"I know you're not really interested in anything I have to say right now," Harold said, dropping into his usual seat at the breakfast table; Helen rolled her eyes and averted her gaze, slurping on a juicebox. "But I think you'd really want to hear this."

"James, can you tell your friend that as he so rightly suspected, I'm not in the mood to listen to him," she said, as if Harold were not present.

Jimmy leaned past Helen to look at Harold and said in a stage whisper, "Helen wants you to leave her alone."

"Thanks, Jimmy," he deadpanned, and Jimmy smiled as if to say "Any time." "But seriously, I did some research last night —"

Helen snorted disbelievingly. Harold ignored this and continued. "— and I might have found something interesting. The thing that could be changing the Gargantuans."

Helen froze, though she did not look at him.

"What are you talking about?" Jimmy asked.

"I might have forgotten to mention a few days ago, but remember when I told you that I found Daniell's room all messed up and he came in looking shocked?" Jimmy nodded. "Well, that night, when I went back to my room, I found something there. A book, some kind of journal, I think, written in a different language."

"How could you forget to tell us something like that?" Jimmy said, wide-eyed.

"Well, between regular school work and a giant gorilla, a poisonous salamander, and a sleep-inducing butterfly, it's been a bit of a busy week, okay?" Harold said, his voice snippy. "Anyway, last night I was feeling a bit restless, so I decided to give it another try. The thing is, when I looked back, one line out of everything there was written in English. Just the single line. Earlier it had read 'Midèn kai ápeiro,' but at that moment it was saying 'Zero and Infinity.' When I looked back, it was written in the original language again.

"I thought I must have been seeing things before that, but then I went to the Library to do some reading up on it, and it turns out that Mr. Felton —"

"Who?"

"The Librarian," Harold said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, right."

"Anyway, turns out he's a major mythology buff, and the whole Zero and Infinity thing was an actual legend. It's a less popular creation myth. Long story short, it's about these two Cores that were created after an explosion caused by a collision between positive and negative energy particles. The two cores that were left behind, Zero and Infinity, are basically remnants of those energies from the past, and they're both capable of altering reality on a fundamental level. The things I learned about them, they made me start thinking that we may be dealing with one of these Cores."

"That's ridiculous," Helen said, rolling her eyes again. "Most creation stories are completely made-up, and this one sounds like one of the biggest fabricated tales in history."

"I figured you'd say that," Harold said, grinning. "But the thing is, Mr. Felton agrees with me. He believes that the Cores do exist, and that there are ways to track them."

"And what would these ways be?" Jimmy asked, in a skeptical voice.

"There's apparently a sort of device that can lead you right to them, but we need to find it first."

"Oh, of course. So we have to find something that, even if it does exist, has been lost to time for ages, in order to find something else that's been lost to time for ages?" Helen asked, her tone dripping sarcasm.

"Not necessarily." Harold grinned even more widely. "If you two are done, there's something I want to show you."

He got up. Jimmy and Helen shared a skeptical look, then Helen stood up too, looking resigned. Jimmy cast a sad look at his unfinished apple pie, sighed, and followed too. They moved back along the corridor towards his room, Harold positively bouncing along in front of them. When they finally arrived, he ushered them inside and closed the door. Then he withdrew the journal from his night table.

"This is it?" Helen asked, in an entirely different voice.

"Yep."

He handed it to her, and Jimmy moved closer to inspect it while she flipped through the pages, examining the text with a kind of reverence.

"What do you think is in here?" she asked.

"Well, if I'm correct, information on the Cores," Harold said. "But I need help translating it first."

"Hmm . . ." Helen inhaled deeply. "I suppose if I can identify what language it is, I might be able to do it. . . ."

The bell rang outside, signaling the start of the first period.

"Okay, I'll see what I can do," Helen said briskly. "Can I keep this?" she added, holding up the book.

"Be my guest."

Helen nodded and she and Jimmy turned to face the door, but Harold called, "Uh — Helen?"

