had been sifting through he couldn't help smile a smile familiar to us all. The smile a
man wears when he's holding a huge diamond.
Autumn sat on the pile of rubble and wiped his sweating brow, looking out at the burnt out shell of a
city he was currently sat in. Supposedly it was like this all over the world now, crushed and battered by
the war no one remembered. Autumn, having grown up in an old library, knew a little about how it had
started but not how or when it had ended. He assumed everyone was so busy fighting it wasn't until they
got home that they realised they'd all won a swift, decisive victory against themselves. To Autumn's left
was one of the new cities, a group of houses and skyscrapers, shops and arcades rebuilt and repaired
by the post-war generations in an abnormal attack of teamwork and then dominated by one man who
decided he was the best team player. The shops were still mainly stocked by items people had bought
from scavengers or things that had been farmed, milked or picked from one of the many new fields
surrounding the city, but there was some order to it, no thanks to the city’s less than civil leader. More
importantly there was electricity again thanks, in part, to people like Autumn.
Growing up in a library had made Autumn a very well-read man, and growing up in a land where
nearly every other living thing wanted to kill, eat or rob you had made him an expert survivalist. Of
course, being an expert survivalist doesn't mean much, you'll never meet an amateur survivalist.
However, his impressive knowledge on most practical issues had made him a valuable asset, especially
to the new city's current kingpin. The city's power grid was down and the kingpin needed a man who
could look up how to fix things like this. Autumn, completely willing to help those in need, rushed to the
city's aid. Or rather Autumn, completely unwilling to have the life beaten out of him by the kingpin's
thugs, rushed to the city's aid. It was only when it came to the kingpin rewarding Autumn that some of his
accursed sarcasm slipped out and he made a remark involving the old use of money. Luckily, it sailed
clean over the kingpin's head with a whistling noise Autumn may have made himself without noticing.
The city's leader seemed instead thoughtful, and handed Autumn a small bag filled with what turned out
to be diamonds, grinning his toothy grin and adding the smell of garlic to the world. It wasn't like Autumn
was going to complain to a man who could have you killed without even knowing what you looked like,
but diamond's were hardly a rare commodity, and even if he had found someone willing to trade for
them, how much could you possibly hope to get for stones with no real use? Autumn found out the
meaning behind the kingpin's actions a few days later when one of the city's shopkeepers told him that
said kingpin had decided on a system of currency. All of a sudden diamonds were worth something and
Autumn already had a small stockpile.
It was three years later when the kingpin, Frederic, made his challenge to all inhabitants of the city. A
high stakes game of poker, with diamonds as both the entry fee and the prize. Autumn didn't point out
the obvious flaw in creating a system of currency and then winning it all for yourself to horde to the
kingpin, mainly because he didn't want an extra breathing hole, but also because Autumn had, over the
last three years, amassed a sizable sum of diamonds. Compared to the other traders and shop owners
Autumn had a keen sense for business, he could also play a mean game of cards, all a product of being
shut up in a library throughout his childhood with very little to do. He had therefore bartered and gambled
until he had a considerable sum of diamonds, enough to pay Frederic’s entry fee of 1,000 diamonds
almost twice over (the kingpin had decided early on that the worth of each diamond depended on its
weight, with some worth 5, some 10, some 100 e.t.c).
Autumn put the large diamond he had just found into his pack with the others he had found today and
set off back in the direction of home. Scrounging up such a large sum would give him a considerable
edge when the game began tomorrow evening. Not to mention the other recently revealed prize, the
giant red ruby-like thing the kingpin had announced to be worth 10,000 diamonds. Autumn smirked at
the thought. Giving it a value of 10,000 made it useless, nothing was expensive enough to warrant using
it. No, the reason Autumn wanted it was because of the wealth and power it now represented. With the
ruby and the other diamonds won Autumn planned to spread the wealth amongst a few choice allies
living in the city. Then, the right people bought, he was going to pay the kingpin and his thugs a visit.
Autumn had read up what he'd do afterward, he knew from the books on the war he'd read that a
democracy was doomed to fail, but he was sure he'd think of something better than Frederic's
Do-What-I-Say-Or-I'll-Bash-Your-Head-In-With-Your-Own-Severed-Arm policy. Autumn smiled. He was
going to win the game, then he was going to win that red symbol of leadership, then he was going to win
the city. The hard part was done, and it was smooth sailing from here, he thought to himself.
Now, If anyone reading this is aware of the infallible laws of the multiverse, if you have perhaps pored
over Marcus Flynn's '101 Things Not To Do In Variable Reality,' then you'll no doubt be aware that Rule
107 is, to the letter: "Fate is one of the more complex forms of potential energy still under constant study.
The fact that in every incarnation of the universe a boy born with a sword, crown or waterfowl shaped
birth mark is doomed to become saviour of the world as he knows it, the king or a barman respectively
only adds more evidence to the theory that the multiverse is only infinite to those who travel through the
flux, and that Fate exists as a potential perspective energy of immeasurable consequence only to those
who are unaware of the many alternate pathways the flux takes." After deciphering the vastly unscientific
babble of Marcus Flynn and ignoring the fact that he veers wildly off subject so that by the end of the
quote it doesn't even sound like a rule of 'Things Not To Do' what he basically means is that you never,
ever say something like 'how could this possibly get any worse?' or 'it was smooth sailing from here'
because if you do Fate herself will jump out from behind a tree and kick your teeth in. Autumn stopped
as a strange noise suddenly rang throughout the ruined city. Having never heard one, he didn't know
what a kazoo sounded like, but the sound of a kazoo echoed and bounced off the broken buildings
around him. The sound cut off suddenly. Then, there were two people in front of him. In the air. They
floated there for a moment, one of them stood almost completely straight, but tipped a little lopsided, her
body stiff and straight like a statue, the other closer to upside down in the same stiff position, his back to
Autumn. They hung completely still in the air for roughly four seconds, the girl on the left blinking once or
twice. Then, as though gravity had suddenly got back from the fridge to find two people cheating, the
pair dropped to the ground with a thump and Autumn's life stopped being simple.
 Chapter 2 - A Pair Of Aces

"Marcus Flynn and Fate uh... still can't pronounce her last name, Cheril-something-or-other.
Now there are two people who know how to make a first impression. My first real memory of Fate
is from a few weeks after we first met, when she chased me round half of St Lewis city centre
trying to stab me after I uhh... grabbed at her. When I woke up sober the next morning I was
amazed I was still breathing, ahaha... 'course, pulling the sword out of my leg hurt like hell, but
Flynn got it out after the third go, bless him. Still aches sometimes... anyway, Flynn himself, err,
well, no one ever forgets those eyes, right? It's like staring into the eyes of a corpse, no offense
Flynn, if you listen to this. Yeah, like the whole universe could go up in flames and he'd still keep
that blank uncaring stare. Whether he actually cares about anything is an argument Fate and I
have had a million times over a drink, though I let her win, I already need both hands to count
how many times she's stabbed me."
- Short Autumn: Audio Log 12/1/2054 (Flux management reminds its employees that the sharing of any
information pertaining to or involving (directly or indirectly) Flux/ the flux/ Flux employees/any other
sensitive material decided by the discretion of the Flux board with anyone other than registered Flux
personnel is a prosecutable offense punishable by English law under the Flux Data Protection Act of
2040)

