Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own original ideas.
Notes: Whoops! Sorry that took so long! School was sucking! But I promise I'll do better since school is out:)
Notes Take Two: I know the school year is officially starting in the fic, yet it's winter...err. Just ignore it! I screwed up lol. Also, yes, I have, in fact, seen a comic book priced at 2400 dollars. Crazy!
Reviews: If you know me, you know how much I love replying to reviews, but I'm in a bit of a hurry now and I'm afraid I don't have the chance to reply one on one. But thank you to all of you wonderful people :)

Fade Away
Chapter Two

Richie let out a shaky breath as he ran his fingers over the dusty surface of what he recognized as his work desk. Taking a few steps forward, he dropped his hand onto a decaying handle that he knew would snap with merely a few more grams of weight pressed upon it.

It was still in one piece.

Frowning, Richie exerted the necessary pressure and watched blankly as the wooden anchor broke in two.

Virgil had been the one to break it in his memories.

As he stepped through the piles of abandoned debris that only seemed to make his reality that much harsher, he paused when he came to an area that he knew should be filled with empty pizza boxes and video games. All that he saw were the remains of a child's doll that was left behind in the hurried evacuation of the convenience store.

A small burst of laughter from somewhere behind caught Richie's attention, causing him to whip around and slide into a fighting position.

There was no one there.

The laughter sounded again, and this time it came from a large ratty couch that centered the room. Slowly making his way to the sofa, he felt a shiver run down his spine as the laughter grew louder.

"Hey, Rich! Quit trying to find a cure for cancer and get over here!" The outline of Virgil was fuzzy and haphazard, yet there he was on the ugly couch, giving him a huge grin.

Richie had learned long ago not to trust the tricks his mind played on him. He reached out hesitantly and swiped his hand through the materialized vision of a boy he never knew, feeling a familiar ache of emptiness fill him when Virgil, along with the couch, disappeared right before his eyes.

Good riddance. The couch was hideous anyway.

The sting in his eyes told him differently.

He took in a deep breath and made his way back to the glass door that he knew should have had a crude alarm system of Christmas bells placed upon it for security. His chest stung when the door opened and no sound but the hoarse squeaking of age came out. Running his fingers through his hair, he stepped out into the sunlight and squinted in the brightness.

He shouldn't have come here. He knew he shouldn't have. And yet…

Running into Virgil at school had spooked him so much that he felt that he needed to check out the old gas station. As if to prove to himself that he really wasn't just crazy.

Then again, so far none of the things he'd stumbled upon had done much in his favor to convince him of his sanity.

The sound of his electronic watch beeping alerted him to the time, causing him to let out a dismayed groan.

Shit. He was so late.

Frieda was going to kill him.

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Virgil rolled his eyes as he slammed the door to Sharon's car shut, making his way up the snow-covered steps of the Freeman Community Center.

"Oh, Virgil, stop being such a baby. You need to go meet new people and make new friends…Here, you can even use my car. It's four wheel drive." Virgil mimicked as he wrapped his coat tighter around himself. His first attempt to get out of Dakota's annual "Welcome New Neighbors!" event had been to complain about the icy roads and how dangerous driving on them would be. His charitable sister had oh-so-graciously offered her own set of wheels to him. Virgil had been beside himself with joy.

He heard music coming out from behind the large double doors and all that passed through his mind was the thought that he could be hanging out with his friends back from his old hood right now had they never moved. The thought was quickly replaced by his mother's hopeful face when she'd first suggested he come to the 'party.'

"The things I do for you, mom…" he muttered as he placed his hand against the door. There was a moment of hesitation, before he pushed on through and was suddenly hit with a wave of heat and the sharp smells of intermingled food.

"Virgil!" No sooner had he taken two steps inside did he hear an excited voice in his ear. Raising an eyebrow, he peeked over his shoulder and forced a smile when his gaze met Farah's.

Farah's…

Farah….

Or was it Faith?

Faith…Fran.…Fr…Fr…

"Frieda!" he exclaimed nervously, hoping that he'd gotten the name right. When the girl merely smiled in reply and waved him over, he sighed in relief and made his way to her side.

"I'm so glad you could make it!" she giggled, bringing the plastic cup in her hands to her mouth. Virgil distantly noticed that the shade of gloss covering her lips was the same color as the red on the cup.

