"TALK!!" screamed my...Joey's teacher. "TALK NOW!!" The teacher flung himself away from my...Joey's desk like some kind of overly emotional anime character. "I will make you speak in my class!" Joey knitted his fingers and placed his hands on his desk looking ready to hear the day's lesson.

It didn't matter what class he was in, it was the same; he's shy silence angered every teacher, classmate, employer, and co-worker he came across. The teacher pointed dramatically at Joey as if he were a lawyer about to announce some important piece of evidence that would prove his client's innocence. "We talk in this country, Mr. Wolf, so talk!" Joey said nothing. "Talk! Talking is our status; it shows how important we are. The person who talks the most wins. It doesn't matter what we say as long as sounds spew from our mouths."

Joey sat in silence patiently waiting for class to continue. The more the teacher bellowed, the more Joey refused to speak. This teacher was just another in a long line of people trying to force him to speak.

Joey's memories shifted to another teacher. He'd been sick for two weeks with bronchitis. When he returned to school, he was behind. This teacher didn't help matters any. The teacher demanded Joey's project be done that week. The only way he could finish it on time was to come in at lunch. Joey asked the teacher if he needed a hall pass to get by the hall monitor.

"No," said the teacher. "Just tell them you're coming to see me."

At lunch, after he ate, Joey did as instructed. The hall monitor didn't buy it. "No pass, no go."

What was I...Joey to do? The project was due by the end of the day and the teacher would not extend the deadline, even if Joey'd been sick for two weeks. He only had one option. He told the hall monitor he was heading to the library instead, which oddly enough you don't need a pass for—school rules, so random.

A few feet later, Joey flipped directions and headed for the classroom. Once at the classroom, the teacher decided to let Joey use a back room so he'd have some quiet. Joey went to work on his project. Suddenly, the hall monitor came into the room and cussed out Joey for not going to the library.

As the hall monitor dragged him away, a question formed in his mind: how had the hall monitor known he was in that room. Only he and the teacher knew. Also, the room was windowless and the door closed. It was also in the back, away from the hallway. To get to it, you have to go through the main classroom. It is impossible to just be passing by and see someone in there.

Had the teacher...set him up?

***

"Sir," a timid voice trembled.

Joey Wolf stirred upon his throne, the painful memories drudged up by sleep slowly being pushed back down where they belonged. "What is it?" he said through sharp, pointed canine teeth.

"The people are revolting again."

Joey offered a small wave. "Then give them a bath."

The court jester played a comical rimshot.

"No, Sir, I mean they are protesting for the release of the prisoner." The underling, Joey didn't even bother to learn his name, pointed a remote at a large screen. The screen, thanks to camera drones, showed the outside. Joey's unfinished pyramid glistened in the sunlight. A large all-seeing eye-shaped camera floated above the work in process pyramid; it scanned the land for any unrest. The drones then displayed the citizens.

"Free Mason! Free Mason!" they chanted and pumped their signage in the air.

Joey sighed in disappointment at the protesters, who called themselves the Free Masons so that everyone could know their goal. He gave his citizens everything they could ever want or need and yet they protested.

Once upon a time, Joey had been a hero, a champion of the people. He protected them from all sorts of crime, disaster, and accident. Then one day, an evil and ruthless alien race invaded the planet. Fortunately, Joey, as his alter-ego Wolf-Boy, was able to defeat the invaders, but just barely. He'd nearly been stopped, not by the aliens, but by Earth's own leaders and political red tape. While the politicians argued about the best course of action, the invaders rounded up people and razed the cities. Finally, Joey had enough and faced the invaders without governmental agreement, acting as a vigilante.

After the invasion, Joey decided if the world was to survive the next attack there would have to be a new world order...his new world order. If he'd been in charge the matter would have been resolved faster and with less loss of life. Joey attacked the centers of power and toppled them. In less than a day, he'd taken control of the world.

He protected the people from threats both domestic and foreign (sometimes very foreign). Under his rule, everyone had a job and no one hungered. Everyone had a role and everyone was important. It was utopia. But all of that changed when the person known as Mason arrived. He claimed to be looking for his lost friend. He told some sob story about his friend being pulled into an interdimensional portal during a field trip on Halloween. Mason now searched the countless realms trying to locate him.

Something about Mason's tale chilled Joey to the bone and that worried him. But what really worried Joey was that people from other realities could just show up. How long before there was an invasion?

Joey listened to Mason's tales about the other realms, many frightening and powerful. If Joey was going to continue protecting his people, he would need to become stronger. Mason then told Joey about the Unum (Ooh-num). The Unum, who'd been watching too many Jet Li and Highlander movies, believed that by killing your Reflection—the name for your parallel counterpart—you would be able to absorb their life force (aka phantasmic energy) and become stronger. Once you were the only one, you'd become a god.

Joey had his answer. He would eliminate his counterparts until he was strong enough to protect his people from any threat. Thanks to Mason, he had the means and knowledge to traverse the universes. But once Mason discovered Joey's plan, he tried to stop him only to be imprisoned. The people found out about Mason's treatment and have been protesting ever since.

After vanquishing his first Reflection, Joey indeed become more powerful. He also took on the new name Savage Wolf. Soon after returning to his home realm, he came to the conclusion that he alone would never be able to locate every one of his Reflections. He gathered his local generals and sent them out into the Multiverse to locate his other selves. To know who was loyal, he told them to display an image of his unfinished pyramid.

Years passed and only ten Reflections remained...and two of them were on their way to meet Joey.

***

My brow knitted into a frown. I'd lost the story. Something stopped me from continuing. My mind was in a stupor. I couldn't see any further.

Someone turned on the diner's television.

Maybe taking my mind off my book would help.

I turned my head awkwardly to watch the program. The movie must have been a war one because images of nearly destroyed buildings began to appear on screen. The movie seemed familiar. I felt like I'd seen it in a dream.

I started to get into the movie as the action began. A few minutes later, the movie reached a quiet moment—quiet except for the sound of keys clacking. I looked down at my laptop. My fingers rested on the keyboard keys.

A quick onceover of the computer screen told me this next chapter was close to the movie. It seemed that I had unconsciously typed up the first few minutes of the movie. Feeling rotten for copying the scene, I turned back to the movie, but I ended up confused. The TV set was off. I asked the person behind the counter what happened to the movie.

"That piece of junk," the worker said nodding towards the set, "hasn't worked in years."

"Years?" I whispered. I swallowed hard. Somehow this story was writing itself. This time, however, the chapter wasn't about Max.

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