Sidekick by Carl Stubblefield (10 best novels of all time .txt) 📗

subsided. Soon, however, a sensation almost identical to leveling up intensified. The pain thankfully subsided and he let his hands drop off of them. A notice popped up on Gus’ display:

You have unlocked the skill Camouflage (Level 5).

You have unlocked the skill Phase-Shift (Level 4).

You have unlocked the skill Advanced Flight (Level 1).

You have unlocked the skill Vivid (Level 4).

Please note that full functionality will not be available until skills are consolidated during your normal sleep cycle. Levels scaled to your individual limits based on core stats. Victims of Leech will remain unconscious in proportion to the invasiveness and extent of the extraction process. Even after regaining physical consciousness, their Nth will be inactivated completely for an indeterminate time span.

Congratulations! You have subdued (2) opponents trespassing on privately-owned territory.

2,000 XP (1,000 x 2) awarded for non-lethal methods.

1,000 FP (500 x 2) awarded.

LEVEL UP! Congratulations, Level 15 reached!

You have (20) additional stat points to assign.

12,260 XP to level 16.

At first, Gus felt guilty for copying and erasing the skills, but he had not known what to expect from using Leech, and the low-blow hadn’t helped. It was a snap judgment to end the fight, and he would have rather made their powers inactive for a while. Dave’s words echoed in his thoughts and he felt his guilt evaporate. They had made their choice. This was going to be hard enough as it was. Who knew how many more of these jokers there were waiting in the wings?

He took a moment and, using Ether Weaving, cobbled together some ether stretchers and took the supers to the brig inside. Without their powers active, Gus saw a middle-aged man, balding and starting to get gray hair around the edges. The woman appeared to be a gymnast, svelte and sharp-looking in her angular costume. Thin plates either served as armor or to make her more aerodynamic when she flew.

As the stretcher fizzled out at the lift, he had to hold the super under the arms and drag her by walking backward. He left the man in the doorway of the elevator to keep it from leaving—that was the last thing he needed, the elevator taking him away and having the super wake up with free reign of the manor.

He leaned the woman against a wall and went back for her partner. The man was much heavier when Gus began to drag him into the brig. The unsettling feeling of his Nth’s effects on his strength became even more evident the further he tried to wrench the man, and he felt the strain on his lower back for the first time since coming to the island.

He had planned on putting the supers far in the back, but the combination of muscle strain and how winded he was getting motivated him to drop him off in the first cell available. The female was easier, and he opted for a fireman’s carry, not trusting himself to carry her in his arms without his Nth strength boosts.

He opted to place her in another cell around the corner so they wouldn’t be able to communicate and come up with a plan. He closed the cell door barrier and activated the sound-block feature so they couldn’t coordinate by banging walls or shouting. The brig was eerily quiet as his boots popped on the hard floor, and he made his way out quicker than normal.

“Can you do me a favor?” Nick’s voice gasped when Gus was halfway to the control room. “You’ve unlocked the Infirmary. Put a stupid gurney or two in the elevator. That took way too long.”

“Not a bad idea.” Gus put a hand to the small of his back, which had already rebounded from the strain now that his Nth were on task again. “Right after I check one more thing off the wish list.”

As the car sped upwards, Gus tried to fly a bit but nothing had changed from his level of skill in Basic Flight.

I guess I really will have to ‘sleep on it.’

“Nick, can you send a message to the cafeteria, and set up a feeding schedule for the prisoners? Preferably automated, so I won’t have to visit the prisoners personally.” He anticipated it might get pretty busy in the near future, and he might forget while occupied with other, more urgent tasks.

“Bologna sandwiches and water, coming right up!”

“We have bologna?”

“We have a couple canisters of meat powder that can be reconstituted. It expired about two decades ago, but who looks at those labels anyway?”

“Ugh. I don’t want them getting sick or anything. But no frills either.”

“So… you’re not saying no to the bologna. I hear you, wink-wink, nudge-nudge.”

Gus was about to clarify when he noticed another red star on his minimap. At the manor! He had been so focused on getting the other supers into their cells that he had ignored the minimap!

Dumb, dumb, dumb, Gus!

Gus rushed to the control center and turned on the monitors, cycling to find evidence of who was attacking now. He skipped by the main front door then had to go back. His jaw fell as he saw who was standing there.

Chapter Thirteen

Follow Me

Aurora woke, the duct warmed by the machinery nearby. Even though she was lying on dusty sheet-metal, she felt like she had slept like a queen. After so much sleep deprivation from being bound, she was surprised she felt as good as she did. The soreness and ache were gone from her muscles. She was pain-free for the first time in a long while. She loved the resilience being a super offered her.

Getting her bearings, Aurora crawled deeper into the accessway and climbed the narrow single-sided ladder they kept in these areas to access the various floors. Wires and panels were studded with multi-colored cords and modules, and lights of various colors indicated what was in use. The cargo bay was on the lowest tier, so she climbed up two floors and slid down another accessway. From here, she could access some ducts and see