Emmett walked out through the last corridor by himself.
A few twists and turns later, he stepped out into a large, cavernous room. Darkness receded as he entered, light emanating from the square tiles that covered the walls, floor, and ceiling. Each changed color, giving the impression of a wave of white rippling across the room.
Emmett stood alone in a gigantic white room, some three hundred feet square. Of all the things Emmett had seen in the last three weeks since becoming a super, the Gray Room still filled him with awe.
Emmett cleared his throat. "TINA, bring up the warehouse district... please."
Tiles began to rise and shift. Walls rose and joined together, forming a tiled simulation of Belport's warehouse district. Each moved in eerie silence until they clicked into place. The whole process took a little over a minute, and when it was done, Emmett stood alone in a faux grayscale version of Belport, like he'd stepped into an old noir movie.
Emmett jogged over to a nearby fire escape and climbed up to the roof. He stared across the simulated skyline, looking South toward the bay.
The first time Emmett had been in the Gray Room, it had felt almost eerie. He wasn't sure whether it was the technology itself, or the way the tiles moved and the outer walls shifted the display to simulate movement. But recently Emmett had begun to see it in a different light.
It was beautiful, in a way. Almost serene.
He wasn't going to give up the real sunset for a simulated one anytime soon, but the Gray Room had quickly become one of his favorite places to be.
It could have also been the company.
A dull gray robot landed on the roof beside him—a cross between high-tech armor and an old bulbous diving suit with thin joints.
Clara's voice came through it. "So, back to the warehouse district?"
Emmett nodded.
He'd grown so used to the lab's training set up that he didn't even see the robot in front of him most of the time. Emmett pictured Clara in the training hub, smiling beneath the haptic suit as she controlled the robot.
He added, "I figured I'd pick the location since you already seemed to have a power set in mind."
"I do," Clara said, sounding devious. "You keep talking about how you want to be able to swap out modifications and adjust to whoever you're fighting. I've been thinking that the best way to do that is have you fight powersets that are unpredictable. Right now you don't have a lot of options for mods, so you'll have to quickly figure out which one is best."
"Clara, I didn't bring any mods down with me." All he had was his utility belt and his whip.
"Sounds like someone is unprepared. Guess you'll have to improvise today!"
Clara's robot shimmered and its skin turned bright red, indicating that it would go on the attack. Tiles formed into a pole and extended from the roof beside Clara's feet. When it was her height, the shaft turned red, and the robot grabbed it. She held it like a staff and spun it.
Emmett immediately took a defensive stance, waiting to see what she would do.
Clara shouted something in a language Emmett didn't recognize, then slammed the butt of the staff down onto the roof. Flames shot out of the top of the staff, flowing and twisting upward like a stream—
Like a snake.
His mind registered it, even before Emmett saw the tip of the fire split open into a mouth with fangs and a flickering tongue. The fire snake looked down on him, its neck widening to become the hood of a cobra.
CITEȘTI
Mod Superhero
SFFor this cyborg, power is just an upgrade away. Emmett was used to being caught between college and his engineering internship, but when he gets caught between a powerful hero and an even stronger villain, he becomes collateral damage. Instead of d...
