The Accidental Hero

by Matt Myklusch

  Jack and Allegra descended into what was undeniably the seedy underbelly of Karateka. Allegra said it made sense that the Left-Behind would hide out in a place like this. It was a dark, scary corner of town, lower to the ground, with smaller buildings and narrow alleyways for streets. Dilapidated walk-ups and boarded-up tenements were crammed in on top of each other. The streetlights were either busted and flickering or burned out altogether. The glow from Chinese lanterns strung to fire escapes and draped across the crooked streets provided the only dim light.

  Allegra sped up a little as they coasted over the empty rooftops, clearly hoping the trail would lead out of these streets as soon as possible. Everything looked deserted, but it all felt wrong to Jack, like there was something dark and sinister lurking beneath the skin of these alleys. Allegra was jumpy. They both tried to stay alert, ready for whatever it was that they couldn’t yet see. Jack didn’t like being there either, but knew the Rüstov was close.

  They kept moving, taking note of the graffiti marking some of the walls they passed by. They couldn’t read it all, but a number of the symbols were clear. “This isn’t good,” Jack said, running his hand along a wall where a few of the markings were written in English. “ShadowClan,” he read with dread in his voice. “I think… Allegra, I think this is Ronin territory.”

  “Ronin territory?” Allegra asked. “What’s a Ronin?”

  The sound of breaking glass shattered the night silence. Allegra stepped hard on the brakes as Jack pointed up ahead.

  They are.

  The moonlight revealed the eerie limber forms of Ronin assassins on the rooftops ahead. Jack’s stomach dropped when the Ronin’s undead, cloudy eyes locked with his.

  “Uh-oh,” Jack said. “Not good.”

  “Not good is right,” Allegra said.

  The Ronin stepped toward them. Jack and Allegra could now run, or they could fight. Jack knew from his comics that there were no other options at this point. The Ronin were ruthless killers that would carve up Jack and Allegra just for setting foot in their territory uninvited. The Ronin said nothing as they inched forward toward the children. It was the exact situation Jack hoped to never find himself in.

  “I hate these guys,” Jack said. “I always hated these guys.”

  “All right, there’s only a few of them,” Allegra said. “Maybe we can…”

  As if on cue, dozens upon dozens of Ronin crawled out of the shadows like spiders, emerging on all sides. The more directions Jack looked, the more Ronin he saw. They were clinging to fire escapes, perching on window-sills, and crawling on walls. They came out of nowhere and occupied everywhere.

  “Allegra, let’s get out of here,” Jack said.

  “You think?”

  Allegra tried to back away, but they had nowhere to go. They were completely surrounded. Jack never imagined so many creatures could follow them without making a single sound. One by one, the Ronin all drew out three-pronged sai blades. Jack knew they meant to use them. Jack and Allegra tried talking to the Ronin, but it was no use. These creatures weren’t much for conversation. Jack and Allegra braced themselves for what came next.

  A trio of Ronin leaped forth to attack and were instantly cut down by a barrage of arrows and ninja stars.

  Jack and Allegra spun around in surprise and saw a most welcome sight. A legion of ZenClan ninjas fell out of the sky, coming down on the Ronin from every possible angle. They moved in a unified wave, quickly forming a protective wall around the children. Jack breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Skerren and Chi among their number. It seemed he’d managed to join the Rüstov hunting party after all.

  The Rüstov hunt, however, was momentarily put on hold as the Ronin counter-attacked in a dizzying blitz. The outer ring of Chi’s ninjas broke out in every possible direction to meet the Ronin in battle. Chi flipped into the center of the protective circle around Jack and Allegra.

  “Are you two unharmed?” he asked.

  “We’re fine,” Jack answered.

  “Yeah, now we are!” Allegra added.

  Chi’s cadre of silent warriors moved against the Ronin with the fearless agility that comes only with years of intense martial arts training. Their attack became a sort of acrobatic dance in the air. A dance of death. It was a breathtaking sight, watching the ZenClan fighters fearlessly go at the Ronin. The children were witnessing the art of the ninja at its best. Flawless technique. Graceful execution. Deadly perfection.

  “What’s going on?” Allegra asked Chi, not quite screaming. “Why are they attacking us?”

