by Jamie Hawke
“We will.” Twitch put a hand on my arm. “But we need to find Sam, regroup, then come back with another strategy.”
“And let them win today?” I scoffed, unable to accept that. Sam was here, somewhere, and Hadrian had said she’d be the key. I had to believe that it wasn’t over. “I’ll… I’ll be right back.”
As I sprinted back toward the square, they called after me. But there was no way I could simply retreat.
I turned the corner, ready, and froze—there in front of me was Letha, a flamethrower aimed at my face.
“Fuck…” I wondered where I’d gone wrong, how this moment could have come about. The idea of her betraying me hadn’t once hit me. Now I was standing here like an idiot, trying to move or retaliate, but simply frozen with shock.
“Dammit, Breaker.” She lowered the flame thrower.
“You’re…” I processed what had just happened. “You’re not here to double-cross us, are you?”
She frowned, then scoffed. “The hell are you talking about? No, I’m not here to—shit! Get down!”
She shoved me aside. I was surprised by how strong she was. The heat from her flamethrower was hot on my cheek, but the flame was now aimed away from me, clear from causing me damage. It did, however, catch a Dex and send it skittering away ablaze.
“The only way I know how to deal with those things,” she explained, adjusting the pack on her back.
“What’re you doing here?” Charm asked, skidding in from around the side of the tall building next to us.
Letha glanced back, and we saw Trunk, her green monster-man Darnell, and the others running up to join her.
“You’ll never guess who’s here,” Letha said. “And I don’t mean them.”
“Your sister?” I asked. “On Earth?”
“First time, far as I know. Ironic, isn’t it? Well, not on Earth, but up there.” She indicated the sky, where several massive ships waited above all the chaos. “We traced her here, even had to get Hadrian to jump us back and confirm, but now we’re here.”
“What would bring her here? The defense?”
Letha shook her head. “Doesn’t look like it. I think she’s joined the enemy. Working on an alliance with them to overthrow all Milky Way governments and put herself in charge, as the plenipotentiary to the alien horde.”
“Them there be big words,” Charm said in a mocking tone, and gave us a thumbs up. “Kidding, gotcha. Representative, basically leader of the Earth people.”
“More or less,” Letha said. Then gestured in the direction of the square, where new sounds like shrieking eels could be heard. We both took the next few steps to reach a point where the square was visible, and to my surprise saw that the Refurbished were pulling back, retreating from a central spot where bursts of blue and green electricity and powers were coming from. Several of them flew into the air and exploded into pieces. A chain of electricity shot out through them, taking down a line.
“I’m getting in on this,” Letha said. She now had a gun in one hand and some sort of flaming glove on the other.
“Right there with you,” I replied.
As we charged, a bright blue light that changed into shooting electricity burst out of the ground in front of us. We shared glances of worry but kept going, then pulled back as more light shot out and a figure rose into the air.
It was Sam, the Shadow Mystic, and she was flying up toward the enemy ship. Her glowing blue sword was extended, her massive rifle was at her side, and electricity and flames and all kinds of colorful chaos were bursting forth. Hot damn, I couldn’t wait to hear how she’d managed to recover and make a rebound like that.
Our ship swooped down. I turned to see my team there, standing at the ready. Only, where was Charm? I was about to go back to find her, when I saw her running from the direction of one of the fallen buildings. She was clutching something tight. When I saw the red cloth fluttering behind her, I laughed out loud. She’d gone back for the dress, even though I was pretty damn sure the explosion would’ve done damage to the thing.
Maybe someone back at the Citadel would have a way of fixing it up, for all I knew. I had to imagine that was Charm’s plan, because wearing a burned, torn-up dress certainly didn’t match my vision of the whole idea.
Twitch chuckled too, then said, “We’re going after them.”
Letha was also there with her team, and she nodded as well. “I’m taking out my sister while you… well, while you deal with all that.”
All that. I laughed, looking up at the ships that seemed well beyond anything we’d ever be able to deal with—but there was Sam, shooting up and cutting through them, and I had my team. We made a mad dash for our ship, Letha and others in tow, with our prisoner still wrapped up with Aegriss and contained with the blue shield. More explosions sounded overhead. We boarded, Twitch shouting for A.I. Lamb to take off.
We had no idea how we were going to get in, or how we’d confront Letha’s sister, but knew she was a big part of this invasion. Confronting her would at least be a step in the right direction. From there, we’d find Asterisk and some way to destroy her, and ensure no more supers were involved, leaving only the aliens to contend with.
Our fight was just getting started. Hell, seeing Sam flying through the air like that made me think that maybe we stood a chance. Regardless, we were going to try.
