Post by Monika on Oct 31, 2011 21:47:12 GMT -5
Smith and Co. Engineering Firm
October 31, 2011
4:00 PM
October 31, 2011
4:00 PM
DING! DING! The 4 o'clock bell rang throughout the halls and in every office of Smith and Company Engineering, a mid sized technology company that specialized in making all sorts of gadgets - from toys to weaponry - as small as possible.
"Aaaand...done!" Benjamin Fischer, one of the firm's engineers, had just finished tightening the last screw on what appeared to be a dark blue gauntlet, roughly 2 feet in length, complete with claw like fingers and some sort of rectangular device mounted on the wrist. "I've still got to stay here another hour, but it'll be worth it when I can finally go home and see my kids!" From a drawer under his desk, Ben took out a photo of himself, his wife and two kids all smiling. "Can't believe the boss wouldn't let me have Halloween off, especially since I asked first..." As Ben looked around, he saw that he was, quite literally, the only engineer on duty that day. Everyone else was out doing some early Trick or Treating with their families while he was stuck here finishing a project that wasn't even a priority. "Sometimes I can't help but think that Rick has it in for me..." he sighed.
"Hellooooo!" came the sing song voice of Richard Salazar, Ben's charismatic (if not slightly flamboyant) supervisor. He was wearing an obnoxiously flashy sparkling white suit to complement his shining white teeth and nearly blinded Ben while walking past his cubicle.
"Speak of the devil..." Ben muttered, swiveling around to face his 'eternal tormentor', as he liked to say.
"All finished with that new project, hmm, Benjamin? Ha ha ha!" Rick strode into the cubicle as if he owned it and walked right up to Ben, peering over his shoulder at the gauntlet that sat on the desk.
"Well, it's technically still a prototype, but-
"Prototype, schmototype! It's absolutely gorgeous!" Never one to hear excuses (even valid ones) or ask permission, Rick reached right over Ben and grabbed the gauntlet, eying it over.
"Be careful with that, Rick," Ben sighed, knowing that warnings were of no avail when dealing with his boss. "It's pretty dangerous, and I want to keep it in tact when I present it to the president. Can't get that end of the year bonus with broken equipment, you know."
"Ha ha ha! You're too funny, Benny-boy!" Rick shook his head, flashing his dazzling smile and wagging his finger in what was possibly a condescending way.
"I beg your pardon? What's so funny, Rick?" Ben glared up at his boss in an expression of confusion and annoyance, reaching out to grab his gauntlet back.
Rick held the gauntlet closer to himself and said in an 'isn't it obvious' sort of tone "Don't be silly, Ben! You aren't going to be presenting the project! I am!"
"WHAT?!" Ben was naturally incredulous and incensed by the statement. After having worked through a day he had intended to spend with his family, that was the last thing he wanted to hear. "Rick, you can't be serious! You don't even know what it does!"
"I'll read the instruction manual, Ben!" Rick replied casually, again in his 'isn't it obvious' tone.
"Rick!" Ben now stood up from his chair and grabbed the gauntlet, trying to tug it away from Rick at any cost. "You took the credit for my transforming plane toy-
"That was pretty cool." Rick replied, tugging the gauntlet back to himself.
"-my Rubik's Sphere-" Ben pulled harder.
"Another good toy!" Rick pulled harder as well.
"-my flame glove-" Ben, now nearly red in the face, pulled as hard as he was able to.
"Definitely one of your better gizmos!" Rick commented, pulling the gauntlet as hard as Ben was, if not more so.
"-and now this? I haven't even seen a single penny from those three inventions, and now you're going to take this away from me too!?" Rick shouted, somehow pulling even harder than he was before.
