I could see that. Haley always had been worried about her powers. The fact that she shapeshifted into a version of herself with fangs and claws probably didn’t help.
It wouldn’t be like discovering you could fly. It wasn’t a cool power. Fangs and claws just said monster.
The combination of that with strength and poison filled dewclaws that were still there even when she hadn’t shifted couldn’t have made her childhood easy.
Actually, I knew it hadn’t been.
After dinner, people had options. The schedule showed a dance in the room where we’d eaten, and that there’d be movies in the auditorium. We also had the option of going down to the shopping area on the second level, or even wandering around the ground level where people lived.
That last option came with a warning to be respectful, remember that we were guests in the compound and to stay off people’s property.
It didn’t say that we’d get in trouble, but reading between the lines, it seemed likely.
“No way,” I said, wondering how he’d gotten his powers activated. It wasn’t exactly a casual thing. The League had the first known working device to do it. It hadn’t been hard for me to make it work, but I’d had the benefit of my grandfather’s documentation.
I knew that the government had their own devices. From the news and personal experience, I knew that criminal organizations also had them. I wasn’t aware of anyone outside of those two groups owning any, but almost everything they needed was available on the internet now.
Corporate devices couldn’t be far away if they weren’t already out there.
Jaclyn’s mind obviously went along the same track mine did. She put down her hamburger, and said, “He can’t still be using power juice his uncle brewed. It’s illegal, and they wouldn’t allow him into the program, would they?”
“He’s not,” Courtney said. “I asked him.”
Haley’s brow furrowed. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”
She took a piece of steak and a spoonful of a salad that appeared to be a mixture of corn, tomato and avocado.
“I had no idea. How did you know?” I kept my voice a little lower than normal. No need to broadcast this. Well, more than it must have been already. Haley wasn’t the only person with enhanced hearing, and Daniel couldn’t be the only person with telepathy or clairvoyance.
Hopefully everyone would be too occupied by eating and meeting people to eavesdrop on us.
Just ahead of me on this side of the buffet table, Jaclyn grabbed food without saying anything. I wondered if she was deliberately ignoring us. In her position, I would have. Continue reading Fresh Meat: Part 4
“It’s not impossible,” Jaclyn said. “But, I can’t say I’m excited to find out whether they’re ultimately more loyal to humanity or themselves. Lee’s deal with the Cabal gives us a year where they’ll leave us alone.”
Haley bit her lip. “That was last June.”
Jaclyn nodded. “Do you think they’ve been counting down the days?”
Haley sighed and her eyes darted between the two of us. “I hope not. I don’t even know what day it was. Do you?”
I looked over at Jaclyn and she shook her head.
“No,” I said, “but I’m sure I could figure it out. Anyway, I bet one of us knows.”
Jaclyn nodded. “Even with their descendants here, I’m not that worried about us, but Marcus and Sydney are still in Grand Lake. Even if they weren’t, all of our parents are.”
Isaac switched to another card, frowning for a moment as he paused.
“With that said, it’s time to talk about this year. In the past we’ve done extended training in the summer, but only for students who are already enrolled. From now on, this will be new students’ introductions to the program.
“Additionally, in the past, the Stapledon program would pay for any college or university in the United States, we are now limiting that to specific universities or colleges within a certain distance of those universities. That still represents a wide selection of educational institutions.
“The reason for this is that we’ll be instituting daily training, and don’t want anyone to have to travel too far.
Reed showed us to our rooms, let us drop off our luggage, and led us to the cafeteria before leaving us to meet the buses.
“Find a table,” he said as he opened the door to walk out, “the buses are here. You’ll be seeing all your friends in minutes.”
I believed him. Except for us, the room was empty of students, but it was full of staff. The tables had been set. The staff were placing food on four different tables that barely seemed to have room for more.
On the stage in front of the room, a man said, “Testing, testing?” into the microphone on the podium until someone called him on the phone. Then he said, “Good,” and left the stage and room. Continue reading Fresh Meat: Part 1
“Cool,” Vaughn said. “Let’s go.”
He turned toward me. “You got everything?”
“I wouldn’t have locked up the van if I didn’t.” I looked over at Earthmover. “We can come back down here, right? The van’s actually kind of a school project itself, so I don’t really want to leave it in here. Ideally I’d want to bring it into wherever you have science labs. If I really had to, I could break it down into pieces and take it through the halls, but I’d rather not.”
Earthmover listened to me, and glanced over at the van. “That’s a science project?”
To be fair to him, the van was still white, and still said Castle Rock Plumbing. With my sister Rachel’s help (she was an art major), I’d learned how to fake rust convincingly, so the doors’ edges had brownish-red rust and flaking paint.
Even if the architect who designed the place had recognized the impact of the view and designed to make use of it, he or she hadn’t wasted much of it on the access road for service vehicles.
I had to turn right almost immediately, and drive straight in toward the buildings on a road that ran parallel to the wall.
We quickly left any kind of interesting view, passing all the shops, and driving the van into an elevator three times its length.
It started moving downward immediately after the van stopped moving. Continue reading Not Exactly Hogwarts: Part 5
I took the catmecha down off the side of the highway, landing in the parking lot of some massive medical complex. I changed the mecha back into the shape of a van, drove around the parking lot, changing the van’s color and model a couple times when I thought no one was looking.
I’d put in the specifications for 20 different models and years of vans. The ability to adjust the van’s looks made it the perfect car for blending into the crowd.
We left the parking lot looking like a 70’s era Dodge van with an airbrushed picture of a woman in a chainmail bikini fighting a dragon on the sides.