"Sixty-three," booms an apathetic, robotic voice, and those still in the running turn on a dime and run back across the gym. It's testing day, and Megan and I are watching Evan race back and forth across the gym floor. Our class is sitting down on the gym floor, behind one of the many blue lines that cleave the floor apart. They're supposed to be marking lines for different sport courts, but due to how many different lines have been put down, it's hard to tell what's supposed to be what.

"Sixty-four," the voice drawls. Evan is no longer smiling, like he was earlier, but it doesn't look like he's broken a sweat either. The wave of people turn again, bracing for their next short sprint across the gym. Of the many fitness tests we're required to take, the Pacer is by far the most strenuous and most hated. There's nothing as arbitrary as being forced to run back and forth across the gymnasium until you give out.

"He's still going," notes Megan. Her left hand is inches from my right, though we're holding each other at respectable distance.

"Thank goodness we have him. I think he might be the only one of us who actually has enough physical strength to do any of this."

"I feel stronger when I'm training, so I'm not so sure it's a problem... anyhow, I wouldn't underestimate Serena. She's on the Varsity soccer team, and she's a freshman, like us." Megan says, holding her index finger to her face the way she does when she's thinking.

"I don't have to underestimate her if she doesn't show up." I say.

"True." Megan sighs.

"I got her phone number, though, so that should help." I add, but notice she's not looking at me or Evan. Instead, she's gazing intensely at the group of girls Will is hanging out with, sitting in a circle off in the corner with a deck of cards. "I was worried about him getting all fidgety when I started hanging out with you, but thanks to your friends, he's totally ignoring me now. Siblings."

"Oh, you think having one is bad. Try having four." Megan tells me.

"At least you don't have a twin."

"Can't be that different."

"Yes it can."

"Whatever. By the way, have you noticed that your friends have been watching us all class?" Megan whispers (yeah, because you were totally worried about my friends) and then, her tone grim, asks, "Think they know something?"

"They think we're flirting." I say, exasperated. Jack makes a gesture in my general direction, which I'm guessing indicates I should ask her for her number, and I roll my eyes. Potential romantic relationships are the least of my worries right now.

Not that I'm worried.

Megan laughs. She sounds like a bird in the morning, and there's this light, sharp quality about it and something genuine in the way she scrunches her shoulders up. "That's great."

Evan, exhausted, walks over and collapses against the folded-up bleachers. "Adam, you stud."

"Well, what do they think's happening now?" Megan asks.

"I don't think they care that much." I mumble. "Jack was messing with me."

Megan smiles mischievously, "But look at all the drama unfolding over here! The bad boy and the golden child, both fighting over the bookish nerd! Truly, this is a romance for the ages."

"You're both single, though." I say. "Just checking."

"That depends. You free Friday?" Evan says, flicking finger guns my way.

"Evan."

"Pretty sure we're all single. What, are you worried our romantic obligations getting in the way of our double lives?" Megan asks.

"That was... definitely my line of thought." I say, and Megan's eyes are shining beneath her glasses, giving me a look that can only say Nice save.

"Not a problem." Evan remarks. "I don't even have any friends."

"I am so sorry." I say, though I'm not sure if my expression reads to him as shock or pity.

Regardless, he holds his hands up and quickly adds, "I'm joking."

The conversation has trailed off beyond the point of no return, and no one wants to revive it: our failing love lives don't offer much room for extrapolation, nor does... that. Instead, I get to my feet and offer, "We should probably get in line for the visual and hearing examination."

"Right, that's lumped in with physical fitness here. High school's so weird." Megan says.

"They don't want to take time out of other classes, I guess?" I suggest. "I don't understand why any of this is necessary."

"But we don't have to do anything." Megan says. "That's a plus."

"True."

The examinations take place in the nurse's office, right across the hall from the gym, and the line trailing from the office trails through said hall and all the way into the mouth of the gym. An assembly of bored high schoolers, half of them with supposedly prohibited phones in hand, wait in their gym clothes. We step in at the end and I notice a tall, blonde, familiar figure up ahead.

"Serena!" Megan waves a hand over her head.

Shocked, she turns, and sees us standing there behind her. "I don't know any of you." Serena leans into the wall.

"Good to see you, too." Evan says, crossing his arms. "Would've been nice to see you at practice yesterday, but I'm sure the schoolwork was far more important than the mission we'll be taking on in what... two weeks?" he asks, looking to Megan and I for support. "Sure you'll be ready by then with the three practices you've put in."

"First of all, I actually have this thing called a future? Forgive me, for not dropping my entire life and rushing out to help an alien on some weird, dangerous quest that could get us all killed." She whispers the last word with so much venom, it almost gives me goosebumps. "It's not like Harper shows up, either."

"Harper has her own schedule to get around private school. Adam, Evan, and I have been taking turns to ensure there's always one of us down there with her." Megan replies, though she's not half as angry as Evan is.

The dark-haired teen butts in, "You'd know this if you ever showed up, Ser."

"I'm not even going to respond to that." Serena rolls her eyes so hard they're in danger of being stuck in the back of their sockets.

"Oh yeah? Maybe you should. Your power is?"

"Object creation." she responds.

