“Wait just a second,” he began, but then lapsed into silence.
From the way Major Justice’s gauntleted right hand clenched, I guessed he wanted to say something, probably something loud and angry. Did he want to say that on a recording though? Did he want to say it when he knew that the board governing Defenders units would be watching it later?
His career might be crumbling around him, but did he want to add gas and a lit match? Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 20
I resisted an urge to shake my head. He couldn’t know. It’s not as if we’d added him to the League’s comm channel. Not looking over at Hunter, I said, “Menagerie added some new features to his… fungus things and they got out of control.”
Even though I wasn’t looking directly at him, I could still see Hunter standing with the rest of the Coffeeshop Illuminati. He didn’t scream it out, but I still heard him say, “Shroomoids. I call them shroomoids.”
Jody snickered. Dayton nudged him, “C’mon man, I’m sure he feels bad enough already.” Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 19
“You really think it’ll be easy to get him to call it off for today? From what I’ve seen so far, it was a challenge to even get him to admit we were in the earliest stages of a zombie apocalypse,” I used my HUD to take a quick look to see where we were with that.
There weren’t any nearby at all—not even among the trees. I’d adjusted the suit’s sensors to detect them and set the implant to watch for movement.
At this point, Vaughn had stopped hitting them with lightning and Amy hovered above the forest, staring downward, doubtless trying to detect them with magic much as I was with technology. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 18
Jaclyn’s voice came over the comm, “Exactly that. If you’ve got something that will let me destroy them, I’ll take it. I feel useless. Building barriers is nice, but it’s not enough.”
I burned down another zombie and said, “I’m sure we’ve got something—even if it’s the Burrito Gun.”
Jaclyn gave a long pause before replying, “The Burrito Gun? Does that even have a setting for fire?” Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 17
South Beach Surfer blinked and pulled the bracelet up to her lips, talking into it.
As she did, a lone zombie ran into the charred area below us and spat a glob of something out of its mouth. South Beach Surfer saw it even as I said watch out, pointing my laser at the zombie and cutting it in half and then widening the beam to burn more of it at once.
The glob didn’t hit her. Like Gordon and Gifford, she controlled air, aiming the gooey mess away and into my beam where it burned away. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 16
Among the figures flying along with South Beach Surfer were two women curled up as if somersaulting through the air. I knew them instantly—Ina and Leena, the Human Cannonballs.
They were from Mime’s team, a group with a Circus theme. I’d never done the necessary research to know if someone just liked circuses or if they’d been circus performers cursed (or blessed) with thematically appropriate powers.
Either way, they were weird—not the people, their powers. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 15
Major Justice sputtered, “We… We don’t have anyone in reserve. Every available person is in the fight.”
Except for the first word or two, he sounded honest. I said, “Great, but if someone new arrives, please send them in. I’m not sure how we win this.”
“We’re all here,” he grunted. “We’ll win this.”
Then he closed the connection. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 14
When the lightning stopped, I could see smoking zombie bodies all the way down the road. Many of them were charred to the point that they were unrecognizable or at least they would have been if they were human.
Had they been human, I’d have been horrified at the devastation. Given that they weren’t human, I could only feel disappointment that it wasn’t worse. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 13
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.
I called Kayla, telling her what I’d learned in as few words as I could. I suggested that she might want to contact the offices of Major Justice and superheroes he led. He wasn’t going to listen to me.
Then she should make a more general announcement to regional and national groups about the situation and give them footage along with what Hunter said in our conversation.
“I’ll try,” Kayla let out a sigh, “it’s not as if he likes me either, but maybe someone else will show up and make him see reason.”
“I’m not optimistic, but if more people show up, we’ve got a better chance to control it,” I said, firing off a boombot at a new cluster of mixed humanoid and T.Rex zombies. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 11