So I got obsessed over Static Shock. XD
And I hate how lonely Static seems to me sometimes, especially when he and Richie (whom I really, REALLY dislike) temporarily stop their friendship. You know, after Richie completely bungles trying to be a sidekick, and multiple times when he gets jealous and makes a complete fool of himself. --gags--
So in this story I'm giving Virgil—or Static, whichever, because it won't make a difference—a new friend!! --is happy--
And please, all of you people who hate other people who make up perfect characters in their minds and stick that person into their story, please let up on me. I'm not writing this story because I have an awesome, perfect, imaginary character in my head and I want to give this character fame, but because I really feel bad for Virgil. So please read!! Compliments and constructive criticism is encouraged. Pleaaase lemme know if my writing style has declined after half a year of posting nothing. ;_;
AND I'M SORRY IF THE SLANG IN THIS STORY IS DIFFERENT FROM THE SHOW OR JUST WRONG, BECAUSE I SUCK AT ALTERING MY SLANG WHILE WRITING D:
Disclaimer: I don't own Static Shock, but I do own this new character of mine. To find out who s/he is, read on... --wink--
--Sanded Silk--
"Hmm, so nothing big today either?" Richie sounded disappointed—enough to make up for Virgil's lack of disappointment. "Yeah!" Virgil pumped his fist into the air, nearly jovial with relief. "With this lack of criminal activity in Dakota, I've been able to catch up on my sleep, and believe me, it feels awesome, man."
"I know, I know," Richie shook his head, exasperated. "But you're starting to lose your fame here, V! If nothing big happens soon, everyone will only remember you as-"
"-The one who temporarily, if not permanently, drove all criminals from Dakota. I know, that sounds horrible." Virgil rolled his eyes to the ceiling.
"But wouldn't it suck to go back to 'normal' life?" Richie threw up his hands in frustration. "No more excitement! No more late nights out on your flying aluminum disc, feeling the wind in your hair and hearing civilians cheer for you as you zoom past them! Wouldn't you miss that?"
Virgil sighed and lolled his head back in his chair, closing his eyes. Richie had never understood how truly tiring it was to be a superhero. Richie had never stayed up with Virgil on late-night watches, nor had he ever helped Virgil battle in the middle of the night or even later. It wasn't Richie's grades which were falling; it wasn't Richie's parents getting worried and a little suspicious. It wasn't Richie's life who had been falling apart. But it had been Virgil's.
"You don't understand, man," Virgil said, despite the fact that he knew it was futile. Richie wouldn't ever understand.
The TV, which Richie had turned on in hopes of something big coming up, droned on about a minor robbing at a local grocery shop and an assassination attempt on some governor who no one had heard of until now. The robber had been captured, and the killer had been captured as well. All without Static's help.
And, much to Virgil's fervent praise, nothing big came up for the rest of the night.
The next night, however, Virgil was disappointed.
When Virgil walked into their broken-down station, which Richie called their headquarters, Virgil found Richie hopping up and down excitedly in front of the television. "Yes...YES!!"
Virgil sighed. "Do I wanna know?"
"Maybe not," Richie said, a huge smile on his face, "but you need to know anyway!! The news say that there's a new criminal in town, except no one knows anything about the criminal—not even how he looks like." Virgil's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "What? No one is clear even on the criminal's gender??"
Richie shook his head, nearly ecstatic. "Listen to this." He pointed the remote to the tv and turned up the volume with a flourish of his arm. Shelly Sandoval's serious face appeared as Richie moved out of the way.
"...locations of the robberies have nothing in common, but the manners in which the robberies were committed are explicitly alike. The things stolen are never noticed to be missing until later. Also, the criminal always leaves a single crimson origami crane in the place of what he steals. There have been five of these kinds of robberies so far, and all were in the time span of today and last night."
Richie turned to Virgil, smirking. Virgil shrugged. "So? It's not like I can do anything about that. You heard the reporter: the locations of the robberies have nothing in common. Which means the criminal targets any random place whenever he wishes. If the pros can't predict these kinds of things, then I can't either." Richie shrugged. "So what? All of these crimes have been happening in the early evening. If your watches were a little earlier than when they are right now, we have a chance of catching this criminal."
