Arc 5.0: A Kind of Small Crow

A Kind of Small Crow: Part 5

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I grabbed the handle, and the door opened even as something in the back of my head suggested that he’d have expected us to run out the back.

Unwilling to randomly spray whatever was out there with the guitar’s laser, I aimed a wide angle sonic blast out the door with the speakers on both arms. Set at a frequency that generally set electronics to vibrate, the sonics had the potential to be devastating—provided we were facing rook-shaped robots.

If there were people out there, the best I could hope for was nuking their iPhone.

Continue reading A Kind of Small Crow: Part 5 →

Arc 5.0: A Kind of Small Crow

A Kind of Small Crow: Part 4

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I hung sideways, and it wasn’t very comfortable. The stealth suit had hardened where it hit the seat belt and the right armrest, so nothing hurt.

I turned my head to check how Courtney was doing. I’d heard her hit the door, but she moved, and illuminated by the dashboard lights, I could see her turn her head upward toward me.

“Are you okay?” She asked. Continue reading A Kind of Small Crow: Part 4 →

Arc 5.0: A Kind of Small Crow

A Kind of Small Crow: Part 3

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They went for the windshield first, and if it had been normal glass, it would have shattered.

It was transparent aluminum—kind of. Grandpa came up with a transparent metal alloy that included aluminum, and I was glad he had. It bought us some time.

I pressed the button that electrified the outside of the van.

A black bird dove, hitting the windshield with its beak, and leaving a divot in the middle of the windshield.

Courtney and I jumped back in our chairs as it hit, and watched as it became outlined in bluish-white, crackling electricity.

It fell, spasming.

Continue reading A Kind of Small Crow: Part 3 →

Arc 5.0: A Kind of Small Crow

A Kind of Small Crow: Part 2

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I wasn’t worried about the communicators’ encryption. I’d only put them together last spring. It wasn’t as if they were old League technology that everyone had analyzed thirty years ago.

Maybe I should have been worried more. The communicators were based on the roachbots, and Grandpa had designed the first versions of the roachbots in the 1950’s as mobile bugging devices.

I’d updated them substantially over the past year though. Grandpa’s design survived only in the most general terms.

All the details of the current systems were mine.

Of course, the communicators still connected to the League’s old alert system. That might be a vulnerability.

Continue reading A Kind of Small Crow: Part 2 →

Arc 5.0: A Kind of Small Crow

A Kind of Small Crow: Part 1

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As always, Jefferson Street was a zoo. It probably had the most fast food restaurants and chain stores of any street in the city. At ten or eleven at night, the traffic became bearable—it wasn’t bumper to bumper anymore.

I brought the van to a stop on the other side of the road from the one with Lakeside Lounge–four lanes worth of cars and semi-trucks away.

We were next to a Subway, a shoe store, and Grand Lake Marina Supplies. That last store took up most of the space. Even though the store had closed, the lights were still on, and I could look in at speed boats, engines, water-skis and other gear.

Continue reading A Kind of Small Crow: Part 1 →

Arc 4.9: What She Asked For

What She Asked For: Part 6

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“Huh,” I struggled to come up with some way to deny it. What exactly had we said? Haley had mentioned Storm King. That linked us directly to the Heroes League without question. Plus everyone knew Travis was Haley’s older brother, and she had to have heard him if she heard Haley.

Crap.

Well, maybe I’d gotten lucky and she’d missed that part?

“You’re with the Heroes League?” She said slowly. She stopped walking, and so did I.

I checked around us—again, seeing only the porch lights of the houses around us, the streetlights, and campus directly ahead. If someone were around, I couldn’t see them.

Given the powers of people I knew, that meant nothing. Continue reading What She Asked For: Part 6 →

Arc 4.9: What She Asked For

What She Asked For: Part 5

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I answered. “Hey, how’s it going?”

Haley’s voice came over the phone. “He’s moving. He left the house just after you did, but not before we sent in the roachbots.”

The sound of a car’s engine roared in the background, and Haley talked over the noise—but not to me.

“He turned left! Don’t let him go!”

Travis, her older brother said, “I know! Let me drive, dammit.” Continue reading What She Asked For: Part 5 →

Arc 4.9: What She Asked For

What She Asked For: Part 4

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Despite my anxiety, I understood how the Nine had failed to find her. The girl in the picture resembled Cassie the way a picture might if, hypothetically speaking, they didn’t have any idea what Cassie looked like, and instead had to resort to gender-flipping an exact clone of her father in Photoshop.

Cassie could thank Dr. Mind, and splices of DNA from unknown (possibly alien) donors for not having a cleft chin, for lighter blond hair than her dad, and other small details that made her not quite the same.

Of course, we were all still wondering what else he’d hidden inside her.

Continue reading What She Asked For: Part 4 →

Arc 4.9: What She Asked For

What She Asked For: Part 3

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On Thursday night, Courtney and I walked up to a house near campus. A brown two-story, it had to be around a century old.

The lawn hadn’t been mowed in the last few weeks. The bushes in front of the houses hadn’t been clipped either, and had grown high enough that they partially blocked the windows.

Courtney knocked on the front door, and a college-aged guy opened it. Square jawed with obvious muscles showing through his t-shirt, he fit every stereotype I had about football players.

Of course, I had no reason to believe he actually was a football player, so every part of the stereotype but that.

Courtney smiled uncertainly, and said, “I’m looking for Davis?” Continue reading What She Asked For: Part 3 →

Arc 4.9: What She Asked For

What She Asked For: Part 2

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“Really? How?” And also, I should have said, “What? What did you figure out?”

“I don’t think I should talk about it on the phone.” She sounded a little nervous.

“OK,” I said. That seemed a little paranoid, but honestly, given that Isaac said we were all being watched, it wouldn’t surprise me if the FBI were bugging our phones.

Not that she would know that, right?

“Can we meet now?” Continue reading What She Asked For: Part 2 →

The Legion of Nothing: A Series of Online Superhero Novels (Updates Monday and Thursday)