Chapter Four: Cold War

We've got to hold on ready or not
You live for the fight when it's all that you've got

Livin' on a Prayer, Bon Jovi

It was only when the pain began to fade that Tenni was able to ease out of the not quite awake, not quite asleep limbo she'd been in. She opted for sleep first, and when she woke up, she was surprised to realize she was in her own bedroom when she recognized the glow in the dark star decoration she'd put on her ceiling two years ago. How had she gotten there? The last thing she remembered was passing out in the cafeteria.

Remembering why she'd passed out brought the entire day back. The fight. Warren. Will.

"Will!" Tenni shouted, jack-knifing off the bed, only to wince with regret a moment later when her shoulder burn began to hurt from the sudden movement.

"Sweetie, you need to calm down and lay back," she heard someone say as she felt hands pushing her slowly back down.

It took only a moment to figure out that the person was her Mom.

"Mom?"

"Oh Tenni." She felt the hands stroking her face and hair now. "That was so reckless of you. So brave and reckless."

"Mom, how did I get home?"

"I got a call from the secretary at Sky High informing me that my son was sent to detention for fighting in school and that my daughter had been brought, unconscious, to the nurse's office suffering severe burns," her mom answered in clipped tones, her lips pinched in distaste, "I flew there immediately and brought you home the minute the nurse said it was safe to move you."

"Detention?" Tenni gaped, letting her immediate concern for Will's wellbeing fall to the wayside, knowing that if he had been sent to detention he was probably okay, "How could he have been given a detention when Warren started the fight? All Will did was run for cover."

"The property damage bills we were sent tell a different story," Josie quipped back dryly.

"What, did Warren throw Will through a wall and school decided to charge us for it?" the girl snapped sarcastically, though she was parts dumbstruck and furious at the idea that maybe it was true.

"It was the opposite actually. Will threw that Warren boy through a wall. And into a lot of other things too."

And that was when Tenni started to remember more of what she'd forgotten. How Will had indeed picked up and thrown Warren through a wall. She'd been on the edge of consciousness then, which was why she'd thought she'd hallucinated things and had dismissed it. Now it was apparent that it wasn't a hallucination. Huh. Nurse Spex had been right.

"He got his powers?" she asked anyway, and got her confirmation in Josie's proud nod.

"Even if I'm upset that he got in trouble today, I can't say I'm not happy about that. He got your dad's super strength after all. I am a little disappointed his genetics didn't see fit to tip more to my side and give him flight." She heaved a mock sigh before smiling. "Will's always favored Steve more, looks wise and now powers wise as well. At least you look like me." Her eyes took in Tenni's features. "You remind me so much of her."

The girl fought the urge to stiffen at the mention of her biological mother. She tried, really tried, to always be considerate of Josie, her mom now, concerning her other mother. Her mother was Josie's sister after all, and while it was well and good to treat her with disdain in her own mind, it actually hurt Josie when she said bad things about her mother.

Distractedly, she thought about what Josie had said. Tenni had ended up looking more and more like her mother as she got older. She'd pretty much gotten all of her features. Last but not least, there was also the fact that she'd gotten her mother's powers as well.

There wasn't any conclusive proof in scientific hero circles that the children of powered individuals always got the same power as their parents. Layla was a good example of the lack of evidence and thrown around theories. Where her mother communed with animals, Layla instead controlled plants. However, an argument could have been made that both powers were nature based and therefore Layla's power could just be a variant of her mother's. So that was where Tenni's own problem lay. Even if it wasn't proven that powers weren't directly inherited from the parents, most people believed it was true. Anyone who knew the Strongholds would notice how odd it was that Tenni was an aquakinetic with a super strong father and a flying mother. If they knew about Josie being Tenni's mother's twin, they could go two ways with that information.

They could, best case scenario, rationalize it. Flying could be considered a type of aerokinesis and therefore based in elemental power types like aquakinesis was. Added to the fact that Josie and her mother had been twins, it wasn't that crazy a jump in logic to assume that aquakinesis could manifest in a child not directly related to the aquakinetic.

