A/N: Wow, this has to be the fastest I've updated in a while. :-P This chapter brings us back to the original Sky High gang with a POV from Lash. Enjoy. :-)

Chapter 15/Interlude: Lash

By the end of the first month I had to admit to myself: I missed that Goth/emo kid. It surprised me when I first felt it, but day after day of seeing Ana Lucia's heartbroken face, and week after week of not sensing that bleak hovering presence began to get to me. I felt bad for not having really noticed him. That surprised me to. I mean, the kid wanted to be invisible; he never seemed to mind the many times he was overlooked. In fact he seemed to prefer it. But I guess he really did want someone to notice him. That's why I felt bad, because I didn't notice him. Because I didn't want to notice him.

However I still did not have the motivation to actually go out and look for him until today. I was sitting with the group at Sky High (geez, when did I ever think I'd refer to the dweebs as "the group"? Sometimes I wonder if I ever should have let Layla talk me into hanging out with them), when this girl walks up to me. I know I've seen her around, she's blonde, cute, with glasses, but I didn't remember her name or anything. I did remember that she and Warren had dated for a while after Homecoming, which was weird because she has ice powers and he has fire powers. Not very compatible which is probably why the broke up (well, Layla said it was more complicated than that but I really didn't want to hear about Warren Peace's love life . . . or lack thereof).

Anyway she came up to me and asked if she could speak to me in private. Casting a glance at Warren I decided that privately would probably be best. Warren pretended not to notice her, but I could see the sidelong look he gave her. Layla instantly became ten times perkier as I left, probably in an attempt to lighten the mood. I was suddenly glad I was leaving.

I followed the girl (oh what was her name? Missy? Chrissy?) out into the hallway. I leaned against a couple of lockers and folded my arms, watching her and hoping she would provide me with her name before we started an actual conversation.

"I need to ask you something," she said, instead, earnestly. I sighed.

"Could you at least give me your name first?" I asked, somewhat impatiently. "I mean, you're cute and all, but I can't for the life of me remember your name."

She gave me a withering look to show me how much she did not appreciate my sense of humor.

"Kristi," she said shortly. "Kristi Drake. Cyrokinetic? Ring a bell?"

Then I remembered, rather painfully too as a memory of almost squishing her with her own ice came to the front of my mind. "Right, Drake. Freeze-girl. What do you want?"

Her pale eyebrows came together over her thick, black glasses and for a moment she reminded me somewhat of Ana Lucia. "I want to know what you plan to do about finding Alex Newton."

I blinked. "Say what?" I asked, frowning as well.

She stepped closer and spoke slower, as if talking to a child. "What . . . are . . . you . . . going to do . . . about finding . . . Alex Newton?"

I huffed in frustration. "I heard you the first time," I pointed out, bringing my foot up to rest on the lockers as well. She looked at me and I looked back at her until she threw up her hands in her own aggravation at my lack of response.

"Well?" she demanded, red blotches making their way up her neck. I watched fascinated for a moment before pulling my eyes back up to her smoldering eyes. I winced inwardly.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked, shrugging helplessly. "The kid's run off, there's nothing I can do about that. I wouldn't even know where to start looking for him."

"You worked for Royal Pain," she said, almost seething at this point.

"So?" I asked, not really trying to be difficult, just not seeing her point at the moment.

"So! You know about the villain academy!" She was practically shouting now and I was starting to feel her wrath descend upon me. The lockers behind me felt strangely colder than they had been when I first leaned against them. "You can find it! You can get him back!"

I stepped away from the lockers quickly just in time for them to be covered by a layer of thick ice.

"Villains don't really trust me nowadays," I pointed out, trying my best not to feel guilty at not jumping to help. "And what do you care anyway?" I asked suddenly, crossing my arms again and glaring down at her, daring her to give me a good reason for her wanting me to help so badly.

Her face suddenly grew serious and the ice began to retract. "Alex is a hero," she said. "Not a villain. He saved my life in that Save the Citizen round . . . if you'll remember." She gave me a hard look that really made me cringe.

"I wasn't going to let it crush you," I muttered, shifting my gaze to the ground.

