Vidaj set several alarms to make sure that he would wake up in time for the field trip. There was no way he was going to let one of his dreams make him miss a day off from school. Just as he had prepared, the alarm maneuver got him past his dreams by the third time around. He got ready and raced down to make some oatmeal for breakfast. On his way to the kitchen a shaft of light from beneath the basement door caught his attention.

He knew it meant his brother had been working through the night on one of his secret experiments. Though Pax was very open with Vidaj about his personal life, he rarely spoke about his job. There were times when Vidaj wished his brother would talk more about his work life in order to avoid listening to another story about yet another scheme for a new girlfriend.

All Vidaj really knew was that Pax worked at a firm as some kind of designer. Vidaj had tried several times to get Pax to explain exactly what he did as a designer and what the firm specialized in, but every time he brought it up, Pax found a way to change the subject.

Vidaj reached for the doorknob to the basement door to check up on him, but right before he grabbed it, his phone vibrated. Turning around, the text message had taken over his attention. Too much time had passed to make his oatmeal. Instead he grabbed a bagel and was out the door. Waiting at the corner were Lana and Felix. Their backs turned shadily away from him.

"Hey," Vidaj uncomfortably greeted. "What's up, guys?"

There was no response. Vidaj surreptitiously leaned in to tap them both on the shoulder. With just that slight tap they both jumped forward and turned around. In their hands were two ice balls in a throwing motion. Vidaj concentrated hard on becoming his shadow. The ice balls hit the ground. "Too slow!" he bellowed tumbling to the ground. From his knees his grabbed the two ice balls and redirected them towards Felix. With no time to prepare for Vidaj's insane reaction Felix took two both shots to the chest.

Smirking, Vidaj whispered back, "Thanks for texting me this morning. No way would I have dodged that if you hadn't warned me."

"I'm surprised you even looked at the text. You probably would've reacted to dodge Felix's slow shot anyway. But there's no way you could react in time to my arm!"

Vidaj felt bad that they had ganged up on Felix, extending his arms out to Felix as a truce.

"You set me up!" Grabbing Vidaj's hand Felix scowled in frustration at Lana.

"Maybe." Lana stuck her tongue out.

The bus arrived before Felix could answer back as the three quickly loaded in. When they arrived at school, their biology teacher, Mrs. Carter, took attendance and quickly ushered the class to another bus. Easily spotting Briggs, Vidaj jumped into the seat next to him while Lana scooted in beside Jane. Felix finally made his way onto the bus and grabbed a seat behind Vidaj.

The bus halted a few hours later. Vidaj peered out the window to the sight of a large flowery entrance. Mrs. Carter ran up and down the aisle, taking a head count of the students. "All right," she said, "we've got twenty-seven with us today! This is the first time a group of students from Phoenix High is attending the botanical gardens, so make sure you're all on your best behavior." She glanced toward the back of the bus. "That means you, Ian!"

Ian swiftly stood up, his hands on his hips. "What do you mean? I'm a model student."

The rest of the students snickered. "Don't make me repeat myself," Mrs. Carter said. "You'd better stay in line, young man."

Felix, fully recovered from Vidaj's attack early jumped up. "That's why he has me."

"You're the reason I gave Ian a warning and not you. I only have one set of eyes, and they're going to be glued on you the whole time!"

Felix's sputtered in defeat.

Mrs. Carter guided the students off the bus to the benches in front of the botanical gardens. "Looks like we got here a little early, so we'll rest here until the tour guide arrives."

The majority of the class took a seat and waited patiently. Vidaj sat at a table by himself disinterested in any of the colorful surroundings. Reaching for his phone he played a dark assassin game on his phone. Dashing through his enemies with a dark dagger he enjoyed playing a character that had powers similar to his own. A pair of roses fell from above interrupting his battle with the dreaded demon.

Hovering just above Vidaj was Lana on an elevated ledge. Thankful for the checkpoint in his game he flipped his phone off and inspected the roses. Peering up at Lana he fluttered his eyes. "Flowers? I think you have it backwards. Boys are supposed to give girls flowers."

Lana flipped down from the ledge and tagged him. "Whoa. I didn't know the boy of shadows had a romantic side. All this time I thought you were way too cool for that kind of stuff."

