Mayhem and Max have stories written long ago (like, in the 80s) and unfinished at that.

Max's premier is the end of a story, included as a clip. Mayhem's story of her childhood may take place 20 years ago, or 200, no one knows.

'NEXT' to the dragons ; 'NEXT' to Max

Mayhem

A stern voice jolted a girl into awareness.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Ms. Prescott. I didn’t mean to drift off.”

The old grey haired teacher nodded tersely and continued with her lecture.

Actually, I really did mean to drift off, Prescott. You bore me to no end , thought the girl. Her green eyes drooped again, and her hair fell in front of them to prevent Ms. Prescott from seeing them do so. The Planar History class was the girl’s only sleep for days, since all her other studies kept her up.

“Mayhem--” said the teacher. The girl, who belonged to the name, jerked awake again, and eyed the teacher.

“Yes, Ms Prescott?” she said sweetly.

“Don’t you yes Ms Prescott me, young lady. I’ve had quite enough of your falling asleep in this class. Here is a one way pass to the Dean’s office. There is also a note to him, so don’t lose the pass. Go.” Prescott pointed to the door, and Mayhem slowly rose and traced lines in the floor on her way to it. The other students gave a variety of responses, from stone cold silence to laughter to pouts of pity. Mayhem winked at Rolph, who sat in the back row and was Mayhem’s closest buddy.

Rolph maintained his straight face, but thought to Mayhem.

*Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, Mayhem.*

Mayhem simply danced away from the door after she closed it behind herself. But she did indeed dance toward the Dean’s office.

For a girl of ten, she was the prize student of Mage Crion DeVille, who Mayhem passed on her way.

“Ah, Mayhem, dear, and where are we headed this time?” The ancient blue eyes sparkled from behind his thick silver-framed glasses. He knew very well where she was headed, but was polite enough to ask anyway.

“Dean Luger’s office. Again.”

“Ah. Mayhem, be a dear and stop in at my cube when you have the time, hmm?”

“Sure, Master Mage.”

The magician nodded and continued down the hallway. Mayhem turned the corner and waited at the desk station in front of the Dean’s office. A kindly young girl’s face poked over the counter, and saw Mayhem.

“Oh, May.” The girl’s face fell. “You again?” Mayhem nodded. Then she shrugged.

“So, what else is new? All I do is fall asleep now and then. I can’t help it. You know, all those summonings get to me after a while.”

The office girl looked surprised.

“You do summonings?”

“All the time, why?”

“Well, I mean...isn’t that a little dangerous for a young girl?”

“Danger is not in my spell book. Um, what’s the hold up on the Dean’s room?”

“Ohh,” the girl got a conspiratorial glimmer in her eyes. “There’s a big meeting. All sorts of weird people, I think some of them are Important, if you catch my drift.”

“I get it. When is ETA fini?”

“Not anytime soon. Got a pass?” Mayhem nodded.

“Well, go find a place to sleep, and I’ll wake you when they’re finished. Kay?”

Mayhem agreed, and headed down the split hall, toward her Magic teacher’s room.

The door had been there since long before the rest of the building had been built. It stood out like a sore thumb, but if you were like Mayhem, you knew what it was there for.

She knocked on the door and then opened it. The alternate world there was a much more pleasant place than the rest of the dimly-lit sterility of the school. Mayhem selected a spot to sit, and plopped down. She meditated and left her body with practiced ease. Out There, she drifted far from her normal planes, and stopped at a bright spot.

The sun shone on a parking lot, making everything look a bit yellow. The area Mayhem saw first was facing a large building, whose loading dock she was standing in. Not that she was actually standing there. She was as intangible as a ghost. She passed through a wall, and beyond it was black.

Mayhem suffered a small shock as she took in the darkness, for it was as intense as the sunlight outside. She realized after she left outside that there had been a void of people, no life there at all. It was a slightly different story here inside. When her spirit eyes adjusted to the dark, they adjusted to the light that there really was. The floor was black painted wood, there were high thick black pads and curtains hanging from the dark ceiling. Here and there were small lights, in red, green or blue, or shades of pink and violet that she wasn’t used to seeing. They cast a bizarre tone to the place. Mayhem rather liked it. She heard voices.

Mayhem headed toward a curtained area, and peeked out through one.

A group of actors stood and rehearsed lines on the black stage. The area across from Mayhem was padded seats, lower and farther away from the actors than Mayhem was. There was no one in the seats.

Mayhem felt a million miles away, a call.

“Yes, Mage?” she said when she arrived back in herself.

“I see you’ve been at the planes again. Good. Heh.” The mage sat floating in the space in front of Mayhem. “I have something for you to do. Er, weren’t you meant to be at the Dean’s now?”

Mayhem shrugged. “Guess so. But there was a big meeting or something so I had to wait. No big deal.”

DeVille nodded. He wasn’t one to push Mayhem into anything. Especially something like seeing the Dean.

“Well?” said Mayhem.

The mage shook his head, and paid attention to the present.

“Ah. Well, I have a little item that needs to be picked up, and I can’t quite remember where I left it. Could you get it for me?”

Mayhem thought for a moment.

“What is it, anyway?”

“Oh, a small ring that allows the wearer to turn invisible, or something. Something like that. Or was it the fireball ring? Oh, drat, I can never tell those two apart.”

“But wasn’t the invisibility ring bright yellow and the fireball one had a big red stone in it?”

The mage eyed her in memory, and then softened.

“Yes, that must be right. Anyway, one of those is missing from the armory. Be a dear and pick it up, shall you?”

Mayhem giggled. “Sure.”

The teacher then hovered up and stood, and Mayhem got out of her meditation fold. She headed for the door, and waved as she left.

The desk girl beckoned Mayhem over to her as she passed by, and told her the Dean was ready to see her.

“Oh, gosh, thanks,” she muttered. The big oak door to the Dean’s office made no sound as Mayhem opened it. Behind the huge mahogany desk sat a frazzled looking middle aged man, bald before his time, and he looked at May.

“Oh, Ghods, not you, again.” He groaned.

“I’ll leave if you want me to, Mr. Luger.”

“Oh, no you don’t. Not going to pull that on me again. Sit.”

Mayhem sat. Mostly she was an obedient little girl, but when someone demanded her to do something unreasonable, like study for a geometry exam, or stay awake in a boring class, well, she pulled out the stops.

Mr Luger shuffled through some files until he found one that said Mayhem on it, and plopped it before her on the desk.

Mayhem sheepishly looked at it.

“You know what this is, May.” said Dean Luger. “I hope you can understand why we are concerned about your records.”

“You mean I’m failing History?” she replied worriedly.

Luger shook his head quickly. “Oh, no no, Mayhem, that’s just it. You are still in the top three percent of your class. But you seem so...distracted. But you are indeed maintaining an A. No, it’s not that.”

Mayhem looked at him, trying to read his expression.

“Well, what is it, then?” she asked.

Luger leaned back in his rather beat-up old leather chair.

“I think your teacher had given you something for me?”

May searched and brought out the note.

“Ahh, yes, this is what I thought.” Mayhem was worried. “Ms. Prescott has nominated you as her entry in the Educathalon this season. I will gladly second it, if you will accept?”

Mayhem flopped back to her slouch. She had been on the edge of the seat as Luger hemmed and hawed before reading the note.

“Oh, is that all?!” she said, relieved.

Luger cast an eye at her.

“No, I still think you need to stay awake during class, but if you can be so consistent in your grades, I’ll let it slide. Prescott might not be quite so understanding, however. Well, do you want to represent our fine establishment?”

