The bright, shiny halls of MegaCorp were full of life as busy executives and employees moved quickly between meetings. Some stared at their glowing screens, while others barked orders into their headsets.
On the top floor, in a spacious and luxurious office, Miss Mercury stood with her arms crossed. Her honey brown hair had a faint glow as it was still charged with leftover energy from her morning patrol.
She fixed a stern look on the man in front of her.
Gordon, her agent.
He was a portly man with slicked-back hair and an expensive suit that screamed corporate opportunist.
He sighed heavily as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Emma, you need to understand… the stunt with Titanus Magnus last night didn't help your reputation. You're lucky it didn't hurt it either. The media is surprisingly quiet, and your fans are still loyal, but you fumbled."
Emma Graves.
That was Miss Mercury's real identity.
She rolled her eyes and sat down in a chair, then stretched her legs out on the glass table. She adjusted her black and yellow bodysuit, which had a slight shimmer under the cold fluorescent lights in the room.
"I could've taken him down easily. If I'd gone at light speed, I would've ripped that overgrown tin can apart in seconds. I'm an S-tier hero by power, and you know it. It's this bureaucratic nonsense holding me back from being an A-rank. The Hero Agency, these stupid PR stunts, they're suffocating me!"
"NO!"
Gordon waved his hand dismissively.
He didn't want to hear such nonsense.
"This isn't about power. It's about image, Emma. Image is everything. The fans don't care if you can zip across the city in a millisecond; they care about how you look doing it. You're the face of MegaCorp's heroic division. You sell their gadgets, their merchandise, their lifestyle. You've gotta keep the masses entertained, and…"
"I am entertaining!"
Mercury cut him off with a sharp voice.
"I don't need your stupid PR stunts. I'm not some plastic toy to be paraded around!"
Gordon threw his hands up in disbelief.
He paced in front of the massive floor-to-ceiling windows.
"Listen, Emma, you might be a saint or whatever, but this business doesn't give a fuck about that. The plan is already in motion. The fans want more. A few racy leaks, maybe even a staged sex tape—it'll skyrocket your engagement. Your fans will eat it up."
Mercury's body tensed and her eyes went wide.
"Excuse me? You're actually suggesting that I—"
"—Release a sex tape, yes."
Gordon's tone was as casual as if they were discussing her next photoshoot.
"I'm a fuckin' virgin for goodness sake! I'm not doing something so… disgusting."
"Since when does virginity matter in this business? People want what they want. And right now, that's you. You want to stay on top, right? This is what it takes."
"How can you even say that?"
"It's business. Virginity? Pfft, no one cares about that anymore, especially in this market. The fans want a little more edge, something that makes you stand out. The competition is fierce, and if we don't give the people what they want—"
"I am not doing that."
Mercury's voice went ice cold.
"You can take your 'plan' and shove it up your snobby, old ass you son of a bitch!"
Gordon looked at her as though she was the unreasonable one in the room.
"This isn't about your dignity, Emma. It's about your career. You think these other heroes care about maintaining their 'purity'? They're out there playing the game, building their brands, raking in sponsorships."
But she'd had enough. Mercury turned on her heel and stormed toward the door.
"I'm a hero, Gordon, not some corporate puppet. I do real work. I'm not reducing myself to some shallow spectacle."
She pushed open the door as Gordon's authoritative, yet oddly desperate voice chased after her.
"Mercury! Mercury! Don't walk out of here! You're making a huge mistake!"
But she was done.
Gordon's voice faded into the background as she stepped into the hall.
━ ━ ━ ━
The moment Miss Mercury walked into the main lobby of MegaCorp, the mood in the room changed.
Workers stopped talking, and some even put down what they were doing just to get a look at her.
After all, she was MegaCorp's top hero.
Her radiant presence stood out as she moved with ease as her black and yellow suit perfectly fit her athletic body, showing everyone she was the heroine they admired.
"Miss Mercury!"
"Oh my gosh, it's her!"
