"Please explain to me," Professor Wyatt said slowly, "how you managed to destroy a multimillion dollar playing field, stocked with various virtual environments recreated through the use of highly advanced technology, and one of those environments itself, which lay hundreds of feet below the school."

"Um . . . well . . . I don't really know, Sir," Alec said. He had been sitting in Professor Wyatt's office, a spacious, square room neatly organized with gleaming mahogany furniture, lined with portraits and trophies of past students, for the past fifteen minutes, with the Head of his Dorm directly across from him, staring silently at him for that entire time.

"It just . . . happened? One can just, lose their wallet, for example. One can just forget to lock his bedroom door. Are you saying that one can also just . . . blow up an entire section of an island, just like that?"

"I didn't mean it to happen!" Alec burst out. "We were in the survival period and we were about to be captured and I — I was just —" He hesitated. "Caught up in the heat of the moment," he finished apologetically.

"Ah yes . . . of course . . . the heat of the moment. . . ."

Guilt and anxiety bubbled up inside Alec’s stomach. The flat disappointment in Professor Wyatt's voice was almost unbearable.

"Unfortunately, Alexander, that rebuttal is not quite going to cut it, as I'm sure you can understand why."

Alec's heart rate rose even further. What did he mean? Did such an act warrant a punishment of detention? Suspension? Expulsion, perhaps? Would he have to find a way to repay them for the damage?

"As it is, I will have no choice but to —"

A knock on the door sounded, interrupting his ominous pronouncement, then the door opened. Momentarily distracted, Alec looked around. His jaw dropped.

"Very sorry to interrupt you, Professor Wyatt," said the Headmistress, Professor Lewis, with a wide smile. "But before you deliver your verdict, I would like to speak with Mr. Michaels."

Professor Wyatt seemed as flustered as Alec felt. "Oh . . . um . . . of course, Madam Headmistress. Feel free. I shall wait outside." He rose unsteadily from his seat and swept through the open door without even a glance at Alec, closing it behind him with a snap.

Professor Lewis settled herself into the recently vacated chair, placing her hands together on top of the table and gazing at him over her interlaced fingers, which were painted scarlet, to match her pantsuit and ruby earrings. She did not speak at once, and Alec wondered whether he would have to endure another couple of minutes' uncomfortable staring. Then she spoke.

"That was quite an impressive display you showed us earlier, Mr. Michaels."

Alec said nothing. His voice seemed to have left the room with Professor Wyatt.

"I know what you're thinking," she said with such certainty it was as though she'd peered through his skull with her thick glasses and seen it etched onto his brain. "You're worried about punishment and compensation. Yes, Professor Wyatt does have the ability to inject such powerful feelings of fear into students despite his mild manner; I've wondered, sometimes, whether that is one of his powers." She gave a little laugh: Alec chuckled a bit, though he was not amused at all, his hands balled into fists in his lap to stop them shaking.

The Headmistress stopped laughing and drew herself up, then said, in the same brisk, businesslike tone she had used when he had first agreed to come to Helix, "There will be no punishment."

"Really?" Alec gasped, sitting up at once. "Er — I mean —"

"Yes, none at all. Our entire purpose as a school is to foster a safe environment where young superhumans such as yourself will be allowed to employ the use of your abilities without fear, to learn to control and properly utilize them, to grow, failures, accidents, and all. Why should you be punished for doing exactly what we brought you to this school for?"

Looks like Wyatt didn't get the memo, Alec thought, sinking back into his chair; he did not relax, however, he was sure that this could not be all she had come for, otherwise she could easily have spoken in front of Professor Wyatt.

"Nevertheless," she went on, confirming his suspicions, "you see now why I told you that Helix was the best and only place for you? Imagine if you had done what you did in a public setting? Impressive, most certainly. But equally dangerous.

"We will have to hold off on the Interform Tournament this year," she said casually.

"What? Why?" Alec said. "Professor?" he added quickly.