Mayhem thought for a moment, and replied.

“No, but I’ll show up for the school.”

Ha ha, Mayhem, thought Luger. He sighed and sent the girl on her way with yet another note for her. May was beginning to feel like a messenger service. On her way out, she passed the office attendant, who looked intensely curious.

“Well,” she asked, “how’d it go?”

“I got elected to the Education Olympics.”

“Oh, really, that’s great! I thought you were gonna--”

“Yeah, so did I.”

May went on her way.

The next few days went by too fast for Mayhem, so she slowed them down. It wasn’t difficult for her, in fact, it came naturally. No one else noticed, of course, since she slowed them, too. She had the time to re-read a few chapters in her math book, and then brush up on her History. Magic was her specialty, so she didn’t bother with any particular preparations. Science books flew in and out of her room like gnats, which she studied about, along with gnus and gnomes. Actually, she was enjoying herself.

The day of the competition arrived, and everyone, EVERYONE in the school piled into busses and accompanied Mr Luger and Mayhem to the Central Auditorium in Kerrth City, where the big event was being held.

Kerrth City sat on the edge of a flat plane, broken occasionally by odd rock formations and huge buttes and plateaus. The ground was a uniform corn color, the rocks a slightly darker tan, and the sky was dark. The sky was not in fact black like other planes, it was a dark coal grey. No stars hung in it, for they would fall out of it. Through the center of the plane slithered a wide river, deep blue green, with no vegetation growing around it. The city shone in the distance and lit up the slick sky.

From the busses came laughter and songs, for the trip was a long one from the school, and the terrain was extremely boring. The vehicles had no trouble going over the dirt and rubble, for they all hovered three feet above it. Great trails of dust billowed out behind them, and Mayhem watched that.

As May watched, her friends gathered about her, and threw quick questions at her, about geography and spelling and chemical components of spells. She blithely answered them, correct every time, Luger noticed. He sat in the seat on the left just one from the back seat, beside Mage DeVille. Prescott was in the front of another bus, trying to keep the students under control and failing, which was why both the Dean and the Mage were in the bus with Mayhem. They knew she would try to make them control the kids, and neither wanted the task. They left that to the driver.

A paper airplane whizzed past the two men. DeVille caught it in mid-flight and whisked it back. Soon, the air was filled with wads of paper and airplanes and small animated saucers. The driver ignored it, for he had erected a screen that vaporized anything that passed through it. He just concentrated on the distant city. He never needed to look to the rear of the bus, of course, for this really wasn’t a road, and the four other busses rode side by side, to the right of his.

Mayhem suddenly turned about and leaned to the Dean’s ear and asked, “What do I get out of this?”

Luger wrinkled his eyebrows and looked to DeVille. The Mage shrugged.

“I really don’t know what the offered prize is, Mayhem. The judges never decide on a prize until they know who’s won.”

“Oh,” she said, disappointed. “I kinda was looking forward to like yearning for the juicy expensive present waiting behind the glass...Isn’t there anything I get just for going?”

Luger pondered. A special effect war suddenly broke out, which Mayhem aided with a purple cloud spouting bright green lightning. In the distraction, the Mage leaned over and whispered something in the Dean’s ear. When the battle was over, Luger leaned back and turned to find Mayhem.

“Mage DeVille has offered a most promising gift that I believe you deserve even if you don’t win the grand prize.”

Mayhem looked offended when he said that, but asked, “well, what?”

“A vacation.”

Mayhem grinned. She nodded enthusiastically. Luger smiled and commented to the Mage how good of an idea it was.

Kerrth City loomed into the sky when Mayhem looked next, It’s strange elliptical and arched rooftops, all black chrome, pointing into the uninteresting sky. The vaulted curves of one complex reminded Mayhem of a building she saw in an earth geography book--something like an opera house.

Now that they were inside the city, the driver growled over the loudspeakers.

“Awrite yew lit’l brats, siddown an shuddup.”

And they did. He had an amazing talent with children.

They wound through the streets and the children sheepishly lowered their windows (the ones that would open) and gawked at the buildings. Conical towers and spherical shapes dominated this part of the cityscape. Mayhem located the competition hall on her map of the city, and scanned for it.

When they got there, two dozen other busses were already parked in the wide parking area, and there were more on their way, it seemed.

The students disembarked in an orderly fashion, supervised by the driver, Luger and DeVille, and waited for the other students to come from their busses. They formed a long line, and stood by the bus’s thick fan cover. Finally, the teachers in the other busses got their charges to leave the bus the way they wanted them to, but only just barely. Their ranks broke and ran once they were out of range, and fell in line before the Dean’s group.

(Luger was rather proud of that. He liked kids, even the ones like Mayhem, who showed spirit and innovative promise. They reminded him of himself at their age, and he was constantly trying to dodge his own responsibilities, like they did. Of course, he never let the stuffier teachers in on this, and he made no pretext to hide it from children like Mayhem, for they would have seen through it anyway.)

The other four teachers and their teenaged chaperone-assistants finally climbed out of the busses, and made their way to Luger. He was busy helping the kids line up and get their ID tags. DeVille had brought them in one of his portable bags, which held thousands of cubic meters of stuff, but always seemed to give the right thing to the right person. He read off the name, the child announced themself, and Luger passed the badge to them. He was having fun. The other teachers were not quite in as high spirits.

Prescott in particular was miserable. Her hair was messed, it had glitter and foam and bits of paper in it, and she was hopelessly pulling at it. She made a path through the students, who laughed as she passed, but shut up if she looked back. Luger suppressed a laugh himself, as she arrived.

“Dean,” she began. He handed a student his badge and looked at her. “I have several dozen referrals for you when you have time. These kids will be the death of me, Luger.”

Several dozen students silently agreed with her, and even more did so vocally. Prescott turned on them, eyes blazing.

“Now, now, only in jest, Ms. Prescott, only in jest,” said Mage DeVille. She softened and sighed, and Luger handed her a badge. She thanked him and plodded to the hotel. As she disappeared from sight, Luger muttered to anyone who would listen, “someone please make sure I don’t have time for referrals...”

When all the badges had been handed out, they went through the same process to hand out luggage. The older kids helped Luger, and ran in-betweens to and from bag and ground for the Mage. Other students from other schools wandered by with curiosity and sometimes called out to the competition, they didn’t know who they were up against.

Mayhem and five other students were representing the school, one basically for each age group: six to eight, nine to 11, 12 to 14, 15 to 17, and Graduate students. Yes, all ages were accepted into the school, at any level of achievement, from anywhere. There were few true aliens there, though, not like some schools on the outskirts of the planes, that were mostly made up of non-humanoids. A few of the humanoid population from Mayhem’s group gathered around their contemporaries from a neighboring school, and went on their way. The children could be trusted to mainly escort themselves, since all their ID tags were magically enhanced to a) locate them if they become separated from the group, and b) remind them verbally where they are supposed to be in that case. Handy things like that made the Mage proud. A student of his, twenty or so years ago, had invented them, a girl named Chelsea M’raowon. They could be tuned to any individual, and could be used over and over.

The parking lot was beginning to fill up, so the remaining students dispersed and went wherever they felt comfortable while toting what luggage they had. Some of them, mostly magic students, teleported alternately themselves or just their luggage to their room, saving themselves the trouble of walking there. They suddenly became very popular with the non-magic students.

Mayhem was silently studying the architecture around her. It reminded her of a dream she had once. It wasn’t a particularly nice dream, which was why she was silent most of the time.

