An Honest Living by Ben Mariner

Author:Ben Mariner [Mariner, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-11T22:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

“Wrecking Ball, are you in position?”

“Obviously,” I replied, trying not to sound like a confused dimwit. “You know I am. You literally just dropped me off.”

“I’m just being thorough,” Grace replied through the built in headset in my suit.

“Can you two love birds keep it down,” a third voice cut in.

That one belonged to The Blur. The Liberty Gang’s official speed talent, but he was still kind of a dick.

“Cram it, Derek,” Grace shot back, and I had to smile. Derek Lafferty was a mild mannered accountant before an incredibly fortuitous series of events found him next to a chemical factory during a thunderstorm. A bolt tore through the building and hit him, imbuing him with superhuman speed. He was also the resident tax preparer for the Gang because he could complete and file everyone’s returns in less than three minutes.

“Hey,” he said, halfway offended, “Code names only, Female.”

Grace abandoned Metal Maiden and was going with Female now. I didn’t get it at first, but only because it was so nerdy. Fe is the atomic symbol for iron. Supposed to be a pun, but, as I pointed out it just made it seem like she was calling herself Iron Ma...well, you get it. She wouldn’t listen though.

“Yeah, guys,” a fourth voice mockingly chastised us. “Listen to Derek. Code names only.”

We all laughed.

“Screw you guys,” The Blur grumbled.

That fourth voice belonged to a guy who called himself Gayzer. He had some pretty cool optical blasts and he was gay so the name was a pretty decent pun and I respected the hell out of that.

So that was the team. Me, Grace, Gayzer, and The Blur. Ragtag bunch and no mistake, but I was surprised at how welcoming they were. When you work with Mals, everyone is kind of skeptical of everyone else. Anyone could double cross you at any minute during a job, so it wasn’t a completely unfounded feeling. This was much more pleasant. They were the good guys so they treated you like one of their own.

This was my first official mission with the Liberty Gang. Grace and I had spent some time just training with the suit so I could get a better feel for the physics of my new gravity altering powers. It was a little tricky because I’m not a physicist, but practice makes perfect. I was eager to put it to the test in a real world situation, and this was the perfect opportunity.

I was perched on top of a building across the street from the Maxima City Museum of Scientific Advancements. It was home to working replicas of some of the most significant technological advancements in the city’s history, like the first fully functioning jetpack, a rehydrator that takes dehydrated food and turns it into something edible, a device that controls the weather, and the black hole generator. Not sure why anyone would want to create a machine that could generate something that would swallow the planet, but they did it and that’s pretty significant.

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