To clarify things, there are two people taking the persona Dragon in the comics. Richard Dragon is the original and heroic Dragon, while Ricardo Diaz is the second and evil Dragon. Ricardo is also the version used in the Arrowverse. In the comics, Richard is a redheaded American, but in the animated movie Batman: Soul of the Dragon, he is Chinese. That should clarify things in the previous chapter. You can always use DC Wiki to find out more.
I'm not sure if I want to post this story on AO3, mainly due to the fact that this story contains references to my past DC stories, so people who do not come to this site to read my previous stories may not understand those references.
Chapter 25
When Lightning Strikes Thrice
Garfield High School is a high school located in the city of Freeland.
School was going on like normal for the students of Garfield High School. However, a blonde girl was looking tired and on the verge of falling over as she came out from a bathroom. Nearby students noticed her and asked if she was all right in concern.
"I'm fine..." she said in a weak tone. All of a sudden, she collapsed onto the floor and appeared to be suffering from spasm. People were shocked and immediately tried to help her and take her to the clinic.
She then let out a cry as wind came out from all over her body in a manner similar to a cyclone, sending the people and stuff in the area flying all over the place. People were screaming in terror as they got blew around by the strong wind and even tried to get away from her. The siren went off, alerting everyone in the school of what happened.
The school principal, Jefferson Pierce, came out of his office room to see what happened. He was shocked to see the girl floating and spinning uncontrollably in air while surrounded by wind. After helping up those on the floor and telling them to run to safety, he made sure that there was nobody else present first before approaching the "wind girl," pressing against the wind the best he could while generating electricity from his hands.
That evening of the same day, somewhere else in Freeland...
Releasing electricity together, Denki and Static zapped water-based villain New Wave badly, knocking her out. "All right! We did it!" exclaimed the two young heroes as they gave each other a high five.
"Too bad for her! Water is a bad match for electricity!" said Denki.
"I know, right?" said Static. "All those talks about creating a flood to wipe out the entire city all boiled down to nothing!"
As the two heroes were happily chatting away, they failed to notice that New Wave was still conscious. Turning into a puddle of water, she tried to slip away into the sewer, only to be stopped by a lightning bolt coming down from above. She screamed as she turned back to normal, this time passing out for sure.
Static and Denki were surprised by what happened, and then they saw a man wearing a dark blue costume with a yellow lightning bolt printed at the front floating down, partially surrounded by electricity.
"Black Lightning!" Static said to him in surprise.
"So this is Black Lightning, the electric hero!" said Denki with sparkling eyes.
"It's important that you make sure your enemy is down for the count before you relax," Black Lightning told them. "She could've gotten away."
"Sorry about that..." apologized Static.
"You're Black Lightning, right?" Denki said to him with excitement. "I'm Denki Kaminari, also known as Chargebolt! It's an honor to meet you!"
"You're that young hero from another universe the Justice League told me about, right?" Black Lightning asked him. "I heard you were interested in me because we both have electric powers."
"That's right! I saw videos of what you're capable of, and I'm amazed! I would love it if I can learn some stuff from you!" Denki said to him.
"Not sure if I have time for that, because there's someone I have to a pay a visit to tonight, but I'll see what I can do to help you," said Black Lightning. "Anyway, let's go back to my base first to talk."
Soon afterwards, the group of three headed over to Black Lightning's secret base, which was located in the basement of a tailor store belonging to a man named Peter Gambi, who according to Black Lightning is his friend and partner in crime fighting.
"Saw the news that a metahuman incident happened at school," Gambi said to Black Lightning while watching the news on a relatively large computer screen, and a high-tech computer at that.
"Right," said Black Lightning with a nod. "Her names Wendy Jones. She has no powers last I checked, so what happened struck me as strange... I managed to stop her before things got bad. Hopefully everything is fine for her at the hospital..."
"Perhaps you're thinking of what I'm thinking already," Gambi said to him.
Black Lightning nodded. "Yes, Green Light... That would mean... Tobias Whale..."
"Thought he stopped distributing that years ago..." said Peter. "I take that you're going to pay him a visit tonight?"
"Obviously," said Black Lightning. "Before that..." He called Denki over and said, "So you want to learn a thing or two from me, right?"
"If you have time, because it sounds like you're going to be busy," Denki said to him.
"I can spare some time, and if you have what it takes, perhaps you can tag along with me to visit that certain someone and help out," Black Lightning said to him. "By the way, one thing I heard from the League is that you have a problem where you have a mental breakdown or something if you overuse your powers?"
Denki nodded. "Yeah... If I use too much voltage, my mind will become childish for a few minutes... I can't do anything at that state and have to be protected by people..."
"I'll see if I can do something about that..." said Black Lightning. He then turned to a dome-shaped glass chamber at one side of the room. "How about you go in there and use as much of your power as you can? I use that to perform tests on my powers. We'll see if it can find the problem."
