If her mother was suspicious at all about her being out most of the night, she didn’t show it. Vora had asked, striking Vivainne with a moment of panic before she’d blurted out that she was at a nightclub, something her mother took in stride. Evidently, she was hoping her daughter would behave a bit more normally.

  At least now she had an excuse, if she ever was caught slipping out. Ideally, that wouldn’t happen, but it depended on how long the heroes took to raid her secret lab. She hoped Recompense held up his end of the bargain and allowed her to come along, because she needed to get a hand on her mother’s files and she didn’t trust the heroes to allow her to look at them once they’d been seized. Maybe she should trust them, but what were the odds they would allow an uncertified teenage super to look what would definitely be classified files? Honestly, it was crazy they were allowing her to come along on the raid itself.

  Why was Recompense letting her come along? She would have to ask him, next time they were together. She’d asked, but she hadn’t expected him to say yes.

  Midway through the day, Vora knocked on the door before peeking her head inside. “Get dressed,” she said, eyes sweeping across the neat bedroom before landing on Vivainne curled into her chair by the window. “We’re going to the lab.”

  The dread she’d managed to subdue the past few days returned, replacing the knowledge that her mother would be taken down soon. “Yes, ma’am.”

  She slinked out of bed, dressing quickly and quietly into the usual fare. Dark skinny jeans and a black shirt, this one a short sleeved since summer had returned with a vengeance, despite fall’s attempts to creep in.

  After ensuring the recording hair tie was on her wrist, Vivainne left the room and joined her mother in the car.

  When Vora said the lab, Vivainne had assumed she was talking about the secret lab. When they didn’t get on the highway headed out of the city, however, she realized Vora must be taking her to the Monet Industries labs. She really was intent on getting Vivainne involved with every area of her work, including her legit work.

  Monet Industries wasn’t an area Vivainne had an issue with. While she had no idea how much her mother’s villain work played over into Monet Industries, the company had done a lot of good for people. Since her mother had constructed her first prosthetic in college, Monet Industries owned the market when it came to functional and comfortable prosthetics for people. They made and sold other items as well, including neural implants with various uses. Those made Viviainne uncomfortable, thinking about what her mother could use them for, but they were also a necessary piece of the prosthetics’ functionality.

  It would be a shame for Monet Industries to stop their work into the world of prosthetics. There were plenty of people whose lives had been changed for the better by Monet Industries.

  How much was this work incorporated with her mother’s other work? Human bodies and brains had always been Vora’s speciality. She studied medicine and engineering in college, and in graduate school had studied the brain. It was part of why the prosthetics she made were so good, but it was the same knowledge she used to tear apart and dissect supers. Did she do the same to craft prosthetics, or was her work actually good?

  It was a question she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to.

  “Why are we going to Monet labs?” Vivainne asked, breaking the silence in the car.

  Vora glanced from the side of her eye, frowning. “I’ve already told you. If you’re going to be involved with my work, you’re going to understand what I do. That includes this work. This is what made us, Viv. You need to understand it.”

  She nodded, though she wasn’t certain how much she would get out of it. Her mother’s work was so far beyond her. At least when it came to powers, Vivainne had a basis of understanding from her own core. But she’d never had much of a talent or skill for technology, and she was far from a genius like her mother. A good thing too, in her eyes. Vora’s genius blinded her to the world, it didn’t help her see it any better.

  Vivainne would rather see and know the world than be so smart she left her humanity behind. Though, there were people like Recompense. He was a genius, and he still cared deeply for the world.

  So it was truly an issue with her mother, and nothing else.

  The team was waiting to greet Vora as they pulled up to the lab. Not all looked like the stereotypical scientist Vivainne had imagined, though a few were in lab coats. Others were simply dressed in businessware, and one of the men in suits took Vora’s keys, driving the car off somewhere as they walked into the building.

  Much like Vora’s house, the Monet Lab was sleek and modern in appearance, with a flat roof and sharp corners. White walls were polished clean, someone actively cleaning the tinted windows along the front of the building.

