to do anything without at least seventeen sets of eyes watching you.
Under the 360-degree surveillance, Bella managed to get the hundred or so good students out the cafeteria.
How?
Holograms, that's how.
The rebels saw a cafeteria full of glum-faced teenagers in fancy dress, playing with their thumbs, staring at the ceiling, or shuffling their feet. They were quite satisfied with how smooth their plan was working.
Behind the smoke and mirrors, the teenagers, Mrs Opal and Urban Danger were crawling on their hands and knees in a single file line across the cafeteria, shuffling slowly through the air vents.
Ty took the lead and led his classmates to the various classrooms, locker rooms and the school auditorium, evenly spreading out the future heroes so that not everyone was in just one place.
Bella and Dean waited by the cafeteria's air vent, making sure everyone got through, giving them hushed orders and checking that everyone remained silent.
As the last student crawled through, Dean ushered Bella through and waved to Ethan, who sat in the middle of the vast cafeteria, covering for his fellow students.
Ethan had never broadcast his holograms before but now was as good a time as any to try and everyone who had made their escape through the air vents was grateful.
Now he had to make his escape.
Ethan dropped to his hands and knees and fast crawled to the air vent while still transmitting the hologram. He couldn't drop it too soon or else he and Dean wouldn't make it through.
"Go!" Ethan hissed, urgently urging Dean through the air vent.
Dean complied, shuffling ahead of his friend.
As soon as Ethan was inside the air vent, he let the hologram flicker out.
As he crawled away to join his fellow students in a classroom, Ethan heard the rebellious Hero High students shouting and yelling in absolute confusion.
He couldn't help the smile that spread across his face.
"Take that, Hero Training," Ethan said to himself.
32
It was almost ten thirty p.m., but Rust could finally see the scattered town lights of Summer Valley glimmering amongst the late night stars.
He knew the welcoming ceremony would probably be in full swing by now. Audrey would kill him if he showed up looking the way he did right now. He hadn't changed since he left and his jeans smelt distinctly of stale ketchup, gas station takeout and exhaust fumes.
Maybe it would be better for everybody if he stopped by the motel and freshened up. Audrey would definitely approve if he shaved the dark five o' clock shadow.
He had given up his motel room when he left, so he figured he could stop by one of the motel rooms Audrey had booked for the kids to stay in.
He was approaching Summer Valley, passing the large billboard announcing good times and great memories, when he saw a figure leaping from point to point on the freeway.
It looked like a Mexican jumping bean the way it bounced along the mostly empty freeway.
The figure jumped ever closer and swiftly leapt over Rust's van.
Rust twisted around in his seatbelt, struggling to look over his shoulder at the bouncing figure. Distracted, he absentmindedly made the van swerve across the road.
"Caleb?"
An approaching truck honked, loudly and meaningly, wrenching Rust back to his senses. Automatically, he slammed his foot on the brake as hard as he could, listening to the tyres protest as the vehicle ground to a complete halt.
As soon as the truck had rolled past, Rust restarted the van, swung around and floored it, earnestly following the jumping bean.
Eventually, he overtook the bouncing teenager and managed to catch his attention.
Caleb stopped jumping and bent over, resting his hands on his knees as he gulped in air.
Rust opened the van door and stepped out. "Caleb? What's going on?"
"Hero High... lockdown... bad guys..." Caleb gasped, breathlessly. He took a few, deep breaths and summarized the events of the evening, talking fast like a zoomed up record. "Some guys came at me, I ran. There was an explosion in the playing field and all the adults went to check it out. A helicopter landed on the gym roof, there was an explosion and then the school went into lockdown. The others, the global director and all the students are inside. The rebels are going to blow up the school, that's what I've heard. I'm going for backup."
"Hop in," Rust said, jerking his head in the direction of the van.
As Rust started the engine (again) and Caleb buckled his seatbelt, he grumbled, "I leave you kids for a few days and what happens? The school goes into lockdown and blows up."
