The Trials of a Hero





The trip of tears

“5….4….3….2….1….,” you could hear the children chanting with excitement followed by the ringing of the bell and students hoots and hollers of joy and laughter as they all rushed out of the building. Well that is of every middle schooler except …..
“Mr. Smith,” a familiar voice called from behind.
“Mr. M, why can’t you call me Chopper like everyone else?” Chopper questioned as he waved and began to walk away. While asking him-self if he would rather get home as soon as possible to begin the most dreadful trip of his life or talk to the one person in the whole world that he absolutely loathed.
“Danget!” he thought to himself as he began to realize there was no way possible he would be able to luck out of the “trip of tears”.
“Hey Tony, how was your last day of 8th grade?” Dan (Tony’s dad) asked as he put his suitcase in the trunk.
“It would’ve been great if it would have lasted longer,” Tony said
“Wow you actually wanted to stay in school longer, that’s a first?” his dad stated with one of those “who are you” kind of looks you would see in a twilight zone movie.
“I would rather be anywhere else than on this boring trip with you,” he mumbled than a little louder ,“why do I have to go with you on this trip again?” Chopper asked.
“It’s just business I have to take care of,” his dad said as he glanced at his watch and pretended they should have been on the road by now.



The Loathed Destination
“Dad, is this the hotel your job pays for you to stay for as long as you choose,” Chopper said with eyes bigger than grapefruits, “if you would of told me this is the hotel were staying in then I would of walked here”
“Wait, the entrance to that place is back there, where we are going?” Chopper asked as he started to change his look of excitement to a look that you see when you’re driving at night and a deer is staring at your headlights.
“I never said we were going to that hotel,” his dad said with a kind of fake sad look on his face as he tried to show a slight bit of sympathy, “were staying at that one.”
“So you dragged me against my will to this hell-hole of a hotel while you do some kind of mysterious work,” Chopper said as if he were spewing words of fire.
“My work is important and why can’t you just live with it for a few days?” his dad said as he began to park the car “Just think of it as a vacation”

“Can you just come on so we can find out what our room number is” Chopper asked as he got out of the car and slammed the car door shut.
“5th floor room 212, enjoy your stay ay,” the Canadian concierge said with a fake smile.
As they began to head into their rooms Dan said “Goodnight”

