A Blank Page: Agendas

Later that evening, Static and Gear were at the "Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude", also known as their headquarters. Their nighttime patrol had ended a few minutes ago, and to their relief (and disappointment), there hadn't been much criminal activity going on. There had been a bank robbery here and there, but the criminals had ended up being normal people, which was easier but definitely not as much fun as fighting bang-babies. Yes, the bang-baby activity had been low recently, and had not gone unnoticed by the two superhero teens. Right now, the teens were just chilling out at the gas station before each had to go to their respective houses for dinner. Richie was typing vigorously on his computer, probably coming up with a new invention, Virgil thought. He never knew exactly what Richie was doing, but he did know that it was best to just watch and wait until Richie was able to talk; it was useless trying to get a word out of him when he was in this kind of state. Nonetheless, Virgil tried to start a conversation. He never enjoyed silence—there was something about it that was aggravating to him.

"Good patrol tonight," he said.

"Yeah," Richie replied half-heartedly, leaving Virgil unsure if Richie truly understood what he had said. Richie continued to type for a minute or two until he whirled around to face Virgil. "You know what I don't get, V: Hotstreak, Why was he looking for us this morning?" Richie had obviously been contemplating this for a while until he had actually voiced it out loud. He usually liked to think about things before he asked for a second opinion. Virgil understood this, and ironically, he himself had wondered it as well, probably not as extensively as Richie. He simply shrugged.

"Don't know, I mean, he's hunted our tails before." While he had wondered about earlier that day, he figured it was just some spontaneous thing that Hotstreak had done. He doubted it meant anything; after all, Hotstreak liked to bully people, and would take any chance he could just for his own amusement. However, it was clear that Richie wasn't as convinced.

"I don't know, he kind of ignored us after he became Hotstreak. That was over a year ago. Why now?" Richie's brows furrowed slightly, showing a hint of concern, probably thinking something was seriously wrong and imagining all these worst-case scenarios that Virgil knew would never come true. Instead, Virgil waved Richie's worries aside. He was overreacting, and Virgil honestly didn't want to think about anything bad at the moment. Being a super-brain expectedly came with a big imagination.

"You're sweating too much over it, Rich. It's probably nothing." Virgil pulled out his disk from the pocket of his uniform and started walking towards the door of the gas station. "Gotta get home. Pops'll be waiting. Catch up with you later." And with that, Virgil hopped onto his disk and flew off into the night, leaving Richie alone with his thoughts.

On the other side of Dakota, a figure ran down a deserted road, the light of the streetlamp reflecting off his fiery red hair. He seemed to be unease, even the barking of a dog made him jump, but he refused to show his fear. To show fear was an unmanly thing to do, and you needed to be tough when you lived on the streets. Heavily panting, Hotstreak darted to the abandoned juvenile center, where the Breed was awaiting his arrival. He took a deep breath before he burst through the door to find the gang lounging around the main lobby of the place. The blue-haired bang baby known as Shiv and the big-foot known as Kangorr were playing pool, the bird girl by the name of Talon was analyzing her claws, and the shadow man—Ebon, was silently sitting on the couch, his arms folded in a hostile manner. The sound of the door opening made the gang look up as Hotstreak entered the room.

"Did you get them?" Ebon demanded. The sharpness of his voice made Hotstreak flinch slightly, but he quickly recovered as his pride was at stake. He cleared his throat before answering.

"No. Couldn't find them," he said, gathering up the courage to look into Ebon's cold, white pupils. The shadow man grunted in disapproval.

"It's not that hard to find two teenage boys." Ebon stood up from the couch and stalked over to Hotstreak like a predator sneaking up on its prey. Hotstreak stood his ground and fought the urge to move away from Ebon as he confronted him. The rest of the gang shifted uncomfortably as they watched, unsure of what Ebon was going to do. Ebon had always been unnervingly unpredictable. Instead of socking it to him like Shiv thought he would do, Ebon jabbed Hotstreak with his index finger. "You failed me." His words were bitter and unforgiving. "So that means we need another plan. I'm not gonna rest 'til those dweebs are found."