Disclaimer: I don't own Sky High.
Title: Catalyst
Read on, oh faithful ones...
...
Since setting up her new businesses and becoming more well-known in the super world, Honey often had supers - both hero and villain - come to her alter ego, Hourglass, for advice. Well, sometimes it was advice, other times it was a desperate need for a glimpse into their future. For the most part - and a hefty sum - Honey was willing to provide this service to the supers of the world, no matter their allegiance. (She'd never had the Commander or Jetstream show up yet, but she knew they were curious; she'd checked.) Of course, as time went on and her businesses and life became busier, some of the smaller aspects of her time were often rescheduled, unless she knew the super personally or could spare the time.
Her next appointment was running late, something that Honey never appreciated, and she didn't know the super herself. In fact, by the time he arrived - almost ten minutes late for their appointment - she'd forgotten the man's name completely. She had a vague notion of him being the son of a friend of a friend who's barber was marrying Sarah's husband's friend from college. In a nutshell: nobody important.
"Hi, are you Hourglass?" the man asked, wringing his hands nervously.
Honey wanted to reply sarcastically - no, I'm not Hourglass, you're in the wrong building entirely - but she was running out of time for her next appointment, and she was about 98% positive that the idiot in front of her would take her words seriously. "Yes, I'm Hourlgass. Please, sit down."
The man did so, perching on the edge of the seat and looking around the room curiously.
"How can I help you today?" she asked, glancing to the clock on her computer screen.
"You mean you don't already know?" he asked, surprised and accusatory.
"I don't like to waste my time on mundane questions. Besides, the future I see depends on the type of question you ask. You're welcome to leave if you're unhappy with my service," Honey added, glaring over the top of her glasses.
The man shrank back in the seat a little. Then he collected himself, sat up straight once more, and shook his head. "No, it's okay. I... Well, I just came into my powers, y'see, and I have a friend who recommended you. Well, a friend of a friend, really. I just... I can't think of a name."
"A name," Honey repeated flatly, staring at the man across from her.
She wasn't kidding when she said she charged a hefty sum - she was surprised this man could afford it, judging by his state of dress - and all this man wanted was a name?!
Honey seriously considered kicking him out just on principle.
"Yeah, my superhero name. Or supervillain, I'm not sure about that either, really. I figure the name could help me decide," he said brightly. "I've tried thinking of a name, but all of the really good ones are taken, like the Commander and Jetstream."
Honey doubted that even if the names weren't taken, this man would never have thought of them himself. She was tempted to pull a name out of thin air just to get this over with. Then she reminded herself that the man had already paid in advance for her services - a rarity in the super world; quite a few people tried to pay her with the promise of their 'future gains', which was not only stupid but a bad way to conduct business. (Honey had actively started stealing money from the banks they had wanted to target, just to make sure they knew they were wasting their time.)
Honey pressed a button her desk, connecting through to Sarah at the front reception desk. "Keep the next appointment delayed for as long as you can; this might take longer than I expected."
The man seemed surprised at Honey's words. She ignored his expression, breathed in deeply, and made herself smile at the man. "Hands, please." She held out her own hands to get the point across that much sooner, waiting as the man wiped his hands on his pants and then took her hands gently.
Honey didn't actually need to hold her clients' hands, but it was good to have some sort of show for them. If people thought that she needed to rely on physical skin-to-skin contact, then they would underestimate her the next time they met.
She closed her eyes and watched as the numerous flashes from the man's future passed by behind her eyes, thousands of possible threads leading away from this one moment. Honey sorted through the visions, focusing on the clearer moments as the other threads faded in the background. The future vision she saw made Honey smile broadly and she was so utterly glad that she didn't throw the man out of her office after all.
"Catalyst," she breathed, opening her eyes and looking at the man in a new light.
"Catalyst? I don't know, it sounds kind of weak. I was hoping for something more intimidating? Like, Ultra Crusher!"
"That's the name of a blender."
"Darn."
"Ultra Crusher will be an unknown; Catalyst will go down in the history books. Just think of the things you could do with your power!"
"But... I hover. About half a metre off the ground," he added proudly.
It was the first time in Honey's life that she ever doubted her power. She even raced ahead to the same thread, double-checking that the man in front of her really was the same man in her vision.
"You said yourself that you'd only just come into your power. Powers can flux and change over time. Catalyst will be remembered, but any other name you choose will lead to failure."
