Tag Archives: Rachel

Arc 5.9: Spin

Spin: Part 8

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If Mom’s voice wasn’t the last one I expected to hear then, it would be hard to name a less likely one.

Ok, not that hard. Dad’s would be less likely.

Rachel turned and her eyes widened. “Mom?”

She’d been saying something to Jaclyn, but she stepped toward Mom as Jaclyn stepped out of her way. Jaclyn blinked, and muttered something to Rachel.

I missed whatever it was, and I’m not sure Rachel caught it.

Not sure where else to go, I said, “We could go to the lab. It’s over—“

Quietly, Mom said, “I know where it is.”

Given that she was down here, it made sense that she would. Given that she’d never made any reference to it during the entire rest of my life… Well, it felt a little weird. Continue reading Spin: Part 8 →

Arc 5.9: Spin

Spin: Part 6

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“Wow,” I said, “you’re early.”

Mindstryke shook his head. “Not really. I told you the latest we’d be here was ten, and some of us happened to finish up earlier than expected.”

He was right. Now that he’d mentioned it, I remembered him saying that. I also remembered a couple other things he’d said.

“We’re still waiting on part of the current League, and one member of the board.”

I was about to ask him who that was when the words, “Entered: Accelerando, C. Retinal scan confirmed,” appeared on the bottom of my screen.

Shortly after that one of the tunnel doors swung open, and Jaclyn walked through with her grandfather. She wore her purple costume—not really more than a jumpsuit, but she didn’t need it for protection. The hard part was creating a fabric that could handle hitting the speed of sound. Continue reading Spin: Part 6 →

Arc 5.9: Spin

Spin: Part 2

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I stared at the screen. “The board? As in the League’s board or the Defenders’?”

Mindstryke shook his head. “Not the Defenders’ board, the League’s. But that’s for later. Right now I’d like you to explain what happened from the point where you first became aware this was possible through to your response.”

We did. Rachel told him about first hearing about the possibility in Infinity City. I described how I’d recognized a clue after months of searching. Then everybody explained their individual part in the plan.

He nodded as we talked, no longer smiling, but taking notes, and asking questions.

After we were done, he said, “Ok, I’ll summarize this, and then we’ll go over what to talk about and what to skip if someone asks you about it.

Continue reading Spin: Part 2 →

Arc 5.9: Spin

Spin: Part 1

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Haley landed the jet in the parking lot between the storage building and the factory.

We’d arrived less than an hour before, and aside from a little debris from the bombs, it didn’t look much different. It was lighter (past the factories and warehouses, the eastern sky glowed), and the tornado sirens were still going, but it was close to the same.

An inch of snow still covered the ground, and the temperature felt cold—if not as cold as Michigan.

For that matter, all the buildings that had been standing when we arrived were still standing. The ones that weren’t visible from here.

Still, it felt like we’d been there a week.

Continue reading Spin: Part 1 →

Arc 5.8: Chance & Fate

Chance & Fate: Part 11

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Tapping my fingers on my palms, I brought up our group’s location. Daniel and Izzy’s location came up as “Unknown”—which didn’t necessarily mean that they were dead. It could mean that the bomb had kicked out enough of an EMP that it killed their comms.

For that matter, if their signal came through, I realized, it didn’t necessarily mean that they were alive.

The thought that I needed to include people’s health in the next iteration didn’t distract me enough. I was still aware that Izzy and Daniel might both be dead or near to it.

The bombs weren’t nuclear, but they obviously included materials that I wasn’t familiar with. Even if they were only briefly radioactive or poisonous, they could still kill.

Then Daniel and Izzy’s status flickered from red to green. A good sign.

Continue reading Chance & Fate: Part 11 →

Arc 5.8: Chance & Fate

Chance & Fate: Part 10

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“I’m just about to tag the bombs with roachbots, but I’ve got time for that. How long do you have?”

“I don’t know.” He spoke hesitantly. “I caught that they set the bomb, but they didn’t even know how long they had. All they knew is that they might die even if they hurried.”

So apparently in real life, bombs on timers didn’t have convenient displays.

“Crap,” I said. “You don’t have time for me to figure out how to disarm it. I think your best bet is to have Izzy poke holes in it. I’ll send you a schematic showing where. It’ll still be a powerful bomb, but you’ll only get a 100 foot radius blast instead of a mile.”

“Why not have her break it in two?” Daniel asked.

“Better chance of it going off,” I said. “Well, unless you’ve got Cap’s sword.”

“Got it,” he said. Continue reading Chance & Fate: Part 10 →

Arc 5.8: Chance & Fate

Chance & Fate: Part 9

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“Storm King, are you ready?”

Vaughn didn’t seem to hear me at first, but as I was about to ask again, he said, “Almost, it’s hard to get the position right—unless you want it to suck us up too?”

“I’m against that.” I eyed Camille, realizing that I didn’t know her codename if she had one. “Hey, are you ready to float them upward?”

She nodded, taking a breath as she did it. I hoped she wasn’t already too tired to manage it. I wondered if we shouldn’t have had Vaughn create a tornado around the storage building from the beginning. Then Camille could have been backup if the bombs escaped.

She wouldn’t have the strength to do much after this.

Continue reading Chance & Fate: Part 9 →

Arc 5.8: Chance & Fate

Chance & Fate: Part 7

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“Um… Actually, kind of. Izzy and Daniel are good for scouting, and that’s what I’m using them for. You’re more like artillery. You never know where we might need you. I’d say let’s wait till we know, and then I’ll send you, if needed.”

“Well that… fucking sucks.” Vaughn stared at his chair’s monitor.

Camille looked over at Vaughn and then over at me. Despite what I normally expected out of her, she wasn’t flirting at all.

“So don’t you think we ought to leave the bombs to the Defenders? They’ve been doing it longer.

Continue reading Chance & Fate: Part 7 →

Arc 5.8: Chance & Fate

Chance & Fate: Part 6

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I had the jet’s scanner zoom in on the storage building, specifically on the objects inside. Flat discs approximately the thickness of tires lay on top of each other, arranged in the shapes of cylinders.

From the picture, the building appeared to be about seventy-five percent full. It wasn’t hard to calculate either. The building was rectangular.

I wondered exactly what that worked out to in terms of discs.

I zoomed in further, trying to zero in on one specific disc.

From behind me, Vaughn asked, “So, what’s in there?”

“I’m trying to figure that out,” I said, trying not to sound annoyed. Continue reading Chance & Fate: Part 6 →

Arc 5.8: Chance & Fate

Chance & Fate: Part 4

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Before making any calls, I walked to the campus parking garage. The van wouldn’t be as warm as my dorm room, but it was warmer than standing outside.

I turned the key, and it began to hum. After the fight where Rook had ripped chunks out of the van, and flipped it over, I’d done some fairly extensive repair work. Among other things, I’d switched the van’s power source over to the same fuel cells I used for Cassie’s armor—not to mention changing its engine substantially.

Its heating system didn’t work as well as I wanted, but there were tradeoffs.

One was that the new engine barely made any noise at all, and once it warmed up, I could comfortably sit inside without guzzling gas. Another, of course, was that the armor was vastly improved. There were a few more.

I dialed Rachel’s number. She answered, taking a deep breath as she saw me. Continue reading Chance & Fate: Part 4 →