Revenant

Chapter Nine

"The string of burglaries continues and we're no closer into finding the link..." Richie said throwing a dart at the dartboard in the headquarters. Richie had discovered that throwing darts fulfilled two things, one it helped him improve his aim and it helped him clear his head.

"The security footage from the first one was no help!" Adam said throwing a dart too, which landed just below the bulls' eye.

"I know, but there has to be something that we have missed" Richie said, throwing a dark with no aim and it hit the centre of the bulls eye.

"Nice shot" Virgil muttered from where he was floating next to the dartboard.

Richie glared at his best friend's ghost, who just shook his head and vanished to the other side of the headquarters.

Adam sighed and put down the last dart on the table. "It will come to you Richie, I better go... my agent wants to talk to me about something" He said as Richie threw his last dart and headed over to his desk.

Looking at the streams of data flying across the screen, Richie sighed and sat on his chair. "Yeah you better go... don't want to upset him again" Richie muttered adding some information one handed to the string of data.

Adam removed the darts from the dartboard and placed them in the pot near the board. "Yeah... it took me a while to convince him for me to carry on in being a hero" He said making sure that the pot was secure on the shelf. "If you're sure that you will be ok," Adam said, walking over to the main door and grabbed his jacket where it was thrown down when they had to depart after the latest robbery.

"Yeah... I will be here working till the afternoon patrol..." Richie said, more focused on reading the data than anything else.

Adam shook his head and put his jacket on before leaving the gas station. 'He has been acting weird over the last few days… ever since the first robbery' Adam thought to himself as he walked away from their secret headquarters to where he had hidden the car that morning, his hands in his pockets.

Shrugging the thought away Adam dug down deep into his jacket's pocket for his car keys as he approached his car. Unlocking the car he opened the door and climbed in, he checked his mirrors after he closed the door. 'Wonder what Al wants now… 'Adam thought to himself as he did his seat belt up then started the car engine up, the radio popped into life.

Richie removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes, "There has to be a link somewhere," He said, putting his glasses back on and moved away from his desk and spun around to face away from the computer.

Virgil hummed a merry tune to himself as he floated in the air not looking at anything in particular. Richie rose up off his chair and walked over to the old fixed coffee machine, and fixed himself a coffee. "You know that tune is very annoying!" Richie muttered as the coffee poured into the pot.

"Hm? Well I hummed a few times in the last few days and yet you didn't say anything" Virgil said, still floating in the air, a few feet off the ground and paid more attention to Richie. "Well I couldn't! I am already gaining some curious looks for the last year or so and appearing to be talking to myself doesn't' help" Richie said, adding some sweetener into his coffee. "True... so why so stressed bro?" Virgil asked, uncrossing his legs and his feet touched the floor.

Richie took a large sip of the coffee and then glared at Virgil, "Well let's make a list... I was barely coping with your death so much that the Justice Leaguefly by constantly... all of these robberies taking place... and then what has been stolen doesn't make any sense!" Richie said yelling the last thing and something odd happened. The darts from the pot that sat on the shelf flew out and aimed directly for Virgil, passing through him harmlessly and embedded into the wall behind him. This made Richie and Virgil both very surprised, "Rich? What was that?" Virgil asked, shocked that the darts had flown out from across the room and embedded into the wall behind him.

"I...I dunno..." Richie said flabbergasted only just able to keep a hold of his mug of coffee. He looked at the pot that had now fallen onto the floor to the darts that were in the wall. "I...I don't understand what that was!" Richie said obviously in shock as he walked back over to his desk and sat heavily onto his chair. Virgil turned and looked at the darts before trying to move them out of the wall using his hands but they passed right through the darts, sighing that he had forgotten that he was in ghost form. 'It is against the rules to be in angelic form in front of the mortals...' Virgil thought sulking slightly and then used his metahuman powers to get the darts out of the wall and picked up the pot. The darts flew back into the pot and then the pot flew back onto the shelf.

"Guess it sucks, huh?" Richie muttered, his back to Virgil staring at his computer screen rubbing his forehead. Virgil sighed deeply and floated back into the air, crossing his legs.

"Puzzle within Puzzle
Truth hidden within
Seperate the puzzles
and answers you will find"

Virgil chanted before vanishing from sight.

"Virg? What on earth was that?" Richie said spinning around on his chair and looked around to see that he was alone. "Virgil? I'm not sure what you have been upto up there but I think the clouds have got to your head! Come on Backpack, we got work to do!" Richie said, Backpack activated and crawled over onto the desk, its green eye watched the screen as Richie began typing complex calculations.

Virgil appeared back at the graveyard feeling silly for saying a riddle. 'Great! Richie will think that I'm crazy!' He thought then pushed the thoughts away and sank into deep meditation though sometimes he hated it, Virgil remembered when he first learned how to meditate.
Backflash

"As you have seen from a few days Mr Hakwins, this is a place of peace and harmony and we have all learned the art of meditation" Virgil's guide said to him as they walked by a group of angels that were sat crosslegged with their eyes closed and their wings folded neatly behind them.