The man seemed to think about her words deeply for the whole of ten seconds. He nodded. "Catalyst. Okay, I can work with that. Thank you, Hourglass."
"Great to hear. Have a wonderful life, Catalyst."
He smiled and left her office with a bounce in his step.
Honey waited until he left before she looked at his future again. Some of the other possible threads of his future were already fading; Ultra Crusher was gone entirely, Hoverboard was fading a little more slowly, but ultimately, it was Catalyst that shone the brightest.
Honey didn't feel an ounce of regret knowing that she'd just secured the man's death.
... ...
Catalyst made his way across the street to where the Commander and Jetstream waited. He had set up this meeting weeks ago and could hardly breathe for the anticipation. Or nerves. Maybe both. Well, it didn't matter; he was Catalyst and he was going to go down in history!
He could hover a full metre above the ground now, and thanks to a lot of training and practice at his local super gym, he could dodge even Earthstone's fists. Catalyst was certain that he could at least get a few good hits in. Well, against Jetstream that was, not the Commander. He felt a little guilty about hitting a woman, but Jetstream had pushed in front of him at the drive-thru, so it was nothing more than she deserved.
The one time he'd tried using his power to get into the drive-thru, the employees had said that they didn't serve people who were floating! Then they served Jetstream a minute later! Sure, she'd been flying, but it was as close to floating as you could technically get, right?!
"Really, are you sure we're meant to fight this guy? He looks like a Sidekick," the Commander muttered to Jetstream.
"Don't judge a person by their looks, dear," Jetstream muttered through a smile, waving to the cameras that were set up around them.
The cameras that were installed throughout Maxville were old news now and so long as Steve faced the right way while fighting, no one really cared about them anymore. (Steve had spent many an hour re-watching his fights and complaining about camera angles. Even Will knew to avoid his father after a fight had been aired on TV, lest he be dragged into a conversation about tights again.)
"I'm here to fight you!"
"Is this Captain Obvious? I thought we defeated him last month?" the Commander asked, a little confused.
"We did; this isn't Captain Obvious. Honestly, Steve, it's a completely different person," Jetstream muttered.
"Maybe he's got a brother. Or a Lieutenant?"
Jetstream almost laughed on live TV. She bit her tongue to stop the noise and concentrated on the man in front of them, who was finally getting to the part of the dialogue where he was introducing himself.
"My name is Catalyst, and I'm going to defeat you! Well, at least one of you."
For all of the man's awkwardness in general, he was actually surprisingly fast while he hovered. He dodged the Commander's fists, ducked out of the way of Jetstream's kick, and actually managed to snag Jetstream's cape on the way down. He used her momentum to hover up higher into the sky, taking her higher up than he'd ever been before.
Jetstream struggled to get out of the man's grasp. He wasn't strong, per se, but his fingers were entangled in her cape and he wasn't letting go. In fact, he looked a little pale and, dare she say it, nauseous?
"Are you all right, Catalyst?"
"Fine," he squeaked. "I just... I haven't been this high up before, y'know?"
"Um, okay... How about you let me go and I'll take us down safely?" Jetstream offered. He'd be arrested the moment they landed, but that was beside the point.
Catalyst was starting to turn green and Jetstream hoped he wouldn't puke on her. She struggled to get out of his grasp again, hoping that the sweat-induced terror would make his grip slippery.
Down below them, the Commander was looking for a way to save his wife without harming his wife. He could see her struggling in Catalyst's grip and he knew from experience that if people thought their lives were in danger, they'd usually drop whatever they were holding. Groceries, money, babies, it all came second to a person's own life. It needed to be something great though - he'd had people criticise him for using something small in previous fights - it needed to be big enough to be seen on the cameras. Something like a... car! There were heaps of cars around and whoever lost their car to the villain would be reimbursed eventually, surely?
The Commander looked at the various cars and stopped in surprise when he recognised the Mayor's car. He hadn't realised they were so close to the Mayor's office.
I really need to get a better understanding of Maxville's layout from the air, the Commander mused, wondering if there was some sort of app for that.
He decided not to pick the Mayor's car because that would probably end badly for their upcoming press tour, nor the one next to it because it was reserved for someone with acronyms, and instead chose a smaller car a few spaces down.
