Gavin walked out of the park, head down, feet dragging.
Phantom had done a number on him, spooking him by appearing out of nowhere and then taking him out without breaking a sweat. Reaching the parking lot, he was met by Mr. Choi, who told him that his friend Jupiter had been brought in a few minutes earlier, beaming. Apparently, she'd found Janet Topski hiding in the stone sanctuary, then made a lot of noise to attract attention and gone into full Gas Giant mode. No less than four Thumbledown students had responded and tagged Janet out, before noticing Jupiter was even there. There was some discussion as to how to best tag her out, since she was entirely made of gas, but she made the point moot by recombining, happy to be tagged out now that she's outlasted Janet and won their bet.
Less than ten minutes later it was all over. Tag Bowers, the final St. Hibbard hold out, was found up in a tree. Hieronymus Noseby--the student who had been warned not to disintegrate anybody--had used his powers on the branch upon which Tag was perched, causing him to come crashing to the ground where he promptly broke his arm and was tagged out.
It turned out that a lot of the students from St. Hibbards had suffered various injuries during the exercise. In addition to Tag Bowers' arm and Caitlyn Bannorford's legs (the girl from the butterfly garden, whose legs took over six hours to heal), Kaylie Freya had a concussion, Hannah Yang had broken an ankle, and Egbert Salvadore's front teeth had been liquified. No one was quite sure what the point of that last injury had been, and Gavin suspected it had simply been some sadistic Thumbledown brat having a cruel laugh.
There was one other condition that had everybody baffled. Aurelia Limpit was now a tree. She was still shaped like the girl whose unimpressive talent was her ability to turn one flower into another by touch, but she was made of wood, with leaves sprouting from her head and arms, and her toes digging into the ground and taking root. Teachers from both schools gathered around the girl, confused and slightly worried. They were able to discern that she was still alive. In fact, she was quite healthy. It's just that she was a tree.
Mrs. Gruber was livid.
"This is beyond the pale, Symphonius!" she shouted, jabbing a gnarled finger at the larger man. "Nothing permanent allowed!"
"I am as baffled as you are, Aquatica!" he insisted. "None of my students have the ability to do this, I assure you!"
They argued back and forth, neither one giving an inch. Mrs. Gruber accused the head of Lord Thumbledown's School of Heroics of hiding abilities from the official register. Symphonious took umbrage at the accusation, and the two parted ways without coming to a satisfactory conclusion. In the end, the two schools left the park wary and suspicious of one another, and a dark, emotional cloud settled over the everyone.
***
Aurelia Limpit was carefully dug up and brought back to St. Hibbard's where she was replanted in a nice spot on the front lawn that got plenty of sun. There she stood, stoic and proud, silent as to her fate.
The rest of the students were anything but silent, however. Conspiracies abounded as to who had done this to their peer, and why. Pretty much every student at Lord Thumbledown's was suspect at one time or another, but in the end, there were a few favorites.
"It's gotta be that Cragmire kid," said Gavin as he walked with Jupiter and Jud through the halls after classes the next day. "You should have seen what he did to Caitlyn."
"He didn't turn her into a tree," argued Jupiter.
"Sure, but you didn't see him! The boy's for incredible powers! Superhearing, sees body heat, and that turning her legs into stone. Who knows what else he can do? And he liked it, too. You could tell. He was enjoying toying with her."
"I'm going to have to agree with Jupiter on this one," said Jud. "It's way rare to have two superpowers let alone three. But four? It's never happened."
"There's a first time for everything," grumbled Gavin, not ready to let go of his suspicions.
"You ask me, my money's on that Phantom person you ran into," offered Jud. "He... or she... just sounds evil."
Gavin shook his head. "I don't think so, It's not their style. Turning someone into a tree is too showy. Phantom is sneaky and sinister and quiet. And way creepy."
