FATR: Okay, first chapter took place Winter 2004, just to clear that up now. Thanks for the reviews, Moonjava and Cyllwen. So, Cyllwen, you want to see Static with his coat off? I can do that, no problem. The rest of you, don't forget to offer your own input, if you have any. Kangor, Richie, and Virgil are more than likely OOC. Keep in mind, I love taking creative liberties. This is the last time I will mention it, you have been warned. To reiterate: Static Shock isn't mine, in any way, shape or form. If I could have been the company that made the toys so the show could keep going, I most certainly would not have hesitated. Too bad life doesn't work like that... Anyway, before I launch into an enraged fangirl rant, I present to you... the chip chip. Curtain up!

X)O(X

(Summer 2005)

A gentle wind breathed through the thick shadows of the brick canyon, catching scraps of paper and candy bar wrappers in a small tornado. They swirled around a couple times before coming to rest against a pile of old newspapers. The moon still lingered overhead, fighting a losing battle with the rising sun. The soft golden light plowed through the night, forcing it into a huddled mass of shadows at the end of the alley. The fact that it was both a Saturday and Summer vacation combined to keep the vast majority of Dakota's residents in bed. However, a minority were already up and roaming the streets. Some were out for trouble, others were just trying to sniff up breakfast.

Ferret Face came snuffling around the corner of one of the buildings. The shadows, the sun, and the breeze stopped to watch this timid, hunched, semi-human being. He moved crouched on all fours, with his nose to the ground, like a stray dog. There was almost something pitiable about him, despite his grotesque posture, elongated face, and glittery rodentesque eyes. Perhaps it was the uncertain way he moved, or maybe the way his oversized khakis and stained white undershirt hung precariously on his scrawny body, but he was one of the more pathetic figures out that morning. Ferret stopped and raised his head, sniffing the air. His eyes lit up with glee and he scampered to the nearest dumpster. He struggled with the lid for a moment or two then dove headfirst into the trash heap. "Yes!" He cheered, popping back up with a styrofoam container held over his head like a trophy. "Half a burger with cheese!"

The ground shook under a series of successive thuds. Bottles clattered and clinked, heralding the appearance of yet another Bang Baby. He towered over Ferret, both in stature and demeanor. The long, blue coat he wore flowed proudly around him, augmenting his presence. However, the most intimidating aspect of his form were the large black boots encasing his large powerful feet. His legs were smooth, dense muscle, all the better for leaping high in the air and propelling his cumbersome feet through brick walls. The name Kangor called to mind images of a demonic kangaroo for a reason. His nose wrinkled when he observed his partner's behavior, pushing his dark shades up slightly. "Show some dignity, man," he berated in a smooth Jamaican accent.

Ferret lowered his prize to chest level. His hurt was evident in his face and slightly whiny voice. "But, Kangor! I'm hungry!"

"You're always hungry." Kangor leaned against a wall and crossed his arms. His own stomach growled, but not audibly. There was no way he would stoop to eating the rotting leftovers of those who scorned him and his fellow meta-humans. But what to do, now? It was their first morning without Hyde. The night before, they had barely avoided being thrown in the pen for a third time. Hyde hadn't been as lucky as Kangor, who had always been smarter than his muscle headed crony. And Ferret? What Ferret lacked in intelligence, he made up for in speed.

"And what am I supposed to do?" Ferret demanded, still clinging to the old burger.

"We could hit a gas station, or a Pizza Hut..." Kangor trailed off as a mound of newspapers at the end of the alley ruffled and stirred. There was no wind to account for the sound. The two meta-humans looked at each other.

On a silent cue from Kangor, Ferret grudgingly released the trashed leftovers and sniffed his way towards the mound of papers. There was no further movement, but Ferret's super nose sifted a distinctly human scent out of the aroma of garbage. He sat back on his haunches and gestured Kangor over. Even though Kangor moved as silently as he could, the ground still shook under each step. Stealth didn't matter much, though, because Ferret ripped aside the newspapers to discover a cowering teenager.

When the papers were moved, she let out a small cry and shrank into her oversized black hoodie until they couldn't see her face. Her grip on her battered gray knapsack tightened. What could be seen of her skin (mainly only her fingers, as she wore fingerless gloves but was otherwise covered from head to toe in black) was a most unhealthy shade of white. A plain silver band sparkled on each finger and thumb, matching the plain silver bangles and chains on her wrists. "No... no, no, no..." she muttered under her breath, squeezing her silvery eyes shut. "Not here... not here..."

