A Rose By Any Other Name

"You okay, Max?" the fellow asked him. Max's head was still swimming, lost in a fog of thoughts and memories which seemed to be in a swirl of dreamlike spools. 

"I think so," he asked, his voice husky as if coming from an antiquated stereo system. "What happened?"

The fellow looked over at Max and a smile spread across his lips. Max couldn't place where he had met this man before, though the eyes had that haunting familiarity about them; but in the Metaplex anything was possible. 

"Don't you remember anything?" the man asked. "The snake men? The giant robot? The enchantress?"

Max shook his head no to each question; his brain seemed to be blank much like a switchboard after the operator had gone for a coffee break. "Not really. Though I do have a vague dream-like deja vu about it." 

Max's eyes were adjusting to the dim light around him. He could tell they were inside someplace vast and dark, and that he was lying on a hard cold stone floor.

He brought up his hand to rub his eyes and that's when he noticed his fingernails, and that's when he realized he had breasts. 

"Surprise," the man said and Max could tell with the hint in the voice that it was Maggie.