Shades of Justice: Chapter 8

 The pool, the gym, the football field, the library, the computer lab, the auditorium and the student parking lot. All totally destroyed. The kids breathed a sigh of relief when they were teleported back to the ground, and Raptarus’ body disappeared. They all went their separate directions as they heard sirens coming from every direction.

By the next morning the local news had announced that school was canceled for the next week at least. The emergency crews had worked all night and found no bodies. There was no mention of the spaceship or any possible evidence of the aliens that may have been left behind. By the afternoon the Feds had arrived and taken over the entire campus. They pushed back the local and national news to the apartment buildings across the street from the school. By night fall there were chain link fences around the perimeter of the school campus and the way to the end of the football field. Giant work lights had been placed on generators and crews in hazard suits were sifting through the rubble. These developments had sent the news crews into a piranha like frenzy, hungry for information. By sun up 

the next day the fences had been electrified and warnings were posted every ten feet.

Even with all the news coverage and army of Feds crawling around the campus Warren found himself standing at the top of a hill on the edge of the small forest on the distant far side of the campus. The electrified fence was only another ten feet beyond the hill, then the half of the football field that had escaped total obliteration, the debris that used to be most of the high school crawling with feds, then the parking lot, the perimeter fence and in the distance the rabid media scrambling for content. He couldn’t see much but stood on the hill anyway and watched the circus with his hands in the pockets of his zip up hoodie.

“What did you lose?” Sonya asked, finishing her ascent of the hill to stand next to Warren.

“My laptop, you?” He asked.

She sighed heavily, a mixture of sadness and anger. “My car.”

“I lost my phone. Somewhere in the library.” Kelly offered sitting on the ground next to Sonya.

“You dumb dumbs know we’re gonna get caught right?” Dante said loudly from forest side of the bottom of the hill.

Gordon emerged from the forest. “Caught saving what we could of the school and the rest of the town, how dare we!” He snarked as he and Dante scrambled up the hill.

“You’ll forgive my fear of the cops.” Dante offered once they had reached the top.

Warren shook his head “At this point I’d be more worried about the feds.” He pointed to the large operation that had taken over the school.

Dante sat down hard. “Doesn’t matter how you slice it, it’s all pig to me.” He quipped making the others laugh.

Gordon kicked a small rock down the kill toward the electric fence. “How about we worry about this crap when there’s something to worry about?” He offered.

Sonya nodded. “I’m with Gordon, and thanks to Dante I’m ready for breakfast, anyone else wanna come?” she asked.

Gordon pulled a set of keys of out of his Letterman jacket pocket. “I borrowed my dad’s SUV, lets go.” He said making his way down the hill toward the tree line.

In a moment Warren was the only one left on top of the hill he took one last look at the operation on the high school campus. He kicked a rock toward the fence in frustration. “I needed that laptop.” He grumbled and then followed the others down the hill.

On his cloaked command ship in orbit around Earth, the shard of possibility in Raptarus’ eye socket had allowed him to hear the shades discussion and Warren lamenting his lost laptop. Raptarus paced back and forth as he considered his next move. The shard of possibility filled his mind with ideas. 

“Techology is an incredible tool, almost magical in its power over the daily lives of these pathetic humans! Perhaps It might be possible for me to help the poor Evergreen Shade with his technology conundrum!”

Raptarus held his right hand over his left eye where the shard of possibility was when he move his right hand a beam of pure empty blackness shot from his eye socket and hit the floor. When the empty blackness dissolved it revealed what looked like a giant super computer with bundles of cat5 wires that made up its arms and legs. There were buttons and interface panels that were lit up in magical like symbols and runes and the giant computer monster’s face was a horrible rendition of a flat screen monitor that projected a sixteen bit eyes and mouth.

Raptarus clenched his fist as he looked at the monstrosity before him. “Hexa Decimal! Go to earth. Terminate the Shades of justice and bring me their heads!”

Hexa Decimal’s flat screen face disappeared to show a command line prompt that echoed Raptarus’ demand. “Terminate program initiated!” The face returned as it laughed. “Getting rid of the shades will be easier than defragging my hard drive!” He bragged.

Raptarus’ punched a command into the nearest console interface. “Then go, and do not fail me!” He said, teleporting Hexa Decimal to Earth.