"Because you destroyed our Tournament grounds, of course," she said, with another little laugh. "The virtual environments we were planning to use to accommodate the tasks were all stocked in layers underneath the field, and the tremor that you created caused such a powerful earthquake that they were either completely demolished or damaged to the point where we can no longer use them.

"Do not apologize, you have done nothing wrong, as I said before," she said calmly as he made to speak, the guilt constricting his chest now. "I will be meeting with the school Board to discuss repairs later this evening, but unfortunately, I highly doubt that anything will be settled before it is time for the Tournament to begin."

"So what will we be doing instead, then?" he asked. "Ma'am?"

"That will have to be decided at a later time. And speaking of decisions," she said, and Alec knew that she was getting to the real reason she had interrupted them now, "you have one to make as well."

"About what?" Alec gaped at her, bewildered. She smiled at him, then explained. When she had finished speaking, he blinked, then continued to goggle at her, mouth slightly open.

"I . . . I don't . . . know what to say. . . ."

"Well, unlike the start of term, you have time to consider," Headmistress Lewis said. "Think about it."

"But why would I want to? Why would you want me to?" he said, looking at her suspiciously.

"It isn't a matter of wanting it, Mr. Michaels. Ever since I met you, I've been trying to show you that certain things must be done because they yield the most desirable results. As I explained, you will not have to answer immediately, but I do suggest you offer it a good deal of thought. I know full well that you, even in your short time here, have picked up on a few things that have — albeit wordlessly, on our part — been established throughout our noble institution. A hierarchy of some sorts. Consider where you stand, and where you want to stand, within it.

"And now." She stood up and checked her watch. "I believe our time has drawn to a close. The reward for completing today's assignment, whether one succeeded or not, was to have a day of rest. Technically, it wasn't completed, for obvious reasons, but you will still be allowed to take the day off.

"You are in no trouble whatsoever. Kindly return to your Dorm and go about your daily business while I speak to Professor Wyatt about what was said here today. And," she said, pausing at the doorway and fixing him with a stern, piercing stare over her glasses, "opportunities such as this are very rare, Mr. Michaels. Once it is done, it is done. Choose wisely." She opened the door and ushered him out, and they went off in different directions.

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Alec returned to the Hades Dorm feeling confused and harassed. Why would she ask that of him? What would be the point? He pushed through the gleaming silver doors and entered the vast, emerald-flame lit common room. Predictably, all chatter died down the moment the other students swiveled around to look at who had just entered and found that it was him. They were watching him with undisguised curiosity and apprehension. He ignored them. He found it rather easy to do in his preoccupied state.

Alec strode through the silently staring mass and up the boys' staircase, towards his room. On the way he passed a burly sixth-year, who ensured to give him as wide a berth as he could in the narrow corridor. Alec pushed open the door of number 24 and found Javon, Zachariah, and Jonah. Jonah was asleep, but Javon and Zachariah both sat up to look at him when he closed the door gently behind him.

"How'd it go?" Zachariah asked.

"It was . . . good, actually," Alec said, leaning against the dark wall. "I got off completely."

"Completely?" Javon echoed, looking slightly nonplussed.

"Wasn't even told off, not really, anyway. She said — oh, right: the Headmistress showed up when Professor Wyatt was talking to me. Yeah, she told him that she'd handle it," he said, when they looked amazed. "She said that the school was created for this very kind of thing, that it was a pretty good show of skill, and —" He hesitated; should he tell them? "And that the Tournament's off until further notice," he said instead. "You know, because I —"

"Wrecked the field?" Jonah said, sounding amused; he was still in the same position, but evidently he had not been sleeping.

"Tournament's off?" Javon said. "Sucks for Maddison, she really wanted to try it out."

And Damon too, Alec thought, then immediately shook his head, wondering why his thoughts were drifting to Damon Messus at this time.

"What else?" Javon went on.

"What?"

"What else did she say?"

"Oh, uh, nothing, really. Just told me to get back to the Dorm while she talked to Wyatt, we're getting the rest of the day off."

"Sounds neat," Javon said. "Listen, I'm pretty beat. How about we get some sleep and then we find Maddison and Ethan and talk to Wildfire like we planned?"

