Well, it seems like Static has been fitting in quite well over in Jump City. Though, I wonder how Gear's been doing….

….

"Don't suppose he's called you at all lately?" Mr. Hawkins asked.

"Nope. Can't even reach him on the shock vox for some reason." Richie said.

Mr. Hawkins sighed at that. He continued to watch the coffee pot as it filled up with that precious black morning / early afternoon gold. Richie was currently sitting in the kitchen with him, offering his best friend's father what support he could.

"E-mail?" Mr. Hawkins asked.

"Nope." Richie replied. "I know. It's like he dropped off the face of the earth. I don't get it either." Mr. Hawkins sighed wearily. Virgil had been gone for a grand total of five days now.

Covering for Static was hardly a problem at first. Richie, as Gear, had already told the press that Static had gone off in pursuit of the H.I.V.E. Five in the interest of bringing them to justice, and that the remaining three Dakota heroes would cover for him while he was away. Covering for Virgil Hawkins, on the other hand, was a little bit trickier. Mr. Hawkins and Richie had both said that Virgil had gone on a road trip with some new friends he made at school for Spring Break and should be back soon. They couldn't claim he was staying with friends or family, as one simple phone call by somebody suspicious enough (i.e., Sharon) would disprove that claim. That said though, Mr. Hawkins wasn't shy about the fact that he and Virgil got into a fight just before he left, and claimed that part of the reason he went on vacation without contacting his immediate friends or family was because he needed time to clear his mind. Hell, maybe that's the actual reason he hasn't contacted them all this time.

Things got a little more complicated after something the media is already calling 'The New Bang.' By now, the word was out that the thing the H.I.V.E. had stolen from Alva Industries was Bang Baby gas and not only did it find its way to Jump City, but a second Big Bang of sorts had already happened there. Jump City now had just as many Bang Babies on the loose as Dakota had during the height of the original Big Bang, possibly even more. Luckily, Jump City had five heroes to round them all up.

Correction, six. Static had been working with the Titans since Monday. At first it was to help them track down the H.I.V.E., but now it was to help the Titans round up as many meta-human criminals as possible. As Static told the Jump Report, he certainly had extensive experience fighting Bang Babies. 'Just ask anyone in Dakota.' he said. He said that he planned on staying as long as it took to get the job done. The media was already calling him 'The Sixth Titan.'

Mr. Hawkins sat down next to Richie and looked over his shoulder at his laptop. Richie turned it around to make it easier for the man to see. It was another online article about how Static helped the Titans fend off another Bang Baby attack, a pair of meta-humans calling themselves Torque and Featherweight. "Well, at least Virgil is staying with the right kind of crowd." Mr. Hawkins noted as he looked at one photo of Static fighting alongside the Titans.

"Yeah. Apparently he's got his own room at Titans Tower." Richie said. "So we don't have to worry about him sleeping on the street or going hungry or anything like that."

Mr. Hawkins looked away from the screen and stared deep into his mug. "This isn't - "

"It is my fault, and we both know it." Mr. Hawkins interrupted Richie's attempt at easing his guilt. "I came down too hard on Virgil. Drove him away."

"You were worried about him." Richie said. "What dad in your position wouldn't be?"

"Problem isn't that I was worried about him." Mr. Hawkins said. "Problem is that I didn't respect him." He got up and left the kitchen. Intrigued, Richie minimized the window on his laptop and followed Mr. Hawkins into the living room. He was standing in front of the hutch, on top of which was a collection of photos, both colored photos of immediate family and black and white photos of generations past. He saw Richie and gestured him over. Richie obliged.

Mr. Hawkins looked over all the photos on the hutch. "My wife was a paramedic." he said as he pointed to her picture. "Her father was a doctor, while her mother was part of the civil rights movement." he pointed to the corresponding photos. "My father was part of the civil rights movement, like my wife's mother. My grandfather fought in World War II. I'm a social worker, myself. Though I was a field medic in the marine corps before that"

He paused as he held up a photo of a younger Virgil Hawkins, playing basketball with other youths at the Freeman Community Center. "With a family tree like that, I shouldn't be surprised that Virgil turned out a hero. Even if he never got superpowers, he still would've been one. A police officer, or a fireman, or a doctor. Helping people, righting wrongs, standing against injustice, it's all in his blood."

