Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own soul. And even that is debatable.
Dedication: This goes out to LTC for giving me the idea of this in one of her reviews for "Shatter". Also, in reply to that last one you sent me...I didn't mean that Richie hadn't been kidnapped in those episodes. I just meant that I liked it when he was kidnapped in those episodes, because Richie in pain and/or bondage is fun XD
Notes: This is NOT a take on Cinderella in any shape or form! Rather, the title is a nod to one of the most annoying songs ever, that, despite that, helped me to develope the idea.
Cinderella
Chapter One
The fading emergency lights flickered haphazardly through their grimy shells, barely illuminating the abandoned subway station past the point of pure darkness. Still, with minimal effort, he was just able to distinguish the silhouette of the colossal meta-dog being used as his prison guard.
He groaned to himself. He hated dogs.
Shifting in his binds against the steel table he'd been placed on, Gear frowned as he tried to think up an escape plan. With Backpack's help, he could easily snap out of the chain restraints that had been used on him, but after that he would have nowhere to go. One wrong move and the dog would be on him.
And he really hated dogs.
He could probably use Backpack to create a high frequency dog whistle to distract the mutt, yet there was still a chance that the animal's exposure to the Bang gas had not only mutated it to be excessively large and ugly, but immune to deafening noises as well.
He really, really hated dogs.
And then there was the hope that Static would come and save him like always….
The dog growled and barked in its sleep.
Waiting for Static sounded like a damn good plan to him.
Sighing, Gear leaned his head back against the table and closed his eyes. He really needed to change his superhero name to Damsel In Distress. Or at least Gear In Distress, since he wasn't really a damsel (at least not in the female sense, anyway). G.I.G for short. It had a nice ring to it.
His head was starting to hurt. How hard did those meta-thugs hit him anyway? And what did they want?
"Eh, you know by now not to ask yourself that, Gear. You're simply an easy target."
The dog snarled.
"Who talks to himself in dark caverns when tied up to a table in perfect setup to be eaten by a giant mutant dog who looks hungry and, by talking, you are provoking."
Rising to its feet, the dog began a predatory waltz towards Gear.
"Static, now would be a good time to save me."
In the faulty light, Gear could make out the shimmer of teeth.
He really hated dogs.
"Virgil, get your ass here and save me or I'll--"
"You'll what?" The teasing voice was, at that moment, the most wonderful thing Gear had ever heard. Turning as far as he could in his binds, Gear looked behind him at the glowing figure that sent waves of relief through him.
"I'll be with you in a second," Static announced loftily, grinning as he swooped up the dog in one simple motion and pinned it against the wall. The animal screeched angrily.
"Back to the doghouse for you!" With a shock of power, Static released the canine, grinning as it whimpered pitifully and raced away down the tunnel.
Gear rolled his eyes.
"Wanna help me anytime soon?"
"When it catches my fancy," Static said with a laugh as he made his way to the table, giving the electronic mechanism on the bonds enough of a spark to short circuit them. Sighing in relief, Gear removed his limbs from the chains and sat up.
"Your timing is impeccable."
"Yeah, well, I try…" Static replied, throwing Gear's arm over his shoulder and allowing his friend to use him as a brace. Gear groaned in pain and tried his best to walk without a limp, not wanting to alert Static of all of his injuries.
"So…what baddies await our emergence of such an aesthetically pleasing hideout, this time?" he wondered, half as a distraction and half because he was honestly curious. Virgil grinned with a casual shrug.
"None. I kicked their asses early on." He regarded Gear with an amused glance. "You got taken out by some pretty easy crooks."
"Whatever," Gear muttered, pushing away from Static and making his way up the steps of the abandoned subway station. Taking in a large breath of air once he reached the surface, he sighed, enjoying the way the sun felt on his skin. He nearly shrieked from surprise when he was suddenly floating midair in Static's arms.
"Dude, what are you doing?" he yelled over the wind, clutching on to his friend tightly despite himself. Static shrugged again.
"You were limping."
"Was not!"
"You definitely were. And two hundred feet off the ground? Not a good place to argue with me about it."
O:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:O
"Ow!"
"Stop being such a baby!"
"That hurt!"
"Well, maybe if you hadn't been riding your scooter without a helmet, we wouldn't be here in the first place!" Sharon hissed, yanking Richie's head back into her line of vision so that she could continue her examination of his injuries.