"Ah ah! Inside voice, Ben!" Rick chided him, frowning and somehow managing to wrest the gauntlet from his subordinate's hands. "You know the rules! In life, there are the doers - you - and there are the thinkers - me. We thinkers are the ones that present; you doers are the ones that make! And look at you!" Rick took a hand mirror from his pocket, put his arm around Benjamin and looked at their reflection. "Slacks, blue polo, freckles, red hair, barely 6 feet and not the most handsome pumpkin in the patch. But look at me! Suave, debonair, white suit, black hair, 6 foot 2 and absolutely marvelous! One of us was destined to sit in the office and build all day, while the other was destined for greatness! That's just the order of the world, Benny. But fret not! I promise to give you a small percentage of the bonus I'm sure to get after presenting this baby to the head honcho!" Rick kissed the gauntlet and rubbed it affectionately, preparing to leave the cubicle.
It was that last comment that forced Benjamin far beyond his breaking point. For years he had been working for Smith and Co., watching as this sleazy Rick Salazar took credit for his hard work, mocked him at every given opportunity, exploited him and made his bonus money, money he desperately needed to pay for his apartment and family. Ben couldn't remember the last vacation he had taken, and today, on Halloween, a day he had requested off months in advance, he was unjustly forced to stay behind and complete a device that he wouldn't even be recognized for. As these thoughts ran through Ben's mind, something finally snapped, and all he could say was
"No more."
"Hmm? What was that, Benny-boy?" Rick turned around, only to find that Ben was charging at him at full speed.
"NO MORE!" Ben tackled his boss to the ground and started pummeling him in the face as hard as he could, each blow representing a day of torment Ben had suffered while working for him.
"Ow! Ben, what are you doing?!" Rick screamed in a rather high pitched voice, trying in vain to shield his precious face. "You stop this immediately before I terminate your employment!"
Seemingly obeying his boss, Ben, panting, stopped the punching for about 5 seconds, almost as if he were considering something. Glancing from Rick's swollen face to Rick's arms, Ben took the opportunity to seize his gauntlet back. This time, however, Ben slipped the gauntlet on his left arm, ensuring that it couldn't be taken away from him.
"You give that back immediately!" Rick shouted, struggling to stand up while gently patting his face, cringing when he felt a swollen spot around his forehead.
"But don't you want to know what it does? As an engineer, I've learned that firsthand experience trumps the greatest instruction manual," Ben laughed dryly, grabbing Rick's throat and lifting him up into the air effortlessly.
"LeeeEET meEE dOOwN!" Rick croaked as he gasped for what little air he could.
Ignoring him, Benjamin went on with his explanation. "This is my Electric Pulse Glove, Rick!" he spoke. "This allows me to deliver a high voltage electric pulse to whatever I'm touching at the time!" As Ben said this, blue bolts of electricity danced from his fingertips to Rick's neck and through his entire body.
BZT! BZZZZT!
"BeN! StOOoooP thiS MadNESs!" Poor Richard's body was now quivering with electricity, and there was naught he could do about it. His throat was being clenched so tightly that any attempts at crying for help were futile.
"It also augments my strength, as you may have noticed," Ben demonstrated by easily throwing his boss through the wall and into the next cubicle over, "and it works from long distances, too!" The rectangular device on Ben's gauntlet fired a low power laser beam in Rick's direction before sending a very high current across the beam directly through his body.
Somehow, Rick had yet to die from any of this, and managed to get to his knees, hoarsely choking out "Ben...You are...sooo fired when I get up!"
"Hahahahaha!" Ben walked to his desk and took another gauntlet from his drawer, this one a dark red with several canisters of clear liquid attached to it. "Only one of us is going to be fired today, Rick." He slipped the new gauntlet on his right arm and flexed his hand outward. A small flame appeared in the palm of his hand, and as he moved his wrist backward the flame in his hand grew larger and larger. "Remember this, Rick? The flame glove you stole from me two months ago? The one that got you a $20,000 bonus?"
Rick didn't answer, just looking up at Ben in contempt while rubbing his face to find any more bruises.
"Not so smooth talking now, huh?" Ben's right hand was now a veritable flamethrower. Pointing it toward the carpeted floor of his cubicle, he moved his wrist as far backward as it could go, increasing the size and length of the flame until it reached the carpet. Quickly the floor caught on fire, followed by the floor of the next cubicle, then the walls and the computers... "Try and take the credit for this one, Rick." Without another word to his manager, Ben nonchalantly strolled outside of Wright and Co. Engineering, sealing not only the door, but his boss's fate.
