Name: Virgil Hawkins
Alias: Static
Age: 17
Team: Young Justice Academy
Powers: Since being afflicted by the Big Bang gas, Virgil is akin to a human battery. While he can't hold or produce unlimited power, he can siphon it from electrical devices, and charges naturally (though slowly) by collecting static from moving around.
By discharging said electricity, he can manipulate it too his will, blasting targets or applying a charge to objects or surfaces. This includes magnetic charges, allowing him to attract/repel things with a charge, like moving metal, such as his trademark collapsible saucer.
Weaknesses: In the event Virgil has charged up or absorbed too much power, it becomes more difficult to control, often sparking out, requiring him to discharge a fair amount before it returns to normal. Of course, in general, if he uses too much power, his capabilities will be limited until he can recharge, either through a source such as power lines or after some rest. He also has issues with water, which can easily disrupt his charges.
Personality: Wise cracking and cool headed, Virgil's been known to get full of himself at times his cockiness occasionally leading him into danger. As one of the only heroes who sprouted from Dakota's Big Bang, he has a rather strong moral compass thanks to his strict upbringing. He has a tendency to be a bit immature, but with the recent Man of Steel situation, chances are Virgil is going to have some growing up to do.
Brief Bio: Native to Dakota City,
Illinois, Virgil grew up as just one part of the city's rather sizable black community. Under a strict father, Robert, and a kind mother, Jean, along with a bratty sister, Sharon, Virgil was more blessed with family than many, but the city's rampant gang violence took his mother from him at a young age. Gone too soon, Jean's death in the line of duty wouldn't change the city over night, being just one in a long list of casualties, but even though Virgil was barely old enough to comprehend the finality of death, it would change his home life for years to come, with Robert's desire to keep his children out of trouble resulting in a tighter grip, while Sharon felt the need to fill the gap her mother left, with questionable results.
Entering the school life, Virgil was rather gifted, but as he excelled, for every time a teacher praised him, a peer derided him. Maybe some were just jealous, or spiteful (shame chill pills aren't prescribed until after puberty), but some took it too a more personal level, saying he wasn't 'thug' enough, or not 'black' enough. Being too young to properly process it, and to fearful of the consequences of taking either path, be it separation from his peers or the scorn of his father, his grades, and friends, fluctuated, Virgil always trying to balance both sides, yet never managing to quite satisfy either. The more he hung with bad crowds, the more his grades slipped, and the more he flaked on his friends to study, the less he'd have to come back to.
In middle school, the bullying hit a rise, but Virgil was rescued by an upperclassman, Larry Wade. While he was one of the most infamous juvenile delinquents in his side of the city, Larry took a liking to Virgil, offering him an answer to his plight: protection. Virgil could join his gang, giving him shielding from those who would harass him, while also having comrades regardless of how often he could hang. The catch? Larry would call in a favor every so often: sometimes it would be help with homework, other times Virgil would be the one to run to the store to pick up some food. All in all, not a bad arrangement!
By the time Virgil was in high school, his sister was in college, juggling a part time job while trying to get into medical school, Virgil was forced to move to the other side of the city, in hopes of making things even just a little easier for her. Virgil saw Larry and the gang less often, but they still saw each other: things didn't change much, until gang violence started to get higher. Virgil, a bit further away from trouble, was able to keep his head down and avoid most of it, things going pretty well as he gained new friends in the more relaxed high school of a better neighborhood.
One year ago, however, Larry found Virgil and called in a favor, one less desirable than any of the last. Virgil had thought he was going to hang, but after learning he was being pushed into joining in on a gang fight and given a firearm, his opinion of his arrangement with Larry shifted drastically. But when Virgil protested, Larry assailed him with guilt. This was big: bigger than any of the scuffles Larry got in, and if they failed, he'd no longer have the influence to keep Virgil out of trouble. One night of pain for a school life of peace was all Larry was asking for. And so, though his feet trudged along with the weight of hesitance and anxiety, Virgil followed into the quiet storage yard in the city's worst district.
Before the fighting broke out, his father's voice raging in his head, Virgil got cold feet as tensions mounted, and ended up fleeing mere minutes before it began, Larry's wrath at being ditched by Virgil following his steps. Disposing of the gun, Virgil prayed he could escape without incident as the fight broke out, hoping he could slip through in the confusion, but the police arrived. And worse yet, in the panic, a mysterious eruption occurred, gas of a different shade mixing with the tear gas expended to halt the gang bangers, marking the Big Bang. As the mutagen engulfed the gang bangers, affecting their very makeup, those closest to the initial outbreak were affected the quickest. The volatile transmutations resulted in roughly 90% of those afflicted dying, and it's a miracle that the number was that low. Of those remaining, while the incubation period would vary from minutes, to hours, to days, they would survive, though most of them with horrid disfigurements, often somehow crippled: bones too heavy to lift, skin too ridged to move, or body imbalanced by strange growths. Perhaps about 1% were lucky enough to be gifted, and Virgil was among them, passing out in a ditch, escaping notice in all the chaos.
By dawn, he continued to remain hidden, but not by his own will. Virgil awoke amid a bed of metal shavings stuck in his clothes, nails jabbed into his hair, and a blanket of garbage can lids and the metal refuse within. Digging himself free, he made the walk of shame home; tired, bruised, reeking, and strangely bewitching for the metallic friends and family of Dakota City.
While the scolding he revived from his father was legendary, Virgil was in no position to despair over his grounding, as he quickly discovered his powers, and the fact that he was not alone. Shamefully, most of the other Bang Babies who made off with a true gift, squandered it, which was no surprise considering most of them were gang bangers. In a rare position to do something about it, Virgil donned the mask and became the hero Static.
While his start was rough as he tried to find a footing under his grounding, he eventually soared, though he never quite nailed balancing his hero life and his regular one (does anyone?). While he worked independently for a good while, as of a few weeks ago, he got a message from a certain Bat of Gotham. Virgil never really got around to joining Young Justice, mostly due to a nagging feeling that it was outside of his capabilities (more schedule wise than skill wise, though it's not Virgil checked to see if they have a landline in the phone book or a mail in questionnaire), but now was as good a time as any. And who could turn down the goddamn Batman?