It didn’t take long to reach the surface, relatively speaking. Izzy lead us down a hall off of the main room, giving me a chance to look at the dead, frozen bodies of all the people Rook had turned into robots as well as his own transformed body.
Amy shuddered as she passed it, telling me, “The little bit of him that’s left saw his dead body. Even for him, it’s weird and creepy.”
Haley shook her head, saying only, “Yuck.” Continue reading Reality Tweaks: Part 4
Lim glanced off to the side, adding, “I really should go now. I’m going to assume that explaining what’s going on with Ray’s corpse and the Xiniti is one of those things that would cause more problems if you explain it than if you don’t. Tell me if that changes.”
“Sure,” I said, intending to say nothing forever unless Ray reappeared on Earth.
Lim stared into the camera for a moment, giving the impression that he was studying me even though I knew he was just getting a still of the Rocket suit in his video feed. Continue reading Reality Tweaks: Part 3
The glowing ring of the portal appeared before us, with the grey concrete of the dock’s control room visible through the circle. It grew larger by the instant, making it clear that we were exiting immediately.
It was less that we stepped through to the room, so much as fell through at an angle. There was no law, I supposed, that a tunnel through time and space had to synchronize with the orientation of the exit point.
Haley let go of my hand, rolling and coming to her feet. I turned on the suit’s anti-gravity, floating to the ceiling like a Rocket-sized party balloon. Continue reading Reality Tweaks: Part 1
Melisende’s expression changed, her smile widening. “Nick, I didn’t expect to see this version of you ever again. I know you told me I would, but with alternate universes, it’s not that simple.”
It was still Melisende’s voice, but the accent had changed. Amy’s held a hint of the Florida woman whose blood she’d used to learn English.
“Amy? This is so weird. Did you go home afterwards?” Continue reading The Portal: Part 7
I spoke over the comm system’s general channel, “Magnus is powering his people up. If I had to guess, he’s powering up everybody he can. Expect people with powers to become more powerful. Don’t be surprised if they develop new ones or if unpowered people start changing…”
I stopped, and Amy added more, “Magnus is trying to escape into the portal. Some of his people will be trying to escape with him. Watch for that.”
I understood how Amy knew. She’d grabbed all of that out of Rook’s head as her spear sucked it in. Continue reading The Portal: Part 1
Jody’s eyes fired off bolts before I had time to warn Dayton. Several shots hit, the red bolts striking his torso. Though I didn’t see a hole in Dayton’s suit, something must have made it through because he yelped.
In that moment, Rook punched him, throwing Dayton backward.
He did roll and come up on two feet, but something about the hesitancy in his movement told me that he was hurt.
Jody might have continued to fire bolts at Dayton, but he didn’t get the chance. As Dayton fell back from Rook’s blows, the Bloodspear pierced Jody’s back. Continue reading Stage Three: Part 12
With the Rocket suit’s speed and the short distance, I might as well have teleported.
If he were anything like the Xiniti I’d fought, he would have still been able to avoid me anyway, but instead, he stumbled sideways, still faster than a scooter, but not faster than I flew.
I punched him and he hit the ground, turning and pointing his arms at me as if to fire his weapons. Except the weapons didn’t fire. There wasn’t even a spark.
My implant offered a choice: “What is your priority? Disable weaponry or continued disorientation.” Continue reading Stage Three: Part 11
“Bait,” Dayton said. Despite their camouflage, my HUD filled in their outlines. Dayton had grabbed Sean’s shoulder.
“Remember this is the Nine. He might not want to, but he’ll turn on us the second they tell him to.”
Sean looked down, the head of his outline staring ahead—into metal shelving, but then over at Dayton, “We’re not going to be able to save him, are we?”
Dayton took a breath, “I don’t know how this will play out. It’s going to be hard, but maybe. You’ve taken him in training, and there’s lots of metal.”
“Yeah… But we don’t know what he is now.” Continue reading Stage Three: Part 8
“But first,” Rook said, “some reintroductions are in order.”
I looked around the room, checking my feeds and my HUD. Rook didn’t show up looking through the stone, which was extremely good news. The last thing I wanted was for him to have a connection to Lee’s device.
Rook’s voice continued, “You knew him as Blur or as ‘Jody,’ but we have a new name for him now. We call him Rapid-Fire. It took a little talking to persuade my boss to let his toy go, but since he couldn’t access his memories of Magnus and all the training he did, the boy was useless to us as a member of Magnus’ squad. I’m sure there’s a way to get it back, but we needed help fast, and what do you know?” Continue reading Stage Three: Part 7
That’s when I noticed a detail that I didn’t like at all. It might have been a small thing, but it hinted at bigger problems.
As Rook’s minions put down their packages and their arms transformed into weapons, the claws disappeared and shortened into straight barrels. That would be nothing except that, assuming normal human proportions, the barrel ended well before the human arm would have.
Even assuming all of Rook’s henchmen had short arms, the gun was just past where the elbow should be.
Put bluntly, there was no room for an arm in there. Continue reading Stage Three: Part 6