Tag Archives: Dayton

Courtesy: Part 22

Sean’s comm started ringing. He stared down at the screen. Thanks to the Rocket suit’s sensors, I’d zoomed in on the screen and read it before I even had time to consider the question of his privacy.

It said, “Mom.”

Bouman nodded, “You’ll want to get that.”

Sean all but snarled at him, “I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to scare me. Mom’s either one of you by now and she’ll say anything or she’s surrounded. Either way, I can’t stop you from doing whatever you want to her, but if you kill her, you don’t have any hold on me at all.” Continue reading Courtesy: Part 22

Courtesy: Part 21

“Welcome to City Hall,” our ex-mayor said. “I may have said those very words to two of you only a few years ago.”

Daniel gave a short nod, “I think you did. A few things have happened between now and then.”

At that Bouman laughed, sounding like a normal human being. If there were some area of his mind that the fungus had warped, Bouman could still manage normal human responses. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 21

Courtesy: Part 19

“That works for me,” I said. “Is Hal saying we all go in at once?”

Jaclyn’s words came out in a rush, “Not exactly. He thinks one group goes in hard and fast to attract attention. Another goes in quietly. A third stays in position here so Portal can move people in to help as needed.”

Remembering what Brooke had said earlier about not being able to teleport inside City Hall thanks to interference, that meant as close as people could get. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 19

Roll the Dice: Part 19

I resisted an urge to shake my head. He couldn’t know. It’s not as if we’d added him to the League’s comm channel. Not looking over at Hunter, I said, “Menagerie added some new features to his… fungus things and they got out of control.”

Even though I wasn’t looking directly at him, I could still see Hunter standing with the rest of the Coffeeshop Illuminati. He didn’t scream it out, but I still heard him say, “Shroomoids. I call them shroomoids.”

Jody snickered. Dayton nudged him, “C’mon man, I’m sure he feels bad enough already.” Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 19

Roll the Dice: Part 18

“You really think it’ll be easy to get him to call it off for today? From what I’ve seen so far, it was a challenge to even get him to admit we were in the earliest stages of a zombie apocalypse,” I used my HUD to take a quick look to see where we were with that.

There weren’t any nearby at all—not even among the trees. I’d adjusted the suit’s sensors to detect them and set the implant to watch for movement.

At this point, Vaughn had stopped hitting them with lightning and Amy hovered above the forest, staring downward, doubtless trying to detect them with magic much as I was with technology. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 18

Isolation: Part 2

Waking up the next morning wasn’t great. HQ had a bunch of cots and I’d slept in one even though I could have stayed in my bed upstairs.

Even on high alert, I couldn’t recommend it. I couldn’t blame the soreness in my body completely on the cot, but I doubted that it helped. Still, it was safer than being in the house—just much less private, considering that all of the cots were in HQ’s main room.

I’d barely pulled on clothes and sat down at one of the computer cubicles when we got the first call of the morning. Continue reading Isolation: Part 2

The Power: Part 14

Shaking his head, Dayton looked Jody in the eye, “This isn’t just about saving the Heroes’ League. We don’t know that’s even on the table. This is about the bigger picture. If we can’t trust that these guys are on the level, we shouldn’t go into business with them.”

Jody’s mouth twisted, “But that’s the thing, it seems like these guys are on the level. We’re considering dropping out of this because maybe, just maybe, they’re going to be taken over by evil people so secretly that we’re not going to notice and then take over us. Right?”

Dayton paused, but then said, “Pretty much, but I don’t think that’s as dumb as you’re making it sound. We know the Dominators have done it. That’s exactly what people pay them to do.” Continue reading The Power: Part 14

The Power: Part 13

As much as Sean wanted to argue, he knew better. He’d said so himself, “Yeah. You’re making it sound like you’re leaving.”

Mindstryke tapped the rollup screen and the end farthest from him rolled into the shape of a cylinder. Then the cylinder shrunk enough to fit into the pouch on his belt. “I am. The group of you need to talk about this and make a decision. This is your team and I’m not on it. You need to start making big decisions as a group and with this one you’ve at least got a few hours to think about it.” Continue reading The Power: Part 13

The Power: Part 12

Jody looked up from the rollup screen on the table, “That name does not ring a fucking bell.”

Shaking his head, Dayton said, “I don’t know who that is either.”

Sean felt sure he’d heard the name before, but he couldn’t say where or when.

Sydney spoke up while he was still thinking, “Nick’s mentioned him. We were talking one time about the Cabal and he mentioned that Martin Magnus was someone he still hadn’t figured out.” Continue reading The Power: Part 12