Title: While You Were Gone chapter 2
Author: Xilvrin
Rating: pg-13
Pairing: Richie hearts Virgil
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Static Shock or DC comics, they belong to their specific creators/DC/Warner Bros. I make no profit, this is only fanfic for fun.

Authors Note: This takes place AFTER the last episode of the Static Shock cartoon and is based on the entire series and Static's appearance in DC comics from 2009 onward (in issues of TerrorTitans, TeenTitans, and crossovers).

Chapter 2

Day 5

Five days without Virgil was worrying.

"Was it something I said? Did?" Richie fretted.

They often got into little fights over misunderstandings and stupid things and ended up avoiding eachother for a while. Richie couldn't recall anything that might have set Virgil off, however. The last he'd seen him, everything seemed fine. They'd been at their hideout, the Abandoned Gas Station, changing out of their Static and Gear costumes and into civilian clothes. They'd packed up for the night and waved eachother off with a smile and a "Cya".

"Whether you want to hear from me or not, you're going to, because I want to know what's up," the bespectacled blonde said to his airplane-themed light blue room. It suddenly occurred to him, 'I haven't redecorated since I was EIGHT'.

Another corner of his brain piped up, 'That was a really fruity thought, stop that.'

"Good thing I didn't say that outloud… OK, way too much time to myself…. Going crazy… Need friend… to NOT sound… so CRAZY," he did his best Shatner impression to an invisible audience.

He picked up the phone on his bedside table and dialed Virgil's number.

Sharon answered. "I thought he was with you."

"No 'hello'? How did you know it was me?"

"Who ELSE would it be?"

"Wait, he's not there?" panic peppered his voice.

"Maybe this is one of those things where Superman takes him up to that space-station for some secret mission," she didn't sound so sure of this.

"Yeah…that's gotta be it."

"He better get his scrawny ass back soon -in one piece- or I'm kicking it all the way to the moon!"

"You and me both."

Nervous laughter on both ends of the line.

"I'll tell him you called. Then tell him I am NOT his secretary, or his maid, for the LAST time."

"Thanks sis, bye."

"I'm not your… oh, whatever." Click.

Calls to Frieda, Daisy, and to anyone else they'd had a positive interaction with in Dakota yielded similar results.

Now he was WORRIED.

Day 6

Part of Richie hoped Static was bumping elbows with the superstars in the world-saving business.

Another part of him was insanely jealous.

No matter how many times he insisted they were partners (oh, if only that were true in more ways than one), EQUALS… he would still be viewed as that dreaded word: SIDEKICK. He'd had one crowning moment of awesome: the very first time he'd become Gear (or the prototype thereof). Finally, he'd been the one to rescue Static instead of the other way around. That hadn't lasted… he'd hoped things would change but not long after he'd put together a proper costume it was right back to being the 'damsel in distress'.

He'd scouted out their most excellent hideout. He'd designed Static's gadgets and collapsible flying disc. He'd been his hype-man, arranging public relations boosters like ribbon cutting on new buildings and parks, Christmas tree lightning, and more. He'd set up a website with forums to interact with their fans. He'd printed up business cards and handed them out to any cops, firemen, or government officials they happened to meet. He'd done all that without so much as a THANK YOU. No, more often than not his actions made Static roll his eyes.

The city's ne'r-do-wells didn't take him seriously without Static by his side. The Big Name heroes certainly didn't. Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and the like couldn't care less whether he lived or died without Static's intervention. Superman had been kind to him, but Superman was a bit more magnanimous (a grown-up boyscout in tights in a cape). Batman... hates everybody (He's BATMAN).

They weren't pleased when he'd tagged along when they only wanted Static... and ended up not only freeing Brainiac but being possessed by the entity. 'It's not like that's what I wanted to happen either.' They didn't want him to touch anything and in their minds they were right. He'd asked for a group photo when the whole ordeal was over, acting as much like a fanboy as before. An act, and act, so much was an act. Martain Manhunter had scanned his head searching for traces of Brainiac, not for any traces of animosity for considering him part of the problem rather than solely a victim.

"Sacrifice One To Save The Many. Sorry, I still prefer Sta ... OUR way: Sacrifice Nobody, Save Everybody."

Backpack beeped in agreement from its hiding place under the bed. S.N.S.E. was one of the commands he'd programmed into it.

He'd had to shut it down and remove the batteries after the Brainiac incident out of paranoia. He didn't reactivate it until several days later. He'd smiled and joked and pretended he was fine. He wasn't. He was the furthest thing from 'Fine'. He wanted to forget it all and pretend everything was normal as soon as possible.

If Madelyn digging around in his private memories and daydreams (embarrassingly entirely of Virgil and Static) and turning him into a virtual zombie to make herself queen of the school shook him up... what Brainiac did was a calamity. Invading his mind and body, using it like a puppet, and tormenting him through various means. Weakening his resolve mentally through waking nightmares and physically by not eating or bathing. At one point, Brainiac considered converting him to a cyborg, as soft human tissue was obviously inferior to circuits and steel. As cutting into said flesh hurt them both as long as Brainy deemed his noggin home, it settled for confining him in metal jointed tentacles within a robotic shell.

He tried to think of a worse fate then being trapped in your own body, unable to control it, violated in every which way, barely able to speak, while you watch everything you have ever known or held dear destroyed... but no, there wasn't one.