"What's in the bag?" Kangor demanded. Despite her ragged appearance, she seemed to own quite a bit of jewelry. Kangor was no professional evaluator, true enough, but it was bound to fetch something. Maybe she had something in the bag they could pawn, as well. Her head snapped up when he spoke and her hood fell back to reveal a thin, tormented face. She had at least four earrings in each ear, two eyebrow rings on her left side, and nose ring on the right. "What's in the bag?" He repeated when she didn't answer the first time.

She scrambled to her feet and pressed her back to the wall as if she might somehow escape through it. Shaking her head, she searched her mind for the right words. "Nothing. Nothing in the bag." The taller one (he seemed to possess the most control over the situation) gripped one of the straps of the knapsack and pulled it towards him. She held on defiantly for a moment or two but he wrenched it out of her hands easily. The force of the tug ripped her off balance and she landed on her side.

"Get her jewelry," Kangor commanded Ferret.

She whimpered, clenched her fists, and crossed her arms in front of her face. Ferret hesitated for just a second before diving on her and clawing her hands away from her face. Her thick sweatshirt protected her skin, but four tears appeared on each sleeve regardless of this fact. She lashed out at him, ripping four red lines down the side of his face. They wouldn't bleed, but he still jumped back, startled, with one hand pressed to the rising welts. She wouldn't push her luck any further. Once his weight had lifted, she rolled over and attempted to push herself up. She achieved a crouching position before he was on her again. One of his knees dug into her lower back and he yanked back on the neck of her hoodie. Choking, she clamped one hand around her necklaces. No way they were going to get them. No way. However, pulling back the neck of her hoodie had revealed a new oddity, one that made her attacker pause.

Kangor had observed some of this fight with minor interest before turning to investigate her bag. It was packed past capacity with boxes, but surprisingly light. He placed it on the lid of a trash can and unzipped the main compartment. He stared at the contents for a while before pulling out one of the boxes and opening it. Teddy Grams. The bag was overloaded with boxes of Teddy Grams. Well, that could account for today's breakfast, at least... and lunch... and dinner... perhaps even for the next two days.

"Hey, Kangor," Ferret called from his position on the girl's back. "Look at this!"

The meta-human in question restored the box to its rightful place, rezipped the backpack, and tossed one strap lightly over his shoulder. "What?"

She winced as he joined them in one hop, landing inches from her head. The ground rattled around them and she watched several junks of glass jump and vibrate. There was no use fighting. Even with her powers, she would have been far to undernourished and worn out for them to be very useful.

Ferret poked at the thick metal band around her neck with the claw of his right index finger. It shone faintly in the sun. Though it offered no signs of rust or tarnish, it had evidently been on her for quite a while. It was also apparent that many unsuccessful attempts had been made to remove it. There was an indent, about one centimeter square, on one side where something had been smashed and ripped off. "It's like one of those fancy, anti-power thingies."

Kangor didn't speak right away, though he had to agree with his friend's assessment. He'd seen a number of Bang Baby restraint devices in his time, but they had all been power specific, and he couldn't recall ever having seen a collar. It was entirely possible that the police had switched to a more universal method of power suppression. The city was run, after all, by a brood of money grubbing jack-offs. Bang Babies had already been an expensive nuisance for two years now; even Static. Static wasn't talked about as much, because of his public popularity, but the money for the street lamps he ripped up and the walls he crashed through had to come from somewhere. Money doesn't grow on trees. Kangor shook off this line of thought and returned to the business at hand. "Where'd she escape from?" Kangor addressed Ferret, even though he was studying her face to see if he recognized her from somewhere. Her eyes narrowed and her lip pulled up in a half snarl.

"Dunno," Ferret responded and pulled the hood back further for a better look. She made a choking sound and tried to bat his hand away, but something new had caught his attention so this was mostly lost on him. The faint light shone brightly off something metallic silver that began just bellow her neck, between her shoulder blades, and disappeared under the thick black fabric. "What's that?"

Kangor was about to answer but a trash can nailed him from behind before he could get any words out. The meta-human thudded to the ground, bouncing once, while the trash-can-turned-dangerous-projectile clattered and clanged off to the side. Remnants of purple sparks danced off the metallic cylinder. There was only one meta-human who could pull off that trick.

