Well guys, thank you for the exquisite reviews.

So this chapter is being posted all the way from Hampton Beach. I'm on vacation with my family and I finished this chapter while laying on the beach, it was very nice. So now I'm at Jumpin Jacks Java (awesome name right?) drinking my strawberry banana smoothie and raping their free wi-fi.

So without further adieu, here is Chapter Eight.

"I had some nightmares clawing at my skin and bones, I nearly did explode. You smoked the demons, gave me back my feelings now I am good to go." –This Is For Real, Motion City Soundtrack

Candyland was not a very intimidating room at all. The wood door that separated the outside world from the finished basement had a sign written in blue glitter glue. "Candyland!" was written in a three year olds handwriting. The inside was even less threatening. The "hardcore lair" consisted of a futon, a mini-fridge and a small television set. So the three teenagers were all sitting on the light blue rug eating a sausage and onion pizza as the small television set played the news softly. Virgil kept his attention on the television and whenever his eyes did wander he made sure to keep them anywhere but Ellie's face. And it would be a hard task to accomplish even if he did want to. Ellie's attention was either on the ground or on the piece of pizza in her hand. Richie was beginning to get annoyed with the two's situation.

"Oh come on guys, can't you still be friends? And superheroes?" Richie came between the two and questioned.

"I'm sorry, I'm just having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that sweet, smart Virgil Hawkins is actually showboating, sarcastic Static." Ellie said as she sat back in her couch.

"Well, I'm surprised that perky, hyperactive Ellie Covelli is actually… huh… actually I'm not surprised at all." Virgil stated.

"Okay, okay this isn't what we expected! But this is good, I mean we can all get along now right?" Richie mediated, the two were still silent and giving each other awkward stares. "Oh come on! You were fine when you guys had no idea that you two were bang baby."

"Hey… how are you a bang baby? You can't have been here when the big bang happened because you lived in New York." Virgil questioned.

"I wasn't. I've had my powers since I was 2 years old." Ellie admitted, "I was in a lab accident right here in Dakota."

"Alva Industries, I bet."

"My parents were both scientists for Alva and one day I went with them to work or something, they asked a friend to watch me, but he didn't and I ended up on the receiving side of an experiment. Ever since I've been able to run… really fast." Ellie explained.

"That's all you remember?" Virgil questioned skeptically.

"I was two, I could have spent 45 minutes in a microwave on high for all I know. And once the door opened I'd just come out and ask for my Care Bear. I don't remember anything…" she sighed, "I don't feel like talking about this anymore… can we get back to Ebon's diabolical plans?"

"Well… he probably broke Shiv and Talon out because he's planning something. He'll need friends to pull it off…" Static said.

"Why would he need more people to follow me around? The last thing he would want is to attract attention to himself." Richie questioned.

"Well he might not be after you. We're not ruling it out, because that comment was suspicious. But he could be up to some other type of hooliganism."

"We need Hotstreak." Virgil stated. The two blonds snapped their heads in his direction with perplexed expressions.

"He was the distraction which means Ebon must have him in on it. If we find him maybe we'll find Ebon." Virgil reminded them. Ellie considered it for a moment and then stood up.

"Good idea! Think the cops will let us question him?" Ellie asked.

"Maybe… I mean we're the ones who subdued him in the first place." Virgil stated,

"Eh, hey guys? There's a minor problem about that plan…" Richie informed them without even looking in their direction, his eyes fixated on something else.

"What minor problem?" Ellie asked.

"Hotstreak is no longer in police custody." Richie pointed to the television set. Both Ellie and Virgil groaned, they didn't even need to hear the news report the image of a truck on it's side with a partially melted hole was all they needed to see.

"Now what are we going to do?" Ellie groaned.

"We'll have to find him… somehow." Virgil sighed, "How about we split up? I'll take the north side of the city, Ellie can take the west side, Richie can take the east side, if we haven't found him yet, we'll all look in the south side together." Virgil conducted. Ellie immediately jumped to her feet.

