The Opportunity to Be a Hero

It seemed as though heaven itself was trying to reach him, the way the light flooded his vision and swallowed the surroundings.

Was it my time already?

Ace-Bartholomew Fluffington had lived a relatively short life, and a quite unfulfilling one at that, but his one saving grace was his girlfriend. Being with her in that moment, he would have accepted his fate if that had been the last of their breaths, but it wasn’t.

"What's happening?” Cecilia squealed.

He tightened his grip on her hand.

The light subsided, giving way to emerging gusts of wind.

The gentle shade of the trees they were strolling under had become the harsh shadows of towering buildings, plastered with broken windows and neon lights. The heavy reek of smoke replaced the sweet scent of lavender, like a colour filter, it shrouded the world in grey, from the cracks in the concrete to the clouds in the sky. The signs flickered like ghosts, illuminating a decaying light. It was as if the hum of the city had died, leaving behind the crackling of static.

“Over here!” a commanding voice called out.

Ace turned his head sharply as a shadowy figure adorned in strange symbols drew near, clutching a pistol in hand.

“Identify yourself!”

A device on their wrist opened, briefly pulsing a stream of light up and down across the faces of the bewildered couple.

ERROR 404: NO IDENTITY FOUND

“Two unidentified in Sector 5V. But they’re not on the system.” The shadowy figure paused for a moment, seemingly waiting for a response.

“You’re coming with me,” The cloaked figure ordered, pointing the nozzle of their weapon directly at the two panicked faces.

Cecilia’s hand rattled in Ace’s grasp, igniting a blazing fire in his heart.

Having had everything handed to him on a silver platter, growing up, he always felt somewhat detached. When you could afford anything and everything in the world, what was it that truly mattered? Was it friends? Family? For Ace, it was Cecilia. In all the memories they’d spent together, he felt like he’d never be able to make her happier than she made him.

Now suddenly, he’d been launched into a predicament. Into a crucial moment that would eternally shift the projection of his life from here onward.

It was one of those moments that people daydreamed of.

The opportunity to be a hero.

Ace turned to catch a glimpse of Cecilia’s face just in case it was the last.
Her blonde hair was glistening. Her usual soft features were drawn and tense.

Launching forward, he tackled the man off his feet and attempted to wrestle the weapon out of his hand.

A shimmering bolt of blue light seared into the sky from its chamber.

More silhouettes peered out from the smoke in the distance.

“CECILIA! RUN!” he screamed, fingers scraping on the metallic grip.

In a rush of adrenaline, he thrusted his elbow into the stranger’s head, sending a rippling impact through his arm, allowing him to release the gun from the stranger’s grasp.

A bird flew into view, except it was coated in silver, soaring towards Cecelia. Ace closed one eye, setting his aim for it.

There. I see it. The lineup for the shot. The break.

With a bolt of electric blue, the sintered metal scraps rained to the floor.

Perfect hit.

He turned to face the silhouettes now closing in on him.

“Stop there!” Ace shouted, brandishing the weapon in his hand like a new toy, still humming with energy from the last shot.

Three more cloaked men, but with no weapons in hand?

One of them lifted their arm and pointed their palm towards him.

What’s he doing?

Suddenly, a ring of pale light materialised from thin air, shooting a beam of light.

The world tilts sideways.

Everything goes dark.

***

Where am I?

The sound of muffled voices and dampened footsteps surrounded Ace. He instinctively tried to move but couldn’t feel any of his body. Not his arms, legs, or hands. Was this what it felt like to be dead? Emptiness. Nothingness. No kinds of sensations. At least the bodily ones. Through the nothingness, he was conscious of something. An outline? A figure?

A shadow?

“So it's you then. You're finally here."

***

With a deafening crash, Ace was violently pulled back to consciousness.

Struggling to catch his thoughts, the surroundings spun around him, different shapes bleeding into one another.

His hands were bound together in a metal device carved with symbols.

Coughing, his eyes squinted, attempting to discern the figures in front of him through blurred vision.
Six? No seven people. The majority of whom had some sort of mask covering their faces.

“What do you think you’re doing? Do you have any idea who my father i- “

With a rapid strike, the air was forcefully expelled from his lungs.

“I'll get you sued for thi-”

“You only speak when you’re told to.” A cloaked figure spoke abruptly from behind, pressing cold metal against the back of his skull, causing a humming vibration to carry all the way to his brain.

“Who do you work for?”

A strange-looking being stood proudly in front of him. It had green skin and sharp teeth.

“I’m … unemployed,” Ace replied in a flat tone.

The question was surprisingly painful. Being able to afford everything he needed to with dad’s money, what was the point in doing anything himself?

“Cut the bullsh*t.” The hum of the gun began winding up.

“What are you doing here?” The ugly green thing spoke again.

“There was a flash of light, and then the next thing I knew, I was there and-“

The humming accelerated.

A streak of lightning whipped past Ace into the ground, leaving an indent in the concrete.

His heart went into overdrive, slamming into his chest.

“I SWEAR I SWEAR!”

“He’s lying,” the cloaked man replied, “there was a rune circuit engraved into the ground where we found him.”

The green ogre scoffed.

“I don’t belong here, that’s why! I was taken here by a flash of light, I swear! I get it, it's one of those taken into another world things, right? It must be!” Ace frantically pleaded.

“He must be one of those psychos addicted to Witch Dust,” the cloaked man replied, charging up the gun.

“I’ll dispose of him…”

Ace shut his eyes. He wasn’t religious, but even he would start believing in a greater power if it could save him. Yet, what flashed in his mind wasn’t some omnipotent deity; it was a girl with luscious blonde hair and glistening blue eyes.

“Wait,” the ogre snarled.

“If he’s not on the system, it would be a waste to just dispose of him.”
The man gripped Ace’s hair, forcing him to acknowledge the hideous green hunk.

“Listen here,” the monster leaned in close, “you see this bird. It’s just like you.” There was a small chrome bird with blue eyes, perched on his finger. It flew in a loop and then landed back on his hand.

“It does what it's told, and everything is… fine.” He grinned.

“The second you misbehave…” The bird landed on the ground, pecking at the concrete.

With a thunderous stomp, he crumpled the bird like an empty can. Even the concrete around his foot had caved inwards. But despite that, the bird's head kept twitching as if desperately clinging to life.

“Now listen carefully, in three hours we have a job to do. A potion shop on the west side of town. I want their stock of poison. All of it. And if you don’t get them for me?”

He ground his foot on the crushed metal, snuffing out the blue, glistening hope in the birds’ eyes like a candle.

Ace drew in a deep breath, the air pressing heavy against his lungs.

In his mind, he struggled to process the severity of what he was getting into. It was all happening too fast. In a mere 30 seconds, his idle life of comfort was turned into a spectacle only seen in films.
Having grown up with no one even daring to lay a hand on him, to being threatened at gunpoint, Ace was like a fish out of water. He was the sort of individual to sleep in on the weekends, approaching anything that required a threshold of effort with a sigh. Yet in this moment, he felt something alien to him. A source of determination fuelled his racing thoughts. A primal drive fervently festered. A voice screamed from deep in his soul.

The human spirit fighting for survival.

There was no other choice. He had to survive to see Cecilia again.

She must be out there.
Lonely. Scared. Hiding.

Ace raised his gaze, locking eyes with the hideous monster in front of him.

There was only one thought burning in his mind.

I will do whatever it takes.

Even if it means crawling through the darkest depths of hell, doing this monster’s bidding.