Here it is, the second chapter in Static's story.
After making a name for himself by taking down the Shocker, Virgil now finds himself against a slightly tougher opponent in the form of Hotstreak...
Chapter 2
Freeman Community Center, Brooklyn, NY
Lana looks at the building and takes a deep breath. There's a reason why she is here. Throughout most of her teenage life she used to aid her mother, Lori Baumgartner, on a series of robberies as the super crime duo known as the Bombshells. After a run-in with Supergirl, one of the world's newer heroes, Lana and her mother's latest heist ended up being a bust, and it resulted with her mother doing time while Lana on the other hand got off easy since she's technically a minor. The authorities had chalked up her criminal activity as "bad parental influence," and the young brunette was only sentenced with a year of community service. To help with her sentence, Lana's parole officer insisted she goes to the Freeman Community Center where they can give her a job. The former criminal enters the building and she approaches a blonde haired lady, who looks like she's in her mid-thirties, at the front desk.
"Excuse me," she says.
The woman at the desk stops what she was doing and looks up.
"Hi, I was told by my parole officer to come here because you guys were gonna help me with my community service. Frank Quaid is the name of my parole officer by the way."
The lady at the desk looks through her computer for a moment and sees a name pop up, "You're Lana Baumgartner right?"
Lana nods.
"Okay, just have a seat over there, and someone will be out to speak with you."
The young brunette sits down on one of the chairs near the entrance and waits for someone to show up.
A couple of minutes have passed and she hears a deep voice call out her name, "Lana Baumgartner?"
Lana perks up and sees a large African American man with glasses, short dark hair and a neatly trimmed mustache. He wears a grey sweater vest with a white dress shirt and a red tie underneath, complete with dark dress pants and dress shoes.
The man gives the former criminal a friendly smile, "Follow me."
The two approach a small office where the man sits down at his desk.
He makes a gesture to a chair in front of his desk, "Go ahead, take a seat. It's not gonna bite."
Lana softly smiles at the man's humor and sits down.
"So, I guess I can start by introducing myself," the man says as he takes out his hand. "I'm Robert Hawkins. I'm one of the people who run this place."
"Hawkins?" Lana thought as she shook Robert's hand. "Could he be related to Virgil?"
"Not very talkative are you?" Robert chuckles.
Lana also chuckles, "I guess I'm not really a people person. I've only been in school for about a couple of weeks and I only made one friend."
"You've been attending school. That's good. If you don't mind me asking what school do you go to?"
"Oh, um…Midtown High. It's in Queens."
"Ah, NOW I know who you are. You're one of Virgil's new friends."
Lana's eyes widened in realization, "Y…You're Virgil's dad."
Robert nods, "That I am, and you must be that cool girl from school my son keeps telling me about."
Lana blushes at that comment, "I…I take it he's mentioned me."
Robert chuckles again, "Almost all of our dinner conversations involve you being brought up from time to time. It would usually get on Sharon's nerves whenever she's there. You left quite an impact on that boy."
Lana's face is now beat red and she moves a lock of her hair behind her ear, "Yeah well, he sure left an impact on me."
"Wouldn't surprise me. I bet part of the reason why you're here right now is because of him."
The young brunette looks down at her lap and doesn't say anything, eliciting a small laugh from Virgil's father.
"There's no need to be ashamed, Virgil always likes to bring out the best in people. He gets that from his mother."
"I really am looking to turn over a new leaf Mr. Hawkins. I no longer want to be the person I once was."
"And I believe you," Robert says in a reassuring tone. "If my own son is willing to give you a chance, then so will I. You want to help people am I correct?"
Lana nods.
"Well, there's a homeless shelter just down the street that has a job opening. There you can do all kinds of tasks like handing out food, supplies, the works."
"Fine by me."
"Alright, I'll just give them a call and let them know you'll be coming there to work for them. You can start first thing tomorrow…when you're done with school of course."
Lana smiles, "Thanks Mr. Hawkins. I won't let you down."
Robert smiles back, "You're very welcome Lana, anything for a friend of my son's. By the way, my daughter will be coming over next Friday to have dinner with me and Virgil. You're welcome to come over and eat with us if you like."
