“My name is Freeze. Learn it well, for it is the chilling sound of your doom.”

- Mr. Freeze, Batman & Robin, 1997

Issue #7 “The Purge”

“What!”

“Donny…”

“What!”

“Will you liste-”

“What!”

I smacked Donny at the back of his head, causing him to jerk forward and nearly tumble out of the computer chair.

We were in his room and I had just told him about Superboy for the first time. It would only be matter of time before I had to mention him to Donny. Right?

Donny caught himself, holding onto the back of the seat so he wouldn’t fall out of it. His eyes were wild and as large as they would allow themselves to go. (That was not an Asian joke, I swear).

“You’ve been sneaking behind my back and hanging out with superheroes?” he asked, flabbergasted. “I’m insulted, I feel betrayed, I feel fucking excited that my best friend knows superheroes!”

It was my turn to sigh and flail. “Pick an emotion, will you?” I said, looking around the room as he continued to bounce from anger, to betrayal, to excitement and another plethora of emotion.

Donny’s room was this yellow color with streaks of black lines – vertical – going through the walls, on each side. It was his tribute to Kill Bill, his favorite Tarantino film. Donny was very into gory movies, with lots of blood and guts. Those things always made me feel queasy and I found all the profanity unnecessary. But he loved it.

I looked back at him. He was on Rage now, which meant that his confusing tirade was almost over.

It was 6:pm and after I had stopped home to get clothes to go to Dad’s banquet or whatever,I went to Donny's.  I had convinced him to come along. He was hesitant at first, but quickly said yes after I told him about the free food.

I wasn’t sure there’d be free food, but I knew Donny would not pass up a chance to eat until his stomach came undone at the seams.

“…and that’s what friendship is all about!” he yelled, finishing his Godzilla-like rampage of feelings.

“Good,” I said, huffing, “You’re done. Now.” I stood. “Let’s get ready for this.”

“Wait,” he said, also standing, “Tell me about this Superkid.”

I eyed him. Donny’s lips curved upward on one side, his brown hair fell to the right of his face, as he cocked it and his stomach was moving up and down as he chuckled.

“He’s a superdouche,” I said. “And I think I joined his team of superheroes today.”

I cannot describe the high pitch wail that escaped Donny’s lips. It lies somewhere between Dolphin and Banshee on the scale, and it was enough to force me to cover my ears before they started bleeding.

“This is awesome, man. You’re going to be a superhero!” His smile could swallow worlds. “My best friend is going to be a freaking superhero!”

I yanked my clothes off of his bed. “Well, that’s if my dad doesn’t find out first and kills me.”

Donny’s smile collapsed, and then it turned into terror. Like someone just flambéed a puppy in front of him and ate it. “You’re dad doesn’t know?”

I shook my head and started for the bathroom in his room. “And if he finds out, he’s going to kill me and then you.”

I could tell he tasted something sour on his tongue. “Why me?”

I shrugged. “You’re now an accomplice my friend. So if he ever finds out,” I opened the door, but kept my eyes on him. “Dead,” I said, driving my thumb across my throat, as if I was slashing it.

We were ready by 7:45 p.m. and were waiting for dad to come get us. Donny was currently going over possible ways My Dad could kill us. One of which involved dropping us into an active volcano.

“I don’t wanna die, Keegy,” he said, rocking back and forth on his bed with his knees to his chest.

“I was only kidding, you idiot,” I huffed. At least half-kidding. I still didn’t know how my father would react. He’d probably freak. Dad got really angry sometimes when he still lived with us. Maybe he would drop me in a volcano.

Suddenly, Donny didn’t seem so crazy.

I didn’t have time to debate if either of us were insane, though. A car honked and it was surely Dad.

Donny swallowed. Then he stood up. “This is it,” he said. “This is how it ends for me.”

I smacked him again. “Pull it together man.”

We got to the car – the limo. I sometimes forget that my Dad is with Molly, and Molly is not only the Chief of Police, but she comes from one of the wealthiest family in our city.

She has however, not taken her rightful position as heiress to that throne, and instead decided to become a cop. That was admirable. Too bad she was a sleazy, husband stealing floozy. But admirable.

We got into he limo and were escorted to the City Hall by two cop cars, one in the front and the other behind.

Molly was beautiful, to be honest. Not as beautiful as my mother, in my opinion. But she was. Beautiful.

Her hair was pinned back into a neat, tight bun. Her dress was this shimmering blue gown that sat all the way to the floor, barley covering his silver heels. Both of them looked like they were covered in crystals. She was in her forties, for sure, but you couldn’t know that. Her face was without wrinkles.

She had my mom beat in that department. My mom had wrinkles and crow’s feet and whatever. But, I think those things are what make my mom so much more attractive that Molly Gallagher.

She tried to make conversation with both Donny and I during the car ride. Donny was a lot more receptive than I was. But that may have been because she gave him bread rolls.

