The Needs of the Many - Prologue

Prologue
The sun does not shine here. Dark, heavy clouds fill the sky. There is no wind. And yet, these ominous clouds move slowly across the night sky. It’s always night here. There is no moon. And yet, a tiny amount of light shines down from seemingly nowhere onto a small, desolate graveyard. There are no stars. A few dead leaves crackle as they fall off the bare, naked branches of the dead trees that surround the graveyard. This, however, is no ordinary graveyard. This particular one stands on the threshold between the land of the living and the land of the dead. And at the end of the graveyard is a cold, stone mausoleum. A simple building with very few markings. inside is its guardian. The mausoleum is a small one, with a plain entrance, and inside, a single concrete tomb. To the left of the entrance, against the wall, there is a simple bench, also made of concrete with no engravings or style of any kind. Lying on this bench is Kane; ruler of the dead, and guardian of the entrance to the land of the dead. He is dressed in a black robe with a hood. The hood covers his eyes. It’s dark in the mausoleum, which is just how Kane likes it. He has no use for the light. He is concentrating, focusing his power on managing the dead. Suddenly a soft white ball of glowing of light appears in the mausoleum. As it descends from the ceiling, candle-filled lanterns that weren’t on the walls before suddenly light up. The ball of light slowly turns into a man. The man is dressed all in white; nothing fancy, just plain white clothing. Once materialized, the man speaks.
“So I was thinking…” the man says.
Kane does not rise, but instead slowly turns his head and faces him.
“About what?” Kane asks.
“I was thinking you should take a little more interest in the living.”
“I rule the dead, if you remember.”
“Remember? I’m the one who gave you the job!”
“That’s what I wanted you to remember.”
“And you’re doing great by the way! However, there are some storms on the horizon. I’m sure you’ve sensed them.”
Kane slowly sits up and crosses his arms.
“Mmm-hmmm.”
“Good. Humanity is about to face some things they’ve never faced before. They’re going to need a champion; several actually.”
“And why are you telling me all this?”
“Because I want you to personally oversee it.”
“I see. Wouldn’t you be better suited to do that Jehovah?”
“Well, yes of course, but I don’t like to get directly involved in things. And besides, like I said, it’s about time you started taking a little more interest in the living.”
Although Kane’s eyes are covered, he has the ability to see things most people can’t. Kane looks at God uninterested.
“I don’t like the living. I’ll pass.”
“Ok, but it would mean an increase in your power.”
This peaks Kane’s interest, although you would never know it from the expression on his face.
“How much?”
“Quite a bit actually; enough to make it worth your while.”
“Enough to overthrow you?”
“Ha Ha, now why would you want to do that? Heaven’s full of love and happiness and rainbows! All the things you hate!”
For the first time in a long time, a smile slowly comes across Kane’s face. It quickly fades.
“Fine. What do you want from me?”

God clasps his hands together and leans closer to Kane.
“Ok, I need you to assemble a team. But first, I need you to visit someone. I’ve decided to bring back the power of Hercules. Before I do though, I need you to have a talk with the person who’s going to receive it. Let him know what he’s about to face. And come to think of it, why don’t you be the one to do it? Consider it a bonus. Part of the power you’re about to get. But remember, you don’t get this power for free. You have to take an interest in the flow of humanity.”
“Understood. Who do you want me to give it to?”
God then hands Kane a small slip of paper, much like you find in a fortune cookie, with a single name on it.
'“Give it to this person here!”
“Fine.”
Kane looks at the name on the piece of paper. He then uses his powers of Necromancy to quickly scan the fate of God’s choice.
“Wait. Are you sure? I don’t see much of a future for him.”
God smiles.
“Yes, well, my vision extends just a little bit farther than yours. Besides, I have a better feel for the living than you do.”
Kane is still not convinced. He has little faith in what he perceives to be the ill-fated benefactor of such tremendous power.
“Be that as it may, I can think of better candidates for the power of Hercules.”
Although God respects Kane’s opinion, his confidence is not shaken. He gently clasps his hands together and looks at Kane with a kind, yet determined look.
“Nope! He’s the one. Make it happen.”
Kane looks back at God with much doubt.
