Hero Rising Read online

  I was at the window, suspended in the air. “Come on, kids,” I said with my arms held out for them. They came willingly enough.

  “Are you a superhero?” the younger kid asked me. I had one in each arm. I floated down to the ground to let them go.

  “I just might be, son,” I said. I didn’t know exactly what to call myself and I really didn’t want to tell them exactly who I was. I think being called a superhero was a good place to start. It would be a betrayal to my people, the Mani, if I ever spoke about my true identity. So I said, “I’m just someone who can fly, and who wants to help out.”

  I set them down next to the lady I’d rescued. There were a few other firefighters gathered around now. Some other firefighters had the truck’s ladder deployed at one of the windows. They were helping people out and down the ladder but they were so slow. I knew I could get a lot more out and much more quickly than they could, so I flew up again.

  Back and forth I flew, landing each time with another saved victim. I was getting a real adrenaline rush doing this. The firefighters were working hard to put out the blazing building and getting others down with the ladder, but I flew like the wind.

  One older man I saved said as I carried him gently to safety, “I always believed in something more! Something greater.” And he actually kissed me on the cheek! I was happy that someone believed in me, and I did feel a little like Superman, saving all these people from a horrible death. I was glad I could save so many people. Who knew how many would’ve died?

  I was busy flying back and forth, and concentrating on which people were in the most danger. I saved them first, leaving the people on the upper stories for last. I hoped that the smoke wasn’t getting to them yet.

  I noticed that a big crowd of people had gathered. Everyone was taking videos with their cell phones and a few people had better cameras. After about forty-five minutes, a news crew arrived with anchormen, then another news crew, and pretty soon, the whole parking lot was filled with newsmen and people cheering me on.

  It felt great. Every time I landed with another man, woman or child, sometimes two at a time, the cheers became greater. People were yelling, “Superman!” “Way to go!” and “Woohoo!” whenever I landed and flew up to save another life.

  It took about an hour and a half to get everyone out, and by the end, I was tired and exhilarated at the same time. The last person I saved was a young woman. She was crying with relief. She had waited patiently for me to save everyone else and when I finally got to her, she couldn’t say anything but, “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

  I did feel like a superhero when I touched the ground with her. “You’re welcome, ma’am,” I said with a grin.

  But now that everyone was out, and the firefighters worked on just the building, people started rushing towards me. Especially the news crews. I was sweating now, but I couldn’t take off the wrestling mask. No one—not any of these people—could be allowed to see my face, no matter what.

  As they ran across the parking lot, the onlookers gave me one last and very loud cheer. But the news crews could be aggressive, I knew, and I couldn’t afford to talk to them at all.

  I made a couple of bows for the people, which drew more cheers and shouts and just before the news guys got to me, I flew up into the sky. It was time to get the heck out of there.

  I could see them all filming me and I knew I had to get far away. There were even helicopters by now, but they had to be careful not to crash into each other and I could fly much faster than the choppers.

  In a flash, I sped up, and flew far up into the sky. I flew like the wind and pretty soon, the building and all the people I’d saved—and those who had gathered to witness the first flying man they’d ever seen—faded below and disappeared from my sight.

  I hadn’t felt so good since I saved my people, the Mani. That familiar feeling returned and I realized how much I had missed it, that I was making a difference.

  It was exciting to do some good for others. I did wonder how fast the news of my flying around would spread. I made sure there was no aircraft following me, and as I changed to my white eagle form and headed for Tommy’s house, I wondered if Lena already caught wind of what I’d done and what she thought about it.

  Chapter Three

  I landed in the back yard of Tommy’s house in my eagle form. I didn’t want to attract any attention so I made sure no one was looking as I landed. Then I changed into my human form and knocked at Tommy’s sliding glass back door.

  Tommy ran to the door to let me in. I could tell he was really excited and a little concerned. As I came into the kitchen, he said, “Josiah! I know that was you! What are you doing, man? You’re all over the news. I mean, on every channel.”

  He brought me into the living room where his huge TV was on. There were clips of the burning building and me—dressed all in black except for my red wrestling mask—flying back and forth, bringing people from the building to safety. There were commentators wondering if I had some special flying pack on, and then they would zoom in on me to show I was really flying on my own. A couple of the people I’d saved had already offered a reward for anyone to find me as they wanted to thank me.

  Tommy handed me a soda as we watched the fireworks on the television that were set off by my unexpected experience at the fire downtown. The newsmen were interviewing a lot of the people I’d saved. The cameramen had managed to film that older man when he kissed my cheek, and they interviewed him.

  He just said the same thing that he had said to me. “I always believed in a man that was superhuman, all my life,” he said happily. “I knew if I kept believing, I would see him one day.” Then the old man looked straight into the camera and said, “Mr. Superhero Man, or whatever you call yourself, if you’re watching, thank you. I knew you’d come for me.”

  Tommy laughed, but I just smiled. That old man warmed my heart. They had all kinds of interviews, and the ones I enjoyed most were from the kids. Their eyes were lit up and they were really excited. They described what it felt like to fly with me, saying they were a little nervous at first but they knew I wouldn’t drop them and it was great. The mothers who were interviewed were in tears of joy that their children were alive and unharmed because of me.

