Category Archives: Arc 3.0: Decisions

Decisions: Part 9

Mr. Drucker didn’t look satisfied by Vaughn’s uncle’s reply, but he didn’t keep on arguing either.

I couldn’t tell whether it came from the table or from someone outside the roachbot’s view, but someone asked, “What about the Heroes League?”
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Decisions: Part 8

I barely got to wonder what the yellow light meant before the phone in my suit rang. The helmet’s readout showed it as being from HQ.

Walking a little bit away from Vaughn, I took the call, talking low into my helmet’s microphone.

“It’s Marcus,” said the voice on the other end. “I went into HQ after work, and you won’t believe it. You’ve already hit pay dirt.”
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Decisions: Part 7

We spent the next few days bugging the houses and cars of any family members Vaughn thought had connections to his family’s medical interests or worked in medicine.

Giles Hardwick, Vaughn’s grandfather, had had five kids and they’d each had two or three children of their own. Plus, he had a brother and two sisters and they’d had children and grandchildren too. Not all of them stayed in Grand Lake, but by the time we were done on Wednesday night, we’d bugged twenty different people.
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Decisions: Part 5

I drove Haley to her home, but ended up staying for a couple hours after that.

I left there just before eleven, dropping off the car back at HQ, and making it home on time for curfew. Then I read a book for a few more hours, and went to bed around two in the morning.

I didn’t fall asleep at school the next day, but I hadn’t gotten enough sleep, making me more withdrawn than usual. I took notes, ate lunch by myself, and stayed away from people.

This had one practical result. I didn’t know where any of my friends were going to be after school, making it hard for me to bum a ride home. That wouldn’t ordinarily have been a problem except that it started to rain during the last period, and didn’t stop when school let out.

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Decisions: Part 4

“Here’s a thought,” Daniel said. “Does anybody want to nominate anybody else?”

“Looking for a nomination?” Vaughn asked.

Daniel shook his head. “No. I’m willing to do communications, but keeping track of what people are doing, using prescience to sense future attacks, blocking them with telekinesis, attacking people, passing messages, and coming up with plans all at the same time sounds overwhelming. For me, just being in a crowd can be bad.”

“I think Nick could do a good job,” Haley said.
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Decisions: Part 3

Daniel and I spent the rest of the night playing video games on the big screen. Even if the novelty had long since worn off, it beat the TV my family had at home by a long shot.

It felt good.

After a week that included being chased, attacked in my own bed, and ending a second prom night in violence, Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk seemed like a simple, relaxing way to finish off the week. It was made more relaxing by sending Isaac Lim an email about the original Power’s death instead of calling him.

It couldn’t last.
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Decisions: Part 2

I decided to check in on where Ray and the others were in the trial system.

We hadn’t been involved after we’d handed him over. From what I’d heard, the FBI had done what they could to discourage either the prosecution or the defense from using us. We’d been interviewed by police, but none of us had said anything that adults hadn’t.

According to government records, they were all still in maximum security federal prisons, the judge having decided they were far too dangerous to be let out on bail.
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