12/01/2053 HOME
Short Autumn could best be described as the kind of person who did not want to see ghosts.
Considering the amount of books he had read it may seem odd but his mind was firmly mired in the
practical. He was a man who enjoyed the prospect of tomorrow being very similar to today if at all
possible thank you very much. He was, basically, an average person who just wanted his own slice in a
world that didn't pop from the box with a 'boo.' However, if the rules of Marcus Flynn's '101 Things Not
To Do In Variable Reality' are anything to go by then it is safe to assume that two people appearing out
of thin air with a kazoo sound effect is most definitely the 'boo' and somewhere in the multiverse the
omnipotent monster of time and space is laughing his ethereal arse(s) off. Autumn's first thoughts as the
odd couple got to their feet and dusted themselves off were to ignore them both and walk away. He was
about to when one of them, the male, rummaged a hand through his pockets and pulled out a sheet of
paper, which he then read from in the strangest voice Autumn had ever heard. It was completely, totally
and absolutely without emotion. His eyes went from one side of the paper to the other as mechanically
as a typewriter, emphasis went into all the wrong words, the speed of his speech slowed and sped up
awkwardly and he did not once pause for breath as he read. Not once.
"Greetings fellow humanoid and please do not be alarmed we mean you no harm our reason for being
here is purely scientific we are searching for an object of vital importance to both the place we came
from and the many people not unlike yourself who reside there after we have the aforementioned object
we will leave without stealing maiming torturing or otherwise harming you and or your family and or your
friends and or your tribe group team conglomerate brotherhood etcetera my name is team member
name and this these are my counterpart counterparts team member names what title do you go by and
do you have any-"
Mercifully he got no further through his speech as the girl beside him snatched the piece of paper from
his hand and ripped it apart, blushing furiously, something Autumn found difficult not to notice. Still, he
remained on his guard, thinking that if he was lucky he had merely encountered the world's most overly
creative bandit cabaret, and this was merely robbery and a show.
Autumn took a closer look at the comedy double act that had literally appeared before him. The first
thing he marvelled over was the fact that they were both so clean, most people you saw outside these
days had a thin layer of dust on their clothing, but the male was wearing a bright white shirt and Autumn
couldn’t see a single speck on it. It was checking for said dust that Autumn spotted the male hadn't done
his buttons up correctly, so his shirt hung at an odd angle, doing nothing good for Autumn's reflexive
urge to run away from dangerous loony-types. The second thing he noticed was the male's eyes. They
were empty, cold and emotionless, like his voice had been. He wore a polite smile, but it didn't reach his
big, silent eyes, and even the smile looked as though its wearer had been told what a smile was but not
exactly how to go about doing one. There were also deep dark blue and black marks under his eyes,
more than simply making him look tired, it gave the impression he was having trouble keeping his heart
beating blood around his body. All in all, although the male was quite heavily tanned he gave the
impression that he was an inch away from death by blood loss all the time. At least the female on the left
looked human and was, in Autumn's opinion, quite cute. Yet she too was dressed outlandishly, wearing
a long travelling cloak over her oddly colourful clothing, the cloak a dark blue colour with silver linings.
Said cloak looked so expensive Autumn was a little amazed he hadn't impulsively tried to mug her, not to
mention what looked like an actual sword hidden in the folds of her cloak by her waist, which Autumn
had glanced at twice. Three times, tops. Okay, so maybe he thought she was very cute. He put it down
to shock.
"Okay, I'll make this real simple for ya'" said the girl with an accent Autumn couldn't place. She too
pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and unfolded it. Autumn risked another glance at the male to find
him in the exact same position he had been in, staring at him with a small meaningless smile, his hands
still suspended in the air as though he were still holding a sheet of paper. There was something very
disquieting about him, he had the kind of look Autumn saw right before he crawled behind something
and waited for the ammo to run out. Autumn turned back to the female, his eyes widening slightly as he
saw what was on the sheet. It was a big, red, ruby-like sort of stone. One he was all too familiar with.
"We're lookin' for something that looks a little like this, any ideas?"
Autumn shrugged and shook his head apologetically.
"I'm afraid not. Sorry I can't help." With that, he was off. He made it back home, got the diamonds
ready, went and won his card game, took over the new city and started a prosperous economy that
actually circulated and didn't just stagnate, living happily ever after until the ripe old age of 84 when he
died peacefully in someone else's bed.
Yeah. Right. In actuality he got about three paces when a hand lightly floated down onto his shoulder
and somehow turned him round without applying any force, and Autumn found he was looking into a pair
of eyes that could stare straight into your soul. Autumn looked at the male. The male looked at Autumn.
Autumn cleared his throat. "Who exactly are you?" The man answered in his eerie, cold voice.
"We are travellers from a parallel dimension Autumn, we come from a point we call HOME and we are
hunting a kind of stone called fluxum, which is-"
"Flynn!" interrupted the girl, "you can't go round tellin' people everything like that!" Flynn merely stared
silently at the girl in answer. Clearly she found it as unsettling as Autumn did, for a second later she
sighed, broke eye contact and ran a hand through her hair. "Yeah... So, basically, we're from a parallel
dimension, and we're after that stone because of... uh... political things... I know that's probably a bit
hard to swallow, but there ya' go. My name's Fate Cherililiousen and this is Marcus Flynn. He's a bit
different but he's uh-"
"Wait, hold on" said Autumn suddenly, also running a hand through his hair, "what?"
The girl, Fate, smiled understandingly. "It's alright, I was the same when I got told about it. Yeah,
parallel dimension, there's an infinite am-"
"Potentially infinite" muttered a cold voice.
"-a potentially infinite amount of universes out there," repeated Fate, "and we zip around from one to
another pickin' up these stones."
"No, no" said Autumn impulsively, "that's not what I meant. I meant what kind of a last name is 'Sherry
Lee Lee Oosen?"
Fate gave Autumn a Look. A Look belonging exclusively to the female gender and the only expression
so powerful it has its own capital letter. Autumn, feeling the sudden need to apologise announced his
name stone-facedly.
After the snickering had died down, coming from Fate alone, she spoke again.
"So, you say you don't know where I can find a stone like this one, but accordin' to Flynn," here she
looked at the expressionless face next to her. Flynn nodded once, his hands finally falling back to his
sides. "Accordin' to Flynn that ain't true. So spill." The girls face hardened and Autumn was suddenly
very aware of the sword she had hidden under her cloak, as well as those bright green eyes drilling into
his head. His Father had warned Autumn about femme fatales, but Autumn had always assumed they
were just a kind of spider. He sighed and answered.
"It's a gem Frederic, the guy who owns that city over there," here he motioned vaguely at the nearby
lights brightening up the sky as evening began to fall, "is giving away in a poker tournament tomorrow
night, along with enough funding to kick start this city good and proper, if you spread the wealth out the
right way."
"You intend to win?" said the clinical voice of Flynn.
Autumn didn't even flinch. "Yes, I do, and unless you've got the 1,000 diamond entrance fee and a few
gods on your side I'm afraid I'm going to win it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a place to be..."
Turning away from the strange pair Autumn walked away from that moment of insanity back into the
world where things didn't pop out of nowhere with kazoo sound effects and awkward questions.
Something about the pair other than their obvious abnormality was bugging him, but he was pretty proud
he didn't look back at the damn crazies. Pity really, else he might have seen one of the duo stealthily
following him into the new city, whilst the other less than stealthily followed him, occasionally stopping at
the evening stalls inside the new city to get himself something to eat.