Vidaj spotted a rosebush a few feet behind her. Reaching over Lana, he plucked one of the flowers and handed it to her. "Let me show you how romantic I can be."

Lana threw her hands up and scowled. "Ew, you know how much I hate flowers!"

"Oh, really? Then how come you go crazy every time I spot a dandelion?"

"What! No... that's... uh... that's different!" she stammered. She then blurted angrily, "Dandelions don't count! Besides, what's not to like about dandelions? They're fluffy, and when you blow on them, they look so nice when they float in the wind."

Vidaj finished picking off the thorns on the rose. He reached toward Lana and placed the flower over her left ear. "There. You actually look like a normal girl now."

Lana turned slightly red. She took out her phone to see the rose protruding from her head. After that, she turned even redder and shook anxiously. "Wha—what do you mean... a normal girl? I'm totally a normal girl! Aren't I?"

Jane, who'd been standing by Vidaj's side on her phone waved a finger. "No way! You're definitely more like one of the dudes. Sometimes I think you're even more of a dude than the actual dudes."

A jingling sensation erupted from behind Vidaj. Out of the bushes erupted someone with a bright yellow flowered faced boy appeared. "Fear my flower power!" The kid then threw a bunch of flowers toward a group of girls. A torrent of giggles ensued.

Mrs. Carter stepped forward. "Felix, quit messing around! You're making a mockery of our school!"

Felix ran to the other side of the bench. "Who is this Felix you speak of? I'm the flower bandit, the people's champion!"

Jane turned toward Lana. "And there's a prime example of someone you're more of a dude than."

Janice, jumped up from a nearby bench. "I don't know about that, but I think Felix is pretty funny."

"See? I've got at least one fan," Felix said proudly.

Jane held her head down trying to hide her smile as best she could. Realizing that Vidaj was noticing she reached toward Lana's head. "Come here. It's a little bit off." Lifting Lana's hair back she adjusted the rose slightly. "There you go. Much better."

Lana raised her head and grinned before hugging her. "Thanks, Jane." Vidaj immediately noticed a change in Lana's demeanor. "Um... so what kind of dude things do I do?" she asked Jane.

Vidaj rubbed his hands together. "Well, where should we begin."

"Great," Jane said, turning toward him with her signature glare. "Now you've made her self-conscious about it." She turned back to Lana. "Hey, don't worry about it. We're not saying it's a bad thing. You know we all love you just the way you are. There's no reason for you to change."

Lana pulled out her phone again and grabbed Jane and Vidaj. "Whatever, let's take some pictures!"

Vidaj smirked at Lana's feeble attempt to change the subject. "As you command, Princess Lana."

Lana ignored his comment as she furiously began snapping selfies with Vidaj and Jane.

A few minutes later, the tour guide appeared and called for the group. Mrs. Carter waved everyone in through the front gates. Vidaj looked around at the various plants lining the path. Sighing he thought about how long his day was about to get.

Strolling through the gardens, Vidaj read the labels and joked about the names of the plants with Blake and Ian. "Hey, take a look at this one. It's called a Tracheophyta."

"Trac—o what?" asked Ian.

"Tracheophyta," Vidaj repeated.

Ian scoffed. "More like Tracheo—boring."

The boys shifted through the panels and started reading the names off one by one. Oliver, a squat kid with short red hair, strolled up to a leafy fern. "Hey, Ian," he said. "Check this one out. It's called Osmunda cinnanomea."

Ian looked at the plant and laughed. "What? That's such a stupid name. Where do people come up with this stuff?"

Bored with the scientific names Vidaj's eyes wandered around until he spotted Felix flirting with a group of girls. "So you girls are from the Wolverines' school," Felix learning smoothly against one of the signs. "I know we're supposed to be rivals, but I don't discriminate. You're all welcome to hit me up whenever you want. Here's my number," handing one of them a slip of paper.

A tall girl with flowing blonde hair questioned, "Aren't you that guy who was running around with flowers on his face outside?"

Felix grinned slyly leaning into the girl and raising his eyebrows in a creepy way. "Shh, not so loud. I'm an undercover superhero."

The girl hit him over the head with her purse and stalked off. "You killed like twenty flowers to make that stupid mask!"

Felix shook off the blow, chasing after her. "Hey! Where are you going?"

