#shiftpower

he’s hanging out with the whole gang when it happens .   his arm is around layla ,  and they’re all just eating pizza - cheese ,  so everybody could enjoy - a normal day .   zach’s  talking about something that happened over the weekend ;  they’re all laughing ,  he always overexaggerates and tends to  𝙢𝙞𝙭 𝙪𝙥 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝  somehow in his tellings .   will pecks layla on the head ,  taking her cup and warren’s for refills ,  having been there for the next story being told .   

back is turned as he fills up the cups ,  and he hears layla call his name ,  sounding  𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥.   quickly ,  he turns ,  but nobody is there .   their table is empty ,  save for the half eaten pizza and cups .   𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚞𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚝 …   𝚒𝚝’𝚜 𝚕𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚏𝚞𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚍 .   people are becoming frantic ,  there’s screams and cries .   his eyes dart around ,  only focused on 𝙃𝙄𝙎 𝙋𝙀𝙊𝙋𝙇𝙀 ,  hoping that they’re just outside waiting for him .

he exits ,  drinks forgotten ,  scanning the parking lot and calling out each of their names .    𝚗𝚘 𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚠𝚎𝚛 ,  𝚗𝚘𝚗𝚎 .   they wouldn’t just leave him ,  there’s no way .   taking to the skies ,  he begins circling around for his friends ,  mouth dry and head beginning to pound along with his heart .   where are they ? !

his brain is trying to rationalize .   maybe they went back to his place ,  maybe it’s a joke or a surprise .   he takes off ,  ripping his front door from its hinges as he enters ,  ‘   mom ,  have you seen warren and the others ?   is dad telling them another story of his glory days ?   ’   𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 ,  𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 .   

his mother doesn’t reply ,  nor does his father .   there was no trouble in the city from what he saw ,  but maybe something urgent somewhere else came up .   he searches the house ,  waiting desperately for someone to answer their phone ,  but they all say not in service or just keep ringing .   𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚖𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚘𝚙 𝚘𝚏 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚊𝚜 𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚜 𝚍𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚊 𝚠𝚊𝚕𝚕 ,  𝚐𝚊𝚜𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚊𝚒𝚛 .   

there’s an emergency broadcast ,  saying people all over the world have disappeared ,  and it should be a relief that it’s not just HIS loved ones ;  it’s not .   he’s all alone ,  now .   no layla ,  no warren ,  or zach ,  magenta ,  ethan ,  mom ,  dad .   𝗛𝗘'𝗦 𝗡𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗢𝗡 𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗢𝗪𝗡 .   mind is moving so quickly he can’t process a single thought ,  they’re all jumbled ,  like a tv showing white noise .   

“Yeah.” That definitely sums the day up. And the week. And most of his life. But, he’s not the target, this time. That’s the benefit of sitting on the bleachers during this round of STC. 

  "i don't wanna do this anymore. i'm tired."

Maj voice, quietly: thanks

So I’m getting to this two years too late, but let me just say this is an amazing thought? Maybe they were inspired to act up, OR maybe they’re all mad with how the school system is, now? Sidekicks who think they, like Sue/Gwen, should have been sorted into the Hero class, or sidekicks/heroes who don’t like how the dynamic is shifting and/or that it’s taking so long, or for any number of reasons. Then, of course, you have the SSG on the other end of the scale, where the whole ‘oh, sidekicks and heroes don’t mix’ memo never got delivered. You’ve got Will and Warren - two extremely prominent ‘hero’-class kids in their own right - and the Sidekick Squad, which in itself has a range from Zach ‘most useless superpower’ Braun to Layla’s nature/plant control, and by that point, everyone would know about it. And, someone somewhere figured that the movie takes place over the first two months of high school. So by the end of the year, especially moving into sophmore, I think the entire school knows the SSG is a clique of its own. And I imagine this group of baddies starts giving them more and more flack, either for causing the change, or not forcing the school to move faster, or for not taking advantage of their status, or who knows. Maybe a bunch of things. (And we all know how well people like Warren and Maj react to people trying to tell them what to do). So there’s absolutely a lot of fallout.

(Also, can we imagine someone against the system yelling at Mr. Boy for ‘letting the heroes walk all over him’ or whatever and Maj has to be physically pulled off of them because there’s like one nice teacher at this school, just leave him alone????)

And if we wanna get civilians in on this, we can have the anti-heroes / anti-sidekicks going out to try to prove themselves or something and it totally backfires. Starts raising protests about keeping supers around. Like, yes, heroes like The Commander and Jetstream are beloved the world over and have saved us a million times, but who are they saving us from? OTHER SUPERS! So there’s this huge ethical/legal debate that rips across Maxville and spreads to other places too about like, should supers be allowed to go free (think Captain America: Civil War / The Incredibles) and of course there are people - namely the SSG - who are like, this is ridiculous, we have enough pressure with school/work/teenage life, quote, John Mulaney: “[We are] very small. [We have] no money. So you can imagine the kind of stress [we are] under.” (Ignore the fact that Zach and Warren are very tall.) But, somehow, they get caught in the middle of it. And the more they try to get out of it and/or fix it, the worse it seems to get. It might even strain friendships a bit if they start taking sides. Maybe they even start wondering if this is the end of the SSG, only a year or so after it started. 

