Issue #3: "For Every Action..." Pt. 3

Martin Stein got up from his bed and began to massage his temples, hoping that it would coax the migraine headache he was feeling out of his head. He looked at a mirror and was amazed at how much he had aged in the past few days since the accident at the Hudson Nuclear Power Plant. It has to be the stress, Martin thought as he ran his palm across the graying two-day-old stubble that grew on his face.

Professor Stein had been on the verge of his greatest breakthrough with the creation of the Power Plant, only to have it all slip away when his former partner, Danton Black, went to the Nuclear Regulation Council and accused Martin of stealing his ideas. Since then, it had been one stress-filled day after another, with the situation compounded even more by the police, who had started to look at Martin as a suspect in the HNPP bombing.

Martin heard a thud on the door of his brownstone and began to make his way to the door. He rubbed his temples again and silently made a promise never to drink again. He replayed the previous night. After finding out that he was a suspect, and getting fired from the Hudson Power Company, Martin had come home and hit the bottle hard. He remembered vaguely that someone helped him up the stairs to his bedroom. Martin made a mental note to check to see if anything was missing from his house. After getting to his bed, Martin had awoken in an alley near the campus of Hudson University. Some kid had checked up on him to see if he was okay and called him a cab to take him home.

These blackouts worried Martin, as did the recurring dreams he was having since the accident. He dreamt about flamed-haired humanoids that could change matter to whatever they willed. These dreams were very surreal and they felt more like memories. He could recall every detail of every dream that he had had so far. He knew what the characters felt, what their personal lives were and how they acquired their powers. Maybe I should consider a career change into writing fiction, Martin thought to himself as he chuckled.

Professor Stein walked to his front door, opened it and picked up the paper that had made the thud against his door earlier. He gasped and jumped back, dropping the paper as he hit his elbow against the door. After grimacing and rubbing his elbow for a minute, he picked the paper up again. On the cover was a picture of New York’s newest hero, who was dressed in a yellow and red outfit with a sun on the left side of his chest and flaming hair. The Professor clutched his chest and knelt down. He took a couple of deep breaths to slow his heart rate, and composed himself before picking up the paper again.

It’s him, Professor Stein thought as he looked at the picture again.

“Welcome to Rho Alpha Theta,” Chapter President Tom Kuss said to all of the people who came to their house tour as a part of rush. The brothers guided the group into a large conference room with the Greek letters of the fraternity tiled into the floor. To the side, was a table with snacks and refreshments set up.

The president got in front of them and began to read from a prepared speech. Ronnie, not having much of an attention span, quickly lost interest and began looking at all of the pictures that were put up around the room. Ronnie came away impressed with some of the names he saw.

Sitting next to him was Jefferson Jackson, who was listening to what Tom had to say, but, after a while, joined Ronnie and looked at the pictures of the various alumni. This house is the one Jefferson really wanted to join. His father was a member of a Rho Alpha Theta chapter at Harvard and his friend Derrick from back home was the vice president of the Hudson chapter. Jefferson hoped that this would put him over the top and help him get in.

Ronnie was there mostly as a favor to Jefferson. Jefferson was pushing Ronnie to join with him, but Ronnie had no ambitions to join a house. After Tom had finished his speech, the group broke up into smaller groups and began to talk to other members or get some snacks and soda. Ronnie and Jefferson were part of the latter.

“So what do ya thnk?” Jefferson asked Ronnie.

“I don’t know man. They all say the same stuff. I don’t see a difference between any of them.

“Just wait until the party tonight,” Jefferson whispered. “The one they’re throwing for potential new brothers. Come with me tonight. I’ll make sure Derrick gets you in.”

“I don’t know, Doreen has this Justice League protest that she’s doing and…”

“Come on, dawg. You know you’d rather come to this party. Just tell her you promised you’d go with me before you knew about the protest and you won’t feel like killing yourself.” Ronnie thought about Jeff’s offer as the Rho Chi guides gathered everyone to go to the next house.

