Instinct, pure instinct, led Alec to clap his hand to the wall above his bed and absorb the stone, covering himself in emerald-green rock. He leapt out of bed and moved towards the door, keeping his eyes on the window while he transformed his hands into a large hammer and a dual-sided blade.

"Woah, woah!" the person at the window said hastily, shaking his hands vigorously. It was then that Alec realized who it was—

"Ethan?"

The boy grinned, gesturing at himself with a flourish. "One and only."

Alec dropped the stone guard and hurried over to the window, pulling it open so that a rush of icy wind wafted inside. Repressing a shiver, he said, "What are you doing here?"

"That's kind of a long story."

"So shorten it," Alec said through gritted teeth.

"Right, right.... Remember how when we were at school, everyone was talking about where they would be staying until we were ready to leave for the Temple?"

"Yeah," Alec said, in a skeptical where-are-you-going-with-this voice.

"Well, you might remember that I never actually said where I would be staying?"

"Yeah," Alec repeated, dreading where this conversation was headed.

"Well..." Ethan shrugged, a faint smile on his face.

Alec understood immediately, but his reaction was clearly not what Ethan had desired. "Here? You want to stay here?" he said in disbelief.

"Just for the night," Ethan said, as if he were asking for nothing more than to borrow a pen.

"Are you kidding? My parents would freak—and Hartley—"

"That your bodyguard?"

"Yes, and he's in the guest room right now. Apart from the fact that he's supposed to be keeping creepers like you away from me, where would you even stay?"

Ethan looked around appraisingly. "I don't know, you've got a pretty sweet crib. Don't know how I feel about the green, though—"

"No—no! You can't just pop up at my house in the middle of the night and demand to stay over!"

"I'm not, I'm asking, very nicely, see?" He gestured at his own wide, false smile.

Alec exhaled in exasperation. "Even if I did let you in—wait." A sudden thought had struck him. He straightened up very slowly, looking suspiciously at Ethan. "How did you know where I live? How did you even get here?"

"Well, I might have, sort of, seen your home address when I read your mind earlier in the term," he said awkwardly.

"Of course," Alec said dryly.

"And, well, my ride is actually here with me."

"What? Where?"

Ethan moved aside, and Alec leaned forward. He looked out into the night, the houses on the block gilded by silvery moonlight, and found a familiar pair of bright purple eyes gazing at him from out of the tree standing beside their house. Anthony waved vigorously, grinning broadly.

"Hi, Tony," Alec deadpanned. He turned back to Ethan. "So you talked Space Boy into jumping you here?"

"To be fair, he didn't need much persuasion."

Alec felt his frustration rising steadily. He was approaching his boiling point, and soon his temper would explode. "Why didn't you ask me earlier? What happened to the place you were supposed to be staying at in the first place?"

For the first time, a shadow seemed to cross Ethan's face. "Something happened," he said, in a very serious voice. "And the person I was planning to stay with ended up getting hurt."

"Are they okay?" Alec said, startled by the graveness of his tone.

"They'll be fine. But I didn't have anywhere else to go. And I thought, since I already knew where you were, it'd work out fine. You know, in case your friend doesn't agree to let you go, I could help...persuade him."

Alec let out a long breath. "Fine," he said, stepping aside. "Come in."

Ethan hoisted a bright smile onto his face and climbed in, flopping onto the floor.

"You don't need a place to crash too, do you?" he said to Anthony.

"Nah, I'm good. I'll see you two later," he replied, and he fell backwards out of the tree, disappearing into yet another wormhole.

Alec pulled down the window and turned to face Ethan, who was still gazing around.

"I'll deal with you tomorrow," he said wearily, pulling out fresh blankets. "Take these. Sorry, but I'm not that keen on sharing my bed, even with you. But don't worry, we have a very comfortable floor."

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Alec woke shortly before dawn. His eyes fluttered open and he gazed around at his room, bathed in the shimmering silver glow of Serena's Moonlace. He could see the lump of cloth on the ground that was Ethan, bundled under his blankets. Repressing a sudden urge to throw something at him, he turned sideways to look at the alarm clock on his bedside table. 5:43.

He pulled off his sheets and stood up, still dressed in the blue T-shirt and dark jeans of the day before, and made his way quietly through the silent house. The pale sunlight brightened as he sauntered downstairs, humming, but he received a jolt of surprise to find Ethan standing around the kitchen counter.

