CAUTION — OVERFLOW

NANITES 120% CAPACITY

SATURATE ENVIRONMENT

Emmett was alone in the dingy sublevel below the apartment, and he was struggling. Nanites streamed away from his body. They moved in sluggish rivers—

Painfully slow compared to the last time.

He’d been practicing the last few days on overloading his nanite capacity. He’d taken the last three appliances Athena brought and converted as much as he could to nanites. He’d increased the mass by a measly five percent.

There was no way an increase of five percent should’ve made controlling the swarm this much harder. It probably hadn’t been a minute yet, and it felt like he was trying to catch his breath by breathing through a straw.

But Emmett didn’t stop. He kept pushing to saturate the room.

“TINA… TINA, are you there?”

“I’m always with you.”

“Something feels… wrong. I’m tired… already.”

TINA didn’t reply. Emmett assumed she was checking his systems. The minutes stretched on, and a dull burn crept into Emmett’s body. The flow of nanites slowed to a trickle, and the struggle grew with every creeping inch.

Finally, Emmett released his control and relaxed. Nanites coalesced into black puddles, clinging to the walls just as easily as the floor.

Emmett slumped against a nearby wall.

He hadn’t succeeded, but he was satisfied nonetheless. He’d been able to see the effect of distance on his control and had still increased his overall mass. …Even if it was only five percent.

“Slow and steady,” Emmett reminded himself.

TINA had already stressed the importance of not pushing too hard and risking injury. He could hear his athletic brother, Antony, echoing the same thing.

“You did well,” TINA said.

“Doesn’t feel like it. I need more capacity, and it’s going to take forever to get there at this rate.”

“There were additional factors this time—”

“I know. I know… I’m distracted. This stuff with Lock, and… and Clara. I can’t let them distract me.”

“I was going to say that you were controlling additional capacity without my help.”

Emmett leaned against the wall. “...Oh. That’s good to know. I’m not getting weaker or suddenly going crazy. That’s good.”

“Not yet.”

He chuckled. “So, should I practice this by myself, or should I keep the training wheels on? Not that I don’t enjoy your help or your company! Do you think it’s worth it?”

“...Yes. It will make training more difficult, and progress will likely be slower at first. However, it will strengthen connections in your brain and result in better control over time. You also won’t have to rely on me being in your head.”

Emmett mentally kicked himself. He wasn’t exactly looking forward to controlling the nanites manually again. This attempt had been by far the hardest one yet, and he wasn’t just signing up to do it a second time, but from every time here on out.

Why did he have a habit of making things even harder on himself?

Making training more difficult was one thing… but then there was that report from Gnosis and the longshot idea of freeing Lock.

Clara was right.

Gnosis was a fortress. They had armed guards, and any number of vampires and powerful test subjects. Sneaking in would be the most difficult thing they had ever attempted. Fighting their way through was out of the question. They’d had twice the team when they took down the mutagen manufacturing warehouse, and they’d barely succeeded.

…And then there was Lock.

Even if they got all the way through the compound to him, there was no telling what kind of mental state Lock would be in… Or if he’d be happy to see them.

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“TINA… Why did you show me that report?”

“I thought you would want to know.”

“Yeah, but why were you hacking into Gnosis in the first place? …Especially after we almost got caught hacking the lab.”

There was a slight pause before TINA answered. “Dr. Venture purged a mountain of data before the lab was lost, including most of his contacts. Among the few left was a single thread of communications between Dr. Venture and the VP of Gnosis’s Belport location—an elder vampire named Ichabod. The messages themselves are gone, but the timestamps remain. Half the conversation took place roughly a week before the battle at the mutagen warehouse. The other half took place two days after Lock attacked you in your apartment.

“I believe he left this clue for a reason.”

The same night that Athena dropped the bombshell about her ancient past, she also told them how Gnosis was run by vampires. Emmett had already known that Gnosis was one of the most reprehensible organizations on the planet, so them being run by literal blood-sucking monsters hadn’t surprised him.

Dr. Venture’s involvement was a surprise, however.

Emmett sighed. “The timing of those conversations is… suspect, for sure.”

“Right now, I’m having a similar conversation with Clara and Athena. Would you like me to patch them through?”

Emmett swallowed nervously. “Only if it’s alright with them.”

