Emmett had spent the last two months meticulously studying the lab’s defenses. Between TINA’s residual memories and information, she was able to gather from infiltrating its systems, Emmett was confident that they’d be prepared for almost anything.

  In addition to general countermeasures like tranquilizer darts and sealing bulkheads, the lab had contingencies for every super and powerset. Venture even had lesser artifacts embedded in the walls; he’d weaponized these so that they could emit energy to disable psychics and dispel magic.

  But one thing was clear to Emmett. It was ridiculously difficult to stop a Class 4 or 5 super. Lock could brute force his way through turrets and blast doors, and Emmett’s nanites could disable most other defenses.

  There was one last failsafe—destroying the lab. Explosive charges at key points would collapse the structure, burying everyone inside. It was horrifying to think about, considering it would bring down the parking garage, the Gnosis compound, and the surrounding block. Emmett couldn’t imagine a scenario where that would be acceptable—

  But clearly Venture had considered it.

  With all that considered, even with Emmett and Lock’s newfound strength, surviving wouldn’t be easy. There were a disturbing amount of countermeasures dedicated to artificers—everything from chaff grenades and armor-piercing rounds, to EMP weapons. Emmett’s team had encountered EMP barbs in the basement of Gnosis. Knowing about Dr. Venture’s partnership with the elder vampire, Ichabod, it was no surprise that Venture had given them tech like that. Gnosis had responded in kind, supplying Venture with tranquilizers and paralytics that could take down almost any living creature—mutagen-enhanced or not.

  With how many countermeasures were dedicated to artificers, it seemed like Venture expected the Brotherhood to turn on him—

  “Get your head in the game!”

  Lock’s roar brought Emmett back to the moment.

  Alarms echoed through the bunker. Down the hall, concrete panels slid away, and a turret unfolded. This one looked like a giant syringe with a drum magazine attached. It was similar to the EMP barb rifles, except scaled up so that the bars were a half inch around and a foot long. The turret was all the more vicious looking in the strobing red lights.

  Emmett was already shouldering his fusion rifle—

  Lock was faster. He dug a clawed hand into the wall and tore out a chunk of concrete as big as Emmett’s torso. He threw it like a fastball, obliterating the turret before it had a chance to fire.

  There was no point in hiding anymore, so Emmett’s nanite disguise shifted. Instead of trying to hide him completely, a small percentage went to breaking up his outline with shifting stripes while the rest became ablative armor.

  A similar shift happened to his friend. Lock’s ablative armor was much thinner, but he had the same striped pattern that glowed in infrared and UV.

  Two more turrets sprang out of the wall. This time, the turret started firing immediately—before it had even targeted them. Heavy tungsten rounds thundered down the hall. Both men leapt to either side of the hall and out of the way.

  Emmett returned fire, using kinetic blasts to dislocate the targeting hydraulics. He had to pause halfway through as the second turret fired a massive net that completely encompassed the hallway. It sailed toward them, crackling blue with electricity. Mod swapped the firing mode on his rifle. Lines of plasma cut the net into pieces, and it fell harmlessly at their feet.

  Emmett swapped again, using two more shots to cut the first turret free. It powered down, hanging from the wall by the machinegun belt.

  Lock asked, “On a scale of one to ten, how fucked are we?”

  TINA replied in both of their ears, “Four, if you hurry.”

  Midas’s voice echoed through the hall. “I’m surprised you came back…”

  Blast doors slammed down in front and behind them, trapping them in the hallway.

  “Why now? …Why after all this time? Why risk it?”

  Emmett swapped firing modes so that his rifle would fire a thin beam of plasma. Then he tested the door.

  Lock said, “We don’t have time for that.”

  Lock hauled back and punched the door. Even with nanites in his ears, the impact was loud enough to make Emmett recoil.

  Lock grunted. “Your old man makes them better than Gnosis.”

  The doors were perhaps Venture’s simplest and most efficient safeguards. Each one was a solid steel alloy and set to deadbolt into place once it dropped. They couldn’t just be knocked off the hinges like the ones in Gnosis.

  Emmett quickly examined the molten spot on the door. If he had time, he’d be able to cut through…

  Lock took a few steps back. Before Emmett could say anything, his friend charged into the door. Another clang shook the hallway. This time, the steel dented and concrete all around the door cracked.

  TINA interrupted them. “Wait…”

  Nanites pooled at Emmett’s feet and oozed into the seams of the door. A few seconds later, nanites disabled the locking mechanisms and TINA directed Lock to lift it. He was able to grip beneath the door, then lift it up. Now that the door was bowed, Lock could only lift it so far. Metal squealed with protest, but it was enough for them both to duck under. It stayed stuck half up behind them.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Lock scoffed a laugh. “Took you long enough.”

  “Sorry. I’ve been busy fighting back Bastion. I don’t have much processing power to spare.”

  In that instant, Emmett felt two different fronts of a war between TINA and Bastion. One was in cyberspace, where TINA scurried through the lab’s systems—both trying to stay out of sight of Bastion and also spy on what systems it was bringing to bear against them. The second front was forming in the real world—

  Bastion was bringing its own nanites to bear against them. They trickled out of nearby vats and along piping like a slowly spreading wildfire.

