Cindy’s Story Trivia

This story originated from a random story I told someone on Facebook chat one day to entertain them while they were at work. It was all just spur of the moment and off the top of my head, but I liked how it came out, so I started working on it after I finished book 20 of the Unseen Things series.

This book was only ever intended to be a standalone. I wanted to get a non-series book done and published so I could not only use it to introduce people to my writing.

The snappy dialogue in the book is a nod to the film My Man Godfrey.  If you’ve never seen the film, I highly recommend it.  The dialogue is so fast and punchy that it’s almost dizzying at times, but it’s brilliantly comical.

 

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The Accidental Hero Trivia

I came up with the idea for this story when I was talking to an author friend of mine in a chat online.

My original idea was to have a superhero who, after his encounter with the aliens, could suddenly see invisible beings that had infiltrated our society from another dimension.  Ultimately I gave up on that idea, mainly because I didn’t feel like it was worth a whole book, but also because it was too much like the movie They Live.  Keeping it more crime and day to day life based allowed me to do a lot more with the story than my original idea would have.

While there is a fair amount of humor in the story, I originally intended for it to be more of a comedy with a klutzy sort of a guy who became a superhero.  It ended up not being that at all.  Instead, it combines humor with some darker, more serious story elements.

Before I wrote this book, I had started writing the 23rd book in the Unseen Things series.  I reached chapter 10, and aside from the main storyline, all the rest of it felt rather forced, so I abandoned it completely.  The 22nd book, Aftermath, was always intended to be the final book in the series, and that’s where it stands.  There will be no more books in the Unseen Things series.

 

Cindy’s Story

After her temper led her to walk out on yet another convenience store job, Cindy needed to find herself a new job fast, otherwise she’d end up broke and living on the streets. After discussing the situation with her apartment manager, he informs her that he has a brother who’s been looking to hire an assistant. The only problem is that he’s a private investigator, which is a career field that she has no experience in whatsoever. Still, she was pretty much ready to jump at any opportunity. It was a chance at not only quick employment, but possibly a whole new career that would get her out of the convenience store business once and for all.

As it turns out, being a private detective isn’t as glamorous as they make it look on television. It comes with certain indignities and moral issues that she’d never really considered before. Not only that, but her new boss, Frank, seems to delight in going out of his way to piss her off. The only thing he seems to enjoy more than pissing her off, is complaining about how horrible her coffee is. Still, for some reason that she can’t seem to figure out, he also goes out of his way to help her succeed in any way he possibly can.

While Frank can be terribly passive aggressive, he’s nothing compared to his sister Kayla. She’s like a nightmare on wheels, with no empathy, and no filter whatsoever. You never know what’s going to come out of her mouth next, but it’s a safe bet that it’ll be something infuriating. When your temper is already the stuff of legends, having to deal with someone like her, without the encounter ending in a murder rap, requires a tremendous amount of willpower.

The one thing that Cindy has going for her is that she’s got a super high aptitude for the job. All she needs to do in order to succeed is to work hard, learn how to control that legendary temper of hers, and most importantly, learn how to make a decent cup of coffee. The first two are relatively simple. The third…not so much.

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The Accidental Hero

After a nasty fight with his girlfriend, Eric Kaufman got in his car and headed out for the open road, just to sort of cool off a bit and get his head together. Unfortunately for him, as he was driving down a desolate highway way out in the middle of nowhere, his engine died, his car slowed to a stop, and then they showed up. The last thing he ever expected when he woke up that morning was that he’d be abducted by aliens, but sure enough, that’s exactly what happened.

After an unfortunate and very painful incident on their ship, he suddenly lost consciousness, and then woke up next to his car several hours later. He seemed all right at first, but in the days that followed he began to develop superhuman abilities, which would ultimately lead to him becoming something far more than he ever thought he could be.

Sadly, while becoming a superhero might seem cool to the average person, it does come with a laundry list of problems as well. For example, how do you keep your identity a secret? How do you balance being a publicly recognized superhero during the day with your vigilante activities at night, while still getting enough sleep to handle your day job? How do you dispose of all those cartel members you slaughtered, without anyone ever finding their remains? And most importantly, how do you get the taste of someone else’s blood out of your mouth when you don’t have any mouthwash handy?