"I'll be there," Lana says as she shakes Robert's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Hawkins."
Bombshell lands on a rooftop and sees Static sitting on the edge. His right hand, that's generating electricity, is stretched out and he is bobbing his head to "Buzzin by Mann". The brunette girl couldn't help but smile in amusement as she walks over and sits beside him.
"Yo Lana, check it. I'm a human MP3 player," Static says with excitement.
"I can see that," Bombshell says with a chuckle. "I take it you're getting a kick out of your new powers."
"Like you wouldn't believe. So how's your community service coming along?"
Bombshell bites her lip, "Well…I met your dad."
Static puts his hand down and looks at his friend in shock, "You did?"
The former criminal nods, "Apparently he runs the community center in this neighborhood. He gave me a job at a homeless shelter down the street, and he invited me over for dinner next Friday."
The electric metahuman nods but then looks back over to her in shock again, "He invited you over for dinner next Friday?"
Bombshell nods again.
Static groans, "Aw hell, that means Sharon's gonna be there."
"She's your sister right?"
"*sigh* Unfortunately."
Bombshell giggles, "I'm sure she not TOO bad."
"No, but she do be working on my nerves. Man, she's probably gonna try and embarrass me in front of you."
Bombshell now grins, "Ooh, does this mean I'm going to learn all of your deepest, darkest secrets?"
"God, I hope not. She's probably gonna bring her new boyfriend who she's living with too."
"Boyfriend?"
"Yeah, some music producer or something. I kinda feel bad for the guy, probably having to wake up every morning with her singing Alicia Keys songs in the bathroom…terribly I might add."
"…I like Alicia Keys," Bombshell mutters.
At a local convenience store, the store clerk, who's in his fifties, is counting the money in his register when he sees a young man with red and blonde hair walk inside. The boy walks over the aisle where the beverages are and takes out a bottle of Yoo-Hoo. He then proceeds to walk out without paying for it.
The clerk speaks up, "Um, excuse me young man, if you think you can just walk out of here without paying for that, you're mistaken."
The teen looks over his shoulder at the store clerk and smirks, "You want me to give you something for this drink. Fine, I'll give you something." He starts to form a fireball in his other hand, and the store clerk looks on in horror.
Static and Bombshell continue to sit on the rooftop when Static begins to pick up a radio signal from a random police scanner.
"There's an explosion at a convenience store in Park Avenue. A young Caucasian male with red hair and blonde streaks was seen coming out of it drinking a bottle of Yoo-Hoo. According to the clerk, the boy has powers as he can shoot fireballs from his hands. Proceed with caution, he could be extremely dangerous."
The two teens look at each other.
"Duty calls," says Static.
The police had arrived and they had the flaming boy cornered.
"Lie down on the ground with your hands over your head," yells police captain Jean DeWolfe
"I've got a better idea," says the boy as he shoots a fireball at a police car, causing it to explode.
Some of the officers that were near the car managed to get out of the way in time.
"It's no good Captain," says a random male police officer. "There's no way we can stop this guy."
"We're not trying to stop him Ramirez," explains Captain DeWolfe. "We're just simply stalling."
Officer Ramirez raises an eyebrow, "For what?"
"Anybody else want a piece of me?" the fire boy rhetorically asks.
"Hey Smokey, how about taking ME on?" a random male voice responds.
The fire boy looks to his left and sees Static flying towards him on a trash can lid.
Captain DeWolfe sees this and smiles, "For more backup."
"Who the fuck…" the fire boy asks before he starts to shoot fireballs at Static to which the electric metahuman gracefully dodges them.
"So who are you supposed to be? The human furnace?" Static jokingly asks. "You can be very useful during the winter when someone has a busted up heater."
The fire boy growls, "The name's Hotstreak, and you're gonna wish you weren't talking shit about me."
Static uses his electricity to grab some small metal tools from a nearby construction site and he throws them at Hotstreak. The flaming metahuman shields himself from being bombarded by the tools and he was forced to drop his bottle of Yoo-Hoo, making it shatter on the ground. This made him even more angry.
