Part 2: Man of Steel
"Doc, what does this all mean for Marlun?" Karl asked when Marlun mulled the facts over.
"At this moment, I am not sure. I am keeping you here overnight, Marlun, as a precaution. I have some blood tests to run and you should take it easy at first. Remember, you just came out of a coma and I hoping the tests will indicate you are back to normal again."
'Normal,' Marlun thought wryly, 'Why do I get the feeling that I'll never be normal again?'
The doctor leaves the group with an awkward, tense silence. Karl coughs, Ava shifts, but all Marlun does is stare at the image on the screen, the image of him as some kind of freak. Karl, who has known the magician longer than anyone, cannot read the man now, cannot tell what he is thinking. Finally, it is Marlun who speaks.
"Karl?"
"Yes, Marlun?"
"I need you to do something for me. Something important is happening, and not just to me either."
"Sure, boss. What do you need?"
"Until you come back tomorrow, I need you to look into current events, in and outside the city. I need to know if anything else strange has been happening, strange like what has happened to me. If there are others out there, I want to know what they are able to do. I might be stuck bedridden for a while, but we need to know what the score is."
"Alright, but what do I tell the theater manager, Marlun? He's been chomping at the bit ever since you…well, since you came to the hospital."
"You won't tell him anything, Karl. Ava will."
"I will? But this is Karl's territory, not mine."
"This time, it will be your business. At this point, we need charm as much as we need finesse and you, my dear Ava, have both," Ava blushes lightly. "After you talk with the theater manager, call a packing company. I want anything salvageable from my apartment to be packed and stored for later pick up. Have them pack everything worth saving, and I want you there to point out what's important and what isn't."
"Sure, Marlun. But what about when you are done here at the hospital?"
The magician pauses, considering what to tell those closest to him, those who would do most anything for him. "I have not decided yet, but it may be time to leave Philadelphia and start fresh." Both Karl and Ava protest, but Marlun continues, "This city, and potentially the people beyond it, are in the middle of a great change. I can feel it. Whatever happened to me didn't just happen to me and I, WE, need to find out why. I know you are partial to this city. Of all of them, I have come to love Philadelphia the most, if you can truly love a place. Something tells me the answers aren't here, though, and I want answers." Marlun flops back onto his bed, exhausted. The entire ordeal has taken more out of him than he'd ever admit, even to those he cares about most.
"Alright, Marlun," Karl says, sighing incontentedly, "We should go. There is a great deal for us to do and you need your rest. But do us all a favor. At the very least, reconsider your thoughts on leaving Philadelphia. You said you've come to love this city. This city may have also come to love you as well." The magician nods lightly, drifting off. "Come on, Ava. Let's leave him to his rest. He'll come around. You'll see." The two leave as Marlun drifts off into a deep sleep.
Dreams plague the young magician, causing him to toss and turn restlessly. In his dreams, Marlun falls and falls, like with the child, only this time he is alone. Through dark colors and explosions of white light he falls. Sometimes, the fall is impossibly fast; other times, he floats near weightless. But the falling remains the same. Sensations, those unlike any Marlun have ever experienced, washes over him in cascades, his mind barely able to withstand their constant barrage.
Suddenly, Marlun sits straight up, gasping for breath, fully awake and alert. The magician clutches his chest, vainly trying to remove the tight feeling that had taken up residence where his heart should have been. 'Some nightmare,' he thought, grimacing painfully. 'Must've been the hospital food.'
"Hello, Marlun. It's been a long time."
Across the room sat a man in the room’s chair, vaguely silhouetted in the moonlight. A gun shone in the same light, pointed casually, but directly, at Marlun. The magician tried to make out the man behind the voice, behind the gun, but couldn't quite make him out. Who was this man?
"Surely you haven't forgotten me already? After all we've been through…” The man leaned into incoming light, revealing the grim visage of Maximilian Case.
"Max? Max, what're you doing here?"
"I saw your little 'stunt' on the news last week. To think The Magnificent Marlun would ever do a trick for no profit, I just couldn't believe it. I had to come and see you, old friend. I was surprised to learn that you, along with many, many others, have become able to do the impossible. Especially you and I, who have trafficked in pretending the impossible, can finally give the people what they've always wanted."
"Max, why are you pointing that gun at me?"
"This little thing? Well, I couldn't have you calling for anyone before I had a chance to talk to you, now could I? Sometimes, when your activities are considered extralegal, the wrong people get notified and that can ruin your fun. Let's just say there are those who won't let me have my cake and eat it too."
"Cut to the chase, Max. Say your piece or get out of my room. I don't have the patience for your mouth tonight."
"Temper, temper, Marlun," Max chuckled, getting up and moving closer to the bed. "Such harsh things can get you into so much trouble these days. But I'm a forgiving soul. I'm willing to forget all that you've done and what's come between us, for one little tiny thing on your part."
