Hola Sportsfans,
First off I would like to give my sincere thanks to aspinminder, Tigger and Marinus. You're reviews made me get up at 5 am and write this next chapter. Aspinminder, your review was the most helpful one that I've ever recieved so thank you very very much. I've never written an entire story from the first person point of view so this is all new to me. I agree with the prologue being long-winded. I'll re-write it later when I get Old Warren's voice memorized in my head.
I'm glad you guys enjoy the story. If there is anything wrong with this chapter please let me know. Like I said, I've never written from a first person pov before so I'm prepared for some bumps in the road. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Happy Reading.
People always thought that I'd amount to nothing. And I guess a part of me kind of accepted it in a way. After what happened in my junior year at Sky High though, I started to see things a little different.
The defeat of Royal Pain brought about a whole new era at the school. For the first time in a long time I actually had friends. Yep, the big bad Warren Peace had friends. Sidekicks at the school started to get treated with more respect by the rest of the student body and Ethan never had his head dunked in a toilet bowl since. For once life was pretty good.
And then I graduated.
No more classes, no more essays, no more hallways jammed pack with chattering overly-hormonal teenagers. I should have been beyond ecstatic.
I wasn't.
The idea of working as a busboy for the rest of my days wasn't exactly appealing and neither was working in a box cubical, typing away at a computer from nine to five. My mother thought that I should go to college and get a degree in something, anything, just so that she could sleep easy at night with the idea that I wasn't going to fall off the good-guy bandwagon and become a harden criminal like my dad.
I could have gone to the state college but I knew that the whole education scene wasn't for me. I wanted to do something that I would enjoy doing and sitting in a lecture hall day after day wasn't it.
Will and I were hanging out at his house on the first Saturday that I had off work in a few months. He and Layla had just come to blows again about something concerning the year's home-coming dance. I was pretending to pay attention like the good friend I was while Will paced left and right, greatly stressed out about Layla's cold shoulder towards him. Oh the drama.
"What should I do? I don't know why matching outfits are such a big deal to her. What's wrong with red, white and blue?" he asked.
I couldn't help but shake my head. "Nothing."
"Then why is she acting like I told her to eat meat or something?" The guy was clearly torn over this and when he leaned back against his bench-press and began to pump 600 pounds of iron at a pace that would have killed the Terminator; I knew I had to say something.
"Why don't you ask her?"
"Ask her? Warren, she's mad at me. There is no asking. There is only doing. I have to do the right thing or else there is no Us."
"Well maybe Layla just isn't into the whole stars and stripes look. Maybe you should try floral prints or green." I suggested. Big mistake.
"Floral what! Warren, I'm a Stronghold. My parents are Strongholds. My grandfather was a Stronghold. Our family colours are red, white and blue. There is no green. There never was and never will be." Will slammed the weights back onto their supports with a little too much effort and cursed loudly when the iron rod that connected them cracked in half.
"Then I suggest you start looking for another girlfriend." I went back to reading the Spiderman comic that I was holding and ignored Will's seething glare. The guy should have known by now that when it comes to giving someone the evil eye, no one could do it better than I could. It's a proven fact.
"She wouldn't dump me because I won't wear green." He muttered more to himself than to me as he took out a spare rod that he had buried away in the back of his closet and went about repairing the damage.
"No. She'd dump you because you're a chauvinistic pig-headed male who won't compromise." I smiled sarcastically. "She called me this morning."
"She thinks I'm pig-headed?" Will said crushed. He dropped the 50 pound weight he had been holding and sat down hard on the bench, looking about as forlorn as a guy could get. "What do I do?"
I sighed quietly to myself as I closed the comic book carefully and placed it on the bed beside me. "Look," I started off. "I've never been in a working relationship like the one you two have so don't expect me to have all the answers. But from what I've heard, I think you should let Layla win this one. I don't know what it is with girls and school dances, but for some reason they tend to take these things really seriously. If you guys want to do the whole matching couples thing, then go ahead. But I'm telling you now, go with green. You'll be happier in the long run."
