Shades of Justice: Chapter 30

Techarious was rampaging through Tokyo, smashing his giant fists into buildings, knocking one sky scraper into another. Then suddenly an electric blue teleport beam flashed and Blinding Light was standing several blocks away. Technarious and Blinding light squared off and ran at each other. They smashed into each other and entangled their arms.

In the command center of blinding light Gordon pressed the command for the chest beam which hit Technarious full force in the chest. He lost the grapple and fell backwards, decimating the street below. Sonya pulled up the status read out of Technarious.

Dante looked over at the readout. “Ok boss, what’s the plan?” He asked as Warren stepped on Technarious’ prone body.

Sonya zoomed in on the damage they had caused to the chest. “Compter, where are Technarious’ power systems located?” She asked. A series of components inside Technarious on the status readout lit up with an orange outline. Can you get to that area from the crack in his chest?” She asked. In response a bright orange line led from the crack to the power system. “Transfer that pathway to my helmet.” She said as she stood up.

Dante and Kelly stood up as well. “Are you out of your mind?” Kelly shouted.

Sonya shook her head. “No, Warren can command the other leg from his station. We need to disable Technarious without killing him, and I’ll give everyone three seconds to come up with a better plan.” The other shades looked at each other. “Computer teleport.” She said, instantly disappearing.

Kelly and Dante looked at each other. “Should have seen that one coming.” Dante said as they sat back at their stations.

Sonya appeared in the crack of Technarious’ chest and dropped down into the inside of his body, carefully making her way around damaged cords and sparking machinery. She came to a small fire that was on her side of a gap that was easily eight feet wide. “Fire extinguisher!” she commanded as white suppressant exploded from her right hand. As soon as the fire was out she closed her fist shutting off the suppressant spray. She then looked down the gap which looked like it went for twenty or more feet. “Great idea Sonya.” She chastised herself as she checked the nearest wall for hand and footholds to use to make it across. Suddenly there was an incredible amount of movement and Technarious was getting back to his feet. Sonya held on for dear life.

Blood and Profit: Chapter 53

Once they council had agreed to accept the evidence before them a sense of panic ran through the group, She would never tell anyone the amount of time they spent discussing leaving the rest of the colony behind and leaving that evening before anyone noticed.

Kepi stayed silent as the council worked through how they were going to gather everyone together, how they were going to make sure that everyone that wanted to leave was granted passage. By the end of the day they had worked out an uncharacteristic amount of details.

The senate leader rapped his gavel. “If there are no other points of order I recommend that we adjourn for the day.” He offered.

“I have a question.” A voice filled the hall. Kepi grimaced. An elderly senator stood with the aid of a cane and cleared his throat. “While I appreciate the situation, and applaud all the effort made thus far to save lives, I fear that I must ask. Once we leave the planet. Where exactly do we plan to go?” He questioned.

Murmurs from the other representatives filled the room. The senate leader rapped his gavel for silence. Kepi raised her voice. “We must use the transport ring. We have no other options.” She explained.

The elderly senator nodded. “That system is three hundred years old and has never been successfully tested. We could kill everyone we send through it.” He pointed out.

Kepi shook her head. “The ring was activated just two weeks ago, It’s the reason the Starseeds came here in the first place.” She explained,

Again murmurs filled the room. The senate leader rapped the gavel several times.

The old man shook his head. “I read the report of what those boys did. We have no way of knowing what happened to them once they left this area. For all we know they are long dead stranded in the middle of nowhere, a fate I would not wish on the rest of this colony.” He said

Kepi shook her head. “They could just as likely made it all the way back to Earth, senator.” She countered. “As you said, we don’t know.”

The old man nodded again. “Is ‘we don’t know’ enough of a guarantee to bet the entire future of this planet on?” He asked as she sat down.

The murmurs of the other senators broke out again and this time there was no gavel to silence them. Kepi looked up at the leadership and saw that they too were discussing this question amongst themselves.

Kepi’s shoulders tightened and made her final point, shouting it over the other conversations. “Given the choice between ‘I don’t know” and Certain Death, I’ll take ‘I don’t know’ every time. Senator.” She room went dead silent and stared at her. She found the rest of her confidence and her shoulders relaxed. “And that is the choice life has given us. It is not great, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy but it is where we are. So, I call for a vote. A nay vote means certain death for the colony, a Yay vote means we take our caravan through the gate and see what happens next.” She looked to the leadership table.

