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  “Yeah, do not say that,” Jason agreed nervously.

  It appeared the large creatures hadn’t seen Mason yet. Although the gang was hoping for it to stay that way, they knew it wouldn’t last for long. Nick came walking over with a hobbling Spencer.

  “What’s with the long faces?” Nick asked, setting Spencer down.

  “Hey, cuz!” Jessica exclaimed, her mood changing slightly.

  “What’s going on?” Spencer asked quietly.

  “Mason’s up there. On top of Rachel. And he’s yet to be noticed by the man-eating beasts,” Oliver said, only about one-third joking.

  “But Rachel is up there,” Nick said.

  “Yeah, I said man-eating beasts, not beast-eating beasts,” Oliver hissed.

  Suddenly, Spencer’s phone buzzed. He quickly fumbled the phone around in his hands, wary of the two beasts with amplified hearing. He answered. It was his dad.

  “Uh, hey dad. Yeah, everything’s going great. Yeah, really. Just fighting two huge man-eaters—or at least trying not to lose the person who is practically sitting on his grave. What? No, no, he’ll be fine. No, no, I have not decided to turn evil and betray my friends. Dad! What do you want? WHAT! I thought these two would be the hardest and now you’re trying to tell me there’s a Boss fight—at the school?

  “Well can you give us a minute to take care of the elephants in the room? Yeah, thanks, Dad. No, I’m not saying it. Fine! I love you, too, Dad.” Spencer hung up, “What a nightmare.”

  “Speaking of nightmares . . . ” Ondrea gestured to Mason who was now standing on top of Rachel’s head in full view, throwing rocks to hit the dinosaurs.

  “We needed to speed things along, so I’m glad I didn’t have to tell Mason to make him visible myself.” Nick muttered. “That would have gone on possibly forever.”

  “Well, what are we going to do now?” Will questioned.

  “Let’s just wait and see what happens now,” Spencer suggested, rising to his feet.

  Damian and everyone else turned toward Spencer and looked at him curiously, trying to figure out what Spencer was planning. Only Nick, with his Super Intelligence, was able to figure it out immediately. Right—when Mason screws up, our quick thinking will kick in and we’ll know what to do. I get it.

  “Hey, Oliver? You don’t need your Flight Powers right now, right?” Nick questioned.

  “Well I’d prefer to keep them, considering that we’re fighting a giant . . . ” he began. But he stopped when he felt Nick steal his Flight. “Dude, really?”

  “Hey, just for now, cuz,” Nick reassured him.

  The dinosaurs suddenly lunged at Rachel, and she had to jump back, throwing Mason off. Nick grabbed Spencer’s hand firmly and launched into the air, swooping toward Mason. Mason shouted in fright. One of the dinosaur’s heads turned to Mason, and its eyes began to glow blistering red once more. Jason ran away from the group and in the opposite direction of where Mason was falling.

  “Hey!” Jason called to the dinosaurs, “Over here! Come get me! Oh boy, hope I don’t get shot by deadly lasers!”

  Both beast’s heads whipped in Jason’s direction and began to fire at him. Meanwhile, a dangling Spencer clutched tightly to Mason’s wrist. Nick activated his Super Strength so he could support them both. Nick began to fly to the rest of the group to put Mason down, when one of the dinosaurs turned its head in Nick’s direction and began to fire, causing Nick to swerve. Mason began getting too dizzy and did the only thing he could think of on the spot. He used his other hand to send little Wind funnels flying around the dinosaurs’ heads, causing the beasts to cry out in pain. Their strong sense of hearing had now been blocked by loud funneling wind.

  Rachel swiped her giant claw at one of the creature’s heads and smacked it to the ground. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Nick set both Spencer and Mason down—only to have Mason get smacked into a tree by a flailing dinosaur tail. Damian saw this and facepalmed once more.

  “Out of all the places he was standing, he had to be standing there. And out of all the places that one tree had to be, it had to be there,” Damian sighed, shaking his head.

  Jason, who had quit agitating the giant, man-eating beasts, ran toward his fallen brother. Nick peered at Mason who had begun to regain consciousness.

  “Man, that kid cannot catch a break,” Nick said quietly.

  “Hey, Bud. Can I have my Power back?” Oliver questioned, walking over to Nick.

  “Oh, yeah, sure. Here,” Nick tapped Oliver on the shoulder and returned his Power.

  “I’ve got an idea!” Teddy exclaimed loudly, “I need you, Nick.”

  “Oh, nice to be needed,” Nick mumbled distractedly.

  “What are you talking about? You’re always needed!” Teddy said, astounded. He took Nick’s arm firmly in his grip and grabbed the tip of the unconscious dinosaur’s tail. Suddenly, Nick found himself and the dinosaur back at the dome, feeling slightly drained.

  “You needed my energy, didn’t you?” he asked rhetorically.

  “Yep. I needed it to get here and now to get back because Teleporting a giant dinosaur isn’t easy,” Teddy said, letting go of the large beast and Teleporting Nick and himself back to the group.

  Nick very quickly and discreetly reenergized Teddy and walked off.

  “So that’s one ugly beast down,” Will commented. “Now, let’s just have Rachel give the other one a little slap, and Teddy can deliver that one home!”

  “No can do, Will,” Nick sighed. “He’s drained, and yes, I can deliver hefty amounts of energy at once. But when Teddy Teleported there, I felt something I’ve never felt before, except for the time when I was in the cage. I felt drained. I’m worried about doing it again with my new and mutated energy, because if I felt even a little drained from that with my new Power, I think I should hold off a little.”

  “Good call,” Damian confirmed, walking up behind Nick. Nick jumped a little. “That’s why I’ll be taking care of this guy,” Damian laughed sympathetically, gesturing towards the crying dinosaur. Damian walked up to the upset, blind beast and cleared the Wind funnels. Then, Damian snapped his fingers—and the dinosaur disappeared.

  “There, back to his home,” Damian said.

  “Are you kidding me?” Jessica hissed.

  “Yeah man! That’s all it took?” Mason yelled, coming back with Jason.

  “Well, what did you expect?” Damian inquired, surprised.

  “Not that!” Darla growled.

  “Yeah! Why didn’t you do that immediately?” Oliver questioned, looking flustered.

  “You were able to do so many amazing things in that other dimension. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN YOU COULD DO THAT!” Avery yelled dramatically into the sky.

  “What’s with you, Shadow?” Ondrea wondered aloud.

  Suddenly, Damian glared at Ondrea.

  “Guys, let us not make assumptions. Dark Magic is very bizarre!” Jason exclaimed quickly.

  “Yeah guys, no need to accuse my dad—Damian, not Shadow— of anything,” Nick commanded.

  “I would know. Dark Magic is really not predictable; sometimes it works, sometimes not. It’s not right to accuse people of things just because of their Power level and what they can do,” Spencer added.

  “Look, I wasn’t accusing him of . . . ” Will began.

  “No. You weren’t, Will,” