Tag Archives: Nick

Roll The Dice: Part 11

I called Kayla, telling her what I’d learned in as few words as I could. I suggested that she might want to contact the offices of Major Justice and superheroes he led. He wasn’t going to listen to me.

Then she should make a more general announcement to regional and national groups about the situation and give them footage along with what Hunter said in our conversation.

“I’ll try,” Kayla let out a sigh, “it’s not as if he likes me either, but maybe someone else will show up and make him see reason.”

“I’m not optimistic, but if more people show up, we’ve got a better chance to control it,” I said, firing off a boombot at a new cluster of mixed humanoid and T.Rex zombies. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 11

Roll The Dice: Part 10

Despite being on “the other side,” Hunter took my call. His shouted, “What do you want,” made me wonder if he was paying attention when he took the call.

“This is the Rocket,” something he should already know, but if he didn’t…

“Whoops,” he said, “I didn’t mean to shout at you. I’m in the middle of something.” Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 10

Roll The Dice: Part 9

“Self-replicating?” I stared at the cloud of spores obscuring the baseball diamond.

Supers emerged from it, most of them covered with a light dusting of spores. By most, I meant almost everybody but Jaclyn. Jaclyn wasn’t covered because I’d designed her suit to be as close to frictionless as I could.

The other two exceptions were Bullet and Theo. Bullet flew out. He wasn’t covered with spores because he floated upward in a bullet-shaped force field. Theo was spore-free for a more obvious reason—almost anything that touches superheated plasma burns. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 9

Roll The Dice: Part 8

The goobots did what I’d intended them to do—hit and explode into goo that covered her suit, and most important, the symbols that glowed on the armored plates, all of them.

I’d switched off direct visuals the moment I saw the glow, viewing her with a composite of sonics and thermal. She was a bit fuzzy, but goobots, much like hand grenades, didn’t demand precision.

After she fell, I asked my implant if it could obscure any symbols on her while allowing me to see the glow. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 8

Roll The Dice: Part 7

A few of the bullets shot away from his hand toward Gordon as Gifford shouted, “No!”

The Rocket suit’s sensors showed the air in front of Gordon becoming more dense, maybe not to force field levels, but enough to matter.

The bullets hit the barrier and began to be blown to the left when they discorporated. Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 7

Roll the Dice: Part 6

Noticing the wind, I wondered about Gordon. He did have a temper. I remembered at least one time he’d nearly lost it with me. All the same, this seemed different. I’d never seen him lose control of his powers out of anger.

Of course, maybe I’d never seen him angry enough.

On a gut level, I didn’t quite believe he could be this angry at whatever offenses he imagined I’d committed without also being goaded into that anger either by Dominator work in his head or something else. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 6

Roll the Dice: Part 4

Still hovering, Gordon stared at Vaughn, breathing without saying anything as if he were having trouble composing himself—or maybe he didn’t know what to say.

When he did talk, he barked out, “Don’t move,” as if we hadn’t gotten that message the first time.

Then he added, “I’ve called in my team,” which was interesting because I hadn’t seen him talking into a mic or typing anything. Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 4

Roll The Dice: Part 3

Sean gave me a digital thumbs up on my message as I pulled the door shut behind us. The door locked behind me as HQ’s computer noted the zones of defenses going up behind us as we left.

The tunnel had once been used to dump either sewage or industrial wastewater into Grand Lake—maybe both. We walked across the faded brick, the tunnel’s height forcing me to lower my head.

Looking back toward Amy and me and then forward to Cassie and Jaclyn, Vaughn said, “Our best shot is to walk out looking confident.” Continue reading Roll The Dice: Part 3

Roll the Dice: Part 2

Nodding, I said, “Then I guess we’d better go do something that’s obviously stupid.”

“It’ll be fine,” Cassie said, “Mr. Sparkles is looking forward to it. I don’t think he quite understands that we’re not going out there to slaughter them.”

I eyed the alien gun in it’s holster on her belt. Using it to its full potential would get us in more trouble than I wanted to imagine.

Haley’s mouth twisted as she glanced down at it, but she said, “I think we need to get out there. Is everyone ready?” Continue reading Roll the Dice: Part 2