FLIGHT

This was inspired by the Pink Floyd song "Learning to Fly". I've always thought it would be the perfect song to play whenever a character in a movie discovered they had the power to fly. Combine this with my favorite character from Sky High (sorry, it's NOT Will, even though he has that power) and the result is this. Hope you enjoy this, I really poured my heart into it.

It started with Dad.

The first time was when I was five years old, that night after my birthday party.

Dad came into my room as quiet as a cat, which was quite a feat considering how big he was.

"Warren," he whispered in his deep voice, "Warren, wake up."

I sat up slowly, rubbing my eyes. I was still tired from my big day, but I was eager to know what Dad wanted.

"Come on son," he said as he picked me up, "I've got something to show you."

I weighed like a feather to him even though I was big for my age; a lot of people thought I was eight instead of only five. He scooped me up with one hand and held me against his powerful chest where I could hear his heart beating like a kettle drum in my ear. It wasn't easy for him to cradle me as his biceps were so big he couldn't bend his arms fully, but he held me tight as we crept out of my room and down the hall. I noticed that the lights were off, and Dad was still moving quietly through the house as if he didn't want to be heard. Finally we came to the front door and Dad silently opened the door, slipping out and closing it silently behind us. Once outside he crept away from the house, the only light was coming from the full moon that hung in the clear sky. Once we were a safe distance away from the house, it happened.

Dad slowly began rising into the air, and I was scared for a moment as I clutched at his t-shirt.

"Shhh, don't worry Warren," he smiled, "I won't let anything happen to you."

The higher we rose, the more assured I was that I would be safe. I relaxed my grip and began looking around, enjoying the weightless feeling that I was having. We then leveled off and Dad began flying through the night sky, relaxing his hold just enough so that I could move around and see below us. My eyes were wide in wonder as I saw the twinkling lights from the houses below, and how they seemed to blend in the horizon to become the stars that shone all around us. The cool wind whipped through my hair, but I didn't feel any chill as Dad's body heat kept me warm. I don't know how long we flew, and I didn't care. The feeling of freedom was one I had never felt before and I didn't want it to end.

Finally we returned home just before sunrise, and we crept back into the house without waking Mom up. Once in my room Dad made me promise to not tell Mom what we had done, it was our big secret. I nodded in agreement, and was fast asleep before Dad got back to his room.

We flew several more times, always on the night of my birthday after Mom was asleep. If she knew about our secret she never gave any clues.

But that ended on my tenth birthday. Actually, a few months before that.

Dad had started acting strangely. He didn't spend any time at home, and when he did show up he and Mom always ended up in an argument. I would hide in my room and try not to listen, but Dad's voice carried like thunder even when he talked normally. It was like he was a different person somehow; he would rant and rave about the Commander and "the others" while Mom would beg him to calm down and get the help he needed. He would then accuse her of being with "them" and storm out, but he would never touch her.

The Mount Rushmore Incident. That's how it's referred to by everyone. Everyone but the ones that say it was the day Dad went totally crazy.

Baron Battle appeared at Mount Rushmore, threatening to destroy it unless the Commander met him in one on one combat. Of course the Commander showed up, but it was a trap set by the Brotherhood of Darkness, and the fight leveled most of the national park and even damaged Mount Rushmore itself. When the fight was over, the Commander and his friends, including his wife Jetstream, had won.

Everyone was horrified about what had happened. Sure, there had been a natural rivalry between Dad and the Commander all through school given they were the most powerful ones there, but to involve the Brotherhood was unthinkable. The Brotherhood was a collection of the worst villains the Commander and his friends had ever fought, even a couple who had tried to destroy Dad, but now he himself was a member, and they all testified against him to lighten their own sentences.

There was a lengthy investigation and trial, and it was determined Dad suffered from a split personality that had grown progressively worse over the years. Dad was sent to Cold Storage, the maximum security prison in the Arctic maintained by the United Nations to deal with all the super powered criminals of the world, until a cure could be found.

I didn't fly on my tenth birthday. I haven't since.

Now I stand up here on Sky High, looking over the edge and through the clouds to the city below. The city where I had seen only stars on my first night. Tonight it's no different, with the lights below seeming to reflect the stars above.

I'm ready.