He put down the photo. "These last five days have shown me just how much of a blind fool I was. I had thought that Virgil needed guidance to decide his future, to decide what his path in life should be. But now I see…he already made that decision a long time ago. He made that decision, and I didn't respect what he decided."

He turned to Richie. "Keep trying to contact Virgil. When you do….tell him I'm sorry. Tell him I was wrong and he was right. And tell him to come home."

…..

"Oy vey….." Richie muttered to himself as he kept tinkering with the shock vox. He checked the circuitry for the ninth time and, just like the other eight times, it all worked perfectly. "V-Man? You there? Hellooooooo?" he asked over the vox. "Come on, Virgil. I know you're there."

Silence was his only reply.

"Come on, you raised me while you were in Africa once. Africa. So don't even try to tell me the west coast is beyond effective range." Richie scolded his best friend. Again, silence. He smacked the vox against the desk, knowing it wouldn't do any good, but he did it anyway for the sake of catharsis. Within seconds, his super-brain came up with dozens of different ideas on how to reach Virgil, all of which were shot down just as fast as Richie had already tried them all. Vox, cell phone, e-mail, zip results. Whatever the communication problem was, it appeared to be strictly on Virgil's end, which meant there was nothing Richie could do short of flying to Jump City himself and demanding what an update in person.

Maybe Virgil had neglected to recharge his Vox? Though that wouldn't explain the lack of e-mail or social media replies. Maybe the Titans Tower has crappy internet access? That was unlikely, as everything else in that facility was pretty state-of-the-art. What could possibly be preventing Virgil from contacting him all this time?

It was then that Back Pack started beeping, receiving a call. Richie rolled his eyes. Moments like these made him regret telling Dakota PD his number. They've been calling him a lot in the last week or so. Richie pressed a button on Back Pack. "What is it?" he asked.

"Hello, Gear."

Richie froze as he recognized that voice. A voice that did not belong to the Commissioner. "Edwin Alva….?" he asked.

"Good to hear that you recognize me." Alva's voice replied. "My time is precious, and I'm sure yours is as well. So I'll skip the pleasantries and cut right to the chase. I have some information regarding the New Bang that you may find useful."

"….I'm listening." Richie replied.

"I won't part with this information freely. First, you have to do something for me." Alva replied.

"Of course I do." Richie sighed. "Okay, what do you need me to do? Lemme guess, design your latest 'catch a meta-human so I can dissect them' machine?"

"Nothing of the sort, I assure you." Alva replied. "All I'm asking you to do is catch a bad guy, something that I understand you're quite good at. For the last two weeks, I've noticed that my incoming chemical shipments are much lighter than they should be. My warehouses aren't holding as much as they were yesterday. I have reason to suspect it's because someone's been stealing from them."

"What kind of chemicals?" Richie replied.

"That's none of your concern." Alva sternly said. "All you need to know is that the next shipment will be arriving at Warehouse 23 over in the industrial district between 8 and 9pm. It will be the largest shipment yet, so I have no doubts that our thief will show himself there. Catch him for me, and I will be inclined to tell you what you need to know." With that, Alva hung up.

"Back up to your old shady business, I see." Richie commented. He had half a mind to flake on Alva purely out of spite. It was his company that created the quantum vapor, which created the Bang Babies, which created the worst crime wave in Dakota's history. That wasn't even mentioning the times he tried to kidnap Static.

….But he said he had information about the New Bang, the one that Virgil's currently dealing with over in Jump City. He may not be able to reach him, but that still doesn't mean he shouldn't try to do whatever he can to help. With a sigh resignation, he picked up the shock vox, but this time it wasn't for another vain attempt to raise Virgil.

"Shenice. Adam. Once your patrols are complete, report back to base." Richie said as he donned his helmet. "Looks like we've got a mission."

