Look! Another chapter out so soon? Consider it my way of apologizing for being such an easily distracted moron and taking forever. Hope you like it.

Chapter 5-

She would deny it under oath, but at least to herself she could admit that dinner with Warren Peace hadn't been quite the medieval torture she had expected. He hadn't been sulky and in between their three fights for the night they had, dare she say it, gotten along. It wasn't a thought that brought her much joy, but at the same time, as long as no one else found out, she could live with it.

And, according to Maggie, dinner with Andrew Thompson hadn't been horrendous either. Dan's dinner with Marcus had been assured to be pleasant if uneventful. They had left the Garwin house particularly early that day and woken Maggie up with a barrage of questions rather than the usually prodding about being late. Maggie had been chipper and bright and declared, over and over again, that everything had gone just fine.

Emm wanted to believe her, really, but there was something off, she just couldn't place what.

It was a rather lovely day out and Maggie had insisted that they eat lunch outside. Few students ate outside but there'd been a nice breeze all morning that signaled the coming of fall and there was little they could do to deny Maggie anything.

So, while Maggie, Dan, and 'Lijah stood in line, she plopped her tray down in front of Warren Peace. Only Layla and Will had sat with him at this point and they looked at her curiously. Warren, for his part, just sighed when she held out the burnt CD.

"You made me a mix tape? How sweet."

She rolled her eyes and thrust it into his open hand. "Don't make me hurt you." She glanced at the line and decided there was no point in standing while she waited. "I'm trying to enlighten you on the better ages of music."

He waved the CD at her after looking it over and smirking at the title- The Enlightenment of an Idiot. "Do you listen to anything from this decade?" He reached over and plucked a fry from her plate and she spared a moment to look shocked and wave her spork around dangerously.

"I threatened to stab my brother, imagine what I'd do to you. And yes, I do, I just prefer the classics."

"Right. Let me guess: Bowie, Bowie, Bowie, and Bowie?"

"No, though there are three songs on there by him. But there's also The Who, and The Turtles, love them, and Tommy James and the Shondells. I would have included some Beatles but I assumed it was unnecessary."

"What are you going to do with David Bowie dies?"

"Bite your tongue!" She looked appropriately horrified at the thought and held the spork in front of her as though she'd stab him at any second. "David Bowie is immortal. He doesn't age, pay attention."

"Right, I'll send flowers."

She narrowed her eyes and wrinkled her nose at him. "Ass."

By this time his table had filled up with the rest of his friends though hers were still in line. She noted that they'd all angled themselves away from them and realized they were protecting their food in case of a fight. She wouldn't waste food on Peace.

Back in the line Maggie caught her eye. She was chatting animatedly with Dan and sent her a bright grin that made Emm frown. She watched her closely, knowing she was distracted, and tried to figure out what it was that made her not believe when she said everything had gone well with Thompson.

"What?"

She looked at Peace with the same confused look as when he'd call her out for being on top of him. "Huh?"

"That look on your face, what is it?" She didn't notice him taking yet another fry from her plate. Or the fact that he'd taken a good few at this point.

She contemplated Maggie for a moment longer before speaking. "Mags."

Peace nodded and turned surreptitiously to get a look of the short omnilingual in question. "What happened with Thompson?" He turned back around to find Emm's eyes hadn't moved from her friend.

"She says nothing happened. She says everything was fine, uneventful even." He waited for her to elaborate and she did. "But something's wrong. She's too chipper."

His eyebrows made a slow journey up his forehead. "She's always chipper. Always."

"Yeah, I know that. But this isn't the right kind of chipper. This is overcompensate-by-being-too-chipper-chipper." The frown on her face deepened.

Warren took a moment to study her while she studied Maggie. "Do you realize that 80% of the time you make absolutely no sense?" He caught her hand as she made a distracted swat at him and set it away from him. "I think you just dislike Thompson so much that you're convinced he has to be an ass all the time, nonstop."

Finally she looked away from Maggie. She gave her tray a half glance and realized she was short almost all her fries but let it go. He might have been right, but she was hardly about to let him know that.

Maggie and Dan were waving her over and she slapped Peace's hand with her spork when he reached for another fry. Making sure all her remaining fries were still on her plate she stood and nodded at him, sent a smile to his friends, and left to join her own.

Once outside Maggie began chatting animatedly again and Emm couldn't take it anymore. She moved to cut her off as they walked and set her tray on the stone steps before taking Maggie's and doing the same. Maggie blinked at her.

