Chapter 2 'The Long Way Down'
Magenta hopped onto the teacher's desk, biting her nails whilst trying to think.
So they already had their game plan: get to the library, grab the blueprints, find the anti-gravity device, and undo whatever Royal Pain did to it. Easier said than done since she and Zach already hit a snag trying to complete phase 1.
The thing about Sky High- there were so many fucking floors to the place. The administration was still in the process of putting in elevators- as if that were reliable when they're facing against a technopath. And not only were there were so many levels, the levels themselves were huge, it took them forever to even make it to the opposite wing as the gym, which she assumed.
Magenta knew that them being on the same floor as the gym, the chances of them getting caught by Gwen's goons were insanely high. And to get to the library, which was a couple floors down, they needed to find a way to the stairs.
Meanwhile, Zach had been trying to call the Super Federation for backup. He kept redialing but only to be met with automatic voices on behalf of the phone company. He slammed his phone shut, frustrated, "No use. Maybe it's the signal. Probably, too far out for my service provider or some bullshit the robot lady told me."
Magenta wrinkled her nose, "You'd think since we're much closer to their satellites or something we'd have more service,"
"Sorry,"
"Don't worry about it. Maybe we could try again in the library. They have a phone there too, right? Could maybe have some sort of high speed connection to the Feds?" She shrugged.
She knew she was reaching. There was only so many things she knew about the world of Supers in general, with only one of her parents being a Super and that being the parent she would rarely talk to.
Zach sighed, not wanting to be useless in this situation, especially when they didn't have that long to be sitting around trying to figure out how to even leave the classroom, leave this floor without getting detected. He managed to navigate them through the ventilation system. But barely.
The purple haired girl moved to stand on the desk, reaching for the open vent shaft they had popped from, "We need to figure out how to get to the library without being sniffed out by Gwen's goons."
"So we're using the vents again?" Zach tried his best to keep his trepidation at bay when asking.
Magenta nodded resolutely. She knew that the whole small, enclosed spaces were more her jam and for a towering giant such as Zach, it was a bit of a nightmare. But the vents got them out of trouble this far and was a good way to sneak around.
Zach understood it too and went to hoist Magenta up when he realized something, "But we barely navigated through them this time. We don't even know what room we're even in right now. They all look the fucking same" Zach shed his jacket in an attempt to cool down before he started thinking about getting anywhere near the vents again, "Wish we had a blueprint to find the blueprint, huh,"
At those words, Magenta remembered something. The classroom. They were in a classroom. She leapt off the desk and ran towards the door, towards what was laminated at velcroed to the back of the door in particular, "Zach, you genius."
"I am?" The blonde called out. Not sure why his wishful thinking was suddenly deemed helpful.
"Yeah you dipshit, come on look," His friend pointed to the laminate and motioned him forward, "Whenever disaster strikes, we follow the fire drill map."
And she thought he was the genius, for her to remember there was such a thing as a fire drill route for a high school when Zach completely forgot.
He scanned the map, now getting a better sense of where they were on campus. Turned out they were not as far away from the gym as they thought, but after looking over everything one more time, he was quick to point out a problem.
"It's only for this floor. The rest are the instructions on how to get to the top floor and onto the green,"
Magenta hummed in agreement. He squinted at the map trying to find a fix. He leaned over her shoulder to point at the star that marked the classroom, "But if that's us," he traced the hallway, rounding two corners on the map until he got to where it essentially ends, "And that's the nearest stairs right?"
He bopped his finger twice below the map to signify how many floors they need to clear to get to the library. He closed his eyes trying to remember how to get the library, whatever markers he could go off of to know where it would be mapwise.
"We know the library is two floors below this one, near the stairs-" He pointed to the set of stairs in the opposite direction"-that are near the cafeteria. I guess the east wing of the school," he read from the map, "Better if we went for those stairs in the vents. It would take longer-"
"-But better hidden than going down those stairs and booking it for the library," Magenta finished his thought. They weren't entirely sure if the only goons that were out there were just patrolling the hallways leading up to the floor where the buses are.