These questions and more are all issues that Eric must face as he navigates the topsy-turvy world of being the world’s first and only, real-life superhero.

 

Origins (Book #1)

No one believed fourteen-year-old Jarrod Grant when he told them what happened to his family. They said it was just a coping mechanism to deal with what he’d seen, but no matter how hard they tried to get the truth out of him, all he could talk about was the portal that had opened in his room, and the creature that had come through it to abduct his mother, and his younger brother.

His story hit the local news, and he was thrown into a social system that only seemed to exist to make him feel like he was insane. Soon enough he was placed with a very loving set of foster parents who did their best to help him through his trauma, but his school life was a different matter entirely. He was treated like a freak, and turned into a social outcast whose only comfort was a notebook, which he obsessively filled with illustrations of what happened to him and his family on that fateful night.

When he started his senior year of high school four years later, he expected it to just be more of the same. He never dreamed that he’d meet two amazing girls named Tina and Sarah, who were actually interested in listening to his story. Not only did they believe him, but they made it their mission to try to find him some answers.

Their search eventually leads them to a woman named Patricia Samuels, the caretaker and record keeper of a library full of lost information. Her books, some dating back centuries, contain mere hints of the answers they’re looking for. To get the rest of the story however, Patricia must visit an old man in Ohio named Jack Wilson, the only living person who could possibly hold the key to the knowledge they seek.

 

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The Hunt (Book #2)

When Jarrod Grant was fourteen years old, he watched helplessly as a troll-like creature emerged from a portal in his bedroom and abducted both his mother, and his younger brother.  He spent years brooding over the fact that they were gone, but during his senior year of high school, two very special girls would change everything.

Tina and Sarah, made it their mission to find him some answers about what had happened to his family.  Their research led them to a woman named Patricia Samuels, who gave them far more answers than they’d bargained for.  Not only was she able to tell them what happened to Jarrod’s family, but she also provided them with something far more valuable.

Through her research, she was able to locate the only person who’d ever returned after being abducted.  That man provided her with notebooks full of information about his time as a slave in another dimension, and he also provided her with something she hadn’t dared to hope for.  He gave her the amulet he’d used to get back home.  An amulet that was capable of opening portals to five different dimensions, including the one where Jarrod’s family were being held in slavery, along with many others.

With this ability now in hand, they set off on their first forays into the Faranox dimension with the goal of securing an amulet for each member of the team, after which, the planning and execution of the rescue mission will finally commence.

 

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Exploration (Book #3)

With their mission to rescue Jarrod’s family now behind them, the group finally has time to focus on other things, like Jarrod’s birthday, learning more about their blue fin friends, and expanding the boundaries of their relationships with one another. However, before they do all that, they have a little unfinished business with Diedre, the girl responsible for the suicide of Derek’s brother. After her violent and psychotic outburst during the sentencing phase of her trial, the judge sent her to be held in a psych ward for evaluation and treatment. Unfortunately for her, when the people who have a grudge against you have the ability to go out of phase and walk through solid objects, there’s nowhere you can hide, and no one who can save you from the consequences of your actions.

Also, as their friendship with the blue fins continues to grow, their blue fin friend Freddie expresses a desire to visit the human dimension. Looking forward to the opportunity for a cultural exchange, they’re more than happy to oblige. It started off well enough, but when Freddie shows an unbelievable capacity for learning and retaining new information, they begin to realize that they may have inadvertently opened a Pandora’s Box by exposing him to the wonders of the human world. Life on the island would no longer be enough for him, leaving them all with some hard decisions to make, not only about his future, but the future of his people as well.

Finally, when portals begin to open on the blue fin island while the team are there installing a new solar power station for their friends, a desperate fight ensues to stop the agaronin from capturing themselves a new batch of slaves. While they were able to fend them off this time, it quickly becomes obvious that for their own protection, the formerly peaceful blue fins would have to be armed, and then trained to defend themselves against the unpredictable threat. Fortunately, the skills that Freddie learned while he was in the Human dimension would leave them in the hands of not only a capable trainer, but someone who could turn them all into unstoppable killing machines.

