It touched the plate, the silvery color wobbling at the edges and then I let more energy through, wondering how long I’d be able to keep it going and how large I could make it. It’s not that I hadn’t experimented, but there was a difference between expanding a mote to include a desk or sphere of air versus an object attached to a person who might choose to move.
Feeling the rockets throw me forward, I weaved through the air, doing my best to be hard to hit, knowing that the True could predict my moves before I made them—if they had enough information.
Half of the True ran forward, but only on this side of the room. It made flying across the room and following the far wall seem like the best option except that the True would be trying to trick me into a bad choice. Flying across the room would allow the whole group more time to fire at me and flying next to the far wall would do more of the same. Continue reading Underground Tower: Part 6→
Off to my right, I heard a crackling noise. A glance showed Cassie standing on top of a cabinet next to a group of cubicles, using the height to shoot over a big bluish-grey block that my implant labeled as a “dark matter converter” and into the Abominator energy generator.
The Abominator energy generator burned where she hit, throwing glowing bits of whatever material the case was made into the air, some of them hitting the dark matter converter.
Recognizing, now that I had a few years of experience with it, that even wondering what the dark matter converter was would cause a massive download into my brain, I chose not to even try. I could do that later. Continue reading Holes: Part 9→
That put everything into a new light. The crowd of people was moving in that direction to be teleported out. Mechs that looked a lot like the mechs Rook’s henchmen used were coming out of the teleporter room, presumably because this base was worth fighting for—at least for a little while.
Inside the room, more bird-shaped mechs appeared even as I descended toward them. Thinking back to Daniel, I asked, When you drew my attention to the room, what were you hoping I’d do?
I had no plan. I felt that whatever was going on down there was important, Daniel thought back at me. Continue reading Holes: Part 8→
Izzy turned her head to look at me, “You’ve said Abominator technology is based on Artificer technology that corrupts the user. I don’t see a reason to keep any of it.”
Inside the helmet where, unlike anyone else, she still might see it, I smiled, “I… can think of a few, but they mostly amount to ways they could help me understand both species’ tech. I want it, but I think it’s going to be easier to get things done if we break things.”
Daniel nodded, “I feel like it’s going to be harder if we try to preserve the equipment and I don’t need prescience for that.” Continue reading Holes: Part 7→
As we walked toward the stairs, I noticed a message in my HUD. It said, “Connection lost.” Everyone near me still showed as green, but everyone else had gone red including Kayla. That meant that we had no backup or any way to tell anyone we needed help. Plus, everyone back at base was probably freaking out now or would be soon.
“Hey,” I said, “We just lost everybody. I’m going to run back into the room and tell them what’s going on.”
Over the comm I asked, “Do we have time to think about our next move, or are we best off moving forward?”
Daniel closed his eyes for a moment, “We don’t have long, but we’ve got a little while before it becomes too dangerous.”
“Okay. I’m going to send out a roachbot to see what’s ahead. If Blue’s can scan this place without giving them too much of a hint that we’re here, maybe she can too?” Continue reading Holes: Part 5→
Zooming in on Yoselin, I noticed that she held something in her hand. From this distance, her hand covered most of it, but I could tell that it glowed. In my head, my implant told me, “probable Abominator origin.”
On the one hand, that wasn’t good news, but on the other, it didn’t seem to be harming anyone. The woman laying on the ground in front of her mech pulled herself up and stood as I watched. She walked up to Yoselin and started talking. Continue reading Holes: Part 3→
Jaclyn and Izzy stepped into the warehouse as the red beams of lasers appeared in the smoke. Izzy grabbed a missile out of the air, crushed it, and threw the pieces to the ground before smashing through one of the building’s undamaged bits of wall.
I’d have fired off the anti-personnel lasers to give them cover, but between the explosions, smoke, fire, and moving figures inside, I wouldn’t be doing them any favors. Continue reading Transitions: Part 9→
The Legion of Nothing: A Series of Online Superhero Novels (Updates Monday and Thursday)