Denki nodded before entering said chamber. When Gambi gave him the word, the student released a large amount of electricity that the chamber kept contained. A computer close to the chamber calculated the output and also showed various other statistics.
After several seconds, Denki stopped, and then he showed a weird-looking face while making silly and childish sounds, not to mention making childish movements. "This is actually quite hilarious!" commented Static, trying to hold back his laughter.
"Okay... Never seen anything like this before..." said Black Lightning, intrigued.
"I think I know what the problem is," said Peter, looking at the screen. "It shows here that overusing the electricity paralyzed his brain cells so that they are unable to function properly, thus resulting in this sort of behavior."
"I see," said Black Lightning. "You think there's anyway this can be solved?"
"For one, you can use your electricity in such a way that it restore his brain cells, the same way you use it to heal your injuries," Gambi told him. "With the right voltage, it should undo the damage."
"Makes sense. I'll give it a try," said Black Lightning. He went into the chamber and placed both hands on Denki, inputting weak electricity into him. In seconds, the student was back to normal.
"Wha... What?! Whoa... I feel like I got massaged in the head just now..." said Denki.
"I fixed your damaged brain cells that resulted from you overusing your powers," Black Lightning told him.
"So that's the problem? Now I know..." said Denki.
"I can think of a way to fix this problem," Gambi told him. "My idea is to equip you with a device that, when it senses something wrong with your brain, will jolt you back to your senses. That way, you can instantly get back into action even when you overuse your powers."
"Wow! I didn't know such a thing is possible!" said Denki happily. "Thanks for coming up with a solution to this!"
"I'll get to it at once," said Gambi as he left to work on said device.
"Also, I saw that the both of you are able to fly using your powers," said Denki. "Static uses a flying board charged with electricity... How do you do that?"
"Electromagnetism," replied Black Lightning. "It's the same concept as magnets. I use reversed polarity in my electricity to repel myself from the ground and float into the air. Static does the same thing with his flying board."
"That must require a lot of electric power!" said Denki.
"Not as much as you think. It actually uses little power compared to our attacks," Static told him. "You can even use it to attract metal stuff to you and cling onto walls!"
"That sounds totally awesome! I really want to be able to do stuff like those!" said Denki in excitement.
"Let's see if you have the potential for those, then," Black Lightning said to him.
Several hours later, when it was almost midnight...
A large, muscular man with unusually pale skin was in his office room at the top of a skyscraper, talking with his men.
Suddenly, the siren went off, much to his surprise. Pressing a button on a communication device on his desk, he asked, "What's happening?"
"It's Black Lightning!" said the voice on the other side in panic. "He's here!"
"Black Lightning?! He must've caught on to the Green Light and deduced that I am behind it," said the large man. "Very well, let him come! He'll see for himself that he's outmatched this time! Get all the men after him at once!"
At the first floor, Black Lightning, Static, and Denki had arrived at the place. Several men armed with gun came running towards them and open fired. Black Lightning created a force field that deflected the bullets, and then he fired blasts of electricity at those people to knock them out.
"Wow! You can create a force field too?! That's awesome!" commented Denki in awe.
"Don't get too relaxed, kids," Black Lightning told them. "I can't always protect you. I brought you both here because I believe you have what it takes to defend yourselves, so do what you have to do."
"Got it!" Static told him.
The three made their way through the place, and more armed men came after them. Denki fired disks from his Sharpshooter Gear, attaching to some of the men, who were confused at what these are. Denki then fired trails of electricity from his fingers that went towards the disks, hitting them and also zapping those men.
Black Lightning and Static fired blasts of electricity at all the armed men until the floor was cleared. They headed for the elevator and tried to use it to get to the top floor, where Tobias is.
Cue elevator waiting scene, accompanied by elevator music...
However, the elevator stopped just short of the last floor, and the door opened. "Huh? Why did it stop here?" wondered Denki.
"Obviously, Tobias would never let us get to him so easily," said Static. "Only one floor left, though. No stair is gonna stop us!"
"Be careful. He may have set a trap on this floor," Black Lightning warned them.
They stepped out of the elevator and searched for the stairs to the next floor, only to run into a muscular black man with dreadlocks. "So you're Black Lightning, huh? Finally got to meet you at last!" he said to them.
"Who are you?" Black Lightning asked him.
"Name's Painkiller! I got orders from my boss to stop you! Nothing personal, but I'm gonna to enjoy it nonetheless!" said the man.
"I've got no time for you! Out of the way!" said Black Lightning, sounding frustrated, and then he fired electricity at him.
Painkiller swiftly got out of the way and then ran at Black Lightning to attack him head on. The hero tried to punch him, but Painkiller dodged it and then jabbed him in the hand with his finger. Black Lightning's vision suddenly turned black. "I can't see!"
