The lawn Alden’s schedule directed him to was a large stretch of grass that separated the building from the school’s track. The sky was turning paler, but it was still dark. And one of the teens walking ahead of him was glowing.

U-type? Or an Adjuster with a light spell package? Or some lucky Shaper who got a rare element?

In addition to the glowing person, who turned out to be a guy from Denmark, there were fourteen others under the canopy of the green tent. Feeling nervous, Alden sat down at a picnic table with the glow guy and two girls. A moment later, a short, red-headed woman with tons of freckles bounded up to join them.

“Good morning, odd birds!” she said in a gung-ho voice. “Sorry we deprived you of breakfast. Most people are too sick to their stomach to enjoy it anyway, but there are water bottles in the cooler over there. And if you’re hungry, feel free to drone something in from Cafeteria North. No charge. You’re on the school’s budget today just like you were already students. By the way, I’m Luna Plim. Instructor Plim. I teach Creative Power Applications.”

She paused as if waiting for them to greet her in return, but they all just sat there in silence.

“Nerves?” she asked. “I don’t bite. Anyway, as soon as the principal gets out here we’re going to go ahead and have each of you show off a little. So if you need to stretch, pray, or ask a question, go ahead.”

Five different hands went up, including Alden’s. The skinny, blue-eyed girl sitting across from him blurted out,“Ihavetohaveapartnerandi’msorrybutI’maSway.”

Everyone stared at her with frowns on their faces while they tried to figure out what she’d said. Finally a tall guy at the next picnic table said, “No thank you.”

Instructor Plim cleared her throat. “Mina here is a next gen Sway. In case you’re not up to date with the latest and greatest Avowed news, the Council’s complaints to the Triplanets have finally yielded results, and for the past few years, Sways have been getting much more variety as far as class refinement options go. Mina, why don’t you tell us about your talents and how you hope to use them?”

Mina looked like she’d rather crawl under the table and hide, but she said, “Ihaveaspellthatrelaxesmytargetanda—”

The teacher coughed. “Just a little slower maybe…”

The girl took a huge breath. “I…I have a spell that will relax you, and I have an S-rank alteration that will let me block distractions from your mind as they pop up. I also have reverts for both if they’re necessary. And…and a couple of other things that I’m not going to try today.”

She glanced around at the others desperately. Nobody seemed to want to meet her eyes.

Luna Plim spoke up again, “Mina is in this group because to complete her entrance requirements it was decided that she would need to gain the cooperation of at least some of her future classmates.”

It made sense. A Sway with the kind of helper mind control the girl had was still a Sway. If she wanted to work with other heroes, even with those talents, she was going to have to get permission from her teammates every time she used her powers.

Only now that everyone knew she needed their help to have a chance of getting into the program, several people were staring at their own fingernails or the blades of grass beneath their feet like they were the most fascinating things in the world.

“Those sound like support talents,” Alden said finally. “You didn’t take any other reader or manipulator powers?”

“I’m not going to use anything like that today,” Mina said, looking at him hopefully.

That wasn’t a no. But now that he’d spoken, he didn’t want to say, Never mind. Fail, you brain scrambler.

After all, his own skill required a partner if he wanted to do more than play with his magic umbrella. He’d thought he’d be the only one here in that situation.

“I guess…I would be fine with it if you shared your Avowed profile. So I could actually read your talent descriptions.”

Her face reddened.

“Sorry,” he said. “It’s just I wouldn’t be comfortable with it otherwise.”

When she didn’t reply, the teacher asked, “How do you feel about that suggestion, Mina?”

The girl clenched her jaw and shook her head.

Really? thought Alden.

“Well, I’m going to have to say no then.”

Instructor Plim sighed. “In that case, Mina, you’ve failed again. Regular buses should be running by now. Have a safe trip back home.”

The girl grabbed her purse and hurried off, wiping tears from her eyes with the back of her arm. Alden felt awful, but at the same time…

“I thought it was a reasonable suggestion,” he muttered.

“It was completely reasonable,” said a boy who was lying on a bench with his hands behind his head like he was here for a nap. He had an S on his forehead and an Anesidoran accent. “Willingly letting her access your brain for one thing makes it easier for her to do something else to you without any detection. If she didn’t have some nasty talent lurking on her profile, she’d have shared it. And if she’s got a nasty talent, she’s an idiot. Everyone knows if you’re going for the next-gen-nice kind of Sway you don’t pick things that will scare other people off.”

