Disclaimer: I own nothing but my soul, and even that's debatable. If Static Shock were mine, Richie would get a lot more face time.
Notes: My first Static Shock fic! Be gentle! I was captivated by Richie's sheer adorableness one day and it has refused to let me go ever since. The plot for this fic started when I remembered something my friend told me about how, idealy, the human brain has enough power to preform telepathy and telekinesis if used to the maximum. I have no idea how true it is, but I've done enough research on the subject to feel confident enough that there at least some people out there who do believe it to be real. That being said, I thought about how Richie's power is related to his brain becoming more powerful, and how after the second Big Bang in "Power Outage" everyone seemed to become more powerful with the extreme amount of gas inhaled except for Richie (although there were no further episodes so that can't really be said). And I also recently just saw "Gear", which helps support this theory as "Gear" states that Richie indirectly inhaled the gas - which could indicate that his power could be on a completely different level if he had inhaled the gas directly. And thus the plot bunnie formed :D All of these theories will be discussed later on in the fic by Richie himself.
Notes Take Two: After seeing "Static Shaq" this afternoon... has anyone else ever realized how...well, mean Virgil can be to Richie sometimes? Not just in this episode, but in others? It's like Richie annoys him half the time. I know he really cares for Richie, but still, he should be nicer! Richie also points this fact out later on in the story as well :p And on that note I will say that this story HAS SLASH.
Enjoy!
Shatter
Chapter One
The clock ticked painfully slow within the heated classroom, giving the day an unwelcome eternal feel. Mrs. Witham's monotone drawl was drowned out by every snap of the seconds hand, unusually sharp in his ears. Closing his eyes, Richie tried desperately to focus on his teacher's voice, willing for some sound other than that incessant ticking to penetrate his senses.
He'd been having this same problem concentrating all week. Something of the utmost annoyance would catch his attention and refuse to leave him alone until something of even greater irritation came along.
Or until his skull began to ache with searing pain. Whichever one came first.
Today it was the pain.
"Oh, God…" he moaned, clutching his hands to his head. Detachedly, he noticed that there was a loud drumming sound coming from the corner of his desk.
The pain worsened.
"Richie?"
"God…" It was more of a sob now.
"Rich!"
"S-stop yelling…"
"Mrs. Witham! Something's wrong with Richie!"
"S-stop…."
Opening his eyes, Richie caught sight of a blurry Virgil gazing down at him in alarm, and his pen bouncing around on his desk as if his friend's unease were causing him to use his power in nervousness. A spike of pain shot through his skull and he witnessed his pen take one final leap, before suddenly his vision went black.
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He could feel the light through his eyelids. Intense and burning, he felt as though his eyes were open and he were staring directly into the sun.
God, how he wanted that light to shut off.
A crackle sounded, followed by a surprised gasp, and suddenly his translucent vision was dark.
Oh. Well, that was convenient.
"You there!" an angry voice shouted somewhere to his side. Richie was about to reply, when a familiar voice beat him to it.
"I didn't touch anything, I swear!"
Virgil.
"Do you realize that tampering with hospital equipment is against the law? You've created a short circuit throughout this entire room and potentially put your friend in danger!"
"But I didn't do anything!"
Jeez, Lady. Shut up…
And then there was silence.
Peeking one eye open, Richie searched the darkness for any sign of his friend and the nurse who had been screaming at him. When his sight fell upon the comforting silhouette of Virgil, he sighed.
At least the nurse was gone.
"I think even the Justice League heard her," he muttered under his breath, struggling to sit up. The pain in his head had calmed to a dull ache, allowing more room for clear thought. Temporarily ignoring Virgil's cry of relief, Richie tried to understand the situation he was currently in. He'd fainted, he gathered, in the middle of English class from a particularly nasty migraine, and had awoken, from the sounds of it, inside of an electrically challenged hospital. Comforting.
"Richie! Man, are you all right?"
"Super like the Man of Steel," Richie replied through gritted teeth, as what felt like a shockwave sparked through his system. He gave Virgil a look.
"Are we having sunspots again?"
Virgil looked at him blankly. "Uh, no.… Why?"
"Because you short circuited the room and just now you shocked me."
"That wasn't me!"
"Oh, right. It was just some other meta-human who has the exact same powers as you. But you can't see him 'cause he's invisible."
Opening his mouth to retort, Virgil paused for a moment, before giving a heavy sigh, apparently deciding that riling his friend up in his current state of injury wasn't worth it.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the gas station."
"What?" Richie's mind immediately began to run through calculations of which side of the gas station would prompt the worse behavior the next morning based on heat, light, and any other outside factors. It was only after he had discovered that the west side was his final answer, that he had realized it had been a rhetorical statement.
"Nevermind," Virgil said, as he let out a spark from his fingertips, causing the lighting above to snap back into action. Richie groaned and closed his eyes again.