Chapter 3 - A Full House

"You know, thinking back to that night a year ago... I was so normal back then. I was
suspicious, I didn't like being shocked out of my skin and I didn't hop round from one extreme
reality to the next without so much as a gasp. Ever since I started working with Flux I've become
so desensitised to it all. I wonder if that's how Flynn got the way he is. The way I hear it he leaps
back and forward in time more than can be considered natural... Miss Sniper thinks that's how he
knows so much, he just goes back in time and tells himself the stuff he'll learn. I tried pointing
out the paradox there but Flynn told me that if his theories on perspective as a force turned out
to be correct then it was very possible. Not sure if he was joking though. Hell, I'm never sure if
he's joking. The whole scientific community at HOME could be the butt of his joke for all we
know."
- Short Autumn: Audio Log 12/1/2054 (Flux management reminds its employees that the sharing of any
information pertaining to or involving (directly or indirectly) Flux/ the flux/ Flux employees/any other
sensitive material decided by the discretion of the Flux board with anyone other than registered Flux
personnel is a prosecutable offense punishable by English law under the Flux Data Protection Act of
2040)

13/01/2053 HOME
Autumn awoke the next morning as happy and excitable as a child at Christmas. Arriving at the
polished and towering yet awfully named Central Frederic hotel the night before, he had been showed
straight to a suite the second he'd flashed his stockpile of almost 2,000 diamonds. The next day he rose
well rested and well-bathed thanks to the now working hot tub, Autumn here took a moment to thank the
poor soul who, like himself, had been pushed into organising repairs of the city's plumbing. He then
decided he'd head to the bar for something to eat and a drink before the game began, taking a moment
on his trip up in the building's only working elevator to note the room the poker game would be played in
and the frightening amount of armed guards pacing around, presumably here to protect Frederic and the
high profile members of other new cities from their own shadows. Autumn reflexively reached for the gun
he never used and took a moment to worry about it being taken from him upon entering the building,
now if the worst came to the worst he wouldn't even be able to win the moral high ground by not firing
before he was riddled with bullets. Autumn laughed to himself as the elevator ascended, shaking his
head. His poker game was flawless, he had a huge edge funds-wise and there were a lot of people in
the city banking on his victory. Nothing could go wrong. The elevator doors opened into the bar and
Autumn's smile came off in chunks as Fate once again, both physically and figuratively, appeared to ruin
his day. Sat at the bar on a pair of high stools were a pair of backs that looked uncomfortably familiar, as
backs go.
"How's the ice cream?" asked Fate. Flynn mumbled a seemingly positive reply, the spoon still in his
mouth. "I dunno how ya' can eat that stuff, 'specially considering you get the taste of it every time you go
through the flux." Flynn mumbled again.
"Why are you two here?!" snarled a voice in their ear. Fate turned to see the face of Autumn leaning
down between them, looking about as livid as a man called Short Autumn could.
"Isn't it obvious?" replied Fate sourly, "we've come to win that 'gem' of yours."
"Where did you get 1,000 diamonds?"
 Fate coughed awkwardly. "Well, uh, that's the thing... Y'see, it's company policy to take a small
quantity of precious stones on these trips in case we ever need currency. I never thought we'd be using
the diamonds themselves as currency, and they're not really worth all that much in this universe so, uh...
we're a little short... One of the spectators over there says you have just under 2,000 so we were
wondering if we could, um..."
Fate's voice trailed away into nothing as she noticed Autumn's victorious smile.
"No."
"Oh, C'mon!"
"Nope."
Fate looked as though she were about to deploy the Look when a sudden commotion at the bar's
entrance silenced them both. There was a round of both polite and terrified applause as a short, round
man waddled into the room with more swagger than was necessary in any situation. Autumn's teeth
clenched. Frederic. As the man began speaking to the various other high profile guests Fate looked as
though she were about to resume her conversation with Autumn, but he shushed her. Anyone with
sense, at least from this universe, knew that showing anything other than the most rapt attention to
Frederic at all times whilst he was in the room was an open invitation to be showed to the nearest exit.
Nearest exit meaning door, window, thin-looking wall, anything. As for the people without sense, well...
they were never found. Autumn gulped audibly as Frederic approached him, taking a moment to check
his best suit didn't have any marks on it and another moment to wonder where the other two had gotten
such formal clothes from, he looked again to find the pair of them gone.
"Ahh, if it isn't Shorty, hahahaaaa!" the great form of Frederic practically yelled as he slapped Autumn
half-jovially on the back, knocking the wind right out of him.
"Haha, very droll Mr Frederic" replied Autumn hastily before instantly regretting it. He swore, some day
sarcasm would kill him. Thankfully, it wasn't today.
"Looking forward to the game boy? We've got people like you to thank for powering things like this,
eh?! Hahaaa, who knows what we'd do if we had to use the stairs, eh?!"
Autumn almost had to put a hand against his mouth to stop himself from saying something fatal here.
Luckily his salvation came from the most unexpected place. It linked arms with him. Frederic's eyes
widened.
"And who is this beauty, please say sister, eh?! HAHAHAHAAA!"
The rest of the room burst into slightly confused laughter, though it died quickly under Frederic's gaze.
Fate pulled herself closer against Autumn, something he couldn't help but be very aware of. At least I
can take some small solace, he thought to himself, if this is where I'm going to die then I can impress my
Dad with who I spent my last moments pretending to be with.
"I'm afraid not Mr Frederic," said Fate with a smile and a roguish wink that could melt ice, "I'm taken for
good."
Frederic laughed his usual bellowing laugh and gave Autumn a near-jovial slap on the back, even
called him a "sly old dog," but it didn't take eyes as keen as Autumn's to notice that glint of the angry
jealousy and the gluttonous nature that lay behind those watery blue eyes. It wasn't until Frederic had
waddled out of the room that Fate released her grip on Autumn, if only physically. He immediately
slouched down onto a bar stool and ordered something strong enough to knock him awake from this
nightmare.
"He is gonna kill me. He's gonna have me killed, I know it. Then he's gonna steal you and he's gonna
kill me, and it'll hurt!"
"Steal me from who exactly?" said Fate with a grin, "I happen to find the smell of garlic very attractive
in a small, dumpy toad of a man like that. Honest."
"Where exactly did you two run off to?" growled Autumn. Fate motioned over her shoulder to where
Flynn was returning from speaking with a man stood by a large, multi-coloured machine in the corner.
"Flynn wanted a diamond for the jukebox." Flynn returned, took his seat as the music started playing
and resumed eating his long-melted ice cream while paying absolutely no attention to the music.
"Anyway," resumed Fate in a businesslike tone, "we need 700 diamonds to make up the cost so we can
pay the entry fee too. How's this, if we win you can have all the diamonds in prize money, but give us the
fluxum- I mean, the red gem. That way you'll have twice the chance of winning! You're not gonna beat
that deal, right?" Autumn shook his head, about to answer when something else occurred to him.
"Hang on, if you don't have the entrance fee how did you get in the building? The spectators all got
invites!" Fate grinned meaningfully at Autumn.
 "Alright then, how 'bout this? If everything goes wrong and you have to fight and run your way outta
here, we'll guarantee your safety." She followed Autumn's gaze downward and dropped her voice, "my
sword's here in the hotel, hidden." Autumn nodded absent-mindedly for a moment before realising that
her last line meant she knew where he was looking. He snapped his head back up and thought about
her offer for a long while before finally shaking his head again.
"Look, it's a very generous offer, really, but aside from the fact that you two think you come from an
alternate universe there's also the issue that even with two people playing I'll probably still have a better
edge with the added funds, so I-"
"Do you have a deck of cards on your person?" spoke an unfeeling voice Autumn hadn't been entirely
prepared for, he even shivered a little. He looked to his right across the bar top to find Marcus Flynn
staring at him with those cold, unfeeling eyes. Autumn sighed and pulled his spare deck of cards from
his inside pocket. It's good to get in practice, right? Flynn took the cards lightly from Autumn and in one
swift movement spread them face up across the table. He took one glance at the cards and handed
them back to Autumn.
"Shuffle them."
Autumn shuffled like a croupier, it was one of the few skills he had that didn't practically benefit him.
He shuffled and flicked and spread, re-spread and re-shuffled the cards over and over before holding the
shuffled deck in his hands.
"Three of diamonds."
Autumn flipped the top card over and coughed.
"Anyone can follow a single car-"
"Nine of spades."
Flip. Cough.
"So you're pretty damn luck-"
"Four of hearts, seven of diamonds, ace of clubs, jack of clubs, three of hearts..."
Autumn downed his drink and thought back to yesterday, when his life was simple.

