Hidden away, Barron and Benjamin watched the radar monitor for the first beep that would alert them to Sky High's position. Luckily for them the school moved only once every 24 hours and not constantly like some of the schools they knew about.
'Are you sure this is going to work?' asked Benjamin tentatively.
'What?' snapped Barron. 'Of course I am! Don't be so impatient Benjamin. You'll have to do a lot more waiting before the day is out but when the action starts it will be glorious.'
Disgruntled, Benjamin sloped off to get some coffee but was stopped in his tracks when he heard the long awaited sound. He moved swiftly back to the monitoring desk and saw the green dot showing Sky High's position for the day.
If Barron was excited he didn't show it. His face remained blank except for the eyes that had lit up and you could almost see his brain working if you stared into the bottomless eyes.
On the campus the busses had only been touched down a few minutes but Warren had already received several looks of fear and apprehension but also some of respect. He had to admit, it was a nice change not to be met with fear everywhere he went. As his bus had emptied Crystal had waved to him as she went with her friends to her first lesson. She'd looked sorry she was abandoning him but he was fine with it. Honestly, he preferred it to being dragged round like a show piece.
As he followed her to History (after all, they did share the same lessons) he was relieved to be back at school. Despite the fact he had no friends here except Crystal, he was looking forward to having something to do other than baby-sit a depressed teen. While she'd needed him it had been fine but it had become irritating towards the end and he knew he needed a rest.
'Warren, Crystal, welcome back,' said Mrs. Jay.
Mrs. Jay was almost as old as Nurse Spex and was a retired superhero. She'd been active from the 1960s until the 1980s when she'd had to retire from active service. There couldn't be any active superheroes that were over 40 because it had been decided they couldn't fight as effectively as the younger ones, which was, unfortunately, true. Her white hair was twisted up in a perfect chignon and her pince-nez perched on the end of her nose.
She issued them with their textbooks and started the lesson.
'Warren and Crystal, this term we are studying some of the most notorious villains of the past 100 years. It is important you know about these enemies because villains today still use some of the tried and tested methods of villainy. This lesson we will start with the villains of World War One. Now, as you all know…'
A familiar sinking feeling came over Warren as Mrs. Jay continued with the lesson. Studying the villains of the past 100 years meant they would have to learn about his father at some point and that was a lesson he was not looking forward to.
The day rambled on and both Warren and Crystal collected increasing amounts of catch-up work from various classes including so many textbooks from their Geography lesson that, between them, they were sure they were carrying around an entire tree.
Finally, they reached their last lesson of the day, English, and they were greeted by the twittering of Miss Avis. She'd been a sidekick in the late 1980s and could turn into several species of small bird.
'Ah, Mr. Peace and Miss Lucere, so glad you have returned. You must both see me at the end of the lesson to collect the work you have missed out on. This term we are studying texts of the 21st century. To maintain your façade for the outside world you must have knowledge of general things.'
'What does it matter if we do or don't?' called out Lash. 'We'll be saving everyone's butt almost everyday. Who cares if we know the best books of the past six years?'
'Some of us are actually interested in this sort of thing you know! You're not going to be a superhero 24-7!' retorted Layla.
'Thank you Miss Dianthe, that's enough from you. And as for you Mr. Talaris, you can see me at the end of the lesson as well for a word about your behaviour.'
It was only after Miss Avis had given out the assignments for that lesson that Crystal felt her leg twinge.
'Ow,' she muttered, rubbing her leg under the table.
'What is it?' whispered back Dara.
'I caught my leg on some brambles on the way to school and it's just sore, that's all,' she replied.
'Let me look,' said another girl at their table who had a secondary power of healing. She'd made hero because, ironically, she could drain energy from anything, including people, which meant they would die.
Crystal showed her leg to the girl who gasped and recoiled from the leg. The silver that had been placed into her bloodstream had formed some sort of barrier while the surrounding area was red and inflamed.
'This is way beyond me. You need to see Nurse Spex,' said the girl.
'Girls,' said Miss Avis in a weary tone, 'what is all the fuss?'
'Crystal's leg is really messed up. She needs to go to the Nurse,' said Crystal.
'So I see,' said Miss Avis, backing away slightly. 'Very well, here is a hall pass. You better take your things. I'm sure Mr. Peace is capable of bringing your work to you.'
Crystal limped into Nurse Spex's office and showed her the leg.
'Well dear, that is a mystery. And you say you only got scratched by some thorns? Well let's take a little look then,' she said, removing her glasses.
'Hmm, curious,' she said, putting them back on.
'What? What's curious?' asked Crystal nervously.
'I can't see through this metal. And my vision can penetrate lead so there's something not quite right here. We'd better visit Principal Powers.'
They arrived at the principal's office just a few minutes later and entered a room dominated by a giant mahogany desk.
'Hello Nurse Spex, Crystal. I'm not saying it's not nice to see you back in school Crystal but what seems to be the problem?'
So again, Crystal explained her story to the Principal who was most perplexed. She called in Mr. Medulla to examine the metal who concluded that this would appear to be the work of an enemy because, clearly, this was not natural. On seeing Crystal's worried face, Principal Powers tried to reassure her.
'Don't worry dear. You might not know this but after school, Sky High is hosting a meeting for superheroes around the globe. There's over a thousand attending and some of them are very gifted with science and medicine. I'm sure there will be somebody who can help you. If you remain behind at the end of the day I'll see what I can do. Now you must excuse me. I need to remind the bus drivers to park at the back of the building.'
She disappeared in a flash of light just as the bell for the end of the day rang. After calling Tullia to let her know she'd be late home and possibly Warren too, she sat glumly outside the Principal's office hoping she wouldn't have to wait too long for her leg to be fixed.
'Crystal? What are you still doing here?'
A voice jolted her out of her thoughts. She looked up to see Layla, Will, Dara and Ethan standing in front of her with Warren a little way behind.
'Principal Powers thinks there may be someone coming to this big superhero thing tonight who can help with my leg,' she said. 'What about you? All the busses will have gone by now.'
'I know,' replied Layla. 'We're helping tonight. Ushering and pointing people in the right direction. That sort of thing.'
'Oh, right. Well at least I'll have someone to talk to when I'm not being pointed at and prodded over then,' she said smiling.
The group moved on to the entrance to the school to greet the superheroes except Warren who hung back.
'I've got your books,' he said gruffly, holding them out to her.
'Thanks,' she said.
They stood in the hallway for a moment in an awkward silence before Warren spoke.
'I'm sorry about your leg. We should have looked at it this morning. I just wasn't having a good morning.'
'It's fine. I didn't notice it til English and I could have done something about it earlier but I didn't. So let's not place blame, yes?'
He nodded.
'Right, let's go and accost heroes into helping a teen in distress then,' she said.
He smiled a wry smile behind her back and followed her down the hallway. As he did so, he couldn't help noticing how cute she looked in her little pink skirt and white wraparound top. He shook the thought from his head and carried on to the hall. If he'd only looked out of the window he would have seen something large, dark and very worrying.