“As you wish, but I do not think this is going to work. He is not going to turn out like you think, and no one is going to want to work with him.”
God smiles, as he often does, with great faith in his child.
“First, he is going to turn out like I think, and second, you’re going to have to find someone who’s not only willing to work with him, but work on him; someone who has a lot of hope for people.”
“I can only think of one person who has that much hope.”
“Then like I said, make it happen! You didn’t think this was going to be easy did you? Power always comes with a price. You know that.”
God once again holds out his hand and a small, bright, glowing ball of power slowly flows from his hand and into Kane.

Elsewhere, in Kansas City, a man solemnly walks down the street. He’s short, with short brown hair and glasses. He’s wearing a typical fast-food uniform. It’s late at night and the man walks alone. As he walks, he thinks about his day. It was an unusually tough day. First, he was passed over for a promotion at work. Again. Then, the raises for the year were announced. Looking at his paycheck, John notices that he only got a .05₵ raise. Then, after work, John’s girlfriend shows up. He tells her about his day, and when he’s done, he hear the words everyone dreads to hear. “We need to talk”. She told him she’s met someone else. She told him she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life with someone who has no ambition. She told him that being passed over for a promotion again just proves what a loser he is. Tears ran down John’s face as she coldly and harshly emasculates him. She then accused him of being a crybaby. She said she wanted to be with a real man, not some wimp that’s going nowhere. She then turned and walked away. As she got halfway to her car, she stopped and looked at him. The last words he heard from her were “I would say that I hope we can still be friends, but I don’t.” She then turned back around, got in her car, and drove away. As he replays the event in his head, he once again begins to cry. Even though she was harsh and mean, he knows he’ll miss her. They were together for three years. He wonders how he’ll live without her. Then, in a moment of clarity, he decides he won’t. He decides that enough is enough. Maybe she was right. Maybe he doesn’t have a future. So tonight, he chooses to end his life. He thinks about how to end it all, as he has done on many occasions, and decides that the best way is to just go to sleep. The thought of the pain ending is very appealing to him. He’s thought about doing this on many occasions, but tonight is different. Although he believes himself to be a coward, tonight he feels no fear. Just sadness and the thought of finally being at peace. He almost can’t wait to get home.

Still elsewhere, deep, deep down in a shadowy dungeon, long forgotten by man, barely remembered by demons, a little girl with blonde hair in pigtails hangs from a wall in chains. She appears to be about 3 years old, but in truth she is much older than that. She hears the bones of her final teammate break and he screams for the last time. She hangs her head in sorrow and blames herself for getting her team killed. Just then a demon walks into the room. He is almost 7 feet tall, and is very muscular, with dark red skin. His chest is adorned with many religious tattoos. He wears black armor from the waist down. He stares at her, and then smiles an evil smile.
“Well Pandora, those sounds you heard was the last member of your group breathing his last breath. Oh how good it feels to crush the spirit, and bones, of the righteous!”
Pandora looks up with hatred and contempt.
“It won’t feel so good when you’re on the receiving end Abraxas.” she tells him.
“Oh? And how will the happen? By you perhaps? Ha! Your bravado is meaningless. Your team is defeated. They lie dead at my feet; as you soon shall. Unless of course there is some other hero you have that I don’t know about? No? I didn’t think so. You have escaped me many times Pandora, there will be no one to save you this time.”
There is a ring of truth to his words. She knows it.
“So kill me already, and get it over with.”
“Oh no, no, no! That would be too easy. Besides, I’m not done listening to you scream. Your death will be slow and painful. Guards!”
Upon command, two large demons come in, wheeling a steel cart with torture utensils.

Elsewhere, in Cass Lake, Minnesota, a young girl is just getting off her shift at the Cass Lake Community Library. It’s a little after 9:00 PM, and she casually walks to her car. She is a nice-looking girl, approximately 23 years old, with soft brown hair. She wears black-rimmed glasses and has on a pretty pink sweater and plain white pants.
There is an older woman locking up the library. She has on an old, but nice, grey sweater. She wears a grey dress. She too wears glasses, but hers are bifocals.
“Goodnight Beth!” she says to the younger girl.
