Tag Archives: Cassie

Arc 4.3: Cassie

Cassie: Part 4

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The CIA provides Mom with a car when she needs one for work, so Mom doesn’t keep one in D.C. Even if they were loaning her one that day, I knew I couldn’t take it. I walked a few blocks and took the Metro, D.C.’s subway.

It was rush hour. Almost every seat on the train seemed to be full—men and women in suits, little kids sitting on their parents’ laps, tired maintenance workers still in their uniforms.

I hung on to a metal pole in the aisle, thinking maybe I should have gone for her car. As the possibly dangerous product of mad science, I probably had a thick file (or more than one) with an official assessment of my level of threat to the United States. That made my entertainment needs a matter of national security, and part of Mom’s job, right?

In short, Uncle Sam owed me a trip downtown, but I knew I wouldn’t get to take him up on it—not that night, for sure. Continue reading Cassie: Part 4 →

Arc 4.3: Cassie

Cassie: Part 3

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Mom wasn’t putting up with it. “I’m not going to talk about classified information here. It’s too easy to hear us. I’m not trying to get out of it, but we can’t talk here.”

“Where can we talk about it? Should we set up a secret meeting in a park? We’ll pretend we barely know each other, and feed the ducks. That’s how you do it, right?”

“Cassie! We’re not having this conversation.”

Continue reading Cassie: Part 3 →

Arc 4.3: Cassie

Cassie: Part 2

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“OK. Go for it.”

With the number of times they’d poked me already, it seemed pointless to refuse now. Besides, if some of the weirder parts of my genetic heritage had been activated, I wanted to know.

It all came down to Dr. Mind. All of his life, Dad kept on fighting a Nazi brain in a jar. The guy (if you can call a brain a “guy”) always had minions, and the last time, he created an army cloned from Dad’s DNA. He brought the entire League together for one last mission (they’d all retired). They defeated the clone army, destroyed Dr. Mind , and found a gender-swapped girl clone in the complex.

Continue reading Cassie: Part 2 →

Arc 4.3: Cassie

Cassie: Part 1

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I hadn’t originally planned to write a story from Cassie’s perspective yet, but I had the idea, and I’ve been wanting to get certain facts about her origin out for a while now. The main story hasn’t allowed it though. Fortunately, these short stories are a good way of going about that. Thus, this is a decent segue into the next major storyline or two.

Waiting rooms are boring. It doesn’t matter whose waiting room. Even top secret, government owned laboratories that exist solely to study metahumans still make me want to scream after half an hour.

Especially when they manage to stock the same seven month old copies of People as my dentist.

It had to be a conspiracy.

So that’s where I was. In a waiting room. The one for studying metahumans. Not my dentist’s. Continue reading Cassie: Part 1 →

Arc 4.2: Under 30

Under 30: Part 3

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“Oh yuck.” Sydney crinkled her nose. “I didn’t think that movie could have been worse, but that’s worse.”

Camille smiled a little as Sydney talked, but addressed me, “You made it sound like this was embarrassing for you. Was it? Come on, you can tell us.”

“OK. My grandpa told me what it did when I was twelve, and I tried it on my family’s cat. I mean, who was going to notice? We’d already had him neutered. Except there were a few things I didn’t know. One thing was that the genes that make a cat’s fur a particular color show themselves differently in each gender, so his fur started to change color. He’s normally orange, but female cats aren’t generally orange—”

Haley asked, “What color did he turn into?” She used the same, slightly disbelieving voice she used when asking things like how many days in a row I’d worn a pair of jeans.

Continue reading Under 30: Part 3 →

Arc 4.2: Under 30

Under 30: Part 1

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The screen darkened, and the credits rolled. Travis brought up the lights, and people stood up to grab more pop. We’d put the cups and 2 liters on the main table next to the computer screens and keyboards. That may not have been the best idea, but nobody had spilled anything yet—except on the carpet, and that was no big deal. The original League had last renovated in the 1970’s, so the carpet was olive green shag.

Heroes League headquarters felt full, and it was, relatively speaking. We had all of the League’s grandchildren (nine of us), most of the former Justice Fist team (except for Sean, Jody, and Dayton), plus my friend Chris, and Cassie’s friend Kayla.

In short with the sixteen of us, we had more people with powers in the complex than some small countries had in their armed forces. Continue reading Under 30: Part 1 →

Guest Posts, The Omnisphere

The Omnisphere: Part 5

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~*~

Vaughn traded strokes of lightning with Shock Jock, with the former rising higher and higher into the air. Shock Jock grinned, moving forward.

“I was hoping to see you again before we left,” he said. “I wanted to ask you a question.”

“Me too,” Vaughn replied. “Are you color-blind?”

Shock Jock extended his arms outward. Several generators shuddered and groaned, tearing their way off the ground and floating toward him. Tongues of electricity wove their way across the surface of the generators, licking any nearby metal surface in bright, violent strokes.

“Have you told your ‘friends’ yet?” Shock Jock asked. Continue reading The Omnisphere: Part 5 →

Guest Posts, The Omnisphere

The Omnisphere: Part 3

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~*~

“Good evening, Mr. Sumerset,” the orderly said, his voice coated with a sugary-sweet enamel.

“Fuck off and die in a greasefire,” the old man replied.

“Now, now,” the orderly said, “is that any way to behave?” He took hold of Daniel Sumerset’s wheelchair and nudged the old man down the hallway. “You really should behave yourself, Mr. Sumerset. It’s only polite, what with all I do for you.”

“You eat my candy-bars and steal my meds to sell to your punk friends,” the old man said. “Be grateful I don’t sneak into the cafeteria and take a piss in your cereal bowl every morning.” Continue reading The Omnisphere: Part 3 →

Arc 4.1: Haley

Haley: Part 11

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I listened from a roof top while the police talked to people, and the specialist paramedics who drove the Box sedated Laser Guy (he’d begun to wake up). Cassie talked to them. Donna told the police everything, even showing them Rod’s room inside her house. They came out carrying the bag of money he’d stolen from Chuck’s Pizza.

That was nice. It made it feel the whole night of pointless fighting had been worth something. I didn’t think three or four hundred dollars had been worth the risk I might lose control, but he didn’t deserve to get away with it either. Continue reading Haley: Part 11 →

Arc 4.1: Haley

Haley: Part 9

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Cassie didn’t wait to find out if he’d shoot. She swung her staff at him, hitting the laser encasing his right arm with one of the electrified ends. A bunch of different things inside the casing made popping noises, and I smelled electronics burning, a smell I know a lot better now than I did before I started dating Nick.

Laser Guy started doing what most of the League calls, “the lightning dance.” That’s when you get shocked, and it’s enough to make you flail around, but not enough to knock you out. I don’t know who started saying it, but between Rachel’s gloves, Cassie’s staff, and Vaughn’s lightning, there are way too many people flinging electricity around during team practices. I’ve been hit more than I want to think about. It’s irritating, and it hurts. Continue reading Haley: Part 9 →