Disclaimer:I do not own Sky High, its setting, premise, or characters -or related characters named and unnamed. All is the property of Walt Disney Pictures, Buena Vista Pictures, Andrew Gunn, and Mark McCorkie.

( A/N: This fic is part of my "One Sky Continuity" (OSC) fic series. The series, in order…

· [coming soon]

· Between Peace and Battle

· [coming soon]

· Happiness is a Warm Crossbow

· Cloudy Internships

· Cold Case 10-PHX-00001 (YOU ARE HERE)

· From Out of Town

· [coming soon]

Each fic is its own adventure, like episodes in a series but there's also an over-arching plot that builds slowly, like seasons building to a season finale. )

Cold Case 10-PHX-00001

Chapter One: Cabin in the Woods

A light fog drifted over the forest floor and their breath came out in puffs. It got cold up in the mountains. Early mornings were the coldest.

The sun was just barely climbing over the trees and the woods still looked gray and mostly dark. The loggers turned the head lamps of their helmets on as they clutched their coffee thermoses close to them for the warmth.

They weren't even fully awake when they revved up their chainsaws and got to work. Four hefty loggers, freezing cold, not fully awake, and wielding circulating blades. Most of their attention was focused on what they were doing and not the woods around them. No one wanted to be the half-frozen, half-asleep idiot who dropped a tree on their friend's head.

No one noticed movement in the brush. Or if they did, they assumed it was some adorable and harmless forest creature fleeing their chainsaws.

They didn't realize they were in danger until one of them was already attacked.

A creature, humanoid in shape. But very, very thin. Leathery ashen skin pulled tight over thick bones. Long bony fingers. Five fingers with an opposable thumb –human hands! But with long and broken fingernails that looked almost like claws. White hair that was matted and dirty. Falling down the creature's back, and over its face. Glaring out from behind that curtain of hair were dark eyes, the whites yellowing and bloodshot.

The first logger yelped when the creature grabbed him. But when the monster tore through his jacket and shirt to crack his chest open, the logger never made a sound again.

Cracking the sternum, pulling back ribs, blood spurting in all directions. The creature closed one skeletal hand around the man's heart. Bending down over his victim, the monster brought the warm dripping heart to his face, mouth open displaying yellow teeth, and took a bite out of the fresh human heart.

The others all backed up in fear.

One idiot had the bright idea to be a hero and charged at the monster with his chainsaw like something out of the Evil Dead. Bringing the circulating blade down on the monster's shoulder. Black blood, thick and smelling putrid like rot spattered all over the logger.

The monster pulled away from the blade, ripping more thin skin and chunks of bone with the action. The loggers stared in shock and horror as the wound began to close almost instantly. Exposed marrow regenerating, bone remodling over it, the waxy skin knitting back together to seal the wound. Standing frozen, all the loggers could do was stare at the creature. It was behind him before the loggers even knew what was happening.

The creature thrust one arm through the man's back, its claw-like bony hand coming out the front of his chest, holding the man's heart in its hand. Wrenching the hand back out again, the monster brought the new heart to his mouth as the second logger's body fell to the ground.

Within a matter of minutes, all the loggers that had driven out to that site together were dead. Their hearts ripped out and eaten.

And all before the heat of the day cleared the fog off the ground.

…

"I gotta say, this is a lot smoother ride than what I was expecting." Magenta commented. She was sitting sandwiched between Ethan and Zach in the backseat of a rented sedan. "The way you talk about Bedlam Unincorporated, I was expecting dirt roads, and barn animals just wandering around."

"It's an isolated mountain town, not rural Kansas." Warren informed them all. He sat in the driver's seat, Will in the passenger seat next to him. "Bedlam got a grant to rebuild after the whole Faultline fiasco same as Maxville. They used it on the main roads up into the town."

Bedlam Unincorporated was a small town high up in the mountains just west of Maxville. To spite Warren's comment, it was very rural. But timber rural, not agricultural rural. The town's main industry was logging. They took great pains to make sure their main road up into the mountains was well maintained. While Bedlam could have used the government grant for repairs after a catastrophic earthquake devastated Maxville and the surrounding area –Bedlam included- to build a new school, better doctor's office –or an actual hospital- update the local police equipment, or get the fire department a new fire truck, they instead poured the budget into repairing and repaving the logging roads.