However there were people would assume the worst. The truth. People, unfortunately, like Coach Boomer. The first day, it was obvious Boomer fully believed in direct inheritance. He'd assumed it of both her and Will, and then both of them had turned out to be anomalies, her with her aquakinesis and Will with his no powers. Will not being what he'd expected had probably thrown off Boomer's suspicions about her for a while but that was no longer the case now that Will had awakened his super strength.

Though Boomer had already been acting suspicious. If she'd been unsure about it during power placement, P.E. class had gotten rid of any uncertainty. There was an obvious bias in the way he treated her and she was dismayed to figure out that he treated Warren in a similar fashion, just a little worse. He made disparaging remarks aimed at her parentage that could in no way be meant towards Steve and Josie. He constantly set her up to fail during physical activity drills. Then there were the sneers he didn't bother doing behind her back.

It might have been easy to tell Steve and Josie about it. But how could she? Boomer probably expected it. Knew that if she told them, Steve especially, they'd blow their tops at him. All Boomer would have to do at that point was let her secret slip and everybody in the school, from the freshmen, to the seniors, to the school staff, would know about her.

She'd be the second coming of Warren Peace at Sky High.

Shuddering, she pushed that horrible line of thought away. It bothered her that the lower she got, the more she fixated she got on things like her mother and Warren. Josie hadn't meant to upset her with the passing mention of her mother. Even if the last thing Tenni wanted was to be compared to a woman she hated, this was Josie. If it was Josie, she could put up with it. So she forced a smile, taking Josie's hand and asked her how her day had been. Josie didn't seem completely fooled by the change of topic, but let it go.

Tenni had fallen asleep mid-conversation and ended up being gently woken up by Layla and Will for school the next morning. She was disturbed to see in how badly her family and friend had taken her injury at the hands of Warren Peace. Layla always seemed to be hovering on the side of her injured shoulder, trying to be helpful since Tenni a decreased range of movement with that arm. It was sweet, but Tenni wasn't crippled. Her arm was doing much better than it had been yesterday. One perk of her ability was that when properly applied, it mildly accelerated healing.

(She'd never admit that her inspiration for trying out healing applications of her power had come from a children's cartoon of all things.)

So instead of her shoulder being a pulsating, glaring red mess of a blister, it was a slightly smaller, somewhat oozing blister. At least she was healing. Give it a week and she'd be all better. Mostly.

Her mom and dad had both seemed to cycle between relief that she was okay and outrage at her injury. It took multiple guilt trips and distraction tactics to put them off trying to sue Warren for assaulting her and Will. Neither she nor Will actually wanted to press charges, so she wanted them to drop it. However, she let them discuss making a formal complaint against the school for negligence.

In her opinion, Will getting attacked by Warren like that never would have happened if a member of the faculty who could actually handle the situation had been there at the start to break it up. She liked Will and her friends' sweet if a little timid hero support teacher well enough, but Mr. Boy had not been up to the task of stopping Warren on a rampage. It wasn't Mr. Boy's fault either, but Principal Powers. They were teenagers for Pete's sake! Of course they were going to get into fights and teenagers with super powers were going to be even more destructive and dangerous than normal ones were. If they'd had anyone else there, even Coach Boomer, none of that would have had to happen. It had been a miracle that Will had woken up his super strength when he did because Tenni was pretty sure she would've fared worse than the shoulder burn if she'd gotten a fireball to the face.

That finally brought her to Will, who had been quiet and distracted all morning. She'd thought that he'd just been subdued after the supposed lecture he'd gotten from dad the night previously. After observing a moment of interaction between Will and Dad, it was easy to discern that there had been no lecture at all. Will would have been more awkward around Dad in that case. Which meant that there was something else bothering him. Something that probably had to do with her, if the tortured look he got on his face whenever his eyes lingered on her shoulder for too long was any indication.

There was no making it better, as she soon found out.

"I swear I'm fine," Tenni tried to reassure him as they walked to the bus.

