Emily Hwa-sang takes the star in chapter 4 of my superhero short story prequel (say that fast 5 times). Witness a normal day in her life become anything but normal.
Spotify Playlist for this story while you read.We now follow Emily Hwa-sang who was on her way to work, unknowing of what destiny had in mind for her. Running across the streets, the sunlight pouring in through the clouds, Emily let the events that had conspired sink in. She felt, somehow, lighter and renewed. Now, all I have to do is make it to work and... “Wait, where am I?!” Emily’s surroundings were completely unfamiliar, as she was not awake to witness the way here.
Emily pulled out her cellphone. “Good, I didn’t leave it behind like last every time.” She turned on the screen, and what she saw was an icon informing her of one percent battery life. “Oh, no, no, no… yes?” The battery returned to twenty-five percent in the blink of an eye. “Huh, that’s weird. Definitely just a glitch. Happens all the time. I mean, he said I was ‘fixed’.” She started the phone up and continued down the street. “He did say that, right? Or did I just say that? No matter, I feel normal. Boring, even.”
Emily pulled up a map and found that she was near the harbor side of the city, by the docks. That made sense; a normal place to find a bunch of storage warehouses. She planned the fasted route back home and before she knew it she was in a taxi… then moments later bolting down the street to the building on the corner of the street with the large windows. A community office suite which was more to her like a second home.
She entered, fixing her hair and outfit in the glass dividing the rooms as she came by in a rushed pace. Sneaking past other workers, she kept her head down and an even stride towards her workspace. Everything was going well, nobody noticing her, besides maybe a few weird looks for her messy hairdo and wrinkled clothes. But that could have just been her projecting. It was the moment that she sat down at her desk station, successfully unnoticed, she began to realize that maybe it was all in here head. Nobody cares enough to notice.
A stern voice called out behind her. “Emily. My office. Now.”
Emily rose up awkwardly and before she knew it, was standing within the glass walls of her boss’s quiet office. The woman was large built and worked out often; a little intimidating but inspir6ing at the same time if you asked Emily. “I know you work at a job that is all about making games, but your job isn’t one. It’s a serious, real position. Even though we’re an indie studio, we have to act like we’re triple A if we want to keep doing this. Our deadline is way too close, everyone is rushed to the max, and where were you? You better have a good excuse. You were gone for three days; you didn’t pick up your phone, you didn’t call in sick; nothing.”
“I was… sick; really sick. So bad, I was out for—wait, it’s been three days?”
Her boss sighed “Look, I like you Emily. You’re one of our best digital artists; but you’re a bad liar. We need—”
“I wasn’t lying.” Emily halted after she realized she came across too strong.
“… We need everyone on board if we’re going to make this deadline. Finish the character design illustrations you’ve been assigned. They’re beginning to stack up and we need them if we want to make the launch.”
“Yes, ma’m.” Emily bowed her head out of habbit. Her boss said nothing, but motion towards her door with a flick of the head. With no more words spoken, Emily turned and left for the exit. She didn’t lie, but if only she could tell the full story.
“Hey, Emily." Her boss said, halting Emily in her tracks. "... Prove me wrong.” Emily nodded, then was gone.
Later, Emily sat at her workstation, surrounded on either side by the desks of her fellow indie devs. She slipped on her drawing tablet glove which only covered the side of her right hand and leftmost fingers, continuing her work where she left off via her drawing tablet. She was a bit stressed, but she had to get in the zone if she was to succeed. “Come on, Emily. You work at a video game company. This is your dream job. You can do this. All of this will wash over. You just have to do your best and prove yourself again."
Emily set her sights to her double monitors and drabbed ahold of her drawing tablet pen. Hours passed, drawings were sketched and finalized, and in the midst of it, she had completely forgotten about the past few days, lost into her arts.
Emily didn’t always have the most qualifications. She was self taught. But most of all, she was someone—someone who some may have called lazy, "someone who needed a real job", a nerd who only dreamed about working on childish video games—someone who had just faced turmoil recently, forgetting about the world and losing herself to her projects.