Previous to that, he hated all the emotions he had concerning Virgil. How much simpler it would be to be a machine, to think in ones and zeroes and absolutes. To not feel any more confusion, love, lust, frustration, anger, betrayal, or sadness in regards to his honorary 'brother'. Yet seeing Virgil in front of him, trying to get through to him stirred up enough willpower to break Brainiac's 'spell' on him (if only temporarily before he was reeled back in). There are some things that can never be sorted out by logic, can never be reduced to raw data.

At the same time, it had crushed a dream. If there had been any instance that would have pushed Virgil to a romantic confession that would have been it. The entire Earth had nearly been annihilated. Richie was at the center of the catastrophe. Static was the only one with the will and wit and way to rescue him. There was no "I love you", no "I couldn't go on living without you"… no, there was instead some joking criticism over the upkeep of their headquarters (how Virgil could never find where Richie had filed anything away in the organized chaos) and some minor quibble over a borrowed CD.

"The power of friendship INDEED," Richie huffed. "I'm not UNGRATEFUL to have him as a friend, and I know I've taken as many jabs at him as he does at me and we don't really anything mean by it but…" He knew he was only talking to Backpack at this point, but didn't care. "Madelyn saw… saw how I wished Static would fly down from the clear blue sky and smile at ME, just for me. Offer his hand to me so he could take me flying… and being Gear gave me that. I could be up there with him. Is asking for more asking too much?"

A blip, whine, and whir from Backpack were the equivalent of a magic-8-ball's 'Unclear. Please try again'.

"Thanks buddy, you're a BIG help."

The four-legged one-eyed tin can spider beeped and wiggled happily. Richie hadn't installed a sarcasm detector yet in his pet contraption.

"But what if… what if some super villain has him in their clutches and I'm the only one can decipher the clues to save him?"

Backpack skittered from by his feet, up the sheet, and was getting ready for action when Richie put up a hand to stop it.

"Not yet. One more phone call to make." He dialed the number and crossed his fingers that it would still be in service and that he wouldn't get an answering machine or voicemail. "To the sleuth of all sleuths."

Ring… ring… ring… ring… (Please… please… please… please…)

"Hello?" came a gravelly, deadpan voice.

"Hi! Batman? This is GEAR! From Dakota," Richie said a tad too enthusiastically. "I don't know if you remember me. I helped you fix a time-machine once. In order to get Static back from the future. Actually, that's why I'm calling. I know you said only to call you in an absolute emergency, and this is. Is static with you? You know, teenager, dreads that stick up everywhere, flies on a disc, goggles, white mask, blue black and yellow costume with a coat and a lightning bolt emblem on his shirt, annoys you by never shutting up…" (silence) "Or do you know where he could be? What he's working on or if he's working with any other heroes or if…"

"NO."

"Oh… sorry to bother you then."

CLICK.

"Damn."

He ran his fingers through his short, spiky hair, racking his brain.

"I can double check… but I don't think it would be Alva Industries. We've made our peace with old man Alva, and have run out of disgruntled employees and relatives. Ebon would be a likely suspect. But after the split with Hotstreak, he got as far away from him as he could. Which means straight out of the city… I theorize… no one's seen him since, but he IS a living shadow. Hotstreak? Too dumb. And the last time we couldn't handle him was pre-powers in junior high." He winced at the memory of the black eyes and bruises, being shoved into lockers, lunch money stolen, the name-calling… and the list went on. "Madelyn and AquaMaria are de-powered. Who else would have a vendetta to try to kidnap… or take him out?"

"If it was one of Gotham's… like the Joker… Batman would have said something. If it was someone from further away, there would be a Big Name tracking them or out-of-the-ordinary crimes taking place and I haven't seen any sign of that either. Other than Static disappearing, that is." He fell backwards onto his oversized bed and stared at the ceiling. "To think someone lower down on the outlaw totem pole got to him is, frankly, insulting." Backpack curled up next to him, much like a cat but far less cuddly. "No choice but to make a sweep of the city and go through them one by one. Let's see, we'll need police records, satellite and security camera surveillance, maps, blueprints of all the locations and structures, a thermal imaging device…"

"Richie, dinner!" His mother's voice beckoned from the kitchen downstairs.

"I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT! ONE MINUTE!"

His father bellowed in response, "YOUR MOTHER SLAVED OVER A HOT STOVE. STOP BEING RUDE AND DOWN HERE AND EAT. AND BE PLEASANT. I HAD A HARD DAY AT WORK, WHAT DID YOU DO ALL DAY? YOU DON'T KNOW HOW EASY YOU HAVE IT. THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS SHOW SOME RESPECT, YOU LAZY SPOILED BRAT."

"ALL RIGHT! I'M COMING!" He added under his breath, "Like you're ever pleasant. If you only knew the work I did. How many actual bombs did you defuse today, Dad? Because I do that on a regular basis. Fffff…" the younger Foley took one last woeful look at Backpack and headed to the table.

Day 7

Mr. Hawkins walked from neighborhood to neighborhood, stapling "Have You Seen Me?" posters of his lost boy to telephones poles and tacking them up to any bulletin boards of small businesses that would let him.

Gear, similarly, searched desperately for the missing Static.

Both knew they were seeking out the same person.

Author's note 2: Next chapter will be in Virgil's point-of-view. I realize that most of the cartoon fans haven't read "Terror Titans", so I'll be re-writing that 6-issue comic but solely from Virgil's viewpoint and only as one chapter. So even if you have read them, it won't be too redundant.