Superboy Jamie and the Ninja Guardians

Chapter 2: Ethan

Chapter 2: Ethan


My appreciation for my friends and the purpose of our group had taken on a whole new meaning on the day we met Ethan. Ethan had come to the cafeteria with a twenty-Dollar bill in his pocket, and he was showing it off during lunch. The word had spread, and he was marked.

Jace, Stan, Pete and Chris had decided that they were going to pocket some extra cash from Ethan and split the earnings four-ways once they had robbed the cash from their victim. The four thugs, two of them were football players and the other two were on the soccer team, marched together down the hall, prowling for their poor victim. Once they spotted Ethan standing by his locker all alone, two boys split up and walked around the hallway so the approached the lockers from the other side, cutting off any escape route.

“Hey, hey, hey… if it isn’t the rich dude…” Stan sneered, as he approached Ethan from the side.

Ethan had just closed the locker and turned the combination lock, when he looked up and saw Stan and Jace standing before him, with their hands in their jeans pockets.

Ethan took a step back and turned around, where he saw Chris and Pete approaching him from the other end of the hall, blocking the other way. He knew right away that he was trapped.

“What… What d-d-do y-y-you guys want?” he stuttered, knowing that a meeting with these four guys could never be a good thing since he was seriously outnumbered.

“Enough of the bullshit, Ethan…” Stan said calmly, as he reached out his hand and wiggled his fingers. “Gimme the cash…”

This was a tough school district with a lot of minority students and students from tough, challenging and diverse backgrounds. A kid like Ethan suddenly came to the realization that not everyone in school had money to show around and that it was a very stupid thing for him to bring that much money to school in the first place. But he wasn’t about to just hand over the money that easily, either. At least, not without a fight! Unfortunately for him, he was outnumbered four-to-one. Maybe he could lay his way out of this?

“I don’t have it anymore….”

For a few brief seconds, Stan and Jace just stared at him with grins on their faces. But these grins quickly turned to rage, when Jace and Pete reached out and they each grabbed hold of Ethan’s arms and they slammed the boy against the steel doors of the lockers.

SLAMMM!!!

Then, they pulled Ethan forward and held on to him for a brief moment, before they hurled him with his back against the lockers for a second time, at full-force!

SLAMMMM!!!!

“Urrrrggghh!!!” Ethan groaned, as every bone and every muscle in his body hurt, from his legs to his neck!

Stan and Jace pulled Ethan forward for the third time, and they were about to hurl his body against the lockers, when they heard my voice shouting out to them.

“HOLD IT!”

Before Stan and Jace could even say anything, Raja and Hiroki were all over them!

“HAAIIIYAH!” Hiroki screamed, as he soared through the air to deliver a huge kick to Stan’s shoulder, knocking him to the floor. Raja came right to the other side of Ethan and grabbed hold of Jace’s arm, and he hurled him over his own shoulder and tossed him through the air, until Jace landed on his back on the other side of the hall, cringing in pain!

Maska delivered a round-house kick to Chris’ face, spinning around in a full circle until his right foot slammed into the boy’s face, knocking him to the floor. When Chris was down, Maska stood, with his legs spread and his fists raised, bouncing on the balls of his feet, as Chris slowly got up. Chris then tried to attack Maska with his fist, but Maska spun around a second time, delivering another massive blow to his attacker’s face, knocking him down a second time. This time, Chris didn’t have the energy to stand up, since his head felt like it was about to explode!

Lastly, Rasul grabbed hold of Pete’s arm and hurled HIM against the row of lockers! This left Pete in a daze for just a brief moment, until he used the lockers to push off and charge straight at his attacker! Rasul saw Pete coming straight towards him, and used a quick martial arts technique to grab hold of Pete’s arm and to block his legs using his own right leg. This sent Pete flying across the hallway until he landed a few feet on the concrete, finally slamming into the wall. Pete was out cold when his body hit the wall.

Poor Ethan had slumped to the floor with his back against the row of lockers. His entire body hurt. He was barely able to open his eyes and see what was going on. I came over and squatted down next to him. And all this was over a stupid twenty Dollars.

“Are you alright?” I asked him.

“Yeah… Thanks… Thanks for protecting me… You guys saved my life…” Ethan whispered to me.

Several teachers came running towards the lockers and we were all sent to the Principal’s office. It was the same thing as usual. We all got suspended for two days. So, we all met up at our Dojo. It was probably the most important meeting we had ever had since we formed the group, which started around the beginning of the school year.

The five of us put on our white robes and we sat on the ground at our Dojo. I had a notepad and a pen in my hands, since I felt like the time had come to put some things in writing.

“Oyé, you guys, I realized something really important today at school…” I said to my best friends as they all stared at me while we sat in a small circle on the floor. “I think we have a new purpose for the school year!”

“A new purpose? For all of us?” Rasul wondered.

“Yeah… We’re all fighters! We’re all Ninjas! We can defend ourselves and we can stand up and fight to protect ourselves from the thugs and bullies at school… Those idiots like Stan and Pete and Chris and Jace…” I began to explain.

“I hate them! They’re so stupid!” Maska fired off. “They have been picking on me since the day I came here!”

“Well, you’re one of us now! But, at first, we had to help you fight them! The bullies are still there and they won’t go away! But… Not everyone can defend themselves from those thugs like we do…” I continued.

“Yeah… Look what they did to Ethan… All over money!” Rasul said while feeling downcast. “And Ethan is one of my best friends!”

“There are many other guys at school, who are just like Ethan… Kids who can’t protect themselves! So, we need to protect them! We need to help them! We know martial arts and we can fight to help them!” I said to them excitedly. “We need to make a list of all the kids who get bullied at school, and we need to protect them from the bullies and we need to fight for them if they become attacked!”

“But… Why us? If we keep on fighting then we keep on getting detention from the teachers!” Hiroki replied.

“I don’t care! I want to do it! I feel like… I need to do it in order to redeem myself for my father’s… err, for Marcos’ crimes! Marcos has abused and hurt me and my mother for years, and I feel like this is a way I can make up for it. I want to do this! Are you guys with me?” I said to them in a loud voice.

“I’m in!” Hiroki said, right away. “It’s like being a cop, but in school!”

“I’m in!” Rasul said. “We need to protect the weak and the helpless!”

“I’m in!” Maska added. “I hate those bullies!”

“I’m in!” Raja shouted. “We’ll be like the guardian angels of East Side Middle School!”

“Good!” I said with a smile, writing on the notepad. “I added Ethan’s name to the top of the list. Any new student, or any student who seems weak or helpless or timid or shy, who can be an easy target for the bullies, will go on our watch-list!”

“Awesome! I think we should call ourselves the ‘Ninja Guardians!’” Hiroki shouted.

I just nodded in agreement. I had the group with me, and they were all on my side. Now, we just had to see who we needed to watch and protect the most…


I love to write about science fiction and fantasy.