Amelia's Blog

They parked the truck a block down, behind some dumpsters. The location the soldier gave was an abandoned warehouse that was half collapsed. The city had made several attempts to condemn it, but it always seemed to be saved at the last minute. Nothing suspicious about that , CJ thought. Peering around the nearest dumpster, she slipped her binoculars from one of her jumpsuit’s many pockets. No obvious guards or security. Odd, that. “Do we care if they know we’re coming?” “They’d have to be daft not to know we’d hit back, wouldn’t they?” CJ turned to look at Alana. “Not really. They could be over confident.” Buck looked through his own set. “I hate to sound cliched, but,” he glanced at the three women, “I think it’s almost too quiet.” “Unless everything is automated topside. All the men are downstairs,” Hitomi shrugged. “It’s how I’d do it.” “Either way, I know I don’t care.” CJ put the binoculars away and started forward. “Cynthia!” Buck called after her. “Dammit, girl.” He motioned fo

“Buck!” Doctor Conner waved from what was the front entrance as they piled out of the cab. They joined her, noticed the soot smudges on her face. She had obviously been working ahead to salvage what she could. “Julianne. Able to salvage anything yet?” She nodded, “More than I would have thought. Some of the older children are grabbing what they can. Not everything, of course,” she shrugged helplessly. Buck nodded and put a comforting hand on the woman’s shoulder. She was an elegant woman, her shoulder length hair a striking silver. “I know, Jules. Just save what we can, then rebuild.” She smiled up at him, a tinge of unmistakable fondness in her eyes, “Always the optimist.” “I try. Now, I’m going to leave you to coordinate the salvage. Hitomi, CJ and I are going to pay a visit to the person who perpetrated this.” “I’d like to come too.” They all looked at Alana, who blushed slightly. “I need to do something more than sift through memories.” She looked uncomfortable. Thankfully, Buck di

“Young lady, do you know what you’ve done?” “I got the information we needed.” CJ matched the older man’s gaze without flinching. He held her eyes for a long moment, then pursed his lips and shook his head. “So much like your parents.” He smiled fondly at the startled CJ. “You sure do remind me of them.” He sighed, “I can only cover so much, like I told Buck. Mayer Todd is going to be out for blood on this. Now git. Tell Buck I’ll call later. On the old number.” He turned and walked away before she could even process what he told her. A moment later she was distracted anyway, when Hitomi and Alana came walking up. She knew something was wrong right away. Alana looked like she had been crying, and Hitomi had a protective arm around her. At CJ’s look, Hitomi mouthed “Jeremy.” CJ inwardly sighed. Yeah, he was going to be a problem. It would have to wait, however. “Come on, we need to find Buck and get out of here.” “Why? What’s up?” “I managed to scare the location of the base from that s

Hey everyone. Hope your Christmas was enjoyable, I know mine was nice and relaxing. Okay, so story continues on Monday. We're in the home stretch, believe it or not. That once the scene "The Fall" is done, there's one more scene in Book One. But more on that later. Today, I wanted to bring something to your attention. So, I don't know how many of you are freelancers. One of the great Freelancer blogs I subscribe to is being ripped off. Freelance Writing Jobs found out someone has copied the sites graphics and are using it to drive traffic to a less-than-savory site that rips off freelancers. This sort of thing is awful, and can be damaging to a great site that helps a lot of freelancers. So, please spread the word. More info can be had here and here. Like I said, this kind of stuff is bad, and should make the perpetrators feel bad. That's all for today. Have a great rest of the holiday weekend, and we'll see you Monday!

“The magazines here are worse than my dentist’s office.” Hitomi grumped. She felt a bit like she was in shock. Her second, and in many ways only, home gone. Oh, she knew they’d rebuild. It wasn’t really gone. The feeling persisted however. She opted to let Buck and CJ handle interrogating the scum bag soldiers. She knew she didn’t have anything near the self control the two of them had. She tossed the magazine back down on the table and got up. Glancing around the station once, she headed outside. Her long skirt swished and leather high-heel boots clicked on the tile as she reached the door. Through the door, she saw Jeremy and Alana arguing. “What now,” she muttered. “You don’t look me in the eyes, Jeremy! Unless ordered to, you rarely even acknowledge my existence! We’re friends, we can still work together.” Hitomi hovered with the door half open, reluctant to interrupt. Jeremy was silent for a while, “You don’t understand. I’ve never been good with confrontations or relationships, a

By the time the authorities has arrived, all the soldiers had been secured. They had to move them outside after the thermite charges in the robots went off, which in turn set off some nearby rubble. While moving the soldiers, Buck sent Jeremy to make sure the kids and teachers got out through the underground exit. CJ stood a bit apart from where everyone was gathered and watched her home burn. The only outward sign of her anger was her tightly clenched fists. Buck convinced her to let the police do the questioning, leaving her feeling like she was helpless. It was not a feeling she liked. Buck finished talking to the police and fire chiefs and walked over. “They’re going to let us watch the questioning. I told them we’re grateful, and asked if we could ask a few if they couldn’t get anywhere.” “And?” “They’ll think about it. In the mean time, we should make arraignments for tonight.” He paused. “Are you alright? Aside from the obvious?” He raised an eyebrow at her glare. She held it fo

(Author’s Note: Hey, it’s still Monday! And apparently my Modem/Router combination sucks... yes, I’m making excuses.)                                                                 # # # The first priority was to get the kids to safety. As soon as the first rocket barrage hit the side of the Institute, the teachers, medical staff, the four operatives, Buck, and Mitchell went into action. Buck treated each and every kid there as his own, especially the ones who had no family outside of the institute. The uncharacteristic rage on the man’s face spelled trouble for the attackers. Once the children were inside the safety of the underground shelter, Buck called everyone together. “Alright. The teachers are watching the doors, the medical staff are treating the thankfully small injuries. The rest of us are going to teach these ruffians why you don’t go after children. Ever.” Everyone nodded, CJ’s eyes were hard as diamonds. She looked around. Everyone had murder in their eyes. Even Mitchell

        Hi-de-ho there, neighbors. Just wanted to do a quick check in today and let you know that it is unlikely that there will be any story posts until Monday. Did finally get through that action scene that was kicking my ass, but I would like to go over it one more time tomorrow. Something about it just isn’t sitting right. What a time to find out I really need to practice my action scenes, eh?         Anyhoo, I’ll beg your indulgence while I do that and work up a buffer again. A buffer that’ll last a week tops.         Hey, at least I’m honest :)         Take care and see you Monday!