Will just continued to brood as he followed her and Layla. She shot a pleading glance at the redhead, but only got an apologetic look. The fact that Layla felt guilty too didn't help. Tenni wanted to pull her hair out at how stupid both her brother and her friend were being. Will had done enough saving her when he had. And what could Layla have done? Even if her power had battle applications, Warren would have been the worst person for her to fight ever. Tenni herself should've done better, all things considered. Aquakinetics were the ideal defense against a pyrokinetic. It irked her that one mistake cost her the fight. Never had she considered herself to be weak until now. Despite her fair control of her power and all the training she did with mom, she couldn't protect her brother the one time she tried to be an actual hero.

Oh great. She was brooding now too.

In a less than welcome turn of events, she found herself sitting next to Ethan of all people. Layla was sitting with Will like she always did while Magenta for some reason was sitting with Zach and seemed to be having an actual conversation with him. Tenni stopped herself from frowning, not wanting to give Ethan the impression she didn't want to sit next to him. It wasn't that she had problems with him. It was just...

"Morning," she said hesitating at the edge of the seat but not sitting down.

"G-good morning," Ethan returned, fidgeting and reaching up to adjust his glasses with hands.

For a minute, she waited for him to offer the seat. When he didn't she cleared her throat and asked.

"Oh! Sorry, of course you can sit with me!" he exclaimed, he cheeks darkening as he blushed.

"Thanks."

They fell into an uncomfortable silence. Tenni wanted to say something, but Ethan was really the one person she couldn't talk to in her group of friends. Will and Layla had always been easy. With Zach and Magenta, Zach talked so much, and Magenta was okay with not talking, so Tenni didn't need to talk to either of them. Ethan was difficult. He was painfully shy when not in nerd-acquiring-knowledge mode. Tenni had also gotten the sense that she put him off somehow. She knew she wasn't the most friendly person in Sky High, but she couldn't be that bad, could she?

"Um..."

Her head snapped in his direction the minute she heard him start to speak. Unfortunately, the sudden movement had spooked him and he withdrew further into his side of the bus seat. Cringing, she tried to swap her hyper-alertness for patience to encourage him to speak. It seemed like a lost cause however. He was already desperately looking away from her and out the window. She grit her teeth and threw her head back into the seat. Even sitting with Zach would have been better than this. He'd talk and she'd just tell him to shut up and not feel bad about it. He'd probably keep talking, but she'd developed the fine art of tuning the sound of idiot out. Saying shut up was really only done by habit now.

Just as she was about to close her eyes and pretend to be asleep for the rest of the ride, she heard Ethan speak up once more.

"Tenni?" he said, his voice hitching funnily.

"Yeah Ethan?" she acknowledged slowly.

"Yesterday," he spoke again, more firmly this time though, "The fight with Warren?"

Stopping her eyes from narrowing was a test of will. Ethan was being unusually sensitive to her every move, gesture and expression. One out of place twitch of the lip or eye would probably set him off again. She was dying of curiosity, wanting to know just what Ethan had to say to her that he would actually brave initiating conversation. Even if the topic of conversation seemed to be on one of the few topics she was really loath to discuss right now.

"Yeah?" she eventually got out, stopping a stream of other overly enthusiastic responses that had tried to jockey for first spot out of her mouth.

"It's just... You didn't hesitate at all..." he murmured, "Warren's really scary. I mean, every day he glares you and Will down in the cafeteria and he proved yesterday that all those rumors about him being dangerous are true. He was really trying to hurt you and Will. And I..." he swallowed dryly, "I thought for a second there I might've tried to stand up to him. Tried to help Will. But I lost my nerve. I couldn't do it. What could I possibly do to a guy like Warren?" He laughed strangely to himself. "Melt and then hope he manages to slip on me and fall and pray to God that hits his head and knocks himself unconscious in the process."

Tenni's mouth fell open in horror.

"No!" she was unable to stop herself from sputtering out.

"What?" Ethan stared at her with wide eyes.

"Not you too!" the girl groaned, scrubbing her face with her hands.

