Category Archives: Freedom Squad
Chapter 21 – Freedom Squad Nanowrimo
Chapter 21
Ion reminded himself that no matter how fast they were going, Starlight wasn’t going to drop him. The alien robot or person of whatever he was had carried him safely to the wreck on the interstate the night before. Starlight had also carried ambulances.
They were moving faster this time.
Ion activated his communicator. “Rigel, if Starlight and I get there first, should we engage Fusion or wait?”
“He’s at a nuclear reactor. Do everything you can to stop him. There’s no telling what he might do,” she said.
“Understood,” replied Ion. “Starlight, did you hear that?”
“Affirmative,” said Starlight. “I have also spotted our adversary. He is emitting a cloud of intense radiation. I will put you on the ground before I engage.”
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Chapter 20 – Freedom Squad Nanowrimo
Chapter 20
The mayor rubbed his temples. He couldn’t believe what had happened. He was inside Freedom Squad Headquarters in Protector’s room sitting in a chair. Protector was lying in a bed only a few feet from where he was sitting, and Starlight stood over him.
“What just happened?” asked the mayor. “Defiance was about to crush me. Now, I’m here?”
“As mayor of this fine city, you should know that you are in safe hands. The noble heroes of Megalopolis are currently outwitting the foul villains outside,” stated Starlight flatly.
The mayor stared blankly at Starlight.
“Mr. Mayor?”
The mayor stood up. “Starlight, how did I get here and please use standard English?”
“My apologies, sir. Velocity brought you. I am to defend you if the battle goes poorly, however, it appears that Freedom Squad has triumphed.”
“Who is, no, wait, by Velocity are you being scientific or… never mind, I need to make a call. Afterwards, I want a full explanation from Rigel,” he looked over at Protector. “What happened to him?”
“I believe it was the work of a super-villain known as the Ace of Spades.”
“Fine, Starlight, stay here with Protector. I’m going to have a talk with Rigel.”
The mayor stepped out into the hallway and began walking toward the front. As he walked, he typed a single word text into his encrypted phone. “Nuclear.”
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Chapter 19 – Freedom Squad Nanowrimo
Chapter 19
“Defiance!” shouted Rigel.
She was inside a burned-out building, picking her way around fallen walls and broken columns. Bare wires sparked from wall outlets and water sprayed from shattered faucets. The floor was covered with playing cards, each one of them showing the Ace of Spades.
“Bill!” she yelled.
She came to a window and saw a single building standing across the street. It was a single family ranch-style home, beige with brown trim, fairly non-descript, other than it was in perfect shape including a manicured lawn. Oh, and it was located in a ruined city between collapsing skyscrapers. An American flag hung off the porch.
“Well, at least it doesn’t appear too hard to figure out what’s important in his mind,” she said.
The Ace of Spades opened the door and stepped out onto the porch. “Hello, Rigel.”
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Chapter 18 – Freedom Squad Nanowrimo
Chapter 18
Defiance turned his head toward the mayor.
Telepathically, Rigel contacted Matt, “Get the mayor inside the base, now.”
Defiance flew over to the mayor. “You are the one who did this to me! You can’t hide anymore!” he shouted.
The mayor’s eyes widened. He looked utterly terrified for a split-second, but then, there was a blur or a shadow, and the mayor was gone. Only a few singed grasses on the lawn indicated what had happened.
“That was Velocity,” whispered Rigel.
Defiance screamed incoherently and slammed a fist into the ground, shattering concrete and throwing everyone off their feet. “Where is he?” he said, turning to glare at Future Soldier/Nightstar. “I’ll tear you and your team apart if you don’t turn him over.”
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Chapter 17 – Freedom Squad Nanowrimo
Chapter 17
“Last night, Freedom Squad may have been saving lives, but this reporter wants to know where Protector and Rockslide were? Are they recovering from injuries in their battles with Defiance, Death Queen and the other villains rampaging through the city? And in the meantime, progress continues slowly on cleaning up the monument to the original Freedom Squad. But first, news from the Northwest, where the hero team Vanguard defeated one of our escapees…”
Click.
Rigel turned off the morning news broadcast and put her boots up on one of the consoles in the Monitor Room. She groaned softly. “Why does the press have to be so difficult?” she asked no one in particular.
