Disclaimer:I do not own Sky High, its setting, premise, or characters -or related characters named and unnamed. All is the property of Walt Disney Pictures, Buena Vista Pictures, Andrew Gunn, and Mark McCorkie.

How Battle Met Peace

Battle was enjoying a hot bath after a long mission in Parazuela. Letting the salts and scented oils work the tension out of his muscles. Wounds might heal super-fast for him, but he still got tension. Laying down in the hot water, the bubbles enveloping his body, the scents of sandalwood and pine wafting around him, Battle closed his eyes.

It was so relaxing he might have fallen asleep.

If a massive shockwave didn't shake the entire building at that moment.

Giant robot, alien, monster, and super-human fights were a relatively common occurrence in Maxville. That was one of the reasons why he bought this condo. It was in one of the buildings in Downtown that claimedto be 'super proof'. It wasn't supposed to shake from the shockwaves of super battles.

"What the fuck!?" Battle was almost thrown out of his bath by a second shockwave.

This was bullshit!

Grabbing a towel, he stalked to his balcony to get a look outside and see what the fuck was actually going on. Who was the dumbass that couldn't keep his super fights under control? And who was the asshole he was fighting? There was a reason Battle never took missions in Maxville. You didn't fuck shit up on your Home Ground. You protectedthe Home Ground. It shouldn't matter if you were a superhero or villain. You don't shit where you sleep!

Towel around his waist, Battle placed both fists on the balcony railing and looked out over the city.

He should have known.

The Commander and Jetstream were going up against what looked like some kind of giant monster. Not recognizable as anything terrestrial, so probably not a common animal mutated by radiation. So, an alien then. Whatever. Battle was about to go back inside, put on some loud music and try to ignore the morons failing spectacularly at their one job.

Except another shockwave rocked the building foundations and Battle was thrown off his feet. Climbing back up, he noticed a second monster, almost identical to the first on the opposite end of his balcony's view. The second one swatting at another pair of heroes.

Battle squinted at them, trying to identify the other morons that seemed determined to ruin what had started off as a nice and relaxing first day back from his mission.

Two women, both of them flyers. One throwing fire around, the other… not. The one without the fire was dressed all in white. Adjusting his glasses and straining his eyes, Battle just barely made out what might have been an olive branch flanked by a pair of wings on her chest. So, that had to be Dove. The 'hero of peace'. Battle rolled his eyes.

The other woman, the one with the fireballs, was younger, and showing decidedly much more skin. High heeled boots under shorts that were just too short to be called 'shorts', more like bikini bottoms, honestly. Her ass hung out the back and Battle rather appreciated the view. Deadly monster fight be damned, that little flame-thrower had a nice ass. Above the too-short-to-be-called-'shorts' shorts was an exposed mid-rift. Olive skin and toned abs, and an occasional sparkle when she moved that Battle assumed must be a piercing of some kind. The top was much more modest in comparison to everything below it. High collared and long sleeved. All her cleavage was covered, but that just made it all the more alluring for some reason. Across her chest was a stylized bird reminiscent of the late Burnhawk's symbol.

Battle might have been content to stand there on his balcony, wearing nothing but a towel, and watch Sparky McNopants flash her ass at the city. But at that exact moment, a third monster dropped down from the sky. Battle waited to see if another pair of annoying and ineffective do-gooders was going to appear to try and take this one on.

He waited until the count of ten.

Come on. Where the fuck was Comet? Sonic Boom? Cyclone? Titan? When none of them showed up Battle pushed back from his balcony railing and stomped back into his condo.

"For fuck's sake!"

Throwing open his carry-on, which he still hadn't unpacked yet, Battle pulled out his costume.

It didn't matter that he was a supervillain. He sure as hell wasn't doing this because he pretended to care about all the poor defenseless mundanes that were being trampled by the big bad monsters. He was just protecting his Home Ground. His base of operations. One didn't need a moral compass or strong ethics to know that only idiots left their home undefended.