The leader reluctantly rapped the gavel. “Is there a second?” He asked.

Kepi looked around a room full of statues. “I second.” A voice rang out. Kepi couldn’t believe it. She looked to Fletcher’s seat where he had raised his giant hand and voiced his support. She had not expected this, and it made her uneasy.

The senate leader nodded. “The vote has been requested and seconded. Return with your choice in fifteen minutes. This chamber is dismissed.” With no further reason to whisper the room exploded into a uncountable full volume conversations. Kepi couldn’t handle the noise and made her way out into the hall. Where she ran into Fletcher. She stopped in her tracks. “Why support my vote?” she asked suddenly.

Fletcher smiled. “I’m a business man, I can work with ‘I don’t know”. There’s not enough wiggle room in “certain death” for my taste.” She said floating off down the hall.

Kepi breathed a sigh of relief. 

Lidarion: Chapter 25

“Well then,” Brooke started. “I only see one way forward.” Everyone looked at her. “You’ll sail under the Lidarion royal flag. Let’s find out what the estimated value of the boat is and we will bring it plus ten percent in gold.” She sounded like she was planning a boring reception.

Trent waved his hand. “Brooke that’s- “ He started.

She stood up. “The easiest solution to our most recent problem. There will be others and I was going already so don’t even start on that.” She smiled sweetly as she stared him down. “Those people are my friends and their families and short of giving away the kingdom to set them free I will do it. This isn’t just your burden, it never was.” She finished her thought and sat back down.

Trart nodded, agreeing with everything she had said. But he decided to finish his sentence anyway. “Going to take up a lot of weight on the boat.” He smiled at her.

Everyone waited silently took see how long Brooke could hold out until she smiled. She lasted less than five seconds. “I hate you.” She threw a cloth napkin at Trent.

Dean stood up. “I greatly appreciate the assistance, and would be more than glad to take you to Cela’an, so please allow me to make two corrections to your plan. First the Womamel is a ship, not a boat. And secondly and I’m going to guess that I’m the only one present who has ever even met an elf, take that ten percent and bring it in the form of Lidarion’s best wine.” He stood. “I am beyond glad to have met you all, the Womamel will be ready to sail in thirty six hours, and we’re coming to the end of the smooth sailing season and will be cutting it close on passing through the southern straits as it is, so I’d recommend leaving no later than three days from now.” He walked over to the door and held it open. “You know where to find me, you all have a good evening.” He said as he left the bar.

The XP: Chapter 25

The arena was a complete mad house. Trart and Volnado still hadn’t made their way through the crowds to get back to the rest of the group. The rest of the end of the world club had done some cool stuff, but nothing that had made them the envy of the entire player base. Bob, Blackout, and Stygian watched in awe as the arena cheered for their achievement.

Sezario and The Matriarch flew down to the arena floor from their box seats. Sezario walked up to Torcano. “Congratulations on your victory.” He said holding out his hand to shake.

Torcano looks down at his feet. “I don’t feel like a winner.” He admitted.

Zezario gave a knowing smile. “Why? What ever could you mean?” He asked almost sarcastically.

The Matriarch hit him in the shoulder. “Don’t be mean.” She scolded.

Torcano looked up cluing into the oddness of the situation. “Wait, how did you get onto the arena floor?” He asked.

Sezario shrugged. “I created the game, I can pretty much go where ever I like.” He answered nonchalantly.

Bob and Blackout both dropped their jaws. “SPIRITWALKER!!!” They shouted practically into his face.

He nodded. “Durring working hours, speaking of working.” He turned his attention back to Torcano. “You want your job back kid?” He asked.

Torcano gave a bittersweet smile. “I appreciate the offer, and I genuinely don’t want to be rude, but no, thank you.” He replied.

Sezario nodded. “No worries, game was meant to be played, you know?” He smiled. Everyone nodded at this.

