[You still have one more chapter to look forward to tonight! But please, before you move on to that one, vote & comment on the first two; I’d appreciate it!] 

 (Donny on the side)

"In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, Beware my power, Green Lantern's light" - Green Lantern

Issue #10 “The Oath”

“Another day, another horrible day of physical education,” Donny grumbled, dropping onto the grass and spreading himself out.

I decided to be a bit more graceful and a lot less embarrassing and sit down next to him instead. “I’m starting to think the reason I didn’t have any friends is because I’m friends with you.”

“What makes you say that?” Donny asked, while he pushed his hands down his jogging pants to adjust himself.

“Just an educated guess,” I mumbled, as others stared and pointed in horror and disgust at Donny’s little treasure hunt.

He laughed and propped himself up on his elbows. “You know, you should be happy you broke your fingers.” He grabbed my hand about as softly as hitting it with a hammer and it sent a bit of pain up my arm. Even through the cast it hurt a little.

“Ouch, you freak!” I bit, smacking his hand away, to which he laughed, because he’s a dick.

“At least you don’t have to do anything physical today,” he said and grumbled a “lucky bastard,” towards the end.

“Yeah, and all I had to do was break a couple of fingers and get thrown around by one strong ass woman, who by the way, is  a supervillain who is basically Jean Grey in a power suit.”

“Hey, I’m just saying, you didn’t have to run around in all this heat like the rest of us.” He looked right, and I unconsciously followed his eyes. They landed on Wren, who was chatting with Dante as they collected the hurdles.

“Where are you with Wren?” Donny asked, keeping his gaze locked on Dante. “He’s smiling with Dante, and Dante is smiling back.” He turned to me. “That dude never smiles, man.”

I shook my head, bouncing back between the two of them and Donny. “He does.”

My Korean best friend, who I love (and I also hate, but in a loving way) wriggled his nose. “You have something to tell me?”

I shrugged. “Not really. I went into this coffee shop where he works.” I scooted a bit closer to Donny. “He’s cool.”

Donny rolled over onto his stomach and held his head up with his connected palms. He started swinging his legs back and forth like some pre-teen girl who was hearing her first secret at her first slumber party. He batted his eyes. “So, what do you guys, like, talk about?”

“Boys and make-up," I bit. "Don’t be an asshole, Donny,” I said, hitting him on the forehead.

He giggled because, well, he’s Donny. “I just find your life when I’m not around fascinating.” He crawled over so he could rest his chin on my thigh. “I mean, you’re a superhero, you’ve saved the city twice now and you’re basically the only guy that Dante has ever talked to.”

“I wouldn’t call what we do talking,” I said. “We more so nod and grunt ‘hellos’.” I thought about it. “He’s sort of like me: distant and an asshole.”

“I’d testify to that,” Donny snorted. “By the way, I’m having a birthday party for Ferguson.”

“Who?” I mumbled.

He spun around, so the back of his head was lying on my thigh now. “Ferguson, the Cat. Spelled with a U.”

“Oh,” I uttered, scoffing. “Furguson.” I gave him a weird look. “You don’t even know when that cat was born, let alone how old it is.”

“Yeah, well. He’s been keeping me company since you’ve been out doing your hero thing; I need someone to hang out with and he’s almost as grumpy as you are all the time.”

“I’m glad that I can be replaced by a cat,” I said. “That’s a huge booster to my self-esteem.”

“No one will replace you buddy,” Donny said with a loud laugh, that somehow got him choking on his spit. “Now,” he said, once he calmed down, “Why don’t you introduce me to your friend Dante?”

“He’s not my friend,” I said, but it was drowned about by Donny’s “Hey Wren! Dante! Over here!”

“Dude, I just said that Dante and I are not friends,” I growled at him.

He sat up and waved as the two boys stared over – Wren with his trademark smile and Dante with his signature frown. “Hence the reason why I invited Wren over as well.”

“Let’s see how well this goes, smart guy,” I huffed as they trudged over.

Wren arrived first, and Donny reached up for a hug, and pulled him down so he was enclosed in his lap. “Woah, big guy,” Wren laughed, but didn’t really fight him off.

