Partial Heritage

by AngelicaSatan

When sixteen YouTubers are kidnapped by Royal Pain, they are given powers beyond their imagination. When Royal Pain is captured they must now face the realities of Sky High and the students within. Their origin may be their undoing.

A/N For this story I have adjusted the ages of the YouTubers to allow them all to be in high school at the same time. I have placed anyone under 25 (in December 2016) into freshman year, 25-27 into sophomore, and 28-30 into junior. I apologize if your favorite was not put into a hero class but I wanted to make sure I was as fair, and realistic to the universe, as possible. Also I decided Ron Wilson's accident with the toxic waste was after Will's sophomore year, mostly because I wanted him to be in this story. I do not own Sky High or any of the YouTubers (obviously). A list of classes and powers will be available at the end of the fic if desired. This story is centered around the perspectives of Dan and Will Stronghold, so some characters may be a little underrepresented in the story. Sorry. If I tried to cover everyone's perspectives I would never finish writing. I hope you like it anyways. Enjoy.

Will was sure his sophomore year at sky high was going to be far less exciting than his freshman one was. For a start, he already had his powers and knew what they were. His once best friend was now his girlfriend, so nothing new was likely to come up there. He didn't have an arch enemy any more. Well maybe he did but Royal Pain was in prison. He would be in class with his girlfriend (she got transferred to the hero class shortly after homecoming last year), and would spend lunch and after school with Warren and his hero support friends. Yep, he figured he had a pretty relaxing year ahead of him, well as relaxing as it could be given that he was returning to Sky High.

He was wrong. Of course he was wrong.

First day back to classes was exciting to say the least. There was an extra bus when he landed. Maybe there were more freshmen than normal this year. Everyone was buzzing about something, and again Will felt completely out of the loop. He was missing something.

"What's going on?" He asked as he reached Zach's locker.

"You didn't hear?" Zach asked looking shocked. "Royal Pain broke out of prison in June. She was on the loose for a month before they caught her. In that time she kidnapped a bunch of kids with partial heritage." Zach paused at Will's confused expression.

"It means they have some supers in their ancestry but not enough to necessarily result in natural powers," Ethan explained.

"I knew that," Will said defensively.

"Sure you did. Anyways, she was trying to trigger natural powers in them, figured she could make an army of villains from scratch another way. Apparently she succeeded before they picked her up, so there's a pile of new sophomores and juniors this year as well," Zach finished.

"Eight sophomores, six juniors, and two freshmen. Freshmen are going to be placed this morning with the other freshmen and then the older kids are getting placed in the afternoon. They'll be joining classes tomorrow," Ethan added.

"Well this should be interesting," Will said.

"I think it will be fun," Layla smiled, kissing Will on the cheek.

"I'm with Stronghold on this one," Magenta frowned. "How do we know this isn't all a part of Greyson's plan?"

"I don't think she had them for long enough for that. The longest she had anyone was a couple weeks and apparently they were all pretty shell shocked when they were freed," Layla added calmly.

"That sounds horrible. I can't imagine having to listen to her talk for a whole week. No way to run away, or get free. Horrible," Warren drawled. "I can't imagine being subjected to her, let alone willingly doing so. Hey," he grunted grabbing his ribs where he'd received an unnecessarily aggressive elbow from the super strong teen.

"Ha-ha, absolutely hilarious."

"Alright, we gotta get to classes, see you three at lunch," Magenta said.

Dan was fucking terrified. First he and Phil had been kidnapped by some evil madwoman, and then fourteen others had been kidnapped, including some of their friends. Then suddenly they all had fucking super powers. Well maybe not quite in that order. Then a bunch of American super heroes showed up and saved them. Then they were told that since they have fucking super powers now that they had to go to a new fucking school. Sure he was happy to be going to the same school as Phil, but his friend was a year older than him so it's not like they'd be in any of the same classes.

The adults had explained the basics. They would be going to 'Sky High'. They would be sorted into heroes and hero support, so he wasn't even guaranteed to be in the same class as PJ, and then join the existing classes in their age groups. They also explained some basics of the community.

Now they were here. Mark, Tyler, Jack, and Matt all looked fairly calm, almost excited. Chris was obviously suspicious, PJ was curious, Phil looked worried. Dan was, as previously stated, fucking terrified. He would never admit it of course. He put on his best bitch face to hide his anxiety and tried his best not to literally hide behind Phil and Nate.

Fuck.

At lunch Will noticed a couple of very tight groups of new students. Some of them looked his age, some of them looked Warrens. Only two were freshmen, so these must have been the partial heritage kids. Some of them were looking around suspiciously, some of them seemed to be shrinking in on themselves. Some of them were smiling to each other and whispering. Each group seemed to have at least one of each. That was as much attention as Will paid them. He figured the last thing they needed was people staring. He was sure he'd meet a few soon enough. He turned back to his friends and their conversation, putting the strange new occurrences out of his mind for now. They did seem odd though.

People kept staring. They were some new spectacle to be observed. They were new and exciting and, fuck Dan really wanted to disappear. Ethan and Sophie, the two youngest in the group, had been 'placed' that morning. Both in hero support. To be fair, Ethan could talk to lady bugs and Sophie could change the colours of things. But still, Dan was now very nervous for his own placement. He tried not to think about it and to enjoy his lunch but he didn't really have any appetite.

All too soon lunch ended and they were off to power placement. The freshmen had all been taken off for some sort of orientation, Sophie and Ethan with them. So now there were fourteen of them to be 'placed'.

"We'll start with you," Coach Boomer announced, pointing at (Dan thought he'd heard him called J-Fred or something). "What's your name? What's your power?"

"Joey, and I can see infrared light."

"I'd ask you to show me, but I really don't care, sidekick. Other Frederick brother, you're up."

"I'm Matt, and I'm also going to be a sidekick, because I can see ultra violet light," the blonde said sarcastically as he reached the raised stage.

"You are correct. Probably a dancer, you're next."

"Lilly, and I can shape shift."

"Shift it."

She transformed and was dubbed a hero. This continued through several more, Jack (Sean apparently) Amanda, and Stephanie were all placed in hero support. It was entertaining watching Stephanie attempt to explain Brain Bleach to Coach Boomer. Tyler, Mark, and Matt (he said to make it easier they could call him MatPat (cuz his last name is Patrick), as opposed to the other Matt's choice of Matthias) were placed in the hero class.

"Tallest emo kid," Boomer shouted after Tyler walked off the platform.

Dan nearly cursed aloud as he slowly walked up onto the platform. "Dan, and I can put things in people's heads."

"Show me."

Dan nodded. Okay, he could do this. Deep Breath. Just a hallucination, those were easier. He focused on Coach Boomer and painted an image in his head. He was in a London Cafe, one Dan had loved when his family travelled to London before, and it was perfectly serene. The cafe was filled with every beautiful celebrity Dan could think of. He made Boomer feel calm and self assured and like everyone was there for him. He figured putting the man in a good mood was probably a good idea. He released the coach then, after a minute or so.

"Tall emo kid, Hero!" Dan smiled briefly and stepped off of the stage. He was much calmer watching Nate make hero as well by creating an actual tornado. He even high fived the punk boy who'd be in his class. His mood was slightly dampened when Chris and PJ were both assigned to Hero Support. That meant Dan would have classes with Mark, Tyler, and Nate, which was definitely not the worst case scenario.

"Last emo kid." Phil stepped up onto the platform and made Hero easily. Dan had never doubted Phil would be a hero.

Okay, so maybe power placement was not the worst.

Mad Science first thing in the morning on his second day back at Sky High was not something Will was looking forward to. Sure there was going to be save the citizen that afternoon, expose the freshmen (and the new kids in other grades he supposed) to the gym, and give the older students a chance to show off.

"As we have so many new sophomores this year we will be having a review class to catch them up. Don't worry, I will be testing those of you who are returning in the process. I will ask questions, you will answer. We will see how much the new students know and how much the old students retained. You will not be graded on this but it will strongly affect my opinion of you, so be warned," Mr Medulla stood at the front of the room.

Will looked around and saw a few pockets of new faces. There was a tall boy with brown hair and eyes sitting silently at the back of the room, looking all for the world like he wished he were invisible. Next to him sat a shorter boy, roughly Will's height if he had to guess, with similar hair and eyes. Both boys were wearing all black, had their ears pierced, and seemed unsure of their surroundings. Ahead of them sat another pair of boys, both fairly average in height and muscular looking. One had brown and curly hair with grey eyes, the other dark brown hair and eyes. These two looked much more confident. It was then Will realised he had completely tuned out Mr. Medulla and been staring at the group for at least a minute. He turned quickly and tried to focus on the class.

Mr Medulla quizzed around the room. Will would be proud to say later that he knew at least half of the answers. He was fairly certain Layla knew most of them but she was always a little smarter than he was. The newbies weren't completely lost either. The tall one, he thought Mr Medulla had called him Mr Howell, had successfully answered the difference between a beam and a ray (If Will were to bet he'd say it had been a complete guess). Mr Fischbach, the dark haired one in front, had gotten his answer half right. His bench mate, Mr Schied, had gotten his wrong but was on the right track. Mr Sharpe had correctly answered the frequency of sound required to break glass, seemed pretty confident in the answer too.

When the bell rang for lunch he followed behind the small, makeshift, group to the lunch room. The group met up quickly with three others from Warren's class and took over two tables, the tables were quickly filled out with the hero support kids and Will looked away to rejoin his group.

"The four newbies in our class seem alright," Magenta commented. "We spent the class catching up, reviewing, and doing stupid 'getting to know you' games but it wasn't absolutely horrible."

"Yeah, PJ seemed pretty cool, he can create tiny little monsters about the size of a shot glass. They're pretty cute, can't do much though," Zach continued. "Sean can talk really fast, like insanely fast. Probably could have a pretty decent rap career ahead of him."

"Amanda and Joey were decent too. Amanda can whistle at a frequency only dogs can hear and Joey can see infrared radiation. Pretty cool, hard to prove, not super useful. They seem nice enough though," Ethan finished.

"We had a 'review quiz' for the entire class. I think Medulla was just looking for a way to torture us all," Will explained.

"The newbies tried, seemed alright to me," Layla added.

"I heard the freshman hanging on the half Asian kid-"

"Mr Fischbach, according to Mr. Medulla," Layla interrupted.

"Okay I heard the freshman hanging on Fischbach's every word can speak to ladybugs," Zach commented.

"I heard one of the juniors, I think they said his name was Chris, is a literal cheese magnet. He can draw cheese toward himself," Magenta added.

"Hey, don't judge too harshly. I mean it's a little pot calling the kettle black isn't it," Layla chided.

"What on earth could you possibly mean. Our powers are awesome," Zach puffed out his chest.

"Whatever you say, human glow stick," Warren laughed.

"So... how are the new juniors in hero class Warren?" Will asked, changing the topic.

"Patrick, Lester, and Singh? Their fine I guess. No real introductions so I don't know a lot about them," he answered, sounding bored with this line of questioning.

"Okay..."

They ate and chatted quietly for the rest of lunch before making their way to the school gym. Save the citizen was going to be awesome.

Okay, he made it through the morning. The quiz was stressful but when it was his turn he was proud to say he actually knew the answer. He wasn't sure of it, but he remembered seeing the difference between a beam and a ray on TV at some point. He sat beside Nate, partly because they had a lot in common, partly because he felt it would be impossible to separate Mark and Tyler. They like the same music, are both very physical people, had read a lot of the same books, and had watched a lot of the same things. Nate got his question right as well. It was an okay morning.

At lunch they met up with the other Heroes and saved seats for the rest of their group. Dan sat happily between Phil and Nate, chatting animatedly about the upcoming afternoon. They were going to be watching some of the older students play 'Save the Citizen.' Basically it meant they could all sit together and just observe, things Dan did best.

They took their seats in the bleachers of the gym and stared down at the main area. Coach Boomer announced the beginning of save the citizen. He explained the basic rules, heroes save the citizen, villains immobilize the heroes, not too complicated.

"Everyone who wants to participate in today's skill show has submitted their partnership this morning. Now those pairs will be drawn out of this hat. There will be no whiner babies, who you fight and whether you're the heroes or the villains are not your choice, accept them as they are," Coach Boomer announced, shaking a hat from his perch. "First pair of heroes, Ice Chick and Laser Eyes, and first set of villains, oh this will be entertaining Little Larry and Acid Spitter."

