Heroes

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Chapter Seven

Driving Me Crazy

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Richie was working on a serious headache, thanks in part to the little light show Virgil had put on and the temporary scare of the Watch Tower losing power and crushing a bunch of unlucky people. His mind had already come up with ways to guide the station into the ocean to avoid hurting civilians before he'd even realized what he was thinking about.

Virgil had stood, glowing like come kind of demented nightlight, for a few heart stopping moments in that had effectively felt like forever to Richie, before simply blinking out. He'd collapsed, all of the energy around him seeming to vanish before power returned to the station as if nothing had happened to begin with, and had yet to wake back up.

As if all of that hadn't been trauma inducing enough for one day after John had carried Virgil up to the infirmary they'd found Jacob had also passed out. Batman had muttered something vague about a panic attack before grilling a very annoyed looking John on what had happened. Wally had tugged him into the room Virgil and Jacob had been placed in while explaining that he didn't need, or want, to be around for the ensuing argument.

Two men that broody and sarcastic could do nothing but snipe at each other, according to Wally at least, and he'd know better than Richie would.

"But not to worry; me and J'onn will keep the usual violence to an minimum for the sake of you guys." Wally had flashed him a right smile then pulled the door shut and, Richie assumed, went to keep Batman and Lantern from coming to blows. Now Richie was left with only two unconscious teens and his thoughts.

It was the latter that was worrying.

Virgil's incident had been very…different. Not that Virgil couldn't absorb energy; he did it whenever he was in need of an emergency recharge, but that had seemed just a tad beyond his usual energy boost. And by a tad he meant a lot.

First he'd absorbed the robots energy and Richie couldn't even say for sure than the thing ran on electricity. Beyond that he couldn't recall Virgil every draining anything except a stationary source of straight electricity. More alarming than that had been the sheer amount of energy he must have drained and then stored in his body, however briefly, without completely burning himself out.

The only thing that compared in Richie's mind was when Virgil had taken energy from the 'Tower to shut down Brainiac and even then he hadn't actually shut anything down and he'd barely been able to hold what he'd taken in then. He'd whined about having a pounding headache for a good thirty until Richie finally suggested he just expel all of the energy he was holding.

Could have powers had grown so much?

Well, in a purely technical sense, why couldn't they?

Virgil's powers had obviously been growing from the first moment he'd been hit with the Bang gas and there didn't seem to be any evidence that his powers wouldn't continue to grow. After all, during his little jaunt into the future, Virgil had claimed he'd be one of the big Heroes, so it made sense he'd eventually go beyond fighting gang members in Dakota.

But, by that same line of reasoning, when would his power growth stop? Is was a reasonable assumption that at some point it had to stop otherwise Virgil would literally burn his body out, unless his body mutated to be able to handle more energy that most human bodies. Not to be overly philosophical but the body was just…flesh and bone and easily destroyed or harmed.

His mind flashed back to how Virgil had looked, energy bright around him and seeming to glow from the inside. There were heroes who were just…pure energy and no body.

Would that happen to Virgil?

He couldn't imagine what that would be like; his best friend the purple energy ball…how would he keep himself together? He'd need some kind of shell to hold of all the energy in one place, or else risk being scattered every time the wind blew.

He almost laughed as an image of Virgil sneezing and then exploding into a thousand pieces and flying around like ash. He probably would have laughed if not for the scream that effectively tore him from his thoughts. He jumped up, heart leaping into his throat as he prepared for some kind of fight, before he realized that the source was coming from next to him.

Jacob was sitting bolt upright, already pale skin completely devoid of any color and his eyes so wide they seemed to take up most of his face, but were also glassy and unfocused. His skin was bright with sweat and his breathing was sharp and uneven.

Richie swallowed, trying to force his heartbeat back to normal, before reaching out and touching the other teen's arm. Jacob jerked back the moment Richie's fingers touched his skin but awareness started to flood his eyes. He was silent for a long moment, looking almost confused.

"…Richie?"

"Uh…hi." Richie offered a wobbly smile and was rewarded with another slightly confused look. "Umm. Are you okay? I think you had a nightmare or…something."

