[Hello. I'm by my Dad, ironically on Mother's Day, which means I don't have my laptop with my stories. I had to rewrite this entire chapter. I honestly don't want to rewrite the other stories, because I liked what I did with those, but I wanted to at least update one thing, so I bit the bullet on Mr. T since, unlike S4X and CM2, which just need to be edited, Mr. T wasn't completed. So, here you go! Happy Sunday!]
I'm still editing! Mistakes may be found.
"NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES YOU SAVE THE WORLD, IT ALWAYS MANAGES TO GET BACK IN JEOPARDY AGAIN."
- The Incredibles
Issue #16 "Who, What, When, Where, How and Why"
Donny's POV
I was standing next to Jeremy, who was smirking of course. Daunte was on the bed, towel soaked with blood covering his chest where he was hit protecting Keegan.
Speaking of Keegan, I couldn't really describe the look on his face. It twisted and it bent in ways I've never seen a face do before. His brows were almost into his hairline. His mouth was basically unhinged, but his eyes, oh man, his eyes were made of hell fire and brimstone.
And an Asian guy feared for his life!
"We can explain this," Daunte said.
Kegan threw his head back at him and I don't know man, it looked like Daunte was about to turn to stone. I started sweatin'.
"What the Holy Hell is this shit?!" he screeched. Jeremy covered his ears and Daunte blinked a few times. He jumped off of the bed, backed up until his back was against the window and pointed at the three of us from left to right; from Jeremy, to me to Daunte.
"I'm going to have a freaking aneurism!" he yelled. "What is going on?"
"The three of us are Superboy," Jeremy said.
"No shit, Sherlock," Keegan returned. "I mean what the fuck?"
"You're going to have to start making more sense, kid," Jer said. "Use full sentences." He may have received glare of the century for his douchebaginess. He surrendered and sunk back further to the door.
Keegan's eyes went to me. And boy, oh boy. They looked pained. Like a thousand bees were in his pants and he jumped up and down for a few times before insulting their mother. I looked away; to the sky. Beautiful sky. Beautiful pale, rooftop sky.
When I looked back down Keegan's hands were on his head, like he was about to pull out hair. Instead he rested on the dresser top. "Whose idea was this?"
"Donny's," Jeremy quickly said.
I squealed and grunted all at once, which even for me...
"It was all of our collective ideas," Daunte said, coming in for the save. He tried to move on the bed but the pain might have been too great, so he stopped moving. "It was a necessity...for the obvious reasons."
"And what obvious reasons are those?" Keegan asked. "Because I can't seem to think of one of those obvious reasons right now!" I took a chanced in looking at him again. Wrong choice. His eyes were burning into me. The fact that I hadn't spontaneously combusted into flames is still a mystery. "The only thing I know for sure is that my best and only friend on this planet, in this city, has betrayed my trust," he said. Talk about shooting a fella in the heart.
I dropped my head. Jeremy cooed and came back up beside me. "Way to kick a puppy when he's down, Keegy," he said, almost laughing. He readjusted his shades. "Donny didn't mean to hide the truth, he had to."
"That's bull," Keegan spat. "I want answers."
"Ask the questions," Daunte murmured. I could tell he was in a lot of pain. I wonder if as much as I was?
"A super saved Wren and I the first time we walked to City Hall together," he said. "Which one of you was that?"
Daunte raised his hand. "That was me. Freshly moved into town. I saw an opportunity to help out a guy and his cute little boyfriend, so I did."
"Watch it," Jeremy said, all of a sudden more serious. Ha.
Keegan folded his arms. "The auditorium? When The Good Doctor attacked us?"
Jeremy raised his. "That was all your boy Jeremy. Which is why I said I kissed Wren and why I smirked at you after it was all done. Hints, my dear. Hints."
"Aren't you blind?" Keegan asked, as if he may have just come to the realization that, shocker, Jeremy was faking it. But he wasn't. "How did you smirk?"
"I'm Psychic," he said. "And I'm advanced enough in it that I'm able to use my third eye to see a bit." He paused. "Also, you have a very distinctive smell. It's not hard to point out in a crowd."
"Fine, whatever." Keegan folded his arms. "Which one of you gave me the cat?"
I swallowed. Daunte looked over at me. Jeremy cleared his throat. "Well, this is awkward."
