Mod Superhero

Chapter 5.46 - Clara 5

It was time.

Arsenal, Mod, and Athena rode the eight o'clock bus to Gnosis.

To Clara, it felt like she was wearing layers of disguises. To the other riders on the bus, she looked like a normal business woman—one that had just woken up and was hiding behind an oversized pair of sunglasses. But beneath her nanite disguise she was clad in high-tech armor. Clara could feel the thinsuit breathing for her, helping her manage the anxiety that was threatening to boil through her skin. And she could feel the prototype pieces—the gauntlets flexing around her hands.

And beneath the disguise and the armor, she was nervous. Clara was doing everything she could to control her breathing and her heart rate.

Athena and Mod sat on either side of her. Despite having her own magic outfit, Athena also wore a nanite disguise. Athena's arms were folded across her chest, and her foot bounced idly. Three suitcases sat at their feet.

Meanwhile, Mod was as cool and still as a machine.

~

The group got off the bus and walked the rest of the block to their destination. At some point, their disguises switched to business attire. All three had opted for well-tailored black suits.

The Belport Gnosis headquarters looked more like a military compound than a pharmaceutical company. The buildings were pristine white and barren of anything except the Gnosis logo—a white square with a simple, blurry face staring back. And the entire perimeter was ringed with razor wire and guards armed with rifles and military body armor.

Mod, Arsenal, and Athena walked down the sidewalk and filed into the stream of Gnosis employees. Mod led the way, followed closely by Clara and Athena. Each carried a suitcase. All the while, TINA directed them.

Clara glanced across the street to the parking garage. Biomechs and drones buzzed around it, and Ava Savanus's massive ship still hung cloaked in the air above it. It was the shape of a figure-eight, sleek and alien, and it glowed like an ominous blue sun in Clara's UV vision—

Over her home.

To her left, the Binary Brotherhood hung triumphant. Biomechs and drones buzzed like insects over a hive. They'd hollowed out Clara's home, usurped her father, and turned it into their lair.

To her right, the vampires of Gnosis continued thousands of years of hiding in plain sight. Of feeding on humanity's blood and strength.

Clara had never felt smaller than she did in that moment, walking the street outside her childhood home, sandwiched between two of the most oppressive forces in the word—

The monsters of new and old.

Clara had to force herself to stand up straight and not to cower. She followed Mod's lead. His shoulders were relaxed, and he looked like he was out for a leisurely stroll. Like a Class 4 super that didn't have a care in the world.

Clara heard Athena's footsteps behind her. Steady. Heavy. A warrior who'd been alive as long as the oldest vampires and was probably deadlier than any of them.

Clara may have been flanked on either side by Gnosis and the Brotherhood, but she walked with monsters of her own.

She felt the metal cocoon of the thinsuit. Felt her power breathing through it. The power of the sun swelled in her chest.

And Arsenal remembered that she was a monster too.

~

There were two checkpoints to get into Gnosis—one outside the building and another inside the building. Outside, there were separate checkpoints for cars and pedestrians. They followed the stream of employees down the sidewalk to the turnstiles.