The Four Horsemen

What makes a hero?

What determines the makings of a hero?

No, seriously, what gives?

What makes one person a hero, and another a villain? The morals? The deeds? The number of people on your side? 

From what I know, heroes aren't some predestined chosen ones, blessed by the powers that be, and superior to all around them. They aren't perfect. 

They are human. And that means they make mistakes. Big or small, plenty or few, all of them make them. But, I'll tell you a secret; heroes aren't special. They are ordinary people. In fact, all of us were at some point someone's hero, at least once in our lives. Most likely, we didn't even know it.

So forget the whole 'perfect-without-a-flaw' idea. That's not what I believe in. Some will say that heroes are chosen by God, or indeed gods, but I don't buy that.

It's not that I don't believe that there is something out there that created this world. Although I'm not religious, I believe in a force, or energy, or spark, basically something that started this. Good old physics has taught me that something can't come from nothing, and energy doesn't just come and go, it converts. So, I believe that the Big Bang Theory isn't that far-fetched. I imagine there must've been a potential energy which at some point decided to stop lazying around and converted itself into a spark. The spark went boom and a few billion years later here we are. Destroying a perfectly good planet with our own waste and causing another global warming. Honestly, capitalism is the reason we can't have nice things around here.

But, all that aside, how does one become a hero? Do we just do a good deed? Because I've been a real model citizen this year, and I still haven't gotten my own comic book, so...

Just kidding. I think heroes are supposed to inspire us. It's not something they do intentionally. It's just, being at the right place, at the right time and... doing the right thing and oh my god that just brings us back to destiny, which I'm trying to throw out. Thank you very much. But the little whore (she did screw all of us at one point) keeps coming back. 

OKAY! So, maybe destiny has a role to play. A very small, very insignificant, totally not crucial, role. Or so I can hope. Because let me tell you, I am NOT a hero material. And the story, my story (OK some people were also involved and kinda needed for the plot), that I am about to tell you looks a lot like a hero story. A real modern fairy tale. Except it's a horror story. And things are on fire. Mostly.

BUT! Let us proceed! So, a story of heroes. 

But, there is nothing heroic about it, trust me, I was there. There's nothing heroic about death, or suffering. And when the end comes, you aren't ready. No one ever is. So they can paint me a hero, but I know better. There is blood on my hands, the blood I used to paint my path to victory. There are no winners in a war, any war. Because each side believes they are right. 

So when the end comes, and the whole world cries out for you, what do you do?

Well, let me tell you what I did...