Armor of Innocence

A/N: I don't own Static Shock, Ronin Warriors characters or Nintendo. I wasn't paid to write this, it was just for fun, so don't sue! Just in case you're wondering RW is under anime.

So, what happens when this Japanese teacher comes to Dakota High? Static and Gear have their work cut out for them as armored foes take the streets and they have to dawn this new armor.

Ok to the Story: The Teacher

Virgil and Ritchie dreaded the first day of school. It would mean the end of sleeping in, the end of running off whenever they heard a police report on a meta-human, and the end of eating junk food that won't attack you from a vending machine. However, a perfect time for them to catch up on their sleep in history, who needs it anyway, right? The duo ran in along with several others students right on the bell, flopped into the back row seats, trying to catch their breath.

"Next time… I'll set my alarm clock than have Sharon wake me up late again!" said Virgil leaning back in his chair.

Ritchie rested his head on his desk. "Hey, at least you have someone to wake you!" He sat up. "I even set Backpack to wake me up and it didn't even go off." He dropped his head on the desk face first, hitting with more impact than intended.

"Dude, didn't that hurt?"

"Yes." Ritchie raised his head nursing his nose.

"Uh…" Virgil looked up at the teacher finding his appearance rather odd, "Do Asian guys usually have blond hair?"

The Teacher looked up, "No my father's American, I inherited those genes from him." He said surprising Virgil, "anyways, I am Mr. Date I'll be teaching the class this year. Watch what you say because I have pretty good hearing."

"Great we're getting taught by a teacher named after a fruit." Virgil whispered.

"Or a certain period in time," said Ritchie.

"Is that a pun?" Virgil asked.

All the girls just sighed as the new teacher wrote his name on the bored. All the guys just rolled their eyes. Mr. Date gave an annoyed sigh. Virgil glance at Daisy shocked to see her and Frieda doing the same.

"Looks like you might have some competition there V."

Virgil crumpled up a piece of paper and threw it at Ritchie for the comment. He just let it bounce off his head, still nursing his nose.

The classroom orientation began, boring as usual. Virgil and Ritchie started talking to each other low enough so that the teacher couldn't possibly hear them. That didn't work as the Teacher slapped Virgil's desk, getting their attention along with startling the rest of the class.

"Am I boring you two?" Mr. Date asked.

"Uh, no sir," They quickly said.

"Good. Then do you mind telling me what I was talking about?"

Ritchie decided to guess, "Duh… um… notebooks and… pencils?"

"Good… So you were paying attention, now would one of you mind reading the next line?"

"I will!" Virgil volunteered and looked down at his desk and no paper, "Uh…?"

Mr. Date waited a moment and said, "If you two had been paying attention you would know; I would talk about my rules first, and then hand you your orientation papers for your parents to sign, near the end of the hour."

"Sorry, it won't happen again."

Mr. Date walked off and Daisy elbowed Virgil, "See! Now you got him mad!"

"I got him mad?" Virgil looked confused.

Halfway through class Virgil couldn't keep his eyes open. Then kept getting poked on his side—annoying—it was probably just Ritchie, therefore, ignored it. The poking wouldn't cease and he continued to ignore it. Until he was startled awake by another slap on the desk.

"Sleeping through my class?" Mr. Date said staring at Virgil through his glasses with his only visible eye.

"Sorry, you see I didn't get enough sleep last night…" Virgil trailed off getting a weird feeling staring into that hard intimidating eye. Was it fear? He gulped as Mr. Date finally turned away.

"Sleep at home not in my class."

Virgil silently mocked him. Suddenly his vision was blocked and felt a momentary sting on the forehead, "What the?"

"Detention after school Mr. Hawkins," Mr. Date sighed.

Ritchie chuckle, "Ha, strike three V."

Virgil yanked the slip off his forehead sinking into his seat pouting.

After school Virgil had to write "I will not fall asleep in class, again." on the chalk bored one-hundred times. He grumbled under his breath as his wrist started getting tired, stopping for a moment to shake it off. "You know this is a bit old fashion, considered cruel and unusual."

"Its old fashion but very effective." Mr. Date said not looking away from his book. "You remind me of someone but I can't seem to put my finger on it," and turned the page.

"Man this is whack!" and continues with the punishment.

"Hey if it makes you feel any better Foley's just outside the door."

