Of Minds and Masters

by Paul Ormond

  “Worthy or not, you are a necessary part of this operation and we are certain that you are the human capable of getting the job done. As we speak, the “Ray of Divine Light” is being transferred to your device. After the transfer is complete, the device will be weaponized. Crossing your arms in front of you will activate the weapons mode. Any gesture you make will be accentuated by the device. Furthermore, you will be able to maneuver through space using the instruments levitation abilities. I’m certain you will be pleased by the results of this upgrade. However, I do suggest that you find a safe place to test out your new abilities,” the giant head said.

  “I am honored to serve your noble cause. This humble human is forever indebted to the Grand Masters,” Robert said.

  “Now that you have the correct tools, you will be capable of successfully completing your task. His Supreme Excellency, The Divine Emperor, is counting on you to secure this domain in his name,” the head said. “There is one more matter that needs discussing. I take it that the fugitive is still at large?” Commander Holrathu asked.

  “We have been unable to pinpoint the culprit, but there is good news. Tech sensors have been able to pick up some algorithms in the network that match the signature, yet their origins remain unclear. We believe that this may be the clue that will lead us to your fugitive,” Robert said.

  “He must be apprehended. Although one individual seems rather insignificant, any resistance must be handled with full force. We cannot have anything compromising the plan,” the giant head of Commander Holrathu said.

  “I will not disappoint the Emperor. We are certain that the algorithm has infiltrated our network and we have allowed it to continue operating so that we can monitor its activity. Once we have pinpointed the fugitive, we will apprehend him immediately” Robert said while bowing low again.

  “Do not underestimate the danger that this fugitive poses. They possess a device that has compromised our technology. If they were to gain access to the system, all could be lost. It is unfortunate that this task has been thrust upon you at such an inopportune time, but should you apprehend the fugitive and deliver him to us, the Emperor will be most grateful,” Commander Holrathu said solemnly.

  “It is my great honor to serve his Royal Highness. I will not allow some insubordinate wretch to derail all of our efforts to save this domain. The fugitive will be apprehended and we will not tire until he is,” Roberts said.

  “Very well, it is of the utmost importance that this problem is contained. We shall be watching intently as you make progress towards your goal. We will not tolerate anything less than success,” the giant head said while eyeing Robert.

  “Glory to the Grand Masters! your servant bows before you,” Robert said while getting on his knees again.

  “Until next time, Robert. Remember, we will be watching,” the giant head said. Then, without warning, it vanished. The room was filled with a deafening silence. Robert once again raised his hands over his head, and then he slowly lowered his arms over the device and made two fists. He bumped his hands together and the sphere quickly collapsed into the device that lay before him on the red carpet.

  He reached down and picked up the device on the ground. He looked at it for a second and then placed it in his pocket. He had witnessed demonstrations of this technology before and he was well aware of its capabilities, but he had never been allowed to use one himself. He knew that the Masters meant business by giving him access to this technology. He was also aware of the high-stakes game that he was playing. It was win or be crushed at this point and Robert didn’t lose.

  He stood up and reached his hands out in front of him and crossed his arms in an X across his chest as Commander Holrathu had instructed him. Instantly, his body was immersed in a strange orange glow. He made a fist and a ball of energy appeared around his hand. He flicked his fingers in shock and the ball went whirling across the room. His collection of classic literature burst into flames. A smile spread across Robert’s lips. He made a fist again and threw a ball of energy at the opposite wall. More books were incinerated. He laughed and brought his two hands together. A large blade of energy emerged from his hands. He looked at the blade for a moment and a devilish grin spread across his face. He brought the blade down across the giant oak desk in his office and instantly split it in half. He laughed out loud and reached out in front of himself and then brought his hands to his side. He crouched down and jumped into the air. He shot up towards the vaulted ceiling of his office and brought his hands up expecting impact but he stopped himself a few inches short of the baroque painting of himself that he had commissioned to cover his ceiling. He pushed off of the painting and he coasted back down to the ground. He crossed his arms again and the energy field around him disappeared. He looked around the room and observed the devastation he had wrought.

