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

Chapter 7: Fireworks

Nicola just stared at him in disbelief.

"What do you know about your real parents?" Knight-Fire asked quietly.

"Nothing," she replied shortly, looking down. She'd always understood from her mother that her birth parents had abandoned her as a small baby. "I have no interest in people who had no interest in me." She wasn't sure why she was sharing this with a stranger, even if he was apparently related to her so-called real mother. "Anyway, it's never been relevant."

"Before you got your powers, maybe."

So that was where it came from. Her parents.

She looked up at him. "Can you make it go away? Like you did to Dorian?"

That seemed to take him a bit by surprise, and he took a few moments to respond. "Why?"

"Every time I try to help, like today, I just end up making things worse. It's out of control."

"I can help you learn how to control it, but this isn't really the place for this discussion." He picked up a pen and the remaining corner of a half-burnt piece of paper from the lab desk next to him and wrote on it. Holding it up, he said, "Memorize this address."

She read it quickly. It was a top-floor apartment near the center of town; his home, she guessed.

"Will you remember it?" he asked, and she nodded, confused. Her eyes widened as flames suddenly flickered around his fingers and consumed the piece of paper. He opened his hand to let the ashes fall and then, with a slight smile at her, he strode out of the lab.


Nicola was in two minds about whether to go. Even after spending the rest of the day in the nurse's office because she just couldn't face her classmates, she still wasn't sure. On the one hand, he was related to people she'd never let herself even get curious about, let alone try to seek out. On the other, he had fantastic control over his fire powers and there was a chance he could teach her something, even though his was not quite the same as hers.

That alone made it worth a taxi fare. She would have taken the bus if she knew the routes in this city – maybe next time she'd have a chance to find out.

She walked into the lobby of the apartment block, and headed for the nearest elevator until a now-familiar voice stopped her.

"Not that one."

She turned and saw her cousin standing next to a pillar. Out of his superhero costume, he looked more like the sort of person who would be causing trouble in the city rather than saving it. Apart from his 'tough guy' style in clothing and shoulder-length red-streaked hair, there were also the flame tattoos on both his inner and outer wrists. The tattoos, she knew from experience, weren't exactly optional though; she always made sure she wore clothing that covered hers, which were on her shoulders and looked a lot like his. Except he had more than one set – did that mean he had more than one power?

He led her to another elevator around the corner. There were no 'up' or 'down' buttons, but he passed his thumb over the apparently blank panel and the doors opened. They got in and he placed his left hand on a sensor next to the buttons while looking into a beam that appeared to be an iris scanner, and a panel lit up saying 'Peace, Warren'. Ah, so that was his name.

All this high-level security was very strange, and Nicola was beginning to wonder if this was his home after all. She also noticed that he wore a wedding ring, which struck her as a bit odd too. The idea of superheroes having families and raising kids seemed way too mundane, but then again that appeared to be where the next generation of superheroes came from.

She could feel that the elevator was moving, but the floor number display was not changing – weirdly enough it still read G for ground floor. Finally it passed 1 and stopped at 2. As they stepped out, there was no doubt that this wasn't her cousin's apartment, but actually the superhero headquarters. There were newspaper cuttings of heroic rescues on a notice board and the other wall was covered in monitors showing various satellite images and news broadcasts from different channels. A young woman dressed almost entirely in purple, even to the point of purple highlights in her hair, was working at a laptop, surrounded by miscellaneous computer equipment.

There was a young man talking on his cell phone. From the looks of things, this was Eagle when he was off-duty.

"Yeah, if you have to print something, the official line is a school lab accident gone wrong," he was saying as he waved to Warren and Nicola. "And you should probably bury it on about page 20 or it'll look like something important happened."

Warren explained to her, "We have a friend at the newspaper who covers up these kind of things we don't really want in the public eye."

"What about freedom of the press?" she asked.

