Hartley led him to the extreme edge of the roof, where a neat, metallic staircase led from the platform to the ground level. As they descended, Alec looked around, wishing as he did that he had an extra pair of eyes. Helix Academy was a vast, silver-grey-walled mass of banisters, balustrades, and white marble columns, with many large blocks extending across acres and acres of the island floor.

Here and there he saw gleaming statues of prominent superheroes, some of which he recognized from pages in the comic volumes lining the shelves of Rumbanks store, along with sparkling benches erected across neat, emerald patches of lawn. Hartley was leading him around the side of the school, from which he could hear a buzz of chatter drifting through the half-open windows, away from the impressive wrought-iron gates shining at the front of the school, reflected in the sparkling glass doors of what Alec assumed was the school’s main office.

As Alec stumbled along in his wake, Hartley consulted his watch. “Almost dinnertime,” he said. “Come on, if we get you signed in quickly, you can still make the meal.”

They lengthened their stride as they swept around the courtyard, where they passed another stretch of lawn, though much larger than the others, and with a flag pole mounted in the center, from which a bright orange, brown, and white flag was flapping around in the evening breeze. The further they went, the more extravagant the view became: Alec saw a large pool, filled with glittering, deep-blue water, a fountain adorned with yet more statues, a huge playing field in the distance, and a vast wall that seemed to border the entire school compound, blocking most of the forest from view.

But though the sights were as inviting as Alec had ever seen, they were all completely deserted.

“Where are all the students?” he asked Hartley.

“At this point, they should be in their Dorms,” Hartley said.

“Dorms?”

“Yes, Dorms. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.”

“Wait . . . I recognize those names,” Alec said slowly. “They're Greek gods, aren't they?” Hartley nodded. “But . . . why would dorms in a superhero school be named after them?”

Hartley sighed. “If you'd been registered earlier, all this would already have been explained to you. But I'll give you a quick rundown for now, the rest you can learn later on. Left, here.”

They turned left, passing another stretch of buildings, though the walls here were gold and white now.

“Most of the first, greatest heroes of ancient civilization were descended from Greek mythology,” Hartley continued, ignoring the change in scenery. “People like Hercules, Bellerophon, Orpheus, Perseus, and all of them, they were children of the gods, blessed with special powers by the divine blood flowing through their veins. Hercules possessed unrivaled strength; Orpheus, power over music; Achilles, invulnerability. All of them were different, but all of them were greater than mere mortals, and went on to do great things in their lifetimes, defeating tyrants, killing monsters, the like.

“For that, they could be considered — and here, they are — as the forerunners of modern day superheroes, and we acknowledge our roots by acknowledging them. Right, here.”

They turned right, now treading along a smooth, dark blue corridor, then crossed to the path on their left. “Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades are three of the most powerful, most prominent gods in Greek mythology, and sired some of the greatest heroes of their time, so our founders brought their influence here, hoping that they could do the same. Once your skills and abilities are assessed, you're streamed into one of the three Dorms. Most activities you do here will be done along with your Dorm-mates, including meals, sleeping, and some classes. Zeus is gold and white, with the eagle as their symbol — we actually just passed one of their blocks. Poseidon is blue and silver, under the horse banner. And Hades is black and bronze, marked by the screech owl.

“Come on —” Halfway down the passage, Hartley opened a door and motioned Alec inside. The moment he had entered, Hartley threw him a suit of clothes and said, “Put this on and stay here until I get back. I'll be only a few minutes.”

The door closed with a snap behind him and Alec turned his gaze instead on the room he was now standing in. It seemed to be a kind of bathroom, with several dove-shaped taps stretching beneath a series of long, shining mirrors bordered by ornate frames, and lit by several phosphorescent bulbs overhead. Alec pulled his gaze from the ceiling and began to remove the layers of clothing he was presently donning. Once he had stripped them all off, he slipped into the garments Hartley had passed him, a sleeveless shirt and rather tight-fitted pants of a plain black material.

He turned towards the mirror nearest him and under the pale light of the overhead bulbs began to adjust various aspects of his appearance. He smoothed the ruffled parts of his light brown hair, watching his brown-eyed reflection do the same. Then he adjusted the fit of his trousers, and a moment later, Hartley returned.

