Episode 2: Birth of the Muse

Note: I apologize that this is a little on the long side. I had a lot to say I guess. Oh, and Sylence to answer your question, I named Precious' last name after a dear friend of mine. He and another one of my friends make a music duo called the Llewellyn Swann Project, so as a tribute I named her Swan Llewellyn. I stole the idea of calling her Precious from my mom. OK, on with the story.

Months passed. Virgil did manage to get a costume together, but then he didn't give the prospective superhero a second thought. The shoebox that housed Magic Hat 2 gathered dust. Richie didn't hear very much from his aunt. So they pretty much forgot all about Precious until a call came out of the blue.

Gear and Static were at the gas station when Richie's cellphone rang. "Hey, I don't think I recognize that ring," Gear thought aloud. "Backpack, cellphone!" The robot gave him his phone. "Hello? . . . Who is this? . . ." Richie sat up straight in his chair, "Hey! How are you? . . . Good. Hey, does your mommy know you're calling? . . . Good. So, what is it? Do you need something? . . . Ok . . . Yeah, Dad told me. I'm looking forward to it . . . He sure is. In fact, he's right here. You want to talk to him? . . . Ok, here he is." Richie handed the phone to Static. "Somebody wants to talk to you."

"Alright." He took the phone. "Yo, wassup?" Nobody spoke. "Hello?"

Then a small voice answered, "Virgil?"

"Yeah?"

"Hello. This is Precious."

"Hey! You're talking! Is this your first phone call?"

"No, it is the ninth."

"Well, I am honored to get your ninth phone call. May I ask why you have given me such a pleasure?"

"Precious is coming with Mommy to see Richie for Christmas."

"Cool."

"Will Virgil be there?"

"Yes he will, I mean, yes I will."

"Can Virgil still do magic?"

"Yeah, I can. Richie and I are going to do our best to teach you a little"

"Ok. Precious will still be Virgil's friend, even if Virgil cannot teach Precious magic."

"I think I need to teach you pronouns first." A pause. "That's a joke."

"Oh. Ha ha!"

Virgil knew she didn't get it, so he changed the subject. "Listen, you know what a secret is, right?"

"S-E-C-R-E-T, knowledge withheld from others."

"Uh . . . yeah. Well, this whole thing with Richie and me teaching you, it's a big secret. You can't tell anyone, not even your moms."

"Why?"

"Ummm . . . we'll explain later."

"Ok. Well, Precious cannot wait."

"It'll be here soon. Alright, bye!"

"Bye-bye!"

Virgil handed the phone back to Richie. "Well, that was nice. Hey Richie, do you think the hat's doing much good?"

"Oh yeah, her progress is astounding. You don't need to worry about the third person thing. A lot of autistic children, if they learn to speak at all, go through a phase early in their verbal development where they only speak in third person. It doesn't last very long."

"It just surprises me. I mean, she's so well read for her age. Why doesn't she use the words that she learned through reading?"

"I think at this point, even though she's familiar with the words, the meaning doesn't really come through. Let me put it this way. Precious has become very comfortable with her name. She knows who 'Precious' is. She does not know who 'I' is. 'I' is a stranger to her, and she does not like strangers. It's just a theory anyway. The whole thing is one of those autism mysteries that nobody really understands."

"I see. Do you think she may not readily accept a superhero identity because of that?"

"Hmmm. Haven't thought about that. She may not understand why we have secret identities. That's just one thing we'll have to teach her. Hey, maybe I could get her interested in comic books. She likes reading, and she likes cartoons. I'm sure she'll love comic books."

"Maybe. Or we could just tell her we're pretending. She's sure to understand that."

"I don't know. Some researchers say that seriously autistic children don't pretend play."

"Well, it's worth a shot."

"So, you think you're ready for this?"

"Yeah, I've thought about it a few times." Just then, Backpack went off with a police bulletin. "Guess that's our cue." They got on the case right away. Neither one of them would admit that they hadn't planned anything at all.


"Richie! How are you? I missed you!" Claire Llewellyn gave her nephew a hug, then noticed the guest with him. "Virgil! This is nice! I see you still have your hairstyle. Good."

"Of course, I wouldn't want to disappoint you, Mrs. L."

"Come in. Sean made hamburgers, and then they got burned so we ordered from Burger Fool," Aunt Claire snickered.

"Claire!" Mr. Foley yelled from the kitchen.

"Just kidding!" she yelled back. Then she turned back and playfully whispered, "You won't be able to tell the difference."

Burger Fool or not, the hamburgers were really tasty. Still, there was a lot of talk going on, mostly about Precious.

"Oh, your invention is working wonders, Richie. Her language skills are really growing every day. It's like she's learning new words all the time. She still doesn't talk much unless she really has something she wants to say. She very seldom speaks unless someone speaks to her."

"Well what do you think of the quality of her speech?" Virgil asked. "Why is she avoiding contractions and pronouns?"

"Dr. Temple told me to expect it. She's more apt to use those shortcuts when she's writing. Her handwriting's almost illegible, though. So I think she's best when she's typing. I almost want to get her a palm pilot or something like that so she can carry it around, but she's so clumsy she'll probably drop it."

"I can try to make you such a device and encase it in rubber," Richie offered.

