Tag Archives: Vaughn

Roll the Dice: Part 12

Major Justice made a grunt that I nearly missed in the roar of my rockets shooting me skyward and then closed our connection.

That was fine. I didn’t want to talk to him either.

Once in the air, I noticed something I hadn’t from the ground—a lot of things. For one, I noticed the helicopters in the air. That’s helicopters as in the plural version, specifically three of them. There were two different news crews and a police helicopter.

Also, police cars were rolling down the streets in our direction which was great. Maybe they’d be able to keep the civilians safe. 

Maybe. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 12

Roll The Dice: Part 10

Despite being on “the other side,” Hunter took my call. His shouted, “What do you want,” made me wonder if he was paying attention when he took the call.

“This is the Rocket,” something he should already know, but if he didn’t…

“Whoops,” he said, “I didn’t mean to shout at you. I’m in the middle of something.” Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 10

Roll The Dice: Part 9

“Self-replicating?” I stared at the cloud of spores obscuring the baseball diamond.

Supers emerged from it, most of them covered with a light dusting of spores. By most, I meant almost everybody but Jaclyn. Jaclyn wasn’t covered because I’d designed her suit to be as close to frictionless as I could.

The other two exceptions were Bullet and Theo. Bullet flew out. He wasn’t covered with spores because he floated upward in a bullet-shaped force field. Theo was spore-free for a more obvious reason—almost anything that touches superheated plasma burns. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 9

Roll The Dice: Part 8

The goobots did what I’d intended them to do—hit and explode into goo that covered her suit, and most important, the symbols that glowed on the armored plates, all of them.

I’d switched off direct visuals the moment I saw the glow, viewing her with a composite of sonics and thermal. She was a bit fuzzy, but goobots, much like hand grenades, didn’t demand precision.

After she fell, I asked my implant if it could obscure any symbols on her while allowing me to see the glow. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 8

Roll The Dice: Part 7

A few of the bullets shot away from his hand toward Gordon as Gifford shouted, “No!”

The Rocket suit’s sensors showed the air in front of Gordon becoming more dense, maybe not to force field levels, but enough to matter.

The bullets hit the barrier and began to be blown to the left when they discorporated. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 7

Roll the Dice: Part 4

Still hovering, Gordon stared at Vaughn, breathing without saying anything as if he were having trouble composing himself—or maybe he didn’t know what to say.

When he did talk, he barked out, “Don’t move,” as if we hadn’t gotten that message the first time.

Then he added, “I’ve called in my team,” which was interesting because I hadn’t seen him talking into a mic or typing anything. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 4

Roll The Dice: Part 3

Sean gave me a digital thumbs up on my message as I pulled the door shut behind us. The door locked behind me as HQ’s computer noted the zones of defenses going up behind us as we left.

The tunnel had once been used to dump either sewage or industrial wastewater into Grand Lake—maybe both. We walked across the faded brick, the tunnel’s height forcing me to lower my head.

Looking back toward Amy and me and then forward to Cassie and Jaclyn, Vaughn said, “Our best shot is to walk out looking confident.” Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 3

Roll the Dice: Part 1

As the Rocket suit’s systems registered and passed their tests, I thought about the black and blue marks on my body. The Rocket suit’s medical technology was more about immediate first aid than internal diagnosis.

The Xiniti implant on the other hand was all about being internal. It had detected and healed my sword wound. Even if it had wanted to fill me full of cybernetics, it seemed to have just closed the wounds, internal and external.  Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 1

Isolation: Part 12

“Uh… Yeah. I can see how you’d feel that way and, honestly, you’re right,” I stood up, feeling the beginning of a headache and some pain as I stood, the spots where I hurt corresponding to where the creature bit me.

Unlike almost everyone else, I’d been too busy to throw on my costume, making me tempted to pull up my shirt or pull down my pants to check for physical marks.

This wasn’t the moment for checking. I could do that before I put on the Rocket suit, but I did want to know. Continue reading Isolation: Part 12