That evening, in the hotel’s highest floor where the poker room and adjacent bar was located, Autumn
sat at the table with the six other players and placed his entry of 1,000 diamonds upon the table,
glancing up and down at his opponents. At the top of the table, facing no one, sat Frederic himself. On
either side of him sat two equally large, equally gluttonous-looking types Autumn assumed were the De
Facto rulers of two other new cities. The four other players, himself included, were all introduced as
"benefactors of the city," so Autumn assumed they were either thugs who had beaten their way into the
new nobility or savvy businessmen like himself. Most importantly, behind Frederic sat that symbolic prize
in its glass casing. It was a strange thing, bright red and sparkling ever so slightly. Autumn couldn't help
think that it was perhaps changing shape and if his day hadn't been so odd he'd have instantly dismissed
such a notion. As the rules were given out a dressed-up thug of Frederic's came around taking orders for
drinks. Autumn leaned back and asked the man for something pointlessly expensive. When his drink
arrived in its tiny glass Autumn couldn't help but smile a little. Maybe he did like this sort of thing, if only a
little. Likely thanks to the influence of his Father. An expensive drink, a suave black suit, high stakes
poker, a beautiful woman at the bar rooting for him... Autumn finally felt like the suave, devilish type a
part of him had always secretly wanted to be, living his dangerous, wonderful life. There was just one
problem, really.
"Yes, I would like a small glass of milk."
All the heads at the table swivelled round to face the player opposite Autumn while Autumn himself
tried to fight down a sudden choking fit thanks the strength of his drink. Frederic was the first to laugh the
newcomer’s remark off with an unfunny joke that received thunderous praise from all as the first hand
was dealt. Autumn, without looking at his cards, immediately raised.
"That ready to give me your diamonds, eh Autumn?! Aaahahaha!"
Autumn smiled at Frederic without replying. You're mine now, you bullying bastard. There was a
slurping noise from across the table.
"Yes," said a voice as cold as ice in the most scripted, mechanical way possible, "I admire your
courage Mr Autumn."
"Thank you," said Autumn stiffly as the person opposite him wiped milk from his top lip, "I admire your
incredibly suspicious taste in drinks Mr...?"
"Flynn," replied the empty voice, "Marcus Flynn."
 Chapter 4 - The House Edge

"The ability to look at a deck of cards once only to then be able to remember the place of every
card no matter how much the deck is shuffled. It's beyond amazing when I look back but at the
time I didn't even think much of it, I'd gone way past expecting anything normal to happen. Hell,
in a way I was expecting something crazy like that. It had already begun you see, I was being
drawn into Flynn and Fate's world, the world where one normal thing happening at some point in
a day made it a comparatively slow week. Whatever they pay the Flux search teams, it's not
enough. Yeah, note to the management there. We might get plenty, but how are we meant to
spend it with no time off? Hmm? A few extra holidays Flux? C'mon Brannon, I know you listen to
these files!"
- Short Autumn: Audio Log 12/1/2054 (Flux management reminds its employees that the sharing of any
information pertaining to or involving (directly or indirectly) Flux/ the flux/ Flux employees/any other
sensitive material decided by the discretion of the Flux board with anyone other than registered Flux
personnel is a prosecutable offense punishable by English law under the Flux Data Protection Act of
2040)