"Mags," Emm placed her hands on Maggie's shoulders to keep her from moving away and looked at her seriously. "Mags, if anything ever happened you would tell us, right? Because, we're your best friends and we'd want to know." She didn't want to guilt her, but she had to know. "You wouldn't lie to us, right?"

Maggie's grin fell from her face and Emm's worry increased two-fold. She gave a little sigh and moved past Emm to sit on the steps. Dan was beside her in a second and Emm only a moment after. Elijah hovered on the step behind her, a worried look on his handsome face.

Already Emm's mind was running a mile a minute with the many things she would do to destroy Thompson. She placed her hands on either side of Maggie, effectively boxing her in, to support herself and keep from flying off the handle too soon.

"Please, it's not really a big deal. It's nothing."

Dan wrapped his arm around her but his face was grim and she could practically feel his anger already simmering beneath the surface. "If it was nothing you wouldn't have tried to hide it from us." Even though he kept his voice calm and steady Emm could feel the temperature begin to drop around them.

"Dinner was fine and his parents were nice." They waited for her to continue. "We were just talking afterward, you know. Then he kissed me."

The air around Dan went positively frigid. "I didn't want him to so I pushed him away and he just kept coming back. I ended up running away." She finished hurriedly and gave them both a scared look.

Emm closed her eyes and tried to ignore how every muscle in her body was tensing, completely oblivious to the stone giving way beneath her fingers as she balled up her fists. She took a few deep breaths and tried to organize her thoughts in any way that didn't lead to immediate murder. Finding none she bolted from where she had squatted and ran up the stairs.

She wasn't sure if they were following but she thought she still felt the cold coming from Dan. All through the halls people were moving out of her way and beginning to whisper. Lunch was nearly over and she knew there was a good chance she'd find him in the halls at his locker. Even without knowing where his locker was she found him in no time; she figured out of pure determination. He had his back turned to her and had no idea what was happening when she swung him around with new found strength.

The first punch caught him off guard and he flew to the ground and skidded a few feet. Within seconds she was on him and he powered up, thinking the metallic covering would protect him. But, her blood pressure was at an all time high and she doubted that she'd ever been so angry and knew she was in perfect control of her powers now.

With every hit she increased the force behind it until she began to see the metal denting. She'd straddled his chest and it would have taken Will Stronghold to push her off. A crowd had formed around them, cheering with the disgusting mob mentality that always grew around a fight. Somewhere in the back of her mind she acknowledged that Dan was there and had taken it upon himself to stop anyone from interfering and that Elijah was shielding Maggie from view. Even among those that cheered there were the astounded few that couldn't help but wonder how the powerless sidekick was doing it.

With every resounding clang caused by her fist on Thompson's metal face she felt a little better and found motivation to keep going. She'd just made another satisfying hit when she felt two arms grab at her and pull back. It was surprise alone that allowed them to lift her. Faintly recognizing that they were Peace's arms she slipped through and resumed her previous assault.

"Garwin!" He'd known almost the instant news of the fight reached the cafeteria that she was somehow involved. He'd only been mildly surprised to find her on top of Thompson and beating him with such a force that he thought he'd seen a crack in the tile, only a tad more surprised to spot Patterson blocking anyone from interfering with a look that scared even him.

"Emmeline!" When she failed to react he'd moved around Patterson and reached for her. Thompson was a dirtbag and most likely deserved everything she was doing to him, but he was hardly worth being expelled over. She'd felt too heavy at first and he knew there was no way she weighed that much- she wasn't as petite as Maggie, but she was still a great deal smaller than him.

The real surprise came when she, quite literally, slipped through his arms. For a moment he was stunned to find she'd phased right through him before he moved to grab at her again. This time there was no budging her and he stepped back to watch the continued barrage on Thompson's not-so-shiny metal face.

"Enough!" There was one more resounding clang before she looked up at Principal Powers. "Miss Garwin, stand up, right now! And follow me."

Reluctantly she stood and attempted to calm herself before moving forward. Dan made to step closer and she shot him a look before subtly shaking her head and motioning to the clearly upset Maggie.

Below her Thompson had powered down and everyone got a good look at the ugly bruises already forming all over his face. The bruises almost made her grin but just looking at Thompson was enough to cause her anger to start bubbling again and she looked away. Without a word she followed Principal Powers.

