Computer Science had progressed at a more manageable pace since their exciting first lesson. Professor Laylor had continued the topic of Coding in their following classes, showing them examples of various encryptions that actual Villains had used while committing crimes, the most popular of which, among the class, was the one which a Villainess by the name of Inertia had employed after trapping a number of civilians in a bank vault and activating a timed explosive. Now, after randomly assigning them in pairs, she left them to decipher an encryption she had designed herself, which had taken the form of a simple video game, and which would be cracked only be solving a different question for each section.

Javon had been paired with a tall, airy Zeus girl with brown pigtails, and both were chatting merrily away at their post at the other end of the room. Maddison too had been teamed with a Zeus student, though she seemed to be doing most of the work, scowling as usual, while he merely sat looking rather uncomfortable.

Alec, on the other hand, had been partnered with a tall, strongly built Poseidon boy. He had close-cut black hair and rather small blue eyes, though this did not detract from his ruggedly good-looking profile. In his career as a student, Alec had come across many youths as large as Charlie Dawson, who had turned out to use their size as a weapon of intimidation or brute physicality, yet he had been pleasantly surprised to find that his partner had a boyishly cheerful attitude about him, and their conversations flowed with remarkable ease.

"I think the answer to the question in Quadrant B would be the Aquarius sign," he said, pausing in their discussion to indicate the second level of the code.

"Hmm, I think you're right," Alec agreed. He entered the answer to the question that had appeared on screen when they had moved on to the next section, and the entire block disappeared like a stack of tiles in Candy Crush.

"I'm curious," Charlie said abruptly.

"About what?"

"It's strange: you don't seem to have that many friends, popular kid like you."

"Me? Popular?" Alec said. "I wouldn't call myself that."

"Oh come on," Charlie said. "You're known around the entire school, and probably the entire Hero world too."

"'Known' isn't exactly the same as 'popular,'" Alec pointed out. "I mean, it's like you said, I'm known, but none of what happens involving me ever seems to stick — thankfully," he added. "This school blows through scandals as easily as it changes the breakfast menu."

Charlie laughed, that oddly mellow rumble of a laugh of his. "Okay, I'll give you that. But what about friends? Like that guy down there, Thomas?"

"Yeah, Javon, he's pretty cool," Alec said, a smile forming unconsciously on his lips.

"He does seem so. And the angry girl — the one who always looks like she wants to murder everyone?"

"Hmm . . . I wouldn't really call us friends, but I'd like to believe we're getting there," Alec said. "My roommates are cool, too, but that's about it. How about you?"

Charlie sighed. "We're in the same boat, I suppose. I mean, there's Reya, of course, and she's great, but . . ."

"Reya?"

"Yeah, she's in our year, Poseidon, like me." At Alec's look of incomprehension he added, clearly grudgingly, "They call her Wanda."

Realization immediately struck Alec, and he suddenly blurted out a laugh. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to —"

"No, no, it's cool," Charlie said, grinning. "I know, everyone calls her Wanda after the fairy, because she's so short. Come to think of it, they call me Mini Kong too. Not to my face, though," he added, with some satisfaction.

"Is that because they're afraid you'll climb up to the top of the school, dangling them in one hand, or . . .?" Alec grinned. Charlie gave a dry chuckle and turned back to the monitor.

"Next is Quadrant C. Those calculations add up to a grand total of . . . 3,782."

Alec entered the numbers, and once again the level of the encryption vanished.

"Another thing," Charlie said. "When I sat down here, what did you initially think? Most people who see me, their immediate thoughts are he's big and stupid, or he's big and a jerk. Which one was yours?"

Alec was silent for a moment, then an apologetic grin spread across his face and he said, "Well I didn't think you were stupid."

"I knew it," Charlie said with a chuckle. "First impressions aren't usually the best, in my case. But it's not still the same, is it?"

"Nah, you're actually one of the few good people I've met since I've been here."

"Yep, the bad does seem to outweigh the good, doesn't it? There's Smith and Buckley, the telepath, I know they're your squadmates, but still. And of course no one can forget you and Messus snarling at each other on your first day," he said cheerfully. "That guy —"

"Is an idiot," Alec finished casually.

"But he's good, though. You know, skilled. But I guess that's to be expected, seeing as his parents are two of the most prominent Heroes."

"A lot of people here have parents who are Heroes."

"Me too, as a matter of fact," Charlie said, with a prideful smile. "My mother is Valkyria."

