Sky high #2: the next generation.
Disclaimer: I don't own Sky high, just my characters and situations.
A/N: it's been along time. I have to say I thought I'd never come back but here I am.
The first time I saw Natalie was on our first day of high school. We were at Sky High and had already gone through the dividing between hero and sidekick and it was lunchtime. My two friends – Pete and Will – were in the boys room and I went ahead to get a table in the cafeteria. They were all occupied accept for two that had only two individual occupants. The one was engaged by Blake the fire-starter – a very frightening and evil-looking senior. Natalie sat at the other table and she was harmless so I took a chance and asked if I could sit with her. She had studied me carefully before agreeing.
"Winnie Step" I introduced myself.
"Natalie Hunter" she returned and shook my hand. She met my friends and since that day we enjoyed our lunches together.
As time went by we learned that Natalie didn't have any power – which was strange because she went to Sky High and you can't get in there if you don't have any powers. So we gathered that her powers still needed to be developed. We became great friends and whenever we needed help with any school work, Natalie helped.
"Nat, that dude is watching you like a hawk!" Pete said one day at lunch. We turned and saw Blake staring angrily at Natalie.
"That's nothing new," Natalie said and returned to her food.
"What's his problem?" I asked.
"I don't know. He always does that. Have you never noticed? It's like that everyday." Natalie said. "His name is Blake Zeelie. He's a fire-starter – a hero – and in my grade. He's done that ever since I could remember. It's like he has some vendetta against me."
"He looks scary. Like he could burn you with his eyes." Will stated.
"He's trying" Natalie finished and the bell rang.
Another time, between classes, I turned a corner and found Nat and Blake at each other's throats. A crowd had gathered to watch the fight but it was quickly broken up by a teacher. That seemed to happen a lot, according to other students. I wondered what it was about.
There is this tradition in Sky High, called Gladiator – simple enough and it described it perfectly. All the older students were lined up to fight one-on-one on an obstacle course unlike any other. We all sat around the gym and watched as games were won and lost. Students were allowed to use their powers except to kill of course. The last match was – to our surprise – between Nat and Blake. It seemed unfair, since Natalie had no powers but the teachers allowed it. She stepped onto the obstacle course and he walked in on the other side. What surprised me most was that Nat wasn't even scared. It looked like she was excited.
Blake fired up and threw a fire ball at Nat and she dodged it. He threw her with fire and she kept running around and dodged it. After a while I noticed that they were screaming at each other but the sound was muffled by the loud noises of the moving obstacles. Nat jumped on one of the 'catwalks' that moved into the air and Blake jumped up after her. As the thin bridge balanced and swayed under them, they yelled at each other. We couldn't hear anything of course but it seemed that they were very angry. The catwalk lopsided quite suddenly and Nat slipped along it to Blake's side. He had grabbed onto the bars but when she bumped into him, his hands slid off and they fell to the ground. Blake wrapped his arms around her to protect her but instead of shielding her from the horizontal bar beneath them, they turned around in mid air and she fell on the bar with her back breaking at the hard force. And with him on top of her, the force was even harder. Then they fell the rest of the way to the solid ground and again he fell fully on her body.
Blake jumped up and told her to get up.
"I can't move" she said – this we heard because the machinery was shut down the minute they fell from the height of forty feet. Blake picked her up and carried her none too gently out of the gym. We followed behind and found them in the nurse's office. He was busy bending back the bones of her back and it sounded extremely painful. At the last motion, Natalie shouted out of pain and then he dropped her to the bed. Before anyone could say anything, Blake said to Nat: "I'm the only one in the world who understands you!" and left.
A/N: I know it's short but it's all I have time for now. Please read and review.