Break: An Urban Hero's Journey

by Wes Grant

  to shut up, do you? Would you rather have me show up later tonight when you’re dead . . . and besides, I show up whenever someone special like him shows up. It just happens most of the time they show up at night.”

  Jeff said, “What you mean special like him? The only thing special about Larry is how much of a queer he is.” Spear said, “Wow, you’re really making it hard to convince this kid not to kill you.” Spear then said to Jeff to get up and get out of there.

  Larry screamed, “He’s not going anywhere! And the name is M Wave now. And I swear if you get in my way, I’ll kill you too.”

  Spear shook his head and said, “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. Now come on, I don’t want to hurt you.” Larry said, “You’re just like everyone else, you think just because you’re bigger you can beat me? . . . Well, no one’s gonna kick me around anymore, and I’ll prove it by beating you.” He then opened his fist and cupped them in front of him. He then forced out his power spreading a dome of energy withering the grass around him.

  Spear pushed Jeff out the way and screamed, “Get outta here, kid!” Larry aimed his hands at Jeff, ready to focus his power on him, but just then Spear threw down some of his smoke bombs allowing for him and Jeff to get away. He jumped and grabbed Jeff, dragging him behind a tree. He then told Jeff to get out, he’d take care of Larry.

  Jeff started to run away, and Spear said, “Oh, and, Jeff, stop bullying people because you never know who’ll turn into a superpower psycho.”

  Jeff replied, “No problem man, no problem man,” as he ran away. Larry screamed, “Where are you?” He looked through the smoke, but couldn’t see a thing. He then screamed, “He’s the one I’m after! I won’t let you take that from me!” He then focused all his power and widened his dome of energy. He figured if he couldn’t see, then maybe he could still burn them. Spear didn’t realize it and had his left arm burn in the dome. He pulled his arm out the second he felt pain. Spear jumped away from the energy out of the reach of Larry’s power. The smoke cleared away, and Larry was breathing very heavily from all the energy he had put out. He looked around and didn’t see Spear or Jeff. He ran toward the opening in the park near the large fountain to see if he could spot them.

  Larry screamed, “Where are you!”

  Spear jumped out into the open and said, “I’m right here.” Larry said, “Where’s that jackass Jeff?”

  Spear replied, “Listen, kid, you already crossed the line too many times already. If you keep this up, then I’ll have to stop holding back.”

  Larry screamed, “Stop talking to me as if I’m some weak little kid! I’m M Wave now! I’m the one with the power now!” Spear said, “Power, huh? To me you’re still weak. You’re weak because you didn’t have the strength to suck it up and move past your problems. All you’ve done is use your power to hurt people the same way they used it to hurt you. No, you’re worst . . . you killed.”

  Larry screamed, “Shut up!” He then said, “You have no idea of how bad I’ve had it. All the times I’ve been beat up. All the things I’ve had to endure.” Spear then remembered his childhood. Being the only black kid in an elementary school and being beat up every day for no reason other than being different. Having to run home straight after school so he wouldn’t get jumped or taking the long way home to avoid the bullies.

  Filled with anger, Spear said, “Stop your whining and suck it up.” He began to walk toward Larry and said, “I’m sick of hearing you kids always talking about how bad you’ve got it. You have no idea of how good you have it. You have both your parents, they mess with you because of the clothes you wear, but you chose your clothes. You’re not poor, you have the money to buy any clothes you want and you choose to dress like that. Stand up for yourself then. If that’s your style, that’s your style, own it. Don’t let anyone else tell you it’s not good. You have a friend that for some reason sticks around for you and stands up for you, and by some people’s standards a little out of your league, but yet you still swear you have the worst life ever. Their are kids that get picked on because of their race or sexuality and they had no choice in that. The truth is you’re just a spoiled brat who wants someoneto feel sorry for him. You think you’re the only kid that has it hard! Get over yourself. You’re not not even close.”