Bored with having seen the story of Felix's life play out he walked up toward the front of the group, where Mallory was questioning the tour guide about the Tracheophyta. The guide named a bunch of ferns Vidaj had never heard of and talked about how they differed. Just as he had suspected earlier, Briggs was intently listening to the boring plant talk. Briggs followed up Mallory's point by mentioning how the various evolutionary paths the plants had gone through were based on environmental conditions. Mallory high-fived him. "Wow, what great insight."

Ian shouted from the back, "They're all plants! Who cares where they came from?" When everyone at the front angrily looked in his direction, trying to identify the voice, he ducked. With a grin, he looked up at Vidaj and whispered, "Did you see the looks on their faces? Those tree huggers look like they're ready to kill me for dissing their stupid plants."

"It's time for lunch," Mrs. Carter called out, trying to defuse the tension.

The class made their way toward the botanical garden's café.

In the large courtyard, the guys sat together at a long wooden table, except for Lance and Briggs, who sat with Mallory and the girls, sharing pictures of the plants they'd taken with their cell phones. After some time, Ian got bored and approached their table. Mallory stood up and stared him down. "I heard what you said earlier. That wasn't cool at all."

Ian elevated himself over Mallory. "I say what's on my mind. I'm just disappointed that I didn't stand up and face you guys when you all had that ridiculous look on your faces."

"Ridiculous look?" Mallory stood back undeterred by the huge presence of Ian. "You mean like the one you're going to have in a second?" Angrily kicking him, Ian grabbed his leg, wobbling away.

Oliver noticed Mallory kicking Ian. "Are you gonna just let her do that to you?"

Janice jumped up and shouted, "Shut up, Oliver. No one even likes you!"

Vidaj looked on while his classmates argued—that is, until he felt that unmistakable aura. Jerking his head and darting his eyes around desperately he finally found what he had been searching for weeks at the far end of the courtyard. It was none other than the large man in the trench coat.

Vidaj excitedly shouted out. "Guys, that's him." Mallory and Ian immediately stopped bickering. "Do you feel the aura coming from him?"

Mallory was dumbfounded. "It's like ours—yet different somehow. This is the first time I've felt anything like this outside of our group."

Lance whispered, "How's no one else seeing that huge guy? Wouldn't you notice a guy dressed up like that?"

"I don't like the looks of him," Ian said. "If he does anything funny, I'll take him out."

"Let's just keep an eye on him for now," Vidaj said quietly. "Way too many people are out here right now. We can't risk exposing our powers."

While the group was carefully observing the man, Janice and Oliver continued to argue. The group looked over to the two momentarily when the trench coated man vanished yet again. There wasn't any time to ponder where he had vanished to as Vidaj felt his heart drop like a heavy weight have been placed on his chest. Looking around to the others he could tell that they all were feeling the same thing. At the other side of the courtyard was the aura of another being. This being wore a black cloak where only his yellow eyes could be seen. He looked in their direction—almost sizing them up.

Briggs cautiously exclaimed. "Another one? This one's completely different, though. His aura gives off a cold, gloomy vibe. What's happening?"

The aura of the cloaked man intensified causing a large oak tree to smash into the ground right in front of Janice and Oliver. The thick branches splintered, just missing them. Janice and Oliver squealed while they jumped towards each other for comfort. This wasn't the end though as tree after tree starts to fall all around them. Though no one was hit everyone began to panic and run in various directions.

In a matter of seconds, Vidaj, his friends and the black cloaked man were the only people left. "I don't know how, but it's coming from that guy in the black cloak over there." Vidaj's fingered curled into a fist. "He's crazy. Someone has to stop him before he seriously hurts someone or worse."

"It seems like he's looking for someone in particular. Did you see the way he eyeballed all those kids as they ran past him?" Mallory's voice shaken.

Lance looked toward the gates at the end of the courtyard, where various teachers were gathering their students. "I think he's looking for us. We don't have much of a choice. If we don't show ourselves to this guy then a lot of people are going to get hurt, but we can't reveal ourselves with everyone watching."

"I've got a plan," a petrified Lana cried out, "but first we need to head to the bus."

Though Vidaj was justas terrified as everyone else he still had this urge to confront the cloakedperson. He also knew that he had to be smart. Torn between these mixed feelingsVidaj and the others retreated to the bus.