I feel like I'm on a roll.

I still don't own them... as much as I wish I did.

Richie's POV

Reiko and I spent the next two weeks training and patrolling. She was doing really well, considering I knew nothing of what Virgil did to control his powers. She had control over the disc, and could also fire off some of the same attacks he did, or something close enough.

We got a call from Mr. Hawkins that Virgil would be coming home from the hospital towards the end of the second week. Reiko was happy about that, seeing as she had a hard time controlling the disc and her illusion. She was always tired in class, but at least that kept her from burning out.

That was another thing that confused me. Apparently the metal from the jewelry she had handed me, wasn't from this planet. It didn't really surprise me, there were a lot of things on earth that were from another planet. Superman and the Martian Man Hunter being two big examples. But I didn't know how they got them, and what it all meant.

"Gear look out!" She screamed, in Virgil's voice.

I dodged Ebon's attack, and hit him with a flash grenade. He hated that, and I made sure that he wouldn't come back for a while. Reiko was flying around with Talon, trying to tire her out. She didn't want to hit her now, she was too into the fight, and wouldn't be able to throw something that might not kill her.

I threw another cap, and it caught her in a net. Reiko charged it with a minimal amount of electricity, and dragged it towards the police. She apologized for not capturing Ebon and flew off. I nodded to the policemen, and then took off on the street, in the same direction. It took a moment for me to scan and make sure that Ebon had really gone.

I caught up with Reiko. She had put the hood back up so she could let down some of her kujiri kuri. I still had no idea what it was, except for some sort of ninja mind trick. She had been working for a long time, trying to get it all to work so she didn't have to wear the hood up. I was proud of her, being able to work her strength up in it, to include Virgil's voice along with his looks, and to a point, even how he moved. But she still was pretty weakened by it.

I got to our meeting place before she did, and watched her fly in. She was so graceful. When her feet hit the dirt she jumped, happy. I was so happy for her, she had done great. I was sure Virgil would be happy with her performance too. I watched her, smiling as she seemed to glow, and not with the electricity she posessed, she seemed truly happy for the first time since I had met her.

Without thinking, I had run up to her and grabbed her around the waist twirling her around. She laughed; something I liked to hear as often as possible. With her feet on the ground, I pushed the hood back.

By the time my mind had caught up with my actions, I was kissing her, caressing her jawbone with my thumb, my other hand tangled in her hair. I felt a tingling in my lips, and jumped away. I was very sure that even my hair was blushing.

She looked at me, confused. But not half as confused as I was.

"I'm so sorry Reiko. I don't know what came over me. I wasn't thinking." I gasped.

"For once." She said, looking at the ground for a moment.

She wrapped her arms around my neck, and kissed me. It was as if I had been hit by lightning. I wrapped my arms around her waist, amazed at how she smelled, how she curved. I couldn't think of anything else if I had tried. Her lips tasted wonderful, and were so soft.

After a while we had to come up for air. I stared into her warm dark eyes. I kissed her again lightly, and then rested my cheek on the top of her head. I closed my eyes and my mind kicked into high gear trying to analyze the amount of energy we expended.

"Richie, try not analyzing every facet of life. For once, just enjoy it for what it is, live it like we do. Your brain may be more advanced than our own, but that is not all you are. Take a moment, find out who you are in here, what you really love, aside from trying to figure out how things work." She said, touching my chest, my heart.

"I'll do what I can, Reiko." I said, stroking her hair.

I put a finger under her chin, lifting her face towards mine. She smiled at me. I didn't analyze anything at that moment. I kissed her softly. Breaking away, she removed Virgil's coat and visor. We needed to get out of there before anyone saw us, especially with what we were doing, THAT would be a hard one to explain to Virgil, and half his fan girls. Though it would be hilarious to pretend, if not a tad bit embarassing. Our gear was soon stowed in a bag, and we walked towards the gas station.

