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Post by Admin on Nov 21, 2020 13:27:06 GMT
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Post by Admin on Nov 21, 2020 13:31:52 GMT
The First Jaguar IntroductionAlthough Major Power was the first super powered mystery hero to receive major publicity, there have definitely been other super powered individuals throughout human history, who for whatever reason, either have not come to the public attention, or whose stories have already passed into mythology. One recent example is the First Jaguar. This is an excerpt from a story told by Dora Zelazny Flint to her friend Victoria Waltyngfeld during a chance encounter in Boston in the mid-1950s.Setting Kaminaljuyú, Guatemala, in the ancient ruins of the temple of the Mayan Hero Twins: 1933Rest Day Ball GameDora Zelazny (sometimes called Zaz) and Itzamna Tayute (Zam) were up early, doing setting up exercises on the Ōllamaliztli court, next to the Temple of the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who, after performing many legendary feats on Earth, had been elevated into the Mayan pantheon as the Sun and the Moon. The Hero Twins had been avid Ōllamaliztli players, and practically every town and village in the Mayan Empire had included an Ōllamaliztli court in their honor. This particular court was a bit larger than a professional hockey rink, set deep into the earth, the floor almost 3 stories below the surface. The walls and floor were lined with cut stone, the floor worn as smooth as glass from continuous use over almost 2000 years. Set high out of opposite walls were two vertical rings, oriented like a basketball hoop rotated 90 degrees. Legend had it that the Hero Twins had built this very court themselves shortly after they had been elevated to godhood.
The couple were soon joined by the rest of the younger members of the Peabody Museum expedition. It was an off day for the graduate students in the expedition to Kaminaljuyú. It seemed fitting that, after the team had spent all of yesterday working in the Temple of the Sun and the Moon, that both the Sun and the Moon were visible high in the cloudless blue sky. Dora and Zam took a lot of good-natured ribbing; their tent mates had noticed that neither of them had slept in their own bunks last night.
Zam was a grad student at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico in Mexico City and a full-blooded Mayan descendant. He’d grown up in the area and always been fascinated by the ruins of the ancient city, and now he was thrilled to be part of an expedition virtually in his back yard. His greatest desire in life was to become the world’s greatest expert on the Mayan civilization, and he already had a half dozen papers published in well-respected journals. Though he wasn’t what was conventionally considered handsome, he was cheerful, friendly, and always ready to contribute a joke or a helping hand, whatever a situation required. Most of the women in the expedition found him engaging, and Dora was drawing some jealous looks after her nocturnal adventures. Of course, some of the guys were jealous of Zam’s relationship with Dora, too…
During the exercise period, the group decided to follow up their exercises with a game of their own devising on the Ōllamaliztli court, as nobody was quite sure what the original rules had been. Today’s game resembled a cross between handball (the full court kind), basquette (6 on 6 women’s basketball), and soccer, using a soccer ball. Dora and Zam were on opposite teams, and the competition grew rather spirited.
Zam was teasing Dora by keeping the ball away from her using his soccer skills, when she grew frustrated and added an element of American football to the game – she lowered her head and charged him, dove and wrapped her arms around his legs in a perfect open-field tackle. Given their ‘field’, this was a bad idea. Both players got some bruises and when they got to their feet, they realized that they had some scrapes which were bleeding. Nothing serious, but there were some blood smears where they had skidded across the cut stone.
A few minute break was welcomed. Their scrapes were washed and their friends pretended not to hear their screams when colloidal silver was painted over their wounds, and the game resumed. Finally someone yelled “Next goal wins!”, the words they had all been waiting for but also had been reluctant to say. Zam got by Dora, leaving him a clear shot on goal. Dora didn’t even think – she whirled and kicked at the ball. Later her reasoning was that if she managed to take a weak, off balance shot at her own goal, her goalie would have a much better chance of stopping it than his much more powerful shot. His kick drove into the back of her ankle, her foot slipped under the ball, and it was driven into the air by the combined force of their kicks.
The ball flew high and the players watched in awe as it floated towards one of the rings… and passed cleanly through the small hole in the center. They had often spent hours kicking the ball at those rings, and it was rare that even one shot in fifty struck the ring, much less flew through the hole.
The Hero Twins
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Post by Admin on Nov 21, 2020 13:35:12 GMT
The First Jaguar The Hero Twins For Dora and Zam, the world seemed to vanish at the instant the ball passed through the ring, and they found themselves in new surroundings. Far below they could see the Earth, and their vantage point appeared to be directly above Central America. They were floating, and in front of them they could see an image of the Temple of the Hero Twins, as it was in its prime. They were overlooking the Ōllamaliztli court, where two teams of 12 men each competed in a game in which the rules were not immediately apparent. It was a very rough game, and every few minutes, one of the players was carried off bloodied and battered, to be instantly replaced by another eager athlete. At the opposite ends of the court, high above the playing field, were two stupendous thrones, which were simultaneously the Sun and the Moon. Seated on the thrones were two human males, who were also, simultaneously, the Sun and the Moon. They were observing the game closely, and seemed to be especially appreciative whenever the play got roughest.
