Magnus kept on talking. Ray hadn’t been wrong in calling him a blowhard.
I couldn’t complain. It gave me time to figure out the next step, whatever that turned out to be. It was supposed to be distracting Magnus so Ray could backstab him. That might still be the plan, but Ray didn’t seem to be in any hurry. Continue reading Magnus: Part 1
On a completely theoretical level, you could imagine that with me pulling power from the device to cut and Magnus pulling power from the device to protect himself we’d be equal.
Anyone who’s ever designed anything knows that’s utter garbage, though.
The amount of power you can get out of something depends on where in the system you’re pulling it from, how you’re using that power, what you’re using it on, and too many details to list. With more complicated devices, your access level to the control systems and your level of skill matter, too. Continue reading Singularity: Part 20
“Wow,” I said, turning and doing a quick scan of Power Burst with the suit’s sensors along with “Artificer vision.”
Grandpa glanced down toward Power Burst and then to the middle of the room where Magnus and the throne stayed. He shrugged, “It worked on Dixie Superman the second time we fought him and this guy seemed to have the same powers. Did the bastard have kids?”
Following his eyes, I watched Collette, Magnus and Ray as they watched from behind the glowing golden barrier. “I assumed Power Burst was a clone.” Continue reading Singularity: Part 19
No first aid I’d been taught included how to handle how to save someone you’d stabbed with a sword made out of your soul (or whatever), and I didn’t have time to take off Scream Eagle’s armor to see if I could help him anyway.
I could only hope that if he did die, it didn’t make much of a difference in that fight to steal Jody.
Flying closer to me, Grandpa asked, “Did Lee teach you that?”
“Uh… Future stuff.” Continue reading Singularity: Part 18
“Two Rockets?” Scream Eagle shouted, faking an English accent just like he had the last time we fought. “Wouldn’t it be funny if you fought each other?”
My suit’s computer informed me of the growing magnetic field, but I didn’t need it. I’d already seen the True’s guns begin to float upward, some dragging the unconscious bodies of their owners across the floor toward us by the strap of their rifle or belt and holstered pistol.
You know what didn’t move toward him? Grandpa and I. Continue reading Singularity: Part 17
Energy built and then spread outward in an explosion of power, but fortunately not a physical one. Well, sort of fortunately, in the sense that it was a lot of energy that I’d rather not be hit with. It was less fortunate in the sense that Power Burst, Jody, Amnesia Angel, Artemis, Scream Eagle, and maybe again Ray had absorbed a lot of energy and I had little doubt they intended to transfer it in my direction.
If I hadn’t been flying and aiming lasers at the Cabal, I might have tried to reach in and cut off Magnus’ power. That might end the fight, depending on how giving out powers worked. If empowering minions were more like lighting a candle than plugging in a radio, it would be harder. Continue reading Singularity: Part 16
Red Lightning grinned, “I’ll be ready. We can’t lose. We’ve got two of you.”
Grandpa laughed. “Glad you think so. I’m feeling behind the times, myself.”
It felt good to see a whisper of the friendship I knew they had. They might have had a conversation, but that’s when the Cabal soldiers all jumped in our direction—not directly at us but close enough that they’d figure it out soon enough.
And that meant that the time to start was before they figured it out. Grandpa had come to the same conclusion. Continue reading Singularity: Part 15
Magnus leaned forward and as he did, I could feel energy moving around him, and remembered being told that despite losing the ability to influence with his voice, he could still do it somehow.
He could. As he spoke, everyone within the shimmery glow responded. Some turned to watch, but other reactions were more subtle—a pause before the next step, a blink, an indrawn breath.
As he did though, I saw energy move from the spheres above into the throne and to him. In the same instant I realized something else—the throne wasn’t real. Continue reading Singularity: Part 14
Power Burst looked him up and down. “How do I know you’re not lying to me about whose side you’re on?”
Knowing Izzy’s powers, Power Burst’s physique didn’t make a difference. He could have been a couch potato that spent all of every day eating junk food, watching television, and playing video games with a body that reflected that inactivity, and still been capable of ending Ray with a slap.
Instead, he fit the superhero stereotype—tall, defined muscles all over his body, and a grim expression. Combined with the military themed costume, most people would find him intimidating.
If Ray did, he didn’t show it. “Me? I’m sure you could see right through me if I were lying to you.“ Continue reading Singularity: Part 13
Ray kept on walking, never speeding up or slowing down. My guess was that he lived by the idea that if you looked like you belonged here, you belonged.
Of course, you could say that he did belong, having been empowered by Magnus and released to kill us. That didn’t change the fact that he was a man with no superpowers walking through the control center of an ancient, alien weapon.
Even if he couldn’t see all of it, the control center itself glowed with power. Though dim to my bots’ sight and my human senses, the hundreds of spheres floating in the air appeared different when I let my Artificer senses work. Continue reading Singularity: Part 12