Painkiller then punched the hero away and explained, "I've got the power to shut off any one of your senses! It's only temporary, unfortunately." He closed in on Black Lightning to punch him, but the hero was able to catch his fists.
"Good thing it's only temporary!" said Black Lightning as he generated electricity in his hands to zap Painkiller and then threw him aside.
Painkiller landed in a crouching position and said, "Your sight recovered faster than expected! I guess it has to do with your electric powers fixing your nerves and whatnot."
The two of them clashed against each other again. When Painkiller got his fingers on Black Lightning's hands again, the hero felt strength leaving his arms to the point where he was no longer able to feel and move them at all, and this allowed Painkiller to punch and kick him mercilessly.
"Hey you! Don't pick on him!" said Static angrily as he fired electricity at Painkiller. The villain lunged at him afterwards at a fast speed, and despite Static's attempt at jumping away, Painkiller was still able to catch him by a leg and hurl him away.
Denki fired a disk that stuck onto the side of Painkiller's body, and then he fired electricity at the latter, zapping him. Painkiller growled in pain as he endured the electric shock while trying to approach Denki, who increased the voltage.
Black Lightning's arms returned to normal, and he punched Painkiller in the head with electrified fists. He socked Painkiller multiple times in the face before the latter began fighting back, blocking his blows and also throwing his own punches. He grabbed Black Lightning's head and pressed his finger against his face to deactivate his sight.
However, Black Lightning headbutted him in the head hard. Painkiller flinched and then moved away from Black Lightning, thinking that he wouldn't be able to see where he is due to his temporary loss of sight. However, Black Lightning was somehow able to tell where he is and continue attacking him.
"I may not be able to see, but I can sense weak electricity coming from people's bodies!" explained Black Lightning. His sight soon returned, and he continued attacking Painkiller, who angrily fought back.
Both sides threw punches at each other, striking hard and sending sparks flying all over the place due to the electricity coming from Black Lightning's fists. When Black Lightning threw another punch, Painkiller swiftly dodged it and got behind him, grabbing his shoulders from underneath in an attempt to hold him in place.
"You're forgetting about us!" said Static as he launched electricity at Painkiller, zapping him. Denki ran close to Painkiller, releasing electricity around himself to zap him.
No longer able to tolerate the electrocution, Painkiller screamed in pain as he let go of Black Lightning. The hero turned to him and then slammed down a fist full of electricity over his head, smashing his face against the floor hard.
SMASH!
Painkiller was down for the count, and Denki exclaimed, "Yeah! We did it!"
"Teamwork! Baby!" exclaimed Static.
"He's tough... Gotta give it to him... We still have Tobias to deal with, so let's go," Black Lightning told the two teens, and then they headed for the staircase to get to the next floor.
"Is this Tobias guy strong? Does he have powers?" asked Denki.
"Tobias doesn't have powers, but he's a very large and strong man and also good at fighting, so you shouldn't underestimate him just because we have powers and he doesn't," replied Black Lightning.
"Noted! This world already showed me that you can still be a badass without powers," said Denki with a nod.
Arriving at the top floor, they approached a room at the end of the hallway. There were a few more armed men coming after them, but they weren't anything the heroes couldn't deal with.
After dealing with those men, Black Lightning kicked down the door, and the moment he entered the room, a harpoon was fired at him. Acting fast, he created a force field that deflected said harpoon, which then retracted by to a large gun wielded by the large man. "How rude of you to break into my office uninvited, and you even broke down the door!" he said to Black Lightning.
"Tobias!" Black Lightning angrily said to him.
"That's Tobias? What an absolute unit!" said Denki in awe at the size of that man.
"This is my first time seeing him in person, and I already have the feeling that this isn't going to be easy..." said Static.
"You've been distributing Green Light again, haven't you?" Black Lightning asked the villain.
"And what if I have?" asked Tobias. "I'm making good profit out of it. Besides, obtaining superpowers is something that a lot of people crave. I'm offering people the chance to become special!"
"Green Light is also harmful to people's body! It is addictive, and if your body isn't strong enough, you won't be able to handle it and even die! A student in Garfield High School almost died because she took Green Light!" Black Lightning angrily said to him.
"Then she's too weak to be special! Only the strong survives in this world!" said Tobias.
"That is such a cliched thing for a villain to say..." commented an unimpressed Denki.
"What are you going to do about it? Stop me?" Tobias asked Black Lightning.
"I did it before, and I'm doing it again!" said the hero before shooting a blast of electricity at Tobias. To his surprise, Tobias not only didn't flinch, he didn't appear to be harmed by it at all. The most he did was take a step back. "What?!"
"I learn from my mistakes," said Tobias with a smirk. "I injected myself with a special serum that enhances my endurance to the point that your electricity will only tickle me slightly! What can you do now that your attacks cannot hurt me?"
