The students of St. Hibbard's took off like a shot, the vast majority of them hurrying toward the middle of the field where they began raising their arms in surrender nearly ten minutes before the students of Lord Thumbledown's School of Heroics even began hunting them.
There were a few, however, who took the bold path of not giving up before the match had even started. Among those were Jupiter and Jud, who moved to take off, but Gavin called them back.
"Why do so many quit before the game even starts?" he asked.
"They don't see the point," Jud replied. "Frankly, neither do I."
"I'm only playing to beat Janet Topski. I made a bet that I could outlast her," said Jupiter. "There's a week's worth of ice cream riding on this for me." With that, she took off, heading in the direction of the stone sanctuary.
"Are you going to play?" Gavin asked Jud. The other boy frowned, then sighed and walked calmly toward the center of the field. It seemed Jud was not playing.
After a moment's hesitation, Gavin decided that he was going to play, so he ran toward the butterfly garden. He figured he could crouch down behind one of the bushes and hide for a while, although he wasn't quite sure how the game ended without everyone from St. Hibbard's getting caught.
Entering the garden, he looked around for a good bush behind which to hide. He spotted one that was the most obvious hiding spot, and chose to pass on it, since it was, indeed, the most obvious hiding spot. If he wanted to last, he was going to have to be clever. He selected another group of bushes off the main path and quickly ran behind them, trying to mask his footsteps as he went.
Once in position, all he could do was wait. This was going to be difficult. He tried to distract himself by counting leaves on the bushes, or rocks in the garden, but that grew old fast. His mind wandered to the game itself. What was the point? As near as he could tell, it wasn't an actual game of two schools against one another, because there was no way for St. Hibbard to win. He realized that this was all meant to be target practice for the Thumbledown kids.
When he stepped back, it kind of made sense. The kids at Lord Thumbledown's were being groomed to be heroes. They needed to be trained and tested. It just sucked being the subject of their testing. After a week at St. Hibbard's, he'd started to feel like he was getting the hang of the place, but this match had thrown all that out the window. He recalled how Mrs. Gruber had insisted that no one be disintegrated, and how that hadn't been a joke. The superheroes he knew and read about all had incredible powers, many of them very dangerous. Death rays shooting from their eyes. Arms that morphed into swords. The ability to melt steel with their mind. Were those kinds of powers going to be tested on the kids of St. Hibbard's? On him?
A noise caught his attention and his body went tense. Footsteps could be heard ambling down the path. Whoever it was obviously wasn't trying to make their approach a secret. This was someone carefree, confident, and smug.
"Gee, I wonder if anyone's in heeeeeerrreeee!" A boy taunted in a sing-song voice. "I suppose I could use my ability to see body heat and pinpoint the location of every single Hibbard wuss hiding in the butterfly garden, but where's the fun in that?"
Gavin could just make the boy out. He was tall, with frizzy blond hair and an evil grin that Gavin wanted to wipe off his face. The taunter paused in his trek, well away from where Gavin was hiding, and turned his head to the side.
"Of course, one thing I can't just turn off is my super-hearing. Believe me, I wish I could, too. Do you have any idea how obnoxious it is to walk around hearing everybody's heartbeat? Of course you don't, but I do and it's maddening!"
Gavin tensed and prepared to run. The kid had obviously found him and was now just toying with him. It was Badger Williams all over again. Is this what superheroes really were, he wondered? Bullies?
"I will, however, admit that super hearing has one advantage," continued the hero-in-training. "Namely, I'm really good at finding people. You know. Hostages. Villains. Innocent Bystanders caught in the rubble. Or... idiots from St. Hibbard's!"
He leaped off the path, but nowhere near where Gavin was hiding. Gavin was momentarily confused until he heard a high-pitched scream followed by a laugh as the boy flushed a young girl out of the bushes. Relief washed over Gavin as he realized the Thumbledown boy had been hunting someone else. That relief turned to panic when he saw the girl run directly toward him!
He was about to rise to his feet and take off when the boy calmly stepped back out onto the path, aimed his pinky at the fleeing girl, and then made a "bang" sound. The girl's legs suddenly stiffened and she fell forward, landing face first on the path. The boy meandered up to her and lightly tapped her on the shoulder.