 

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Revenge (Book #4)

When word started to spread among the tribes in the Faranox dimension about the raid on one of their villages by five humans who’d killed many agaronin and freed their captive slaves, they came up with a plan to combine several of their villages into one massive settlement, so they could defend against any such attacks in the future. To create such a settlement however, they would need more slaves than the ones they currently possessed, and that’s when they did something they shouldn’t have done. They went to the Blue Fin dimension, attacked Freddie’s village, and captured at least half of the blue fins on the island.

When the blue fins make a desperate call to Freddie to ask for help from their human friends, Derek must come up with a rescue plan that’s larger and far more involved than the one they’d used when they rescued Jarrod’s family. They’re also going to need some help if they’re going to have any hope at all of pulling it off. To that end, several of their parents are recruited to help, along with Jeremy and the gang, and the rest of the blue fins from the island who are brought to the human dimension, not only for their own protection, but also so they can be trained for their role in the mission.

Time is of the essence, but developments in the Faranox dimension threaten to throw a monkey wrench into their plans. Fortunately, with the help of the backers and their mysterious rep, they may just be able to pull it off.

Also, when the backers suddenly start feeling even more generous, the rep tells Patricia that they’ll be tearing down their current home, and replacing it with a new home that will better serve their needs. What they received when all was said and done however, went far beyond any of their wildest dreams.

Revenge continues the Unseen Things saga with new team members, new revelations, and a visit from someone who’s about to become an even more important part of their lives than they already were.

 

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Immortals (Book #5)

When a mysterious woman showed up at their door after their party guests had all gone home for the evening, no one had any idea who she was.  She was young, beautiful, well-dressed, and up to now, had been barred from having any personal contact with them, so it was only natural that they didn’t recognize her.  You could have heard a pin drop when she introduced herself as Jan Brewster, the rep who’d been taking care of them behind the scenes from the very beginning.

Not only was she finally allowed to make personal contact with them, but the backers had been so impressed by their selfless actions in freeing slaves from the Faranox dimension, that she was granted permission to offer them a very special gift.  The serum she carried with her when she arrived granted them not only immortality, but everlasting youth, total recall, rapid healing, enhanced senses, and superior physical abilities.

Once the serum takes full effect, the first order of business is to finish training the new recruits, so they can be sent out on some training runs to other dimensions, both known, and unknown.  Unfortunately, while out on a training run with Brian, Jarrod runs into a situation that will put their newly granted immortality to the test, and his very survival hangs in the balance.

Old enemies return, new discoveries are made, and in the end, they discover that their lives are about to change in ways that they never could have imagined.

 

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Division (Book #6)

Emotions are running high as the team prepares to split into two separate groups, with one group staying in Washington, while the other prepares to move to the new home that the backers built for them in Scotland. With only a limited about of time left for them to spend together, they’re all doing everything they possibly can to make the most of it.

When Larry asks Jan to marry him, she happily accepts, but the rest of the family can’t let them get married without first throwing them a massive beach party, where debauchery is the order of the evening, as is a healthy dose of reptilian booze. Before their wedding takes place however, Derek and Jarrod have some proposal ideas of their own, but can they pull off their secretive plan without the girls finding out?

Also, there’s a tremendous amount of excitement when the backers send over a new version of the immortality serum. The new version takes their physical and perceptive abilities to new levels, and it increases the rate at which they heal, but it also has some unintended, albeit welcome side-effects.

It’s a sad farewell as the Scotland team says goodbye to their loved ones, but they can all take heart in the fact that they’ll be starting their lives over in a beautiful new place where they’ll finally have a chance to not only prove themselves, but to accomplish some truly amazing things that none of them would have ever thought possible.

 

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Trackers (Book #7)

When they volunteered to move to Scotland to start up a second operation, they all had their own reasons for doing it. Some wanted to prove themselves, while others just wanted to make a fresh start. Whatever their personal reasons were for going, they all still had the same mission, which was to free slaves in the Faranox dimension, explore new dimensions, and to make friends wherever they could along the way. Unfortunately, their first journey into one of the previously unexplored dimensions turns into a bit of a disaster when they encounter a very hostile race of creatures that are both primitive, and terrifying.