Dante peered at them. I didn’t know if the frown indicated apathy, confusion or disgust, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he walked around the other boys and took a seat to the left of me.

“Sup,” he mumbled. His voice deep and a bit hard.

“I’m good,” I said. If I learned anything, it’s that Dante wasn’t much for words.

His gaze refocused on Donny and Wren, who had, for some reason broken into a tickle war. “I’m not sure how you put up with either of them,” he mumbled.

I couldn’t stop the snort. “Prayer and vitamins.” I eyed him. “Weren’t you just laughing with Wren a second ago?”

He shrugged. “Well, he was telling me about Jeremy.”

I blinked. “Jeremy?”

“The Mayor’s son?” he said, incredulously. “I thought you’d know him. Wren told me that you worked at the Mayor’s Office.”

“I do on occasion.” I stopped myself. I probably shouldn’t be saying anything about the Mayor. “I…guess I don’t have a job after what happened on the weekend.”

He nodded. “It’s weird.” He started playing with his shirt’s sleeve. “I mean, those guys are here to protect us, and they’re trying to stop them from doing it.”

“They just want power,” I responded. “They want the heroes to submit so that villains could rule this place; the Mayor’s office is just too stupid to see that.”

He folded his legs under himself. “Or maybe they do see it, and they don’t care.”

“What are you guy’s talking about?”

I looked over. Wren, while still tangled up in Donny’s long body, was looking over to us with his big blue eyes.

“Your boss,” I said. “And his inability to realize that what he’s doing is genocide.”

Wren stared. “I think he knows it’s genocide; I also don’t think he cares.”

“Then why are you still working there?” I asked.

He took a moment before answering. “Caroline was fired; he needs a new Head Assistant. That position is influential; I get to be a part of the conversation.” He sat up, shifting Donny’s body until he was able to be in his lap. “I can try and persuade him to stop this madness.”

Oh, Wrenly. Always so hopeful. “Just don’t let it get you killed,” Dante muttered. Surprised, we all looked to him. He was eyeing Wren. “Those guys are dangerous and no offence, but that kind of benevolent attitude will only get you killed.”

Wren nodded, frowning a bit, but not entirely. “I can usually take care of myself.”

I smiled at that. “I know you can.”

 Wren’s eyes landed on me. “Hey, Keegan. Nice to see you today. We still haven’t gone on our little breakfast get-together.”

“Soon,” I chuckled. “Once all of this dies down, You, me and the gang can go somewhere and just pig out.”

“Awesome,” Donny cut in. He looked over at Dante and said something in Korean.

Dante grunted when he was done, and replied back. I’m a bit ashamed to say that my best friend was Korean and I never once tried to learn it. Not seriously, at least. All I knew by heart were hello and goodbye, and those were the same word in Korean.

The bell rang to end P.E. and Dante was the first to his feet. He held out a hand so I could take it. Usually, I denied that kind of help, but something compelled me to take his hand.

“Thanks,” I said.

He nodded his head and started to walk away, but stopped himself and looked back. “You’re coming by the shop later?”

“Uuhh,” was my brilliant response. “Sure. I’ll swing by.”

He nodded, lips still stuck in that straight line. “I’ll have your regular seat ready.”

“Thanks, man,” I replied.

He slipped away and not long after, Donny ran to catch up with him. That left Wren and I to collect our things. Once we did, and I was ready to go inside to shower, he caught me by my wrist, and waited until the field was cleared.

“Your Dad is dating Molly right?” he questioned. “Police Chief Molly.”

I nodded, but I didn’t say anything.

“I didn’t want to say this in front of Donny or Dante, but there was a meeting at the Mayor’s Office on Sunday.”

I stopped putting on my backpack and stood up straight. “What was it about?”

“I can’t say exactly,” he said. “I’m bound by a code and they are going to depose me about what I did today and maybe use it against me if they suspect I’m leaking information. And after what happened to Blue Marshall at the Hall on Saturday, they might charge me with treason, and kill me.” 

“Is there a but?” I asked.

“There’s always a but,” he noted. “What I can tell you is that there is something big happening behind closed doors and I think they are going to try get Molly… to resign.”

