Mod Superhero (Book 6 STUBBING on Oct 27th)

Chapter 6.66 - McGuire 2

McGuire had seen plenty of explosions in his time as a superhero—he'd caused plenty of them.

What happened next was the opposite of an explosion.

Instead of bright light, there was a flash of darkness. For a split second, McGuire thought the lights in his sanctum had flashed, except that the darkness came from the entrance, from the hallway beyond where Emmett should've been trapped. Darkness flashed through the door and spilled into McGuire's inner sanctum. But it only reached so far, and the lights behind McGuire weren't affected.

Instead of a loud boom, there was an eerie silence. No sound came from the hallway, and even the hisses and clanks of gadgets in McGuire's sanctum were muffled. Just a second ago, McGuire had been chuckling at his friend. Now breath caught in his throat, like he'd been plunged into dark water.

Then the darkness ripped everything away.

Metal screamed, and McGuire's sanctum lurched. If he hadn't been sitting down, he would've been thrown across the room. As it was, he just slammed gut-first into his desk, knocking the air out of him. Beside him, blue light flashed—Athena managed to catch herself with a force field.

McGuire sucked in a breath and then coughed violently. Finally, he looked up.

"What the..."

The front door of his sanctum was gone. Metal had been sheared away, like a giant monster had taken a bite out of it. The black void of the demiplane lay beyond, and the hallway hung perilously in the darkness. Thankfully, the demiplane was stable—aside from the initial damage the sanctum didn't seem like it was going to collapse.

Mod leapt from the hallway across the void and landed in front of McGuire's desk.

"Hey buddy. Hey Athena."

"Don't! Don't buddy me—you blew a hole in my sanctum!"

Mod crossed his arms. "You trapped me in a time loop."

"I wasn't going to leave you there! Tell him, Athena."

Athena brushed herself off. "Good to see you, Mod. And McGuire's right. He was going to let you out."

"Well, time passes a lot slower for me." Mod shuffled uneasily on his feet. "Sorry about your door."

McGuire sighed. "Don't worry about it. I built it once. I'll just rebuild it."

"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about."

McGuire stood and wagged a finger. "I said we could talk. I didn't say we could talk about that."

Mod turned to Athena, but she just shrugged. She said, "Don't look at me. I tried. This is between you two."

Mod replied, "Well, let's just talk then. I didn't come all the way out here to just turn around and leave."

A flicker of a smile passed across McGuire's face. "Okay. Okay. Let me show you around the inner sanctum."

~

It was a short tour. The rest of McGuire's sanctum was made up of a small sitting area, loosely modeled after his old apartment living room, and three small bedrooms. Eventually, McGuire planned on pilfering comfortable furniture. Right now, he was making do with old office furniture. He'd tried various models of electro-softening comb, but his inventions usually destroyed the cushions instead of making them more comfortable.

The two sat down in opposite chairs. One of McGuire's TV mirrors floated over, but he waved it away.

"Sorry about the furniture. It's all from the upstairs rooms."