Was this a pull-off-the-bandage sort of situation? Because Dad seemed to be right on the edge of understanding everything. On the other hand, Mom had been captured by Ray and the Cabal when she remembered, very much a sudden change, and she’d taken more than a year to talk to us about it.
We needed cooperation right now and we were going to have to hide my family and maybe all of our families in HQ.
Izzy’s voice came over the comm, “I don’t see anyone dangerous. One man must have pulled out a rifle during the fight, but right now he’s putting it back into a locked cabinet.”
“Good,” Jaclyn didn’t hesitate. “Drop off Mr. Klein in the house and we’ll grab Shift to go help Travis. Night Cat says the Rocket and Bloodmaiden can stay here in case something goes wrong. Rocket, are you sure you don’t need medical attention?”
Mom angled the blade and pulled it back. Number Eight’s face turned white and he began to fall, trying to swing his cane back at her, but not with any real force. It fell out of his hand when he struck the concrete floor.
He tried to say something, but I couldn’t understand it. His eyes shut and he didn’t move.
Mom had stepped back as he fell, avoiding his body and stood over him staring down at it. Then she looked over at me, “Nick, are you okay? Do we have to get you to the hospital?” Continue reading Sudden Changes: Part 1→
I saw the blade go into my chest straight through my armor. I’d protected against that, as had Rook the last time I’d seen him. Much as I had, he’d upgraded. Right now though, his weapons could go through my armor whereas mine couldn’t go through his.
I needed to get a sample of that blade or ideally the whole device so I could study the mechanism—assuming I survived. Continue reading Misdirection: Part 10→
Uncle Steve sighed as he saw me come through the door, seeming to relax a little even if he went back to watching Number Eight within seconds. Mom, for the record, didn’t look any less nervous. I turned toward the silver wall, standing directly in front of my mom, but ahead and to the right of Uncle Steve.
I got in position even as Number Eight slashed a foot-long hole in the wall. I hadn’t noticed before, but a six-inch long blade extended from the bottom of his cane. I supposed that made it a knife or spear cane because that was too short for a sword. Continue reading Misdirection: Part 9→
Number Eight turned his head to look back at me as the force field went down, his eyes wide and his mouth open in an expression that said, “Oh, no.”
He turned back to the hole he’d made in the door and looked inside. I reached forward, trying to knock him away from the hole before he disappeared. I failed. I thought I felt his arm give and then my arm was flying through where his body had been.
From the other side of the hole, though, I heard his voice give a short scream followed by, “Wait till you see what I do to your mother, you little shit.” Continue reading Misdirection: Part 8→
I managed to avoid falling over after hitting the glowing shield but I wobbled as I moved my right leg back to stabilize myself. I still had to hold out my arms and wave them a little. It wasn’t a good look. At any rate, it wasn’t a look that communicated that I was an unstoppable force of justice that was only temporarily having trouble balancing in the basement laundry room.
The living room always felt the opposite of living during my childhood. Mom kept it perfect for guests to the point that you could see the lines where the vacuum cleaner ran on the carpet, or if you chose to sit there, the footprints you left on the way to the couch.
Mom wasn’t obsessive enough to vacuum after seeing footprints appear, but there were times I felt like she’d have preferred that I teleport into the room.
In that sense, Number Eight was Mom’s perfect guest. When you considered that he planned to kill Uncle Steve, maybe a bit less so. Continue reading Misdirection: Part 6→
“Tempting offer,” I said. “I have a counteroffer. How about you leave without hurting anybody and we all get to skip a fight?”
Number Eight smiled. That smile along with his bowler, cane, and the white shirt under his suit jacket made me think of the film A Clockwork Orange. Appearing to be in his mid-thirties, the man seemed a little too old for the role.
As I ran, I tried to think who the people I’d seen might be. The tall woman with green skin came first. I’d seen an alert about her from the FBI. She was called Rogue Croc—which I guess was a reference to a film in addition to the fact that she’d been recruited into the army and been activated by their version of the power impregnator before “going rogue.” Also, she’d grown up in a village of Cabal descendants, so she wasn’t going down easy.
My implant returned that the woman with the staff was called Magicka and that she’d been around since the 1920s, mostly fighting members of the Mask family. As of my internship with the Motor City Heroes, Mateo/Blue Mask was a friend who had no chance to get here in time to help. Continue reading Misdirection: Part 4→
The Legion of Nothing: A Series of Online Superhero Novels (Updates Monday and Thursday)
