Mod Superhero

Chapter 5.25 - Ava Savanus 2 / Athena 3

Ava Savanus watched the scene unfold from the living room of the lab. She hadn't sat back down on the couch.

Biomech patrols were spreading out to contain the block. There were roughly sixty individuals accounted for, most of which were clustered in the parking garage. Ava's mechs scanned heat signatures, noting any anomalies, and then used facial recognition on closer targets. So far, the lab's algorithms were proving their potential.

Between the Summit's registration databases, and the lab's location tracking, comms monitoring, and facial recognition, no villain would be able to hide.

She sent neural commands to the patrols. Their primary objective was finding the cyborg and capturing it. Other unregistered supers would be contained, and if they put up a struggle, taken into custody.

Reconnaissance and security units were fastest and were the first to converge on the parking garage. Ava watched through their lenses as the first squatters were corralled. Some of them tried to run, but no regular human got more than a few steps before they were netted and tased.

The hidden supers were a nuisance, however. There were eight such targets spread out across the block. There were also two vampires, given away by their pheromone trails.

Ava frowned. Three reconnaissance units and two security units were already disabled. That would soon change. Each biomech had different weapon loadouts, and some would be better suited to certain supers than others. As soon as supers displayed their powers, her mechs were already swapping targets.

She watched the feeds intently as one heavy mech fired a woven-steel net at an air elementalist—they weren't fast enough to dodge or strong enough to escape it. Two reconnaissance units sprayed silicone webbing material to contain a super with acid breath and skin. Electrical charged shotgun pellets took down the duplicating super while super-grade paralytic gas took out another that had super strength. One of the vampires went down with a Gnosis-hacked tranquilizer.

Half down.

There were two supers in the street—a vampire and a super with rudimentary barrier powers. The super managed to block most of the nonlethal rounds from the oncoming patrol, but clearly, they were outmatched. They were running away, heading for the parking garage—

Make that three supers. One super from the parking garage had leapt down to the street in a misjudged attempt to help them. The new super fired blasts of energy from their palms, which were capable of stunning the smaller biomechs.

Ava sighed. People should know when they're beaten.

There were two more supers in the parking garage. They were trying to escape down one of the side stairwells. They both clearly had super strength and enhanced speed as well. They'd used a steel door to crush a lone security unit before it could retaliate and before it could ID them.

If the cyborg was here, it was one of those two supers. It was avoiding using its enhancements—probably hoping to blend in and escape.

Ava wasn't worried in the slightest. There were more than enough mechs waiting for them on the ground floor.

"Communication intercepted from the Summit of Heroes. Additional supers dispatched to Eastside disturbance."

Ava groaned. "That was quicker than usual. What's their ETA?"

The computer overlaid a map of Belport. Two capes had been dispatched from the closest station to the South. Two more from a neighboring station. They would reach the block in approximately four minutes.

That wasn't Ava's primary concern.

There was another cape signal. This one had been outside the northern city limits and was now approaching Belport at just under the speed of sound.