Hal stayed frozen, unable to tear his eyes away. There were about fifteen guards out there, encircling the Brendans. Storm had her back pressed against Art's, yet oddly enough, neither of them seemed overly concerned. In fact, Art started laughing. "Guardian really doesn't like me, does he?" he commented.

"It would seem not," Storm answered, her tone light. Yet Hal could see plants beginning to emerge from the cracks at the feet of their attackers. "So, gentlemen, how does it feel to be attacking the good guys?"

"Hands up," one of the men snapped at them.

"Aw, come on," Art said. "You can't really mean that, can you? I'm an old friend of yours. What's your name?"

"Aim," the man said, unamused. The men all lifted their weapons and pointed them directly at Storm and Art.

Storm cast a glance over her shoulder, at Art. "Well, hun, looks like this is the end of the line."

Art shrugged. "We've had a good run, haven't we?"

Hal's heart entered his throat. He almost dared to believe that they were faking, until he saw the plants retreat. They were giving up. A strange feeling came over him. That suspicion that he'd held, about Storm ... he couldn't let her die. Not without learning her connection to his family first. His fists clenched, almost without him noticing it.

The lead man raised his hand, like it was some sort of a firing squad. Hal didn't even think before acting. He slammed the door open and yelled, "Duck!" to his friends.

Thank God, they understood. Art dragged Storm down to the ground as flames erupted out of Hal. It felt as if he were unleashing everything he'd been holding in since Diana's clone had tried to execute him. The fire lashed out like some manner of whips, flying towards his friends' attackers. Even Hal was taken by surprise by the intensity and fury of the attack.

What he was also not expecting was that the flames would leap out at the soldiers surrounding his friends and set them on fire. He'd only intended to chase them all away, not actually hurt them. The air was alive with the crackling of flames and the screams of the men's agony as the fire licked at them. Hal instinctively covered his ears, trying to block out the sound, gripping his head with his fingers. The acrid smell of smoke mingled with something more sinister and ugly, and he wished it would stop. He wished it would all stop.

Someone grabbed his arm, and he instinctively lashed out at them. "Kid!" he distinctly heard. "It's just me!"

Slightly sheepishly, Hal pulled his hands away and looked up. Art had his arm, and was frowning at him in concern. "You good?" he asked Hal.

"I—I attacked—I hurt—" He felt stunned, unable to form coherent sentences. "I might've killed ..."

"You need to go," Storm said. "Don't think about what happened here. You just need to run, back to the School. If you don't get back there soon, they're going to know it was you."

"Who else could it have been?" Hal retorted irritably. "Gee, I wonder who might've burned my soldiers to ashes. Maybe—Phoenix?"

"That's why you need an alibi," Art replied. "Brick will cover for you."

Hal forced himself out of his own depressing thought process. "What about you two?" he asked.

Art took Storm's hand and kissed the side of her head. "We're fine as long as we're together," he answered. "Don't you worry about us. I'll never forget what you did for us tonight, Hal. Now go. And remember, nobody can know what you did tonight. It'll be our little secret."

Hal nodded. "I guess ... I guess I won't be seeing you again," he said, and he couldn't keep the glumness out of his voice.

"Don't be so melodramatic," Art said. "That's no certainty. You never know what disaster might fall that would require us to reunite. Bye, kid."

"Bye," Hal said, and he ran. Partially to listen to Art and Storm, and partially because he was terrified of what he'd done again that night—killed more with his powers.

. . . . . . . . . .

Hal burst into his and Brick's room about twenty minutes later, panting. Brick was sitting on his bed, staring off into space. It was one of the first times that Hal had ever seen him without an electronic device in front of his face. Slowly, Hal closed the door behind him. "How's Silence?" he asked after several minutes of quiet between them.

Brick shrugged. "We didn't exactly get a chance to talk," he admitted. "I mean, with Delphi under Guardian's control, we couldn't exactly chat about our little prison break. But she seemed okay."

Hal nodded slightly, sitting down on his head. "That's good."

The two boys sat in silence for several minutes. Finally, they took turns going into the attached bathroom to put on their pajamas and climbed into their beds. Before Hal could fall asleep, Brick turned over and stared at him. "Eagle and Thorn are safe, right?" he asked.

Hal nodded, remembering the blissful expression on Art's face. Even though he'd nearly been killed—twice—by a man he'd thought he could trust, all that mattered to Art was being with his wife. "I think so," he said after a long moment of silence.

"Well, at least we did something good," Brick said, though his voice sounded heavy.

Hal sat up, looking at his roommate. The other boy's back was to him. "Brick, everything okay?" he asked.

"I'm worried. What if they find out about our involvement in this?" he said, sitting up and turning to face Hal. "They're executing Ivy for attacking Guardian's man. We attacked numerous men tonight."

"They won't find out," Hal assured him. "As long as we keep our mouths shut and go about our business, they'll never know."

"I hope you're right," Brick said, laying down and rolling over again. "I really hope you are."

