I'm beginning to think I'm spoiling you guys. But, then again, you probably deserve it after how long it took me to update this. This one is a tiny bit shorter than the last few. The next chapter is homecoming but you'll have to wait for it. It's done, I just want to make you suffer a little. :] I'll be giving Warren some more time to lead the story too.

Also, is anyone interested in being a beta for this? If so, please PM me.

Chapter 8-

"Freedom feels good, I'll tell you that much." Emm stretched in her seat and adjusted herself to sit cross-legged.

"I thought you said you didn't mind detention since you figured out it made for a good workshop."

Having fulfilled the last of her assigned detentions Emm and Elijah had met with Dan and Maggie at the Rollings home and had been quickly herded into Ma Rolling's minivan. Ma claimed that a celebration was in order, but they suspected she just wanted Chinese food.

There was no such thing as a secret in the Rollings house and Ma had been aware of Emm's fight (if it could be called that) and the cause behind it the same day it happened. It just paid to be upfront with her. With a double whammy of super hearing and lie detection there was nothing they could get past her.

"Yeah, but I'd still rather not have to be in there. I have a workshop at home, after all." Car rides in Ma's van were always entertaining and every now and then they'd play to see how long they could get away with making one another believe a lie before Ma revealed them.

"I did make a friend though. He helped me hold together some bits while I welded them." There was a pause before they all turned to look at her. Emm gave them her patented confused look. "What?"

It was Dan who sighed. "You did welding in the Detention room?"

Emm shrugged. "I was safe and he was all for it. It was just a smidge." She'd taken the necessary gloves and mask from the Mad Science lab when she'd borrowed the welder. "I'm nearly done with it, guys, this close," she motioned with her fingers, "and if welding needs to be done then it will be done."

With a shake of their heads they all dropped the subject. The project, the nature of which Emm refused to speak of, had been Emm's greatest preoccupation for a month now. Even before school had started she'd been planning and plotting and gathering materials. None of them knew what it was exactly and they'd never seen it all together because she claimed it was easier to bring to school in bits, but they trusted she wasn't planning to take over the world.

Mr. Medulla seemed as excited about it as she was and, as usual, gave her free reign over materials. The four students in his private class all seemed to share the same ability to just borrow whatever they needed, but Emm was the only one who would suddenly be struck with brilliance and need things instantaneously. Dan had smiled and shook his head when she burst into his (and Peace's) Mad Science class room and quickly rambled about having figured out how to counteract the altitude problem before rushing into the back room and rolling a large metal crate out. Mr. Medulla was in a better mood for it and none of them could complain at the interruption.

Ma Rollings knew the ways of the Paper Lantern better than even Peace did, she suspected, and had carefully timed their arrival so they were too late for the lunch rush and too early for the dinner rush. She usually did when with the whole lot of them and Emm wondered if that was why she'd never seen Peace working, perhaps his shift started later.

They were greeted by the same hostess Emm had seen last time and Ma began a friendly conversation with her, clearly familiar with everyone who worked at the Lantern. She led them to a booth and pulled up a chair for Elijah before taking a close look at Emm and rolling her eyes. When she was done taking their drink orders she rolled her eyes at Emm again and walked away.

It took her a moment to realize why. "Hey! No! I'm not here to see him!" She leaned over the side of the booth but their waitress had already gone. She groaned. "She thinks I'm a Warren Peace fangirl."

"I'll set her straight."

She blinked up at Peace when he began to set down their drinks. "Jesus, you're speedy." That, or their waitress was really fast. "But you really need to clear that up, she rolls her eyes at me every time she sees me."

Peace gave Ma and the others a polite nod of the head when Ma greeted him by name. "I'm not speedy, you're predictable. The only thing you ever drink is Coke and you both," He tilted his head to where Maggie and Ma were sitting, "always order water."

He had a point. "I'll talk to her, though. I'm sure it drives you insane to be on the receiving end of an eye-roll."

Emm began to roll her eyes when she caught the expectant smirk on his face and stopped herself. "Oh, shut up. Feed us and go entertain your actual fangirls." She pointed to the doorway where a herd of girls she recognized as underclassmen had just walked in.

