Mod Superhero (Book 6 STUBBING on Oct 27th)

Chapter 6.58 - Singularity

Emmett had lost track of time.

In the real world, Emmett and Mod were in the biolab. Their bodies floated side by side in a tank of nanites. Clara said the tank looked like an egg, which was fitting, considering what was going on inside.

The nanites inside were the most advanced ones that TINA had ever made. Similar ones lined Mod's body and allowed him to form weapons and armor on the fly—these were the next generation.

Instead of weapons, these nanites formed an array of tools. As Mod and Emmett floated in the vat, tools orbited their heads. Detectors, lasers, wired connections, and dozens of other gadgets—some thinner than a strand of hair—performed the world's most complicated surgery. Tools shifted, formed, and dissolved as needed, while the nanites between them transmitted power and waste heat.

One day, those same nanites would complete a reactor that would change the world.

One day, they would make Emmett and Mod a Class 5 body.

Emmett or Mod...

They were still figuring that part out.

While their bodies were in the vat, their minds were connected in a mixture of mindspace and localized cyberspace. For the merger to work, they both had to visualize the same place.

The one that came easiest was Mod's demiplane. It was neutral ground, and also the first time Emmett looked up and saw the vast interconnected stars of his own mind. That image had been seared into Emmett's brain.

So, for the second time in two days, Emmett and Mod were having a conversation in the demiplane. This time, with the weight of two hundred trillion stars hanging above them.

But it quickly became apparent that the sheer scope wasn't the only problem.

There was no simple way for Emmett and Mod to merge their minds. Mod was right, the process wasn't just additive—some parts would be subtractive. Some things would be overwritten. They couldn't do that on a large scale. In order to do it correctly, they had to zoom in and take a granular look at their brains.

They focused on senses first. As they zoomed in, the ocean of stars above grew dimmer. At this magnified view, they could finally see tiny specks of darkness in between. To Emmett, it reminded him of how he used to see the sky above Belport. The stars were so dim because of the light pollution that he could only make out a handful across the entire sky—

Except this was the reverse. The stars were so numerous that he had to squint to see any darkness.

Slowly, Emmett saw the star clusters that represented each of his many senses.

Merging wasn't the kind of work that they could divide between the two of them. Mod and Emmett couldn't work on separate hemispheres or lobes by themselves. They had to work together. To both of them, it felt like a superhero battle, except that they were at odds with each other as much as they were working together.

Like the visualization of the demiplane and stars above, both men visualized merging on a sliding scale.

Some mergers were easier than others. Senses, for one—Emmett and Mod both agreed that after the merger was complete, they would be using a wholly artificial body like Mod's. So Emmet's vision, hearing, smell, touch, taste, and balance, defaulted to Mod's more advanced senses. They did the same for automatic processes, like internal system control.

Nanite control was more complicated. Mod's control was much more nuanced than Emmett's, seeing as his nanites were more advanced and he had two additional years of training. But Emmett had the brute force that could control a much larger swarm. In the end, they compromised and adopted both of these powerful attributes.