#3: Breakout

[Drake]

Ultimate Outsiders #3
Breakout
By Drake

Dakota City, Six Months Ago

Tap tap tap!

An African American teenaged boy of average height and average build ran for his life along the streets of Dakota City. His dreadlocks flapped underneath his bright blue Dakota City Shocks flatbill as he hopped a fence into a church’s parking lot. The lot was empty. It was a Thursday evening, and the most you could expect from a church in the ghetto of Dakota City at this time of night was a couple janitors inside the building itself or a parked car with two teenagers inside doing God-knows-what.

The boy tried to hop the fence on the other side of the parking lot, but tripped on his way up and crashed into the ground. A shadow loomed over him.

“No! Stay the hell away!” The boy scrambled back against the fence, eyes wide with terror. The metallic being in front of him, while humanoid, was an abomination. Its buzzed orange replica of hair and metal muscles all screamed human, but the boy would never make the mistake of even considering it one of his kind.

The robot crouched down, bending the tight green pants it wore, and spoke with a deep robotic voice, “Virgil Ovid Hawkins, you are one of the chosen.”

And as it had so many times before, the Amazo android covered the teen’s face with its enormous hand, and finished, “The game begins.”

One Day Ago

“His vital signs are solid. The experiments appear to not drain him too heavily.”

“That’s good. This kid’s a special one; I can feel it. He’s surpassed all previous elemental metas in total output and accepted input. He’ll be a Knight before too long.”

“I have no doubt. Rumor is the White Bishops are coming by next week. I bet he’ll get drafted then.”

“Can’t wait. Might even get a bonus out of this.”

“Don’t hold your breath. The Royals are hard asses…”

“I don’t know…I’ve heard a rumor that—“

“Wait, is he awake? His eyes are opening…”

Virgil Hawkins remained calm as he opened his eyes to find himself in a bright white room surrounded by two lab coats. He couldn’t move. He was strapped down into a stasis pod, one of many blue-rimmed metal containment cells for the trapped teens of…well, wherever the hell he was.

“Good morning, Virgil. Did you sleep well?” the scientist on his right asked. He was a short, stout thirty-something man.

“Oh yeah. After getting shocked to death, you bet,” Virgil sarcastically retorted.

“Right. Well, it’s your activity period, kid. Count yourself lucky,” the left scientist, a fat middle-aged man, said.

“I’m soooo lucky,” Virgil sighed as his pod was automatically rolled over to the edge of a room, alongside a dozen or so other pods. The pod’s orange bullet proof glass front only opened when his pod locked into a place in a compartment that adjoined his stasis room and a wide, similarly white-walled room that held a handful of balls, workout machines, and toys for the youngest of the kidnapped children.

Virgil walked out precisely at the same time the other kids did. Then came the automated announcement from a speaker Virgil could never find.

“Remember children,” the recorded female voice began, “No fighting, no using your powers, and no attempts at escape. Any child who breaks these rules will find him or herself stuck in their pod for a week during all activity periods. Now, let the games begin.”

It was always the same. Always. Virgil still shivered whenever he heard that last phrase “let the games begin.” It was all too similar to what the Amazo drone had said to him before taking him here. Virgil still wondered what his parents thought, if they were still out looking for him after…how long had it been? Six months? And his little sister, Sharon, could she handle the schoolyard bullies on her own? Was she still missing her brother Virgie? It still hurt Virgil just to think about it. And that was without mentioning his friends, without mentioning Richie.

“Yo, Virge! Stop daydreaming and get over here!”

Virgil turned and walked towards the young man who called him, Carlos Valdes.

Carlos was one of the oldest teens in the facility at nearly 19 years old. He clocked in at six feet five inches and weighed nearly 230 pounds. The guy was huge, an ex-highschool football star, and had been at the facility as long as anybody.

Next to Carlos stood a thin yet fit latino teen of average height. His left ear had a small hole in it at the base, making Virgil think he’d had it pierced before he was taken. The teen’s hair was a bit messy now, but it gave Virgil the impression that the boy had usually jelled it up with product before…well, it was always the same. Before they were taken.

