If the prospect of living in a world where trying to respect the basic rights of those around you and valuing each other simply because we exist are such daunting, impossible tasks then what sort of world are we left with? And what what sort of world do you want to live in? - Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman #170
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Issue #3 “The Plot Thickens”
Best Comment gets a dedication.
*Silently editing.
“Keegan. Keegan Paul?”
The lady sitting down at the desk in front of me, eyes went down to the screen in front of her. Glasses low on her nose and eyebrows – drawn on – nearly touching her hairline. I never understood why females shaved their eyebrows and penciled them back on. I made a mental note to Google that later.
The lady, auburn hair pinned back into neat bun, and wrinkles surrounding her eyes, typed up a storm, pausing momentarily to stare at the screen – eyes tracing down it in search of something in particular and then typing some more when she hadn’t found what she was looking for.
She looked back at me, sighing once she couldn't find what she wanted. “I’m sorry, kid but your name isn't in the employee system.” She said. “I can’t give you authorization to leave the lobby unless your name is in the the system or you have a valid ID card.”
“Can’t you…let me slide this one time?” I asked, trying to look as innocent as possible.
She wasn’t having it. “I’m sorry…”
“Keegan. It’s Keeg,” I sighed, resting my head on her desk, “an…”
“Keegan.” She nodded. “But this is Town Hall. The mayor’s offices are up on the third floor and I can’t risk a security breach of any kind.”
Great. “Thanks anyway.” I pushed off of the desk and trotted back to the middle of the large lobby waiting area of Town Hall.
It seemed as though my trail of lies had one very big bump in the road. Town Hall was most likely the most secure place in the city and I had no way to prove that I worked here. I refrained from banging my head repeatedly again the desk at my ignorance and general inability to make wise decisions.
It didn’t help that Town Hall smack dabbed in the middle of The Government Square, the main offices of the council members of Ginger Valley; including the stoic and calculating, Mayor Timothy Heisenberg.
I hadn’t heard much about the Mayor. In fact, I didn’t really know anything about the political landscape of my city. I stayed away from all of that because it was just the right versus the left most of the time. No one wanted to solve any problems, everyone just wanted power.
From what I learned in my Civics class, Timothy Heisenberg had ended the long and drawn out finger pointing between the parties when he took some members from the Conservative Right and Liberal Left who all thought that the pettiness of the divided sides were destroying any chances to get things done.
And so The Patriarchic Party was formed; it was dubbed The Middle by prominent news stations. It quickly became the dominant party and swept the last elections we had. Everyone praised Mayor Heisenberg for his bipartisan message and he has become one of the most beloved figures in politics in our town.
From what I read, it always seemed as if he had a secret agenda to me. Plus, with a name like Heisenberg, there’s no way he could be 100% for the people. It sounded too diabolical.
“Are you just going to stay in the lobby all day, kid and ramble to yourself?”
My head snapped towards the secretary at the front desk. She wore a worried expression with her ears to the phone, possibly either phoning security or a psychiatrist. “No.” I quickly responded if any of the two were the case – they wouldn’t be so off base. “I’m going to leave.”
She nodded. I spun around again and headed for the main exit, but a voice that had become distinctively familiar these past days shouted my name and it echoed through the large lobby; bouncing off walls before it got to my ears. “Keegan.” Wren smiled, walking through the glass double doors with a jacket of his suit in his hands.
“Hey, Wren.” I waved, but it died off once I noticed how he was dressed. Dark blue suit that looked and probably was more expensive than every single article of clothing that I ever had – possibly combined. I hoped my jeans and polo top didn’t make me look too out of place.
“You made it.” He smiled, looking up just a little, seeing as he was a mere inch – inch and a half – shorter. “Unscathed I see.” He chuckled, looking me over.
“Yup.” I nodded. It would seem I still wasn’t very good with social interaction. “But, I don’t have an ID or whatever I need to get to the ball room area, so I’m going home until I get one.” Perfect excuse, I assumed. I was wrong.
Wren waved me off leaned to the side of himself so he could see behind me. “Bertha.” He called, whom I’m guessing was the front desk lady. “He’s with me, okay?”
“Gotcha.” Came an immediate response, sunny and warm. The exact opposite I got from her.