Virgil yells, "Hey Ritchie!"

"NO!" Ritchie cried and stepped into the doorway with a Game Boy in hand, "Do you have any idea on how long it took me to get to that level?" He narrowly yelled, "You just killed Mario!"

"What are you still doing here?"

"I was bored, 'sides wouldn't be much fun without you."

"Not having much fun right now."

"This isn't social time," Said Mr. Date turning to the two, "get back to work."

"Gees sorry," Said Ritchie and took a seat continuing to play. "So, uh since I'm not here for detention can I ask a few questions?"

"So long as they don't get too personal."

"O.k. then what country are you originally from?"

"Japan."

"Oh cool do they like really have Grave yards on top of the buildings?"

"Yes, but not on all of them."

"What did you do there on your time off?"

"I played the bamboo flute, trim by bonsai trees, read, I did flower arranging-"

"Flower arranging?" Virgil cut him off and started to laugh, Mr. Date glared at him.

"Hey V, I wouldn't be laughing if I were you. Usually when guys do flower arranging it means they're pretty good with a sword."

"Say what?" Virgil saw Mr. Date's glasses glare and nervously cleared his throat, proceeding with the punishment.

"Is there anything else you would like to ask Mr. Foley?" Mr. Date asked.

"Hey Mr. Foley's my dad I'm just Richard or preferably Ritchie. Any specific reason why you are here?"

"To teach."

"Uh… can you be more specific?"

"I needed a change from the crowd. Here it seems more peaceful and less crowded. Anyway I plan to visit a few friends later. One is in New York visiting his Uncle; another is in L.A. training some orca."

"A what?"

"Oh, orca… it's a killer whale. There is also another in Phoenix, I forgot why he's there; last Rowans in still in Japan helping a friend."

"Ah!" Virgil yelled, "Am I done yet?" He shook his sore wrist.

Mr. Date skimmed around the room, "That's all right for now. The two of you can go home I think it's time to call it a day." He closed his book and stood up.

"One more question," Said Ritchie, "What's your first name?"

"Date, or do you mean my name?"

"Uh…yeah."

"Sage."

"Sage Date? That's kind of odd."

Virgil quickly grabbed his backpack and Ritchie and ran for the door, "Bye Mr. Date see ya tomorrow!" then he let go of Ritchie, "Glad to be outta there."

"V! You dragged me out of there so fast I forgot the Game Boy!"

"You… Forgot my Game Boy Advanced?" Virgil stood in disbelief, then turned around and stomped back to class.

"Hey, I can go back for it if you don't want to!" Ritchie yelled.

Along the way Virgil stopped in his tracks, watching as a tiny green orb mysteriously rolled down the hall, and came to a stop at his feet. It had a strangely familiar symbol glowing on it. He crouched to pick it up, getting a better look at it. "This is a weird marble." He entered the room still examining the orb.

Mr. Date had his back turned staring out the window.

Slowly and quietly, Virgil walked over to the desk with the Game Boy and grabbed it. Then he turned to the symbol, allowing his curiosity to get the better of him to ask, "Uh… Mr. Date?"

Mr. Date turned around, "I thought you left."

"Um yeah, I came to get my Game Boy and I found this rolling around down the hall." Shows him the marble, "Any idea what it said?"

"How'd this thing get away?" He takes it for closer examination. "It says Grace, or it can even be interpreted as wisdom."

Virgil cocked a quizzical eyebrow, "Aren't you a little old to be playing with marbles?"

"Aren't you running a little late?" Mr. Date said with some irritation.

"Uh, yeah guess I am, Bye!" Virgil sprinted out the room. "Come on Ritchie let's go!" He yelled running through the halls.

"I thought so." Mr. Date smirked putting the marble back in his pocket.

Off the school grounds the duo decided to wonder around for a bit before really deciding on what to do next.

"Finally the day is over and now it's time to relax," said Ritchie.

"Easy for you to say, now I have to tell my Pops why I had to stay after school." Said Virgil.

"Or you could just hide out till curfew. In the mean time how about starting off with a comic book run before going on patrol?"

"Good idea." They turned the corner, "Hey!"

"What the?!" Ritchie stood horrified at the sight of samurai armored guys ravaging their favorite comic book store, "No not the good comics!"