It was an older model, so the owner would probably be grateful for the insurance upgrade, the Commander thought to himself, so proud on his decision. Then, with the last two minutes spent on his decision, he lifted the car and hefted it up into the sky towards Catalyst and Jetstream. Vaguely, he thought he heard the villain call something out from up above.
"Okay, I'll come down. I surrender! I surrender!" Catalyst called out, his eyes screwed tight shut just as the Commander threw a car at him.
"Catalyst!" Jetstream yelled, grabbing at the man's spandex to get him to open his eyes.
He did a moment later, screaming in fear when he saw the car approaching and promptly threw Jetstream away from him. Propelled as she was, she was unable to stop the car from slamming into Catalyst and killing him on impact. She wasn't super strong like her husband, so her efforts to grab the car to stop it from pummelling back down to Earth were useless.
"Catch the car!" Jetstream yelled.
"What?!" the Commander yelled back. "We don't have a cat!"
All things that go up must come down. All things that have tanks full of flammable liquids, such as petrol, will most likely explode when they come down. Especially when said tank of flammable liquid is crushed and pierced by metal by the surrounding car and the car owner's Zippo lighter opens on impact.
The Commander realised all of this far too late in time to catch the car, but luckily, he could protect himself with his cape, blocking his body from the explosion's fiery blast. He figured that the cameras would be okay as they were all insulated against this sort of thing, especially after Ice Guy killed that reporter. The buildings surrounding the cameras, however, were not insulated.
All explosions are built up of three shockwaves. The first initial shockwave created an immense amount of pressure that reached supersonic speeds in mere milliseconds, pushing out against the explosion site's surroundings. The secondary shockwave caused the most damage, not only to the buildings and structures, but to the people within them as well. Shockwaves built on supersonic speed don't stop for simple things such as glass, steel, skin, organs or tissue, after all. The third shockwave was the inwards or pull, dragging everything back into the explosion's site, which is often why debris from other buildings can sometimes be found at the site of an explosion.
This explosion was much the same. The initial shockwave built up, the second shockwave shot up rapidly through the buildings, windows shattered and broke apart, one man's pacemaker stopped, papers and chairs flew towards the skyscrapers' broken windows, and the pull of the third shockwave brought it all back down again. Some people who had been standing too close to windows at the time of the explosion were suddenly wrenched out of those windows and pulled back down towards the ground. Most of those people were saved by coworkers and friends, screaming and grabbing for them desperately. One person was not.
Nina Peace hit the ground with a sickening crunch as her head slammed against the asphalt. She was dead a moment later, all light and life fading from her eyes.
...
In the sky, high over Maxville, Sky High was floating with classes full of soon-to-be superheroes (or perhaps supervillains). The fight between Catalyst and the Commander and Jetstream was being broadcast live, as the fights always were. Principal Powers considered the live fights to provide a lesson in fighting techniques for the heroes, posing techniques for the sidekicks, and consequences for the would-be villains.
Once the cameras in Maxville were switched on during the fight between the two superheroes and whichever villain challenged them, the cameras were designed to focus on sounds and collisions, mostly because Jetstream flew so fast that it was difficult to pick her up on camera otherwise, and if the Commander hit people (or objects) at a slower pace, it wouldn't make much difference in the end.
So when Nina's body hit the ground with a sickening crunch and the light fading from her eyes, every camera in the vicinity focused on her immediately. There, in high-definition for the whole world to see, was Warren Peace's mother, dead.
It took less time for reality to sink in than it did for Nina to die. In one moment, Warren was staring at his mother's face on the classroom's TV screen and in the next moment, he was running out of the room with a trail of flames after him. Warren ran straight out of the school building itself, across the yard, and straight over the edge of the grounds of Sky High.
Half of the school followed him to the edge, staring down below, seeing where he'd burnt through the clouds themselves. The other half stayed in their classrooms, eyes glued to the TV screen. There was a hushed whisper between a few of the students and while everyone was preoccupied, Layla borrowed (stole) someone's jetpack. She flew off after Warren immediately. Ethan and Zach were after her in a moment, Zach screaming in fear almost all the way down.
From her place on the edge of the grounds of Sky High, Wendy altered the atmosphere around them. She guided the others down to the ground safely and in the right direction (Warren was doing surprisingly well on his own, considering he'd only just learnt how to propel himself through the air with the heat from his flames last week). Donny was beside her, already on the phone to Honey. Craig turned into Principal Powers while everyone was preoccupied and redirected the students back inside (a few of them were understandably confused when they saw Principal Powers inside the school, watching the TV herself with undisguised horror). When everyone had returned to their classrooms, Adam set about opening certain lockers and emptying the contents into several bags. No one would notice that the school cameras had been disabled for almost a week.
