Disclaimer: I think you've figured it out by now.

Additional Disclaimer: The views stated by Hotstreak do not necessarily represent the views of the author. I don't think Richie is pathetic!

Rating: T for strong language, because it's Hotstreak, for God's sake.

Author's Note: Because Estel Baggins, absolutely correctly, though Richie was a bit too wimpy in the last chapter. So now he gets to kick some ass.

Incidentally, so no one gets confused- I didn't know what to call Hotstreak, since he has three names, so I just called him Hotstreak for the parts he's a bang baby and F-Stop for the parts he's not. I doubt he calls himself Francis, even in his head.

I wrote this when I was deathly ill, so it might suck. I have learned never to write late at night, early in the morning, or while deathly ill. It always turns into a soap opera.

Please review! I love you all!

Platonically

Damn, was he in trouble. Damn, damn, damn, it wasn't supposed to go like this. He was the weak one. Carmen could take him out. Ferret could probably take him out. He was the weak one, the one that cracked jokes and then lost the fight, the one that gave Static enough distraction to let everyone get out. Not a challenge. Static was a challenge, and even he used to cower at the sight of Hotstreak. Well, he didn't really cower anymore, but he still knew Hotstreak was powerful, too powerful for wimpy sidekicks to handle.

He pushed hard, making himself fly faster with the sheer pressure he could generate from his balled fists. He thought he might be getting away, but he could hear the whirr of roller blades after him, leaving a gash in the sky behind him. Then he heard the thing move in the sky and he knew he had to dodge but he didn't move fast enough, so it hit him, hard, wrapped around his arms and legs and tightened across his sides. And then he tried to flare up and melt the arms off, but his body crackled like it did when his power was going out and he only had about one second to think 'oh, shit,' before he stopped fighting and started to fall.

So he fell out of the sky and then he slammed straight into the wall, into the brick behind him and then into the balcony of an apartment, which clanged and dented beneath the weight of his fall, but thankfully, didn't give. And then Gear comes down in front of him, and he starts thinking of a plan to escape, because he's done it before, even though he must have fixed the traps so he can't burn them, there's always a way to get away.

Then, he gets a glance of the expression behind the green plastic, and he changes his mind. Because he sees his face and he knows he's beaten, and his only hope is that Ebon or Talon or Shiv or one of the others decides to come back for him. As if that would happen. Besides, he's not sure it'd be good for one of them to take on Gear right now- stupid pansy of a superhero but right now he looks a little scary.

In a way it reminds him of Foley.

Yeah, okay, it was a strange comparison to make. C'mon, Foley? The skinny little kid wouldn't have the guts to get up on those skates, let alone pick a fight with him. Last time he'd met Foley, the guy had practically wet himself. God, Foley made him sick, so weak and pathetic, he just wanted to strangle something; like the way F-Stop would be ready to kick his sorry little ass and he'd just sort of crack a joke until he had to make him scared because it was some nerve, just like Hawkins. What was with that, anyway? He supposed losers had to stick together, but did they have to make it into such a little lovefest, it was disgusting. Your friends didn't need to be permanently attached, they just needed to be around in case you needed to fight someone. Yeah, he could just see himself there, whining to Shiv or Maria or whoever didn't hate him at the moment about how the kids at school were mean to him today or telling them about the time he was in the hospital, or-or talking about the latest hairstyles or whatever losers talked about when they had slumber parties. Fucking pathetic.

That's why Hawkins and Foley were always kind of a joke. Foley because he was weird, Hawkins because he hung out with Foley all the time when he actually used to know people who became something, before the Bang. Like Wade, who didn't run with F-Stop but was still respected, and still looked after Hawkins for some reason even though the first day of junior high Hawkins gave up all that security and connection for what? Slumber parties with Foley? That was what made Virgil so weird- because F-Stop had to admit he had the potential to be a bit more than the nerd, and he never could understand what Foley possibly had to offer that would be worth it, and he wasn't sure he could ever understand. And then he had to go and cozy up to Frieda, who was his girl, even if she hadn't agreed yet, and what the hell did a girl like her see in him, in them, as if he had a chance with a babe like that when everyone knew he was fucking Foley.

