Sitting in the library like a mafia don, Ben was still sorting his thoughts on the tournament.

On paper, it was an excellent chance for the kids to advance their future careers as heroes and rub shoulders with the elite, maybe even get a taste of the hero life. They would have a chance to network and even put on future resumes their victory in the Hero Games. For future mayor Benjamin Hersh, it would show his leadership capabilities and ability to work on extracurricular programs for the sake of the community. It would turn all the school faculty and most parents to his side, Stanley's family not-withstanding, and that would cover a majority of the town. Especially if the kids won the tournament, which they had a fair chance to do.

But the variables all had to fall perfectly in place to hide his identity as the Gentleman. There were powers which could detect lies, detect evil, and identify identities like 'mass-murderer'. Not just the heroes, but the parents and their offspring could have these powers. Plus, there would likely be security at an event that hosted actual heroes, and the security might have some way of ousting him. He would need to bust his hump for the next three weeks to come up with names and affiliations of all those in attendance, as well as likely classified information on the powers of everyone involved, then come up with countermeasures.

However, Ben found himself to be extremely agitated for another reason. His favorite Indian restaurant was getting review-bombed for health and safety concerns, and he wondered if his overuse of the 'food-poisoning excuse' had backfired on him.

The kids approached from down the hall, but Katherine was giving them the business to convince Ben to do the tournament, 'or else'.

'You're the one who should have gotten better grades in school, you little delinquent,' Ben thought, grinding his teeth that this little girl was trying to take him for a ride.

"Ben!" Katherine cheered in the most disingenuous way possible. "My favorite person of all time! Have you thought about-"

"I have," Ben cut the faker off, "but I wanted to go around the room and get everyone's thoughts on it. I can't just launch us into a tournament without consulting everyone. And even if you guys agree, I need to speak with your parents and coordinate things."

There was a moment of silence before Ben gestured at Michael to begin.

"Oh, uh, I think it's a good idea," Michael finished.

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"I think-" Garret began, but Ben stopped him and returned to Michael.

"Why do you think it's a good idea?" he asked. "Just to get your feeling on it."

Michael had to actually think about it for longer than any thought that had ever crossed his mind, "Uhm, it's a good opportunity... to really practice being heroes..., and... winning... would allows us to... further our goals... in that area?"

He glanced at Katherine, who gave him a nod and smile.

That was within the five-foot radius Ben allowed for his dimensional sight, so he glanced at Katherine, who quickly straightened up and coughed, knowing she'd been caught.

"Alright, let's do this another way," Ben hissed as he massaged pressure points in his legs, "do any of you have any objections to Katherine forcing you all to do this tournament?"

Stanley raised his arm nervously, receiving a death-glare from Katherine, who in turn received a disapproving glare from Ben.

"Um, do you have any objections, sir?" Stanley squeaked.

"Just that it's going to be painful coordinating all of this in the three weeks of short notice we have to prepare," Ben directly blamed Katherine.

"Please, Ben," the fiery redhead pleaded. "This is a huge opportunity for us!"

"It's a state-level competition in a very bland state," Ben argued, "how is this opportunity bigger than applying for an internship? Which you can all do, by the way!"

"Because, if we win this tournament, we'll have a ticket to regionals!" Katherine exclaimed, revealing the plot.

Ben had assumed as much but wasn't quite sure that Katherine had the cojones to shoot so high.

In the Hero Games, in order to be ranked as the number one high school team in the country, you have to participate in the country-wide American Hero Games Tournament. To qualify for the AHGT, you have to compete and win in the regional tournaments, of which there are eight. To enter the regional tournament, you have to have a certain number of victories under the team's belt, including at least one tournament trophy.

And for the team that wins the American league, you automatically get a lifetime contract with the Hero Squad, as well as a shot at the Olympics.

Ben didn't want to go through all that noise, but he assumed that someone else would take care of the kids once they reached actual heights above the small town he was trying to mayor.

But that would make things even worse. If this little town was responsible for raising the greatest heroes in the country, there would be tourism, people would move here to learn secrets, and the small town perfection would be ruined!

"I guess there's only one thing to do," Ben smiled. "If we're going to the tournament, we're going to have to increase the training."

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"You're actually going to do it?" Hannah asked through the chewed remains of her burger.

"Of course," Ben stated, tossing the breaded remains of his chicken sandwich into his mouth.

"But, won't that make things complicated? Going to regionals sounds like walking into the lions' den."

Ben smiled in the way only a supervillain could.

"That's only if they make it to regionals."