"Ethan!" he said, clutching a hand to his chest. "What are you doing down here? Why are you drinking from the carton?"

Ethan set the milk container down and wiped his mouth. "I wanted something to drink," he said innocently. "I would have asked, but you were sleeping. And last time I woke you up you got all armoured up to kill me."

"You can't be down here," Alec said urgently. "If my parents or Hartley come down here and see you—"

"Relax." Ethan waved a hand casually. "You're the only person I've ever met who's ever awake before six, like some abomination of nature."

"You're awake before six!"

Ethan shrugged. "I wasn't tired."

"That's not the point, you have to—"

"Alec?"

It was his father's voice. Alec wheeled around in panic, and a second later his very confused-looking father rounded the corner. "Who were you talking to?"

"I can explain," Alec said wildly. "This is—" He gestured around at Ethan, who had disappeared. There was a moment's pause, then his eyes found his father, who was looking even more nonplussed.

"This is what?"

And all at once he remembered, how Ethan could make himself "invisible" by manipulating the minds of those around him to alter the perception of what they were seeing, effectively making them selectively blind in regards to himself.

"Alec—what have I told you about drinking from the carton?" Mr. Michaels said disapprovingly, walking forward to snatch it up from the counter. Shaking his head at Alec, he smoothed down the folds and placed it inside the fridge. "Honestly..."

Alec drew a sharp breath, adjusting to the situation, and seized on the change of topic. "Heading to work today?"

"I have to," his father sighed. "I wanted to get the day off, you know, for some family time. But my boss—"

"Is an idiot," Alec finished. Mr. Michaels gave him a look that said, yeah.

"It's fine. We can hang out later...er..."

"Oh, that doesn't sound good," Mr. Michaels said matter-of-factly, buttering himself some bread. "What is it?"

"Dad, I should tell you...there's something I need to do."

"Like what?"

"I wanted to meet some friends from school for maybe a day or two. We have a sort of...project, we're working on."

"Homework?"

"Not really, but it's important."

Mr. Michaels sighed. "Okay."

Alec was sure he had misheard. "Okay?"

"Okay," his father said simply. "If you say it's important, then I believe you. You can go. As long as you tell your mother."

Alec's face fell, but after a few seconds he groaned, "Fine."

"I assume Mr. Barrowman knows as well?"

"Not yet."

"Well, good luck with that," Mr. Michaels said cheerfully, patting him on the back as he walked past him.

After a few seconds, when his footsteps on the stairs had died down, Alec looked around, and Ethan appeared out of thin air on the other side of the counter.

"So that's your dad, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Seems nice," Ethan observed, looking almost wistful.

"He is," Alec said, smiling. "My mom, though...not so much."

"Yeah. Well, have fun with that," Ethan said, echoing his father, and he disappeared again, taking a slice of bread with him.

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As he had expected, his mother did not take it well. For a while, she had simply been confused, wondering what on Earth he could have to do that would take days and which couldn't be completed in his own home. Then she became angry, demanding to know when he wouldn't explain. He responded as patiently as he could, reiterating his words to his father: it was important, but private. Eventually she caved, though not without the promise that he would wrap whatever they were to do quickly and return home in time for his father's birthday, which would be on the day before they were to return to school.

Grateful that he had at least gotten the issue of his mother out of the way, he turned to deal with his final obstacle—Hartley. He opened the door on the second knock, as vast and imposing as the day Alec had met him, though no longer as sinister-looking.

"Can we talk?"

Hartley nodded but did not speak. Alec moved in behind him and closed the door. An array of items was splayed across Hartley's bed, none of which would be out of place in one of their typical Weapons and Equipment classes. Hartley sat down, pulled a blaster from the bed, and began to clean it tenderly. Alec twisted his hands before speaking.

"It's about the trip..."

"Ah yes, the mysterious 'trip,'" Hartley said tonelessly. "And let me guess, the vagabond hiding in your room will also be joining you on this journey?"

Alec's jaw dropped. He stared at Hartley, stunned, and then said, "How did you know?"

"Well, at least you knew better than to deny it. It's my job to protect you, you dolt. Of course I'd be aware that somebody came up to your window in the dead of night. A better question would be how neither of those boys noticed the laser rifle I was aiming at them from my window," he added thoughtfully.

