An hour later found Special Officer of Metahuman Affairs Shenice Vale sitting in front of a containment cell, one leg crossed gracefully over the other. Her dark hair was swept back in its traditional neat ponytail, and she wore a purple shirt with red sleeves and lounge jeans with black ballet flats. On occasion she would glance down at her digital watch, sigh, and then return her attention to the two unconscious teenagers, one on either side of the cell.
She couldn't help noticing that they both bore specific traits to their predecessors; she supposed some things were handed down that just went untouched by time, like the hair styles of both teenagers, the contrasting style preferences in regard to the fads of the era, and some of the obvious emotions which raged inside their minds.

Hotstreak's legacy—Fin Stone, that was his name, she reminded herself—stirred slightly with a heavy groan, subconsciously running the fingers of one hand through his gelled and spiked black—now with streaks of red and yellow—hair. Apparently the chill of the dank cement floor reached his mind, and he jerked awake, springing to his feet on instinct and wildly glancing around in alarm. His gaze finally settled on the still-unconscious Veronique, and then averted to Shenice when the older female cleared her throat to get his attention.
"What the hell is going on?" he demanded, taking a few lengthy strides to the edge of his cell and leaning against the side wall so he could look at Shenice out of the corner of his eye. He was struggling with much difficulty and not much chance of success to contain his anger and irritation at being shanghaied to wherever in God's name he was.

"Fin, did your mom ever tell you about your grandfather?"
His gaze snapped back directly now, his head turning the slightest degree so he could stare intently at her. "...What?"
"Answer the question, Fin."
"Uh-uh. She never met 'im. Said Maria told her he died before she was born."
Shenice nodded. "He did. Do you know how he died?"
"No."
"Would you like to?"
He snorted. "Like I give a shit about my slut of a mom's old man?"
Shenice lifted an eyebrow. "Well, what I'm about to tell you would make a lot more sense if you knew first what happened before you or your mom were born."

He narrowed his eyes and cocked an eyebrow also, folding his arms under his chest. "Whatever. Hit me."
"Your grandfather was a metahuman—the result of the very first Big Bang, which occurred fifty-two years ago. He died two years later in the second Big Bang at eighteen."
Fin was unimpressed. "So?"
"He was Hotstreak. You're his grandson." Shenice's eyes bore through his, mentally begging him to get the picture. Her pleas went unheard.
"What's the fucking point?"

Shenice stood and walked over to the transparent cell wall, staring coldly at the boy. "The metahuman gene doesn't disappear over time, Fin. It stays with whoever bears the blood of whoever was originally infected, but most people never get the chance to have it activated. What happened today was an intentional repeat of the past two Big Bangs, and instead of infecting everyone, it only activates the dormant gene in those who already have it."
That seemed to get through to him. Though his eyes were still turned to Shenice, he was no longer seeing her. His mind buzzed with several questions erupting in them at her statement of finality. "Why would they do that?" he finally asked. With this he regained his untouchable façade, standing tall again and hardening his resolve.
"To exterminate the meta-gene." Veronique shakily stood and made her way to the end of the cell also, keeping a safe distance between Fin and herself. "In order to administer the so-called cure, they need to activate it with a serum—I'm guessing that's what we were vaccinated with today instead of the usual prevention stuff we usually get."
She turned her full, serious attention to Shenice. "The cure is supposed to be harmless to the general public, but what I've researched hasn't said anything about how it could affect those with the gene. Judging from how far you went to get me—us—out of the area earlier, I guess it's safe to say that what they had in mind wasn't exactly humanitarian."