When an amulet is lost during a wild escape from these creatures and ends up in the hands of their queen, things go from bad to worse when she accidentally uses it to open a portal. Soon enough she finds herself in the human dimension, with a team of very desperate people trying to capture her and send her back home before she winds up getting spotted, or even worse, killing someone.

Later, while the team is exploring around in the Faranox dimension looking for villages with slaves that needed to be set free and sent back to their home dimensions, they come across a rather unique village, the likes of which no one from either team has ever encountered before, and meet a tribal leader who could very well become a key ally in the days to come.

 

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Ghost Worlds (Book #8)

Four different Earths in four different dimensions were left as nothing but lifeless balls of rock and sand after their moons were destroyed. Massive hunks of debris slammed into the planets, ripping away their atmospheres, and extinguishing every last bit of life. With a near infinite number of dimensions, was it beyond the realm of possibility that these four ghost worlds were nothing more than a coincidence, or was it perhaps a coordinated attack, the goal of which was to destroy whoever, or whatever inhabited those worlds?

Suspicions and theories abound, but they’ll never find the answers they’re looking for unless they put boots on the ground. In order for them to do that however, they’re going to need some new gear, including space suits, metal detectors and ground penetrating radar. If, as they suspect, these dead worlds truly were inhabited by the race they called the creators, then they not only need to find evidence of their presence on those worlds, but they also need to find out just who it was that attacked them, and more importantly, the reason why.

Also, in an effort to repair a relationship that had grown somewhat distant over the years, Jarrod, Derek, Tina, and Sarah invite Patricia to come down to the cabin with them for a little vacation, so they can get things back to the way they were in the early days. While there, they head out to explore an as of yet unexplored dimension. In the process, they find a world that’s beautiful beyond anything they could have possibly imagined, but they also find a large supply of an incredibly rare mineral that could just be the key to producing limitless energy.

 

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Resurrection (Book #9)

When Logan’s body was removed from its grave, no one had any idea just who could have committed such a heinous act. Never in a million years would they have dreamed that Derek’s brother had been taken for a very specific reason, nor could they have possibly guessed what that reason might be.

The serum had granted them immortality, as well as all of their vast mental and physical abilities, but what if it could be used for more than that? What if it could be used to regenerate the dead, and then bring them back to life with their memories fully intact? Freddie believed that such an achievement might just be possible, and after discussing it with Charles and Richard, they worked together to develop a process to make that theory a reality. However, the process would need a test subject, and that’s where Logan came in.

Freddie’s theory turned out to be correct, and soon enough Logan was back on his feet, and had even been age progressed, so that he and his brother would be about the same age. While the process worked perfectly however, there was another problem that would have to be dealt with. Unfortunately, while everyone was incredibly happy to have Logan back, the deep emotional trauma they’d all experienced in the aftermath of his suicide left a heaviness over their reunion that he just doesn’t know how to fix.

Another unforeseen problem arose as well. While they continued to bring back the loved ones of some of the others, the realization that one of them can never be brought back because she was cremated after her death, leaves one member of the family in a spiraling fit of depression and self-blame that’s almost more than he can stand.

Also, in an attempt to expand their abilities, they start experimenting with remote linking, and as a result of that process, they suddenly discover that they’re all far more powerful than they’d ever imagined.

 

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Encounters (Book #10)

The moons of seven different dimensions were destroyed by the nathalis in a effort to bring an end to the zethichtalarin, and while it did succeed in killing off the majority of their race, it was inevitable that some of them would escape to other dimensions before their worlds were destroyed.

It was assumed that whatever survivors had managed to escape would be so scattered throughout the dimensions that they would no longer pose a threat, but when Beth and Erin encounter one of their military officers in the Paradise dimension, that assumption is quickly proven wrong.

Now that the zethichtalarin have begun to show themselves again, what lengths will they go to in order to rebuild their empire? The answer may be found in the Faranox dimension, where there’s a suspicion that the survivors of that race may be using thousands of captured slaves to build themselves a new city. Unfortunately, no one knows where they are, and all they have to go on are rumors and suspicions.