“Good,” he said, nodding, “now let's go. They're waiting.”

“They?” Alec asked, as he followed him out of the room. “Who's ‘they’?”

“Your inspectors,” Hartley said curtly.

“My —?”

“They'll explain when you get there!” Hartley snapped. “Just hurry up!”

They quickened their pace along the corridor, then turned right, where a superb, highly polished wooden door stood at the end of the passageway.

“Go on,” Hartley said, gesturing Alec forward. “I can't go in with you. Just remember, stay calm, and try to follow through as best as you can.”

Alec nodded, though he still did not quite understand what Hartley meant — what was he supposed to do? His heart was now pounding fiercely against his chest. He edged forward, feeling rather sick now, took a deep, shaky breath, seized the door handle, and after a final anxious glance at Hartley, who nodded impatiently, pushed and entered.

He was now standing inside an enormous, high-ceilinged room with snowy-white walls; the floor was made entirely of countless gleaming silver tiles, each about as large as a hassock, with a large, plain, black circle drawn neatly in the center, almost completely empty but for the high panel erected at the opposite end, where three people sat, garbed in matching blue-and-white suits with ornate H’s emblazoned across their chests.

At the left end was a woman with dark brown hair tied neatly into a series of elegant ringlets, with striking hazel eyes; beside her was a bulky man with short, dark hair, but where the woman sat rigid and expectant in her chair, he was leaning back in his seat, arms folded and staring up at the ceiling, looking bored. The final man had a head of golden hair, styled in a taper-fade cut, with piercing blue eyes, sitting with his hands laced atop the panel surface.

All three had what looked like clipboards placed before them, and all three looked up as the door opened.

“Shut the door,” the blond man said, without a single change in his position. Alec did so, rather reluctantly, then moved forward as the man beckoned him towards the circle.

“So you're the new arrival, eh?” the man in the middle said, as Alec came to a halt inside the circle. Alec nodded. “Well, kid, you know why you're here — or, actually, maybe you don't. To put it short, here at Helix we like to keep things up to a certain . . . standard. The student body is organized into three Dorms — Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades — after we, the inspectors, assess their various capabilities, and that's where they stay for the rest of their time here. Understand?” Once again, Alec nodded. “Good. The others were already sorted, so now it's your turn. Best wow us,” he added, with a rather nasty smile.

Alec gulped.

The woman lifted her clipboard and pulled a sheaf of paper from underneath it. “You are Alexander William Michaels, age sixteen, resident of number three, Caledonia Crescent, and son of Kenneth Jonah Michaels and Marsha Alice Michaels?” she said.

“Yes,” Alec said.

“I am Professor Vera, to my left is Professor Duncan, and beside him Professor Wyatt; as you know, we're here to assess your current skill level. It says here that you had a very significant Trigger Moment just the other day, where you ended up decimating half of downtown Vulhaney Street?” she continued, sounding mildly interested. Alec said nothing, but she seemed not to require an answer. “Reports are still unclear as to what, exactly, your abilities may be. Can you provide a clear definition as to what they are?”

“Er — well — no, not really.”

Professor Vera gave a little sigh. “Well, we'll see eventually. For now, the tests are quite simple and straightforward. The first is designed to test your speed. From where you are, simply turn and, on our signal, race towards the other end of the hall, twice around, and back again.”

“All — all right.” Alec turned around, his heart thumping loudly in his chest. He would have to run? He hated running, he always looked so stupid when he —

Bang!

The sound came so suddenly that for a moment he quite forgot that he was to be expecting it and gave a very pronounced start. Then, hastily trying to cover his abashment, he pelted off towards the door, and along the walls; he took much care to avert his eyes when he crossed the room before their panel, knowing that he looked very foolish indeed. On his second lap, he veered away from the door and raced back into the circle, breathing heavily but trying his utmost to keep his heaving chest steady. None of them spoke, but he chanced a glance at the panel and saw them scribbling away on their clipboards.

“Well, that was . . . something,” said Professor Duncan, finally. “The next test is designed to test your strength and stamina. For that, you'll need — these —” He tapped a button on the panel and, to Alec’s slight surprise, the tile immediately in front of him began to whir, then retracted smoothly into the corners of the floor and out of sight, leaving a hollow space where it had been.