"Yeah, well, wouldn't miss it," he replied, mentally adding 'except for anything else.' He sighed when Frieda laughed again and took hold of his arm, dragging him towards the punch bowl as she announced that she was dying for him to meet a friend of hers. Virgil raised an eyebrow but followed willingly, afraid to offend his host for the night. As he looked up towards their destination, he frowned. Standing beside the table was a lone blonde boy who kept his gaze glued to the floor. Virgil had the strange feeling that they'd already met.

"Great…I get buddied up with Mr. Anti-Social…" he muttered under his breath, still trying to place the other boy. If only he could see the blonde's face.

"Richie!" Frieda yelled, catching the aloof boy's attention. Raising his head in confusion, Richie's eyes sought out Frieda, freezing when he caught sight of who was standing beside her.

"Oh! That weird kid!" Virgil shouted suddenly, snapping his fingers in victory as he was finally able to remember where he'd seen Richie before. The guy who had run away from him at school!

It took Virgil nearly a full minute before he realized he'd spoken his thoughts aloud, and even longer to register the look of combined fear and hurt on Richie's face. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Frieda giving him a look equivalent to murder as the blonde boy dropped his cup and pushed his way through the crowd to reach the door.

"Uhm…Oops?" Virgil tried, laughing nervously as he shrugged his shoulders in a helpless gesture. As Frieda slowly began to approach, Virgil was very quickly reminded of his sister when he'd crashed her brand new car into a tree when he was twelve.

Well, shit.

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"Dammit! What is this guy's problem?" Virgil cursed, tightening his scarf around his neck as the snow picked up around him. After being confronted by a terrifyingly angry Frieda and dozens of accusing eyes, Virgil had had no choice but to run off after Richie to make amends.

"Well, you'd be pissed too if you were recognized by some stranger as 'the weird kid'…" he rationalized to himself, keeping his gaze on the ground in search of footprints in the slush. "So, okay, this little stunt is my fault. But this morning! Yeah, he's got no excuse for that one. He's just weird. I don't even know why I'm coming to apologize. He'll just run away again…."

With a sigh, Virgil noticed that his boot's lace had become undone and knelt down to fix it, gritting his teeth together at the sensation of the ice hitting his knee through his jeans. There was a loud crash a few yards off that made him jump slightly, but he kept his head down, knowing not to seem interested or get involved. He'd been alive during the Gang Wars of Dakota and was old enough to know how to handle the situation if a fight broke out anywhere around him. Just ignore it and try to go along as normal as possible, lest you get dragged in unwittingly.

"Yeah, right, mom…" he muttered as he stood, "It's perfectly safe here. Perfectly--"

"VIRGIL MOVE!" The cry that came was so unexpected, Virgil found himself halting all actions in order to search for the voice that had called to him.

Not a second later was he extremely aware of why moving was such a good idea.

Diving down into the snow covered sidewalk, Virgil covered his head with his arms and curled up into a fetal position. He closed his eyes tightly as he braced himself for the impact of the airborne SUV that was making its way towards the store window inconveniently placed behind him.

There was a brilliant flash of light that suddenly surrounded him, and for a moment Virgil thought he was dead, thanking whatever Gods existed that he had felt no pain. As he slowly opened his eyes, he took in a deep breath, reading himself to finally see what Heaven looked like.

Heaven looked a lot like Dakota.

And God looked a lot like Hypno.

Sitting up slowly, Virgil rubbed his eyes and stared in disbelief as Hypno, Dakota's very own superhero, held the SUV up in midair, a mere few inches above the ground where Virgil had been lying.

"Dude…" Hypno gasped, voice sounding strained. Virgil frowned and cocked his head to the side. A single garbage truck was too much for the great Hypno? Virgil really needed to evaluate his list of favorite superheroes.

"M-move…"

Rolling his eyes, Virgil stood slowly and stepped clear of the sidewalk so that Hypno could safely land the truck. As soon as Virgil moved aside, however, he had a clear view of the battleground before him. Not only was Hypno balancing the truck, but he was also using a forcefield to hold back the strange monster that he had been fighting.

Oh. Well, then. That explained it.