The Sun, who Zan and Dora knew was Hunahpu, the slight elder of the Hero Twins, raised his hand to stop the ball game, and the Sun and the Moon turned their attention to Zam. The group of three had an animated conversation in Mayan, totally ignoring Dora. Finally, just has she had had enough of this, and determined to interrupt, even if it was two gods she was about to interrupt, the conversation ended. Xbalanque the Moon raised his hand to wave the game back into action, and Hanahpu the Sun gestured Earthward.
And just as suddenly as they had vanished, they were back. Apparently no time had passed on Earth; they were still tangled together on the ground, and their friends were just turning to them.
“What the hell was that? Was it real?” Dora whispered crossly. She was still peeved about being ignored.
“Yes, it was,” Zam agreed. “I’ll tell you more later.”
And then they were surrounded by a cluster of their friends. All the women were interested in offering sympathy to Zam and the guys were intent on congratulating him for the fantastic ‘shot on ring’ and Dora was being ignored again. She disengaged from the cluster and stomped off, headed back for camp.
“Dora! Wait up!” a male voice called, and when she turned, she was a bit surprised to see that Roger Flint was following her. But not a bit displeased.
Dora spent the rest of the morning and the early afternoon working on her thesis. She was attempting to delineate the interrelationships between the various civilizations in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, which had been more complex and robust than most people believed. Roger was fascinated by the topic, and the two had engaged in long discussions regarding Dora’s theories, and he had suggested several additional topics and channels of information that she noted for future investigation.
She didn’t think about Zam and his gaggle of admirers until he sought her out at siesta time. By now, everyone in the expedition knew the best, coolest places to pass the hot afternoons, and Dora and Zam retired to one of the more secluded locations. Zam wasn’t interested in snoozing, but was eager and excited to discuss their experience during the ball game on the Ōllamaliztli court. A quick review showed that both had experienced the same event; Zam seemed oblivious to Dora’s anger at being ignored. Sill, Dora wasn’t convinced that it was anything more than a dream.
“If it was a dream, where did your new ring come from?” Zam asked.
Dora was stunned to realize she was indeed wearing a new ring – it must have fit so well, she hadn’t noticed. But that couldn’t be the case: she would certainly have noticed this ring, which had two bands of intricately worked silver and a turquoise stone the size of a cashew nut, when she’d been using her typewriter. She later found that it wasn’t actually ‘there’ unless she was thinking about it, and it then magically materialized.
This forced Dora to agree that it had been more than a dream, and she listened intently to Zam’s story.
“We attracted the attention of the Hero Twins last night with what they termed ‘our celebration’ on the court,” he began, and Dora chuckled, as their celebration had been quite exuberant. They’d chosen the court for a little privacy, as it was well away from the expedition’s camp, but who could have guessed that two Mayan gods would be watching them?
“It was just a coincidence that both Sun and Moon were in the sky on our off day, but a two-orb day is special to them, if not quite a holy day. On this special day, we played a ball game on the Ōllamaliztli court. Even though we followed our own rules, the Twins found it an interesting game, and a good diversion from the eternal game they stage with spirit players in their own domain. When you and I made them a sacred offering, by bleeding on the court, they were pleased, and when we kicked the ball through the ring, they decided we deserved a reward. No one has pleased them as much since the pre-Columbian era!”
At least 446 years, Dora recalled. She was very familiar with the before Columbus/after Columbus demarcation which had marked the beginning of the tragic decline of several Mesoamerican civilizations. A long time, even for a god, she deduced. Hunahpu and Xbalanque have been worshiped as gods for at least 2000 years. Is it strange that they might be bored?
“So,” Zan continued, “they decided to give us a gift. They would have preferred to give this gift to a pair of twin brothers, but Xbalanque convinced Hunahpu that it might be thousands more years before a twin managed to put a ball through the ring on a two orb day, which was what finally triggered them to take action.”
“So they gave you a gift. What was it?” Dora was remembering how angry she’d been about being ignored earlier.
“No, they gave US a gift. Hold out your hand,” he insisted.
As she did, Zam touched his ring to hers, and spoke a short phrase in Mayan, and Dora vanished. Well, not really. Suddenly she was elsewhere, and she realized she was seeing the world through Zam’s eyes. Again, not really… She realized that she was seeing much more than she ever had before – she could see everything around her, and she could even see the body that she knew contained her consciousness – from somewhere outside the body!