That was not why they were heading up into the mountains.

Bedlam was also the town where Barron Battle grew up. Warren owned property in the woods just outside Bedlam. Up in the mountains, overlooking Maxville.

That was what brought them up there.

Originally, Steve Stronghold –whom discovered the property through realty records- meant the isolated mountain home to be a sort of base of operations for Warren. Similar to his own Secret Sanctum, only instead of being small, underground, and hiding inside a private home, this one would be large, out in the open, and meant solely for heroic pursuits.

Warren, however, did not like the idea of sitting up on an isolated mountain, cackling in the dark like some kind of villain.

He thought about selling the property. But the only buyer interested in purchasing the land was a logging company, and Warren knew Layla would not approve of that. Not even sort of. And he couldn't let the place his dad grew up be torn down, bulldozed over, and completely erased by a soulless corporation either. Battle would love the idea, Warren knew his dad did not have many fond memories of his childhood home. But the property didn't belong to Barron Battle anymore. After his incarceration, ownership transferred to Warren.

So, since he wasn't going to use it as a private base, and he wasn't going to sell it, Warren was at a bit of a loss as to what to do.

That was when Will pointed out that it overlooked Maxville and was at a perfect vantage point above the city. Not everyone in their group had the luxury of living in a big house in the suburbs, or have parents with established Secret Sanctums already installed in their homes. Some of them lived with roommates. Some of them lived in apartments. Some of them still lived with their super-but-not-hero parents.

If Warren didn't want it as a private base, then why not use it as a shared base?

Will, Warren, Magenta, Ethan, and Zach could all share it as a sort of 'unified sanctum'. Layla had no interest in being a superhero and was resolved to use her powers to benefit the planet and improve the human experience in other ways. That being said, everyone agreed to keep Layla in mind when redesigning and renovating the property and buildings. She might not plan to be a hero in the conventional sense, but she was still one of them.

"We're about to pass out of cell service." Warren warned everyone. "Anybody you wanna text, do it now."

Will was the only one to reach for his phone. He wanted to send one more text to Layla reminding her that he was more than willing to fly back into town and bring her up if she wanted to join them. There was not enough time after he hit send for her to text back.

Warren turned off the very well paved and diligently maintained highway onto a neglected and partially eroded dirt road. The car bounced and shook. Skipping over holes and depressions, raised tree roots and rocks. The tires kicking up dirt and gravel into the undercarriage. The whole cabin was filled with the sound of shaking metal, and clinks and plunks of pebbles on metal.

"How deep in the woods actually is your dad's old house?" Zach asked from the back seat, sounding inexplicably uncomfortable.

The car ran over an erosion in the soil and jumped enough to cause the tallest members of their group –Warren and Zach- to bonk their heads on the ceiling of the car.

"Lemme put it like this:" Warren growled. He was using his 'anti-social danger man' voice. The voice he used to use back in high school to try and scare people away from being his friends. It didn't work on them anymore, so he repurposed the voice as his 'dark hero of flame' voice. But in this context, he was probably trying to scare them. "We'll be so deep in the mountains, no one can hear you scream."

Amazingly, this description of a supervillain's childhood home did not reassure the light wielding super.

"Hey, I've seen this movie." Ethan, also, was now sounding less enthused. "Six idiots go into the woods and the black guy dies first."

"Oh, I think I saw that one too!" Magenta added. "The Asian girl also died."

"Nobody is going to die!" Will assured everyone. He turned around in the passenger seat to look at the others. "We're just going to help Warren build the base we're all gonna share. Since its supposed to be a secret base, we can't hire a bunch of contractors. So we have to do a lot of the construction ourselves. Since we're all gonna be using it, we all get to share in the work. It's only fair."

"Hey, you know who always survives in those movies." Warren couldn't turn his head to look at the others, but he grinned ahead. "The bland white boy, with a generic personality, and hero complex."

Both Magenta and Ethan glanced from between Will, Warren, and Zach.

"Yes, but which white boy?" She asked.

"I was clearly describing Stronghold." Warren sounded almost defensive.

