Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney.

Chapter 5: Battle Plan

About 10 minutes earlier…

It was hours after school and this was the last place the sophomore sidekick class really wanted to be. Of course they were grateful that Mr. Boy had given them the opportunity to take a make-up test after most of them failed the Gadgets For Hero Support mid-term, but that didn't mean they had to actually enjoy it.

Suddenly the classroom door was blown open by a fireball and all the bad grades in the world seemed like insignificant problems.

Five men in black cloaks and hoods stalked into the room. Mr. Boy jumped up from his desk and ran behind the blackboard to change. He re-emerged in costume a second later and stood protectively between the intruders and his pupils. A sixth villain appeared, dragging an unconscious school bus driver – evidently their reluctant ticket to Sky High – and threw him down next to the desk, an action which revealed pyro tattoos on the backs of his hands.

"Guess who they're related to," murmured Magenta, but her sympathy for their friend was obvious despite her customary sarcasm.

"Is Warren even still at school?" asked Layla in a low tone.

"He could be," Ethan whispered, "I saw him go into the library after class. But why would they be looking for him in this classroom?"

"Man, if only we could send, like, an SOS to him or something," Zach said.

Maj rolled her eyes. "Hello! If any of us had a power that useful, we wouldn't be sidekicks."

This hushed conversation was overheard by the one person in the room who could send a warning message of sorts. But Kate knew she had to be reasonably calm to be able to use her power, and calmness was really not on her emotional agenda right then.

At that moment Mr. Boy's brave defense came to an abrupt end when he was thrown into the blackboard, unconscious. Kate knew she had to at least try.

She pressed her palms together and willed herself to relax. A few deep breaths later she opened her hands, releasing a small cloud of sparks which hovered over her palms and then coalesced into flames. Everybody in the room just stared as she looked deep into the fire and whispered 'Help'. One of the villains pulled back his hood and smirked.

Recognizing the pyro tattoo on his face, Ethan, whose super villain trading card collection was almost as extensive as his superhero one, whispered, "Incendiary."

The flames in Kate's hands re-formed into a small dragon which darted towards the door. Two of the villains threw fireballs at the fleeing construct, but it was far more agile and it ducked easily. The cloaked henchmen were angry that they couldn't prevent the animated distress signal from escaping – being pyrokinetics they had no control over someone else's fire.

Incendiary, however, appeared unconcerned. "Well, that little display saves me having to ask which one of you is Katherine Brody."

"You came here for me?" she asked, bewildered. What was going on?

The super villain seemed to be impressed by her power. "What were they thinking, dumping a talent like you with these pathetic losers?" Kate just stared at him as he settled himself in Mr. Boy's chair with his boots up on the desk and continued in an oily tone of voice, "Come here, dear. We need to have a little … chat."

Really, the security in this school left a lot to be desired. This was the second time in two years that the place was crawling with super villains. Okay, so last year it had been an inside job, but still.

Warren strode down the corridor towards the faculty lounge as quietly as his boots would allow. Halfway there he passed the detention room, and seeing the door completely melted shut made him try out a few more choice Oriental expletives under his breath. No points for guessing who was inside, and who had trapped them there. Understandably, biometric scanners didn't work so well when the whole door was fried from the outside, but he had to wonder just how his villainous relatives had managed to lure the teachers into the power neutralizing room to begin with.

It really hurt his pride, but it was probably time to call for outside assistance.

Will was busy stacking his parents' Complete Set of Hero Encyclopedias into a house of cards that almost reached the ceiling when his cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and flipped his phone open, about to give a cheerful greeting but Warren cut in quickly.

"Will, I'm about to have a little family reunion up here at school, and – "

Will dropped the encyclopedia he was holding and flew down to catch it before it hit the floor. "Your father broke out of jail?" he asked, concerned.

"Not that I know of," replied his friend, "But half a dozen of my less-than-favorite cousins have invaded the sidekick classroom, and no, I have no idea how they got here. Think your folks could come save the day like usual?"

"Uh, they're off saving the day already."

"From who?"

"I dunno," answered Will, putting the remaining encyclopedias away. Finishing the Leaning Tower of Heroes could wait for another time. "Some Big Trouble Downtown or something."

"Well, tell them to wrap it up quickly and get their red, white and blue asses up here!"

"Trouble is, they switch off their cell phones while they're on a distress call so they don't get distracted." Will accidentally bumped the carefully balanced encyclopedias and they began to topple. He quickly flew out of the room and down the stairs so that Warren wouldn't hear the books crashing over the phone. "I'll leave a message on their voicemail, but in the meantime I can help."

