What's the Point?

This is the "teaser" to a new book I'm writing for my Adventures As Dogboy (by Joel Tobias Rover) book series.

I was beaten. Oil Cloak had me. And he knew it. He was so sure of it that he started to gloat.

"What's the point?" he asked me as he paced with his cane. "Why do you heroes continue on this way? Nothing will ever change. The eletro-fuel prices will stay 9 creds a kilowatt. Heroes don't change anything. It is the people. As long as they don't do anything, nothing will change. It doesn't matter how many heroes try to stop us. In fact, I may have to raise the price to 10 creds because of this little nuisance.” He bent down to look at me in the face. “What are you looking at? Do you honestly think that there will suddenly be a mob of people at my door? The people are too busy with their meaningless lives to care. They spend all their time encrypting their personal information or texting. They are worried more about trying to find a job or keeping their home than they are about this. As long as me and my kind keep them busy, they will be content. They won't fight.” He then stood up when he saw the light bulb go on in my head. “You know the true purpose of a hero now, don't you? It isn't to save lives because we are all meant to die. It isn't to alleviate suffering because through suffering we learn and grow.”

“It's to bring to light your distractions,” I said. “And stop them, so that people will realize they need to change.” He began pacing again. “It's a shame that you figured that out. See, we don't keep just the people occupied, we keep the heroes occupied too. As long as the heroes are too busy stopping bank robbers, they will never know their true purpose.” There was a sssss as he removed his sword from its hiding place in his cane. “And now, Dogboy, I'm afraid you must die.” He raised the sword over his head as I braced for the impact.

***

The year is 2021. And there are superhumans. Though we call them transbeings because they are transformed beings. The transformed beings are not just humans; there are animals, plants, minerals, anything and everything. Most people think that the transbeings just started appearing in 2012 after the Event, but the biggest secret is that they've been around forever. The best I can tell is that transbeings are a different breed of humans like terriers and Labradors. They're still dogs but different. Just as a painter is different from a football player.

As far as I know it started with the seven races. Mage. Warrior. Futuristic/science fiction (like ray guns and space ships—think Buck Rodgers). Alien (those with abilities so strange and powerful that they might as well be aliens). Divine (maybe not necessarily from Heaven but close enough that they might as well be—kind of like the alien race). Hero. And of course, human; human beings that used “human talents” to their fullest. Famous painters, martial art experts, top athletes, physicists and inventors could be considered transbeings. Anyone who pushed the envelope of human existence.

In those days there was a rumor of an eighth race. An evil race of nearly all-powerful beings. Creatures of horror stories—true horror stories.

These seven races are the basis of all our stories. In some way our stories fall into one of these categories or the other (or all). In fact the ancient stories (aka myths and legends) are just retellings of their adventures. Sometimes some bystander witnessed the adventures of a transbeing and told others, which of course they embellished a little to make it interesting, and the story was told over and over.

Over time the secret got out: transbeings were real. The problem was that the transbeings began to think of themselves as gods and in some cases demanded to be worshiped. And of course, everyone wants to be top dog. This caused the seven races to become the twelve families. If you've studied mythology, you probably know of the families. Greek. Norse. Native American. Mayan. Nomad. African. Asian. Indian. Australian/Aboriginal. Russian. Environmental (those myths based on environment such as forest or jungle myths or desert myths). Egyptian. Though I discovered this more recently, and there are some discrepancies. Some list Native American and Mayan together. Some say Nomad, Native American, Aboriginal, and Mayan are one. Some will add Tinfoil/Conspiracy Theorists or Secret Societies to the list. The whole thing is kind of murky.

Then as the families really began to get too big for their britches, a new breed of transbeing arose—demigods. Transbeings who understood what it was like to be human. They could understand that just because they had power didn't mean they were better. The demigods dethroned the families, for the most part, and took control. They decided that the existence of transbeings should be kept quiet. They created a “police force” to enforce this rule. These “officers” wore black clothing and convinced witnesses of extraordinary things that the thing was quite ordinary (i.e. swamp gas). Over time these nameless enforcers got a name from those who escaped their notice or brave enough to stand up to them. They called them Men in Black.

Of course the Men in Black couldn't be everywhere (and some times they let people get away because they had other plans). Transbeing adventures leaked to the public in the forms of stories and legends. But who would believe fiction anyway?

So there were periods of times where people knew of the existence of transbeings. But these periods usually ended badly. One of the worst being the Dark Ages, a time when any transbeing was considered evil right away. And then there were the witch trails. Of course there were evil transbeings. Monsters, witches, sorcerers, and soothsayers. But most of the time the witch hunters caught good transbeings or innocent humans. With each dark period, the transbeing government became more convinced that the humans/mere mortals should never know of their existence.

But that all changed during World War II. The period of time was so dark and so troubling that the ban was lifted. Transbeings helped out with the war, but for the most part the human governments decided that the knowledge of transbeings should be kept secret. The tide of war was turning in favor of the good guys, but then at the last minute, the good transbeings were betrayed by one of their own. This devastated them and they retreated back into their isolation. But the human governments wouldn't let go of this ultimate weapon. The transbeings had to work for them or parish. This created an explosion of new knowledge and invention but for some hostility towards the governments and humans. Some believed that it would be better if they ran things. Some believed it would be better if they had never revealed themselves. A battle broke out among the transbeings. They became three groups. Heroes. Villains. Civilians. The results: nearly every transbeing was killed either by other transbeings or government agents who saw this as an opportunity to gain even more control.

“Which is easier?” said one agent. “Control ten or control ten hundred?”

The transbeing society was nearly destroyed. Those who survived either escaped and went into hiding or they were forced to work for the governments.

With less transbeings around, there were less stories to tell and so books and movies seemed to stagnate and repeat. Many people complained about how there was no more originality and that everything original had already been done. Technology on the other had increased. The human governments were not interested in stories...they wanted results. But soon they saw how only a few transbeings could cause progress to stall; they needed new blood. And so the hunts began. The transbeings were forced to track and hunt down their own kind. The captured transbeings were tortured, experimented on, and brainwashed. These hunts created a distrust with the governments that leaked out into the public. Protests, economic uncertainty, wars, terrorism, and so on became rampant. The solution: an event. Let the transbeings reveal themselves once again. But this time controlled.

So the race was on. Would the transbeing (controlled by the transbeing government) be a hero who rescues the damsel in distress and shows the world that transbeings are good an usher in a new age of hope and peace, or would it be a villain (controlled by the human governments) who shows the world how dangerous and monstrous transbeings are and that they can only be controlled by the government.

Over the years the two fought with neither getting a foothold. The heroes would stop the villains and the government would squash any hero that rose up like a bug. It didn't even matter if the hero was a mere mortal. They took no chances.

Then finally the battles accumulated into the Event of 2012.

The end result was that both sides won. A villain attacked and the media was there to cover it. But a hero showed up to save the day. The result was that people either thought transbeings were evil and should be destroyed (or controlled) or that they were good and should be allowed to live. Some people, however, believed that transbeings were just like anyone else: some were good and some were bad. In the end the government got its transbeing police force. They called it Paranormal And Weirdness Specialists, or PAWS.

But during my adventures, I didn't know about this. I knew what the public did—that in 2012 transbeings suddenly appeared. I had no idea of the backdoor dealings and manipulations. I had no idea that I was just the newest pawn in this eternal chess game. Nor did I know that we were all just puppets in the hands of the eighth race, the Outer Ones.