A/N: I know, I know! I am the worst author ever! Mainly because I got myself stuck in a hole with this whole open door thing and I couldn't think of what to put on the other side! Hopefully this is ok! R&R as always!

Warren approached the open door with caution and quietly. Whoever was on the other side of this door, he wanted to be ready for them. He dropped his bag on the front porch, but quietly, and gradually pushed the door open. It swung open silently and the sunlight glinted on the polished wooden floor that was his entrance foyer.

In fact, Warren thought, it glinted a little too brightly. He sat on his heels and made to touch it but was interrupted.

'Warren! Warren don't you dare touch that!' hissed someone from somewhere.

He looked around suspiciously. Obviously this person wanted to help him but he'd have liked to be able to see them.

'Who are you? Where are you?' he asked.

'Shhhh! Do you want them to hear us? And don't you recognise your own mother? I'm up here,' whispered Warren's mom.

Warren looked upwards and saw his mother suspended from the ceiling by some sort of rope gadget.

'What are you doing up there? And since when are you home? I haven't seen you in about a week!' Warren said in hushed tones as he stood up and leant on the doorframe. His legs were getting pins and needles and he didn't want them to fall asleep and meant he fell on the floor. 'And why are we whispering again?'

'I…I don't know. It seemed like a good idea at the time,' she whispered.

'Mom, you're still doing it,' Warren said, back in a normal tone.

'Oh, yeah. So anyway, I know I've been away a lot but I guess you saw what happened with your father. I couldn't come back even though I desperately wanted to. I knew you'd be starting school again soon so the staff would look after you. So finally I could get back here, in I walked and boom! I was straight up here and have been for,' she checked her watch, 'at least three hours. Luckily this thing isn't too uncomfortable. Anyway, the important thing is that you don't touch this ice stuff. It triggered whatever happened to me but I'm guessing this was meant for you. Your father and Benjamin used to play tricks like this all the time.'

'Benjamin? Who is Benjamin? And what does he have to do with dad?' asked Warren, screwing up his eyebrows in confusion.

'Benjamin is Ice T, the one who set your father free. They were best friends at Sky High but then your dad changed and so they drifted apart. I'm guessing Ice T needs something because I'm sure he wouldn't want anything to do with your dad otherwise.'

'Yes, because I hear dad is into helping people now,' Warren commented dryly from the doorway.

'Oh please Warren don't be like that. Anyway, you and I both know it'll be for something else. Ice T is not going to get something for nothing. Not from your father.'

'Warren! Warren are you ok?' called a voice from across the street.

'Uh, yeah Mr. Pudjanowski, I'm fine, just…thinking about something.' It was lame, he knew that but that was all he could come up with for why he was standing on his own doorstep.

'If you need any help, just call!' Mr. Pudjanowski toddled back into his own house, shaking his head at the strangeness of that boy. And the red highlights? Did boys really do that now? It wasn't like that in my day, he thought.

'So how, do you propose, do I get in? I can't stand here all night?' he asked.

'Well, I think it's just the foyer that's affected. Element of surprise and all that. Do you think you can get in at the back?'

'Please Mom, I think we both know I have no problem getting into houses,' he smiled, a rarity seeing as they were discussing his past record.

'Don't worry about the window honey!' she called as he made his way round to the back of the house.

'I won't!' he called back.

Crystal hummed a tune to herself as she wandered home. She'd managed to survive the first day of sophomore year – a good start she decided even though there was the whole detention thing. And it had been nice of Warren to come to her rescue, though it had been a little more violent than she'd have liked.

She got to the front door and went to open when it swung open. She smiled; her mom must have opened it for her. She pushed the door open and walked into the hallway, promptly finding herself upside-down looking at the floor which now looked pretty shiny.

'Mom!' she called. 'Hey, Mom?' Crystal was worried. Where was her mother? She had barely left the house since her father helped Baron Battle to escape. Crystal hoped she hadn't chosen today to have her first day out.

'Crystal?' came a faint cry from somewhere in the house.

'Mom! Where are you? I'm stuck in the hall. I can't get down from the ceiling. There's some sort of trapeze thing.'

'I know. I saw them do it. They hit me. Crystal…' her voice quivered. 'I think I'm bleeding. Help me, Crystal, please, help me.'

Crystal struggled with the elasticated ties that suspended her just below the ceiling, so worried for her mother's safety. What was wrong? What had happened to her? And how was she going to get down so she could help her mother? Crystal figured if she cut the ropes with light beams and hit the floor she'd just end up here again. She needed to get rid of the ice…

Warren's phone rang just after his mom had hung up on the window repairman. Unfortunately, the window replacement would cost $300 which, as it turned out, needn't have happened seeing as he could actually melt the ice covering the floor. However, it meant he hadn't had to use his powers in public so that was a good thing.