With some of the survivors now showing themselves again, the groups in Washington and Scotland redouble their efforts to search both the command centers and the armories they found on the ghost worlds, not only to salvage the zethichtalarin’s advanced technology and weaponry, but also to find out what might have led to the nathalis’ attempt to wipe the zethichtalarin out of existence. What they find however, leads them to realize that the nathalis may have, just by the thinnest of margins, saved themselves from an unbelievably horrific weapon that they weren’t even aware of.

 

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Resurgence (Book #11)

The nathalis plan to wipe out the zethichtalarin was mostly successful, but a large number of zeths managed to escape to other dimensions before their worlds were destroyed. It was assumed that the threat had been eliminated, but assumptions can often be wrong.

After what was assumed to be a free army, led by a general with advanced tactical knowledge swept across the continent in the Faranox dimension, it was assumed that they’d done it to free all the slaves, and to wipe out the practice of slavery on the continent once and for all. Rather than releasing all the slaves however, they marched them back with them to the village where the army had formed. Why would a free army not just send the slaves back home, and where had this mysterious general come from that had the knowledge to lead his army to such a sweeping victory? The more the team in Washington thought about it, there was only one conclusion they could possibly reach. The zeths were back, and they were trying to build themselves a new home to use as a base of operations in the Faranox dimension.

Assembling a team made up of members of both the Washington and Scotland teams, as well as a newly human Thayelle, and a couple of ach’len who are hell-bent on revenge, the team heads out to the East Coast to begin their search. All the anecdotal evidence they’ve been able to gather so far has indicated that the mysterious free army originated from there somewhere, but with a lot of land to cover, the team has to disguise themselves as locals so they can gather information without raising any suspicions.

Back at home, a frustrated Jan discovers a new ability that will aid them all greatly on their mission. When the team takes that ability and comes up with some even more creative ways to use it, they suddenly find that they’re all far more powerful than they’d ever imagined.

 

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Emissary (Book #12)

How exciting would your life be if you were assigned to guard mineral deposits on an uninhabited world? Alarwyn thought that was going to be the sum total of her life, at least for the foreseeable future, but then one day, everything suddenly changed. Selected by her superiors to be their emissary to the Human dimension thanks to her friendship with Beth and Erin, she finally had a way out, but she never imagined what a life altering experience her new assignment would turn out to be.

Also, when Giles, Savaric, Billy and Sarah saved the inhabitants of dimension 3997C from an alien invasion, they had no idea of the repercussions they’d face in the aftermath. That is, until Colonel Andrew Swanson showed up at their gate one day wanting to speak to Charles and Richard. It seems that the alien invaders didn’t take kindly to having their invasion fleet wiped out of existence, so they sent a ship to Earth to demand that those responsible be handed over to them within a week, or they’d launch a full-scale invasion on the planet. The colonel was tasked with finding those responsible, but when he informs them of what’s going on, the aliens very quickly discover that they should have just left well enough alone.

Finally, now that Savaric has found himself someone to love, the others all take Giles out to a local club, in an attempt to find him someone as well. Fortunately, or unfortunately, as the case may be, the girl he ends up meeting turns out to be more than a handful, especially after she finds out the truth about just who and what they really are.

 

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Companions (Book #13)

In an effort to get out there and prove themselves to the others, Alarwyn and Stephanie head off to the Reptilian dimension to do a little exploring, but things take a serious turn when they discover a zethichtalarin plot to destroy the nathalis homeworld. Now they must come up with a plan to stop the plot and kill the conspirators before they can bring their deadly plans to fruition. Unfortunately, their plan involves being gone for an extended period, as well as having to deal with the zeths all on their own, which causes Giles and Savaric no end of worry.

Also, when the hybrids start aging at a rapid pace, and the scientists at the base are clueless as to what’s causing it, much less how to stop it, Colonel Swanson shows up at the house to ask Charles and Richard for their help. Unfortunately, without knowing the cause of the aging, there may only be one way to save their lives, but getting them out of the base, and then figuring out what to do with them afterward are two hurdles that must be overcome before they can move forward with any solutions.

