Sidekick Carl Stubblefield (beginner reading books for adults TXT) 📖

shadow over him, Gus rolled over just in time as the ground where he had fallen shimmered and puckered into a crater. He continued to roll until he made it into some nearby foliage and activated Phase-Shift. The flying super began peppering the area with distortions that crushed everything in their sphere of influence about the size of a beach ball. Nearby palms kinked like garden hoses as the effect bent them in half, and the existing ground cover was flattened and rapidly approaching Gus.

There was a loud boom, followed by a dazzling display of shimmering particles, glittering sparkles of purple, pink and green fizzling like a crate of lit sparklers, spiraling toward the ground. The super turned and stared at the spectacle.

Gus averted his eyes as Aurora had mentioned and dashed forward, hitting the super low in the back. Pain flared in his side from the collision, then he pushed. The momentum launched the dazed invader into some nearby palms where he hit with a big crunch, loosening some coconuts. From there, he tumbled out from the higher tree, flipping like a contestant on Wipeout into another lower tree, disappearing into the bushy fronds.

A red flash warned Gus that his MP was below ten percent and he quickly dropped Phase-Shift. His HP wasn’t much better at only 27/620. Checking his minimap to find the other two supers, Gus saw that the three supers that he had downed had turned from red stars to hollow red circles. Gus smiled weakly, knowing that would come in handy to determine if a super was truly unconscious or was just faking to lure him close.

He was tempted to drain the others but instead crawled to get into some cover before approaching the other two supers in front of the manor. He leaned his back against a small dune while he fished in his pockets for some more red gels and bit down on two in rapid succession, panting to catch his breath. He sighed as the pain in his side began to fade while he watched the remnants of Aurora’s ability fizzle in the air above.

As the last spirals of sparkle dust or whatever it was were fading away, the two remaining supers came out of their daze and started firing at the small dune Gus was hiding behind. He cringed and slid further down as their shots kicked up explosions of sand and plant debris. As he stared up into the blue sky, there was an assortment of sweeping energy beams and some kind of energy bullets filling the air, leaving no safe way to approach.

Gus rolled to the side and tried to peek, but they were expecting him and he barely ducked back into safety before a whirlwind of dust and small shredded scrub plants puffed up into the air with the shots. A hot glob of something fell on Gus’ hand and he shook it off, looking at it as it cooled. The orangish material solidified into a grayish-brown glass, a red blister rising almost instantly.

Even when he tried to skirt around and move to the sides, they quickly picked up his location and began firing. Gus got a nasty burn on his arm as a beam nicked him. He almost grabbed another gel, but held back, not wanting to form a bad habit of using them too freely and not having them when truly needed.

Gus wanted to Phase-Shift, just to get out of there, but he wouldn’t be able to sustain it with his depleted MP. He reached in his other pocket and pulled out some blue gels. Even among the whir and pulse of their shots and their detonations, the tearing noise of the Velcro announced his position and he had to roll to another nearby dune as the ground started exploding around him. One of the supers was flanking his position so they could get him into a crossfire.

Gus had lost his gels in his escape. He was running out of options when he heard a high-pitched noise like a camera flash charging. The shots paused briefly as they evaluated this new development, the noise rising in pitch. It reached its peak tone and then a muffled *ba-tang* sounded and Gus ducked and covered his head, expecting some huge cannon to blow him to oblivion. He felt a wave of energy wash over him, followed by a wave of heat, then there was silence.

There were no more intermittent shots, and Gus checked his status. He noticed no other changes or debuffs. After a tense minute, Gus hazarded a peek and saw the two men lying on the ground. Expecting a trap, he checked his minimap and their icons had shifted to hollow circles. Gus’ shoulders slumped in exhaustion as he finally relaxed. Thank you, Aurora.

After firing an Ion Storm that took out the tiny insect drones, Aurora saw that two supers moved to guard the manor entrance, trying to prevent a retreat. She suspected they would hunker back if attacked, hoping to avoid ranged attacks that could miss and damage the manor. They were lining up shots as Gus popped in and out of view, fighting the other supers. It was only a matter of time before they got a lucky shot.

Both of the armed supers were relying heavily on cybernetics, so if she could activate the new manor upgrades, they would be neutralized. She used Dazzle in the center of the courtyard above the grass and the two supers moved out of their cover to more easily see what was happening.

Aurora took her cue and snuck to the manor door and slipped inside. Sprinting to the elevator, she bashed the button to the control center. She wondered if there was some upgrade to allow faster manor transport as the elevator began its lazy ascent. Crashing out of the elevator, she ran to the console and approved EMP Targeting. An antenna on the roof of the manor hummed to life as the coils charged. This