DISCLAIMER: I do not own Sky High or its characters. Edna Mode is not mine, either.
"We came over to your house to talk about uniforms?" Warren rolled his eyes, sitting on Layla's bed with a sigh. Will sat beside him looking unenthusiastic about their meeting.
"Well, yeah, but that's not all." Layla crossed her arms, proceeding hesitantly. "I was asked to do an interview for Modern Woman magazine." There was a long silence.
"Is that even an option?" Warren leaned forwards, propping his elbows up on his knees and looking up to Layla. "It seems kind of reckless, to me."
"Oh, and you're going to lecture me on the pitfalls of being reckless?" Layla looked to Will. "What do you think about it?" He only responded with a shrug.
"I just think that we should make decisions like this as a threesome. You know, a crime fighting threesome of friends…?" She looked from Will to Warren.
"You know my opinion." Warren shrugged. "But I'm not going to stand in your way. Just don't mention anything about me and I guess it's cool. I mean, as long as you're cool with jeopardizing your safety, revealing your identity, and just generally fucking everything up. So, yeah, go ahead." His voice was dripping with sarcasm, but it came from a good place. Warren didn't like to think of what could happen to Layla if she exposed herself like that. It was that damn protective streak rearing its ugly head again.
"Screw you!" She shouted, her hands on her hips and her eyebrows wrinkled close together angrily. "You're not my… Ugh, why am I even letting this bother me?"
"Guys…?" Will leaned forward, speaking in a meek little voice. "Stay levelheaded, okay? And Layla," He looked up at her. "Go ahead with the interview, but not a photo op. That's too risky."
"Wonderful." Warren stood up, gritting his teeth together. "Brilliant plan, Will, but who said that you had the last say in this? We're not your subordinates, here."
"This is never going to work." Layla crumpled onto the bed, cradling her head in her hands and frowning miserably. "We're supposed to be a team and we're at each others' throats." Will tried to comfort her, putting a hand on her back. There was a brief pause as everyone caught their breath, trying to regain composure.
"What did you want to show us, anyway?" Warren leaned against the bedroom door, looking at Layla curiously. Her frown was replaced with a tiny little smile.
"My costume. Close your eyes. Both of you." Both Warren and Will closed their eyes with an almost exasperated sigh. Layla pulled her leotard from the bag, using her training from Sky High to speedily change into the skintight green get-up. Just when the temptation to open their eyes prematurely hit a peak, Layla smiled brightly with her hands on her hips.
"Open 'em!" Warren and Will opened their eyes. Layla took in their reactions but decided that a five second pause was too much. She had to coax a reaction from them. "Well…?"
"It's… green." Will eyed Layla, secretly admiring every single bit of exposed skin.
"And tight." Warren added, wondering if he should still have been hiding his eyes or not.
"I like it." She chirped happily, admiring her reflection in her bedroom mirror.
"I think it's about time I introduce you guys to a family friend." Will smiled to himself. "But, uh, Layla? You'll need to put some real clothes on before we go." Layla frowned slightly at his comment.
"Welcome!" Shouted the tiniest woman Layla had ever seen. She was short and small but she radiated confidence maybe even in a cocky sort of way. Her hair was pitch black, bobbed short so it came to her jaw line. She wore thick, round-rimmed black glasses on her face that matched her black ensemble and her nose was the cutest, up-turned little button.
"I am Edna Mode, fashion maven for the super world, and you may call me E." She smiled, looking up at the trio.
"I've been waiting for you to come into your own, William, but I never imagined you would bring me such lovely teammates." She smiled up at Layla and the significantly taller Warren. "Tell me, darlings, what are your powers?"
"I make and control fire." Warren was still getting used to looking down at the Edna.
"A pyrokinetic! How wonderful. I haven't worked with a pyrokinetic for a long time." She then looked over to Layla. "And you, dear?"
"Oh, I control nature. Like… The growth of plants and things like that." She smiled shyly, a bit intimidated by Edna.
"Wonderful! Oh, and William, which of your parents' powers did you inherit, hmm?"
"Both, actually." Will smiled confidently.
"Marvelous, darling, simply marvelous…" Edna led the trio down a long hallway. The floor was bright white, shiny, and pristine giving all of Edna's manor a futuristic, stylish sort of air. Here and there on the walls were mannequins modeling her past designs. She typed in a security code, using her cigarette holder to press the numbers, leaned in so she could have her retinas scanned, and placed her hand over a palm-reading device. It was like a high tech Fort Knox and, like little children, the trio of superheroes couldn't wait to see what was hidden inside.
"Edna Mode." She spoke into a microphone apparently for voice-confirmation. Immediately, a variety of intimidating guns dropped from an opening in the ceiling, pointing at the trio. Each of them was on guard until Edna spoke once more into the microphone - "And guests." - and the guns disappeared.
"This is quite an operation." Layla looked around, her eyes wide with awe.
"It's my home. My ideas thrive here." Edna smiled at Layla, then looking to the other two members of the threesome. "Have you thought of a color scheme?"
