The fear came from the fact that he did remember. He’d felt a disquiet starting just before Magnus stepped into the room with Dayton back at Sean’s mother’s apartment.
It made me wonder if the root of our issues might be feeling something similar at a low enough level that neither of us could tell. Also, it might be that Jody was a jerk.
Magnus continued talking, leaving me no time to think it through fully. Continue reading Regression: Part 2
Jody stood ten feet away from (I assumed) Magnus. Though a normal person couldn’t see it, Jody accelerated himself and checked his surroundings for an ambush.
It was the day Justice Fist signed with Futuremen Capital and Jody was angry with his team, Magnus, and the world. I couldn’t say how I knew it, but we were in Jody’s head. Continue reading Regression: Part 1
Within seconds of that conversation, I’d landed and so had not only Daniel and Izzy, but we’d also been joined by Sean, Dayton, Camille, Sydney, Vaughn, and Haley. Jaclyn had already been on the ground, of course.
Cassie, Julie, and Rachel all opted to stay on the roofs of the buildings around Justice Fist’s base. It wasn’t a bad idea. For all we knew, Jody had signaled for help. Someone needed to be in position to act.
Upon landing (Justice Fist seemed to have metal woven into their costumes), Dayton looked around the yard and said, “Wow. What a mess.” Continue reading Jody: Part 14
By the time I was in the air, Jody had made it halfway down the lawn. Unable to go straight because Cassie continued to fire blinding beams at his head, he ran in a constant zigzag pattern. As bad as that was, he also had to deal with Rachel firing goobots at him from next to Julie on the roof—who continued to narrowcast commands at him.
He couldn’t turn around either because Jaclyn and Izzy were both following—which didn’t mean that he didn’t try twisting to the right or left and turning back. Continue reading Jody: Part 13
My next observation was how easy it was to underestimate Jody’s speed. He went from almost stopped to moving away from Jaclyn nearly too fast to track.
I say nearly because my implant tracked him, and more to the point, so could Jaclyn’s.
She moved in his direction, aiming a kick toward his knee. I couldn’t see if she missed, but deduced it from how he could still run. Continue reading Jody: Part 12
Dayton’s eyes widened for a moment, but only a moment before he said, “Of course not. We’ve got a lot to discuss today, but what do you think Magnus saw in us?”
As Dayton talked, Jody had gripped the table’s edge in his hands as if he planned to flip it over or push himself back.
“Look,” Jody said, hands tightening on the table, “I did talk to him, okay? You don’t throw away a chance like that. The guy had power, but you weren’t sure if you wanted to sign with Futuremen. You were going to throw it all away because having Magnus show up made you nervous.
“Well, I wasn’t. I wanted to see what he could give us and if you weren’t going to be involved, what he could give me.”
Sean stared at him, “Are you kidding me?” Continue reading Jody: Part 11
“That… fits,” I replied. “Do you think his shield is natural or the product of technology? Because if he’s blocking you, that’s something I can’t do.”
Daniel nodded, “I know. With you, a telepath can get in, but then they’re hit by waves of madness. Getting out with sanity intact is the bigger challenge. His telepathic shield might be a device. It feels too consistent to be natural. Even with a strong natural shield, there’s an ebb and flow. You feel like it’s moving. This feels solid, but the hints of madness-inducing interference pulsing through it feel natural.”
Izzy shook her head, “How did we not notice this before? Didn’t your dad put in his Stapledon block?” Continue reading Jody: Part 10
This spot wasn’t too bad as mushroom goo went. While near downtown, it was on the edges. Best practices for superhero bases amounted to giving them some distance from nearby civilian buildings to avoid collateral damage when attacked and to make it obvious when someone was approaching.
Justice Fist’s base adhered to that as best a building in the middle of a city could.
With money from Futuremen Capital, they’d bought most of a small city block that used to hold an old warehouse, demolished the warehouse, and put up a squat, circular tower that I’d once heard Vaughn refer to as the “Justice Penis.”
I’d laughed because my sense of humor hadn’t emerged from adolescence either. Continue reading Jody: Part 9
“Okay,” I said, “I’ll be ready then.”
The next hour was dominated by inserting implants into people. It wasn’t much work, but the egg didn’t spit out implants instantly. It made one at a time and each had to be physically manufactured, loaded with software, and tested.
While I could describe the process in a sentence, each word encompassed thousands of actions, all of them culminating in a device that hooked into the body as, for all practical purposes, a secondary brain—a support brain, maybe? Continue reading Jody: Part 8
In less time than I expected (no more than twenty minutes), my implant notified me, “Project complete. The implant constructor will now create Xiniti implants.”
I thought back, “Including citizen implants? Not just local auxiliary?”
“There is no functional difference except in the information provided and access permissions. Should an auxiliary become a citizen, the changes will require downloads, not physical replacement.” Continue reading Jody: Part 7