Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney.
Chapter 3: Fight or Flight
The next 18 months saw some changes for the Guardians. The biggest upheaval came when the Strongholds finally decided that they wanted their Secret Sanctum back, which meant that the group needed to find new headquarters. They chose a double-storey penthouse apartment in town, largely because of an architectural quirk – the elevator for the top two floors was separate to the one for the rest of the building. Zach rigged their elevator with a biometric sensor to ensure their privacy, an essential ingredient for a superhero center of operations. They were also the only people with access to the roof, where they parked the van, ready for take off. Ethan was initially afraid that people on the street might notice a flying vehicle coming and going and get suspicious, but the truth is, nobody ever looks up. The average person rarely looks much above their own eye-line unless something specifically draws their attention from above.
The roof was also home to Layla's greenhouse, where she was working on a fire-resistant strain of ivy, and she loved to tease the others that she was trying to breed a man-eating plant. The lower storey of the apartment housed Zach's workshop, Ethan's lab, Kate's darkroom and their own gym. The upper storey looked a lot like the Secret Sanctum. The inner walls were knocked down so that it was all one big room, complete with pool table, couches and a kitchenette in the corner. One wall was taken up by Magenta's computer set-up and Zach's array of monitors. On another wall there was a bulletin board, which was used for team mementoes, newspaper clippings and forfeit photos, such as one of Zach in Magenta's purple apron (!) and, of course, everybody's favorite of Warren and Layla.
(Warren had his revenge for that photo, by the way. Soon after Will moved out and got his own bachelor apartment nearer to their headquarters, Warren managed to convince Josie Stronghold that Will and Kate had recently discovered that they actually liked Chinese food but were too proud to admit it to their friends, considering both of them had spent so many years complaining about everybody wanting to go to the Paper Lantern. Will just couldn't understand why his mother kept on serving him and Kate Chinese every time they went to his parents for dinner. This lasted for about a month until Will finally found out what was going on.)
Ethan was now Dr. Ethan Franklin, PhD, and he was starting on his second doctorate – Advanced Superhero Medicine. Zach worked in R&D for an electronics firm and Maj was a programmer for an anti-virus software company.
Layla hadn't been able to find a job in ecology with flexible hours yet. In the meantime she was working in her aunt's herbalist store (her mother's sister had the ability to sense the medicinal or toxic properties of any plant she looked at). To salve her environmental conscience, she borrowed the van every few months to fly to the Amazon to do some large scale tree-planting. Thanks to the Dryad, huge tracts of decimated rainforest were being renewed.
She had also joined an environmental activist group, which was the reason she was late for this evening's team meeting. While the rest of the Guardians waited patiently in their headquarters, Environmentally Active Women were talking to the Mayor about the City's recycling program.
The Mayor was just about to agree with their Proposed Penalties For Factories Non-Compliant With Municipal Recycling Quotas, when the door burst open and a fireball flew low over their heads into the opposite wall amid shrieks from the environmentalists.
Déjà vu, thought Layla, and she felt it even more so when the perpetrator entered the office. Even though he hadn't gone for the cloaked-and-hooded look favored by Incendiary & Co., there was no doubt he was related to the villains who had crashed her sophomore sidekick class years ago, although he seemed to be a lot younger, not much older than 20.
"What is this?" demanded the Mayor, reaching for the phone and then jumping back when a fireball seared that part of his desk.
"Don't even think about calling for help," snapped the villain, while Layla surreptitiously fiddled with her necklace to activate her alarm button on the back of her pendant. Under the pretense of cowering away from the intimidating pyro as he strode up to the Mayor, she fitted her earphone and re-arranged her hair slightly to hide it. She carefully slid her aviator sunglasses out of her jacket pocket and hooked them over her collar in an apparently casual manner, and switched on the camera.
When Layla's alarm went off in the Guardians' headquarters, she had their attention instantly. Will and Warren's game of pool, Kate's reading of Cosmo, Zach and Maj's thumb wrestling and Ethan's research dictation all came to an abrupt halt. They gathered around quickly as Zach switched on the monitor for her sunglasses camera.
'Who are you?' the Mayor on the screen was asking.
'I am Arson,' replied the villain, igniting one hand and sending flames across the desk for dramatic effect.