Keegan looked at me. He blinked a few times, like he was clearing his vision. Trying to see me more clearly. "That's impossible. Donny was on the field when I talked to Superboy that day. He was literally right next to me."
"Which brings us to Donny's abilities," Jeremy said. He started a drum roll.
I sighed. "Projection," I said, as quietly as humanly possible. I don't think the ants heard it.
"The ability to create something out of nothing," Jeremy sung. "Even yourself. Which you'd think would be a great thing, but he hardly ever uses it."
"Is that why you were drawing cats?" Keegan asked.
Daunte snorted. "He was drawing your Supersuit."
"Why?" Keegan asked.
"I wanted you to be my partner," I said. "I wanted to tell you about me being a Super too, and revealing myself after you said yes. But things got really complicated."
"You think?" he said. He might've actually spit out venom that time. "Who took me shopping?" I raised my hand. "Which one of you were fighting Dianne with Caroline and I?" Daunte raised his hand, wincing. "Who nicknamed me Junior?" I raised my hand again. Kegan's eyes bulged. "Who did I kiss then?" None of us did. Jeremy did that dropping missile whistle.
"Wasn't me," he said. "I've got the hots for our other buddy."
"It was me," Daunte said. "I kissed you."
Keegan sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "This is really messing me up." He sunk into the wall and nearly disappeared into it. "Is this why your hair and eyes kept changing? None of you have green eyes."
"I," I coughed. "I may have been responsible for that. I used my gift to change our hair and eye color. It was sporadic. Never set in stone. I didn't want you to catch onto the pattern that there were three different eyes and then find out that there were three different Superboys."
"And the heights thing, so that change too," Jeremy said. "Me being able to read those minds and what not, knew you thought it was to throw you off, when in reality, we're all just different heights."
"Okay, but what about to your powers?" he asked. "Durability? Flight?"
"Lies," Daunte answered. "Well the Durability one was a lie. I have the power of flight. Jeremy uses his advanced ability to just...magically link us together, thus, we're able to use each other's powers."
"The Durability thing was just a cover, so if one of us got hurt, like Donny did when he was thrown through that store window, then another one of us, like Daunte when he showed up without a scratch on him, could just come and take his place, and you wouldn't question it."
Keegan nodded. Then he gasped and got up to head back over to Daunte. "That would mean you're fucking dying!" he yelled. "Jesus Christ! What is wrong with you boys!" He looked around at us. "You're assholes!"
Daunte waved him off. "I've been in worst conditions; although, this one does seem to hurt a little bit more."
Keegan stood. "Okay, look. I'm going to see if The Healer is here to help us out. And...to clear my head of all of this stuff. I need to contemplate a lot of things."
"Like the fact that you're kind of in love with all three of us at once?" Jeremy asked. "That must be, like, incredibly confusing considering the fact that you thought we were one person, thus, making you like all of our character traits."
I thought I saw Keegan whimper.
"Shut the fuck up, Jeremy," Daunte shot. He looked back over at Keegan. "Take all the time you need, Keegan." His voice got softer. "We'll be in here."
Keegan shook his head and rubbed his eyes. I just noticed he was basically naked in his underwear. Both Jeremy and I moved from the door so he could pass and boy did he run out of there.
He closed the door behind him and I nearly collapse against it. That may have been the single worst thing I have ever had to do in my life. And that include that one math test with those circles.
"Okay, so cat's out of the bag," Daunte said. "Where do we go with this now?"
Jeremy, who was playing with his nails, sat on the edge of the dresser where Keegan had just moved from. "I say we continue to be one Superboy," he said. "We're stronger when we're all connected, plus, no enemy would expect it." He snorted. "Keegan sure didn't."
"Knock it off," I growled at him. "This is serious."
"Hey," he snickered. "I'm not the one who didn't let my so called 'best friend' know that I was a freaking Super, and oh, I'm the super who you have a freaking crush on and oh, I'm also the one you freaking kissed, which by the way, nice save Asian Number Two."
"Shut up, Jeremy," Daunte said this time. "So what if Donny likes Keegan?" He looked up at me with this half smile, half frown. "Although, this being linked to each other has kind of thrown me off my game. I was starting to feel your feelings for him. Like, I almost kissed him a while ago."