My heart is banging in my chest, just like Dad's did. I feel the air moving around me, tousling my long black hair as I get ready to take that last big step. I think of saying goodbye to Mom this morning, telling her I'd be back early this evening as I had the night off from the Paper Lantern because it's my seventeenth birthday.

"I love you Mom."

I think of the others. All the friends I've made in the past year; the "Geek Squad" of Zach, Magenta, and Ethan "the Popsicle", who befriended me even though I had nearly burned them alive. They had accepted me even when I did my best "angry loner" bit, and acted like we had been friends for years. I only regret we hadn't met a lot sooner.

"I love you guys."

Will. The son of the man I had hated for years before I accepted the fact Dad was responsible for getting himself into Cold Storage. I had wanted to hurt Will from the second I saw him, but even when his strength manifested and he defeated me, he didn't hold a grudge. He even saved me when Speed had me down during Save the Citizen. Now we're friends and I can understand the relationship I recently learned about from the Commander that once existed between him and Dad.

They had been rivals, but respected each other enough to have been friends as well.

"I love you my friend."

Layla. Beautiful Layla. Without meaning to you cut right through all the years of pain and darkness I had built up around myself, and brought a light into my world I never knew existed. I just wish I had the courage to tell you how I really felt, to drop to my knees before you and pour out the fire that burns in my soul for you. If Will taught me about friendship, you taught me about the aching love that I know my parents still feel for each other despite everything that's happened.

"I love you, Layla."

I feel the heat growing within me. My heart is a raging ball of fire as I concentrate on these feelings, and flames begin flickering then bursting from my hands. I focus completely on the emotions boiling inside me, use it to energize me and prepare me for what I must do. It's now or never.

"I love you Dad."

I step off.

I begin plummeting, the wind whipping the flames from my body up into the sky, leaving a trail pointing towards the earth below. Closing my eyes I ignore the oncoming ground, focusing totally on what I must. I let my love and passion consume me, empower me beyond any limits I have ever had before.

I stop falling.

I open my eyes and see that my entire body is aflame as I float in midair, untouched by gravity.

Raising my arms, I then shout my exaltation to the world and begin soaring through the air, a living comet blazing through the darkness. This is what I have dreamed of for years, to fly through the chill night sky in total freedom again. I want to shout, to tell all the people I love what they have enabled me to do. And I will, starting with the very first one.

I sit in the Visitation Room, which has the same power dampening field as the Detention Room back at Sky High, but at a much greater intensity, as befits the ones who are visited.

This is the first time I've been here alone. I've always had to be with Mom until the Commander put in a good word for me after what happened at the Homecoming Dance with Royal Pain and her goons. Mom doesn't know I'm here, and I'd like to keep it that way, at least for now.

The buzzer sounds, and my heart jumps into my throat like always.

The door on the other side of the room opens, and Dad enters, accompanied by two guards. Though he towers over them, he is still shackled as he is led to the solid concrete seat opposite me, and he sits down without looking at me. Once he's secured, the guards leave without saying a word.

Dad sits there with his head down like he always does at first when we visit him. Though I'm still big for my age, Dad is bigger, though his is solid muscular bulk that hasn't gone soft at all despite his limited freedom to work out. I think I notice for the first time that his once jet black hair is getting touches of white in places.

"Dad?"

He doesn't respond. Is he upset that Mom didn't come? Or is it because he knows that yesterday was my birthday, the eighth one he's missed?

"Dad...please. I've got something to tell you."

Dad looks up at me. When wild animals like wolves and lions are captured and put in zoos, over time their souls start to die from the captivity. Their eyes glaze over and they slowly atrophy from within as they remember what freedom once was. I see that look more and more in Dad's eyes every time I visit him, and today is no different. His once piercing dark eyes have a sadness to them, and wrinkles have formed in the corners that could hardly be called laugh lines. The jagged scar that runs down the left side of his rugged face still glares like a mark of dishonor, as he got it in his last battle with the Commander.

I lock eyes with my father.

"Dad. I can fly."

Those words did something, something I had prayed they would do.

Dad's eyes brightened for the first time in years, and a smile formed on his lips. For a moment he was once again the gentle giant who had always taken me flying on my birthday. I saw something that I hadn't seen in his eyes since he had been brought here to Cold Storage.

Hope.

"Someday Dad, we'll fly together. You, me and Mom."