Will looked as if he was about to argue with me but when I arched an eyebrow, he sighed again and nodded his head. "But where am I going to get a green suit? I don't even look good in green." He complained softly.
"Ask Zach. The kid has a notorious taste in formal wear. I'm sure he can hook you up." I quickly ducked out of the way as Will tossed a dog-eared copy of IronMan: The Biography at my head. "Watch the comic!"
And that's how things went. For some weird reason whenever something happened, Will and company would always ask me for advice, as if I were some great all-knowing guru or something. Once upon a time, these guys were scared to death of me. Now, they call me up at four in the morning and ask me to solve their relationship problems. I swear sometimes I think I had Doctor Phil written on my forehead.
"So." Will started after he finally managed to get his bench-press back in working order. "What are you doing tomorrow?"
"Nothing." I shrugged as I went back to reading the comic.
Will gnawed on his lower lip as he glanced nonchalantly over his shoulder before scratching the back of his neck. I pretended that I didn't notice as he drummed his hands on his knees and fidgeted. He always did that when he had something to say but didn't have the nerve to spit it out.
"What." I muttered.
"Ah…well…I was talking to my dad and he had this idea that I thought that you'd like." He shrugged but I could tell that he was hiding something.
"For the last time Will, my answer is no. I'm not going into real estate." I growled and lifted the comic book so that it blocked Will out of my line of vision.
"Huh? Oh…oh! No, I wasn't talking about that." Will chuckled nervously. "It's something else completely. I think you'd really like to hear this one out."
"Will, I appreciate what you and your parents are trying to do but just stop okay? I'll figure out what I want to do with my life on my own terms." For the past three months, Will, the gang, my mother and Will's parents had been coming at me from all different directions in an attempt to get me to make a decision on how I'm going to spend the rest of my life. Some of the suggestions were pretty bizarre. Will's father suggested that I join the Marines while Layla said that I'd be perfect for Green Peace. Zach spent two weeks trying to convince me to become a professional wrestler under the surname Hell Blazer while Magenta thought I should go Vegas and set Chris Angel's hair on fire.
After a while it started to get on my nerves and when I lost it at Thanksgiving and torched Josie Stronghold's sixteen pound turkey that took her about seven hours to cook, no one has had the nerve to make a suggestion since.
What none of them realized that secretly, I wanted to join the hero ranks. When I was young, I mean really young, I'd always listen to my mother's stories about the battles she fought and the stuff she did. Sometimes when I was alone I'd pretend that I was a superhero off saving the world. I was nine. What nine-year-old doesn't pretend to be Superman or Wonder Woman?
The thing is, in order to become an official superhero you needed a hero license and no one was going to give me, Warren Peace, the son of the notorious Barron Battle, a hero license. Villains' kids don't get to become heroes. People tended to overlook the fact that my mother was a successful hero. Instead all they ever saw was a problematic prodigy that would do more harm then good, so they left it at that.
Most of them anyways.
Becoming a hero isn't easy. It is not like the moment you graduate from hero school you instantly become a superhero. Most of the kids who leave Sky High end up going inactive and becoming civilians. Only the lucky ones, the certain handful, manage to get accepted into the various hero leagues and go off to save the world. Sometimes a sidekick will end up being promoted to hero status after a number of years, but most of the time sidekicks end up retiring when they are no longer needed and become teachers or community activists. That's what happened to Mr. Boy, formally known as All-American Boy.
"Warren, will you just hear me out on this one. Please? Just this once and I won't bother you again about this. I swear." Will said not so easily dissuaded.
"No Will."
"Fine. If you won't listen to me then maybe you'll listen to my dad. Either way, you're going to hear it." Will said and nodded his head in the direction of his bedroom doorway.
When Steve Stronghold entered the room and I had to restrain myself from setting Will's bed on fire. I hated it when people ganged up on me like that but burning down the house wasn't going to get me anywhere. I made a mental promise that I'd get even with Will later just as Steve cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses.
"Hello Warren." He beamed cheerfully as I slowly lowered the comic and glared at the both of them. Will gave me a weak smile and looked away. Instead of responding, I just nodded my head once.