Discarding the towel, Battle pulled on the leather pants over his still wet legs. Black leather, good quality, boiled and polished to a satiny shine. Over these leather pants went two wide belts, studded with stainless steel studs. He usually kept them polished to an almost silver shine, but he just got back from a job, so they were still covered a little blood spatter and dirt. Over his shoulders he pulled a leather shirt-vest. Also, black. Sleeveless. With buckles on the shoulders to adjust the length and buckles on the sides to adjust the width. On his feet went heavy boots. Unsurprisingly, those were also black. Going almost all the way up to his knees, and fastened with more buckles in place of laces or zippers.

In full costume now, Battle returned to his balcony to assess the situation.

Still three monsters. Still not enough do-gooding supers to take care of them all.

With a bit of a weary sigh, Battle climbed over the railing and leapt off his balcony.

He couldn't fly, so he plummeted thought he air on a collision course with the open street. Getting his feet under him, Battle braced for the impact. His condo was on the 42ndfloor, the landing would not be a gentle one, but not enough to kill him. Super-strength and invulnerability were not technically counted among his powers, but all supers tended to be more resilient than the average mundane. The resilience of Battle's body had been forged and tempered by years of abuse. A hard landing from a forty-story fall wouldn't stop him.

Except he never got his landing.

That same fire wielding piece of ass he'd just been admiring a few moments before came flying out of nowhere. Not anywhere as fast as Jetstream, but still just fast enough to grab Battle. She stopped his fall and lowered him down to the street safely.

"Whoa there, guy!" She said, shouting to be heard over the sounds of the monster fight and the noise of the street. "I know it looks bad but there's no need to be overreacting. We'll get through this."

Feet firmly on the ground, Battle looked up at the woman who hovered over him. Up close she was kinda pretty. A bit younger than him but not by much. Mask covering the upper half of her face. But she had a delicate chin that looked like it could be the lower half of a heart-shaped face. Full pouty lips painted a bright and provocative shade of red. Longish hair teased up in that perm that was so popular with younger women, and a shade of red so vibrant it looked unreal. Red hair that was so red it looked more crimson. Long slender neck that disappeared under the high collar of her top. That sparkle he noticed earlier was definitely a piercing. A belly piercing, fake gold with some kind of red stone.

Battle blinked at her. "You thought I was a suicide?"

"Huh?" The whited out eyes of her mask stared at him. She looked him up and down. Dressed shoulders to toes in black leather and buckles. With a symbol on his chest. Dark hair longer than what was considered average for a man, curled and surrounding his face messily, still wet from his bath. Not wearing any kind of mask, but with wide wire-framed glasses over his eyes. "You're a super?"

She sounded so skeptical.

Battle rolled his eyes. He didn't come out here to prove himself to a small-time hero he'd never heard of before. He came out here to stop some fucking monsters from smashing up his neighborhood so that he could get on with his merry fucking day. "Listen, Sparky, you can fly. Can you lift me up there? Close to its throat, maybe."

"Which one?" She asked. There were three of them.

"Does it matter?" Battle shot back. "Start with one, and if I'm successful, I'll move to the others."

He thought she would continue to argue with him. Steve and Josie sure as fuck would have stopped to argue with him. Question his motives. Demand why he even cared if the city was destroyed. Then willfully refuse to understand when he –very reasonably- explained to them that he fucking livedin this city and had a thing or two to say about giant fucking monsters that wanted to tear shit up where he lived.

But she didn't. She just nodded her agreement. Hooked her arms under his shoulders, and lifted him up into the air.

Battle got the feeling she had no idea who he was.

Raising into the air, Battle watched the buildings and skyscrapers give way to back to the view from his balcony. Three giant monsters from the sky laying waste to the city.

One of the beasts tried swatting at them, and Sparky had to do some quick flying to avoid getting smacked out of the sky. Taking his eyes off their enemies for just a moment, Battle chanced a glance at the woman carrying him. She didn't look frightened or tense in the least. In fact, she was grinning. Grinning. She was enjoying this. The danger of it. The excitement.