“Goodnight Ms. Jenkins!” Beth replies.
Beth gets in her car and starts driving home. It’s not a long, only a few miles. As she’s driving, her mind begins to wander. She thinks about her day, and then about her life, and how boring it is. She thinks about how she never gets a date and how her life is repetitious. “Not a bad life,” she thinks, “just dull.” She thinks about how she’s more content than happy. She wonders what it would be like to live an exciting life like a fire-fighter or an actress. Just then a deer jumps into the street in front of her. She swerves aggressively to avoid hitting it and crashes into a tree. Beth’s head slams into the steering wheel and she is knocked unconscious.
A couple of hours later she wakes up. She’s cold and it’s dark out. She shakes her head to clear it. She tries to start her car but it cannot. She gets out and examines it. The hood of the car is wrapped around the tree, and the front-left tire is blown out. The windshield is shattered. Beth decides to call a tow truck in the morning. She reaches for her cell-phone to call her friend for a ride, but can’t find it. Then she remembers she left it at home to recharge. With no other options, she begins to walk home. She’s still dazed from the crash, and her head is pounding. She cautiously looks around at her surroundings. She’s driven on this road hundreds of times, but has never really stopped to look at it. It’s a dark road, lit only by the moon, with thick forest on each side. Beth thinks “Ha! This is just the kind of dark, creepy road that axe murderers like to hide around!” With that thought, she walks faster. After a few minutes, the road comes to a stream, and there’s a bridge that crosses it. It’s a one lane bridge, but there aren’t any cars coming and it isn’t too long, so Beth begins to cross. Just when she’s about a third of the way, she’s sees headlights.
“Oh no!”
Beth turns and begins running back. The car doesn’t slow down. It’s just about to hit Beth. She realizes she’s not going to make it, so she frantically jumps off the bridge into the stream. Unfortunately the stream isn’t that deep and Beth lands hard. A minute passes and the car is now long gone. Beth gets up soaking wet, freezing cold, and bleeding from her right elbow. She takes off her sweater and wraps it around her arm to stop the bleeding. She walks out of the stream, past the bridge, and back on to the road. She stops for a minute to catch her breath. Beth collapses from her injuries, but immediately gets back up realizing that if she stops here, she’ll freeze to death.
Just then a bright flash of lights appear in the sky. It’s like nothing she’s ever seen before. It’s circular, and glows. It makes a faint humming sound.
“No way!”
Beth looks up at the glowing lights in amazement. Maybe it’s curiosity, or the injuries from the crash, but Beth makes no effort to run away. Just as she thinks it’s going to fly past her and shoot up into the sky, it stops. Beth looks up at the glowing lights and thinks “I wonder why they’ve stopped?”
As she ponders that question, a small door opens in the bottom of the spacecraft. Beth sees it and her eyes widen and her heart races.
“Oh no! They’re going to kidnap me! I’ve got to….”
Just then the spacecraft dumps a strange glowing liquid all over Beth. It then closes the door, shoots up into the sky, and is gone.
Beth starts coughing as some of the liquid goes into her nose and down her throat. When she stops, she looks up. All she sees is the clear night sky, so she once again begins walking home. She thinks “Well, I guess even alien spaceships have to have a tailpipe.”

Back in Kansas City, the man walks down the stairs and into his apartment building. It’s a old and desperately in need of maintenance. The landlord, whose apartment is on the floor above, yells down the staircase at the man.
“Hey John, your rent’s due.”
“I know.” John replies.
“I said your rent’s due!”
“I know!” John says a little louder and a little more annoyed.
John always worries when the rent’s due, but this time he doesn’t care because he doesn’t plan on being here in the morning.”Let him try to collect it off of my corpse” he thinks. Before John can get to his apartment, he is approached by three men.
“Hey man, you have any money?” the 1st man asks.
“No.” is John’s only reply.
John puts his head down and starts to walk away, but by this time the three men are on all sides of him, with John’s right side facing the wall.
“C’mon man, just a few dollars!” the 1st man continues.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have anything.” John replies.
“Yeah? Well I bet you do!” the 2nd man interjects.
“Well I don’t! Now let me go.” John says, a little scared.
