Category Archives: The Legion of Nothing

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 5

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The dog observed the hand and sniffed it, but didn’t lick it. Tiger was smart enough to know he didn’t want to taste the metal-and-ceramic gauntlet.

Within a few moments, everyone had arrived: the old Heroes’ League, the new, Prentkos, and both Jody’s and Colette’s unconscious bodies. Talk about not being able to save everyone. Being turned into Rook’s mind-controlled cyborg was still in this Jody’s future. Though I didn’t need to, I made a check, changing that future had the same problems as saving Travis. I checked on Colette, too, but hers wasn’t any different.

I could do it, but it wouldn’t be worth the price. Continue reading Engine: Part 5 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 4

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“I have the ability,” she said, “but I’ll need ideas from you for how to do it. I’m not allowed to change the past on my own without the command of a living being.”

“Okay,” I said, and realizing that this might take long enough that people would notice, I asked, “How hard is it to stop time?”

The instant I thought it, I knew. Using the device, it wasn’t hard at all. Everything froze around me, and I told Spark, “Tell me if I’ve got this right. Because Lee left this place hidden and abandoned, all times from the moment that he left until now are accessible if someone opened a portal here and stayed?”

She nodded. Continue reading Engine: Part 4 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 3

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“Good,” Grandpa said. “I’m sure I must have told you how I met him. He’d been summoned by a Nazi sorcerer and trapped. We later came to suspect he’d allowed himself to be trapped, simply so that he could meet me. He never fully explained why.”

I nodded, “I don’t know either, but I think I’ve got enough of a picture of his long term goals that I can guess.”

Grandpa laughed. “I’m in the same position. Too bad comparing notes might have disastrous consequences for both of us.” Continue reading Engine: Part 3 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 2

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Hoping that if Ray realized he’d been manipulated by telepaths, he wouldn’t decide to come back and kill me, I connected with the device and instantly understood how to send him back to his own time.

It was actually simple. Ejecting him to anywhere else would be hard and not just hard. It would also have consequences, changing the past in ways I couldn’t predict.

I hadn’t been wrong about my earlier guess about obvious subsystems to include. The GCD did include subsystems for predicting what would happen based on what someone had experienced in here and being sent back to their own time.

Using them, however, was another thing. Continue reading Engine: Part 2 →

Arc 14.9.0: Engine

Engine: Part 1

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As the stone touched my gauntlet, I connected with it and through it the Galaxy Core Device (GCD) itself. How did it feel to use a device that could destroy galaxies and create new ones?

You’d think it would be a moment of enlightenment or maybe ascension, since you assumed powers that you’d normally think were reserved for gods.

What surprised me is how normal it felt. I’d been absorbing knowledge from my implant on demand for years now. I’d been training with Kee to understand what Artificers could do for years and while I’d only been interfacing with Abominator and Artificer technology with those skills for a few days, it felt natural. Continue reading Engine: Part 1 →

Arc 14.8.5: Magnus

Magnus: Part 10

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“That’s the best one so far,” Ray said. “When you say how much it can modify you is your choice, how much of a choice do you have?”

“Well,” I deliberated how much I wanted to tell him, but decided to be honest. “I’ve got one. When I got hurt one time, it offered me options, and I went with my choice. It didn’t try to force me to turn myself into a cyborg.”

Ray nodded. “That’s good so far. Where does it force you to do things? You probably can’t turn against the Xiniti, right?” Continue reading Magnus: Part 10 →

Arc 14.8.5: Magnus

Magnus: Part 9

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I’d never spent enough time talking to Ray to notice how irritating he could be. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I preferred it when he was trying to kill me, but still.

“Okay.” I paused for a few seconds and then continued, “It’s not as if I have a big pile of options here. I don’t think you’re going to like my next one either, but if you want garuanteed results, it’s the best one…”

Ray shrugged and then smirked, “It’s like I always say to my team. There aren’t any bad ideas, but there are ideas I won’t bet my life on. Go for it.” Continue reading Magnus: Part 9 →

Arc 14.8.5: Magnus

Magnus: Part 8

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Plus, of course, even if I could somehow trust him, there were practicalities to consider.

Ray had died by some combination of accidentally grabbing a power line so hard that he broke through the protective covering, and Sean ramming a “Deer Crossing” sign through his chest.

Since Ray had lost the “copied Cabal powers” version of himself and lapsed into unconsciousness before the sign hit, I’d suspected that the electricity had killed him.

It was hard to know, though. Though regeneration would have gone away when he turned back to normal, he might have healed just enough to survive—maybe. Continue reading Magnus: Part 8 →

Arc 14.8.5: Magnus

Magnus: Part 7

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I turned off the rockets and let my anti-gravity take me to the ground near Ray. Colette, I noticed, was nowhere to be seen and my implant showed me footage of her running off into the room’s general melee around the point where Magnus transformed into the next stage of an Artificer’s life.

Ray turned toward me, the flat stone in his right hand.

“Hey,” he said, “we’re not done. You got what you want. Magnus is dead. Now, I need to get what I want.”

“And what’s that?” Continue reading Magnus: Part 7 →

Arc 14.8.5: Magnus

Magnus: Part 6

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The boombots hit before I did, turning everything on Magnus’ side of his shield into roiling red, orange, and white fire.

Ironically, I didn’t feel the explosions at all. He’d protected me from my own blasts.

While they didn’t hurt him, his eyes widened, and he turned around, shouting, the explosions adding to the surreal feel. Not seeing an attack from that side, he turned back to me.

His eyes widened as my sword hit the shield between us. Continue reading Magnus: Part 6 →