Chapter One Hundred and Nine

...

Fantasia seethed during lunch. She had watched Layla, Warren, and their friends be nice, helpful, friendly, and complete and utter liars. Warren heated up food for students; Layla smiled and listened attentively to students with worry in their eyes. Even their friends were nice to people: Wendy helped people with homework, Ethan organised tutoring sessions, Zach made them laugh. Craig and Adam swapped food like they'd been doing it for years, and Ry laughed when Craig draped an arm around his shoulder and proclaimed loudly that he loved his friend's outfit and man bun. Three sophomores - Robin, Terrence, and Justina - had joined their table and their conversations as though they'd been there the whole time.

Their group would have been the one that Fantasia would have joined in a heartbeat, had she had her powers. Instead, she sat watching Layla and Warren and hating what they'd done to her. She didn't even get to see Airborne because the crowd refused to part for her, which was unbelievable.

The rest of the day had been one of the quietest in Fantasia's memory. She was always the one with the answers (right or wrong), and adored by people, and the centre of attention in every setting. Three class periods went by without a single person commenting on her stylish hair or her beautiful clothes or her pretty handwriting.

Finally, in the last period before Save the Citizen, her teacher stood by Fantasia's desk. Her heart beat wildly in anticipation of praise.

"You've misspelled professionalism; two s'. And you might want to practice your writing skills; your cursive is practically illegible. Besides, you won't have time to write in such pretty cursive when you're in university or fighting villains."

Fantasia's mouth dropped open in surprise. Her cursive was unreadable? Why had no one told - oh.

Biting her tongue when she realised that her teacher had called her cursive 'pretty' in disdain, Fantasia felt the back of her neck burning and she forced herself to nod in response. Crossing out the misspelled word, she rewrote it and continued to take notes as the teacher talked at them. In the back of her mind, she tried to think of all the ways she could destroy Layla and Warren for what they'd done to her.

...

Adam and Craig started as the Save the Citizen reigning champions from the previous year. Craig grinned out at the crowd as they went quiet in anticipation of who would be chosen to fight them.

"We choose Will Stronghold and Magenta Yolanda, also known as - drumroll, please! - Airborne and Shifter!" he called out, the crowd clapping wildly.

Would Airborne and Shifter win against the reigning Save the Citizen champions easily now that they'd won against a real villain and sidekick?

Will looked around at the clapping students, feeling more pressure to win now than he had against Death Row. He swallowed hard and stood to head down to the arena, Magenta a step in front of him. Will finally found who he was looking for: Ryuu had put his hair up into a bun, but he was actually looking at the arena and not reading a book or studying like some of the other students were. Will straightened up and squared his shoulders at the realisation that Ryuu was actually looking for once (finally!).

He'd win this fight easily and get Ryuu's attention and respect.

"Life mimics art, so we'll be the villains this time around, Coach. Can't have Airborne and Shifter be villains now, can we?" Craig said.

"Both teams have a minute to discuss strategies; countdown starts now!" Boomer called and the timer started on the large scoreboard above him.

In the gallery, Medulla and Mr. Boy were watching the arena below curiously, trying to determine which duo would win. Jared joined them a moment later, looking into the arena. "I haven't missed anything yet, have I?"

"Not yet. Craig and Adam have chosen Airborne and Shifter as opponents," Mr. Boy replied.

"They're working on their strategies at the moment, and Mr. Boy and I were discussing who we thought would win. Care to offer any input?" Medulla asked, curious about Mr. Bowie's assessment.

Jared thought for a moment. "I think Craig and Adam will win; they're best friends and know what the other's going to do probably before they do. That being said, I believe Will and Magenta will make them work for their win; they're both determined to prove themselves, especially after winning against Death Row and Getim last week."

"You don't think that their real-world fight provides them with an unfair advantage?" Medulla asked.

Jared shrugged. "From what I could see of the footage, they didn't fight physically much. Of course, no one except Airborne and Death Row really knows what happened in there, and Death Row's dead now, along with Getim."

"I was so sad when I heard that. I remember Rowan and Gerry from college; Rowan was my roommate," Mr. Boy said wistfully.

The minute timer sounded and without wasting a second, Craig stepped forward in a carbon copy of Airborne himself. Whispers surrounded the arena immediately at his choice, those initially confident in Airborne's win suddenly wavering.

Craig ignored the whispers and flew forward, straight at Will. Will pulled his fist back and let it fly as Craig neared him. Craig grinned and caught his fist in a tight grip, lifting Will off the ground and throwing him clear across the arena. Will crashed into the street lamp, the tall structure wobbling precariously before falling over and crashing onto the arena floor, Will stuck beneath it.