Hal hoped so too.

. . . . . . . . . .

In her and Delphi's room, Silence was hoping the same thing. Her entire body ached, her throat was dry, her eardrums pounded like she had an infection, and her eyes kept watering. Was this a side-effect of her overextension of her powers, or just panic on her part? Was she becoming overly-anxious?

She stared at the ceiling, listening to Delphi's soft breathing. It seemed that her chance to become a hero hadn't gone nearly the way she'd intended it to. In fact, what if she and Brick were caught? It would be all too easy to picture themselves in the exact same situation Eagle had been in.

Or maybe worse. She shivered, wishing she could close her eyes and make everything go away. Or at least be able to pretend that everything was alright. Before, it had seemed exciting, like an adventure. But now all she could do was wonder if she was about to be arrested. That would kind of take the excitement out of the adventure, wouldn't it?

It was that reason that kept Silence staring at the ceiling. Delphi snorted, turning on her side. The girl seemed to suffer from nightmares that made Silence feel terrible for her. If only they could find a way to break Guardian's hold over her ...

With that thought, Silence dropped off to sleep. Thankfully, her dreams were easy and unmemorable, and she woke as the sun filtered through the window. Although they'd been up past three in the morning, she still felt strangely refreshed. There was no evidence of her overexertion from the previous night.

Silence stood up, her bare feet touching the cold tiled floor. Delphi's bed was neatly made, and the girl was nowhere to be seen. The bathroom door was ajar, and she wasn't in there.

Shaking off a moment of unease, Silence dressed and clipped back her hair. She slid her black sweatshirt over her shirt and went out the door. When she opened it, she nearly jumped out of her skin. "D-Delphi!" she stammered.

Sure enough, the girl stood there, arms crossed, as if she'd been waiting for Silence. That thought wasn't creepy at all. "Going somewhere, Silence?" Delphi asked in a conversational tone.

Silence shrugged, trying to keep her expression neutral. However, panic was flooding through her. Oh man, oh man, Delphi can read minds. How could we have forgotten? Why didn't any of us think of that? Swiftly, she covered her sudden realization with a smile. "Just down to breakfast, then to my classes. I mean, shouldn't we all be doing that?"

"Shouldn't we indeed," Delphi said. It was creepy. The way she spoke indicated that it wasn't her that was behind her mind. "What about last night?"

Uh-oh. Silence's smile became a little more strained. "Last night? I don't really know what you mean," she replied.

"Don't you?" Delphi said. "You left our room at about two in the morning and came back an hour later. Funny that Eagle was being broken out of prison in that time, isn't it?"

Silence's blood froze. With some effort, she raised her chin and narrowed her eyes at her. "Just what is it that you're suggesting, Delphi?" she said.

"I'm suggesting that you broke Eagle out of prison. You, Hal, and Brick," she replied. "A fire super burned and killed numerous guards. Several were knocked unconscious and claimed that they lost the use of their senses in the process. Any ideas?"

"Maybe there was an explosion of some sort," Silence said, shrugging. "How should I know?"

"Where were you during that hour?" Delphi asked pointedly.

"I was ... I was doing some studying," she stammered. Silence had never been very good at making things up on the fly. To be honest, it probably wouldn't have mattered much anyway. Delphi could read her mind.

"Some studying of how a prison break works?" Delphi retorted. "You're a liar, Silence. A completely horrible liar."

"I suppose it's better than being a good liar," Silence said with a shrug. "Nobody would like me if I were. C'mon, Delph, I know it's not you in there. Come on, tell me you won't get me into trouble."

"Help me, Silence." But Delphi's expression didn't change as she spoke aloud. "Trouble? You're in worse than ordinary trouble, Silence. You've broken a criminal out of jail, and you killed people to do it."

Poor Hal. He must have used his powers and they went bananas. But Silence wasn't one to throw him under the bus, and she raised her chin defiantly. "You're wrong," she told Delphi. "Don't drag Brick and Hal into this." She knew Delphi could hear her, knew that she wanted help. Wanted to help. "I worked alone."

"With Thorn?"

Silence was forced to take a gamble. "Yes."

"But not Brick and Phoenix?" Delphi pursued. "Don't give them away," she warned Silence.

"I don't know who the fire user was," Silence said with a shrug. "I was gone by that time. Thorn did the rest."

"So you admit to it?"

"Yes."

"You're very brazen," Delphi noted.

Silence shrugged. "It might be stupidity, but I'm sure as heck not going to start lying," she replied.

Delphi grabbed her arms, jerking them behind her. Silence grunted—the other girl had surprising strength. Something was clamped over her arm, and she felt as if she'd lost a part of her or something. It was most likely a power dampener. "Please, Delph," she pleaded. "Don't do this!"

"Silence, you are under arrest andfound guilty of breaking a villain out of prison," Delphi intoned. "You willdie at three in the afternoon with known villain Ivy. Prepare yourself fordeath."