The sun was setting over the skyline of Belport, and superheroes were running across the roofs.

Emmett Laraway was one of them.

Emmett ran across the rooftops, leaping across alleys with superhuman agility. Even now, Mutagen-A was changing his cells, making his bones denser, his muscles stronger, and his organs more efficient. He even healed faster. Not even the winter wind bothered Emmett, though he still wore a dark hoodie and a black mask.

Almost a month ago, Emmett had watched longingly from the street as superheroes passed above in a blur. Now he was one of them.

Everything had changed since his near-death experience in the Champion street attack. His biological enhancements were only part of it.

Ahead of him, Athena ran across invisible platforms that spanned from one roof to the next, creating them one after the other. Her long white hair trailed after her, and the evening light glinted off the shards of glass woven into her jacket.

Emmett could have followed her across the platforms, but he didn’t need to anymore. Instead, in midair, Emmett opened the compartment in his prosthetic right arm and slung the hidden whip like a grappling hook. It latched onto the top of the next roof and Emmett pulled himself upward.

Athena glanced over the roof at Emmett and let out an amused chuckle with a hint of disgust. “I’m still not used to seeing that.”

Emmett hurled himself over the edge and landed easily on the roof, the whip retracting back into his mechanical arm. He understood her sentiments—there were times it caught him off guard, too. He wasn’t sure exactly how Dr. Venture had managed it, but the prosthetic arm looked normal. The synthetic skin was indistinguishable from the real thing, but underneath Emmett was able to hold several hidden devices.

In the upper arm compartment, he’d been sticking to carrying smoke pellets and caltrops, the latter of which were meant for pursuing vehicles but Emmett hadn’t used them yet. He kept the rest of his incidentals in his utility belt. In the forearm compartment, he’d kept the mechanical whip that Venture had developed.

Emmett could swap out the expendable tools in his upper arm compartment, and eventually he would be able to do the same for his forearm compartment. That way, he could pick the right modification, a.k.a. mod, for the job.

If he was expecting a gunfight, Emmett could swap his whip for a pistol or a portable shield. Honestly, the last few weeks had been such a whirlwind that Emmett hadn’t gotten to experiment as much with his mods as he wanted. But he resolved to change by the time he graduated in the Spring.

Despite the mutagen flowing through his body, his arm was where he got his superhero name:

Mod.

It was a little on the nose, but it reminded him of Arsenal, a super who’d worn exosuit-like sets of power armor—named for being a literal walking, flying arsenal of weapons.

He’d literally figured it out about two minutes ago.

“I like it,” Athena said as they paused on the roof. “It’s short and simple. And it makes sense—well once you know what mod means. It always bothers me when supers have names that don’t make sense. Like a psychic named Cold Heart, or someone with super speed named Chuck.”

“Those aren’t real heroes, are they?”

Athena ignored Emmett, instead crouching down by the edge of the roof. Instinctively, Emmett followed her lead.

A moment later, she pointed down the side street toward a white van. “I think this is our mark.”

They watched it as it stopped in front of their building and backed up to the loading bay. Workers hopped out of the van and stepped out from the bay, all with hats pulled low over their faces.

Someone was flooding the streets with derivatives of Gnosis’s mutagens. For weeks, shipments of knock-off mutagens were coming in. Athena and her crew of masks were destroying as many as they could, but for every shipment they found, more were making it through.

It was a numbers game, and so far, the bad guys were winning.

That would change if they could trace the mutagens back to the source, but so far, they hadn’t gotten that lucky.

Athena and Emmett watched carefully from the rooftop, waiting until they saw proof that this was their target. A moment later, the first of the white cooler boxes appeared.

“Ready?” Athena whispered.

Emmett nodded. Then they left off the rooftop, Athena quickly dropping from one invisible forcefield to another, creating them as fast as she fell. Meanwhile, Emmett swung down using his whip.

They landed a few steps away from the van. The workers turned in surprise, but Athena and Emmett were faster.

The first time, Emmett had tagged along with Athena during a mutagen bust, he’d had no idea what to expect. He’d bumbled through it, relying on Athena to save him.

This time Emmett knew what to expect.

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Athena held out a hand toward the first of the men and he flew backward across the alley, pushed by an invisible forcefield. Then she turned her attention toward the loading bay.

Emmett lashed out with his whip and grabbed the second around the midsection. He was big, probably outweighing Emmett by one hundred pounds or more, and he knew it—he grabbed the end of the whip and smirked. But Emmett didn’t plan on getting into a tug of war. Emmett simultaneously leapt forward and pulled—rocketing toward his enemy.

The big man barely kept his footing and had no chance of blocking Emmett’s attack. Emmett punched him square in the stomach and the man folded in half. He dropped to the ground and stayed there.

Emmett winced, glad that he pulled his punch. He still had super strength, and if this bust was anything like last time, then all these men were normal people. He wanted to knock them out of the fight, not cripple them.

In the loading bay, the first of the workers drew a pistol and fired. Emmett dove behind the front of the van out of instinct, but he peeked around the side to see the bullets dropping harmlessly in front of the man. Athena had stretched a forcefield across the entire loading bay, completely walling off the area.

More workers opened fire in frustration, but their bullets fell impotently at their feet. Two of the men punched at the invisible barrier, but didn’t have any better luck.