In very hushed whispers, Bella, Ty, Ethan and Dean discussed their plan for action while in the air vents.
It was decided one member of their team had to be with each gathering of students in the various parts of the school.
Bella offered to take the auditorium, and crawled off to her designated air vent exit.
Hero High's auditorium was dark when the students gathered there. Someone had the common sense to flip the lights on, thus illuminating the large auditorium.
Bella came out the air vent and stood up, taking in the scene of students looking over their shoulders, waiting for something.
"Okay, this is what we're going to do," Bella said, increasing her volume to be heard throughout the cavernous hall. The students that ordinarily wouldn't listen to her snapped around and paid full attention as the girl next door gave instructions. "We don't know how long we have until the rebels come after us," she continued. "We're outnumbered but if we work together, we can hold them at bay long enough for help to come."
A low murmuring kicked up.
"We don't do the whole 'work together' thing," Sara Cover pointed out. It would be Bella's luck to have her in her group. "We're trained to use our powers solo."
"There are some things you can't do alone," Bella replied simply. "And stopping the bad guys will sometimes take more than just your own strength. There are about thirty students here. Now, I know you probably have no idea who the person next to you is or what power they have." Bella watched as students glanced to the side to check exactly who was standing beside them. "But you've had crossover training so many times, surely by now you know how to go about this."
"Well, yeah, but it was always with the same person," some kid Bella didn't know replied.
"Wing it," Bella said. "Take a chance and just do what you do best, whether that be blowing stuff up, making big things small, talking to fish, hey, even if all you do is make weird noises with your jaw: do it. You've had years of training: it's time to put that book knowledge into action. This is bigger than an obstacle course, but it's the same thing. So, come on, do it for Hero High, do it for the superhero community, do it for ya mamma and do it for your fellow heroes."
The students were quiet for quite some time, considering what the outcast just said.
"You'll never get a better chance than right now to prove you're the heroes I always thought you were," Bella concluded, honestly.
"Let's do it!" Janie Cover declared, punching the air. She was far more enthusiastic and spirited than her sister.
"Yeah!" the students chorused, they're eyes aflame with the passion burning in their hearts.
Urban Danger stood in amongst the students, listening to Bella's instructions. While he had no idea who the girl was, he realized she wasn't like the other Hero High students. There was a fire inside her, and it was burning like the surface of the sun...
Without another word, Jack dashed across the gymnasium and snatched the master bomb right out of his grandfather's hands. The action only took a second.
Standing on a pile of broken concrete, Jack waved the round, black, bulky disc. "I have my father's powers, too," he said.
"They did him no good in the end," Wepaynar replied, undaunted. "And if you think taking the master bomb is going to accomplish anything, you're just rivalling your father's stupidity."
Wepaynar produced another r
emote control and without hesitation pressed the largest button.
Little red LED lights started flashing, alarmingly fast, on the master bomb as it began to emit a shrill beeping.
"Even if you use your superhuman might to crush that bomb," Wepaynar said with a satisfied tone, "it has already set off the four, smaller bombs set in strategic points in this building. Because we're in lockdown, the implosion will be spectacular."
"I thought you were going to hightail it outta here," Jack reminded him.
"And I will," Wepaynar said, "because I want to live to see the reaction of the superhero community when they hear about what happened here. I want to know how people feel about the explosion that should take place in about, oh, an hour."
33
The rebels fanned out like a strictly trained army and swept through the school, systematically checking every locker, classroom and hallway for their escaped prisoners.
They couldn't have left the building, so it was only a matter of moments until they found them, cowering in the corners.
They didn't count on their prisoners advancing towards them, walking tall and proud, this time prepared and determined not to go down without a fight.
They're earlier escape had slightly disheartened the rebels. But when they realized it was just a measly band of thirty students, led by a glowing sixteen-year-old girl in a floral dress, coming up against a legion of four hundred upwards, their concerns were blown to the wind.
"We can take them," a cocky teenage boy said to his friend as the little legion advanced down the badly lit hallway.
As the group marched, another group of