“Goodbye Liz, take care” I wave back to Narissa who is waving me goodbye.

The sun starts to set and the sky turns orange, as people start to pack up and go home. I’m no different, as my work day is finally done.

Despite being a traffic enforcer, it is still quite stressful and after finishing our meal in the diner, Narissa and I kept talking about how our work was going, how busy life is and, despite Narissa’s bitterness about men, our love life.

In my whole 21 years of life, I’ve only had 2 relations, both didn’t last long and both my partners regretted leaving me. So right now, I’m single and have no intention of finding another partner since I still want to reach my dream of becoming a hero.

“Somehow”

I start walking home after taking a bus ride.

The district I live in is called Fallen Goddess district, aptly named after a story of a goddess who supposedly died and fell here.

Usually it would be very dangerous for a female to walk alone at night but in Mercury City the crime rate is below 1% almost making it nonexistent. This is thanks to the heroes who are a constant source of protection and the good social policies that the city leader implements.

It doesn’t mean everything is absolute, so every person in the city, especially non Meta humans must at least have some way of protecting themselves. This has already been part of the law for a few years. I carry an extremely small taser imprinted in my fingernails that are activated via mind activation.

Technology has advanced to the point where the human eye can act as mini computers, the mouth could have a built in speaker that amplifies one’s voice without damaging the body and one of the smaller examples are my fingernails.

They’re concealed and can take down dangerous assailants easily by surprise. They’re the perfect weapon for a frail and weak woman. Fortunately, I’m neither frail nor weak, since entering the police force requires you to be able to protect yourself but most importantly protect others. These powerful tasers hidden are simply an addition to what I can already do.

Eventually after 30 minutes, I reach my home, a simple single floor house. The outside of my house has half walls with small bars, protecting it from any would be thieves.

After entering, I turn on my lights. Greeting the house is a small living room, on my right side is a small bedroom and on the left side is the kitchen.

After reheating and eating the leftovers from the diner, I clean up and prepare to do my research.

Yes, my research on how to become a hero with a pure human body.

In the Meta age where people who can blow up buildings and lift mountains become a norm, there is what people call dormant Meta human DNA test or DMH test. Meta humans are born but their powers are dormant until the age of 10 and can awaken at any given moment, from age 10 up to the maximum of 18.

Every year, the hero organization God-slayers conduct a country wide test for every person aging from 10 up to 18. 10 years old is the earliest possible age to awaken Meta human capabilities and 18 would be the last.

There has never been any records of anyone below 10 or above 18 awakening. I took my DMH for 8 years straight and each year the results were the same, I was 100% human. If anything, I did set a record because I am the first human being to be purely human after the nuclear war.

And since life is better now, there is no need to research my body, so one could say that I am lucky.

I agree that I am lucky and I’d rather not be the target for constant experiments on why my body is 100% clean.

After cleaning everything up, I walk towards my bedroom.

My bedroom is filled with endless notes, stickered on the walls. The stickers range from meteor sightings to alien landings.

It might seem foolish and stupid but every sticker could be a lead to change my body, so I can finally become a hero.

If other people saw the burning passion in Elizabeth’s eyes, they would do nothing but stare until she focuses her eyes on other stuff.

Despite being shoved the truth everyday, Elizabeth strived harder than any Meta human, so that one day she might be able to change the world. Such a lofty goal would be respected unless if it came from someone who had no power.

“New target for today” staring at the mess of stickers on the wall, one would notice that some of them have red colored exes on them, while some are still clear.

The mutterings of the powerless beauty is so quiet that only she could hear it.

“Hmmm meteor sightings? No the media haven’t released any news concerning meteors, so I doubt I’d find any” after putting a red colored “maybe” on the meteor stickers, Elizabeth moved on to other pictures.

“Aliens, still no proof of their existence” after a little bit more of looking around, Elizabeth smiles.

“I think I can check this out” Elizabeth stares at the small sticker, saying radioactive electric fields.

Radioactive lightning would usually turn the strongest normal humans to ash and would pose harm to middle tier Meta humans and can even kill lower tier Meta humans but hope is dangerous like that, it turns people crazy.

After making her decision, Elizabeth immediately opens up her laptop. Unlike the new generation, Elizabeth still feels uncomfortable imprinting chips in her eyes, so she still buys laptops or computers.

After a few minutes of continuous searching and looking, it is clear that Elizabeth has been doing this for a very long time. Every single type and click is made clear to find the most important information.

“Aha, I found you”

After reading an article about a closed down nuclear plant, Elizabeth looked for more specific information. The closed down nuclear plant is named Cold life and its reason for closing is because they intend to renovate it to be more power efficient but after shuffling a little bit more, it seems the true reason for closing is because a random lightning bolt struck the power source when their systems was restarting and it overload it.

"That's weird..."

Any level of lightning shouldn’t be capable of doing that much damage to a nuclear plant that's fortified to be capable of withstanding earthquakes and Meta human fights. The company probably does not know the true cause and decided to give a different reason to be able to investigate secretly.