Adam worked on spitting acid at the citizen's chain hanging above the metal teeth. Magenta hadn't really gained much from the strategy discussion since Will said he'd beat Adam and Craig and she just had to keep the citizen safe. It was easier said than done considering those metal teeth below the citizen were sharp whether she was human or a guinea pig, and she wasn't exactly tall enough to pull the citizen to safety. Besides, Adam could spit acid, which was probably just as painful as the metal teeth contraption. Maybe more painful, even. Magenta didn't know and didn't want to find out. Still, she went over to the metal teeth thing, setting her own teeth on edge at the industrial sound that felt like it was drilling into her eardrums. Magenta just hoped that if Adam's spit did destroy the chain, then she would be fast enough to catch the dummy before it was chewed up.

With Will distracted by the lamp post, Craig flew towards the citizen to make it fall towards the metal teeth faster. Behind him, Airborne pushed the post off his body and stood up, brushing himself off quickly before flying after Craig.

He couldn't lose Save the Citizen less than a week after beating a real-life villain. He especially couldn't lose while Ryuu was in the crowd and watching. He had to win!

His hand outstretched, Airborne tried to grab Craig's ankle to stop his flight. He missed, reached and grabbed again, and this time, he was able to snag the hem of Craig's super suit. Airborne yanked on it sharply to stop Craig's flight, but a moving object meeting an opposite or equal force did what it always did: it stopped. Both Craig and Airborne stopped flying, falling down towards the arena instead.

"We're above the metal teeth, you moron!" Craig snapped, pushing Airborne away and flying away from the churning device.

Airborne stopped falling at the last second, his heart pounding. He looked at the teeth below him, eager for his flesh, and shuddered.

"Airborne!" Shifter called over the noise of the machine. "Get the citizen!"

Oh, yeah. He'd forgotten about that.

Airborne looked up, only to see his copy hovering above him, ripping the rope in two.

"Hey!" Adam called, getting his attention as he swung one of the fake building squares straight at Airborne's face.

The square hit him with a solid thwack, sending Airborne flying backwards, and resulting in a cry of sympathy from most in the crowd. Adam looked at the soft square, snorting in amusement when he saw Will's face imprinted on it.

He was sure that his nose was broken; it hurt worse than he'd ever imagined it would.

Craig dropped the citizen into the metal teeth with a flourish.

Magenta was too distracted by Will's injury to notice, and honestly, too scared to try to catch the thing anyway. She was terrified that she'd miss and fall into those awful teeth herself. To her, the metal teeth sounded pleased as it devoured the citizen. Gulping, Magenta tried to push that thought away and hurried over to Will.

"Did we win?" Will asked, sitting up, his nose crooked and bleeding.

Magenta shook her head, even as Nurse Spex came into the arena to reset Will's broken nose.

"Aw, I didn't get to smack him in the face," Craig said in disappointment, setting down beside Adam.

"You could have when he pulled on your suit. We need to keep that in mind with our designs: flapping suits can be grabbed by people or caught on things," Adam said, Craig nodding in agreement.

"Falling into those teeth will be my new nightmare for a few weeks," he muttered, shuddering.

"Yeah, you and me both," Adam agreed.

...

Detention was an extremely painful experience for Fantasia and it wasn't fair. If Principal Powers' office had been like suffocating in syrup, the higher concentration of suppressor beams in the detention room was like drowning in the ocean all the while she was being constantly knocked over by ferocious waves any time she tried to surface.

Fantasia was the only person in detention, though she didn't know if it was better or worse that she was alone. She expected to be sitting there, bored for an hour while she tried to block out the pain.

Instead, Fantasia had memories plaguing her. Memories of every time she'd told someone she wanted to be happy to avoid criticism or anger or sadness or any emotion that wasn't in her favour. Memories that she tried to stop but somehow couldn't.

Fantasia had used her powers to get everything and anything she had ever wanted: her parents' master bedroom, more clothes than she could wear in a lifetime, a waterbed, a big house, a flying car.

She'd used her powers to make everyone do what she wanted: I want you to wait to say goodbye to me before you go to work, Daddy; I want my hair curled; I want new clothes; I want to sit here; I want you to be my best friend; I want you to break up with your girlfriend and date me; I want, I want, I want.

Fantasia had used her power on a daily basis, sometimes hourly, and sometimes even more often than that. She had used her power on friends, on extended family members, on strangers. She'd used her power on store clerks and business people, not caring who had lost their jobs after giving her expensive things for free. The only thing that had mattered was that she got what she wanted.

