Courtesy: Part 38

Having talked through our battle plan in a dark garage lit mostly by the lights on the far end, we started on stage one of the plan.

By moving to the far end of the room and letting Izzy passively construct a picture of what was ahead, we learned that we had one level between us and the main event. That level, so far as we could tell was empty—which was an interesting choice.

To my mind, that meant that it was empty to make it more obvious when someone attacked or maybe because they had an area of effect weapon they planned to activate on intruders. Tara thought I had a good point. So, we waited. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 38

Courtesy: Part 37

“Huh,” I checked around us again for hostiles with the suit’s sensors and didn’t see anything while my mind raced.

How much could they get out of Arete at this point? He’d been dead for a bit by now. On the other hand, your opponent always did things for a reason. Best to assume that they were going to copy his voice, add it to the telepaths, and create some kind of super-influencer or add it to every fungus construct they could.

“Does everyone have buzzers? As in anti-voice control buzzers? Preferably my design?” I looked around the group for responses. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 37

Courtesy: Part 36

“Maybe we should ask him to get them out? I think he would,” I said.

“I’ll do it,” Haley said. “We’re stuck here until you and Paladin reach us.”

“Do that,” Cassie added, reminding me that we were on the group channel. “It’s crazy to leave them there if you’ve got a choice.”

I frowned, “I just hope Control won’t be stuck there alone.” Continue reading Courtesy: Part 36

Courtesy: Part 35

I hadn’t been planning to kill Magnus, but if I was honest with myself, the guy was immortal. Short of killing him, what were we going to do, hand him over to courts or law enforcement that the Nine influenced or controlled? Get him put into jail for as long as there was a will to keep him?

There might be a way to do that for 20 years, but what about 1000 or more? He could realistically outlive any government willing to put him away and if he did, he could pick up where he left off, possibly creating a whole new organization built on the immortal loyalists, hidden money, and maybe organizations we didn’t yet know he controlled. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 35

Courtesy: Part 34

She let out a breath and moved her hand up the spear, adjusting her grip. A little bit of red sparkled on the spear’s blade, traveling in a line of sparks down her arm.

Taking another long breath, she looked at me, “I’m fine. I will want to use the spear to build up energy, but we’re not fighting anything I’ll feel guilty about using it on.”

She glared at me, “I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I’m not taking donations. I don’t want to explain it to Night Cat.” Continue reading Courtesy: Part 34

Courtesy: Part 33

“Are you okay with that?” I asked, watching as the next group of tendril monsters began to clamber over or around their dead predecessors.

“We need to get down there,” she said, squeezing her left hand in a way that I knew was drawing blood and power along with it.

From the other side of our group, Yellow Mask, who’d been stabbing tendril monsters with her rapier turned to stare at Bloodmaiden, “Is that blood magic?” Continue reading Courtesy: Part 33

Courtesy: Part 32

We didn’t have much time to have a discussion about it either because the problem with fighting a hive mind (or at least a central intelligence that coordinates all the others) is that it constantly sees the big picture.

The big picture in that moment was that it had us off-balance and it was time to capitalize on it.

We’d destroyed the ones holding Jody, but now all the rest of them had charged in while we were doing it, trampling the bodies of the ones that we’d killed.

It wasn’t just the tendril monsters either. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 32

Courtesy: Part 31

I’d deliberately chosen to be our right flank, knowing that I’d be in the front line. As they came toward us, I opened up with sonics, trying a medium width beam and aiming for their legs.

My plan? Slow them down.

While imperfect, it worked okay. Though a wider beam might not do as much damage as a narrow beam, it allowed me the luxury of poor aim. I wasn’t terrible at aiming, but I was running, trying to keep aware of my teammates’ positions, and also trying to point the sonics under each arm at something useful. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 31

Courtesy: Part 30

You know how I’d said that a mass attack from all directions would be a bad thing? That’s more or less what happened.

The smaller room where we’d met Bouman had been the point where the parking garage under City Hall connected to the basement levels of the parking garage next door that were reserved for staff of the city, county, and federal buildings.

With more understanding of our psychology than I’d realized they had, they’d filled the smaller room with a mix of tendril monsters and office workers from City Hall and maybe other buildings too. I could tell from the business casual slacks and button down shirts combined with name tags hanging from lanyards. Between the name tags and the film of mushroom skin over their bodies and faces, I understood the whole situation.

If we wanted to escape by way of City Hall, the way we’d come, the most efficient  methods to use would be Izzy’s scream, my bots, and Sean’s buzzsaw of ball bearings. All of those would straight out murder other human beings now. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 30

Courtesy: Part 29

“I stopped it!” Bouman shouted back, his TV host handsome face showing more emotion than I’d ever seen on it.

I used my implant to think through to the League channel, “Portal, you should be able to get through now.”

“I know,” Brooke said, her voice a little louder than I’d expected. “I’ve been watching you. Give me a second.”

That made sense. In her position, I’d have been watching my camera stream too. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 29

The Legion of Nothing: A Series of Online Superhero Novels (Updates Monday and Thursday)