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Chapter 1.1.34 — Venture 3
🕑 Added 2023-03-17 12:26:29 +0000 UTCDr. Venture strode quickly through the halls to wing 002 where Clara was waiting. He’d asked her to check on the analysis of Porcelain’s samples. Apparently, the results were compiled.
Venture entered one of the half dozen testing rooms of the mechanical wing. Apertures lined the walls, each one specifically tailored to test different properties of materials—chemical markers, tensile strength, energy absorption, psychic refraction… Among other measurements useful in analyzing the remnants of supers.
Clara was waiting for him beside the monitors. When she met his eyes, her face was hard.
“I don’t like lying to Emmett,” Clara said.
Venture frowned. She’d left Emmett’s training early, using the excuse that she was going out into the city. Emmett naturally assumed it was something to do with Porcelain—in that respect, he wasn’t wrong.
No amount of excuses would make Clara feel better though, so Venture tried the best thing he could.
“You won’t have to for much longer.”
Clara crossed her arms. “You’ve said that before.”
He didn’t know what to say, other than Emmett needed more time. The boy still wasn’t ready—not to deal with Class 2 supers.
So Venture said nothing. He kept his face emotionless and turned the monitor toward him and examined the data from Porcelain’s samples in the warehouse.
“There were traces of Porcelain’s energy powers and her negation powers in the building. The signatures were strong enough that we can refine our search algorithm…
“Judging by the energy signatures and the sheer amount of fragments you found, it’s safe to say that Porcelain got into a fight, but we don’t know if she was the instigator or was under attack. Either way, there were no other energy sources or traces of tissue or armor—no evidence of any other super.
“All of the samples are molecularly identical, which means that she indeed used her self-duplication powers in the fight, and that no one was copying her powers; otherwise, there would’ve been a second signature.”
“Dad, that was a lot of debris. How many times can she use that power?”
“TINA, are there any records of Porcelain’s limits?”
“There are two fights in the DSA records. Both suggest that, in this instance, Porcelain was pushed to her limits.”
Clara groaned in frustration, her hands already balled into fists.
Venture offered quietly, “We’ll find her next time. Faster.”
“Dad, she’s our best lead to the Champion street attack. Our only lead—”
“I know,” he said sternly. She didn’t need to remind him. Venture understood all too well how much this meant to her and Emmett, and there was more riding on their investigation than just closure for them.
Venture collected himself before continuing. “The only thing we can do now is wait for her to use her powers again. TINA, what’s the new range on our scanners?”
“Range increased by three hundred percent. Accuracy of the scanning algorithm within ninety-seven percent.”
That was better than Venture had hoped for; even Clara seemed to relax a little at the boost in their systems. With any luck, they wouldn’t find traces of Porcelain next time—they would find her. Then they could get some answers.
Venture said, “The next batch of scanners are ready for placement. Could you—”
“Yes,” Clara replied quickly. “I’ll do it.”
She left a moment later, leaving Venture to check on Emmett.
Soon Clara would be flying across Belport, secretly placing scanners along the rooftops, adding to their detection web. He would send a message from TINA to concentrate on the warehouse district—the last sighting of Porcelain.
Clara probably already knew, but these things bore repeating.
~
Dr. Venture took his time walking back into section 006, the biomedical wing. By the time he got back to Emmett, the hour wait period was up.
Emmett was sitting on one of the benches along the wall and looked up eagerly when Venture entered.
“How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” Emmett said, patting his chest. “A little heartburn.”
Venture looked him over. In so many ways, Emmett was the pinnacle of health: His normal values—blood pressure, heart rate, vitamins, hormones, and the like—were that of a professional athlete. His bone density and body composition were equally impressive.
Emmett looked like he’d filled out, like he wasn’t a young man anymore, but actually a man—everywhere except that baby face of his. The shaggy hair didn’t help.
Despite the changes, despite all Emmett’s training, when Emmett met Venture’s eyes, the retired cape couldn’t see him as anything else other than a kid.
