"Tell me why we're here again?" Gear asked as he and Static walked into the comic book shop. Static was a good hero and all, but he needed to get his priorities straight. This wasn't the the time to be looking for comics.

"Because I talked to the owner last week and he says he's willing to pay us $100 each to sign some comics for a couple hours," Static said. "We're just doing him a favor, that's all."

A smirk crept on Gear's face. He knew exactly what was going on. "Ah, I see we're flattering our egos."

Static shrugged, trying to hide a grin from forming. "Hey, even superheroes have to make a living somehow."

Gear snorted. That was just the excuse he had been expecting. "Yeah, and then we all can be as rich as Batman," he retorted, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Shouldn't we be out looking for Ebon?"

Static nodded. "We will. We're just...taking a break, that's all," he assured. Virgil and Richie weren't in dire danger, right? After all, they were in their costumes.

Static and Gear walked deeper into the comic book shop, taking in the dozens of comics that were lined up on the shelves. It was truly a sight to be seen.

"Woah, I think I'm in heaven," Gear said. Even in costume, he couldn't keep Richie's nerdiness from shining through.

"Hey man, check this out," Static said from a couple feet away. He was peering in a display case with what appeared to contain figurines.

Gear walked over to him to see what his friend was looking at. He could feel himself becoming increasingly giddy, like a child in a candy store, with each passing second he spent in the comic shop. All the things he would buy if he had the money.

Static pointed at the figures at the top of the display case. On display was a mini Batman, J'onn, Hawkgirl, the Flash, Green Lantern, Wonderwoman, and Superman. "There's the Justice League," he said. He examined the tiny figures, until there were two in particular that caught his eye. In the corner, there was a dark-skinned figure with a lighting bolt on his chest, next to a helmeted figure wearing a green suit. "And look, there's us!"

"Cool!" Gear exclaimed.

Static examined the tiny version of himself more closely. "Aw man, they got my hair all wrong."

Gear observed his own figurine, scrutinizing every centimeter of it. "They made me look fat," he said.

Static tried to suppress his laughter. He loved taunting Gear about his weight, considering he had seen what he would look like in thirty years. "Uh, Gear, I have something to tell you..."

The blond hero glared at his friend. He knew Static had seen him thirty years from now and he had, well, gained a few pounds since the present. Since that day, Static hadn't stopped antagonizing him about it.

"Shut up, Static."

After he was done criticizing the Gear collectible, the techie's eyes scanned the rest of the figurines in the display case until he came across none other than Batman's sidekick.

"Oh look, they have a Robin one too," he said excitedly. "Better add that to my Christmas list."

Static was staring at the line that had started to form outside the comic book shop. There had to be at least a hundred people there already, and the signing didn't start for another fifteen minutes or so.

"Really long line," he said.

Gear nodded. "Yeah, and I bet they're all here to see you."

Even though he had been Static's partner for awhile now and most of Dakota knew who he was, he just couldn't shake off that feeling of inadequacy around the other superhero. He wouldn't admit it to Static, but sometimes he was jealous of all the attention Static got, and he felt like he didn't get the recognition he deserved. Invisible was the word to describe it.

Static shook his head, still scanning the crowd of people lining up in front of the comic book store. He knew how Gear felt, but he couldn't help it. He couldn't control how popular he was; he didn't write the news. Gear was just a little insecure, that's all. He knew that even before he became Gear. Still, there was a bitterness in his voice that made him cringe.

"Don't be ridiculous, Gear. You're famous too...uh, oh," he trailed off.

Gear glanced up from a stack of comics he was browsing, only to find Static staring off into the sea of people. "What?"

"Look."

Gear followed Static's gaze until his eyes rested on a familiar blonde haired girl, who was standing near the front of the store. His eyes widened. "Oh man, it's Zoey. What is she doing here?"

Static turned to Gear. "I don't know, maybe it's because we're the most popular superheroes in all of Dakota. Come on genius, keep up."

Gear gave Static a sheepish smile, then awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Right. Sorry, I forgot."

Static looked back at the girl in line, his mind racing. "Now, the key is to act natural. Pretend we've never seen her before in our lives." It sounded so simple aloud, but in his mind he knew it was much more complicated than that.

Gear waved his hands in the air, panic starting to set in. "Are you kidding? She'll see right through us. Literally, my helmet's translucent."

"Well, you better make it opaque, because she's here, and we can't afford to make her suspicious," Static said. "Then she'd be yet another person who's out to discover our secret identities.

Zoey had only been in Dakota for a few months, so the heroes didn't know how, excuse their choice of words, naive their friend was, and how easily she'd pick up on similarities between their civilian personas and their hero personas. Would she even detect a similarity between her friends Virgil and Richie and Static and Gear?

Because if she was as meticulous as they feared, they were in deep trouble.

"Seriously," Gear said, "don't people have anything better to do?"

He supposed not.