Zero to Hero (Ch.1)

Jessica Boom worked in her uncle's chain of toy stores which was branded after an english misreading of their very distinctive Dutch family surname, right down to the picture of a small explosion featuring over the entrance of each shop. The Boom! franchise was moderately successful but still felt like a dead-end job to Jessica herself, for if she wasn't stacking the shelves she was sitting at one of the checkouts hour after hour. In fact, on this particular day, she was manning the latter while her co-worker Darren was busy doing at the former.

It was later in the afternoon and she nearly fell asleep while leaning her chin down on a hand, and her arm on the little rubber conveyer belt. When she accidently stepped on the pedal, the movement of the belt jolted her fully awake again.

Darren laughed from the isle.

"That's what you get!" he said, continuing to open boxes and fill the pegs in front of him.

"I was just, eh, resting my eyes," she replied sheepishly.

"Why, did you have a long night? Get up to anything good? Have a hot date?"

Jessica shook her head then. "Now you're really mocking me, Darren. I haven't had a proper date in a while. A long, long while in fact. The demand doesn't appear to be there."

"I'm in the same boat, so don't worry!" he replied. "Ironically enough, I often think that people like you and me are just pegwarmers."

"What's a 'pegwarmer'?" asked Jessica innocently.

"You've been working here for a couple of years and yet you've never even heard of that term?!" he replied incredulously. "Well, they're action figures or toys that aren't very popular for whatever reason so nobody picks them up, and sometimes they spend months if not years 'warming' the pegs, sadly trapped in their little plastic prisons."

As he said this, he picked a cardback off the peg and held it up as an example to her.

"See, not a popular enough character. Poor guy has been here for ages now and is gathering dust. Just likes us!"

"Wow, this is making me feel much better," she joked before placing her chin back on the palm of her hand and randomly tapping the buttons on the inactive till in front of her.

Another hour or two passed before it was time to shut up shop and make for home. Before they left the premises, however, Jessica stared at herself in the toilet mirror. She wasn't very tall, nor wide. She didn't think herself particularly attractive either. Her hair was pulled back into a bun, and her uniform, the usual ugly orange polo shirt, wasn't very flattering. She pushed her hand against her stomach then and turned sideways, finally whispering to herself: "Yep, he's probably right, just a pegwarmer."

She subsequently put her jacket on and made to join Darren as he was about to switch the lights off and lock the door. As he did so, she cursed herself for not charging her phone as it was down to just a few percent, but he told her it didn't matter. She'd be home soon and could recharge.

It wasn't long after when they finally parted ways. However, as Jessica walked in the opposite direction and made for her street and apartment, she could feel a gentle drop of water fall on her forehead. Then another. And another. She hadn't noticed the clouds in the growing darkness, and the heavens were about to open up and let loose.

Sure enough, said downpour quickly arrived but she wasn't sufficiently close to home to make a run for it, and even her jacket was missing a hood. Fearing a good drenching in the shower she decided to find cover instead until it passed, yet everywhere she tried seemed exposed to the elements. Her last hope was an old phonebox which looked like it hadn't been used in years. It stood like a monument to a time long before mobile and smart phones. Indeed, she struggled to even open the door as the edges were caked by the grit of the city, and its windows were left dirtied by the smog. It wasn't illuminated anymore, with Jessica surmising that nobody cared for these few remaining boxes in the city and so the bulbs hadn't been replaced in a long time. These relics were being removed one by one as the years passed, but tonight she was glad that at least one remained.

She tried using her phone then, thinking of calling for a cab in case the rain persisted, but as she searched for a service to ring up, her phone switched off. No more battery.

"Damn it!" she cried out, yet there would be no supportive reply coming from the lonely darkness surrounding her. All she could hear now was the low patter of the rain falling against the phonebox's roof and windows.

She also felt slightly claustrophobic while stuck in there, and as she exhaled again and again, her view of the outside world became increasingly blurry as a result. But she had an idea then: what if the receiver in the box actually worked? She had some extra change and the machine might still take it. Maybe she could call the taxi rank from there? But, of course, her own phone died before she got the number. In that moment, however, she remembered that if you pressed ZERO on these old things you could sometimes contact an operator and ask them for a number, yet wondered if such a service even existed anymore.

"Well, only one way to find out," she said to herself before lifting the phone from the little hook it rested on. It made this gross sound, like something sticky being forced free. It really had been a while since anyone had picked it up. She wished she had also used a tissue while touching it, too, but seeing as she didn't have a spare at hand would have to risk whatever germs may be inhabitanting the device. She then reached out with her index finger and paused for moment before hitting the 0 key. As she finally drew up the courage to push it, little did she realize how much it would change her life forever.