Fin was staring at her as though she was some weird, freaky genius alien with three heads, but Shenice nodded. "It's nice to know you don't take after your grandpa as far as resourcefulness goes," the older woman said with a grim smile, then bent down to retrieve Veronique's open laptop at her feet, turning the screen so the other two could see.
"Not only were they planning on exterminating the meta-gene, but also the bearers. Anyone who showed any sign of reaction to the activation serum today was injected with another serum, this one to terminate immediately. If I hadn't come to get you, you'd both be dead."
Fin said nothing. Veronique was deep in thought for a moment before she spoke again. "I get why he's here, but what about me? What makes me so special to have the gene; Dad didn't tell me about anything, and neither did Mom."
Shenice sighed. "Vero, you know about Static, I assume, since you've done your research."
She received a nod.
"Static is Virgil Hawkins. Your grandfather."
"Oh, my god," Veronique moaned, placing a hand to her forehead and gnawing her lower lip as she contemplated this startling piece of information.
"So I can light shit on fire, and that's Sparky's grandkid. How come I don't feel any different now?"
"Because you're in a containment cell. It was built shortly after the first Big Bang, with technology enough to restrain any metahuman activity. If I flip the switch on the wall, the barrier goes away and you both are capable of everything Static and Hotstreak were."
Veronique returned to her senses. "So you saved our lives; what now? I've still got powers, and Hothead over there will probably get himself killed anyway the moment he's set loose. What happens now?"
Shenice shrugged. "I haven't gotten to that part yet. You'll both just have to stay in there until further notice."
"Together?" Veronique whined.
"Yes. Together."

"Do I get my one phone call, Officer?"
Veronique glanced at Fin with mild surprise. "Don't you have a cell phone?"
He glared harshly at her. "If I had one, I wouldn't be askin' for one, smartass."
"But they're so cheap now, if you get the ones that—"
"When I want advice on shopping, I'll come see you. I want my phone call."

Veronique looked at Shenice, who nodded. "Then call, and behave. I'll be back in a little while to let you two know what's going on."
The two watched her leave, then Veronique pulled out a tiny device and tossed it to Fin, who caught it and muttered a series of digits into the ear-mic dualpiece.
"Benj. It's me, man. ...Yeah. Look, can you trace this? Good. I got a gig I'm gonna be late for. Yeah. ...Yeah. That gig. Look, just get me outta here, man. ...Fuck you, too."

Veronique hadn't been paying attention to his conversation, and she was too lost in thought to notice when he pocketed her phone instead of returning it. She sat with her legs folded under her, arms crossed, leaning forward slightly as though preparing to sink into herself. "The vaccinations," she murmured, thinking out loud. "They're supposed to help us. Ever since they invented the vaccine to be distributed at schools worldwide, they've been known to prevent kids from getting sick. Flu, cold, chicken pox, cancer...ever since thirty years ago, nobody's had it. It makes perfect sense to sneak the serum into such an innocent—"
"Will you shut up already?"
Her head snapped up, her gaze meeting his across the room. "'s the matter, flame-for-brains?" she quipped with a smirk. "We're both stuck here, and there's nothing either of us can do about it."
"Ah," he corrected her. "But that's where you're wrong." He paced to the transparent wall (where a door would be if anyone had the key) and glanced down at her. "I'm gonna be outta here before that freaky teenage officer gets back. –Don't you think there's something' off about a chick who's got that much power that young?"

Veronique shrugged. "What's it matter? She never causes any trouble, so why shouldn't she be trusted?"
Fin scoffed and shook his head in disgust. "Rich kids. They'll trust anyone," he muttered to himself.
"So, where ya gonna be going?"
He assumed she was only speaking to him because she was bored. "Somewhere."
"You don't trust anyone, do you?"
He didn't reply; if she couldn't guess that just from looking at him, then she was a lost cause.

"You did what!?" Virgil rasped, his face a portrait of shock on the holograph projected of it from Shenice's wristwatch.
"You heard me, Virge. I took them to the Arkham containment center and put them in a cell. I'm gonna check in on David to make sure he hasn't Gear-ified on us, and then I'll head back."
The ten-inch-tall Virgil hologram buried his face in his hands. "Shenice, you idiot! Do you have any idea of what could happen to Veronique in there? Hotstreak was a manic rapist-drug-dealer-alcoholic-abusive-drunk-thief, what makes you think his grandkid'll be any different?"
"Just a hunch. Besides, Virgil, you were able to handle Hotstreak; why shouldn't Vero be able to handle Fin?"
"Because she's a girl!" he exclaimed, glaring at her. "If anything happens to her while inside there, I get to blame you."

"Fair enough," she replied. "So what do you want me to do when I get back?"
"Let Hothead go loose. Sooner or later, somebody'll show up and he'll end up dead, with any luck."
Shenice shook her head, smiling slightly. "You still haven't changed."
"Neither have you!" he exploded, waving his arms about. "You're still as reckless and precarious as ever!"
"Better reckless than repressed, Virgil."
"...Oh, I know that you did not just call me repressed."
"Bye now!"
"Hey, wait! I am not finished wi—" The hologram vanished at the touch of a button. "Men," she muttered, then hailed another cab to Dakota Union High.

