Mod, Arsenal, and Athena raced through the underground tunnels and away from the still-struggling Golden Boy.

Ever since Emmett was young, he’d been cataloging the powers of superheroes and villains and compiling them into his own personal database. Public databases and websites often didn’t list the known weakness and limitations of supers, and even private forums were monitored and sanctioned. Footage and eyewitness accounts of battles never stayed up on the web for long.

Even after becoming a cyborg, Emmett had never stopped adding to his database.

Originally, it had been usually easier to find information about higher profile supers—those in Class 3, 4, and 5—than it was to find info about lower-level supers. Since Emmett started working as a mask, now information about Class 1 and 2 supers like Zanté, Green Mask, Feedback, and Duplicity were stored alongside world-shakers like Paragon and Amarque.

Now that he was tangling with supers like Golden Boy, Emmett might even use his database, rather than simply adding to it.

Mod, Arsenal, and Athena stayed underground for most of their journey, finally surfacing near downtown. Then they slowly and methodically walked the streets back to Athena’s apartment—

All the while trying not to flinch as drones flew overhead.

They didn’t relax until they climbed into the apartment and shut the window. Despite the magic cloaking the apartment, no one wanted to turn on the lights. Mod and Arsenal slumped down onto the floor while Athena leaned heavily on the kitchen counter.

Mod recalled their nanites, and the two pulled off their mask and helmet as they lay beside each other. His heartbeat finally started to slow.

“Holy shit,” Clara muttered. “How did you know that would work?”

“I… I didn’t. Not for sure.”

Clara slapped his arm weakly. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

TINA spoke up from Emmett’s phone on the table. “I was reasonably certain it would work. I double-checked my Summit records and Emmett’s database. Golden Boy lacks an easy method of getting the nanites off his skin. He also wanted to bring us in alive and without collateral damage.”

“It won’t work again. Someone will give him a countermeasure. Wight or the Brotherhood…” Emmett trailed off.

Athena sighed. “And my powers can’t contain him. TINA was right though—getting the jump on him worked.”

“We can’t get caught again,” Emmett muttered.

“I’m sorry… It was my fault. I stayed connected to the lab for too long. That was how the Brotherhood located us.”

Athena waved a hand. “What’s done is done. We will learn and come out the better for it.”

Emmett asked, “Was it worth it?”

“Yes. I know what the Brotherhood is planning. You might want to sit down for this.”

Emmett scoffed a laugh from the floor. Athena walked over to the couch and laid down. Clara stayed silent and stared up at the ceiling.

“While connected to the lab, I was able to find several key points of interest:

“First, the Brotherhood means to use the lab as a base of operations. They will not be leaving anytime in the near future. This complicates our plans. I believe that Dr. Venture and my original copy meant for us to regain control of the lab at some point, but that will be exceedingly difficult with Midas’s involvement.

“Second, I believe the Binary Brotherhood means to take control over the Allied States, and eventually, the world.”

The group let out a mixture of sighs and groans.

Clara propped herself up on her elbows. “Wait, the Brotherhood? As in, the entire Brotherhood?”

“What do you mean?” Emmett asked.

“TINA, I thought there were people in the Brotherhood that Dad could trust…”

“There might still be, but any records of those communications were purged. I’m sorry.”

“Do you know how they’re going to do it?” Athena asked. “You mentioned drones and surveillance before…”

“The Brotherhood is prioritizing both those subsystems. Drone manufacturing is projected to return to one hundred percent of capacity within three months. Production will likely increase further. Midas plans to have a drone presence in every major city in the Allied States within one year.”

Emmett swallowed dryly. “Fast-Response and heavy drones?”

“Yes. Longer term projections are less reliable, but once Midas has established a drone presence in the Allied States, he intends to expand throughout the world.”

Clara was sitting cross-legged now, trying to control her breathing. “I just don’t get it. Why would the Summit and the government go along with this? They have to know that Midas is up to no good.”

Athena replied, “You’d be surprised how much people will give up to feel safe. There’s already public outcry when too much collateral damage happens between superheroes and villains. Until right before the war, the public didn’t know about the Deep Ones. As far as most people along the Atlantic are concerned, they just lived through World War III. They won’t see drones in the sky as the eyes of a villain… They’ll look up and feel safer. It doesn’t matter if the drones are better or worse than having superheroes running around. What matters is how people feel.”

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Emmett felt the weight of years as Athena spoke. “You’ve seen it before, haven’t you?”

Athena smiled bitterly. “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it… Something similar happened before the Second Civil War. There were more masks than ever. More villains too. People were afraid. Forcing masks to register as capes made people feel safer. It’s just more state-sanctioned violence.”

Emmett thought back to Hunter Nine and Hunter Seven. He didn’t doubt that there were other legit capes with shameful records. Hell, Midas and Ava Savanus were registered capes.

Clara asked, “What about other systems and projects?”

“What do you mean?” Emmett asked.

“Dad had umpteen projects going on in the deeper parts of the lab. He never told me anything about them, but I’m guessing they were the kind of thing Midas would want to get his hands on.”

