The Master chose a destiny that even I wasn’t ready for.
In learning hand-to-hand fighting in a dojo in Chinatown, I wasn’t exactly the best student, yet I had advanced proudly into my yellow belt just this evening. I couldn’t rely on my mutative ability all the time, I knew, which was why Mike had suggested I take up a martial art.
Since joining Teen Guardians, we haven’t been doing much missions together, but Mike, as a leader isn’t that bad. He gives suggestions, or, in some cases, tells us what to do. However, I learned last week not to cross him, when he brought back the head of the man who had beaten up Starcrowe. I’m just glad to be on his good side. So after last week, I took the kung fu a little more seriously.
The Master of the group was an older, Chinese man, who spoke with an accent but spoke fluent English. There were ten of us in the class, and I think that all of us were heroes or wanna-be heroes. I was one of the older members of the group. There were four of us older kids. One of them, who called himself Hyperion (obviously not a superhero name), resented the fact that he was with “the little kids” but the rest of us didn’t mind.
After our fighting, we meditated for a while, and then got up to leave. The Master came to me and also grabbed Hyperion. We followed him to his office, set just a little ways apart. He lit some incense, setting it at a small shrine in the high window. He sat down at his chair and looked across at us. He put his fingers into a temple and said, “You are lightning,” to me, “And you are the light,” to Hyperion.
I looked at Hyperion. He was a blond, more or less my type – broad but he would probably grow to be much broader. He was a couple of years younger than me, and just starting to get the peach fuzz of beards that would make him look much older. He was still at the age of consent, I thought briefly. He was also very strong, throwing me around like I was a sack of nothing.
“Yes,” Hyperion said, and looked me over too, but not in the way I was looking at him.
“I need your help. My daughter is being held by the Cobra Lords.”
“Cobra Lords?” I asked.
“Specifically, one named Scorpio.”
I twitched. How funny, a zodiac sign like my own name.
“You want us to find her?” Hyperion asked.
“I want you both to speak to your leaders to ask if you will join together and find her.”
“We don’t need to do that.”
I nodded in spite of myself. I suppose I should check in and tell them what we were going to do…but the excitement of a mission, of a job was too much for me.
However, the Master shook his head. “I would rather have you speak to your leaders.”
“We can do it,” I said. “Where was she last seen?”
The Master said, “At the Orange Choppers bar.”
“Not too far from here,” said Hyperion confidently. “We’ll have her back in a jif.”
I suddenly had second thoughts. He sounded a lot like Starcrowe, and look where he ended up. “Maybe we should get backup,” I said cautiously.
“Nonsense,” said Hyperion, already striding to the door. I didn’t move. “You coming?”
“I’m going to call for backup.”
“Are you scared?”
“No,” I said. But I knew that if I got hurt, Mike would stop at nothing to eradicate the entire Cobra Lords gang. I didn’t want to be responsible for that. All I could picture were headless bodies and burnt-out motorcycles all throughout Westside. “But I’d rather be safe. I’m calling for backup.” I twisted my pinky ring to the right.
In my mind, I could hear some chatter between Mike and Starfall about a successful mission. I saw the Master’s hand go up to get my attention, and I turned the pinky ring back to shut it off. “Do not bother,” said the Master. “I was testing you.”
“Testing me? And him?”
He nodded. “You stood fast to your convictions,” he said. “Yet you did not persuade another to follow your convictions.”
“I should go stop him!”
“Yes,” said the Master, “You should. Are you?”
I gave him a look as if to say, “What’re you, crazy?” and bolted out the door. “Hyperion! Wait!”
He was just walking out of the dojo, his gym back over his shoulder when he paused. “Ready to go–”
“No, it’s a trick. It was all a trick.” I panted up to him. “He was testing us.”
Hyperion stopped and looked at me. I thought for a minute he was going to be just like Starcrowe and tell me that I was full of it. He stepped back inside. “But why?”
“He said I was supposed to talk you into not going.”
“Well, you just did,” Hyperion said, and glanced back at the office. The Master had not stepped out. “What a bastard! I could have gotten killed.”
“We both could have,” I said. What was the point of this exercise, that’s what I wanted to know. I marched across the dojo, Hyperion close behind, and we went back to the office.
However, the Master was gone. The incense still burned on the windowsill.
((Writing prompt from iDeas for Writing app (Apple), “The Master chose a destiny…” ))