The fights went on in random orders. It was entertaining to say the least. Will had entered his name with Warren's, since Layla wasn't really fighting, and wasn't even nervous for when his name came up, just excited. He laughed as Freeze Girl froze Larry's hand to his partner's face and when Carbon Copy Kid became one of his opponents and got him knocked out flat. When their turn came up they fought a pair of seniors as the villains. It was an odd victory, to watch the mannequin be destroyed and then cheer, but still a victory and that's what matters.

Will glanced up at the new kids every so often, curious. He saw most were watching closely. Some leaned forward with rapt attention. Some leaned back and watched passively. They all sat together though, as though their own little group was safe, could be trusted, and everyone else was dangerous. As the next group after him and Warren started leaving the arena he looked at the group. The tall one from hero support in his year was whispering to the freshman girl. He watched as she smiled, nodding, and turned to Howell and Sharp in his class and touch their gym uniforms, turning them black. Both smiled, looking a little relieved, and thanked her. There was a brief conversation in which, Will guessed, they asked why and she pointed to the first boy. Then his attention was drawn back to the arena.

"Alright, we've run out of names in the hat. So now, for the rest of this afternoon I will be picking teams and competitors, because it entertains me," Boomer announced, laughing. "Don't worry, I'll make sure it's a fair fight."

"Fischbach, Schied, you're up. You'll be the heroes to Peace and Stronghold's villains."

Mark smiled, as did Tyler. They had just said minutes before that they were a little frustrated that they couldn't participate. Now they'd get the chance, together. After watching Peace and Stronghold fight earlier Dan was glad he wasn't in their shoes. They'll probably be fine. They're powers are pretty bad-ass after all.

As they were taking up their positions on their side of the arena Mark handed Tyler his shoes. People looked confused, including their opponents. At that point Dan realized that Mark and Tyler had the advantage. No one else there knew what they could do. They couldn't prepare. Tyler hefted one shoe and nodded. He gestured to Stronghold and Mark nodded in return. Dan figured their plan would work pretty well. He just really hoped he didn't get called on next.

The buzzer went and Tyler beaned Peace in the face with one of Mark's shoes, immediately drawing his, literal, fire. Dan couldn't help but laugh at the stunned look on the older boy's face. Like he was astounded that he had just been hit in the face with a shoe of all things. The second shoe knocked him flat to the floor. He was quick to get back up and run at Tyler, who was now out of shoes. Mark on the other hand looked completely dazed, like he had no idea how he had gotten there, and watched as Stronghold, after struggling to take off, flew up and saved the citizen. Peace was stopped in his tracks, mid fiery punch, by his partner doing his opponents job for them. The game ended there, as quickly as it had begun. Mark returned to his body, high fived Tyler, and then began collecting his shoes.

"What the hell was that!?" Peace shouted turning to Stronghold, who still looked incredibly dazed.

"I don't know, one second I was over here, the next I was over there watching myself save the citizen," the strongman responded.

"Actually you were watching me save the citizen in your body. I'm a body switcher," Mark explained as he slid on his shoe and stood up straight.

"Oh," Will frowned. "Why did you give Schied your shoes though?"

"He has perfect aim, and a pretty fucking insane arm, he needed projectiles and I wasn't going to be moving around so I gave him my shoes." As the heroes left the arena Boomer selected a few more upper-class-men to fight.

"You know, if you want to fight, you just have to say it out loud. Apparently Mr. Boy is listening for people who want to compete and passing the information on," Tyler said as he a Mark returned to their seats.

"Seriously? 'Cuz I am so in," Lily answered. "I could totally take any of these chumps."

"Fuck yeah! Me too," Chris cheered.

"Chris, you control cheese. You aren't going to be beating anyone on your own," PJ laughed.

"True, but maybe I could confuse them long enough to win."

"Ah Chris, always the optimist," Phil laughed. "At least about yourself."

"Very true. Hey maybe Ethan and I should be a team. Cheese and ladybugs, fucking terrifying," Chris fell out of his seat laughing.

"I think I'm perfectly happy just watching," Dan commented quietly.

"I'm with you on this one Dan," Nate agreed from beside him.

In the end Lilly wound up winning her match with the help of another junior. The unicorn was pared up with a telekinetic girl and was able to win easily.

Chris got his chance after all. It was an incredibly comedic match between him and PJ, and a pair of sidekicks from Dan's year (Ethan and Zack he thinks). The match between the cheese magnet, monster creator, human popsicle, and human glow stick was a mess. It was hard to tell who was winning at any given point until the match was over and the citizen had not been saved.

Overall Dan enjoyed himself. Some of the matches were funny, most were impressive, and very few were boring. As they left the room he asked PJ a question that had been pushed to the back of his mind by Boomer's announcement.

"Hey, not that I'm complaining but, why did you get Sophie to change the colour of our gym uniforms?" He asked gesturing to himself and Nate.

"I figured you'd both be happier in black than primary colours, and I wanted to see what would happen. Some of the older students have personalized their uniforms in one way or another, I figured this was an easy way to test it out, and you both are far better suited to black than bright red and yellow." PJ smiled. "Also I wanted to give Sophie a chance to use her powers. It's not like there's a lot of call for colour changing around here. Made everyone happy in one fell swoop."

"Awww, best boyfriend ever!" Nate laughed before gesturing to Sophie, "don't even try to deny that you two are dating man."

"I would never," PJ responded indignantly. "I'm not ashamed of my girlfriend. She's the best freshman hero support there will ever be."

"Hey!" Ethan shouted from just behind them.

"Sorry Ethan but he's a little biased," Phil answered.

"True."

"Fair."

At least, if nothing else, this whole experience had given Dan a whole new group of really great friends.

Will was still a little stunned as he left the room, apparently having your body borrowed leaves you dazed for a while. Layla was cracking up, talking about how he deserved to be taken down a peg or two. Warren was no longer annoyed and mostly just amused that he had been taken down by a pair of shoes.

"The new kids seem pretty decent. I mean Fischbach figured out your powers pretty quickly, Singh turns into a unicorn, and they seemed pretty nice," Layla said as they walked out of the gym.

"I don't know. They still seem a little sketchy to me. I still feel funny after having my body stolen," Will frowned at the ground. He didn't like them. End of discussion.

"Hey, maybe Warren can get that freshman girl to turn his gym clothes black the way she did for those other two boys," Ethan laughed.

"Ha Ha Ha," Warren enunciated every syllable of the fake laugh, stepping closer to Ethan. Ethan ducked behind Will, and he couldn't help but chuckle.

The next few days were uneventful, which is saying something since they were at a school for super heroes. Dan found himself hanging out more with Mark, Tyler, and Nate by merit of being in the same class, but everyone still hung out.

They all lived in apartments on the same floor of the same building. They said it was to protect them, and make sure their needs were taken care of. Dan figured they just wanted to keep track of them and make sure they weren't in on their kidnappers plan. Like they even could have been. Or would have been. Who the fuck was stupid enough to believe they'd help that bitch after she kidnapped and tortured them to 'give' them powers.

Dan shared a four bedroom apartment with Phil, PJ, and Chris. Mark, Tyler, Sean, and Ethan were in the room across the hall. Nate, MatPat, Matthias, and Joey were next door. And finally The girls (Sophie, Amanda, Stephanie, and Lilly) were across from them.

They, as a group, liked to meet up in one of the four apartments to hang out and do homework and shit. To be honest, they were all a little out of their depth. They were far from home, suddenly in a new school, surrounded by strange people with strange powers. It was beyond stressful. Dan noticed a large portion of them were anxious, more so than normal, and those with anxiety disorders were getting worse. Actually, to be realistic, everyone's mental health was deteriorating. It was easier to hide at the start, when they were trying to get away from a mad woman, or being saved, or moving in to the apartments, or spending their first couple days in classes and trying to catch up. Now it was more obvious. Mark and Sean were struggling to concentrate on anything. PJ, Nate, Lilly, and Dan were struggling period. Even the most level headed among them like Phil, MatPat, and Tyler were trying and failing to be strong and stable for their friends.

It didn't help that people were avoiding them like the plague at school. There seemed to be a consensus that they must all be evil. It was the only explanation for their powers. For why they were there. Obviously they were all in cahoots (who the hell still uses that word anyways) with Royal Pain. They were villains in their classmates minds and there was no changing their minds. All for something they had no control over whatsoever.

Sophie had helped everyone out with decor on the first day, changing wall, furniture, etc colours for everyone. Dan's room was in shades of brown, black, and grey. Phil's was done up in whites, blues, and greens. Not exactly surprising. It was a small comfort being surrounded by familiar and preferred colours.

They were getting to know each other better as time went on. They had known some things before meeting, some of them had known each other very well. Mark, Tyler, Ethan, and Sean had already been friends. Mark, Sean, and PJ had met at some camp. Dan, Phil, Chris, and PJ were friends. Matthias and Joey were brothers and had met MatPat, Nate, Mark, and Tyler before. PJ had previously been dating Sophie, MatPat: Stephanie, and Matthias: Amanda. Lilly had met Mark at some point but neither of them could remember where.

They learned new things about each other too. Like that Mark, both Matts, Amanda, PJ, Nate, Lilly, Dan, and Phil all enjoyed singing; were pretty good too. That most of them enjoyed video games in some capacity. This discovery was immediately followed by massive game nights. That Tyler, Joey, Matthias, Ethan, and Mark were all fairly athletic. Ethan was actually a pretty damn good at gymnastics. Everybody had shared music interests with at least one other person. Everyone liked similar movies, and movie nights were easier than expected. They learned a ton of tiny things about each other too. The kinds of things you only really learn when you really spend an excessive amount of time with someone.

At the moment Dan was sitting in his living room with Mark, Tyler, and Nate working on that day's homework. In the kitchen Lilly, Phil, and MatPat were working on theirs. It had been decided o the first day that the hero class would meet in one apartment, and hero support in another, so that they could help each other out with problems.

It was slow going, they were all distracted and stressed out. They just needed to get this done. Then it would be fine. But they had been working so hard to catch up to their classmates, that keeping up was incredibly difficult.

"That's it, everybody needs a break," Phil announced suddenly, closing his textbook.

"I say we go get food, we can pick it up to go and come back and surprise everyone else," Lilly said.

"That is a plan I can get behind," Mark replied, closing his book as well.

"Agreed," Nate added.

It was decided. They all threw on jackets and made their way out of the building. They decided as they walked on the nearby Paper Lantern. They ordered more than enough food for everyone and waited for it to be ready.

"Hey, you guys waiting for food?" Peace asked while adding the cash from his last table to the till.

"Yeah, needed a break so we figured we'd pick up some food," Phil answered.

"How's catching up going? You guys were kinda just thrown into the middle of a lot of classes."

"It's a struggle."

"Yeah, I get that. My shift's over in ten minutes or so, if you guys wanted some help. I won't really be able to help the hero support, unfortunately, but I should be able to help all of you catch up."

"That would be amazing actually, but why would you?"

"You seem pretty cool, I feel bad. You guys are being treated like criminals because you were kidnapped by one. It's not like it was in your control. I get that. Want to help make things a little less awful."

"That would be amazing man," Nate said. "Thanks."

"Hey, it's no problem."

"Seriously, thank-you. I'm pretty sure you're the only one in class that doesn't treat us like we're tainted," Lilly added.

"My dad's a super villain, I know what you guys are going through 'cuz I've been going through it for years. I get it, and it sucks. I'm sorry the rest of our classmates are tools."

When their food was ready Warren, he told them to call him by his first name, helped bring it out and left with them. They walked back to the apartment building, chatting amicably about random shit. As it turned out, Warren was pretty fucking cool. They chatted about music, movies, video games, comic books, anime, T.V. shows, everything. In the end Dan decided he didn't really care how helpful Warren ended up being with catching up, he was glad he was getting the chance to hang out with him.

When they arrived at the apartment they decided to walk in singing the word food in harmony. It was Phil's idea, he looked so excited by it that no one would have argued even if they wanted to. No one really wanted to though. It wound up being a pretty decent harmony, and sounded really cool. They were cheered by their friends, though whether the cheer was for the singing or just the food remains unknown. Food was passed around and everyone ate their fill before the leftovers were thrown in the fridge and the heroes returned to their designated study space.

