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The sun was hanging just above the skyline as Vincent and Pulsar strolled through the busy streets of Fremont. Thanks to a circle of bodyguards keeping a low profile around them, they managed to blend into the crowd.

Vincent walked with a lively, quick step, talking excitedly as they went along.

"Now that you've officially signed on with TitanTech as a brand ambassador, the real magic happens. This is where we start to elevate you from just 'another hero' to the hero. And it's going to be beautiful."

Vincent grinned and gave her a sideways glance.

Pulsar squirmed slightly in her form-fitting hero suit.

It wasn't like she wasn't used to it by now, but after the long day, she felt like she'd been shrink-wrapped in fabric.

"Can I change out of this already? This suit's a bit tight."

Pulsar said as she tugged at the collar.

Vincent shot her a sidelong look, his smirk as sharp as ever.

"Not yet. Remember, Maya Rivera doesn't exist out here. No one cares about her. It's Pulsar they're here to see."

She sighed and looked away. "Alright, fine."

"Good girl…"

Vincent said with a smile as he clapped his hands together excitedly.

He patted her back as they continued walking.

"And look, we're here!"

"Huh…?"

Pulsar blinked at the sight before her… a towering luxury hotel with gleaming glass doors and a red carpet stretching out like a path of royal invitation.

It was the Crown & Compass Resort.

"A five-star hotel, muhaha!" Vincent rejoiced.

As for Pulsar… not so much.

"Wait, here? I thought we were going to stay for the night, maybe two."

"Oh, no, no. We're here for a few weeks, at least!"

It was such a casual reply from Vincent, as if this had been the plan all along.

Pulsar's jaw dropped. "Weeks?! I need to get back to Metro City; I can't just stay here—"

But Vincent silenced her with a wave of his hand.

"Already talked to your dad, remember? Dr. Hiram's on board as long as it's good for your hero training."

Pulsar bit her lip, looking conflicted.

"What about my boyfriend?"

"BAHAHAHA!"

"What…?" Pulsar asked in a flat tone.

Vincent's face turned plain. "Your boyfriend? Sweetheart, I couldn't care less about that loser."

The bodyguards were busy unloading the luggage behind them, rolling it smoothly into the grand lobby and taking care of the check-in without a hitch.

Vincent walked ahead, leading her inside.

As they stepped in, the concierge's face lit up with recognition, and he eagerly led Pulsar up to her suite, with Vincent following, looking quite pleased.

When they finally entered the suite, Pulsar's eyes widened in child-like amazement.

"WOOOOOOAAAHHH!"

The suite was enormous… ceiling-high windows offered a view of Fremont's glittering skyline, and plush furniture filled the space with modern elegance. A king-sized bed with satin pillows and a luxurious velvet sofa completed the scene.

"I've never seen a hotel room like this. N-, Not even in the friggin' movies!"

She couldn't even shut her mouth.

Vincent chuckled at her stunned expression the quickly pulled out his phone.

"Hold still…"

He grinned and snapped a quick photo.

"Priceless!"

She glared at him. "What are you doing with that?"

He just grinned and tapped away on his screen. "Posting it on your Instaflick."

"Instaflick?" she sputtered. "I don't have one."

Vincent smirked, not even glancing up. "Well, you do now. My team set it up about four hours ago."

Pulsar's jaw dropped.

"WHAT──?!"

She lunged for the phone, practically snatching it from his hand. Her mouth fell open as she saw her new account: sleek profile picture, flashy header, the works. And the numbers were unbelievable.

"500K followers already? How did that happen?"

Vincent leaned in, clearly pleased with himself.

"Let's just say I called in a few favors. After that unexpected collab with Lady Fortress to take down Radion, I convinced her to take a selfie with you. As soon as we opened your account, she posted it and tagged you. Boom. Instant followers."

Pulsar's face turned sad.

"So… she didn't actually want a selfie with me."

"Who cares?"

Vincent waved her off as he chuckled.

"She knows how to play the game. Besides, she's hardly the selfie type."

"Well, I-, I guess you're right…"

Pulsar was still feeling a bit sad, but it all made sense now.

