Break: An Urban Hero's Journey

by Wes Grant

  Kirei confused says, “A what?”

  Spear replies, “A dance fight. Haven’t you seen West Side Story?”

  Kirei angrily yells, “No! What are you doing with your arms?! Are you mocking me?!” S pear replies, “No man, I’m just gearing up to fight. If you wanna fight me dancing your way, I’ll fight you dancing my way.” as he continued to beatbox. He then jumped back onto a brick walking path in the park. He then pop locked into a stance pointing at Kirei and gestured with his two fingers to come on. Kirei got furious and ran at Spear. He swung at Spear, but Spear did the broken leg side step. Kirei swung again, but Spear jumped back and moonwalked away from him, wiggling his head side to side as to mock him. Kirei went after him again, and Spear went into the windmill move and swept his legs. Kirei hit the ground and flipped back up. He then began an onslaught of attacks, but Spear dodged them all. It was a competition of dancing styles that was actually compelling to watch as deadly as the stakes actually were. Kirei gracefully attack as Spear flipped and did handstands to avoid those attacks.

  Spear puts his hand out gesturing Kirei to stop and says, “Wait, have you seen this move?” and began to do Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” dance. Kirei went to attack him, but he blocked them while doing the dance. Kirei then jumped back then flipped the swords in his hands and yells, “That’s ENOUGH! I’ve tolerated this mockery for too long! It ends now!” He then stretches his arms out with sword in each and slams the ends together, turning it into a double-bladed sword.

  Spear said, “What the…, does everybody’s weapon transform into different weapons? And here I thought I came up with something different”

  Kirei then put the double-bladed sword above his head and started rotating it. It began to formulate a lot of breeze away from him, causing the leaves in the trees to sway along with the grass and the bushes.

  Spear said, “What is this? He’s powering up or something.” He then said sarcastically, “Oh my god, his power level, it's OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!”

  Yaban chuckled, Shioreta looked at him, and he said, “What? It was funny.” Kirei had the blades spinning like a propeller in his hands. He then threw the double bladed sword at Spear. Spear dodged but was tossed to the side by the wind created from the weapon. The weapon then circled around and came back at Spear. He snapped his rods back into a staff and blocked the spinning blades. Sparks were flying everywhere as Spear was being pushed back. He was then knocked back off his feet by the force and skidded across the ground until he hit a tree. The spinning blade flew back toward Kirei as if under control. He caught it with both hands and twirled it to a stop. Spear pulled himself up on his feet with the tree and saw Kirei begin to spin the blades again. Kirei then threw the blades at Spear again, and once again Spear dodged out of the way right before it cut through the tree like butter sending the tree toppling over. The wind threw Spear into a nearby tree, disorienting him. The blades circled around and went straight toward Spear. Spear thought to himself, “Not this again.” As he jumped up into the tree just in time to dodge the attack but soon realized that wasn’t the safest place, as the tree began to topple over with him in it. The blades went back to Kirei, and he stopped to see where Spear was.

  Spear stood up out of the tree leaves and said, “Haven’t you heard of being tree friendly? You know how long it takes to grow these?”

  Spear then realized a flaw in that weapon. It’s made for long - distance use in this form. Kirei had no weapon to defend himself when it’s attacking him. Spear begins to taunt him, “Hey, that’s two times, you missed me. Third time you’re out. I think you might have to trade in you super boomerang for a new weapon ain’t cutting it. Get it, ain’t cutting it.”

  You could see the anger in Kirei’s face as he began to spin his weapon over his head once again. He must have been spinning even harder because the wind was allot stronger this time making a fierce wind. Spear decided this was his chance, and even though it was a risky move, it was his only option. He then ran straight at Kirei full speed. Kirei threw his spinning blades, and right before it hit Spear pole vaulted over them, while at the same time front flipping and hitting the back of the blades as hard as he could. The impact and wind catapulted him straight towards Kirei while sending the blades flying out of control into the sky. Spear flew towards Kirei ready to attack but he dodged. Spear began his attacks but he still dodged Spear’s staff attacks as if he was in a ballet. He then countered and somehow knocked the staff out of Spear’s hands, making it land sticking up in the grass.