"But there is no way of catching this criminal, because the owners of the stores don't ever notice their goods to be missing until later, when the cranes are found. This criminal is good. He is able to steal right under the noses of the employees and the customers. By the time I'm summoned, I'd be too late." Virgil sighed, mockingly upset.
"Well, it's not like the owners of stores in Dakota are going to hear this and go on doing what they do in their usual way. They'll tighten their security, and post their stronger employees during the early evenings. The police are also on the prowl, too. And Dakota isn't even that big of a city--a commotion is easy to hear and find." Richie leaned closer. "Besides, with these crimes going on, the civilians are going to be expecting you to put some effort into finding this criminal. You don't want to upset them, do you?"
Virgil frowned. "Fine, I'll move my watch time to an earlier time. But just to prove to you that my efforts aren't going to be much use in catching this criminal."
Richie just shrugged, and turned to the two walkie-talkies he had made, humming while making sure the wires and nails were tightly in place.
-o-o-
Virgil barely had time to pull on his goggles over his white mask before Richie shoved him out into the early night. "Okay, okay! I'm going! Sheesh," Virgil said, frowning. Richie waved his walkie-talkie at Virgil in good-bye, and disappeared into their hide-out. Virgil quickly charged his flying saucer with a burst of electricity, jumped on, and guided the shining disc of aluminum up into the sky.
Just as Virgil decided that it was time to return to the earth, yelling floated to his ears. With a sigh, he lowered his disc until he saw a crowd around what appeared to be a store. Crap.
"What's up?" Virgil asked, trying to sound genuinely interested, as he floated down by a group of police officers. "Static! Good to see you," One policeman said enthusiastically. "You been following the news? Heard about those robberies where the robber leaves only a red crane behind, right? Well, one of those robberies happened just now. Looks like the criminal got away again."
Virgil nodded. "Well, I'll see what I can do, sir." The police officers nodded, and plowed through the crowd into the building, probably in search of clues.
Virgil floated up towards the rooftop of the store, and flew in a slow circle around the building. On the two sides of the store were two other stores, separated by narrow alleys filled with trash cans. Behind the store was the back of yet another store, also separated by a dark alley. Virgil sighed. There weren't many ways the criminal could have used to escape. He floated down to the ground, tucked his disc under his arm, and began to walk around the store. No footprints, no extra red cranes, no stray bits of cloth—nothing. Virgil frowned in frustration, and circled the building again, before entering the store.
The police were stalking around listlessly, as if knowing that investigation produced nothing. Virgil folded up his disc and tucked it into his jacket, easily spotted the yellow caution tape surrounding a row of shelves, and walked towards it. He ducked easily under the tape and caught sight of the afore-mentioned crimson crane.
There was something strange about the crane. The paper that had been used to make it was silky-smooth and glinted from dim store lights glancing off of its blood-red surface. The folds had been perfectly precise and sharp, and no extra creases were visible--not even the slightest dent where the maker could have put their fingers. With pointed beak and knife-sharp wing and tail tips, the paper crane looked like a real menace—a potential weapon.
"It's a beauty, isn't it?" The police chief asked as he walked up behind Virgil. Virgil nodded glumly. "Yeah, it's almost creepy. So, chief, did your crew get any new info from this robbery?" The chief shook his head ruefully. "No, unfortunately. This robbery is just like all of the other robberies in the chain we think it belongs to; no fingerprints, no shoeprints—not even any information about how the criminal looks like. Again." The chief sighed and looked down at the scuffed toe of his shoe. "It's like this criminal's invisible or something." Then, he looked up and eyed Virgil. "Think maybe it's another Bang Baby?" Virgil shrugged helplessly. "No way to tell. Better luck next time, maybe." With that, Virgil gave the chief his usual salute, gave his disc a shake, charged it with a burst of electricity, and sped out through the door, taking his walkie-talkie out of his hidden jacket pocket as he went.
"Static to Richie," He said in the midst of a sigh. Richie replied almost immediately. "Yo! Any luck? You know, on finding the robber?"
