Luthor family’s new world order

chapter 4: halloween (part 2 of 2)

But the fun was cut short when 15 racist students (Kenny Li, Rick Malverne, Vicki Donahue, Josie, Barry Allen, Caitlin Snow, Ralph Dibny, Cecille Horton, Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, Roy Harper, Alena Whitlock, Sara Lance, Ray Palmer, Thea Queen) walked by, the leader of the group having the gall to dress up like a Nazi (well, technically, it wasn’t a Nazi costume, but it looked so similar to one that the inspiration for the costume was obvious). The other 14 wore similarly dark and disturbing outfits, a few of them dressed up like mad scientists and others dressed up like Nazis soldiers and Nazis officers with guns. A couple of them, the mad scientists, even wore signs on their lab coats that read “Alien Dissection Experts”.
“What horrible costumes!” Kara cried out in dismay, taking a step backward as they moved closer.
“Thanks!” their twisted leader Oliver Queen grinned. He looked eerily proud of himself and his crew.
“That wasn’t a compliment!” Alex came to Kara’s defense, scowling bravely up at the boy dressed as Nazi.
“What? It’s Halloween! Can’t I have a little fun?” he asked. “It’s not like I’m a real Nazi! It’s just a costume!”
“You’d be surprised how much like a face a mask can become,” Alex replied darkly, crossing her arms as she looked the boy up and down. “That costume really is in bad taste and you shouldn’t have worn it.”
“It’s just a costume!” he protested. “It’s not hurting anyone! It’s just a bit of fake cloth! I’m only going to wear it for pretend. It’s just for Halloween! Like I said, I won’t wear it all the time!”
“A costume says a lot about a person,” Alex repeated calmly, though her voice was as cold and hard as ice. “It says what the person wanted to look like, it says what the person wanted to emulate, and it says just how far that person was willing to go in order to achieve that goal, and what his or her idea of success was…”
“I told you, I am not a real Nazi! It’s just a fake, pretend Halloween thing!” the boy in the costume repeated patiently, but it was clear that neither of the Danvers sisters believed him. Like Alex had said, a mask could easily become a face, and a costume like that was never done “just for fun”. If this boy was dressing like a Nazi, he was either already secretly one, or planning to become one, even if he didn’t yet know it. A costume said a lot about the wearer, and their mind and subconscious thoughts and feelings.
“Besides, he ain’t a regular Nazi!” another girl in the group piped up. “He’s a Bounty Hunter! He travels across the galaxy protecting us and keeping Earth safe from outside invasion!”
“Well that’s even worse!” Alex snapped, arms still crossed. “You’re promoting a galaxy-based genocide with that kind of talk!” she continued. But Kara did not stick around to hear the reply, the stress and strain of having to speak with these students proving too much for her.
While Alex willingly ripped into all of them, Kara turned tail and fled, tears burning in her eyes.
“Wait!” Alex cried after her sister, anger instantly turning into concern. Then, with one last scowl at the other students, the elder Danvers sister went sprinting after the younger Danvers. Cruel laughter followed her as she ran across the neighborhood and after Kara.
An hour later, Alex had successfully managed to find Kara and bring her home. It was obvious she had been badly shaken and upset by the earlier encounter, but Alex couldn’t blame her. It had been pretty scary. And it was made even worse by the fact that Alex had known those kids. Although they were a few years older and, thusly, attended the high school and not the middle school, Alex still knew them. She had seen them around before. And two or three of them even lived in the neighborhood! That was the saddest, scariest part, that three of these violently racist and xenophobic people could be Alex’s own neighbors and acquaintances.
And of course, poor Kara was afraid because she had come to see Earth as a safe and friendly home for her, but with each passing day, as the rumors and whispers grew louder and louder, she began to feel less and less certain…
But as cruel as the world seemed to be getting, there was still some goodness and hope in it. The school district was having a large costume party the following night and, naturally, the Danvers sisters attended. They brought their Alexia Ashford and Claire Redfield costumes back out of the closet and, thanks to a ride from their mother, made it to the school just in time for the costume competition. It felt as though everyone else in all of the schools had come too, and the Danvers sisters saw costumes from every book, show, movie and game imaginable. They saw Harry Potter, Zelda, Mario characters, Disney Princesses, witches, ghouls, skeletons, zombies, vampires, cartoon characters, superheroes… and the boy dressed up as a “Bounty Hunter”.
“Alex! He’s here!” Kara whimpered, gripping her sister’s arm as she pointed to the boy and his gang.
“The nerve of him!” Alex hissed, smile fading into a scowl at once. But luckily, he and his friends were quickly removed from the competition for the offensive costume.
“Serves him right!” Alex humphed when she saw him and his buddies forced to leave the school. They all looked sullen and angry, each of them having tried their best to argue their way back into the competition. Luckily, though, the common crowd had enough sense to remove them immediately.
“I told him his costume was offensive!” Alex continued as she and Kara watched him slink out of the school angrily. He had, once again, tried to argue that his costume was not technically that of a Nazi (because he didn’t have the Swastika) but even the youngest in the costume competition could tell what he was trying to emulate.
With him gone, the school district’s Halloween party carried on like normal, leaving everyone, especially the Danvers sisters, in far better spirits than before. But that wasn’t even the best thing that happened that night! The two girl actually managed to win part of the costume competition!
“And the winner for Most Unique Costume goes to… Alex and Kara Danvers!!” the announcer had bellowed.
“OMG we won!!!” Alex shrieked in delight. She and Kara shared a happy embrace as they danced around cheerfully. All around them, other people were applauding. But it was true! A lot of the other costumes were rather cliche and banal, or nondescript. But the Danvers had been the only people there to choose characters from Resident Evil. And their costumes were fairly good as well! So by virtue of being the only people in the entire school district to have Resident Evil costumes, Alex and Kara won that part of the competition. It was a wonderful night! And plus, since it was a Halloween party, they gained even more candy, as if the previous night’s Trick-or-Treating hadn’t already done that.
“You can never have too much candy!” Alex cried gleefully as she and her sister devoured their way through all the food and sweets available at the party. Kara’s mouth was so full she couldn’t agree verbally, but the enthusiastic nodding of her head was more than enough to get the point across. Halloween was starting to become Kara’s favorite day of the year!