"Sounds like a plan, I'm on it." Ellie stated and there was a blur as she ran out of the room and the wind blew back any papers in the room. Virgil and Richie barely had a millisecond to look at each other and then back to the door before she sped back into the room. "Which way is the west side?" she asked. Virgil smacked his forehead when he remembered that Ellie was still fairly new to the city and she didn't know where anything was.

"Okay change of plans, I'll cover the north and west side, Richie take Ellie with you to the east side and then we'll check back in an hour."

"But I'll go faster if I'm by myself." Ellie protested.

"That won't help if you get lost. And if you're with Richie, then I think you should probably be out of costume. I mean the less Velocity and Static talk to him, the better." Virgil informed her.

"Good point…" Ellie crossed her arms with a pout, unhappy with the decision but she agreed with it regardless.

"Okay then, off we go." Virgil stated.

"I can't believe you're Velocity, this feels like the Twilight Zone or something." Richie stated as the two teenagers were walking through the grimy streets of the east side of Dakota.

"Uh nope, this is for real." Ellie assured him as she idly kicked a soda can so it was launched five feet in front of them. When they reached it again Richie quickly bent over and picked it up before Ellie could kick it again. Then he put it in a trash can to the left of them. The two walked in sync and Ellie elbowed Richie when she spotted a pool bar. They had checked about 15 of them in search of the infamous Hotstreak. They approached the doors as casually as possible and when they entered the strong scent of strong alcohol and cigarettes burned their eyes. A few of the older bikers looked at them but then they just returned to their drinks or pool table and ignored their presence. The bartender gave them a suspicious look, knowing that the both of them were clearly under 21. Ellie approached him, with Richie behind her.

"Hiya, we're looking for a meta-human by the name of Hotstreak. You seen him?" Ellie declared. The bartender gave her an almost frightened look and almost knocked over a bottle of tequila in his nervousness.

"Um… no… never heard of him." The bartender stuttered uneasily. Ellie gave him a look and pointed up to the television screen mounted on the wall behind him. The news had flashed a picture of the fiery meta-human with the name Hotstreak in big bold letters. The bartender looked back to Ellie, "Oh! You meant that guy!"

"Uh huh." Ellie nodded with a fake amused smile on her face as if she was talking to a four year old.

"No he doesn't come around here…" the bartender stated.

"Then where does he hang around?" Ellie questioned, the bartender remained quiet and Ellie leaned a little closer and brought her tone very low, "Look were drowning here, just throw us a lifeline we won't say we learned it from you."

"I'm sorry, I can't help you." The bartender stated after a long pause. Ellie groaned and backed off from the counter.

"Come on Richie." She pulled at his sleeve as she headed for the door. Once they were out in of the bar and in a secluded alley, Ellie kicked a wall with annoyance.

"Ugh! We've checked every bar in this city. Where the hell is Hotstreak?" Ellie asked the skies in anger. Richie put his hand under his chin as he pondered the situation, his back touched the wall and he leaned against it.

"Well, if you were Hotstreak, and you had to dodge the cops, you'd probably be hanging out in very Un-Hotstreak like places." Richie stated simply. Ellie's hand now rubbed her chin as she thought about this.

"So… what's the opposite of a pool bar?" Ellie questioned. Richie paused for a moment.

"An AA meeting?" Richie shrugged stupidly unsure of what to say. Ellie gave a small laugh at the answer, but then she paused as she thought about it and her face grew serious.

"Hmmm… maybe…" Ellie said. Richie gave her a weird look.

"Meta-humans, hanging out an AA meeting? I was just thinking off the top of my head." He admitted.

"Free snacks and coffee, I mean most those meta-humans are on the street with no food. They could even find possible recruits… let's check one out." Ellie stated and pulled on Richie's sleeve again as they exited the alleyway.

