Tag Archives: Samita

Demo: Part 16

Rachel raised an eyebrow. “What’s going on now?”

Tara crossed her arms. “I noticed you weren’t listening earlier. Is it the same thing we talked about before?”

Rachel took a breath and sighed. Jaclyn pulled her feet out of the holes she’d created when she landed, and shook her head. “I knew that was going to come back to haunt us.”

Remembering how little I could hear during the fight, I said, “I told Hal to update you if he had something that needed action on our part. So far it hasn’t, but I could tell him to update you anyway?”

“Rocket,” Rachel said, looking me directly in the eyes, “this is something that we all need to be kept updated on.” Continue reading Demo: Part 16

Demo: Part 15

In my peripheral vision—which included almost everything behind me—Samita opened up a box and threw the dirt inside it into the air. It hung in the air like a cloud, and then in one burst dispersed, spreading across the entire field.

That’s when things got weird.

All the grass on our side of the field drooped, and spread across the ground, covering the dirt in green. As it did, the green became darker, and shinier—like glass, or ice.

Jaclyn and Meteor both fell. For the little that it’s worth, Jaclyn did better, turning her initial stumble into a jump that threw her into the air. She landed only ten feet past our flag, but it didn’t matter. She was still traveling at two hundred miles per hour. Along with Meteor, she slid past our flag pole and toward the obstacle course—depending on the angle. The ground wasn’t level. It wasn’t impossible that they’d slide into the parked cars off to the side of the course. Continue reading Demo: Part 15

Demo: Part 14

I couldn’t argue with her there. Jaclyn alone had a chance of taking out our entire team in a straight fight. Add in another speedster plus Travis, Rachel, and Mist for good measure…

We were toast.

That sounds defeatist, but it wasn’t. The funny thing is that what gave us a chance of winning was the fact that we were playing a game. Jaclyn might be able to kill any of us with a blow in real life, but here she had to decide how much she was willing to hurt us to win.

In front of me, Tara met each of our eyes in turn. “I think I know what they’re going to to do. Rocket, you’ve got a way to stop Ghost, right?” Continue reading Demo: Part 14

Demo: Part 13

The flash worked better on the audience than anyone else. All around me, people were saying things like, “Can you see what’s happening?”

Amy shook her head. Tara, like me, appeared to be unaffected.

She’d probably anticipated the explosion.

Not that that mattered. What mattered was that the blast hadn’t affected Gordon either. Either his hood or something in his mask had blocked the light. Continue reading Demo: Part 13

Demo: Part 11

Amy nodded, and then closed her eyes for a moment, making a small motion with her right hand. “We can talk privately–at least for a little while. I’ll warn you when it’s over.”

“Sure,” I said, noticing Samita glance in our direction and frown. “Uh… It looks like Samita noticed your spell.”

Amy’s helmet didn’t make it easy to see, but she appeared to roll her eyes at that. “She would. Look, she’s supposed to be mentoring me in traditional magic, but she’s also watching to make sure I don’t go batshit insane and drain the school’s blood in an act of ritual horror.”

“Um. Okay. Is it too late to include her?” Continue reading Demo: Part 11

Demo: Part 10

“Okay,” I typed. “Keep watching them, and report—unless I’m fighting. Then only bother me if it’s bad, and it’s something I can actually change. Actually, tell anyone in the League under those conditions.”

The alert flashed. [Understood.]

I needed to encourage Hal to use a handle in the League’s comm system. Having him interact with me through the alert system didn’t make a lot of sense.

Taking my eyes off transparent letters in my helmet’s HUD, I started paying attention to everything around me again.

Amy nodded toward my hands, a gesture made a little stranger by her black and blood red helmet. “What were you doing?” Continue reading Demo: Part 10

Demo: Part 8

I ignored him. The last thing I needed was for the man to connect the Rocket with one of the kids who’d trashed his pictures at the club a month ago.

Out of the corner of my helmet’s view, the photographer tensed as Rod jumped over the wall in troll form, carrying Samita in one hand and drooling from his mouth. The ground shook as he landed.

Tara, who’d landed just behind Rod, didn’t fall, but she did have to take a few extra steps where she might normally have taken one.

The photographer along with the rest of the crowd took several steps backward. A few people cursed. Others made wordless noises. Continue reading Demo: Part 8

Demo: Part 4

“Huh.” I stared into the distance as I wondered how exactly we’d handle a faerie invasion, and also, why they’d bother.

I happened to have aimed my staring vaguely in the direction of the door, and so I was watching as Samita and Tara walk though the magically guarded doorway.

Technically, I heard Tara before I saw her. Her voice cut through the silence, a torrent of words with barely any space between them. She was very excited about whatever it was. Continue reading Demo: Part 4

Demo: Part 2

It wasn’t going to be the good kind of awesome though. It was kind of awesome you get when all the people who hate you go into one corner and you wonder what they’re going to do when they come out.

To be fair, it wasn’t everyone who hated me. Jody wasn’t on their team.

Not yet anyway.

Over the loudspeaker, Lee said, “Blue Mask. Group 1.”

That was interesting, I thought as a guy who could almost have passed for Zorro walked up to their group. “Almost passed” because he had a blue mask. The inside of his cape was lined with blue as well—upping the number of capes I’d met who actually had a cape to two.

He carried a rapier.

I barely had time to process that when Lee said, “Slugger, Group 1.” Continue reading Demo: Part 2

Go Time: Part 10

Vaughn shrugged. “It’s not like the Russians know it’s us. That’s the whole point of using the fake suit, right? Plus, even if they did, it’s not like the Russians are exactly friendly to the Turk… um… Turkmens? Turkmeni? Last I heard, the Russians weren’t saying anything nice about them at all. They’re not going to be sharing information. So no biggie.”

Amy shook her head. “Maybe, but you’ve got to think bigger. This isn’t just espionage. This is politics. If we had something their rulers wanted, I could easily see them telling us that they’ll tell the world that we were there.”

Cassie let out a breath. “Exactly. That’s exactly the sort of thing I’m worried about.” Continue reading Go Time: Part 10