Edit: Song lyrics removed because I didn't give them proper credit and I'm not allowed to have them in stories
The flames dance across my fingers and disperse onto the brushed aluminum desk. I alter the flow of oxygen around the spiral causing it to flame towards the ceiling and shower into a flood of sparks. Despite it being my last day of freedom from the tyranny of school, I start to wander aimlessly throughout my house, trying to find something to do for the few minutes until I went next door. I open my closet, attempting without much effort to find an outfit to wear tomorrow. I was moving through sweatshirts when I reached my series of uniforms from last year. I retract my hand as the memories of pain and jeers rushed back into consciousness. That was not a place I would like to recall.
I swiftly return to sitting on the bed in my room; sparsely decorated due to my tendency to sometimes spontaneously burst into flame when I'm sleeping . Despite the lack of decor, it was still with the same decadence as many Battle households. Every Battle, related by blood, has the ability to manipulate flames and oxygen. Power is dependent on who was married into the family, with a pure bloodline (such as that of all supers) being the most powerful. I have the privilege of having a hydrokinetic mother and pyrokinetic father. Because my mother recently died in a not-so-freak lightning accident, my father and I moved out to Maxville just a couple weeks ago. Even better, we are living right next door to my cousin, the infamous Warren Peace.
Tomorrow, I am starting my Junior year with him at Sky High. Due to the time we've spent together during breaks family get-togethers, we're practically siblings. At every holiday we'd spar along with the rest of our cousins, each of us overpowering the others, despite us being the youngest. When Warren and I fought each other, it would result in a draw or a close victory. As a result of our friendship, for the last week or so, we have been training together all day and then stay up late reading or talking outside by the fire pit. Our time together has been a gift from the fact that his girlfriend is out of town. A cryokinetic, Katelyn is delicate and quiet, but not helpless. I've only met her once, but from Warren's glowing descriptions, I probably wouldn't hate her, and that's saying something.
Warren and I are alike in the fact that we do not trust people easily. However, Warren is more of a I-wear-leather-and-will-roast-your-face-off-if-you-so-much-as-smile-at-me type, whereas I am more of a I-wear-jeans-and-a-tshirt-but-if-you-underestimate-me-I-will-roast-you-then-drown-you type. We agree on the final product, but I'm a little more tolerant of people as whole.
Even though we are going to a school with the purpose to train us to become heroes and outside training is discouraged, the nature of our family causes us to train as hard as we can to remain in condition should any need arise. Despite the dubious reputations of Barron Battle, and to a greater extent, my mother, the Battles have been divided between heroism and villainy. If you can't live up to our standards, you get shunned by the family. In addition to this pressure, the tryouts for the school Save the Citizen and Gauntlet team happen tomorrow.
The Gauntlet is a course of obstacles that includes multiple terrains such as water, lava, high altitudes, and sludge. It functions as capture the flag on steroids. Typically only seniors play this sport in PE, but Juniors can also try out for the school team, hence why Warren and I are practicing today.
Warren knocks on the back door and I run back to meet him. He hands me a pair of gloves, similar to the ones he wears that are fireproof on the inside. They're embroidered with the family symbol. The gloves fit perfectly as I slip them on and nod once in gratefulness. We walk outside to our huge orange tree. I lean on a specific branch, speak a small phrase in Latin and a small hatch opens at the bottom of the tree. We climb down a ladder and enter a huge room.
The gloves I was given are created to conflict the times when Warren and I have so much oxygen rushing through us that we unintentionally burst into flames. The gloves don't completely prevent fire so that we can power through them if necessary, but they typically stop any unwanted combustion.
Warren and I start to spar and the gloves work wonders. I throw a punch and feel the flames lick against the inside of the gloves. As we fight, no flames appear until my hair starts sparking at the end. I lost in the end but only because I'm a few inches shorter than Warren. We sit down in the dirt on the edge of the open fighting space. I strip off the gloves and see the seal is a bit melted but mostly intact. I set the gloves down and say, "Thanks Warren, this will help me not incinerate pencils." Which has been a problem since my powers really kicked in. I have a habit of accidentally having my hands burst into flames when my heart rate suddenly changes. It's basically the same but a magnitude or so worse than Warren's problem with when he gets angry.
We walk to the side of the open space to a door that leads to our gym. This isn't a room with a bunch of equipment neatly lined up in rows. It contains a hundred foot high ceiling with many pipes spanning the room, just the right size to grip and pull up. Mats line the floors and ropes dangle from the pipes.
"Race you," I say. I switch out to my fingerless gloves and jump up onto a pipe seven feet up. I pull myself up and leap to reach the next pole swinging on it and landing on an elevated platform high in the air. I grab the rope attached and climb up to the next pipe. I gather momentum and swing to the next pipe. I barely make it with one hand. I leap onto the net right as Warren does. I allow the fire to pass through the gloves and catch Warren off guard and throw him into the net. The sudden impact and flexibility of the net causes a wave to come towards me. I jump up and flip to avoid him rushing towards me. I land behind him and throw a flame to his side. Realizing I forgot to retract the pipes for when one of us falls I jump over to the wall and push the button. Meanwhile, Warren rushes me and I use the elasticity of the net to jump out of the way. He throws a vortex of flame at me which barely catches my shoes. Compared to the field in the other room I have the advantage up here because, while I may be tall for my age, I am more flexible than Warren. I run towards him and he launches up letting the net slope down for me to prepare to jump. I send fire toward him on the other end of the net and while he's distracted I jump, dislodging him as I fly towards him, knocking him off the net to fall a few feet onto the mat below. I kneel down on the net and look at him as he hits the ground with a small grunt. He does land on his feet, which is rather impressive.