It was his turn to groan.

"Begin!"

Emm had never had anything against Save the Citizen, really, but being paired up with Peace meant she was called up far too often. So far they'd been called out as villains twice, which she always thought was easier than playing the hero, and he had managed to win for them all on his own. Well, she'd shoved Ryan Aarons a little, but was otherwise too afraid to hit him and he seemed content to just stay on the other side of the field.

This time they'd been paired against Robert Stonewall and Katie Lee as heroes. She had no real opinion of Robert, though she'd heard he wasn't exactly brilliant, but she decided that as long as she wasn't smacked with a boulder that she'd like him just fine. Katie was a bright girl who sat by the window in Hero Support and turned herself into mist.

Realizing that neither of them would have much of a role in the game they stood side by side against the plexiglass wall and chatted.

"So, how's Robert?"

"He's nice, you know. Really nice. He's not the brightest bulb in the box, but he always means well."

"That's good to hear. I guess that's another hero I won't have to worry about Maggie getting paired with. Might be nice to get him."

"What about Warren Peace?"

"What about him?"

"What's it like being his sidekick? Especially for you?"

"Annoying. Drives me up the wall half the time, I swear."

"Ladies! Do something!" They looked up at Coach Boomer with blank stares.

Emm shrugged and dispassionately shoved Katie's arm before giving two thumbs up in the general direction of the fight. "You're doing great!" She heard Katie laugh at her.

Coach Boomer realized nothing was going to happen with them and turned his attention back to the action.

Rather than start up their chat again Emm watched the fight. Save the Citizen was always a difficult game. Without the ability to fly you always had to try and figure out how to reach the citizen without getting shredded, and having someone fling rocks at you had to be distracting. Personally she would have just-

It was like a million light bulbs went off in her head and suddenly she was running across the gym to the shredder. She could have smacked herself for not having thought of it before. Katie was next to her in an instant.

"What are you doing?"

Emm waved her off and began circling the obnoxiously loud shredder, knocking on the metal as she went. She had to duck the boulder that flew past her and hit the whirring metal blades but didn't even notice when little bits of rock shrapnel stung her cheeks. With a grin she stepped back and kicked a specific part of the machine.

A little square dented in and she managed to pry it off, revealing the main control panel. Katie clued in beside her and turned into a mist to try and distract her. It stung at Emm's eyes and she coughed around it but continued working.

"I'm breathing you in! That's weird!"

Katie materialized beside and instead tried to pry her away physically. Glad that Katie was a tiny little thing Emm swung her arm around her neck and brought her down to her level, hoping she would be a little more manageable this way. In no time Emm found the small panel she needed to get at. The clock was ticking down, now faster than before it seemed, and she frowned when she realized she didn't have a screwdriver with her and certainly not one small enough.

She looked around for anything that could help, completely ignoring Peace and Robert on the other side of the machine. Katie's hair caught her eye and she plucked one of the bobby pins keeping it in place. Katie made a disgruntled noise but had otherwise stopped struggling.

Emm gnawed on the end of the bobby pin to remove the little plastic covering and spit it out in the other direction. Opening up the pin she stuck it into the little screws and turned. One, two, three screws were out and with time counting down she just wrenched the panel and last screw off, tossing them behind her.

The grin on her face almost hurt (probably from the bits of rock still in her cheeks) and she wrapped her fingers around the yellow and red wires. With six seconds left she ripped them from the machine and heard the whirring die down.

She could hear Coach Boomer sputtering behind her as she let Katie go. "Uh- I guess- Heroes win!"

Robert and Peace, who hadn't noticed her at all, looked up, surprised. Emm relished in the cocky grin she sent them and gestured to the now inactive shredder. She thought she saw Peace smile.

"Is that allowed?" Someone from the crowd shouted when the applause and cheering had died down some.

"Of course it's allowed!" Emm looked up at Mr. Medulla on the observation deck and couldn't help the surge of pride she felt when she saw him clapping away. "It's just that none of you ever use your brains!" He looked like Christmas had come early.

