More memories came, but Emmett recoiled from them. He pulled back, and his perception returned to the demiplane. His eyes burned.
Mod's voice was soft. "I'll share my memories with you. All of them."
"No... Not right now."
"TINA said you would need time to process things. We ran simulations... Nevermind that. When you're ready, I'll send my memories to you via direct connection. You'll experience everything just like I did—senses, thoughts, feelings, all of it. I'll send them one at a time."
Emmett scoffed and wiped away tears. "You say it like you wouldn't need time to process anything?"
Mod tapped the side of his head. "I've had a few upgrades."
"I'm not talking about seeing something. I'm talking about making sense of it—" Emmett cut himself off and let out an exasperated sigh.
Something else took root in Emmett's stomach. A tiny seed of jealousy. It was a small thing, but it was hard to ignore. Emmett tried to tell himself that it didn't matter—that he should focus on the things that did matter.
Somebody was missing. They'd been missing from the earlier battle, and now they were missing from the lab.
"What about Athena? Where is she?"
Mod didn't answer. He stared straight ahead. After a moment, Emmett realized he was searching for the right words.
Finally Mod replied, "Athena is fine. She's on a mission."
"That's it? That's all you're going to tell me? ...What's wrong?"
"I said she's fine. It's the mission—"
"Just tell me."
Something in Emmett snapped. The knots of tension in his gut were gone, leaving irritation in their place.
"Just because I can't handle seeing two years' worth of memory doesn't mean I can't handle the truth. So just tell me and quit wasting your time processing everything—"
"It's McGuire."
"...What happened?"
"He's alive, but he's not doing well... Things were hard after you got captured—especially this past year. McGuire didn't take the dissolution of the Resistance well, and he didn't take what happened to us well, either. He's holed up in an old old radio telescope array. He's not talking to us anymore, but I have drones keeping tabs on him—"
"What if the Brotherhood or the Summit find him?"
Mod chuckled. "They won't. McGuire's powers have grown. There's no way the others will find him because we barely found him."
On one hand, Emmett was both proud and excited at the thought of McGuire turning a corner with his powers. On the other hand...
"So, he's just hiding in an abandoned factory? By himself?"
"Yeah. He's definitely depressed. He's lost a lot."
Those quiet pits of jealousy and anger grew in Emmett's stomach. Mod spoke so casually about everyone's suffering. McGuire's self-imposed exile and depression... Dad's cancer... Even Emmett's imprisonment and torture.
Emmett stood and kicked the chair. It crashed to the floor and dissolved.
"How the hell did I lose two years of my life!?"
Mod replied, "It was a combination of things: All the shit that Midas and Savanus did to you, and TINA leaving your implant—"
"I knew someone used to be there. Bastion said it felt like a memorial. Even TINA fucking left me..."
YOU ARE READING
Mod Superhero (Book 6 STUBBING on Oct 27th)
Science FictionFor this cyborg, power is just an upgrade away. Emmett was used to being caught between college and his engineering internship, but when he gets caught between a powerful hero and an even stronger villain, he becomes collateral damage. Instead of d...
