Welcome to the Indestructibles page! To the right you'll find three sample chapters: "The Girl in the Clouds," when our solar-powered girl begins her journey as a superhero and introduces our villains; "Suits," when the team designs their future super-costumes; and "Gravity," in which the resident Whovian with a black hole instead of a heart learns to fly (sort of). Suits is also readable below!
All three chapters are free to download and can be viewed with any device. Want to read more? Books 1, 2, and 3 are available on Amazon (print and Kindle), Barnes & Noble (print and Nook), Apple iBook and Kobo. Links to all version are on our Purchase page. |
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Sample Chapter: Suits
Kate Miller sat incredibly still at the giant chrome table Doc had asked them all to meet around. So far, she was both terrified and completely unimpressed by the collection of fruitcakes and small gods Doc Silence had been bringing back to the ivory tower his former team of heroes had inhabited. This table was that team’s as well, with a giant emblem of a comet circling the Earth emblazoned on it. It supposedly stood for something. Kate pretended not to care. She had a blanket policy of pretending she didn’t care about the past.
The first girl, Doc’s little prodigy, she was okay, Kate thought, looking at Jane with her from-another-planet red-yellow hair. Jane was polite, and humble, and made forays into friendliness which even Kate had to admit hadn’t worked because Kate herself was trying not to like anyone here. She was beginning to regret that a little bit. Jane was a little too nice, and a little too perfect, but the one thing she was the right amount of was genuine.
But Kate had no time for friends, even if they could fly and melt steel with their bare hands.
The human laser show was another story. Sitting at the head of the table with his feet up on the chrome, hands behind his head, Billy was not nice, was not perfect, and certainly wasn’t genuine. Except the powers. Kate had seen him in action already in the training room. She wondered, not without a little jealousy, why an idiot like him got to walk around with the kind of trippy powers he had access to. He was also, Kate thought, enjoying the whole thing entirely too much.
People shouldn’t want to be heroes.
But speaking of people who didn’t want to be heroes, Titus, coiled up in his chair like an animal, never looked comfortable. His eyes were always looking for exits, watching body language, staring at you when you weren’t looking… If he didn’t look so damned scared all the time, she’d swear he was sizing her up to figure out how to tear her apart.
And then the new girl showed up. Younger than anyone else in the room, with more energy than a Chihuahua on a caffeine high, popping bubbles larger than her head in those rare moments when she wasn’t talking about something inane, Kate had begun plotting to throw her off the tower roof just to see if she could fly, and hoping she couldn’t.
Of course it was Emily who broke the silence.
“So what do you think he’s got in store for us? Field trip? We should go on a field trip,” Emily said. “Disney. Disney would be rad, wouldn’t it? Maybe not. I mean space mountain isn’t as exciting when you can fly, right? No offense Katie.”
Kate steepled her fingers in front of her and stared. Emily didn’t take the bait.
“No field trip yet,” Doc said, entering from the armored elevator that led to street level. Billy said the elevator didn’t exist entirely in this world. Everyone else thought he was full of crap, but Emily started floating away on her first trip in the elevator, saying she felt like she “weren’t where I’m s’posed to be,” and Billy smirked, saying “told you so,” and it made Kate wonder all the more what the smiling little arrogant nitwit had inside him whispering in his ear. There was something in there, she knew—she saw him talking to himself all the time, and there was definitely someone answering him back.
“This is where we vote someone off the tower, isn’t it?” said Titus. Kate almost caught herself smiling , even if the joke wasn’t anything to evoke a real laugh. The kid was so quiet, so inside himself, that to hear an attempt at humor from him gave the joke more weight than it actually deserved.
“Nope. Technically, this is related to leaving the tower, though,” Doc said. “If you’re going out in the field, you need to be better equipped . Jeans and Chuck Taylors aren’t going to do much for you in a fight. C’mon.”
***
Doc led them to another chamber, a big, airy laboratory dominated by a machine the size of a small car. A strangely normal-looking computer terminal stood at one end, and a tube large enough to hold a person in it stood at the other.
“We’re being carbon-frozen,” said Billy. Doc ignored him.
“My friend Annie built this years ago,” Doc said, gesturing to the machine. “Annie had… access to technology that nobody else could get their hands on. We called this thing the tailor.”
Jane smiled.
“This made your costumes,” she said.
“You got it,” Doc said. “I want all of you to spend some time with it. Think about your powers, think about what you need to help keep yourself safe.”
