Disclaimer: After months of negotiations, sadly, I still don't own Sky High.

Uprooted

Magenta, Zach and Ethan were on the edge of their seats. The bus pulled ever closer to Will and Layla's stop, and the three Sidekicks waited with bated breath to scope a familiar carrot-topped figure swathed in green.

"Dude, I don't think she's gonna show," Zach whispered confidentially to Ethan beside him in the seat, and Magenta across the aisle. "I know I wouldn't if my boyfriend cheated on me on National television."

Ethan scooted away from him.

Magenta rolled her eyes. "No, you'd sulk at home a few days, and then kick him to the curb," she said dryly. "You don't need no man who don't be treatin' you right."

"Actin' a fool..." Ethan joined in, eager for any opportunity to mock Zach's faux-street attitude.

"Hey! Did you guys hear about what The Stronghold Three's newest member did yesterday?" From a few rows ahead of them, Larry was twisted around in his seat, grinning and breathing through his nose with excitement. Magenta suppressed a sick urge to shift into her rodent form, crawl into his backpack, and chew a hole through his gym shorts.

"Not really," Ethan replied lamely. Even he was heart-sick over what would no doubt prove to be one of the worst days of Layla's life.

"Seriously? Where have you been?!" Exclaimed a Sidekick sitting behind them, a blond girl whose power was morphing into a beach-ball. "It's like, all over the news!"

"You can't believe everything you see on the news," Zach threw back at her, trying not to get angry.

The girl sneered snottily at him, but turned away to watch out the window for Layla - just like the rest of the bus seemed to be doing. Even the new bus driver was craning her neck to catch a glimpse of the freshly-scorned girl as she slowed down beside their last stop.

Magenta saw her first. She braced herself for the downcast expression, the hunched and defeated posture, even the eyes welled-up with tears. But she was surprised by the sight of an unabashedly perky Layla, who cheerfully greeted the bus driver on her way in, and made her way to where her friends sat, oblivious to the stares of everyone around her. The bus was hushed, like someone had used an Anti-Sound Beam on all of the occupants.

"Good morning guys!" Layla smiled at them, and slumped down with a content sigh beside Magenta, who merely frowned at her.

"Hm? Not-so-good morning then?" Layla asked her friends sympathetically, noticing their anxious expressions.

"Hey Layla!"Larry called from in front of them, waggling his eyebrows.

"Hi Larry," Layla reluctantly replied, embarrassed. She sent a confidential look to Magenta, waiting for a joke, but instead watched her friend's face melt from puzzlement to horrified shock.

"You don't know."

"Don't know what?" Layla immediately asked.

Several students sitting within earshot gasped.

"Oh my gawd, you're gonna be soooo mad-" The beach-ball girl started breathlessly, but Zach spoke over her.

"- Because Ron Wilson, Superhero, accidentally let out the elephants from the zoo when he was, uh, battling a giant, uh, cloud monster yesterday." Zach, clearly drawing from his surroundings as he looked out the window, valiantly tried to cover for Will.

Layla threw a hand over her mouth in suspense. "Are they okay?!"

"They're fine." Ethan supplied when Zach started stuttering. "Yep. People have already forgotten it happened."

"I know I did," muttered the acid-spitting Hero-Classer, who had been listening in, from behind them.

Magenta glared at him from over her shoulder.

"Oh thank goodness, we're almost there," Ethan announced with relief, pointing to the familiar floating silhouette of the school far off in the sky.

"So have you talked to Will today?" Larry asked, his voice oozing with weaselly triumph.

Layla shifted in her seat, uncomfortable at the question. "Not yet. He probably called last night, but I was out and missed it. Why?"

Magenta felt a sick foreboding flash through her, and she shook her head softy. "Oh yeah... Warren."

"Aw man... I forgot you went to Warren's..." Zach said too loudly.

"You and Warren got back together?!" Larry practically shouted at Layla.

Layla felt her irritation rise with the blush in her face, but quelled it when she noticed just how many eyes were watching her in anticipation. "Warren and I were never together, Larry."

"You and Warren finally got together?!" Layla suddenly wished that they were seated in a baseball stadium instead of a school bus, so that she would be justified in throwing the inflatable girl behind them out the window.

"No way! Would you guys lay off! We're here!" In an uncharacteristic display of chivalry, Ethan defended Layla, and motioned out the window towards the floating High School. "Maybe you should be more worried about your own love lives than Layla's."