"Can I get an autograph?"
"My daughter is a big fan of yours!"
She smiled politely to mask her frustration. Even though she resented the superficial attention, these people weren't the enemy. She signed a few autographs, posed for pictures, and waved at others who were too awestruck to approach.
But as she walked further into the building, something unusual grabbed her attention. Groups of employees were gathered around phones and tablets, watching something closely. The usual spark of excitement in their eyes when they saw her was dulled by curiosity for whatever they were watching.
She frowned and walked up to them.
But they didn't even look her way.
They just kept talking.
"Who is this guy?"
"Dunno, but he's got balls of steel. Look at him take on those robbers! Cheap kit and still managed it."
"He's… kind of badass, not gonna lie. Took a freakin' pulse cannon to the chest and lived."
Mercury frowned. What were they talking about?
She dramatically cleared her throat.
"What are you guys watching?"
The tech workers looked up, starstruck.
One of them, a younger guy with scruffy hair and glasses, nervously handed her his phone.
"Uh, it's… well, we found this stream clip last night. Some guy… some nobody, really. He broke into a corporate building and fought off these heavily armed robbers. It's gone viral. Everyone's talking about it."
Mercury's frown deepened as she took his phone.
She hit play, and the video began.
It was a shaky, livestream clip, but the action was clear.
A masked man, wearing what looked like a cheap, almost homemade costume, was fighting off several heavily armed robbers.
Armed only with two stun batons and pure determination, he was holding his own. She watched as he quickly hacked a door and took down two robbers in seconds.
The comments on the stream were going wild.
They were rooting for him.
Then, she saw it—the pulse cannon.
"HE'S GONNA GET HIT!"
Miss Mercury shouted and tightly grabbed the young man next to her, as if she were witnessing the event in real-time.
The masked man got hit square in the chest by a pulse cannon and the force of it sent him crashing through a window and into a car below. He groaned in pain, but still managed to get up and limp away into the night.
『He really survived that? With such cheap gear?』
She opened up the comment section.
[This guy's nuts!]
[No way he survived that!]
[Real hero material right here!]
Mercury's cheeks heated up.
"Wow…"
She even felt her heart skip a beat.
There was something about how he moved and fought with all his strength, even when the odds were against him, that made her… intrigued. He had a rough edge, an unpolished, raw determination that she wished she could see in herself.
Many of the tech workers looked at her in shock.
"M-, Miss Mercury, you're blushing!"
"Sh-, She really is…"
"This is the first time she's actually…"
Mercury scowled and quickly handed the phone back.
"Shut up."
But she couldn't deny it.
There was something captivating about this masked man.
The way the viewers were reacting to him… it wasn't about his body or his looks. They respected him for what he did, for the risks he took. And that's exactly what Miss Mercury had been desperately striving for… recognition for her heroics, not her appearance.
"Do you know anything else about this guy?"
Miss Mercury asked, trying to sound casual.
The workers exchanged glances before shrugging.
"Nah, not really. Just found the clip randomly. No one even knows his name."
Miss Mercury bit her lip.
『Damn it!』
She was desperate to meet this man in black.
『Wait a minute…』
A frown appeared on her youthful, pretty face again.
"This happened last night. In my patrol zone. Why wasn't I informed?"
The tech worker hesitated.
"Uh, well… you were at your photoshoot, and, um, we didn't want to disturb you…"
Her frown deepened.
She hated that answer.
While she was busy posing for cameras, someone else had been doing the job she was supposed to do.
And doing it well.
『I can't believe this…』
For the first time in a long while, Emma Graves found herself wanting to know more about someone else.
"I-, I should go…"
As she made her way toward the elevator, the clip replayed in her mind.
The tech workers just stood there with smug faces.
"She has a crush on him."
"Definitely…"
"So that's Miss Mercury's type. She's never shown interest in any guy before. Even Xenon, who's an A-rank hero, is after her, and she doesn't seem to care. I always thought she might be into women."
"Well… this proves us wrong."