"Naw, they're running away with all the new issues!"

They look at each other and nod and run off to change to become Static and Gear!

The duo flew all over the armored guys looking down at them, "So how many do you think there are?" Static asked.

"It's hard to tell, maybe a little over 200…"

"200! That's it?"

"Maybe more, the weird thing is they are not reading on backpacks scanners. It's like they're not even there."

Static shrugged as if it was nothing. "Well," and popped his fingers, "Time to get to work."

They went there separate ways and Gear threw his special cement goo, while Static magnetized one getting a few stuck together in a ball. "This is too easy." Said Static extending his arms away from each other, tearing the armored guys apart, "Huh?" he flew in closer and cautiously to the debris. "They're empty." Static looked around, "Hey Gear!" He called, "They're empty!"

"What?" Gear landed next to Static checking the debris, "Then what the heck is keeping them up?"

"Get them!" The Armored guys yelled dog-piling on the two.

"Ah! For them being empty," Gear grunted under the weight, "they're pretty heavy."

"Gear! Where are you?" Static yelled as he looked around but only saw green everywhere. What was worse, the clanging of metal drowned out any sound and probably couldn't hear.

Static gathered his energy and stretched letting out a blast throwing all of them off. Then concentrated and fixed his power on every individual one and ripped them apart. "Gear!"

"Right here," Gear sat up rubbing his lower back, "I don't get it," Gear took Static's offered hand getting up, "Why were they here?"

"Probably another meta-human around somewhere?"

"Ooh hey look!" Gear retrieved a comic, "All the new issues are in!"

The two sat in the middle of the street reading comic books until the store clerk finally stumbled out of hiding, "They're gone?" he turns to the two, "Hey you better pay for those!"

"We got money!" Static yelled.

Gear's backpack went off, "Uh-oh, Backpack detected a meta-human attack."

"No, and I was just getting into the comic!" Static whined.

The store clerk cleared his throat, tapping his foot.

"Oh yeah." Gear stood up and paid the guy.

"Here keep the change!" Static threw his money flying off. "Where to Gear?"

"You won't believe this!"

They flew over to Burger Fool finding it was also over run by the same guys.

"Burger Fool!" Said Static. "Why attack there?"

"Maybe someone messed up their order?" Gear flew up and threw down the goop.

"Hey will you two quit following me around!" Hotstreak yelled as Daisy and Frieda followed close behind.

"I know we're crazy for following you," Said Frieda, "but it'd be even crazier to stay back there with them!"

They ran to the end of an alley, "It's a dead end!" Daisy announced.

"Out of my way!" Hotstreak turned around and melted a few of the Armored guys.

"Hey! Watch where you're aimin'!" Static yelled.

"I said out of my way!"

"Frieda? …Daisy?"

"Static!" They both said happily.

"Mind tellin' me what happened?"

"Those things just attacked without warning!" Said Frieda.

"More like they popped out thin air," said Daisy.

"Okay" Static flew off, "stay here!"

"Hey!" Hotstreak yelled, "You're not leaving them here with me!"

Static grabbed the armored guys as before and balled them up into one huge metallic sphere. Gear threw a Freeze cap and Static let go allowing the ball to shatter.

"Static!" Gear called, "look at that!"

"What's that weird smoke coming out of them?"

"Backpack, scan smoke," Gear commanded and in an instant received his results. "This is… weird," He skimmed, "all of a sudden backpack is detecting an ectoplasm reading."

"Meaning?"

"Not sure if you'll believe this but…" Gear wasn't even sure if he, himself believed it. "It's more common among paranormal studies as…Ghosts?"

A couple of days passed and Virgil arrived late at the gas station having stayed after school, again. Collapsing on an old sofa he and Ritchie found in the junkyard. It wasn't much but it helped make the place a little more homely. At least until he felt something crawling on his back. He cringed at the thought of a huge spider then warily looked over his shoulder. Relief washed over him as Backpack peered back at him.

At least it was Backpacks red glow and not the Teacher staring at him with eyes that can make even a newborn baby cry.

"Ritchie!" Virgil Yelled.

"Hey V, come take a look at this!" Ritchie said through Backpack.

"I would but Backpack has me pinned."

"Sorry about that." Backpack crawled off of Virgil leading the way to another room. "So you had to stay after again?"