"Hey man, are you sure it was a good idea to hit the girl?—You know, knock her out?" Benji asked, glancing apprehensively at the unconscious Veronique. Fin flexed his hand, biting back the stinging pain in his knuckles from their impact to the side of Veronique's skull.
"Doesn't matter. World'll be a better place if she doesn't wake up," he muttered dryly. "Let's just go."
Benji assisted Fin in hopping up to the window ledge, slipping out the same way he had come in (which he had done after managing to shatter the so-called "shatterproof" glass).
"Where to, F-Stop?" he asked, after grunting to fit himself through and following Fin to the hovercar he'd parked at the side of the building.
"Gangbang rendezvous by the airport. Does anyone else know you're here?"
He carried himself with such calm authority, but the older boy could have sworn he'd caught a glimpse of something faltering in his eyes.

"Nu-uh. Nice hair. You chill?"
Fin didn't answer. "Let's just get there. I got somethin' to show you and everyone else."
"'s gotta be one hell of a surprise, huh?"
He snorted, leaning back into the seat. "You have no idea. After what's about to go down, Dakota's gonna be begging for mercy." He chuckled darkly.

"Fuck," the trenchcoat guy from earlier spat on the pavement and extracted a cigarette from his pocket, lighting up and sharply inhaling a drag of nicotine.
A handful of other rugged individuals were scattered about the deserted garage level, all of them more than mildly irritated at the same thing that prompted Fin's dark acquaintance from the school to the beginnings of rage.

"Anybody got anything? I need some smack to calm me down before I strangle Collins for trusting some egotistic brat with whatever it is we're here for that we still don't even know what it is." A twenty-something-year-old female with a shaved head snarled and wrung her hands, decked with several rings on each finger. "Collins," she snarled, glaring at the trenchcoat kid. "I swear, I'm gonna kill you if we get busted waiting for some shit-for-brains kid to show up."
A shadowy male, features hidden beneath the bulk of a hood, handed her a small packet. "Cool it, Euphoria," he purred silkily.

"Yeah, cool it. I got what I said I would, and I always keep my word," Fin announced as he entered the building, holding something up for display between his index and middle finger.
"Ah. F-Stop," Collins greeted dryly. "Nice to see that you're dependable."

A devilish smirk crossed Fin's features, and the packet of crystal particles suddenly lit aflame between his fingers. Once he was sure he'd grabbed the attention of each one of them, he allowed the flame to engulf his entire body. "See this?" he asked over the roar and crackle of the flames. "This I inherited." He forced the fire to subside, leaving him in an unchanged state. In his other hand he held up a small metal case. "But I can give all of you the exact same power."
"What's in it for you?" Euphoria shouted, now quite sedated by the sickly sweet smoke hovering around her from the concoction she was inhaling.
"Power," Fin replied. "You be my army, and we could start by taking over the city."

Another stranger, this one a punk with green hair and so much metal on him he could have passed as a human magnet, announced himself. "Prove that we should go with this. You just blew up our Jam, that's pretty serious stuff."
"Proof?" Fin asked calmly, his eyes glinting dangerous steel. "How's this for proof?"

He tossed the case into the air and extended a fist toward it. Fire shot from his fist, and the metal case seemed to glow a moment from the heat before melting, its contents now being ravaged by the intense flames. The hundreds of canisters contained within the case shattered and exploded. Fin and everyone else were blown off their feet by the wave, and the blast destroyed the building altogether. The purple gas that had formed on contact when the canisters had exploded spread faster now that it was out in the open, where the wind could buffet it along. Within seconds, the entire sect of the city was engulfed in purple fog.

The hovercar groaned as it braked suddenly beside the collapsing building. Someone stepped out, with a badge title reading "Special Officer of Metahuman Affairs," and strode over to one of the fallen bodies.
"Idiot!" hissed Shenice, dragging the hardly-conscious Fin away from the rubble of the parking annex. She grumbled inaudible phrases the entire time she was toting him back to the containment center.