  “Dude, tell me what happened,” Tommy said after a few minutes.

  “I don’t know, I was just going to come to your house, but something told me to go to San Bernardino first,” I said.

  “Your old gut feeling?”

  “Yeah, I guess. Tommy, I saw that burning building and I knew I didn’t have a choice but to help those poor people.”

  “Well, you know that what you did changes everything.”

  “I know.”

  “The Mani will know it was you for sure,” Tommy was saying. “What do you think they will say about you interfering in the Tandra world?”

  “Say?” I repeated. “They can’t say anything. I do what I need to do and I always have. You know that.”

  “Yes, Josiah, I know that. But they also trust you, and especially they trust that you will always protect them. Word about the Mani cannot get out. If the Tandra even knew of the existence of Mani, all hell would break loose.”

  I thought about this. “But no one knows who I am. I didn’t let anyone see my face. The only people that will know it’s me are the Mani. And we’ve been keeping our identity a secret for years.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Tommy answered a little doubtfully. Then he changed the subject. “Let’s see if you’re on YouTube,” he suggested.

  Tommy flipped open his laptop that was on the coffee table and went online. Sure enough, there were already clips of “Man Flying” and “A Superhero Lives Among Us!” They already had thousands of views.

  We watched them one by one, and even as we watched, more were popping up. There were at least a dozen of them. I had to admit, I felt some pride in the fact that I was the center of attention. The clip of the old man saying he had always believed in me was one
of my favorites. There was another clip with a kid who I’d saved. The kid was imitating me flying and he described the whole ordeal.

  “You’re famous,” Tommy announced.

  “I guess I am. I wanted to do something with my talents, but I never dreamed this would happen.”

  “I bet you didn’t,” Tommy said. “Would you have done it if you knew this was going to happen?” He gestured to the YouTube videos.

  “Yeah, I would have,” I said. “There’s no way I could have let all those people die. Especially in a fire.” I did have a great feeling of satisfaction.

  “Well, bro, I know you gotta do what you gotta do.” Tommy sat back and sipped his soda.

  “I really didn’t mean to become so famous,” I said, “But like I said, I had to do it.”

  Tommy grinned and shook his head. “Josiah, you always go balls out. I know you have a big heart, and I know you had to save those people.”

  “Thanks. I mean, I’m glad you understand.”

  “Of course I understand,” he said. “Is your fifteen minutes of fame over now?”

  “I guess so.”

  “Okay, bro, let’s watch the Lakers!”

  Later, I sat back in Tommy’s living room chair as we watched the end of the Lakers game. He and I were huge Los Angeles Lakers fans. I would come out and visit Tommy a couple of times a month and just suck in the sports and suds with my best bro. He had a brand-new house in the heart of Anaheim Hills, off of Imperial Street. Hector had helped him purchase it, along with what Tommy had in his savings from the mixed-martial arts fighting days. When I came out to visit him, there were lots of pizzas, beers and sports.

  Tommy made pretty good money these days as a coach for the next generation of MMA fighters. Tommy taught MMA at a local studio and had a lot of young clients begging for the type of opportunity that he and I had experienced just a few years ago. Neither one of us felt it was ethically right to compete anymore, as Tommy was immortal, and a werewolf. I was also possessed of super strength as both a Mani and a werewolf, except for the best part of my supernatural existence—I was not immortal.

  I had the ability to be both vampire and werewolf. I could turn into a great white eagle and fly at speeds that would make most jet pilots jealous.

  Was I a superhero? In my mind, I always had been. I’d never come out and said it because it would sound more than a tad arrogant. I thought of being a superhero as something that was anointed to you by the greater powers of the Divine. There, I’d admitted it, to myself only. I didn’t want to sound like I had huge ego and say it to Tommy. He would make fun of me for days.

  Tonight, I planned on leaving Tommy’s house to head back to my island. I missed Lena and the boys.

  Funny, when I was with Tommy, I missed my family. And when I was with my family, I missed Tommy.

  My friend was that amazing. But then, so was my family.

  Chapter Four

  Tommy and I said our goodbyes and I took off in my eagle form. Although I wanted to get back to Lena and the boys, I decided to do a flyover of another area I knew well in Anaheim. Anaheim, a fairly large city in Orange County, had a lot going on all the time. I took a roundabout journey home because there were a lot of things I missed about Southern California. Not the traffic. But maybe the fact that millions of people, with their own life stories, were interesting to me, and precious in their own way, I was compelled to take a last look tonight. If it was possible to fall in love with a place, Southern California was that place for me. You could take the man out of the city, but you couldn’t take the city out of the man.

  I was cruising over the heart of the city—near the intersection of Harbor and Ball—when my eagle eyes detected some chaos below. I swooped down to size up the situation. There was a fight going on in a dark parking lot—two guys were trying to fight against six others. It appeared the six guys were all carrying knives. Typical gangbanger-type activity. I wanted a closer look.