He pointed at Kate.
“The fabrics this thing uses haven’t been invented yet. Light, durable, but if you add some extra layers they’re stronger than Kevlar. Consider using that to your advantage, Kate.”
She nodded. Kate had been wondering about what she could do to get herself on more equal footing with the bullet proof girl and the werewolf. A bit of body armor would be a good starting point.
Doc started to walk out of the room.
“Day off from practice. Play with the tailor. We’ll have show and tell before dinner.”
And he left them there. They all stared at each other.
“I have no use for this,” said Titus. “I destroy everything when I change.”
Jane was already at the keyboard, looking things over. She looked up.
“Says here the material has a lot of wiggle room to expand with changing masses,” she said.
“Sure. Werewolf in a body stocking,” said Titus. “It’ll be awesome.”
“Suit yourself,” Billy said, nudging his way in beside Jane. Jane swatted him and he backed off, before immediately trying to push his way in front of the keyboard again. “If you want to end every battle buckarse naked, that’s your prerogative.”
Titus paused, eyes narrowing at Billy. His eyes darted in Kate’s direction, and she saw his skin flush.
“I’ll try to make some shorts I can wear under my street clothes,” he said. “For, y’know. Decorum.”
* * *
Kate hung back as the others entered the conference room one at a time. She was up in the rafters, and she knew Doc knew she was there, but he was ignoring her, letting her play her game. Doc was hanging out in his college tee shirt and jeans, eyes still hidden behind those red glasses he’d never take off. Titus walked in first, still wearing the same baggy jeans and checkered shirt he was wearing in the tailoring room.
“No luck?” Doc said.
In response, Titus tugged on the waistband of his pants, showing the top of a pair of black pants not unlike yoga shorts. Doc laughed.
“Figured this was better than a werewolf in a tutu,” the kid said.
“Good plan,” Doc said. Titus nodded, taking up his usual anxious perch at the table.
Jane walked in next, and Kate found herself rolling her eyes. Of course she’d do this, Kate thought, looking at the streamlined confection of gold and red Jane had created. The girl who could fly had turned herself into an emblem, with a long-sleeved, form-fitting top, the sleeves just a little too long. High red boots, perfectly functional yet somehow looking like something out of a rocket design schematic, on her feet. A cape, a goddamned cape, Kate thought, but diaphanous, red at her shoulders and fading into blue at the hem, slashed through like daylight. She’d added a skirt to the costume as well, which made Kate want to punch her in the mouth. Completely illogical, completely ridiculous, a cheerleader move…
“Normally I’d say it’s better to put function over form, Jane,” Doc said. “But—you grew up around all those photos on the farm, didn’t you.”
“I sure did.”
“You look like one of the heroes when I was a kid, you know. They all knew the skirts were ridiculous, but—“
“But they knew they were symbols,” Jane said. “So they wanted to look like something. The form mattered.”
“Well, give it a try for a bit. You can always have the tailor make you something different later,” Doc said.
Jane nodded and sat down near the head of the table—always near, never at, Kate noted—crossing her legs demurely.
Then Emily entered the room. Titus actually covered his eyes. Jane blanched. Doc laughed.
“What happened to you? Did you break the machine?” Jane asked.
“Bite me, twinkle-toes,” Emily said. “I like it.”
Emily wore a neon green top emblazoned, appropriately, with the nuclear hazard symbol in black and white. She had black pants contrasting almost appropriately with green of her shirt, but all subtlety was destroyed by the nuclear symbols repeating down her legs in neon blue to match her hair. Her feet were covered in massive, knee-high combat boots with too-thick soles that echoed back to bad fashion choices of the late 1990’s. Fingerless gloves on her hands, also black, but with her apparent choice of personal symbol on the palms as well. And, inexplicably, a scarf wrapped around her neck, the most hideous scarf Kate had ever seen, striped in a barrage of bland, washed out colors. The scarf was at least ten feet long.
Nobody said anything until Billy walked in. Billy spoke for everyone.
“Holy crap, you look like the girl comic books threw up on,” Billy said. “Is your hero name going to be Eyesore?”
“I can crush your heart with my brain, Billy Case, so watch your mouth.”
“What’s with the Gryffindor scarf? Hogwarts called, it wants its neck-ware back.”
“You’re kidding,” Emily said.