"You okay?" David asked gently, his hand on Veronique's shoulder as she came to. She was immediately conscious of the bump on the side of her head, which was no doubt responsible for the headache currently hammering itself into a migraine.
"Fantastic," she groaned. "You?"
"I'm chill," he replied. "Interesting news to hear, hm?"
She gave him a startled look. "You too?"
He nodded. "Yeah. I got super-smart. Apparently, since there're no physical side-effects, I wasn't noticed by the weirdos carting out the rest of us."
"Fun," Veronique breathed. "So that's it, huh? You, me, and your new friend are the only surviving metahumans. Shenice'll probably show up any second now to take us to an uncharted island where we'll be safe from the authorities of the city—but not the ravaging components of nature."
David tilted his head to the side, curious. "What 'new friend'?"

"Fin Stone."
He swore and stood, staring at Veronique in utter disbelief. "You're kidding me."
"Nope. For some reason, he's in this too." Her eyes followed David as he paced the floor of the somewhat claustrophobic space, helpless for words.
"So he's the one that hit you?" he asked, his pace accelerating. "I swear, I'm gonna kill him."

Veronique snorted. "Kill him? Dave, you still haven't recovered from the last time you tried to face up to the guy. And at least now he's somewhere else, so he's not my problem, or yours. With any luck, he's already been spotted, sedated and euthanized by now."
He stopped pacing and knelt in front of her, his eyes dark and serious. "Vero. I'm not concerned about me. He could have seriously hurt you . . . you understand?"
Her annoyance was slowly beginning to bubble over.

"David. Let me worry about me, okay? And if you don't start worrying about your own damn self, you're going to be the one getting 'seriously hurt,' or killed."
David turned away and said nothing, his gaze eventually finding the broken window that Fin had used as his escape. "What was so important that he had to have gotten out so fast?" he wondered in a low murmur to himself, frowning.
Now it was Veronique's turn to start pacing, as she was wondering what was going to happen to her now that this new trait had been inserted so rapidly into her life.
Then it occurred to her that she didn't even know for sure if what Shenice had told her she was capable of was accurate; for all she knew, she could still be perfectly normal, without any odd abilities or DNA enhancements whatsoever. She scoffed quietly and shook her head; she wasn't answering any of her questions as it were. If anything, she was just creating more for herself. She made a mental note to confront Shenice the moment the older female returned from...wherever she was.

"Where'd Shenice go?" she asked suddenly. "I assume she brought you here."
"Yeah, she brought me here. No, I don't know where she went." He took a few steps until he and Veronique were only a small distance apart. "Hey, are we chill?"
She offered him a small smile. "Ice cool."

Their touching moment was shattered by the door bursting open and Shenice storming through, dragging a cataleptic Fin by the wrist. A single look at her told them all that needed to be said: Fin screwed up big time.

"Uh-oh," Veronique singsonged. "Hothead's in trouble. What, did he burn down the school?"
"Worse," Shenice snapped, carelessly dropping Fin's currently lifeless body at her feet. She fished through the pockets of her vest before extracting a card key, which she inserted into the narrow slot by the transparent wall of the cell, which dissolved, providing an opportune door for the two. "Out," she ordered, shoving Fin inside the cell with her foot once Veronique and David had exited, and pulling out the key.

"What about the—" David began, but Shenice cut him off.
"Window? Look closely—the glass is repairing itself, and with twice the strength it had before shattering."
Both teens gave her a confused look, and she rolled her eyes. "Technology in the pre-deca era, believe it or not, was sufficiently advanced for it's time. We'd just discovered nanite technology, and the guys who built this place did a good job of making sure mistakes and breakouts couldn't happen more than once—and anyone in here never did get out."

"...Ah. I see." Veronique gestured to Fin. "What'd he do?"
Shenice huffed angrily. "He just made my job a whole lot harder. Remember the two 'Big Bang' incidents that happened when your grandparents were your age?"
The two nodded, both of them dreading what Shenice was no doubt going to say next.
"Yeah. He probably had no idea what he was doing when he blew something up and caused another metahuman breakout. There's been at least a quarter of Dakota's population infected by the gas."

