In the face of mounting embarrassment, what was left of the League arranged to meet in HQ on Saturday evening. Rachel and I arrived before everyone else. She’d gone to an open mike night on Friday, so this was the first chance we’d had to talk in two days.
We sat down at the table in the main room, and waited.
“I completely forgot to tell you about the Ice Twins yesterday morning,” I said. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologise. I needed the sleep. I stayed at Lucas’ house until four in the morning.”
Jaclyn and Marcus had arrived first. I arrived second—but only because I grabbed the stealth suit instead of the full Rocket armor.
So instead of appearing almost knight-like in shining gold armor, I appeared in armor that looked like a black leather jacket with matching pants, and gray helmet. Plus, I’d worked out a way to hang my guitar next to the rocketpack on my back in a way that felt comfortable. Granted, it still looked like a guitar hero controller, but it was useful.
Ambulances, police cars, and a Metahuman Containment Cage (generally called “boxes” because of their shape) pulled into the parking lot as I landed. Continue reading Under 30: Part 7
I didn’t even think about what I’d be hitting. I fired, holding the button down even though I knew it used more power.
I don’t think I panicked, but I can’t say I was thinking clearly.
Being rushed by someone who you know can kill you does that. Continue reading Targets: Part 24
Haley parked the car by the side of the road. As we got out, I couldn’t help but notice who wasn’t there–Jaclyn, Cassie and Julie. And that sucked because Cassie could have chopped them to pieces, Julie could have told them to stop, and had a pretty good chance that they’d listen, and Jaclyn…
Jaclyn could have done something. Physically, she was the only one of us who was in Prime’s army’s league. Plus she was a whole lot faster than any of them.
I couldn’t say that we were doomed, but part of me would have felt better knowing they were with us.
Continue reading Targets: Part 22
Even hurt, Travis still moved faster than I could. He punched the guy in the face, throwing him backward. The guy hit a big root at the tree’s base with the back of his head, and he slumped.
It probably wouldn’t last long.
The force of Travis’ blow and the man’s fall had shattered the root. Chunks of wood lay around the man’s head.
Continue reading War: Part 24
We scouted it out even before we left HQ.
Prime’s men had parked in a dirt parking lot. Adjusting the roachbot’s position on the car gave us the name of the business — Perliss Manufacturing, Co. The roachbot’s GPS system gave us the exact location, and soon we were looking at it through Google Maps.
Continue reading War: Part 19
Bugging the house and cars paid off even before we got back to HQ.
It wasn’t perfect. I hadn’t known whose car was whose so I’d bugged all of them. When one of them started going, we got excited, but then we followed where it went on the car’s dashboard screen. It ended up at Meyer Music, a local store.
Continue reading War: Part 18
Finding Ray didn’t sound like a good idea, but it sounded better than finding him after he’d killed everyone we knew.
Isaac Lim wasn’t available when I called about protection for our parents. I left a voicemail.
“So,” I said after hanging up. “How do we find Ray?”
Continue reading War: Part 14
I read the transcript and then played back the entire recorded conversation for everybody. Russell Hardwick stood in his home office, pacing the hardwood floor, cursing, and talking on his cell phone.
“The Impregnator disappeared? How did that happen? And why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
From there it devolved into shouting at the person on the other end, and Hardwick never did say where he’d kept it, or anything useful.
Continue reading War: Part 13
Chris glanced over at me. “I thought everybody knew.”
“I told Lee. When everybody went over the plan, I thought that I’d either have to do remotely guided missiles, or ask you. After you said yes, I told Lee, and I must have forgotten to tell everyone else. Sorry.”
With everything else going on, the important thing was that our escape had been taken care of, right? And anyway, back when we’d been dealing with Justice Fiend, the Maniacs, and the Ball, Cassie had been more than a little suspicious of Chris.
She wouldn’t have been the only one, and I didn’t want to deal with it.
Continue reading War: Part 12