Tag Archives: Kayla

Arc 8.3: Everybody's Got One

Everybody’s Got One: Part 2

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Wind blew in the background, not loudly enough that I had any difficulty understanding his words, but loud enough that I knew it was there.

“It’s been a while since we last talked.” Daniel’s dad’s tenor voice came over the phone. “Ordinarily I wouldn’t have called you this early, but my wife assured me that you were up.”

Daniel’s mother wasn’t as strong a telepath as his father. Most of her abilities only worked on people who were asleep, but under the right conditions, there was no known limit to her range. If she said someone was awake, you could assume she was right. Continue reading Everybody’s Got One: Part 2 →

Arc 8.2.5: Hackjob

Hackjob: Part 10

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Kayla got back to me almost immediately. “If you don’t have any reason for him to be in custody, they want you to release him, but they also want to talk to you tomorrow–all of you.”

“Did they say why?”

In the background of Kayla’s connection came the sound of tapping. “Not exactly, but they sounded unhappy about a few different things–the damage at the fight, that Kid Biohack never notified them he was going to be active here, and well, I overheard a lot about the Syndicate L guy Biohack was chasing. His name is Seth Bradley, and I looked him up. He’s got quite a record. He’s been suspected of murder a few times over, but there’s never been enough evidence to connect him to the crime.”

Floating above the ground, he didn’t seem especially intimidating, but murder? If he mostly fought normal people, he could rack up a high body count completely accidentally. The fact that he hadn’t gotten caught argued that it wasn’t accidental, though. Continue reading Hackjob: Part 10 →

Arc 8.2.5: Hackjob

Hackjob: Part 9

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“But,” Haley continued, looking up at the man, “my guess would be that they may have threatened his family, but he doesn’t think they’d really go after them. They mostly threatened him.”

His eyes zeroed in on her. “That’s not true.” At the same time, Haley and Travis both said, “He’s lying.”

Then they both laughed. It didn’t seem that funny. I wondered how much of it was a family thing.

The man grimaced, and looked toward the front door. I didn’t think he could possibly have a realistic escape plan, but I tensed anyway. Continue reading Hackjob: Part 9 →

Arc 8.2.5: Hackjob

Hackjob: Part 6

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Travis eyed Kid Biohack. “We need to talk.”

Swallowing, Kid Biohack said, “Uh-huh.”

Travis let him down to the road, and let go of his throat, but not his arm. Kid Biohack stared up at Travis with an expression that made it obvious that he probably didn’t actually want to talk as much as he wanted to be somewhere else.

“Rocket,” Travis asked, “can you get us a vehicle?” Continue reading Hackjob: Part 6 →

Arc 8. 2: Super Social

Super Social: Part 7

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It was nice to know that Chris had been maintaining the equipment when I wasn’t around to do it, but I felt a little funny anyway. I would have done it if anyone had mentioned that people needed it. For all I knew, no one was using the mini-rocket packs.

I knew it was completely stupid to care, but it was one more thing that I hadn’t known about—like redecorating the main room in the base. I couldn’t deny it looked better, but it had been a shock the first time I saw it.

It made me wonder what else had changed. Continue reading Super Social: Part 7 →

Arc 8. 2: Super Social

Super Social: Part 6

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There were other metahumans out there in the Cabal’s league in terms of strength and toughness, but the Cabal’s toughest soldiers had all of that plus regeneration—the quick kind.

My heart started beating, and I quickly scanned the area around us, all 360 degrees of it. More cars were stopping, and even more slowing down, but not in the kind of way that made me nervous. No one was running to join us or crossing the distance in a single jump.

That was the other thing about the Cabal—they’d agreed to leave us alone for a year last spring. It was now the end of the summer. By their own promise, they were free to kill us now. Continue reading Super Social: Part 6 →

Arc 8. 2: Super Social

Super Social: Part 5

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Then I realized why I could see inside the van—the back door was open. All the doors were open. They’d been wrenched open by someone strong enough that reinforced metal, and whatever metahuman precautions the van’s designers had included, were useless.

That level of strength, coupled with my guess that a speedster had been involved, gave me a very uneasy feeling. If we were dealing with someone at Jaclyn’s level of speed and strength, we were going to have to be very careful. Actually, we were going to have to do more than that. We were going to have to have Jaclyn or Izzy along almost any time we went into action.

Most of us couldn’t survive even one punch from Jaclyn when she wasn’t holding back. Fortunately Marcus and I were the exception to that.

As we neared the van, Marcus said, “I’m letting go. Landing behind the rear end.” Continue reading Super Social: Part 5 →

Arc 7.7: Go Time

Go Time: Part 7

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“What’s Izzy supposed to do with the Ferris wheel?”

Vaughn shrugged. “Maybe take a picture on it? I don’t know. It’s in the Guinness Book of World Records. She should do something funny with it. Maybe pretend she’s going to throw it, or stand in front of it with her armor saying ‘All your base are belong to us?'”

“Better yet,” Jaclyn said, “how about you let Izzy know that everything works and that she can bug out of there before someone starts firing missiles at her.” Continue reading Go Time: Part 7 →

Arc 7.7: Go Time

Go Time: Part 6

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“Marcus and Sydney are waiting in the jet. They’ll be taking off soon. They’re going to shadow her from a distance—far enough away that they shouldn’t be visible, but close enough that they’re in range.”

Jaclyn leaned toward the screen, probably noticing now that the camera display program’s current tab was labeled “Blue,” but the second tab was labeled “Jet.”

I clicked on the button that showed all cameras, and the program divided the screen between Izzy’s view of the sky above South Dakota and the League jet’s much less interesting view of the airlock between the hangar and Lake Michigan.

Jaclyn pulled up a chair and sat next to me. “I didn’t know Marcus could fly the jet.”

Then she frowned. “They can’t hear us from here, right?” Continue reading Go Time: Part 6 →

Arc 6.7: When It's Over

When It’s Over: Part 10

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Then I rechecked the time, and understood where Courtney was—not here yet.

Only twenty minutes had passed since I started looking for the file, read it, and remembered the longer version of the story Grandpa Vander Sloot told me.

I still had forty minutes to kill.

Not having anything better to do, I walked over to one of the stools by the wall, and logged into one of the computers. I checked my email, surfed for a while, checking out out Double V’s forums. They had an entire section devoted to discussing the Heroes League.

Since we’d stopped St. Louis from being destroyed, and appeared prominently in the defense of the New York City and the surrounding area, the forum had only become more busy.

It was funny, and occasionally frustrating, at how little they knew about what was going on behind the scenes.

Continue reading When It’s Over: Part 10 →