“See?” Wren said, leaning back to smile. “Now you don’t need no ID.” He chuckled.
“Guess not.” I responded, swallowing a grapefruit of anxiousness. Wren had excused himself to go sign in or something of the sort. I wasn’t really paying very close attention seeing as I had a more pressing matter at hand
Pretending as if I didn’t have an ID wasn’t a valid excuse anymore. I was seriously running out of options to get out of this situation that I quite frankly, pretty much carved myself.
Option 1 failed. Option 2 was to just run out of the building and avoid Wren for the rest of my life. And Option 3 was to get an actual job here helping to set up for the ball. Not very good options, I deduced.
“Wren.” Someone’s voice echoed, knocking me out of my thoughts and mental nail biting. My eyes flew to the direction of the voice and they landed on the front doors.
I could smell his cinnamon tinged cologne even before he fully got through double doors. His hair was tamed and shined of whatever product he had in it. He was tall, wore a suit that was dark in color and it, if I do say so myself, fit him quite nicely. But perhaps the thing that stood out the most was his dark shades. So dark in fact, I could see myself in them quite clearly.
“Jeremy.” Wren’s voice rose an octave when he greeted tall, dark and handsome at the door. Handsome – Jeremy – smirked once he heard Wren’s voice and waited close to the entrance until he came over to him. I noted how straight his face remained, not bothering to even look over in the direction that Wren was coming from. The two exchanged hugs and Wren placed looped one of his arms with this Jeremy kid’s.
Needlessly to say, I was bit confused (and jealous but that’s beside the point). The two shared a few inaudible words, and laughed before Wren said something else and dragged him over to me.
“Keegan, this is Jeremy Heisenberg.” Wren sung and the other boy stuck out his hands. He was taller.
It took me a moment to register his last name and the significance of it. It could only mean one thing. “Heisenberg.” I repeated.
“Yes,” he said with a smirk, “Hei-sen-berg. Ten letters; three syllables. As in the son of the mayor and heir to his vast fortune.” Wren smacked him playfully, but his smirk only deepened. “It’s good to make your acquaintance …” he spoke, extending the last syllable.
I didn’t really catch on to the fact that he had already forgotten my name and was waiting for me to tell him it, until Wren cocked a brow. “Keegan.” I answered, finally shaking his hand. They were, in case anyone was wondering, as smooth as a baby’s bottom.
“Cool.” He nodded and was the first to break the handshake. The smell of his cologne was irritating my eyes now. The cockiness from his obvious privilege that he exuded didn’t help much either. And just as I was going to excuse myself and be removed from his highness’ presence, Wren’s phone rang.
He frowned; I could tell this was a daily occurrence for him. “Hello.” He answered as jovially as he could and after a stint of him listening to voice on the other end – male by the sound of it – he nodded his head. “Be right there.” Then he hung up and sunk the phone back into the depths of his slacks’ right pocket. “It would seem as if your father is being hounded by reporters about Major Minus.”
“Who?” I let slip out.
Jeremy smirked. “Major Minus, dude.” He said in a sardonic tone that sounded as if it questioned how much I got out of the house. As if this Major Minus was the new ‘it’ thing everyone was doing and I was behind the curve. “He’s the new villain in town.”
“O-oh.”
“And he’s been behind three kidnappings already.” Wren sighed. “If your father is being hounded by reporters that only could mean that there must’ve been a fourth one.” Wren huffed.
“I think he’s rad.” Jeremy piped in, but the only thing I could think of was when exactly did they start kidnapping people? This was the first time I’ve heard of that.
“You would.” Wren murmured, fixing himself. “Okay,” he said, clapping his hands together, “your father is probably pulling into the lot right now. He looked over to me, “Jeremy likes to play pranks on people, so watch out.” Wren snickered, patting him on the back. Jeremy looked amused. I wasn’t. “Keep him company for me and try not to burn down the building.”
“No promises.” Jeremy said, hands up in surrender to answer Wren, but he kept his eyes – or rather shades – on me. The second Wren exited, he exhaled. “Dude, can you go and fetch my laptop for me?”
Fetch.