"…a nightmare?" Jacob's voice was distant and shaky. "Yes I…nightmare. I…"

His eyes darted up to stare at Richie's face and he was struck by his eyes and how…different they seemed. They were wider, more green than brown, with a ring of black around the irises and were faintly shiny with wetness. His lips were parted slightly to let out a harsh breath. His gaze darted back down to his hands and Richie followed, strangely unsurprised to find them shaking.

More on instinct than anything else Richie reached out and grabbed his hand, feeling the slight slickness of sweat over skin and the slight trembling. Jacob just stared at Richie as if he'd just grown another head before his eyes. He looked as if he was going to say something when the door opened and Wally poked his head in.

"No ones dead or anything, right?" Richie stared at him and Wally just shrugged. "Someone screamed and I wanted to make sure you were all still breathing."

Richie nodded but glanced over his shoulder at Virgil's bed nonetheless. He found the other teen was not only awake but sitting up and seemed to be staring holes through his back. Seeing he was caught Virgil coughed then swung his legs over the bed, clearly intent on getting up.

"V, what are you doing? You just drained the entire tower, you can't just go…walking around."

"I feel fine." As if to prove it Virgil stood up and didn't so much as wobble. "Besides, you look a little occupied at the moment and I don't want to be in the way."

Richie arched an eyebrow. What did he mean 'occupied'? As if to answer his question Jacob pulled his hand away and reached up to push his hair away from his forehead while his gaze once again fell away from Richie.

He stared at Virgil, for the first time wondering at his friend's apparent denseness in all important matters. He didn't think Virgil had come to any sudden revelations in the past thirty minutes. It was Virgil after all… Not that there were any sudden revelations to come to about anything.

But if there had been it was unlikely that Virgil would have reached any.

"What're you talking about?" He decided to just go for clueless.

Virgil's eyes flickered over to Jacob pointedly and Richie was pretty sure he blushed. Why he was blushing he didn't know. It wasn't like he liked Jacob or anything…sure, he was attractive in a way but he was also so…so much like Richie was, at least on the surface.

Detached…

"Static, now that you're no longer unconscious, I think Bats wants to talk to you." Wally interrupted while stepping aside to let Virgil through the door. Richie watched Virgil walk away, a strange hollow feeling settling into his stomach. "Well. He didn't look happy."

"I noticed." Richie muttered. "Weird."

Wally smirked at him and nodded before backing out of the room again. Something at the way he'd been grinning was sending off tiny alarm bells in his brain, but he couldn't quite grasp why, which made it even more bothersome to be perfectly honest.

He could feel a headache coming on.

Jacob pulled his legs up to meet his chest then cocked his head off to the side. "What happened?"

"You had a panic attack." Richie explained

"oh. So I freaked out and then fainted. Good to know." His lips quirked into a wry smile. "It's been known to happen when I…too much stuff all at once. Too many options."

"Overload?" Richie asked while leaning forward some. That was an interesting revelation. While Jacob obviously couldn't control his ability this was a more…clear weakness of sorts. He could suffer an overload if too much information hit him at once and his body shut itself down.

Like a computer.

"Overloads. That sounds so…mechanical." Jacob rested his chin on his knees, eyes thoughtful. "I've been thinking I should be an insurance sells man or something. Maybe help companies come up with really terrifying simulations to make people buy insurance."

"Uh…interesting."

"Not particularly. Just…wondering what useful talents I've still got. If I can look at something and figure out the past and future and what strings to pull to throw it all off then why not go with that?"

"Just like that? You just look and you know?"

"Yeah. Just…like that." He looked down and near translucent lashes brushed over pale skin. "You get it, right? Just…knowing things. Retaining things. Never really forgetting."

"Yeah, I get it. The computer brain never forgets."

Jacob laughed, a light almost eerie noise. "You don't really believe that. Computers don't bleed. You understand that as well as I do."

Richie's breath caught in his throat and he nearly jumped out of his chair. Jacob's lips twisted into a hollow parody of a smile before he shrugged his shoulders slightly and looked up through his lashes, seeming almost shy.

"See? Strings."

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"Do you know what happened?" J'onn asked, gaze focused on the screen of the computer.

"Not really." Virgil had been told to sit on one of the examination tables and the computer was running some kinds of weird scans on him. Anything didn't involve drawing blood was fine by Virgil, who'd never been a fan of needles.