“Well,” the Mage interrupted Mayhem’s reverie. “Have you gotten anywhere on the rings?” Mayhem shook her head. “Didn’t think so. That’s all right, dear, just take your time. And do not take me literally during the contest. You know what I mean.”

Mayhem nodded. She knew better than to use her slow-time effect in a situation like that: she would face disqualification, and she didn’t want that.

Well, maybe she did. After all, she was only ten and she had been rather tired much of the time--

“--Oh, stop that,” she said to herself. She knew that kind of thought would make it worse, so she distracted herself by playing summoning games with Rolph.

In Mayhem’s room, there were three other girls, one of similar age, the others five years older. Mayhem remarked upon how many people there were in the hotel, and one of the older girls spouted some statistics of bodies-per-room ratio to quality-and-price. She was a math major. The other older girl spent most of the time trying to get a boy from down the hall to visit them. After considerable debate, he did come in, along with what seemed to Mayhem to be half the population of the hotel wing. Mayhem took a walk.

She strolled down the hotel’s plush halls, occasionally looking in open doors, stopping to gaze out a window now and then. Noisy parties boomed from several rooms, mostly those of the older teens and Graduates. Mayhem avoided those, and sought the company of an alien who seemed about her age and mental attitude. The being had three deer-like legs, and sweet large eyes, and pale blue hair. They walked down the passageways, and went down many flights of stairs and finally wound up near the lobby and meeting rooms. They exchanged glances, and giggled. Mayhem created a blue bubble that hovered in the air, and the two scattered. They played hide and seek, until Mayhem got nabbed by the balloon and had to sit and wait for her new friend.

The girl, whose name was Djaia, soon arrived, and they wandered back outside. They talked at length of the architecture of the City and how boring the sky was. Djaia was only attending as a schools’ second, not a major competitor, so Mayhem was not worried about beating her in the events. The sky did not darken, but they both knew it was time to go in and bed down. They exchanged addresses and went to their rooms. Mayhem’s room was still filled with teenagers, so she stood outside of the door, leaned up against the wall and eyes closed. She extended her aurasight to the hallway, so she could feel when someone approached. Someone did.

She opened her eyes and looked at Mr. Luger, who was smiling. They both heard the party sounds from the room and the others down the hall.

“I think they are still not sleepy, Mr. Luger.” sighed Mayhem. Luger nodded.

“Noticed. Why don’t you go to Mage DeVille’s study? I believe it’s quiet there.”

Mayhem shook her head. “No, I think I’ll stay right here. I’m OK.”

Luger shrugged and opened the door. A blast of music and hot smoky air billowed out from the portal, and was instantly replaced by gasps and oh, nos and the sound of the toilet flushing. The tape that had been playing was tossed into the air and landed in the hands of one humanoid boy who was headed out the door. Along with two dozen of his pals.

Luger stood aside as the herd passed him, and Mayhem was positive she heard the incantation for ‘Fresh Air’. A gust of cool air blew the smoke into another dimension, and Mayhem guessed that place must be very smoggy.

The three girls left in the room smiled sweetly as Luger looked in.

“Anything else left in there, girls?” he asked. They sheepishly shook their heads and Luger looked at Mayhem. She decided that a bed really would be a better place to sleep, and walked back into her room. She closed the door behind her, and felt Luger walk away toward the other party rooms.

Things settled down in most of the rooms after that, and Mayhem slept. Her dreams were far from undisturbed. There were many people she saw in the hotel, some people from her past, and a band who she disliked. The band, she was sure, called Kerrth City their base of operations, and inhabited many planes at once. The lead singer kept leaping in front of Mayhem and shouting at her in a distantly deathlike voice.

Mayhem woke several times that night, but got enough sleep to be wide eyed in the morning. The other girls were giddy and dressed for success, while Mayhem took her time, not using her power, and prepared herself for the day’s competition.

When the event’s time came, Luger escorted all his students to the arena.

The arena. The arena was large enough to seat a hundred thousand people, and the floor was wide enough to play Woodstock all over again, and down far, far to one side, there was a judge’s booth. In the middle, was the contestants’ dais. There the young students were led by half a dozen ushers, and left to wait it out until the arena was filled.

The next thirty minutes were boring for the contestants, save for short introductions and a few dirty jokes. The jokes were cut short when the sound people began placing the microphones before the contestants.

Each age group was separated, the dais a series of concentrically raised disks. The fifteen students in each group sat facing out to the audience. Mayhem sat above the younger children, below the older, and beside a boy who constantly sniffed his nose, and refused to blow it. Mayhem was about to cast a health spell on him when the judges were announced. The rules were read (in case anyone present didn’t know them, which was unlikely, or had forgotten them, which was nearly impossible.) and they included no spell-casting except for purposes of competition. Mayhem slouched and tried to ignore the boy.

Due to the sheer number of contestants and the amount of questions they would be asked, the competition was to be split into three days: first was academic, then physical, then magical. The first day of questioning began with the lowest ring of children. They were given fairly easy questions, the first to answer each of ten got a point, then to be fair, each individual was asked ten more. For each correct answer, another point. Then the second ring could be done, and so on. In the second round of free-for-all questioning, any ring that could answer a problem got one point for their group. Surprises abounded in that round, as a rule.

When Mayhem’s ring was up for individual ten-pointers, the tension mounted. It was rumored that seven of the fifteen kids were of hyper-intel quality, and the competition would be fierce.

It was. But Mayhem found herself alone in her ability to get any answer correct. Then the boy beside her came up, and she felt something amiss. Even though she knew it was grounds for disqualification, she peered into the near space with magical vision. She let out a gasp and jumped over to the boy.

“Hey!” He yelled as Mayhem pushed him away from his seat, and then she turned on a clearly invisible foe.

“That ring is stolen property!” She said. “You should give it back immediately!” And with that, she grasped at the air, and took hold of a hand. She pulled off Mage DeVille’s ‘lost’ ring, and there appeared a youth with a list of answers.

“Cheat! Cheats!” Mayhem cried.

The whole place fell apart.

Mage DeVille took back his ring. He paced before Mayhem and Dean Luger, and the other school’s dean. He kept shaking his head, and muttering things to himself, things that Mayhem wished he wouldn’t.

“This is unprecedented.” He shook the ring at Dean Kooley, and he glared at the Mage.

“I assure you, I had nothing to do with this. The boys acted completely alone.”

“I for one, do not believe you,” said the Mage. “How could a pair of boys like this get into my armory? That place is guarded and only allows my own students inside.”

“Perhaps one of your own students, to use your terms, took it?” Replied the Dean. The Mage fumed.

“Preposterous! Impossible! None of my students would do such a thing!”

“Are you sure?”

“Quite.”

“Then we are at a stalemate. Until this is resolved, I and my school are officially protesting.”

“Have it your way.”

“Fine.” The Dean stomped out, and left the Mage with his own. Mayhem looked at him with a little fear, but more determination.

“I can find out, Mage. If you’ll let me. I know I wasn’t supposed to use magic, but they had all the answers to the whole thing! I couldn’t just let them get away with it. And besides, I got your ring back.” He turned and looked kindly at her.

“Girl, I know this is hard for you, but I cannot let you go. The competition is still on, with the removal of their students. You will be allowed to compete, for the results of your action were a greater good than harm. So go, and we’ll settle this later. Let the judging committee handle this.” He patted her on the head, and indicated the door. She left carefully, and listened to Luger and the Mage speak, but they were whispering, and soon she got bored.