When Wendy, Donny, and Craig returned indoors, Adam handed them a bag each and shouldered his own. They knew what they had to do, so there was no need to discuss anything. Craig grinned, clapped Adam on the shoulder, and headed to his classroom. Donny nodded, took Wendy's hand, and they left as well. Adam went to his own classroom a moment later. Everyone's attention was focused on the TV screens and no one noticed his arrival. Adam didn't exactly mind that, considering the contents of the bag he was carrying. He sat in his seat and looked at the TV, becoming fast engrossed in the battle that was happening in Maxville below.
...
Warren felt the atmosphere becoming dense around him and knew that Wendy was doing her part. He didn't know who followed him and didn't exactly care. He was advancing ahead of schedule, but he knew that Layla wouldn't mind. He could feel the vines spinning around his wrist in a vague sort of way, past the pain, past the intense heat that even he could feel from the flames around him. Layla understood and the others would do their parts, just as they'd planned.
He landed surprisingly lightly, the heat from his entire body making his descent gentle rather than abrupt. Warren's school clothes had burnt away soon after he'd torn out of the classroom with his whole body on fire, but the clothes underneath had been specifically designed to withstand his flames. He had used a mix of fabrics with Kevlar around his torso, aramid fibre fabrics for the pants part of his outfit, and novoloid fibres for his arms and gloves. He had a spare suit made out of vinyon, but preferred training in the Kevlar one so he could get used to the weight difference. Warren was lucky that they had organised training this afternoon, really. Now he could see how Kevlar handled a punch from the Commander.
Layla landed behind him, turning off the stolen jetpack and setting it aside carefully; it might come in handy later. She didn't try to offer any condolences or sympathy - this wasn't the time for that - and instead, she used the shield of his flames to remove her clothes to reveal her own outfit. They all had similar outfits, black as a base, with a line of green and red threading together over the shoulder. From there, they each had a modification here or there so they could see at a glance who owned which shirt or pair of pants. Hidden pockets allowed the owner of said shirt and pants to carry around something useful to them; in Layla's case, she had created an extra hemline around her shirt to hide seeds.
"Are the others coming?"
"They'll be down soon; I think I can hear Blaze screaming," Layla mused, looking up to the sky.
"If we don't hurry, we'll miss them."
"Not a chance, the cameras already know we're here. Jetstream will realise something's happening, even if the Commander doesn't notice," Layla added.
She reached back and tied her hair up with a length of honeysuckle before pulling on her hood, the mask obscuring her face.
Zach finally stopped screaming when he saw the ground below them, turning the jetpack off and practically dumping it off his shoulders the moment his feet touched the ground.
"Next time, we get a hover car," he muttered to Ethan, who was already undoing his shirt.
"If you don't hurry, there won't be a next time," Warren snapped.
"Right, of course." Zach shut up and quickly stripped out of his shirt and pants, almost falling over one leg in his hurry.
Finally, they were dressed in their outfits with their hoods and masks covering their faces. The four of them headed down the road to where the car was still smoking, and where the Commander and Jetstream were waiting.
...
"Ready to go, dear?" Steve asked, brushing the shards of glass off his shoulders and his cape.
"The cameras are still on; something else is happening," Jetstream said, looking around them carefully.
Josie couldn't bring herself to look at the woman lying on the ground because she knew that if she did, she wouldn't be able to sleep that night. She would be haunted by the image of the woman who she hadn't been able to save, and it would remind her of all of the others who she hadn't been able to save either.
She could hear something odd, like a fire burning in the distance. Josie noticed then that the trees on the side of the road - included to the main street of the town when some activist died and the public outcry demanded something in honour of the woman, whoever she was - started blooming. Not just blooming, in fact, but dying. They sped through the process of life and death so fast that Josie was sure she had imagined the whole thing. Then one fire hydrant exploded, then another, and then a third.
The people in the buildings around them let out cries of fear and surprise; while they were no longer close to the windows, they were still close enough to see outside. That was the thing about citizens: they were always so curious despite the risk to their own lives.
