Emergence 2.10 (4.5k word Preview Draft) (Patreon)

Emergence 2.10

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HEROES SQUARE, METROPOLIS
August 9, 2010
1:00 EDT

"Happy Monday, everyboooody!"

The seated audience rose to their feet and burst into applause at the announcement as music began to swell. The sounds of wild whooping and cheering fought the show's intro music for dominance.

A boyish-looking man with red hair quickly walked onto the brightly-lit stage with all the confidence in the world, wearing a well-fitted tan suit and unbuttoned dress shirt underneath it. He sauntered toward the middle of the stage, footsteps in time to the jazzy music, only to stop with his back to the cheering crowd as he faced the wall-to-wall windows overlooking the bustling Heroes Square below.

With a snap of his fingers, the redhead spun to face the audience with a smile and a display of finger guns. "Great, great energy, everybody!"

With an ease that spoke of both practice and familiarity, the man dropped himself onto the right half of the gray sectional on the stage and continued grinning at the audience. "Now, do like me and, please take your seats!"

The audience did exactly that, but their clapping and cheering barely eased in the slightest. If anything, it increased as two more people walked on stage, both of them smiling just as brightly and infectiously as the man in front of them.

Right behind the man in the suit, two young women followed behind, throwing kisses as the eager audience caught sight of them and waved to the once-again seated crowd. One of them, a younger brunette with a voluminous head of hair and flawless olive-toned skin spun around to show off her outfit, a pink leather top and similar skirt, and gave the audience a wink before she dropped down on the sectional right next to her male co-host.

The second woman on stage, a somewhat-older blonde wearing her hair in a slight bob and dressed from top to bottom in a loose snake-print jumpsuit, pointed at her protruding stomach with one hand as the other rubbed it, and received a loud "Awwww" from the audience in addition to applause.

With a slightly widened smile on her face at the reaction, she sat down carefully in the middle of the sofa sectional and faced her two partners. "Amazing energy today, guys! Like a jolt of caffeine!"

The younger woman in the middle shook her shoulders a little and leaned slightly over to the blonde, one hand on the couch. "I know, right? It's always great, but today just seems a little more... super!"

The redhead to the left of both women clapped once and pointed all five fingers of one hand over to the crowd as they began to relax. With a faux-confused expression on his face, he gestured wildly in their direction. "Well, who knows why they're so excited? You never can tell sometimes!"

"Anywaaay," the young woman in the middle drawled, "how ya'll feeling? Hank? Cassie? How y'all doing on this beautiful day?"

The blonde - Cassie - brushed some of her hair over her ear as she leaned forward on the couch and turned her attention towards her co-hosts. "Steph, so far, I'm doing great."

She paused a moment later, tongue sticking out as she made something of a goofy expression. "Well, pretty great, I've had to go to the bathroom like five times already thanks to this little stinker," she pointed down to her pregnant belly, "but at least, it's given me plenty of time to plan my day. You know, around my pee breaks, at least." Laughter from the audience and her co-hosts made her pause again, and the pregnant woman cast a glance at the red-head on the far side from her. "How about you, Henry? How's your weekend? What'd you get up to?"

Henry laughed and sat up a bit straighter, adjusting the jacket of his unbuttoned suit. "You know how it is, great weekend. Always busy, but still great!" He let out a slight chuckle and tilted his head to the side. "My twins and wife have been asking me for weeks to go out riding horses out in the country and you all know I'm not the biggest fan of horses, but I also do love to see them having fun so..."

"Awwwwwwwwwww..."

The simultaneous sound from the audience and his two female co-hosts interrupted Henry, but the man simply grinned and laughed again, a slight blush visible on his face. The blonde host glanced over at the audience, smiling wide as she pointed in Henry's direction. "Mr. Family Man over here, always bragging about his kids. I only wish my little guy makes me as happy as Hank always looks."

The "Family Man" in question physically waved away Cassie's words with a put-upon expression and sighed dramatically. "Trust me, it's not always roses and perfect family days. Kids can be a lot of trouble, but you just gotta love 'em anyway."

The audience "awwwed" again, provoking a smile from two of the hosts.

With a slight grunt, Steph shook her head and shot both Henry and Cassie a look that rang with faux-annoyance. "Now look at the two of you. Already got kids and another about to get one. Y'all making a girl real jealous here, y'know?"

