Tag Archives: Haley

Arc 8. 2: Super Social

Super Social: Part 8

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Marcus put his hand up to his chin, thought for a second, and then said, “It doesn’t sound that big brotherish. You’re only planning to watch for speedsters, right? It’s not like you’re going to watch everyone in town and monitor whatever they’re doing.”

I nodded. “That’s the plan. The idea is that the spybots would detect someone moving faster than normal humans can and watch them, and only them.”

Marcus sat up a little straighter. “I just thought of something. What about friendly speedsters like Jaclyn, for example? It’s not like she’s here all the time anymore, but if we need help, she’ll come. Plus, what about her older brothers or Grandpa?” Continue reading Super Social: Part 8 →

Arc 8. 2: Super Social

Super Social: Part 7

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It was nice to know that Chris had been maintaining the equipment when I wasn’t around to do it, but I felt a little funny anyway. I would have done it if anyone had mentioned that people needed it. For all I knew, no one was using the mini-rocket packs.

I knew it was completely stupid to care, but it was one more thing that I hadn’t known about—like redecorating the main room in the base. I couldn’t deny it looked better, but it had been a shock the first time I saw it.

It made me wonder what else had changed. Continue reading Super Social: Part 7 →

Arc 8. 2: Super Social

Super Social: Part 6

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There were other metahumans out there in the Cabal’s league in terms of strength and toughness, but the Cabal’s toughest soldiers had all of that plus regeneration—the quick kind.

My heart started beating, and I quickly scanned the area around us, all 360 degrees of it. More cars were stopping, and even more slowing down, but not in the kind of way that made me nervous. No one was running to join us or crossing the distance in a single jump.

That was the other thing about the Cabal—they’d agreed to leave us alone for a year last spring. It was now the end of the summer. By their own promise, they were free to kill us now. Continue reading Super Social: Part 6 →

Arc 8. 2: Super Social

Super Social: Part 4

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“Right,” I said. “Not getting your name right isn’t a good sign. I mean, to be fair, when you’re talking in front of a bunch of people, it’d be easy to get something wrong.”

Haley made a tsking noise. “You’d have to be extremely distracted to get our names wrong. When we’re in costume, it seems like we can’t even breathe without it being covered by the press.”

Marcus looked up at me from the computer screen. “If you’re going to talk about Biohack instead of  boyfriend/girlfriend stuff, would you mind bringing me in?” Continue reading Super Social: Part 4 →

Arc 8. 2: Super Social

Super Social: Part 3

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“Metahumans,” I said, “but not metahumans that you’ve seen yet.”

“Or that anybody has,” Marcus said. “Whether they’re metahuman or plain, vanilla human, human, they’re good. I’m thinking that they’ve got to be training all the time. Well, I’m mostly thinking that because Gerald Cannon—Man-machine himself—said they had to be.”

I nodded. “Cannon ought to know. I’m sure he ran a few heists. I got the impression though that he was more about showing my grandfather up than actually stealing things.” Continue reading Super Social: Part 3 →

Arc 8: Faerieland

Faerieland: Part 48

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I  clicked on the email.

All it said was “You know what to do,” and underneath that sentence there was a link to a Dropbox folder. I hesitated for a moment and then clicked on it. It opened to a web page that listed only one file in folder. It was called “Exposure.mpv.”

I’d heard of the video format. It only ran on the associated player and only worked once. No one knew who had designed it. The Double V forums were certain it was a known tech genius, but couldn’t agree on who.

Daniel’s bed creaked, and I heard him walk up behind me as I sat at the desk. “Maybe we should get Izzy. It’s only going to play once, and she’s got a great memory for sounds.” Continue reading Faerieland: Part 48 →

Arc 8: Faerieland

Faerieland: Part 47

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A second look gave me a few clues I’d missed when I’d first seen what I’d thought was Adam. “Adam” had the same thin build and overall look, but he seemed taller than normal. It wasn’t by much.

Haley bent down, obviously getting a closer look. “Is she okay?”

Daniel stared at “Adam’s” face briefly. “I think so. There’s no way of knowing how she’ll take this later, but she didn’t kill anybody, or even hurt anyone. She relayed Artaxus’ orders to Hunter and the fae. That’s all. It’s not out of the question that being mind controlled might still traumatize her, but she didn’t do anything particularly terrible under his influence. She was more of a glorified gofer.” Continue reading Faerieland: Part 47 →

Arc 8: Faerieland

Faerieland: Part 46

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“If you think you can do it, I’m all for it,” I said.

Alex grinned. “Trust me. I’ve seen worse, and it worked out. Now, can you take off your glove?”

I thought about it, checking my HUD for alerts. There weren’t any left. “Assuming the repair systems worked, yes.”

I used my right glove to set the left gauntlet to split and be absorbed into the left forearm. It worked. That didn’t surprise me and it shouldn’t have. It wasn’t the first time I’d tried it after all, but it was the first time I’d tried it after the suit took massive damage.

“Oh,” Haley said, staring at my hand. Continue reading Faerieland: Part 46 →

Arc 8: Faerieland

Faerieland: Part 45

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Taking a risk, but not much of one, I switched the view from sonar to computer enhanced night vision. That gave Haley and me an excellent view of the dragon running down a street in between big suburban houses, unknowingly tearing up flowerbeds, and smashing a Volkswagen Beetle.

As Artaxus smashed a silvery, reflecting ball on a pillar, the air in front of him began to shimmer.

In the next moment, the shimmering had spread across the road, and solidified into a half circle. The dragon blocked much of the view, but I could see a grassy field and a castle wall towering over it. Continue reading Faerieland: Part 45 →

Arc 8: Faerieland

Faerieland: Part 44

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My armor threw out a long series of errors and red alerts about my gauntlet and all the control mechanisms inside it. Essentially, it was useless, and so were the weapons systems on that arm. Plus, the life support systems informed me the temperature inside the gauntlet was hot enough that my arm had “probably been damaged.”

Given the pain in my arm, and faint scent of cooked pork that certainly had to be me, I would have made some nasty comments about the idiot who wrote the error messages except that was also me.

Well, a past version of me at least, a version who hadn’t had his hand turned into–

“Cooked meat,” Artaxus said. “Was that enough to break the Bloodmaiden’s spell, I wonder?” Continue reading Faerieland: Part 44 →