Alden was guessing that was something island kids knew. He’d never lived the kind of life where he had to think about it himself. But it did make sense.

“Other questions?” Instructor Plim asked. Her chipper attitude was back, as if she hadn’t just sent someone off crying. “Alden, you had one, didn’t you?”

He looked back at her. “Yes. I wanted to ask about the entrustment component of my skill. I brought something that’s already under my control. So technically nobody has to entrust me with anything, but that reduces my flexibility a lot, and I wasn’t sure—”

“Interesting! You were thinking ahead. And you brought a tool of some kind? That’s exactly the kind of thing we’re here to figure out before we send you off for the rest of the day’s tests.”

She stared off into space for a second. He didn’t know if she was thinking, reading the profile and skill description he’d provided the school with, or texting someone else.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said after a minute. “Since you came prepared we won’t make you jump through any extra hoops. We do have you scheduled for some things that will necessitate you dropping your item. But one of the faculty will entrust—is that the term you want to use?—you with it again if the other students aren’t willing to play along. If you want to use additional items, you’ll have to get your hands on them yourself however you can. Sound fair?”

He nodded. I’m so glad I brought the umbrella.

Otherwise he’d have to con people into giving him things all day long.

It was fascinating to listen to the others’ questions. The group of “odd birds” was really odd. The glowing boy was a Shaper—an A-rank who controlled light as an element. It wasn’t totally unheard of, but it was rare enough that Alden didn’t know what could be done with it. And apparently the other Avowed didn’t either.

This was his second time around. He was trying to figure out how to use the starter skills for invisibility, but he hadn’t quite gotten there yet. And he was trying to figure out how to burn things, but he hadn’t quite gotten there yet either. It made it hard for the faculty to decide what he could actually do to show off his talents.

There was a B-rank Brute girl who could elongate and strengthen her limbs. It made her look like a Morph, but she was listed as something the System was calling a Flail Brute instead. So she apparently wouldn’t be getting access to the full variety of shapeshifter options moving forward.

The guy who’d been lying down on the bench was an Adjuster who’d gotten a rare spell path offer from the System and had taken it. He’d only received one starting skill and one spell impression, which was very uncommon for his class and rank. The skill let him read the recent history of nonliving objects. The spell let him return them to a past state.

“You sound like the world’s greatest repairman, not a superhero,” another boy muttered.

The Adjuster flipped him off.

Principal Saleh arrived not long after they’d finished asking all of their most pressing questions and looked around. “The Sway?” she asked Instructor Plim.

The teacher shrugged. “She wasn’t good at making her case. Alden here offered to partner with her if she’d show her full profile, and she refused.”

“Mmm…” the principal said. She glanced at Alden briefly and arched a dark brow at him “All right. Who do I get to beat up first?”

************

Despite the principal’s words, no beating went on. She and Instructor Plim each pulled a student onto the lawn for a brief talk and power demonstration. Everyone else sat around the tables watching and eating breakfast.

Alden pulled a meal prep container out of his bag. The motivational label Natalie had chosen for today said, “Hard work never fails.” He bit into a breakfast wrap while he watched Principal Saleh encourage the nervous Flail Brute girl to take a swing at her own outstretched arm.

“Just trying to gauge the power output of all of us <<freaky ones>>,” said the Adjuster. He had very dark brown hair that looked like it had received a lot of attention in the mirror this morning. He was eyeing Alden’s breakfast curiously while he spread cream cheese on top of his own strawberry-filled croissant. “So that we don’t kill the more predictable people. Or get killed by them. Hey…what’s your class?”

“Me?” Alden asked

“Yes. You asked questions about your skill, but I couldn’t tell what class it belonged to. Are you a rare Adjuster path, too? Or a U?”

“Rabbit.”

The boy choked on a mouthful of pastry. Then he laughed. “For real? That’s fun! If you get in, you should come to my house on Friday. I’m throwing a party. Everyone will be there.”

<<Kon, there’s such a thing as being too confident,>> another boy snapped as he bounced his leg and stared at the principal. He was an A-rank Meister who was carrying a polished black stick with a slender gold chain attached to the end. <<Just because you were Mr. Popularity last year doesn’t mean you will be this year. Affixing changes everything.>>

Alden checked the S’s name tag again. Kon was short for Konstantin.

“I got my S,” said Kon, yawning. “I got a good class. My good class turned out odd thanks to the System deciding to throw something extra my way. But I think I’ll manage just fine.”

