Grayscale, ch. 5
Title: Grayscale
Summary: "We've heard some rumors that you're going to be a pretty tough villain some day. Care for a head start on that?" - Warren must choose between light and dark, though maybe there's no difference at all anyway.
Chapter: 5/6
Note: Begins post-Save the Citizens scene. The plot slowly diverges from that point on.
Chapter 4
--it's not public knowledge, but the day the Commander caught Barron Battle was your birthday--
Layla's scream turned wordless, pained; with a roar of anger, Stronghold rushed forward to slam a punch into Warren, who dodged at the last moment, letting go of his flames in his distraction.
Lash was laughing, arms already spinning into tight loops around the goth girl and puddle kid. Speed was occupied whizzing forward to slam into the loud one, who was louder than ever, yelling in fright. Penny unexpectedly turned as if to aid Warren, but he shook his head at her, and caught Stronghold's next punch in a hand that flickered with fire. Stronghold yelped and yanked his hand back.
Warren was ready to press his advantage, but just as he threw a fireball at Stronghold, something caught his attention and he missed in his distraction.
Layla was standing up.
She was burnt; her hair and clothes both had the look of having fire recently slapped out of them, and there was an angry red mark across her cheek. But those injuries were relatively minor. What had Warren surprised was the look on her face. It was dark, fed-up, and strong.
"Oh no," she snarled, "I've had enough."
And then she lifted her arms in a fierce, heavy motion, and the floor began to crack underfoot. Giant vines shot out from the hallway underneath them, growing rapidly and twisting around to capture Lash, Penny, and Warren. They also shot towards Speed, but he dashed off, still hanging on to the loud kid. They disappeared around the corner, a dark blur.
Warren struggled, but had no luck removing the vine wrapped firmly around his middle, which had lifted him off the floor. From what he could see, it looked as though Penny and Lash were in the same predicament, though Lash at least was still hanging on to the Sidekicks he'd captured.
Moments later, one turned to goo and oozed right out of his grasp. The other shifted into a guinea pig and bit his finger until he dropped her to the floor. Warren rolled his eyes.
"Layla!" Will rushed over to his… girlfriend, Warren supposed, catching her in a tight hug. "You're all right!"
She hugged him back for a moment, but then gently pushed him away. "Will - you've got to go stop Royal Pain. We can take care of these guys."
"But -"
"Go!" Layla insisted. "We can handle it!"
And with a last worried look, Will turned around and ran straight through a wall, heading for the gym. Layla turned back to her captives, with the puddle kid and goth girl joining her on either side.
She met Warren's eyes, and her firm expression flickered. "Why…"
Warren closed his eyes, and in a burst of energy, fire ignited in his fists and rushed up his arms, burning right through the vines holding him trapped.
He dropped to the floor in a crouch, then slowly stood. The heat from the flames on his shoulders warmed his face, and he smiled.
"You can handle us… huh?"
--you were at school at the time, and when the principal called you out of the classroom, you wondered if your dad had come to pick you up early in celebration--
Just as Warren spoke, Lash shot out his arms, aiming a punch at Layla. Puddle kid leapt in front of it, turning into goo under the impact, but blocking the blow. When he reformed into human shape a moment later, he had a calculating look on his face.
"Layla," goth girl whispered urgently. "Are you okay? I - Zach's alone."
Layla nodded. "Go help him."
Warren watched her running down the hallway, and debated tossing a fireball at her back. He decided not to bother when Penny started shouting at him to help her get down, kicking her legs futilely, and drawing his attention back to the vines just in time to duck under a new one swinging at his head.
What followed was a fierce battle between Warren and the vines, which seemed to be multiplying like some sort of hydra every time he burnt them. He didn't have time to help Penny, or Lash. He didn't have time to do much more than dodge and burn, and marvel at the amount of power the hippie had been hiding all this time.
Warren did, however, notice when Lash, who had stretched out his arms to grab onto another vine across the hallway in an attempt to pull himself free of the vines trapping him, began to moan wildly and start clawing at his face. Spinning around to look at him, Warren was startled and a little horrified to see a distinctive orange goop clinging to his friend's face, blocking both his mouth and nose. No matter how much Lash struggled, he couldn't get it off, and soon his efforts grew feeble and slow. Eventually he stopped moving altogether, slumping limply in the vines holding him.
Too distracted by the sight of this, Warren failed to dodge in time, and first one, then many vines slammed him up against a wall, forming a thick layer of vegetation over his body, even blocking his mouth so he couldn't speak. When he tried to light up his flames, he was startled to find them unable to immediately burn through the vines pressed against his torso, and Layla smiled.
"The roots have broken into the pipes and are gulping up water right now," she said. "Don't think you'll be able to burn them so easily this time."
Then she turned ominously to Penny, puddle boy detaching from Lash's face to join her.
Penny didn't last even a single moment staring at them before yelling, "No! Don't do it! Don't hurt me! Let me go!"
She then proceeded to reveal all the details about the scrambler Gwen had set to disrupt the school's antigravity device without even the slightest bit of prompting. When she'd finished, the two Sidekicks exchanged worried glances and dashed away in the direction Speed had gone several minutes earlier, not even sparing a glance for their prisoners.
Penny continued to scream and flail insensibly. Lash didn't move, but as Warren looked more carefully, he could see his chest rising and falling steadily.
Warren sighed, and started burning.
--of course, a deputy was waiting in the office instead, and the principal's eyes were wide, and no one told you what was happening but you knew it wasn't good--
When he finally managed to blast through the last of the vines holding him against the wall, Penny shouted at Warren to free her.
