The Hero Without A Cool Name Read online

  The next day, Roy wakes up in his now luxurious apartment and as he sits up, he lies his hand on top of his head and sighs, “Damn, my head is about to explode.” After that, he rubs in his eyes, gets up, and walks into the kitchen where he grabs a glass of water and looks for some aspirins. As he goes through all the cabins, he all of a sudden sees on the little clock, that is built in his oven, that it’s almost two o’clock! “Oh no, no, no!” Roy says, as he runs back to his bedroom and opens his wardrobe. He quickly takes out a couple of shirts and jeans, but none of them look good anymore. In fact, they look like they’ve been through several wars. “Oh man, I really need to buy some new clothes, shit! She is going to kill me!” But then he stops and slowly walks over to the mirror. He takes a good look at himself and continues, “But, that’s the thing, I don’t have to buy new clothes.” Right at that moment, his eyes shine bright blue and the old white t-shirt and washed up jeans turn into a well-fitted white dress shirt and black pants. After that, he grabs two other shirts and turns one of them into a jacket and the other into a tie. “Would you look at that. Man, it feels good to be a God!” He then goes into his living room where he turns his shoes into dress shoes and after that, he rushes into his bathroom and tries to trim his beard and cut his hair slightly, but nothing happens. His eyes don’t even start to shine, not even a sparkle. “Of course, I have the ability to change everything except for myself. Great,” Roy sighs. He then quickly brushes his teeth and shaves off his beard with a somewhat disappointed look on his face and after that, he runs outside and quickly catches the bus.

  In the bus, Roy is constantly tapping on his knee with his finger and the old man that is seated next to him looks at him with an aggravated expression on his face and asks, “Everything alright?”

  Confused, Roy looks at the man and takes a while before he notices that the man is irritated that he’s constantly tapping on his knee. “Ah, no, yes, I’m alright. I’m just late for work you know.”

  “Ever thought about waking up earlier?”

  “I did, but somehow that never goes as planned.”

  “Let me tell you something, back in my day we used to get fired for that immediately. Do you have any idea how rude it is to show up late? It’s ridiculous, this generation has no discipline at all, nor do they have any respect.” Roy stares at the man while being completely lost for words and the man continues, “Keep on staring at me like that and I will teach you some discipline!”

  Right at that moment, the bus stops and as Roy gets up, he replies, “I have to go, but it was an absolute pleasure to talk to you. I wish you all the best and it was an honor meeting you.” Roy then gets out of the bus and as he shakes his head out of confusion, he runs across the street and enters the skyscraper that his sister owns.

  There, he runs into the elevator, goes all the way up, and goes into his Sister’s office. While catching his breath, he closes the door behind him and looks at Nathalie who has an angry expression on her face. “Before you start to yell at me, there is something you should know.”

  “Oh, is that so? Please, I’m dying to know what your excuse is this time. To be honest, I’m surprised that you even showed up and in a suit none of the less.”

  As Roy takes a seat on one of the chairs in front of her desk, he says, “Listen, something happened to me yesterday. When I got off the phone with you, someone held me at gunpoint and tried to rob me.”

  “Oh my God! Are you kidding me?! Are you alright?! And did you call the police?! And why didn’t you tell me about this?! I—”

  “I’m alright, nothing happened. But what I wanted to tell you is that somehow, out of the blue,” Roy then starts to chuckle and continues, “Out of the blue, it’s funny once you know what I can do. But anyway, he was aiming the gun at my chest and I was telling him not to shoot me you know. Instead of showing that I was afraid I tried to talk him out of it you know, very calmly. But then, my eyes started to shine bright blue, hence why I laughed why I said out of the blue just so you know, but when my eyes started to shine blue, so did his gun. And now comes the crazy part, the gun turned into a potato! Can you believe that?! But that’s not all. So, after that, I went back to my apartment and asked myself what just happened. I took the potato with me, by the way. Anyway, I thought, what the hell just happened? Did I turn the gun into a potato? So, I thought, why not try it out to see if I maybe have some special powers all of a sudden. So, I tried turning the potato back into a gun, but nothing happened. But then, and now comes the best part, I tried to turn something else into something else. So, I grabbed the remote control and turned it into a gun! I swear! And not only that, I turned everything into better and more luxurious things in my apartment and I now live like a king! Or better, a God! Can you believe that?! Why… why are you looking at me like I’m crazy? I’m telling the truth you know.”

  “Are you kidding me right now?”

  “I’m not, I swear this is all true.”

  “Leave, now!”

  “Wait… what?! Why?”

  “You know, Roy, I really thought that after yesterday’s phone call you were going to change and I had high hopes, but now you come in here, late, and tell me that all of a sudden you have special powers and that you can change objects into something else? Tell me, how much did you drink this morning because the way you’re acting right now really beats everything you have ever said and done before.”

