Emika Chen

—Emika Chen

Emika Chen is the main protagonist in Warcross. She is a bounty hunter and hacker, and plays as an Architect in Team Phoenix Riders in the Warcross Championships.

## Appearance

Emika Chen has rainbow-dyed hair. She is Chinese-American Emika also has a sleeve of colorful tattoos along her arm, including: sheet music from Mozart's "Queen of the Night", Aria, peony flowers, planets, and skyscraper buildings coming out of the water. Along her neck states a quote, "Every locked door has a key."

## Personality

Emika is a very quick thinker when it comes to hacking. Her father taught her to look at the whole picture rather than the details which helped her be successful as a bounty hunter and hacker, as well as in other scenarios. She was able to fix one of Hideo's code errors in a matter of seconds and has amazing abilities in the technology field compared to that of Hideo's top engineers, although it does take her a while to learn how to take down certain people. Due to her past career as a bounty hunter, Emika is always aware of her surroundings and can analyze someone's personality just with a glance at them. She is also distrustful of anyone she meets.

## Biography

Emika lived with her father in New York for most of her life before his death. Her mother left when she was very young, causing Emika and her father to move from San Francisco to New York. Emika's father loved her very much, however, he was prone to gambling and racking up debt, which ultimately kept him from seeking the treatment that he needed after his diagnosis.

Emika had a criminal record that prevented her from touching a computer for two years after an incident in high school, in which she hacked into the school system and got information about many students and teachers alike who had shared a naked picture of a girl at school named Annie Pattridge. Even though she was not discovered, Emika turned herself in to the authorities in order to save Annie, who had been falsely accused of spreading the information.

Soon after she was expelled from school, Emika ran away from her foster home because of harsh treatment. She started working as a bounty hunter, catching wanted Warcross criminals (mostly gambled notes) for the police. This was a much depended on way to earn money to pay off her father's debt and for her own survival besides her part-time job as a waitress at a diner.

She eventually decided to try stealing a power-up item in the famous Warcross games in order to sell it illegally online for a lot of money for her debt, Emika managed to find a glitch in the tournament security system that gives her an opportunity to steal an item in Warcross, which she succeed in taking. However, she unexpectedly "glitched" within the arena itself, resulting in the players and audience immediately seeing her trying to steal the power-up, eventually the system detected her presense and immediately removed her from the arena along with the stolen power-up that was removed to her account.

Afraid of being thrown into jail for interrupting and hacking within Warcross, Emika began panicking in her apartment regretting her plan to steal an item of the tournament, her phone started to receive calls from Henka Games which she ignored, her friend Keira managed to calm her down and explain the situation, Emika prayed that she doesn't get arrested. Few hours later many news outlets showed Emika's face in the arena hacking and many reporters are outside their apartment waiting for Emika's response, Keira advised her to face the problem because it wouldn't change either way. Realizing the latter is right, Emika decided to answer the call from Henka Games, then to her surprise the creator of NeuroLink, Hideo Tanaka, wanted to speak with her. Emika tries to explain and apologize about her "hack" in the tournament, However, Hideo put it aside and asked her to go to Tokyo for a job that she's capable of doing. Emika hesitated to accept due to her financial problems but Hideo said he already paid all of her depts much to her surprise, then she eventually accepted the job and headed to Tokyo.

Before she was whisked off to Japan to work for Hideo Tanaka, she lived in a small studio flat with her roommate Keira. Even though they shared the rent, they were about to get evicted for not being able to pay it. Luckily, before she was taken to Japan, Hideo's company already paid off their rent.

Emika was taken to work for Hideo Tanaka after she accidentally hacked in to the Warcross Championships. Deemed by some a dangerous criminal, and others a master hacker, Hideo asked her to be a spy in the next Warcross Championships to find someone who wanted to ruin it, named Zero.

## Relationships

### Hideo Tanaka

As a child, Emika Chen looked up to and admired the accomplishments of Hideo Tanaka, the young entrepreneur who had invented the NeuroLink (see Biography for full explanation of the NeuroLink). During Book 1 of the Warcross series, Emika Chen had a romantic relationship with Hideo Tanaka after she was hired by him. We know that they were genuine because she could sense his emotions through the Link that Hideo created.

Emika was also someone Hideo confided in and trusted in. This is shown when he talks about the painful disappearance of his younger brother, Sasuke, which Hideo shared with her but not anyone else.

They first kiss when Emika gives him information about his recent assassination attempt, and when Hideo shows her the link.

Towards the end of the book, Hideo told her about his plan to control people's minds and actions through the new version of the NeuroLink, which were in the form of contact lenses. Emika was very conflicted by this and told Hideo that she could not stand by him while he did that. This issue was not resolved, but the two ended up having another talk in Wildcard.

Emika finds out that Hideo is still very attached to her, and after seeing him, agrees to meet him again. She explains what happened, and they mend their ties and form a relationship again. After all that happens, it is speculated that they are still together.

### Asher Wing

Asher is the captain of the Phoenix Riders, Emika's team, where Emika used to play as an Architect.

Emika and Asher see each one another as comrades. Asher trusts her, and this is shown in the book when he let her go her own way and not according to the team plan during one of the Warcross match-up games. Asher trusts her skills as an Architect for the team as well and is shown to be very confident in her abilities.

### Hamilton Jimenez

Hammie is the Phoenix Riders‘s Thief. In the book, it is noted that she helped Emika train as an architect to go against other Warcross teams. Hammie is a good friend to Emika, which compels her to open up to her at the end of the first book and most of the 2nd book. After the fire in their team quarters, Hammie only survived because Emika was able to carry her out of the house after the bombing.

### Tremaine Blackbourne

Emika and Tremaine's relationship is rocky at first, but after Emika learns about Tremaine being the other bounty hunter their relationship smooths out from there. In *Wildcard,* Tremaine opens up to Emika about his past with Roshan and his former drug addiction. After this, Emika goes as far as calling him her friend.

### Roshan Ahmadi

Roshan plays as a Shield on Team Phoenix Riders. He helps Emika train for the championships in Warcross. In Wildcard, he disapproves of Emika continuing to hunt for more clues about Zero, however he stills sticks by her throughout the whole book.

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/marie\_lu/status/928357336040792064?lang=en