The characters, setting, and other elements of Sky High belong to the creators thereof. The plot is wholly mine.
Please review, with anything you feel in relevant. Constructive criticism is an authors greatest tool, so let me know what is on your mind.
This is not another Warren+Original Character that embodies a Mary Sue. This is a fan fiction with an OC that resembles an actual person. Faith has her own personality, her own real life hobbies and problems and flaws. She is not "all powerful" nor is she a sassy Goth that captures Warrens admiration when she saves him from the claws of death and his own angst. She is truly "original" and this is her story.
The Beginning of the End
Chapter One, The Beginning
A bright sun shone through fluffy white clouds, illuminating a robins-egg-blue sky. A bird twittered happily in a large oak covered in bright green growth. The air was thick with scent of summer and the buzzing of bugs. It was, overall, a beautiful day, according to a cheerful voice coming out of a radio/alarm clock.
"Eighty degrees and climbing folks, it is beauuuuuutiful day! Let's not forget that today marks the beginning of a very restful school year for us grownups. Haw. Haw. Today is the first day of school for every kiddy in Maxville Metropolis. Goooood morning to ya'll and have a great first day of school! Haw. Haw. Here's a track for ya'll as you get ready." The voice retreated from the radio speaker and a pop song started, well, popping.
Faith pulled her face out of her mattress and rolled over, groaning at the onslaught of over bright sunlight. A fist of disgust raised out of a pile of flannel blankets and smashed into the offending radio/alarm clock, sending ice shards everywhere. The tiny, crystal-like pieces of frozen water melted in the heat, evaporating in seconds. Faith groaned again and pulled a pillow from the depths of her many blankets, promptly burying her face in it.
She did not want to get up.
She did not want to go to school.
She did not want summer to end, the warm weather to disappear, the leaves on the trees to brown and die, the birds to fly south.
A loud rapping at the bottom of the stairs shook her out of her bout of grumbling. "Faith! Get up child! You wouldn't want to miss your first day of schoooool, would you? Your dear old grandpappy is getting to old to go flying around anymore. My knees aren't what they used to be, I don't think I would be able to get off of the ground!"
Faith groaned once more for good measure and rolled off of her bed onto the floor with a muffled thump, still wrapped in her flannel blankets. She let out on "Oof," of air and lay there shivering.
Being a 'zen, or (for those unversed in the slang of Supers) having the power to manipulate water, Faith was always cold. Even in the middle of summer. She had on a ratty pair of black plaid pajama bottoms and an equally ratty gray sweat shirt and she was still shivering.
Faith lay on the floor and stared at her ceiling still covered in glow-in-the-dark stars from when she was seven. She wished she was seven, instead of seventeen. She wished…well she wished a lot of things, but now was not the time for wishing, even if she had a ceiling full of stars.
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Faith dragged herself down the stairs from her room, dressed in a new pair of Levi's and a silky light blue blouse. A blue satin ribbon adorned her neck and her long white hair flowed freely down her back. It just reached her waist.
"Good morning sunshine," her pappy chirped at her from the kitchen. He had a newspaper spread across the table and a cup of straight black coffee in one wrinkled hand.
Faith grunted in his general direction and dragged herself past the kitchen, past the living room, past the formal dining room, past the family room, past the reck room, past the laundry room, and into the mud room. She couldn't help but feel that the house had too many rooms for just her and her Pappy. The house felt empty. But then everything felt empty since her parents had died.
Right at the beginning of the summer some Royal Pain wannabe staged a huge "corrupt the leaders of the free world" plot. Both of her parents had rushed off to help fight the wannabe and had died in the process. Jetstream and The Commander ended up prevailing over the copycat criminal, but Faith was left parentless and broken. Pappy flew in from the Bahamas, where he had retired, and moved in with Faith, helping her rebuild what was left of her torn life. But it wasn't the same without her parents.
This would be the first day of school where her mother was not waiting with an obnoxiously large pile of pancakes drowning in syrup-a Monday tradition. This would be the first day of school where her father wouldn't be at the door to give her a goodbye kiss on the forehead and a spirit rousing, "Go get 'em kid." Those things used to annoy her but now her heart ached with their absence.
Against her will, Faiths throat got uncomfortably tight and her eyes burned with suppressed tears, but she refused to cry. She had done enough of that over the last three months. She would not cry on the first day of school.
She would officially be a senior today, and she would now be authorized to choose her side kick. Which meant she would spend the year learning to work with someone with close to useless powers.
To be completely truthful with herself, Faith had to admit she hadn't put as much thought into this as she should have. All she knew is she really didn't want a hero-supporter. Whoever it was would just get in the way and mess things up.
Perhaps there is someway to get around the whole "pick a sidekick" rule, Faith thought as she pulled on a new pair of blue sneakers. I'm sure Mrs. Powers would make an exception if I made my case, she reassured herself.
