Accidental Hero (Jack Blank Adventure) (35 page)

“Jack? What is it? What’s wrong?” he asked. Jack just waved him off and kept walking down the bridge that led out over the edge of the city. He walked past the Rededication Day headstone and all the way out to the very tip of Empire City and the Imagine Nation.

If anyone were to ask him where he thought he was going, he would have said he didn’t know. He was walking toward a dead end that hung out over bottomless waterfalls running down to the depths of the sea. He just went as far as he could go. As far as he could get away from
people in general. He stopped at the end of the path in front of the giant monument to Legend. The blue flame that Chi had lit on Rededication Day was still burning in the statue’s palm.

Jack stared up at the monument. This was a real hero, he thought. This was the man who twelve years ago had stopped Jack before he had killed everyone in the city. Twelve years ago, Legend had ended Jack’s future life for the first time. Jack shook his head. There was no way around it. Legend was dead. He had been killed by Revile, killed by Jack’s future self. That had to mean it was real. The future was hard to deny once you’d seen it face-to-face and it had tried to kill you.

Suddenly, red energy particles began to swirl about and Stendeval materialized, floating in the air with his legs folded. Jack didn’t turn around to look at him. He just told Stendeval that he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t go back in there. Stendeval didn’t argue. He nodded and lowered himself down to the ground. He stood beside Jack, staring up at the monument of Legend. “So, that’s it?” Stendeval asked Jack. “You’re leaving?”

Jack nodded. “Yup.” He actually hadn’t thought that far ahead, but it seemed like the thing to do.

“I see,” Stendeval said, disappointed. “Just like that? I can’t change your mind? I thought you wanted to stay and find out who you are.”

Jack let out a gruntlike laugh, like Stendeval didn’t know what he was saying. “I already know who I am,” Jack said. “I don’t need you to tell me that anymore.”

“I see,” Stendeval said, nodding. “However, I don’t recall ever saying that I was going to tell you who you were. I believe I told you to have patience,” he said. “I seem to remember saying that one day
you
would tell
me
the answer to that question.”

Jack remembered. “Right. Whatever. The point is, now I know.”

“So? Tell me, then. Who are you?”

“I… it’s complicated,” Jack stammered. “I just know I don’t belong here. I’m not meant to be here.”

“There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be. A young English songwriter once told me that.”

“Well, he was wrong,” Jack said bitterly.

Stendeval shrugged. “Most people would disagree. That songwriter and his friends became quite popular. They did very well for themselves.”

Jack wasn’t paying attention to Stendeval. He already had his mind made up. “I don’t belong here,” he said angrily. “Your school is a place for heroes. A better tomorrow, you said. I’m not going to be a hero.”

“Really?” Stendeval asked. “You know this for a fact?”

“Actually, I do.”

“How interesting,” Stendeval replied, rubbing his chin. “Well, if that is what you think, then you are probably correct. It is your decision, after all. But I’m going to let you in on a little secret, Jack. There’s an entire city behind me that thinks you’re a hero right now.”

Jack looked back at the crowd that filled Hero Square. He was not moved by it. “They’ve been wrong before too,” he said. “You really want to know what I am? What I’m going to be?” Stendeval waited. Jack tried to tell him, but he just couldn’t seem to spit it out just yet. “I’m… I’m exactly what you were describing in there. I’m a villain! The worst villain ever!”

“You know, a wise Mecha once told me that ‘hero’ and ‘villain’ are words that get overused sometimes. That some so-called villains are just people who are misunderstood.”

“I know what Jazen said, and there’s no misunderstanding with me. I killed thousands of people. More than that, even! Way more! Everyone here! The whole Earth!”

Stendeval looked at Jack like he was speaking in tongues. “You did?” he asked, confused. He looked out at the gorgeous sunset lighting the sky against the open sea. The whole Earth seemed just fine for the moment. “When did you do all that?”

Jack rolled his eyes at Stendeval. “I didn’t do it yet… I’m
going
to do it.”

Stendeval pondered Jack’s answer with a very serious look on his face. He thought about it long and hard before finally asking, “Why?”