"Hey..." The confident smirk was all too evident in the cheerfully sardonic voice. Descending from the heavens like Zeus from Olympus was a dark-skinned youth armed with crackling energy. Due to the temperature of the season, the billowing blue coat he usually wore had been abandoned in favor of the black tank top. There was a bold yellow lightening bolt emblazoned on the chest. Muscles rippled beneath the flesh of his crossed arms, highlighted by the sun that glistened off his smooth skin. Though they weren't overly pronounced, at least not yet, they would have been enough to make any fangirl weak at the knees. His pearly white teeth flashed through the charismatic smirk and sparks sat in the corners of his chocolate eyes. "Why wasn't I invited to the party?"

Timid Ferret sprang up and backed away a step or two, cringing away from the bright light radiating from the hero. He found himself torn between running to save his own ass and sticking around to assist his buddy. There was little Ferret could do in this situation, really. In the hierarchy of Bang Babies, he was even less powerful than Shiv. Ferret didn't really have a very strong will to commit serious crimes, either. All he focused on was survival, which generally boiled down to digging morsels out of the trash or snatching a piece of fruit here and there.

Fortunately, Kangor was infinitely more confident and decisive. While his comrade struggled with his fight or flight instincts, Kangor recovered from the blow and launched an attack. The muscles in his legs coiled and released, sending him skyward just as a nova ball obliterated the ground where he had been standing. Kangor's feet impacted the building on the left with a brick shattering boom, leaving footprints that would make Sasquatch green with envy. The Bang Baby ricocheted off the wall and repeated the same process on the opposite side. This back-and-forth motion brought him level with the teenager on the flying disk.

It all happened too fast for Static to really respond. One moment, it seemed, Kangor was on the ground, and the next he was inches from Static's face. The sudden addition of weight coupled with Static's backwards leap to avoid the gigantic feet tipped the disk off balance and sent them both plummeting to the floor of the alley. Both meta-humans wrestled in the air, each trying to use the other as a shield from the concrete. Static ended up being the one on the bottom of the impact, but with the luck that only super-heros and fools seem to possess his fall was broken by an open dumpster.

Kangor used the youth's body as a spring board to gain some more altitude. The teenage crime fighter's soft stomach gave under the gang banger's boots causing Static to emit a small hiss of pain, much to Kangor's delight. Once the human battery disappeared into the trash receptacle, the thug kicked the lid closed and landed on it in a crouch. The lid dented under the impact. Kangor crouched there and waited for his breath to come back.

Ferret had left the girl, grabbed her backpack, and was now making for the mouth of the alley at what was almost a brisk jog. "Hey, we got the food. Let's just get outta here."

"Leaving so soon?" This came from a second youth who winged in on rocket powered skates, resembling nothing if not a modern day Hermes. He was pale and of slighter stature and form then his partner, but he was the Da Vinci of his generation. Though he spent much of his time in the electric hero's shadow, his inventions, mainly the explosive zap caps, had pulled them out of many a tight jam. Ever the faithful sidekick, Gear was always ready and willing to back Static with some ingenuity and sardonic humor.

Kangor straightened to his full height and sized up the green and white clad super-genius. He had dealt with Gear before, and hardly found him to be anything worth worrying about. With Static down for the count, Kangor was feeling pretty cocky. Not nearly as much could be said for Ferret, who was lingering uncertainly on the sidewalk.

The teenage runaway had slunk into an alcove made by two dumpsters and was observing the fight warily. She couldn't get past the mutant in the mouth of the alley, and the back of the alley was a dead end. Instead, she decided to wait in hiding. Maybe the two apparent super-heros would chase the two super-villains away and she could slip off undetected. Though she was familiar with such battles (they occurred almost on a weekly basis in New York) she was surprised to find them in Dakota. True, she had been away for years, but she had been looking forward to changes of a relatively peaceful nature.

"By the way..." Gear reached behind him and unhooked one of his latest inventions from his belt. "What's a party without music?" Long ago, he had figured out how to make zap caps play MP3s. Some modifications and a little inspiration from Talon had turned up this little invention. The egg-shaped device fit perfectly in his palm and was just the right weight for throwing, which is just what he did with it. On contact with the ground, it popped open and began emitting special high frequency sound waves. Gear had never tested these in the field before, but it worked better than he could have hoped. Kangor collapsed to the ground with his hands over his ears, convulsed a couple times, and passed out. A command to Backpack deactivated the noisy device and Gear descended. He didn't see Ferret anywhere, but that weasel would be caught easily enough later; especially with Hyde and Kangor in custody.