It wasn't difficult for them to find an AA meeting, there was an orange flyer on a church billboard and finding the location was even less difficult. The difficult part was ignoring the stares from all the middle aged drinkers boring into them. It made both of them feel really self conscious and Richie put up his hoodie at one point. Ellie grabbed his arm and pulled him closer to avoid the stares from everyone as they took a seat.

"This is so awkward." Ellie whispered.

"Are you seeing any meta-humans?" Richie asked.

"No." Ellie stated as she buried her face into his sweatshirt, "Just overly depressed middle aged drunks."

"That's not nice." Richie reprimanded. He was slightly surprised at the girl's spiteful words; it wasn't very Ellie-like.

"I'm sorry, I just have no pity for these people." She stated.

"Why not?"

"Because they let themselves get like this, they could have stopped anytime they liked but they didn't. So they deserve the hardship."

"That's sort of… heartless." Richie said.

"My friend had a drunk for a dad, he beat her up for 10 years and then tried to kill her... she's lucky to be alive after that situation." Ellie sighed.

"Well you can't generalize everyone with one violent event, most of these people are just people who got a little lost along the way, they just had poor self control, they realized it, and now they are trying to get better." Richie stated. Ellie looked up from his sweatshirt and locked eyes for a moment.

"You have a really generous nature…" she stated before resting her head back on his shoulder, "I like it, it's really pleasant." Richie tensed and his language was pretty much reduced to vowels as she snuggled closer into his shoulder.

"Oh… ya…I…do…tha…" Richie began, but Ellie wasn't really paying attention.

"I'm not really seeing any meta-humans, I'm thinkin we should maybe chalk this one up as an epic fail and catch up with Static?" Ellie suggested. Richie nodded and the two stood up. They tried to exit as nonchalant as they could, but a lot of the attention was brought to them as they tried to exit during someone's speech. So they sat down back down in different seats and waited for Kimberly Duncan to finish. When she did, there was a small applause.

"Come on, let's make a break for it." Ellie stated. The two teenagers got back up and pushed their way through the crowd as gently as they could. Ellie's hand wrapped around the door handle when she heard the next speakers words.

"Uh hi." The familiar voice stated, she turned around with her mouth open in shock when she saw who had replaced Kimberly at the podium, "My name is Peter Covelli and I'm an alcoholic." Her brother stated.

"Are you okay?" Richie asked. The two blondes were sitting across from each other in Burger Fool. They had radioed Static when they got out of the meeting and he was on his way to meet them. Ellie hadn't touched her soda but she nodded regardless.

"I'm fine." She went to go and take a sip of her soda. But she stopped mid sip and let out a frustrated growl and she banged her fist on the table "Okay, I'm not fine! Why wouldn't he tell me?!"

"Well maybe he could have had his reasons." Richie tried consoling, but Ellie wasn't buying it.

"He has no problem asking a whole bunch of random strangers for help, but when it comes to me, he can't even tell me he has a problem?" Ellie stated.

"Well you said yourself, you're not the most sensitive person on the matter." Richie reminded her.

"Oh, he's my brother! I could have mustered up some compassion and he knows it." Ellie said, "You know everything makes sense now. He didn't wanna go to college, because he'd be too tempted to drink at parties. He totally freaked on me that time I came home smelling like alcohol because he doesn't want me making his mistakes… ugh! Why didn't he just tell me?! I wouldn't have been such a bitch about that whole situation if I had known." Ellie moaned in frustration.

"I swear there is some kind of an abysmal black cloud filled with unfortunate fate and bad luck, it likes to skip behind me and try and ruin my cheery disposition. 'Oh you're enjoying life? Poof! Now you're dad has a job at Alva Industries and you have to move back to Dakota! Oh you made a friend? Poof! Now he's a superhero! Oh you're starting to get along with your brother? Poof! Now he's an alcoholic and you're harshing his getting better process! Oh you're ready to-"

"Ellie you're ranting…"

"I'm having a bad day! I'm entitled to a moment where I don't have to be all happy and optimistic!" Ellie moped as she dropped her torso on to the table. She sunk her head into the cradle her arms had created.