"No offense man, but I think it's their help we really need."

"But last year we – "

"Will, this isn't Royal Pest and her modified Super Soaker," Warren snapped a bit impatiently, "Now could you stop wasting time and get your folks here?"

With that the line went dead. Will tried calling his parents, but sure enough there was no answer. He didn't bother leaving a message. By the time they got it, it would probably be too late. He would have to find them and tell them what was going on in person.

But that would involve going flying in broad daylight with no costume, which was guaranteed to make his folks flip out even if it was for a good cause.

On second thought, maybe all he needed was some kind of disguise, like a Zorro-type mask. Not that he had time to go searching for something like that, so he would have to make do with grabbing the baseball cap off the back of his door and digging up a pair of aviator sunglasses. He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror and he had to admit the sunglasses made a pretty cool disguise…

It shouldn't have come as a surprise to Will that his parents already had the situation in hand when he arrived on the scene. After all, they were the greatest superheroes on the planet.

"What are you doing here?" asked Josie while Steve looked skeptically at Will's 'disguise' and then went back to tying up the would-be hijackers with scrap metal.

"There's trouble at Sky High, and they need your help," Will said.

"The school is the safest place on the planet," stated Steve and paused to smile for a photograph while Will ducked out of sight, "They couldn't possibly need our help."

"Would Warren ask for help unless things were pretty desperate?" Will challenged from his hiding place.

"He has a point," Josie said to her husband out of the corner of her mouth while posing for another photo.

"Plus, he called me by my first name. Twice."

"What does that prove?" asked Steve.

"Never mind," replied Will. The two superheroes handed the criminals over to the police and the Strongholds ducked into a nearby alley to continue their discussion in private. "The thing is, Dad, there's six flame-throwing villains answering to the name of Battle running around the school right now. We're gonna need some of those cool power-neutralizing restraints and we – "

Josie cut him off. "Wait a minute, Will. There is no 'we'."

"Your mother's right," agreed Steve, "If it really is that kind of trouble, you're going straight home."

Will looked at his parents in disbelief. What next, were they going to send him to his room without supper unless he picked up all his toys? "You know, I'll just follow you anyway," he pointed out.

"What do you mean, your father wasn't the hero Fire-Trainer?"

Incendiary stared at her across Mr. Boy's desk and she stared back defiantly despite the fact that she was standing right in front of the desk, guarded by two of his henchmen. Once she had gotten over her initial fear, she realized there was no need to be so scared of these men considering their fire power couldn't hurt her. Her friends, however, were more in danger, and it was for their sakes that she answered his questions.

"Fire-Trainer was my uncle," she replied, "Neither of my parents have powers, or my older brother."

One of Incendiary's henchmen who was standing near the blackboard spoke up. "I told you that database Arson hacked into was dodgy! That kid thinks he's – "

"Fahrenheit?" interrupted Incendiary in the fake-pleasant tone of someone making a special effort to stay calm.

"Yeah, boss?"

"Do you want me to throw you off the edge of this overgrown flying saucer?"

"No, boss," mumbled the villain called Fahrenheit, but it was evidently a rhetorical question, as Incendiary had already turned his attention back to Kate. He took his feet off the desk and leant towards her.

"Grandparents?" he continued his interrogation.

"It comes from my grandmother," replied Kate reluctantly.

"And her siblings?"

"No, she was the only one."

"Grandparents on the other side?"

"None of them." Where was this line of questioning going?

The villain appeared to think for a bit, and then he got up. "Well, it was nice talking to you, dear, but I'm afraid your breeding is hopelessly inferior so I doubt you'll be making the call-back audition. However, I have no doubt we'll meet again sometime in the future, when you're out trying to save the world while trailing after some hero in tights. Until then…"

He swept around with a flourish of his cloak, only to find Warren standing in the doorway, which rather spoilt his dramatic exit.

"Going somewhere?" asked the younger pyro, leaning with his hands on either side of the doorway.

"Well, little cousin Warren," sneered Incendiary, "Nice of you to join us."

"Join you? I think not."

"Stand aside, hero-boy."

"No," replied Warren calmly. He had to play for time until the cavalry arrived, because there was no way he was just going to let them leave, even if Kate was no longer in danger from them. "Any more stupid suggestions?"

Incendiary didn't seem too impressed with his attitude. "Don't make me hurt these dear friends of yours," he threatened and ignited one hand.

"Well, isn't this a cliché." Warren stepped into the classroom and closed the door behind him.

The villain ignited the other hand with an evil grin which faded as all of his fire was extinguished. The confused henchmen glanced at each other nervously, but Incendiary seemed to realize the significance of what had just happened.