There was no dial tone, no voice from the other end. But there was a hum; one building from all around and inside of the booth. Her hand now trembling, Jessica placed the phone back on its resting spot, and her eyes started darting all around the tight compartment. She noticed that the rain suddenly stopped outside, and as it did so, she noticed that the sound stopped as well. Relieved, she made to step out of the box again, but before she could open the door, a huge flash engulfed her and the box lit up from the inside, illumating the street in four different directions.

Jessica was caught off guard by and trapped within this extraordinary explosion of light. There was no escape for her. Even so, she began panicking and pushed against the sides of the phonebox, but even if she could find the door, it wouldn't open now. Not until the process was finished. Not until she had been transformed.

The noise got louder and the light even brighter. She thought she might go deaf and blind as a result, but just as she feared this outcome, the moment passed and she was left in the dark, damp, empty box again, and the street was as quiet as before.

Groggy and confused, she threw herself out the door and landed knees first on the path, with the door of the phonebox creaking shut behind her. She turned her head and watched it seemingly mock her with its slow, jagged movements. She tried to finally calm her heart and catch her breath. She got to her feet then and took a quick look around to see if anyone had noticed the incident. Luckily for her, she was still alone.

"Embassrring," she said to herself. "I can't even make a simple phone call and I somehow nearly burn the place down. But what was that anyway? It was insane. I've never seen anything like it, and..."

She tailed off then as another feeling took hold. Something was different now. Something inside. It was as if it were implanted by the process in the box. It burned just as bright but from the inside out. Jessica could feel a power in her chest, in her head, in her organs, under her skin, and suddenly, everything changed.

She began growing taller, with her hair exploding out of its bun and flowing around her shoulders and back. She let out a whimper as her feet tore out through her shoes. But when she looked down, she didn't see her bare feet, but a set of black boots.

Then, when her arms and legs sundered her pants and unform, it wasn't her naked body beneath, it was an orange and black skinsuit, with a long cape flowing behind her. She let out a roar now as her muscles bulged forth causing her to feel a mixture of pain and pleasure. The new supersuit that had been revealed was now being filled and stretched out. She fell back to a knee for a moment, but when she sensed that the transformation was done, she slowly drew herself up again and raised her head. She could see little in the dark but noticed that she had been remade. She towered over features in the street compared to before, and noticed that she could no longer fit easily inside the phonebox. She looked at herself then.

"What has happened to me?" she muttered, noticing that even her voice had gotten a little deeper. As she put her hand up to her throat to check if everything was OK, she noticed the thick muscles of her neck, and then her chest, and her wide shoulders, and her enourmous arms. She had certainly become super, but why? How?

She then heard some commotion coming from down the street and lights quickly appeared. Instinctively, she tried to run for safety, but as she did so quickly discovered how different her new mega body actually felt. Thus, she tripped and nearly fell over. Closing her eyes, she expected to do a complete faceplant, but it never happened. When she opened her eyes again, she noticed she was floating a few inches from the ground. She wasn't just a mountain of muscle, she could actually fly!

As she tried to pull herself back up, she accidently hurled herself into a backflip and straight into the night sky. As she did so, she noticed the aforementioned commotion coming from the other end of the street was just a car, and she managed to slow her ascent and stop mid air long enough to watch it pass. The occupants clearly hadn't seen her, nor slowed down. In fact, they actually sped up when they noticed a second car chasing them, sirens blaring.

So distracted was she in the previous moments she hadn't noticed the sound of the police chase, but, sure enough, the ambient noise of the world now hit her like a mack truck, and she found herself covering her ears to block it all out. She quickly adapted, however.

She decided to float across the sky and easily followed the pursuit as it was about to exit the street onto a larger artery of the city, but before it could, Jessica instictively dropped her body down and crashed on top of the lead vehicle, bringing it abruptly to a halt. The following police car also stopped with a deafening screech. The cops pointed their flashlights at the large figure on the roof, and were in awe. Jessica was startled and decided to push upwards and disappeared as quickly as she had appeared causing a short gust in her wake that nearly knocked the cops over. A few moments later they were arresting those inside the stricken, crushed car in front of them.

Jessica was panicking again and finally made it home. But instead of walking through the door, she landed her muscular frame onto the balcony of her apartment in the quiet darkness. She then accidentally tore the door off of its hinges as she moved inside. The floorboards creaked under her feet and she struck her head off the low-hanging, trendy light fixtures above; but there was only one thing she needed to do.

Gently pressing the light switch, the apartment was now illlumanted and she stood in front of the large ten foot mirror in her bedroom. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, but it was all true. She was massive and super strong. Her giant muscles were visible beneath her new orange and black supersuit. She turned then and put her hand against her stomach and tried to push it in just like she had at work earlier, yet struggled due her now bulging abs. Again, she was flabbergasted and confused as to what had just happened, but eventually allowed herself a cheeky smile.

"Seems like I'm a pegwarmer no more!", she then declared aloud, revelling in her new superheroine form.

To be continued...