“I want you to meet somebody, Virge,” Carlos wrapped his arm around the other latino teen, causing him to flinch, “This here’s…”

“Please,” Miguel nudged Carlos’ arm away and held his hand out to Virgil to be shaken, “My name is Miguel Barragan. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Virgil.”

“Wassup,” Virgil shook Miguel’s hand.

“Miguel here’s a freak. Like, even for us,” Carlos explained, “He had his powers before he came in. The ‘Mazos picked him up yesterday on his way into the States.”

“Mexico?” Virgil asked.

Miguel nodded with a wide grin, “Sí.”

“That’s Spanish for ‘yes’ for you lesser minded folk,” Carlos teased Virgil.

“Screw off, bro,” Virgil lightly pushed Carlos back, grinning, “Yo estudié español en mi escuela antes de…uh…”

“Tu secuestro,” Miguel helped.

“Mi secuestro,” Virgil’s smile grew, “Thanks, Miguel.”

“It’s not a problem,” Miguel happily replied.

“So, you had the food in this place yet, Miguel? It’s awful.” Carlos wrapped his arm around Miguel and Virgil and led them away towards the work out area.

“They feed us through a tube,” Virgil interjected.

“My point still stands,” Carlos replied, causing Virgil and Miguel to laugh.

“It can’t be any worse than my tía’s cooking,” Miguel joked.

“I haven’t met your aunt nor ate her food but if she can beat out tube food, then seriously, man, how are you even alive?” Virgil laughed.

“I’ve wondered that for years,” Miguel said.

Suddenly, all the lights in the room shut off. In fact, once Virgil looked around, he realized all visible lights in the facility were off.

“What the hell…”

As quickly as the lights had gone off, alarms burst on. Some of the younger kids started to cry. Virgil walked out to a glass panel and looked out. Suddenly, an armored guard was thrown against the window, causing Virgil to jump back in fright.

“Jesus!” Virgil cried. All around him, in every room, the facility’s employees were being taken down one by one by an invisible assailant. Carlos grabbed Virgil’s arm and pulled him back.

“Virge…”

Virgil pulled himself away. “This is it.”

“What?” Carlos wondered.

“Our chance to get out of this hellhole,” Virgil turned back to Carlos, grinning like a madman, “Carlos, someone’s here to break us out!”

As if on cue, an effeminate figure floated out of the floor, her body oddly distorted and clear. Suddenly, her body solidified and the mystery woman pulled back her black hood to reveal a green face, freckles, and strawberry blonde hair. If Virgil hadn’t been so mesmerized by the possibility of escape, he might have thought she was cute.

<Everyone out!> the woman’s voice was in Virgil’s head, and he assumed the others’ as well. The green girl flicked out her wrist and one of the glass panels fell to the ground. All the white clad children didn’t move. Then, all at once, as the door in the adjacent room opened to reveal a wide hallway, nearly every child ran for the open room.

Carlos grabbed ahold of Virgil before he could run off.

“Virge, I don’t know about this. That girl…”

“This is our chance!” Virgil exclaimed, “C’mon!”

“But what if…I mean, we were taken for a reason. You’ve heard about the Knight program,” Carlos said.

“Heard about…what?” Virgil asked.

<Enough with the talking!> the voice was in their heads again. The girl was staring at them, her arms crossed. <Get going!>

“Virgil…” Carlos begged, “Or Miguel, you at least…”

“I’m with Virgil,” Miguel said. Virgil grabbed Carlos’ arm and tried to pull him towards the open room.

“We’re wasting time!”

“No!” Carlos pulled away, “No, I’m not going.”

“What the hell, Carlos?” Virgil exclaimed.

“You don’t know, Virge. The Knight program, the things we can do…sure this all sucks, but once we get selected…”

<Silence!>

All three boys turned to look at the green girl. She glared at them furiously. The girl turned her gaze on Virgil.

<Leave him, Virgil. Go. Find Harper Row. She is the key. And stay unified. Without each other, you will be lost.>

Suddenly, a picture of a pale, pierced girl entered Virgil’s mind, alongside a mental video of sorts. The green girl was leading him to a building…to the girl’s headquarters.

“Thank you,” Virgil said, before pulling Miguel away and running towards the door.

<You’re welcome.>

“VIRGIL!!” Carlos cried out as his friend left the room.

