Mod Superhero (Book 6 STUBBING on Oct 27th)

Chapter 6.64 - Breaking and Entering

The communication from McGuire went dead, leaving Emmett standing alone in front of the towering satellite array. He was in the shadow of the main dish, and it loomed over him, glowing in his UV vision like a blue sun.

If his old friend wanted to treat this like a game, then Emmett would too—

For now.

Emmett stretched out his nanite detection web.

When he'd navigated the surrounding mine-field, he'd only been looking for a path through. Wind and movement was a factor, so Emmett had kept his web small and controlled. But now, he was looking for a doorway, so he needed to spread his net wider. Here in the midst of the satellite array, there was almost no wind, and Emmett had nanites to spare.

Emmett's face stayed placid, and his body relaxed throughout his work.

His web expanded, growing from ten feet square, to twenty, to fifty. Like other nanite processes, the growth felt organic. Emmett wasn't controlling it like a net, but guiding it like living moss. It spread across the array, feeling its way across the metal, finding safe anchor points and continuing to spread. The web ballooned until Emmett had ensnared the entire structure.

There wasn't much to the facility. Beyond the twelve dishes, there were two main control buildings and several smaller outbuildings—most of them derelict. His original hypothesis about the central satellite dish was right. It was the only one with power, and it was feeding that energy back into the underground parts of the facility—namely, the main control building, which extended three floors underground.

The facility was cut off from the nearby grid, so McGuire had found a way to power this section.

Emmett sent trickles of energy through the web, poking and prodding, just as he'd done crossing the minefield. Except, now the process felt like picking a lock—

And lock-picking was one of the first tricks Emmett learned.

It only took two minutes to find what he was looking for: A small maintenance hatch in the side of the satellite tower. He walked over and scrutinized it with his web and other senses.

In physical space, it looked like a dead end. A layer of thin metal paneling covered the outside, and the tower itself was densely packed with scaffolding, wiring, and other electronics. The maintenance hatch only gave access to a small section of wiring. Emmett couldn't use it to access the inside or the deeper parts of the building.

But there was something else there...

Emmett felt it in his web, not so much the structure itself, but the energy suffused into it. It stood out like a rough patch on an otherwise smooth surface. He focused on it, turning it over in his mind like a cube puzzle.

A moment later, magical grooves slid into place, and Emmett felt something like a click.

In physical space, screws shrank, allowing panelling to slide out of the way, revealing a void. Even with Emmett's enhanced senses, all he saw was a faint glow in his UV vision, but he recognized the effect immediately:

It was a demiplane.

To most people, gadgets, magic, and reality warping all seemed like separate powers. But Emmett was used to seeing things differently, and his sight had only gotten more adept with all of his upgrades. There were principles that underpinned all superpowers—no matter whether they were elemental, psychic, magical, or reality-warping—and Emmett was beginning to understand those principles.

Out of the faint UV light of the demiplane, a ladder unfurled, like ribbon paper out of a magician's sleeve. It settled into place and seemed to beckon Emmett deeper inside.