Mod Superhero - STUBBING AUG 17TH!

Chapter 7.87 - The Coming Days

Emmett was also back at the Resistance base with his family.

Both the adults and the kids had been keeping themselves occupied in different ways, but when Emmett came, all of them ran down the hall to the living area. Antony, Darryl, and the nephews cheered, while Mom, Dad, and Maci were more subdued. Everyone ran over and hugged him.

Eventually, the excitement passed. It took a few more minutes for Emmett to bring them up to speed on the battle and the Dunamen ship, but soon they settled on the next steps.

For the foreseeable future, Mom, Dad, Antony, Darryl, Maci, and the nephews would be in a form of witness protection. They'd have new names and would live in a new city. Opinions were mixed, but the adults understood the reasoning. The nephews were understandably bummed about having to move, but as long as they had their own nanite jungle gym, they would manage.

~

While Emmet was in the backup lab with his family, he was also in Venture's old laboratory.

Wight had taken the lab back from Ava Savanus, and Daedalus had flown across the city to join him. The two supers were in section 001, in Venture's old living room.

Mod was going to check in with them, but he didn't materialize there right away. He formed an avatar in section 005 and walked toward the Gray Room.

The door hissed open.

Mod could still remember the first time he saw the Gray Room. He didn't even have his superhero name back then. Even when the room was still, the tiles seemed to stretch on for thousands of feet. And when it was running, the illusion made it feel like ten times that. It really felt like he'd been running across the rooftops.

Now, Mod stared across the Gray Room, emotion swirling inside him. He hadn't seen it since Midas took over the lab two years ago.

It felt like coming home... except that wasn't quite right.

His memory of the Gray Room was machine-perfect, down to the number of tiles, and yet the room didn't look the same. It was completely inert now, its magic gone. Without it, the room felt smaller. But even that didn't explain what Mod was feeling.

Mod had come a long way since those days.

The core truth was that the Gray Room was exactly the same—Emmett was the one who had changed.

Staring at the Gray Room felt like coming back to an old childhood home. It had felt larger and more mysterious back then, but now he was looking at it through a very different lens. Now, he was flying instead of running across the rooftops. He fought Paragon on the moon instead of neighborhood villains in alleys. Mod knew that the Gray Room was Dunamen technology, and he knew how it worked. He'd even built the Sim Room—a training room of his own. He'd been on the run with the Resistance longer than he'd been a super with Dr. Venture.

He was standing on the threshold of the Gray Room, and yet he couldn't be further from it.

Mod didn't have to come back to the old training room, but things wouldn't have felt right otherwise. His superhero career had started by running through the Gray Room and playing tag across simulated rooftops. And his final act as a super was effectively turning off the Gray Room, for good.

Mod hadn't known it then, but the room was Dunamen technology—a gift from Clara's mother. It made sense. Her daughter would've needed a safe place to train. And it had been. Emmett was glad that he'd gotten to share that with Clara, with Dr. Venture, and with TINA.

Those moments felt impossibly far away, but Mod didn't feel sadness or loss. If anything, that distance only solidified how grateful he was, how much he would cherish those memories.