“Is that a euphuism?” I questioned, asking it slowly.

“Yes,” he said. I groaned. Dad wasn’t going to like hearing this. “Okay, thanks Wren, but what do you think I can do about it?” I never once told Wren about my powers.

“You…know that guy with the powers, don’t you?”

“Superboy?”

“I guess,” he responded. “I’m not saying you should tell him…but I cannot stop you if you would like to,” he said slowly, so I caught every word of that.

“O…kay,” I said, maybe twice as slow. “I may or may not tell him about this and if I do, it wasn’t because you told me about it, which you didn’t. I just inferred certain things while having this innocent conversation that may or may not be…correct?”

“Right,” he said. “I’ve got to go. Jeremy wants me to help him with some things.”

“Jeremy?” I echoed, but it was more so to myself. “You two are pretty close?”

Wren noticeably turned a bit pink. Huh. “Yeah, he’s pretty cool. Um.” He paused and looked at the green double doors. “I should probably…go.” He turned to leave, but stopped and turned back around, maybe pinker than before. “Can you, uh, take some notes for me in English?” he asked. "Since I’m going to be tending to Jeremy?”

I nodded with my mouth open, until I realized that words should be coming out. I scratched the back of my head and laughed. “Sure, I’ll…take some notes for you.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled and turned around, to leave. But he forgot to open the door and ended up hitting into it. He snickered, stepped back, rubbed his forehead, opened it, looked at me one more time -  basically red -  and mumbled a 'thank you' before escaping through it and probably dissolving.

After school, when I was alone because Donny, once again, had practice, I waited by the bleachers – near the top – for when Superboy made his daily appearance. And right on time, 4:pm on the dot, someone threw a pebble at me from under the steps and I glimpsed him.

I ran down back and saw him leaning against one of the beams holding it up. “That’s a bit dangerous, don’t you think?” I questioned, though it was more me mocking him. I knew he could stop it from crushing us if he needed to.

He did his obligatory smirk and kicked off of the beam. “You know what I find amazing, Keegan?”

“What’s that?” I asked, slowly walking over to him.

“The fact that you aren’t’ surprised I’m here and you aren’t yelling at me yet.”

“You speak to soon, John,” I said and shoved him away playfully when I got to him. He didn’t say anything, but he did show me a real smile – teeth and all. “Now,” I started, “what are we doing after what happened over the weekend?”

“The team is going to try and guess their next move.” he said. “And before you question what team, my team of five…or rather six.” I opened my mouth but he placed his pointer finger on it to shush me. “Yes, you are the newest member.”

“Rad,” I said trying to sound apathetic, but honestly on the inside, I was doing cartwheels. This was happening. I was a member of a super team of heroes.Dad was going to be pissed, but I’d deal with that when the time came.

“Where is this team?” I asked, curious. No one else was here with us at the moment.

He nodded. Again, vague. He spun on his heel and motioned for me to follow him.

The lair was underground, as all great lairs are apparently. I’ve never been to my Dad’s superhero lair, but I knew it was somewhere underground. It didn’t surprise me that this one was directly under our school.

Or how small it was. Not to say it was puny, but it was just a large room, maybe the size of two classrooms and was about a story and a half high, or maybe deep. The walls were made of shiny metal, and there were several screens at the very back of the room, all surrounded by one very large screen in the middle.

A long table was at the center of it all, with a few people sitting there. The only one I recognized was Caroline; there were three others, two females and one more male. Funny thing, Caroline was the only one not in her suit, with the exception of myself.

Superboy told me to the left of him, opposite the three others, and next to Caroline at the head of the table on my left. I couldn't help but notice how stunning the girl seated in front of me was. Jet black hair, seemed petite and smaller than I was and had fierce blue eyes. Like Superboy, her mask only covered her eyes.

Caroline, who had a gavel in her hand, banged it against the table. “Caroline, John & Super Associates, would like to welcome Keegan Paul to our ranks.”

I made the mistake of snorting. They all looked at me, some annoyed others amused. Caroline was in the former.

“Is there something funny, Paul?” she asked, tightly.