Josie ignored them for the moment - as long as they stayed inside, they should be safe - but then the lights inside the buildings, which had already been flickering since the car exploded, started flickering far more violently and in a more precise manner. Josie had a thought of Morse code, but she hadn't kept up with the code herself, preferring to educate herself on current technologies instead of outdated ones that no one should be using anyway.
"Huh, it's SOS. But who's the one signalling for help?" Steve asked, frowning at one of the lit up buildings.
"How do you know that it's an SOS?"
Steve stammered like he usually did when he was embarrassed, but finally seemed to realise that his wife was serious about her question. "Titanic was on TV the other day."
Josie nodded and turned to her surroundings once more. Then, as one unit, the cameras turned to face the other end of the street. Jetstream and the Commander turned to face the incoming threat, fists raised and expressions ready.
Four people came into sight a moment later - Josie wanted to smirk at that; four against two was hardly fair and the public would love her and Steve all the more for winning against the odds - all wearing black, and in one person's case, completely enveloped in flames.
Something about the person's stance rang a bell in Jetstream's mind and she tried to focus on it, to catch it so she could learn at least one weakness in the face of their new enemies. It took almost seven full seconds for Jetstream to realise who they were facing - or, more to the point, the son of who they were facing - and she finally looked down at the dead woman on the ground to see that it was none other than Nina Peace.
"Get the Chief of Police on the phone; he needs to send all of his men to the Penitentiary," Jetstream said.
The Commander looked confused for a split second, but she didn't keep him around because he asked questions: for all of his faults (and sometimes, complete stupidity), her husband was good at following orders, and he did as she said less than a second later.
"The woman who died earlier was Nina Peace; Baron Battle's wife," Jetstream explained.
Despite their divorce, it was obvious that Barron still loved his wife, and her death would set off something within him that Josie doubted even power suppressing cuffs would be able to contain.
The Commander looked to the woman's body and let out a string of expletives that were immediately censored for young viewers' ears.
The man that was still on fire - Jetstream was sure it was Warren, and though she couldn't be certain, the woman next to him could almost be Layla, Will's childhood friend - stepped forward with the woman by his side.
"Good evening, Jetstream and Commander. My name is Poison and this is Fire. Together, we're known as Chaos. Are you ready to fight?" Poison asked, almost as though she was asking if they were ready to order a meal.
The polite tone and genial words almost threw Jetstream off completely, but she told herself sternly this was a fight between good and evil, just as it always was. Even if it was Layla and Warren - children, just like her Will - they'd arrived knowing and prepared for this, whatever the outcome. On the other side of Poison, the tall lanky man was making some odd motions with his hands, something that Jetstream belatedly realised was sign language. He didn't seem to be calling for help or signalling others, but instead, he seemed to be translating?
(Across town, a young boy pulled his mother into the lounge room excitedly because he could understand what was happening! In that moment, his mother almost liked the villains more than Jetstream and the Commander simply because she hadn't seen her son smile like this in three months.)
"We're ready," Jetstream called out.
The Commander put his hands on his hips and looked at their opponents, almost as if he was going to scold them like children. "Four against two is hardly fair."
"Blaze and Molten won't be fighting you unless we're defeated," Poison replied.
"Oh. Well, all right then," the Commander said, lowering his hands again.
"Enough talking already," Fire snarled, launching a ball of fire directly towards them.
Jetstream flew out of the way while the Commander held his cape in front of himself for protection. He was a little surprised to find that his cape was smoking when he lowered it a moment later.
"I thought this was fire-proof, dear?" the Commander muttered as she picked him up and flew him forward.
Jetstream was busy concentrating on their opponents and didn't reply. The tall one was still off to the side translating, the smaller one had somehow disappeared, and that just left Poison and Fire to deal with. "There's a difference between fire-proof and fire retardant materials, dear. Go for Poison first, I'll try to draw Fire away from you."
"Which one's Poison again?"
"The one not on fire, Steve," Jetstream hissed, dropping her husband from a little higher than necessary.
The Commander landed with a small oomph and immediately went up against Poison, his fist raised. The masks only covered the top of their faces, and the Commander was close enough to see Poison smile, even as his fist moved closer to her. Then something grabbed his fist before he could hit his target. He wanted to call out about cheating, about those other two fighting before the first had been defeated, but then he saw what actually had a hold of his fist.