"That would be nice. Oh, and she likes organizing sentences with those flat word magnets, you know? She does that all the time on our fridge. I gotta tell you guys, she's obsessed with Static. First thing when we got home, she colored a picture of him. I helped her download some pictures of him off the Internet, and we hung them up all around her room, on her door, on the ceiling right above her bed. She told me that she feels safe with them there."

"Does she have any pictures of Gear?" Richie sounded worried.

"You know, it's the oddest thing. We only have one picture of Gear, and he's in the background almost. But I'll tell you this. She searched on her own in all of her photo albums for pictures of you, and she put them all over her bedside table. I guess there is somewhat a resemblance that she would mistake the two."

"Does she have any idea who Static and Gear really are?" Virgil asked.

"She doesn't talk about it. I don't think it matters, because to her they are her first friends. And so are you two of course. It's something else. This is the first time ever that she reacted to anyone like this, including me. But it means so much to her."

Mr. Foley promptly changed the subject. Virgil and Richie finished eating as quickly as they could so that they could talk to the girl. Dark piano music filtered out the door of Mr. and Mrs. Foley's room, where she was staying. Virgil peered in. Precious Swan sat on the bed flipping through a photo album.

"I know what's going on here," Virgil said as he withdrew. "I've seen that look before, on my own face. She misses her pops."

"No kidding?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"Her 'pops' is a sleezeball. He gave up on her, when she needed him most. Look what he did to Aunt Claire."

"Yeah, but she still loves him, man. She doesn't understand. I know it feels bad when a parent is gone forever, but I bet it even feels worse when you know that parent is still out there somewhere and is never coming back."

"He's not worth it, bro. I was thirteen when it happened, old enough to understand everything and to be angry. It may be the only thing Dad and I ever agreed on."

"Well, this is different. She's just a kid, and he's her pops. We should leave her alone for awhile."

Yet as he was speaking, the door opened wider, and an enthusiastic voice cried, "Virgil!"

"What up, girl!" he said giving her a hug.

"You ready to go, Precious?" Richie asked.

"Yes," she nodded.

"OK, I'll get things ready."

He walked on, but Virgil stayed as Precious turned off the CD and put away the photo album. "Precious, are you doing ok? Is there something you want to talk about?"

"No," she said softly.

"You sure? Well, if you ever do want to talk, you can talk to me."

"No," she repeated.

"'Cause I've been down that road before. It's OK."

Precious didn't answer. She walked right by him and gathered some clothes. She went out to her mother who was in the den. "Mommy, can Precious play with Richie and Virgil please?"

"Honey, look at me," Aunt Claire replied, pointed at her eyes.

Precious looked up at her mother and repeated the question in the same tone of voice, as though she were asking for the first time.

"Yes you may, dear." Aunt Claire then looked at Richie. "Take good care of her boys, and if you can, could you let her say hi to Static? He probably won't remember her, but it will mean so much."

"Oh no problem," Richie answered. "She's going to see Static alright."


A nondescript black Mercedes cruised around the interstate just outside of Dakota. It had the bass turned up so that it made other cars shake. Few recognized the song as "The Sopranos" theme.

The little car finally drove up to an overlook and shut down. Five men in business suits walked out. A huge man with shoulder-length, wavy blond hair got out of the driver's seat and pondered the site for a moment, tilting down his shades. "There it is boys," he said in a deep, commanding voice. "Dakota."

"North or South?" one henchmen said in a nasal voice.

"I don't know, Central," another answered with a shrug.

"Shut up," the leader said. "We're going to go down there for some early Christmas cheer, kapish?"

"What?" the right hand man exclaimed.

"You heard me."

"But Big T, this is Dakota. They got four superheroes here: Rubberband Man, Shebang, Gear, and Static. And Static is one of the most formidable superheroes in the U.S. of A."

"And your point is?"

"My point is we're sure to get caught, by a superhero no less! And I've heard that Static's power's aren't pleasant."

"We won't get caught."

"It would be very hard, if not impossible."

Big T laughed a big throaty laugh. "You think that's hard? Oh no, there are things a heck of a lot harder. Get back into the car and plan a strategy. I gotta think."

The others got back in the car. Big T reached into his pocket for a cigarette but instead pulled out a wallet. A picture fell out of the wallet, and Big T picked it up. It was a picture of a happy family--a mother who looked much like Sheryl Crow leaning on the father's shoulder, and the father holding the hand of a small girl with curly brown hair and green eyes that were not looking at the camera.

"Thought I threw all of these away," he thought aloud. "Well, I'll take care of this one."

He pulled out a cigarette lighter and set the picture on fire. He quickly dropped the picture on the ground, got in the car, and drove away.


"This gas station is our headquarters," Richie explained to Precious. "It's where we go to hide before we go out to do magic."

"Oooh," the young cousin said. "Can Precious please go get a candy bar?"

Richie laughed. "It's broken down and closed, Precious. There aren't any candy bars."

"I can get you one later if you really want one," Virgil offered.

"Ok, thank you," Precious nodded.

They took her in. "Alright, the first thing she needs is a costume. Virg, I believe I gave you that delegation."

"That's right. I think I got it back here." Virgil went to the back room. Meanwhile, Precious pulled out a bunch of clothes and held them out to Richie. They were the same colorful clothes she wore when the Metabreed kidnapped her.

"No, honey, we can't use those," Richie said.

"Why? Precious likes these clothes."

"I know, but your mom bought them for you. She'll recognize them. We can't let that happen."

Precious looked at him confused.

"We're going to talk about that later."