"Hey!" Apparently, Will did not appreciate being described as 'bland' and 'generic'. He cast a reprimanding glare at his best friend. "Ya know who else dies in those movies? The tall brooding one with daddy issues and an attitude problem."

Magenta and Ethan snickered in the back seat. Zach did not.

He was staring out the window at the trees passing by. It had been a while since they turned off the main road. Warren really wasn't kidding about being so deep in the woods for no one to be able to hear them scream. They had passed out of cell service, were very far from the main road, and the main road was already pretty far out from town.

Magenta jostled his arm. "C'mon, lighten up!"

Zach flashed a smile so forced, he looked almost like he was cringing. "How much longer until we get to Mr. Battle's murder cabin again?"

"It's not a murder cabin." Will assured them, thinking he was helping Warren out by jumping to his friend's defense.

But Warren sucked in a breath between his teeth. "Well…"

"What?" Will focused all his attention back on his best friend.

That old brooding expression was back on his face. From back before they were all friends. When Warren was constantly hostile and did not like to talk to anyone, let alone talk about his father. But, unlike before, Warren did not refuse to share. Especially not when it was information that the rest of the group would be even more upset over when they found out some other way.

"There is a body buried somewhere on the property." He told them flatly. As if it was just a fact, and not a big deal. "My dad doesn't remember where."

This announcement was met with silence.

Everyone else in the car just stared at Warren. He could feel their eyes boring into him as he drove.

Then, all at once…

"What!?" All four of them cried in unison.

Warren visibly winced.

Luckily for him, he was saved having to explain further by offering up a different distraction. The dirt road finally came to an end. "Alright. This is why I told you all to wear good shoes. We walk the rest of the way."

Cutting the engine and making sure the parking break was locked Warren all but fled the car. Hopping out of the driver's seat and coming around to the trunk of the car. He started pulling out their gear. Tents, sleeping bags, water bottles, and pre-packaged food. This was their first trip up to the property as a group and they didn't plan to stay long. Just the weekend.

In addition to their roles of superheroes, some of them also had day jobs. Some of them were still going to school, furthering their education by learning a trade, or earning certifications. They all had other commitments, both super and mundane that prevented them from staying up in the isolated mountains without cell service for too long.

Warren handed the heaviest things to Will. Him being the strongest of their group –having super strength- it was only fair he carry the tents, the water, and a rented chainsaw.

They began trudging up the hill. Weaving between dense trees and underbrush.

It was clear that there had been some kind of trail at one time. The path they were following was lined on either side by white stones. But whatever path they were on had not been maintained in thirty years. The white stones were displaced by tree roots, animal movement, natural ground shift, and –of course- the earthquake last year. But, finally, they made it to their destination.

At first glance it looked like just the roof on an A-frame house collapsed on a molding old porch. The whole things was covered in vines, partially hidden by brush and tall grass.

Upon closer inspection, they could see the broken glass of windows fallen on top of windows. Stone walls that had at one time been held together with cement. Some rotting boards that might have been a wooden porch deck. Everything was washed in green by a blanket of forest moss, clinging to the structure in clumps and clusters.

The placed certainly looked abandoned. Decayed, even. Almost retaken by the woods. But definitely not sinister. Certainly not the kind of place one would expect a supervillain to come from. The only detail about the place that could be even remotely considered 'hostile' was a disused sledgehammer leaning against the rotting porch and covered in vines.

But it didn't look much like a secret base for a team of superheroes either, and the others were not impressed.

"This is it?" Magenta crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yeah." Warren growled. Unimpressed by the fact that they were unimpressed. What were they expecting? The place had been abandoned for thirty years. "This is my dad's murder cabin in the woods where no one can hear you scream."

"I am seriously questioning the wisdom of me agreeing to come here." Ethan muttered.

"Did you bring us up here to kill us, dude?" Zach asked.

Warren rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, I brought you all up here to kill you. Our years of friendship and teamwork were all part of an elaborate and circuitous plan to lure you all up to a house I didn't even know I owned until last year, to kill you."

There was a beat of silence. His sarcasm was not particularly funny.

Will coughed.

