Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney. This story was inspired by an episode of 'Missing' called 'John Doe'.


Chapter 1: Lost and Found

He didn't know why he was running, or who he was running from.

He didn't even know who he was.

It seemed that there had been… an explosion of some kind, and there were people running around panic-stricken… and he just knew he wanted to get away… he needed to get away.

A couple of hours later, by sheer blind luck, he reached the city limits, but he had no idea what city it was or where to go. After an uncomfortably hungry night under a bridge, some well-meaning person advised him to go to the nearby homeless shelter.

He couldn't remember how to read, so it took him a while to find the place. The woman in charge of the shelter looked at what he was wearing – some kind of grey overalls – and asked if he used to work in a garage or something, but he had no idea. The nice lady seemed to understand that he didn't know what was going on, and she gave him a bowl of soup and some bread, and showed him to a bunk among some other men in ragged clothing. Maybe they had also lost their memories?

Lying on the bed that night, he tried as hard as he could but he couldn't even remember his own name. All he had was fleeting images and words that disappeared as soon as he tried to concentrate on them. It was frustrating, but at least he wasn't hungry anymore.


It was the strangest thing, this fire from his fingertips.

He'd been thinking that he was feeling a bit cold and he would like to warm up… and then these flames had suddenly appeared.

He stared at the fire, fixated. It should be burning his flesh, but it just felt… pleasantly warm.

And then he heard panicked shouts, and he realised that the fire was no longer just flickering in his hands, but had spread along the sheets and jumped to the next bunk. He looked around in horror at the destruction he was causing. If only he could stop it as well as start it… but he didn't seem to be able to. Or maybe it was just that he couldn't remember how…

The man in the next bed screamed as his sleeve caught fire while he was trying to climb down from the top bunk.

The sound stirred the amnesiac pyro into action. Using his hands, which seemed to be fireproof, he reached over and smothered the flames and then he helped the man out of the shelter. He returned to the scene and helped two more people who'd collapsed and another who was coughing so hard he couldn't walk. By the time everybody was out safely, the fire department had arrived to put out the blaze.

He turned to the woman who ran the shelter. "I'm sorry," he said in a horrified whisper, over and over. "I'm so, so sorry."


First thing the next day Mary Grant went to the local police station. When the amnesiac man had arrived at her homeless shelter the previous day, she'd made a note in her appointment diary that he would need to go to some sort of mental hospital for his memory loss. Now it was looking like there was a more serious problem than just that.

She had nothing against the man personally, and she'd certainly not had any other reason to be afraid of him. And she'd had some strange people at the shelter before, so she'd learnt not to ask too many questions because she didn't really want to know what they'd been up to. But if this man had some sort of destructive superpower, then it would be best for the appropriate authorities to handle the situation.

At the police station, Mary was advised to take him to the superhero wing of Maxville General Hospital and they gave her instructions how to get there.

So, this was what really went on behind this particular door marked 'Authorised Personnel Only', she mused as she led the amnesiac stranger up to an ordinary-looking side entrance.

The only strange thing about it was that there was a security guard at the door, who said nothing as they approached. He just stared at her with his arms folded. He was probably a superhero too, she thought. In fact, the superheroes probably had their own top-secret school where they learnt all about Intimidating Stares, and How To Keep The Citizens From Poking Their Noses Into Superhero Business.

"Um, hello," she said nervously. "This man has lost his memory, but he has superpowers so I was told to bring him here."

The security guard inclined his head fractionally towards the amnesiac, which she took as a sign of assent, and stood aside slightly. When Mary started to move forwards, the guard halted her with another of his Stares. Evidently she wouldn't be allowed in too.

She turned to the strange man and said, "Well, good luck, I guess."

"Thanks," he replied quietly, "And I'm really sorry."

"It's okay," she reassured him, patting his arm. "It was an accident. And these people can help you so that it doesn't happen again."

He nodded a bit uncertainly and edged past the hulking security guard to get through the door. Inside he saw what looked like just another wing of the hospital. He walked up to the reception desk, but before he could say a word the middle-aged nurse on duty looked up and him and gasped.

"Barron Battle!" she whispered, horrified, reaching for the security panic button.

He frowned in confusion. "Who?"


Warren and his mother didn't watch the news much, apart from the weather report, of course, but even they soon heard about what had happened at the prison.

Ballista had tried to bust some of her buddies out of jail, by using her powers to blow a hole in the side of the prison compound. Unfortunately for her, things hadn't gone quite as planned. Not only was she also captured, but none of her gang escaped.

However, a small number of prisoners, who'd happened to be in the area at the time, did manage to get out. Three had been recaptured by the next morning, but two were still at large… including Warren's father.