"So you knew they were there the whole time and didn't say anything?"

"After I determined that neither of them was a threat, I decided to let you tell me about this encounter of your own accord. Besides, I wanted to see how long you thought you could hide it from me." He grinned. "So, let's hear it. What is this clearly illegal trip about and why is another student from your school in this house?"

Alec had been thinking all morning about how he would deliver the news, because at some point, he knew he would have to. Hartley would not permit him to go unless he was going with him, and he couldn't let him come without knowing what he was getting into. But Hartley had taken at least two of these matters out of his hands.

"Well...to put a long story short, we got curious about the sudden lockdown at the Academy. A friend of mine had...a friend, outside the school, who she believed would be able to explain. But as you could have guessed, that conversation isn't exactly one that could be had over the phone..."

Hartley was silent for a few seconds. Then he spoke in that same emotionless voice. "You snuck out of school and back to the mainland." It was not a question.

"Pretty much, yeah."

"When was this?"

"Last week."

"And did you find what you were looking for?"

"We did," Alec said, "and more. The contact told us a few things—vague things, unfortunately," he added bitterly. "Like the fact that there are some Villains out there striking up some unexpected alliances recently. And that the reason for the lockdown is because something powerful and dangerous was stolen, which they could use to target the Academy."

Hartley was nodding absently, still cleaning his gun.

"But there's more," Alec went on. "When we were supposed to head back to school, we were...obstructed."

"Villains?"

"Ghosts."

Hartley paused and turned to look at him, his head tilted, a curious look on his face. "Ghosts?" Alec nodded. "Like the kind you'd see on cartoons?"

Alec was reminded suddenly of Damon and had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. "Why is that the first thing that comes to your mind?" he said irritably. "And no, they were...humanoid. But glowing green, and terrifying."

"I see," said Hartley. "That is interesting."

"Yeah, but after we got back to school, we started doing some research. We think that whatever the weapon was that was stolen, is what was used to summon the ghosts."

"How did you come to that conclusion?" Hartley asked, looking bemused.

"Because it's too much of a coincidence. First the odd alliances, then a supposedly superpowerful weapon is snatched, and then a barrage of ghosts suddenly appears on the night that Shadow Shifter and friends make a break for it?"

"The same night?" Hartley asked, in a suddenly sharp voice.

"We think it might have been happening simultaneously. Like the ghosts were either a distraction, or—"

"Soliders supposed to keep anyone who they thought might interfere with the breakout away." Hartley sat in thought for a brief moment. Then he looked up at Alec. "And I'm assuming you haven't told anyone else this?"

"We couldn't. Not supposed to leave the grounds, remember?"

"And this trip...you're going to the place where the weapon was stolen from, aren't you? To do your own investigation?"

Alec nodded. He didn't speak, but he watched Hartley closely, for any sign of protest. To his immense surprise, Hartley sighed. "All right."

"All right?" Alec asked, with a feeling of déjà vu.

"All right."

"So you're not mad at me for sneaking off campus? You're not gonna tell anyone?"

"I was just your guide, boy, not a teacher. I don't have any obligation to report any kind of rule-breaking you did in the past—though as a concerned adult I can say that it was an incredibly stupid decision and one you should refrain from making again in the future.

"But, as your current bodyguard, it's not my right to dictate what you can and can't do. Besides, I was never that innocent in my day either," he added, with a gleam of mischief in his eyes. "So, I'll go with you. In fact, I'd like to know more about the situation myself."

Alec grinned. "Great. I just have to call my friends, let 'em know where to meet. Oh, and uh, we'll kind of need a ride."

Hartley sighed again. "I'll see what I can do," he said, with a wave towards the door that Alec understood to mean he was dismissed. As he turned to leave, however, Hartley called, "And tell that hooligan to stop messing with the light switch. I know he's doing it and if he keeps it up I'll introduce him to my laser rifle."

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Alec packed nothing more than a few spare suits of clothing, his cell phone, and a container of sandwiches and drinks that his mother had made for the journey. His father had managed to get the evening off to say goodbye. Alec felt torn. After several months apart, he wanted nothing more than to stay with his parents and enjoy the brief vacation as much as he could, but this was too important, and his friends were already waiting.