Trart and Volnado join the group. For a moment there is a dense, uncomfortable silence. No one in the group knows where to begin. Frustrated, Trart finally steps forward and does and impersonation of Volnado. “look bro, I’m sorry I was such a dick all those years.” Trart steps next to Torcano and impersonates him. “I’m sorry too, I should have let you know how much it bothered me a long time ago, and I’m sorry I turned into such a douche.” Another step over and he takes on Bob’s stance and voice. “Awwwwe, I apologize for snapping at you all the time Torcano and I apologise to the group for constantly leaving this ‘love/hate’ thing we're doing, in the air for so long.” Another step and he ends up next to Stygian and does his best impersonation “I missed you guy’s soooo much! I don’t have anything to apologize for I just wanted to be a part of the moment!” Finally he ends up next to Blackout. “Believe it or not, I’m perfectly comfortable with who I am. None of this was my fault and I’ll never let any of you forget it.” He then stepped back to his empty space in the circle. “Whelp, now that that’s out of the way lets go run The Sea of Ever Burning Fury, YAAAAAAAAAAAY!” He broke into a full run for the arena gate. The rest of the group looked around the circle at each other. Volnado shrugged and then broke off to follow Trart.

He was quickly followed by the rest of the End of the World Club.

University of Console Heroics: Chapter 25

Clay exited the building having finished his final. He had forgotten how sunny it was outside and used his hand to shield his eyes from the sunlight. With the light out of his eyes he quickly spotted Faith waiting for him. They exchanged awkward glances. Clay walked up to her, she opened her mouth but he interrupted her. “I’m sorry” he spat.

It threw faith off and she was silent a moment longer. Finally finding her voice again. “Why, are you apologizing?” She asked.

“Because I lied to you.” Clay started. “I love being a thug studies major. I love stealing and drinking and breaking the law. This whole semester  I’ve been trying to “grow up” because I thought that’s what adults did. And when you left I turned back into the worst version of myself.” Clay explained.

Faith shook her head. “That’s nothing to be sorry about. I’m the one who should be apologizing. I fed you all that crap about how I didn’t care about all the social rules in my sorority and when it came time to put my heart where was mouth was, I chickened out and betrayed us both.”

Clay couldn’t help but smile at her. “So we are both immature terrible people who can’t be trusted to do the right thing.” He concluded.

She laughed. “Way to make us sound awesome.” She held out her hand.

He held her hand. “I call it like I see it.”

They headed toward the quad together. “If it helps at all, you make me want to be a better person.” She offered.

Clay kissed her hand. “You are a better person dear.” He assured her.

She looked slightly surprised. “what about all that stuff you just said?” She asked.

Clay shrugged his shoulders. “I’m a hardened criminal, you can’t take anything I say at face value.” He admitted.

Faith nodded at this. “So, you forgive me?” She asked genuinely concerned.

Clay nodded. “I kinda have to. I’ma screw up eventually and I want to set a good example for you.” He gave her a kiss.

She separated from him. “Just give me flowers and chocolate and I think we’ll be all right.” She said.

He nodded. “Can I steal them or does that ruin the sentiment?” He asked.

She laughed. “You are who you are.” She replied. They sat under the big tree in the center of the quad where Thompson had been reading his book at the beginning of the year. “How was your final?” She asked him as they got situated against the tree.

Clay shrugged. “Other than the pervasive desire to vomit everywhere I think it went well.”

She laid her head on his shoulder as she replied. “Well, you got that going for you at least.” She wormed her hand into his and they sat in the shade together.

Shades of Justice: Chapter 29

The Shades had a 3D projection of the moon up in the middle of the command center. Sonya held up her hand and swiped left and right, there were no clearly present structures anywhere on it. “There has got to be something that we are missing, something we haven’t found!” She was barely keeping herself from yelling, and went back to pacing the middle of the command center.

Spark lit up the wall. “Luckily you guys can just take your mecha up to the moon and check it out. Gotta admit, kind of a dick move and all, kidnapping your mentors right there at the beginning. This Raptarus guy sounds like a class A douche.” The wall went dark again.

The Shades all glanced at the wall. Gordon raised an eyebrow. “Spark, have you been on the internet?” He asked.

The wall lit up again. “As a matter of fact, I have. You earthlings have quite the vocabulary. I can wish shame on all your mothers in almost a hundred languages now, wanna hear?” He asked.

Gordon shook his head. “Thanks but no.” He turned back to the moon.

The wall continued to flicker. “Your loss.” And went dark.

Sonya shook her head. “I highly doubt that.” She said looking at the 3D moon again. “But what if he’s right? Why don’t we just take Blinding light up there and scan the place until we find Raptarus’ hide out?” She asked.