"Which is?"
"Not intuitive."

"And will take how many hours to master, again?"

"I don't care what Anthem says. Do you trust Anthem?" asks Serena.

I wisely refrain from an answer, because who knows how much Anthem can track us through the Diosite. In fact, come to think of it... I look around, but luckily, it appears no one is paying much attention to us. Despite how spirited the conversation has become, it appears everyone's too involved in their phone or their friends to pay attention, and the teachers are struggling to man the fitness stations and try to prevent people from ducking out of class.

We step out the door and into the hall, which is just as loud, but everyone seems to quiet whenever the nurse, a lady so large and imposing that her frown is enough to send a group of high schoolers right back into a quiet, orderly line, steps into the hallway.

"Next group?" she orders.

I hadn't realized how quickly we'd approached the front of the line, but we hit the tail end of the next group escorted in and get to sit out in the nurse's office while she goes over the basic "tell me which letter is on the wall" and "tell me when you hear a sound" routine with student after student. The room is claustrophobic and bare, devoid of even the cutesy reminders to eat right that littered the walls of my middle and elementary school clinics.

The few posters that are up are anatomically accurate representations of various parts of the human body that show what will happen if you take this or that abusable substance. I doubt it's enough to deter any hardcore drug users, but if I didn't want to abuse anything before, seeing the crumpled, brown lungs doesn't make me more eager to try.

At the end of the office, next to a sign for the bathroom, is a dark and familiar void that stretches across the door and down the walls.

They are coming. I almost jump out of my seat when I hear Anthem's voice on the inside of my head.

"What the-"

Serena raises an eyebrow, confused, but Megan gives me an urgent look that lets me know she's heard the same statement. Evan, who is doing the sound testing, jolts beneath his headphones and the bewildered teacher turns the volume down. The void tears through its restrains and ripples through the wall, leaving dark lines of nothingness across the posters. Whatever our summons are, they're urgent.

"Anthem..." Megan whispers, half to me and half to the cherub herself. "Okay. Soon as we're out of here, we talk."

Five minutes later, when we've all finished, Evan joins us and Serena, though confused, follows the group out.

"I hate that." Evan says. "Does anyone else get the creeps from those high beeping noises?"

"I don't think that was the test. Anthem wants us, and she wants us now." Megan says, holding her head in her hands, I escort her back into a corner of the gym, where it's more private. She looks up, brown eyes huge and scared through her glasses, and states, "We don't have weeks. The attacks are starting now."

"Who's attacking us?" I ask.

"Anthem doesn't know, but the Diosite's location has moved from where it was. There seems to be a signal out in the woods, a few miles outside of town."

"Alright. We need to get out of here." I say, tossing Megan my phone, which has been hidden in my pocket all period. Having loose-fitting exercise clothes with pockets was the best thing to ever happen to me. "You think you can pretend to be my mom? Something tells me a doctor's appointment just popped up."

"I have a test next period." Megan sighs, "I... I can't. Can we hold until after the school day ends?" Flinching again as Anthem's voice rips through her mind, she adds, "Apparently not."

Serena, who looks appalled at the notion, "I- I can't skip school! Are you crazy? We-"

Evan's hand twitches, but he manages to restrain himself from slamming a hand across her mouth. Instead, he hisses, "Keep it down! We're going to get caught before we even get out of here."

"I'm not doing it." Serena insists. "Ground rule number one. You don't touch my life, my academic progress-"

"Yes, we get it, you're a self-centered twat." Evan grumbles.

"Evan and I will go." I say, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We can handle this. You need Megan to call the administration for you too?"

"No, I skip Science all the time." Evan says, with a wink. "The teacher's my bro."

"You are terrible," Serena replies as the bell rings.

Megan looks absolutely terrified, but she still points us in the direction of the gym room. "Anthem says there's a portal under the bleachers. Be careful, guys, and if anything happens signal us for back up. Both of us."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever- and great." Evan says, offering me a fist bump. "Ready to go take our abilities for a joy ride?"

I return the gesture, though 'joy ride' is the worst possible term for what we're about to do. This is our first real battle, and though I never would've wished to do it now, with only two or three weeks of training, it looks like the universe has other plans. We disappear under the bleachers and into the Veins, and my heart rate picks up at once. Icy adrenaline shoots through my blood, knowing I've taken my first step into the unknown- and it was effortless. I didn't even think twice about throwing Megan my phone and bolting for it.

Evan snaps his fingers, sparking a fire around his fingernail, though his outfit gives him gloves with claw-like edges. Anthem sits in the light of the flame, same distasteful expression as always, and says, "I was unsure if you'd answer the summons."

"So it's a test. We can just... get out of here?" I say.

Anthem lowers her ears. "Of course it's not that easy. There is a signal, and I would have liked to have all five of you but you two will suffice for now." she says, her voice sharp as she rolls over suffice. Another portal appears, through which the dim light of the nearby forest shines. Anthem continues, "I've altered the portal settings, so you should keep on your attire and retain your abilities until after you return through this gate. Find the signal, take it out, and gather any information you can discern from the scene."

"Alright," Evan says, "First mission. Not too shabby. Shall we?" he asks, and I shrug.