  “We are here without permission,” Chi said, plunging a fist of blue fire through the midsection of an advancing Ronin. “And we are not welcome.” Black sand poured from the gaping wound in the Ronin’s chest left by Chi’s blow. The villain fell, but several more Ronin were slipping through the line of defense. Chi’s ninjas were good, but the Ronin were too many. The ninjas needed help.

  “Jack, focus on the Left-Behind,” Chi said.

  Jack blinked. “What? What about-”

  “We’ll last as long as we have to. You will have the time you need.” Chi dispatched two more Ronin with a series of kicks strong enough to topple an elephant. He looked to Skerren. “Our enemy is neither alive nor dead. Hold nothing back.” Skerren bared his teeth in a vicious smile and dove headlong into the fray. He didn’t need to be told twice. Before Jack could blink, Skerren was already slicing Ronin into sand piles with his unbreakable swords. Allegra did not join the battle so quickly, but she didn’t liquefy either. Chi kicked a Ronin from her path, mere seconds before it struck her.

  “Allegra, you are needed,” he told her. He said nothing more. He just looked her in the eye and held up his arm. He flattened his fingers, extending them all the way straight. His hand was poised like an ax ready to chop. Allegra nodded, raised her arm to meet his, and it formed into a machete blade. The edge did not quiver. “The ninja’s path is steady and balanced,” he said to her. “We strike without fear or anger. Now, with me… FIGHT!”

  Chi sprang forth at the Ronin. Allegra followed him into battle. She morphed her second arm to match her first and swung away. The black sand began to fly.

  With everyone fighting the Ronin except Jack, it was time for him to do his part. Amid the chaos, Jack reached out with his mind, listening for the Rüstov. The sound wasn’t far off. It was like tuning in a weak-signaled radio station. Jack just had to filter out the static. The Left-Behind was nearby… and it was talking to someone.

  “KSSSSCCHHHH… Report. Where is the child? The infected? You have failed?”

  Jack’s heart jumped. There were more Rüstov here than just the one that got away. And from the sound of it, they were all after him.

  Jack jumped down from the AirSkimmer and looked around. The buildings here were close enough to one another for him to jump from one rooftop to the next without any trouble. He followed the voices away from the battle. They led him to the darkest of Ronin streets, where even the lanterns were burned out. He reached out with his senses to try and tune in the Rüstov’s location. He was close. He could feel it.

  He ran farther out into the darkness and reached the edge of a roof where a much taller building butted up against the ledge. An old, empty fire escape was clinging to the building’s side. Jack reached up and started to climb. The rusty metal ladders creaked as he made his way up and looked over the top. On the far side of the roof, underneath a MagLev highway overpass, he saw them. Five Rüstov Left-Behinds—five of them!— all talking to one another, all in different states of decay. Jack recognized “his” Left-Behind among them. The fugitive, the one from Wrekzaw Isle. It was the one with the least rust and the highest rank. Its shiny new leg gleamed in the moonlight. Jack crawled onto the roof to get a better look.

  “We did not fail,” Jack heard one of them say. “The mission intel failed us. The child was not where our agent said he would be.”

  “Impossible,” Jack’s Rüstov replied. “Our agent would not lie to us. Our ag
ent could not lie to us.”

  Jack got that cold feeling in his stomach again. He didn’t like what he was hearing. Their agent? Another Collaborator? He also didn’t like that there were five Left-Behinds on the roof. That was four more than he expected, and none of them seemed to think he was Rüstov royalty anymore. He decided to go back and get the others.

  As Jack backed away toward the fire escape, he heard a sound from behind. He turned just as a Ronin’s blade was about to descend on him. When the blade reached its highest point, Jack watched as at least a dozen arrows struck the Ronin’s back, dropping him where he stood. The Ronin fell like a one-hundred-pound sandbag right on top of Jack. The Left-Behinds looked up in surprise. Chi’s ninjas had saved Jack’s life, but also had given away his position. “The child!” one of the Left-Behinds exclaimed, taking a step toward Jack. “He’s come to us!”

