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What's Another Hero?
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What another Hero?
“This is going to be great!” Duo Maxwell exclaimed as he stood, bouncing on the balls of his feet, next to his Asian friend, Heero Yuy.
“I can’t believe I paid a freakin’ penny for this,” Heero mumbled to himself. “You know, Duo, there are many things one can do with a penny and,” he said as he shook his finger at his friend, “going to a play would not be one of them.”
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you,” Duo said as he moved Heero’s hand out of his face, “that it’s rude to point your finger at people?” Duo smiled at Heero’s expression, “Oh, come on Heero! Shakespeare’s plays are great!” he said holding his arms out and swing around resulting in people getting hit in the head but, hey, nobody’s perfect. “I’ve seen a couple myself.” His friends’ response was one Duo chose to ignore.
Duo looked around the theatre. He’d been in the Globe Theatre before but it always seemed to amaze him the beauty of it. It was a blaze of colours, sounds, and people. He felt a little sorry for himself, for all he could afford was a “groundling” seat. Actually, they didn’t even have seats at all, they had to stand.
Duo herd Heero mumble again that this had better be worth his penny.
“Hey, Heero? Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had the money to actually get a seat? Even better, with a cushion!” He said with his eyes glowing. He was looking at all the people who were above him literally and in social standings, they all had seats for they could afford to pay two, even three pennies! “Like, say…that man!” Duo said pointing at a random man sitting among a group of, amazing as it was, sitting people. The unnamed man saw Duo pointing at him, raised his nose, and looked away. Duo frowned, “Okay, maybe not like him. People who have money are so rude. Don’t you think so Heero? Well, what about …” Duo’s eyes scanned the people sitting down and spotted a young man with blond hair, “him.”
Heero looked at the man Duo was pointing to. “Looks a little old, even for your taste.”
“Wha-?” Then it dawned on him, “Ew! No! Look down! Down one!”
Heero looked at the blond man, then back to Duo, then back to the blond man, and repeated the process two or three more times before asking, “What about the blond man?”
Duo rolled his eyes, “Don’t you wonder what it would be like to be him?” Heero stood there thinking, tilting his head moving from side to side.
“Well,” he said, “For starters, I think I would look funny with blond hair seeing that I’m Asian an all, second he looks like a little sissy, thirdly, who in their right mind wears a pink shirt now a days, fourthly, why would you want to be someone with a ugly woman hanging of you?”
“Well if you’re going to get all numbery and everything…”
This time Heero rolled his eyes. “What time is this play to start anyway?”
Duo thought about this and then decided that thinking was giving him a headache so Heero would just have to find out on his own. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“I mean, I don’t know. You’re the smart Asian boy, you figure it out.”
The Asian boy raised his eyebrow at Duo. “Okay… I predict…two o’clock.”
“Really? Why?”
Heero pointed to the stage, “Because, there are the actors and oh my gawd, its two o’clock!”
“Funny, Heero. The magnitude of how funny that was, was like, so off the scale that I can’t even contain my own laughter.” Duo looked up onto the stage, there were four actors up there, two of which were dressed as women. “I don’t understand why they just don’t use real women, I mea-”
“Duo.”
“Yeah?”
“Be quiet.” Duo rolled his eyes again.
“I learn in this letter that Don Peter of Arragon comes this night to Messina.”
“Well, that’s very well good for him,” Duo mumbled. He loved watching plays but would rather be performing them that watching them.
“He is very near by this: he was not three leagues off when I left him.”
The play continued and Duo figured out that it was a comedy, which was good, because he had seen some of Shakespeare’s tragedies and, well they were good, but not what Duo enjoyed watching.
While Duo was off daydreaming about what it would be like to be an actor in one of Shakespeare’s plays, to perform for the old, young, rich, poor, master, and servant, it hit him. Not literally of course, who would ever hit Duo?
“Heero, that lady… type person, has your name! Go get it back!”
Heero looked at his friend and blinked. “What?”
Duo looked at Heero like he had just missed, well, like he had just missed something really, really important. “Your name! Heero. She has your name!”
“Okay, first of all, her name is “HERO” and mine is “HEERO”. Note the extra ‘E’? And second, what am I to do about it?” He immediately regretted asking the question when Duo got this awful smile on his face and then dashed into the crowd and disappeared in a matter of seconds. “Duo!?!?” But it was too late, the boy had left Heero all alone in a place that he did not want to be.
“My dear lady, I grow weary of sitting in the stands, you are to fight me with honour or die with…something.” Everyone, including Heero, turned to find a man, who was not Duo, standing on the stage with a sword. “Does thy woman accept my challenge?”
The actor known as Hero froze. “Great. Where there’s one wacko, there’s bound to be more and where there’s more there’s got to be Duo.” The man known as Heero muttered as he made his way to where Duo had disappeared.