'Hello?' he said, picking up the phone and wandering into the den.

'Warren? It's Crystal.'

'Crystal? How did you get my number?'

'I kinda took it off your application form, just in case, you know. But anyway, that's not important right now.'

'Are you ok? You sound kinda weird.' At that precise moment Crystal was wriggling around in the bungee ropes, trying to extricate a leg that had got trapped somehow.

'Not really. I'm stuck. In bungee ropes at my house and there's this weird ice thing on the floor. And I really need to get to my mom, I think she's hurt and she's disabled and can't help herself. So I really need to get down but if I cut the ropes I'll just bounce back up and knowing my luck there'll be a second set of ropes.'

'So you've had a visit too then,' Warren muttered to himself.

'What?'

'We got it too, my mom thinks it was my dad and Ice T. You know, they guy who helped him escape.'

'Yeah, I know him,' Crystal said through gritted teeth. Her dad, why hadn't she thought of that before?

'Anyway, they iced my foyer as well and my mom was stuck on the ceiling for a few hours. But luckily, it does melt so I'll be over in a few minutes.'

She gave him her address and hung there waiting for Warren to arrive.

It was, just as he'd said, a few minutes later that he arrived but he wasn't alone. A woman, probably his mother, who was extremely elegant and seemed to ooze peace and tranquillity, accompanied him. Her chestnut hair was perfectly coiled on top of her head and she was dressed in a cream suit.

'Hi, I'm Mrs. Peace. When Warren said your mother might be hurt I thought I'd better come too. I'm good at calming people down. Shall I see if I can find her?'

Crystal nodded gratefully as Mrs. Peace walked along the path her son cleared for her.

'Hey,' he said.

'Hey,' she replied and watched him clear away the rest of the ice. When he'd cleared an area big enough for her to get down into he stopped.

'So, how are you going to get down?'

'Well, if I cut the ropes, do you think you can catch me? Are you any good at that sort of stuff?'

'Well I don't save damsels in distress that often but I'm sure I can catch you.'

'Right,' she said as she flipped over so she was lying in a sort of cradle of bungee ropes. 'I'm going to cut these and then you're going to catch me. If you drop me, you are so fired.'

'Ok,' he said in all seriousness.

Crystal sliced the ropes with two beams of light from her hands and then she was in Warren's arms. He held her for just a second before setting her down.

'Crystal!' called Mrs. Peace. 'I think you ought to be here!'

She ran down the hallway slipping slightly on the water left after the ice had melted and practically fell into her kitchen. The sight that met her eyes left her breathless. Her mother was lying on the floor with blood running from her head, surrounding her. It looked like she'd been left this way for some time. Mrs. Peace was sat next to her, holding her hand.

'Crystal, is that you?' her voice was so faint Crystal could barely hear it.

With tears streaming down her face she ran over to her mom, cradling her head in her lap.

'Someone call 911,' she whispered.

'I already did, they should be here any minute. Warren would you go and look out for them please?' replied Mrs. Peace. 'They'll be here soon, don't worry.'

'My mother is lying in a pool of her own blood, how can I not worry! It's ok Mom, just try not to move, the paramedics will be here soon and they can fix you up. I'll call Don as soon as I can. He'll need to know what happened.'

'Don?' questioned Mrs. Peace.

'You probably know him as Pulsar. He and my mom worked in the field together before she met my dad and all that. He runs the NVTS, the National Villain Tracking Service. But I expect you already knew that,' she said softly.

'Yes, I've met Pulsar. He helped with Warren's father and he's probably doing something about it now.'

Warren came back into the room accompanied by two paramedics, one male and one female.

'Ok, so what's your name?' asked the female one.

'Crystal, and this is my mom Jane,' she replied through sniffs.

'Ok, Crystal I'm Sue and this is Jake. We're going to have to ask you to move away from your mom for the moment so we can take a look at her. Is there anything about her we need to know? Any medications, anything like that?'

'She's disabled, paralysed from the waist down. She's on pain meds but only when she needs them, which isn't often. She's going to be alright isn't she?' Crystal stood next to her mother, her lap, part of her shirt and her hands were covered in her mother's blood and she was trembling slightly.

'We'll know more when we get to the hospital. She's lost a lot of blood but we'll do what we can.'

Jake fetched the gurney so they could take Crystal's mother to the hospital and they loaded her onto the ambulance.

'Do you want anyone to come with you?' asked Sue.

'Umm…' Crystal thought. She really wanted to be alone with her mother right now and no offence to Warren and his mother; she didn't really know them all that well.