"I don't like this." She-Bang grumbled as she, Gear and Rubberband Man stood on the rooftop of an Alva Industries warehouse later that night. "Corporate big-shot asks us to pull a job for him on the down low? Way too shady."

"I'm with her." Rubberband Man agreed. "And this ain't just any corporate bigshot, either. This is Edwin Alva we're talkin' about. The same guy who kidnapped us."

"I don't like it either." Gear conceded to his two compatriots. "But, Alva promised us information that Static needs for his work in Jump City."

"Information that you can't even get to Static." Adam pointed out. "He's been dark for days."

"I'm working on fixing up that bridge. We'll cross it when we get to it." Gear assured. "Besides, all he's asking us to do is pinch a thief - nothing we haven't done before."

"Might be easier if we knew what was being stolen though." She-Bang said.

"We know that the thief is interested in the crates below us, which contain chemicals. Do we really wanna know all the sordid details of Alva's machinations here?" Gear asked. Before either of the other two heroes could give an answer, Back Pack started beeping. "Oh ho, a new challenger appears….." Gear commented as the new data whizzed across his HUD. "Heat Signature coming in from the south. Moving towards this location and moving fast. Adam, you're up."

Rubberband Man enlarged and stretched out his ear, then pressed it to the ground below them. "Opening window…..closing it…..He's already prying open a crate."

"That's our cue." Gear said. "Let's make this entrance look good."

She-Bang smashed open the nearest skylight with her fist and jumped in. Gear was close behind, his jet-blades activating to slow his descent, and Rubberband Man bounced in as a ball, but stretched back out with enlarged fists, ready to fight.

The thief turned on his heels towards the three heroes. He wore a skin-tight spandex jumpsuit, complete with gloves and boots, and a cape that had definitely seen better days judging from the ragged holes in it. By far the most eye-catching feature was the skull mask with a red X on the forehead. "Well, how do you do." the stranger greeted.

"Stop right there, evil-doer!" Gear shouted.

"….Seriously?" Adam asked.

"What? Pre-battle one-liners were always Static's thing, not mine." Richie defended.

"For good reason, I see." Adam quipped.

"Look, I'm not here to cause trouble." the stranger said as he took out a few red metal rods from the crate and slid them into the pouches on his belt. Alva's missing chemical compounds, Gear presumed. "I just wanna grab my xenothium and be on my way."

"It ain't yours, punk!" She-Bang growled. She charged and leapt forward with a leaping kick. The stranger ducked, She-Bang flying over his head entirely. He did a few front flips towards Richie and Adam. The latter stretched out a fist, but the stranger leapt over it and used it as a trampoline to jump into the air, allowing him to land a perfect kick right in Adam's face. The rubbery hero was sent flying through the air. Gear activated his jet blades to gain a height advantage on the stranger just as She-Bang and Rubberband Man recovered from their blows. The stranger looked around at the three heroes.

"Come on, kids." he mocked as he tapped his forehead. "X marks the spot."

She-Bang charged forward with another leaping kick while Rubberband Man inflated his fist and shot it forward.

The thief vanished into thin air, as if teleporting.

Unable to stop their attacks, She-Bang collided into Rubber's fist, sending her flying back in the direction she came. "What the?" Adam asked as he stretched his neck around 360 degrees to try to find the costumed thief.

"A stretchy superhero? Really?" a voice said from above. Adam looked up and saw the freakshow standing on top of a large crate above him. "You do realize there are like, three other heroes with that exact same power set, right?"

Adam growled, then elongated his torso to make himself taller and inflated his fists again. The stranger then thrust out both of his hands, holding them together. Each glove had a different half of a large red X on its palm, and the X they formed as he held his hands together started to glow. A half-second later, his gloves fired a large red projectile at Adam's chest, an X-shaped binding that tired his arms to his torso. He then fired several more such bindings at his other limbs, pinning them to the floor and to other crates. The stranger turned and saw She-Bang flying at him boot-first again.

Then he vanished again. She-Bang flew through the air that the thief once occupied and smashed into a crate. The thief reappeared on top of another crate.

"STOP DOING THAT!" She-Bang shouted at the skeletal fiend.

