It felt like an eternity had passed before I was allowed to leave the hospital.

In a way, it was nice. A break from everything that was happening. Every thought that I’d pushed back when I fought with Azam had rushed back to me. We had all gathered in Kent Smith’s office.

We were sitting in the same positions we were when the mail was delivered. Maria was sitting alone on the couch. Ivan and Birgit were sitting on the chairs in front of the desk, with Ahmed standing between them. I was sitting on Kent Smith’s chair.

I didn’t know how I remembered but I did. It was a small thing, but one that felt oddly poetic to me. My match with Lady Doom was going to start later today. The others had tried to reach her, but nothing was working.

“This isn’t going to work,” said Maria, sounding even more annoyed than she usually did. “We should call someone in. Someone who, you know, is an actual hero. Not a bunch of college students whose greatest achievement is getting their asses kicked!”

“Why are you here again?” Birgit asked.

“Τσούλα.”

“What did you say to me?”

Before Birgit even finished her response, Ivan stood up to get between them. His smirk turned into a charming smile and he was desperately trying to stop the two girls from killing each other. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what to say other than we were screwed.

Ever since I got my release, I had that nagging feeling at the back of my head. I could feel it even now. The room felt too small and too crowded. The voices were too loud and the air too stiff.

Now, there was a way out. Someone that could help us–more than one person actually. The first was the voice nagging me at the back of my head. Paragon. But I’d die before letting him out. And I knew I wasn’t the only one who’d do that.

The other was Philip Knightley. He was a smart man, maybe as smart as Jensen, and you didn’t get to be dean of a hero school if you couldn’t pull a few tricks.

I was the only one of us to be in uniform. The gloves were made of the best materials in the world, and they merged right into my uniform. I was itching to mess with them, but I couldn’t. No seems to pull at, and the material wasn’t flexible enough to do anything with.

“Please,” I said quietly. Ahmed turned to me, but nobody else did.

So I got up, walked around the desk and placed my hands on Birgit’s shoulder. Almost immediately she stopped and turned to me. It was sappy, but I loved her eyes. They looked cold, but they also held a certain warmth.

Maria stopped too, except she was more suspicious. Her eyes were narrowed and she looked like she wanted to say more.

“Would you look at that?” said a, way too relaxed, Ivan. “Power of love saves the day.”

“Well, you know, life imitates art.” I couldn’t help but laugh at his comment.

“You’re up, Ahmed,” he said with a small laugh of his own.

“Thank you,” said Ahmed with a small nod. “Maria isn’t entirely wrong. We can’t do this alone.”

“You-”

Stolen story; please report.

“Please, Birgit. The problem is that we also don’t know who we can trust. A lot of heroes came out for the tournament, but between Jensen and Lady Doom, we don’t know who we can trust. They both have vast enough resources to get anyone their pockets.”

“I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard you talk.” I tried for a smile. “You got something good, don’t you?”

“It’s not much,” he said immediately. He opened his phone and tapped something. “I took a list of the visiting heroes and highlighted the ones that I think could help us.”

A series of bleeps were heard as soon as he finished talking. I leaned down to see through Birgit’s phone since I didn’t have mine. If there was one thing I knew about Ahmed, that was how smart he was.

Maybe not the smartest. Smart enough to always be prepared. I looked around the room. It was an obvious thing. One that I’d thought about for a long time, but it really hit me again just how great everyone around me was.

I could even feel my old insecurities flashing through my mind. A voice–my voice–talking about how I didn’t deserve them, especially when my eyes landed on Maria’s scar.

“Kæreste?” Birgit’s quiet voice. Her hand on my shoulder, so cold that I could feel it even through my suit. Everything about her was grounding me. “Want to see?”

I didn’t trust myself to speak so I just grabbed her phone. It was an excel file of a list of heroes, like Ahmed had said. Except it was heavily edited. Some of the biggest heroes’ names were crossed out. As were a few I didn’t know about.

“Anyone too big could be working with Jensen.” Ivan took the words right out of my mouth.

A lot of names had been crossed out though. Most of the ones that weren’t had Project: Tomorrow written on them. The other ones had the words ‘vetted’ written next to them.

“You also crossed out any heroes from countries Jensen liked to visit,” said Birgit. She still sounded uncomfortable talking about Jensen as a villain. Either that, or just really angry at what he and her parents had done.

“Even a few that have taken part in Project: Tomorrow.”

“They could be inside agents. You can never be too careful.”

“Still only leaves us with less than thirty heroes.” It was Maria who spoke this time. “Better than before but still bad.”

“Philip Knightley,” I said before I could stop myself. “Add him to the list. And don’t forget about Lily Long as well.”

“We can probably get to her through Sofia,” said Birgit.

“I can get to her,” said Ivan, turning to Maria. “You coming with, lijepa?”

“I don’t know what you called me,” she said in response, “but if you call me that again, I will shove three metal balls up your-”

“Anyway,” said Ahmed. “I don’t think we should go to the dean. He’s a risk factor.”

I locked eyes with Birgit. She was the only one I’d talked to about this. And even she didn’t have the full story. Philip Knightley wanted to erase every bit of Charles Morris’ influence from Atlantis and beyond.

If I gave him ‘Jacob Macquoid’ and enough information to really go after Charles, then he’d help us. The only one who was at risk here was me. And I was okay with that. Birgit wouldn’t be. I could see it in her eyes. She could probably already see what was happening. And she was thinking of some response to me.

The others were sceptical and I didn’t blame them. After what happened with Morris, a dean was the least of our worries.

I took a deep breath. We were outmatched. Outgunned. This was a hail mary. One we needed to make.

“We’ll go together,” I said to Birgit. “We’ll get the dean together.”

She nodded. I knew for a fact that she had more to say, but she didn’t–for whatever reason.

“We’ve got Sofia and Smith’s wife. We’ll bring her back here, make sure they’re both safe.”

Ahmed nodded at Ivan’s words. We had a plan. A plan that had to work. Because I truly didn’t know what awaited us if it didn’t. I clenched my hands as tightly as I could. As I did, the announcer’s muffled voice drew my attention.

“The Hanuman School of India scores another point! Next up is Europe vs America–the Old World vs the New World! But first a break as we reach this round’s midpoint. Moros versus Ms Justice! Who will win? Who will meet their doom?”