Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High.

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Taylor shot spike after spike at Ivy, who dodged each and every one of them, glancing back towards Warren and Lash as often as she could spare. She ducked behind the dumpster, and watched the shards of ice fall to the ground. After less than a second, Taylor switched techniques and froze the entire dumpster solid, before shooting a vertical line of spikes right down the center. They cracked both the ice and the dumpster, and the object fell into two pieces. Ivy darted out from her hiding place before the dumpster broke, and she ran towards Warren.

He saw Ivy coming, and saw the spikes coming as well. He shot a quick fireball at Taylor which threw her off-balance before returning his attention to Lash, who had stretched his arms over to the broken dumpster and grabbed the pieces. He hurtled them at Warren, who dove out of the way and melted them simultaneously. Warren began throwing ball after ball of his raging fire, that seemed to grow hotter by the minute. He hit Lash once and caused him to stumble and lose concentration as he stretched his arm towards Warren. Warren saw his opportunity there, and continued throwing the fireballs at him, each one larger and hotter than the one before.

Ivy looked at the clock. A minute and a half. Lash can't take that much more. She looked around, and saw Taylor preparing to throw the ultimate spike at her. Over three feet long, Ivy knew it could impale someone easily, and made a mental note to yell at Taylor later. Taylor let the spike go, and it didn't go towards Ivy, but towards Warren, who was completely oblivious to the entire issue. Ivy ran as fast as she could across the arena, and pushed Warren out of the way, all in an instant realizing it was Taylor's way of helping Lash. Ivy fell on top of Warren in the process, and before having time to really register what had happened, both were back on their feet, Warren continuing his assault on the still fallen Lash, and Ivy running over to where Taylor stood.

Ivy pushed Taylor back as far as she could without causing any actual injury, and ran towards the citizen. She leapt over the mulcher grabbing onto the rope, and folded her arms into the panthers, as she had done before with Layla as her partner. She ripped it in half, causing both the citizen and herself to fall. She stretched her momentum as much as she could, and missed the mulcher by an inch, landing on her feet in a crouching position, letting the citizen get crushed.

Boomer blew his whistle, and announced the villains had won, but Warren continued to throw his fire balls at Lash, who was pinned against the plastic side of the arena, in too much pain to move out of the way. Ivy and Taylor ran straight for Lash, but Warren still didn't stop. Taylor pulled Lash out of the line of fire, and Ivy stepped into it, a ball hitting her left wrist; the same wrist Warren had helped take care of. He stopped a single flame too late, and saw Ivy standing with a singed glove, and blackened skin. Fire couldn't actually burn her because of her skin, regardless of the serum, but it could still cause her pain. Warren saw the injury's pain reflected on her face, and took a step forward to apologize, letting the flames on his arms die. She walked towards Lash, still cold and angry, and Taylor helped Lash sit up on the floor.

Lash smiled weakly. "And you still didn't win." He gave a half-hearted, pained laugh.

Warren's eyes flew wide and angry, and he lit his arms with the brightest, hottest flame he could. But the fire didn't stop at his arms. The heat and smoke and flickering colors engulfed his entire body as he screamed in anger ready to attack Lash again, but Ivy stepped before him, and he stopped. The flamed remained burning against the leather and bare skin, and Ivy took her already burned hand, and pushed it through the fire until she was able to touch Warren's skin.

"That's enough." She held his hand through the flame, and simply looked at him.

The flames were gone in an instant, leaving no trace of having ever been present. Ivy and Warren stared at each other for less than a moment, before Ivy left and returned to Lash. Will helped Ivy take him to Nurse Spex to see if she could help him at all, though it was doubtful. The rest of the student body quietly exited the gym, feeling uncomfortable about the seriousness of the personal conflict that had just ensued before them. Ivy insisted that Will go home, and that she'd be fine to take care of Lash on her own. He reluctantly returned to Layla, Magenta, Zach and Taylor, and the five left.