13/01/2053 HOME
A few hours later it was, in one way, going very well. Both Autumn and Flynn had a sizable sum of
diamonds before them, and three of the other players had already ran out of funds and retired. This left
Flynn, Autumn, Frederic and another city's leader still sat around the table. On the other hand, Frederic
was winning. Even with the natural skill and practice of Autumn and Flynn's amazing ability to follow
every card on the table they were still, very slowly, losing to Frederic. The large kingpin at the head of
the table leant back and spoke to the room.
"With that, gentlemen, ladies, I think we'll take a two hour break. Don't want to win too quickly, ahaha!"
Autumn and the city owner at the end of the table sagged with relief while Flynn lightly stood up and
went to have a few quiet words with Fate. A few minutes later Autumn joined the pair at the bar.
"Frederic is aware I am cheating" muttered Flynn in a monotone. Autumn quietly asked him how he
was sure, though he pretty much knew the answer. "Because Frederic is also cheating."
Autumn had figured as much. Looking at it now, he couldn't believe he'd expected someone like
Frederic to have even a scrap of honour when he had a group of armed thugs instead. It was likely they
were the complaints department when it came to cheating. He could imagine it now. "File this under
complaints." Autumn shook his head, he refused to be killed by someone who couldn't come up with
something better.
"So what do we do?" sighed Autumn.
"Some of the cards in the deck used have been tampered with, the backs of these cards have been
altered allowing Frederic to discern which cards are where without actually seeing their faces," replied
Flynn in his frozen voice, "if we can retrieve the tapered deck I will be able to make some alterations to it,
turning what Frederic believes to be his advantage into a disadvantage."
Autumn stared for a moment before reaching for a drink he hadn't ordered yet. There was something
odd about Flynn's voice, you had to really pay attention or you got completely lost. Autumn looked over
to the other side of the room, at a laughing Frederic, at his armed guards and at the deck of cards being
deposited in a small drawer attached to the poker table. He sighed again, today was just not his day. It
was also, unbeknownst to him, the first of many days that were 'just not his day.'
"So how do we get the deck?"
"Well," said Fate, "me and Flynn are goin' to go down to one of the lower levels and turn on the fire
alarm. It's obviously old but Flynn says it'll still work. We're also gonna lock it on from that location
which," here she looked at Flynn who merely nodded slightly again, "Flynn can apparently do, so even if
they don't know what the fire alarm is they won't be able to turn the sound off until they go down to that
floor. While we're doin' that you come back up here usin' the stairs and you steal the cards. Easy. Then
we meet up on the fourth floor before they have time to fix the alarm an' get back up here." Fate looked
from the silent Flynn to the increasingly tired looking Autumn and grinned. "Questions?"

