ShadowFireZelda: I had no idea who the girl was all through the description. I am not good with keeping all that info in my head and constructing an image out of it, but her face was crystal clear in my mind the second she opened her mouth. You nailed the personality.
NeoNazo356: Thank you. After watching/reading the final episode of Gwenpool's initial run, I really wanted to capture her [Fourth Wall Awareness] through the lens of FanFiction.
desdelor97: Sp what does happen during this the last two months of 2010 on earth-16. Not a huge knowledge of DC. Just some basics, and im not able to find anything about it.
NeoNazo356: Prior to the 4th of July in 2010, the only notable events in the Earth-16 timeline are on the Earth-16 timeline like birthdays, formation of the Justice Society and League, and so-on. The reason I started in 2009, and placed the events of Prototype in 2008, was so that way there'd be time to "build up" the MC's skill level (originally he was an ordinary civilian) so he wouldn't be "out of his depth" the first time he meets up with The Team in 2010.
As for why Virgil is such a fast learner, I've sprinkled clues all throughout the story thus-far, leading up to the big reveal.
Also, so you have a point-of-reference, shows like Batman TAS, Superman TAS, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Static Shock, and Batman Beyond all take place on Earth-12.
Supreme King of All Kings: What happens in the 2010 part of E16? I'm not well verse in DC as I am in Marvel. Got a reference?
NeoNazo356: 2010 is when Episode 1 of Young Justice, "Independence Day", takes place. Specifically the 4th of July, a day with plenty of significance in 2008 and 2009 in-world respectively.
Arnold (Guest): Will Carolina later on have a sort of mentor like role, or a friend?
NeoNazo356: That falls into the realm of Character Arc, which will be explored during the next story arc. "Hang ups" are a common part of life, especially in the workplace, and it's getting OVER those hangups that separates the Good fanfiction from the Bad.
vladimr1996: Couldn't they just submerge the Ghost car wholly in hoky water while it was suspended ir did they want to be thorough and the tank was too small?
Btw how did it not regenerate it's missing parts mid disassembling?
NeoNazo356: They wanted to be thorough. As for the other thing, it doesn't "regenerate" like Wolverine, more like the Iron Giant only supernatural instead of alien super-science.
*INTERLUDE*
Around a week had passed since the Ghost Car had finally been laid to rest.
Of course, the exorcism wasn't a "done deal" until next year where they'd all see if whether or not the Ghost Car would catch a case of "Sequelitis".
With no immediate dangers of the supernatural variety looming over their heads, the occupants of the Red Light returned to their own routines. Roland and Lilith hung out in town, Brick and Mordecai vegged out in front of the TV with Tina, Rina went back to classes, and Athena alternated between workshops, her recent showing of what she could make for enthusiasts with assloads of cash radically increasing her customer profile.
As for Virgil, now that his time was freed back up, he began making trips back to the gym owned by Hotel Moscow to work on his Systema, as well as his physical conditioning in general. He was still ostracized by most of his like-aged peers, though those in-the-know about Balalaika contracting him into joining Diamond Dogs (Delivery) remained cordial to him, even going as far as to help him pick up a bit of Russian.
The first chance he had able, he dipped into some of the money he snagged off of Vertigo and put it into buying a new hunting bow from the sporting goods store. As for where he'd keep his archery sharp, the only place he really trusted was Marcus Munitions, though when the man insisted he pay an "entrance fee", Virgil was able to negotiate a year-long "pass" in exchange for buying a high-end firearm from his shop.
That just left the question... What would he buy so he could get Marcus off his back whenever he wanted to use the firing range? Between his Makarov pistol, his Well Kept Coach Gun, his throwing and ballistic knives, as well as his new hunting bow, what archetype could he possibly buy into without overlap?
*INTERLUDE*
Marcus Munitions
November 3, 09:53 EST
As he perused the shop, eager to offload more of Vertigo's dirty money before the wrong person saw it, something off to the side caught his eye, and he was immediately entranced.