The wind rustled the tree tops. The sound of leaves rubbing against leave and branches almost giving the impression of a thousand voices whispering indistinctly. That, and Warren's earlier confession that there was a body buried somewhere on the property made everyone's hair stand on end. They shuffled their feet nervously.

Magenta cleared her throat. "So, what's the plan?" She asked. "What are we gonna do here?"

Warren sighed, ready to get back to business. "Okay, we've only got the weekend to do this." He began. "I figured I'd burn down the house so we can pitch the tents on the foundation. I assumed none of you would wanna pitch them on the ground since this grass hasn't been mowed in thirty years and we don't know what's under it."

Everyone's mind jumped back to the confession that Barron Battle had buried a body somewhere on the property. No one wanted to sleep on top of a dead body. What Warren was actually concerned about was snake holes or rat nests and things. Warren grew up in a big city. He didn't know what lived on a forest floor, and he certainly didn't wanna sleep on it.

"While I'm doing that," he continued, "I'd like the rest of you to start clearing the path up to the house. So that next time, we can drive the car right up to the building without having to hike half a mile through trees."

Nobody moved to start working.

They all just stood there, staring at Warren.

The pyrokinetic suppressed a growl, glaring back at them through the curtain of his hair. "What?"

"I just feel like maybe this whole 'there might be a dead body up here' thing needs a bit more discussion." Ethan informed him on behalf of the group.

"Who said anything about it being a dead body?" Warren shot back. Grinning slightly because –even though they were his friends- he did enjoy making them uncomfortable. Slight and petty payback for ignoring his open hostility and clear signals to leave him alone, for getting in under his barriers where he didn't want people, and worming their way into becoming his friends.

Everyone just continued to stare at him.

"The body is my grandfather. My dad's dad." Warren took pity on them and decided to explain. "The one my dad inherited his powers from. Accelerated healing and revival from death. Nobody's seen him in thirty years, so it's a fair assumption that he's still buried up here. But that's no reason to assume he's dead."

"Yeah but-" Will began unsure. Truth be told, he didn't really understand Barron Battle's powers. He just knew they were kinda scary to see in action. Like horror movie scary. Or poorly dubbed anime scary. "It's been thirty years. After that long, even if he could revive, he's gotta be dead for real. Like, doesn't reviving take a lot out of you? I remember your dad complaining about being hungry after he got shot in the head. And you were really hungry after you got stabbed."

Goodness knew they all got to see a lot of Baron Battle's superpowers during the whole Faultline fiasco.

A fiasco that ended with Warren getting stabbed in the heart and everyone learning that he, like Will, also inherited one power from each parent. Warren got his fire from his mother. And from Barron Battle he got the ability to revive after being killed.

A massive earthquake nearly decimated Maxville. It was a cataclysmic quake so severe that it cracked open Maxville Penitentiary, the prison where Warren's father was being held. Upon realizing that Faultline's earthquakes didn't just threaten Maxville, but the home of his wife and son, Battle joined the heroes team to take her down and save the city. Will, Magenta, Ethan, Layla, Zach, and of course Warren, all got to work along side the infamous supervillain for one once-in-a-lifetime team-up.

Over the course of the adventure, they got to witness exactly how Barron Battle's powers worked.

He could heal from any wound almost instantly –there was a little delay for more severe wounds, obviously. And he could revive from the dead after being killed. Eleven years ago, when the Commander and Jetstream defeated Battle (the event which landed him in jail in the first place), they stabbed him seven times in the chest between the two of them. They killed Battle. But he was still alive and well. The only caveat seemed to be that whatever weapon that was used to kill him had to be removed from the body before it could return to life. Rather hard to remain alive with a broken segment or rebar through the heart. Kinda gets in the way of pumping all that blood. That, and healing the body, or coming back from the dead burned a lot of calories. Battle had to eat a lot –mostly meat- afterwards in order to make up for it.

If Barron Battle got his powers from his father, then it stood to reason than the same rules applied. Will was probably right. Even if Granddaddy Battle had revived after whatever kind of death-blow 17-year-old Barron Battle dealt, he would have still been trapped underground. Cut off from food to refuel him, or any kind of help. Even if the old man revived, after thirty years, he would have succumb to starvation by this point. The body buried on the property had to be a dead body.

So, no undead super popping out of the ground to say 'Boo!'