"What?" Ethan asked again, sounding even more confused.

"The guilt thing!" Tenni exploded, before shrinking in unison with him when they both suddenly had several sets of eyes boring into them.

"I don't understand..." Ethan whispered to her.

"My brother and Layla," Tenni responded with a shade of bitterness, "And now you too. I mean, I'm mad at myself for screwing up back there, but Will and I both got out of it alright. That's what's important."

"I just hated how useless I was." His tone mirrored her own. "How useless I am."

"Hey, no doing that," Tenni rushed, putting a hand on his shoulder in spite of the mounting awkwardness she was feeling, "We're not heroes yet. We're all still learning. My mom's always told me that you don't go rushing into a hostile situation if you can't do anything help. And once again, look at what I did yesterday. Really did not make that situation better even though I have powers that should have given me an advantage over Warren and I train with my mom in hand to hand every weekend."

"You mean you learn how to fight outside of school?"

"Yeah. Mom got Will and I training together to get us ready for Sky High. Will doesn't take it that seriously but I like it. What if I'm in a situation where I can't use my power because I'll blow my cover? I'll have something to fall back on." She noticed his raised eyebrows. "What?"

"You really take being a hero seriously, don't you?"

"It's not that. Not really. I just don't want to make mistakes. Civilians die when heroes make mistakes." Blech. That sounded disgustingly textbook. "For however long I'm going to be a hero, I'm going to do it right."

"That's..." he paused, "That's really cool. I think you're going to be a really great hero some day."

Though she doubted that, she nodded anyway.

"Thanks. I think if you trained, you could be a really great hero too."

"But I'm a sidekick," he muttered sullenly.

"So?" Tenni said, "I've listened in on what they're teaching you in Hero Support. I think it's crap. If I'm going to be out fighting and I need support, I expect my support to be able to think for themselves and not just leave all the fighting to me." She shook his shoulder. "So if you train hard, you can be a good support hero. And if you train even harder, you can even be a hero in your own right without any special powers. Like Batman. Batman's awesome right?"

Batman's awesome, right? Why wasn't anyone stopping her from saying these things?

Her thought process was interrupted as the bus rocked letting her know they'd arrived at Sky High. She grabbed her bag and slid over to Magenta, who at least had the decency to wait for her so they could walk into school together. From the apologetic and harassed expression splashed on her face, Tenni figured that sitting with Zach on the bus today had not been something Magenta had done willingly. The two of them walked ahead of the group, though Tenni made sure that it wasn't too far. Just because Will had magically acquired powers didn't mean he and the others didn't still need looking after.

To her surprise, Ethan had sped up a bit to catch up to her and Magenta and was quietly walking beside her. She glanced over at him and he gave her a shy smile that she made herself return. Her mouth felt like it was making less of a smile and more of odd squiggle shape. Still, Ethan looked pleased, so Tenni figured she'd done the right thing and just kept walking, flanked by her purple and orange friends.

People kept on staring at her. If she thought it was bad how her own friends were being, it was worse how the entire school was in turn. It was a like the beginning of a nightmare. The only good thing was that all of the attention seemed to be sympathetic and well wishing. It seemed like everywhere she went, people talking to her, touching her. Eugh. If they kept touching her, someone was going to lose a hand to frostbite. Though she had to admit, Gwen's feather light touch on her elbow and heartfelt concern was okay. It made her stomach flutter a bit in pleasure, actually.

Of course, she hadn't even been given time to thank Gwen for that concern because suddenly, Will was being pushed into the class. Mr. Medulla had immediately set him up with Tenni and, like it was a huge inconvenience, told them that Gwen was to work with them for a week or two longer to suitably catch Will up.

"Will?" Tenni poked him in the side once Medulla swept away.

"Huh?"

She glanced to her left and saw that his attention had been completely eaten up by Gwen. Her lips tugged down at the corners. A nasty part of her wondered if this was what it felt like to be Layla whenever Will was close enough to be in Gwen's orbit. Quickly, she shook away that thought and elbowed him this time.