Battle couldn't help but grin back. Life or death situations were exciting. All the more so when there was a beautiful woman with you. Shame she was a hero. Battle might have asked her out after this.

After some fancy flying, Sparky managed to drop him off on the back of the beast's neck. Not close to the throat in the front like he'd asked. But at least he was close to the head.

The creature's back was covered in sharp spines, each as long as his arm. But the skin under them was soft, more like a membrane that actual skin. Battle punched it as a test of its resilience and the damn thing bounded his stupid fist back at him. The membrane was soft, but eleasticky. Idly, he remembered the Commander and Jetstream were fighting one of these of their own, and all Steve knew how to do was punch things. If all three creatures were the same and their hits were just gonna bounce back off the elastic membrane, then Steve was out of his element and helpless.

Battle indulged in a soft chuckle. He hoped Steve Stronghold was suffering.

"What happens when you hit it with your fire?" Battle shouted at his flying companion –but he used the term 'companion' loosely. He didn't even know her hero name.

"Fireballs just bounce off." Sparky called back.

Battle nodded. So, it was immune to both blunt force, and incendiary attack. But what about sharp or piercing damage? He looked at the spines on its back. As long as his arms, but thin. Like knives. Wrapping both hands around one spine, Battle pulled. Bracing both feet against the creature's back and putting all his weight and strength into it. He almost fell off its back when the spine finally came out, but the spine came out. Spattering Battle with dark green blood as he tumbled backwards.

"Whoa there, guy!" Sparky caught him again. "Is this gonna be our thing? Me catching you when you fall?"

"I didn't fall the first time, I jumped." He corrected her, wondering even as the words were leaving his mouth why he cared to correct her at all. Her opinion of him should not be important.

"If it happens a third time, I'm gonna assume you're doing it on purpose just to get me to touch you." She set him down again right back where she had the first time on the creature's back.

The city was in the midst of being destroyed. Smashed up by giant monsters. It qualified as a life or death situation, yet Battle still felt himself blushing at her implication. "I don't need tricks to get women to touch me."

She smiled back at him. Smiled. People were screaming and panicking below them. Buildings were being smashed. Homes and businesses were being destroyed, and she smiled. A smile filled with scathing humor, and playful banter. Battle suddenly liked her to spite the fact that she was a hero. "I didn't say 'women'. I said me."

His blush deepened, face burning almost as much as her fire. What the fuck was wrong with him? Blushing like a school boy, and over a hero no less! Where the fuck was his villain pride!?

She giggled. Giggled! Like they were two people just having a fun day out on the town. "Oh, you are just too cute! I didn't know black leather boys were so easily embarrassed."

He willed himself to turn his attention back to the monster he was on.

"If I'm making you uncomfortable, maybe we should establish a safe word."

Battle almost stumbled and fell off the creature's back again. This woman had no shame and Battle kinda liked it. She wasn't like other heroes. She wasn't 'pure'. She had a naughty streak to her. She caught him again before he could truly fall.

"That's three." She announced, like she'd won something. "If you survive this, you'll just have to take me out on a date."

Oh, he will, will he? Battle would have rolled his eyes, except he was trying to stay focused on the monster he was supposed to be stopping and not the scantly andbrazenclad woman who kept making thinly veiled innuendoes.

Holding the spine he'd ripped out in one hand, Battle grabbed a second spine with his free hand and swung himself around the beast's shoulder. Stabbing up with the spine, Battle impaled the beast in its throat.

The creature might have roared in pain, except no sound escaped it now cut open throat. Battle twisted the spin in his hand, widening the hole, making sure the membrane wouldn't close up after he pulled out. When he did pull his weapon out, he did so at an angle, cutting even more of the throat for good measure. Dark green blood poured from the wound, and the monster began to fall.

Sparky caught him again before the beast could pull Battle down with him. "Gotta admit, it is nice having someone who can fly at my back."