Henry laughed out loud as Cassie let out a long groan of her own, leaning back onto the couch with a hand palming her face. "Seriously, Stephanie, you're twenty-four. You have plenty of time, don't worry about it."

Cassie snorted, repeating the sound once more with the sound of accompanying laughter as she rose back up to a sitting position. "Can you believe this girl? Jealous? Of me? Have I told you how many times I've had to use the bathroo-?"

"Yes. We know!" Henry and Stephanie cut the blonde off as they spoke in unison. All three of them glanced at each other simultaneously, amusement clear on each one of their faces before they broke down into laughter, the audience joining in with both laughter and applause.

"Anyway, thank you for being here with us this afternoon and welcome to Metro Today," the red-head grinned at the audience with bright white teeth, both hands on his knees. "I'm your man with the plan, Henry J. Olsen."
 
The blonde on the far side of him grinned, hands clasped together in front of her. "I'm Cassie Arnold."
 
"And I'm Rachel Davenport," The brunette in the middle said with another wink. "We're live from Heroes Square in the heart of beautiful, bustling Metropolis, Delaware. Our weather forecast for the day shows a high of 75, and once again, the skies bright, clear and blue."
 
"Thank you, Rach," Cassie chimed in. "So, Henry, what do we have for the audience at home?"
 
"Well, Cassie, we have a lot of fun special topics to talk about from big events happening all across the country to a live musical performance on the show by hot new rapper Karter B!"

Cheering broke up Henry's words, the audience clearly excited for live music even if they had little to no idea who was performing.

"However," Henry Olsen continued on, "the big thing that everyone is tuning in for is going to happen in about half an hour. We have a super-duper guest on Today and he can't wait to come out here and give us some big news with a guest of his own. One of the members of the Justice League, the hero of Kansas City and the Silver Sentinel himself, Captain... Atom!"
 
Cassie shook her head with a laugh as the younger Stephanie joined in on the audience's rabid applause and whooping. "I can't wait myself either but we're gonna have to wait to see what Captain Atom has to show us. For now though, let's talk LexTrum and Pixtagraph. Which social media service is the hottest right now and for what?"

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"And welcome back!" Stephanie Davenport announced as the standing audience clapped for all they were worth, everyone in attendance clapping loudly in anticipation for what they knew was coming up next.

"Our special guest this morning is a home-grown superhero, an officer of the United States Air Force, and a member of the Justice League, please give it up for the legendary Captain Atom!!!"
 
The audience went from loud clapping to an outright wall of sound from the noise of their cheering and applause as the three show hosts stood up and turned their gazes to the left of the stage.

On cue, a man covered entirely in what looked like unblemished and highly polished silver stepped out from behind a curtain. With a polite smile to the cheering audience, the hero raised one hand and gave a slow and controlled wave to the people of Metropolis, both in attendance and the ones watching wherever they happened to be. Captain Atom looked like a masterpiece, a living sculpture carved from a single pure element, the only thing breaking up the argent makeup of his body being the scarlet red of the emblem on his chest and the similar coloring of his gloves and boots.

And even those seemed to be pretty much painted on.

Standing statuesque at well over six feet tall, every eye in the studio was on him as the heroic captain marched forward toward the stage.

It was for that captivating reason that it took the audience more than a few long seconds before they seemed to catch sight of a much smaller figure as he exited the curtain immediately afterwards and made his way into the studio following right behind the Captain.

He stood just barely five feet tall but he strode right behind the much-taller and imposing Captain Atom with confidence. Where the captain was Silver broken up by Red, the young boy's costume was a distinct cobalt blue from top to bottom separated by lines of bright white. From the visor-like goggles over his eyes to his gloves, sneakers, the jacket he wore and the tight jumpsuit he had on underneath all of the above, the boy's outfit and his ease at the hero's side screamed one thing loudly to everyone watching...

"SIDEKICK!"

With a pep in his step and a smile on his face, the young man waved right back at the still-cheering audience as he dropped himself down on the gray couch next to his mentor and across from the hosts of the show.

"Good morning! Good morning to everyone here and at home." Captain Atom's deep voice rang smoothly as his head slowly turned from side-to-side as if taking in the faces of everyone present. "Thank you for having me on your show," he continued. "It's been a while since I've last appeared on a program quite like this."

