A/N
DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Emoji Movie. All rights go to their respective owners. Credit also goes to the YMMV section for The Emoji Movie on TVTropes for inspiring me to come up with this idea.
Smiler's worst nightmare almost came true. Alex, the impulsive, delete-happy, even moronic owner of the phone had come within a second of wiping out not just all of Textopolis, but the entire damn phone. Why? Because of Gene.
Gene was supposed to be a "meh" emoji. Emphasis on "supposed to be". On his very first scanning, he couldn't hold still and keep the "meh" expression for half a second, let alone five. Even as a malfunction, it really shouldn't have been that difficult! But it wasn't just that Gene failed. It was that he failed, and somehow his failure was so disastrous that it nearly killed the city!
In his defense, he fixed it. He caused it, but he still fixed it. Smiler fell from power, became a laughing stock and never came up from the loser's lounge during her work hours, but no one in Textopolis was killed, and that was what was really important to her. The worst hadn't happened after all.
At least, that was what she, and everyone else thought...at first.
It wasn't long before Gene's special ability made him Alex's favorite. When he could make multiple faces at once, who needed the others? Soon enough, most of them didn't even bother coming to the texting center anymore. Why should they? If on the off-chance Alex needed them, Gene and Mel could just make the face needed anyway. With no one else working, Textopolis fell apart. No one had a purpose anymore. Just useless, unused emojis floating around on a phone. And in some ways...that was a fate worse than deletion.
But Smiler wasn't someone who would just sit down and accept the fate she had been subjected to. Over the course of several weeks, she began to follow Gene around from a distance; memorizing his schedule, getting familiar places he liked to be, and most importantly, noting the best ways to get him alone.
She had decided that tonight was the night she would finally strike. The night she would save Textopolis, make wrongs right again...and the night that Gene Meh would finally receive a long-overdue punishment for all of his crimes.
Entering the conference room, Smiler sat down on the edge of the long table, legs crossed, eyes glued to the door, patiently waiting for her target.
"I'm just gonna go lock up, Dad," she heard Gene's voice calling from the stairs. The yellow ball-like young man had his eyes downcast as he entered the room.
"Hi, Gene!"
"Gah!" Gene was suddenly much more alert, putting his hand on where his heart would have been. Blinking, his expression calmed a bit. "Oh, uh, Smiler, hey, haven't...seen you much lately."
Smiler cocked her head, forcing her biggest smile (which was already quite forced due to the retainer she wore). "Could we talk for a minute?"
Gene hesitated. "Uh...s-sure. What's up?"
"Close the door, Gene."
"I...don't really feel comfo-"
"CLOSE IT!"
A shock of fear forced Gene to obey her.
"...I'm sure you're aware of the little...problem that's been going on around Textopolis."
"You mean everybody getting sent to the loser's lounge?"
"Mm-hmmm..."
"I know, it's terrible. I mean, the emojis that get used the most are up to Alex. I'd like to do something about it, but I don't know what."
"Wellll, luckily for you, I do."
"What're you-what're you hiding behind your back?" Gene tried to get a glance, but Smiler casually shifted, keeping the object out of sight.
"Let me tell you something about emojis, Gene. Normal emojis. I get what you were trying to say with the whole 'be yourself' thing, but the fact is that we're programmed to feel the way that we do. Honestly, between you and me there's times I wish I could stop smiling, but I can't. I don't mean won't, I mean 'can't'. I LITERALLY cannot make any other face. And neither can the others! They're not repressed or forced to act, that's just the way they are! The only ones who've ever had to pretend were you and your father. Now, tell me, is that worth jeopardizing everyone's lives over?"
Gene sighed. "...I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt anyone. I just wanted to be myself."
"I know," she chirped casually as she pulled a handgun out from behind her.
Fear froze Gene in place. He knew immediately what she had in mind. "Woah! Wait! Smiler! Can't I just step down? Let someone else take over?"
Standing up and loading the gun, she continued, "No, see, I've noticed that disaster has a nasty habit of following you wherever you go. If I let you live, who knows what other disasters you'll plunge us into? You're a nice kid, Gene. Unfortunately, being 'nice' or 'sorry' doesn't make you any less of a threat."
Smiler's eyes screwed shut as she pulled the trigger.
BANG!
Her auditory processors still ringing, Smiler opened her eyes and looked down at her victim slumped in front of the door. A mix of black and green code with a yellow goop dripping from the fresh hole in his forehead, his green eyes still glazed over with terror. If that didn't kill him instantly, he wouldn't be alive much longer.
"Gene?!"
Smiler quickly loaded her gun with the other bullet she had carried with her, just as Mel slammed the door open. He hadn't even had time to realize what she had done to his before he met the same fate.
BANG!
After spending fifteen seconds or so looking back and forth between the two emoji men on the floor, Smiler ran a hand through her messy yellow hair and sighed. She did it. She finally did it. It took much longer than she would have liked, but oh was it worth the wait!
She wasn't going to hide her handiwork. Hell, she'd even proudly turn herself in if that would make it easier for the police. But not just yet: for the safety of the phone, there was still one last thing she needed to do before imprisonment.