  Larry yelled, “Shut up!” then pointed his hand at Spear to burn him. Spear dodged out of his way. Larry followed him with his hand and turned the grass black wherever he aimed. Spear circled around Larry, making it very hard for him to burn Spear. While he repeatedly circled around him, Spear saw an opening for his attack behind Larry. He jumped at the chance and hit an invisible energy field five feet from Larry. Hitting the energy field Spear was burned badly and let out a yelp as he dropped to his knees. Larry turned around and saw Spear on his knee right behind him with smoke coming from his clothes. He quickly turned to aim his hands at Spear. Spear injured, used what strength he had left to jumped back and dodged behind the large water fountain to give himself some time to recover from the burn.

  Larry said, “Hey, Spear, what happened to all that big talk about not taking it easy on me. It looks like you can’t even hold your own against a little weakling like me. You did call me weak right.” He then began to walk toward the fountain and aimed his hands at it, heating up the entire fountain to a boil. He then began to say, “I told you I’m the one with power now. No one will push me around ever again, including you, and when everyone hears how I took out Spear, I’ll get everyone’s respect.” Just then the superheated fountain explodes from the heat, hitting Spear with shards. Spear then shot off toward the shelter in the park.

  Larry saw him and said, “Running again? Wow, you’re really not living up to the hype they made over you.” He then walked over to the shelter and began to focus his powers around him just in case Spear came out again. He began to walk slowly down the center of the shelter benches. As he walked, you see the end of the benches turning black and catching fire as he walked past. Row after row, the end of the beaches caught fire as he slowly walked toward Spear.

  Spear, while trying to regain his strength, yelled out, “You do know that because it was premeditated they’re going to lock you up as an adult and charge you for murder.”

  Larry stopped walking and said, “You mean those jerkwads Todd and Mike? They had it coming. And I would have had Jeff too, but you had to get involved. But it’s OK. Once I kill you, I can take out Jeff whenever I want, and the best thing about it is that no one will ever figure it out.” Just then he heard a gasp. He turned his head and saw Jessica over near a tree.

  She said, “You’re lying, right?” She then began to walk toward Larry. Larry was speechless and couldn’t find the words to explain himself.

  While this conversation was going on, Spear powered down to heal and regain his strength quicker. Jes sica then said, “No, it can’t be true, tell me you’re lying. You have to be lying. That’s it, right? You’re just trying to be cool.” She got a little closer to Larry then said, “Stop playing, Larry, you couldn’t do that.”

  Larry then screamed, “Why! Because I’m too weak, I’m too small to protect myself? I’m sick of everyone looking at me like I’m some little wimp! That’s all going to change now. Everyone will know me, everyone will fear me, and everyone will give me the respect I deserve.”

  Jessica’s eyes began to tear up. She then said, “Why are you doing this?”

  Larry said, “So I can get everyone’s respect.” Jessica said, “You have my respect. Why do you need anybody else’s? Haven’t I always been there for you? You don’t need everybody’s, just the ones that care about you.”

  Larry replied, “Respect huh, like the respect you had for me when you started dating the guy that always picked on me and used to pick on you.”

  Jessica replied, “What are you talking about.”

  Larry replied, “Don’t act stupid, I know about you and Jeff.” Jessica replied, “Me and Jeff? That was barely a thing.”

  Larry yelled, “ST
OP LYING TO ME!!! I’ve seen you two together.”

  Jessica asked, “Were you spying on me?” Larry replied, “Yes, I mean no. I mean, I went after you when you left my house the other day to apologize for the way I treated you, but when I caught up, you were talking to Jeff getting all close.”

  Jessica replied, “Listen I don’t have to get approval to see anyone. That being said, me and Jeff were never a thing. Sure we made out a couple times when I tutored him but I never took him serious. I mean it’s Jeff the Jackass. I know how he really is. I know how he treats girls. That’s why will I tutor him and got him to like me, I got major dirt on him. I would have used it to black mail him to never bother you again but then you go all psycho on me.”

  Spear thinks to himself, “Wow, now that’s a best friend. Almost scary.”

  Larry muttered out, “You… you were really gonna do all that for me?”