Meanwhile, Miguel was entranced, “Did you see that? The girl and that…it was like instructions on how to find her.”

“Yeah,” Virgil agreed, “Now let’s get going, Miguel.”

As soon as they left the room, Virgil and Miguel turned right into a hallway full of guards. The lights were still off, and with them the defenses, but the guards were armed and dangerous. They wore heavy body armor, and had detained a number of kids already. A full on battle had broken out. Bodies littered the ground. Most were children’s. Virgil’s stomach turned.

“You monsters!” Virgil cried out, blue electricity crackling around his fingers. All of the guards’ guns whipped out from their control and hit them in their faces. That knocked most of them out. Miguel finished the rest with a blast of purple energy bricks.

“Nice,” Miguel said.

“You didn’t do so bad yourself,” Virgil replied. Both teens ran down the hallway. Now, the rest of the children formed around them, allowing them to lead the way. Around each turn, the kids were met with dozens of guards. Each one was taken out without much trouble. Either some blast of energy from a kid in the back knocked them out, or Virgil used the guards’ guns to beat them into unconsciousness. Sometimes Miguel even threw in a few bricks. As they neared a glass door that glowed from external sunlight, Miguel explained to Virgil his powers were psionic based.

“I can create these psychic constructs that just sort of form into bricks,” Miguel said.

“Great. Awesome. Explain it to me later when I’m not fighting for my life,” Virgil retorted while throwing a guard into a wall using his body armor.

“Yours are static shock based…or is that the correct term?” Miguel wondered.

“Enough, Miguel.”

“But it’s cool! Superpowers are awesome!”

“Miguel!”

The group of children, now numbering fourteen strong, burst out into the sunlight. Each one instinctively covered their eyes, allowing them to adjust to the daylight. Virgil looked around. They were in the middle of nowhere. The building they’d just been in was a humongous warehouse, or, at the very least, that’s what it looked like from the outside.

“Hands on your head!”

Virgil turned around to come face to face with a squadron of twenty armed men. This time they were carrying plastics, with no body armor.

“Clever,” Virgil muttered.

Chaos ensued as a battle broke out. The soldiers shot down the children with plastic pellets. Whether they were dead or just unconscious, Virgil couldn’t tell. He was caught in battle with three soldiers alongside Miguel. The armed men were trained well, and the duo couldn’t do anything but hide behind a wall of psionic bricks.

“Shit,” Virgil cursed.

“Mierda!” Miguel agreed, “We need a plan.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Virgil spotted a trashcan. A metal trashcan.

“Push them back,” Virgil said. Miguel nodded, and with a push of his hands his wall of psionic bricks exploded outwards, knocking the soldiers away.

With the few seconds he had, Virgil electrified the lid of the trashcan and threw it at the three soldiers, finishing them off. The lid bounced back to Virgil with a flick of his wrist. He caught it with one hand.

“That was awesome!” Miguel grinned, “God, we’re superheroes!”

Virgil couldn’t help but smile a little, “Yeah, we are.”

The duo turned around. Virgil’s smile turned upside down. All of the soldiers had been effectively beaten, either dead or knocked out. But a body of a beaten child followed every two defeated soldiers. The remaining kids were either running or flying off.

“We have to help them…” Miguel muttered.

The sounds of soldiers scampering inside towards them echoed through the open door.

“We can’t. We’ve gotta go!” Virgil threw the trash lid down. He had only one option. He’d tried this a number of times during his ‘testing’ but each time he had only gotten limited success with the saucers the scientists had given him.

“Can you fly?” Virgil asked. Miguel was already in the air, floating on a handful of bricks. It was clear that he was concentrating extensively because the talkative young man didn’t respond, instead focusing on the bricks below him.

“OK…” Virgil mumbled and stood on the trashlid. He concentrated.

“C’mon, amigo!”

Static electricity flowed from Virgil into the lid. It lifted off the ground. Soldiers burst from the door behind him.

“Hahahaha!” Virgil couldn’t help but laugh gleefully as he began to soar through the air. Leave it to a run-or-die situation to get him to finally make it work. Miguel floated just behind him as they flew higher into the air, escaping the rain of bullets that followed them.

“Next stop: Detroit!” Virgil declared.