'It's ok Crystal, we don't need to come. We could stop by with some clothes for you later if you want. You can't stay in those much longer,' said Mrs. Peace sensing Crystal's unease.

'Thanks, that would be nice of you,' she smiled gratefully as the ambulance doors banged shut and they drove off.

Mrs. Peace and Warren made their way back into Crystal's house.

'Warren, would you go round the house just to check there's no other signs of disturbance please?' Mrs. Peace asked her son. 'I'll get some clothes for Crystal and her mother.'

Warren nodded and wandered around the house. Everything seemed to be fine except for the giant pool of blood in the kitchen. He thought about cleaning it up but then reasoned that the NVTS would probably want to have a look at it first. He waited in Crystal's front room until his mom came back downstairs but while he did so, a picture caught his eye. Sitting on a sidetable, among a bunch of other photographs, was one of Crystal, her mother and, incredibly, Ice T all standing together in front of some statue. Crystal's dad was Ice T, the guy who had helped his dad break out of jail? No way, this was too weird.

'Mom! Are you done yet? There's something you need to see!'

Mrs. Peace stared at the photograph.

'Well that explains why they targeted this house as well then, doesn't it?' she said, not quite believing it.

'Yeah, so what are we going to do about it?'

'What can we do? Pulsar will know what to do. Poor Crystal, imagine having to cope with this all on her own. From the looks of it upstairs her dad hasn't been around for a while. He might have turned villainous some time ago and they wouldn't have known'

She sighed. 'Come on Warren, we better get these things to the hospital. I can't imagine they'd still be in the ER now.'

Mrs. Peace and Warren reached the small, private waiting room outside the theatre they'd been directed to and found Crystal sitting in an ugly orange chair, her clothes still covered in her mother's blood. She was staring silently at the floor, not moving. They approached quietly.

'Crystal? Are you ok?' Mrs. Peace asked quietly.

Crystal shook her head. 'The doctors thought they'd stabilised her but then she crashed and they had to take her back into the theatre. They think there's more damage than they initially found so they have to cut her open again.'

She dissolved into sobs and Mrs. Peace put an arm around her. Warren hung back, unsure of how to deal with this outburst of raw emotion. He sat on a chair opposite the two women and wondered how their fathers could have done this to a defenceless woman, let alone the mother of one of their children.

When Crystal's tears seemed to have subsided a little Mrs. Peace let her go and went to find some drinks and possibly someone who could tell them what was going on. Warren moved over and sat next to Crystal. She looked so fragile and exhausted. Her face was blotchy with crying and her hair hung limp and lifeless around her face.

'We brought you some clothes,' he offered as a way to break the silence, 'but I don't expect you're too bothered by that right now.'

'No, that's kind of you. I'd go change but I don't want to leave in case someone comes.'

'The washroom's just down the hall and if anyone comes I could always fetch you right away. It's not good for you to stay in these clothes, it's not healthy.'

She nodded grudgingly, took the bag he offered her and wandered down the hall. Mrs. Peace came back with drinks just after Crystal left.

'Where was she going?' she asked.

'To get changed, I persuaded her sitting in her mother's blood wasn't the best idea.'

'That's good. I always knew you were a sensitive boy Warren.'

'Don't get too used to it Mom. I couldn't be my usual self in this situation really could I?'

'No, I suppose not, but still, it's good to know you can be like this.'

Crystal returned just then in fresh clothes and with her hair tied back. She looked slightly better but her face looked gaunt as though this day had aged her dramatically. She slumped back down in the chair next to Warren.

'Thank you for doing this for me, it's really nice of you,' she said in an exhausted tone.

'Don't worry dear, it's no bother. Also, while I was gone I called Pulsar to let him know what was going on. Just so you didn't have to relay it all again. He said he'd send some people round to the house and offered to send someone here. I told him we were looking after you so he needn't bother. Was that alright?'

'Yes, thank you. I appreciate it.' She yawned and not surprisingly. It was almost midnight. She rested her head on Warren's shoulder and closed her eyes for a minute before she shivered and opened them again.

'It's so cold in here,' she complained. 'You'd think with all the sick people this place would be warmer.'

'I'll see if I can find some blankets,' said Mrs. Peace leaving Warren and Crystal in the waiting room. She leant her head on his shoulder again, the emotion of the day finally catching up with her. Carefully Warren picked up his leather jacket off the floor and draped it around Crystal as best he could without disturbing her. He held onto one of her hands and gently rested his head on her own before succumbing to sleep.

All in all, it had been a pretty exhausting day.

A/N: Please review! The next chapter will be up really soon, I hope! crosses fingers