"Sometimes it loses out to national security," replied the woman in purple, still busy at her computer. She looked up. "Considering I can't trust what your cousin might call me, I'd better introduce myself. I'm Magenta, this is Will and Layla will be here in a few minutes. The others can't make it." The last part was said to Will, who nodded in acknowledgment as he closed his cell phone and then smiled warmly at Nicola.

"So what did you manage to dig up, R2?" Warren asked, going over to Magenta.

"R2?" repeated Nicola.

"Star Wars," he replied, as if that explained everything.

Magenta saw her confusion. "Warren is pathologically incapable of calling anyone by name."

Will seemed to agree. "Yeah, in fact if he calls you by your first name, you know there's serious trouble."

"Stronghold," warned Warren.

His friend just grinned as he sat on a couch. "See? I know I'm not really in trouble."

"Guys?" Magenta drew their attention back to the issue at hand, and then looked at Nicola who also sat down a bit nervously. "Where shall I start?"

"Could you tell me about my parents?" the girl asked in a small voice. She knew she should be concerned about what Dorian had said, but at that point she couldn't help being more curious about where she'd come from.

"Sure." She typed a command on her laptop and the big screen in front of them came up with two identity photographs. "Your mother, Venus Peace, was the twin sister of Warren's mother Zoë. She was a superhero called Firefly, second-generation pyro-psionic. Your father, Robert St. John, however, was first-generation. Neither of his parents had any powers, but when he was a kid he was bitten by a poisonous snake that turned out to be a pyro who had been transformed by a super villain. Not only did Robert survive the toxin but he also developed the transformed pyro's fire powers. He became a hero called Flamestar."

"Whatever you were told, they didn't abandon you," put in Warren. "They were killed in an accident and it seems the National Council of Superheroes decided to report you dead as well to protect you."

"From who?" Nicola asked, although she had a sneaky suspicion she knew the answer already.

"Dorian Battle's little stunt today wasn't just because he was bored in science class," Will answered, "He's from a family of super villains and he probably thought he was contributing to their master plan by exposing you."

Magenta took over. "According to my research, you showed up on their radar about a year ago, the first time your powers, uh, caused an incident. But it seems they only really started taking interest in you about three months ago." She turned to Warren, "In fact, very soon after you – "

The pyro cleared his throat to cut her off.

"Might also be related to all the little shenanigans they've been up to lately," mused Will.

Warren and Maj shared a glance. It made a lot of sense. In the past couple of months the Guardians had dealt with a number of fire-related incidents where Warren had put his new pyro-psionic powers to good use. Magenta and Ethan were both positive that the Battles were behind all of the events which up until now had seemed to have no purpose. Of course, if their intention was to test the rumors about Warren becoming a fire elemental, then suddenly it all made a lot of sense.

Will continued, "Oh, by the way, when I was booking today's delinquent I learnt something interesting – it seems his old man is Incendiary."

"That could explain where he got his concept of subtlety from," remarked Warren.

Maj frowned slightly. "You'd think he'd have learned a lesson from how his father's career took a nosedive after that little fiasco up at Sky High."

Will shrugged. "Maybe, but it seems the Battle family has a problem with their younger generation being… " he trailed off, trying to think of the right word.

"Loose canons?" suggested Warren.

"Hotheaded?" put in Magenta with a mischievous smirk. Warren just gave her a look but it had no effect whatsoever; not that it ever had with her. Nicola realized that this was evidently some sort of long-standing private joke.

Will cleared his throat. "Guys, we have a visitor, remember?"

"And speaking of me," Nicola said, "You haven't actually told me what this super villain family want me for."

"Your powers," Warren answered simply.

"That's just great. My so-called 'powers', which just make everything worse, and we keep having to move because people ask questions, and now I find out bad people want me because of them. I wish I never got any powers."

Will looked a bit taken aback at this, and Magenta asked gently, "What exactly is your power?"

"I can't really explain it," she replied, feeling uncomfortable. She looked at Warren. "It's different to yours."

