Inside the room, we found the welcome committee. They were prepared for us, but there’s a difference between sending a bunch of guards to stand in the entrance in case someone gets through and executing a well-planned ambush.
This was not a well-planned ambush.
The guards here, and there were more than 20 of them, all of them with automatic weapons, weren’t in the best shape. Continue reading Stage Three: Part 1
Cassie looked down at the ground and then back down the hallway, “That’s what the muddy footprints were? That’s so gross.”
Then she said, “Who wants to get the door?”
Marcus shifted into a pile of goo that seeped in the door’s direction but stopped just in front, asking, “Is it booby trapped?”
Daniel frowned, “I can’t tell.” Continue reading Stage Two: Part 9
I wondered how much of a walk this would be, and a map Hal had created while using my bots as scouts appeared in my head. By taking out the Nine’s central command, we’d ended up on ground level. Magnus’ and the Nine’s leadership’s rooms were located on the top floor.
Well, unless they’d evacuated to the bunker below the main complex.
Knowing that the fight in the control center hadn’t been quiet in any way, I had to bet on the bunker. Either way, the stairway at the end of the hall went both up and down. Continue reading Stage Two: Part 8
Edward said, “I’m hoping the same. If Dr. Mind did survive, Brian’s advice to you guarantees that we’ll be executed by one or more of the Numbers. Though if Dr. Mind is gone, there’s an opening for Number 4, so they may be too busy killing rivals to care.”
Brian glared at him, “Thanks for telling them my name!”
Edward raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure they know already. The Heroes’ League appears to have done its homework. They attacked with overwhelming force while in disguise and went straight for our Control Center. Not only that, but they did it while we were distracted with a myriad of other concerns—which in retrospect, they may have engineered.” Continue reading Stage Two: Part 7
I checked Jaclyn’s, Tiger’s, and Izzy’s feeds. They’d been fighting the cadre of guards that appeared to be tasked with defending the teleportation systems.
Even better, they’d stepped inside Teleportation Operations. It said so on a black sign next to the door.
The first word that came to mind was “industrial.” Continue reading Stage Two: Part 6
Cassie muttered something that she didn’t bother to share and dropped her father’s sword.
As she did, the skull leveled out as the top half hit the floor, landing on a burning cubicle wall. Part of me marveled that any part of the skull was working, but I hadn’t gotten a good enough look after she’d cut it.
She’d cut it diagonally from one side of the bottom upward, revealing Dr. Mind, but not slicing into him—much. She’d cut into the outside that the brain’s tendrils extended into, but not the main body of it. While she’d cut into the ceramic container at the center of the skull, destroying Dr. Mind’s primary life support environment and many of the skull’s internal systems with it, Dr. Mind still lived. Continue reading Stage Two: Part 5
Cassie added, “I’m ready.”
She was. According to her suit’s stats, her leg had grown back.
“Now would work,” Tara said.
Still camouflaged, I poked my head up, pointing my arm at Dr. Mind, testing his shield. My sonics ran through various frequencies at a low volume, checking which were the most resonant.
Then I passed those frequencies to everyone’s PAs and even my spare sonic on Julie’s costume. I pushed up the volume to the maximum. Continue reading Stage Two: Part 4
“All of them,” I said as my words echoed throughout the room. “Did you know that you’d reused a base that the original team already destroyed once? Dr. Madness used the same cave in Brazil. Did you choose it because the entrance looked like a skull, or is there some supervillain base rental service?”
Dr. Mind chuckled. “Syndicate L provides many services to supervillains, but you must know that. They didn’t provide me with that cave. Dr. Madness tipped me off that it existed. He was a kind man in his way.” Continue reading Stage Two: Part 3
It was as good a throw as I’d ever seen from her, but for the first time, the Bloodspear stopped in midair, hitting nothing and stopping. Then it fell to the ground and disappeared.
As it fell, though, magical symbols appeared in the air. I recognized a few. Everyone in Stapledon had had to take a survey course in magic and magical creatures. While I couldn’t read many, I recognized the one for blood and felt a burst of energy.
That worried me. I couldn’t feel magic. Anything I could feel had to be Artificer-related. Continue reading Stage Two: Part 2
“Nick?” Haley’s voice sounded in my head courtesy of our implants.
“I’m okay,” I said, still feeling the heat.
“For two more hits,” she said, because she could check my vitals and armor stats just like everyone else could. With our implant-to-armor connection, all we had to do was think about it, and we knew.
“And no one else has as much armor on as you do,” she said. “We need to take it down now.”
My armor noted that repairs were in process and that it was increasing protection against energy weapons. That was nice to see. It was a recent update, and I’d been worried it might not kick in soon enough when I needed it. Continue reading Stage Two: Part 1