"Uh, yeah?"

Not really the satisfactory response she wanted, but it was better.

"They moved you into this class?"

"Yeah," he replied, nodding slowly.

"Is that normal?"

"Yes," she heard from over her shoulder. Turning, she saw Gwen smiling patiently at the both of them, "Whenever a hero support student shows aptitude for being a hero, they are moved up to the hero track. Although, it's usually only for students who are sorted incorrectly in Power Placement or those who unlock latent abilities after the fact that are... more suited for combat."

There was something about the way Gwen said that. It was strange. Tenni didn't know what to think about it. Gwen probably just disliked the way Power Placement worked as much as she and Layla did. She certainly didn't judge the older girl for that.

"So Will's latent super strength qualified him for that option."

"Pretty much." Gwen stopped to lean around Tenni and shoot a mega-watt smile at Will. "Hi by the way. Sorry for not introducing myself earlier, but I'm Gwen Grayson."

"I know." Will's eyes went wide. "I mean, I know 'cause you're the school president and you did orientation for freshman and then Mr. Medulla introduced you and-" He stopped himself mid-stammer, his cheeks flushed in embarrassment. "I'm Will. Will Stronghold."

"I know," Gwen said, sounding smoother with a touch of amusement, "Tenni's been telling me all about you. Congratulations on the promotion to hero. You're already well on your way with how heroic you were saving your sister yesterday."

Will's embarrassment and pleasure and her congratulations dulled at the mention of the events from the previous day. Tenni sighed heavily. While she wasn't sure she liked Will getting more enamored with her lab partner - friend? - in consideration for Layla, she'd prefer it if normal conversation with the other girl didn't break Will. They had to work together to get the lab done after all.

"Anyway, I think we should be getting to work, right?" Tenni said loudly to snap the two out of it, "Will, you and I can build whatever this thing is and you can walk us through it, right Gwen?"

"Y-yeah."

"Of course."

The rest of the class passed fine. Medulla had been mildly suspicious of how well they'd done, shooting a warning look at the older girl who just batted her lashes and pouted innocently at him.

Tenni could only shake her head as that pout laid waste to every male in a five foot radius. She needed to work on Will's functionality around Gwen if this was any indication of how things were going to be.

"Hey Gwen, maybe you should tutor Will for a while, show him the ropes of the class?" Tenni suggested, causing Will and Gwen to blink at her, "I'd do it myself, but I think you'd be better since this is your element as a technopath."

"That's a great idea. I was about to suggest it myself actually."

"Really?" Will blurted out, "You wouldn't mind? You know, spending time with me?"

"It's no problem at all," she assured him, "I'd love spending time with you."

Judging by the look on Will's face, he'd just died and gone to teenage boy heaven. Tenni definitely owed Layla a couple Paper Lantern dates and a vegan cake for doing this.

The class soon ended and Gwen slipped off to her next class. Will had decided walk with Tenni to class since after perusing his schedule, they had figured out that it was pretty much identical to hers. He looped his arm with hers, grinning so wide she wondered if he was hurting himself.

"Tenni, Tenni, Tenni," he sing-songed to her, "You are the bestest sister in the world and I am going to buy you something nice with my next allowance because you totally deserve it!"

Oh man. Layla was going to kill her for this.

It was nice having Will to sit next to during class. And walk with during passing period and to lunch. Even if having him around drew other people like flies to their little corner of the room, she didn't mind so much. Though she did roll her eyes internally at how people who had never been very interested in her or polite to her were now starting to kiss up. Was that really what one cafeteria fight and a brother with super strength did for your social standing?

Things got weird once they hit the cafeteria however. Gwen had flagged them down the minute she'd seen them. Like an eager puppy, Will had gone ambling off in her direction. Tenni had decided to wait for the others. There was no need to try and pick a table for Warren watching. He wasn't even in the cafeteria today and even if he was, she had no desire to see him today. Layla and the others had greeted her enthusiastically and once they had their food, Tenni guided them over to where Will and Gwen were.

