Emily Monroe is NOT the Chosen One: The Complete Anthology

By Erik Schubach

Welcome to the complete anthology of the Emily Monroe is NOT the Chosen one novella series. You will find the entire trilogy of Emily Monroe's misadventures as a normal girl in a super powered world in this book.

Book 1 – Night Shift
Book 2 – Unchosen
Book 3 – Re-Chosen

So buckle up and enjoy an anti-apologetic, anti-hero, heroine as she fights injustice, one burger at a time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Erik Schubach
• Release date: Oct 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005623685

Erik Schubach

I got my start writing romance novels by accident. I have always been drawn to strong female characters in books, like Honor Harrington. And I also believe that there is a lack of LGBT characters in media. So one day I came up with a story idea that combines the two... two days later I completed the manuscript for Music of the Soul.My writing style may not be the most professional nor grammatically correct, but I never profess to be an English major, just a person that wants to share a story. I maintain that my primary language is sarcasm.Each of my books features strong likeable female characters that are flawed. I think that flaws and emotional or physical scars make us human and give us more character than simply conforming to some "social norm".I have also started a SciFi series, The Valkyrie Chronicles which features a Valkyrie, Kara, who was left behind on Earth five thousand years ago to help the Asgard race escape the onslaught of the Ragnarok horde. With the aid of a human, Kate, she holds the line in battle to herald the return of the Asgard!If you like magic, paranormal romance and witches, then my new series Fracture might tickle your fancy. In the first book Fracture: Divergence, Alex King must stop magic from destroying reality. The problem is that Alex must solve the case in parallel universes where in one Alex is male and female in the other.There is even a modern shapeshifter paranormal series, Drakon. Featuring a fiery Irish woman with a sharp wit and sharper temper who finds out she is a dragon of legend.

Book preview

Preface

Welcome to the complete anthology of the Emily Monroe is NOT the Chosen one novella series. You will find the entire trilogy of Emily Monroe's misadventures as a normal girl in a super powered world in this book.

Book 1 – Night Shift

Book 2 – Unchosen

Book 3 – Re-Chosen

So buckle up and enjoy an anti-apologetic, anti-hero, heroine as she fights injustice, one burger at a time.

~-oOo-~

Emily Monroe may be a lot of things, but one thing is for sure, she is NOT the Chosen One.

Emily is a normal girl working at Big Burger who has the unfortunate luck to look exactly like Big City's superhero darling, the Chosen One.

It has been the bane of her existence as it disrupts her life and those around her when super villains come knocking, wanting to prove their mettle by fighting the Chosen One. Nobody listens when she insists she isn't who they think she is.

With common sense and years of rage built up inside, she usually serves their butts to them on a platter, asking Did you want fries with that? No cape required.

Emily Monroe Is Not The Chosen One: Night Shift

By Erik Schubach

Copyright © 2018 by Erik Schubach

Published by Erik Schubach at Smashwords

P.O. Box 523

Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026

Cover Photo © 2018 Maxutov / DepositPhotos.com license and Makyzz / Freepik.com license

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, blog, or broadcast.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Manufactured in the United States of America

FIRST EDITION

Chapter 1 – Welcome To My Life

I stood in the alley doorway of Big Burger as I looked over my singed uniform. I dusted cherry red embers from the hem of my skirt and apron in the strobing lights of the emergency vehicles. I watched Containment Agents wheel Firebug away on a gurney, in power dampening cuffs, to the waiting ambulance.

Aw maaan, I'd have to buy yet another uniform. I wonder if Mrs. Yamamoto's Powered Mishap insurance would pay for it. It isn't like I made a fortune here on the night shift, flipping burgers. I brushed my brunette locks back over my shoulder and found some singed ends that smelled like... well, like burning hair. Aw, maaan!

Sometimes I wonder just where my life went wrong. A twenty-six-year-old with a degree in Powered Science should not be relegated to working fast food. But because of my personal curse, I find that nobody wants to hire me, as it would make their business a target for all the crazy wannabe supervillains here in Big City.

