Mod Superhero (Book 6 STUBBING on Oct 27th)

Chapter 6.23 - Going Home

APPROXIMATELY +0.10.3 POST-INCIDENT

Sunday afternoon, Mod waited in the rain for the bus into Belport.

There was a small group huddled under the bus stop. The crowd was smaller than most days—which fit considering it was a miserable day outside. It was rainy and close to freezing. No one wanted to brave the weather except for people that absolutely needed to. Almost everyone was dressed in work uniforms.

Mod shrugged off both the temperature and the rain. His body wasn't bothered by the cold anymore, and his outer layer of disguise nanites was completely water-repellent.

When the bus finally arrived, Mod filed on with the others. Nanites hid his face and gave him a generic work uniform, and his system spoofed a fake bus pass. Nanite earbuds even played the latest song by Starquake.

Mod took a seat near the front of the bus and let the others file past him. Soon, he was just another commuter.

But today he wasn't going into Belport on business, and he wasn't looking for a fight.

He was going to see his family.

And he'd put it off for far too long.

~

Mod got off the bus and walked the blocks of rowhouses until he came to Hayden Avenue. His parent's block was quiet, lined with chain-link fences and patches of lawn. If it was summer and the weather wasn't so miserable, people would've been sitting on their porches. Most of the people were his parent's age and knew each other by name.

A feeling of homesickness overcame him. The block had barely changed, but his family had. Antony had gone to college. He'd made the football team but was still rehabbing his ankle, and was redshirting his first year. Darryl, Maci, and the nephews had moved out of the city.

The reason Mod had chosen this particular Sunday to visit was that this was the first time in months that his family had all been in the same place.

Mod stuffed his hands into his nanite hoodie as he walked. Not because he was hiding, but because it was comforting. He could almost pretend that he wasn't a cyborg and that he wasn't a villain. He could almost pretend that nothing had changed.

A drone circled high overhead, but Mod didn't pay it any mind. As far as the Summit or the Brotherhood went, there was nothing to worry about. Mod double-checked all of his protocols, but they were all working adequately. Someone might see him walking up his parent's street, but his identity was hidden from all people and tech that mattered. He walked the street like a ghost.

Still, there was a pit in Mod's stomach—a stomach he no longer had.

He wasn't sure how his family would react to him showing up. He hadn't exactly kept in contact since being branded a villain.

The music in his earbuds faded, replaced by TINA's voice. "You're slowing down."

"I'm nervous," he muttered.

Time slowed to a crawl as Mod walked past those last few houses. As he walked past Darryl and Maci's car. By the time he got to his parent's house, it felt like he'd walked ten miles through sludge.

Mod paused in front of his childhood house—only for a moment. But he saw it with new eyes. The brick front was pitted by decades of life, and he could see every individual imperfection. Even though it was winter, he could tell that Dad hadn't kept up with the lawn. Strawberry knickknacks lined the windows, but even from the street Mod could see the layer of dust on them.

It felt like he hadn't been home in years. It hadn't been that long... right?

Mod opened the gate. Even the creak of the hinges sounded different. He walked up and knocked on the door.