PRL Serials

When he was an adolescent, Maxx was small for his age. He was adorable in his light green-brown shell, and with his big black eyes that reflected light like pools of water, his light green-brown skin that was freckled with dark green circles over his nostrils, the top lip of his beak, and his cheeks. His shell seemed to fit him tightly; he was plump in his lower abdomen and his limbs were stubby, giving him the appearance of a cute animation. 

Despite his size, though, Maxx never struggled to keep up with the others during exercise and construction time. Guardians were designed and manufactured on the Fumarole Archipelago and they were trained to strengthen the biological components of their bodies. Part of their training included construction projects all over the planet which amounted to free labor for the Ministers. It was not uncommon to see adolescent Guardians transporting equipment and material without the aid of machines, and using their electromagnetic abilities in various ways to complete the construction of large skyscrapers that exist in densely populated cities. 

Maxx was always smaller, but he was never the weakest. He learned to manipulate the electromagnetic energy of the Bludonian Superconsciousness at a younger age than most guardians and used it to lift heavy beams that other guardians had to double up to move. 

When he was a teenager, the Minister Quy, a former guardian turned Minister, sat with him in his dormitory to ask a favor.

“You are catching up to your peers,” she said as the young Maxx glared at her with curiosity. It seemed that Maxx could only glare, he always looked very intense, as did most guardians on Bludon. They were Bludonian and they were not; despite their service to greater Bludonian society, they were often seen as others or outsiders. 

“Catching up how?” Maxx asked with real curiosity. “I am the most advanced X model in any number, and we all know the X models are the most sophisticated of all the guardians.”

“I meant sizewise,” Quy said with a weak smile. “You’re almost as tall and muscular as your peers.”

“My peers matured before the optimal curve of guardian development according to updated science from the Fumarole Lab. I’ve demonstrated that proficiency with the Superconsciousness is dependent on appropriate time with the energy in early stages of development. If anything, they should be catching up with me, well not soon, but in their own time.”

Even then, it was clear to Quy that Maxx was special among the guardians.

“Fine,” she said, “I was mostly just commenting on how big you’ve gotten, but you’re right. The growth curve of guardians has been adjusted based on your success. That is why I am here with you in your room. I hoped to speak with you seriously and privately. All of the Ministers are overjoyed with your development. I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I believe they underestimate your maturity. You are a new breed of guardian that was not created intentionally and you are a triumph of Bludonian science and ingenuity. As such, your fellow guardians, even the ones much older than you, and models other than X, look up to you. Many are working extremely hard to appear as proficient as you, but not all are capable or are meant to be capable as you are. I’m hoping that you can be more sensitive to the shortcomings of the other guardians. Give them tips to help them along. Encourage them.”

Maxx narrowed his eyes at Quy. “What are you saying Minister? You want me to teach the other guardians? But I am not a teacher. That is the job of the Ministers.”

“I’m not asking you to be a teacher,” Quy said and she sighed. She knew this would be hard for Maxx to understand. “I’m asking you to pay attention to the ways your peers fall short and take the time to help them get over the hump, if you will.”

“Like, while I’m doing my thing?” Maxx asked. He shook his head quickly. “Minister Quy, I’m already moving at half speed so I don’t embarrass anyone else. What next, you’re just gonna make me be like the boring blues who aren’t guardians? Are the Ministers taking the Superconsciousness from me?”

Maxx actually appeared to be worried at the prospect of losing the Superconsciousness.

“Not at all. You are just very advanced and seeing you, who is already smaller and younger than most, excelling when they struggle can be discouraging to the others. I’m just asking you to recognize your brothers in arms and encourage them to get like you.”

Maxx shrugged and nodded slowly. “I guess so. I didn’t need their encouragement to get like me, but if you say so, Minister Quy.”

She nodded and put a hand on his bald head. “Even with five more years of the Guardian program planned before no new guardians are made on Bludon, I can’t imagine that there will be another like you. Maybe you will always be the most excellent, but who knows. Maybe one day you will meet someone who impresses even you.”

This made Maxx laugh out loud and Quy reprimanded him as she left him alone.

Currently, Maxx is glowing yellow and a halo rings his head. The view of the world through his eyes is chaotic, the colors of existence smeared around in a circle, but he does not need eyes. The lean that courses through his body and shows on his skin as purple veins, gives him a keen awareness of his surroundings. The âmuk makes him bloodthirsty and it will not subside until either he or his enemy is dead or he is unconscious.

Maxx is the Superguardian, the chosen leader of the recently liberated Guardians of Bludon, who were all designed, engineered, and incubated to battle the mysterious Daemon that have plagued the planet for many years. The Guardians originally answered to the House of Ministers, who controlled kill switches for each of the Guardians that could end their lives even if they were not on Bludon. The Queen Rowen of Oin, a friend of Maxx who was visiting him on Bludon, used her substantial mental ability to convince the Ministers to destroy the control switches.

As they celebrated their liberation on the island closest to the remote cabin where Maxx lived, the island was rocked by an explosion, and Maxx was sure that Minyak, of the Daemon Head, had arrived to attack the Guardians in their reverie. Five figures appeared at the site of the explosion, one black with the oily characteristics he had always seen in Minyak. Maxx and the Guardians quickly went âmuk to attack the threat, and they flew in force at the figures, intent on killing what they thought was Minyak and his minions.

Maxx attacks furiously, beating at the forcefield around the figures, but he recognizes one of them, Goldie of the Smiting Chamber, and a small part of him wants to stop the attack to ask Goldie what is going on, but there are only two ways to stop âmuk, unconsciousness or death. 

