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.
Nodding, I said, “Then I guess we’d better go do something that’s obviously stupid.”
“It’ll be fine,” Cassie said, “Mr. Sparkles is looking forward to it. I don’t think he quite understands that we’re not going out there to slaughter them.”
I eyed the alien gun in it’s holster on her belt. Using it to its full potential would get us in more trouble than I wanted to imagine.
Haley’s mouth twisted as she glanced down at it, but she said, “I think we need to get out there. Is everyone ready?” Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 2→
I thought about it a little longer and realized that it might be easy. Using my implant, I asked Hal, Do you have any data on camouflage or invisibility devices that Major Justice made for the military?
Hal’s reply appeared in my HUD.
[I have access to records of every device Major Justice made for the military. I can send you the specifications and testing data.] Continue reading Isolation: Part 8→
I found myself remembering back to when we’d faced Ray and the Cabal and Ray’s method of terrorizing his targets—killing their families first, getting closer and closer, and then killing the target. From the way Haley’s face tightened, I guessed that she was remembering the same. Back then, we’d been able to rely on the FBI to guard our families. Knowing that the Nine likely had an ear there, we’d have to do it ourselves.
I said, “Can you move more bots out? We need to cast a wider surveillance net around our families, but I think we might want to do the same around close friends.” Continue reading Friends & Family: Part 1→
With a brief hesitation, Sydney nodded, adding, “I sent it to the League’s server. You should be able to just pull it up.”
Before Sean could think, he found himself already talking, “Wait, you recorded us and put the video on the League’s server. That’s private! It’s none of their business—”
Interrupting him, she said, “It’s on my private folder on their server. I’m not sharing it with everybody—just Mindstryke. And I let the AI watch too because he was going to whether or not I said he could anyway. Besides, he said he’d help.” Continue reading The Power: Part 11→
Dalat turned to fire at the soldier who’d jumped over him, killing him in a shot while Geman shot the other.
The good news was that Geman had saved one half of the shield generator pair. The other pole, still lying on the grass, didn’t look too bad as it could. It hadn’t been broken in two, but it wasn’t working either.
I didn’t know as much as I wanted about these shields but fixing it didn’t seem impossible. Even better, if they had a spare, they might be able to swap it out. Continue reading Trees & Shields: Part 7→
“What did you do for them?” He asked as I put the disc into a pouch on my belt.
I looked up. “We fought, but I paid for the medical bills of one of their people. I didn’t know that they knew. If anything I was expecting them to want to hunt me down.”
I held my breath for a moment, thinking about how it would work. “Here’s my idea. You know how near space extends nearly to the planet? No one takes advantage of it because anyone with any sense sets up near space mines around the planet. It’s cheap and easy to do for most planetary governments. But here’s the thing, it’s not cheap or easy for a small colony like this, so you never did it, right?”
Jadzen didn’t say anything at first, but after frowning, she said, “No. We couldn’t afford it. The mines around the Lagrange point were all we could fit in the budget.” Continue reading Reap: Part 5→
My connection to Hal froze for long enough to make me wonder if it had been dropped, but then he said, [The encryption is complex. It will take some time to decrypt it.]
“How long?”
[Unknown, but minutes, possibly hours instead of seconds.]
I thought about it. “I… Uh… No. They’re not dating. Well, probably not. They’ve been friends for ages. So if it seems like they’re close, that’s true, but they don’t seem any closer now than before.”
Amy raised an eyebrow, and then frowned. “I was hoping for an answer that was a little more definitive. Something like, ‘No, they’re not going out’.”
I took my hands away from the keyboard. The AI could wait. Chances were that his trolling wouldn’t cause major damage in the next few minutes. Continue reading Threat Analysis: Part 2→
The Legion of Nothing: A Series of Online Superhero Novels (Updates Monday and Thursday)