“I kid not, Harriette Potter. You look like you are being strangled by ugly.”
“This is a Doctor’s scarf! How do you not know that?”
“A what?” Jane asked.
“The doctor!”
“Who?” Again, Jane, the walking irony-free zone.
“I have a black hole where my heart should be! I am, in fact, bigger on this inside! Does nobody here watch—oh, forget it,” Emily said, playing with a pair of steampunk style goggles resting on her forehead. “Can we make fun of what Billy’s wearing instead?”
They all turned to look at Billy’s costume and, strangely, there really was very little to make fun of. He had created a streamlined suit of white and blue, with a half mask to hide his identity. The white piping was slightly reflective and would catch the light of his glowing blasts perfectly. He truly, bizarrely, looked like an actual comic book character.
“I really thought you were going to walk out here looking like a videogame character,” Titus said.
“I have read comic books my entire life, guys. I’m uniquely unqualified as a hero, but I sure know what one looks like,” Billy said. He flopped down in his usual chair and threw his feet up on the table again. The lack of comedy in his appearance had taken the fire out of the room.
No time like the present, Kate thought. She dropped from her hiding spot up in the rafters to the floor below.
“Oh my god,” Billy said. Kate felt a strange sense of pride that he said nothing else.
“You look like you could murder someone with your pinky,” Emily said.
Kate’s suit was all clean lines, taking on a slightly sci-fi look where extra padding was added over vital organs and soft tissue. The entire ensemble was made up of blacks and a very dark purple that looked gray in certain lights. Tungsten caps glinted on each knuckle and protecting her toes, heels, knees, and elbows—all her striking points. The entire time she’d been playing vigilante she had needed to be careful during fights not to chip an elbow or break toes or fingers, and it felt good to be able to build in protection for all those breakable bones. She had even added a paper-thin metal plate across her forehead under her own half-mask—she’d always liked throwing a good head butt, but it’s a move with limited benefits if you knock yourself silly at the same time. She had also built in a tactical belt and thin gauntlets on her wrists. The rest of the gang didn’t need to know what she’d added there, though. She wasn’t revealing all her tricks yet.
She didn’t trust any of them enough for that.
“She doesn’t look like she’d murder someone,” Titus said, quietly. He was looking at Kate with something that made her distinctly uncomfortable. Instead of that usual predator’s glare, she could have sworn he was looking at her admiringly, like she was someone to look up to. She broke away from his gaze so she wouldn’t have to think about that.
“So if we’re all done staring at the angel of death over there,” Billy said, sparing an extra glance at Kate’s armored suit again, “Does this mean we’re ready for our trip to Disneyland?”
Doc shook his head.
“If you’re going to go up against your first supervillain, you should look the part, right?” he asked.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Emily said.
The first girl, Doc’s little prodigy, she was okay, Kate thought, looking at Jane with her from-another-planet red-yellow hair. Jane was polite, and humble, and made forays into friendliness which even Kate had to admit hadn’t worked because Kate herself was trying not to like anyone here. She was beginning to regret that a little bit. Jane was a little too nice, and a little too perfect, but the one thing she was the right amount of was genuine.
But Kate had no time for friends, even if they could fly and melt steel with their bare hands.
The human laser show was another story. Sitting at the head of the table with his feet up on the chrome, hands behind his head, Billy was not nice, was not perfect, and certainly wasn’t genuine. Except the powers. Kate had seen him in action already in the training room. She wondered, not without a little jealousy, why an idiot like him got to walk around with the kind of trippy powers he had access to. He was also, Kate thought, enjoying the whole thing entirely too much.
People shouldn’t want to be heroes.
But speaking of people who didn’t want to be heroes, Titus, coiled up in his chair like an animal, never looked comfortable. His eyes were always looking for exits, watching body language, staring at you when you weren’t looking… If he didn’t look so damned scared all the time, she’d swear he was sizing her up to figure out how to tear her apart.
And then the new girl showed up. Younger than anyone else in the room, with more energy than a Chihuahua on a caffeine high, popping bubbles larger than her head in those rare moments when she wasn’t talking about something inane, Kate had begun plotting to throw her off the tower roof just to see if she could fly, and hoping she couldn’t.
Of course it was Emily who broke the silence.
“So what do you think he’s got in store for us? Field trip? We should go on a field trip,” Emily said. “Disney. Disney would be rad, wouldn’t it? Maybe not. I mean space mountain isn’t as exciting when you can fly, right? No offense Katie.”