<<You’re relying too much on your rank!>>

“You’re just scared I’m going to get in, and you’re not. Stop speaking awful Russian. You’re so bad it makes Mom want to cry.”

<<I’ll speak whatever I want.>>

<<Animal.>>

<<Moron.>>

“Everyone’s going to think you’re warped, carrying a magic whip around for the rest of your life.”

The A-rank clutched his weapon tighter and glared.

“Lexi and Kon are brothers,” the girl sitting next to Alden whispered. “I go to the same school as them. Lexi’s a year older, but they got selected around the same time. I think he’s jealous.”

“You know I can hear you, don’t you?” Lexi spat.

“Careful. My big brother likes to hit people with whips!” Konstantin said gleefully. Then, he sniffed the air. “What in Apex are you eating for breakfast, Rabbit guy? And why does it smell like sunshine?”

Everyone else started sniffing, too.

“Must be something else,” said Alden, grabbing the other half of his wrap quickly and biting into it. “This is just beans and lettuce and grains. Health food. Gross.”

And a pineapple salsa. And some kind of luscious potion of a dipping sauce that Natalie said had twenty-three ingredients in it.

He’d gotten into the habit of eating slowly so that he could savor every bite, but with these scavengers watching him he couldn’t take any chances, so he gulped it down.

“You ate that like you thought you were surrounded by thieves,” said Lexi, staring at him with an expression of mild disgust.

“Right?” said his little brother, still sniffing. “Seeing that kind of made me want to steal it more.”

Shortly afterward, it was Alden’s turn to go up and have his private consult. He was with Luna Plim. Having watched her work for the past twenty minutes, he now knew she was a Water Shaper. But she was only using the contents of about six bottles of water to test people.

“Hello again!” she said brightly while water blobs orbited her head. “I re-read all of your info last night. So I’ve got down everything you included in your application. What object did you bring along with you?”

Alden held up the compact umbrella. “Technically it’s two things. I’ve got the other one wrapped around the handle.”

“You can do two objects?”

“Stacks,” he clarified. “Or things that are touching when they’re entrusted to me.”

He didn’t see a point in trying to show off his actual ability to do two separate items since it wasn’t easy enough yet to be useful in practice.

“Ooooo,” she said, clapping her hands together. “That sounds like so much fun for me to play with in class! I mean…for you to play with. If you get in. Of course. What’s the other thing?”

Alden extended the compact umbrella without allowing it to open fully and showed her the fishing line he’d wrapped around the handle. A metal washer was tied to one end of it.

“Woooow. Points for creativity! I love weird weapons. Though I guess yours is more like a weird shield. How much practice have you had with these two things?”

“Basically none,” said Alden. “I played with them a little, but it’s not like I’ve tried to use them seriously.”

Who would he have used them on? Even if he’d had more time to prepare, it wasn’t like the intake dorms had an underground battle ring.

“I see…” She stared off into space again. “I know you can’t kill anyone with the umbrella. And I don’t think you’re likely to kill anyone here with the fishing line. But let’s test that out.”

“What?” said Alden, a little alarmed. “I was just trying to think of ways to trip people, maybe?”

“Sure!” she said eagerly, flipping her red hair over her shoulder. “But let’s check just to be positive. Show me your skill, young Avowed! Let me give you my wisdom.”

Trying not to feel ridiculous, Alden grabbed the closed umbrella by the wrong end and gripped it tightly. Holding it over his head, he spun it in circles so that the weighted line began to unravel.

Don’t hit yourself or anyone else in the head with a washer, he commanded himself. Don’t get tangled up in your own line. You will look incredibly dumb.

When he had maybe twelve feet whistling around over his head, he shifted his weight and activated the preservation. It froze into position. He now had a long, difficult-to-see preserved line.

“So you’re using the umbrella as a handle, too,” Instructor Plim said as she walked below the line and examined it. “Double duty. How long can you hold it like that for?”

“Forever.”

She looked over and raised her eyebrows at him questioningly.

“Until I get tired of moving around with it,” he clarified. “And it’s not heavy. So several hours if nothing messes with it.”

“Define ‘messes with it.’”

“If nothing too powerful impacts it?”

“How powerful is too powerful, though?” she asked. “Do you know?”

“My skill’s a B, level…3. So nothing more powerful than that?”