  Roy then gets up and says, “I’m not lying, in fact, let me show you that I’m not.” He then grabs a pen from Nathalie’s desk and continues, “Pay close attention, because this is going to be the greatest thing you’ll ever see.” Roy then stares at the pen with an extremely focused expression on his face while Nathalie is staring at Roy with a very confused expression on her face. But a minute passes by and nothing happens. “Wait, it’s going to happen soon, trust me,” Roy says. Nathalie shakes her head and takes a deep sigh, but right at that moment, Roy’s eyes close and he drops down onto the floor! Nathalie immediately gets up, runs over to him, and squats down beside him. “Roy, Roy?!” But Roy isn’t waking up! “Someone help, please! Something is wrong with my brother!”

  Right at that moment, a man, who looks like he’s in his late fifties, has long, slick backed, grey hair, and who is wearing a suit, comes walking in and Nathalie asks, “Who are you?”

  “Who I am does not matter, what matters is that I can help Roy.”

  “Yes, please help him.”

  “But of course,” the man says, but he isn’t moving an inch.

  Nathalie then gets up and asks, “So, are you going to help him or are you just going to stand there?”

  “My apologies Mrs. Tabby for what I have done, just know that it was necessary.”

  “What are you talking about? What have you done?” But then, Nathalie’s eyes roll back, and she falls down on the floor!

  “By looking at you I can already feel the disappointment in me rising, but I guess that I do not have any other choice, which is sad, very sad,” the man sighs, as he looks at Roy. He then picks Roy up and with a blank and somewhat disappointed expression on his face, he walks out of Nathalie’s office with Roy in his arms.

  Chapter Two Don’t Be A Fool

  With birds chirping and the noises of shouting children in the background, Roy, who is seated on a wooden bench, slowly opens his eyes. Slightly dazed, he sees a lake in front of him and when he looks up, he sees the branches of a tree hanging above him with small beams of sunlight coming through the leaves. “We’re in a park.”

  Roy immediately looks to his left and sees the old man that picked him up in Nathalie’s office sitting next to him. “My God! You scared the crap out of me! Who… who are you? And how the hell did I end up here?”

  “I am Julian Herrick, but you can call me Mr. Herrick.”

  “Can’t I just call you Julian?”

  “No, you can’t.” Roy looks at Julian with a confused expression on his face and Julian continues, “I’m here to guide you and teach you
everything you need to know about the powers you now possess.”

  “What… I… I’m so confused right now. First of all, how do you know that I have powers? And second of all, the last thing I remember is being in my sister’s office before everything went dark, so how in the world did I end up here in this park?”

  “I picked you up from your sister’s office, that’s how you ended up here.”

  “That… that doesn’t even make sense. So, you’re telling me that you just walked into my sister’s office, picked me up, and brought me here?”

  “Yes, that is correct. But of course, I did have to make sure that your sister would be asleep once I arrived. Now, she took a bit longer to fall asleep than I anticipated, but it all worked out.”

  “Wait, what have you done to my sister? Did you kill her?!”

  “I just told you that I made her fall asleep, which is totally different than killing her. Are you even listening at all?”

  “I am, but then… how?”

  “How I did it is irrelevant. All you need to know is that your sister is perfectly fine.”

  “Great, but I’m sure she has already called the police by now and I’m sure they are already looking for me since you basically abducted me.”

  “Well, if I learned one thing from your pathetic life, is that you are an excellent liar. So, I’m sure you can think of a story to tell once you return.”

  “What… have you been stalking me or something? What is going on here?”

  “I have been keeping an eye out, yes, but I wouldn’t call it stalking. It was necessary for me to follow you closely until you finally got your powers. In order for me to teach you, I need to know you.”

  “So, for how long have you been following me already?”

  “Quite a long time.”

  “You are… how do I say this? So vague. Can’t you just give me clear and simple answers?”

  “I am giving you clear answers; the only problem is that you are asking me irrelevant questions.”

  “Wow, you really love that word, don’t you? Anyway, I… I don’t even know what to say. But, tell me, do you have the same powers as I have?”

  “Yes, I have.”

  “So, I’m not a God or something?”

  “You’re far from it.”

  “Wow, this is quite the disappointment,” Roy sighs.

  “You are a disappointment.”

  “Do you hate me or something? And to be honest, you don’t really look too thrilled about being my mentor.”

  “That’s because I’m far from thrilled. You know, the men and women before me where all intelligent and powerful people with a highly respectable status but you, you are one of those people that cherishes every moment they get to complain about their pathetic life. The powers that we both possess have to be managed with utmost caution since every change you make is a permanent one and may even cause harm to others. Which is why I will probably never understand how you got a hold of these powers in the first place. You’re reckless and from what I’ve learned by observing you, you couldn’t care less about other people nor do you take anything in life seriously.”

