Arc 14.2.5: Waning Moon

Waning Moon: Part 4

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“You’ve got an inventory list?” I asked.

“Close enough,” Cassie said. “I’ve got multiple inventory lists, all of them protected from the different Abominator clone lineages by security that we’d never get through—except now everyone’s dead. Thanks to Abominator inheritance law, the property, including intellectual property, reverts to the eldest clone lineage within the same group of sublineages. With everyone dead, all of it reverts to the control of anyone left with a Citizen’s Mark. As the last remaining representative of the Abominator civilization, I inherit everything.”

“Unless Victor’s still here,” I said. Continue reading Waning Moon: Part 4 →

Arc 14.2.5: Waning Moon

Waning Moon: Part 3

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Abominator Moonbase, Present

“I don’t know what happened after that,” I said.

We all stood in the lab next to the Starplate. Jaclyn had placed Victor’s body there. It hadn’t seemed right to leave it out on the surface. It didn’t feel more right to bring him back here, but there were things I could do here that I couldn’t do there.

“I mean, I know loosely, but not in detail. They scared the Soviets into leaving—not that it was too hard. Abominator booby traps killed a few of their men. The crazy thing is that Grandpa did say he fought a time traveler once, but he didn’t say anything that made me think of Victor. At least, not until now.” Continue reading Waning Moon: Part 3 →

Arc 14.2.5: Waning Moon

Waning Moon: Part 2

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The Xiniti had addressed the Soviets at the UN with everyone else after the last Abominators died. They’d made it clear enough that developing Abominator technology could result in Earth’s destruction.

Joe had spoken a few words himself as the Rocket.

Hadn’t the Soviets been listening? On the other hand, it had been a secret session and the USSR’s ambassador had been recalled shortly after. Some faction there might be keeping it a secret from the others.

Idiots, Joe shook his head. Continue reading Waning Moon: Part 2 →

Arc 14.2.5: Waning Moon

Waning Moon: Part 1

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Abominator Moonbase, March 1979

Joe stepped back from the controls of the Interdimensional Travel Plate (IDTP) and checked around the room for everyone else.

In a room filled with madness, he had superheroes and villains to fall back on—though in this case the question of which was which depended on whether journalists from the USA or USSR wrote the story. Continue reading Waning Moon: Part 1 →

Arc 14.2.0: Moon

Moon: Part 13

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As I flew, Cassie contacted Jaclyn and I, “After you help Shift, get back here. We’re okay, but the stupid monkeys and their boxes reformed already.”

She live-streamed a snippet of her firing at the weird, sludgy “monkeys” while Rachel, stumbling but walking, phased in and out, cutting any monkeys that got close to Cassie into pieces with her axe. Cassie focused her attention on the creatures that weren’t close.

They looked like they’d be okay for now, but the way the monkeys reformed, they’d be outnumbered sooner than I wanted to imagine. A little damage to their suits and exposure to the wrong Abominator device had all the wrong kind of potential. Continue reading Moon: Part 13 →

Arc 14.2.0: Moon

Moon: Part 12

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Thanks to the camera on Marcus’ suit, I could see what he saw—gray mountains covered in dust surrounded where they stood, all free of greenery and life.

The stars above hung in a black sky without clouds or a hint of water.

They were on top of a mountain. The surface slanted without turning into a sheer drop. It wasn’t a cliff there, but if he ran in any direction there would be a drop into the darkness below soon enough. Continue reading Moon: Part 12 →

Arc 14.2.0: Moon

Moon: Part 11

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Activating my rocket pack, I flew toward them as Jaclyn raced across the ground, moving slower and more carefully than usual to avoid launching herself into the ceiling.

I’d done the same with the rockets without thought.

The Xiniti implants helped with that, implanting that skill along with all the other knowledge we had available.

As good as that was, it meant we weren’t moving as quickly as we could on Earth, giving us time to watch the inevitable. Continue reading Moon: Part 11 →

Arc 14.2.0: Moon

Moon: Part 10

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Pushing myself up and jumping to the side, I dodged another punch from Victor, who’d closed the distance in a step.

I fired off two boombots at him. Both hit, throwing him backward into a blue/gray metal device shaped like a doorless refrigerator.

I didn’t want to kill him. I also couldn’t think of an obvious way to prevent it. I hadn’t brought many goobots on this mission and didn’t think they’d do much good against someone with Jaclyn’s strength.

On the other hand, I realized, it might give me time to think of something better. Continue reading Moon: Part 10 →

Arc 14.2.0: Moon

Moon: Part 9

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Plan b was to use an object that the Artificers had designed to end civilizations. It wasn’t a question of whether that would be bad for us, but whether the effect would be to empower Victor or to infect us.

“Not good,” Jaclyn muttered and her hands twitched, activating a new feature of her suit, which I’d described as “essentially a gumball dispenser.”

With a hand motion, she could cause dense balls of an alien-designed alloy to roll out of her suit and land in her hands. Then she could throw it. Continue reading Moon: Part 9 →

Arc 14.2.0: Moon

Moon: Part 8

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Over the comm, I asked, “Was that you?”

“Me?” Marcus shook his head, “No. I just connected.”

Victor stared at me and looked over at Rachel. Then he shouted, “I see you for what you are—avatars of the Artificers. Die!”

Then all the lights winked out as the doors on the boxes that Cassie called “psychotic monkey boxes” opened. For the record, they weren’t monkeys. They were bipedal, but they had two extra arms compared to regular monkeys. They also had tails, but that wasn’t weird.

What was weird is that they didn’t have fur. They had dark, gray skin, glistening with what I assumed to be moisture, but didn’t have to be water. My gut feeling was that it was some kind of oil. Continue reading Moon: Part 8 →

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