Darkness surrounded me, and I felt myself drop. I knew the feeling from my lessons with Kee and from just a second ago—I was changing universes again.
Except that I then received another communication, this one from Hal.
[That’s not where I put you. You’re slipping through the multiverse. Please stop.]
A rainbow glow surrounded me again, yanking me somewhere new as the connection with maybe-Govan ended with him saying, “What is this?” Continue reading The Portal: Part 6
Okay. I knew when I was and where I was. Next problem? Getting to Mars or Earth and getting back home. I might make it to Mars, but given that something had smashed a space station and burned enough of the planet that I could see the damage from space, Mars might not be the best place to be.
Artificers or one of their creatures would be able to do that.
Lee had once said that he hoped to have 10,000 years with Earth before the Artificers realized he was here. This was about 8000, give or take a few centuries.
Could I possibly have been unlucky enough to appear as everything began? Continue reading The Portal: Part 4
“Me too,” I said, “but either way, I don’t have a better idea.”
“I don’t either,” Haley said, staring past me into the night.
We were over Florida by that point. Our rendezvous with Prime would be over the Everglades in a spot that Dr. Transylvania described as “abandoned by humanity.”
My suspicion that “abandoned by humanity” meant “populated by vampires and alligators” was given a little life by the looks of the place. There weren’t any lights, but a scan of the area as we arrived showed weeds, wooden buildings that leaned as if they were about to fall over, and concrete foundations partially covered by dirt and weeds. Continue reading Stage One: Part 2
From there, the day turned into planning sessions, the first with those of us who hadn’t been drugged. By the afternoon, even those of us who had been drugged were with it enough to participate.
From there, it grew into a cast of thousands or at least it felt like it. We had everyone—Amy, Tara, Samita, Rod, Alex, Brooke, Jenny, Sean, Dayton, every member of the original Justice Fist but Jody, and every living member of our original group. If that weren’t enough, Dr. Transylvania, Ape Nasty, Prime, and his second-in-command attended remotely. Continue reading Bigger Things: Part 8
“Good. We don’t have a timeline yet, but given that we need to rest and it needs to be as soon as possible, we might hit them early in the morning, but dawn would be coming soon.”
Dr. Transylvania nodded, “Not all of my servants are vampires, and we’ve had centuries to work out a system for operating in the sun.”
He looked past me into the lab. “I’m impressed with your setup. We should get together one day to discuss technology. My interest in robots and swarms has been minimal, but when I see you operate, I’m reminded that my use of magic sometimes distracts me from investigating areas that might be useful.”
A few minutes later, we’d closed out that conversation, and I’d passed off his information to Kayla to bring him into planning meetings remotely. Continue reading Bigger Things: Part 7
I checked with Hal via my implant, “Do you know anything specific about how soon they’re going to get here?”
[No. Many of the command center’s staff became engaged in online arguments this morning. They’re distracted and engaging with the discussions at unpredictable intervals.]
I decided not to inquire further about that, choosing instead to watch the horizon for attackers. Continue reading Regression: Part 10
Vaughn pointed at the lawn outside with its new hole, burned spots, and the damaged store window. “Sounds like a plan to me, but if you wipe his memory of the last few minutes, you’ll have to explain that—not to mention your clothes.”
Like Jody’s, Jaclyn’s and Izzy’s costumes had been spattered with dirt, grass, and gray mushroom bits that must have been leftover in the soil.
Daniel looked over the room, “Right. I’ll also have to explain why there are more of us in the room than before the fight. I’m thinking we did an impromptu training session after the meeting?” Continue reading Regression: Part 8
“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
South Beach Surfer blinked and pulled the bracelet up to her lips, talking into it.
As she did, a lone zombie ran into the charred area below us and spat a glob of something out of its mouth. South Beach Surfer saw it even as I said watch out, pointing my laser at the zombie and cutting it in half and then widening the beam to burn more of it at once.
The glob didn’t hit her. Like Gordon and Gifford, she controlled air, aiming the gooey mess away and into my beam where it burned away. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 16
Among the figures flying along with South Beach Surfer were two women curled up as if somersaulting through the air. I knew them instantly—Ina and Leena, the Human Cannonballs.
They were from Mime’s team, a group with a Circus theme. I’d never done the necessary research to know if someone just liked circuses or if they’d been circus performers cursed (or blessed) with thematically appropriate powers.
Either way, they were weird—not the people, their powers. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 15