An hour later Autumn was sat at the same bar drowning his sorrows and wondering how he'd be
brutally killed once one of the many holes in this plan made itself known. All he'd wanted this morning
was a vast quantity of diamonds and a city to rule over, was that really so much to ask? Now, he
thought, looking across the casino at the red gem still in its casing, he'd be lucky to get away with all of
his body parts. The various voices around the room were hushed into a sudden confused silence when a
loud, repetitive and above all annoying ringing sounded out from the building's walls. Frederic, looking
furious that his evening was no longer going exactly according to plan, something Autumn could relate to
all too well, was the first to react, demanding the noise be stopped. Autumn watched as one of Frederic's
thugs walked over and muttered something in the large man's ear. Frederic then said something that
included the phrase "tampered with" before a great red flush filled his cheeks and he stormed toward the
elevator like the world's angriest beetroot. At first Autumn thought the plan may have failed before it had
even begun, but then Frederic's paranoia and stupidity saved the day as he demanded everyone crowd
into the large elevator and come down to the second floor with him, going on to bellow that whoever was
responsible for this outrage would be accounted for swiftly and sharply. This did very little for Autumn's
nerves, but he squeezed his way into the elevator all the same, packed in with all the other guests, card
players and thuggish armed security, not even calm enough to engage his sarcasm by bringing up the
weight issues.
The squashed group got down to the second floor without incident, unless you count what sounded
and felt like a couple of safety ropes snapping. Autumn's eyes widened as the elevator door opened onto
the second floor. Seemingly, only the outside of the building, the 1st and the 15th floors had been
cleaned up, this floor looked as though it hadn't been touched since the war. They were in another lobby
of some sort, like the one on the first floor but smaller. The columns and the roof were cracked, the
paintings and windows were faded and barely recognisable and everything had a thin layer of dust
covering it. Everything except, Autumn spotted with a groan, the series of footprints heading off into the
darkness. Autumn also couldn't help but notice there was only one set of footprints, which left one of his
weirdoes unaccounted for. As the group filed into the room following the footprints, led by Frederic,
Autumn gradually slowed down and let the others pass him by. Then, sidling away from the group
Autumn headed for the dusted over door in the corner Fate had told him about and, like a true gambler,
tried to open an age old door without making any noise. For once Autumn was surprised to find that luck
was on his side, as the door slid open with only a slight creak he didn't think any of the others heard over
the god-awful sound of the fire alarm still blaring away. He quietly stepped through the door and closed it
behind him. Looking up the stairwell it dawned on Autumn how far he now had to walk. So, with his hand
resting where he wished his gun was right now, Autumn walked and then ran and then walked again up
13 floors of stairs.
Upon arriving at the hotel's top floor Autumn first spent a minute or so checking he was alone. Once he
was sure he ducked down, sneaking in what was probably an overly-theatrical manner over to the
drawer holding the tapered card deck, feeling like there may just be a small glimmer of hope in the world
after all. Then, turning to the red gem in its case with the cards in hand, Autumn wondered if he should
just steal that as well. He shook his head, the gem wouldn't have any value unless Frederic said it did, at
least at first. This then got Autumn thinking about whether Frederic would give him the gem and the prize
diamonds even if he did win the game. Luckily he didn't have long to think about this. Unluckily this was
because the stairwell door had just opened and one of Frederic's thugs was now looking at someone
who should be downstairs with Frederic's special deck of cards in his hands.
Autumn didn't know this one, but he was big, mean looking and he probably had a name like Mungo or
Butch. Judging from the dull look in his eyes Autumn was willing to wager he sometimes referred to
himself in the third person.
"Listen, I forgot my-" and then Autumn's life became busy as he dodged great swinging fists
threatening to knock his head clean off. First reaching for his gun, then for a chair, Autumn attempted to
bat away the great blows like some kind of lion tamer, but it wasn't long before the chair was knocked
clean out of his hands. Spotting an opening and beyond desperate, Autumn leapt between the great
monster of a man's legs and made a mad dash for the stairwell door, slowing only once to duck as the
chair he had been holding a moment before flew over his head and smashed into a wall. Autumn turned
to face the thug only to be rammed through the stairwell doorway. In some ways this turned out to be a
small blessing, as Autumn was sure he heard the elevator doors beep between the blasts of the fire
alarm, but he didn't have much time to appreciate this small mercy as he was a little too concentrated on
the pain of himself and Mungo rolling down the flights of stairs in a flurry of fists, feet and occasionally
teeth. After several flights Autumn saw another opening and kicked at the man with all his might,
throwing him off Autumn down another set of stairs, where he banged his head heavily against the wall.
Mungo stood up shakily and roared at Autumn as he too got to his feet, Mungo then angrily running up
the stairs to dish out some revenge. Autumn quickly made up his mind and clambered over the banister
before Mungo reached him, half swinging and half dropping himself onto the flight of stairs below. Then,
hastily getting to his feet Autumn stumbled down the flights of stairs, Mungo hot on his heels. Autumn felt
a pair of arms grab at him suddenly from behind and realised he was about to be pushed bodily through
a door. He tensed his already screaming muscles and, mercifully, the door was very, very old. Rolling
into the long-forgotten dust coloured room, sending bits of wood flying and staggering to his feet
prepared for Mungo's next onslaught, Autumn took a moment to wipe the blood stinging his eyes away,
though he was completely unsure whose it was. As Mungo charged toward him again Autumn attempted
to lock his arms around Mungo in order to throw him to the ground, with little success. All Autumn
achieved was throwing Mungo off balance, the two of them crashing straight through a window. Here, on
the very edge of the building both of them fought to keep their balance, before they both eventually lost.
Mungo, slipping and falling from the window to the ground below, landed with a very final thud, though it
was unlikely anyone really heard it over the fire alarm. Autumn too lost his balance, slipping and falling
from the window. Luckily, somewhere in the universe fate seemed to have decided Autumn had been
beaten up enough today, and our hero gasped in relief as an unexpected hand shot out from the broken
window and grabbed him by the arm. Autumn looked up into a pair of cold, piercing eyes. It was here, at
the oddest of moments that he realised what had been bugging him about the strange duo he had come
across, that little thing that had been nagging away at the back of his mind for a while now.
"My name!" Autumn half-yelled accusingly over the blaring fire alarm. Flynn, now holding onto
Autumn's arm with both of his hands, smiled a polite smile that did nothing for his robot-like eyes.
"Short Autumn" he replied clinically. Autumn shook his head, only wondering slightly how he was able
to have this conversation in this position.
"No, you knew my name! Before I'd even told you! You called me Autumn! How the hell did you know
my name?!" The fire alarm stopped. Autumn risked a quick look down at the ground, it didn't look like
anyone would find the body in its current position, but he needed to get back upstairs quickly to win that
card game before someone did. Looking back at Flynn's eyes Autumn nearly freaked out and risked
being dropped there and then. For a moment it had looked like those frozen eyes had held some strange
spark of what could only be called vast mischief, and it was such an odd and warped change to his usual
look. A moment later the eyes had returned to their original cold, dead state and Autumn wondered if he
had imagined it.
"I'll tell you if you come with us" said Flynn. Not waiting for a reply he pulled Autumn up, back into the
world where everything was lovely and horizontal. The elevator door opened and Fate walked in, fully
kitted out with her original cloak and sword.
"We're leaving" she said to Flynn, before turning to Autumn, her eyebrows raised. "Autumn? Why are
you her-... whatever. Listen, Flynn, do your thing with his cards and we can go, I'm sick of all this dust."
"You cannot expect a sun-filled paradise every time we travel through the flux" replied the cold voice.
Fate threw a bag to Autumn, which turned out to be filled with Flynn's share of the diamonds.
"Ya' can have these back," she said, "now the cards have been altered a bit you should have the
advantage." Autumn wasn't buying it.
"Hang on, hang on," he muttered with a sigh, "what about that red gem you're after? Fluxum, did you
say?" Fate replied that no amount of fluxum was worth this kind of effort as Flynn tinkered silently with
the cards in his hands.
"Listen," she said with a serious expression, "you'll have to take the stairs back up, the elevators on its
way down now to pick them others up. Should still have time to clear yourself up an' stuff, but you've
gotta be quick." With that, she practically pushed him out the room. Autumn, sighing for what felt like the
millionth time today, did not even feel slightly hopeful that his life would now somehow realign itself to
reality as he marched back up the flights of stairs he was being thrown down only minutes before.
Autumn finally got to the top floor of the hotel and chuckled hopelessly as he found exactly what he
expected to find. He threw the pack of altered cards onto the floor and marched behind the bar to pour
himself what would, assuming he could indeed hear both the movement of the elevator and the sound of
footsteps from the stairwell, be his last drink. He didn't even bother to clean the blood off his face or the
dust off his suit. The guests, thugs and Frederic filed into the room. There was some angry shouting,
some mixed muttering. Guns were drawn and pointed at Autumn. He drank the rest of his last supper
and looked over at the glass case near the back of the room, at the now gem-less cushion, at the note
atop said cushion that meant he had been set-up beyond all belief, the one which read "SORRY. TALK
IT OUT."

Chapter 5 - Three Of A Kind

"Now I think about it, Flynn and Fate killed any chance of me having a normal life that day.
They could have just snuck into the building, which they did anyway, set off the alarm
themselves, stolen the gem and left. Instead they involved and framed me as one of their
accomplices. I mean, damn, that's a pretty harsh way of convincing me to work with you Flynn...
Still, on the other hand if I'd stayed I'd have lost the game, then I'd have no diamonds to my name
and I'd have spent the rest of my life trying to crawl out of that damn Frederic's clutches. I don't
really regret what happened, mainly because it was Flynn. I mean, I had designs on a city, that
guy has designs on the whole multiverse."
- Short Autumn: Audio Log 12/1/2054 (Flux management reminds its employees that the sharing of any
information pertaining to or involving (directly or indirectly) Flux/ the flux/ Flux employees/any other
sensitive material decided by the discretion of the Flux board with anyone other than registered Flux
personnel is a prosecutable offense punishable by English law under the Flux Data Protection Act of
2040)