Kate steepled her fingers in front of her and stared. Emily didn’t take the bait.
“No field trip yet,” Doc said, entering from the armored elevator that led to street level. Billy said the elevator didn’t exist entirely in this world. Everyone else thought he was full of crap, but Emily started floating away on her first trip in the elevator, saying she felt like she “weren’t where I’m s’posed to be,” and Billy smirked, saying “told you so,” and it made Kate wonder all the more what the smiling little arrogant nitwit had inside him whispering in his ear. There was something in there, she knew—she saw him talking to himself all the time, and there was definitely someone answering him back.
“This is where we vote someone off the tower, isn’t it?” said Titus. Kate almost caught herself smiling , even if the joke wasn’t anything to evoke a real laugh. The kid was so quiet, so inside himself, that to hear an attempt at humor from him gave the joke more weight than it actually deserved.
“Nope. Technically, this is related to leaving the tower, though,” Doc said. “If you’re going out in the field, you need to be better equipped . Jeans and Chuck Taylors aren’t going to do much for you in a fight. C’mon.”
***
Doc led them to another chamber, a big, airy laboratory dominated by a machine the size of a small car. A strangely normal-looking computer terminal stood at one end, and a tube large enough to hold a person in it stood at the other.
“We’re being carbon-frozen,” said Billy. Doc ignored him.
“My friend Annie built this years ago,” Doc said, gesturing to the machine. “Annie had… access to technology that nobody else could get their hands on. We called this thing the tailor.”
Jane smiled.
“This made your costumes,” she said.
“You got it,” Doc said. “I want all of you to spend some time with it. Think about your powers, think about what you need to help keep yourself safe.”
He pointed at Kate.
“The fabrics this thing uses haven’t been invented yet. Light, durable, but if you add some extra layers they’re stronger than Kevlar. Consider using that to your advantage, Kate.”
She nodded. Kate had been wondering about what she could do to get herself on more equal footing with the bullet proof girl and the werewolf. A bit of body armor would be a good starting point.
Doc started to walk out of the room.
“Day off from practice. Play with the tailor. We’ll have show and tell before dinner.”
And he left them there. They all stared at each other.
“I have no use for this,” said Titus. “I destroy everything when I change.”
Jane was already at the keyboard, looking things over. She looked up.
“Says here the material has a lot of wiggle room to expand with changing masses,” she said.
“Sure. Werewolf in a body stocking,” said Titus. “It’ll be awesome.”
“Suit yourself,” Billy said, nudging his way in beside Jane. Jane swatted him and he backed off, before immediately trying to push his way in front of the keyboard again. “If you want to end every battle buckarse naked, that’s your prerogative.”
Titus paused, eyes narrowing at Billy. His eyes darted in Kate’s direction, and she saw his skin flush.
“I’ll try to make some shorts I can wear under my street clothes,” he said. “For, y’know. Decorum.”
* * *
Kate hung back as the others entered the conference room one at a time. She was up in the rafters, and she knew Doc knew she was there, but he was ignoring her, letting her play her game. Doc was hanging out in his college tee shirt and jeans, eyes still hidden behind those red glasses he’d never take off. Titus walked in first, still wearing the same baggy jeans and checkered shirt he was wearing in the tailoring room.
“No luck?” Doc said.
In response, Titus tugged on the waistband of his pants, showing the top of a pair of black pants not unlike yoga shorts. Doc laughed.
“Figured this was better than a werewolf in a tutu,” the kid said.
“Good plan,” Doc said. Titus nodded, taking up his usual anxious perch at the table.
Jane walked in next, and Kate found herself rolling her eyes. Of course she’d do this, Kate thought, looking at the streamlined confection of gold and red Jane had created. The girl who could fly had turned herself into an emblem, with a long-sleeved, form-fitting top, the sleeves just a little too long. High red boots, perfectly functional yet somehow looking like something out of a rocket design schematic, on her feet. A cape, a goddamned cape, Kate thought, but diaphanous, red at her shoulders and fading into blue at the hem, slashed through like daylight. She’d added a skirt to the costume as well, which made Kate want to punch her in the mouth. Completely illogical, completely ridiculous, a cheerleader move…
“Normally I’d say it’s better to put function over form, Jane,” Doc said. “But—you grew up around all those photos on the farm, didn’t you.”
