Tag Archives: Gifford

Arc 13.6.5: Courtesy

Courtesy: Part 8

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The tendrils died at an alarming rate. Even though Hal downplayed the effectiveness of the anti-personnel lasers, he could fire off multiple beams at multiple targets. They wouldn’t have been effective against the mushroom central brain he’d destroyed, but against these tendrils it was good enough.

The tendrils sizzled and stopped moving. Somewhere in the back of my brain, the part that distantly remembered breakfast, I wondered if these were edible mushrooms and hoped they weren’t psychedelic.

Psychedelic mushrooms did grow in Michigan. I’d checked Wikipedia once. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 8 →

Arc 13.6.5: Courtesy

Courtesy: Part 6

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By the time I did notice that Gifford, Hunter, and other members of Major Justice’s team as well as Shifter were sinking toward the ground, they were shouting at Gifford who was staring off into space.

Was he too tired or had one of the mushroom tendrils gotten lucky and hit him? Either way they were dropping into range of not only the tendrils’ shots (which might not get through the wind), but also the clouds of spores that puffed outward whenever the shots hit something. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 6 →

Arc 13.6.0: Roll the Dice

Roll The Dice: Part 9

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“Self-replicating?” I stared at the cloud of spores obscuring the baseball diamond.

Supers emerged from it, most of them covered with a light dusting of spores. By most, I meant almost everybody but Jaclyn. Jaclyn wasn’t covered because I’d designed her suit to be as close to frictionless as I could.

The other two exceptions were Bullet and Theo. Bullet flew out. He wasn’t covered with spores because he floated upward in a bullet-shaped force field. Theo was spore-free for a more obvious reason—almost anything that touches superheated plasma burns. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 9 →

Arc 13.6.0: Roll the Dice

Roll The Dice: Part 7

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A few of the bullets shot away from his hand toward Gordon as Gifford shouted, “No!”

The Rocket suit’s sensors showed the air in front of Gordon becoming more dense, maybe not to force field levels, but enough to matter.

The bullets hit the barrier and began to be blown to the left when they discorporated. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 7 →

Arc 13.6.0: Roll the Dice

Roll the Dice: Part 6

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Noticing the wind, I wondered about Gordon. He did have a temper. I remembered at least one time he’d nearly lost it with me. All the same, this seemed different. I’d never seen him lose control of his powers out of anger.

Of course, maybe I’d never seen him angry enough.

On a gut level, I didn’t quite believe he could be this angry at whatever offenses he imagined I’d committed without also being goaded into that anger either by Dominator work in his head or something else. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 6 →

Arc 13.6.0: Roll the Dice

Roll the Dice: Part 4

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Still hovering, Gordon stared at Vaughn, breathing without saying anything as if he were having trouble composing himself—or maybe he didn’t know what to say.

When he did talk, he barked out, “Don’t move,” as if we hadn’t gotten that message the first time.

Then he added, “I’ve called in my team,” which was interesting because I hadn’t seen him talking into a mic or typing anything. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 4 →

Arc 12.2.5: Old Friends & Enemies

Old Friends & Enemies: Part 4

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It might not be fair to either Gifford or Hunter, but I’d never particularly liked either of them. Gifford and Gordon came from a legacy hero family, the kind that lived in private compounds and didn’t interact much with normal people. Hunter’s mother was a legacy superhero,  celebrity, and superhero stage mom (from what I’d seen).

She had a reality TV show about her life in Hollywood called, “Diva!” To judge from the online commercials, Hunter and Gifford appeared sometimes.

Also, and here’s where the unfairness came in, Gifford was interested in Haley. It hadn’t caused problems because she wasn’t interested in him, but it didn’t make me like him more. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 4 →

Arc 12.2.5: Old Friends & Enemies

Old Friends & Enemies: Part 3

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Bullet stopped wiping his face, “Who was she really? Do you know?”

“No,” Daniel continued to watch him, “we were hoping you might know. We’re guessing she’s one of the Dominators.”

Looking over at Daniel, Bullet stuffed his handkerchief back in his pants pocket, “I’m going to kill her.”

“You don’t know where she is,” Tara said, her voice level and controlled. “You haven’t seen her since and you haven’t been looking because she controlled you so completely that you never tried. What makes you think that you could?” Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 3 →

Arc 8: Faerieland

Faerieland: Part 5

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Adam gave a hint of a smile. “Why would you think I’d know anything about that?”

“Oh.” I realized I’d given something away, and tried to think of a way to answer that did minimal damage. “Well, Troll smelled fey on you, so I guessed you might have a connection.”

He blinked. “I didn’t know it was that obvious, but yes, my powers come from the fey. I’ve never told anybody, but I suppose it had to come out sometime. Sorry, but I haven’t noticed anything unusual.”

“Really? That’s weird. I’d think you’d see something before I would, and I’m pretty sure I saw something inhuman on the Fourth of July.”

He nodded along as I talked. “Interesting. What did you see?” Continue reading Faerieland: Part 5 →