"Well, maybe those creeps hit me so hard that my helmet might as well have not existed," Richie muttered underneath his breath, holding back a yelp when Sharon's fingers came into contact with a particularly tender area.
"What did you say?" she demanded, keeping her ministrations gentle despite the edge in her tone. Richie forced out a nervous chuckle, not particularly caring for the odds of his situation.
"Err, that you're wonderful and that if I had an older sister, I'd want her to be just like you?"
"That's what I thought." Releasing Richie's head, Sharon turned towards the kitchen. "Baby brother! Grab some ice in a bag for your boy here!"
"I don't need iiiiiaaaahhh!" Richie cried, smacking Sharon's hand away from the growing lump on his forehead as he gave her a nasty glare. The girl merely smirked and folded her arms across his chest.
"Something's gotta take that swelling down. And unless you want a piece of steak…"
Instantly, Richie's mind reviewed the exact details of all of the health issues presented from raw meat coming in contact with his face
"Err. Ice is good."
"Thought so," Sharon said smugly as she stood. "And wear a helmet next time!" The slight affection Richie caught in Sharon's tone was betrayed by the welting slap he got on his arm.
"You'd do well in a pre-child abuse Catholic school," Richie grimaced, rubbing at his newest injury. It was already calming down from its immediate fiery red. Sharon grinned and patted Richie's head in an area that she knew was free from harm.
"Virgil tells me that all the time."
"Tells you what?" Virgil wondered as he stepped into the room, tossing a bag of ice back and forth in his hands. He gave Richie a 'heads-up' nod and threw it to his friend. Catching it deftly, Richie frowned at it for a moment, before hesitantly raising it to his head. Sharon rolled her eyes.
"You are such a baby!" she hissed as she grabbed Richie's hand and swung it up to the swelling on his forehead. Richie cried out and would have jumped when the cold hit sensitive skin had Sharon not been holding him down to prevent it.
"Hey, at least you don't have a concussion," Virgil said with an "I'm enjoying this far too much" laugh. "You don't even want to know what she did to me when I had a concussion."
"I have an ide – ow!" Richie shrieked as Sharon pressed down harder on the ice. "Sharon, I love you, you know that?"
Sharon released the pressure.
"Aww, I love you too!" her voice was patronizing and held the clear insinuation of, "You'd better."
Groaning, Richie laid his head back and closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, it was suddenly dark outside and Sharon was nowhere to be found. Turning his head slightly to the side, Richie frowned when he saw Virgil reading beside him on the couch.
"Ugh, dude…Are you reading? How hard did I hit my head?" he mumbled, sitting up straight. Virgil looked over at him and grinned, before pulling the book open and showing Richie the pages he was glancing at. Wedged in neatly between page one hundred twenty-eight and one hundred twenty-nine was 'The Adventures of Plantman #216'.
"Ah, okay. For a second there I thought I had woken up in another dimension."
"Rich, even in another dimension I wouldn't be caught dead reading," Virgil paused and turned the book over to glance at the cover, "The Importance of Being Ernest."
"One of Sharon's?"
"And my pop's… they're both crazy for it. Personally, I prefer the movie...and that's saying a lot."
"I bet Frieda and Daisy read that kind of stu--"
Virgil perked up and cut in. "Do you really think Daisy's read it?"
Frowning in confusion, Richie nodded. "I guess… she likes that sort of thi…" And suddenly Richie had 'The Adventures of Plantman #216' tossed carelessly in his lap and Virgil was flipping 'The Importance of Being Earnest' back to page one so that he could begin reading.
At any other time, Richie probably would have found some deep metaphorical meaning to Virgil's actions in connection to recent events and an omen of things to come because he was naturally paranoid and neurotic like that. However, at that particular moment, with his head aching and his mind quite loopy from all of the Tylenol he'd ingested, the only thoughts running through his head were, "Hey! Don't treat Plantman like that!" and "Batman would never stand for this."
O:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:O
It'd been a week since Static and Gear had been needed to protect the city. An entire week. And frankly, Richie wasn't complaining. His head would still ache occasionally, but aside from that, health-wise, he was feeling fit as a fiddle.
But how the hell was a fiddle fit anyway?
