Disclaimer: I don't own Sky High.

Read on, oh faithful ones...

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Chapter Thirty Three

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It was a whole week before Layla was able to get back into the Mayor's office and inspect the Beast again. She'd organised the plan with Warren at the Hive that weekend, and he was currently downstairs distracting Dave while she slipped into the Mayor's office.

Layla opened the bottom drawer of the Beast, and ignoring the black box sitting on the bottom of the drawer, she reached back pulled the false panel off instead. The small red glow she'd seen last week now illuminated the entire drawer, and in the odd light, Layla could see that the black box was actually an access panel, with a hand scanner on the left and a number pad on the right. She shuddered, extremely glad that she hadn't touched the box. Being caught red-handed trying to open whatever this accessed would lead straight to a cell in Maxville Super Penitentiary, no matter how innocent she claimed to be.

She might be able to guess the numbers, but without the Mayor's hand print, Layla doubted she'd ever access what was hidden within the Beast. Layla wondered if the Mayor would notice if she tried to cut his hand off. Hmm, probably; even he wasn't that dense.

Closing the drawer, Layla headed back out to her desk and packed her bag to go home. There was no use hanging about trying to get into something that was beyond her reach at the moment. Heading down to the foyer, Layla smiled at Warren brightly, and thanked Dave for keeping her boyfriend company.

"Oh, not a problem. Always nice to have someone to talk to once in a while," Dave said with a quick nod.

"You have a good night, Dave," Layla said, Warren shaking his hand in farewell and following her outside.

Neither one spoke on the way to the bus stop, and Layla tried to think of a way to get the Mayor's handprint without raising anyone's suspicions or costing her a small fortune. She had no way of making a copiable gelatine handprint, and doubted the Mayor would touch it even if she did. Besides, Layla suspected that sort of thing only worked in movies.

"What did you find out?" Warren asked, wrapping his arm around her shoulder when they reached the bus stop.

"That we're going to need a lot more time than just a few minutes while Dave's distracted," she muttered, sighing. "That black box I told you about is actually an access panel. Handprint and code required. I have no idea how we're going to get the Mayor's handprint, even if we do work out the code."

Warren didn't reply, but was obviously thinking about what she'd said.

"Craig," he said suddenly. "He owes you a favour, doesn't he?" Warren asked, grinning.

"He already helped out with the lottery ticket, so he doesn't owe anything to us. Yet," Layla added, trying to think of a way to get a favour from Craig without him asking questions.

"We could just make him a permanent marker," Warren replied. "That way we don't have to bribe him every time we need something."

"Yeah, that would make it easier. But how do we make him permanent? We've only just got Ethan and Zach on board."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I doubt we'll be able to figure out that access panel's code in the next week, or even month. We're not even going to be ready to deal with whatever's in there with only us, Ethan, Zach, and maybe Honey. What we need is time, and now that the Mayor's been re-elected, time is definitely on our side. I say we leave it for now, work on things that we can actually handle, and then go back to it when we're ready."

Layla smiled up at him brightly. "I love it when you think of the bigger picture."

Warren grinned and pulled her close, kissing her heatedly. He heard the bus coming up over the hill and flagged it down, not moving away from Layla until it came to a complete stop beside them. The bus driver gave them a nod, starting to recognise them as regulars, and actually waited until they were seated before driving back onto the road.

...

Heidi was bored. She had finished her homework, didn't feel like watching TV, and she'd already read every good book in the house. Zach was out with Ethan, her parents were at work, and as far as Heidi was concerned, there was absolutely nothing for her to do. Deciding to go out for the day - she'd leave and be back before anyone could find out - Heidi grabbed her things, turned her hearing aid on, and left the house. She made sure to lock the door before heading to the bus stop down the street.

The mall wasn't Heidi's most favourite place, especially since people seemed to knock into each other already, without taking into account that she couldn't hear them properly to get out of the way. She usually didn't go somewhere so busy without Zach, since he could help her calm down, but she didn't have that choice today. Heidi headed inside, trying to decide whether she should spend some of her saved money to watch one of the closed captioning movies at the cinema, or if she should just browse the toy store and pretend she could buy whatever she wanted. Figuring the toy store was a safer option - she didn't want to be out too long in case Zach or her parents came home to find her not there - Heidi headed in the direction of the store, keeping her eyes alert on the people around her.