"NOW YOU'VE PISSED ME OFF," Hotstreak yells as he uses both of his hands to propel himself from the ground and launches himself towards Static.
He grabs Static and they both plummet to the ground. Both metas get up and are now facing each other. Static's hands are electrified while Hostreak's are on fire, both of them in battle stances.
"Let's see how tough you are without your hoverboard," says Hotstreak.
Suddenly, the flaming metahuman gets hit with a random blast and was knocked to the side. Static looks over to where the blast was coming from and sees Bombshell with her fists glowing.
"So, you like blowing shit up huh?" the former criminal asks Hotstreak. "Let's see how you stand a chance against the master of that…sort of…thing…" Her eyes begin to widen in recognition. "Wait, I know that guy."
Unfortunately, Hotstreak noticed she stopped talking and smirks, "What's the matter sweet cheeks, can't handle the heat?"
"Maybe she can't take you seriously with that hair style you got going on," Static cuts in. "It looks like it's on fire. In fact, let me help you put it out."
He then zap a nearby fire hydrant that was right beside Hotstreak and water begins to spray out of it, dousing the flaming metahuman. This gave Bombshell the opportunity to nail the finishing blow. She uses her hands to propel herself towards Hotstreak and delivers a massive punch to his face, knocking him unconscious.
"Well, nice to know that even with your "hot" new upgrade you still go down like a bitch," Bombshell says as she looks down at Hotstreak.
"Daaamn," Static says as he appears beside his friend. "Laid out in one punch by a girl. All the other supervillains are never gonna let him live that down."
Bombshell chuckles at that.
The fire department finally show up and were able to douse Hotstreak even further to avoid him ever reigniting himself, and then the police begin to move in and arrest him.
Captain DeWolfe approaches the two young heroes who came to her aid, "So, you must be the new hero in town. Static right?"
"Yep, that's me," Static says proudly.
The police captain nods, "I appreciate your help in taking this guy down." She turns to Bombshell. "That was one helluva right hook."
The former criminal smiles proudly, "Thanks."
"You know, between you two and two other heroes I know, I'm beginning to wonder whether or not you guys are a little too young to be doing this. At the same time, I think I understand why you kids do what you do, and I know what you do is your decision to make. All I can say is, be careful, try not to get way in over your head okay?"
"We know the risks Officer," says Static. "Believe me, if we didn't, we wouldn't even be doing this, but if I back down now, then that means guys like Hotstreak here will think it's okay to terrorize people. Somebody's gotta step up and show em we ain't afraid y'know?"
Captain DeWolfe smiles, "Can't say I disagree."
As Static and Bombshell watch the sunset, enjoying the view of the Brooklyn Bridge, Static begins to ask, "So why did you freeze up when you confronted Hotstreak?"
Bombshell, who was enjoying the view of the city, looks over at her friend, "Hmm? Oh, well um…I've actually met that guy before."
"Ex-boyfriend?" the electric metahuman asks in a disappointed tone.
"What? Ew, no. I've seen him picking on a little kid a couple days ago. I was able to floor him even then. Though the fire powers are new."
"He must have been one of the people that were effected by "The Big Bang"."
Bombshell raises an eyebrow, "The Big Bang?"
"Yeah, that's what people all over the news are calling that explosion at the Roxxon Facility. Apparently I wasn't the only one that took a whiff of that gas. People by the hundreds were caught in the blast radius and were sent to hospitals because of it. Everyone in the neighborhood are calling them Bang Babies."
After hearing all of this Bombshell covers her face with her hands in shame, "This is all my fault."
"Hey," Static says as he removes his friend's hand from her face. "Don't be going all emo on me again. If there's anyone you should blame, blame me. It was my idea to go to that research facility in the first place, and how were we supposed to know that Reactron guy was gonna show up and mess with us? Believe me, this is just as much my screw up as it is yours. All we can do now is make up for it."
Bombshell sighs, and looks down at her lap, "…I don't blame you at all. In fact, I'm glad you decided to help me that night. You really didn't have to, but I appreciate how much you care about me. I've…never had someone go to great lengths for me before."