Virgil shook his head, before realizing that Richie couldn't see him. "No, man. Static is a superhero. Not a detective. If the criminal escapes from the scene before Static gets there, then there really isn't anything Static can do about it."
Richie sighed like a deflating balloon. "Aw, man. Sorry. Maybe something'll happen next time!"
Virgil slipped his walkie-talkie into his hidden pocket without verbally signing out and scanned his surroundings with another deep sigh. Despite his relief of not having to stay up all night chasing an invisible criminal on a night before a school day, Virgil still felt slightly under-accomplished. These crimes happening, and the criminal getting away ever time—technically, none of this was Virgil's fault. However, if he had been more enthusiastic, more dedicated, then maybe…
Out of the corner of his eye, Virgil suddenly spotted movement in the shadows. He turned his head around, squinting into the darkness. Nothing seemed to be there. Slowly, he turned his head back around. Then, there it was again—a slight disturbance in the dimness, as if something were moving underneath the blanket of darkness that the buildings cast over the ground. With the slightest of hesitation, Virgil lowered his disc and searched the area with his eyes.
Suddenly, there was another rupture in the smooth darkness, and then a dull red light, barely visible, on the ground, perfectly still. Virgil swooped down and made a grab for the red light. From underneath his thick gloves, Virgil could feel the slight crumple of…
Paper?
He held the object in his fingers up to the fading light of the sun, and found himself staring at a flawless crane, made of silken red paper, glinting dully in the diminishing light.
With a gasp, Virgil whirled around on his disc, frantically looking for whatever—whoever—had left the crane.
Standing on top of a nearby building with long tendrils of hair swaying in the frantic dance of the wind stood a girl swathed in loose black clothing silhouetted against the warm-colored sky. The girl stood there for a moment, then turned and ran from Virgil's view.
With the paper crane cradled carefully in his fingers, Virgil took off after the mysterious girl on his disc. As he soared above the building she had been on, he scanned the nearby area, looking for and finding a dark figure performing breath-taking rooftop gymnastics, running swiftly and jumping from rooftop to rooftop, away from Virgil. Virgil tilted his disc slightly with his free hand and dropped in altitude so abruptly that he felt his heart leap up into his throat, and sped after the girl.
"Hey," he yelled as he caught up with her, flying at her side and--surprisingly--barely keeping up. "Are you the one taking stuff from the stores and leaving these cranes behind?" She turned her head, her face obscured by a black mask covering her face from the eyes down, and her eyes shaded from view by an oversized black felt beret with the brim pulled extremely low. From underneath her beret, Virgil caught a scent of something unfamiliar--utter surprise.
Before he could question her further, she turned her head back around, and pumped her arms faster. Her loose black sleeves, which were definitely at least half a foot too long for her, fell back to her elbows, revealing long black gloves with metal arm guards strapped around her forearms. Fading sunlight came into contact with the thick bands of polished metal and slid down her arms in elegant strips. Under a loose black shirt with a high, wide collar, she wore another tighter black shirt which wrapped securely around her slim body down to her hips. Thick loose black sweatpants covered her body from the hips down to her shins. From her shins to her shoes, which resembled black ballet slippers without the elastic band across the top of the foot, stretched black stockings.
Before Virgil could get a better look at her, the girl suddenly stopped. Virgil sped way past her before he could slow down and turn around, and by the time he did, the girl had disappeared.
Cursing mentally, Virgil forced himself to think. She hadn't appeared to be carrying anything, which meant that if she was the criminal who had been leaving the red cranes behind, she would have gone back to somewhere near the store where she probably had hidden her goods. Turning sharply, Virgil sped back to the store and circled the skies, waiting for movement in the shadows. Even after several minutes, no disturbances rippled the shadows.
Sighing in frustration, Virgil ran a hand over his dredlocks, and decided to go home.
A/N: Sorry for the skyrocketing level of boringness. I really couldn't find a way to make this more interesting than it already is. Please bear with my horrible writing for a little longer, cuz I haven't written in ages.
R&R!!
--Sanded Silk--