Unfortunately, it was also an idea that I had to use quickly instead of thinking through the implications.
The last time I’d pointed the guitar’s explosive end at a guy in powered armor, it had nearly killed him. Only Alex’s ability to heal had kept the man from bleeding out.
Alex wasn’t anywhere around here. I definitely wasn’t going to have time to fly to California to pick him up.
I wasn’t worried about the communicators’ encryption. I’d only put them together last spring. It wasn’t as if they were old League technology that everyone had analyzed thirty years ago.
Maybe I should have been worried more. The communicators were based on the roachbots, and Grandpa had designed the first versions of the roachbots in the 1950’s as mobile bugging devices.
I’d updated them substantially over the past year though. Grandpa’s design survived only in the most general terms.
All the details of the current systems were mine.
Of course, the communicators still connected to the League’s old alert system. That might be a vulnerability.
As always, Jefferson Street was a zoo. It probably had the most fast food restaurants and chain stores of any street in the city. At ten or eleven at night, the traffic became bearable—it wasn’t bumper to bumper anymore.
I brought the van to a stop on the other side of the road from the one with Lakeside Lounge–four lanes worth of cars and semi-trucks away.
We were next to a Subway, a shoe store, and Grand Lake Marina Supplies. That last store took up most of the space. Even though the store had closed, the lights were still on, and I could look in at speed boats, engines, water-skis and other gear.
“Huh,” I struggled to come up with some way to deny it. What exactly had we said? Haley had mentioned Storm King. That linked us directly to the Heroes League without question. Plus everyone knew Travis was Haley’s older brother, and she had to have heard him if she heard Haley.
Crap.
Well, maybe I’d gotten lucky and she’d missed that part?
“You’re with the Heroes League?” She said slowly. She stopped walking, and so did I.
I checked around us—again, seeing only the porch lights of the houses around us, the streetlights, and campus directly ahead. If someone were around, I couldn’t see them.
Given the powers of people I knew, that meant nothing. Continue reading What She Asked For: Part 6
I answered. “Hey, how’s it going?”
Haley’s voice came over the phone. “He’s moving. He left the house just after you did, but not before we sent in the roachbots.”
The sound of a car’s engine roared in the background, and Haley talked over the noise—but not to me.
“He turned left! Don’t let him go!”
Travis, her older brother said, “I know! Let me drive, dammit.” Continue reading What She Asked For: Part 5
There were other people to ask, or so I learned on Sunday night. Haley wasn’t mad exactly, but she wasn’t happy either.
“There’s me, and Marcus, and Kayla too. She’s staff, but she’s still part of the team.”
We were in League HQ, but not the main room. After getting back around seven, I’d gone to the lab to recheck the modifications I’d made to the main Rocket suit over the summer, and then start looking over our power impregnator.
Someday soon, I’d have to modify the spare suits, but not tonight.
Haley colored. “Sorry. I wasn’t going to take it or anything. I just wanted to look at it. My mom has the same book.”
Jeremy turned out to be a slightly chunky guy in shorts and t-shirt. The t-shirt said “Gevil” (except the “e” was a sigma) in Google’s multi-colored letters. Jeremy himself had a small mustache and five o’clock shadow.
“Does she actually believe it?”
“What? No. I don’t think so. I think she bought it at a garage sale. It was really popular once, and she was curious, so…”
After a pause, she said, “I’m Haley, Nick’s girlfriend.” Continue reading Orientation: Part 3
I almost didn’t answer, but then he’d have to call back.
“Hello?” I could at least pretend I didn’t know who was calling.
“Hi.” Sean sounded tired. “This is Sean.” Pause. “From school.”
Like I had any confusion about which Sean he was.
“I’m calling because… I’d like us to get along better.”
“And then what?” Haley asked.
We were sitting on my bed at home, backs to the wall, our legs next to each other.
“I don’t know. Isaac and Flick took him away. Isaac asked me some questions later, but he already seemed to know what happened.”
“What happened after they left? You said everyone was in the hall.” Continue reading Orientation: Part 1
When I said the League jet appeared, I meant it literally. In one moment I heard an engine’s roar coming closer. In the next, the jet hung above the roof, floating lower until the door opened, and Daniel walked down the ramp.
Then he stared for a second at the hundreds of dead frog-things on the roof.
For Rod, Sam, and the rest, it wasn’t Daniel walking down the ramp. They saw the Mystic, third generation telepath, and a member of one of the most famous telepathic families in the world.
Plus, Daniel was kind of hot even if that wasn’t obvious through the mask.