  “Stand fast,” the head Left-Behind said to them, pointing across the rooftops. “Their numbers are too great,” it added, eyeing the dozens of ninjas that were now running toward them, having finished off most of the Ronin assassins. “Fall back. Scatter and regroup at Location 12. Follow Omega Protocols if captured.”

  The Left-Behinds split up and ran off, all in different directions. Climbing out from under the fallen Ronin fighter, Jack was grossed out by the black sand all over him. He frantically beat the sand out of his clothes and struggled to untangle himself from the lifeless white suit. By the time he got clear of it, most of the Left-Behinds were already out of sight. One, however, was still within reach. Jack summoned his powers and asked it to stop where it was. Not surprisingly, it had no interest in complying with that request. That was fine, Jack thought. It was headed for the MagLev road. He waited until it was underneath the overpass and, with a simple thought, Jack reversed the polarity of the road. The forces of magnetic attraction pulled the Left-Behind’s metal frame up to the underside of the highway and held him there. He couldn’t have been locked down any tighter if he were tied with a thousand chains.

  “Gotcha!” Jack said.

  Jack started running across the roof toward the helpless Rüstov. Chi’s ninjas followed. They were still a building or two behind Jack, but as he reached the MagLev overpass, Jack heard the hum of the AirSkimmer above him. He looked up to see Skerren driving it along an erratic, swerving path to reach the Left-Behind at the same time he did. Skerren dismounted on the roof next to Jack, and the two boys stared up at the trapped enemy.

  “You caught it,” Skerren said, somewhat surprised.

  “Yeah,” Jack replied. “It’s not the same one as before, though. There were more of them here tonight. Five of them.”

  “Five?” Skerren repeated, looking up at the Rüstov. It wasn’t struggling to free itself. The Left-Behind didn’t seem to be paying him or Jack any real attention at all. It was grunting something to itself in Rüstov-speak. “Can you understand it?” Skerren asked. “What’s that it’s saying?”

  “I don’t know,” Jack said. “I’m trying, but it’s weird. It almost feels like half of it is turned off, and the other half is just… counting down.”

  Jack drew in a sharp breath, suddenly realizing what was going to happen. He prayed he wasn’t too late and dove headlong into Skerren, taking them both over the side of the roof as the Left-Behind exploded. The blast carried with it enough force to blow the MagLev road apart and take out the roof of the building Jack and Skerren had just been standing on. They were in the air for only a brief second when the shockwave rocked them from behind. Smoke and dust from the explosion blinded Jack instantly. He held on to Skerren as tight as he could to keep them from being separated. Completely disoriented and falling through the air, he reached for help from anywhere. It was fight-or-flight instinct, not a conscious thought. Jack heard a loud hum and took a harsh blow to his entire body as he and Skerren both hit hard against a flat surface. It hurt, but Jack knew it should have hurt more. As the smoke cleared, the surface beneath Jack and Skerren started to rise up in the air. Jack and Skerren had been caught by the AirSkimmer. Jack had pulled it in with his powers just in time.

  “You… you saved me,” Skerren said, rubbing his head. He had a dazed look in his eyes.

  “Yeah,” Jack responded as the AirSkimmer brought them back to safe ground. “I’m just as surprised as you are.

  Chi and the others raced over to the blast site, relieved to see the boys were both all right. When it was all over, the ninjas escorted the children safely out of the dark alleys and back to the ZenClan dojo. Jazen and Hovarth were there waiting for them when they arrived. Hovarth was glad to hear about Skerren’s part in the recent battle, but Jazen was less than pleased about Jack’s involvement. He was understandably upset with Jack for putting himself in such danger. Seated at the edge of Chi’s stone garden, Jazen told Jack and Allegra just how lucky they were. “What would you have done if Chi hadn’t been there tonight? You two would have had to face the Ronin alone.”

  Jack apologized to Jazen and admitted that it was all his idea. He was the one who had convinced Allegra to go, and said it wasn’t her fault. He also told everyone what he’d seen and heard that night in Karateka. He said that the Rüstov were coming after him, and, to make matters worse, they had friends inside Empire City. “Someone was working with the Rüstov tonight,” Jack said. “I heard them talking about an agent.”

  “Another Collaborator?” Allegra asked.