"So, did Will tell you our idea?" He asked as he looked at Will and then back at me. When neither of us said anything, he got the hint. "Ah, I see. Well then, Will mentioned to me a few days ago that you were interested in obtaining a hero license."
My eyes went wide in surprise as Will weakly shrugged his shoulders and busied himself with his hands. How did he know that? How did they find out! I've never said a word about the license to anyone. Ever.
Steve Stronghold resisted the urge to smile when he saw my reaction and before I could put up a defensive wall and make my face unreadable; he stepped forward and sat down on the edge of the bed. I didn't move.
"So I'm right?" He asked me quietly as I glared at his son.
"How did you figure that one out?" My voice as hard as I could make it.
"Warren, you've spent every day for the past three years reading comic books. It was kind of obvious." Will spoke up as he got up and sat down at his computer desk in an attempt to put some distance between us. As if that would help him.
"So what about it? It's not like I'm ever going to get one so can we drop it?" I said as I roughly turned the page of the comic book and pretended to read it so that I wouldn't have to look at either of them. Steve Stronghold took a piece of paper out of his back pocket and unfolded it before he slipped it over the page that I was trying to concentrate on.
"You never know if you don't try." Was all he said.
I knew what they were doing and I wasn't buying it but despite my self, I had to look at the paper. It was a laminated promotional flyer that had the pictures of some of the best known heroes on it. Will's mother and father were flanking the dark empty outline of a person in the middle of the page. A big question mark and the words "Could this be you" caught my attention before I looked at the rest of the flyer.
"What is this?" I asked as I watched Will's father out of the corner of my eye.
"The International League of Heroes just sent this out all over the world today. It's the application form for the Herolympics." Steve said as he reached over and turned the flyer over so that I could see the rules and regulations printed on the back.
"The Herolympics." I repeated doubtfully. "You want me to take part in the Herolympics."
"Why not? You have just a good a chance as anyone to getting in. And would it really hurt just to try?" Will's father asked as he leaned back and Will a secretive wink.
"My dad's going to be a part of the panel of judges this year and he can put in a good word for you with the registration committee. C'mon Warren, this is the chance you've been waiting for. It only happens once every four years and if you look at the bottom of the page, it says that the top 6 competitors get an instant acceptance into a league of their choice! What more could you want?" Will said, his excitement finally coming out as he hopped off his desk and waved his arms around for emphasis.
"Instant acceptance?" I asked cautiously as I took my eyes off of Will for a second to read the fine print.
"To any of the leagues. The Elemental League, the North American League, hell even the Justice League! Think of it Warren, the Justice League! No one's ever gotten into it like this before." Will said in a wistful voice as he eyed the flyer.
"Will's right. This is the first year that the Justice League has decided to allow two new members to join their ranks. They made a public announcement about it this morning. It seems that the entire hero community is talking about nothing else." Steve nodded.
"It won't work." I said after a few minutes. Will blinked and looked at me as if he hadn't heard me correctly.
"What? Why not!" Will asked.
"You have to be at least 18 to apply." I started off and before I could continue Will cut me off.
"Warren, you turned 18 last May." He crossed his arms over his chest.
"I know that. I'm saying you have to be 18 and older to apply and," I paused for a second to give him a look, "it has to be two people per application. Which means I need to have a sidekick. Do I have a sidekick?"
"One of us can sub for it. Zack would die of a heart attack if he found out." Will grinned, thinking that he had the perfect solution. When he realized that both myself and his father were looking at him he stopped grinning. "What?"
I held up the flyer and pointed to Rule 3, 18 years or older.
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh. You guys are still sixteen." I dropped the flyer onto the bed. "No sidekick means that there is no way that I'm ever going to get into the competition. Thanks for trying, but no thanks." I went back to reading the comic book as Will curled his hands into tight fists.
"You're hopeless!" He hissed and left the room before he punched a hole in the wall. I waited for Will's father to leave after his son but when he didn't, I ground my teeth together and closed the comic book.
