I breathed–and I breathed deeply, like my life depended on it.

Someone more poetic than me might have compared the air to water, and me to a dehydrated man. It sure felt like it anyway. I took deep breaths, rushed breaths, any type of breath you could think of.

At least-at least it was just a nightmare. I tried to touch my neck, but it actually hurt. Now that I’d gotten my bearings, I could actually feel it being sore. I felt something moving around me too, and when I turned around, I could see Birgit was laying next to me on the bed.

But she had-she had left. Hadn’t she? I felt like I was going mad.

And because the universe apparently hated me, Sadid chose that exact moment to get back. He turned on the lights and immediately, his eyes widened at me.

“Alex!?” he said, his gaze focused on my neck. “What happened?”

“Some people are trying to sleep here,” groaned Birgit groggily.

“For the love of all that is sacred to you, please tell me that your neck was something done consensually.”

“I-”

“What is he talking about?” asked Birgit. She sat up straight–and I realised that she wasn’t wearing anything, at least on top–and her eyes widened. “Kæreste! For fanden, what happened to you?”

This time, I didn’t even try to explain anything. I just ran. There was a little voice in the back of my head, telling me that I was going to be a joke of a hero if I always reacted like this.

But I didn’t stop running. The same instinct that overtook me whenever I saw Maria was in control again, but I couldn’t control it at all. I just ran. I ran until I was out of the building. I ran down the stairs, stumbling halfway down and practically fell the rest of the way down.

“This is the next generation of the world’s heroes? Pathetic,” someone behind me said. No, not someone.

I turned back, and there he was once more. Paragon, standing on the stairs above me. I scrambled to get back and away. I was going insane, there were no other explanations about it.

How could Paragon be real?

But before I could cover any serious distance, I felt the back of Paragon’s hand on my cheek. Next thing I knew, I was thrown at the stairs, my back feeling like it was broken in two. He had literally slapped me and I was done. I couldn’t do anything about it.

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I raised one of my hands, removed my gloves. I thought that maybe, just maybe, if I fought back, even slightly, I would finally be content with myself.

“Pathetic,” he said once more. He was frail and gaunt like in my nightmare. How could he be so strong? “Although it does take me back. Take solace in the fact that I won’t kill you. I will simply break you. And you will see the true order I bring upon this world. Although, by that time both your body and spirit might be too numb to fully comprehend what’s happening.”

Almost on cue, a large mountain of ice rushed toward Paragon, who simply destroyed it with a punch. The small pieces of ice fell around us like snow, and Birgit came to stand next to me, Sadid, Ivan, and pretty much all the students stood with her.

“Guys?” I said, faintly, since my throat still hurt like hell. I felt someone’s hands behind me–it was a girl I didn’t recognise–and I felt myself get slightly better.

“Th-thanks,” I said to her. At another time, I might have fanboyed over her power, but we didn’t have the luxury of that anymore. “What are you all doing here?”

“We heard commotion, and a few of us went to check it out,” said Ivan with a flip of his coin. “These two started yelling, and then we saw what was going on. So we rallied everyone with us.”

“Don’t look too surprised, roomie,” said Sadid. “We’re here to be heroes after all. And what kind of heroes stand by when anyone is threatened by villains?” These people didn’t know me, and yet they rushed out to save me. While all I did was try to run away.

But wait a second. If everyone could see him, then he was real. But that didn’t make any sense.

“Heroes? Villains?” said Paragon with a laugh as he started floating. His eyes were still glowing red. “You’re as ridiculous as you are reckless. The very concept is pointless. I may be weakened, but I’ll make short work of you all, and then do what I came here to do.”

A golden red glow blinded us momentarily, but once it subsided I could see Professor Mystic, his suit already red, standing next to a man in a wheelchair, and a woman dressed in roman style armour, complete with a javelin as a weapon. A woman I recognised as the Italian hero, Minerva.

Minerva threw her javelin at Paragon, but he caught it. And it exploded in his face, throwing him back to the bridge. Another one appeared in her arm, and she turned back to us. “Don’t worry students, we’re about to show this man why we’re among the best of the best.”

Paragon rushed over to us, flying almost too fast for me to see, but glowing red and gold chains appeared out of nowhere and contained him. Professor Mystic had his arms raised and nodded to the man on the wheelchair.

“Charles,” Paragon growled at him. “It’s been a while.”

“How are you free?” asked the man–whose name just made everything click into place. He was the dean of Atlantis. And his voice shook with every word. “And why are you here? You’re weak. A shadow of your former self. You won’t make it out of here.”

And Paragon laughed. He broke the chains, looking down at the dean.

“You’re right,” he said plainly. “But I wanted you to know Charles, that I couldn’t be held forever. I still have friends across the world, and not even you can imprison me forever. You shouldn’t have held back.” After he finished speaking, he started fading out of existence.

He was gone. But he was real. Then how-what was going on?

“Go back to your beds, everyone,” said the dean, turning his head to look at us. He was smiling, looking like the embodiment of confidence and support. “You will have full explanations tomorrow, but you needn’t worry. No villain has ever hurt a student in the seventy three years of this academy’s existence.”

“Will you stay?” I asked Birgit. “There is…something I’d like to talk to you about.”

She looked down at my neck, and I saw her touching her own absently, although she tried to hide it. “Yeah,” she said quietly. “I feel like you need to explain some things.”