Chapter 1.1.46 — Makeup and Answers

Emmett had no desire to be confined to a hospital bed again. Despite the dull pain all across the front of his body, he sat up on the edge of the bed.

Meanwhile, Clara and Venture stared at him with tired, apprehensive eyes.

Emmett smirked through his bandages. “You know, being a super isn’t as glamorous as people say.” When neither of them laughed, he asked, “Was it worth it, at least?”

“Yes,” Venture replied. “But first, tell us about what you saw while you were unconscious.”

Emmett nodded, then recounted in as much detail as he could the dreams he had after the fight.

When he finished, Venture stuffed his hands in his pocket, like a professor about to deliver a lecture.

“With the sedatives administered, you shouldn’t have been able to dream. Those were hallucinations brought on by a foreign substance—a poison. Poison contained in the shrapnel of Porcelain’s duplicates.

“Now, there is very little chance of Porcelain developing a power like this, which leads me to think that she was poisoned by someone else. All this time Porcelain has been acting strange; First she was present at the Champion street attack, and Clara said Porcelain was incoherent when you found her.

“At some point, either directly preceding the Champion street attack or sometime shortly before it, Porcelain was poisoned by an unknown super. The poison caused her to hallucinate and act irrationally, even violently.

“Most poisons break down over time or are broken down by the body, but due to Porcelain’s unique powers and biology, the poison hasn’t broken down. She’s still suffering from the poison weeks later.”

Clara stifled a yawn and shook her head. “Emmett, it’s the middle of the night. You were only out for a little under an hour.”

Emmett sighed. “Those dreams—hallucinations… They were so intense. I can’t imagine being stuck like that for that long. Where is she now?”

“She’s gone,” Clara replied. “She got away.”

“Is there anything we can do? Can we help her?”

Venture nodded. “We’ll have to wait for her to pop on our scanners again, but yes. I’m already analyzing the traces of poison from the shrapnel. Unless it’s something otherworldly, we’ll be able to make an antidote. Getting her to take it, that’s another story…”

Clara crossed her arms. “Then we can question her about what happened at Champion street.”

“The League will want to question her,” Venture corrected. “That’s their prerogative.”

Emmett listened, but couldn’t stop his mind from wandering. Porcelain lost control of herself, just like Amarque…

“Are they related? Porcelain and Amarque?”

Dr. Venture and Clara shared a knowing glance.

Venture replied, “I’m still waiting on communication from the Summit of Heroes. Amarque still hasn’t woken up yet but… Clara and I had the same thought.”

Emmett sighed. It felt like the weight of several realizations all settling on him at once. “So a rogue super testing their powers, seeing just how powerful their poison is… Powerful enough to affect veteran members of the Summit… Didn’t one of the mutagens result in something similar?”

Venture nodded solemnly, while Clara turned in surprise—apparently they hadn’t gotten to talking about that possibility yet.

“When I tested the mutagen variants you brought in, one of them created cells that produced poisons. Some outright lethal, while others had a hallucinogenic effect similar to what Porcelain and you suffered,” Venture said. “I just don’t know for certain. The final effects of taking the mutagens aren’t always the same, so there’s not going to be a one hundred percent match… But if I had to bet, I’d go with your theory. Newly minted super testing the limits of their powers.

“Now the big question. Are they working alone?”

Emmett frowned and immediately regretted it—his face felt tender beneath his bandages. “Probably not. Athena said the knock-off mutagens were coming in ten plus shipments at a time—that’s coordinated. And even if they’re not tied directly to the shipments, there’s no way some random newbie was able to get close enough to both Porcelain and Amarque to poison them.”

Venture nodded, confirming his thoughts. “We’re likely dealing with a coordinated team. Even if our suspect is a new super, the rest of the team is probably experienced.”

Clara scoffed. “How experienced can they be? All they did was poison a member of the Summit of Heroes and possibly steal from one of the biggest corporations on the planet.”

Venture smirked. “You both wanted to play hero. Welcome to the game.”

Emmett sighed. “What time is it? I need to get back home.”

Clara replied, “It’s almost two in the morning.”

Suddenly, the exhaustion that hung heavy over his allies found Emmett as well, and he covered up a yawn. “I need to get back.”

Clara chuckled. “You need to do something about your face. You can’t go back like that. Your roommate will freak.”

Emmett gingerly touched the bandages on his face. He’d caught a chin and forehead full of shrapnel. Thankfully, he’d managed to shield his eyes from getting shredded. That would’ve sucked.

“The swelling is already going down,” Venture said. “I’d lie low for the rest of the weekend. Stay in your room and fake sick. By the time Monday comes, you should be able to put makeup on to cover up the worst of it.”

“Makeup?”

Venture rolled his eyes like Emmett was missing the obvious. “How do you think all those supers hide their scars and injuries so they can maintain a double life? They wear makeup. All of them.”

Emmett waited, but Venture’s expression didn’t change.