"Anyway, it's no big deal. Let's get to work." Warren urged the others. Determined not to be bothered by his father's sordid past. "Since I'm the one with the fire, I'll work on the house, while you guys get started on the driveway. Stronghold is holding a chainsaw, it's the one in the plastic case next to the tent bag. Since Slick was the first to bring up murder flick tropes, he gets to work with that.-" Ethan did not look enthused. "-Everyone else, I brought axes."

Will handed the chainsaw case to Ethan. He doubled over from its weight. Setting the plastic case on the ground, he unlatched it, moved aside the rental paperwork that said since Warren Peace was the renter, Warren Peace was the only one allowed to use the tool –for insurance reasons- and took out the chainsaw. He hefted it in his hands, still feeling uncomfortable. "This weighs almost as much as I do."

Magenta picked up an axe. "Is this why you scheduled our trip up here for a time when Layla couldn't come along?"

She asked, giving the axe an experimental swing at the nearest tree. Zach wasn't standing anywhere near the path of the blade, but he still jumped away from her before the axe collided with the tree. It made a muted, and yet somehow unnerving crack-THUNK against the bark. The bark chipped and fell away from the trunk when Magenta pulled the blade back out again.

There was no way in hell Layla would approve of chopping down trees. Not even to clear one small stretch of road to create a driveway up to their communal hero-base.

Magenta and Ethan's eyes met and, without any words being exchanged, they switched tools. Ethan taking the axe, and Magenta hefting the chainsaw. She pulled the cord, revving up the engine and filling the words with a roaring sound. Her grin was almost villainish. Layla might not approve, but Layla wasn't here and Magenta was going to enjoy this.

"Cutting down trees without Layla around had nothing to-" Warren began, then realized he had to speak louder to be heard over the roar of the chainsaw. "Cutting down trees without Layla around to object had nothing to do with it! The city's finally recovering from the quake and now we have time to-" she revved the chainsaw again and he had to raise his voice louder "-and now we have time to work on other things!"

Magenta brought the blade of the saw against the trunk of the nearest tree to her, right over her first mark from the axe.

It wasn't as fast as in the movies. The reciprocating blade did not slice through the trunk like butter. More like digging into dense clay. Difficult, and requiring of force and muscle. Finally, the tree began to fall. Branches crashing against branches as it knocked and scrapped the surrounding trees on its way down, finally bouncing on the forest floor.

Magenta cut the engine on the chainsaw and flashed Warren a devilish smile.

The pyrokinetic just gave a weary sigh. "Just don't drop a tree on the car." He told her. "That's a rental too."

Turning his back on Magenta –and Ethan and Zach who watched her with mild horror- Warren marched up to the collapsed and rotted house. He jerked his arms, both igniting with bright flames.

"Whoa!" Will jumped between Warren and the structure. "You're just gonna light it up!"

"Yeah." Warren sounded impatient.

"But, like, that's your dad's childhood home." The younger man reminded him. "Don't you wanna, I donno, explore it a bit?"

Both men looked at the structure –if the word 'structure' could even be applied to it.

"Stronghold, it's a ruin." Warren informed him. "There's nothing to explore."

Floating over the rotting building, Will lifted the collapsed roof. Or, rather, he started to lift the collapsed roof. But it was so rotted that it just broke apart. The edge Will held breaking off in his hands, and the rest of it collapsing in on itself through the middle. Flattening the house even further.

Warren flashed his friend a withering look.

"Okay." Will gave up. Floating out of the other man's way. "Burn away."

Warren was almost smug when he walked up to the broken porch and touched the wooden railing.

It took a while for the wood to catch. It was old, rotted, and porous. But it was also wet. The fire had to dry it before Warren could actually burn it. Once it did catch, the spread of the fire was slow. Warren tried to bolster it by lending the flames some of his own energy. Adding fire to fire.

Once it did spread, it was a roaring blaze. Flames climbing high into the air. Warren had to switch gears from feeding the fire, to controlling it. Keeping it contained. Only burning the house. Preventing it from spreading to the rest of the woods.

Will just hovered behind his friend, gawking at it in awe.

"Ya know, Stronghold, you could help the others with clearing the driveway." Warren growled at the younger man.