Magenta reached across the aisle and pulled Zach back down into his seat by the hem of his shirt. If she and her friends were the last off the bus, there was a better chance of blocking any potential gossip from Layla's ears. Plus, the students in front of them could be used as meat shields in case there was an altercation on the way in. She really didn't want to be turned into a human popsicle because she got caught in the crossfire in a battle between some Juniors and Seniors. The damsel-in-distress routine was really more Ethan's deal than hers.

"Oh no," Zach uttered, stopping right in front her when he got off of the bus, forcing Magenta to stand awkwardly just inside the doors, both feet on different steps.

"Layla, I need to talk to you. Now. Privately," Warren's voice carried over the stifled gasps of the other Sophomores, and she peeked around Zach's shoulder to witness Warren walking away with Layla, his hand wrapped protectively around her arm.

"Do you feel that?" Zach asked her, finally letting her off of the bus. People across campus were pointing at Layla and Warren, who were traveling to a secluded patch of grass, heedless of all the attention they were getting.

"Feel what?" Magenta asked, slapping down the hand of a Freshman who was just beginning to raise his index finger towards her two friends who were definitely not dating, no matter what beach-ball girl gushed to a crowd of Juniors as they passed.

"Was it the school jerking in a pre-malfunction lurch before we all go careening down through the clouds to our deaths?" Magenta decided that Ethan had major, major, issues - the kind he might need to pay a professional one hundred dollars an hour to talk to him for. Because she was going to stop if he kept saying things like that.

"Dude. No." Zach glanced nervously around them, as though he was searching for someone.

"What is it?" Magenta wondered, spinning around in a circle as they neared the school, and starting to walk backwards facing Zach and Ethan.

Zach shrugged, and sneaked a peak over his shoulder to check on Warren and Layla. They were sitting on the campus ground, having an intense conversation. Zach couldn't help but notice that blood-red flowers had sprung up around where Layla's fingers were splayed in the grass. The feeling of being watched receded the farther they got from the two non-lovebirds, and Zach chalked it up to wishful thinking. Life was a stage and everyone was his audience - but it always seemed like they only bought tickets because the show that they wanted was all sold out.

"Eh... must just be my overactive sense-of-impending-doom gland, guys."

"I gotta get me one 'a those..." Ethan said, and neither of his friends were sure if he was kidding.

"So this Hayden guy can go invisible? I didn't know anyone here at the school had that power," Layla pondered, an arms gripping her backpack in her lap as she listened to Warren's epiphany.

He dragged her out to a sequestered area of the campus where the two of them took a seat on the ground, Warren sitting cross-legged, and Layla perching with her legs folded underneath her. It had been a surprise to see him standing right outside the bus waiting for her, but everyone seemed to be acting odd today. She hadn't realized that elephants meant so much to so many of her peers.

"He doesn't advertise it. The only time I ever saw him activate his power was during Power Placement. I haven't seen him since." After Layla left last night, Warren had lain in bed, waiting up to hear the comforting sound of his mother's keys jangling in the front door before he drifted off to sleep. Watching the shadows shift on his darkened bedroom ceiling as cars drove down the street outside reminded him of what he saw at school that day, and in the half dreaming haze of reminiscence, he remembered another time he'd felt that eerie tingling over two years ago.

"Did he drop out?" Layla asked, clenching her fingers in the still dew-moist blades of grass. Without her volition, poppies sprouted and blossomed between her fingers, and she could feel the gently insistent pulsing underneath her hand where more wished to flower.

Warren was very paranoid, and it showed. His eyes kept twitching whenever he saw a flash of movement, trying to discern whether there was anything suspicious about it. When a security drone buzzed a little too close to them he nearly barbecued it out of nerves alone. "I don't know. They only roll-call on the first day of class, and I don't ever pay attention. All of the teachers are well aware that Warren Peace is sitting in the room, so why bother?"

"Right." It was always uncomfortable for Layla when Warren pretended not to lament his family situation. But she wasn't sure if it would be any easier if he was honest about how much it really hurt him, and she didn't know if she was strong enough to put him back together if he ever fell apart dealing with it. "Why would he even show up if that was his power? Why not just chronically skip?"

"No clue. But for all we know, he showed up for his first day, activated his power, and never turned it off."

