 
### Gamma Accidents #1: Journey

By Erin Sheena Byrne

Copyright 2014 Erin Sheena Byrne

Smashwords Edition

License Notes

Thank you for downloading this free ebook. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this ebook, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com where they can discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

Discover other titles by Erin Sheena Byrne at Smashwords.com:

Upbeats

Upbeats 2: Crime After Crime

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Epilogue

For Dad, Mom, Jonathan, Melinda, Celeste and Jolie.

### Prologue

**Downtown Rickerton City**

Thursday, 8:39 p.m.

Rust lived in an endless, boring, useless rut.

"Live" isn't even the right word. He was not living life... he was simply _existing_.

He worked five days a week at the local garage fixing busted cars and trucks, came home at exactly five thirty every day and on the weekends, spent his time doing... nothing.

He had no family, no friends, no acquaintances, no one on his phone's contact list and he never crossed anyone's mind.

The people who worked near him thought he was miserable, but Rust would never say that. This was the life he lived and that was that. Maybe, somewhere in the back of his mind, he was lonely. But he didn't want to know people.

So, he lived, undisturbed by the outside world, never pestered by keeping up friendships because as much as he didn't bother with other people, no one bothered with him.

No one worried about him. He managed to get away with minimal contact with his workmates and maintained no relationships. He just wanted to be left alone. He didn't feel the need nor the desire to share in anything involved with the human race.

He had given up caring about other people. When everything he held dear was ripped away, he saw no reason in hanging onto threads.

And everything was just fine... until _they_ showed up at his door...

It was a normal evening in. There was some lame game-show host grinning widely on television while quizzing the contestant; the noise of car alarms, someone breaking glass, a few neighbourhood dogs barking and howling and the regular shouting floating into the dingy apartment from the street; light rain drizzling outside... it was normal.

Then there was a knock on the door.

No one, in the eighteen years he lived in Rickerton, had ever knocked on Rust's door. When he first arrived, one or two people he worked with at the garage had tried to include him but quickly learnt it was futile.

Rust, mumbling something non-complimentary about his workmates' pranks, unlocked and unbolted the door and turned the knob, pulling the door open with a very unimpressed expression on his tanned face.

His grey eyes flew open when he saw, not one of his greasy workmates, but rather a young woman with neat, long black hair, sparkly blue eyes and a pleasant smile on her fresh face.

The professionally dressed woman hadn't caught his attention, though. It was the two massive, seven-foot and four hundred pounds of pure muscle, bodyguards with their arms crossed, standing shoulder to shoulder behind the woman like a solid, brick wall.

Rust lowered his eyes from the deadpan faces of the bodyguards to the friendly smile on the young woman's face.

"What do you want?" he asked, warily.

The woman held out her delicate hand for a formal handshake. "My name is Audrey Jones. It's a pleasure to meet you, Russell Swift."

Rust looked down at her outstretched hand and didn't react. Awkwardly, Audrey lowered her hand.

"It's Rust and, again, what do you want?"

Audrey's smile faded ever so slightly and her expression turned notably serious. "We need you to train a team of superheroes," she said, promptly getting to the point.

Rust was able to maintain an unimpressed expression with some of the most outrageous requests, suggestions or statements.

Nevertheless, this one declaration managed to change his not-bothered-by-a-thing expression to one of shock.

He regained his cool nonchalance. "You must have me confused for someone else. I don't train teams of 'superheroes,' lady."

"But you are the legendary Russell 'Rust' Swift... aren't you?" Audrey asked, furrowing her brow to look even more sincere.

"I don't know about legendary-"

"Leader of G-4, the greatest team of gamma accidents this world has ever seen; once held a position on the Board of Hero Education and Training; practically invincible, strong enough to lift a recorded maximum of 1,000 000 tonnes, lazer-vision, super-senses, able to see through solid objects, able to reach the speed of light, capable of flight-"

"Look, I don't know where you got your information because I can't fly," Rust corrected.

Audrey nodded, earnestly. "But, you can!"

"Not for the past eighteen years. Now, if you're done reciting my whole life's story, there's a very interesting commercial about paint drying I'm waiting to see, so-"

Audrey interrupted him. "Mr Swift, are you resisting us?" she requested. If Rust had seen the slight twitch of a smile on the young woman's face, he would have wisely closed the door.

Rust, however, didn't see it. He thought about the question for a second then nodded. "Yeah, I guess I am. What are you going to do about _that_?"

Because he had intended it to be a rhetorical question, he started shutting the door, hoping it would end their conversation.

But Audrey answered him.

"This," was all she said.

Rust turned around for a split second... just in time to see Audrey aim and shoot him with a tranquilizer handgun.

He hit the ground, his vision blurred and his body numbing, and all he remembered after that was thinking Audrey's shoe size was rather small...

It took Rust about four minutes after waking up to shake the grogginess away. He blinked his tired eyes and surveyed his surroundings, immediately groaning as he realized where exactly his kidnappers had taken him.

A conference room that, except for the new, large, oval table and brand new chairs, hadn't changed much since the nineties. The room held many memories, all of which Rust tried to forget.

But sitting in one of those office-like chairs, at one end of the oval conference table and looking out the oversized window at the brilliant, nighttime city lights... he felt like he had come home.

He shook the feeling, telling himself he was just suffering from the after-effects of the tranquilizer dart.

His head still spinning, he rested his crossed arms on the wooden table and leaned forward. "Okay," he said, loudly. A spotlight shone on him, throwing the rest of the room into total darkness, making it impossible for him to see anyone or anything in the room with him. "Can we please cut all the melodrama? We're all enemies here."

A tall, solidly built man with skin the colour of strong, black coffee flipped a switch and turned all the lights in the conference room on.

"Is that really the way you feel about us now?" he said, his voice carrying notes of authority, honesty, strength and humility, all in one.

Rust frowned. He looked the man up and down. "Samuel Danger? I thought you were, like, a hundred and fifty-eight years old!"

The man chuckled, heartily. "Boy, have I missed you. No, Samuel Danger was my father. We share a remarkable resemblance, don't we?"

"Right. How old _is_ your ole dad?"

"He was eighty-seven. He died last month."

Rust didn't offer any sympathies and Mr Danger wasn't offended.

"So... you must be... City Danger?" Rust said, racking his brain to remember names from his past.

The man shook his head. "Urban," he corrected.

"Yeah, well I knew it had something to do with buildings. So, if your dad's dead... then who is the global director?"

Urban Danger slightly straightened his shoulders, his face business-like. "I am the new Global Director of Hero Education and Training."

"Top dog, then," Rust nodded, admirably.

"I intend to change a few things," Urban said, casually taking a seat across the table from Rust. "My father ran a smooth operation here, but he was stuck in his old ways, and so is everyone on the board. I don't mean to change everything... just one thing..."

Rust sighed, surrendering but irritated. "And for all your power and legal clearances... you need my help... don't you?"

Urban held up a hand. "Just hear me out. This story requires a lot of explanation. To begin with, there's a rat in one of the schools."

"I'm a mechanic, not an exterminator."

"This is no pest control problem. When I say rat, I mean there's a villain masquerading as a hero teacher. He's training a considerable number of super youths to be super-powered felons."

Rust shook his head. "Man, you drugged me for _this_? You people have weeded those moles out for decades. Why on Earth do you need _me_? And that girl, um, Audrey said something about training gamma accidents. What's with that?"

"In years past, we have sorted out a couple of 'moles.' But this one is different. Whoever he or she is, they're clever, too clever. And they have managed to train more villains than any of their predecessors have.

"To 'weed' this villain out, we need to create a team of teenage superheroes to go undercover in Summer Valley Hero High; the school we suspect is our newest villain's home-base. We need to provide this team with training, training to use their powers and work as a team.

"Now, you're a clever guy, (all patronizing aside), so you'll understand that we can't make this team out of students already enrolled. We just don't know exactly _who_ is undergoing villain training and who isn't. To counteract this, we find teenagers with superpowers not yet enrolled in Hero High. We could _create_ super-humans, but there was a law made in the eighties that restricts us from doing that. So, we use Gamma Accidents: kids who accidently get powers from a gamma ray burst from the sun the very day they're born."

Rust interjected with a point of his own. "And you do realize everyone is going to hate these kids' guts... right? I mean, you _do_ remember what happened in the nineties?"

Urban Danger shrugged. "It's a risk I'm willing to take. We have some good examples, like your team."

"And you saw how that drama ended..." Rust rolled his eyes, leaned back in his chair and crossing his arms.

"I want you to find a group of teens, preferably ones who already know each other so we have less trust issues, hijack them whichever way you want and train them into a team."

Rust suddenly wished he could remember how to fly. All he wanted was to leave. "Look, Urban. I am not the man for the job. I'm a slob, I live alone, I have no friends, man, I don't even own a _goldfish_. I haven't used my powers for over a decade. I have been trying to forget my past every single day of my existence. I am-"

"You were once a great hero," Urban Danger said, seriously and directly. "All I'm asking is that you be that hero again, a hero for gamma accident heroes all over the world. If you don't do this, the world will end."

"You don't know that," Rust stated, plainly.

"Think about it. If heroes never receive training to be heroes, they will be villains. And a massive influx of villains means Earth's demise could come faster than you ever imagined."

Mr Danger grinned. Rust thought it looked rather evil for a second. "And if you _still_ resist, just remember... we know _exactly_ where you live."

Rust quietly seethed. This was _not_ what he had planned for his Thursday evening...

"You won't be alone," Mr Danger said, brightly, as he got up and started leaving the room. "Audrey is going to be your assistant."

Despite everything that had happened that night, Rust groaned. "Terrific," he muttered, sarcastically.

**Crashton**

Friday, 8:35 pm

"Okay, I'm going to repeat the plan, just in case Caleb didn't catch everything," Jack Painter said as he cut the metallic-blue jeep's engine and parked outside the Crashton community hall.

"Hey!" Caleb Black exclaimed, crossing his arms indignantly. "I got everything."

His brothers, Ethan and Ty; Bella Sweet and Jack turned to look at him.

"Really, _everything_?" Ty questioned, raising his black eyebrows.

Caleb considered it. "Okay, maybe you should go through it again."

"Thank you," Jack said. He turned serious. "Bella, you need to make your way through the crowd and wait by the kitchen door. Ty, you are going to go through the hall, into the kitchen and test every soufflé until you find our target. Caleb will be waiting outside the kitchen door, round the back of the hall and Ethan, you're on damage control. I'll be hiding inside as mission control."

Everyone nodded.

The five teenagers stepped out the blue jeep and onto the sidewalk, ready for action. Tall and athletic Jack in his suit; lean Ty in a caterer's uniform; curly, brown-haired Bella in her floral spring-dance dress; short and bouncy Caleb in another caterer's uniform and glasses-wearing Ethan in normal jeans and a T-shirt.

Everyone looked at Ethan.

"Um, _disguise_ , dude," Ty said.

"Oh, sorry, one second," Ethan said. He flickered like an image on a television screen during a storm. In a split second, he changed from slim, dark-blonde haired, glasses wearing, hazel-eyed teenage Ethan into an old, sixty-something, pudgy man with pale skin and thinning white hair, wearing a tuxedo.

"I love that party-trick," Bella said with a smile.

"Hey, holograms are _way_ better than party tricks," Ethan informed her.

"Just remember not to shake anyone's hand, hug someone or accept a drink," Jack reminded him. "You'll just scare people if you flicker back into a teenager."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know."

"And Bella, avoid dark patches, okay? The last thing we want is for someone to see you glowing like a nightlight."

Bella smiled at her neighbour. "Jack, don't worry, I'll keep in the light."

"Everyone got their walkie-talkies?" Caleb asked, excitedly. It was his idea to keep in contact with each other using the cheap, novelty radios.

Everyone waved their walkie-talkie in the air, except Ethan, who couldn't hold anything while he was a hologram.

"Right, you can call me if there are any problems," Jack said. "Now, let's get this show on the road, get to the kitchen, find the cherry bomb Caleb _accidentally_ dropped in a soufflé and get outta here before Bella's mom skins us alive."

The five teenagers split up, setting out to perform their assigned tasks, ready for action.

Some major business company rented the community hall out for a long, formal business dinner filled with long, boring speeches while boring business people mingled with fellow boring business people, boring music droning in the background.

It was a smart affair: formal dress was mandatory. The Crashton community hall had been stylishly decorated with large, silky ribbons; ambient lighting; silk table cloths draped over old, rented tables, fancy candles shaped like roses lit in the middle; and the stage set up with a dressed-up microphone.

Jack and Bella strolled through the doors, arm in arm, standing upright and trying to look as grown-up as possible. It worked: no one stopped them.

As soon as they were past the doors, Jack flew up, swiftly, and grabbed a ceiling beam. He pulled himself up and gazed down at the congregating executives.

From his vantage point, he could see everyone: Bella weaving through the crowd, looking out of place in her bright, knee-length, floral dress surrounded by elegant, silky, dark-coloured floor-length gowns; Ty and Caleb making their way to the catering staff-only kitchen; and Ethan, pseudonym Mr Robinson, mingling in among the bland businessmen.

"Hello, hello! No, I won't shake your hand: I'm afraid I have a bit of cold. I don't want to be responsible for spreading it," Ethan said with a jolly expression on his fleshy, holographic face.

A band unenthusiastically played classic music over the sound system as the uptight, business-oriented, insipid men and women exchanged insincere greetings and sentiments.

Jack's walkie-talkie crackled. "Man, this party needs livening up," Caleb's voice came through.

"We're not here to rescue this snooze-fest," Jack replied. "We're here to fix up _your_ little accident."

Ty and Caleb entered the staff kitchen through a door marked: CATERERS ONLY.

Bella casually strolled up to the door in question and nonchalantly pressed her back against the wall, crossing her arms and smiling, briefly, to passersby.

The music died down and a man in a fancy tuxedo took the stage. The band almost looked relieved to put an end to the sleep-inducing composition. The man in the tuxedo cleared his throat, grinned and adjusted the microphone stand to suit his height. He then began a long speech Jack couldn't be bothered even to hear.

Ethan made himself comfortable at a table, careful not to touch the tablecloth, cutlery or glass. He pretended to be listening, intently, to the boring speech about finances and staff increases.

In the catering kitchen, Caleb darted to the exit and waited outside while his brother set about doing the most important job of the evening.

The catering staff rushed around like frantic bees in a hive: no one even registered the newcomer's presence. No eyes on him, Ty began to shrink. He could shrink fast, but with his wracked nerves, it took longer. Soon, though, he was only an inch high.

He ran across the countertop, racing past towers of glasses and mountains of wine bottles until he reached a large tray with small, individual servings of chocolate soufflé in circular, white bowls.

Hesitating, he jumped onto the tray and climbed into the first soufflé, wiggling his way into the chocolate dessert, trying to feel for a small sphere.

Nothing there. He clawed his way out the ruined dessert and moved onto the next one, diving into the warm chocolate dessert and again searching for the cherry bomb.

He repeated this procedure for the entire tray, but never managed to find the bomb.

He grew back to his normal size and, while trying not to look at the destroyed soufflés, radioed Caleb.

"Are you sure it was the _chocolate_ soufflés you dropped a cherry bomb in?" Ty hissed.

"Well, I _thought_ it was the chocolate ones. If it's not there then try the vanilla ones," came Caleb's reply through the walkie-talkie.

Ty frowned. _Someone is bound to find me_ , he thought, cynically.

Ty had always been the scaredy cat of the triplets. Bravery was not the first word that came to mind when describing Tyrone Black.

Although it was the last thing he wanted to be doing right there and then, Ty shrank again and searched the vanilla soufflés, again without success.

Every single soufflé, chocolate and vanilla, had collapsed with a round hole in the middle after Ty was finished. The catering staff, however, didn't notice as they rushed to bring the desserts out to the waiting guests.

Ty wished he could have stopped them, but he knew it would have looked suspicious. "I really, really, _really_ hope you can explain this to Bella's mom," he growled into his walkie-talkie.

"Guys, they're bringing out the soufflés!" Bella whispered, urgently, over the radio.

"It's a sore point, Bella," Caleb answered.

"Please tell me you found the bomb," Jack begged.

"What if I say I didn't?" Ty asked.

"Is it possible you _didn't_ drop the bomb in a dessert?" Bella asked Caleb, her sweet voice filling with hope.

"No, I _definitely_ dropped it in a dessert," he said, regrettably dashing Bella's hopes. "It's small, so I can see why Ty had trouble finding it."

"I'm small. I'm _supposed_ to find small stuff!" Ty ranted.

Bella moaned. Her mom owned a local diner and had been hired to cater the business function. If a cherry bomb exploded in one of the desserts, Bella and the boys might not live to see graduation.

"Well, what now?" Bella asked, downheartedly.

Silence.

"We hope the threat of life in prison holds your mom back from murdering us."

Outside, the event was proceeding without mishap.

Ethan cracked jokes, trying to give the impression of happy fat guy, while avoiding handshakes, pats on the back and eating dinner with excuses varying from contagious warts to obscure dietary needs.

Ty and Caleb continued their charade as caterers, carrying trays around and offering glasses of wine.

Bella kept herself unnoticed, but in plain sight, while Jack anxiously watched every soufflé in the crowd, waiting for a cherry bomb's small detonation.

He just hoped no one mistook the tiny explosion for a terrorist attack...

Nothing was happening and that made the anxiety worsen.

Eventually, Ty groaned. "Man, I just wish that stupid cherry bomb would explode so we could go home!"

Unfortunately, as soon as he said that, there was an audible poof and an old businessman, sitting at Ethan's table, was covered in chocolate goo and soufflé.

The chatter quietened down as everyone turned to stare at the man's shocked, chocolate coated expression.

"Ty, learn to shut up," Bella said.

Ethan laughed, heartily. "Wow, I haven't had exploding surprise soufflé since the sixties!" he said, activating Damage Control mode. "That's considered a delicacy in some states."

The victim of the cherry-bomb-soufflé didn't look too impressed. "This is sabotage!" he bellowed.

Murmuring began in the hall.

"Who did this?"

"Was is our rivals?"

"Maybe it was just a prank."

"There are footprints in my dessert!"

Suddenly, more soufflés exploded.

"Caleb!" his brothers and friends exclaimed.

"It may have been a whole _box_ of cherry bombs," he admitted, sheepishly.

"The gig's up!" Jack warned. "Time to initiate plan B!"

"We didn't _make_ a plan B!" Ty replied, bordering on hysteria. "What's plan B? Please don't say we'll be winging it again."

"Plan B is... simple," Jack said, sounding so reassuring, it could have convinced anyone. "Caleb? It seems we'll be livening up the party after all."

"Oh, goodie!" Caleb said, sounding like an ecstatic toddler.

Jack fell straight down, wobbling as he landed behind the huge curtains dividing backstage and centre-stage.

He looked around the dark backstage, searching for anything that he could use as a means to liven up the party.

Eventually, he spotted an electric guitar.

Hurrying, he grabbed the instrument he had been playing since second grade, strapped it over his back and entered stage right.

The band that had been playing slowly stopped in astonishment at the newcomer.

Jack walked up to them. "We'll be speeding things up now," he said, hoping he sounded like he had just enough authority to be believed.

The band members shrugged and the drummer smacked his sticks together. "One, two, three, four!" and a thumping drumbeat kicked in, the drummer banging his head up and down in time to the pumping beats.

The uptight businessmen and businesswomen were confused, shocked, by the sudden change in pace.

Bella ran to the panel that controlled the lights, searched the array of buttons and levers, read the labels until she found what she was looking for and pulled the small lever.

The lights completely went out. People were half way through their gasps of shock when a disco ball lowered and shot specks of multicoloured light across the room.

Bella, her entire body breaking out in a bright blue glow the instant the lights dimmed, tried to hide.

Jack plugged his guitar into an amplifier, adjusted the settings, and approached the microphone.

"They called me in to give this party an extra kick, so let's get rocking, shall we?" Jack asked. He didn't wait for a reply from the puzzled audience: he just started playing and singing.

Jack had his own band, made up of some friends from Crashton High, and was used to playing for school events, the neighbourhood, or just his mom and little sister in the garage. But never before had he played for such a... _dead_ crowd.

As the rock tune played and the lights danced, the formal men and women continued looking perplexed.

"We're never going to get out of here if we don't get people on their feet," Caleb told Ty and Bella as they congregated together in a hidden corner.

"How on Earth are we going to get _them_ moving?" Bella questioned, jerking a thumb in the direction of the puzzled audience. "I don't even think it's possible."

"They're businessmen," Caleb said. "If you get one moving, the rest will follow. It's their job. We just gotta make sure it's someone higher up on the food chain."

Ty looked at his brother in awe. "Okay, I did _not_ expect something so clever to come from your mouth. What do we do?"

"We don't have to do a thing," Caleb said. He pointed to the crowd. "Look."

As they watched on, Ethan, still projecting the hologram of a jolly, overweight businessman, started dancing to the rocking, upbeat, dance-inducing tune, pretending to dance badly.

"Let's boogie!" he declared.

The other executives decided to join and soon the tables and chairs were pushed aside to make room for an appallingly badly dancing crowd of tuxedoes and gowns.

Jack, still singing and rocking out on the borrowed guitar, searched the crowd for his friends. He noticed Ethan and winked to him, signalling for him to leave now while he had the chance.

"Time to hit the road," Ethan told his brothers and Bella as he returned to his youthful, solid self and joined them near the exit.

"How do you think Jack's going to get out?" Bella asked, concern shining in her denim blue eyes.

"He's Jack: Superman without the cape," Ethan told her, reassuringly. "I think he can get away from a crowd of dancing office-workers without even breaking a sweat."

With that sentiment, Ethan grabbed Bella, tossed her over his shoulder like a rag doll and started running.

"Oh, come on, guys!" Bella moaned, dangling over Ethan's shoulder. "I am capable of running with my own two legs, you know."

Jack, Caleb, Ty and Ethan had been doing this since they were little kids and Bella figured it was some kind of ancient instinct to protect the girl. She no longer protested, just complained and went along with it. It was actually sweet.

As the teenagers battled their way through the hordes of boogieing businesspeople, Jack kept his eyes focussed on them, making sure they made their way to the exit without strife.

They were almost out the hall when, suddenly, Caleb was cut off from his brothers and Bella. A barricade of poorly dancing suits blocked his exit.

Bella was the only one who saw it happen as she was facing backwards. "Caleb!" she called, automatically.

His thick, Mexican eyebrows furrowed as the swarm of tuxedoes swallowed him.

Ethan and Ty continued their sprint for freedom but stopped and turned around when they reached the open exit doors. Ethan set Bella down and she readjusted her attire, un-ruffling her hair and un-crinkling her dress.

"Where is he?" Ty asked, looking worried.

As they watched the crowd, waiting to see their short friend and brother emerge, a blur sprung up from amidst the horde of people, and landed, expertly, in front of them.

"Did you have to jump?" Ty questioned his brother. "Someone could have seen you!"

Caleb rolled his chocolate brown eyes. "Out of everything that's happened tonight, I don't really think anyone _cares_."

"Let's get out of here," Bella said, urgently. The triplets trailing behind her, Bella led the way to the jeep, parked right outside the hall for a quick getaway.

She opened the front door, eagerly. "Okay, someone else is going to have to drive because I forgot my learner's permit," she said, sounding deflated.

The triplets smiled. Bella, being younger than the boys, didn't have her full license yet and still needed an adult in the car whenever she drove.

"No need," a voice said from behind.

Bell whirled around, a smile erupting on her faintly glowing face. "Jack!"

"Didn't have time for an encore," he said. He came running but flew the last few metres, landing in the driver's seat, quickly buckling his seatbelt and starting the engine as the triplets poured into the back row and Bella took the passenger seat.

The tyres squealing as they raced away from the scene of the crime, the five teenagers couldn't help but laugh hysterically, the thrill and adrenaline pulsing through their young veins.

"You do realize we didn't accomplish what we originally set out to do, right?" Ty asked.

"Yeah, but we left a rocking party in our wake!" Ethan commented.

"Now we just need to pray hard that Bella's mom doesn't find out," Jack said.

"Okay, let's face it, she's caught us doing worse," Bella said.

###

Though her son was out past dark, Alison Painter hadn't the slightest edge of worry in her. She assumed he was off with his friends, playing on the beach, patrolling the boardwalk lined with shops and buskers, or simply unwinding.

It was only when the five laughing teenagers came in through the front door and into the kitchen where she was busy washing dishes that Alison realized they had had another stupid adventure.

Jack was wearing his suit and tie, minus a jacket; Bella was wearing the floral, knee-length dress she had last worn to the spring dance; Ty and Caleb were wearing caterer uniforms, Ty's covered in pudding of some sort and Ethan's jeans had splashes of chocolate all over.

"Okay, what have you been up to?" Alison asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow.

The teenagers' laughter ended: it was time to confess.

Shuffling feet, shifting eyes and nervous energy abounded. "Well..." Jack began but a knock at the door interrupted the declaration of guilt.

Everyone consulted their wristwatches. "Who would be calling in after ten on a Friday?" Alison questioned, drying her hands with a dishcloth.

"I'll get it!" Rosie, Jack's nine-year-old little sister yelled as she raced down the stairs, in her pyjamas.

"Hey, you should be asleep," Alison said to her daughter, sternly pointing to the time.

"I heard people and it just became _impossible_ to stay asleep," Rosie explained, exaggerating. Without further hesitation, she wrenched the front door open.

A man in his forties or fifties with salt and pepper hair, a five o' clock shadow and crinkly gray eyes, wearing a plain black T-shirt and faded jeans covered with what looked like oil marks, stood on the doorstep.

Standing next to him was a clean and professional young woman with long, neat, black hair and wearing smart glasses.

"Who called the mechanic?" Rosie asked, confused.

Her brother, the girl next door, the triplets and her mother joined her.

"I'm sorry, can we help you?" Alison inquired.

"John Painter's family?" the professional young woman asked.

"Um... yes. Sorry, who are you?"

The young woman smiled, almost nervously. "My name is Audrey Jones and this is the legendary-"

"I thought we talked about that," the man interrupted.

The woman barely faltered for a second, though she did seem slightly annoyed. She hid it well. "Sorry. This is Russell Swift, AKA Rust, former leader of G-4."

Jack's eyes widened and he looked the man up and down, as if he suddenly remembered seeing him before. And he had, many times. In photos, old videos, in the news...

But looking at him now was like watching a movie and staring at the actor, swearing you had seen him somewhere before but finding it impossible to place him because he had changed so much over the years.

And Rust had changed a lot from the last published sighting, eighteen years ago.

"You're dead," Rosie stated, obviously.

"No, I'm not," Rust replied.

Rosie raised an eyebrow. "Well, you _were_."

"Would you like to come in?" Alison asked, hospitably. She ushered the guests to the living room, gestured to a couch and glared at the dumbstruck teenagers, silently telling them to take seats and look alive.

"Tea? Coffee? An explanation?" Alison said, passively forcing the guests to explain themselves.

Rust addressed the five teenagers sitting directly opposite him and staring, too.

"You kids have powers," he stated, cutting to the point without a moment's hesitation. "You're Gamma Accidents: the result of a child being born on the day of a gamma ray burst from the sun."

Ty threw his hands up. "Okay, just get the pitch forks and lynch mob out and we can finish this up before my curfew."

His friends glared at him.

"Relax, we're not here to run you out of town," Audrey said, calmly.

"Well, actually, that's a lie," Rust clarified. "You kids are going _way_ outta town."

Puzzled, the teenagers exchanged looks.

"Ever heard of Hero High?"

Jack didn't say a thing, but he had heard the name countless times. He was the one who had told his friends about the school that trained super-powered teenagers to become the next generation of Earth-saving superheroes.

They trained everyone... except for gamma accidents.

He had dreamed of one day seeing Hero High for himself, and he knew his friends longed to, someday, walk the halls of superhero school, side by side.

Rust raised an eyebrow, prompting for a response. Jack eventually nodded.

Audrey took over. "Well, there is a villain masquerading among the hero teachers in Summer Valley Hero High School. He's training potential heroes into criminals. They have no idea who he (or possibly she) is. They need a team of unaffected super-powered kids, (that's hopefully you five) trained and enrolled in the school to find this guy."

"And... why us?" Ethan asked.

Rust sighed, inwardly irritated with somebody. "Instead of going on an all-around-the-world search for supers, they went for the easy option and hired me," he explained, unimpressed. "I know all the hot-spots for gamma accidents, I am one myself, and they expect me to train you kids to use your powers, work together and find this villain."

Jack would have said it was a hoax. But he didn't sense any danger and the famous Rust was standing right in front of him.

"Those guys hate gamma accidents. Are you sure you don't just want me?" Jack clarified, ready to completely decline the offer if it came out his friends would be left behind.

"We need to create a _team_ ," Audrey simplified. "And the Global Director of Hero Education and Training specifically requested a team consisting of _gamma accidents_."

"That was a mouthful," Rust commented, amazed at his new assistant's ability to speak in incredibly long sentences filled with big words without taking a breather.

Audrey continued, ignoring the statement. "Rust knew Crashton is a hot-spot, so he looked through records and discovered three gamma ray bursts from the sun in 1997. April 21st, June 3rd and September 17th. That's how he found you five."

"And that stunt you pulled at the community hall tonight?" Rust laughed. "Amazing display of your powers and teamwork."

Alison's eyes narrowed as she glared at the teenagers. " _What_ stunt did you pull at the community hall?"

"Cherry bombs in a chocolate soufflés," Caleb said, simply. "Then Jack hijacked the band, Bella pulled down a disco ball and we left the place rocking."

"Oh, well, if that's all," Alison said, shrugging and dropping the subject as if it were as trivial as a fingerprint on a toddler's sippy-cup.

"I told you our parents have caught us doing worse," Bella whispered to her friends.

"You kids have something no other kid in Hero High has," Audrey said. "And we need that."

"No, you need pest control," Ethan said, scathingly.

Rust held up his hands in a "let's calm down" gesture. "Look, I have a hundred better things to do than train a bunch of teenage gamma accidents to hunt a rat. But I have my orders (and death threats) so let's just keep our eyes on the big picture. This is your chance to train with the best, prove you're not what people think and be real heroes."

No one said anything further, but their minds were bursting with words unspoken.

"Look," Rust said, getting up. Audrey followed him. "Take your time and think about it," he said. He abruptly ended the talk by stepping away towards the front door, which he opened, stepped outside and started heading for a white van parked in the driveway.

"If you decide you want to take a shot at this thing, give us a call," Audrey said, gently, as she hung back and handed Jack a business-like card. "You should really think about it. Opportunities like this don't come around every lifetime."

With that, she turned and followed Rust. They left before anyone could say anything else.

The stunned group retreated to the living room and sat down, robotically. Jack stared at the simple card in his hand as his friends, sister and mother stared at him. It felt as if the entire decision rested on his shoulders.

Eventually, Caleb piped up.

"Well, that was an eventful ten minutes of our lives, wasn't it?"

"What do we do?" Bella asked Jack, gently.

Jack sighed, the only thing he could do to keep from yawning. "Look, it's late now. We should get to bed. We can discuss this in the morning."

"Call Audrey," Bella urged, interrupting her friend. She shook his arm, lightly, until he looked her straight in the eye. "This is for real and she's right: an opportunity like this only comes around once a lifetime. What if they don't find someone else to do the job? We could be saving the world!"

"What about the Upbeats? They could just call them?" Caleb suggested.

"I'm sure they would have thought of that," Ty said.

"Besides, no one knows how to contact those guys," Ethan added.

"And just think: this is our chance to go to Hero High," Bella continued. "We've been dreaming for years, now we get to see it for real."

Jack nodded, silently.

"We've got to at least try..."

"You're right," Jack agreed. He looked up at his mother, his sister, and the triplets. "What do you guys say?"

"Oh, we're all for it," Ethan said, speaking for himself and his brothers, who nodded in full agreement.

"Honey, this is entirely up to you," Alison said to her son. "I know your dad would have loved to see the day you got into Hero High."

"It would be awesome," Rosie approved.

Jack smiled and pulled his little sister near for a hug. "Yeah, it would be, wouldn't it? Well, how about first thing tomorrow, I call Audrey."

Ethan, Ty and Caleb punched the air and whooped.

Bella couldn't help herself: she hugged an unsuspecting Jack tightly and squealed.

"This next week is going to be fantastic!" she declared.

###

Audrey's heart skipped a few beats when her phone rang.

She glanced, sideways, from the passenger seat at Rust.

He rolled his eyes. "Just answer it," he said.

Audrey knew he didn't share her excitement. She knew he was probably praying the phone would never ring so he wouldn't have to deal with the kids, with the global director... with the human race.

Grappling with the phone to flip it open, she shakily pressed the little green button.

Audrey resumed her professional manner. "Hello?" she said.

"We'll do it," Jack said, resolutely.

If Audrey had been driving, she would have stomped on the brake pedal out of sheer delight.

Holding the schoolgirl squeal inside, Audrey smiled, though the teenager couldn't see it.

"I'll send you the necessary details via email," Audrey informed, professionally. "Thank you," she said before ending the call.

