Mod Superhero (Book 6 STUBBING on Oct 27th)

Chapter 6.17 - On the Edge of Forever

APPROXIMATELY +0.1.11 POST-INCIDENT

Emmett was on one of the abandoned apartment blocks near the backup lab. They were the highest buildings in the area and offered the best view of nearby Belport and the night sky. He sat on the edge of the roof with his feet hanging over the edge. It was nighttime, and the stars were brighter in his eyes than they'd ever been and the lights of Belport glistened like the ocean.

He'd come up here a lot since... Well, since the lab.

It was comforting being outside under the stars.

He wasn't particularly worried about being seen, but kept his cloaking up all the same. They hadn't seen another soul in this area since they'd scouted the backup lab, and now TINA's protocols made him a ghost in both the real world and in cyberspace. Paragon himself could fly overhead and wouldn't be the wiser.

And while Emmett was there, he was in other places too: He was looking over TINA's shoulder while she examined stolen files from the lab. He was working on his next line of upgrades. He charted Belport drone patrols like constellations in the sky. And he practiced nanite control by tracing those patrol patterns in nanites on the roof. That last part was too small for even Emmett to see.

Over the last few weeks, Emmett kept coming back to the idea of a singularity—a tipping point where everything changed and there was no going back. A point that no amount of simulations could see past.

Emmett used to worry that the Binary Brotherhood were the ones approaching a singularity...

What would Midas say if he could see Emmett now?

Somewhere in his peripheral consciousness, Emmett felt the secret door to the backup lab open. It was Clara—her thinsuit set off metal detectors that Athena and Lock wouldn't. She was wearing her new attachments overtop of her thinsuit. Her new helmet, gauntlets, boots, and chest piece—the training wheels that would eventually let Clara use her powers without a suit at all.

Clara was still across the block and walking slower than usual. At first, he thought she might be enjoying the night sky like he was, but no... her eyes were looking down at the street as she walked. Something was clearly on her mind, and she was thinking of what to say.

TINA reassured him silently that his assumptions were correct, and that TINA had told Clara where Emmett was.

Finally, he heard her footsteps down the street. Even though her thinsuit gave her an otherworldly grace, Emmett's ears had gotten magnitudes better. He listened to the cadence of her steps—steady and rhythmic, like the ticking of a clock.

Then she leapt up to his rooftop, boosting herself with a gentle nudge of power through the legs and feet of her suit. It was a detail he would've missed before, and now it gave him a newfound appreciation for her grace. She was so in control of her powers and getting better by the week.

Emmett could see her so clearly that he had to remind himself to move.

Most people like it when you look at them. He had to remind him of that a lot lately.

He remembered all those months ago—the first time he'd almost died and gotten upgrades. Emmett had been in the Gray Room and asked Dr. Venture why he didn't simulate color at all... Venture had said that it was so Emmett wouldn't lose track of what was real... Was that what Dr. Venture had warned him about?

Here Emmett was, sitting on the roof, looking at Clara through data and projections instead of looking at her with his own eyes.

He glanced back, trying to acknowledge that she was there. And when Clara walked over and sat beside him, Emmett looked over at her.