Sky High belongs to its legal owners

Chapter two:

There had been an incident.

Her head still throbbed where the pipe had cracked her skull.

Her side still ached where the knife ripped her stomach when she had tried to fight back.

There had been an incident.

It was finally Monday. She would finally have access to a phone today. And she could go shopping for food after school without seeing Christian's dumb face.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her short auburn hair was in the process of growing back after it was shaved off at the hospital. After. Her storm grey eyes looked tired but ready for her return to school even if it wasn't her old one. And she felt ready for whatever Sky High could throw at her.

That was until she saw what her black sweater did to her complexion. She looked like a zombie herself. She ripped the shirt off, "I'm a summer, darn it!" She opened her closet and pulled out a long-sleeved pink shirt. She pulled it on and checked herself out in the mirror. "Dang, I'm cute."

"You're also going to miss the bus." Giselle laughed.

"Nah." Dani strapped on her bone bracelet before grabbing her coat and bag off the back of her desk chair. She ran out of the room and towards the front door. She heard a groan as she made it and she stopped to look at the zombie getting ready to vacuum the carpet. "I'm going to buy lunch today. We don't have much food for me to take." He groaned again this time a little more worriedly. "It's going to be okay. I'll catch the bus and be at school all day."

This time when he groaned, she smiled and grabbed his hand. It was no longer rotting and more leathery, more akin to mummification than zombification. She guided him to the window. She pointed to the corner visible. "You see that corner?" He groaned in agreement. "I'll be waiting for the bus right there. You can keep an eye on me from this window, or the one in our room."

He groaned again, and she pulled away from the window and turned him towards her. She showed him her bracelet, "It'll be okay, Mom said that I'm allowed to keep it with me at school. That if I ever need you I am to call for you right away." She took both of his hands into hers and brought them up until she was able to rest her forehead on them. "It'll be okay. I won't let anything like that happen again."

He let out a soft groan and she smiled at him again, "I have to go or I'm gonna be late. If I need you, I'll call. I promise." He gave one final groan and turned towards the window waiting for her to get outside.

She headed out and down the front steps, bracing herself against the cold winter air. She walked to the corner, looked back, and saw Billy waiting in the window. She waved and Giselle gave a small laugh, "Maybe Billy should walk us to the bus stop like when we were kids."

"He can't, I forgot his Uncle Billy costume while packing." Dani's eyes went wide. "I forgot to tell him when I'd be back. I'm a horrible child."

"Dani! Now he's gonna sit at the window all day wondering where you are."

Dani saw the bus turn the corner, she looked at Giselle. "Can you behave yourself?"

Giselle grinned, "Yes, Sir!" She flew into the bracelet and rattled it a little as she got comfortable.

The bus stopped, the door opened, she stepped into the nice warm bus, and she could already feel the strange looks. The bus driver looked at her, "You the new kid?"

"If this is the bus I think it is, then yeah."

His hand went out and they shook, "I'm Ron Wilson."

"Dani pleased to meet you."

She took the only empty spot left, ignoring the strange looks that everyone was giving her, clearly they didn't get transfers often. She wanted to look out a window but kept her eyes straight ahead instead. She watched the bus drive onto a road closed for construction. That caught her eye and she began looking around, but the other students seemed unfazed by the current situation. And then the bus dropped.

Dani let out a scream while the other students cheered. She was not ready for whatever Sky High could throw at her.

She was not ready.

SHE HAD NOT BEEN READY.


Once they landed and disembarked, Dani collapsed onto the ground, giving a hollow laugh. "The name makes sense now."

"Excuse me, are you Danielle?"

Dani looked up and saw a red-haired girl wearing a green jacket. "Uhhhh. Yeah. But everyone calls me Dani."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Layla." Layla reached her hand out to help Dani up. "Principle Powers asked me to take you to her once you got here."

Dani brushed herself off, as she tried to remember which one of the Council members had been Principal Powers. It had to have been the lady dressed in white, who had offered her a spot at Sky High in the first place. "Oh okay." Well, she'd find out soon enough.

As the girl, Layla, led her to the office she talked a lot. Stuff like never getting transfer students, how not to fall off the ledge, class dynamics and then finally, "What's your power?"

Dani stopped as her mouth opened and shut, the process didn't stop. She pressed her lips together, just to get the flapping to stop. Once Layla realized that Dani had stopped, she came back. "Dani? Sorry, should I not have asked? We're all pretty open about it, so I just assumed."

"Just tell her. They'll find out anyway when you start talking to me and all they see is you talking to air." Giselle told her from where she rested in the bracelet.

