“I’m sure she’s okay, hon. Carrie can take care of herself.”
“No. Something’s wrong,” Sara says, scrambling to her feet as hot panic fills her chest. Some indescribable instinct drives her to look to the sky for her friend. She cycles through every channel on her comm system — the secure Protectorate channels, the military and police bands — listening with increasing desperation for her sister’s voice. She reaches out with her mind, searching for Carrie through their psychic bond, but finds nothing.
Nothing.
“Meg, something’s wrong!” Sara keens, a sound halfway between a sob and a scream. A rational corner of her mind fights to create a sensible, logical explanation out of whole cloth, but her instincts resist. Her instincts know the truth.
Carrie is gone.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
After I released Action Figures – Issue Four: Cruel Summer, I promised readers I’d deliver a lighter book five, something more in keeping with the tone of books one through three in the series. Hopefully, I delivered on that promise.
Now I promise that you won’t be waiting long to find out what happens next. As I write this, book six — Power Play — is almost done and book seven is about one-third written, so as long as my editor Julie Tremblay and my cover artists Tricia Lupien can keep up with me, you should have two new AF books to look forward to next year.
(This is also assuming that I don’t turn some of my energy toward book two of my other series, The Adventures of Strongarm and Lightfoot, in which case you might have to wait a while for book seven. I swear I will make it worth the wait.)
As always, I’d like to thank my test-readers for their input: wife Veronica and my friends Kate Sokol, Julie Tremblay, Rob Isaacson, and Rich Maclone.
I’d also like to give a shout-out to a few folks who recently helped me get the word out about my work: Paul DiNunno, Brian Harvard, and especially Eric Tetreault, the producers of the Connecticut Renaissance Faire, for hosting a local independent authors series during the faire’s fall 2015 show; Pete Kahle, author of The Specimen, and Miki Wolfe, head of adult and technology services for the Sharon Public Library for letting me join in the library’s authors roundtable featuring local genre fiction writers; and Bevin Ayers for putting me in touch with Jonathan Kreiger, who will (as of this writing) soon launch a new podcast about the challenges and rewards of working as a full-time writer. Hit my website for an announcement when that goes live.
Finally, a big thank-you to you readers for your continued support. I always like to chat with fans, so hit me up via my website with your questions and comments!
Michael Bailey was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts and raised on a steady diet of comic books, Dungeons & Dragons, Saturday morning cartoons, sci-fi television, and horror movies…which explains a lot.
An effort to parlay his love of geek culture into a career as a comic book artist failed when he figured out he wasn’t that good, so he turned to writing as means of artistic expression. Since then, Michael has written several scripts for New England-area renaissance faires, as well as a number of articles based on faire culture for Renaissance Magazine.
In 2013, Michael left his job of 15 years as a reporter and blogger for his hometown newspaper, the Falmouth Enterprise, to pursue his writing career. His debut novel, Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins made its debut in September 2013.
Michael lives in Massachusetts with his wife Veronica, four cats, and an English bulldog.
Visit Michael online at www.innsmouthlook.com, and find him on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Goodreads.
Table of Contents
ONE – LIGHTSTORM AND PSYCHETHE TRIAL OF SARA DANVERS
TWO – CAPTAIN TRENCHCOAT AND NINA NITROROAD TRIP
THREE — SARA DANVERS AND LIGHTSTORMTHE NEW NORMAL
FOUR – LIGHTSTORM AND THE QUANTUM QUINTETTRIALS AND ERRORS
FIVE – KUNOICHI AND THE ENTITY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL (I) – INNER DEMONS
SEVEN – LIGHTSTORM AND MANTICORE FACE TIME
EIGHT – CAPTAIN TRENCHCOAT AND CONCORDE MATTERS OF PERSPECTIVE
NINE – KUNOICHI AND DR. ENIGMA ROCK AND ROLL DAMNATION
TEN – SARA DANVERS AND MEGAWATT QUANTUM FIRST DATE
ELEVEN – SUPERBEAST AND RONNY VICK LETTING GO
TWELVE – THE HERO SQUAD THE ARRIVAL
Table of Contents
ONE – LIGHTSTORM AND PSYCHETHE TRIAL OF SARA DANVERS
TWO – CAPTAIN TRENCHCOAT AND NINA NITROROAD TRIP
THREE — SARA DANVERS AND LIGHTSTORMTHE NEW NORMAL
FOUR – LIGHTSTORM AND THE QUANTUM QUINTETTRIALS AND ERRORS
SIX – SUPERBEAST AND DR. ENIGMA FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL (II) – SOMETHING WICKED
SEVEN – LIGHTSTORM AND MANTICORE FACE TIME
EIGHT – CAPTAIN TRENCHCOAT AND CONCORDE MATTERS OF PERSPECTIVE
NINE – KUNOICHI AND DR. ENIGMA ROCK AND ROLL DAMNATION
TEN – SARA DANVERS AND MEGAWATT QUANTUM FIRST DATE
ELEVEN – SUPERBEAST AND RONNY VICK LETTING GO
TWELVE – THE HERO SQUAD THE ARRIVAL