"Here it is!" Virgil said. "I'd forgotten that Sharon starred in 'Cinderella' when she was about your age. 'Course, I altered it a little bit. Try it on." He handed her a white dress bedecked with sequins. Precious went into the other room. Once she called for help, and Richie went back. Just a few minutes later, she came back out.

"Oh man, you look like an anime princess!" Virgil said.

"Yeah, you couldn't have done better, V," Richie nodded. "What do you think, Precious?"

"There is no color," she said in a disappointed voice.

"That's where you're wrong. Check this out!" Virgil made a huge ball of light above her, and the sequins bent the light. "See, you're surrounded by rainbows!"

"Oh," Precious said in awe. "Precious likes it!"

"How does it feel?" Richie said. "Is it uncomfortable?"

Precious shook her head.

"Good thinking Rich," Virgil nodded. "The last thing a superhero needs is an itchy costume."

"Superheroes also need something to change into quickly."

"Oh, yeah. We'll work on that."

"And what's a princess without a crown?" Richie said. He got that dust covered shoebox underneath a counter and opened it. "Presenting Magic Hat 2!" He held up the hat. It looked much like his prototype, an upside-down bowl. Only this one was clear, and it had inside one circular glowing tube of color.

"Is that a neon necklace?"

"Yeah. Check it." Richie fiddled with a small knob, and the tube changed colors rapidly. Precious marveled. Richie put it upon her head. There was no way to tell that she was wearing a hat at all, but it looked like she had a halo just above her head.

"Smooth, bro."

"Thanks. Now, all we need is something to conceal her identity. So did you make a mask?"

"Uh . . . actually . . . "

"Virg, that's the most important part of the costume!"

"Well, I was thinking the shades worked so well last time . . . "

"Uh," Precious spoke up. "What is conceal? What is identity?"

"Here we go," Virgil sighed.

"Well, um, 'conceal' means to hide," Richie tried to explain, "and 'identity' is, uh, you."

"Hide and seek? Ok." Precious turned to hide, but Richie grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"No, sweetie. 'Identity' is more like what makes you, you. In this case, it's what you look like. See, we need a disguise. You know what a disguise is, right?"

"D-I-S-G-U-I-S-E, a set of clothes or accessories worn to hide one's likeness."

"Uh, yeah. Well, that's what we need for you. We need something to keep people from telling who you are."

Precious looked shocked and confused. "Why?"

"Oh, that's easy. Because . . . well . . . all heroes need secret identities. That's just the way things work?"

"Why? The Powerpuff Girls do not have to hide. Samurai Jack does not have to hide."

Virgil spoke for Richie, since he was plainly running out of ideas. "Well, the Powerpuff Girls are a special case, and Samurai Jack can take care of himself, what with his swordsmanship. You're not that lucky, Precious. The reason superheroes have secret identities is so that the bad people won't find them. If you let everyone know who you are, some bad guy might find you at your house and kidnap you or exploit you."

"What is exploit?"

"It means using your powers for their own ends. You see?"

Precious didn't look like she did.

Richie stepped back in again. "Precious, you're young, and you can get hurt easily. We just don't want you to get hurt. Ok?"

"Ok." She still looked very confused.

"Think of it this way," Virgil said. "When we get out there and we're doing magic, we're pretending. You know what pretending is, do you?"

"P-R-E-T-E-N-D-I-N-G, giving a false appearance or action intended to deceive."

Virgil lifted an eyebrow and grinned. "Open your mouth. I wanna see if you swallowed a dictionary."

Richie laughed. Precious opened her mouth as wide as she could.

"No, close your mouth. I was just kidding."

"Oh."

"It's not quite as malicious as it sounds. We're just playing make believe, pretending to be something we're not normally. It's sort of like a game. You like games, don't you?"

Precious nodded. "Precious likes Tag, and Candyland, and Clue, and Chutes and Ladders, and--"

"That's good. Maybe we'll play some of those sometime. Anyway, this is like a game, and we want you to play. But here are the rules. When I am in this uniform, do not call me Virgil anymore. I'm Static."

"Yeah," Richie nodded. "And where I wear this helmet, I'm not Richie. I'm Gear. You got it?"

"Static. Gear," Precious said while pointing to each of them respectively.

"Good. Now, we just want need something like that for you, and we need to start by making something to hide your likeness."

"Oh."

Richie turned back to Virgil. "So, back to where we were. I don't think the shades will work. Again, Aunt Claire will recognize them. And I don't think it'll do such a good job of covering her eyes. Just make another mask. It shouldn't be hard."

"Yeah, but the mask as been done and . . . hey, where'd she go?"

"Oh no! She hasn't wandered off again, has she?"

"She must have, bro. I don't see her anywhere. And who is this lovely young lady who took her place?"

It was true. Standing where Precious once stood was a girl in the same dress with the same hat, only with longer, auburn hair. "Precious is right here," she said softly.

"Yeah, we know," Richie smiled. "You sure know how to use that holographic interface. Good job! Hey V, look at this. Even her eye color changed."

Virgil knelt down and saw that her eyes had indeed turned from green to gold. "Yeah, even your moms wouldn't recognize you. You sure catch on quick," Virgil said.

Precious smiled and nodded.

"Now, this the fun part. We need a cool superhero name for you."

"I got one!" Richie said. "How about Rain Girl?"

"Rain Girl?"