Magenta glanced up at Zach, whose arm was still hovering her small frame, quizzically.
Zach ducked his head, shrugging, "I play enough first person shooter games to know how to work a map."
"Impressive," she remarked, surprised, which earned a grin from the boy. It made him feel better about lying instead of confessing that he had been in the scouts when he was younger.
Then, Magenta reached out and ripped the map off the door, "So we take this with us. Find out how to get to the stairs through the vents and just sneak down to the library," "And, um," she looked around to find something to mark it up with. She ran to the whiteboard, one of the few whiteboards at the school, and grabbed the dry erase marker, "We track where we're going."
She handed the map to Zach, who had proven to be quite the navigator this evening, so she could hike up her skirt enough for her to climb onto the teacher's desk. She looked back at Zach, "Are you ready?"
As much as Zach wanted to stay in the shelter of the classroom, he knew that there wasn't anyone else un-Pacified that knew what they knew. And for them not to do anything about it, while their friends were in danger- Zach could live with the fear but not with the regret of having not done all that he could to save them.
He swallowed but nodded. He even checked the time. They had lost 5 minutes in their brainstorm session. Best not to waste anymore.
Zach joined her on the desk, awkwardly trying to see how he could help Magenta up to the hatch since she was too short to reach it, "Uh, do you mind if I just.. uh," Magenta peered down and saw that his hands were shakily floating over her waist.
This was not the time for them to be sweaty-handed, hormoned up teeanagers right now, but Magenta couldn't help but find it amusing that Zach thought to ask before he put his hands on her. It was kinda sweet.
"Um, uh yeah. For sure," she stumbled through her words, mirroring his nervous energy without meaning to. Zach went and grabbed her at the waist, "Uh, you better vault me like Swayze, Glowworm."
The reference pulled Zach out of his sweaty stupor. He chuckled lightly as he raised her up, getting swatted lightly by the puffiness of her dress. He tucked the marker into his pants pocket and the fire drill map into his mouth before hoisting himself into the vents.
Zach immediately glowed up once inside. He took out the map and the marker, already knowing which way to go. With their directions in order, they were crawling through the vents at max speed, going by much faster since their first tussle in this metal maze.
Every now and then they would both stop to peer out of the grates to check where they were or if they heard whenever someone had been walking by. Zach honestly couldn't for the life of him hear anything besides the sounds of their own breathing in their, but somehow Magenta was able to. Tapping him on the shoulder whenever they needed to stay still and be quiet, or for his case- dim down his green glow.
He wondered if that was part of her abilities. Did guinea pigs have super sensitive hearing? Maybe it was something to ask once this was all over. Maybe over dinner and a movie? He hoped. He prayed. If he could work up the courage to ask her out after all this. He was surprised he was quick to help with recon and sneaking past what could possibly be armed guards but would blanche at the thought of asking Magenta out on a date.
More like blanching at the thought of her completely rejecting him if he ever did. He would imagine her actually laughing at the idea of going out with him in front of all their friends…
Wow, what a way to boost morale, Zach, he thought to himself.
Overall, it took a couple minutes to reach the eastern stairwell. But once they arrived, the sight made Magenta's stomach plummet. They stopped in front of the low grate adjacent to the stairwell entrance but there were two more goons marching back and forth down the hallway. There was no way they could shimmy out of this grate without being seen.
"Shit. There goes our stair exit,"
"There has to be another way," It would just waste time trying to turn back now and see if they could try their luck on the other set of stairs. Zach extended his arm and was stunned to find that there was more tunnel in the direction of the stairs, "Over here."
They ended up crawling a bit more forward, to where, upon inspection of the upcoming grate, they were in the stairwell, but too high to jump down to the flight below them without making a lot of noise. Magenta stopped at the grate, looking down and immediately pressed her limbs flush against the vent walls, startled to see how high up they were.