Dani let out a sigh. "I...I'm a necromancer."

Layla's eyes went wide for a second before she smiled, "Oh, so you'll be in the hero class with Will and Warren." She paused and started walking, "Well, not with Warren, cause he's older than us, but he's also in the hero class. I'm with Hero Support, so we won't have classes together but if you need anything, come find me in between classes or at lunch." She stopped at a door, "We're here! I have to get to class, so I'll see you later."

"Okay. I guess I'll see you later." Dani watched her leave before entering the office. The secretary looked up at her approach. "Hi, I'm Danielle Nocta, I'm here to see Principal Powers."

The secretary adjusted her glasses, "Take a seat, she'll be with you soon."

Dani took a seat and watched as the secretary contacted the Principal. The back door of the office opened and Dani stood as a woman in a pure white suit walked out. "Danielle, it's good to finally meet you face to face. I'm Principal Powers." They shook hands. "Come into my office, and we'll get started."

Dani followed her into the office and immediately took stock of the two men in suits standing by the desk. "I'm sure you had wanted to put this off as long as possible, but as part of our agreement with the Council, we need to get your power dampener on as soon as possible. Thankfully we were able to get it done for today." Principal Powers had her take a seat and the suits began their approach. Principal Powers waved them off. "Before they start prodding at you, do you want to say anything?"

"No Ma'am. I know the terms of being allowed to attend and since it was either this or the death penalty, I suppose this isn't such a bad option."

Principal Powers smiled, "Well, it's good to see you've changed your mind a little."

She stood there before the Council of Heroes as they held court for the umpteenth time trying to figure out what to do with her. Her hands bound and the broken power dampener in her neck was still sending shocks to her brain. Either they hadn't realized that the dumb thing was broken, or they just weren't bothering to remove it, but either way, she knew it'd be so easy to end this farce. So easy.

Her head raised, as her mother pleaded on her behalf, and she snapped, "Enough! If you're going to treat me like an animal then hurry up and put me down already!"

She could still hear her mother's near sob as she called her name. "Well, when you've been locked in a cell for something like two months you tend to lose your patience a little." She looked at the Suits. "So where's it going this time?"

"Your leg."

Dani turned and lifted her leg, letting them fuss with the device as much as they wanted. Once they were done, she examined it. "Cute." It wasn't, it was no different than an ankle monitor for a common criminal, she would know after all.

"So...how long is going to take for you to remove this one?" Giselle cooed into her ear. She tapped her calf twice before putting her leg down and turning back towards Principal Powers. "Two days? It'll make a perfect accessory for your nightstand."

Principal Powers' voice took her attention from the dampener and back to the woman in front of her, "So how does it feel?"

"No different than the ankle monitor. So it's not anything new."

"Not too tight?"

"No ma'am."

"Alright then, let's get you ready for class." Principal Powers led them to the door, "Gentlemen?"

The suits left and stood in the office, and Dani could feel one of them glaring at her. "Listen here kid, we'll know if you tamper with that device so you better behave yourself."

Dani turned to the one who spoke and gave him her best smile, "I'm sure you will."

"You're gonna take it off even sooner, aren't you?" Giselle howled with laughter.

"Sure am." Dani smiled at where Giselle was floating, and one of the suits had to hold back the other.

Principal Powers looked at her, "You really do have a ghost with you?"

Dani turned towards her, "Yes ma'am."

Principal Powers seemed to be thinking about something for a moment, "Alright. You'll have to write certain exams in the detention room."

Dani nodded, "Seems fair. Academic integrity and all that. We got separated for exams often before too, teachers seemed to think we'd cheat when she was alive too."

"That's a good attitude. Come on, I'll give you a tour."


Principal Powers showed her where her classes, the gymnasium, the library, and the cafeteria were. She also explained that normally a student would have to go through Power Placement before being assigned to a class, but since she was aware of what her powers were that they were skipping Dani's assessment. She also explained that heroes in training were split into subsections, that she was to be placed in the Summoner class and that yes raising the dead counted as summoning. And, finally, if she had any problems, that she was to come to see her right away.

By the time the tour ended, it was almost lunch. So Principal Powers dropped Dani off at her class so that she could meet at least one of her teachers before the bell rang. She knocked on the door to the Mad Science lab and the bald professor with the bulbous head looked over. "Mr Medulla, I've brought our new student, try not to overwhelm her on her first day."

