Static Shock: Running in Place
Chapter 3 – Loss and Gain
Permafrost stared out at the Central Park Lake, her pale fingers curling and uncurling slowly, the tips barely peeking out from the sleeves of her coat. The chill wind swirled around her, covering the grass with a thin layer of snow.
She'd been Maureen again. She knew she had, she had felt Permafrost melting away, felt herself getting warm again.
But now it didn't matter. Now she was an outcast again, now she'd never be able to go back to the church, she'd never be accepted. The shelter had been nice, the Father had been nice, she had been ready to call it home. Then the people had been horrible and they had chased her away.
She would never find a home again.
She stretched her hand out, fingers splaying out from her palm as swirls of snow twisted away from her fingers and freezing when they touched the ground. She thrust her hand forward and the ice slid out over the lake, forming into a set of stairs that twisted and looped out to the center.
Permafrost came to a pause at the edge of the stairs, her blue eyes watching the water drifting beneath her. She would never find a home, but she could make one. Her arms stretched out, sleeves dropping back to let her hands touch the cold air, and with a twitch, a pair of walls of ice burst forth from the lake.
She would make a perfect home, a palace of ice and cold, and no one would dare try to stop her. Not even Static had been able to stop her.
"Gear? Hey, Gear, wake up."
Gear felt himself groan, is eyes forcing their way open to stare up through the green tint of his face mask. The almost-indistinct faces of Static and Shebang were hovering over him, twin masks of concern on their faces.
But why were they here? All he had to do was talk to Doctor Todd, so he didn't need any-
Ebon!
The memory of the shadowy metahuman crashing into him flared to life and Gear shot up, practically knocking the other two heroes aside in his desperation. "Ebon is he…" Every light in the lab was on, there wasn't a shadow larger than a paper cup anywhere in sight. Ebon couldn't be there. "He was here."
"Relax Bro, we know." Static's hands were on Gear's shoulders, urging him back down. "The Doctor found your Shockbox and called us just after Ebon left. Are you alright?"
Gear nodded slowly, reaching up to rub at his head. "Yeah, ears are ringing a little. I'll be fine." He pushed himself to his feet, trying to ignore the fact that the room was spinning a bit. "We need to stop Ebon."
"I called Alva," Doctor Todd had been standing on the other side of the room. "He said he will take care of it and does not want your help."
"Oh, right, like that ever stopped us before." Gear laughed and immediately regretted it, sitting down again. "Just gimmie a minute and we can go."
"Actually," Static had moved away once Gear had settled down, and was leaning against one of the Doctor's lab tables. "We have a bigger problem. Well, more immediate, anyway…"
Gear stared at Static. "What could be more important than keeping Ebon from getting more bang gas? Is the world ending? I don't think I was unconscious that long…"
"That crazy ice-queen built herself a castle in the park." Shebang spoke up then, a little smirk on her face. "We were waiting for you to wake up 'cause we need some way to stop her, and the direct approach apparently doesn't work." She tossed a smirk at Static, who just sighed.
"I'd like to see you do any better than I did." Static grumbled, pointedly looking out the window. "But seriously, we need a plan."
"Yeah, actually, I think I have one." Gear grinned, taking a deep breath and standing, leaning heavily on a table but at least he was mobile. "Remember those bracelet things that you and Hotstreak wore when we were captured by Alva? They almost shut off your powers?"
"Yeah, of course. We've still got the broken ones at the hideout. Think you can fix them?"
"Yeah, I do." Gear reached up to rub at his eyes for a moment. "And if we can get it on Permafrost, it will dampen her powers enough for us to control her."
"Or at least buy us enough time to figure out what to do with her."
An hour later the three of them went shooting over the police barricade that had formed at the entrance to the park, ignoring the shouted order to stop from a few of the rookies. Most of the police in Dakota liked the assistance that Static and Gear gave them, but some of the newer ones seemed to have a Gotham-complex. The only Good Vigilante is a Dead Vigilante.
Static hovered to a stop at the bottom of a winding set of ice-stairs that stretched out from the edge of the lake to the frozen door of the castle. "Wow…she's certainly got the details down." He said in surprise, lowering down to the ground so Shebang could hop off onto the dirt.
The castle was a good forty feet high, and if it hadn't been ice-white, it would have been a perfect replica of a castle out of any good fantasy movie. Tall parapets, a wooden door, flags frozen in the act of waving, even the slots to shoot arrows out of.
"Yeah, well, we still have to bring it down, pretty or not," Gear hovered up a few feet to try and look through one of the slots. "I'm not sure it's a good idea to split up, but if the inside is as complex as the outside, we probably need to. Just to find her."