"Aw, man," Virgil groaned, emerging from the dumpster. "Next time warn me before you whip out a new gizmo." The hero rubbed his ears and studied the unconscious Kangor. Static's powers had protected him from the worst of the blast, but there was a persistent ringing in his ears now. Earplugs were a must, no joke.

"Sorry, bro." Richie couldn't help grinning behind his green faceplate as he retrieved and closed the zap cap. Effective and reusable; the zap caps sure had come a long way.

"I was having flashbacks to the Brittany Spears concert Frieda dragged me to," Virgil continued as he retrieved and folded his flying disk.

"That was Brittany, at least it used to be," Richie admitted with a sardonic grin.

Virgil looked from the motionless Bang Baby, to his partner, and back again. "I'm not sure even bigfoot here deserved that. That's just cruel and unusual," he laughed, shaking his head.

"That's nothing. I'm planning on updating to a Sharon's Tirade model."

Both of the heros shared a laugh over that but Virgil stopped abruptly. "Did she escape?"

Richie's brow wrinkled in puzzlement. "Who?"

"When I got here, they were robbing some girl."

"I didn't notice anyone running away."

A weak moan was emitted from a shadowy corner. Both heros investigated to discover a half unconscious figure crumpled in a heap there. Virgil knelt and shifted her so he could see her face. "Smooth move, Rich. You took out a civilian."

"I didn't see her!" Richie protested. He joined Virgil in examining the prone figure. The same band that had puzzled Kangor and Ferret caught Gear's attention with a wink. "Hello, what's this?"

Virgil pulled aside her hoodie for an clearer view of the device. "A power inhibitor?"

Gear silently concurred with this assessment. "It looks like she's been wearing it for some time. You recognize her?"

Static bit his lip and considered. He imagined he, having electromagnetic powers, would remember fighting a Bang Baby decked out in this much metal. "Nope," he concluded, "she's new to me. What should we do?"

Though Gear was filled with an overwhelming curiosity, he knew it would be more logical to leave her to the police. She had to be wearing the collar for a reason, right? Intellect told him to leave her, but intuition argued against that. Sometimes it was difficult to decipher between useful intuition and dangerous curiosity. Hence, his intellect was supposed to act as a mediator. "It might be better to leave her to the police..." Richie trailed off and looked to his friend for input.

"Yeah, maybe..." But both of them knew their consciences would berate them day and night if they didn't at least ask for her side of the story. Virgil specifically recalled Marcus, Permafrost, andDwayne when considering the matter. One shouldn't jump to conclusions. "She didn't seem to be with the other two," Virgil hesitantly pointed out.

"And she is wearing an inhibitor..." The two teenagers made eye contact and a mute resolution passed between them. "I'll probably kick myself for this," Gear laughed nervously.

"Let's hope not." Staticl whipped out his saucer, put the girl over his shoulder, and led the way back to the Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude.

X)O(X

The girl was now stretched out limply on the old couch. One arm was draped across her stomach and the other hung off onto the floor. Gear was hunched over her, a steady stream of information pouring across his visor from Backpack. The turtle-like robot in question was crouched near her head, poking at the collar with various fine instruments. Despite the sturdiness of the metal, several amateur attempts to remove it had damaged and warped it in several places. As minute as this warping was, Gear had been worried it would jam the lock. However, the obliterated technology on one side turned out to have little to do with overall purpose of the collar. "Well, the integrity of the locking mechanism hasn't been compromised."

Virgil, leaning over the back of the couch with a soda in hand, raised an eyebrow. "That's a good thing," he stated with a touch of uncertainty.

Gear nodded. "Backpack's cracking the combination as we speak. However, this puzzles me." He indicated the demolished area and the empty square. "This used to house a locator chip. I'm unable to determine the range of the homing signal, but wherever she escaped from, they didn't want her to get very far."

Static recalled Alva's island compound and shivered. "Maybe she escaped from a hospital, or a research lab."

Gear was also reminded of his torturous experience on the island, and he had been there longer and witnessed more than his friend. He shook the memories off. "We won't know until she wakes up." The collar popped open and Richie gently lifted her head to remove the band.

"How long do you think that will be?"

Gear shrugged, responding to another stream of data. "She's suffering severe malanutrition, her alpha waves are extremely low, somewhere around seven hertz..."