The remainder of their homework and catch-up work wound up taking about an hour with Warren's help. They finished far more than they thought they would and did it in less time than they had planned to spend. Warren was incredibly helpful.

When they were finished Lilly decided she was going to bed, even though it was only 8. Mat went to go spend some time with Stephanie. Tyler decided he was going to go for a run to work out some of the stress, only Tyler would find running a relaxing activity. That left Mark, Nate, Dan, Phil, and Warren. They decided on Disney movies. Those were safe and calming and didn't really require a lot of processing. They watched Mulan first, by the end Tyler had returned from his run and joined them. As they started up the second, Nightmare Before Christmas (it was a unanimous decision to be fair), the other apartment had finished their homework and Sean joined them. The rest had gone off in other directions. After the second movie Warren left to return home and everyone else separated off to their own rooms. Maybe things were starting to get a little better. For the first time since the whole mess went down Dan fell asleep within a few minutes of putting his head on the pillow.

Will hadn't seen Warren that morning. It was unusual for the pyrokinetic to be late, heck it was unusual for him to be on time. He was usually early, by a lot. Thinking about it Will wasn't sure how. Sure there were multiple buses and they ran at different times , but he couldn't imagine one showing up that much earlier than his own. Regardless, Will didn't see Warren anywhere before his classes started.

Then at lunch he didn't meet up with them. It wasn't incredibly rare for different classes to get out at different times, so they went and found a table. Then Warren walked in, surrounded by the Pain powers (someone came up with the nickname for the group at some point and it stuck) and chatting. He glance over and nodded at Will before continuing on with the group to go get food. When they returned he nodded goodbye and came over to sit with Will and co.

"Since when are you friends with them?"

"Since when is it any of your concern who I'm friends with Stronghold?"

"Hey, fists away. We were just confused," Layla said, elbowing Will in the side. "We've never seen you willingly talk to someone new before."

"Whatever."

That should have been the end of the conversation. It really should have. Will should have dropped the subject there. But Will was never very good at taking a hint.

"Seriously though, the Pain powers? For all we know they're evil. If nothing else, they're really weird. We don't even know what half of their powers are."

Warren's response was to stand up and walk away. He took a seat on the opposite side of the room next to Sharp and Fischbach. A couple people glared over at their table after Warren finished explaining what had happened. Not only had Warren befriended them, he spoke more around them than he ever did with him.

He was not jealous. Nope. Warren was still his best friend. He was just worried about his friend's judgement and safety. That was it. Not jealous.

Dan felt bad for Warren. No matter how much he claimed it didn't bother him, Will's comment had obviously struck a nerve. Based on what he had been told about the hero, he doubted Will even knew what he had said wrong. Dan felt it was partially his own fault. They were driving a wedge between their new friend and his best friend. Warren swore it wasn't their fault, that Will's prejudice was just showing through again. People don't really change.

Warren told them not to feel bad. It didn't matter anyways. He and Will had just become friends by default after the whole Royal Pain incident. They were never very close, Will had simply declared them friends after the whole mess. It was bound to become an issue sooner or later. They had never really gotten past the fact that Warren's dad was a villain. Will had never really dealt with it. Warren had been struggling with it for a while. He knew Will didn't really think about it, but it was an ever present prejudice in the back of his mind, Warren was sure of that.

Dan figured it must be a challenge, having someone call you their best friend out of nowhere and then treat you like someone you aren't. He hadn't had a best friend until he met Phil. Every one of his friends cared more about someone else than him, and few of them bothered to find out more about him than his name and the fact that he likes malteasers. They weren't bad people, just didn't really get him, they all had better friends already. He figured it was similar with Warren and Will, Will had already had a close friend group when Warren was dragged along.

Will had no idea what Warren was thinking. Suddenly he was social and hanging out with a group of could be villains. Had no one learned anything after the Royal Pain incident last year? Had no one learned what trusting the wrong person can do? These people were trouble. He didn't buy the innocent, traumatized victim story. Royal Pain was too good at manipulating people for him to trust she had failed. She was up to something, for sure. No doubt about it.

He just needed to figure out how to show everyone else he was right. Well maybe not everyone else, just Warren. Everyone else at school avoided that group like the plague. They felt it, they knew that these people were trouble. It was just Warren that needed convincing.

Maybe he didn't need to do anything. Maybe all he had to do was wait.

Several days later Dan started to realize how bad being a pariah in a school full of super teens was. Clicks were bad enough, but when everyone thought you were evil, it tended to cause problems. To start with people just avoided and ignored them, whether it was out of fear or discomfort or what he wasn't sure. The first few times people became aggressive it was just words. Yelling 'freak', 'half breeds', and 'psychos'. You'd think these people would be more creative. He was sure they could come up with better names than that.

Earlier day it had gotten physical. Someone tripped Phil and he fell straight into MatPat, knocking the pair of them to the floor. Nate and Tyler had caught Warren and Dan and Mark had helped the pair up. It hadn't escalated from their but it had been close. Warren had almost retaliated. He had shouted for the better part of an hour that night about how they didn't deserve any of this, how they'd done nothing wrong. Dan was afraid Warren wouldn't get the chance. His only thought the moment Phil fell was how to hurt the person hurting his best friend. How to stop him in a way that would prevent further action. Dan was afraid that if it happened again he would make everything worse, and he wouldn't be able to stop himself.

Phil tried to talk them both down. Explained he was fine, that MatPat was fine, that no harm had been done. Nate seemed worried as well. That things were going to get worse. That he wasn't going to be able to help his friends. PJ and Chris were pissed they hadn't been there to help. Everyone was afraid. Afraid this was only the start and that eventually they'd end up snapping. They knew it wouldn't help but part of them wanted to show the rest of the school just how strong they could be.

Mid argument everyone was distracted by falling flower petals.

"Phil! What are you doing?" Dan asked as he watched several petals hit the floor and disappear.

"It was the first thing I thought of to get everyone to stop," he explained shrugging. "I thought a roaring lion would be overkill."

"You made these?" Warren asked looking around.

"Oh, right. Yeah. I can make things appear. They can even withstand being touched if I focus on them," Phil smiled, a little proud. Apparently he took that as an opportunity to show off because the flower petals stopped falling and were replaced with floating stars moving in swirling patterns around the room and through the people. They were joined shortly by small galaxies of planets orbiting stars. "Has everyone calmed down now?"

"Dude, we're in space. You brought space to us. That's so fucking cool," Mark said, walking over and touching one of the planets, impressed when his finger didn't move through it.

"That's nothing." Oh yeah, Phil was showing off. Dan figured it was doing exactly what Phil wanted it to. Everything he created would simultaneously prove he wasn't powerless (didn't need them to defend him) and distract everyone from the issue at hand. The room almost seemed to zoom out as the galaxies disappeared in the middle of the room. A lion then entered the room from the open door to Phil's room, it roared before pouncing on PJ and licking his face repeatedly. It was followed by a monkey which began climbing Chris. A house cat came after and began winding its way through MatPat's legs. A large puppy bounded up to Mark as a koala began to climb the tree that is Dan.

The animals disappeared and everyone stared at Phil expectantly. He did not disappoint. A pair of ninjas jumped from somewhere in the ceiling and began fighting. It was like watching a movie, but so much better. When one ninja had defeated the other they both vanished and Phil took a bow. The room applauded and the mood had been lifted. Sure, they all remembered exactly what had happened. They were all anxious for what the next day would bring. But for now, they could celebrate their friend and his kind heart.

Warren was quickly reasserting himself as unapproachable. This was a problem. He was associating himself with probable villains, and reminding everyone that he was once as feared and ostracized. Will had shut down a few rumors about Warren going villain but he wasn't sure what else he could do. He could only really hope that Warren would see sense. He said as much to Layla who proceeded to scoff and walk away. What her problem was he had no idea.

As it turned out, their kind hearted friend was the first to snap. To be fair, he didn't hurt anyone. Just scared the actual shit out of them. Nate and Dan had been the last to leave mad science that morning as Mr. Medulla had picked groups at random to collect their last assignment. As they were walking to the lunch room they'd been cornered by a handful of heroes from their class.

"I think I know why we've never seen these villain freaks use their powers."

"Why is that?"

"They don't have any. They don't belong in hero class. I bet they'd even make really shitty villains."

"I mean, they're already in all black. Villain scum. No wonder daddy's boy Peace hangs out with them."

They were getting closer. Dan really didn't want to start a fight if he could avoid it. He and Nate were outnumbered and , though they could probably manage it, didn't really want to give them any more reason to hate them. Both hoped the group would just taunt them and walk away. They were disappointed.

The first punch hit Dan square in the stomach. It was also the only punch. All at once Phil was shouting and growling wolves were surrounding the group, pushing them away from the pair. Dan doubled over and Nate supported him.

"What the hell, which one of you punks is doing this?"

"I am," Phil answered and the wolves lunged, backing the boys up even further.

"Phil, stop, I'm okay," Dan tried to say. His voice fell off with the final words.

Nate had to adjust his hold as he took on more of the taller boy's weight, "shit. What's happening Dan? What's wrong?"

"Who hit him?" Warren asked, his hand burning.

A few of the attackers pointed to one, smiling, "Grant got him, he's done for."

"Shit."

"What's that mean?" Phil asked, turning to Warren.

"Grant induces illness. I have no idea what he gave him. I don't know how to fix it."

"Fuck, what the fuck can we do?" Nate asked.

"Hang on," MatPat said turning to the now cornered attackers. "What did you do to him?"

"Pancreatitis," Grant looked confused why he told them.

"Can you fix it?"

"Yes." His buddies looked at him like he was insane.

"Fix him then!" Phil shouted.

"Why should I?"

"Because if he dies, you die," Warren bit out, growling. "And for every unnecessary second of hurt he suffers, you will hurt."

"Ooh, big bad guy up in here."

"I'm not the one who grouped up to corner a couple of heroes to try to kill one of them, now am I. Are you sure you're pointing that villain tag the right direction?"

"Fine, I'll fix him. But you're going to have to call off your dogs, I have to touch him to fix him."

Phil looked suspicious, but moved the wolves to allow Grant to leave the wall. He walked over to Dan and placed a hand on his shoulder, then backed off. Dan slowly straightened up, still holding on to Nate for support but no longer putting any weight on him.

"You okay?" Phil asked, still looking worried. Dan nodded slowly.

"Did you fix everything?" MatPat asked, never taking his eyes off Grant.

"Yes."

"Get lost," Warren sneered as the wolves vanished. The group took the hint and ran.

"I can't believe they went that far," Lilly frowned.

"I'm so glad you were, but why were you guys down here?" Nate asked as he shifted to rub Dan's back while the taller teen leaned against his shoulder. "Don't worry, I've got you," he whispered.

"We just got out of class down the hall and heard the scuffle," MatPat answered.

"What were you guys still doing out here? Where are Mark and Tyler?" Warren asked, looking around.

"We had to hand in assignments in Mad Science and Medulla was collecting them individually so he could ask a few questions. Ours was the last to be collected," Nate answered. Dan was glad Nate was doing the talking. His stomach still hurt and all he wanted to do was sit down. As if Nate was reading his mind he added, "we should find somewhere to sit down."

"Yeah, Dan probably needs to get checked out, maybe we should take him to the nurse just in case," MatPat added. Dan shook his head, he didn't want to try to explain what was wrong.

"Okay, there's a door outside over here with a table near it that no one really uses. You two," Warren gestured to Phil and Nate, "get him to a table. We'll go get some food and let the others know where we are so no one worries."

Everyone agreed and stepped to Dan's other side and slid an arm under his. Between Phil and Nate, Dan was able to make it to the table. They were sitting for a handful of minutes before Warren returned with food.

"MatPat and Lilly stayed to explain," Warren explained.

"Ah, makes sense," Nate said. "And your tails?" he asked gesturing to Mark, Tyler, and Ethan.

"We wanted to make sure you two were okay, and to apologize for not waiting for you after class," Mark answered. "I feel like it's partly my fault you got hurt, if we'd waited.."

"Stop," Dan interrupted. "It wasn't your fault. We are not fucking helpless. Even if Phil and them hadn't come along we'd have been fine." Dan really hoped he was right. It was silent for a while. No one wanted to say anything. No one wanted to think about what would have happened if Phil hadn't come along. Whether Dan would still be there with them. Whether they would have attacked Nate too. No one wanted to think about it, but they all did. They all knew something had changed. A line had been crossed. There was no going back now.

