Mod Superhero

Chapter 7.43 - Stalling for Time / Golden Boy 2

While Mod's teammates looked down from a mountain in the Rockies, he looked down from a mountain in cyberspace. TINA and Icarus's colorful forms were there too.

Here, he had all the time in the world.

Mod peered through cyberspace, through sensors and cameras, at the outside world. The Rockies took up one part of his field of view—the mountain and what was left of the Vault hung half translucent. Time there had slowed to a crawl. Seconds stretched into hours. Mod watched through sensors as Paragon flew down toward the Rockies. Even above the speed of sound, he looked more like a slow-moving meteor, ready to crash into the people below.

But that was Mod's problem. His mind was moving so fast that he could out-think everyone else in the world, save for TINA... But that didn't matter. None of it mattered. Every simulation reached the same conclusion.

He couldn't think of a way to beat Paragon.

In some ways, he felt more like the embodiment of a fundamental law of the universe than a man of flesh and blood.

Even if Mod took down the Binary Brotherhood, the Menagerie, every other super, every mage, and every vampire and test subject on Earth, Paragon would still be left. Even among Class 5 supers, the Dunamen emissary to Earth stood head and shoulders above the rest.

But then, it was always going to come down to this.

Mod, TINA, and Dr. Venture had been planning for that final confrontation for years of physical and subjective time. Every simulation, every battle, every plan the Resistance ever built all converged here—this single variable at the end of the equation. They even had a plan.

But that plan involved antimatter. The new reactors weren't ready. And Mod only had one antimatter cell on him.

If Mod cracked the cell, the resulting implosion would take away Paragon's powers. He'd still have Class 4 Dunamen biology, but he'd be on par with Golden Boy or Lock. He wouldn't be invincible. He could be beaten.

But that wasn't a permanent solution. Paragon would recover in a matter of hours—maybe minutes. Paragon wouldn't fall for the same trick twice. Mod would lose his biggest advantage. Then there was the risk that the Brotherhood might gather enough data to trace the energy signature.

There was one permanent solution...

In cyberspace, Mod shook his head. He didn't want to kill Paragon. And he didn't want to risk any of the Vault escapees or his teammates. Besides, in less than six months, an entire ship of Dunamen would arrive. Mod doubted they'd look fondly on Paragon's death.

But it was more than that. Every mission, everything they'd fought for had been for the goal of preventing unnecessary death. Mod wasn't about to throw that out now.

TINA's voice brought him back to the digital mountain.

"One thing at a time," she reminded him. She'd been peering over his shoulder again.

Icarus fluttered over, wings shimmering. He squinted at the projections and offered his own plans. Some were better than others, including big bombs and really big bombs.

"Invade his body with the nanite swarm," he suggested brightly. "Or shoot him with a laser. Or—oh! Shoot him with Clara."

Mod shook his head. "We can argue semantics—"

"Ew."

"—but it doesn't change anything. We can't beat him. I can't beat him."

TINA chimed in, "I can find no flaws in your simulations. Direct confrontation is inadvisable."