Author: Jadelyn Tate
Story: Forged In Fire
Pairings: Warren/OC, Will/Layla, Zach/Magenta
Disclaimer: I own Dakota and her family (though anyone who reads my other stuff will undoubtfully recognize some random names (grins)).
Summary: "I'll never forget the look of absolute astonishment on your father's face when she unfroze his head and told him if he didn't behave she'd let Frost give him frostbite in a very unpleasant place." Post Sky High.
Author Notes: Yes, this is another "new students at Sky High, OMG!" fic. Hopefully, however, it'll different than the ones everyone sees all the time. Hopefully.
Principal Powers: In a few moments, you will go through Power Placement and your own heroic journey will begin.
Willow Peace smiled over at her younger cousin, amused to see him screaming his head off as they shot through the clouds. The fifteen year old sophomore had attended Sky High the year before and was use to the jolting ride. Her freshman cousin Billy, however, had not.
She had been named in honor of her father's closest friends—Will and Layla Stronghold. When her father had told her Aunt Layla he wanted to name his daughter after her and Will, her aunt had told Warren that despite how sweet she thought it was, she'd be happier having his daughter named after a tree. During the pregnancy her parents had been undecided between Rowan and Willow. Willow fit the criteria that her name be a tree and it corresponded with Will's name. No one knew why they had considered Rowan. When she had heard they're options, Aunt Layla had told them that Willow trees were strong but flexible and incredibly temperamental while Rowan's were strong, stout, and calm.
When she'd been born screaming her head off and refusing to be handled by anyone but her parents, Warren had known his daughter was a Willow—and a Peace. She was daddy's little girl, something that amused her mother to no end. Her father was not known for a gentle or sweet nature—yet she and their friends and family saw it every day when he looked at his daughter and wife.
She even had her father's power, though at first they thought it had been one of her mother's. Really, it had been hard to tell—her father was pyrokinetic and her mother blew stuff up and could freeze objects and people. Her power had manifested when she was seven; she had had a tantrum and accidentally blew up their microwave. It wasn't until she was eight and a fire erupted in her classroom that they knew for certain that she was a full on pyro.
After all, in a class full of non-supers, who else could completely extinguish an accidental fire with a wave of her hand?
When they heard, her mother had fretted about the whole thing; her father hadn't been able to breath, he'd been laughing so hard.
"So, what do you think will happen this year?" her best friend Lily asked over the sound of the freshman screaming. Willow scrunched her face up to think.
"Medulla will tell us he doesn't expect us to succeed since we are vastly dumber than he—Boomer will have a heart attack having so many of the League's kids as freshman, and Aunt Holly will laugh hysterically when he gets knocked out during Save the Citizen—again," she replied with a shrug. Lily snickered, as did Violet and Eric who were sitting behind them.
"Who will be the tournament winners this year?" Eric asked curiously. Willow smirked, glancing at Lily. The girl grinned.
"Team Green-Peace!" they chorused before falling into giggles. Like their fathers, they had won Save the Citizen their freshman year—and had yet to lose to anyone, including the more experienced seniors.
"How many times do you think Boomer will get knocked out?" Violet asked, bemused.
"At least once every game. That's my personal goal, anyway," Lily replied, sounding remarkably like her father and grandfather. The group snickered
It was a private game the students played during the school years, started their parents sophomore year—Will Stronghold and Warren Peace had gotten fed up with Boomer when he'd made a snide remark about Layla and her unwillingness to use her powers during Save the Citizen. So, they had made a deal with the opposing teams; anyone who knocked Boomer out during Save the Citizen got bragging rights. The added challenge proved popular; Boomer started to get knocked out at least once a day. It was common knowledge Principal Powers knew of the private game but she never said anything—mainly, many suspected, because he'd made snide remarks about her own powers more than once.
The two girls worked remarkably well together despite how opposite their powers were. Lily had small satchels of plant seeds as her main arsenal in the game and Willow had her pyrokinetic abilities. Lily would throw the satchels at her opponents; Willow would burn the cloth away so the seeds would fall. Using her powers, Lily would then make the seeds sprout and attack whatever they landed on—usually their enemies. Willow would usually go and actually grab the "citizen" while Lily would keep an eye on her captives. Both were small, petite, and extremely agile thanks to years of martial arts and gymnastics lessons. Add that people constantly underestimated them and they were a force to be reckoned with.
Their fathers had said more than once that if they didn't get assigned each other, they'd be speaking to people. Together, they would undoubtfully be as powerful as the two men—possibly more so since they'd been best friends all their lives. Will had hinted that he was looking forward to the day when the four worked together officially on the League; the Father-Daughter Quartet.
As Sky High came into view, Willow smiled. While she was sad summer was over, she was glad to be back—she was one of the few in her extended family who actually enjoyed school. And considering how big her family was, that said something.
The morning classes were fairly routine. The only interesting part of the day was in Hero History when they were given their first assignment of the year—a paper on the Super's in their family.
"Mr. Boy, can I just focus on one or two members of my family? Considering how many I have, it's gonna be longer than everyone else's by a good ten pages if I do everyone," she told him, only half-joking. Mr. Boy nodded, looking amused.
"Why don't you write about your parents?" he suggested, knowing her familial dilemma. He had been taught by three of her seven of her super great-grandparents, went to school with all four of her grandparents (not to mention her great aunts and great uncles), and had taught both her parents when they were at Sky High. Willow nodded, grinning.
"Thanks!" she chirped and left for lunch.