Tenni tried to pretend she didn't see Layla's face crumple, all expression shutting down before a slapdash plastic smile quickly took its place on her features.

"Will. Sitting with Gwen Grayson?" Magenta raised an eyebrow.

"Man aims high. Gotta give him that."

The minute they got to Gwen and Will's table, however, the cheer faded when all the seats had been filled. The shut out might not have been so obvious if not for the fact that half of those seats were occupied by copies of the cheerleader girl, all of them sneering at Layla and the others.

"Sorry. All full," the girl chirped, her words disgustingly saccharine.

Tenni couldn't help but gape at the audacity. She looked to Will hoping he'd say something, but felt her stomach drop when Will just sat there, not saying anything. Her faith in humanity was restored a fraction when at least Gwen seemed upset and was beginning to scold the cheerleader.

"That's okay!" Layla said suddenly, her eyes darting away and back again, "Uh, I think I see an empty table over there. Come on guys."

She started tugging and herding the others over to whatever table she'd supposedly spotted. Tenni couldn't bear to see the dejected slump of their shoulders as they shuffled away. It wasn't long before she realized she was still standing there with her lunch tray in front of the popular kids' table. Will couldn't meet her eyes and Gwen was looking up at her apologetically.

"I'm sorry about that. Penny tends to scare people off." She shot another silent warning at the girl, Penny. Gwen turned back to her. "You can still sit with us. I promise she won't bite this time."

Gwen was almost charming enough to sell the invitation.

Almost.

"Sorry Gwen," Tenni apologized, "I'm gonna have to pass this time. It's gotten a bit too crowded at this table for my liking."

With one last pointed look at Penny, she turned on her heel and went to go after the others.

"Tenni?"

Layla stared at her, confused. They all did.

"Can I sit?"

"But what about them?"

"What about them? I want to sit with you guys." She inclined her head at the bench. "So can I sit?"

The way they looked like they couldn't believe she'd actually chosen to sit with them over the popular kids hurt.

"Here," Ethan said first, scooting over so the spot between him and Zach was clear.

"Thanks."

They were silent as she sat. All of them were still thrown by the confrontation at the other table. Zach wasn't his usual boisterous self and it took a lot to get him down. Still, he'd managed a fond hair ruffling that Tenni allowed with minimal griping. It had served its purpose in getting the others to smile some at Zach's and her antics. Once Magenta got snarking again, they'd probably all be alright again.

When they were distracted, Tenni took the opportunity to sneak a peek at Will, whose back was turned to her. Her gaze moved past him and she froze when she caught Warren staring back at her.

What was he thinking? She wished she knew, but Tenni had learned the hard way that she would never know what to expect from him.

What had happened yesterday, that had hurt more than just physically. For a brief moment, she'd actually felt... betrayed? Why? Why did she expect anything other than his absolute hatred for her and Will? She didn't know him. Even with all her watching and speculating about his character from the small clues she found here and there, she'd never once actually properly met him or had a single conversation with him. Their nonexistent relationship extended to all of the weird staring at each other from across the room and the one time she'd run into him in the hall.

She'd thought after yesterday, all of this dancing around each other was over. He'd made himself pretty clear about his feelings when he burned her. And she'd been sure he'd gotten the picture when she kicked him into a wall.

So why were they still doing this?

Whipping her head away, she tried to focus on her food and the stilted yet progressively more natural conversation passing between her friends. If she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Warren hadn't gone back to flipping through his comic book and was still staring at her, she tried to think nothing of it.

Her locker was close to Magenta, Zach and Ethan's lockers so she'd gone with them when they'd broken off with Layla who had to go to her own locker around the corner. Magenta had hurried off saying she needed to talk to her teacher about a question on her homework. That left her with Zach and Ethan who were playing with the nerf football Zach kept stashed in his locker. They even tried to get her into the game, but with her selective poor hand eye coordination when it came to trying to catch things thrown at her, it was better she stayed out of it.

Zach had just put away the ball when out of nowhere he was blindsided and shoved into his own locker by large meaty hands.