Blood and Profit: Chapter 34

Things outside the battleship had gone about as poorly as expected. Toll’s team was outnumbered five to one but they were using any and every trick they could think of to survive. They played dead to surprise enemies, they used the battleship’s immense size to hide and lay ambushes and boobie traps. They flew the kind of dangerous stunts that only rookie pilots who didn’t know any better could fly. Things like skimming the edge of the battleships shields at incredible speeds and letting their pursuers own insecurities make mistakes that ran them into the shields and either bounce them off with dead systems or cause them to explode from the force of the impact. They had lost five of their own but Laborite had spent a full fifteen to taken them down.

Toll wasn’t concerned with killing or disabling the enemy. He started no fights, he just flew coverage, in an attempt to be anywhere and everywhere he needed to be to save the lives of his pilots. The countdown timer on his H.U.D showed him he didn’t have much longer to go, the odds would be shifting in their favor in less than half a minute. He reoriented to line of sight on what was left of four three man squads. They reformed into a deep striking V formation and came around for another pass. Toll noticed that Smart Guy was too far out from the ship and sitting at the wrong angle to see the new threat. Toll didn’t know why he was so far out from the ship but his scanners didn’t showed life signs and no damage. He opened a channel and moved to intercept the attacking V. “Smart Guy, V formation at your five o’clock!” Toll’s first shots winged the fighter at the end of the closest arm of the V. The fighter spun wildly out of the formation with no engines to maneuver with he would be spinning for a while.

Smart Guy flipped quickly and thanks to computer assisted targeting was able to get two shots off before his ship was completed disabled. His two shots were direct hits and stopped the two lead ships of the V dead in the sky, no power, no weapons, and emergency systems only. Which is more than what Smart guy was left with. “Sorry Boss.” He said as the safety systems on his fighter automatically ejected him before the electrical system in the cockpit fried completed in a brilliant light show.

“Nothing to be sorry for Smart Guy, just get to the landing bay.” Toll instructed as he easily picked off the last two fighters from the V. As the jets on Smart Guy’s ejection pod lit up so to did all four transit rings around Mars. Three Baceten ships emerged from each ring one after the other. As they hit cruising speeds they launched their own fighters, some headed for the contested battleship but most headed to grief the Laborite battle cruisers. Laborite's channels lit up as what was left of their fighters were called back to their ships and the retreat command was given. With the Baceten presence the contested battleship was no longer contested, at least in space. On board was a different story.

Toll opened a channel to Conner “The Laborite are bugging out, you on the bridge yet?” He asked. The not too distant sizzling echo of blaster fire getting louder answered his question pretty clearly.

“Very nearly there, which is to say, no not yet.” Conner snarked as a response.

Toll continued his sweeps around the ship for his crew, perfectly content to let the Baceten settle scores and clean up the rest of the actively retreating mess. “Just tell them their side lost and is currently leaving them behind. They might wanna get some distance between them and the Baceten before its too late.” He commented while chasing off a lone fighter that was on the far side of the ship and most likely had lost his communications and had not seen the arrival of the Baceten. When he came within view of their ships he pushed the fighter to max speed in an attempt to catch up with the retreating Laborite forces. Toll realized there was silence on the channel. “Conner.” He asked suddenly worried.

“I’m here, came his crackling voice. You’re probably not going to believe this but I think they got something along the lines of your message.” He sounded slightly confused.

Toll smiled. “They just surrendered?” He asked.

“That they did.” Conner confirmed. “The ship is ours. Jobs well done all around.” He said.

One of the Mars rings lit up, surprising Toll “Don’t celebrate just yet, this is far from over. It looks like Rusty failed to shut down the ring system.”

Toll opened a channel to Rusty. “We’re about to be a in a world of hurt, what happened to shutting down the ring system?” He almost shouted.

“It’s taking longer for the entire system to shut down than I estimated. I had to manually override the command cancel in the case of active rings.” Rusty shouted back.

Toll typed an order for his surviving fighters to dock in the battleship landing bay. “Are you shutting the system down or not!” Toll started to panic.

“It’s already shutting down, big systems take time Toll!” Rusty yelled back.