She'd used her power on her parents for more than their bedroom, for more than their time, for more than their attention. Deeper in her memories, pushed down far further than she liked to admit, Fantasia knew that she had been using her power on her parents nearly every day since she was six years old.

Fantasia, your father and I want a divorce.

No! You can't! You have to stay together! You have to! You want me to be happy, don't you?

Of course, Princess. We only want you to be happy.

Fantasia gasped at the long-buried memory, her whole body trembling. Her parents must hate her for forcing them to stay in an unhappy and loveless marriage for eight years.

...

"Hey, Eth, what's my after-school timetable look like? I want to know if I can join Mr. Medulla's Advanced Science extracurricular group and still spend enough time on my studies," Ry asked.

"You should have enough time, but it depends on when the group is as to what you might need to sacrifice," Ethan replied, flipping through his notebook and showing a page to Ryuu.

"The language class is Wednesday, I've got yoga on Thursday; you guys have training every other day. Really?"

"Yes. We haven't had as much training or discipline as you have," Ethan said. "You could miss a training day to attend the Advanced Science group."

"Why aren't you in it?" Ry asked.

"I presume it's because I won the state's chess championship against Mr. Medulla and he didn't want to see me more often than he already did. I don't mind; I prefer training," Ethan said with a smile.

"You sure?"

Ethan nodded. "I'm positive. Let me know when the group is held and I will see what I can do about your timetable. Is there anything that you can be flexible with?"

"Yoga. Literally and figuratively," Ry said, grinning.

Ethan laughed. "All right, I hope Advanced Science is held on that day then."

...

"Hey, Stronghold. How's your nose?" Warren asked as he entered the sick bay.

"It hurts. Why're you here?" Will asked, his nose stuffed with tissues making him sound ridiculous, but he didn't dare take them out while Nurse Spex was still talking to his parents and hadn't finished resetting his nose.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," Warren said, shrugging.

"That's it?" Will asked suspiciously; all day, people had only wanted his attention and autograph.

"Yeah, Stronghold, that's it. Layla's calming Magenta down; she thinks it's her fault you were hurt since she didn't warn you," Warren added.

"Oh. It's not her fault."

"Tell her that, not me."

"Right. Uh, thanks, Warren."

"No problem, Stronghold. See you tomorrow, yeah?"

An idea started forming in Will's mind: from what he'd seen at lunch, Ryuu was becoming fast friends with Craig and by association, Warren. If Ryuu wouldn't acknowledge him in class, then he'd have to do it at lunch when Will was talking with Warren, right?!

"Yeah, sounds good. I'll stop by your table to say hi at lunch," Will said with a smile that quickly turned into a grimace of pain from his broken nose.

"Okay. Seeya, Stronghold," Warren said, leaving as Nurse Spex and the Strongholds returned.

"Oh, Will, look at your poor nose! How are you feeling, baby?"

"Mum!" Will hissed, looking to the exit frantically. He sighed in relief when he saw that Warren had already left and hadn't heard his mother's embarrassing endearment.

...

Principal Powers opened the detention room door to find Fantasia sobbing into her hands. She wasn't entirely surprised; Fantasia wasn't the first student to be brought to tears in the detention room, after all.

"Fantasia, please come with me. Your parents are waiting in my office; they were very concerned that you had been given detention and would like to discuss your behaviour with me."

Fantasia swallowed past the lump in her throat and sniffed, wiping at her tears. "Yes, Principal Powers. Can I stop by the bathroom first?"

"Of course. I'll wait outside the door for you," she added, both a threat and a promise.

Fantasia nodded quickly and followed Principal Powers out to the bathroom. She washed her face and touched her red and puffy eyes, wishing her power worked on her body so she could look calm and collected. Her parents hadn't seen her cry since she was a child.

A toilet flushed behind her and Fantasia stiffened at the idea of someone else, a stranger, seeing her like this. She tried to hurry out of the bathroom, but a vine blocked the door before she could open it, and Fantasia cringed back at the sight.

"Principal Powers is right outside," Fantasia said, raising her voice.

"Oh, I know," Layla said, wiggling her fingers in a mocking wave as her features changed to Soundette, a super with the ability to manipulate sound, including stopping sound completely, albeit over a short distance.

"Who are you?" Fantasia asked, her jaw dropping.

Soundette snorted and rolled her eyes, changing through several forms in a second before settling on Wendy. "Whoever I want to be. Now, did you enjoy your detention, Fantasia?"

A cold shiver ran through her body. "That was you?"

Wendy shrugged. "It doesn't matter, does it? What matters is you learn your lesson. A touch of humility wouldn't go astray, either, Princess," she added with another roll of her eyes.

