I’d never spent enough time talking to Ray to notice how irritating he could be. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I preferred it when he was trying to kill me, but still.
“Okay.” I paused for a few seconds and then continued, “It’s not as if I have a big pile of options here. I don’t think you’re going to like my next one either, but if you want garuanteed results, it’s the best one…”
Ray shrugged and then smirked, “It’s like I always say to my team. There aren’t any bad ideas, but there are ideas I won’t bet my life on. Go for it.” Continue reading Magnus: Part 9→
Plus, of course, even if I could somehow trust him, there were practicalities to consider.
Ray had died by some combination of accidentally grabbing a power line so hard that he broke through the protective covering, and Sean ramming a “Deer Crossing” sign through his chest.
Since Ray had lost the “copied Cabal powers” version of himself and lapsed into unconsciousness before the sign hit, I’d suspected that the electricity had killed him.
It was hard to know, though. Though regeneration would have gone away when he turned back to normal, he might have healed just enough to survive—maybe. Continue reading Magnus: Part 8→
I turned off the rockets and let my anti-gravity take me to the ground near Ray. Colette, I noticed, was nowhere to be seen and my implant showed me footage of her running off into the room’s general melee around the point where Magnus transformed into the next stage of an Artificer’s life.
Ray turned toward me, the flat stone in his right hand.
“Hey,” he said, “we’re not done. You got what you want. Magnus is dead. Now, I need to get what I want.”
The boombots hit before I did, turning everything on Magnus’ side of his shield into roiling red, orange, and white fire.
Ironically, I didn’t feel the explosions at all. He’d protected me from my own blasts.
While they didn’t hurt him, his eyes widened, and he turned around, shouting, the explosions adding to the surreal feel. Not seeing an attack from that side, he turned back to me.
To my surprise, I understood what was going on. Artificers started out with physical bodies, but after a certain point, they used them only when they needed them.
This all had something to do with how they linked up with alternate versions of themselves. Whether they created one entity with an infinity of different forms or a composite formed through infinite connections, I didn’t know.
I did know that if he didn’t die now, we’d have a much bigger problem. On the bright side, joining up an infinity of different beings would take time. If I were lucky, it might not even be possible in here. Continue reading Magnus: Part 5→
I didn’t know how much Magnus knew about electricity, but he had to know about rivers. Flooding caused massive problems in the ancient world. It wasn’t great for dams in the modern world either.
Overloading electrical components wasn’t the same, but loose parallels existed. Anyway, if he pulled in too much power at once, he’d be the component that burned out or the newly shattered dam.
I couldn’t see any hint of a connection to the energies that Artificers used, so I knew that the sword wouldn’t do much of anything.
Thanks to the suit, I wasn’t short of normal ways to hurt people. I fired off a series of goobots. For all I knew, these guys were important to history in some way I wasn’t aware of.
The gray lines spread out from the bots, covering them in layers of sticky goo. They twisted, pulling against them, finding that they were stuck, then changed tactics. Continue reading Magnus: Part 3→
With a wide smile, Magnus continued, “You might think you can avoid submitting to me, but are you willing to allow your friends and family to die for your freedom? If I were to strike the first Rocket with my power, you’d cease to exist.”
Then he began to laugh. “So what is it hero? Give me the ability to trust you or risk your very existence? Not to mention making me kill your grandfather.”
He smiled again. “Or you grandmother. It truly doesn’t matter which. What’s important is the end result.”
Magnus kept on talking. Ray hadn’t been wrong in calling him a blowhard.
I couldn’t complain. It gave me time to figure out the next step, whatever that turned out to be. It was supposed to be distracting Magnus so Ray could backstab him. That might still be the plan, but Ray didn’t seem to be in any hurry. Continue reading Magnus: Part 1→
On a completely theoretical level, you could imagine that with me pulling power from the device to cut and Magnus pulling power from the device to protect himself we’d be equal.
Anyone who’s ever designed anything knows that’s utter garbage, though.
The amount of power you can get out of something depends on where in the system you’re pulling it from, how you’re using that power, what you’re using it on, and too many details to list. With more complicated devices, your access level to the control systems and your level of skill matter, too. Continue reading Singularity: Part 20→
The Legion of Nothing: A Series of Online Superhero Novels (Updates Monday and Thursday)