But then, what’s this? Turns out the entire thing is being orchestrated by another super! Some villain with telepathic/empathic/mind-control powers! (We talked about this a while ago, iirc, so we can weave all that into this lore too.) They want to get rid of all the other supers because… Well, villains would be competition, and heroes would stop them, so they want a world where they’re the only powered one left, or, at least, the other powered folks are so broken and tired and worn down that they’ll be easy to mind control and bend to Villain’s will. Wants to enslave the world, and all. Maybe can even get super-powered enforcers for it. And of course there are probably some people who go along willingly, but a lot of them are being forced. Enter the SSG, who stick together and absolutely break into Sky High (with Ron’s help, ofc) to raid the Mad Science labs for some kind of tech to nullify the villain’s powers (Warren is the blow torch/bunsen burner, Will probably rips the door off a locker or two for materials, Zach’s the light, Ethan does the majority of the tech design, Layla blocks all the doors and windows with plants so nobody can get in and stop them, Maj sneaks through vents and stuff to get into otherwise locked rooms and get what they need) and it’s a ridiculously stressful and complicated and potentially dangerous series of events but!! In True Disney Fashion it also reminds them all how well they work together and that they’re a unit, they’re a family and they belong in a group and it revitalises the SSG into the delightful band of ruffians and misfits it was before (and maybe there are some hugs. Ethan and Zach definitely hug. Warren allows himself to be hugged, but definitely demands people let go after a few seconds. 100% this earns some ‘that’s our hothead’-esque chuckles from the squad). The villain doesn’t have the seeds of doubt or animosity among them any more, and the tech seems to work just fine, so they’re all proud of themselves. They’re ready, they think. So, they go to face the villain.

AND MAYBE SOME SUPERS FROM SCHOOL ARE AGAINST THEM BECAUSE OF THE VILLAIN. MAYBE THEIR PARENTS EVEN. So it leads to one of those incredible scenes where the SSG has to defend themselves and try to take the villain down, of course, but don’t want to seriously injure all of these technically innocent people. And maybe that’s how Maj gets hurt??? She’s probably not the only one looking rough but MAYBE SHE TAKES A PRETTY NASTY HIT BECAUSE SHE SAW NO WAY TO AVOID IT? OR SHE WAS TRYING TO KEEP ONE PERSON ALIVE AND GOT HIT BY ANOTHER.

And Warren?

Warren flips out. 

He has exactly five good friends. Five people his own age who he can actually talk to about nearly anything. Five people he will complain about to high heaven, but five people he would do terrible things for. Will. Layla. Zach. Ethan. 

And Magenta.

And if he thought she (or any of them) was seriously in danger he wouldn’t hesitate to make the danger go away. Probably has to be snapped out and reminded that hey, these people are brain puppets, War, go easy on them. … He absolutely lobs a particularly hot fireball at whatever machine the villain is using to amp up their powers, tho. 

The explosion is very satisfying. 

Aaaand then the villain is put in MaxSec while the SSG are once again lauded as heroes (I’m picturing essentially an army of very haggard but very mad supers and non-powereds alike just slowly forming a circle around the defeated villain with murder in their eyes. Then we see the villain being pushed into some sort of transport to take them away and the parents/friends/people who were all brain-snatched are all hugging and rejoicing but also apologising for everything that happened (Perhaps Mr. Medula quietly lamenting that he won’t be able to studied the ruined tech) and there are probably news crews already showing up, so the SSG (among others) just– quietly slip out back because they’re all exhausted and they all have things to talk about. After a brief stint in hospital, Maj is fine and back at Sky High again (perhaps with a cast that the entire SSG signs, and maybe we even see all the signatures being written and a close-up of all the messages and doodles) and they all sit at their same lunch table (the ‘tough guy table’, of course) and make some comment about how they’re all actually glad to be back at school, and they never thought they’d say that, but hey. They made it. Pulled through together. And, you know, nobody ever said high school would be easy, right? Sometimes you need someone to come along and help you clear your head. And that’s what your friends are for. (quotes the Will voice over, as we get a stylised comic drawing of the kids hanging out together.)

Headcanon Asks || Always Accepting

Okay I love our punk nerds, so this is good. Let’s see what I can come up with.

Step One: This would be really beneficial for Maj. Warren’s a pretty big guy, so, if she were accosted on the street, chances are it wouldn’t be like someone tiny, like Ethan, or another girl, like Layla. It’s far more likely it’d be someone Warren-size. Add to that the fact that you can literally throw him through two walls and a pillar and it only ticks him off, and he’d be a great sparring partner.

I’ve said it before, but, Warren will leave you alone if you leave him alone. That being said, he’s been in fights before. He was clearly not afraid to start swinging when he felt pushed in the movie, and I attribute that to the sort of area he grew up in. It’s not the nicest. So he’s had some experience. He knows how to hit people - not in any sort of formal way, sure, but he knows the ins and outs, and he’s happy to pass them along.

Honestly I don’t think this entire scenario of them training together is too far from the realm of possibility. Warren doesn’t tolerate many people as a general rule, so, if he were to get assigned a sidekick, he’d put in for one of the SSG. … Assuming the heroes-to-be get any say, of course. 

I also have a headcanon Warren can control the heat of his flames. It’s something he’s still working on, and it’s generally easier to heat them up than cool them down, but he can do it. He keeps them as lowfi as he can during training time. He likes Maj too much to singe her highlights out, much as he may threaten to. It’s good practise for him as much as it is a Safety Precaution. 

MOM CLUB CHAR AND PENNY HAVING FLASHBACKS/NOSTALGIA AT THE NEXT GEN OF PEACE AND QUEEN TRAINING PARTNERS. Tho maybe not as an STC team. You’re pretty much his sister, Maj, but Will called dibs as STC partner first. (Do sidekicks get to play Save the Citizen? Probably not. Wonder if they’d try to change that.)