Chapter 9
Control your breathing; control your body. Ken was fascinated by how bodies worked, especially his own. Perhaps it had something to do with the nature of his power. Maybe it was his family’s history with the parasite. Whatever the reason, Ken found that this fascination was one of the many ways he differed from most people. Growing up, he was bullied and teased in school, leaving permanent scars. But as an adult, Ken had been on a journey of self-discovery and had come to terms with his past, his quirky power, and his family's fame and wealth. This is why, while all the other competitors were chit-chatting and shoveling sandwiches into their mouths, Ken sat alone in the corner, meditating. After he had completed the first trial, he grabbed a couple of boiled eggs from the buffet, guzzled a giant bottle of water, and made his way to the quietest spot he could find. Ken was focused on winning, and he’d stop at nothing to survive this weekend’s culling and go into the actual competition as the newbie's top seed.
Ken found meditation helpful in centering himself and working through what he considered irrational frustration. Sitting cross-legged in the corner of the banquet hall, he tried to let go of his disappointment in not achieving first place in the previous event. Impressive though it was to place second in a field of nearly a hundred thousand metas, it simply wasn’t good enough for Ken. There was no way he could beat his cousin or any of the All-Stars if he wasn’t even the best of this new crop of potential Heralds. He had to be number one. “No!” he pushed back on that thought. “That is what I am trying to let go of!” Ken knew that the only goal of this weekend was to be one of the twelve, to move on to compete in the entire ‘Top Seed’ competition. That’s all he had to do. And he was on track to achieve this goal. “Just keep up your intensity, keep up your focus, and stay hungry. Don’t let yourself be your own worst enemy. Top twelve is all that matters.” He could feel his shoulders and neck relax as he explored that thought, letting go of the weight of expectation he had placed upon himself.
He opened his eyes, and the world looked and felt sharper. His mind centered, curbing his adrenaline rush. He was now ready for any challenge. As he stretched his legs, a hush fell over the banquet hall as a hologram of The Show appeared in the center of the room. Within seconds, all eyes were on the virtual host, and the room was so quiet you could hear a flea sneeze.
“Congrats once again, contestants! I know America, and the World, are in awe of what they saw from you in that first event. In fact, America has voted, and their favorite moment from yesterday was when Borealis used what looked like the Northern Lights as a giant hand to catch a commercial airplane before it fell out of the sky. ” Holo-Show looked at a handsome young black guy leaning against the back wall with a hoagie hanging from his mouth and said, “Congratulations, young man! Now, let's move on to the next event. I bet you are all so very anxious to know what you will be facing next.” The contestants waited for a few beats as Holo-Show seemingly made eye contact with every one of them. “And I'll tell you all after a quick break! We’ll be right back, America.”
All of the contestants groaned as the break was announced, and some relaxed while tension built within others. A few were shooting thumbs-up signals to Kid Borealis as Ken made his way over to talk to his, hopefully, new friend.
Ken was able to sidle up next to Jax and whispered, “Congratulations on the MVP vote! I do not know if you do not remember me from the elevator yesterday before registration, but if not, my name is Ken Kamai.” He noticed a blank look in the young man’s eyes and added, “I was talking to your sister.”
“I remember,” Jax answered. “Congrats yourself. The last 20 hours have been so fucking crazy. I felt like I was in some fucked up video game most of the time. Kept having to remind myself that it was real. How did they do all that anyway? Was it like a hologram? Did we all have to do the same things?”
Ken cut Jax off, sensing that this kid was becoming overwhelmed. He selfishly wanted to avoid the frantic energy that was rubbing off onto him. “When I am overwhelmed, I like to take deep breaths and count to ten.”
Following Ken’s lead, Jax took a deep breath in, held it for a moment, and let it out. They repeated this together three more times.
“Thanks,” Jax said.
“There is no need to thank me. I am sure you would have done the same for me if you saw that I was having an issue.” Ken wasn’t 100 percent sure that this was true but had learned a long time ago that it was what most people wanted to hear in these situations.
“Yeah,” Jax replied, “Of course! And if I can ever be there for you in any way, I will. It’s nice to know someone besides my sister might have my back.”
Before Ken could ask where she was or scan the crowd to see if she made the cut, the hologram of The Show popped back into the room and launched right into his prepared instruction. “Welcome back to day two of The Culling!” No one clapped or cheered inside their little banquet room, so Ken figured there was either a crowd elsewhere or that applause would be added to the broadcast in post-production. “One hundred challengers have made it through the first trial, and now they await the details of today’s quest to become one of twenty-four metas moving on to the final day of The Culling!” Holo-Show turned to face the largest swarm of micro-camera drones as if to indicate he was transitioning from talking to America to talking to the competitors directly.
Stolen novel; please report.
