Mod Superhero

Chapter 7.65 - McGuire 3

A squadron of Fast-Response drones rocketed through Belport's airspace. They took evasive action, spiralling and varying their flight path to avoid

TINA had stolen these months ago and was finally putting them to good use.

McGuire knew all this because he was inside one of those drones, cocooned in protective mesh. It was just as claustrophobic as he remembered. McGuire watched a real-time view on his HUD. Watching through his drone's camera helped stave off motion sickness—a little. The anti-nausea medication did most of the heavy lifting.

The Brotherhood's drones fired, and McGuire's drone spiraled into a dizzying series of barrel rolls. McGuire wished he'd popped another anti-nausea med. The gadgeteer clenched his armrests and held his breath. He might've been screaming. Hopefully, TINA wouldn't rat him out later.

Fast-Response drones weren't supposed to be shooting back, but TINA hadn't been able to hack the entire fleet. TINA had used her massive nanite swarm to augment the stolen drones on the fly, adding nonlethal guns that could take down Summit capes and Brotherhood drones with minimal collateral damage.

But Bastion had gotten crafty. It was copying her and using its own nanites to build guns onto Brotherhood drones. TINA assured the Resistance that these guns seemed to be nonlethal. Either way, the sky was now filled with drone battles.

Their squadron reached Aquarius Tower and veered skyward, rocketing up and up. For a moment, McGuire could almost pretend they were racing across the surface of a flat, glassy ocean—

Then they crested the top and pulled backward into a wide, gut-dropping loop.

"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"

The drone finished its loop and reversed thrust. McGuire's stomach lurched forward as the drone came to a halt on the roof. The hatch popped open, and the nanite seat practically threw him out of the drone. McGuire barely had time to suck in a breath before stumbling across the rooftop.

McGuire didn't have concrete proof—nothing that would be accepted in a court of law—but he knew TINA did that on purpose.

It should've been a relief to be out of the drone, but now McGuire felt a new kind of dizziness as he stood on the roof of one of the tallest skyscrapers in the city. Somewhere in the back of his mind was the fact that he'd never been up this high before—he was pretty sure that even TINA's modified heavy drone transport flew lower than this. That dizzying feeling receded though, as he saw Belport from new heights. The sunset made the city glisten like a thousand red and orange jewels.

But McGuire didn't have time to marvel at it. He quickly reached back into his drone for the rest of his things. McGuire had worn his old coat over top of his nanite suit, but his backpack had been too bulky to wear inside the drone. McGuire grabbed the pack, his hoverboard, and the modified demiplane staff.

The staff might be his crowning achievement... right behind his hoverboard... and his secret lair... and his stinkbombs. The staff was definitely in the top five.

It was a magic artifact—something he had no business using. He was a gadgeteer, not a mage. ...He'd also been hanging out with Mod. McGuire had taken a page from the artificer's book and hacked the demiplane staff. Now the artfully crafted wood was inlaid with knobs and wire and bits and bobs. Now he could use it.

McGuire's hands trembled, and the staff rattled. He groaned in frustration. Now was not the time to get performance anxiety.

"Duplicity, do you read me?"

A burst of static came through the comms, followed by, "Can't talk right now!"

Instead of being assigned to take down a Summit headquarters, McGuire and Duplicity were tasked with disrupting communications via Aquarius Tower.