The thief started doing backflips as he saw projectiles flying through the air towards him. The zap caps detonated on impact, the thief just barely dodging them. He landed on the floor, Gear landing close to him. "Quick question - shouldn't there be four of you?" the thief asked. "Where's that Static Shock guy?"

"First of all, it's just Static." Gear said. "Second, he's not here right now. You're dealing with me."

"And you are…..?" the thief prompted.

"Gear's my name. Technology is my game." Gear said as he took out another zap cap and threw it. The thief fired an x-shaped red laser bolt at the cap, detonating it in mid-air.

"So basically, you're into gadgets." the thief said.

"Oh what? You're gonna make fun of me for that like every other villain?" Gear asked.

"Hey, I'm not shaming you." the thief assured. "For what it's worth, I'm into gadgets too." He held up his gloves, which had red X marks on the tops of his hands. Those marks then enlarged and started spinning, turning into buzzsaws.

"Uh-oh." Gear said as the thief lunged forward and began slashing at Gear, the technopath just barely able to dodge the slashes. "You know, you have me at a disadvantage." Gear said as he danced around the thief. "You know my name, but I don't really know yours."

"Call me Red X." the thief introduced himself with another attempted slash at Gear's chest.

"I like it. Simple and self-explanatory." Gear replied. Red X then fired the two X's at Gear. They both missed, the blades embedding themselves in the crate behind him. "Ah-ha! You missed!" Gear taunted.

"Wait for it." Red X said.

Gear noticed that the X's in the crate were beeping. Gear instinctively dove for cover as they detonated. Gear breathed a sigh of relief….

Until he saw several other red X's hit the floor next to him. They were all beeping too. Gear ran for cover as the X's all detonated. Red X suddenly teleported in front of him. Gear reached for more zap caps on his belt…..only to find he had run out. "Looks like you've ran out of toys." Red X said as he reached for his own utility belt….only to find it empty.

"So have you." Gear pointed out.

"Yeah." Red X conceded. "But can you do this?" Red X then lunged forward with his fist, ready to deliver a vicious punch.

Since he first realized his powers and became an actual superhero, Richie had started an after-school workout regimen on Virgil's advice. Richie didn't think it was necessary at first, since his powers lied in his brain rather than his body, but Virgil had insisted. He said that, regardless of the nature of one's powers, the superhero lifestyle was a physically demanding one, which meant that staying in shape was crucial. So Richie had agreed to work out with Virgil in the Community Center's weight room every weekday after school. The regimen, combined with the fact that puberty had been fairly kind to him, meant that Richie's strength and stamina had improved significantly since last year, not to mention that his upper-body muscles were notably larger and more distinctly-toned.

Absolutely none of that helped as Red X was thoroughly pummeling Gear. Turns out, lifting weights after school and apparently training in multiple forms of martial arts are two very different things.

"Ouch." Gear mumbled as he collapsed to his knees. He rubbed his stomach, sore from all the punches, kicks and knee smashes Red X hit it with.

"Sorry kid." Red X faux-apologized. "But you and your friends are way out of your league. None of you have the skill - "

"HIIIIYAAAAAA!" She-Bang screeched as she leapt at Red X. He teleported, making her crash into yet another crate. He reappeared in the exact same spot.

"To take me on." he finished.

"DAMN IT!" She-Bang loudly cursed.

"So I'll just take my xenothium and be on my way. Adios, kids." Red X said as he turned and leapt up to the skylight, crate by crate.

The thief heard a bang behind him, and before he knew it, he was wrapped in metal coils that bound his arms to his torso. With a surprised yelp, he fell to the ground in a heap. "What the?!" he demanded. His hands strained for his belt, trying to activate his teleporter…

But then Gear casually walked over and relieved him of the belt. "Wouldn't you know, I had one last toy in my back pocket. I always forget to check that when my belt goes dry."

Gear could swear that Red X narrowed his eyes at the young superhero, even though that should be impossible with a mask.

…..

"So, xenothium, huh?" Gear asked as Edwin Alva lead him, She-Bang and Rubberband Man inside Alva Labs. "Pretty rare stuff. Unstable, too."