All the questions were getting Jack frustrated. “I don’t
want
to do it,” he said. “I don’t have a choice. It’s what my future is. Revile told me. I told me.” Jack decided it was time to come clean and say it. It would feel good to say it. “I’m him!” he told Stendeval. “Revile! I grow up to be him.”

Stendeval pursed his lips and looked at Jack. “I know,” he said.

Jack stared at Stendeval like he had thirteen and a half heads. “
You know?”

Stendeval just shrugged. “I know,” he said nonchalantly. “That is to say… I know that Revile is one
possible
future for you.”

“Possible!” Jack shook his head. “I saw it. I talked to it. He was here, Stendeval. I met the future. It was me. It had my face! And what do you mean, you know? How could you know?”

“It began during the Battle of Empire City,” Stendeval said, “and if you calm down, I will tell you about it.” Jack took a deep breath. His patience was just as short as it ever was, but he held his tongue and let Stendeval speak. Stendeval waited until Jack was fully ready to listen, and then continued.

“Twelve years ago, the Rüstov attacked,” Stendeval said, “and Legend and I were right where we belonged—in the thick of the fight, alongside the other heroes of the day, doing our part to turn back the Rüstov invaders. The battle raged on nearly an entire day before we started to gain back
any ground against our attackers, but we never gave up. We were just turning the tide when the Rüstov brought out their supersoldier. At least that’s what we thought he was at the time. Chance alone placed us in Revile’s path when he came hurtling through the sky, tossing Empire City’s defenders aside like they weren’t even there. He was invincible in battle and unwavering in his focus. Amid the chaos, through the wreckage and the rubble, I saw his target. A lone crying baby lying helpless on a street corner. You.”

Stendeval shrugged. “What this creature wanted with an innocent baby, we had no idea, but naturally, Legend and I intervened. As the strongest of Empire City’s heroes, it was our duty to take on the strongest of our enemies and protect the weakest of our people. But once we engaged Revile, we found we were too evenly matched. No matter how much damage we inflicted upon him, he regenerated. No matter how many times he knocked us back, we would not relent. In the end, he tried to reason with us. He knew me, and told me I would one day know him as Jack Blank. He told us what had happened to him and what he intended to do. He told us that the baby was
him, and that he was here to kill it. That he had come back in time to prevent a dire future and we had to—had to—let him go through with it.”

“Why didn’t you?” Jack asked Stendeval, somewhat miffed.

Stendeval laughed at Jack’s question. “You were a baby. You never hurt anyone. How could we stand by and let that happen to you?” Stendeval shook his head. “We couldn’t do that. Legend told me to get you out of there. That he would hold off Revile. I didn’t like leaving friends in danger, but I was low on power from the battle. I had only enough energy left to escape with the baby. With you, Jack. I was the one who hid you in that orphanage in New Jersey. I hid you far away where no one would ever look. And I stayed out there, watching over you.”

“At St. Barnaby’s?” Jack asked. “Where were you?”

“I was never far,” Stendeval said. “Who do you think donated all those comic books to St. Barnaby’s in the first place? I used my powers to keep you hidden from any prying eyes until the time was right for you to come home. I knew that Empire City wouldn’t be safe for an infected child after the invasion… so I kept you hidden and wrote
Circleman Chi to expect us back in twelve years’ time.”

Jack was baffled by Stendeval’s tale, as well as his actions. “Why?” he asked. “Why bring me back? Why now?”

“Because the time for me to make decisions for you is now past. You are old enough to decide your own future. You are old enough to learn how to protect yourself. It is up to you to decide if you will become Revile or something else. You can choose your own path. I stopped hiding you at age twelve and wrote to Emissary Jazen Knight, telling him where to look for you. Now here we are.”

“Jazen,” Jack said, remembering the rest of the problem. “You don’t know about Jazen! The Rüstov were using him against me and he didn’t even know it. They have another virus. A computer virus that lets them control the Mechas. That’s how they got to Silico back during the invasion. He didn’t know what he was doing either!”

“Another virus?” Stendeval repeated, leaning in toward Jack with a concerned look.

“The Rüstov aren’t through with us,” Jack told Stendeval. “They’re coming back, and when they do, they’re going to use the Mechas against us to get here. Innocent Mechas who don’t even know they’re infected.”

