Tag Archives: Gordon

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 13.6.0: 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 13.6.0: Roll the Dice

Roll The Dice: Part 3

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Sean gave me a digital thumbs up on my message as I pulled the door shut behind us. The door locked behind me as HQ’s computer noted the zones of defenses going up behind us as we left.

The tunnel had once been used to dump either sewage or industrial wastewater into Grand Lake—maybe both. We walked across the faded brick, the tunnel’s height forcing me to lower my head.

Looking back toward Amy and me and then forward to Cassie and Jaclyn, Vaughn said, “Our best shot is to walk out looking confident.” Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 3 →

Arc 12.2.5: Old Friends & Enemies

Old Friends & Enemies: Part 1

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Bullet frowned, either at the hint of an accent in her voice or because he had no idea who Yoselin was. Maybe both. He didn’t linger on it, though, opening the door for all of us.

We stepped into one side of the big windowed room we’d seen from the outside. It extended into the second story with a walkway going around the edges and another extending across to the other side. While the architect might have intended it to be a living room, I could see hints of another purpose in the layout.

Two long couches and a few freestanding chairs pointed in a rough “V” shape toward the large TV at the front of the room. It could pass as the briefing room of a large team. Noting the number of gaming consoles and controllers on top of the coffee table in front of the TV, I had to bet that it was a younger team. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 1 →

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 →