She could clearly remember when Lady Fortress approached her and suggested they take a quick selfie. From what she had heard and seen in animated series about Lady Fortress, she didn't seem like the fun type. She always came off as very stern and uptight, which made sense since she was an alien from another galaxy.

But Pulsar didn't think too much about that at the time because she was just so excited to take a picture with one of her idols.

To her, it felt like a sign of mutual respect.

『Welp, so much for mutual respect…』

Pulsar's face soured, but she said nothing and just stared at the screen as Vincent patted her shoulder.

"Check out your latest post. It's already blowing up."

Curious, she refreshed her profile and saw her own shocked face staring back at her, captioned:

[First night in Fremont! Loving my new digs. Excited to make my mark as the world's next big hero!]

Vincent even tagged TitanTech Industries and Lady Fortress herself, who'd already left a comment with a simple thumbs-up emoji.

She refreshed the post and saw the likes climb by the thousands—3,000, then 5,000, then even more.

Comments flooded in below it:

[OMG so cute, is this our new superheroine? (✦ ‿ ✦)]

[Show us your face, please! ｡^‿^｡]

[Are you going live on Instaflick soon?!]

[Bet she's like 5'2"—another snack-size hero, lol!]

[Does she have a FansOnly? (¬‿¬)]

[Flat like Lady Fortress, but we stan!]

[Why are all the new heroines flat like LF? ( •_•)]

[Only here because of Lady Fortress]

[Watch us never talk about her in the next 3 months ≖‿≖]

[Can't wait to see her in action! (─‿─)]

---

Vincent chuckled as he leaned over her shoulder.

"Look at this engagement rate. And those comments… fuckin' priceless, bahaha!"

He nudged her with clear amusement.

She switched off her phone, feeling both excited and uneasy about the sudden attention she was getting.

"This… this is a lot."

"It's showbiz."

Vincent replied breezily.

"Your brand is all about the spotlight now. You've got the cute looks, the powers, and the support of TitanTech. All you need to do is play the game."

Pulsar sank down onto the plush couch.

There was a lot to process.

"So, this is it… I'm really… famous?"

"Correction—you're a brand," he reminded her with a smile. "And the magic? It's only just started."

━ ━ ━ ━

In a quiet corner of the school lab, Scott adjusted his goggles then held a hammer in one hand while pressing the strange green core firmly against the table with the other.

… bang! BANG! BANG!!

The bronze casing resisted each hit, sending off tiny sparks and bits of metal that flickered in the air.

Sitting off to the side, Gwen casually scrolled through Instaflick, occasionally looking up to check if Scott was making any progress.

"Man, you're lucky this isn't your room, or my mom would kill you for wrecking her countertops. But hey, I'm impressed. Didn't think you'd be able to sneak this thing in here without catching much attention. Perks of being a geek I guess."

Gwen said all this without taking her eyes off her screen.

Scott grunted, muttering, "Yeah, well… she'd kill you for saying anything anyway."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "You're probably right."

She continued scrolling, then froze when her eyes caught a familiar sight.

"Oh, wow. Well, well, look at this…"

"What?"

Scott didn't look up.

He was still focused on the stubborn casing.

She clicked on a trending account.

[ @PulsarOfficial

✢ Fremont, TitanTech Brand Ambassador

✢ Bio:

- Living Pulsar | Hero in Training | Making My Mark

- Fremont for the next big adventure ｡^‿^｡

- Collab'd with @LadyFortressOfficial against Radion to save half the country (─‿─)

- Managed by @TitanTechInd

- Definitely not single ♡!

✢ Follower Count: 509,645

✢ Following: 24

✢ Posts: 4 ]

Gwen checked the top post.

[ ✢ Image: Pulsar standing in her suit looking slightly surprised at her amazing hotel room.

✢ Caption: "First night in Fremont! Loving my new digs. Excited to make my mark as the world's next big hero! @TitanTechInd @LadyFortressOfficial #PulsarRising #NextGenHero"

✢ Likes: 112K

✢ Comments: 4,759 ]

She checked the latest post.

The caption read: "Tonight at 8 PM, I'm going live on Instaflick! You won't want to miss it!"

Gwen let out a snort.