She couldn't hold it inside any longer. She punched the air and squealed. "Floor it, Rust," she said, electricity flooding her veins. "We're getting the team together!"

Rust sighed. As if getting disturbed at a late hour, shot in the leg with a tranquilizer dart, kidnapped and threatened into training teenagers wasn't bad enough; he also had to put up with a bipolar college graduate.

Jack didn't know how Audrey knew his email address, but within an hour, the electronic letter arrived.

It simply contained a brief thank you note, a map of the state, with one freeway in particular highlighted, and a town enthusiastically circled in red marker.

Then Audrey attached a concise description of what had been arranged and what was left for the kids to do.

I have highlighted the town in which the school is located, the email read. I have booked accommodation for you, so as not to overcomplicate matters. The West Coast Motel, situated just off the freeway. I have booked enough rooms for everyone. Take care, and we hope to see you soon.

Audrey Jones

Everything after the reading of the email happened so fast, no one can actually remember it in detail.

They spent the rest of their Saturday explaining what was happening to Bella's family and the triplets' parents, arranging various things and packing the jeep.

After a long two hour parent conference, it was decided that Alison would go along (Rosie, too).

Alison would take care of the kids and make sure everything was under control.

Then, it was just figuring out who was going to drive which vehicle. Summer Valley was a good six-hour drive from Crashton.

Eventually, it was decided that Ethan, Ty and Caleb would take turns driving the jeep, Alison would drive with Bella and Rosie in the little maroon Toyota and Jack would follow on his motorcycle.

They agreed to meet up with each other at every gas station, for safety.

By Sunday morning, they were off.

It was fun, riding along the open freeway, the summer air rushing in through the open windows, the radio playing a good driving song and everyone singing along.

Town gave way to countryside. On one side of the road, you could see the ocean, and on the other side, undisturbed woodland.

They stopped, at least once every two hours, at a gas station and met up with each other.

Bella, the last teenager of the lot still on a learner's permit, didn't drive as much as the others. However, she did give Alison a break at the halfway mark.

It was dark by the time they arrived at the West Coast Motel.

Audrey had booked two rooms: one for the triplets and Jack, another for Alison, Rosie and Bella.

The motel was modest and neat, literally just off the freeway, next to a diner and a gas station.

The rooms were just the right size, not cramped at all and right across the hall from each other.

The rooms each had four, neatly made single beds; a bathroom; a two-seater couch in front of a small TV; a closet with a safe bolted into the floor; a small kitchen equipped with a kettle, a toaster, a small stove and a short fridge.

But the first thing Caleb noticed...

"Whoa, cool! They gave us seashell shaped soaps!"

Rosie rolled her eyes and joined the excitable teen. "Silly... they didn't just give us seashell shaped soaps... they also gave us _fish_ shaped ones!"

Alison flopped backwards, landing perfectly on a bed, claiming it as her own. "Who's making dinner?" she said, "because I refuse to even move."

"We'll just get something from the diner," Bella offered. "We can walk there. Who's coming?"

Caleb and Rosie were too busy playing with soaps and towels to respond, let alone listen.

"We'll come," Jack said, speaking for himself, Ethan and Ty; the only ones not engrossed in mucking about with complimentary motel items.

###

Sleeping that night was hard. Besides Alison and Rosie, who slept like kittens, no one slept for more than five hours.

Bella glowed, faintly, light from the headlights of cars driving along the freeway flashing through the thin curtains and darting across the room.

She was used to noise at nighttime. She had six brothers and sisters, five younger than her. Over the years, she couldn't remember a single night when a baby wasn't crying.

She sighed. The whole upheaval hadn't sunk in completely yet, but she was beginning to miss her crazy house.

As she closed her eyes, she could see, hear and smell the commotion she was so used to living in.

Eighteen-year-old Mark playing drums on her bedroom door to wake her up in the morning, thirteen-year-old Amos reading quietly on the couch, ten-year-old Josephine playing dolls with Rosie, eight-year-old Irene attempting to help their mother with the cooking and cleaning, and four-year-old Cody sneaking worms into baby Timothy's crib, making him squeal.

Bella, in all honesty, had no idea how long this was going to take. Of course, she was going to see them again. This was not going to last forever.

And as much as she missed her family, the very thought of learning and training at Hero High was enough to get her heart racing.

Tomorrow was going to be exciting... she could feel it.

Everyone was up at the crack of dawn and in the girls' room, sitting around the small kitchen table, eating toast and leftovers from the night before, as no one had been able to do grocery shopping yet.

Audrey had included in the email a highlighted route to the school as well as the simple line: _Be there by eight-thirty._

"Okay, so you five are off to Hero High," Alison said, narrating the day to come. "I think I'm just going to hang back here, get settled in. Rosie, anything in particular you want to do?"

Instantly, Rosie whipped a tourist guide out her pocket. "Well, I was thinking..."

Jack laughed and ruffled his sister's short chestnut-brown hair. "Sounds like you're going to have fun," he said, smiling at his mother, who rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

Jack checked his watch. "We better get a move on or we're going to be late."

The teenagers hurriedly swallowed the rest of their breakfast, glugged down the remaining orange juice and darted out the house.

Excitement buzzed inside the jeep as the five teenagers scrambled to buckle their seat belts and get going.

Eight minutes and they were there, parking the metallic blue jeep in a parking lot filled with normal, everyday cars.

That was the first thing the teenagers noticed when they stood, shoulder to shoulder, staring at the large, metallic letters spelling out "Summer Valley High School."

The place was so normal looking.

It was your standard high school structure: double storey with cream-coloured bricks, large windows, big double doors and concrete steps. It was neat and tidy, but not sterile. A gardener was mowing the lawns as students tramped across it, oblivious to his hard work.

The teenagers were the same as anywhere else: milling around in their jeans, skirts, shorts and colourful T-shirts or summer dresses.

If you had simply stumbled upon this place by sheer accident, you would never know that the greatest heroes in the world had trained at this very school.

"This must be the place," Jack said, referring back to the printed map in his hands.

"Here goes a big, fat nothing," Bella said, the first one brave enough to take a step forward. The boys followed and together, the five of them walked up the concrete steps and into their new school.

Blue lockers lined the hallways, a large message board dominated one whole wall by the entrance, a handful of teachers congregated around a water fountain and the corridors were littered with teenagers laughing, chatting, running around and mucking about before class.

However, the "normal" impression ended there.

The five teenagers were barely five feet across the threshold when two girls flew past, flying like jet planes and kicking up stray papers into the air, making Bella's curly brown locks whip around and snatching at anything loose and light.

The practically identical girls landed, smoothly, and looked over their shoulders at the newbies, their long shiny blonde ponytails bouncing. In sync, they winked an eye each and quaintly waved a hand, acknowledging their existence.

Bella just thought they were smug. She instantly disliked them.

Flying twins was not the only out-of-ordinary happening.

Everywhere the newcomers looked, they saw teenagers using their extraordinary powers: a weedy looking kid stretched his body until his head was scraping the ceiling; a sweet looking girl froze the stream of water coming from the water fountain until it was just a long arc of ice; a cheerleader practiced her routine in the middle of the hallway, jumping high, twisting and twirling better than any normal person ever could.

It was chaotic: fire blasting across the newcomers' path at unexpected moments, kids who could stick to the ceiling dropping down without warning, speedsters blurring past and "accidentally" knocking people over... it was making the teenagers dizzy.

"We have to get a timetable," Jack said, struggling to figure things out, "because I have _no idea_ where we have to go."

"Doesn't this school have a welcoming committee?" Ethan asked.

"Do you really want to be shown around by one of these freaks?" Ty questioned, indicating a group of odd-looking kids with weird coloured hair and bizarre clothing.

"We're one of them now," Bella reminded him.

Ty's eyes darted around, glancing at every face. "You know, I'm not so sure about that... have you noticed the looks we've been getting?"

It was true: people were keeping their distance, their expressions etched with suspicion.

"I guess they heard we were coming," Caleb said, sounding sad, something that was totally _un_ -Caleb like.

"Ignore them," Ethan said, putting one arm around his shorter brother's shoulders and the other around Ty's. "We're not here to impress them."

"Hey, is that Audrey?" Bella said, pointing down the hall to the black-haired young woman advancing towards them.

Audrey walked upright and professionally, like a secretary. She approached the teens, an unmistakable smile spreading across her face.

"I'm so glad you decided to come," she said, her voice full of appreciation. "You have no idea what this means."

She briskly handed each teen a piece of crisp, white paper. A timetable was printed on and an extra note written in a lazy scrawl at the bottom.

"These are all your classes, as well as a note from Rust," Audrey explained. She started walking off. "I'm sure you'll find your way around!" she called over her shoulder.

Ethan looked up from his schedule. "How's this for being thrown in the deep end?"

"Never mind," Jack said, shaking his head. "Let's just be on our way."

The schedules outlined the usual classes: English, science, maths... so on.

An extra class, unheard of in other schools, was Hero Training. This class took place in the gym, as noted in the schedule.

The note from Rust simply said, "Be at the gym at the end of school."

It was all vague and, as Ethan said, they were thrown in the deep end with nothing but a piece of paper to keep them floating.

"Our first class is English with a Mr Shakes," Bella said.

The kids cautiously navigated through the halls, warily peeking around every corner before proceeding, terrified of being blasted with fire or ice or water or slime or whatever else these super kids could blast at them. They carefully checked every door until they found the right one.

The classroom looked totally normal: desks, chairs, a blackboard, a window, four walls, a ceiling and a floor. The impression of normal wouldn't last long.

Before the teacher arrived, everyone was carrying on with their usual business, which seemed to consist squarely of messing about.

The teenagers sat near each other, for security. They leaned in, close, for conversation.

"You know, I can already tell you how this is all going to go down," Ty said, his typical cynical tone not wavering for a second. "We will be outcasts, sitting alone at lunch and avoided by every student of this school. One of us will run into a bully and probably get ground into a fine pulp. Then, we'll get on with our _original_ mission: to find the villain teacher. We'll _think_ we've found him and it'll turn out not to be that one. Then we'll find the real one but it will be all too late, he'll kill us and dance on our graves."

Bella put a hand on his shoulder, a smile on her face. "Oh, Ty. Don't give away _everything_ : we've still got to live it."

###

The English teacher was... entertaining, to say the least.

Mr Shakes was short and lanky, nearing his sixties with thinning brown hair and thick, round glasses that made his eyes bulge, giving him a cartoonish appearance.

He looked straight-faced, stern and serious when he entered the room. He didn't say a single word, but simply nodded to the students, acknowledging their presence, turned around and wrote the day's lesson on the board.

The classroom was steeped in silence that broke when he spun around. His face immediately crinkled into a big smile.

"Greetings," he said, excitement riddling his slightly nasal voice. "Shall we begin?"

He thrust out his short, skinny arm and a swarm of books flew out the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and swirled around the classroom like a controlled tornado.

A single book rested on each student's desk and opened, aided by invisible hands, to the correct page.

"Whoa, awesome! Mind control!" Caleb squeaked.

Mr Shakes smiled at the youngsters. "You five must be the gamma accidents."

The simple statement made the teens stiffen.

Mr Shakes waved a dismissive hand. "Don't fret: I don't have anything against you kids. I am willing to leave the past behind and move forward. I encourage everyone to do the same."

The mean looks the other kids gave the gamma accidents didn't seem to matter so much when they had one teacher already on their side.

The rest of the lesson went off without a hitch. Then it was onto science.

The lab wasn't like normal school labs. It looked more like the laboratory of a mad scientist with concoctions of various, bright colours bubbling away in oddly shaped tubes and vials; a plasma ball balancing precariously on a pile of books; random, unfinished robot parts lying around the teacher's desk and a mess of hastily scribbled, scientific notes scattered all over the show.

The teacher only reinforced the initial "mad scientist" impression.

He was tall and thin with a small goatee and crazy white hair that looked like he had stuck his finger in an electrical socket, which was highly possible.

He wore heavy boots, black pants, thick rubber gloves, a white lab coat decorated with faint splashes of various colourful messes, and intricate, robotic glasses equipped with what looked like telescopic and microscopic lenses.

That wasn't the end of it. Halfway through his explanation of radiation, he turned invisible, allowing his students to read the blackboard with an uninterrupted view.

Of course, it made sense that a teacher would have to have powers if they taught future superheroes. Nevertheless, it was still a shock to the five kids who had never seen anyone but each other use their powers.

The little old lady who taught social sciences could project a holographic image from her eyes.

The man who taught math could grow two extra pairs of arms, to aid in writing complicated equations on the blackboard.

The sweet, young woman who taught music could create or mimic any sound audible to humans and bats.

The only teacher that did not seem to have a superpower was the history teacher.

"Anthony Wepaynar," Jack read the name aloud off the schedule Audrey had given. "It sounds familiar..."

"I think it's the name of some reality show presenter," Bella simply stated.

"But I thought you hated reality TV," Caleb pointed out, tilting his head with curiosity.

"I do, that's why I said I _think_. There's no way I _know_."

Jack frowned as he studied the name. "I'm so sure I've heard the name Wepaynar before," he said.

"The way Jack reads it, it sounds like 'weapon-are,'" Caleb laughed.

"It's foreign," Ethan told his brother. "I think it's common in-"

"Hey, we should really be getting to class now," Ty interrupted.

The history teacher was a tall man, Jack's height exactly. He looked to be in his sixties, with short white hair and a clean-cut beard. He didn't talk with a foreign accent, though. He sounded local.

He was the first teacher not to show off any powers... he was also the first teacher to say nothing about the new arrivals. He didn't seem hostile, though. He just didn't look too concerned with the whole deal.

He taught the lesson with no show and no fancies. He didn't turn invisible, grow extra arms, transform into a dolphin or stretch.

Curious, Ethan leaned over and tapped a student on the shoulder. "Has this guy got any powers?" he asked in a hushed voice.

The teenager shook his head. "Nah. Gadgeteer. Oh, and a pilot. His missions only ever included flying a helicopter, a plane or a jet fighter. He retired and started teaching here seven years ago."

"Thanks," Ethan said and returned his attention to the lesson on Christopher Columbus.

Lunchtime was a real eye-opener.

Jack, Bella, Ethan, Ty and Caleb had never felt like they were total outcasts back in Crashton High, their old school. They weren't popular, but they were not loners, either. They were pretty average.

Jack had other friends, besides the girl next door and the triplets. He had made a garage band with some of his friends from school.

Ethan got on with everyone who could talk tech, Ty was alright with the others on the track team and Caleb got along with all the fourth graders: the only ones besides Jack, his brothers and Bella who understood and laughed at his jokes.

Bella had it tougher than the boys, though. All the girls would invite her to sleepover parties, and every single time she would have to decline the invitation, knowing that if she went, her power would be revealed the very moment the lights went out.

She couldn't understand why some dumb sleepover was the only way to be someone's friend.

Eventually, no one bothered to invite her.

She hoped that coming to Hero High would put an end to her feelings of being left out.

Lunch only managed to make her feel like a freak amongst freaks, though.

Balancing their trays in their arms, the five searched the cafeteria for a table they could join.

Eventually, they spotted a table occupied with only three other students: two boys and a girl, chatting happily.

"Hi!" Caleb said, enthusiastically, as he set his tray down and scooted along the bench to make room for his brothers.

"Bye," the girl with black and blue hair said, rudely getting up, the boys following her as she left for another table... on the other side of the vast cafeteria.

Feeling stung, Caleb bowed his head and poked his sloppy Joe, glumly.

Caleb was the youngest of the triplets and acted like it, too. It wasn't easy to make him sad, but when you did, then he was sad.

"Probably afraid she'd catch cool germs," Ethan commented, an attempt to make his friends feel better. "You know: the ones that transform you from a loser into a really cool person."

"Maybe they like being losers," Bella muttered.

Caleb still looked sullen. He glanced around. "No one likes us," he pointed out. "Can't you see the way they look at us?"

It was true: cruel glares burned at the teens from all around.

The only thing that made the feeling worse was knowing that looks really could kill in this school... if the student had lazer vision. Bella sat as close to Jack as possible, for protection.

"Maybe this is how they react to all new students," Jack said, following Ethan's tactic.

Bella played with her plastic fork. "No, this is the way they react to gamma accidents," she corrected, icily.

It wasn't like Bella to be put off by people so easily. She tried lifting her head, but every face her eyes fell on glared back at her. Her eyes stung with threatening tears.

Just as she was about to get up and storm out the cafeteria, two girls came and sat down, wedging Jack aside so there was one on either side of her.

They were the flying twin girls from earlier.

They were tall, a good head taller than Bella who was slightly on the short side, and slender. They wore fashionable clothes, identically matching each other.

The only difference you could see in one glance was their hair. Both had shiny, white blonde hair that looked dyed; but the one girl wore her hair curly and the other had hers straightened.

"I'm Janie Cover," the curly-haired girl introduced herself with a sweet smile. "This is my twin sister, Sara."

Sara waved her hand.

"We saw you this morning," Bella commented, her voice bordering on a grumble. "You blew my wrist-watch off."

"Sorry about that," Janie said, sounding overly sincere. "We weren't expecting new students."

Jack looked from Janie to Bella. Janie was smiling, but Bella didn't seem so impressed. He decided to step in before Bella did or said anything more. "I'm Jack," he said. "This is Bella and these are the triplets: Ethan, Ty and Caleb."

"You guys must be the gamma accidents," Sara said. "We heard the rumours."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Bella mumbled but everyone pretended they hadn't heard it.

"Let's explain something first-off," said Janie, her tone slightly more serious. "There are some... shall we say, _social distinctions_ , in this school, in case you haven't noticed."

"We noticed," Ty informed the girl.

"The distinctions go according to how you got your power as well as what power you have," Sara continued for her sister.

"There are many categories: gadgeteers, pilots, inventors and, of course, the heroes with _actual_ powers. First off, there are the Toxic Waste Punks," Janie took over. She pointed to a table across the open room occupied by the bunch of teenagers with weird coloured hair and outrageous clothing. "They ventured too close to toxic waste and subsequently got superpowers. They're weird and they like it."

"Then there are the alien hybrids," Sara jumped in. "Sometimes, they look human, other times they have blue or green or purple skin: but they could look like anything. One of their parents is human, and the other is an alien."

"Then there are mutants," Janie said. "These kids are genetic anomalies who are born with powers. Sometimes, their powers disappear, other times their powers grow stronger. Sometimes they're outcasts."

"And a group that you don't see very much of anymore," Sara took over the explanation. "Genetic experiments. Either by the government, the military, a secret organization or by aliens, these kids escape and join the real world, but with superpowers."

"Top of the charts, though," Janie said, her tone shifting to one of admiration, "are the kids who inherit their powers from either their parents or grandparents. These guys rule the social scene in every Hero High School across the planet."

"Why?" Bella asked, her eyes briefly darting over Jack.

"They're practically blue-bloods," Sara answered. "It's like they deserve their powers. They come from heroes, so it's almost guaranteed that they will be the next generation of superheroes, protecting the planet and whatever."

Bella wanted to say something very sarcastic just then but, thank goodness, didn't get the chance.

"Where do gamma accidents fall?" Caleb blurted.

Janie and Sara faltered, bit their lips and exchanged a glance. Unspoken words passed between them as they contemplated the situation as if pulling a band-aid off a particularly hairy arm.

"On a scale from one to ten, ten being hereditary heroes... you guys are probably a negative number," Janie said.

The statement was said as gently as possible, but it still stung.

"Thanks," Jack said, his way of ending the conversation.

Janie and Sara got up to leave, sensing they had done their part in informing the newbies about the social food chain. "But don't worry, we like you."

Bella couldn't help but notice they didn't say this while looking her in the eye...

###

The last class of the day was Hero Training.

Jack, Bella, Ty, Ethan and Caleb had been waiting for this class all day.

Frankly, they had been waiting for this class their whole lives.

An image of an ex-military officer flashed through the gamma accidents' minds when they entered the gymnasium.

Pictures of fading scars, buzz-cuts, and bulging muscles ended when a tall and lanky, African American man with an afro and a moustache entered the gym. He was wearing short neon blue shorts, white socks pulled up high on his stick-like legs, squeaky sneakers that announced every step he took, a simple white T-shirt with a bright red whistle hanging around his neck.

"What's up?" he said, cheerfully.

Caleb couldn't help himself: he burst out in a fit of laughter. His brothers, cousin and Bella turned around to glare at him.

"I'm sorry," he said, wiping a tear of laughter out his eye. "But his shorts are glowing like Bella!"

To Jack, Ethan, Ty and Bella's surprise, Mr Hilton, as the schedule had named him, grinned. He turned to Bella. "Do you glow?" he asked.

Bella nodded in response.

"Cool," he said, nodding his head slowly in approval. "I haven't seen a glower since 1995."

Bella blushed, grateful the lights were on or else everyone would have seen a very bright, embarrassed magenta glow.

"Let me explain how Hero Training works," Mr Hilton declared, kindly, taking into account the new arrivals. "It's the one thing that sets Hero High apart from the rest of the world."

"Besides the mad scientist in the lab," Ethan whispered to Ty.

Mr Hilton didn't hear them snickering. "This class stands in the place of regular gym class. Instead of training your _physical_ abilities, we will be focussing on your _super_ physical and/or mental abilities.

"We do this by setting up obstacle courses, simulations and scenarios that you are most likely going to come across in your time as a superhero.

"We do not focus on team-building exercises as most of you will not ever form a team. Most of these courses and scenarios will be done individually, but at the same time. You are allowed to use the powers of someone else, but directly cooperating is not encouraged.

"At times, however, we do what we call 'Crossover Training.' This exercise will take you out of your comfort zone a bit. It's where we randomly team students together in groups of two or three. We do this to simulate when you're saving a city or town with another hero. It will help you to understand how to work with other powers and... temperaments.

"Today, we will be doing a Crossover. I'm going to team you up with someone random. And, no, standing as close to a person as you possibly can does _not_ change the selection," he added as he noticed the Cover twins hug each other in the hopes of being called together. "Unlike in times past, I am not going to pair you with the person you stand closest to. Don't hate me; this is all a bunch of new directions from our new Global Director."

Janie and Sara pouted as Mr Hilton began randomly pairing kids together.

It was an obstacle course like no other.

Sure, it had the wooden bars, old rubber tyres, ropes, step ladders, chain bridges and metal poles, but unlike the obstacle courses at fun fairs and amusement parks, this one included _real_ electric fences, _real_ fire pits and _real_ sharp, turning blades.

A handful of staff members assembled the course in under five minutes. It sure helps to have super speed, sometimes.

Of course, irony would have it that none of the Gamma Accidents would be paired together, and that they would be paired with the last person on Earth they wanted (or expected) to be teamed with.

Bella was less than thrilled with her selected partner. She really should have seen it coming. Who else would she be paired with than Sara Cover?

"Terrific," was all Bella mumbled before walking away from her friends to stand by her obstacle course partner.

"Don't hold me back," Sara warned, looking down her nose at Bella.

"Like I could be bothered to hold you back," Bella retorted.

She knew she was going to be run in the ground... she just knew it.

Janie, although upset she couldn't go with her twin, was uplifted by the fact she got paired with Jack. Unlike his bumbling friends, Jack seemed like he could keep pace with her.

Caleb was paired with a straight-faced, unenthusiastic kid who seemed to have no interest in Caleb's attempts to be friends.

Ethan, for a change from the norm, was teamed with someone nice. His partner was a girl practically half his height, with short, feathery black hair and cheerful green eyes. She seemed sweet.

Ty didn't have such luck. His obstacle course buddy was tall, nearly as tall as Jack was, but he seemed, to Ty, to be taller than the Empire State building. His huge muscles and unimpressed expression plastered on his tanned face only made Ty feel worse.

Ty had always been lean and slight. But under the glare of the tall, wrestler of a teenager... Ty couldn't help but feel like a toothpick.

"I'm Ty," he introduced himself, desperately trying to stop his knees from shaking.

The towering teenager looked down at Ty. "Dean," was all he said. Ty felt like passing out from sheer fear.

"Okay," Mr Hilton said, standing at the beginning of the obstacle course. "This is how we work it: the pairs enter the course ten seconds from each other, to avoid confusion and tumbles. You must work with your partner to get across all the obstacles... alive."

Ty raising an unsteady hand. Mr Hilton nodded for him to continue. "What if we get hurt?" he asked, trying not to look at his formidable partner.

"Don't," Mr Hilton replied, simply. He blew his whistle and the first team ran off.

On the course, it was mayhem, to say the least.

It was noisy, it was fast, it all happened at once and it was difficult.

Bella had never been too bad at obstacle courses. She always beat the boys, as long as Jack didn't use his super speed and Caleb didn't bounce.

But this one she struggled with, a lot.

The first hurdle was simple: a six-metre high rock wall.

There were no safety harnesses or ropes, though. If you slipped and fell, you fell on a worn and hardened foam mat.

Sara simply flew over it, leaving Bella behind to climb her way up. It took Bella five minutes to get past and onto the next obstruction.

Monkey bars. Plain, metal bars painted red... hanging over a large, fake crater filled with water.

As she clung to the bars, suspended above the water, Bella couldn't help but wonder if they had put sharks in the water...

Sara, again, flew past the bars, this time stopping to hover over Bella. A mean expression on her usually pretty face, Sara flew around Bella like a mini tornado, making the girl dizzy.

Bella lost her grip, near the end; her right hand slipping and leaving her dangling from her strained left arm.

Knowing she was never good at regaining her grip, Bella started swinging herself. Back and forth, until she was a swinging pendulum, clinging to a red, metal bar with her left arm.

When she decided she could make it, she released her grip and fell, straight onto the platform on the other side.

Knowing she was losing time, Bella ran to the next obstacle: a basic chain bridge. It was longer than any chain bridge Bella had seen before, but it was still the easiest part of the course.

All around her, kids flew past as blurs, jumped like human bouncy balls, created bridges of ice and slid along or got far ahead and turned around, just to muck about and mess with the slower kids.

From the chain bridge, Bella could see her friends.

Ethan and the small teenage girl were going along just fine. The girl seemed to be able to control plants, and grew a strong, sturdy vine for her and Ethan to walk across at the monkey bars obstacle.

Caleb was bouncing, happily, on top of the monkey bars, his partner swimming in the water and punching the mechanical sharks that lunged for him.

Bella couldn't see Ty, however. She guessed he had shrunk to his smallest size: she saw how scared he was of his partner. She couldn't figure out what power Dean Lightbody had, though.

Then, she turned and saw Jack and Janie, far in front of her. Bella didn't know what other powers Janie and Sara had, but she knew they both could fly. Janie, though, was happy just to go through the course on foot.

Bella was afraid Jack wouldn't stick with his old friends. After all, technically, he had _inherited_ his powers from his superhero father. His dad was known as a great hero, until his unfortunate death seven years ago.

Jack didn't have to remain an outcast, like his friends. He wasn't _actually_ a gamma accident. He could be one of the popular kids, with Janie and Sara.

Maybe that's what he wanted... Bella shook the thought out her head. Jack was practically her brother. He wouldn't just leave his friends, not for something as trivial as popularity.

Caleb caught up to Bella on the bridge. "Howdy!" he greeted.

Bella smiled. "How's it going with you and Mr That's-Not-Funny?"

Caleb rolled his eyes. "He didn't even smile when I told him the bean joke."

Bella laughed, for his sake. "I love that joke."

Caleb beamed. "Glad to know I'm not losing my sense of humour." He looked around. "Hey, where's your partner?"

Bella pointed to the end of the obstacle course where a smug Sara stood, arms crossed, watching Bella slowly make her way through, alone.

"That's so mean!" Caleb stated, his tone filled with indignation. "She shouldn't do that to you. Mr Hilton said-"

"Don't worry about me, kiddo. This isn't a race."

"But how are you going to make it through the spinning blades? You can only glow, remember?"

She nodded. "I know."

"I'll help you," Caleb offered, earnestly. "My partner doesn't like me anyway. He keeps trying to ditch me. I can-"

Bella again cut him off. "Caleb, thanks, but I... I have to do this on my own."

"What if you get hurt?"

"Well, then I know not to trust flying blondes again."

Caleb knew Bella wanted to end the conversation, so he said nothing more and continued with the course.

###

Bella managed to get past the fire pit and the electric fences with minimum difficulty.

At first, she thought she was finished. She stood, staring at the fire pit below her, dread growing deep inside.

Only when she raised her eyes did she realize a rope hung above the blazing fire pit.

Backing up, Bella psyched herself up, put her head down and ran. She launched herself through the air and snagged the rope, feeling the intense warmth of the fire pit reaching up and heating up her feet within her sneakers. Her heart pounded so hard she could have sworn it was about to burst.

She swung across and landed on the wooden crates on the other side, amazed at how easy the hurdle proved to be.

The electric fences were harder. Ten-foot high, wire fences laced with live electricity towered over Bella. She felt lower than defeated.

Bella stood there, watching flyers fly past, bouncers bounce across and stretchers stretch over, all with confidence but herself feeling afraid and unsure.

Suddenly, it came to her. With a half-smug smile on her face, Bella simply walked _around_ the fences.

When on the other side, and no one having stopped her, Bella continued, gaining confidence with every hurdle passed.

All that confidence evaporated when she was faced with the treacherous, spinning, razor blades.

There was no way around, no way over and almost certainly no way through.

You had to rely solely on your powers or your partner to get you past this one.

There was no way she could make it. Not without her partner, who was still smiling, arrogantly, at the end of the course.

Bella couldn't do it. She could only glow and of what use was a walking nightlight right now?

She couldn't stand there and do nothing, either. She couldn't go back, couldn't leave and couldn't walk through.

She was stuck.

She needed help, she really did, but Sara had left her on her own and Mr Hilton hadn't noticed. Or, maybe he had, but wanted to see Bella perform alone.

She watched the blades, wondering if there was a moment, a split second, that she could slip past.

It wasn't much, but she realized every ten seconds, two blades in the middle spun away from each other just long enough to create a clear path.

Swallowing hard, struggling to keep her heart from bursting and feeling her cheeks burning red, Bella waited for the gap and ran.

The blades were layered; rows and rows of sharp, spinning metal gyrating at lightning speed.

There were small gaps in between the rows of speedily rotating wheels, just big enough for a sixteen-year-old girl, sucking in with all her might, though she had nothing _to_ suck in.

Reaching the first gap, Bella closed her eyes with relief that she was still in one whole piece. She stood rod-straight, her arms at her side, her breathing shallow.

The noise of the spinning metal was deafening. The blades were taller than the teenager, blocking her vision. Shut off from the rest of the world, it felt like she was in total isolation.

Terror rising and determination fading, Bella had to get a move on.

She watched, waited and eventually saw the path clear again. Mustering her fading strength, she darted for the sliver of an opening.

Jack had reached the end of the course with ease. He actually enjoyed it. Janie reunited with her twin and the two started talking excitedly as if they had been separated for decades.

The triplets made it through the course alive, too.

Ty grew back to his normal size and fell to his knees, kissing the polished wood gym floor. "I wasn't killed!" he cried.

Ethan slapped him on the shoulder. "Don't be such a drama queen, dude."

Ty stood up, checked the coast was clear of Dean, nodded and wiped the sweat off his forehead. "You're right, you're right: keep it cool, I got it."

Caleb hugged Jack and fake cried. "I was deprived of people who understand my jokes!" he said. He let go of Jack and straightened up. "Hey, where's Bella?"

Jack was wondering the same thing. He saw Sara and immediately assumed Bella was with her. Looking over at the Cover twins, he realized he was wrong. Bella wasn't there.

The girl that was paired with Ethan gasped and pointed to the last obstacle on the course: the blades.

"What is it, Lacey?" Ethan asked her.

"Isn't that your friend?" she responded.

Bella was caught between rows, horror clearly written in her denim-blue eyes.

The triplets and Jack rushed forward, all knowing only Jack would make it to the paralyzed Bella.

Jack ran, faster than lightning, the blades seeming to slow down as he increased his speed. He flew like a perfectly aimed bullet, over the blades.

Earlier, he flew over the blades with Janie, no problem. He assumed Sara would have assisted Bella with the obstacle.

He knew Bella was going to have a battle with this course. Everyone knew she was far out of her league.

Knowing he would crash if he tried to land, Jack kept up his momentum and swooped down. Grabbing Bella and holding her, bride-style, Jack flew away from the blades.

He hadn't wanted to crash before, but now it was even more important he avoid tumbling: now that he held Bella.

Bella clung to Jack, her arms tightening around his neck, her hands gripping the back of his shirt as if it was the only thing keeping her alive. Her eyes clamped shut, her face buried in his shoulder, it wasn't hard to tell she was scared beyond belief.

"It's okay, you're safe now," Jack said, trying to calm his friend down. Bella didn't respond.

Jack flew out the gym doors, through the locker-lined halls, through the auditorium, through the cafeteria and out the doors, into the bright, early afternoon sunshine, to the open playing field.

It was actually beautiful outside: the sky was bright blue, no sign of clouds, the summer sun warming the earth below.

Jack could land here, he was sure of it. There was so much grass area, he could do it with ease.

