Guilty by Association

Hey guys! Sorry for the slight wait, I wanted to get this out a day or two ago but I had some stressful things going on at work… blah… but that is over now! I hope you all enjoy this and continue to review! You all continue to floor me with reviews! It makes me sooo happy! I love hearing your opinions!

Disclaimer: I don't own Sky High

Chapter 3: Live in Infamy my Ass…

I cannot tell you how long I have been waiting to kick the living daylights out of our hero William Stronghold. And perhaps I would go easy on Peace if I was still enamored with him, ok so I am but that doesn't mean I'm going easy on him! Especially after yesterday…

Jake and I glance at one another; we know exactly what we are going to do. We are unstoppable and today we are going to prove it.

When Boomer yells, "Begin!" everyone springs into action.

Stronghold is in the air in the blink on an eye 'guarding' the civilian while Peace begins to throw fireballs at us. Dark matter is in my hands in an instant as I throw it to block his incoming shots. Jake is already behind me waiting for the moment when I open up my portal, but after about 30 seconds of a relentless downpour of flames we have to revise our strategy.

With a simple look I throw one of my dark matter orbs up to the lights and allow myself and Jake to sink into a portal. The entire room is encompassed into darkness making it almost entirely impossible for everyone to see, well except me that is. I position us behind Peace who has set himself mostly on fire and moved to stand in front of the citizen allowing light for both himself and Stronghold. Too bad that isn't going to be good enough.

All it takes is a touch and Jake has possession of Peace and Stronghold has no idea, so the second that Peace turns around and sends a fire ball directly at Stronghold, not only is he surprised by the fire, but he is also surprised that his friend has just turned on him. With Stronghold on the ground Jake returns to his body only to rush to Strongholds before he gets up. Peace is now mine.

I walk up to him and allow myself to find his own shadow in the small pool of light that he created the second he had control of his body and I step on it making mobility impossible. In the meantime, Jake has taken over Stronghold's body and flown up and snatched the citizen from certain death. This is all done with 30 seconds to spare.

I allow the lights to come back on at that point flooding and allowing the rest of the student body and Couch Boomer to see what had happened. And it takes only a second for them to understand that the new victors are Jake and I.

Jake lands and slips back into his own body allowing Stronghold to wake up, furiously by the way.

"You cheated!" he accuses us.

"Or you are a bad loser," I murmur calmly.

"You shorted the lights out! We couldn't see! That's not fair!"

"Oh right… because real villains are going to play fair and ask your permission?" questiones Jake sarcastically.

"Will we lost fair and square," Peace said calmly, "good match," he says as he sticks his hand out to shake mine.

To say that I'm surprised would be an understatement, I give him a small smile and extend my hand to his and shake his hand and he in turn also shakes Jake's hand, who looks rather impressed. When we had touched I had felt a small sense of sincerity, but an even larger sense of curiosity. Why would he be curious now? He's known what I could do since freshman year at hero placement, why the sudden interest now?

I decide not to question myself; somehow I know that his curiosity isn't about me, but my powers. I also know that this tryst between Stronghold and my group isn't over yet, if nothing else it has really just begun. After all, those two have been undefeated for over a year now and the feelings of resentment and distrust are radiating off of Stronghold like toxic fumes. I roll my eyes and turn to leave; I don't feel like getting into another confrontation. I'm too tired.

"This isn't over yet Maguire!"

I turn and look over my shoulder at him, "you know you sound exactly like a villain that just lost… right?"

"Where are you going Maguire? You guys are the winners you get next pick!" Couch Boomer yelled.

"We don't do second rounds; we've already made our point." I say as we turn and walk away.

I could tell that neither Boomer nor Stronghold is pleased by that statement, but honestly I refuse to overdo it. I've never been one for spotlights, perhaps it has something to do with my powers, but I've always preferred the shadows.

After we change out of our battle attire we rejoin our friends in our corner.

"Nice job guys!" exclaims Tory upon our arrival.

V and Reid simply nod their approval as we settle ourselves into our regular spots. Looking around we notice that a lot of people are whispering about us, some look impressed, some look scared and some hostile. The five of us pretend to ignore it, but something tells me that beating the heroes of Sky High wasn't very good for our villain image.

I could feel the tension as I walk down the hallway toward Mad Science. Normal people have the ability to feel tension or other such emotions, being an empath it is magnified by about 100 for me. Each individual person's emotions hit me like a bullet pricking at my skin and stinging me, making each passing moment harder and harder to get my shield up. I had refused a second battle for a reason. Dousing lights are a new aspect of my power, one that I'm trying to strengthen; unfortunately dousing all the lights in the rather large gym is quite draining. Thus my normal shield has been weakened quite a bit.

Fortunately I am able to make it to Mad Science without screaming, however, when I get there I find Warren Peace already in his seat. He looks up the second that I enter and I can tell that he has been waiting for me. His eyes lock with mine, deep and smoldering, I love it. I keep his eyes as I walk toward my seat, but stop right in front of him.

"You want to talk about something?" I could feel it, urgency beneath his gaze.

"You understand why villains do the things they do right?"

I'm a little taken aback, "Kind of… I have the ability to feel emotions and lately memories connected with certain strong emotions such as fear, anger or love."

"I want you to meet my father."

"What? You want me to meet Barron Battle! No way!"

"Why not?" he yells standing up to tower over me.

"Because it's dangerous!"

"How the hell is it dangerous?"

"You wouldn't understand, your powers are external manifestations, some of mine are internal, and those are different."

"I knew you were only out for yourself… you're no hero…"

For some reason, words that I've heard spoken by countless other people, countless other times have never affected me until he said them.

I didn't get a chance to say anything back because at that moment the class room begins to fill up with students. I quickly take my seat and turn away from him and stare out into the open sky. I can't wait until this class is over so I can go pitch a fit to Reid.

The truly sad part is that even though I am so mad at him, I'm even more disappointed in the fact that he was only nice to me because he wanted to use me.

Somehow I think that that hurt more than anything else.

^.^

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