"Ah, I see you have much good tastes," Marcus said seeing the glint in Virgil's eyes, which to him meant a bit of padding to his bottom line. "What you're looking at FN P90 submachine gun," he said taking it out from behind the counter and holding it up. "Originating in Belgium, the P90 is a highly accurate bullpup style SMG with an integrated reflex sight and fully ambidextrous controls, one of its selling points being it futuristic appearance. The P90 is currently in service with military and police forces in over 40 nations such as Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Greece, India, Malaysia, Poland, and the United States, where incidentally, the P90 is in use with over 200 law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Secret Service. While developed and initially marketed as a PDW, or Personal Defense Weapon, it can also be considered a submachine gun or compact assault rifle."
"You've got me sold," Virgil admitted. "What's the pricetag?"
"Ordinarily it'd be $1,375, but for you, $1,250."
" . . . Okay, I know you're playing me, but damn if this impulse buy isn't tempting," Virgil said looking at the P90's sleek, curvy lines.
"Excellent! So then I'll be ringing it up? I'll even include some magazines, free-of-charge."
" . . . Why free-of-charge?"
"To be honest, you're doing me a bit of a favor taking this off my hands."
"What, is this thing actually a murder weapon?"
"No no, nothing like that. I just want to open up more shelf space to make room for the new guns that came in this month. It's the same thing with new and used car dealerships where they want to be getting rid of old stock."
" . . . Obviously I don't carry one-and-a-quarter grand on me, so I'm going to have to get the money from home, but when I come back, and I will come back, you can consider that P90 sold."
"Tell your friends!" Marcus called out as the teen left.
*INTERLUDE*
With his weapon stock for "home defense" further-rounded-out, after spending an hour in the firing range and a couple hundred dollars in ammo, Virgil returned to his daily routine... Until the following morning where someone he hadn't heard from in a while suddenly came calling.
*INTERLUDE*
Moxxxi's Red Light
November 4, 07:18 EST
"Virgil, who the hell are you?!"
"Nice to hear from you again too," Virgil hummed in return.
He and Artemis didn't call one another all day every day or anything like that, since they'd met last month, but they texted frequently-enough that they could consider one another friends. They mostly made small chat when they had the opportunity; how was school, what were things like in the other city, what was work like, did anything interesting happen today?
This however, this heated reaction from her, was a significant departure from the casual and laid-back, almost distant attitude they had for one another before.
"I'm streaming YouTube last Halloween, and all of a sudden I see you, wearing a suit of power armor, fighting a haunted muscle car!"
"My housemate is wicked smart."
"Also, is this you in a fashion magazine?!"
"I'm surprised you even recognized me."
"What the hell happened to your work at the gun store!? Or your work for that courier service?!"
"I don't see why you're so upset about this."
"I'm just shocked is all!"
"Well, don't be. Paint it in as pretty a frame as you want, but being a model is still selling yourself as a commodity to be bought and sold. Work is work, and money is money. They might print more of it every day, but you can't earn it every day. You have to work when you can, invest in yourself when you can't. That's the way the real world works when you leave high school."
" . . . I'm sorry I yelled at you," Artemis apologized. "It's just... seeing you putting yourself out there like this, maybe I felt like I wasn't doing enough. That maybe I was inferior to you because the most I ever worry about is my next school assignment, but you're a mature weirdo who talks philosophy like the weather. It made me feel like-"
"A bit of a loser?" Virgil asked cheekily.
"Don't finish my sentences! . . . And yes, it made me feel like a bit of a loser," Artemis pouted. "When I think about it, you have yourself so put-together, and with so-much confidence..."
"Did yours take a hit recently? Was it about a boy?"
" . . . Something like that," Artemis admitted.
'Huh. What I told her as "Special Agent Washington" must've really gotten to her,' Virgil thought to himself. "Well, I'm sure you'll bounce back. I'm actually surrounded by a lot of strong women, so I don't have any outdated misconceptions about masculine superiority or any BS like that."
