Homecoming, Part 2

Gwen Grayson had somehow transformed herself into Royal Pain – the famous archenemy of the Commander and Jet Stream – from a dress. I had to hand it to the girl; I simply had no idea how she had done it. Two bright glaring purple and yellow signs stood next to her on the podium, glaring her name and making everyone in the gym wince. I had to give it to her; this was completely unexpected and to hide an entire villain outfit underneath a horrid dress like that was simply something not a lot of people could pull off. Her infamous grey sidekick, Stitches, sprouted out from somewhere in the crowd and cackled loudly as he tapped the podium once. The front of it broke open, revealing the Pacifier – the mysterious weapon that had disappeared along with the body of Royal Pain years ago – in a cloud of steam. The crowd was too shocked to do anything as Stitches handed her the weapon, still cackling, and she turned towards the crowd. The student's at Sky High had learnt about Royal Pain's attack on the Commander long ago – but each and every one of the people in this room had believed Royal Pain had not only been male, but died long ago. To see her years later was neigh impossible and suspicious. In fact, the Commander had already begun to question it.

"Royal Pain is a girl?" He rose a finger towards Gwen, who angrily pointed the Pacifier towards him.

"Yes I'm a girl you idiot!" She cried in her robotic voice thanks to the helmet. "How I lost to a fool like you I'll never know – now prepare to be pacified."

"Do you honestly think you can kill me with that little toy gun of yours?" The Commander scoffed, placing his hands on his hips along with his wife.

"My dear Commander," Royal Pain droned, tilting her head slightly. "Who said anything about killing you?"

There was a bright flash of light, and the Commander was hit with a large beam of electricity on his chest. He let out an inhumane cry, and began to collapse in on himself. The crowd crouched down for cover, yelling in panic and watching their favorite super in all of Maxville Metropolis get swallowed up into his own cape. He folded and folded and almost seemed to shrink under the shock that was being delivered to him through Royal Pain's gun, and eventually collapsed into nothing like a dying star. Jet Stream, fearing the worst, checked underneath the lump of clothing to reveal an infant that looked remarkably similar to the Commander. She sighed in momentary relief, before leaping towards Royal Pain and receiving similar treatment herself. It was at this point that panic began to spread throughout the gymnasium, and chaos was flowing freely. Parents and students were running everywhere, being turned into infants left and right under Royal Pain's wrath.

"Elle, come on!" Warren tugged me along to try and find an exit once he realized I was frozen to the ground in shock. "Let's go!"

All I could hear was the sound of a steady electric shock as Royal Pain moved onto her new target minute after minute. We tried to mold in with the crowd, wanting to find an exit point before she spotted us trying to get away. Conveniently enough, we found that her group of henchmen had gated down all the doors to the gym and were now smiling ominously at the trapped crowd in front of them. Penny, the awful cheerleader who felt the need to wear gaudy outfits each day to school, waved haughtily at a mother and son as Royal Pain's electric current shot them both in the back and reversed their life cycles into infants. I blanched at the sight before being pulled away by Warren once again. The group had found a grate, and with a ball of fire from our favorite hothead, it was blasted open and we all filed inside.

"In, in!" Magenta pushed me, and I gulped before forcing myself into the small space. Every sign pointed to this being a bad idea, but it was our only escape option, so I crawled as fast as I could before Magenta followed.

"Where the hell are we?" She asked after we had all been crawling for a good minute or two.

"Hey Warren," Ethan called to the hotbox, who had been the last one to enter. "How about a torch?"

"Not unless you wanna get barbecued," He retorted from what sounded like a good twenty feet behind.

"You're not even supposed to put metal inside a microwave Ethan," I chastised the freshman. "How does a giant fireball inside a metal box sound?"

"Not so good," Zack answered for his friend before powering up and providing a light for us. "Ladies, if I may."

"'Then all the reindeer loved him'," Magenta sang as we stopped to make way for him to lead the way.

"Way to glow, Zack!" Ethan called, congratulating his friend for making his powers useful in what would quite possibly be the only situation he was needed in.