Just to be on the safe-side, though, he decreased his altitude and brushed by the bleachers, lowering and placing Bella, safely, on a long, wooden bench.

He then looped around and tried to land, precisely, on the open grass. It didn't work, though. He came down too fast and tumbled, head over heels, rolling like an oversized hamster in a ball, until he crashed into the goal post.

He got to his feet, dizzily, and looked around. He saw grass, trees, the Hero High building and a hysterically laughing Bella sitting in the stands.

"Good thing the track team wasn't out here!" she called, her previous fear ebbing away and laughter taking its place. "You would have been sent to the principal's office for playing human bowling!"

###

The drama of Hero Training behind them, the gamma accidents assembled in the gym to wait for Rust and Audrey.

Audrey arrived, promptly and early, wearing jeans, a simple T-shirt and sneakers with her hair in a ponytail. It was a stark contrast to her usual professional, business-like attire.

"He's not here?" she asked the teenagers.

They shook their heads.

Audrey had hopes, just like everybody else. One of her hopes had always been to meet a real life superhero, and Rust Swift was at the top of her list. She was a young girl when G-4 supposedly went rouge, devastated a city and killed themselves.

When she heard she was going to be the assistant to the amazingly still alive Rust, she was over the moon, to put her reaction mildly.

Her hopes were dashed when she saw Rust, that night at his apartment.

It was sad to see how far the once great hero had fallen.

What was worse was the fact that he couldn't be bothered to help. He couldn't be bothered to get off his lazy backside, train a team of potential superheroes and help a minority group rise from the depths of shame to the heights of heroes.

It made her heart race to think what she was a part of.

Rust, however, didn't share her enthusiasm and was nowhere to be seen.

Audrey tried to hope, she really did. Repeatedly, she told herself that perhaps Rust forgot he wrote the note earlier, or he forgot they were supposed to meet in the gym, or he was attacked by wild, rouge, toxic-waste enhanced squirrels or...

She could think of a million reasons why Rust wasn't there but no matter how plausible or how real they sounded, none of them would be true.

Audrey sighed, disappointedly, and joined the five teenagers hanging around on the bleachers, quietly.

Ethan was reading a book, Bella was drawing on her backpack, Caleb was messing around with a couple of old French fries he had found under the bleachers, Ty was playing a game on his phone and Jack was staring at the big clock on the far side of the gymnasium, watching time pass.

They had been waiting, eagerly, for half an hour. Now, disappointment was beginning to set in.

"He'll be here," Audrey said, reassuringly, though she didn't feel it herself. "He just... maybe... sometimes..." she hung her head. It was no use. "Yeah, I got nothing."

"Do you have a power?" Caleb asked, suddenly. He often blurted out random statements and questions, often saying the very thing everyone wanted to say but no one was brave enough to verbalize.

Audrey nodded, deeply grateful for the change of subject. "Of course. You don't think I could go through Hero High and Hero College without having a superpower... do you?"

Caleb shrugged. "I thought you might be a pilot or something."

"I can't fly a plane," she said.

"Oh," was all Caleb had to say to that.

No one said anything further and the vast gym was filled with the sounds of Ethan flicking pages, Bella sketching, Caleb bashing stale fries into each other and random popping noises coming from Ty's phone.

Rust never showed up.

Eventually, the janitor arrived, ready to clean the gym and get it prepared for Hero Training the next day. He whistled an old tune and backed into the gymnasium, wheeling in a cleaning cart.

Pausing his whistling, he looked up at the teenagers and Audrey.

"Howdy, folks," he said, tipping an invisible hat. "Don't think I've seen you kids around before..." he scratched his chin, racking his brains to see if he could place the faces. He clicked his fingers with recognition. "The gamma accidents, of course!"

"Hi, Darren," Audrey said with a half smile.

Darren the janitor scanned the forlorn faces and sighed, feeling sorry for them.

"You folks' best be getting a move on," he said, understandingly. "Whoever you're waiting for, isn't coming."

Shoulders sagging and hopes dying, Jack, Bella, Ethan, Ty, Caleb and Audrey left the gym and went their separate ways.

The kids drove to the motel in the dark. No one said anything on the way home, each one knowing what the other was thinking but not wanting to hear the thoughts said aloud.

Their greeting was cheerful and uplifting, though.

As soon as Jack parked the jeep, before they had even opened the doors, a very excited Rosie and a smiling Alison greeted them.

Rosie flung herself at her brother and he swung her up, onto his shoulders. The small girl laughed and hugged his neck.

"How was your day?" Alison asked.

"Terrific," Ty replied in a monotone that suggested otherwise.

Alison knew, immediately, that the day hadn't gone off as nicely as everyone had wanted it to. "What happened?" she questioned as the group headed to their rooms in the motel.

"I now know what it feels like to be inside a blender," Bella mumbled as she set her backpack down by the door.

"That really doesn't sound good," Alison said, frowning sincerely.

"Did you catch the bad guy?" Rosie asked her big brother, eagerly.

He reached up and ruffled her hair from her spot on his shoulders. "Nah. We didn't find him."

The group entered the girls' room. Alison headed straight for the kitchen. "What else happened?" she asked, not turning around as she searched the cupboards for mugs.

"I made an enemy," Ty stated, sitting down on the couch and taking off his sneakers.

"Dean Lightbody?" Bella questioned.

Ty nodded. "He had this mean look on his face, like he was trying to decide if he should kill me now or wait for later."

The other teenagers laughed, despite their friend's genuine fear. "You're kidding, right? That's ridiculous!" Caleb said.

"He never said more than two words to you," Ethan pointed out. "How on _Earth_ did you get the impression he wants to kill you?"

"Because I heard this kid saying, at lunchtime, to be careful and steer clear of Dean Lightbody," Ty told his brother. "He killed a kid with his _thumb_ when he was in fifth grade."

"That's just gossip," Bella said, shaking her head disapprovingly. "Don't listen to a word of it."

"I'm just going to keep my distance," Ty said, ending the conversation by walking to the bathroom and shutting the door.

"Okay... besides Hero Training and meeting scary kids, how was your day?" Alison enquired, filling the kettle.

Jack set Rosie down on a chair and leaned against the kitchen counter. "No one likes gamma accidents," he started. "The teachers have powers, the janitor whistles songs from the 70's and Rust never showed up."

"Oh, you must be so disappointed," Alison commiserated, pausing the preparation of hot chocolate to look up at her son, the triplets and Bella with genuine concern.

She was correct: everyone was disappointed.

The teenagers felt downtrodden, defeated and alone. Alison was worried about them. This was their dream and now it was crushing their hopes.

Someone had to say something to lift the spirits. Reflecting on the happenings of the day, though there had been good moments, there truly was not much to be uplifted by.

"Tomorrow is another day," Jack said, trying to sound reassuring.

###

The kids decided it was time to change tactic.

"Today," Jack announced as he and his friends entered the school, walking shoulder to shoulder. "We're making friends. One way or another, by the end of this day, we are going to be liked by someone, anyone."

Ethan, Ty, Caleb and Bella each raised an eyebrow in scepticism.

"And you _really_ think that's going to work?" Ty questioned. "Look around: people look at us the way you look at something your cat drags in and hides under your bed."

The gang very rarely listened to Ty's hysterical exaggerations. However, this time, he was right.

Harsh, cold stares stabbed the gamma accidents from every direction as they looked around. Conversations were interrupted, laughter died and all eyes fell on the five teenagers standing in the middle of the entrance corridor.

"At this rate, the only friend we're ever going to have is Mr Shakes," Ethan whispered, loudly, to his friends and brothers.

The awkward silence ended and the students went back to pretending the gamma accidents didn't exist.

Janie and Sara walked past the gamma accidents. Janie paused to wink and wave, but her sister retained her look of arrogant indifference. She would never apologize to Bella for her behaviour the day before.

"Let's get to class," Caleb said, bouncing through the halls like an out of control bouncy ball.

The morning flew by, and the dreaded lunch hour arrived.

The gamma accidents had no idea how lunchtime would go today, but they suspected it would begin and end the same way as their last.

The five teenagers grabbed trays and joined the shuffling lunch queue.

Jack's father had quite a few photo albums filled with pictures of his days at Hero High. When he was just a young child, Jack would spend hours memorizing the pictures until he had an image of the school for future heroes as clear as day in his mind's eye.

Although there had been a number of renovations, Summer Valley Hero High was exactly as it had been all those years ago.

Hero High was just like any normal school, and that's what the kids liked about it.

And, as the lunch-ladies slapped mounds of unappetizing goo, it was nice to know the food hadn't changed either.

"Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if this is the leftovers from the nineties," Ty whispered to his friends, making them smile.

The lunch-ladies looked down their noses at the students, some of which cowered. No one should have felt offended by these looks, though, as every student since the founding of Hero High had received them.

Moving down the cue and sliding their trays along with them, the gamma accidents came to the first lunch lady.

She scooped a large lump of what was _called_ lasagne on each student's tray, unenthusiastically.

"What power do you have?" cheerful Caleb asked as the lunch lady automatically sloshed the unappetizing mixture on his tray.

He had become obsessed with learning everyone's powers and blurted the question out whenever a captive audience presented itself.

The lunch lady's thick, dark eyebrows, which probably hadn't moved for decades, shot up in shock. Students never spoke to them, ever, with few exceptions.

Totally bewildered, she asked, "Why do you want to know?"

Caleb shrugged, like it was no big deal. "I'm curious by nature."

The lunch-lady, blinking in amazement at the young boy, answered his initial question. "Um... temperature control. I can change the temperature of anything."

Caleb smiled. "That's cool," he replied, earnestly. "I bounce."

The lunch lady nodded, slowly. Caleb started moving down the line. "Enjoy your day!" he cheered.

"Thanks," she said, though Caleb didn't hear it.

Again, the kids tried to join an already occupied table but the teens rudely got up and left, not saying a single word.

Ty sniffed his shirt. "Maybe we stink," he suggested.

"Speak for yourself, I smell like fish-shaped soap," Caleb declared, smugly.

"You know, 'gamma accident' is not a contagious disease," Ethan stated, loudly, hoping to inform his fellow students.

"True, but it is a good way to get a clear table," Bella said, her eyes sparkling with laughter.

"Forget them," Jack said, waving a dismissive hand. "They can think what they like."

"Yeah, we know," Bella admitted. "But it's more fun if you make fun of them behind their backs."

"Grace and tact are some of your more admirable qualities, I see," Ty said, rolling his eyes. He plunged at the food on his plate with his plastic cutlery but found his fork bouncing off so hard, it flew right out his hand. Hysterically, he gestured to the repulsive food on his tray. "Who makes this food? The Rubber and Assorted Bouncy Stuff warehouse?"

Caleb's eyes grew wide. "I should work there," he said.

Bella jerked her thumb in the direction of the lunch-ladies. "Take it up with them," she said to Ty.

"I would, but-" Ty began but was interrupted by an ominous shadow falling across his tray.

He turned around, slowly, to see who the shadow belonged to.

Towering over him was a tall, teenage boy wearing neat jeans and a freshly pressed white shirt with a fresh splat of lasagne smeared across the fabric. In his fist was a plastic fork, the same plastic fork that had bounced off Ty's food.

"Who do you think you are?" the tall teenager demanded. "Do you know who I am?"

"Which one do you want me to answer first?" Ty questioned, unable to resist.

"You must be really upset," Ethan said, trying to defuse the situation, "but my brother didn't mean to-"

"You think you gamma accidents can insult Alexander Delaney Junior, the son of the greatest superhero to ever save Tokyo?" the boy said, outraged.

"He can't be that great if I've never heard of him," Ty said before he could stop himself.

The comment only served to double Alexander's anger.

He lunged at Ty, who instantly shrank to the size of a paperclip. He scrambled along the bench and leapt off, landing perfectly on the linoleum like a gymnast.

To cover further distance, Ty grew to his original size and took off like a rocket, seeing Alexander was pursuing him.

"He must be one of those popular kids Janie told us about," Bella whispered to Jack as the genetic super-powered teenager took off in pursuit of Ty.

"Man, he just thinks he's the bee's knees, doesn't he?" Ethan agreed, struggling with the straw for his juice box.

"Shouldn't we help Ty?" Caleb asked, concerned.

The others shrugged, nonchalantly. "Nah, he got himself into this one, he'll have to get himself out," Ethan said, conquering the juice box.

Meanwhile, Ty was running, regretting ever coming to Hero High.

Ty was a fast runner. He didn't have super speed like Jack but he was fast, for a normal person.

"Get back here!" Alexander screamed.

"Ha! What am I, an idiot? Do you really think I'm going to slow down so you can beat me up?" Ty called over his shoulder. He should have kept his mouth shut, but his comebacks couldn't be contained.

Ty had no idea what Alexander's power was, but he at least knew it wasn't speed or else he'd be finished.

He raced up the stairs to the second floor and zigzagged around corners until he was sure he had lost the jerk.

Unsure if it would be safe to head back to the cafeteria, he kept running.

He blindly skidded around a corner and slammed into an unsuspecting student.

Sprawled like a frightened spider, Ty looked up at the solid student still standing like a brick wall.

He nearly passed out when he saw it was none other than Dean Lightbody.

Ty's already pounding heart skipped a couple of beats from sheer fear.

He started screaming, and nothing would get him to stop. He scrambled to his feet, stumbling and falling over thin air.

Like an uncoordinated cartoon character, Ty began running again. Practically falling over his own feet, Ty raced to get far away from his latest pursuer.

He rushed to the boys' bathrooms. Sure Dean would burst in any second, Ty shot into a stall, locked the door, climbed onto the closed toilet lid and shrank to his smallest size.

He hid there, listening to footsteps and doors opening and closing, biding his time.

He had made a huge mistake. Well, actually, he had made two mistakes.

First, he had accidentally angered one of the most popular kids in school.

Second, he ran into the notorious Dean Lightbody.

He had only been going to Hero High for a day and a half, but he had heard all the rumours.

Dean Lightbody, the bully, the criminal, the villain.

Rumour had it he was only ten when he killed a kid... with his thumb. His dad was an infamous villain and his mother was a pro-wrestler. They say he drank poison... for breakfast.

No one could ever say what his power was, though. Nevertheless, Ty knew it had to be something sinister.

He was terrified of the guy. If he found him, here in this toilet cubicle, there was no telling how bad Ty's injuries would be...

He hugged his miniature legs closer. He could just hide here. No one would miss him for a few hours, anyway. He just wanted to remain in his little hiding spot, just until school was over.

###

After Hero Training, they hit the showers. Then the triplets, Jack and Bella returned to the gym, waiting for Rust, whom they knew wouldn't show up on time.

Audrey waited with them, again. The kids were disappointed, but Audrey was irritated and fed up.

Rust didn't want to do this. She knew that. But it was his duty, and she still held a hope, deep down inside her, that the old hero in Rust still understood duty.

Darren the janitor walked into the gym, whistling to a tune playing on his portable radio just like the day before. This had been his lonely routine for the past ten years so he was still shocked to lift his head and see teenagers hanging out on the benches.

"Still a no show?" he asked, leaning on the broom sticking out of the cleaning cart.

"What do you think?" Bella replied, sadly, resting her elbows on her knees and resting her chin in her hands.

Darren studied the gamma accidents. They really weren't like the other students. There was something different about these kids and he could feel it. So, he abandoned his cleaning cart and joined them on the bleachers, something he would never have done with other students.

He pulled a bag of chocolate covered peanuts out the pocket of his cleaning overalls. "Want some? They get stuck in your teeth but the chocolate is worth it."

"Thanks," a glum Caleb said as he reached his hand in the packet and pulled out a handful. "At least _something_ is coming from all this waiting."

Darren examined the faces of the solemn teenagers. He knew full well what disappointment felt like and decided to try and cheer them up.

He balanced a small, chocolate covered peanut on his thumb and flicked the sweet through the air, cheering as it hit the far wall.

"Now you try," he said, grinning and nudging Caleb.

He looked confused. "But that's making a mess," he pointed out. "You'd have to clean it up afterwards."

Darren waved a careless hand. "I'll let the night guy get it."

"I thought _you_ were the n-" Bella began.

"Throw the peanut and make an underpaid janitor happy," Darren interrupted.

For hours, the janitor, the teenagers and even Audrey, occupied themselves with a pointless peanut tossing competition.

The silly competition did the trick, though: it managed to uplift their sagging spirits.

Eventually Rust showed up. Nobody knew exactly how late it was but it had been dark outside for hours. It was so late, the teens had fallen asleep on the benches.

Rust clapped his hands together, loudly, and abruptly woke the snoozing teenagers. He faced the wide-eyed, tired but now alert teens sitting on the bleachers and rubbed his hands. "Okay, where do we begin?"

Audrey, who moments earlier had been dreaming with the others, groggily stormed down the bleachers and grabbed Rust's ear, yanking him behind her as she escorted him out the gym to the corridor for a talking to like none other.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked him, an edge of pure anger creeping into her sleepy voice.

Rust, rubbing his sore ear, looked confused. "Training. I could have sworn you were there when Urban-"

"Don't swear," Audrey interrupted. "And you are doing nothing. Where have you been? You didn't show up yesterday and today you come late. You need to be here, training these kids. They agreed to this _willingly_. Don't make them regret what they've decided to leave their town, their homes, and their families for."

"Yeah, well, I _didn't_ choose to come willingly. No one even asked me what I wanted."

"What do you want?" Audrey questioned, glaring over the rim of her glasses and crossing her arms.

Rust opened and closed his mouth, trying to consider his words. "I want... I want to be left alone."

Audrey sighed. "Rust, right now, this isn't about you. It's about these kids. It's about potentially saving the world. It's about change."

Rust didn't say anything more.

"Look," Audrey continued. "Just do this. Get serious and train these kids, help them find the villain and then you can go back to just existing in that run-down apartment in that shabby, downtown excuse for a neighbourhood."

"That's-" Rust tried but failed.

Audrey carried on. "But, let's just leave it today. These kids are bombed. Hero Training didn't go so well for them yesterday. Bella almost got sliced by the blades."

Rust didn't even flinch. This only infuriated Audrey further.

"Listen, bud," she said, dropping what was left of her professional attitude. "You better start caring because-"

Rust held up his hands in surrender. "Alright, tomorrow, I'll get serious and be on time."

Audrey looked him up and down. "You better, or else your life will not be worth living. Remember, we know where you live..."

As promised, Rust showed up on time the next day.

"Okay," he said, as introduction. "Today, I'm going to start training you."

"You were supposed to start training us on Monday," Bella pointed out, flatly.

"Forget that," Rust replied. "A Wednesday is as good as any Monday, if not better.

"I saw your powers demonstrated on Friday," he continued. "But I want to know what your limits are. Hop on down here and show me what you've _really_ got. So... which sucker's going first?"

The kids glanced at each other and pushed unfortunate Ty forward, sending him stumbling to the middle of the gym floor.

"You know I hate that game!" Ty moaned at his friends.

"Go on, I won't bite," Rust said. "Show me what you got."

Ty took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and shrunk as small as he could, until he was only an inch high.

Rust bent down in front of the minuscule teenager. "Impressive. Can you _increase_ your size as well as decrease it?"

Ty expanded to his regular size. "Nope," he replied.

"We'll work on that later," Rust said, waving him away. He addressed the others. "Little known fact about gamma accidents: they have full-potential power the day they are born. Unlike mutants, whose powers can fade or increase as time goes by, gamma accidents have their complete power from day one. They just might need a bit of training to realize their full potential.

"Bella, I know you can glow in the dark, but can you light up in broad daylight?" Rust asked.

Bella shook her head. "It has to be dark enough for cheap, plastic, glow-in-the-dark stars to work before I glow."

He turned to Caleb. "I saw you bounce... can you splat?"

"No, I just bounce."

"Ethan, I saw you turn into a hologram, which enabled you to change your appearance. Can't you turn solid?"

"I've tried: no."

"And Jack... exactly _what_ powers do you have?"

"Flight, speed, X-ray vision, lazer eyes, enhanced senses, strength and above average recovery time."

"So, you're not invincible," Rust stated.

"He broke his arm falling out a tree when he was seven!" Caleb announced, eagerly.

"Right, I have my work cut out for me. You see, you kids have had no previous training with your powers. All the kids here have had education on how to be heroes from young. Training you kids to your full potential is going to take a while, but if you're willing to put in the hours, I'll see if I can't get you up to standard."

The kids shrugged. How hard was this going to be?

###

"I can't feel my arms," Ethan moaned as he flopped down on Rosie's bed.

"You can't stay on my bed," Rosie informed him.

"Forget it," he replied, not even lifting his head to look at the girl. "I'm never moving again!"

"Amen to that!" Bella declared as she sprawled out on the couch.

The other boys found spots on the beds and, for poor Caleb, the floor.

He was so tired, the moment they walked through the door, he just fell forwards onto the rough carpet. Normally, he would have involuntarily bounced back to his feet, but even his bounce was worn out.

"You guys look really beat," Rosie said, pointing out the obvious.

"We've just endured two weeks of pure agony, misery and torture," Ty told her, climbing off the bed to get an ice pack from the freezer.

"You can't begin to understand what we've been through," Caleb said, his face still planted in the carpet, muffling his words.

"What has that Rust done to you?" Alison asked, picking her way through the fallen teenagers to shut the door.

Jack mustered the strength to sit up straight. "He's been training us for, like, five hours at a time."

"We don't get breaks!" Caleb yelled into the carpet.

"And the exercises aren't exactly easy, either," Ethan said.

Alison crossed her arms, tilted her head and sighed as she examined the wreckage. The teenagers sure looked exhausted, and she was fully aware of the hard time the other kids were giving them.

"I can't say it'll be any better tomorrow," Alison said, honestly. "And I can't say you'll learn to enjoy it. But, something I _can_ say, is everything works out in the end. If it didn't, well, we wouldn't have a story to tell, now would we?"

Audrey couldn't believe the man she had been assigned to assist.

He didn't show up the first day for training. The next day he arrived, sure, but at eleven forty-five p.m.

Then, he started taking the situation seriously and pushed the kids to their limits. Correction, he pushed the kids _past_ their limits.

Audrey had many words to say to the once-great hero. Some were not so complimentary, but she still heard them rattling around her busy mind.

The teens had gone home that night, barely able to lift their feet. Rust was pressing them to the point of breaking.

A reasonable, optimistic side of Audrey was saying, "Maybe he doesn't know what he's doing, maybe he's forgotten kids can only take so much before they crack."

But the other side of Audrey, the side that was starting to understand people's _true_ colours, could tell Rust was doing what he was doing on purpose. He _wanted_ to break those kids. If they cracked and went home, feeling like this was far beyond them, then he could go home and forget the rest of humanity existed.

And, what was infuriating Audrey to the point she was pacing around the corridors of Hero High: Rust didn't care about _anything_.

He didn't care about the teens, he didn't care about people, he didn't care about Hero High, he didn't care about the future and he didn't care about himself.

The world ending, heroes dying out and humanity ceasing to exist didn't motivate him in the least.

Getting back to his life as a recluse did.

Rust was there, in the cafeteria, helping himself to leftover deep-fried pasta.

Audrey wanted to punch him. It took every fibre of her being to resist the urge.

She took deep breaths to calm herself down until she could at least unknot her facial expression.

She walked across the room, weaving around tables, until she was standing in front of Rust. She crossed her arms and cleared her throat.

"I heard you come in," Rust said, not looking up. He tapped his ear. "Super hearing, remember?"

"Well, good, then you'll hear every word I'm about to say."

Rust didn't turn around. "Is this going to be another lecture on how I should care more?"

"Listen, I know you don't care about anything. I get it. But that doesn't mean you have to run those kids into the ground! Hero Training is hard enough on them as it is, you testing their limits for five hours at a time is going overboard."

Rust rolled his eyes. "Kids these days. It was _way_ harder in my day. I'm going soft on-"

"Don't give me that," Audrey interjected. "You are being harsh on them. It's not right. There's still a villain teacher at large in this school and if he catches on to what Mr Danger is doing by enrolling gamma accidents, we're all in big trouble. These kids are eager to learn and willing to take everything you throw at them. But be nice. So, yes, this is a lecture on how you should care more. I know you don't care about yourself or what happens to you. I know you lost your family, eighteen years ago. But you have to get out of this funk and realize that you have a chance to change things. Those kids are total outcasts. They have made no friends. They need someone to be on their side."

Rust didn't reply.

"If you can't be anything, then be on their side."

Audrey stalked out the cafeteria, grateful she had gotten all that off her chest.

She still felt something nagging inside her, though.

She turned around, stomped back and abruptly slapped Rust over the side of the head.

She didn't mean to hurt him, and she knew he wouldn't feel it as bad as a normal person would.

"What was that for?" a surprised Rust asked as Audrey again turned to leave.

" _That_ was for being a jerk."

###

Rust had gone from totally unconcerned about their existence, to jam-packing as much training into as small a time as possible.

Jack wouldn't be lying if he said he was less then excited for another day of training torture with Rust Swift.

At first, it was exciting to get down to doing what they had moved six hours away from their home to do. But, what at first seemed like just a bit of hard work, turned out to be Rust's way of doing his job but at the same time making sure everyone knew he was not enjoying it.

Hours of flying and crashing, blasting targets with lazers, running hundreds and hundreds of laps around the gym in under two minutes while balancing two and a half hundred tonnes on his shoulders, and straining to listen to someone's singing in the shower (in Japan) had taken its toll on him.

His friends, likewise, were exhausted.

Caleb had bounced until he hit his head on the high ceiling, Ethan had turned into holograms until he couldn't hold a solid form for long without going fuzzy, Ty had shrunk so small, at one point no one could find him.

Bella had had a breakthrough, though. She managed to control her glowing to the point that she could light up in broad daylight.

The only problem was Bella still hadn't figured out how to stop herself from glowing in the dark.

On top of the hours of training they received, the teenagers had to endure the hurtful glares, sly comments and rude actions from the prejudiced students of Hero High.

Shoulders sagging from both pain and dread, the five teenagers stepped into the vast gymnasium, struggling to prepare themselves for the agonizing torture they anticipated lay ahead.

Standing in the middle of the court, arms folded across his chest, Rust watched the teenagers unenthusiastically drop their backpacks by the doors and drag their feet up the bleachers.

"Today," Rust began, speaking loud enough for his voice to bounce off the walls. "We're doing something a little different."

Immediately, the kids groaned.

"Here it comes," Ty said, sounding terrified, as he crouched on the floor with his arms over his head for protection.

"I think we've done enough training _indoors_ but not enough training _outdoors_. Who agrees we take this party outside for a change?"

To be honest, the kids were getting sick and tired of the gym. Maybe it would be fun to go outside for a change...

So, the teenagers, Audrey and Rust left the air-conditioned school and stepped out onto the open playing field.

It felt good to be out in the sunshine, under the flawless blue sky, a soft summer breeze drifting past every now and then. The group was not alone. Sticking to a corner of the vast field, the school's football team practised for an upcoming away game. The coach's drill orders could be heard clearly all the way across the field.

"So, what are we doing today?" Caleb asked, his energetic spirit returning the moment the sun hit his tanned skin.

Rust slipped two fingers in between his lips and whistled, shrilly. The coach stopped giving orders and looked his way. Rust waved him over.

The coach, followed by his team, crossed the playing field to where Rust and the teenagers stood. Audrey left for the bleachers.

"This is Coach Hoffman," Rust introduced the serious, muscular football coach. "And this is his team, the High Heroes," he gestured to the team of teenage boys. Some were tall, some were short, some were broad and some were skinny. The only thing matching about the team were their blue and black football uniforms and bulky gear.

"Are we playing football?" Ty asked, uncertainly. He was useless at any sport that involved a ball.

"I'm training you to save the world, not win a touch-down," Rust informed the kids. "I just needed the team for an... exercise."

The kids exchanged glances, waiting for their punishment.

"We need to do a bit of teamwork training," Rust explained. "Not just for you, the team could use it, too. Who has the duffel bag?"

One of the football players threw a medium sized duffel bag Rust's way. The former hero caught the bag with ease. "It doesn't weigh that much, don't worry," he said. "Now, this is how we're going to do this thing. In simple terms, we have two teams, two goals: you boys understand that, right?"

The High Heroes nodded their heads, making their bulky helmets jiggle.

Ethan raised a hand. "Um, for those of us that _don't_ play a sport, what do we do?"

"The objective of this exercise is to get this bag to your goal using any means possible. Use your powers, use your teammate's powers, or use a stick for all I care. Just get this bag to your goal first. Oh, and don't get killed."

"What's in the bag?" Ty questioned.

"You can find out, when you win," Rust said. "Now, play ball!"

"Isn't that a baseball term?" Bella asked with no reply as the two teams took their positions in the middle of the field, the duffel bag lying on the grass in the middle.

"Man, this is going to be _beyond_ easy," Ethan said, an eager grin spreading across his face.

Man, he was _beyond_ wrong.

As soon as Coach Hoffman blew his whistle, the chaos erupted like a prehistoric, angry volcano.

The High Heroes rushed at the gamma accidents, who stood, unsure of where to go or what to do.

Everyone was instantly tackled to the ground. Caleb was the only one left standing. How he had managed to avoid being pinned to the grass, he wasn't sure, but he could use it to his advantage.

"Get the bag!" Jack yelled to Caleb as he struggled to get the six hundred pounds of football players off him.

"Oh, right!" Caleb bounced away from the pile-up and lunged for the bag. He snatched it right out the hands of a running football player.

"Sorry!" he called over his shoulder and as he reversed direction and hopped away.

He steadied himself and prepared for a giant leap. He waited too long, though, as a player came up from behind and grabbed the bag.

Jack freed himself and helped his friends, too. He quickly looked around, trying to see where Caleb and the bag were. He saw Caleb, but no bag.

"There!" Bella pointed across the field, to the opposing team's goal. A player was advancing towards it, fast.

Jack jumped into the air and flew, like a bolt of lightning, cutting across the field in under a second. He swooped down and scooped up the duffel bag before the football player could realize.

Jack flew back and was about to drop the duffel bag by his goal when he was suddenly paralyzed. He couldn't move and dropped to the ground like a lead weight.

"Hey! What gives?" Jack demanded, thankful he could still feel and move his head.

He glanced down and saw he was not paralyzed but rather frozen, with ice. The football player who had iced him laughed as he snagged the duffel and bolted for his goal.

Using his enhanced might, Jack broke the ice and stood up. "Well, that was the first time I didn't crash by myself," he muttered.

The High Hero with the duffel bag was feeling pretty satisfied with himself as he ran towards his goal. He shrieked as a Godzilla-like monster stomped in front of him.

He dropped the bag out of sheer terror and stood, stock-still.

The reptilian monster shrunk down and turned into Ethan, who picked up the duffel bag and ran away.

"Wow, the party trick gets better!" Bella marvelled.

Ethan ran past Bella and tossed the bag to her. She caught it, her eyes lighting up with pure surprise.

"Well, okay then, I guess I have the bag," she said to herself as she started running, the only girl on the field, to the goal.

Ty started running alongside her for protection.

"Are you trying to protect me and the bag or are you trying to get me to protect you?" Bella asked as they ran together for the goal.

"Uh... the first one, yeah, _definitely_ the first one," Ty said.

"Sure, whatever," Bella rolled her eyes. She gasped. "Incoming! Dumb jock at nine o' clock!" she exclaimed as a bulky player barrelled towards the pair.

He seized the bag, the force knocking Bella to the ground.

"No one knocks our Bella down," Ty said, determination to protect the girl making him brave.

He ran, fast, until he caught up with the football player that currently had the bag. When he was a few feet behind him, he jumped, as high as he could and, while in midair, shrunk. He fell through the air like a tiny pebble and landed on the football player's thick shoulder pad.

"Excuse me, but how much would you hate it if I ran inside your ear and the danced the hokey-pokey right now?" Ty asked.

"What?" the football player faltered and looked around, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. He couldn't see anyone.

Before he began running again, he felt the most unexpected, unpleasant, outrageous tickling sensation in his ear.

He screeched like a little girl and batted at his ear, struggling to get the tickling sensation to stop.

Rust chuckled, sitting on the bleachers with Audrey and watching the commotion unfold below. Ty was clearly in another teenager's ear, Ethan was using his hologram powers to mess with a kid that could turn into rock, Caleb was bouncing away from a flyer, and Jack and Bella seemed to be playing chicken with about four High Heroes.

Rust grinned and said, " _Now_ we're having fun."

###

Ty, being thrown around like a rag doll inside the football player's ear, decided he had done enough. Waiting for an opening, he jumped out the hysterical teenager's ear and returned to his normal size, grabbed the bag and ran for it.

"Hey, Jack, catch!" Ty yelled as he threw the duffel through the air and over the heads of many High Heroes, only to have one of them stretch his elastic arms and snag it right out of the air.

"Terrific," Ty grumbled.

Jack pursued the High Hero now in possession of the bag. As he got closer, the player threw the bag to another player, one with super speed like Jack.

Jack tried to catch up to him, but soon realized they were just running endless circles around each other.

