'One Hero Down?'

By Ennon

Disclaimer: 'Sky High' and all its characters are owned by Disney and I'm making nothing from this whatsoever.

Will was riding with Layla on the back of Warren's Sky-Doo ( similar to a Sea-Doo- except it flew and every Sky High Senior without flying abilityhad one instead of riding the bus) when they saw a jumbo jet in distress.

"It looks like it's about to crash with all those passengers! You know what to do," Layla exclaimed.

Will immediately started to jump.

"Didja forget, Bro? The hoods," Warren noted quietly.

"Why do we have to wear these lame-o hoods anyway?" Will groaned.

"Cos it beats having to always wear dorky framed glasses around civilians like our folks do," Warren reminded him as all three put on hoods (Warren with red flames embossed on his black hood, Layla with flowers on her green hood with her red hair trailing behind and Will with his red and blue hood).

"With Lasik surgery being so popular, they're more obvious a disguise than ever!" Layla added while mimicking the glasses frames around her eyes.

Then Will took a leap and flew towards the jumbo jet. . . . .

Later that night, Commander Steve Stronghold and his wife Josie Jetstream stronghold were in bed in their bedclothes watching the recap of the day's news.

"And on a light note, contrasting the bombings, terrorism and reality show interviews of the REST of the today's news, the KEGG crew was on hand to witness the metro area's newest heroes save that jumbo jet Air Pacifica to Bombay earlier this morning. Take it away, Kelly," the newscaster Roger Odgen exclaimed. "

"Carrying on the family tradition, young Corporal Stronghold is shown flying up to the underside of the jet and catching it then absorbing the entire impact of its hundreds of tons. Look at him lifting the disabled jet like it weighs mere ounces. He makes it to the ground and then. . .uh-oh he slides on the icy runway. Will he drop the jumbo jet? Will he regain his traction? Will the airport's insurance cover it? Oh, no! When, wait! Look who we have here on the Sky-Doo, it's his friends Capitan Fuego and Sistah Naycha zooming down for an assist. El Capitan growls and makes those huge fireballs appear on his biceps now he shoots 'em down! Can he save Corporal Stronghold and the jumbo jet? YES! The flames turned the ice into steam –and now we can't see any of them. Wait, the steam's clearing and we can see Corporal Stronghold back on solid footing hoisting the gigantic jumbo jet with ONE HAND while Sistah Naychah wraps the plane in vines to anchor it down until they can safely turn off the engines! What a SAVE!" Kelly Narita exclaimed as described the action on screen.

"Isn't that wonderful, Steve?" Josie gushed while she hugged her husband who groaned.

"Yeah, I guess, " Steve sighed.

"It looks like the Corporal's ready to put his old man the Commander out to pasture," Kelly gushed- while Steve put his head in his hands and slumped under the bedcovers up to his chin.

Immediately, Josie turned off the set.

"Steve, are you going to let some idiot reporter upset you?" Josie asked.

"Jo-Jo, it's not just that! But have you seen our kid? Last week, he pulled that apartment building out of the sinkhole. On Tuesday, he re-opened the freeway closed by that landslide by smashing the 500 ton granite boulders into powder with his fists. Wednesday, he showed off to Layla by throwing the beached blue whale two miles back into the open ocean. Yesterday, he uprooted a 50 ton oak stump by kicking it- barefoot! " Steve groaned.

"But isn't that what we wanted? To have our son be superstrong to carry on our tradition?" Josie asked.

"Yeah, but it's like he no longer needs me and I'm deadweight to him. I miss being his hero," Steve groaned.

"Now, don't you talk like that! He loves and respects us- and is a polite ,honest and bright boy. What more could we ask for?" Josie asked as she hugged him.

"Maybe for him to be only TWICE as strong as me until he . .." Steve groaned.

At that moment, a knock was heard on their door.

"Mom, Dad can I come in?" Will asked as Steve sat himself back up against the headboard.

"Sure, Sport. Come' ere!" Steve exclaimed as Will opened the door.

"It's about today's Airplane Rescue," Will groaned.

"We heard about it from Principal Powers," Josie sighed.

"How many times do we have to tell you? When you rescue planeloads of civilians on your way to school, get the pilot to sign the Tardy Excuse Form," Steve insisted while wagging his finger.