Breaktime came hours later. Emily took a moment to do some stretches she had taught herself to deal with the possibility of reamurging RSI injury. A notifaction on one of her monitors caught her attention. A new message from her boss.
All of the designs look incredible. This is some of your best work. Way to pull it through. I like it when I’m proven wrong.
Emily smiled. She checked the clock. Woah; she hadn’t realized so much time had passed. Her hands we a bit sore from all the work; but she did it. The best kind of life is the one where you push so hard towards your dreams that it almost becomes no more fun… that’s where true fulfilment is found.
Working together with people who share the same passion as you to accomplish big goals; especially ones as cool as making video games. She felt a senes of purpose, of belonging here.
A tapping on her shoulder woke her from her daze. It was her coworker, Jessika who pointed out to her the source of a distant knocking noise. "Uh, who is that?"
As Emily's world came back into focus, she noticed a figure at the front of the building who stopped knocking on the window and waved at them. It was... Brian Bayley?!
Oh no. A mild panic began to form over her. From the distance, she could see Brian letting himself in through the doors. (You could see several rooms away with all of the glass walls in the modern building.) He was carrying all kinds of weird equipment and tech; more than he could reasonably hold. She could read his lips saying, "Excuse me, coming through!" as he pushed through the many passerbys.
Emily immediately turned her chair around and began to gather her things.
"Who is that guy? It looked like he was waving at you. Is that your boyfriend? Is that why you were late?" Jessika pried.
"Wow, you are full of questions. No to all of them!"
"Where are you going?" Asked Jessika.
"Away from him." Emily quickened her pace in the opposite direction of the incomer. But she was too late, Brian caught up to her in a hot minute. How is he so fast?
Brian looked into some sort of scanning device. "These readings are off the charts." He said to himself as if nobody was there.
Emily moved out of his way and turned to walk the other direction. Maybe if I ignore him, he'll go away.
Brian produced a radioactivity detector rod, which sent out a loud yelp as he waved it across her. "Wow!! That's not good." His shout echoed across the area, loud enough for everybody to hear.
Emily had to finally admit to knowing him. "Brian, what are you doing here?" She asked silently between clenched teeth.
"I got a large spike in the readings back at my garage. The tech isn't set up properly. I have to run some tests." He admited, typing into a handheld machine he held half-hazardly in one arm.
"Couldn't you have waited until I was done with my work?" She tried to move out of his way, but he countered her movements, putting all sorts of different devices in her face.
"You could be unstable. I can't let anyone else get hurt by my own projects. Lives are on the line here."
"Quiet! I have an identity to conceal, remember?" She whispered harshly.
"Haha, I mean, her personality is... unstable! ... Shutting up." Brian had finally addressed her co-workers and instantly regretted it. "Anyway... we need to go back to my garage to run some tests; urgently."
"No. I'm not going with you. I have work to do, a life to... get--not ruined!" She muttered out.
"First of all, that's grammatically incorrect, and second of all--Oh-ho, yes you are. Remember energy parasite monster? Your readings are worsening by the second and you could go berserk any moment. Then it'd all be my fault." Brian grabbed onto her arm and began his way back towards the exit.
Deep down, she knew that leaving was the better thing to do, but that didn't mean she was going to make it easy for him.
"You have the worst bedside manner you know." Emily said, as she was reluctantly brought away from her only job and thus livelihood, catching the eyes of the various workers passing through the halls of the community office center.
"So I've been told." Brian opened the door for her, providing her with his jacket and bowing slightly before gesturing for the exit like a true gentleman. "Actually, nobody talks to me."
Later that night, Emily found herself back at the warehouse, sitting on Brian's desk as he checked her pulse with some new medical equipment he strapped to her arm that was way too tight for her liking. "I don't remember seeing all this equipment yesterday."
"I uh, recently acquired it."
"How did you know where I was? Does this device have a GPS in it?" She gestured to her shoulder.
"Does this device have-? Um, yeah it does; Obviously."
