Chapter 1.1.20 — Venture 2

Dr. Venture rubbed his eyes and adjusted his glasses.

He’d been watching Clara and Emmett train—

Clara and Emmett.

Venture still wasn’t sure if he was okay with that. Then again, there was still a chance he was getting worried over nothing. A few years ago, Clara had confided in him that she was gay, and Venture had never heard anything to confirm Emmett’s interests—

Aside from that text message from Lock.

Venture sighed and pushed it out of his mind. At the end of the day, it wasn’t his business—Nanine would have reminded him of that. Smugly.

Instead, Venture had muted their incoming comms and focused on assessing Emmett’s progress visually while monitoring the Mutagen-A in his body.

In the training hub, Venture was surrounded by monitors and readouts, and he practically drank in the information. After all, he’d had decades of practice parsing mountains of data.

He had a ‘knack’ for it—a term for minor powers.

There was still speculation on whether knacks could technically be classified as powers in the normal sense. Most knacks were extremely niché and not useful for combat, and so knacks went unnoticed by all except the most discerning supers and catalogers.

Emmett’s body was responding beautifully to the initial dose of Mutagen-A. Virtually every aspect of his physiology had been affected, and he was well beyond what a peak athlete could do.

Emmett was firmly a Class 1 super, one with minor superhuman capabilities. Now, even with only two days of training, he could probably be classified as Class 1-1. If he applied all the modifications to his arm that he was able to, Emmett could very well rank in Class 1-2.

If he was crafty enough with all his different enhancements, he might even be able to punch up a weight class. Technically, that would make him Class 1-3, even if negation powers were normally required for Special Designation -3; it wasn’t normally so much the idea of punching up as it was dragging your opponent down to your level.

And then there was the possibility of going even further…

If Emmett’s body bonded so readily with Mutagen-A, then he might very well find himself in one of Gnosis’s many programs, skirting the limits of what human biology was capable of.

Then again…

Venture’s prosthesis technology had turned a proverbial corner. It had connected far better to Emmett’s nervous system than any other system Venture had conceived of. Emmett’s arm could, quite literally, rewrite what was possible with prosthetics and weapons systems—

Imagine: Weapons platforms controlled at the speed of thought.

Venture chuckled to himself as he watched Emmett and Clara silently leap across the Gray Room. On the other screens, readouts showed internal stress forces, protein acclimation, neurochemistry and electrical potential, and dozens of other measurements in real-time.

It was all nominal.

Emmett had a promising chance ahead of him, assuming he didn’t get mixed up with the wrong supers—a mask like Athena, for instance.

She was a capable Class 3 super. One who’d been offered registration three times and turned it down three times. No one turned down being a cape. In all likelihood, she was hiding something. The question was just how damning the secret was.

And why Emmett hadn’t mentioned Athena yet.

So far, she was a harmless contact for Emmett, but Venture would keep an eye on them…

What really mattered now was Emmett: What he decided to do, and, more importantly, how far he decided to go.

Assuming his body continued reacting well to successive mutagens, Gnosis could take him all the way to Class 3, that much had been documented and leaked.

But Gnosis might be able to take Emmett even further. Venture long suspected there was research that was secured so well that even he couldn’t access it. Who knew how powerful their other test subjects really were.

Then again, Venture was certain that no matter how strong Emmett’s biological body got, he could make an arm to match it. In fact, Venture wagered that his tech would always beat out biology.

After all, only a handful of supers from their planet had stood toe-to-toe with Venture’s best sets of armor.

Venture focused on Emmett as he chased Clara’s robot across the faux rooftops. The young man was shrewd and hungry. Who was to say that he would stop with biology?

It was a morbid thought, but what if Emmett saw the eventual limits of his biology—even the Mutagens—and decided to start becoming more mechanical?

What if, indeed.

Venture rubbed his temples again, his eyes aching from staring at screens all day, and not helped by his old corneal implants.

Even Venture had added or swapped out parts of himself for technology. He hadn’t been able to say no… but at least he’d been able to stop.

What would Emmett do?

The young engineer had found himself in a crossroads of potential, and Dr. Venture couldn’t wait to see what direction he went.

Eventually, Dr. Venture pried himself away from the screens and walked toward section 003. His excitement for Emmett could wait; he still had to test adjustments on the heat sinks for Clara’s armor.

That was the much more pressing concern.

~

Venture walked through the halls of section 003 and entered the secure storage wing. The heavy metal doors slid open with a familiar hiss—

Something only he would recognize.

Each door in his lab was similar enough, all made by a long-defunct subcontractor of the Summit of Heroes, but each door had its own particular tone and cadence. Nothing more than slight nuances of manufacturing, but they were there if you knew what to listen for.

Ever since Clara’s powers emerged, Venture had spent more and more time in this particular part of section 003.

His wife, Nanine, had wanted to see the world when they retired from the Summit of Heroes. Venture had agreed, somewhat reluctantly.

He was a cape, damnit. Why should he give that up? It’s what he was born to do. He relished the fights, the close calls, helping civilians—all of it. He relished it and needed it…

But by the time retirement was close, Venture was beyond tired. It was more like physical, mental, and existential exhaustion. He was ready to give it all up and travel with her.

Maybe traveling would cure the rift that had been building between them. Maybe it would give Venture and Nanine a chance to reconnect and fall for each other all over again.

Venture’s quiet resignation had smoldered.

Both he and Nanine were excited.

In the secure storage wing, Dr. Venture walked past holographic displays of armor components—some that had originated in his own power armor, and many more iterations of designs for his daughter’s suit. Each cast the room in dismal grays.

“TINA, show me the most recent successful test combined with Clara’s newest armor. Highlight for compatibility and display necessary changes.”

The colors of the holographic displays changed. Incompatible armor glowed red—as expected, that was most of the room. A handful of pieces stayed gray; those would be suitable, but not ideal. Only a handful of components glowed blue, like gems in a sea of red—

Like a path laid out for him.

Four components that were compatible with the new heat sinks. Another dozen gray components that were adequate, for now. He would adjust them later.

For every choice we think we have, there’s really only one optimal path. One correct path.

In time, Clara would see that. Just as Emmett would. Just as Venture himself had seen it.

Instead of rearranging the displays, Venture walked to each of the blue components individually:

Thrusters and weapons systems were well within operating loads, so long as Clara wasn’t too heavy-handed with power output. The new heat sinks and regulators would help with that.

Most of the armor layers themselves were also compatible—ballistics, pressure shielding, integrated medical system, and, of course, heat shields. The joints and all the necessary actuators and polymers were fine as well—the armor’s strength, speed, and augmented reaction time.

Finally, Venture passed the fine instrumentation systems—sensor arrays, mapping, and targeting systems. The onboard medical system was unaffected, but then it was one of the most reinforced to begin with.

It was different from the armor he had worn. In so many ways, it was better—it had to be because anything less couldn’t handle her power.

Venture stopped in front of the strings of heat sinks. The hologram hung in the air like dead lights without a tree to hang on. So understated… and this was the piece that her entire armor hung on.

No matter how Clara’s power developed, Venture would find a way to improve her armor and keep her safe.

All he had to do was listen to the data.

Data never lied.

~ ~ ~