Lastly, while dining at a restaurant together, Derek and Jarrod meet a waitress named Darla, who becomes instantly obsessed with Derek. Unfortunately, this causes him no end of trouble when he runs into her at a club later, and she very physically thanks him for the generous tip he gave her…right in front of Tina and the others. Controlling her temper, Tina informs her that Derek isn’t available, but offers to introduce her to his brother Logan instead. Could this be a chance for Logan to fall in love again, or will the emotional scars of his past get in the way of his future happiness?

 

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Conspiracy (Book #14)

With the help of some very close friends in the nathalis intelligence services, Commander Arthwal’s investigation into the mystery surrounding the deaths of Alarwyn’s parents leads to a revelation that could rock the very foundations of the nathalis political system. Unfortunately, it also leaves him in a position where he must put his career on the line in order to give Alarwyn the justice she deserves.

Also, the hybrids are aging rapidly, and time is running out. In his desperation to save their lives, the colonel turns to Derek and Jarrod for help. Their plan to get the hybrids off the base however hits a snag when an administrator named Wilcox starts throwing some nasty accusations at the colonel, leaving them with no other choice but to expose themselves if they’re going to save the lives of both the hybrids, and the colonel as well.

Finally, when Tina, Sarah, and Jarrod kidnap Heather from the house in Scotland so they can take her out on a little adventure to a random dimension, they thought they were going to end up someplace exotic, or maybe even run into yet another strange species that they’d get to document and study. Unfortunately, the random dimension they happened to choose didn’t provide them with any of that. Instead, they find themselves in a parallel dimension, standing in the living room of their old house while they try to have a conversation with a parallel version of Patricia, who has no idea who any of them even are.

 

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Infestation (Book #15)

The akkelet started out as yet another zeth genetics experiment, but they quickly turned into something that even the zeths were deathly afraid of. When they escaped to another world and continued to breed exponentially, the zeths were left with no choice but to devote an inordinate amount of their military resources to wiping the akkelet out of existence. Unfortunately, before they had a chance to launch their attack, the nathalis blew up their moons and destroyed all seven of the zeth worlds. It seemed like the right move at the time, as the zeths had developed a nasty bioweapon that they were readying to use against them, but in doing so, they stopped the zeths from destroying a threat that would eventually find its way to all four of their own worlds.

Not only are the akkelet able to reproduce both rapidly and prolifically, but they’re telepathically connected through an intensely powerful hive mind, and since the zeths created them as an experiment using version one of the serum, their hive mind operates at a frequency that blasts through the minds of anyone who’s had the serum, thereby negating their ability to use any of their mental abilities. As the invasion begins on the nathalis worlds, their friends from the Human and Blue Fin dimensions must put boots on the ground alongside the nathalis military in order to fend off the threat. Unfortunately, the akkelet are advancing so single-mindedly, and in such massive numbers, that their only hope lies in Andrew and Naelen’s attempt to acquire a frequency jammer that’s capable of canceling out the hive mind, so that those on the ground will be able to use their mental abilities to eliminate the threat. The question is, will they acquire the technology in time to stop the invasion, or will their ground forces be overrun before they can return?

Also, when Derek, Jarrod, and Logan pry Charles and Richard out of the lab to go on a little trip to the planet Gliese 667 Cc, they end up finding a crashed ship and a dead bridge crew from a parallel dimension that leads them to uncover a tale of revenge against a massive and corrupt corporation that operates as their world government in exchange for free energy.

Finally, Darla and Logan’s relationship has reached the point where he’s ready to bring her into the family. Unfortunately, there’s a member of her own family who’s been missing for many years. Her father disappeared while on a trip to Texas to visit a friend, and no trace had ever been found of him. When Logan asks Derek to see if he can locate him, the search leads him somewhere he never expected, and leaves them with a lot more questions than answers about how he got there.

 

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Transition (Book #16)

It was a good run, but their patience has finally come to an end. In the year 2112, the military is forced to remove the government from power due to its deep rooted corruption. Half of the country supports that move, while the other half supports those who were in power, which leads to riots, looting and martial law. Not only that, but China and Russia are at each other’s throats once again, the Middle East is a mess, and there’s a new pandemic brewing in South America.

Feeling completely disconnected from the rest of humanity, they’re left with only three options. They can either mentally manipulate the whole of the Earth’s population to put an end to all the social and political turmoil, they could kill off most of the Earth’s population, thereby giving humanity a chance to rebuild itself from the ashes, or they could leave their home behind, and move on to greener pastures.

