Nataw’s eyes widened, “That’s not good at all. I didn’t mean… Do we have to destroy them now? I don’t want to.”
Lee sighed, using his extended Abominator fingers to press the final series of buttons to turn the field off, “No. It would cause too many problems. If we destroy the Abominators, we’ll have to fly all over the galaxy to kill them all. No great loss, but it’ll attract attention from Destroy and then it’ll be a family thing and we don’t need that. Besides, I’ve already set up a species that should be able to handle them. It’ll be untraceable and look like the natural consequence of poking around where you shouldn’t.”
Pressing the last button, Lee heard a whisper of white noise as the machine stopped working. He turned around, returning to the human form he’d had before. Continue reading If Found, Please Return: Part 4→
Nataw smiled at him, “I wasn’t worried. I knew you’d be by eventually. It isn’t all about winning or losing. There are some things you only learn by mistake. Besides, even if they held me captive for a thousand years, what of it? What’s a thousand years? It isn’t even as if they had all of me. All I have to do is discorporate and embody myself again in this universe.
Daniel nodded, “Constantine Doukas. He’s Greek. He appears to have been raised in one of the Cabal’s hidden colonies. The Nine had some kind of connection to that colony and he ended up fighting us, but here’s the interesting thing—the Nine have their own power impregnators. He went through one and the ability to do that appeared.”
“No shit,” Cassie pushed back from the table. “I don’t know if I told you this, but the first time I fought the Nine, the time Nick picked me up in Washington D.C., I fought another orange guy. He wasn’t the same. He was more spider-like with glowing orange legs that contained some kind of hot liquid? Think they’re related?”
Joe restrained his response, hoping that he wasn’t grinding his teeth. The group didn’t need more right now. Something was off about Giles. He couldn’t put his finger on what. If that wasn’t enough, new people with powers were appearing.
Man-machine, of all people, had visited by his office to tell him about it. Wearing a cheap suit, the kid claimed to be starting a business that made auto parts. He couldn’t hide his nervousness, constantly checking out the window. Continue reading Before Midnight: Part 3→
“I’ll know him?” Joe looked up at Gunther, mouth in a straight line, “I’m going to need more information than that.”
Gunther shook his head, “No, you won’t. You’ll need more information than that to find it, but not more when you’ve got it and need to hand it off.”
The creature’s information had always been good even if “his” true motives weren’t obvious. If this thing that Gunther lost explained what Gunther was doing on Earth, Joe could live with it. He didn’t enjoy having that hanging out there as a potential surprise. Continue reading Before Midnight: Part 2→
Grand Lake, Michigan, December 31, 1958: Ten Minutes before Midnight
Snow fell outside. Joe watched from the seventh floor of the tallest private home in Grand Lake, wondering if it would be a blizzard. The big, white flakes meant that skiing wouldn’t be great and neither would the shoveling. He wouldn’t have to worry about either until tomorrow. Romy and he were staying over at Giles tonight anyway.
He stood waiting in the music room because Giles’ mansion had enough rooms that he could afford to devote one purely to music. A grand piano stood on one end and a pipe organ on the other. Along the walls were bookshelves filled with music, music stands, and enough instruments for a small orchestra. Continue reading Before Midnight: Part 1→
Possible responses hung in my head, most of them bad. I settled on, “I’m sorry. I wish we could have done something, but none of us are any good at healing.”
I thought back to my friend Alex. He was good at healing. It would have been nice if the Ghosts had grabbed him along with Rachel. He couldn’t have survived the trip without a spaceship, and everything I knew through my implant and Rachel said that they didn’t bother with them.
Kals shook her head. “Iolan could have done it if he had access to all his equipment. The Ascendancy killed her in more ways than one. I hate them. I don’t know how, but somehow we have to destroy them. Not everybody, but the Ascendant and the Ascendant Council, the Guard… It all needs to end.” Continue reading Trees & Shields: Part 36→
Lee, Excursion Keep (Artificer Ruins), Forbidden Space
It was over. They’d fought across millions of lightyears and at least ten different alternate universes. He’d killed Bakanan, using the device Kee designed to channel his power and so much more into a burning beam that crossed universes and expanded into more dimensions than the material creatures of this universe understood. The beam hit Bakanan’s true form, destroying him everywhere.
And now, Lee knew, there was one less of them. There hadn’t ever been very many by comparison to the short-lived races he’d been hiding among, but now there was one less. He couldn’t say he felt bad about killing Bakanan, but he did feel a twinge about bringing his species one step closer to extinction. Continue reading Planet in the Middle: Part 1→
She’d been dreaming of flying through space, the stars blurring and stretching as she flew. She’d dreamt of this before but this time it felt real. The cold of space didn’t hurt her while intangible, but she knew it was out there waiting for her or anyone else who made the mistake of phasing into reality.
That was one of the other differences from past dreams. In the past, she’d suspected that others were there too and even thought she’d heard voices but this time she knew it for sure. The voices were as clear as anyone’s she’d ever spoken to. Continue reading Warriors: Part 2→
Department for the Analysis of Alien Artifacts, K’Kassa, Issakass Homeworld
The being that sometimes called itself Lee reformed in front of the building. A body formed around him with barely a thought, so little that he took a moment to check what form he wore. It wasn’t anything special. For the moment, he was bipedal with four limbs, blue-green scaled hide, and while he couldn’t see all of his face, it was obvious that he had a long snout.
He wore a short robe with a tool belt.
He was, he recognized, a typical, lower caste Issakass male, the sort of being that would never be noticed walking into a government building—not that it mattered. Continue reading Venus Spy Catcher: Part 1→
The Legion of Nothing: A Series of Online Superhero Novels (Updates Monday and Thursday)