The fury of Maxx’s âmuk has spread to the other guardians and as they try to help him, they are engaged by oily black tendrils that hold them firm, but do not harm them. Maxx is confused and the confusion only fuels his rage. 

The Queen Rowen has been on Bludon for longer than her loyal subjects on Oin anticipated, but that is her fault. They would have protested if she were honest that she wanted to spend as much time on Bludon as the Bludionians allowed. She’d become fascinated with Bludon since the conclusion of the first Arbitration of Hysteria and Maxx the Superguardian has proven to be the best friend she has made in her life.

Rowen lived a very guarded life on Oin and from the time she was born, she was recognized as the fulfillment of an ancient Oin prophecy that predicted the birth of a Queen from a noble lineage who would have the power to heal with a touch. As an infant, Rowen would be placed into her guarded section of the large baptismal pool every morning. The baptismal pool was located at the Infirmary Chapel, which is the largest building on Oin and the center of Ointite religion. The baptismal pool is a large rectangular pool that occupies the majority of the main floor of the Chapel and is used for cleansing rituals. With Rowen in the pool, it gained healing properties and the Ointites of the planet would go there to take a dip in the waters and be healed of any physical injuries to their bodies. 

Not only did Rowen have the ability to heal others, but she also possessed a stronger telepathic ability than the average Ointite. The majority of Ointites are born with limited telepathic ability that allows them to communicate with thought within a range of many miles, but the Queen Rowen can reach any mind on the planet, and every planet within the solar system that contains Oin. 

As she grew older, she spent all of her time when she was not fulfilling her duties blessing the waters of the baptismal pool, with advisors and proxies who taught her about the duties of being the Queen. Rowen was always a solitary student and even when she was around children her age, they did not treat her like a peer. She was the Queen Rowen of prophecy, the very same of stories that parents told their children to pray to every night for their continued health. 

As she matured into adulthood, she learned that even those she called friends could not actually be that to her. No Ointite could see her as anything but the Queen, the healing Goddess, and she always felt that others worshiped her too readily.

Maxx was the first person to talk to her like a person, not as a monarch, and since arriving to Bludon, they have bonded as siblings in ways that she never dreamed she would have the opportunity to bond with another being. She truly cherished her relationship with Maxx, and as a result of their relationship, the Queen Rowen had decided that Bludon would be her second home that she would protect as fiercely as Oin. 

When the Outsiders arrived during the Guardian celebration of their liberation from control of the Ministers of Bludon, Rowen did not hesitate to risk her life to stand beside Maxx as he and the guardians engaged âmuk to attack the enemy that Maxx presumed to be an ally of Minyak and the Daemon who had threatened Bludon for many years. 

From the sand on the beach where Maxx and the other guardians had launched their attack on the seeming allies of Mynak, the Queen Rowen communicates telepathically with her security.

“Queen,” she hears in her earpiece over the commotion of the battle in the sky and the waters that had been roiled by an explosion. “Analysis of the three beings reveals two of them to be Fonlanders, one is Goldie of the Smiting Chamber.”

“Goldie?” The Queen Rowen asks aloud. “Maxx is a friend of Goldie of the Smiting Chamber. Why is he attacking if she is there? Why is she with an ally of Minyak?”

“There are no Daemon signatures from any of the beings with Goldie,” her security reports. “That is not Minyak.”

As she hears this, she sees the tendrils of black seizing the Bludonian Guardians in the air. Maxx is striking a force field that surrounds the beings, including Goldie. The Queen Rowen understands that when the guardians go âmuk, they lose all reason, but she wants the Guardians to stop attacking for long enough to speak with Goldie and the companions that she has arrived with. 

“Maxx,” Rowen says aloud as she infiltrates the psyche of the Superguardian. “Maxx, please hear me.” She has never struggled to enter the mind of another being, but Maxx’s mind is warped by the lean that alters his psyche and the âmuk makes his mind a veritable stronghold. But Rowen has recently experienced the lean and she uses it to navigate the fortress of the Superguardian’s mind.

“Maxx, please hear me.” As she says this, she manages to slip into his mind and her view of the world begins to smear in a perfect circle. She loses control of her body and crumbles to her knees, but she pushes forward into the onslaught of the Superguardian’s mind. “It’s me, its Rowen.”

“I hear you,” Maxx responds and she hears him as clearly as though he is talking into her ear. “I hear you but I cannot stop until the threat is neutralized. Why is Goldie here?”

“You have to stop it now,” the Queen says. “Wind it down, pull it back. You are the Superguardian, you can control your âmuk and the âmuk of all the Guardians. I can help you.”

“But this thing, it is Minyak,” Maxx growls. 

“It is not Minyak. My security detects no Daemon on Bludon currently.”

There is a silence and the Queen watches from her knees as Maxx stops his assault on the forcefield and he eventually settles in the sand next to her. He helps her to her feet. The other Guardians are released from the black tendrils and they come to rest on the sand in formation behind Maxx. They all stare up as the five figures in the forcefield land in the sand before the Queen and Maxx.

“I thought you were going to shatter the forcefield and kill us!” Goldie, the asanbosam of the Fonlands says. She puts her golden-clawed hands to the side of her head and shakes it slowly. “You had the halo, you went âmuk? I didn’t think you could stop.”

“It’s all thanks to the Queen,” Maxx says and then he turns his attention to the figure in black that wears a black hood. “Who are you? And why did you bring them here, Goldie?”

“This is Zacchaeus,” Goldie explains. “We are here by accident. You can trust them, but this one,” she says, pointing to Owuo, “I can’t speak for him.”

“Guardians,” Maxx says to the Guardians closest to him, “take them to the dormitory on Fumarole. We will sort this all out there. Goldie and Owuo, the Queen and I will escort you. We have a lot to talk about.”