"You tried to shock the 'droid but it didn't work so you began draining it instead." Lantern was hovering nearby, looking as anxious as Virgil had even seen him. He looked worried…or at least what worried for Lantern would have been, which was still calm and collected for most people. Wally had come back and had his chin resting on Lantern's shoulder.

It was almost scary how at ease Lantern looked with having the other man hanging on him like that. Lantern had never seemed like the type to like being touched but…he didn't seem to be too worried about it.

It was…odd to see. Not bad, because Virgil certainly didn't care who Lantern wanted to be with be they male or female because he was…Lantern no matter what, but very odd. Flash had always seemed a complete goof off and Lantern was so serious.

"Not on purpose. It wasn't working and then I just…started taking it in. I didn't mean to, my body just…reacted."

"I believe that time has furthered your mutation." J'onn said, finally looking at Virgil. "Your DNA was slightly different than that of your average human but now it appears to be changing again. The human body runs on a form of electricity and your body has…cells that seem to be specially geared to absorbing and holding it. These extra cells are altering."

Virgil blinked, hoping the fact he had no idea what the Martian was talking about would be communicated by the dumb expression on his face. Well, he wasn't completely clueless. Extra cells, storing electricity, altering DNA…he got that.

"What are they changing into?"

"I'm not sure." J'onn admitted. "It doesn't seem to be causing you any harm though."

Virgil scratched the back of his neck, frowning. "I'm not going to turn into something…not human am I? My dad probably wouldn't appreciate that much…"

"I suppose it's plausible you could…become a being of solid energy." J'onn said almost musingly. "What Wally and John described would seem to lend credibility to your physical body changing somewhat. I can't say, exactly, how far the mutation may or may not go. After all, others affected by the chemicals you inhaled instantly underwent physical changes."

Virgil twitched. He knew he was lucky in that his power wasn't something you could see and he was grateful for that. And, on that note, he wanted to keep it that way. He wondered if that made him a bad person…either way, he didn't want to be a big ball of electricity.

He didn't think he could manage to hide that from Sharon.

"I will run some more tests. In the meantime I think it would be best to also take a look at Richie and Jacob, to see if they are affected as well."

There was a strange pang in Virgil's chest at the mention of Richie. He shoved it aside though; what did he care if Richie would rather hold hands with the homeless kid they didn't even know, than check to see if he was okay?

It wasn't like they were dating or something and Richie was more than free to pursue whoever he wanted to. Soo…yeah.

He didn't care.

….

He was so lying to himself.

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Moon: Ah, my dear, I'm glad you liked it.

Cherre: Jacob's fear of the dark was strange to write, because I don't think I've ever been afraid of the dark myself…but I'm glad it got across well.

Blood: I try to give everyone equal time but Richie and Jacob are so fantastically dysfunctional that they demand more effort, as far as puzzling them out goes. Everything about Virgil's power flux will be revealed as soon as Richie figures it out. And I'm glad I didn't bomb, that's always good to know. I worry about stuff like that you know…

Mechante: I've been strangely active this week, don't you think… Jacob pretty much runs on pure fear. Seriously, he barely eats and he's afraid to sleep…he just keeps going because of what he's afraid will happen if he stops. And yeah, Virgil's feelings are hurt. How dare Richie pay more attention to the freaky homeless kid than to him?

Tristripe: How I sort them out is for me to know and you to keep reading to find out. I know, evil isn't it?

Silent: Maybe…because Broken is one of the most awesome songs…ever? I'm just tossing that out there. I'm honored that Jay would invoke such a song in your mind.

Kari: I'd be glad to help. Just send an email to me (Dimitri Aidan at yahoo) and I'd be glad to offer my two cents or…whtaver.

Richie: Well. Death is a perfectly natural part of life… It's not really mystery, exactly, so much as a lot of things he just doesn't want to know about him.

Estel: You shouldn't trust him yet. I mean, what do we really know about Jacob? He's a creepy guy with no family to speak of, no friends, and a power that could probably destroy a person's life if he didn't like them. We don't know anything about his intentions or wants… I don't want you to trust him, otherwise he'd be a little less 'shady', you know?

Isis: Hmm…Sorry?