Tag: collective thinking

Chapter

Situational Awareness

by Tower Curator — The Men’s Wearhouse was, as far as Dyna and Emerald could tell, a perfectly average men’s clothing store. They had gone around the building a few times, both inside and outside, to ensure that it wasn’t some front for Ignotus-33 or a trap for them. Emerald had been snooping about in stopped time, checking employee only areas and snooping about. She had been unable to locate any secret passages, hidden rooms, or scraps of paper that didn’t look like they belonged. Dyna didn’t have much in…
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Chapter

Wedding Crashers

by Tower Curator — Dyna didn’t often leave the Carroll Institute these days. It wasn’t that she was afraid or anything. In fact, she was pretty sure a small part of her wanted Ignotus to show up. But the simple fact was that her excursions out of the institute in the past had been to experiment with her ability in an environment where the administrators wouldn’t try to shut her down. Now that she had permission, there simply was little reason to head into Idaho Falls on the regular. Most days, anyway. Today,…
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Chapter

Tick-Tock

by Tower Curator — Having Emerald back changed a few things in Dyna’s life. Training sessions were rougher. More intense. Dyna had no idea how she would have kept up were it not for the multitude of gadgets that she was cycling through. Before Emerald left for Korea, she had participated in training. At the time, she must have been going easy. Either that or she was especially upset about taking a paintball to the face. It was hard to tell. Emerald almost perpetually had a serene smile on. Ruby acted differently as…
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Chapter

Friendly Appearances

by Tower Curator — Dyna rushed forward, moving from the concealment of a flimsy office filing cabinet to the sturdy cover of a brick wall. Flipping open her mirror, she used it not like the artifact it was, but as a regular mirror to peer around the corner. There was a bit of smoke in the air. She could taste it on her tongue. But the goggles she wore let her see through it like it wasn’t there. Seven on the left. Five on the right. The enemy was crouching and half hidden behind toppled tables and furniture. Their…
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Chapter

Mission Failure

by Tower Curator — Emerald placed her back against a concrete pillar, wincing as bullets pelted the other side. This was not how this operation was supposed to have gone. Arriving in Seoul, Korea had been nice enough. Lovely city. The accommodations had been nothing to complain about. Then began the search for the artifact. Emerald had been hoping that they would be able to find the artifact in good time. Perhaps in the hands of a collector they could pay off or maybe a museum with a single night-shift security guard that…
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Chapter

Theta

by Tower Curator — “She’s becoming a problem.” “Becoming? She’s been a problem since the moment we discovered her.” “We’re lucky to have discovered her. Imagine what she could have done in someone else’s hands.” “What she did do in other’s hands. I, for one, do not believe Tartarus was an organization at all this time last year. She’s manufacturing new enemies for us out of nothing. Likely thanks to careless words delivered by our artificers.” “Perhaps it is time we reexamine our…
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Chapter

Therapy Session

by Tower Curator — Dyna watched with a wince as a wooden letter block slipped out of Hematite’s grip. Hematite ground her teeth together, stilled and took a deep breath, then tried again. Her arm shook and her eyes were filled with concentration, but she managed to stack the block on top of another. The moment of victory crashed down along with the tower of blocks as Hematite’s thumb nicked the edge of another block as she tried to pull back from the tower. Hematite slumped over, sighing to herself. She stared down at…
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Chapter

Lightning Gun

by Tower Curator — It was a coil gun, not a lightning gun. Dyna had seen the bright flash. The clap of thunder. The fried bodies. It was a lightning gun, not a coil gun. Walter ran up with it and used it in relatively close proximity. He had dropped it or thrown it to the floor in surprise and shock. It was his gun. It had come from his car. He would have known how to use it. It was a coil gun. Beatrice’s drones had been knocked out of the sky from the blast of lightning. It was a lightning…
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Chapter

Coil Gun

by Tower Curator — “So,” Dyna said, pulling an internally-suppressed pistol from Walter’s cache of weapons. She didn’t know what kind of weapon it was, but it looked far sleeker and newer than anything she had used before. Dyna wasn’t surprised that his car had just as many weapons stashed away as Emerald’s car and, after seeing the car itself, she wasn’t surprised that they were just as high-tech. But she was curious… “Why didn’t you use one of these on that mountain man?” “Mountain—” Walter…
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Chapter

Night Rider

by Tower Curator — Dyna felt calm. An unnatural calm, but at the moment, that feeling was rather refreshing. Her worries, her stress, even some of the pain she was in felt muted. It didn’t go away. It was all still there in the back of her mind. She wished the feeling would persist, but she had a feeling the calm state would recede the moment she touched the objects presented to her. The objects in the truck were definitely artifacts. No blind experiment this time, though it probably was still an experiment. At the…
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