Mod Superhero

Chapter 2.1.5 - Gait Enhancement

"Alright, alright. I'll talk to Clara," Emmett muttered, more to get McGuire off his back than anything.

For the entire walk home, McGuire had assaulted Emmett with questions about everything between him and Clara—things Emmett didn't even have answers to and things he'd never even thought about. By the time they got back to the Circuit Surgeons, Emmett felt like he'd spent eight hours in the Gray Room.

"You better," McGuire joked as they climbed down the fire escape. "I'm going to ask Clara if you talked to her."

Emmett groaned. "Please don't do that."

"Fine. I won't. But you better talk to her."

"I will... just not tonight," Emmett said as he climbed through the apartment window.

"Dude—" McGuire said a little too loudly. Emmett held up a finger to shush him before the gadgeteer whispered, "That's stalling."

Emmett shrugged. "I'm going to look at those upgrades that TINA suggested."

McGuire frowned. "Suit yourself. I'm going to turn in for the night. Catch you tomorrow, roomie."

Emmett smirked and quietly went downstairs to the second floor of the shop.

Wordlessly, the monitors in the corner of the room came on, depicting the three enhancements for his lower legs. Emmett was still apprehensive about having TINA tied into the shop's network, but the benefits outweighed his concerns.

Clearly, Venture still wanted to help, even if he and Emmett weren't on speaking terms. Otherwise, he wouldn't loan out TINA so freely. Of course, there was always the possibility that Venture was using TINA to keep an eye on Emmett. Either way, there wasn't much Emmett could do about it at the moment.

Emmett waved away the most advanced thruster model. There was no point in examining it now, since he didn't have any access to the necessary materials.

Then he waved away the other thruster design, and enlarged the third option, labeled Gait Enhancement.

The system was designed to supplement the existing structure of his lower leg prosthetics. As Emmett walked, ran, or landed from a jump, kinetic energy would be stored in capacitors. The excess energy could then be funneled back into the prosthetic to make him sprint faster or jump higher. Most of the utility would come in short bursts, but it also seemed like the system could be used to make Emmett's strides more efficient over longer distances too.

In that way, it was similar to McGuire's spring boots, but they couldn't store energy for later.

Emmett studied the schematics, realizing just how ingenious the additional system was. Compared to most of Emmett's upgrades, it would require little to actually implement. Most of the necessary parts were inside him already.

Like the rest of the tech designed by Dr. Venture, the capacitors in Emmett's legs were gated so that they weren't used to their full power. His prosthetic arms were limited in similar ways. Supposedly, Emmett's arms could bend at inhuman angles and were rated for a Class 2 super. But even with the Mutagens and nanomachines in Emmett, the organics parts of him were only Class 1. If too much power flowed through his arms, he could break his spine.

With TINA's help, Emmett could rewrite the parameters of his legs, allowing the capacitors to charge to their full capacity and the use of their full power.

TINA added, "I will unlock your capacitors for traversal and jumping only. You will still need to be careful with force application. You could potentially leap seven stories into the air now, but landing from the same height would certainly injure you or destroy the roof you start on.