“Why…can’t you do it?” I questioned. He may have been the mayor’s heir, but no one was just going to command me around like that; not someone with fake, nonexistent power.
Jeremy, however, had a response. A confusing one. He pointed to his shades. I waited for him to elaborate, but I guess that was it. “I don’t understand.”
“I’m blind.”
I blinked. “Blind?”
“Blind.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
Silence.
“Sure.”
He smiled and placed hand on my left shoulder blade. “You’re a life saver, bro.” he patted that same spot he had latched onto. “Third floor. Third Hall. The Room’s straight down.”
I nodded, just a little bit baffled. For someone with no eyesight, Jeremy was seemed extremely cocky. Sure, money had some hand in that and being the son of the man in charge of a city may have helped as well, but would it be so off base as to ask how could he be so cocky if he was blind? Didn't that come with some sense of vulnerability? Maybe he was just putting up a front. An opaque one. On the other hand, I didn’t know any blind people, so maybe that was something ignorant to assume.
The halls on this floor were seemingly empty. Probably because it was made up of the executive offices and all of those people were out doing whatever politicians do during the daytime. Just the occasional guard strolling by. Funny how none of them bothered to stop and asked just who I was.
“Third floor. Third Hall. Room straight ahead.” I mumbled, stopping directly in front of said room. The golden plaque on the door read ‘Mayor Timothy Heisenberg’ and had another, smaller seemingly reversible one at the bottom of it that said ‘OUT OF OFFICE’.
This probably wasn’t a good idea. Definitely wasn’t a good idea. But, as I was finding out over these past few days, I made horrible choices. That and the fact that, I just wanted to help out, lead me to open the door and step into a large room.
Two rooms in one in fact. The first one was almost like a small, waiting area. It was heavily lit, had sofas lining its shiny, wooden walls and a table in the center with a plethora of magazines – most of which that were politically driven. Then, there was another door on the far right side of the room. I could’ve only assumed that was The Mayor’s office.
I slowly opened and walked through that one and into the office space; tighter than the previous room, but more warm and homely. It was dastardly organized. Books upon book line the left side of the room. All in some kind of alphabetical/color coded/ size arrangement. Chairs were pushed in. The carpeted floor was spic and span and the window was so clear that it looked as if I could jump right out of it.
Even the desk was clean; which was saying something for a man that had to read a particularly large amount of stuff on a given Thursday afternoon. Everything was neatly stacked, every pen was in a holder and the pencil sharpener was turned at a particular angular degree so simular to the stapler, that it could not have been a coincidence.
But what really caught my eye was the nutcracker puppet sitting causally at the end of his desk that was being held up by the box it was positioned in with its tiny feet hanging off. The strings at the end of its hands were connected to the top of box it sat in. It was strange, and very much out of place with the entire professional look of the maroon carpeted room.
“No laptop.” I sighed. “Maybe he left in somewhere else.” I mumbled. Then I paused, thinking back to what Wren had warned me of. “Or maybe’s he’s just being a dick.” I growled, rolling my eyes. Wren said that he liked to play tricks, and what better trick than to get you caught in the mayor’s office.
I huffed and spun around to exit, but froze when I heard people talking on the other side of the door; muffled voices, seemingly in the heat of argument.
I looked for another exit, but there was seemingly no other way out other than the way I came. “Damn it.” I whispered to myself, amazed at how I got myself into these kind of situations. If Invisibility was my major power, Gullibility must’ve been my weakness. Speaking of which, I didn’t see a choice. I’d have to use my power, or risk getting caught.
I doubt Jeremy would be so forthcoming as to explain how I got in here; even with Wren’s voice in his ear. Someone’s hand rested on the knob, put didn’t turn it quite yet; they seemed to still be quarreling with whoever was just outside of the Mayor’s office.
I didn’t have a choice. Dad would kill me if he knew I had used them in public, but something tells me I'd be grounded for far longer if I got caught snooping in the mayor's office.
I breathed out and in again. Closed my eyes and opened them slowly. I watched as my fingertips escaped from view and watched as, inch by inch the skin on my hands faded into nothing. Then came my arms. My elbows. My chest. Torso. Hips. Legs.
I was gone.
