Mrs. Peace had just left and Crystal sat on the floor of her room wiping her eyes with the hem of her dress. She surveyed her room and was gratified to see that not too much damage had been done. She moved her father's note to the dresser and picked up her mother's letter that she'd hidden under the mirror. She settled herself on the bed and prepared herself for what was in store.

Dear Crystal,

If you're reading this, this means I died while you are still young because in this letter I will tell you everything I would have told you myself when you got old enough to hear it. But, as it is, it is important for you to know these things so you can carry on with your life.

Crystal you have to know that your father and Baron Battle were friends at Sky High, best friends in fact, practically inseparable but after Baron turned evil, your father disowned him. ('Bit late there Mom,' Crystal thought.)

But there is something else you must also know Crystal. When Baron Battle turned against the superhero community, your father almost went with him. He was seduced by the power offered to him by Baron and the only thing that stopped him going was you. He could never refuse you anything sweetheart and, even though I hate to say this, you may have to use that to your advantage one day. If your father ever joins Baron Battle the likelihood of him coming for you is extremely high and so, if you ever have to fight him, remind him that he is your daddy and you worry about him. As harsh as that may seem Crystal and dishonourable too, please don't be afraid to do it if you really have to.

Don't be ashamed about this Crystal and whatever you do, please don't hide it when it really matters. When you hide things people don't trust you and I can tell that you will need people around you who trust you and vice versa. Never lose anyone through lying Crystal, it is one of the hardest things to come back from, because after that, the trust is gone.

Darling, I can't imagine how you must be feeling right now but I want you to know that I love you so much and I will always be there to watch over you, no matter what happens.

I know there is so much I probably missed out on, your first date, first kiss, your graduation and I know I will miss your wedding and I am so sorry Crystal that I've left you to deal with all this by yourself. You might hate me for leaving you and I understand this but remember, as long as you think about me, I will always be around, guiding you and seeing those special moments in your life. You will never be alone.

I'm going to finish writing now because otherwise I'm going to start crying and ruin the letter but I leave you with the knowledge that one day you will be a great superhero and do so much good for the world. Catch a bag guy for me sweetie,

Love, Mom xxx

Crystal stared at the letter, tears rolling down her face as she heard the echoes of her mom's voice disappear in her head. She had never felt so alone in the world. Her mom was gone and her dad was holed up somewhere with Baron Battle planning goodness knows what.

But her mom's words rang in her head, Never lose anyone through lying, and she knew she had to set things straight with Warren. He had been so supportive and it wasn't right that she'd treated him that way. She had to sort this out; no matter how scared she was or how likely it was they'd get in a fight. But first she'd get changed, just in case.

Warren was lying on his floor surrounded by the devastation left by his father. His mom had just yelled at him, which hadn't helped his furious mood, and then she'd sent him to his room saying it didn't matter if he trashed it, it would have to be re-done anyway. He stared up at the black ceiling as the last of the sunlight filtered through the trees creating a dappled light effect across his face.

He was definitely not looking forward to school on Monday. He was way behind with his classes but more importantly there would be no opportunities for him to avoid Crystal. They shared all their classes and while he could avoid speaking to her for some time, he was pretty sure that she'd try and talk to him about his attitude towards her sooner or later. However, that conversation came even sooner than he was expecting.

'Warren?' came a quiet voice accompanied by a soft knock on the door.

'What?' he growled, attempting to make it clear he had no desire to converse just then.

'I want to know what's going on,' she said in a voice that she hoped sounded much braver than she felt.

'What do you mean?' he asked, still with his back to her.

'You, acting like you did after the funeral. What did I do wrong?'

'Were you not listening then? Did you not hear me explicitly spell it out for you?'

He got up off the floor and turned to face her.

'I heard you shouting a lot of stuff about me not telling you who my dad was when I moved in but at that time I didn't really think about it. It wasn't exactly my priority,' she said in a measured tone, trying not to get angry herself.

'So after you'd had time to think didn't you realise it would be a good idea to tell us that it was your dad who had teamed up with my dad for some unknown reason. You see, before we rescued you my mom told me that she had known Ice T at school when he was friends with my dad but that was it. And you didn't think it would be a good idea to mention who your dad was?' he said, getting louder as he went on.