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Faith had rushed from the bus to Principal Power's office door, where she knocked without relief until she was invited in. There she made her argument against picking a side kick. She now waited with barely contained apprehension for an answer.
"Well, you do pose an interesting argument, I'll give you that, but this just unheard of. No hero support? It's, well it's un-American, that's what it is. And Mr. Boy would be crushed, absolutely crushed." Mrs. Powers smiled weakly at Faith. "Now I realize that your main argument is that you work best by yourself and I cannot disagree with you there. I've seen your work, but part of being a Super is being able to work as a team with other, less-abled, individuals." Mrs. Powers paused for a breath and then continued. "I do, however, have a compromise for you, Faith. You are not the first senior to see me today on this…ah…touchy issue. I will not make you pick a support. In fact, you will have no sidekick at all. Instead you will work with Warren Peace this year-and you two will become a team."
Faith let out the breath she had been holding and felt a smile stretch across her face. But then what her principal had said registered with her brain and her eyes bugged out. She stood with a muttered, "Thank you" and rushed off to lunch to tell her friends and gain their well deserved sympathy.
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"YOU WHAT?"
The enraged shout echoed throughout the Sky High cafeteria, ringing between the ceiling beams.
Faith glanced around at her friends, all leaning forward, looking for an answer to the shouted question. She then looked out at the staring students of the cafeteria, all stopped-mid chew-to see what the yelling was about. She felt the back of her neck turn an uncomfortable shade of red, but she was resolute in her decision, even if it had some…unfortunate ultimatums.
"Did you really not hear me or are you asking for another chance to glare angrily at me and then yell at the top of your voice?" Faith paused before repeating what she had said that provoked such an enraged reaction from her best friend. "I said I asked Powers to excuse me from picking a sidekick and she did. BUT instead of working with a SK I have to spend the year working with Warren Peace, and we will become a Supers team." Faith glanced around at her friends staring at her with wide eyes and dropped jaws. Cadence, her best friend of three years, snapped her mouth shut with a loud teeth jarring click and opened it again to shout, "YOU MUMple muffle mmm."
Faith glared at Cadence, one hand covering her mouth. "I really do not want to entire school to know about my less than desirable partnership with our resident Pyro," Faith hissed.
"Meth wo oph my moph," Cadence mumbled against her hand.
"Promise to keep it to a dull roar." Cadence glared at Faith over her hand. "Promise!" Faith prompted. Cadence narrowed her eyes angrily and then stuck her tongue out, licking a trail of spit along Faith's hand.
Not missing a beat, Faith forced her hand to drop its temperature to freezing. It only took a second and Cadence's tongue was frozen to Faith's hand. "Promise or your face is going to be frozen to my hand all day." Faith chirped in a voice barely containing laughter. "Promise?"
Cadence nodded, her head bobbing up and down enthusiastically. "Alright, I am going to let you go now." Faith forced the temperature in her hand to return normal and she slowly removed it from her best friends face. A frosted outline remained for a moment before melting and running in little rivulets down Cadences face.
"Why don't you want an SK? You're breaking hundreds of years of Supers tradition!" Cadence exclaimed, careful not to let her become too shrill.
Faith twisted in her seat and looked behind her at the table where Will Stronghold sat, telling a very animated story. He was waving his hands around and making exaggerated faces at his enthralled audience, all except Warren Peace, who sat at the very end of the table, farthest from the preppy group and their inside jokes. There was an empty sear across from his, and one beside him on either side, obviously cutting him off from the rest of the group. Warren might have left his lonely table in preference for his friends but he obviously enjoyed his solitude.
"Will Stronghold's parents are a team," Faith pointed out. "Neither of them have a sidekick. They are equal in their...crime fighting endeavors."
"Yeah but Will's parents are the strongest Supers team in Maxville, if not the country. AND they love each other. Not to mention that they are on the side of truth and justice. Warren is the son of Barren Battle! One of the most evil Supers EVER! And you're not in love with him." The last sentence was a statement, not a question.
Faith took a deep breath before nodding in agreement. She was not in love with Warren Peace.
Though most of the female population at Sky High harbored a hidden desire to become the girl that ignited Warren's flame, Faith was the only one who had ever gotten remotely close. One dance at an almost world ruining Homecoming in her sophomore year. For weeks afterward Faith had waited with bated breath, watching for a sign from Warren that the dance had meant something to him, but he never spared her a second glance.
She knew, somewhere inside her broken heart, that is was just a silly dance and nothing more, but her hopeless romantic fantasies refused to let her give it up. The 6 foot 3 inch Pyro with his silky long hair and rippling muscles held such infatuation for her innocent ideas of love and adventure.
"Okay out with it." Faith turned back around to her best friend.
"What?" she asked, her silver-white eyebrows raised in question.