Will opened his mouth to say something about the fact that there was no fire power she could possibly have that Warren didn't, but closed it when he saw the look he got from his friend, who then turned to his cousin again.

"Show us."

She looked around at the couches and equipment nervously.

"Don't worry, Warren won't let you burn the place down," Magenta assured her. "He's a firefighter, you know."

Nicola still looked a bit uncertain, but she gave a little nod. Warren took out his lighter and flicked it open.

"How did you know I'd need that?" she asked as he held it up, about to light it.

"If your powers involved creating fire, the Battle Boys wouldn't be so interested in finding you."

She appeared confused at his cryptic statement, but he shook his head at her unasked question and lit his Zippo. With obvious reluctance she stretched out a hand to the flame and absorbed it.

"Looks like all the proof Ethan needs that pyro-absorption is a separate power," commented Layla, who had arrived without anybody noticing. Warren looked around and gave her a quick smile before turning his attention back to Nicola, who was staring apprehensively at her fingers.

She jumped as her hand suddenly ignited and she looked at Warren. "Now what? I can't make it stop." She stood up, trying desperately to keep her flaming fingers away from anything or anyone that she might burn by mistake.

"Just relax," Warren instructed, standing up too, "You can't control it if you're afraid of it. And there's no need to be afraid of it because it can't hurt you, and it can't hurt anyone else because you do have the ability to control it."

Nicola turned her anxious gaze from her hand to him. "I do?"

He smiled slightly in encouragement. "Close your hand, slowly. Imagine that you're crunching up a piece of paper or squeezing a sponge, something harmless that's under your control."

She closed her hand carefully, and the flames disappeared. For the first time in hours, she couldn't help grinning.


When she had successfully controlled and extinguished the fire three times, Warren seemed to think that was enough for one go, and Nicola was very grateful. It had been quite a day for her, starting with Dorian and then progressing through finding a long-lost relative and learning about her heritage, to finding out that she was in danger. But at least she wasn't in danger from her own power anymore, and that was something.

Sometime during her lesson in pyro-absorption, the official name for her power it seemed, Magenta had left and her cousin's wife had arrived. Layla certainly made an interesting contrast to Warren's image with her hippie style and sunny disposition. But, then again, from the looks Will, Warren and Magenta, this seemed to be quite an eclectic group of superheroes.

After a brief history of the Battle family and why they were after her – and Nicola noticed that there was none of the light banter and mutual teasing during the understandably sensitive issue of Warren's relation to the mafia family – there was the question of how to keep her safe from them.

Layla took off her necklace and gave it to her. She showed her how to activate the panic button on the back of the sun-shaped pendant, while Will typed out a requisition for 24-hour surveillance for her and Warren looked over his shoulder and pointed out typos.

"Thanks," Nicola said to Layla as she put the necklace on.

"This must be really overwhelming for you," the redhead said sympathetically.

"Yeah. So, uh, do you have a fire power too?"

"No, I have control over plants."

Nicola smiled. It must be so nice to have a peaceful power. "Can you talk to them too?"

Layla shook her head. "I just manipulate them; I don't actually interact with them as such."

"Probably a good thing or she'd starve," put in Warren, still looking over Will's shoulder. He glanced around and saw their questioning expressions, so he continued, "Look, she's a vegetarian because her mother talks to animals. What would she eat if she started feeling sorry for plants too?"

Will snickered and Layla said to Nicola in a mock-hurt tone, "Ignore them. Boys just don't have any feelings."

"I thought you weren't into labels," Warren shot back, but Nicola could see the humor in his eyes too.

"I thought you were busy proof-reading Will's requisition," and Layla's response ended that discussion quite successfully.

Just then Nicola noticed the time, and considering she would never make it home before her mother started to worry about her, Will changed quickly into Eagle and flew her home.

Yet another experience for one truly mind-boggling day.


Will returned to the headquarters after seeing Nicola safely home and checking that the surveillance team were already in place.