She realized Peace was following behind half way to the main office. She sent him a curious glance but otherwise didn't care if he came. Dan had needed to stay behind with Maggie but Peace was her partner and the rules did state that they should deal with things together. She took that to mean impending expulsion too.

Besides, she knew he had to be writhing with curiosity.

Curiosity was actually the main reason he'd followed. Curiosity over her powers, over what Thompson had done, and how bad her punishment would be. He should have reconsidered her bleeding heart status but he remained convinced that she'd only used enough strength to affect him through the metal.

When they reached her office Principal Powers rolled her eyes at Warren and told them both to sit. "I need to go make sure Mr. Thompson still has a face."

The smile that spread on Emm's face at the comment was contagious and he found himself affecting a smaller version of it. He may have tried to stop her, but it was more for her benefit than Thompson's. And he'd be lying if he'd said he hadn't felt a small bit of pride when he'd seen her handiwork. It would certainly stop any comments about his powerless sidekick, at least.

"I thought it was uncontrolled super strength at first." She looked at him expectantly, knowing this was exactly the reason he'd come. "But you phased right through me and you weighed a ton so I have no idea what it is now."

For a second she watched him, then gave a quick fake-looking grin and rested her elbows on her knees. "Molecular manipulation, that's how dad likes to refer to it. I can control the atoms in my body to a certain extent. I remain myself with all my elements in place, but I can make myself more or less dense. The high density account for the strength and the weight." She paused as though trying to figure out the best way to explain. "It's not really that I'm stronger, you know, it's just that there's more behind the punch."

A thought struck her. "Like, say you hit someone over the head with a ceramic vase as hard as you can, it still wouldn't be so bad as hitting them at half strength with a lead pipe." A crooked smile made its way across her face. "Essentially, I could block kryptonite from affecting Superman."

"And the phasing right through my arms?"

"Ah, that bit's a little harder to explain because we haven't quite figured it out. Dad thinks I just rearrange my molecules around the object." She shrugged. "It's hard to study it when it only manifests when I'm angry."

Principal Powers walking back in interrupted their little chat and Emm leaned back in her seat, adopting a serious pout. "Well, luckily Mr. Thompson does still have a face. You could have killed him." She reprimanded as she circled Emm and moved to her chair.

"No, I couldn't have." Emm made a point to avoid Principal Powers' eyes and look out the window instead. "I put only enough force to get through his stupid covering. I didn't want to kill him." No matter how many different possible ways to do just that had flashed through her head.

Finally, she brought her eyes over to Principal Powers. "I wanted to hurt him."

They were quiet for a moment before Principal Powers cleared her throat. "I thought Mr. Peace here was your usual antagonist, but you've never attacked him like that." Warren couldn't help but be extremely grateful for it. "So, why Mr. Thompson?"

A pregnant silence hung above them. "He tried to force himself on Maggie."

Warren's head snapped to look at her but her eyes were determinedly glued to Principal Powers. Now he wished he hadn't pulled her away for even a second.

Garwin and Maggie had always been spared the sidekick bullying and teasing that afflicted their classmates and most thought the reason behind it was Dan Patterson and his staunch defense of them. He knew better. Emmeline Garwin was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, even without her powers, and she was spared for fear of the ruckus she would cause.

Maggie Rollings was spared simply because her bright, quiet, and generous nature endeared her to most people. Whether they knew her or not most of the students found it difficult to be cruel to her. She was generally liked and to think of trying to force yourself on her was akin to choking a puppy with a bike chain.

"That a serious accusation, Emmeline."

Emm gave her a very flat, very serious look. "He didn't get far, just wouldn't stop kissing her, but it scared her and I won't apologize for what I did."

Principal Powers nodded and took a moment to look at her desk and focus herself. After a minute she stood. "Detention, Miss Garwin. For a week, but I will be speaking to both Mr. Thompson and Miss Rollings which may or may not change that. And you'll be spending the rest of the day in detention."

Emm nodded at everything she said, relieved that neither suspension or expulsion were on the agenda for the day. She leaned forward in her seat. "But, you're going to separate them, right? You have to cancel their partnership or switch them out or something." All the super powered assaults in the world meant nothing if Maggie was still required to spend time with him.

"Trade us out." Peace looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "I can trust Peace with Maggie, and I can clearly take care of Thompson."

"No, that won't be necessary. Once I speak with Miss Rollings and Mr. Thompson I'll exempt them from this month's partnership save for their essay." She walked around her desk and opened the door for them. "Mr. Peace, escort Miss Garwin to the detention room, please."