Mayhem wandered back to the arena, and took her place. The place was only half full now, for everyone was arguing in the halls. The other students in the competition gathered about Mayhem, and congratulated her on finding the cheats. They had her to thank, for every answer was on the pages the boys had.

A buzzer sounded and the crowd came back to their seats. The judges announced that Mayhem was to continue in the competition, and actually be rewarded in monetary form later. A little known clause in the formal agreements for the schools was to cover such an eventuality. The other school was exempted from this and three following competitions.

New questions were substituted from an unknown past contest.

Everyone settled down, and the contest resumed. Mayhem answered top ring questions about populations and rainfall, and the lower ring got one about historical landmarks. Basically, the contest went well otherwise.

The day wore on. Mayhem was exhausted and wanted to sleep, but her roommates had other ideas. They were partying hard, and Mayhem looked for Djaia’s room. She found it shortly, and was welcomed by her roommates. They asked her about the ring, naturally, but she could not really answer them, unless she found out exactly what had happened. They left it at that.

Mayhem was well rested the next morning. She needed to be as fit as possible, for the physical tests came up. Everything from endurance running to archery was covered, and it was chance that brought Mayhem up against Djaia in the obstacle course. As they tumbled about and swung across mud pits, they laughed about the chance to really play. They finished neck and neck, Djaia winning by a point or two, for Mayhem had slipped and got a footprint in the sand trap. They hugged each other and Mayhem wished Djaia’s ill schoolmate better.

Mayhem came in first in the darts competition, third in the rope-skipping, and second overall. She was happy, and with her lead in the academic part, she was well ahead by the end of the second day. She looked forward to the magic.

Meditation was the only allowable magic in the night, but the students were free to look over all their spells and components. Mayhem slept and meditated in the early morning. Before the arena was opened for the third day, she took a walk around the building.

In the non-light of pre-dawn, she spied three forms in the shadows. She attempted to steer away from them but they saw her and wanted to get closer. They were from the disqualified school, naturally. The boy that had been wearing the stolen ring was at the point of their little group, and he fumed.

“You little brat! You could have let well enough be, but no. You had to interfere.”

“You could have studied harder.” Said Mayhem, worried.

“You could have studied harder,” he mocked. “Bullshit. Win by any means, that’s what I say.”

“But--”

“And if that means cutting you out of the picture, and it does, I’ll be happy to win.”

“But I--”

“Shut up,” said one of the other boys. He held something large in his hands.

“You don’t understand--”

“We understand plenty. After the next day, if you’re still winning, you won’t make it home, get it?”

The boy with the club smacked it into his palm, and laughed. Mayhem took a breath and turned around.

“If you want to put me out, you better do it now. ‘Cause I’m not throwing the contest.” She broke into a run when she heard the boys take after her. They swung and missed, but too close for Mayhem. The asphalt of the giant parking lot wore on her bare feet, and she was panting hard as she got into the lobby.

A janitor swept slowly and looked at Mayhem as she slammed into the glass wall. He opened the door and let her in as he saw the boys approach. He stood still and menacingly held his broom at the boys, and they stopped short of the wall. They turned and ran quickly out of sight.

Mayhem thanked the man, and asked him if he could tell the judges of the event.

“If I see ‘em, I’ll tell ‘em. They usually get in an hour or so before the rest of the crowd. Now shoo, and don’t you get caught again, girl.”

She went carefully back to the hotel, and slipped into her room. There she tended to her bruised feet and made herself a cup of tea. When the breakfast cart came around, and she knew Dean Luger would be awake, she made her way to his room.

She knocked at the door, and he opened it, disheveled as ever in a bathrobe and puffy-eyed. He scratched his head and looked down.

“Oh! Mayhem,” he said, and slicked back what was left of his hair. He squinted and opened the door to let her in. “Anything wrong? Summoning jitters?”

“No, I went to take a walk and almost got beat up by the boys from the other school. They wanted me to throw the contest, ‘or else’. I ran away, and there was a janitor that helped me. He might be able to tell the judges about it, but I won’t count on it.” She sat and looked at her feet, which were swollen. Luger looked at them too, and decided that she was obviously telling the truth. Well, she had never lied to him before.

“We should get some ice on your feet,” he said. “Come on.” He lifted her over his shoulder, and she just let him take her for a ride. The pharmacy was open, barely, and they helped out. They asked if it was the race from the night before, and Mayhem nodded.

“Yeah, you know, delayed reaction.”

Luger backed her up. They then went to the judges’ quarters, and found Dean Kooley and the three boys there. The Dean looked at Luger, and shrugged.

“This is a terrible occurrence. That girl is a menace. She tried summoning up a demon to eat my boys here, scared them half to death. She should be watched carefully.”

“But that’s not what happened at all!” Cried Mayhem. “They attacked me! I had to run away or get beat up!”

“Her feet,” said Luger. “She’s telling the truth. Enough is enough from you. She would never use her magic like that. Especially not during this competition.”

“Well, my boys say she did.”

“And these are the same boys who stole not only the invisibility ring out of Mage DeVille’s armory--”

“--that remains to be proved--”

“--and the answers to the entire competition’s questions. How you can stand there and tell me they are innocent is beyond me. Are there no ethics where you live?”

“Please, gentlemen, please,” Interrupted the head judge. “I was waiting Mayhem’s arrival before passing any news on. This morning,” he turned to Dean Kooley, “a long-time employee of the arena came to tell me of an event he witnessed earlier. He said the girl, here, had been chased by those boys, there, and would have been severely beaten with the club one of them carried.” Kooley was about to protest. “And, there are no records of any extra-planar beings coming to this area this morning. I believe that either you have been duped, or you are as willing to cheat as these boys, Kooley. Get out of this place. You are not any longer welcome. Not you, nor your school.” A guard that was before unseen came in and escorted the four out. Mayhem sat and began crying.

Luger knelt beside her, not speaking, only holding her hand.

“This was supposed to be fun,” she said. “This is the most miserable time I’ve ever had. I want to go home.”

Luger whispered, “Really? I thought you wanted to win.”

“Not like this. I feel terrible.”

“Today’s the last day. The magic competition. You do best at magic. You know that. You’ve got a big lead, anyway. You sure you want to quit now?”

The judges listened in for her response.

“Well...no I guess not. I just feel like such a fool.”

“Nobody else thinks so. You saved the rest of the students from a bunch of cheats. That’s the best thing ever. Come on, let’s have breakfast, all right?” He offered his hand, and she stood.

She turned to the judges, and said, “No favoring, hear? I’ll win, fair and square. And I swear, I won’t cheat, not now nor ever. It’ll be the most up-front contest you’ll ever see. Make it good.” They chuckled among themselves, and Luger and Mayhem went out to eat.

At the nearest Donnie’s, where the pancakes were good but not great and the coffee strong enough to curl nose hairs, Luger and Mayhem bumped into Ms Prescott. She primped and preened, for a teacher from a near-humanoid school, and then saw Luger and Mayhem giggling, and blushed. She excused herself and went over to them.

“Well, you are doing wonderfully, dear,” she said to Mayhem. “I’m sure today will go well. I am surprised that you didn’t get that question about the Granola Wars, though. I thought you had studied.”

“I did. I thought they started in five-fourteen, not five-ninety-five. Besides, five-fourteen was when Date declared independence, and that started the whole mess, anyway. Right?” Prescott stared at her, and then smiled.

“Well, perhaps that may be correct, in reality, but in the books, it’s still ninety-five. Oh, there goes Mr. Morton, I’ve got to speak with him about--well, see you at the arena!” She flitted off, and Mayhem and Dean Luger waited until she was out of the restaurant to burst out laughing.

