Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney.
A/N: I strongly recommend that if you haven't read Phoenix Emergent first, please go to my profile page and read it before this story.
Chapter 1: Under the Weather
Magenta went straight to her laptop and opened her extensive database on all known people with super-powers. "Okay, what sort of trouble are we looking at?"
"The Mayor's just received a ransom demand from a villain calling himself Weatherman," replied Will, standing next to her chair.
"I've heard of him," put in Ethan, joining Will looking over Magenta's shoulder, "His M.O. is to terrorize cities into paying him huge amounts of money by totally wrecking the weather."
Zach stretched as he got up lazily. "Doesn't sound so bad then."
"I'm not talking about a few picnics and ballgames getting rained out, Zach," Ethan replied, "This guy does blizzards, ice storms, you name it. He once even did a massive tornado in Kansas."
"He hasn't reared his ugly head in a while," commented Maj from what she'd been reading on her screen. "Last sighting was five years ago when he squeezed Los Angeles for $1,000,000 the day before the Oscars."
"And, what, he's broke already?" remarked Warren dryly.
"So why hasn't any superhero arrested him?" Layla asked.
"Good timing, it seems," said Magenta, "Like he probably thinks Maxville is vulnerable because the Commander and Jetstream are out of the country."
"Also," added Ethan as he read over Maj's shoulder, "It appears he's avoided cities like Gotham and Metropolis 'cos he knows they're well-protected."
"So, how are we going to find him?" asked Kate.
"The Mayor said his staff already tried to trace the call, but the number they tracked it to doesn't exist." Will gave the number and the exact time of the call to Magenta who started doing what she did best on her computer, and then went on, "We're gonna need the element of surprise here, 'cos if he starts throwing blizzards around it'll affect all of our powers, the two of you especially." He looked at Kate and Warren, who both needed a certain minimum temperature to be able to produce their respective types of fire.
"Don't worry about me, I have backup," replied Warren holding up his Zippo lighter, which he could use with his second power if he wasn't able to power up pyrokinetically. The lighter was embossed with a phoenix, which he had chosen as his personal logo – more to honor his mother, who had been a hero called Firebird, than to humor Ethan's pet theory that he was a fire elemental.
"Okay, I got him," said Magenta. "He bounced the call all over town, but it originally came from here." She tapped her screen which showed the location in downtown Maxville, and then turned to the others. "Of course, there's no guarantee that that's where he's set up camp; that's just where he phoned from."
"It's a good place to start," replied Will.
"It makes sense," Ethan said to Maj, "I mean, if that's not where he's hanging out, why would he go to so much trouble to cover his tracks?"
"Yeah, but just because – " she started, but she was cut off.
Will clapped his hands. "Guys, guys! You can discuss this on the way. Let's get a move on, people!"
"Yes sir, Mr. Super-Tights!" said Kate, earning a round of grins and a dirty look from her boyfriend. The nickname was an old reference to the struggles Will had had with his parents expecting him to wear a spandex super-suit, preferably one that matched theirs.
Gearing up was a well-rehearsed exercise for the team. At the press of a button, a screen was lowered from the ceiling, and they took turns to duck behind it and do a quick-change into their uniforms. Next came the gloves, sunglasses and earphones. Maj packed up her laptop, Zach grabbed his toolbox, cramming his soldering iron back into it, and Ethan got his Advanced First Aid medical bag. Layla checked she had a couple of seedlings in her utility belt and she, Will, Warren and Kate pocketed two neutralizing bracelets each. Unlike the heavy old-style power-neutralizing restraints, these bracelets were lightweight and much easier to handle in action. They were created by a transmutator called the Alchemistress. Apparently she'd been at Sky High at the same time as them, but they'd never heard of anyone with that power. Of course, if Boomer had done his usual trick and stuck her in sidekick class, where powers were not openly discussed, it wasn't actually that surprising that they didn't know who she was.