“Are you aware that some people think Rabbit skills might be more powerful or longer lasting than equivalently ranked and leveled skills from other classes?” she asked, reaching up to poke at the line. “So when you’re thinking of it, you should think of it as Rabbit B3.”

“I thought it might be that way, but I’m not really sure how much the System cares about—”

“Oh! Did you?” She looked thrilled. “Do you study System theory?!”

Alden didn’t know how to answer that one. “Well, most Rabbits start with just a single skill, and our spell impression choices are weak, and most of us don’t get many foundation points. It just stands to reason that our skills are…slightly bulkier than other classes at the same rank? Or else it wouldn’t be fair.”

He guessed it could have to do with a lot of factors. Complexity of the magical effect, strength, durability…all of the above. It could be slightly different for every skill. But if the System was locking up most of your authority to make the skill, it had to be more substantial in some way.

So that Konstantin guy’s Adjuster skill must be overpowered for a newbie S, Alden realized, glancing toward where the other boy was arguing with his brother again. Either that or his spell impression is nuts. Adjusters usually get multiple decent spells to start, so one of the two things he can do must have abnormal authority requirements.

“You have thought about it!” Instructor Plim said, and Alden refocused his attention. “It makes sense and follows with what we currently understand about the System. Only not many people have gone toe-to-toe with a Rabbit and then reported back on it. I tried to look up some things when your application came through just to be sure. But I couldn’t find what I wanted, so I called up one of my friends and asked if we could fight, and she said, ‘No, Luna. What’s wrong with you? I mop alien floors.’”

She shook her head and then beamed. “So can we?”

“Can we what?” Alden asked.

“Can we fight?” She spun her finger, and her orbiting water balls started spinning faster. “Can I hit your fishing line over and over again, and see how tough it is?”

He nodded.

“Great!”

Half a second later, one of the water balls flattened into a disc and flew at the line like a Frisbee. It was so fast, Alden could barely see it. But he definitely felt it. He didn’t know how much power Instructor Plim had put behind it, but it was more of a strain than anything Natalie or her roommates had hit him with.

Like most Shapers, Luna Plim directed her element with bodily gestures. It was a dynamic-looking class because of that. High ranks who had lots of different control skills to play with could look almost like they were dancing when they worked.

“All right!” she said excitedly. “I’m going to hit it again.”

Three more discs smashed Alden’s line in rapid succession. He stood there, trying to gauge how fast he would get exhausted if she kept doing this. It would take a long time.

Do I need to fake skill fatigue at some point? he wondered worriedly. She thinks it’s a level three skill, but it’s an eight.

He didn’t want to do that. He wanted to see how much he could really do. But that was a pretty big gulf, and he didn’t want to out himself as something strange either…

Wait. She’s probably not actually trying that hard. They can’t wear me out this early because recovery time for most people is longer than mine. Hadiza had been down for most of a day after she’d tried her skill on Alden’s bag. They would assume I’d miss all my other practical testing.

“I recover from fatigue in…I think it’s around three hours until I’m mostly functional?” he said. “So if you hit it really hard, I’ll probably just need to miss the running test.”

She stopped in the process of forming another water disc.

“Ohhh! That’s tempting. That’s so tempting. I don’t know what the other faculty will think of me though if I knock out a student’s main skill first thing in the morning.”

So knocking us out later in the day would be acceptable?

“But this is good enough for me to tell where you’re at. Your fishing line is approved for tripping people! And your umbrella is approved for protecting you! And you can play with your Flickerer if you can find something to use it on, but I don’t think you will since most of the enchanted objects around should be the Meister tools, and an F-rank skill isn’t going to do anything to those.” She chuckled. “Is there anything you’re worried about as far as the morning combat assessment goes?”

“Doing well?”

She smiled. “Then you’re a go! With a warning—your fishing line is sturdier than I was expecting, so you’re going to need to be careful with some of our Brutes.”

“Brutes?”

“There’s a no killing requirement today.” She smashed another water disc into the line. “And your tool here is more dangerous than you’re thinking. People who grow up knowing about Avowed mostly through the news cycle and entertainment media tend to assume Brutes are more unbreakable than they really are. You have to remember that the ones who become superheroes have much more complete talent packages and knowledge of their weaknesses than those who are just starting out. They don’t make many mistakes. Kids do all the time. It depends on the subclass, rank, and skills, but most of the Brutes here aren’t equipped to take narrow point damage at their maximum speed.”

