Perry flew over to Hardcase’s last known location and spotted nothing but the damage from Boomer’s crash, and a long gash in the asphalt leading away.
I guess they went that way.
Perry glanced in the direction they went, but they didn’t pop out at him.
It’s possible she didn’t retreat in a straight line, might be faster to fly up and get a better vantage point. Just following Nat in circles would be embarrassing.
Perry flew straight up, foll...
2023-07-24 17:56:30 +0000 UTC
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***Heather***
Yer courtin’ a grim fate. Anya said, her spirit rustling about inside her anxiously. ‘Tis unwise to not be where they believe you to be.
“I know, alright? I just wanna see some demonic trolls before those two get to hog all the fun.” Heather said, kicking her feet off the side of the towering building, watching the battle with a pair of old-timey binoculars she’d freed from an abandoned sporting goods shop.
Heather had gradually lost...
2023-07-22 20:24:07 +0000 UTC
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***Boomer***
Boomer was having a grand time contemplating life as his pilot was destroying it, his thought processes flickering at lightning speed between blasts from the primary cannon.
If no genetic information is received from Heather, does that mean the offspring is technically a parasite? Or are all babies parasites, and that’s just a stage of human development?
Send: MATADOR
How long do human babies parasitize their mother...
2023-07-17 15:59:43 +0000 UTC
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“You’re a lot cooler about this than I thought,” Perry said, eyeing Heather as she packed up some clothes and some water, getting ready to evacuate with the rest of the civilians.
“I mean, I wanna go fight some demon-worshipping giants rampaging through Chicago. That sounds about as metal as it gets. They cut their skin off and fuse metal in its place. Mmm.”
Heather made the ‘Chef’s kiss’ motion.
Heather glanced up at the ceiling and sighed, unconsci...
2023-07-13 16:20:55 +0000 UTC
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I'm currently on a 11 day road trip I neglected to consider when launching the 31 chapter public run for July.
Just got hit with a no-sleep night, and writing will be sporadic until we reach our mid-point, where we're staying for ~4 days.
Currently have 800 words of the next chapter, and I'll try to tack on some more when I have time, but today is...eh probably not gonna happen.
in the meantime i'll try to brainstorm and plot more to allow the chapters to flow a little quic...
2023-07-11 15:22:38 +0000 UTC
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“Why aren’t they showing up?” Perry muttered to himself, scanning the arial shots of the surrounding land. Since he’d gotten word of an attack force of trolls approaching he’d scanned the surroundings with drones with advanced imaging technology and located several more troll teen shepherds, and even a few nomadic structures, but nothing that would indicate an attack.
Even with infrared, he couldn’t find any humanoid shapes other than the ones he’d already found generally ...
2023-07-08 16:27:37 +0000 UTC
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Before Perry could finish his curse, the tree trunk studded with metal plates was already approaching his head.
Perry lashed out with a punch, putting the full force of his suit behind it.
BOOM!
The wood of the tree exploded in every direction, the counterforce shoving Perry to the side and burying him to his knees in the compact earth.
The lumbering monster peered at it’s broken weapon for a moment before letting out a howl of rage, charging Perry with on a...
2023-07-06 15:23:15 +0000 UTC
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The captain of Rainbow Unicorn Squad was laid out on a stack of pallets, completely still. Harsh, shallow breathing echoed through the speaker in the front of his armor.
“What happened?” Perry asked, his voice rendered deep and ominous through his suit.
“He just kinda locked up and stopped responding,” his squad member replied, shifting from foot to foot nervously. They couldn’t read Perry’s expression through the humorless façade of his armor.
Perry hit the cap...
2023-07-04 15:49:31 +0000 UTC
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I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been putting out less chapters publicly than I have for Patreon, and that's because I've been planning on doing a chapter flood for July!
I'd like to try to unleash a chapter a day to the public every day of July! Naturally this will make the 10$ lead shrink, although I'll try to write enough chapters to keep you guys at LEAST even with the 5$ patrons. Naturally you'll regain your lead over the next few weeks after the end of July.
Let me ...
2023-07-01 16:18:33 +0000 UTC
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HP: 13
Perry discovered himself standing in a black abyss. None of the people who’d been standing near him around the lightning rod could be seen or heard.
Perry tapped his toe against the floor and discovered that it didn’t exist: he was floating.
Hmm…floating in an abyss…Perry checked his heartbeat, and discovered he didn’t have a body. He was seemingly anchored to a fixed point in space, able to perceive from there, but not int...