'I was ashamed Warren!' she shouted. 'I thought that if anyone understood what it was like to feel shame about your -.'

'Don't you dare say it! I am not ashamed of my father! I know he's done some bad stuff, really bad, I'm not stupid, but am I ashamed? Hell no! He went out fighting, by himself, against the best superhero of the day! I am not ashamed of my father and how dare you assume so!'

Up until this moment Warren had been able to keep his flames under control. He knew he could trash his room but all the same, he'd rather not but now he didn't care anymore. She had insulted his father and no one got away with that, not even a girl.

Without warning flames erupted from his arms, the small flicker in his eyes now grew larger and the ends of his hair began smoking. He looked demonic almost as he stared at her with such rage that Crystal backed up for a moment before preparing herself for a battle.

Warren shot a line of fire towards her, singeing her hair slightly. She recoiled slightly but wasn't going to back down now. Maybe Warren just needed to let all of it out. She shot back a probe of her own, which he dodged.

'Are we really going to do this?' she asked.

Warren didn't answer, maybe he didn't hear, and he shot a fireball straight at her. She dropped to the floor and sent a beam of light at him from her position on the ground, which he avoided, sending a stream of fireballs at her. She rolled from side to side managing to avoid all of them except one that caught her elbow.

She cried out in pain and downstairs Mrs. Peace looked up from the book she was reading. She knew they were fighting and resolved to keep an ear open in case the fight got any more severe. If that was the case she could always sort them out.

Crystal sat nursing her elbow behind an old sofa, defending her position from the corner of Warren's room with light streams but they weren't as strong as they could have been. To be fighting at her optimum level she needed the use of both hands but right now she couldn't straighten her elbow and she needed all her concentration to stay alive against Warren.

He was on the other side of his room attempting to shoot fireballs around the sofa to get at Crystal. No thoughts ran through his mind. It was as if his body was acting independently of reason and he just kept firing even though he could hear her cries. In a weird way, they almost spurred him on. He wanted to see how far it would go before one of them would crack.

In her corner Crystal was getting tired. Soon she would have to give up but what the consequences of that would be she dreaded to think. As she sat, flinching at every fireball that landed close to her, she slowly became aware of warmth on her neck. She looked down to see the orange gem in her mother's necklace glowing and she remembered the properties it held. 'But was there enough sunlight left?' she wondered.

Bravely she poked her head out and saw the sun had not yet set, meaning she could still draw on its power. Unsure of what to do next, she stuck her hand out towards the window opposite her and willed the sun's power to her – what else could she do?

But it worked, she could feel its warmth and power running through her and she shot a powerful, concentrated bolt of light straight at Warren. He tried to avoid it but he was tired too and it clipped him on the shoulder, spinning him round.

Taking advantage of his momentary weakness and feeling empowered, Crystal came out from behind the sofa and threw herself at Warren. She wasn't sure of the reasoning behind it but something within her knew that he needed to be brought back from whatever place he'd gone to that made him so ruthless.

He landed flat on his back, winded, but looked into her eyes with his own that were filled with fire. What he saw he wasn't sure but it made the flames dim slightly. Nevertheless, he threw her off and a physical battle ensued. Although Warren was bigger and stronger, Crystal had the moves taught to her by Coach Boomer and some extra lessons in self-defence she'd taken in case she was ever attacked. This seemed as good a time as any to use them.

Time passed in which punches were thrown, landed and missed; bodies and the nearest things to hand were tossed around the room and the two teenagers became increasingly exhausted. They were too evenly matched but neither would give in. They were mid-tackle when something happened that blew them apart.

Mrs. Peace was standing in the doorway of Warren's room looking as angry as either of them had ever seen her.

'Warren! Crystal! Now I let this continue as long as I felt necessary for you two to work out your issues with each other but this has gone far enough! Brawling on the floor! Crystal, quite frankly I expected better of you. And as for you Warren, fighting with a girl? This really is a new low. Men and boys your own age I can accept but attacking a girl is something I thought I'd brought you up to abhor, not to participate in! Now look at the mess you have made!' she finished gesturing to the bombsight behind them that had been a bedroom just under an hour ago.