"What the-!" Zach exclaimed as he struggled.

"Zach!" Tenni cried, going to dislodge his assailant when suddenly something wrapped around her body, pinning her arms to her side.

Zach yelled her name. She looked down at what had tied her up. The sight of stripes had her reacting before she'd even realized it.

"Let me go!" Her powers flared and she was enveloped in a roiling icy mist.

She heard Lash gasp and stumble back in surprise. Taking advantage of that, she turned to Ethan.

"Get help."

With a short nod, he went running down the hall. She turned her attention back to the two thugs that had attacked her and Zach, backing up a couple steps so she put them both in her line of sight. Lash was shivering violently against a set of lockers. Speed still had his hands on Zach, but his eyes were now darting nervously between her and Lash. Tenni advanced on him.

"Let Zach go," she ordered, she held up her hands so he could see the cold rolling off of them.

She saw the hand before it landed on her injured shoulder. Pain rippled through her from that point but she didn't let it distract her. Instead, she calmly gripped Lash's wrist and started squeezing.

"Did you know," she spoke low as her gaze slid over to Lash who was panting and clawing at his arm, "Once frozen, meat and bones can shatter with the right application of pressure?" Her chin tipped up, her eyelids shuttered. "Would you like me to shatter this?"

His fingers immediately released her shoulder. She didn't let her relief show on her face. She didn't let go of his wrist either, though she eased up her hold and powers the slightest. Both Lash and Speed looked pretty scared and she made a note to thank Mr. Medulla for that fun fact.

"Tenni!" she heard someone call from behind her.

Though she wanted to, she stopped herself from taking her eyes off them. She wasn't making that mistake again. Besides, she knew exactly who it was showing up.

"Will."

"Tenni, did these jerks do anything to you?" she heard him ask her, barely restrained fury in his voice.

"Yeah, but I've got it mostly handled." Lash's flinch when she none too gently relinquished his arm made a thrum of satisfaction pulse through her.

Revenge really was best served cold.

Will shot Speed a glare which quickly had the larger boy pushing Zach back over to them.

"Not so tough when my crew's around, are you?" Zach shot off at the bullies.

A chuckled bubbled up in Tenni's chest, even as she shook her head at Zach's utter corniness.

"You Stronghold's must think you're so big and bad now, huh?" Lash glared at the siblings as he held his wrist.

They both stared Lash and Speed down with defiance.

"You shouldn't act so cocky, just 'cause you two have a famous dad," Speed jeered, "Why don't we settle this in P.E. with a game of Save the Citizen?"

The two siblings shared a look. Even if Will was new to his powers and Tenni had an injury, they could probably take the jerks if they worked together. Mom ran them through enough team drills that they were confident in their teamwork. Besides, they were both done letting these guys walk all over them and their friends. It was time for payback.

"We're in," Will said for the both of them, "If we win though, you have to lay off the sidekicks for the rest of the year."

"Well, if that's the case, then if we win," Lash smirked, "We get to dunk your geeky sidekicks' heads in the toilet for the rest of the year."

"Won't happen." Tenni's grin stretched wide. "Cause we're going to win."

"Like I said earlier." Speed threw an arm over Lash's shoulder as they walked away. "Don't act so cocky."

"Are you two crazy?" Layla erupted from behind them once the bullies were out of earshot, "No freshman's ever won Save the Citizen! And those two are undefeated! And neither of you are fit to fight them either!"

Tenni noticed how pale Zach and Ethan had gone.

"Guys, don't worry. Will and I will win. We work well together."

They still seemed worried, but they nodded.

"But Tenni..." Layla tugged helplessly on her braid.

"Tenni's right." Will placed a hand on her arm and squeezed it. "We got this."

"Okay," she finally said.

It was hard to think about anything but the upcoming match after that. Tenni hadn't expected the chance to redeem herself after yesterday's mess so soon. She might have preferred it to have been after her shoulder was fully healed, but beggars couldn't choosers. If she didn't use that arm so much, it shouldn't hurt that bad or set her healing back too much. She smirked to herself. The bullies would probably avoid trying to take advantage of her shoulder after her demonstration in the hall.