"Holy fuck," her heart started to beat just a tad bit faster. Small spaces she could do- just not fucking heights. And she knew how funny that sounded coming from a girl who goes to a school thousands of feet above the ground, but she would never entertain the idea of walking to the edge of the school and simply look down. No. No way.
She took a second for herself to get her breathing under control before setting off after Zach, but she realized he had been rooted at the same spot ahead of her. Curious to why he had stopped, she went around to end up by his side. His arm shot out to keep her from going any further, once she looked down she was met by a dark, gaping hole that went down to wherever- hell, maybe?
Magenta's mouth went dry but she tried her best to form words at this point because the thought of almost falling forward down that shaft made her blood run cold, "Um… h-how far does that go down?"
"Down the floor below. I'm hoping,"
"You're hoping?" she hissed.
"Can't really stick my head down and see if that's the case," He reached downwards and had his arm emit a glow that didn't really reach far down. He then procured the dry erase marker they had been using, "Okay, we'll try something," He went and dropped it before Magenta could stop him. Zach quietly counted the seconds until they heard a clang, "That doesn't sound too far down." he deemed.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
"Still seems too far to me!"
"I'm gonna do it," Magenta's eyes widened at what Zach was referring to. Did he actually expect to jump down this dark chute? Not knowing how far down it was? And to somehow do it more quietly than hopping down from the grate onto the stairs below?
Zach lifted his head back, done inspecting the tunnel when he hit it against something on the top of the shaft. He craned his head to inspect what it was and saw a hook. An idea sparked. Zach's adrenaline kicked in and he wiggled his shoes off and handed them off to Magenta, along with the map. He knew it would cause some sort of ruckus getting down but what else could they do. Wait for the goons to leave?
His hands lowered towards his belt buckle, he threw a bashful look at Magenta, "Um.. I gotta… you know-"
Magenta backed up, scrunching her eyebrows together, "No! I don't know! What the hell are you-"
"I'm, uh, hold on" He uttered out while pulling his belt from the loops of his pants. He hung the buckle on the hook and let the belt hang, "I'm making rope." He sent out a silent thanks to his dad for fucking up his suit size and fucking up even more getting a matching belt. He had to poke holes in these to get them to fit. He gauged that their makeshift rope was close to 4 feet.
"That's not gonna get you all the way down,"
"Better this than jumping down," He tugged on the belt and it seemed to be sturdy enough. He figured the hook was meant to be there for maintenance, so it was bound to hold the weight of someone propelling down shafts like these.
He took a deep breath before making his descent, despite the contest protests coming from Magenta. Clearly lacking Stronghold strength, he shakily climbed down his leather belt with the upper body strength that he had, clutching on real tight, concerned that his butterfingers would blow it for him. Once he had reached the end of the belt, he knew that he had to make the daring jump.
Okay here goes nothing.
Then he let go.
He hit the ground sooner than he thought, crouching down into a squat, rattling the vents. He kept still even though it was no use if he couldn't hear the way Magenta could.
"Zach?" He heard Magenta's timid whisper echo down.
He cupped his hands to match her low tone, "I'm okay!" he reassured into the shaft. "Not so bad!"
"Easy for you to say, you're a bean pole, the ground is closer for you than me right now!" He could tell she was tense.
And she was. She definitely was. Knowing that Zach couldn't see her, she cowered away from the shaft, clinging against the walls. She didn't want Zach from jumping down because then she knew that she would have to do the same soon enough and she couldn't have that.
"I'll catch you," she heard him say.
"It might make too much noise," she made an excuse. But it was a good one.
"Please, Maj? We need to go now,"
"But-but-"
She can hear him let out a contemplative sigh. He was cooking up an idea, "Do you have anything on you that you can tie onto the belt? Make the rope longer for you?"
