Chapter Two: Discovery

Waiting eagerly for her new "sister" to arrive, Sharon Hawkins glanced around eagerly, clutching a bouquet of flowers to her chest. She was going to give them to the girl who was going to be staying with her family for a year, though Sharon would have preferred it to be a longer time period. Having always wanted a little sister, she was overjoyed to find out that the foster child her Pops had been able to arrange to have stay with them was a girl. There was enough testosterone around her with Virgil and Richie. She didn't think she could handle having another little brother in the house. Speaking of brothers...

Glancing over to her right, Sharon frowned, her temper rising as she smacked Virgil lightly with the flat of her hand. He and Richie were slumped against the wall behind them, leaning against one another and snoring. It actually made a pretty cute picture. Or it would have if the snoring hadn't been involved, of course. Rolling her brown eyestoward the ceiling as Virgil started, waking Richie in the process, and demanded to know what she'd done that for, Sharon fought the urge to smack him again. Little brothers. They're insufferable.

Awake now, Virgil stood, helping Richie to his feet as the blonde straightened his glasses in a characteristic and adorable gesture. Smiling slightly at his best friend, the pair turned toward the terminal whereVirgil's "sister" was supposed to arrive.His dark gaze searched the people getting off the plane, hunting for a girl around his age...It was relatively hard, considering he didn't even know what she was going to look like. All they knew was her name: Allyson Neal.

"There she is! There she is!"

Sharon cried, bouncing up and down on her toes as she pointed over the sea of heads. As she was taller than both Virgil and Richie, the two had tostand on tip-toeto even catch a glimpse of the girl in question. Finally, the crowd parted and the crime-fighting duo got their first glimpse of Allyson Neal.

She was a younger teenager, about 15 or so in age, though she was nearly just a head shorter than Richie and Virgil. Her gray-blue eyes, bright with excitement, darted around curiously, with a certain sharp keenness to them that wasn't common in most people. Long golden-brown locks fell in a straight cascade down her back, falling just short of her shirt hem. The clothes she wore were sensible but seemed to have the flavor of her home-state of California – knee-length khaki Capri pants and a teal-hued t-shirt. A single silver cuff earring was on her right ear and the glint of a necklace could be seen around her neck. She wore a pair of scuffed-up black tennis shoes, but by the way she walked with a certain air of confidence and awe, one might have thought she was walking on air.

Virgil glanced over at Richie as his friend drew in his breath sharply but softly. A slow smirk spread across Virgil's face as he jostled Richie's shoulder in jest, leaning close to murmur in his ear so that Sharon and Pops couldn't hear them.

"What do think? Maybe she'd like a special tour of Dakota with Static and Gear...Well, mostly Gear..."

He suggested with a sly grin, knowing that Richie would be more comfortable talking with Allyson if he was dressed up as Gear. Virgil knew for a fact that he felt braver talking to Daisy when he was Static...though that hadn't always prove to be the safest thing to do. Wincing as he remembered the various attacks on his crush, Virgil told himself firmly that things would turn out differently this time. Richie's death glare was met with a playful grin; Virgil didn't fail to notice the blush flaring across his friend's pale cheeks. With a smile as a peace offering, Virgil clapped his friend on the shoulder and walked up to meet Allyson – who was currently being hugged to deathby Sharon.

When all the pleasantries were exchanged between his Pops and Sharon and Allyson, Virgil stepped forth with a serene look about him, taking the girl's hand as he shook it, a small portion of his mind musing that she was cute – but not as pretty as Daisy. Just this thought made his mouth quirk upwards in a slight smirk. Combined withthe fact that soon it would be Richie's turn to introduce himself, he was entitled to some amusement.

The moment came soon enough. Richie was nervous, Virgil could tell, by the way his voice was slightly strained and his hands shook faintly. He could barely see the light tremors running along them asRichie held out his right for Aly to shake.

"Hey, Aly, I'm Richie. Nice to—Ow!"

Richie jerked his hand back as the pair began to shake hands, he'd been shocked. Blinking up at her as she replied, Richie saw Virgil's suspiciousfrown out of the corner of his eye. Ignoring him for the time being, he nodded and smiled at her apology, watching her run off upon Mr. Hawkins' summons. Glancing over at Virgil, he raised a brow in questioning.

"V? Did you—"

"Yeah, Rich...I saw it."

Richie didn't have to ask twice what Virgil had seen. For just as Aly's hand touched his own, a small spark of blue lightning jumped from her hand across to his, shocking him mildly. Something told him that it wasn't just "static electricity" either. Exchanging a look, the pair silently decided to keep close tabs on Aly – for better or worse.