"English, please?"

"She's almost asleep, and according to BP she hasn't had proper rest or food in weeks, maybe even months, which means she could be out for one or more hours."

There was silence as they both contemplated the pale, listless figure. "I guess we wait, now..."

"Yep..." Richie turned the discarded collar over in his hands. "I'm going to have a look at this. Maybe it'll tell us something."

They both moved into the next room and set about their individual tasks in comfortable silence. Virgil tried to focus on some math problems for a while, then the history questions, but his mind kept drifting. Finally he dropped the pencil with a soft thump and looked over his shoulder at Richie's back. The hunched figure was silhouetted by the long, thin florescent light suspended above his workbench. "Anything?"

Richie shook his head. "I've never seen metal like this before, and the technology... It's designed to prohibit the use of any and all types of powers by recognizing fluctuations in DNA. If it shifts outside the norm, the collar releases an electric shock..."

Tesssseract...

The girl's left eye twitched, brushing soft black eyelashes against her pallid cheek, as the voice slithered through her head. It wasn't just a voice, it was a layer of voices, of indeterminate number, whispering as one.

Tesssseract...

Her silver eyes fluttered open and focused on the ceiling, her pupils widening to adjust to the shadows. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see an ethereal light glimmering through a rectangular opening. It's a doorway, she reminded herself absently without moving her eyes. There was something soft and spongy underneath her. Her hand lifted from the floor and trailed the tips of her fingers over the upholstered surface. It was indeed a couch. A couch somewhere dark and quiet, except for the light and voices in the other room. Faint wisps of a sour smell caressed her nostrils. It was familiar... gasoline. It was gasoline... A half memory suddenly struck her. Keeping her eyes trained on the ceiling, her other hand rose from her stomach and went to her throat. It encountered bare flesh. The corner of her mouth flicked upwards in a half smile. Yes, as she drifted back into consciousness she could feel the familiar tingle in her palms and coursing through her spine.

"... Alva?" Static's voice drifted in from the other room.

"This is too high-tech, even for Alva," Gear responded.

The girl placed one foot on the floor, rose slowly into a sitting position, and then placed the other foot on the floor. Her necklaces slid comfortingly against her skin. Gravity dragged some of them back to their original places, but others fell down her back. Apparently the super-heros had whisked her off to their hideout and removed the irksome power inhibitor for her. She had managed to smash the locator chip, but it was such a relief to finally be rid of the last link to those damned three years... No. Think on that later. You came here on a mission. Focus, focus, how can you slip out undetected? Do you have the power for one more trick? I haven't done this in so long, last time was... Did I recharge? No, no, I didn't. They wouldn't let me recharge unless it was... No, you have to get out of here. Flashback time later, escape time now. Escape time now. Escape now. Escape... She repeated that word over and over again as she inspected the room. The only evident way out was the door, but she wasn't about to go into that light and confront those faceless voices. After over a year, she still harbored a soft dislike for super-heros. Old programming would die hard... Dammit, focus! Her eyes picked out the wall least cluttered with stuff and she took a deep breath. It was worth a try...

"It's been an hour," Virgil was saying. "If she's up we can just ask her."

Richie nodded agreement. He followed Virgil through the doorless entryway. The place had been cleaned up significantly, but there were still stubborn cobwebs clinging in the higher corners. Richie had possessed every intention of taking care of those but things kept... His thoughts were cut off when he bumped into his stock-still friend. "What is..." Richie followed Virgil's amazed gaze to one of the walls. The blond's face underwent a similar transformation. Side by side, the two friends both made up the phrase: 'shocked and amazed.' In a strange twist of irony, however, Richie took on the role of shock...

Virgil could hardly believe what he was seeing. The whitewashed wall had supported one or two shelves of dusty junk. Most of it had been abandoned there before the two heros took over the place, and Richie had kept it around for spare parts. However, shelves, junk, and clean white wall had vanished in favor of something suspiciously akin to the outside wall. Virgil took a few cautious steps forward and brushed a shaking hand over the grimy surface. It wasn't an illusion.

Richie watched his friend do this, the wheels in his head grinding away. A scan of the room indicated the girl to be gone.

Virgil's eyes widened and he turned to his best friend. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Not sure. What're you thinking?"

Virgil pursed his lips and then strode purposefully out of the room and out of the building.

Richie cast a puzzled glance at his retreating back then jogged to catch up. When he stepped into the scorching midday sun, he scanned the cracked and weedy parking lot for Virgil. "Static?" He called.

