I put my seatbelt on, noticing as I did it that they hadn’t just sent “Burning Hands Man.” The driver was one of Prime’s reserves–a big, bald muscular guy.
Talk about overkill.
Even with part of the stealth suit under my clothes, I still had no chance against either of them.
Continue reading Targets: Part 15
“I’ll pass that on,” Daniel said, his voice flat.
“Then that covers it. Get the Rocket over–” He stopped. “What?”
A woman’s voice said something unintelligible.
“I’d never have thought they had it in them.” Ray’s voice sounded distant, as if he wasn’t talking into the receiver.
“Congratulations. You’ve put the fear of God into my allies, but it won’t change anything. Be at Fulton and Sykes.You’ve got less than an hour now.”
Continue reading Targets: Part 11
“I’m going to take it and let everyone listen,” Daniel continued.
He clicked a few buttons on his keyboard, and the view from his monitor appeared on the big screen, covering most of the wall.
The switchboard program showed a list of callers (ten reporters in the last five minutes) and voicemails, followed by information about the current caller. This amounted to:
Caller: Unknown
FBI Notified. Tracing…
Daniel answered, “This is the Mystic.”
Continue reading Targets: Part 10
Even hurt, Travis still moved faster than I could. He punched the guy in the face, throwing him backward. The guy hit a big root at the tree’s base with the back of his head, and he slumped.
It probably wouldn’t last long.
The force of Travis’ blow and the man’s fall had shattered the root. Chunks of wood lay around the man’s head.
Continue reading War: Part 24
I didn’t stop trying to fix the arm, but it would be hard to imagine a worse week to try to fix it than my last week of high school ever.
I didn’t get back to working on things on Monday night because the whole family got talking. With Grandpa and Grandma Klein visiting from Minnesota, that happened easily. Grandpa had taught cultural anthropology at the University of Minnesota, worked for the U.N. in the 1960’s, and had friends all over the world. Continue reading Graduation: Part 23
We agreed to meet again on Monday, and then everybody left.
Well, almost everybody. Haley stayed.
I walked into the lab and started pulling out the parts for the anti-paralysis/mind control devices. Thinking back on it, I don’t remember being in a particularly bad mood, but I wasn’t in a good one. The rest of the afternoon and the evening stretched before me. I had to finish them that night because if something came up tomorrow, one of us might die.
Continue reading Graduation: Part 14
A thin, almost surgical blast flew from Solar Flare’s hand toward Ray’s head.
I didn’t see Jaclyn’s hand move, but it met the plasma in mid air, outlining her hand and arm in white and splashing out of her palm. She gave a gasp while Ray screamed.
Bits of plasma fell toward Gena and the other man, waking them both up screaming in pain, and splattering across their armor.
Continue reading Rattling Cages: Part 18
Solar Flare didn’t stop burning when he landed. White and yellow flames covered his body.
I checked him for any hint that he might have calmed down since crashing the McAllister’s Christmas party. His face was immobile. His lips were a thin line.
It felt like the wrong kind of calm.
Continue reading Rattling Cages: Part 17
Bullets bounced off my helmet, and the guitar, hitting the stealth suit. With the full suit, I would have just felt the impact. With the stealth suit, I felt each individual bullet. It hurt.
Purely out of habit, I pointed my arm at Ray and blasted at him with the sonics. The answering shout and a pause in the rain of bullets made it worth it.
Continue reading Rattling Cages: Part 16
Circling around, I tried to think of the next step. If they had equipment in the SUV, I didn’t want them to have access to it, so I dipped back into the roadway, firing at the SUV’s cargo area and hoping I’d destroy anything that mattered inside.
When I started firing, Ray and the other guy were already moving. By the time the laser had melted a few holes in the vehicle’s side, they’d already run to the edge of the woods and started to return fire.
I angled myself upwards, over the trees, and out of their sight.
Continue reading Rattling Cages: Part 15