2023-07-01 16:14:31 +0000 UTC
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“Okay, there’s a couple problems with that plan,” Natalie said as they pored over a blueprint of a modified altar of Gintax, sharing a seat in an abandoned restaurant.
“First, if you just sacrifice blood, you’re looking at a tiny amount of power generated. We’re talking a few ounces of areonite or the equivalent amount of Divine Favor per fish.
“If you use a typical shrine, it will mummify the entire fish, giving you a substantial amount more, but eating it ...
2023-06-28 18:14:03 +0000 UTC
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Normally a structure of the size Perry was considering would take months, if not over a year.
But in this case, Perry moved it to the top of the list of things to make with Gretchen’s Idyllic Manifestation: People couldn’t go without food for another year.
“Okay, so pike are dumb, aggressive, and voracious,” Perry said, motioning to the massive concrete wall they stood on top of. The structure was about the size and shape of a stadium, solid concrete, extending hallway out...
2023-06-25 18:46:41 +0000 UTC
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First Problem: Weapons.
Deliberately making something less than his best was an interesting experience.
Perry considered making just a gun to help clear the outskirts of the city of megafauna, but the simple fact was a human body couldn’t handle the kind of recoil it would require to reliably put the monsters down.
Prawn guns were at the edge of what the human body could tolerate, and their track record was spotty at best.
And that meant Perry had to break o...
2023-06-22 16:50:26 +0000 UTC
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“Oh my god, that was so cringe,” Perry muttered to himself, his knees drawn up to his chest.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Nat said, patting him on the head.
“Idunno, he said his own name a lot, and T-posed while flying. Pretty cringe.” Heather said, nodding.
She caught Perry’s Look and shrugged. “I’m sure if I didn’t know you, I would be very impressed.”
Perry relaxed, releasing his legs and sighing. “You gotta say your own name multiple times when y...
2023-06-20 16:25:08 +0000 UTC
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“You know, I’m not even sure we’re gonna get the right people,” Perry muttered to himself as he ambled down the street towards City hall.
It was an obvious trap he was setting up, so all the smartest players probably wouldn’t be caught dead going there…even with the pizza thing.
Matter of fact, that might’ve made things worse. It became more obviously a trap, so only the stupidest, most patriotic men eager to fight to defend their city’s pride would show up.
2023-06-16 19:21:18 +0000 UTC
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“Why does Boomer have a cowboy hat?” Perry asked as he shoved his duffle bag into the cargo hold, peering up at the oblong mech’s wide-brim hat that was big enough to use as a boat.
“To keep the rain off him,” Natalie said with a shrug, settling her own cowboy hat.
“You know we’re not actually going that far west?” Perry asked. If his knowledge of Pre-Tide geography was right, there was a hell of a lot past Chicago.
“But I made cowboy hats for ever...
2023-06-14 17:11:26 +0000 UTC
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And so it came to pass that in the year 1215 of the Manitian calendar, that Paradox Zauberer distributed an image of his grandmother snorting wine through her nose, taken on a prior Thanksgiving, an Earth holiday of excess.
Marigold Zauberer immediately tried to forbid its distribution and soon learned of an Earth phenomenon known as the ‘Streisand Effect’, as she inadvertently caused the image to explode in popularity and distribution, reaching even non-manitians, who ...
2023-06-12 17:26:22 +0000 UTC
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***David Manchin***
“How the hell did you get in here!? Bill said you backed off!“
“Bill was lying. Open the cabinet under the sink.”
He did so, allowing a single beam of light to spill into the cabinet, revealing Bill Grove stuffed violently into the space, displacing the harsh cleaning agents soaking into his skin. Bill’s breathing was shallow and labored, the skin of his lips and wrists stuck together with some kind of clear adhesive.
“I...
2023-06-09 14:35:36 +0000 UTC
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***David Manchin***
“Did I or did I not tell you to wait!?” David asked Bill Grove, his elbows fraying his expensive suit where he ground them into his mahogany desk.
“One of the androids who wandered off got away from the cleanup crews. A little girl. She made it all the way back to the holding unit. They’re responding violently and arming themselves.”
“On the word of a goddamn tween?” David demanded, glaring at the photo on his desk...
2023-06-07 17:40:30 +0000 UTC
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***Stacy Watt-Powers***
Stacy peered out the windows of the apartment complex they’d been sardined into, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Something just didn’t sit right about the situation.