Richie doubted she would stay silent for very long. And he was right, and she lifted her head in under two seconds.

"And another thing! I always feel like I'm living a double life. Ellie and Velocity. But ever since we've been in Dakota, both my worlds have just collided in the worst way. Peter was in that bank hostage situation and Velocity had to save him. Velocity shouldn't have anything to do with Peter, he's apart of Ellie's world. And today! I mean apart from family, there's only one person in this universe that knows Velocity is really Ellie Covelli. And that number just moved up to three! Slowly but surely, Velocity and I are beginning to fuse into one person, and that will put everyone around me in danger." She said in hyperspeed mode. She hung her head again morbidly.

1.5 seconds of silence…

"I mean what was I supposed to do? I had to tell you guys. Virgil was right. It wasn't fair that I got to know his identity and he had absolutely nothing. I mean it's not like I would ever go to the media with his identity but I mean he didn't know what I was like underneath the mask. I didn't worry him like that. What was I supposed to do?!" she questioned before hiding her face for the third time.

1 second of silence…

"I'm sorry! I'm scaring you, aren't I? When I'm upset I go into psycho babble mode. I hardly ever get so upset so this is kind of a rare occurrence. Man, you probably think I'm just some extremely over dramatic high school girl…" Ellie moped.

"Well I've known you for about a week and I'm pretty sure you're not an over dramatic high school girl. It's okay to vent, I'm a good listener. And quite obliviously you don't have anyone to talk to about this kind of thing, besides family and the… one other person in the universe?"

"My best friend… who's actually practically family so I don't think she counts." Ellie stated looking up at the ceiling, "Richie, I'm sorry I'm talking your ear off."

"Like I said it's okay. I'm a good listener." Richie assured her. Ellie looked down from the ceiling and her pasty blue eyes flickered over to his. They stared at each other for a few moments, before the sound of the door jingling and Virgil entering made them both look away awkwardly.

"Hey guys." Virgil stated as he sat down next to Richie.

"We got absolutely nothing." Ellie announced as she took a sip of her soda.

"Yeah I basically got nothing too." Virgil informed them grimly.

"This is kind of a bummer. What do we do now? It's getting kind of late." She reminded them, the last time she had checked her watch it was nearly 11:30.

"I guess we'll have to call it a night. We'll figure things out tomorrow morning." Virgil stated. Ellie sighed feeling kind of defeated, Richie nodded as well. "Come on, I bet we can catch a bus if we leave now." Virgil stated. Ellie collected her soda and decided to accompany the two boys even though it was more convenient to run home in the blink of an eye.

Virgil was the first stop and that left Richie and Ellie alone for the majority of the trip. When they eventually got into their neighborhood, the two teenagers exited and began their small walk.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Richie asked just before they reached his house, "Ya know, with the whole Peter situation?"

"Yeah… I'm not gonna confront him about it or anything, I mean he'll come to me when he decides to." Ellie said.

"That's good, don't get yourself too worked up about it though, he seems like a good guy, I'm sure he'll pull himself up alright." Richie assured her.

"Awe thank you Richie." She smiled and hugged him for giving her additional confidence in her brother. When the small hug ended Richie waved before starting to head for his door, Ellie then called after him, "I'll see you in the morning then-" Ellie froze mid sentence when she spotted Richie's empty driveway, "Where are your parents?" Richie turned around from his walkway and his eyes followed her gaze to the vacant driveway.

"Oh, my dad's still on his business trip and my mom is away visiting my aunt." Richie informed her.

"Well… this just isn't going to work." She stated.

"What are you talking about?"