“I sure did.”
“You look like one of the heroes when I was a kid, you know. They all knew the skirts were ridiculous, but—“
“But they knew they were symbols,” Jane said. “So they wanted to look like something. The form mattered.”
“Well, give it a try for a bit. You can always have the tailor make you something different later,” Doc said.
Jane nodded and sat down near the head of the table—always near, never at, Kate noted—crossing her legs demurely.
Then Emily entered the room. Titus actually covered his eyes. Jane blanched. Doc laughed.
“What happened to you? Did you break the machine?” Jane asked.
“Bite me, twinkle-toes,” Emily said. “I like it.”
Emily wore a neon green top emblazoned, appropriately, with the nuclear hazard symbol in black and white. She had black pants contrasting almost appropriately with green of her shirt, but all subtlety was destroyed by the nuclear symbols repeating down her legs in neon blue to match her hair. Her feet were covered in massive, knee-high combat boots with too-thick soles that echoed back to bad fashion choices of the late 1990’s. Fingerless gloves on her hands, also black, but with her apparent choice of personal symbol on the palms as well. And, inexplicably, a scarf wrapped around her neck, the most hideous scarf Kate had ever seen, striped in a barrage of bland, washed out colors. The scarf was at least ten feet long.
Nobody said anything until Billy walked in. Billy spoke for everyone.
“Holy crap, you look like the girl comic books threw up on,” Billy said. “Is your hero name going to be Eyesore?”
“I can crush your heart with my brain, Billy Case, so watch your mouth.”
“What’s with the Gryffindor scarf? Hogwarts called, it wants its neck-ware back.”
“You’re kidding,” Emily said.
“I kid not, Harriette Potter. You look like you are being strangled by ugly.”
“This is a Doctor’s scarf! How do you not know that?”
“A what?” Jane asked.
“The doctor!”
“Who?” Again, Jane, the walking irony-free zone.
“I have a black hole where my heart should be! I am, in fact, bigger on this inside! Does nobody here watch—oh, forget it,” Emily said, playing with a pair of steampunk style goggles resting on her forehead. “Can we make fun of what Billy’s wearing instead?”
They all turned to look at Billy’s costume and, strangely, there really was very little to make fun of. He had created a streamlined suit of white and blue, with a half mask to hide his identity. The white piping was slightly reflective and would catch the light of his glowing blasts perfectly. He truly, bizarrely, looked like an actual comic book character.
“I really thought you were going to walk out here looking like a videogame character,” Titus said.
“I have read comic books my entire life, guys. I’m uniquely unqualified as a hero, but I sure know what one looks like,” Billy said. He flopped down in his usual chair and threw his feet up on the table again. The lack of comedy in his appearance had taken the fire out of the room.
No time like the present, Kate thought. She dropped from her hiding spot up in the rafters to the floor below.
“Oh my god,” Billy said. Kate felt a strange sense of pride that he said nothing else.
“You look like you could murder someone with your pinky,” Emily said.
Kate’s suit was all clean lines, taking on a slightly sci-fi look where extra padding was added over vital organs and soft tissue. The entire ensemble was made up of blacks and a very dark purple that looked gray in certain lights. Tungsten caps glinted on each knuckle and protecting her toes, heels, knees, and elbows—all her striking points. The entire time she’d been playing vigilante she had needed to be careful during fights not to chip an elbow or break toes or fingers, and it felt good to be able to build in protection for all those breakable bones. She had even added a paper-thin metal plate across her forehead under her own half-mask—she’d always liked throwing a good head butt, but it’s a move with limited benefits if you knock yourself silly at the same time. She had also built in a tactical belt and thin gauntlets on her wrists. The rest of the gang didn’t need to know what she’d added there, though. She wasn’t revealing all her tricks yet.
She didn’t trust any of them enough for that.
“She doesn’t look like she’d murder someone,” Titus said, quietly. He was looking at Kate with something that made her distinctly uncomfortable. Instead of that usual predator’s glare, she could have sworn he was looking at her admiringly, like she was someone to look up to. She broke away from his gaze so she wouldn’t have to think about that.
“So if we’re all done staring at the angel of death over there,” Billy said, sparing an extra glance at Kate’s armored suit again, “Does this mean we’re ready for our trip to Disneyland?”
Doc shook his head.
“If you’re going to go up against your first supervillain, you should look the part, right?” he asked.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Emily said.