And then as if proving Rusty’s point the Ring the Arbitration Guild Hall was emerging from shut off instantly. The massive spherical ship appeared to violently drift apart as the slip stream faded leaving debris scattered across hundreds of thousands of miles of empty space.

“Oh my God.” Toll uttered watching the devastation of the destroyed ship get worse with each passing second.

“Toll what happened?” Rusty asked.

Toll turned his ship to avoid watching any more of the accidental horror. “Nothing man, the system was shut down. Nice work.” He knew he couldn’t hide this from Rusty for long but every moment he didn’t know what he had accidentally done was a moment Toll would give him.

Lidarion: Chapter 3

For the first few hours Bernard took in everything. Everything he could remember consisted of was little life he had in the capitol of Lidarion, the trip to Border wood keep and the last three years in the home that was his world. Squints had two horses pulling a small covered wagon, which held their things and something large, wrapped in blankets. Bernard wanted to ask about it more than he wanted to ask about the conversation he had overheard the night before, but the beauty of spring had him in its grip and so he pushed aside his concerns to enjoy the sights and sounds of the seasons as they traveled north.

By the afternoon Squints hadn’t said much, mostly giving him the names of flowers, animals, rivers, lakes, hills and far off mountains. They had stopped for lunch in a clearing and had unfortunately scared off some deer, they didn’t run far and stuck to the farthest edge of the clearing eating from a field of beautiful yellow flowers. There was a river a few hundred feet away from the road. Bernard had gone over to fill their water skins but sat for nearly an hour just listening to the river. He had stayed still long enough that the deer chanced coming closer to pick at some small berry bushes. It was peaceful in a way that he had no memory of.

Back on the kart they followed the road which pretty closely followed the river. “My father used to bring me to this river when I was younger. We’d spend summers out here away from civilization.” 

Bernard looked at Squints who continued sharing his memory. “At the time I just wanted to get back to my books, it’s a cruel irony that as an adult I dream of the summers I spent here.”

Bernard had no memory of his childhood or his father. He was both sad for and jealous of Squints. “I think your father may have known he was giving you a gift you wouldn’t know how to appreciate until you were old enough to understand what you had received.”

Squints looked at Bernard with curiosity. “Are you talking about the initial experience or the memory?” He asked.

Bernard shrugged his shoulders. “Aren’t they both just love in different forms?” He asked.

Squints smiled. “That they are.” He confirmed.

The rushing river and the creaking wheels of the wagon filled the silence. They hit a divot in the road and the large object wrapped in blankets shifted in the cart, knocking against the wooden wall of the cart.

“What happened to my memory?” Bernard asked quickly. As if he was worried he might lose his courage half way through the question.

Squints smiled a little. “How much of our conversation did you overhear last night?” He asked.

Bernard looked at a tree as they passed. “My sister is worried about things ‘going back to the way they were before’” He answered in question.

Squints nodded. “Indeed she is.” He confirmed.

Bernard looked at Squints. “How were they before? What is it that I can’t remember and why can’t I remember it?” He pleaded.

Squints sighed heavily. “The simple answers are, not good, a lot, because we made a mistake.”

Bernard shook his head. “I didn’t come on this trip for simple answers Squints.”

Squints nodded. “I know. You want the whole truth.”

Bernard nodded resolutely. “I do.”

Squints stared him down. “Even if it changes everything you know about everyone you love, including yourself?” He asked.

Bernard nodded. “Squints, I don’t actually know much of anything about anyone, especially myself.”

Squints sighed again. “That’s a fair point.” There was silence again for a moment as he considered where exactly to start his narrative. “I guess the most important place to start would be the end of the Machine Wars, six years ago.”

Bernard was instantly lost. “Machine Wars? No one has ever said anything about a war less than a decade ago.”

Squints nodded “Because we made sure you would never hear of it, at least, not until you were ready.”

Bernard looked at the road ahead. “So what does this war have to do with my missing memory?” He asked.

Squints shook his head. “The war has almost nothing to do with your memory loss. The war was how Trent ended up coming home to Lidarion after a long fifteen year absence.”

Bernard did the math in his head. “That’s over half his life.”

Squints nodded. “Generally that’s the point of banishment.” He offered. “How about I start from the Beginning?” He offered.