Zack led us through multiple twists and turns; I was beginning to think that we were lost after a good ten minutes, but upon seeing a grate at the end of the tunnel Zack perked up and let us all know that he spotted something. That something turned out to be Will, who pried the grate off the wall with his inhuman strength and helped us all out of the little crevice. I let out a huge breath, one that I didn't know I had been holding in, once I reached the open hallway, and stood shakily in my heels once again. If this wasn't straight out of a comic book I didn't know what was. It was nuts; all of the parents were turned into babies and the students were the ones who were left trying to save the day. It didn't help that it looked like we were the only ones who had been smart enough to escape the gym; you would think that in a room full of people with superpowers someone would have some kind of way of ganging up on Royal Pain and taking her out as a team, but it didn't look like anyone had been able to think strategically in the moment of panic.

"'Sup kid?" Zack greeted his old friend with a smile, obviously not angry with him whatsoever about how Will had behaved for two months.

"Guys!" Will greeted us. "You're never gonna believe this – I came because I figured out that Gwen is -"

"Royal Pain," Layla finished as we all grouped around Stronghold. Warren, upon exiting the grate, immediately came to my side and looked over me for any injuries. I met his eyes and he was brash enough to clasp me closer to him and give me a kiss to the forehead before turning back to Will and listen to what he was saying. I didn't comment on the action, but felt a warm rush from it.

"Yeah," Will nodded, thinking that no one else was aware of this information. "And she -"

"Stole the Pacifier," Warren finished for him, chest rumbling as he spoke.

"Right..." Will nodded, now understanding that something had happened, especially since he had found us climbing out of a grate.

"Yeah," Zack added, helping Magenta up from where she had been re-lacing her combat boot. "And she turned everyone into babies including your parents, dude."

"Okay," Will gave him a strange look. "That I didn't know."

"I think this is even more than the great Will Stronghold can handle," Layla quipped sarcastically, raising her brow and tilting her head. Her words and demeanor towards Will were completely justified, considering the fact that he had shunned his most important friends for two whole months simply to date a girl who turned out to be a psycho freak. From what it seemed – and thanks to the History lessons we had received on supers – Gwen had simply been using Will to get closer to the Commander, and had succeeded in every aspect. Her plan was coming together, and the only chance of stopping her lay with the potential in this hallway.

"She's right," Will agreed with his old friend, visibly aware of her anger and discomfort towards him. Warren bristled beside me and crossed his arms. "It's gonna take all of us."

"All of who?" Magenta frowned. "You, Warren and Eleanor? She can't even fight! And the rest of us are sidekicks."

"Just because you have powers that doesn't make you a hero!" Will argued, trying to come to terms with his bad behavior and motivating everyone at the same time. "Sometimes it just makes you a jerk – makes me a jerk."

Everyone looked at his dubiously, trying to decipher whether or not Will was telling the truth. He owed them a little bit more than an apology; he had abandoned his friends for a girl and shunned them simply because they weren't heroes, and that was truly disgusting. Will was going to have to prove to them, over time and with much effort, that they were still his friends.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is..." He continued, looking around and trailing off slightly upon spotting my expression.

"We know," Layla's tone was soft, and I could sense that she was preparing to forgive him. "You've been a -"

"You've been an unbelievable, insufferable asshole," I finished for her, sniffing haughtily and still upset with him for disrupting Layla's life for a good month. It was obvious that she had had trouble focusing on school because of him, and had lost a best friend in her life simply because of the dichotomy and power class she fought hard not to be affected by. Layla had told me that she had rejected Hero classification because she disagreed with the fascist sorting of the school's students, so to lose her childhood best friend over the one thing that she fought so hard not to give into was extremely shattering and hurtful. Warren and Magenta both gave me surprised stares, but Will ignored the comment in favor of apologizing to Layla directly.

"Layla," He began, taking her hand. "In case my homecoming date ends up killing me tonight – I just want you to know.."

Will pulled her into a kiss, effectively silencing anything else that she had to say as they both embraced each other. It was fair to assume that he had realized what kind of mistake he had made, but he was going to have to continue proving it to both his friends and Layla.