13/01/2053 HOME
Fate had her arms crossed and was tapping her foot impatiently, tinny, repetitive music doing very little
to sooth her at the moment. She turned to the strange boy stood beside her.
"Aren't ya' gonna tell me why we involved him at all, Flynn?" Flynn didn't even turn his head.
"He is going to be part of Team 9."
"Yeah, so you've said" replied Fate confusedly, patting a pocket to make sure the fluxum was still
there, "but why? How d'you always know stuff like this?" Flynn remained silent. Fate tutted and turned
away from those cold, emotionless eyes to watch the number on the board above them climb.
"...We're almost there, get ready."
Flynn hefted the modified fire extinguisher he had found when he was busy hay wiring the fire alarm
while Fate drew her sword. The elevator door opened with a 'ping.'
"Ta-daah!" said Flynn without a scrap of emotion, as heads and guns around the room swivelled round
to face them. Fate noted that Autumn had at least had the sense to follow the notes instructions and that
he was still alive before she yelled "Open fire!" with as much irony as possible. Flynn threw the modified
fire extinguisher into the room, where it half-cracked and half-exploded, spewing thick white volumes of
smoke. Chaos erupted. Frederic's shouts not to fire could barely be heard over the amount of gunshots
ringing throughout the room and the screams of random people who had found that their leg now
seemed to have sprouted an extra hole. Painfully. Autumn felt a thuggish hand grab his shoulder roughly
before there was another pained scream close to his ear and the hand dropped to the floor, Autumn
assuming it was now free of its owner. A more familiar arm linked with his and led him through the fog.
There was another 'ping' sound over the gunshots and the smoke began to clear revealing to Autumn
that he was now in the elevator, descending with a bored looking Flynn and a very cute girl busy wiping
blood off her sword.
"I think I cut Frederic's hand off" she said nonchalantly. Autumn wasn't sure where to begin with these
two people who seemed intent on making sure he didn't lead a happy life. They'd hung him out to dry,
they had almost got him shot, he'd had the crap beaten out of him by a great goliath of a man and now
he was going to be hunted all over the city and it was all, presumably, for no reason. Autumn felt he'd
start with the most recent issue.
"...Open fire?" he said with a grimace. Fate chuckled a little.
"Yeah, not bad, right? It was spur of the moment but I thought "I'm jus' gonna go for it," y'know?"
Autumn put his face in his hands. His life was over, he'd have to live as a hermit. He'd have to move
across the sea and live as a hermit. He'd have to wear a wig constantly, move across the sea and live as
a hermit.
 "I have already told you" said a frigid voice that seemed to read his thoughts, "you are coming with u-"
There was a creaking sound and the elevator suddenly stopped. This was followed by a moment’s
pause before Fate's less than honourable upbringing saved their lives. With her foot she kicked Flynn
against one side of the elevator wall and with her arm she threw Autumn, along with herself, against the
other side. A millisecond later the gun fire began and dozens of holes punctured the closed door of the
elevator, hitting the back wall and falling to the elevator floor with a tinkling sound.
"Flynn!" she yelled. Flynn, without so much as a nod, pulled the rusted cover from the elevator control
panel and began fiddling with the myriad of wires located inside. Meanwhile, Autumn looked across the
storm of bullets raging between them as Flynn seemed to get stuck. Autumn's face cracked into a
hopeful and terrified smile, he didn't fix the city's power grid with luck and string.
"Red to light green!" he shouted over the din. Autumn thought he could hear Frederic shouting some
preachy speech, but it was lost under the storm of bullets. Flynn paused for a moment and then seemed
to nod with understanding. There was a lurch, and the elevator began moving again.
For a moment, as the sounds of gunfire died down and eventually stopped, there was silence in the
moving elevator. Then Fate and Autumn broke out with the laughter of someone who has just survived
hell and now suddenly finds everything funny.
"Seriously though," said Autumn a moment later, wiping a tear from his eye, "why didn't we all just
leave together after I had the fight with that big guy, you had the gem then, right?"
Fate looked apologetic.
"Well, y'see, we needed to clear out the bottom of the building, else none of us would've made it out,
and I figured if Frederic noticed you weren't there he'd send most of his guys upstairs and in the elevator
to cut off your exit. Then we had a chance to get ya'."
Autumn knew he should probably be angry at being set up like that, but he was finding it hard. He was
somehow still alive for one thing, and a small part of him deep down kept screaming at him that he was
finally living. The rest of him shushed this part and had it gagged as the elevator lurched violently again.
"The hell was that?" muttered Fate, while Autumn groaned the groan of a total pessimistic git. The
elevator lurched again, and now seemed lop-sided.
"The wires holding us up are being cut," said Flynn in his usual frozen drone, "we should get out." Fate
didn't need telling twice, she stuck her sword between the two elevator doors and wrenched them open a
crack, then used her hands and, with the help of Autumn, pried them the rest of the way. As Flynn
stepped out of the elevator into a dusty room there was a final snap and it fell with a loud, fiery crash.
Then there was a moment of relieved sighs from two of the group before Fate, realising how little time
they had before someone got down here, rushed to the nearest window and looked out.
"We're not far from the bottom," she said hurriedly, heading for the door to the stairwell, "if we move
fast we could beat them ou-" here an armed thug of Frederic's ran past the door down the stairs,
obviously to check the wrecked elevator, and didn't even have time to do a double take before his mind
concentrated very specifically on the sword sticking painfully through his chest. A moment later he was
dead, and Fate was throwing his gun to Autumn as shouts from above and below indicated someone
had heard the guard's yelp.
"Perhaps not. Ah well, plan B." Here Fate ran over to the nearest window and smashed it with the butt
of her sword, leaping out onto one of the buildings many small decorative balconies. The stone shook
thanks to its age and the fact that it wasn't actually meant to be stood on. "Come on, we're gonna have
to jump our way down!" Autumn thought of several reasons why they had to do no such thing, but as he
watched Flynn also clamber through the window he realised one of them would tell him to man up and...
well, who knows what the other would tell him. So with that, Autumn got onto the rickety little balcony,
took a deep breath, enjoying the taste of air and thinking of how much he'd miss it, and jumped. By some
stroke of godly luck he made it onto the next floor’s balcony, feeling it shake threateningly under his feet.
"Not that far down, you two" said a female voice somewhere below him.
"Far enough to have time to regret this!" replied Autumn as he prepped himself for another jump, "no
diamonds, no city, no chance of starting again, how could this possibly get any w-" Autumn was cut short
as a bullet bounced off the wall dangerously close to his hand. Not bothering to look up or down, Autumn
leapt for the next balcony as another bullet shot past him, hissing through the air mid-jump. Steadying
himself, Autumn looked up with the pistol in his hand and what can politely be called a disgruntled
expression. Luckily, ammo was still scarce so people didn't often practice their shooting. At least, not as
much as Autumn did. Okay pal, thought Autumn as he aimed the pistol up at the closest assailant
sticking his head from a window, It's my turn. There was a sad little clicking noise. Then a pause before
Autumn yelped and made a swift, mad jump to the next small balcony in order to narrowly avoid another
bullet streaking down toward him. Autumn looked down to see Fate had almost reached the bottom,
whilst Flynn seemed to be making the jumps a couple levels down without much effort at all. Autumn
threw the gun aside. And it jams, he thought, what am I saying? Of course it jams, because that is just
my day all over-OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD. Here Autumn threw all caution to the wind and leapt
straight from one balcony to another without pause for breath as far above him an assault rifle opened
fire. A stray bullet shot right past Autumn's face, practically brushing his hair and causing him to fall the
rest of the way off the building. Luckily for Autumn he landed right on a cushion, Marcus Flynn, who had
just made it to the bottom. After rolling off Flynn and pulling him to his feet, Autumn and his alien
accomplice made a mad dash, or in Flynn's case a well-paced calm dash to catch up with Fate, bullets
raining all around them and the angry yells of Frederic ringing from the top of the building. Autumn spent
most of the run out of the city centre laughing like a terrified maniac.