She pointed at the clothesline. “It’s too skinny. When I read your description of your skill, I was assuming you created more of a bubble shape around your object, like other shields I’ve seen. But it seems you freeze it in exactly the shape it’s in. A clueless speedster could slice through their own neck smashing into this, so our gym suits would register that as a kill.”

“I can just not use it,” Alden said quickly. “In fact, maybe I shouldn’t. I don’t want—”

“Oh no! You should use it. It’s so interesting. Well, it’s your choice. But I’m curious to see what you’ll do with it! Just be careful and don’t get yourself disqualified. Now, if you could cancel the skill, I wanted to see—”

Alden let the preservation fall, and the line went right back to spinning.

“Yes! So exciting. It really does just resume motion. I can’t wait. Now…”

Without any explanation, Instructor Plim stiffened up and fell flat on her back in the grass. She hit the ground with a thump. Her water orbs splashed down around her. A couple of people under the tent called out in alarm, and the principal looked over from where she was working with Lexi.

“Instructor Plim,” she said with a sigh.

“I’m injured!” Instructor Plim announced. “I want to be frozen in time for science…I mean rescued. Please rescue me.”

Right, thought Alden. I guess they would want to see that part of the skill, too.

But just as he targeted the Creative Applications teacher, Principal Saleh walked across the grass toward them. “You don’t have to pick her up if you think it will tire you out for your other assessments. She gets unprofessionally enthusiastic about powers she hasn’t seen before. There’s a rescue component later—”

“I weigh fifty-five kilograms! I have a possible spinal cord injury. Saving me is extra credit!”

“There is no extra credit!” Principal Saleh said loudly for the benefit of everyone present. “None of you are even being judged right now. We’re just making sure we understand your powers so that you’re prepared for the rest of the day, and our faculty are prepared for you.”

“I have no idea how to pick up someone with a possible spinal cord injury,” said Alden.

“Since she doesn’t actually have one, you can just throw her around however you like. If you’re going to indulge her, then…” She stepped over to the other teacher, bent and picked the redhead up like she was light as a feather. “Here. Take her. I’ll offer advice for you if I think of anything after I see your skill work. At least that way it won’t be completely pointless.”

Alden carried the teacher around for a few seconds.

“This is really strange looking,” Kon said. The Adjuster boy had casually wandered over to watch. “She’s like a statue. You just haul people around like that all the time?”

“It doesn’t come up that often.” Alden dropped preservation, and Instructor Plim looked at him in confusion for a second before she lowered her arms from around his neck so that he could set her back down. “This is actually my first time preserving a human.”

He’d only just realized it.

The teacher was blinking excitedly around and examining herself. “How long was I out?”

“Less than a minute,” the principal said. “And that was plenty. Konstantin, you’re next with Instructor Plim. Alden, regardless of whether you are accepted into Celena North or not, you would benefit from emergency response classes. Carrying people is somewhat unusual for you since you lock them in place, and you should learn more about positioning and weight distribution.”

“Yes. Thank you,” Alden said quickly. “I’ll do that.”

The principal headed back over to Lexi.

“I’m now a time traveler,” Instructor Plim said thoughtfully. “Who’s next?”

She completely missed everything Principal Saleh just said.

Kon smiled and waved at her.

“Oooo,” she said. “The object reader. I have so many ideas for what we can do together in my class! I mean, if you get in of course. Let’s talk about…”

*************

Alden passed his drug test, then headed to the locker room. A man at a table just outside glanced at his name tag and passed him a tote bag.

“I feel like getting dressed is something we should all be able to do by ourselves by the time we’re in high school,” he said with a yawn. “But since we’ve already had one unfortunate incident this morning…this is a protective bodysuit. Magic zipper on the front. You have to wear the cuffs unless you want to lose your hands, feet, or face. Red lines down. You have to return all of this when you’re finished with it. The gear isn’t a souvenir. The last time someone stole a set, the principal tracked them down, phased through the wall of their bedroom in the middle of the night, and recovered it herself.”

“Got it.”

Another pair of guys were already in line behind him to receive their own suits, and when he stepped into the locker room, it was packed. There were private stalls and showers, but they were all occupied. Lots of people were changing in between the lockers. Alden wasn’t particularly eager to flash his contract tattoo, so he waited and ducked into a shower as soon as the previous occupant left.

