Richard Dracos—or, in my case, Mr. Dracos—droned on as he gave us a lecture about ecosystems and habitats. It had been a full week since I found out the person responsible for me gaining powers was now my homeroom teacher. It was a bizarre turn of events. I immediately told Gavin, and it didn't take long for him to get some sensitive documents and info about Dracos. Apparently, after the portal incident, Mr. Dracos was permanently blacklisted from Uni-Labs. Because news of the incident made the headlines, he was also turned away from every college or university.

  Not to mention, it was difficult for him to find work. Gavin said he applied to many science- and research-based institutions and positions but was turned down. He even tried applying for jobs not related to science—construction, for example—which he did for a couple of weeks. He got the teaching job because one of his childhood friends worked at Harvest Hills Middle School and convinced the principal to hire him. That's how he ended up here.

  Another thing that made me sigh with relief was that he didn't know me. I thought being in the building during the aftermath of the incident would have reached his ears, but apparently no one told him. In fact, as soon as I started training my strength before my debut as Red Justice, Gavin and Jason scrubbed the data and records showing I had been inside the building during the portal incident. That was good—after all, I didn't need anyone else, especially the Monarchs who were gunning for my head, to figure out my identity.

  Aside from that, Mr. Dracos is... well, he's a pretty okay teacher. Better than my teacher last year, who freaked out and bailed during the Uni-Labs incident. Mr. Dracos did his best, but it was clear he didn't have the same passion or fire when he presented his subject; it felt hollow, bored. In fact, he looked like he was about to pass out. I stared at him; his words at that point were background noise to me.

  I could see the bags under his eyes. I felt bad, but I'll be honest: I had no clue how to feel about him. My eyes shifted to the person beside me, who was writing notes quietly. Jimmy Bullard had been pretty quiet that past week, leaving me alone. In fact, he'd been acting weird—like yesterday, when his lackeys were harassing me.

  Then Jimmy, with one glare, made them back off. Maybe he'd been like that since I saved his butt. I guessed that was the only explanation. Other than that, I was anxious. My eyes flicked to the clock as the second hand swung.

  Just a couple more minutes and the school day would end. I just needed to survive a little longer. Mr. Dracos stood at the front of the room, pointing his ruler at the projector.

  "Ecosystems are made up of both biotic and abiotic factors," he said in a dry voice. "The organisms, the environment, and how they interact. If one part is disrupted—"

  I bit my lip. I hated waiting. I gripped my pencil and accidentally snapped it by squeezing a little too hard. I hurriedly shoved the pieces into my pocket to make sure no one saw. I couldn't wait for class to end.

  Part of me felt guilty that I wasn't paying attention. But after everything that happened, staying here felt like a waste of time. All summer I'd been flying through the sky, stopping robberies, saving people, and even duking it out with a large mech that had the power to destroy the world. This was the equivalent of having a genie lamp and only using it to fold clothes.

  A waste of a wish and a waste of time. I could be out there right now, helping people, actually making a difference.

  "—That's why habitats are fragile," Mr. Dracos continued, sounding just as tired as I felt.

  The second hand crept closer. Then the bell rang. Almost instantly, I felt energized and happier. Even Mr. Dracos's lip twitched; for a moment, I could have sworn he smiled. The class erupted. Chairs scraped against the floor, backpacks zipped, voices rose.

  "All right, everyone," he said. "Homework is page seventy-three, questions one through five. Due tomorrow. Don't forget."

  A few groans echoed around the room. I would have joined them a year ago, but when your brain and body can move at speeds that approach light, homework is trivial. Actually—

  I pulled out my textbook and binder as the world around me seemed to stop. Time felt frozen. After a couple of milliseconds, I was finished, stuffing my textbook back in my bag as the world resumed its normal pace.

  When I finally stepped outside, the air felt different. Cooler. Lighter. I stared at the other kids leaving school—talking about the hip stuff on the internet, memes, games, and whatever else people my age were into. But all I felt was disconnected, apathetic even. For a moment, I felt guilty, like I'd disappointed my parents, Gavin, and my past self somehow. Back then, I'd wanted to have friends and mingle with other kids, but now?

  It didn't matter to me anymore. I sighed as I walked toward my house. I didn't have many friends, but at least I had my sister, our dog Poochie, Gavin, and Emily as companions. As I crossed the street I thought about the past week. It had been incredibly frustrating.

  Not school itself. I could deal with classes and homework; it was light work. That wasn't the problem. The problem was everything after school—or, more accurately, what I couldn't do after school. During the summer, I'd been Red Justice for ten hours a day. Sometimes more.

  It wasn't just fun, it felt fulfilling. That's why I'm crashing out, because ever since school started, my parents had set a curfew. Which wasn't too bothersome; with my speed, I could be anywhere. I just needed to be careful. And I would have just done what I do in the summer, which was sneak out and do some hero work at nighttime. But even Gavin was on their side.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Telling me to relax and enjoy my childhood. I felt my eyebrow twitch, remembering his words. I get what he's saying, but I didn't want to 'enjoy life' the way everyone else meant it. But I had no choice, which made my usual ten hours of Red Justice at best two or three hours. A sigh escaped my lips; no use complaining about it; school's over, and I just needed to chill in my house for a little bit before I could finally do some stuff.

  RED

  A Couple Hours Later...

  JUSTICE

  I donned my hero suit as I waved to an elderly couple who needed help walking across the street. I swear, big cities like Toronto need to accommodate people who can't move around as much. Cameras and whispers, all of them pointing at me, I grinned and waved at them before flying high, reaching the clouds, using my Mind's Eye to detect anyone in need of help.