Layla, typically, was hyped about the events of the afternoon. "It was so nice to meet a relative of Warren's who … who … " she trailed off.

"Doesn't need to be arrested on sight?" Warren suggested wryly.

"Uh… "

He smiled slightly to reassure her he wasn't upset. "Kinda nice for me too, actually."

"She looks a lot like that photo of your mom," she remarked.

"That's sort of what tipped me off."

"Quite weird, though," said Will, who had been lost in thought.

"Yeah," replied Warren, "Next time I'm in Washington I think I need to have a little chat with the NCS about their need-to-know policy."

"Uh, yeah, that too." Warren raised his eyebrows in query, and he carried on, "I wasn't talking about you suddenly finding out you have a cousin; I meant the thing of her not wanting her powers. I dunno, maybe it comes from starting Sky High as the only powerless one in a family of legendary superheroes… "

"Or maybe it comes from the fact that your powers aren't quite as destructive," responded Warren.

"Aren't they?" Will challenged. "Are you sure about that?"

"Look, apart from accidentally starting a domino rally with the high-rise buildings downtown, your powers just don't have the out-of-control consequences that fire can have."

Warren was downplaying the side effects of Will's powers completely and he probably knew it, but Will decided not to call him on it. He could see there was something bothering his friend and it was more personal than just his cousin's attitude towards her powers. A quick shared glance with Layla confirmed his suspicions.

"Warren, what's really bugging you?"

"Nothing, I'm just saying I can see where she's coming from about your powers sometimes making things worse."

"They don't."

Warren looked at him. "Don't what?"

"Your powers don't make things worse," Will clarified. Warren just shook his head.

"He doesn't believe me either," remarked Layla sadly.

Will tried again. "Warren, look at how easily you put out that fire today, and all those people you saved from the burning subway last week, not to mention when you hauled all our asses out of Arctic Flame's fire a few months ago. Would you really prefer it if you hadn't been able to do all that?"

Warren was silent for a few moments. "The more useful they are, the more they can be abused too."


Will thought he was being ridiculous, Layla thought he was being paranoid and the rest of the team thought he was nuts, but Warren was determined to not let his dream about going dark side become reality.

The best defense he could think of was to ensure that if the worst happened, his friends would be able stop him before he did something terrible. And so the Guardians spent an … interesting weekend working on strategies and learning how to exploit his weaknesses.

Will had managed to organize the use of the Sky High gym. Of course, the first two hours were spent investigating all the upgrades the Save the Citizen gear had received since they were at school. These included hazards such as a moat and sinking sand, while the 'citizen' was now guarded by a set of giant swinging pendulums. Evidently Boomer was trying to give the heroes more of a challenge than just their opponents' powers these days, which would probably make it a more realistic exercise.

Meanwhile Zach had found the controls for the coach's platform, which led to half an hour of making grand entrances and exits through the floor. The others just left him to it for a while, seeing that he needed to work through some of his old Boomer issues, and then it was time to get down to business.

Each of Warren's powers, like most people's, came with a limitation. As they all knew, with pyrokinesis, he couldn't get too cold and pyro-psionics gave him a headache, especially if he overdid it. Ethan's theory was that his 'psionic headaches were caused by the way he'd only developed this power relatively late in life, whereas people like Arctic Flame could control huge amounts of fire without any apparent side-effects. The drawback to pyro-absorption was the limit to how much fire he could absorb – when he overheated he lost control of the fire, much like Nicola had, but getting too hot had also almost suffocated him once.

It was the limits to pyro-construction that made for the most interesting part of the weekend.

Ethan was in full Professor mode, pacing up and down in front of the stands where they were sitting as he lectured. "As we learnt from our altercation with Arctic Flame, if a flame construct that you're controlling makes contact with fire that is also being controlled 'psionically, then –"

"It hurts like hell," Kate supplied, wincing at the memory.

"Yes, that's because of the psychic backlash caused by the collision between two –"

This time it was Zach who broke in before he could get going properly. "But, like, why didn't it hurt Arctic Flame too?"