“No, it’s just that…Caroline, John & Super Associates sounds more like a law firm than a superhero team, is all.” 

“Yeah, well the Justice League and The Avengers were taken so we had to make due with what was available,” the other guy laughed.

He wore a green, latex suit that had black stripes running through it, similar to Superboy’s, but the shoulders were cut off like a wife beater. So even though his green and black mask covered everything besides his eyes and mouth, I could see that he was African American. Him, being the farthest away from me to my right and in front of Superboy, he had to bring his body onto the table to reach and offer his hand. “The name’s Racer, but you can call me Dennis.”

I took his hand and shook it. Caroline cleared her throat and Racer – Dennis – grinned, broke our hands apart and leaned back in his seat. “There will be much time to get acquainted later,” Caroline chided.

“I agree,” the final girl said. Her voice was much lighter than Caroline and she looked for more serious than the girl seated in front of me. Her suit was this shiny, all white thing. But unlike the others, I could see that it wasn’t a whole suit. From what I could see over the table, her sleeves went straight down to her wrist, on one side only, but didn’t cover her hands. And it also stopped right under her chest. Her mask covered her face, until he reached her nose.

“Team, as leader,”

“Co-leader,” Superboy intervened, before Caroline continued.

“As Co-leader,” Caroline corrected, eyeing a smirking Superboy, “but acting full-time leader, since the other co-leader doesn’t have the time to perform these duties," she countered, “It is my duty to perform the three tasks with our new member in the presence of the existing members.” She stood; I wanted to ask if she always would wear pants suits, but deiced that maybe now wasn’t the right time to. 

“The first task: The ranking.” She looked at me. “Stand, Keegan Paul Junior.”

I did as I was told. Caroline looked me in the eyes as she said the next words. “Keegan Paul, state all of your active abilities, and name your most potent, useful power.”

Um. “Can you be a bit more clear?” I asked.

Caroline blinked. “How can I possibly get any clearer than that?”

I bit down a growl. “It’s just that, I’m the son of Mr. Terrific.” She waited, so I continued. “You see, he can shoot laser beams through his eyes, and I can’t do that the last time I checked, but it’s still possible that I just haven’t discovered how to do it yet.”  

Caroline huffed. “Then state the ones you know of.”

“Thank you.” I cleared my throat. “So far, I’ve my abilities include, Invisibility and Super Strength, while Invisibility is probably may be most useful, seeing as my Super Strength isn't so super just yet.”

“Second order of business,” she muttered, “I need a superhero name.”

“My…name?”

Racer laughed. “Dude, you don’t have a name?”

Caroline shot him a look and he shrunk in his seat. She turned back to me. “It’s okay if you don’t. We’ll come up with one later, until then you’re going to need an alias to protect your identity.”

“Sure,” I chirped. “Okay, final thing?”

She nodded. “The Oath.” She raised her right hand. “Raise your right hand and repeat after me,” she instructed. 

I did as I was told again.

She began, “I, Keegan Paul do solemnly swear,”

“I, Keegan Paul, to solemnly swear,” I repeated.

“To fight for, to defend and to protect,”

“To fight for, to defend and to protect,”

“The citizens of Ginger Valley.”

“The Citizens of Ginger Valley.”

“I promise to respect authority, take commands as they are given and to complete my mission, no matter the consequence.”

I hesitated. Not because of the mission thing. Because of the respecting authority thing. “I…promise …to respect authority, take commands as they are given…on occasion…and to complete my mission, no matter the consequence.”

“I will defend my city from evil to my last breath.”

“I will defend my city from evil to my last breath.”

“This I solemnly swear.”

“This…I solemnly swear.”

She rested her hand over her heart, and I did the same. “Welcome, Keegan.”

“Woo!” I heard Superboy hoot from the side of me, as the other stood up clapping.

“Okay, guys,” Superboy butted in. “Name and rank?” He pointed at Caroline, so that’s where I turned.

The red head removed her glasses. “Caroline Bixby; codename: The Phoenix; Rank: Co-leader and Commanding Officer of Strategic Defense. Power: Flames and Flight.”  She turned the girl with the black hair.