"Aw," Penny interrupted, appearing at the end of the hallway with Lash and Speed and sneering sarcastically. "Isn't that sweet? I hate sweet!"

"You guys are a part of this too?" Will turned to them as we all stared in surprise. This was bad news considering the only fighting skills I had were basica anti-rape tactics from public high school and I hadn't played Save the Citizen since September. I backed up slightly until I bumped into Warren, who grabbed a hold of me and shoved me behind him. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Go take care of Gwen," Warren instructed to Will, who shared an anxious glance with Layla. "We'll handle these clowns."

"Go," Layla urged her best friend, and watched him run through the wall leaving a giant crater. Zack and Magenta filed back into the grate after realizing that they were at risk of being hurt in a situation like this, and were better off hiding until the fight was over. I went to do the same, until Warren held me back.

"You stay with me," He growled, eyeing Speed who had begun to size him up. The two bullies of the school clearly wanted to extract their revenge on all of us, and I began to remove my shoes. If there was any chance of my running I was definitely not going to do it in these death traps.

Warren quickly powered up, engulfing his arms in flames and throwing a fireball at Speed, who moved out of the way rather fast and came zooming towards us. I ducked out of the way as soon as I sensed a punch coming, and only felt the whistle of air over my head as Speed passed us to run down the corridor. Warren followed, releasing a guttural growl as fire and smoke streamed from his arms. Giving one final desparate look towards Layla and Ethan, I followed suit and tore down the hallway in the direction that I had seen Speed zoom towards. It wasn't hard to find them both; Speed was darting around Warren in circles and causing him to miss his shots every time. The hotbox grew frustrated and shot a steady stream of flames in Speed's direction, which caught some of his clothing on fire and produced a yelp from the large boy. Warren took another shot, but Speed had already put it out and was now running in circles around him. It took a second or two to realize what he was doing, and my heart rate picked up as I recognized that Warren's flame was receding; he was losing oxygen in the vortex that the villain had created.

"Oh crud!" I looked around the corridor, thinking fast and smashing the glass protecting a fire extinguisher. Upon grasping it firmly and wielding it as a sort of club, I swung it once into the vortex that Speed was creating and relished in the firm 'thunk' that it made against his head.

"Urgh..." The overweight villain lay on the ground seconds later, moaning as he clutched the large red spot on his head. Warren took a moment to regain his breath and stare at me, bewildered, before picking up the villain by the collar – I had to admit, one needed to have some serious muscle to be able to pick Speed up – and forcing him to stand on his wobbly, stubby legs. I took several steps back, unsure of what was going to happen next – it didn't seem like there were any authoritative figures left to help – so it was just me, Warren and my fire extinguisher.

"You're a piece of shit," Warren growled, eyes flashing as he powered up and gripped Speed even tighter. "Get up and fight or stand down."

Speed managed to recollect himself just enough so that he could regain his abilities, and shoved himself off of Warren long enough to get running again. This time, however, he was slightly less coordinated and you could see it based off of his loopy running. His movements were sporadic and he was starting to tire, and the hotbox knew that. Warren got a couple of good shots in and it was clear that Speed was beginning to burn out, but all of a sudden he turned a corner and we found ourselves chasing him again. Luckily enough, Ethan had seen him coming and melted into a puddle at the exact right moment, causing Speed to slip up and trip. Warren lined up a final shot and, with a vicious toss, a giant ball of fire released itself from his hand and hit Speed square in the center of his back. He let out one last cry before being impaled in the wall, feet sticking out and still on fire.

"Nice work Popsicle," Warren gave a high five to the boy clad in orange. "Run to Powers' office and see if she's got any neutralization cuffs in there."

"Will do!" Ethan took off down the hallway in search of the special cuffs that were only used on students if they were being led to the detention neutralization room or had behaved so badly they needed to be restrained to make sure they didn't attack. After Ethan had disappeared down the hallway and I had tossed the extinguisher to the side with a large 'clank', Warren turned to me.

"You alright?" He looked me over coming closer and watching me grab my shoes off the floor where I had discarded them moments ago in favor of breaking open the plastic to the extinguisher.