There was an air of tense expectation in the arena. The whole city watched the magic part of the competition on TV, and indeed, much of that neck of the reality tuned in. Magic was always a crowd pleaser, especially when people were trying to outdo each other.

Again, three sections came up: spell reciting and recognition, component magic, and everyone’s favorite, summoning. The youngest ring was excluded from the summoning, and in Mayhem’s ring it was voluntary. She and six others wrote themselves down for it.

The recitations were, as usual, pretty boring if it wasn’t your area. It was like the now-defunct compulsory figures in the Winter Olympics. Very tedious and mind-bending, but necessary to a point. It was the time that commentators liked to interview and film filler material for broadcasts later in the day. Mayhem did perfectly, as she was expected to by Mage DeVille, and she added none of her normal flair. She felt it may impede her memory.

Two others got perfect scores, but only in the recitation. In the recognition category they fell behind to Mayhem and a boy that was said to have three hearts. (He had enough body space for them, thought Mayhem.)

In the component magic area, a large table was set up with vials, jars and beakers, both full and empty. The students drew spells that were equal in complexity and number of components, and then timed on their use of the stuff on the table. Mayhem found it to be slightly understocked, and had to substitute a cat’s eye for a tiger-eye, but the spell came off just as well, if in miniature.

There was a break for lunch and when the competitors returned, the arena had been readied for the big event. Adult casters sat in the audience and kept up wards to make sure no one was harmed. The dais had been replaced by several sand pits, where the casters could place the circular wards and candles and anything else they might need. All the chalk and ink and candles were provided, and double checked to be safe for professional use.

Smaller areas for the mandatory summonings had also been cleared, and it was there that Mayhem went to start her show. She began simply, an imp with a tiny pitchfork appeared and then vanished.

10

She went on to bring a two-headed wolf,

10

a hooded basilisk,

10

a middle age violet dragon,

10

and finally she moved into the large circles.

The audience went with her, and was silent.

Mayhem concentrated and drew many symbols with three different substances in the sand, and set up fifteen candles of corresponding colors. She sat in the center, and chanted. For almost ten minutes she spoke, sometimes a whisper, sometimes yelling at the top of her lungs. The compulsory summonings went on while she chanted, but when she stopped, so did they.

She stood, and gestured, grandly. Mage DeVille noted with pleasure that she had chosen the largest of the circles, and knew she would need it. A cloud of black and then green smoke billowed up, and changed to orange as it expanded to fill the ward-circle. Mayhem continued to chant and move about, and then a thick form could be seen inside the smoke. White fluff struck up and away at the top of the thirty feet of smoke. A huge catlike creature shook her great head and blew at the smoke, which apparently annoyed her. A tiger-woman of immense size stood, looking at Mayhem with amusement. She gently swiped at the remaining smoke (fanning it into the crowd like a wind-tunnel) and swished her long tail.

“Yes?” She purred.

Mayhem smiled to herself, and said, “Dance.”

“What, here? In this little circle?”

“Where else?”

“Hmmm. I’ll try. But I don’t want my fur getting burnt by those candles.”

The great tiger lady shimmied and did as much as she could in the confined space of the circle. She did a little tap, quietly on pads, a little soft-shoe, a little break-dancing. She then stood and shrugged.

“I’d tango, but I don’t have a partner.”

“Ten for preciseness of wards and components.”

“Ten for level of danger successfully achieved and control of summoned creature.”

“Ten for style.”

Mayhem won.

The other contestants couldn’t come close to matching her for style, in fact most of the high ring students didn’t even know what it was that she summoned. The most interesting thing that got otherwise brought was a massive tentacled creature that grudgingly obeyed a young blond haired boy from Narcissus Bay.

During the final judgment session, questions were again raised at the legitimacy of letting Mayhem remain in the competition, but they ruled that she worked only on a gut feeling, an impulse, and was proved correct in her use of magic to expose the cheating. Then came the wait as the judges decided what prize they would offer the winners.

Since the actual competition was over, Mayhem was told she was free to magic and time away. Mage DeVille gave his nod when she asked if she could find out how the ring had been taken.

She went to her room, and time-flipped back. She did a little astral work as well, for she could only remain in the room no farther past than the first night they were there. She went to the armory.

In segments of about twelve hours, she watched it, actually just the inventory, as many things came and went as normal. The rings all stood on little finger-pedestals, the kind that are displayed in jewelry stores. Thank Chelsea again for that.

Then Mayhem noticed something. The invisibility ring was there only hours before the Mage had asked her to attend to finding it. But as she flipped back a little farther, it was gone again, and then there. She played the sequence again and again, until another thing caught her eye.

The time travel ring was missing each moment the other was there. That meant that someone had used it several times, and brought it back again. But how did they get in? Mage DeVille had excellent defenses, Mayhem knew them well. She slowed to the moment when the time ring was there and the invisibility ring was not. The door opened, and in walked the sniffling boy! He just walked right in!

No alarms went off, no monsters came. But why?

May went farther back. He came in again, for the first time. She followed the boy backwards, went after him as he went into the school records room, where he wasn’t supposed to be, and Mayhem watched as he altered records of who was to be allowed in the armory.

So that was it! Legally, they could not erect defenses against him. So, literally, he wrote himself inside. Mayhem popped to the present, and informed Mage DeVille and Dean Luger, who vowed not only to look at the records room carefully and make better security there, but also to raise legal hell with the other school.

The arena filled one last time to await the awards ceremony. The winners in each group were done first, and Mayhem received a small ever-flowing gold-dust vial. She liked it. It was the kind of thing she wished she had on her as a rule. There was so much to be done with it. And maybe a little glue.

Then the overall winners were announced. In third was the blond boy, Callifatan, who got a wonderful and visually stunning Book Of The Planes, that had fully live portal pictures and showed very nearly every plane known. He grinned somewhat evilly, and shook hands with the judges.

The runner up was a tall girl alien with glimmering eyes. She accepted her prize of a lifelong supply ever-updating encyclopedias. She greedily took the box and leapt back up to the winner’s dais.

Mayhem was nervous. What could she possibly get that was better than those prizes? She wracked her mind, and could not quite imagine how the judges knew what it was that she would most need.

“We are aware of the desire to keep mainly to educational materials,” the head judge said as he moved from the judges’ box to the main floor. He walked across it and headed to Mayhem. “However, in this case, with one so gifted and knowledgeable winning, we had little choice but to deviate. First, let me congratulate you, Mayhem, and all the competitors, for giving us such a wonderful Educational Olympics.” The crowd politely applauded. “And as a part of the prize, this goes to you, Mayhem.” He pulled out of nowhere a portable video camera and VCR. Mayhem’s eyes got wide. What next? Nintendo?

“But the main award, and I hope you will understand it, is this.” He handed Mayhem a small but very magical book.

She opened it, and knew in an instant that it was perfect. It was a self-writing diary.

kath became a vicious swordswoman, her talent coming from the Sword itself. Sweat showed on Mars' forehead as she danced the blade, leaping and twisting in the thrilled air. The people ooh'd and ahh'd as she twirled the Sword around.

Mars became more and more uneasy, finding himself worried at the prospect of death. Sweat showed on kath's forehead as she danced with the Sword, throwing twists of raw energy into the sky. The people in the crowd backed up as she got too close.

kath slowed and stood nearer the middle of the little arena, and in one graceful movement, lowered the Sword. It pointed away from her at hip level. Holding the hilt just behind her body she caressed the blade with her right hand. The Sword's aura rubbed off onto it, glowing with an unidentifiable but obviously malign emotion. Looking at her hand from some place other than her own eyes, kath smiled. Her neck arched and her face was obscured from most people's view. Those who saw her face turned away in horror. That was not kath.