He snapped the curtain closed behind him and examined the gear. He’d already seen the dark gray bodysuit in videos online. And in person on Principal Saleh. It was a somewhat famous uniform—one of the perks of getting into the school. It was the same magical protective outfit that the college’s hero program students wore.

The material was soft, with a faint sheen in bright light, and it was very thick. He put the suit on and ran his hand up the gap in the fabric at the front. “Magic zipper” was a misnomer. The fabric itself just sealed together as if it had been made in one piece from the start, all the way from his navel to the turtleneck top.

Of course it’s a turtleneck.

Nothing about this outfit was human tech.

Since he had the option, he shifted his auriad from where it had been hiding under his leather bracelet and put it around his neck before pulling the bodysuit up to cover it.

Inch-wide metal bands with a line of something bright red inlaid into the bottoms went around his wrists, ankles, and neck. The red looked like some kind of stone, and the things were heavy, so maybe it was.

He put his shoes back on and headed out. Everyone else who’d gotten dressed was crowded around mirrors examining themselves, and he couldn’t help but stop and look at himself for a second, too.

It’s not that a gray unitard is much to look at, he thought as he took in his appearance. But everyone knows it’s what superheroes wear to train.

He followed a Wright—the only one he’d noticed so far today—out the door and into the gym.

He took a seat on the bleachers and was pleasantly surprised when Maricel appeared a few minutes later and climbed up to join him. She had opted to wear her hoodie over her own unitard.

“You’re not using performance enhancing drugs,” she said.

“You either. We are officially not cheaters together.”

Performance enhancing wordchains were allowed. Alden had heard a couple of people muttering them in the locker room. One of them had even sounded like he was getting it right.

Maricel looked around at everyone else. “The interview must have been difficult.” She jerked her head to their left.

The group from Franklin High they’d sat beside this morning was clustered up again, but their numbers were seriously diminished. Only around a third of them had survived their five minute interview session.

Brutal, thought Alden.

It would make you feel like garbage to keep coming here every two months and making it this far only to get dismissed in five minutes.

Faculty started streaming in. They were almost all in suits of their own now, and it wasn’t long before Principal Saleh reappeared, too. Everyone focused on her, but she only walked over to take a seat on a bottom bleacher beside some students who all spontaneously developed amazing posture.

Instead, an absolute giant of a man took the floor.

“Big Snake,” Alden and about a hundred other people whispered at the same time.

“Howdy,” said Big Snake, smiling and tipping an imaginary cowboy hat. He somehow made his gimmicky greeting look not cheesy. His graying blond hair was pulled back in a short, straggly ponytail. “I’m Morrison Waker. I’m teachin’ combat to third year students here while that little mess back home blows over. I’ll also be watching y’all work today.

“Let’s talk about the gymnasium and those suits you’re wearing.”

He stomped the white floor once, and it sounded like a thunderclap. “Our gym’s tough. One of only a few places on the island built special for Avowed by the Artonans and regularly maintained for us by wizards. You might see ‘em when they come to check it every few weeks. Remember it’s rude to stare at people just because you haven’t seen their kind before. Artonans don’t mind, but this one time I stared too hard at a Fetuna and—”

Principal Saleh cleared her throat.

“As I was sayin’, the gym’s magic. You can smash the floor. You can burn it. You can try to cut it with your big giant sword. Oh yeah, I see you there, kid with the big giant sword. That’s cool, young lady.” The girl with the absurdly large broadsword blushed. “I can’t bust this place up no matter how hard I try, so that means you kids can’t either. And when the floor is turned on—”

He paused for a moment, and a curtain of light went up between the white floor and the bleachers. It was bright at first and then it faded into invisibility. In its place, Alden now had the words FLOOR ON at the top right corner of his field of vision.

“Then nobody standing here where I am right now, properly wearing one of the suits, can take serious physical damage. There are rules! And they’re important ones. Even I follow ‘em, so you know I mean it. First, you wear all your gear.”

He pointed to his own metal bands and his suit.

“Second, you don’t screw around and try to kill your peers. During certain classes we allow lethal intent for training purposes. You’re not in one of those classes. If the gym registers a lethal hit today, the person who dealt it had better be prepared to prove it was a freak accident, or they’d better be prepared to find another school. And I don’t mean a hero school. We’ll share your name with every school in Apex, and you’ll be blacklisted.”

Several people muttered at that.