Rockslide rumbled beside her. He sat down heavily on the floor.
“I know,” Rigel thought to the massive stone superhero, “And I’m sorry, but you are a little hard to disguise.”
“I know,” he sadly thought in reply.
“Besides, you’ll have Starlight around if things get out of control, and you know what you need to do,” she thought back to him.
“Protect the Protector,” he thought back. “And put on a good show.”
“Right,” she responded. “Now, remember, what we are about to do is rather mad, but I need you to make it look good. I’d also like you to trust me with something. I want to alter your brainwaves slightly. Basically, I’m trying to make you less susceptible to mental attack. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Ace of Spades tries to do something to you once he figures out my plan.”
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Chapter 16 – Freedom Squad Nanowrimo
Chapter 16
Ion had led Solaria and Snowfall on a tour of Freedom Squad Headquarters, assigned them both rooms at the base, introduced them to Starlight (who was in the Monitor Room) and Rockslide (who was working out with the mega-weight machine in the gym), made up something about Daniel Hunter being a technical advisor and had let them know about Protector.
It was the last part that had Snowfall upset.
“This is terrible. There’s got to something that someone can do to wake him up,” said Snowfall. “He took on Defiance by himself. He’s the Protector.”
“I know,” said Ion, as he finished updating the communicators that had been assigned to the two new members. “But, we’re up against some dangerous people. Dr. Lord is one of the best doctors that I’ve seen. The important thing for both of you to remember is that you don’t tell anyone unless Rigel says it’s okay. “
“I’m sure he’ll recover,” said Solaria.
“Yep,” said Ion, sounding much more confident about it than he felt.
Snowfall put his hands on his hips and lowered his head. “Protector was my hero growing up. When he died…”
“… you almost went crazy and decided that you were going to use all those ice and snow powers that you still can’t control and hunt down every super-villain in the country,” said Solaria, finishing Snowfall’s sentence.
“Yes, well, and then the current Protector took up the shield and joined Freedom Squad. I was skeptical at first, but he made me believe.”
“Was it the time he stopped Laserfist and his gang from robbing the Megalopolis National Bank?”
“No,” said Snowfall, “It was when the Dark Gladiator was fighting Freedom Squad. He was on one of the buildings and knocked over the water tower. Protector was on the ground and thousands of gallons of water poured down. A family had run out of the building, and Protector made it over to them and somehow, his shield…”
“His shield deflected the water, which shouldn’t have been possible,” said Solaria.
“Were you there?” asked Ion.
“No,” they both said together. Snowfall finished this time, “I saw it on the news. There was something about the way he made sure those people were okay after he saved them, even though the battle was still going on. It made an impact on me.”
“Yeah, well Protector can do that,” said Ion. “He’s my friend.” Ion glanced in the general direction of Protector’s room. “He’ll recover.” This time he was trying to convince himself.
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Chapter 15 – Freedom Squad Nanowrimo
Chapter 15
Matt Johnson sat in a tired old recliner and stared at a feature article about up and coming American Olympic athletes. His photo was in the middle of page. He was holding a medal in one hand and wearing his Penn State colors.
That all seemed to be gone now.
He kept wondering how it had happened. Was it the diet? The training? Had someone slipped something in his drink?
The speed was one thing, but he had broken his own weight lifting record without breaking a sweat. He felt indestructible. He also felt healthier than he ever had. It was as if some magical genie had given him everything he had ever wished for when he was training.
And that meant he would never be allowed to win an Olympic gold.
The doorbell buzzed. Angrily, he got up. The reporters were wearing him out. It was late enough that he could be asleep. He wished that the whole thing had never happened. Stupid other coaches started going crazy. Coach Hudson, his coach, hadn’t said anything. He just seemed sad.
The last look Coach Hudson had given him stung him. It was betrayal along with dashed dreams, mixed up in a confused whole.
The doorbell buzzed again. “I’m coming,” Matt said, doing his best to move slowly.
Swinging the door open without checking the peephole, he didn’t know what to do when he found himself face to face with Rigel and Nightstar of Freedom Squad.
