The Accidental Hero Read online

  “I mean, like in comic books, movies, TV shows, Saturday morning cartoons… you name it. It’s all there. All the wild and fantastic things you can dream up are just reflections of the Imagine Nation,” Jazen said. “Emissaries like me go all around the world, seeding it with little pieces of our home. We leave bread-crumb trails, hints, and clues about it in all kinds of places. Sometimes we do more than that, though. Every now and then, we bring somebody back with us.”

  Jack studied his strange driver for a moment. “Why? Why me?” he asked.

  “Don’t you know?” Jazen replied. “C’mon. I’m sure you can think of a reason or two why you might be at home in a place like the Imagine Nation.”

  “No, not really,” Jack said. He was lying, though. He had something of an idea why. It was sitting way in the back of his mind, but it was there. Jack dismissed it. It was crazy. It wasn’t a real possibility.

  Jazen nodded. “Okay,” he said. “That’s fine. I guess that Robo-Zombie this morning blew up all by itself, then.”

  “That was the power generator,” Jack corrected him. “I didn’t have anything to do with that.”

  “Of course not,” Jazen countered with a smirk. “What was I thinking?”

  Jazen continued driving. Jack didn’t know what to think of all this. This guy couldn’t be saying what he thought he was saying. Could he? Everything was happening so fast. Jack spent so much of his life dreaming about leaving St. Barnaby’s, but when he fantasized about his future it always seemed so far away. No one ever thinks their future is going to start today. Besides, those were just dreams, anyway. Jack had no shortage of crazy dreams, but regardless of what had happened that morning, he wasn’t so sure he ever really thought they could come true.

  “It’s up to you, Jack, but I hope you can believe me,” Jazen said. “If not, this is going to be a real short trip. If you want to go to the Imagine Nation, there’s one very important rule. You have to believe in it first.”

  Jazen pulled the car off the highway, taking the exit toward the harbor. Down on the docks he parked right in front of a huge NO PARKING sign, next to a row of private yachts. A man in a red jacket watched Jazen as he stepped out of the car.

  “You can’t park your car there,” the man said.

  “Park it wherever you want,” Jazen said, tossing the man his keys. “It’s your car now.” Jazen scooted Jack off in the direction of a sixty-four-foot yacht at the end of the pier. They walked through a metal detector that rang out alarms as Jazen walked through, but the man in the red jacket paid it no mind. He just stood there looking back and forth between the car and the keys.

  “Did you really just give that guy your car?” Jack asked.

  “No car’s going to take us where we’re going,” Jazen said. “That’s what this baby’s for.”

  Jack looked up at Jazen’s boat. It was christened the Vision, and it more than lived up to its name. The Vision was a pristine white ship with a sleek frame that sloped for ward into an aerodynamic point. Despite its massive size, it looked fast—the kind of ship that could slice through waves like scissors through paper. It was gorgeous.

  “That’s incredible,” Jack marveled.

  “Ha! Wait until we get where we’re going—then you’ll see incredible. But I’m serious when I say you have to believe in it first.”

  “I don’t understand. Why?”

  Jazen knelt down in front of Jack and adopted a solemn tone. “Because, Jack, all the fantastic, unbelievable things in this world start in the Imagine Nation. It’s a real place, but you can’t get there if you try to keep one foot in the real world when you go. Only people who believe in the unbelievable are able to see the island. To find it, you have to believe that there’s a place out there where the impossible is possible. You have to believe it deep in your heart. If you can’t do that, you won’t recognize it when you see it. Even if it’s staring you right in the face.”

  Jazen stood up and put one foot in the boat. He reached out a hand to Jack.

  “You think you can do that?” he asked.

  “I guess so,” Jack answered.

  “You guess so?” Jazen grimaced. “I gotta tell you, I was kinda hoping for an absolute one hundred percent yes here.”

  Before Jack could say anything, Jazen snapped his fingers.

  “I’ve got it!” he said. “My partner. He’ll convince you I’m not crazy.” Jazen turned around and stuck his head below deck. “Blue!” he shouted. “Get up here! Time to get this show on the road!”

  “About time!” a deep, booming voice called back. “I was getting ready to leave without ya.”

