Mom angled the blade and pulled it back. Number Eight’s face turned white and he began to fall, trying to swing his cane back at her, but not with any real force. It fell out of his hand when he struck the concrete floor.
He tried to say something, but I couldn’t understand it. His eyes shut and he didn’t move.
Mom had stepped back as he fell, avoiding his body and stood over him staring down at it. Then she looked over at me, “Nick, are you okay? Do we have to get you to the hospital?” Continue reading Sudden Changes: Part 1→
Uncle Steve sighed as he saw me come through the door, seeming to relax a little even if he went back to watching Number Eight within seconds. Mom, for the record, didn’t look any less nervous. I turned toward the silver wall, standing directly in front of my mom, but ahead and to the right of Uncle Steve.
I got in position even as Number Eight slashed a foot-long hole in the wall. I hadn’t noticed before, but a six-inch long blade extended from the bottom of his cane. I supposed that made it a knife or spear cane because that was too short for a sword. Continue reading Misdirection: Part 9→
“Tempting offer,” I said. “I have a counteroffer. How about you leave without hurting anybody and we all get to skip a fight?”
Number Eight smiled. That smile along with his bowler, cane, and the white shirt under his suit jacket made me think of the film A Clockwork Orange. Appearing to be in his mid-thirties, the man seemed a little too old for the role.
As I ran, I tried to think who the people I’d seen might be. The tall woman with green skin came first. I’d seen an alert about her from the FBI. She was called Rogue Croc—which I guess was a reference to a film in addition to the fact that she’d been recruited into the army and been activated by their version of the power impregnator before “going rogue.” Also, she’d grown up in a village of Cabal descendants, so she wasn’t going down easy.
My implant returned that the woman with the staff was called Magicka and that she’d been around since the 1920s, mostly fighting members of the Mask family. As of my internship with the Motor City Heroes, Mateo/Blue Mask was a friend who had no chance to get here in time to help. Continue reading Misdirection: Part 4→
Soon after that, we all went back to base. After asking Daniel, I stripped out of the full Rocket suit and showered. Haley had assured me that it was a necessity. I put on a real pair of jeans and a t-shirt because she’d also assured me that my nanotech-produced clothing also needed washing.
In my HUD, I saw the Wolfmobile’s dot superimposed over the map of this area. They were only a block or two away. I thought a text message through my implant, “Talking with Jody in costume at the park.”
Amy texted back, “We’ll change.”
Paying attention to Jody as we both stood next the park’s entrance, I said, “he’s fine. He’s probably not happy, but he’s got a healing factor—not like Captain Commando’s but he’ll be running around sooner than I’d like.” Continue reading Friends & Family: Part 3→
I found myself remembering back to when we’d faced Ray and the Cabal and Ray’s method of terrorizing his targets—killing their families first, getting closer and closer, and then killing the target. From the way Haley’s face tightened, I guessed that she was remembering the same. Back then, we’d been able to rely on the FBI to guard our families. Knowing that the Nine likely had an ear there, we’d have to do it ourselves.
I said, “Can you move more bots out? We need to cast a wider surveillance net around our families, but I think we might want to do the same around close friends.” Continue reading Friends & Family: Part 1→
“If Urin can tell us where Magnus is, that would solve a lot of problems,” I said, unsure of how we’d handle him, but knowing where would be a good first step.
Ruthie smiled, but it didn’t strike me as a happy smile, “I’ll try. I can’t make any promises, but at this point I’ll try anything to get that man off my back.”
“If you do find him,” Amy said, “ask him if he’s got any of Magnus’ possessions. I can do a lot with the right connection.” Continue reading Fonts of Magic: Part 10→
Ruthie looked down for a moment and then said, “That’s when something changed in him. Urin found him. Back in those days, we took joy in finding new ones—new immortals. They were always so surprised to find out that there were more of us. We’d bring them in slowly, showing them what we’d done.”
As I tried to figure out where to begin, Amy pointed at me, “The Rocket’s been the most involved with all of that. You’ll want to ask him.”
“Right,” I said, “I’m trying to figure out where to start. Here’s the thing: when I just started to be the Rocket, Magnus called me on my personal cell phone—not as the Rocket. He wanted me to join him and convince my friends to do the same. So he’s known about me for years now and he’s been targeting me for some unknown reason.” Continue reading Fonts of Magic: Part 8→
The Legion of Nothing: A Series of Online Superhero Novels (Updates Monday and Thursday)