Just like Clara.
Neither of them should be supers. Neither of them would ever be ready—not ready enough.
“You need a haircut,” Venture muttered, turning to look at the data readout.
“Thanks, Dad,” Emmett replied sarcastically.
“One kid is enough, thank you.”
Venture took his time looking over the data, the graphs and data points that showed Emmett’s body absorbing the mutagen and starting to incorporate it into his DNA and tissues. Venture was looking for something wrong.
He didn’t find anything.
Emmett could go home. There wasn’t any reason to keep him.
Venture sighed and was glad when Emmett didn’t pry or didn’t notice.
In so many ways, there was little Venture could do to stop things or even to delay them. So many things were out of his hands. All he could do was guide them and hope for the best.
One day Emmett would truly be a mask—one day, maybe even a cape.
One day Clara wouldn’t need to wear an exosuit anymore.
Maybe it was the dad part of him that was terrified of both prospects.
~
Venture dismissed Emmett, then went back to the break room near the 003 testing hub. There were other break rooms, but since the three of them had done so much work recently in 003, it was the best stocked break room.
He turned on the news while waiting for the over to preheat and grabbed a Big Larry’s pepperoni pizza out of the freezer. He scrolled through channels while the oven preheated, then put the pizza in and set a timer for twenty minutes.
Then Venture collapsed one of the cracked leather couches.
It was another few minutes before he circled through all the channels and came back to the channel for the Belport Bulletin.
Most of the coverage was still stuck on the war between Shian and Catalina on the other side of the world. It had only escalated in recent months, and now both sides were throwing around threats of nukes and supers. It was bluster, of course. Both weapons risked Mutually Assured Destruction.
That wasn’t to say that low-level supers weren’t involved. Class 1 supers and knack abilities often went undetected, whether in everyday life or in warfare. And Class 2 and Class 3 supers would be involved patrolling the borders of the war, staving off attacks from warlords who didn’t share the restraint of civilized countries.
Venture grumbled to himself. There were things he didn’t agree with politically—the war itself, for one, and the siphoning of talent from other countries.
Most people wouldn’t think to ask why Class 3, 4, and 5 supers were usually affiliated with developed countries and why only low-level supers harassed the edges of Shian and Catalina. It was by design.
All part of the Code that the Summit of Heroes and other super organizations enforced. Recruitment, retirement, or imprisonment.
The news cut from foreign to domestic issues, the number one of which was always the stock market. Ultimately, every big event, foreign or domestic, ended with ‘and how will this affect share prices?’
Venture scoffed and glanced at the oven. A part of him wanted to watch the news, if only to see the spin that the government was putting on current events, but Venture had better ways of staying updated. And he still didn’t smell pizza, so he had time to kill.
He changed from the news to his own system, and then to his access to the Summit’s systems. The feed on the TV changed to several browsing windows, which Venture flicked through with the remote. Since retiring, he wasn’t a full member, but he still had access to some of their systems.
The most powerful supers on Earth monitored countless things—only some that the public would ever hear about. Most of the things the Summit dealt with would never be known to the public: The conquerors of Alpha Centauri, frozen bioweapons, ancient evils, and more.
The threats the world faced were as varied and as numerous as the heroes that protected it… and they would drive a normal person mad. That was the world that Clara and Emmett were getting into.
The smell of pizza finally reached him. It wouldn’t be long now.
Venture rubbed the stubble on his chin as he contemplated the feeds.
He nearly scrolled to the Summit’s archives, but he didn’t need to. Didn’t need any help remembering the Scarlet King. Venture remembered them all too well.
Soon things would change. Soon Clara and Venture wouldn’t have to stay in hiding anymore.
A part of Venture couldn’t wait to bring Emmett into the fold. Together, maybe the three of them could succeed where Venture, alone, had failed. After all, the best part of being on the Summit of Heroes was being part of a team.
And now, Venture had people that he could trust.
~ ~ ~