There was a pause again, this time for several seconds. Emmett’s gaze drifted toward the puddles of nanites.

Suddenly, a video feed appeared in the corner of Emmett’s vision. At first, it was blurry, but a second later it resolved to Clara and Athena in the apartment. They were next to each other on the couch, and Clara was holding out her phone in front of them.

Clara looked like she’d been crying. She’d tried to hide it by wiping her face, but Emmett knew. It might’ve fooled him before, but not since they’d lost Dr. Venture. He’d seen her cry too much since then.

Emmett glanced idly around the dingy room, trying to avoid Clara’s gaze but unable to.

After a moment, Clara and Athena squinted at the camera.

“Emmett… Are you there?” Clara asked.

“Yeah, I’m here… Oh, one second.” Emmett fumbled for his phone, opened the camera feed, and held it out so they could see him. “Sorry. The video is coming through my HUD. I guess you guys don’t have that feature…”

Athena replied, “We’re still pleasantly analog.”

“I’m surprised you know what that is, Athena.”

Athena chuckled. “I’m old. I’m not dead.”

Clara didn’t laugh.

Emmett cleared his throat. “So, you guys have been talking to TINA, too?”

Clara nodded tentatively. “I don’t know what to think about it. I know Dad used to consult for Gnosis, but I thought he just helped them with tech. This doesn’t seem like that.”

Athena added, “I’m inclined to agree with TINA. I think your dad left us a clue.”

“I think so too,” Emmett said hesitantly. “But what do we do with it?”

Athena said, “Well, we can’t just break in. That’s out of the question.”

Emmett said, “We have the mask protocol. If we can get clearance, then we might be able to sneak in.”

Clara shook her head. “Even if we get all the way down to Lock, how are we going to sneak him all the way back out again?”

Athena replied, “And in that respect, I agree with Clara. Say we get down there, then we get caught… We’ll be fighting our way back through a horde of enemies.”

“What if we do have to fight our way out?” Emmett asked. “The best weapon Gnosis can make is Mutagen-X, right? Clara and I might be able to beat that. I bet you can too, Athena. TINA, what is an elder vampire?”

Athena didn’t give her time to answer. “An elder vampire is exactly what it sounds like. Elder is a title, like calling someone a lord or a lady. They’re likely over a thousand years old, and likely the most powerful vampires in the area. Vampires get stronger with age, and most elders are easily Class four. Strength, speed, regeneration—all of it Class four. They are some of the most powerful and dangerous creatures on the planet.”

“So, we just need to figure out a way to beat an elder vampire and my murderous ex-roommate. Easy.”

Emmett’s joke fell flat. He’d spent too much time with Max. The gadgeteer could’ve diffused the tension with a joke.

Emmett shuffled uneasily. “Look. It’s a good thought experiment. While we’re training, we might as well think about the future countermeasures—even if they’re just hypotheticals.”

“You should come back up to the apartment,” Clara said quietly. She glanced at the screen, but didn’t hold his gaze.

Athena excused herself and walked off camera.

“I will,” Emmett replied, trying to reassure her. He glanced at the puddles of nanites around the room. “I will. I’m just… I’m onto something. I’ll be up in a bit.”

Clara nodded with pursed lips. “Okay. Just don’t be gone too long.”

She cut the feed, leaving Emmett alone in the dingy room. He sighed. He knew they needed to talk more about all this, but Emmett almost didn’t want to. Maybe they could ignore it, push it aside, and forget about it, like they’d done so much else lately. The Freakshow, the Deep Ones, Dr. Venture, and the lab… So much had happened, and Emmett and Clara had just been rolling with it. They didn’t have time to stop. They didn’t have the luxury to stop.

They didn’t have the luxury to stop.

Emmett pushed aside his thoughts about Clara and Lock and everything else. He steeled himself to continue, to push forward with what was possible.

He was already down here. He might as well make the most of it.

Emmett focused on the puddles of nanites with renewed vigor.

“TINA, I’m ready to try again. …But how about some training wheels this time.”

SATURATE SELF

Nanites crawled toward him. As they closed the distance, Emmett felt his control returning and the psychic weight lifting. They slithered up his suit and settled beneath his disguise.

Emmett breathed deep. “Alright. Let’s take it from the top again.”

~ ~ ~