  Spear replies, “Oh so you do have some hand skills. And here I thought you just like to dance and dress funny. But I’m down. I like hand-tohand combat.” They both went at it and threw a barrage of attacks at each other. Spear was throwing attacks, but Kirei kept twirling out of the way. When Kirei attacked, Spear shifted to the sides. The fight almost looked like a Jackie Chan fight scene. Spear got the upper hand, and while Kirei twirled out of the way of an attack, Spear grabbed him by the ponytail. Kirei tried to knock Spear’s hand off, but he just grabbed with the other hand. Spear then pulled Kirei’s head into his fist. Kirei was stunned but tried to get his ponytail out of Spear’s hands, but he ducked under his hands and pulled Kirei’s head back into another backhand fist. Spear then pulled Kirei’s head in for another and another and another until his head was looking like a ball on a paddle board.

  Spear then yelled, “ WHO AM I!” and punched Kirei in the face with his left fist sending him spinning in the air flying back to the ground. Kirei’s nose started to bleed. Kirei covered his nose with both hands and screamed, “Oww, my nose! My beautiful nose!” Kirei’s weapon then dropped from the sky and landed in the ground pointing up.

  Spear jumped back and grabbed his staff then pulled it out the ground. Shioreta and Yaban ran over to Kirei to see if he was OK. Kirei screamed, “Never mind me, get him!”

  They both then went on the attack against Spear and didn’t let up.

  Kirei screamed, “I’m going to make you pay for damaging my beautiful face!” Spear put up a fight but mostly dodged the attacks because he had almost reached his limit. He felt he would snap back to normal any second now. He took out some smoke bombs and threw it at the ground. He made a quick run for it, but he turned back to normal so he jumped in a bush and hide. Spear kept quiet hoping he would have enough time to recharge. Kirei got up and wiped the blood from his face. He grabbed his weapon out of the ground and walked over to Shioreta and Yaban and asked them if they lost Spear.

  Shioreta said, “No, but I can still sense he’s here.” He looks to Yaban but he flinches away from Kirei. Kirei asked, “What’s wrong.” and Yaban points towards his nose. Kirei holds his blade to his face to look at the reflection. He almost hurls when he sees his nose bent to the side. He yells, “Shi, fix this! Fix this now!” Shioreta walks over and places both her hands on his nose, and snaps it back into place.

  Kirei turns and starts to yell, “So that’s it. You put up this fight, and now you hide. I almost don’t even care about the money anymore, I just want you dead. Nobody damages this beautiful face! Nobody!”

  Spear not being able to contain himself yells, “First time for everything.” Then thinks to himself, “Dammit, why’d you have to open you big mouth. Even if he set himself up for that one.”

  Kirei and the rest of them hear the voice but still do not have a pinpoint location of Spear. He tells them to spread out the find him.

  Spear thought to himself maybe he should make a run for it, but then remembered something the old man said, “A true warrior never runs from his battles.” Spear then thought to himself, “Yeah, you know what, I’m not gonna run. I can beat them, and besides, I still have a secret weapon: my speed. I just gotta take off these weights.” He then took the weights off his legs.

  Kirei put his blades in the air and began to spin them, blowing away all the smoke. He then said, “Spear, come out, we know you’re there. No point in hiding anymore.” It’s had been three minutes, and Spear was
fully recharged. He stepped out of the bushes and walked onto the grass then said, “OK, you got me . . . And I wasn’t hiding. I just had to take a major piss.”

  Kirei replied, “Vile to the end. So are you ready to die? Before it was business, now it’s personal. And I’m going to enjoy carving you up into tiny pieces.”

  Spear said, “Don’t get too excited, Marsha. I’m about to end this… with style.” As he puts his hands in front of him and began to take off the weights on his wrist. The weights dropped to the ground making a loud thump sound. Spear smiled and said with his rods in his hands, “Now I’m ready to kick it up a notch.”

  Kirei said with a smirk, “We were wondering when you were going to do that.”

  Spear says confused, “What do you mean, when I was going to do that?” Kirei said, “We know all about your extra boost in speed when you take off your weights, and frankly we’re not impressed. What, do you think, you’re the only one that trains with weights on?”

  The three began to take off some of their attire they were wearing and let them drop to the ground making a loud CLANK! sound. Kirei then rolled his neck and cracked his back as he said, “That feels so much better.” He began to bounce on his toes then stopped and snapped his weapon back into separate swords.