There were piles of smoking things everywhere; scorch marks on the walls and Warren's sofa was destroyed. Black dust hung in the air and the wardrobe door was hanging off its hinges from when Warren had thrown Crystal into it.

'Now I don't care how tired you are but you are going to tidy this up this instant. There will be no rest until you do, I shall make sure of that!'

And with that she stormed out of the room only to return five minutes later with bin liners and a bowl of hot soapy water and cloths.

'Trash in here, clean with this and I don't want to hear a word of protest. I could ground you but what good would that do? This makes much more sense. Go on,' she said, 'get on with it!'

After a moment or two they got up off the floor, aching all over and slowly got to work. Wordlessly Warren dumped the smouldering contents of his room into black trash bags while Crystal washed down the paintwork, the windows and everything else that had got covered in soot.

After a while, the silence became awkward. They were running out of things to tidy and soon, Crystal knew she would have to go back to her room and this thing with Warren wouldn't be resolved. She was thinking desperately of what she could say to him but was saved this trouble by the gruff tones coming from the far side of the room.

'We need to sort this out,' he said.

'Your room's almost done,' she said, slightly confused.

'Not the room,' he replied through what sounded like gritted teeth. 'You, me, living here. There can't be this thing between us, this uncertainty, cos it's gonna start affecting my mom. She's sensitive to these things.'

'Oh right,' said Crystal, blushing, 'yeah I know what you mean. So what do you propose?'

'Well let's get a few things straight first. Generally I am not a nice guy. What happened with you was an exception and I think that put us on a weird footing. So from now on, I'm going to go back to being the normal me; sullen, untalkative and prone to angry outbursts. I'm still angry at you for what you did -.'

Crystal opened her mouth to protest but was cut off.

'Let me finish. I'm still angry but while we're at home I'll try to keep a lid on it. I know some of it is because you brought my dad back into my life, I'm not stupid, but it doesn't stop me being pissed at you. Ok, now you go.'

'I understand that you're angry and I accept my responsibility for that. I shouldn't have lied. So, hopefully, eventually we'll get past this. At school I'll keep out of your way. I should probably pay attention to my friends anyway. I checked my voicemail earlier and found forty messages. I guess they feel neglected.'

She trailed off and another silence ensued.

'So, are we good?' she asked hesitantly.

'As good as we can be,' he replied. 'We better get this stuff to the garage.'

She went to pick up a bag but, without thinking, used her injured arm. She cried out in pain, dropping the bag on the floor.

'What's matter?' he asked.

'It's my arm, it got hurt when we were fighting,' she said, showing it to him.

'Oh, sorry,' he replied. 'Don't worry about the bags. I'll take them down. My mom might be able to help you with your arm. But this is the last nice thing I'm doing for you ok?'

She nodded gratefully and made her way to the kitchen while Warren emptied his room of all his stuff.

Meanwhile, across town, in a hideout under Maxville mountain range, the two fathers watched on monitors as their children scrubbed and tidied and went about their business.

'Well I didn't expect a reconciliation so soon Battle, is your son going soft?' said Ice T to Baron Battle.

'My son? Like hell iceman. Make another comment like that and I'll deny you the ray for a week,' replied the Baron, his eyes steely.

'What? No, Baron, you wouldn't do that! I'm so nearly there! Didn't you see what I did to that building in London?' said Ice T, a slight panic audible in his voice.

'Yes, but I also saw that you helped those two people escape before you encased the entire building in ice. What happened there?' he said accusingly.

'I…don't know. But I do know I need to be more powerful. Come on Baron, you wouldn't deny your old friend, would you?' he said desperately.

'You're right. I think it's safe to use the ray again, come on.'

The two of them walked over to a room set into the wall of the mountain and Ice T went in and sat on the chair situated below a giant ray gun.

'Ready?' asked Baron.

Crystal's father nodded. Baron signalled to the operator to start the ray and muttered in his ear, 'Add the conversion ray again, he's starting to lapse into his heroic ways again.'

A/N: Another chapter done! I hope you guys enjoy it and review, even if it's a couple of words!