Chapter Two: Unique

I've always wanted a kitten. Of course, maybe that's the feline super in me that my mom 'accidentally' made me trip onto her. Hm, I have many other voices in my head, like my mother's, my father's, that feline, Jetstream, and someone that could make their fingernails have nail polish or something. I forgot. They're all talking at once, and I usually daze out to separate the thoughts...

I think that's the reason I don't have friends, because I always space out when they're talking. But that's alright. It's enough to hand and listen to the four or five in my head, I don't want anymore to listen to. Of course, one disadvantage of having their thoughts also sort of gives me their habits to deal with. Like, I'm now a neat freak like my mother, which now understands why I clean the whole apartment before I do the homework.

Maybe that's also the reason why I hate canines, but I've always hated them. Or maybe that's just the feline-woman talking. I can never tell.

-(-)-

Lenne got up from the couch suddenly and went to grab the phonebook. For some odd, and probably stupid reason, she decided she was in mood for pizza, even though it was nearly ten at night. She grabbed the phone after she figured out the number and started to dial it while she was cleaning the counter the fifth time.

Twenty minutes later, she sat down by the kitchen counter and started to eat the pizza while looking for jobs. In Maxville, you could get a work permit at fourteen if your parents consented and you had good grades. Lenne could forge her mother's signature for it, and she wasn't having any problems in her classes yet. Of course, she didn't have a class yet. She shrugged, and went back to looking. Her classes couldn't be too hard.

She finished a few pieces before writing a note on the pizza box that Lash could eat it. The truth was, their parents actually named him Lash, because their family genes usually gave males the stretching ability. The females in their family had an assortment of powers though, because they come from different families. Her father's name was Stretch, which was rather humorous. But she didn't dwell on it. She went to sleep soon after.

-(-)-

I wouldn't call it sleep though. It's mostly lay in my bed and read my book or something. I learned really quickly as a little kid that if you went to sleep, you would get nightmares of past things that the people you touched have done or something along those lines. It's really quite scary. Like, I used to have nightmares of that feline chick (I think her name was Susan or Sue or something) that would claw out her victim's eyes and things. It was scary, mainly because it was so vivid.

At the moment though, I'm pretty much trying to find a job. Hm... there's a job offer for this Chinese place called The Paper Lantern. Nah. I really don't like doing dishes, even though I'm a clean freak, and I'm not so much for busing tables. Plus I wouldn't like to see how food is cooked. It's hard enough to just hear what they do. I bet some people would die to get that job, but I'm definitely marking that job out.

Oh! There's a job opening to be a stocker in a store! Heh, a store. Meh, It's not one of those department stores, but it has clothes that I like. So if I work there, it would be like killing two birds with one stone; I would bring money into the house, and I would get my clothes at a discount! Easy enough, right? I hope so.

Now for that swordfight I was looking for.

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Warren sighed and tied his hair back as he went into the Paper Lantern. He needed this job so he can afford his mother's medical bills. His mother, at the moment, was in the mental ward of the hospital. The fact that his father was put into jail and they never got to see him put his mom over the edge of sanity. She watched the whole thing, and started hallucinating and mumbling. It got so bad within a week that Warren had to call the hospital.

Insurance at the moment was covering for the first month, but unless Warren could pay the insurance every month, his mother would have to be put into an asylum. Warren didn't want that to happen, his mother deserved better. Which was the reason why he was going to ask for a job at the Paper Lantern. The ad started going in the paper at the start of school, and it was running in the paper for a week before he found it. It was the best paying job in there, and since it was after school shifts only, he could get a second job for the weekends. It was easy, since he had one already picked out.

He gulped, trying not to be too nervous, and went up to the counter. A rather disgruntled Chinese woman was glaring at one of the newer bus boys. Warren gulped inaudibly. Then, suddenly, the air around her changed as she sighed stressfully and look to him, saying in a rather heavy Chinese accent, "Yes?" Warren grinned. This woman was just like him basically. Only like 20 years older. He started to reply, "I would like a job, please." She blinked, and he almost laughed. She didn't understand much of English.

His mind fought back to when he had a Chinese friend and they learned each other's languages. Then he replied again, in Chinese, "I would like a job." Her eyebrows rose for a second before she grinned, replying rather quickly in her native language, "You should get the job on the spot for knowing our language, but you need to fill an application and it goes to Chen." She then handed him an application and a pen. Warren smiled, before taking it and sitting down at a booth to work on the application.

He ordered Cashew Chicken while he filled out the application. The food was good, and he didn't have to buy take out if he could make it himself. That was a good thing. He gave the application back to the Chinese woman, who's nametag read Jia Lan. This made him grin once more. "Beautiful orchid." He guessed it suited her, but it seemed off from her personality a little bit.