"What about his parents?"

"They're dead. His older brothers raised him from what I remember hearing. One of them is Father Lightning, and the other is General Ocean."

Both men were prominent figures in the hero community, each known for their massive control over natural forces. Layla had even met General Ocean in passing once, years ago, when he, the Commander, and Jetstream were on their way to the Secret Sanctum for an important briefing. She'd fleetingly spied him waving from his wrist to her through Mr. Stronghold's study doorway. She remembered a rugged man clad in turquoise and black with wise green eyes and a gray-flecked goatee, but Will pulled her away to see his new acoustic guitar before she could ever wave back. She wondered if he would still seem so much larger-than-life now that she was well over three feet tall.

Layla fondly recalled Will's terrible song about different kinds of snack foods that he'd composed that night, and sighed.

Mistakenly interpreting her sigh as one of frustration, Warren continued. "It would be easy enough to check his name against the Junior roster, but even if we tried to run him through the student database we still have one major problem."

Layla smiled a tight cynical grimace. "The computers are still down."

"Yeah. And without the school mainframe, we have no way of accessing a student list. Thanks to the overprotective security measures used to safeguard all of these superheroes' prides and joys, we're pretty much screwed."

Layla frowned, then jumped at an idea. "What about a yearbook?! Wouldn't his photo be in there?"

Warren shifted in the grass, lifting one knee to prop his chin on. "It's worth a try. But I wouldn't count on it; it's as easy as faking a cough to get out of school picture day - trust me."

"But you said it's worth a try. Maybe he's in one of yours. If he's here, he's in your class, right?"

Warren looked away from her. "I don't have my yearbooks. We prioritize according to budget, and they're not exactly considered "essentials" in my household."

Layla immediately spoke up as though he hadn't made the admission at all. "I have mine from last year. Hayden may be in it. If you want, you can come over to my place and check it out with me."

Warren started to respond, but she interrupted him. "My mom will be home, but if that makes you uncomfortable we can just go over to Will's instead. We're the house-sitters until the Strongholds get back, and they wouldn't mind if it was you and me." Layla could tell by way he narrowed his eyes that he might be doubting whether the Stronghold patriarch felt that way too.

"Come on. We'll just sneak in Will's room through his window, we won't even have to tell anyone we're over there. How will they even know, right?"

Warren finally re-focused on her, and shrugged. "What they don't know can't hurt them."

The five-minute warning bell rang across campus, so the two of them gathered their belongings and headed into the building. "All righty then. I'll see you later," Layla said as they parted ways in the hall.

"Try asking the teachers about Hayden. Some of them ought to remember he exists, even if most of them have undiagnosed cases of early onset Alzheimer's," Warren suggested wryly, turning his back on her.

"Okay." She watched him go and a rush of warmth flickered within her. Warren was a diamond in the rough, and it still surprised her whenever she caught the sparkling glimmer of his friendship in the light. "Hey Warren?"

He stopped, but didn't look at her, instead cocking his head so that an ear was aimed towards her.

"About tonight... You don't mind riding trees, do you?"

He exhaled loudly, then shook his head and kept walking. "If I ask, that means she wins," she heard him mutter to himself.

She went to class laughing.

Down the hall, mere feet from where they were standing moments ago, resolute footsteps echoed down the empty corridor.

"It still isn't up?" Principal Powers asked, observing the computer technicians move in a flurry about the room.

On the most part, the crew looked busy, but none of the teachers were sure that they knew what they were doing. One technician was standing over a monitor, whispering. Another kept plugging and unplugging the same flash drive. Three of them were going through a complicated method of testing the reception of a wireless mouse. At least, that's what Principal Powers assumed they were doing, because it looked a lot like they were playing keep away, otherwise. Another three had a wire stretched across the room, one holding each end, while one in the middle hopped as they swung it in an arc - okay, now those guys were just playing jump rope!

"This is disgusting. Terrible. Why do we pay them? You know, I once had a student who could have fixed this up faster than a clone's ability to lose its mind and go on a blood-soaked rampage," Dr. Medulla said to the Principal, a giant vein throbbing in his giant forehead. "Unfortunately, you allowed her to be thrown into jail, so don't think for a second that I'm sharing my jet-pack with any of you when the Anti-Gravity device fails and you all die."