"Oh my God… Some cute, newbie superhero chick is trending big-time. And haha, no surprise she's under TitanTech's wing."

"Another one? TitanTech's scooping up every potential S-rank hero these days. Crazy."

Scott replied, his attention half on her, half on the stubborn casing as he adjusted his grip.

"Her page is hilarious…"

Gwen laughed as she scrolled through the comments.

[I hope she makes spicy content (-‿◦)]

[She should wear something tighter!]

[Zero gyat, but I'd still hit fr!]

[Damn, she's so small and cute… I CAN'T (⁀ᗢ⁀)!!]

[I want her in a toy box ╰(▔∀▔)╯]

[I want her PERIODTTT!]

[Rule 34 are gonna have a field day with her (;☉_☉)]

Gwen scrunched her nose in mock horror.

"What the hell is wrong with people?"

Scott raised his eyebrow but kept hammering. "Superhero social media… never ceases to amaze."

"It's just—god, it's so cheesy…"

Gwen went on, still scrolling.

"Look, she's posing next to Lady Fortress like they're at a red-carpet event. Like, this is the same Lady Fortress that's fought people who could bend planets with their minds, and now she's doing photo ops?"

Scott forced a smirk and gave a particularly aggressive whack at the casing.

… BLAM!

"Probably have her doing fashion collabs next."

"Oh, they're on it…"

Gwen replied, holding up her phone to show him a post from Pulsar's page, complete with the hashtag:

[#FashionForTheFuture]

"There's, like, a dozen posts tagged with Pulsar already, and every one of them has a TitanTech sponsorship logo. She's gonna be really huge in a few years."

"Social media's a mess."

Scott muttered, focusing hard as he hammered another corner of the core casing.

"I haven't even checked my Chirper today."

"Yeah, 'cause that explosion was all over the news. You're afraid people are gonna blame Nightwatch or something?"

Scott's hands stilled for a second before he went back to hammering with a slight frown.

"Something like that."

Gwen's expression softened, and she went back to scrolling, now skimming over news articles instead.

She spoke up again after a moment.

"Looks like our new supergirl teamed up with Lady Fortress to take down a nuclear-powered villain named Radion. This guy apparently thought blowing up half the country was a good way to make friends."

"Cool," Scott mumbled, adjusting his position to finally crack the casing. "What's her name?"

But before Gwen could answer, Scott brought the hammer down with a solid whack, and the core finally broke free of the bronze shell. It rolled a few inches across the table, emitting a faint, eerie glow that pulsed in a rhythm, as if alive.

Scott gasped, quickly grabbing it. "Finally!"

"About damn time," Gwen said, slipping her phone into her pocket and leaning in with eager eyes. "What is it, anyway?"

Scott held the core up, watching the powerful green light pulse from within.

"It's… definitely some kind of power source. Alien tech mixed with regular tech, though."

"Uh, okay, that sounds vague. How do you know that?"

Gwen asked, raising an eyebrow.

Scott picked up a tester screwdriver and pointed it at the core, tapping at certain spots.

"See here? The wiring in the bronze casing has standard microprocessors, and these conductive charging plates—they're similar to stuff I've seen before. But here…"

He traced his finger over some unfamiliar wiring.

"This? This is definitely alien. And the casing metal doesn't even match anything in my textbooks."

"Uhh, yeah, fascinating…"

Gwen was obviously not fascinated.

But she at least tried to be enthusiastic about it all.

"So, how do you actually figure out what it does?"

"Good question…" Scott answered.

He lowered his safety goggles and thought for a moment.

"We'll need to run more tests."

Gwen crossed her arms.

"Yeah, Einstein, I don't know if you noticed, but this is a high school lab. We're not exactly rolling in advanced alien tech analyzers here."

Scott hardly heard her. "Maya's dad has some gear that might help."

"Maya's dad?" Gwen repeated, amused.

Scott's expression didn't change.

He carefully put the core down and brought out his phone.

When Scott dialed Maya's number, there was one thought constantly repeating in his head.

『Please pick up…』

And like he hoped, there was a response.

"Maya's phone. This is Vincent Lakewood."

When Scott heard this voice, his eyes sparked up.