Arc 4.4: TBD

TBD: Part 3

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Bullet scanned the crowd, all of us sitting there and watching him, and continued. “For you to understand this, we’re going to have to step back for a second and review some things that everybody thinks they know, and then I’ll tell you which ones are really true.

“Everybody knows that the Heroes League claimed to be fighting aliens in 1970’s. Some people think the aliens were faked by the government. Some even think they were really aliens, but they were hired by the government. Either way, everyone knows there are superheroes who claim to be aliens even though they look a lot like humans.”

That was all too true. The “alien” heroes I’d seen on TV could have been faked by a good special effects department. All they needed were prosthetic foreheads, pointy ears, oddly colored makeup, and weird teeth.

They’d look at least as real as anything on Star Trek. Continue reading TBD: Part 3 →

Arc 4.4: TBD

TBD: Part 2

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Sean didn’t have any real reason to be bothered. It wasn’t as if everyone worshiped me or something. I knew people, you know? Some I knew better than others. Some I liked better than others.

I’d met a lot of supers without ever trying to, and I’m pretty inoffensive, so no one had anything much against me.

I could see where it might be a comedown for him though. He was pretty popular in high school.

It probably wouldn’t last. He was good looking, and even charming from what I’d been told. I’d never noticed it myself. Continue reading TBD: Part 2 →

Arc 4.4: TBD

TBD: Part 1

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We’d said our goodbyes earlier, so when my sister Rachel and I got out of Dad’s SUV at the airport, we didn’t have much to say to our parents.

I popped the hatch, grabbed my suitcase and backpack and put them next to me in the drop-off area. I handed Rachel her suitcase (her backpack hung on her back), and shut the hatch.

We moved to the side of the vehicle. Mom had her window open.

Rachel said, “I’ve got everything. Nick?”

“Me too.”

Dad smiled at us. “Enjoy your conference, and congratulations to both of you again. Full ride scholarships. That doesn’t happen to everyone.”

“Thanks, Dad. Now hurry and get out of here before airport security decides you’re terrorists.” Continue reading TBD: Part 1 →

Arc 4.3: Cassie

Cassie: Part 26

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When I said the League jet appeared, I meant it literally. In one moment I heard an engine’s roar coming closer. In the next, the jet hung above the roof, floating lower until the door opened, and Daniel walked down the ramp.

Then he stared for a second at the hundreds of dead frog-things on the roof.

For Rod, Sam, and the rest, it wasn’t Daniel walking down the ramp. They saw the Mystic, third generation telepath, and a member of one of the most famous telepathic families in the world.

Plus, Daniel was kind of hot even if that wasn’t obvious through the mask.

Continue reading Cassie: Part 26 →

Arc 4.3: Cassie

Cassie: Part 25

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I muttered a few words that would have gotten a look from Mom if she’d been there, and leaned over the edge. The first wave of frog monsters hung halfway up the wall. They’d reeled in whatever line they’d used, and were hanging by their claws.

I hadn’t seen them holding a rope or anything. What were they using? A suspicion passed through my brain, and I watched as they opened their mouths. Their tongues shot out, sticking to the wall above them, and they yanked themselves upward, steadied by their hands and feet.

I knew what I’d have to do even though the idea made my stomach knot up. Continue reading Cassie: Part 25 →

Arc 4.3: Cassie

Cassie: Part 24

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The gun fired a piercing, white beam. It had to be too bright to watch normally, but through the gun’s vision, I could see it burn the creatures. They changed from standing into whitish-black charcoal in bare instants.

Chunks of the patio beneath them cracked and shattered from the heat, flying everywhere, pelting the windows, breaking a couple.

The frog-things made that mournful howl I remembered from when we were on the highway. Continue reading Cassie: Part 24 →

Arc 4.3: Cassie

Cassie: Part 23

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I concentrated, trying to find out exactly how many frog monsters were around us. I stopped after scanning the immediate area. There were more than 500 gathering in the park next to the river. I didn’t even count the street. I knew what I needed to. There were too many of them for a straight ahead fight.

The gun was a hell of an equalizer, but I couldn’t point it everywhere at once.

Continue reading Cassie: Part 23 →

Arc 4.3: Cassie

Cassie: Part 22

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We took the stairs up. Between Rod’s injuries, my need to keep the suit from running off, and our crowd of former kidnapping victims, it took longer than the way down.

And oh yeah, the darkness didn’t help either.

The Nine’s men had thought enough ahead that they’d locked the doors to the stairway so when we got to the parking garage, I readied myself to knock it down.

As I lowered my shoulder just before charging, Sam said, “No, wait!”

Continue reading Cassie: Part 22 →

Arc 4.3: Cassie

Cassie: Part 21

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I didn’t even try to reply. The man with glowing golden spider legs had taken another swipe—only this time not at me.

He’d tried to stick a limb through the chest of the guy in the suit. He’d have succeeded too except that I saw it, grabbed the guy and jumped out of the way.

That put the two of us on the left side of the room with Sam, my lookalikes, and the kidnapped guys.

It left Rod alone in the middle of the room with glowing guy.

Continue reading Cassie: Part 21 →

Arc 4.3: Cassie

Cassie: Part 20

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As the butt of the rifle touched me, I saw everything differently—not in the good and evil sense, but as if I had another sense, one totally devoted to arms and tactics.

For each man with a gun standing in the doorway, I could tell where they were aiming. With a glance, I knew that the glowing man’s golden spider legs were a plasma-like substance contained within a casing he could generate or thin at will.

Not that he was doing much just then. Continue reading Cassie: Part 20 →

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