"Yeah," I nodded, catching his eyes. "Guess I wasn't much help."

"I wouldn't say that," Warren shook his head, pulling me into a strong hug. "You think fast, Rhodes – thanks for saving my ass."

I snorted a bit at the use of my last name, and focused on his heart beating. It was strong and steady, and he didn't release his grasp on me until he heard Ethan's footsteps coming down the hallway. Our new friend had found several pairs of handcuffs as well as the key to the detention room and, with Warren's help, pulled a slightly singed Speed out of the wall before neutralizing him. Speed struggled a fair bit on the way to the detention room, but Warren had much more muscle on him and shoved him into the white circular room with ease. We then took off running to where we had last seen Zack and Magenta, and found a still empty grate but a very concerned looking Layla. Pulling her along, we continued searching the more secluded corridors of the school.

"Where were you?" I looked towards Layla as we ran and gaped at the large bruise forming on her face. "And what happened with Penny?!"

"She punched me!" Layla explained, out of breath. "I tied her up with my plants and she told me that Royal Pain sabotaged the anti-gravity device – the school's going to fall out of the sky!"

I didn't say anything, but my jaw clenched in fear as Ethan and Warren began to question her on the schematics of the school. I had had a miserable, shitty life so far and to think that it had the possibility of ending being plummeted through the sky did not sit well with me. This entire month I had been thinking about the opportunities that were laying out for me just outside the door; I was young and had powers that could make differences in society, as did the rest of these kids that lay pacified in the school gym under Royal Pain's rule. To have all this potential go to waste would truly be a tremendous loss, so I considered it my personal responsibility to help in this matter. Perhaps I didn't have a lot to contribute; this much was true. But I was determined to be a part of it, as I had realized just how important each and every one of these lives mattered in the shaping of the world. We were the future generations, and to wipe out all of us would set the world back. I didn't know what Royal Pain's plan was, but if it involved sabotaging the anti-gravitational device there was no way in hell that it was keeping us alive.

"Here!" Ethan ducked into a janitor's closet and instructed us to stay and wait whilst he rifled through the supplies. "Found a map!"

"Guys!" Zack's voice called from the other end of the hallway, and we regrouped seconds later as he and Magenta sprinted towards us. "We couldn't find you for awhile there – it sounds like Royal Pain stopped pacifying everyone."

"Yeah, and she did something to the anti-gravity device," Layla explained, taking the blueprint from Ethan and laying it out on the floor before pointing to the location of the device. "This is where it is."

"It looks like Royal Pain sealed off every route," Magenta groaned, looking up at her yellow counterpart. "Zack and I saw all of the security doors were welded shut. She must have done it right before the dance started when Powers wasn't around to snoop."

"Well," Ethan pushed his glasses up further up his nose and pointed towards a small tube near the device. "What about this conduit?"

"Right," I scoffed, sitting back on my haunches and grimacing. "You'd have to be like the size of a rat to fit in there."

Realizing my words, Warren smacked me on the shoulder and we all looked towards Magenta. She was reluctant to do so, but before she knew it we were placing her guinea pig form into the small tube that ultimately let to the anti-gravity device. Zack and Ethan remained close to the tube where they had released her, feeding her instructions each time she made a new twist or turn. In the meanwhile, Warren, Layla and I hurried towards the gym where we supposed Will was trying to stop Royal Pain – we didn't know what to expect upon arriving there, but it certainly wasn't Will beating the crap out of the robotic bitch. He threw her into a large disco ball just as we entered the gym, and was just about to punch her lights out as she fell back to the floor when Layla's cry of his name distracted him. Royal Pain took the window of opportunity, and lay an electricity filled punch to Will's jaw. The hit sent him flying through the gym window and far into the sky, where he immediately dropped with a last cry.

"NO!" Layla shrieked, her tone destroyed. For all she knew, her best friend had just been thrown thousands of feet back down to earth and the last thing she had said to him was 'go'.