The same rush of awe that had surged through him when he had learned the identity of Maddison's father now filled Alec again, but he managed to conceal it. The Heroine Valkyria was a winged demigoddess who wielded an enchanted bow and arrows, said to be a gift from the Norse gods themselves.

"No kidding. I loved reading her comics: Vengeance of Valhalla," Alec said.

"Oh yeah, I heard you were a comic fan. I'm more of a novel kind of guy myself." Alec tried to hide the expression of surprise that had briefly flashed across his face, but Charlie caught it again. "I did it again, didn't I?" He was grinning widely. "Surprised you."

"Little bit." Alec held his thumb and index finger together. "Wouldn't have thought it, really; you're awfully buff for a nerd." He shrugged casually.

"Okay, and how about you? Your folks aren't Heroes. I'm sure of it. Nobody knows them, and if they did I'm positive that news would have spread like wildfire. But the Deva gene has to run somewhere in your bloodline."

"Apparently, it stems from my grandfather," Alec told him. "I had no idea he was a Hero when he was alive, but I'm told he went by the name 'Dogma.'"

"I've heard of him," Charlie said excitedly. "He was amazing, back in the eighties, but he retired pretty quickly. This was pretty big news back then, and even for a few years afterwards there were some nasty rumours about it, that he did something he shouldn't have done and the League fired him for it and used early retirement as a coverup, and — I'm sorry, this is your grandfather, I shouldn't —"

"No, it's fine, keep going, I want to hear this," Alec said earnestly.

"Well I never really heard much, to be honest," Charlie said. "I'm positive that my parents would know about it, but I doubt they'd tell me."

"I doubt mine would either," Alec said bitterly. "They didn't even tell me I could have been a superhuman. . . . Oh, I think I got this one." Alec entered the last answer for the final quadrant, and the entire grid exploded, leaving behind a virtual "Well done!" message and the marks for the assignment.

"Should download that," Alec said, reaching into his backpack. "Might be useful later on, midterms and all." He extracted what he had been looking for, the small metallic cube that Professor Laylor had handed each of them at the end of their first class, which functioned as a kind of advanced hard drive, on which they usually saved excessive notes, power points, and projects.

Charlie followed suit, placing the cube on the little pad beside the computer, from which Alec had just removed his own. The red light on the cube flared blue, and Charlie stowed it back in his bag. "Ready to leave?"

"Yeah, sure," Alec replied. "Let me just —" He pointed his thumb at Javon.

"Oh, yeah."

Alec went over to Javon and explained that he would be going on ahead. He wasn't sure if Javon had heard him. He had nodded when Alec had finished speaking, but his eyes had been fixed on his partner, both quite misty.

Alec and Charlie descended the stairs and began to walk, stopping at a deserted bench around the corner. They had little over twenty minutes until lunchtime, and they spent the rest of it talking. Alec found it as easy as speaking to Javon, or Zachariah and Jonah. Unfortunately, they had to part when they entered the canteen to sit around their respective tables.

"Ah, making new friends, I see," Javon said, when Alec had collected his tray and sat down beside him. "That's good, bust out of that introverted shell of yours."

"I'm not an introvert," Alec said, feeling slightly affronted.

Javon, Zachariah, and Jonah all laughed.

"You've been here for weeks and you hardly talk to anyone, besides your roommates or squadmates, people you're just about forced to interact with," Javon said.

"You barely leave your room if you have the choice to stay," Zachariah pointed out.

"You never really come with us to the pool, or the Gym, or the rec room, and you've spent a few days recently eating outside the canteen," Jonah added.

"Okay, shut up," Alec snapped, though he started to laugh as well.

"Well, we're proud of you," Zachariah said. "Makes for a nice change. And Dawson seems like a cool guy — you know, when he's not going berserk and trying to demolish helicopters."

Everyone laughed again, then at last dug into their meals.

"Hey, what's after lunch, again?" Javon asked shortly after.

Alec tried to remember what had been written on his timetable. "I think it's Criminal Justice."

But when the bell rang, forty minutes later, they had barely started to clear their tables when Headmistress Lewis hurried up to the teacher's table in front. Alec had not realized until now that she had been absent. She was dressed in an emerald pantsuit with matching earrings (Alec wondered if she had one for every colour). There was an air of suppressed urgency about her, as if she was trying not to show that she was nervous, but failing.

"Attention, students," she called. "I have an important announcement, and I would ask you kindly to remain seated until I have finished." She waited a few seconds while they settled back into their seats, then went on, "Regarding the classes scheduled for this evening, all have been canceled."