Rolling his eyes, Will floated over to his other three friends. The thrill and novelty of wielding a chainsaw seemed to have worn off for Magenta and chopping down trees had become just as much of an uncomfortable chore for her as it was for Zach and Ethan whom were wielding simple axes. Will wrapped his arms around the closest tree that didn't already have someone working on it, and pulled the massive thing out of the ground, roots and all. He hovered in the air for a moment, not sure what to do with the large tree he'd just uprooted.

Then Will looked back at the remains of the house Warren was burning.

"Woah! Fuck!" Warren exclaimed when a giant tree dropped down from the sky on top of his fire.

"Don't say the f-word." Will floated down next to him. "It's not heroic."

Warren wasn't listening to him. He was now running around the blaze, chasing the sparks Will threw up when he dropped the tree. Fire was easy to manipulate and control when it was all concentrated in one blaze. But once it started to spread, the fire user had to divide their attention and move fast. Snatch up the heat of the sparks before they could catch on surrounding trees or underbrush.

Luckily, the surrounding woods –like the house itself- were wet, and didn't catch easily. Warren was able to catch and put out all the errant sparks before any damage could be done.

"What the hell, Stronghold!?" He demanded when he was done.

"Sorry." Will sounded indignant, even to his own ears.

"How long have we been friends!" Warren snarled.

"Uh, well, uh, five years." The younger man supplied, not sure where Warren was going with this.

"And in that time, did you learn anything about fire safety?" The pyrokinetic all but shouted.

Will was about to make a comment about the best fire safety was to not piss off fire wielder. But that was definitely not the answer Warren was looking for and would go against the rule of not upsetting the pyrokinetic. Instead, Will cast his brain about for actual fire safety rules they tried to teach him in elementary school. Stop, drop, and roll. Don't play around the stove. Ask Mom and Dad to light candles… The Maxville school system was not very good.

"Uh…"

Warren only groaned. "Never mind. Just no more dropping large things on top of other large burning things!"

"Yes, sir!" For some reason, Will gave a salute.

Warren rolled his eyes.

They worked like that for several hours. Warren keeping the fire controlled while he burned what was left of Barron Battle's childhood home down to the foundations. Will, Magenta, Ethan, and Zach clearing the driveway so that the next time they all came up here, they could drive the car right up to the house –or whatever there was in place of the house.

It was early evening when the others started to get tired, and Warren's blaze was finally starting to subside, having burred up all that there was to burn. It was now just a pile of dark ash. Only a few scattered pockets of glowing embers. Warren stirred it, giving oxygen to the parts that were still smoldering, and scooping up dead ash that could no longer support live flame.

After ignoring his friend's protests, Will helped the pyrokinetic clear the ash off the concrete foundation. He shoveled it into a stainless steel bucket and emptied it far behind the house near the tree line. The ground was still wet, but after getting yelled at once for poor fire safety, he took the extra step of spreading out the ashes and turning the soil to make sure everything was smothered and dowsed.

Magenta, Ethan, and Zach abandoned their project of clearing what would eventually become their driveway to help clear the burned ash. Warren said the foundation was where they were going to pitch the tents and sleep, and they were all tired and ready to lay down.

With the four of them shoveling and dumping, and Warren making sure everything they took and tossed in the woods was out, no longer smoldering, and safe to be dumped in a heavily wooded area, they managed to get the foundation almost completely cleared before it got completely dark. But everyone was completely exhausted.

The only parts of the house that were left where the concrete foundation, the un-collapsed portion of the stone façade from the outer wall, and the stone chimney. Warren and Magenta started pitching the tents while Will, Ethan, and Zach swept the last of the ash and dust off.

Finally, they were all able to spread out their sleeping bags and lay down.

"You guys are sleepy?" Warren asked. "It's, like, barely after five!"

"Oh, shove it!" Magenta was unsympathetic. "All you did was stand in front of a bonfire all day. We did the hard work."

Zach and Ethan grumbled something along this same sentiment. Even Will did more manual labor than Warren did. Admittedly, on account of his super-strength, Will did not seem quite as exhausted as they were, but he'd at least done more work than their moody pyrokinetic friend, and thus, was more entitled to their respect in this case.