“Finally, just because you aren’t likely to take an injury, it doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy getting hit. That wouldn’t make sense. Training that way would turn you into a bunch of fearless idiots with no sense of self-preservation. So when you get socked in the nose, you’re going to feel like you got socked in the nose. It’s neat.” He nodded. “Artonans make neat stuff. One time, I talked this wizard into giving me a spiky exploding mace her grandpa used to own and…and that’s another story.”

Principal Saleh nodded at him.

“The point today is, you all need to come down here now and make sure your suits fit properly and the gym is registering them correctly. So you don’t die. Or have embarrassing things like this happen!”

He shrank at least a couple of feet in every direction until he was a wiry, short version of himself. His suit started to slip off his shoulders. It pooled around his feet. One of his wrist bands thudded onto the floor.

“Little Snake,” people all around the room whispered.

“So come on down here now and get checked out!”

“Is that man famous?” Maricel asked Alden as all around them people started rushing down the bleachers toward the floor.

“You don’t know Big’nLittle Snake?” Alden said, surprised. “He’s one of the most popular heroes in America. He was. Top three in polling for more than a decade.”

“He’s a Morph Brute?”

Alden nodded. “A cool one. When he’s big he’s incredibly strong. When he’s little he’s incredibly fast. And his shift time is so quick. You just saw. It’s only a few seconds.”

“Why is he here then?”

“He’s an over the top kind of person,” said Alden. “That’s part of the reason he’s so popular. And he’s busy…he has extreme hobbies. A new one every couple of years. They don’t always work out.”

“How can a hobby be extreme?”

“When I was little he ran through every state in the contiguous U.S. And when he got to your state, he would knock down a tree, carve the wood into some of your state animals with his bare hands in front of a crowd, and then auction off the carvings for charity. He did that on weekends and then headed back home to Texas to work for the rest of the week. He was their state hero.”

“Wouldn’t carving a tree with your hands hurt?”

“Maybe not if you’re him.”

“Can he morph his fingernails into carving blades?”

“Probably? Anyway, nobody had a problem with that. But a few years ago, he decided he wanted some wolves. And if I remember correctly, ranchers protested against him? But he was at peak popularity with everyone else, and some of the other states were going to let him have them if Texas didn’t, so he got his wolves.”

“They let him have wolves? For fighting crime?”

“No. He just enjoyed having a wolf reserve and running with them.”

Maricel stared across the gym at Big Snake.

“He seems to love Triplanets work, too. Like I said, he’s really busy. I heard he only sleeps two hours a night. He got summoned, and while he was there, he told some wizard how much he loved his wolves. So they offered to make them better as his quest reward.”

“Better how?”

“Bigger, stronger wolves. Strong enough to make decent pets for a world-class superhero.”

“That’s not legal in your country is it?”

“Of course not.” Alden sighed. He stood up, and they headed down the bleachers. “Anyway, the government was not happy about it. To make a point about Avowed getting out of line, someone sent a tank to shoot one of the wolves. Big Snake beat up the tank. And then there was this whole drama because a lot of people were fans of the giant wolves and Big’nLittle Snake. And others were worried that getting rid of the wolves would offend the wizard? But it was a crime. So the wolves still live in Texas, but Snake got banished.”

His feet hit the white floor, and a notification appeared.

[Connected to MagiPhys Gym. Floor On. Protections active.]

“Can I hit you now?” Maricel asked, looking around at a number of other people who were slapping each other with growing enthusiasm.

“I guess a light tap?”

She smacked him lightly on the arm. It felt normal.

He tapped her on the arm, too.

“You guys look like cowards,” a tall Brute who’d come with them on the bus said. “This is how you hit somebody.”

He drew back his fist and punched his own friend in the jaw. The friend fell to the floor clutching his face.

“Oh shit! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!”

“They said it would hurt,” Maricel said with narrowed eyes. “Did you not believe them?”

Alden assumed that everyone was hitting and slapping each other out of curiosity, but it turned out that it had been started by the prospective students who’d made it this far in the admissions process previously. The gymnasium was interacting with the suits to check efficacy, and the students were supposed to be hitting each other.

Some people had just begun early.

Big Snake—who Alden was trying unsuccessfully to think of as Instructor Waker—explained it, and shortly afterward, the barely-visible letter ranks superimposed on everyone’s forehead grew bolder and turned green.

“I’m allowed to punch literally everyone in here as hard as I want, wherever I want,” Alden said with a groan.

They weren’t using skills or spells for the suit test, just physical stats. And green meant he could go all-out on that front.