" . . . Thanks for that. I'm a bit of a loner so I don't really have a lot of friends, but I'm glad I can count you as one of them."
"And I'm pretty happy about our arrangement too," Virgil chuckled.
"By the way, my mom and Moxxi have been writing to one another a lot. You have any idea what their relationship is?"
"Paula's your mother. You'd know more about it than me. All I did was deliver that first letter and the return address."
"Well... My mom didn't say much, just that she and Moxxi parted on bad terms before she went to prison."
"For what?"
"That's... a delicate subject."
"Hey, as long as she wasn't a Nazi, I don't think anything she did could offend me," Virgil offered.
"Wait, are you Jewish?"
"No, I just really dislike Nazis and racists in general," Virgil returned. "Cycling through foster families like other people work through shoes kinda changes the way you look at those imaginary lines drawn in the sand between races and orientations."
"Wait, you were in foster care?!"
"Did that never come up?"
"NO!" Artemis said exasperatedly, causing Virgil to chuckle heartily.
And like that, the two archers' friendship deepened.
*INTERLUDE*
Over the phone, Virgil gave an abridged version of all the mishaps that came with his adolescent life in foster care, which in turn allowed Artemis to open up about her own past.
As it turned out, Artemis' mother was a former super-criminal known as "Huntress". After taking the fall for another super-criminal by the name of "Sportsmaster", presumably under the threat of retaliatory action by said super-criminal, Paula had spent the next six years in prison before being released with a disability pension.
Under most circumstances, "super-criminals" were usually quite reviled and spent many years in prison unless they either broke out or were "cured" of any mental illness and released from treatment. However, the fact that Paula Crock had a family to get home to and remained wholly cooperative in prison meant she had a reduced sentence, and was also let out early.
The fact that she didn't leave a mountain of bodies behind also probably helped a great deal.
Understandably, this was the sort of thing that would ostracize one from their peers, hence why Artemis didn't have many friends. That Artemis herself could remain as coherent as she was with that kind of background was honestly quite amazing.
Of course, her choice in superhero alias still left much to be desired, but he never let on that he knew about that.
Virgil of course wouldn't learn that Sportsmaster was Artemis' father until much later, but for the time being, he was just happy to have a friend to chat with who was both his own age and didn't live under the same roof as him.
*INTERLUDE*
Moxxxi's Red Light
November 7, 16:35 EST
Another week came and went. During his time when he wasn't training his body, Virgil trained his mind. Of course, as a consequence of word getting around that he was trying for his GED, it suddenly became his job to help Rina out with her homework, and by extension, to attempt to keep Tiny Tina at least somewhat school-smart.
It wasn't all bad of course, it felt kinda good to give back in a more-direct manner than padding Moxxi's bottom line, though understandably it was a chore trying to get through to Tina and her short attention span.
He tried bribing her attention with cookies, but then Moxxi complained about him giving Tina diabetes...
Yeah, tutoring Tina was going to be harder than he thought.
"God, dealing with that girl is brain-melting," Virgil groaned as he laid his forehead on the bar counter.
"Want something strong to take the edge off?" Moxxi asked as she pat her head. Most teachers gave up on Tina almost right-away, so she appreciated that Virgil was still trying.
"Root beer. Can't damage my liver too-badly," Virgil grumbled into the laminated wood, the clinking of ice heralding the aforementioned drink being laid next to him. "Thank you."
"Virgil, can I borrow you for a sec?" Athena asked.
"What do you need?" Virgil asked, immediately perking up.
"A friend of mine from out-of-town is arriving by bus, and I don't want anything to happen to them on the way here. Could you go pick them up at the bus stop?"
"This is my first time hearing about this. I didn't know you had any other friends; no offense," he amended.
"None taken," Athena waved off. "The two of them are wearing hoodies, one white, one red. I forwarded your description so they shouldn't wander off with the wrong person."