"Well, this is mainly conjecture at this point, but my theory is that a pyro-constructor's mind is much more closely linked to his creation –"

"Or her," put in Warren on cue, out of habit. The others shared smirks at how well-trained Layla had him. "What?" he challenged.

Ethan cleared his throat. "As I was saying if someone would let me actually finish a sentence, the pyro-constructor is mentally much closer to the construct than the pyro-psionic is to the fire he or she is controlling, so therefore a 'constructor is much more likely to get hurt in this way."

This was obviously a limitation for Kate too, and something Warren was particularly concerned about in view of what he did to her in his dream.

It was more by accident than anything else that they discovered something curious about their powers. On Warren's insistence, Kate was chasing after his construct, which he was controlling, with a flock of hers on 'autopilot'. Now and then she would very briefly establish mental contact with each of them in turn to give them finer commands. It all made for quite an impressive air show, although she was wondering if he was some sort of masochist, willingly opening himself up to the chance of that kind of pain.

After a while of ducking and diving between its pursuers, skillfully avoiding contact with any of them, Warren's phoenix was suddenly faced with two fiery dragons dead ahead and no space to swerve into with more of Kate's constructs surrounding it.

"I'm sorr–" started Kate, seeing the collision coming, along with the inevitable pain it would cause Warren, but she was cut off by an amazing sight.

Just before impact, Warren's construct exploded into sparks like a firework, allowing the pursuing fiery dragons to pass through the space it was occupying without harming it. Then, incredibly, the sparks re-formed into a phoenix when the coast was clear. Meanwhile, Kate's constructs collided with each other and disintegrated, but being on autopilot she was unaffected by their destruction.

She didn't even notice that had happened to them because she was too busy staring at Warren, who looked equally confused.

"How did you do that?"

"Not sure, actually," he replied, calling the construct to him with his usual 'come-here' gesture with his fingers. He stared at it for a moment as it hovered, trying to remember exactly what he'd done in that moment. It suddenly came to him and the phoenix dispersed into a cloud of sparks. The sparks floated around him in an amorphous cloud for a while and then he made them spread out even thinner until they weren't really noticeable in the air anymore.

Warren closed his eyes and concentrated on his construct in kit-form, and the sparks rapidly drew together and coalesced into a phoenix again.

By now Layla, who had watching from the safety of the stands, had joined them. "Well, that was interesting."

"Could also be quite useful," commented Kate, trying to do the same trick without much success. Each time she dispersed her construct into sparks, she just couldn't get it to re-form. That was how it always was with her power – the construct stopped being a coherent entity when it was a cloud of sparks. She turned to Warren, "So, how did you do that?"

"I don't know," he replied, a bit puzzled. "I just … did it."

Ethan wasn't far behind Layla in joining the conversation. "But you must have some idea, Warren," he protested.

"I don't, okay?" Warren responded a bit heatedly.

"But – "

"No, Ethan!" There were a few things he didn't understand about his own powers, especially the new ones; this type of thing wasn't exactly covered in Mad Science. And while he'd learnt to accept that some things had to remain a mystery (at least until Ethan came up with some sort of theory), it was a little bugging when they all expected him to just know the answer. This kind of attention from his friends was something he'd never quite got used to.

"I got it!" yelled Kate suddenly, and sure enough, her construct was successfully phasing between sparks and coherent form at her command.

To Warren's relief that also deflected Ethan's attention to Kate, who unfortunately was not clear on the mechanics of their new trick either.

"I just did it," she shrugged in echo of Warren's explanation.

That wasn't much of an answer as far as Ethan was concerned, but Warren felt a lot better knowing that Kate had a form of defense against him. She wouldn't be in danger of what he did to her in his dream if she could simply disperse her constructs into an untouchable cloud of sparks at will.

Much as he desperately hoped it would never be necessary for his friend to have to defend herself against him, he couldn't help feeling that day's little discovery might come in very handy one day.