“Alright, alright. I’ll talk to Clara,” Emmett muttered, more to get McGuire off his back than anything.

For the entire walk home, McGuire had assaulted Emmett with questions about everything between him and Clara—things Emmett didn’t even have answers to and things he’d never even thought about. By the time they got back to the Circuit Surgeons, Emmett felt like he’d spent eight hours in the Gray Room.

“You better,” McGuire joked as they climbed down the fire escape. “I’m going to ask Clara if you talked to her.”

Emmett groaned. “Please don’t do that.”

“Fine. I won’t. But you better talk to her.”

“I will… just not tonight,” Emmett said as he climbed through the apartment window.

“Dude—” McGuire said a little too loudly. Emmett held up a finger to shush him before the gadgeteer whispered, “That’s stalling.”

Emmett shrugged. “I’m going to look at those upgrades that TINA suggested.”

McGuire frowned. “Suit yourself. I’m going to turn in for the night. Catch you tomorrow, roomie.”

Emmett smirked and quietly went downstairs to the second floor of the shop.

Wordlessly, the monitors in the corner of the room came on, depicting the three enhancements for his lower legs. Emmett was still apprehensive about having TINA tied into the shop’s network, but the benefits outweighed his concerns.

Clearly, Venture still wanted to help, even if he and Emmett weren’t on speaking terms. Otherwise, he wouldn’t loan out TINA so freely. Of course, there was always the possibility that Venture was using TINA to keep an eye on Emmett. Either way, there wasn’t much Emmett could do about it at the moment.

Emmett waved away the most advanced thruster model. There was no point in examining it now, since he didn’t have any access to the necessary materials.

Then he waved away the other thruster design, and enlarged the third option, labeled Gait Enhancement.

The system was designed to supplement the existing structure of his lower leg prosthetics. As Emmett walked, ran, or landed from a jump, kinetic energy would be stored in capacitors. The excess energy could then be funneled back into the prosthetic to make him sprint faster or jump higher. Most of the utility would come in short bursts, but it also seemed like the system could be used to make Emmett’s strides more efficient over longer distances too.

In that way, it was similar to McGuire’s spring boots, but they couldn’t store energy for later.

Emmett studied the schematics, realizing just how ingenious the additional system was. Compared to most of Emmett’s upgrades, it would require little to actually implement. Most of the necessary parts were inside him already.

Like the rest of the tech designed by Dr. Venture, the capacitors in Emmett’s legs were gated so that they weren’t used to their full power. His prosthetic arms were limited in similar ways. Supposedly, Emmett’s arms could bend at inhuman angles and were rated for a Class 2 super. But even with the Mutagens and nanomachines in Emmett, the organics parts of him were only Class 1. If too much power flowed through his arms, he could break his spine.

With TINA’s help, Emmett could rewrite the parameters of his legs, allowing the capacitors to charge to their full capacity and the use of their full power.

TINA added, “I will unlock your capacitors for traversal and jumping only. You will still need to be careful with force application. You could potentially leap seven stories into the air now, but landing from the same height would certainly injure you or destroy the roof you start on.

“You won’t be able to use the extra energy for kicking opponents. The angles are too extreme and you could easily damage your hip joints or ligaments. This is also true for punches and tackles. The rest of your body is not strong enough to handle the stress of those applications.”

“I can live with that… for now.” Emmett added that last part in an attempt at a joke, but if TINA understood, she didn’t say anything.

The rest of the design entailed adding batteries for storage and adding additional capture mechanisms in the soles of his feet, then wiring it all together correctly. As cool as it would be, he couldn’t do anything with batteries—

Despite all the scrap he had access to, the biggest limitation was the batteries. Once unlocked, his capacitors could hold a massive charge of power, but would only do so for the short term. Batteries would hold the power for longer, but without the lab, the tech that Emmett could scrounge up was limited.

The capacitors would have to work by themselves… for now.

Emmett grit his teeth, trying to ignore all the ways that he missed having access to the lab.

The other problem was that Emmett would need to perform surgery on himself to install those parts.

…Was it still surgery if he was operating on prosthetics?

Emmett cleared the spare parts off the center work table and carefully set aside the electronics that were in mid-repair. Then Emmett scrounged up the parts he needed.

For the next half an hour, he sat hunched over the table, picking apart scraps, filing down pieces, and carefully setting everything aside.

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He probably should’ve waited until morning, just so McGuire—Max—was there in case something went wrong. But Emmett didn’t want to wait; that was part of why he started with the Gait Enhancement instead of working on the other upgrades.

Emmett wanted something that he could use now.

~

When everything was ready, Emmett climbed onto the table. He sat, legs outstretched and his bundle of surgical supplies beside him. TINA brought up diagrams on the monitors of the cuts he needed to make in each layer of his prosthetics.

At least he could use both hands this time.

He started out by making several incisions down the length of calves. TINA had helped him dampen the pain response so that now he only felt the pressure of the movements. If he turned it off completely, his movements wouldn’t be accurate enough—not without the holographic overlay from the lab or TINA’s robotic arms.

After he finished the incisions, Emmett sighed and said to TINA, “This would be a lot easier with you helping me.”