***
A pall fell over the school. No one spoke of it, but eyes would often wander out through windows into the yard to stare at the new tree, bringing apprehensive shivers to their owners. Gavin soon learned that nothing this permanent had ever taken place before during a Hide and Seek event. Broken bones, sure. Temporary maladies, all the time. But four days after the event, Aurelia Limpit remained a tree, and it was making people nervous. To be sure, the school was taking good care of their new ward. Mr. Unger watered her twice a day, and took pains to chase away any squirrels who even thought about storing nuts inside of the girl.
Something big was going on with the teachers, too. They would whisper with each other and dart glances at their students when they thought the kids weren't watching. Finally, an all-school assembly was held one evening. Gavin entered the gym and looked around for Jupiter or Jud, but the place was packed and it was difficult to make anyone out in the near darkness. As he stood there, Stanford walked in, a few stray pieces of trash trailing behind him. He barely acknowledged Gavin's presence as he passed him and made his way to one of the benches. Seeing him approach, the students parted ways and left a rather large open area for him. Eventually, Gavin squeezed onto the nearest benche as Mrs. Gruber stepped forward and waved for the crowd to quiet down.
"Students of St. Hibbard's Very Special Academy!" cried the old woman when everyone had settled. "I know you are all wondering why you are here at this hour of the evening. I think it is safe to say the events of this past week have put us all on edge. That is understandable. What happened to your classmate is unprecedented."
A wave of murmurs rolled through the crowd. Mrs. Gruber held up her hand for silence.
"Whoever did this act will be found and punished, be they a student at Lord Thumbledown's or not" continued Mrs. Gruber. "But we are here this evening to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. To that end, I will now invite Mr. Hollowind to address you."
Another round of murmurs swept through the gym. Gavin, for one, found the way Mrs. Gruber had stated her warning as very odd. Of course it was a student from Thumbledown's. What else could it have been? Looking around, he could see a few eyes darting through the crowd and realized a few others had picked up on the possible implication of Mrs. Gruber's words.
Could somebody from St. Hibbard's be responsible?
His attention was drawn away from this thought when Mr. Hollowind, the popular algebra teacher, stepped forward. He was dressed in his usual pin-stripe suit with a bow tie, looking every inch the intellectual nerd he absolutely was not. He filled the suit out with the bulging muscles he used as the school wrestling coach.
"Evening, Specials!" he called out in a raspy voice. "So the Thumbledown Hoodlums want to play dirty? Well, we can play just as dirty. Starting tomorrow, every student at St. Hibbard's has a new class. We'll figure out the schedules and whatnot, but the important thing to know is that this class is all about using your abilities!"
He paused, perhaps expecting a cheer. What he got instead was utter silence. The students of St. Hibbards had been told time and time again that their abilities were useless. That was the entire reason they were at St. Hibbard's to begin with. If they had had actual superpowers, they'd be attending Lord Thumbledown's School of Heroics.
Mr. Hollowind smiled and nodded. "That's right," he said. "You're going to use your abilities to defend yourselves from those cretins in case they ever try something like this again!" He pounded his hand into his fist to emphasize his point. "Every one of you can do something that no other human being can do. And together, we'll find a way to use that to your advantage. I'll see you all tomorrow."
He gave the students a salute and stepped back, allowing Mrs. Gruber to take the stage once again.
"That's all," she said, making her shooing motion. "Go to bed."
***
"This should be interesting," said Stanford as he and Gavin walked back to room D37. "I suppose I'm supposed to start throwing trash at everyone." He snickered. "Well, at least I'll never run out of ammunition."
He laughed, more at himself than at his sad attempt at humor. Gavin didn't respond. He was too lost in his thoughts to hear anything Stanford was saying. He kept going over what Mr. Hollowind had said about finding ways to use your ability to defend yourself. Granted, Gavin's ability had already helped him by absorbing the blow when someone tried to punch him in the face. But against someone who turned you into a tree?
How was having a squishy face supposed to protect you from that?