Meanwhile, Penny had chased the rest of them towards the lunch room. Layla was refusing to use her powers while Warren threw fireball after fireball at the copies, but he could only throw so many at once. A Penny copy flipped past Warren and slapped Layla on the cheek.
A laugh cut through the cheerleader's chanting. "Big mistake," Chandra smirked from the entrance as Penny turned around at the glow of sunlight in the night. Green plants grew from outside the window wall, as trees grew from the trembling ground and ensured every copy, trapping them above the ground.
As the group turned to leave, a copy begged. "Don't leave us here to die!" Another added, "Royal Pain sabotaged the anti gravity device." A third yelled, "We only have ten minutes!"
The group ran towards the principal's office, digging through it until they found the blueprints of the school. Layla spread the map on the floor, taking charge as Chandra was content to let her have her moment.
"Here's the antigravity room," Layla started.
"Didn't Royal Pain seal off every route?" Zach said.
"What about this conduit?" Ethan asked, pointing to a tiny tunnel.
"Right." Zach said. "You;d have to be like a rat to fit in there."
Everyone slowly turned their heads to Magenta, who looked put out before muttering, "Oh, great."
They rushed to the grate and Magenta turned into her guinea pig form, her purple streak even showing in her black fur. "This is so stupid," she complained as she crawled through the tunnel.
"OK. OK. You're doing great, Magenta," Zach reassured, "Look at those cute little legs." Chandra smirked at Zach as he turned to her. "Shut up," he muttered.
"Okay, go about three feet." Ethan said.
"Yeah, there should be an opening on your right," Zach added helpfully.
"Gotcha!" Magenta said as she crawled out of sight.
"Find the access panel." Ethan instructed.
"What?" her cute little voice echoed back.
"It leads to the generator."
"I'm on it!"
While that was happening, Will, Chandra, Warren, and Layla went after Gwen. Will launched himself at Gwen, tackling her to the grounde and being thrown around by the suite as if he weighed nothing. Chandra repeatedly healed Will, but was having trouble getting her power through the armor Royal Pain had created, so she had to settle on making the villain's muscles tire much quicker than they would otherwise.
Gwen got the upperhand when Layla cheered, "Go Will!" She launched him out of the window and off the edge of the school.
"No!" Layla cried hoarsely as she heard her beloved's screams as he fell from the sky.
"And there goes your last chance of stopping me."
"We'll see about that!"
Chandra noticed that Gwen's helmet had been broken by one of Will's punches, with access to Gwen's body now restored, Chandra caused Gwen to have a splitting headache. Normally, she'd cause a broken bone or cut off proprioception, but Gwen's suit made it so she would be able to move even if her body wouldn't, so Chandra attacked her mind. Chandra made the blood clot in certain areas and forced the immune system through her blood-brain barrier, causing the cells to attack the brain. Chandra winced at Gwen's screams and Layla looked at Chandra, questioning what she was doing.
After a few minutes, Gwen sank to her knees. "What did you do?" Layla whispered to Chandra. I caused her immune system to kill multiple parts of her brain. She is as functional as a vegetable now."
"That's too far!" Layla yelled.
"I can heal it. Doctors may not be able to regrow neurons but I can. Besides, I know what I destroyed, so I can put it back together the same way."
Layla's protests subsided. She was still against the methods used, but softened to know it was reversible.
"Why couldn't you just break her bones?" Layla winced as the sentence exited her mouth.
Chandra chuckled, "that hurt you to say it, didn't it?"
Layla glared jokingly.
"And I had to attack her mind because even if I disconnected her body from her mind, she would still be able to control the suit with her powers to get away or cause further damage."
"That's a relief," a voice said from outside the window.
"Will!" Layla cried out in relief.
"Way to go, flyboy." Chandra congratulated.
The victorious group cheered before the school started falling from the sky. They were thrown to the ceiling as Will flew out the window.
"He can't stop this much weight," Chandra muttered before standing and walking her way to the window, her eyes glowing a brilliant silver light into the night. She channeled her healing into Will's muscles and mind. While she was not able to lift the school herself, she could enhance his strength, both his physical strength and his mental connection to his flying powers, allowing the boy to stop the school's downward descent. Just then, the school shot upwards.
