Tag Archives: Vaughn

Arc 8.2.5: Hackjob

Hackjob: Part 5

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Whatever else could be said of Kid Biohack, his reflexes were freakish. I came out of my dive roughly twenty feet behind him, close enough to see the guy he was chasing with my helmet’s composite night vision.

The stride of Kid Biohack’s target was amazing. He was taking twenty feet at a step, and not because of exceptionally long legs. It was all strength. That was how Jaclyn ran. He simply wasn’t as fast. More interesting, Kid Biohack was keeping up the same way. Continue reading Hackjob: Part 5 →

Arc 8.2.5: Hackjob

Hackjob: Part 3

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Wednesday found me attending classes and quietly wishing I had a lab on campus like I had when I’d been in the Castle Rock Compound for the summer. I’d spent Tuesday evening back in the lab in the Heroes’ League’s headquarters watching my bot factories build robots, and loading them into my “assist pods.”

Then I let the pods float into the air, dispersing bots to their assigned lamp posts and telephone poles.

All of it went without a hitch despite the fact that it was 99% automated. Continue reading Hackjob: Part 3 →

Arc 8.1: Bloodmaiden

Bloodmaiden: Part 15

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As the  bright light faded, the first men entered the room, pistols drawn.  They were dressed in black suits, none of them unusual, but seen all together, they were obviously the same design.

She didn’t see them for long.

A bolt of reddish tinged lightning surged forward from Giles Hardwick’s hands, and the men fell forward, unconscious, or dead.

“Careful with that,” Joe turned away from the dimensional gateway’s control panel to give Giles a look. “They’re not going anywhere if you short out the system.”

The next man stepped over the bodies, pistol in hand, and a web of red floating in front of him. Continue reading Bloodmaiden: Part 15 →

Arc 8.1: Bloodmaiden

Bloodmaiden: Part 14

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Moments later, three more people came through the door. The first two were teenagers—a boy and a girl, holding hands.  The boy wore a sporty blue jacket made of wyvern leather in a style that had been popular at Court last year. He was short—only a little taller than the girl who came in with him—and his brown hair went down to his shoulders, a style that was still popular.

His eyes darted from one spot to another in the room, and he grinned as he took it all in.

A low murmuring came from the voices in her head when she saw the girl. Blonde, blue eyed and pale skinned, the girl wore a brown leather coat and pants—the kind Amy had seen in illustrations of colonists and frontiersmen. From her clothes alone, it was obvious to Amy that this person didn’t care about fashion at all, but that was the least of it.

The girl’s ears had a slight point, and her walk hinted at a physical strength that didn’t fit with her slim frame. Continue reading Bloodmaiden: Part 14 →

Arc 8: Faerieland

Faerieland: Part 48

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I  clicked on the email.

All it said was “You know what to do,” and underneath that sentence there was a link to a Dropbox folder. I hesitated for a moment and then clicked on it. It opened to a web page that listed only one file in folder. It was called “Exposure.mpv.”

I’d heard of the video format. It only ran on the associated player and only worked once. No one knew who had designed it. The Double V forums were certain it was a known tech genius, but couldn’t agree on who.

Daniel’s bed creaked, and I heard him walk up behind me as I sat at the desk. “Maybe we should get Izzy. It’s only going to play once, and she’s got a great memory for sounds.” Continue reading Faerieland: Part 48 →

Arc 8: Faerieland

Faerieland: Part 37

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Izzy shot into the air, moving so quickly that she was nothing more than a blue blur. She hit the dragon’s wing at the joint where the small inner wing ended and the larger, triangular far end of its bat like wing began.

The bone made a crack that was audible to all of us below.

Izzy didn’t stop there. She followed it up with another punch that I didn’t see, but found its mark.

Artaxus stopped breathing fire and snapped at her, twisting his neck around. He failed to catch her. She’d shot upward again, hovering far above him. Continue reading Faerieland: Part 37 →

Arc 8: Faerieland

Faerieland: Part 36

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Touching my palms with the fingers of my gloves, I typed back, “Named Artaxus. He’s a dragon. Don’t look in eyes. Mind control.”

Rachel texted back, “Fuck.”

Amy and the dragon were still talking. I typed, “Need to get outside. Bad to fight here. Because fire.”

Kind of have a plan, Daniel thought at me. Amy’s about to suggest we talk outside. If he doesn’t buy it, we run.

That’s a bad plan, I thought back. Continue reading Faerieland: Part 36 →

Arc 8: Faerieland

Faerieland: Part 33

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Amy came through first, hitting the far side of the hallway with her back, or technically with her armor. Izzy came through along with her, readying another punch, her mouth curled in a snarl.

Her punch hit Amy in the jaw—she’d lost her helmet somewhere—and I heard her jaw break. Her head hit the wall hard enough that visible cracks spread out at least six feet, her red hair spreading out behind her.

The Cabal’s soldiers were tough, but I’d seen them die. If Izzy kept on hitting like that, Amy wouldn’t be able to stand up to it. Besides, however Amy siphoned off other people’s powers, she might not have gotten the total package. Continue reading Faerieland: Part 33 →

Arc 8: Faerieland

Faerieland: Part 32

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And then things got weird. Well, they didn’t become instantly weird, but soon enough.

Amy had put a spell on me that allowed me to see in the dark, and more importantly to see through illusion. I hadn’t seen anything when I looked at Daniel because he wasn’t an illusion, but as he sensed my memories I sensed his.

As I connected, I knew without doubt that there were illusions in his mind. Continue reading Faerieland: Part 32 →