Heroes

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Chapter One
Probability
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Virgil awoke in less pain than he would have thought. He had a headache and annoying lights kept doing ballet in front of his eyes, but other than that he was fine. He could hear someone shuffling about and, figuring it was Richie, sat up.

It wasn't.

When he sat up the person turned and he looked into the slightly distressed face of the Bang Baby from earlier that day. His body tensed at the sight and it took a serious show of will power to not lash out. Well…will power combined with the desire to not have a repeat of before.

He may not have been as smart as Rich was, but he knew when it was time for a new plan. Entropy watched him for a moment, murky eyes wide and blinking. Virgil stared back even though his hand groped for something to-

"You're awake." Richie's voice, as bright and cheerful as ever, floated into the room a moment before his head poked in. He smiled slightly. "Hey bro'."

Virgil just blinked, mind temporarily shutting down on him. He was on a couch, a very ratty hole ridden couch that smelled kind of familiar. In fact, looking around, all of this was familiar. They were in the gas station. His coat was gone along with his mask and gloves. Richie was standing there, in his usual jeans and sweatshirt.

And there was a bang baby standing there, hands behind his back as he rocked back and forth on his heels, looking nervous.

This was not normal.

"What's going on?"

Richie blinked slowly then went pink. "Right. Jacob do you remember that water pump I mentioned before; around back?" A shaky nod. "Great. There's a bowl on the table and I need some water-"

"Okay." Entropy- Jacob- nodded and all but ran off, sliding past Richie who offered him a slight smile. Once he was gone the blond ambled over and flopped onto the floor in front of the couch.

"So."

"Richie what's going on? He knows who we are! You brought him to HQ." Virgil realized he sounded a bit like his sister when she felt he'd done something stupid. (Also known as: All of the time). He shuddered. Imitating Sharon was not a good thing. "Are you possessed again?"

"No." Richie looked a little sullen at that suggestion. "I just…I think he needs help."

"And, if you hadn't shown him who we were, we could have taken him to get the cure and then he could have all the help he needed." He frowned. "We can't really do that now though, unless we want our faces all over the morning paper."

Richie shook his head. "He isn't going to tell anyone."

"And why isn't he?"

"Because he doesn't want to be found anymore than we do." Richie stood up and moved away from him, seemingly almost…restless and uncomfortable. "Why does it always have to be a fight Virgil?"

"…Because he tried to rob a supermarket?"

"For food. He took bread, cheese, and fruit, not money. He didn't hurt anyone and…shit, V, look at him." He was walking around…no, he was pacing. To say he looked stressed out would have been an understatement.

Virgil just stared at the blond, wondering where he was trying to go with this. Then he frowned, letting his mind pull back an image of Entropy. Greasy stringy hair, layers of clothing… Another image came, unbidden, of people huddled in an abandoned building, huddled for warmth and wearing ratty coats.

He groaned. Figured. He just had to take on what had to be the only other homeless meta-human in Dakota. That was just the way his luck liked to run. He slumped over onto the couch.

"Okay, so we won't fight. We should still take him in; his life would probably be easier if he was normal."

"Normal is highly overrated." Richie muttered then shrugged. "Maybe he doesn't want the cure V. If we can help him control it, why should he have to give it up? It's the only thing keeping him alive; it's a part of him. You should understand that."

Guilt was a terrible thing. A terrible mind crushing, chest squeezing pain that made him want to gasp for air. Besides, he'd never been able to deny Richie anything the other teen actually wanted. He wasn't sure what that was exactly, but when Richie wanted something he would try his hardest to make it happen. They were best friends after all.

That was just how things worked.

"How do you even know he doesn't want the cure?"

Richie opened his mouth then stopped and coughed. "Well I don't."

Virgil wished for something to throw at the blond. "You don't know? All of this and you don't even know yet? Rich-"

"We'll just ask him." Richie said cheerfully, all traces of frustration and anger gone in a heartbeat. Virgil blinked at the sudden shift in attitude but decided to ignore it. Richie had always been just this side of easily amused.

His emotions were obvious sometimes and other times he was completely unreadable.

Virgil nodded his agreement then closed his eyes. This was a little out of character for Richie. Sure he was selfless and liked to help other people, but he had never been big on the idea of bringing other people into their team. He was still a little weird around She-bang when she was around to help them out.

Virgil just liked to chalk it up to Richie's amazingly anti-social and quirky personality and leave it at that. It wasn't like it was a big deal; Virgil was much the same. They (both) owned the Original Star Trek on DVD for the love of God; you just couldn't be an overly social person if you geek tendencies extended that far.