"You have sighed, like, eleven times in the last thirty seconds and you've got that starry-eyed, far off look eating your face, which, by the way, seems to be the theme of today's lunchtime ventures. Check out the flower child and her famous boyfriend. She must be hungry."
Faith scrunched up her nose and spun around in her seat again to watch Will and Layla make out over their table. It was quite appalling. She glanced at Warren to gauge his reaction to his best friends lack of decorum and was startled to find he was not looking at the loving couple, but at her.
Trying in vain to recover from her shock, Faith raised her eyebrows at Warren in question and nodded towards Will and Layla. The corner of his mouth raised in a crooked grimace of disgust and he rolled his dark, smokey gray eyes. Faith felt herself smile as Warren returned to his book.
The bell rang to signal the end of lunch and Faith stood, grabbing her untouched food. Cadence joined her, still munching on a half-eaten apple. "Since you so graciously decided to miss this mornings 'First-Day-Of-School-This-Is-The-Beginning-Of-The-Rest-Of-Your-Life assembly I suppose I could be the great best friend we all know I am and let you in on the schedule." Cadence said as they walked out of the cafeteria. "Everyone has now until the end of this week to pick their support and on Friday the pairs will be announced after Save the Citizen which we are still required to participate in." Faith groaned and rolled her eyes.
"Yes, yes we all know it blows. As I was saying-once the pairs are made and announced, the rest of the year will be devoted to rigorous independent study with said sidekick. Pop quizzes will be given by none other than Powers herself, who will, according to rumor, gather you and your SK and drop you in a Save the Citizen type of situation and grade you an how well you and you SK work together to best your opponent. At the end of the semester those unsatisfactory pairs which have failed the PQ's will be reassigned. At the end of the year we will all be sent out into the world to be placed in 'real' jobs that best fit our personality and strong suits where we will occasionally drop all to don costumes and save the world. Aren't you excited?" The last part of Cadence's monologue was dripping with sarcasm and accompanied by an enthusiastic imitation of a preppy cheerleader. Faith rolled her eyes at her best friends theatrics and pulled out her lip gloss-the only makeup she wore-and applied a fresh coat, sighing at its silky feel.
"One of these days your going to get a nasty batch of that stuff and your lips are going to fall off," Cadence warned good-naturedly.
"I doubt it."
"Whatever Faith, but don't deny that I warned you once your lipless." Cadence tossed her apple core into a nearby garbage can. "I've got to get to the costume shop for a theater meeting while the freshies are still in power placement. I've got lead this year you know!" Cadence yelled over her shoulder.
"Only the sixty-seventh time you've reminded me!" Faith yelled back as she turned away from Cadence's retreating back and headed to her locker, weaving between the crowds. She spun in her combination without even looking down. Four years of highschool and that was the only thing she learned she felt was worth while.
Faith could see it now-Her first job interview and her perspective boss is looking over her pathetic excuse for a resume with a smirk. "What exactly is it you feel you are good at?"
"Well, now that you mention it, I can open my combination lock on my locker without even looking. Mad skill, is it not? And I happen to be human freezer. What do I mean by that, you ask. Well I can freeze anything with a touch and unfreeze it too! Oh, and I can drop my body temperature so low that I become as solid as a diamond. Impressive I know. What good will that do me as an accountant? Well I am sorry, but the private high school I attended, which happens to float in the sky, never taught algebra."
"Perhaps you should try the ice cream shop down the road then."
"Well, thank you. I think I'll do just that."
Faith stared off into the fluorescent lights, her pessimistic daydream consuming all her attention, so she didn't notice a tall, burly football player barreling backwards down the hallway, his arms raised in anticipation of a football spinning through the air. The player caught the ball right as he smashed into Faith and her locker, crushing her fingers in the metal door and throwing her body against the row of closed lockers. Her head slammed back and her arm bent to a agonizing angle.
In the haze of pain, Faith could feel her fingers and her arms crack. Before her bones could break she forced her body temperature to plummet until her body was so hard that the locker door bent around her fingers and her shoulders and hips forced impressions into the lockers she was crushed against. The football players momentum sent him sprawling to the floor and Faith was crammed into the metal.
Slowly her body softened from its diamond-like state and she crumpled to the ground. Blood trickled down the side of her face and her right arm swelled and turned an ugly yellow-green color. Tears leaked out of her squeezed-shut eyes and a moan escaped her lips. The hall, and all the people in it, fell silent, watching to see what happened next.
The player scrambled to his feet and swore. His buddies rushed forwards and stood around Faith, staring at her body impression in the lockers and muttering under their breath. The player scratched the top of his head, trying to decide what to do. Before he could do anything though, someone pushed past him and knelt down to Faith, scooping her limp body up and walking off toward the nurses office.
Faith's eyes rolled into the back of her head and then forward again, and the only thing she saw before she passed out was a pair of intense, smokey gray eyes.