"Well, since there's only half an hour left of class, I don't see how that's possible." Mr Medulla waved her in, "Come in. Mr Stronghold, raise your hand please, you finally have a partner."

Dani walked in and saw a boy with shaggy brown hair in a red, white and blue jacket with a raised hand at the back of the classroom. She walked towards the back and sat down next to him, "Hi, I'm Dani." She reached out her hand and he shook her hand with a little more force than necessary.

"Oof, sorry about that. I'm still not quite used to the super strength yet. I'm Will."

"So what are we working on?"

"Bomb diffusion. It's not live but I have definitely killed our class at least three times. I'm not great at Mad Science."

"Well lucky for you, Mr Stronghold, science happens to be my best subject." He moved the bomb over to her, carefully so as to not set it off again. She looked it over and clock on the front, "Why's the timer sitting at a minute?"

"If you flip the switch it'll start and if you don't disarm it in time it red light goes off which means the bomb went off."

"I see." Dani flipped the switch and began disassembling the bomb. She poked, prodded, and examined it then finally pulled out the blue wire, then the red, and finally the white one. The timer stopped and the green light lit up.

Will looked at her with wide eyes, "How'd you do that?"

Dani began walking Will through the disarming process. By the time the bell rang, she had managed to get Will to disarm the bomb three times in a row without setting the bomb off. And when the bell went off, Will was staring at her.

"What?"

"Are you a technopath?"

Dani blinked a couple of times, "A what now?"

"Miss. Nocta, come see me for your classwork." Mr Medulla's voice made her gather her stuff quickly.

"Yes, Mr Medulla. Well, I'll see you later Mr Stronghold." She gave him a smile before heading to the front of the room.

She discussed her "catch up" plan with Medulla for about five minutes before she was dismissed. She didn't have much actual work to catch up on since she had been doing it at home. But once she walked out of the room she saw the red-haired girl again. Layla, she reminded herself.

"Hey. I hope this isn't weird, but I wanted to see if you wanted to eat lunch together."

Dani smiled, "Yeah, sure. I, uh, just need to put this stuff in my locker first."

Layla led Dani to her locker, the pale green/blue of it was nostalgic, she hadn't seen one since more than half a year ago. She rotated the lock until it unlocked. She stuffed her junk into the locker unceremoniously, grabbing only her wallet and sweater from her bag. She shrugged the pale pink sweater on and zipped it up all the way.

"Cold?" Giselle asked.

"Cafeterias tend to run cold, you know that."

Layla stared at her, "Huh?"

Dani looked at her with wide eyes, "Uhhhh. I swear there is a ghost here, and I am not talking to myself."

"You can see ghosts?"

Dani slowly nodded, "Most necromancers can."

"I didn't know that."

"Makes sense, there's not a lot of crossover between our people." She closed her locker. "So which way to the cafeteria?"

"Oh, right. Let's go eat."

The cafeteria was packed, people littered the tables, but the line to order was almost gone. Layla was nice enough to stand in line with her, despite having brought a lunch. Dani loaded her tray, some sandwiches, a couple of fruit cups, two bottles of juice and the last vanilla pudding. She got a strange look from the person working the cashier.

"That's a lot of food," Layla said as they walked to a table.

"I'm trying to get back to my core weight and I still have something like twenty pounds to add. I'll pack a lunch for tomorrow, I just don't have anything at home right now."

"Hey, Layla! Over here!" They heard a girl call with a raised hand. The table she and two other people were sitting at was surprisingly empty.

Layla led Dani to the table, and before she could even see who else was there she heard Giselle squeal. "HOT BUSBOY ALERT! He's even better looking with his hair down."

Dani stared at her blankly, "And enough of that." She grabbed the invisible thread binding Giselle to her and pulled on it hard, shoving her back into the bracelet.

"Hey! Lemme out! Dani!" Giselle cried. "You wouldn't do this if I was still alive."

"Well, you used to have decorum when you were alive."

"Everyone meet Dani. Dani, meet everyone." Layla took a seat in between the man in the leather jacket and the girl with purple streaks, while the boy in the orange jacket pulled out a chair next to him for Dani and she thanked him.

"Small world." She smiled at the man across from her, which caused him to look up from his book.

"You two know each other?" Layla asked as she unpacked her lunch.

"Kind of, she threw a piece of broccoli at me."

Dani paused then nodded, "Not inaccurate, sorry bout that by the way."

"It's fine, it happens more often than you think. Didja make it there alright?"

"Yeah, thanks for your help. But I'm being rude, I'm Dani."

"Warren."

The girl sitting next to Layla waved, "Magenta."

