After nearly three months at Helix, Alec had had to endure a great many surprises — more, in fact, than he would have liked to. But the simple fact is, a place filled to bursting with teenagers of all kinds of backgrounds and personality traits who could break the laws of physics as easily as someone could change a car tire was bound to be full of surprises, yet no matter how many came Alec was still as wrong-footed by each as he was the last.

He had thought that Crystal Zero replacing Professor Elliott would have been the most astonishing event that week; he was sorely mistaken as, shortly after, something extraordinary occurred right in the comfort of his own common room.

In the absence of the Prefects (who were doing their usual, spontaneous patrols of the rest of the Dorm), several students had decided to play a makeshift game of Powerball in the room. As the common room was quite large, at least three times more so than any of their already spacious classrooms, the rest of the students managed to give them a wide berth as they took one section of the room for themselves. They were using one of the couch cushions as their Powerball, employing the logic that if anyone failed to catch it, it was still fairly soft and so wouldn't do as much damage as the extremely dense ball they normally used.

While that much was true, they forgot to account for the fact that in the heat of competition most people often forgot to be careful, or that it didn't matter much when you were playing with superpowers.

And so it was that Alec, his roommates, Ethan, and Maddison were watching, along with everyone else, in a mixture of half-hearted disapproval and intrigue as the game wore on. One of the boys, who had telekinesis similar to Ethan, launched the cushion towards the other goal (a hastily constructed arch made from pillows). This prompted a reply from one of the Defenders, who conjured a miniature tornado that intercepted the ball and, instead of releasing it, held it fast in its swirling depths and continued to cycle forward. One of the opposing team's Strikers launched forward and kicked upwards, his foot wreathed in flames, and the impact dispelled the mass of wind, sending the cushion flying. The final act came as one of their own Defenders launched a golf-ball-sized mass of energy to send it careening down the other end of the room, but missed the cushion by several inches and hit the opposing wall.

The marble exploded with such force that shards of all sizes rained across the room. Though most people generally disliked Gym sessions, no one could say that the course didn't have its uses. As, with the reflexes born of their training, most people responded immediately, conjuring shields or, in Ethan's case, a wall of telekinetic force, or simply ducking out of the way. Javon slipped underneath the desk, but Alec, perched precariously on top, had far less options for mobility, and so he watched, aghast, as a sizable shard came zipping towards his torso.

Unable to do much else, he closed his eyes reflexively, expecting a sharp, stabbing pain to land any second. . . . But it never came. What did come, however, was a soft, cottony bump against his chest and the sound of something soft flumping to the ground.

Confused by the lack of shrapnel wedging its way into his ribs, Alec jerked his eyes open and stared around. Then he saw it.

Lying on the ground below him, perched innocently on the thick carpet, was a pink, fluffy slipper shaped like a rabbit's ear.

"What the hell!"

Those were the exact words Alec had meant to employ, but they exited someone else's mouth first, and in an entirely different tone than he was about to use.

"Are you an idiot or something? What kind of wild shot was that?"

"I'm sorry!" cried a voice in response, no doubt belonging to the boy who had launched the energy ball. "I thought I could get it!"

"Yeah, you got it, all right!" a displeased male voice said. "Got the whole damn wall, too!"

Alec looked up. A huge crater now lay in the wall, as if a meteorite had struck it. Showers of dust and debris littered the floor; some shards had even embedded themselves into the desks. Heavy footsteps came thundering down the stairs and the Prefects erupted onto the scene, carrying with them a gaggle of shocked and curious students.

"What happened? We heard an explosion. Is everyone al —" The Prefect paused, eyes moving from the decimated wall to the group of boys, and finally to the rest of the desks and chairs in the common room, pushed purposefully aside to make space, and understanding dawned at once. "How many times do I have to say it, no Powerball in the Dorm!"

While the Prefects began a furious rant against the boys in question, Alec looked down again at the fluffy slipper. He blinked in surprise. The slipper was gone. In exactly the same place it had been lay a massive, jagged shard of black rock.

Alec couldn't understand. He had seen the slipper with his own eyes, had stared at it for nearly two minutes while they assessed the damage. What was going on?

His mouth still gaping slightly in his shock, Alec began to look around for anything that could explain this bewildering turn of events — and then his eyes met another pair, a set of dark eyes that were trained directly on him, narrowed in suspicion.

"How did you do that?" Maddison asked.

"Uh, I don't know —" Alec said, heart rate still not exactly back to normal.