Chapter 6 - All In

"No... No, actually, I'm not gonna take that back, I don't regret a second of it. Going with Fate
and Flynn, visiting all these outlandish worlds, having humans, animals, aliens, monsters of
myth trying to kill me practically 24/7... I mean, the flying motorbikes? C'mon, how many people
do you know who can say they've ridden a flying motorbike? I grew up in a library surrounded by
all sorts of impossible fiction, and I've spent the last year proving whoever put them in fiction
wrong. As for Flynn, well, I don't care what his game is, if he has one at all. He's a friend, I've
trusted him with my life hundreds of times and I'd do it again... Fate goes without saying, right?
Who couldn't love her? Uh... Wish she’d told me about that sooner."
- Short Autumn: Audio Log 12/1/2054 (Flux management reminds its employees that the sharing of any
information pertaining to or involving (directly or indirectly) Flux/ the flux/ Flux employees/any other
sensitive material decided by the discretion of the Flux board with anyone other than registered Flux
personnel is a prosecutable offense punishable by English law under the Flux Data Protection Act of
2040)

14/01/2053 HOME
"Hey... Fate..." said Autumn between haggard breaths.
"Ahh... What?" replied an equally exhausted Fate.
"I hear that... Frederic's a crack shot... good job you disarmed... him..."
"Ahha... haha... ha.... haaaa..."
Outside of the city, back where Autumn had first met the other two, dawn was breaking and the trio
had finally slowed down. They had been chased through street after grey street, dodging and ducking
under gunfire all the way until their pursuers had presumably gotten as tired as them. Autumn, eventually
calming down, sat on the same pile of rubble he had sat on a day and a half earlier with his head in his
hands, trying to catch his breath. Remembering something, he looked up to find Flynn had taken a small
book out of one of his pockets, and now seemed to be pressing random spots on the pages with his
usual indifferent expression. Autumn turned his head to find Fate was giving him a look which expressed
all too well that she had something she was finding hard to say. Autumn beat her to it.
"Flynn, how did you know my name?"
Flynn looked up from what he was doing and answered without a pause.
"You told me your name. This is not just a portal for travelling to parallel worlds," he said coldly,
motioning to the book in his hands, "it allows the user to travel through the flux and ergo through time.
We have met before, in your future and my past. There you said it would fall to me to convince you to
come with us, that you would adamantly want to stay in this reality, that I would likely have to force you
to accompany us by giving you little choice and that," Flynn continued though Autumn looked like he was
about to object to this madness, "I should merely remind you of your Father's wish."
Autumn's jaw dropped. He attempted to find some explanation.
"What is that, cold reading? Very good. I mean, not good enough, but very good."
 "However, contrary to your opinion that I should force you to come and leave you with no choice I will
give you a choice. Your life here is over, what is left of Frederic and all those who serve or wish to
appease him will hunt you down at every opportunity. If it is your wish I can use this device to drop you in
a land far away from here, perhaps across the sea, where you can start afresh. You will manage, you
have always considered yourself an expert survivalist-"
Autumn's jaw dropped further.
"-and I could find you a motorbike like the one you always used to read about-"
Autumn's jaw was in danger of locking.
"-... or you can come with us, where every day will be like this and unlike this in every possible way. A
fresh start either way, and it is up to you."
Autumn stared at the cold, emotionless face that had just said the most extraordinary things before
turning to Fate for answers. She smiled understandingly.
"I find it's best to jus' go along with him, Autumn. Besides, once Brannon- uh, the top brass at Flux-
that's where we work, um... once he reads the report on how you risked life and limb to get the fluxum for
us he'll be more than happy to let ya' join!" Her voice had a note of pleading to it eighty percent of males
are weak to. Autumn looked from Fate to Marcus Flynn and imagined what it was like travelling alone
with him. It was a frightening thought. He thought about the things Flynn had said, and how the two of
them had appeared from thin air. He thought about what he could ever achieve by staying here, even if
Flynn was telling the truth about dropping him off somewhere else. He looked at Fate who, judging from
the fact that she hadn't slapped him across the face yet, didn't seem to know what Autumn's Father's
greatest wish for his son had been. Most importantly, as almost every part of Autumn's psyche
clamoured to stop this madness, a small part of him that sat bound and gagged in the corner ripped its
gag out with teeth alone and yelled with all its might "do it, you boring bastard!" There was a shocked
silence within Autumn's mind before all the other parts of him-
"Okay."
-nodded in conceded defeat.
Fate's face broke into a wide smile.
"Sweet!" she said happily, before she jabbed Autumn in the neck with a syringe she had apparently
been holding.
"Ow! What the hell?!" snapped Autumn.
"It's some time travel protection thingy" she replied, "we give it to everyone working for Flux."
"It is to stop you from feeling the effects of your own flux-time radiation" said Flynn without taking his
eyes from the book he was tapping, "It will still affect you over large amounts of time, but here we are
talking spaces of seventy or more years."
"What?"
"It will also cut around twenty years from your lifespan."
"What?!"
"That was a joke. Ha ha ha."
Autumn stared confusedly at Flynn as he continued to tap random points on the book's open page. He
wasn't sure what frightened him more, Flynn's laugh, which was basically him saying the word 'ha'
repeatedly, or the fact that Flynn actually had a sense of humour. No wonder Fate looked so pleased,
travelling alone with the guy must be murder.
"D'you like ice cream, Autumn?" said Fate as Flynn approached them with the open book, moving into
a position so the book/machine thing was between the three of them.
"I suppose so" replied Autumn, "why?"
"You're gonna be tastin' ice cream for a while, 'specially seein' as it's ya' first time."
"Again, why?"
"An anomalous reaction to travel through the flux," interrupted Flynn, "the taste differs each time. One
more anomalous reaction you should be made aware of, for the first trip I am unable to calibrate the
weight change with a reasonable degree of accuracy so-"
"And yet you can memorise the order of an entire deck of cards in a second flat" interrupted Autumn.
Flynn pressed the book with his whole hand, and they were gone. Or, it's probably more accurate to
say... they were there. Autumn found out what Flynn was about to say upon arrival so Flynn never
needed to finish his sentence. However, for the record, he was about to say "so you will probably be
naked when we arrive."
TO BE CONTINUED.
About the author: Mark Moogler is a talking windmill who lives exactly on the magnetic north pole. Aside
from asking riddles through the medium of rhyme to the few people who pass by he enjoys scaring the
local wildlife and devouring lost children. This is his first book.