They gave everyone citizen I.D.s, demonstrating that they were willing to give them a place to stay. Tomorrow they were saying they’d meet with logistics officers to see if they could get them jobs and places to stay.
It was all…too convenient.
Stacy’s first life had t...
2023-06-05 16:40:37 +0000 UTC
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“So umm…how did that happen?” Spangle asked, emerging from her cell to stare down into the ball pit, opposite Perry.
For a moment, the surface was still, and all was quiet…
Then Serenity erupted from the ball pit like a demon from an angry volcano, spewing brightly colored plastic everywhere.
Time to go, Perry thought, leaping over the pit towards his rescue-e, ankle dangerously close to being grabbed by the maddened Bruiser.
“I’ll tell you later....
2023-05-31 17:47:30 +0000 UTC
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Clack.
Clack.
A G-man stuck his head out one of the many doors, investigating why the gate guard had seemingly lost his mind. He saw a single old man limping along, whistling without a care, the hand-held radio dangling around his neck, stuck into the ‘on’ position.
He met Perry’s gaze, his eyes widening.
He wasn’t supermodel handsome, so Perry suspected superpowers.
He stepped fully into the hallway, pointing a nine millimeter at Perry,...
2023-05-29 17:55:26 +0000 UTC
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***David Manchin, Mayor of Washington City***
“He’s WHAT?” David demanded, scowling at his assistant.
“He’s gone to ground, along with Chase Currant. The four handlers assigned to bring Chase in are in the hospital. The other two supers on Paradox’s team are in custody, and responding well to Minder control. Chemestro had to have his fantasy tweaked to be significantly more…exercise oriented, but it’s still holding.”
“I don’t care about them, w...
2023-05-26 15:49:46 +0000 UTC
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***Teresa Fuller***
Teresa came to with a quick intake of breath, surveying first her own situation before she extended her search outward.
She was, in short: fucked.
She was bound to a slab of concrete and rebar cut into a chairlike shape, kept in place by layer after layer of duct tape seemingly scavenged from the surrounding abandoned construction site.
I recognize this place.
She was in the Meyers building, a building in do...
2023-05-23 16:46:00 +0000 UTC
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Props to their training:
The guy with the broken arm didn’t stumble backward, howling in pain. Instead, he tried to pin Perry with the busted arm while he reached for his sidearm with his good hand. Two of the men restraining Chase dropped their burden to do the same.
It was a cramped apartment complex hallway and the walls were paper-thin, so Perry did what he had to do to prevent them from firing randomly.
He kicked the nearest one in his good arm, shattering it and fold...
2023-05-20 15:49:19 +0000 UTC
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***Sweeper-Class Minder, Margery Hammond***
“What. The. Hell. Was. THAT!?” Marge’s handler shouted, the eerie mindless robot punctuating each word with a strike from a janitor’s bottle of cleaning agent. It’d been the closest thing at hand.
The plastic bottle didn’t hurt that much impacting against her head and shoulders, but Marge wasn’t going to point that out. It wasn’t about the pain anyway. It was about control. If she acted like it wasn’t painful, the bitch...
2023-05-18 18:32:14 +0000 UTC
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Matador’s claim to fame was his billowing crimson cape, but it was more accurate to think of it as a gaseous substance that could rewrite reality inside of its area of effect. Perry’s Dimensional Tinker senses felt heaviness…potential, radiating off the cape like heat waves.
Maybe it was Matador living with the potential of having anything, while being devoid of an internal life that caused his nihilism. It was like being pressed up against a glass pane while the world passed you ...
2023-05-15 17:28:42 +0000 UTC
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“And that was the second time Mass Driver got crabs,” Perry said.
“Awesome,” Matador said, taking another puff of his modified cigar. It was difficult to find cigars modified to affect robots, but they could be found.
Probably highly toxic for humans though, judging by the acrid odor surrounding the two of them. Perry would have to check himself for tumors later.
They were sitting on the top of the train, legs dangling over the edge, hundreds of miles of tra...
2023-05-13 18:03:00 +0000 UTC
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See image post below
2023-05-13 00:17:41 +0000 UTC
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All the images are AI generated composite rough drafts, will be edited later for extra fingers and weirdness.
Just wondering which one caught your eye first. Does NOT require you to have read the book first, because the cover is bait for people who haven't read the book.
If you have any comments, suggestions or discussion for my photoshop fairy, leave them below.
2023-05-13 00:14:25 +0000 UTC
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