Thank you all for the supportive reviews! I really appreciate it as I get back into the writing groove. Maybe I'll even pick up 'Antivirus' again and get that Yugioh-shaped puppy posted someday.
Disclaimer - Human beings own the Justice League and Static Shock, right?. So I figure, since we are all related under the skin, that means my brother/sister owns the boys…and Mom always taught us to share, so… they might not be mine but I can play with them!!!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!!!
Before the Big Bang, Ebon had been a handsome man. Even afterwards, you could still see the elegance in his dark form but no details. Retching noises and the sour smell of vomit permeated the cavern.
'Nothing elegant about ol' Ebon now,' Hotstreak smirked to himself.
Hotstreak's own symptoms had eased. He could now move around without those pitiful little whimpering noises that had been forced from him during his first attempts at sitting upright. He felt pretty good, actually, and began exploring the cave.
It was huge. The air was damp, and it was so dark that Hotstreak thought they were quite a ways underground. It also reeked. There was no light or warmth except that which he could generate, and even at full blast he still couldn't see the far end of the cave.
The ceiling was high overhead -- he couldn't reach the web of tangled roots even if he stood on Ebon's shoulders. The floor, which sloped at a severe angle, was littered with bits of bone and broken glass that crunched beneath his boots. There were also wires and chunks of charred metal.
He was so wrapped up in his perusal that he jumped when a hand clamped onto his shoulder.
"Shit, Ebon! Make some noise next time like a normal person. You nearly got yourself flash-fried!" To emphasize his irritation and to cover his embarrassment, Hotstreak lit his entire body, which forced Ebon to back off.
"Can the lightshow, Hotstreak." Used to obeying Ebon's orders, Hotstreak decreased the flames until only his hands provided light.
"What's the last thing you remember?"
"Getting our collective asses kicked by Static," Hotstreak replied. "You?"
"We were still combined when Static and Gear knocked us into the bay at the docks. Then we sank."
"Not that I'm complaining, E-man, but why ain't we dead? And why aren't we still joined at the hip?"
"I phased us out of there before I passed out. From the looks of this place, I'd say I phased pretty much everything that was on the bottom of the bay as well."
"And the separation?"
Ebon gave a cool smile. "Miss me, firebug?"
"I just want to know what happened. I've played guinea pig once; it ain't happening again."
Ebon shrugged off Hotstreak's concern. "I don't know. Maybe if it takes a while for meta-human powers to show, it also takes time for powers to disappear." Ebon surveyed the area of the cave visible in the meager light and started walking. "I know when I phased a shit-load of water came with us. But the floor is dry, hard-packed dirt. There's dead fish down here, too."
"What does that mean?" Hotstreak allowed himself to be pulled down the slope toward the far wall of the cavern.
"It means, genius, that we've been here a while."
"How long is 'a while?"
Ebon paused. "Long enough for the water to evaporate, for our clothes to dry, for the fish to die, and their flesh to dissolve."
"Well, I don't care how long we been down here. Do your phase thing, and let's get back to Dakota. Static has to pay. I'm gonna fry him, then I'm gonna fry his little sidekick. No! I'll fry the geek first and Static can watch him burn. Then I'll make toast of the superhero!" Hotstreak charged ahead of Ebon.
"You won't be toasting anybody until I say so. Before I go up against Static and Gear again, I need to find some answers." Ebon reached for Hotstreak, but the redhead had already stopped.
"Maybe you could ask him," said Hotstreak.
'Him' was leaning against the wall, the flickering light from Hotstreak's hands casting demonic shadows behind the figure. The shape straightened and lurched toward the Bang Babies.
The Javelin safely deposited the Dark Knight in the junkyard behind Static and Gear's hideout. He made his way into the gas station and glanced around the room. He would have to have a word with the boys about security. Although there were no obvious 'Static' or 'Gear' paraphernalia lying around, you could still tell that the abandoned gas stationed wasn't quite as abandoned as everyone believed.
They didn't realize it, but Static and Gear were gaining a reputation outside of Dakota. All too soon, bad guys, not just Bang Babies, would flock to Dakota to try to make a name for themselves by taking down the city's champions. It was the way things were. Psychos always thought they were smarter or faster or just plain better than the superheroes that had sworn themselves to protect others. A slight ruffling of his cape was the only evidence of the shudder that went through Batman's frame at the thought of Static and Gear taking on the likes of Joker, Riddler, and Poison Ivy without backup from the Justice League.
He checked the chronometer again. He still had two hours before he could call the kids, but first he wanted to have a look around. Maybe he could discover a clue as to what was bothering the blond. Batman's investigation yielded little, initially. He did find the photo that Gear had taken of the teens with the Justice League after they drove Brainiac from the Watchtower. Gear looked so happy. Everyone did or at least they all seemed more relaxed. Even the Green Lantern wasn't quite as stiff as usual; of course, with bunny ears courtesy of the Flash… Batman shook his head and replaced the picture.
On the floor near one of the cluttered workbenches, Batman noticed strange semicircular scuffmarks. Kneeling for a closer look, he found that the table was secured to the wall. Nodding in understanding, he searched for and found the trigger that opened the secret panel. The entire table and a portion of the wall swung outwards. 'Nice, but they'll need to fix the mechanism so that it doesn't leave such an obvious trail.'
The compartment was small. Batman could see stores of Gear's little toys -- zap caps, liquid nitrogen bombs, etc. He paid the weapons little attention and focused instead on the medium-sized safe that fit snugly in the wall.
Batman selected items used for safecracking from his tool belt and got to work. After nearly twenty minutes of increasing irritation at his inability to open the safe and equally increasing pride at what was obviously Gear's tinkering with the tumblers, Batman was able to dial the correct combination.
He pulled the door open and withdrew the innocuous looking laptop. He just knew this thing was password protected like nothing he had faced before. Batman lifted the screen and hit the power button. He found a comfortable spot at the workbench and settled down for a battle.
An hour later, Batman was ready to give up. He had tried almost every technique in his goody bag to break the encryption but with no luck. 'Good for you, kid.' He had one last algorithm running, searching for a back door. Just as he was about to admit defeat, his patience was rewarded. The indecipherable letters and numbers coalesced into a recognizable list of documents, photographs, spreadsheets, databases, and more.
Batman opened a few items on the list and quickly discovered that he had Gear all wrong. The boy wasn't merely clever as he had thought. Not at all. The boy was a genius. No, he was a Genius, with a capital G. Most of the things the boy wrote or diagrammed were so far beyond what the Batman could understand that he felt humbled. This kid, this young hero, idolized Batman and his friends, wanted to be like them. He was honored.
He was glancing through the lists when a document caught his eye. It was labeled "Feng-Du." Unease stole across his soul. Why did Gear have a file named after the Chinese Hell? He opened the file and found it written in a mixture of minor Chinese dialects. Transferring the document to his own computer, Batman used its sophisticated translator to decipher the writings.
He read only a few paragraphs before he saved the file and closed both computers. He carefully returned the laptop to the safe and returned the hideout to its previous state. He saw that enough time had passed and school was out. Batman was about to call Virgil from the cockpit of the Javelin when his fingers dialed the Watchtower instead.
"Yes, Batman?" J'onn answered on the first buzz of the comm.
"Can you come?" It had taken two attempts before he was able to trust his voice.
"I am on my way. J'onn out."
Batman signed off. He gazed at the junkyard from his view port and caught his reflection in the screen. There were obviously high levels of condensation in the shuttle, which was causing a tiny rivulet of liquid to run down his mask. 'Must be a defective gasket,' thought Batman. He would have to get that checked.