Bella noticed. She ran to the circular blur that was Jack and another football player. She couldn't tell which blur was Jack and which blur was the High Hero, but, either way, she stood in their path.

Jack saw her coming and slowed down, stopping unnoticed by his opponent. The High Hero stopped right in front of Bella, barely a foot away.

"Don't worry, it'll wear off in a minute," Bella informed the High Hero.

"What will?" he asked, confused.

"This," she replied, lifting her hands and lighting them up in front of him, just close enough to dazzle him with a bright, orange glow. She would never harm anyone for long.

He dropped the bag out of sheer surprise, and Jack grabbed it.

It was a straight run from there.

The five teens were positioned so perfectly on the field, they could get the bag to their goal with no trouble.

As the football players scrambled to catch up and grab the bag, Jack threw it to Bella.

A ring of High Heroes surrounded Bella. She lit up, brighter than she had ever lit up before, and stunned them all.

She then threw the duffel to Ethan.

A player ran forward, meaning to tackle Ethan, who turned into a hologram, causing the player to tackle thin air.

He threw it to Caleb.

Caleb bounced a little closer to the goal and threw it to Ty, who was right next to the goal.

Ty nearly dropped it and lost the game but he recovered and sprinted the last few feet, throwing the duffel bag on the grass by the goal.

"Oh, yes, that's right: I'm amazing!" Ty chanted, breaking out in a badly choreographed victory dance.

The other team was defeated, but they still had their captain shake hands with Jack. "Good game," the captain said.

"You guys put up a good fight," Jack said, good-naturedly.

Four football players rushed up to Bella and picked her up, carrying her on their shoulders like the champion.

"Okay, you guys can put me down now... hey, come on, I beat you, put me down and lose like real men!" Bella cried with a smile on her face.

The players set her down. They towered above her. "That was amazing," one of them told her.

"Yeah," one of his friends agreed. "You guys were totally out-numbered."

"All I want to know," Ty said as he joined Bella. "Is: what is inside that bag?"

Rust picked the duffel the bag up off the ground and unzipped it, unceremoniously revealing the contents.

"Dirty socks, are you kidding me?" Caleb exclaimed. He calmed down in an instant and shrugged. "I guess that's why it was so light."

"We risked our lives for _laundry_?" Ty seemed slightly hysterical. "I CRAWLED INSIDE A JOCK'S _EAR_ FOR LAUNDRY?!"

A muscular, tall High Hero towered menacingly over Ty. "So _you're_ the guy..."

Ty laughed, sounding strangled. "About that..." and before he could say another word, he started running across the field, the football player chasing after him.

"Not all victories are glorious," Rust told the kids.

"So... is that the deep, philosophical lesson to be learnt from all this?" Ethan asked.

"Nah, not really," Rust admitted. "But you guys did use your powers, you did work together and you won! So I think we can go home satisfied with ourselves."

As the High Heroes and their coach left, the kids retrieved Ty (who had managed to hide up a tree) and everyone went their separate ways, Audrey smiled at Rust.

"Good job," she commended, giving him a pat on the back. She had noticed a small smile creep onto Rust's face during the exercise and realized that it was still there.

She was pretty sure that was the first time he had _genuinely_ smiled since he was shot with the tranquilizer.

"You're enjoying this now, aren't you?" she probed.

Rust tried to wipe the smile off his face. He failed. "What on Earth gives you that idea?"

"You like those kids," she told him as they watched the five teenagers messing with one another and walk off to the car park.

"I don't like anyone," Rust said and left.

Audrey shook her head and sighed to herself. He did like those kids: his very stating the opposite only confirmed it.

Maybe it wasn't _completely_ impossible to change Rust Swift...

###

Training with Rust for the next two weeks became easier and enjoyable. He still pushed the kids to their limits, but once they were there, he stopped.

He also focussed more on training them as a _team_. He had to hand it to Mr Danger: choosing kids that already knew each other was a fantastic idea. There were no trust issues whatsoever.

When Rust told Bella to jump off the Hero High building to be caught by her boys, she just closed her eyes and tipped forward without a second thought, a look of complete faith on her face as she fell.

They cooperated perfectly, too.

When Rust set them off on a search and rescue mission, they worked together, listening to Jack's orders and using each other's strengths to find the buried puppet behind the school gym.

And they looked out for each other. This was proven whenever they had to run. One of the boys _always_ picked Bella up (much to her irritation) and carried her with them as they ran. Sometimes they carried her like a bride, other times they carried her like a rag doll, slung over their shoulder.

"You know I can run, too, right?" Bella questioned as Caleb set her down after flinging her over his shoulder and running across the gym as the team was chased by a toy monster truck. She fixed up her ruffled clothing and redid her messy ponytail. "I appreciate you guys looking out for me, but I hate being man-handled! Honestly..."

The boys immediately started apologizing. To show she meant the complaint to be taken as a joke, she laughed.

"Thanks," she said to Caleb.

Rust sat on the bleachers and watched as the kids laughed together. Maybe Audrey was right; maybe he _was_ beginning to like this band of goofy, uncoordinated but, at times, endearing teenagers.

As he sat in silence, transfixed by their playful antics, he found his mind remembering the very memories he had managed to bury deep within his mind years ago.

In his mind's eye, he saw his brothers and his sister.

Before he knew it, the scene before him melted into a movie from two decades ago. Rust had taken it upon himself to train himself and his siblings into true superheroes.

He could see the old stadium he, his brothers and sister snuck into to train.

He lost himself as he watched an overconfident eighteen-year-old Jason, running circles around the old stadium, moving so fast, he became a blur. He called for Rust to race him.

Sixteen-year-old William, who loved to mess with his siblings, could manipulate gravity. He floated far above his family, reading a comic book, disinterested in Rust's training methods.

The youngest of the Swift kids, fifteen-year-old, Carla, balanced expertly on an old snowboard as she created a stream of hard, colourful light from her hands and rode it like an icy slope.

"Faster, Jason!" a nineteen-year-old Rust called as he shot ahead of his younger brother.

Jason, determined to beat his brother, lowered his head and struggled to increase his speed. He managed to get fast enough to run alongside Rust. Neither brother could overtake the other: they had long ago realized their maximum speeds were the same.

They were running, egging each other on in the classic brotherly fashion, until Jason hit a wall.

Sprawled like an uncoordinated gymnast on the worn concrete, Jason looked up and blinked, dazed.

Will groaned and rubbed his head, sprawled out in a similar fashion across the arena.

"I'd say watch where you're going," Will said. "Because... come on, how could you not see me? I was floating!"

"Will, that was stupid," Jason chided his younger brother. He offered his brother a hand up.

Rust slowed down, laughing.

A swirl of solid, yellow light spun around the three brothers. Carla slid along the curving light path she had created and jumped off, landing on the ground with her snowboard. As soon as she was off the path of light, the light disappeared.

Rust still saw their smiles, he still heard their laughs, and he still felt their joy.

He could still see them. Blue-eyed, brown-haired, overconfident and competitive Jason, leaner than Rust, he looked like an Olympian runner.

Mischievous little Will with his black hair and grey eyes, he looked so similar to Rust, only shorter.

Determined but always fun loving, Carla was the baby of the family. With her long, dark hair and long-lashed eyes, she truly was beautiful: all the girls envied her and all the boys chased after her. Of course, Rust, Jason and Will _always_ chased them away.

"Rust."

"Hey, Rust."

"Yo, Rust! Are you sleeping with your eyes open?"

The memory of his brothers and sister dissolved and Rust was back in the gym, facing the kids that reminded him, painfully, of his former team.

Rust rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, I'm awake," he said. As he drifted off for a trip down memory lane, the kids had joined him on the bleachers. "What do you want?"

"Well, Ethan heard some kids talking by the lockers," Caleb began. "They were talking about some kind of school dance this weekend. Is there really a school dance this weekend?"

"It's not a dance," Rust clarified. "I mean, yes, there will be music, punch and everyone is expected to dress formally, but it's more of a... welcome ceremony, let's call it."

"Who are we welcoming?" Bella asked.

Audrey, who had just entered the gym, caught onto the conversation and decided to join. "The new Global Director, Urban Danger," she said, excitedly. "He's visiting Summer Valley Hero High and we're giving him a welcome he won't forget!"

As Audrey went on to explain formal dress, chaperones and refreshments, Rust managed to excuse himself, quietly. He left the gym, unnoticed.

The kids were starting to remind him of his late team. The happy memories those smiling, determined kids brought back left Rust in pain.

He had lost everything.

He didn't want to remember that.

###

Audrey was smiling and dancing down the corridor of the motel Rust was staying in.

It was working. It was _actually_ working.

The kids were making break-throughs, Rust was training them properly and it was only a matter of time before the villainous teacher was uncovered.

And she could see the extraordinary changes in Rust. Though he was still closed with certain subjects and at times kept all conversations away from personal experiences, he was beginning to open up. He was starting to care about something more than broken suspensions, flat batteries or combustion engines. Even if he never said it, Audrey saw he cared about Jack, Ethan, Ty, Caleb and Bella.

Audrey saw Rust smile for the first time, two weeks ago, and he hadn't stopped smiling since.

"Faster, Jack!" "Higher, Caleb!" and "Brighter, Bella!" were the only things Rust said to the teenagers during those weeks of intense training. Now he was actually _talking_ to them: exchanging jokes with Caleb, talking physics with Ethan, discussing escape routes with Ty, explaining strategies with Jack and telling Bella about his sister.

The kids had grown closer to Rust, too. Sometimes, the kids brought their homework into the gym after school and none of them hesitated to ask Rust for help on superhero history, which he readily gave.

At the "welcoming ceremony" on Saturday, Urban Danger was going to be so proud of the team, even if they hadn't found the traitorous teacher.

The door to Rust's temporary apartment was open. Audrey briefly knocked on the door before letting herself in, concluding that if Rust didn't want company then he would have shut the door.

"Rust?" Audrey called as she entered the small apartment. "Won't stay forever, I just want to know if you already have a suit for Saturday, which I presume you don't, or if I should hire... what are you doing?"

Rust, a backpack filled with the few possessions he could call his own slung over his shoulder, stepped out the bathroom.

Audrey frowned. "Where are you going? Hiking?"

"I'm leaving," Rust told her, blatantly.

Audrey blinked, temporarily stunned. "I'm... sorry? What do you mean you're leaving? You're not done-"

"I _am_ done," Rust said, resolutely. "Urban just said I had to train the kids, and they're as ready as they'll ever be. I'm no longer needed."

He brushed past Audrey, heading for the door. Audrey sighed, irritably, and teleported in front of him, blocking the doorway, startling him.

"So _that's_ your power," Rust said, eyes wide.

"You can't leave," Audrey told him. "These kids still need you-"

"I put you down as more of a mind controller, honestly."

"They were just starting to warm up to you and you were-"

"Or maybe a melter. I could easily picture you melting into a puddle of-"

"Forget my power!" Audrey said, sternly. She felt like screaming. "Why are you leaving?"

Rust sighed. "It's time for me to move on."

"Where will you even go? Please tell me you're not leaving this just to go back to that crummy excuse for a neighbourhood."

Rust shrugged. "I don't know where I'll go," he admitted. "I think I'm just going to drive until I find the end of the road."

He gently pushed Audrey aside and started walking down the hall. He didn't turn around.

Audrey realized this was the one time her words wouldn't change anything. She had to change tactic. "Hey!" she called and teleported in front of him again. "Leave if you want to," she said, softening her tone. There was no way she would sway him this time around. "But, before you do, just... go to the gym at Hero High, just one last time."

"It won't change my mind," Rust warned her.

"I don't care and I don't want it to change your mind. But it's a great place to think. Just go, please."

Rust sighed. "Alright. I need to pick up a few things, anyway."

Audrey watched him as he continued walking. She couldn't talk her way through this one, it seemed. There was nothing on the planet that could change Rust's mind or make him stay...

But that wasn't what Audrey had in mind...

Out of all the training sessions over the past month, Jack still hadn't learnt how to land without crashing.

He snuck into the gym, late at night, determined to crash as many times as needed until he could land perfectly.

He waited until after Darren the janitor had left before he snuck in, turning on only a few lights, careful not to alert anyone.

The sound of his sneakers squeaking on the wood felt like it was ten times louder than before. Taking a deep breath, he launched off the ground, into the air, and in one flash of a movement, he was brushing the ceiling.

He flew around the inside perimeter of the gym building a number of times, psyching himself up to attempt a landing.

Eventually, he decided just to do it. Hovering for a second, he swooped low and dropped to the ground. In theory, it should have worked. But he crashed, hopelessly, into the bleachers.

He shook himself off like a wet dog and flew up, determined to try again.

In his mind's eye, he replayed videos of his dad and other flying superheroes. How many nights had he spent replaying those old videos over and over? He lost count.

He knew _how_ to do it. He just couldn't _do_ it.

He tried to come back down, but he lost his balance and landed in an ungraceful heap on the floor.

The routine repeated itself time after time.

Jack flew up, hovered, and came in for a landing that just turned into a horrible crash.

He was wrecking havoc on the gym. Mentally, Jack made a note to himself to clean the gym up before he left.

He tried again. Flying up, he killed his altitude and fell down, trying to control his descent so he wouldn't tumble.

The crash happened so fast, his mind couldn't even track it. The next thing he knew, he was lying on the polished wooden gym floor, entangled by the basketball hoop.

Jack groaned. It was one thing to crash, but taking a basketball hoop down with him? He would never figure this out.

"You came down too fast," a faceless, deep voice told him.

"Is that you, Rust?" Jack asked as he struggled to detangle himself from the twisted basketball hoop.

Rust walked out the shadows.

"How long have you been here?"

"I got here before you," Rust informed him. "I've been watching you crash for ages and, honestly, it's getting too painful to watch now."

Rust stood over Jack as the teenager bent the distorted metal to free himself.

"I mean, seriously. How can anyone be _that_ bad at landing?"

"Like you can talk," Jack said, bluntly, as he tried to straighten out the metal pole and replace it. "You haven't flown for as long as I've been alive!"

"Longer, actually," Rust admitted, frankly. "I haven't been in the sky for eighteen, almost nineteen years."

Jack looked Rust up and down. For the first time since Jack met him, Rust had been engaging him in conversations over the past two weeks. But Rust rarely shared anything personal with the teens. Actually, he didn't share anything personal with anyone.

"What happened?" Jack asked. He had never been the one to pry, but he figured it was time Rust spoke about something other than teamwork, superheroes, strategies or powers.

Rust looked at the teenager, about to be the leader of his team, the same weighty position Rust was in, decades ago. Rust could see how hard Jack was trying: his practising landing on his own, this late at night, proved it.

Rust sighed. "Do you _really_ want to know what happened? It's a long story..."

Jack shrugged. "I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know," he pointed out. "I want to know why you didn't come back: you were a great hero. Why did you go into hiding?"

"The truth is: I wasn't really hiding. It started out that way, but, eventually, I wasn't running and hiding anymore. I was trying to pretend none of it had ever happened in the first place..."

###

"It all started when me and my siblings were born," Rust began. He and Jack sat on the bleachers in the half-lit gym. "First I was born, a year later Jason, two years later William and a year after Will, Carla. We were each born on a day with a gamma ray burst from the sun. We discovered our powers early, as all gamma accidents seem to. We were the first siblings in Hero History to all be gamma accidents. It was an amazing coincidence, but we were born in a hotspot, so-"

"What defines a hotspot for gamma accidents?" Jack interrupted.

"Well, generally, it's a very warm environment, usually coastal, like Crashton. It makes sense: more sunshine equals more chance of a gamma accident happening. Nonetheless, it was still impossible to find gamma accident _siblings_. But we weren't going to go down in the Guinness Book of World Records...

"We didn't know we were gamma accidents, not until I reached high school age. I knew a superhero who told me about Hero High. He suggested I enrol. You and your friends didn't have to do this, but, normally, you had to go through an audition with all the other freshmen, to prove you have powers or extraordinary abilities.

"I passed the audition with ease. Actually, I stunned the teachers: they hadn't seen a hero with the classic Superman powers for over a decade. They accepted me into the school. Actually, it was _this_ school," Rust said, looking around the gym that had obviously been renovated since his time.

"I gotta say: I enjoyed that first year of high school. I was learning from the best superheroes in the world, training to use my powers properly and figuring out how to eat the slop they dished out in the cafeteria without gagging." Rust and Jack laughed.

"It was when Jason auditioned that trouble began. That year, they introduced something new to the auditions: a test to see how you got your powers. I guess it was a survey of some sort. When they discovered Jason was a gamma accident, and I was, too, they kicked us out. Literally. I still remember the way the principal said, 'gamma accident,' as if it were a curse word.

"I did a little bit of digging after that. I snuck into the Hero High's library and read every single book, paper or pamphlet I could find on gamma accidents. Not _once_ were we labelled as heroes, only ever as traitors, felons, criminals, disasters and villains. I told my brothers and Carla about the blemished history of gamma accidents. I even remember Carla crying. 'But we're not like that,' she said, and I knew she was right.

"So, I did what every person who gets rejected by the system does: I bucked _against_ the system," Rust continued. "We found an old stadium rarely used, snuck in and began training ourselves. My brothers and sister said I should do the training because I had gone to Hero High for a whole year.

"We trained for years," Rust laughed, lightly, as he remembered. "But it was worth every moment. Jason was fast, like me. We used to race each other, all the time. But he was more than just super fast. He could somehow channel that kinetic energy and turn it into heat energy. If he ran fast enough, he could catch fire. It was his signature trick to create a speed vortex and set it alight.

"William could control gravity. When we started training we discovered he could control his own gravity, as well as the gravity of other objects and people. He used to fly alongside me.

"Carla started out by just glowing, like Bella. Bella reminds me a lot of Carla," Rust said, sadly. "But Carla figured out how to create _hard_ light. She would make a long stream of this hard light and she'd ride it on an old snowboard. She could do anything with that hard light: make a lasso, grab things, ride it... it was incredible.

"We became a team," Rust carried on. "We stayed up all night and figured out the name G-4: G for gamma and 4 because there were four of us. Yeah, I still can't figure out why it took us three notepads, twenty sodas and an entire night to come up with that one.

"We started saving people, towns, cities, states, the country, entire continents and, on a number of occasions, the world. The superhero community hated it. They hated us so bad, you won't _believe_ how many times they tried to stop us. Lynch mobs, pitchforks, flaming torches, petitions... they ran us out of town countless times. But we never gave up. When we were chased out a city or a town, we left and settled down in another one. We were determined to change the name gamma accidents had been given because that name says too much. People don't believe you deserve your powers because you're just a mishap, a freak of nature... an accident. It's up to you to prove them wrong and show them you _can_ be a hero. We wanted to prove we were heroes. And it took what felt like an eternity and another day, but eventually... the superhero community accepted that we were heroes.

"Samuel Danger, the previous Global Director of Hero Education and Training, invited my team to his office. I'd be lying if I said I didn't think it was trap. But, once we were there, he told us his plans for the future of gamma accidents all over the world. He made it clear that he was still suspicious of us, but being a 'fair man,' as he called it, he said he was willing to give us a chance. That was the year gamma accidents were allowed to attend Hero High and save people, publicly.

"I was surprised at how many gamma accidents there actually were. I'm telling you, there were thousands. Many of them had spent the previous decades saving the world in secret, avoiding the eyes of the public to the greatest extent possible just to carry on doing what they loved most: being heroes.

"I remember this one teenager that came up to me," Rust said, smiling at the memory. "He was so excited, he actually hugged all four of us. He became an amazing hero. He actually joined my team for a while."

"It sounds like everything was going great," Jack commented. "What happened?"

Rust drew a sharp breath. This was the hard part. "Things were going great... until one day. I really can't remember it, I don't know what happened, but I remember the news reports, the pictures, the aftermath... it was terrible. The story you've probably heard is; my team, G-4, turned evil and went on a massive rampage through the city, leaving a path of destruction and terror behind. Sure, we'd broken a couple of lampposts in our battles with villains before. But this... if you've ever seen pictures of the city after that rampage, the first thing you'll think is, 'A hurricane, a tornado, a super storm, an earthquake and a tropical low had a party.' Buildings were destroyed, roads were cracked, cars and buses were smashed and shattered glass was _every_ where."

"Did your team really turn evil?" Jack asked.

Rust shrugged. "No one knows."

Jack frowned. "But you were there... weren't you?"

"I was there," Rust nodded. "I've seen pictures of me tearing up taxies and bending street lamps, but I can't remember _anything_. The destruction lasted for hours and ended with my team dead.... I woke up two days later, in a private hospital for heroes. Samuel Danger showed me the footage, the pictures, the reports... it broke me, honestly. He told me I couldn't be trusted any longer, removed as a member of the Board of Hero Education and Training and stripped me of my hero status. I ran away, somehow avoiding death. I don't know why I was so determined to stay alive when I was so convinced I had nothing to live for.

"Most stories like this have the hero wake up with amnesia. Not me: I remembered exactly who I was. Ever since then, I've been trying to forget, trying to leave it behind and pretending it never happened. I found a city on the other side of the country, took a job as a low-paid mechanic, found a small apartment in a crummy downtown area and just lived every day, wishing I knew what happened, but at the same time, trying to forget everything. I never consciously used my powers, I never made friends and I never really spoke to people. I felt guilty for my team's demise, guilty for the fresh ban on gamma accidents and the destruction of a city."

Jack let out a low whistle. "That sounds real bad," he said.

"It is," Rust agreed. "And I've managed to forget it for the past decade... until I saw you kids. The way you work together, the way you trust each other, the way you take care of your friends... it reminds me of my team."

Rust stood up to leave. "I've done everything I had to," he said. "Now, I'm leaving."

Jack felt like he should protest, but didn't say a word.

"Keep trying with the landing, you'll get it right eventually. I couldn't land properly until I was eighteen. Don't let it bother you: there was a time when you couldn't walk, in case you can't remember. And take care of your team: never give up on them and never lose the bond you kids share."

Rust made his way to the exit and stopped for a moment. "I'll be seeing you around, kid," he said to Jack.

"Sure," Jack said, simply.

With that, Rust left.

"Well, that was intense," Darren the janitor said. Jack whirled around to see him leaning on his cleaning cart, watching the farewell like it was a free movie.

"I thought you had left?" Jack said.

"Oh, no, I just had to get a new sponge," Darren said, showing Jack his new sponge. "I lost the other one down a toilet."

Jack rolled his eyes.

"You can do it," Darren said, softly.

"Sorry?"

"You can lead your team on your own. You're a true hero, I can tell. You've got hero genes in you, boy."

"Thanks," Jack said. He made his way to leave but stopped short. He doubled back. "Oh, yeah, about the basketball hoop..."

Darren waved him away. "I saw it. Don't worry, it's not the first time that hoop's been mangled. Go home, I know how to fix it, but next time, would you fly and crash outside? Not only is that then the gardener's problem, but it'll hurt less if you crash into grass."

"Duly noted," Jack said.

###

Jack and his friends drove to school the morning after Rust's departure in silence.

Rust made it clear he didn't want to train the kids, right from the moment he met them. But... they thought he had changed.

Jack stopped by the entrance and turned to his friends. It was time to break the solemn silence. "Look, even though Rust is gone, the reason we're here hasn't changed," he said. "We were brought here to find out which one of the teachers is secretly training young villains and that is exactly what we're going to do."

The triplets and Bella exchanged looks. Ty sighed. "Where do we start, chief?"

Jack smiled. The five of them huddled together like a football team.

"Okay, so this is how we're going to do it," Jack began. "We'll split up: the triplets go together and Bella, you with me. We'll each tail a teacher, watch them and wait for anything unusual. If we see something, we contact the other team and get them to join us. How's that sound?"

"Just one question," Ethan said. "We have classes... are we going to skip them?"

"We were brought here to weed out a mole," Jack answered. "They didn't bring us here to join the student body. Nobody's going to notice (or care) if we skip class."

Ethan shrugged. "Well, okay then. Who are we going to tail?"

"Why don't you three go after the math teacher, Mr Beta. Bella and I will try Professor Darkins, the science teacher."

Caleb punched the air, enthusiastically, a huge grin of delight and determination spreading across his face. "And the Gamma Accidents are off!"

A few students making their way to class glanced in their direction.

Ty reached up and pulled his brother's arm down. "They already see the invisible neon sign on our foreheads," he said, cynically, "let's not announce it, too."

The thought of observing a teacher, even in clandestine fashion, did sound rather boring. And it would have been so, if it hadn't been the ex-mad scientist now teaching high school super science.

Professor Darkins provided hours of amusement as Bella and Jack watched him: sitting at the back of the classroom, staring through the window while sitting in a tree outside or even peeking through the holes in the air vent guards as they crawled on hand and knee in the ceiling above the classroom.

Professor Darkins was enthusiastic, excitable, engaged, larger than life but eager to listen to his students. He couldn't just state something: he had to demonstrate it, too. This meant explosions, mini fireworks and elaborate drawings on the blackboard.

"If this guy is a villain, I think I'll cry," Bella said, clearly stating how much she liked the quirky teacher.

"We don't get to choose who's evil and who's good," Jack told her with a knowing smile.

Professor Darkins was about to break class for lunch, when Jack's cell phone vibrated. Thankful he had remembered to switch it to silent, he answered.

"Ty, what's up?" he whispered, suddenly aware of an echo in the air vent.

"Jack, I think we have something. Can you and Bella meet us in the car park, like, yesterday?" Ty replied.

Jack looked to Bella, who was leaning in close to hear the conversation.

"Sure thing," Jack said and hung up.

Bella's brow knotted. "Please tell me we're not flying express."

"I won't tell you, then," Jack said, picking Bella up and zooming out the air vents, into open air, over the school and landing, softly, in the car park.

Bella, eyes shut tight and clutching Jack's neck until he couldn't breathe easily, was slightly terrified.

Jack set her down, and she looked at him, puzzled.

"Where did you learn to land like that?" she asked, amazed.

Jack smiled and shrugged, feeling rightly proud of himself. "I practised last night for hours until I got it right. Cool, right?"

"Right," Bella said, still astounded. She had known Jack for as long as her memory could stretch back, and never, never, had he managed to stick a landing so expertly.

"Can we get to business here?" Ty asked, impatiently. "We really don't have all day."

The triplets stood, side by side, in front of Bella and Jack. Caleb's left leg was jittering, an absentminded habit he seemed to have been born with. It usually meant he was excited, more so than usual. It also told his friends there was about to be some action.

"Okay, so what is the business?" Bella asked. Her eyes widened. "Did you find something on Mr Beta?"

"Not exactly," Ethan replied. "I mean, besides the fact that the numbers fourteen and seventeen are going to be attacking me in my dreams, we saw nothing sinister. _However_ , we did discover something suspicious five minutes ago."

"What?" Bella prodded.

"Well, you know how the teachers stay on school grounds during lunch?" Ty said. "Mr Beta apparently _doesn't_. Ethan and I stayed inside the classroom and sent Caleb off to dig up some dirt, considering everyone likes him so much."

Caleb grinned, pleased with himself.

"So, while I, as a holographic book, and Ty, as a speck on the blackboard, tried to see or hear something odd about Mr Beta, Caleb was gathering rather valid information from the lunch ladies."

"You'll be amazed at what those lunch-ladies know," Caleb said.

"Well, what did you find out?" Bella questioned, almost frantically.

"Oh, yeah, that. It turns out Mr Beta leaves school grounds every day at high noon-"

"Ethan and I can attest to that," Ty added. "We saw him dart out of the classroom the moment the bell rang."

"It seems that this has been a routine of his for the past four years," Caleb continued. "He leaves and returns an hour after classes should've resumed."

"How has no one noticed his absence before?" Bella mused.

"Helga suspects he hacks into the schedules and manipulates them so there is no math class until after he gets back."

"You know it's bad when he's on a first name basis with the lunch-ladies," Ethan commented, making Ty and Jack laugh.

"What are we doing standing around and talking? We have to find out where he's gone," Bella said, urgently. "When did you say he left the classroom?"

Ty consulted his watch, as if it held any answers. "Considering he's not a speedster, he should only be reaching his car... now."

The teens instantly whirled around, scanning the car park for the teacher of interest.

"There!" Caleb announced, pointing directly across the car park to a dark green Land Rover with mud-splattered tyres. A tall, lean man in his late twenties with thick, dark hair, wearing thick, dark rimmed glasses, frantically looked around him as he nervously fumbled with his keys, found the right one, unlocked the vehicle, slid inside, reversed out the parking and sped out the parking lot in little more time than it took you to read this paragraph.

"After the maths teacher!" Jack declared.

He didn't have time to completely formulate a plan, let alone relay it to his team.

Nevertheless, he remembered something Rust told him during their last two weeks of training.

"You need a plan, never underestimate a well thought-out, formulated, detailed plan. But there will come times when you just have to trust that your team can follow the simplest order and create their own plan from that."

###

Ethan and Bella instantly bolted for the metallic blue jeep, Ethan snapping it into gear and racing after the Land Rover on the road.

Caleb started bouncing with giant leaps over cars on the motorway, keeping good pace with Mr Beta.

Ty shrank down until he was an inch high and Jack placed his minuscule friend on his head. He felt a tickling sensation and knew Ty had grabbed locks of his hair to keep himself stabilized.

Jack jumped into the air and flew high amongst the clouds, keeping a hawk's eye lock on Mr Beta's Land Rover.

The dark green vehicle weaved through lunchtime traffic along the freeway, making its way to an unknown destination. Correction: Mr Beta knew exactly where he was going, but the teenagers pursuing him hadn't the faintest clue.

Each teenager had a different perspective of the situation.

Ethan saw cars all around, which he had to weave around, safely, while still keeping his eyes locked on the math teacher.

Bella, sitting in the passenger seat besides the eldest Black triplet, didn't have to worry about watching traffic. She kept her eyes glued to Mr Beta, so that, if Ethan lost him, at least she knew where he was.

Caleb's point of view changed with every jump. One second, he was looking directly through people's windows, and the next, he was staring down at the multicoloured car roofs.

Jack had the best view, though. It sure helped to have enhanced sight. His eyes focussed on Mr Beta's Land Rover, on Ethan and Bella in the jeep and on Caleb bouncing through the increasing traffic.

Ty couldn't see much from his vantage point. Actually, he couldn't see anything, besides a sea of chestnut brown hair, almost his height exactly, and a bright blue sky above.

The wind tore at his small body, the noise filling his tiny ears, and it took immense resistance to stay on Jack's head and not go tumbling off and down into the surging traffic.

He clutched the strands of hair for dear life, terrified of what might happen if he ever thought of letting go.

_Please, please, please just land already!_ Ty yelled in his head, wishing he could send his thoughts telepathically.

The painstaking fight against being torn off Jack's head eased when Ty sensed a descent. His knuckles turning white, Ty reasoned he could ease his grip on Jack's hair slightly.

He juddered as Jack landed, thankful he had learnt how to land without crashing.

Knowing they were on solid ground once again, Ty slid down Jack's head, through his hair, onto his shoulder and from there, jumped into the air. While in midair, he returned to his original size so that he didn't have to land on the ground but just step.

He took in his surroundings, having only seen hair and sky for the past ten minutes.

They were in another parking lot by another school. This wasn't a high school, though.

The single storey building boasted a colourful, cheerful, childish sign: Summer Valley Kindergarten.

It looked like it was going home time, as parents arrived and small, laughing children met them with hugs and excitable chatter, wearing their backpacks, ready to go.

Ty frowned. "Okay, why are we _here_?" he asked Jack, the only other teenager around.

Jack pointed to Mr Beta's Land Rover, which pulled up into a parking space as close to the doors as possible.

Mr Beta hopped out and leaned against the vehicle, waiting.

Caleb bounced up to Jack and Ty, who thought it best to watch the scene play out from behind a tree.

"What's Mr Beta doing here?" Caleb questioned, lowering his voice slightly. "Is Mr Beta moonlighting... with a _kindergarten_?"

Kids between the ages of four and five trickled out the doors, smiling teachers standing in the wings, watching as parents collected their young ones.

Jack frowned as he observed the young teacher. "He's not working here," he said.

A small girl, with dark brown hair in a messy braid and wearing jeans slightly too big for her, walked out the school doors and stood, uncertainly, on the steps. Her peers rushed past her, not stopping for a second to glance her way.

Her big eyes scanned the parking lot, searching for something. A dimpled smile broke out on her young face as she found what she was looking for.

She ran down the steps and straight into the arms of her waiting father.

Mr Beta swung the small girl up and hugged her, tightly.

Caleb blinked as if someone had suddenly shone a brilliant light in his eyes. "Should we go apologize?" he wondered aloud.

"Apologize to who?" Bella asked as she and Ethan joined the teens behind the tree. "Sorry we took so long, we drove right past the kindergarten the first time but I was sure I saw you guys stop here. Guess I was right."

Ty pointed in the direction of the math teacher. "I don't think we have to be suspicious of this guy anymore."

"Let's go say hi, anyway," Ethan said. "You know, like good stalkers do."

The teenagers awkwardly walked across the parking lot, trying not to look dodgy as they made their way towards Mr Beta and his daughter.

