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Disclaimer: Not mine, Static Shock and the characters who appear here or are mentioned belong to the DC animated creators, producers, etc. They are not mine and are only 'borrowed' for the purposes of the story.
"Live Wire" by Karen
For some unknown and completely illogical reason Virgil Hawkins realized that he had the tune from an old 20th-century song playing like a soundtrack in his head. It was a catchy tune, full of hyped up energy, but also the title of the catchy tune was "Things that Make you Go Hmm.:
As catchy and upbeat as the tune was he really could not afford that additional amount of distraction. Gear, as his best friend Richie, used as his moniker while on a mission or going on patrol glided by a tense but determined expression on his face.
"What's up, man?" asked Virgil.
"You're absolutely certain that you calibrated the time machine properly before we left the 21st century?"
"Of course," replied Virgil "Why do you ask?"
"Because this isn't Dakota, and the time-line's right, but everything else is
very different," Gear replied.
"Relax, how bad could it be? Virgil grinned and mustered up all the confidence that he could under the circumstances, "After all the tech is top-notch, we got it from the JLA, and they're the best, right?"
Gear nodded but at the moment Virgil could not tell it was because he agreed with that assessment that or he preferred not to rock the boat. "Something's off, and I suspect the disorientation that we're feeling most likely is caused by the temporal distortion."
"Ah, Gear, man," Virgil began, "You might want to run that by me again, this time in English."
"Okay, Gear offered a wry half-smile. "In other words, instead of jet lag, we're or maybe it's just me, got some major time-lag. The usual symptoms of which include some difficulty in distinguishing sounds, and fatigue."
"Gotcha, I'll keep you posted." Virgil sent his electric-magnetic powered manhole cover in a forward loop as Gear adjusted his course and speed on his jetpacks to match. They'd arrived in the future era two or three days ago, with only a few clues to go by and the signs to look for to indicate where they might locate Virgil's son.
"I feel like we're guest-starring in a remake of that old movie, Bladerunner." Gear remarked suddenly.
"You know the one where Harrison Ford gets framed for a crime he didn't commit, and runs around looking for his wife, while he's being chased by a bunch of crazed cyborgs."
"Yeah, I know the one," replied Virgil, "It's a cool flick, an old one, but a good one. But do me a favor, let's not borrow trouble, kay, and stop worrying so much, I know they've got miracle treatments for old age in the future, but let's not help old age by worrying, Rich."
"You can afford to talk, Gear mock-teased and mock-shoved." Let's go with this, okay?"
Virgil mock-shoved him in return, glad to be back on familiar footing once more and they went on the search for Virgil's son.
At the outset the entire mission had been one long shot of a gamble but once he understood the ramifications of not taking that gamble, one which Virgil had been determined to make. It was odd, really, funny even, not funny like the kind of funny one saw on those old-time Stooges reruns; more like funny ironic.
After the Big Bang and he manifested the powers of electromagnetism and later became the local teenaged superhero, Static Shock, Virgil Hawkins had pretty much not been the responsible type by any stretch of the imagination; learning how to control his powers, dealing with criminals and bad guys, both powered and non-powered alike, had taught him a thing or two about responsibility in a major way.
Learning that he would have a son although one that would not be born several decades removed had knocked him for a serious loop, Virgil "Static Shock" Hawkins, was nothing if not resilient.
Convincing Richie to come along and share the adventure and attendant dangers, had been a little bit more difficult, but not by much. After everything that they had been through, growing up together, in school and then as the resident superheroes after the Big Bang, Virgil thought in the back of his mind, 'Damn, I think I know Richie pretty well, and I just know that he would have been kicking himself all the way down the street, up the steps to his room if he hadn't jumped at the chance to go along on this adventure.'
He had not really stopped to give that much thought as to the identity of the mother of his son; it was enough to know that the boy existed. He had had enough just to swallow that bit of news.
While he'd been distracted a loud noise, the sound of glass being blown in by an explosion broke Virgil out of his train of thought and he exchanged one significant glance with Gear before the pair broke off their forward motion, angled down and headed in the direction of the explosion.
The duo landed on the ground and Virgil flung aside his now de-magnetized manhole cover. Upon a prearranged signal, he and Gear split up, one going left, the other went right. In the center, a group of armed thugs had adopted threatening and vaguely hostile postures at the back of a large room, bare of furnishings except for a metal folding chair where a young man bearing more than a passing resemblance to himself a couple of years younger sat bound and gagged.
A computer disk resting inside of a plastic casing with raised black and yellow lettering read Project "Live Wire." Whatever the hell that means," Gear thought and filed away the information in the back of his mind for future reference.
Gear almost lost his studied calm and what he called his 'game face,' when he saw that, but he was enough of a campaigner not to make too much mention of it especially when a fire-fight was in the offing. These suckers not only looked like tough customers to Static's way of thinking, but he and Gear didn't need to blow their cover or reveal that they knew more than they were letting on. Still, Virgil, "Oh man, Richie's never gonna let me live this one down. Hey, maybe we're not looking for my son, after all. Maybe it's just me, okay, an alternate universe version of me. I mean, anything's possible, right?'
"You are so gonna need your head examined after this, bro," Gear called over where had been busy relieving the thugs of their weapons and was tying them up courtesy of the metallic cords from his high-tech backpack.
The world may have changed radically from what they were familiar with back home in Dakota, but a quite a few things had not changed all that much; the world still needed its heroes and it needed someone to look out for those who were unable to protect themselves.