“Wherever that is!” Miguel agreed, causing Virgil to laugh. This was going to take a while.

The Nest, Now

“AGH!”

The black-haired teenaged intruder collapsed to the ground, holding his cheek. The bullet Harper had fired had gone straight through the side of his mouth.

“Holy shit,” Harper muttered, stunned. She’d never actually fired a gun before. Cameron had trained her to, but she had never fired a live round…and certainly not at a living being!

“Shoot him again, Bluebird! In the head!” Cam demanded, struggling to reach his wheelchair.

“I can’t…I can’t kill somebody,” Harper argued.

“Yer might’ve jst anyway, kd…” The Intruder grumbled out, “Ld psning. Worse than wth humans.”

“He has a bomb in his chest, Bluebird! You heard him earlier! End it now!” Cam demanded. Harper had heard The Intruder say that right before she’d shot him, but…

“A bullet to his head won’t disarm the bomb!” Harper argued.

“Back up!” Blue Beetle, the armored teen, was back in action, flying towards The Intruder, who still was on the ground holding his cheek, “Maybe I can disarm the bomb.”

“Lk hell,” The Intruder groaned, “Only an EMP wll…” He collapsed.

“What the hell are we gonna do?” Beetle wondered, “The bomb could blow any second!”

Just then, the elevator doors to The Nest burst open and in flew Virgil Hawkins and Miguel Barragan. Both teens still wore their white jumpsuits from the facility.

“What the hell is going on here?” Virgil muttered.

“Oh great…” Harper grumbled, turning to fight the new intruders. “Your boy’s about to blow, you two! I’d run back to Checkmate now if I were you, ‘cause nothing short of an EMP is going to disarm that bomb.”

“Whoa, Harper, we aren’t the bad guys. We were sent here to help,” Virgil said, “And did you say an EMP?”

“Yeah, like I’m gonna believe that…” Harper muttered, “I’ve already made one mistake today…”

“Get out of the way!” Virgil flew past Harper. The girl turned to the teen, who was soaring straight towards The Intruder. Without a second to lose, Virgil struck The Intruder’s chest, sending a wave of energy through his body.

“I…I just sent an EMP throughout his body. The bomb’s disarmed, but the wave probably also screwed with his nervous system a bit, so we’ll need to help him now,” Virgil turned to Harper.

“Help him?” Cameron Snow exclaimed, now back in his wheelchair, “Why should we help him? He attacked us. And you, why should we even trust you? Any of you!” Cam pointed to Beetle now, who held his hands up defensively.

“I promise you, sir, by the Lord almighty that we are on your side,” Miguel now stood a few feet from Harper, “Or at least my friend Virgil and I are.”

“And sir, Mr…you’re Batwing, right? The Scarab isn’t bugged! I’m not the problem!” Blue Beetle argued.

“Then who is?” Cam demanded.

“Her.”

All eyes fell to The Intruder, whom everyone had assumed was unconscious. The young man was pointing towards Harper.

“Trust me…” the young man begged, before truly falling unconscious.

Harper and Cameron exchanged a glance. Both knew that Harper wasn’t a spy for Checkmate, but Cameron did have to wonder, in the fight with The Chill, had a tracking device been put on Harper?

“We can’t leave him to die,” Harper said to Cam.

The man shook his head, “He won’t. The bullet passed clean through his cheek. He was just being a drama queen. Whatever his problem is with Lead, it’ll pass.”

“And the bomb?” Beetle interjected.

“It’s dead. Permanently. I swear. I don’t think it’ll do him any harm,” Virgil explained.

“I’ll check on him. Harper, help carry him over to this table,” Cam ordered. Harper approached the body of The Intruder, but was stopped by Jaime.

“I’ll carry him. I’m the one with the superpowered armor,” Jaime said. Harper nodded in response, allowing Jaime to lug The Intruder over to a table. Cameron got to work, leaving Harper with the three boys.

“What did he mean saying I’m the problem…?” Harper whispered to herself, arms crossed.

“If it’s anything electronic, I can short it out for you,” Virgil stated.

“Thanks but no thanks. I want to talk to Batwing before I make a decision like that,” Harper replied.

“Whatever you say,” Virgil leaned back onto a workbench.

