Prometheus Academy is a supervillain school?!

At Damian’s revelation, Max recoiled from the green-eyed guy like he was a sparking live wire too dangerous to approach.

“You’re a Villain?” Max hissed at Damian. If there had been anywhere to shadow hop to, Max would have use the shadows flicking in the interior of the helicopter to teleport out of the aircraft then and there. Villains were dangerous. Everyone knew that. Max had no interest in being around one.

Damian appeared mystified by Max’s reaction. “I certainly don’t think of myself as a Villain in the mustache-twirling sense of the word, but I recognize that the Unreal Accords consider me one. Do you mean to say that you’re not a Villain?”

“Certainly not!”

“Are you an Unreal?” Damian asked.

“Yes.”

“Have you been using your powers?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have a Hero certification pursuant to the Unreal Accords to use those powers?”

“No,” Max conceded reluctantly.

“Then you’re a Villain,” Damian concluded matter-of-factly. “The Accords are crystal clear. Invasive? Definitely. An infringement on the natural rights of Unreals? Most certainly. But despite the Accords’ many faults, lack of clarity is not one of them. You are as much of a Villain as I.”

Max was about to argue, but realized he didn’t have a leg to stand on. Damian was technically correct. But in the ways that mattered, Max wasn’t a Villain. Villains were the bad guys. Evildoers. Out for only themselves, regardless of what they had to do to others. Max wanted to use his powers to help people, not prey on them.

The stubborn look on Max’s face didn’t go unnoticed.

“If you don’t consider yourself a Villain,” Damian said, “why on earth did you enroll in a supervillain school?”

“I didn’t!” Max cried. “I was kidnapped! I never heard of Prometheus Academy. I didn’t even know supervillain schools were a thing until now.”

“Not supervillain schools. A supervillain school. Singular, not plural. Prometheus is the only one in the world. Father would know if there were others.”

Damian leaned back in his seat, steepling his fingers thoughtfully.

“I suppose the rumors are true,” he mused.

“What rumors?” Max demanded. “What are you talking about?”

“Like you, I am traveling to Prometheus Academy for the first time,” Damian said. “Most incoming Prometheus students are like me—attending the institution voluntarily. And we pay a pretty penny for the privilege. Or at least our families and patrons do.

“But rumor says there is a second group of Prometheus students. A far smaller one. Ones who attend Prometheus involuntarily, impressed into the student body because they possess traits or abilities the academy deems potentially useful. Based on what you’re saying, you are one of those unlucky few.”

Seeing the alarmed dismay on Max’s face, Damian hastened to add, “Or one of the lucky few. It all depends on your perspective. The families of students who aren’t wealthy usually have to take out a second mortgage on their home at the very least to afford Prometheus’ tuition. You’ll be getting for free a world-class education on the use of Unreal powers the rest of us have to pay through the nose for.”

“No, I won’t. Because I’m not going.” Max turned his head, raising his voice. “Pilot! Hey pilot! Can you hear me?”

The helicopter was not large. The cockpit was so close, Max could’ve flicked a paper clip onto the pilot from where he sat. Despite the proximity, Max’s raised voice, and the pilot wearing the same kind of headphones his two passengers wore, the man’s gaze didn’t shift from straight ahead, his hands unwavering on the controls.

“Sir, are you deaf? If you’ve been listening to our conversation, you know that I’m here against my will. That makes you an accessory. Kidnapping is a serious crime. Turn this thing around and take me back where you got me from.”

The pilot didn’t do so much as twitch.

“If you take me back, I promise I won’t tell anybody anything,” Max wheedled. “I swear.”

There was still no response. Max shot a questioning look at Damian. His fellow passenger shrugged, an amused gleam in his eye.

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Not about to be ignored or brushed off, Max undid his seat harness and shrugged out of it. He shuffled to the cockpit, crouching to avoid bumping his head on the cabin’s low ceiling. He tapped the pilot on the shoulder, then more firmly when the man didn’t respond.

The pilot turned around. Or, to be more precise, his head did. It swiveled almost a complete 180 degrees until its glowing red eyes bored directly into Max’s.

Startled, Max took a step back.

“Please return to your seat, Master Blackwood.” The pilot’s inhuman voice was slightly out of sync with the movement of his lips. There was a number stenciled into the waxy-looking skin of his forehead.

“But—”

“Please return to your seat, Master Blackwood,” the pilot repeated. Even with his gaze focused on Max, the pilot’s hands and arms continued to make minute adjustments, keeping the helicopter on course and in formation with the rest of the convoy. “You are endangering the safe operation of this aircraft. If you do not return to your seat voluntarily, I will engage the autopilot and return you there forcibly. I should warn you I possess Class 2 super strength, so your resistance will pose no trouble at all.”