But not just yet: there was still one last thing she needed to do before facing imprisonment.
Attention: we have received a number of complaints regarding malfunctions, usually accompanied with an emoji that acts several different emojis at once, but as part of the update, we've had to remove it in order to keep your apps intact. Unfortunately, this renders all of your other emojis temporarily unavailable, but they should be coming back on your next update or sooner. We apologize for the inconvience.
-Sincerely, your phone company.
Using the piracy app to send Alex this message from a fake phone number, Smiler's only hope now would be that Alex would be too stupid to look too deeply into it.
Upon returning to Textopolis, Smiler had wondered why the lights in several buildings were on, but the streets were so empty.
Reaching the texting center, the large crowd and police cars gave her all of the answers she needed. The other emojis' quiet, worried chatter instantly hushed to silence whenever any of them noticed her.
"Excuse me! Pardon me. Whoop! Sorry, just gonna sneak past you for a sec here," Smiler chirped as she made her way through trying to sound as casual and unworried as possible.
Reaching the front of the building, she found two police emojis waiting on the other side of the door. They had gone as quiet as the crowd as she approached them.
"Gentlemen," she grinned, extending her wrists.
Textopolis, even with all the space it had, didn't have a jail or prison. So Smiler was kept in the texting center. Under heavy supervision during Alex's waking hours (in case the smiley emoji ever needed to be used (which she was, after her retainer was finally removed)), and guarded in the loser's lounge while he slept. She had noted that as time went on, the loser's lounge remained emptier more often, save for a few that would always be overlooked. It satisfied her, knowing that she didn't kill for nothing: Textopolis was returning to normal.
One night, when the Textopolis center was closing down, Smiler and her two usual guards were about to head back down to the loser's lounge, when a third stopped them.
"It's Mary," he explained. "She wants to speak with Smiler."
If Smiler had a stomach, she would have felt it drop deep within her body. She had seen Mary around the center (especially since Mary had been left to take charge in place of her son), but they never looked at each other. Mary probably couldn't bear to, given what happened, but Smiler didn't blame her one bit.
Led to the scene of the crime, Smiler trembled slightly at the sight of Mary, staring out of the window that overlooked the city.
"M-Mary! Hey!" Smiler tried her best not to sound nervous. "You, uh, wanted to see me?"
"Mm-hm," she hummed softly, her eyes still fixed on the sights below and beyond her. A long, uncomfortable silence raised the tension in the room before she finally spoke again. "Sit down."
Hesitantly, Smiler took a seat in the chair at end of the table, Mary soon doing the same on the other side, sitting with her hands folded. The silence was becoming unbearable. Smiler didn't care what Mary was going to say next, she just wanted it to end.
"I hate you, Smiler."
Smiler blinked. "I mean, gee, that's uh, not really a surpri-"
"I hate you," Mary raised her voice just loud enough for Smiler to hear her interruption. "for what you've done to my family. For the longest time, I couldn't forgive you for what happened that night. Honestly, I still don't know if I can ever fully forgive you."
Silence again.
Smiler shifted in her seat. "Why do I feel like there's a 'but' coming on?" she asked.
Silence.
"Am I right? Is there a 'but'?"
Mary exhaled softly and closed her eyes.
"There's a 'but' isn't there? But. But. But, but but but. Huh, funny: say it enough times, and it doesn't even sound like a word anymore."
"But..." Mary spoke up, the tiniest hint of exasperation in her otherwise flat voice, "...at the same time, I understand why you did what you did. And I...I loved my husband. And I loved my son. More than anything in the world. But the more I think about it..." she cleared her throat and looked away, "...the more I think...you were just doing what you had to do to keep Textopolis safe."
Like...any good leader would do."
Smiler had to admit, this was going much better than she expected. "So..."
"So I don't think you'll be trusted enough by the public to become the leader again, and you might still need a guard or two to keep anyone from hurting you, but I've been talking with the chief of police; as long as you don't kill anyone else, you don't need to be kept prisoner anymore."
"Wait, really?!"
Mary nodded.
"Super!" Smiler got up from her seat and started to walk towards Mary, unable to decide whether to hug her or simply shake her hand. "Thank you so much! I-"
"Don't...touch me."
"Right." Smiler took a couple of respectful steps back. "You won't regret this!"
Coming back down the stairs and into the main lobby again, Smiler turned to the cops once halfway across the room. "So, if I'm not a prisoner anymore, it'd be totally cool if I went outside to get some fresh air, right?"
The two cops looked at each other.
"Uh, sure. I guess."
Just outside of the building, Smiler took a deep breath, absorbing everything about the scene she had missed so much: the bright lights illuminating the city, the noises of emojis rushing in the streets and sidewalks, the breeze running through her hair, she would never take any of this for granted again.
And she smiled. Not that she wasn't ever not smiling, but this was a smile that was truly genuine. How could she not be smiling, when it was she who restored order to Textopolis and made wrongs rights again?
Her face hadn't changed, but a dull ache of sadness spread through her. She may not have been in charge anymore, but it had fully sunk in that sometimes a good leader does what they have to do to protect the people they care about...even if it means taking a life or two for the greater good.