Ch 1

Reassigned

Layla was sufficiently confused to say the least. She had received a phone call from Principal Powers that morning which was basically about how Mrs Powers was so impressed with Warren Peace's total attitude 180 and how due to certain circumstances Layla should go visit him. Right away.

Layla hadn't particularly liked how the conversation seemed to turn from glowing praise of Layla's presence on Warren to that she had to immediately check up on him... oh and the cryptic edge of missing information.

Layla climbed out of her orange rust VW bug and swung the door closed with a loud creak. Warren would hopefully not be in so bad a mood, but in case he was she had a bottle of Johnny Walker under her one arm and a copy of the movie Snatch under her other arm as she walked up the little pathway to his row house. Her red hair fell forward as she fiddled with her keys while trying to find the right one that would open his door.

Yes, Layla had a set of his house keys but only because he was her hero... and she his sidekick. Apparently not only the many students at Sky High had noticed their strange friendship, but so had the teachers and Principal Powers who thought it would be highly advantageous to pair them up after graduation. Well after Layla graduated that is, Warren graduated three years before her but wasn't making use of his powers, so when Principal Powers offered to make Layla his sidekick he agreed a little too quickly. Unfortunately Principal Powers' genius had run out there so they got stuck with possibly the stupidest names ever. Warren had been given Fireman, and Layla had been branded with Twiggy. Needless to say that's a sore spot for both of them.

"Warren?" Layla asked tentatively while pushing his door open slightly.

His house was dark as far as she could see and so she shyly entered and locked the door behind her while looking from side to side with her wide jade green eyes, half expecting to see an evil doer or some other cheesy villain in such a gloomy place. She padded gently down the hall and entered the kitchen. Setting Mr Walker and the movie down on the table she stealthily moved off further down the hall to the stairs to check to see if he was upstairs. Still on the lookout for ninjas, she noticed a little twisted up black mess on the floor. She bent down for further inspection and found it to be Warren's cell phone... well what used to be, it appeared that the thing must have offended him since he had melted it to smithereens.

"Warren?" Layla turned the corner and saw that the part of his doorframe that's near his doorknob looked like it offended him like his phone did.

Layla entered Warren's room hesitantly and found him sitting in his desk chair with his head in his hands, his fingers dug into his black and red hair. She immediately rushed towards him and sat on the ground next to him and started to stroke his arm. He flinched away from her and she suppressed her hurt feelings inside, she was there for Warren right now not her own self, plus if he's pulling away from her that was usually the sign that it had something to do with her.

"Warren, what's wrong? What happened?" Layla said stroking his arm again even thought he was still moving away from her touch.

"What are you doing here Layla?" He hissed at her

"Principal Powers told me to check on you" She didn't bother to hide her hurt tone, he looked up at this. He wasn't crying but the look of fury on his face kind of made her wish he was. She could handle that easier.

Warren wasn't mope-y or anything like that, he never was, he was always so strong and stable, so this whole dark house and cryptic messages thing was starting to freak Layla out.

He sighed and said "You should go Layla"

"No" She said defiantly.

"Yes"

"NO"

"YES"

"NO!" She was getting really angry and didn't mind the dangerous look in Warren's obsidian eyes at all.

"YES!" Warren's fists clenched at his sides.

"NO!" She was on her knees now, level with him in his chair, screaming in his face.

"YES DAMMIT!" He slammed his fist down on the desk next to them, upsetting everything on it and Layla too.

"What the hell is wrong with you Warren?! I get some cryptic call about how your attitudes been so much better thanks to me and then an order to check on you and now that I'm here your just raging at me and acting violent!!! I deserve an explanation!!!" She hollered at him while trying not to cry. He was acting like a villain to her.

"Your not my sidekick anymore! I don't owe you anything!" He was furious but trying to control his temper, she was suddenly aware that the room felt like an oven even though it was 10 degrees outside and he didn't have heating.

"Why?" She felt like someone had just deflated her.

"Apparently I've had such an emotional turn around that I'm not a threat to become a villain anymore and so you'll be reassigned." His head was back in his hands. Warren knew he was not acting like himself but he was upset. He was gunna propose soon... well after he asked her out that is, but still she was his future and now she was going to be reassigned to who knows where, best just have a clean break. He would demolish her and maybe she and he could go on like they didn't love each other so much.

"Well I don't want to leave you Warren, so I won't. It's as simple as that, no need to go all PMSman on me." Layla said with a shaky smile as she rubbed his back. She was secretly pinning all her hopes on him, that he would say he didn't want her to leave too.

'Dammit' Warren thought 'she knows what I want to hear and she's such a martyr she'd stay with me even if she was unhappy the rest of her life.' He lifted his head to look at her and saw her doe like eyes and immediately regretted it. 'She's too good for you Warren Peace, just do what you have to. NOW!' He shook off her arm.

"Layla, I want you to go. There's nothing for you if you stay with me, please go now." Warren Peace officially wanted to kill himself.

Layla was so dazed by his words that she did exactly what he said. She stood up, turned away from him and left his house. She got into her car and drove home. She opened the door to her apartment building and went inside, she walked up the stairs to her level then went into her apartment, closed and locked her door then took off her shoes. She dropped her purse on the floor then went into her bedroom and collapsed onto her bed. Then she surrendered herself to the darkness in her mind.

1 Week Later

"We have three assignments here and one on the east coast. Which sounds good--?" The Mayor's question was cut off by Layla's hasty response.

"East! East coast! That's what I want… Please" She added as an afterthought.

"Okay, east coast it is then. You'll start that one immediately is that Ok?" He was cut short again.

"Fine!" She answered too readily as well.

"Okay please be packed and ready to go by 2:00 pm tomorrow." The Mayor added and then the line went dead.

Layla wasn't one who liked to run away from her problems but she was going to this time. After she talked to Warren she wasn't aware of anything until she realized she was in Magentas house being cared for by her about three days later. Whenever she thought of Warren her heart ached and she felt like dying but she knew she shouldn't and so she had to leave.

'By 2pm tomorrow I'll be out of this town and in... somewhere on the east coast!' Layla thought with hope that she'll be able to get over all this.

A/N: This was supposed to be the prologue but it just got so damn long (well long for me) that I decided to make it chapter one.