“Have you thought anymore about countermeasures for Lachlan?”
TINA’s question brought Emmett back to reality. He was alone in the basement demiplane, practicing controlling the swarm. It coated every inch of the structure, churning like black water across the walls, ceiling, and floor. He sat in the center of the room, like a stone in the middle of a lake.
CAUTION — OVERFLOW
NANITES 460% CAPACITY
Earlier in the week his concentration would’ve faltered, but not now. Now, he controlled the swarm as easily as prosthetics or his whip.
It’d taken three weeks of near constant training, but Emmett had grown his capacity enough to flood a room. Well, training and Athena’s thankless work of scrounging through the wreckage of post-war Belport.
Emmett stood and ran through a series of exercises.
He started shadow boxing, concentrating on the muscles in his shoulders and core. He slowly built speed, but focused on the nanites around his feet. The swarm oozed out of Emmett’s way while he shuffled around the room. As his movements grew more erratic, the black water sloshed around him. He lashed out with his whip, causing splashes as it struck the walls. All the while, the swarm redistributed itself, filling in the gaps as quickly as they formed.
Then he willed columns to form. Emmett pulled out his pistol, loaded with nanite rounds. Volleys struck the columns, sending nanites spraying across the room. When a magazine was spent, Emmett reloaded in a fraction of a second. Nanites flooded the spent mags, refilling them as Emmett continued his frenzied practice.
Columns sprouted and were cut down. The sound of gunfire rose like a crescendo.
Finally, Emmett relented.
CAUTION — OVERFLOW
NANITES 455% CAPACITY
Because of their small size, nanites were extremely hard to damage. It was like trying to crush a grain of sand. Even after all of Emmett’s practice that day, the swarm had only lost a measly 5% of its overloaded capacity. That was good enough for him.
“TINA, can you remove the caution notification? I don’t need it anymore.”
“I can’t, but you can.”
Emmett blinked. He hadn’t even considered adjusting his HUD himself.
It was as easy as dismissing the notification.
NANITES 455% CAPACITY
“Thank you. I don’t think I need to worry about overexerting myself anymore.”
“You’ve come a long way, Emmett. But you didn’t answer my question.”
Emmett grit his teeth. “I know.”
What was he supposed to say? No, I still haven’t thought of a way to take down my best friend again… or Sorry, TINA. I still feel guilty from fighting him the first time.
It had been different back then. Emmett didn’t know that he was fighting Lock. Emmett had been conflicted enough developing countermeasures for a nameless enemy. He’d basically put the guy in a coma.
What if Emmett had to do it again?
Emmett tried to keep it simple—if they got down there and freed Lock, and he attacked them… Well, Emmett would have no choice. He wouldn’t let Lock hurt his friends.
But it was one thing to tell himself that, and another thing entirely when Emmett imagined fighting his friend.
Unbidden, a column of nanites rose to the side of Emmett. Instead of a formless pillar, this had shape—a humanoid shape. The ghostly silhouette stared back at Emmett.
Taunting him.
Emmett lunged, lashing out with a full force punch. He hit it square in the chest, and the specter exploded in a shower of nanites. It rippled across the rest of the mass, causing the entire room to quiver.
Emmett shook his head. The nanites weren’t taunting him; they were just responding to him. They didn’t have a mind of their own. Emmett had wanted something to punch, and they’d built it for him.
But there was something else there.
Emmett willed the column to form again. He ordered it to hold its shape, then he punched it again. This time, Emmett eased up and aimed for its shoulder. Chunks of nanites flew away, but the black silhouette held together.
He gave it a moment to reform before striking it again. And again.
Each strike blasted away chunks of material, but the swarm eagerly filled in the gaps. The room was full of material—
Full of armor.
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“TINA, I need simulations.”
“Already running them.”
Emmett extended his whip, spinning and lashing out at the nanite specter. The whip cut gashes across it, but nanites seeped in and filled the wounds. Emmett alternated between punches, kicks, and whip strikes. All the while, his maelstrom grew faster.
The nanite silhouette kept up.
Emmett’s wild grin turned into a cackle.
As he fought, he could feel the nanites changing their arrangement.
The nanites along the walls were inert and clumped together. When they saturated the environment, they would spread out until their numbers were too thin to be seen by the naked eye. Now their arrangement was changing again.
If it weren’t for his brain upgrade, Emmett never would’ve noticed it—
TINA was testing nanite arrangements right now. With each strike, the nanites were holding together better. Instead of chunks, small clouds of dust were knocked away.
Emmett redoubled his efforts. If TINA needed data, then there was no point in holding back.
He needed something that would stand up to a Class 4 super.
~ ~
When Emmett asked Clara for help, he was shaking with excitement or nervousness. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen him so worked up.
Clara leapt up from her seat on the floor. “What’s wrong?”
Emmett’s eyes widened. “Oh. Nothing’s wrong. I need you to help me test something.”