Up ahead Layla and Warren exited a store, Warren's arm around her waist as Layla chatted away about something. They were both carrying bags filled with what looked to be pots and pans, and as Heidi hurried closer and really concentrated on what their lips were saying, she realised that Layla was talking about plate patterns. Heidi wasn't concentrating on the people around her properly, her gaze focused on Layla and Warren, and she didn't hear when a store's door opened to the side of her, two people stepping out. Heidi knocked into them, all three going flying, and drawing the attention of passersby when the other two let out a string of curses. Layla and Warren hurried over when they saw Heidi, and helped her up as the man and woman stood up, cursing at Heidi for her ineptitude, attitude, and whatever else they could think of. Heidi shrank in on herself, and the store's fluorescent sign began to flicker brightly.

"Calm down, dude, she's deaf and didn't hear you coming out of the store," Warren said, glaring at the older man.

"Are you okay, Heidi?" Layla asked clearly, moving slightly so she was on eye-level with her.

Heidi nodded, signing thank you to Layla then turned to the couple and signed an apology, trying to look as contrite as possible.

"She's apologised, and it was an accident. Nothing's broken, you and your girlfriend are both fine, and that sort of language is really not necessary. Please apologise," Layla added sternly, her arm wrapped around Heidi's shoulder.

The man went a bright shade of red when he realised the size of the crowd that had gathered. He muttered something under his breath that had Layla tightening her hold on Heidi, and Warren stepped forward.

"That wasn't an apology."

"Sorry," he said louder, but not at all believable. He grabbed his girlfriend's arm and pulled her away, the rest of the crowd dispersing when they saw that Heidi would be all right.

"Huh, look at that."

"What?" Layla asked Warren, frowning.

"We did something good and no camera crew turned up!" he said, snorting.

"Don't jinx it. Where were you planning on going, Heidi?" Layla asked, smiling at her.

Heidi just shrugged and fixed her hearing aid. "Nowhere, really."

"Well, in that case, want to come with us? We've just bought a bunch of new things and need to try them out," Layla said, holding up her bags with a grin.

Heidi nodded quickly. She didn't care where they were going, just so long as it was far away from here.

Layla grinned again and offered Heidi her hand, guiding her outside of the mall with Warren walking beside them. Heidi was quiet as she went with Layla and Warren to the bus stop, wondering just where they were taking her. She frowned slightly when they flagged down a bus that Heidi knew went to the outskirts of Maxville, where there was nothing but paddocks and unused land.

"Where are we going?"

"Just wait and see," Layla said, grinning.

They sat with Heidi in the middle of the bus - they could have their pick of seats, even for a busy Saturday - and when they were far enough out of the metropolitan area, Layla nodded out of the window with a grin. Heidi followed her gaze and saw the weeds along the side of the road bursting into wild and vibrant flowers as the bus passed, then fading back to their original plant when they were no longer in sight. Heidi stared, amazed at the control Layla had over her power, and wishing she could get to be as good as her some day. The flowers kept Heidi entertained for the rest of the bus ride, and she was startled when Layla tapped her on the shoulder, nodding towards the bus stop just ahead. The bus came to a slow stop, and they gathered their bags, getting off the bus with Layla thanking the driver over her shoulder. Heidi hurried to do the same, but the doors closed and the bus tore off, and she doubted that she'd been heard.

"Just a few minutes' walk, and we'll be at the Hive," Layla said, flexing the bags in her hands before walking up the road with Heidi beside her. Warren wasn't far behind, still holding his own selection of bags as well.

Heidi had been down just last year when her parents took her and Zach to their grandparents for the summer. She knew the road was nothing special, full of paddocks with weeds as white as Zach's hair, and not much else. There weren't even many people that lived out this way - the farmers were still further south where the soil was actually amenable to letting things grow higher than a foot tall - so when they came over the hill and Heidi saw an actual forest in one of the blocks of land, she was surprised to say the least.