  Spear thought to himself, “Oh yea, I’m screwed.” They disappeared; then Spear disappeared, and the fight began. They attacked from three sides all at once, and Spear dodged between the spaces. Shioreta threw her blade and chain at Spear’s leg, but Spear jumped over it. He was then confronted with Kirei in the air. Kirei did an X motion with his swords and knocked Spear back toward the ground, but before he hit the ground, Yaban hit him with the two rods like double baseball bats. Spear was sent flying through the park and hit the ground, fumbling and rolling wilding to a stop on his back. It felt like he might have broken a couple of ribs. He opened his eyes and saw Shioreta flying down at him from the sky, twirling her chain and throwing it straight at him. He rolled out the way and dodged the attack. She followed up with an attack from her katana, and Spear jumped to his feet. She then threw the chain, and Spear jumped over it, but it ricocheted off a boulder in the park then went straight toward Spear. He turned to hit the blade away, and Shioreta used that chance to attack. Spear saw her, but was unable to move quick enough to dodge her attacks, so he put the other rod in front of him to take the blow. He was unable to block everything and was cut bad. When he landed on the ground, Kirei was there to continue the onslaught of attacks. With the injuries, Spear was unable to dodge or block all of the attacks and began to take damage from the blades. Spear jumped back and was kicked back by Yaban toward Kirei. Spear snapped his rods into a staff and hit it in the ground to avoid the attack from Kirei while kicking him in the face. Shioreta started spinning the blade and chain wildly, and Spear did his best to dodge the blade and chain. Yaban snapped his two rods together back into the jousting staff and speared it at Spear.

  In the middle of dodging Shioreta’s attacks, S pear jumped and was hit in the chest by the staff. He tried to block with his weapon but was hit with most of the force and was sent flying into another tree. Shioreta threw the katana at Spear, and it stabbed him in his left shoulder into the tree, pinning him on the ground against the tree. The wind began to blow, and it started to rain. The three Trinity Masters joined up and looked at Spear. He was battered and bruised, bleeding from multiple cuts and was barely conscious. Blood was dripping over one of his eyes. He slowly opened his eyes a crack and saw one blurry vision and one red blurry vision. Spear was hurt bad and was barely holding on. He started remembering his friends and his mom. He remembered the good times with his friends. He then thought to himself, “Wait, is this my life flashing before my eyes. I guess I really am going to die.” He saw no way out of this, no trick to use to get away; a poke to the eyes wasn’t going to work this time.

  Kirei smiling says, “And so the great Spear falls. I mu st give it to you though. You did put up one heck of a fight. Maybe you did kill Chen Lou. Even so, we were the ones that was supposed to end him. And you took that from us. You should feel honored to have lasted so long against us. Honestly only the old man was ever able to take all three of us on and survive. With that being said I think I’ll place your stuffed head on the fireplace for my trophy.” He then began to walk toward Spear.

  Spear started to lose consciousness. He could barely hear Kirei over the rain pouring. He heard the name Chen Lou and began to remember the fight with him. He then remembered the old man said, “It’s a shame you chose this path, you show great potential. You would make a great pupil. In fact out of the four, you have the greater promise.” Spear then understood who he was talking about. It was these three; out of the four of us, he had the greater potential. Then he remembered what his father said, “Listen carefully. I believe you might have the potential to go beyond anything any of us can imagine.”

  Kirei got up to Spear and put his hands on his hood and pushed his head back against the tree. He then put the sword up to Spear’s neck and said, “What, no quick witted remark. Vile comment about how you are, how you call it, the ish. Don’t worry, I’ll make it quick. Wait, on the other hand, no, I won’t. I want you to feel it cut through your neck slowly. I told you I was going to make you pay.”

  At that moment Spear realized he couldn’t die here. He had a purpose. He knew he was meant to do something great, and dying here wasn’t that.

  Right before Kirei put the blade to Spear’s neck, Spear opened his eyes and grabbed Kirei’s wrist. He then punched him in the chest, sending him flying back over to the other two. Spear then grabbed thekatana attached to Shioreta’s chain and pulled it out with his right hand. Shioreta pulled the katana back to her with the chain.

  Spear then stood up staring down at the ground. The rain began to pour even harder, and lighting began to light up the sky. Spear then said, “I know who you are now.”

  Kirei said, “I’m sorry, Yaban must have hit you harder than I thought. We already told you who we are. We’re the Trinity Masters.”

  Spear said, “No, Barbie, when I fought Chen Lou, he told me about you.”