He was busy buckling the small girl into a car seat when Jack interrupted him.

"Um, hi, Mr Beta," he said, doubtfully.

Mr Beta's eyes widened as he snapped around to see who the voice belonged to. "The accidents?" he said, clearly puzzled as he took in each face. "What are you doing here?"

The teenagers exchanged a look.

None of the teachers knew the true reason gamma accidents had been enrolled in Summer Valley Hero High. Of course, it would have been a stupid idea to tell them. Such an act would have dire results.

"We were following you," Bella answered.

Mr Beta looked even more confused. "Why?"

_It's time to make an ally,_ Jack thought as he began. "Someone is training young villains and whoever this someone is; they're hiding as a Hero High teacher. The global director brought in Rust to find a team of gamma accidents, who would be unaffected, to find the traitor."

Mr Beta crossed his arms, his expression hard to read. "And you thought _I_ was the traitor," he summed up.

"To be honest, we have no idea where to start," Caleb said, innocently. "But the lunch-ladies told me you've been cutting lunch for the past four years. Gotta admit, Mr Beta, that's _pretty_ suspicious. Why didn't you tell anyone you were just picking up your daughter?"

Mr Beta sighed. "It was easier before Layla started kindergarten," he admitted. "You see, her mother died when she was born. I had only just started working at Hero High and I couldn't risk the job. As useful as growing extra arms are, it's not easy to hold down a job when you've freaked the boss out. So, I never breathed a word of it. But every day, at lunch, I snuck out to be with my daughter, who I left in the care of my sister while I was teaching. I always got back on school grounds on time, though. But this year she started kindergarten and it's a little harder now. I managed to mess with the schedule but it really is just a matter of time before I have to explain things to the principal."

"Wow," Caleb said. "That's something else."

"I wouldn't have it any other way, though," Mr Beta said, smiling to his four-year-old daughter. "Hey, if you kids need any information, some help, even a piece of chalk, don't hesitate to call me."

Mr Beta finished buckling his daughter in, got into the driver's seat and started the engine.

"Oh, one more thing," he said before leaving. "I know you've got your sights set on the teachers, but have you considered checking out the _students_ to find your rat?"

The idea left the teenagers standing in an empty parking space, eye's wide, mouths hanging open, minds completely dumbstruck.

"It's not a bad suggestion," Ethan mused.

###

The Accidents dove into mission mode.

While Alison and Rosie were asleep from a long day in the girls' room, the teenagers plotted their next move in the boys' room.

The small kitchen table was covered with maps of the school, of Summer Valley and, over-enthusiastically, the country.

Student records, teacher dossiers and school files were mingled in amongst the mess of notes and papers.

"Okay, first things first," Jack said, launching into team-leader mode. "Caleb, how did you get school records?"

"The lunch-ladies," he answered. "And Audrey. She said we're authorized because we have to find a crook. Her words, not mine. And these aren't the in-depth records. Strictly attendance and average grades."

"Well, okay, then," Jack said, satisfied. "We're looking for anything suspicious, anything out of the ordinary or anything that forms a pattern. We know students are turning into criminals, but we don't exactly know which ones. I've found some reports of crimes involving superpowered teenagers. Our mission now: to match attendance records with news reports, with report cards, with superpowers. If we can just find _one_ kid that fits the bill, we can start putting an end to this. We have two days until Urban Danger's welcoming ceremony. So... snacks are all in the fridge. Are we ready?"

No one argued: they set to work.

The teens sat at their job, seriously, for hours, working far past the reasonable hours and late into the, "We really should be asleep," hours.

Jack, Bella, Ethan, Ty and Caleb were respectable teenagers: they didn't break the rules (normally), they never snuck out (no, that's a lie, they snuck out often), but they always went to bed at a reasonable time of night, (on the nights they weren't hunting for cherry bombs in fancy desserts, that is.)

"How do regular teenagers _do_ this?" Bella moaned, forcing her eyes open with her hands. She looked at the clock, which promptly announced midnight. She crossed her arms on the table and rested her heavy head on them.

"It's only midnight," Ethan said. "I know this one kid from Crashton, he was my lab partner: he couldn't even consider falling sleep until one a.m."

"Seriously, I should be asleep," Bella grumbled. "I should be so asleep, an earthquake kissing a tornado and dancing the Macarena couldn't wake me up."

"Descriptive," Caleb commented as he read a student's file. He frowned. "You know, _this_ kid is looking mighty suspicious now."

"Who?" Ty asked.

Caleb passed him the report. "His name is Lance Barton. He is a mutant and can create portals. As far as I've found, he's the only student who can do that. A police report from two months ago states a teen wearing a hooded jacket and dark jeans broke into a motor repair shop. He stole parts, tools, fuel and made away with a pick-up truck. The forensics were called in because, although the footage shows a break-in, it shows no _break_ -in. Nothing was smashed, nothing was broken... this kid didn't even _scratch_ something. There was no way he could have gotten in without a portal, that's what the report says."

"What about Dean Lightbody? Has anyone found anything on him?" Ty asked with a hint of fear in his voice.

"He doesn't want to kill you," Bella said, talking slowly as if she were talking to a slightly deaf person.

"So, what do we do?" Ethan asked. "About Lance, not Dean."

Jack leaned back in his chair, sighed and ran his hands through his hair. He was as tired as his friends. "Look, stalking worked with Mr Beta, mostly because he was innocent. But I think we're going to have to confront Lance differently. Face to face."

"He creates portals, you'll need all of us," Ethan pointed out.

"And I'm going to have all of you, by my side. We are going, as a team, to confront Lance and see what he knows. Are we all clear on this? Good? I'm going to bed: I couldn't keep my eyes open if I glued them, taped them and sprayed them with stiffener."

The party broke up and the teens left for their beds, falling asleep the instant their heads hit the motel pillows.

Tomorrow was going to be an exciting day, no doubts about that.

Now they just had to live through it...

Running on minimal sleep, the teens arrived at Hero High the next day, dead-set on their mission to bring down the hiding villains.

Jack sent his team to different ends of the school to search for the juvenile criminal and they spent the entire day searching for Lance Barton.

It came to home-going time, and they _still_ hadn't found their target. Did he know they were onto him? Had he skipped school? Where was he?

With Rust gone, leaving them completely on their own and with only a day left until Urban Danger's arrival, the Accidents were determined, more so than ever before, to complete their original mission.

As their classmates rushed to leave school grounds, the Accidents fought the current and stood in the middle of the entrance hall, focussing on every face, struggling to find Lance Barton.

Jack scanned the surging crowd of students, searching for a tall, lean, senior student with black hair and Asian features.

"Is that him?" Caleb whispered as he pointed across the entrance hall to the locker-lined corridors.

Lance's eyes shifted, nervously, around the school as he emptied the contents of his locker into his backpack.

"Where does he think he's going?" Bella questioned, crossing her arms.

"Maybe we should go ask him," Jack suggested, taking the lead and weaving through the mass of students and teachers to reach Lance.

With Ethan and Ty on his right, Caleb and Bella on his left and Jack behind him, Lance was truly cornered.

"What's up, Barton?" Jack said, startling the senior.

He turned around, his eyes wide and frantic, as if he already knew the Gamma Accidents' secret mission.

"Wh-what do you guys want?" Lance demanded, turning his shock into anger.

"Take us to your leader!" Caleb ordered before he could help himself. Jack was about to tell him to stay quiet but realized there was no better way to phrase the demand now.

For a second, it looked as if Lance was considering it. Unfortunately, because none of the Accidents had mind-reading powers, it was hard to tell exactly _what_ he was considering.

Without warning, Lance struck out and shoved Caleb to the ground, making a break for it. He ran as fast as he could for the exit, intending to put as much distance between him and the Accidents as he could.

Regrettably, Lance didn't stop to think. If he _had_ , he may have chosen to knock a different Accident down. And wisely so, because Caleb involuntarily bounced off the blue and white linoleum and shot through the air, propelled by the force of his bounce, and knocked Lance to the ground before either of them could register what was happening.

Sitting on Lance's back, thus pinning him down, unable to move, Caleb leaned down. "Well, that was a dumb idea," he told his victim, quite smugly.

Lance Barton could not be pinned down so easily, however.

Before the other Accidents could reach their brother and friend, a portal appeared in the floor beneath Lance and Caleb. Lance immediately fell through the physical impossibility to the other side. The moment he was through, the portal evaporated, causing Caleb to land flat on his backside on well-worn linoleum.

Ty blinked. "That has to be the most eventful five minutes of my life," he said as his mind scrambled to make sense of what just happened.

Bella stomped her foot in frustration. "Oh no, we've worked too hard, we've done too much, he is _not_ getting away that easily. To the car park, people!"

The boys followed the determined girl, though completely puzzled. "Why? He could be in Las Vegas, Hong Kong or Mars for all we know." Ty pointed out.

The warmth and brightness of the afternoon sun beating down on them the moment they exited the air-conditioned school building, the teens shielded their eyes with their hands and scanned the car park.

Parking spaces were emptying, fast. So many students wanted to get going, back home, to the city, to friends... who knows where half of them were heading, but they wanted to get there, _fast_.

"Last night, while you guys were reading police reports, I read up about mutants and I came across an interesting article on portal-creators and manipulators," Bella said, scanning the car park. "Unless his powers have grown stronger, in a panic, Lance can't portal too far away. He's still too young."

"Hey, Jack; is that him there, by the food delivery truck?" Ethan asked, squinting at the large truck that delivered food for the lunch-ladies to destroy and serve. He struggled to make out the figure as it was halfway across the vast car park.

Jack didn't have to squint; with _his_ eyes, he could effortlessly see for miles. Across a school parking lot was a piece of cake. He easily saw it was Lance hanging around the driver's compartment.

"What's he doing?" Jack said more to himself than his team. He watched for a few seconds, confused, as Lance seemed to fiddle with something.

"Is he hot-wiring it?" Ethan asked.

"What are we doing standing around here for? Shouldn't we go over there and stop him?" Ty questioned, a frantic tone entering his voice.

Sure enough, as soon as Ty said that, Jack heard the engine kick into life.

"After the truck!" Jack ordered, snapping back into leader-mode.

His team sprang to action, instantly, just as the truck's wheels began spinning like a cartoon.

Ty leapt into the air, shrank and landed, squarely, on Caleb's shoulder as the shorter boy started bouncing after the hot-wired vehicle.

Ethan ran across the car park and latched onto the back of the white truck as it roared out the parking lot, his knuckles turning white as he gripped onto the handles, hoping he didn't accidently open the truck's rear doors, which would send him flying off into traffic.

Jack grabbed Bella, bride-style, and dashed into the sky, maintaining an aerial-view of the speeding hot-wired truck.

He didn't really think about it then, what with a truck to chase, a potential villain to catch and traffic-goers to protect, but Jack could have _sworn_ he saw somebody else join the frenzied pursuit...

"Get onto the truck and let me jump off!" Ty yelled in Caleb's ear, battling to be heard over the noise of traffic and wind.

"Got it!" Caleb replied, dutifully weaving through home-going traffic. Jumping and landing probably sounded simple to ordinary people, Caleb realized. However, there was a lot more involved, as he well knew, having been a super-jumper his whole life.

No one considered Caleb the smart one of the Black triplets. Ethan was smart, Ty was smart, but Caleb was a goofball. People saw short, dark-haired and tan-skinned Caleb as excitable, naive, a jokester, a clown or simply childish. Nothing they thought or said about him bothered him, though. Caleb loved life, and he was not about to let the hurtful, insignificant, trivial words of hurtful, insignificant, trivial people break that joy.

People thought he was oblivious or deaf to their words. He wasn't: he heard them all, and understood them, too. Nevertheless, he couldn't care less about proving himself to them.

Anyway, if they were in his head right now, they would eat their words.

Cars moved back and forth at varying speeds, spaces were created and taken in a matter of moments and random things happened at random times. Caleb's eyes had to take every shred of information in and his brain had to calculate exactly when he could jump, with how much force he needed to push off with, where he could land and how fast he would have to start running as soon as he hit the ground on the other side of the leap.

Caleb skirted around a family mini-van, saw a clearing three cars ahead, readied himself and sprang into the air, soaring above the vehicles, momentarily flying.

The second he landed on the road in front of the line of cars, his knees automatically bending to absorb the impact, he began running.

Pursuing Mr Beta had been easier, Caleb reflected as he struggled to keep his sights set on the food delivery truck. Mr Beta was unaware of his pursuers, he was driving at the legal speed limit, he wasn't putting civilians at risk and traffic was much lighter.

Lance was not a good driver, not in a panic, anyway. The truck swerved madly, making the teenage criminal panic as he tried to correct his movements, resulting in an overcorrection, causing the large vehicle's back half to veer into oncoming traffic.

The wild movements tossed Ethan, who had clung to the metal handles for the past three minutes, off like a limp rag doll. Caleb heard tiny Ty gasp in his ear as their brother fell on the hard road, in the path of approaching traffic.

One of his glasses lens cracked, Ethan blinked, dazed, winded and confused.

"Get out the way!" a driver shouted, uselessly.

Ethan quickly recovered, assessed the situation, and rolled off the freeway, into shrubs growing undisturbed by the side of the road.

Frightened, enraged and unnerved drivers punched their car horns and Caleb's ears exploded with the noise of hundreds of car hooters' blasting.

Eventually, Lance managed to get the truck moving in a straight line. As soon as he did, he sped up, far exceeding the speed limit.

Caleb stepped up his game, too.

In his training with Rust, he discovered his furthest bounce was the length of a football field. With the truck gaining speed and barrelling, dangerously, down the freeway, Caleb thought fast and acted immediately.

He had no time to prepare himself for a leap; he would have to master a running jump.

Putting his everything into the last stretch, Caleb ran fast. His sneakers pounding the asphalt, his heart racing and his eyes glued to the truck, Caleb's mind had only one objective: get on the truck.

Sometimes, you can't think. Sometimes, it doesn't matter how much book smarts you have. Sometimes, you have to roll with the punches, forget the mathematical equations and scientific formulas, and just... jump.

Soaring through the air, gliding to his target, Caleb couldn't help but laugh.

This was serious, this was dangerous, this was real. But, man, was this fun!

Caleb stuck the landing on the top of the stolen food delivery truck, flawlessly. He felt a small tickle as Ty jumped off his shoulder.

Ty was a speck of black hair, pale-tanned skin, a dark red T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers on a massive, white football field of a truck roof.

He had one mission in mind: get to Lance. The plan didn't include what would happen after he reached Lance, but that was not the problem right now.

Ty put his head down and ran, fighting the truck's speed, velocity and the wind. He hadn't covered much distance when the stomping of a giant, accompanied by the sound of thunder, knocked him down.

Propping himself up by the elbows, he looked up to see giants against a fiery afternoon sky.

They were not _actual_ giants: just three, regular-sized, high school seniors.

Two boys, one tall and lean, the other short and stocky, and a girl with dyed black and blue hair. They looked familiar.

As Ty scrambled to his tiny feet, he recalled his first meeting with the three super-powered teenagers. On their first day at Hero High, the Accidents had tried to join their table, but the girl rudely excused herself and the boys followed as she left for a table on the other side of the cafeteria.

Ty ran between their towering sneakers and bolted for the driver's compartment, fixated on reaching Lance.

He didn't get too far.

Bright, dazzling and hot as the surface of the sun blasts of plasma shot from the tall boy's hands, narrowly missing Ty.

Ty shrieked, doubled back, but carried on running, dodging dangerous plasma blasts as he dashed across the speeding truck.

_Okay, he has powers. What about the others?_ Ty thought as he ran, uncertainly and unprepared.

Looking over his miniature shoulder, Ty noticed a bug on the roof of the truck. He had seen bugs at this angle many times before and it didn't bother him anymore. Nevertheless, there was something _different_ about this particular bug.

As it got closer, Ty could see it wasn't a bug. It was the stocky teenager. A fellow shrinker! There was no time for catching up, reminiscing or celebrating, though.

The miniature boy ran up to Ty, put his head down and, like a football player, tackled him to the ground. He pinned Ty down. Ty struggled, but the stocky boy was stronger than he was.

Defeated, Ty gave up on fighting to free himself, and let his fellow shrinker keep him restrained. The stocky boy grinned, wickedly.

"You're just going to give up? Just like that?" he asked, tauntingly.

"Yeah, well, you can probably go from an inch to regular size in under 1.25 seconds, anyway," Ty replied.

The stocky boy looked confused.

"Oh, let me demonstrate," Ty offered.

With that, he grew back to his standard size, starling his miniature captor, who could not hold on to him as he enlarged.

Ty couldn't even see the shrunken senior as he smiled, smugly, to himself.

" _That_ was 0.95 seconds," Ty said to no one.

He never got the chance to enjoy his victory, however.

One second, he was standing at his normal height, the next, he was involuntarily shrinking.

Eyes widening as he slowly reduced in size, Ty panicked.

"Hey, what gives?" he questioned, hoping for a reply, but honestly not expecting one.

The girl with black and blue-streaked hair towered over him as he gradually miniaturized, a sadistic grin curling her lips.

"Power manipulation," she answered him. "I can control your powers, your friends' powers, _anyone's_ powers."

Ty was an inch small, against his will, staring up at a young psychopath whose head was literally in clouds to the minuscule teen.

"You've got nowhere to run," she told him as she raised her foot, ready to squash Ty like a bug.

He always knew this was how he'd die. He wouldn't die of old age, a car accident or some illness. No. Tyrone Percival Black was destined to a death by boot.

As the boot came down, Ty wondered where his team was. He knew and accepted that it was too late for him. But he did wonder where Jack and Bella were, if Ethan was okay and what happened to Caleb after he landed on the truck.

Ty closed his eyes, something he found himself doing for most of his life. He wondered, if he could go back and do it all over again, if he would do things differently.

Would he take more risks? Caleb took more risks before breakfast than Ty had taken in his entire life.

Would he reach out to more people? Ethan had made plenty of friends.

Or would he stick his head in the sand, just like he had done for the past sixteen or so years?

Why did he run, anyway?

He would never know.

The girl didn't get a chance to finish Ty off.

Her sneaker was hovering above Ty's head, practically touching his black hair, when she was suddenly attacked by a crazed gaggle of Canadian geese.

She shrieked, her arms flapping to fight the insistent birds away, she stepped backwards, away from Ty.

Released from her hold and grateful for the sudden (though odd) attack, Ty returned to his regular size.

The girl valiantly fought the geese, but it was hopeless. It was an unfair fight: ten crazed geese against one girl with black and blue hair. The geese were dead-set on fighting with the girl. They were warriors: they made guttural noises, their brownish-grey feathers flew everywhere, their black beaks snapped like the jaws of a shark.

These geese weren't ordinary geese. They had a mission. Just as it looked like the girl was about to fall off the truck and onto the road, the geese snapped at her clothing and carried her far away, where to, Ty couldn't guess.

"Well, that's not something you see every day," Ty said to no one in particular.

"Really? I've seen it seven times," a new voice said.

Ty had heard that voice before.

The rumours and stories rang through Ty's mind.

"No one knows _exactly_ who his family is, but everyone says his dad is a notoriously evil villain who destroyed the _old_ Zealand."

"No one knows _exactly_ , but everyone says he's survived typhoons, hurricanes, freak storms, intense blizzards and _five_ mutant shark attacks."

"No one knows _exactly_ what his power is but everyone sums it up in one word: _death_."

Ty gulped as he turned around, only to come face to face with the notorious, the infamous, the ill-famed Dean Lightbody.

Tall and muscular, tanned skin and dark hair, indigo eyes locked in a dead-stare. Ty could be dead in less than three seconds and never see it coming, a kid in the locker room told him. He felt his knees buckle just standing on the same truck roof with Dean.

Stupidly, he ran. There was nowhere to run, but he figured he would have better odds of surviving if he dived headfirst into traffic, off a speeding truck than if he hung around and waited for the torture Dean was about to inflict.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Dean questioned as he watched Ty unwisely run. "Dude, you're going to fall!"

Ty whirled around as he stood on the edge of the truck. It was not a position he could maintain for long. He fell, grabbing the ledge as he tumbled.

Dean ran over, gripping Ty's wrists just as the Gamma Accident lost his grip on the metal edge.

Ty screamed. "Are you going to kill me?" he asked, hysterically, suspended above flowing traffic.

Dean's eyebrows knotted. "What would you do if I said yes?" he replied, curiously.

Ty looked like he was honestly thinking about it. Then his screams returned... with increased volume.

"Okay. You'd scream louder."

Ty fought like a caged tiger to release himself from Dean's grip on his wrists.

"Dude, I'm not trying to kill you! I'm trying to save you. Do you think those geese attacked Lizzie for the fun of it?"

"That was _you_?" Ty stared at the teenager, his eyes wide.

Dean rolled his eyes and, in one swift movement, pulled Ty back onto the truck. "Yes, that was me."

"What, next you're going to tell me you can talk to animals or something?" Ty said, doubtfully, holding back a laugh.

Dean looked at him like he was a total idiot. "Um... that _is_ my power."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. Now, we lost the hologram kid and your bouncy friend a while back-"

"They're my brothers," Ty corrected, falling to his hands and knees. He hadn't realized earlier, but it wasn't easy to walk steadily across the top of the moving truck. To avoid tumbling off, he decided to crawl.

Now it was Dean's turn to be shocked. "Your _brothers_?" he said, disbelievingly. "Oh, you must be adopted. That explains everything."

"Hey, we've only been speaking to each other for a minute or two and now you _insult_ me?"

"You thought I was going to kill you after I saved your life with geese," Dean countered, crossing his arms. Off topic, Ty wondered how he managed to remain standing upright on the speeding truck. "If anyone should be insulted, it should be me."

"No, I'm not adopted. We're triplets, actually."

"You don't look it," Dean pointed out as he joined Ty, crawling alongside him as they made their way to the driver's compartment, the wind snapping at their shirts and snatching at their breath.

Dean was right: the Black triplets didn't look like they were related, let alone brothers. Ethan, the eldest triplet, was tall with pale-tan coloured skin, hazel eyes, dark blonde hair and overall European looks. Ty was shorter, lean and Asiatic with his almond-shaped brown eyes, black hair and paler skin. And Caleb, with his shorter, stockier stature, dark brown hair, thick eyebrows, dark eyes and darker skin-tone, looked Mexican. They were brothers, there was no doubt about that if you took a DNA test. But, just looking at outward appearances and characteristics, you'd never say they were related.

"You should see our family reunions," Ty said. "They look like cultural street fairs."

"Anyway, as I was trying to say," Dean continued, "were they our only back-up?"

"No, but I have no clue where Jack and Bella are," Ty admitted. "Knowing them, they probably stopped to make sure Ethan and Caleb were okay."

"So... it's just you and me?" Dean asked as he and Ty stood above the driver's compartment, directly above Lance Barton.

"You and me," Ty confirmed. "What's the plan?"

"You mean you and your friends _planned_ everything back there?"

"Nah, we've been winging it since we got to Hero High. It's worked so far, I mean, look where we are!"

"On a stolen, speeding truck driven by a young villain," Dean retorted, flatly.

"Yeah, well, I've never been good at this whole 'optimism' thing."

Ty decided to drop the subject. Having no way of knowing where Lance was going, no idea who else might join them and no clue when reinforcements might arrive, he thought it was time to make a plan of his own.

Coming up with a plan and implementing it for the first time in years, Ty related his plan to Dean.

He would shrink, crawl into Lance's ear, completely freak him out and make him lose control. While Lance shrieked like a little girl, Dean would take the wheel.

"And you really think that's a good idea?" Dean asked, unconvinced it would work.

"We've got no more time to argue," Ty said. "Now we just need to get Lance out of the driver's seat and get him talking."

Everything after that happened so rapidly, Ty and Dean didn't have room for error or time to think.

Ty shrank again. He had lost count of how many times he had miniaturized that day so far.

In one swift movement, he fell, off the roof of the truck and in through the open passenger window. He couldn't believe Lance had left the window wide open.

Once inside the driver's compartment, Ty set to work.

Weaving around gigantic, empty, crushed soda cans; leaping over a pencil; clawing at Lance's clothing to climb up, Ty eventually hiked his way to Lance's shoulder.

"Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way," Ty said directly in Lance's ear. "I'm honestly giving you the option, so please, choose wisely."

"Who's talking?" Lance demanded, his eyes that should have been on the road searching for the source of the little voice in his head.

"Okay, hard way it is," Ty declared, jumping into Lance's ear and proceeding to tickle him.

Ty was scared of most things, yes. He didn't believe most things would work out, sure. But he had fun. And right now, dancing around in the bad guy's ear, Ty was sincerely enjoying himself.

Dean, on the other hand, was not having a party.

He struggled to climb in through the window. Navigating his broad, muscular build through a narrow truck window was not easy.

To make matters worse, the truck started swerving, wildly. Dean fought the sudden jerks and battled to continue his mission.

He made it through the window, to see Lance swatting at his ear, madly trying to get tiny Ty out.

Dean knew there were thousands of rumours about him floating around school. No one knew what his power was because he didn't demonstrate it often. So, kids thought his power had something to do with strength, considering his build.

It was true that Dean was strong, but he was not super-human.

As Lance hysterically fought to shake Ty out of his ear, Dean simply grabbed the senior student, dragged him across the seat and into the passenger's side.

The truck was barrelling down the freeway, uncontrolled and moving at an illegally high speed. Drivers sharing the late afternoon road with the stolen truck were in grave danger.

Dean swiftly shuffled over, quickly taking stock of the situation. The truck had manual gears, which was no problem for Dean. He applied the brake to kill the intense speed Lance had built up.

In the crazy scuffle, the truck had managed to drift onto the wrong side of the freeway. The headlights of oncoming traffic alerted Dean, who immediately drifted back into the correct lane.

"Get out! Get out! Get out!" Lance shrieked, frantically batting at his ear. Dean ignored him and concentrated on finding a place to pull over, safely.

"Ty, you just keep him occupied, I'm parking now," Dean said to his miniature, newly found accomplice.

As soon as they were off the freeway and out of the way of cars, other trucks, motorcycles and innocent civilians, Dean killed the engine, opened his door, hopped out the truck and onto dry, desert ground. He walked around the front of the truck, feeling the heat coming off the overworked engine as he passed, and wrenched open the passenger door, yanking Lance out in one fast movement.

Ty fell out his victim's ear, grew back to regular size and stood, cross-armed, besides Dean. "Okay, Barton, time to talk," Ty began, trying to sound tough with a newfound courage. "Who trained you? Which teacher is training villains? Who are you working for?"

Dean elbowed Ty in the ribs and glared at him.

"What? Do you want to play bad cop?" Ty asked, rubbing his now sore side.

Lance, recovering from the horrific sensation of having someone tiny dance in your ear, began laughing, evilly. "You Accidents are totally clueless," he said. "You've got no idea what's coming your way, do you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ty questioned, raising a suspicious eyebrow.

Lance held up his hands in a surrendering gesture, sensing what the Accident was thinking. "Hey, I'm not going to do anything to you now," Lance said. "But I won't tell you anything, either. Everything will be revealed, this Saturday, _tomorrow_ , at the welcoming ceremony." He shook his head slowly as he chuckled, again, as if it truly were hilarious. "You _pathetic_ Gamma Accidents don't stand a chance. You never did."

"What do you mean?" Ty asked, curiously.

"You don't know how many of us there really are," Lance said, lowering his tone and standing, menacingly, up in Ty's face. With his dead-set expression highlighted with the fading evening light, he looked like a true villain. "Every corner you turn, every classroom you enter, we're there. Hero High is a misnomer. There are no heroes there, just us."

Before Ty or Dean could say, do or think anything else, Lance created a portal beneath his feet, fell through and disappeared in an instant.

Ty and Dean were left, dumbstruck, standing by a stolen food delivery truck (which they had full intention of returning straight away), trying to process what was just said.

"Wow, that was totally useless," Dean said, needlessly, as he stared at the spot Lance had been standing barely moments before.

"No, Lance has just told us something vital," Ty corrected as he hurriedly opened the truck's driver's door and hopped in. "He's just told us that something's happening on Saturday. Tomorrow."

Dean climbed in after him, shoving him over to the passenger side. "Do you know how to drive a truck?" he asked Ty as he buckled his seatbelt.

"No, but I didn't think _you_ did," Ty replied in astonishment. It seemed every time he spoke to Dean, he discovered something crazy about him.

"Of course I do," Dean said, starting the engine. "My dad's a truck driver."

"I thought he was a villa-" Ty quickly clamped his hands over his mouth to stop the words spilling out.

"A villain?" Dean finished as he concentrated on getting the truck back on the freeway. "I've heard that one before."

Half of Ty's brain told him to shut up, and stay quiet. The other half told him to talk. He couldn't remember the last time he listened to the first half. He decided to pipe up.

"Why are there so many rumours about you?" Ty asked, realizing he sounded like Caleb. His little brother would have asked that very same thing, in like manner, had he been there.

Maybe it was because he was all alone that he suddenly felt he had to take over the roles his brothers would have filled.

Dean shrugged, eyes focussed on the road. "Every kid is the new kid at some stage. The reputation you're given then is a reputation that can either follow you or fade into insignificance. Mine started with one rumour, one little white lie, that spread like wildfire. I never argued with it because, when I tried, it only made things worse. I let people think I'm some kind of bruiser because they leave me alone that way. No one bothers with me and I guess that's how I like it now. Most schools have a legendary bully no one crosses paths with because they're terrified they'll lose their dignity, an arm, or their life. People think that's me."

Ty sat back in his seat, feeling small and ashamed after what his newfound ally told him. He, too, had been scared to death of Dean only minutes before. His impression of him changed because he saved his life but, before that, he believed every rumour, every lie, and every false story kids he passed for a moment in the corridors of Hero High told him. Now he felt like a tiny bug, even though he was his regular size.

Well, it was time to right the wrongs, as Jack would say.

"Hey, my team could use an animal-communicator," Ty said. "We have a vacancy. You interested in helping us out this Saturday?"

Dean thought about it and glanced, sideways, at Ty. He smiled. "Sure, why not? I didn't have anything else planned this weekend, anyway. The squirrels bailed on me."

Jack, Bella, Caleb and Ethan had retreated to the motel not long after the chase began.

Jack would have kept going, but after Ethan and Caleb fell off the truck, he knew he had to get them to safety first.

His first priority was his team, his friends.

Ethan and Caleb's injuries were not serious, thankfully. Ethan had bruises and cuts from his fall on the road and dramatic roll into dry shrubbery. Caleb, bouncy as ever, had lost his balance on the truck and ricocheted off the road, joining his brother in the shrubbery, and didn't walk away with anything more sinister than a bruised forearm.

But the boys looked so dirty, and Ethan was limping, making it look like they had been injured far worse.

(As it turned out, Ethan was only limping from a rather painful stone that lodged inside his sneaker when he rolled off the road.)

Frankly, everything got so hectic and busy as soon as they entered the motel, what with Alison and Bella fussing around the bruised and battered boys, and Rosie and Jack receiving orders left right and centre, Jack didn't actually notice Ty wasn't there.

It was only when his friend walked through the door, the notorious Dean Lightbody trailing behind him, at about eight o' clock, that Jack realized one of his teammates had been missing.

Alison pointed to the quiet, broad-shouldered teenager. "Who's that?" she asked.

"Dean Lightbody," Ty replied, as if Dean was an old friend.

"The kid you said wanted to use your bones as toothpicks?" Rosie questioned.

Jack clamped a hand over his little sister's mouth. "Ignore her," he said to Dean. "She had soda and it's getting to her bedtime."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Dean," Alison said, hospitably. "Would you like something to drink? I don't think I have any poison in the motel room but..."

Bella joined the welcoming party, stopping short when she noticed the new guy. She crossed her arms and looked Dean up and down, examining the rumoured villain ponderingly. "So this is the kid whose kill-list you managed to top?" she asked Ty, disbelievingly. She shrugged and smiled, lopsidedly. "I don't know, he looks kinda nice."

"Turns out, Dean isn't a scary, poison-drinking, metal-bar bending bone-cruncher!" Ty declared, cheerfully.

Dean rolled his eyes. This was going to be a _long_ night...

Ty explained the dramatic chase; the encounter with the three superpowered, teenaged thugs; and his amazing, incredible victory!

Dean slipped his words in at brief intervals, just to make sure Ty's brothers and friends got the right idea of how things _actually_ happened.

The account reached the part where Dean saved Ty's sorry backside, and Dean respectively took over the explanation from there.

Jack listened, closely, to every word, every phrase, every detail Dean and Ty related, but his ears pricked up when Dean repeated Lance's words.

"What are they planning for tomorrow?" Jack mused.

Bella frowned. "It doesn't sound good, whatever it is," she said. "And so many of them? I mean, I knew there were going to be incognito villains in the school, but the way Lance says it, it sounds like there are more than we thought."

Jack nodded and ran his hands through his hair as he sighed, heavily. The plot was thickening. "We don't know who we can trust, we don't know how many students are _real_ heroes, we're on our own and we have to protect the global director," he said, feeling the weight of the situation weighing on his shoulders. He held his hands up, palms skywards. "Okay, team, what's the plan?"