  TINA had already determined that Bastion’s nanites were two generations behind her own, like soldiers wielding automatic rifles and exosuits against revolutionary soldiers with muskets. The problem was that her nanites were outnumbered by the millions, and the lab had raw materials stored away to replenish their ranks.

  TINA added to both of them, “We can still get to Venture.”

  Emmett hoped she was right. Either way, they had to go deeper into the lab.

  “Let’s go,” Emmett said.

  Both men took off down the hall.

  Lock thundered forward with Class 4 speed, his claws tearing chunks out of the concrete. Turrets sprang out of the walls, and Lock tore them free as he passed without missing a stride. Another dropped from the ceiling, and Lock leapt and crashed into it like a cannonball.

  Emmett followed, drafting behind his friend like a racecar. His rifle sheared through the few turrets and countermeasures that Lock didn’t outright destroy.

  A pretentious laugh echoed from the speakers. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  Blast doors descended from the ceiling—

  Too slow to catch them. Lock had already sprinted past the doors and Emmet barely had to duck.

  Both Emmett and Lock skidded to a halt at the stairs. The laser grid had already engaged, blocking off the stairwell. Emmett took one side and Lock took the other. Nanites streamed off of Emmett and into gaps in the wall, then they began eating through the circuitry. Lasers winked out one by one. On the other side of the stairwell, Lock dug his claws into the surrounding concrete and severed connections in his own way.

  NANITES 285% CAPACITY

  Emmet tried to gather as many nanites back as he could before they took off running again, but it was a losing battle. Nanites moved painfully slow in comparison to Emmett and Lock. Each time TINA requisitioned more to disable a trap or a door, Emmett couldn’t gather them all back. Those left behind were destroyed by Bastion’s growing swarm.

  Thankfully, the transmission packets were untouched. With them on standby, it seemed like Bastion couldn’t detect them. With any luck, TINA could still get a signal out that way, if it came to that.

  Midas said, “I can see why Venture chose you. You’re just as inconvenient as he was.”

  They pushed deeper into the lab, through the second and third floors, fighting their way through traps and turrets. Emmett and Lock were part whirlwind, part wrecking ball, tearing through defenses with rifle and claws.

  They didn’t make it through completely unfazed though. Lock lost chunks of bone plating as he shrugged off rounds that could punch through a tank—his tissue regrowing before they reached the next floor. Emmett lost more nanites as his ablative armor shrugged off plasma shots and armor-piercing rounds. TINA guided them as best as she could, steering both supers toward the defenses that they were best suited to take out.

  In a way, Emmett and Lock were faring better than TINA”s simulations predicted. Even though Bastion wasn’t a true AI like TINA, it should’ve been adapting to them. Specialized turrets should’ve taken precedence. Blast doors should’ve triggered earlier to compensate for their speed.

  The realization came to both Emmett and TINA at the same time:

  Midas is controlling the lab.

  The bastard was getting in his own way.

  Emmett would have laughed—if he had a second to pause.

  Even if Emmett and Lock were doing better than expected, TINA wasn’t. Bastion was controlling circuits and nanites, and it was closing in on TINA.

  “I hope you’re having fun,” Midas said. “You won’t be much longer.”

  They descended the stairwell to the fourth floor. Lock turned the corner and was immediately hit with a grenade. The force slammed him against the wall. Blood oozed down his side from the shrapnel, but it was already slowing.

  The next grenade was already sailing down the hall. Lock didn’t have a chance to get his feet under him before the next explosion shoved him further back.

  “Rapid-fire grenade turret. Proximity triggers,” TINA said.

  That was the second thing they’d run into that wasn’t on TINA’s map—the first being an electrified floor. TINA analyzed the new turret, and Emmett took in the new information in kind.

  Normal grenades were on a timer or impact setting—these were set to explode once they were within a few feet of the target. They couldn’t just run past it. It would be like trying to swim up a waterfall.

  It was up to Emmett.

  Another explosion rattled the stairwell. Lock shouted—half in anger and half in surprise. Blood and bone sprayed. Emmett ducked to the side as one more grenade impacted his friend.

  He had to be sure of the timing.

  With Emmett’s enhanced cognition, he predicted when the next shot would come. His prosthetics meant he wouldn’t miss.

  Emmett ducked around the corner, rifle raised.

  The next grenade fired, but didn’t make it out of the barrel. Emmett’s kinetic shot struck true, and the grenade exploded inside the barrel, shearing the turret in half.

  Emmett offered a hand back to his friend, but Lock shrugged it away and rose to his feet. Shards of bone clattered to the floor.

  “Your old man’s an asshole.”

  The two supers took off across the fourth floor—thankfully not encountering another grenade turret.

  By the time they got to the fourth floor stairwell, both Emmett and Lock were breathing hard.

  TINA was still searching for Dr. Venture. He was somewhere between the 7th, 8th, and 9th floors—

  Emmett froze. A chill ran down his neck. There was something else in the lab with them.

  TINA detected multiple power signatures.

  Approaching fast.

  “Behind us!” Emmett shouted. He spun, rifle raised. Lock turned, ready to lunge down the hall.

  Three figures appeared across the lab, then floated down the hallway like marionettes. They didn’t pay any mind to the destruction around them.

  High-tech suits of armor, bristling with weapons.

  Midas’s voice came out of the exosuits. “Let’s see how you fare against these.”

  ~ ~ ~