Where she and Zam had been resting, there now stood a single magnificent male. Easily 7 feet tall, superbly muscled, with typical Mayan coloration and features, dressed scantily in what she thought of as the traditional Ōllamaliztli outfit– a wide breech-clout of heavy, colorful material, sandals, leather bracers and anklets, long hair in a topknot threaded through a complex headdress.
She tried to move – nothing happened. She could sense Zam sharing the body with her, so she tried to speak to him. The body didn’t speak, but she could hear her voice in her mind, and when Zam replied, she could ‘hear’ his voice in the same way. In the back of her mind, she was amazed at how calm she was.
Zam! What the hell has happened to us?!?! she screamed at the top of her metaphysical lungs. Where are we now?!?!
“When we touch our rings together and speak the spell, the magic of the Hero Twins allows us to join together to become Hun-Xbalan, the mightiest being on earth, with god-like powers!” Dora translated this to mean roughly “First Jaguar”.
Back to Boston
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Post by Admin on Nov 21, 2020 13:36:32 GMT
The First Jaguar
Back to Boston Almost 50 years later, Vicki was fascinated by Dora's story. And a little mystified…
“That was years before the appearance of Major Power! You were the first mystery hero!” Vicki paused as a look of confusion crossed her face. “Or were you? Nobody ever heard of the First Jaguar.” After a sharp look from Dora, she quickly added, “Sorry - I mean, I never heard of the First Jaguar, and he certainly never became famous!”
“Heavens, No!!!” Dora laughed. “We kept the change secret while we experimented with our new abilities. First Jaguar had some awesome powers totally unlike those of any mystery hero or villain I’ve ever heard of since then. And then, I chose never to become First Jaguar again. And Zam can’t change without me.”
Vicki was incredulous. “You CHOSE not to be the most powerful being on Earth?” Then another thought struck her. “You’re not just putting me on, are you?”
Dora put her right hand on the middle of the table and commanded “Watch!”
As Vicki watched, a large ornate ring with a turquoise stone faded into view. Vicki reached out to touch it, then hesitated and looked at her friend. Dora nodded, and Vicki touched the ring. Her finger tingled strongly, and she could feel her own magic reacting gently to the magic in the ring.
“It’s real, alright! So you DID give up being the First Jaguar. Why?”
“When we changed, it was Zam who had to speak the spell,” Dora started, but Vicki interrupted her.
“Hold on a second, what did the magic words mean?”
“Hero Twin Powers: Activate!” Dora laughed. “That’s just a rough translation, it meant more exactly: “Let the pair us become a worthy vessel in which the Hero Twins invoke the mighty mystical powers of the Sun and the Moon.” Quite a mouthful.”
“I guess I’d like the short form better, too!” Vicki agreed “Go ahead.”
“OK, so Zam had to speak the invocation to initiate the change. Oh, and I couldn’t resist the change, either. Touch the rings together, Zam speaks, and First Jaguar appears, whether I wanted to or not. And we remained as First Jaguar until Zam decided to change back, or the change expired, which took about 12 hours. First Jaguar did what Zam wanted to do. I couldn’t change us back, and I couldn’t stop First Jaguar from doing anything if I didn’t like it. I was just a helpless spectator, a nagging conscience, or maybe a living TV camera, able to view the world but not change it. That wasn’t for me.”
“But think of the good the First Jaguar could have done!” Vicki admonished her friend.
“I think of it every day, my friend,” Dora said sadly. “But you know the saying about absolute power? As Zam gradually realized what First Jaguar was capable of, he started thinking of ways to use the power of First Jaguar to gather even more power to him. He wanted to revenge the wrongs done to the Maya by Europeans, and restore the Mayan civilization – with First Jaguar as the all-powerful leader. I couldn’t be part of that.”
She stopped for a sip of water, and Vicki could tell that she was extremely sad, but also determined to live her own life.
“I learned how to vanish the ring at will, and I refused to allow him to touch rings with me. Eventually, Zam accepted that, and we went our separate ways. He became an advocate for the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and he was one of the driving forces behind The Congress of Inter-American Indigenismo in Mexico in 1940. So he continues to fight for what he believes is right. I guess we are still partners in a way even though I rarely see him any more: I’m uncovering the past of the indigenous people of Mesoamerica, and he is working to improve their future.”
The conversation drifted to other topics, but Vicki noticed that the ring remained visible, and Dora seemed a touch more thoughtful, a touch less animated, than before. She couldn’t help but wonder - suppose her friend had been the one in control of the First Jaguar? How might the world have changed?
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