"Steve…Mr. Stronghold, I don't need your help. I appreciate everything that you're trying to do for me but it won't work. Why can't you people see that and just leave me alone about all this. You're not my father so can you stop trying to act like it?" I said as I turned my head to look at him. Whatever I was going to say next died on my tongue as I realized that I was no longer talking to Steve Stronghold, Will's father, but to the Commander. The look he gave me was enough to make me think twice about what I had just said.
"I'm going to be frank with you Warren. You have a lot of talent and potential and I know you can go far if you tried. But you'd be an idiot if you let an opportunity like this pass you by. And right now, you are acting like one. You don't want my help, fine. I respect that. A man has to make his own way in the world. But you will listen to my advice. I know what you're thinking and I'm not here to judge you. I've kept my eye on you ever since you became friends with my son and you are nothing like your father. I knew your father, I was the one who had him put away and believe me when I tell you that whatever shadow you're living under, it's not yours but his. And it's time for you to stop. What are you afraid of Warren? Are you afraid that if you try to make something of yourself, you'll be rejected? That you'll fail? That you'll end up being like your father?"
I didn't look away once as he spoke, I didn't even blink. But when he mentioned my father the comic book in my hand was reduced to ash in two seconds flat.
"You don't know what you're talking about." My teeth were clenched so hard that my jaw was starting to ache.
"I don't?"
"You don't know what it's like to have your father's reputation follow you wherever you go, to influence whatever you do. You have no idea of how it feels to not be able to escape something that you never did and to have people judge you because of it." I managed to growl without igniting my fist and destroying something else. I never talked about this and I didn't want to start talking now.
"You're wrong about that Warren. I know exactly how it feels, and so does Will. With my father being who he was I never had much of a choice of what I wanted to do with my life and I know Will feels the same way. But that doesn't mean we stop trying." Steve said in a dead even tone that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
"They'll never allow me into the competition." I said flatly as I kept my eyes locked with his. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of letting him know how he managed to affect me. I kept repeating to myself that this was the guy who was the reason that I never knew my father over and over in my head and it gave me enough anger to keep up the defensive front.
"You have my word that your application will be judged fairly and won't be tainted by outside influences. The competition is not based on who your family is or where you come from. It's based solely on who you are and if you have what it takes to get into it, you will." Will's father met my resistance with his own and if you've ever been stared down by the Commander, you'll know just how hard it is to keep focused without cracking from the pressure.
"And the sidekick?" I shot at him. It was pathetic but it was my last edge I had on him and I had to use it. I never go down without a fight.
"I've arranged an all-day meeting for you at the Hero Support Agency tomorrow. Will and I will be there to help you with the interviews and trials. If you do not show up tomorrow I will personally find you and drag you down there myself. You have my word on that." Steve said his stare hardening slightly so that I got the point that he was dead serious. At that moment I had no doubt that he'd go through with his promise.
"You may not get accepted into the competition Warren but I will not let you pass up this opportunity. If becoming a hero is what you want, then it's about time you got serious and started acting like one. Do you understand me?" He asked me and after a few tense, silent moments I knew that he had me. I didn't have a choice.
I was the first to break off the stare and when I looked away, Will's father eased up and became Steve Stronghold once more.
"What time do I have to be there." I muttered without looking up.
When Steve put his hand on my shoulder I tensed, that threatened feeling creeping back into my mind. What I didn't expect was the fatherly embrace that came out of nowhere. Despite my hostility and anger, something deep down inside came loose and for once I knew what it felt like to have a father figure.
"9 o'clock sharp. It's going to be one heck of a busy day so rest up tonight. Every sidekick out there is going to be trying to team up with a hero for the competition so I have no doubt that we'll find the right one. Just as long as you remember to keep your temper and not burn down the building." Steve chuckled and patted me on the back before he walked out of the room, leaving me alone to figure out what the heck just happened.
I nervously ran my hands through my hair as I sat down on the bed and breathed in deeply, trying to wrap my head around the jumbled emotions that were bouncing around inside me. I glanced at the flyer and looked it over carefully. For the first time, I could kind of see myself standing between The Commander and Jetstream.