Magenta knew she should have brought a purse or something to this fancy event, but she wasn't sure what to give up for the rope. Her arm warmers for tonight had more inches on them than her usual day-to day ones. But then she remembered she was wearing her stockings tonight.
Thankful that Zach was gone, she went to slip off her boots and then her stockings, "Incoming," she warned before tossing him both their shoes, one by one. She didn't hear any significant noises so she assumed he was able to catch them all.
She brought up her mesh stockings to her face, stretching it- unsure of its integrity when holding up the weight of a teenage girl who may be in way over her head. But she didn't wanna make a jump. Not at all. She tied it to the end of the belt, tugged her arm warmers in a way to expose her palms, and she began the descent.
She had been shaking more than Zach did when he had made his way down. She scaled down the belt part slowly, not wanting to slip. It had been going well, she could hear Zach give encouragement from below, taking in comfort hearing his voice getting louder and seeing his green glow get brighter the more she climbed. But once she grabbed stockings she could feel it slide down the belt from where she tied it.
She let out a panicked noise which got Zach to rise, peering up to see what's going on, "Maj?"
The shapeshifter immediately went back to clutching at the belt, "No, no, no, no." she whimpered softly to herself.
From what he gathered, by not having a body crashing onto him, Zach knew she was still hanging on and whatever she had tried to attach to the belt was not working. He could hear her getting more and more scared and he so badly wanted to reach up there and get her but he couldn't. He needed for her to trust him because there was only one way down.
"Maj, please. You're gonna have to let go,"
"B-But-"
"I got you. I promise,"
Magenta let out a shaky breath, struggling to keep herself up especially in her heightened state. It was hard to think logically because all she could think about was not wanting to fall. But Zach was right there… Zach- her friend. Much like Layla, Ethan, and Will. Who needed their help right now.
She remembered what they were doing. Why she even climbed into this dark shaft in the first place. It was for them. For the fucking school. Because she wanted to live to see senior year. She knew she wasn't going to die down this vent shaft… It was either her falling or the whole school-
Her body seemed to make the choice for she did, not being able to hold on anymore. The fall was quick but not necessarily painless. She had forgotten to give a warning to Zach because he soon had an armful of Magenta before they both collapsed onto the vent floor. The impact from them falling was more powerful than when Zach had jumped, so much so that the shaft they fell into started to rock.
They felt the vibrations and braced themselves when all of the sudden the tunnel where their feet were, caved in and they were sliding out of the shaft and into the open air.
Zach remembered being in the vent one minute and out the next. He was still on his back, from trying to catch Magenta. They were on a platform of some kind, his eyes fluttered open to see a section of the vent broken off in a sort of decline which explained how they slid down so safely.
He couldn't make out where they were, it was too dark and he had powered down at one point during their crash landing. There seemed to be no static of walkie talkies or the sound of footsteps heading their way, so it was safe to say- somehow the goons did not hear what just happened.
There was something pressing on him.
He propped himself on his elbows, glowing in the process, only to be met with locks of purple hair tickling his chin. Magenta was still on top of him, grabbing onto his shirt tightly, eyes still closed. He had already been breathing hard from the whole ordeal but he nearly stopped breathing at seeing Magenta so still, a vast contrast from how much he could tell she was shaking when speaking to him only moments before.
"Maj," He was relieved when he could feel her breathing against him but he tried nudging her, "Are you okay? Can you hear me?"
It was silent for a moment before Magenta tentatively cracked an eye open, "Is it over?" she murmured.
Zach exhaled, hand at his heart, relieved to see that she was okay, "It is. Are you okay?"
She slowly raised her head to look at him, still a bit disheveled from the fall, strands of hair pressed against her face, "Me? You're the one who took the blow."
"Just my butt," He said after being more aware of a slight soreness on his lower back and below.
The girl vehemently shook her head, ashamed, "I'm so sorry. I should have gotten over myself and just jumped in the first place. And I should have told you."