"Got you. You're out."
The girl lifted her head and looked up at him, confused. "I can't... I can't move my legs!"
"No," said the boy, smiling. "You can't."
With that, the boy turned and walked back the way he came, leaving his prey to writhe about on the ground. When he'd gone, Gavin came out of his hiding place.
"What was that?" he asked. "What'd he do to you?"
"I can't move my legs!" she repeated with a grunt as she rolled herself onto her back. "It's like they're made of stone."
Gavin inspected the girl's legs. They looked fine, but when he touched her ankle, it was cold and stiff. "Will it wear off?" he asked.
"Yes," answered girl, scowling. "That was Austin Cragmire, one of the top students at Thumbledown. He turns your limbs into stone, but the effect wears off after a few hours."
"A few hours?" asked Gavin, shocked. The girl laid her head back down on the path and groaned.
"Just go," she said. "If anybody asks, you weren't here."
"Thanks." Gavin fell into a careful jog and made his way through the rest of the butterfly garden. Nearing the back entrance, he slowed, and carefully peeked out from behind the entrance then instantly ducked his head back. There were three Thumbledown students right outside the entrance, as if standing guard. Remaining perfectly still, Gavin was able to make out what they were saying.
"...gets easier every year," said a girl's voice.
"Totally," answered a boy. "Over half of them just gave up. No fun."
"Want to make a pass through the butterfly garden?"
"Austin went in there," said a third voice, the gender of which Gavin couldn't make out. "I doubt there's anything left."
"We're still missing six of the little runts," said the boy. "They have to be somewhere."
"Fine," responded the unidentifiable voice. "Nothing better to do. This has been an unsatisfying Hide and Seek."
Gavin heard the sound of footsteps approaching and quickly ducked deep off the path and crouched down behind a particularly large group of purple Alyssum bulbs. Just as he quieted down, the three Thumbledown students entered the garden.
"How many have you caught, Carol?" asked the boy. He was short and bald with awkward-looking, oversized-fists on the ends of stubby arms.
"Counting the ones that gave up before we started?"
"Obviously not counting those," said the unidentifiable voice. Gavin tried to see them through the bushes, but couldn't get a good fix on the individual. Something always appeared to be in the way.
"Three," answered Carol.
"Nice," said the boy. "I've bagged two so far. What about you, Phantom?"
"Six have felt my wrath," replied the enigmatic Phantom. Gavin thought he heard a slight chuckle, but he couldn't be sure.
Gavin held his breath as the three walked past. It seemed only a matter of time before one of the Thumbledowns spotted him, whether because they actually saw him or because of some superpower. For whatever reason, however, they never even looked in Gavin's direction. A few moments later, they rounded a bend in the path and were gone.
Gavin let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"I can't believe they didn't see me," he mumbled aloud.
"But I did find you," said the unidentifiable voice from the one the others had called Phantom.
Gavin jumped, startled, to find the individual behind him. "How did you...?" He paused, confused. It was the student, Phantom, but Gavin couldn't quite make him or her out. He wouldn't have been able to tell you why, but even though the student was standing right in front of him, it was as if Gavin just couldn't quite see him or her. "What are you... how is it that..."
"It's my talent," answered Phantom. "But no, that's not right, is it? You have talents. I have superpowers. More than one, in fact."
Before Gavin could react, the student thrust a hand at him and Gavin felt a force shove against him, hard. He expected to fly backward, but instead, he felt the tell-tale pain of his ability as something caused his face to squeeze up, absorbing the force of the invisible blow. A moment later, his face reinflated.
"What the heck?" he cried. "You don't have to attack me!"
But Phantom didn't respond, instead he or she stared at Gavin, curious. "Interesting," said the student. "You absorbed my attack."
"Yeah, I noticed! What's wrong with you?"
"But is it just your face?" asked Phantom, ignoring Gavin's question. The enigmatic student then lashed out again, this time aiming low. Even though nothing physically touched him, Gavin felt a massive blow to the gut and he crumpled to the ground in agony.
"Very interesting," said Phantom, who turned and calmly walked away, leaving his victim rolling around on the ground in pain.