"Come on, Rosie," Alison said, herding her young daughter out the door. "Let's go to the other room. Something tells me they're going to be pulling another all-nighter."

"Goodnight!" Rosie cheered as she left.

"Try and get _some_ sleep," Alison said before she closed the door.

Jack nodded, smiling. "Sure thing, Mom."

The rest of the night was spent plotting, planning and scheming.

Time was running out, fast. The clock was ticking, the race had begun and if the teenagers didn't get into gear soon, it would be game over.

They had little support, too. It was just the six of them, going it alone, without the support of teachers (most of whom they still could not trust). They had to assume none of the students were on their side, either.

Even Rust had left them cold.

At a point when everyone else was talking and his voice would only add to the noise, Jack took the time to ponder that.

When he was little, his father would tell him stories of the amazing, unstoppable, ultimate team: G-4 and their leader, Rust. Though the stories always ended with the harsh reality that the team somehow turned vicious and destroyed the city they saved, Jack still viewed Rust Swift as a legendary hero.

Seeing his hero in person, _alive_ and called in specifically to train him and his friends, fulfilled most of Jack's childhood dreams.

And, then, he wanted nothing to do with them. Rust tried to shirk all responsibility, all duty, and just forget the kids even existed. Jack couldn't guess what he was doing on those days when he didn't show up for training, but he couldn't help but wonder if he hadn't tried to run away.

Then he got serious. He tried to push the kids past their limits, to the point they broke down and gave up, so he could go back to pretending nothing mattered.

At that point, Jack felt resentment. You're often told you should never meet your heroes because it will just be a disappointment to see they're not what you thought they'd be. Jack wouldn't be surprised if this Rust was an imposter.

Then he came back and started taking things seriously, but stopped pushing Jack and his friends to the point they felt like collapsing. They started bonding. For a while, Jack actually saw Rust as the father he once had.

And, true to the pattern that was becoming more and more evident, things changed again when Rust dropped the bombshell: he was leaving.

Jack wanted to protest, but first wanted to hear the _true_ story: the story no one had ever told him, the story no one knew, the story only _Rust_ could tell him.

After that, Jack understood. Rust wanted to pretend it hadn't happened because it had left him so scarred.

Scarred wasn't the right word.

As Jack sat back in the plastic chair at the kitchen table surrounded by his friends, he wondered how long it would take those wounds to heal...

Far, far away, driving along an endless interstate, Rust found his thoughts drifting.

He was driving the battered white van Audrey and the bodyguards had stuffed him inside after they shot him with a tranquilizer dart that fateful night an entire month ago. He couldn't believe how long ago that was now.

After he spoke with Jack in the gym, he exited the school building, never stopping to look over his shoulder, never thinking for a moment about what he was leaving behind. He strode across the parking lot, hopped inside the van, started the engine and hadn't stopped since. He made only a few pit stops, for fuel and meals. He didn't pull over for sleep or rest because he didn't need it: he was the legendary Rust Swift, after all.

He laughed, scornfully, at himself.

"Some legend you are," he said, sounding like a lunatic talking to himself.

His eyes focussed on the lonely road, all he could think of was the kids he was so determined to dislike, to ignore, to rid himself of, but had found himself bonding with in the end.

"Who wants a hot dog?" Rust said at the end of a long day of school, Hero Training and additional Gamma Accident training.

The kids shrugged. "Hey, why not?" Jack said.

The group of six hopped inside the van and they were off, driving through the dry Summer Valley Landscape in search of a fast food restaurant.

All the cares of the world faded as an old, fun song started playing on the radio. Caleb reached over, turned the volume up and everyone started singing along.

Everyone sounds like a rock star when they sing their heart out beside good friends. That song never sounded better than when sung by five teenage outcasts and a once legendary hero in a beat-up van whose owner no one knew.

"Okay, what do you want?" Rust asked as he pulled up in the drive-through, next to the intercom where he would have to place his order.

Rust couldn't distinguish one word from the other as all five kids jumped in with their orders.

"Soda... fries... no ice? Sorry, I didn't catch that, what had ice?... Burger... chicken... did someone say turkey? Honestly, who orders turkey at a fast food place?" Rust struggled to catch the rapid-fire orders.

He gave up and eventually just ordered a family dinner pack. The team seemed satisfied.

The occasional car passed him, the headlights suddenly looming into view, slowly making their way as if coming for him, but then zooming straight past him as if trying to get away from him. Other than those rare encounters, Rust was on his own now.

"Just what I wanted."

That may be what he said, but he didn't believe it anymore. Rust had spent years on his own, but he couldn't remember the last time he actually felt _alone_.

He hadn't had much contact with the human race for ages, now the voices of five teenagers and a bipolar college graduate echoed through his mind.

He had managed to suppress his memories for the past eighteen years. Now, everything made him think of the kids.

The twinkling stars, their light jumping in through the windows, reminded Rust of young Bella.

"When the lights go off, I want your light to go off, too," Rust said to Bella, who stood in the middle of the empty gym.

Bella nodded as she took a deep breath, calming her nerves and psyching herself up to try her hardest.

She closed her eyes.

Rust flipped the bright lights in the gym off and the vast room was plunged into darkness.

Bella immediately glowed a bright violet. The vivid light lit up herself and everything in a five-metre radius.

"You control the light," Rust said, reassuringly. "Don't let the light control you. Focus on shutting it down."

Bella focussed, the intense concentration furrowing her brow. She had tried, many times before, to reign in her powers. Never before had she had a mentor with previous experience, though.

It took a fair while, but Rust waited, patiently. He found himself wanting to see the teenager improve.

The light faded. It didn't disappear, but it faded, something Bella had never done before.

Bella was over the moon. She smiled and thanked Rust with so much heart that the veteran hero was taken aback.

Rust fiddled with the radio station, an attempt to get his mind off things.

He couldn't find a station he was satisfied with, and found himself leaving the radio in between stations, on static.

The noise reminded him of Ethan.

"Try a trash can," Rust instructed as he and Ethan stood on the grass, on the playing field behind the school.

Ethan's appearance fuzzed and flickered and in a second he was no longer a teenager but a green and black, over-flowing, grubby-looking trashcan.

"Nice," Rust praised. "Okay, now do a gorilla."

The trashcan turned back into Ethan, who pondered the request for a moment before his form blurred and he transformed into a large, male, silverback gorilla.

"Good, good. Now do a... greyhound wearing a pink polka dot tutu, a red fez, a pair of those party glasses with the goofy nose and fake moustache with a ukulele strapped to its back," Rust instructed, excitedly.

Ethan, the gorilla, blinked at him as if he had just uttered the request in Japanese.

_"A_ what _?" he said._

"A greyhound wearing-" Rust began to repeat.

"No, I heard it, but did you mean it? You're not joking?"

"Just do the hologram."

Ethan shrugged and complied, turning into a greyhound wearing a pink polka dot tutu; a red fez; a pair of silly, goofy, party glasses with a huge nose and moustache with a ukulele strapped to his back.

They both laughed.

Rust quickly flicked the radio to a station playing a sad, reminiscing song.

The song reminded him of the kids' laughs. Snapshots from the past month flashed through his mind, tearing at his conscience, at his mind, at his heart.

His last moment in Hero High, talking to Jack. He knew Jack had lost a father seven years ago and, although Rust had never had children of his own, for some reason he was starting to feel like he was taking over that role for Jack.

"It's only been a month," Rust reasoned aloud. "I don't know them, they don't know me and we are no closer."

He drove past a large billboard advertising some product he couldn't care less about even knowing the name. But the picture of teenagers playing on the beach intensified the ache inside his chest.

Guilt. It was burning him from the inside. He was strong and his strength hadn't waned over the years, but how much longer did he have until this guilt grew too powerful and overtook him?

He hadn't felt guilt for years. The last time? When he first faded into the shadows, into a life of hiding and maintaining a low profile. He felt guilty for not having protected his team, for giving up on saving the world, for not standing up for the name of G-4, for Gamma Accidents everywhere and for his family.

"I can't do them any good now," Rust said to convince himself. "I mean, seriously, of what use can I be to them?"

His words fell on deaf ears.

He knew he couldn't run this time. He ignored it last time, he gave up last time, he let go last time.

This was his second chance. How long had he wished for another chance to take a shot and make things right?

He couldn't change his past and that was a fact.

He had lived eighteen years believing he had nothing.

"Idiot," he chided himself.

He always had something, even when he had nothing. Even after he lost his family and he was stripped of his hero status, told never to show his face in town again and labelled dead... he still had something.

He was alive, and although survivor's guilt and the memories of his lost brothers and sister plagued him every waking moment, he realized it was now time to let go.

He had spent so long telling himself he shouldn't be alive, telling himself he had nothing to live for, telling himself there was no sunset to ride into this time.

Then Urban Danger came onto the scene and gave him something to live for again.

He was letting go again.

_I've got right now_ , Rust thought, quietly, starting to feel like he was losing it talking out loud to no one. _I've got Audrey, Jack, Ethan, Ty, Caleb and Bella._

They needed him now.

He looked at his watch, his heart-rate picking up with hope and a sense of duty. He'd be driving non-stop but he could make it back to Summer Valley if he turned around now.

With great enthusiasm, Rust threw the steering wheel around, throwing the van into a sudden, unstable, 180-degree turn around.

Once pointed in the right direction, ready to race for a new horizon and a new beginning, Rust floored it.

He smiled up at the billboard with the laughing, carefree teenagers as he passed it.

"Don't worry kids, I'm coming," he promised.

Urban Danger sighed, contentedly, as he looked up at the Summer Valley Hero High School building, decorated, tastefully but playfully, with streamers, lanterns and balloons.

Teachers, parents, renowned heroes and students milled around the entrance, dressed to the nines, (which, in some people's books, translated to wearing a clean pair of jeans and matching socks.)

A garage band made up of Hero High students played tunes in the background as students danced, teachers tried to make conversation and parents (chaperones) hovered around the gym, where the event was taking place.

Danger was looking forward to this evening. He had had no communication with Audrey or Rust since he sent them on their way, instructing them only to contact him if they found the villain teacher. This would be the first time he would ever lay eyes on the team Rust had put together.

Relaxed and jovial, Danger shook hands with heroes, parents, teachers and students as he entered the gymnasium. He smiled, broadly, as nervous, tense and anxious-to-impress teachers greeted him. He shook their sweaty hands casually, as if he hadn't even noticed how edgy they were. All he wanted was to put everyone at ease.

Leisurely making his way to the long refreshments table along the far side of the gym, Danger stopped conversations and idle chitchats as he passed.

He was quite the celebrity, he realized. That would end by the time this welcoming ceremony was over.

He sighed as he stood by the corner of the refreshments table, near the punch bowl, watching the happy occasion unfold.

Upbeat tunes played over the sound system, teens danced alone or found their little circle of friends and stuck together like glue for protection. Teachers chatted with parents and heroes, politely discussing everything from the weather to how well little Johnny is doing with his exams.

"Mr Global Director, Sir?" a fresh voice said, sounding painfully polite to cover painful nervousness.

Urban Danger turned his head slightly to see Audrey Jones wearing a stunning, though still modest and professional, blue dress with her long black hair for once not in a business bun but falling, gracefully, around her shoulders and down her back.

"Miss Jones, you look remarkable," Urban Danger complimented. "Where's Mr Swift?"

"That's what I need to talk to you about," she said, fiddling with her glasses, anxiously. Her voice wavered as she tried to calm herself down and maintain her professional tone. "Rust left, two days ago."

Urban's eyebrows rose slightly higher. "He did _what_?"

"He just _left_ ," Audrey repeated. "He said there was nothing more for him to do, he said he had trained the kids as best he could and he said he had to get away. I don't know where he is, I have no way of contacting him and, frankly, if I _did_ find him, I'd probably k-"

Danger held up a hand. "Is that all that's troubling you, Miss Jones?"

"No, there's more," she admitted, her expression betraying how defeated she felt. She took a deep breath. "I can't find the kids. I've tried phoning them but they don't answer and they haven't shown up yet and... and I'm totally losing it now!"

Audrey, hyperventilating and completely freaking out, walked off, to the restroom, hoping to collect herself and at least put on a brave face.

She bumped shoulders with Bella as she exited the gym.

"Where are the boys?" Audrey demanded.

"Around..." Bella replied, evasively, slowly rolling her eyes away, hoping Audrey didn't see through her.

Audrey threw her hands up, giving up even trying. She walked away, convinced this had been a total waste of time and energy.

Bella entered the vast gymnasium, surprised at how amazing it looked. Over the past month, Bella had seen so many different sides of the Summer Valley Hero High gym. One moment, it looked empty, lonely and echoed every word spoken; the next moment it was filled with students blasting, flying, spinning or blurring through an intense obstacle course.

Right now, it looked pretty spiffy with strings of different coloured lanterns hanging above; pale-coloured streamers and balloons strewn here and there randomly; a long refreshment table decorated with adorably small candles; even the basketball hoops looked fancy with ribbons, streamers and balloons tied around their unattractive metal bases.

A large banner hung above a slightly-higher-than-the-ground stage announced: _Welcome, Global Director Danger!_

A band consisting of five Hero High students was playing for the event. They were playing fun tunes, dances tracks and one or two slow songs.

Bella was on a mission, she told herself as she felt the urge to join in dancing. She loved dancing.

Her eyes scanned the vast, decorated gym. Some students danced happily, most making a fool of themselves but enjoying it nonetheless. Most students stood around in exclusive circles no one else was allowed to join. Inside the circles, they just chatted about stupid, mundane, insignificant stuff Bella couldn't be bothered about. And, as at every event, the wallflowers, waiting, hopefully, on the sidelines for someone to talk to them, laugh with them, or invite them to dance.

Bella had been given a simple task: find Urban Danger and protect him. The only problem: she didn't know what Urban Danger looked like.

She had seen pictures of his father, Samuel Danger. Jack had shown her the photos in his dad's albums many times. Nevertheless, she had no way of knowing if Urban looked anything like him.

She knew, if nothing else, he would be black. She kept her eyes peeled for dark, black skin. Her eyes caught Mr Hilton, the lanky gym teacher, dancing like a piece of gangly spaghetti. Nope, not him.

It didn't take long for her search to be rewarded. Soon, she saw a solidly built man with skin the colour of pure cocoa standing by the punch table.

It had to be him, she convinced herself as she fought the throng of dancing students to reach him. He was the spitting image of his father.

Her journey across the dance floor was gruelling. Sandwiched by two different teenage dancing circles, pressed in like a sardine, Bella couldn't help but wonder if she had had better odds beating the spinning blades on the Hero Training obstacle course.

Just in front of her, she could see the social sciences teacher, old Mrs Opal, dancing with the English teacher, Mr Shakes.

Short and stout with frizzy white hair in a messy bun and thick-rimmed, bug-eye glasses, little old Mrs Opal laughed as she "boogied."

"Shake it, Mr Shakes!" she yelled, pure delight written on every wrinkled feature of her weathered face as she bopped along to the cheerful beat. She had pretty incredible moves for someone nearing ninety.

Mr Shakes, on the other hand, danced like a broken-hipped, injured-winged, half-frozen chicken jumping on a hot-coal fire.

Bella decided it was safer to duck her head, cover her eyes and keep walking or else risk engraving disturbing, permanent images on her young and innocent mind.

She finally made her way to the refreshments table... but Urban was gone.

"Oh, _come on_!" Bella exclaimed, annoyed.

"What's wrong, Sweet?" a mocking voice came from behind Bella, making her jump. "Lose your stupid friends?"

Bella groaned, inwardly, and turned around to see Sara Cover, immaculately dressed in a stylish, white lace dress with her phony-blonde hair done-up all fancy, standing with her arms crossed and a smug expression on her perfectly made-up face.

Bella smiled, falsely. "Lovely evening, isn't it?" she said, struggling to remain polite. She could try to think of smart, snide remarks but it would just waste time and she told herself she had nothing to prove to Sara.

Sara looked down her powdered nose at Bella's floral dress. "You know this is a formal event, right?"

Bella had sewn the dress herself, with her mother's help. The comment made her blood boil but she didn't have to defend anything.

"This is formal," Bella replied simply, looking past Sara at the crowds, searching for Urban.

"You put your hair in a ponytail?" Sara pointed with disdain.

Bella's dark brown hair was always either left to fall on her shoulders or tied in a messy, hasty ponytail. "Look closely, I put a flower clip in, too."

"Where'd you get that bracelet, a cereal box?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, and it's my favourite. Hey, where's your sister?"

For the past month, Bella noticed that you never see one Cover twin without the other. They stuck together like magnets and if you only saw one, then there was something wrong.

"Looking for Jack. And are those _beach sandals_?" Sara continued. She was seriously starting to get on Bella's nerves as the Gamma Accident tried to carry out her mission, battling to ignore the annoying girl's existence.

Bella glanced down at Sara's high heels, boosting the already tall girl's height.

"You know, I'm proud of my height," Bella retorted. "I don't need to look like a fashion magazine cut-out, I don't need your approval because you've made it clear you don't want to be my friend and you know what? I hope you'll excuse me because I have a list as long as your manicured nails of better things to do than stand here and listen to you pick at me like I'm some kind of bone scrap. Have a nice evening."

With that, Bella walked away, standing tall and proud in her floral dress, summer sandals, cereal box bangle and hasty ponytail.

Acting as mission control again, Jack resided on the gym's roof, gazing up at the star-filled night sky. It was beautiful.

He was alone but unafraid. He was ready and prepared for anything that was about to happen.

Their enemy was going to make an appearance tonight and he was sure of it. Jack seemed to have been born with a sixth sense for danger. If he said he felt danger, then that meant something was about to happen and it was time to start running. So far, he had always been right.

He leaned against the air conditioner unit, listening to the muffled music playing inside the gymnasium. As he surveyed his peaceful surroundings, he couldn't help but wish he were inside with his friends. Bella would have loved to dance, Caleb would be attacking the food table and Ethan would probably be coaxing Ty into lightening up and enjoying himself.

Jack kept tags on his friends via the walkie-talkie system. Dean had actually laughed when Jack first pulled out the trusted radios.

"This isn't 1992," Dean had said. "We have cell phones."

"Yeah, but then you have to scroll through contacts, wait for the other person to pick up and on the other side, it rings and makes noise," Ethan explained. "Walkie-talkies completely circumvent those problems... so long as we stay in range."

Jack fiddled with his radio, checking the batteries and adjusting the frequency. He radioed Caleb.

"Hey, Cal," he said. "See anything yet?"

"No," came Caleb's unenthusiastic reply. He sounded bored to tears. With an attention span as long as a common teenager's text message, he often found himself bored.

The lack of sleep wasn't helping, either.

As he stood outside the gym doors, looking up at the starry night sky, listening and feeling the loud, muffled tunes playing inside the gymnasium, he couldn't help but wish he were somewhere else.

"I'm so _alooooone_ ," he complained to Jack.

"Just remember, this won't last forever. Just keep telling yourself that we'll all be hanging out again, on our favourite beach in Crashton, soon," Jack said.

"Okay," Caleb said and lowered his radio.

Ty was hiding in the bushes by the school's main entrance, Ethan was concealed in a classroom as a nondescript object and the newest edition to the team, Dean, was up a tree somewhere round the other side of the building.

"So _alooooone_ ," Caleb repeated, struggling to keep his heavy eyes open. If he just had someone to talk to, someone to laugh with, someone to share jokes with, then he'd be okay.

Wallowing in his misery, he almost didn't hear the noise. It sounded like heavy boots treading on finely cut grass, a soft sound, but just enough to raise his adrenaline and prepare him for action.

Caleb straightened up suddenly.

Maybe he wasn't so alone, after all...

Bella didn't reach Urban Danger in time. She was only inches away from him when Principal Parr took a microphone, hushed the band, and introduced Urban Danger as the new Global Director of Hero Education and Training.

Applause sprung up and Bella joined in, balancing on the balls of her feet to see over the heads and shoulders of students and teachers.

Danger smiled, graciously, and accepted the microphone from Principal Parr, fighting the urge to wrinkle his nose when he felt how wet the microphone was from Parr's sweaty palms.

He waited for the prolonged ovation to calm down and then he began.

"I am astounded at the overwhelming support," he stated with a warm smile. "I've been global director for little over two months and everyone has been tremendously helpful, enabling the transition process to go as smoothly as possible. I have to thank everyone for their cooperation."

Applause kicked up again, this time louder, more enthusiastic and lasting longer.

"Well, now that I'm in your good books, let me jump straight into the firing line," Urban Danger said, changing tone, drastically. He went from jovial new boss to serious in under a second. "I know I said when I first took over from my late father that there wasn't much I intended to change. That statement still stands: I don't want to change everything because our curriculum is good, our methods are fine and our teacher body is pleasant. However, there is one thing I have wanted to change, something I've dreamed about changing ever since I was a child."

People started whispering questions. Bella looked around her. The crowd was changing. Not only had their mood suddenly dipped to one of uncertainty, but Bella could have sworn she saw a majority of students move as if forming a... a barricade?

No one else seemed to notice the shifting. Bella immediately radioed Jack.

"Something's happening," she hissed.

"You've got that right," he replied, that mission-leader tone creeping into his voice again. "Caleb's gone. He left his post. I think our 'special friends' are making a move..."

Bella's pulse picked up and her mind started racing. "Tell the boys to get in here, _now_ , I think we're going to need back-up."

Urban Danger continued his speech, oblivious to the conversation between the Gamma Accidents. He looked his audience in the eyes. "I want to drop the decades-long laws, restrictions and bans on Gamma Accidents."

Low murmuring commenced and Bella frowned when she saw the painfully restrained anger contorting people's faces. What was going to happen?

She grabbed her walkie-talkie. "Come on, guys, _please_ get in here."

Urban remained calm, despite the dirty looks and the angry whispering. "My father and I had conflicting views on this topic (and I say this with all the respect in my heart), it's now time for change. There is no _pure_ evidence to confirm this minority group of supers are without exception evil. We don't know what happened with G-4, I will admit. Nevertheless, no one ever banned mutants just because statistics show a minority lose control of their powers or turn evil. Why should Gamma Accidents be any different?"

The murmuring intensified and became full-out protesting. No one wanted to hear this, and they were determined to drown out Urban Danger's reasoning with their own hysterical voices. Their protesting sounded like enraged thunder.

Danger had expected a reaction similar to this, but he had not imagined it to be this intense. Nevertheless, he stood tall and proud, keeping his expression straight and not even blinking.

He could tell he would soon have a riot on his hands.

The global director kept silent as enraged students, veteran heroes, parents and even a few teachers continued screaming, shouting and hurling abuse.

Bella crouched down and crawled out the crowd of chaotic rioters. She had to reach Urban Danger, to protect him as best as any sixteen-year-old glower could.

Before she reached her goal, things deteriorated from bad to worse.

Earlier, before Urban Danger took the stage, a group of teenagers had broken away from the crowd and slinked away. Bella had watched it out the corner of her eye but hadn't truly taken note of it. Now, as that same group of teenagers snuck up behind Urban Danger before her very eyes, Bella chided herself.

The band of eleventh and twelfth graders didn't make a move; they just simply stood behind Urban Danger, their expressions neutral, not giving away anything.

Bella stood up and looked around her. All she heard were angry voices, the beginning of an uproar. All she saw was unbridled rage against the new global director. He hadn't been in position for long and now all these people wanted was to get him out that position.

Bella couldn't believe how such a simple statement could spark such an uprising.

She searched the crowd, desperately seeking a familiar, calm and reassuring face. She couldn't see anything of the sort. If anyone was neutral on this subject, they were drowned out by the mass of protestors.

She was flooded with relief when she saw Dean, Ty and Ethan enter the gymnasium, just in time to witness the miniature uproar.

Bella ran up to them, grateful to be in the presence of calm people again.

"What's going on?" Ty asked, confused.

"Urban just announced his plans for the future of the superhero community," Bella quickly summarized. "And it has these guys pretty upset. But that's beside the point. Do you..."

She couldn't even finish her sentence before things deteriorated.

A loud rumbling like thunder boomed, rattling the school with its sheer force. A massive earthquake followed, shaking the ground, rattling the windows, silencing the protestors and throwing everyone off balance.

Dean caught Bella before she fell to the ground.

"Thanks," she said, clutching Dean's arms for stability as the earthquake continued.

Ty grabbed his walkie-talkie and radioed Jack. "Dude, what was _that_?"

"Something's happening in the playing field," Jack replied. "I think... I think it was a bomb."

All hatred against Urban Danger faded as a new threat presented itself.

"Students, stay inside," Principal Parr ordered as teachers, heroes and parents gathered to go check out what was going on in the playing field behind the school building.

"They're protecting us," Dean said, feeling like he had to explain what was happening to the Gamma Accidents. "The experienced heroes, parents and teachers go and chase away the bad guys and leave the students inside so that no harm can come to the future generation."

"Has this happened before?" Ethan asked.

"No, but it's common knowledge. An experienced hero will always check out the danger first before letting teenagers on the scene."

"We should be out there, too," Bella said. "If that's our villain teacher revealing himself and the rebels making their move, we should be out there, ready to stop it. Not in here, huddling together like in a bomb shelter."

"We don't know what we're doing or who we're dealing with," Ethan acknowledged. "Maybe it would be better to let the experienced heroes handle this."

"You mean, wait and see what happens?" Bella reworded. She hated missing out on the action, but she had to admit, Ethan knew what he was talking about. He was often the voice of reason.

Suddenly, Bella's radio crackled. She answered it. "Jack? What's going on?"

"Stay inside," he said, urgently.

Bella frowned. "What's happening?"

"Things are getting complicated, but stay inside. When I get there, I'll explain our new plan of action, okay?"

"Okay."

"Is Urban Danger still in the gym? Please tell me he's still in the gym."

Bella looked around. She caught sight of the global director, guarding the exit doors with the help of old Mrs Opal, to prevent foolhardy students getting out and caught up in something too big for them to handle. "Yes, he's inside."

Jack sighed with relief. "Good, catch up with you in a minute."

Jack stuffed the radio in his pocket before Bella could say anything more.

Everything deteriorated from the moment Caleb left his post. Jack didn't know exactly what happened, but he knew something major had to have taken place to lure the excitable teen away from his station.

From there, things got out of hand.

Jack was conflicted: should he go after his friend and find out if he was alright or hang around and wait for a villain that may, or _may not_ , show up to make an appearance?

The debate inside his head didn't last very long, because he soon saw exactly what his duties were.

He was leaning over the edge of the roof, watching the playing field as a shadowy figure walked, in plain sight, to the middle of the grassy field. Brazenly, he placed an object on the ground, pressed a few buttons and made a run for it.

Jack knew, instantly, it was a bomb, but he didn't have any time to make a move before it went off, knocking Jack backwards across the vast gym roof.

Jack hurriedly got back on his feet and ran to see the extent of destruction the forceful bomb had caused.

Besides the massive shockwave that had likely thrown everyone off their feet, it was actually a pretty useless explosion, he realized as he stared down at the moonlit, charred playing field. It hadn't killed anyone, it hadn't brought Hero High toppling down and it hadn't destroyed anything besides a stand of bleachers and a football field of freshly cut grass.

Jack watched as teachers, experienced heroes and parents ran out the gym building to investigate the threat, leaving the students inside where they would be protected.

At first, he thought it was a good idea, but his mind never stopped putting the pieces together and, soon, he recognized it as the biggest mistake of the evening.

That was when he radioed Bella. He was relieved to know the global director was inside, but it was only a shred of consolation.

The bomb was a trick, a decoy, a trap.

A terrible fate was about to befall the adults, Jack could feel it. However, something even worse was about to happen to the lonely teenagers standing around, unprotected, in the gymnasium beneath Jack's feet.

He was conflicted, yet again. Fly down and protect the adults or stay and wait to see what was going to happen to the teenagers?

He decided to stay, hoping he had made the right decision.

The wind kicked up, all of a sudden. Jack tilted his head back and looked up at the night sky as a small dot of flashing lights grew.

A helicopter?

Jack searched the rooftop for a place to hide, momentarily. He dashed, like a bolt of lightning, behind the air conditioner unit. From behind the unit, he watched as the helicopter came down for a smooth landing on top of the flat gym roof.

As the helicopter's blades slowed, a figure stepped out. It was easy to see them in the summer moonlight, especially with enhanced eyesight.

A tall man, in his sixties, with electric blue eyes, white hair and a clean-cut beard, wearing a long, black coat; a black shirt; black pants and black combat boots peered over the edge of the roof, surveying the scene of confused adults.

He laughed, lightly, to himself, unaware he shared the rooftop with someone else.

He pulled something out his pocket. A black, bulky disc. He bent down and placed the object on the concrete roof, pressed some buttons and then stepped back.

A little red light bleeped, emitting a petty noise, before the device proved what it was capable of.

It blew a new (though rough-edged) skylight into the gym's roof.

Jack coughed as smoke and dust billowed. The man didn't notice. Instead, he jumped down, through the hole and into the gym below.

Dean, Ty, Ethan and Bella came to the same conclusion Jack had reached as soon as they heard the helicopter's blades rapidly chopping the air.

Inside the gym, no one dared so much as breathe as a newcomer's footsteps echoed from the roof.

They heard the faint bleeping, and then the silence-shattering, earth-rocking and heart-stopping explosion erupted.

Screaming students scattered, running or flying (depending on what they could do), as fast as they could to the edges of the gymnasium to avoid being hit by bits of debris.

Bella fell to her knees, covering her head with her arms as bits of broken school roof flew like projectiles. The boys did the same, surrounding Bella, protectively.

Dust enveloped the disaster-zone that minutes before had been the Hero High gym.

Almost all the lights had been destroyed, plunging the vast gym into partial darkness, and Bella (the only glower in Hero High) instantly broke out in a pale blue glow. Pale blue meant she was scared. She didn't know yet how to control her glow colours.

Coughing and shaking shattered pieces of concrete and dirt off herself, Bella opened her eyes to take in the scene.

Smoke and dust began settling as students shakily tried to get back on their feet after being knocked down for the second time in such a short span of time.

Bella caught sight of a new figure, standing tall and menacingly atop the slab of concrete roof that _had_ been above their heads minutes before.

A majority of the students congregated and formed a formidable barrier around the perimeter of the gymnasium, clearly demonstrating whose side they were on. The remaining students, as well as the global director and Mrs Opal, resided in the middle of the fearsome barricade.

"Lance was right," Bella said under her breath as she took in the sight of the villain teacher's hordes of supporters.

"It was Wepaynar the whole time," Jack said to himself as he ran from his hiding spot and fell through the new hole in the Hero High gym roof.

He flew and landed, softly, beside Bella and the boys, careful not to make a sound.

"Are you okay?" Jack asked Bella. Even with explosions, evil masterminds and rebels to deal with, Jack was still concerned about his friends.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Bella replied, brushing herself off.

"Yep, we're all good," Ty said. "You know, because EXPLODING GYM ROOFS, REBELS, RENEGADE HISTORY TEACHERS AND HELICOPTERS ON THE ROOF ARE _TOTALLY NORMAL_!"

"Keep it down," hissed Dean and Ethan.

"Round them up," Wepaynar ordered his league of young supporters.

Bella turned to Jack, her eyes asking all the questions.

"Go along," Jack instructed, keeping his voice low as the rebels advanced, herding the students towards the gymnasium doors. "I'll hang back and deal with Wepaynar."

"Be careful," Bella said, quickly hugging Jack.

"I will if you will," he replied.

The Gamma Accidents and Dean joined the stream of students being herded by the rebellious students through the open, double gym doors, into the corridors of Hero High.

A defiant (and shortsighted) hereditary student stood up to the rebels. "Ha! We're superheroes. We can escape anytime we want. What are you going to do to keep us inside?"

Wepaynar barely smiled as he pulled out a device that resembled a remote control and pressed a button.

The sound of metal shutters closing echoed through the gym.

"What just happened?" Ethan asked.

"The school's gone into lockdown," Dean answered as he face-palmed.

"Which means...?" Ty prompted.

"Well, in the event of an extreme nuclear attack, viral epidemic or Professor Darkins' experiments gaining cognitive ability, the school will go into lockdown. Complete shutdown. Maximum protection. Nothing can get in and no one can get out... not even supers."

The adults had been lured away, the teenagers left unprotected with the rebels and now completely alone in a locked down building.

"That can't be good," Ty said.

"It's not," Dean agreed.

The teens, realizing there was no way they could fight a Hero High lockdown, solemnly went along with the rebels' herding.

The rebels gathered the students in the patchily lit, vast cafeteria.

"Wow, this place feels creepy at night," Bella shivered as she and the boys cooperated with the rebels and quietly resided at a table.

Ethan offered her his jacket, which she accepted and pulled on. It was, of course, a couple of sizes too big, the sleeves covering her hands and the shoulders sagging, but she was grateful for the extra warmth.

"So _Wepaynar's_ the one behind this," Bella said in a hushed voice. "To be honest, my money was on the music teacher. The way she makes those weird dolphin noises whenever you hit the wrong note... totally freaked me out."