Bernard nodded. “Please.”

The XP: Chapter 3

Pratchett turned out to be an elderly merchant NPC pacing in front of his ramshackle shop. It was picked cleans and barely standing and Pratchett looked like he was having a panic attack. 

Yermum walked up and gave a simple wave. “Hi.” Which broke Pratchett out of his worried pacing.

“Hail and well Yermum. Terry said you might be coming by to take up my quest.” He said forcing a sad smile on his sunken face.

“What is your quest?” Yermum asked. Looking at Pratchett’s busted up shop.

Pratchett pointed to his ruined shop front. “The villainous Thieves of Ire robbed my shop and kidnapped my grand daughter. The town security forces are too afraid to go after them.” Pratchett dropped to his knees to beg, “Oh please Yermum! Rescue my granddaughter!”

Yermum looked down at the man who was crying at his feet. “ummm….ok.” He agreed.

Pratchett smiled genuinely for the first time in days and there was a sparkle in his eye. “Oh thank you Yermum! I know my daughter will be safe in your care.”

Yermum nodded and ran off in the direction his mini map pointed him.

Half a zone away Bob, Blackout, and Stygian emerge victorius from the Sea of Ever Burning Fury. Their bags full of loot and pockets full of coin. Stygian’s happy voice echo’s from under his massive helm. “I should have come back a long time ago.” He admitted

Blackout nods. “Seriously, you missed out on some sweet opportunities.”

Blackout couldn’t see the glare but he could feel Stygian staring him down. Far to their left Yermum is being chased by one of the Thieves of Ire. He doubles back to try and loose the thief but agros another one who joins the first in chasing him down.

“You do know that most people place this game for the actual fun of it right?” Stygian asked.

Bob nodded. “We have fun all the time.” She pointed out.

Yermum has agroed another two thieves, He is just barely ahead of the pack of murderous NPC’s and getting closer to the trio.

Stygian turns to face Bob. “Selling gold and items on the black market!” he throws his hands in the air.

Blackout shrugs his shoulders. “That’s fun for us.”

A few of the thieves give up the chase and head back to their original target area’s. Yermum has given up and is now just running blindly as quick as he can.

“It goes against the end user licence agreement and could get us banned!” Stygian shouted.

Bob threw her hands in the air like she was being held at gun point. “Oh no! not the EULA! Stygian why do you care?” She asked.

Yermum blows through the middle of the trio followed by the last three thieves from the mob, which the trio disposes of as reflex actions. Bob, Stygian and Blackout all look over to Yermum who is now laying down arms and legs splayed out on the road. He is gasping for air.

Stygian disappeared his comically large sword. “I don’t really, I just wanted to make sure you weren’t gonna get pissed if I kept some of this gear cause it seriously puts my current stuff to shame.” He said stepping over Yermum.

Blackout followed him. “What did you expect after being logged out for two years?”

Bob walked around Yermum and took a quick glance down at the noob. “You’re welcome.” She said before catching up with her friends.

Yermum sat up and watch the trio head back toward town. He got to his feet and ran to catch up with them. “Hey!” He shouted, The trio stopped and turned to face him. “Um, thanks for that, back there, saving my life and all.”

Stygian shook his head. “Don’t mention it.” He said turning toward town again. Blackout and Bob followed his lead.

Yermum continued the conversation “You guys seem pretty hardcore.” He stated.

They didn’t turn around this time. “And so, very busy.” Blackout said without looking back.

Yermum jogged to keep up with them. “Busy with what?” He asked.

Bob rolled her eyes. “Important things, high level things, and judging by the way you play, things you won’t be seeing for a really, really long time. So, do the world a favor and go back to the World of Waterslides.” She snapped, as they entered town. Yermum stopped walking and they began to separate from him. Bob grits her teeth and stops walking. She Glares at Stygian whose metallic whistle of innocence echoes under his helmet. “I hate you.” She points at Stygian.  She turns around and motions Yermum over. He is all smiles as he jogs back to the group.

“We’re going to need to get him trained and geared.” He pointed out.

Yermum nodded. “You won’t regret this.” He offered.

Bob shook her head. “Too late.”

The foursome headed to the item shop in town and Stygian’s metallic laughter echoed off the buildings.

