It wasn't that he wanted the gold. It wasn't even that he wanted me to give him the gold. It was that he wanted me to give it to him at gunpoint. I just wasn't going to let that pass unremarked ( Read more... )

"Rank" Husker was leaning quietly against the wall by the parking garage elevator, smoothing his fingernails with the little file on his pocket knife. There was a click on the ground next to him, and he swung his hand outward with a practiced motion to block the space just past the corner of the wall ( Read more... )

After reading a number of
( Read more... )

When the first dreams came, I dismissed them,
Simply accepting that they were fun.
Flight was cool and it was fun to hover in the air
Chasing leaves around a park.

( But the dreams kept coming. )

"I'll tell you what's a problem, mister. It's people like you who come here and tell us how to do our jobs." The man behind the desk pushed his chair back, eyes never leaving the man in front of it. "Now, I have a problem with that. I'm doing everything within the law to catch crooks, and here you are flouting it and telling me I'm wrong, that you ( Read more... )

Warning: Foul language and harsh concepts ahead. Maturity desirable.The night was perfect here in the hollow between towns. The valley was filled with fog, and the lights of the rare vehicle passing down its road cut like glowing foam bats through cold grease. Even The Terror was beginning to regret walking this clammy, miserable stretch of old ( Read more... )

So ( Read more... )

Doctor Tragedy always seemed to have the worst luck. A year ago, he'd tried to defeat The Impossible, only to instead destroy a parasite that had turned the superhero evil. Last month, his scheme to kidnap the royalty of Africa had ended up pillaging a Nigerian spammer's house and revealing connections with a child sex-slavery ring, which he'd felt ( Read more... )

( Part 1 is here.)

"It would be easy to say that this new form of stimulation is to blame for our troubles. It would be easy, and self-righteous. I take the harder path. I blame people who refuse to control themselves, who refuse to take responsibility! Responsibility for themselves, for their children, for their actions. Responsibility to society ( Read more... )

In the old apartment building, there is a window open; and through that window can be seen a television, filling its tiny space with the talk of an all-hours news channel. These words can be heard from a special report ( Read more... )