Mod didn't hesitate.
The moment the redirected beams angled toward the nanite cube, he moved—half-vaulting, half-jetting over shattered stone. The cube was already bubbling like a vat of mercury. Velocity hadn't broken free yet, but it was a matter of seconds.
As Mod skidded to a halt between the lasers and the cube, he pulled out a shield.
His arm unfolded, the skeletal frame splitting and expanding. The resulting tower shield was an upgraded version of his old impact shield, but reinforced with his newest systems.
Helion's lasers slammed into the shield, but Mod held his ground. He dropped to one knee and punched the shield into the ground. Anchors bit deep into the stones while the shield locked into alignment with his arm and shoulder. Nanites cycled, flowing from his body and across the shield in a thick, liquid lattice.
Most of the laser splashed around the shield like water, but the rest of it was either bled off or absorbed. Nanites churned and cycled so that each particle only took the brunt of energy for milliseconds at a time. If anyone could've seen through the maelstrom, it would've looked like Mod was made of liquid metal.
But even deflecting and bleeding off Helion's power wasn't enough. Mod absorbed the rest. Nanites formed channels, channeling and inverting the energy so that it could be funneled into his twin fusion cores. He used a similar process with Clara's energy, but Helion's was raw and focused.
Just a few weeks ago, this feat of heat absorption would've taken all of Mod's processing power, but now it was instinctual.
Helion didn't let up.
Helion's entire body had opened up, bathing the entire street in orange light. Crisscrossing beams scorched the block—reflected off Gideon's lenses, swallowed by Clara, scattered by Athena's mirrors. The air itself shimmered and fractured under the raw intensity.
One second ticked by. Then two.
Then Helion turned toward Mod.
Mod couldn't see past his shield, but he caught the pivot through three city-embedded cameras and a traffic drone overhead. Helion turned his eyes toward Mod. Predictions cascaded through his mind—none of them good.
Helion's eyebeams struck.
A white flare blotted out Mod's vision completely. A sound like tearing metal and screaming plasma rang through his auditory filters. Heat surged through his frame. His body trembled and shield systems redlined. The stones under his feet turned molten.
Mod felt and processed it all in slow motion.
He fed as much energy as possible into his cores, but his nanites were vaporizing—his armor, his cooling channels. Reoptimizing the cycling pattern would only buy him milliseconds.
WARNING
WARNING
Alert after alert pinged, and Mod pushed them aside.
He had one second left.
Apparently, TINA thought that was a suitable time to interrupt him. She spoke to him wordlessly and almost instantaneously through their connection.
"Do you need assistance?"
"No. Just keep city comms down and civilians away. Oh, and give me access to Clara's suit."
"Done. Golden Boy is moving as fast as he can. Hold on until then."
Mod almost laughed. Golden Boy was approximately 29 seconds away—that might as well have been an eternity fighting against opponents like this.
YOU ARE READING
Mod Superhero
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...