"It's a tribute to 'Rain Man!' Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, it's a good movie! It's what first taught me about . . . "

"I don't know. People might think her powers have to do with water and will get her confused with Aquamaria or . . . Storm."

"Oh, good point."

"Hey, she likes magic so much. How about Witch?"

"That will definitely set a bad precedent."

"Oh. Then maybe Sorceress? Or maybe since she's under our wings, Apprentice Sorceress?"

"That's kinda a mouthful, don't you think?"

"We can call her A.S. for short!"

"I don't think so. Let's see, who was girl from Harry Potter 5?"

"Luna Lovegood?"

"Yeah, why not Luna? That kinda rolls off the tongue."

"I think that's already taken by someone in Japan."

"Oh. Well . . . how about--"

"Muse."

The boys both looked at Precious. "What was that?" Virgil asked.

"Muse," she repeated.

Virgil started shaking his finger enthusiastically. "That is good. That is real good. That's better than good, that's it! That's the name, right there! The Muse! I love it! It's perfect!"

"I don't get it," Richie said shaking his head.

"Don't you remember reading 'The Odyssey' in advanced English? It started with an invocation of the muse, like all epic poems do. Muses were goddesses of inspiration, of creativity. They could make people think things. Whatever they sang was set in stone. People thought their songs could actually make things happen!"

"You pay attention in English?"

"Hey, my ultimate namesake was one of those epic writers. I'm expected to keep up with these things."

"Ok, well how'd she know about that?"

"I don't know. I wouldn't doubt that she read an epic or two, she being so advanced in her reading."

Precious responded by handing Virgil a book.

"Hmmm, 'Song of the Muse' by Owen Summers," Virgil read on the cover. He turned it over. "'In a world built on imagination, complacency and nightmares are beginning to take over. It is up to the inhabitants of the dream world, the muses, to stop the darkness from spreading and save the world from losing their will to dream forever.' Cool. So, you're saying that you want to pretend to be one of those people?"

Precious nodded.

"That is awesome. As a superhero, that's what you do! You're really starting to get the hang of this."

"Wait," Richie interjected. "If that's the case, wouldn't it be copyright infringement?"

"No, because muse's have roots back in classical literature, which is always in public domain."

"Oh. Well, if Precious likes it, than Muse it is. Now, the next item of business is transportation. Static and I both fly, and there's no way she's going to keep up with us if she doesn't fly."

"Muses were goddesses, and gods and goddesses were notorious for appearing out of nowhere. Maybe you could put in the Magic Hat a transporter of some sort."

"V, molecular transportation is number one on my list of things that I want to discover but even with my genius it would take a while. You think maybe you could rig up something with her powers?"

As they continued to argue, Precious closed her eyes. "Magic," she whispered. Suddenly, two large, colorful butterfly wings appeared out of her back.

"That'll work," Virgil remarked.

"I don't know. They are just holograms. There's no guarantee they would actually catch wind, or that she could control them."

"Only one way to find out, bro."

So they stepped outside. "Alright, Muse, show us what you got!" Virgil and Richie continued to encourage her. She concentrated and was able to make them move and flap. Slowly, her feet rose off the ground. The boys applauded. Three minutes, and she didn't move from her spot.

"She needs to be caught in a draft," Richie observed. Just about when he said this, a gust of wind blew in. It hit her wings back, and she flew into a wall. "Yeah, they're just too flimsy. They weren't meant to hold an eight-year-old. What she needs is a pair of wings along her arms, like Talon's. You remember that bird girl, don't you Precious? Good, try that."

Large, golden feathers grew along her arms. She flapped them and got high in the air. Yet when she got too high, she yelped in pain. The wings disappeared. Virgil caught Precious in midair. The girl started rubbing her upper arm. "You got a cramp in your arm?" he asked her.

Precious nodded.

"Hey, I got an idea." He whispered something to her, and she nodded. He put her down. Precious concentrated really hard and two large, white, feathered wings appeared for her.

"Really completes the illusion, don't you think?" Virgil said aloud. "What are you waiting for girl? Try them out!"

Precious looked up to the sky. The wings slowly began to move and made a lovely "Swoosh, swoosh!" sound. She climbed high above the ground, above the clouds. Virgil and Richie flew up to her. Precious' face was filled with wonder and joy.

"Girl, look at you!" Virgil said.

"You're flying, all by yourself!" Richie said. "Good for you! I'm so proud of you!"

"Yeah, I bet your pops would be kicking himself if he knew what he was missing!"


On the other side of town, a nondescript black Mercedes pulled in the back of a bank parking lot. "You all know what to do," Big T whispered to his gang. They nodded and broke up.

Big T went into the bank and toward the first counter he saw open. "May I help you sir?" a young woman asked politely.

"Good afternoon, ma'am," Big T answered. "How are you?"

"Well, sir."

"Is your Christmas going well?"

The woman looked mildly offended. "Sir, I'm Jewish."

"Oh, my apologies. I have every respect for your people, ever since Adam Sandler released that song of his. All of those celebrities, who would have thought? So, how are your eight crazy nights?"

"Very well, sir. Now, can I help you?"

"Oh, yes actually. I just came to make a little withdrawal."

He slipped a slip of paper to her. She nodded and put in his information. "Sir, I'm sorry. You're not in this computer. Are you sure you're with this branch?"

"Oh, what do you mean? Do I not have an account here?"

"It doesn't appear so, sir," the lady replied showing her the computer screen.