"That teacher hates me!"

"Naw you? The most loveable student in all of Dakota High?" Richie teased.

"What is that anyway?" He asked ignoring the tease and seeing a piece of metal on the counter.

"You know those armored dudes from the other day? Well this is a piece of them. I was just analyzing it and I thought it looked familiar, so I looked up their armor on the web and guess what?"

"What?"

"No, guess." He said playfully.

"Ritchie, I'm not in the mood for this!"

"Fine," Ritchie pouted, "this is Samurai armor over one-thousand years old. Along with it I found a few other cool things about it. This one goes into Japanese mythology of course and this one bad assed dude called Talpa: according to the legend when an evil shadow engulfs the city the Ronin Warriors will come to save it, and it has a strange poem that tells the story. If Talpa gets into this world from his own then life as we know it is doomed." He said rather cheerful.

"That's the poem?"

"No, but I did find out something else. It needs at least five of these nine Virtues to destroy Talpa: righteousness, grace, life, justice, trust, loyalty, piety, serenity, and…" He looked up thinking, "crap! I forgot the last one. Anyways, a few of these virtues get confused and misinterpreted like Grace will be wisdom or-"

"Hold on!" Virgil was more alert, "Grace and wisdom?"

"They stand for the warrior of light. They almost even have their own elements: fire, air, light, water, Earth, and the four seasons. One is of them is supposed to be an exact opposite of the other. I take it it's the dark one."

"Oh…" Virgil said unenthusiastically.

"Now I remember!" he snapped his fingers, "the last virtue was Obedience."

Virgil yawns rubbing his right eye, "I'm going to the other room to sleep."

"Aw! Come on V!" Ritchie Whined.

"Listen, I'm getting some sleep-" Virgil was cut off again.

"Oh and Virg."

"Huh?" Groggy.

"While we were fighting with those things I found this one Marble that matched the lights when we took care of those foot soldiers. It was a green orb with the symbol of Grace on it. When I was about to pick it up it just rolled away on its own."

"What? That one teacher's did the same thing."

"Mr. Date? Well that be weird, Mr. Date of the Light."

"Or more like Sage of the Halo." Virgil said sleepily.

"It just sounds weird."

"Good night." Virgil yawned leaving the room.

The next day Ritchie looked up the piece of armor in class. Searching through the textbook he found a picture which most likely resembled the armor. However, reading the text didn't satisfy his curiosity or answer any questions.

"Reading quite a bit ahead aren't we?"

"Huh?" Ritchie looked up surprised. "Dah! …Uh Mr. Date. I just find history so interesting… sometimes I just skip ahead a… chapter… or two." Now he knew what Virgil meant by his eye could even make a newborn cry. It was like he was digging the truth out of him and turned back to the book. "I got lost," and pitifully lied.

"Page 29," He said and Ritchie turned back to the correct page, "Where did you get that?" Mr. Date asked narrowing his eyes.

"Oh this?" He looked at Virgil who smirked a smirk saying your turn, "I, uh, found it."

"Give it to me." Mr. Date held out his hand and Rich gave him the object, "If you want this back you'll have to come in at lunch," and left him to his studies.

"Of all things why Lunch!" Ritchie dropped his head.

"Told you he was mean," Virgil whispered.

Later at lunch Virgil ate with Daisy and Frieda since Ritchie hadn't come back. As much as he enjoyed their company he dreaded the subject change to Mr. Date.

"…Oh and Mr. Date is one of the hottest teachers!" said Daisy.

"Please…" Said Virgil, "What does he have that I don't?"

"Well…" Frieda began, "He's got those gorgeous eyes…"

"But you can only see one."

"Those long golden locks." said Daisy.

"… And that deep voice." The girls said unison and sighed in a dream like state.

"Uh, you know he does wear glasses."

"I wonder what his prescription is?" said Daisy.

"O.k. now I'm getting nocuous." Virgil got up and threw his tray of food away, going to the classroom that's given him so many nightmares. He wouldn't be surprised if Ritchie did manage to start a friendly conversation with Mr. Date.

"Ah! My wrist!" Ritchie snapped and whined. "This is so cruel."

"You're even worse than your friend."

"Do you just pick on us because you have nothing better to do?"

"No, it's a form of discipline. It seems like you kids need a lot of it. Hawkins is here."