Stendeval took a moment to think about what Jack was telling him. He looked surprised, but he didn’t appear to doubt Jack’s word for a moment.

“This is very serious, Jack,” Stendeval said, still turning the matter over in his head. “It seems to me we’re going to have a need for a hero who can talk to machines. Someone who can find out which Mechas are infected and help cure them. Someone who has experience in resisting the Rüstov infection.”

“I can’t cure anyone,” Jack said. “I can’t save anyone. Jazen was my best friend and I couldn’t save him!”

“All the more reason for you to stay here and train in our school,” Stendeval replied.

“No way,” Jack said. “The more I learn, the stronger Revile is going to be one day,” he warned Stendeval. “I’ve already learned too much.”

“And now it is time for the greatest test of your life to begin,” Stendeval replied. “I meant what I said back in the sphere, Jack. Our combined might could not stop Revile, but you can. As for becoming him…” Stendeval waved his hands. “You’re thinking about this all wrong. Do you remember our first lesson? Do you remember
what I asked you up on the Cloud Cliffs?”

Jack thought back to that first day at Mount Nevertop. He remembered being afraid to walk on the floating stones, then finding out that he already was. “You asked me if I had known the road ahead, would I have walked the same path,” Jack said.

“Exactly,” Stendeval said. “I ask you once again. You have seen the road ahead. You know where it leads. Will you still choose to walk it?”

Jack thought about that for a minute. “No,” he said.

“But now you know you could,” Stendeval replied. “That is all. Jack, just because you know something can happen doesn’t mean that it must happen. It is good that you learned Revile’s true identity. It is. You must be aware of all possibilities before you, but Revile’s past is not necessarily your future. As I told you on Mount Nevertop, the path you choose to follow is your own. You are stronger than the Rüstov, Jack.”

“Today, maybe,” Jack said. “What about tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow will be what you want it to be. I do believe the Rüstov will bring war back to Earth, and you may very well be the key to its outcome, but it doesn’t have to be
in the way they think. You must prepare to overcome that which is the worst in you—this dire future of yours. It is a great burden, of that there is no question, but the future is not written. It lies in the choices you make. Our future is ours to decide. Always.”

“You really believe that?” Jack asked. “Even with everything we’ve seen?”

“I know it,” Stendeval replied, steadfast in his opinion.

Jack couldn’t believe what he was hearing. As usual, life in the Imagine Nation never ceased to amaze him. “You really want me to stay here?” Jack asked. “Really?”

“Where else would you want to go?” Stendeval replied. “You came here to find a home. You came here to find your family. Look around you. You have both. This is your home. Those people over there… they are your family.” Jack looked down the path and saw the others waiting for him underneath the sphere. Blue, Allegra, Skerren… they all hung back watching Jack and Stendeval with concerned eyes. “Of course I want you to stay, Jack, but the choice still has to be yours. You have to decide those things for yourself. A better tomorrow is always possible, but as we say in the Imagine Nation, you must believe in it to get there.”

Jack held back tears. Stendeval knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder.

“For all its wonders, Jack,” Stendeval began, “this is not a perfect world. A perfect world would be easy. A paradise that requires no further input from us. That is not the Imagine Nation. Imagination is ever changing and never static. It is always in motion and in constant flux. Imagination is like the future—uncertain. If this place… if the Imagine Nation is to be a perfect home for you, then you must make it so. Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you?”

Jack looked down at an inscription written on a pedestal at the foot of the monument. The words were familiar to him. They read:

Never underestimate the power you have over what happens today.
Never
forget the power today has over tomorrow-Legend

“I think I do,” Jack said.

“By your actions today, you have already met Jazen Knight’s definition of a hero,” Stendeval said, looking down at Jack. “Your actions
tomorrow
will decide if that continues to be the case. So, tell me again who you really are. Tell me for today and tell me for tomorrow.”

Jack wiped his tears away and took a deep breath. “I’m Jack Blank,” he said. “I’m not Revile, I’m not a Rüstov… and I’m not going to be either,” he continued with conviction. “I’m going to be whatever I want.”

“And what is that?” Stendeval asked.

“I want to be a hero,” Jack answered. “A real hero. Like Jazen.