There was the shuffling of feet so Virgil cracked an eye open again. Richie's new friend was back and holding a bowl of water per Richie's request. His blond- not that Richie was his or anything like that- took the bowl and brought it over to him.

"You got a cut on your hand when you fell, I think you cut it on your disk."

Virgil just stared up at him for a moment. He'd cut his hand on his disk? Really? Why didn't he feel any pain? He looked down and saw that indeed there was a long, but shallow, gash across the palm of his hand. Blood was crusting around it and over it. He flexed his fingers, breaking the crust. The wound began to ooze blood slowly and he heard Richie's annoyed sigh.

"What did you do that for?"

"I can't feel it."

"My fault." Entropy's voice was very soft, almost shy. "The numbness. When your power turned back against you it overloaded your nervous system a little bit. You won't be able to feel anything for a while yet, but it'll fade."

"Good to know." Virgil's voice held more bite than he really meant for it to hold, but could he be blamed? He'd been fried by his own energy. Lame. "Is that what you do? Turn people's powers against them?"

"No." He shuffled his feet on the floor again. "That was just the most logical conclusion for you. Your body is sensitive to electricity and it acts like a battery, taking it in and storing it for later use and the best way to stop you was to overload you by taking the energy you put out along with the energy around you and force it into you, sending your body into an emergency shut down sort of thing in order to stop the absorption and deal with what you'd already taken in."

All of this was said with his eyes on the ground, foot toeing the concert nervously while he seemed to be folding in on himself. He seemed so much smaller and more afraid than before. Virgil was acutely aware of how his clothes hung off of him, so baggy they made Richie's look form fitting, and how grimy he actually was.

But the words that left his mouth, though they were a little simplistic and halting (apparently Jacob had a bit of a stutter) were intelligent and spoke of someone who understood what they'd done very well. Thankfully science was Virgil's thing and he followed the explanation fairly well, though he could barely hear it thanks to the way Jacob was talking to the ground. He was either a master of deception or he was genuinely meek and nervous.

If the way he was shifting from foot to foot was any indication it was the latter.

"So you turned my power against me."

"Yes, but that's not what I do." He glanced up for a moment. "I…alter things. Probability…possibilities…I…it's hard to explain. I make the worst possible scenario happen just be willing it."

"Can you control it?" Because really, that was just a little bit worrisome as far as abilities went. He'd hate to be around if something like that went out of control. He'd already felt it focused and that was bad enough. Jacob shrugged.

"Sometimes. Sometimes it gets…beyond me. I didn't mean to attack you like that but to stop you from attacking me my mind just…worked."

Richie crouched in front of him and began to wipe away the blood and clean out the wound. "From what I can understand he 'sees' things like I see them; numbers, angles, possibilities, facts. Only he sees the weakness in everything instantly and knows just the right button to push to send everything crashing out of control. And then, unlike me, he can push it."

Virgil looked down at Richie as he spoke then looked back up at Entropy in alarm. Per usual Richie had successfully broken it down in an easy to understand way. Easier than Jacob's halting and almost bewildered response at least. Not to rag on Jacob of course, Virgil couldn't for the life of him understand how his body had changed to the point that he was a natural battery but the electricity he was holding didn't affect his basic chemistry.

It didn't really make a whole lot of sense to him but Richie had a few theories that made some kind of sense. He was just good at the sort of thing.

Probably because he was a super genius.

"Oh. That's…interesting." If utterly terrifying could be interesting. He couldn't imagine what it was like to just…know things like Richie did, let alone always know just how to destroy everything around him at a glance.

Jacob's lips quirked into a sardonic smile. "Not really. It's all fun and games until you realize that one little word about the neighbor's affair could have the end result of your entire apartment complex burning to the ground with everyone still inside."

"Yes…that would be not fun." Virgil agreed slowly. "You know there is a new cure to the bang gases. You have to go in to get it, since some former bang babies sued the city for forcing them to accept the cure but-"

"No." Jacob shook his head and took a step back as fear crept into his eyes. "I…no."

Virgil opened his mouth to speak but ended up yelping at a fierce pinch to his thigh. He glared at Richie who glared right back over his glasses before slapping a bandage on his hand. That was going to sting later on, Virgil just knew it.

"You don't have to. It was just a suggestion."

"Oh. Um…okay." He had his arms wrapped around himself and once again was looking at the ground nervously. "What're you going to do with me then?"

"Well…" Richie looked a little dumbfounded at that. "We aren't sure just yet."

"We could take him to my dad." Virgil suggested. Might as well. They were already exposed and his pops would probably know what to do in this situation. Or at least who to call.

He was graced with a bright smile from Richie. His stomach clenched strangely and he swallowed thickly before looking away and coughing.

It hadn't been that good an idea.