Will saw Warren walk into the cafeteria looking particularly pissed off. In fact, Will was pretty sure his hands were glowing. The pair walking with him had taken seats at the table as Warren stalked off to get food. He saw Fischbach and Schied jump up from the table and follow Warren out of the cafeteria, with the freshman trailing behind.

He wasn't sure what had happened but judging by the anger, the anxious looks coming from the table of Pain powers, and the rush to leave, it wasn't good. He just hoped Warren hadn't made things worse for himself. He knew their classmates had been getting more brash in their dislike of the partial heritage heroes, especially the ones in hero class, and was worried. Really they hadn't done anything worthy of violence, and the other heroes should be above such things. They should be avoided, yes, maybe even treated with a healthy dose of suspicion, but certainly not outright attacked.

If he was honest with himself, Will had noticed how none of them retaliated. Even prevented Warren from doing so. Sure it was probably to stay under the radar until Royal Pain's plan came to fruition, but still. They never fought back. They just took it. Maybe they weren't completely evil.

On his way to class after lunch Will noticed the group walking very close together. Warren and the other junior were walking protectively close to Howell and Sharp, as were Fischbach and Schied. They all walked together to the entrance of the classroom before the older pair split off to attend their own class. It seemed like Howell was struggling to stay upright.

When he got into the room Howell was seated in the back corner surrounded by the remaining three. Fischbach and Schied seemed to be glaring around the room, especially at Grant and his friends, as though daring anyone to mess with them. So something had happened. Somebody (probably Grant and crew) had attacked Howell. He remember Howell and Sharp being among the last groups to leave. That wasn't good. Not only were heroes stooping to unfortunate levels, but they were antagonizing a group of possibly evil people. Even if they were working for Royal Pain, they still didn't deserve to be attacked unprovoked.

It didn't look like anyone else was injured, he was sure he would have heard if any of the Pain powers had done anything to hurt anyone. Will felt a little strange. On one hand, he didn't particularly like these people, in fact he was pretty sure they were evil. On the other hand he was angry on their behalf because it seemed they were being attacked unjustly. He wasn't sure how to feel.

Maybe he needed to talk to Warren.

Dan felt it was overkill. He didn't need to be protected. Sure, he'd gotten hurt, but he was fine. He wasn't some damsel in distress. He understood the point, he understood it was more for their own peace of mind than it was to protect him. He got that. It just made him feel like they thought he was fragile. Like they thought he wasn't strong enough to take care of himself. They hadn't done this when Phil and MatPat got hurt. Sure this was a bit of an escalation but still. He could take care of himself just as well as Phil could.

After lunch Warren and Phil had walked the four of them to class. Then he took his seat in the back corner of the room and was immediately surrounded. Mark and Tyler looked like they were trying to make up for not being there before with the sheer power of their glares, and Nate kept glancing over at him, as if assuring himself that Dan was still okay. He appreciated that they cared, he really did, he'd never had so many people care so much about his well being before. It was just a lot, and he was a little sensitive about his own powerlessness at this point.

At the end of the day Phil, MatPat, Lilly, and Warren came to meet them as they left the room. Phil wrapped an arm around Dan's back, which Dan had no doubt was just as much about comforting himself as it was helping Dan. He swore he was fine, multiple times, and no one listened.

He wasn't like Phil. He couldn't distract everyone at once the way he had. He could make them believe he was fine, he could put it in their heads, but he couldn't really. He really didn't want to use his powers on his friends. He didn't want to have to use them much at all. He didn't want to have to try to figure out what was real with his friends when they didn't know themselves.

When they got back to the apartments Dan disappeared into his room immediately. He couldn't deal with the pity, or protectiveness. He couldn't do it. He was already embarrassed, he already felt stupid and powerless. He couldn't deal with everyone else knowing it. He heard people calling to him from outside but didn't respond. He just slid down the wall next to his bed. He couldn't fucking do it. He didn't know what he could do to convince everyone else because he couldn't convince himself. He wasn't sick, and the after effects had faded out at that point. It was his pride.

He couldn't deal with it at this point.

Will decided he needed to talk to Warren. He roughly remembered Warren's work schedule. He was pretty sure Warren was working today so the easiest way to find him would be to go to the Paper Lantern. He arrived around 8, he was pretty sure that was when Warren was going to get off work. He wasn't certain, because the time of Warren's shifts changed all the time, but his instincts suggested he was right.

"He hasn't come out of his room since we got back. He's paced some, I heard him mumbling to himself, but his door is locked and he won't talk to anyone."

"Shit, okay, my shift's almost over, maybe we can lure him out with food."

"He does enjoy food."

"It'll be okay, I'm sure his pride is just wounded. He probably can't deal with everyone's pity and protective behaviour. It's probably just overwhelming. He's already feeling helpless, especially after you guys were all kidnapped, and this is just making it worse."

If Will needed further proof that Warren was deeper than he seemed, and incredibly smart, there was some. But now he wanted more than before to know what had happened earlier. He walked over to the two taller boys, who fell silent as soon as he approached.

"What happened today?" he asked, cutting straight to the point.

"I woke up, went to class, went home, came to work, now I'm talking to you," Warren deadpanned. "Or did you mean the part where Grant and his buddies cornered Dan and Nate in the hallway and attacked them. The part where Phil, Mat, Lilly, and I walked up as Grant hit Dan in the stomach and gave him pancreatitis. The part where Phil cornered them with wolves and Mat figured out how to fix it and I threatened Grant until he fixed it. That part?"

"Oh," Will looked straight down.

"My best friend almost died today because the entire school thinks that a group of people who were kidnapped by a villain are now also villains. Because that logic follows," Phil said, obviously holding back vivid anger. Will couldn't bring himself to look up at either boy's face.

"The school has some really fucking stupid ideas about reasons for people to be evil," Warren added.

It was then that Will understood why Warren was pissed. It started to make sense. Damn, he was really stupid. "I'm so sorry Warren, I never meant to... I'm sorry."

"Finally pulled your head out of your ass stronghold?"

"I'm sorry Warren. I didn't even realize I was insinuating that you were evil, I'm so sorry. I'm also sorry that that happened to Dan. No one should be attacking anyone in the hallways, there's no reason for it."

"No, there really isn't," Phil frowned.

"I'm sorry, is there any way I can help?"

"I'm going to be honest, I doubt it, but you're welcome to try."

"I'll see you guys tomorrow, I need to come up with something," Will nodded to the pair and walked out the door. If he was being honest he felt pretty stupid. Phil was right, there was no real logic to his argument. In fact, it was the opposite of logic, it was based in pure fear and suspicion. He had to come up with something.

Dan was back on the floor after the last hour of pacing. He knew he'd been in the room a while. He also knew he was probably only making his situation worse by hiding away, but he just couldn't fucking deal with it. He heard knocking again. It was the first time someone had tried in over an hour so he listened for the new plea.

"Hey Dan, it's me. I brought food, I have your favorite. It's just Phil, Nate, and I out here. Everyone else is in one of the other apartments or has gone out for dinner. Seriously, come save me from this unnecessarily intimate setting. I cannot handle an evening of conversation with Phil and Nate, certainly not any more of Phil worrying about you like a mother hen. Come on out man," Dan heard Warren on the other side of the door. It must be later than he thought if Warren was off work.

The food did smell good. Maybe coming out for food wouldn't be so bad, at least if Warren was telling the truth he didn't have to face everyone all at once. "Alright, I'm coming."

Dan opened his door slowly and stepped out. True to Warren's word, only Nate, Phil, and Warren were there. Phil looked relieved and Nate smiled. Warren looked a little smug, "thanks for coming out here man."

"Well I couldn't, in good conscience, subject you to Phil's worrying."

"Hey," Phil faked hurt, pushing on Dan's arm.

"He's not wrong you know," Nate added, laughing.

"I see how it is, let's pick on Phil now," Phil frowned.

"You said food," Dan said, changing the topic.

"Yes, food, right here," Warren said gesturing to the coffee table.

"How about a movie?" Nate suggested. Everyone agreed and they decided on Silence of the Lambs, really Dan suggested it and nobody argued.

The other chairs had been taken to another apartment, so the group all crammed onto one couch. It was easily wide enough, Phil leaned against one arm rest, and Warren leaned against the other. Dan sat in the middle and Nate took the floor between Warren and Dan's legs, leaning his head against the latter's knee.

After the movie, all four boys began to yawn. They decided to call it an early night. Warren left to return home and Dan was about to walk back into his room when he was stopped.

"I'm really glad you're okay man. Seriously," Nate said before pulling the taller boy into a tight hug.

"You know how I feel about it already, but me too," Phil added, hugging him as well once Nate had let go.

Dan didn't respond, he just hugged his friends back in silence and then went to bed. He heard Phil whisper "I don't know what I would have done if he had died. I honestly don't know." and Nate reply "I know what you mean. I'm afraid of what I might have done." He heard Nate leave and Phil go to his own bed before he gave in to exhaustion and collapsed on his bed.

Will had a plan, he knew exactly what he was going to do. He just had to wait until save the citizen that afternoon. It was challenges today, and he had made sure he was first on the list. This was going to work. He was going to make this up to them. First he needed to talk to Layla.

"Hey Will, you're in a good mood," Layla said as Will walked over to her.

"I am."

"Did you and Warren finally make up?"

"Wh.. Well yeah, but why is that the first place you go?"

"Just an educated guess. You've been pretty down since he left and now you're not, so something must have changed."

"Fair, you always were better at people than I was."

"True. So what happened?"

"I went to the paper lantern to find out what happened yesterday, and we talked, and I figured out I was being a terrible friend and apologized, and now I have a plan to make it up to them."

"Okay, slow down," Layla put up her hands as though she was going to physically stop the words pouring out of Will's mouth. "First, something happened yesterday?"

"Yeah," Will frowned. "Warren was late to lunch, and his hands were smoking, and then he and Fischbach and Schied left with food. Then in class Dan seemed hurt and the rest seemed protective. I went to talk to him and find out what happened."

"Wait, why didn't I notice any of this? Why didn't you mention any of this? What happened? Since when do you know Dan's first name?"

"I don't know why you didn't notice. They told me that Grant and his friends cornered Dan and Nate when they were coming out of class, apparently Grant hit Dan and gave him pancreatitis. Warren, Phil, and Mat happened to be walking past and saw this and stopped them, got Grant to fix it," Will couldn't help the venom in his tone every time he said Grant's name. That asshole deserved everything that was coming to him.

"Oh. Wow. That's not okay," Layla frowned at the floor.

"I know."

"So what's your plan exactly?"

Dan was trying to make it through the day, that was all. He already had mild agoraphobia and pretty sever anxiety before any of this had happened. Now it was justified. As much as he was annoyed at how protective everyone was being, he was taking a little comfort in the way that Mark and Nate stood a little too close. The way Phil looked conflicted when he had to leave to go to his own class was a little saddening, but also felt warm because he cared. Dan was trying to fly under the radar, as much as he could being 6'3" and dressed in all black, and make it through the day.

He decided at lunch that he didn't want to deal with the crowds of the cafeteria. He didn't want to keep anyone else from their lunches, but there was no way to slip off on his own. He tried to talk them out of joining him, saying he would be okay sitting outside on his own, it's not like anyone else came near that table anyways. Eventually Warren, Phil, Nate, Mark, and Tyler stayed, refusing to leave him alone no matter how much he swore they didn't have to. Again, Dan was oddly comforted by how much his friends cared.

Walking into the gymnasium for Save the Citizen was a little intimidating, especially since today's matches would be challenges so he had no way to be sure whether or not he'd end up fighting.

"Alright, first challenger it Will Stronghold," Coach Boomer announced once everyone had taken their seats. "Who do you want for your partner Stronghold?"

"Dan Howell."

All eyes turned toward the boy in question and Dan wished now, more than ever, that his power gave him the ability to disappear. His stomach turned. He didn't know what this boy wanted but he doubted it was going to end well. He turned to Phil who, oddly enough, smiled and gave him a thumbs up. Warren nodded from the other side of Phil, whispering, "I think he's trying to help." As Dan stood up and walked down to the arena.

"Okay Stronghold and Howell, you want to be heroes or villains?"