A moment later, a desk rose upwards out of the space along a new tile, upon which was stacked a pile of neat, paperback-book-sized blocks.

“Take one of them, try to hold it with one hand for as long as you can.”

Alec moved forward rather cautiously, then extended a hand towards the topmost block and seized it. It was so heavy that his back buckled under the weight and he immediately dropped it. He heard a sigh from somewhere overhead. An unpleasant heat creeping up his neck, he bent low and picked it up again. He straightened up, grasping it tightly in his right hand, feeling the muscles of his arm aching in protest. He tried to hold it for as long as he could, then, before it brought him down again, he set it heavily back down on the desk, barely holding in a sigh of relief.

They scribbled again upon their clipboards, then Professor Vera, frowning a little now, said, “Very well. Now, we'll be testing your durability. This will be a simple exercise of pressure resistance, performed under completely controlled circumstances, so there will be no need to panic. Once the situation reaches a point you feel you can no longer withstand, simply give the safe word, ‘Scipio,’ and we'll terminate the exercise. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Alec said nervously.

“Good. Brace yourself, now.” And she tapped another button on the panel. The border of the circle of floor in which Alec stood flared at once with a brilliant purple light, and a wall of violet energy rose from the line, so that it was rather like he was trapped in some kind of tube. He supposed it was not too bad, staring at the rippling wall, but a moment later, however, the wall began to draw slowly inwards, pressing in on him from all sides. It deepened with every second, until at last the wall was directly upon him, squeezing tightly.

His discomfort was mounting rapidly; he wanted it to end, but knew that he had messed up the first two tasks and wanted to make up for them, so he tried his hardest to push the word Scipio from his mind so that it did not slide to his tongue, instead remaining in place and attempting to push back against the wall as hard as he could.

But the wall continued to contract, pushing in on him; his bones ached in protest — he was being flattened — he couldn't draw breath — there was a pounding in his ears —

And then the pressure lifted very abruptly. Gasping and spluttering, he collapsed in the circle.

He was allowed a few minutes to recover, then Professor Vera’s voice rang out above him, curious. “Why didn't you use the safe word?”

“I — didn't want — thought I could handle it,” Alec choked, still rubbing his throat.

“Very well, I think we should call it here —”

“No, no!” Alec leapt to his feet, wincing as pain flared through his body, but he faced the inspectors defiantly. “I can do it!”

Professor Vera stared at him very intently for a few moments, then exchanged looks with her peers. Duncan shrugged, smirking, and Wyatt nodded but didn't say anything. Then all three looked back down at Alec.

“Very well,” Vera said. “The final task —”

For the second time she jabbed at a button on the panel; this time, however, the entire room outside his circle shifted. Every tile receded into the walls, and then what looked like an entire section of the forest outside rose up to fill the empty space, bringing with it a smell of fresh rainwater and wild flowers, along with a pure-white stretch of what resembled football bleachers along the left side of the room, over which hung a large, holographic hourglass, the contents of which were slowly leaking into its lower depths.

“Your fourth and final task,” Vera continued, and Alec looked around at her, bewildered (her face was now half-hidden by the leaves of a tall cypress), “will be to capture that ball of light before the hourglass is emptied.” Alec followed the line of her bright-nailed finger and saw that she was pointing towards a small orb of crimson light, hovering near an ancient spruce tree behind him.

He turned back to her, frowning in bemusement. “That's all?”

“That is all,” she said calmly. Alec shrugged, then turned and walked very slowly towards the ball. He expected it to zoom around, trying to avoid his touch, but it simply remained where it was, waiting innocently. He stopped right in front of it and extended his arm cautiously — his fingers were about to close over it, and still it did not move — but then it ducked beneath his fingers and zoomed away from him, just as a sharp, stinging sensation flared in his side.

With a scream, he was thrown sideways by the force of the impact. A moment later, Alec clambered to his feet, clutching his side and looking wildly around for the source of the blast, and saw a metallic cube with a glowing, indented front floating nearby.

