Much apologies for the delayed update. I had a bit of trouble with this one and had to consult my beta repeatedly. Thank you so much for your comments and critiques. Keep them coming- I appreciate them all.
Disclaimer: I don't own Sky High, any of its canon characters.
Chapter Six- Things Forgotten
As I made my way home, I thought about Paul and what he'd said. He must have known perfectly well that any contact with Warren on my part was strictly work-related. He was being completely stupid and I knew it.
That was as far as my musings went however because as soon as I came through the door, my mother greeted me with a request.
"Anna honey, could you go to the store and buy me some flour and eggs? I've run out," she said breathlessly, wiping her hands on a cloth. My mother didn't have any powers, but she was far from ordinary. Taking care of a family of super heroes was no easy task.
"Mom, I just got home," I whined. "Can't Dad go with the car?"
"He's out and don't argue with me," Mom said firmly, pushing some money into my hand. "Now go on. Flour and eggs, don't forget."
Tossing my bag in the corner, I thrust the money into my pocket and stomped back out the door. I usually didn't complain about running errands for my mom but today wasn't one of my best days. I felt mutinous.
It wasn't fair, it just wasn't fair. I bet the other groups weren't having these kinds of problems, I thought miserably as I picked up a bag of flour and then went to get the eggs. It's only a project, I answered myself, which I often did. Just get the work done and let everyone go their separate ways. No, I thought, I can't have things happening like this. It'll hurt the project if we can't at least be civil to one another.
Everything must be run exactly the way you want it to. Nothing is perfect but you won't accept that. You can't control people any more than you can control the world. You can't arrange Paul, Warren, and Jana like dolls and make them play nice. Paul and Warren will always hate one another and Jana will always hate you. Leave it alone-
My thoughts were interrupted as I turned the corner to go into the next aisle and crashed into a cart. I dropped the basket I was carrying the eggs in. The carton fell open, most of the eggs breaking on the floor as well as on my shoes which were practically new.
"Oh, damn it!" I said angrily, staring at the mess.
"Would you watch where you're- Arrian?"
I looked up sharply from my shoes at the owner of the cart. It was Warren. His hair was pulled back from his face into a ponytail and his clothes were rather worn. He looked tired.
"Warren? I thought you said that you had to work." I couldn't help but ask. The question came out more accusing than I intended.
"I did and I am," he said defensively.
"You work at the grocery store?" I asked, confused.
"Uh... no," he said in a tone of voice that hinted at indignation. "Not that it's any of your business but I'm here to pick up a few things," he said, gesturing to his cart. It contained a few bottles of soy sauce, some packs of napkins and a few other things.
"Oh. Right, sorry." I didn't know what else to say.
"You might want to clean that up," Warren said, ignoring this, as he pointed to my egg-yolk covered shoes.
I winced, disgusted. "Ugh..." Glancing around to make sure I wasn't being watched, I put my left hand over my shoes. For a brief moment white light engulfed my feet- when I withdrew my hand my shoes were clean again, the egg yolk and shells now in a messy puddle on the floor. Furtively, I nudged the carton underneath the nearest shelf.
"Convenient," he remarked dryly.
"We should move," I said, looking around nervously.
Warren didn't reply, but gave me a weird look and turned into the aisle I'd just left. I followed him to get more eggs.
"So," I said, in an attempt to break the silence that followed as I picked up another carton.
"So..." Warren echoed in a bored voice. He was scanning the shelves and glancing down at a piece of paper in his hand which contained a rather long shopping list.
"Well we got a lot done today," I said. "In the group, I mean."
"Yeah?" he said absently as he examined a jar of dry mustard.
"Yes. We did international heroes and their innovative crime-fighting strategies," I told him as we walked along. "I even found out that Crystanet, my great aunt-in-law, was one of them. She defended the greater part of France."
Warren paused for a moment and glanced at me. "Crystanet the Invincible? I know about her. My mother told me that she once single-handedly saved an entire city from an army of death-laser wielding robots. Crystanet was one of her idols."
"Really? Huh, the laser-wielding robots is new to me. I don't remember hearing about Paris ever being attacked by a robot army though."
"Not Paris. Bordeaux, in the spring of 1961."
I gave him a curious look. "How do you know all this?"
"I told you. My mom idolized Crystanet. She'd always tell me stories about her. From what I've heard, she was one of the greatest Heroes in history. "
"She really was," I agreed. We were in the produce section and Warren picked up a few bunches of bok choy. Automatically I pulled a clear plastic bag off the roll and held it
open as he put them into it. "So what's all this- are you throwing a party or something?"
"No, not exactly," he answered reluctantly. "My boss is having a special dinner for a few of his relatives tomorrow night. So he sent me for some things."
"A dinner party- that's nice."
"Yeah, very exciting," he answered unenthusiastically as he took half a dozen onions and put them into another plastic bag I'd opened.
I rolled my eyes. "What exactly do you do, anyway? I mean other than the obvious errand-running."
We went through the aisles, Warren placing various things in the cart as he filled me in on his job, which took all of five seconds. Eventually the conversation turned to what we would work on and bring for tomorrow's group meeting.
"Did you finish the bar graph for classic Villain schemes?" he asked.
"More or less. I just need to do some finishing touch-ups that should only take a few minutes. We'll also need a time line for Captured Villains. You should make that," I said and immediately bit my tongue, remembering his father. "I mean, because you're good with dates," I added, trying to move the conversation along quickly.
"Well, so are you. I saw the part you did for Hero Activity During the Villain Revolution of the 1900s, " Warren replied matter of factly, not seeming to notice.