"You're only straight until the lights are off Daunte," Jeremy said with a stifled laugh. "And congrats to the both of you for simultaneously telling someone the truth and lying to them at the exact same time." He clapped. "That has to be some sort of super ability."
"Can it, you ass," Daunte said, glaring at Jeremy. "You're not helping any of this. We have to move forward, with Keegan knowing about this, not knowing that it's actually Donny who he kissed and the fact that he may be the 7 headed Super."
"I would've thought that may have been the first thing we mentioned to him," Jeremy commented. "Isn't that the whole reason we're even doing this together? Because Keegan is the Last Airbender or some shit? The Gay Aang? Or a less gay Korra?"
"You're the one who had the vision, Jer," Daunte said. "We'd think, with you being the one bringing the three of us together, that you'd be the clearest on him having all of the Seven Wonders."
"I did see him," Jeremy said. "I also saw one of us freaking dying. And, oh yeah, more of us dying. It was like an episode of Game of Thrones."
I sighed and backed into the door, allowing it to either hold me up, or just letting me slide against it as I crumble to the ground.
"Don't get gloomy now, Jeremy," Daunte said. "We're the three bodies-thing."
Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Three Bodies Using One Soul," he said. "You'd think that you people would've read up on your Super lore. We're sworn to protect and defend the Seven Headed Super. One of us falling in love with him yada yada, one of us betraying him yada yada, and the final one dying protecting him, yada yada."
"Maybe we should just choke you out now, since it's going to be you," I said. Jeremy stuck out his tongue.
Daunte cleared his throat. "Okay, time to listen to the dying guy onto bed," he said. The two of us rolled our eyes at each other, but turned to Daunte. "Look, until the day all of that stuff happens, and until the day Keegan actually displays all seven abilities that can actually kill The Great Threat, that's probably Major Minus, whoever the fuck that is, we stick together as a unit."
"Okay," I sighed.
"Sure," Jeremy said. "Then we can brutally murder the traitor." He looked at me. "Whoever that may be."
There was a knock at the door, but Caroline didn't wait to be allowed in. She opened the door, in one of her navy blue suits and eyed each of us. She adjusted her glasses. "This explains why Keegan is hyperventilating downstairs." She stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. She had a scratch on her left cheek, and the ends of her fiery hair looked burned, but she looked otherwise unhurt by the battle. "So, I'm assuming we've told Keegan that he's Azor Ahai, reborn?"
"You assume wrong, Melisandre," Jeremy said. Caroline grumbled. "These two were too chicken to even tell him Donny's the one who's in love with him. The best friend. How cliché."
Caroline growled. "Men," she said with a bit of vigor. "Weak willed and weak boned," she mumbled and I was in no position to argue with her. "What's our next step?"
"Well, besides Keegan's prophecy that should come to fruition in the distant future, we have the immediate future to worry about," Daunte said. He had somehow scooted to the edge of the bed. "The government is in a meeting. I'm almost certain that they're sentencing someone to death; the question is who?"
"They'll have to kill us all, if they want to kill more us," Carline said. "I am not standing by and watching more of us fall at the hands of this tyrannical regime with Dianne at the helm."
"You know, Caroline, considering your overt feminist behavior, I'd assume you would've loved that Dianne was basically pulling the strings," Jeremy said. "I mean, you're all about women in the workplace, right? She sure is breaking those glass ceilings in the super villain business."
Caroline looked at him. She smirked, one that matched his. "You know, Jeremy, being the son of a powerful man doesn't make you powerful." His smirk dropped. She kept her eyes on him. "The next time you try to smart mouth me, I'll teach you that we aren't just breaking glass ceilings."
The door opened again. This time, Racer, Miss Matter and Anti-Freeze all jumbled up into the room. Each one looking more confused than the last.
"So this is why Keegan is a rambling to himself downstairs," Racer said with a snort. He jumped up on the bed, making Daunte wince. He started massaging him. Daunte just looked annoyed, but didn't really complain. "So, has Donny told him that he wants to stick his Asian bits into Keegan's Caucasian crevices?"
"Can we not discuss this right now?" Anti-Freeze asked. "We have much, much bigger men to fry at the moment."
"What's going on?" Caroline questioned.
Miss Matter raised her hand. "Um, well, The Super Hero Council is kind of pissed at us. Apparently, we need to be registered into the system before fighting terrors and what saving lives, and whatnot."