"Well, well. So Uncle Barron's little experiment was … successful."

When the three Strongholds arrived, Warren was holding his own quite well considering the odds. Of course, with his second power he had quite an advantage, however he couldn't keep tabs on all of the villains at the same time.

The classroom wasn't faring so well under the barrage of fire, but the students were reasonably safe where they were cowering in the corner. Kate, the only other pupil who was invulnerable to fire, was acting as goalkeeper for any stray fireballs that shot in their direction.

The male Strongholds waded into the mêlée while Josie stayed a bit on the periphery, not being fireproof like Steve and Will, although her super-suit protected her to a certain extent.

"Hey Warren," greeted Will, punching out one of the villains, "Thought you could use a hand."

"Thanks." Warren blasted another with a fireball. "Your response time needs work though."

"Yeah, we'll need to do something about that one day when we're in the field," Will agreed as his father hit another of the intruders through the wall and then went to go fetch him.

It was all over quite quickly. Next thing they knew, Steve was handcuffing the villains with heavy power-neutralizing restraints while Josie called Nurse Spex for Mr. Boy and the bus driver. Will went over to check on Kate and the other sidekicks and Warren sat on a desk, trying to get his breath back.

"I thought you said there were six of them." Steve held up the sixth restraint.

Warren looked around. Damn. "There were," he said darkly, "Incendiary must have escaped."

Just then Layla came up to him. "Shame, Warren. It's not fair," she teased lightly. He raised his eyebrows. "I mean, you do most of the work and he gets the girl." She nodded to where Will was talking animatedly to Kate.

Warren shrugged. "He can have her. For today I'll just pretend I'm his sidekick."

Layla was about to respond to his dry comment when the others came over to them.

"Thanks, Warren," said Kate. He acknowledged it with a slight smile and nod. She went on, "By the way, that's really cool, what you can do."

"You too."

"What exactly is your power?" Ethan asked Kate curiously.

Warren answered for her. "Pyro-construction. An extremely rare aspect of your favorite little theory about me." Although, to be fair, it had been a couple of months since Ethan had last gone on about fire elementals.

The others were looking confused, so Kate decided the best way was to show them. She pressed her palms together, and then opened her hands to release the sparks which melted together to form a small fiery dragon.

"I can create flame constructs," she explained as it flew between her and Warren, the only other person who could handle it, while the others backed away from the heat a little. "It's a creature forged from fire that does whatever I tell it to."

"That's totally awesome!" Zach raved. Warren held out a hand in the construct's flight path and it flew through his outspread fingers. It felt a bit like dipping your hand in a stream of running water.

"Boomer didn't think so," replied Kate, referring to the fact that she was in hero support.

"Shows how much he knows." Ethan was completely in awe of the fiery animation.

"Hold on a sec," Magenta said, "You were in Power Placement with us. Humiliating experience aside, I think I would have remembered someone creating fire … whatevers."

"Flame constructs. And you didn't see anything at Power Placement because I was so nervous I messed up and all I could do was make a few sparks. And before anybody says it, I know, I can't blame him for sidekicking me. But I managed to convince Principal Powers to let me do Placement again at the beginning of this year. I made a perfectly good construct and he still said it was a useless parlor trick."

"Of course he did," commented Warren, "Or he'd have to admit he was wrong."

Layla exclaimed, "One day they'll all have to admit that the whole system is wrong!"

Will and Warren exchanged a look that said Here-we-go-again. Not that they disagreed with her in the slightest, but they'd heard it all before. It was an unfortunate fact that, despite what the Commander and Jetstream had said at their infamous freshman Homecoming, the hero-sidekick dichotomy prevailed. It takes a long time for that kind of mindset to change.

Warren decided it was time to leave. "Later, kids. See you around, Sparky."

"'Sparky'?" repeated Kate as Warren walked off.

"Warren has this thing for nicknames," Layla explained, "It's a sign of affection."

"Yeah right, Hippie," teased Maj.

"So I'm stuck with being 'Sparky' forever then?"

"Better than 'Neon Boy'," said Zach.

"Which is better than the last one he had for you," put in Will with a grin.

Kate asked, "What was that?"

"You don't want to know," Zach muttered darkly, "No, really."

Magenta, having noticed Warren and Steve Stronghold just outside the door, apparently having some sort of serious conversation, nodded towards them and said, "I'd like to know what that's all about. No, really."

As the rest turned to look, Steve put a hand on Warren's shoulder and said something that made the pyro smile slightly.

A/N: Well, hope it was worth the wait…