"Your point?" Alva asked.

"Just making sure you're not doing anything illegal." Gear assured Alva.

"Rest assured, I'm not." Alva said. "Quite the opposite in fact. The government has specially commissioned my company to experiment with xenothium. But that's neither here nor there. You've caught my thief, so now I'm going to fulfill my end of the bargain."

They came to a sealed metal door at the end of the corridor. Alva punched in a code and the door opened. Inside was a massive chemistry lab, filled with beakers and vials and tubes of every shape and size, all containing different chemical materials. "My son will tell you everything." Alva said as he walked back the way he came.

"His son?" She-Bang asked as the three heroes entered.

"Edwin Alva Jr. Former super villain, former statue, and current scientist working for Alva Industries' chemical research department." Gear quickly clarified. They approached a young man with a large nose and blonde hair that, despite dressed like a scientist, was in truth no older than Gear. "Junior. You've come a long way since the last time I saw you." the Dakota hero said as he shook the young man's hand.

"Yeah. Dad's actually taking me seriously now." Junior replied. "But I know you're not here for my life story. My father told me of your arrangement with him."

"What can you tell us about the New Bang?" Gear asked.

Junior began searching through the papers on the desk before him. "First off, it's appropriate that the media call it the New Bang. It's new in more ways than one." Junior apparently found the appropriate file in the organized chaos and began reading through it. "It's not the same formula as the original Big Bang."

"It's not?" She-Bang asked.

"It's a slight variation on the original mutagenic formula." Junior explained. "You see, the gas of the original Big Bang was imperfect. A prototype, if you will. But for the last several months we've been conducting additional research with the formula. Modifying it. Trying to improve it."

"What you should have done was pour every drop of the stuff you had left down the drain." Rubberband Man said. "It's caused nothin' but trouble."

"We're talking about a mutagenic chemical that fundamentally rewrites the genetic code." Junior argued. "It would be foolish to simply destroy something like that without first considering all the possibilities. With a little revisions and in the right hands, the formula can do great good for the world."

"Oh yeah? Name one good thing it's done." the rubbery hero challenged.

"Easy. It created all of you." Junior countered. "Was that such a bad thing?" The superheroes had no answer. "Thought so."

"Wait a sec, I thought you already improved the gas." She-Bang commented. "Like you figured out how to modify it to give you a specific power. That's how you became that omni-guy, right?"

"Ah yes, Omnifarious. I prefer not to dwell on that…phase of my life." Junior replied. "Unfortunately, it would seem that one of the side-effects of my petrification was mild amnesia. My memories of the three or four days leading up to it are hazy at best. It's difficult to recall specific details, including my modifications to the formula."

As well as Static's secret identity. Gear thought to himself. Edwin Alva Jr. had discovered Virgil's double-life during his rampage as Omnifarious. They were lucky that that was among the details that Junior forgot in his petrification.

"Back to the subject at hand." Junior resumed. "My team and I have been working on ways to improve the original formula, which had more than its share of flaws. For example, not everyone who inhaled the gas became a true meta-human."

"I'm aware." Gear said. "Half of those exposed actually died from it. My friends and I were among the lucky ones."

"Exactly." Junior replied. "So one of the primary goals of our research was to drastically reduce the formula's fatality rate. We were more successful in that particular goal than I dared to dream. The fatality rate is practically 0%. The odds of becoming a Bang Baby upon exposure is practically 100%."

"Is that what the New Bang is?" Gear asked.

"Correct." Junior replied. "As a consequence of its higher success rate…it would seem that Static and his new friends over in Jump City will have to deal with even more Bang Babies than Dakota ever did."

"That might have been nice to know a few days ago." Gear sarcastically commented. "Unfortunately, the Titans already know that they've got a truckload of meta-humans to deal with. You're not really telling us anything we don't already know."

"Then here's something you don't." Alva said. He looked around at the other scientists. He looked suspicious. He gestured Gear to come a little closer. Gear leaned in. "The H.I.V.E. Five only stole a small sample of this formula variant." Junior whispered. "It shouldn't have been enough to create as many meta-humans as it did over in Jump City."

