Mod Superhero

Chapter 7.24 - Lock 1

Time passed both quickly and slowly for Lock.

He stayed behind while the rest of his friends—the core of the Resistance—went to New Venice. They had only been gone a few days to New Venice, and somehow the time had both dragged and passed in a blur.

He filled the hours where he could. The nephews spent time doing schoolwork, and took frequent breaks on their personal nanite jungle gym. They'd become experts at configuring it, turning it into all manner of playground equipment, giant monster simulations, laser tag, and even literal jungles. Lock spent most of those breaks with the boys, chasing them through elaborate obstacle courses and joining in on their games. The boys would whoop with victory whenever they managed to tag him, and Lock would fake being out of breath.

On other days, Regina and Jerome invited him along on family walks in the Sim Room—long, slow treks through projections of forests, riversides, and cobblestone towns. Sometimes the boys raced ahead, daring each other to climb the low-simulated walls. Other times they stayed close, holding hands, telling stories that wandered as much as their path. Lock always felt a little out of place on those walks, like a guest invited into a memory that wasn't his, but he never said no.

Nights were different. Once the base quieted, Lock would step into a demiplane to train. No noise, no interruptions—just the slow rhythm of strikes, feints, and footwork. The endless batches of nanite clones. The demiplane was the one place where time moved normally for him.

When morning came around, it brought a mix of emotion. Lock relished fighting, even if it was just with nanite clones. But he also grew to enjoy the daily breaks with Emmett's family. He quickly fell into a rhythm between day and night.

By the time the team returned, Lock had been waiting in a strange mix of restlessness and readiness—caught between the easy routine of the Laraways' company and the edge of knowing a fight was always on the horizon.

Now, with the team finally back, the nephews were glued to their uncle again, buzzing with even more energy than usual. They talked over each other, Martie talking animatedly about their latest jungle gym, and Justin launching into a blow-by-blow of their game as a giant monster. Emmett smiled in the right places, even laughed, but Lock caught the distance in his eyes. He was only half listening. Half his mind was still somewhere else, probably running simulations only he could see.

Maybe the boys didn't notice. Then again, Lock knew better than to underestimate them. Kids caught more than most adults thought they did—sometimes more than the adults themselves.

The team settled in, going through their usual post-mission rhythm—pockets of conversation, gear half-cleaned and tossed aside, the faint hum of someone heating something deeply questionable in the microwave. People caught Lock up on the highlights, some more colorfully than others. He listened, nodding, taking the temperature of the room.

In a nearby room, Clara and McGuire were catching up with Emmett's parents, their voices low but warm, the conversation punctuated with bursts of laughter. Dr. Venture and Athena had both quietly disappeared to their own rooms. And off in the corner, Wight appeared beside Golden Boy, murmuring something that drew a faint smirk from him.

It was good to have everyone back under the same roof. But the mood was lighter on the surface than it was underneath, and Lock couldn't shake the feeling they were all just... waiting

Soon enough, the boys took off down the hall back toward their jungle gym. Now that he was free, Emmett slipped away. Lock listened to his footsteps recede down the hall.

Lock followed soon after, but he left Emmett alone.

~

Lock didn't go far. Instead, he walked down the hall toward the demiplanes used for training. To most people, the walls would've looked completely normal, but Lock's eyes picked up slivers of UV and infrared. Faint blue shimmers, like heat rising from sunbaked pavement, marked the thresholds where the real world bled into magical space.