He walked out of the Paper Lantern, and into the warm night air. It's only eight o' clock, he thought, but sighed. He had nothing to do but walk around. He knew that if he did that, though, that he would probably go by the apartment buildings where he got to watch Horror get arrested. He got to watch it first hand. He laughed remembering it.

Horror glared at the little girl before him, that was shielding her older brother away from him. She was frightened, but determined that her father wasn't going to take her brother away from her. She knew that Horror was going to take him to raise him as a villain, and Lenne wasn't going to have any of it. The older man growled, and hit his daughter on the shoulder with his left arm like a whip. Lenne winced, but stayed where she was. Lash was scared. He and Lenne talked about it, and he tried to get Lenne to not fight for him, but the six-year old child wouldn't listen to it.

The older man growled, and forcefully picked up Lenne before slamming her into a wall down the hall. Seven-year old Warren blinked at the noise, and walked out of the apartment he was in. His parents wouldn't care if he stepped out for a minute, would they? He looked to his right to see Horror (he knew who it was by the fact that his father talked about his wife all the time. Horror's wife and his father were rivals) grab Lash, and a little girl at the end of the hallway shakily get up and pull off the gloves she had.

Lenne wasn't giving up. No, her father was going down, and she was going to make sure of it. She left her glove on the floor and ran towards her father, which was having trouble with her struggling brother. With a scream, she jumped up and latched onto his neck. She kept screaming nonsense at him until he passed out. She would've stayed latched to his neck if it wasn't for the memories and dizziness that was cutting into her mind.

And then, it wouldn't even be for that, except her brother pried her off of him, and watched wide-eyed as Lenne's arms started stretching and un stretching at unnatural lengths. Warren couldn't stop staring, but had enough sense to call the police to tell them that Horror was lying unconscious in his apartment building. He then watched, unmoving as Lash held onto his sister as she started screaming in pain from the memories that was overtaking her mind, before she passed out.

Lash sighed frustratingly, and somehow looked down the hall, and met Warren's eyes. His eyes slightly narrowed at him, before dragging his sister back into the apartment and slamming the door. Warren blinked confusedly, and started to snicker when he realized that Horror was took down by a little girl, and went inside. He wanted to figure out what had made the girl pass out.

Warren remembered getting on the computer they had when he was twelve and found out that the girl had the power absorption. It was a power that had many different variants, and he still didn't know which one the girl had. He stopped in his tracks, and raised his eyebrows, remembering something.

She leaned back into the seat, and shrugged lazily, "My brother's on this bus, so I guess why waste the gas, you know?" Warren didn't say anything, he just stared at her dully. It was starting to make Lenne uncomfortable. She scooted away from Warren a little bit, and she added, "His name is Lash."

The girl that took down Horror was the psychotic girl from the first day of school. He started walking again. That would explain the jumpiness in the lunchroom and on the bus. He smiled, walking into the new apartment building he lived in. Maybe he'll go and scare her some more tomorrow.

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"Detention!" Lenne gasped, looking down at her sheet. It was one of those white slips that you get when you get in trouble, but Lenne wasn't really sure what she did wrong. At the end of the slip of paper said, Meet me at my office, now. As she got up from her freshman class and started to walk out, the Hero History teacher, Miss Blake(1) (back in the day, she was known as "Lightning Girl" and had a partner "Lash Lightning". She can generate electricity and "lightning heat", travel at superhuman speeds, and has some level of invulnerability) glanced at her with an eyebrow raised.

Lenne laughed nervously, "The white slip says that I need to go to Principal Powers office..." Very smooth, a voice taunted in her head. Luckily, Miss Blake nodded and started on her lecture of the Green Lantern. Lenne sighed inaudibly and walked the rest of the way out of the classroom to walk down the hall. I wonder what the authority figure wants, a voice that sounded like her mother's resounded in her head. She raised her eyes. That was a first that one thought she heard above the others.

She shook her head though, getting rid of the surprised-feel that she felt. Before long, she was in front of the office door. Lenne sighed, and stretched her arms again, for they started to hurt. She shrugged it off though, and held her hand up to knock on the door that connected to the principal's office. There were some sounds of talking before the door open and out came the two people she knew- Lash and Speed.

She nodded to them both in acknowledgment, as Principal Powers came out, "Now, if I or Coach Boomer see you giving the Hero Support anymore trouble, you'll be suspended, you hear?" They nodded, before they walked fully out of the office, and down the hall. Lash told her once that he was a huge trouble maker at school, and Lenne finally realized that this was the truth. She didn't get time to dwell on that thought, though, because Principal Powers ushered her into the office before closing the door.