“But —”

He looked quickly around at the inspectors, none of whom looked surprised in the slightest by this strange turn of events. The hourglass above the bleachers was still going.

Alec felt angry with himself; he should have known it wouldn't be that easy. He looked around once more, and found a speck of crimson bobbing along between two trees a short distance away. At the same time he made to move forward, the cube swooped down upon him, the light from its core flaring dangerously. A jet of red light burst from inside it and streaked across the field. Alec dove forward and rolled to his feet as the blast struck the ground where he had been standing, ripping it apart.

He pelted headlong into the trees as another cube appeared out of nowhere, blasting streaks of light in his direction. The orb of light was still winding its way through the overgrowth, but now several other cubes were emerging from behind trees as well.

He ducked and leapt, rolled and swerved, moving all the while with a speed he had not known he possessed. A beam of scarlet light flew past his ear as he bounded forward, landing before the trunk of a large mahogany tree. Three cubes zoomed past, obviously searching for him, but they had not yet seen him. Moving as quickly as he could, he snapped one of the thinner branches from the overhead tree and launched himself upwards, swatting one of the cubes away so hard that it smashed into a tree and fell, the light of its core dulled, to the ground.

But the other cubes had zoomed backwards, taking distance and aiming once more. The air was soon thick with bursts of light, soaring towards him like large, glowing raindrops. Again he dove behind a surrounding tree, gritting his teeth as he listened to the sound of the beams of light crashing against the wood.

Miraculously, the lasers did not burn, but they were still quite painful. The skin that had been hit was red and raw; Alec chanced a glance at the hourglass and saw that he had less than half the time that he had been allotted now.

Ignoring the searing pain in his limbs, he looked desperately around for the orb of light. Relief leapt inside him as he caught a glimpse of crimson tailing behind a large, berry-filled bush a short distance away. At the same time, a metallic, rasping whirring noise rent the air, signifying the cubes’ approach. Alec took a deep breath, then hurtled from his position, weaving around trees as the cubes rained fire down behind him. The orb swam into view, slinking serenely between two tall trunks ahead.

He bounded towards the orb, his jump propelled even further by the force of the laser that struck his back; as he yelled out in shock and pain, his hand closed over the ball, and he crashed heavily into a thick bush below. There was a rushing, roaring sound in his ears; it felt as though the ground had slipped away from him, leaving him suspended improbably in midair.

Then a tremendous crash sounded from behind him, as though another great tremor was passing through. Ringing thuds and loud splintering noises pierced the air as trees fell heavily to the ground, as the very ground around him was ripped apart.

Then the noises faded, and he was nestled in a bush once more. Alec pushed himself up and turned in the direction of the assessors, who were all on their feet, gazing down at him in shock and apprehension. He looked around, taking in the scene of devastation around him: huge slabs of rock were shooting up from the ground now, trees had been split down the middle, and glistening fragments of the silver cubes were scattered along the laser-charred grass. Alec pulled his gaze from the forest, then, grinning, he held up his right hand, where the ball of light was clutched triumphantly between his grazed fingers.

Professor Vera’s face turned suddenly blank, as did Professor Wyatt’s. Professor Duncan, however, threw back his head and roared with laughter, clapping loudly.

“Oh! Oh, great job, kid!” he cried. “Really good stuff! Only —” He broke off, pointing towards the holographic hourglass; Alec looked around and saw, to his horror, that it was completely empty “— too little too late.”

Alec stood up, disappointment flooding through him.

“Very well, Mr. Michaels,” Professor Vera said. “Kindly wait until we have made our decision.”

Alec returned to the circle as, with another tap of a button, the makeshift forest disappeared into the ground, which was once more coated in shining silver tiles. They communed for a short while, speaking in hushed voices so that he could not hear. Then after a few moments, they straightened up again.

“We have decided,” Professor Wyatt announced. He pushed yet another button, and once more the square before Alec shifted away again. Another desk rose from the empty space, though this time there were no blocks upon it; instead, there was a set of neatly folded garments. Alec seized it, unraveled it, and surveyed it at arm's length. It was black, similar to the one he was wearing, with an H crested against the right chestplate, and a screech owl emblazoned on the back: the mark of the Hades Dorm.