Cultivating Heroism

by Ray Torrens

  In his hands he held a black leather-bound book, just like the one Mack was still clinging to.

  “What the fuck is going on?”

  “You read the words,” the man said, as though it was obvious. “You’ve dedicated yourself to cultivating heroism.”

  “Heroism? what are you talking about?” he asked, even though the book was still open on the right page in front of him. He didn’t have amnesia. He knew exactly what he’d done.

  What he didn’t understand was the why, or the how.

  “Is this thing laced with LSD or something?”

  “Mack,” the voice said. “You need to stop panicking.”

  “I’m not panicking, I’m fucking confused. Are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on, or—”

  “Mack.” The man’s tone was soothing, and Mack hated that it made him feel better. “Calm down and listen to me.”

  He tried to take a deep breath, but it didn’t work very well.

  “My name is Jakke. I’m your guide here on Hauta, at least for now. You read the words because you know that you’re capable of being great, of helping our planet, and I want to help you realize that potential.”

  “I read the words because I was trying to figure out why the book had been given to my charity when there didn’t seem anything special about it. I don’t know anything about your planet, or about helping it.”

  But that was a lie. He knew everything about Hauta. He knew all its history because he’d just spent two days excitedly reading about it. The planet was ancient with many different civilizations that had been united and broken apart time and time again. It had been ruled and fallen into chaos and then been ruled again. Its technology was far beyond that on Earth, and its peoples possessed power like superheroes from comics. Yet, most of them lived like it was the dark ages because tyrants made life hell a lot of the time. He wondered if this was one of those times, or maybe he could expect to see a utopia if he went outside. He had a bad feeling it was the former.

  “You’ve got to me kidding me,” he muttered. “I mean, even if all this is real, the idea that I can help with any of it is ludicrous. You know I’m just human, right? I can’t even beat Drake in a spar, never mind helping your planet full of superheroes.”

  “I can show you how to get back to Earth if that is your desire.”

  Mack scowled. “At least give me some more information before I just give up on this whole thing.”

  He thought he detected a hint of a smile on Jakke’s face. “You saw the vision. You know what’s afflicting our planet. This is not just rebellion, this is genocide. People have gone crazed with power. They need to be stopped.”

  “I just don’t understand what you think I can do about that.”

  “I’ve watched your progress since you picked up the book. I believe that you have the dedication to grow more powerful than any of the enemies we face. You can stop them.”

  Mack laughed. “Grow more powerful,” he echoed.

  “Would you like to go outside and see the world? See the people you could become as powerful as? See the people you could help?”

  “I’m not an idiot. You’re saying I can get more powerful, not that I’m powerful now. I’d be squashed in a heartbeat.”

  “This temple used to be the headquarters of the protectors of our order—the Wuxoha—great and noble warriors, that guarded this land. They trained here, lived here, shared meals and knowledge. They made this region safe for the good and honest people who couldn’t keep it safe for themselves. They were always able to fight back the leaders that became corrupt. The Wuxoha Order always won out. But not anymore. Something happened. Something changed. And now they’re gone. Someone new needs to step up. I can only imagine what has happened to other protector orders throughout the world, given that no one has come to our aid in all these years, and communications have gone dead.”

  “And I get that, but what I don’t understand is how I can be that person.” Mack finally dragged himself up on the floor, realizing that he’d spent the entire conversation sprawled out in front of the hologram looking even less like a warrior than he felt. “You’re talking to me like I’m some kind of chosen one, and it’s bullshit.”

  More lines formed in the hologram’s forehead. “I don’t understand. What is a bull, and why are you speaking of its defecation?”

  Mack laughed. Then he laughed again, shook his head, and opened his mouth to ask the hologram to send him back to Earth. This whole thing was too bizarre, too ridiculous. He was either still dreaming, really drunk, or he’d completely lost his mind.

  “You are chosen,” Jakke said. “You can read the writing in the book. Only someone from a line of protectors would have the ability to do that.”

  The book seemed to get heavier in Mack’s hands, and he looked down at it again. The words still showed English. “What are you talking about? It’s in English. That’s what everything in America is written in, pretty much. Unless all English-speaking people are descended from protectors, in which case—”

  “The words adapted for you. They changed so they would become readable.” Jakke tipped his own copy of his book forward, and what had previously been black parallel lines of varying degrees of thickness morphed in front of his eyes into English words.

  “Holy shit.”

  “You were chosen for this task, Mack. It’s in your blood. It’s your destiny.”

  Jakke was really laying it on thick, but Mack still felt his breathing quicken with what he was being told. In his blood, his destiny. A real purpose in life that wasn’t just meandering from job to job, picking a college degree because he thought maybe he’d be good at it, but not because he had a passion for it, doing what he could to get better but always being limited by his surroundings.

  No more Jeremy and Derek. No more feeling out of place and alone.

  “How would a protector end up on Earth?” he asked.

  “The temple records are incomplete when it comes to that matter. I haven’t been able to find out how.”

