Chandra stopped outside the window of Will's house. She hadn't been able to curb her curiosity and had to see how the night played out. She listened through the open window as Will opened the door.
"Oh, there he is!" the commander greeted. "The Man of the hour! Well, how'd it go?"
"Um, Dad, we need to talk."
"You mean a little hero-to-hero talk? I think I know," he paused, raising his finger, "just the place. Come on," he said as he walked towards the room further from Chandra's vision.
"Hon?" Mrs. Stronghold said as she threw the robot eye from that morning at him.
"Okay, so, Dad…"
"Oh, this isn't the place, Will." The commander moved a painting, revealing a hand biometric scanner. "This…is the place."
"No Way! The secret sanctum?" Chandra knew there was no chance of Will telling his father now.
"You know, I'll never forget my first day at Sky High. Your grandfather finally trusted me enough to give me the key to his secret sanctum. 'Course, in those days, we still used keys. Go ahead, son. I already added your biometrics this morning." Will went to scan his hand but Stronghold stopped him. "Oh, Will, one thing. 'Course you must never ever bring anyone into the secret sanctum. That's why it's called the secret…sanctum."
"Uh, I would never," Will answered seriously.
"Go for it," the commander said softly, gesturing at the scanner.
Sure enough, Chandra watched as Will's hand opened the wall-like sliding doors, revealing two fireman's poles. Will went to use one, but, again, his father stopped him.
"Oh, this one's mine, Will. You can use Mom's."
"Sorry."
Chandra watched as they disappeared from view. She might as well go get food to bring to Zach's mom. She always tried to cook leaning down over that ungodly low stove. Chandra had promised the woman's favorite, takeout from The Paper Lantern, for dinner that night.
She walked into the red-lit space and over to the hostess.
"Order for Chandra."
"C!" the girl exclaimed. "Haven't seen you in a while." The enthusiastic blonde grabbed Chandra in a hug, which Chandra reluctantly returned.
"I didn't know you worked here, Els!" Chandra exclaimed back to her friend Ellie.
"Well, my grandmother is the owner."
Chandra would have responded but a certain flame boy walked up behind her best friend. "Who are you talking to, Elsy?" the boy asked, startling the girl.
"Warren! I know you're my twin but do you really have to sneak up behind me just like you did coming out of the womb?"
Warren groaned. "El, you were born first by one minute!"
Ellie grinned. "Just so you remember."
Warren looked from his sister to Chandra, and then back again, "How do you two know each other?"
"Chandra's the main investor in the company and an avid customer. However, she rarely comes on Monday nights…?"
"I promised Ms. Braun Chinese food."
Ellie nodded as if that explained everything, which it did if you knew the backstory.
Warren looked impressed while Chandra looked nonplussed at having her secret out there. She didn't like people knowing she was rich. It raised a lot of eyebrows and attracted gold diggers. She wanted people to like her for her, plus they asked fewer questions about where the money came from if they didn't know it existed.
Ellie, sensing her friend's discomfort, looked over at the takeout rack. "Oh! Your order's ready. Have a good evening. I'll see you tomorrow at the usual hour?"
Chandra nodded. "Bye," she said as she walked out the door. Warren watched as she went and Ellie nudged him playfully. He raised his eyebrows in question and she laughed.
Chandra walked through the Brauns' front door. She had stopped knocking years ago. "I come bearing gifts!"
Ms. Braun smiled and walked forward to give Chandra a hug. For the first time that day, Chandra grinned. Zach walked in at that moment and caught her expression. He smiled at the sight of his mother and his best friend hugging. He knew his best friend thought of it as a weakness to smile, but he loved that he and his mom were able to break through her walls.
The next morning, Zach and Chandra were sitting on the bus as Layla and Will entered, talking. "You should really tell your dad." Layla urged. Chandra snorted and Will looked at her funny.
They arrived at school and followed the map down to the basement and into classroom 20C where a teacher with mousy hair and brilliant blue eyes was waiting with the attendance clipboard.
"Morning, class. Welcome to Hero Support. My name is.." he went behind a partition and jumped back out within seconds, "...All American Boy! 'Course, nowadays…" he groaned as he jumped off of his desk, "...I just go my Mr. Boy. But this year, it will be my privilege to help each of you become the very best euro support that you can be. Without hero support, why there wouldn't be any heroes." He seemed to reconsider his words as the class stared at him silently. "All right, there probably would be heroes, but they would be very lonely. Lonely heroes indeed. And…" Zack raised his hand.