"And there goes your last chance of stopping me," Royal Pain rose, cracking her neck. Layla slumped as Royal Pain stepped closer, preparing for a fight. Warren powered up as well, unsure of how fire and electricity were going to duel but willing to suffer the consequence to protect what little he had left. I, on the other hand, had nothing and could only rely on my surroundings. If I could give Warren a couple seconds to figure out a strategy, perhaps I could help him and Layla take her out.

"You asscake!" I launched my plan of distraction as I grabbed what I could on the tables sitting around me, picking up lamps and silverware to whip at the technopath. "You're a total psycho!"

"Ow!" The robot let out a howl of pain as I pierced it's leg plating with a well-aimed fork. "Stop it, you cunt!"

"Hey!" There was a cry from afar, which caused me to stop whipping whatever I could find at the black and yellow robot and instead stare at the broken window where the voice was coming from. It was Will – and he was flying! "Surprised?"

"You're flying!?" Royal Pain cried out in surprise as Will shotgunned towards her, propelling himself with his new found powers and lifting Royal Pain up to the ceiling. "That's impossible!"

He dropped her down to the ground, where she created a large crater in the wood from her impact and he delivered the punch he hadn't gotten to before right in her face. It knocked her helmet straight off, causing her suit to whir in complaint and shut down completely. The lights stopped flickering on her specially designed outfit, and from what it seemed like, Royal Pain was knocked out for a good while. Will moved forward with a smile, going to embrace Layla tightly as the two rejoiced. Layla clung to him for a good couple of moments, visibly shaken and overjoyed to still have her best friend alive with her. Warren gave him a pat on the back, and Will noted that my efforts had not been ignored either. I quickly healed Layla's bruise, and all seemed to be well until there was an abrupt groan from the school's infrastructure, and then it all started to drop.

"Oh my god!" I screamed as the g-forces sucked all the air out of my lungs.

"The school is falling!" Layla got down on her knees with the rest of us as we all prayed for our lives. I could only hope that Magenta would be able to chew through the wire in time for the school to regain it's anti-gravitational stature before we all fell to our deaths. This wasn't how I wanted to die, and I found myself tucked into Warren's side as we continued to plummet through the sky. Will had taken off about a minute ago, screaming out to us that he was going to try and stop the school's rapid descent – but I wasn't sure that his strength had developed that much in a short enough time span that he was able to life the entire school.

"Holy shit!" About a million thoughts flashed through my head at once, and I realized that it was my life quite literally flashing before my eyes. Memories of me as a child and as a little girl, playing with my mother and being bullied by the other kids at school, learning about my father's affair and a million memories about Rick. I felt like crying and shooting myself in the head at the same time. It simply wasn't fair; I didn't want the only memories to be a simple childhood and a terrible upbringing because of a demented, abusive family. I deserved better and I wanted to create happy memories for myself. But because of Royal Pain and her stupid hatched plan on my first year of an actual progressive school year where I had met someone affectionate and caring for me, I was most likely going to die in a national tragedy. It was making my head spin, and I buried further into Warren's side. In this singular moment of terror, only he could calm my stomach and assure me that my last moments had been worth something.

Then, as soon as it had begun, the horror was over. The roller coaster feeling went away, and my life was no longer flashing before my eyes as the school came to a slow stop. I looked out the window from my position on the ground, and could see the Maxville Metropolis city lights from my position. It was then that I collapsed onto my back, slumping out of Warren's grasp and breathing in the sweet air. He joined me on the ground, realizing that it was efficient to calm the body down after falling from such a traumatic height. We lay there, acknowledging the elevator-like feelings as the school ascended once more to it's original height – whether by Will's power or Magenta's ability to chew through wires, I wasn't sure – where it stayed in place. We were alive, and no one's life had been ended. It was over.

"Oh," I breathed out one final sigh as my brain took everything in. "Mother of God."

"What a cluster fuck and a half," Warren sat up slightly, making sure that Layla was alright and that Will had made it back safely before turning to me. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay," I confirmed. "I just need a minute."

