It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Tanya launched herself to the nearest cover she could find even though the beetle stood exactly zero chance of protecting her against those… those… things! Machines, like out of the Matrix or Transformers or something, with hissing pneumatic frames, nerves of ribbed steel cable and layers of heavy, [...]

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: I hate fighting speedsters. Sure, I can chase after them at the speed of light, but can I react that fast? No way. Her name was Super Sonic Woman and her taste for nostalgia was just as obvious in her costume: v-striped silver one [...]

Even under three layers of clothing I shivered. Northern winters were never kind, especially to people who were living rough. The days weren’t so bad, especially if you were resourceful enough to not look homeless, at least then you could find a public area with heating, but the nights were frigid and unforgiving and scarce [...]

I had to get away. Vortex wasn’t going to waste any time. If I didn’t evade his grasp then he could easily… suddenly I lost my train of thought. What was I supposed to be doing? Something was very, very wrong. Actually a lot of things were very, very wrong. For some reason my clothes [...]

“Call it what it is,” she roared. “This is outright discrimination, and if you think we’re going to stand for it you’ve got another thing coming!” Assistant Principal Ferguson urged her to be calm, but that was probably because he was new. Little did he realize that he’d started a war and that telling the [...]

Tanya’s story Now: “You’ve got to kick this guy’s ass,” she said, as if it were some kind of simple thing. I don’t know if any of you know this, but contract assassins are relentless badasses who know what they’re doing; not like me, the hostage with borrowed powers. Shot after shot rang out, blasting [...]

Tanya’s story Now: It was so unreal, like my mind had stepped out onto the street and was only watching while somebody else flailed in the grip of that monster tentacle. If it were me up there I would have been screaming for him to let me go or started crying like a kid, but [...]

Okay, here’s the deal: ever have one of those experiences where everything you thought you knew about someone was turned completely upside down? That’s what’s happened to me in as many months the times my best friend came out to me: first to tell me that she wasn’t really a guy like I’d always thought, [...]

What had I done? It didn’t matter that I’d lost control, that I was Brainwave’s slave and completely under her power: I was the one who’d blasted the captain so that not even ashes remained. Whatever blame they cared to lay on me I was more than willing to accept. A good man had paid [...]

Sitting outside the principal’s office I waited for the final word. It should have never come to this, but there we were with me kicking my heels impatiently for my fate to be sealed. While I wished it could have ended some other way I also knew it was inevitable. This was a long time [...]