It had been almost an hour since Static and Gear had left.

Zoey sat on her front porch, mulling over this past afternoon's events. Nothing had really turned out the way she had envisioned. And most of it had been because of her own doing. She had planned on catching Dakota's famous heroes in action, like she had at the comic book store last Saturday. But now, because of her, the infamous duo were hunting for a teenage girl's missing backpack, a task so beneath them that she was surprised they'd take time out of their busy schedule to help her look for it.

She sighed. On top of attending a new school halfway through her high-school career, she had to get used to this idea of genetically modified people walking amongst the regular civilian population. And the majority of them seemed to be bad guys.

Speaking of bad guys, she was thankful that Static and Gear had shown up when they had, to save her from the clutches of the one they referred to as Ebon. She wondered why Ebon had been the only meta-human present at the mall when the news had said there were several meta-humans causing trouble. Surely Ebon could not have caused all the destruction by himself in that short amount of time. Even with his weird shadow powers or whatever they were.

It must've been a trap, to lure the superheroes there so that he could nab them, or corner them, somehow, into admitting their secret identities. And she had played into his plan perfectly by simply being there in the right place at the right time. Thankfully Static and Gear had been quick thinkers and were able to rescue her before she had completely vanished to wherever Ebon had been planning on taking her. She shuddered, thinking how that scenario might have played out if the meta-human had been successful in his kidnapping attempt. He had seemed pretty determined to get information out of them one way or another.

In the midst of recalling the whole encounter with the heroes' foe, a thought suddenly struck her. Ebon had mentioned something about Foley. He had adamantly insisted that Foley was Static's 'running buddy,' whatever that meant. A sidekick maybe? But Gear was Static's partner, wasn't he? Unless there was another sidekick floating around somewhere.

Her eyes widened. Ebon couldn't have been referring to Richie Foley, could he? She knew that Foley wasn't exactly a rare last name, but it certainly wasn't common either. And how many Foley's were there in Dakota anyways? A handful, maybe, but there couldn't be more than that. And just the week before last, Hotstreak had been looking for Virgil and Richie. It had to be a coincidence, right?

Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard a familiar voice call out to her.

"Zoey!"

She glanced up to see Static and Gear descending in front of her. They appeared to be empty-handed.

"Zoey, we looked around the mall and—"

"We couldn't find your backpack," Gear finished.

Zoey felt her heart sink. "Are you sure?"

Static nodded. "We checked everywhere. It wasn't there."

"How can a backpack just vanish into thin air like that?" she asked, beginning to panic. "Did you check in front of Charlotte Russe? Forever 21?"

Static nodded once more. "Trust me. We checked everywhere."

"Twice," Gear added.

Zoey's eyes narrowed. "But I had it before I went into the mall. And I didn't have it when I left with you guys."

The heroes glanced at one another, sensing her frustration. Unfortunately, at this point, there wasn't anything else they could do.

"Maybe the police have it," Static suggested.

Gear shrugged. "It's worth checking."

Sensing the heroes had given up on their search, Zoey sighed. "I guess," she muttered.

Not that she would have expected them to take any more time looking for a high schoolers backpack, but like she had just said, backpacks don't just vanish without someone or something moving them. And Static, Gear, Ebon and herself had been the only people at the mall within the time frame her backpack had disappeared. And she couldn't think of a reason why a meta-human such as Ebon would want a teenage girl's backpack.

If it had just been her schoolwork, her ID or even her cash, the loss wouldn't have been as devastating to her. But her backpack had been carrying her most valuable possession: her sketchbook. She had spent so much time and energy into her drawings, that for them to simply vanish without having any clue as to where they went was heartbreaking.

She figured she'd just have to suck it up and go to the police station and see if they had the backpack. And If they didn't have it, all the signs pointed to theft. Why some jerk would think to steal her seemingly modest-looking bag and its contents, she didn't know. But one thing was for sure: whoever stole her sketchbook was going to pay big time.

School on Monday was fairly usual for the teenagers at Dakota Union High. For all except Zoey. She was still having difficulty coming to terms with the loss of her backpack—more specifically, her sketchbook.

As Static and Gear had suggested, she had gone to the police station, but to her dismay, the backpack had not turned up there either. It was turning into quite the little mystery as to where her backpack had gone—one she was beginning to lose hope of solving.

When she had arrived at school that morning, she had been sporting a brand new bright red backpack, which she had found at the local dollar store. She wasn't going to kid herself—it was pretty cheap and ugly. But it would have to do for the time being.

Of course, Frieda had immediately noticed that Zoey wasn't carrying her usual backpack.

"Hey, where's your purple bag?" she asked as the girls headed towards their designated lockers.

Zoey rolled her eyes. "It's a long story."

Of course, her response only heightened Frieda's curiosity.

"Oh no, what happened?"

"I'm not really sure exactly," Zoey answered, as they stopped in front of her locker.

"Give me the deets," Frieda said.

Zoey sighed. "I think someone stole it while I was at the mall on Friday," she said, as she began to rummage through her locker.

Frieda frowned in confusion. "You went to the mall?"

Zoey froze, realizing that upon leaving Frieda's house Friday afternoon, she had told the girls that she was going to help her mom make dinner, instead of what she had actually planned on doing, which was going to chase down a couple of superheroes at the Dakota mall.

The dishwater blonde sighed once more. It was better to fess up than to try and backtrack at this point.

"Yeah, I went to the mall," she replied. "See, the thing is, when I told you I was going to help my mom with dinner on Friday, I ended up going to the mall instead."

Of course, her answer left Frieda even more confused.

"Why'd you go to the mall? And without us?" she asked. "You seemed like you were in a hurry to leave."

Zoey wracked her brain, trying to figure out how to word her response without sounding like a psychopath.

"Yeah, well, the truth is, when I saw the news that there were bang-babies or whatever you call them at the mall, I thought that Static and Gear would show up there too, so I went so I could see them in person. For research purposes," she quickly added.

For the first time that morning, Frieda was silent, taking it all in.

"So you didn't actually go help your mom?"

Zoey shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. I lied so you wouldn't think I was weird or something."

Frieda's eyes softened. "I could never think you're weird. But please don't lie to me about that kinda stuff again. You're my friend and I want us to trust each other."

"I won't," Zoey said. Deep down, she wasn't sure if she could trust Frieda entirely, but if she couldn't promise to be completely transparent one-hundred percent of the time, at least she'd try and make the effort to be a better friend.

"Because trust is a very important part of friendship," Frieda added.

"I know."

"Also you should never do that because that's dangerous," the brunette rambled on.

"I know."

"Also, I didn't know you liked Static and Gear."

The last statement made Zoey freeze.

"What do you mean?"

Frieda grinned. "I mean the fact that you have a crush on Static and Gear."

"I do not!" Zoey shot back.

"Then why are you following them around?"

"Like I said, research purposes," Zoey retorted, shutting her locker with a definitive clank.

Frieda raised a brow. "So there isn't any other reason why you're drawing pictures of them and following them around?"

"Nope," Zoey replied as they began to walk down the hall to their respective homerooms.

"Okay, well, if there is, you can tell me," Frieda said. "Remember, trust?"

Zoey rolled her eyes. "Trust me, I do not like them that way, okay? I'm just curious, that's all."

As usual, Frieda had stopped listening to her friend's defensive remarks and started jumping to her own conclusions.

"I mean, I wouldn't blame you if you did. I mean, Static is pretty hot. Gear's okay, too."

The blonde scoffed. "You can think whatever you want, but I am not crushing on Static and Gear."