Virgil mentally readded Hypno to his Top Five list of superheroes. Right below The Justice League (because, as everyone knew, they were their own separate unit), of course.

As soon as Hypno placed the truck down, he was up and plunging back into the fight. Virgil watched with a wide-eyed curiosity, well aware that he should have been running for his life instead of standing in the middle of the street like a liability.

The entire scene unwrapped like an action movie in front of him, right down to the moment when the police cars were hurdling down the street, criminal safely in their hands. He stood silent for a long moment, allowing the surrealism of the situation to seep in.

"Whoa," he mumbled in awe. The closest he'd ever come to superheroes was hearing about it in the news hundreds of miles away, and yet here he was right in the middle of it!

Which could possibly explain why Hypno wasn't looking exceedingly happy.

"Right, right…I was supposed to move?" Virgil tried, shrugging his shoulders apologetically. Hypno raised an eyebrow and stepped closer.

"That might have been a good idea, yeah," the blonde superhero countered, though there wasn't any real anger in his tone. He walked around Virgil to inspect the damage done to the street. Virgil frowned.

"Err, no offense, but isn't it the city's job to fix the little cracks on the sidewalk?"

"Not if there's a priceless and extremely sophisticated computer chip resting below the sidewalk's surface that that Bang Baby was trying to break through to get."

"Uh…oh. Well why didn't he just crawl into the sewer system."

"It caved in last week."

"Gotcha," Virgil muttered, feeling like nothing more than a curious child while the adults played poker and wanted him out of the way. One thing struck him, however…

"How did you know my name?"

Hypno suddenly dropped the instrument in his hands, body tensing noticeably. There was a second or two of silence, before Hypno continued on his work, albeit a bit shakily.

"I'm psychic remember?" he said with a forced laugh. Virgil raised an eyebrow.

"Uh huh. And why--"

"Speaking of being psychic…. I see that you're supposed to be at a party right now. What were you doing in the middle of the street?"

Eyes widening, Virgil immediately remembered what he'd been sent to do and felt and overwhelming amount of guilt wash over himself for forgetting.

"I...err, I'm supposed to be looking for someone," he admitted. It was the first time of the night that Hypno seemed to be the one caught off guard.

"What?"

Ignoring the superhero's strange response, Virgil continued, keeping his gaze on the ground. "His name is Richie…I, err, may or may not have said something bad about him…really loudly. And I guess I should go apologize…"

There was a soft shuffle in front of him and when he brought his gaze back up, Virgil was shocked to see Hypno was gone. A small hole cut into the sidewalk where Hypno had presumably removed the chip was all that was left in his wake.

Well, that and the giant dent in the street.

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"Should I let him find me? Maybe I shouldn't…Or—no..but what if..?" Richie frowned and paced back and forth in front of the abandoned gas station, watching his feet as they made imprints in the dirty slush. When Virgil had announced who he was looking for, Richie had gone on autopilot, racing straight to the place that held so many confusing memories. He hadn't even realized where he was going until he was face to face with the broken pumps, which still read the gas prices from five years ago.

"If I do let him find me, then maybe we can talk…and… I don't know…we could…but what if he's different from what I remember? What if…wait, but what if he's the same?" Richie stopped in his tracks and stared curiously in front of him, mind lost in thought. "But what if he's not? But what if he is? If he is, could we go back to how we were? Do I want to? But he could just as well be a total jerk…But--"

"Richie?"

Eyes widening, Richie whipped around to face Virgil, foot slipping on a patch of ice hidden beneath the snow. He flailed his arms wildly as he searched for something to hold on to, feeling his stomach drop when all he felt was air.

"Whoa, whoa!" Before he knew what was happening, Richie found himself in a familiar embrace, being dipped like an awkward ballerina. "Are you okay?"

And this solved one problem.

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"So why was your date tonight that punchbowl? I mean, yeah, it was a lovely shade of red, but I don't think it was very big on talking," Virgil grinned, taking a long sip of the mug of hot chocolate in his hands. Richie rolled his eyes and looked out the window of the coffee shop they'd stopped at. Neither of them had been exceedingly thrilled at the idea of returning to the party, so instead they'd walked in a rather awkward silence until the first sight of warmth fell before them.

"I dunno. It didn't seem to mind hanging out with 'that weird guy," Richie countered, stirring his coffee absently. Virgil winced.