"How do you do that?" Virgil stepped into the doorway.

"It's impossible to separate you two," Mr. Date's laptop beeped and he checked his e-mail, "Great." He said sarcastically.

Ritchie peaked in on the message then turned back to the bored. So he's expecting someone to be here, he thought. He winced at his wrist, "Can I go now?"

"It doesn't look like one hundred fifty." Mr. Date said not looking up from the laptop.

"But you didn't even look up," Ritchie complained at the lack of attention.

Mr. Date sat back scaring the two, taking off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose for some ounce of relief. "Look, if you just do five more then I'll let you and Hawkins go and give you back your metal."

"Done!" Ritchie hurried up enduring the pain in writing the last few sentences.

"Hey Mr. Date?" called Virgil.

"What is it?" He turned to Virgil, this time with a softer look on his face than what he was used to. Maybe he was just exhausted?

"Uh…" he started nervously, "why do you always hide one eye?"

"I've always had hard eyes and I used to have very sharp vision when I was little. They used to make my friends cry so my sister suggested I cover one up." He placed his glasses back on his nose.

"Sister?" Virgil silently repeated, finding one thing in common.

"Okay! Now that's over and done with," Ritchie turned, "Can we leave now?" he said, more as begging.

"Go ahead and here." He gives Ritchie back the metal, "But tell me, where did you find this?"

"Oh… well…" he stammered trying to think up of a good story, "after Static and Gear saved the comic book store I found it just lying on the ground with a bunch of others just like it."

"Be careful with this metal." He warned.

"Is there something you know that you're not telling us?" Virgil glared.

"Only, that there are several superstitions around this kind of metal. Go ahead and challenge the superstition if you want…"

The duo left the room thinking Mr. Date was only trying to scare them. Ritchie was happy to be going to lunch until the bell rang, "NO! Not my Lunch Hour!" He cried.

Virgil snapped his fingers as if figuring out something, "That's what I forgot to do! Sorry Rich meant to save some of my lunch for you."

The comic book run after a school was a relief for the two. The both of them were reading the same issue. Virgil was glad he didn't have detention. With all this free time on his hands he took his time reading, getting drawn into the comic.

Suddenly he was pulled behind a shelf, "Rich!"

Ritchie shushed him and pointed to the counter, "Look."

"Huh?" Virgil looked confused, "What's he doing here?"

"Did he just buy a comic?"

Mr. Date glanced over his shoulder as Virgil and Ritchie ducked down. "Did he see us?" They waited and exhaled hearing the doorbell, "guess not."

"Dude, is he stocking us?" Ritchie asked.

"Oh Crap!" Virgil looked out side the windows watching as Hotstreak snatched the comic from Mr. Date. "He's really going to need our help."

"Yeah," Ritchie agreed and were about to go and save their teacher when he jumped and knocked out Hotstreak with just a chop to the back of the neck. "Oh…"

"Kay…" Virgil finished equally confused. "Could he be a bang baby?"

"Don't know."

Mr. Date snatched up the comic and walked off. The duo looked at each other, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Follow him!"

They bought their comics and left.

Every time Mr. Date took a glance back they would hide even if it were behind a light post. However their spying around would have to wait as an alarm went off.

"Great." They said and ran off.

They returned flying over the city, "Hey Static!" Gear called, "According to the police report it's those armored guys again! This time it's at the Community Center!"

"Not good!" Static said. Then spotted Mr. Date and sped up to show off, and shot passed the teacher.

"What the!" He watched the boy pass him getting caught in the gust. "Could it be?" he thought, is he the one we're looking for?

"Yo, Static!" Gear followed, "Wait up!"

"Or?" He paused for a moment. Well, I won't know just standing here. Mr. Date followed on foot.

The Community Center was over run by foot soldiers. Static crouched on his disk looking down at the mess. "Gees! I hope my Pops' insurance covers all this."

"Maybe we should've come here first," Gear dropped a capsule.

"Well, let's get to work." Static threw an electric ball bowling down a few, entering through the clearing.

Gear flew down into the gym. A few kids were cornered at the far end of the basketball court. He threw a few freeze caps and let the kids have fun playing an unfair game of dodge ball.