"Over here!" Virgil called from behind the building. "You are not going to believe this!"

Richie jogged around the corner to join his friend in gaping at the outside wall, which had become the inside wall. Everything, shelves, paint, and junk, were in their exact places, but on the wrong side.

"One question."

"Only one?"

Virgil smirked but went on with business. "How does someone turn an entire wall inside out?"

Richie shook his head. "I dunno, but I hope she's one of the good guys..."

X)O(X

(Evening)

Frieda never really like being home alone. The house always seemed to double in size and swallow her up, especially with the blue shadows scratching on the windows and curtains. Her parents had gone out to dinner and a movie, but not before going over the list of emergency numbers two or three times. The auburn haired teenager had assured her parents time and time again that she would be fine. However, as soon as they left, images of the shadow Bang Baby had begun assaulting her overactive imagination. Right now she had on all the lights in the kitchen.. and the living room... She shuffled across the green and white tiled floor, feet nestled snugly in rose-pink fuzzy slippers, and opened the refrigerator to pull out a new box of silk tofu and some strawberries. She tucked these under one arm and also brought out the skim milk. Virgil and Richie accused her of having some kind of fun deficiency, but Frieda truly did like tofu shakes. She chose a banana at random and dumped all of the ingredients into the blender, pureeing them into the fruity, all natural treat she knew and loved.

X)O(X

She swooned, temporarily losing her sense of direction in the deepening shadows and falling to her knees. It felt like the ground was splitting open beneath her. Her stomach lurched into her chest as she was overcome with a plummeting sensation. The bejeweled hands covered the thin, exhausted face as she steadied herself. This was the right neighborhood. She was almost there, that is, if it was still the same house... but there was hardly any reason for it to change... The runaway staggered to her feet and pressed onwards.

X)O(X

Frieda pulled her pink terrycloth robe tighter around her and settled down on the plush couch. Settling back against her white feather pillow (embroidered with purple and yellow butterflies) she went over her mental checklist. Tofu shake? Check. Favorite pillow? Check. Remote? Check. The teenage girl was fully prepared to immerse herself in standup comedy for the next four hours. Some cosmic being had other plans for her evening. Just as she picked up the remote, she heard a faint tapping on the front door. She froze, not even entirely sure she had heard it. The silence stretched on and she was on the verge of dismissing it as jumpy nerves. Then she heard it again, more urgent and insistent. Frowning, heart thudding, Frieda slid off the couch and crept to the door. All windows were carefully avoided. Flipping on the porch light she checked the peep hole. All she could see was the top of a hooded head. There was another stretch of silence before the knock came again, more urgent but still weaker than ever. Frieda took a breath and opened the door a crack. Her soft, pink lips formed an 'O' of surprise and she flung open the door all the way.

Frieda flung open the door and stood, staring. Disbelieving? Probably. She wore a pink robe over white and pink heart pajamas, and the streaks in her hair had grown out, but other than that she looked almost exactly as the hooded runaway had pictured. The black-haired girl longed to break the silence, but doubted she had the energy to speak.

Frieda took in the ragged yet familiar figure on the porch. She had dropped a dangerous amount of weight, her cheeks were smeared with street grime, and the silver streaks in her hair had grown out. However, there was no doubt it Frieda's mind that she knew the girl standing on her porch. No, not standing. She was leaning against the wall, on the brink of collapse. Her breath was coming in shallow gasps, and her usually sharp eyes were glazed over. "... Tess?" Frieda finally managed to get out.

Tess took an unsteady step forward. "Frie... da..." She fell into her old friend's arms and surrendered consciousness.

X)O(X

FATR: Mwahahaha! Cliff hanger! I hope you like how I treated the coatless Static request, Cyllwen. You see I take the requests seriously, so ask away! Ferret fans (are there any? Haha, jk), I have good news and bad news. Good news, he's coming back in the next chapter. Bad news? Well, it looks like there's going to be a lot of Ferret abuse. I also felt Gear deserved some lime light for once. I mean, I know he's the sidekick, but sometimes his performance is just embarrassing. I won't launch into detail, but I'm sure you know what I mean. Okay, your turn. R&R time! I'll even take well-founded flames. For example: You can say, 'This story sucks' if you like (I'm all for freedom of expression), but you must be prepared to tell me why the story sucks. See you next chip chip!