Clara sighed with relief. She moved to follow Emmett, but he stopped her.
“I need you to put on your thinsuit.”
Clara went and put on her suit, then came back to the living room. Emmett looked her up and down, his eyes lingering long enough to make her blush beneath her helmet.
She pushed past him and leapt through the gateway. This time, she didn’t need to tuck and roll. She hit the floor with a soft thud and crouched into a superhero-landing.
Clara’s eyes went wide behind her helmet. The swarm of nanites covered every surface of the demiplane like a sea of black ink. The nanites sloshed like water, but the motion was slightly off, almost like a video game lagging. As weird as it was, it made sense—the nanites weren’t liquid, so they didn’t behave quite like a liquid. Still, the movements almost made her nauseous.
Hadn’t TINA warned Emmett about pushing himself too far?
Emmett leapt down behind her, catching himself easily.
Clara turned to him and tried to sound nonchalant. “So, what are we testing?”
Emmett stuttered, “Well, I… One sec.”
Emmett stepped back, and the inky water flowed toward him. It crawled up his legs and quickly coated his entire body. It grew thicker and thicker until he looked like an ink-black snowman. Then the swarm began to thin.
Slowly, Emmett’s shape came back. He turned from snowman to silhouette. Only then did some color come back to his face and clothes. The dark nanites were still there, but the layering gave the illusion that Emmett was made of black glass.
Clara’s mouth had been open the entire time. “Are you sure you’re alright under all that?”
“Just like wearing an exosuit.” Emmett’s voice wavered like he was underwater.
“Say something else.”
“...Something else.” There was still a slight oscillation to his voice, but it was better already.
“You’re going to need TINA to help you with that,” Clara said. “It sounds like you’re underwater.”
“Noted.”
“And you need more camouflage nanites to cover all that.”
“Also noted… Now, I need you to hit me as hard as you can.”
Clara scoffed. “You don’t mean that.”
Emmett shifted uneasily on his feet. “Maybe start at half strength.”
Clara obliged him. Scales in the back of her suit opened up, sending her forward in a burst of speed. Emmett flinched, but his arms stayed at his sides. Clara briefly considered punching him in the stomach, but settled for his shoulder.
The fist of her thinsuit slammed into Emmett’s shoulder with a crack. He twisted slightly under the impact, but much less than Clara expected. There was a shallow crater left over from the impact. Shards of black glass fell out of it, but the structure was already reforming.
The impact had felt exactly like punching glass—layers and layers of it.
Emmett’s shoulder reformed in just over a second.
He held out a hand and beckoned her to try again. “I think you can go all out this time.”
Clara smiled and didn’t hesitate. She leapt forward in a hail of rocket-powered punches and kicks. Each impact sounded like a gunshot and sent shards of armor scattering across the room. Emmett kept his guard up, turning his body so that she couldn’t hit the same spot twice.
Soon, the onslaught ramped up until the impacts sounded like machinegun fire and shards of armor fell like rain.
Emmett weathered it all. The armor’s resistance was impressive enough, but its speed was something else entirely. His armor reformed as fast as Clara could damage it.
Finally, Emmett put his hands behind his back. “Go on. Try to break through.”
Clara was breathing heavily and her skin was hot beneath her armor, but she wasn’t done yet. Now, she had something to prove.
Clara rocketed forward, throwing her weight and all her thrust behind her punches. Thrusters opened up all across her thinsuit, some propelling her strikes, others quickening her recoil. She targeted his chest and core. Emmett braced himself, but otherwise didn’t dodge. Shards of armor crumbled away, but it was like trying to dig a hole in sandy ground—the armor refilled faster than she could break it.
It could have been her imagination, but it felt like the armor had gotten even stronger since they’d started testing it. Either TINA was improving it in real time, which was absolutely unfair, or Clara was tiring out.
She relented and stepped back. Her chest heaved with exertion and sweat clung to her beneath her armor. “Alright. Enough. It works. Clearly.”
Emmett stared at the obsidian-black armor. It rippled as he turned his hand over and inspected it. “Is it good enough, TINA?”
“Class 4 durability, as long as you keep the swarm topped off.”
Emmett chuckled with satisfaction, and the swarm disengaged. It looked like the armor was literally melting off of his body, revealing the man underneath.
Clara pulled back her helmet. She wanted to look at him with her own eyes—the man who had come so far in such a short time.
“Dad would be proud.”
“We’ll show him, one day.”
Clara looked up at Emmett. The air between them felt charged with heat and electricity. Despite all the obstacles in their way and the odds stacked against them, she believed Emmett. One day, they would show Dr. Venture just how far they’d come.
Emmett reached out for her hand. “Come on. Let’s celebrate. I’ll buy you dinner. My treat.”
Clara narrowed her eyes. “You mean you’ll make noodles again.”
Emmett smirked. “Maybe.”
~ ~ ~