Anubis paced in his audience chamber with a deliberately slow pace. His few remaining soldiers were preparing for a last ditch assault on these adventurers. Their presence in his old staging warehouse told him it was only a matter of time before they would find him. He stopped, his right side twitching randomly. If they could destroy these meddlers utterly, then his Reich had a chance for ascendancy once again! His loyal Jackal had expressed doubt that four robots and a dozen troops could do it, but he knew his cause was righteous. He knew they would prevail. He began pacing again, a manic giggle escaping his lips. A giggle? Had he ever done that before? He was sure he had. No matter, he simply had to wait for his loyal men to signal victory. He had concerns about Brother Oord, however. The once ascetic man had failed to shave his head for several days. He had started to find excuses to be elsewhere. No matter. He had sent Jackal to deal with him. Even worse, he had not be able to cont

The warehouse was off in a nearly abandoned industrial area, its parking lot and loading area was strewn with rusting abandoned cars and trucks. After the second robot attack, it was decided rather quickly to check the warehouse out, even if it was empty as Garrett said. Not for the first time CJ wondered what the point of these strikes were. She trusted the info that Garrett gave them about the Reich. Heck, she used to go with Buck when they’d help Andy on a case. If he said something, you could take it to the bank. She glanced at Hitomi, who glanced back. She shrugged, obviously mirroring her own thoughts. As they approached the warehouse using the abandoned cars for cover, she kept an eye on Alana and Jeremy. He was acting strange, avoiding Alana, not talking directly to her. This could be a problem, she knew. She caught Hitomi’s eye and jerked her head towards the two. Hitomi nodded and grimaced. “I know.” Hitomi kept her voice low. “Alana told me how Jerry was acting while we went

        Hey everyone! No story today, as my brain is currently reading TILT. However, because I don’t want to disappoint my fan, I’m sharing a plot outline. Okay, maybe “outline” is too strong a word, but when I write, I tend to just sit and write. A full story outline wouldn’t survive the first chapter! Anyway, here you go. Story should resume as normal tomorrow. Thanks for your patients! Title: Play Date Synopsis: While finishing a date on the beach, CJ and Mitchell are attacked by a robot sent by Anubis of the Fourth Reich. Key Points: CJ’s physical strength Mitchell in “real” danger for the first time “Because I think I’m in love with you, you idiot!“ Too soon? Just right?

“Yeah, that’s what he said. Yeah, I don’t get it either. We’ve got the address and we’re heading home now. Don’t worry, we’ll watch it. Bye.” “I take it Buck’s as puzzled as we are?” Hitomi nodded, “If this is some weird power play, they picked the wrong targets. One thing bothers me, though. Okay, more than one thing, but the whole thing with the Beloved Children of Anubis doesn’t make much sense.” “How do you mean? He didn’t want his organization taken over, so he got the word out. Granted, in a ridiculously complicated way.” “That’s just it. He still had loyal people, enough to ransack several places around town. He knew Buck, so he had to know that calling him out like that would be disastrous. It’s like he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory before he was totally subsumed.” “I see what you mean. It makes a twisted kind of sense, now that you say it like that. Most of his group was gone, he probably hated the Fourth Reich, maybe even a personal hatred for the head of the group. Wh

Even at their slower pace, it didn’t take them long to reach the office of Detective Andy Garrett. An old police detective gone PI, he was an old friend of Buck’s. His specialty was keeping track of some of the terrorist and hate groups around the country. He was very good at his job. They went up to his third floor office and knocked. They heard a muffled “Come on in,” through the door. Inside the man’s office was a sense of tightly controlled chaos. Papers were everywhere, but you got the idea that Andy knew where everything was. He was talking to someone on the phone, but motioned for them to take the chairs across from him. “I’m sorry you feel that way, ma’am. I understand, but your husband, I’m sorry, ex-husband hired me to find that out. No, I’m afraid I can’t take your money. Because it would be unethical. No, I don’t suppose you would. I have to go now, ma’am.” He hung up and shook his head. “Industrial espionage. Those two have been sniping back and forth for years now.” He le

“Okay, so what’s eating you Alana?” “What? Nothing.” “Oh come on.” They were walking downtown towards the office of one of their private eye contacts. Alana had been looking long in the face since they left. “I think I know you well enough by now. Come on. Cough it up.” Alana looked as if she was going to protest, but sighed and stopped. “Jerry still refuses to look me in the eye and keeps making excuses to not go on runs with me.” Hitomi winced. “I thought you guys were doing okay. I mean he gave me the message when we were at the dig site.” Alana’s mouth twisted, and she looked like she wanted to cry. “I asked him to give you the message, and he just mumbled something and turned away.” “Geeze. It’s been six months. That boy needs some therapy.” Alana shook her head. “I think it’s more than that. I’m not sure he can deal with me anymore. I think he pulled himself apart.” “What? How? He pulled a bonehead move, sure, but you got over it.” “I think that might be part of the point, Hitom