A year ago, I might have taken what Guardian said as a criticism or threat, but now I saw it for what it was—he didn’t want to destroy the city even though it made a lot of sense.
Looking over at Daniel as he flew next to me, I tried to give Guardian what he wanted, “Well, first of all, you know what’s under the League’s base and in our storage rooms. Blasting the city won’t destroy all of it and the rest will be available to anyone who comes by. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 12
I heard a weary laugh from more than one person on the comm. A few more laughed a little too hard.
Ex-Mayer Bouman, Synergy, or whatever he now called himself kept on talking, “People of Grand Lake, you might be afraid of what’s coming, afraid maybe that you’ll be absorbed and stop being you.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. You’ll be you but fulfilled. You’ll share your hopes, dreams, and worries with all your brothers and sisters in this city and sharing your burdens will make them light.”
Over the comm, Cassie muttered, “This guy does not understand how much it sounds like joining a cult.” Continue reading Courtesy: Part 11
The pressure in my head increased. It wasn’t unbearable or even painful, but it felt like it filled my head.
Over the comm, I asked, “Is anyone else feeling this?”
Everyone seemed to say yes at once with Kals’ voice rising above the rest to say, “It reminds me of an Abominator psi-bomb. I caught the edge of one once when the Ascendancy put down a rebellion we were involved in.”
“You think this is a psi-bomb,” Daniel asked. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 10
Could the mushroom zombies replace Arete’s missing parts or access his memory? The latter option would represent a major security leak both for the Defenders and the Nine.
It didn’t seem likely, but if it was possible, I didn’t like it. From what I’d seen of it, even acting collectively the zombies weren’t very smart, but if they could integrate Arete in, maybe they could be. Plus, what if they could reproduce his powers in the mushroom zombies?
We needed to end this, but we’d have to figure out where to hit it. We’d destroyed the “brain.” We’d need to figure out where the backup was or if it could operate as some kind of swarm without a center. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 9
The tendrils died at an alarming rate. Even though Hal downplayed the effectiveness of the anti-personnel lasers, he could fire off multiple beams at multiple targets. They wouldn’t have been effective against the mushroom central brain he’d destroyed, but against these tendrils it was good enough.
The tendrils sizzled and stopped moving. Somewhere in the back of my brain, the part that distantly remembered breakfast, I wondered if these were edible mushrooms and hoped they weren’t psychedelic.
Psychedelic mushrooms did grow in Michigan. I’d checked Wikipedia once. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 8
Jaclyn responded, “What kind of growths?”
“The last report said smooth grey skin over their skin, and no eyes or mouth,” Kayla paused, “Creepy.”
Haley’s voice came over the comm, “Do you know where?”
“I’ll send you coordinates,” Kayla’s connection clicked to a close. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 7
By the time I did notice that Gifford, Hunter, and other members of Major Justice’s team as well as Shifter were sinking toward the ground, they were shouting at Gifford who was staring off into space.
Was he too tired or had one of the mushroom tendrils gotten lucky and hit him? Either way they were dropping into range of not only the tendrils’ shots (which might not get through the wind), but also the clouds of spores that puffed outward whenever the shots hit something. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 6
I didn’t love the idea that the military team might be puppets of the mushroom zombies, especially since they included (ex) Mayor Bouman, a telepath, and Logan who’d been friends with Vaughn, Haley, Sean, Dayton, and Jody back when Haley was dating Sean.
I wondered if the military team included anyone else. Three seemed too small of a group—not to mention underpowered vs our team. When Logan transformed in high school, we’d beaten him with equipment smuggled in under our formal clothes. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 5
That’s what we needed a new mystery attacker, “Do you know what it is?”
Izzy shook her head, “I don’t even know if it’s coming in this direction. It feels extremely spread out.”
“That’s not good,” I said. “I think we need to be ready to take to the air at any second. If there’s even a hint that it might be coming this way, tell everyone.”
The curl of her lips hinted that I might have said something obvious, but she only said, “Relax, I’m watching.” Continue reading Courtesy: Part 4
Major Justice stumbled, but then recovered, putting his arm out and grabbing Arete’s shoulder, steadying himself, but putting more force into the gesture than seemed necessary.
Arete stumbled, turning his head and opening his mouth to shout something. His words made no sense to me, but my buzzer went off along with the buzzers of everyone on my team including Justice Fist—plus Major Justice.
It was too bad Major Justice hadn’t used one whenever he’d first encountered Arete, but using one now might mean Arete’s influence was waning. Continue reading Courtesy: Part 3