"A psychotic shadowy meta-human might be after you, you are so totally not sleeping alone. I'm definitely not going to wake up just to discover that you've been kidnapped during the middle of the night. Oh heck no. You're spending the night here." Ellie insisted.

"Oh… no, you don't have to put me up for the night… I could just go to Virgil's." Richie stated. Ellie's arms folded.

"What makes you think walking across the city at midnight is any safer than sleeping by yourself?" Ellie asked. Richie paused for a moment before giving in.

"You're dad would allow this?" Richie asked.

"Oh my dad would be absolutely cool with it. But we're not going to tell him…" she said.

"Why not?"

"Because he wouldn't be cool with it if your parent's weren't cool with it, and your parent's aren't cool with it, so we won't even give him a chance to not be cool with the fact your parent's aren't cool with it. You cool with this?" Ellie stated in half a breath.

"Yeah, I think I'm following you…" Richie said slowly.

"Well okay then. Go pack a bag and come on." Ellie motioned for him to continue his journey up his walkway. Richie obeyed and entered his house swiftly. He quickly ran up to his room and shoved an outfit for the morning and a toothbrush in his backpack traveling as lightly as he could. He then rejoined Ellie at the beginning of his walkway where she waited for him. It was once they were in the Covelli residence, that Richie began to feel uncomfortable with the plan.

"Won't your dad find me and be upset that I slept here without any permission?" Richie asked beginning to think that this was a bad idea more and more.

"No silly. My dad works the night shift. He won't be back until 11 in the morning and I'm usually awake and running way before that." Ellie informed him.

"Oh… okay. Well where am I sleeping then? The couch?"

"You're gonna sleep in Candyland tonight, so that way Pete won't stumble across you and rat us out to my dad."

"Wow… I've never seen this deceitful side of your personality before." Richie said.

"Oh shut up, it's very rare that I chose to be devious and underhanded." Ellie grinned, "Go and get yourself set up in the basement." She ordered. Richie went down the hallway and down the stairs until he met the door with the sign "Candyland" tacked on it. Richie pushed passed it and entered the hardcore lair where he dropped his bag in the corner of the room and kicked off his shoes while he was at it. He looked over at the black futon and decided to pull it out in to a bed. The frame was stubborn at first, making it difficult for Richie. But eventually the metal creaked as the futon flattened into a bed. Richie gave a small smile victoriously as he lay down on the newly made bed.

"Oh goody you saved me the trouble." Ellie announced from the doorway. Richie felt heat rush to his face when he saw Ellie reappear wearing a black tank top with a lace trim and a pair of plaid shorts revealing her very long legs. Ellie tossed him a pillow and then placed another pillow on the end of the small futon bed. Richie looked back up in confusion.

"…you're sleeping here too?" he asked feeling himself flush a little darker.

"Well duh, the whole point of you sleeping here is so I can keep an eye on you. That's kind of hard to do when you're two flights of stairs bellow me." Ellie said as she laid down on the bed next to him. She rolled over on her back indifferently and faced the ceiling, while Richie remained laying down on his stomach tensely. Having her accidentally fall asleep in his bed and take a small nap was one thing, but this seemed like a little too much for him to handle. 'This would be easier if she wasn't so… so... Gah!.' Richie thought to himself as he looked away from her unblemished face.

"Night Richie, don't let the bed bugs bite." Ellie said in a sing song voice as she reached above her head and flicked off the light. Richie laid there for a few minutes, growing more anxious by the second. He considered just leaving and calling the whole co-ed sleepover off, but then a cool mint scent dared him to leave. Ellie's mouth parted and her recently brushed teeth glimmered in the darkness, she mumbled something in her half-sleep state. He could have sworn it was 'Stay'. So stay he did.

"Night Ellie…" he said quietly.

Bada Bing! This concludes Chapter Eight.

And damn, those kids really need to stop getting into bed together ;)

And you now know why Peter was so angry at Ellie in Chapter Four.

And I think you're cool.

And I think you're even cooler if you review.

:D