"What? No, no. It was my fault. You were clearly not into it,"
"It's just…" she trailed off.
"You're afraid of heights?" Zach assumed, "But, we go on a flying school bus everyday..."
"There's… seatbelts…" she defended, "It's like being on a plane. It's different than… being up high all by yourself."
Zach could tell there was something more to this, "Did something happen?"
"Um… maybe there was a time when I climbed a tree… as a guinea pig…,"
"Didn't know guinea pigs could climb,"
"It's because they can't,"
Magenta had never told that story before to anyone. But she had been injured pretty bad from that incident, wore casts on her arms- kinda the reason she would be sporting arm warmers even in the summer… to hide the scars…
Zach tried to ease the distress, rubbing her arm soothingly, "But you're safe now."
Magenta gazed at Zach, not getting distracted by the green emanating from him. He did what he said, even though he might not have been totally ready for it- but he was there to catch her. She was aware that she had been captaining their entire endeavor tonight, tugging Zach along and trying to be the calmer and braver one of the two because that was the way it had been since school started. But her calm and bravery expired the minute she was faced with her own personal fear tonight.
She was grateful that Zach remained cool during the situation, not taking the time to poke fun at her or even judge her for being too chicken.
"Thanks, Zach,"
He gave a sincere smile, "Anytime."
He turned his head, trying to check their surroundings which jarred them back to the present moment. He couldn't really see clearly, could barely move his upper body because Magenta was still on top of him.
Upon noticing the way they were oriented, Zach coughed trying to dislodge whatever spit he was choking on because Magenta was literally straddling him at the moment and it took him a while to see that, "Um… could you, uh, move?"
Magenta now coming to her senses, grew red in the face, and went to try and get up and get down… on what again?
"Where are we?" She inspected the platform they were on. It seemed to be made of wood and was narrow enough to hold a teenage boy lying down and sturdy enough to hold the teenage girl on top of him as well, "It's a shelf." she concluded, reaching below her and could feel the spines of books against her fingertips.
"A shelf?" Zach echoed. He assisted Magenta in… urgh, dismounting… and helping her get to the floor safely. He went after her, and stretched out his arms so he could see more of the area. He eventually hit a wall and started clawing around until he found a light switch.
The room revealed itself to the two which turned out to be a small, semi-cramped space, with the only furniture being a bookshelf with encyclopedias and a table with chairs. Magenta recalled this being a study room. A room that she and her friends had made use of during their study sessions. There were like 3 of them… all at the-
"Library," Zach burst through the door of the study room and flipped the switch at the nearest wall. In seconds, rows and rows of bookshelves flooded their vision, "No fucking way!"
What dumb luck they had, crashing into the library, of all places. But it had been possible, now thinking about the map. The library was near the stairs, as in right beside the staircase, so it made sense that the ventilation system they were in was the same one right above a study room.
The blonde was bouncing around, to confirm that, yes, they ended up exactly where they needed to be. The beloved, spacious grounds for reading, sleeping, and making out- Magenta had never been more relieved to see books in her entire life.
She rushed forward, helping Zach switch on the lights so they could see everything better, "Okay, what now? You said, something about the archives?"
"Oh yeah," They crossed the large space, weaving through the tables and shelves until they got to a series of large metal filing cabinets in an alcove behind the circulation desk. There had to be five sets of these three-drawered cabinets to go through.
"How much time do we have?"
Zach flipped open his phone, "Shit we got like 23 minutes."
They both flew into a frenzy, pursuing through the labels until they found the drawer that might have the relevant information. To their dismay when they tugged the drawer open, they encountered a shitload of documents waiting to be rifled through.
"We better get digging then,"
A/N:
If there are any discrepancies in the timing of the situation, I already know that I'm reaching here that they do all they need to do before the 40 minutes run out. But trust me, if you cut out my wordy expositions, they would appear to operate much faster.