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Violet Grove Apartments #155
October 31, 2011
4:45 PM
October 31, 2011
4:45 PM
Ben shortly made it back to his apartment, number 155 in the shoddy, rundown Violet Grove apartment complex. By no means was it a nice place to be, but at least it was...livable. The cost of living in Valeshroud City was ridiculous, and it didn't help that Ben was rarely paid in full. As he walked up to his front door, he noticed a large yellow sheet of paper taped to it.
"Eviction notice?!" he read aloud, snatching the paper from the door in rage. "The last thing I needed..." Angrier than ever, Ben punched down the door and ran immediately to the bed in his room. He immediately noticed that no one was home. "Trick or treating, I suppose. All for the better I guess...No reason for them to worry about the home." he sighed. Thinking about his family generally calmed him down, so he tried to focus on them to relieve his anger. The more he focused, however, the further he sank into depression.
"What am I going to do? There's no way I can go back to work. I can't afford to go to prison, not with my wife and children to care for. But it's not like staying out is going to do me any good, with no money to pay my rent." Tears of rage and sorrow fell down Ben's face as he slowly came to the realization that there was little he could do.
"I just...need time to think," he said, wiping his eyes with the non-gauntleted part of his arm. He fell backwards onto what should have been his pillow, only to notice that something hard caught his fall instead. "What was that?" He sat back up and stared at what his head had hit. It was a pierrot/harlequin style mask, lying on his pillow, staring back at him with its empty eye spaces. "That's right. Wife was supposed to be a jester today, and the boys were going as a pirate and ninja. She must've left her mask here." Without thinking, he put the mask on and took a look at himself in his bathroom mirror.
"Is that what I look like with this on?" Ben laughed halfheartedly. "Kind of sinister," he thought aloud, taking a good look at his reflection. One side of the mask was black, one side was white, and neither side betrayed the person behind it. Ben's next idea hit him like a 16 wheeled truck. He quickly ran into his tiny closet and withdrew several articles of clothing.
"Bullet-proof vest," he muttered, throwing such a vest onto his bed. It was actually a gift from Rick, who had given it to Ben in lieu of his bonus money one year.
"Cape," he said, finding a black cape his youngest son had worn during last year's Halloween when trying to dress as the 'Silver Matador'.
"Boots, belt, shoulder pads..." One by one, Ben took all of these items from his closet. Once he had finished, he stared at the array of clothes on his bed, adding the mask he was wearing to the pile. "A little work and some paint and I'll be ready to go." A designer by trade, Ben knew that if he were going to go through with his plan, he would have to look decent doing it. Ben took a can of blood red spray paint and coated the right side of his wife's mask with it, coating the left side in dark blue. He then polished his boots and belt and carefully drew a mask-like symbol in the center of his vest. Finally, after about an hour of work, he switched from his work clothes to a long sleeve black shirt, black pants and boots, placing his vest, shoulder pads and cape over them. Last but not least, he put his now red and blue mask over his face and once again looked at himself in the bathroom mirror.
"Not bad..." Ben smiled, admiring his rather intimidating figure in the mirror. Amazing what a cape and some shoulder pads can do for a guy. He stroked his chin thoughtfully with the claws on his left hand, thinking aloud. "Now, all I need is a name..." Ben looked down at his left arm, cloaked in the Electric Pulse Glove he had created. He then gazed at his right, donned in the Flame Glove he had designed. "Fire and electricity..." he muttered, looking from his gauntlets to himself to the gauntlets again. "Fire and electricity..." he repeated. "Energy..."
It hit him.
"Joule." Ben nodded in the mirror, laughing silently. "Forever more, I shall be known as Joule, and I shall turn my family's fortune in the right direction!"
As he came up with this new moniker, lightning traveled across his left hand and fire danced around his right. No longer was he Ben, the deprived and degraded engineer. He was now Joule, the Master of Energy, and he would do anything and everything within his new found power to protect and provide for his family...