Less than two minutes later, they were ready to go. Will flew off ahead, and the rest of them piled into the Guardian Van with Zach driving. It appeared to be an ordinary surveillance van with darkened windows – until it took off, that is. Like the new Sky High school buses, it had VTOL capabilities, so they didn't need to drive off a dead-end highway ramp in order to get airborne.
In the back of the vehicle, Maj hooked her laptop up to the computer set-up that was basically a traveling duplicate of the one in the Sanctum. It took up the whole of one side of the van, apart from the large size photo of the team in costume which was entitled 'Zach's so bright we gotta wear shades'. She flicked the switches on her boyfriend's equipment on the other side, and the group tested their comms. Ethan, meanwhile, switched on his health monitors which recorded data sent by the biosensors in the teams' uniforms.
Zach landed the van on a deserted street a few blocks from the address Magenta's search had provided, and then climbed in the back with the others. Will soon joined them, and closed the back doors.
"Okay, he's in there alright, but it's gonna be difficult getting to him." He nodded to Zach who switched on the playback monitor that had been recording from Will's sunglasses camera. "As you can see, he's on the fourth floor and he's got quite a mean security camera system."
"He doesn't seem to be monitoring anything coming from the air, considering he didn't spot you," Kate commented.
"Yeah, but even so, once Eagle goes in the window, Weatherman would have him on his radar," replied Ethan.
"I can fly quite fast, you know," Will pointed out.
"How about someone, uh, small?" suggested Zach, looking at Maj who just rolled her eyes. She'd always hated using her shape-shifting power, and much preferred to rely on her other skills.
"No," said Layla, "There's still too much of a risk that he'll spot anyone who goes in there. He needs to be restrained from a safe distance."
Layla carefully laid one of her seedlings on the pavement next to the wall of Weatherman's hideout. As the thin tree grew quickly under her power, she grabbed a branch and rode it up to the fourth floor, keeping to the wall area where there weren't windows. Warren and Kate watched from below while Will hovered in line with the window where he'd first spotted the villain, who was facing away from the window, watching his security monitors. Apparently, for all his surveillance set-up inside the building, there didn't appear to be any cameras on the outside.
When Layla reached the fourth floor, she stopped the tree's growth and took out another seedling. Guided by the live video feed from Will's sunglasses camera which Zach uploaded to her heads-up display, she directed the vines into the window and cautiously towards the villain. The vines were almost there when Weatherman suddenly turned around with a malicious smile and raised his hands as he powered up.
He'd known they were there all along.
Will flew into the window to attack the villain as a miniature ice storm erupted around Layla. The extreme cold hit her and she lost her grip on her tree and fell, her long forest green coat fluttering around her. Warren caught her as she lost consciousness and lowered her shivering body carefully to the ground.
Meanwhile Will managed to distract Weatherman from continuing his attack on Layla by ramming him into the far wall of the building. He whipped out a neutralizing bracelet and was about to handcuff the apparently unconscious villain when a blast of wind threw him back. Will dropped the bracelet and it slipped into one of Weatherman's pockets, quite by accident.
When Will picked himself up the villain had made his escape. "Damn."
'Don't worry, Eagle,' came Zach's voice over the comm, 'We can track him from the neutralizer's energy signature.'
'How's Dryad?' asked Maj.
"Freezing, what do you expect?" replied Warren a bit more harshly than he intended. Her breathing was slow and shallow, and her skin was ghostly pale. Sitting on the pavement, he had her cradled in his arms as he tried to share some of his natural excess body heat with her.
'First, you need to warm up her head, neck and chest,' instructed Ethan, 'That's where her vital organs are.'
Her chest? Uh, despite the fact that the situation was life-threatening, this was a little embarrassing. Layla would not be impressed if she was awake.
"A little help here, Archer?"
"You're the only one who can actually help her, Knight-Fire," Kate replied. If it wasn't so serious it would be almost comical that he was being such a gentleman about touching Layla. "I don't generate actual heat like you do, just sparks and fire. And we're a little short on hot water bottles in the van."