Suddenly the Moon projection flickered and faded, then was replaced with Raptarus’ face. “Shaaaaaaaaades.” His gravelly voiced filled the command center. “I took your mentor and his pet five days ago and haven’t heard so much as a peep from you. I had a whole series of torments and tortures planned but I’ve gotten bored. So I reprogramed your little robot friend and set him loose in Tokyo.” Raptarus disappeared and the Shades were presented with news footage of a giant Technarious rampaging through Tokyo. “He’s not so little any more. I’ll make you a deal. Cure my boredom and I’ll give you a hint on where to find you little night light friend. But do it quick. I’d hate to see what happens if Technarious is still alive in an hour.” The news footage went away and the moon reappeared in the center of the room.

Dante. “How are we going to stop Technarious without killing him?” Kelly asked.

Sonya already had her glasses on. She looked at Kelly. “We have less than one hour to figure that out. At this point I’d settle for saving some of Tokyo but based on our track record lets shoot for living through the next sixty minutes.” She touched the ear piece of her glasses. “Grayscale, Step into shade!” She shifted and the others followed her lead.

Blood and Profit: Chapter 52

There was no doubting that the corporation was profit hungry and soulless. But the scientists and designers that worked for the corporation three hundred years ago were very good at what they did. The colony ship that was sent to what would become Mew’s home was designed to have almost every inch of material repurposed once it had landed on its colony world. Over the first decade the settlers had done just that. The ship that had been the home for two generations of settlers had been dismantled and built into countless homes, factories, community buildings and utility stations. And they had never seen a need for another large ship to replace it.

Kepi and the other representatives were now trying to solve an impossible problem. And most of the representatives loved nothing more than sitting in session going on at length about each and every impossibility. Luckily, Kepi had infinitely more patience for these sessions than Eamon. She was the kind of person who liked to stay silent until she had something of real value to add to the conversation, and she was not the kind of person who felt that merely hearing her own voice added anything to the conversation except time. This was a rare quality in the senate.

Cole Fletcher loved the sound of his own voice and was more than eager to launch into never ending speeches that often had no point or purpose other than to make sure that no one in senate had the opportunity to forget it. He was the representative for district seventy eight, many of the families that had held power as far back as the generations on the colony ship and possibly further lived in district seventy eight. Cole Fletcher served as a barking guard dog, protecting what passed for royalty on the colony, families that had never worked a day of any kind of labor in several generations. His girth was possibly the only thing that exceeded the size of his ego. He could not stand to speak and thus gave his blubbering oratories from the comfort of his giant hovering chair. “It is patently absurd to assume that anyone, let alone my constituents be asked to leave behind the only lives they have ever known! I find it incredibly suspect that we are taking the word of foreigners, interlopers, ALIENS, without even the barest shred of verifiable evidence. I cannot in good conscience consent to the destruction of everything this colony has worked for just because we might be in danger.” He leveled the last sentence directly at Kepi, who may as well have been the physical shield for Eamon. Fletcher had drastically altered the course of people’s with fewer words and he meant to scare Kepi out of the room with these.

She was less than moved. “Representative Fletcher. While I more than anyone understand your concerns we have all had the co-ordinates and the satellite access codes to witness the wave at any time over the last ten days.” She smiled sweetly as she spoke.

Fletcher slammed his fist into the armrest on his chair. “Are you asking the citizens of this colony to trust some piece of technology that we cannot guarantee the accuracy of?” He shouted.

She calmly picked up her tablet and input a few commands. “Funny you should question the quality and accuracy of our satellite system sir.” She sent the page she had pulled up on her tablet to the main screen and all the desk tablets of every representative. “Would you be so kind as to look at the third name on the board of directors and founding members of the company that makes the satellites in orbit around our planet?” She highlighted and enlarged his name COLE FLETCHER so that it was clearly visible, there was almost no where you could look in the room without seeing it. “Are you telling this assembly that your own company’s product is defective? How long have you known of these defects? How would you suggest we go about being compensated for defective equipment we bought and paid for based on the word of several generations of your family?” The sweet smile never left her face.

Cole on other hand had turned beet red in fury. His giant fists clenched in anger. “Of course Avionic Satellite Systems are of the highest quality.” He admitted slowly, through clenched teeth. “I merely wanted to remind the council that we are talking about the future of this entire colony.” He stared daggers at her.

She didn’t even flinch. “Why senator, I think you might be the last person in this room to realize that talking about the future of this entire colony is the only reason we were elected.” She cleared the page from everyone’s tablets and the main screen. Fletcher was gripping the arm rest of his chair so tightly that it might tear loose at any second.