"Sorry, man. I just couldn't take not seeing your beautiful face." Virgil's tone was teasing, but Richie wasn't in the mood.
"Did they say how long I have to be in here?" the blonde countered, ignoring his friend's statement. Virgil took the hint and shrugged.
"They said that when you woke up, the doctor wanted to look at you one more time to make sure you were okay and then you could le-" Virgil paused at the look Richie gave him and appeared slightly embarrassed, "I should probably go get the doctor, huh?"
"Probably."
"Rawr," Virgil hissed as he got up to leave, indicating that he did not appreciate Richie's snippy tone. Richie merely rolled his eyes and turned over so that his back was facing the door. His head was beginning to hurt again.
And damned if that light wasn't annoying.
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"So, are you feeling less like Sharon when she PMS's?"
Richie glanced up from his work on a new set of Zap Caps and met Virgil's offended eyes, having the decency to flush from embarrassment.
"Yeah, sorry, man. I wasn't feeling like myself."
"I'll say…" Virgil laid a hand on Richie's shoulder as he passed as if to inform his friend that they were cool, pausing when he caught sight of what Richie was twiddling with. "What're you doing with those?"
"I'm upgrading them so that they send out an electric pulse when activated."
"Well, that's handy," Virgil complimented as he picked a Zap Cap up to inspect it. On the outside it looked the same as the originals.
"I thought so." Richie grinned, pleased with himself for a successful invention. His smile faded, however, when the police scanner suddenly went off, alerting his attention. Pushing away from his workstation, Richie rolled himself on the chair over to the scanner, turning up the volume.
"A new meta-human has been spotted in the downtown Dakota area. Call for back-up! Approach with caution! Meta-human is unstable and can control anything metallic! I repeat, approach with caution!"
"Well that sounds like a rocking good time."
"You sure you're feeling up to it?"
Richie felt his cheeks heat up when he caught the obvious catch of worry in his friend's tone.
"I'm fine, V," he assured, "C'mon, we can try out the new Zap Caps on this guy. The electricity should interfere with powers."
"I don't know… I still think you should sit this one out."
"V!"
"Fine, fine, fine. But if you have another spazz attack and go unconscious on me during the middle of the fight, you can't yell at me for letting you break into a million pieces as you fall and I'm too busy fighting this guy."
"Fine," Richie paused, "Lovely mental image by the way."
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They called him Magnitude. Magnitude. Gear wasn't exactly sure who 'they' were, but apparently, they called him Magnitude. It was strangely fitting.
The bang baby they had tracked down was in the midst of creating a powerful magnetic field around any metallic object that seemed to be in his way. So far these objects included police cars, garbage cans, and a puppy held against a light pole due to its metal collar.
Turning so that Magnitude was in his line of sight, Gear had backpack scan the meta-human's vital signs, searching for any weaknesses that could be used to his advantage. He rolled his eyes when his search came up fruitless. Of course.
The idea to try out the new Zap Caps had quickly been dismissed upon the realization that this meta-human was a living magnet. And magnets were only strengthened by electricity.
That was where Static had unsuccessfully come in. And that was where Static had stayed. Locked in a stalemate where all they seemed to be doing was trying to make a stronger magnetic field than the other; Static's to protect the people and Magnitude's to hurt them.
Gear needed to find a weakness. He needed to find a weakness to stop this guy. A weakness, a weakness… Where was his super brain when he needed it?
His head was starting to hurt again. And something was shrieking in his ear.
Shaking his mind clear, Gear brought his attention back to the fight. The shrieking grew louder. It sounded familiar…and it began to take shape.
"GEAR!" Jerking his head in the direction of the scream, Gear caught sight of Static's distressed gaze just in time for his mind to process the slight buzzing sound that seemed to be growing by the second. Whipping around, his eyes widened as the speeding bullet hurled towards him and time seemed to slow almost to a halt. Thousands of thoughts crossed through his accelerated mind. Who had shot the bullet? Why had they shot at him? Why wasn't Static saving him?
Closing his eyes tightly, Gear threw his crossed arms in front of his face in a pathetic last effort to save himself.
Please, God…
The buzzing stopped.
Not believing his ears, Gear snapped his eyes opened and lowered his arms hesitantly, nearly falling back when he saw how close the bullet had been to hitting him before it just….froze. In midair. Gear glanced up at Static who was staring at him with the same relieved shock that Gear knew his own face mirrored. The relief soon turned to strain as Static slowly lowered the two helicopters he was controlling with both hands to the ground. At least now he knew why Static couldn't save him.
The crowd was cheering loudly for Static's heroic efforts; not only because he had saved the people in the helicopters, but because he had also somehow managed to save his partner's life from the rogue bullet.
Gear knew for a fact that it hadn't been Static who had saved him. A sick feeling began to grow in his stomach.
He had a feeling he knew who had.
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"I can't believe he got away!" Virgil cursed as he led Richie into his room. The blonde nodded distractedly. Not noticing, Virgil tossed his book bag on to the bed and jumped up next to it. "On the bright side, he couldn't be all bad. He saved your life, right?"