"Oh, that was a fluke," I said dismissively. "Hero History is my worst subject."
"That's because you're never paying attention," he said reproachfully. "You're always joking around with Findle instead of listening in class."
I opened my mouth to protest, but nothing came out. I hated to admit it but he was right. Paul and I were usually so absorbed in our own little world that I rarely heard what Mr. Mnemonic was saying. Still, I was offended at hearing it from someone else.
"Well, I think that's all of it," I muttered, subdued as I tossed a box of cornstarch into his cart. I suddenly wanted to go home. Immediately.
"Yeah it is," he said, double-checking his list, oblivious to the sudden change in mood.
"I'll be going to the express line now seeing as..." I trailed off, lifting up my basket.
"Right."
"Goodbye," I said shortly and walked away.
"Arrian," he said with a suddenness that made me turn around quickly.
"What?"
He stared at his cart for some moments before looking at me at length, saying, "Thanks for filling me in on the group work and helping me out with this stuff."
I shrugged. "Don't mention it."
"Trust me, you don't have to worry about that," he muttered, in his element once again as he turned his cart and made his way to the nearest line.
xxxxxxxx
"I'm telling you, Asteroid Man was Meteor Freak's successor," Paul said with solid conviction.
"You're wrong," Jana answered coolly. "Asteroid Man was the Star Lord's apprentice. Any idiot knows that."
Warren sighed impatiently at the two. Paul gave him a nasty look and I said quickly, "Just hold on. Jana where's the textbook? All right, give me a minute..."
I quickly flipped through the pages and found the chapter on Astro/Alien Heroes. "Powers from a meteor...Astro Girl...hmm...okay. It turns out you're both right. See, Asteroid Man was the Star Lord's apprentice, but when the Star Lord was killed by the Void Master, Asteroid Man returned to his home planet and succeeded Meteor Freak. So end it."
"We could focus on both points and elaborate on them," Warren offered quietly.
"I'm all for that," I said encouragingly, amidst a general murmur of detached assent.
Paul took the text and searched the index. "There's not much on either of them in here. I'll check the catalog, and see if I can find something." He got up and went over to the computers to begin searching.
The rest of us worked on for a while without incident. Looking over at Jana who was sitting next to me, I saw her making some half-hearted notes. Upon closer inspection of her paper I realized that something was wrong.
"Jana, that's not correct. Hackman didn't assimilate himself into the Internet until 2001. And he's no longer incarcerated. That book's outdated."
She closed it with a loud snap and turned a deadly eye on me. "Fine," she said abruptly. She got up and started to walk away.
"Where are you going?"
"To get an updated version of the text, Mom," she said sarcastically, before disappearing among the shelves.
"What is her problem?" I said huffily, snatching a pen off of the table.
"You are," Warren said absently as he looked down at his open notebook. He turned a page, staring at it intently.
I blinked at him from across the table. "What?"
Warren exhaled slowly and finally looked up at me with a berating expression. "Don't you remember?"
"Remember what?" I was getting tired of this.
"Shh!" Mrs. Libberman the school librarian admonished me, giving us both an annoyed look.
"Sorry," I whispered to her.
Warren waited until her back was turned before saying in a hushed tone, "You're unbelievable, you know that? You completely destroyed her in the Save the Citizen final last term. She was always bragging about how she could take anyone and then you knock her unconscious and save the citizen in seven seconds flat."
I put my hands to my mouth in shock as I remembered. "Oh my god," I breathed, "That was her? I completely forgot about that."
How could I have? It was my best score in Save the Citizen ever. Jana had been partnered with Turner Fields, (a timid and rather ineffectual flier) as villains. To make matters worse he was scared stiff of my partner Greer Francis, whose skin was stronger than titanium and who'd incidentally threatened to beat him to a pulp that very afternoon. Jana, whose unnerving power was rendering people temporarily dead with a single touch among other necromancing abilities, didn't stand a chance.
"I wouldn't feel too bad. You have to admit, she had it coming," Warren said as he studied a complicated chart detailing the rise of villainy with technological advancement.
"Still, it must have been pretty embarrassing for her," I murmured.
He looked up from the chart and gave me an incredulous look. "And now you realize this."
"Well I never thought about it before," I whispered sharply. "I didn't even remember it was her that I beat. Man, how am I going to deal with this?"
"Shhh!" Mrs. Libberman looked about ready to throw us out of there.
"Sorry, sorry," I mumbled.
"Just forget about her," Warren advised. "She's more trouble than she's worth but I'm not about to let her get credit for not doing anything. I'll handle it."
"How so?" I asked cynically, but then I saw the look on his face. "Oh no. Listen, I know Jana can be a real jerk but don't go threatening to burn a hole in her head or something, ok? The last thing we need is another…incident."
"Yeah? Anyone else doing anything about her? She doesn't care about the teachers. And it's not like you're even trying to get her involved-"
"Right, because we all know how much she listens to me-"
"So like I said, I'll handle it," he said softly but firmly, as Paul returned with four textbooks.
We immediately shut up and feigned study which Paul wasn't buying.
"Here's the History of Alien Heroes," he said tonelessly, tossing the book at me. He gave us both a sour look before getting back to work.
"Thanks," I said, with a sigh.
Another book was dropped in front of me with a thud. I looked up indignantly at Jana who took her seat and began flipping though one of Paul's books.
"Thought you'd want to make sure it was updated," she said nastily, not looking at me.
I threw Jana a look that Paul once referred to as my 'Evil Glare of Death'. Somehow, I got through the next two hours without throttling her on the spot.