  Without anyone paying attention to her, Vivainne was able to hold back, taking in everything as they walked through the wide front doors of the building. It was set up with a lobby, meant to be able to receive and welcome people, despite the building’s primary purpose as a developmental lab. Bright colors and deep cushion chairs gave the room a welcoming feel, and Vivainne could remember joining her mother here as a child, curling up in one of the lime green chairs as Vora worked and watching a movie.

  Despite joining Vora many times when she was small, Vivainne didn’t remember any further than the lobby. Vora didn’t allow that this time, however, motioning for Vivainne and grabbing onto her arm when she moved close, guiding her through the hallway as the team chatted about updates Vivainne had no context on.

  It was only when they reached the last door down the hallway that the rest of the group peeled off, save one, an older gentleman in a dark suit whose face Vivainne had seen several times throughout the years. He keyed into the room for Vora, opening the door and motioning them inside. He remained on the outside.

  While there were several scientists working, the lab was quiet, even as Vora entered. No one looked up to acknowledge her, even as she dropped Vivainne’s arms and strode through the room, looking over shoulders and inspecting their work.

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  What were they doing here?

  There were no prosthetics being worked on, or little chips that would be the implants Vora helped design. Empty white tables and scientists in front of computers and tablets, the tap of keyboards the only noise aside from Vora’s sharp heels.

  Finishing her loop around the room, Vora made her way over to Vivainne, a smile on her dark red lips. “Come here,” she said, pressing a hand to the small of Vivainne’s back and guiding her over to one of the white tables. “This is something you will like.”

  The young scientist moved out of the way, stepping back as Vora made Vivainne sit on the stool in front of a computer, staring at a screen full of information she had no idea how to read. What was she supposed to be looking at?

  “This is the peak of Monet innovations,” Vora said, pointing at the screen. “A combination of our implant work and our prosthetics, on a higher level than ever before. This is what I’ve been working toward since college.”

  “What is it?” Vivainne asked, holding onto hope that it was something innocuous. It wasn’t anything dangerous, or world changing. It was just another prosthetic, another move on the side of Monet Industries to make Vora famous and well known throughout the world. To make it impossible for people to believe she would ever have bad intentions, or that she would be doing this for anything other than altruism.

  She was able to hold onto that hope until her mother began to speak. “A prosthetic core.”

  “A… what?” She couldn’t. This wasn’t Vora’s villain work, this was Monet Industries. She couldn’t be doing this work here. Not in public. But… Vora had told her she was going to do exactly this. She was going to do it as Monet Industries?

  “A prosthetic core,” Vora repeated, articulating the words slowly. “Broken cores are as debilitating for supers as a missing limb or an eye is for the rest of us. For years, it has been a major issue within the super community. Without a way to heal or repair a broken core, these supers are left disabled, not reduced to human but worse, because their power can come in random, uncontrollable spurts. These cores will be able to repair that, and perhaps we can even work on making preventative measures for cracked or strained cores to prevent them from shattering entirely.”

  “Oh.” The sound rang hollow as Vivainne stared at the screen, a hand reaching up to her own chest, where she could practically feel the broken edges of her own core. Not shattered, but cracked, something that made every move she made with her power a strain. Was this something that could fix her? Her mother’s work was terrible, and where it came from was terrible. She had tortured people and broken cores and torn them apart for her own goals. But… could this fix her?

  “It is inspired work,” said the scientist whose seat Vivainne had taken. “Ms. Monet, I don’t know where you get your theories from, but this work is absolutely ingenious. Oh, the things I would do to take a look at your brain.”

  The tone of the woman’s words broke Vivainne from her own musing as she whipped around to stare at the girl, staring at Vora with absolute adoration. Vora gave the girl a bemused smile back.

  “Perhaps when I am dead, if I do not find a way to escape that fate,” she said, patting the girl on the shoulder. “Until then… This research is what we have.”

