Created: 4-17-03Max sighed as he put down his cup of ice-cold orangeade onto the dining table. He gazed out of his window with a huge gloom on his face, his expression contradicting with the beautiful scenery outside.
“Why am I putting up with all this junk? I didn’t ask to be the Mighty One, and yet here I am, sitting like a complete loser waiting for dear ol’ Virgil to give me another stupid ‘assignment’!”
He paced up and down, thinking about how he got into this mess. He remembered reading a small incantation on the miniature statue of Virgil the fowl, accidentally broke it (which reveals the sacred Cap), put it on and POOF!!! He ended up right at the fowl and the big barbarian named Norman who claimed to be his one and only Guardian. He recalled Virgil telling him about the Dark Lord named SkullMaster who has an obsession with ruling the world of infinite dimensions, and to do so, he needs the cap. Max’s job was to prevent this from happening and to destroy SkullMaster himself.
While he frustrated himself with all these unhappy thoughts, something came through the mail chute on his door. Max went to get it, still mumbling and grumbling to himself. There was something slightly heavy in the tiny brown envelope and made a tiny jingle. He emptied out the content and saw it was a small pendant the color of a mixture of the sky and the sea. No sign or clue was indicated about from whom or where it came from, so Max guessed that it could have been a present from Norman to his single mother, Virginia (whom Norman had a crush on).
“Nice design!” Max complemented as he playfully tried it on, “I wonder which dimension did they get this….” No sooner he wore it around his neck, than a blinding flash enveloped him. When he opened his eyes, he found himself sitting at an open ground filled with dust and debris. There were bits and pieces of fragments and glass, wood and rocks all over the place. Max was surprised. Where has he ended up in? Which dimension is this? What is this place? He looked around, trying to find anybody, just anybody, around that deserted area, but there was no one around. Filled with curiosity and confusion, he started walking towards a city that he saw probably a few miles away from where he was standing. Somehow, he felt that the city he was going looks quite familiar.
When he got there, he was shocked that it was California, his hometown. Only that it was so sad and ghastly and filled with so much terror, fear and suffering lingering in the atmosphere. All the corner shops, supermarkets, game centers, the neighborhood, etc…., the places he used to hang were all reduced to ruins. Max began to wander around the grief-stricken place in confusion. What the hell is he doing in this place? Where’s his mother? Where is his best friends Bea and Felix? Where is everybody? What happened to California?!
Before he lost control of himself, he heard sounds of grinding and chinking followed by long trails of dragging chain noises. He rushed towards the noises that sounded like music to his ears and was surprised to see everybody, mostly children and teenagers, carrying heavy loads of rocks and clay towards a corner where more people were building some sort of a building or monument. Max ran towards them, blabbering out all sorts of questions at them (mostly about his own whereabouts) but they didn’t seem to hear him. They carried on with their work as if he was invisible. No matter how much Max yelled and shouted at them, they did not respond even a bit. Max had no choice but to look around and find out things for himself instead.
Suddenly, amidst all the hard-worked people, he saw the familiar Virgil and Norman putting their backs into their torturing work. Their clothes were torn and their whole body was dirty with soot and coal. Slowly, he found out that they were doing the worst work of all; mining for minerals that are buried deep in the surface of the earth, and they were only to use man power instead of machines. Max pitied them and wanted to lend a hand but then he found out that he could not touch anything; his hands just went through a shovel or a hoe when he tried to pick them up. He even walked past Norman when he tried to hold him with his out-stretched arms.
“If it weren’t for that stupid Mighty One we wouldn’t end up like this!” Max turned and saw that it were the words of one of his classmates. He looked like a rogue with untidy hair and sooty skin.
Norman scowled and growled, “He risked his life to save mankind and this is the thanks you’re giving him?!”
“Well, if he is so ‘high and mighty’,” said the rogue sarcastically, “why did he save SkullMaster when he had the chance to kill him, huh? Why did he save him from falling off the cliff instead of killing him when he had the perfect chance? How would you explain that, huh?!”
Norman hesitated, backing away from the boy, “That… that was a mistake. The Mighty One is still human. People make mistakes. Anyway, he’s dead now. There’s no point complaining about him.”
“Hah! Serves him right for being dead! Serves him right for saving his own sworn enemy and die by the enemy’s sword! I hope he burns in hell!!”
That made Norman lost his control and started charging at the rogue boy. They started hitting and fighting each other, sending dust and sand flying in the air and smudging their dirty bodies even more. Max tried to stop them but in vain. Out of nowhere, a long, thin whip wrapped around Norman’s body and dragged him away from the blood-streaked boy. Max followed the trail of the whip and it led him straight to WarMonger, one of SkullMaster’s under dog.