She stopped, but she did not turn around. Jimmy, however, looked back at Harold, then stepped out into the corridor and closed the door gently behind him. He was generally clueless, but at times like this he understood the situation remarkably well.

"I'm sorry," Harold said. "About what I said yesterday. It wasn't my place to talk about that."

He saw her shoulders rise and fall with a deep breath. Then she turned around, her face blank. "No, it wasn't," she said. A few seconds later she added, "But you were right, anyway. I shouldn't forget all of that. Wishful thinking is just that, wishful thinking. So I'll let it slide. But just this once," she added, sounding rather stern.

Harold grinned. "Fine by me." He moved past her and opened the door, then bowed her out. "Ladies first."

For the next two days, nothing of great intrigue happened, except that the trio was now spending more time than usual in the Library while Helen tried to translate the journal. Harold opted for seats at the very back of the room, because he didn't want to see Mr. Felton again and start another rant. Outside of that, they went to classes as usual, and received no further mention from any of the teachers about the Blue Vipers, or any new Gargantuans.

It was both a relief and a cause of irritation. While Harold wasn't especially fond of the enormous, destructive creatures, they were currently the only means by which he could make regular trips out of the compound. But he gritted his teeth and waited. And on the evening of Saturday, he got his wish.

As he walked back to the cafeteria to meet Jimmy and Helen, he walked smack into Mr. Girvan.

"Ah, Farwell," he said crisply. "Just the man I was looking for. Walk with me." He began to walk along the corridor in the direction from which Harold had just come. Muttering mutinously under his breath, Harold wheeled around and followed, wondering what he could want this time. "We have obtained information on what could possibly be another mutated creature," Girvan continued.

Harold instantly perked up, his eyes widening in excitement. "Another Gargantuan?"

"Most likely. Judging from what we have observed, this one is unlike any we have ever encountered before, but if it is a — Gargantuan — then the level of destructive capability would be the same, if not greater. The details are with your other squad mates, see them for more information. As usual, the drop ship will be waiting for you down by the beach at nine o'clock."

He rounded the corner and disappeared. Harold, more excited now than he had been all morning, rushed off to find the other two. They were still seated in the cafeteria, but they were talking in low, avid voices.

As he arrived in front of them, Jimmy opened his mouth to speak. "Just heard the news," Harold said, sparing him the trouble of explaining. "Another Gargantuan; Girvan told me. So, what's the deal with this one? He said it could be much different than any of the others."

"We don't know," said Helen. "But the Gargantuan isn't all there is to this mission."

"Really? What else is there? The Vipers again?"

"I wish," said Jimmy. "The Vipers would have been easier to handle."

"So what is it?" Harold pressed, growing impatient now.

"The Gargantuan that we're going to look for tonight has been spotted much closer to Helix than any other," Helen said. "Scarily close — as in, just a few miles away from here."

Harold's jaw dropped. "What?

Helen nodded, looking grim. "According to the reports, nobody managed to get a good enough look at it to tell what it is, but the radars around the school picked up something big a short ways from Helix. A helicopter was sent ahead so that they could scan the area with sonar, but nothing showed up on the screens. Except one thing. . . . A new island popped out of nowhere on the path ahead."

Harold sat in silence, letting the news sink in. This was far more than he'd bargained for. Still . . .

"So let me get this straight: the school wants us to go out and investigate what could possibly be a giant, mutated sea creature, as well as a new island that randomly appeared in the middle of the ocean?"

"Pretty much," Jimmy said.

Harold considered for a moment. Then he shrugged. "Okay, I've got nothing better to do tonight."

They were ready to leave shortly after lights-out. Harold, Helen, and Jimmy had spent over an hour carefully packing their equipment and supplies; aquatic missions were an extreme rarity among those usually covered at Helix. Predictably, there were a few students still outside when they headed out towards the ship. But while they cast the trio curious looks, none of them responded. Ripley stood at the gates, towering almost to the height of the top bars with his hands folded across his enormous chest. He eyed them for a few seconds, then nodded and stepped aside to let them through.

