WARNING: Selling human beings against their will is bad, and the Weird Luck creative team does not endorse it in any way. Angelica is a professional villain and is not intended for use as a positive role model. Don't try this at home.

Will Angelica accept Mariel's offer? Would you?

The Endless Plateau is its own separate reality, and Tal Sharnis is the only center of human civilization on the Endless Plateau. So in Tal Sharnis, "off-worlder" means "from another universe" rather than "from outer space." 

For reasons that will be explained in the next chapter, Tal Sharnis natives (like Angelica and Agent Sojac) sound a lot like they're from California. So from their perspective, any accent that sounds notably different from a California accent is an "off-world" accent. 

Angelica may have her faults when it comes to ethics, but you've got to hand it to her: in a tale full of complicated characters harboring all manner of sinister secrets and mysterious agendas, her motives are refreshingly clear. 

And we're back! 

Welcome to the cheap little one-room basement apartment that Angelica rents on the side as an emergency hideout. 

Make yourself comfortable, we're going to be hanging out here for a bit.

And if you're new to Weird Luck or need a refresher, see Chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Volume One for the story of how Mariel got into this predicament.

Next up: Chapter 2.2, which is titled Mariel. 

When last we saw Mariel and Angelica, at the end of Chapter 1.7, they were fleeing Khez Kortho's nightclub after managing to steal both the Corvus Drive and Charles' hoverbike.

(Or, more accurately, Mariel and Angelica had stolen the Corvus Drive and then Angelica had double-crossed and kidnapped Mariel. It's complicated.)

Anyway, this spectacular title page depicts their subsequent wild flight across the Bay. (Which is really more like a giant salt-water lake than a bay, since it's no longer connected to an ocean. But it used to be an actual bay and the citizens of Tal Sharnis still call it the Bay. It's complicated.)

Up till now, Mike has colored the pages as well as drawing them (except for the prequel stories, where the guest artists have done their own coloring). For this chapter, though (including the title page), Mike did the drawing as usual but we brought in a guest colorist, Robt Snyder, giving the chapter a different look that we think is just right for this bit of the story. 

We always take a break in between chapters, but we figured we'd share this title page with you before the break. We'll be back with the first page of "Mariel" on June 11th! Meanwhile, this is a fine time to go back and catch up on previous chapters, and refresh your memory of previous events in the story!

End of chapter!

In our next chapter, Mariel, we'll find out what's going on with Angelica, Mariel, and the Corvus Drive. Watch for the spectacular title page on May 28th, and the first page of the chapter on June 11th!

Telepaths are really good at avoiding eye contact when they want to, because they know when it's coming.

Deputy Regional Director Perkins is not a very relaxed guy.

That "impromptu alliance" between Angelica and Mariel didn't end up going so well for Mariel, but the Reality Patrol doesn't know that yet.

And hold on, didn't we just hear about a couple of other troublemakers being members of the Order of Eight Directions?