"Sorry, it won't happen again," Will sighed.

"It's okay, Sport. When I was your age, I once rescued a busload of civs from an icy river without The Uniform. Man, did I get it from your Grandpa! He must have smashed at least five abandoned junkyard cars against me and I couldn't sit down for a week!" Steve laughed.

"Steve, that's not funny," Josie snapped.

"I guess not. Quick question. We figured out Layla's Sistah Naycha moniker and all but what about Warren's Capitan Fuego? He's not Hispanic," Steve queried.

"Warren thought it would disassociate him from the Barron and have a larger demographic appeal," Will replied.

"Oh. Well, you did good today- again, Sport!" Steve beamed.

"Thanks, Dad!" Will honestly exclaimed.

"Really?" Steve asked.

"Sure!" Will exclaimed.

"You don't know how. .." Steve started to say.

"Mom,Dad, could you help me with something?" Will asked.

"What is it?" Josie asked.

"It's for my science homework. What's a ten-letter word beginning with 'k' and ending with 'ite' meaning ' a solid rock from another planet in fiction that's a form of a gaseous element in real life'?" Will asked- as he took out the printed question from his left bathrobe pocket.

"Kryptonite," Steve exclaimed.

"Got it! Thanks, Dad! You're my hero!"Will beamed.

"You mean it?" Steve gulped.

"Sure, you and Mom always will be my heroes no matter how many centuries we live or robotic monsters we fight!" Will laughed.

"Aw, come here, Son! Family hug!" Steve exclaimed as Will walked up to the bed and the three hugged.

"Aw, Dad" Will shrugged.

"Well, I know that until you're old enough to get a job how else your Mom and I will have also be heroes,"Steve smirked as they broke the group hug and Steve tapped his wallet on his bedside table.

"Not anymore, Dad,"Will laughed.

"What do you. .?" Steve asked.

"Will, your hands and feet are filthy. You'd better wash them before you climb back into your bed tonight," Josie chided as she suddenly noticed them.

"Oh, yeah. I need to tell you. Warren and I got a kewl gig,"Will recalled.

"At a copy shop?" Josie asked.

"We kinda hoping you'd be our go'fer at the real estate office this summer," Steve pondered.

"Thanks but no need. Remember that 50 ton oak stump the city wanted cleared to build the playground?" Will asked.

"Yeah, you kicked it out!"Steve recalled.

"Well, the lumber company didn't want it on account of the wood being too warped so Warren flamed it and. ." Will explained.

"You compressed the 50 tons of charred oak stump to make charcoal briquettes!" Josie exclaimed with a snap.

"Yeah, it's going to warm up soon and lots of folks will wanna grill out," Steve started to say.

"Yeah, that's what we did at first. Then Ethan pointed out that charcoal is virtually solid carbon so. . ." Will exclaimed as he reached into his right bathrobe pocket and took out.

"DIAMONDS!" Steve and Josie gulped as Will handed them each a large hand full of dozens of irregularly shaped gem stones no less than 50 carats each.

"Yeah and I gave the other three/fourths to Warren,Layla and Ethan as their shares. Are you okay, Dad? You look kinda green," Will gulped noticing his father's sudden pallor- similar to civilians'.

"Yeah, I'm just a bit. . . surprised," Steve gulped.

"I'll be happy to show you how, Dad. Gotta warn you that charcoal's easier to compress in the fists than in the toes but not quite as fun, Goodnight, Mom and Dad! Love you!" Will exclaimed as he hugged them again.

"Good night, Son!" Steve and Josie beamed as they hugged him again before he walked out.

"Are you okay, Steve?" Josie asked.

"Uh-hunh," Steve nodded.

"No, you're not!"Josie groaned.

Steve sighed again.

"Now, I know this is somewhat unexpected but I'm sure we can reason with Will about the importance of good, hard honest work and an education instead of using powers for easy money," Josie pondered while hugging her husband's left arm.

"Aw, Jo-Jo, why didn't I think of doing the Diamond Deal before we had to go read through those tons boring real estate codas when we got our licenses?" Steve groaned as he slumped his torso from the headboard and pulled the covers over his head.

-END-