Chapter 1.1.44 — Clara 2

Clara spun around, using a mixture of punches, kicks, and kinetic blasts to dispatch duplicates of Porcelain. Her targeting HUD flashed red in the corners of her vision, alerting her to duplicates trying to strike her from behind.

Meanwhile, Porcelain retaliated with her own punches and kicks, which clanged against Clara’s exosuit so hard that she could feel the impact through the metal and diffusion mesh. Then there were the explosions—Porcelain’s two main powers were creating duplicates of herself, then causing those duplicates to explode in a hail of light and shards of herself.

The explosions actually weren’t that dangerous to Clara—they weren’t strong enough to puncture her exosuit. They were disorienting, however, and each blast took a split second for her HUD to refocus, prolonging the fight that much longer. Clara was more frustrated than anything—

Until she heard explosions in the hall, followed by Emmett’s screams.

Clara cursed herself. She’d been going easy on Porcelain, still hoping that the super would stop fighting. But she wasn’t even speaking anymore, let alone slowing down. It was like she was crazy.

Clara’s fingers adjusted the controls of her suit and multiple sets of blue text flashed across her HUD:

COMBAT THRUSTERS ENGAGED

Clara became a blur as extra thrusters opened up along the shoulders, hips, knees, and elbows of her exosuit. The same kinetic blasts that shot out of her palms now powered her punches and kicks, turning them into jet-propelled attacks.

She was no longer contained to the suit’s mechanical movement—Clara felt like she was moving at the speed of thought.

Instead of cracking Porcelain’s duplicates, chunks of them shattered completely with each of Clara’s strikes.

But it still wasn’t enough. Porcelain made duplicates as fast as Clara destroyed them—faster even.

DECREASING HEAT SINK POTENTIAL

Clara redoubled her effort and fought her way to the door. Even more power flooded into the suit and the alloy squealed under the forces as Clara pushed it to the max. Heat poured off of her suit and mixed with the atomized powder of duplicates, clouding the room with steam.

Porcelain had to be getting tired—there was no way she should be able to keep this up.

But neither could Clara.

SYSTEMS OVERLOADING

POWER DISPERSAL RECOMMENDED

If Clara had one weakness, it was that she had so much power inside herself that it was hard to wield. Like bringing a fire hose to snuff out a candle.

Again Clara’s fingers flicked across the controls. Her hands—her whole body—trembled with power, and her skin felt like it was on fire. She adjusted the controls of the suit, sending all the excess power to her kinetic weapons.

But as warnings continued to flash across her HUD, Clara realized it was too little, too late. She screamed in frustration. Her suit was already activating its most powerful failsafe to keep from melting down.

CONCUSSIVE DISCHARGE

Thin slivers opened all across Clara’s armor and promptly began to glow. She’d seen the protocol once before, when her dad vented the power from a leaky fusion core. The openings exposed the heat sinks that ran like wires under the surface of the armor.

For a moment, the room was bathed in an almost otherworldly glow.

Even though Venture had explained the science of what happened next, Clara only knew the aftereffects:

Three explosions sounded—

The first two explosions sounded like the thunk of a heavy gear turning, and marked the deposition of all the surrounding air into a dense, near-solid state. To Porcelain, it would feel like all the air in the room rushed toward Clara and suddenly became as thick as mud.

The third explosion turned the rest of Clara’s excess energy into a bomb.

The process was supposed to mitigate the damage—keep it contained to the size of a small room instead of a city block.

The duplicates of Porcelain closest to Clara disintegrated in a cloud of white dust. Then further copies turned into a hail of shards. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the room crumbled—

Clara dove into the hall as the room collapsed behind her. The knees of her exosuit screeched as she skidded across the floor and then staggered to her feet.

POWER LOW

“No shit,” Clara muttered between ragged breaths. Her muscles burned like she’d just sprinted for a mile.

The suit’s discharge failsafe didn’t just drain excess power from the suit, it also took a fair amount of power from Clara herself—an unfortunate side effect of the safeguard. Now, instead of feeling like the firehose of unlimited power, Clara now felt like the dwindling candle.

Across the hall, Emmett was surrounded by white rubble and half a dozen duplicates of the enemy. The front of his suit was peppered by white shrapnel and streaks of blood. His eyes were closed and he flailed to defend himself as he retreated.

Somehow, despite being blinded, outnumbered, and outmatched, Emmett was still on his feet.

The small swell of pride that Clara felt was dwarfed by her panic and anger at the sight of her friend against the ropes.