  “Who’s that?” Jack asked.

  “That’s my partner, Blue,” Jazen replied. “He’s a cop.”

  As the owner of the voice made his way upstairs, Jack saw that he was nothing less than a giant. The entire boat rocked from side to side as Blue walked up the steps. When he opened the door to exit onto the deck, he could barely fit through it. He was a ten-foot-tall hulking mass of muscle who looked like he could pick up every boat on the pier and juggle them if he wanted to. He wasn’t called Blue because he was a cop, but rather because his skin was a clear, bright shade of royal blue.

  “What’s goin’ on, little man?” Blue asked Jack. “You comin’ with us or what?”

  Blue put out a fist for Jack to bump. The only bump Jack returned was the one where his head hit the floor. One look at Blue and he fainted straightaway.

  CHAPTER

  3

  Shadow of the Rüstov

  Jack woke up to the sound of rolling waves. He was confused at first, as people generally are when they wake up in strange places without warning. As he sat up in bed it all came flooding back: the Robo-Zombie, the emissary, the blue giant… and the boat!

  This was no dream. He was really on the boat. This was really happening.

  Jack could feel the ship moving as he looked around the bedroom, or stateroom, as it was called on a sea vessel. Jack’s vocabulary was filled with nautical terms he had learned from his Pirate Adventure and Star Fleet comics. The stateroom was nicer than any room he had ever slept in, but Jack was too excited to stay in bed. He got up to explore the ship.

  Jack walked upstairs, wobbling a little as he went. He had never been on a boat before and needed some time to get his sea legs underneath him. He stumbled into the upper deck.

  The main room was empty. Worn burgundy leather couches and club chairs rested on honey-colored hardwood floors, and a classic globe turned slowly with the tides in an oak stand. Jack saw countless charts and maps spread out on tables next to various artifacts, or rolled up and tucked away into cubbyholes. There was a TV in the room, but it wasn’t like any TV Jack had ever seen. It was a razor-thin holographic projection floating in midair, just off the wall. Jack reached up to touch it. The screen rippled like a pool of water as his hand passed right through the light image.

  Sunlight poured in from sweeping windows that lined the walls and looked out on the open sea. There was no land on the horizon in any direction.

  Jack stepped forward through a full kitchen (or galley, as he knew it to be called) and onto the bridge of the ship. The captain’s chair sat empty before him. The golden floorboards at the helm were contrasted by dark wood that encased a high-tech computerized control panel. In front of that panel was an ornate wooden wheel that looked like it had been taken from an old pirate ship. Jack felt like he was looking at the future and the past at the same time. The readout on the control panel flashed the message AUTO PILOT ENGAGED over and over. Jack wondered where everyone was, before hearing voices outside the cabin. Voices talking about him, coming from upstairs. Behind him, a stairway wound up to the open-air top deck. Jack crept up slowly and silently, listening closely as he climbed the steps.

  “I can’t believe you,” Jack heard Blue say to Jazen.

  “Why would I lie?”

  Jack crouched at the top of the stairs, just out of sight, to listen in.

  “I d
on’t think you’re lying,” Blue replied. “But you said we were going to check him out, not bring him back. I can’t believe you’d make a decision like this based on some random letter someone wrote you.”

  “That letter was real,” Jazen replied. “It came from—”

  “You don’t know if he wrote it or not,” Blue said. “No one’s seen him since the invasion. It could be a trick. I mean, isn’t he dead?”

  “Don’t say that,” Jazen said. “You don’t know that for sure.

  “I know you’re stirring up a storm,” Blue said. “And you know what you’re starting too. Smart’s not going to be happy when he finds out that you’re bringing in somebody new. You of all people.”

  “Smart’s never been happy his whole life,” Jazen replied, “and he’s not going to be happy until he makes the entire Imagine Nation a police state. People are finally starting to talk about it, you know.”

  “I know,” Blue said. “Someone has to stand up—I’m with you there. I just hope you’re not using this poor kid to do it.”

  Jack raised an eyebrow. He didn’t like the sound of that.

  Jazen scowled at Blue. “Do I tell you how to do your job?” he asked. “The proper way to punch somebody in the face, or how to put your head through a brick wall? The kid has a right to go home, Blue. No matter what anyone says, he deserves that much.”

