《I.D. Tech》Chapter 1: Black Silhouette
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It's -10 degrees celsius in Toronto, Canada. The wind is gusting and creating a howling sound through the cracks of the doorway to the main office of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Headquarters.
"Wake up James," shouts Derrick.
James who was laying on one of 3 leather sofas in the entire building emerges from a daydream. "Sorry this happened again," James says as he wipes away the crusts from his eye sockets. "It's just that there's not a single day I go through where I don't think of him."
*11 years earlier*
"Son, do you hear that?"
"No, I don't hear anything."
"Exactly," replies James' father.
James and his father Eric are fishing on Lake Temagami in northern Ontario. Eric, James' father organized a fishing trip for him and his son to escape the bustling downtown Toronto Ruckus. Eric has been stressed out the past few weeks as he's been falling behind on paying bills.
Morley Variety, owned by Eric Morley has been a corner store operated by the family since 1960. Him and James live in an apartment above the variety store.
"Dad I think I got one!"
"It might be a Pike. Reel it in slowly. They fight like dead logs."
James successfully reels the Pike into the wooden boat.
"It's huge!"
"Let's get the measuring tape."
The Pike measures 42 inches.
"Let's get a picture of it! Where's the bloody camera James?"
"I think I forgot it in our lodge. Woops."
*6 days later*
James is sitting on his bed reading comic books. A car horn is honking nonstop a block away and police sirens echo through the streets.
"Eat your dinner son! It's getting cold!" says Eric from downstairs.
"I'm reading the latest issue of Spiderman! Give me 5 minutes!" James replies.
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The doors to the variety store open abruptly and a man wearing a black leather jacket casually walks to the front counter. He's got sunglasses on as if he's headed to a beach resort down in Mexico.
"Hey buddy isn't it kind of late to be wearing shades?" Eric says to the man in a funny way.
"Give me all your money! Every last dime goes in this bag" says the man in the leather jacket when he pulls out a gray plastic bag.
"Hey I can't do that. I have bills to pay."
"That's unfortunate. Looks like we have to do this the hard way."
The man pulls out a silver handgun and points it at Eric. "Listen I don't want to have to use this but I will, so just give me the damn money."
Eric lunges forward trying to take away the handgun but he's not quick enough as the man pulls the trigger.
James is startled. He drops his comic book and looks out the window as the black silhouette of a man is running away. James rushes downstairs to see his father covered in blood. James dials 911 on the phone behind the counter.
"Hello do you need police or ambulance?" says the woman on the phone.
"I need both! Please hurry. My father's been shot!"
1 minute passes and a squad of Police cars show up along with an ambulance and fire trucks.
James' father is pronounced dead on site. The bullet went through his heart and impacted the wall behind the counter.
"No one touch anything" says the investigator who was wearing plain clothes. "James did you get to see what the man looked like?"
"All I saw was him running away. He was wearing black. Honestly it was too dark to see anything."
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"Son, words cannot describe how sorry I am to you that this happened. Do you have any other family members?"
"Yes, my grandparents live in the north end of the city."
"Okay well you can stay with them while we figure things out."
*The present day*
"James we are going to be working a different case than usual today. We have a suspect in custody who has planted several bombs throughout the city and he isn't saying anything. He keeps requesting a lawyer. The safety of civilians is our top priority James."
"Well what do you want me to do with him?" James says to Derrick.
Derrick hands James a syringe filled with a clear liquid.
"I want you to put this liquid in his cup of water. I can't tell you anything more yet. Just do it. The suspect is in room 5. Just grab a cup of water in the kitchen. Meet me in the basement."
James meanders through the hallway towards the kitchen. He grabs a styrofoam cup from the dispenser and fills the cup half full.
"Well I guess it's time to use this syringe" James mutters to himself as he injects the water with the clear liquid.
He walks to room 5 where he hears the suspect saying "I want my water and lawyer!"
James unlocks the door and hands the water to the suspect who is in handcuffs bolted to the table. He makes his way to the basement.
"There's so many computers. Last time I was in here there were just files and cleaning supplies" James tells Derrick.
"Yeah... well with the government's new defense budget we are going to be doing things differently from now on. The stuff you put into his water… just watch what it can do."
Derrick puts on a headset and pushes a button on the computer keyboard.
"Hello this is Derrick. I'm with the police."
"What in the absolute hell?" the suspect must have said as text is being uploaded to the computer.
"I don't get it," says James.
"Whatever I say into the microphone the suspect interprets it as a thought in his own head and whatever he thinks it will show up as text on the computer" Derrick says.
"That's amazing," James exclaims.
"The government calls that clear liquid I.D. Tech. It's a new invention. It's meant for psychological warfare and interrogations" Derrick says in an upbeat manner. "No one and I mean absolutely no one outside this precinct is allowed to know about the I.D. Tech."
Derrick pushes the button on the keyboard again. "So what is your name? You didn't have a wallet on you."
James looks at the computer monitor as the name "Nicholas" pops up in text.
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Leveling with the Gods
He became stronger, faster than anyone else… but he lost. In the end, there was only despair for Kim YuWon.In his last moments, he was given another chance… Through the sacrifice of his comrade, his fate had not been sealed yet.Returning back to the past, he attempts to climb the Tower again with his unmatched talent.To fight the ancient evils that threatens to destroy the Tower.