"I... I don't know what you're talking about," Fantasia said firmly, refusing to be threatened by this super, whoever they were. Hearing them call her 'Princess' with such derision made her stomach churn; she liked being called Princess when her parents said it, but this super said it in a way that made her feel small and insignificant.

Wendy shook her head, changing into Layla as she did so. "All right, if that's your answer, then the vine stays in."

"You can get it out?" Fantasia asked, stepping forward with wide eyes.

"Only you can do that with your behaviour," Layla said, shrugging and turning to wash her hands in the basin, the vine on the door disappearing.

The door opened a moment later, Principal Powers frowning as she looked into the bathroom to find Fantasia staring at Wendy.

"Hi, Principal Powers. Is everything okay?" Wendy asked, drying her hands.

"I was waiting for Fantasia to come to my office. Are you ready now?" Principal Powers asked, looking to the young girl who still had puffy eyes and a blotchy red face.

Fantasia swallowed and nodded, following Principal Powers demurely. She couldn't lie to herself and say she had no idea what Wendy-Layla-Soundette meant about her behaviour - the memories they'd dredged up while she was in detention was evidence of that, after all - but she had no idea how she could prove that she had changed. There was no way she could undo the things she'd done; Fantasia didn't even remember everything she'd done in the last fourteen years, and besides, she wasn't even sure she could undo her power.

Seeing her parents when Principal Powers opened the door, Fantasia felt tears welling up in her eyes.

Her mother stood, her worry clear on her face. "Fantasia? Are you all right, Princess?"

"I'm... I'm sorry," Fantasia sobbed, tears running down her cheeks.

Her parents obviously had no idea what to do with their crying daughter. They looked at each other, then at their daughter, and then to Principal Powers for help. She held a box of tissues out, Fantasia's mother taking a few while her father took the whole box.

"Here, Princess. It's... all right. What would make you happy, Princess?" her mother asked, a little desperately.

"I don't know! I... I... I..." Fantasia gasped, her breath coming in short gasps.

"It's okay, Princess. We'll go home and talk about it when you're ready," her father said, rubbing her back gently. "Just breathe. In and out, there you go. Good girl."

Fantasia focused on her breathing and nodded. "Sorry, I - I don't know what that was," she said, taking the tissues her mother offered, blowing her nose loudly.

"I believe it was a panic attack, Fantasia. You're not the first student to have one; the first day at Sky High can be stressful, especially for those easily excited," Principal Powers said.

Her parents looked at each other in surprise; their daughter could be easily excited, but she'd never had something like this happen before, either.

"It's a sudden change for those going from the oldest at their previous schools to being the youngest here; they tend to lose the respect, control, and status they had held before. If you're open to it, I would like to organise an appointment with the school counsellor for you, Fantasia. It's helpful for a lot of students to have someone to talk to outside of family and friends; an impartial third-party, if you will," Principal Powers added.

Fantasia wanted to scoff and refuse immediately; she was fine, she didn't need a shrink! Didn't Principal Powers know who she was?! Her phone chimed with a text and she looked at it automatically, her eyes widening when she saw the message.

Anonymous: Take the offer, Princess

Gulping and trembling, Fantasia nodded. "All right, I'll see the counsellor. Thank you, Principal Powers," she added as an afterthought.

"You're most welcome, Fantasia. I have the students best interests at heart, so I want to see you succeed here. Please try to do better than today's performance," Principal Powers said.

"Yes, Principal Powers. May I be dismissed now? Please?"

"Yes. It was nice to meet both of you; I do hope the next time we meet will be under better circumstances," Principal Powers said, shaking her mother and father's hands and smiling briefly. "I'll provide your appointment details to your home group teacher, Fantasia. Go home and rest tonight," she said.

"Yes, Principal Powers," Fantasia said, leaving with her parents a step behind her.

They were all quiet as they went out to their car, her parents confused by the lack of demands and pressure to do something, as well as their daughter's easy acceptance of Principal Powers' offer. Not to mention her saying thank you and please.

"Is... is everything all right, Fantasia?" her father asked, her mother looking to him in alarm for using Fantasia's name rather than her preferred nickname.

"No, Daddy, it's not. It was an awful day," Fantasia said.

Her parents looked at each other with wide eyes; Fantasia had demanded to be called Princess when she was four years old and it had been ten long years since either parent had been able to call their daughter by the name they had chosen for her.

Her mother licked her lips anxiously, her gaze flicking to Fantasia's puffy and red face in the rearview mirror, some part of her hopeful at the lack of consequence for her husband's words. "We planned a surprise dinner for you; we made reservations at your favourite restaurant."