Alec had heard this exact announcement only twice in his life, both at his old high school, once during a fire drill and the other because the Drama Club had planned an impromptu concert. Each one had been met with a positive explosion of cheering and roars of approval. In this case, however, an outbreak of suspicious murmuring swept the crowd, everyone looking shocked or bemused.

"Settle down, please," said the Headmistress. "Moreover, instead of the usual seven o'clock luncheon, dinner will be held at four o'clock this afternoon, and curfew moved up to five."

And the howls that Alec had been expecting finally rose from the crowd, of utter disbelief and mutiny. Many of the students, in his observation, used the time between their squad meetings and dinner to meet friends from other Dorms, play games on the basketball court, or simply to drift around the school and talk. With curfew being tightened so heavily, all of this would be restricted.

While Headmistress Lewis paused again for silence, Alec took the opportunity to say, in a voice loud enough for only the people beside him to hear, "Is this another kind of drill or something?"

"No, drills usually take place outside the Dorms, and she's trying to lock us in," Zach murmured back.

"I think something's happening," Javon whispered. "If all the classes are canceled, it's likely because the teachers are going to have some big meeting. Probably with the Hero League."

"I look to the Prefects and the Head Boy and Girl to ensure that order remains intact while you are inside. If you must, you may stay within your common rooms and entertain yourselves, but under no circumstance should anyone leave their Dorms past five o'clock.

"That is all. Please return to your Dorms in an orderly fashion while you await further instructions."

The entire student body rose as one, so that a rippling tide of black, white, and blue, peppered with bronze, silver, and gold filled the lunchroom. The mutters rose again as they filed towards the door. When they emerged in the corridor outside, Maddison was beside them.

"Hey, what do you think about —" Alec began.

"Quiet," Maddison said. "And look." With a subtle nod she gestured to their right. Alec, Javon, Zach, and Jonah all looked in the direction she indicated, where, on the other side of the school, they could see Professor Laylor, Professor Elliott, and Professor Sheilds walking with both Meta Martian, the green-eyed superheroine who had transported Wildfire's body to the hospital when he had been overcome with Shadow Shifter's poison, and the Grey Wailer, all talking urgently.

"Looks like you were right," Alec told Javon.

"That's not all," Maddison went on. "Listen." They drew closer to her. "The Hydraloop was active during lunch. I saw it when I was coming in."

"Not necessarily suspicious," Zachariah said at once. "It could have been the Heroes coming in."

"No, it was Professor Vera and the Criminal Justice teacher, Professor Hawthorne, leaving. I saw them walking through the gates."

"Okay, so what does that mean?" Jonah asked.

"If members of the League are coming into the school, teachers are going out, and Lewis is reeling in curfew, it means something big is going on outside of Helix which could affect us too. And I want to know what it is," Maddison said.

"Yeah, but we're in lockdown," Javon reminded her. "How are you going to . . ." He trailed off at the sight of the mischievous smirk that had unfolded across her lips. He looked around frantically to see if anyone was listening, then lowered his voice and hissed, "You want to sneak out of the school?"

"Of course I don't want to!" Maddison said heatedly. "But my father is a member of the Hero League too, and if there's something dangerous going on I want to know if they'll be able to handle it. I have a contact quite close on the mainland, he can fill us in. Plus, you can't tell me you're not curious."

"Well, yeah, I am," Javon admitted grudgingly. "But this is serious. We could be expelled if we're caught. Nobody's ever left the school at night before."

"Er, that's not particularly true," Alec said hesitantly. All eyes swiveled onto him. The confession that he himself had done it rose treacherously to his lips, but he swallowed it down. "So I've heard," he said, cursing his own cowardice. "There are supposedly a few ways out without being caught."

"You're right about that."

Everyone wheeled around. It was Charlie.

"Were you eavesdropping?" Maddison said furiously.

"No, I just happened to overhear your conversation, there's a difference," he said, sounding indignant.

"Wait," Alec said to Maddison. "Hear him out."

"There are ways out of the school. Quite a few, actually. I personally know of one that's been used recently, and it's actually one of the safest bets. If you want, I could hook you up."

"How do we know if we can trust you?" Maddison said.

Alec wanted to know as well. He had had a long conversation with Charlie, but he was still a stranger. Before anyone could speak, however, Ethan appeared at their side as suddenly as if he had materialized from thin air, clamping a hand on Charlie's shoulder. "You can trust him," he said breezily.

"How do you know?" Jonah asked, looking bewildered.