Everybody looked at Ethan for further info, but he shook his head. "The name's kind of familiar, but we've never come across this guy before."
"He's not on my database, which is a little disturbing," put in Magenta after a few seconds' research.
"But there's no doubt what family he's from," said Will, with a sidelong glance at Warren who looked less than comfortable with the idea of Layla being at the mercy of one of his villainous cousins.
"What do you want?" asked the Mayor, and Arson pulled out a small device.
'Hey, that looks like the latest BlackBerry,' came Zach's voice on Layla's comm.
"Your network passwords for the past three years."
'What could he want obsolete passwords for?' Maj sounded very confused.
The Mayor was flabbergasted. "How am I supposed to remember all the passwords I've had since the beginning of my term? They change every month, you know."
"I know that," Arson replied somewhat sarcastically, "I also know that each one is unique. Now, start jogging your memory or people start dying!"
The rest of Environmentally Active Women screamed again as Layla turned to the Mayor. "Sir, you can't give in to his demands," she raised her voice to be heard over the hysteria.
"Don't let him kill us, Mr. Mayor!" shrieked one of the activists, and then she added to Layla more quietly, "Please don't think I'm a coward, Layla. But who will carry on our valuable work if we're dead?"
Layla rolled her eyes at the woman's transparent self-centeredness and turned her attention back to the Mayor who obviously thought that some out of date passwords were not worth risking everybody's lives for. Arson entered each codeword into his 'BlackBerry' until the Mayor couldn't think of any more.
"What about the rest?" demanded the young villain.
"Give me a few minutes to think," replied the Mayor, and Layla wondered if he might just be stalling for time. She looked around at the office plants, but there was nothing even remotely fireproof. She knew from years of joking with Warren that if she tried to tie the pyro up in branches he would simply burn his way out. Also, it would be very difficult to knock him out, so that option was out too. She would just have to wait for her friends to arrive.
But Arson was getting impatient. "This is taking too long. I'm sure your little gang of pet superheroes is gonna be here soon. It's time to clear out." He walked towards the door. "Let's go, Mayor-Man."
Layla stepped into his path. "You don't think really you're going to get away with this that easily, do you?"
'Back off, Layla,' growled Warren's voice over her earphone, but she ignored his advice.
"How do you think you're going to stop me, huh?" The pyro ignited one hand and Layla took a quick step backwards. "Yeah that's better, your attitude's improving already. In fact, I think you're coming along too."
As the Guardian Van sped towards the City Hall, they watched the monitor helplessly as Arson bullied the Mayor and Layla onto the roof and up to the Mayor's helicopter. The villain gave the waiting pilot an instruction, but Layla couldn't hear it over the sound of the rotors from where she was standing. The pilot looked at the Mayor for confirmation; this was not exactly what he'd expected when the order arrived a few minutes ago to start up the helicopter.
The chopper was just airborne when the Guardians arrived, and Will sped over. He grabbed hold of one of the landing skids and started to pull the aircraft back towards the ground. Arson opened his cabin door and threw a fireball at Will, which had no effect whatsoever.
The villain let Will know in no uncertain terms that if he didn't release the helicopter and keep his distance, he would start roasting the hostages … one limb at a time. Will had no choice but to allow them to leave. He flew back to the van and told Zach to follow the chopper, but not too close, while they tried to work out their next move.
"Still don't get what he'd want with all those passwords," commented Zach as he set the course to follow the hijacked helicopter. Will shrugged as best he could while flying alongside.
In the back of the van, Kate suggested, "Maybe he's some kind of super-hacker or something." She was looking at Maj. "I mean, you needed three passwords to defuse that bomb last week."
Kate's random suggestion triggered something in Ethan's memory. "That's it! Now I know who he is," he exclaimed. "Remember when Incendiary and his crew were interrogating you about your family? One of the other guys mentioned a kid called Arson who'd hacked into some database. This must be the same guy."
"Okay, so then he might be doing more on his 'BlackBerry' than just taking notes." Magenta's fingers were already busy on her keyboard. "Let me see if I can lock onto its frequency."
Kate said quietly to Ethan, "Look, I know you're a genius, but I can't believe you can remember a name mentioned casually six or seven years ago!"