  “But… my parents, they were human. I remember a lot about them from when they were alive. I know I was only a kid then, but they definitely didn’t have any super powers.”

  “My records are unclear about just who your parents might have been. Members of the Order have come and gone as their paths in life dictated. The only way this makes sense is if one or both of your parents shared protector DND from our order. I’ve found nothing to indicate a time frame, however. It could even be a very distant ancestor.”

  “What are the chances that the book got to me though? That’s such a coincidence.”

  Again, Mack thought he saw the hint of a smile on Jakke’s face. “I had been searching for a long time to find a new protector; dedicating all the temple’s resources to searching the universe for someone with high teho levels. Teho is a protector’s natural energy. Their inner strength. What allows them to be a warrior. You were so far away it’s a miracle I picked up on you. I wasn’t sure for a while, but I watched you grow and your teho levels grow with you. You have dedication. Your commitment to martial arts grew your teho even though you didn’t know it. When I thought that you were ready, I used the practically all of the last of the temple’s reserve energy to reach as far as Earth to bring the book to you, and you brought yourself here with its sacred words.”

  “So, only these protectors from your temple here have Teho?”

  “There are other temples across the planet, founded by our brother and sister orders many generations in the past. I do not have updated information since our order was…” A sadness came over the holographic man, which was eerily disturbing to see in someone who was made up of light and circuitry. “It does not matter right now. I can bestow on you the powers you need to become the protector you were born to be, but if I do that, you will be unable to teleport back to Earth, not with my technology. You will be powerful here on Hauta, but on Earth you could wipe out the entire planet if something went wrong. I will not t
ake that risk until you have completely harnessed your Teho.”

  Mack could barely breathe, never mind response. All of this, for him. Jakke had almost used up the temple’s energy to bring Mack to Hauta, and now he was expecting a twenty-three-year-old human to be responsible for saving an entire planet.

  “I think I need some air.”

  “You are, of course, free to come and go as you please. I strongly ask that you do not leave the areas around the entrance to the temple, if you enjoy all of your blood being inside your body that is.” Jakke smiled.

  Mack didn’t care about the fact he might be immediately killed by one of the powerful creatures lurking outside the walls of the temple. He couldn’t be surrounded by the oppressive images of his supposed ancestors fighting on the ceiling, of the knowledge that he was supposed to carry on that fight even though he’d only just find out it had ever existed.

  He eased a heavy stone door open just enough that he could squeeze through a crack. Outside was a ruined city. Stone buildings had crumbled into what resembled little more than piles of rubble, trees and fields had grown fallow. Whatever had laid waste to this area, the fighting had taken place long ago.

  A high-pitched cry made him jump violently, and he pressed himself against the stone door.

  People were fighting on a nearby road. It was a girl who had screamed. He was just close enough to see that her face was human—button nose, and delicate pink lips parted in another scream as their attacker pushed her to the ground—but her ears were long and pointed like an elf’s.

  “Get off me you bastard!” she hissed, and despite the fact he was watching a girl being attacked, his first thought was that it was crazy he could understand what they were saying. They couldn’t have been speaking English all the way here, in what Jakke had said was the other side of the galaxy.

  The girl pulled a sword from her back and swung it in front of her, but her attacker jumped backward. He was swathed in black clothing that obscured any identifying features. Mack only assumed it was a man because the girl had called him a bastard.

  The third person, and old man, was standing on the other side of the lizard with a staff in his hand, trying to distract the lizard without much luck. It clearly had its sights set on the young woman who might have been the old man’s daughter from look of them both.

  The dusty figure struck devastatingly fast and knocked the girl back to the floor. Two shining golden weapons appeared in two dusty hands, and Mack swallowed.

  The girl was going to die.

  The girl was going to die if he didn’t do something. The words he’d willingly read from the book about wanted to dedicate himself to true greatness flashed in his mind. More so, the rush he’d felt upon reading them aloud hit him again. He knew what he had to do.

  Chapter Four

  Mack rushed back inside the temple. “I’ll take them. These powers you’re offering me, I’ll take them. But I need them now. Right now.”

  Jakke blinked. “Mack—”

  “Now, God dammit. There’s a girl out there who’s going to die if I can’t do something about it. I need them now.”

  “You won’t be able to leave.”

  “I don’t care! Just give them to me already.”

  Jakke began murmuring under his breath and Mack tapped his foot impatiently, then bounced on his heels and fought the urge to just rush back in there and do whatever he could manage with just his Muay Thai skills.

  “Okay—” Jakke began, but Mack had already started moving back toward the door.

  “Wait!” the hologram shouted after him, voice booming around the temple and echoing off the walls. “I need to explain.”

  But Mack could feel the raw power running through him. It was like things had suddenly slid into place in his brain and now he knew exactly what he needed to do to land a perfect punch.

  He flexed his hand, closing it into a fist and then opening it again.

  He was going to go and save that girl.

  He was ready to be the warrior Jakke claimed he was.

  Jakke continued to shout after him, but Mack ignored it, squeezing his way out of the opening in the temple door and running down the hill toward the still fighting elvish girl and black-clad bandit.