“The room you are currently in is actually a giant gondola, ferrying you all up to the peak of our iconic Mount Olive, the largest meta-made mountain in the world. It hosts the most recognizable view of The Heralds Tower complex and Meta-Eden. It will also host the starting line for today’s event. Once the gondola stops, the walls of the room will unfurl and each of you will need to find a statue of Eclipse…” An image of a golden statue of the former Seed, looking a lot like an Oscar trophy, replaced Holo-Show in the center of the room. The Show’s disembodied voice continued, “..hidden amongst piles of other golden idols featuring the likenesses of the remaining 11 Heralds that sit on the current Council. Once you’ve found a correct statue, you will need to head down the mountain, make your way 30 miles north along King’s River, and place the statue on an altar, indicating your completion of the trial. To be clear, any meta who places a statue of Eclipse onto the altar at the finish line will move on to tomorrow’s final event.”
Ken was shocked to learn that they had been moving this whole time. This fact either spoke to how subtle and smooth the gondola movements were or how deep in his meditation he was. Perhaps it was a combination of both.
“One more thing,” Holo-Show continued. “There are over 100 piles of golden trophies, but only 24 statues of Eclipse. You may acquire a statue by any means, but please try not to kill each other. Bad press and all.” Holo-Show gave a sly smile and disappeared.
As the hologram vanished, the walls of the banquet hall unfolded to reveal a snowy mountaintop. The cold air stung, but Ken had trained his whole life to block that out. “I guess my cold showers every morning were not as crazy as Lizzy always teases.” he thought. Then, oddly, Ken felt very sleepy all of a sudden. Normally, his cold showers and meditation refreshed Ken. He did all he could to snap to focus. He attempted to quickly study the others to see if they were exhibiting signs of exhaustion. As he studied the group, he noticed most people were wobbling on their feet. Some had even dropped to the ground, asleep.
Ken pushed through, desperately trying to find the source of his sudden drowsiness. Blinking twice, he saw two unaffected metas. One was a woman with freckles and light brown hair. She was standing behind a plain-looking, darker-haired man who was grimacing in painful concentration. Ken had two competing partial thoughts. “That has to be him!” and “Must shift.” He tried to step forward, but the grimacing man noticed him. Everything went black.
***
Ken groggily rubbed his eyes. His body felt stiff and cold. As his vision focused, he realized his fingers were slightly blue. He was lying in the snow. He glanced around a bit to see a bunch of people scrambling up and down huge piles of golden statues. He didn’t know how long he had been out, but it seemed like the others had awakened before him. Ken groaned as he realized he had no way of knowing how many statues of Eclipse were left. His original strategy had included the idea that he could track how many competitors found statues and made their way down the mountain, judging if he should search the piles or try to wrestle a small sculpture from one of his fellow competitors. That concept was out the window now. Ken jumped up and scanned the area. He noticed a competitor with rabbit ears grab a statue from one of the piles and start to hopscotch down the mountain. Not wanting to let this opportunity go to waste, he sighed at the upcoming irony and activated his power.
Ken didn’t fully understand many aspects of his power, one of which was the specific phrase he had to shout as loud as he could, accompanied by a series of particular poses. There was likely some tradition or mystical reason for its necessity, but Ken felt rather silly every time he had to call on his unknown magic.
He thrust his right arm toward the sky, with his right hand ready to hold an imaginary sword, and shouted in his most commanding voice, “I call upon the ancient power of the shell!” Now, for Ken, when he utters these words, all he knows is that a beam of light hits him, and suddenly, he transforms. But in this instance, he caught the attention of every competitor still on the mountain, and what they saw was epic!
A column of light engulfed Ken, turning his body into a silhouette. His voice transformed into the sound of an electric guitar, blaring an epic rock solo over the whole transformation. A turtle shell grew from his back, and reptile-like skin spread from the shell to cover his entire body. His head ballooned into the shape of a turtle while a black mask formed over his eyes. The grand finale of the whole transformation was when radiant light consolidated into Ken’s outstretched hand and snapped into the shape of a katana, now made of glistening steel.
A human turtle stepped from the column of light. “Yooooo, my dudes!!” Ken, or more appropriately, Samurai Tortoise, greeted his competition as he threw up the classic surfer hand signal.
Needless to say, everyone was stunned, including the rabbit who had just been about to hippity hop down the mountain. Rabbit stopped, mouth agape, having just witnessed the “magical-girl transformation” that she thought could only happen in anime.
“Aww right!” Samurai Tortoise said to Rabbit as he casually grabbed the statue from her hand. “Thanks for not putting up a fight, Rabbit dude. I kinda just want to party. Yah feel me? Anyway, see ya at the bottom!” With that, he retreated into his shell, hopped into the air, did a half barrel roll, and landed in the snow shell side down before proceeding to sled down the mountain.
Ken would later learn that it had taken everyone on that mountaintop a solid minute of processing before anyone moved or spoke again. Those who had lived amongst other metas for their whole lives were used to this specific type of strange, so watching Ken transform into a giant katana-wielding tortoise only to yank an Eclipse statue from a stunned rabbit and sled away just inspired them to work harder. For others, it was the wake-up call they needed never to pursue any kind of Herald work ever again. For Ken, it was “Exhibit A” in why he only used his power when it was absolutely necessary.