"Heroes."

"Well there's a shocker, and who will you two be challenging?"

"Grant, and whoever he wants as a partner."

"Okay."

"What are you doing?" Dan whispered.

"I want Grant to pay for what he did to you, but I want to do this the right way, take the high road, while also showing everyone else they can't do whatever they want," Will explained, words coming out in a rushed jumble.

"Okay." Dan was still a little tentative. It was a good idea but his powers were a little bit more likely to convince people he was evil. He really didn't like using them after everything that had happened before. It was worth a shot though.

"They're going to attack me first because I'm the more obvious threat. Use that to your advantage. I don't know what you do but I'm sure it's good, you are a hero after all. Do you want to take Grant?"

Dan thought it over for half a second before nodding. Even if he was invulnerable, Will still had to touch people to fight them. Dan, on the other hand, did not. It would be harder for Grant to get the upper hand fighting Dan.

"Alright, we got this man, no worries. I've got your back this time."

Before Dan had a chance to respond the match began. Will was right, both their opponents ran at Will, completely ignoring him. He took advantage and focused on Grant. He thought briefly about what to plant before deciding on something both comedic and justified. It took him a moment to flesh out the delusion and memories enough to take hold, but within seconds he let go and watched.

"Dan, I'm so sorry, please forgive me. Please."

Dan gave a relieved sigh when it worked.

"Please, I don't know what came over me. I never meant to hurt you."

"You did though," he answered calmly. He had to play this right.

"I know I did. I know it's unforgivable. What can I do to even begin to make it up to you?" By this point Grant was standing directly in front of him, pleading.

"Why do you care now?" The look in Grant's eye told him he had the boy right where he wanted him. The illusion had taken perfect hold.

"I love you so much and I just want to make this up to you. Please. What can I do?"

At this point all eyes were on Grant. His friends looked like he had just declared he was actually an alien with eight breasts and a black hole where his anus should be. Even Will and his opponent were staring, having forgotten their own fight.

"Why don't you save the citizen for me, it would be a start at least," he tried to look bored.

Grant's partner immediately started trying to talk him out of it, to stop him, to convince him he didn't love this boy he'd tried to kill only the previous day. It all fell on deaf ears. Dan was too deep in Grant's head for anything short of Dan himself to stop him. He knocked his own partner out cold before saving the citizen and handing her to Dan.

He knew he'd let this go on too long. If he waited much longer he might not be able to pull the idea back out. He handed the citizen off to Will as their victory was announced and removed everything he put in. He was worried, Grant's brain had changed slightly since he put the original thought in, but he figured he probably made it in time to prevent any permanent damage. He hoped he had. He didn't want a repeat of last time.

Grant looked a little dazed as he walked out of the ring, like he knew what he'd just done but couldn't wrap his head around it. Will just looked impressed. Lots of people did actually. Some looked frightened, rightfully so.

Dan thought he should feel smug, or at least proud. If he was honest he just felt nauseous. He was afraid he'd done permanent damage. He was terrified people were suddenly going to care. He was afraid he'd proven everyone right. Maybe, about him anyways, they were. Maybe he was evil, destined to be some sort of villain. Maybe, in the end, Grant was right about him. Fuck.

Well that hadn't been what Will was expecting. He hadn't known what to expect, if he was honest, but he certainly hadn't expected that. Not only did Dan prove he deserved to be in the hero class, he also proved that he was scary powerful. Will was actually a little afraid. He wasn't entirely sure where to go from here. He started with following the other boy out of the arena. He saw Layla had followed the plan and gotten seats next to the group Dan was headed for, so he followed him right back and sat next to her, directly in front of Phil.

"Is he?"

"No, I think I pulled out in time."

"It looked like it was in there pretty hard."

"It was."

The conversation ended before he had a chance to ask what they were talking about. He'd have to ask later. For now he focused on the rest of the matches. The seniors they'd fought the first Save the Citizen of the year challenged Will and Warren to a rematch and lost. Will was glad for the distraction. Working with Warren had not changed, despite their recent fighting they were still in perfect sinc.

Then a couple of Grant's friends challenged Nate. It appeared they had planned of challenging Dan as well, but were undecided if it was still a good idea. Unfortunately they were still incredibly foolhardy and challenged him anyways. They made the pair of darkly dressed boys the villains. It made sense now. They wanted to prove that these two were as evil as they had claimed.

"Fuck. I don't think I can do that again," Dan was visibly shaking. It was obvious his powers took some sort of toll on him. Will wasn't sure what it was exactly. Then Dan added "they already know. It will only make it worse." It was so quiet Will wasn't sure he heard it correctly.

Nate and Dan made their way down to the arena, Nate throwing his arm around Dan's back (he couldn't really reach the much taller man's shoulder) in a comforting and supportive gesture. He looked like he was trying to hide his discomfort.

The match began with Dan standing back as a wind began to swirl through the arena. Well then, apparently Nate could control air. That was terrifying. He was glad he wasn't in that arena, that was for sure.

Dan seemed to be avoiding joining in, as Nate batted away any approach the other team made toward the citizen. Then one of their opponents (Mike, Will thought) caught Nate in the side with his laser vision. The wind slowed as Nate collapsed to his knees before he regained his concentration and the wind became stronger than before. Dan looked between his friend and Mike as the latter prepared to take another shot. One second Mike was aimed at Nate, the next he was firing wildly into the air, like he was seeing opponents that weren't there. His partner (Katie, no Emily) was struggling to block her own partners attacks and the wind at the same time. The clock ran out and Mike stopped firing, the citizen was mulched, and the wind stopped. There hadn't really been a question who was going to win that fight, but as Dan and Nate made their way back up to their seats it was obvious it had taken a toll.

The day ended without anyone else in the group having to fight. Will was glad for that, he may not know these people very well, he may not have liked them much up until that point, but he was starting to and he didn't want to see anyone else getting hurt, or any more negative attention drawn to them.

"Hey, if you two want, you could come and hang out," Phil said as they were splitting up near the buses. "Some of us were going to go bowling and then get some dinner."

"That would be awesome," Layla answered smiling before Will could say anything. Warren put a hand on his shoulder and guided him to the new bus. There was no arguing if Layla had made a decision. Definitely none if Warren agreed with her.

Dan wasn't sure why Phil had decided to invite Will and Layla along to bowling, but everything seemed to be going okay. They had three lanes side by side to bowl in. Will, Layla, MatPat, Stephanie, PJ, and Sophie were in one lane; Chris, Lilly, Ethan, Tyler, and Sean were in another; and Warren, Phil, Dan, Nate, and Mark were in the last. Well they were bowling in them, people were sitting everywhere. They probably would have played wherever they felt like if so many of them weren't so competitive. In the end Tyler beat everyone with three perfect games. It was decided he wasn't really in competition though, so Mark, MatPat, and Will each won a round overall. Dan beat Phil two out of three rounds, which was really his only goal, and even managed to beat Nate on one of those rounds. He was quite proud.

They went for pizza after, all crowding into the party booth near the back (made for 10-12, not 16, but no one really cared all that much). After dinner large portions of the group split off and only Warren, Will, Layla, Dan, Phil, Nate, Mark, and Tyler were left. They walked back to the apartments, chatting amicably, and Phil invited Will, Warren, and Layla in.

"Let's play truth or dare," Mark suggested, grinning in a way that could only be described as sadistically.

"I'm in," Tyler responded.

"What are we, twelve?" Dan asked, sarcasm sharp as ever.

"I think it'll be fun," Phil said. He gave Dan puppy eyes and he couldn't help but cave. If Phil wanted to play the childish game, he'd join in.

"I'm game," Nate said, taking a seat next to Dan on the couch.

"Sounds like fun," Layla said, taking a seat on the arm of a chair as she pulled Will into it.

"Fine," Warren said when everyone looked at him, taking the remaining empty arm chair.

Mark pulled an empty pop bottle out of the recycling and placed in on the coffee table. "I'll go first," he said, spinning the bottle. It landed on Warren and Mark turned on the older man. "Truth or Dare Warren?"

"Dare," Warren grinned. He actually looked as sadistic as Mark.

"I dare you to crank call coach Boomer."

"Easy," Warren grabbed the phone off of the counter and dialed. No one knew what he actually said because it was exclusively in mandarin. To be fair, no one said he had to speak English, and it was probably even more confusing for coach Boomer. If the resulting shouting wasn't proof enough of that.

"Mandarin? Impressive," Mark admitted, taking his seat. Warren spun the bottle, which landed on Phil.

"Phil, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"What is the most embarrassing thing you believed when you were a kid?"

"Oh that's hard," Phil said thoughtfully. "There are so many, it's so hard to choose. Maybe believing if you hugged someone wrong you could get them pregnant, or that women gave birth through their belly buttons, or that my grandmother was some sort of fire demon and that was why she smoked."

That earned a good laugh from all around the room.

"Alright, my turn," Phil announced. Standing up he spun the bottle, which landed on Layla. "Layla, Truth or Dare?"

"Truth, I think," she answered shifting forward.

"Would you rather eat a cat or fuck a duck?"

"What kind of question is that? Also did you just swear?" Mark asked laughing.

"My question, and yes because it wouldn't rhyme if I didn't," Phil answered, looking a little proud of himself. Dan couldn't help but smile at his best friends antics.

"I don't know, I really don't want to do either. But eating a cat seems slightly less traumatizing so I think I'm going to have to go with that," Layla answered. She then got up and spun the bottle herself.

"Dare," Tyler said the moment the bottle landed on him.

"I dare you to put five ice cubes into your underwear and let them melt."

"Shit, you're hardcore Layla," Tyler said as he got up. He went to the kitchen and filled a glass with some ice before coming back. He picked out five and dropped them down the front of his pants. The high pitched noises he made as the ice melted in his underwear made everyone laugh. Once the ice had all melted he took his turn spinning the bottle. "Truth or Dare Will?"

"Dare."

"Wear Layla's lipstick for the rest of the night."

"Easy," Will said as Layla handed him a brown lipstick out of her purse. He applied it poorly and then took his turn spinning. "Alright then, Dan truth or dare?"

"Truth," Dan answered. "I don't feel like moving."

"Alright, how did you do whatever you did to Grant."

Dan frowned briefly, then hoped nobody noticed. How to answer that. Vague, vague will work. "I can put things into people's heads, so I planted love in his head and then the kind of overwhelming feelings of guilt that would go along with being responsible for the death of a loved one."

"Wow, that sounds really complicated. How did you get so good with your powers so quickly?"

Dan knew it was an inevitable follow up. It didn't change the fact that his chest got tight and he started to feel nauseous. He could do this, it was going to be fine. Will, Layla, and Warren were going to figure out sooner or later that Dan was a monster. It was a little too late to turn back now.

"You know how Royal Pain abducted us, right?" Will nodded. Phil noticed the changes in Dan's voice he was trying to hide and wrapped an arm around the back of the couch, just low enough to touch Dan's shoulders. It was a little comforting. "Well it wasn't all at once. She collected us one or two at a time, and triggered powers before collecting the next. She wanted to make sure he machine worked and that we weren't all going to end up too weak to be worth the effort. Phil and I were the first people she took." He paused, that was the easiest part of the story, now came the hard bit.

Nate seemed to sense Dan was having a hard time and filled in a chunk of the story, "she collected people in order of likelihood of success, at least that's what she told us, so she picked up Dan and Phil first, who each had a grandparent with powers, then Mark and I a couple days later, we had a pair of great-grandparents each, then Tyler, Lilly, and MatPat a few days after that, each have one great-grandparent, then the hero support all had a generation or two farther back and were picked up at roughly the same time a week or so later."

"The first day we were there she strapped us into this machine," Phil continued. Dan tried to breathe deeply, he knew he was going to have to tell the next part. "I don't really know how to describe it. It was excruciating, it felt like I was being ripped apart and sewn back together all at once, like burning and cold and knives everywhere. I'm not sure how long it lasted but it felt like forever, then I blacked out. When I woke up I was in a bed and Dan was in another on the other side of the room but something felt off, like there was something in my head that wasn't there before."

Dan took over, "her machine told her what power was activated, so she told us what we could do and then told us to practise. She wanted to see if the powers were up to standard. Phil's was easy, he just practiced making things. Mine was not, I needed someone to practise on, so she brought in one of the guards." Dan paused again looking down. This time Nate placed a hand over his and Mark moved behind him to put a hand on his shoulder. "We got good quickly, apparently we still got the inherent awareness of how to use our powers that people who manifest normally get. What we didn't know was the extent of them." Dan's voice got quiet.

