Note: I haven't watched Static Shock since 2008 or so and I don't remember much of it at all and I apologise for inconsistencies etc. etc. This technically takes place after Power Outage and the characters are 18 and starting University, which I'm assuming is about 2 years after Power Outage, is my take on it all. Well, yeah, we'll just see how well this turns out, to be honest. It's just all in good fun, not really thinking much so yeah.

"Dakota City University!" Richie exclaimed, walking with a skip in his step as they strolled down the path towards the main courtyard, where the stalls were open asking for new Undergrads to join their recreation clubs. "It's amazing, don't you think?"

"I just think it's great we can come to University without having to leave home, Rich," Virgil said, laughing, glancing at some of the more interesting clubs, "I mean, seriously. Dorm life just isn't for me."

"Yeah, neither," Richie replied, checking out a pamphlet he was handed on the Robotics club, "Still, V, I'm glad we're here. We're Uni students, man, we're one step closer to adulthood."

"Richie, I have more responsibility than a lot of adults put together," he laughed.

"Don't give me that, V. You haven't had to put on your suit for like a good 6 months."

"Nothing happens anymore that warrants Static, you know?"

"Yeah, I know."

"Anyway, what class do we have first?"

"Why are you asking 'we' as if we take the same course, V."

"Dude, I'm doing Applied Sciences and Mathematics, and you're doing Robotic Engineering and Mathematics. I'm pretty sure we have a Maths lecture together."

"Let me check," he said, pulling out his paper timetable.

"Shit, man, you haven't gotten that wired yet?"

"Dude, I'm working on it."

"Man you work slow," Virgil laughed.

"Shh," he said, "Yes, we do have a Maths lecture together. Today, in fact. Our professor is Dr Aaron Lee."

"What's the Dr stand for?"

"Uhm, doctor."

"Richie I don't need your sass," Virgil said, nudging his friend in the shoulder, "What's his PhD for?"

"Yeah, I don't know," he said, "We'll have to find out."

They arrived in the large lecture hall. It was no auditorium, no, but it was big enough to hold about 40 students with a desk each. People had already taken seats in the front, so Richie and Virgil sat nearer the middle. In front of the class was a large whiteboard and a few pens, and a large mahogany desk for the professor. As the students filed in, Virgil noticed a young man on a desk in the front writing what seemed to be an essay. He nudged his friend in the arm, who turned and threw him some seriously annoyed looks.

"Hey man," Virgil said, pointing at the man in the front, "Look how keen that guy is."

"Hey, didn't you do the assigned reading?"

"For Maths? No, man, no."

"Well, yeah, neither. There wasn't any. That guy's just keen."

Soon enough, the lecture hall was filled with all kinds of people of all ethnicities, from White Americans to Black Americans to Asian Americans, to South Americans and to all sorts of people Virgil had yet to encounter back in school. There were some kids he recognised from being from Dakota Union High, but others he had never even seen roaming the streets.

"Alright," came a booming voice from the front. The students looked around to find the source, and Virgil's eyes set on the young man shuffling about with his papers. He stood up, gathered all the sheets, and walked to the front of the lecture hall. He was a man of decent height, about 5'6" or 5'7" from what Virgil would guess, and had short black hair that spiked up

"Hey everyone, I'm Dr Aaron Lee," he introduced, placing his sheets on the mahogany desk and picking up a pen to write his name on the whiteboard. "You can call be Dr Lee. If you're wondering, my PhD is in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, along with a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering. I studied in MIT, and I've been teaching in Dakota University for 3 years now. Anyway," he said, taking out a clipboard from one of the desks with a paper and a pen attached, "This is a rather simplified drawing of the classroom layout, and I want you to write your name on the seat you are at. This will be your seat for the rest of the year. If you have a preferred name, write it down, and I will be calling out roll call as that goes around."

The thing Virgil noticed about his professor was just how young he was. He seemed only in his early twenties, and as he lectured he would go off into tangents about other unnecessary theorems and sciences to which the students would have to pull him back into the right track. When the lecture was over, Virgil was exhausted from the sheer amount of effort needed to maintain focus on the maths.

"Man, that professor is nutty," Richie said, laughing, "How'd you find it, V?"

"It was alright," he replied, "I mean, I don't think I have any other lectures today, so I'm gonna head back."

"Yeah, I got a mechanics lecture, so I'll catch up with you later."

"I'll just do my rounds, yeah?"

"Yeah, don't get into too much trouble, I mean wow crime right?" he laughed, and Virgil nudged him in the arm. "Alright, V, alright. See ya."

He was looking behind him, waving off Richie as he started walking off, and before he could look where he was going he bumped straight into another person, stumbling backwards and falling down. He shook his head and was about to tell the person to watch where they were going when he realised the person gathering up all of their fallen books was his Mathematics professor.

"Dr Lee!" he exclaimed, quickly moving to help catch the stray sheets of paper and books, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to."

"Oh, it's fine," he said. He reached over to take his papers, but his hand missed, grazing instead the back of Virgil's hand. Virgil felt the sharp twang of energy surge up his arm, and both parties pulled their hands back in shock. "Oh," Dr Lee grumbled, shaking his hand, "Static."

Virgil laughed, "Yeah, static. Dunno how that happened."

"Well, static happens because of friction, if you want it in layman's terms, but-"

Virgil cut the professor off by handing him the books and standing up again, "Well, professor. Sorry to be rude but I have something to attend to."

"Oh, alright Mr Hawkins," he said, nodding at the teen as he rushed off, "Don't get hurt."