"Because of why he wants to help," Ethan said, with a teasing smirk. A mixture of anger and alarm flashed across the larger boy's face. He wrenched Ethan's hand off and snarled, "Don't ever do that again, Telepath."

"Just had to make sure," Ethan said, pulling his hand free and moving to join his Dorm-mates. "Seeing as you're all going out, then I'm going too. Nice to engage in a healthy bout of rule-breaking every now and then." He looked the most cheerful Alec had ever seen him.

"Okay," Alec said, "I guess we're in, then. You are in, right?" he asked Javon.

He threw back his head and sighed. "Fine. But only if there's absolutely no possibility of getting caught."

"That's done, then," Charlie said brightly. "Meet me at the gates of the football field tonight."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alec had not been down by the field since the disastrous episode of their last nighttime drill, when he had utterly destroyed it. He was not keen on the prospect of going back, to see the damage he had done to both the school and Maddison's ambitions for the Tournament, but if it was the only way in which they could escape the school without enlisting the help of Damon Messus, he would have to do it. For the next few hours they tried to remain casual, stuck in the Hades common room with what looked like the entire Dorm cluttered around them, all of whom seemed to be discussing the same thing: the cause of this lockdown.

At last night fell, and the Prefects instructed them to get to bed. They were to wait at least two more hours for the other students to fall asleep. Jonah and Zachariah would be staying behind to cover for them. At 10:53, when the rooms above and along their corridor were silent, Alec rose, signaled to Javon, and whispered, "All right, we're going."

Jonah gave him a thumbs-up. He and Javon emerged into the dark corridor. It was entirely quiet, but every now and then a faint sound of snoring or coughing would erupt through the stillness, oddly magnified in their apprehension. They met Maddison and Ethan on different sides of the stairs leading into the common room. As they joined them, they saw two Prefects stoking the gigantic green flame burning in the marble grate.

" . . . don't suppose anyone told you what this was about?" they heard one of them saying sulkily.

"No, I don't think any of us know," the other replied, to Alec's disappointment. Clearly this was a matter of the utmost sensitivity if even the Prefects were left in the dark. Alec tapped Ethan's shoulder to signal they should start.

Ethan waved back: No problem.

There was a moment's wait. Then Ethan stepped casually down the stairs. Javon drew in a sharp breath, but though Ethan was ambling across the common room as if he had not a care in the world, none of the boys seemed to notice him.

Which meant it was going as planned. Using his Telepathy, Ethan was able not only to read minds, but to manipulate the thoughts of others to certain degrees, causing them to interpret things in different ways — something they had learned firsthand during their training sessions with Wildfire. In the Prefects' minds, the common area was no doubt empty but for the two of them, and the door that Ethan had pushed through was still firmly closed. Unfortunately, Ethan was not as adept at the ability as they would have liked. He could only hide one person at a time from the Prefects. Now he signaled to Maddison, who nodded and strode briskly through the enormous room to meet him, then Javon, and finally Alec.

Halfway through the, at the moment, inconveniently vast room, he noticed Ethan was breathing rather heavily. Then to Alec's horror, the first Prefect looked up, right at him. Alec froze, his blood chilling.

Two seconds passed. Nobody moved. The boy was still staring, eyes wide. Then —

"You all right, man?" said his peer, looking up at him, then following his eyes. A bemused look clouded his face.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. I just — thought I saw something. Hey —" He turned his full attention onto his friend and Alec seized the opportunity to scurry across the room as quickly as he could, still catching every word the boy said: "You know, since we're in the Dorm dedicated to the God of the Dead . . . You don't believe in ghosts, do you?" he said, sounding rather frightened.

Alec made it through the shining silver doors and onto the violet carpet that trailed towards it, feeling as if he had been running for miles.

"What was that?" he hissed at Ethan as they pushed through the Dorm door and were enveloped by chilly night air.

"Sorry," he said, clutching his temple. "Overtaxed. I'm fine."

But he certainly didn't look fine. Alec, however, chose not to pursue the topic. With the teachers preoccupied, and the students forbidden from going outside, the path to the field was wonderfully clear. At the gates, out of sight of the windows at the Hades Dorm, they met Charlie, dressed in formfitting black clothing. But he was not alone. A girl shorter than Ethan stood on his other side, her eyes large, round, and grey, the fair hair falling in sheets around her head flecked with violet.

"Hi," she said, her voice bubbly.

All eyes found Charlie. "This is Reya, the girl I told you about," he said to Alec.