The door opened and in walked four people; all talking over one another and all in some of the finest clothing I had ever seen. Their respective perfumes and colognes blended together to create something that felt powerful, but was nauseating.
I moved closer to the door of the room and knelt down beside a fichus plant as the four of them settled into the room. The Mayor, whom I recognized from his picture in our school’s showcase, sat down in his seat adjacent to the large window while two of the others sat in the chairs in front of him; the other man stood between them. By the looks of it, I was in the clear.
“This is the fourth teenage kidnapping in the past month, Mr. Mayor.” The one with the short gray hair and rather round figure said, his voice sounded horse and raspy. “Either you’re asleep at the wheel, or you’re losing control of your city.”
“I’m not losing control of anything.” Mayor Heisenberg said, sitting up straight in his chair with his hands cupped into one another on his desk. “We found two of the missing teenagers, did we not?” he asked, dividing his questioning gaze between the three visible people in the room.
“Saving two out of four teenagers from abduction is like saying you almost made it to heaven, Mr. Mayor.” The round one explained, chuckling a little. “It’s hardly anything to be proud over.”
“My police department is doing all they can to find the missing teenagers.”
“Your police force or those men in suits?” The woman asked this time. She grabbed my attention the most out of the all the suits in the room. Not just because she was the only female, but because her voice seemed to command the most attention; a low and alluring tone that combined to create something magnetically dominant. “Everyone knows that your men in uniform are as worthless as ever.”
“Diana’s right.” The third gentlemen in the room said. His voice was much lighter than the others, and he looked as if he might have pulled the least amount of weight among them, given how little the rest of them seemed to pay him any mind. “Your city is flooded with superheroes; no one knows who they are and what they are capable of.”
“We do know.” Diana said, sharply. “They destroy half the city three times a week. The last super battle between Mr. Terrific and his cohorts against Roboto nearly bankrupted us with the amount of collateral damaged it incurred.”
“Only God knows how much more money this one’s going to cost us.” The round one added. “Fix this, Timothy.” He said, getting up from his seat.
Diana followed suit. “Or we will.” She added.
There was something ominous in her tone; warning, deep and poisonous. Nothing good could come out of this. I wondered if all of their meetings were this tension filled and if they truly were such the bipartisan union they claimed to be. Because as it stood, the only thing they seemed to come together on was ragging on Mayor Heisenberg’s leaderships skills.
The three suits exited the room leaving Heisenberg in his seat. He sat there; hands cupped, eyes straight, chest rising and falling in a steady pattern. He looked void of any kind of emotion at all. Which was weird considering the beat down his morale must’ve just received.
After about a full two minutes of listening to the sound of him gently inhale and exhale, The Mayor slid his hand over to his phone and pressed a button on it. “Wrenly.” He spoke, stoically emotionless.
There was a bit of dead air before Wren’s voice came up. “Yes… Sir?” he answered, carefully and rightfully so.
Mayor Heisenberg was tapping one of his fingers. “Can you please come into my office? Bring your clipboard.”
Static.
“Yes, Sir.” Wren replied and Heisenberg allowed his hand to slip from the button of the phone and return back to his other hand, clasping them back together. In the silence of the room, I wasn’t sure of the quickened heartbeats were mine or not.
A few seconds had scrambled by when the golden knob twisted and the door it was connected to opened up just slightly. A full head of bouncy, shiny raven hair stuck itself inside and though I couldn't see the owner of such a full head of luscious hair, it was obvious who it belonged to.
“Come in, Wrenly.” The Mayor spoke, his attention was on a stack of papers on his desk.
The door opened wider and in stepped Wrenly – Wren – with clipboard in hand; eyes big and worried.
“How are the preparations coming for the ball next month?” He queried, nudging for Wren to come closer to his desk. Before Wren could even have a chance to think of a response, Mayor Heisenberg’s eyes rose to meet his “You better have good news.” He said, frostily. His eyes were dimmed with something dark and his fists were balled, lying harshly on his desk. “I’ve been through enough this week with these masked cockroaches destroying my city.” He voice remained calm, but his fists were turning a pale color from being clenched so tightly together. “Please tell me something I want to hear."