"Why?" I asked.
"Maybe they want us to join the union or something," Jeremy added with a snort. "Or maybe they're trying to keep tabs on our every move. Like every other governing body on earth."
"Isn't Keegan's Dad head of that council?" Daunte asked. "I mean, he can get us out of that one can't he?"
"He could, but he was the one who insisted on us being registered," Anti-Freeze said. "Apparently he was impressed with our heroism downtown and wants us to join the ranks, officially."
Daunte snorted. "So, what? All that macho talk about us being kids was bullshit?"
"I assume it's better to have us under his thumb than to have us out there doing our own thing," Caroline said. " Especially since his son is apart of it. I think we should think about it."
"No fucking way," Racer said. He stopped massaging Daunte and crawled next to him. "We all have ranks in our own team and we have our own lair."
"We'd be Muggles if we joined them," Miss Matter said.
"And they'd probably give us cubicles," I snorted.
"My least favorite kind of shape," Jeremy added.
"Enough." Both Daunte and Caroline had silenced the room. "We'll vote on it when Keegan's back," Daunte said.
"You mean when he's stop hyperventilating?" Jeremy asked. "Because that might take a while. The guy just learned that he's in love with three different dudes, and that he has been betrayed by his best friend. I mean who would do such a thing to a guy? Lie and lie and lie to him and say he's in love with him?" He was smirking. Then he wasn't.
The door opened again and in walked Wren with a phone in his hand. He looked around at each of our faces. At Daunte, and me and then at Jeremy and realized we were dressed the same. His eyes bulged, and then they narrowed. Then he had Jeremy by the nose and pulling him out of the room while the Jer kept repeating "ow" in a nasally tone.
"Okay now that the annoying one is gone, can we discuss what we're going to do?" Anti-Freeze asked. "Should we recruit more?"
"Thickening our ranks with more teenagers?" Daunte asked. "That might not be the smartest move."
"Not all," Caroline said, the only adult in the room, even if she was just 20. "I have a friend who may be willing to join us with some lobbying. If you guys can find, I don't know, two more, then maybe we'd have enough to form a team and be an opposition to Superman and Co."
"There are the ice twins, but they're hard to control," I said. "They go to our school, and I'm the only one who actually knows about their abilities since one's in the choir with me."
"Great," Caroline said. "You and Keegan work on that."
"Keegan?" My eyes must've bulged.
"Yes, Keegan," she repeated. "I don't need any teen angst right now, so work with him and straighten out your friendship," she commanded. "Tell him you love him or not, it doesn't matter, just make nice with him, Donny." She looked me in the eyes. "Don't lose your best friend over something like this."
"Yeah, just tell him you love him and give it to him that grade A Asian sausage already," Racer said. Anti-Freeze laughed and Miss Matter turned a shade of pink. Caroline, not one to find humor in crude jokes, quieted us down.
Wren reentered the room with Jeremy by the ear, basically throwing him back inside before standing in the middle of it. "I don't know what's going in here, but whatever it is, it's messed up," he said. "That beings said, turn on the tv, Jeremy's father is about to speak."
I, standing closest to the set, turned it on and backed up so we all could see.
The Mayor was standing at a podium in the City Square with a thousand and one mics at his lips. Dianne was to the right of him in an off white suit, hands clasped in front of her and smiling into the crowd. "After a reported 19 million dollars in damage to the downtown area of our great city, and after the countless health problems arising from the siege, we find it just that the super villains caught are to stand trial for their actions," Heisenberg said.
"That's...not what I was expecting," Anti-Freeze murmured.
"It is also under the counsel of my advisers and the newly appointed Head of Security, Dianne, that I have also decided that the heroes involved in the destruction of our city not go unpunished. It is now that I have signed into law a The Superhero Accountability Bill that reads that either everyone involved comes forward and is tired and sentenced, or the head comes forward and is sentenced." He looked up into the screen. "Mr. Terrific, as head of the Council, I am making you fugitive of the state; either you come willingly or we will find and apprehend you. You will stand trial for your team's misdeeds and be sentenced."
Wren turned off the team. Pin drops.
Racer coughed. "Well, this is awkward."
A/N: This may be the only time I use a different POV for this book. I thought it just called for it. Keegan's POV returns next chapter, and until the end of the book, most likely.