"Well then, you're just going to have to get it out of someone else's."

"Sir, you know I can't do that," the lady said as she continued to type into the computer. When she looked back at him, he had a gun pointed at her head, as did five other men.

"Well, I know you can't legally, but I'm afraid I'm not leaving you with much of a choice. How's this for a crazy day?"


"Now, this what we do," Gear explained. "We try to find people who've done wrong who need to be punished. We just try to stop them until the cops come. So here's what we want you to do. When we go off to fight someone, you just try to help, especially if we're in trouble. Use anything that comes to mind, but don't hurt them too seriously, and don't harm the innocent. Got it?"

The Muse nodded.

Gear motioned to Static. "I was thinking, this is her first go around. Let's start her off with something quick and easy. In other words, no metahumans."

"You sure? I don't think non-metahuman crimes occur much in Dakota anymore, thanks to us."

Just then, Backpack went off. "Well, that sounds like one right there. Let's go."

"Ready Muse?"

"Yes Static."

"Alright. Let's do this thing!"

The three of them took to the sky. The Muse flew behind them, as though she was having trouble keeping up. Gear constantly checked behind his shoulder as Static listened to the police radio.

"OK, we got a bank robbery by a wanted gang headed by a guy who calls himself Big T. Oh man, they're armed. Gear, are you sure this is a good idea?"

Gear didn't sound like he was listening. "Big T? No, it's gotta be a coincidence."

"Gear, I'm talking to you!"

"Oh, uh, we'll do our best to protect her."

"We better just hope that our best is good enough. Look, there they are, trying to make their getaway. Let's--"

"OH GOOD NIGHT!"

"What's wrong, Gear?"

Richie pointed to the gang. "You see that big guy in the front? That's Uncle Rex. He always called himself Big T, you know, identifying with the dinosaur."

"I see." Virgil put his hand on his best friend's shoulder. "Well, if you don't want to fight him, I'll understand. I won't hold it against you. Just leave him to me."

Richie looked up at him and glared. "Are you kidding?" he asked through gritted teeth. Then he pushed Virgil out of the way. It was by then that the Muse caught up.

"Come on," Static said grabbing her hand. "We'll get the others." Static started by sending a large bolt of electricity toward their getaway car. That made the steel part of the car magnetized to the pavement and caused the car to cave in over its tires. "Gives a new meaning to 'when the rubber meets the road,' doesn't it?" Static quipped.

The gang members responded by firing their guns. The Muse cringed, and the bullets suddenly turned into flowers, and the guns disappeared.

"I don't blame you. I don't like guns either," Static muttered.

"They are too loud," the Muse answered.

"What is that, an angel?" the gang members were asking each other. "If it is, we're in trouble."

They charged toward the two heroes. Static got most of the gang members with his static cling. The Muse created a barrier to keep them from coming too close and kept them occupied with some erratic holograms.

Meanwhile, Gear had called Big T out and was fighting him tooth and nail. "Robbing the bank was pretty bad, but I know something you did that was a hundred times worse! You're paying for both crimes!"

"Awe man, he knows about the Chicago job!" the right hand man said.

"Shut up!" Big T yelled. "I'm going to make it a little harder for you." He grabbed Backpack and started wresting with it until he had it subdued. It seemed every other high tech trick Gear had, Big T had a way to fight it. Finally, they were only fighting mano a mano, and Big T was winning that by a long shot.

Static wasn't sure if the Muse was related to Big T or not, but he was doing his best to keep her away from him. Yet when their battle was starting to wind down, she turned around and saw him for the first time. She abandoned her fight entirely and started walking toward Big T as if in a trance. She stood and stared at the gang leader.

"Daddy," she whispered.

Big T heard her speak, but he wasn't sure what she said. He turned around and saw her. "What do we have here? An angel, huh? There's no need to talk to me. I know what the crowd up at your place thinks about me. I just don't care."

"Well, that's just about got it," Static said. "Way to go, Muse. Muse? Muse, where did you--oh no." He had just turned around and saw her so transfixed in front of Big T. It didn't take him long to add two and two.

The Muse closed her eyes, and her wings slowly disappeared. Big T smirked. "Lost your wings, huh? Coming to me made you a fallen angel, didn't it? Well don't worry." He pointed a gun at her. "I can ring a few bells to get them back for you."

Muse was shaking like a leaf. Her disguise began to fade.

"NO!" Gear got up off the ground and pushed the Muse out of the way. "Don't you remember what we told you? You can't reveal your identity to anyone!"

"But that's Da--"

"NOT ANYONE!"

"But--"

"Muse, please understand. I'm doing this for your good."

"NO! PRECIOUS WANTS DADDY! PRECIOUS WANTS DADDY! OUT OF THE WAY!"

She started crying, kicking, and screaming. Crazy holograms of chaotic shapes burst out from her and forced Gear back. The Muse started running toward Big T, but then an electric jolt stopped her.

Static stepped in front of her. "Listen, you can't be a superhero if you don't learn how to control yourself. No, don't move. We got to talk." He lowered his voice. "Look, I know that's your pops, and I feel terrible that this happened. But you gotta understand. He did something wrong. He took something that didn't belong to him without asking. It's something very valuable called money. I know you don't understand what that is, but people need it. We gotta punish him. He broke the law, and we have to send him to jail. You never know. He might learn his lesson and will straighten up and fly right. He might even come home and be a good father again. But we gotta do this. Here, if it hurts you too much, you can just leave him to me."