"In case you forget, that's why she's in prison, Dr. Medulla," Mr. Boy reminded, nervously eying a CD-Drive that kept opening, spitting out sparks, and closing again.

"Plus she turned you into a baby," Coach Boomer mentioned, clapping Dr. Medulla heartily on the back.

Stars erupted in Dr. Medulla's eyes. "And wasn't I just adooorable?"

It was the school lunch hour, and while the students enjoyed their meals, the teachers gathered in the computer lab to check on the progress made on the mainframe. The Principal still hadn't sent out any letters to parents informing them of a possible malfunction, because she wanted to know what had caused the potential catastrophe in the first place. She saw the head technician making a beeline towards her, and from his grave expression, had a feeling she was about to find out.

"Principal Powers? We've isolated the origin of the worm," he declared, brandishing a clipboard. He glanced pointedly at the group of educators milling around her, signaling that this was confidential information for her ears only.

"Wonderful. Who did this to us?" The teaching staff drew into a tight bundle, flanking her closely and peering around her body, causing the Principal to appear to the technician like a power-suit clad hat-rack adorned with human heads.

"Um, actually, you did."

"I knew it!" Dr. Medulla shouted, pumping a fist in the air.

"Me too! At first I assumed, "Nah, it can't be her," but then I thought, "What if it was her? No one would suspect her." But then I figured, "No, that's exactly what the real criminal would want me to think," so I thought, "No," but then I thought "Well, if it were her, then that's exactly what she would want me to think!" So in the end-"

"- Is where I'm going to stick my foot, if you don't shut-up!" Coach Boomer yelled over Mr. Boy, turning on him. "Now this is ridiculous! Principal Powers would never do such a thing!"

"Oh, don't misunderstand me, I don't mean this nice Principal lady here, I mean the school. This virus came from within the school," the technician explained, motioning towards the spastic computers behind him with his clipboard. "Yep, we got it tracked as startin' out in this very room."

"I smell a conspiracy..." Dr. Medulla uttered, still sizing up Principal Powers with suspicion.

"You're saying one of our students did this?" The Principal attempted to clarify, ignoring Dr. Medulla.

"I'm saying any malicious person with the ability to log-in," the tech drawled, scowling at Dr. Medulla, "including teachers, could have been the one to maliciously release this malicious virus into your system."

"That's just malicious! I don't feel safe! I feel unsafe!" Mr. Boy gibbered, doing an anxious little dance in place.

"Calm down Mr. Boy, I'm sure that we are all secure at the moment. Otherwise your technicians wouldn't feel comfortable enough to waste time playing Sockball," Principal Powers scolded, raising an eyebrow at a group of technicians standing in a circle behind their boss. One of them had removed one of his socks, stuffed it with balled-up paper, tied it off, and now they were throwing it at one technician who was ducking and weaving in the center, like they were playing a smellier version of Dodgeball.

The technician cleared his throat gruffly, and the men "working" behind him froze, then slowly dispersed and attended to various computers around the lab. One of them sheepishly unrolled the sock, and bent down slide it back on.

The head technician continued as though nothing had happened. "We're still functioning on high power, but we may be forced to switch over to auxiliary within the next few days in order to prevent the worm from infiltrating the reverse-electromagnetic core." Coach Boomer shook off Mr. Boy, who was clinging to his arm. "But in the meantime, my men and I will be hunting for the identity of the person responsible through what little login records we were able to recover."

"Do you have any leads?" Principal Powers asked coolly, her professionalism intact despite the screwball antics of her staff. The technician hesitated, but at the Principal's secret nod and eye roll, he went on nervously.

"Just one. The corrupted files were accessed around 11:30 am, yesterday."

The group of educators behind Principal Powers gasped. "Lunch time!"

Hushed by this revelation, or perhaps by the Principal's hawk-like glare, most of the teaching staff decided to return to their respective natural habitats.

"I'm going to go see Nurse Spex - I think I'm starting to get a... heart palpitation," Mr Boy wheezed, scurrying away.

"I'll keep you posted!" Principal Powers called to them flatly as they went their separate ways. Then she turned back to the technician and sighed. "All right. So who's the primary suspect?"

After making sure that no one was eavesdropping from out in the hall, the computer tech answered quietly. "Yesterday, a student of yours logged onto your network during lunch time and methodically infected every file they could gain access to."

