Fine print: Christina belongs to me if she belongs to anyone.
The other Characters belongs to Marvel entertainment. Don't sue me.
This is purely for entertainment.
This can't be that original of an idea, sorry.
Again, don't sue me.

Another Assignment
(another thousand words piece)
by kaz [ckazmierc@aol.com]
*****

    The young man sat in a chair.
    He had tried to open the door, then the window.  And failed.  So he took
one of the two seats present on either side of the table.
    There was nothing else in the very white room.

    He had begun to watch the forms which went past the window.  Angels,
demon, elves, trolls, humans, mutants...  And those were only the ones he
recognized.  Many were obviously in conversation -- with themselves or each
other -- but he couldn't hear what they said.  They  appeared and disappeared
out of nowhere.
    They were always on the other side of the window.

    Without warning the door opened and a female walked in.  "Aw, hell!  Why
did I get you?  Don't answer.  It was only a hypothetical question."
    She was approximately 5' 7, auburn hair in a bun, and wore a black suit
and white shirt which reminded him of a friend he had met in Great Britain.
A friend he secretly kept in contact with although no one would think either
of them capable of it.
    Like his friend, she apparently smoked.
    "Not talkative?  Well... that might be for the better while I lay the
cards out on the table.  We have ten minutes relative time.  My name is
Christina.  I have been assigned to help you decide whether or not you want
to go back to the land of the living.  Otherwise, the higher ups need to
decide what to do with your soul.  And they really don't want to be bothered.
Normally I would call it wussing out of a decision.  But who knows what
rules she, he, it or they have to play by?"

    The young man laughed at the matter-of-fact way 'Christina' delivered
the speech. "It?"
    "Well, I can't be giving you information on a supreme deity or deities
you might not meet.  Would kinda defeat the purpose if you knew what was in
store."

    "Perhaps..."  The young man cracked his knuckles.
    "Tough guy, huh?"  A file appeared in midair.  Christina's flick of the
wrist, while retrieving it, loosened her bun.  "SOMEONE's not doing their job
if SOMEONE doesn't give me the file until after I meet my next assignment!"

    The young man leaned back in his seat.  He sat, perfectly balanced, on
two chair legs.  "Assignment?"
    "Yeah.  I am currently stuck in a coma.  The powers thought I needed
something to do  until my fate was decided.  FOR ME.  However, I am not the
subject here.  You have a choice to make.  So, why don't you tell me why you
wanted to drink yourself to death?"

    His words sounded dull in his own ears, as if they had been drained of
his normal speech patterns and inflections.  "Things seemed so confused.  I
gave up a position of power to figure stuff out.  Only things became more
confusing.  Maybe if I had just hung on..."
    "But you didn't.  So you will never know what could have happened.  That
alley is closed to you now.  Really, was it so bad?"
    "Yes and no."  The man thought for a moment.  "My suggestions were
listened to, but... usually not implemented.  It cost a young woman her
life.  I cannot help but feel responsible."
    "Life is nothing if not unpredictable.  She could have slipped in the
morning shower and ended up... You get the idea."
    "But I feel so useless."  He flailed his hands up in frustration.
    "Join the friggin' club!  I can't even--"
    "You just don't know!"
    "Everytime someone has said that to me, I have known."  Christina's eyes
flared.  "Try me."
    "I should have done something to stop it!  I knew what the end results of
her actions would be and I did nothing..."
    The woman met his eyes without flinching.  "I doubt it!  You probably
did the best you could.  She had free will buddy! That isn't something to be
taken lightly! All you can do is tell someone what you think!"  She visibly
calmed yourself.  " Let 'em decide what to do.  And you may not have even time
for that."
    "It's not that black and white!"
    "Isn't it!  We have control over very few things in life.  One of them,"
Christina blew smoke in his face.  "is our actions."
    "And the rest?"
    She grinned.  "Damned if I know.  Our beliefs?"
    "She died fighting for our beliefs!"
    "And you want her to die in vain!  Did she save lives through her
actions?  Did she save your life by her actions?"
    The man angrily left his seat.  "That isn't the point."
    "Oh, hell!  I believe it is.  You would give anything to bring her back?"
    The young man shook his head. "But she is dead."
    "And you will be too if you don't--"
    Chimes echoed in the distance.
    "Time is up!  What's your decision?"
    "I think I would like to--" The man disappeared

    Christina called after the man.  "Have a pig! ... What can I say?  I am
good!"
    She opened the file.  One word was printed inside.  Where the man would
have gone...
    She smiled.
    Another file appeared before her.  She opened it.
    The smile disappeared.
    "You better give me more then ten minutes if I have to talk Illyanna
Rasputin into coming back from the dead!"
    Something laughed in the beyond.

*****

Pete Wisdom looked down at the man on the hospital bed.  Pete wanted to
believe that the flush in the man's cheeks was not his imagination.  But,
with all that blue fur, who could tell?

" (cough) have another shot...  Oh!  Herr Wisdom!"

"Kurt!  The next time you decide to see the world from the bottom of a glass,
call before you head out!  You selfish twit!  I'm never livin' down givin'
mouth to mouth on someone who's already dead!"