APPROXIMATELY -0.3.19 PRE-INCIDENT

  The past week, Emmett had tried to come up to the surface more often—at first, because Clara guilted him into it. No matter how much Emmett tried to reassure her, she wouldn’t accept that he was just fine sitting alone in the control hub, completely motionless for hours on end. Thankfully, Emmett realized early on that he could walk and think while keeping some track of his surroundings.

  He had to admit, it did feel better being outside. There was something about the combination of cold air and quiet that helped him concentrate.

  But now and then he’d look up at the rooftops, and a mix of wistfulness and envy would overcome him.

  Emmett and Lock walked through the abandoned block. He tried to focus on the street and take a break from simulations and planning. A plastic bag floated by causing Lock’s cloaking to shimmer. Walking next to Lock while he was cloaked was like walking next to a wall that was just out of focus.

  Emmett pointed to a clump of weeds growing up through the sidewalk. “I thought about using nanites to clean the place up. TINA talked me out of it. She’s right. It’s better this way.”

  Lock asked, “Each time you come up, you do the same route?”

  “No. I randomize it to be safe.”

  “You mean TINA randomizes it for you.”

  Emmett shrugged. “I meant what I said. TINA and I can talk like that too, but I can do a lot in my head now.”

  “You’re just turning into a computer. …But you and TINA don’t need to talk anymore? I still don’t get how that works.”

  “We still talk, but a lot of the time we don’t need to. It’s like a psychic link.”

  “Still not getting it.”

  Emmett thought for a moment. “… Alright, when you were bouncing, you could tell who the troublemakers were when they walked in, right?”

  “Sure. Some of them. So it’s like reading a room?”

  “Something like that.”

  The pair walked the next street in silence. Emmett might not have been able to see his friend, but he could tell that Lock was mulling the statement over.

  Emmett’s thoughts turned to his friend.

  While Lock was being kept in the bottom of Gnosis, he supposedly showed signs of confusion and psychological distress. The more time passed, the more it felt like Gnosis had played up those concerns to keep Lock physically and chemically restrained. They just wanted excuses to continue testing on him. Gnosis needed to figure out if he was the next phase of Mutagen-X evolution.

  The concerns about Lock’s mental and physical complications weren’t completely unfounded. His body was still mutating. If it weren’t for nanites continually breaking down excess tissue, he’d be covered in scales and bone growths. Even starving him only slowed the process so much. If anything, it seemed like his body was getting even more efficient. So far, nanites were the best solution.

  TINA had also developed nanites to help with his mental state. One of the byproducts of Mutagen-X was being able to turn off things like mental and physical pain—that were also the mechanisms that led to almost every Mutagen-X subject going crazy. Instead, TINA’s nanites helped manage cortisol, adrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin levels. It had been a balancing act—one that had taken months—but TINA was determined, and Lock was resilient.

  Finally, Emmett asked, “How are your headaches?”

  Lock shrugged. “Better. They come and go. TINA’s working on it.”

  “That and a hundred other things.”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “She doesn’t stop. She’s worse than you.” Lock moved to elbow Emmett, but he easily shifted out of the way. Lock muttered, “Slippery bastard.”

  “Sounds like TINA’s growing on you,” Emmett joked.

  “Yeah. don’t tell her though. Don’t want it to go to her head.”

  TINA didn’t reply. Even though she tried to give all of them privacy, it felt like their entire group had accepted her omnipresence over the last few months. Neither Emmett nor Lock dwelled on her interjecting into their conversation.

  Emmett said, “I wish TINA would just tell Clara the plan.”

  “What do you mean—Clara doesn’t know the plan?”

  Emmett sighed. “No. I mean, she does, but I still haven’t told her that we’re going through with it.”

  “You better leave me out of it.” Lock’s joke fell flat. “Man, I don’t know what to tell you. I never was good with that stuff.”

  “I don’t know either. Clara is not going to be happy.”

  “You better buy her something nice for Christmas.”

  “Already working on it.”

  The pair passed a giant graffiti tag from John Wayne. There was a tiny silhouette of a man in a cowboy hat next to it. There were over three hundred graffiti pieces in the surrounding blocks—everything from quick tags to giant, fading murals. Much of it was layered overtop of one another like geological strata.

  Of course, the actual number of graffiti pieces depended on whether you counted partially covered pieces or not.

  The pair rounded the street corner in silence, both men taking in the walls of art. Emmett hadn’t meant to, but he’d begun matching graffiti together by handwriting and style. When he managed to stop working, he’d wonder about the faceless artists he knew only by sporadic handles like TagNado, MannyPhantom, and NeonFumes.

  Lock pointed out that graffiti artist names were similar to superhero names. After that, Emmett hadn’t been able to look at them the same way.

  After a while, Emmett asked, “Did you visit your sister?”

  “Nah. I’ll wait ‘till afterward. Either this crazy plan of yours works and it’ll be a celebration, or things are going to get real bad. In that case… Well, I’m not ready to say goodbye. Is that even fair? ‘Hey sis, I’m alive. Miss me? By the way, I got to leave for real this time.’ Doesn’t seem right.”

  “Yeah… Either way, it sucks.”

  Lock asked, “You going to see your folks?”

  Emmett stuffed his hands in his pockets. “No.”

  “Damn.”

  “I haven’t talked to them since the news outed us. They probably don’t want to see me. You’ve seen the news… Mom texted a couple times—just to see if I was okay, you know? I told her I’m alive and that I couldn’t say more.”

  TINA interjected in both their ears, “I can hide some communications, but each message increases the risk of discovery.”

  Emmett sighed. “I don’t even know what I could say. Taking down the Brotherhood is the only way I’m going to clear my name.”

  “You’re probably right about clearing your name. I don’t know about your family not wanting to see you though.”

  Emmett scoffed. “Let’s say you’re right. Then I’m in the same boat as you are. What am I supposed to say? ‘Bye. I have to go fight the Brotherhood now. Yep, they’re part of the Summit. No, I swear I’m not a villain.’”

  “You’re right. Your mom would probably make you stay for dinner.” Lock chuckled and Emmett followed a breath later. Soon the laughter died and silence settled between.

  Emmett kicked a rock, and it skipped down the sidewalk. “You don’t have to go. You know that, right?”

  Lock stopped abruptly, and he stared Emmett down. It felt like the entire street turned blurry as Lock faced him.

  “I’m not doing this for you. I’m not doing this for Clara’s dad. And I’m not doing this to take down the Brotherhood…” Lock’s voice had risen steadily, but now he grew quiet, as if saying the rest of it out loud was more disconcerting than what had come before.

  “I’m doing this for TINA. I believe in what she wants to accomplish. Because shit needs to change. It’s time to flip the goddamn table, and this is the first step. That’s why I’m doing this.”

  Emmett didn’t say anything. Lock turned and kept walking, like that was the end of the discussion. They were walking back toward the base now, their footsteps echoing across the quiet street.

  He wanted to say something—wanted to say that he agreed with his friend. Emmett wasn’t sure if he’d ever known what Dr. Venture and TINA were guiding him toward, but Emmett knew that he trusted them. Whatever they were building toward—a new society, the end of all supers, or something even harder to imagine—Emmett was almost afraid to even think about it. It felt like a match that he would accidentally blow out.

  Finally, the thought of the future grew too heavy, and Emmett cracked a joke as they walked. “You got a way with words.”

  Lock tried to elbow him again, but Emmett shifted out of the way.

  ~ ~ ~