She raised her hands. Her suit was jet black leather. “Alexa Keating,” she said. Her voice was sultry, deep. “Codename: Anti-Freeze. Rank: Field Operative and in charge of Intelligence Gathering. Power: Molecular Combustion; basically, I point  and things go ‘boom’.” She turned to Racer.

He laughed. “You know me man, but for the sake of formality, I’m Dennis Cartman; codename: Racer. Rank: Field Operative and in charge of Communications. Power: Being the quickest motherfucker on the planet.”

“Keep it PG,” Caroline barked and Racer snickered before turning to the last female.

It was now that I noticed that she was wearing a pair of black, shiny leather pants to juxtapose with her white top. “Name: Toni Brigade; codename: Miss Matter. Rank: Field Operative and in charge of Weaponry Development. Power: Animation: ability to create or bring anything to life.”

She looked at me and looked back down immediately.  I could tell she was blushing, which made me slightly uncomfortable. As did her suit. It amazed me how someone who looked so innocent could dress so...not.

She pointed towards Superboy, who turned to me and cleared his throat. I tried to stay turned towards the table, but he used his hands to spin me towards him.

“Name: Withheld,”

“Oh come on,” I grumbled and turned to Caroline. “Can he do that?”

She shook her head. “No, usually he can’t.” She paused and I knew a but was coming. “But, after he and I talked some things over, it would be best if he kept his name a secret from you.”

I could hear snickering on the other side of me, so I whipped around and tried not to smack him.

“Shall I continue?” he asked.

“You’re a fucking dick,” I groaned.

He, in turn, cocked his head. “You were right. I did speak too soon.” He grinned and stepped back, probably noticing that I wanted to clock him. “Codename; Superboy.”

“Superboy?” Racer said, spitting out a laugh. “When did you start calling yourself Superboy?”

“Yeah,” Anti-Freeze snorted, “that seems a bit egotistical on your part.”

“So, it’s about right then,” Superboy countered, wiggling his brows before he turned back to me. “Now, if all of you are done with your feeble attempts to berate me, I shall continue.” He cleared his throat again. “Rank: Co-leader, Commanding Officer of Field Operations, and Commanding Officer of Offensive Strikes.”

He stopped. He probably knew I was looking forward to this next part.

“Power…s: Mind Reading: the ability to read another person’s mind, with a slight bit of Mind Manipulation. Flight: self-explanatory. Durability. Also, great in bed…again, self-explanatory,” he finished, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Oh, for God’s sake, can you please keep it in your pants, John” Caroline said, rolling her eyes. “Keegan, you’ll be assigned to a specific area once we see what you can do in the field,” she noted. “As of right now, you’re just a Field Operative.” She pointed behind her. There was a door. “Behind there are our personal bedrooms. You won’t have to stay here, but if anything ever gets weird at home, you can take a room; I’ll give you the passwords later.”

“Meeting adjourned!” Superboy hooted while slamming his hands on the table.

The others came around to shake my hand, or pat me on the back before they disappeared behind the door. Caroline lingered by the desk, picking up a few papers and what-not while Superboy stood in front of me, smiling.

“Welcome, Keegan Paul,” he said, almost whispered. We were in that close proximity thing we do again.

I grinned, “Thank you for having me, John…if that is your real name.”

“It’s not,” he retorted and leaned against the table, eyes not moving from me for even half a second. It was both weird…and comforting. “I think you’re going to be very valuable to our team.”

“I hope so,” I mumbled. “By the way, you don’t have a superhero name?” I questioned him, head cocked and eyes squinted. “I could have sworn that you said it was Superboy.”

“No,” he grinned, "that was all you. So, I went with it."

“That’s…weird,’ I commented. “Going by what I call you and when do I get to where my suits and, also, why is it that Caroline and I are the only ones without suits on?”

“You’re right, John,” Caroline sung, looking down at her papers momentarily, before allowing her eyes to slip up, “he does ask a lot of questions.”

Superboy laughed. And then he smiled. The he stared. Then he sighed. “I…,” he began, but faded away. “I’m glad you’re on the team."