You stubborn fool, Clara thought. He never did know when to run.

POWER TO KINETIC WEAPONS

Clara redoubled her effort, letting her emotions stoke her power. Kinetic blasts flew through the hall, cracking and punching through enemies.

If she could just get Porcelain’s attention and get her away from Emmett…

Another Porcelain duplicate exploded, the force throwing Emmett against the wall. His hands were still up, but he was barely on his feet.

Porcelain was still duplicating as fast as Clara destroyed them. And they were still going after Emmett.

Clara grit her teeth and made the decision to run.

THRUSTERS ENGAGED

BACKUP POWER ENGAGED

Clara rocketed forward, blasting and ramming her way to Emmett. She grabbed him tightly and flew down the hall—

Then through the outer wall of the building. Rubble rained down on the street as she flew away.

“Emmett, are you alright?”

He muttered something unintelligible.

“Don’t worry. We’re leaving. We’ll get her next time.”

He muttered something else, then, “...good.”

Even though Clara knew there was no way Porcelain could follow them, she still looked back to be sure.

A single super stood in the middle of the hole in the building—her white body visible against the darkness of the warehouse district. Porcelain stared back at Clara as she flew away.

Then Clara sent a communication request to her dad.

“Did you get her?”

“No. We had to retreat. Emmett needs the med-bay… Again.”

~

When Clara got closer to the lab, she reluctantly stuffed Emmett inside a Fast-Response Drone. It would take him directly to the med-bay, both faster and safer than she could accomplish on her own trying to navigate the purposefully disorienting tunnels to the lab.

She rocketed through the passages toward the armory, fueled by her own intrinsic power which had already rekindled.

Despite having recovered, Clara’s hands were still trembling when she climbed out of her exosuit and sprinted through the armory.

When Clara reached the main hallway, TINA’s voice came through the intercom. “You should keep your heart rate down.”

“I know!”

“Emmett is stable and being sedated until we can determine the severity of his injuries…”

Clara was already entering section 006 and quickly approaching the med-bay, leaving TINA’s voice behind.

When she finally reached the med-bay, she was greeted with the familiar white, sterile room, and Emmett lying motionless in the hospital bed in the center. Her dad was hunched over him, wearing a mask, gloves, and smock. Two thin operating arms descended from the ceiling and hung beside him. Both he and the arms plucked pieces of bloody shrapnel out of Emmett…

Clara froze halfway across the room.

Emmett was bare from the waist up—the front of his shirt had been cut off and lay in a heap on the floor, presumably along with his mask. He was covered in blood. Pieces of shrapnel stuck out of him like tiny white islands in a red sea. There was a pile of shrapnel nearby that would soon cover an entire medical tray.

Clara had been there after the accident… but she hadn’t seen Emmett—not really. Not when he was in the middle of surgery.

“He’s fine,” Venture said, standing up to look at something on a wall monitor that sat between empty glass tanks and bubbling tubes. The mechanical arms continued plucking pieces.

She wanted to believe her dad, but she knew that tone. It meant he was trying to stay calm, trying to reassure Clara as much as he was trying to reassure himself.

Clara forced herself to go over and look at Emmett.

She held her breath and leaned over the bed and looked over his injuries. Quick-set bandages were already wrapped around parts of Emmett’s face and chest; they were red instead of pristine white.

Porcelain had been too dangerous. Emmett had been too weak. And Clara hadn’t been able to protect him.

She muttered, “He never should’ve gone.”

“He needed to,” Venture said idly, his eyes not leaving the readouts.

“Is he okay?”

“He’s stable and sedated—”

“I heard that part already.”

She hadn’t meant it to sound so harsh, but this was the second time that Emmett had been the centerpiece of this room. It wasn’t a good track record, for him or for her.

Venture turned toward her. His face was stern but his voice was softer. “He’ll be fine.”

“Then why’s he sedated again?”

Emmett groaned, and Clara jumped back. His arms and legs twitched and his head rolled side to side like he was distressed.

Venture walked over to the bed. “He’s sedated because I wasn’t sure how resilient his new body would be. Thankfully, they’re not serious. But there’s something else…” Emmett continued to struggle while Venture spoke. “The sedatives I’ve given him should prevent him from dreaming.”

Clara’s stomach twisted in an entirely new knot. “What did she do to him?”

“I don’t know. He shouldn’t be dreaming—shouldn’t even be able to…” Realization dawned on her father’s face, and Clara waited expectantly. “He’s not dreaming.”

~ ~ ~