Meanwhile, Static flew around the halls dragging around the foot soldiers like a ball and chain. As well as breaking a few windows along the way thanks to getting magnetized. He reached his fathers' office last and four of those armored guys jumped out in front of him, knocking Static off his disk.

"That could've gone smoother." Static grunted, rubbed the back of his head.

"Get him!" One ordered.

"Finally," two Soldiers lifted Static to his feet. "The one who can control lightning…"

"Hey, I think you have the wrong guy." He struggled in their grip.

"All that is left is to test his soul."

One raised a hand over Virgil's head.

"What? Sorry, but I don't have time for this." Static put down his shades and clapped. The lights over head blinded the soldiers and with his power manipulated the Centers electricity to shred them.

Once the coast was clear he hopped into the office, "Mr. Hawkins?" Static called, "Anybody here?" Static turned to the sound of banging coming from next door. He forced it opened and his father fell to the floor with a bunch of scared but unharmed children behind him.

"Static?"

"You all right, sir?" He asked helping his father up.

"I'm just fine." He dusted him self off, "Luckily they couldn't get into this room. They were looking for you and Gear."

"Well, they came to the right place. All of you might want to get out of here."

"My daughter's still somewhere..."

"I'll get her!" Static flew off.

Gear flew up and looked down and at the center. He couldn't put his finger on it but the soldiers kept flooding out of the building. Then spotted Mr. Date on the other side of the street, and managed to hold his own. That was until he was sucker punched, Gear flew down to help him and when another pulled out a sharp spear.

"No!" Gear yelled guarding the teacher then was struck in the abdomen.

"NO! GEAR! MR. DATE!" Static yelled seeing the spear pierce through both of them pinning them to the wall.

Mr. Date put his arms around Gear pulling him back as the foot soldier pulled out the spear then kicked it away and set Gear down.

Static cleared the area and landed, "Are you all right?"

"Yes, but he isn't." Said Mr. Date, fortunately he didn't have a single scratch on him.

"That… hurt." Gear struggled to say putting pressure on the wound.

"We need to get him to a hospital," Said Static, "I'll clear the way just follow me!"

Mr. Date pulled Gears free arm over his shoulder and helped him up.

"No matter what, don't let them take off his mask!"

"I understand." Mr. Date nodded and following Static.

"There, now go! I'll take care of the rest!" Static flew back.

Mr. Date watched and instead ran into a near by ally setting Gear down.

Even through slit eyes and a quickly blurring vision, he saw the figure before him change clothes right in front of him. One second wearing regular clothes and the next this weird suit appeared on him.

Was he hallucinating?

He crouched and removed Gear's hand replacing it with his own over the wound. It felt strange, like the pain was melting away, but shocked over what he saw. He was closing the wound right before his eyes.

"Relax!" He said, "I'm helping you."

"Yeah, I kind of figured that." Gear squeaked. He has to be a bang-baby, he thought.

He lifted his hand revealing a fully healed Gear, then jumped on a building top and yelled, "Armor of Halo!" followed by a green flash.

Static was getting exhausted fighting off all the foot soldiers when he retreated to the sky, "Man! There's got to be an easier way of doing this!"

"T H O U N D E R B O L T CUT!" The streets and the community center lit up with a brilliant light.

Static shielded his eyes, and as the light died down lowered his arms and found the streets empty, trashed, but empty. He turned to the community center and it was in shambles. "Well that… helped." One of the front doors fell off its hinges and he winced.

Static turned to the adjacent building seeing another only more impressive samurai armor, and this one did have a person inside. Layers of armor, forest green from the knee up and black spikes lined over then shins; white thighs; flaps covering the side of the legs; green briefs, stomach; black pecks, with a lightening insignia over the left; green shoulder guards; white biceps; forearm to the hands were green; the helmet of course green with silver face shield, and two golden horns that resembled blades. Last he was hefting a really long sword over his shoulder in a batters pose.

After having realized that he was staring Virgil asked, "Do I… know you?"

"Not exactly," He said.

"Who are you?"

"You'll know soon enough." He jumped away.

"Hey! Static!" Gear yelled.

"Gear?"

"What happened?"

"This armored dude showed up. He helped!"

"Get down here I feel stupid yelling like this!"

This is my first Static Shock Fic so Please be nice in your reviews. Oh yeah and please Review! This has just been edited…again, and I based the Halo armor decryption off my action figure. .o