When Willow got home that afternoon, the first person she saw was her father. Warren Peace had been given the Paper Lantern by the former owners when he'd been 26. Owning the restaurant turned out to be the perfect cover for her parents—both loved Chinese Food, knew how to make it, knew the culture, and could leave the restaurant when duty called.
"How was school?" Warren asked, glancing over at his only child before turning to speak to his busboy in Chinese. Willow shrugged, looking around as the busboy stood off to the side, translating her father's orders in his head before going to do as he was told.
"Got a project from Mr. Boy, fought a freshman duo who thought they could beat Lily and me, and knocked out Boomer again. You know, the usual," she replied with a smile. Warren let out a bark of laughter. "Where's mom?"
"With Layla and Genta," he answered, grabbing the ingredients for egg rolls. She heard the unspoken part—that the three women had been called in for their powers as Demeter, Guinea, and Nova. She nodded, grabbing an apron.
"What project?" he asked as she rooted through the cupboard with all the supplies for the cooks. She turned around, fireproof gloves in hand. She and her father always wore the gloves when they cooked—the food would come out funny otherwise.
"Huh?" she asked blankly. He shot her an amused smirk.
"You said Mr. Boy gave you a project; what is it?" he clarified. She shrugged.
"Paper and presentation on the super's in our family. Mr. Boy said I could stick to just you and mom, all things considered," she told him. He smirked again.
"Considering your family practically breeds supers, that's understandable," Will Stronghold said as he walked in through the back. Warren stiffened in surprise; he always got touchy when his wife was out fighting without him. Willow still had no idea why that was though; her father had said on more than one occasion that she could kick his ass easily.
"What happened?" he growled. Will held up a hand, looking tired but amused.
"Everything's fine. Layla called to say she and the girls were going to help round up the animals Lash and Speed let loose from the zoo. She asked if I'd let you and Zach know since Maj was attempting to convince a couple of lions not to eat her in guinea pig form and your wife was laughing like crazy and wouldn't be able to call," Will told him pleasantly. Willow snickered as Warren snorted.
"Genta really needs to stop getting into these kinds of messes," Warren said, turning back to the waiting egg rolls. Will chuckled.
"Oh, she knows. According to Layla, Magenta was bemoaning her powers once again in between running away from the lions and talking them out of eating her," he replied as he pulled up his shirt sleeves. Warren shifted to the side so Willow could stand next to him and Will could stand across from them.
Willow grinned when the back door opened to reveal Lily, already dressed in her waitress apron. Warren had given all the kids jobs once they were old enough to know what they were doing. Lily was the only one whose job was official—at sixteen, she was the oldest of the League's kids and therefore the only one he could give a waitressing job to. The rest did little things like helping with the food, bussing tables, and doing dishes.
"So, what exactly do you have to do for the project?" Warren asked curiously as the four supers got to work. Willow shrugged.
"Your family histories, your powers, your triumphs and failures, and then what I think your greatest strengths are," she rattled off. Lily made a face.
"I still say you got off lucky," she grumbled and Will shot her a surprised look.
"Why do you say that?" he asked. "Even without saying everyone in her family, she still has a lot of stuff to do," he pointed out.
"Yeah, but I have you, mom, Grandpa, Grandma, Great grandma, and Great grandpa," she shot back and Warren nodded.
"She's got a point, Stronghold. All Willow has to do is her mom and me and between us, we don't come close to what the Stronghold's and Williams' have all done," he told him. Will made a face.
"I remember when I had to do that paper sophomore year. I had a hell of a time," he admitted and Warren nodded.
"Exactly. Add that she has to do everyone you did, plus Layla's side," he said. Lily smiled at Warren.
"Thanks Uncle War," she chirped. Will, Willow, and Lily all snickered as Warren growled; he hated the nickname War. He tolerated the Uncle addend because his wife and Layla would both kick his ass if he didn't, but he didn't have to accept the War part.
"So what do you need to know?" Warren asked his daughter. Willow smiled; her father rarely gave her openings to ask anything she wanted and she was going to take advantage of it.
"How did you and mom meet? You've never told me," she replied. The two girls exchanged puzzled looks when Will started laughing so hard he could barely stand. Warren growled.
"It wasn't that funny, Stronghold," he grumbled. Willow and Lily's interest peaked.
"What happened?" they asked eagerly.
"Your father was about to kick Carleigh Frost's ass and was just powering up when your mother froze the two of them," Will told his goddaughter, grinning from ear to ear. "I'll never forget the look of absolute astonishment on your father's face when she unfroze his head and told him if he didn't behave she'd let Frost give him frostbite in a very unpleasant place."
Willow and Lily both giggled as Warren grumbled some more. "Can I tell my daughter how I met her mother, Stronghold?" he growled and Will held up his hands in surrender.
"Only if you tell them everything," he shot back. "And by everything I mean everything. Including the time you two got detention for that incident in the cafeteria."
Warren glared at him but Will knew the older man well enough to know he wasn't that upset. "Fine, I'll tell her everything. Including the incident about the foursome," he smirked and Will's face turned red.
"But…," he started but was cut off by Warren, who was smirking.
"All or nothing, Will," he demanded. The girls held their breath as Will seemed ready to admit defeat before he groaned and nodded.
"Fine, tell them everything," he agreed with a sigh. The girls squealed. The League was notoriously closed off about their time at Sky High, mainly because of everything that went down in the four years they'd been there.
"You both know about Royal Pain and how we stopped her," Warren mentioned and the girls nodded, not stopping on the egg rolls. They knew Warren would stop the moment he thought they weren't paying attention to the food. Warren glanced at Will who nodded; the pyrokinetic hero known as Firelight sighed.
"Well, Royal Pain was only the beginning…"