Mrs. Yamamoto is a friend of the matron of the orphanage I grew up in, and she seems to not care that I get her place trashed every other week. Not because of who I am, but because of who I look like. I think all the insurance claims are making her more than the receipts here at Big Burger.

Reporters in the growing crowd behind the crime scene tape were shouting questions to the Containment Agents. Agents, what happened here? What is that sticking up under the sheet behind Firebug? Did a super take him down?

Then I sighed heavily and quickly stepped back inside and closed the door when some teen boy shouted like a fangirl, pointing at me, It's the Chosen One! Crap on toast. I saw flashes around the door as reporters took pictures too late.

I rolled my eyes as I trudged into the now empty restaurant and started picking up the mess.

I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Emily Monroe, and I most certainly am NOT the Chosen One. I just happen to look freakishly like her, and I did my damndest to change my appearance, so crap like this didn't happen. I so hated Big City's superhero darling, the Chosen One, for looking like me, it has ruined my life.

In a world where superpowers are fairly common, I got stuck with looking like the one superhero who could manifest virtually unlimited abilities in order to fight the growing number of powered people who went the other way and decided to use their abilities for nefarious purposes.

Supervillains outnumbered Superheroes almost three to one in most cities, but they didn't have the Chosen One. I especially hate her because I actually do have powers... extremely lame powers. I can change both my eye color and the color of my finger and toenails.

While saving me a bit on the cost of nail polish, and helping me to try not to look like the blonde haired blue eyed flying sweetheart of the city, my powers are laughably pathetic. On the Peltier Scale, where zero is unpowered, and fifty is what they call Prime, the most powerful people in the world, I'm a zero point one, the Chosen One is a forty-nine point nine.

I dyed my hair brunette back in high school, and grew it in long when the teenaged sensation first showed up to save the day at city hall. Back when the Subjugator had shown up to mesmer the leaders of the city, and bend them to her will.

The sassy blonde with her cute pixie cut made short work of the villain and has been the defacto protector of Big City ever since. Everyone started pointing at me because I looked exactly like her, almost scarily so.

So I changed my blue eyes brown and have dyed my hair brunette ever since. One day I might be able to save enough to get some cosmetic surgery to change my looks, so I didn't have to live under her shadow my entire life. But on a night manager's salary, it isn't happening anytime soon. She's already ruined everything I have.

I wouldn't have been able to attend college with all the wannabe villains attacking me to make a name for themselves, if not for the Powered Discrimination Law for education establishments. They couldn't expel me for damage to the school and facilities by supers.

After graduation, I found the cold reality that most businesses wouldn't touch me with a ten-foot pole, not believing my vehement assurances that I wasn't the Chosen One's secret identity. They didn't want their businesses trashed if I was 'found out.'

So... now I flip a mean burger on the night shift, where nobody would look for the Chosen One. Unfortunately, sometimes a fanboy or fangirl will 'recognize me' and post on Twitter or Instagram and bam... a day or two later I have idiots like Firebug torching booth one, trying to get me to fight them.

I stepped through the swinging door out of the kitchen and into the restaurant dining room and looked at the mess, sighed, and started cleaning up as Hector, the counter attendant helped.

I looked over at the corner table by the restrooms, to see my roommate, Violet was still working on her computer tablet, drawing the latest issue of Blue Canary. She's been my best friend since the orphanage, where my birth parents had dumped me as a baby. And she's a damn good artist, being one of the top comic book talents, and was in high demand.

Unfortunately, her other most popular comic was... of course, the Chosen One. Her two titles just happened to be about two of the most famous superheroes here in Big City. It was ironic, I know, but it paid our rent and most of our bills. I dumped as much into our expenses as I could with my meager salary, and always felt as though I was sponging off my BFF.

She looked up and grinned at me. I shook my head at her with a slight smirk. How is it that you can always just sit there through something like this and never get hurt, Vi? I'd swear that you were powered, with some sort of luck field, if we didn't know you were a Norm.

