Tag Archives: Andronicus

Harvest: Part 15

Amy shoved the spear into its eye. It sunk into the corner, deeper than any of her other strikes.

Though I couldn’t see it, I felt the air thicken with its being. Flashes of memories of faces that other people had loved or hated passed through my mind, followed by moments of terror and a vision of The Thing’s teeth.

The Thing tried to pull away, but Amy stepped forward, pushing the spear in further. It reached out its hand, grabbing the spear, but it did that about the same time that I shoved my sword into its other eye, pushing it as deep as I could and willing the flames to burn hotter. Continue reading Harvest: Part 15

Harvest: Part 14

I took the sword in both hands, holding it ready in front of me.

As I’d come to my feet, sword in hand, The Thing That Eats jumped from the grass between the houses toward me. I jumped sideways, landing twenty feet to the side of where I’d been. The Thing That Eats landed a few feet past where I’d been standing. The street cracked under its feet and bits flew through the air.

It had been aiming for me, hoping to hit and then kill me while I was disoriented.

At least that was my guess. Given how hard it hit the street, it might have been hoping to kill me outright. Continue reading Harvest: Part 14

Harvest: Part 13

The Thing That Eats moved with all of Andronicus’ power to punch her again. In training with supers, you learn to recognize powerful punches, the ones that move with tons of force behind them.

The Thing’s punch had all of that. Its arm blurred in the dark, the whole of its body moving with it.

Amy knew it too—because somehow, even though physically she wasn’t in its league, she moved enough that the blow only grazed her lower chest.

The problem was, of course, that with tons of force behind your punch, it didn’t matter whether you hit a vital spot or not. Your punch was a hand grenade, turning anything it hit to jelly and anything next to it into slightly less jellylike broken stuff. Continue reading Harvest: Part 13

Harvest: Part 12

Far too conscious of the limited number of boombots I had left, I tried to think through my next steps. Amy and I stood roughly back to back with her facing Andronicus Thing. The rock stood to her right and my left.

Latoya lay on the ground in front of the rock. Jillian Thing and Hank Thing rushed toward us from my right and they probably weren’t going to respect my agreement with Amy that I handle them while she handled Andronicus Thing.

Worse, I realized that we’d screwed up tactically, possibly lethally. Continue reading Harvest: Part 12

Harvest: Part 11

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched The Thing That Eats in all of its bodies. None of them said anything as they stood by the rock, but they watched it.

I felt certain they had a reason, and said, “How do you want to handle it? Straight out attack or something softer?”

Lying with her armored back to the shingled roof, Amy glanced up toward the roof’s peak. “Do you have an idea?” Continue reading Harvest: Part 11

Harvest: Part 9

Then Kid Biohack Thing turned away from Vaughn and began to pace the circle. As it passed him, it spoke in a low voice. “They don’t like you, you know. Not really. They like what you can do for them.

Vaughn stared at it and stepped away from the circle. “You’re not as good at that as you think you are.”

He stopped next to where Samita, Rod, Amy, Cassie and I had clumped together between the two nearest circles.

Looking around at the group of us, he added, “I used to worry about that a lot.” Continue reading Harvest: Part 9

Crisscross: Part 8

I’d never seen the new guy before. Aside from fitting my profile for the Cabal, he had dark, curly hair, light skin, and at least at that moment, a wide smile. He wore an oversized sweater and jeans.

Philo turned back to us. “This is Andronicus. I haven’t seen him in more than two, maybe three hundred years.”

Andronicus nodded to the group of us. “I have been busy this last little while.” Continue reading Crisscross: Part 8