"What do you think is gonna happen to us now?" Ty mused, glancing around at the formally dressed students hanging around the tables, the entire room under the guard of the rebels.

Dean shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted. "Do we just wait and see again?"

"Until Jack tells us otherwise... yeah, pretty much," Ethan said.

Dean nodded. "Right... so... who wants to play rock, paper, scissors?"

The traitor, Wepaynar, hung back, casually, as the rebels led the other students away. He quietly fiddled with some kind of device that looked similar to the one he used to blow the roof in.

He was not alone, though.

Jack had hung back, too, and was hiding behind what _had been_ the refreshments table, planning his next move.

_Wepaynar,_ he thought. _I've heard that name before, but where?_

Jack quickly recalled everything he knew about the history teacher.

A well-famed hero, until his retirement seven years ago, Wepaynar doesn't actually _have_ superpowers. He's a gadgeteer and a pilot.

But the name kept sticking in Jack's mind, pestering him. Something in him screamed at him, telling him he had heard the name Wepaynar _before_.

Trying to focus on the situation at hand, Jack told himself he probably heard the name from his dad or read it in some of the old high school albums lining the shelves of his dad's bookcase.

Jack leaned away from his shelter to get a wider view of the gym and Wepaynar.

The renegade history teacher contently played with his device, adjusting parts and tightening small screws.

Jack stepped out from his hiding spot. "What are you doing?" he asked.

Wepaynar looked up, mildly surprised. He was not taken aback by the sudden appearance of what he believed to be an impulsive teenager who thought he could be a hero and save the day.

Wepaynar continued tinkering with the device. "This is the master bomb," he explained, holding the bulky, black disc up to the light, admiringly. "Connected to four similar bombs set, strategically, at different points in this school. When I set this one to go off, they all go off and the great Hero High becomes a pile of ash."

Jack kept his cool, amazed that Wepaynar hadn't attacked him yet. Instead, he seemed to be talking to him as if he were a friend. Jack still struggled to calm his racing heart. "But you're in here, too."

"Not for long," Wepaynar said. "After I set this, I'm leaving. They asked me for this much so I shall give them this much."

Testing the waters seemed to work, now Jack decided to dive. "I've heard about you. You were a great hero. Your inventions saved so many lives. Why did you train villains?"

Wepaynar raised an eyebrow. "Who are you?" he asked, enquiringly.

"Jack," the teenager replied, simply.

"Well, Jack, let me tell you a little fact. You have to train people to do good. That's why they have places like this," Wepaynar spread his arms out and gestured to the building around them, "because good people, _heroes_ , need to be trained, taught and educated. Evil isn't the same. You simply have to point the corrupt in the right (or, should I say, _wrong_ ) direction and they will go all out for it. I never trained those youths. I simply pointed them in a direction and they carried on from there."

"Why would you do that?" Jack questioned.

Wepaynar took a deep breath as he adjusted a miniature bolt on the master bomb. "Well, young Jack, there's quite a story behind that one. If I were a villain, I would never tell you it." Wepaynar looked Jack straight in the eye. "But I'm not a villain. I am, and have always been, a hero. I have standards, I have principles, and I use my abilities to protect humanity. I simply disagree with the superhero community on one matter.

"Gamma accidents," Wepaynar spat with all the malice of years and years of bottled hatred. Jack didn't even blink, knowing he may give himself away if he so much as breathed deeply. "The superhero community had it right for so long: gamma accidents are always evil. They're even worse than some villains because they are destructive and deceptive. G-4 is the shining example of that. They lifted the ban and made a name for gamma accidents, everyone started to think, 'Hey, maybe we were wrong.' I knew better, and the day G-4 turned against the city they claimed to protect, I felt justified in never trusting those criminals.

"I petitioned for gamma accidents to be banned again, so you can thank me for the past eighteen years when Hero High and the superhero community were free of the potential threats. Then Samuel Danger passed away and his incompetent fool of a son stepped in. I knew he'd pull something like this. Allowing gamma accidents to train with the rest of our future heroes? Have you _ever_ heard of something so... so _abhorrent_?"

Wepaynar looked at Jack, expecting a reply. Jack scrambled to figure out an appropriate reply. He opened his mouth, ready just to wing it, when Wepaynar continued.

"Leaves you speechless, doesn't it?" Wepaynar continued, unknowingly saving Jack. "That's why I'm doing this. Actually, the teenagers came up with it. They said something about showing their disdain for authority and asked me for supplies. I agreed because this is for revenge."

Jack frowned. "How is it your revenge?" he asked.

Wepaynar continued tinkering with the master bomb. "When this place is destroyed, it will prove to the superhero community how they've betrayed me."

"And _kill_ those heroes of tomorrow you were talking about?" Jack retorted. "Gamma accidents never _hurt_ you."

"That's where you're wrong. The biggest blow came to me when my own daughter fell in love with a filthy, good-for-nothing gamma accident," Wepaynar explained, truly cut to the heart. "I tried everything to stop my little girl from marrying that jerk but she defied me, blinded by love. That rotten crook turned my girl against me. She ran away from home and married him, convinced I was wrong."

Jack looked the man up and down. He was truly saddened by the perceived betrayal. And, over the years, that hurt had turned into bitterness, and now, cruelty.

"What if I said I know gamma accidents?" Jack said. "And I know that you're wrong?"

Wepaynar raised an eyebrow. "I'd say, you weren't alive two decades ago when G-4 levelled a huge city. You weren't there to take them down before they could destroy the whole country or to deal with the aftermath. And you were not the man who had to watch as his daughter fell in love with a scheming gamma accident...

"I'd say you never met John Painter."

Students in the cafeteria looked defeated and hopeless. They took up seats at bare cafeteria tables and waited. Waited for what, they weren't sure, and, glancing at the straight-faced rebels forming an ominous ring around the vast cafeteria, no one wanted to think about it too deeply.

Years and years of training and education to be heroes, and here they were: sitting ducks. No fight, no try, no "Let's band together and take down the rebels." Instead, shoulders sagged and eyes dropped to the floor.

The Gamma Accidents and Dean observed the depressing scene from their table, watching as the "Future Heroes of Tomorrow" wallowed, quietly, in their misery.

"We need to get these kids outta here," Bella said in a hushed tone as she huddled like a football team with Ty, Ethan and Dean. "Because, obviously, their training did not encourage improvising. Got any ideas?"

"There is an impenetrable, dense, unbreakable metal shield securing this building," Ty said. "We can't get out."

"No, but we can get out of this cafeteria," Bella continued. "I doubt reinforcements will ever find their way to us, but there are at least a hundred students still on the side of good. Together, I think we can stop Wepaynar and his gang of rebels."

"That's the thing," Ty pointed out. "They aren't a gang. They're an ARMY! There have to be at least four hundred of them."

For once, Ty was not exaggerating.

"Look, Bella's got the right idea," Dean agreed. "By escaping the cafeteria, it will prove we have the upper hand. Hero Training 101, once you've demoralized your enemy, he's easier to take down. Isn't that worth a shot?"

Ty begrudgingly nodded his agreement.

"So... any ideas?" Ethan prompted.

No one said anything, waiting for someone else to come up with the brilliant suggestions.

"Okay, what about this?" Bella said and proceeded to explain her plan. "It's a stretch for all of us, but I think we can do it."

Silence fell in the partially lit, half-destroyed gym. A light flickered and sparked, attempting to light up but only managing a small flash; the smell of smoke and concrete mingled with perfume and the strange aroma hung in the air. The only sound was that coming from Wepaynar's tinkering on the master bomb.

"Did you say _John_ Painter?" Jack eventually asked, his puzzle-solving mind kicking into overdrive and his sense of danger detecting something colossal.

Wepaynar nodded. "John Painter: the low-down creep got in my daughter's head and convinced her gamma accidents weren't so bad. He fooled the world into believing he was some great kind of hero but in fact, he was just a scheming rat. Even after the ban came down on gammas again, he shamelessly (and stupidly) kept pretending to be a superhero," he explained with raw hatred.

With a churning feeling inside, Jack suddenly recalled where he had heard the name 'Wepaynar' before. "Is your daughter's name... Alison, by any chance?"

At the mention of his little girl's name, Wepaynar dropped the master bomb and fumbled to catch it before it hit the ground, snagging it just in time. He turned and looked the teenager up and down with a mightily quizzical look. "What did you say your name was again, boy?" Wepaynar questioned, raising an eyebrow and considering the teenager with extreme suspicion.

" _Jack_ Painter, the son of _John_ and _Alison_ Painter."

For at least two minutes, the senior history teacher and the young hereditary hero stood as if paused in time, staring at one other, waiting for the information to hit home.

When the realization eventually dawned on them, they jumped backwards, as if they had given each other a staggering electrical shock.

"You're my _grandfather_?" Jack said.

"John had a _son_?" Wepaynar said. He narrowed his electric blue eyes. "Figures, you look just like him."

"You're my _grandfather_ ," Jack repeated as pieces of the puzzle fell into place, despite his willing them not to.

"You sure are as _dumb_ as John," Wepaynar sneered. Suddenly his eyes widened as he realized something else. " _Alison_ had a son?"

"And a daughter," Jack glibly added. "But you wouldn't _know_ that because you've been so busy hating someone who gave you no reason to hate him. My dad was not some kind of _villain_. He only ever saved people... unlike you."

Once a renowned hero, now about to blow up a school full of future heroes, Wepaynar had let his prejudice fester and consume him to the point it had driven him to utter madness.

Jack knew his father was nothing like how Wepaynar (John's father-in-law) had described him. Jack had inherited his powers from his dad and still remembered the afternoons he would come home and take Jack to an old scrap yard where he would teach him the tricks of being a superhero.

So many times, Jack saw his father in headlines, on the television, in the newspapers, always saving the day. Never, of course, did those reports actually show his father, because John was never in it for the glory.

When his dad died, seven years ago, the world lost one of its greatest protectors.

Now it was up to Jack to step up and, just as his father would have approved, protect the people he loved and save the day.

Bella was really good at strategizing, Dean observed as they put her plan into action. Even if she said she hated taking over Jack's mission control role, she was good at it.

She couldn't have had a more challenging situation to work with. With rebels surrounding the cafeteria, their eyes watching the prisoners like hawks, it was impossible to do anything without at least seventeen sets of eyes watching you.

Under the 360-degree surveillance, Bella managed to get the hundred or so good students out the cafeteria.

How?

Holograms, that's how.

The rebels saw a cafeteria full of glum-faced teenagers in fancy dress, playing with their thumbs, staring at the ceiling, or shuffling their feet. They were quite satisfied with how smooth their plan was working.

Behind the smoke and mirrors, the teenagers, Mrs Opal and Urban Danger were crawling on their hands and knees in a single file line across the cafeteria, shuffling slowly through the air vents.

Ty took the lead and led his classmates to the various classrooms, locker rooms and the school auditorium, evenly spreading out the future heroes so that not everyone was in just one place.

Bella and Dean waited by the cafeteria's air vent, making sure everyone got through, giving them hushed orders and checking that everyone remained silent.

As the last student crawled through, Dean ushered Bella through and waved to Ethan, who sat in the middle of the vast cafeteria, covering for his fellow students.

Ethan had never broadcast his holograms before but now was as good a time as any to try and everyone who had made their escape through the air vents was grateful.

Now he had to make his escape.

Ethan dropped to his hands and knees and fast crawled to the air vent while still transmitting the hologram. He couldn't drop it too soon or else he and Dean wouldn't make it through.

" _Go_!" Ethan hissed, urgently urging Dean through the air vent.

Dean complied, shuffling ahead of his friend.

As soon as Ethan was inside the air vent, he let the hologram flicker out.

As he crawled away to join his fellow students in a classroom, Ethan heard the rebellious Hero High students shouting and yelling in absolute confusion.

He couldn't help the smile that spread across his face.

"Take _that_ , Hero Training," Ethan said to himself.

It was almost ten thirty p.m., but Rust could finally see the scattered town lights of Summer Valley glimmering amongst the late night stars.

He knew the welcoming ceremony would probably be in full swing by now. Audrey would kill him if he showed up looking the way he did right now. He hadn't changed since he left and his jeans smelt distinctly of stale ketchup, gas station takeout and exhaust fumes.

Maybe it would be better for everybody if he stopped by the motel and freshened up. Audrey would definitely approve if he shaved the dark five o' clock shadow.

He had given up his motel room when he left, so he figured he could stop by one of the motel rooms Audrey had booked for the kids to stay in.

He was approaching Summer Valley, passing the large billboard announcing good times and great memories, when he saw a figure leaping from point to point on the freeway.

It looked like a Mexican jumping bean the way it bounced along the mostly empty freeway.

The figure jumped ever closer and swiftly leapt over Rust's van.

Rust twisted around in his seatbelt, struggling to look over his shoulder at the bouncing figure. Distracted, he absentmindedly made the van swerve across the road.

"Caleb?"

An approaching truck honked, loudly and meaningly, wrenching Rust back to his senses. Automatically, he slammed his foot on the brake as hard as he could, listening to the tyres protest as the vehicle ground to a complete halt.

As soon as the truck had rolled past, Rust restarted the van, swung around and floored it, earnestly following the jumping bean.

Eventually, he overtook the bouncing teenager and managed to catch his attention.

Caleb stopped jumping and bent over, resting his hands on his knees as he gulped in air.

Rust opened the van door and stepped out. "Caleb? What's going on?"

"Hero High... lockdown... bad guys..." Caleb gasped, breathlessly. He took a few, deep breaths and summarized the events of the evening, talking fast like a zoomed up record. "Some guys came at me, I ran. There was an explosion in the playing field and all the adults went to check it out. A helicopter landed on the gym roof, there was an explosion and then the school went into lockdown. The others, the global director and all the students are inside. The rebels are going to blow up the school, that's what I've heard. I'm going for backup."

"Hop in," Rust said, jerking his head in the direction of the van.

As Rust started the engine (again) and Caleb buckled his seatbelt, he grumbled, "I leave you kids for a few days and what happens? The school goes into lockdown and blows up."

In very hushed whispers, Bella, Ty, Ethan and Dean discussed their plan for action while in the air vents.

It was decided one member of their team had to be with each gathering of students in the various parts of the school.

Bella offered to take the auditorium, and crawled off to her designated air vent exit.

Hero High's auditorium was dark when the students gathered there. Someone had the common sense to flip the lights on, thus illuminating the large auditorium.

Bella came out the air vent and stood up, taking in the scene of students looking over their shoulders, waiting for something.

"Okay, this is what we're going to do," Bella said, increasing her volume to be heard throughout the cavernous hall. The students that ordinarily wouldn't listen to her snapped around and paid full attention as the girl next door gave instructions. "We don't know how long we have until the rebels come after us," she continued. "We're outnumbered but if we work together, we can hold them at bay long enough for help to come."

A low murmuring kicked up.

"We don't do the whole 'work together' thing," Sara Cover pointed out. It would be Bella's luck to have her in her group. "We're trained to use our powers _solo_."

"There are some things you can't do alone," Bella replied simply. "And stopping the bad guys will sometimes take more than just your own strength. There are about thirty students here. Now, I know you probably have no idea who the person next to you is or what power they have." Bella watched as students glanced to the side to check exactly _who_ was standing beside them. "But you've had crossover training so many times, surely by now you know how to go about this."

"Well, yeah, but it was always with the same person," some kid Bella didn't know replied.

"Wing it," Bella said. "Take a chance and just do what you do best, whether that be blowing stuff up, making big things small, talking to fish, hey, even if all you do is make weird noises with your jaw: do it. You've had years of training: it's time to put that book knowledge into action. This is bigger than an obstacle course, but it's the same thing. So, come on, do it for Hero High, do it for the superhero community, do it for ya mamma and do it for your fellow heroes."

The students were quiet for quite some time, considering what the outcast just said.

"You'll never get a better chance than right now to prove you're the heroes I always thought you were," Bella concluded, honestly.

"Let's do it!" Janie Cover declared, punching the air. She was far more enthusiastic and spirited than her sister.

"Yeah!" the students chorused, they're eyes aflame with the passion burning in their hearts.

Urban Danger stood in amongst the students, listening to Bella's instructions. While he had no idea who the girl was, he realized she wasn't like the other Hero High students. There was a fire inside her, and it was burning like the surface of the sun...

Without another word, Jack dashed across the gymnasium and snatched the master bomb right out of his grandfather's hands. The action only took a second.

Standing on a pile of broken concrete, Jack waved the round, black, bulky disc. "I have my father's powers, too," he said.

"They did him no good in the end," Wepaynar replied, undaunted. "And if you think taking the master bomb is going to accomplish anything, you're just rivalling your father's stupidity."

Wepaynar produced another remote control and without hesitation pressed the largest button.

Little red LED lights started flashing, alarmingly fast, on the master bomb as it began to emit a shrill beeping.

"Even if you use your superhuman might to crush that bomb," Wepaynar said with a satisfied tone, "it has already set off the four, smaller bombs set in strategic points in this building. Because we're in lockdown, the implosion will be spectacular."

"I thought you were going to hightail it outta here," Jack reminded him.

"And I will," Wepaynar said, "because I want to live to see the reaction of the superhero community when they hear about what happened here. I want to know how people feel about the explosion that should take place in about, oh, an hour."

The rebels fanned out like a strictly trained army and swept through the school, systematically checking every locker, classroom and hallway for their escaped prisoners.

They couldn't have left the building, so it was only a matter of moments until they found them, cowering in the corners.

They didn't count on their prisoners advancing towards them, walking tall and proud, this time prepared and determined not to go down without a fight.

They're earlier escape had slightly disheartened the rebels. But when they realized it was just a measly band of thirty students, led by a glowing sixteen-year-old girl in a floral dress, coming up against a legion of four hundred upwards, their concerns were blown to the wind.

"We can take them," a cocky teenage boy said to his friend as the little legion advanced down the badly lit hallway.

As the group marched, another group of escaped heroes joined, led by the scared-of-his-own-shadow shrinker boy.

"Come on, give us a challenge!" a rebel yelled as his pals joined him, immediately creating an army of rebels stronger and greater than the pathetic band marching towards them.

"He brings his doom upon himself," a resolute Ty said to Bella as they tramped onwards.

Undeterred, the hero students continued their ominous advance, eyes set, dead, on their target.

In the main entrance hall, the band of hero students stopped advancing and faced the rebel students. From corridors leading to the left and the right, two more groups of hero students, one led by the hologram, glasses-wearing kid and the other led by the notorious Dean Lightbody, joined the legion.

The band of hero students was still small, far smaller than the rebels' army, but their entrance, growth and advance had significantly aided in demoralizing their enemy.

"Go easy on us," Bella simply said, thus unleashing the chaos.

Janie and Sara Cover flew up into the air, leading the other flyers in a perfectly synchronized dive-bomb on the enemy. The manoeuvre had such accuracy, unity and grace, you would have sworn it was rehearsed and not the result of "winging it."

A High Hero jock the Gamma Accidents had met weeks earlier that day on the playing field with the duffel bag mission, froze every rebel that ran towards him into a block of solid ice.

"They'll thaw out by next week," he informed whoever bothered to listen in the midst of all the chaos.

Vines with little red flowers grew out the ground and wrapped around a group of rebels as they tried to attack one of the heroes. Petite, black-haired Lacey Smallwood smiled, satisfied with her work.

A rebel ran towards Ty, intent on tackling him. Ty jumped into the air, shrank and landed on the rebel's shoulder.

"So many ears, too little time," Ty told him as he grabbed his ear lobe, pinching it hard. "Leave now because you have just been spared the wrath of Tyrone Percival Black."

Ty leapt off the rebel's shoulders and returned to normal size, just in time to watch him turn tail and run down the corridor, clutching his ear.

A group of rebels surrounded Ty, their hands glowing with standby plasma blasts.

"Did you _not_ just see what I did to your pal? Do I really have to maul your ear lobes, too?"

It was an exaggeration, but Ty seemed incapable of speaking without exaggerations.

He was about to become toast, quite literally. The plasma blasts would incinerate him.

Suddenly, the rebels started squirming. They danced on the spot, jumping up and down, as if they had ants in their pants.

"Lab rats," Dean clarified as he grabbed Ty by the shoulders and yanked him away. "You can thank Professor Darkins."

Every rebel that tried to tackle Bella was blinded by a sudden, dazzling, brightly coloured light. They staggered backwards, clutching their face.

In his hologram state, Ethan was impossible to hold. Firm arms wrapped around him from behind, he turned hologram and walked out the tightening grasp as if it weren't even there, because, to a hologram, it wasn't.

Flames illuminated the hall, ice blasts sent a chill through everyone in close range, vines crept along the walls and floor like live snakes, lab rats scurried here and there, a lion patrolled the perimeter, a dark black cloud hung over and rained continuously, and loud music played, (from where, no one knew.)

It was pure and utter chaos, the kind of insanity where you forget to blink because you think you're dreaming.

For a moment, it looked like the hero students had the upper hand. It seemed like they were going to beat the rebels.

That hope was dashed within the next minute, when the rebel legion grew in number and overpowered the heroes.

Suddenly, nothing the small band of heroes did mattered. The rebels worked in perfect sync, as if they had done this many times before. Stretchers elongated their elastic bodies and wrapped themselves, countless times, around whole groups of heroes, stopping them from even moving.

A rebel who could control plant-life destroyed Lacey Smallwood's hard work, overpowered her and managed to capture many hero students in a tangle of thorns.

"We need backup!" Bella yelled to her friends as she was unexpectedly grabbed from behind, her attacker pinning her arms behind her back. She struggled, fought back and lit up but this time they weren't letting go.

One hour. Jack had little less than an hour before the school blew up. It wouldn't be an explosion: it would an implosion, thanks to the total lockdown. Nothing outside of the school would be touched by as much as a spark.

"If I know what you're thinking," Wepaynar said, "you're probably contemplating disabling the bombs. Let me save you some time and tell you that is impossible. I put in a failsafe, just in case someone decided to change his or her mind at the last second and be a hero. There is no way to disarm that bomb."

"How do I know you're not bluffing?" Jack questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Wepaynar shrugged. "Does it matter? Even _if_ it was possible to disarm that bomb, it's too complex for the offspring of John Painter to figure out."

Jack ignored the insult aimed at him and his late father: there were far more pressing matters to attend to, such as the _explosive in his hands!_

There was no way of getting the bombs out, there was no way (yet) of evacuating the students and who knew when (or, rather, _if_ ) reinforcements would ever show up.

"You know, we've only known each other for about ten minutes," Wepaynar said, "and already our relationship is pretty awkward."

"I'll say!" Jack agreed, rolling his eyes.

For a moment, grandfather and grandson gazed at each other. If someone else had been in that room, watching the odd scene play out like a movie, they would have been utterly confused. Sure, there were plenty of estranged grandparents and grandchildren in the world. This story, however, seemed very farfetched.

Plunging matters into a state of further unease, Wepaynar produced a gun and aimed it straight at Jack. "Why don't we go all the way and just make this even more awkward?"

Jack seemed undaunted by the presence of a firearm pointed directly at his chest.

"If you're like your father, then I know you're not invincible," Wepaynar said.

"Well, if you knew my father, than you'd know I'm too fast for bullets," Jack replied.

Wepaynar pulled the safety catch on his homemade gun. "Your father was just as cocky. See where that got him? Seven years ago, he was in this same position. Let's hope this isn't a 'Like father, like son,' situation, eh?"

In the instant Wepaynar pulled the trigger, Jack bolted like a streak of lightning to the other side of the gym.

"See? Faster than a dumb, old bullet," Jack said.

"Frankly, I'm not surprised: your ole dad said the exact same thing," Wepaynar replied, coolly taking aim again, his arm slightly shaking with age or anticipation, Jack wasn't sure which.

By the time the loud BANG had sounded, Jack was already a good five yards away from the bullet's target.

"You're not even trying!" Jack said. He realized his mistake in the next moment, when Wepaynar took aim, this time with purpose, like he meant it.

"You're right, I wasn't," he said in a low voice.

All he had to do was run, just like the two bullets before. There was no way the third would hit him.

"Go on, try run," Wepaynar called. "Your dad did. Who would have ever imagined a simple bullet could take down the greatest hero of our generation? Didn't take me too much imagination..."

Jack remembered the day his dad didn't come home. He remembered some official from the superhero community telling his mom there had been a colossal fire and John had died saving an entire town from destruction. He remembered little Rosie sobbing and curling up close to him, trying to hide.

"Did you start that fire?" Jack questioned.

Wepaynar held back the shot. "Well, I doubt your dad would have come if I had called and asked him out for a day of fishing on the lake. Yes, I started the fire. He _stopped_ the fire. Then we ended up in a situation remarkably similar to this. I taunted him with a few blank shots, building his confidence. The truth is: he could easily outrun any bullet, that much I'll admit. But a little bit of calculation and timing was obviously too much for him."

The revelation struck Jack hard. This story was getting further complicated by the second.

He stood there, trying to piece things together while trying to be ready to beat Wepaynar's last bullet. He could only try and beat it, he was fast and a bullet was no match for his speed. But would his grandfather get lucky?

He had no other option but to run. He was about to do just that when the sound of metal shutters retracting echoed around the gymnasium, startling both grandfather and grandson.

They looked up and watched in dumbstruck awe as the impenetrable metal dome encasing Hero High retracted. Stars shone through the hole Wepaynar blasted in the gym roof.

A figure fell down, tackled Wepaynar and pinned him to the ground, striking out with his foot to kick the gun across the dust covered gym floor.

Jack's eyes widened. "Rust? Shouldn't you be in, like, Turkey or something by now?"

"Two things," Rust said. "One, why Turkey? And two, you kids need backup."

"Right, so why are you _really_ back?" Jack asked, crossing his arms and waiting for a better answer.

Rust got to his feet and yanked Wepaynar up with him, restraining the history teacher's arms behind his back, making sure he couldn't escape.

"So he's the one that's been training bad guys?" Rust said, ignoring Jack's question.

"He's also my grandfather," Jack said.

Rust raised an eyebrow.

"It was a shock for me, too," Wepaynar agreed.

"But he is the bad guy, right?" Rust checked.

Jack nodded.

"Good, last time I made _that_ mistake was twenty-three years ago. For some reason, the superhero community really doesn't like it when you accuse a board member of espionage."

"How did you undo the lockdown?" Jack asked, pointing up at the open skylight.

Rust shrugged like it was first grade math. "Simple. I just used the code. Only a handful of people on this planet know the code, and I used to be one of them. To be honest, I was afraid they might have changed the code on me. It resets every time there's a lockdown. Good thing they haven't had a lockdown since 1985. I guess Professor Darkins has been adhering to his parole guidelines."

Caleb bounced through the skylight. He beamed. "Hey, Jack. I got reinforcements."

"I was wondering where you got to," Jack said. "Okay, here's the deal: there are about five bombs scattered around inside the school. This is one of them," he held up the master bomb. "They can't be disarmed, so don't waste any time trying. Just find them and dispose of them, got it?"

Caleb nodded, readily. He waved an arm, signalling to his reinforcements.

The lunch-ladies, janitor Darren, Principal Parr, the heroes, parents and the teachers that had been locked out poured in through the skylight and the gymnasium doors, a ragtag but eager army.

"Good," Jack said. "Let's move out, sweep through the school, search for the bombs, help the hero students, stop the rebels and save Hero High!"

When the reinforcements reached the entrance hall, relief washed through the beaten heroes.

Some students were frozen in solid ice, some were entangled by thorny vines, some were tied up in the elongated arms of various rebel stretchers, and some were plain old beat, exhausted, tuckered out.

The rebels weren't, though.

One look at the motley gang of lunch-ladies in fuzzy slippers, nightgowns and hair curlers was enough to make them laugh and realize this was no fight. It's not hard to beat a lunch-lady, right?

Wrong.

The rebels advanced towards the lunch-ladies, their first mistake.

The floor started warming up until it was red hot. The rebels were shrieking and dancing like Michael Flatley, the burning floor scorching their feet through their shoes.

With the rebels distracted, they didn't notice the swarm of vegetables hurtling towards them. They were pelted mercilessly by carrots, bell peppers, onions, potatoes and eggplants.

Trying to avoid the scorching floor and fighting off determined vegetables, the rebels couldn't have hoped to see the lunch-lady known as Big Bertha multiply until there was an army of thirty, large, formidable, muscular Big Bertha's facing the hundred or so puny, skinny, adolescent rebels.

The floor cooled and the vegetable attack subsided, but the rebels couldn't feel any relief when they laid eyes on the frightening army.

The rebels didn't even try. They turned around and ran like dogs with tails between their legs.

The lunch-ladies used their various powers to free the trapped hero students from their wide range of entanglements.

"Thanks," Bella said as a lunch-lady cut through the thorny vines ensnaring her.

"Where'd the rebels go?" Ty asked as a lunch-lady unfroze him. He shivered and hugged himself to warm up after his deepfreeze.

"They ran away when they saw Big Bertha," one of the lunch-ladies said.

"Those weren't all the rebels," Ty said, his teeth chattering. "There are at least four or five hundred rebels. Where are they?"

"Look, that's not important right now," a lunch-lady interrupted. "Finding those bombs is important. We don't have much time."

Every classroom was being searched. The cafeteria had many volunteers sweeping through, checking every crevice three times for anything suspicious. Some poor suckers were given the dreaded task of hunting through the bathrooms for a bomb.

Jack met up with Bella, Ethan, Ty, Dean and Caleb in the search. Finally reunited, the team discussed the events of the evening as they searched a classroom.

"Your _grandfather_ tried to _kill_ you?" Caleb said. "Wow, that is messed up."

"Not as messed up as this school is going to be if we don't find those bombs," Ty pointed out, carefully examining the underside of a desk.

"We only have a half hour before those bombs go off," Jack reminded his friends, changing the subject. "If we don't find them all before then, we're evacuating the school, got it?"

His team nodded in agreement.

"What made Rust turn around?" Bella mused aloud as she systematically pulled open every desk drawer and searched the contents.

Ethan shrugged. "Detour? Forgot to say goodbye to Big Bertha? Missed the desert air? Who knows?"

Bella nodded. "Yeah, I guess, but I like to think he missed us."

Caleb suddenly shrieked.

"Caleb, if you see a spider, just carry on," Ty said, dismissively.

"No, this is _not_ a spider," Caleb said, revealing his find to his brothers and friends.

It was a bomb, for sure. Jack recognized it straight away because it looked identical to the master bomb, just smaller.

Without another word, he snatched it right out of Caleb's hands and flew out the classroom like a bullet. He flew out the skylight in the gym and climbed as high into the sky as he could physically go.

Hovering high above the earth, gazing down at the scattered, little pinpricks of light, Jack just had to wait a few minutes, then he'd let go of the bomb and plummet back to earth, riding the shockwave of an explosion.

No plan he made that evening so far had worked out as he had hoped, and it seemed this plan wasn't going to be an exception.

As he drifted in the deep, indigo black sky, Jack noticed a spot beneath him growing. As it neared, he saw it was no spot. It was another flyer.

Part of him wanted to hope it was a fellow student with a bomb, on the same mission as him.

The other part of him told him it was something sinister.

The latter was correct, and it was confirmed when the rebel flyer came, face to face, with Jack.

There was a mid-air wrestling, which no one standing on earth could possibly see, not unless they possessed a telescope.

I would like to say Jack was stronger and kept a firm hold on that explosive. But that is simply not how it happened. Even the strongest of us get overpowered, and tonight was just not Jack's night, it seemed.

Jack lost his grip on the bomb as the rebel gained the upper hand.

With sheer ruthlessness, the rebel struck out and kicked Jack downwards, down to earth.

Jack should have flown right back up and stopped that rebel, he knew. But something told him that his friends were needing him now more than ever.

As he let himself fall freely, he remembered something Rust told him.

"Sometimes, you'll lose the battles. But as long as you're alive and you have your team, you haven't lost as much as you thought."

Rust was in the cafeteria, securing Wepaynar's ties. His wrists and ankles were tied with duct-tape, ropes and hair scrunchies, to a heavy cafeteria table. A group of hero students were assigned to keep an eye on him, to make sure he didn't get away.

Audrey entered the cafeteria as soon as Rust was done double tying Wepaynar's bonds. Her eyes widened as soon as she saw the legendary hero restraining the history teacher.

"What happened? Why are you back? Why do I smell smoke? And why are you tying up Mr Wepaynar?" Audrey asked.

"You're slipping. I just got here and I know more than you," Rust said. "Seriously, where have you been?"

"I've been in the bathroom, suffering a panic attack because you left, Urban Danger arrived and the kids were nowhere to be found," Audrey replied, coldly.

"And you didn't hear the explosion?" Wepaynar pitched in.

"I thought it was music," Audrey admitted.

"Okay, well, this guy blew a hole in the gym, he's the traitor and I'm reinforcements," Rust summed up.

"Alright, I've got that. So why are you _really_ back?" Audrey asked again, cross-armed.

"Why does no one believe I'm just reinforcements?" Rust complained.