Max opened his mouth to argue, then thought better of it in the face of the pilot’s unwavering gaze. He stomped back to his seat. The pilot spoke again once Max was buckled back in.

“We will arrive at Prometheus Academy within the hour. Please note that the movie system is currently down, so the planned in-flight movie I, Robot cannot be shown. We apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your continued cooperation. Flight attendants will be circulating shortly to take your food and beverage orders. Thank you again for choosing to fly with Prometheus Air. We know you have many carrier options. They’re not better options, but they’re options. Ha! Ha! Ha!”

The pilot’s grating artificial laugh ended like a switch had been flipped when his head swiveled back around to face forward.

“You knew he was a robot,” Max hissed accusingly at Damian.

The hint of a smile played around Damian’s lips. “Actually, the precise term for what he is is ‘android.’ But yes, I knew.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Would you have believed me if I had? Some things must be seen to be believed.”

“I’ve never seen an android before.”

“Before today, neither had I,” Damian admitted. “Prometheus Academy clearly has access to a level of technology unavailable to the general public. Not even Father has a squad of androids to do his bidding.”

“Hmph,” Max grunted. He turned his head to look out the window, forcing his panicked mind to think. Damian tried to engage him in conversation again, but Max ignored him, lost in jumbled thoughts.

Eventually Damian abandoned his conversational sallies. The cabin lapsed into a silence marred only by the thump, thump, thump of the helicopter’s rotors.

Max chewed on a knuckle as he stared at the ocean. It was beautiful, its waves almost hypnotic, but it barely registered on Max’s racing brain.

He was scared, angry, overwhelmed, confused, and frustrated. And, if he was being completely honest with himself, more than just a little intrigued. Androids? Wow!

But one thought eclipsed all the others:

Escape.

***

The first indication they were nearing their destination wasn’t something Max saw, but something he felt. A strange electrical charge tingled throughout the helicopter cabin, tickling Max’s insides. And he could swear he felt a subtle shift in the air, as if the helicopter had just passed through some sort of invisible barrier. The look on Damian’s face told Max his companion had felt it too.

“We have pierced the island’s secrecy shroud,” the android pilot explained, as if reading his passengers’ minds. “Kindly direct your attention to two o’clock.”

Max’s gaze was drawn to a shimmer on the horizon, a flicker of reflected sunlight. He squinted, trying to make out the source, but the glint was lost as the chopper banked slightly.

A few seconds later, a dark smudge appeared on the distant horizon. As the helicopter flew closer, the smudge gradually resolved itself into a distinctive landmass: an island, bathed in the bright sunlight, edged with pristine white beaches.

But what really drew Max’s attention wasn’t the inviting coastline. It was the humongous mountain that dominated the island’s center.

As the helicopter convoy closed the distance, the true grandeur of the sight ahead became clearer. Athwart the mountain’s peak was an immense castle. The castle seemed as though it had grown organically from the mountain rather than being built atop it, like it was an integral part of the mountain. The castle loomed imposingly, its towers and spires reaching upward as if to challenge the sky. Max was no Frank Lloyd Wright, but it seemed to his uneducated eye that the castle was an architectural marvel, a seamless blend of stone, glass and metal, reflecting the sunlight in dazzling patterns. Its highest towers contained large, glowing orbs of some sort of strange energy, pulsating gently like mystical beacons.

The castle’s design awed Max. It seemed to pay homage to various past architectural eras while somehow remaining strikingly futuristic. Gothic buttresses, Roman columns, and even Egyptian motifs all mixed and blended with sleek modern designs and improbable angles. A myriad of smaller structures surrounded the central edifice, connected to the main one by flying bridges and terraces, each boasting a unique eccentricity.

Around the base of the mountain was a jungle of lush tropical vegetation. In a ring around that was a beach whose sand was so white, it could have been made of sugar.

“Behold,” the android declared in his artificial voice. “Villains Island. The castle overlooking it houses Prometheus Academy, where the young Villains of today are molded into the leaders of tomorrow.”

“They should put that on a bumper sticker,” Damian murmured. Despite his sardonic comment, he was looking at the island with the same awe Max was. He was twirling his signet ring furiously now, apparently unaware of the nervous tic.

Both Villains Island and Prometheus Academy were breathtaking. Terrifyingly so.

If Prometheus Academy were common knowledge, Max was confident it would be on the cover of every architectural and engineering magazine and journal in existence. It would probably make the Seven Wonders of the Modern World list. The fact something this big and magnificent had been kept a secret screamed of a power that didn’t answer to the world’s conventional authorities. Its very existence implied it operated by its own set of rules.

And Max was being forced into it, and would have to figure out how to escape from it. Him, Max Blackwood, a redneck who hadn’t stepped foot out of Mississippi until now. The guy who couldn’t even take down a podunk county’s corrupt sheriff.

Max swallowed hard.

Oh boy.