“Yeah” Chopper said as he yawned, closed the door and fell onto the bed
As Chopper woke up and made his way to a note he saw on the door, he began to think to him-self “I see I wasn’t dreaming” he took a shower and headed on his way to a restaurant he saw on the way here. Halfway there he sees his dad go into an abandoned building with three other people in trench coats, curious about his fathers “work” he followed them.
“Why are you poking your nose in things that don’t concern you, Dan you’re going to get yourself caught up in something you won’t want to be caught up in?” one of the guys said as a bright light flashed and a big like hole in the air opened and a guy fell through. Then the guys pushed his Dan into it and hopped threw as it closed.
“DAAAAAAAADDDDDD!” Chopper yelled as he rushed to where the portal was, “Where did they take my dad?” Chopper asked as he helped the guy up.
“They took him to the center of the Bermuda triangle,” the guy said.
“Well can you open that thing back up?”
“No way am I not getting involved with this,” the guy said as he waved and began to walk away.
“I don’t need you to come, I’ll handle it myself” Chopper said as he ran and stood in front of the guy.
“Fine I will but it would be no use you would be defenseless against the creatures,” the guy said as he started to walk away, “but if you really want to save your father then I can open the portal to the 4 gifts,” he said as he opened a portal
“Thanks,” Chopper said as he went through the portal, “are you sure you don’t want to change your mind and help me save my dad?” Chopper asked hoping that the guy would help.
“No thanks I’m not getting caught up in this mess and getting myself killed,” the guy said as he ran away.
As he walked further and further all he could see was a never ending tunnel of pitch black nothingness so dark that bats wouldn’t even be able to see. Suddenly a huge ball of light emerges and makes the tunnel of nothingness into a hallway. Then, a creature emerged and ambushed Chopper.
“Aaaahhhh” Chopper yelled at the top of his lungs as he dashed away from the beast only to be stopped by a wall that appeared out of nowhere.
“You expect to help your father when the first time you’re scared you run away like a coward” the beast yelled as he chased after Chopper, “you’re the weakest human to try to beat me yet”
“I’m not weak!” Chopper yelled with rage as he walked toward the beast, drenched in sweat and out of breath.
The beast then roared so loud that the ceiling began to fall.
As Chopper picked up the sharpest piece of the ceiling he could and threw it threw the beast’s eye he stated “now who’s the weak one”. Then the beast and the hallway began to change into a vast tunnel of nothingness again. This time there was a chest in front of Chopper. After he opened the chest and pulled out the one thing that was in there another portal opened that would lead him to the next trial or so he thought. When he walked through the portal he saw a train full of people about to go off of an unfinished bridge and he saw his father in a room filling up with water. He then heard a loud voice say to him “who will you save, hundreds of people you don’t know or your father”
Realizing that this was probably another trial he scans the vast emptiness for another creature but could see nothing except those who needed his help. He jolted towards the train tracks racking his brain for a way to stop the train then he thinks to himself “if there are no more wheels then there's no more riding to their doom.” He then drew his sword, walked to the middle of the train tracks, and lies down hopping he was small enough to slide under and unscrew the bolts that were holding the wheels on. After successfully disconnecting the wheels everything disappeared leaving nothing in his sight except for a pedestal with a ring that had markings engraved in it.
“Two down, two to go” Chopper said as he picked up the ring and another portal opened.
As he walked through he heard a voice say “The only way to win this challenge is to really win”.
After putting the ring on and drawing his sword Chopper yells “show yourself.” Then suddenly Chopper feels water seeping into his shoes and a wave of heat hotter than the scorching heat of the molten core of the earth. Suddenly he sees a beast launch towards him out of the darkness. After a few minutes of attacking each other the beast lunges towards him one final time and Chopper slips on the water.
“You have been deemed worthy” the beast said as he shrinks into a chest
“But how, I lost” Chopper asked as he stood up
“Yes you did but you did so as an honorable warrior, worthy of the weapon I am guarding”
“One more to go” Chopper said as he opened the chest to find four rings with the labels: water, fire, earth, air.
“Correct but beware, the last challenge is the most difficult of all, only one person has been able to beat the last challenge and that’s the person who made the four trials” the demon said as his voice began to fade “good luck young warrior”
As the portal opened and Chopper walked through he put on the new rings he had won, “hello is anyone here?” Chopper asked as the vast void of nothingness changed into the aboned building under construction he started at.
“I have to beat you?!” Chopper said as his father lunged towards him from behind a pillar and he saw his dads eyes glow red. Chopper then realized that the last demon was disguised as his father and swung his sword only missing by centimeters the creatures face. Next the demon tripped Chopper and was about to finish the battle until Chopper punched the beast but it wasn’t a normal punch, flames came out of his hand and destroyed the creature’s costume.
“Good shot but it’s going to take more than the ring of fire if you want to beat me” the demon said as he sprouted horns, a tail and began to grow so tall that his head was only an inch away from destroying the ceiling.
“That guy wasn’t kidding” Chopper said as he lunged his sword into the demon.
“Pitiful,” the creature said as he pulled the sword out of his stomach and threw across the room
Then as he pointed his hand towards the demon the air ring began to glow and a strong gust of wind came out of his hand he yelled “drop dead” and lunged towards the demon again except this time he had a sword made of wind in his hand.
The creature dodged the attack by jumping into the air and falling on to Chopper but he misses. At that point Chopper had realized he couldn’t win so he snatched the scroll from the creature’s hands and jolted out of the building only to land right back in the abandoned building except this time it didn’t look like a battle ground. Chopper opens the scroll and sees a blank page that has a big triangle in the center with a dot dead center of it. Frustrated that he wasted his time on getting this scroll he throws it across the room. Then the scroll began to glow and another portal opened taking the place of the scroll. Suddenly Chopper is sucked into the portal and finds himself on an unfamiliar land mass surrounded by fog so thick you could cut it with a knife that had a giant pedestal in the middle of it. As he began to walk towards it his sword began to shake towards the pedestal as if someone with Parkinson’s was pulling it. So he drew it and stuck it into the pedestal. Then the next thing he knew he was standing in what looked like a prison. As he looked around he saw that there were no prisoners except…..
“Dad” Chopper said as rushed towards the cell his father was in.
“How did you get here” his dad said as Chopper drew his sword and cut open the lock.
“I’ll tell you after we get out of here” Chopper said as he and his father jolted to where Chopper had appeared
“Do you know how to get out of here” Choppers dad said as he began scanning the nearby area for an exit.
Then a bunch of creatures emerged from the hallways around them and a portal opened sucking them all in. once the emerged from the pedestal there was an army of creatures as far as the eye could see. Then in a swift movement Chopper threw the sword covered in fire as if it were a boomerang and wiped out the entire army.
“There is a boat this way” Choppers dad said as he signaled Chopper towards the boat
“Here it is” Chopper said as he hopped into the boat and untied the rope stopping the boat from drifting away.
As they made their way out of the Bermuda triangle Dan asked “Do you know how to get home”
“No but this compass should” Chopper said as he studied the compass to find out which way is east.
After five hours have passed Dan yells with excitement “there it is, the docks”
“Finally” Chopper said as he got off of the boat and tied it to the docks.

As they got off the boat they began to realize that a storm was rolling in from the direction they came from.
“That storms moving awfully fast” Chopper’s dad said as he looked at the clouds that seem to be moving faster and faster.
“Look is that a tornado” Chopper said with a look of surprise as he began to suspect that this storm and the easy defeat of the creatures was no mere quincidence.
“I guess it’s not over” Choppers dad said as the tornado vanished and there lied a glowing crystal.
Suddenly there was a deafening boom and lightning. Then a portal opened leaking the most monstrous creatures yet.
As Dan pulled a sword out of thin air he yelled, “We have to destroy the crystal it’s the source of power being used to keep the portal open!”
“Ok” Chopper yelled back as he waved his hand hoping that the right thing would happen
“Good shot” Dan said as he swung his sword and a wave of lightning struck the nearby creatures
“If we don’t close that portal soon then this town will be down for” Chopper said with a scared look on his face as he tried to create the hottest flame he could and covered the crystal in it hoping that it would destroy it.
“We’ll have to shatter it and soon, the only question is how” Dan said
“If we can’t stop them from coming then we’ll just have to make them not want to come anymore” Chopper said as he grabbed the crystal, jolted towards the lake and threw it in.
“Good job” Dan said
“This trip wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be” Chopper said as he and his father headed back to the hotel.