Once they got to P.E., Lash and Speed didn't call her and Will out immediately. They tried to play to their normal intimidation tactics, destroying Julian Ramirez and Katherine Hamilton first. They were sophmore heroes with super jumping and super breath as their powers respectively. Individually, they weren't so bad, but Lash and Speed had good teamwork. Ramirez wasn't taking any risks, playing it safe and jumping out of the way if Speed or Lash got too close. Hamilton was too aggressive, blowing her powerful gusts all over the arena indiscriminately. More than once, she'd thrown Ramirez into the barriers on accident. It all ended when Lash and Speed double teamed them, Lash rounding them up and Speed hitting them so hard, they went flying into the garbage can prop.

The timer went off and the shredder wrecked the citizen mannequin.

In unison, Will and Tenni's backs straightened. This was probably it.

"Alright, next round," Boomer announced, "Speed, Lash, want to be heroes or villains?"

"Villains."

"Ooh, there's a surprise," Boomer remarked sarcastically reviewing his clipboard, "Alright, who do you want to beat next?"

"We'll take little boy Stronghold and-" Speed started.

"Wait up," Lash interrupted him, "I got a better idea." He shot Tenni an evil look. "And we pick Peace."

"What?" Tenni and Will cried as one.

The plan was for her and Will to fight them. That was the only way it could've worked. She latched onto Will's arm seeing her own panic painted across his face.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"I don't think so." His breathing got faster, but he tried for a grin for her sake.

She took a breath of her own. "Okay, listen to me. You're going to go out there and try your damn hardest to win for Ethan and Zach. You're stronger than they are." Will grunted. "You are. But you have to fight smart. You watch all of Dad's fights. Use what you've seen if you can. Don't let Lash get his arms around you. Try to trip Speed up. And for Pete's sake, stay the hell out of Warren's way. You don't need him trying to kill you again in the middle of the match."

"Yeah."

"Get a move on Stronghold, we don't have all day!" Boomer yelled from his perch.

"Good luck."

She thumped him back for good measure.

"Definitely gonna need it," Will said as he stood and went to go suit up.

"We're doomed aren't we?" Ethan asked after Will had left.

"Try to have some faith."

For the second time that day, her attention was drawn to Warren. He was already suited up and was standing stiffly on the other side of the arena from Lash and Speed. When he noticed her looking at him, he caught her eyes. Then he glanced at Lash and Speed, before his eyes went back to hers and he cocked his head. If it had been anyone else, she might have scoffed and ignored them. Still, if she was reading him right, he was actually asking her what to do about the thugs.

Regarding him carefully, she thought it over a while before internally shrugging. Even if she didn't know where she stood with him, whether he hated her or she hated him, it had nothing to do with this.

Tenni punched a fist into her other hand and then jabbed a finger at Lash and Speed.

The feral smile he shot her in return made a shiver run up her spine.

Game on.

Chapter Four: Cold War - End

Nana: This chapter was kind of neat to write. There's just so much different here. And I admit to dropping a couple nerd bombs here and there. The good thing was Tenni had at least one moment to try and be a bamf. The stuff about power inheritance is made up. I think I have an idea about a beta, but I need to talk to them. Still, if you're interested, don't be shy. I could do with more than one beta.

Things that are different than the original: There is no Warren yells at Tenni, no Tenni crying into Will's shoulder, and no Warren and Tenni acting out the Balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet like they are cliches. In the last one, I hinted Boomer was on to her, but never went anywhere with it. Now I have, with him actively antagonizing her. There's also more Tenni bonds with her Hero Support friends. Finally, the hall fight. Lash is sort of evolving into this genuinely evil dick, and it's starting to make me wonder if I should skip the Tenni somehow befriending him arc. I don't know. We'll see in the next chapter. That's where I have to make a decision about that.

Next Installment:

Chapter Five: Stranger than Fiction