“Ronnie, why do you have to go with Jefferson to that fraternity party tonight?” Doreen Day asked her boyfriend as they sat on her bed watching television in her dorm room.

“When I promised him I would, I didn’t know that your big Justice League protest was going to be on the same night,” Ronnie said as he placed his head on her lap.

“Ronnie, you know how important it is that we have a good, vocal showing at this rally. The League are starting to organize themselves and that means it’s only an arm’s length away before we have to start kneeling before them,” Doreen said as she began to run her hands through Ronnie’s brown hair.

“Yeah, but the Justice League hasn’t done anything suspicious so far. They seem to be altruistic,” Ronnie countered. He was beginning to get tired of Doreen’s constant ranting and raving about superheroes, but he bit his tongue since he understood why she felt that way.

“What if that’s an act? What if they eventually decide that they would be better off governing us than we are? We can’t grow dependent on them and we have to let them know that. And it’s not just that. Who foots the bill from the property damage from the Teen Titans’ latest fight downtown? How can we hold someone responsible when their recklessness causes someone to be hurt or worse, because they wear a mask?”

“Okay,” Ronnie said as he picked his head up from her lap. “But if I’m Batman, I don’t want The Joker knowing who I could be, and possibly come home one day and find that crazy clown standing over my kid, beating him with a crowbar.”

“What about the cops who have to actually arrest him? And the correction officers that have to watch him in prison? The A.D.A.s that have to prosecute him? They don’t hide behind masks, they are held accountable, and they are the real heroes in this world. My father was worked vice for years without a mask and he paid the price for it because some super-powered psycho ambushed us at home.”

Ronnie held his tongue. He remembered that day when some wolf-like monster killed Mr. Day. Doreen had no problem holding him up as a martyr, and it was starting to grow old on Ronnie. If I wanted to be forced into a viewpoint through guilt, I’d go to mass.

“He was a real hero. Not some grandstanding glory hound, wearing a Halloween costume to keep from being held accountable, while he or she runs around acting like they know what’s best for the people.” Doreen wiped a tear from her eye as Ronnie got up from the bed. “Why are you disagreeing with me all of a sudden? I thought you and I believed in the same things.”

“I do… I mean, you bring up some good points, but I think that…” Ronnie hesitated as he grabbed the sides of his head and his face contorted in pain.

“Ronnie, are you okay?” Doreen asked as she moved toward him with a look of concern on her face.

“Yeah, it’s just…” Ronnie fell to one knee as a high-pitched noise entered his ears.

“Ronnie, you’re burning up,” Doreen said as she placed her hand on his forehead.

“I gotta go. I’ll call you later.” Ronnie ran out of Doreen’s room and down the hall to the men’s bathroom. Once he entered, an orange cloud of smoke enveloped him and he was gone.

Ronnie and his roommate Jefferson walked down Walnut Avenue towards the Rho Alpha Theta house. Walnut Avenue was known throughout the Hudson campus as Greek Row, as almost all of the Greek Letter Organizations had their houses on both sides of the street. Jefferson looked over to Ronnie and noticed that he had a disinterested look on his face. “Dawg, what’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing, man,” Ronnie said, putting his hands in his pockets. He wanted to tell Jefferson about that Danton guy that he fought earlier with the professor, but figured it was probably safer for him not to know. He decided to talk about the other thing he had on his mind. “It’s Doreen. She’s great and I don’t wanna sound like an ass, but ever since her father died, she’s been…”

“Bossy, overbearing, intolerant of other opinions, obsessed with superheroes…”

“Yeah… I mean, I want to be understanding and supportive, but…”

“Dawg, I just think you guys are growing apart. It happens, especially when you two are the only one the other has been with. It’s good that you’re coming out to the party. You’ll meet some new people, some new girls…”

“Dude, I’m not looking to cheat on Doreen-”

“I’m not saying that at all,” Jefferson interrupted as they reached the walkway to the Rho Alpha Theta house. “I’m just sayin’ just to have fun tonight. And besides, do you really want go to a party that’s just guys?”