Warren didn't give me one, and instead proceeded to take my breath away – which I unfortunately needed in that moment – with a very passionate kiss. I supposed it was his relief after having been through such traumatic events that made him act on his passion, but either way I was happy pulling him closer towards me as we embraced on the floor. There were no words from Layla and Will – either they were too shocked to say anything or were too distracted with their own celebration of being alive – either way I didn't care. All I could focus on in that moment was Warren and the heat radiating off of him in waves. I couldn't believe it; all this time and I realized that the moments where his body heat grew highest was when he felt at peace or in comfort. His body seemed to allow itself more breathing room in situations where he knew he was safe; like when he was sleeping or coincidentally enough...when he was with me. This thought caused my own warmth inside of me to grow even warmer, and I was engulfed in his heat as he continued to overwhelm me with his kiss. It wasn't until he pulled away that I was able to gasp for air again; it seemed like when he kissed me I was so distracted by everything in the moment that I forgot how to breathe through my nose.

"We're alive," I grasped his cheek as our foreheads pressed together. "We're okay."

"It's over," He confirmed, laying a final kiss on my lips. "We're safe."

It took an hour or two to figure out what to do next; after regrouping and locating the children (as it turned out Royal Pain's original plan had been to turn everyone into babies and destroy Sky High after flying multiple buses of infants on it – she had wanted to start a villain academy but clearly hadn't taken into account the fact that a few of us were quick thinkers) we had found professor Medulla who, thanks to his incredible brain power, was the only one who could communicate with us and let us know that the effects of the gun were reversible. We set out to find it after making sure that Gwen, who was still passed out in the gym, Lash, who we found with his head stuck in a toilet flushing the toilet on repeat so that he could breath, and Stitches, who was passed out on the front lawn of the school after one angry Ron Wilson had punched his lights out. Penny, on the other hand, was still tied up in the cafeteria and had been the hardest to contain. We didn't have enough cuffs to restrain her, so we had to move each of her copies one at a time and since she was not happy about it whatsoever, she made it extremely difficult for us.

It wasn't until Medulla managed to teach Ethan through the rewiring of the Pacifier and the Mad Science teacher was turned back into his adult self that we got some help. Medulla quickly set about de-pacifying as many babies as he could, handing each of them safety blankets and getting some more help once Principle Powers was de-pacified. It seemed as though everyone held their memory fairly well – no one was suffering from infant delusions nor were they soiling themselves, so I considered it a good sign. People were everywhere, walking in and out of washrooms to get changed and trying to find their loved ones. Our little group of survivors had reconvened in the hallway at some point, and were now reveling in the aftershocks as several teachers congratulated us. It seemed that Will Stronghold was the only one receiving any praise after the whole attack – it didn't take long for word to get out about how he had 'saved Sky High', but none of us said a word and humbly let him bask in the praise. It didn't matter who got the attention to us; all that mattered was that we had saved Sky High with everyone in her, and we were perfectly fine living our lives knowing that we had been the unnamed heroes who had helped save the school.

"This is nuts," I still held my shoes in hand, watching parents and students walk up and down the halls in safety blankets. There was a constant electrical current noise coming from the Mad Science lab as Medulla continued his work, but this time it wasn't ominous. "I can't believe any of this actually happened."

"This is like a dream," Magenta looked around at some of the adults carrying babies back to the lab. "No – a nightmare."

I leaned into Warren, exhausted after so much stress and exercise piled into one evening and received a rather interesting look from the group of friends standing around us. Several looks were shot towards Warren, who said nothing, and then myself. At this point I simply smiled back at my new friends lazily, cheek nuzzled against my hotbox's chest and relished in the wonderful feeling of having him wrap his arms around me. I didn't care what others thought; I was glad to have survived a rather traumatizing villainous attack on the school and somehow not only come out of it alive, but with a romantic companion as well. It seemed that the general consensus on Warren and I ending up together was simply strange until Layla finally broke the ice and let us both know how happy she was that we had ended up together. Warren simply rumbled that she was about a week late. Nothing else was said on the topic, and shortly after Will finished conversing with his parents in a secluded corner the Commander and Jet Stream approached our group. It was at that moment that I noticed Ron Wilson had joined our circle, standing behind Zack and grinning widely.