“I didn’t find any correspondence about lower sections of the lab. As far as I know, most records about those sections were deleted before the Brotherhood gained control. Those experiments might not have been useful enough or required too much time and resources to recover. Whatever the reason, the lower levels of the lab are not among the Brotherhood’s priorities.

“Athena’s comment about safety brings us to the Brotherhood’s surveillance program. They are using reconstruction along the Atlantic coast as an excuse to add additional cameras and wireless monitoring. Passive monitoring of all communications in the Allied States is expected by the end of Summer.”

“Shit…” Athena muttered.

Emmett said, “We’re ahead of the curve. We’ve got the mask protocol, and TINA covering our comms—”

“We’re the only ones…” Athena said. “This isn’t about us. This is about the Brotherhood and the Summit, and them being able to find every unregistered mask that’s still holding out. Unless they’re an artificer, they won’t be able to hide like us. This is it… They’re going to finish what the Second Civil War couldn’t. And when everyone’s registered, people like Midas will be giving the orders.”

Emmett sat up, even as the weight of Athena’s words settled on the group. Clara wouldn’t meet his eyes.

Emmett asked, “TINA… Is Athena right?”

“I can find no flaw in her reasoning. Active monitoring is coming, likely within the year. But that is not the end of my findings.”

Athena replied, “Good news, maybe?”

“Ava Savanus means to capture Emmett. She wants to reverse engineer his brain-machine interface for her own use. She prefers to capture you alive, if possible.”

“One of the most powerful artificers in the world wanted to rip out my brain… That’s not the worst.”

“Your brain and spinal column.”

Emmett shrugged. “I wasn’t really counting her as an ally, anyway.”

Clara asked quietly, “Did you find any other information, TINA? Anything about Dad?”

“Yes. He is being kept in a state of suspended animation somewhere in the lower levels of the lab. I’m sorry, but that is all the information I have.”

“That’s fine, TINA. Thank you. I’m just glad he’s okay.”

~ ~

Ava Savanus slumped back onto the couch in the lab’s living room. She rubbed her temples and groaned in irritation.

Clearing the parking garage on the East side of the city had been a shitshow, and the wall screen showed every angle.

After Golden Boy had gone underground to track the cyborg, Ava’s biomechs had quickly secured the parking garage. The five unregistered masks were detained and would be brought to a Summit base for registration. Civilians were corralled. Those that fought or tried to run were detained as well.

Then the rest of the Summit’s capes had shown up. They’d freaked.

Apparently, tear gassing civilians was out of line. Nevermind that police did it all the time, and the Summit themselves had done much, much worse only a few decades prior.

The capes attacked Ava’s forces, hurling energy blasts and even tearing the arms off of two mechs. She ordered the mechs to retaliate.

But even the best nonlethal options aren’t perfect.

Blood soaked the concrete, and three capes lay unconscious on the ground. Ava commanded her reconnaissance units to stabilize them until ambulances arrived.

Ava watched the screen as capes were being hauled away in drones back to base and in ambulances to the hospital.

“Wight is attempting to contact you.”

Ava sent a pulse of GABA and serotonin through her brain to calm herself down. “Put him through.”

Wight’s voice appeared as a waveform at the top of the screen. “Savanus, what the hell happened?”

“I was hoping you could tell me. Your capes attacked my mechs.”

“Most of them haven’t seen mechs rounding up civilians. Even villains rarely do that.”

“Now’s not the time, Wight. Venture’s cyborg hacked into the lab. I traced the signal there. There were some minor civilian injuries before your capes arrived.”

“And where is the cyborg now?”

“They escaped into the maintenance tunnels. Golden Boy is searching for them.”

Wight paused. “Keep me informed. If you find Mod and bring him, I will interrogate and debrief him.”

“I don’t think—”

“That’s non-negotiable, Ava. In the meantime, see that the injured get the proper medical attention. Supers and civilians aren’t replaceable.” Wight severed the transmission.

Ava resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

Thankfully, a moment later, her network picked up Golden Boy’s transmission.

“Savanus, do you copy?”

Golden Boy appeared on the screen through the lenses of her biomechs. He paused on the first floor just outside the stairwell.

“Yes. Please tell me you have good news.”

“Negative. They got away.”

The implant in Ava’s brain sped up, taking in Golden Boy’s face in a thousand frames a second. For someone as trained and fast as him, there was no other way to catch his micro expressions.

LYING

The word flashed across her contact lens.

Golden Boy floated across the parking lot, checking over supers and civilians alike. Camera views on the wall screen adjusted. Ambulance sirens rose in the distance.

Ava tried to choose her questions carefully. “You were down there for over an hour and couldn’t find them?”

“I wasn’t able to find a trail.”

LYING

Ava frowned. Worse than lying, Golden Boy almost seemed distracted by whatever happened down there.

That didn’t make Ava feel any better about the situation.

“...Was there any sign of them?”

Golden Boy paused, as if considering his answer. “Only a few gadgets. Noise makers and smoke bombs.”

TRUTH

Golden Boy rocketed away after that, giving a half-hearted excuse about debriefing with Wight. He cut communications after that.

Ava watched him recede into the distance through the eyes of her drones. She wondered if he would be more honest with the spymaster.

Then she sent her mechs into the tunnels to find the trail that Golden Boy had missed.

~ ~ ~