University of Console Heroics: Chapter 3

Foster and the rest of the students are sitting in rows on the floor of the Intro to Energy classroom. Each of them attempting to mimic the pose and breathing patterns of their teacher Cynthia sitting on the floor facing them at the front of the room. Foster is the only one with his eyes open, awkwardly looking around the room at all the serenity he is clearly not feeling. He looks up at his teacher, her eyes also closed, she takes a deep breath in, and slowly exhales.

“Ok everyone.” She alerted the room with her eyes still closed. Foster shut his tight quickly so as not to stand out when she opened hers. “That’s enough for today. You can open your eyes and relax now.” 

The class including Foster opened their eyes and relaxed their sitting positions. “For class Wednesday I would like you all to work on your breathing. Three seconds in, and three seconds out. The point is learning to control your natural instincts, the fun flashy stuff come later. Are there any questions?” She asked stretching out her legs. The class remained quiet. “All right then, good first day, I’ll see you all on Wednesday.”

The students move quickly to gather their things up and leave the room. Cynthia is in no such hurry. Foster stretches his legs out folds himself in half. Cynthia looks over, then decides to get up and sit in front of him. Foster sits back upright and sees Cynthia sitting in front of him. “Sorry, I’ll get out of here.”

Cynthia shakes her head. “No you’re fine, it’s not like you were doing much in the way of meditation during class, a little extra practice will be good for you.” She moved her legs back into sitting cross legged.

Foster copied her awkwardly. “I didn’t really think the basics of fighting were going to be sitting in silence and breathing, no offense.” He verbally stumbled over his thoughts.

Cynthia smiled a little. “None taken. Sitting in silence and breathing is hard for many people because they have spent their entire lives controlling things through physical force.” She closed her eyes and this time Foster copied her. Letting his visual awareness of the room and of Cynthia transfer to his ears and his nose. “Hitting, kicking, screaming, yelling, taking up space and making sure people know it.” She continued at a measured and calm pacing, almost hypnotically. “Self-control and self-awareness are forms of mental control, two forms of control that many people and many Combat Studies majors have a very hard time learning to wield.”

Foster was finally starting to relax, his breathing was still an uneven ragged mess but he felt less awkward just sitting with his eyes actually closed. “You make it sound like brute force is inherently weaker than mental prowess.” He stated.

“Not weaker, just enslaved. All biological life is enslaved to their own mind.” She opened and eye and looked at Foster who legitimately still had his eyes closed and was trying intensely to count three second breathing windows silently to himself. She closed her eye. “For what is brute strength but the will of the mind made manifest by your body.”

Foster lost his count. “So, like, I am my own worst enemy.”

Cynthia smiled. “But with proper training you have to potential to be your strongest and most loyal ally.” She opened her eyes, so did Foster. She got up and walked over to her bag.

Foster put his left shoe on. “Oh! Um, so, do you know Dean Thompson?” He asked with all the awkwardness back in his voice.

Cynthia zipped up her bag. “Used to.” She offered. “He, stopped talking to me a while ago.” 

Foster contemplates this as he shoved his right foot into his sneaker. Then stands up and grabs his bag. “Hey, um, I really appreciate the extra help and everything.” They stopped at the door. “But if you don’t mind me asking why he would tell me to say hi to you for him if he has been ignoring you?” The question rushed awkwardly out of his mouth.

“If you need to know so badly, ask him. I haven’t gotten anything useful from his answering machine.” She said bitterly.

“Sorry, it’s really none of my business.” He apologized.

She shook her head. “He’s the dick for using you as a messenger. You can’t exactly mind your own business when someone is actively shoving your face in theirs”

Foster shrugged his shoulders as he Followed Cynthia out of the room and shut of the lights before the door closed.

Shades of Justice: Chapter 7

Raptarus couldn’t see or smell anything. He could feel his body floating in this place that lacked both gravity and light.

“Raptarus” A voice filled the darkness.

“Who said that?” he asked, pointlessly scanning the all-encompassing void.

“I Did.” The voice was everywhere and nowhere all at once.

“And who are you?” He asked, beginning to get annoyed.

“I am the nightmare of possibility that exists just beyond the edge of every light in the universe.” The voice did not echo, it was just there, even and ever present. His annoyance gave way to the slight chill of fear.