Hiding her disappointment, Principal Powers pressed on. "Does this student have a name?"

"A recovered back-up file revealed the encrypted login ID of Will Stronghold."

"Can't play Save the Citizen if manual remote control over the rotating spiked death apparatus has been compromised," Coach Boomer repeated mockingly. "Well maybe they shouldn't have built robotic legs underneath it if they never planned on using them."

Boomer paced mopily around the raised circle platform in the school gym, every once in a while listlessly blowing the whistle around his neck. Save the Citizen was canceled due to a malfunction during the test run of the mechanical Hostage Mulcher v3.1 that was normally elevated up through the gym floor during the event. And earlier that morning, two Juniors had nearly had a car dropped on them when they were running laps before class. Coach Boomer pointed out that spontaneity and adaptation were required in Heroes and Sidekicks, so any danger to spectators during the proceedings was purely in their own best interest. He was overruled by Principal Powers, however, and now the students were enjoying a free hour when they should have been cowering in fear - eh, learning.

"Coach Boomer!"

A red-headed Sidekick girl jogged towards him, cautiously checking around her for unwanted falling vehicles, or randomly activated springboards under her feet as she neared.

"Whaddya want, Sidekick?" Boomer demanded obnoxiously, his hands on his hips.

"I need to ask you about something - a student of yours," she whispered once she reached him, thankfully unscathed.

Boomer narrowed his eyes at her, and then tilted back his head in remembrance. "Ooohhh."

"This is going to sound like a strange question, but do you remember - "

"Dump him. That's my advice," Boomer interrupted. "And while it's not really my place, I'm glad that you feel you can come to me with this kind of problem. Any other Sidekick who got burned like you did would be whining like a little whiner baby."

"What?"

Boomer scrutinized her more closely, struggling to come up with her name. "Layla, right? You're that flower child that's been dating Will Stronghold." He chuckled. "I can only imagine the day you've been having, huh?"

Layla frowned, confused. "Um... yeah, actually it has been kind of weird. I feel like I missed a day or something."

Coach Boomer glanced around surreptitiously to ensure that they were alone. "Well buck up, kid. It's perfectly normal to get cheated on in High School. Happens to everybody - even Heroes," he added, pointing his thumb at himself, and winking.

"I - Will wouldn't - what are you talking about? Is this about the elephants again?" Layla's eyes were wide, and she stood stalk still, in shock.

Boomer glared disdainfully down at her, his sympathy gone. "Get with the program, Sidekick. It's been all over the news. Stronghold was caught on camera, making-out with some half-dressed village girl he rescued over in Nowhere, South America with his 'rents," he spit out, shaking his head at her. "In the future, try expending more energy on current events, instead of hugging trees and not eating dolphins."

With his aggression suddenly dissipated, Coach Boomer grunted cockily, and strode off the platform with a skip in his step. "Oh, I can't wait to see how this effects his dynamic with Peace in Save the Citizen once Stronghold gets back," he enthused cheerfully. "The dreamteam's reign is over!"

His echoing voice shook the rafters above the gym when he left, and a body came hurtling down towards the mute girl standing on the platform, where it stopped with a jerk right above her head, and swung pathetically back and forth by a rope, helpless.

"Save me!"

Layla slowly gazed up into the painted eyes of the nameless female hostage that Will had first heroically rescued over a year ago.

"Save me!"

He hadn't let her down since. She was the longest "living" hostage in Save the Citizen history.

"Save me!"

Green thorned vines crept down from the ceiling, undulating like snakes. They reached the blond dummy, wrapped tautly around its arms, legs, and neck, and began to pull.

"Oh, save yourself," Layla uttered in disgust. As she turned to walk down from the platform, the dummy exploded in a rain of powder and limbs from behind her. Unmoved, she strolled out of the gym, her eyes rimmed red with unshed tears.

After she was gone, footsteps approached the remains of the hostage with something like awe. The decapitated female head rose into the air, facing her invisible carrier with scared, dead eyes.

"Don't you just love it when everything comes together all of its own accord?"

Author's Notes: Yes, I know that this chapter took forever, and I'm sorry for those of you who were waiting. Oddly enough, this is the first story I've ever written that has more Story Alerts than reviews. Huh? Good to know people like it though - I enjoy this story too much to abandon it, and actually look forward to starting the next chapter. Let me know if you look forward to reading it with that little purple button!