I looked down at Reiko, tracing a thin scar along her arm with my finger. She moved slightly in her sleep, her head rested on my lap. I touched the cool metal of her armband, pondering the metal it was made of. I shook my head. She didn't want me to continuously think about what made things, down to a molecular level, just think about being happy. And that was what I was doing right then. I was thinking about how happy I was to have her next to me, and wondering how happy we would be in the future. Something in the back of my mind sent up a red flag, though not well enough to catch my full attention with her there on my lap. Some part of me knew that things couldn't be happy forever.

We were in the gas station. I was still thinking of the wild kisses we shared, not only after the fight, but as soon as we had gotten back to the gas station. Now, a few days later, Virgil was out of the hospital and at home. We had visited him a few times, asking him what he thought.

He had been surprised at first, and happy that he didn't have to spend all that time worrying about his secret identity being uncovered. He was a little depressed afterwards, feeling like he should be out there with us. But we had made him promise to have a full bill of health before he came back to being Static.

I played with Reiko's hair, watching her chest move slowly as she breathed. She was beautiful to me, even in her sleep or after a hard fight. The head band she wore was something she had decorated herself, and accented the graceful features of her face. All of her jewlery was made to accent her skin tone and stature, what was curious was the fact that she wore so much of it. Her father was even now fashioning another piece she would wear, earrings if I remembered correctly. He said it was because her powers seemed to be getting out of control even with the other charms set to stop it.

The door opened suddenly, I turned to see Virgil in the doorway. He was smiling at me, and then saw Reiko. His face took on a sheepish look.

"Ahhh! My eyes! I'm not interrupting anything am I?" He asked, covering his eyes.

"No, she's just tired from today. And the past week or so. Are you sure you should be here?" I asked.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me." Virgil said.

By that time Reiko had woken up, and was looking at Virgil with deep scrutiny. She stood up, pulling her hoodie zip up over her bare shoulders, the gas station was getting cold, and her tank top was pretty revealing. She walked around Virgil, and at one point stopped and stared deeply into his eyes, touching his forehead. She seemed to be listening to something, closing her eyes for a moment, and then opening them once more to peer deeply into his. I was a bit jealous, she had never looked at me like that.

"He'll be fine if he gets a little more rest. His chakra is fully healed, if only a little weak." She said, looking back at me smiling. "I was testing his chakra."

"I didn't know you could do that!" I said.

"It's hard to do. Reiki. I learned much of old fashioned healing and aura. Our people need to know such things, because they are important to our ways of life and a way to keep our power healthy. Not many people know of them. Your friend Robin, his team mate Raven knows of chakra, more than I do no doubt." Reiko said. "Besides, I'm still learning."

She sat down next to me again, ignoring Virgil's look of confusion. He looked at me, and I shrugged. He shrugged and walked towards the tech center, where gadgets lay here and there, unfinished. Backpack was set on standby to charge, and we were listening for an alert about bang babies.

"Looks like a lot happened while I was out of action huh?" He said, looking at me. I nodded.

"I guess so. Does it matter what happens between us?" I asked.

Reiko shook her head.

"No, our business is private. Public has not seen anything, don't worry Virgil." She said.

"I'm not worrying. It's just that I was listening a lot to the nurses that took care of me. They talked about you some Reiko. The whole hospital wonders about you. Not only do you have this abnormal electrical field, and you were really hard to treat, not to mention your injuries heal pretty fast. You need to be really careful from now on." Virgil said.

"What, they think I'm some sort of Kryptonian or something?" She asked.

"No, but it wouldn't surprise me if he decided to pay you a visit. He's stopped by a few times with Batman and the others to check up on us." Virgil said.

"At least I know." She said. "I should probably go home. Chichi-san will want to know where I am."

After she was gone, I looked at Virgil. He was frowning as he watched her. He turned to me, trying to smile.

"Hey V, you know you can tell me the truth, and I won't hate you for it." I said.

"I was just wondering. She took that pretty well. You think maybe she doesn't know, or that maybe she wonders herself?" He asked.