Unwilling to go with the first two options, and with no other options left open to them, the decision to move to the Nathalis dimension is ultimately made for them. Fortunately, this was a move that’s they’d planned on making for decades, so their new homes were already built and waiting for them by the time they arrived, thanks to the graciousness and generosity of the elders.

 

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Travelers (Book #17)

It was the year 2231 when they started coming through the portals. The echnids came looking for something specific, but that didn’t stop them from wiping out eighty percent of the Earth’s population, so they could also steal whatever other resources they found useful. Humanity may have been wiped out completely if not for what became known as the Day of Death, where all the echnids on Earth suddenly and inexplicably turned inside out.

Some people became victims in this post-apocalyptic world, while others, like Jake and Lana, found the strength within themselves to not only survive, but to thrive in this new world by taking on less than moral jobs in exchange for food, and all the other things they needed to make it from day to day. That all came to an end however when they reached the town of Cottonwood. The town was about the most normal and functioning place they’d run into in all their years of travels, and with life on the road weighing down on them so heavily, they decided that this was where they were going to settle down. Unfortunately, as the new sheriff and deputy of the town, they have to deal with a variety of issues in order to protect the people of Cottonwood, including random echnid incursions, roving bands of a biker gang known as Skinks, a drifter who lives to prey on the weak, and a very angry pregnant girl from a nearby town who has a bounty out on Jake’s head.

Making things even more difficult, when a random guy passes through town and tells Greg about some doors he saw standing amidst the rubble of some bombed out buildings up along the coast of Washington, his first thought is that they’re most likely the remains of some sort of an underground military facility. He becomes so obsessed with this thought, and what it could potentially mean for the town if they were to go up there and actually find something, that he attempts to enlist Jake and Lana’s help to make the trek up there with him. It would be a dangerous journey, but when four random strangers suddenly hit town, they might just have some information for them that’ll save them from making a useless trip.

 

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Repercussions (Book #18)

Actions have consequences. You may have done something in the past, or perhaps even on this very day that could alter the course of a whole civilization, or simply change the fate of one individual. The gang soon discovers this as they start checking in on some people and places from their past to find out how things have ended up for them over the course of the past two and a half centuries.
Actions have consequences. You may have done something in the past, or perhaps even on this very day that could alter the course of a whole civilization, or simply change the fate of one individual. The gang soon discovers this as they start checking in on some people and places from their past to find out how things have ended up for them over the course of the past two and a half centuries.

Also, when Beth organizes a whole new round of exploration runs, Giles and Savaric find themselves on a sunless world in a dimension filled with energy forms that appear to be the ghosts of intelligent species from a variety of different dimensions. When they bring in Charles and Richard to help them investigate however, one of the energy forms tries to get at them so aggressively, that Richard decides to capture it and bring it back to the lab in order to see if they can use that energy to restore the entity to its original form. Unfortunately, what they end up bringing back is none other than an old enemy that none of them had ever expected to see again.

 

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Reapers (Book #19)

When the reaper drones showed up at the party to kill Diedre so they could reclaim her energy and take it back to Purgatory, she and Logan had go on the run, hopping from dimension to dimension in an effort to try to stay one step ahead of them while the folks back home work on a way to rectify the situation without leaving all of the energy forms on Purgatory stranded there for all eternity. In their search for answers however, they make some incredible discoveries, not only about the dimension of Purgatory itself, but also about the root cause behind Diedre’s psychotic behavior in her former life.

Also, when Derek pays himself a visit from the future, he learns that their attempts at finding a solution to the Diedre situation appeared to have worked at first, but things ended really bad for them shortly thereafter. Now they have to think outside the box to come up with a new and unique way of solving the problem that they wouldn’t have otherwise considered, because if they don’t, then some people that they care very deeply about are going to end up dead, while others will have a falling out that will cause them to go their separate ways.