"Yeah, sure, I wanted to talk to him any —" But Javon had already slumped back onto his pillows, yawning, and curled up like a cat: within seconds, the room was filled with the sound of light snoring. Realizing suddenly how tired he himself really was, Alec flung himself into the bed opposite and soon joined Javon in the peaceful, dream-scaped world of slumber.

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"Well, I knew you'd come to your senses eventually," Wildfire said. With the track field nothing more than a heap of rubble, they were unable to reach their usual spot in the forest, so they had tracked him to the instructors' quarters on the other side of the school, near the second-year block. Javon, Maddison, Ethan, and Alec all stood around him while he sat on a small but neat bed draped in white linen, crutches lain at his feet, smiling up at them all with a bowl of soup in his hands.

He looked much better than Alec had seen him in days: his fair hair was brighter, his skin more coloured, his body fuller. "I did myself, too. Now that I think about it, I was going about this the wrong way. Don't get me wrong, I meant what I said about the four of you having problems and needing to come together. It's the only way you'll move forward in this place. But I suppose you're doing well enough as is."

"Tell that to your bosses then, will you? They keep throwing us in these impossible situations and expecting us to somehow overcome them, despite the fact that we've been here less than a month," Javon said furiously.

"Nobody expects you to win, kid," Wildfire said dismissively, taking a large gulp of his steaming soup and showing no sign of discomfort: Alec could only suppose that, as a fire Elemental, he was not too bothered by heat.

"What?" Javon said, confused. "Then —"

"Of course we know you're not going to win! The Academy has some questionable methods, I'm not denying that, but overall, they know what they're doing. This isn't about you winning the challenges they put you through — though such an accomplishment is, of course, welcome and celebrated — it's about you improving. Pushing yourself as far as you can go, not keeping yourself limited to what you think you can handle.

"If you just keep facing 'beginner's' level, how do you expect to get better? They're preparing you for what you're going to encounter out there." He jerked his cleft chin in the direction of the window, overlooking the immense stretch of sparkling water, but they all knew what he meant: the real world, the world outside the protected, comfortable walls of the Academy, in which they could afford failure. "You think what you see now is bad, what do you think people like me see on a daily basis? You're just fighting kids a few years ahead of you, who were in the same position you were not too long ago. Me? I fight against people who are ten times stronger, ten times smarter, and ten times more devious, who are trying to kill me. If the Academy had babied me the way you want to be — well, I'd have been dead my first mission out. Stop complaining.

"Besides," he said, getting to his feet with a groan and slurping down the rest of his soup in one, "that's why you have me. I'm going to try to find a new place where we can train, what with the field's current state and all. Until then, I want you all to compile me a list of your current known powers, so that I can try to come up with some exercises to help you better, like I said in our first lesson. Do that outside for me, I'd like to have a word with our resident fault line for a moment."

Javon, Maddison, and Ethan left the room, leaving Alec alone with Wildfire, who had brought his bowl to the sink at the front of the room and now limped back towards the bed. He sank down onto the mattress with another groan, then looked up at Alec. "So, have you decided?"

Alec was taken aback for a moment, then he understood. "She told you?"

"Of course she did. Everyone knows about your little earth-bending stunt. Millions of dollars worth of property damage, that was, son," Wildfire said cheerfully. "You've got quite the reserve of raw power there, it's no wonder she recommended you. Question is, are you going to take the offer?"

"How would I know?" he said, feeling annoyed and slightly overwhelmed. "I just got here, after leaving my old school, family, and friends behind. I've barely settled in, and now this?"

"You could always decline," Wildfire said patiently. "No one is forcing you."

"But that's the thing," Alec said, hating himself for feeling this way, "I don't want to cause another big change so soon, but at the same time I don't not want it. . . . I just don't know."

There was a slight pause. Wildfire clapped a sympathetic hand to Alec’s shoulder, and Alec suppressed a wince as the heat from his squad leader's hand burned his shoulder. "Well, you have time to think about it," Wildfire said bracingly, seemingly unaware of what had happened. "But until then, get me that list of powers, will you?"