"I didn't think you would," she said lightly. "But he still chose me over the citizen and got a chewing out for it too from Boomer, some wouldn't call that heroic, but I would. He valued my well-being more than he did his P.E. grade or his reputation. He is not a villain; he belongs here. At Sky High."

The ice was completely gone now and her voice had grown soft, almost tender. I began to relax (but only slightly). Rubbing the back of my neck I thought over her words, seriously this time, and saw the logic behind it. I didn't know much about Alex, but I knew the kid did not deserve to have his life ruined in that way. Bringing my eyes back up to meet hers, I nodded slowly.

"Sure," I said, giving her a vague half-smile. "I'll see what I can do. But I can't promise anything."

Kristi Drake smiled then, and I noticed how much of a difference it made. It was much nicer than when she scowled. She clasped her hands together under her chin and closed her eyes briefly before opening them again and nodding.

"Thank you," she said earnestly. "Thank you very much."

My smile grew. "No problem," I said smoothly, sounding a lot more confident then I felt. She reached out and squeezed my arm lightly before turning away and walking back toward the cafeteria. I shivered slightly as I touched my now cold sleeve and made my own way back, wondering how the heck I was going to do anything about the situation.

It was only when I sat back down among the group when I realized what I would have to do. I had to talk to Speed and Penny, my former cohorts and now juvenile delinquents. This was not going to be a picnic.

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In the end I had to ask Warren's help to get into the prison. He had visited his father once and I guess the time was pretty memorable for the warden recognized him. Unfortunately he also recognized me. Needless to say he wasn't very happy to see me again. He warned me to stay out of trouble but allowed me to see Speed and Penny. Separately of course. And, of course, Warren simply slapped me on the back and left me as soon as I got into the visiting room.

I sighed and sat down in the chair, reaching over to pick up the ominous black phone that would connect me to the chubby kid in the orange jumpsuit on the other side of the glass. He had lost some weight since I had last seen him, but looked a lot tougher than I remembered. His eyes held a cold look and his face was pale. I could see circles under his eyes too. Grimacing inwardly, I braced myself for whatever snide comment he would give me.

"Well lookie who decided to visit the inmate," Speed's sarcasm oozed through the glass without the help of the phone. "Come to visit your best friend finally. What's up with that? You never call, you never write. I was beginning to think you were giving me the cold shoulder for some reason."

I gritted my teeth. "Look Alvin," I said, purposefully using his real name to irk him. "I didn't come here for small talk. I need you to tell me what Royal Pain told you about her villain academy."

"So the player wants help from the guy he sold out," Speed summed up. "Backstabbing's not a good way to win friends and influence people . . . Stanley." He smirked and my grip around the phone piece tightened.

"Look, if you help me I'll put a good word in for you," I promised, crossing my fingers underneath the counter.

"Why do you need the info?" he asked suspiciously.

"A friend's in trouble," I muttered.

"Hey! This friend is in trouble!" Speed complained. "What about me? You going to get me out of the slammer if I help you?"

"I can't promise that," I said, my voice strained as my grip tightened further. I remembered being his friend. It tore me up inside to see him on the other side of that glass, knowing there was not much I could do to help him. The guilt of squealing to the Bureau of Superhero Assistance about everything Royal Pain had told me and about the things Speed and Penny had done began gnawing at my stomach and I knew I couldn't take it for long.

"Royal Pain only told me how to get halfway. I know she told either you or Penny how to get the rest of the way." I leaned forward and looked into Speed's impassive face intently, holding the phone to my ear so tightly the poor piece of flesh began to throb in protest.

"Speed," I said earnestly. "If you help me find the academy, the Bureau will lighten your sentence, maybe even let you go. They want to find the Academy, you know they do. If you just help them, and me, we could get you out of here."

Speed looked at me solemnly. "Dude," he said softly, "I wish I could help you. I really do. You think I feel like I owe anything to Royal Pain? That royal pain in the butt is the one that got me in here. But she didn't tell me the rest of the way. I was the one that was supposed to take you two out as soon as the job was done."

I felt the blood drain from my face and Speed hastened to reassure me that what I was thinking was not what he meant.