"You mean you guys don't wanna roast marshmallows and tell scary stories?" To illustrate this, Warren held up a bag of large marshmallows, and a box of gram crackers. "Isn't that what all you touchy-feely types do? Make smores and sing Kumbaya."

"Oh, shove an icicle in whatever inappropriate place your ex-girlfriend used to shove her ice in." Magenta tried to sound hostile, but she yawned right in the middle, and so only succeeded in sounding as tired as she felt. She flopped down on her sleeping bag and zipped the tent shut before Warren could respond. "Ugh. That didn't sound as satisfying as slamming a door."

With a bit of a sigh, Will placed an empathetic hand on Warren's shoulder. "I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but right now isn't the time for you to try and be sociable."

After spending half his life without friends, and only five years with friends (the first year against his will), Warren Peace hadn't fully figured out yet when was an appropriate time to socialize and when to leave them alone and let people rest. They had no problems recognizing when he needed space. But he was still trying to figure them out. Warren sometimes had to take his social ques from Will.

With an almost microscopic nod, the pyrokinetic dropped the subject. He stowed the marshmallows and gram crackers in a plastic cooler.

All the boys piled into their tent for the night.

…

Inevitably, someone had to get up to pee in the middle of the night.

Zach unzipped the tent and stepped outside. It was so much colder outside the tent. In the mountain air, with moving air, and a chill mountain breeze. Laying next to Warren was like sleeping pressed against a furnace. Zach shivered when pulled himself out of his pajama pants to do his business.

The breeze was light. But it was still enough to move the thinner or weaker tree branches. The sound of leaves rustling against leaves gave the uncomfortable impression of voices whispering. Like a susurrus heard through a door. Just enough to for the mind to register the sound as human speech, but nothing clear enough as to be identified as actual words.

It raised the hair on the back of the light user's neck. He was reminded that there was supposed to be a body buried somewhere on this property. A body that was either buried alive, or killed by Warren's dad. That's gotta leave a person feeling vengeful. Whether Grandaddy Battle was still alive, revived by his superpower, or a ghost haunting the woods.

He was already cold, but Zach felt an entirely different kind of chill run down his spine when he imagined the vengeful ghost of someone killed by Barron Battle and buried in an unmarked grave.

Unconsciously, Zach turned up his superpower from 'resting baseline ambient glow' to 'light up the night'.

Within the small sphere of the clearing where the house used to stand, and the surrounding tree line, it was almost like daylight. The sun shining in the center of the forest. Zach could see every blade of grass, every pile of ash Will and Warren tried to spread around, every trunk of the trees surrounding the clearing, and just a little bit beyond the trees. Just to the edge of where the darkness of the night started to take hold of the landscape again.

And Zach saw movement.

He wasn't sure at first. He experienced a spark of adrenaline, and blinked.

The movement was so quick he wasn't sure what it was he saw dart out of sight.

A pale figure. Skeletal but not a skeleton. Ashen skin stretched over thick bones. Tall. Human in shape. Two arms. Two legs. One head. Long hair, white, but dirty and matted, tumbling down its back and over its face. Beard and facial hair just as long. Making the figure look more animal than man. The eyes reflected a wrong color when Zach's light hit them.

For one heart-stopping moment, it looked like the figure had been coming towards their camp before Zach's light shone on it.

But it darted out of sight again before he could be sure.

Zach couldn't even be sure if what he saw was what he thought he saw. It was so fast. There and gone.

Some kind of cryptid? Zach was a city boy, he didn't know what kinds of mutants or monsters might live in these woods. Some poor forest creature mutated and transformed by a mad scientist supervillain, or a human who suffered a similar fate. Something that escaped a secret lab when the mad doctor was defeated by a hero, and was never swept up by the clean-up teams. Or… or the vengeful wight of the body burred up here in an unmarked grave.

"Gawd! Turn your brightness down!" Magenta groaned from the girl tent. "You don't need to light up the night just to pee. I promise nothing's gonna jump up and bite it off."

"I saw something!" Zach didn't mean to shout. But his adrenaline was pumping and he didn't realize his volume until the words were already out of his mouth.

"You guys, tents don't actually block sound." Ethan's voice grumbled, still groggy from sleep.