8 360Transposition
Please note: the Sexual Content tag is there due to a single brief plot-relevant scene, which has a warning at the beginning. For other details, read the full description below. Rating breakdown, since that should be public info: 5 x 5*, 2 x 4.5*, 1 x 0.5* During a blackout, a frail and ragged old woman stops to ask for a glass of water from a backyard barbecue party. Given a good supper instead, she looks around the group, and tells them, "Be who and what you truly are." Days later, seven of the people from the barbecue find themselves drawn into a trap laid by a pair of wizards and their accomplices, who kidnap them into a bubble reality. All seven, who have known each other all their lives, are informed that they are not in fact entirely human: they have active fae blood, due to a series of conditions culminating with the blessing of the elderly fae woman. The transformation into fae form comes as a shock: all seven, whether originally female or male, find themselves now unreasonably beautiful women. More urgent even than that, though, is their captivity. Getting back to the real world is a higher priority than this metamorphosis that rapidly begins to feel natural... but this is only the first step, as the diverse types of fae blood they carry begin to surface. With no resources except themselves, how can they escape this prison? If they succeed, how can they possibly reclaim their lives? Just how many other faelings have been kidnapped, anyway, and what happened to them? And is there a way to make sure that their captors never put anyone else through this? Back in the real world, Kayla, who learned long ago to trust her gut instincts, is absolutely certain that something is very wrong. The pattern in the list of missing friends is easy to spot, but makes no sense at all. Then a young woman turns up at the backyard gate who knows more than she should, and even though her explanation makes even less sense, every instinct tells Kayla that Riley is her only way to get them back. If they're not quite what they were, well, that's a bridge to cross later... Just a little note: I'm a big believer in endings that are upbeat but not candy-coated, and not a fan of grim-and-gritty or of glamorized violence. These are adults in a difficult situation. However, no one gets raped, and the physical violence is, all things considered, fairly minimal. There is some harassment, sexual and otherwise, and also some mild restraint and mild verbal abuse. Complicating factors are generally wizardly or fae in nature. If I need to warn you about gender in this being all over the map, some of it reality-based rather than fantasy-based, highly diverse sexuality, or that there is (especially later) some indirect fetish/BDSM imagery and honest character discussion, then you probably should just avoid everything I write. :-) Also available on Scribble Hub.
8 183To Face The Gods
“In the face of infinity, the impossible becomes inevitable.” The omnipotent Deathless, governed only by their fabled, shadowed queen, the Omegatrix, have reigned over both known and unknown space for over 25 billion years, contested only by the few, brief civilizations that momentarily try to resist them. On the day that Rat, a destitute slave, is tasked by The Butcher King to undertake an impossible task, a match is struck, and the subsequent explosion will rip a gash across the multiverse. A ship holding a hundred billion fading souls races across the black in a final, desperate mission to save humanity…
8 229Ante Portas
Lina Thompson is an independent advisor who works with the Goverment on behind-the-scenes operations. Her speciality is sociology, but the latest project she gets involved with has apparently more to do with her hobbies: gaming and wild theories about aliens. Can she survive and thrive in an alien environment that turns back experienced military survivalists? Can she make first contact in this new world where data and flesh seems to be the same thing? And if she can, is it possible for her to live in the human society afterwards?
8 169Battlesquire Book I - First Blood
There was nothing Jess craved more than the rush of battle, having trained for endless hours in mastering all the weapons of war. She would do anything to prove herself worthy, anything to be granted the rights and privileges of every knight who fought for the Crown. Anything not to be relegated to the status of simpering handmaiden, a wallflower at court whose only purpose was to be meek and demure for the pleasure of arrogant men she despised. When a certain professor of etiquette makes it clear that she would see Jess broken and humbled, forced to submit to a lady's proper role, Jess will do whatever she must to escape that fate. Even if it means blackening her dagger for king and country, learning what it truly means to be a Squire of War. (Warning: Though it starts off gently - sex, graphic violence, heroism, and betrayal are all part of the story.)
8 202A Mildly Odd Reality Breaker
Omar receives an unexpected visitor who comes baring a gift—a "registration ticket"—in the form of a small metal card. The ticket is itself an offer to participate in the game, "Reality Break." Accepting this offer means that Omar will be able to perceive the true nature of reality where there is not one, but two dimensions of time, and in this second dimension history changes (and somewhat "frequently"). Along with this, he will also gain access to the "chronopause"; another reality that is not so much parallel to our own as it is perpendicular, which acts as both a place and the natural boundary between non-sequential points on the timeline. Using the chronopause, Omar will become a chrononaut with the ability to travel through time, and as a player, he will be given a cybernetic interface and his own portable extradimensional storage space. It's a strange conversation, but due to Omar's dismally short attention span, he only consciously hears that last bit about the portable pocket space, and that's only after the physics-defying void is opened in his living room and literally waved in front of his face. Reality is certainly stranger than most people realize, but then again, so is Omar. Thankfully, he responds well to shiny things, and for better or for worse, his chronic inattentiveness is the least of his psychological issues. Omar also has a mild form of "Oppositional Defiant Disorder" which presents itself as an occasional, arbitrary need to disobey others (especially authority figures). However, his oddest psychological issue by far is his "abnormally hyperactive" subconscious mind. Outwardly and consciously, Omar is a lazy, apathetic man-child prone to mildly asinine behavior. Subconsciously, he's some sort of genius capable of extraordinary feats of cognition. Most of the time, Omar is a (technically) functioning adult, but in order to live as such, he must rely entirely upon unusual abilities he's completely unaware of, despite the fact that he uses them regularly. Up until now, his life had merely been ridiculous, but now it was also a game. Note: The narrative style is that of a reliable narrator with a "3rd-person sarcastic" POV. This story takes place in the Reality Breakers/Chronopause universe.
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