"NO! LET THE MUSE GO! THE MUSE CAN DO THIS!"

She freed herself from the static cling. Big T, meanwhile, was not sure at all what was going on. He started trying to make a getaway. The Muse flew in front of him again.

"Can't get enough of me, huh?" he smirked

The Muse, still crying, stretched her arms out in front of her. She stared into her father's eyes. "Magic," she whispered. She threw her arms out again, and the darkness came.

It surrounded everything in a matter of seconds. The darkness was so thick, no light could penetrate it. The Muse's halo winked out. Static tried to create a source of light with his powers. He could feel the tingle of his powers in his fingertips, but no light came from it. It wasn't long though, that Static realized that the darkness of the darkness was the least of his worries. For the darkness was heavy with strong feelings of despair, loneliness, and anger. Virgil could hear voices echoing throughout the darkness.

"Look. How many times do I have to go through this with you? I'm late because I'm late, OK? For once, I just want to come home without getting the third degree."

"How do you think I feel?"

"Oh, please. Here we go again . . . Well, what do you want me to do about it?"

"For once, be a father!"

"You think I don't even try, do you? How can I be a father to that?"

"What? How dare you call your daughter--"

"She's a freak! There's nothing I can do for her! She's broken! I can't fix her . . . I'm getting outta here. You misnamed her. She's not Precious; she's junk!"

Then Virgil heard other voices, voices he knew, conversations her remembered, booming all around him.

Frieda: Can you believe what happened in New York?

Daisy: We've been attacked! What's going to happen to us? All those people . . .

Virgil: Why wasn't I there? I could have done something . . .

Richie: Well you got what you wanted, Dad! I just lost my best friend thanks to your stupid racism! I HATE YOU!

Pops: Virgil, there's something I need to tell you. Moms is . . . gone.

Virgil: You're not saying she's--

Pops: I'm sorry son.

Virgil: NO!

Sharon: I miss her too, but she's in Heaven now.

Virgil: BUT I WANT HER HERE!

About this time, the darkness began to roll out. Virgil felt a tear going down his cheek, but it was nothing like what the Muse and Big T were going through. The poor girl was sobbing uncontrollably, and the man was on his knees motionless with his head bowed. He looked numb to the whole world.

"What have we done, man?" Static asked Gear.

"We've created a monster," Gear muttered back.

"I'd say the monster created her."

Gear nodded. Static walked up to the mob boss and did static cling. "Just in case he tries to get away. Something tells me he won't be moving for a while anyway."

"Let's go home," Gear whispered to the Muse.

But she pushed him away and started walking toward Big T. Gear tried to hold her back, but she persisted. She knelt down and whispered, "Don't try to fix me. I'M not broken." Then she got up and returned to Gear. So the three of them flew away.


Precious ran into her mother's arms, crying. "Oh my goodness, what is it?" Aunt Claire said.

"Sorry, Mrs. L.," Virgil answered. "We saw something on the way home that kinda shook her up."

"What could that be?"

"You haven't heard?" Richie replied.

"I've been talking to Maggie all afternoon. Has something happened?"

"Turn on the TV. There's something you need to see."

Richie's mom turned on the TV, and Shelly Sandoval was on a live shot. "A bank robbery has just been averted thanks to Static Shock, Gear, and another mysterious force. At roughly 4:00 today, Dakota's favorite superheroes captured a notorious gang of thieves wanted in seven states. This gang works as an unofficial Mafia. They are led by Rex Llewellyn, who calls himself Big T."

"Oh no! Rex! What have you done with yourself?" Aunt Claire began to cry as well. She made other comments, but they were intelligible as she wailed. Richie's mom also began to cry. Somehow, though, Virgil managed to hear the rest of the report.

"Yet no one completely understands how Big T was captured. An angel like creature appeared before him and surrounded the area with darkness for about three minutes. Eyewitnesses say this was no ordinary darkness for it was thick with a feeling of depression."

A civilian: "I haven't felt that down since the September 11 attacks, and I couldn't explain it."

Another civilian: "I couldn't help but think of dementors, from the Harry Potter books you know? They suck the happiness out of you and make you feel like you'll never be happy again."

"Fortunately, most people recovered from the attack, but everyone is bewildered by the effect. Llewellyn meanwhile is shell-shocked and refuses to talk to authorities. Unfortunately, all we have available of the event are a few frames from the outdoor security camera. You can see here that Static and Gear interacting with the angel, but it is unclear if they are merely speaking to her or trying to restrain her, as though they know what will come. Many are unsure if this is a new bang baby superhero or something more."

Curbside Prophet: "God sent His angel from Heaven to reveal to this poor, lost soul His deep sorrow that he has strayed from the straight and narrow. He encourages all of us to repent and turn back to Him."

"Whoever this new force is, she has not stayed for comment and neither have Static or Gear. Llewellyn is in Dakota State Prison where he awaits to be transferred to--"

Virgil turned around and noticed that Richie and Precious were gone. Virgil found Richie in his room, lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

"You ok, Rich?"

"I don't know. I'm thinking."

"I see. Man, I didn't realize how deeply the Muse's attack had affected people. I know it hit me really hard, but I've been through a huge tragedy."

"I'm not surprised, really."

"What do you mean?"

