In the face of all that, I knew what the first thing I had to do was. Send Lim a message so that he knew that he was right. The Nine had infiltrated the FBI—and by the way, they’d also infiltrated the Engineering Department of my university.
In the grand scheme of things, the FBI was more important to the country, but the university had a more immediate impact on my life. Lim would want to know in any case. Continue reading Truth and the True: Part 12
With everything going on at Higher Ground, you’d think that I’d work on that and nothing else, but life wasn’t that simple.
We’d gotten to that point in the semester when the tests begin to appear and papers along with them. Electronic engineering and materials science weren’t majors with a lot of papers, but I did have to turn in a couple of short ones explaining the technical choices I’d made on projects. The tests weren’t bad—Dr. Strazinsky’s calculus class asked about material I’d learned on my own and “Principles of Photonics” was interesting enough that I couldn’t ignore it. Continue reading Truth and the True: Part 1
Castle Rock Compound, Colorado, Earth
A figure stood alone in the dark on the edge of a small cliff. Leaning on the railing, she looked out on the houses, streets, and lawns. Except for the stone walls and mountains that surrounded the town on all sides, it could have been any suburb in the United States.
Haley brushed a lock of brown hair out of her eyes, wondering if she should go with a short haircut next time. It would be easier in a fight. Except then Night Cat would have to wear a wig since it wouldn’t be smart for both of her identities to get the same haircut at the same time.
Her eyes drifted upward, above the walls to the night sky and stars beyond. Continue reading Birthright: Part 1
I flew past the hotel, a thirty-three-floor needle of mirrored glass that stood near a parking structure to its left and a rust colored 19th century building to its right—though a path that led to an old bridge stood between them.
I might be ready to disappear to an alternate world, but maybe I could do something.
The dinos swarmed down the wide sidewalk overlooking the river, but without the enthusiasm, I’d seen before. A few of them pointed at me and shrunk closer to the building. Continue reading A Day in The Life: Part 20
The Rocket cocked his head. “Are there a lot of small details that you have to see?”
C laughed. “Or put another way, will my blindness kill you all? Don’t worry. I’m going to show Control, you and Two, how to operate it right now. It’s not hard. It was made to be used by people who don’t understand how it works.”
He gestured almost in the “starplate’s” direction. “Come on. Railgun, take Control’s station. The rest of you can do whatever you want, but it wouldn’t hurt if a few of you checked the spybots’ feeds. You never know what might appear.” Continue reading A Day in The Life: Part 14
C looked at me. “And you’re the reporter?”
I managed to get a few words out.“I’m Nadia Stone with ‘Superhumans Today’. I’m pleased to meet you, sir.”
C smiled. “I get a lot more sirs now that I’m old. Thank you for being here, Ms. Stone. I look forward to seeing your article. We never expected that you’d have such exciting material.”
“I can’t say I did either, but after a few years on this beat, I’ve learned to adapt.” Continue reading A Day in The Life: Part 9
The Rocket clicked away from the spybot’s view of downtown to a map “We’re not near any of those bases. Our National Guard base and training grounds don’t rate an attack. Uh… Wait. Selfridge Air National Guard base is being attacked.”
Everyone turned as he zoomed in on the base. From above, it wasn’t much more than green grass, buildings and several long runways.
The Rocket peered up at the wall screen. “I don’t think they expect us to help. We’re on the other side of the state and it’s looking like Detroit’s Unity team is working with the Canadian team in Windsor to defend the base.” Continue reading A Day in The Life: Part 8
He typed on his keyboard, moved more text over from what must have been logs into another window. “Okay, I’m sending what I’ve got to the Feds, but we’ve got to find the League’s records on these guys. If they’re who I think they are, search under ‘dinosaurs,’ ‘evolution,’ or ‘gorillas.’”
Control stopped typing to face him, saying, “Gorillas?” Continue reading A Day in The Life: Part 6
He tapped on his palms again. “Here’s GPS coordinates for the Chicago gateway. And now I’m flying it back through. I’m going to fly it past each starplate on the way out. If it registers with each cellphone service, they might be able triangulate its position.”
The spybot whirled around and dove back into the gateway as he talked except this time one of the soldiers looked up, feathers moving in the wind. In the bottom corner of the screen, it pulled a walkie talkie from its belt as the bot passed through the gate. Continue reading A Day in The Life: Part 5
The Rocket’s helmet pointed at the screen. “Those seem familiar somehow. Mystic, did Mindstryke or the Mentalist ever mention anything? C… Uh… Control? You’ve been reading the stuff you scanned. Anything ring a bell?”
Control and the Mystic watched as the creatures spread out, rifles pointed down the alley. The gateway behind them stayed open as they stepped away from it, revealing a silver and black platform similar to the one I’d seen in the League’s headquarters except that it was at least ten times the size. Past the edge of the platform stood more of the feathered soldiers.
All of them stared at the screen, but the Rocket spoke first. “I think we’re going to have to bring a lot more people in on this—the Defenders for sure.” Continue reading A Day in The Life: Part 4