Mod Superhero

Chapter 4.20 - Weekend, Interrupted

Two more days passed uneventfully. Emmett spent the time on patrol or working in the lab, and a scant few minutes watching Full Throttle Heart cuddled up next to Clara on the couch.

Clara kept busy too. They would go their separate ways for the day, then meet up for lunch or dinner.

Clara put the pizza in the oven, then Emmett wrapped his arms around her before she could take the mitts off. "Come on, what are you working on?" he teased.

Clara giggled and looked away from him. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Uh huh." Emmett kissed her forehead and let her go. "Fine then, keep your secrets."

Clara side-eyed Emmett as she pulled off her oven mitts. "You'll see it, eventually."

Emmett didn't see much of Dr. Venture those two days. In the mornings, Emmett would find his mentor cradling a cup of coffee and standing in front of the living room monitors, studying them intently. Then he would slip out before Emmett could check in with him.

There were still intermittent attacks along the coasts, but Belport was quiet. Morale amongst the capes, relief workers, and refugees continued to grow. Smiles and jokes were commonplace, even between capes on patrol.

To Emmett, it was disconcerting.

Emmett couldn't shake the feeling of seeing things while he was on patrol—shapes beneath the water and moving behind the windows. He never actually found anything, nor did Arsenal's systems or Venture's drones.

Maybe everything really was all in his head. TINA had offered the explanation, like it would help him feel better. It hadn't. The last thing he needed was his brain or his systems malfunctioning.

~

Emmett was alone in the mechanical wing, looking over the latest simulations of his fusion rifle. He'd spent the better part of the last few days refining the rifle's design and testing prototypes. Almost another entire day of that had been dedicated to refining the battery design.

It was no wonder that Dr. Venture had started harnessing her power to run the lab. Clara's power was similar to fusion, in that it used small amounts of matter to produce massive amounts of energy. The best part was that it was self-sustaining. As long as the battery remained 80-90% full, the fusion-like energy inside would refill. If Emmett discharged it too fast and the level dropped too low, then the energy took longer to refill.

He knew that the power within the cell wasn't infinite, but the limits and longevity were almost impossible to measure. TINA had tested multiple batteries, running them through constant tests. But her power almost behaved more like it was a living ecosystem—as long as there was something left inside the battery, the energy would eventually rekindle itself.

"At least it's safe," Emmett muttered to himself. It wasn't easy bottling Clara's power, and there was still so much they didn't know about it, but Emmett was grateful.

He was less happy about the weapon itself. Technically, the rifle design was usable, but Emmett wasn't satisfied.

Currently, his fusion rifle had two firing modes—semi-auto kinetic blasts and steady plasma beam.

Kinetic-blast mode was lifted almost exactly from Arsenal's gauntlets. Power was channeled into a thin laser, super-heating air and causing an explosion. By adjusting the laser, the range and power of the blast could be mediated.

Thankfully, the rifle could link to the quick-connect rails in Emmett's arms. Instead of controlling those details manually, the linkage would allow him to control them with nerve impulses, just like his whip. One day, the rifle would even recalibrate itself automatically, using a mixture of Emmett's vision and thoughts.