[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/RkFZD7E.jpg?1[/img][/center] [i]In autobiographies, there's always one key event that shook your life forever. Some sort of epiphany, paradigm shift, eureka moment, life-changing moment. For everyone in Dakota City, it was the Big Bang. The night I got my powers, the night I nearly killed my long time bully, Ivan Evans and the night that changed Dakota City forever. You’ve seen documentaries made about it. Week long news reports. Government notices. Speeches. Youtube videos. Internet discussions. They tell all the same story. Dakota City. Urban town in the middle of nowhere. High crime rate. A power struggle of gangs. High corruption. Zero accountability. A joke of a police department. Black Lightning leaves. Crime threatens to stamp out the city. New mayor begins to funding police forces. Police forces get supplied with new experimental gas grenades. Uses it on a crowd of unsuspecting kids embroiled in a gang fight. Paris Island becomes cordoned off. Humanitarian disaster. Mayors resigns. Influx of metahumans. Everyone asking: Will Dakota City become Gotham City 2.0? The Big Bang in a nutshell. The thing is most of the stories leave out the details. Anyone who reads this in the future, you’re gonna get it from me straight about what exactly the Big Bang was. What caused the Big Bang? Let’s start with what gave us Bang Babies our superpowers. We call it Bang Juice. It’s a gas. It’s colored yellow. Or green. Eyewitness reports vary from blue, orange and purple. They’re still trying to crack the code of exactly how the gas exactly works at S.T.A.R Labs. Everything’s still classified but from official news reports, the most talented minds in America have essentially told us that they’re still light-years away from deducing what elements this thing is made of. There’s so far only two recorded effects of what exactly happens when you come in contact with the gas. The first one is that you die a slow death over the course of the next twelve hours or so. The cells in your body begin to fluctuate between wanting to live and wanting to die. They’re having trouble deciding whether to become cancer cells or undergoing apoptosis. So, you experience a constant cycle of cell growth and death until your nervous system gives out. That was what happened to 154 people that day. The second one is that by some freak chance, you gain superpowers. Like me and about 58 other kids on Paris Island that day. Oh yeah, they did the head-count. Apparently, all of us that survived got knocked out for a while. They cordoned us off at Dakota General Hospital. Unfortunately for the doctors, the majority of the victims were disenfranchised teenage gangsters with large chips on their shoulders. What do you think happens when you hand them superpowers? The first week for me was filled with all sorts of metahuman crime. They call it the Week of Terror. Anti-metahuman hysteria began to reach a peak. The cops were unable to handle the new threat due to lack of funding from the mayoral office. Then, when I came in the picture in my shittily-made costume, I became the janitor of Dakota City. In the 3rd week or so, metahuman crime reached a halt completely. Sure, there were the usual crooks and robbers but there wasn’t any metahumans. Some say that they turned tail and run. Some say they’re hiding underground in the sewers, waiting for the opportunity to strike. Others say that they’re hiding on Paris Island as we speak. If I wasn’t there that night, who knows what would have happened? The blame-game on who exactly caused the Big Bang is a bit of a headache to sort through. The police point it towards the mayors. The mayors point it towards the suppliers. The suppliers point it towards the manufacturers. The manufacturers point it towards the mayors. Last I heard, investigations reached a dead-stop somewhere in China and the only thing they’ve got is the name of a pizza delivery guy who was in contact with the individuals who made the damn thing. Why did they do it? Let’s just say the conspiracy theories on that one are more weirder than the ones made about me. I’m pretty sure that the true reason is south of ‘Aliens Did It!’ and east of ‘God’s Wrath’. One thing's definitely for sure. Before the Big Bang, Dakota City was nothing. A blip on the map. Now? Dakota City’s definitely something. It’s been noticed. More eyes are honing in on Dakota than the first time Black Lightning came on the scene. We’re still uncertain of what’s yet to come in the future for Dakota. [/i] [hr] [b]location:[/b] hemingway high school [b]time:[/b] 7:50 AM The mobile phone rang, bouncing up and down rapidly on the wooden table. Virgil knew what was coming. His hand approached the phone with trepeditation, picking it up and looking at the caller number. He winced. He answered the call. He could hear a quick breath from the other side. Was it anger? Relief? He couldn’t tell. “ Are you alright?” “ I’m fine, Dad.” Virgil spoke, eyeing the clock. It was 30 minutes before the beginning of the first class. “ Honestly, I’m fine. I got a broken arm. The nurse fixed it. It’s just a one-time in-” “ Don’t even finish that sentence.” The harshness of his voice made Virgil’s throat tighten. “ The principal told me about how you tried to stop him from calling me. Saying that, quote unquote, ‘ My dad has enough on his plate already, sir. I really don’t want to worry him. Can you please make sure this conversation is confidential?’