The Legion of Nothing (& More)

The glowing ring of the portal appeared before us with the grey concrete of the dock’s control room visible through the circle. It grew larger by the instant, making it clear that we were exiting immediately. It was less that we stepped through to the room, so much as fell through at an angle. There was no law, I supposed, that a tunnel through time and space had to synchronize with the…

Nataw said, “Of course. We need you… I’ve been waiting for you to say something like this since all the arguments started.” Then he stopped and looked over at Kee and Lee, asking, “Right?” Kee looked up toward Nataw, “I know it’s hard for you. We all have friends among Destroy. If it could possibly happen, we’d like to end this without fighting any of them. We also know that’s unlikely.” Govan…

Nataw sighed. “I’ve been doing what I always do. After the visions came and our whole race went mad, I left. I couldn’t convince anyone in Destroy that killing the younger races was unnecessary, and so I went out to see them before they disappeared. I’m not much of a fighter, you know.” With a grunt that edged into a growl, Govan said, “It’s not a question of convincing. We all saw what happened.…

From where she stood next to Nataw, Kee smiled. “You met him in the future and he chose not to kill you. I think Govan will be reasonable, provided we’ll be talking to the version of him that spared you. If we’re about to talk to a version of him that doesn’t know anything about that, it could become messy.” “Great,” I thought back to her. Continue reading Engine: Part 9

Tiger, meanwhile, had begun to sniff Nataw and Lee, starting with their butts and crotches. I wondered if he’d still do that if he understood that they were older than our universe. Then it struck me that, given his understanding of English, he might have decided to start there because he’s a dog. Nataw watched him and then scratched Tiger behind the ears. Then he said a word that my implant…

Lee and Nataw stepped up to the group. I overheard Lee say, “I told you that I couldn’t go with you because I was already inside but from a different time. It wasn’t that far, but the future’s unpredictable.” He looked over the group—both versions of the League and Jody’s unconscious body on the ground. “This is Nataw. He’s a very, very old friend.” Then he winked. Grandpa said, “One of your…

You can’t save everyone. Hypothetically, I could pass Cassie’s dad an implant, and maybe it could save his brain, but Spark had said that anyone passing through the fight with the Abominators while owning or using an implant could cause major deviations. It wasn’t worth the risk. Hypothetically, I could send Jaclyn back to grab Paladin, have him heal Giles from whatever damage the process of…

The dog observed the hand and sniffed it, but didn’t lick it. Tiger was smart enough to know he didn’t want to taste the metal-and-ceramic gauntlet. Within a few moments, everyone had arrived: the old Heroes’ League, the new, Prentkos, and both Jody’s and Colette’s unconscious bodies. Talk about not being able to save everyone. Being turned into Rook’s mind-controlled cyborg was still in this…

“I have the ability,” she said, “but I’ll need ideas from you for how to do it. I’m not allowed to change the past on my own without the command of a living being.” “Okay,” I said, and realizing that this might take long enough that people would notice, I asked, “How hard is it to stop time?” The instant I thought it, I knew. Using the device, it wasn’t hard at all. Everything froze around me,…

“Good,” Grandpa said. “I’m sure I must have told you how I met him. He’d been summoned by Nazi sorcerer and trapped. We later came to suspect he’d allowed himself to be trapped, simply so that he could meet me. He never fully explained why.” I nodded, “I don’t know either, but I think I’ve got enough of a picture of his long term goals that I can guess.” Grandpa laughed. “I’m in the same…

Hoping that if Ray realized he’d been manipulated by telepaths, he wouldn’t decide to come back and kill me, I connected with the device and instantly understood how to send him back to his own time. It was actually simple. Ejecting him to anywhere else would hard and not just hard. It would also have consequences, changing the past in ways I couldn’t predict. I hadn’t been wrong about my earlier…

As the stone touched my gauntlet, I connected with it and through it the Galaxy Core Device (GCD) itself. How did it feel to use a device that could destroy galaxies and create new ones? You’d think it would be a moment of enlightenment or maybe ascension, since you assumed powers that you’d normally think were reserved for gods. What surprised me is how normal it felt. I’d been absorbing…

“That’s the best one so far,” Ray said. “When you say how much it can modify you is your choice, how much of a choice do you have?” “Well,” I deliberated how much I wanted to tell him, but decided to be honest. “I’ve got one. When I got hurt one time, it offered me options, and I went with my choice. It didn’t try to force me to turn myself into a cyborg.” Ray nodded. “That’s good so far. Where…

I’d never spent enough time talking to Ray to notice how irritating he could be. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I preferred it when he was trying to kill me, but still. “Okay.” I paused for a few seconds and then continued, “It’s not as if I have a big pile of options here. I don’t think you’re going to like my next one either, but if you want garuanteed results, it’s the best one…” Ray shrugged…

Plus, of course, even if I could somehow trust him, there were practicalities to consider. Ray had died by some combination of accidentally grabbing a power line so hard that he broke through the protective covering and Sean ramming a “Deer Crossing” sign through his chest. Since Ray had lost the “copied Cabal powers” version of himself and lapsed into unconsciousness before the sign hit, I’d…

I turned off the rockets and let my anti-gravity take me to the ground near Ray. Colette, I noticed, was nowhere to be seen and my implant showed me footage of her running off into the room’s general melee around the point where Magnus transformed into the next stage of an Artificer’s life. Ray turned toward me, the flat stone in his right hand. “Hey,” he said, “we’re not done. You got what you…

The boombots hit before I did, turning everything on Magnus’ side of his shield into roiling red, orange, and white fire. Ironically, I didn’t feel the explosions at all. He’d protected me from my own blasts. While they didn’t hurt him, his eyes widened, and he turned around, shouting, the explosions adding to the surreal feel. Not seeing an attack from that side, he turned back to me. His eyes…