Lackey Snippets

Avalanche - Snippet 43 John was so out of it that he almost missed the signs of what they were heading towards. A shadow on a rooftop. The scuffle of a boot against concrete. The couple talking on the street corner that were trying a little too hard to keep their body language neutral. It clicked for John all at once that he and Sera were walking into a trap of some sort. He had become reliant on his shared battle-sense with Sera to warn him of danger; that, combined with how exhausted the two of them were had kept him nearly oblivious to his...

Avalanche - Snippet 42 "We've gotta get back to Atlanta. We're skatin' enough as is, though I'm pretty sure we can keep the Commissar from throwin' too much crockery at us." They walked through the door of the cabin; Zach was on the porch waiting for them. "Some light show." He shifted uncomfortably, then tried to pass it off as he looked down at the ground and leaned against the porch railing. "It's time for you two to go, isn't it?" "You won't be alone in the conventional sense, Zachary," Sera said softly. "Ok." He glanced up at them. John...

Avalanche - Snippet 41 It was Sera who answered Zach.  "We do not know if we will succeed, Zachary.  But if we fail, if we fall, you are the last hope against the Thulians.  This much, we know for certain.  And we searched long and hard for you, and went through much to find you and bring you to safety."  She glanced soberly over at John.  "In so doing, we have probably exposed John to his old enemies, those who are behind the Program we brought you out of.  But that is the price we were willing to pay." "You're that important, kiddo....

Avalanche - Snippet 40 The cabin and the land were his bolt hole; a place to run when he had nowhere else to go. It had served him well in those early days on the run. He had had a lot of things to deal with; grief over what he had lost, guilt over what he had done, and how to reconcile all of it with what he had become. No longer a soldier. A criminal, a fugitive. And also a metahuman. There had been a lot of time spent trying to get his new "gifts" under control; harnessing his heightened senses without being overwhelmed, keeping his new...

Avalanche - Snippet 39 Ebb Tide Mercedes Lackey Amphitrite was pleased.  Bill (she really did not like that name) was proving to be more and more congenial as he climbed out of his Melancholia.  The investment in the physician of the mind had been wise--but then, she was a goddess, and goddesses are always wise. Finally she decided that it was time for the next stage of her cure.  At least once a day, he told her, his eyes full of admiration, how beautiful she was.  But she heard what was unspoken beneath the compliment.  And I am so...

Avalanche - Snippet 38 He and Sera just reacted, automatically, going down to the ground and taking as many of the kids as they could with them.  A Thulian Death Sphere, half on fire and anted sideways, flew overhead.  It was clearly going down, and a minute or two later, the island shook and a fireball rose over the swamp to John's left. Somethin' nasty is fighting back against the Thulians. Guess the Program has some more tricks up its sleeve. "Any interference on the way out?" John asked, still prone. "Not at the moment.  Wait too long...

Avalanche - Snippet 37 John changed tactics. He started to wound and incapacitate the duplicates instead of going directly for the kill. Holding his claymore in front of himself, he swung the blade in a windshield wiper motion, advancing forward with each cut. Hands, arms, parts of legs, and knives all fell to the floor. A few of the duplicates were killed anyways---they were all so close together, it was impossible to be one hundred percent discretionary with his attacks---but for the most part John only injured them enough to take them out...

Avalanche - Snippet 36 "Roger that, Vickie." He withdrew his arm from the hole in the wall, shaking the muddy water off before extinguishing the sword again and re-shouldering his rifle. "Eye in the sky, kid. Our Overwatch; kind of like mission control. She's gonna help us get out of this joint." Suddenly his HUD showed an overlay; the directions led back through the way Zach and the others had apparently come.  There was a dead-end back that way, that according to Vickie was not a dead end at all.  Somehow they were supposed to gain access...