For political reasons, the Federal Superhero Agency was reluctant to admit to the public that they were missing some super-villains, especially a notorious one like Barron Battle. So the news story announced that the situation was under control and there was nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, every hero in the state was instructed to search out the missing prisoners.

And, because the superheroes knew the truth, so did the students at Sky High. Expecting a reaction the next day, Will and the gang did their best to form a protective barrier around Warren, although privately it was as much to protect the prying students from their friend's temper as it was to protect him from them.

The following afternoon Warren got home from school to find his mother back from work already, and waiting for him.

"We need to go to the superhero hospital," she told him.

"Why?" he asked grumpily, feeling a bit irritable after the day he'd had despite Will & Co.'s best efforts.

"It's your father. He turned up there."


Irene and Warren looked through the one-way glass into the isolation ward without saying a word. Neither of them could believe what they were seeing. There was Barron Battle, sitting on a hospital bed, politely answering the questions put to him by a woman with a notebook. He shook his head and gave a confused half-smile when asked about who he was or where he had been a week ago.

"Are you sure the amnesia is genuine?" Irene asked the doctor standing with them in the observation room. This wouldn't be the first time that a super-villain faked something of this nature to escape culpability.

"Amanda is a telepath," replied the doctor, gesturing to the woman in the iso ward. "She's trying to find out the answer to that exact question."

They turned their attention back to what was happening on the other side of the one-way glass.

"And what happens when you try to remember?" they heard the telepath asking.

"Sometimes I see flashes of something that goes by so fast I can't even recognise it," Barron answered. "Sometimes I don't see anything. I guess part of the problem might be that I don't even want to remember."

"Why not?"

He frowned in thought. "Well, what if Barron Battle is a bad person? I saw the way the nurse at the front looked at me. And the other people around here. And the security guards outside the door of this ward, I'm sure they're only here for a good reason." He sighed and leaned back on the pillows. "I must have done something terrible."

"Do you think you could have done something terrible?" asked Amanda gently.

"I'd like to hope that I wouldn't," came the reply, "But I can't remember anything, so maybe I did." He sighed again and added sadly. "I don't want to remember doing something like that, and I really don't want to remember who I am if that person is evil."

Amanda came out of the ward to talk to them in the observation room, and Irene and her son shared a glance. Even Warren could remember that his father had never shown this kind of remorse for the accidental victims of his temper.

"I believe that the amnesia is almost definitely genuine," the telepath reported. "I sense no deceit whatsoever, and what I saw of those flashes of memory he mentioned are so jumbled they make no sense. The only other plausible explanation for this is that he somehow acquired telepathic abilities during Ballista's explosion."

"But that's not likely, right?" asked Irene.

Amanda shook her head. "It would require years of training and practice to be able to fool an experienced telepath, so I'd say that option is pretty much impossible."

They took a moment to digest that, and then the doctor asked the obvious question. "Will he regain his memory?"

"I really can't answer that," Amanda said. "It might come back next week, next year or not at all."

Warren spoke up from the first time since they arrived. "But this came from some kind of head trauma during Ballista's attack on the prison, right?" he said.

The doctor nodded. "It seems so."

"Then his healing power will take care of the amnesia, won't it?"

"The mind is more than just brain tissue and neurons," responded the telepath. "Even if the minor damage to his brain is repaired by his powers, there is no guarantee that his memories will return. They could be lost forever."

Just then Martin Green, one of the Directors of the Federal Superhero Agency, came into the observation room, looking expectantly at Amanda who gave him a summary of what she'd told the others.

When she was finished Mr. Green looked thoughtful. "This is a unique situation, Ms. Peace. There really is no precedent and I admit that I'm not entirely sure how to proceed."

Irene agreed. "In a lot of ways it seems like he's a whole different person, but it all depends on whether this will last."

The Director turned to Amanda and asked, "Do you have any idea when you'll know if the amnesia is permanent?"

"I honestly can't say, sir. We'll only know for sure that it's not permanent if he gets his memory back."

"Hmm. The trouble is that we can't wait for that to possibly never happen. A decision needs to be made now."

"What decision?" asked Irene.

"Whether or not to send him back to prison," Mr. Green said simply.

She frowned slightly in confusion, but Warren understood what the Director meant. "If the amnesia is permanent, then we have to ask ourselves if it's fair to make him pay for a crime he cannot remember committing," he surmised.

"That is precisely my concern," said Mr. Green. "But if he doesn't go back to prison, then what? Is it really safe to let him go free, with or without the use of his powers?" He looked at Irene. "For instance, would you feel safe to have him back in your home?"