"Yeah, what's it been, Captain?" Henry asked, a single eyebrow raised as he leaned forward. "Two, three years since your last time on a talk show?"

"Wait, no... wait a minute," Stephanie raised a finger, hair bouncing as she shook her head.  "Two years ago, he joined the Justice League and he announced that on... was it Leno? "

Captain Atom nodded, a slight chuckle leaving him with the motion. "It was Leno, yes. I was honored to be a guest."

"And of course, he had to be honored to have you on as a guest," Cassie continued. "But three years ago, your debut, you... You were on with Letterman, right?"

"Again, that's right. I was there to introduce myself to the country in a less formal setting than just an announcement," Captain Atom's lips tightened,  mouth forming a line so thin that it appeared almost invisible against the silver sheen of his face. "You've all heard the story, of course."

"Of course! Who could forget?" Henry Olsen brightened, hands clapping together as he nodded his head. "Brave officer testing a missile, caught in the explosion, and came back to life years later looking like..." After a moment of silence, Olsen shrugged his shoulders and gestured to the superhero sitting across from him. "Well, looking the way you do."

"That's pretty much it," Captain Atom replied calmly.

"Again, thank you for coming, Captain, but... I think I have to ask the question on everyone's mind right now," Stephanie leaned in with a smile as she turned her gaze to the left of Captain Atom, the actions mimicked by  both her cohosts. "Who is this little cutie pie next to you?"
 
"Well, he's actually the reason I'm here today." The captain shifted his body slightly as he turned his head to face the pre-teen sitting next to him with an expectant smile. One large arm wrapped itself around the boy's back, a scarlet hand resting itself on his shoulder before he continued speaking. "However, I don't plan on speaking for him. He can introduce himself."

With a nod at the kid, Captain Atom pushed him forward with a gentle nudge, the boy in blue taking that as his cue to stand up. "Hello, everyone... " Smile still on his face, he struck a quick pose that he probably intended as heroic, both fists on his hips as he stood with his head tilted upwards. However, despite his intentions, it only came off as more cute or precocious than anything else. "My name is Proton Genesis and I'm Captain Atom's sidekick!"

The audience cheered regardless.
 
Henry Olsen let out a laugh as his two cohosts threw their hands over their faces in failed attempts to hide their patronizing smiles. "Oh my God, he's adorable!" Cassie cooed, hand dropping from her face to her heart.

"Uhhh..." Proton Genesis seemed to falter slightly, his smile weakening underneath his goggles. Coughing slightly into his gloved hand, he sat down once again. "Thank you, uh... ma'am."

"And so polite too! Isn't he just the cutest?" Stephanie squeed to match the older Cassie's coo. "He's even cuter than Henry's kids, maybe."

The man in question shrugged. "I wouldn't say that. My twins are pretty darn cute, last I checked," he added with a laugh. The man's gaze drifted as he spoke, moving from Cassie to the audience before finally landing back on the silvery form of the Justice Leaguer on the couch. "So, Captain Atom, tell us... you've always seemed to be somewhat of a lone hero. Why does a man like you feel the need for a sidekick?"

"Well, Henry, it's not that anyone finds themselves in need of a sidekick, that I know of," Captain Atom replied with a slight raise of his head. His hands sat folded in his lap as he kept his attention firmly on Olsen. "The point, as I've come to understand it, of a hero of a certain caliber taking on a sidekick is not for any desire for assistance but simply to help along the next generation of heroes. I was an adult and an officer with years of experience and military training when I found myself with these abilities and even then I was disoriented... confused... lost..."

Captain Atom went silent, the studio just as quiet waiting for him to continue what he had on his mind. After a few moments, the hero seemed to find himself as he nodded again and continued. "If I could feel that way with strange powers that I had no context for, no understanding of, can't you imagine what a young teenager could be going through?"

The audience burst into applause again at the captain's words, the hosts joining in as well after a moment of shared confusion. "Beautiful, beautiful statement, Captain," Cassie spoke up again, before directing her attention back to the topic of discussion. "Now Proton..."

"Genesis."

"I'm sorry?"

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"Genesis."

