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.

Emmett looked up at the snake with equal parts surprise and awe. And more than a little jealousy.

A magic fire snake sounded pretty cool. Even cooler than being a cyborg.

Clara shouted something else and chunks of ice flew from her staff. Emmett brought his arms up to block, but the shards hit the roof in front of him. Before he could move again, the ice spread across the surface, over his feet and up to his ankles, trapping Emmett in place.

Shit. That was what he got for getting distracted.

Emmett extended his whip. Even if it was damaged, it would still be useful—he could keep the snake at bay and also reach Clara’s robot across the roof. At the same time, he reached into his utility belt and grabbed a handful of the sand and salt mix, and tossed it on the ice. A flash of steam burst around him as the mixture ate into the ice, but it wouldn’t be fast enough.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The snake lunged, and Emmett lashed out with his whip. Metal struck the creature and instead of flames, it felt like the whip had struck molten rock. The serpent reeled from the impact, but a shock of pain traveled up Emmett’s whip and through his arm.

Emmett pushed the pain aside and immediately lashed out for Clara’s robot. She parried the blow and Emmett was forced to defend against the fire snake again as it arced around and dove at him again.

Information about magic-wielding supers wasn’t as widespread as some other types, but Emmett knew a little about their capabilities. Even if he couldn’t remember the correct antimagic mixture or didn’t have the mixture in his belt, he wasn’t completely powerless. Magic spells could be incredibly potent and versatile, but most mages stuck to a narrow specialty. Long-lasting spells also required constant concentration to maintain, and mages could rarely concentrate on more than a few at a time, limiting their options. Artifacts like wands and staves could bolster a mage's capabilities, but they would also be vulnerable to being disarmed.

In short, Emmett didn’t have to beat any of her spells directly. If Emmett could disarm Clara or hit her hard enough to throw off her concentration, then he could make an opening.

As soon as he batted away the fire snake, Emmett reached into his arm compartment and chucked a smoke pellet at the robot’s feet. Smoke erupted and covered the rooftop. Meanwhile, Emmett wrenched his feet and could feel the ice loosening.

Meanwhile, the fire snake floated above him like a torch through the haze. He kept one eye on the snake and swung the whip at Clara—hard. Metal slammed into her and Emmett commanded his whip to grab whatever it could. Then he pulled with superhuman strength and his feet anchored by ice magic.

Clara’s robot stumbled out of the smoke, and Emmett felt the ice around his feet vanish completely as her concentration faltered. Emmett swung a metal fist at the robot, hoping to knock it out quickly—

But Clara slammed the butt of the staff into the ground again. This time, Emmett lurched and floated upward—some kind of levitation or reverse gravity spell. Feet no longer planted, Emmett’s punch sent him cartwheeling through the air.

Emmett had barely risen above the smoke when the fire snake charged him.

Emmett couldn’t change direction before it slammed into him. Fire engulfed him as he fell over the side of the roof.

He flailed and lashed out with the whip, just managing to grab the edge of a window and slow his descent. If he could get inside and out of the open, he might have a better chance…

Emmett aimed for a window and half made it through. He was too low and his legs slammed into the wall, causing him to tumble as he burst through the window. He scrambled to his feet and dove behind a table.

At least he made it inside.

The warehouse room was split: One half was filled with office furniture, and the other was floor to ceiling shelving—all of it made out of gray tiles like the rest of the Gray Room.

Emmett hid behind the table, waiting. Clara’s robot was red, which meant she should be coming to him.

The robot appeared a few seconds later, sliding through the broken window on a wave of ice. It melted behind her as she stepped onto the tile.

“Come out, come out, wherever—”

Emmett kicked the table, and it careened across the room. It slammed into Clara’s robot and both crashed into the shelves. Without pausing, Emmett grabbed the top of the nearest shelves with his whip and pulled it down on top of her.

Hundreds of pounds of metal came down on the robot—then froze in midair. Clara had used the antigravity spell again.

Emmett grit his teeth in frustration and grabbed another desk and sent it hurling toward Clara. This time he flung a smoke pellet after it, waited for it to explode, then hurled another desk into the smoke.

For a moment, Emmett was afraid to breathe.

Then Clara grunted in surprise as the desk hit her, and everything came crashing down. A cacophony of metal sounded as more shelves fell, knocked over by the errant desks.

Emmett smirked and shook a fist in celebration. “How about that!”

~

It took about a minute for the Gray Room to rearrange itself, reconstituting the wreckage and allowing Clara’s robot to climb free.

She laughed on the other end of the intercom. “Not bad. Those smoke pellets are a pain!”

Emmett shrugged. “They’re pretty much my only trick, but they’re pretty useful.” While Clara regained her bearings, Emmett asked, “So, that was a fire snake—what’s it with you and fire?”

Clara’s robot remained unreadable. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Fire was the first thing you used against me in the Gray Room, remember?”

“Oh… Yeah. Fire’s just cool, I guess.”

Emmett laughed. “Yeah, right.”

~

Clara quickly changed the subject by throwing Emmett back into training.

That evening, Emmett fought a speedster, a gunslinger, and a banshee. Each presented their own challenges:

Against all three, his best chance was to get indoors and then close the distance to grapple his opponent. His whip helped against all three, but Emmett grew frustrated—

He might’ve been able to hold his own against threats as a generalist, but he didn’t have any potent abilities. Even the mage powerset was arguably a better generalist than Emmett.

He really needed to make some new mods, and make it so he could quickly swap them out. But even more immediate were the mutagen knock-offs…

Emmett had been limited in his choices last time. Enhanced low-light vision had already saved his ass once, but it was way more niche of a power than he hoped.

Maybe he could take one of the mutagens he’d found with Athena. Maybe he could even take two…

Emmett found himself eagerly awaiting Dr. Venture’s interruption at the end of the night.

His voice came over the intercom. “Emmett, it’s time to talk about these mutagens.”

~ ~ ~