Chapter 1.

On Monday when the other kids were boarding the Ron Wilson express to go to school; I was being shackled and taken to the Agency of Super-Powered Individuals, or ASPI for short. I don't know what they thought they could accomplish at the time, but I remember thinking that they were a bunch of morons. Seriously, having an empath go through a polygraph test was about as useful as trying to get blood from a stone. But I wasn't complaining, just criticizing.

Last week, on Friday my friends and I had put together what was supposed to be the crowning achievement of months of hard work. Gwen had planned and orchestrated it all for us, all we had to do was help. If we helped her, she said, then we would be rewarded. Once she had established her school she put us in charge of all the villain children. It would be like having our own personal army, like being generals, and Gwen was the commander in chief.

The idea definitely appealed to me, I mean, I was first generation. I never knew what was happening to me when I got my powers, my parents had thought I was going crazy and they sent me to an asylum where Principal Powers found me. Having my own army, well it would give me chance to prove what crazy kids could do. It was my revenge, that's why we were all in it really, revenge. Speed wanted to get back kids who had called him fat, Lash wanted to get back at people who made fun of his powers, Penny wanted to get back at kids who forced her to make her own friends, literally speaking. And all we would have to do for it was lock a few gates. Easy.

The best soldiers are the ones that have nothing to lose.

Besides, there was quite the contingent of willing recruits for Gwen's plan. Not just because we were all power crazy teenagers with God delusions then, but also because we felt entitled to the superiority of our DNA, not just over civilians but over sidekicks as well. It was a common sentiment amongst the seniors of the hero track that it wouldn't hurt to teach those losers with lame powers – or even worse, high horse pricks who didn't like to offensively use their powers – some respect for their betters.

We were looking for a power-trip really.

And trip we did. None of us ever really considered the possibility that Gwen could fail, at least not aloud anyways. I knew that Speed, Lash, and Penny had gone down fighting to the sophomore sidekicks, and that our sympathisers in the hero track had done their part by not helping to fight back in the gymnasium. I had fought in my own way. Gwen had snuck me some drugs from Medulla's lab – power enhancers I think – so that I would be all jacked up. And all I did was sit in the corner of the gym by the food tables and make sure everyone was in histrionics. It would have done no good to her plan if the students and teachers had banded together to take down Gwen, if I kept them panicked that wouldn't have happened.

And that was how the authorities found me, when they were scouring the school for her minions I was just sitting there in a drug induced trance. They slapped me with a neutralizer and sent me the Maxville Detention Center for Supers, I think they meant to put the fear of the law in me. That was how I spent my homecoming weekend, but in my opinion it was the better alternative to spending the weekend getting felt up by some guy an then puking my brains out from the hangover. At least I had established myself, what I was aiming for, my agenda. Establishment was the hardest part of a super villain's career according to Gwen, and my history teacher– getting people to remember your name. I had established myself by the age of eighteen, I was ahead of my game.

That brings back to where I am now, on the bus out of the detention center to ASPI for a polygraph test. They were going to question me about my involvement in Gwen's plans for the fifth time, I don't know what they hoped they were going to find out but it wasn't going to be much. To prevent people from lying they had an empathy sit the test with you and make you feel all warm and fuzzy about spilling your guts, that would be damn near useless against me since they had to take of the neutralizer to hook me up to the polygraph. I was an empath, and could therefore block out the other empathy and cheat the polygraph. Like I said before, they people at ASPI were idiots.

I didn't plan on telling them a damn thing. Not that I could even if I wanted to, I had no idea where Gwen fled too when she escaped their custody on Sunday morning, but I had a vague idea. Call me Bellatrix Lestrange, but I knew where my loyalties lie and that I would be rewarded for my silence when the time came.

I had already decided how to go about this, I wouldn't act repentant but I wouldn't flaunt my disdain for heroics in their face either. I knew that I was getting off lightly – as opposed to the prison sentence that Speed, Lash, and Penny had already received – because they knew I hadn't fought against the students or staff, my perfect rack record of no tardies and straight A grades probably played a factor too. Besides, I wouldn't put it past them to let me run loose to see if I would lead them to Gwen, I was sure that was a part of it somehow.

The bus that I was being transported on came to a sharp stop as it landed on the floating precipice that was ASPI. I was sitting in the back of the bus separated by a wire wall from the driver and the guard. There were no seatbelts for criminals so my body flew forward and my face smacked against the backrest of the seat in front of me. Shit, my lip was cut. The guard came to unlock the door adn pulled me up and out of the bus, he snickered as he took in bleeding lip. What an asshole.

ASPI looked a lot like Sky High from the outside, except more sky scaper-y, literally. I didn't get to observe the architecture for long because the guard shoved me along. I was lead into a room that was completely white, probably neutralized like the detention room in Sky High. The guard uncuffed my and lifted up my right arm. The neutralizer was blindingly white – like a new iPod – and the size of a small wrist cast. He scanned his biometrics along it's length and it unclicked and fell into his open hand. The guard, left me a bag and exited the room.