“I am helping you. Would you like me to talk to Dr. Venture about a direct neural connection? I could override your control and do the surgery myself.”

“...That’s alright, TINA. Wait… Is that really possible? A direct neural connection to you?”

“In theory. We have never attempted it. Dr. Venture doesn’t approve of letting someone else in his brain. His concern isn’t unfounded. Once a direct connection is in place, there is always the potential for misuse, corruption, or hacking. It is not unlike the risk of a psychic taking control.”

Emmett had begun splicing connections as TINA talked in his ear. The skin of the prosthetics peeled back, revealing wiring, synthetic muscle, and capacitors.

He chuckled. “Venture’s so worried, and yet he installed a remote kill switch in me.”

“What are you talking about?” TINA asked.

“Right after I woke up—the first time—Dr. Venture told me not to log anything about him, or you, or Clara. He said he could remotely disable my vital functions. He said it was the best that Gnosis had to offer.”

Emmett remembered that part clearly. How could he forget it? It was one of the reasons he had been hesitant to leave.

“That was a joke. Dr. Venture did not put a kill switch inside you.”

Emmett almost dropped his tools. “Sonofabitch… You mean Gnosis doesn’t have a killswitch for their mutagens?”

“They do, but only for those higher-level mutagens, like Mutagen-X. Mutagen-A is used by a large subsection of the public, and so Gnosis never implemented similar functions for it.”

Emmett scoffed. “That’s not even remotely funny. What the hell… Why would he lie about that?”

“I didn’t say it was a good joke.”

Emmett grumbled to himself and continued working. His legs were carved open on a grimy table—he had to finish this before he asked TINA anything else.

The entire process took thirty minutes. When Emmett was done, he used a special surgical stapler to seal the faux flesh back together. It would heal on its own in a few hours.

Emmett laid back on the table and relaxed for a moment. The metal was cold under his back. His body might have been mended, but his thoughts were still in turmoil—his relationship with Dr. Venture was at the forefront.

“TINA, why are you and Dr. Venture still helping me?”

“You are an asset and an experimental subject. You are also an ally and a friend. Dr. Venture and I have every reason to continue helping you.”

“What if I don’t come back into the fold?”

“Dr. Venture will likely direct me to continue assisting you. You will have access to repairs for your prosthetics. Certain technologies and parts of the lab will remain accessible—things he would extend to most allies. As long as you do not actively work against us, I see no reason they would be forfeit.”

Emmett considered her words. He didn’t see a reason to go against Venture. Emmett just didn’t know if he would go back. It was good that he wouldn’t give up everything if he chose that path.

“Even if you do not continue a relationship with Dr. Venture, Clara will want to continue seeing you.”

Emmett choked on his own spit. He sat up and coughed. “So everyone keeps reminding me. That will be all, TINA. Thank you and thank you for still helping me out.”

“Of course.”

Emmett cleaned up the blood and his surgical supplies. Then he turned off the lights behind him and skulked up the stairs and into his room. He collapsed in bed.

Why did life have to be so complicated?

Scratch that—being a super wasn’t complicated. It was everything else that was the problem.

~

That night, Emmett dreamed of a metallic beach and oil black waves.

Instead of sand, the dunes were made of metal shavings. Emmett crawled out of the surf, his skin tearing on the rough dunes while cold waves lapped at his feet—

Something was in the water.

Hands grabbed at his legs. They tried to pull him back into the surf. Underwater.

Emmett crawled and kicked behind him, desperate to fend off his attackers, but they were relentless. A icy hand grabbed his ankle and Emmett couldn’t pull his foot away.

There was always someone on the beach waiting for Emmett. They would stand and stare, but they never moved, never shouted, never ran toward him to help. Sometimes it was Clara. Other times, it was Venture or McGuire.

Tonight, it was the new girl, Krystal. She watched him struggle, her blue hair billowing in the wind.

Emmett screamed and clawed at the sand, but another hand grabbed his leg. In seconds, dozens of hands were dragging him backward. Emmett’s muscles burned and his throat was hoarse from screaming, but no matter how hard he fought, there was no hope.

There was blood in the sand, so dark that it looked black.

It was always in those last fateful seconds that Emmett looked back at his attackers.

There were dozens of them. Humanoid robots with sleek silver bodies. They didn’t feel pain, didn’t feel the cold of the waves. They weren’t scared or angry. All looked completely the same—

And they all wore Emmett’s face.

He didn’t know how or why—all Emmett knew was that they wanted him. They wanted to drag him down into the waves.

~

Emmett woke up in his bed. The sheets were soaked in a cold sweat.

He sat up and held his hands in his face.

It wasn’t the first time he’d had that nightmare. He’d had a much more intense version back when he’d been poisoned by Porcelain. Since then, he’d had similar nightmares sporadically. They were always horrifying, and Emmett always woke up in a cold sweat.

The weirdest part was that he always woke up wondering the same thing:

Were the robots after Emmett because they wanted him and wanted to feel his emotions? Or did they feel his panic, and they were trying to take away his emotions so he wouldn’t be scared anymore?

~ ~ ~