We managed to escape reporters only because crossing the street had gotten Brooke out of range of the devices that stopped her from opening a gate.
We couldn’t go immediately because we couldn’t leave the mech operator — both because Alex wanted to make sure he hadn’t missed anything and because we didn’t want the mech [...]
When the brightness and the thundering boom of the explosion ended, I saw that the guitar’s charge had turned a chunk of the mech’s chest into a smoking ruin.
It fell backwards, crashing onto the street.
The left arm beat the ground with jerky flailing motions. The shell muffled the sound of screaming, but I could still [...]
“Lumbering” wasn’t quite the word to use though.
It looked slow and clumsy, but it moved. Within seconds it had gotten past the piles of concrete on the street and caught up to us. It swiped at a line of Jennys with its arm, knocking some of them over, hitting others hard enough that Jenny discorporated [...]
They were in front of the building but beginning to run down the street. I landed next to them.
I ran around a couple Jennys to join the core of the group.
“This is bad,” I said. “They’ve got snipers and supers on the shops over there and a giant robot hiding off to the side of [...]
So we had a plan. Now all we had to do was successfully execute it.
Until Jenny and I had the ability to move, however, we couldn’t do anything but wait and listen.
I heard the voice I remembered from the video talking to Raptor again.
Thanks to having fallen face down in the stairwell, I could only listen to what happened next.
A voice, the same voice that had been in the video conversation with Raptor, said, “Surrender. We’ve captured all your friends.”
Alex must have, because the next thing I knew, people were picking me up and carrying me to an [...]
Lee made us think through the circumstances in which we were willing to kill people.
Partially, I’m sure, it was because the circumstances in which you’re willing to kill dictate the sort of moves you need to practice. Partially, it had to be because when the moment came, you needed to recognize it and not hesitate.
We [...]
Four of them came through the door. They wore black, powered armor and helmets with wide, transparent facemasks. The armor made me think of police riot gear except riot gear generally included padding. This armor appeared be hard from top to bottom.
An automatic rifle hung under the right arm. Another weapon hung under the left. [...]
“Great,” Alex said. “Let’s put a plan together and get in there. It looks like simple get in, get out sort of mission to me. Anybody else?”
Brooke shook her head. “I don’t know… Something’s not right. Why do they think they can take on the Defenders?”
“You think it’s more than just the hostages?” Jenny said.
“How [...]
“But we’re not going to,” Alex said. “Raptor’s not going to take on Syndicate L by himself. He’s got to stay here and direct the people who are still left, and, you know, most of them got the short end of the stick when it comes to powers, so what good are they?”
“Well,” I said, [...]