Groaning to himself, Richie laid his head down in his arms, being careful not to hit what had become dubbed as "Mt. Richie" on his forehead.
"Mr. Foley? Are you feeling all right?" the teacher's voice sounded concerned and Richie gave her a thumbs-up sign in return. He waited until he heard Mrs. Withmore go back to explaining Polar Graphs, before finally sitting up and looking around.
"Maybe I should just skip high school…and college while I'm at it…" he mumbled under his breath, resting his chin on the palm of his hand. Virgil raised an eyebrow and glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.
"And leave me here all alone?"
"Eh, you'll manage. You've got--" All at once the bell rang and Virgil was out of his seat and across the room.
"Daisy!"
Frowning, Richie stood and slid his books into his book bag.
"Err, right. I was going to say the Bang Babies, but Daisy works too," he muttered. With a sigh, he kicked his chair in under his desk and threw his backpack over his shoulder, beginning his now frequently solo trek to Government.
"It's not that I'm bitter…" he grumbled, keeping his gaze down at the floor. "It's not…V's allowed to have a girlfriend."
Who he neglects you for.
"Oh, shut up."
Who he ditches you for.
"Maybe I should just ask Frieda out… she's been hinting…"
You're gay.
"Shut up, already!"
"Okay okay! Yeesh." Whipping around so quickly that he nearly lost balance, Richie rammed head first into Virgil.
"You know, if you're pissed that I didn't wait for you, you should have just said something instead of getting mad about it…" Virgil said quietly, hurt clearly showing in his eyes. Taking a step back, Richie had the decency to flush.
"I, uh, no! I was…" He adverted his gaze to the ground and felt his cheek grow warm. "Talking to myself…"
With a relieved grin, Virgil threw his arm around Richie's shoulders. "Sometimes I wonder what's going on in that super brain of yours, Rich…but other times…like now? Not so much."
Rolling his eyes, Richie pushed Virgil away. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where's Daisy?" Though he really didn't want to know, he felt it would be rude not to ask about her. Especially since she was supposed to be his friend too. Supposed to be.
"Took a detour to the ladies room. I hear it's fabulous this time of year."
"Dude?" Richie said with a grin. "Don't ever say 'fabulous' again."
"Sorry, sorry-" Virgil cut himself off and let the grin fall from his face, bringing his hand up to his ear.
"Are you picking up a police scanner?" Richie wondered, keeping his voice low. Virgil nodded and made a beeline towards the nearest school exit. Eyes widening, Richie raced to catch up.
"No, Rich! You've go to stay here and cover for me!" Virgil shouted as he stepped out the door. Richie frowned and stopped just below the 'Exit' sign.
"Why can't you be the one to cover for once?" he called after his friend. Virgil turned around and grinned, running backwards.
"Because what would you do to them? Think them into submission?"
In that instant, Richie felt even more useless than when he was being held hostage.
O:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:O
Virgil hadn't come back.
Richie glanced at his watch for the twelfth time since school had been let out, possibilities of what could have delayed his friend running through his mind. All were unpleasant.
Shaking his head stubbornly, Richie dropped his book bag on the gas station floor and dug out his uniform while calling Backpack to him. The small robot beeped its recognition and crawled its way out from under his work desk, making itself at home on Richie's back.
As he pulled on his helmet and utility belt, Gear commanded Backpack to immediately search for signs of Static's electrical signal. He picked up the information needed quickly and popped a few extra Zap Caps into his belt. Whatever had kept Static, if it was strong enough to detain him so long, 'thinking it into submission' certainly wasn't an option.
O:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:O
It wasn't that Static was losing.
It just that he wasn't winning either.
Gear's eyes widened as he caught sight of his partner mid-stalemate with a new Bang Baby. A new Bang Baby that seemed to share Static's power. Groaning to himself, Gear mentally chalked off every weapon he'd brought with him. None were particularly strong enough to stop a Static-powered meta-human, unless he wanted the death of this boy on his hands. Which he didn't. So that left him with one option.
Act as a distraction and/or bait.
Like always.
With a roll of his eyes, Gear closed in on the scene in front of him, lowering himself closer to the ground so as not to be spotted just yet.
A spark, followed by a hiss from somewhere behind him, made his blood run cold.
"Well, shit."