"Meaning?" Gear asked.

"Whoever stole it had the means to replicate the formula. All they needed was a single sample as a reference." Junior said. "Additionally, that vault was filled with other, more unstable variants of the formula. Those were left untouched. The H.I.V.E. knew exactly what they wanted, and exactly where it was."

"What are you saying?" Gear asked.

"We suspect an information leak." Junior said.

"An inside job?" Gear asked.

"Had to have been. I refuse to believe they stole the most stable and successful formula variant through blind luck. Someone in this company told them what to look for." Junior said. "Not only does this mastermind have information, but capital as well. Resources, their own private labs, everything one would need for duplicating and then distributing the formula."

"Don't suppose you have any theories on who our guy is?" Gear asked.

"None." Junior grimly replied. "The internal investigation is still on-going. No leads yet. But one thing has become clear to me. Our mastermind has plans. Big ones, I'm sure of it. The New Bang was just the beginning."

"The beginning of what?" She-Bang asked.

"I wish I knew." Junior answered.

….

The night was officially a bust. Gear, She-Bang and Rubberband Man all busted their humps to catch a nasty thief, and all they got for their troubles was info they already knew and a couple of cryptic warnings. Definitely not the most productive evening they've ever had. They took solace in the fact that a dangerous criminal had been taken into police custody. Shenice and Adam opted to go home, while Gear stayed behind to close up the HQ, as well as to go over the notes that Edwin Alva Jr. handed him on his way out. He sat his desk going over the notes, still in costume as Gear, finding that even the research notes Junior provided weren't terribly helpful. The notes mostly just told Gear things that he already knew, and thus wouldn't help much.

Gear groaned in frustration and set aside the notes. He went back to tinkering with the shock vox, deciding that another vain attempt to contact Virgil was a better investment of his time. "Come on, Static, pick up." Gear grumbled. "Come on, I want to tell you the useless information that Alva told me that I already knew because the entire Alva bloodline is evidently composed of - "

"Jerks?" a voice asked. "Yeah, I hear ya kid." Richie swiveled in his chair.

And saw Red X casually leaning against the opposite wall.

Richie jumped out of his seat and grabbed a zap cap off the desk. "Woah there." the skeletal thief said as he held up his hands just as Gear was about to throw it. "I come in peace this time."

"How did you escape police custody?!" Gear demanded.

"Please. Takes a lot more than a pair of cuffs to hold me." Red X boasted. "You know, if it's info on the New Bang you want, I could probably help you out."

"Somehow I doubt that." Gear suspiciously replied as he relaxed. He still held the zap cap in his hand though, just in case.

"I know who's behind it." Red X said. "A guy named Slade."

"Slade?" Gear asked.

"Used to be a mercenary back in the day, but now he's a big-time crime lord in Jump City." Red X explained. "He operates mostly on the west coast, but lately he's been sending feelers to Dakota. He's been planning this whole thing for a while now. And if I know Slade, he's just getting warmed up."

"And you're telling me all this…..why?" Gear asked.

"Don't let the styling suit and the badass skills fool you. I'm no meta-human." Red X said. "Slade is looking to corner the meta-criminal market, which means there's gonna be a lot more superpowered thieves running around. I help you, I eliminate the competition."

"Nice to see your heart's in the right place." Gear sarcastically commented. "Anything else you'd like to share with the class?"

"Yeah. Slade might have gotten what he wanted out of Alva Industries, but don't think he's done with Dakota just yet." Red X said. "He's probably still got feelers in this city. If you want more answers, you might want to try looking for them."

"Me? Why don't you look for them?" Gear asked.

"Not my job, kid." Red X said. "But I can point you in the right direction. Look around the city outskirts. Look for someone named 'Provision.' Well. Catch ya later." And with that, Red X teleported. Gear immediately checked Back Pack, but there was nothing on the robot's motion radar. The thief was gone.

Gear slumped into his seat again. "And here I was, thinking that with Virgil away from home, I'd be missing out on all the fun."