Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters I write about except Snow Storm who is my own creation.

Lunch; Warren's favourite time of the day. It generally meant he was alone and wouldn't have kids who thought they were all that just because they made hero twittering in his ear. However, the after-effects of power placement still hadn't worn off and Warren was in a bad mood. People seemed to walk by his table more often than any other and their eyes did the usual once over before they whispered something conspiratorially in their friend's ear. Usually this would have resulted in an incident involving the fire brigade and a lot of sweet talk by his mom (this was where she was useful at any rate).

BRRR…BRRR…

Warren jumped at the vibration in his pocket and took the phone out, eyeing it suspiciously. Who would be ringing him?

'Hello?' he said into the mouthpiece.

'Hi sweetie, it's Mom! How's your first day?' Her voice trilled in his ear and mentally Warren groaned, he did not feel like dealing with this right now. He glanced around the crowded cafeteria and remembered how much Sky High meant to his mom.

'Warren? Are you still there?'

'Yeah, sorry Mom, I'm here. My day is…' Warren cast around for something to say. 'great. Yeah, it's fun. I destroyed a car.' He added mischievously.

'Oh, Warren, no! Whose was it? I swear…'

'Mom, relax, don't you think you'd have been called if it was anything serious?' A rare chuckle escaped from his lips. 'It was power placement, I was allowed to.'

'Oh,' his mom sighed somewhat nostalgically, 'I remember that. Even though my powers didn't really work on a falling car, they still let me make hero. I managed to placate Boomer enough to let me in, which was nice of him wasn't it?' His mother ran along a similar vein for some time until he really couldn't listen any more.

'Yeah, Mom, that was really nice of them,' he interjected, 'I – uh – I gotta go. Yeah, some kid's calling me over. Talk to you later, ok, bye.'

Warren slumped over his table. He hated being that way with his mom but sometimes… He didn't know what it was but every so often feelings of resentment would rise to the surface though he wasn't sure why.

Suddenly this girl with about a mile of blonde hair appeared. Apparently she and her friend Mary-Lou had been talking and she wondered, in the sweetest little voice possible, if his dad really was Baron Battle because they just couldn't agree and she'd been chosen to come and ask.

Warren stared at this blonde idiot with a look of utter disbelief. Was she joking? Warren wondered. Did this blonde blip of a thing really not know? He glared at her until she wandered off looking even more confused than she had when she'd arrived. If that was even possible, Warren thought dryly.

Then the bell rang and Warren glumly dug out his class schedule and having read off 'Training' he ambled slowly over to the gym. As he walked in, a bright orange suit with white pads was thrust at him by Coach Boomer who told him in no uncertain terms to get himself changed and into that gym in five minutes.

Apparently, he was late.

Warren wandered into the gym pulling at his suit. It was distinctly too small in certain areas, the pads poked him and he was too hot. The afternoon was not boding well.

'Right,' asserted the Coach, 'now that Mr. Peace has deigned to grace us with his presence, we'll pair you up. Peace, you're with,' his eyes roved the assembled students before settling on, 'Storm.'

As the Coach continued pairing off students, Warren glanced at his partner. Tall but thin and looked like a puff of wind would blow him right over. What was weirder still was that this guy didn't have a drop of colour in him; he was completely white, except for his eyes that were the coldest blue Warren had ever seen.

'What?' Storm asked.

'Nothing.'

'You were staring at me, what is it?'

'You're just so…pale.'

'Yeah, well, I'm Snow Storm, go figure.'

Woah, Warren thought, that guy seriously needs to chill out. And then he smiled to himself at the unintentional pun.

'Okay,' announced Coach Boomer, 'during your life as super-heroes, you will encounter many super-villains who you must defeat. Some of you,' his eyes lighted on Warren, 'will be more familiar with this than others.'

'So today we'll be playing a little game known as 'Defeat the Villain'. Your pair will be split up. One will play the villain, the other, the hero. The villain will recreate the actions of an actual super-villain and the hero will attempt to stop him. Powers, I'm told, can be used at full force, the attractive suits you're wearing will protect you…don't ask me how, ask Medulla.'

'So, first up, let's have…Peace and Storm. Storm, on this occasion you will play the villain and will recreate the actions of…' at this point the Coach leaned down and whispered something in Storm's ear. 'Let the game commence!'

Suddenly, they were no longer in the gym but a city block and Storm was no longer a pale puff of a thing but…

'Dad?' asked Warren in amazement but before he knew it, Storm/Baron Battle had pounded the ground with his giant hammer causing Warren to fall over. 'What is this? What's going on?'

'What's the matter, son? Don't you want to play catch with your old man?' And at this, the Baron threw a car at Warren who instinctively fireballed it, causing its complete destruction.

'Good,' approved his father. 'Your powers have advanced rapidly. But let's see how you cope with this.' A truck came sailing through the air towards him. Warren was scared and ran. He'd never known the true extent of his father's powers because he'd never been there while Warren grew up. He was the reason Warren was avoided everywhere he went, why he got funny looks in the street and whispers behind his back. Why no one would ever give him a chance…

'Hey, Dad!' Warren yelled, 'Is that all you got?' He stepped out from behind the building he'd been hiding behind, his arms ablaze and the flames started spreading towards his torso.

'Where's the big bad, huh? I mean, a quadruple life sentence for this? Come on, what more have you got? He ran headlong towards his father, who was, after all just a normal sized man. Warren threw him down; the Baron completely taken by surprise had no time to react as Warren threw fireball after fireball onto his father.

'You were never here! You lousy piece of scum! You're the reason my life is so terrible, why everyone avoids me! You know what Dad? I'm 17 and I've never been in love, hell, no ones ever been near me because they're all scared of what could happen to them! Why did you have to be a villain huh? Why couldn't you help the world instead of trying to destroy it?' Warren's fireballs had grown in size and power but he couldn't stop himself.

Suddenly, he felt strong arms clamp around the parts of his body that weren't on fire and pull hard. Storm was rushed to the medical ward for burns treatment to his entire body.

'Warren! Warren, what in hell's name do you think you're doing?'

Warren stared around the empty gym.

'Where's my father? Why won't he finish the fight? Come back and fight you coward!' He broke down sobbing, 'Come back and fight…'

A/N: If you read this please review so I know I'm not missing sleep for nothing!