Havok Publishing

Science Fiction

The Champion of Pecullar

“See?” Joler exclaimed, waking me up. “I beg Crobet to train with me every day, but he just sits there!”
“Why haven’t you been training?” Turgess snapped. “You’re getting flabby!”
I shrugged, regretting giving them the access code to the underground command center. “When was the last threat?

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The Package

Have to get out of here. No time to waste. I weave through the long corridors at the edge of the army base, counting turns, counting breaths.
The vials jangle in my pockets, though I’d wrapped them in paper before leaving the lab. If they break

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Skin-Sealed Sanctum – A Dreaming Machines Story

“Nasir, do you think another tattoo is necessary?” asked the robotic skull from its place hanging on a dusty shelf. His eyes glowed azure.
Nasir lifted his gaze from the pencil-sized steel spike—his rudimentary device for embedding the crushed blue Caerulum

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Oh, Possum

I have nobody to blame but myself for bringing home that blasted opossum.
Last week, I gazed down at it, sprawled wounded and unmoving in a cratered building.
My conscience wouldn’t let me leave it.
So I brought it home.
Playing nursemen for the criminal cyborg started

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Assigned Name: Scout

Humans. Scout crouched in the narrow gap behind the couch as the two guards passed.
“Probably a glitch,” the guard that smelled like coffee said. “No one’s here.”
Scout’s ears twitched in amusement. He must’ve missed a motion sensor, but it didn’t matter. The employee lounge of CB-TED’s

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Defective

The torture had stopped being pain three days ago. After a while, sensation was only data. Now it was just weather.
I slumped against the far wall of my cell, metal biting into my wrists. The shackles were designed for smaller creatures. They cut

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Icebird vs. the Dinosaurs

If there was one thing that Iris City had in surplus, it was abandoned buildings. In his Icebird guise, Houston Haas circled over a block full of them, trying to localize the lady’s cries for help. At last, he pinpointed a rusting building that had once been a warehouse, surrounded by a graveyard of other similarly decrepit structures.

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Ink and the Illusionist – A Dreaming Machines Story

“Come one, come all.” Erizan waved to the bustling crowds passing before his small circus tent. “Dr. Erizan Aziz’s world of mystery awaits those who dare tread the waters of the lost deep!”
He’d tailored this pitch for the ocean people of Leaslin. They were born in water, lived on water, died in water,

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Made of Metal and Morality – A Dreaming Machines Story

Tin Eyeswell stood on the precipice of immortality. The only obstacle between him and a hefty cache of Caerulum crystal was a group of peddlers down in the ravine.
Collateral damage.
Tin nodded at his partner, Merek, and caught his scruffy and sunburnt reflection off Merek’s metal

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Broken Box

Ping, pang, ping, pung, pang…
He cringed as his eardrums buzzed from the musical assault. “Man, I don’t think anyone could have made a worse music box. This thing must be broken.” Bobby leaned forward and put the wind-up music box between

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Three Trillion Reasons to Live

Getting shot in the chest wasn’t everything I hoped it would be. The slug burrowed in my breastplate, and oil—not blood—spurted everywhere. Following protocol, I fell backward and writhed on the ground.

But I wasn’t really feeling it. Literally. My plasticine body did not have pain receptors, and even the oil was just for show.

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The Cleaning Lady vs. the Handyman

Dee Dalsey was constantly surrounded by heroes. Big heroes. Little heroes. (One that could be either, depending on the need.) Heroes with super strength, super speed, or super senses. Not to mention the whole slew of heroes that could fly.
Yet none

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