“You’re yellow for me,” Maricel informed him. She sounded intrigued. “That means I can’t hit you in the head.”

Alden smiled uncertainly at her. “This is so uncomfortable honestly.”

People were partnering up as they’d been told to. Some of them were still joking around. Others were on the floor, having already been knocked down by eager partners. But quite a few of the teens in the gym were staring at each other with looks on their faces that said they found this just as surreal as he did.

“I knew we’d be doing stuff like this. Obviously. Using powers and having them used against me is one of the reasons I want to get into this school. But it’s hard to actually hit someone like I mean it. I’ve never done that…”

“I’m surprised there are people in the room who are yellow for me,” Maricel said. She’d lowered her hood to look around. “I know I’m an S, but I’ve got a small Strength stat, even for a Shaper.”

“Do you want to hit someone else instead?”

“No. Where do you want the pain? And do you want a kick or a punch?” She balled up her fist.

“You seem not at all bothered by this.”

“I’ve been looking forward to it.” At his expression, she added, “Not hitting you specifically. Just hitting things in general. I haven’t gotten to do it before either, but it sounds satisfying.”

I guess it’s good one of us is into it.

He nodded. “Okay then. Surprise me…nope. On second thought, let’s avoid hitting me however that guy just got hit.” Someone across the room was puking. Alden hadn’t seen where his partner had aimed.

“I’ll kick you in the leg,” Maricel said, lowering her fist. “That seems safe.”

“Oka—”

Still looking more curious than anything else, Maricel leaned back and delivered a swift kick to the side of Alden’s left thigh. His legs flew out from under him and he landed hard on his shoulder. At first, he was shocked more by the force of the blow than anything else. Then the pain registered.

“Fuck!” he said, clutching his leg. The word was lost in a cacophony of other peoples’ multilingual cursing.

The pain was intense enough to make his eyes water. But after a few seconds, it disappeared. That’s so weird. How can it feel so realistic, then not be there at all?

“Are you all right?” Maricel asked, leaning over him.

“Yeah.” He let her pull him back onto his feet. “Yeah, it’s not a big deal. Should I kick you in the same place?”

“Yes.” She held still. After waiting patiently for a moment, she said, “You don’t have to put that much thinking into it, do you?”

Alden felt his face heat.

“You’d better kick me for real, Rabbit boy,” she said, crossing her arms. “I don’t want to fail my combat assessment later because everyone else hits so much harder than you and it takes me by surprise.”

Right. That’s a good point.

Feeling insanely awkward and very much like he was doing something wrong, he took a deep breath and then tried to kick a person who was smaller than him as hard as he could. He didn’t know whether to be relieved or horrified when she hit the floor.

<<My god,>> Maricel gasped, wrapping her hands around her leg just above her knee. <<It feels so real. Why does it feel so real?!>>

Her eyes were wide.

“The Artonans can do some really interesting stuff when they’re trying,” Alden said, looking down at her nervously. “You’re fine, right? Your suit worked? I didn’t—”

She shooed him away with a gesture and got back on her feet.

“All right,” she said. “Let’s try punching each other now.”

“But I just got a notification saying the suit check’s complete. We’re done.”

“We’ve got more time, though,” she said, looking around the room.

Most people were taking their one required hit and leaving. But a few were still fighting with their partners. The faculty were watching it all play out and discussing things with each other. Several of them had pulled out tablets. One teacher had a notebook. Alden couldn’t tell what they thought.

There were people here who clearly had martial arts training of various kinds, but the majority didn’t. And the faculty were watching the nervous flailing kids as closely as the ones who had some idea what they were doing.

This is a training program. They’re not expecting us to start out as combat geniuses. I’m assuming it helps if you are one, but for most people they have to be assessing things like general skill potential and…attitude.

It was obvious.

Willingness to dish out a hit. Willingness to take one. Not freaking out. There wasn’t a point in trying to get into this program if you weren’t willing to be here in this gym.

“Yeah, we’ve got time,” Alden said, trying to get his nerves in check. “Wanna use it to hit each other lots and get used to the suits?”

She was pulling the bands out of her pigtails and redoing them into a ponytail. She finally took off her hoodie and tossed it aside.

She cracked her knuckles. She bounced a little on the balls of her feet. <<You can do this, Maricel,>> she whispered to herself, shaking out her hands. <<Hit him really hard.>>

Oh boy, thought Alden. So this is how we get into superhero school.