The teenage intern looked frightened. He did his best to keep his composure; kept his eyes straight and his hands steady. But his legs, which could not be seen by the mayor, were wobbling just slightly. “Things are going according to plan, sir.”
I snorted. An iota too loudly, it would seem and covered my mouth almost immediately. Wren looked I'm my direction; or more so directly at me. I froze; stiff as plywood as his eyes narrowed and met my intangible ones, searching for the sound.
“Wrenly.” He jumped and turned back to the man in front of him, his voice dripped with annoyance. “I need you to keep me posted on that. I also would like to know when those Liberal buffoons and Conservative bigots are coming.” He ordered. “I never want to be caught off guard like that again. Is that understood?”
Wren nodded. “Sir.” He bowed slightly, clipboard tight to his chest.
“Whoever this Major Minus is, he’s not about to ruin everything I work so hard to build.” Mayor Heisenberg got up and turned to look out his window that overviewed most of the blue skied, skyscraping metropolis that was our city. “I want my best analytical team on finding out who Major Minus may be. I want it done.” He turned around. “And tell Caroline to set up a meeting with Mr. Terrific.” My breath hitched. “Him and I may need to have a conversation about him and his super-pals.”
Wren took a moment, but he nodded after Mayor Heisenberg pressed him for a response. “Good.” The Mayor said, effectively excusing Wren while stuffing his hands into slacks and staring back out the window.
I took the moment to quietly sneak out of the office. I ran past Wren in a gust of wind; this was no time to stop and chat. It wasn’t until I got to the end of the hallway that lead to the Mayor’s office that I allowed myself to become visible again.
The only thing I could even possibly think was, “Jeremy, you dick.” I stomped my way down the other halls of the third floor, not bothering to take the elevator. Heated and hot, my mind was lit ablaze with what that kid just got me into.
I could take the smirking, and the cute, little quips about my supposed physical appearance, but mixing me up into the dirty, possibly destructive happenings of the day to day issues of our political system plus having me to idly watch as Wren got talked down to? That took it a step too far.
“Hey,” I said, sharper and louder than I attended it to. I had stomped my way all the back to the lobby. An empty, Jeremy-less lobby. “Uh, sorry.” I panted, trying to catch a breath. “Where did Jeremy go?”
The secretary's annoyed gaze melted. “He said the talk of you talking about wanting to use the bathroom, made him want to tinkle himself. He went that way towards the stairs to use the bathroom, then said something about going to a Burger King around the corner.”
I blinked. “So, you allowed a blind kid to go up a flight of stairs?” I asked, gaping. She shrugged. “Couldn't you at least stop him or direct him to the ground floor bathrooms?”
“That ain’t my job.” She said, lazy eyes returning back to the screen. I exhaled exasperatedly and threw up my arms. I was just about 100% done for the day.
I jogged to the stairs to make sure Jeremy wasn’t possibly crumpled up on the floor, gasping for air and breathed a sigh of relief once I saw it was clear. I ran up the stairs, nearly tripping several times from missing the edges, but otherwise made it to the first floor lavatory unscathed. Problem was, when I opened the door leading into the room, it was empty except for an open window that probably leads to the ground below.
So either Jeremy jumped through a window or he used the bathroom and went for a sandwich. Huh. It would seem that Jeremy may have been more capable than I previous thought of him. Maybe his cocky attitude wasn’t a façade. Maybe he was really just a confident douche.
But where Jeremy was okay, I wasn’t. Something was going on. I didn’t know what, but that meeting just now with the mayor was as sketchy and sketchy got. And for politics, that was saying something. Who was this Major Minus cat and what threat did he really pose?
And how did Wren fit into this mess? Why did I care? I was over him. Totally. Completely. Right.
The sound of one of the toilets flushing sent me careening out my thoughts. My entire body snapped in the direction of the single closed stall. “Jeremy?” I called, creeping a bit closer to it as the sound of someone fixing their clothes could be heard.
The stall door opened and out walked the last person in the solar system I’d want to see right now. Just imagine the big ball of strangled, annoyed air that was pushed out of my lungs when he smirked at me. “This back and forth internal debate that you’re having as it pertains to your crush is kind of cute,” The hero in yellow said, bending down to remove a trail of tissue from under his boot. “It’s Annoying.” He scoffed with a laugh. “But cute.”