  “Oh, this is going to be fun,” he said as he sat down in his goatskin chair and picked up the telephone console that lay strewn across the floor. He placed the phone in his lap and pressed a button on the console. “Allan, get in here. We’re going to need someone to clean this up,” he said into the intercom. The door swung open and Allan stood there with his mouth open. “Well, don’t just stand there gawking, Allan. Get maintenance on the phone. We need to clean this up. I’ve got work to do,” Robert snapped as he leaned back in his chair and put his feet on his broken desk.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Mitch sat in his room alone. His father still hadn’t returned home, even though it was after ten. He was usually home at 6 pm for dinner every night, so it was strange that he was so late. Mitch had tried to play DeathWorld to kill some time before the inevitable showdown with his father but his HUD was blowing up with notifications from MindHIve, indicating new likes and connects. It was somewhat disconcerting that his account was getting that much activity. Mitch knew it was only a matter of time before he was blocked or disabled by the system. It was obvious that Drak was using some type of spam application to drive up his profile, but it was very strange that he was getting so many positive responses and interactions. MindHIve had been battling hackers and spammers for some time and they had employed sentinel bots to track down infractions. He hoped that his account wouldn’t become fully disabled like so many other spam accounts out there. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He regretted giving Drak access to his account but he was actually a little afraid to confront him on it, considering what he had witnessed earlier in the greenbelt. The guy was weird and dangerous. Mitch knew that he shouldn’t have trusted him, but the damage was already done.

  There was a knock at the door and it swung open to reveal his father standing in the door frame. Mike Mythic was a hulk of a man and he took up the entire doorway. His belly filled up his blue polo-style shirt and spilled over the top of his brown pleated pants. He stood there for a moment scratching his balding head. He then looked at his son square in the eyes.

  “You’ve really stuck your foot in it this time, Mitch,” he said. Mitch didn’t respond. He just stared at the ground. “I talked with some other parents and we’ve all decided that you need to apologize to your teammates publicly so we can all put this behind us and get ready for the next season. It’s all for the good of the team. You’re the leader and we need you to start showing some leadership,” Mike said. The room was filled with a heavy silence. Mitch wanted to scream and shout at his father. The whole thing was his fault. If his father hadn’t made him captain and hadn’t made him take that shot, none of this would’ve happened.

  “Look, I know you’ve been through a lot, but you’re going to have to get over it. It’s really easy to sit around and be unhappy. Anybody can do it. Right now, by moping around like this and getting angry, you are giving in and giving up. You’re a winner Mitch and even though you lost, you still need to act like a winner, cause I won’t tolerate you going around acting like a sore loser. Are you gonna rise up to the challenge or are you just gonna take it all laying down?” Mitch’s father said, trying to get M
itch inspired.

  Mitch sighed and lay down on his bed. Nobody was on his side. He had never felt more alone in his entire life. “How am I going to apologize to everybody? Are you calling a town meeting?” Mitch asked.

  “As a matter of fact, I am. We’re going to get all of the players and their families together at the arena and then you are going to apologize in front of everybody for what happened. I heard you and some weird punk beat up some of the guys in the park earlier today too. You think I didn’t know about that did you? Sage said that some weird friend of yours attacked them. Are you starting to run with another crowd? Don’t even think of turning your back on this team that we’ve built together. You’re going to apologize and we are going to put this team back together, so we can go out next season and win like the champions we are,” Mr. Mythic said. Mitch groaned and rolled over on his bed.

  “Fine,” he said. “Can you just leave me alone, please Dad?” Mitch said.

