Kevin McLaughlin

Chapter 61 - Skydiving Lobsters

I hopped up on one of the concrete barriers beside Alex, who was using the thing as a rampart behind my makeshift wall. He glanced my way and then turned his attention immediately back toward the oncoming horde of Karabos.

"What do you think?" I asked.

"I think we're in a lot of trouble, but I also think yo...

Chapter 60 - Do Not Wish One More

I took off, soaring above the city on the lookout for our enemies. MacGregor was right. We couldn't just guess where they were headed. We needed hard intelligence, and I was the best person to go find it. Fortunately, figuring out where a 50-foot crab was crawling wasn't rocket science. I think I could have found the t...

Chapter 59 - Right to Defense

If you ever get a chance to fly, and I mean really fly, take it. Walking everywhere is just so slow. Now that I'd had a chance to zip around in the air under my own power, I didn't want to spend much time on the ground anymore. Of all the crappy things that had happened to me since the Event, gaining my Flight powe...

Chapter 58 - Brushes With Death

The sound as I struck the shield was like the Earth breaking in half. The boom was so loud my ears rang, so loud I felt the shockwave spreading from the point of impact. The pain was incredible as my fists slammed into the shield, so intense I was sure I'd shattered bones, but I couldn't let that stop me. Impacting the...

Chapter 57 - Tower Defense

The devastation was epic. Of the tower itself, there was nothing left. The few Karabos forces still alive didn’t look like they’d be back in the fight anytime soon, either. I swung back over to the building where I'd left Alex and picked him up.

"Last one," I said.

"Right. Let's try to make sure this on...

Chapter 56 - Shocking Developments

I grabbed an extra tight hold onto Alex, and we were as ready as we were going to be. With a quick flex of my Will, I activated my Flight again, and we shot upward into the sky. Behind us, dozens of Peristera lifted off, as well. They winged their way skyward, following close on our heels.

It felt damned good to ...

Chapter 55 - Thornbill

The sound of a spell going off was as loud as a gunshot and just as alarming. I glanced in the direction of the noise and saw a single Ice Blast shoot upward about two dozen feet before exploding into a shower of fragments. It looked a bit like a signal flare, and it wasn't difficult to figure out someone had se...

Chapter 54 - Gone to the Birds

Alex was awake with the first rays of dawn. He stretched, rolled over, then carefully loosened the blankets around himself, so as not to disturb the other people sleeping in the tent. Johnson still lay on the tent's floor, mouth open, with a trickle of drool dribbling down the side of his cheek. Alex smirked at that. P...

Chapter 53 - Dry Land

After that, the rescue turned into more of a death march than a triumphant procession.

There were five hundred and forty-two souls in all, imprisoned down there in the depths as fodder for the lobster army. They were all exhausted. Some of them had been down there for as much as a day and were suffering from dehy...

Chapter 52 - A Desperate Rescue

I'd been too slow to act. There was nothing I could do for the hapless victim they'd already killed, but there were still four more people there in immediate danger. Them, I could still save. These creeps had kept five of their prisoners out of lockup and already killed one of them, so I had to assume they intended to ...

Chapter 51 - Diabolical Depths

I stared down at the ant nest, that gaping hole in the ground where I just knew there were more monsters waiting. If I'd killed hundreds of the things on the surface, how many more were waiting inside? Hundreds? More? Now that I could see in the dark, I could go in there after them, wipe out one more threat to the peop...

Chapter 50 - Preparations for War

Once they realized what they had in front of them, the people occupying the stadium got their act together in a flash. Tom was there, passing along what information he had about the patients to a collection of doctors and medics. His patients were in good hands, now.

I stood off to the side, where I wouldn’t be...

Chapter 49 - A Special Airlift

I set down in a little courtyard tucked into the center of several MGH buildings, the same place where they'd been burning bodies of the dead, and the spot where the giant ant nest had erupted.

Things have changed a little bit since the last time I saw the place. Tom and his security people had obviously taken me...

Chapter 48 - Preparations for a Hero

Bonus chapter today! I got an extra one in, so I figured I'd surprise folks with an extra chapter. Enjoy! :)

Alex saw me walking over and stood to meet me. “Hail, hail, and all that! How are you doing? Holding up okay?"

"Mostly, yeah." I shook his offered hand, and he used it to drag ...

Chapter 47 - Restless Vigil

The ceasefire we'd put together was undoubtedly a fragile thing. I had no doubts the other side would end it as soon as they thought it was in their best interest. The only reason they had agreed to it in the first place was because it was to their benefit. Once that was no longer the case, I assumed all bets would be ...