"What happened to the guard?"

"He... he lost his mind. Severe psychosis. The brain is incredibly plastic, if something stays too long it will adapt to it, depending what I plant it takes different amounts of time, hallucinations take the longest, then feelings, then memories, then delusions. He wound up with problems, because I couldn't take out something I didn't put in," Dan stared at his lap. That wasn't the worst of it but it was pretty bad. When the first guard had lost it she'd just brought him a new one.

"oh."

"When we woke up Dan and Phil had finished practicing, she had them help us, then tested all of us before she went to get more subjects. Phil and I had it easy because we could use our powers in an empty room to show her how we'd progressed," Nate continued.

"Dan had to plant something in a guard's brain and leave it there while I body switched with the guard," Mark added. "It stuck, even when the guard was in my body. Dan's really good. Also his power is impossible to use if you don't know it inside and out." At the confused looks he clarified, "I had to switch bodies with all three of them at one stage to see if I could use someone else's powers by borrowing their body. I could make things but they were never corporeal as Phil, I could get a wind going but with nowhere near the precision Nate can, but I couldn't successfully use Dan's. Everything I tried to plant got rejected by the mind because it didn't fit properly."

"After the test Dan stopped using his powers, it made him uncomfortable," understatement of the year award to Phil. " The four of us got pretty close in those first few days."

"Tyler, MatPat, and Lilly showed up the next day so the focus was on them. They took a little longer to train up, but when they had it down and had been tested the rest got collected," Mark continued.

"A few days later we got our chance to escape. We heard the fighting, so MatPat asked what was happening and we found out the Commander and Jet Stream were there. That they were going to try to save us. A couple of guards starting trying to move us at Stitches' orders. We figured it was our only chance, so we fought back," Nate said. "Refused to move. Phil blocked us in. The Commander and Jet Stream arrived and were fighting with the guards when..."

Dan continued where Nate paused, "I saw Stitches get the jump on Jet Stream. He had some sort of ray pointed directly at her and was about to fire. I don't remember exactly what I shoved in his head, it was a lot, he lost it. Too many things all at once. We were pulled away before I had a chance to take them back." Dan mumbled the last bit into his lap.

"I remember hearing about that," Layla said suddenly. "They said he finally snapped. When he was returned to his prison cell he started muttering and screaming and pacing."

"Yeah," Dan said, not looking up. "He scratched off large portions of the skin on his arms within a couple of days and died after about a week."

"Oh."

"Hey," Phil whispered, bumping Dan's shoulder. "You are not a monster. You're not evil. It was an accident, that's all." Phil was wrong, it was definitely Dan's fault and he was dangerous. He wished he could believe the things Phil said, but they simply weren't true.

"He's right you know," Nate added. Dan shook his head and frowned. "He is."

"They're right, you are no more evil than any of the rest of us," Mark hugged Dan around the shoulders from behind the couch. "So stop arguing about it."

"Do you think I'm evil?" Warren asked suddenly.

"No, of course not," Dan answered, looking up at him.

"I hurt a few people before I got a handle on my powers. A couple kids in middle school were trying to beat me up when I got my powers, all of them wound up in the hospital with severe burns, one of them needed donor skin grafts from his brother. If I'm not a monster, then you certainly aren't."

"I... I'm sorry," Dan stared back down at his lap.

"You have nothing to be sorry for."

"I'm sorry you guys went through all of that," Layla piped up. "I never really thought about how hard it would be to learn to control some powers."

"I'm sorry. I should have listened before judging. I'm sorry for making you use your powers today Dan," Will added.

"You didn't know. I just hope I pulled it out in time. Love is hard because there are a lot of components, some of them attach faster and deeper than others." Fuck, Dan felt like there was a ton of Bricks on his chest, he needed to change the subject now. So he leaned forward and spun the bottle. Warren put a hand on his forearm and nodded as he pulled back. The hand was warm and oddly comforting. Maybe Warren was right. "Okay, truth or dare Nate."

Everything was different that morning. Now, not only did he understand the new students better, but everyone else had gained the knowledge of what Dan and Nate could do. The usual birth given to the 'Pain powers' (Will was going to have to come up with something else to call them now) was now wider, rumors were swirling of every variety.

At lunch Layla and Will sat at a rather large table next to Warren. When Magenta, Ethan, and Zach came in to the cafeteria they looked at Will like he'd grown another head, but took seats across (well, on a bit of a diagonal really) from him (next to Tyler) none the less. The five of them got more looks from the rest of the school, Will swore everyone was judging him one way or another. He wasn't sure if he actually cared. He did, because he didn't like being watched. He hated feeling judged. He desperately wanted to be liked and fit in.

"Everyone's staring aren't they?"

Will wasn't entirely sure who spoke, he wasn't paying enough attention. Whoever it was spoke exactly what Will was thinking. He nodded, more to himself than anyone in particular, and sighed.

"They're giving the table a wider berth than usual too," Warren was speaking this time. After he said it, Will noticed it. Apparently, for all his attention to the people staring he had missed that they were walking well out of their way to avoid getting to close to their group.

On an impulse Will reached across the table and placed his hand on Dan's. He didn't know what drove him to do it, he just did. Dan looked up briefly, gave Will a smile so small it hurt his chest, then looked back down. He didn't pull away his hand though, so that was good.

"This school is full of people with powers. No one avoids Grant, even though he could kill them with a touch. No one avoids me, even though I could accidentally crush someone. I don't understand what all of their problems are," Will frowned.

"It's the fact that the threat is now openly powerful. It's no different to the people who avoid me," Warren answered. It was matter of fact but contained a hint of resentment and sadness. It was at that point Will remembered, Warren had always been sitting alone when Will arrived at sky high. Even in the gymnasium people would give him a rather wide berth. It was no wonder Warren had become friends with the group. They were just like him.

"If they can't see that you're awesome, that's their loss."

It would have likely been a better comfort if Grant and friends hadn't walked into the cafeteria in that moment. Dan tensed right up and pulled his hands off the table, staring straight at his lap. Will immediately changed the topic, to the first thing that popped into his head.

"So, cheese is good hey?" Well that was just plain stupid, but it made Phil laugh, which then made Dan huff out half of a laugh. Okay maybe this could work. "I like cheddar myself, maybe Swiss too, how about you Phil?"

"I hate cheese," Phil answered, still laughing.

"How can you hate cheese?!" The response was incredulous and came in a few voices, including Zach's which made Will smile at the normalcy.

"It's disgusting. It all tastes like feet," Phil answered, crossing his arms defensively.

"It's official, British people are nuts," Zach said.

"Hey, don't lump all of us in together, I like cheese just fine. Phil's just weird," PJ argued.

"He is," Dan added quietly. "Very."

"Hey, I'm not the weirdo who started a conversation around a terrible footy food," Phil said.

"True, Will, was that really the best you could come up with? Cheese?" Magenta jumped in.

"Hey, I thought it was a perfectly fine topic of conversation," this time it was Will crossing his arms defensively.

"My point exactly," Phil looked smug.

"Okay, so both of you are weird," Warren deadpanned. "Is this really new information?"

"No, it really isn't," Layla laughed.

Dan was hoping for a normal, unassuming day. So far he'd been stared at and avoided. It was more than normal, but not by enough to make him additionally uncomfortable. Okay, maybe it was. He wasn't just a curiosity anymore. He just really hoped there were no permanent effects from his use of power the previous day. As his luck would have it, there was only one.

"Yo, freak. Where the hell are you going?" He'd been on his way to the washroom when he heard Mike shouting from behind him. Shit. He should have known better than to go alone. He should have listened when Phil offered to come with him, but here he is. He knew there was no point in running. Mike had laser vision and Emily had energy shields, there was no way he was getting far. Maybe he could pretend he hadn't heard them and keep walking normally.

"Hey!" Fuck. Emily had thrown up a shield directly in front of him. "Mike just asked you where you were going, freak."

If he weren't afraid, he likely would have chuckled at their terrible word skill. Freak was not even the tiniest bit original, and where are you going isn't exactly the most interesting question. They clearly had little to no practice at picking on people. As it was, he really just wanted them to leave him alone. He wanted Phil or Nate or Warren or someone to be there to help him. He desperately didn't want to have to use his powers, but he also didn't want to end up a victim. He wasn't really cut out for Martyrdom.

"Answer him," one of the other's said. Dan didn't know his name, but when he was hit with a quick shock of electricity he decided he would need to learn it. The boy was pretty much a human taser, that was painful.

"I was going to the washroom. Why? Do you need directions?" Damn his tongue. That sarcasm was going to get him killed by the worst group of villains ever.

"What the hell did you do to Grant yesterday?" back to Mike, it seemed he was in charge of the little group. Interesting, it hadn't crossed Dan's mind that Grant wasn't the leader type before but he definitely wasn't. Huh. The things you notice while being cornered.

"What does it matter?" Okay, not answering their questions was definitely not a good idea. Being sassy wasn't a good idea either. That answer had earned him another shock. "I put things in his head, and then took them back out. That's all."

Dan figured he had three options: 1) let them do whatever they came here to do and hope something would prevent them from killing him, 2) use his powers and hope he didn't make things worse (unlikely), 3) try and get someone's attention to come and save him. He couldn't figure out how to pull off number 3, he was too far from the cafeteria to shout and too far from the nearest fire alarm to pull it. He really didn't want to use his powers if he could help it, especially since they'd likely only make things worse. He really hoped they only planned to talk to, and taunt, him, but he doubted it. He would wait it out and only use his powers as a last resort. That seemed like the only reasonable plan. Okay, maybe not reasonable, maybe just the least insane.

"So, was making him love you just some sick fantasy? Do you have a thing for being hurt, freak? Or are you just so unloved that you had to make someone love you by force?"

Dan considered denying it, claiming he had no idea where the declaration of love had come from, claiming he'd only planted the guilt. Then he thought better of it. They were definitely going to trust Grant over him, a comment like that wouldn't help his case. He wondered himself, for a moment. It had just struck him as the best solution, he had no idea why. Sure, it was less likely to drive the other boy insane if he couldn't pull it all back out than most other things, but that wasn't really the reason was it? He realized he'd been thinking for too long, the group had moved closer. In that moment he decided keeping his mouth shut was worth the risk. There was no way any answer was going to help his case, his best bet was not to give one.

The next shock was longer, he clenched his jaw against it. If he was going to let them hurt him he certainly wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of letting them see it. When he didn't speak or react he was shocked again, harder this time. He held fast. There was no good way out of this, there really wasn't.

The next shock was severe enough to leave his mouth tasting of iron. If the human taser was going to be the only person attacking him, he might make it out of this one relatively unscathed. Unfortunately, that was incredibly unlikely. That might be an understatement.

Someone got tired of waiting for a response and punched him, hard, in the stomach. He bent slightly, before forcing himself back upright. He set his jaw and forced back the taste of bile in his throat. He could deal with this. Let them get it out of their systems. Maybe this would be the end of it. He could hope, even if he didn't believe it himself.

"What? Too good to fight back? or too weak?" He didn't hear whatever else was said as another shock ran through his body, causing his ears to ring.

Three more hits came in quick succession, knocking him to the ground. This was followed by several kicks to the stomach, chest, back, and arms (which he, fortunately, had the presence of mind to put up in front of his face. He was, he had to admit, a little proud he had managed not to make a sound.

He was pulled up to his knees by his arms, and punched square in the face and chest by Mike. He felt his lip split and his cheek start to swell. He unconsciously reached out for anyone with his mind. The first brain he found that didn't belong to his attackers wasn't too far away. This might work. He planted a suspicion that something was happening nearby that was worth investigating and then let go. He hoped desperately that whoever it was would help.

He was distracted by another shot to the face that left him sprawled on the ground again. He heard a crack as he took another kick to the chest, just as he saw a familiar face turn the corner. It was Zach. He still had the presence of mind to pull the plant out of Zach's head.

After that he wasn't quite sure what happened. Zach started shouting, and most of the group ran off. Grant paused to bend and touch his face before following. Then there was nothing but pain. It felt like he was burning from the inside out. He wasn't sure he'd survive this one.

