SUPERGENE

Chapter 04

A/N Hey! If you're confused, I decided to break up chapter 3 into 2 parts because it was super long. This is the 2nd part. 

We ultimately decide on a nearby Panera Bread, laughing and eating in the warm building as the sky melts into a pool of inky black.

There's still plenty of extra time before we need to meet up with Mr. Miller at the entrance of the auditorium for the first event of the tournament, so we decide that we can be leisurely with our walk back. We each pay for our food— each under twenty dollars to take advantage of that sweet, sweet funding— and chatter away as we head down the noisy street past local city-goers.

On the way there, we pass by one of those touristy Chicago souvenir shops. You can tell right away what it is by the front window display, which is completely decked out in novelty trinkets coupled with the merchandise of past Chicagoland superheroes, most of which are paired with the city's classic light blue striped and red three starred flag.

I easily spot my dad's emblematic logo among the merchandise. It's a sleek design of an eye with a hollowed out circle for the iris, the same logo he would wear on the front of his suit. Each instance of it in the window is almost always paired with his catchphrase, "Always watching." The saying walks the line between comfortline and ominous, depending on what your intentions are. For citizens, he was the protective guardian over the city. For criminals, he watched them every move.

"Oh, sick!" Jake gushes, "They have TWE action figures." That's often the abbreviation for The Watchful Eye. It takes me a minute for me to piece together that the superhero he's referring to is also my dad. At times, I find it hard to connect the person to his alter persona.

I wasn't told a lot about the inner workings of the EGMD, but I do know that their Department of Heroes has an instrumental part to play in creating your alias. They earn your persona's rights for marketing and what-not, but they really gave my dad quite the mouthful when they named him. I could probably think of twenty way better names to call him off the top of my head: Piercing Vision, Mister Acuity, Sight Spear... the list goes on. If the D.O.H was still around, I would've killed to get a job for their marketing team.

Jake presses his palms against the window and cranes his neck forward to peer further inside. "And look, they've got retro Double Helix posters!" he turns to us, "Come on, we still have a couple of minutes, let's go check it out!" Before anyone can object, he's already pushed open the door and hurried inside. That's the sheer power of nerdom at work for you.

"Detour time," Brennan shrugs as he follows his friend in. The rest of us give each other defeated looks and follow the boys into the shop.

The door swings open with a welcoming jingle, but for a moment I have to squint my eyes at the sensory overload.

Inside is a shrine to every Supergenetic hero who has ever worked for the D.O.H. For every "I heart Chicago" shirt, there are at least five more featuring The Watchful Eye, Agro-Flash, or others, even if they weren't stationed in the city.

They even include the most recent and subsequently most short-lived superhero persona, Electric Pulse, in their merchandise. She was a woman who had such a high level of bodily conductivity that she could complete electric circuits without feeling the shock or pain and could even power a whole bunch of large light sources at once.

But just like the rest of the Supergenetic heroes, she disappeared into oblivion about ten years ago, leaving the modern era barren of superhuman icons. 

Apparently, the EGMD's research department deemed it unnecessary to continue sending heroes out because of the recent decrease in all major crime, leading to a lack of jobs for the ever-increasing pool of superheroes. When Aquatica is suddenly stuck ringing in boat theives instead of stopping an underwater bomb planted on a cruise ship, the world starts to view superheroes as glorified cops in shiny uniforms. It was a only matter of time before these vigilante government employees were replaced by technology. At least, that's what I've read.