Izzy’s mouth twitched. If that meant she was worried, I was in agreement. She didn’t deserve to get in trouble for yanking me out of the crowd like that, but I could see how she might.
We all went into the room anyway.
Lim sat down on the table. “I wanted to talk with you about a few different things, and I’m hoping you’ll pass them on to Travis and Rachel.”
“Of course,” Daniel said.
From behind me, Vaughn muttered, “If we remember.” Continue reading TBD: Part 6
Stepping a little faster, I said, “Just a second, I feel like I should say something to her.”
Behind me (by then), Daniel said, “I don’t know. She seems kind of worked up—”
Okay, I heard that, but I didn’t really hear it. So when I tapped her on the shoulder and said, “Hey, we met this summer. I’m the Rocket—”
I didn’t get to finish my sentence. Continue reading TBD: Part 5
“Now,” he said, “the first two years will be mostly classes, but in the third year your classes will include internships with nearby superheroes or superhero teams. The summers starting in your second year will all be intense physical training, and—”
The sound of someone clearing her throat sounded, audible everywhere in the conference room, but not unbearably loud. Just as obviously, it hadn’t come from the speakers near the front of the room.
Bullet scanned the crowd, all of us sitting there and watching him, and continued. “For you to understand this, we’re going to have to step back for a second and review some things that everybody thinks they know, and then I’ll tell you which ones are really true.
“Everybody knows that the Heroes League claimed to be fighting aliens in 1970’s. Some people think the aliens were faked by the government. Some even think they were really aliens, but they were hired by the government. Either way, everyone knows there are superheroes who claim to be aliens even though they look a lot like humans.”
That was all too true. The “alien” heroes I’d seen on TV could have been faked by a good special effects department. All they needed were prosthetic foreheads, pointy ears, oddly colored makeup, and weird teeth.
They’d look at least as real as anything on Star Trek. Continue reading TBD: Part 3
Sean didn’t have any real reason to be bothered. It wasn’t as if everyone worshiped me or something. I knew people, you know? Some I knew better than others. Some I liked better than others.
I’d met a lot of supers without ever trying to, and I’m pretty inoffensive, so no one had anything much against me.
I could see where it might be a comedown for him though. He was pretty popular in high school.
It probably wouldn’t last. He was good looking, and even charming from what I’d been told. I’d never noticed it myself. Continue reading TBD: Part 2
We’d said our goodbyes earlier, so when my sister Rachel and I got out of Dad’s SUV at the airport, we didn’t have much to say to our parents.
I popped the hatch, grabbed my suitcase and backpack and put them next to me in the drop-off area. I handed Rachel her suitcase (her backpack hung on her back), and shut the hatch.
We moved to the side of the vehicle. Mom had her window open.
Rachel said, “I’ve got everything. Nick?”
“Me too.”
Dad smiled at us. “Enjoy your conference, and congratulations to both of you again. Full ride scholarships. That doesn’t happen to everyone.”
“Thanks, Dad. Now hurry and get out of here before airport security decides you’re terrorists.” Continue reading TBD: Part 1
When I said the League jet appeared, I meant it literally. In one moment I heard an engine’s roar coming closer. In the next, the jet hung above the roof, floating lower until the door opened, and Daniel walked down the ramp.
Then he stared for a second at the hundreds of dead frog-things on the roof.
For Rod, Sam, and the rest, it wasn’t Daniel walking down the ramp. They saw the Mystic, third generation telepath, and a member of one of the most famous telepathic families in the world.
Plus, Daniel was kind of hot even if that wasn’t obvious through the mask.
I muttered a few words that would have gotten a look from Mom if she’d been there, and leaned over the edge. The first wave of frog monsters hung halfway up the wall. They’d reeled in whatever line they’d used, and were hanging by their claws.
I hadn’t seen them holding a rope or anything. What were they using? A suspicion passed through my brain, and I watched as they opened their mouths. Their tongues shot out, sticking to the wall above them, and they yanked themselves upward, steadied by their hands and feet.
I knew what I’d have to do even though the idea made my stomach knot up. Continue reading Cassie: Part 25
The gun fired a piercing, white beam. It had to be too bright to watch normally, but through the gun’s vision, I could see it burn the creatures. They changed from standing into whitish-black charcoal in bare instants.
Chunks of the patio beneath them cracked and shattered from the heat, flying everywhere, pelting the windows, breaking a couple.
The frog-things made that mournful howl I remembered from when we were on the highway. Continue reading Cassie: Part 24
I concentrated, trying to find out exactly how many frog monsters were around us. I stopped after scanning the immediate area. There were more than 500 gathering in the park next to the river. I didn’t even count the street. I knew what I needed to. There were too many of them for a straight ahead fight.
The gun was a hell of an equalizer, but I couldn’t point it everywhere at once.