"Err, yeah…about that," he sighed and sat up straighter in the booth, "I'm really sorry… I tend to speak before I think sometimes…"

Richie leaned back and raised an eyebrow.

"Err, okay, a lot of times…" Virgil corrected, looking sheepish. Unable to help himself, Richie smiled at the familiar expression, images of the same face accompanied by shameful apologies to Mr. Hawkins flashing through his mind.

"Whatever, bro….It's fine," he assured, jumping in surprise as the chimes of the Plantman theme song cut through the air. Digging into his pocket, he sighed as he pulled out his cell phone, rolling his eyes at the number that was displayed.

"Yes, mother?" he answered dryly. He was rewarded by an irritated 'tch' in response.

"Where are you?" Frieda demanded, voice sounding tiny over the connection. Richie fought the urge to roll his eyes again.

"Lying in a ditch somewhere in the outskirts of town with my legs broken and no hope of ever seeing the light of day again."

"That's not funny."

"Really?" Richie smirked, "I was amused."

"Whatever," Frieda muttered, obviously giving up. "Virgil went looking for you."

"Yes, I know."

"You do?"

"How?"

Richie pulled the phone away from his ear and held it out in front of Virgil, mouthing the words "It's Frieda." With a grin, Virgil took the cell.

"Yo, Free-Free, what's shaking?" He paused for a moment, before laughing. "Alright, note to self: never call Frieda 'Free-Free' if I want to keep my limbs intact."

Frowning at the words, Richie adverted his gaze back to the window. He had a picture in his mind of Virgil saying the exact same thing to Frieda at the age of eleven.

Sighing to himself, he rested his chin on the palm of his hand, drowning out Virgil's voice.

This had to be a bad idea. Somehow, it had to be. The Gods, for whatever reason, had decided to curse Richie with a painful burden, and becoming friends with the person he would spend his life trying to forget somehow seemed like cheating.

"So…you like Plantman?"

Richie snapped out of his thoughts and glanced up at Virgil's smiling face. Virgil was sliding his cell phone back to him across the table.

"I, err, uhm…yeah."

"Dude, me too! I have both movies and every issue up to number 285! I've been trying to get my hands on the latest special, but everywhere I turn it's sold out."

The familiarity was just too much for Richie, and before he could stop himself he was blurting out, "There's a few big comics store just down the street that generally have all of the latest issues in stock..."

"For real?"

Somewhere in his mind, sirens were going off left and right, desperately trying to alert him that this was a really bad idea.

But one night couldn't hurt, could it?

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"Whoa, man! They have the first issue of Blue Samurai? I thought every copy of this was behind titanium bars in some laser guarded basement!" Virgil exclaimed as he pointed at the comic book where it stood on display behind the clerk's counter. Quickly pulling out his wallet, he waved to get the salesman's attention. "Yo…Eddie!" he called, reading the employee's nametag. "How much for Blue Samurai issue number one?"

Eddie stared blankly at Virgil for a long moment, before slowly raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"Twenty-four hundred."

Spluttering, Virgil would have fallen backwards had Richie not been there to balance him. "Dollars? Damn! That thing should be behind titanium bars in a laser guarded basement! Twenty-four hundred dollars…"

His mumblings soon came to a halt when his eyes caught sight of a holographic cover of Soul Power and Virgil quickly lost all train of thought as he ran over to it. Richie had to hide his smile. Virgil was always getting distracted in comic book stores, rambling on about something or other until the newest edition of whatever superhero he adored that week grabbed his attention.

Richie blinked.

Or…was he? Turning away, Richie frowned. The images had surfaced in his mind unwittingly and planted themselves there without him knowing it.

"Look! They even have stuff with Timezone and Hypno!"

Richie snapped out of his thoughts and stared at Virgil. "What?"

The darker boy grinned and held up a candid photograph of Dakota's very own superheroes, caught in the midst of saving civilians from a fire.

"Dude, Hypno is--"

"Not that great," Richie interrupted, bringing his gaze back to the floor. He heard Virgil make a sound of shock.

"How can you say that? Hypno is all that, man! He saved me on my way to find you!"

"Oh…?"