"Brilliant," Veronique sighed, burying her face in her hands. "Just what we need: more of us freaks running around Dakota."
"You're not telling us the rest of what you had in mind," David accused, eyes narrowed. "What you haven't mentioned yet is there is no way the police are going to be able to handle a breakout this big, with this many people. If we can suit up and get the commotion under control, then we'll gain respect from the public—meaning we won't be antagonized and hunted down by the powers that be trying to put us out of business. So what you're trying to ask us is if we'll cooperate, for the good of Dakota City." He finished his declaration with a triumphant smile, arms folded across his chest.

Veronique's jaw dropped, and she was staring at him as though he was (even though he was) a freaky mutant super-genius.
"Remote telepathy," he explained for the female's benefit.

"Ah."

Both pairs of eyes turned back onto Shenice, who shrugged helplessly. "You got me. The tricky part is getting you—" she pointed at David—"to gear up. If we can't get you some invention material soon, either your brain's going to explode, or you'll just be of no use whatsoever. Hate to have to put it that bluntly, but it's true."
David shrugged. "All I need are spare parts and a working CPU."
"Great."
"Excuse me," Veronique interjected, annoyed again. "But how can you be so sure that we're flawless duplicates of the superheroes passed? For all we know, we could be heading out into the big unknown with powers that don't even exist."

Shenice stared evenly back. "Well, it's easy to tell that David's got something going on other than clockwork in that mind of his, and you're not in containment anymore, so try it out." She dug around in her pockets again, withdrawing from a different one this time a 3Musketeers candy bar wrapper. "Magnetize this."
Veronique simply stared, dumbfounded, at the metallic wrapper, then glanced back up at Shenice. "You're totally kidding me. You're trying to trick me into believing this so that I'll look like an idiot on some camera that you've rigged up somewhere in here...right?"

"Wrong," David informed her, and she mentally cursed his smarter-than-thou 'remote telepathy.'
"—I heard that."

She deathglared him. "I don't want to have to hurt you, David, but if you don't stay out of my head I may be forced to take drastic measures." Jeeze. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since she'd had the news broken to her, and already she was hostile toward the boy she'd been friends with for as long as she could remember.
"Magnetize this," Shenice repeated, thrusting the wrapper forward. When Veronique merely stared dumbly at it again instead of making any attempt to manipulate it with powers she doubted existed, Shenice released it from her grasp and let it float to the floor.
Her expression remained unchanged, and the wrapper didn't move. Shenice sighed and shrugged.

"Vero," David murmured, placing a hand on her shoulder and immediately withdrawing it with a hiss of pain. "Hey! Nobody told me you were charged with static electricity!"

Veronique grinned smugly, jutting out her chin. "That's what you get for touching me without my permission when I'm trying to focus on something."
Instead of remaining neutral as he would have otherwise, David's face lit up, his eyes shifting immediately to the candy bar wrapper. "Vero, I have no idea what you're doing...but whatever it is, don't stop. The safety of Dakota City may depend on it."

She averted her attention back to the wrapper and her grin widened. She extended a hand (not without realizing that both her hand and the wrapper were faintly glowing purple) and clenched it into a fist, the wrapper crumpling as if it were enclosed within it.
"There. I moved your stupid wrapper," she quipped to Shenice, her eyes dancing. "That leaves everything checked off except for letting darling Finny know of your intentions."

"Be my guest," Shenice countered. "You're the one so interested in him."
"If, by 'interested,' you mean disgusted and unimpressed to the point of pushing him off a cliff, then yeah. I'm interested. But I'd rather not be the one to let him know we're about to become business partners. Why not have Brainiac tell him?"
"I resent that derogatory reference to my intelligence," David announced, and Veronique had to resist the urge to slap him.
"Whatever." She jabbed a finger at Shenice. "It was your bright idea. You tell him."

"Tell me what?"
"Good morning, Sunshine," Veronique spat. "We were just talking about you."
Fin returned her vehement glare. "I know that, Sparkles. What about me?"

David twitched; nobody noticed.
Shenice examined her fingernails. "Congratulations, Stone. You're a superhero."

"...The fuck?"
"That stunt you pulled back at the airport? I'm sure you have no idea what you were doing, but it created an explosion that's caused quite a few innocent people to mutate."
"So that's what it was for," he mused under his breath.