"Because you are not reinforcements. Caleb with his army of lunch-ladies is reinforcements. What made you turn around?"

Rust was going to change the subject again, but before he did, a student barged into the cafeteria, running as if fire were burning at his heels.

His eyes darting frantically and panting heavily, he looked like he had grave news to convey.

"Watch him," Rust said to Audrey and the hero students as he strode across the cafeteria to the frantic teenager.

Before Rust could ask what was going on, the teen blurted, "We found all four bombs!"

"Have you given them to a flyer?" Rust asked. The system they had developed for disposing of the bombs was to get a flyer to take them as high into the sky as possible, as close to the time of detonation as allowable, and let it safely blow up in an empty sky.

"We didn't get a chance," the teenager said in between heavy breaths. "The rebels. They're coming back. They snatched it right out of my hands."

Rust thought the rebel students might make a comeback.

He hoped his team would be able to handle them...

In the time it took Jack to fall to earth and land in the gym, via new skylight, the school had been plunged into further chaos than ever before.

The rebels had grown in number, far outnumbering the hero students, the lunch-ladies, the teacher body, the veteran heroes and super parents.

They had even more of an upper hand than previously because now they held all five bombs in their possession.

The faceoff between good and evil took place in the cavernous cafeteria, where the rebels closed in on the congregated heroes like a pack of wolves.

"At least the school isn't in lockdown anymore," Caleb said, optimistically, as he stood by his brothers. Ty groaned.

It was a standoff, a staring match: no one made a move.

"I thought Big Bertha scared them off," some random hero student piped up.

"Like a stupid army of lunch-ladies could scare us off," one of the rebels replied.

A rather rotund, black lunch-lady made her way to the front of the line of heroes.

Hands on large hips, she addressed the rebel that had dared speak against her kind. "Ex _cuse_ me?" she said, her "Oh no, you _didn't_ ," attitude shining. " _Oh_ , boy, you _may_ have the guts to say that to a faceless crowd but try saying that to _my_ _face_ and let's see how you fair."

Before Gloria could squash the puny rebel, Jack entered the cafeteria, a catalyst to kick off yet another chaotic event that evening.

Hopefully, it would be the last.

Through the explosions, the ice blasts, the acid puddles, the swarming fruit, the snaking vines, the _actual_ snakes, a small Asian elephant, a eight feet tall robot, an animated rock formation, a six-armed maths teacher, a portal-creating senior student, and a conglomeration of other crazy happenings, Bella fought her way through the disorder to Jack's side.

Ethan, in his hologram state, walked through the mess as if it weren't even there, spooking one or two rebels as he passed right through them.

Caleb, with a shrunken Ty clinging to his shoulder, bounced high over the confused rage and landed, accurately, beside his brother, Jack and Bella.

Dean managed to claw his way through the crowd, Lacey Smallwood at his side, fighting off threatening blasts of ice or acid or fire or apple sauce or whatever with her rapidly growing barrier of roses.

The group of seven stood, back to back, in a circle, able to see any threat coming their way.

"Where are the bombs?" Jack called to his newly formed team (with new additions).

Caleb quickly bounced high into the air and back down again. "The rebels are playing hot potato with them," he said. "It's here, it's there, and then it's here again!"

"Above all else, our priority is to get those bombs outta here," said Jack. He looked over his shoulder at his band of misfits. "Wow, we're all together, for once."

"I see a bomb!" Caleb exclaimed as he pointed like a little child across the cafeteria at the device as it was thrown around like a dirty sock.

"Well, go after it!" Bella said. "Just remember to get rid of it!"

Caleb hopped away, chasing the bomb as it was passed from one rebel to the other.

A teenager caught the explosive as if it were a football and tossed it to his friend like this was a game on the beach.

Before his friend could catch it, though, Caleb snagged it right out of the air, quickly bouncing away as soon as he held the dangerous device.

Gaining possession of the bomb was not the problem. _Disposing_ of it was the problem.

Hurriedly hopping out the cafeteria, Caleb stood in the empty hallway, alone, staring at the deadly device in his hands, wondering what on planet earth he was going to do with it...

Something in his peripheral vision caught his attention. He shifted his gaze from the explosive to the signs on the doors indicating the boys' bathrooms.

"Hey, that could work..." he said to himself.

As he scurried across the hall, into the bathrooms and into a secluded stall, he recalled a movie he saw a few months ago.

_All pipes lead to the ocean_ , he thought as he disposed of the explosive device.

One bomb was taken care of and it was a load off every hero's shoulders. Nonetheless, there were still four bombs to sort out before everybody could go home.

"I think Caleb's got the right idea," Jack said. "Fan out and chase the bombs. We can worry about restraining the rebels _after_ we've made sure Hero High isn't going to blow up like fireworks."

The team struggled to catch sight of the bombs and at the same time not get caught up in the frenzy. The truth is they probably could have helped greatly with this showdown, but the teachers, the experienced heroes, the parents and the trained hero students would have to handle it for now. Right now, the priority was to dispose of the bombs.

The heroes were holding their own just fine.

The music teacher emitted an ear-splitting howl; Mr Beta used his extra arms to wield various cooking utensils, defensively; Audrey teleported here and there, transporting rebels away before they could tackle their hero targets; the invisible Professor Darkins tripped up everyone in his path (even heroes) and Rust zoomed around the cafeteria, just like a speeding race-car.

The lunch-ladies stepped up their game, too. The cafeteria floor became a minefield: you couldn't possibly know where it was hot or where it was freezing cold until you stepped on it. The army of Big Bertha's advanced and no puny rebel was safe. Vegetables and fruit flew through the air like bullets, pelting their targets relentlessly.

Janitor Darren, who did not seem to have any superpowers of his own, wielded his trusty plunger, fearlessly. No one really came up against him. Who wants to be hit with an unsanitary toilet plunger?

The High Heroes (minus their helmets and bulky football gear) teamed up. With all their training in teamwork, they became a force to be reckoned with.

The older, experienced heroes took the lead in detaining the rebels.

Parents stood alongside their children, working together to restrain the rebels.

"Hey, is that your mom?" Dean asked Jack, pointing across the room to a fearless woman wielding a chair as her defence.

"That's my mom," Jack confirmed, honestly shocked. Obviously, Caleb's "reinforcements" included his mother.

Though without superpowers, Alison protected herself and others valiantly. A swarm of oranges came her way and she batted them away with the flimsy chair.

Jack couldn't help but watch his mother for a few seconds. His father was the legendary hero, but his mother was just as brave.

"I see a bomb!" Bella suddenly interrupted, not wasting a second in peeling away from the team and going after the explosive device.

In theory, her plan to just run up and grab it would have worked out perfectly. In reality, it failed as the frenzied crowd pressed in all around her, blocking her off from her team and leaving her totally isolated.

It happened so fast, she didn't even have time to turn back as she was caught up in the middle of a showdown between rebels and heroes.

Someone blasted lava above her head and she screamed, unthinkingly, raising her arms to cover her head.

She curled up, hoping to wait out the storm of chaos. She was just a small, curled up girl in the middle of the floor, no one would have noticed her.

Someone did, though. A rebel whose arms grew sharp, rotating blades advanced on her. One look at the sinister, spinning blades brought her back to that day on the obstacle course, the day she failed, the day she was left all alone. If it hadn't been for Jack rescuing her, she couldn't say what might have happened. Maybe she would have made it through, maybe she would have become minced-meat, maybe she would have had to yell for help.

Jack had bigger issues to deal with now, a voice in the back of her mind told her. He couldn't drop everything and save her this time, and she didn't want him to risk the lives of everyone in the room just for her. In all the frenzy, he probably hadn't noticed she was in trouble.

She attempted her blinding light trick, creating a blast of pale blue light that dazzled quite a few, unprepared rebels and heroes. However, the rebel with the bladed arms simply held up an arm, shielding his eyes from the bright flash.

There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, she needed someone to save her.

As the bladed teenager loomed over her, she caught her reflection in the rotating metal.

Just the girl next door, just a dutiful daughter and big sister, just a good friend, just the girl who slept in late and couldn't whistle, just the girl who wore jewellery out of a cereal box and hung out on the beach all day. Just a glower. Nothing more. In saving the day, of what use could she really ever be, other than illuminating dark rooms when her little brothers and sisters were frightened of the imaginary monsters hiding under their beds?

She had failed that day on the obstacle course. Even if Mr Hilton hadn't marked it on the report, she knew she had failed. She couldn't save herself, she couldn't save anyone else, and she could never be a hero.

It's moments like these, when our backs are pressed against the wall, the enemy is advancing, we're doubting ourselves and we have no means of escape, that we discover our true power.

That was Bella's moment.

For years to come, she would remember this moment.

Noise, frenzy and confusion circling her like sharks; a bladed threat standing right in front of her, taunting her, and no foreseeable way out, Bella blindly struck out.

Maybe she actively thought about it, maybe it was something in those weeks of training from Rust that groomed her for this but, truth be told, she really could only credit it to sheer accident.

Story of her life.

Somehow, and she had no idea how, Bella managed to concentrate the frightened pale blue glow encompassing her entire body into a stream of intense, hard light discharging from her hands.

Not knowing how to aim the hard light, it struck the bladed teenager in the knees, sending him falling over.

Comprehending what just happened, Bella quickly balled up her hands and held them close to her as if she had touched something hot. "Whoa," she said.

As much as she wanted to play around and attempt creating another hard light beam, she had a mission.

Find that bomb.

She stood on tiptoe, battling to see over the mob of heroes and villains. Eventually her eyes located a bomb, flying through the air as rebels tossed it to and fro.

She had _found_ the bomb, now she had to _get_ to it.

For lack of a better option, Bella tilted her head back, as if there would be a vine or something hanging from the roof she could swing with.

No such luck. Instead, she saw Janie and Sara Cover hovering above the chaos a bit uncertainly.

"I'd rather chew my own arm," Bella mumbled to herself. Nevertheless, being a hero sometimes means doing things you don't like with people you like even less.

Wishing she knew how to whistle, Bella waved her arms, jumped up and down on the spot and called for their attention.

Sara and Janie turned their heads to the girl next door and flew over to see what she wanted.

"I know how much you'd love to drop me from a height," Bella said, aiming the comment more at Sara than to Janie. "I guess today is your lucky day."

She hurriedly explained and the Cover twins snapped to action. Clearly, saving the day was more important than petty rivalry.

Sara lifted Bella underneath the arms and carried her above the crowd, dropping her directly at the spot where the bomb would land in the hands of another waiting rebel.

Bella landed, squarely, on the rebel's shoulders and snatched the bomb out of the air. "Thanks," she said, politely, to the surprised rebel.

She held the bomb up and Janie Cover snatched it right out of her hands, flying off to dispose of the explosive, safely.

The heroes were gaining the upper hand. The rebels were losing this time.

This time it was the rebels frozen in blocks of ice, entangled in unbreakable vines, or simply knocked unconscious.

There were still a lot of them and everyone was getting tired out as the battle wore on.

Jack knew the bombs had all been taken care of. Dean and Lacey had slipped away to take care of one, he saw Ty and Ethan team up to snatch another away and Jack saw janitor Darren grab the third and final one, bolt out of the cafeteria and he hadn't returned yet.

Jack checked his watch. They couldn't have had better timing. It was only ten minutes until the bombs blew Hero High sky high.

Now they could focus on the rebels. They just had to restrain them until officials from the superhero community came and sorted the problem out.

Jack, for once, was not mission control. He was just another hero among heroes. It was a feeling he had wanted since he was a small child, dreaming as all children do about being a superhero.

Someone came at him and Jack zipped out the way, causing the rebel to stumble and tackle air in vain.

He saw, across the room, a rebel advancing on a fellow student. With his lazer vision, Jack heated the floor beneath the rebel student's sneakers, causing him to back off as he nursed his overcooked toes.

With all his zipping here and there, Jack somehow ended up back to back with Rust.

"Haven't really gotten a chance to talk to you all evening," Jack said, ducking as a cafeteria table hurtled straight at him.

Rust caught the table as if it were a paper Mache prop. He threw it into the crazy crowd and didn't see what became of it. "What with your grandfather trying to kill you, rebels blowing up the school and lunch-ladies mistaking me for a bad guy," Rust said, "yeah, it's been nuts, to put it mildly."

Rust was loving the chaos of saving the day under strange circumstances. It reminded him of his glory days.

He could almost laugh at that. _Glory days_. He never once before called nor thought of them as _that_.

"Where did Wepaynar go?" Jack asked, his eyes searching the room frantically.

In the frenzy, the kids Rust had ordered to keep an eye on Wepaynar probably joined the fight, leaving their prisoner to escape.

"Uh oh," Rust said, simply. "Sorry, I haven't got a better explanation to give you."

"I gotta go," Jack said, running to the exit. "Would you give me some backup?" he called over his shoulder as he ran.

"No problem!" Rust replied.

Jack reached the exit doors just in time to see Wepaynar, still shaking off his broken bonds, fading into the night.

The grass suddenly flattened as a strong wind kicked up. Jack looked up to see Wepaynar's helicopter hovering, awaiting its pilot for a grand escape. Wepaynar pressed a button on his ever-useful remote and a stepladder lowered from his self-piloting helicopter.

Jack dashed forward and grabbed onto a rung of the stepladder as his grandfather climbed, unaware of his pursuer.

Wepaynar made it into the cockpit just as Jack decided to reveal himself.

Wepaynar heard the sound of someone else boarding and immediately used the controls to tilt the helicopter.

The sudden action threw Jack out the open hatch. He was not that easy to get rid of, though. Barely a few feet out the door, he flew straight back into the cockpit.

"I don't have time for your heroics, boy," Wepaynar said, plainly.

"What heroics? You used to be a hero, all I want is to reach that," Jack replied, honestly.

"I'm still a hero," his grandfather retorted, not looking Jack in the eye.

"You don't even believe that anymore," Jack said. "This," he spread his arms wide, "escaping? Blowing up a school? Killing-"

"I'm _not_ a villain," Wepaynar insisted.

Jack saw through his denial. "Why?" he asked, simply.

"Why what?"

"Why did you do everything you've done? Why do you hate so much? Why do you hold a grudge against an injustice that never was? Your daughter is down there," Jack pointed down, indicating the cafeteria, "defending herself and others for all she's worth because even though you forgot what we're fighting for, she never did. You think you had injustice? Gamma accidents are born with the label 'untrustworthy,' stamped on our heads. I'm only half gamma accident, but I've been pushed aside just like all the rest. We have to hide, we have to stay low, we have to keep our names unknown or else we'll be chased by lynch mobs. But my parents always told me that that shouldn't stop me and my friends from being the heroes we knew we could be."

Wepaynar still didn't look his grandson in the eye. He sighed, years of rationalizing and making excuses and conjuring imaginary reasons drawing lines on his face, highlighting his age.

"You say you're still a hero. Well, then we're fighting for the same thing. We want to stop evil. Isn't that what every hero wants?"

As the silence wore on, Jack gazed at his grandfather, trying to settle the mixed feelings and hoping he was reaching the hero trapped deep inside the man.

"People say life's journey, right? Well, I can't turn back now," said Wepaynar, determinedly. He whirled around, pointing the same gun from earlier in Jack's direction.

Jack's grandfather wasted no time in taking aim and firing his homemade firearm.

Before Jack had the chance to leap out the helicopter door into the open night sky, a dazzling beam of pink light shot straight through the helicopter, knocking the bullet far off course and saving Jack.

Both grandfather and grandson turned around to see the source of the sudden interruption.

"Sorry I'm a little late," the girl next door said. "But I brought some _serious_ back-up."

Bella was sitting on Sara Cover's shoulders, Janie hovering beside her. With a faint blue mist, Audrey teleported inside the cockpit, beside Jack.

When cornered, an animal will often strike out. Wepaynar was a cornered animal.

He made a run for it, grabbing a parachute and hurriedly putting it on as he jumped out into the deep, open night sky.

Wepaynar knocked Bella off Sara's shoulder as he made his break for it, sending the girl into an uncontrolled spiral that could only end with her falling to her death.

She screamed, a natural reaction.

Jack was the first to spring into action. He dashed out the helicopter and dived through the air, fighting to reach Bella.

Jack grabbed her, bride-style, and killed his speed.

"Let me go," Bella ordered.

"What?" Jack replied. "I just saved you, I'm not letting you go."

"Seriously, let me go, you have to go after Wepaynar," Bella insisted. She smiled. "Trust me, I'm going to get down just fine."

They were a good couple of hundred, if not thousand, feet high. Jack had to trust his friend knew what she was doing. He released her, and bolted through the sky after his parachuting grandfather.

Bella fell, uncontrolled at first, but eventually figured out how to position herself.

When she saw she was nearing the ground, she decided to give her latest party trick a go.

She discharged a beam of hard, magenta light. At first, it was just a solid rod. Thankfully, she had a few seconds to figure out how to mould it into a slide.

She slid down her hard light fun slide, thrilled with how her trick had worked.

Of course, the victory was overshadowed by the unceremonious landing, which consisted of an ungraceful stumbling, hopefully windmilling arms and a not so pretty face plant on the scorched grass of Hero High's playing field.

"Fantastic," she mumbled into the short, green blades.

Authorities were on their way. It was time to wrap up the chaotic frenzy that had engulfed the entire Hero High.

The bombs had all exploded far away from people, the officials from the superhero community were here to arrest the perpetrators and now all that was left was to end the fight.

The crazy battle involving plungers, an army of lizards (courtesy of Dean Lightbody), lunch-ladies with attitude as big as their hair-curlers and various flowers growing on the walls and ceiling, had spilled from the cafeteria to the rest of the school building.

The heroes created a plan unbeknownst to the rebels. It took much whispering (and thought-projecting) but eventually every hero understood the plan of action.

The noise and frenzy paused for a heart-pounding moment when a rather loud kid declared, "Unleash the Stinker!"

A ring of heroes stepped back to reveal their secret weapon: the tidy, proper and polite British exchange student, Charles Fitzgerald.

The rebels laughed... at first. They were beginning to realize, through their previous experiences that night, that the package was not to be mocked. Charles Fitzgerald seemed to be just the puny new kid, eager to make friends and gain approval. What kind of a secret weapon could he be?

The rebels were confused, their puzzlement deepening as heroes stopped fighting and stepped back.

Anxiety began when the heroes pulled on gas masks.

A mixture of worry and bewilderment on their faces, the rebels waited for what would happen next, suspecting it would be far from pleasant.

The idiots didn't even _think_ to run for their precious lives...

Charles Fitzgerald smiled, pleasantly, at all present on this fine night.

"LET IT RIP!" the loud kid called, his voice vaguely muffled through the gas mask.

Suddenly, Charles Fitzgerald lost his pleasant, polite and proper composition.

The last thing the rebels remembered was a very mean look on that British kid's face and the _stench_...

The battle had lasted so long into the night, it was no longer late but early.

The sun was beginning to rise, mixing the dark violets and blacks of the starry night sky with peaches and oranges as the early sun rose.

The officials carted the rebels away, most of which were either unconscious or gagging after Charles Fitzgerald's _unforgiving_ attack.

A battle that had lasted so long, had ended in only one minute with only one-

"Shows you one thing, you should really get to know your classmates," Caleb said, still holding his nose, thus distorting his voice. He stood with his brothers, Dean, Lacey and Bella, watching as the rebels were taken away and the lunch-ladies celebrated by making everyone coffee and tea.

Jack had caught Wepaynar. A parachute was no match for speed and flight. Right now, back on the ground, he was handing his grandfather over to the superhero community officials.

As soon as Wepaynar was handcuffed and had become someone else's responsibility, Jack sought through the crowd for his mother. He soon found her, gratefully sipping a mug of strong coffee.

"This sure has been an eventful evening," Alison Painter said to her son. She had no idea of who was behind a majority of it.

"We've got a lot to talk about," Jack said, tiredly.

He didn't get a chance to continue. Students and teachers kept coming up and interrupting, thanking Jack for his help.

When there was a pause between expressions of gratitude, Alison smiled and said to her son, "See? Things got better, just like you hoped."

Jack smiled, exhausted, and hugged his mother. "I guess they did," he said.

Rust joined the touching reunion. "That was pretty amazing, Jack," he said. "At your age, I would never have been so brave."

"Thanks for all your help, too," Jack said. He nudged his mentor. "There's still some hero left in you."

Ethan, Ty, Caleb, Bella, Dean and Lacey joined the group.

"You kids proved what you were worth, far beyond any shadow of a doubt. Everyone fought tonight, but you kids are the real heroes," Rust said. "It warms the heart of every fallen hero to see outcasts like you rise above and beat the odds."

The newly forged team linked arms, leaning on each other for support after the long, exhausting night.

"Um, Rust, you know that I'm not a _real_ gamma accident, right?" Jack asked. He suddenly realized he never cleared that fact up with the hero. "I was born an entire week before that gamma ray burst from the sun."

Rust shrugged. "I know. I knew your dad. John was a good friend of mine. Brave, clever, always sticking up for the little guy. Do you know how much you remind everybody of him?"

The statement made Jack beam. It was nice to hear something complimentary about his dad for once that night.

"Well, this story is wrapping up quite nicely," said Alison.

"Yeah," Lacey agreed, "the school didn't blow up and the rebels are all sorted out. The school might need a good clean up, but, hey, it shouldn't take that long. And Jack didn't get killed by his grandfather (which would have been so awkward)..."

Alison choked and spat out her coffee. "What?" she interjected, wiping her mouth and raising an eyebrow.

Jack held up a hand. "I'll explain later."

"So... now that we've done what we were enrolled to do..." Bella said, apprehensively. She sighed and closed her eyes, barely able to believe the dreams she and her friends had held for years were about to end. "We have to go back to lame old Crashton _normal_ High, don't we?"

Rust shrugged. "That's not really my department," he admitted. He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder. "Urban makes that decision."

The teenagers had completely forgotten about the global director. They looked around now and saw Urban Danger, trying to reign in the tired crowd of heroes as if he were about to give a speech.

"Get ready," Rust whispered to the kids as they joined the smallish crowd to listen to the director. "This is probably going to involve you."

"I just want to thank all who participated this night in restraining the rebels," Urban Danger began. "Everyone's efforts (especially those of Charles Fitzgerald's) are appreciated."

Charles Fitzgerald gave a polite, modest wave.

"You stink, well and truly."

Charles Fitzgerald's face reddened.

"For those of you that do not know it, there is a group of heroes that did more than save our lives and our school this night," Urban continued. "This band of heroes proved themselves and proved a point. They were the very subject I spoke about before the chaotic events of this evening unfolded. Gamma Accidents. Whether you know it or not, whether you accept it or not, these kids saved us all."

Urban lifted his gaze from the crowd and sought out the kids in question. He gave them a little nod, and the five outcasts stepped forward.

"Some are born with greatness," Urban said, indicating to a group of hereditary and hybrid heroes. "Some strive for their own greatness, some have it thrust in their path and some go looking for trouble in toxic waste treatment plants and end up with powers," Urban raised an eyebrow in the direction of a band of Toxic Waste Punks. "Gamma Accidents fall under none of those categories. They are not born with their abilities and they have been, for countless decades, considered far from greatness. They have no control over what happens to them. It's truly an accident.

"This group of Accidents have proven themselves. They have proven that it does not matter how we get our powers," he smiled at Jack, "or what power we have," he smiled at Bella, "it's purely how we use them.

"These kids were born to be the ones to pave the way to change. To show us that we need to look deeper than prejudices. True, they were not born with their powers. You can argue this was all just one big accident, and you'd be correct, my friend. However, sometimes, it is not the accident that should worry us but what we do with what that accident leaves behind that really counts.

"Hence, from this day forward, gamma accidents are no longer banned. I want to train and educate them along with hereditary, mutant, hybrid and toxic waste supers. And, we have many empty seats to fill in our classrooms now."

The heroes in the crowd shrugged, consulted it and nodded, eventually.

"All agreed? That's good," Urban said, beaming from ear to ear. "I was going to do it no matter what you people decided. Let's celebrate with another round of coffee, shall we?"

The Gamma Accidents met up again.

"So, I guess that means tomorrow we're going to Hero High!" Bella declared, smiling with uncontained glee.

The smile spread to her friends. "I guess it does."

The ground began rumbling.

"Charles Fitzgerald, the threat is past, you don't have to protect us!" Caleb yelled.

"That's not Charles," Ethan said, worriedly.

The same thought passed through everyone's mind at the same time.

"Caleb, what did you do with your bomb?" Ty questioned.

"All drains lead to the ocean, right?" he said, innocently.

He was proved wrong the next minute when the school everyone had fought to save exploded, bricks shooting like projectiles high into the sky, bits of glass raining down on the assembled crowd of supers.

Classrooms were flattened, the cafeteria was devastated, the gym was crushed, the auditorium was levelled and the lockers were just twisted pieces of metal.

Once the rain of debris had ended, everyone saw what was left of their beloved school.

A lone toilet stood in the middle of the rubble, completely out of place in the disaster zone.

"You are _never_ watching _Finding Nemo_ on your own again," Ty said to his brother, simply.

"Sure thing," Caleb said, staring blankly at the lone toilet.

"You know, this is probably not the right time to mention this," Bella piped up. "But... woo hoo! Now we get to sleep in late."

Epilogue

The Gamma Accidents returned to their summery, coastal hometown, Crashton.

Bella was swamped with hugs from her brothers and sisters and parents the moment she stepped foot on the driveway of her home. She laughed, joyfully, as she was greeted by her ragtag mob of a family. Saving the day could never rival coming home to a loving, big family.

The Sweets now had their resident nightlight back.

The triplets' parents were happy to have their sons home. Their home had been too quiet, too still, too uneventful without them.

Having Ethan, Ty and Caleb back at the dinner table immediately increased the noise in the Black household by seventy-eight percent.

As soon as they arrived in Crashton, Jack continued riding. Alone on his motorbike, he rode along a quiet road that hugged the coastline, the scent of the ocean mingling with the salt air.

He had to think. There were so many things to think about, so many things to sort out and so many things to put to rest. That weekend held so many revelations, his head needed clearing before he could decipher them all.

He rode as if he wanted to find the end of the road. Going all hours of the night, into the dawn, he rode through.

After he settled his thoughts, he realized just how far he had gone. He was miles away. So far away, there was no way anyone could reach him ever again.

It was time to turn back.

He was only a few miles away from home when he passed a familiar white van, parked along the side of the coast road.

Realizing what that white van signified, Jack turned around.

Rust leant against the hood of the slightly beat-up van, waiting casually for the teenager.

"Just thought I'd let you know," Rust began, "of some new developments."

Jack removed his helmet. "What developments?"

"Like, your grandfather is now detained in a super secure prison," Rust said, counting them off on his fingers. "Like, Urban managed to lift the ban on gamma accidents _officially_ , so now we can start saving the world again without people playing Whack-a-Mole on us every time we pop our heads out the ground. Like how I've had a peek at the new plans for Hero High, version 2.0..."

"And...?" Jack prompted.

"Oh, you're gonna _love_ this," Rust said, smiling. "Urban said that, to encourage good relationships with gamma accidents, the new Hero High should be built in a hot-spot. He consulted me again and we both agreed that, in honour of you and your friends, Hero High 2.0 should be built in Crashton."

"Are you kidding?" Jack asked, a grin starting.

Rust spread his arms out wide. "Oh, how I've missed the sunshine here. Now we can have training sessions on the beach, too. You'll need underwater training, it makes for a well-rounded out hero education."

"You mean, you're still going to train us?" Jack asked, hopefully.

Rust shrugged. "Until you learn how to dodge _all_ bullets, Bella can control her hard light, Ethan becomes a true shape shifter, Caleb learns to splat like putty and Ty figures out how to grow giant... eh, why not?"

"That means you'll be hanging around for a while," Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Considering recent developments, Hero High is going to need a new history teacher," Rust said. His eyes sparkled as he grinned. "Who better than a _legendary_ hero to teach it?"

It was very late when Jack returned home. He entered the suburban house to find a lamp turned on in the living room, a photo album open on the coffee table and his mother waiting up, her eyes heavy with sleep.

She didn't jump off the couch when he entered the room. She had never been an emotional person.

"You've been thinking, haven't you?" Alison asked. She sounded tired, at peace and yet concerned all at the same time in a way only a loving mother can sound.

Mothers often worry about their children, but Jack could not remember the last time he had been a cause of deep worry to his mother.

His conscience pricking him for having run off without as much as a goodbye, Jack settled down on the couch opposite his mother. There were some things he wanted to discuss with her and some things he needed to tell her.

Ask anyone and they will tell you the beginning is always the hardest place to start. It's the _only_ place to start, however.

Jack plunged in and explained the encounter with Wepaynar to his mother. Alison sat and listened to every detail, not interrupting once.

Jack awkwardly and sadly told his mother about how her father killed her husband.

Alison was quiet, contemplative and blinking heavily with exhaustion. She realized Jack was waiting for her response to his outpouring of information.

"To be honest, I think I'm too tired to react," Alison said, rubbing her eyes and yawning. "I grew up around heroes and villains, gadgets and jets and, although I never went to Hero High _myself_ (having no powers and no special skills, they would never accept me), I understand it all. I knew gamma accidents were hated, distrusted and so many well-revered heroes held strong opinions against them. Dad hated gamma accidents with a passion. It was a misunderstanding, but he perceived it as total injustice. Over the years, that feeling festered into bitter prejudice. I saw it change him from a hero with deeply entrenched principles, into a man who wanted nothing more than to rid the earth of all gamma accidents. He thought he would be doing the planet a favour."

"How did you and dad get together then?" Jack asked.

Alison sighed and closed her eyes, happy memories playing like movies behind them. "Wrong place, right time: that's how I like to think of it. It was actually the day G-4 went rogue. Eighteen, nearly nineteen years ago. I would have been killed if it had not been for John swooping in and saving me and my mother. My dad was far from happy about that. I knew he hated John Painter. But I wanted to know the truth. I wanted to find out who was right and who was wrong.

"Long story short, your father and I fell in love, married and you and Rosie came along. Looking back, we should have thought things through better but I can't regret what we did. We ran away, eloped, and found ourselves hiding for years. I worried, every night the lights went out, I was afraid. I was terrified my dad would find us and that would be the end of it. I've never been a brave, independent, courageous person. Sometimes, I wish I could say I was, but I wasn't. Your father showed me how to be brave. And, as the years went by, my confidence grew. I thought, just maybe, my dad had given up. Something in the back of my mind always told me he hadn't."

Suddenly the exhaustion and fatigue vanished and a fire from deep within lit up Alison's electric blue eyes. Jack always knew he had inherited his mother's eyes, now he knew she had her father's eyes.

Alison looked her son straight in the eye, seriously. "Hatred blinds you. Never hate, Jack. Hate what is bad, but don't ever hate people, _especially_ when you have only false stories and lies to base your distrust on."

Jack took the wise words of his mother to heart. He couldn't resent her for not having told him about his grandfather sooner. She honestly believed the trouble was all behind them.

"Goodnight, sweetie," Alison said, yawning gently.

"Goodnight, mom" Jack replied, softly, as he headed up the stairs. Before going to bed for a well-earned rest, he stopped by his little sister's room. Rosie was fast asleep, dreaming calmly.

Now he truly regretted having left without a word.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said in a low voice as he ran his fingers through his little sister's chin-length hair.

A day later, under the bright noon sun, Jack relayed what he had learnt from Rust with his team as they relaxed on the sand, the waves crashing at their feet.

"This is going to be so cool!" Bella squealed with pure delight.

"You do realize this means Sara and Janie are going to be living _in_ Crashton, right?" Ty pointed out.

Bella shrugged. "This is Gamma Accident country. They'll figure out the food chain soon enough."

"Crashton is going to be overrun by heroes," Ethan thought aloud. "This is gonna be fun."

"The school won't be built until summer vacation is over," Jack reminded his friends.

Caleb shrugged. "Like that's going to bother us. That's kinda fast, though."

"They have super builders, of _course_ it's fast," Bella said. She closed her eyes and titled her head back to drink in the sun's rays. "Summer couldn't get any better," she sighed, contently.

They spent the rest of the day, laughing and playing in the surf. Eventually, Dean Lightbody and Lacey Smallwood joined them.

As the day wore on, they spotted Rosie wandering the boardwalk. Jack picked her up and swung her onto his shoulders as he always did, ruffling her hair as she laughed.

Their journey had really only just begun, Jack reflected as he and his friends (old and new) watched the first stars blink to life in the coastal sky.

There were still bridges that needed crossing, mountains that needed climbing, friends to be made and sights to see.

You could only try. Giving up would leave you hollow and holding grudges would only make you bitter.

Jack saw what those situations did to people. Rust gave up, and became an empty shell of who he used to be. Wepaynar held a grudge and hatred grew until it was too intense to contain.

Jack couldn't tell what lay ahead, and he couldn't pretend to know.

He forgot about worrying and focussed on right there and then, with his friends, the ocean, and a long, relaxing summer stretching ahead...

**Jack, Bella, Ethan, Ty and Caleb will return in** _Gamma Accidents #2: Creatures from the Deep_
