Tag Archives: Vaughn

Uncontrolled Substances: Part 10

“Um… Yeah?”

Knowing that Daniel had a hard time reading my mind when I thought about technical problems, I thought about some ideas I had about redesigning Night Wolf’s car for more speed. Once I got going with that, I felt around mentally for a connection of some kind, especially inexpert mental touches.

I knew what they felt like. Growing up with Daniel as a best friend, I’d spent a lot of time in his head as well as mine, and knew as much about telepathy as any non-telepath could. Even beyond working with Daniel, I’d had his younger brother and sister attempting to poke around in my head nearly every time I came over.

Melanie barely touched my mind at all.
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Uncontrolled Substances: Part 5

As crazy as it sounds, part of the reason people might not have been paying quite as much attention to Sean was that there were other things to think about. For example, prom was that Friday. The administration had been talking about canceling it after everything that happened with Keith’s accident, the massive number of reporters, and the abduction of Keith’s uncle, but somehow they didn’t.

What this meant on a practical level was that I still had to go. Not that that was all bad, but I was going to not one, but two proms.
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Uncontrolled Substances: Part 2

“So you just told him?” Jaclyn didn’t seem to be able to contain her disbelief.

“It’s not like I invited him to train with us,” I said. “I just told him the same thing I’ve always told anyone curious about who I’m taking martial arts from.”

“It’s not that bad,” Haley said. “Of all Sean’s friends, Dayton’s the only one who’s actually nice.”
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Hysteria: Part 10

“Where does he work?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Vaughn said. “Something medical.”

We started talking about the fight again for another thirty minutes or so. Somehow the conversation turned to Lee, and I reminded people that he wanted all of us there the next day and ideally every practice thereafter.

“And that’s why I need to go,” Jaclyn said. “If I want to have time for that, I can’t stay here all night.”
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Hysteria: Part 9

Sean looked over the oncoming crowd a little nervously, and asked me, “What are we supposed to do now?”

“No idea,” I said.

Then I turned on the loudspeaker.

They were halfway across the lawn, and the growing darkness gave the group a “Night of the Living Dead” feel. Not that they were really zombies, but a crowd of people walking toward you isn’t a normal situation.
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Hysteria: Part 8

Payback screamed and fell over, his body outlined in electricity.

The air smelled of ozone, and smoke.

When the lightning stopped, I could see Payback more clearly. His chest still moved, but he wasn’t doing much more than that. His right arm looked uncomfortably red and blistered.

From behind me Vaughn shouted, “I got him, right?”
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Hysteria: Part 3

By the time we got there, there were four of us. Vaughn met us in the air. Jaclyn met us at the house.

The house didn’t stick out normally. A white, two story house in a subdivision full of modern, two story homes of almost exactly the same design (basically a rectangle), it didn’t have much of a chance of looking ominous. The lawn had been mowed, the bushes clipped. The trees still looked bare of leaves, but, if the rest of the yard was any indication, not because the owner had neglected anything.

Tonight the house stuck out. The front door hung by two of the three hinges. The windows in its upper half had been shattered. Its metal body bent inward.
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Hysteria: Part 1

The next day we stepped out of school and into a media circus.

Sometime between last night and that afternoon, the reporter’s story had been taken up by the Associated Press and a video of Keith’s transformation had gone viral. Reporters stood at the bottom of the steps. Vans with satellite uplinks parked alongside the sidewalk. Photographers and cameramen stood waiting.
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Chemistry: Part 6

I couldn’t think of a person I’d least like to hear say those words, but it didn’t really matter what I thought.

Sean, still limping a little, but off the crutches he’d been using since our fight, pushed through the crowd. The fact that Dayton, Sean’s much larger friend, walked with him undoubtedly helped with the pushing.

Ignoring Vaughn, he said, “So what do I do?”

“Just hold out your arm.” Keith put drips of each liquid on Sean’s forearm.
Continue reading Chemistry: Part 6