"Uh, yeah, um, when do we pick our names and costumes? Because I call dibs on 'Zach Attack'"
"Well, you don't get to pick." Zack visibly deflated.
"On graduation day, you'll be assigned your hero and then he or she will, uh, decide what you will be called and what you will wear. I think this is mostly done in an attempt to avoid clashing colors. That's why…" Mr. Boy walked over to a board and pulled down a slide. "...When I was paired with the Commander, red, white, and blue it was, which for me was a very good thing because, uh, as you can see, blue just really makes my eyes pop! It's very dramatic."
"Huh," Chandra intoned.
"Uh, excuse me," Will began, "I didn't know you worked for the Commander. I worked with the Commander. We were a team, Mr…Mr…Stronghold!" The teacher did a double take and Chandra felt bad for the poor man.
"Stronghold. You Steve's son?"
"Yeah."
"And he never mentioned me to you?" Chandra scoffed, earning the attention of the whole class. "I told you, the Commander is an egotistical prick who never mentioned his sidekick and partner to his son. That's gratitude for you."
Mr. Boy seemed to get a little bit of spark back in his eyes as the rest of the class remained silent.
"That makes sense," Mr. Boy said a little angrily, "That makes perfect sense, because the Commander does not have time to sit around flipping through scrapbooks that I took the time to make for him. No, the Commander's got to be out there saving the world!" He lost some of his energy. "With your mom. Your mom." He turned to Will. "She ever mention me?" he asked.
"Uh…" Will was saved when someone screamed, "Incoming!"
The power went out and a neon yellow light radiated from Zach.
"Oh look," Magenta said, "He does glow."
"I told you."
"Greetings." A man with the largest forehead, probably making his face twice as tall, and no hair whatsoever in a lab coat said walking into the room. He was definitely the Mad science teacher.
"Little misfire in the Mad Science Lab." It was confirmed, Chandra thought. "No need to panic, unless you're a single-cell organism."
"Mr. Medulla," Mr. Boy's voice came from the ceiling where he was gripping a ventilation pipe. "We in Hero Support are trained never to panic." Mr. Boy fell off the pipe as it broke and landed on top of him. "My bad!"
Mr. Medulla looked visibly amused and deadpanned. "I'll go get the nurse…unless she's injured."
Mr. Boy got back up from the ground, visibly wincing as his turning purple swollen arm moved. Chandra concentrated and lessened the pain, taking away the bruising. She couldn't heal the broken bone without giving herself away, but over the next 4 weeks, she would heal it bit by bit to make sure he made a great recovery time without being suspicious.
"Thank you, Chandra." Mr. Boy sighed in relief. "That's better than any painkiller in Nurse Speck's entire collection.
"I numbed the pain but made sure to leave the healing process mostly alone. Besides, I can't heal broken bones." Zach gave her a look at the last part, but she ignored it in favor of keeping up her act.
Zach caught up to her as they left class. "Mr. Boy must be in pain right now." He looked disappointed. "Aren't you going to help him?"
"I already did. I numbed most of the pain. It'll only hurt if he moves it. I can't just heal his broken bones! Then I'd get transferred out of the class. Besides, it's not my fault he decided to grab onto the ceiling." Zack sighed. He was disappointed, but he understood. Chandra didn't want to be separated from him. He got it. He was her safety net in this crazy world called high school. He believed her when she said she did the best she could. He knew she could heal more, but she wasn't ready to go off on her own.
Chandra sensed his acceptance and went to further reassure him. "Besides, I'll slowly make it heal in four weeks instead of the twelve it would take otherwise. He won't notice me healing him and the recovery time will pass in a flash."
Zach smiled. "Always with a plan." He then frowned in thought. "But make it five weeks, it's more believable." It was Chandra's turn to wince.
"Okay," she muttered. Neither of the two noticed Warren, who had been around the corner listening to the conversation as he got his books out of his locker.
So the girl's more powerful than she wants others to think. I wonder why she's hiding it. He dismissed the thought and hurried to his next class as the two friends, then joined by the rest of the gang, rounded the corner.