Title: The Best Laid Plans
Author: Silverkitsune
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Static Shock is the property of the WB and all other associated networks and creators. The characters of Tracy, Derrick, and Carlos however do belong to me.
Authors Note: A thank you too Wildfirefriendship, crabs, and RowdyGabriev for their reviews of the last chapter. You have no idea how much I appreciate them.
Part 4
He'd checked the comic book shops
first, all of them. If it could be found in the phone book he'd swooped by,
starting with Orion's Belt over on third and ending up on the roof of Mac's
Comics down by Three Toe Road. He'd dropped down, much to the excitement of
dozens of children, in playgrounds, check out the two most frequented arcades,
the grocery stores, 7-11, and continually circled the Foley's house, hoping to
see Ritchie sprawled out on his bed playing a video game. He'd tried following
the way that Ritchie must have taken home that night, but after a few blocks
had given up. It would be impossible to map out his trail because of the dozens
of possible streets Ritchie could have decided to turn down.
It wasn't that he really believed Ritchie would have ditched school to spend the day at a comic shop. It had never happened before, and Virgil liked to think he would have been invited along, but there was more too it than that. He and Ritchie had been friends since they were seven, and after nine yeas of friendship he knew and understood the mind and habits of Ritchie Foley better then even his own parents did. Which when he thought about it wasn't that surprising.
The Foley's were divorced, and Ritchie's mother had moved to Gotham City to continue her career as a business woman when he'd been nine. She'd even remarried, tying the knot with a tall African-African American man named Alex who she'd met at a company party. Virgil had only met him once. When he talked about her at all, Ritchie would describe her as not being a bad mom, just a distant one.
She hasn't forgotten my birthday yet, Virgil remembered him saying once, but he hadn't been smiling when he'd said it.
His dad worked at an insurance agency in Dakota, but worked so late and so much that five days out of seven you could find Ritchie having dinner with the Hawkins. He was almost a member of the family, and Virgil knew him inside and out. Ditching school just wasn't in his makeup.
It was getting late. The sun had almost finished setting, the sky painted in different shades of orange, red and violet, and if he wanted to keep up his search without having his own father out looking for him then he was going to have to make a quick call home.
He landed in a small alley next to the rec-center with a bump, and pulled off of his costume and mask before heading out onto the street. There was a phone booth on the corner, and as his hands darted into his pockets hunting for change he kept his eye on the doors to the rec-center. A group of kids had just exited, and he could hear their loud chatter from across the street. They were all laughing, some of them punching each other in the shoulder. A couple of the girls were flirting with the guys making excuses to grab their arms or smack them playfully, and in turn the guys were poking the girls or wrapping their arms around their waists to pick them up while the girls gave fake protests. Anything that would allow them brief physical contact with a member of the opposite sex was considered a victory. He recognized a few of them from school, and returned the occasional wave or shout in his direction with a smile that he didn't feel. He hadn't really thought Ritchie would come waltzing out of the rec-center, oh no that would make life too easy, but it would have been nice. He was glad to shut the door of the phone booth, and even happier when he heard his father's voice on the end of the line instead of Sharon's.
"Hey Dad."
"Virgil, nice to finally hear from you. You missed dinner."
Virgil winced at the tone in his father's voice, and could have smacked himself. Unless an excuse was made before anyone cooked, dinner with the family every night was an unspoken rule in the Hawkin's household. His dad was not happy.
"Yeah, I know. I'm really sorry. I was out with some of the guys and we grabbed a pizza. I just sort of lost track of time."
"It's all right Virgil, just don't let it happen again."
"I won't," Virgil said quickly. "Um, dad, I'm going to spend the night at Ritchie's, maybe even hang around the whole weekend. That cool?"
"Oh, so you finally found him then."
Virgil could feel his stomach sink into his knees.
"Yep," he answered praying his voice didn't sound as panicked as he thought it did. "Did Mr. Foley call again or something?"