"Your flip was off, try to keep it more straight and tight," he says angrily. His hands are smoking unintentionally. I leap down and somersault into a landing.
"You're just mad that I won," I reply. Even though the floor is padded it still hurts like heck to fall from the net, which I unfortunately have a lot of experience in. However, since being trained half to death at school last year, I have beaten Warren almost every time on the net and half the time on the floor. I grab a couple sandwiches from my backpack and hand one to him.
"Thanks."
"When is Katelyn coming over again?"
"Six. She wanted to try battling you on the net before dinner. Then afterwards, something about going shopping so you don't look like you just came from a boarding school and have no regular clothes."
"Hey, these are fine," I say glancing down at my jeans and t-shirt, "I don't know what her problem is. I don't think anyone is going to give a crap about what I wear after Gauntlet tryouts tomorrow." I glance at the digital clock in the wall. 3:00. I open the door to the next room and input a passcode by the door. The ground splits in half and reveals a 30 foot deep pool.
I pull off my t-shirt to reveal the top of an Olympic style suit that covers from the shoulders to the knees. I remove my jeans and grab my goggles and cap from my backpack. I dive head first, dolphin kick and emerge with butterfly. I swim for another hour or so, practicing pace and sprints. I pull myself out and sit on the edge. I stand and walk towards my storage locker. I hold my hand to the bio-scan and the door opens. I step inside the small room and put on a fresh change of clothes. I towel off my hair and decide to leave the black and red mess unruly and down to the middle of my back. I walk out and shut the locker, hearing thunks in the pipe room. Warren is leaping up the extended structure, about fifty feet up in the air. Despite his size, he's still graceful. I can tell he's a bit pissed off that I beat him- again.
I turn my head to the entrance as I hear someone climbing down the ladder. It's Katelyn. She has exercise shorts and t-shirt on. Warren sees her, leaps down, and runs over, hugging her after she lands. I chuckle a little when this happens. It's weird seeing a 6'4" guy hugging a 5'2" twig. I tap on the keypad by the door that lowers the ceiling and extends the net. "Ready?" I ask when their embrace ends and they walk over.
"Sure, she replies. She knows that this is my home turf, hence why we're going to the mall later. That's her's.
"Ready, Set… GO!" I shout. I follow the quicker route I took last time. It's a higher jump initially, but considering Katelyn is 5'2", she needs the one closer to the ground. I land on the platform and climb the rope. She is still a couple pipes below me. I fall onto the net as she climbs the rope. I crouch, looking like I'm catching my breath, but really preparing to launch her off the net. She lands hard on the net. She's never done this before, but isn't too bad at it for a beginner. Unfortunately, she can't predict my upcoming steps like Warren can. I jump up, causing a ripple in the net She is launched in the air and falls to the net near the edge. Thankfully all the pipes are retracted as I grab onto her, even as she starts forming ice, and push her off the net. Warren catches her and breaks her fall. I leap down and make sure she's okay. I tried not to make her to angry, because then she'll make shopping a living hell. She gets up, her blond hair a bit disheveled and her face not too annoyed.
"Good game," she says, "But now its time for me to have fun. I'll meet you at the car in five minutes."
At about 8, we return from our shopping expedition, Katelyn with a new dress and shoes and me with a dress that Katelyn picked out for me. I despise dresses. I refuse to wear them. This one looks nice, it's orange complimenting my jet-black and red streaked hair, but it will stay in the back of my closet, gathering dust. When she found it she said, "Oh! This would be the perfect dress for homecoming!" Like I'll be going to homecoming. Not only is it such a stupid institution, but no one will ever want to get near a girl who can burn his face off. Along these lines, Warren told me the story of last year's homecoming, with people being turned into babies or some such. It's actually where he met Katelyn and they've been together ever since.
We sit in the livingroom of Warren's house, Warren and I talking through our strategy for Save the Citizen tomorrow and Katelyn leaning against Warren. Unfortunately, Warren and I can't go through the Gauntlet as a team because we have similar powers. It's somehow against the rules or something. Warren and I finish shortly and I leave to go to my house.
As I enter my bedroom, my dad says, "How are you going to conceal your markings?" As part of the Battle family, the first time I powered up, black markings appeared on my forearms showing what is known now as the Battle family crest. Warren hides his with is leather jacket and long gloves. Typically I haven't hid mine because at my previous school, they were a sign that I wasn't to be messed with. However, what with the superhero offspring attending Sky High, it wasn't good to remind people that you were related to the infamous Battle clan, the most powerful supervillain family in history.
"I'll just wear my long fingerless gloves, similar to Warren," I reply.
"Okay, I'll take you and Warren early for tryouts tomorrow."
Author's Note: Thank you for reading! If you have suggestions or comments, please leave a review! Those help me want to finish the story more quickly.