"I just want to go home. Please," Fantasia said, close to begging.

"All right. We'll get dinner delivered instead," she replied, feeling fourteen years' worth of demands and tension slowly leaking from her whole body.

Fantasia just nodded, closing her eyes as their car took off the runway. She just wanted to go home.

...

"Hey, Maj," Will said, smiling briefly, his broken nose bruised but already healing.

"Hi, Will. Are you all right? How's your nose?" Magenta asked, following Will inside and to the lounge room to study.

"A little sore, but I'll be okay. It's my folks that are painful," Will admitted in a low mutter.

"You should start fighting against us so you know how to defend yourself against someone with super strength, Will," Steve said from the kitchen.

"Or flight," Josie added.

"I agreed to do that, like, ten minutes ago, Dad! Magenta's here; we're going to study now!" Will called back.

"Oh, hello, Magenta. How are you feeling after the fight today? Did you get hurt?" Josie asked, coming into the lounge room.

"No, I didn't. The acid spit missed me and Craig focused on Will, so I'm fine," Magenta said, shrugging.

"Acid spit? Will, are you positive you didn't get hit by any of that? Acid spit can corrode your insides faster than the outside of your body," Josie said in alarm, looking to her son.

"Mum, I'm fine! I got smacked in the face with one of those sponge building things, and my nose was broken. I didn't get acid spit on me!" Will said.

"Magenta, you should really learn how to draw villains' attention away from your Hero. Why don't you both practice fighting instead of doing your homework? Surely you can't have that much to do already; it's only the first day of school," Josie said.

"Yeah, but we're juniors now, so we have to start the year flying," Magenta said, shrugging.

"Yeah, and I swear Mr. Medulla has it out for me. We got homework about last year's Mad Science stuff so he can see if we can remember any of it," Will said. "And Mr. Bowie's already assigned reading for English for Heroes, and Mrs. Walden assigned Communications for Heroes. She's making the class go over two of your old recordings to see the difference between ten years."

"What?" Josie asked. "Which ones? How did we look? Oh, it wasn't the one after the Mud Monster, was it? I was covered in that filth for days, and - "

"It took six showers to get rid of the smell, I know," Will said with a sigh.

"When did you fight the Mud Monster?" Magenta asked curiously, not remembering the villain's name.

"Oh, it was before you were born," Josie said offhandedly, still waiting for a response from her son.

"We're watching the one after you defeated the Ninety Ninjas back in the 90s, and the one after Iceman last year," Will said. "Maj, want to study in my room?" he asked, almost pleading.

"Yeah, sure," Magenta said, not entirely pleased about the way Josie had talked to her about the fight, as though it was her fault that Will had been hurt.

"Great," Will said, grabbing his things and picking her up and flying them up to his room before his parents could react.

Magenta fixed her hair and straightened her clothes out as Will closed the door behind them. "Are you okay?"

"Better now. Thanks, Maj," Will said, kissing her firmly.

She pulled away when he gasped in pain, his eyes watering as his nose connected with her face during their kiss. "I think we should just study tonight, okay? You need to recover," she said.

Thinking about Lionheart's book and how he really needed to read more of it if he was going to talk to Ryuu about it, Will nodded. "Okay. Oh, and it wasn't your fault."

"What wasn't?" Magenta asked, frowning.

"Today, in the fight. You didn't warn me about Adam's attack, but it wasn't your fault I got hurt," Will said.

Her frown deepened at his explanation. She hadn't thought it was her fault in the first place. Did Will think it was her fault? Or was he only saying it because his mother had? Should she have drawn the villains away from Will? She was only a sidekick and couldn't handle either of their attacks! Will could handle them, no matter what his parents thought. Besides, she couldn't focus on both his fight and her own, that just wasn't possible!

"What homework did you get today?" Will asked, grabbing Lionheart's book out of his bag and sitting on his bed, leaning back against the wall.

"Mr. Boy gave us a similar assignment for Communications for Hero Support; we're looking at your parents' interview techniques and comparing them from... " Magenta trailed off, realising that Will wasn't actually listening to her. Instead, he was focused intently on the book he was reading, frowning as deep as his broken nose allowed.

Magenta tried not to feel too annoyed about his lack of attention and grabbed her Mad Science textbook to read, trying to remember everything she'd learned last year so she wouldn't fall behind this year as well, since a lot of topics built upon the previous year's work. She found she was too distracted to concentrate, her mind drifting back to the Save the Citizen fight that afternoon.

Will's injury wasn't really her fault, was it?

...

End of the hundred and ninth chapter.

Thanks for reading; I hope you liked it!