This was it. We had the Coffeeshop Illuminati, but no Major Justice or the military special ops team that Lim had been talking about.
Those were waiting in the wings in case we were too much trouble—if Hal was correct. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 5
Kayla laughed, “You haven’t spent half the time talking to him that I have. At least he’s respectful to you. He thinks I’m some kind of no name peon.”
I couldn’t imagine what he said to her that made the way Major Justice treated me seem respectful.
She looked down at her phone, “Oh, and he’s gone. I guess he wanted to sneer at me one more time before they attacked.”
Cassie’s eyes narrowed, “You didn’t tell me he was being nasty to you.” Continue reading Simple Choices: Part 11
The discussion went on after that, but no one said anything new. In the end, we took a vote with almost everyone voting yes to working with him.
Cassie spoke for everyone, though, when she said, “Alright, it looks like we’ll be working with him, but we don’t have to trust him. He’s got to pass Daniel’s and Kals’ testing. Plus, if Amy scans him with magic and finds something unexpected, we still ditch him.” Continue reading Simple Choices: Part 6
As ideas went, it was incredibly wrong. There were some that might say it was so wrong that it was right, but on a gut level, knowing what I did about my armor, his armor, and Johnny Destruction’s power, I would never have done the same except in a desperate situation where it was the only way to protect someone I cared about.
In short, the exact situation Travis was in. Continue reading Sudden Changes: Part 12
I thought about it. I wasn’t sure how much help I’d be, but,“Bloodmaiden’s going to get my parents and our cat to HQ. I’ll help if she thinks she can handle it.”
“Hurry,” Vaughn said and cut the connection.
Not liking the implications of his call, I called Amy via the comm. Even though I could trust everyone in the room, it made things simpler. For one, if I wanted to I could call her Amy. Bloodmaiden was a long name. Calling her “Blood” didn’t feel right either. Continue reading Sudden Changes: Part 4
As if to illustrate how many people we had to work with, Cassie and Travis stepped out of one of the tunnel doors on the wall of the main room. They’d come through the forest entrance. Both of them were in civilian clothes, Travis, at least a foot taller than anyone in the room, had muscles to match. Somehow, he still managed to give the impression of an ambitious young businessman as opposed to a thug. It was probably the combination of his button-down shirt and short hair.
Cassie wore a Georgetown hoodie and jeans, her blond hair in a ponytail. I wasn’t sure what she did when she wasn’t at the League and I suspected that being a superhero was all she did. Continue reading Friends & Family: Part 7
I found myself remembering back to when we’d faced Ray and the Cabal and Ray’s method of terrorizing his targets—killing their families first, getting closer and closer, and then killing the target. From the way Haley’s face tightened, I guessed that she was remembering the same. Back then, we’d been able to rely on the FBI to guard our families. Knowing that the Nine likely had an ear there, we’d have to do it ourselves.
I said, “Can you move more bots out? We need to cast a wider surveillance net around our families, but I think we might want to do the same around close friends.” Continue reading Friends & Family: Part 1
“Right,” Amy said, “except they’re terrified of blood magic and that means they’re terrified of me because I’m connected to the most powerful blood magic-based construct they’ve ever heard of.”
I thought about that, “I’m surprised they didn’t go after you when we were done fighting The Thing That Eats.” Continue reading Enforcers: Part 10
On the freeway, an SUV had stopped and three teenage girls stood by the concrete railing, all of them pointing their phones in our direction. I wondered how long they’d been there and my implant flipped back to when Prentkos and the Cabal soldier landed in the road. They’d seen everything they could.
I wondered how all of that looked to an observer. I hadn’t done anything I regretted, but that didn’t matter. I needed to get the footage to Kayla so she could get it to the League’s marketing and public relations team. Continue reading Enforcers: Part 9
One nice thing about allowing the Rocket suit to be controlled through my implant is that I didn’t have to move to try to contact South Beach Surfer. Before my implant, I’d have had to tap my the gauntlet’s palm with my finger or worse, use the Rocket suit’s mouthguard and tap with my tongue.
For the record, texting with your tongue is tedious beyond my ability to explain. Continue reading Enforcers: Part 6