Mod Superhero

Chapter 4.16 - Guy's Night, Interrupted

"What?" Max asked.

Emmett just shook his head. He couldn't decide if his friend's gadgeteer powers were more impressive or ridiculous.

"...You ready?"

"Yeah," Max replied as he ran a hand over his buzzed red hair.

Then the pair walked casually out of the Summit compound with their backpacks slung over their shoulders.

Walking back to the shelter with Max felt both weird and natural. The two friends weren't in a habit of walking anywhere, at least not without their masks on and not on the sidewalks.

On the way, they passed two other groups that Max whispered were undercover supers. The second group startled Emmett, if only because he didn't recognize them. Two women and a man, all three around Emmett's age and wearing nondescript sweat clothes like Emmett and Max were.

Emmett had been about to walk by until one of the girls flashed a smile.

"Hard day, McGuire?" she asked. Emmett recognized Krystal's voice.

"Of course it was," Max replied. He pointed a thumb in Emmett's direction. "The big guy forgot how to patrol. See's fish-dudes everywhere."

Emmett chuckled in surprise, more at seeing his friends than at the joke. "How are you guys holding up?"

Larian shrugged. He scanned the streets with practiced vigilance.

Cherry noticed and elbowed him playfully. "Don't get shy on them just cause you don't have your mask."

Larian rolled his eyes and elbowed her back.

Emmett smirked. "It's good to see you guys."

A mixture of laughs and scoffs went around the group, and, for a moment, Krystal's cheeks flushed. Their eyes met and then both of them quickly looked away.

Emmett cleared his throat. "How's it been going back and forth? Are you guys worried about... you know?"

Krystal chuckled. "I'd be worried if video surveillance was prevalent, but it's not. So it's all good."

Cherry added, "As long as artificers aren't running the world."

"Hold still," Krystal said and stuffed a tuft of pink hair back inside Cherry's hood.

"How embarrassing," Cherry joked.

"Come on, tiger," Max said to Emmett. "Don't want to keep anyone from their shift. We can catch up tonight."

Krystal added, "Yeah, you can meet our folks."

Larian groaned. "No more parents. One set of parents is bad enough."

Emmett swallowed nervously. "Uh, sure. Right after I catch up with the family. Still haven't seen them yet."

Cherry patted him on the shoulder, and the group said their goodbyes. Then they went their separate ways.

~

Max led Emmett into the shelter and then toward the back where he and his mom, Marlene, had set up.

As they walked, Emmett took in the sights of a city displaced. Families mingled between rows of cots. The few things people had escaped with were stuffed beneath cots. Kids ran and played along the edges of the room. Workers and volunteers threaded between them.

At first, Emmett's heart sank at the sight of it all. It was one thing to see the waves lapping at the sides of buildings or see bricks crumbling and falling into the surf. Flooded Belport was sterile and devoid of life—eerily like the Gray Room.