Category Archives: Arc 12.2.5: Old Friends & Enemies

Old Friends & Enemies: Part 15

The creatures from his cloak hit the Cabal soldiers and the True before they could react. The redcap landed on the back of one and chopped off his head with a long knife and held it in the air, blood still spurting from the body as the soldier fell.

It made a serious argument for the idea that a magic blade would have no trouble with the Cabal.

A dragon-like creature with a long neck, and flaming, white eyes that reminded me of ping pong balls—if the ping pong had soaked in gasoline and set on fire—dropped on top of two soldiers and bit through the body of a third, swallowing the upper half and leaving the lower half on the street with its intestines spilling out. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 15

Old Friends & Enemies: Part 14

They both jumped at once, both of them aiming in my direction, no doubt guessing that if they could take me out, they could grab Master Martian or Daniel. Also, I was between Daniel and them.

Only as one hit me did I come up with the obvious, alternate possibility—that if one of them hit me, the other might be free to go after Daniel when he got past me.

How I managed to avoid dropping the SUV when the first one hit, I still don’t know. I understand it on the level of technology in that Grandpa had designed the suit to absorb damage and I’d expanded it with tech inspired by the jet’s inertial dampers, but I’m still amazed that I had the presence of mind to hang on as the Cabal soldier hit the suit’s chest, knocking the SUV and me backward. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 14

Old Friends & Enemies: Part 13

Other voices said something impossible to understand in the background of the staffer’s connection and he said, “We’ll see what we can do. It sounds like we might be able to help.”

“Great,” I said. “Don’t have time to talk.”

This was true. While Daniel had been able to pass the soldier on the crushed car before the guy could jump up at him and Master Martian, the soldier wasn’t stopping. He leaped in Daniel’s direction even as I gave the rockets more fuel and shot forward, knocking the man back down toward the street and into the back of a parked mini-van.

The soldier’s momentum pushed him into the right door’s back window through to his waist, warping the door roughly into the shape of a cone. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 13

Old Friends & Enemies: Part 12

I wasn’t aiming the majority of goobots at her—just one. I’d aimed the rest at the other Cabal soldiers in the balcony and they worked, kind of.

As the lasers burned through the woman’s costume and into her body, one hitting her thigh and the other her torso, the goobots exploded into sticky gray stuff, hitting her as well as the two men next to her.

She collapsed into the balcony, held up by the goobots’ goo, and I stopped burning her with lasers. At the same time, the two Cabal soldiers were trying to avoid the goobots. One of them succeeded, jumping off the balcony in my direction, pulling a few bricks along with his foot—the one spot that did get hit with goo. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 12

Old Friends & Enemies: Part 11

As Daniel stepped on the balcony, he broadcast to all of us, Something is going to happen as we leave, but staying would be worse. Be aware.

The first part of his statement was worth knowing. The last part was punctuated by another Cabal soldier crashing through the roof, landing in the living room, and partway through the floor. That brought the number of newly arrived and mobile soldiers to four. Knowing what the Cabal was like left me no temptation to stay.

If anything they’d be worse now. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 11

Old Friends & Enemies: Part 10

Daniel agreed with my first half-formed thought, I’ll take the two on the balcony. The rest are yours.

Awesome, I thought back. Taking on the Cabal one on one will be easy.

To everyone else, I spoke over the comm, “Mystic’s taking the ones on the balcony. Cypher, don’t let them touch you. You’ll die.”

Yoselin muttered, “Mierda.” Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 10

Old Friends & Enemies: Part 9

I jumped out first with Yoselin following after me. We landed on the balcony and didn’t even have to smash through the balcony’s sliding door. Daniel slid both the screen door and the glass door open. Even though we’d opted to turn on our telepathy and teleportation blockers for the initial assault, Daniel’s telekinesis worked perfectly.

Thanks to the stream, I could see Master Martian’s eyes widen and his antenna shoot straight from his head as he pushed himself, stumbled, and then flew off the couch. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 9

Old Friends & Enemies: Part 8

Telling the jet to throw the streams on screens in the passenger area so that people without implants could see them too, I announced, “This looks bad. At least one of these people is one of the True and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more. We should probably assume that, actually. The big question is if they have backup and how close it is.”

I flipped through the various accessible video streams that Hal’s friend (I guess?) had made available. There were more than I would have predicted, but most of them were either through laptops or security cameras that computers could access. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 8

Old Friends & Enemies: Part 7

I held up my hand and waved it, “Hey everybody, Hal’s already got the location. Master Martian’s in Washington D.C. More precise information is on its way.”

Though we didn’t feel it thanks to the gravitics and inertial dampers, we could see through the windows as the jet spun around in the sky, changing direction and altitude, clouds and the blue sky a blur as the jet shot upward. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 7

Old Friends & Enemies: Part 6

Slumping into her seat, Tara shook her head before turning to look around at the group, “I’m sorry. I need to get out of True headspace for a little while. It’s exhausting to look at the world that way even though I know we need it. We need to find Master Martian first, though, and from what I was seeing, we need to find him today. When the Dominators know we met with Bullet, they’ll go after Master Martian and maybe after the woman too.”

Cassie glanced back toward Tara before turning back to the front, “I thought the woman was a Dominator.” Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 6