Down the steep slope towards the beach they went, where the ship was waiting. However, they received quite a surprise when they finally arrived.

Kierra Hale and Ezra Miller, who had partnered with them during the mission they had faced the poisonous salamander, were waiting inside the ship, along with a girl who could only have been the third member of their squad. Amber Montoya, a black girl with frizzy, shoulder-length hair, who smiled and held up a hand weakly, as if she was apprehensive about what they were to do.

"What are you guys doing here?" Jimmy asked, goggling at them.

"I could ask the same question," Ezra said sleepily. "I should be tucked in bed right now, b-b-but —" He trailed off into an enormous yawn. "Instead I have to be here with you guys, hunting sea monsters."

"Mr. Girvan told us to pack our gear and be here at nine," said Kierra. "He didn't tell us we'd be having company, but when he told us what we were supposed to be doing, we pretty much guessed it."

Harold looked at his squad mates.

"Don't look at us, we didn't know either." Helen shrugged, then swept past him into the ship. Harold and Jimmy followed.

"Fine, I guess we could use some help anyway," Harold said. "Especially if we're going to be fighting some kind of Kraken, one tentacle for each of us."

"Ugh," Kierra said with a shudder. "Please don't talk about things like Krakens. Hopefully it's just something like a seal that had a big breakfast."

Harold and Jimmy burst out laughing. "That's adorable," Harold said, while Jimmy howled beside him. "But after everything that we've seen, it's always the last thing you'd ever expect it to be. I wouldn't be surprised if this time was an acid-breathing sea sponge."

They had not received a specific location. The Gargantuan, whatever it was, had briefly appeared on their sensors a few miles southeast of Helix, and had disappeared without trace. The school, of course, was apprehensive about something so dangerous being so close, and sent a team forward to purge the area of the threat.

How they were to do that, Harold wasn't sure. O'Riley let them know along the way that the teachers had loaded the ship with a powerful depth charge that could eliminate the creature once found, but flushing it out would be a far greater problem. At least, to Harold. The others had different priorities.

"Won't a depth charge hurt the other sealife in the area too?" Jimmy asked.

"Possibly, yes," O'Riley said, sounding quite unconcerned.

"Then is this really the best idea?" Kierra said. "I mean, are you sure we have to kill the animal? Can't we just — capture it?"

"If you somehow get that opportunity, be my guest. But the teachers made it clear: this creature is a higher priority than any other. It's at our doorstep now, and if it comes any closer there's no telling the damage it could do. Which means —"

"Take care of it before it takes care of us," Ezra said.

The atmosphere from then on was rather downcast. While they flew, Harold turned to Jimmy, talking to him in a bracing tone and trying to cheer him up. It didn't work, and his falsely cheery tone was soon becoming exhausting to keep up.

Rain had begun to fall while they flew. It started as a light drizzle, but turned into a heavy downpour quite soon. The transition was so sudden that it was almost odd, but Harold wasn't focusing on how quickly it had blown in, but rather how difficult the rain would now make the mission. Of course, he would rather turn back now than risk taking an aquatic mission in the middle of a storm-tossed ocean at the mercy of a gigantic sea beast, but the Heads of Helix might not necessarily share his viewpoint. But at the same time, if this Gargantuan wasn't stopped and drew even closer to home, they ran the risk of having the only safe place for Enhanced people in the country being reduced to rubble.

They simply didn't have a choice. While Helen stared out at the steadily worsening storm, Jimmy fretted about the oncoming task, and Amber fiddled with her supplies, Ezra seemed to have, incredibly, nodded off against the wall. How he could manage to fall asleep with heavy rain and wind pounding the ship on all sides was beyond Harold, but he chose instead to focus his attention on Kierra.

He slid to the ground beside her and she looked up at him, a little surprised.

"Can I ask you a question?" he said.

"You just did."