"What are we all shouting about?" Will was waking up too.

"Zach's freaking out because he saw something." Magenta unzipped her tent and crawled out. She stood next to her friend, squinting because he was so very, very bright. Blinking, the shapeshifter turned her attention from the man next to her, to the tree line his eyes were fixed on. "I see woods."

"Something moved!" He told her. Zach's hand reached out blindly to grab hers. He squeezed tight. Taking comfort in her proximity. Her calm demeanor and air of skepticism helping to calm his nerves. They were all superheroes after all. And there was five of them. There was no reason to fear things that go bump in the night.

Magenta peered hard at the woods. Eyes searching just beyond the tree line for something that could have spooked her friend as much as he appeared to be spooked. The breeze was light. But it was still strong enough to move the thinner branches of the trees, and the taller grasses and underbrush. "Please tell me you're not freaking out because of the wind."

More groans were head from the boys' tent and Will and Ethan climbed out to join Zach and Magenta. All four of them lined up shoulder to shoulder, studying the tree line and what little of the woods beyond Zach's light could penetrate.

Finally, Warren came out to join them. "What are we all making a big deal about?"

"Zach's freaking out because the wind moved a bush." Magenta explained.

"It wasn't a bush!" Zach insisted. "It was a… a… uh…" He cast his brain around searching for a word to describe what he saw that wouldn't be met with derision. He sure as hell wasn't going to tell the group he saw a ghost or a zombie. But it didn't look like an animal either. He didn't wanna say 'person' because any non-undead person lost in the woods would just come up to them for help, not dark back into the shadows. "On legs." Zach finally decided. "I saw something that walked on two legs."

Ethan readjusted his glasses on his face. "I don't see anything, dude."

Will floated several feet above the group to get a different vantage point. "I don't see anything either."

Four of them standing on the edge of the concrete foundation, Will hovering above them, all five fixed their eyes on the woods. Zach glowing as bright as he could. Somehow, he managed to transfer a fraction of his nerves to each of them. There was an indistinct tension in the air.

Some much so that Ethan shivered, not from cold, but from his body wanting to revert to liquid as part of his 'fight or flight' response.

Warren even lit his fists on fire, not that the light could do anything more than what Zach's light was already doing for them. It was just his own 'fight or flight' response at work. He was not immune to the collective tension in the air.

Everyone stopped talking. Almost holding their breaths with suspense as they watched the woods.

Now they were all hearing the trees whispering as the wind rustled their leaves.

All eyes fixed on the trees. Noting every movement of the underbrush. Every bend of grass. Every shudder of bushes. The wind flattening the vegetation. A rabbit skittering into its hole. Anything that could be seen before their small sphere of vision was once again swallowed up by darkness.

Aside from the whispers of trees, the woods were eerily silent. No birds. No insects. No larger mammals. Just… quiet.

Then. All at once.

There was a rumbling. Just before a herd of deer came galloping out of the woods. Full grown adult bucks with multi-pronged antlers. Adolescent males who's antlers were still coming in. Does, urging their still-spotted fawns forward, dipping their snouts low to physically push them on the rump. There was a hast to the whole herd, a hast that bordered on panic. As if they were fleeing a predator.

The herd came galloping right for the foundation they were standing on.

Without hesitating, Warren jumped in front of the rest of his friends. The flames of his fists spreading to the rest of his arms and over his chest. He flared his fire large and wide, scaring the leaders of the herd enough to change their course. Veering to the side and arching back into the woods. They might be fleeing a predator, but they still knew to fear fire too.

When the last doe, head-butting her fawn in the tail, finally passed them and disappeared back into the trees, Warren extinguished his flames.

"Well." He huffed. "That solves the mystery of what Glowstick saw moving."

He climbed back up onto the foundation, unzipped the tent, and crawled back into his sleeping bag.

Everyone else seemed to agree with this explanation. The thing that Zach saw moving in the woods was a scared deer. He just freaked out because it was dark. Everyone else followed their pyrokinetic friend back into their respective sleeping bags. Zach among them because he did not want to be left outside alone.

But he was absolutely sure that what he saw was not a deer.

Deer did not walk upright on two legs.

…