Yoselin frowned, likely not even knowing who that was, but I’d told everyone else long ago—except maybe Izzy and Tara. At that moment, I couldn’t think if there’d been any reason to bring him up.
Vaughn, Cassie, Daniel, and Haley all knew the name, however, and Master Martian had their full attention.
Since I was the only one who’d talked to the man, I jumped in, “Martin Magnus? Do you know much about him?” Continue reading Conversations & Interrogations: Part 4
Despite what I’d asked him before, budding off a clone of yourself seemed quite alien and I hadn’t seen it coming. From Tara’s high-pitched, “Oooh, I wondered,” I knew that at least one of us hadn’t been completely surprised.
I looked toward the cockpit where she sat, leaning forward in her chair and smiling at us, “I only guessed after you brought him inside.” Continue reading Conversations & Interrogations: Part 3
Daniel’s smile was visible under the black and silver mask over the top of his face, “Nothing special. You know what you could do if you could use your powers. We used blocking devices that you should already be familiar with—I know I am—the kind that prevents mental powers from working.”
Master Martian stared in Daniel’s direction, the tendrils on his head following his gaze, “You were in my head.” Continue reading Conversations & Interrogations: Part 2
Damon looked away from us and toward the dismembered bodies of True and Cabal soldiers, “Good luck,” he said. “And I mean that. He clearly wants you for something and from what Accelerando tells us, I don’t think you’ll want to help him—which means that you might be on the receiving end of what we just saw.”
Cedric nodded, “She told us that you’ve got a wizard on the team. You’re going to want her help on this.”
“I know,” I said, telling the implant to remind me to call Amy when we got back. Continue reading Conversations & Interrogations: Part 1
The creatures from his cloak hit the Cabal soldiers and the True before they could react. The redcap landed on the back of one and chopped off his head with a long knife and held it in the air, blood still spurting from the body as the soldier fell.
It made a serious argument for the idea that a magic blade would have no trouble with the Cabal.
A dragon-like creature with a long neck, and flaming, white eyes that reminded me of ping pong balls—if the ping pong had soaked in gasoline and set on fire—dropped on top of two soldiers and bit through the body of a third, swallowing the upper half and leaving the lower half on the street with its intestines spilling out. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 15
They both jumped at once, both of them aiming in my direction, no doubt guessing that if they could take me out, they could grab Master Martian or Daniel. Also, I was between Daniel and them.
Only as one hit me did I come up with the obvious, alternate possibility—that if one of them hit me, the other might be free to go after Daniel when he got past me.
How I managed to avoid dropping the SUV when the first one hit, I still don’t know. I understand it on the level of technology in that Grandpa had designed the suit to absorb damage and I’d expanded it with tech inspired by the jet’s inertial dampers, but I’m still amazed that I had the presence of mind to hang on as the Cabal soldier hit the suit’s chest, knocking the SUV and me backward. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 14
I wasn’t aiming the majority of goobots at her—just one. I’d aimed the rest at the other Cabal soldiers in the balcony and they worked, kind of.
As the lasers burned through the woman’s costume and into her body, one hitting her thigh and the other her torso, the goobots exploded into sticky gray stuff, hitting her as well as the two men next to her.
She collapsed into the balcony, held up by the goobots’ goo, and I stopped burning her with lasers. At the same time, the two Cabal soldiers were trying to avoid the goobots. One of them succeeded, jumping off the balcony in my direction, pulling a few bricks along with his foot—the one spot that did get hit with goo. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 12
I jumped out first with Yoselin following after me. We landed on the balcony and didn’t even have to smash through the balcony’s sliding door. Daniel slid both the screen door and the glass door open. Even though we’d opted to turn on our telepathy and teleportation blockers for the initial assault, Daniel’s telekinesis worked perfectly.
Thanks to the stream, I could see Master Martian’s eyes widen and his antenna shoot straight from his head as he pushed himself, stumbled, and then flew off the couch. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 9
Telling the jet to throw the streams on screens in the passenger area so that people without implants could see them too, I announced, “This looks bad. At least one of these people is one of the True and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more. We should probably assume that, actually. The big question is if they have backup and how close it is.”
I flipped through the various accessible video streams that Hal’s friend (I guess?) had made available. There were more than I would have predicted, but most of them were either through laptops or security cameras that computers could access. Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 8
Slumping into her seat, Tara shook her head before turning to look around at the group, “I’m sorry. I need to get out of True headspace for a little while. It’s exhausting to look at the world that way even though I know we need it. We need to find Master Martian first, though, and from what I was seeing, we need to find him today. When the Dominators know we met with Bullet, they’ll go after Master Martian and maybe after the woman too.”
Cassie glanced back toward Tara before turning back to the front, “I thought the woman was a Dominator.” Continue reading Old Friends & Enemies: Part 6