A large vine was wrapped around his forearm, winding its way around with its thorns barbing its way into his skin. He could feel them, tiny pinpricks of pain, but it wasn't enough for them to lodge deeper, which he was sure was his opponent's intent.
"A little plant isn't going to hurt me," the Commander said smugly.
"Oh, it's not designed to hurt you, Commander. It's designed to kill you," Poison said sweetly, and in one fell motion, the vine ripped off his glove and scored several gouges along his hand at the same time.
The Commander hissed in pain; he was indestructible, sure, but that was usually against larger things, things that would kill other people. Something small, something that just scratched against the surface, something that wasn't actually going to kill him (or so his brain thought, changing his molecules in an instant to defend against this giant monster or that meteor hurtling towards Earth), could still leave a mark. Still, it was no worse than several paper cuts at once, and the Commander told himself to shake it off. He still had use of his hand and another glove, after all.
Fire had gone after Jetstream, just as she'd hoped and he had planned. It was a struggle to go after Jetstream when the Commander was right there, but they had a plan and he knew he had to follow it. He was throwing fireballs at Jetstream, small and fast and designed to keep her in the air. Jetstream couldn't turn her back on him because it would leave her defenceless against his fireballs but she also couldn't fly backwards for very long without needing to look where she was going. With Fire making her move left, right, up, and down to dodge his fireballs, it was only a matter of time before she went exactly where they wanted her.
Jetstream was so busy keeping her attention on Fire and dodging his fireballs that she didn't hear the rush of water until it was too late. She flew backwards, straight into one of the geysers pouring from the burst fire hydrants, and was thrown into the air, somersaulted this way and that, her blasted cape getting in her face and blocking her vision. By the time it was untangled, she was less than a metre away from hitting the ground. Jetstream stopped falling abruptly, her eyes wide and heart racing.
Surprised that she hadn't been attacked in mid-air, nor when she had stopped, Jetstream straightened herself out and stood up properly. Her hair was a damp mess, but the cameras were hidden from view behind the geyser anyway.
Fire was talking to the fire hydrant, Jetstream realised, frowning. Maybe he wasn't mentally sound? she wondered, but then the geyser in the fire hydrant stopped completely. The other three were still going, so it wasn't a result of the government or fire department. She remembered the fourth person in their entrance and wondered just what their power was.
"Are you going to kill me now?" Jetstream asked.
"No, unfortunately," Fire replied, the sound like flames crackling against wood.
Jetstream saw that despite the geysers and water surrounding them, Fire hadn't lost an ounce of his flames. She stepped forward. "I'm sorry about your mother."
Fire turned on her then, the flames reducing in their intensity, but not their heat. Instead of a fire of orange and yellow, the fierce blue burned around him and that - for the first time in many years - sent a thrill of fear through Jetstream.
"You're not sorry yet," he snarled, then a lasso of fire spiralled out from his arm and wrapped around her neck.
Jetstream was lifted up into the air unwillingly for the second time that day, the line of fire wrapping around her body and starting to melt and char her outfit. She struggled against the fire, but it was fire and she was only human. Her hands started to blister and burn against the heat of the flames, a line scoring itself around her neck, branding and marking her as defeated. For her position, Jetstream could see the Commander on the ground below. He was kneeling and gasping for air, with an odd mix of purple and black lines marring his skin.
This honestly wasn't the way she had expected to die.
"Let them go!" a voice called out, blustering and trying to sound brave.
Jetstream felt then what all of those citizens must have felt when she and Steve arrived to save the day: ten parts relief and a hundred parts fear. She looked over at her son who was wearing his regular jeans and shirt, and not even posing at that. She was relieved that he had arrived, of course, but more than that, she feared that he would lose just as she and Steve had. She wanted to scream out to him, to tell Will to leave, to run away, but the fire around her throat wouldn't let her make more than an awful croaking sound.
Down on the ground, Poison looked at the Commander with an expression somewhere between pity and disgust. "Tell me, Commander. Did you ever think that the reason a person working for the Mayor owned an older car was because they couldn't afford a newer one? There were seven sports cars in that parking lot, but you chose the only one that was an older model! Those seven people could've replaced their cars in a matter of hours, but insurance claims take months to be processed, especially when superheroes are involved.
