Tag Archives: Izzy

Courtesy: Part 38

Having talked through our battle plan in a dark garage lit mostly by the lights on the far end, we started on stage one of the plan.

By moving to the far end of the room and letting Izzy passively construct a picture of what was ahead, we learned that we had one level between us and the main event. That level, so far as we could tell was empty—which was an interesting choice.

To my mind, that meant that it was empty to make it more obvious when someone attacked or maybe because they had an area of effect weapon they planned to activate on intruders. Tara thought I had a good point. So, we waited. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 38

Courtesy: Part 37

“Huh,” I checked around us again for hostiles with the suit’s sensors and didn’t see anything while my mind raced.

How much could they get out of Arete at this point? He’d been dead for a bit by now. On the other hand, your opponent always did things for a reason. Best to assume that they were going to copy his voice, add it to the telepaths, and create some kind of super-influencer or add it to every fungus construct they could.

“Does everyone have buzzers? As in anti-voice control buzzers? Preferably my design?” I looked around the group for responses. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 37

Courtesy: Part 36

“Maybe we should ask him to get them out? I think he would,” I said.

“I’ll do it,” Haley said. “We’re stuck here until you and Paladin reach us.”

“Do that,” Cassie added, reminding me that we were on the group channel. “It’s crazy to leave them there if you’ve got a choice.”

I frowned, “I just hope Control won’t be stuck there alone.” Continue reading Courtesy: Part 36

Courtesy: Part 31

I’d deliberately chosen to be our right flank, knowing that I’d be in the front line. As they came toward us, I opened up with sonics, trying a medium width beam and aiming for their legs.

My plan? Slow them down.

While imperfect, it worked okay. Though a wider beam might not do as much damage as a narrow beam, it allowed me the luxury of poor aim. I wasn’t terrible at aiming, but I was running, trying to keep aware of my teammates’ positions, and also trying to point the sonics under each arm at something useful. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 31

Courtesy: Part 30

You know how I’d said that a mass attack from all directions would be a bad thing? That’s more or less what happened.

The smaller room where we’d met Bouman had been the point where the parking garage under City Hall connected to the basement levels of the parking garage next door that were reserved for staff of the city, county, and federal buildings.

With more understanding of our psychology than I’d realized they had, they’d filled the smaller room with a mix of tendril monsters and office workers from City Hall and maybe other buildings too. I could tell from the business casual slacks and button down shirts combined with name tags hanging from lanyards. Between the name tags and the film of mushroom skin over their bodies and faces, I understood the whole situation.

If we wanted to escape by way of City Hall, the way we’d come, the most efficient  methods to use would be Izzy’s scream, my bots, and Sean’s buzzsaw of ball bearings. All of those would straight out murder other human beings now. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 30

Courtesy: Part 29

“I stopped it!” Bouman shouted back, his TV host handsome face showing more emotion than I’d ever seen on it.

I used my implant to think through to the League channel, “Portal, you should be able to get through now.”

“I know,” Brooke said, her voice a little louder than I’d expected. “I’ve been watching you. Give me a second.”

That made sense. In her position, I’d have been watching my camera stream too. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 29

Courtesy: Part 28

It was good that I’d improved the Rocket suit since we’d first faced the Cabal because if I’d been wearing the old suit that hit would have killed me.

As it was, I still saw a slew of error messages run through my HUD, but not the kind that told me to expect an imminent systems failure—the kind that meant that the suit was repairing itself, but still intact. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 28

Courtesy: Part 26

That hope only grew as Daniel, Amy, and Jaclyn moved in behind us. Daniel stood next to me but turned around as if deciding that someone needed to be watching Bouman and the others directly.

Sean and the others joined us, Dayton and Jody (with knives ready) choosing to stand with Daniel—which was a good choice since more tendril monsters were entering from Bouman’s side of the room.

Amy stood to my right, but standing with her back to me, able to easily check both the room we might enter and the one we might leave. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 26

Courtesy: Part 24

In my HUD, the screens from Haley’s team showed similar scenes. The tendrils extending from the fleshy mushroom masses waved and jerked around spastically—so much so that I wondered if the shock of Daniel’s attack was making things better or not.

Sure, the Fungus Collective might not be able to concentrate, but on the other hand, some of those tendrils were as thick as small trees and many of the people on Team Hidden weren’t physically more powerful than a normal human. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 24