Norms, or Normals, is what people who scored a zero on the Peltier Scale were called by those of us who were powered. Bigoted supers used the Zeroes slur, which I have never understood, since Norms outnumbered them ten to one and they would overwhelm us if they ever felt we were too much of a threat. Well, I guess I'm part of 'them,' though I'm close enough to a Norm.

My friend smiled and shrugged, her swoopy violet hair bobbing like quail feathers; yes I know, she takes her name seriously. That was about as chatty as she got. And with that, she went back to work with her electronic sketch pad.

Hector asked under his breath, Does this happen a lot? I swear I never told anyone your secret.

I muttered in exasperation, splaying my fingers, Again, not the Chosen One.

He looked over at me nervously and nodded. I understand.

Fricking donut holes, he still thinks I'm her. And he looked scared. He was going to rabbit after tonight, I knew the look. He was terrified of supervillains coming in and trashing the place and him getting hurt. I guess I couldn't blame him. Mrs. Y was going to have to hire another assistant for me. At least Hector lasted a week.

He whispered to me as I righted the last chair and grabbed the broom and dustpan to sweep up the debris, How did you jam the nozzle of the fire extinguisher up his ass like that? Was it your super strength?

I growled out, Not the Chosen One, Hector. The only thing super about it was how super mad I was that the asshole chased away the customers and torched my favorite booth.

He looked dubious and afraid. But he was powered, flames were shooting from his hands. And you stopped him.

I sighed and droned out as I rolled my eyes, Doesn't take a genius or a powered person to figure out how to put out a fire. You could have done the same with any fire extinguisher, well except the shoving it up his posterior thing. That was just for pissing me the hell off.

Vi chuckled from the corner, causing a smile to quirk at my lips. I was glad I amused her, see if she gets a free burger tomorrow.

I told Hector as I nudged my chin toward the strobing lights outside, They'll bumble around out there all night before they open the crime scene. We'll be shut down till morning for the breakfast crowd. Why don't you take the rest of the night off?

The words 'Open 24 Hours' painted on the doors may as well read 'Open Between Arrests,' since we locked the doors so often with me around. The kid didn't need to be told twice, and he was out the door like a shot. I doubt we'd get the uniform back, so he wouldn't be collecting his paycheck for the week. That might make up for the lost sales tonight.

Aww man, now I'd have to call Mrs. Yamamoto and let her know. I was hoping to go incident free this month.

Violet muttered her astute observation from behind her computer tablet, Never see him again.

Ok, I had to grin as I asked with amused chagrin, Ya think?

Her grin was all the response I'd get, I knew. She really only had loose lips when she was tipsy, I was surprised she decided to interject here at all. And when she decided to add to a conversation, she was generally funny as hell.

I sighed and put away the cleaning supplies and took some pictures of the booth for the insurance company. I winced, glad that it was illegal to deny coverage just because of multiple claims. You just know the people over at Big City Insurance hated me. Oh, and we had to get reimbursed for the fire extinguisher, I'm sure Mrs. Y wouldn't want it back, after its expedition to parts unknown.

Maybe I should walk across the street to Big Mart to grab a new one once the authorities were done with me.

Almost on cue, the bell above the door tinkled as two Containment Agents walked in, instead of the local police. Yup, there goes the rest of my night. These guys are anal to the nth degree with their questioning. Especially Agent Asaunt here.

I watched as the man took his English driving cap off, who did he think he was? Sherlock? He looked at the booth, then at me. He audibly sighed, and his shoulders slumped as his low grating voice droned out, We meet again, Miss Monroe.

The female agent with him, who stayed behind at the door must be new, I thought I had met all the local Containment Agents. And damn, if she hadn't been an agent, the chestnut-haired beauty would have had my motor running, especially with her brilliant green eyes. She looked a little surprised and upset when she looked at me, making motions with her eyes toward me which I didn't understand.

I assumed she had already labeled me troublemaker like all the rest, even though none of it was my fault. I tore my eyes from her, to settle my practiced innocent look the other bane of my existence... Special Agent Harmon Asaunt.