"I was thinking something like this." Layla pulled out her green leotard with a smile. "It's a dance leotard and--" Edna held up her hands, shushing Layla.
"It is a crime against fashion, darling, that's what it is!" Edna looked appalled, taking the leotard and holding as if it was the foulest sort of garbage around. She made her way to an incinerator and destroyed the leotard in a fiery, overdramatic sort of way. "It would be cruel to let you go about saving lives in that." She brushed her hands and looked back up to the trio. "Where were we?"
"She burned my costume." Layla frowned, speaking softly to herself.
"Color scheme. You were asking us if we'd--"
"Ah, yes, of course!" Edna made her way over to a sofa, hopping up on it and taking a seat. The others followed her, sitting across from the fashion maven. She snatched a pad and pencil from the table nearby and began sketching.
"I will make each costume unique, dazzling… Uniformity is so horribly last year, darling. I couldn't allow you all to wear matching colors. So tacky…" She scribbled notes and began to draw.
"But you made my parents, uh, The Commander and Jetstream, wear matching uniforms." Edna looked up at Will with slightly narrowed eyes.
"It has been ages since I designed those costumes and have your parents stopped by for a wardrobe update? No! They haven't. Therefore it is not my fault that they are prancing about in those horrible pajamas."
Layla laughed softly to herself, muffling her giggles so she wouldn't seem rude. Warren just smirked at Will's scowl. This was turning out to be much more entertaining than he had thought it would be.
"Yours will be feminine." She smiled up at Layla. "Practical, durable, and yet still celebrating all of your beauty! Villains will stop in their tracks to gape at you, darling. It will be wonderful."
"And you!" She pointed at Warren with her cigarette holder. "I would like to preserve that rebellious charm you have. I see those eyes. Quite the ladies' man, eh?" She smirked, winking at him.
"And at last, William Stronghold." She turned to look up at Will with a smile. "Ah, you have a legacy to keep up, William! Yours will be classic, a modernized version of what your father wears without the glaring out-datedness. You three will fight evil and look fabulous doing it!"
Edna hopped to her feet, toting the notepad with her.
"Now, go about your business. Your uniforms will be ready in a matter of days. Don't invest any more into leotards, sweetheart. It's a waste of money." She smiled up brightly at Layla.
"It was an absolute delight meeting all of you. I will have such fun dressing you up!" She grinned at the trio. "Now, I must get to work."
"It's only been three days." Layla murmured to her two friends, finding herself once more inside the impressive foyer of Edna Mode's mansion and fashion compound.
"She was dead set on getting our uniforms done." Will explained.
"I can't wait to get out of here." Warren sighed, praying that Edna wouldn't stick him in some spandex Superman outfit. Truthfully, he preferred ordinary clothes, but even his rebel of a father had worn a costume while going about super-business.
"It's my favorite three young superheroes! How nice it is to see you again!" Edna walked into the room with a big grin on her face, her tiny legs moving so fast to carry her a bit closer to her guests. "Now, come, I will show you my work!" She waved for the three of them to join her.
"We'll start with you, William." She pressed a button and a masculine mannequin came into view. "The material I used is durable, it stretches and is roomy and it's machine washable, a feature I am sure you will come to adore in time after you begin laundering your own clothing. You see the color scheme, much like your father's but without the red. I thought that blue and white would suit you perfectly."
"What, no cape or an emblazoned 'P' for Powerman?" Warren snickered.
"Any fashion designer worth anything at all avoids those silly details like the Black Plague, Warren. I would rather not design anything at all than design something so horrid." The mannequin moved to the side, making way for another.
"Now for yours, Warren." She smiled up at him.
"That looks like something out of my closet." He scrunched his eyes at the display. It seemed simple enough - black pants, black shirt with tiny flame details on the sleeves. He failed to see anything special about it.
"But that is where you are wrong, darling! There is so much more to this ensemble than meets the eye." She pressed a button, engulfing the whole mannequin in flames. When the flames died, the outfit remained completely unharmed and free from burns. "The material is what makes your uniform so unique. It is something I invented, one of my better discoveries as far as cutting-edge fabrics go. It will cover you up and when you ignite the clothing will be unharmed. In superhero work you simply cannot afford to spend time worrying about your wardrobe."
"And now you, Layla." Edna pressed a button, replacing Warren's mannequin with a feminine one resembling Layla's body type. The mannequin was mostly clad in a deep, rich emerald green but it was trimmed in rosy pink at the arm cuffs and waist. The pants had pockets like one might see in a pair of cargo pants. The feet were covered with black leather knee-high boots that looks ready to kick a villain square in the rear end. Layla admired it with wide eyes, smiling at her future crime-fighting wardrobe.
"It's wonderful!"
"Isn't it, though?" Edna beamed. "I'm really quite proud of these designs. So youthful and yet they beg to be taken seriously like all classics do."
"Now we can fight in style." Will cracked a grin. Warren just rolled his eyes.