Aly inhaled the sweet fragrance of the flowers Sharon gave her, inhaling the sweet memories along with the scent. Smiling brightly,she slipped them into an empty vase beside the guest bed in what was now her room. Her room. Aly's room. Those words had never sounded more beautiful than when you put them in a sentence.

At home in California, in the small apartment she shared with her brother, Aly slept routinely on the couch. Having her own space that she didn't have to share was phenomenal. Grinning as she flopped on the bed, Aly stared up at the ceiling, overwhelmed. She was letting herself drift into thought when suddenly she remembered the flowers.

"Oh yeah - water!"

Sitting up, she glanced around furtively as she closed the door to her room...which coincidentally was right across the way from Virgil's partially-closed door. The sounds of explosions and victorious shouts told her that they were going to be far too busy playing video games to bother her. Down the hall, Sharon was listening to a CD player by the sound of her humming. Smiling at the noise of a large family, Aly eased her door shut, careful not to disturb anyone as she turned to face the vase and set about her task. Murmuring softly to herself, she took in a deep breath.

"Let's just hope this works..."

Virgilfrozeright in the middleof throttling the character Richie had chosen for the street-fighter-esque game they were engaged in. Richie,noting the perplexed look onVirgil's face, gratefully paused the game.He - andhis pixellated representative - were glad for the interruption of their mercilessbeating. Richie had been once again reminded why hehated the "randomize" button on the character selection screen.

Virgil motioned for his friend to stand as he slunk to the door, opening it silently as he tiptoed to Aly's door. Knowing what his partner was up to, Richiescrambled silently forBackpack and brought the robot with them, suddenly glad that summer break didn't meana break in patrolling. For once, his flawless work ethic might actually pay off.

Creeping to Virgil's side, he placed Backpack on the ground and pressed a button on top of it, murmuring a soft command. Backpack made a quiet beep and a metal tendril uncoiled itself in response to his voice. The probe resembled a microscope with a red x-ray lensat thetip - perfect for their current needs. Getting right down to buisness, it scanned repeatedly across the wall in front of Aly's room. The pair leaned against the door, using Static's powers to hone in on his foster sister's voice as she talked softly to herself.

"Let's see if I can do this without making a mess of things this time..."

She was murmuring and cupping her hands together, her palms glowing softly with a faint blue light. Moments later, she tippedher cupped palms past the lip of the vase. Water cascaded down between her splayed fingers, seemingly beckoned forth out of thin air. Richie and Virgil stared at one another. She had powers like Aqua Maria! Maybe what had happened back in the airport was just static electricity, but if she had powers...

The two were about to recede back into Virgil's room when thepower suffered from a sudden blackout. Virgil sighed as he heard Sharon screeching from down the hall that the lights went out. No duh, Sharon. Rolling his eyes, he tried to ignore Richie's smirking and hissed comments as he reached up to zap some juice back into the lights ("Static, the amazing human battery") only to find that someone had beat him to it. The lights were flickering promisingly overhead. Hearing the hum of electricity behind Aly's door, he peered down at Backpack's small screen as he held a magnified hand to his ear.

His foster sister was cursing under her breath as she tripped over herself trying to fix the lights. Apparently, she had been trying to recharge the light bulb for the overhead lamp in her room which had gone dead, and wound up accidentally draining the energy instead of replacing it. Virgil and Richie exchanged perplexed glances. Water and electricity? The two didn't exactly mix. Neither did the theory of a Bang Baby from California. Silently puzzling it out, Richie almost didn't hear Virgil comment that the lights were finally back on. Seeing the look on Richie's facethat always meant he was deep in thought, Virgil tried not to comment, but the urge was too powerful.

"You think Aly's a Bang Baby?" Richie shook his head slowly, still frowning as he thought.

"How could she be, in a place so far from Dakota? It's not like she could be affected by year-old Big Bang gas the second she stepped off the plane..."

"What is she then? How else can she control electricity and water like that?"

"V...I don't think Aly's just controlling electricity and water...I think she can control the weather!"

Author Notes: Sorry about the slow start - It will get better, I promise! I'll reveal more about Aly's powers and her history in a later chapter, but for now, I'll wait for a couple more reviews. By the by, I want to give a big THANK YOU to lt. commander richie who pointed out my error: Dakota is in Illinois, not New York. Heheh - whoops! o.o; That's what happens when you try to guess, I suppose. Anyway, thanks again for your help!

Love & Peace, y'all!

Anaia