Dan was on the ground when Will caught up to Zach. His breathing was weak at best and was bleeding from his lip and a split in his eyebrow. There was also blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. Well that wasn't good. Will stood on instinct to catch Warren before he could run off after the group.

"Dan first, then we go together." It was brief and exactly what Warren needed to hear. They needed to get Dan taken care of first. Then they could make them pay. But first, Dan.

Dan wasn't responding. Zach had returned with backup. Nothing Warren or Will said garnered any change. Phil had staggered back and was currently trying to focus enough to make a stretcher. His hands were visibly shaking and he looked like he was holding back tears. Nate was holding Dan's head and ensuring air was moving in and out of his lungs, while also being careful not to make any of his injuries worse.

Phil finally got a stretcher to work and took one of Dan's hands as Tyler and Mark shifted him to it. Nate took the other hand and continued to focus on Dan's breathing. Mark and Tyler lifted the stretcher, declaring it made more sense for Will and Warren to act as guards and make sure they all made it to the nurse.

Zach had run ahead to the nurses office and let her know they were coming. When they arrived the door was already open and they were ushered into the room. They set the stretcher on the bed and Phil let it go. The nurse began scanning him immediately. He had three broken ribs, but the rest of the bones were just bruised. His organs showed some swelling and bruising which concerned the nurse, but her attention was quickly drawn by whatever Grant had done before running.

"His immune system is killing him from the inside out. I can give him immuno-suppressant's but it's being caused by some sort of virus, I can't tell what, so they might just make it worse." The nurse was looking thoughtfully at the boy on her table.

"What happened!" Principle Powers, Coach Boomer, and Mr. Medulla were in the doorway.

Zach explained what he saw as calmly as he could manage. He may not know these people, but Will was sure his friend was still angry. Nate was still focused on helping Dan breath so Mark added the information about the previous attack. The nurse then explained the illness. By the end Warren's hands were smoking, Phil was crying, Tyler and Mark were clenching their jaws, and fists, and most of the adults in the room looked ill.

"I have an idea, it's incredibly dangerous but we don't really have time to try to catch Grant and force him to reverse his actions," the nurse said, staring at Warren's hands. "How precise is your control Warren?"

"What do you mean?"

"That might just work, if it's quick enough," Mr. Medulla muttered.

"What might work?"

"Then again, he didn't get his powers naturally, he may not be able to handle it," the mad scientist argued with himself.

"Handle what?"

"Mr. Sharp, have you got any lasting damage from the laser you took to the chest yesterday?" The nurse obviously understood where Mr. Medulla was going. Will had no idea if he was honest.

"None," Nate answered quickly.

"It just might work. If nothing else it won't kill him any faster than whatever's already happening," Mr. Medulla nodded. "As long as Mr. Peace can get his temper under control."

"What might work? What does this have to do with me?" Warren was careful to keep his tone neutral.

"People get a fever when they're sick because their body is trying to kill the virus, which is temperature sensitive. We think you might be able to burn the virus out quickly before it can do any more damage," the nurse explained. "It has to be quick, you will have to burn the virus out of his blood, while trying to prevent the fire from doing further damage. You won't have long."

"I can help a little," Nate added from his spot by Dan's head. "I can limit the oxygen to his blood for a minute or so, try to prevent anything else from catching. Hold the carbon dioxide directly at the edges of the veins and arteries."

"You have that specific of control, individual molecules?" Mr. Medulla looked impressed.

"I had a lot of time doing nothing but practicing and honing my power," he responded quietly.

"How hot does it need to be?" Warren asked.

The nurse collected a small amount of blood on a swab and had Warren burn it. "There, that temperature. It's all gone."

"Okay," Warren walked over to Dan, still frowning. "You sure this won't just kill him faster?"

"No, but it is the only chance of keeping him alive."

Warren frowned again before placing his hand on Dan's chest. Both Nate and Warren were concentrating. Warren's jaw was clenched and Nate's eyes were squeezed tightly shut. Dan had stopped breathing, and it seemed the room was joining him in holding their breath. The moment stretched on as the only noticeable change was the shift in Warren and Nate's muscles as they worked. Will would later swear it had been hours, certainly not seconds. Everyone was staring, watching closely, praying to whoever would listen that it would work. Dan had to be okay, he just had to. Will swore, mostly to himself, that if he didn't make it through, maybe even if he did, he would make Mike and Grant and everyone else in that group pay. They would suffer the wrath of Stronghold, and he had no doubt that he would not be alone.

After what felt like an eternity, but was likely less than a minute, Warren removed his hands from Dan's chest. He stayed close by but did back off slightly. Dan started breathing again, with Nate's help. Nate and Warren both looked worn out, but remained vigilant none the less. The nurse began checking Dan over. She placed several ice packs around and on the unconscious boy, and then began wrapping a bandage around his chest to set the broken ribs. She made quick work of his chest and then set up an IV (since when did the school nurse have an IV? Seriously, had she always had it? Had it been used before?) with anti-inflammatory medications and saline, she said it was to keep the fever stint from leaving him dehydrated.

"It looks like it's all gone, and it doesn't look like there's further damage yet, but only time will tell for sure. Whether or not he wakes up will all depend on how he heals, there are too many problems crossing each other at the moment for me to tell for sure."

"We'll need to collect his attackers," Will had almost forgotten principle powers was there until that moment. "I know it's a lot to ask, but please don't use more force than necessary, I'd hate to have to punish you as well." With that she left the room, followed closely by Coach Boomer. Mr Medulla left shortly after, nodding to the nurse before he went. They had just been given permission, sure it wasn't to exact vengeance per say, but they were responsible for collecting their friend's attackers, bringing them in for their punishment. That would have to be enough.

"Go ahead, I have an oxygen tank and mask, I'll get him hooked up and he'll be fine. Just try not to get yourselves killed. If he wakes up and you're hurt because of him, he won't forgive himself." No one commented on the double meaning of the if.

Warren briefly placed his hand on Dan's shoulder, before turning toward the door, jaw set. Nate ran a hand over Dan's hair before following Warren out of the room. Mark squeezed Dan's arm on his way past and out the door with Tyler. Phil paused, sliding a hand over the side of Dan's face and whispering something Will couldn't quite catch, before giving his hand one last squeeze and walking out the door. Will watched as the taller man set his jaw and wiped the tears from his cheeks as he walked.

"You better wake up, these people love you and need you, so you better wake up. I may not know you very well but I know that much. I'll make sure they come back if you make sure you're okay, deal?" Will wasn't really expecting an answer but he felt he needed to say it anyways.

"We'll keep an eye on him dude, you go kick some ass," Zach said quietly from his spot in the corner. Will smiled and nodded before following the rest of the group.

Lunch had ended while they were in the nurse's office, so they started by checking the class they were supposed to be in next. The class was half empty, none of Mike's crew were there. They did a quick search of the school and found nothing.

"They must have left, where could they have gone?"

Will had an idea, so he led the group out to where the busses parked. "Hey Ron, did you see a group of students leaving? It wouldn't have been too long ago."

"I did, they were talking about some place safe, something about Pat's parent's mansion. Why? Did something happen?" Ron looked concerned.

"They tried to kill a friend," Will answered as calmly as he could.

"Get in," he gestured to the bus behind him. "I know where that mansion is and it will be faster."

"Thanks Ron."

"Anything for you Will Stronghold."

The six of them piled into the bus and Ron flew it off the edge of the school. It was ten minutes or so later when the bus landed, followed by another ten minutes drive to pull up in front of Pat's mansion. It felt so much longer. No one spoke. They didn't really need a plan, and none of them trusted their own voices.

"Good luck, I'll be here," Ron said while opening the door.

"Thanks Ron."

The odd and mismatched group stepped off of the bus. They didn't speak, but all moved in unison. Apparently they had developed enough of an understanding of each other to be in perfect step.

They were surprised to find there was nothing preventing them from entering the house. No traps, or guards, just an open pathway to the front door. Sure, they hadn't had a lot of time to prepare, but it was odd that they hadn't done anything. Maybe they weren't really here. There were no other leads, so the least they could do was check.

"What do we do? Walk into someone's house, without announcing ourselves, at the risk of the group not being here. Taking the chance of breaking into someone's house, which may well be occupied, for no reason. Or, ring the doorbell at the risk of alerting them to our presence," Mark asked.

Will shook his head, there really wasn't an answer to this. They just had to take their chances with one option or the other.

"Ring the doorbell, give them a chance to give up. It would be worse to break in for nothing than alert them. Besides, if we give them a chance, they're more likely to fight back," Warren said, ending with a smirk.

Will couldn't help but chuckle. Warren was absolutely right, but it was still funny. The matching grins on several other faces within the group were so perfectly timed that they could have been scripted.

Will was voted as the one to go ring the doorbell. It made sense. He was the one least likely to raise suspicion. He walked up to the front door and rang the bell. There was no answer, then some shuffling, then some shouting, and still no answer at the door. They were definitely here. They definitely weren't going to come out with their arms up. Guess it's time to go in.

Will tried the door once, it was definitely locked. Of course. It would have been too easy. He was about to shove harder, but then Phil put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. He held on to the door handle for a moment before a key appeared in the lock. He turned it with a click and the door swung open easily.

"Wow, gotta remember that one. Way less clean up," Will laughed, clapping Phil on the shoulder.

"Not exactly something I advertise," Phil said calmly.

Will nodded. It made sense. He turned and walked through the door, immediately followed by the remaining five. They walked forward and toward the nearest source of noise. They reached a door. It sounded like there were people behind it but they didn't know who, or how prepared they were.

"My turn," Mark said. He went 'dazed' for a few seconds before returning. Apparently, if he's fast enough, the person he possesses won't notice, it just feels like a bit of a dizzy spell. The more you know. "It's just Emily and the human tazer back there. The rest must be somewhere else. They can't hear us out here. Something about protecting the room from the sounds of the front hall. Emily was worried about people sneaking up because of it."

"Alright, we need a plan of some sort."

"No shit, we can't get past Emily if she sets up a shield but I don't think any of us are tazer proof either," Warren said, looking around.

"I could take one of them, but which? Also you guys are going to have to deal with them in my body if they figure out what's going on," Mark pointed out. "There is some residual of the person that travels with them, so they will still be able to use a very small portion of their own powers."

"Emily, I can hold you back easily, but not if Brady is in there shocking me. Take Emily, she won't be able to block us," Will responded.

"Okay, I'll keep him in the room as best I can," Mark said as he and Will stepped to the side of the hall, out of the way. "Try not to damage the body, yeah?"

"I will."

Mark was gone again. Emily seemed pretty out of it to start with, easily held in Wills arms. It wasn't until the rest had entered the room that she figured out what was going on. She struggled against Will's grip, but it was useless. Even with Mark's added muscle, she had no chance at escaping. Will heard a scuffle in the room, a shout, and then a thunk that Will dearly hoped was Pat. Then Mark was back, tapping Will's arm calmly.

"Phil, are you okay?" Will could hear Nate calling across the other room.

"What happened to Phil?"

"He took a shot from Brady, Warren caught the edge of it but most of it hit Phil in the chest," Mark explained as they ran into the room. Brady was on the ground a few feet from the door, he had a few minor burns in his clothes, but had a growing bump in the middle of his forehead. There was a bookend on the ground next to him, so Will could only assume Tyler had gotten in the final shot. On the other side of the room Emily was out cold. It looked like Nate had knocked her out as soon as Mark left her body, judging by his position in the room and her lack of bruising.

"I'm good guys," Phil said, pushing up off the Wall. "I'm fine." He looked a little unsteady, which was understandable. Will had been on the receiving end of one of Brady's more powerful shots before, it hurt.

"What are we going to do with them. It's not like we can leave them here to sneak up behind us when they wake up," Tyler said.

"Hang on," Phil said. A few seconds later there was a bubble floating in the middle of the room. "Sound proofed and ready to follow. Just shove them in and we can keep going."

Will took that as instructions for him. He picked up Brady's unconscious body and pushed him into the bubble. He then moved across the room and collected Emily as well.

Nate paused and touched the bubble for a moment, "I'm adding a bit of nitrous, keep them unconscious so they can't cause problems." At a look from Will, he amended. "It's not enough to hurt them, just to keep them knocked out. They'll be fine."

They continued through the open door towards the quiet shuffling further into the building. As they got closer Will could hear whispering.