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Chapter 14 – Freedom Squad Nanowrimo
Good news! I’m over 40,000 words. No real bad news other than I need to post a bunch of chapters. Here’s Chapter 14:
Chapter 14
Stacy King checked the GPS coordinates she had received from Rigel. She stood in a grove of trees in the Appleton Mall Park, and she seemed to be alone except for a flock of Canada geese who were trying to get to sleep. The sky was dark, and she didn’t see any sign of a flying superhero.
She was starting to get nervous. Superheroes usually didn’t like to be late.
The entire jailbreak played out in her head. She had been studying it since it took place, trying to make sense of everything.
The super-villain wing of the Megalopolis Penitentiary was not meant to be permanent, but rather a temporary solution until a more permanent holding facility was completed in Nevada. Still, state-of-the-air technology was used, including neutralizer bracers, Ultracite alloy bars, etc. Although it had been suggested that robots replace humans as guards, the technology wasn’t advanced enough to be even remotely affordable (not that Ultracite alloy was affordable) and of course, there were fears of cyberattacks. The guards were well-trained and for the most part, competent.
Unfortunately, one of them had died in the wrong place, at the wrong time. She hoped the autopsy would come back sound. George Nelson, age 54, could be seen walking past a few cells one minute, before suddenly collapsing the next. It had been a massive heart attack. Basically, his heart had exploded. The autopsy had confirmed it.
He had died within sight of Death Queen’s cell. Security wasn’t meant to stop a necromancer with access to a dead body that had access to open her cell.
Once the door had opened, all hell had broken loose.
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Chapter 13B – Freedom Squad Nanowrimo
More writing… Chapter 13 continues
An alert blared. “Unauthorized personnel at front gate,” announced the computer.
Solaria could be seen standing at the front gate, flames swirling around her. She had her arms folded in front of the sun symbol that she wore on her red bodysuit. Snowfall was clearly recognizable standing behind her and to the left, despite the fact that he wore a black trenchcoat over his costume and a black hat on his head.
Telekinetically, Rigel activated the front intercom. “7… 8… 9…“ said Solaria while flames crackled in the background.
“Solaria, this is Rigel. What are you doing?”
“It’s about time. We need to talk, and don’t I get a ‘G’Day’?”
“Sorry, it hasn’t been a good day. I’ll let you both in and meet you at the front door, assuming you’ve passed all the scans,” said Rigel. “Oh, and stay on the sidewalk. The grounds have mines.”
Rigel clicked off the intercom.
“I can talk to Solaria, if you’d like,” offered Ion with a grin. “I don’t mind.”
“I’m sure you don’t. Fine, you can come.”
After Solaria and Snowfall passed retina scans and made it up the sidewalk, Rigel and Ion greeted them at the front door to the mansion. Solaria was no longer projecting flames, but she seemed irritated enough to do so.
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Chapter 13A – Freedom Squad Defiance
Chapter 13
Protector was asleep. More importantly, he was alive.
Rigel knew that Dr. Lord was going to stay at his bedside, and that whatever the Ace of Spades had done, Alex’s mind was doing its best to heal. She wanted to try and go into his head, but she convinced herself that she needed to trust that the best thing for him was to let him heal.
Whatever the Ace had tried to do, it had failed.
There were other matters that Cori needed to address. She was determined that she was going to redo the code on the Freedom Squad servers and create the world’s greatest firewall. The Ace of Spades wasn’t going to get into their systems again. Afterwards, she was going to check every log file imaginable and determine how the Ace had accessed their systems. She sat at a keyboard with her hands folded under her chin as she watched code flash by on the monitor. The keyboard beeped as it tried to keep up with the speed of her telekinetic typing.
Daniel Hunter came up behind her. She mentally sensed him before she saw him. He seemed a little shaken by the attack, but he was otherwise okay. Like everyone else, he was more concerned with Protector. Though, at this point, she knew that he was worried about her. He had been a team leader in the past, and he had been the one who had supported her when she decided to join Freedom Squad.
Daniel put a hand on her shoulder. In a gentle voice, he said, “I can do that.”
“No,” she said. “This is my responsibility. The mayor even told me to do it. There was an error with our security system before the cameras showed Protector convulsing. I should have taken care of this. Someone’s been accessing our systems. I’ll let you follow up and check the log after I’m done. If there’s another crisis, I’ll even let you take over, but for right now, I’m going to catch the person who’s been causing all the trouble.”
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Harry Heckel 