"Professor Wyatt is going to kill us!" a voice shouted in panic. "I told you — I told you — you're lucky no one got hurt or you'd all probably be suspended!"

"Griffin, the Professors are coming!" someone called from near the front windows, interrupting the boy's desperate wails of apology.

"We can't let them see this!" Griffin twisted his hands in panic. "He'll punish the whole Dorm —"

"I can help with that," Alec said, hastily rushing forward. He was still trying to settle himself, to overcome the shock that he had come so close to being seriously harmed. This would at least help to take his mind off it. He ran his hands over the wall, feeling his skin transition smoothly into a perfect replica of the black stone it was composed of. With a wide, sweeping gesture, he pulled every shard, every bit of dust he could from the Dorm floor, and willed it towards the hole in the wall. Moving a large number of minute objects was difficult, but he had been working on the technique relentlessly over the weekend, and was glad to see he was making at least a little progress, even if the movement was slow and clunky.

He sent the rocks careening into the wall, fitting them back into place as best as he could. There were still many chunks missing, but he held them in place with his power, then he stepped forward and touched the poorly fitted stones again with his index finger.

This time he didn't absorb; he liquidized the stone coating his body and guzzled the semi-solid material into the area, filling those cracks and missing spaces he hadn't been able to get, then he hardened it all at once, leaving the wall smoothly inscrutable once again.

Griffin let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. "You're a lifesaver, kid. I owe ya one."

"They're almost here!" the same panicked voice said.

"All right, upstairs, all of you," Griffin said, regaining his composure. "You're not gonna wanna be here for this. Not you lot." He grabbed the Powerball players who were desperately trying to escape, while the mass of gathered onlookers fled as if they had been told a tsunami was about to level the Hades Dorm.

Over the course of the next two hours, Alec turned the events of downstairs over and over in his mind. He was preoccupied the entire time his roommates laughed about the legendary punishment the others were no doubt receiving, and was subdued even as they found that the coast was at last clear and tried to return to their normal activities. But no matter which way he looked at it, it didn't make sense. That shard was heading right for him, ready to embed itself in his chest.

Nobody else had noticed, because they had all reacted quickly enough to throw up defenses or take cover, but he had sat there, stupidly, waiting for the rock to skewer him. And yet it didn't. Instead, a fluffy pink slipper had hit him.

An argument could have been made that he was hallucinating, but that was quickly dispelled. Maddison had apparently seen what had happened too, which meant it was most certainly what he thought, yet couldn't believe. That rock, somewhere along the process of hurtling towards him, had changed into that slipper, likely by his own hand. The why he didn't care for. He knew Javon's healing skills were excellent, but it was better that these turn of events had made it so they weren't needed at all. It was the how that concerned him. He briefly entertained the idea that perhaps a student with metamorphosis powers had noticed his slow reaction and saved him, but the fact that no one else besides Maddison seemed to have even noticed put quite a hole in that theory.

Which meant the only conclusion was that he had done it himself, but that made even less self. On top of his own knowledge of the situation, Proxima Venus had explained it quite well.

Elementals had powers that revolved specifically around their given elements. Sure, they could develop further abilities by applying those powers in different ways: Proxima Venus, for example, could warp light to create illusions. Wildfire could alter the temperature around him, and Shadow Shifter could create sentient constructs from darkness. Even Alec could tap into the Earth's gravitational field, but all of those abilities circled back to their respective elements in some way.

As far as Alec could tell, the Earth didn't have the ability to transmutate objects. So what could have caused it?

Unfortunately, he couldn't answer that question himself. But if anyone knew about the potential of Elementals, it would be the resident Elemental they had on hand. Alec excused himself from his roommates' presence and headed downstairs, where, unsurprisingly, Maddison was waiting for him at the bottom step.

"You never answered my question," she said without preamble.

"Because I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you do." She hit him in the chest with the palm of her hand impatiently. "That rock was going to skewer you and you somehow changed it into a slipper."

"But I didn't do it," Alec protested.

"I saw you. Unlike everyone else, I didn't need to take cover. I shifted my density to make myself insubstantial, that way the objects just passed through me. Which means I was in a perfect position to see what I saw."

"I never said you didn't see what happened. I said I didn't do it," Alec said. "I'm an Elemental, remember? We can branch off into some fancy new techniques with some practice and dedication, but at the end of the day our skillset is fairly limited."

"And what about the glow?"