"Which is?"
"Join me, Marlun. I know the kind of man you are and what you are capable of. More importantly, I want to know what you are able to do now and how we can both benefit from it. You have a gift, just as I do. Let's work together, like we did years ago. This entire city could be our oyster."
Marlun stared at his old acquaintance, confused. Gifts? Extralegal activities? The magician wasn't sure what Maximilian was getting at, but it sounded like the Max of old; a great deal of hot wind and just as much substance.
"I don't know what you are driving at, but I don't want any part of your schemes, Max. I didn't want them years ago and I don't want them now. What made you think I would?"
"I didn't, actually. I had hoped, a little, that you would have mellowed on the issue over time, but I was wrong. You're still the stand-up and honorable con artist, where as I am the lowly knave, as you once put it. Oh well, at least there are some who think of my goals as worthwhile."
"Who, in their right mind, would want to work with a closet psychopath and his delusions of grandeur?"
Case twitched a little at this, visibly bristling at the insult, and raised the gun higher. Marlun tried sinking further into his sheets and grasped the safety bars tightly. Max forced a laugh, continuing, "Oh, there are people, Marlun. Powerful people who need people like me. The East Asians took me in, turned me around, and have treated me like family. It's wonderful. But they are nothing like my personal fan club."
All around him, Marlun heard a wave of "Hello, Marlun" as copies of Max stepped out from the shadows and surrounded his bed, all staring at him like he was a specimen for dissection. 'God,' he thought, fearfully, 'I'm still dreaming. I must be still dreaming. How can this be happening if not in a dream? Oh God, let me wake up, please.' The Maxes reached down and held him in place, preventing him from getting up or moving or even calling out. All he could do is watch them all, wide eyed.
"You see, Marlun," the main Max spoke, smiling sadistically, "I have my own personal group of friends now and they are just like me, in every way. I told you we have gifts. This is mine. What's yours?"
"I don't know. I've never done anything like this before. I don't know what's happening to me. Do you?" Marlun babbled, panicked. He was going to die here, held down in a hospital bed by his worst enemy and his clones.
Max sighed, pointing the gun directly at Marlun's head, "Then I guess what was on the news was a trick. If you can't do it again, then you really are worthless to me. It's a shame, really. We have so much in common, almost as much as my brothers here. Oh well. See you in the next world, old chum." With that, Max fired his weapon.
Time seemed to slow down for Marlun. It was as if all his senses were heightened in the moments before the bullet struck him. He could feel the soft cotton of his gown and sheets, the rough hands of the Maxes that held him in place, the cool metal of the bars he held for dear life, the smell of the gunpowder discharge. Then he felt it. Similar to his dream, yet not as forceful, not as overwhelming. Rather, it was soothing, comforting, like the bar in his hand, and it flowed throughout his body, covering it coolly. Time returned to normal.
*TINK*
"Tink?" the Maxes asked, confused, silenced by the head Max, "I shot him in the head, and all I got was 'Tink'?"
"Trust me, I'm as confused as you, old friend," Marlun said, getting up and out of bed, despite all of the Maxes holding him. Marlun moved them as if they were children.
"Well, well, well," the head Max said, whistling up at the steely Marlun, "This IS a development, isn't it? And here I thought I was going to be bored all night."
"You know how much I hate to disappoint," Marlun said smiling, shoving Max into the back wall, leaving a dent where he hit. The Max clones set upon the magician, but all they got where shoved down, bruised and broken hands and tossed aside. Marlun made his way to the head Max, lifting him up by his collar. "Call them off, Max. They can't stop me like this."
"Boys, enough," Max called, and quickly all of the Maxes disappeared into the head Max. "I was hoping you'd wise up. Seems like threatening you with your life DID work. This is just fine."
"What's stopping me, Max," Marlun growled, pulling his nemesis closer, "What's stopping me from dropping you out of that window and ridding myself of you permanently? Hmmm?"
"Several reasons, actually," Max laughed, "One, you wouldn't be rid of me even if you did. Those clones are handy for more than just muscle, let me tell you. Two, it wouldn't look too good for you to have killed a man with what you KNOW you can do now, would it? They'd come in and take you away, and where would that get you? Out of my hair, for one. And further," Max lowered his eyes and grinned even larger, "You didn't do it when you had the chance before, did you?"
"No," Marlun whispered, "I didn't." He let Max to the floor, who dusted himself off neatly, as if all was in order.
"Well, I'm glad that's all straightened out then. You should be thanking me, you know?"
"Why?"
"I just taught you an important lesson; how to use your gift. Some people are so inconsiderate. Ah well, be seeing you, old chum." Marlun watched as Max left, a knot of fear tightening in his steel gut. He sat hard on his hospital bed, bowing it under his new weight, and stared out into the Philadelphia night. Marlun knew he would get no further rest this night.
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