"I dunno. I hadn't thought to do any sort of scan on her." I said.

"That's a change. Not thinking." He laughed.

"I had some help." I said, feeling my face heat up.

"I bet you did." He said. I threw a pillow at him.

"I've been trying to scan some of the jewelry she has worn at some point, but it's difficult. They almost have the same field of energy that surrounds Reiko. I'll break through it in time though." I said.

"As long as you don't get distracted huh?" Virgil asked.

"You jealous V?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, just relieved. It's about time you found yourself a girl." He said.

"Says the one with girl problems." I scoffed. "Hey, you think we should let her join us?"

"The last time a girl joined us, we went back in time and failed to save the one person that really understood me. She barely has control of her powers. Someone could get hurt." Virgil said, seriously.

"You could help her do that. You could train her to use the electricity like you do." I said.

"She's got a different kind. You've said it yourself." Virgil said.

"Yeah, but you've been able to help her before." I said.

"I just don't want people to get hurt, Richie. You know that." He said softly.

"YOU don't want to get hurt again. I know that. I understand. But if someone doesn't help her learn control, she could die!" I shouted at him.

I spun around on him, his mouth gaping open. I probably had gone overboard. Virgil and I hardly ever shouted at one another like this. I was sure he was as surprised as I was that I had shouted, more so since I was turning my back on him. I got on my skateboard and was gone by the time he had reached the door and tried calling me back.

Reiko's POV

I was so happy Virgil was alright. He was wary around me, unsure if he should intrude on the solitude Richie and I had grown accustomed to. I left to let the two friends talk, unsure what they might say, and only hoping that maybe I could help them. But I needed to talk to them.

At school the next day, both avoided me. I was confused, and very hurt. Every time I tried to speak with Richie, he looked at me like he wanted to touch me, and tell me it was alright, but he would look at the ground again, and walk away. And Virgil just looked confused.

I was outside at the end of school that day, watching the sky. It seemed that I was back like I always was, friendless. I was trying to concentrate my powers, trying to use them like I had pretending to be Static. It was becoming easier, but something always seemed to go wrong.

I lay there, feeling drained, and strange. I wanted to cry, not knowing what was going on between Richie and I, or Virgil. Suddenly I was drenched in cold water. I shrieked in surprise, and then felt my arm twisted around behind me. It hurt, but I only let out a small hiss of pain.

"Just like Static. Gets wet and can't do a damn thing." I heard a voice laugh.

I would have laughed myself. Static was weak against water was he? And they thought I was just like him. I would show them just what lightning did during a storm. Energy crackled around my arm, and he went flying backwards. My dress was a bit drier now, the electricity having been enough to start drying it at least. I was a little pissed that the water had been cold, not to mention it didn't help that my dress was not cotton. They were going to see just what you shouldn't do to a girls wardrobe.

I leapt off the bleachers carefully, and saw another group of bang babies. Fire, one with large feet. One with a huge nose. I sighed, getting into a fighter's stance. The weasel like one was easy to get rid of, and fire, he seemed to have a dislike for the way I played with electricity.

"I got rubber on me man. You can't electrocute me!" The Jamaican said.

He jumped, landed where I had been moments before. I spun and kicked. He seemed pretty able and swift. He dodged the attack, and we parried around that way for a little while, trying to get kicks in on one another.

The next thing I knew, I was flying through the air. Right towards the bleachers. I concentrated as hard as I could, creating a sphere of electricity around me. The bleachers bent as if I were a meteor that hit. I stood, leaping to the ground, unscathed. I pitched forward suddenly, my vision blurring. I stumbled to my knees, trying to get up. I clung to a bar in front of me, but couldn't see.

"Seems like those things are working like he said they would. Come on. Let's get her out of here. Static and Gear will be coming for her soon enough. When they do, I want a piece of the action." I heard as everything faded away.

ta daaaaaaa REVIEW! Either that or I'll send my squirrel ninja's to throw nuts at you all... muahahahahahahaha! choke