She felt Peace come around beside her before she saw him. He looked, dare she say it, impressed. "Not bad, Garwin."

Coach Boomer groaned above them. "I take it we won't be able to use the shredder again for a while?"

Emm had the decency to look sheepish when she shook her head and Boomer dismissed them to go change. The rest of the class, as in the whole school, was released in sections as usual. Once they were out of the gym Peace stopped her.

"You're cut everywhere."

The adrenaline had begun to wear off and she realized that her face did, in fact, sting like a bitch. She moved to touch her cheek but he caught her hand. "You'll just make it worse." Without further ado he turned her around and pushed her towards the nurse's office. He kept his hand on her back as he walked beside her like he thought she would try to bolt and continued to swat her hands away when she tried to touch her face.

"And stop making faces."

"It hurts, you ass."

"It's going to hurt more if you keep making faces."

"Oh, go to hell."

Nurse Spex tutted at them when they entered her office and made some remark on the silliness of Save the Citizen. Immediately she sat Emm on the examination bed and wheeled over a set of tweezers and a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

She winced every time Nurse Spex removed a bit of shrapnel but that only made it worse. Half way through the process she punched Peace in the arm to make herself feel better. He snorted, which she assumed was his way of laughing at her and she punched him again. In fact, she kept punching him every time another bit was removed and convinced herself it made it hurt less.

Sometime after her left cheek was done she'd closed her eyes, realizing it hurt just a little less like that, and so was caught completely off guard when Nurse Spex dabbed at her with the alcohol. The hand that was punching Peace's arm instead wrapped itself around it and squeezed. Emm hissed.

Nurse Spex gave her a sympathetic look and apologized lightly. "I'll be done in a second, don't worry."

Emm kept a tight hold on Peace and squeezed a little whenever it stung particularly bad. She distantly noted that he'd let her hit him repeatedly and was now suffering her grip without a single complaint.

"All done with the alcohol."

Emm opened her eyes and sighed in relief. Her face still stung but it was nothing compared to the alcohol. Still, she kept her hand wrapped around Peace's arm.

Nurse Spex pulled a small tub of cream from one of the cabinets. "It's a little salve, it should stop the stinging and help it heal better." It felt like heaven. Immediately all the little cuts felt cool and she wanted to bathe in the stuff. "You should be fine by homecoming."

Emm had forgotten all about homecoming. She knew the nurse was right though. As a whole supers healed better than the rest of the populace, some faster than others. By homecoming, in two day's time, she should be mostly healed.

Shoving the little tub into Emm's hands Nurse Spex shooed them out with a couple of excuse notes for class. Halfway down the empty hallway Peace moved his arm and Emm realized she was still holding onto it. She pulled her hand away like she'd been burnt, which was always a possibility with him, and gave him as best a smile she could.

"Thanks." He just shrugged, then smacked her hand away when she went to touch her face again. She sighed and gave him a look but shoved her free hand in her pocket. "So, how's it look?"

She hadn't seen her face at all and could only imagine what she looked like. She'd have to stop by the bathroom before returning to class.

He studied her from the corner of his eye for a moment before shrugging. "You'll be fine."

She rolled her eyes. She knew she'd be fine, they were only a few cuts. "Well, at least this will teach Ryan to ask me to homecoming instead of who he really wants. Now he'll have to deal with a mutilated date."

Beside her Peace huffed and gave her a shove. "Don't be stupid."

"Can't help it, I think you may be contagious."

"Is it possible for you to just be quiet for a few minutes? Maybe I should just douse you in alcohol."

"Oh, don't be such an ass."

"It would shut you up at least. My arm would suffer, but I wouldn't have to hear you go on."

"I'll show you suffer."

"I'm so scared. What are you going to do? Slather me in cream?"

"I'm cutting your breaks after school. Just you wait."

"I want you twenty feet away from my car at all times."

"Psh, I'll get to them while you're working."

"Garwin, one day I'm going to barbecue you."

"Empty threats, Peace, empty threats."