Lenne meekly sat down and watched as Principal Powers made her way to her own seat. There was a way she did it that Lenne couldn't quite put her finger on it. She would have to think of it later. "Now, Lenne, how are you today?" Principal Powers started the conversation, sitting down in her swivel chair. Lenne shrugged, and feebly replied, "I'm alright." The older woman nodded, and smiled, "Lenne, when in power placement, you said that you could fly, and you demonstrated it, and were put into the Hero class. This is correct?" Lenne nodded, so Principal Powers continued.

"Before the school year, we look through the records of every student here, and we note their powers. Or at least, if they don't know their powers, we go by their parents' powers. That's why everyone was confused that Stronghold had no powers." Lenne understood that, but didn't see where this was getting at. "Lash told us before the year was over that his sister was going to be in the school next year, as all siblings have to. There's a huge announcement about it at the end of every year. He told us that you had the power to make a copy of people's memories and their powers, but that's all he said. I'm assuming this means you have absorption?"

Lenne looked down to the ground, and nodded once more. Principal Power's eyes soften, "Well, it most be a very hard power to control, if at all. So the staff decided to go back in past records of people who have had absorption, and how they controlled it. I know there are many variants, so I would like to know which one you have?" Lenne looked up, and started to nervously talk. She was never good around authority figures, "Well, as my brother said, I get a copy of their memories and, if they have a power, I make a copy of them. Though, the power I get from them is usually only good for the first thirty seconds, and usually by that time I pass out from the pain."

The older woman interjected, "Pain?" Lenne nodded, "The first second I touch someone, their memories force their way into my mind, a lot like the man from the movie The Butterfly Effect, without the blood though." Principal Powers nodded, and allowed Lenne to continue. "Well, um, anyways, the thing is that I keep their power and memories, but the power isn't good for much anymore. Like if I touch someone who is a fire conjurer, I can probably, at my best, only light candles after the first thirty seconds."

Principal Powers nodded in understanding, "So this is a power you cannot control?" Lenne nodded. She smiled, "Well, your powers sounds a lot like a record from earlier years, before this woman went off to the X-Men. Perhaps you heard of her, Rogue?" Lenne nodded. "Well, she learned to control her powers by being in a place that negated her super power many times, until she got the feel of it. Our detention room is where she went much of the time for this. Are you getting where I am going with this?" Lenne nodded once more. "Now, the real question," Principal Powers started once more. "Do you want to control your power or keep it like it is?"

Lenne thought about it for a moment, before replying, "I would like to control it." The other woman smiled, and got up, "Well, do you want to go to the detention center during lunch or after school?" Lenne bit her lip, "I would like to go during lunch, if I can bring something to drink." Principal Powers nodded, and started walking her to the detention center.

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"In," a voice sounded outside of the detention center. Lenne looked up from her homework from the morning to see Will Stronghold and Warren Peace come into the detention center. Will whined, "I didn't do anything though. He started it!" Warren seemed to glare at him more, retorting with, "Your dad started it, and I'm gonna finish it." before trying to ignite his arms. It made this clicking noise, like a lighter you can't turn on. Lenne was giggling in her mind. It's not going to wo-ork, the feline girl informed in a sing song answer.

"Don't bother, the Detention Room neutralizes all super powers. Sit," the older woman said, pointing to some desk chairs by a wall. They hesitantly sat, while she started to talk once more. "Now, here at Sky High we do everything we can to teach you how to use your powers. But what you do with them, now that's up to you. Living up to your father's reputation or living it down is a sad waste of talent. Your talent." Lenne started back to doing her homework. It wasn't her lecture, she wasn't going to be in it. She couldn't help but listen though, "Try to keep that in mind the next time you're about to do something stupid."

Principal Powers then walked out, but not before glancing at Lenne. She smiled, and started to write the paragraph on the superhero Tempest(1). She looked up again when Will started talking, obviously not to her. "Alright, look. Whatever happened with our dads, had nothing to do with us. What do you say?" He put his hand out to shake. Lenne, at random, thought that his hair looked bad at that instant. She shrugged it off though. Random thoughts always came to her. "I say if you ever cross me again, I'll roast you alive," Warren replied back, finally looking over to the other occupant in the room. He smirked, and Lenne went back to her homework, running a hand through her dyed hair once more.

Maybe I should dye it something else tonight. Hm... Like Green and Purple? Or Blue and Black. I'll think of it later, was going through her mind, as she drifted off into her own mind again, away from anyone else.

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Ok, sorry for the long wait, I don't have an excuse. Sorry! If it makes you feel better, I have this guy stalking me and always asking for a dance or whatever. Annoying! I'm going to be thinking up for Chapter Three more often though, and I'm still figuring out how Warren is going to interact with Lenne. Alright?

(1) These Superheros are NOT made up. I repeat, they are NOT made up. You can get the profiles on these people at International Heroes. Go to google and search it.