  Blue put a hand on Jazen’s shoulder. “I always back your play, partner, you know that. But what’s right and what’s popular aren’t always the same thing. Even in the Imagine Nation, people get awful funny where the Rüstov are concerned.”

  “The Rüstov just tried to kill him,” Jazen said.

  “And when was the last time you heard of that happening?” Blue asked. “Rüstov Para-Soldiers operating in the outside world? You’d have to go back to the invasion for that. The question is, what’s next? Ten Rüstov? A hundred? People back home haven’t had to deal with those kinds of numbers in quite a while, and the fact is, they like it that way. If more of those things follow this kid back, it’s going to be bad for him and you.”

  “What things?” Jack asked, stepping out of the stairwell. “Is that what you call the thing that came after me today? A Rüstov?”

  Jazen and Blue looked up, taken totally by surprise. They traded embarrassed looks after being caught red-handed talking about Jack.

  “All right, Jack,” Jazen said. “You’re going to find out soon enough, anyway. Have a seat up here, and we’ll tell you everything.”

  Jack did as he was told, taking a seat across from Jazen and Blue.

  “I’m sure you have a million questions,” Jazen said. “The fact is, so do we. Even by our standards, this has been a pretty unusual day. This morning you faced off against one of the baddest bad guys in the whole universe.”

  “What was that thing?” Jack asked.

  “A Rüstov Para-Soldier,” Blue answered. “Alien invaders. Nasty ones too.”

  “I read about them today in a comic book,” Jack said. “Only they were called Robo-Zombies. They were fighting a hero called Prime.”

  “You know about Prime?” Blue asked.

  Jack looked at Blue. “He’s real too?” he asked.

  “As real as the Rüstov,” Blue replied. “I can see why you call ’em Robo-Zombies. Infected people usually end up looking like zombies by the time the Rüstov are done with them.”

  “They’re cybernetic parasites,” Jazen explained. “Most people in the Imagine Nation are still pretty scared of them. They infect other living organisms and use them as hosts, taking over their bodies and stealing their life energy. They can only survive on the backs of other life forms, and their victims turn into Rüstov soldiers just like them.”

  Jack thought it was all remarkably similar to what he had read about in the pages of Unreal Tales #42.“In my comic book Prime was turning into one of them too,” he told Jazen and Blue. “He started getting that mark on his eye, like the one they all have.”

  “You’ll be glad to know that Prime is just fine,” Blue said. “But that’s how it starts. That mark on the eye, that’s the first sign of infection.”

  “The one that came after me… it didn’t try to infect me,” Jack said. “It tried to kill me.”

  “I know,” Jazen said. “It’s strange, I can’t explain that.”

  “What does all this have to do with me going to the Imagine Nation?” Jack wanted to know.

  “I told you about my job as an emissary,” Jazen began. “How we go around the world planting clues about the Imagine Nation, and looking for people who are developing superpowers. Well, twelve years ago the Rüstov invaded Earth. Ever since then, we’ve been discouraged from actually bringing any superpowered people back to our island. People are still very suspicious of outsiders back home.”

  “Hang on,” Jack said. “Superpowers? You really think I have superpowers?”

  “I know you do,” Jazen said without blinking.

  Blue agreed with Jazen. “You don’t survive a Rüstov ambush without a few superpowers,” Blue said.

  Jack could hardly believe his ears. Even with everything that had already happened that day, he still couldn’t quite accept he was a part of all this. He kept waiting for Jazen and Blue to realize it was some big mistake.

  “I didn’t do anything this morning,” Jack said. “I didn’t even try, I just ran. Where would I get superpowers, anyway?”

  “Look,” Jazen said, “not everyone has an obvious superpower origin. For every person who gets their powers from a lab accident or some magic amulet, there’s another ten people who just happen to be born with powers. People don’t always know which category they fall into; they just know they have superhuman abilities.”

  “But I don’t know that,” Jack said. “Yeah, weird stuff happens around me, but not because I’m doing anything. There isn’t anything special I can do. Anyway, why bring me to the Imagine Nation if we’re just going to get in trouble for it? I don’t need to go someplace where everyone is going to give me a hard time. I could have stayed at St. Barnaby’s for that.”

