It took less time than I expected even though it seemed to be a disaster when it began.
As I’d stepped forward, burning through the legs of next nearest Prime clone, more barreled into the area all at once. Arms bashed me from more than one direction, knocking me sideways. Even as I began to push myself off the ground, I wondered if I’d be able to do anything. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 41
Remembering the last time we’d fought these things, I couldn’t forget that we’d just sent a few of our heavy hitters away so that they could breathe safely.
That time though we didn’t face the prime clones plus a near-infinite number of mooks. It was just them and we’d all trained together.
Jaclyn shouted, “Use the wall,” and everyone knew what she meant. Everyone who could go hand to hand with them went to the outside. Everyone else went toward the wall with us between the two.
That meant that as the first three took huge leaps, bounding into our space, Izzy flew in, hitting the nearest one, throwing it backward hard enough that it flew in a straight line toward the wall on the far end, cracking the concrete.
It fell to the ground. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 40
Guessing what was going on, I shouted, “Grain elevator explosion! Retreat!”
Even if not everyone understood the details, they understood “explosion” and “retreat” and Jaclyn wasn’t wrong about how quickly we could move if we had to.
We’d practiced retreats. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 39
Having talked through our battle plan in a dark garage lit mostly by the lights on the far end, we started on stage one of the plan.
By moving to the far end of the room and letting Izzy passively construct a picture of what was ahead, we learned that we had one level between us and the main event. That level, so far as we could tell was empty—which was an interesting choice.
To my mind, that meant that it was empty to make it more obvious when someone attacked or maybe because they had an area of effect weapon they planned to activate on intruders. Tara thought I had a good point. So, we waited. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 38
“Huh,” I checked around us again for hostiles with the suit’s sensors and didn’t see anything while my mind raced.
How much could they get out of Arete at this point? He’d been dead for a bit by now. On the other hand, your opponent always did things for a reason. Best to assume that they were going to copy his voice, add it to the telepaths, and create some kind of super-influencer or add it to every fungus construct they could.
“Does everyone have buzzers? As in anti-voice control buzzers? Preferably my design?” I looked around the group for responses. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 37
“Maybe we should ask him to get them out? I think he would,” I said.
“I’ll do it,” Haley said. “We’re stuck here until you and Paladin reach us.”
“Do that,” Cassie added, reminding me that we were on the group channel. “It’s crazy to leave them there if you’ve got a choice.”
I frowned, “I just hope Control won’t be stuck there alone.” Continue reading Courtesy: Part 36
I hadn’t been planning to kill Magnus, but if I was honest with myself, the guy was immortal. Short of killing him, what were we going to do, hand him over to courts or law enforcement that the Nine influenced or controlled? Get him put into jail for as long as there was a will to keep him?
There might be a way to do that for 20 years, but what about 1000 or more? He could realistically outlive any government willing to put him away and if he did, he could pick up where he left off, possibly creating a whole new organization built on the immortal loyalists, hidden money, and maybe organizations we didn’t yet know he controlled. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 35
She let out a breath and moved her hand up the spear, adjusting her grip. A little bit of red sparkled on the spear’s blade, traveling in a line of sparks down her arm.
Taking another long breath, she looked at me, “I’m fine. I will want to use the spear to build up energy, but we’re not fighting anything I’ll feel guilty about using it on.”
She glared at me, “I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I’m not taking donations. I don’t want to explain it to Night Cat.” Continue reading Courtesy: Part 34
“Are you okay with that?” I asked, watching as the next group of tendril monsters began to clamber over or around their dead predecessors.
“We need to get down there,” she said, squeezing her left hand in a way that I knew was drawing blood and power along with it.
From the other side of our group, Yellow Mask, who’d been stabbing tendril monsters with her rapier turned to stare at Bloodmaiden, “Is that blood magic?” Continue reading Courtesy: Part 33
We didn’t have much time to have a discussion about it either because the problem with fighting a hive mind (or at least a central intelligence that coordinates all the others) is that it constantly sees the big picture.
The big picture in that moment was that it had us off-balance and it was time to capitalize on it.
We’d destroyed the ones holding Jody, but now all the rest of them had charged in while we were doing it, trampling the bodies of the ones that we’d killed.
It wasn’t just the tendril monsters either. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 32