Layla gave a soft laugh at her expression, and Warren grinned broadly too.

"You ain't seen nothing yet, kid. C'mon, I need to put these bags down like yesterday," Warren added, striding ahead.

Layla winked at Heidi and they followed after him at a normal pace. Heidi stared as she came closer to the forest, the trees seeming to sway in a breeze she wasn't entirely certain she could feel, and followed Layla and Warren along the path. Heidi stopped short on seeing the house behind it, the wood a warm colour of honey, a porch wrapped around the entire thing, and it looked so inviting that Heidi found herself taking a step forward before she realised it. Layla and Warren were waiting at the front door for her patiently, and Heidi blushed, hurrying up the steps to the house.

"Welcome to the Hive," Layla said, smiling broadly as she opened the front door.

...

On Monday morning, Warren and Layla were met at the bus stop by Zach, who looked to be vibrating with nervous energy. He walked with them a way up to the school building, waiting until the rest of the students were out of sight before tugging Layla aside. (No matter if he was starting to recognise when Warren was joking or not, Zach didn't want to physically pull him aside; he wasn't suicidal, thank you very much!)

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing, Layla?" Zach hissed at Layla.

"Good morning to you too, Zach," she replied, raising an eyebrow pointedly.

"Don't you pull that shit on me, Layla; what the hell do you think you're doing showing Heidi The Hive?" he hissed, eyes darting around to see if anyone was listening. "She's too young to be involved in this."

"Warren and I showed Heidi the house itself, Zach. Heidi helped us organise the kitchen with the new plates and utensils we bought on the weekend," Layla said firmly, watching as Zach's shoulders sagged in relief. "And Heidi's not too young, actually. It's actually a perfect age," she added, ignoring Zach's squawk of protest, "Heidi's starting to question the morality of heroes and villains in a way that school assignments will never allow her, and I'm all for letting people choose their own path."

"But, Lay. She's my kid sister."

Warren finally looked alert enough from his morning coffee too contribute to the conversation, and shook his head at Zach with a small snort. "Exactly, glow worm. Don't you think she'd be better on our side, than theirs?" he asked, nodding over to the Sky High building. "Heroes and villains alike have kidnapped family members and loved ones in order to make the villain or hero cooperate."

Zach actually paled at that, and he looked a bit sick at the thought.

"Honestly, Zach, we're not going to do anything to Heidi. She's like a younger sister I never knew I wanted, and I won't hurt her - or let her get hurt - all right?" Layla added.

"Yeah, she's a good kid. We're not forcing her to be a permanent maker," Warren said with a shrug, throwing his disposable coffee cup in the recycling bin.

"A what?" Zach asked, looking between them with a slight frown, but at least he seemed interested rather than ill.

Warren smirked. "We'll explain to you and Ethan later," he said, just as the school bell rang. "You go ahead, Layla. I'll see you at lunch."

Layla looked intrigued as to what he was going to talk to Zach about, but relented with a nod, and headed up to the school building, humming under her breath.

Warren put an arm around Zach's shoulder firmly, leading him up to the building at a slower pace. "You ever even think about grabbing Layla like that again, I'll burn your dick off, and I'll do it slowly, got it?"

Zach's eyes widened; Warren was being a hundred and ten percent serious. "Yes, I got it! I was just worried, Warren, you've gotta understand that."

"I do understand, trust me on that. But if you do something like that when you're just worried, what will you do when you're just angry?"

Warren patted him on the back firmly and left Zach standing in front of the school entrance, stock-still on the steps and feeling like complete and utter shit.

Inside the classroom, Layla smiled softly as she thought of Heidi's pleas over the weekend: to let her know what they were planning with Zach and Ethan, to let her in on the plans, and to ignore anything that Zach said because he was just being overprotective of her as he always had been, but she could totally handle herself. Promise.

Heidi's eyes had been wide and pleading, and Layla had smiled at her, telling Heidi that when the time was right, she would know their plans and no one - not even Zach - would stop her from participating. Promise.

...

End of the thirty-third chapter.

Thanks for reading; I hope you liked it!