Being neutralized was like being an insomniac. You feel constantly tired and drained, now that the neutralizer was off I felt like all the energy it had suppressed was just building and up and was now released; It felt like when Gen got me high. My powers naturally searched and I could feel the emotions of those around me. I could immediately tell that in the room beside this one held several people, all were nervous with anticipation, confirming my beliefs that they hoped I wouldn't be as useless as Lash and Speed, and could actually tell them something useful, like where Gwen was.

Had the really expected to be able to transport Gwen in a vehicle across town so she could be held in the Prison for Cunning and Callous Villains? The woman was a technopath; that car was her chariot.

I might as well change now, I picked up the bag and took out the supersuit I had fashioned not three months ago. All ASPI trials were conducted in 'anonymity' which was bull because everyone knew the secret identity of everyone else after being part of the hero community for that long. They would all know my civilian name, even if I didn't know or recognize all of theirs. But it was the process, mostly to protect my friends and family. Not that I cared, all my friends knew I was going villain and silently supported me, and my family consisted of foster parents – they could be replaced. As soon as I put on my blood red suit I felt different. It might have been the spandex that showed the muscles Boomer had mercilessly crafted into every student or it might have been tubes branching across the suit to make it look like veins were running across my body but I felt powerful. Before I had been Lily Travers, nobody. Now I was Coronary, criminal mastermind.

There were five retired heroes sitting behind a table on a raised platform questioning me. There was an empathy in a trance to my left, a guard at the door, and principal powers to my right sitting on a bench with two social workers.

I turned my attention back to the old fogies as they were preparing their round of questions. My arm kind of itched but I didn't want to scratch it, not in front of them while I was all wired up to the polygraph.

The one in the middle in the green black suit, his face concealed with a mask, spoke up, "Presiding over the questioning of Coronary is the Jury Distinct 4a, Thunderiders."

Brilliant. Disgusting. I was being overseen by a jury of sidekicks. Retired sidekicks at that, how demeaning. The Thunderiders were really big, or as big as a group of misfits losers can get, in the 1980's. They channelled their powers into an unsuspecting person who turned into this motorcycle riding 'Marauder' who was the actual hero. Why they never just got up and fought themselves always escaped me.

Wolf seemed to be the one leading this, began to ask me questions.

"We'll start simple, how old are you?"

"Eighteen" I responded.

"What did you do the night of your Homecoming dance?" He asked.

"I aided the villain Royal Pain in her attempt to turn the school to babies."

"Why did you help Royal Pain?"

"Because I am an angsty teenager with no sense of morality---" I answered with a smirk, before Honcho cut me off.

"Stop," he commanded, "Do you know where Royal Pain is now?"

"No." At this they exchanged more paper notes with each other and glances than they had before. I saw the empath give them a quick nod.

Wolf took over again, "Do you regret aiding the villain Royal Pain?"

"No."

"Would you like to go back to school?"

That question threw me way off. No one had asked me that yet and I hadn't even considered it till now. I assumed that Gen would need help wherever she was, but till she sent for me I wasn't really sure what I was going to do. I guess I assumed that I would be on the run or something, or in prison.

"I uh... I hadn't given it any thought." Wolf nodded satisfied and gestured for Principal Powers to continue. She stood up and walked briskly over to me, nodded at the jury, and turned to me.

"Lily Travers," she said this like she as sentencing me, "The faculty at Sky High are very disappointed with your actions. You are a very bright girl and until now you had a spotless record. The students and staff feel betrayed by the actions of you, and your fellow classmates who aided Royal Pain in her attempt to Pacify the school. However, unlike your companions you displayed no violent tendencies," I smirked, it had actually gone in my favour that they found me all jacked up on drugs? Brilliant.

"-- and have cooperated throughout the proceedings with all law enforcement individuals proving that you are not lost to the heroic cause. It may very well be that you have been misguided and as your educator it is my job, and responsibility as a powered member of the community to help you find your way back onto the right path to lead the heroic journey we believe you are capable of. In lieu of your past behaviour and lack of indiscretions the students and staff are willing to offer you a chance at rehabilitation and welcome you back to Sky High with open arms. However Ms. Travers, this opportunity is not to be taken lightly. Trust is fundamental in every aspect of a hero's life and it must be built and earned, you will have to re-earn that trust from the members of Sky High. As well, you will be under constant supervision and will have strict probation and curfew rules should you choose to accept. You will also be required to put in community work as part of your rehabilitation. Do you accept the terms?"

The choice seemed pretty easy and straight forward at the time. Life behind bars or probation and community service? I think I will...

"I'll take it"

AN: So what did you think? Did you like it? Standard disclaimer applies. I only own Lily.