"What if they go a different way? Or Brady and Emily can't stop them? What if it's The Commander and Jet Stream? Or Principle Powers came?"

"We don't even know that anyone came in, they might just have wrung the doorbell and then left when no one answered."

"What if Peace comes and just burns this place down around us?"

"All of you need to calm down. If the place was on fire the alarms would go off, and we haven't heard anything yet so I doubt they've even reached Brady and Emily. Everything's fine."

Will caught Warren's smirk as he walked up to the nearest smoke detector and held a burning hand under it until it started screaming.

"Shit, Warren is here!"

"We're fine. He can't take all of us."

This time it was Nate who smirked. He nodded to Warren and then a wind started winding its way through the house. It was slow, then it was whipping around (ignoring them, Will's amazement at Nate's control was never going to cease) at noticeable speeds, moving curtains and even some of the shelves and tables slightly.

"Shit, the other emo kid's here too. Fuck, what if they're all here?"

"It's fine. Stop panicking."

Mark held up five fingers and pointed at the door ahead of them. So the other five were in there. This would be the last of it. Phil nodded and turned to the door. This room wasn't sound proofed from the hall this time, they couldn't really plan. They were just going to have to go in and try their best. At least with Brady and Emily down, they had the numbers now. Phil tested the door slowly, it was locked. He used the same key trick he had on the first door. Will stepped forward to stand directly in front of the opening door, he figured he could comfortably take whatever they could throw at the newly opened door.

He was glad he did, full strength laser eyes straight into the chest was not something a lot of people could walk towards. He heard someone cursing as he continued to walk straight towards Mike, paying ne heed to the laser that had put a hole in the front of his shirt. He was flanked by a pair of lions as he continued to walk forward, both of which leapt towards Mike, forcing him to avert his attention from Will. He saw someone move to attack him at the edge of his periphery and immediately be hit in the side of the head by a flying object. (Will wasn't looking closely enough to see precisely what it was.) He continued forward. He reached Mike as Pat was pinned against the nearest wall by Nate. By that point the lions had disappeared. The first punch put Mike into the wall. He could hear Grant trying to fight off snarling animals, Phil was not holding back, if the sounds coming from that side of the room were anything to go by. Mike dislodged himself from the wall and was immediately knocked back into it with another punch. Will saw Pat fall to the ground unconscious. Then Mike followed. Will turned in time to see Grant knocked out by a boa constrictor. Damn, Phil really was angry.

Will looked around the room to see there wasn't anyone left standing. Wow. That took a lot less than Will thought it would. Seriously. Brady and Emily took more effort than the entire rest of their group. Why the heck did they all split up anyways? How did that make sense? Now they've lost, at least in part because they didn't take advantage of their own numbers. If they'd stuck together they might have presented even the tiniest of challenges. Wow.

The first thing Dan noticed when he woke up was that he was incredibly thirsty. The second thing he noticed was that everything hurt. The third was that he was in the nurse's office, hooked up to an IV and oxygen mask. Fuck.

"He's awake!"

Fuck, that was too fucking loud. Fuck. Everything hurts. Fuck. Obviously he visibly flinched, because Nate suddenly got much quieter.

"Hey Dan, how are you feeling?"

Fucking stupid questions. They're fucking stupid. Fuck off with the fucking stupid questions. Dan doesn't even want to move, let alone speak. His throat hurts so much he's not sure he can actually speak at this point anyways. He really just wants a glass of water, and then to be shot so everything will stop hurting.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm going to grab you a glass of water, okay?"

Dan was amazed that Nate somehow knew what he was thinking. Not only that he was irritated by the question, but also that he needed water. When did Nate learn to read minds.

"Dan, you're awake. God I was so worried. I'm so glad you're awake. Oh my god," Phil sounded like he'd been crying.

Nate brought over a glass of water and helped Dan sit up to drink it. That's when Dan realized that the room was full of people. Phil, Nate, Mark, Tyler, Warren, and Will were all in the room. Fuck. He had worried all these people, he had inconvenienced all these people. He was touched that so many people cared, but fuck he wished he could stop being weak and needing to be worried about. Fuck.

"Hey, it's okay. Don't worry about us. We're all here because we want to be." Seriously, when did Nate learn to read minds. Seriously. What the actual fuck. He sipped at the cold water. His throat felt a little better.

"When did you learn to read minds?" His voice was still rough but the question brought a smile to most of the faces around him. At least he could still do that much.

"I just pay attention," Nate laughed. "Also I figured I'd be thinking the same things." Dan nodded.

"He's right though. Don't feel bad, we are all here because we want to be. We're just glad you're okay," Mark added.

Dan stood up slowly, everything still ached but he didn't want to be pitied anymore. He didn't want people to worry anymore. He didn't want to be weak anymore. He was fine. "What exactly happened after you guys showed up?"

The story was retold quickly. He frowned and sighed and laughed and generally tried to remain calm. He couldn't believe how much these people had cared. That they had not only saved him, but also fought on his behalf. He was also incredibly angry that Grant had outright tried to kill him. There was no forgiving that. None at all.

"I... thanks," Dan looked down at his hands.

"You'd have done it for any of us. Have done it for some of us," Tyler replied.

"I don't think I ever saved anyone's lives directly."

"As I recall, you stopped a pissed off guard from killing Mark, you saved everyone from the tornado the first night Nate had a nightmare, you got us all out of that place. Those are just some examples," was Phil's response.

"Those weren't big deals," Dan mumbled quietly toward the floor. He didn't see why they were making a big deal out of it. Literally anyone would have done it. Anyone could have done it. He just happened to be the first to act. They had done some pretty extreme shit to save him.

"They were big deals to us," Dan couldn't help the flush across his face at Nate's response.

"Where were you guys? You disappeared at lunch yesterday, where have you been for the last 20 hours?" Magenta's confusion was understandable. Layla and Ethan were paying close attention, clearly an explanation was necessary.

"I was in the nurse's office," Zach answered. Will could have sworn it was Warren answering from Zach's body, it sounded to matter of fact and bored.

"What happened? Where were you two? Why didn't anyone tell us?" Will picked out a few questions, but everyone was shouting at once. It was, at least partially, a game of estimation.

"I'm fine, I wasn't the one who got hurt. I just did all the running for help. And stayed behind to help the nurse, didn't think I'd be much help catching people," Zach had his hands up defensively. Will shook his head, he definitely raised more questions than he answered.

"Grant and Mike tried to kill Dan, Warren and Nate saved him. We went after the group, fought them, caught them all, then brought them back here, where they are now in the detention room. Then Dan woke up late last night." Will tried to keep it as concise as possible. He tried to keep everyone as calm as possible. Warren was still radiating heat, had been since the whole thing had started, but at least he wasn't smoking, or openly burning.

"That's... that's," Layla seemed to be lost for words.

"Fucked up?" Warren offered.

"That sounds about right," Magenta said.

"How did no one notice they were... how did they get away with..."

"No one noticed Royal Pain either. In this case, everyone was too happy to believe Dan and friends were evil, leaving Grant a victim." Warren answered calmly. "Even now there are going to be people who claim Dan's somehow at fault, that he made them do it to avert suspicion for Royal Pain." How was Warren remaining so damn calm? Sure he had a lot more practice, but that shouldn't make that much difference. He was so matter of fact it was actually disconcerting.

"Which is why we need to speak up for them, and defend them. Dan is a hero, nothing less," Will was a little surprised Zach was the one to speak up. He wasn't any less right though.

"You wanted to speak with me Principle Powers?"

"Yes Mr. Howell, come in. As you know, the people who attacked you are being tried today, you and your friends are required to attend."

"I thought so."

"Don't worry Mr. Howell. The trial is mostly a formality, there is no real question as to their guilt."

"Okay."

"I wanted you to be prepared, they face life in prison."

"About that, I had an idea."

The trial was quick. There was a pile of evidence against Mike and friends. There were several witnesses, camera evidence, blood samples, it was perfect proof. Everything went exactly the way Will expected it, right up until the end.

"You have all been found guilty of attempted murder of a fellow student, aggravated assault, and reckless use of power. You should be sentenced to life in prison, however, you will be offered a choice. Choose wisely, you may either spend the rest of your life in prison, or, you may give up your powers and knowledge of sky high and heroes to return to a normal life."

What? 1- since when could anyone do that? 2- why were they giving these monsters a choice? 3- how on earth could the latter be accomplished?

"You are fortunate that the student you attacked is not only powerful, but also merciful."

Dan. Dan had made the offer. Dan was looking straight ahead at Principle Powers and nodding. Dan had given his attackers, the people who almost killed him, a second chance. Dan was too good for his own good.

"Have you all decided?"

"Yes, we would all like to select the second option."

"Okay, you will all be returned to your holding cells to await further action. That brings us to the end of today's proceedings."

Will thought about it. It would have been a hard choice. Choose between freedom and power. Losing something that is inherently a part of your DNA or spending the entirety of your adult life in prison. In the end, Will thinks he would have chosen the same. He still wasn't sure how this was going to happen.

Dan took his time with each person. He built up the memories slowly, covering his tracks as he went. He made sure each delusion, each memory, each thought took completely before moving forward. Slowly but surely he convinced each of their brains that they had never had powers to begin with. That they had been stories, made up as a kid on the play ground and then dreamed about. He convinced their brains so deeply that power had never been present, that the connection with their power was severed. It took a while but he had to be thorough. Better to be too careful than risk the brain rejecting the plants.

Finally he was done. He was also exhausted but that was neither here nor there. By the time he had finished the last one, the first one's brain should have started changing to account for the new information, so he went back to check how everything was sitting. It was perfectly clean.

The next test was to have Mark possess them and try to use their powers. He knew they should be there and would be able to tell if they had a chance of reconnecting, if there was still a connection left. Every person passed that test with flying colours as well. Dan had convinced the brains that the powers didn't exist, so they ceased to exist.

Finally, Stephanie came through and soothed their brains. Prevented any panic or maladjustment for their return to the real world. Their parents were warned that if they mentioned powers, or sky high, their children would believe they were delusional. They were also warned that their children may seem a little 'out of it' for a few hours. Most of them were so happy to be keeping their child that they were happy to comply with any rules given.

The last anyone saw of the six, now powerless, children, were their parents leading them away from the courthouse and towards their own cars.

Dan felt a brief twinge of pride. He had taken the high road, saved these kids (that's what they were really, still kids) from having their lives ruined by this mistake, but also prevented them from ever hurting anyone else the way they hurt him. He had proven he was neither powerless, nor evil. Perhaps that was enough.

"Hey, remember what we said about saving lives? How you keep doing it? Was proving us right really worth all that effort?" Mark asked as they walked back to the rest of the group.

Dan smiled, "it really was."

"Okay, who's getting sappy now?" Nate laughed.

"Seriously though, remind me never to piss you off. You are scary powerful dude." Dan laughed at Will's comment.

"So what now?"

"I don't know, how about some pizza?"

A/N

Freshman Hero Support
Ethan Nestor-Can speak to Lady Bugs
Sophie Newton-Colour Changing

Sophomore Hero Support
Amanda Faye -Can whistle at up to 54kHz
Joey Frederick-Can see infrared light
PJ Liguori-Can create tiny monsters
Sean McLoughlin-Can talk at super speed

Junior Hero Support
Stephanie Cordato-Brain Bleach
Matthew Frederick-Can see UV light
Chris Kendall-Cheese Magnet

Sophomore Heroes
Mark Fischbach-Body Switching
Dan Howell-Psychic Illusions (Delusions/Hallucinations/Memories)
Nathan Sharp-Air Control
Tyler Schied-Perfect Aim

Junior Heroes
Phil Lester-Physical Illusions
Matthew Patrick-Truth Parsing
Lilly Singh-Can shape shift into a Unicorn

I know the power listings are not super clear for everyone. I tried but some of the powers are kind of hard to sum up in a few words. Sorry. For additional clarification, most dog whistles are at a pitch of roughly 54kHz. Also, the reason I used Stephanie's maiden name and Amanda's middle names is because neither were married in high school. (I had to google Stephanie's and use Amanda's middle name because I couldn't find hers. Is that creepy? Maybe... Probably)

I'm sorry it's so long and rambley and probably out of character. I wrote this in a weird head space trying to break writers block and refocus and then it just got away from me. I hope you liked it all the same.