He couldn't be allowed to try to get back what he had chosen to give up. And Dakota High had been his, before the Bang, when he could set his sights a little higher. And Hawkins wasn't allowed to mess with that; he'd show him what use Foley was in the end, because whatever it was that made them friends sure as hell wasn't going to save him bruised and cut and blacking out in the alley near the science building. He'd show him the way they'd do their stupid handshake, and promise that they'd have each other's back, would never save him for real life. It was almost like he was doing a favor, because Honor Roll and comic books and secret handshakes just didn't cut it in real life, and F-Stop sure knew a hell of a lot how real life worked. Real life was how your friends better be scared of you, better think you're the biggest and baddest around, or you'll be left alone at the mercy of the enemy.

But then one time he was doing Hawkins a favor, teaching him another important lesson about real life, and then he stops hitting the kid for a second because he hears someone coming, walking down the sidewalk in front of the alley, and then he realizes it's Foley, so it's no big deal, but the kid sort of freezes and looks scared or surprised and just says "V?" And then the backpack that's only on by one strap sort of falls and before F-Stop can think he just charges at him swinging, and he actually manages to get a punch or two in and makes him let go of Hawkins's collar before he remembers that it's just Foley, and he knocks him down and he could kill him and he wants too because he's such an idiot, trying to fight him like that, but instead he just says 'Later, Hawkins,' and leaves, because there was just another thing he didn't understand- why would you join in a fight if you knew you were going to lose?

But that look on his face, for a few seconds- that was what had reminded him of Gear.

"Do you like my new zap traps? I made them special for you," says Gear, folding his arms across his chest. He doesn't seem to be doing anything, but an antenna comes out of the robot and begins beeping, so he's probably called the cops.

"I'm honored. You couldn't have at least fucking caught me? You could really get smashed up falling from that high." It wasn't like he had been scared. But he was a superhero- it was his job to be noble and shit, and it sort of pissed him off.

"You hurt him," said Gear, as if that was enough of an explanation. It seemed to be.

"He deserved it. I hope he's out for a good long time. I might be in prison, but everyone else escaped."

"Shut up. He- he'll be fine, okay? But you- you can't hit a guy from behind, it isn't- sportsman-like. 'Cause you know you'd never be able to take him if he wasn't fighting Ebon."

Hotstreak grinned. "But weren't you the one who was supposed to 'cover his back?'"

Wrong thing to say, he realized, when Gear's fist struck him suddenly in the stomach, the one place where he wasn't bound by metal coils. He coughed. "Don't you have someplace you have to be? Like, nursing your lover back to health?"

Gear didn't even flinch at the insinuation. Which was interesting. "Sorry. I'm staying here to make sure the cops get a hold of you. You're going to go to prison." Sure enough, the sound of sirens filled the air moments before a squad of police cars drove up to the building. Gear picked Hotstreak up by the wires, held him and lowered him to the ground, where a couple of wary cops gripped his shoulders.

"I'll get out. Someone will come for me." Gear didn't respond, and Hotstreak wondered if he had called his bluff.

But then the skyward glance of some of the cops told him what was going on, and then Static, looking pissed off and a bit charred swooped down and landed next to Gear.

"G! You okay?" he said, looking over Gear quickly, and then sort of jerked in surprise when he realized that Gear was unhurt and he was captured.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How about you?" Hotstreak didn't get to hear the answer, didn't get the satisfaction of knowing how much he could do to Static, because he was shoved into the back of a police van. But he did see, through the barred window as the doors closed, the way Gear's fingers brushed his arm when he answered, and the stupid nervous laughter like he wasn't sure what more would be okay, and then he saw it- the way they brought their fists together as a sort of compromise, the handshake, and he knew, but he also knew that he wouldn't tell Ebon or anyone, because like hell they'd ever break him out of prison unless someone like Talon got put in there too, and maybe he could even understand a little bit now, but he wasn't sure, and by the time the van reached the prison where he'd be confined until convenient, he had convinced himself he had only imagined it.