Athena had already turned her back to them and opened one of the white boxes to inspect the contents. Emmett’s ears were already ringing, but he ignored the discomfort. He smirked and walked around to join her, already focusing on what new mutagens he’d find.

Last time, he’d found a mutagen variant that enhanced his night vision. It wasn’t as flashy of a power as increased strength or moving objects with his mind, but his vision had already saved his ass once.

Besides, these mutagen busts with Athena were way easier than training.

Emmett tore the lid off of one crate. Icy smoke seeped over the edges and Emmett’s eyes widened at the tightly packed vials inside. Shimmering blue, red, orange—

Athena grabbed Emmett’s shoulder and spun him around to face the loading bay. “We’ve got company.”

The gunshots stopped, and the workers backed away from the front of the loading bay. A thin young man stepped past them and stopped in front of the forcefield. He looked like he belonged in a punk rock band—wearing a black studded leather jacket and his hair was up in a mohawk and dyed green.

He reached out for the forcefield and sneered when he touched it. Then he pulled his hand back and made a fist. Fire coalesced around it.

The rocker punched, and Athena’s forcefield exploded.

Both Emmett and Athena braced as the shockwave washed over them, and in the loading bay several workers yelled and were thrown backward.

The rocker was completely unfazed.

“Keep the workers occupied,” Athena said.

Emmett nodded. He was already grabbing a smoke pellet out of his arm compartment, but froze when he looked at Athena.

Her nose was bleeding.

The shockwave couldn’t have done that. Had the destruction of her forcefield hurt her?

“Go,” Athena said. “I need to concentrate.”

Emmett hesitated until the rocker came flying through the air at them. He glowed with power and screamed for effect.

Both Emmett and Athena leapt to the side. The space where they’d been a moment before exploded with another shockwave that blew out the van windows.

One of the workers screamed, “Be careful!”

The rocker turned with a sneer. “Shut up.”

Emmett sprinted toward the loading bay, trusting Athena to keep the enemy super occupied. The workers that were still on their feet turned toward Emmett in surprise, but before they could raise their pistols, he pulled two smoke pellets out of his upper arm compartment and hurled them at their feet.

For how small the pellets were, they covered the loading bay in smoke. Then he pulled two noise makers from his utility belt and threw them for good measure. Even though the sound was annoying and disorienting to him, it was even more so to his enemies.

Emmett leapt into the cloud, slamming into one worker, and used the surprise to punch him in the stomach, then hurl him across the floor and into another. Even though he couldn’t see any better in the smoke, Emmett had surprise, strength, and a whip on his side.

He extended the whip and swung it low across the room. It wrapped around the first ankle it felt. Emmett yanked the man off his feet, dragged him across the ground, and pummeled him. A man screamed in the smoke, and Emmett lunged for him, tackling him hard and knocking him out. He slid the magazine out of each gun and tossed them in random directions.

Explosions and the squeal of metal sounded beyond the smoke, but he didn’t stop—not until he swept his whip through the smoke and didn’t find another worker. Emmett dropped another smoke pellet in the hall before going back outside.

Back in the alley, Athena was batting the rocker around like a cat playing with a mouse. She leapt from one forcefield to the next like she was running around on an invisible jungle gym. At the same time, the rocker stumbled around the alley—shoved around the alley by invisible barriers.

The rocker still bristled with power and each punch and kick sent shockwaves across the alley, but each time he lashed out, he struck nothing but air. Athena conjured forcefields quick enough to strike and dispelled them in the next moment—reinforcing Emmett’s theory that she didn’t want to clash powers directly.

For a moment, Emmett hesitated.

Athena wasn’t just a powerful super—she was also way more experienced than Emmett. Emmett wanted to help, but he wasn’t sure if he was getting in over his head. He couldn’t accurately gauge this villain’s power level, but Athena was fighting cautiously, even if she was winning…

She’d probably beat this guy eventually, but every second the fight dragged on was time for more goons or someone from the Summit of Heroes to arrive. Not to mention, Emmett wanted some of the mutagen vials for himself—some of which were already shattered and leaking bright liquids across the alley. If the fight went on much longer, the rest of the vials might get destroyed.

Emmett waited until the rocker turned his back, then swung his whip and grabbed the super’s ankle. The rocker looked back with a mix of shock and disgust. Emmett pulled, wrenching the man off balance. Athena struck at the same time, slamming a forcefield into the man’s back and hurtling him into the side of the building.

He bounced off, dazed, but still conscious.

Emmett lashed out again, but this time, the rocker batted away the whip with a flaming hand. Emmett felt a distant twinge of pain.

And as the rocker’s power faded, Athena struck again. This time the forcefield slammed him into the wall with an audible crunch and he dropped to the ground limply.

For a moment, Emmett thought Athena had killed him. He stared in shock, but breathed a sigh of relief as the man groaned in pain. At least he wasn’t dead.

Emmett retracted his whip back into his forearm compartment, ignoring the warped and charred metal links at the tip. He’d have to repair it later, but for now he had more important concerns.

Emmett ran over to the white crates, ripping the lids off until he found one with undamaged vials. He pocketed two or three of each, until his hoodie pocket was filled with clinking glass.

Athena smirked, blood still trickling down her nose. “Glad you have your priorities straight. Now let’s get out of here.”

~ ~ ~