Mod Superhero: Initialize: A Scifi Progression Fantasy Series, page 4
She looked back at her tablet and the rack in front of her. “Maybe. Maybe he values our input.”
“He values our input on batteries?”
Clara nodded and got a faraway look in her eyes, like she wasn’t staring at the racks but was staring through them.
She said, “We talked a little after you left yesterday. Dad wants me to take a more active role in the company.”
“That’s good, right? …Why don’t you sound excited about that?”
Clara shrugged. “I kind of like where I’m at right now, you know? If I… Well, it would be more responsibility that I’m not sure if I’m ready for. Business can be intense—from what I hear.”
Emmett eyed her, almost chuckling. “We are still talking about technology, right?”
“Yeah,” she said suddenly and punching something into her tablet. “What else would we be talking about?”
Now Emmett did laugh, and a hint of a smile crossed Clara’s face.
He asked, “Are you sure you want to follow in your dad’s footsteps? Is that it?”
Clara paused again, but only for a moment. “No. I’m sure I’m staying in the family business. The stuff we’re doing, we’re not just building things, we’re making a difference in people’s lives. I’m just not sure I’m ready to take the leap.”
Emmett could respect that last part; he’d often felt the same way. He wasn’t exactly the leaping type—maybe he was the wading-in type.
But it felt reassuring to hear that someone else felt the same way.
As the evening went on, it seemed like Clara’s mood lifted.
Emmett joked that it was because he was leaving soon. Clara took mock offense.
It was because they had more testing to do—testing both Clara and her father insisted they didn’t need Emmett for.
That was fine enough by Emmett. He was already beat. When his shift ended, Emmett bid Clara and Dr. Venture a good night.
Then Emmett rode the bus home. He leaned back against the seat, headphones and music on, and scrolled the super news.
He was tired and had to fight to stay awake.
A pothole jolted him awake.
Emmett shifted in his seat and kept scrolling.
The bus rattled again, and more than a few passengers muttered curses.
An alert buzzed through on Emmett’s phone, one that made the breath catch in his throat.
ATTENTION: Super Battle Ongoing. Sighted on Champion Street. Moving East. Take shelter immediately.
The bus shook again, this time violent enough that Emmett had to brace himself against the window and the seat in front of him. Brakes squealed, passengers gasped, and a moment later, traffic up and down the street had stopped.
Everyone on the bus froze, and Emmett realized that car alarms were going off along the street.
Hands shaking, Emmett switched over to his radio app—
“...unknown supers…”
“...teams engaged…”
“...Class three point three…”
“...we’re pinned…”
“...moving fast…”
“...send…forcements…”
The rest was a garbled mess, and again the alert repeated, overshadowing everything else—
ATTENTION: Super Battle Ongoing. Sighted on Champion Street. Moving East. Take shelter immediately.
There was a crunch of impact somewhere ahead—metal squealing and concrete shattering. The sound made Emmett shudder. He couldn’t tell how far away it was, but it was much too close.
People were running past on the sidewalk now. People on the bus let out a mix of gasps and shouts.
Emmett switched off the radio. His throat was painfully dry.
Several people at the front of the bus demanded to be let off, but the bus driver was already ahead of them. They dashed off, stumbling down the stairs, and joined the growing stream of panic on the street.
More people in the rows were shuffling and pushing to get off the bus.
Emmett didn’t move. He was staring at the windshield and the street beyond. Trying to see what was coming.
He didn’t know if it would be safer on the bus or in a building… but he knew that depending on the super, they might never make it past the street.
And being caught out in the open might get them killed.
“Stop,” Emmett said, but his voice was hoarse and the words came out pitifully quiet.
Only the man next to him heard—he was off and running a moment later.
The alert blared in his headphones again, and Emmett yanked the cord to pull them free.
Another impact rattled the street up ahead. Emmett gripped his phone and seat in front of him. Now it sounded like every car alarm in the city was going off—Emmett’s head ringing with alarms and screams.
Sparks showered across the street as a power pole toppled over—just two blocks away! Then lights flickered up and down the block before going out.
“Shit. Shit!” Emmett muttered.
Emmett had heard about earthquakes, though he’d never actually been in one. He knew that sometimes little quakes preceded the big one—
That was how the next few moments felt.
A deafening screech sounded through the street. Something hurtled through the cars to the right of the bus, cutting them in half and sending them scattering across the street like toys.
It happened so fast that Emmett couldn’t see what was going on. He only heard the sound and then felt the roof of the bus caving in as entire halves of cars crashed down on top of it.
Emmett dove to the floor, his scream drowned out by the squealing of collapsing metal and shattering glass. Emmett covered his head with his hands, but shards rained down on him and the floor. He felt dozens of knicks on his knees, elbows, and hands—
But it was all a distant, all a blur.
Then the world flashed white and yellow. And quiet.
Emmett was hurled from the bus. Then rolled in a crumpled heap across the road.
Emmett blinked, eyes blurry with sweat—with red.
