With Sean up, we didn’t have any reason to stay. We’d given everyone some privacy when they woke up, limiting the attendees to Alex and me and moving conscious people over to the side rooms.
It had been Alex’s idea. As he put it, “With poison, people sometimes vomit or… worse.”
No one needed to ask what was worse. Continue reading Bigger Things: Part 5
I get it; I thought back, and I’m glad you’re worried about lowering your ethical standards, but I think this is an okay exception. We’re talking about the possible destruction of Earth. That doesn’t come up too often.
I felt relief and then a stab of worry from Daniel, but he replied, In our lives, we’ll see more situations that we can justify exceptions than most people. Tell me if you think I’m being too cavalier with other people’s personalities. Because it does matter. It’s the right choice for now, but for all I know, that distrust I added might migrate to his thoughts about his father, and they might not ever reconcile or might attach to all his relationships, making him less connected to anybody. It shouldn’t be an easy choice. Continue reading Bigger Things: Part 4
Everyone tensed, a reasonable response, given that I’d told them that the end of the world was on its way and that my social skills might be the only thing standing in the way of planetary destruction.
Jaclyn responded to me first, thinking back, “Coming to meet you or coming to kill you?”
I shrugged, “That remains to be seen, but Kee thought he’d be interested in meeting because to the degree that I’m an Artificer, I’m descended from Nataw, his brother. He was also a friend of Lee, but he probably feels a bit betrayed by him. So, mentioning that is to be avoided.”
Haley looked up at me and thought, “And he could randomly show up at any time? Anything we do could be interrupted and then—BOOM—end of the world?” Continue reading Bigger Things: Part 3
“I can see not mentioning Lee because Nataw’s brother is in the Destroy faction, but is there more than that? Does he just not like Lee?”
Kee sighed, “No. Lee and Govan were good friends. Back when Lee was in Destroy and I was pretending to be, they became closer—because they were both worried about Nataw. When Lee left with the Galaxy Core Device, Govan felt personally betrayed. Govan isn’t vengeful, but I think he feels very hurt. He’s not a terrible being, but I can imagine that he’s felt abandoned by us over the last few thousand years.” Continue reading Bigger Things: Part 2
“The one good thing is that we don’t have to worry about how to keep them imprisoned. The bad, I guess, is that we have no chance of that. Now that I think about it, the base had teleportation blockers. They shouldn’t have been able to take anyone from upstairs at all.”
Rachel glanced over at me, “I think they’re off. I tried to get over here and help as soon as they appeared, but I couldn’t float through the walls. I found that they’d ripped the door off its hinges outside, but they’d also blocked off the stairwell on the lowest floor and broken the elevator. I was about to give up and go outside, but then everything worked and I could float up the tower.” Continue reading Bigger Things: Part 1
Art had all of Haley’s power plus Magnus’ power-up, but he was carrying Jody. Haley didn’t have anything extra beyond her costume and now an implant.
Art had landed first and was already beginning to run across the lawn toward the street—probably trying to get far enough from the tower that the Nine could teleport him out.
Using my implant’s connection to Haley’s suit, I fired off a series of bots. I’d put a handful into other people’s armor, thinking that it would be better to have a few available for clutch moments. Continue reading Regression: Part 25
I adjusted my foot position and felt my feet shift naturally. Whatever “neutralization” turned out to be, it had worked.
I knew “Counterattack” had not come into play yet because Scream Eagle’s claws were now swinging in my direction. Possibly worse, the circle of metal was reforming in the air behind him.
He hadn’t seen my feet shift or recognized what it meant, though. I stepped back, swinging through his arms with the lightning sword. The sword didn’t chop them off, but I did feel resistance as I swung through the space. Continue reading Regression: Part 24
The funny thing was that I had a plan for this. Scream Eagle wasn’t the first person I’d ever met with the ability to control technology. The first person I’d met was Carlos, the son of a super in the SoCal Defenders unit.
I’d tested my armor design with him at one point to see how hard it would be to defend against it. It turned out to be pretty hard in fact, but I’d at least developed strategies to fight against it. Continue reading Regression: Part 23
The circle of rotating metal doom in the air fell apart as Scream Eagle shot across the room, knocking into a section of shelving as he took off. A bunch of things fell, most of them glittering. They might have been trophies.
One of them looked like a YouTube award. I didn’t even know they had a channel.
Also, speakers around the room had started blasting music. I didn’t have time to pay attention, but it sounded like reggae, something about “one love.” Continue reading Regression: Part 22
“You won’t live long enough for that,” Scream Eagle said, and the circle of metal balls and metal dust descended toward me.
I didn’t doubt that my suit could withstand ball bearings, but I didn’t know how long it would withstand repeated damage.
It looked like I’d get to find out, though, because the rotating circle of metal hit my chest. I’d been trying to dodge, but it moved faster, chipping away at my armor. Continue reading Regression: Part 21