Virgil rushed off, ducking into the nearest alleyway he could find, which just happened to be near Dakota's shady Chinatown. He had never been there before, nor had he ever wanted to go there. It was a haunt for all the Asian students in DCU, but there were plenty of rumours about muggings and murders in the area. Not that the rest of Dakota was necessarily the safest, Virgil just thought that Chinatown was a much scarier place to die. He glanced at his hand, clenching it into a fist, and then unclenching it. The graze he had with his professor was more than just a bit of a static shock. Still, he shook his head and geared up. He would do his rounds about the city and forget about that awkward moment with the professor.

He decided to walk through Chinatown while suited up. He wanted to scope out the place. Chinatown was a rather new addition to Dakota, yet it was already looking rather rundown. There were signs in a foreign language he didn't understand, along with all kinds of people loitering around smoking. He was not a fan of just how shady such a brightly lit place could be.

"Oi, Static!" a voice shouted from the side. He walked briskly over to see where it was coming from, only to be grabbed by a hand and pulled into a dark corner. He only had a moment to identify the situation, realising it was a tall, skinny, purple haired East Asian holding him at knifepoint with a light-purple energy blade for an arm. Being in such close contact, he could hear the buzz of the energy around the man's arm.

"Shiv," he stated. The other man laughed, bringing the blade dangerously close to his neck. Without a second thought, he shot a spark of electricity at the bang baby, propelling both of them backwards. Static hit the wall behind him, and he heard the clatter of trashcans as Shiv collided with them with a harsh twang.

"Hero," the purple haired man laughed, picking himself up again and forming his energy blades again, "Oh, I never thought I'd catch you in this part of town. I mean, what's a black guy doing in the Asian sector."

"Just dropping by, Shiv," he said lightheartedly, standing up as well, "I never thought I'd see your ugly mug again. I mean, I thought you lost your powers with the rest of the Metabreed."

"I did," he said, "But I got them back, and man do I feel better than ever." Then, in what seemed to be a single second, Shiv was right in front of Static, nose to nose, with his blade digging into the brick wall next to the teen's head. Static took a deep breath, trying to ignore the loud whirring of energy in his left ear. "You know, I've been wondering where you've been, Hero. I've missed playing around, you know?"

"Well, come on," Static said, laughing awkwardly as he gestured around, "Chinatown's a fun place. Isn't it, Shiv? Are you Chinese?"

"No," he stated, frowning, digging the blade deeper into the brick wall, "I'm Japanese, you piece of shit."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he said, raising his hands in front of him, "No need to get touchy, I didn't mean to be rude. Come on, Shiv, come on. You can put this all behind you. I can help you to get better."

"You're gonna try to take my powers away from me," he growled. The shift from the laughing, carefree young man Static remembered before the second Big Bang seemed to have completely disappeared, leaving behind the confused, hysteric mess that was in front of him. "And I don't want that, Hero. You messed up my life, you know? You destroyed everything that I had."

"Hey, man, if you're talking about Ebon, he brought it upon himself. I mean, I tried to -" Static was cut off as the blade on Shiv's other hand dug right into the wall next to his right shoulder. He took a deep breath and shook his head. No sudden movements, he told himself, he didn't want to startle the already on-edge bang baby.

"I'll cut you into so many little pieces, it'll be funny," he laughed, "Come on, Hero, hit me with your best shot."

Static was about to shoot another bolt of electricity, when Shiv was thrown back. He stared in shock, and maybe a little bit of horror, as Shiv's blades dissipated and his muscles spasmed from the shock. He looked at his own hands, no, he hadn't shot anything, so it wasn't him. He saw electrical sparks out of the corner of his eye, and as he turned, he watched a body form in front of him, sparking with the energy of electricity. It was a masked man in a tight fighting suit and a coat on top. The man glanced towards Shiv as he convulsed, then to Static.

"You know," the mystery man said, voice robotic, low, and modulated, "I guess you can say that there's more than one shocker in this city. Maybe you should leave, Static, before you overstay your welcome."

"Whoa, alright there, thanks," he said, pulling out his saucer, zapping it to fold it out and flying off. The quicker he was out of there the better. He pulled out his shock box from his belt and tried to get through to Richie.

"Hello?" came the slightly muffled voice of Richie through the receiver, "What's up V?"

"Hey man, I just had a run in in Chinatown."

"What, no way."

"Are you busy right now?"

"I have a lecture starting in a half hour, so I guess I am. I'm just drinking coffee though."

"Rich, I ran into Shiv."

"No kidding."

"Dude, he's gotten faster and better. I have never been that close to any of his blades before today, and man I nearly died."

"How'd you get out of there then?"

"Some other bang baby showed up, all decked out in spandex and shit, also had electric powers," he explained, "But get this, he just appeared out of nowhere. He zapped Shiv back, and there was no one there, and then there were these crazy electric sparks and they just formed into this guy. I was like holy shit I want to be able to do that."

"Too bad you can't, V," he laughed, "Come on, V. Shiv was never a threat. He was always the scapegoat of the Metabreed."

"Yeah, but I guess without Ebon to lead him, he's taken everything to his own accord, and it's scary."

"Dude, the guy's mental. He's a nutjob. Let's just move on and maybe you can deal with him some other time, and then we'll put him in the slammer so they can, you know, fix him."

"You mean get rid of his powers?"

"Well, he's dangerous. But what I meant was mentally, you know? I'm pretty sure the gas messed him up."

"Yeah, well, have fun listening to boring stuff, man."

"You too, V."

Static hung up and sighed, flying through to the main city and patrolling the area. Nothing was to be found, as expected. Crime had dropped significantly after the bang baby antidote was administered. Life had been easy for the past two years, but Static still felt uneasy. Especially about that new tight suit wearing guy he just bumped into. Was he about to meet a hero or a villain, he had no clue, but at least he was still alive and in one piece.