“Stygian.” He whispered.

“So, you have heard of me.” The voice seemed pleased.

“I cannot imagine there is a living warrior who has not heard the only name on the lips of death.” Raptarus offered reverently.

“And what would a warrior give to swear fealty to that name?” The question settled into an empty space in Raptarus’s heart that he had never known or even dreamed existed.

“I would die to serve the hand of darkness.” Raptarus admitted.

“That you have already done I require, more.” The voice demanded.

“I would bring you the heads and hearts of all those would stand against you.” Raptarus offered.

“This would please me greatly.” Stygian admitted.

“Then it shall be done.” Raptarus bowed but realized it was pointless in the darkness.

“Do agree so quickly. I Require the shattered remnants of Lumarion. Extinguish the light that guides others to peace and prosperity.” Stygian demanded.

“Gladly my lord.”

“This is no easy task. I expect you to fail pathetically before I arrive.”

Raptarus clenched his unseen fist. ‘I will see the Shades of Justice and Lumarion dead with my own eyes!”

“That is impossible. One of your eyes belongs to me now. But in its plae you will find possibility. Darkness so black you can call upon the void for nearly anything you might want to accomplish your task.” Stygain offered.

“With this weapon, I shall sunder the earth.” Raptarus yelled at the void.

“I didn’t say it wouldn’t hurt.” Stygian amended.

There was no telling how far Raptarus’s screams made it into the void as Stygian implanted the shard of possibility into his now empty eye socket.

Blood and Profit: Chapter 33

Connor checked the synchronization status between the bio computer and the rest of the ship a final time. Once it passed thirty three percent anything that went wrong would mean a catastrophic failure in the bio computer and another two years to grow a replacement. The sync status showed thirty seven percent. He took a deep breath and not for the first time missed the physical presence of his nanobot generator.

“Sir, team one has secured the landing bay.” One of the other twenty four members of his personally selected team announced.

Connor pushed off from the wall he was resting against and made his way over to the other side of the computer bay. He felt around the wall until he a panel lit up. “Thank god for sloppy corporate oversight.” He sighed with relief. He pulled his right suit glove off and placed his hand on the panel. It scanned his hand and the extremely well disguised door slid open revealing a maintenance hallway. He floated in zero gravity as his team went through the door into the artificial low gravity of the hall. Once they were through he passed through as well and the door closed behind him.

Every member of the team removed their suits to reveal tactical gear. Within a few minutes each of the newly revealed soldiers were assembled into four teams of six people. Their helmets had visors with heads up displays that showed them the way to the battleships bridge.

Connor had placed an arm band around his bicep that injected him with nanobots at the required intervals. He took the offered pistol from the leader of the squad he would be traveling with throughout the ship. He then quickly turned to the rest of the men. “With Laborite soldiers on the ship we’re moving to plan C. You all know your targets and goals, be smart, stay safe, shoot to kill.”

The men nodded and exited the maintenance hallway, splitting off in different direction to secure choke points along the route from the landing bay to the bridge and decrease any resistance. He and his team turned into a major hallway that they were planning on taking to the bridge and discovered an entrenched group of Laborite soldiers. He ducked back down the side hallway he had come out of along with two of the soldiers, one had taken a very powerful suppression bolt to the face and was dragged by his unconscious hand into the safety of the opposite side of the hallway by the other two members of the unit. “I need reinforcements in the primary command hallways follow my teams path and you’ll come up right behind us, there’s a group of at least six soldiers behind combat barriers and we need to clear them out.”

The channel wasn’t silent for long. “Bravo team is closest, we’ll double back.” Bravo team lead confirmed.

Connor switched channels until Rusty’s name came up with a countdown timer next to it. “Rusty we’ve been delayed, we’re going to be five or so minutes late getting to the bridge.” Connor alerted him.

Rusty’s voice came through along with what sounded like an warning alarm in the background. “You made it onto the ship, the timeline only really matters for everything except securing the ship.” Connor

“Unless we’re forced to move to plan B.” Connor pointed out.

Even with the alarms in the background Rusty sounded calmer than Connor expected “Lets worry about plan B if and when we get to plan B.”