Zeke regretted the interruption as soon as it left his mouth, unable to help himself from uttering the correction. Why did you.... ugh. His eyes slammed shut behind his goggles, a slight exhale of frustration leaving his mouth as he felt the attention of all the show hosts and the audience land themselves firmly on him. Why did you speak?

He already felt the stress - annoyance? - of being under the bright studio lights and cameras broadcasting live nationwide being pointed in his direction, but to be under the focused scrutiny of a live audience too?

That was just bitter frosting on a cake he barely liked already.

The pose and self-introduction had been the limit of his confidence already, and he had only done that much because Captain Atom had requested that of him, his words something like "the world needs to see that you are your own person. I don't intend to be your mouthpiece, at least for that much."

Zeke understood.

He didn't like it all that much, but he did understand it.

There was a reason he had asked the Captain to do most of the speaking for him, almost begged him even. Much the same way he didn't feel trained up enough for real superhero work, the fiascos the League called missions included in that, he most definitely wasn't trained enough to handle the attention that came with being on live television.

"I'm sorry?" The young sidekick winced behind his visor again as the older blond woman - Cassie Something? - seemed to focus her attention even more on him after his unintended interruption, her  body language showing as much as she sat up and leaned forward on the couch with her own blue eyes trying to pierce through his visor. "You said Genesis?"

Zeke raised his hands apologetically, nervous laughter spilling out of his mouth. "Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to interrupt you." He swallowed a mouthful of nothing as he tried to avoid looking at the blonde hosts, or any of her co-hosts in particular. "It's just... if you're gonna shorten it, I just... I prefer Genesis, y'know."

"Oh?" the older blonde pulled a slight face, one of slight confusion rather than anything else. "Mind if I ask why that is?" She leaned forward slightly more, still doing her best to make direct eye contact with him. "Why Genesis and not Proton?"

"Uhh... well, no reason, really. I just... uhh," Genesis coughed into his fist again, looking away for a moment. "I just like it better?"

That much was true. He did like it better.

It was the name he originally chose for himself, after all.

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"You're working with Captain Atom and you couldn't come up with a name that fit?" Ms. Wilson paused at that, finally having gotten to the crux of her point, not even noticing that neither Zeke nor the captain were paying her much attention at this point as they returned to their paperwork.
 
"You know, I literally have a list of names prepared for something just like this. If you had just come to me first, I could have given you some that tested extremely well with most audiences, like, for instance; Warhead, X-Ray, Manhattan, Atom Smasher, Proton, Megaton, Nuke, Fission, Radical, Particle Lad, Fallout Boy…" She finally paused to rub the bridge of her nose, letting out a long breath as she did so.
 
"Just… see if you can give... Proton a try. For marketing purposes, at least. You can put whatever you want down on that form but just try the name out."
 
Zeke stared back, chewing on his bottom lip for a moment as he mulled it over. He glanced over at Captain Atom, the man saying nothing, and then back again to Ms. Wilson, before letting out a sigh. "I… I'll think about it."

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And think about he did.

After a few long hard thunkings, he then decided to do what Captain Atom's PR Manager had said and used one of the names she offered. Technically, he used it as a prefix to what he considered his real superhero name, but it was still there.

Pretty genius move, in his humble opinion.

"Okay, but even then, why Proton Genesis?" Zeke blinked, the sidekick pulled from his thoughts as the younger - and hotter  - co-host took her turn to speak, the woman's voluminous hair bouncing as she tilted her head to the side. This woman was one he knew somewhat well enough to remember her name, given that he had plenty of free time the last month and a half to use Google and stream media on his S.T.A.R.Tab. A young actress who had done a few kid-friendly shows growing up before going onto some long-running appearances on more mature TV shows, Stephanie had one huge part as the female lead for a comic book movie called Warrior Angel. With that over, the starlet decided to rest for a bit and took up this job on one of America's biggest talk shows.

"Seriously, it's kinda weird isn't it? Proton Genesis?" She laughed slightly, as she popped the "P" in the first part of his new code-name.

"Is it really that weird?" he questioned back, not sure how to answer her question.

Staring back at her, Zeke could see that the woman had a look of bright curiosity as well as a sharp and cunning awareness behind her eyes, one that seemed slightly at odds with her bubbly personality and shockingly bright neon-pink clothing. "I mean, it doesn't really fit much, does it? Captain Atom. Proton Genesis." She paused to give a dismissive wave of her hand. "Not Kid Atom? Atom Lad? Sergeant Atom?"