In the woman's eyes burned the same evil aura as on her hand. The glowing sparks shifted in her eyes, moving them. They looked out through a screen of dishwater blond hair at an object they recognized, and hated.

The object was Senior Executive Mars Callifatan who stood in front of a large mob of non-objects. The object stood unmoving and hesitated to breathe.

Inhaling deeply, causing the arch in her neck to exaggerate and most of the leather outfit to sigh with stress, the body of kath slowly raised it's right hand, a ballet of caustic grace.

Still smiling, the twisted face raised itself with the arm. Painfully slowly the back straightened, the legs braced. Hair still fell in front of the glowing eyes, but only for a moment longer. A gust of unfelt wind blew back the unruly strands, fully exposing the desire filled eyes.

It was blood-lust. It was the Sword's desire.

mistress

The hand reached back farther than shoulder level, spitting energy like the blade. Shaking fingers clutched and manipulated the aura, forming it into a ball. The body's mouth contorted from a smile to a grimace of rage. The teeth gritted, neck muscles strained. Guttural noises formed in the throat but none escaped until the energy ball was completely formed.

mistress

do not!

stop...me

Arm muscles pulled and fought each other, keeping the hand steady.

you must

The noise from the body's throat mimicked the Sword's wailing, a mockery of speech.

not kill

The hand arced with the full power of kath's arm behind it. The energy ball was released. It flew through the air, invisibly scarring it. The last amount of kath’s control showed when the ball crashed to the ground several feet short of Mars. The ground shuddered with the impact, a crater formed where the ball had been. Small sparks still flew from the hole, but the aura was dissipated.

There.

The Sword lit up in anger, standing in kath's hand.

The body of kath screamed. The eyes did more than glow, they virtually exploded.

mistress where

They scanned the sky and found another object:

am i

a ball of light as bright as themselves. Seemingly interested in the ball in the sky, they paused. Could it be the lost energy ball?

safe, but not there, not at all safe there -- go

Moments passed as kath stood staring at the sun, not seeing it. Her mouth closed and fell open again several times in those moments,

control it

right, control it she says

the aura temporarily losing control of it. The right hand and arm moved and grasped at the air. The hand clenched into a fist, loosened and gripped again.

oh, of course,

kath's eyes blinked for the first time since seeing the Sword to The End. She looked back at Mars.

the object

kath leapt a distance that no one dared measure, and suddenly stood very near Callifatan, Sword at his neck.

Mars looked into kath's eyes, very frightened, but rather relieved to see her green irises there. He did note the bright sparks of Sword aura where the pupil was supposed to be, but sensed that the worst of the madness was over. He hoped.

Mars felt the Sword metal at his neck and the energy flowing around it as well. Tendrils of power felt their way around the man's exposed skin. He closed his eyes instinctively, but saw the aura outside his eyelids quite clearly.

Like many of the Admin, and all young magic students, he had been trained in aura reading, and so he saw the essence of the Sword there before him, inches from his Jugular.

The Sword was created out of a need for killing, formed on loathing, bitterness, and irrational hatred. It was a weapon of Death.

That was all it was there for: to kill him.

Mars was afraid.

kath let the blade feel the skin, but no more. There would be no blood now, she decided.

The Sword, however, had other ideas.

oh no oh no catch it stop it put it down

It swung itself back, ready to hack Mars into little bits. Quite like it had gotten to do the first time kath used it, on the creature he’d summoned into one of her planes.

"Nooo!" yelled kath, "Dammit--get down!"

Mars ducked, he had the time to for kath was doing her best to hold the Sword back. The redundantly sharp blade whizzed through the space that had recently been vacated by Mars' head, and kept going. It smashed into the Pylon that stood unused and fairly abused beside Mars. A chip of stone flew from the midsection of the Pylon and kath got control of the Sword. Mars stayed down.

"Shit! Keep that thing away from me!" He yelled.

"Keep away from my planes, and I will."

Mars looked up, fairly defeated at his own game. kath smiled and chuckled a slightly evil laugh, and was about to demand the release of Marty and Dems when a familiar mumble cut through the silence.

"kath. It's Only Yours," said The Night Guy. He held (a registered copy of--) the ADMIN file at her, watching the Sword.

Mars clamored over and slid under the file. He glanced at The Night Guy for approval, then took it. kath watched and the Sword quivered.

Pages fluttered to the ground as Mars held a single sheet in front of him. The manila folder swung limply in his hand as he read the paper.

"THE POST OF HEAD ADMINISTRATOR OF THE END AND IT'S SUBSIDIARIES WILL AND MUST ONLY BE HELD BY ONE kATH--EVERPAST AND ALWAYS TO COME--NO SUBSTITUTIONS. THE ALTERNATE POST OF ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT SHALL BE HELD BY THAT PERSON OR PERSONS NAMED BY kATH IN AN EMERGENCY OR IN HER ABSENCE BY INC. BLOTCH INSURANCE COMPANY.

"THE POSITION OF HEAD ADMINISTRATION IS NOT TRANSFERABLE.

"DO NOT FOLD, SPINDLE, SWINDLE OR BLACkMAIL."

Mars turned white, then slightly green as he read it. kath approached, and peered over the page, reading upside down.

She grinned, then smiled, then burst out laughing.

She dropped the Sword and guffawed as the crowd pressed in and also tried to read the document.

kath continued to laugh as The Night Guy collected the scattered papers and reassembled them in the folder which he took from Mars' limp hand. Last of all he took the vital page from in front of Mars' face and replaced it with a piece of paper that said:

"get lost, Mars"

Mars shook his head and looked humbly at kath. In his head, he screamed, don't drop your load! Play your hand, you're still in the game!

Then he felt the Sword at his foot, the aura climbing his up his leg. He jumped back, falling into the crowd over the barrier and screeching. The Sharpshooters and Safety Pals Joe and Janice picked him up and placed him back in the arena.

kath picked up the Sword again, after smothering The Night Guy with hugs and kisses. Again, she leveled the Sword at Callifatan's neck, but she smiled her own Personal smile.

"I forgive you," she said. Mars' thought processes came crashing to a halt.

"Huh?" he replied, confused. The crowd and kath's friends echoed the feeling.

"For this only. It has caused me and my friends way too much stress, not to mention ruining my vacation. But I have a question that you don't have to answer. You didn't ever check through my records, did you? To see if you could really have me deleted?" She grinned.

Mars shook his head.

"I think you assumed that I had the standard Contract. It was a safe assumption, if I wasn't who I am. Stupid mistake, wasn't it. But, after Dems and Marty are released, you are off the hook."

There was a pause. Mars knew there was more.

"For the Other time, though..."

"What Other time?"

"Fate loves to do this to people. Pay attention: you never saw the Sword before today, but you saw the reason it needed to become real."

"Am I supposed to guess at what you mean?"

"The Monster from Above I called it." kath reminded him. Mars' pupils shrank to dots in a sea of pale blue.

"...oh, that..." he said, backing up. He backed into Joe, and stopped. He smiled a toothy grin.

kath smiled too. "That how you got your job?" she asked. Mars' eyes grew wide, then slitted.

"Yes."

"Thought so. You ran it out of an even Higher plane, right?"

"...yes...?"