Dad, who was in in the standard black tuxedo that very much resembled mine, had his greying hair gelled backward. He, himself, remained tight lipped, just like me. He would smile at Donny when he answered Molly’s questions with full sentences; exclamation mark and all. The he’d give me a look when I would decide to answer her with incomplete ones; one word ones.

I didn’t even have the decency to punctuate mine.

Molly, to her credit, didn’t look very moved by my apathy towards her. She seemed to be trying to get to know me. I appreciated that. She seemed like such a great woman sometimes. But…she still had a hand in destroying my parent’s marriage, and she could save a million people and I’d still have a built up animosity towards her. 

When we got to our destination, we were helped out of the limo by valets and escorted inside by men in black suits with white ear pieces.

The room, the Hall, where we were going to be was huge. Ten of my houses felt like it could sit inside of it, uncluttered. The ceiling was high and covered in white lights. A single chandelier, about the size of an adult rhino, hung in the middle of the room.

The tables were covered in cream colored cloth that looked like they could pay for my college tuition for about eight years. The tables were sprawled through the room, parted by a red carpet that stretched from the entrance to a stage.

The stage was covered in  red. There were three flags hanging from mid-sized poles.

On the left was the American Flag. On the Right was The City Flag; a green flag with a single gold star in the center. And then there was the Superhero Flag that was erected after The Great Battle of 1942 that we learned in History class. It was a white flag with a red mask in the center of it. There were five seats, seemingly made of gold sitting on the stage.

Something about those three flags felt…strange. Something felt off about this entire thing. Why would they have the super flag there?

“Keegan?”

My eyes snapped from the flags to Donny’s chest. I sometimes forget he’s so much taller than I am. I bring my eyes up to his.

“You okay?” he asked. He looked slightly worried. “I know…this is strange, being here with your Dad and Molly and…not your mom.”

Strangely enough...that was the first time that thought crossed my mind. This was this first time I had been anywhere with my dad without my mom. Or at least to something this formal. She’d always been there to whisper to me that it would be over soon and I could go home to sleep all I wanted.

But she wasn’t here this time. I don’t know how I felt about that. But my stomach didn’t seem to like it at all. It felt like it was on fire and lighting my insides ablaze.

Donny wrapped one of his long arms around my neck. “I’m here for you, man.”

“Yeah,” I said, smiling, but just barely. “Thanks.”

“But,” he began. “I have to tinkle at the moment, so I’ll be here for you in about three minutes.” He said and rushed off to find a bathroom.

We took our seats at the very front of the hall. First dad, then Molly, then an empty space for Donny and finally me.

I hadn’t noticed that there were still two more seats that needed to be occupied at our table, until they were filled.

“Hello, Keegan!” Wren said, waving as he came into view.

I waved back. Shit, I never texted him back, did I?

And also shit. He was with Jeremy Heisenberg, the mayor’s blind son. And he was now blonde for some reason.

Wren was dressed in a black tux with his hair jelled and Jeremy was in white, with his shades having matching white rims. Wren helped him in the seat to the right of me and he sat after him.

I guess I kind of deserved that.

“Ain’t this going to be a fun night,” Jeremy said, sounding awfully sarcastic.

I almost snorted at it, but stopped myself when I remembered that this was the same dick head that tricked me into the mayor’s office.

Wren looked over to me. “You guys did an ace job, Keegan Junior,” he said, looking around.

I furrowed my eyebrows. “Huh?” I answered.

Wren’s eyebrow cocked just slightly. Jeremy smirked. Then I remembered. I fake worked here. God, right. “Oh yeah. Bang up job, we did,” I said, with a little chuckle. “It was nothing.”

“Literally…or?” Jeremy asked. He had titled his head in my direction.

It was beginning to become obvious that not only was Jeremy Heisenberg a super cocky douchebag, but he was also sarcastic and probably knew that I was lying about working here. Awesome.

I didn’t answer his question. Instead, I focused on Wren Kensington, whose eyes were shining blue. Blue and slightly narrowed, possibly confused to what Jeremy was talking about.

God, where was Donny? How hard was it to find a freaking toilet to piss in?

I smiled one last time at Wren and he was nice enough to smile back.

Then I kind of remembered that Wren and Superboy had a thing. No a serious thing, but a thing nonetheless. Should I ask him about that? Would he lie? Of course not, he’s Wren.

Instead of questioning him, I decided to sit back and sighed.

“Friends of yours?” Molly asked, quietly enough so that Jeremy and Wren didn’t here.

Her face remained forward, but she was smiling a little.

“I wouldn’t exactly say friends.” Wren was more of a top secret, super hush hush, confidential crush rather than a friend. Jeremy seemed hell bent on being my archenemy.

She nodded. "Wow…” She paused, “I got an entire five word sentence.” The right side of her lips curved upwards. “With full punctuations and everything.”

