Tag Archives: Courtney

Off Campus: Part 2

“Uh… A bunch of us being who?”

“People in my class. I don’t know everybody who’s going, but a lot of first years. I invited Courtney and Camille. Gifford invited me and Hunter.”

She had my full attention. “Gifford? The guy Jaclyn and I took out?”

She nodded.

Then something else occurred to me. “Wait, he asked you? Does he know that we’re dating? He wasn’t um… after you?”

Haley frowned. “He wasn’t asking as a date, but he does like me.”

Continue reading Off Campus: Part 2

Burning: Part 8

I read the article on my phone. The dead activist had a name I couldn’t pronounce, attended a university in Turkmenistan, majored in engineering, and had been twenty years old.

That boggled my mind. He’d been only a year older than I was.

According to the regime, he’d been executed for treason.

The article didn’t go into any great detail about what he’d actually been doing except to note that he’d organized students to protest after the regime’s recent actions. Continue reading Burning: Part 8

Burning: Part 6

Any idea who we’d tell? I continued running, wondering if anyone was noticing the conversation.

It wasn’t as if we were cheating.

Still, there were telepaths out there who could listen in on conversations like this. Even if people agreed with the idea, one unknown listener was one too many.

I felt agreement from Daniel at that unarticulated thought. Then he answered my question.

Continue reading Burning: Part 6

Fresh Meat: Part 5

“No way,” I said, wondering how he’d gotten his powers activated. It wasn’t exactly a casual thing. The League had the first known working device to do it. It hadn’t been hard for me to make it work, but I’d had the benefit of my grandfather’s documentation.

I knew that the government had their own devices. From the news and personal experience, I knew that criminal organizations also had them. I wasn’t aware of anyone outside of those two groups owning any, but almost everything they needed was available on the internet now.

Corporate devices couldn’t be far away if they weren’t already out there.

Jaclyn’s mind obviously went along the same track mine did. She put down her hamburger, and said, “He can’t still be using power juice his uncle brewed. It’s illegal, and they wouldn’t allow him into the program, would they?”

“He’s not,” Courtney said. “I asked him.”

Continue reading Fresh Meat: Part 5

Fresh Meat: Part 4

Haley’s brow furrowed. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”

She took a piece of steak and a spoonful of a salad that appeared to be a mixture of corn, tomato and avocado.

“I had no idea. How did you know?” I kept my voice a little lower than normal. No need to broadcast this. Well, more than it must have been already. Haley wasn’t the only person with enhanced hearing, and Daniel couldn’t be the only person with telepathy or clairvoyance.

Hopefully everyone would be too occupied by eating and meeting people to eavesdrop on us.

Just ahead of me on this side of the buffet table, Jaclyn grabbed food without saying anything. I wondered if she was deliberately ignoring us. In her position, I would have. Continue reading Fresh Meat: Part 4

When It’s Over: Part 10

Then I rechecked the time, and understood where Courtney was—not here yet.

Only twenty minutes had passed since I started looking for the file, read it, and remembered the longer version of the story Grandpa Vander Sloot told me.

I still had forty minutes to kill.

Not having anything better to do, I walked over to one of the stools by the wall, and logged into one of the computers. I checked my email, surfed for a while, checking out out Double V’s forums. They had an entire section devoted to discussing the Heroes League.

Since we’d stopped St. Louis from being destroyed, and appeared prominently in the defense of the New York City and the surrounding area, the forum had only become more busy.

It was funny, and occasionally frustrating, at how little they knew about what was going on behind the scenes.

Continue reading When It’s Over: Part 10

Picking Up Pieces: Part 9

Part of me wanted to argue with him, but I couldn’t persuade myself that it would be worth it. He could go look up information on the Xiniti if he wanted. There wasn’t much information, but you could find out that they were around.

You could even find out information about the hyperspace jumpgate if you wanted to.

There weren’t many details, but it was in Wikipedia.

Of course, it wasn’t as if we were allowed to use it. The Xiniti were there to stop us from trying, and to prevent hostile groups from coming through.

Someday we’d be allowed to use it, and then maybe familiarity would kill all the stupid conspiracy theories.

It wouldn’t happen today. Continue reading Picking Up Pieces: Part 9

A Kind of Small Crow: Part 8

I couldn’t see it happen, but at least one of the bullets hit. Vaughn fell, or maybe more accurately, lost control.

He flipped over a few times, dropping dangerously low. I would have lost track of him if it weren’t for the sonar built in to the stealth suit’s helmet.

His black costume blended into the night, but the helmet outlined his body, showing him as he nearly hit Grand Lake Marina Supplies. I say “nearly hit” because he didn’t.

He swerved right just as he was about to hit the “G” in Grand Lake.

Continue reading A Kind of Small Crow: Part 8

A Kind of Small Crow: Part 7

Unfortunately, it was also an idea that I had to use quickly instead of thinking through the implications.

The last time I’d pointed the guitar’s explosive end at a guy in powered armor, it had nearly killed him. Only Alex’s ability to heal had kept the man from bleeding out.

Alex wasn’t anywhere around here. I definitely wasn’t going to have time to fly to California to pick him up.

But still… Continue reading A Kind of Small Crow: Part 7

A Kind of Small Crow: Part 5

I grabbed the handle, and the door opened even as something in the back of my head suggested that he’d have expected us to run out the back.

Unwilling to randomly spray whatever was out there with the guitar’s laser, I aimed a wide angle sonic blast out the door with the speakers on both arms. Set at a frequency that generally set electronics to vibrate, the sonics had the potential to be devastating—provided we were facing rook-shaped robots.

If there were people out there, the best I could hope for was nuking their iPhone.

Continue reading A Kind of Small Crow: Part 5