"You didn't say you'd be bringing anyone else with you," Maddison said, eyes narrowed at him.

"Sorry about that, but Reya's cool. She's actually essential to the plan, in fact."

"How?" Javon asked, looking incredulous.

"You'll see. Shall we?" He gestured down at the field and he and Reya broke off into a run. The other four followed. Reaching the end of the path, they all slowed to a halt.

"Damn, you really did a number on this thing," Ethan said, laughing.

The field looked like a canyon, swathes of broken rock raised higher into the air like admonitory fingers, with dark holes dotting the surface where the stone had fallen through. It was like an enormous checkerboard.

"Okay, the structure's stable enough to support our weight," said Charlie, "but still, be careful. Follow our movements."

He and Reya began to cross the path, stepping from one spot to the other; Reya, with her shorter legs, had to jump a few spaces. Alec, Maddison, Javon, and Ethan all followed suit, until at last they reached what seemed to be the edge of the pitch, near the forest, standing around one of the smaller holes peppering the field.

"In we go," Charlie said brightly, and he dove into the crevice as though leaping from a high dive board. One by one they swooped in after him, landing on what felt like a vast mound of grass.

"What the —?" Ethan muttered, running his fingers through the grass as if he wasn't sure it was real.

"Yeah, had a nasty jump a few weeks back," Charlie said, running one hand over his back as if feeling the ghost of an ache. "Had to fix that. This way." He pointed straight ahead and they followed.

The passage in which they followed him twisted and wound as if whatever had carved it had not known where it wanted to go, getting narrower all the while, so that after a few minutes they had to move single-file. At last they came up to a section of the passage that seemed to have been split in two.

"We're not going across," Charlie said. "We're jumping down to that opening down there. You'll see what I mean when it's your turn." And he jumped again. There was a muffled thud as he landed and Charlie shouted for the next person, who happened to be Maddison. She leapt down. Then Javon went next, and Alec followed, his eyes on the broad though short strip of land that protruded from the wall a few feet below. He jumped and landed beside Maddison, then Ethan came. They turned and moved deeper into the passage, until at last the pale, bright rays of moonlight broke the darkness, and a wider opening came into view at the other end.

"Where are we?" Maddison asked.

"On the other side of the island," Reya said, sounding extremely smug.

"Wow, it's beautiful," Javon breathed. The moonlight glistened on the water's surface, a few beams reflecting to make arcs of silver light that rose from the water.

"It'll look a lot better from the air," Charlie said.

"The air?" Alec repeated.

"Do your stuff," Charlie said to Reya, taking a step back. She held up her hands. Next second Alec, Javon, and Ethan jumped backwards in shock as streams of purple sparks erupted from her fingers. Her grey eyes were suddenly suffused with colour, shining violet through the gloom.

"Videtur!" she said. Her voice now sounded deep and ethereal, as if somebody else were speaking through her. The sparks flew from her hands in a long jet and formed a spiraling gale of purple wind above the water. It vanished, and the three vehicles they had been learning about in Weapons and Equipment now appeared before them, hovering in midair.

"Holy," Ethan muttered, wide-eyed.

"You're a witch," said Maddison, whose only reaction so far had been to watch the girl with a shrewd expression.

Reya blushed. "I don't like that word," she muttered. "But yes, I'm a magic-user."

There was a tense silence, then Charlie cleared his throat. "Right. Reya can only conjure items she knows the location of, at the moment, so we'll have to make due with these three."

Javon, grinning, immediately leapt onto the Zetaboard. He balanced perfectly on it, as he had done the last few times in class, when Professor Sheilds had finally let the class ride them, though only for less than a minute and within the enclosed walls of the Armoury. Reya jumped gracefully onto the board behind him. Maddison moved towards the Zetawing, then stopped and looked at Ethan, who waved impatiently at her. "Fine, you can drive."

Looking pleased, she stepped up and grasped the controls, and he climbed up behind her. Charlie jumped onto the Zetacycle, and looked around at Alec. Alec was slightly disappointed: he'd wanted to drive. But he climbed up behind Charlie anyway. As there was no backrest where he could place his hands, he held onto Charlie's sides, feeling the firm ridges of his chest beneath his shirt.

"Everybody ready? Okay, so —"

"Oh God, please don't say it," Reya said, exasperated.

"Up —"

"Charlie —"

"Up —"

"I'm warning you —"

"And away!"

With a roar like a caged lion the Zetacycle's thrusters ignited and they were sent hurtling off into the sky.