"This is what I think she did. She exposed a huge wound in her heart. It's human nature to respond to that kind of pain with your own sorrow. Remember September 11? Neither one of us knew anyone in New York, but we felt terrible. It never seemed to go away."

"You got a point. Don't you think it was too strong?"

"I don't know. In my opinion though, at least for me, it was a good thing."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It showed me more about Precious. See, some psychologists believe that autistic people are incapable of processing emotions. I always thought that Precious would never been anything more than a robot. Now I see that's not true with her. She does feel emotions, very deeply. And I feel horrible for holding so much hate for Uncle Rex for so long."

"By the way, did you hear what she said to him? She used first person pronouns."

"That means nothing really. She was just quoting a line from a song or a book or something."

"Yeah, but still. She was using it in a way to make it fit the situation. I thought that was interesting."

Richie sat up. "Come on, Virg. We need to talk to her."

"Yeah, I guess we do."

Precious was sitting beside a computer, her head buried in her arms as she continued to cry.

"Hey Precious," Virgil said. "Can we talk to you a little bit?"

She looked up and nodded as she turned the music down.

The three were silent for a while, and the two boys only stuttered a little bit as they struggled for the words to say. "We are so sorry you had to go through that the first time," Richie finally managed to say.

"Yeah, we know how deep the pain goes," Virgil added. "I mean, you showed us all."

"Precious did not mean to," the girl answered. "Precious just wants Daddy back, but Daddy will not come back!"

She cried harder. Virgil hugged her. "Girl, I'm feeling ya. I can't tell you how much I'm feeling ya."

She looked up at him. "Daddy will not change. Precious could feel him fighting back. Daddy felt angry and mean."

"There's still might be hope for him yet. It's happened before."

"I'm sure you came through and made something crack," Richie said. "I don't think he'll be the same. I know it's been a lot for you, and I think we both would understand if you don't want to do this anymore."

Virgil looked up at him in shock. Richie shrugged. But Precious looked at Richie, wiped her tears, and said, "I have to."

The guys were too shocked to say anything. She pulled out of her pocket the same book she had shown Virgil earlier. She turned to a page near the end and pointed to a paragraph. Virgil nodded and read it aloud:

"'"I understand how you feel," replied King Oberon. "My wife was taken by the nightmares into Incubus. I grieve for her every day. Yet I cannot allow my grief to hinder my fight. Think of all the children who will never dream again if we are idle. I cannot, I will not, allow any other muses in my kingdom to suffer Titania's fate."'"

"I cannot stop just because Precious feels sad," Precious explained. "The nightmare still lives, and I have to help stop it. I am the Muse."

Richie gave her a hug. "Oh Precious, I'm so proud of you. You really understand what this is all about. And listen, I don't want you to ever believe what your father said. You are Precious. You are unbelievably precious."

"Yeah," Virgil nodded. "I know your Father thinks so."

"But Daddy--" Precious began to say.

"I'm talking about your real Father . . . uh, Big Pops."

Precious smiled a little. "God?"

"Yeah. You'll always be Precious to Him."

"Oh yes, that's right."

"You know, a lot of people thought you were an angel out there."

Precious smiled even bigger.

"They might be a little intimidated by you after that attack," Richie noted.

Virgil gestured to Precious. "And 'intimidated' is--"

"I-N-T-I-M-I-D-A-T-E-D, filled with fear, timid."

"She is good. I'm going to call you next time I have an English paper."

"Yeah," Richie nodded. "Anyway, I think you're going to be great. We'll give you a little time to cope with this situation. Just let us know when you're ready."


It took a couple of days. Aunt Claire went to visit Big T in prison. Richie did not go into detail about how that went, but Virgil was under the impression that it did not go well. Somehow, he wasn't surprised that Precious was ready to get back to work the next day.

Static and Gear took the Muse on patrol with them. It was uneventful until Hotstreak jumped in front of them. "Hey Flyboys, catch this!" He threw a fireball toward them, but they dodged it.

"It's all you, Muse!" Gear said.

The Muse came closer. "Oh good," Hotstreak said with a grin. "I always wondered what fried angel wings taste like." He threw another ball toward her, but she blew a small puff of air. The fire went out like a candle.

"Did you make a wish?" Static snickered.

The Muse nodded.

Hotstreak looked unnerved, but he smirked, "No problem. More where that came from." Yet when he tried to make another one, all that came out of his fingers was smoke. "Hey. You put me out!"

"Good wish," Static nodded. He used his static cling to freeze Hotstreak to the wall.

"You know, some things don't blow away so easily," a voice said behind them. The heroes turned around to see Puff. She blew a cloud of acidic gas toward the Muse, but the Muse closed her eyes and waved her hand. The cloud became more solid. The Muse caught it with her hand and began to eat it.

"Thank you," she said meekly.

"What the heck?" Puff said.

Gear took a taste. "Wow Puff. You never told us you had a cotton candy attack."

"Man, I'm off my game. Hang on, let me try a practice." She breathed toward a fire hydrant, and it spewed water at her. "Why do I keep doing that?" she thought aloud before it doused her.

About that time, the paparazzi showed up and bombarded the three superheroes. The Muse seemed rather nervous around such a crowd and hid behind Gear. Then Shelly Sandoval came forward. "Hello there," she said gently. "Would you like to be on TV?"

The Muse smiled and nodded. "Ok," she said softly.

"Yeah, she could," Static said, "but do you mind if we do most of the talking? She's a little shy."