He was face down on the street. In the distance, he could just see the smoking remains of his bus. It was cut in two—one half standing on its end against a nearby store. Two other people were laying on the street. They didn’t move.
Emmett had to get up. Had to get out of the road. Get to shelter.
It was stupid, and Emmett laughed at himself—his jaw felt numb. Depending on the super, nowhere on the block was safe.
Emmett tried to push himself up, but his right arm wouldn’t move. His left arm was pinned beneath his body. Emmett tried to push himself up again, but his whole body spasmed with pain.
He couldn’t move. Couldn’t get off the street.
Emmett felt a warm pool of liquid forming beneath his chest. A puddle of red. Then he felt cold.
He was going to die on the street.
Somewhere in the distance, Emmett heard the muted impacts of a super battle. One he hadn’t even seen.
Something exploded in the distance—a tiny fireball. Emmett wasn’t even sure if he heard it or felt it—felt anything anymore.
The last thing he saw was a growing speck in the sky… A car hurtling through the air, growing huge in his vision.
Or maybe it was a truck.
Chapter 6
Waking Up
The first thing Emmett heard was beeping. Steady and quiet.
He woke up to bright lights and in a white room. He was propped up in a bed…
His head swam. Was he alive? How?
The last thing he remembered was lying on the street, unable to get up.
And a truck flying through the air at him.
Emmett tried to sit up and look around, and immediately winced. Pain shot through his right shoulder, down his back, and made his left leg spasm.
He immediately slumped back down in the hospital bed.
His entire goddamn body hurt. Muscles and bones Emmett didn’t know he had throbbed like they were alive—like his whole body was on the verge of cramping.
Maybe that’s what having a seizure felt like…
Emmett wanted to call out, but just sucking in a deep breath sent stabbing pain through his chest.
So he laid there, focusing on breathing steadily, and finally the pain subsided enough for him to open his eyes and tilt his head.
The first thing Emmett realized was that he was not in a hospital room.
Well, he guessed it was, but nothing like any hospital he’d ever seen.
There were empty glass tanks along the wall. Tubes of bubbling liquid stretched across the wall, and cords hung from the ceiling. Behind all that, the walls and ceiling were all bright white.
Across the room, a seam split on the wall, revealing a hidden doorway. It was completely silent, and Emmett only noticed because there was complete darkness beyond.
A person stepped into the room, wearing a bright white containment suit. The glass visor covering their face was utterly black.
Emmett winced and shrank further into his bed.
“What… What happened?” he muttered. “Have I been isekai’d?” He felt utterly delirious as the question tumbled out.
But the person in the containment suit stopped in front of the bed.
“You keep saying it, but I don’t know what that means.”
Even though the voice was muffled by the suit, Emmett could tell that it was a man’s voice… and it was a long moment before he recognized it.
“Dr. Venture?”
“Yes.”
Emmett sighed, which hurt, and tried to relax but couldn’t.
“This… This isn’t a hospital?”
“No. You’re in the lab.”
“Why? Why am I—”
Emmett looked down at himself. The blanket had fallen away from his chest, and he pulled it further down now.
Instead of a hospital gown, his body was covered in what looked like a thin plastic bag. Beneath the clear shrink-wrap, his skin was an abstract mix of bright red, dark red, and purple.
Everything ached except his right arm. Everything was wrapped in plastic except his right arm. The memory of being facedown on the street came back to him—he vividly remembered not feeling his arm then either.
Emmett’s right arm laid beside him on the bed, but it wasn’t his arm. It was naked metal, the frame and pistons laid bare. Blood dripped through the cords of gray faux muscle; more was caked in the threads—
His blood.
Emmett’s head swam, and he laid back on the bed.
And promptly passed out.
Emmett was in and out of consciousness several times, never awake for more than a minute.
When he finally did wake up, Dr. Venture and Clara were waiting for him. They both wore white containment suits, but had taken off their helmets.
“Welcome back,” Venture said.
Both of them looked like shit—red eyes and bags under them—like they’d been crying or pulled an all-nighter. Clara managed a small smile.
“How long was I out?”
“Three days,” Venture replied.
Clara added, “It’s four o’clock. Saturday morning.”
The bed was propped up at a forty-five degree angle, and Emmett tried to push himself further up. It was easy. And painless.
Emmett paused and slowly looked down at himself.
His body wasn’t covered in a plastic bag anymore. Emmett tugged at the hospital gown that he was now wearing and saw skin beneath—his chest and arms were his normal tan. He looked normal…
His right arm looked normal. It wasn’t metal.
Emmett lifted his right arm up to look at it closer—looking for scars or discoloration or any evidence of the gruesome sight from the last time he woke up. Nothing looked amiss.
It wasn’t until he poked and prodded it with his other hand that he felt the silicone texture and odd shapes beneath the skin.
“It will take some getting used to,” Dr. Venture said, his voice breaking Emmett out of his trance.
“What did you do to me?” The question came out half-astonishment, half-accusation.
“What do you remember?” Venture asked.