Hartley, who had used the evening to make travel arrangements, now left with Alec in the same black Sedan that had brought them to the house, with Ethan, still invisible, alongside them. They were not returning to the Harbour, however.

Much to Alec's dismay, Hartley had shot down the idea of using the Hydraloop, because he didn't want the knowledge that they had traveled to that part of the country in which the Temple was "conveniently" erected to somehow reach the League. Instead they were to arrive downtown, where they would take a cab to the rendezvous point.

As they walked through the town, looking for a taxi, Alec came to an abrupt halt. Someone had called his name, and he didn't need to see the face to know who the voice belonged to.

"Dusty?" he said, turning.

Dusty Williams ambled up to him, golden-brown hair gleaming softly in the evening sun, a beaming smile on his lips and his hands in his pockets. He stopped right in front of Alec, looked him up and down, then held a hand from his forehead to the top of Alec's head, measuring the height gap between them. It was now substantially smaller.

"Damn, did you grow?" he said, sounding impressed. "Ah, still got two inches above you, I guess."

"What are you doing here?" Alec asked. He had not expected this, not now. He had planned to speak to him after he returned.

"Well, I finally convinced my chaperone to let me out of the house," Dusty said, rolling his eyes.

"Chaperone?"

"Yeah." He jerked his chin subtly towards a pale-skinned man several paces behind them, leaning over a newsstand as though perusing the contents. "Some League dumbass. Showed up at my house a few days ago. Said he's supposed to keep me safe for a while, since Shadow Shifter broke out of jail. You got one too, didn't you?"

"Oh, yeah," Alec said, pointing at Hartley. "This is Hartley."

To his surprise, Dusty's lip curled. "You again? Last time I saw you you were trying to fry my brain so I wouldn't remember almost being killed. What superhero are you, then?"

"Not a Hero, kid," Hartley said gruffly. "Just doing a job."

"Do you even have any special powers?" Dusty asked. Hartley did not respond. "Nothing? Nada—?"

Alec cleared his throat loudly.

Dusty turned away, though not before shooting Hartley one last sneering look. "Fine. Guess they don't prioritize your safety as much as they do mine, or you'd have gotten someone better." He spoke perfectly audibly, as if it were some kind of joke, but neither Alec nor Hartley was amused. "Speaking of powers," Dusty went on, disregarding Alec's expression, "how are you getting on? Master earthbender yet?" He wriggled his brows.

"No, I'm not. I'm still figuring out my powers."

"After all this time?" Dusty snorted. "What the hell have you been doing at that school then?"

"Is there something that you wanted, Dusty?" Alec asked, feeling a prickle of anger. Something was not right here. He should be feeling as happy as he had when he had reunited with his parents, yet Dusty's blithe attitude and repeated jeers were filling him with a savage urge to hit him, one which he had known just about every time they had argued about comics, but which had never felt as serious as now.

Dusty raised his eyebrows. "Uh, I just wanted to see my best friend after all these months? Chill, dude. I was just joking. Don't tell me that school made you all soft?"

Hartley had tensed beside him, like a predator waiting for a signal to pounce. Alec couldn't believe it. Though his face was still the same, Dusty was almost unrecognizable.

"I'm sorry," Alec said. "But I have something important to do. I'll see you around, Dusty." Perhaps he had caught him on a bad day. Next time they spoke would be better.... At least, he hoped.

Alec turned and strode and way, wondering who he had left behind him.

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The taxi dropped them off down a deserted side road, blanketed on either side by dense woods. Ethan had finally dropped his cloak, and was looking fatigued, though insisting he was fine. They walked for another thirty minutes, and then stumbled upon the clearing where they had agreed to gather. And there they were. Charlie, Reya, Katrina, Anthony, Maddison, and Javon.

"So you got them all here okay?" Alec said to Tony, impressed.

Tony nodded, though he was wearing a skeptical expression. "Yeah, but..."

"What's he doing here?" Katrina asked, pointing at Hartley.

"Me? I'm coming with you, of course," Hartley said, as if this were obvious. He beckoned them aside and stepped forward, holding what looked like an ordinary keychain. He pressed the button and a series of loud beeps rang out, then the air shimmered, and a sleek, futuristic, silver jet appeared in front of them.

They all stopped, gazing at it in awe. Hartley grinned. "Who else did you think was gonna drive? Now get in the jet, we're leaving."