  Jack shrugged. “Maybe,” he said. “Or maybe we got the wrong guy last time.”

  “What do they want with you, Jack?” she asked.

  Jack shook his head. He didn’t know. Jack didn’t know any of that because he didn’t know anything about himself. Not the way the Rüstov sure seemed to. Why was it the only people who knew anything about him were the ones who wanted to hurt him?

  Chi, on the other hand, said he knew everything he needed to know about Jack. About all the children, in fact. He told the students they had all shown skill, bravery, and selflessness that night. By working together toward a common goal, they had displayed teamwork, the asset he valued the most. With their actions they had earned not only his respect but his vote as well.

  “If many can move as one, they can move mountains,” Chi told the children. “But all concerned must understand this basic truth. They must share the same goal. The same direction, focus, and discipline. It is not about the individual. We are stronger together.” Chi waved his hand out over the railing of the stone garden. “Look there,” he said. “What do you see?”

  In the garden, tiny pebbles covered every inch of the ground, all raked in tight, neat rows. A small number of larger stones, half buried in moss-covered patches, were scattered about. The pebbles were raked in perfect circles around the dry-moss islands like ripples in a gravelly pond. Chi explained that the placement of every single rock was intentionally designed to produce a calming, Zen-like atmosphere. “The pebble is no more and no less important than the boulder,” Chi said. “They work together to form the beauty of this garden. Like individual brushstrokes in a masterpiece, together they become something greater than their solitary selves. In battle it is no different.” He looked at Jack and Skerren. “Regardless of your differences… in battle you are brothers. You are family.”

  “I don’t have any family,” Skerren said. He turned to Jack. “Don’t go thinking we’re brothers. I’m not even sure what you were really doing out there tonight.”

  Jack was shocked. “You still don’t trust me after all this?” he asked. “I saved your life.”

  “Sure,” Skerren said. “This time. What about next time? What if the next time I need you for something, you have a Rüstov mark on your eye?” Skerren shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if I trust you or not. You’re infected. You can’t even trust you. The parasite could be pulling your strings right now and you wouldn’t even know it. That’s how it is with the Rüstov.”

  “You’re not being fair,” Allegra said to Skerren.

  “Fair’s got nothing t
o do with it,” Skerren replied. “You think he’s your friend, Allegra, but you can’t be sure. Even he can’t be sure which side he’s on. He doesn’t know a thing about himself!”

  “That’s the whole point!” Jack said. “That’s exactly why we were out there tonight. Look, Skerren, I get it. You hate the Rüstov, that’s fine. But I don’t know what you want me to do about it. I can’t help what I am.”

  For a moment, Skerren actually seemed to look at Jack like a real person. “I know it’s not your fault,” he said, “but the Rüstov don’t just want you. They’ve already got you. You’re worth something to them and they’ve got a hook in you already. That’s all there is to it. No matter what anyone says, you’re already lost.”

  “Skerren,” Allegra began, “why do you have to be like that?” Skerren was already on his way to the door. He didn’t slow down and he didn’t look back.

  “Do not worry, Jack,” Chi said, resting a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Families fight all the time. What matters is what they do when they need each other. When it counts. You were there for Skerren tonight. I believe the time will come when he makes the same decision. The universe is a balanced place. The more you give, the more you receive in the end.”

  “I don’t even think I care anymore,” Jack said. “I mean, if he can’t get over his issues after a night like this, what’s it gonna take? I’m just so sick of his attitude.”

  Allegra nodded. “I don’t get why he’s so angry all the time,” she said. “He’s good at everything. He’s got his power totally mastered, all this stuff comes easy for him… what’s his problem?”

  Hovarth looked sadly at the gate Skerren had left by. “I wouldn’t say Skerren has it all so well,” he said. “Skerren walks a road just as hard as anyone’s.”

  “What do you mean?” Jack asked.

  “Well,” the mighty king began, “I’ve known Skerren since he was a baby. His father was my blood brother in combat. He and his wife were my closest friends. I’ve never known happier, prouder parents. They loved Skerren and doted on him. And then one day that all ended. Rüstov Left-Behinds, in hiding since the invasion, emerged in search of new hosts, made their way into Varagog, and infected Skerren’s parents.