Static Shock Issue 2 : Hacking in

By Calvin Burrell

Trust is pretty important to me. You've always gotta know who you can rely on. I know I can count on my family. My dad and even my annoying older sister, Sharon. My team, for sure. But if there's one person I know will always have my back a hundred and twenty percent, it's Richie. He's my homeboy, my partner, my best friend. We've had our fights and arguments, yeah. But I could always trust him.

Static flew through the sky over Dakota, leaving a trail of sparks behind him. Below him, he could see construction crews repairing buildings after the rampaging robot attack the other day. He had a meeting with Gear planned but he stopped anyways to lend a hand.

The construction guys were pretty cool. I even took a few photos and signed some autographs with them. I try to keep the celebrity of the superhero biz from going to my head, but sometimes I just can't say no. I'm sure Gear won't mind. He's probably doing some tinkering in the HQ anyway.

Oh, right. I haven't told you about our place, have I? There's this abandoned gas station in Dakota. Me and Gear used to use it as a place to get away from bullies and responsibilities back when we were younger. It became our secret base once I got my powers. When Gear went from above average to super genius, he started tricking the place out with all sorts of fun stuff. We even have an automatic soda dispenser! How cool is that? And it looks the same on the outside to discourage any would-be visitors. There's so many toys in there, I'm sure he won't mind being on his own for a bit longer.

Gear, however, was not on his own. He was instead arguing in hushed tones with another person, despite them being the only ones present in the abandoned gas station.

"You can't be here," Gear said, clearly angry. The one he was talking to stepped out of the shadows, revealing herself to be the same costumed person who had been watching Static the other night.

"I'm just gonna be a sec," Dusk said, feeling uncomfortable. "I need a favour from you,"

"Oh no. Nuh uh. I'm not doing anything for you," Gear said, shaking his head. "Do you even know what you did to Vi- to Static? He thought you were dead. He thought it was his fault. He wouldn't even suit up for almost a year because of you!"

"I...I didn't..."

"You didn't what? You didn't know he cared that much?

"Look, I know what you think of me. I get it alright? Anything you want to say, I've said to myself and worse," Dusk said, clearly stressed. "All I need is this one thing, then I'll tell him what happened. The whole truth."

Gear crossed his arms and glared at her. This person had put his friend through hell and now she was back out of nowhere. He could still remember what Static was like when he thought Dusk died. Sullen and quiet under the crushing weight of survivor's guilt. To find out it was all for nothing made him too angry to even care why she did it.

"You've gotta promise me you'll tell him. Or I'll do it myself. What do you want?" Gear asked.

"I swear I will," Dusk said as she removed her shield from her back to hold it up. The shield was dented and clearly heavily damaged. "I need a replacement for this. I saw the disc you made for Static. I could use something like that,"

Gear could tell the shield was homemade. It looked like it could expand due to being made of multiple interconnected pieces rather than one. He had to admit that it was well made, even if it looked like junk.

"It's called a Static Saucer. And should I even ask how long you've been following us?" Gear said, picking up what Dusk let slip when she said she saw the disc. "But...Yeah. Yeah, I can do that,"

"Great. Cause I..." Dusk leaves the sentence unfinished when she notices something outside. "I gotta go. I owe you one,"

"Mhmm..." Gear mutters as Dusk sneaks out the back. Moments later, Static lands outside the front of the building. The disc he glided in on folded up and he stored it in the inside pocket of his blue jacket before walking in.

"Hey, man," Static said, cheerful as ever. "Woulda been here sooner, but I got held up helping out some construction workers with repairs,"

"Yeah, I know," Gear said, smirking like nothing happened as he sat by his custom built computer. "I've been watching Chirper while the program I made hacks its way into Alva's database,"

"Remind me to get the gang together so we can have an intervention for your social media addiction," Static replied. He opened a large cooler and a robotic arm popped out, handing him and ice cold soda. "You find anything interesting so far?"

"Totally! Scare Tactics is going on an underground music tour and I think Stargirl is...Oh, you meant the program. No, not yet," Gear answered while he minimized his web browser window to show the progress of his hacking program. "Their security is real cutting edge stuff. I assume most of the juicy info is kept offline anyway. But I should be able to learn a bit more about the lab that robot trashed,"

"Cool," Static said as he sat on a chair. He rested the can on a nearby desk so he could take his jacket off and let it hang over the back of the seat. He leaned back and sipped from the can as Gear chuckled every now and then at a funny post. After a few minutes, Gear sat up suddenly with a worried look, causing Static to do the same.