I asked, How's it hanging Agent Asshat?

He corrected with arrogant disdain, That's Agent Asaunt, Miss Monroe.

I know I shouldn't be one to cast stones with names, I was stuck with the last name Monroe because the prior director of Big City Orphanage had a pervy fascination with Marilyn Monroe. When I was found on the doorstep there, the basket I was found had a metal tag with the letters EM1-LY342 on it. So they called me Emily, and Doctor Graves said Doe and Smith were so overused, so he saddled me with Emily M. Monroe. I don't have to tell you what the M was for.

I nodded. Sorry, my bad Agent Asshaunt.

The other woman grinned cutely, covering her mouth with a hand to hide that grin. She saw my eyes on her, and she sobered quickly and made another gesturing look with her face that I didn't get. I would have paid to have her question me instead of ol' Harmon here. She was too cute to be an Agent.

The man pulled my attention back to him. You're just a magnet for Powered Incidents, Miss Monroe. It would almost leave me thinking this was some sort of insurance fraud scam going on if you didn't get hurt so much. He nudged his eyes to the gauze wrapping my left bicep where I had minor burns from Firebug's first punch, where he had caught me off guard.

Violet sat up at that, and took her first good look at me since the attack. Great Harmon, just give my best friend something to worry about. She knew I could handle myself against most powered people up to possibly a twenty-five rating, since most are dumb as stumps and rely solely on their powers, instead of common sense. It was really only those with superior strength that worried me.

But when I get hurt, Vi goes into mothering mode, which is why I didn't tell her I had been hurt before I went into the alley to meet the authorities, to begin with. I exhaled. Just swell.

The one time I went up against a super strength villain here, the Blue Canary had shown up to make short work of him. Nobody knows what powers she has, but she's only had problems once. When going up against a super speedster. But she was able to clothesline him, then almost cut his legs off with a monofilament trip line from the seemingly endless cache of gadgets she has.

That time she came to my aid, she moved like a ninja and just kept out of reach of the super strength villain. She sprayed carbon fiber instant drying foam on him which immobilized him, then toppled him with a flying roundhouse kick. Without a word, she saluted me in a silly manner and dashed off before the authorities showed up.

Violet didn't believe me when I told her that night until she saw it on the news. To my embarrassment, the purple haired traitor had a girl from a fast food restaurant in the next Blue Canary comic. I hate that I love my best friend... she thinks she's funny.

I let the memory drift away as the annoying Agent went on to question me about the events tonight, and have me step him through all the actions Firebug took which involved powers.

Maybe that's why I didn't like Containment very much, they only cared about the powers and not all the collateral damage to property and people that were left behind in shambles.

He had me go through it all twice, stopping me in disbelief when I told him where I shoved the fire extinguishing nozzle, and just why it was a bad idea for both heroes and villains to wear spandex.

When he looked skeptical that I could do that without powers, I asked, Would you like me to demonstrate for you Agent Asshorn?

He hissed out, Asaunt.

I shrugged. That's what I said.

The other Agent snorted this time and had the sense to look embarrassed when Asaunt turned back to look at her, eyebrow cocked. She was apparently his junior, judging by the way she straightened and took on a professional air under his scrutiny.

When they finally got everything they needed, including quantum decay radiometer readings to determine the level of power used in the past hour in the room, the other Agent gave me another one of those inscrutable looks. Like she was asking me what I thought I was doing, or something.

I did get her name though, Agent Heather Sams, when she pressed her card into my hand firmly, making intense eye contact as they left. I wondered absently if she might have been coming on to me. It was hard to tell, though I knew she'd be featured in some of my special alone time later. Too bad she was Containment or I would take a chance and call.

I pulled out my cell and tapped on Mrs. Yamamoto's emergency number and sighed heavily. Welcome to my life.

Chapter 2 – Photon

Mrs. Y was, as usual, cool about what happened. She had only asked, Are you ok, dear? when I told her I was, she just said, "Good. Then just finish out your shift and help the girls open for breakfast if