Richie perked up at the statement. Of course! It had been Magnitude that had stopped the bullet! Not—
"He must be pretty strong to have done it without being there, though."
Richie felt his brief glimmer of hope disappear.
"Right."
"Are you feeling okay? I mean… I know I would be freaked out if I almost got shot."
"Pfft. In our line of work? When don't we get shot at?" Richie tried with a forced laugh. Virgil gave him a suspicious glance, before shrugging it off, knowing when not to prod.
"Anyway. Do you think you could whip something up to help me beat this guy?"
Richie shot Virgil a grateful look.
"I think I could work on a depolarizer."
The vocabulary was lost on Virgil. Richie couldn't help but grin.
"It makes things un-magnet-y."
"Oh…Right."
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The next few days occurred with little incident, and Richie felt as though he could merely pass everything off as a few days of no sleep and jalapeño pizza before bed.
It had all been in his head. Right. Sitting in history class Monday morning, every theory that had passed through his brain in the past week or so to explain whatever it was that was wrong with him just seemed silly. Everything had all been in his head.
"Foley's such a jerk. He tries to play it off like he doesn't pay attention in class, but everyone knows he reads the chapter the day before just to act like a showoff."
Richie froze at the voice.
What?
Straightening up in his desk, he tried to pinpoint exactly where the insult had come from. However, he found himself drawing a blank; the voice had sounded like it had been in his head.
Craning his neck, he ignored the odd look Virgil was shooting him and attempted to see if he could find whatever bitter soul had been so cold as to make that statement aloud. And why was Virgil looking at him like that anyway? Shouldn't he be busy defending his best friend's honor?
And why was the class so wrapped up in Mr. Honsa's elaborate and amusing lecture on World War I when someone was obviously trying to start a fight.
"What is Richie looking at? He's going to get in trouble." It was Daisy's voice. Whipping around, he found his friend staring at him in confusion. Rolling his eyes, Richie waved off the concern.
"No, I'm not."
The class stilled.
"Excuse me, Mr. Foley?" Honsa had turned from the board and was staring a Richie with a firmly raised eyebrow.
"I, err, nothing," he muttered, turning red. Daisy's look of concern only intensified for a moment, before she turned around and went back to her notes. Sighing, Richie slouched down in his chair.
"Great. Some ass behind me can mock me publicly but I can't even defend myself to Daisy?"
"Dude, what are you talking about?" Virgil hissed incredulously. He was staring at Richie as if his friend were insane.
It was then that Richie realized how different his voice sounded from the others'. It was more solid and secure, while Daisy's and the Mystery-Insulter's were almost wispy.
Well, shit. He really was going insane.
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"Richie, man. We need to talk."
"Why don't I like the sound of this?" Richie wondered, peering up from his spot on the gas station floor. Virgil frowned.
"Probably because I'm about to question your sanity."
"V-man, we're living in a city where super villains pop up daily from being ordinary people, we're the superheroes, and we're like this," Richie held up his hand with two entwined fingers, "with The Justice League. I'd say sanity left me along time ago."
"Richie! I'm being serious!"
Richie really didn't want to deal with this right now.
"V! Would you just drop it?"
A strange calm seemed to settle over Virgil and he nodded, speaking in an odd voice.
"Okay."
What?
Richie frowned. He knew Virgil. He knew Virgil. He knew Virgil right down to his secret 'appreciation' for the Backstreet Boys. And he knew Virgil would never, ever, drop something unless he had gotten down to the bottom of it and under.
So he repeated his previous thought.
What?
"V? V, I was just kidding… don't drop it." Go back to normal…
Almost as if Virgil had been a dummy brought to life, the irritation and concern he had been expressing before were back on his features, and his voice was strong and angry once again.
"Richie, we need to talk about this. You've been acting weird for the past few weeks! More weird than usual!"
On any other day, Virgil's insult would have requested a snarky retort from Richie in response. Today, however, the implication passed over his head.
Richie's fears had been confirmed.
"Virgil…about that bullet…"
"Is that what made you flip today?"
"Yes- I mean! No… I mean!…Kinda."
The look Virgil gave him was anything but comprehending.
"Okay, Rich, now run that by me again, but this time make sense."
Sighing, Richie ran his fingers through his hair. "Right… the bullet."
"Made you flip out today…" Virgil continued for him.
"Indirectly."
"Meaning?"
"Virgil?" Richie said in a voice that he hoped conveyed his seriousness. The dark-skinned boy nodded and sat up.
"The bullet…Magnitude didn't stop it."
Frowning, Virgil cocked his head to the side. "Okay. If he didn't stop it, then who did?"
Richie stared at the ground as he swallowed thickly, taking a large breath.
"I did."
TBC
AN: There's a reason Richie's not happy with his new cool powers. That'll be discussed next chapter :)