“Ahh, Norman, the Guardian of the Mighty One,” said WarMonger in his raspy voice, “You are always the trouble-maker in this field. You wait till SkullMaster hears about you!”
Norman was then dragged painfully along with the red beast away from the mining field. Max followed suite. After walking along the unstable ground for a few moments, they came to a very big and sinister-looking cathedral which did not seem very friendly at all. Max followed them in, relieved that the guards that stood by the entrance could not see him. Inside the cathedral, there were more humans being enslaved by SkullMaster’s subordinates. Most of them were women who were forced to wear clothes that exposed their skins in an awkward matter. Max blushed just looking at them but also pitied them for the way they were treated by the beasts.
Finally, he reached the main room where SkullMaster’s throne was pathetically placed. Max gasped when he saw the sacred cap on SkullMaster’s bald head and his victorious face beaming at the ‘crown’ he had achieved. WarMonger knelt down in front of him and stated his reasons of arrival. Norman remained standing regardless of the respect he was obliged to ever since SkullMaster conquered the dimensions.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Big Guy,” SkullMaster jeered at Norman. “This isn’t the first time you’re here, is it? Well, no matter… I’m beginning to get used to your presence anyway. There is still one little thing that bothers me though… Can’t you kneel or bow down for me like everybody else?”
“I bow down only to the Mighty One, my true master. Not to a tyrant like you. You’re never my master nor my king. I have sworn to serve only Maxwell Deanhart; my one true king.”
Max felt touched with Norman’s words. He has never heard anybody say things like that about him and he never thought that someone would stand up and look out for him (except his mother). “Big Guy…” His call was cut short by the loud cackling of the ever evil SkullMaster. He wrinkled his nose in disgust; he never liked that laugh at all.
“So, I never was your king, eh? Now how would you like this for a change?” SkullMaster clicked his fingers and, to Max’s horror, his mother emerged from the curtain behind him, holding the hand of a small boy who had a little resemblance of him, only that he had black hair and purple eyes while Max had blonde hair and blue eyes. Virginia walked meekly towards SkullMaster and sat beside him reluctantly.
“Norman, I’d like you to meet my prince, DarkMaster,” SkullMaster proudly introduced the boy to him. “Looks so much like the Mighty One, doesn’t he? Well, I wouldn’t have had him if it weren’t for your dear ol’ sweetheart. He does look like Max though, but I’ll shape him up into my kind of Mighty One. You would rather bow down to him now, wouldn’t you? He’s just the same; Max was born by her and so is DarkMaster, don’t you agree?”
SkullMaster laughed even more sinisterly as WarMonger kicked Norman’s calves to force him to kneel down. Norman didn’t need to be kicked twice; he went weak all over immediately and his knees hit to the ground, his face a picture of defeat and devastation. Tears began to roll down Max’s cheeks as he witness it all. Virginia sat there helplessly as SkullMaster signaled his under-dog to take Norman away. Max trembled as he watched his half-brother pampered by SkullMaster and Virginia. Anger boiled in him to the brim and the tears in his eyes and on his cheeks felt like hot lava. He dashed towards his sworn enemy at top speed and yelled, “GIVE ME BACK MY WORLD!!!!!!!!”
Before he pounced at SkullMaster, a bright white light engulfed him.
When Max opened his eyes, he found himself back in his own living room. Everything was normal; the couch, the TV set, the beautiful scenery outside his window, everything. Max got confused again. Where is everybody? How did he come back? What exactly happened? He was so muddled up with everything and still hurt with the incident he had encountered in SkullMaster’s cathedral that he burst into tears, wimpering to himself.
“Are you alright, Mighty One?” Max jerked his head up at hearing the ever familiar voice of Virgil. Norman was also there, towering beside him like a huge mountain of muscles.
“Virge! Normie! What happened to me? I was whisked to a run-down New York City and now I’m back! And Mom, and you…. This is all so weird….”
“What you’ve just experienced is an illusion of what might be,” Virgil said cleverly (as always) in his American-British accent. “We know you are still new to this prophecy-fulfilling task, but it is your destiny and an obliging path you have to take. We sent you this pendant to show what might happen if you refuse to fulfill your task as the Chosen One.”
Max remained silent for a few moments. After that dreadful experience, everything has become clear to him. He is the Mighty One and he has to fulfill his task and put a stop to SkullMaster’s evil-doings forever, before the illusion becomes reality.
“So, what’s the task for today?” Max finally voiced out.
Soon, Max found himself tailing along with Virgil and Norman behind him as the trio went into the bright, yellow portal.
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