I hope everyone is having happy holidays!!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High.

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Ivy rolled out of her bed and slammed her alarm clock off. She sluggishly found her way to the bathroom for a nice hot shower, and just as lazily found her way back and collapsed on her bed. After a few minutes of laying on the bed with wet hair in nothing but her towel, she pulled herself up to get dressed. She stared into her closet for a few minutes before finally deciding on clothes. White. White is good. A form-fitting white t-shirt, and a pair of dark jeans tucked into her clunky army-style boots. She stared at herself in the mirror. Bleh. She groaned, and pulled on her Guess jacket, and black bike gloves. She still had a few hours left on her serum, but was strangely in the mood for gloves. She added some black eye-liner and met Lash in the kitchen. She dropped her school bag and he looked up at her immediately from his bowl of Cocoa Lucky Charms.

"You look like hell." He took a spoonful, and she stared at him unhappily before grabbing the bowl from him and draining it into her mouth. "Uhh--" She put the empty bowl in front of him and wiped her mouth on her black sleeve. "Thanks." He scowled at her before putting the bowl in the dishwasher.

Ivy yawned and picked her bag off the floor. Lash yelled to his dad that they were leaving, and followed her to the front door. They got to the bus stop a few minutes early, and she leaned her head on his shoulder closing her eyes, ready to fall back asleep. He chuckled at her, and put his arm around her shoulders. The bus arrived, and he woke her gently from her minor nap so they could board. Lash steadily led her to the back of the bus where Layla and the rest, including Warren, were sitting. Ivy sat in a corner seat and leaned her head against the window and went back to sleep.

"Hey, she aiight?" Zach pointed to Ivy with his Pop Tart.

"Yeah, she's fine. She slept like, all yesterday, and all throughout the night, though. I dunno why she's so tired." Lash shrugged and broke off a corner of Zach's' tart. "Hey, she ate my breakfast, OK?" He pushed Zach's shoulder, and Zach snorted.

Conversation ensued, and no one took care to notice Warren staring at Ivy the entire ride.

When they landed at the school, Lash helped Ivy up since she couldn't seem to figure out how to use her legs. When they were all off the bus, she regained most of her balance, and widened her eyes as much as she could to wake herself up a bit. Lash put his arm around her shoulder, and she smiled at him, and wrapped her own arm around his waist. Layla smiled to herself seeing them walking together, until she smelled smoke. Her head whipped around and saw Warren's arms and back smoking. She walked over to him cautiously, and put a comforting hand on his arm. Never taking his eyes off Lash, he grabbed his arm away from her, and stalked into the school.

Classes went by quickly enough, and lunch rolled around. Ivy went to meet her friends in the cafeteria, but just as she opened the door Will came running up to her.

"Ivy! Talk some sense into Lash!" He grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the circle of people that crowded around the back corner of the cafeteria where their normal table was.

"Wait, what?" He pulled her through the crowds of people, and saw Warren's arms lit, and Lash ready to take him on. She immediately stepped between them, and looked Lash in his eyes. "Stop, Jordan. What are you thinking?"

"You don't think I can take him?" His face flushed with anger and heat.

"No. I know you can stand on your own. This just isn't the place. Please." She begged and pleaded with her eyes for him to stop, and he allowed his arms to return to normal.

"Let's settle this then." He moved past Ivy straight to Warren. "Save the Citizen. Today." They were mere inches away from each other.

"You're on." Warren backed away and left the cafeteria completely.

"That isn't what I meant, Lash." He turned around to see a disappointed Ivy staring sadly at him.

"You've never called me Lash before." He looked puzzled.

She shook her head and shrugged in disbelief. "I've never had to." She took her own bag and left the room. Lash was left standing alone as the people dispersed back to their hobbies and friends.

Ivy found her way outside and walked to the edge of the platform that held the school. She stared into her cool, gray sky, and breathed in the newly cut grass and the old, fallen leaves. She took one last look around the cloudless sky, and went back towards the entrance to the school. She headed straight for her locker, and found Magenta waiting there.