The boy next to Dani offered her his hand and they shook, "I'm Ethan." He smiled widely.

"It's nice to meet you." They started to dig into their meals.

"By the way, Warren, where's Eve?" Layla asked as she bit into a baby carrot.

When he grumbled something the entire group 'Ahh'ed prompting Dani to ask, "Who's Eve?" The question slipped out before she could stop herself.

"Warren's on and off again girlfriend." Magenta grinned as he glared at her.

"Ahh."

"Hey, guys." A familiar voice made them lookup. "Oh, hey Dani." She waved.

Layla looked back at him as he stole a couple of carrots from her. "How's Zach? Still in a bad mood?"

"Yeah. I think he's been glowing all lunch and just hasn't bothered to turn it off." He munched on a carrot. "I should get back. Ethan, you coming?"

"You're not partnered with him in Mad Science, I'm good."

"All right, see you all later."

Dani unwrapped a sandwich, curious but figured it wasn't her place to ask about it. They watched Will leave before getting back to their lunches.

After a while, Ethan spoke, "Oh yeah! Did you all see those suits enter the Principal's office this morning?"

Warren visibly stiffened as Dani finished drinking her first juice bottle. "Oh, they were here because of me." They all stared at her. "What? They were here to give me my new accessory." She turned then lifted her leg so they could see the power dampener.

"That's a…?" Magenta asked.

"Power dampener." Warren glared at the device. "Why?"

Dani lowered her leg and turned back to her lunch and drank some more of her juice. "Because somethings happened and it made a bunch of people nervous."

"But don't they normally put one in your neck?" Ethan stared at her.

She turned and showed them the back of her neck, lifting up the sparse hair that covered the jagged scar that ran vertically down her neck. "They did and I short-circuited it and they took exception to that." They stared at her, and she shrugged. "Things happened." She didn't continue and just drank her juice.

As they finished their lunches, Dani stuffed two of her four sandwiches into her bag for later. Layla looked at her, "What class do you have now?"

"Baby's first summoning class. Sounds easy enough. Then...something, something gym then villain something." She shrugged.


Baby's first summoning class was just that. A bunch of teenagers trying to consistently summon their better halves. She watched as a person summoned their phoenix and then it poofed back out of existence almost instantly. According to the person next to her, a dragon Summoner, they had only been practising for the past month and the first semester had been technical.

"Miss. Noctis are we already having issues?" Her teacher asked.

"Uhhh. No?" She was flipping through the textbook, haphazardly. How was something that was supposed to come naturally, be taught in such an unnatural manner?

"Then you should be practising."

She resisted rolling her eyes, "I don't need to and you'd know that if you had bothered to read the file they gave you."

"I did read the file and all I saw was someone with absolutely no control over their power."

Dani's eye twitched, and she gripped the table. Took a deep breath, and released. "Fine. Stand aside kids let me show you how a professional does it." She waited until the centre of the room was clear before releasing another breath. The temperature dropped, if she was going to do it, she might as well do it properly. "I call upon the damned to come to my aid. Those who have been bound to me. Those under my control. I pull you from death and call upon you now. Freddie! Phillip! I summon you, come to my aid!"

The purplish-black void split open the floor, and the smell of death spilt from it once again. The smell made phoenix girl gag and sputter, Dani resisted smiling. The groans of the undead filled the room and when a hand shot out someone screamed. They climbed out of the hole. Their flesh rotting...and Phillip was missing his jaw, and Freddie couldn't stand because his left leg was in his hand. They both groaned appreciatively as the void closed.

Dani stared at them, "What happened to you two?" They groaned and Freddie squirmed happily. "Okay, why were you fighting the other zombie kids?" She let out a sigh as they groaned more. "No, that is not a justifiable reason." Phillip made gurgling noises. "No, go find your jaw." He gurgled more and she pointed, "Go!" Then she grumbled, "I can't take you two anywhere." Phillip came back with his jaw in hand, "Thank you, help your brother so I can reattach his leg."

"Oh, so this is how a professional does it?" Phoenix Girl laughed.

Dani didn't bother looking up as she examined Freddie's leg. "Well, at least I can summon them." She looked at the teacher, "Are you satisfied?"

He clenched his jaw, "Yes."

"Kay, I'm going to play rebuild a zombie in the back." She stood and looked at the undead in front of her, "C'mon boys." They groaned and followed her to the back.


Dani got away with not paying attention to her next class. She sat next to some kid named Larry. Larry made himself seem like a big deal, but he was smaller than her without heels, so she wondered if it had anything to do with his powers. But gym class with Coach Boomer hadn't exactly given her the opportunity to ask.