  “Wow, are you just going to insult me or?”

  “See it as constructive criticism and be sure to do something with it since you need to change your behavior and priorities from now on.”

  “Yes, sir,” Roy sighs.

  “Good. Now, although I feel an extraordinarily strong urge to run away right now, I sadly do not have any other choice but to mentor you.”

  “That is really motivating you know, I’m glad I now have a mentor that really wants to help me.”

  “I assume that that is sarcasm.”

  “It is. Anyway, why did I get these powers? And how? And you said that any change I make is a permanent one, which, by the way, clear some things up, but so, isn’t it possible that eventually, I will be able to learn to change things back to their original state? And how come I passed out in my sister’s office when I tried to show her my powers?”

  “I don’t have time to answer all of your questions, but you passed out because you used your powers too much. View yourself as a battery, you can only use it for so long until it runs empty. The same goes for your powers, especially in the beginning. You need to gradually build your stamina, so to speak, up to be able to use your powers more and for a longer period of time. And before you ask me why when you first got your powers you could change everything in your apartment, that is because when you just get a hold of your power, you get a burst of energy, so to speak, which usually doesn’t last long before you finally pass out. But I guess with you that burst of energy lasted longer than it normally does.”

  “So, that does kind of make me special then, right?”

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  “But, since my burst of energy lasted longer than normal, it does make me at least a little bit special.”

  “Alright, fine,” Julian sighs. “You’re very special, happy now?”

  “Yes, but tell me, how did you get your powers? I mean, I got my powers by being robbed. But I guess you already know that since you seem to know everything about me.”

  “Actually, I don’t. And believe it or not, I would actually like to know what happened when you got your powers.”

  “Really? Well, as you already know, things weren’t really going great for me—”

  “I didn’t ask you to tell me things I already know. Just skip to the part where you got your powers, can you do that?”

  “You really are… never mind. Anyway, after I got off the phone with my sister, I saw a robbery taking place across the street. Now, I wouldn’t call myself a hero, but I wasn’t going to let that man rob that lady you know. So, I ran across the street and told the man to stop. The man could see that I wasn’t afraid of him and that visibly scared him you know, but then he aimed the gun at me while he was heavily shaking and told me that he was going to shoot me if I wasn’t going to go away. But I couldn’t just leave like that you know. So, I spread my arms, looked the man straight in his eyes, and told him that I wasn’t going to leave. And you know, then all of a sudden I turned his gun into a potato.”

  “Wow, that is quite a remarkable story.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t really call it remarkable you know. I just did what I had to do, that’s all.”

  “I understand. But I thought that you were crying and begging the man on your knees not to shoot you.”

  “Really? Are you serious? If you already knew what happened, then why let me tell the story anyway?!”

  “Because I wanted to see if you would lie or not, and sadly, you did. Hence why I gave you the constructive criticism.”

  “Why you were insulting me you mean, but wow, you know, I don’t really like you to be honest.”

  “And I couldn’t care less about whether you like me or not,” Julian says, as he then gets up. “What I want you to do in these next few days is to turn small objects into something else and only three objects a day. After that, we will speak again and discuss your progress in both your powers and to who you are as a person.”

  Roy immediately gets up as well and asks, “Wait, are you just going to leave? You can’t just do that. I have so much more questions.”

  “Then save them for the next time we will meet. Oh, and before I go, be sure not to tell anyone about your powers, not even your sister. The more people know what powers you possess the easier it will be for him to find you,” Julian replies, as he then casually walks away and drops a coin on the grass.

  “Wait, hey! Who will find me?! Hey! Oh, hell no, you’re not going to leave like that,” Roy says, as he tries to follow Julian. But then he all of a sudden trips over a potato and makes a hard landing! “What the hell?!” Roy says, as he slowly gets back up and looks at the potato. Julian hears this and as a grin appears on his face, he keeps on walking. “You got to be kidding me,” Roy sighs, as he shakes his head. “Very funny, very funny.”

  About an hour later, Roy is wal
king, with his head bowed down, on the sidewalk and as he is finally almost home, all of a sudden, a police car stops next to him and two police officers immediately run up to him. Roy immediately puts his hands up and says, “Wow, what did I do wrong?”

  “Sir, are you alright? We have been looking for you all over the place.”

  “Yeah, why… ah, I understand. My sister called, didn’t she?”

  “Yes, she informed us that you were abducted by an unknown man.”

  “I was, well, kind of, but don’t worry, the man is an old friend of mine. I’m fine, I really am.”

  “You are aware of the fact that your old friend drugged your sister, right?”