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

“It wouldn’t be good to leave them with anything that is not affected by the brig’s dampening field,” Nick confirmed.

Gus turned his attention to the display again.

You have chosen to leech Electronic Mind (Level 47).

You have chosen to leech Aim-Assist (Level 33).

You have chosen to leech Coerce.

You have chosen to copy and erase skills, are you sure? (Y/N?)

Moving to the other super, he found only two: Hyper and Krackle. Taking these and erasing them, he moved to the last super, the one who had fallen into the tree. His abilities were Warp and a strange one called Xyzzy. He also had Advanced Flight, but it was grayed out, perhaps because it was an ability Gus already possessed.

He looked pretty scratched up and one arm was twisted at a sickening angle. His health hovered at 57% and was slowly dipping. Gus fished out a red gel and put it in the man’s mouth, closing it so he bit on the edge.

With a nauseating crack, the bone reset and the super’s eyes sprang open. Gus triggered Leech and he shook a bit then his eyes fluttered closed. The gel did its work, and Gus waited to take an ability until he’d recovered into the eighty percent range. Gathering his abilities, he set to ferrying them to the brig.

Aurora burst out the door just as he got there and held it open. “Did the EMP work?” she asked, then looked down at the collected supers. “Well, I guess that answers that.”

Gus fashioned a train of floating stretchers and they slowly got them all to the brig, having to make multiple trips down the lift. The gurney from the infirmary was a big help, but the lift was small enough that only one would fit in the small space.

The previous supers were awake, and boy were they pissed. They pounded soundlessly on the glass as Gus and Aurora spread the remaining supers out, keeping them all on one side of the alleyway and toggling on the soundproofing. Aurora hit another combo of keys and the transparent door frosted over. She kept playing with the settings and the opacity reduced.

Meanwhile, Gus tried to strip off everything he could detach from the augments, throwing the guns and power-cells into an empty cell. Aurora was saying something but he registered none of it. After a couple minutes, she poked him on the shoulder. Aurora stood there with her arms folded, one eyebrow raised.

“Sorry, just lost in my thoughts trying to figure out how to detach all this. What were you saying?”

“I just changed the cells to basically function like a one-way mirror. We can see in but they can’t see out. That way we can see if they’re up to something without them knowing we’re watching. That should curtail any escape attempts, or make them wonder if we’re watching.”

Gus gave her a thumbs up and turned back to the augment he was trying to de-mechanize. Everything else was placed internally and couldn’t be removed. Hopefully there were safeguards against this very thing, considering this was a brig to contain supers.

“Here, follow me to the control center. Let me show you what upgrades I decided on for the manor.”

Gus shrugged and closed the cell as Aurora turned to the elevator. Gus was ready to go, eager to get away from the power dampening effects of the room.

In the control center, Gus relaxed in a chair, choosing one that sat in the warm sunlight. Aurora excitedly began showing him some of the new features of the manor. First was the EMP emitter, which had a limited range of two-hundred-feet around the central antenna of the manor, and that range could not be increased. There were at least six other mercs that relied on those types of augments, so if they could be lured to the manor, it was an easy knockout. The only problem was that it took forever to recharge, a whopping twenty-six hours.

“This next one was expensive, but I think it will really come in handy.” The lift opened and twenty men and women spilled out of the crowded elevator. They all wore the characteristic manor jumpsuits.

“Who are these guys?” Gus said, suddenly alert. The warm sun had been making him feel like a nap was in order until the intruders showed up.

“They’re decoys! Watch.” She hit some settings and the familiar pillowbot skeleton became visible, with emitters embedded on its chest and back. She turned them back on and they filed back into the elevator. “We will be much less easy targets if the enemy is distracted and we can hide in plain sight. There are thousands of profiles we can attach to the decoys and we can give the illusion of a fully-functional manor. They are not sentient and cannot aid us in fighting or defending, but they can mimic the normal routines of manor staff. Because they carry their own emitters, they can even join us outside, but shadows might give them away, so we’ll have to decide when to use them. I’ve set them to roam the manor, then act surprised and flee if there are any intruders. We will get an alert remotely if that happens.”

“I could see where that would be helpful. Would’ve been nice if they could help us fight, though.”

“Then you’ll like what I have next… Weaponized drones.” She said the last two words with the verbal equivalent of a mic drop, as if that was all that needed to be said.

“Yeah, and?” Gus asked, not impressed.

“You don’t get it. I can do soooo many things with these bad boys. I’ve maxed them out so I can drop explosives, debuffs, heals if you’re out of reach. The possibilities are endless and I have so many devious little ideas that I want to try. I can link all controls to my display, so I’ll be much more helpful in battle and can attack from much greater distances, so