"And I've never met a girl who can kick ass and take names as well as you do," Static says with a grin.
Bombshell giggles, and then looks over at her friend with a soft smile, "You weren't so bad yourself "Static". I say you and I make a pretty good team."
"Straight up."
The two teens begin to gaze at each other for a moment and time froze for the both of them. After a few seconds of staring at each other, the two of them begin to lean into each other. They close their eyes and part their lips as they move closer and closer to each other
…until suddenly…
Static's cell phone starts ringing, playing, "You Can Get it All by Bow Wow."
Static and Bombshell both blush at the irony of the ring tone.
"I REALLY need to change that," Static says as he answers his cell phone. "Sup…Oh, hey Pops…I'm at Lana's doing some homework…Sure, I'm on my way." He hangs up. "I uh…I gotta head home. My Pops says it's getting late."
Bombshell smiles warmly, "Wouldn't want to get grounded after having an epic battle with a supervillain."
Static laughs, "Man, that would be SO whack." He gets up and starts to hover on his trash can lid. While in the air he looks back at Bombshell, who is still sitting on the edge of the rooftop. "So um…I'll see you at school tomorrow?" he asks while scratching the back of his head.
Bombshell giggles while brushing a lock of hair behind her ear, "Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Cool." With that, Static begins to fly home.
Bombshell looks on with a dreamy look on her face.
Manhattan, NY
A pale man in a dark business suit is sitting in his office looking at a newspaper article covering, "The Big Bang." Meanwhile, a shadowy figure looks on as the man reads comfortably in his seat.
"Interesting," says the pale man. He puts the newspaper down and looks at the shadowy figure. "And you say that because of this…incident…there are more people out there that are just like you?"
"Straight up," says the shadowy figure. "Even got a crew I'm setting up in Brooklyn and together, we gon' run that neighborhood. Nobody can touch us. Not even that "Spider Guy" that put you away a year ago."
"If the Sinister Six couldn't bring down Spider Man, what chance does you and your crew have?"
"I doubt the little punk can take down an entire neighborhood of guys like him. Look, I know you've been out of the game for a while Big Man, but if you let me and my crew roll with you, we'll help you take back this city."
Tombstone begins to ponder on this. He looks back at the shadowy figure, "Very well Mr. Evans. I'll let you work for me…on one condition."
"Name it."
"This new hero that is making the rounds. Static I believe is his name. He might become quite the hinderance to your plans. Especially if he's operating near Brooklyn. Bring him down and then we'll talk."
"Actually Big Man, I was hoping I can convince him to join our cause."
"…As long as he is out of the way, I don't care what you have to do. Just get it done Mr. Evans, and I'll even let you have all of Brooklyn once I take this city back."
The shadowy figure begins the smirk, "My man."
Tombstone gives a small nod.
With that, the figure disappears, leaving Tombstone to lean on his desk with his hands covering his mouth.
That's right folks, after getting his butt handed to him by Spider Man, Tombstone is looking to take back his city, and it looks like Static is about to have his hands full when Ebon and the Meta Breed run rampant in Brooklyn...as well as a special appearance from Cloak and Dagger. Stay tuned for the next chapter to see what happens next.
Be sure to leave a comment with your thoughts on the story so far. Until next time...
Preview
Static and Bombshell are doing their nightly patrol, having finished school for the day and Lana's first day on her new job.
"I wonder what Peter had to do that he couldn't have pizza with us," Bombshell comments.
Static shrugs, "Beats me, who knows what keeps him and Kara busy most of the time."
Bombshell also shrugs and then she sees something in the distance, "Uh, Virgil?"
"What?" Static asks as he looks to where his friend is looking.
The two young heroes see Spider Man and Supergirl being chased by an army of flying squid-like robots.
"The hell?" the electric metahuman asks.
"Come on," the former criminal suggests. "I think they might need our help."
Static nods, "Right, hop on."
The two hop on Static's trash can lid and fly towards the robots in an attempt to aid the other two heroes.
...To be continued in chapter 13 of Hope and Responsibility