"We'll see about that!" Black Lightning fired at Tobias again, and the latter was unfazed by the attack as he stepped out from behind his desk and charged at Black Lightning.
The two of them slammed their fists into each other, creating an electric shockwave. Tobias then threw multiple punches at Black Lightning, and despite the former's large size, his movements were unexpectedly fast. Black Lightning desperately used his arms to block his punches, but Tobias was able to slip a punch through his defense and land his fist against his face, knocking him away.
"Hey you! Not cool!" said Static angrily as he zapped Tobias. The villain was unfazed as he turned to Static and slapped him away into a wall.
Denki then released electricity around himself to zap Tobias, but it did not good as the villain turned to him and punched him away into the air. "Tsk! Why is it that I always attract electric metahumans?!" said Tobias in frustration.
Black Lightning lunged Tobias and threw an electrically charged punch against his head. Tobias only took a step back from it and then tried to punch Black Lightning, but the hero dodged it before punching him all over the body. As if trying to show off his newly obtained enhanced endurance, Tobias allowed him to hit him and even smile smugly. "Even massages hurt more than this!" taunted the villain.
As Black Lightning continued to punch Tobias, trying to knock him down, Static took out his disc that he uses for flying. It was folded together like a handheld fan, and after spreading it out to form a circular shape, he used the electromagnetic properties of his power to levitate and send it flying into Tobias, hitting him hard in the head.
"You brat!" said Tobias angrily as he turned to Static. Seeing this gave Black Lightning an idea. Also using electromagnetism, he "grabbed" a nearby lamp and pulled it over to hit Tobias with.
Tobias growled in anger as he grabbed the lamp, getting electrocuted by it because Black Lightning was still holding it in air using electricity. Black Lightning increased the voltage, to the point Tobias actually felt his hand numbing. The lamp also heated up, burning Tobias and making him let go. Black Lightning hurled the lamp at him like a spear at his belly at the same time Static hit him in the head using his disc. Both the attacks combined made Tobias fall on his back.
Tobias got back up while growling in anger, and then several small discs were fired at him before he could react, attaching to various parts of his body. "Time to let loose now that I don't have to worry about my weakness!" said Denki as he generated electricity. "2 Million Volt Discharge!"
He released a large amount of electricity that got attracted to the discs on Tobias's body, zapping the villain with powerful voltage. Black Lightning and Static joined in on the attack, and their powers combined made Tobias scream in pain. Even with enhanced endurance, such a combined attack was still too much for him to handle.
ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!
They ended their combined attack after several seconds, and Tobias fell forward onto the floor, badly charred. "All right! We did it!" exclaimed Static.
Denki shook and then rubbed his head. "My mind is still fine! Mister Gambi's device really worked!" If one looks closely, he or she can see a ring-shaped device worn around his head. "Yes! Now I no longer have to worry about using too much voltage!"
"Gambi did say that you should still show restraint on the off chance that device can no longer handle things and break apart," Black Lightning reminded him.
They failed to realize Tobias getting back up and picking up his harpoon gun. He fired it at Denki, but he dodged it in time, and the harpoon hit the wall behind him. "Ha! Miss!" laughed Denki.
When the harpoon retracted, it pulled back a relatively large piece of the wall with it, hitting Denki from behind and pushing him towards Tobias, who grabbed him by the neck and held him up in the air.
Black Lightning and Static tried to help the student, but Denki released a large amount of electricity all of a sudden. Tobias kept moving back as he tried to endure the electrocution, and he ended up falling backwards and crashing through a large window behind him, so the both of them fell out.
Tobias crashed onto a balcony a few floors down below, but Denki fell farther ahead and missed the balcony. Black Lightning and Static were horrified to see this, and the former jumped down to the balcony and rushed to the side to look down.
To his relief, he saw Denki holding onto a metal pole sticking out of the side of the building, and there was weak electricity on his hands, showing that he was holding onto it using electromagnetism. "Are you all right?" Black Lightning asked him.
"I'm okay!" Denki told him. He then stood up on the pole before jumping at the wall, clinging himself to it using electromagnetism. "All right! Training paid off!"
"Awesome, man!" praised Static.
"Young people sure learn fast nowadays!" commented Black Lightning happily.
TO BE CONTINUED
And here we have a chapter focusing on Denki! Good of him to finally have his Quirk's weakness resolved!
This version of Painkiller is based on the comics, where his power involves "cutting off" people's senses temporarily. The TV version changed his power to inflicting people with venom with just a touch.
Wendy Jones is the villlain-turned-hero Windfall in the comics and also New Wave's younger sister. She also appears in the Black Lightning TV show, though as a black girl with her last name changed to Hernandez.
We will be focusing on two Class 1-A students in the next chapter. Please look forward to it!