"I wasn't going to kill you guys, you know I'm too cowardly to do that. I was just, you know, going to hand you over as a 'concerned citizen.' I've never been really smart Lash, you know that. I never figured that she would double cross me in the end, but now I know she would have turned me into a baby just like everyone else once she was done with me."

I sighed, although if it was from relief or sympathy even I wasn't sure.

"There's nothing you can give me that might help me get you out of here?" I asked, loathing the very thought that Penny might get out and not Speed. He shook his head slowly.

"Nothing that's relevant now," he confessed. "Sorry dude."

The guard came into the room, telling me that my time was up. I turned back to Speed and started to say something, but all he did was look at me for a moment before hanging up the phone and turning away. I pounded my fist on the counter and slammed the phone back onto his holder. Standing abruptly, I pushed the guard's hand away and made my own way to the door, storming over to the other side of the jail where they kept the women. It was time to interrogate Penny.

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"And what, exactly, makes you think I'm gonna tell you anything?" Penny's condescending voice sounded irritatingly familiar and once again I had to control my temper.

"Penny, please," I begged through gritted teeth.

She studied me for a moment, absently playing with her hair. It was long and still as silky as ever. I wondered how the heck she managed to keep it look so nice while in prison. "You know, you're awfully cute when you're groveling," she said with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes and leaned back in my chair. "I'm not groveling," I insisted with a dark glare.

She shrugged and flipped the dark hair over her shoulder. "Well whatever it is, it ain't gonna work on me. Sorry Lash, no can do."

I growled under my breath. "We're talking about you getting out of this place, Pen," I said, trying to sound more persuading and less forceful and desperate. "Come on, you gotta hate it here."

Penny looked thoughtful and I knew I was making some headway.

"Shopping, cheerleading, boys," I listed off the things I knew she would find enticing. "All those things in a normal life you can have if you just help me."

She studied me for a moment before her dark lips curled upward in a slight smirk. "Can you add a date on that list?"

I blinked. "A date?" I asked, dumbfounded. "You mean with me?" I had no idea how to respond to this as it was totally unpredictable.

Penny and I had never been a thing in high school. Sure we flirted some but everyone does that with peers of the opposite gender. At least everyone like us do. It was part of the high school experience. I never had actually entertained the idea of actually asking her out. I didn't think she was really my type. Besides, do you really think I wanted to go out with multiple Penny's yapping my ear off? No thank you.

However my mind was apparently not playing tricks on me for Penny nodded and inspected her fingernails (which, surprisingly enough, were also well kept). "Yeah. I want a life free of those Bureau jerks watching me like kids watching an ant farm, I want to go back to Sky High, and I want a date with you. Those are my terms."

I fumed inwardly for a while. Who did she think she was demanding that of me? Then I remembered she was, in fact, the only key I had to saving Alex and finding the Supervillain Academy. Weighing my options, I figured Ana Lucia would rather me go out with Penny once than to let Alex live the life of a super villain. I huffed in resignation, the hair that still hung swept to one side of my face rustled at the disruption in the air.

"Fine," I said. "I'll talk to the Bureau about it."

"I want it in writing before I say anything," Penny declared and I ground my teeth.

"Does the date thing have to be in writing too?" I asked.

She smiled a sickly-sweet smile. "No, I'll just hold you to it."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine," I said again. "I'll be back."

I hung up the phone with a lot more force than was necessary and stalked out of the room and building. Warren was there waiting for me. He flexed his hands and I knew he was inching to kick some villain butt.

"Well?" he asked, his eyes flashing. I took a step back involuntarily.

"She wants me to go out with her," I said through gritted teeth. Warren looked stunned for a moment before throwing back his head and laughing out loud, not helping my mood at all.

"You going to do it?" he asked when he was done cackling his head off.

"What other choice do I have?" I muttered, stuffing my hands deep inside my pockets. "She wants some other stuff too. We're going to need to go to the Bureau."

He nodded and walked back to his car. I followed reluctantly. This all had not gone how I had planned and I felt things were going to get just more complicated in the future.

I think Penny's going to be a bit of a handful, don't you? ;-) Review and tell me what you think of the chapter! :-D