APPROXIMATELY 1 YEAR PRE-SINGULARITY
ENTRY 19
UNSIGNED — AUTHOR UNKNOWN
LONGHAND DIARY
RECOVERED FROM ABANDONED APARTMENT BUILDING
LOWER EASTSIDE
SPECIAL NOTE: The area that used to be the Belport "slums".
"I used to see superheroes on the rooftops. Always at night. When I couldn't sleep, I used to stare out the window and try to catch glimpses of them. The only thing I could see was the lights across the street flicker as they ran past. I never knew who it was, but it had to be superheroes. Who else ran across the rooftops in the middle of the night?
"I still saw them out there on the rooftops after the Registration Mandate, but slowly they stopped coming out. I think it's been months since I've seen anyone on the roofs.
"Now, the only flickering lights I see are from the drones.
"I don't blame them. The drones scare the shit out of me. At least the biomechs stay on the street. I swear I've seen drones peering in windows. There's only a tiny window up here in the attic. I painted over it just to be safe. I scraped a bit away. Just enough to see through.
"It's been four months, I think. Four on the run. One month up here. Writing down too much is dangerous. Hope that writing longhand means it's safe. No worry about them hacking it. Can't trace ink.
"The city's quieter now. People are quieter. The mechs and drones are all around. They're listening to what we say, probably reading all our text messages. People are afraid to talk.
"Lights blink red across the city. Curfew at 9pm. Sometimes even earlier. No explanation. When the red lights flash, everyone gets off the street.
"Oh yeah. State of Emergency now. You can't protest. There was supposed to be an election next month. Voting suspended.
"Lots of rumors. New ones: Child in New York threw paint on a biomech. Got 'relocated'. Man arrested in Belport for quoting that cyborg, Mod. He was a hero during the war, now he's a villain or something.
"Hard to know what's true now. The news doesn't tell the truth anymore. The Binary Brotherhood must be monitoring everything. Sometimes a blog or story pops up online and it's completely gone a minute later.
"Government websites have the Brotherhood insignia now—if they're even accessible. Lots of pages deleted. No trace.
"The Summit of Heroes are a joke. Their stations are all unmarked now. There's still supers working, but now most of them don't wear costumes. They're unmarked too. Some people say there's biomechs like that now—something else that scares me.
"I don't go out much. I keep having a nightmare that I'm walking down the street. Suddenly, the man beside me grabs my arm. I thought they were a person but they aren't. Their face is plastic and their eyes are red.
"The couple downstairs probably think I'm crazy. At least they haven't turned me in yet. Money is money though. Still got a few months left.
"I think the weirdest part is how things just keep going. I don't know what I expected. People going about their days—to work, to school, maybe just going through the motions.
"They say the Resistance is gone. I think it's bullshit. Sometimes graffiti pops up around the city. Sometimes it's 'Resist', sometimes just an 'R' or a fist. People take pictures. Even with drones scrubbing the graffiti and the Brotherhood scrubbing the internet, photos still get out. Saw an R outside my window one night. It was gone the next morning.
"There's rumors of Mod and Arsenal too. I refuse to use their real names. They're still heroes to me. Someone's got to stand up to this.
"We used to look up and see heroes. Now we look up and see cameras.
"But someone, somewhere, must still be flying."
~ ~
APPROXIMATELY 2 MONTHS POST-SINGULARITY
ENTRY 1
EMMETT LARAWAY — AKA MOD
PERSONAL LOG
BACKUP COPY STORED IN BROTHERHOOD ARCHIVES
ORIGINAL FILES LOST
"This is harder than I thought.
"TINA suggested I record this. She says I'm still human, and it would help sort out my feelings. Feels strange to do this the old-fashioned way after merging my two selves. Most people take a lifetime to come to terms with their past, present, and future—I did a lifetime of work in two days.
"Of course, it felt like a lot longer than two days.
"Anyway, what was I talking about?
"Right—I wasn't sure where to start with all of this, but here and now is as good a place as any. It all comes back to why—Why we took over... Why we tore it all down...
"We weren't flying at the time. We couldn't. There were still heroes around, but we had to stay in the shadows.
"I wish I could've told everyone that we were still there. I wish I could've told the person who wrote that diary. We don't even know who they were or if they were a super or a regular person. A lot was lost in the war with the Brotherhood and the transition that came afterward. People are calling it the Singularity. But I don't think we should call it that.
"It's just a word, and words are flexible. Their definitions are always changing. Singularity... Hero... Villain...
"A singularity is a point where it's impossible to see past. A point after which everything changes. A time that you can never go back to. A branch in probability or fate, if you believe in that sort of thing.
"There wasn't just one singularity. I don't think even at the height of my power that I could've looked back and counted exactly how many paths there were—how many different places where things could've gone wrong.
"Regrets?... I wish it hadn't taken so long to prepare. That we could've moved faster. I wish a lot of things had gone differently, but we were trying to change the world."
~ ~ ~
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...
