Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High.
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Lash helped Ivy walk back to the house and back to her room, afraid she'd fall without the extra support. He laid her down on the bed, and helped her take off her shoes. She lay on her side, facing away from the door. Ivy said nothing, only closed her eyes and pulled her sweatshirt closer. Lash stood for a moment watching her before closing the door, and crossing the hall to his own room.
He shut his door and pulled his shirt off. He kicked off his shoes, and fell back onto his big bed with his hands clasped behind his head. He thought about all she said. All she asked, all she wondered, how she cried, what she meant. Who was Blake? How did her powers hurt people? He wanted to know everything, whether it was for curiosity's sake, or because he cared, he wasn't sure. Lash had been considering the idea that he cared about her for the entire day. He had settled on "no" until he saw her crying in his church and was overwhelmed with the urge to kill Blake, whoever he was. Soon enough, Lash's thoughts consumed him to the point of sleep, and when we woke the next morning, his alarm was blaring.
He stretched, the super-human way, then looked back at his clock. "It's Saturday." He threw the alarm on his bed angrily, and knocked at Ivy's door.
"Come in." Ivy sat on her bed with her History book open, and a highlighter in her hand. "Hey." She looked up at Lash, who was standing in the now open doorway. She motioned for him to come in, and he did as he was told.
He sat down on the chair by her dresser and watched her watch him.
Damn. Ivy unconsciously watched his body flex and open as he breathed. She hadn't ever wondered if Lash took care of his body, but seeing him in boxers alone, her new question had an immediate answer. He wasn't quite as big as Warren, but he had more than enough muscle on his thin body. She bit her lip gently, and quickly turned her attention back to his face, relieved to see he hadn't noticed her.
"Did you sleep?" She put her highlighter down, and he mixed a shrug and a nod together. "Why so sad?" She frowned at his lack of response.
"I'm not." He picked up some perfume on the dresser beside him, smelled it, made a face, and put it down. Ivy laughed lightly at his expression. "You want some breakfast?" He stood and began to walk towards the door.
"No, I'm OK Thank you." She picked her highlighter back up.
"Hey, would you mind if we started working on the portrait tonight? I want to get going before it starts raining."
"Yeah, of course. I meant to ask when you wanted to do that, but with all the drama yesterday it slipped my mind." She smiled at him, but he simply left the room.
A few hours later and all her homework done, Ivy made her way to the living room to see Lash and Walker sitting together watching the news.
"Hey, what's going on?" Ivy's question was waved away as Lash pulled her onto the couch next to him and pointed at the screen.
The news reporter continued. "An animal which has now been identified as an extremely large wolf, has either demolished or burned down all the churches in Maxville, with the exception of the old Holy Name Cathedral on Forrester Drive. Citizens who witnessed the events have all exclaimed that the wolf cannot be of natural origin, due to it's increased size; over two times larger than the average wolf. Citizens speculate that the creature must be of the Super community, which has begun to cause an uproar among the local Supers." Walked turned the volume down.
"The minute they see something they can't explain, they blame us! How typical! Maybe they're all just stupid!" He got up from the couch and returned to the kitchen with his coffee mug.
"Why would the thing destroy all the churches but the Cathedral?" Lash took a sip from his own coffee mug.
Ivy shrugged, disconnected from the world, lost in her worries that Blake had done it. "I've gotta make a phone call. I'll be right back." She stood nonchalantly, and returned her room, Lash never took his eyes from the newscast.
Ivy closed her door abruptly, and dialed Layla as fast as she could.
"Hello?"
"Turn on the news report. Now."
"Ivy?"
"Yes. Now." She heard Layla's TV flick on, and heard the same voice that gave the report she saw. The reporter did a brief recap, and Layla gasped when she heard the assumptions made about it being a Super.
"It couldn't be. We would never do that." Ivy could tell Layla was shaking her head.
"It was Blake. I know it. I felt him last night, and I went to the Holy Name Cathedral since it's right down the street from Lash. I know it was Blake. His Absolute is a wolf, Layla. And Absolutes can be up to two, sometimes three times larger than normal animals." Ivy's voice trembled.
"Oh god, what do we do, Ivy?" Layla began to panic and forced herself to take deep, calming breaths.
"I don't know. He knows I'm here, and if not here specifically, he knows I'm in the area." Ivy spoke quietly so Lash couldn't overhear.
"I'll call Will. He should know what's going on."
"OK, call Magenta and Zach, too. I need to explain things to Jordan. He deserves to know what's going on just in case Blake starts to attack people, like him for example."
Layla agreed and they hung up quickly. Ivy began to get a cold sweat, the fear she felt swelling and growing by the second. She took off her gray sweatshirt, and pulled hair back away from her face. She calmed herself a bit, then went back to the living room to see Lash wasn't there. Instant panic took over.
"Jordan?" She yelled. She searched the kitchen and dining rooms. She called his name in the backyard, and finally headed down the hallway. "Jor--"
She was cut off by Lash opening the door to his bedroom. "Hey, hey! Calm down, what's the matter with you?" He looked worried and she engulfed him in a hug. "What's going on?" He pulled away from her and stared her in the eyes.
"There's some things you should know." Her face calmed, and the flush of her cheeks slowly began to fade.
He opened the door to his room, and she sat on his bed for the first time. She gave him a quick background about what she was, and who Blake was. She explained the incident at her apartment two months before, and the one three nights ago. She explained why she couldn't stay at her apartment, and that the wolf the reporter was talking about, she suspected, was Blake. Lash sat and listened intently the entire time.
