Mod Superhero - STUBBING AUG 17TH!

Chapter 7.86 - Splitting

After the war, Mod was everywhere. His self-imposed exile was over.

He was on the moon, lifting the Dunamen ship back into orbit. Then he was in the five probes that followed the ship to the edge of the solar system. And when they were gone, he floated in the void.

Less than one thousand astronauts had been in space. Fewer than thirty astronauts had been to the moon. None had been past that. Now, Mod was billions of miles from home. Neptune was the closest planet to him now, but even with his eyes, Neptune was just one dot amongst many.

He was utterly alone in the black, and he basked in it.

~

While Mod was in space, he was also at hundreds of mage guilds doing outreach. Major magical artifacts were confiscated, and those especially dangerous were destroyed. Again, neither Mod nor TINA compromised on this front. Replicas would be placed in museums. Some guilds had long and storied histories, and TINA was already working with former mages on that front.

The Mirror of Borrowed Fates was the only exception. Like every other artifact, the shards were powerless now. But each of Emmett's Prime bodies kept a shard, in case the reactors were down. The few remaining shards were divided up among members of the Resistance that knew Athena.

But those weren't the only reason Emmett kept the shards. He couldn't bear to destroy them because they were all that remained of Athena.

~

While Mod was at various guilds, he was also sitting in on support groups. TINA had formed countless support groups connecting those that had been affected by the war or by losing their powers. In the groups, he left his uniform and superhero name behind. A fake name and a few tweaks to his facial structure were enough to conceal his identity.

One such group had former vampires and former psychics of the Menagerie. The former superhero, Serenity, recounted being taken over by the psychic hive-mind, how she'd felt like she was deep underwater, so deep that she couldn't tell which way was up. She couldn't cry out or even get her bearings. But she wasn't alone. That was the worst part. There had been others all around, all sloshing around her—some barely even conscious at all. She'd been one drop of water amongst millions of others.

In time, Serenity would make a full recovery. But she was a relatively recent assimilation. Not everyone else in the Menagerie would be so lucky. Like with vampires, there were some that had simply been enthralled too long. Some had been under the Menagerie's control for decades. Their minds were broken. Eventually, nanite therapy might repair some of the damage; they would never be the person they used to be, but hopefully they could become someone new.

Once Serenity was done sharing, it was Enola's turn to share. The former vampire shared the story of her maker's final moments.

Enola had held Ichabod in her arms as the elder vampire passed. TINA had pumped both of them full of nanites and painkillers—they felt like the only things that were holding Enola together. Both she and Ichabod were hemorrhaging, weeping blood through every pore. The worst part hadn't been the dull pain or the uncertainty; it had been seeing her maker gasping for breath. Holding his head up, because he had no strength left. Ichabod had been timeless and invincible. Enola had watched him die, and it had torn her heart out.

She didn't recount Ichabod's last words to the group, but Emmett knew what the Elder had said. It was an echo of what he'd told Emmett. Personal and poignant, and hopefully it would be enough to carry Enola through those first tentative steps of her new life.

~

While Emmett was listening to Serenity and Enola in group therapy, he was also underground, watching the last of the Menagerie fade away. Something as ancient and powerful as the Menagerie was able to hold on for longer than any other powers, but even it wouldn't last.