Ivy stood outside the nurse's offices in the hallway, and paced back and forth. It had been over twenty minutes, and there was still no word. Lash had been on the brink of losing consciousness from the pain, and Ivy had begun to think that maybe he had. She paced back and forth a few times. She leaned against the opposing wall from the door, and squatted against it. She eventually sat down completely, but found that staying still didn't help her nerves. She stood back up and began pacing all over again.

"Is he OK?" Ivy whipped around herself to see an ashamed Warren Peace standing sheepishly, with his hands in his pockets, shoulders tense and hunched, eyes on the floor.

"I don't know." Ivy clipped her words, and turned her back to him to continue pacing. She turned right back around, with calm fury in her voice. "What were you thinking, Warren?"

"I don't know." He shook his head, keeping his eyes on the floor.

"You have an answer for everything, now is not the time to lose that egotistical edge of yours. How could you do that to him?" Warren raised his eyes to look at her, and she took a step back in shock. A small tear rolled down his stubbled cheek, and he shook his head again.

"I was just so angry." He stopped there, unsure of how or if he should go on. When she remained silent, he did. "I never meant to hurt him, but I just kept remembering seeing you and him. At school, at the dance, imagining you at his house... In his bed." He stopped and looked back up at her, unaware that he had dropped his eyes to the floor.

"Warren." She walked the few feet between them, and stood with hardly three inches separating them. "Lash has been a great friend to me. He's never once made things hard, or made me feel bad about myself."

"I have?" He interrupted her in shock.

"Let me finish." She watched his face relax out of the surprised look, and settle on something leaning towards indignant. "The man in the cloak is a boy I used to know. His name is Dylan. He attacked both myself and Lash a while ago, and Lash never thought twice about who I am, or why Dylan was after me. He simply accepted that it happened." Ivy stopped and studied Warren for a moment more, and saw the twitch of anger in his eyes when he heard that Dylan had attacked her again. "Lash never asked questions. He waited for me to speak when I was ready to tell him what was going on, and that means more to me than anything. You know how I hate to be pressured into answering questions when I'm not ready."

"I never pressured you about thing." A hopelessness and sadness overcame his features, and Ivy raised a hand up to his face. She rested it on cheek, and wiped away the trail of the single tear with her soft thumb.

"That isn't what I'm saying. I'm saying that Lash has been a good friend. A great friend, even." She stroked his cheek a few more times, before pulling him into a gentle hug.

"Just a good friend, huh?" Ivy turned around, instinctively pulling Warren behind her as if to shield him. Lash leaned against the doorway, holding his right arm against his stomach, bandaged and still burned. Ivy shook her head and opened to her mouth to correct herself, but Lash stopped her. "Yeah, we were real close friends homecoming night."

Ivy stood staring at Lash, face slowly turning red with embarrassment and anger, and a feel of shame caught in her throat.

"You can come by and get your stuff tonight. Otherwise I'm dumping it." He hobbled past them, and Ivy made no attempt to stop him. She stood where he left her, shocked and upset that he could be so cruel without giving her a chance to explain.

Long after Lash had left, Ivy still stayed where she was. It was only when Warren spoke to her that she realized she hadn't moved in minutes.

"Anything else you wanna tell me?" Ivy took a deep breath and turned to face Warren, slowly, nervously, afraid to see the look of disappointment and sure disgust on his face, but when she finally drew the courage to look at his face and into his eyes, she saw none of what she thought. She shook her head slowly, confused by his reaction. "Good. Let's go get your stuff."

He started to walk towards the exit or the school, and he was halfway down the hall when he realized she hadn't followed. He turned around to look at her.

"That's it? You aren't going to--" She was cut off.

"No. We're going to miss the last bus." He waited for her to pick up her bag and catch up with him before continuing down the hallway.

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I'm sorry Miserlou!! I'm sorry! Don't kill me!!