Another spark, this time accompanying a crackle, and suddenly Gear was falling out of the sky.
He'd never been so thankful that he'd decided on a 'sneak attack' from the ground before. Because falling from ten feet in the air was somehow much better than falling from one hundred.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit…" he cursed under his breath, scrambling into a sitting position as he pulled off his right jetskate. "Shit."
One of the wires had fried.
"Could this week get any better?" he muttered sarcastically, yanking the skate back onto his foot. Pushing himself up into a standing position, he rolled out his arms and legs so as to get the feeling back into his limbs and began to make his way on foot to the present battle.
Which would have been decidedly less humiliating had it not been for the crowd that had gathered.
With a frown and an indignant huff, Gear took a moment to rationalize the best way to go about this. In retrospect, rationality hadn't exactly been a strong point for him at that instance in time.
"All right! Move it! Superhero coming through! Move it! Move it!"
Tact wasn't exactly a current strong point for him either.
Pushing his way into the crowd, Gear ignored the odd looks he received, as well as the way that few people would move for him unless he shoved. He blamed it on their shock.
When he finally reached the other side of the mass, he found himself taking in a much needed breath as he stared up at Static and the new Bang Baby still in battle. Only now Static was winning. Somewhat.
Reaching into his utility belt, Gear pulled out one of his Zap Caps, aiming it at, who he had dubbed in his mind, the Anti-Static. A wave of relief fell over him when the Cap locked soundly in place around Anti-Static. At least some things were going right…
"Gear! Move!"
"Hu--" In the second that it took for Gear to bring his gaze back to Static, the Zap Cap was suddenly off the Anti-Static and clutching Gear tightly around his chest.
"What a nice little present I've found.." Anti-Static cackled as he lowered himself to the ground. Gear noticed that he was at least five inches taller than the real Static. And frighteningly more built.
"Static!" Gear shouted, struggling to break free from the bonds that entrapped him. He really shouldn't have done such a good job on them.
"Lightning Bolt! Stay away from him!" Static shouted abruptly, coming down so that he was hovering just above Gear. Gear's eyes widened as he saw how close the Anti-Static (Lightning Bolt, apparently) had gotten to him.
"So this is your side-kick?" Lightning Bolt was smirking now.
"So what if he is?"
Gear let out an alarmingly loud huff of indignity.
"Partner!"
"Huh?" Static looked over his shoulder at Gear in confusion.
"I'm your partner!"
"Oh…" Static muttered, flushed with embarrassment. He laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, dude. Heat of the moment."
Gear rolled his eyes and looked back at Lightning Bolt. Or, at least, he would have been looking at Lightning Bolt had Lightning Bolt still been there.
"He's gone," he mumbled, struggling into a sitting position. Static whipped around to see for himself if the villain had truly vanished, groaning when he realized Gear was right. Sighing, Static turned back to his partner and pressed the retraction button on the Zap Cap.
"You and your damsel in distress routine cost us a baddie yet again," Static sighed good-humoredly, holding out his hand to help up Gear. Gear stared at the offered limb for long moment, before looking away and getting up himself.
"Yeah."
Avoiding the odd glance he received from Static and the murmurs from the crowd, Gear turned and made his way down the nearest alleyway.
When he had finally reached the gas station, he didn't know if he was disappointed or thankful that Static hadn't followed him. Sighing miserably, Gear took a seat on the old rotting couch that centered the room, gently removing his helmet.
"What's with this funk I've been in?" he mumbled to himself, gazing down at his reflection in his helmet's visor. He frowned at what he saw.
"Who are you kidding? You've always been in this funk…you just never noticed before."
He groaned and tossed his helmet across the room, burying his face in his hands.
"So why am I noticing it now?" Sulking, Richie leaned his head back and closed his eyes, trying to clear his thoughts. A soft throbbing in the crook of his arm caught his attention, however, and he opened his eyes again, focusing on a small incision on the vein of his right arm.
"What's this?" he murmured, fingering the tiny hole. It looked as if a needle of some sort had pierced him. He frowned.
"It's probably just a bug bite.." he reasoned, lying back again. He would just get a bit of rest here before he had to head home. He really wasn't in the mood to see anyone anytime soon.
Closing his eyes once more, he sighed and shifted his position to make himself more comfortable, ignoring the growing pulse in his arm.
TBC