"Okay, can I ask you another question?"

"Just did," she repeated in a singsong voice.

Harold glared at her and she laughed playfully. He could almost see the tension evaporating from around her like a cloud of steam. "Sorry. Go on."

"Why did you agree to come on this mission?"

Her laughs subsided, and she suddenly looked thoughtful. "Why did I . . . ?"

"Agree to come, yeah. Girvan made it clear this is an entirely consensual mission. I don't think you were particularly fond of Mira, and this new Gargantuan might be just as vicious. So what inspired the change of heart?"

"Well." She stretched out her feet with a slight breath, holding herself up on the palms of her hands. "You're right about me not finding that salamander a suitable playmate. You're also right about me not necessarily wanting to meet another of its horrible brethren. But sometimes, what we want doesn't really matter. This Gargantuan — this monster — is swimming way too close to my home. To the home of hundreds of students. We don't have anywhere else to go if something happens to Helix, and I'm not gonna let some giant lobster take that away from us.

"Plus, I can't speak for you, I don't know what you've seen, but I know what that salamander looked like. And as much as I don't want to deal with anything like that again, I'd feel even worse knowing that somebody else had to. Call it a hero complex, or whatever, but for some idiotic reason, I'd rather face a dangerous task myself than let anyone else do it. I don't know, maybe I'm just an idiot like that," she said simply.

Harold smirked a little. "Nah. If I ever agreed with anything you've ever said, it's that. I'm pretty much the same way." He nodded at Jimmy and Helen. "They're not just my best friends. They're the first friends I ever had. And I don't plan to lose them. Which is why, whenever we're in the field, I do the heavy lifting, and I'd do it all the same even without the invulnerability ticket."

"It's not easy, is it?" Kierra said. "Carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders? Though I suppose it'd be less difficult for you," she mused. "Given that you probably could manage that weight."

"Oh stop," Harold said, pretending to blush. Both of them laughed, but the next moment, without any warning, something huge and heavy crashed into the ship and Harold toppled over, rolling towards the other side.

"What hit us?" he yelled, as he scrambled to his feet.

"I don't know!" O'Riley shouted back, and for the first time since Harold had known him, he sounded scared. "I can't see anything!"

They hurried forward, looking out onto the scene below. They could see almost nothing. The area around them was shrouded in a dense black mist, and torrential rain was cascading against the windows, battering the forcefield that lay over the sleek metal. And, some distance away, a dark whirlpool was whipping around wildly.

"Weren't we just dry a few minutes ago?" Ezra said, sounding more irritated than alarmed.

Harold was about to snap at him, tell him that his irritation could wait, that he could sleep at any time but now he needed to focus, but then he realized that he was right. He suddenly took it into consideration, and realized that the storm really had come in without any form of indication mere minutes ago, even though the weather had been perfect all day long.

"Oh my God," he breathed, a horrible realization forming in his mind.

"What?" demanded Helen.

"I think we might have found our new friend," he said grimly.

"What are you —?"

O'Riley screamed, a long, bloodcurdling wail of sheer terror, and jumped backwards out of his seat. The ship was plummeting towards the roiling surface of the sea, and above them . . . Above them. . . . Harold almost couldn't register what he was seeing. It was as if his brain didn't want to register what it was seeing. A hundred-foot-high solid wall of water, extending from sea to sky, and closing in on them like a gigantic predator.

All thought of hope, of escape, drained out of Harold, as if it had been sucked into the whirling cyclone. They turned to one another, all of them terrified and bewildered, yet no one able to speak. No one could even scream.

The few seconds before were agony, a brief wait that felt like an eternity. Then the wave hit. The water slammed into them like a solid force, fully encompassing the ship. Harold thought he felt a flicker of something warm around him, but the feeling was gone almost as soon as he had felt it, as the water broke through the windows and came pouring inside. He felt the ship spinning around violently like a ball in the hands of a child. All sense of direction was lost, and soon his vision faded to pure blackness.