Tag Archives: Jaclyn

Courtesy: Part 26

That hope only grew as Daniel, Amy, and Jaclyn moved in behind us. Daniel stood next to me but turned around as if deciding that someone needed to be watching Bouman and the others directly.

Sean and the others joined us, Dayton and Jody (with knives ready) choosing to stand with Daniel—which was a good choice since more tendril monsters were entering from Bouman’s side of the room.

Amy stood to my right, but standing with her back to me, able to easily check both the room we might enter and the one we might leave. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 26

Courtesy: Part 24

In my HUD, the screens from Haley’s team showed similar scenes. The tendrils extending from the fleshy mushroom masses waved and jerked around spastically—so much so that I wondered if the shock of Daniel’s attack was making things better or not.

Sure, the Fungus Collective might not be able to concentrate, but on the other hand, some of those tendrils were as thick as small trees and many of the people on Team Hidden weren’t physically more powerful than a normal human. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 24

Courtesy: Part 22

Sean’s comm started ringing. He stared down at the screen. Thanks to the Rocket suit’s sensors, I’d zoomed in on the screen and read it before I even had time to consider the question of his privacy.

It said, “Mom.”

Bouman nodded, “You’ll want to get that.”

Sean all but snarled at him, “I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to scare me. Mom’s either one of you by now and she’ll say anything or she’s surrounded. Either way, I can’t stop you from doing whatever you want to her, but if you kill her, you don’t have any hold on me at all.” Continue reading Courtesy: Part 22

Courtesy: Part 19

“That works for me,” I said. “Is Hal saying we all go in at once?”

Jaclyn’s words came out in a rush, “Not exactly. He thinks one group goes in hard and fast to attract attention. Another goes in quietly. A third stays in position here so Portal can move people in to help as needed.”

Remembering what Brooke had said earlier about not being able to teleport inside City Hall thanks to interference, that meant as close as people could get. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 19

Courtesy: Part 18

There weren’t a lot of people on the streets—mushroom-controlled people that is—but the people that were there stopped and stared.

I mean, sort of. With mushroom flesh covering their faces, they had no eyes or ears, merely slick skin. They pointed their heads at the fairy horde emerging from the portal and froze. Then as one, they retreated into City Hall, the parking garage, or any of the half-a-dozen office buildings nearby.

I wondered for a second if this meant that they still felt fear, but couldn’t help but note that they’d disappeared as one, meaning that if they did, they had to wait for orders to express it. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 18

Courtesy: Part 9

Could the mushroom zombies replace Arete’s missing parts or access his memory? The latter option would represent a major security leak both for the Defenders and the Nine.

It didn’t seem likely, but if it was possible, I didn’t like it. From what I’d seen of it, even acting collectively the zombies weren’t very smart, but if they could integrate Arete in, maybe they could be. Plus, what if they could reproduce his powers in the mushroom zombies?

We needed to end this, but we’d have to figure out where to hit it. We’d destroyed the “brain.” We’d need to figure out where the backup was or if it could operate as some kind of swarm without a center. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 9

Courtesy: Part 5

I didn’t love the idea that the military team might be puppets of the mushroom zombies, especially since they included (ex) Mayor Bouman, a telepath, and Logan who’d been friends with Vaughn, Haley, Sean, Dayton, and Jody back when Haley was dating Sean.

I wondered if the military team included anyone else. Three seemed too small of a group—not to mention underpowered vs our team. When Logan transformed in high school, we’d beaten him with equipment smuggled in under our formal clothes. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 5

Courtesy: Part 3

Major Justice stumbled, but then recovered, putting his arm out and grabbing Arete’s shoulder, steadying himself, but putting more force into the gesture than seemed necessary.

Arete stumbled, turning his head and opening his mouth to shout something. His words made no sense to me, but my buzzer went off along with the buzzers of everyone on my team including Justice Fist—plus Major Justice.

It was too bad Major Justice hadn’t used one whenever he’d first encountered Arete, but using one now might mean Arete’s influence was waning. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 3

Courtesy: Part 2

My mom had been depressed and unwilling to talk about the fact that Rachel and I were following in our grandparents’ footsteps for months after her block had fallen. Of course, part of the process had included being kidnapped by Ray and the Cabal and freeing herself so that she couldn’t be used as a hostage against Rachel and me.

Linking mental manipulation with traumatic events couldn’t be good for someone. Life as a superhero was filled with traumatic events and Major Justice had to live with that.

Realizing that I had an expert on the call, I said, “Kals, if you can see this, what do you think of Major Justice?” Continue reading Courtesy: Part 2