"Sure."

"That's the confidence I'd expect out of a budding hero, right there," he laughs, and we emerge into the sunlight.

There's a very surreal feeling to having my hero garb on in broad daylight, especially in the middle of nowhere. I wasn't too crazy about the costume to begin with, and knowing I'm fully exposed in it makes me feel silly. It might be a uniform and not the tight spandex normally associated with comic heroes (thank God), but I still look ridiculous, sword and all. Speaking of such, I unsheathe the blade, which heats up beneath my grip.

"How do you feel?" asks Evan.

"Stupid."
"Don't worry about it. The goggles are there for a reason- something about jamming facial recognition? According to Anthem, one of your own family members could catch you in those and not notice a thing."

The sudden image of Will emerging from the bushes with his wide, goofy smile startles me, and what's even worse, he'd absolutely love all this. Will Rosenbloom would be all over the hero business before you could even say "real life consequences". Maybe Anthem chose the wrong twin.

I resolve not to ask her about it.

The bushes rustle, as if in accordance to my daydreams, but it's not my brother who comes out. Instead, it's a robot the size of a small dog, which resembles a gloved hand. It crawls across the ground, approaching our feet, and when I swing my blade downwards with all my might, it skitters out of the way across the leaves. With surprising speed, it flicks a finger upwards and a red beam of light, like a laser pointer, shines on my head. I duck out of the way just in time, and a branch of the tree behind me is blasted clean away.

To our surprise, the fallen branch does not immediately catch fire, but between the two of us it dawns on me that this is a bad, bad place to have a battle. Evan lights up his hands, ready to throw down, but I throw an arm out.

"You could seriously get us both killed. Let's try not to start a forest fire." I tell Evan.

Smugly, he replies, "Too bad we couldn't put it out- it would be really nice to have hydrokinesis right about now. Too bad there was a test."

Dodging another attack, and swinging my blade in a full arc, I reply, "Just because you don't care doesn't mean no one else can." The hand is not only fast, it's aggravatingly nimble. Playing Whack-a-Mole with a huge broadsword is terrible, but letting Evan have free reign in the middle of a forest is worse. He shoots one fireball, misses, and I stamp out the fire that emerges just after before it can start spreading.

"This is going great." Evan announces.

"Shut up." I respond. The hand begins to scuttle into the brush, and I manage to slam the sword right through the middle of the palm.It wriggles for a minute, pinned beneath the rapidly heating blade, and then gives up as all its internal circuitry is fried. The molten chunks fizzle out on the forest floor, and Evan crosses his arms.

"You didn't need me at all, did you?" Evan says. "Looks like I missed Science for nothing. I'm incredibly cut up about it."

"There's your joy ride." I shrug.

"Kind of lacking in the joy department." He picks up the smoldering corpse of the machine, which doesn't seem to bother him at all, thanks to his suit. "Doesn't look like there's any Diosite in it. I'm not sensing anything. It's incredibly fancy technology, though. Who would even release a robot of this complexity into the woods alone?"

"I hope it's not someone's toy." I say. "Think the poor guy who found the Diosite to begin with was walking through the woods or something, and we just missed him?"
"Out here? No way. I live two miles or so from here. This is close to the old power plant." Evan says, messing with the joints of one of the fingers, the only one which hasn't been fused together from the beating it just received.

"Old power plant." I say, "Can't get any more suspicious than that."

"There's our Diosite." Evan agrees. "Probably with a few people attached to it. Say, the power plant would be a really great location for a cult, now that you mention it." In his hand, the robot begins to glow, and when it emits a high, loud shrieking noise, Evan throws it straight skywards. There's a miraculous localized explosion overhead, complete with shrapnel raining down from the sky. Smoke fills the air and we both cough, but neither of us look away. If there's one thing I can appreciate in the superhero business, besides the team building aspect, it's definitely the explosions.

"Okay, we can rule someone's toy off the list." Evan says. "We should probably get back before someone comes to investigate the explosion."

"Yeah." I say, with a smile, as a portal emerges and we re-enter the Veins. "Guess we'll have to get back to school, or something."

"I like 'or something'." Evan elbows me. "Isn't there that ice cream shop near the doctor's office?"

"We're not skipping for ice cream, right?" I say, "I mean, I might've agreed with all this, but we can't leave whenever we want. There have to be rules."

"Course not."

"No." I agree. "But just this once... we need ice cream."

"Yeah, and it's not like we don't deserve it. We kicked ass out there, just for the record."

I smile, and feel the same adrenaline from earlier still rushing through my veins, but it no longer discomforts me. I don't know if it's the heat of the moment or the prospect of food, but I find myself thinking that I could get used to this.

((DISCLAIMER: CHRONALILLY AND ASSOCIATES DO NOT CONDONE THE BEHAVIOR IN THIS AND ANY FOLLOWING CHAPTER. IF YOU ARE CONTACTED BY A BEING OUTSIDE OF YOUR DIMENSION WHO REQUIRES YOU TO SAVE THE WORLD, PLEASE WORK OUT A SCHEDULE THAT IS NOT DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE. THIS HAS BEEN A PSA.))