"Okay. I can handle that. Anything I need to know in advance."
"Weeeeeell..."
*INTERLUDE*
"AAAAHHH! Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! You're him! The mecha pilot from the internet video!" a clearly-excited teenage girl in a red hoodie squealed the moment he introduced himself.
"My friend's friend can be... a bit of a dork."
"Nice to... meet you too..." Virgil returned nervously as she got up in his face. She didn't have the same manic energy as Tina, but he was getting similar vibes from her.
"Sorry about her. She can be a little... excitable," a teenage boy in a white hoodie apologized as he stepped between them.
"Hey, it's no problem. Little Red Riding Hood isn't the only super-excitable girl I know," Vincent waved off as he gave the two a once-over.
Aforementioned "super-excitable girl" looked to be around fifteen years of age, budding into womanhood if the swell of her chest and waist was any indicator. She had pale white skin, feathery shoulder-length jet-black hair dyed red at the tips, and interestingly-enough, legit silver eyes. Her attire consisted of a bright red hoodie, hence why he called her "Little Red Riding Hood", faded blue jeans that clung snugly to her legs, and black boots with red accents. In a way, she reminded him of a puppy on a sugar high.
As for Athena's "friend from out-of-town", he too looked to be around fifteen years of age, lean and a little on the lanky side. While the friend's friend had pale white skin, Athena's friend's complexion was even paler than that, his messy shoulder-length hair a shock white, and surprisingly enough his eyes were the same shade of his own. His attire consisted of a blue zip-down hoodie, a white T-shirt, black jeans, and black sneakers with white accents. In contrast to his friend, the boy was far more reserved, maybe even timid.
'At around that age, the two of them should be just-starting high school,' the brunette thought to himself. "Anyway... I'm Virgil. I'll be your escort this afternoon so the locals don't bug you."
"I'm Ruby!" the excitable girl greeted.
"I'm Arthur. It's nice to meet you," Athena's friend replied with a bow of his head.
"Glad to meet you," Virgil said waving them forward, the brunette standing at their back as they walked along. "So... Athena says you're a friend of hers. How'd you meet?"
"Oh, the two of us met at the Metropolis Science Expo. We exchanged business cards and after a while, we started collaborating on projects too big for one of us alone," Arthur replied, his eyes darting around the seedy neighborhood.
"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to the two of you," he said clapping the two on the shoulder. "Just stay away from the back-alleys. There's still a bit of Vertigo floating around, so you might find a crazed drug fiend or two if you wander too close to a dark place."
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Arthur replied with a nod, putting himself between Ruby and the alleys, Virgil keeping vigil over everything else.
Fortunately, the walk from the bus stop to the Red Light was uneventful. No drug fiends, no muggers, no streakers.
As good a walk as one could hope for in Bludhaven.
*INTERLUDE*
"R-Ruby... stay beside me," Arthur said as-bravely as he could as they were led into the seedy bar, wrapping an arm around the girl's shoulder and drawing her close.
"Well aren't you chivalrous today?" the redhead said in turn with a smile on her face, the petite girl wrapping an arm of her own across the boy's back, causing a blush to blossom across his face as she closed the gap between them.
"So, you two dating or...?"
"Yep! Arthur's my little snuggle-bunny~" Ruby cooed with a smile on her face as she rubbed her cheek against his, the whitette's face turning an even brighter shade of red.
"I-I finally got the courage to ask her out," Arthur replied timidly, the edges of his crimson eyes glinting in the light.
"Well, good for you," Vincent said with an appreciative nod. He was always a sucker for a good "girl next door" love story. "Right this way," he said gesturing to the stairs, Athena's guest and her guest's friend ascending the steps into the living room upstairs. "Athena, we're back!"
"Virgil, glad to see nothing happened while you were out."
"Did you expect something to happen?"
"Well... You are a bit of a trouble-magnet," the blond admitted.
"Is this because of the drug fiend or the giant squid?" Virgil asked aloud, the two younger teens raising a brow in his direction.