He looked at her, and confirmed every single thought he'd ever had about her being useless. Hanging helpless in the vines, she looked scared for her life; she'd never even had the chance to use her powers, and now she was trapped, expecting to die as a result of the plan she'd helped carry out.
Warren turned and walked away, leaving her there. He ignored her screams, echoing down the hallway after him - and he ignored Lash's unconscious body too, friendship or not.
If the bomb went off before Warren could get back to them, they would die. But that wasn't likely to happen, and if they were free they would just make things more complicated.
Shortly after turning the corner - having opted not to use the path Stronghold had made straight through the walls - Warren came across Speed, also passed out. He was trapped halfway in a wall, with only his back end sticking out, and Warren wondered for a moment how he could have gotten that way. It was pretty obviously his own speed that had propelled him into the surface, but why hadn't he just dodged? Judging by the lack of greenery present, Layla had played no part in this.
After a moment of thought, Warren actually smiled. Speed would have definitely avoided the wall… if he hadn't been blinded by a bright glow in front of his eyes. Or maybe he'd tripped over a rodent too low to the ground to notice in time. Or even both.
Those Sidekicks weren't so weak after all. And since Penny had already told them about the scrambler, they were probably working on defusing it somehow even now. Which meant, even if Warren didn't return in time, no one was going to die.
Well, probably, anyway.
--they still didn't tell you anything hours later, just left you alone in a room with some snacks and a TV to keep you occupied as they rushed about trying to deal with the uproar the capture had caused--
Warren was rewarded for choosing not to follow Stronghold's path of destruction when he came across Layla just before the entrance to the gym. She didn't see him, and he didn't call out to her. Instead, Warren shot out a fierce blast of fire, strong enough to knock her off her feet when it hit.
He'd deliberately kept it from being too hot, so the flames flared out quickly after that, but Layla rolled across the ground just in case, before standing up and turning to face him. As soon as she got to her feet, Warren tossed fire her way again, but with more power and heat behind it this time. It smashed her into the wall, and her clothes lit up.
She slid to the ground, bloodied and burning, and when he got closer and crouched in front of her, he saw that she was crying.
"Why, Warren?" Layla sobbed, sounding small and broken, "I trusted you…"
Warren reached out, and carefully smothered the flames on her shirt. Despite intensive practice with Gwen, one thing he had never managed was controlling fire he hadn't created. That included anything that caught fire as a result of his flames, too.
Layla struggled weakly, but she couldn't escape and nothing grew out of the floor to attack Warren. Either she was so hurt that she couldn't use her powers, or there weren't any plants nearby that she could grow into something useful for battles.
Warren smiled at her, a pale imitation of his father's quirky grin. "You know, you're pretty cool, hippie. I'm glad things worked out with Stronghold."
Then he pulled back a fist and punched her right in the face. She fainted straight away, which Warren was glad for.
There were some things he didn't want a girl like Layla seeing, and they would likely happen soon.
--but they hadn't thought, and you watched the news footage over and over again: the Commander, fighting and eventually defeating the serial killer, supervillian Barron Battle, and then triumphantly peeling off his mask to reveal your dad's bloodied face--
When Warren walked into the gym, it was to the scene of a fierce battle. Royal Pain and Stronghold had clearly been duking it out for some time, as the utter destruction of the party decorations showed. The battle appeared to be going rather equally, which was something of a surprise - Warren thought himself capable of taking down Stronghold, but he'd never been as confident of his chances against Gwen. Either Stronghold had gotten stronger, or Warren was underestimating himself.
Either way, it didn't matter. The sight of Warren carrying the unconscious Layla distracted Stronghold at a critical moment.
"Layl-" he started to cry, but Gwen took advantage of his lack of attention, and punched him strongly right out the window. He fell without a sound.
Warren grit his teeth for a moment. He'd been expecting Will's death, but…
"Warren!" Gwen exclaimed, turning to him with a wide smile on her flushed face. "Perfect timing!"
He shrugged, and looked around for an intact table to put Layla down on. Seeing none, Warren kicked a shard of the disco ball out of the way and laid her out on the floor. Gwen leaned over his shoulder to examine his handiwork.
"Good job," she praised. "Where are the others?"
Warren straightened. Gwen didn't step back, so they were barely an inch apart. He could feel her heavy breaths against his own lips. "They're all passed out - except Penny, who's trapped in a bunch of vines. Stronghold's Sidekicks took them all out."
Gwen's eyes flashed for a moment, disgust and anger evident in her expression - but then her face smoothed back into a seductive smile. "But of course, you weren't. …We've won, Warren. We've won."
She actually laughed out loud for a moment, tossing her hair back, and for that moment, Warren doubted himself. There was still time. He could still change his mind.
But then Gwen's eyes met his, and she reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck, the metal of her armor cool against his skin. She was, as always, gorgeous, and her smile hit him as hard as ever, and when she leaned up to kiss him, Warren didn't move away.
He closed his eyes and held her waist in his hands and kissed her back, deeply, and slowly sent heat down into his hands, hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter.
Gwen bit his tongue when she first felt her armor scorching her, but that was more out of surprise than any retaliation. She didn't realize Warren was burning her intentionally - not until she opened her eyes and tried to yank away and he held on tight and wouldn't let her.
"Gwen," Warren said quietly, metal sizzling under his palms as Gwen gasped and tried to squirm free, "did it ever occur to you that I don't want you to break my father out of jail?"
--you didn't cry, but you didn't smile either - eyes fixed on the screen, you sat calmly and watched like it was just a movie, and never mentioned to anyone that you'd cast both men as villains--