"You know, actually, that's not such a bad thing." The events from the last few days replayed in Emily's mind and she shuddered.
"Wow, this place is a mess." Emily motioned to the tech and blueprints strung over everywhere, causing the room to look even more messy than before (if that were even possible).
"Yeah, I've been experimenting with some of the new tech I got from that old tower." Brian approached his desk to showcase some of his new designs, then stopped. "Oh, I realize you didn't know. It was a video, there was an old tower with forgotten unowned tech, there were crazy people chasing after me; it was a whole thing."
Brian showed her the video on his phone while some tests ran in the background.
"Wait, so you stole this stuff?"
"Hey, don't be so quick to assume..." He paused. "Yeah, basically that was it, but technically it didn't belong to anyone; the new owners would have just bulldozed the building down. I was-"
"Preserving lost artifacts. I get it. Don't you think that maybe the people who were chasing you then are the same people who tried to steal it from you the other day? Look, this is bigger than you know. These are real criminal--supervillains. You're just a... guy. No offence."
"Eh, you have a point."
"Maybe you should just be the bigger man and give it to them."
Brian sunk back in is ever-so-swiveling chair. "Give it back? Heh, I'm not afraid of those dweebs. Plus, now that you're a super powerful energy monster, they should be the ones who are afraid."
Emily gave him a condinsending look.
"I mean, a completely justified, misunderstood energy person.” He stood up to get back to work.
"I thought you were going to fix this problem?" She gestured to herself.
Brian turned to her. "I... I don't think there's going to be a perminant fix, just adapting the best you can... I'm sorry." He grew solumn and guilt crept in.
Emily said nothing as she let it all sink in. She couldn't break the hope that she could put this all behind her and continue her normal life sometime in the near future.
Brian finished saudering on a new device, then returned to her with an advanced version of the shoulder device (*needs a better name). This one was smaller, and had a glowing green guage. "Here. You will have to wear this at all times, but it should regulate your condition... and you can put it under your jacket. When the energy bar begins to run out, you know you are running out of battery or something's up. And it will give anyone with this app," He lifted up his phone, "... notifications if something goes wrong."
"Thanks, doc." Emily said slyly and slipped off the side of the desk.
Emily watched as Brian turned his back to her. She could sense something was off. "Look, Brian, it's not your fault. Whether or not those guys were after you for what seems like was open domain property, you're not the one who decided to jump in front of an energy beam for a stranger."
Brian turned to her. She could see the real concern in his deep, vibrant eyes.
Her face suddenly went flush.
The app on his phone lit up. "Uhh, I'm detecting increasing temperature levels... You might have a fever."
"A fever. Yeah, that's it." She just knew she was red as a tomato by now.
"Let's get you some fresh air." She could tell he was being nothing but analytical. Brian grabbed her hand and lead her towards a staircase that only lead up.
On the roof. Night. Blanketed under an ocean of stars. The two of them sat back, exausted, staring up at nothing in particular.
"This all feels like a dream y'know." She muttered, keeping her eyes on the shining, speckled brilliance above.
Brian looked to the woman by his side, wearing his jacket over her shoulders to keep out the late night chill. "Yeah, I know."
"It's incredible that technology really has advanced this far that... That people... can get turned into things like this." She looked at her arms. "I wanted it to return back to normal, but I guess after today, and the more the day goes on, I start to realize that may never happen."
"What's so good about normal?"
"That's coming from a weirdo like you."
They both chuckled.
"You know, I've got to thinking." Brian started thoughtfully.
"Mmm-hmm?"
"Before just a few days ago, I didn't care about anybody. I content with spending the rest of my days alone in my warehouse. But after what you did for me; something so selfless for a stranger... I realized I can--should use my skills to help more people."
“I don’t really have any friends either. I moved away from my hometown of Texas for my job… but it was trying to find new clicks in the city to fit in. I guess I just there were things, like my new job that I had traveled all this way just to do, it became less of a priority. Gaming was my escape, but now I have an established position working on what I am passionate about. I don't want to lose that.” She hugged her knees.
