When I woke up, I thought I felt as bad as I'd ever felt. Curiously, it seemed as though I was incorrect- maybe I'd never felt this bad as Kate, but Max knew he had certainly regained consciousness from far more brutal beatings.
"Good morning Sunshine." My eyes were bleary and I couldn't see her, but I knew she was smiling. I groaned. She laughed.
"What time is it?" I asked through a yawn.
"Seven," she replied, then after a slight pause, "I think the question you want answered is 'how long was I out?', the answer to which is 'three weeks.'"
My eyes snapped open and I sat up suddenly. "Three weeks!?"
"Uh huh."
"Uuuurgh. How on earth did that take three weeks?"
"It's a very complicated procedure. It involves regenerating your entire heart piece by piece."
She held up a bun. "I saved the left overs for you, I thought you'd be hungry when you woke up."
"You made a sandwich out of my heart!?" I stared blankly at her, really not knowing what to say. She smiled and offered it to me. Actually... "That sounds great," I agreed, accepting it from her. "Have you been here this whole time?" I asked, taking a bite. Mmmm. Max-heart-sandwich for breakfast.
"No. I knew how long it would take, so I came back when it was over. I've been playing in the city. It's fun here. I'll go and tell the doctor you're awake."
"We expected your regenerating capabilities to be a little better," the doctor explained.
"Yeah, no, I really am only as tough as I look," I apologized.
We left the doctor to design and build my device while we detoured to the Flux Realm. "Next stop, the digital web," Plan B announced as the van departed the doctor's garage, sans-super suit. We zig zagged through the city, taking the first exit to the information super highway we could find. We were able to travel a lot faster here than in the congested city. Around us, like a vast ocean, the web rippled and shimmered. Images, voices and imprints all jostled around mere moments away.
Once we cleared the city entirely the horizon swung up in to the sky, the information engulfing us. The visible layers of data flickered and overlapped each other like an infinite hive of insects. "The Internet never looked so good, did it?" Plan B remarked. I was thinking along a different line, I gave a little grunt of agreement. The part of me that was me was longing for the internet and its promise, like the promise diet pills offer an overweight teenager.
The Internet. A vast collection of disordered human impressions. A crude, shallow, soulless virtual version of mnesis for rats. Rats like what I'd become. I couldn't stop staring at it.
"We could get closer if you'd like," Plan B offered.
"Let's do that," I agreed.
"Okay then." Plan B flipped open a call phone and spoke in to it. "Dial. Flare." A pause. "Hey. Yeah. What are you doing? I got a web tourist. Yeah. Yeah, okay, great. See you." She flipped the phone shut. "Our guide will be arriving shortly," she informed me. "Oh, there they are."
On the side of the road there were two figures standing next to what appeared to be jetskis on the bank of the web. We pulled over.
"Hello stranger!" Plan B chirruped. She and her friends exchanged greetings, I barely noticed. We were so close. "Max? This is Blocker and The Roach," Plan B introduced. The shorter of the two – The Roach – gave me a friendly smile and a wave.
"Nice to meet you," I responded.
"You're a Glasswalker? From the outside?" Blocker asked.
"Er... recently, yes," I replied.
"'Recently'?"
"I was technically dead for a while, and that's not the worst thing that's ever happened to me, or the strangest," I answered. Me. Max Karnaj.
"Right on. We have some catching up to do once we finish the upgrade." The two Cyber Wolves were directing attention to a panel in the side of our vehicle. Abruptly, the van tripled in size, appearing more as a subway car. The inside walls were covered in screens, all with the word CONNECTING... Instantly our vessel launched in to the sea, and immediately the screens were populated by the information as it swamped us. Newspaper headlines, world leaders, maps, numbers, celebrities, scenes of disaster. "So where abouts you from?" Blocker asked.
"Huh? Ah- New York. I live in New York City," I replied.
"Right on. We've been through there a few times, but mostly we used to haunt Vegas. Sneaking in to all the electronics trade shows and stuff. I thought New York was a bit stuffy. Who's in charge down there these days?"
"Er... Peter Ellison is the leader of the Sept of the Green."
"Ellison. I don't recall him. What's he like? Does he run a tight ship?"
I personally hated Ellison with a passion. I tried to imagine how Max would answer the question. "He's a manipulative backstabbing Shadow Lord. He's got an agenda, and there's not much to like about the bastard, but the Sept survived a massive attack last year so he must be doing something right."
Blocker was very chatty. The wash of information had not been as fulfilling as I'd hoped, so I indulged him. He was a 'Cyberwolf' – a Glasswalker who had more or less permanently relocated to the Cyber Realm. HE didn't get to meet outsiders very often and was curious about life in the world since he'd left. The Roach also listened, made a lot of funny faces, but never spoke.
Eventually the conversation came around to what I was looking for. I was hesitant to tell actual Glasswalkers what I had planned, and I had another idea in the meantime. "Can we look up a person here?" I asked.
"Sure." Blocker ran his fingers over a search panel in the touch screen. "At the moment we're just cruising the internet...some of the stranger parts of it, by the look of it," he noticed.
"We're on our way to the Flux," Plan B explained.
"Ah," Blocker said, in the diplomatic tone of someone who has been told something they find to be unsavoury. "No wonder you're coasting. Well. If you're looking for someone or soemthing in GW net, sure, you can access it right here. We should be going," he addressed the Roach, who nodded.
"I didn't mean to scare you off," I apologized.
"Oh, no, it's not that. It's just that we've been here a long time already," Blocker replied.
"Really? You've only been here a few minutes," I said.
"Time flows differently on the Web," Blocker explained. "More time has passed than just a few minutes."
"Oh really...?" I looked at my guide, Plan B. She gave me one of her perfect smiles.