“We’ll see about that!” the 2nd man replies.
Suddenly the man to John’s left punches him in the face! John’s glasses fall off and a lens pops out of the frame. John stumbles and strikes the wall and the 3rd man behind John hits him in the back of the head. John falls to one knee with his right hand firmly pressed against the wall for support. The first man then kicks him in the face and John falls onto his back.
“Give us your money, mother fucker!” the 1st man yells.
John is bleeding from the mouth and he tries to get up. He’s scared, and disoriented, and his head hurts.
“I don’t have anything!” he cries.
“Bullshit!” is the 1st man’s response.
Then the second man kicks John in the ribs! The first man reaches into John’s pocket and grabs his wallet. He opens it and sees no money.
“You poor piece of shit!” the 1st man says.
Then the first man kicks John in the groin. John sits up and cries out in pain, and then all three men come down on him and start savagely beating him. This goes on for what seems like an eternity, but the men eventually get bored and decide to leave.
“That’s what you get for not having any money you bastard!” the 1st man tells him.
The men callously laugh and leave the building. Upstairs, the landlord is inside his apartment with the door open a crack. Having watched the whole thing, he shakes his head, and then closes the door. After a few minutes, John gets up on his hands and knees. He looks around for his glasses. He finds them, bent, and straightens them He then looks for the other lens. It’s  difficult to find since he can’t see, but after a minute, he comes across it and pops it back in. He slowly gets to his feet. His legs are quivering, so he leans against the wall. He slowly drags himself down the hallway, leaving a trail of blood as he goes. He finally gets to his apartment. It takes a minute to get in because his hands are shaking so he can’t get the key in the hole. But he finally does and unlocks his door and goes inside. He locks the door behind him.

Back in Cass Lake, Beth gets home to her apartment. It’s much nicer than John’s and she has no trouble going inside. It’s a medium sized apartment, modestly furnished. Beth turns on the lights. She goes into her bedroom and takes off her clothes. She puts them in the clothes hamper, and then gets into the shower and starts cleaning off the glowing liquid. “Stupid spaceship!” she thinks. As soon as she hears those words, she thinks “Wait a minute! Spaceship? No, that can’t be! It must have been some kind of weather-balloon, or some government experiment or something. It couldn’t have been a spaceship. That’s ridiculous.” She finishes her shower, grabs a towel and dries off, and puts on the clothes she wears to bed. She sits down on her bed and thinks “Well, I have to admit, that’s the most exciting thing that’s happened to me in awhile.” Once again, she thinks about her life and how boring it is. She gets up and goes into the kitchen and fixes herself a glass of tea. She goes into the living room, sits down on the couch, and relaxes. Then a thought pops into her head. “Oh crap! My car! It’s completely smashed! What am I going to do?” She thinks for a moment, then calls her friend.
“Amy? Hi, it’s Beth. Listen, could you give me a ride to work tomorrow? I had an accident tonight and totaled my car.”
“Oh my God Beth! Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I think so. I just got a bump on my head. And then the strangest thing happened….”
Beth stops and thinks, and then decides not to tell Amy what happened. She decides that Amy would think she’s crazy, or suffering some delusions from the crash. Then she thinks “That’s it! That’s what happened! I hit my head and imagined the whole thing!”
“Hello? Beth? Are you still there?”
“What? Oh, yeah, I’m still here. So, can you give me a ride tomorrow?”
“Of course. I’ll pick you up first thing in the morning.”
“Thanks. I’m going to bed now. It’s been a rough night.”
“I understand. Try to get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Both girls hang up the phone. Beth turns off the light, goes into her bedroom, and gets into bed. As she slips under the covers, she thinks “Yeah, that’s what happened; just a hallucination caused by the crash.” She puts her head on the pillow and starts laughing inside “Spaceships! What a ridiculous idea!” And with that, she goes to sleep. Meanwhile, the clothes in the clothes hamper glow faintly.