"Oh no! No, no, no, noo!" Gear looked scared and began typing rapidly.

"What's wrong, man? Lose a follower?" Static asked as he got up.

"Worse than that. Someone's hacking into my system! They must have detected the program!"

"Can't you shut them out or something!? There's gotta be a way to block them,"

"Working on it! Except it's...Crap! Whoever is doing this, they're deleting every bit of info we have on Alva! Who the hell are we dealing with here?"

"Think we're about to find out..." Static said as the sound of something landing outside got his attention. A man had just touched down outside, wearing grey and silver plates over a layer of black armour.

The miniaturized jet engines on the man's back smoked as they cooled from their flight and his helmet was ridged with red metal that made it look like a gladiator helmet. He was holding up a display screen built into the armour's wrist, but his eyes were directly on the gas station itself. He spoke into his wrist and his voice came out on Gear's computer.

"Outside. Now."

"Dude..." Gear said in awe. "That's Hardware. What's he doing here?"

"Doesn't look good," Static said, putting his jacket back on. "C'mon. And try not to fanboy all over him,"

Hardware. He's one of the heroes around Dakota. He's got all kinds of equipment in that suit of his. I've seen Gear salivating over it more than once. I've run into him a couple times in the past. Somehow he always manages to blow me off entirely. He's an outstanding hero and all, no doubt about that, but doesn't have much in the people skills department.

Or maybe he just doesn't like me.

Gear's robot, Backpack, climbed onto his back as the two young heroes went out to meet the tech titan. Hardware's expression was clear contempt and irritation. Static and Gear looked at each other, having the same expression as when they get reprimanded by a teacher.

"What the hell do you two think you're doing?" Hardware asked. The voice modulator in his helmet made his voice low and menacing.

"Uhh...Investigating?" Static said. Gear was still star-struck.

"Let me make this clear for the both of you. Alva is my turf. You're digging into things you aren't going to understand. People you can't handle. Leave it to the professionals,"

"Hey, whatever it is, we can take it," Static said, getting defensive. "You don't know what me and my friends are capable of,"

"A bunch of the local juvenile delinquents. I'm shaking in my jet boots," Hardware said, putting his hands on his hips. "There are people involved here who will wipe you and your clubhouse off the map without a thought. So stop trying to paint a target on your back,"

Hardware didn't even wait for a response. The jetpack on his back activated with a burst and he shot off, leaving a cloud of dust.

Believe it or not, that went better than most of my conversations with Mr. Attitude-In-A-Can. By that I mean there was actually a conversation this time.

"Dude..." Gear said, still staring at the sky.

"Really, man? You're all giddy after we just got dissed?" Static said incredulously.

"Yeah. Dissed by Hardware,"

"Mhmm..." Static rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to zap his friend. "Do we have anything left? Anything on Alva at all?"

"Huh? Oh, lemme check," Gear answered and dashed back inside the abandoned gas station. Static looked up one last time before returning with him. The half empty can of soda left on the desk leapt into Static's hand from a magnetic pull as Gear types away.

"Looks like everything we had is gone or the data is corrupted. All that's left is one bit of a file I just got. The data is too messed up to read but I can make out a word: SYSTEM...What do you think it means, bro?" Gear looked over his shoulder at Static.

"No idea, G," Static admitted. "But I'm gonna find out. How bad could these guys be?"

Am I being cocky? Maybe a little. But Hardware is totally underestimating us. If whoever or whatever SYSTEM is thinks they're so big and bad, well they ain't met me yet. These guys are in for a shock.

And hopefully I'll have better lines by then.

Later that evening, Edwin Alva sat in his office, looking over his desk to the imposing figure of Hardware standing before him. Hardware's expression was unreadable and his arms were crossed.

"Mr. Metcalf, I trust you dealt with our security breach?" said Alva, calm as ever.

"It wasn't a problem. Just Static and that scrawny kid he hangs out with. He's smart, but not smart enough," Hardware replied.

"Lucky for them, in this case. If they found anything on our organization, or the malleable SYSTEMatics we were building at the facility, they would have to be...removed,"

"Didn't think you'd lose sleep over it. I know he's caused you trouble in the past,"

"Quite the opposite. He and his friends are welcome to continue shutting down my less than legal operations. That saves me the trouble of having to terminate them myself,"

"Leaving the bigger problem to us. But the kids are tenacious. I tried to change their minds but knowing them, they'll keep digging,"

"Then, for their sakes, let's hope they take your advice," Alva said as he gazed out the window at the city, "Before it's too late..."

To be continued...