My eyes were wide and my butt couldn't sink anymore into the wall. “What were you doing in there?” I questioned, holding my chest. “Are you stalking me everywhere now?”
Superboy looked back at the now emptied toilet stall. He turned back to meet my exasperated expression with one of his eyebrows cocked. “Using it?” he answered, facetiously so, and casually strolled over to the counter and turned on the water, placing his hands under it. “Contrary to popular believe, superheroes do have bladders just like you regular folk too, you know.” He retorted, moving them and turning off the running tap. I couldn't help but notice that he didn’t use soap. “But back to the topic at hand. Stop being such a pussy and just come to grips that you may sort of still like him.”
“Are you a superhero or Oprah?”
“Cute.” He responded, grabbing one of the hand napkins and wiping his hands dry. “And can you please quit The Sex and The City dialogue thing you’ve got going on in your head.” He asked, throwing the paper towel in the garbage. “It’s giving me an aneurism.”
“You read minds too?” How many powers did this kid have?
“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t.” he responded in his typical mysterious (douchebag) hero fashion. He even had the nerve to smirk and lean against the counter. “If you join me and become my sidekick, I’ll answer every question you have.”
“My answer’s still no.”
“Oh come on, dude.” He moaned, rolling his green eyes. “Why are you being so difficult about this?”
“Maybe because I don’t have superpowers.”
“Batman didn’t have superpowers.” He countered. “And he’s the most prolific member of DC’s Big Three.”
I cocked a brow. “You read comic books?”
“Who…me?” he said, looking around as if there was an abundance of others standing around in the bathroom as we chatted, “Oh, God no.” he laughed, mockingly so. “I just watch the movies. I’m not really into the nerdy part of the whole superhero thing that Hollywood’s got going on right now.” He explained. “I just like the action of it all. Plus, Scarlett Johansson looks pretty fly in a supersuit.” He noted, licking his lips and nudging me with his elbows. I wasn’t amused. “Riiight,” he nodded, noticing my complete apathy towards his sexual fantasies, “You’re more of Superman kind of guy rather than Wonder Woman one.” He paused to lean in. “If you catch my drift.” He said, slowly and wiggled his brows suggestively. “You…do catch my drift, don’t y-”
“I caught it.” I interjected before he could finish, about to pass my annoyance level for the hour.
He smirked. And kicked off of the counter and headed over to the door, poking his head out, probably to check if the coast was clear. After a moment or two, he came back in and winked. “I’ll be in touch, Keegan.”
“No,” I exhaled. “You won’t. I plan to be in be in the company of someone at all times until you get the message that I don’t have superpowers and that I don’t want anything to do with you.”
“Right.” He blinked. “You – Mr. Keegan Paul, social butterfly and friend to amany people are going to remain with someone at all times?” He bit and I never felt such a biting sarcasm directed at me; it made me think of all the times I spewed it at Donny. I made a mental note to sincerely apologize. “Like I said, I’ll be in touch Keegan. Besides, you’re going to want-slash-to have to talk to somebody about what you heard in the Mayor’s office.”
My mouth dried. “I have-”
“-no idea what you’re talking about yada yada you don’t have powers yada yada leave me alone before I call the cops yada yada – we can play this super cat and reluctant mouse game for as long as you like, Paul.” He smirked. “Stay in school, kid.” He saluted and exited the bathroom
The exhalation was short. It would seem as if I did, in fact, have a stalker of the super variety on my hands. One that was smarter than he may let on. The stuff with the mayor goes without saying.
All that left me with the tempting thought to back my head against the wall in the hopes that this was just a very long and extremely vivid nightmare. I rested my head against the cold, hard tiled wall and sighed for the millionth time this past hour. “What even is my life.”
Two Days. Two Uploads. I don’t think I’ve done that since 2011, back when I was a little rookie.
Theories? Suggestions? I’m replying back to all comments! Best one gets the very first dedication when Issue 4 is uploaded next week! So VOTE and COMMENT!
ON a totally unrelated note, if you missed the Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones name references in this chapter, you may be watching the wrong television shows, just fyi.