"It belongs to them," Jet Stream grinned, beaming towards our group. "The sidekicks – I mean hero support."

"Why don't we just call them what they really are, Josie?" The Commander held out the trophy towards Zack, Ethan, Magenta and Ron. "Heroes."

The four took it, each hold a piece of the statue and smiling brightly at the Commander before he and Jet Stream retreated. The two and their patriarchal outfits continued down the hallway with a last goodbye to Mr. Boy, and with a last swish of their cape they had disappeared down the corridor. I briefly wondered why they hadn't taken Will with them until I heard Principle Powers directing people back towards the gym after dressing themselves. It seemed like nothing – and truly nothing – short of the school blowing up was going to stop the homecoming dance. Everyone trudged to the gym with a sigh, uncertain of whether or not they were going to stay for the festivities after such stresses and conceding that giving the dance at least ten more minutes was acceptable before reconvening on a shuttle bus to chart back to the mainland.

"I have de-pacified all the babies," Medulla explained to the giant crowd minutes later. "And destroyed that horrible weapon forever!"

The was a large cheer from the crowd as he turned on the music and lights from a small remote, and allowed the festivities to continue in the somewhat-destroyed gym. It didn't seem that people cared, however, and ignored the popped balloons and tipped over chairs in favor of dancing with their friends and loved ones. I could honestly say it was the only time I had seen heroes and sidekicks blending in together and having a fun time without picking a fight. At the beginning of the year I had expected the worst from this bunch of kids, but now I wasn't so sure. Most parents had departed for the night, leaving their children in the more than capable hands of the teachers after understanding that the threat had been neutralized. I sat off to the side with Warren, head resting on his shoulder and waiting for the rest of the gang to come and tell us when they were ready to leave. We had agreed to depart together, but I was tired and nearly passed out on Warren's warm shoulder. He kept a large arm around me, making sure I stayed upright and allowed me to rest.

"Hey," I nudged my counterpart, remembering an earlier conversation. "What did your dad say today?"

"That depends," Warren swallowed heavily. "We talked about a lot of things."

"Oh?" I didn't pry, instead letting him continue.

"Like you," He revealed.

"What?" I raised my head up to look at him at this, wondering why he had told his father about me. "How did I come up in the conversation?"

"Even if he doesn't care," Warren began to explain, hurt flashing in his eyes. "I still tell him what I'm doing with my life – I told him about you, and homecoming."

"I do that with my mom too," My mouth was tight as I realized that I hadn't spoken to her in weeks. For all I knew, she was rotting in her rehab centre. "She cares, but it's more like I'm filling an activity report more than anything."

"Yeah," Warren agreed, and we both lapsed back into silence. I still wasn't sure if he had overheard the phone conversation that one night and I wasn't prepared to question him over it. "Except my dad smiled this time."

"He what?" I frowned in surprise at the mention of Baron Battle showing any happiness after years of being locked away in solitary.

"He smiled," Warren repeated, letting his tired eyes meet mine. This was the first time I had seen him truly out of energy – it seemed like whatever tolerance he had left had been zapped up, and he was drifting on what little he had left. "He smiled and told me to never treat you the way he treated my mother. He told me that I was a different man and to make my own choices."

There was a beat of silence as I let him think about his next words.

"First I was angry," He continued. "Because it took him eighteen years of my life for him to tell me this. But I'm done with anger. I have no energy left for it – it's not worth holding onto anymore. But I did realize that you deserve everything, and so far you've gotten nothing."

"So have you," I retorted. "Life isn't fair – life will make you it's bitch, but you make life a lot more bearable for me and at one point you were the only thread I had left - you're the only one that understands. So as far as I'm concerned you're the only one that makes this worth it."

"I can't promise you much," Warren admitted. "But you make me happy – I feel calm with you, like I can breathe normally instead of being suffocated by everyone else."

"You can promise me you," I insisted, placing my head back in the crook of his neck. I still had problems in my life, but with Warren close I was more willing to face them head on. I had support now – someone who was on my side. "That's more than enough for me to be happy."