Clara’s eyes were locked on him. “You’re not too manly for makeup, are you?”

Emmett scoffed. “No, it’s not that… At least I don’t think it is.” He trailed off, not wanting to put his foot in his mouth.

“Good,” Venture replied. “You better get used to it. Clara, why don’t you get some of your extra makeup and show Emmett how to apply it.”

Venture turned and left the med-bay, leaving the two of them alone. Emmett chuckled awkwardly while a devious smile spread across Clara’s face.

~

All they had to do was wait.

Wait for Dr. Venture to make an antidote to the hallucinogen. Wait for Porcelain to show herself. Wait for news about Amarque…

Emmett hated waiting almost as much as he hated running away from a fight. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about makeup.

Clara and Emmett were sitting on the edge of the bed in the med-bay. She’d pulled out a small bag of makeup and set it on a clean tray beside the hospital bed.

Alright, he felt apprehensive about it. But why? Why did he feel so clammy sitting next to Clara and staring down her supplies?

Emmett had turned it over enough in his head while waiting for Clara to return that he concluded it wasn’t a manliness thing. Maybe in his parents' generation it would’ve been more common for women to wear makeup, but plenty of Emmett’s peers—boys, girls, nonbinary alike—wore makeup.

Maybe it was because makeup was about hiding. He wasn’t going to use it the way most people did. Emmett was going to use it to hide wounds… But was that so different from hiding an imperfection? Wasn’t that what people used makeup for?

Emmett sighed.

“Oh, come on,” Clara said as she looked through the tubes of makeup. “It’s not that bad.”

“It just feels weird. And I’m more weirded out that I’m not sure why it feels that way.”

Clara chuckled. “Sometimes there’s nothing to figure out. Feelings can be like that. Try to think of it like anything else—like a tool. That’s all.”

Emmett nodded and tried to tell himself that the rows of small squares and tubes were just mods—no different from mutagen vials or the smoke pellets that he put in his arm. Makeup was just another tool, just another way to hide—just another type of mask.

First, Clara helped him peel off the bandage on his cheek and another on his forehead, and applied a thin layer of liquid bandage to keep the cuts clean.

Next, Clara matched a foundation to his skin tone. She explained that it would make his skin appear more evenly colored and serve as a go-to solution if he wanted to cover up surface scratches or light bruises. It would also serve, literally, as a foundation for additional steps if he had particularly nasty bruises.

Though there were different ways to apply foundation, Clara primarily used gel-types that could be applied with her fingers—supers weren’t going to carry brushes and sponges around. Emmett felt a little awkward as he tried it on his face, but it was easy enough to apply.

“Hopefully, foundation is all you’ll need.” Clara held up his bottle of deep tan foundation for emphasis, then she grabbed a different bottle. “If you need something more, you’ll need concealer. Basically, you use the color opposite from the color of the bruise you’re trying to hide. Peachy yellow cancels the blue from most bruises.”

She put a bit on her finger, then dabbed a tender spot below his eye. “Don’t rub. Just dab it in. If you’re in a pinch, you can just use the concealer, but if you need it to last for a few hours, take a minute and put on foundation too.”

Emmett grunted in affirmation instead of nodding. It seemed easy enough.

Clara smiled and held up a small mirror. “Your turn. You definitely need to put something over that other eye.”

Emmett eyed his reflection. His face still felt tender, and so he’d been expecting the worst, but considering his recent beating at Porcelain’s hands, he didn’t look too bad. He looked… normal—

Except for the bruise under his right eye. Even with a layer of foundation, it was still a deep purple.

Emmett sighed and set to work while Clara held the mirror steady for him. In the end, he needed less concealer than he thought.

“A little bit goes a long way,” Clara said, lowering the mirror. “You did good.”

“Thanks,” trying his best to return her smile. “Did your mom teach you?”

The question had slipped out, and for a moment, Emmett worried how Clara would react. She never spoke about her mother, and then Clara might see it as another comment about masculinity.

Clara burst into laughter, leaving Emmett to sit in worried silence.

When she finally stopped, Clara wiped a tear from her eye. “Dad taught me.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Dad’s a super. He’s had to cover up plenty of bruises and injuries. Mom… uh… didn’t need makeup.”

“That doesn’t sound cryptic or anything,” Emmett replied, attempting a joke.

Clara snorted a laugh. “I guess it does, doesn’t it? Sorry. I just still don’t know how to talk about her… God, that probably doesn’t make sense either.” Clara finally met his eyes and kept a straight face. “Tell you what, when Dad comes clean about his super identity, I’ll tell you what I can about my mom, if you still want to know.”

Emmett definitely didn’t want to pry, but he had so many questions about Clara, Dr. Venture, and now about Clara’s mom too. Even so, he understood the reason for discretion. If Venture wasn’t ready to disclose his super identity, then talking about Clara’s mom might inadvertently give it away.

In the end, Emmett would just have to trust them and be patient.

Emmett returned her smile. “Deal.”

~ ~ ~