  Jessica replied, “Elly, you know I have your back, and if you had stayed around you would have seen me end it with him.” Larry replied, “Realy, you… ended it.”

  Jessica replied, “Yea, and like I said, you don’t need respect from everyone, just the ones that care about you.” Larry replied, “Easy for you to say cute. You’re dark but people talk to you. People actually like you. No one talks to me but you.”

  Jessica said, “You’re cute too, you were just always pushing people away, plus with your self-loathing and world hate, it was hard to notice anybody that might think you are.”

  Larry replied, “You . . . you think I’m cute?” She said, “Yeah. And I know some girls that think so to, but are to afraid to talk to you cause, you know… you’re you.” While getting closer, she saw Spear but didn’t say a word to Larry about it. She then said, “But you ruined it now.”

  Larry said, “What do you mean?” Jessica replied, “You killed two kids. What do you think is gonna happen? The police will give you a warning and say don’t do it again.”

  Larry then said, “It’s OK, no one has to know. Once I take out Spear, we can just keep this a secret.”

  Jessica said, “What about Jeff, are you gonna kill him too?” Larry said, “He’s the one that started all of this! Everyone that hurt me has to pay.”

  It dawned on Jessica as she gasped and covered her mouth as she spoke, “The Principle… was that you?”

  Larry yelled, “He’s the one that lets this keep happening and lets them off easy.” Jessica yelled, “When is the killing going to stop?! You sure you don’t want to take me out too just to take care of those loose ends?”

  Spear was watching this from a corner and noticed Larry who was lowering the little energy field the closer Jessica got to him. He figured if there was as good a chance as any to take the kid out without hurting him too badly, it was now. Spear powered back up. He signaled to Jessica that he’s going to make his move soon. Jessica went to hug Larry. Larry let down his guard and lowered his energy field.

  Jessica whispered in Larry’s ear, “I’m sorry.” Then she let go of him and stepped to the side. Larry said, “For what?” and turned around to a hard left hook to the gut. He looked at Jessica and muttered, “Why?” before passing out.

  Jessica said, “What now? You gonna hand him over to the police?” Spear said, “I would, but no one would believe my story or even Jeff’s or yours for the fact of the matter. There’s just no real proof that he did it . . . But I think I know someone that can help him or at least keep him from going on a killing spree.”

  Jessica said, “As long as he can get help and he’s OK, that’s all that matters.” Spear said, “I wish I had a friend like you when I was younger.” He then tossed Larry over his shoulder and took off with him.

  Later on Spear was off somewhere with Larry knocked out. Spear was on the phone and said, “Hey Dean, can you meet me somewhere? I’m kinda gonna need your help.”

  MR. PLATINUM

  Chapter 11

  Face to Face

  The story starts off with Spear running through Jersey City(JC for short) across the top of buildings. The crisp air grazed his face as he leaped from roof to roof. Crime had been slow for the past week since he took care of that M Wave kid. Spear was just enjoying himself running and jumping doing trick flips in the air before landing. The night was quiet with no crime in sight. He was starting to feel that he was actually accomplishing something. There had actually been no crime in Jersey City for weeks. Crime had stopped in the city or that’s what he figured from seeing how the bad areas were no longer filled with thugs on the corner. He made his way towards the docks in the Newport area that he had been frequenting the pass week. It was a nice break from the dark alleys in the bad neighborhoods he was always around. A couple times that week he would looked from the roofs in the downtown area at the lights, the busiling groups and couples oblivious to him watching over them. Spear wished he could just keep watch over this area where it was nice and peaceful and the only thing they had to worry about was someone getting too drunk, but these aren’t the people that need his help most of the time. The moon was bright that night and he could see the New York skyline through the tall buildings so he decided to get a better view. was. He took out his grapple hook and newly created hand power suction cups and jumped off the roof. He grappled his way from one taller buildings and made his way to the tallest buildings nearby. Once he made his way to the top, he was speechless at the view he saw. He looked at the view of New York and just stood there in awe. The gorgeous view of New York, made it worth the trip every time. In these past couple of months of protecting this city, he never managed to stop and just take it all in. He sat on the ledge with his feet dangling and thought about the past couple of months. He had been through so much from super powered villain to deadly ninja assassins. With all that, he thought to himself, it didn’t matter what he’d been through because for once he’s doing something with his life that actually matters, even if almost nobody knew it.

