The last two hours crawled by, and then Emmett left the lab without much of a goodbye—
Which felt weird.
Even if Dr. Venture and Clara hadn’t officially accepted him into their operation, even if he wasn’t officially a super or a cape… Emmett couldn’t help feeling as if everything had changed.
Even if it—technically—hadn’t yet.
He couldn’t help seeing the lab in a different light. Instead of working on weapons tech, were they actually working on tech ...
2023-03-10 18:41:43 +0000 UTC
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Emmett spent the rest of the day working on his project and taking breaks to catch up with Lock. Apparently, the concert had gone smoothly, except for a rowdy drunk that Lock got to throw out the gate himself.
He still had trouble picturing Lock as a bouncer—despite Lock’s thick build, Emmett knew him too well. He knew that Lock would rather spend his time relaxing and expanding his mind, as his roommate was fond of saying.
Lock must have been good at his job, though,...
2023-03-10 18:41:34 +0000 UTC
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Dr. Venture led Clara out of Emmett’s apartment and through the upstairs hall.
Venture wasn’t sure what he had expected to see, but inwardly he was relieved–Emmett Laraway was a gifted undergraduate engineering student, both focused and closed off. So far, he’d been trustworthy, and in their short visit, Venture’s scans hadn’t found any trade secrets locked away on Emmett’s network. The young man was a bit naïve when it came to the world and to supers, but nothing that co...
2023-03-10 18:41:18 +0000 UTC
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“Your dad used to be a cape?!” Despite the aches, Emmett had swung around so he was sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Yep.”
“Which one?”
Clara shrugged. “I can’t tell you.”
“But…” Emmett tried not to let dejection show on his face.
“It’s not like that,” Clara replied. “Even though Dad’s retired, it’s not like he goes around telling everyone what he used to do. Even I don’t know all the details. When he gets back, you can ...
2023-03-10 18:40:53 +0000 UTC
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The first thing Emmett heard was beeping. Steady and quiet.
He woke up to bright lights and in a white room. He was propped up in a bed…
His head swam. Was he alive? How?
The last thing he remembered was lying on the street, unable to get up.
And a truck flying through the air at him.
Emmett tried to sit up and look around, and immediately winced. Pain shot through his right shoulder, down his back, and made his left leg spasm.
He immediately slumped back...
2023-03-10 18:40:21 +0000 UTC
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The next morning, Emmett was watching the rooftops pass by from the bus window when he saw a missed call from his mom. He must’ve missed it ringing.
He checked the voicemail.
“Hi Emmett, just calling to say hi and see how you were doing. We’re talking about getting together one of these Sundays. Antony has a couple of weekends off from their games. Darryl is figuring out when the grandkids are free. We would love for you to be there too. Text me when would be a good week...
2023-03-10 17:04:00 +0000 UTC
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Emmett grabbed his things from the locker room, left the lab, and hustled down the Eastside to the bus stop on 61st Street.
The first and second bus of the day was a mix of passengers—students, workers, and retirees going down town—but this bus was almost exclusively workers going home from Gnosis.
Then he settled in for the long trip back to his apartment by putting on some tunes and getting started on his homework; he couldn’t do much, but he could at least map out the res...
2023-03-10 17:03:01 +0000 UTC
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As it turned out, Dr. Venture’s idea of celebrations was as understated as he was.
There was a small break room near the testing hub—one of the only other rooms Emmett had seen. He’d gotten to sit in it precisely twice, not including this time.
There wasn’t much to it: Several cracked leather chairs were arranged to face a wall of displays. The few times Emmett had been in the room, they were always tuned to the major news channels. A small kitchenette occupied the right-h...
2023-03-10 17:02:01 +0000 UTC
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After class, Emmett walked quickly out of the C Building and across campus to catch the two o’clock bus to the edge of Eastside.
The far East side of the city was barren compared to the rest of the research district. Where earlier it was impossible to walk the block without being bombarded by billboards of electronic ads, here they were almost non-existent. The only two billboards were for Gnosis. Each one hung from a parking garage and covered the entire front of it. They changed thr...
2023-03-10 17:01:02 +0000 UTC
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A superhero leapt across the rooftops, and Emmett watched from the seven o’ clock bus.
He turned in his seat to follow them, but they were gone as quickly as they appeared. It could’ve been Lux or Graynight. They were both active on this side of Adelphi, but Emmett couldn’t see well enough from the street.
Emmett turned back around in his seat, smiling—no one else on the bus had noticed, but he had seen them.
Then again, he’d also been lucky enough to look up at th...
2023-03-10 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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