Emmett recounted being on the bus during a battle between heroes. The bus was hit, and he was thrown from it. How he laid in the street, unable to move.
As he told them, he realized just how out of it he’d been. It felt so distant. Like a bad dream, or like it had happened to someone else and Emmett had just been watching.
“You almost died,” Clara said. “We saved you.”
“Thanks,” Emmett said earnestly. “I just don’t understand how. How did you even know? …Were you there?”
“Not exactly…” Clara said. She looked to her dad, as if unsure of what to say—or what she could say.
Without missing a beat, Venture replied plainly, “I’ve been keeping tabs on you.”
“...What? Why?”
“Our lab deals with some highly sensitive research. We can’t allow anyone to leak data or materials.”
“So you were spying on me?”
Clara interrupted, “No. It’s not like that.”
Venture sighed. “It’s passive monitoring for keywords. No one is spying on you.”
Emmett scoffed. “Okay. So if you weren’t there… How did you save me?” He held up his hand, then gestured to his body. “How did you do this? Any of this?”
Venture said, “We have Fast-Response Drones hidden throughout the city. When there were reports of a battle so close to your location, the closest three were automatically dispatched. They stabilized you and brought you to the lab.
“Then we rebuilt you with Gnosis’s research and our tech. Your arm was unfortunate, but it had to be amputated.”
Emmett stared at his right arm again, imagining the metal workings beneath—
“Oh shit. It’s been three days!” Emmett tried to sit up. “I have to go, or call, or—”
Dr. Venture grabbed his shoulders to stop him, and a flash of surprise and strain crossed his face. “Not yet.”
“You don’t understand! My folks, they know what bus I ride. If they saw anything on the news—”
“We kept an eye on your phone,” Venture said, still visibly keeping him from standing. “Your mom thinks you’re home sick. Nothing serious, but enough to keep you in your apartment. Don’t forget to tell her which Sunday you're free for dinner.”
Emmett relaxed a little and nodded.
“Your roommate, Lock, texted too,” Venture said, sighing.
Clara added, “We said you were at a girl’s place. I… I think he bought it.” She smiled awkwardly.
Meanwhile, Venture stared at Emmett with his usually deadpan seriousness, and Emmett felt his apprehension growing like the bottom was dropping out from his stomach.
Venture said, “Lock asked if it was Clara.”
Clara’s eyes widened. “Obviously, we told him no… but you’ll have to make something up when you see him next.”
Emmett swallowed dryly. In comparison, death might not have been so bad.
At the request of Dr. Venture and Clara, Emmett slept through the rest of the morning. He eventually relented, if only because he still felt a deep soreness that felt like it was in his bones and because they looked like they needed the rest as much as he did.
It was noon on Saturday by the time Clara and her father came back to visit.
Emmett was glad because he hadn’t liked where his mind had gone for the past hour. He couldn’t stop thinking about what happened on the street… and what didn’t happen.
“Did… Did anyone else from the bus make it?” Emmett asked.
He hadn’t known many—any—of them by name, but he remembered their faces. Many of them had been riding the same bus for years. People he’d seen day after day but never talked to.
Dr. Venture was across the room, fiddling with a screen. But now he paused and turned toward Emmett.
“When paramedics respond to an emergency, they aren’t told what happens to their patients after they get to the hospital. They do their job, do what they can, and that’s it.”
“But that’s patient confidentiality, isn’t it?” Emmett responded. “That’s not the same.”
“It’s for the patient, yes, but it’s for the paramedic, too.”
“Please. I need to know.”
“Some of them survived. Some didn’t. Twenty-nine people were killed. Three times that were injured. I haven’t cross-checked the list of reported casualties with passengers on the bus…”
Emmett was listening, but again, he felt far away.
Venture had trailed off and paused before continuing. “The attack will be all over the news for the next few days. I suggest you avoid it.”
“Can I have a minute?” Emmett asked.
Dr. Venture nodded and turned off the monitor he was working on before leaving. The door hissed shut behind him.
Clara looked from Emmett to the door before walking over to him. “Are you alright?”
Emmett shook his head, afraid of what might tumble out of his mouth if he spoke. He looked at his right hand, remembering how it felt—didn’t feel—on the street and when he’d first woken up.
He’d never felt so powerless.
Silence dragged on before Emmett finally said, “All my life, I dreamed of being a superhero, but… When the time came, I froze. I just sat there.”
Emmett felt ashamed of himself, like he’d failed the test he’d been waiting for all his life. All he wanted to do was curl up under the blanket and hide. He grit his teeth, choking back tears.
Then he remembered Clara was still in the room with him and he felt even worse—even smaller.
Clara put a hand on his. The glove of her containment suit crinkled softly. “They say there’s people that fight and people that run from bad situations… but there’s also freezing. It happens. Everyone feels fear, and it takes training to keep your body from doing those three things. Paramedics train. Nurses train. Police, too. Even capes and masks train. Even they feel fear.”
Emmett was nodding along, listening, and fighting that feeling of slipping far away again. Trying to stay there and fighting that feeling of being distant.