“Genesis chose his name, Stephanie,” Captain Atom answered, choosing to cut in. “He chose his own name for himself and I saw no problem with it. He’s not a soldier. He might be one when he reaches the age for it, but that's going to be up to him and him alone. He doesn’t need to worry about following my footsteps, so much as following my example.”

The hosts waited for the audience to die down with the applause again as Captain Atom finished, all three of them giving him appreciative nods at that answer.

"One question, though, before we continue," Henry Olsen - why does that sound so familiar - raised a finger as he chimed in. "Captain, what about him made you choose Genesis as your sidekick? What stood out to you?"

"Well... what do you mean by that, exactly?" the Captain asked back, neither his tone or expression betraying his thoughts. "I mean, he's a great kid. What wouldn't?"

"No harm, Captain," Olsen raised his own hands with a little laugh. "I'm just saying that there's more than a bunch of super kids and super people running around out there, holding little super-conventions and running around their neighborhoods trying to fight crime. What is it about Genesis that makes him a stand-out and not, let's say... uh, little Timmy in Wisconsin who can bend spoons with the power of his mind?"

Zeke nodded, honestly having expected this question or something like it to come up. Well, I guess I wasn't the one who expected it but she told me to expect it so...

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"You need to play up some thematic connection, kid," Willow Wilson's sharp voice rang clear as she dropped a stack of papers on the desk in front of him and looked him directly in the eyes. "Okay, because as it is, you two are as different as can be and don't read too much into that statement. That's a request from me."

The woman straightened her back and let out a long sigh before dropping her head back down to cast a glance in Captain Atom's direction before returning her brown eyes back to Zeke's blue. "Look, the public needs to latch on to something. The Captain's only been around three years but he's made one heckuva splash already. The public knows him as a hero. The public has seen him do things they would usually expect from Superman. The public is going to want answers!"

Willow slammed her palms down on the table, sending several of those oh-so-neatly stacked papers of a few seconds ago flying around the office. "Why are you his sidekick? Why not any other random metahuman kid? Especially one of their own kid. Because they're going to want to know and Cap saying 'well, I just had a good feeling about this one' is really not going to cut it. Now, this probably might not quiet the geeks and the smarter people on the internet who make this their life but for everyone else, they'll eat it up. So, what you're gonna tell them is this…"

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"I can actually answer that one." Zeke smiled at the familiar-looking redheaded man and held both of his hands out in front of him, palms facing up as he cupped them together.

"See, the Captain and me kinda have the same kind of energy bouncing around inside us. Quantum stuff, y’know." His gloved palms began to glow brightly, a sparse collection of blue energy flaring up in the center of them both.

Spreading his hands apart, the energy collected in between simply split apart, half of the not-quite ball of energy sticking to each hand and brightening further as Zeke fed each hand more mana. "See, even though I'm not shiny and chrome or anywhere near as strong as the Captain, I could still hurt myself if I don't know what I'm doing. So, Cap took me under his wing."

Just like that, Zeke slammed both his hands together, dissipating the light show as he flashed a grin at the shocked hosts and awed audience.

Awareness: Mana 19 → 20

CHA 12 → 13

"My goodness, that was amazing," Cassie finally spoke up, getting over her shock a few moments after the display came to a close. "Wasn't that amazing, everyone?"

Once again, applause filled the studio.

"I'm glad to hear that," Zeke replied with faked relief. "I was worried I had some of you scared. Guess I should have asked permission before I did that, huh?"

"Maybe you should have," Stephanie replied back in a stage whisper and a wink.

"Just maybe." Cassie repeated, in a slightly less playful tone.  
 
Zeke nodded in understanding. "That's the type of stuff I have perfect control over.  The little stuff. I figure if I give it a couple of years, maybe by the time I hit eighteen, I'll be able to do 5% of the things Cap can."

A heavy hand clapped his back, Zeke nearly tipping forward if it wasn't for the same hand gripping his shoulder to keep him from falling out of his seat. "I'm sure you'll be even stronger than that, son."
 
That earned a lot of applause from the audience and a set of appreciative "Awwwws" rang out throughout the studio.

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