"I can't usually," he replied with a modest smile. "But I remembered his name later that day and when I looked him up on my super villain trading cards he wasn't there, so I guess the name kinda stuck in my head."
"I don't believe this," murmured Maj, bringing their attention back to the present issue.
'Why, what's he doing?' asked Will from outside.
"He's using the passwords to somehow convince the system he's been logged on for the past three years as the Mayor, and he's trying to use that as a backdoor."
"A backdoor into what?" asked Kate.
Magenta looked at them. "The Ultra-Max," she replied, referring to Maxville Ultimate Security Prison, the penitentiary for super-powered offenders. "He's engineering a prison break."
They exchanged concerned glances.
'Didn't know the new BlackBerry came with a Get Your Family Out Of Jail Free function,' commented Zach from the cab.
"Not the standard model," replied Magenta, going back to her laptop, "It's that special upgrade you have to pay extra for."
"Very funny, kids," Warren said. "Now, could we focus on trying to stop him?"
"Way ahead of you, Hotshot." Maj had already started working on it at the same time as trading wit with her boyfriend; being a woman, she could multi-task.
"How are you doing?" Kate ventured after a few minutes of silent concentration.
"Fine, fine," said Maj distractedly, and then a message came up on her screen. "Oh damn, not so fine anymore."
"What?" asked Ethan.
Magenta sighed. "I must have set off some sort of alert. Now he knows someone's trying to stop him."
"Can you?"
"He's working much faster now. I can't keep up. I have no idea how you're going to do this, guys, but he needs to be distracted."
Layla sat through all this in stunned silence. She would never have guessed the young villain's plan was something so ambitious. Never mind 'needs to be distracted', he had to be stopped! And she was tired of being the reason the rest of the team were afraid to take action.
She unhooked her sunglasses and leaned forward, holding them in the hand that she rested on the back of the pilot's chair, and gave her friends her message under the guise of addressing the pilot. "You can't let him do this!" she said loudly, "There's more at stake here than just our lives." Layla looked directly into the miniature camera on her sunglasses, still apparently speaking to the pilot. "You have to bring the chopper down now, Flyboy!"
'Are you insane?' replied Will on her comm.
"You're really getting on my nerves, girlie," said Arson, looking up from his 'BlackBerry'.
The distraction part of her plan seemed to be working, at least. "What are you gonna do?" she taunted, "Kill your own hostage?"
"I might just. See, the Mayor here, he's still useful – I might need some more passwords. You, however, are expendable."
Layla replied calmly, apparently to him but she was actually talking into her sunglasses cam, "In the big picture, we're all expendable."
Arson looked a bit suspicious. "What do you know about the 'big picture' here?"
'I've almost got him,' said Magenta.
Layla thought very quickly. "I know where we're going, and there's only one thing you could want to be doing at the Prison," she improvised, and he appeared to accept the explanation that she had heard him instruct the pilot before they took off. Unfortunately that meant he considered the conversation over and went back to his 'BlackBerry'.
She heard Magenta sigh. 'Damn, I'm behind again.'
Layla sighed too, and she glanced over at the Mayor, who was eyeing her with some kind of awe, obviously impressed with her bravery. She tried to give him an encouraging smile.
Maj swore. 'He's locked me out. Eagle, this is it – I might not be able to get in again. We need to do something drastic, now!'
'We are NOT getting into a dogfight with the chopper!' snapped Warren. Layla wanted desperately to tell him not to worry about her and focus on the mission, but she couldn't risk Arson overhearing.
'We don't have a choice anymore, I'm sorry,' said Will, 'Dryad, you better brace yourself or something; you're probably gonna have a rough landing.'
Layla glanced at Arson to check that he wasn't paying attention to her, and then looked into her sunglasses camera. "Just do it," she said softly.
A moment later the pilot veered the helicopter suddenly to one side as it was dive-bombed from behind and above at the same time, and Layla dropped her sunglasses.
"Brace yourself!" she yelled to the Mayor.
Will, who could turn on a dime, came back quickly for another run, forcing the helicopter to lose altitude. Arson looked up briefly and then went back to what he was doing. He seemed to realize that he was only just keeping his computer adversary at bay and he couldn't afford to be distracted anymore.