  Unable to help herself, her eyes pulled back to the screens. She hadn’t realized her mother was working on this. She wanted to spread powers throughout the world like this? With prosthetic cores?

  Why hadn’t she given Vivainne one?

  Could Viv get one?

  “So… these work?” Vivainne motioned at the screen, at the small circular diagram outlined in blue.

  “We are about to enter the trial phase, but all of our tests so far show them to be functional and safe.” The scientist stepped forward, outlining a few bullet points on the screen full of words Vivainne might understand if it hadn’t been years since she took biology in school. “We’ve even had success with the drafting over of powers! This has by far been the biggest hurdle when it comes to the idea of repairing cores or creating a prosthetic core. Come see.”

  She moved across the room, making a beeline for the wall. She reached the white wall and reached out, tapping an invisible button. A long panel along the wall faded from white to see-through windows, revealing a room beyond. Pulling herself to her feet, Vivainne followed the woman to the window, staring through at a room as white as the rest of them. It was as if Vora was trying to hide her stains by making everything as spotlessly white as possible.

  Posted in the middle of the room, on a pillar blooming up from the floor, was a mechanical arm. It was one of Monet Industries’ designs, sleek and without any hard corners or awkward joints. From the shoulder down, it was a smooth translucent material, covering up all the wires and metal pieces inside, allowing only for the smallest of seams around the joints. The outside casing was designed to be able to match the skin color of its owner, if the recipient chose.

  “Initiate test number 75!” the scientist called out, not taking her eyes away from the window. Vora tracked them, locking her gaze on the arm as well. What were they going to do?

  Inside the featureless room, the arm began to glow. It began at the palm, spreading up until it reached the elbow, crackling around the length of the arm. Then it jumped, leaping across the room in a bolt of lightning that made Vivainne regret staring so hard as lights smeared across her vision. She blinked, unable to rid herself of the afterimage as she stared at the far end of the room, where the wall smoked.

  “How did you do that?” Vivainne asked, shaking her head.

  “With a prosthetic core,” Vora answered. “We were able to install a functioning prosthetic core, copy a power over onto it, and get it to function. Not only with lightning. There is a geokinesis core in the next room over.”

  “Really?” With wide eyes, Vivainne looked back at the room. If that was true, there was so much someone could do with this. They could be weapons. They could mass produce an army of supers. They could design supers exactly to someone’s tastes, and that wasn’t good.

  “It’s it incredible?” The scientist shook her head, eyes still locked on the mechanical arm. “I’m going to give myself telekinesis. I’ve always wanted to be able to move things with my mind.”

  “We’re almost ready to begin true core implantations. The prosthetic power cores have already worked better than we anticipated,” Vora said, motioning to the mechanical arm.

  This was bad. Vora was closer to completing this than Vivainne thought, and it would throw everything into chaos once it was announced to the world. It was a miracle Vora hadn’t announced it yet. The moment Monet Industries announced not only could they fix cores, but they could craft new cores and create new supers, the careful balance the world had found in the past seventy years would go to shit. Everything was so new, and they were only two generations past the heroes who brought the world peace. Half of those heroes were still around, influential in the world of supers. And Vora wanted to bring every one of those heroes attention down on her, and change the status quo at the same time.

  It would be disastrous. Maybe if it was someone else. Someone who didn’t want to be known for changing the world, someone who hadn’t spent years kidnapping supers and using her power to tear apart their power cores. Because these cores could be good, but not in the hands of someone like her mother.

  “It’s wonderful,” she said, unable to keep the strain from her voice as she spoke. She crossed her arms over her chest, squeezing so tightly she could hardly breathe. “How long do you think it’ll take before they’re available?”

  “It depends on how trials go, but if everything goes to plan, we should be able to begin rolling them out within the next two years. To disabled supers first, of course.” Vora gave a pleasant smile to the people throughout the room. “After all, we did create this for them.”

  The scientist woman couldn’t hide the hunger in her eyes. “And then, the rest of us get our chance to be super.”