"Oh, do you know her well?" the reporter asked.

"We're . . . relatively close," Gear replied.

"We're on in ten!" the cameraman announced.

"OK, good." The reporter stood in place until the cameraman pointed to her. "Well, it seems Dakota has realized its fifth superhero. The mysterious angel from a few days ago has joined Static and Gear on their afternoon patrol. So, what's your name?" Shelly pointed the microphone to the new superhero.

"It's, uh, Muse," she replied.

"Oh, so it's amusing? What is it?"

"No," Static replied laughing. "She's the Muse, you know like from classical mythology."

"How clever. Now, do you plan to stay partners with Static and Gear?"

"Actually," Gear answered, "she's not from Dakota, so she's a come and go hero."

"Oh really? Then she's not a Bang Baby?"

"Nope. She's special on her own."

"Can you comment on the attack she made on Llewellyn the other day?"

"Oh, she had a history with him, and she was just shocked and upset that he had chosen a life of crime. She couldn't keep her attack from reflecting how she felt about the meeting. She really did not mean for it to be so strong. I wouldn't expect such an attack from her anytime soon."

"I see. Then what are her powers?"

"We're not completely sure ourselves," Static answered. "We know it's something mental. It's one of those things that once you have it figured out, she keeps surprising and amazing you."

Gear hastily added, "She's unlike any superhero you've ever seen before and with any luck unlike any superhero you'll ever see again."

"What makes her so special?"

"Because she's--"

Static quickly broke in, "I think that remains to be seen."

"You heard it here first. I'm sure we'll have much to see from the Muse in the days to come. I'm Shelly Sandoval, back to you." She turned back to the superheroes. "Thank you very much."

As the news crew left, Gear motioned to Static to talk privately. "Why didn't you let me tell her?"

"Well I was thinking, it's probably best to leave that a secret."

"But the people out there, they gotta know so they're understanding what they see!"

"Do they have to? I mean, look at Superman. Once everyone in the world knew he's vulnerable to Kryptonite, every supervillain had to get a piece of it. But in this case, if we're careful maybe the Muse's greatest weakness could also be her greatest strength. None of the other metahumans know about her disability. Maybe her behavior will confuse and intimidate them."

"Oh, I see what you're getting at. OK, we'll try it. But if they get too rough, we're telling."

"And another thing. Even if we were just telling the good people out there about it, they'd just feel pity for her, and SHE DON'T NEED NO PITY!"

"Good point. And I guess the more we keep this under wraps, the less likely Aunt Claire will discover it."

"Now you're getting it."

"Yeah. Well, let's go."


Christmas was just a few days later. Precious got a lot of good presents. She held a hand knit sweater up to her chin. "Thank you, Uncle Sean. Thank you, Aunt Maggie."

"And this is from me," Richie said handing her a gift. Precious tore the package open to find a box full of comics.

"Oooh, these books are new. They're colorful"

"They're comic books. And guess what? When you go home, I'm going to mail you more."

"Oh, good."

"Are you sure about that, son?" Mr. Foley asked. "Some of those are still in decent condition. If you held on them a little longer, they'll get you a lot of money one day."

"That's not important to me, Dad," Richie answered. "I think it's more important to share something with my cousin that I like. You know, so we might have something to talk about. Besides, since she likes Static and Gear a lot, she needs to understand more what they do."

"Okay."

After everything was through, Precious went up to her room to play with a new doll. Just as she got settled, there was a knock at the window. Static was waiting outside. "Ho ho ho!" he said in a Santa Claus voice. "Can you let me in here, little girl? The chimney's a little narrow."

Precious giggled as she opened the window.

"Aha!" Static said in his normal voice as he came in. "You laughed! I knew you had a sense of humor in you." Richie came in the room too and joined them. Static handed Precious a small gift. "This is from Gear and me."

Precious opened it. It was a walkie-talkie like device with purple and gold stripes. "What is it?"

"It's the one part of your costume we forgot," Richie explained. "It's called a Shock Box. Static and I use it to communicate. Also if we ever get separated, we can use the signal coming from your Shock Box to track you."

"It works long distances too," Static explained. "One time I called Richie from my Shock Box when I was all the way in Africa."

"Static went to Africa?" Precious exclaimed. "What was that like?"

"It was cool! I gotta tell you about that sometime."

"So when you go home, if you ever feel like you need to talk to us, feel free," Richie said. "Just make sure you keep it a secret."

"OK," Precious nodded.

"So when will she be in town again?" Static asked Richie. "Easter?"

"Actually, I think for Easter I'm going to her place. Maybe you could come with?"

"No, it's tradition for the Hawkins clan to meet Grams in Tupelo."

"Well, I'll try to convince Aunt Claire for her to stay for the summer."

"Hey, that would be good."

"Excuse me," Precious said quietly. "Could Precious please take my costume home?"

The guys just looked at each other for a moment. Then Richie said, "I think you first need to practice with us a little more."

"Awwwe."

"I know, but this is going to take some work. Soon you're going to be fighting battles that have nothing to do with the superhero business, and I think you'll have your hands full. Besides, we're a team, and we gotta be together."

"That's right," Static said. "Here Muse. Make a fist."

The three of them all made a fist and gently hit the knuckles on the side and then on top.

Next Episode: Little Rascals--The Muse is kidnapped again, this time by some folks who really do mean well. They don't realize that if Static and Gear don't find her in time, her mind might be lost forever.