Back in Kansas City, inside John’s apartment, John takes off his socks and shoes, then goes into the bathroom and cleans off the blood, and then slowly sits down and cries. After 10 minutes, he stands up, opens the medicine cabinet, and takes out a razor blade. He then takes off his shirt and pants. He sits down in his underwear on the bathroom floor and begins cutting his leg. On his legs, you can see the faint scars of many, many cuts. After several cuts he gets up and decides it’s finally time. He takes 3 bottles of sleeping pills out of the cabinet, which he’s been saving for just this moment, and places them on the sink. He goes into the kitchen and gets a glass and some vodka. He pours it into the glass and returns to the bathroom. He grabs the pills and sits on the floor. With tears running down his cheeks, he opens the first bottle. He drinks half the glass of vodka and is about to take the pills when a glowing black circle appears on the floor. As the circle rises, Kane appears.
“Hold thy hand young one!”
John looks at Kane, then the glass of vodka, then back at Kane.
“Your time is not yet nigh.” Kane tells him.
John looks at Kane, and doesn’t know if he is really there, or just a hallucination brought on by the alcohol and the beating he took. But at this point, he doesn’t care.
“Yeah?” John says “Well I beg to differ. I think it very much is my time.”
“I am Kane, ruler of the dead.”
Kane holds out his hand, and black smoke begins to form. From that smoke a book appears.
“In this book lies the name of every human that has ever lived, is living now, or will ever live. Beside each name, there are two dates. The day they are born, and the day they die.”
The smoke then reappears and the book disappears back into it.
“I know the time of everyone, and it is not yet yours.”
John, annoyed at not being able to do what he wants, looks at Kane.
“Ok, so why not?” John asks “It’s not like my life counts for anything. No one would miss me if I was gone.”
“Be that as it may, you, now have a destiny.”
“To do what? Clean up after people? Some destiny.”
“That may have been your past destiny, but is not your future. You, young one, will inherit a great power.”
“I’m getting tired of this ‘young one’ crap. I’m 32!”
Kane looks at John and folds his arms.
“I am over 200,000.”
John looks Kane up and down.
“Ok, you win. What’s this power you were talking about?”
“You will inherit the power of Hercules. You will use this power to help humanity.”
“But I hate humanity.” John replies.
For the first time in a long time, Kane finds a bond with a member of the living.
“So do I. However, we both have a job to do.”
“But I really hate people. Why would I want to help them?”
Kane despises the living, so he struggles to find an answer. He then points to John’s leg.
“Would you rather continue to live this life?” Kane asks.
John looks down at his leg. The blood has now run down his leg and onto the floor. John sadly looks back at Kane.
“Yeah, ok.” John says “So what do I do?”
Kane holds out his pale hand and points at John. A burst of white energy blasts out of Kane’s finger and into John. John begins coughing and shaking. He feels like he’s going to throw up. After a few seconds, the coughing subsides.
“That sucked!” John says.
John bends over and puts his hands on his knees to rest. As he does, his glasses fall off and hit the ground. One of the lenses cracks.
“Crap!” John says angrily.
John reaches to pick them up.
“You will no longer need them.” Kane tells him.
John’s not sure if he believes Kane or not, but he slowly rises to his feet anyway. He addresses Kane with an unsure tone in his voice.
“So that’s it? I have the power of Hercules now?”
“Not yet. I have only given you a small portion of Hercules’s power. As your body adjusts to it, I will give you more.”
“So why don’t you just give it to me all at once?”
“Hercules possessed the power of a God, or at least half a God. That power has since grown. Therefore, the power I give you will be the power of a full God; a power that will, in its maturity, nearly rival my own.”
John’s eyes get big and he thinks “Wow! This guy has more power than a God?”
Kane continues.
“Were I to give you all his power at once, your mortal body could not handle it and you would explode.”
John looks at Kane and nods slowly.
“Ok, good to know. I just have one question. Why me?”
“That is a question best left for another time.”
“Ok, but…”
The black circle reappears and Kane vanishes into it. John looks on in amazement.
“Alright then. Hey, wait a minute, you didn’t tell me where I’m supposed to start!”
Kane does not reappear, but his voice can be heard.
“You will go to Greece. There you will find Pandora. You will save her, and she will save you.”
“How am I supposed to get to Greece? How do I find her? Greece is a big country! And I don’t speak Greek!”
Kane does not answer, and after a few seconds, John gets the feeling he’s not going to.