  “I know that it is a burden to carry the name Mythic. Believe me, I have lived with it. But in my playing days, I never let the name define me. I became the name. I’m not sure if I ever told you this story but when your great grandfather came to this country, so many years ago, nobody could pronounce his name. Vaeleskin Mykaveisckaya was a little too difficult for folks around here to say, so he went to a dictionary and looked up words that began with M. He liked the sound of “Mythic” so he chose it, and he became Vic Mythic. There is no meaning to it, Mitch. It’s just a name. Don’t let your circumstances define you. Take me for example. Do you think people judge me by my name or for what I’ve done?” Mike Mythic asked.

  Mitch sighed again. Everybody knew about Mike Mythic in Kingsford. He was the hometown hero - the biggest thing to ever come out of Kingsford. He had been a star player for the Kingsford Crushers years before Mitch was born. Under Mike Mythic, the Crushers won three league championships. When he came of age he had blazed into the professional hockey world and lit it on fire. He had a sensational rookie season and his name was splashed everywhere. Known for his lightning speed and his tremendous slap shot, he was the most exciting new player to come into the league in years. Playing for the Longdale Legends, he had been a perfect fit. He played alongside great players like Eddie Olzylthong and Geoff Boukenal and together they won a championship in his first season. “A new myth has arrived in the land of the legends,” a local paper had written.

  The media and advertisers gobbled up everything Mike Mythic did. The Mythic’s home was covered with old cutouts of Mike Mythic’s name in newspapers: “Mythic performance from the young rookie from Kingsford,” “Is it a ‘Myth’? No! It’s Mike Mythic!” read another headline. There were also old endorsements he had done, including cereal boxes and bobble heads. The Mythic’s entire home was a shrine to Mike’s hockey career. Everywhere you looked, there was an old piece of memorabilia. It was under this shroud of greatness that Mitch had been brought up.

  Mike Mythic was a sensation, but no one can control the future. A string of injuries ended up cutting the young kid from Kingsford’s career short before he could really make a name for himself. He returned to his hometown heartbroken, but still standing. He set about rebuilding himself and he knew that he would have a family and raise a boy to be a great hockey player. He married his high school sweetheart, Mindy Saunders, and they didn’t waste any time starting a family. When Mitch was born, Mike couldn’t wait to get him on the ice. Mitch had pictures of himself clutching a hockey stick as a newborn while being held by a beaming Mike Mythic.

  Around that same time, Mike and Mindy started their own sporting goods store. They called it Mythic Sporting Goods and Mike’s reputation ensured that everybody in town came to his store. It was a success right away and it soon became an institution in Kingsford. If you needed anything to do with sports, it was the place to go. Mike had made sure that he was well celebrated at the store as well. There was more memorabilia there than at the Mythic’s home.

  Along with the store, Mike poured everything into Mitch’s hockey career. Mitch was enrolled in minor hockey as soon as possible and he always had the best gear in town. From the beginning, Mitch had shown promise. He was fast and determined and he spent hours practicing his shot out front of his house or at the local outdoor rink. He could seemingly score at will and he was fulfilling his father’s expectations. Mythic Sporting Goods sponsored the Crushers and when old coach Campbell retired, Mike Mythic was an obvious replacement. He gladly took the job and knew that he would do his best to see his boy go all the way.

  Mitch had big shoes to fill though. His father’s reputation preceded him in every situation. Everywhere he went, people would tell him things like: “You’re gonna be just like your dad. He was so good.” Although Mitch had a lot of talent, it was difficult for him to constantly live up to the hype. The pressure on him to perform was always there and when he didn’t do well, people would often say: “I wish he played more like his dad. That guy was amazing.”

  Needless to say, Mitch was constantly being compared to his father and it was immensely difficult to live up to his name. When he did well, he was elated and he felt like it had all been worth it. But when it didn’t go his way, he would sink into a pit of misery. He felt isolated when he failed because it seemed like he had let everyone around him down. They all had such high expectations for him so he constantly needed to put forth the image of the great athlete that was always cool under pressure and ready to rise to the occasion. It was this unceasing pressure that caused Mitch to keep his feelings deep inside.