The woman… type person, known as Hero, however, made a mad dash for the tireing house and vanished all in a matter of seconds. The man on the stage with the sword, growled and faced the audience, “Will no one face thee in a duel?” he asked.
“I will.” A voice came from behind him. The man turned to see a blond man standing there, the same blond man who Duo had pointed to earlier. “I accept thy duel, but first I must know the name of the man I will slay.” The blond man asked taking a step forward.
The man with the sword grinned, “Chang Wufei. And thou…?”
“Quatre Winner, the last name you will ever hear.” Quatre reached to grab his own sword but when he grabbed air, he realized he’d left the sword in his other pants, so he went for the next best thing, his scabbard. “Prepare to be worm food, Chang Wufei.”
Wufei just looked at Quatre and his… sword? Just as Quatre was about to lunge at Wufei, who was still looking confused at Quatre, smoke began to rise out from beneath the stage, “What the-?” The two men asked looking completely baffled.
Then a voice began to laugh beneath the stage.
“What evils have you bestowed upon us?” asked Wufei as he shoved Quatre away and began circling around him.
Quatre laughed, “’Evils that I bestowed upon us’? I fear thou art are mistaken, for I have done no such thing.”
Wufei stopped circling and looked at the blond man. “Well if you didn’t do it and I didn’t do it, who did?”
“You fools! No mortal could control the evil powers of the Devil!” At that, smoke began rising from the stage, more so than before, and a figure began to emerge from the depth of the Earth.
“It be the Devil that disrupt our duel.” Quatre said backing away from the “devil”.
“Yes, yes, yes, for that is true,” the deil bellowed. “For I as SHINIGAMI!” he raised his hand towards the sky and fire flew from the stage.
The devil continued laughing until he looked out into the crowed and noticed they were just staring at him. “Shinigami means devil people. Jeez, get with the program.
With this knowledge the crowed began to “Boo”.
“I’m beginning to think they really don’t like you, Duo.”
Duo turned from his spot on the stage to see Heero walking towards him. “And they’d like you better?”
“I think they would,” He stepped away from Duo and faced the audience, “Lords and Ladies, fear not for I, Heero the mighty, will defeat thy devil!” He yelled, and smacked Duo in the head and the audience erupted into cheers. “See.”
“It does not matter whom those creatures,” he pointed to the audience, “cheer. They not cheer for thou mortals,” he gestured to Wufei and Quatre who were now drinking beer and looking cute. “No, they cheer for the…the…ugliest.”
“Yeah,” Quatre piped in, “Does thou not know? They ugliest gets the cheer.”
“Just look at him!” Duo pointed to Wufei.
“Do thou insult my looks?” Wufei asked again drawing his sword.
“No, that’s not what…no, I shall not lie to thou. Thou are ugly.”
Wufei’s eyes got all big and his face got all red as Duo started to laugh and was abruptly cut off when a body slammed into him from the heavens.
“Fear not humans for I have slain the devil!” The man yelled who was swaying from the heavens.
“Talk about a flashy entrance,” Quatre mumbled.
Duo however has not impressed. “You moron! You think you can slay the devil, just by ramming into him?” Duo looked up at the man, “Hey! I know you! You’re that rich snob who didn’t wave at me!”
The man who was just a few minutes ago flying like the hero he wanted to be, was now slowly swaying back and forth.
“Slay me by pushing my down.” Duo mocked as he pushed himself off the floor. “Who is this creature that so daringly pushed my down?” Duo yelled at the swaying man.
“Doesn’t that remind you of something, Wufei?” Quatre asked. Wufei thought for a moment then jumped.
“Our duel!”
“Yeah, I really don’t feel like duelling anymore.”
“I know, they store out show anyway.” Wufei pointed out.
Just then, a man came running onto the stage, “My play, my beautiful play!” he cried, “Saboteurs!”
Everyone looked at Duo for translation, “What? I don’t know French.” He said “But I’m going to guess that this can’t be good so …RUN!” He and his four companions ran off the stage and into the night, which was really day light but it sounds better when telling a story.
*****
“Well that was fun!” Duo said as he skipped down the street. “We should do it again sometime. I loved being on stage; did you see all the women out there? Wow! Now I know why men become actors. Girls. I-”
“Duo.”
“Yes, Heero?”
“I would have had more fun getting kicked by a horse.” He replied flatly.
Duo waved off Heero comment, then his eyes widened and he gasped, “Hey! That lady…type person, still has your name! We have to go and get it back!” He turned around and ran back towards the theatre.
“Duo!” Heero yelled as he ran after his slowly fading friend.
“You know, that’s kind of funny in a weird and wonderful way.” Quatre mused. “Who would have guessed someone would get so worked up over something so silly as a name?”
The three walked in silence for a while then the unnamed man spoke.
“What’s in a name?”
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