Will and the van took turns dive-bombing the chopper, driving it closer and closer to the ground. Layla looked out of the window and saw that they were about to land at a recreational center. At this time of the evening, the courts and grounds were mostly deserted, fortunately, but what really caught her eye was the swimming pool right nearby …
As soon as the helicopter touched down, still buffeted by Will's swooping and Zach's driving, Layla called up the garden plants to anchor it on the ground. Then she focused her powers on the rose bushes near the pool. One thorny branch ripped the cabin door open and a second pulled Arson out and dumped him, 'BlackBerry' and all, into the pool.
Layla scrambled out of the helicopter and directed the rose bushes to encase the villain in a small vertical cage in the middle of the pool, with only his head sticking out so that he could breathe but couldn't power up with the rest of his body underwater.
At this point, the van landed and Will, Warren and Kate came over to her.
She turned to them and said brightly, "Hey, guys. What, am I late for the meeting?"
Layla's moment of triumph lasted about that long – a moment. Will and Kate looked relieved she was all right; Kate even smiled slightly at her comment. But Warren appeared entirely less than impressed. Even behind his sunglasses she could feel his glower as he stalked abruptly past her to take care of Arson.
Layla withdrew the rose bushes and Will and Warren hauled the drowned rat of a villain out of the pool.
"I'm the godfather's favorite nephew, you know," protested Arson as Will snapped a neutralizing bracelet around his wrist before he could power up. "The family will avenge me!"
"I doubt it," replied Warren coldly. "The Battle boys usually hunt in packs, but you're working alone, which suggests to me this wasn't a sanctioned operation, now was it?"
The younger pyro looked a bit unsure. "Well, maybe not exactly, but that's only because they didn't believe it would work so they wouldn't give me a proper go-ahead."
"They might have had a point, you know."
"Sorry you lost your chance to prove yourself," put in Will cheerfully. "No hard feelings, huh?"
While they were busy, Layla went over to the van and climbed in the back with Maj. Her normally non-tactile friend gave her a quick hug, which suggested she had been quite concerned about her.
"What's with Warren?" Layla asked after she switched off her comm equipment, "It's like he's mad at me or something."
Magenta just looked at her for a moment. "He was very worried about you, Layla. And you gotta admit, that was some pretty forfeit-worthy stuff you did up there. You should have seen the look on his face when you told Will to bring the chopper down."
"What was I supposed to do? Just sit there like a good little girl while a bunch of the City's worst criminals are set free?"
Maj didn't really have an answer for that.
Nor did Will when she put the same question to him and Warren later when the three of them were discussing the whole issue in the privacy of their headquarters.
Warren got to his feet and stalked to the window with his back to the other two on the couch, and snarled something in Chinese that Will was rather glad he didn't understand. Not that Will blamed him for being extremely tense, considering the danger Layla had been in, but he had been concerned at the time that the pyro's feelings for her were clouding his judgment. Maybe this wasn't really Guardians business; maybe the two of them needed to sort this one out themselves.
He got up. "Warren, Layla, I think you guys have some things to discuss. So, I'm going to leave you to it."
She watched him go and then turned to Warren, who didn't look at her, and typically didn't say anything either. The silent animosity was starting to get to her.
"What is your problem, Warren?"
"What do you think my problem is?"
"Look, I know you were worried about me this evening, but I did what I had to do. I know I took some risks, but I really believe they were all necessary."
"Really?" he challenged, turning around to face her. "How about your last little stunt, taking him on like that when you knew we were right there. We would have had him in a few moments, especially after you anchored the chopper on the ground."
"I didn't know that for sure, and neither do you. He could still have escaped," she countered, and then sighed. "You need to let go of this hero complex of yours, at least as far as it concerns me. I don't need you rescuing me the whole time, Warren. I'm not some damsel in distress."
"No, you're not. Instead you went looking for a damn fire-breathing dragon – literally – which you didn't actually need to rescue yourself from because backup was about two seconds away!"
She tried to stay calm. "You're overreacting."
"Am I?"
"It's the risk we take every day. It's what we do, Warren. I mean, that's why they call us heroes, right? Or do I need to remind you of everyone's favorite quote from Peter Parker's uncle?"
"Which one?" he snapped sarcastically, his temper really beginning to flare now. "Oh, you must mean 'With great power comes great responsibility'. Newsflash, Hippie: that responsibility extends to yourself too, you know."