I stared at the right side of her cheek. It was colored red with make-up. “Yeah well,” I said, and turned back to face the front, “Don’t get used to it.”

She nodded, but still smiled. Then she started talking to Dad.

My Dad hadn’t uttered one word to me this entire night. That was strange. Usually, Dad would be trying harder than Molly to get my attention and beat responses out of me with his smiles and compliments on how much I’ve grown.

He usually asked if girls were all over me, and I’d always respond with a very happy head nod. Not because it made him happy that I was responding to his questions, but because I would devastate him even more when I told him that I was more into butts than what girls were cooking with down under.

Also, I was chicken shit about coming out to my parents, but that wasn’t important right now.

The American National Anthem started playing. Everyone stood, almost immediately. I slouched behind.

A slew of men dressed in black marched up the stage with Mayor Heisenberg placed in the middle of them. With him were five other people. I noticed His Second-In-Command, a bald man named Stephen Bloomberg and his main assistant Caroline and her flaming red hair.

The other people with him seemed only vaguely familiar. Like, maybe I slept in Civics class the day we were going over government officials.

But then I saw her. The same steely eyes. The same dominant posture. I knew exactly where I knew the other three from.

The office. The first day at City Hall. The round man, the skinnier man, the woman with the intimidating presence.

Something was definitely up.

I turned to Wren as the anthem stopped and we got to sit.  As if he sensed me, he looked over. “What’s going on?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I have no idea. Mayor Heisenberg hasn’t told me anything. I was just in charge of inviting all the relevant people.”

Wren’s phone must’ve vibrated because he looked down. He silently read it and looked back up. “Great. Protesters outside.” He sighed and stood.

Jeremy pulled on Wren's coat’s sleeve. “I’ve got to piss, man.”

Wren rolled his eyes, playfully. “Okay, get up.”

Jeremy looked my way. “It was nice seeing you again…Keegan Junior.”  He smirked. “You’re sounding more and more like your father every day.”

Then they were gone.

Mayor Heisenberg took the podium. He greeted us, threw in a few lame jokes only the other stiffs in this room got and suddenly got very serious. “As you all know, we’ve had a few serious problems with the supers in our town.”

He paused to allow some murmuring.

“The supervillains in this city have been kidnapping children and recently have wreaked havoc on our very own high school, where our precious gems of the future are being taught quintessential material.” He paused and allowed the eerie silence to overtake the room. I think this was for dramatic effect. The cameras that were in the room were pointed toward the audience to catch the reaction.

“It is with this news that I and my team of close officials have decided to take measures into our own hands.” The Mayor wiped his brow. “Today, I sat with my team. The supers of our city are now completely out of control.”

Instant chatter.  The mayor tried to push on.

“The supervillains have targeted our schools, injuring our children. They have terrorized our skies. They have killed people.”

The crowd started stirring, abit louder now.

“What is he getting at?” I heard Molly whisper. For once, I agreed with her.

“But do we not expect this from those men and women? Supervillains?” he asked.  The crowd – this crowd, of intelligent men and women seemed to be agreeing with him. “It is instead these superheroes that are costing us everything. In this past year, we have lost nearly 500 million dollars because these men and women in tights who pledged to protect us are destroying our city. Yet, while they fly through the sky, waving at us below, they fail to contribute a single penny to cleaning up the mess they make!”

“That’s right!” Someone shouted.

Molly looked over at me. “Maybe we should leave,” she said.

I nodded. My eyes peered over at Dad. To say his eyes were narrowed and angry were not enough. They were fire. His fist were balled and sitting in his lap.

“Dad,” I whispered. He looked over. His eyes seemed to soften, a bit. “You can’t do anything. They’ll know.” Who knew what they’d do? Make him an example? Imprison him? Worse?

He looked at me, and he seemed to agree, but that didn’t pry his balled fist open. His knuckles were turning pale.

“It is now, right here, that I, The Mayor of this great City, is declaring that all Superheroes turn in their masks and pay for the economic turmoil that they have subjected  us to.”

I had just noticed a camera on the side of him. I must’ve been so focused on his lips – his thin lips and dark, coifed hair – that I had not noticed that his speech was probably playing to the entire city.

“And we will start this purge tonight”

The lady with the steel eyes smirked. Then I realized her eyes. They had shifted colors. They were green, and now they were blood red.

“She’s a supervillain,” I whispered to Dad. “The lady behind him. The council member. Look at her eyes.”

Dad’s head bounced up to her. His eyes, from what I could see, widened.

“We will start with those in this very room.”

The men in black stepped forward, huddling around the Mayor. They had guns. 

My phone rang. “Please be Donny,” I mumbled to myself. Please tell me they hadn’t done anything to him. I picked it up, not looking at the ID. “Donny?”

“Not quite.”