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

as ownership of the manor was transferred and all functions were switched over.

“Boss, there is a problem with some of the functions. This little turd-merchant has been screwing with the directories. We may need him later if I can’t unscramble some of this mess. Hopefully not. I’ll keep working on this, and there’s a good possibility we won’t need him. Then you can do what you want with him,” the hacker recommended, pushing his amber-colored glasses back up his nose.

“I have just the thing,” Basileus said cruelly, then punched Gus repeatedly in the face until everything faded into darkness.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Falling to Pieces

Gus awoke with wind fluttering in his ears. He opened his dry crusty eyes and began screaming, realizing that he was falling. Pinwheeling his arms around he flailed in the darkness.

“Nick, where am I?” Only silence answered back. He tried to activate his Advanced Flight skill and found that he could barely touch the skill, it only slowed his descent slightly and was much more taxing and burned though MP with little effect. Seeing his MP quickly drain to ten percent, he let go of the skill and allowed himself to fall.

“Hello?” Gus yelled. The sound was swallowed up in the hollow darkness. Gus toggled to his different views through infrared, ultraviolet, and beyond; all that could be seen was inky blackness. He leaned forward and pulled his arms to his sides like he had seen in a James Bond movie, seeing if he could direct his fall. He could tell he was moving in another direction from the feel of the wind rushing by but after maintaining the pose for at least ten minutes, he realized that he was not reaching anything by moving in this direction.

Gus determinedly tried different directions but to no avail. An hour or two later, he had neither hit the bottom, nor had he found the edges of the pit. He flipped around so that he faced upward, giving his eyes a break from the drying effect of the constant wind. He swiped at the salty residue left from tears that had streamed to the side of his eyes, pushed out from the constant air flowing by him.

So this is how it ends? Gus didn’t feel like he had died, but how would he know? Nick was gone, his powers were essentially gone, and he had been falling for enough time that he should have hit bottom by now. He waved his hand in front of him and saw nothing.

The absolute darkness reminded Gus of a trip they had taken through the Midwest. Somewhere along the way, they went into some caves. At one point, the tour guide turned off the lights and the darkness became palpable. I can palp it, Gus thought idly. This was that same darkness.

His stomach growled, which gave Gus pause. The word ‘nothing’ drifted into his mind as he stared out into the void. He was in the middle of nothing and nowhere. Maybe this was Limbo? Gus was never religious, but his mind could not see how he could be in this situation.

What if it’s an illusion? Did some super do something and trap me in my own mind? Gus had always been afraid of being trapped in a dark place where he couldn’t move.

He’d watched a documentary movie on spelunking when he was a kid and how people would sometimes get stuck and not be able to move forwards or backwards. They showed how they would break someone’s collarbones to fold their arms in and pull people out, but the thought of being trapped and slowly starving was nightmare fuel for quite a while after that.

Gus tried to access his display and could see nothing. No access to his visual filters, logs, or anything. Not even a clock. The absence rocked him and he felt even more powerless. What if they stripped my powers?! He had been so flippant in taking their abilities. Maybe karma was kicking him where it counted. The trapped feeling became even more intense and his heart rate spiked with panic.

A couple years ago, his fellow henchman Chuck’s father got Guillain-Barré syndrome. Gus had no idea what it was until Chuck explained it to him. Basically he was trapped in his own body. Awake, but with no control over his limbs or any bodily functions. As he pondered the implications, the same claustrophobia made him tense in wondering what he would do in the same situation. The scariest part was that it could be temporary or last your whole life. Fortunately, Chuck’s father recovered in a couple months, but had to do some physical therapy to regain his strength.

The few Psi abilities that Gus had been able to Leech required MP for activation, and he thought it unlikely that an illusion could be maintained for so long. With another growl, his stomach announced its disapproval at being empty. Gus checked his pockets and found a few healing gels. No, I had better save them. I may be here a while.

Save them for what? You’re not getting out of here. Gus shook his head as he fell. Not even a day had passed and he was already talking to himself. It reminded him of his early days on the island. His thoughts got a little weird when he was alone for a long time. Is it weird that my inner voice had a point? What’s the plan? Gus’ mind came up as blank as the area around him. What could he do?

“Nooooooo!” Gus screamed out loud, his yell disappearing quickly, leaving only the whipping air as he continued to fall. A contorted mass of emotions began to break free. Anger, frustration, then despair. Each flared and then flagged as the wind whipped by, extinguishing their ardor. Still he fell, and eventually only an emotional numbness remained. He had thought getting more powerful was the key to keeping him alive, and keeping the manor. But he had never felt more powerless. Unable