  Since no one else was around, I changed into my human form and floated down right into the midst of the brawl. All of them, including the two underdogs, showed surprise on their faces at my mysterious appearance. I grinned and folded my arms. I had two things on my mind—kicking ass and not getting filmed. My face needed to be hidden for the safety of my family. They could draw me all they liked, but no one was going to get an actual photo of my naked face.

  “What’s going on here, gentlemen?” I asked casually.

  One of the tougher of the six stepped forward. “I don’t know where you came from, but this is none of your business. So, take your ‘none of your business ass,’ and get the hell out of here with your hidden jetpack, or wherever it is.”

  He obviously didn’t know my rule: I never leave when I am asked. I leave when I am good and ready. Still, I decided to have a little fun. “Come on, now. Looks to me like those two are outnumbered. That’s not fair. Actually, it seems to me a little cowardly, don’t you think? Douchebag.”

  Another of the six came forward. “Who are you calling a douchebag?”

  “Well, I just called your pal a douchebag, and now I’m calling you ‘friend of Douchebag.’ It seems to be contagious with you guys.”

  He didn’t like that at all and the guy rushed me with his knife, lunging forward. He was so clumsy that I just flew up like quicksilver and landed behind him. I did it so fast that none of them really saw what happened. It was like I was in front of him one moment and behind him the next. They were all so surprised that I just laughed out loud.

  The two guys that were getting beat up earlier edged back a little. They hadn’t expected me to swoop down and save the day for them and they didn’t mind a bit, although they were just as surprised as the six unfortunate souls who would feel my wrath.

  I heard one of the others whisper, “Man, how’d he do that?”

  It was then that the tough guy, the leader I supposed, drew out his switchblade. I grinned again as the six spread around me. That was a mistake. They didn’t know that I was used to fighting alone against a group and they didn’t know I had been an MMA fighter. They couldn’t even get their heads around the fact that I could fly, other than to assume I was wearing a hidden jetpack.

  “Hey, kid, don’t you know not to play with knives?” I joked. “You could really hurt yourself with that.”

  “Look,” he said, trying to be a bad ass, “I’m giving you one last chance to get the hell out of here.”

  “Well, thanks,” I answered, “I appreciate that. But I think I’ll stay. I think I’ll teach you guys a thing or two about life.”

  They forgot about the other two guys they’d been bullying and came at me all at once. Fighting these kids was a piece of cake compared to the battles I’d been in. I took out two of them with one single kick. I blocked punches while dishing out others and even though it was now six to one, I gave each of them a good ass-kicking.

  It only took a few minutes. During the fight, the two other guys decided to leave and that was fine with me.

  Satisfied, I looked around at the six guys spread about me on the asphalt parking lot.

  “I told you guys I would teach you a lesson about life,” I said. I wasn’t even sweating. I thought to myself that these kids still had a chance to change their paths, so I decided to try and talk some sense into them.

  I put my foot on the one who seemed to be the leader of the pack. I didn’t kick him so much as just pushed him a little with my foot. He groaned and coughed like a baby though.

  “Look,” I said to him. “Why were you guys fighting like that, anyway?”

  “Just a difference of opinion.”

  “What kind of difference of opinion?”

  “Hey, aren’t you that dude from YouTube? You know, the one that saved all those people from the burning building?”

  “Maybe I am, and maybe I’m not,” I answered mysteriously.

  “Let me tell you something. All of you,” I commanded. When I used this voice, people listened. I had all of their atten
tion now and I hoped what I was about to say would stick.

  “I know lots of douchebags like you,” I said. Not one of them thought of challenging me now. “You know what’s gonna happen to you guys?” I looked hard at each one of them, into their eyes. They were all just staring up at me, wondering how I’d taken them all down so easily and quickly. “Do you?”

  “I bet you’re going to tell us,” the leader said.

  “Yeah. I’ve seen a hundred kids like you. Right now you think you’re so tough, and that you can do whatever you want. Well, you’re wrong. Sooner or later, you’re going to get arrested and you’ll end up in jail. Or prison. Or you might run into someone tougher than you, only they won’t be so easy on you. I could have killed all of you.”

  “Why didn’t you?” one of them asked.

  “Because I believe in giving second chances,” I answered. “Everybody should have a second chance. That’s what I’m giving you now. Well, let me just call it what it is: one last chance.”

  Just for show, I moved from one end of our little circle to the other in a flash. It took them a second to find me again. “What you do with this chance is up to you. Understand?” Each of them nodded and said, “yes.”

  I nodded, and I took one last look at the pathetic group and then I took off into the night.

  Chapter Five

  After my scuffle, I decided to head home back to my castle. I had a long flight ahead of me. I wasn’t tired at all from the little brawl with those six punks, and it was a beautiful night. I soared high up in my eagle form, so high that it seemed like I could touch the stars.

  When I finally reached the island of Helena and my castle, Lena was waiting for me in the huge living room. I kissed her long and hard. Every time I came home to Lena it felt like I’d been away for at least a year.