She finished her speech and sat quietly, waiting for him to say something.
"And?" He raised his eyebrow.
"What do you mean 'and'?" She frowned at the word.
"What do you want me to do about it? He isn't doing anything directly against you to hurt you. Just sending out a warning or something." He stretched his arms behind him. "Until he actually tries to make physical contact, you need to relax."
"Are you joking?" She stared at him in disbelief. "How can you be so calm about this?"
"Because, Ivy. He hasn't come for you directly for a few nights. He probably needed time to heal after you kicked his ass, and now he's more cautious. He's more aware that you're strong and not going down without a fight. The best thing you can do is go on normally. If you start freakin' out and shit, you're just going to make yourself go crazy, and he'll catch you off guard."
Ivy looked at him for a moment more. "Are you sure?"
"No, but it's better than running around like a chicken without a head." He shrugged.
Ivy nodded and picked up his phone to call Layla. She agreed to pass the word on, and told Ivy to give Lash a hug for her. They said their goodbyes and good lucks and hung up the phone. Ivy hadn't noticed how late it had gotten, and she nearly fell off the bed when she saw it was past seven. She ran into her room to inject a full dose of the serum. While she was staying with someone she could hurt, she figured it'd be safest for everyone to be dosed the entire time. She left a quick message with Gennifer at Karmichaels' office saying that she'd be at a new address. Gennifer assured Ivy that she'd be receiving the new shipment within the week.
She returned to Lash's room and saw him gathering his pencils and a stack of blank papers. I completely forgot. The portrait. Right.
"What did you want me to wear?"
He looked up from his desk and saw her standing just inside the room, hands on her hips.
"Huh?" He furrowed his brow and shook his head in confusion.
"Wear." She laughed a little. "For the portrait."
"Right now what you're wearing is fine. When I get to the end, I'll change it, but at the moment I'm just doing a figure sketch to get acquainted with you and the scene." He finished getting his things together, and threw a sweatshirt over his head. Ivy hadn't noticed that he'd been dressed since before she told him all about Blake. Her mood saddened at the idea that she wouldn't be able to stare anymore.
Ivy and Lash trekked up the road until they got to the church. The climbed the spiral staircase, and Ivy sat on the railing as Lash got comfortable. He asked her to stand facing him, facing both sides, and facing back. He did some quick line drawings, and asked her to pose in different positions. Ivy was lucky that he was able to multi-task drawing and talking at the same time, otherwise she may have cried from boredom.
"OK, now do the same thing, but flipped. Like a mirror image." She did as he asked. He finished the quick sketch and looked back up. "OK, now take off your clothes."
Ivy almost fell off the railing. "Now do what?" He laughed hysterically at her response and shook his head. She jumped down and marched over to him and began to playfully slap him on the head. His threw his arms up in defense when they heard a wolf howl in the distance. They both stopped, and he grabbed his papers as fast as he could. Ivy threw her zip-up back on, and grabbed Lash's free hand. The flew down the stairs and out the door faster than the ever thought possible. As soon as they hopped the fence to the church, the came face to face with an alarmingly large, gray and black wolf. Ivy threw her arm out in front of Lash the way mothers do to their children when crossing the street. Lash stopped dead in his tracks.
"You don't have to tell me twice." He stood completely still. Ivy stared at the wolf in horror, and he stared back in sick pleasure. Inch by inch the wolf changed back to human, and a naked Blake stood before them laughing.
"Did you really think you'd scare me off, Discord?" He laughed harder. His face was scarred with her hand print, and the rips on his arms had begun to scar as well.
"Jordan, when I say 'run'..."
"Run. Got it." He shifted his weight, and she could tell he was scared. But she was unaware that he was more scared for her, than for himself.
"I promised you one day I'd hurt you." Blake's laughter had died, and a cold, dead stare replaced it.
"What are you talking about?" Ivy took a step back.
"After The Oracle died, you went crazy. I remember." He tapped his temple with his index and middle fingers. "I used to watch you walk to school every day. I watched you sit alone. I watched you drink alone. I watched you live your life alone."
"Cane? Dylan Cane?" Her eyes widened more.
"Not anymore. It's Blake now." He took a step towards her and she didn't back away. She began to slowly drop her arm from in front of Lash. "Old habits die hard, Ivy. Watching you was always my favorite hobby. Favorite habit. Favorite everything. You think I'd forget you? Oh, no no no. Not you." Blake shifted back into his wolf form, and he ran at her.
"Run!" She pushed Lash away just as the wolf landed on her. Lash heard a scream of pain, but ran and didn't look back.
Ivy kicked the wolf in his stomach, causing him to lurch back in minor pain, and she was able to scramble back to her feet. She faded into her own Absolute and the two creatures circled each other, both unwilling to make the first strike.
The wolf grew impatient and jumped at the pure white panther. The panther dodged the attack and bit the wolf in its side. It howled in pain and moved towards the panther again. The feline was too fast, and dodged the second attack, ripping flesh off the wolf's massive body. The panther continued to strike at the canine, slowly tearing its skin apart, leaving more and more chunks of fur and flesh on the ground beneath their battle. The wolf grew so weak that it didn't have the energy required to stay in wolf form, and it unwillingly faded back to Blake. The panther stood above the man, and snarled, blood dripping from its mouth. Blake hardly raised his head to face the panther before he completely collapsed, breathing ragged. Ivy was hardly able to convince the cat to sprint back to Lash's home.
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