"Earth to Fin!" Shenice snapped her fingers to get his attention again. "And you know what, 'F-Stop?' You get to clean up the mess you made."
He snorted. "I 'get to'? What if I don't want to? You can't make me do anything."

"True," Shenice admitted, tapping her finger to her chin. "But I could always call metahuman control and have them have you taken care of.—and it wouldn't be death for you, Fin, it'd be the life under a microscope. Humans have been fascinated by fire since we discovered it; they'll keep you alive at any costs once I hand you over to them, and they'll monitor you in a big white room with a white mattress and white clothes and white masks hiding the guilt in the eyes of the ones tormenting you, trying to figure out what makes you the link between human evolution and the flame."
Fin shrugged from his 'spot' leaning against the wall, head angled to one side to incredulously glance at the speaker. "Doesn't bother me," he stated nonchalantly. "But what it looks like is you need me in order to get this under control."
Veronique kept her lips pursed and glanced at David, who watched the scene between Shenice and Fin without movement or sound.

"You're smart, Fin," Shenice was saying.
"I know."
"So I'll get right down to it. What do you want?"
"I want...a cigarette."

"Oh, my God," David muttered, clapping a hand to his forehead. "We're mad, all mad. The whole world has gone mad."
"Shut up, Bruises," Fin shot back, much to his satisfaction when David's jaw snapped shut, his eyes smoldering hatred.
"Now, Officer. I want a cigarette. I'll be good, I promise." He merely sneered when Shenice wordlessly pointed to the grimy cigarette butts littering the floor by the bunk. "I still have some dignity left, you know."
"Coming from a kid who learned all about life on the streets of Dakota when he was ten because his mom got them evicted from their flat. Coming from the one kid who can manage to avoid being caught by Dakota's police in any situation."

"Touche." Veronique cocked an eyebrow.
"Someone's had a lot of time on her hands to do research," David observed.
"Oh, so you read about me in Dakota's Troubled Teen!" Fin exclaimed, bubbling over with sarcastic enthusiasm. "I'm touched by your concern, really, but if you could let me out so I can have a smoke, that'd be great."
"Take a flying leap, too, while you're at it." Veronique smirked.

Shenice said nothing more. She inserted the card key into the slot, and the transparent wall dissolved.
"Thank you," Fin snapped with such malevolence that the gratitude the words implied never hit their mark. He pulled a Marlboro from his Jeans pocket and stepped out of the cell's confines. All but Shenice took an apprehensive step back.

At the snap of his fingers, a tiny flame ignited. Fin raised the cigarette to his lips, secured it between his teeth, and lit it with the miniature lighter flame on his fingertip. He took a long, slow drag, taking his time in exhaling. Then, reflex-quick, his entire body engulfed and he made a break for the door.
Suddenly he wasn't moving of his own accord, and he was heading for the door's metal surface faster than planned. He slammed against it, groaning in pain.
"That was for hitting me and lying," Veronique announced triumphantly, quite enjoying the sight of Fin extinguished and magnetized to the door.
"Now, let's try this again: you gonna help, or not?"

"Yes!" Fin grunted. "Jeezus!—You're such a pain—I'll help, just get me down!"
"Good." There was a pause, and then Veronique spoke again. "Um...I don't know how to reverse it."

"WHAT?"

"Kidding."

He fell back from the door, landing with a 'thump' on the cement. After a few seconds, the paralyzing magnetism in his system wore off, and he jumped to his feet again.
"Ladies first," Veronique offered, gesturing to the open door.

Fin forced a humorless laugh, the air around him shimmering with angry heat as he led the way out.

"Follow the screams!" Shenice called after them with no intent of leaving. "You can't miss it."
She looked at David, who was shaking his head and staring at her in awe.

"What?"
"You were planning that the whole time, weren't you?"
"Mm-hmm," she replied with a nod.
"It wasn't about you making a petty deal with Fin and trusting him to keep his word—"
"It was about him and Veronique creating a circuit. Mostly to let me know she can handle him out there. Well, she can." She gave David a once-over, changing the subject. "Uh-huh...yeah, we're gonna have to do something about you. After all, you've got a long ways ahead of you in preparing for your days in the cape and cowl."
David shrugged. "Whatever. To the recycle yard?"
She nodded.

"Onward!"