"A little of Column A, a little of Column B."
"Wait, you mean there really was a giant squid?!" Ruby gawped.
"Don't ask."
"But-"
"Don't. Ask."
"Eep!" Ruby squeaked under Virgil's intense gaze.
"So Arthur, why are you here?" Athena asked.
"Weeeelllllll..." Arthur trailed off nervously.
*INTERLUDE*
"Uwaaaaah! So cool!" Ruby squealed excitedly as they were lead into the workshop.
"Don't see what's so cool about it. The thing's totally trashed. I should know, I was in that thing when it got trashed," Virgil grumbled as he beheld the ruined T-45 Powered Armor replica.
After the thing was dragged back home, Athena strung it back up by the shoulder mounts, the suit dangling largely-uselessly above the ground like a side of beef. Everything was as he'd left it when he'd been carved out of the thing; completely FUBAR. The frame was warped and the laminated plating was delaminated; suffice it to say it'd take a lot of time and effort to get the thing up and running again. And that was only if Athena didn't scavenge it for usable parts.
"The T-45 replica may've gotten trashed..." Athena said putting a hand upon the chestplate, "but at least nothing happened to you," she said with a soft smile as she looked over her shoulder, a blush of his own blooming across Virgil's face.
"Maybe... though it was way cooler when it was in working order," Virgil asserted.
"What're you talking about? Battle-damaged mechs are always cooler!"
"Technically it's a powered suit. A mech has a cockpit," Athena corrected with a straightening of her glasses.
"I don't think she really hears you anymore," Arthur hummed as the girl excitedly zipped around the dangling armor like a busy, busy bee, snapping selfies of herself from various angles as she beheld the ruined armor in all its glory.
"So, uh... Arthur. What kind of stuff have you collaborated on Athena with?" Virgil asked.
"Programming mostly," Arthur admitted as he dug a USB drive from his pocket before holding it out to Athena. "Here you go, those miniaturized schematics you wanted. My friend at Wayne Tech was a big help. I even included some links to the parts you might need."
"And here are the mechanical schematics for you," Athena replied trading one USB for another, the white-haired teen hooking it onto a lanyard before tucking it back under his shirt. "So, why come in-person? Usually you reserve a courier for-"
"So cool!"
"She would be why," Arthur admitted as he pointed toward Ruby. "When she found out I had a hand in the programming for the servomotors and work on the helmet, she got... really insistent I bring her here to see it in person."
" . . . I bet she did," Athena hummed lowly, watching as the girl's bosom bounced with her excited jumping.
"D-Don't worry, she's trustworthy! I do a bit of work on her sis' motorcycle and some stuff of her own. Self-defense stuff mostly," Arthur waved off.
"Well, if you say I can trust her, I'll believe you," Athena sighed.
"Thank you. Sorry for the unusual request," Arthur said bowing his head.
"It's no problem," Athena waved off. "As long as Ruby doesn't touch anything she shouldn't, I don't have to vaporize her," she said jokingly.
"Wait... You have laser cannons? Real laser cannons?!" Ruby asked with wide eyes. "Ooh! Can I see? Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleeeeeeease?"
"What's her problem?" Virgil asked as the girl got really into Athena's personal space.
"She's... a bit of a weapon nut..." Arthur admitted as he scratched his cheek. "The bigger the better, in most cases."
"Some cases," Ruby pouted, her hands on her hips. "I'm not some vulgar girl who only cares about big gun barrels! It's how you use the gun that matters, not the size of it!"
"That's what she said."
"Mom! Stop listening in on our conversations!" Athena cried in embarrassment.
"Well..." Virgil hummed as Ruby began zipping around the room, looking for aforementioned "laser cannons" while ogling any piece of weaponized tech that caught her fancy. "At least things have calmed down a bit."
Of course, the peace wouldn't last for long.
*INTERLUDE*
Just a smidge of Filler before the next arc, setting down the groundwork for future "expansions".