"Or we could just try the throne room," Shebang grinned up at the two floating teens. "I know if I were playing Princess in my own shiny castle, I'd be in the throne room."
"Eh…it's worth a shot," Static hovered back down and Shebang hopped up onto the disc behind him, and the three took off into the air above the castle.
Permafrost was, in fact, in the throne room. She was putting the finishing touches on a large, imposing knight in full armor who would stand guard over her door. There was certainly one benefit to her powers…she could make really cool snowmen. She'd already created a queen, who sat on the pair of thrones dressed in a long flowing white and blue dress. Permafrost had tried to model the face after her mother, but tiny details were hard, even with good control over ice. But it was close. Or she thought it was close.
She put the last touch on the knights helmet and stepped back, reaching up to brush her white hair out of her face and giving the statue a once-over. It seemed good. It would never move, but at least she might not feel as lonely.
"So, that's the door to the throne room, right?"
"I think so."
Permafrost froze as the voices drifted to her from the courtyard. That sounded like Static and someone else, a girl. Probably that Shebang that he sometimes hung out with. Which meant he'd brought friends to take her down, which was probably a bad thing, since they'd wreck her castle.
For a moment, she considered just opening the door and going out to meet them, trying to talk to them. But they wouldn't listen…even if Static might listen, why would his friends? They'd be just like everyone else…
Static tapped his gloved finger against the ice-door that they suspected lead into the throne room and sighed. "It's thick. I can't melt it without melting everything else around me. And even then, Maureen might freeze it all again just as fast."
"I could probably shatter it," Shebang flexed her fingers twice, balling her hands up into fists. "It might hurt a little, but I could probably."
"Don't break my castle." The ice door swung open and Permafrost stood standing in the frame, her eyes narrowed, her hood pulled up to shadow her face. "Go away! I'm not going to bother anyone, and no one can bother me here, so just leave me alone!"
Static just stared in surprise at the young girl. It was the most coherent thing he'd ever heard her say. Which wasn't a good thing, since if she was coherent, she'd probably handle herself even better in a fight. "Maureen, we can't just…leave. The police aren't going to let you live in the middle of the park. Or keep a giant ice-castle here."
"They can't stop me! They don't care. Please, just leave!" Permafrost stomped her foot against the ice floor and the entire castle shuddered. Her eyes were narrowed in anger, her hair hanging down to hide part of her face. "I don't want to hurt anyone, but I…" She trailed off and whirled around, bringing her hand up in front of her.
"I said LEAVE ME ALONE!" While the younger girl had been yelling, Shebang had been inching around the edge of the courtyard, intent on catching the other girl from behind. She didn't even have time to get out of the way as Permafrost released another mini-blizzard, encasing the metahuman girl's legs in a solid block of ice.
"Hey!" Shebang stared at the ice-powered girl in surprise, and then slammed her fist down onto the block of ice. It cracked, but it was obvious it was going to take a little while for her to get free. "Lemmie out!"
"Maureen, don't do this. We don't want to fight you." Static took a step towards the smaller girl, and she raised her hands towards him. "Come on, don't do this. I'm not your enemy."
"Yes you are! You want to make me leave! There isn't anywhere else but you want me to leave and I can't and…and…" Her small body was heaving with each breath she took, her hands shaking. "You can't make me!"
Static and Gear took off into the air just as Permafrost let loose with another contained blizzard, leaving an extra foot of ice along the ground where the two of them had been standing. They split off in two directions and she sent long tunnels of supercooled air shooting after them, blocks of condensed water tumbling out to shatter on the icestones and into the lake.
"Leave me alone! Leave my castle alone! I won't let you take me! It's all your fault!"
It took static a few seconds to figure out her range and hover up out of it, meeting gear there as Permafrost continued to fire mindlessly into the air. "She's really angry."
"I noticed," Gear pursed his lips, watching Shebang continued to pound on her ice-prison. "If we can't get near her, we can't put one of the necklaces on her. And anything we can hit her with strong enough to knock her down might kill her."
"Well, Shebang's gonna go after her the moment she gets free. If we keep her distracted, she might be able to get close enough." Static hovered up another foot as a handful of ice-blocks nearly reached them.
"Or she'll get flash-frozen." Gear couldn't help but sound skeptical.
"Well, I guess we'll just find out, won't we?" Static bent his knees and shot back down towards the castle, spinning on his disc to dodge another ice-block.
