Chapter 1.1.48 — Venture 4 / Lock 5

Dr. Venture stared at the wall monitor, watching the view from Clara’s exosuit camera and the view from the Fast-Response Drone intently. It was nearly to Emmett’s apartment and would pick him up momentarily.

“Don’t forget what we discussed,” Venture said.

A moment later, Clara responded over the radio. “I won’t.”

“Maintain a one block perimeter, but wait to engage until Emmett and the other drones are in position. I’ll brief him en route.”

In an ideal world, Porcelain would’ve stayed in hiding for another few days, then Emmett and Clara could have practiced the plan in the Gray Room. It was more difficult this way, but ultimately better. They didn’t have the luxury of time anymore.

Amarque was awake, and the Summit of Heroes would start their own investigation. Which was a problem because Venture hadn’t exactly been upfront about the connection with Porcelain. Venture felt it was necessary, but the Summit wouldn’t see it that way.

They’d think he was keeping secrets from them.

That was fine. Venture had given up trying to prove himself to the Summit.

While waiting for Clara to get in position and for the drone to pick up Emmett, Venture familiarized himself with the report on Amarque.

Amarque claimed they were drugged while they were in the Donjon club and reported similar hallucinations to what Emmett experienced. These hallucinations might’ve incapacitated someone like Emmett, who was both a low-powered super and without psychic powers, but Amarque was also a Class 4 psychic. Instead of losing consciousness, they experienced waking hallucinations vivid and disturbing enough to make them lash out.

Porcelain also maintained consciousness due to their different biology, but her version of lashing out wasn’t nearly as devastating as Amarque.

…Or as devastating as it could have been.

After all, Paragon had stopped him before his warping became permanent and destroyed downtown Belport.

Dr. Venture pushed his glasses farther up his nose and sighed. The report ended with a description of the culprit—a female super who’d purple dress and white gloves and had somehow charmed Amarque enough to get close to him. Venture shook his head in irritation.

There were dangerous implications: The culprit was clearly not working alone—someone had prepared her. There was no record of her attending the Donjon club before and the club’s safeguards were not common knowledge. The only name she’d given was Juliet. Second, her powers were formidable and she clearly had refined control over them. She must’ve secreted the poison before entering and somehow shielded it from discovery. The third was Amarque, himself. His powers were perhaps the most formidable in the Summit of Heroes, yet he was a fool to be charmed so easily.

Venture breathed slowly and reminded himself that power alone didn’t make someone worthy of being on the Summit. No matter the super, they were nothing special—people, demi-humans, occasionally aliens. Even those that fancied themselves immortal were just as fallible and flawed as their shorter-lived brethren.

The problem was that when Class 4 and Class 5 supers forgot their humility, lots of people tended to die.

Venture watched the screen with renewed interest. The drone was slowing down as it reached the roof of Emmett’s apartment. It was almost time…

They would have answers soon.

~ ~

Lock sat on the edge of his bed, listening intently as Emmett opened the outside window and climbed up the fire escape. He could follow Emmett’s footsteps, even through the thick concrete of the roof.

Emmett claimed he’d been sick all weekend, then tried to cover up his bruises with makeup. It might’ve worked if Lock had been normal but he saw better than any normal person, heard better... And he could smell better than any normal person.

Lock recognized that smell as soon as he came home Saturday morning. He could smell it through Emmett’s door as he slept. He knew it from Champion street, when those capes had fucked everything up and that super had gotten away from him.

It had been hard not to tear Emmett’s door off the hinges that night. Hard not to question him about Porcelain.

Now his roommate was running off in the middle of the night—

Sorry, going up to the roof to clear his head.

Emmett needed to work on his excuses.

Once Emmett was up on the roof, Lock quickly got up, left his room and crossed the apartment in a blink. He paused at the fire escape, head hanging out the window to listen.

Emmett’s footsteps came his direction again, and Lock pulled his head back in the apartment so he wouldn’t be seen. Emmett wanted to make sure Lock didn’t see what he was doing or, more likely, where he was going.

Lock waited just inside the window for Emmett to walk across the roof again, then he crept up the fire escape, stopping before he came over the top.

There was a faint whirring sound, quieter than the wind. Lock peered over the roof and saw Emmett standing on the other side. A moment later, something shimmered beside him. Doors appeared in midair, like a hidden closet opening up. Emmett stepped inside and the doors closed around him.

Lock would’ve been surprised if he hadn’t already seen Venture’s drones before. The last time, Lock had watched while the drone scooped up a lifeless body off of Champion street—

At the time Lock hadn't paid it enough attention. Hadn't realized that it was his roommate. 

The drone shimmered as its cloaking reengaged fully, then the whirring grew fainter as it sped off across Belport.

Lock chased after it, hurling himself off the roof and sprinting down the streets of the West End, receiving a few honks of car horns and screams of startled pedestrians. Not many people were still out this early in the morning, and none of them were prepared for a super to pass by at highway speeds.

If the drone had bothered to change direction or vary its flight route, Lock might not have been fast enough to maintain line of sight. But once the buildings got taller and Lock leapt up to the growing skyline, he was able to keep sight of the drone even as it shrunk to a flickering pinprick in his vision.

Lock didn’t hold back, running with the reckless speed across the skyline that he’d used on the street—easily leaping up three stories at a time and only avoiding the very tallest skyscrapers of Belport.

His lungs burned for the first time that he could remember and there was the slightest burn in his legs. The discomfort came and went as his body adapted. Even now, the Mutagen-X in his body was making him stronger, adapting his mind and body to new stresses and dangers.

He felt like a Class 3 super.

There was a good chance that Venture would discover Lock’s involvement tonight, and if he did, Venture might change the cloaking device on his drones so that Lock could no longer follow them. But it was a chance that Lock had to risk.

He couldn’t risk Venture and Emmett getting to Porcelain before he did.

The drone was heading toward the warehouse district, past Gnosis headquarters and the Eastside. Lock briefly considered calling in on his phone, then decided against it. They would want him to handle things on his own.

Soon the shimmer of the drone grew, and Lock knew he was getting close. He didn’t even mind when he noticed five more shimmers in the sky—five more drones converging on Emmett’s position.

It meant that he’d been right to follow.

And things with Porcelain would soon be over.

~ ~ ~