“Texas? I wouldn’t have guessed.”
“Yeah, not many do; Texas born Korean. Guess you could call me gal, or better yet, “Electrigal”.”
“Yeah, that’s not doing you any favors. How about just, Electri?”
Emily laughed. “That’s literally just the word electricity cut in half.”
"Yeah, but at least it doesn't feel like a rodeo wrangler."
“Whatever. You can pick my "evil super villain energy monster" name.”
The both of them shared a laugh before catching their breath, no words being spoken for a few too many heartbeats. She could hear the waves hitting up against the docks where Brian's warehouse stood.
She tried to fill the awkward void. "How did you get this warehouse by the docks? I know rent is crazy these days. Wait, please tell me you didn't steal it."
"No! It's... it's personal."
“Come on. For tonight, let’s just forget everything. Pretend we know eachother well.”
Brian didn't say anything in response; this was obviously hard for him.
Emily decided to change the subject as she couldn't bare the silent tension any longer. “What do you think you were made to do?”
“I dunno, not die maybe.”
“Har. Har. For real. Is it your vlog channel? Inspiring others to build technology?”
“When I was young, my father became an indipendent investigative journalist, said he was fed up with the current system. He would leave every day, do crazy things, saying that it was for the betterment of the world, that people deserved the right to know the real truth. Then one day, he told us he was on the cusp of a new story and bought out this giant warehouse by the docks full of all kinds of assorted, strange tech. Had to do with his big story that was gonna expose everyone in the city. After that he..." Brian sobered up. "He died the next day."
Emily covered her mouth in horror. "I'm so sorry"
"My Dad wanted to use his gifts to make the world a better place, but he died before even one of his stories could make it out to the world, so he never got his dream. But he had me. I almost wonder if he bought this place and all it's tech for me... I mean, I was studying engineering at the time... maybe it was his "parting gift" for me." Brian snorted softly. "But what good have I done? At this point, it's not that I even need to make the whole world a better place. I just want to use my skills, the things I’m passionate about to make some people’s lives better like my folks want me to… even just to prove my life has some impact in the world, that I exist… like my father can’t.”
“Brian. " Emily turned to him. "A few days ago, I just got transformed into an actual energy monster--there, I said it. I was on a rampage through the city, and for all we know, would have been labeled a supervillain, maybe even become one by accident and gotten roped into that life. But now I’m up here, with you, away from it all. Your videos, your work. It seems to me that you already have made someone’s life better.”
Emily and Brian's hand crept closed and closer to the eachother until touching for a breif moment. The two of them both pulled their hands away instantly as if zapped by a bolt of electricity and looked the other's direction.
"We should-"
"Yeah, it's getting late."
"Why don't we-"
"Aha, it's freezing out here." Emily stood up, but found herself excessively light. Her head was spinning and she could have swear she felt her feet leave the ground. She must have been really dizzy... or maybe?
"Woah, there." Brian grabbed onto her shoulders. "I forgot; you're still a bit unstable and we don't fully know the extent of your powers."
"Was I... flying?" A light-headed Emily asked outloud, her voice trailing off.
"Let's just get you back inside and keep you monitored." Brian gave her a pat on the back as he lead her back inside. Now she was getting delirious.
When Emily returned to her setup on the couch, she fell asleep almost instantly; or at least that's what Brian had believed. When he set a blanket atop of her as gently as usual, she opened her eyes, then closed them again. She felt safe. "You know, you really should return that stuff you stole. You don't need it. You can... build... anything..." Then she was off, asleep as ever.
Brian shut off the lights, and left the warehouse to return to his off-campus apartment he had told her he would earlier, locking the door on his way out. He dropped down his skateboard that was littered with stickers and grunge designs of various colors and placed a foot on it, strapping in his helmet. All he had to do was let Emily recharge and she would be right as rain tomorrow. Or--I guess rain doesn't mix well with electricity. She'd be--aw, forget it.
Stay tuned for chapter 5! Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter to read it when it comes out. ⚡