"But, no, I suppose you didn't think about that, did you? Now, to you, it seems like a ridiculous thing for me to be upset and monologuing about, especially when you're dying in front of me, but to every other person who watched you on TV, they all thought the same thing: why did he choose my car? It's not actually possible that the car was theirs, of course, but it's what it represented. They saw you avoid the newer cars, the sports cars, the fancy cars belonging to the wealthy and elite, and instead, you chose the car that was essentially them.
"That car represented the working class people, the ones who are never going to be heroes, who are stepped on by people like you. That car you chose, the car you so cleverly handpicked to destroy, represented an entire working class of citizen. You just killed them all, and then you killed not only a villain who had already surrendered, but also someone's mother, someone's wife. Neither the son nor the husband will forgive you for this," Poison said, crouching beside him.
The Commander was starting to lose his eyesight, his lungs starting to collapse, and he tried to reach out to Poison. For forgiveness or help, he'd never know, and then his son arrived. Poison sighed in disappointment and carefully placed a hand on the Commander's forearm, slowly drawing the poison back out of his system. Not all of it - she wasn't stupid - but enough that he would survive to see another day.
"Let them go!" Will called out.
"You can't defeat both of us at once," Poison called, putting her foot on the Commander's back to keep him down.
Her foot felt like hundreds of needles against his skin and the Commander moaned in pain, the cameras immediately zooming in at the sound.
"You get to choose: Jetstream or the Commander?" Fire called.
The heat around Jetstream became almost unbearable and she cried out in pain as well, the noise and motion sensors in the cameras immediately tilting up towards her.
Will was torn between the choice: his mother or his father? His mother, who was captured and being tortured, or his father, who was defeated and dying?
He'd finally escaped Sky High to come to his parents' rescue but he didn't have any back up. Larry was terrified of heights and refused to let Will carry him. Ron Wilson, bus driver, couldn't drive the school bus without Principal Powers' permission. Magenta had offered to come but Will had stupidly turned her down, not wanting his girlfriend to get hurt when he was so sure he could save the day. For one brief and guilt-filled moment, Will almost wished he hadn't been able to escape from Sky High, that he was still up on the school grounds watching everything happen. At least then he'd have a reason for his helplessness, and he would never have to put himself through this awful decision.
Will looked between his parents one more time and then, with a regretful look at his mother, he flew down to save his father.
"Well, I guess we know who he loves best! World, say hello to the Stronghold Three: Jetstream, the Commander, and their son, who's willing to risk his mother's life to save his father," Poison called out, loud enough for every camera, citizen, and dying super in the immediate vicinity to hear clearly.
Will went still at her words, dropping down a few metres when he realised that Layla was Poison. He'd recognised Warren of course, and after seeing his mother's death, hadn't blamed him turning into a villain, but why was Layla here?
"What are you doing?" he hissed at her, finally close enough to pick up his father's black-veined body; his father had never felt so frail in his arms before.
"Defeating you. You'd best save your mother now; I don't think she has the energy to fly anymore," Poison said with a sweet and mocking smile.
Will turned his attention away from her, even though nearly every part of him screamed at the effort of doing so - the first rule of being a hero was never turn your back on a villain! (the second, of course, was never leave the Secret Sanctum open; Will never could follow the rules) - only to see that Fire was untangling Jetstream from his fiery rope and she was indeed falling to the ground.
Will held his father close to his chest and flew forward as fast as he superhumanly could, his arm outstretched to try to catch his mother before she fell and was added to the day's victims. His fingers brushed against her cape and Will let out a scream, forcing himself to close his fingers around the material. His grip held but with one arm caught with his mother and the other with his father, Will fell through the air with both of them. He tried to hold his mother properly, managing to get a face full of her hair instead, and then finally managed to hold onto both of them, adjusting his descent awkwardly.
By the time he'd landed with them safely, the villains were gone and the cameras were starting to whirr down and shut off.
He could hear the loud sirens of the ambulance, police, and fire departments getting closer, and headed to the end of the street so they could see to his parents that much sooner. Behind him, Will heard the citizens starting to gather and leave their buildings. It was odd that Warren and Layla had left so suddenly, especially without staying to gloat over the death of one of his parents - it went against all villainous rules and stereotypes! - and Will looked around, trying to see exactly where they had disappeared.
He didn't get to find out because the emergency department vehicles arrived then, citizens immediately rushing out of the buildings en masse, and while Will would have expected that they'd try to get help, more than twenty citizens rushed over to him and his parents instead.
