Tag Archives: Tara

Mere Anarchy: Part 4

That felt like a gut punch even if it wasn’t quite unexpected. The one thing that you could know for sure about the Nine is that no one knew exactly who their leadership was. You could also guess from the name of the organization that there were nine of them.

It was a pretty good guess that they were all supervillains.

I’d only ever run into one supervillain that worked for the Nine personally—Rook, an inventor who constructed suits of powered armor themed after rooks. Rooks were corvids just like crows and ravens. Rook himself had been kicking around since the mid-80s, around the same time my grandfather retired. Continue reading Mere Anarchy: Part 4

Mere Anarchy: Part 3

Before I told everyone what I’d seen, I considered our options. Running might work. Depending on what their rocket packs’ range was, we might be able to fly away, use Vaughn’s weather control to keep them back, and head for HQ.

If Tara and her parents were any indication, the True weren’t automatically bad, but we might have to subdue them and maybe destroy the birthing chamber. From what I’d seen of Protection Force and the Nine, we might need everyone for that, but at the very least, we’d need the jet. Continue reading Mere Anarchy: Part 3

Mere Anarchy: Part 2

On the off-chance that Lim would have a chance to look at the video, I started it all uploading. At the same time, I found that I didn’t like the coincidence at all. Lim was unavailable on the night where it happened that we were going into Higher Grounds’ offices?

Lim had a habit of being sent into situations where he couldn’t talk. That wasn’t unusual. It seemed inevitable when you considered that a big part of his job was acting as a government liaison too superheroes. All the same, knowing that the Nine had infiltrated the FBI made me worry. Continue reading Mere Anarchy: Part 2

Mere Anarchy: Part 1

“Camouflage setting,” I said over the comm, flipping mine on.

It wouldn’t make me invisible, but it matched my surroundings. Haley and Vaughn’s suits had it too. Tara wore her own (not of my design) and hers didn’t as far as I knew.

We all squished our bodies next to the wall of the building. That might be enough on first glance. Protection Force’s suits’ night vision wasn’t likely better than night vision goggles—which were often monochrome. Continue reading Mere Anarchy: Part 1

Who Are the True?: Part 10

Were all of the True newborns? If they were, it made sense. Based on what I remembered from accessing the birthing chambers’ library, they could crank out a generation a day or maybe less than a day. They had 24 there and were working on another twelve.

The ones they had guarding the doorway had to come from a previous batch—which made me wonder where the other ten were. Were they outside walking the perimeter? Guarding some other location? Continue reading Who Are the True?: Part 10

Who Are The True?: Part 9

I shook my head. “We need to stay long enough for me to get a look inside the lab. We’re close right now and it would be a wasted opportunity even if it turns out to be something we can’t handle.”

Haley frowned. “I get it. I know you want to know what’s in there. I want to know too, but if we get out now, you might be able to move the bots into position and look inside tomorrow. You’ve already got bots that are close.”

Vaughn nodded. “That’s a pretty good idea.”

I thought about it. I didn’t want to argue, but, “It is, but I don’t think we’ll get to find out tomorrow. I’m betting that after tonight they’ll move anything can somewhere else and I have no idea where. They’re a billion dollar company. They can hide things all over.” Continue reading Who Are The True?: Part 9

Who Are The True?: Part 8

Walking down the hall toward the door but stopping before he reached the lobby, Hardwick peered out toward the parking lot. “I don’t see them. They might have left.” 

He reached out to the wall and turned up the light from almost nothing to a moderate brightness.

Turning back to Ryan, he asked, “Do you have a gun?”

Ryan shook his head. Continue reading Who Are The True?: Part 8

Who Are The True?: Part 7

We stood in the parking lot. Haley looked up at me. “So, where are we going?”

The two buildings stood next to each other, the main one well lit with the glassy front office illuminated to the point that I didn’t need my helmet’s night vision to see Emmy’s desk inside.

The second building was a twin in size, but nothing appeared to be lit at all from the outside. It loomed above us, dark and windowless.

“The other building. The dark one.” I pointed at it. Continue reading Who Are The True?: Part 7

Who Are The True?: Part 6

The claw had penetrated at least an inch deep and while the other four hadn’t penetrated as far, they were all bleeding—a lot.

Aiming the sonics of my left arm at Art, who’d begun to get up from the floor,I fumbled with a can that hung on my utility belt, pulled it out, and sprayed, covered the wounds with foam.

Vaughn threw a bolt of lightning at Art and he convulsed, going down for good as a crack of thunder echoed in the room. Continue reading Who Are The True?: Part 6

Who Are The True?: Part 2

I set the implant to take an image of each page and flipped one after another until they were all in the implant’s memory, not even bothering to read them. I’d have time for that later. What we needed to do now was to get the information and get out.

“Oh, man,” Vaughn had opened one of the folders he’d pulled out of the filing cabinet and stood looking at the pages inside. Then he reached into the folder and pulled out a small object. “Remember this?” Continue reading Who Are The True?: Part 2