"Looks like Magenta's fixed the antigravity device." Chandra said with relief before collapsing.
Will flew back into the school, noticing the collapsed girl and having felt his powers increase. He wondered if the girl had anything to do with it before dismissing the thought. She had likely fainted because of fright. And the silver light he had seen was most likely the exterior lights of the school.
Warren looked at Chandra, recognising the signs of her overuse of power. He grabbed the container that Chandra had collapsed the first time. Chandra sat bolt upright, her eyes glowing silver before the glow faded.
She looked up at Warren and smiled. "We did it,"
He pulled her into a hug, pulling a gasp from the tired girl. "Yeah, we did."
They walked to the exterior of the school to see all the babies had been loaded onto a bus and a victorious Ron standing over the jester-like minion who was passed out on the ground.
"Way to go Ron." Will said. Ron's face lit up as if Will had just handed him the world and said take whatever you want.
"Perhaps I can be of assistance" a baby Medulla spoke up from a carrier. "It should only take me a couple of hours to reconfigure the Pacifier." Chandra giggled at the baby voice.
"Mr. Peace, would you please carry me to the Mad Science Lab?"
"Sure."
"And, Mr. Peace…" Medulla smiled an embarrassed and creepily amused expression, "regrettably I have made boom-boom."
With that, Warren took the baby professor to the Mad Science Lab where it only took two hours, just like the baby had said, to make an aging ray. The principal was the first to change back before Medulla changed himself then everyone else to normal."
"People, if you've already been de-Pacified, please find your clothes, grab a baby, and report to the Science Lab."
Will rushed up to his parents, who were furiously cleaning nonexistent smudges from their costumes to try to regain their dignity.
"Mom? Dad? Guys?"
The two supers turned to face Will.
"I just wanted to ask you something…is it possible for your powers to receive a large boost when they aren't sufficient enough to save your life and that of those you care about?"
They looked between each other. "We've heard of new powers showing up, but never of them strengthening noticeably." Josie said. "Why? Did this happen?" Steve added.
Nurse Specks walked up to the family, having overheard the conversation. "Let's take a look."
"Well, Will, it appears an external force kickstarted your powers by strengthening your mental connection to them and causing your muscles to grow exponentially so they could channel your strength better."
"How do you know it's an external force?" Will asked.
"Well, muscles don't just do that on their own and your neurons appear to have been forced into a new position in the power lobe of your brain. The slight disturbance in the glia indicates that the change was rather sudden and the neurons were forced out of their position in a rush job. The only question I have is who would be powerful enough to number one, know how to do this, and number two, be able to do this."
Professor Medulla walked up, hearing the explanation. "Well, it seems we have undiscovered talent in this school. I'll have to reevaluate the sidekicks. Afterall, the supers are forced to explore their powers in power training. The sidekicks are the only ones not observed enough to notice anyone holding back."
"That aside," Mr. Boy spoke up. "Even though it appears Gwen only came up with this award as a way to lure you to the dance and your ultimate doom, still it's inscribed so…"
"I'd be honored to accept this "Hero of the Year" award," Steve started, "But I'm afraid this doesn't belong to us."
"It belongs to them," Josie added, "the sidekicks. I mean hero support."
"Why don't we just call them what they really are, Josie?" Commander handed the trophy to the gang. "Heroes."
Chandra was so proud of Will's parents before Steve turned to Mr. Boy. "Oh, and Jonathan? Whatever you're teaching them, keep teaching them."
"But we only were able to do this because we broke free of what we were taught!" Chandra protested.
"We were taught that sidekicks couldn't do anything but support the heroes, that we were inferior, but these sidekicks just saved the school by using their brains, and their powers. Hero track is already individualized by power, just combine the classes and assign mentors to the sidekicks!"
The principal stepped in. "The amount of funding it would take to nearly double the faculty and to do that would be…"
"...Reasonable." Steve finished. "We have plenty of money from our business, both of them."
"We would be happy to fund the school for the inclusion of sidekicks."
Layla beamed and hugged Chandra, jumping up and down as the girl rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless.
The villains were escorted to the detention room for containment until their trial.
"Let's boogie!" Medulla yelled as the music started again.
All and all, Chandra thought the year was off to a great start.