  While I was crossing my arms waiting, Gavin's voice called out from the earpiece. "Aren't you overdoing these a bit too much, Ben?"

  "What do you mean?"

  He paused for a moment before speaking. "You're not spending much time at home anymore. Your parents noticed; they've already called me, and they are worried — they're thinking that they did something wrong because you've been avoiding them."

  "I'm not, though. I'm just... you know," I sheepishly said.

  "Yeah, I know, but the problem is that they don't."

  I bit my lip. Athena's face flashed in my mind before I could stop it: sitting on the living-room floor, she was playing with her toys as Poochie barked and cuddled with her. Athena smiling... but not really. That small, quiet smile she got when she was trying not to look lonely.

  And there were my parents; they always asked if I was okay. And I was, but I'm avoiding them, which is causing a rift between us, even if I don't have a problem with them; they don't know that. I released a tired sigh.

  "I came to your house an hour ago after you left. Your sister... she misses her older brother, and Poochie's been whimpering too."

  "They're fine," I say quietly. "I have more important things to do than just fool around."

  There was another pause. "Ben," Gavin said gently, "You don't have to carry everything. You're allowed to be a kid. You're allowed to be a brother."

  "..."

  "Is this about your promise to Noah?"

  I was about to say something when my SEE Goggles blinked awake. They managed to pick up an emergency frequency. I could hear the operator talking about some kind of fire in the forest just twenty kilometres from where I am.

  "We'll talk later."

  "Wait, kid — there's—"

  I didn't wait for him as I flew to the location given to me by my SEE Goggles. It didn't take long for me to get there, only half a minute. I slowed down, looking around the trees, trying to spot flames and smoke. But there was nothing. Not a hint of a forest fire.

  I lightly tapped my visor. "Is this thing broken?"

  "No, but... look out!" Gavin warned.

  My Mind's Eye suddenly caught a projectile flying toward me at speeds my SEE Goggles read as Mach fifty-plus. I easily caught it before bringing it up to my face. It was a large round the size of a phone. Huh — I just got a sense of déjà vu. I crushed the round with my hands and rushed forward, my SEE Goggles already tracing the path where the round came from.

  I grabbed the throat of the person behind the high-tech sniper, and to my surprise, was it a robot? Or was it a cyborg? The thing I was gripping was humanoid and looked kind of similar to a Droid. Except it looked thinner, and it only had two red dots for eyes.

  Its armour was smooth and looked less durable than the cyborg I fought in Russia.

  "Combat bots? What in the world are they doing here?" Gavin said through the earpiece.

  I was about to ask what they were, but the bot lifted its metal leg and planted it under my chin, which didn't do much, but it surprised me enough to squeeze its neck harder than intended, causing the head to pop out of its body.

  "Oops."

  That would have been bad, had it been a human. Thank God it's just a clacker... wait, I think I said it wrong. Before I could ponder the slur, I moved back just before two other silhouettes rushed at me from behind. Those two silhouettes turned out to be robots, both wielding metal batons. I readied myself, but then paused, looking around the forest.

  I could detect fifty silhouettes around me. And surprise, surprise — what came from the woods were tons of robots, wielding batons, high-calibre firearms, a hammer, and one of them even had a katana.

  "I didn't know. I stumbled into a robot convention. What is this, Skynet?" I joked, crossing my arms.

  But that was just a front. Inside, I was serious. Just what was going on? Just what is this? Some kind of trap?

  "Oh — I see. What's going on?" Gavin murmured. "Red, try to destroy them as fast as you can, but try not to use any of your special attacks or any of your Cosmic Energy powers. Just some good old-fashioned fists."

  I raised a brow but did not comment, raising my fists.

  "Be careful; they're not strong, but be on your guard."

  I grinned as I gestured for them to come at me, which they did. Before any of them could reach me, I vanished — to them, at least. I reappeared in the middle of the crowd and took out one robot with a hook. I turned to say something quippy, but they were already on me. Right—robots don't care when one of them just got turned into scrap metal.

  I dispatched multiple of them with just hand-to-hand combat. They were definitely faster and stronger than any robber, I'll give them that, but after Russia, there was no way these Terminator wannabes could hurt me. I took out the ones with firearms. Their puny guns wouldn't hurt me, but they were annoying to deal with. After disposing of them, I faced the melee fighters.

  Again, it was too easy. I even used one of their arms as a blunt weapon to whack the other robots. Then, after a minute, one robot tried to throw a haymaker aimed at my chin. I dodged it easily and countered with a body blow, which made my fist go inside its mechanical body. I pushed the final robot away from my fist, then floated up to scan my surroundings. It was littered with gears, robot limbs, and weapons.

  "Yikes — I'd better clean this up before the environmentalists start announcing me as a polluting villain."

  "Yeah, that would be best. Vaporize them with your heat vision, then we'll talk."

  "Got you." I moved to my litter but froze.

  I then sped across a block or two before grabbing the floating cylindrical object in the air. I could feel it trying to fly away, but I had a firm grip on it. Wait — isn't this a drone? It looked similar to the one Jason uses. I narrowed my eyes behind my visor.

  I see what's going on here. Those were definitely government robots, not like a terrorist group such as the Titans or NWO. I think I know why Gavin didn't want me to use any of my CE powers or Breaker attacks.

  I'm being studied — so they could come up with a plan to detain me.

  I crushed the drone with my hands.