Finally, while out on the run from the Reaper drones, Logan and Diedre’s feelings for one another continue to grow, but can Logan resist temptation so that he doesn’t end up hurting Darla and destroying their marriage? Derek isn’t so sure, and every time that Logan returns and the others fail to catch him so they can swap out who’s protecting Diedre, his anger continues to grow. When he starts taking that anger out on the family however, Jarrod is forced to give him a harsh reality check to bring him back to his senses.

 

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Invasion (Book #20) (Coming in 2016)

Another day filled with boredom turns into story time when Derek, Jarrod, Tina, and Sarah prompt Jake and Lana to regale them with tales of their time on the road after the Echnid invasion.

From the moment they first met at the police station when Lana released him from a holding cell and saved his life, Jake devoted his life to making sure she had as good of a life as they possibly could in the post-invasion world, and he often risked everything to ensure their survival, and even though he purposely sabotaged any chance they had at being together because of his own insecurities, neither of them ever doubted that the other would always have their back.

After their escape from the echnids in Los Angeles, they traveled from small town to small town, searching for jobs that would be more suited to a mob enforcer than they would be to a homeless guy and a mechanic. Still, they needed to be able to do these sorts of jobs if they were going to survive in this new reality, because the only alternative was hardship and death. Fortunately, they seemed to have a rather high aptitude for this sort of work, so they managed to keep themselves going by contracting themselves out to whoever was willing to pay for their services.

Also, when Sarah decides to use their newly discovered ability to alter reality to save Jake from having to live with a mistake from his past, it leaves them wondering whether or not they should continue to keep this ability a secret from the rest of the family.

 

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Genesis (Book #21)

When you have the literal power of gods, the ultimate accomplishment would be to use that power to create a living world out of a lifeless hunk of rock. This was the idea behind the Genesis project, but there was just one catch. They needed to find a lifeless hunk of rock to use for the project before they could set their plans in motion.

Fascinated by the potential of what could be learned from such a project, an amiable stranger named Gerald shows up seemingly out of nowhere, stating that he’s simply there to observe their progress. When asked about where he came from however, what he tells them changes not only their view of the universe, but it also changes how they view their very existence.

Unable to take Gerald at his word that he’s simply there to observe, and that he won’t do anything to help or hinder them in any way, Jarod opens as time portal that takes him far into the future. When he returns however, not only does he refuse to tell the others where he went or why he went there, but he’s suddenly plagued by massive headaches. Not only that, but since he’s returned, no one’s abilities work on him anymore. Even stranger, he knows when someone is trying to use their abilities on him, which was something that, under normal circumstances, he shouldn’t have been able to sense. As their fear of what’s happened to him continues to grow, so does his frustration at constantly being asked about it, since keeping that knowledge a secret could be the key to their very survival.

Also, during the search for a suitable planet to use for the Genesis project, Derek and Jarrod happen to find the Echnid dimension, and quickly discover that the downtrodden average citizens of that world are in desperate need of help. In another twist of fate, Giles and Savaric visit a dimension where another old enemy have embedded themselves in a mountain temple. They claim to be gods, and as such, they’ve forced the people of that world into literal slavery, punishing them with massive storms if they should fail to pay their required tributes. When Giles and Savaric go to confront them over their actions, they soon discover that things aren’t always as cut and dry as they may seem.

 

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Aftermath (Book #22)

They’d come so close to being wiped entirely out of existence when Gerald informed them that he was going to be removing them all from the sim, but Jarrod’s foresight, suffering, and self-sacrifice saved them from that fate when he used the sim to kill Gerald by overloading his neural interface.

Coming that close to death gives you a whole new perspective on life, so after a celebratory party that left everyone but Jarrod with a nasty hangover, they began to experience their lives with a new appreciation and vigor. This took many forms, depending on the person. Some launched themselves into a whole new slew of practical jokes, some took a well-deserved vacation, and yet others focused on new projects that would give their lives added meaning. As for Jarrod, not only does he find some very special ways to make the people he loves happy, but he and Derek start a project of their own, creating a porch swing for his house on Genesis. It may seem like a small thing, but to them, their little project was more special than anyone could imagine.

Aftermath is a slice of life look at the people you’ve grown to love throughout the series, and now that they no longer have to worry about their own survival, who knows what adventures await them in the future? Only time will tell, and thanks to Jarrod, their time has become limitless.