“You’re going to fucking kill him,” Chris said.
“I was going to be careful. I wasn’t going to hit him against the ground as hard.”
“That’s insane.”
Sean descended from the black sky, landing in front of us. He turned his head to look at Jack floating above the street.
“Do you know how many people that guy killed? I was going to make sure he couldn’t do anything.”
Continue reading Rivalry: Part 16
Sean didn’t have a chance, and I knew it even if he didn’t.
I gave the rocketpack thrust, and aimed myself at Jack. Unfortunately, that was harder than it sounds. When you’re fighting someone who can grab you with his mind, a force field or some other kind of energy, you’ve got a couple choices — charge straight for him so quickly that he doesn’t have time to think, or make a lot of unpredictable turns while moving at an outrageous speed.
Jack went with the latter option, making it hard for Sean to concentrate on him, and for me to grab him.
Continue reading Rivalry: Part 15
Taking control of the direction of the flight didn’t work.
He had directional jets on his arms and legs. I had the rocketpack on my back. After a few moments of struggle, we established that he could change direction more easily than I could, and that tumbling through the air at hundreds of miles per hour made us both dizzy.
I powered down the rocketpack, and decided to concentrate on trashing his suit.
Continue reading Rivalry: Part 14
“But seriously,” he continued, “if you’re the new Heroes League, I’ve been looking for you.”
Travis looked Jack Maniac over, and said, “Why?”
“You’ve got something I want. I’m looking for a vehicle we used to own. It looks like a ball. You probably saw in the news a couple nights ago. I want it back. I heard that you’ve got it.”
Keeping my voice calm, I said, “From who?”
“Man-machine’s grandson. Nice kid. He was visiting his grandmother when we came over.”
“He’s okay, right?”
“Sure. He’s fine for now.”
Continue reading Rivalry: Part 13
Jack Maniac seemed to get a big kick out of the name. He laughed hard enough that he wobbled in the air. “The Power? Don’t you think that’s a little fucking pretentious? What happened to the first Power?”
“I don’t know. It was available two days ago.”
“Two days? Oh that’s rich. Do your worst, kid.”
Continue reading Rivalry: Part 12
Unsurprisingly, I didn’t sleep very well after that.
I dragged myself through the next day, almost falling asleep in study hall, barely staying awake during lectures. When it ended, I could at least console myself with the fact that it was Friday and I didn’t have any other demands on my life — probably.
Something did nag at my mind though. I thought I might have forgotten something. I just hoped it wasn’t important.
Continue reading Rivalry: Part 11
I spent the rest of the night doing homework, and I was at it till eleven o’clock.
After I stuffed my books back in my backpack, I sat at my desk, staring at the screen of my laptop. It sucked. I didn’t have time to do much more than go to bed. Cassie could probably stay up for days with no effect, but if I didn’t start sleeping soon, I’d sleep in class.
I might be able to get away with reading a few chapters of a book — provided I didn’t get involved enough to finish it. Then I might find myself going to bed at four in the morning.
I considered opening up the laptop again. Haley or Daniel might be online.
Continue reading Rivalry: Part 10
“You bet. We’ll pass on whatever shows up,” Vaughn said. “Right, guys?” He looked over the rest of us.
I thought about replying. It seemed like a good idea, but maybe not immediately. I had time. Then I thought about it a little more.
+++
Me: We might be a little too calm.
Daniel: Crap. I was concentrating too hard on resisting him. You’re right.
+++
Continue reading Rivalry: Part 9
When we got back to the jet, I pulled the alert’s GPS data up, and headed toward downtown Grand Lake.
We flew westward through the sky, toward the sun as it moved lower, beginning to dip into Lake Michigan.
I gave them the short version of what Cannon had said as we flew home, but we didn’t get to really discuss it. Including the time it took to start the jet, it took ten minutes to get there.
We were too late, but in the best possible way.
Continue reading Rivalry: Part 8
After a little hesitation, they left me alone with him. I stood there, waiting as they shut the door, smelling concrete and disinfectant.
“Funny to see girls in the League. Never saw women as vigilantes back in my day except for Ghostwoman. She was goddamn scary — phased her pistol through my armor and nearly into my head. Stopped me a couple times.”
“Did you really think she’d kill you?”
Continue reading Rivalry: Part 7