Mod Superhero

Chapter 4.9 - Upgrades, Interrupted

Once they got back to the lab and disembarked the heavy drone, Emmett and Clara went straight to section 006, the biolab. The harsh metal lines of the bunker halls gave way to sterile white. They held hands while they walked through the medbay and back halls to the surgical suites.

Venture was nowhere to be found. Even TINA was strangely silent. Emmett wondered to himself if Venture and TINA were trying to give him and Clara some privacy.

For a moment, the two supers lingered in the hallway. Emmett wanted to kiss her, but Clara didn't lean forward.

"I, uh..."

Emmett wasn't even sure what he was trying to say. It had only been 24 hours, and they'd had two potentially deadly fights. What was he supposed to say after that? Emmett was glad she was alright, and also horrified at the prospect of going back out again. At the same time, it had been thrilling—not just to fight, but to fight beside Clara. Emmett's stomach turned and his heart swelled.

Clara looked up at him. It might've been Emmett's imagination, but it looked like she was also barely hiding her turmoil.

"I'll see you in a few," Emmett finally said.

If Clara was disappointed in his answer, she didn't say. She smiled and squeezed his hand. "Don't run off without me."

Then the pair stepped into their own separate rooms.

Emmett pulled off his bodysuit. Then he laid down on the cold surgical table and relaxed as robotic surgical arms descended from the ceiling. The first time Emmett had seen them, they reminded him of a giant mechanical spider. Cold, and almost alien. Now... Well, he wouldn't say it was a comforting sight, but it wasn't any different to him than being in a hospital.

If anything, a hospital would've been worse. Doctors and nurses coming and going. Most completely indifferent to who was occupying the bed. Compartmentalizing—not caring too much about the faces that stared back at them.

Maybe it was the compartmentalization that bothered him, or the pretending to care... But were the patients any different? Did they see the doctors, nurses, and orderlies as anything but parts of a machine?

Emmett felt the cold steel prodding and suturing his cuts. Dull with occasional twinges of pain. He clenched his teeth and focused on his breathing.

Eventually, Emmett rolled over and closed his eyes while the arms closed the wounds on the front of his body. They lingered on his thigh and his calf where the gashes were especially deep.

Emmett shook his head.

He understood why people compartmentalized. Caring too much about one patient could affect the doctor, then affect how they treated other patients afterward. It was necessary for that kind of work, just as it was necessary for their mental health.

Soldiers and supers weren't any different.

Emmett wasn't any different.

Hadn't he just done the same thing last night? Havoc, Tatianna, Lou, and Marie.

Emmett had buried what he'd done. Pushed it aside so that he could carry on.

He could still feel Havoc and Tatianna in his whip, like a phantom pain buried in his forearm that wouldn't go away. Could still feel the tug and pop that Lou made. Could still feel Marie poking and prodding at his mind...

Still remembered the numbness he felt after each of their deaths... After he'd killed each of them.

Emmett thought about ejecting his whip. It would be easier that way. He could make another one, or even make a completely different attachment to help him get around the city. Emmett almost left it on the floor of the medbay, but couldn't bring himself to do it.