Chapter 46 – The Shield

“Captain MacGregor," I said, “Before we go, you wouldn't happen to have a spare riot shield lying around, would you?"

The police captain raised an eyebrow, then cracked a grin. "You want to tank for real now, Castle?"

I laughed and gave a small shrug. “Played a few RPG games yourself, huh?”

�...

Chapter 45 - Language

It didn’t take me long to figure out something was very wrong with the city. Once I was airborne, I flew high enough to see over all the buildings in my way and looked for anything that might cause the ground to shake. I was figuring we had a kaiju moment or something. I mean, it would have made sense, right...

Chapter 44 - Earthquake?

I shot upward as fast as I could. The extra Strength I’d picked up was helping lift the crab more easily. I could feel the drain on my mana was less than on the one I’d lifted before. Even so, it was a massive drain, and I wasn’t going to be able to maintain altitude for long.

As we sped skyward, I...

Chapter 43 - A Big Enough Lever

With the other two at my back, I advanced on the remaining two crabs. Off to my right, I saw another set of the things approaching the police line, and I knew there were four more just around the curve in the road. They were going to carve the police up in those spots. The shitty thing about having these magical powers...

Chapter 42 - Maximum Lift

Hey, folks! Sorry this one was late. Been traveling some, and I thought I’d gotten this uploaded, but it didn’t take. Enjoy! :)

I soared over the battlefield, taking it all in. No, I wasn’t some military genius. I hadn’t spent years honing tactical skills in games, either, although at t...

Chapter 41 - A Man Flying Past

Alex fired off another Ice Blast right at one of the oncoming lobsters. It fell back, crashing to the ground, but he’d only winged it. A police officer beside him shot a Fireball spell, engulfing the already injured monster with flames.

“Nice shot!” Alex called out.

“You, too,” she replied.

...

Chapter 40 - Crabby Goo

With a cry of rage, I threw myself toward two of the lobster-men. One of them stabbed at me with a spear, but it glanced off my Armored skin. I snatched the spear from his hand and used it to end him, instead. The lobster next to him tried to run and made it about three paces before I tossed the spear hard enough to sa...

Chapter 39 - Let It Out

After a few beats, Maggie set her sister down and walked toward me, tears pouring down her cheeks. She didn’t stop until she’d wrapped me in a hug. Not sure what to do, I put an arm gently around her, too.

She backed away after a brief embrace, still crying happy tears. “You did it. I don’t know how you s...

Chapter 38 - I’m Not Scared

With the remaining giant birds either fled or hunkering down in their nests, I figured I had time to check the ones I'd taken down for crystals. A quick count told me I’d taken down seventeen of them, and since they were all tier two and tier three, that was a pretty good haul. I moved quickly from one to the next, t...

Chapter 37 - Food! Food! Food!

Attacking the first bird left me vulnerable to the other two that were winging my way. One of them turned its glide into a sharp dive and slammed into me from behind, giant claws catching hold of each of my shoulders. That hurt! This one was tier three, and even though my skin is still tough enough that it would be dif...

Chapter 36 - I Was Flying!

I pushed my newfound speed and strength to the limits, driving myself to go faster than I ever had before. There was literally no time to lose. Every second counted, and Emmy's life hung in the balance. Every leap carried me forward fifteen or more feet, so I poured even more might into each. Now I was clearing twenty ...

Chapter 35 - I’m Going To Try

I felt very impressed with myself as I came to a stop just a few feet away from Alex. It had taken me a bit, but I was finally starting to get good at this sort of motion. Each leap would carry me five or six yards in my direction of travel, and I could keep jumping pretty much indefinitely, thanks to my Stamina. It wa...

Chapter 34 - Icy Defense

Alex led from the front, shouting to urge on the huge crowd following him in a desperate search for safety. There was no way to protect everyone at this point. There were just too many of them. The deeper through the city his band of refugees had pressed, the more people swarmed out of the buildings, joining them. It w...

Chapter 33 - City Hall

The police force pulled back toward Haymarket, coalescing there as they merged fighting lines and pulled back in good order. A few people had taken up positions under cover and were firing spells at the enemy to deter pursuit. It was cool to watch fireballs zip by overhead, blasting apart as they hit the ground behind ...

Chapter 32 - Battle of the Greenway

We pressed on through the heart of Boston’s old North End. As we went, we saw more and more people joining us on the street. Men, women, and children poured from some of the taller buildings, at first. They probably had been high up inside, and saw the invasion force moving in. But they were soon joined by others who...