Mars had seen the expression he now saw on kath before. He gulped at a lump that wouldn't go away, as he realized where he'd seen it.

He'd seen it in the mirror.

"I've been thinking over what you said about having too many planes," said kath. "And I've decided to act on it. You can have the plane I pushed the Monster into back."

"Oh, I can?...uhk--"

"I think it's a fitting punishme--er--plane for you to run, Mars. It bothers me. In fact, you can have the planes above and below it, too, just in case."

"'just in case'" he repeated.

kath seemed much more calm and older again. During the whole Sword dance, she had been a girl again, possessed by the very thing she brought into being. The backlash of the Sword's power was still in her system, though, and she was still irrational. Emotionally she was a wreck.

But she still got a kick out of making Higher Admin squirm.

Kitty stepped close, and the Sword tried to bite her. kath held it back with a snarl and pushed it back into where it came from. The Mistress took it and tore it apart again. While the portal was still open, she thought to kath.

my dear, you must be more careful with things like this ... but she said it smiling, so kath was less than humbled.

kath shook her head, clearing out the last of the aura. Then she hugged Kitty with tears in her eyes.

"never leave again," one of them said.

They parted and Kitty went to find The Night Guy.

"That Sword is too dangerous," said kath. Mars looked at her without surprise.

"No kidding." They laughed together, Mars' nervous, kath's relieved.

"To Inc. Blotch. We must shuffle paper if we are to shift Ownership." Said kath.

Security managed to dissipate what was left of the crowd. The last to leave congratulated the 'players' on their superb performance. Only the people who had caught a brief glimpse of kath's eyes had any idea that what they had seen was real.

As the Men Without Fear told the rentacops what to do, a family from Earth happened by. They had not seen the battle, nor did they ever hear of it's significance, for that would be downplayed in the Inc. Blotch Times. But the two children, a boy of eight and a girl of four, played in the sandbox with the other children. The girl, seeking more substantial entertainment than imagining spaceships or cars in the sand, went out briefly beyond the asphalt covers and the swingset. She approached the Pylon, looked at it significantly, briefly played on the railing, and then ate the little shard of rock that she found on the ground.

Mars gazed thoughtfully into his deeply stained coffee cup. The cup was one of the few things on his plane that was not sterile white. In fact, he mused, the cup might just be his only luxury here. Its mahagony strata of many years usage made him feel comfortable. He lifted it to his nose and inhaled deeply, able to sift out the recent scents from the older ones...Cinnamon, vanilla, the occasional shot of pure caffein.

He shook his head and looked at some of the work he was supposed to be doing. Maybe taking back the Monster was not such a great idea after all.

It had been on the rampage again since his ownership began, as if it knew that he had too much to do to pay much attention to it. kath had sealed it off from most planes, but that didn't mean it didn't have any other options. The Monster had been stewing in it's own juices, as it were, for the past twenty or so cycles, and it was peeved. Mars knew it, for he had originally summoned it. He was peeved, too, now that he came to think about it, but he was mad at his own former reasoning. He drove out the Monster from the planes he summoned it to, and got promoted for it. A truly amazing cycle of events later, and it came to be back under his jurisdiction again. There was nowhere he could send it now, since the Admin Controllers Association was watching his every move, and he no longer really wanted to cause trouble. Well, that wasn't entirely true, but he didn't want to be an object of hate again. Once was enough.

Mars still had not started on his day's work, and still really didn't want to. He was too distracted by his own thoughts. The Monster, kath, de Fachs, The End, all of them played for attention in his coffee sodden brain. He placed the coffee cup on the desk, and rose.

As he wandered out of his office and down the white hall, people stared at him, and he shrugged them off. He really wasn't in the mood to entertain his underlings. They had had more than enough of that in the last week.

For about twenty minutes he stalked through the halls and rooms that he commanded. It all seemed too pale. Too light. There needed to be color. He stomped off finally in the direction of the nearest Pilon, and headed to Eleblue.

They liked him there, but nothing in his calendar had reminded him that the Winter Storm Watch was in effect, and the place was nearly deserted. How a place could have seasons and not actually be in orbit about a star, Mars decided not to press his imagination. But he found an inn, and credited a weeks' stay.

No, he thought, he wouldn't tell anyone where he went. Why should he? He deserved a vacation, anyway. So up to his hotel room, and to relax.

Well, almost. The room was more like a cave, and though it was blue and not white, it was all blue, and little else. His skin provided the break from the colors, and everyone who worked there commented on how well his blue eyes fit in.

Oh, yes, he thought, that's why they still like me.

He stayed there for about a day, and then the little waif from the next room 'accidently' went into his closet. So, he thought, just return her to her parents, and that's that.

Except that her folks moved on that morning. And they had no official address. The girl sat and stared at Mars until he could not take it anymore.

"What is it that you want?" He begged.

"Well. You could start with a bag of those chocolates down in the lobby, and then I want to see the zoo."

Mars sighed. "How about your parents, kid, where did they go?"

"I dunno, I think they went to, uh, that snowy place, uh, the Frozen North." She smiled an unpleasant smile. Mars wasn't much for children, and this one certainly was not improving things. She had a strange look about her. She stared too much. Her eyes were too wide.

At least that was the impression that Mars had. Everyone else about thought she was the cutest little thing, and how old is she and where is her mother? Are you the father? She certainly doesn't have your eyes, they said. He stood a little of this, and then took the girl back to his hotel room.

He sat her down in the light blue chair, and seated himself in the darker one. Their eyes met and he knew he was in trouble. This was no little girl. This was a small Monster waiting to be released. No wonder her parents weren't too concerned. The hair on Mars' neck stood on end.

"Well?" She said, an edge of fear or amusement in her tone.

"I can't keep--I mean, I don't think I can take care of you much longer. I am going to the central Lost and Found, and place a notice there. And you are going to the Childcare service." She looked hurt and shocked. "For your own good," he finished. "I'm no parent. I have to get back to work. And I don't think I could take you with me there, that would, in essence, be kidnapping."

"Sorry." She said. Mars looked alarmed when she took a tangler gun from her backpack, and aimed it at him. "But it's for your own good."

Mars groggily woke to the sound of the hotel room's television babbling endlessly about nothing at all, but it was loud. Loud enough in fact to wake nearly the whole wing of the hotel. There was a pounding at the door, and more on the walls.

"Kid, turn off the TV," muttered Mars. The girl looked at him in surprise, and turned it off. She sat with her arms crossed over her chest, gazing at nothing. Mars attempted to sit, but the goop held him to the chair.

"You're pretty dull, y'no?" Said the girl.

"Thanks loads."

"No, I mean your aura. It's dull. No shine. Not like mine. Not at all."

Mars looked into the magical spectrum, and saw a bizarre flashing about the girl. She was badly in need of training.

"I agree, kid. Hey, um, what's your name, anyway?"

"Max," she said, with a certain amount of apprehension, and an equal amount of pride. Mars nodded.

"Fits you. Let me out of this stuff."

"No way. You'll call the cops and have me arrested."

"I'll leave you alone."

"Huh? No way. Liar."

"Liar? Me? How do you know I'm not telling the truth? You know nothing about me at all."

"You're Admin. That I know. You're on vacation from Z83, where you've been nearly laughed out of office. You just a few weeks ago lost a Historical bid for The End, lost it bad, too. You want to shave and shower, and then you want to either kill me or give me back to my folks. Think I know enough?" She grinned. Mars let his head fall back to the chair, and closed his eyes.