  “I’m bringing you there because I have a feeling about you,” Jazen said. “You’re special, Jack, you have to trust me on this. Standing right here, I can gauge your power level, and it’s off the charts. You have incredible potential. I felt it all the way from the Imagine Nation.”

  “Really?” Jack asked. “Mr. Calhoun said my potential topped out at toilet brush cleaner.”

  “A toilet brush cleaner?!” Blue repeated, flabbergasted. “What?”

  “That guy was a real piece of work,” Jazen said, shaking his head. “You know I used the Department of Departmental Affairs line on him?” he asked Blue.

  “You did not,” Blue said.

  “I did! Jack, am I lying?”

  Jack shook his head and smirked, and Blue busted out laughing. Jazen followed suit, and eventually Jack did too. One thing about laughter, it’s contagious.

  When Jazen caught his breath, he turned to Jack with a smile.

  “Don’t worry, Jack. I’ve got a feeling the Imagine Nation is ready for you whether they know it or not. You’ve got a big future, a real big future. And it starts today.”

  “No doubt,” Blue agreed. “Anyone says otherwise, and I’ll bring the pain. Right, partner?” Blue added, tapping Jazen with a little punch on the shoulder.

  “Right,” Jazen said, wincing and rubbing his shoulder.

  “We’re partners now too,” Blue said to Jack. He put his fist back out for Jack to bump. “Don’t leave me hangin’, little man. C’mon.”

  Jack smiled. “All right,” he said, and gave Blue’s fist a pound.

  “That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” Blue said with a laugh, and he gave Jack a small pat on the back that nearly knocked him over the side of the boat.

  That evening, Jack watched the sunset from the bow of the Vision’s forward deck. Out there on the ocean, the view was like nothing he had ever seen before. The whole sky was fille
d with an orange and red glow that lit the clouds from behind and made the colors spread out like finger paint. The sun was a golden coin, sinking into an invisible piggy bank somewhere far beyond the horizon. The warm breeze on his face and the soothing sound of gulls squawking in the distance was quite a change from the icy, gray weather he had observed from his window that morning. “Shouldn’t it be colder out here this time of year?” he asked Jazen.

  “This boat travels faster than you think—we’ve made some minor modifications to her,” Jazen said with a wink as the Vision’s powerful motor hummed along smoothly. “Blue can’t stand the cold, so he sped us out to warm waters while you were sleeping. We’re somewhere in the Caribbean now.”

  “Is that where the Imagine Nation is?” Jack asked.

  “It is right now,” Jazen answered. “It’s hard to say where the Imagine Nation is, though, because it never stays in one place for too long. It’s what we call a roaming island.”

  “It moves?” Jack asked.

  “The whole island,” Jazen said, nodding. “All around the world, constantly. It never stays in one place long enough for people to simply stumble upon it. If you want to find the Imagine Nation, you have to really go looking. And people do. Or at least they did.” Jazen gave a disappointed look. “People used to come from all over the world, each bringing along their own culture, their own style. When the island was close to China, when it was close to England, when it was close to Guadalajara, people from those places would seek out the Imagine Nation.”

  “But you said you have to believe in it to get there,” Jack said. “How did they even know to look for it?”

  “It wasn’t always such a big secret,” Jazen explained. “Before our time, the legend of the Imagine Nation used to be a lot more widespread. Emissaries did their jobs back then just like we do now, but back then, a lot more people took notice. In the Age of Exploration? During the Enlightenment? Back then, people had ambition. They had a sense of adventure.”

  “And today?” Jack asked.

  “Today it’s different,” Jazen said, staring out at the setting sun. He looked sad, like he was watching the sun go down on something he cared for very deeply, something nearly gone. “It doesn’t help when emissaries only do their jobs halfway, either,” Jazen finally added. “We haven’t closed the borders yet, though. By law, anyone who finds the Imagine Nation on their own is welcome on our shores, and people still do find the island. They find the clues, they hear the stories, and they come. It’s not like it was before, though. Somewhere along the line, people just stopped believing.”