"What glow?"

"Right before it happened I saw some sort of weird gleam in your eyes."

"Did you though? Because I think I would have noticed if my own damn eyes were glowing."

"Well . . . no, I'm not a hundred percent sure," Maddison conceded. "The way I was angled I didn't get a good look, so it may just have been the common room's fire glancing off your eyeball. But I do know for certain that I saw that stone. One second it was a shard. I blinked and it was a slipper. Something's not adding up."

"I don't know what to tell you," Alec said, shrugging. "But at this point, it doesn't matter. Whatever happened probably saved my life. That's all I care about."

"Mmm hmm." She didn't believe him one bit, and he didn't need to see the way her eyes narrowed in suspicion to know that. "So where are you going now?"

"Bathroom. Drank too much cherry soda, it seems. Unless you want to come with me to verify I'm not lying?"

"You boys are disgusting," she said, turning away.

Alec smiled, pleased that, as fierce as she was, Maddison was still a teenaged girl underneath. He didn't know why she was so pressed about the matter, but he was glad that he had escaped her. Whatever was going on, he felt she was reacting far too deeply for what the situation warranted. Something was indeed off. He continued out of the Dorm and into the bright evening sun, merely a few feet out of the door when someone fell into step beside him.

"Ah, Alexander, I was hoping to see you." It was Professor Wyatt, and he was beaming. "Griffin Rogers told me about the patch-up job you did on the common room walls. You have my sincerest thanks, damage like that would have resulted in a lot of money and a very angry Headmistress."

"It was no trouble, sir."

"And I must say, you did the job splendidly. Your powers are developing quite nicely; a far cry from what they were two months ago."

"Practice does make perfect, after all," Alec said, echoing Crystal Zero.

"That it does. Well, enjoy your day."

"You too, sir."

Professor Wyatt had sped up and gone a few paces ahead before a sudden thought occurred to Alec. "Professor Wyatt?"

The blonde man stopped and turned, his head gleaming in the sunlight.

"I have a question. Do you think, given my . . . As an Elemental," he continued, trying to find the right way to phrase it, "would it be possible for me to develop powers outside of my natural categorization?"

Professor Wyatt frowned. "Are you asking if, for example, you would be able to develop an ability like say telepathy, outside of your earth-based powers?"

"Something like that."

Professor Wyatt considered. "Well, I don't want to crush any hopes you may have. After all, we live in a world where some five year olds can lift a station wagon with their bare hands. Anything is possible. But at the same time, I don't want to give you false hope. 'Elementals' are classified as such for a reason. In the same way 'telepaths' usually only develop mental-based abilities as opposed to physical augments like enhanced strength. Outliers can and may exist in every category, however, but they are exceptionally rare. And I can't say I know of any in this particular field either. Why do you ask? Do you believe you may be manifesting powers outside of your current classification?"

Alec hesitated for only the space of a heartbeat. "No, forget I asked. I was just considering how it would be if I had certain powers."

"Ah, I see. What powers were you thinking of, incidentally?"

"Well, I was just considering metamorphosis, or something of the sort."

"A very interesting ability. I should say, given that I have some personal experience with it." He winked. "But believe me, there are far greater Heroes out there with that skill, at least to some degree. Perhaps you can look into any of the following for further research: Mad Alchemist. Crystal Cauldron. I believe I knew of one other who demonstrated such abilities from time to time. What was he called again? . . . Ah yes, Dogma. Feel free to look up any of them, and should you have any more questions, you know by now where my office is."

"Sadly," Alec said, chuckling. Professor Wyatt laughed, then turned away. So it really had been a fluke, Alec thought. He felt more dejected than he thought he would, even though he had a strong assumption that this would be the outcome anyway. After all, it was exactly as Professor Wyatt had said, very few outliers existed in these categories. Of course some did, but what were the odds that he, Alec, was —

Alec blinked, coming to an abrupt halt. He froze halfway along the path, staring ahead, ignoring the curious stares of the passing students, as Professor Wyatt's words finally registered in his brain.

Mad Alchemist. Crystal Cauldron. I believe I knew of one other who demonstrated such abilities from time to time. What was he called again? . . . Ah yes, Dogma.

Dogma. He had heard that name once before, two months ago, when a woman and her bodyguard had appeared in his living room, claiming to be the Headmistress of a secret institution designed to hold people with extraordinary abilities. Dogma. The Hero name which was supposedly used by Alec's grandfather.