Talon flew above the city toward the abandoned juvenile center. She had been ordered to report to Ebon at the end of the day about what she had found regarding the two teenagers. And to be honest, she hadn't found much. After school, Virgil and Richie had headed home, which wasn't out of the usual for them, considering they didn't officially belong to any clubs or activities after school. They had seemed a little more in a hurry today than usual, however, she doubted it meant anything.

She hadn't followed them all the way to their houses though, in case they spotted her. Observing them for extended periods of time would only increase her chances of being caught, which would ruin the entire plan. Because if they saw her, no doubt they would take precautions to ensure that she didn't find out anything about them. They could even lead her to the wrong house if they had discovered she was following them. And that would've been a waste of effort.

She entered the juvenile detention center to find Shiv and Kangorr noisily playing air hockey.

"Take that, Bigfoot!" Shiv shouted. The second the words came out of his mouth, Kangorr shot the puck into his goal. "Hey!" he yelled. "I thought you sucked at this game."

Kangorr grinned at him. "You underestimate me, mon," the Jamaican retorted.

Talon shook her head. The boys in this gang were so immature. No wonder she had to do everything by herself.

"Sorry to interrupt your game," she declared sarcastically, "but where's Ebon?"

"I'm right here."

Suddenly, Ebon emerged from the wall. At the sight of their leader, Shiv and Kangorr paused their game and gave Ebon their full and undivided attention.

"What did you find out?" Ebon asked.

Talon shook her head. She hated to disappoint him. "To be honest, I didn't find anything."

Ebon narrowed his eyes, unconvinced. He couldn't believe there was nothing special about the boys, no tidbit of information that was useful to him. "You sure about that?"

"Positive," she replied. "They go to school, they go home. Just like every other kid."

"Hmph," the shadow grunted in disapproval. "Guess we're at a dead end then."

If Talon, his most loyal and smartest member couldn't find anything, then the boys were covering up their tracks pretty well.

Shiv watched the interaction between Ebon and Talon. He didn't understand why Ebon was so interested in the two particular teenagers. It seemed very irrelevant to him.

"Why are we doing this, boss?" the blue-haired bang baby asked. "Why do we care about these losers so much? They seem like a couple of lowlifes if you ask me."

"Because, Shiv," Ebon said, "these lowlifes could be our ticket to the takedown of Static."

"But how?" Shiv pressed. "They don't seem that great to me."

Ebon sighed. The boy could be so incompetent.

"You know what I think?" the shadow man said. "I think those stubborn dweebs are acting real ordinary on purpose."

The other meta humans glanced at each other uncertainly. No one knew what that meant.

"What do you mean, boss?" Shiv asked.

Ebon turned to Talon, ignoring his question. "Did they spot you at all?"

Talon shrugged. She was unsure about where her leader was going with this. "Not that I know of."

Ebon folded his arms and thought for a moment before speaking. "I think they're acting like your average Joe's because they actually are Static and his goofy sidekick, and they know we're onto them. Those fools wouldn't go to that much trouble if they didn't have something to hide."

"Now wait, I'm confused," Shiv said. "Why are we after them if we don't even know if they're Static and Gear or not?"

Ebon supposed he might as well tell them his plan so they'd stop asking questions. He figured the teenagers knew what he was up to so it didn't matter if his crew members blabbed or not.

"I was trying to see if Hawkins and Foley were truly Static and Gear because I was thinking we'd have a better chance of taking them down if we knew their secret identities. Every hero has one."

"Oh, I get it, so we could blackmail them," Shiv said. For once, he understood one of Ebon's crazy schemes.

"Exactly. We'd know where they go and we'd be able to catch them off guard."

"But without knowing for sure..."

"We can't do that," Ebon said, finishing his thought. "Without proof, we might as well be on a wild goose chase."

"Then why don't we try something else?" Talon piped in. "Do they have any family members? Friends? They talk to a couple girls from school, but that's all I know."

Ebon was silent, letting the information sink in.

"That's what we should be looking for, any outside relations. It's the best we've got so far," he finally said. "Talon, I'll have you check up on anyone they talk to. Maybe then we can find something."

Talon nodded obediently, showing she understood her new task. "Yes, sir."

"In the meantime, I wonder if Hotstreak's in the same boat as we are."

A familiar figure with fiery red hair ran down an empty road, the light of the streetlamp reflecting off his fiery red hair. Hotstreak had been trying to trace Virgil and Richie for a couple hours now, seeing no sign of them. He supposed he could've checked the school earlier, but he knew Talon was watching him as well, and the first place she would look was at the school. He couldn't risk her spotting him, otherwise, she would report to Ebon, and he knew Ebon would assume the pyromaniac was at a dead end, which unfortunately was the truth. The school was the easiest place to look, but Talon was there, and on top of that, he had already broken into the school, and the teens would be expecting him, if not, the superheroes definitely would have. There had to be other places he could look. Man, if he only knew where the Hawkins kid lived...

That's when it hit him. Instead of looking for Virgil and Richie, he should be hunting the heroes. They were the ultimate problem in the first place. Ebon had been using the teens to get to the heroes, but what good would that do if he wasted all his time trying to track those pathetic losers. Why was Ebon doing that anyways? What role did Hawkins and Foley play in this? Hotstreak was curious as to why Ebon was focusing on them. He knew Ebon had originally been trying to find Static's identities, but he hadn't been there when they had captured Virgil. But they had proved that Hawkins wasn't really Static, didn't they? So why was he still after him? There were so many questions unanswered, mainly because Ebon refused to answer them. Who knew what was going on in that inflated head of his. Hotstreak knew he wasn't a genius himself, but he had enough sense to know that the best way to get to the heroes was to go straight to the source.

He turned a corner, realizing that he didn't know exactly where he was going, or how to go about finding the two heroes. Maybe they had some secret lair or something that he could find. Even so, it was probably some elaborate underground thing with high-end security or something like that. He didn't want to go to that much trouble. He stopped for a second to think, waiting for inspiration to hit him as he stared at the ground.

While he was standing there, he felt a gust of wind against him, blowing his fiery red hair in all different directions. He was sure it was going to storm tonight, so he guessed he would have to find shelter somewhere. He wasn't crawling back to Ebon, that's for sure. The pyromaniac paid little attention to the trash being whipped about by the wind until he heard a loud rustling noise. A few feet away from him was a piece of paper caught in the gutter next to the sidewalk. It was crumpled and covered in dirt, but from the corner that was sticking out, Hotstreak could make out the name Static.

"Wonder what brilliant thing the punk did this time," he muttered under his breath.

Hotstreak bent down and snatched the paper from the gutter and examined it more closely. Unraveling it, he saw that it was an advertisement for the comic book shop. "Static and Gear as special appearances," he read aloud.

A devious grin spread across his face. This was the perfect opportunity to take the heroes by surprise. They wouldn't dare attack him with full force with all those people around. He could definitely use that as an advantage.

Chuckling, he burned the piece of paper in his hands until all that remained of it were ashes, which he threw into the wind, not caring where they ended up. Nothing would stop him now.

"See you there, chumps" he said. "See you there."