On Thursday morning, Emmett hit the snooze twice on his alarm. By the time Emmett actually got up for class, he was running late. He grabbed a granola bar and his backpack.
He did so quietly, so he didn't wake up his roommate. Lock must've gotten in late last night.
Emmett sighed. It was good they'd gotten to hang out Monday. They'd both been so busy with work that they rarely got to just hang out like they used to.
It definitely hadn't gotten any better on Emmett's end since he'd become a super. Between class, homework, training with Clara at the lab, and moonlighting in the evenings, Emmett felt like he barely had time to breathe—
Not that he was complaining.
Okay, maybe he'd gotten a case of senioritis with college, but he wouldn't give up anything about being a super.
He got five steps down the hall before he jogged back to the apartment and grabbed the lunchbox of vials from under his bed.
Emmett opted to take the seven o'clock bus from the West End over to the satellite campus of Belport University over on Eastside. He hopped off on 34th Street, pushed back his dark, shaggy hair, and put his earbuds in. Endure had a new single out, "Faux Side of the Moon", which was good but definitely different from their previous stuff. Less electronic and more industrial.
Belport's satellite campus didn't look much different from the surrounding businesses. All of them focused on engineering and health sciences and shared a love of glass. If everything went well, Emmett would graduate and get a job right down the street in one of them.
Only two more months to go.
The saying had become a mantra for Emmett, one he repeated to himself pretty much every morning as he sat in class, struggling to pay attention to one lecture or another. Today, he tried not to think too much about the vials in his lunchbox and the choices that awaited him.
~
After struggling through Statistics and his last elective, Modern Government and Applied History, Emmett took the two o'clock bus to the edge of Eastside.
The ads and the glass slowly faded from the sides of buildings until they were little more than concrete sides and parking lots. The last few blocks that Emmett walked were taken up exclusively by the Gnosis company headquarters which flanked the right side of the street like a military compound.
It was surrounded by razor wire and flanked by guards holding machine guns. The buildings were sleek, white, and barren of everything except the Gnosis logo—a white square with a simple, blurry face staring back.
On the left, the Gnosis parking garage was covered by two electronic billboards for Gnosis's beauty products. One showing a generic skin cream. The second showing the tagline 'The standards may change, but the pursuit of beauty is immortal.'
Emmett passed beneath the garage and stopped at a nondescript metal door. He pulled back his hood and waited.
A moment later, the eye scan registered and TINA's robotic voice said, "Thank you for verification. Please step through, Emmett Laraway." Even six months later, he still couldn't find where the scanner, camera, or speaker were.
Emmett considered now that he was officially in the fold, Dr. Venture might reveal the secret if Emmett asked... Then again, there were plenty of secrets the doctor still kept.
"TINA, where is Dr. Venture this morning?"
"Dr. Venture is currently in section 005. He is expecting your arrival."
YOU ARE READING
Mod Superhero
Science FictionFor this cyborg, power is just an upgrade away. Emmett was used to being caught between college and his engineering internship, but when he gets caught between a powerful hero and an even stronger villain, he becomes collateral damage. Instead of d...