"I know, I know, if I'm dead I'll never be able to use my 'great power' to save anybody again," she replied matter-of-factly.
"You don't need to be so callous about it."
"I'm not, I'm being practical."
"Oh, so now you start getting practical?! Let's try to remember that there are some people who don't want to lose you!"
"This isn't about you!"
That accusation was the final straw for Warren's temper. Before he realized it, he had his arms crossed across his chest, about to power up in his anger.
Layla looked at him in shock. Seeing her mouth his name brought him back to his senses and the moment of mindless rage passed. He dropped his hands and took a number of deep breaths, clenching and unclenching his fists.
"Actually," he said in a halfway calm voice, although his chest was still heaving, "I was thinking of all of us, and your parents too."
With that he grabbed his leather jacket and left.
Layla collapsed onto the couch and whatever anger she had left dissolved into sobs. They'd had their arguments before; it was to be expected with two people so different and so strong-willed. But this was something else entirely. And he'd never come so close to actually attacking her.
What would the others think if they heard about this? Would they think he was dark side after all?
She looked up and wiped the tears from her face as she realized the full significance of what had just happened. Yes, he'd been more furious than she had ever seen him and he'd very almost powered up … but he didn't follow through with it. Something had kept him from going over the edge.
Something that made him more hero than villain.
Warren stood on his balcony and gazed up at the stars. A light breeze ruffled his long hair which still damp from the cold shower he'd just taken, desperately needing to cool off physically as well as figuratively. He took a sip from his glass of cold water and wished briefly that he still lived above the Paper Lantern because he could've really used some good advice from Mrs. Wu.
Was Layla right about him? Did he have a hero complex, desperate to protect and save her at every turn, as if she was too weak to take care of herself? Looking back at his behavior that evening during the hostage situation, he had to admit she might have a point.
And yet that wasn't as bad as her last accusation. Was there also some truth in that? Had he been more concerned for her, or for how much it would hurt him to lose her?
He sighed. He hoped not, but that was probably something only time would tell for sure.
In the meantime, he owed her a huge apology for losing his temper. He cringed at the memory he'd been trying to avoid for the past hour. Warren couldn't believe he'd come so close to losing control, to hurting someone he loved. He wasn't sure what this meant for their future together, but he was pretty sure it wasn't good.
For the moment, however, he really needed to make that apology. He took out his cell phone.
Layla hadn't been sure what to expect when she got a text message from Warren asking her to meet him in the park, but it wasn't this. He was sitting on their usual bench with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.
"Hey," she said.
He flicked his slightly damp hair back and looked up at her. "Hey." She sat down a little hesitantly. "Thanks for coming."
She smiled slightly, and waited for him to go on.
He took a deep breath. "I know it's not enough, but I just wanted to say I'm sorry I overreacted. And I'm really, really sorry I got so angry with you."
No, this definitely wasn't what she expected. "It's okay."
"It's not," he replied. "I could have really hurt you."
"But you didn't; that's what really matters." He raised his eyebrows slightly at that and she went on. "Look, I don't blame you for being mad at me. I admit it, I was pretty reckless."
"Yeah, but I can understand why you did what you did. And I know I can't protect you from every villain and monster, not that you need it 'cos you're quite capable of looking after yourself." He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "Anyhow, the main thing is, I wanted to apologize for losing my temper."
"Almost losing your temper," she corrected.
"Close enough."
"No, and that's what I was just trying to get at." She had to get him to see the significance. "You were more angry than I've ever seen you – and I've seen you get mad a few times – but you didn't actually power up. You stopped yourself in time."
"I was so close," he answered in a small sad voice.
"But you didn't."
"Maybe next time I will," he pointed out, refusing to be comforted. "I'm not willing to take that chance."
Layla gave a little smile and said simply, "I am."
Warren shook his head slightly and said nothing. She shifted closer to him on the bench and laid her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms gently around her and rested his chin on the top of her head. Looking up at the stars for the second time that evening, he told himself to enjoy having her in his arms while it lasted because it would be coming to an end soon. Somehow, he would have to convince her that for her own safety they needed to break up.
"Warren?"
"Mmm?"
"Will you marry me?"