  Kirei said, “Boasting about us even after we leave his school. Hmm.” Spear said, “Not exactly.”

  Kirei said, “Then what?”

  Spear said, “He talked about my potential, and what he said was compared to me”—he then looked up at them—“you guys don’t stand a chance.” Kirei said, “Big talk coming from someone half-dead. You really think you can beat us.”

  Spear said, “I don’t think. I know.” Spear disappeared, and then the Masters disappeared. It was as if the world slowed down. It seemed like they were running in slow motion through the water droplets as if they were just sitting in the air. Spear was running full force at them; he spun his rod in his left hand and slammed it into the ground as he kicked Kirei in the stomach, sending him flying back. Spear used the rod in the ground to slingshot him back away from the other two. He slid back on the wet grass and put the rods together into a staff and stabbed it into the ground to slingshot him back at the other two. Shioreta threw her chain at Spear, but he swung his staff like a bat to hit it toward Yaban. Shioreta tried to call back her blade, but there was too much slack in the chain. Yaban leaned back and slid on the grass to avoid the flower blade. When she turned back to Spear, he’s sliding on his knees and sweeping her feet from under her with his staff. He then stuck the staff in the ground to use it to swing him over to Yaban. Yaban slammed his rods into the ground to stop him from sliding. When he got to his feet, he saw Spear coming straight at him. He got up and put his rods up in an X defense. Spear slid through his legs and jumped off the tree behind him back at Yaban. Then almost in one motion, took the staff apart into rods then into nunchaku. He began to swing a barrage of attacks at Yaban. Sparks were flying everywhere from the clash of the weapons. Spear was moving too quickly for him to block everything. Spear started to break Yaban down with attacks to the legs and to the head. Kirei t
ried to attack Spear from behind, but Spear jumped up and kicked off Yaban’s chest into a roundhouse to Kirei’s head as he said, “It’s not your turn yet.” The kick sent him sliding toward Shioreta; she jumped over him and ran toward Spear. Spear ran straight at her as she threw the chain at him. He stepped to the side and swung his nunchaku down on the chain, wrapping around it, then pulled her straight toward him. He then elbowed her in the gut and shoulder-threw her at a tree. When Spear looked up he saw Yaban coming down at him full force with his two rods. Once again almost in one motion, Spear snapped his nunchaku into two rods then into a staff right before Yaban made impact. The force of Yaban’s attack pressed Spear into the ground making a crater in the walk path under Spear’s feet. Spear pushed Yaban’s rods off and did a backflip kick on Yaban sending him flying in the air. When Spear was upside down, he saw Kirei’s double spinning blade coming straight at him. He spun in the air and with one hand, slammed his staff down on the spinning blade making it separate and fly up past him toward Yaban. Yaban opened his eyes, saw two blades flying toward him and quickly hit the swords back toward Kirei. Spear ran toward him to attack, but right before he got to him, Kirei grabbed his swords out of the air to block Spear’s attacks. Spear snapped his staff back into rods and began to attack him furiously. Shioreta got over to Kirei and began to attack Spear as well with her katana. A couple seconds later, Yaban joined in and began to attack Spear. Spear was dodging everyone’s attacks and countering with his own. Spear was focused on blocking Yaban’s attacks with his staff, then spinning, while at the sametime turning it into rods, blocking Kirei’s attack and kicking Shioreta. At the same time he was spinning out the way of Yaban’s next attack, turning the rods into nunchaku and hitting Yaban in the face and Kirei in the leg. Shioreta got back to the fight, and Spear went into a spin on his backpack. He began to spin faster and faster; the three stepped back as the rain fanned off Spear. They slowly crept closer to attack when all of a sudden, they all got hit with a wide attack and got knocked back onto the ground. They all sat up and looked at Spear spinning like a top with a wide object in his hand. Spear’s spin began to slow down, and he began to go into the break dancing, windmill motion with an odd weapon in his hand spinning with him. When he spun to his feet, he was twirling around this long weapon in front of him and around his back until he stopped. They were surprised to see Spear’s weapon’s new fourth form; it looked like a three-part sectional staff with the chain extending the staff. Somehow Spear kept the staff together and made the nunchaku come out. They all got up and attacked Spear. He began to use the weapon to keep them at a range. It seemed like Spear was winning the fight, but he realized that it’s going to take forever to win like this; they worked too well as a team as if they’re one.