. Virgil could feel his father’s rage radiating through the speakers. At the end of his rant, there was an intermittent pause that petered down to a whisper. “ I’m the one supposed to be looking out for you. For everyone in this city. If I can’t even take care of my own son, then, how am I supposed to look out for all of my tenants in the community center? What really happened that night, Virgil? You can tell me the truth.” “ I-I” Virgil failed to find his words, stumbling to find them. Speaking with his dad stung more than his broken right forearm. He clamped down the desire to tell him. No matter how much it tore him apart from the inside and begged to be released. “ It was just some silly bet that I did with Rich,” said Virgil. “ Son, I don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to tell that I can smell bullshit through this phone.” Virgil peered at the cracked yellow goggles resting on his table-side. He lifted it towards himself, thumbing the broken edges whilst he waited for his dad to continue responding. “ We’ll call the truth a work in progress, then.” An electronic sign issued out with an air of finality. “I don’t expect an answer from you now but I expect an answer soon.” “ I’ll try to, Dad. I’ll tell you by the end of this week.” “ Promise?” Virgil grasped the phone tighter. “ Promise’s a promise.” “ Anything else you want to tell me?” “ Can you tell Sharon that I appreciate the cinnamon cookies she sent me?” “ Can do. In fact, she’s cooking up another batch now. Maybe I should ask her to stop sending you those since I can’t ground you at home anymore.” “ So, you can eat them all?,” said Virgil with a smile. A few chuckles. “ Well, it’s good to know you didn’t lose your sense of humour.” “ Night, Dad. Love you. ” “ Night, son. Love you too. ” [hr] [b]Private Message from : [/b] : gosh, modern history is boring. i didn’t know it was possible for Mr Heinrich to sound more dead than he is already. he’s halfway to zombieland already. : i’ll say : so,you wanna talk about it? : don’t give me the stink-eye. this is as private as u can get. : come on : okay okay : this period only has 40 minutes left. : i’ll talk, but i’m just worried about someone finding this out : dude, you don’t trust my skills? who won the school coding competition?who managed to pirate a copy of pockobeast: crimson and azure reloaded for you? : no one gonna infiltrate our server. trust me. i’ll wipe the chat logs after this. : fine fine : what do you want to talk about? : well, two things. : first of all, you. : but most importantly : crap, he’s looking at me. brb. : you there? : yep. : secondly, i did some research on the guy that left you like you were last night on my doorstep : check out these links, man. : [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shocker[/url] [url]https://thedailybugle.co.ny/local_events/1990/june/02/shock_at_queens_bank_as_shocker_pulls_heist_of_the_century[/url] : huh. : wait. : are you sure this is the same guy? cause from what I read, this guy does not operate like the guy I fought against. : what do you mean. he’s got the same name : “ successful string of robberies from 1985 to 1995.” : “operated in Manhattan, New York”. : “never successfully caught”. : “used a pair of sonic blasters” : “never killed anyone” “infamous for never engaging in conflict with police”. : why would a carmen-sandiego robber switch to the life of a contract mercenary? : dude : it’s all about that money : even so, why would the guy switch up his game? this is not the same guy. : “Eyewitness reports state that the Shocker offered his stolen money to recompensate for a young child’s ice-cream that he accidentally knocked to the ground while escaping from the scene of crime” : see? ^ : whatever : we need to talk about you now. : what are you going to do about him? the shocker? : i’m gonna catch him. : You wanna still go after the dude that nearly killed you? : Nearly injured me. Besides, 1 month without an injury is a track record : weren’t you mumbling this morning about how your powers weren’t working? you know. the thing that keeps you getting killed? : they’re just acting up. : he broke your fucking arm. : i watched you s : i watched stumble into the dorm with your swiss cheese arm : your googled eye ass still making jokes : the nurse managed to stabilise you in time. : there was one point where I didn’t even know whether or not you were alive still. : all i’m saying is : this shit affects me, man. i’m your friend. : i’m still going after him. : look : maybe this is a sign to stop : you’re gonna end up like Black Lightning at this rate : dude, are you the one flickering the lights right now? : people depend on me. : people depend on the cops. Not my best friend : if you wont help me : then just stay out of my way : i’m doing this with or without you : eh, fuck it. : let’s do it together : i’ll keep your dumb ass from getting killed. : wow : i didn’t actually think this was going to work. : thanks, man : but in all seriousness, you can back out of this if you want to. : and miss the chance to work with Dakota’s most famous superhero? : not for my life. : well, welcome then. : soooooooo : am I your sidekick now? : what’s my superhero name gonna be? : let’s figure this out after mr heinrich stops asking me for the answer