The group continued with meaningless chitchat for half an hour. Emotions ran high. Miguel tried time after time to break the tension with a joke, but none of the teens, including Virgil, laughed.

Finally, as it neared midnight, Cameron wheeled himself over to the teens.

“I checked him over. There is no bomb in his body. That makes me incredibly suspicious,” Cam said.

“He did tell us his weakness, right?” Jaime pointed out. Cam glared at him. “What? He did!”

“It could have all been faked,” Harper explained for Cam.

“You can’t fake a bullet wound, especially when most other projectiles bounced right off of him,” Jaime argued.

“You have a point,” Cam admitted, “I have to speak to Harper about this in private. You three watch him.”

The trio of superpowered boys all nodded in agreement and walked over to the unconscious intruder.

“Harper, I don’t trust them,” Cam stated.

“I know. I don’t really either,” Harper agreed.

“BUT,” Cam began, “I think they’re our only lead.”

“My thoughts exactly…so I’ll work with them until they either prove themselves for or against us,” Harper decided, “But what should we do about the intruder?”

“I don’t know…” Cam said, before looking into Harper’s eyes with more worry than she had ever noticed in her mentor’s eyes before, “Harper, be safe.”

“I will,” Harper promised.

Meanwhile, the boys were crowded together, silent. That is, until the fourth spoke up.

“They don’t trust us,” The Intruder said.

Miguel jumped back, “Mother of God!”

“I don’t trust you,” Jaime retorted.

“Fair enough, but I promise you I am on your side. I’d been experimented on for years…forced to act on the assumption there was a bomb in my body.”

“But there isn’t,” Virgil said.

“Yes,” The Intruder brooded, his cheek now healed, “I can see something in the girl though. Harper. There are…things inside her.”

“You aren’t saying she’s the spy?” Jaime exclaimed.

“No, but…something is wrong. I have this vision…X-Ray vision. I can see something’s inside her,” The Intruder explained, before realizing he had forgotten something. He sat up and held his hand out to Jaime. “My name is Valor…or at least that’s what I’ve been called.”

Jaime reluctantly shook his hand, “Jaime Reyes. Blue Beetle.”

The two others shook Valor’s hand.

“Virgil Hawkins.”

“Miguel Barragan. Bunker.”

“What?” Virgil turned to Miguel, eyes wide with surprise.

“I thought it was appropriate. We’re superheroes now, right?” Miguel said.

“I guess, yeah, but…”

“You’re Static,” Valor interjected.

“What?” Both Miguel and Virgil said simultaneously.

“I don’t know how I know that…but you’re codename is Static,” Valor stated.

“What else do you know?” Jaime wondered.

“More than you can imagine. More than I wish to be true.” Valor said cryptically. Jaime whistled.

Miguel muttered, “Creeeeepy.”

“There’s something about you, Static,” Valor began.

“Virgil,” the teen interrupted.

“You…have something in you,” Valor said.

“What? Like, courage?” Virgil quipped.

“No….like…” but Valor stopped midsentence, blinked twice, and then quieted down.

“You were saying?” Jaime pointed out.

Valor turned to Jaime, confused, “I was? I do not remember speaking.”

“But you—“

“Whatever, let’s not worry about that now,” Virgil interrupted, “The others are coming over. Now we have one job…”

“We have to convince them we’re not spies.”

Elsewhere

A darkened room lit up slightly from the long computer monitor inside it. Sitting in front of the monitor was a green girl, the very same one that had freed Miguel and Virgil. Standing over her, with a hand on the green girl’s shoulder was a woman shrouded in darkness.

“Job well done, M’Gann,” the shrouded woman said.

“Thank you,” M’Gann grinned, “The spies are set, completely unaware. The team is together. Soon they will be unified, and before long it will be checkmate. The game is yours, my lady.”

The shadowed woman grinned as she watched the screen. She could see Cameron and Harper approach the screen at precisely the same time their spy did. His unknowing gaze held on the duo of vigilantes, as Virgil Hawkins was left helplessly feeding everything he saw to the computer.

NEXT TIME: Game on! Harper is forced to trust the four superpowered boys and follow them into enemy territory as they go back to the spot of Blue Beetle’s origin!