"A few hours ago actually, seems he couldn't put off leaving any longer. He wanted to make sure that Ritchie knew he wouldn't be back for a least a week and a half. When you two get back have Ritchie call him, let him know he's ok."
"Will do."
"Ok, then have fun."
"I will."
"And Virgil."
"Yeah?"
"Stay out of trouble."
"I will Dad."
He hung up the phone with a sick feeling in his stomach. He hated lying to his father, and it bothered him that in the time he'd become Static he seemed to be becoming better and better at it. Pushing the door open, he shoved his hands into his pockets, trying to look inconspicuous as he headed to the alley to put his costume back on. It wasn't just the lying that was bothering him. The nervous sense of wrongness that he had felt last night was back, and it scared him, but he pushed the feeling violently away. Being paranoid wasn't going to help him find Ritchie.
He'd gone a few miles in the opposite direction of the rec-center, and was flying over one of the seeder parts of Dakota when he heard the shouting.
Scanning the city below him, Virgil saw a girl backed against the wall of one of the corner buildings. A semi-circle of four guys had formed around her, and he dropped lower ready to kick major butt when the girl lunged at her nearest threat. He was too far away to get specifics on what had happened, but the first one she'd grabbed gave a cry and pulled away. When the first one managed to twist away she just went for another, and would have gotten another one too if the remaining guys hadn't bolted.
Pausing to grab something from the ground the girl took off after them, and Virgil followed going low enough so that he could have knock the hat off of one of the kids head if he'd wanted, and as he followed he could feel his mouth dropping open. Below him was a short, willowy Asian girl in blue jeans that had seen better days, and an old black jacket that was so big on her small frame it flapped behind her like a cape, in mad pursuit of a group of four guys, all of whom had a look of terror painted across their faces.
The guys were reaching the end of
the block when the girl stopped, and threw what ever she had held in her hand
at them. The object struck one boy in the back of the head, and he was down for
a moment before managing to scramble back up to his feet and hurry to catch up
with the others.
"Don't come back," The girl shouted in angrily. "I gave you two warnings
already I won't be giving out another."
Grinning now, Virgil dropped the last few feet, stepping off his board and tucking it under his arm before moving out of the shadows to confront her.
"Wow," he said respect in his voice. "I don't know what you did, but you had those guys running for their lives."
The girl spun around her eyes wide. She had a knife in her hand, but upon seeing Static Shock standing in front of her it quickly disappeared. He didn't move to take it from her.
"Nice job getting those grease ball off of you," he said. "Makes my job easier when the damsels in distress aren't so…well, distressed."
She didn't answer, just stared at Virgil with suspicion.
"Are you ok?" he asked his tone softer.
She had a scratch on her cheek, but it didn't look bad, wasn't even bleeding.
"I'm fine," she finally said.
"Do you need to go anywhere," Virgil asked. He made a motion to move closer, and she stepped back quickly. He stopped and put his hands out in an unthreatening manner. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just wanted to know if you wanted me to take you home or something. You may have kicked butt, but it's getting dark."
"Thanks," she said cautiously. "But no. I'm fine."
He nodded, and took a few steps back before opening his board up. Dropping it to the ground he was just about to leave when a lanky Hispanic kid turned the corner. He froze at the sight of Static, and shot a look at the girl.
"Tracy?" he asked.
"It's cool Carlos," The now named girl answered. Her eyes scanned Virgil from top to bottom before meeting his eyes. "It is cool, isn't it Static?"
Virgil was taken back.
"Well, of course it's cool. You're not in trouble I just wanted to make sure you were all right."
He was confused at her reaction. She obviously knew who he was, so why was she acting as though she expected him to jump her at any moment? Stepping onto the board he gave the girl a half hearted smile, trying to look as unthreatening as possible, before taking off in the bust of light that came with his powers. He glanced back once and saw the two of them watching him wearily, suspicion written in their eyes.
After I find Ritchie, he thought. I'm going to spend more time patrolling this neighborhood. If the people around here are even afraid of me then the area must be worse off then I thought.