"Hey, there." Ivy greeted her with a smile and opened her locker door.

"You can't let Lash fight him." Magenta fixed a cold, stern glare on her tall friend.

Ivy exchanged some books and replied to her friend. "It isn't my decision. It's his life, his battle."

"No. It's your battle. It's about you, Ivy. You can't let them fight each other. One of them will end up seriously injured, and since Lash has no real reason to be angry, I'm betting Warren is gonna go in for the kill." Magenta's face turned from grave and serious, to worried and nervous.

Ivy closed her locker door. "I'm not getting involved with this." She looked at her purple haired friend. "How did it even come up?"

Magenta took a breath. "Lash came over to the table looking for you, and he sat down for like, a second, while we talked to him. When Warren came over, he just flipped a bitch about how Lash was in his seat, and they just started yelling, and when Lash tried to leave, Warren decided it was time to fight. You got there before anything actually happened, though."

"Sounds like Warren needs some anger management." Ivy left Magenta standing dumbfounded by the locker, and went to her class.

When PE finally arrived, the entire school had turned up for the event. Everyone, regardless of what social group they were, or were not in knew about Lash and Warren's quiet battle over Ivy, and they all wanted to see the result. Coach Boomer made the announcement that there had been a Save the Citizen Battle Challenge, and that normal class would resume the following day. By the time everyone had filed inside the gym and were seated and waiting, adrenaline was high and Warren was already in his gear. Lash was suiting up, and Ivy went to talk to him.

"You shouldn't be doing this." She looked him, and when he chose to ignore her statement she smirked and walked away.

"Stone! Why aren't you in your gym clothes?" Boomer yelled at her from across the arena, and she simply stared back at him, unwilling to respond.

Ivy found Layla, Will, Magenta, Zach and Taylor sitting in the stands, and she sat beside Taylor on the end.

"Peace! Partner?" Warren looked in Will's direction. "Stronghold, what a surprise."

"No." Warren said one word, and the entire gym was silent. "I want Ivy." Lash stopped messing with his gear, and looked up at Warren, who had a manipulative grin on his face, one that no one had ever seen.

"Hm, interesting. Stone, get down here." Boomer didn't look up, and Ivy sat right where she was, staring at Warren utterly bewildered. When Boomer raised his attention from his clipboard, he saw she hadn't come down from the stands yet. "Discord." She snapped her head at Boomer, the light in the room flaring bright as her eyes turned cold, and her hair faded to a piercing, angry red. Boomer tried to ignore the sudden surge of fear that covered him. "Get down to the arena, Ivy." He gulped hard, and released a deep breath when she made her way to the floor without a word.

She took off her jacket, and stood in her t-shirt, jeans and boots, arms crossed, hair growing wilder and angrier by the second. Boomer knew that no matter what he said next, she wouldn't change or put on her protective gear, so he wisely chose to change the focus of his attention.

Lash practically ran over to her. "What are you doing? You can't be part of this!" She followed his earlier example, and ignored him.

"Lash. Partner?" Lash looked up at Boomer, lost in thoughts and worries. "Partner?" Boomer repeated, the second time with less patience and a little louder.

"Uh, right." Lash looked around the stands. He knew Speed wasn't at school, and he didn't want to put Ivy against anyone too strong, he didn't want her to get hurt... He saw Taylor staring at him, and when he locked eyes with her, she nodded. "I'll have Taylor Conrad."

Boomer nodded to Taylor who jumped up and ran down to throw on her gear. She looked at Ivy from across the room, and gave her a gentle smile.

"Peace. You issued the challenge. Heroes or villains?" Boomer's hand was ready to write heroes, Warren could tell.

"Villains." His manipulative smile grew wider, and he looked at Ivy, who grew even more infuriated than she had been before. She clenched her fist, almost to the point of drawing blood, but gulped hard, and shook it off. The lights grew so bright that everyone was beginning to have a hard time seeing, and Boomer had to remind Ivy that she was controlling it. Slowly the lights returned to normal, and she looked up at the timer.

"Ready. Set. Battle!" The fight commenced.

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