They were too high, she couldn't hit them but she needed to or they weren't going to go away! Permafrost could barely contain the growl building up in her chest as she fired sheet after sheet of ice and snow at the two flying figures. They were going to tear down her castle and her statues and make her go back…wherever they wanted. But no one would take her or want her and…and…
"No!" She slapped her hands together and a pillar of ice shot straight up through the air, nearly crashing into Gear as he came to a stop a few inches from the side. "I won't let you-"
Her powers shut off as someone crashed into her from the side, sending them both sliding across the frozen courtyard. No, the girl! Permafrost tried to turn herself over, but the weight of the older teen was kept her pinned to the ice. "Let me up! Get off get off let go let."
She never saw the punch coming.
"You punched her?" Static was stunned, hoping off his disc and sliding over to the pair of girls, staring in shock at the unconscious Permafrost. "I mean, she's like, fourteen! You're too strong to punch little kids!"
"Well, if you can think of a better way to stop her, I'd love to hear it," Shebang crawled off the younger girl and tugged the power-dampening collar off the loop on her belt and snapped it around Permafrost's neck.
"Well…no." Static sighed. "I just…we shouldn't hurt her. She's not a villain. She's just…"
"She's just dangerous. We couldn't let her stay here." Shebang stood up and brushed the last of the ice-shards off her costume. "God I'm cold."
"Even if we wanted to, the police wouldn't have let her stay." Gear landed nearby, dropping the last few feet so his rocket-boots didn't melt down into the floor. "So what now?"
Static pursed his lips, staring down at the unconscious girl. She looked almost normal now, at peace. "I'm not giving her over to the police. She doesn't deserve to go to Juvie. Hell, it's my fault she's got her powers back. We'll take her with us."
"They're not going to be happy with that." Gear shook his head. "A lot of the new ones don't like us anyway."
"They'll have to deal. We'll leave by going over Jefferson, they won't have a barricade over there, so many they won't notice us, so maybe they'll just think she got away."
"You're the boss." Gear shrugged and hopped back into the air, firing his boots and offering a hand out to Shebang. "Come on."
As the two of them took off into the sky, Static reached down and scooped up Permafrost in his arms. She didn't stir at all. "Wow, she really did a number on you." He muttered, shaking his head as he stepped back onto his disk and shot off into the sky.
Shiv dove for cover behind a car as a small explosion rocked the air behind him. He and Ebon had turned up at the entrance to Alva Industries intent on finding themselves some more of the Big Bang gas, and had been met with a remarkable amount of force.
"Ebon! What the hell should we do?" He shouted into the air, sure the shadow-melting meta would hear him. A moment later the teen oozed out of the shadows next to him.
"Shut up Shiv, I'm thinkin'." Ebon would have frowned if he still had a face. The damn goody-two-shoes must have called Alva and warned him they were coming, it was the only way to explain this.
"We could retreat. Come back when they aren't expecting it." Shiv twisted around and leaned up to peer over the car, ducking down a second later when two bullets spanged off the metal of the hood. "I don't want to get shot."
"No, we ain't retreatin'. I got an idea. Run that way…make yourself some shields to block their bullets, but try and draw their fire, alright? I can probably slip inside once they ain't payin' as much attention."
Shiv started to shake his head, but stopped once he remembered the last time someone had refused Ebon. Ebon was a good leader, but he had a temper…a temper Shiv had no intention of crossing. "Alright. I'll meet you back at base."
And with that, he took off down the street, trying to ignore the bullets that were bouncing off the red shields he erected from both his hands.
Five minutes later, Ebon slithered along the shadows on the ceiling of the Alva Industries hallway, carefully keeping himself from accidently covering a light or sliding into a spot where a shadow shouldn't be. He'd gotten pretty good at this over the last few years, but he couldn't help but be worried. A mistake now would cost him everything.
A conversation he'd overheard when he first entered lead him to believe that, if there was a sample in the building, it would be in this specific storage vault. A storage vault which, surprisingly, only had two guards in front of the doors. Two bored looking guards.
It was all Ebon could do not to laugh.
Shiv slid through the door to the warehouse and slammed it behind him, latching both locks and leaning his weight against it as he tried to catch his breath. He was pretty sure he'd lost the guards almost ten blocks back, but he hadn't stopped running until he'd arrived…just to be safe.
"How'd it go mon?" Kangor was sprawled out on the couch watching the TV, and he sat up a bit, peering over the tops of his glasses.
"Don't know. Ebon made me a distraction…won't know till he gets here." Shiv took a long, calming breath and pushed off the door, making his way across the room to the small fridge and getting himself a soda. "If he gets here."
"Hey mon, have faith. This is Ebon we're talkin' about. He never let us down before."
"That's right, I haven't." One of the shadows suddenly disconnected from the wall and coalesced into Ebon, a foot long metal canister resting in his left hand. "And I never will."
To be continued…