He tried to smile, tried to look like the caring superhero he was meant to be, but these people were blocking his way, were blocking the ambulance officers' way. Will grabbed his parents and flew up into the sky, landing directly in front of the ambulance instead. "Please. My parents need help," he said, trying to ignore the fact that several citizens had their phones out and were either recording or photographing this entire thing.
Two hours after their initial disastrous fight with Catalyst had begun, the Commander and Jetstream were taken to hospital after their first fight with Chaos, and the world were introduced to the Stronghold Three.
...
Inside Maxville Super Penitentiary, the Commander's phone call had arrived too late. Several guards had seen the live streaming of the fight, the explosion, and the close up of Baron Battle's wife's dead body. They'd laughed to themselves, nudging each other in the ribs as they decided to break the news to the Baron in the worst way possible: by streaming the live news feed directly into his prison cell.
"A very sad moment, folks. It seems that as a result of the Commander throwing the car at the villain, an explosion caused damage to several surrounding buildings. There have been three fatalities as a result, including Nina Peace, employee of the Mayor, and some of our older viewers may remember her as the wife of Baron Battle..."
Barron blocked out the rest of the news immediately, not caring about anything other than the fact his wife was dead because of the Commander.
"I should have killed him when I had the chance!" Barron yelled, the room around him shaking with the force of his words and his emotion.
He was still wearing his power suppressors, but emotional-based powers were rarely subdued in an effective manner. Lustful had escaped them after all, so that meant Barron could as well.
"... It seems we have some newcomers. Four against two, that's hardly fair."
Barron could still feel the room around him shaking as the news filtered back into his brain. He listened carefully, wondering what sort of villains teamed up. Weak ones, surely, if they couldn't hope to defeat the Commander and Jetstream on their own.
He heard Poison's announcement about only fighting two against two, then ignored the newscaster's opinion about all of that until he heard the villains' next words.
"Enough talking already!"
Since his imprisonment, Barron had heard his son's angry voice more times than he'd like, and there was no mistaking it now. His son was taking on the Commander and Jetstream!
Out at the guards' station, the two men looked to each other in worry. Baron Battle was in his cell, laughing.
"Come on, it sounds like he's finally lost it. Let's go check it out," one guard said with a grin.
"I don't know, man. The Baron's already crazy enough, if this has really made him lose it... Well, I don't want to be in the firing line, y'know?"
"Dude, he's wearing power suppressors and we're on the other side of a titanium door. Nothing's going to happen," he said, clapping his colleague on the shoulder and guiding him down the hallway.
Another two guards joined them on their merry venture, laughing to themselves on the way to Baron Battle's cell. From his own cell, Speed watched them as they passed, disgusted that people like them were considered better than people like himself and Lash. At least they wouldn't taunt a man about his dead wife.
"So the Baron's finally lost his marbles, huh? Shame, I heard his wife was hot," Lash sneered.
"Dude, she just died. Have some respect, would you?"
Lash snorted. "Why? She can't hear me."
Speed rolled his eyes and looked out the door's small window again. He heard screaming, some sort of explosion, and saw one of the guards running back to his station, covered in blood and bits.
Served them right, Speed thought, turning away from the window.
... ...
Honey sighed and straightened up in her seat, blinking when she saw the time and realised she'd missed her appointment. She winced and pressed the intercom on her desk.
"Are you all right?" Sarah asked.
"Yes. I got caught up, sorry."
"I know. I had to keep Zona entertained for a whole hour, Honey."
"Is she still here?"
"No, apparently she had a club to go to in Italy or Paris or something."
"Did someone else get her story?" Honey asked; it was the third time she'd tried to schedule an interview with the singer. At least the first two missed appointments hadn't been her fault.
"I managed to get some coherent notes written down between her rants about how she was being ignored. My notes have a lot of swearing, just so you know."
"By her or you?"
"Both. Mostly me though," Sarah said, grinning. "You owe me big time, Honey."
"Yes, I know. I just gave you a raise, didn't I? Hmm," Honey mused, slipping through a few future threads as quickly as she could. "Oh, I've got the perfect present! I'll drop it off at your place this weekend."
"It had better be worth it."
Honey grinned when she thought of the boisterous dog she'd gift Sarah with and the gorgeous puppy she'd get as a result a few years later. "It will be, I promise."
...
The end.
Thanks for reading. I hope you liked it!