"So what you are saying is that everyone has to learn how to meditate" Virgil said shocked, remembering all the failed attempts to keep quiet and still. "If you want to stay here then yes" His guide said, her voice stern. "My son will learn Jenny or he will have to answer to me" a voice said from behind Virgil and his guide making them both spin around to face a beautiful angel. Virgil came face to face with his mother, she was just how he remembered her. "M..mom!" Virgil called out as Jean came closer and pulled her son into a hug. "It's been too long my darling, it's ok Jenny I can take it from here" Jean said pulling her son close to her and looked at the angel who nodded unfolded her wings and took off towards a distant cloud.

"Jenny can be cold but she soon warms up, have you been taught to fly yet?" Jean asked pulling Virgil away and saw that he had been crying. "Come on... no tears" Jean said with a soft smiled on her face and rubbed his cheeks softly with her thumbs. "Y...yeah, it... it's just so hard, one minute I'm fighting along side Richie and the next.." Virgil bowed his head and his shoulders shook. "Hey! Come on son, let me take you somewhere... come on" Jean said, holding her son's shoulders and unfolded her light blue wings. Virgil looked up and nodded, unfolded his light purple wings and with his mother's hand in his they took off with Jean leading the way.

A few short minutes later, Jean and Virgil landed on a large cream and light purple cloud. Virgil had quickly discovered that having wings was different and that it was a different form of flying than he was use to on earth. "Where are we?" Virgil asked looking around and saw a form of a couch and a small chair appear out of the clouds and Jean folded her wings back up. "We are at my favourite spot... I have been watching you and the family from here... here we can practise our meditation" Jean said, sitting gently on the small chair with her wings over the back of the chair. "You can watch what is happening in Dakota from here?" Virgil asked, not moving from the spot where he had landed.

Jean sighed and pointed at the couch. "First you must learn how to meditate then we will check on Dakota" Jean said with a hint of order behind her voice. Virgil sighed and moved to sit on the couch with his wings over the back, "Make yourself comfortable and close your eyes" Jean said looking at her son with stern but loving eyes. "Ok, I will try"Virgil said unsure what will happen but trusted his mother. He moved father back onto the couch and crossed his legs before closing his eyes. "Listen to me carefully, breath, hold and release to my count once we have got the breathing done we will begin to focus on clearing your mind... meditation is a way to clear your mind of all things and focus on more important things like when they have been restored, you will be able to focus on making sure your powers are restored and secure..." Jean said, seeing her son was ready.

Jean counted softly to seven three seperate times and saw that her son was following her instructions carefully and after the third time he started glowing purple, a same coloured purple that his wings are but it soon disappeared and he called out in pain and jumped off the couch. "That hurt!" Virgil yelped stretching his knees. Jean frowned and waited for Virgil to sit back down in tailor seat position. "Ready to try again?" Jean asked, as her son changed his position slightly before nodding. "Sorry mom..." Virgil muttered, his head bowed and eyes closed. "Its ok Virgil, it took me a while to get into the correct position for meditation" Jean said giving her son more confidence. "Yeah... ok, ready to try again, I think I still have my powers... I thought I felt them" Virgil said and made his head rise and closed his eyes before focusing on his breathing.

Virgil breathed to her count once again, slowly he emptied his mind like imagining that a small but powerful sponge and that soaked all of his memories, his feelings and everything but the tingle sensation that he had gotten use to after the first big bang. "Ok Virgil, remember this spot, this is where you will return to during each time you meditate" Jean's voice echoed in his mind. "Now slowly restore yourself and come up out of your meditation very slowly" Jean carried on softly. Slowly Virgil carefully squeezed the sponge of all of his emotions allowing them to enter his mind, then squeezed the sponge again, he allowed his memories, his thoughts come back to him. The tingle of his powers bound to his emotions and slowly he opened his brown eyes. "See son, it wasn't that hard... it has only taken you five hours" Jean said, a smile on her face and gave a clock a sideways glance, which had appeared out of nowhere.

Virgil rose up off the couch and stretched his whole body including his wings. "Five hours? IT didn't feel like it" virgil said then noticed the floating clock as it disappeared in a wisp of cloud. "What the? Something tells me that I am going to be seeing new things for a long time" Virgil thought outloud gaining a laugh from his mother.

End Backflash

As Virgil was deep in meditation at the graveyard, Backpack had taken over from Richie in working out the puzzle while he had a quick nap on the couch. Thinking that it had something Backpack set off its alarm clock tone to wake Richie up.

"Got something Backpack?" Richie asked groggily as he put his glasses on and got up off the couch. Taking his seat as his robot sidekick wandered off to the kitchen area of the headquarters to make its master a cup of coffee, Richie looked at the complex coding displayed on the screen. Frowning, Richie looked up a document he had received from Dr Todd and compared them together.

Backpack returned carrying a cup of coffee, which was wrapped around tightly by the flex that allowed its eye to move about. "Thanks Backpack..." Richie said solomly. "If this is right, we are in deep trouble Backpack... very deep trouble" Richie said sipping his coffee and looked at the computer screen.

To be continued!