"You- you killed it!" She didn't seem quite so impressed with him all of a sudden. Like she valued the monster's life just as much as the lives of the people who lived in the city it was destroying.

Ugh. Heroes. This time Battle did roll his eyes. She might have a naughty streak in her. Might make innuendoes, or even outright proposition him in the midst of a monster fight. But, in the end, she was still just a hero. Battle didn't know why he was suddenly disappointed. He didn't even know this woman's name. Her hero name or civilian name. She was a nobody.

She set him back on his feet on the street, next to the creature's fallen body.

Battle looked up at her. "This thing was gonna kill everyone in this city." He told her, voice raised in a tone that implied he actually cared what happened to the fucking people of this town. "I stopped it. Don't tell me you disapprove of taking one life to save over a million."

She paused.

Hovering there in the air.

Staring down at him through the whited out eye-sockets of her mask.

Finally, "There are still two more." She reminded him.

"And I'll kill them too." He informed her, voice level and even. He came out here to protect his Home Ground. His base of operations. He didn't care about 'the greater good', or 'innocent life'. He just wanted to take all his clothes off, get in the bath, and allow himself to be vulnerable in his own damn home without having to worry about being attacked.

Those red-painted lips pursed in disapproval. She did not much like the idea of killing. Not even killing monster that were attacking her home and couldn't even be determined to be sentient. Typical hero. Battle turned his back on her. She wasn't going to be helping him anymore. He better get moving if he was going to cross the city blocks between him and the next creature.

As he was running, he felt slender arms hook under his shoulders again and lift him back up into the air.

Craning his neck, Battle looked at her face. Red lips down-turned in a frown, but otherwise determined. "On our date, we're gonna discuss the British philosopher Philippa Foot."

She took him to the second creature. The one Dove was still flying around. Battle wasn't sure what Dove thought she could do. To the best of his knowledge, her only power was flight. She didn't possess any great strength beyond what was pretty standard for supers, and she had no offensive powers. What could she do besides keep the beast distracted?

"Flamebird!" Dove shouted. "Where did you go!?"

"Sorry, Ma." Sparky –Flamebird- sounded apologetic, almost sheepish. "But I saw this guy jump off his balcony, but then he turned out to be a super too, and- I mean- we took down that one over there."

Flamebird pointed.

Dove looked.

"Its dead?" Now it was Dove's turn to purse her lips in disapproval. Instead of a mask, she wore a white hood over her head, the hem pulled low over her face to hide her eyes. Even so, Battle could feel her glare on him. "You let him kill?"

Flamebird might not have figured it out yet, but Dove seemed not to be as naïve as her daughter. She knew what he was. At first glance, Dove recognized the villainy in him. It wasn't the all black clothing. It wasn't the leather, or the buckles, or the overtly fetishized aesthetic. It was just all of it. Coming together to form a single picture that shouted 'supervillain'.

"Put him down, Flamebird." Dove commanded. "We'll take care of this our way."

"But, Ma-"

Dove silenced the other woman –her daughter apparently- with a glare from under her hood.

Flamebird did put him down. On the monster's back, the same place she set him on the first monster.

Battle couldn't help the smirk that pulled at his lips. Flamebird did as she was told. She put him down. It was Dove who failed to specify exactly where she should have put him down. There was that naughty streak again.

As he did with the first monster, Battle swung around on one of its shoulder spines and impaled it in the throat with the spine he still held from the first monster. It went down similarly quickly, spraying yet more green blood all over Battle.

"Darn it, Flamebird!" He heard Dove snap at her daughter.

Damn if Battle wasn't starting to really like that smart ass hero with a naughty streak and a tight round ass hanging out of her shorts. She was sassy and playful, and was wasted as a hero.

This time Battle did fall with the creature. Flamebird failing to catch him because of her mother placing a restraining white-gloved hand on her shoulder. Climbing out from under the monster, Battle looked up at the women. Dove was looking down at him with clear and undiluted disapproval. She did not like his methods and she did not like the fact that her daughter had helped him.