“Point taken,” Ronnie said as they walked up to the front porch. All of the windows on the first floor were covered with black paper, so no one could see what was inside from the street, and as Ronnie and Jefferson made their way to the porch they could hear the voices of people inside and music blasting.

Jefferson knocked on the door and a curly-haired kid answered the door, wearing a shirt with the Rho Alpha Theta letters. He took a dirty look at Jefferson and said, “Sorry, you guys are going to have to get off our property. Private party.”

“We’re friends with Derrick Washington,” Jefferson said.

“Well, Derrick is kinda busy right now. So just take your-”

“Who’s at the door?” a voice from inside asked over the music. A lanky kid with cornrows popped through the door. “Jeff! What’s up, playa?”

“What’s up, D?” Jefferson greeted his hometown friend Derrick. “You remember Ronnie right?”

“Why, Ronnie, what’s up?” Derrick said shaking Ronnie’s hand. “Come on in man, the party’s bumpin’.”

Ronnie and Jefferson followed Derrick into the house, which was only illuminated by black and strobe lights. The place was packed with brothers of the fraternity, potential new members and members of the various sororities dancing. They made their way to the bar in the corner of the room where Derrick got drinks for Ronnie and Jefferson.

“I hope you guys enjoy yourselves and seriously consider joining our house,” Derrick shouted as he handed them the drinks.

“You know I’m down, D, but I’m not so sure about Ronnie,” Jefferson shouted as he took a sip of his drink.

“I think you’ll really like it, Ronnie.

“And of course the parties and chicks,” a provocatively-dressed blonde-haired blue-eyed girl said as she walked up to Derrick and planted a kiss on his lips.

“Oh yeah, did I mention the parties and chicks,” Derrick said as he wrapped his arms around the girl’s waist. Two other girls, a Latina and a redhead joined them, dressed in a similar manner to the blonde. “Why don’t you four get to know each other, while Lindsay and I take care of some personal stuff…” Derrick led the blonde girl upstairs, leaving Jefferson and Ronnie with the two girls.

“Let’s go downstairs and play beer pong,” the Latina said to Jefferson in a valley accent as she grabbed him and led him down to the basement.

“So, do you wanna dance?” the redhead asked Ronnie.

“I don’t know… I’m white, I have no rhythm.”

“You can’t be that bad,” she said as she grabbed Ronnie by the shirt and dragged him to the dance floor.

“You weren’t that bad,” the redhead said to Ronnie about his dancing.

“I don’t know, I think it must be the magic potion,” Ronnie said as he finished the rest of his drink.

“Yeah, it has the tendency of loosening people up.”

“So… I can’t believe we’re taking the same journalism classes,” Ronnie said. “I would think I’d notice someone as hot as you.”

“Well, maybe you’ll notice me now,” the redhead said as she kissed him.

“Mmm…” Ronnie mumbled as he broke the kiss off. “Uh… you wanna go downstairs and play beer pong?”

“How about we go upstairs and find an empty room instead?”

“I… kinda have a girlfriend…” Ronnie said, uncomfortable with the situation.

“I’m not looking for a relationship,” the red-head replied. After an awkward silence, she placed her finger across Ronnie’s lips. “Why don’t I get us new drinks before we decide what we want to do?”

Ronnie watched her as she made her way to the bar, keeping her eyes on her backside as she went. You love Doreen, he kept repeating to himself in his head, before he heard a loud, high-pitched noise and cupped his ears. Ronnie heard a lot of commotion coming from the front of the house as the noise grew louder and louder. He turned and saw a man dressed in a black suit with glowing green lights, and in his hands, which were glowing orange, he held a lifeless body.

“Danton…” Ronnie whispered.

“Ronald…”