An Ordinary Day...

The separation of hero and villain is simple, because it's based on purpose.

But what separates a hero from a normal person?

Is it being smarter than them?

Is it being more powerful than them?

Or is it a matter of wealth?

The answer, unsurprisingly, factors none of these

What separates a hero from a normal person, is whether or not they have the courage to do what others are afraid to do.

Consequences be damned.

-The words of a veteran, at the funeral of a man who died saving him and fifty-three others.

…

San Francisco.

A city that was the focal point for the Gold Rush, for the Hippie Movement, and countless other points in history that it has become more well-known than most other cities in the entire US of A.

In modern day, this city has become a hub for practically everyone regardless of their origins or social class.

Rich, poor, creatively inclined or techbro, it didn't matter, all could find a home here in this great city by the bay, and all could have a chance to make a living that was worth a damn.

But whether or not they could find these opportunities was another question entirely.

For example...

"Okay, that was three General Tsao's chicken combo platters, one Queen Cola, and two Pixie refreshers and a bunch of fortune cookies...all for one guy...must be nice to be rich," a young man muttered to himself as he marked the delivery order complete in his SprintEater app. "Now where to next?"

This man, sitting in the driver seat of a serviceable hybrid car from the late 2010s, was a young twenty-something by the name of Stanford Kirby, or SK for short.

And by every conceivable metric, he was...ordinary.

"Somebody wants to order Mexican half way across the city," SK muttered while checking through the map of potential customers."Oh, this guy wants Thai...wait, I think the counter lady who owns that place still has beef with me about the time I called her out for using expired mushrooms in the pad thai...better to avoid that."

He was born to a middle class family, he was also a talented artist that had zero following on any major social media site and despite having a college degree, he couldn't find a job worth a damn. 

Whether this lack of a solid job was due to a combination of corporate greed he couldn't contest, the fact he didn't know who he had to suck up to in order to get a permanent job at any of those aforementioned corporation, or because he didn't really want to work in an office his whole life was unclear.

"Okay, this one sounds good! Indian food to be delivered to the Hunter's Point Naval shipyard. Perfect."

What was clear though, was that he wanted to become the next Stan Lee…or Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson.

Either way, he wanted to make the next great superhero comic.

"Hmmm, should i try sketching a pirate based hero or a battleship themed one later?," SK thought to himself, inspired by the location he was going to be driving to shortly, as he made the drive over to an Indian place he had never heard of before called "Desi and Daal".

Now, the thing about making comic books, especially superhero ones, is that the major publishers of this genre were rather…stuck in their ways.

Instead of wanting to take a gamble in creating new intellectual properties and invest in indie writers and artists to make something new, they would rather force them into reinventing tried and true franchise winners so that they could minimize risk while maximizing profits.

The independent online publishing scene wasn't much better either, as his comics never seemed to catch on like those at the top of the leaderboards. Then again, it probably didn't help that his update schedule was irregular at best.

Regardless, this inability to get noticed led to a situation where SK could not grow as a comic book artist, and was forced to take up gig jobs in order to stay afloat.

"One Mung Daal with extra garlic naan, ready to go!"

"Thanks!"

But the funny thing about becoming a popular content creator, is that a good chunk of their success was based on luck and opportunity.

And in just a matter of moments, SK's luck was about to take a turn for the worst…but lead to a very interesting opportunity.

Of course, whether or not he was willing to take this opportunity was a different matter altogether.

…

By the time SK arrived at the shipyard, the mid-afternoon sun had long been replaced with the light of a full moon and a whole mess of stars.

"Okay, this is the spot," SK concluded as he saw his little driver icon arrive at the pinned point on his map. "And this place looks incredibly haunted, great…"

He was just about to leave his car and drop off the food directly to the guy at the security booth, but stopped himself when he noticed something rather strange.

'Wait a minute…why am I alone?'

The security booth that had placed the order was completely empty, at a time where it should've been occupied.

"Hmm…"

The logical part of SK assumed that the booth was empty because the security guard had probably gone to the bathroom at this time.

While the emotional part of SK assumed he had been pranked again, and would have to mark this order as being lost.

"Screw it," SK eventually sighed as he grabbed the food bag and got out of the car.

SK had concluded that the smart move in this situation was to just drop off the order, and go home.

BOOM!

"Oh what the hell?!"

Unfortunately, life had other ideas. 

Just as SK was about to drop off the food and scurry back to his car like a scared rodent, the sound of a nearby explosion caught him by surprise and subsequently floored him.

Thankfully, he made sure to drop off the food beforehand, so he didn't get a facefull of burning hot curry.

Unfortunately, this gave him the opportunity to fill his nostrils with the scent of the sea being mixed with burning piles of metal and scorched property. In fact, he could even make out the sight of a billowing smoke column in the distance.

"Okay, not my problem."

Picking himself up, SK came to one logical conclusion: he had to get as far away as possible, as quickly as possible.

"I gotta ignore that," SK told himself as he began to walk away from the booth and back to his car. "I gotta ignore that and-"

"H-help..."

"Huh?"

"Help..."

Just as SK was about to leave the area, he heard a subtle yell for help echoing across the empty shipyard.

"I can't..."

"Somebody...help..."

"..."

When SK was young, he once played a game about a theoretical physicist being forced to become a hero.

That game opened with a very peculiar line about how being the wrong man in the right place, could make all the difference in the world.

"I really shouldn't…"

For all intents and purposes, SK was nowhere near qualified to assist in a possible emergency. As such, going towards an explosion and helping a random stranger was definitely not something he should've done.

"I really REALLY shouldn't…"

Which is why he surprised himself, when he found himself running towards that cry for help.

'New plan! Call the police, get that person safe and...probably clock out of SprintEater while I'm at it...'

…Meanwhile, through the electric eyes of an outside observer…

"Well…this is interesting."

"Hmm? What is?"

"Take a look at monitor SF-008. Tell me, what do you see?"

"Hmmm…it appears to be a User of the Arcanis System going up against a User of the Machina System. Nothing too interesting about that."

"I ain't talking about them, I'm talking about that guy right there. The young man who is way in over their head."

"Oh, now I see...wait, why are you surprised by this? He could easily just be another User looking to cut in."

"See, I thought that too, until I saw where he was going."

"Towards the wrecked shipping containers full of goods? I estimate half of them to be at least be retailing for hundreds of-"

"No, towards the injured security guard that caught up in the crossfire. How many people do you know would be willing to help a total stranger like that?"

"Quite a few people, actually."

"How many of them are paid to save lives like that?"

"..."

"Exactly."

"So what? You think we have ourselves a proper hero on our hands or something? Someone to do the right thing no matter the danger?"

"Maybe."

"Seems idealistic."

"Well…in a world as cynical as ours, where megalomaniacs with too much power are the ones making the shots, I can't help but root for the guy who's just trying to do the right thing, ya know?"