"There's only one left!" He called up at the two women. "Why don't you go tell the Commander that they're weak against sharp and piercing attacks."

He threw the monster spine he still held at the pair.

Dove dodged it, trying to pull her daughter out of the way with her. But Flamebird caught it. Reaching out with two ungloved hands. Even through the whited out sockets of her mask, Battle felt their eyes meet, and he suddenly wondered what her eyes might look like under that mask. But he pushed the thought from his mind. There was only one monster left and the Commander could handle it –assuming Steve was willing to listen to the advice of others. He'd sure as hell be more likely to listen to Dove and Flamebird than he would Barron Battle.

There was nothing more for Battle to do. He could leave the rest for the real heroes.

Battle turned away and went home.

It was a bit of a long walk and some of the streets were blocked by either police barricades or fallen monster bits. Finally, Battle made it back to the Spear and up to his condo. His bath had gone cold and the floor was covered in water. But it was a shower he needed now. Draining the cold water out of the tub, Battle ran a hot shower for himself and started cleansing the thick green blood from him.

When he was done, he wrapped a clean towel around himself and went back to his balcony to see if Steve had taken his advice. All three monsters were down, so Battle assumed he had. Good for him. It was nice to know that the idiot could take a suggestion that wasn't his own. He must have grown since high school.

Battle was about to go back inside when Flamebird came floating up to his balcony.

"I forgot to give you my number." She said.

"What?" He blinked at her.

"For our date." She reminded him, holding out a piece of paper that, indeed, had a phone number scribbled on it. "You're taking me out on a date." She announced as if it were an indisputable fact and his agreement was compulsory. "Tomorrow night. Give the city some time to clean the streets. I like Asian food. You can pick me up at eight."

It was all Battle could do to stare at her. "We don't even know each other's names."

"Well, that's easy to fix." She told him as if this should have been obvious. "I'm Mara. Mara Peace."

"Uh… huh…" 'Peace' was not a name he expected such a naughty little hero to have. Then again, if her mother was Dove… 'Peace' was exactly the name he would expect a hero like Dove to have.

"Well?" Mara Peace prompted.

"Well, what?" Battle asked.

"Now you tell me your name."

"Barron Battle." He announced, then waited to see if she'd recognize the name. Did Flamebird know who Barron Battle was?

"No, your realname, not your super name." Apparently, she had no idea.

"Barron Battle is my real name." He informed her. He wasn't the type to take a super name. "Battle was the family name and my mother named me Barron."

"Alright, fine. Barron." She nodded. Then her eyes looked him up and down, pausing just a little below the waist where his chiseled abs disappeared under his towel. "I gotta say, after all that blushing you were doing, I think your lack of puritan modesty is refreshing."

He looked down at himself, noting that he'd been wearing nothing but a towel for this whole conversation. His chest and abs out on full display. The terry cloth hanging from his hips, giving an idea as to the angles and shape under them, and the… proportionsof certain things.

She flew away before he could think of a witty comeback.

"Is that why you keep showing off your ass to the city?" He shouted after her. But there was no indication that she'd head.

Battle looked at the piece of paper she'd given him. Her real name, phone number, and the address where she expected him to pick her up from –presumably her home. Hot damn! That was everything a supervillain needed to successfully murder a hero and their family. She must have no idea what he truly was, otherwise she would not have handed over such information so readily.

Going back inside, Battle toyed with the idea of not going. Of just standing her up. Take the hero down a peg, if only her pride.

But he kinda liked the idea of seducing a hero. And he kinda liked the hero too. She wasn't 'all good'. There was a playful naughtiness to her that Barron liked. He could take her on a date. Maybe take her back to his place and fuck her until they were both out of each other's systems. Then be done with it. The dalliance over.

Heroes and villains could never have an actual relationship. Nothing could come of it.

…

END