Tag Archives: The Rocket

Arc 2.8: Uncontrolled Substances

Uncontrolled Substances: Part 4

15 Comments

I flipped through the roachbot’s viewpoints, watching them scuttle up walls, through windows to the outside, or into vents.

I had a brief moment where I thought that the best thing I could do would be self-destruct all of them, but I’d just made them last fall. I didn’t want to do it all over again.

I waited on the top of the roof.

Silently, Rachel faded into view next to me. “They both chugged some juice and they’re coming outside. We’d better go — unless you want to fight them.”
Continue reading Uncontrolled Substances: Part 4 →

Arc 2.8: Uncontrolled Substances

Uncontrolled Substances: Part 3

22 Comments

We pulled stir fry out of the refrigerator, heated it up, and ate. Afterward, I went upstairs to do homework while Rachel followed me upstairs and went into her own room. After an electronic crackle, I heard her play exercises on her guitar.

I finished the calculus homework in an hour. Then I took another half hour to read a short story and wrote the answers to some questions about it.

By that time, it was after nine.
Continue reading Uncontrolled Substances: Part 3 →

Arc 2.8: Uncontrolled Substances

Uncontrolled Substances: Part 2

16 Comments

“So you just told him?” Jaclyn didn’t seem to be able to contain her disbelief.

“It’s not like I invited him to train with us,” I said. “I just told him the same thing I’ve always told anyone curious about who I’m taking martial arts from.”

“It’s not that bad,” Haley said. “Of all Sean’s friends, Dayton’s the only one who’s actually nice.”
Continue reading Uncontrolled Substances: Part 2 →

Arc 2.7: Hysteria

Hysteria: Part 9

15 Comments

Sean looked over the oncoming crowd a little nervously, and asked me, “What are we supposed to do now?”

“No idea,” I said.

Then I turned on the loudspeaker.

They were halfway across the lawn, and the growing darkness gave the group a “Night of the Living Dead” feel. Not that they were really zombies, but a crowd of people walking toward you isn’t a normal situation.
Continue reading Hysteria: Part 9 →

Arc 2.7: Hysteria

Hysteria: Part 8

22 Comments

Payback screamed and fell over, his body outlined in electricity.

The air smelled of ozone, and smoke.

When the lightning stopped, I could see Payback more clearly. His chest still moved, but he wasn’t doing much more than that. His right arm looked uncomfortably red and blistered.

From behind me Vaughn shouted, “I got him, right?”
Continue reading Hysteria: Part 8 →

Arc 2.7: Hysteria

Hysteria: Part 6

14 Comments

Punching yourself in the face isn’t a great tactic in most fights, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The ice fell off my helmet and hit the floor. I swung back out onto the bumper behind the only remaining door, and tried to get a second to think.

I could blast away with the sonics, distract everybody, fly into the middle of them and start punching, but I didn’t like my odds. Besides Keith’s uncle didn’t deserve to have his ears bleed from the noise.

Then the solution struck me. I’d lean out, blast one of the rear tires with the sonics, and they’d have to stop. If they didn’t, I’d blast the other tire.
Continue reading Hysteria: Part 6 →

Arc 2.7: Hysteria

Hysteria: Part 5

12 Comments

We sent everybody a yellow and changed into our costumes.

Haley left in her grandfather’s car. Cassie left on her father’s motorcycle. I left after both of them because changing into the Rocket suit takes time.

I flew out of the tunnel that opens over the lake, flipped over in the air, and aimed in the direction of the warehouse, listening to police band radio over my helmet.
Continue reading Hysteria: Part 5 →

Arc 2.7: Hysteria

Hysteria: Part 3

10 Comments

By the time we got there, there were four of us. Vaughn met us in the air. Jaclyn met us at the house.

The house didn’t stick out normally. A white, two story house in a subdivision full of modern, two story homes of almost exactly the same design (basically a rectangle), it didn’t have much of a chance of looking ominous. The lawn had been mowed, the bushes clipped. The trees still looked bare of leaves, but, if the rest of the yard was any indication, not because the owner had neglected anything.

Tonight the house stuck out. The front door hung by two of the three hinges. The windows in its upper half had been shattered. Its metal body bent inward.
Continue reading Hysteria: Part 3 →