  Sitting on the edge of a roof from a tall building Spear stared into space at the New York skyline for about an hour or so when he looked at his watch. When he saw the time he stood up and went diesel and said to himself, “Guess it’s time to head back.” He stretched and jumped to a lower building to start heading to where he had parked his car. Shortly after making his way back to his car a tall building caught his eye that he had never noticed before. He took a detour to the building to take a closer look, the building was really tall, probably the tallest building in JC. The tower had a silverlike color, and had an odd shape with lower tiers to it. He he wondered how he had never noticed this building in JC before. He looked down at the sign in front of the building with the lights shining on it. The sign read Platinum Tower. It took a second, but Just then it clicked in his head. The man behind the droves of enemies sent after him was named Mr. Platinum. Spear thought to himself, “There’s no way it would be this easy. This had to be just a coincidence. A villain named Mr. Platinum naming a platinum colored tower after himself just doesn’t happen. That’s like if Trump from my favorite show ‘The Apprentice’ turned out to be a supervillain.” Spear shook his head smiling and said, “That would never happen.” He figured there was no point in jumping to conclusions without the facts, so he headed to his car so he could go home.

  Nick had to be at work the next morning, so when he got home, he went right to sleep. The next day, Nick went to work and did his regular routine as the hardware store’s assembler. He checked all the built products in the store and built a few things for some customers and for the store’s display area. While at work, he saw a new little gadget that seemed like it could be useful. It worked with g-force. When it was in motion, it stayed locked, but when it stopped, it unlocked. Nick started to contemplate how he could incorporate that into his grappling hook.

  After work, Nick called Neil and told him to meet him at Von’s house. He then called Von and told him to have his computer ready because he needed his help again. When Nick got to Von’s house, Neil and Von were already in the basemen
t.

  Neil said, “What’s the emergency this time? Some superpower crazy bad guy, Cyber, Ninja Assassins? Wait, don’t tell me, sewer monsters.”

  Nick looked at Neil and said, “Can you shut up for a second… And no, it’s not a sewer monster.”

  Neil replied, “So it's a Cyber Ninja Assassin!” Nick replied shaking his head, “Neil if you don’t shut it, I will bodyslam you into tomorrow.” Neil gestured him zipping his mouth shut. Nick continued, “I just need a little research done on a name.”

  Neil said, “That’s it? That’s what this urgent meeting is for. I understand Von but what do you need me for?” Nick looked at Neil, smiled, and said, “Moral support.” Von chuckled a little. Nick then said, “Von is gonna be working hard to find this information for me, so I need you to keep him relaxed and give him a shoulder massage while he does his magic on the computer.”

  Neil smiled and said, “You know what, screw you.” Nick said, “What… don’t you do that for a living? I mean, you aregoing to school for physical therapy and nursing right?” Neil looked at Von and said, “Sorry dude, it’s not happening.”

  Nick then replied, “But Neil, don’t you want to contribute to helping protect thecity?”

  Neil said, “How is me giving Von a shoulder massage gonna protect the city.” Nick replied, “By you giving him a massage, he’ll be relaxed enough to get me the info I need to protect the city better.” Nick then leaned over to Von and said, “Von, couldn’t you use a massage?”

  Von said, “Yeah, my neck and shoulders are stiff from playing WOW (World of Warcraft) all day.”

  Neil said, “You know what, I don’t have to take this verbal abuse.” Nick replied, “What abuse? You picked that profession.” Neil said, “Yeah but I picked them to actually help people.”

  Nick replied, “Yeah, about that. Why study physical therapy and nursing? Why not take the time you spend on both of those to just get your doctorate?”