  He had kept things bottled up so much over the last few months that he was bound to snap. He regretted hitting Sage, but the guy was such a jerk and he had turned everybody against him. When he needed his teammates the most, he was all alone, and now he had to go and apologize to everybody. Mitch was so angry he wanted to scream, but like always, he kept it inside him. He couldn’t appear weak in front of his father.

  “Mitch, it’s gonna be alright. We’ll fix this together. Go out there and show these folks that you know you made a mistake and you didn’t mean to disappoint everybody. Do that and we’ll all be able to move past this. You’re a great leader and a great player. You can’t let the little things get you down,” Mr. Mythic said. Mitch rolled his eyes. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  How could his father think that way? It wasn’t a little thing. It was the worst moment of his entire life and after that moment came months of embarrassment. He had been cut off from the people that he thought were his friends and he had suffered in isolation the entire time. Now he was the one that had to go out and make things right. Where were all the people that were supposed to have his back? Why didn’t anybody care about him, Mitch thought to himself.

  “I already said I’ll do it. Now just leave me alone,” Mitch snapped at his father.

  “Look, you don’t have to get angry, Mitch. I’m trying to help you out here,” Mitch’s father said while trying not to get angry. “One day you’re gonna look back on these days and realize that this was the best time of your life.”

  Mitch closed his eyes and sighed. “I don’t know about that,” he said under his breath.

  “What did you say? Are you talking back to me boy? Don’t waste this opportunity, Mitch. I’ll leave you alone, if that’s what you want, but everybody is counting on you to do what is best for the team,” Mike Mythic said while closing the door.

  Mitch listened to his father’s heavy footsteps plodding up the basement stairs. He rolled over on his back and looked up at the ceiling. A poster of Geoff Boukenal was taped above Mitch’s bed. It was signed by Geoff Boukenal himself. He was a good friend of Mike Mythic and Mitch had met him on several occasions. He was Mitch’s favorite hockey player of all time. It was signed: “To Mitch, Be the best you that you can be. Geoff Boukenal.”

  “I don’t know about that Geoff,” Mitch muttered as he rolled over and looked at his computer monitor. The notifications and comments were continuing to pour in
. He groaned and got out of bed. He didn’t even look at the screen. He just reached down and held the power button until the computer shut off. He stood up and sighed once more and then turned off the lights in his room. He crawled into bed dreading what the next day would bring.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Play it again, Andrew,” Robert said. The MindHIve executive board room was empty save for Robert and a few engineers. Robert sat in his chair and he scratched the top of his head while he waited anxiously for his head engineer to restart the video.

  “Are you ready, sir?” Andrew inquired. He was always a little nervous around MindHIve’s CEO. There was something about the man that made him uneasy.

  “Andrew, of course I’m ready. Just play the thing already,” Robert snapped.

  “Uh y-y-yyes sir, right away,” Andrew stammered.

  “You know Andrew, for a genius you really are as sharp as a hammer sometimes,” Robert said.

  Beamed onto the massive white screen that dominated the western wall of the MindHIve executive boardroom was the best possible production of the #epiccrotchshot video. The video had been slowed down to a fraction of the actual speed and re-rendered in order to bring out the very best video quality that the MindHIve engineering department could muster. Mitch Mythic could be seen being hurled over the goal, larger than life, and in glorious HD quality. The technicians had been able to zoom in on the video so that the only thing that could be seen was Mitch’s body slowly reaching its apex before its final decent to the ice behind the net.

  “You’re sure about this?” Robert asked his engineering department.

  “Yes sir,” Andrew piped up. “We’ve been able to isolate the algorithm’s most recent activity and it seems to be fixated on this particular video and others like it. It seems that the algorithm has been able to sidestep our governor protocols and has allowed these videos to surpass the viewing limit we imposed. We cannot prove that the video or the system has been hacked but we are certain that the algorithm is affecting it in some way. The scary thing is that nothing is violating our “terms of service” agreement. We even had the lawyers go over it several times. But anything to do with these types of videos is being funneled back to this kid’s account.”