  The closer he got, the more clearly he saw the thing he would be fighting. He had no idea whether it was male or female at all. Behind its masking outfit, he could just about make out two beady black eyes and a snout with canines that were bared. Only, instead of fur, its skin appeared to be scaly.

  And the weapons Mack had seen looked even sharper up close.

  The elvish girl and old man had managed to hold her own, and despite the dire straits she’d been in when Mack had disappeared into the temple, she had only a few scratches on her, and none looked serious.

  Mack used the surprise of his arrival to his advantage and barreled straight into the side of the attacker, sending it flying sideways and onto the ground. He went automatically for a jab with his elbow to the face of the creature. He wasn’t used to fighting on the ground like this with his training, but his reflex was to use the elbow strike that he’d perfected over many years rather than the quick punch that Jakke had just blessed him with.

  Only it missed. The thing beneath him could move too quickly, rolling its head to the side just as the elbow would have slammed into its jaw. From there it revealed its raw strength by shoving Mack backward, flinging him into the air to collide with the side of the wagon. This startled the ox-like creature that had been drawing it. It looked like the poor animal was about to bolt.

  “Shit,” Mack hissed as he dropped to the dirt, landing on his back and winding himself.

  The old man took a chance to whack the lizard on the back of the head, but it wasn’t very effective. The elvish girl dashed forward while the lizard was occupied with him and brought her katana up in a sideways slash that drove a long gash into its right arm. The old man took this chance to rush to his ox to calm it down before it raced away with their whole wagon full of goods.

  The girl dodged backward, behind Mack, before it could retaliate. She seemed to move in fast-forward, as though the lizard man was going slowly for a second or two. Mack picked himself up off the ground and clenched his fists. He trusted his instincts again and aimed what his fellow Muay Thai pupil Haley had called a ‘perfect roundhouse’ kick straight at the creature.

  It hit the mark exactly, but Mack suffered the same problem as when he’d fought Drake. It just didn’t have the raw power behind it needed to do real damage, and especially not to someone with superhuman abilities like this lizard.

  The lizard lunged forward with his gold blades and it all happened so fast that Mack didn’t move quickly enough. He went to avoid the attack, leaning away from the uninjured arm of the lizard and protecting his heart and neck with his forearms. That left him open to a much stronger attack than he’d anticipated from the injured side of the lizard.

  The gold blade went straight into his kidneys, burying itself to the hilt in his lean back. Mack coughed, expecting pain but not getting any.

  His martial arts abilities weren’t going to get him through this fight. In fact, relying on them had probably just gotten him killed.

  But if he wasn’t feeling pain, he could at least fight.

  He could at least try the powers that Jakke had just bestowed on him.

  He shut his eyes for a second, knowing that the lizard would be getting ready to deliver the finishing blow, but needing to feel and understand exactly what he was capable of.

  The reflexes he’d been burying told him to punch.

  So, he did.

  He closed his hand into a fist and sent it flying toward the head of the lizard. He moved much quicker than any human should have been able to. One moment his hand was by his side, and the next it had connected with such a forceful impact that it sent the lizard flying backward and onto the ground as though it had been hit with a sledgehammer.

  Mack didn’t hesitate now he had the
advantage. He kept listening to that same urge telling him to punch and followed the lizard to the ground, kneeling beside it and letting his other fist fly into its face. There was no dominant or weaker hand when he punched. Normally he was right-handed, but now it didn’t seem to matter.

  His fists moved so quick they were nothing but a blur, and each hit was more powerful than the last. They all struck their mark: straight into the lizard’s face. Each one caused something to crack beneath his fists, but he still didn’t feel any pain.

  Then suddenly there were arms around him, dragging him away. He could have turned on them with his punches, but instead the small hands that wrapped around his chest made him stop and realize what he was doing. He looked down at the pulverized face of the lizard and at the blood on his own hands.

  “Shit,” he muttered.

  “He’s dead,” the elvish girl said, fanning hot breath across his neck. “You killed him. You saved me. You saved us.”

  The adrenaline died down, and the pain came with it. “Fuck,” he muttered, unable to ask any of the questions he had for the elvish woman. “Holy shit that hurts.” He reached around to the stab wound in his back and his hands came away even bloodier than before. “I’m going to die.”

  She turned him over in her hold and for a brief second, he got a glimpse of her face. It was as human as he’d thought when looking from a distance. Her eyes were an unnatural lilac and the ears were as long and pointed as he’d thought, but her eyes, nose and mouth were as human as his. Only she was beautiful. Her nose was just slightly upturned and sat beneath large eyes wide with fear. She chewed a full bottom lip with worry.

  The old man, having control of his beast of burden, shouted anxiously to the girl. “He needs healing. This one is yours, daughter.”

  She laid him on his side and pressed hands to his back, around his wound. Her scent was heavenly. She began to murmur words, just like Jakke had done when he gave Mack the ability to punch, and he knew for certain they were in a language he couldn’t understand now.