Tag Archives: Kayla

Arc 8.6.5: Harvest

Harvest: Part 13

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The Thing That Eats moved with all of Andronicus’ power to punch her again. In training with supers, you learn to recognize powerful punches, the ones that move with tons of force behind them.

The Thing’s punch had all of that. Its arm blurred in the dark, the whole of its body moving with it.

Amy knew it too—because somehow, even though physically she wasn’t in its league, she moved enough that the blow only grazed her lower chest.

The problem was, of course, that with tons of force behind your punch, it didn’t matter whether you hit a vital spot or not. Your punch was a hand grenade, turning anything it hit to jelly and anything next to it into slightly less jellylike broken stuff. Continue reading Harvest: Part 13 →

Arc 8.6.0: Revelations

Revelations: Part 9

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Amy bounded into the hanger in her Bloodmaiden form—all black armor and glowing gems. Cassie, Samita, and Rod followed her in, all of them in costume. Between Cassie’s flag against a navy blue background, Samita’s hooded red robe, and Rod’s black, leather duster, they had an interesting look.

Amy stopped once she saw that Travis and Lucas were within the wards and that the wards had been activated.

The transparent, red walls were a fairly obvious clue. Continue reading Revelations: Part 9 →

Arc 8.6.0: Revelations

Revelations: Part 8

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Loosening my choke hold, I dropped to the ground, putting Lucas body in the center of the wards Samita had set up on the floor. The Thing That Eats’ head had disappeared, revealing Lucas’ face.

As he lay on the concrete between black lines and symbols that I didn’t recognize, I reminded myself that he had to be alive. I’d choked him correctly, and I’d timed it. The Thing That Eats had a talent for playing on people’s fears. My longstanding one was that I’d kill somebody who didn’t deserve it, and he’d done his best to play on it. Continue reading Revelations: Part 8 →

Arc 8.6.0: Revelations

Revelations: Part 3

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Haley looked over at me, face tightening, but said, “I’m glad that almost everyone is there, but tell us if any of the missing people show up.”

“Yeah,” I tapped the palm of my glove, bringing me into the conversation. “Try to get everyone into the area Samita warded, and if you’ve got a second, read the email I forwarded to you. It’s from Samita. It tells you how to work the wards.”

“If I’ve got a second?” Kayla muttered something that I didn’t catch. “I’ll try.” Continue reading Revelations: Part 3 →

Arc 8.6.0: Revelations

Revelations: Part 2

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“Wow.” I rolled that one around in my head, wondering why anyone would bother to hire someone to embarrass us when they wouldn’t have to wait long for us to do it to ourselves.

“Who hired you, and why?” Haley watched Morgan, nostrils flaring and probably getting more information than Morgan realized.

Morgan shrugged. “I don’t know. I wasn’t in on everything. Hank Haseman. The guy with the square force fields? I’m sure you remember him. He was the man with the contacts. He knew who to call, and he handled the money.”

“That’s a lot of trust,” I said. “You didn’t know who had hired you and you let Haseman handle the money.” Continue reading Revelations: Part 2 →

Arc 8.5.5: Splits

Splits: Part 10

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The alert also appeared on everyone’s phones, and most likely all of the city’s radio and television stations. After the beeping ended, the message said what they always said—stay in your house until we say it’s safe. Also, the following individuals were released from containment… It listed everyone in the gang we’d fought earlier that day—except for the woman who operated the Eagle suit.

That made sense. She was a normal human, and the city only had ten cells rated for superhuman containment. Why waste one?

I flipped through the pictures, noticing Haley doing the same. The last two pictures showed Alden and Philo, noting that they were the ones who’d broken the others out. Jillian didn’t make the list.

Maybe Alden hadn’t bitten her? Maybe she was resisting The Thing’s takeover process? Continue reading Splits: Part 10 →

Arc 8.5.5: Splits

Splits: Part 1

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The first thing that came into my head was, “Can you see where he is, or where he’s gone?”

“No,” Kayla’s voice paused and a mouse clicked in the background. “There aren’t very many spybots around here. I mean, except for the ones you just released.”

She was right. I’d mainly focused on major intersections, and there weren’t many of those around here. Worse, there were longer than normal blocks this far out, making corners even easier to avoid.

“I might be able to track them,” Haley’s voice trailed off. She knew, as we all did, that a long jump could throw off her sense of smell. We’d need all of us to pull that off. Plus, The Thing appeared to be good at sneaking around.

“We could try looking for a little while,” I suggested, and we did, but we didn’t find anything. Continue reading Splits: Part 1 →

Arc 8.5.0: Crisscross

Crisscross: Part 11

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“If you value your lives and the lives of those you care about, you’ll intervene from a distance if at all. If that creature bites you, you’ll be linked to it, or worse, become part of it.”

She watched me, waiting, I guessed, for my response.

“We won’t, at least most of us. We’ve been warded against it. I know you don’t like the source, but it works, and if you think about it, I’d bet that the blood magic you’re familiar with can’t do that.”

Shaking her head, she backed away. “Remember that I warned you. If we have to, we’ll kill anyone infected by the creature.” Continue reading Crisscross: Part 11 →

Arc 8.4.5: Share The Love

Share The Love: Part 3

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I thought about Reliquary. He was head of Stapledon’s magic department, mostly because he was the only wizard willing to associate with Stapledon, and not coincidentally something of a rebel in the wizarding community.

From what I’d heard, he was also fantastically knowledgeable about magic. He’d have been careful with The Thing That Eats’ container. He wouldn’t have let it shatter. Whoever or whatever had taken it had to have been looking for it—though if it were somehow a random heist, the thief got far more than expected.

While I thought about it, Haley asked, “How is Reliquary doing?” Continue reading Share The Love: Part 3 →

Arc 8.4.5: Share The Love

Share The Love: Part 2

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Amy met Vaughn’s eyes. “My father said to wait ten years and if I hadn’t heard anything from him to gather together what allies I can find, and take back the kingdom if I can.”

Her voice didn’t waver, didn’t sound apologetic or uncertain. Her accent even edged toward British though it wasn’t quite. In that moment, I could completely believe that she descended from generations of royalty and supernatural guardians, and would get back what was theirs. Continue reading Share The Love: Part 2 →