Mod Superhero (Book 6 STUBBING on Oct 27th)

Chapter 6.36 - Staring into the Abyss

APPROXIMATELY +1.10.15 POST-INCIDENT

MINOR TIMESTAMP ERRORS DETECTED

It had been months since gaining access to the drone warehouse. Since then, Mod, TINA, and the rest of the Resistance had worked tirelessly.

And they were exhausted.

The human members of the Resistance were at their limit. Everyday TINA's reach and processing power expanded, and everyday she worked at her limit. Mod didn't need to sleep, and couldn't remember the last time he'd even gone into low-power mode.

With each mission, with each new material obtained or manufacturing plant they gained access to, they came closer and closer to manufacturing the new reactor—

Closer to fulfilling Dr. Venture's legacy.

But they still had a long way to go.

~

Mod and TINA had grown in tandem alongside the Resistance.

Mod's perception had steadily increased since the incident in the lab. Now that Mod was completely artificial, he wasn't shackled to his body. He'd become quite good at mentally surfing through systems and cyberspace. The backup lab had become their new home, and Mod knew it as well as he knew his own memories. He could even sense TINA as she moved through the backup lab and other connected warehouses.

Sometimes, it felt like trying to learn another language. At best, he'd become fluent in traversing cyberspace—he'd never become a native speaker. Mod doubted that he'd ever be as adept in cyberspace as TINA was—she'd been born in there, after all.

When he'd first delved into the circuitry of the backup lab, it had felt like navigating a wireframe model—fascinating, but also crude and mechanical. But over time, cyberspace had changed—or rather, Mod's representation of it. Now, he saw cyberspace as a lush forest. Power lines and communication lines were roots and stalks that stretched across the landscape. Buildings were the trees and plants. Drones, cars, and cellphones moved through it all like fireflies.

Mod wasn't sure when that change happened. It felt like it had been a gradual transition—one so slow that he hadn't noticed. Slowly, his mind had started looking at cyberspace as more natural than artificial. Everything was still made of light, but now it wasn't built, so much as growing and evolving.

In the beginning, Mod had been confined to the tiny meadow where the backup lab was located. The bulk of TINA's servers were there too. They stretched into the ground like an impossibly complex root system. But Mod could see a little further now. He could stand at the edge of the meadow and look out across the forest.

There were other nearby clearings and meadows—the drone warehouses and manufacturing plants. The nanite hardlines that connected them felt like well-worn paths. There were streams and rivers too—wires that connected the nearby blocks and the mainline that stretched into Belport.

Mod was able to stretch his perception across the Resistance network, anything connected by a well-worn path, but expanding further than that proved difficult. He was like a fish who couldn't escape his small pond. On the other hand, TINA could now stretch throughout the internet just as easily.

~

One day, in her travels, TINA encountered a rogue presence. She alerted the others, sending it as a general message first before sending additional information to Mod.

"Someone is attempting to contact us."

Mod felt the familiar sensation of looking over TINA's shoulder and felt his view of cyberspace expand, like he'd come to the edge of a cliff and looked out over the entire forest. No matter how many times Mod saw this view, it made his stomach turn—a feat that always surprised him, considering he didn't have one anymore.