THE END
Author Ramblings
Thank you for reading all the way up through book five! You might have noticed that the battle isn’t exactly over, though the initial goal of dealing with Muerta and finding out some key information is. We’ve pushed off the supervillain portion of the invasion, but there’s a lot of work to be done. So yes, book six will get right in on the action. Stay tuned! Maybe you’ll want to check out the Letha storyline in Planet Kill first? Up to you, but it’s in audiobook now, and the Soundbooth Theater team did an excellent job with narration, as they always do.
We’ll also likely see some cool points in book six I’m excited about, including… maybe a red dress for real, finally? Maybe some good Citadel action and getting to see the brother/others again?
Actually, on that note I wanted to do something fun. I put the ‘bar fight’ early in this book for a reason. I’m going to write that NOW, and offer it in the newsletter! So if you want to see the bar scene with Charm, Threed, and Cheri, what they talk about and how that leads to a fight, all you have to do is make sure you’re in the newsletter! I’ll send it out shortly, along with including it in the auto-messages that go to new subscribers going forward (so don’t be surprised if you see it twice).
To sign up for the newsletter: www.subscribepage.com/AuthorJamieHawke
Or you can get it on Patreon, as I’ll put it there (along with early chapters as I go. Actually, some of this fight and connecting with Letha’s sister, etc., should be on there pretty soon, so stay tuned for that).
www.patreon.com/JamieHawke
Aside from reading early chapters on Patreon, when can you get book six? My plan as of now is to write some of those scenes to get the book started, but then go do LOST PIRATES 2, since the audiobook will have recently hit for the first book (Christmas Day, 2018). Then I’ll jump back here for Ex Supers 6, maybe followed by Myth 3.
Oh, and Sam! She’ll be getting another book (right now she has three in the Shadow Corps series, by my other name, Justin Sloan). So I’ll do the fourth, connecting that series to this one more firmly. Maybe March or April 2019? We’ll see! Part of me says doing that before going into book six would be cool, but… yeah, not decided yet. People reading this after the fact will be able to look back and see how it went. For the rest of us, let’s just have fun along the way.
Regardless, lots of good stuff coming your way! Thank you for reading.
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You can now get Ex Gods and P
sychobitches (both in the Supers universe). Enjoy!
A Marine in space, three hot super ladies, and an army of supervillains out to get them. What could go wrong?
I am the law! Well, kinda. More like a bounty hunter, but I still put a foot up the @$$ of injustice and bring criminals down.
***
Did you see the references to Planet Kill in the book and wonder what that was? It’s not a real planet that I know of, but it is a real book! You can grab book one and two on Amazon!
Grab PLANET KILL now!
Form your harem. Kill or be killed. Level up and loot. Welcome to Planet Kill.
MY OTHER WORKS: JUSTIN SLOAN
You also might want to read the stuff I write that isn’t harem/ spicy sauce stuff. If so, you’ll want to head over to the Justin Sloan books. Here they are!
Books by Justin Sloan
SCIENCE FICTION
ASCENSION GATE (Space Opera with Dragon Shifters and Vampires)
Star Forged
(More coming soon!)
BIOTECH WARS (Space Station Genetic Engineering)
Project Destiny ($0.99)
Project Exodus
Project Ascent
VALERIE'S ELITES (Vampires in Space - Kurtherian Gambit Universe 4 Book Series)
Valerie's Elites
Death Defied
Prime Enforcer
Justice Earned
RECLAIMING HONOR (Vampires and Werewolves - Kurtherian Gambit Universe 8 Book Series, Complete)
Justice is Calling
Claimed by Honor
Judgment has Fallen
Angel of Reckoning
Born into Flames
Defending the Lost
Return of Victory
Shadow Corps (Space Opera Fantasy/ Light LitRPG - Seppukarian Universe 3 Book Series, Complete)
Shadow Corps
Shadow Worlds
Shadow Fleet
War Wolves (Space Opera Fantasy - Seppukarian Universe 3 Book Series, Complete)
Bring the Thunder
Click Click Boom
Light Em Up
Syndicate Wars (Space Marines and Time Travel - Seppukarian Universe 5 Book Series, Complete)
First Strike
The Resistance
Fault Line
False Dawn
Empire Rising
FANTASY
The Hidden Magic Chronicles (Epic Fantasy - Kurtherian Gambit Universe 4 Book Series, Complete)
Shades of Light
Shades of Dark
Shades of Glory
Shades of Justice
FALLS OF REDEMPTION (Epic Fantasy Series 4 Book Series)
Land of Gods (NOW FREE!)
Retribution Calls
Tears of Devotion
MODERN NECROMANCY (Supernatural Thriller 3 Book Series, Complete)
Death Marked
Death Bound
Death Crowned
CURSED NIGHT
Hounds of God
ALLIE STROM (MG Urban Fantasy Trilogy 3 Book Series, Complete)
Allie Strom and the Ring of Solomon (Now FREE!)
Allie Strom and the Sword of the Spirit
Allie Strom and the Tenth Worthy