They had done wind sprints. It was a stamina test. Running out of stamina on the job would get you killed. Once Dani was done she collapsed on the floor, questioning why she was so out of shape. While Giselle laughed, "I bet you wished you were signed up in gymnastics now."

Dani laughed breathlessly, "You're dead, that means you're more out of shape than I am."

"True my body's probably bug food now."

Dani tensed at that as Coach Boomer called her back to the floor. She spent the rest of the class trying to rid herself of the image of her best friend's body six feet under with a worm for an eye.

"I need to get back into our daily workouts," Dani whispered as she massaged out her calves.

"The doctor with the nice hair said not to do that, remember?" Giselle handed her the small stick of deodorant.

Dani scoffed, "The one time a doctor says to not exercise it had to be aimed at me."

Giselle frowned, "You're still healing."

"And you're dead. I know." She pinched her nose. "What class do we have next?"

"Something something Super Villain."

"Oh, so you stopped paying attention too, huh?" She rummaged through her bag and pulled out her class schedule.

She looked over her schedule trying to figure out the acronym on her page when she heard some girls whispering as they walked by.

"Did you hear her?"

"Talking to herself? What a freak!" They both started laughing.

Dani rolled her eyes, "There's a dude with acid spit in my Science class and I'm the freak?"

A chill ran up her spine and she felt ghostly fingers sweep under her chin, "Why don't you do something about them, Little God? You can. Easily. Making them scream, would be oh so delightful."

"Giselle, do you see anyone behind me?"

Giselle looked around, "No, why?"

"She's back." Dani sighed and leaned down towards the power dampener on her ankle. "I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Oh okay." Giselle scrunched her brow but flew back into the bracelet and Dani ignored the fingers running through her hair and turned the dampener up to full strength. She waited until the feeling of fingers stopped stroking her before letting out a sigh of relief.

"Bloody Necromancer. So ghosts can't see her either." She needed another Necromancer. One she wasn't related to. She let out a sigh and silently screamed into her hands.


Dani quietly opened the classroom door, hoping to be able to sneak in without being noticed. She made it to the first set of desks when her teacher spoke without missing a beat, "You're late Miss. Nocta."

She stood, "Uhhh. Would you believe I got lost?"

Mr Medulla looked at her, "This is the only time you will be able to use that excuse. Mr Peace, I'm sorry but it seems like you'll have to share your seat."

Dani looked at where the dismissive grunt came from and was surprised to see a familiar face. He gave a small wave when their eyes met and she rushed to the table. She sat down quickly and waited for Mr Medulla to start teaching again.

"Aren't you a senior? Why are you here?" Dani side-eyed him as she pulled out her notebook.

Warren looked at her, "I'm a junior, and the better question is why are you here? Juniors and seniors only."

"To be fair, I'm still not sure what class this is." She looked around and noticed that the only familiar face was Warren.

"The Life and Career Path of a Super Villain," Warren told her.

Dani pulled out a notebook and a pen from her backpack, "Huh. Yeah, that makes sense." Warren began to side-eye her but if she noticed she made no indication as she began taking notes.


Dani stood on the grass out of the way of all kids trying to get home. "Done. Day one complete." She said with her hands on her hips, chest stuck out.

"Feeling good?"

Dani looked at Giselle floating beside her, "Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

Giselle grinned, "Good. You ready for the bus ride home?"

Dani laughed hollowly, "Hahaha. No."

She felt a hand touch her shoulder, and she stumbled forward at the force of it. "Oh, sorry. You okay?"

She looked back to see Will run a hand through his hair, behind him was a tall but lanky dude. "Yeah, I'm fine, just lost my balance." She made eye contact with the boy standing next to him, "Hi. I'm Dani."

He grumbled out something, and Will gave a small choked laugh, "This is Zach." He then leaned in to whisper, "He's not normally like this, he's having a bad month."

Zach mumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like it was a bad year. Dani looked at him, "I get that."

"So, you catching Ron's bus?"

"Uhhh. Yeah. I think."

"Cool, you should come and sit with us."

"Oh good. So I can scream next to someone I know rather than some stranger."

"What?"

"I don't like roller coasters." Will laughed as they walked to the busses.


*CASUALLY FORGETS TO ADD AUTHORS NOTE WHILE PROCRASTINATING ON STUDYING*

Hoped y'all enjoyed it.

Disney: Give us more Sky High, you have no excuses.