"Yeah! Man, I've never even seen a superhero in person before, and tonight not only did I see him, but I talked to him!" Virgil's voice grew more excited with every word that left his mouth, and Richie had to force himself to look away.

"So…a little obsessed with superheroes, are we?" There was lump in Richie's throat, which he found less than inexplicable.

"You know it!" Virgil grinned brightly and went back to checking out the pictures of various superheroes that had come through town on display. He felt his stomach jump when he came to the last one in the row.

"No way. Hypno's worked with Batman?"

"He's kind of a jerk," Richie muttered, recalling the experience and remembering how cold Batman had seemed. Even at the end when Hypno had thought he'd merited at least a little of Batman's respect, the most he'd gotten out of the older man was a nod of acknowledgement. According to Robin, however, "that means he likes you."

"Say what?"

Richie glanced up at Virgil's voice. "What?"

"You said he's a jerk?"

Eyes widening, Richie searched his brain for something to say.

"No, I didn't," he lied, "I said 'He needs a lot of work.'"

Virgil raised an eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest. "Meaning?"

"Well, I just meant Hypno needs a lot of work to make it to the same level as Batman. It's like the 1992 US Olympic basketball team playing with a benchwarmer from Duke University."

Virgil was silent for a moment as he considered Richie's response, before grinning largely. "That's true."

Richie felt a prickle of resentment, calming down as he realized that Virgil was only agreeing with what he had said. He sighed.

"Look, I should probably go now…" It was hitting him again that this was still probably a bad idea.

Nodding with a frown, Virgil put down the picture in his hands and made his way towards the door.

"Err, you don't have to leave…" Richie tried, running to catch up with him. The icy air bit at his face as soon as they left the warm confines of the shop.

"Yeah, but comic books runs aren't as fun without a fellow super geek on the trail with you," Virgil said with a laugh. Richie looked up at him sharply, feeling yet another wave of deja-vu fall over him.

"I..uhm…this is my stop," he said shakily, pointing vaguely off to the side. Virgil looked slightly concerned.

"Richie… that's porn shop."

Eyes widening, Richie turned his gaze to the direction his finger was pointing in, and turned red upon seeing that Virgil was right. Quickly, he looked for an escape.

"Well, no, I, uh, I mean this alley next to it… It's the short cut to my house." It was a blatant lie, of course. Richie would have to walk an extra half mile to get home if he went through the alley. But he really needed to get away from Virgil.

"I don't know how I feel about letting you walk through there at this time of night…" Virgil said slowly, gazing at the darkened street warily.

"Dude, I'll be fine. I go home this way all the time." Another lie. And without his helmet, Richie wouldn't dare attempt to access his powers in fear that he might very well lose control of them. If something were to happen to him in the alley, he'd be completely helpless.

But he really needed to get away from Virgil.

"What if--"

"Stop acting like it's a big deal if something happens to me! You don't even know me!" The words stung both parties, inexplicably so.

"Look, I just don't want to have a dead guy on my conscious, all right!"

Richie was taken aback by the force with which Virgil spoke. Apparently this Virgil was different than the one he remembered.

"All right?" Virgil's voice was softer now, but Richie still felt a bit cautious.

"…All right."

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"See? Now was that so bad?" Virgil's cheerful grin made Richie want to slap him.

"Is this the part where I kiss you goodnight?" he muttered bitterly, roughly unlocking the front door to his house. Virgil laughed.

"Not until the second date."

Richie rolled his eyes and stepped inside, feeling at his wits end with frustration. He knew it wasn't technically Virgil's fault, but whenever he talked or even looked at the other boy, he felt a little piece of the sanity he tried so hard to create over the years break off and fly into the oblivion. He'd had his moments most of the day where he could forget that this wasn't the Virgil in his mind, and pretend that they were in the happy universe he had in his head, but whenever he would come back to reality, the pain just seemed that much worse. By now he just wanted to go up to his room and cry. Or scream his lungs out. Or maybe both.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow!" The voice was getting smaller, and by the time Richie looked up, Virgil was almost gone. With a frown, Richie slid his door closed and stumbled up the stairs to his room.

At school the next day, no matter what, he would have to avoid Virgil at all costs. He was cheating the Gods, and he knew from personal experience when he'd teamed up with Wonder Woman that they did not appreciate it.

TBC