Mod Superhero (Book 6 STUBBING on Oct 27th)

Chapter 6.20 - Waking Up

Emmett wasn't dead.

At least, he didn't think so.

There was that old cliché of your life flashing before your eyes as you died. But Emmett wasn't seeing his entire life.

Just snippets.

Emmett saw himself as a young kid in elementary school. One of the bigger kids had stolen someone's earbuds. The memory cut to two kids on the playground. The thief, Michael, stood head and shoulders about Emmett. He stood like a biblical giant on the rocks of the playground and sneered when Emmett told him to return the stolen goods.

Emmett didn't back down. He wanted to be like Paragon and the other supers in the Summit of Heroes. Emmett didn't have superpowers, but he knew right from wrong. That would have to be enough.

But it wasn't. Michael clobbered him. To Emmett's credit, he didn't go down right away. But eventually he staggered, and Michael knocked him over. Then he ground Emmett's face against the rocks.

That wasn't how it was supposed to go, Emmett thought. Heroes were supposed to win.

Wasn't he a hero?

Mercifully, the memory cut off. Before Emmett bawled his eyes out. And before he thought about getting even, and grinding Michael's face against the rocks.

There weren't many memories of when he was in grade school, and only a few of Emmett and his family...

It felt like he was trying to find something. Like following a single thread through a tangled mess of wire, or tracing a signal through the hiss of static.

~

Most of the memories that replayed were from the end of college—

When he'd gotten his internship with Dr. Venture.

It was still weird to look back on, even after getting to know Venture and working with him over those semesters. Emmett had applied for an internship expecting generic office work—perhaps hands-on work if he was lucky. Venture interviewed him over video call, then offered Emmett the job the next day.

Emmett knew there was something different about Dr. Venture... But he never would've guessed that the old man used to be a cape.

It wouldn't surprise Emmett if Venture had done a deep background check, spied on all his communications, and made up his mind before the interview.

All of which had caused Emmett to wonder on more than one occasion...

Why him?

He wasn't even top of his class. And being a superhero fan wasn't anything special either.

Why him?

Memories came and went, like fast-forward on a video.

Emmett went to Dr. Venture's lab and met Clara for the first time. Venture had never mentioned that he had a kid, or that Emmett would be working close with her—

SKIP MEMORY

Emmett remembered meeting Lock before they were roommates—

SKIP MEMORY

One night, before Emmett became a cyborg, they were celebrating a fusion breakthrough with frozen pizza. The three of them—Emmett, Clara, and Dr. Venture—sat beside each other on the couch while the news played. An uneasy silence settled over them while they watched TV. The news was covering something about the villain group, the Antichampions.

The Scarlet King was on the screen. He hovered in a ball of crackling psychic power. He was a former member of the villain group. One who was ousted for over-the-top brutality and rumored to have killed the former hero, Arsenal.