The nuclear plant is only a two districts away Fallen Goddess district. It’s inside the Prometheus district. Making it not too far and not too close, striking a firm middle ground of distance.

“Pfft! They can’t even keep their employees quiet but I guess I need to thank them for the information” After having a goal in her mind, Elizabeth becomes a woman of extreme focus, unstoppable will, and unshakeable intent.

Elizabeth starts looking for some of her important items. These are prepared items that always help her when she starts to do dangerous missions like this.

A few minutes later, Elizabeth is already outside her house, wearing black fit jeans with a shiny metallic sheen, dark colored running shoes that has a very small glow near the ankle and a long sleeve black shirt covered with a shiny metallic sheen.

After preparing everything, Elizabeth dons a small black metal circle on top of her forehead which immediately spreads wide to cover her whole face, leaving space for her eyes but if one looked closer, they'd notice that even the eyeholes have a thin layer, protecting the owner’s eyes from getting hurt.

On her right arm is a thick metal bracelet and on her left arm isa small armguard and finally on her pants is a black belt that seems to perfectly fit her while behind her is a backpack capable of carrying a few items.

The emergence of Meta humans has never stopped the human race from constantly making technology that helps and protect them. Elizabeth’s body carries 7 items that the human race developed and would be a great help to her. She has multiple items but they're not limited to her taser laden fingernails, life sustaining camouflage mask that can filter in clean air, a black colored top paired with jeans that’s made out of camouflage fibers derived from the camouflaging properties of the chameleon, a bracelet that can emit weak magnetic forces allowing her to roughly manipulate small metallic objects, an arm guard capable of making a shield made out of energy capable of blocking and nullifying the force of small bullets, a belt that can stretch up 10 meters, and finally shoes that can increase Elizabeth’s jump up to 5 meters.

A normal traffic enforcer shouldn’t be able to buy equipment like this but a hero eccentric that doesn’t spend money on anything else except necessities could buy these if they save enough. Despite all her equipment, she could barely scrape by as backup for the backup of the main police force, since Meta humans are still so much stronger than her especially, if the Meta humans use equipment to augment their already superhuman capabilities.

After making sure all her equipment is secure, Elizabeth starts jogging towards the nuclear plant.

Elizabeth’s continuous physical conditioning enables her to run long lengths without tiring. It would take an hour for one person to cross districts, if they took the rotating buses. It would take an hour and 30 minutes if one walks and 1 hour and 15 minutes if they jog and go through the shorter paths.

After 2 hours and 30 minutes of continuous jogging, Elizabeth reaches the front of Prometheus district.

Unlike Fallen Goddess district which is a home based district, Prometheus is a district that is solely for power production. Prometheus has rows upon rows of power plants, electric plants, hydro plants and nuclear plants.

After reaching the Cold life nuclear plant, Elizabeth skimmed the outer part which is less guarded. When the company closed the nuclear plant, it left some staff to do maintenance and guard the place just in case thieves decide to steal a few important objects.

After finding a smaller part of the fence, I activate my boots and jump across with my camouflage suit working its wonders. I land gracefully on the other side and hide. Once hidden, I deactivate my camouflage suit before I drain its remaining charge.

Despite the advances in technology, power is still a problem and my camouflage suit can only last a maximum of 30 minutes before becoming like any black jeans and long sleeves. My boots can only activate its jumping power 10 times before it becomes just another fashionable pair of shoes.

My armguard can only take so much force before it breaks and my magnetic bracelet can only continuously carry metallic objects for a max of 10 minutes. The only thing in my body that doesn’t require external energy is my belt.

Sadly my taser fingernails aren’t perfect either. They don’t require energy, as the energy they use comes from my body. The human mind generates an extremely small amount of electricity but it is enough for the mini tasers. My mini tasers take the small amount of electricity from my brain and then supercharge it. Once supercharged, it transfer it to my fingers before it damages my brain but I can only use it a maximum of 3 times or else I’ll fry my brain.

This is why normal humans can never surpass Meta humans.

Imagine a Meta human having my taser fingernails, they would be able to withstand more electricity since their minds can take 100x the stress of normal people. They can discharge 100x the power and 100x the amount. If my hands have a taser fingernail then Meta humans have tesla hands.

I start trailing the side of the power plant, slowly and surely. I bring out a small map, that I downloaded earlier, on my phone and go through the paths that I’m sure have no patrols.

“Who’s there?” Shit, I didn’t notice him.

I hide behind a corner before the security guard notices me. I calm my heart and silence my breathing. I hear the familiar sound of the safety of a gun being removed and the heavy steps nearing my position. I prepare myself to knock out the guard but before I can do anything, I suddenly hear a blaring alarm.

*ALARM ALARM ALARM*

“Subject No.42 has escaped the facility, prepare to use force” I calm myself and heave a sigh as the security runs to the gate.

Subject No.42, who’s that?

I wouldn’t be a good hero if I don’t take advantage of this situation right?