"So, if you were me what would you do? You're tired of being walked on, so am I. You're underappreciated. I'm overworked. Let me out of this, and we can go and talk. OK?" There was a silence that Mars didn't like, and he felt a tiny prick and poke through his magical armor. This girl was certainly too good to be passed up.

"Everything's a business venture for you, isn't it." Max said listlessly. "That's the way my first shrink felt. I hated him. He needed to lose weight. And he drank too much coffee."

"You don't need a shrink, kid. You need a teacher. I think I may be able to set you up with someone. An old school friend of mine. Sort of."

"If I let you up. Sheesh." Mars watched as Max set the tangler on reverse, and he was loose. For a minute he just sat there, trying to read her, but then he got up and took a shower.

Max had packed away a few other surprises in her little bag, Mars noted. They were on their way to the Stage, via the Kitchen Sink and kath's Desk. Mars wondered about the massive amount of stuff she kept pulling out, like toys and candy bars, towels, potted plants, lockpicks, and live grenades. kath walked up.

"Hi, Mars. Who's the kid?" She said. She purposely avoided understanding the pitiful look in Mars' eyes as he told her. He shortened the story to keep the embarassment of tangle goop out of it. kath studied the girl, who stood and watched the adults.

"Where ya' going?" kath asked.

"To find Mayhem."

"Go near her with this kid and sparks'll fly." Said kath. "Warning. The additive power of the Stage would make them one aura-joined person. And I really don't think either of them would like it very much. Or anyone else. I think you may want to bring May here."

"I hadn't thought of the Stage as being that dangerous. But now I need a Message Bird." Mars and kath walked innocently away as Max watched the children on the swings in the playground. She joined the play shortly.

Mars and kath sat and watched Max, and then Mars shook his head. "What do you think? Take her to May or just have her banned from everywhere?"

"You would think of something like that, wouldn't you. No, take her to May is the best thing I can think of. Mayhem started off like her, that powerful, but a lot less random." She paused in thought. "I don't remember her being that bright the first time I saw her, though. Max, I mean."

"Ah, the bird." A message bird came, and shortly carried off a query to Mayhem. The bird flew around a Pilon, and then Mayhem turned the other way and headed to them.

"Boy, that't fast service," said kath. "And well timed, too." The women shook hands, and Mayhem asked Mars where Max was. He pointed.

"Oh, wow. A real color treat. Auras don't usually come that way. Ah, I see, overspill from the other dimentions she's opening up in the backpack. Well, I think I can handle this." She skipped over to the sandbox and introduced herself to Max, and they wandered away. Mars let his jaw drop open.

"Just like that? Thank goodness. I'll be going now."

"Haul ass. She knows where you live." Replied kath.

"What, does everyone make it a point to read my memories?"

"No, it was a good guess. Don't leave just yet." She pulled on his sleeve. "I have something you'd like."

He smiled.

"No, not like that. Over here." She walked to the Desk. Sliding open a drawer, she hid the item from view until handing it to Mars.

"Like it?"

"Um," Mars took the mug from her hands, and examined it. It had a pleasant feel, and when he looked at the sides they moved.

"Oh, like the book. Neat. I do like it. Thanks."

"I found it last week at the Swap Meet. It's my beach."

"Is it? Oh, I see, the pier is over there, then, and the view--"

"--Changes. You'll see. Dig."

kath took the mug and walked a few feet away, and waved Mars over. He looked to see the view had indeed shifted a number of yards to one side.

"Compensates for compression, interesting. I like it. I think I can go back to work now." Said Mars. As he began walking to the Pilon, Mayhem appeared.

"Hey, Max is wierd. And apart from being put in the Granola prison, she's been good. But I think you need to know this: she says she's from Earth. That makes her one of the most powerful natural wizards ever to come out of there. Nice discovery." And she was gone again. Mars hoped they hadn't gone to the Stage, but knew May well enough to expect them not to.

Back in Mars' office, there were a number of people waiting when he got there. He ignored them for a while, but they didn't go away. So, after placing his new mug by the old one and pouring himself coffee in both, he went back to work.

Mayhem led Max around for a few days before the Granola guards caught up with them. Simply enough, May just timeported them away. But they kept coming, and that made her worry. Perhaps Max had done something really wrong?

Upon grilling her, though, and even with magikal assistance, the girl seemed to have done no very heinous crimes. Right about the time they were surrounded with a barrier of null-time Mayhem reassured Max that the Granola Prison was not the worst place to be.

Max simply glared back. From between the two gigantic guards' bulk Max looked imploringly for a moment, then steeled herself. She was learning about the powers she had, only too slowly for her taste. And even though Mayhem was a fun person, she thought, there must be people out there that can help.

Into the Granola place she went, unhappily.

Mayhem wondered how long she should wait before breaking her out.

She decided that telling kath about what Max told her of her origins was in order, at least. She timeported to the last place/time they had met, a little off in time, and told her. She noticed that Mars was still there. She smiled to herself.

And all along, Mayhem thought, I thought kath hated High Admin. Mayhem paced around in her null-space appartment, and then whisked herself into the future, to see what she should have/eventually will do. "Oh, I see."

She went to the Granola law office and demanded the release of Max when it was apparent that they were having a hard time with her. She kept appearing in different cells, somehow. Mayhem knew how, that she could step through all those little dimentional portals, but she hadn't yet mastered going off-plane. Something to work on, Mayhem decided.

The Granola central office gladly handed over the girl.

"Been too much trouble?" May gently chided. The officer rolled his eyes (all seven of them) and Max giggled.

They went back to May's appartment, and Mayhem began drilling the girl on excersizes to practice. Open a portal to here and then close it. Open close. Now see where that portal leads if you open it at an angle. Now go to the next level you can see from there. Open close.

Max had to stay in the appartment, while Mayhem was away on business at the Stage, and she never did get to see it. It disappointed her, but Mayhem was more than adamant that she never go there. She explained in great detail that the Stage was meant to make people into better actors, but it also made the audience better at it too, stagehands into a unit of well-working production assistants.

It would make Max into a better magician, which Mayhem was already. It could make her into a timelord. It could make Mayhem into a distractable and ill-mannered girl.

She wanted to avoid that at all costs.

They practiced together for months. When it seemed that Max was not paying attention to the lesson, Mayhem reminded her that she got where she was not by doing her own thing but learning all she could.

That was not entirely true, and Max seemed to know that, but what could be done? Mage deVille had not been seen for some eight years, and that bothered Mayhem. Maybe she could send Max out on a rescue mission.

Maybe?

Max had to wait until her fifth birthday to be properly introduced into Mayhem's old alma-matter. Dean Luger was impressed, the other professors not quite so happy about it.

"But who shall take care of her?" The aging Ms Prescott asked incessantly.

"I will," Mayhem said. "I have been. I'm not applying for legal custody because I don't think it's necessary. Besides, I don't have a last name to give her anyway."

Dean Luger chuckled at that. He looked at Max, not the most adorable of children, but surely the most talented one to come along in a while. "And do you know what you want to major in?" He asked the girl.

She thought about it for a moment. "Anarchy." She said, confidently. That elicited a rude gasp from Prescott and a rumbling guffaw from Luger.

"She looked it up last week," Mayhem told them, "because I said she brought anarchy to everything she touched."

"I can see that," Luger said. "I don't know if we have the proper course load for it, but perhaps we can arrange it." He took Max's hand and they wandered out into the halls. Mayhem leaned against his desk and watched Ms Prescott. ... **unfinished. ** -

Prescott and Luger both show up at Carramba High School, which should give you an idea of where Max goes. :)