Will landed next to them. "Yeah, but it doesn't need to be done right now, does it? You can thaw her out later, right? Like when Freeze-Girl froze people?" he asked uncertainly. Of course he didn't want to leave Layla in this state but they needed to get a move on, even though Maj could track Weatherman now.
'Actually, it can't wait,' Ethan answered, 'Freeze-Girl's powers put a person instantly into a type of cryo stasis that was perfectly safe. This isn't the same thing at all – Dryad's hypothermic, and her vitals…' His voice trailed off.
"Her vitals what, Ethan?" snapped Warren, his concern obvious.
'She's dying.'
Warren looked up at Will over the top of his sunglasses. As the team's unspoken but generally accepted leader, it was up to him to make the final decision, but he could see from the look in Warren's eyes he was about to have a mutiny on his hands. Much as he would really like the pyro with him when they caught up with Weatherman, he ultimately had one only choice.
He gave Warren a nod.
Then he and Kate left quickly, following the route Zach had uploaded to their heads-up display.
Well, isn't this romantic, thought Warren as he carefully enfolded Layla in his arms, her chest pressed up against the warmth of his body and her head in the crook of his neck. Not that it was unpleasant or anything, but it was a good thing she was unconscious or she would probably nail him for this.
After about fifteen minutes she had almost stopped shivering and Ethan reported that her vital signs were looking more stable. Warren shifted his grip slightly and gently warmed her fingers and toes to prevent frostbite.
Layla opened her eyes and pulled away a bit so that she could look up at him in the dim streetlight.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Cold," she whispered.
"Yeah, I'm doing what I can about that."
"You could kiss me."
Tempting … very tempting.
"I don't think that would help much," he answered.
"I do," she replied dazedly, "Pretend I'm Snow White."
Evidently the cold had seriously affected her thinking.
"If you really want to help, kiss me."
Now, how could he argue with that?
Will and Kate caught up with Weatherman quickly – like he said earlier, he could fly pretty fast. The villain had fled to an old warehouse a few blocks away. Finding him had been easy enough, but getting close enough to apprehend him was another story entirely. The weather controller had surrounded himself with a solid wall of freezing cold rain.
"It could be worse," commented Kate as she backed away a bit to keep dry while Will flew around the liquid barrier, trying to penetrate the downpour, "He could be throwing a blizzard at us."
'Guess he's a bit worse for wear after his fight with Eagle just now,' put in Zach.
Will wasn't having much luck. Kate created a number of her flame constructs in succession, sending each one on a suicide mission into the rainstorm, but that didn't help either.
The rain kept pouring. Will landed heavily next to her, shivering a bit.
"You okay?" she asked, concerned.
"Too cold to fly," he replied. "And I'm not getting anywhere."
Suddenly the rain stopped. Weatherman had left the building.
Will looked up at the handful of flame constructs that were still circling where the villain had been. Evidently they were more waterproof than Kate had realized. "I thought you could only do one at a time?" he asked.
"Me too," she replied. "I guess they're on auto-pilot or something, like when I send one off as a messenger."
"Are they out of your control now?" They'd need to clean them up before they chased after the villain again, not that Will was really feeling up to anything of the sort.
"No, it just seems that I can only consciously control one at a time." One by one she took control of the dragon-shaped constructs and dispersed each one into a small cloud of sparks that hissed as they landed on the flooded floor.
Having got his breath back a bit while Kate was busy, Will asked Maj, "So, where did he go?"
'Apparently he hasn't gone anywhere,' she sounded confused, 'He's still in the warehouse with you. Or at least the neutralizer is.'
Will splashed through the puddles to where Magenta's tracking system claimed the energy signature was coming from, and fished in the shallow water until he found the neutralizing bracelet.
Either by design or chance, Weatherman had found the way to give them the slip.
A/N: In case anyone's interested, I took some liberties with Ethan's instructions for treating hypothermia … artistic license and all that.
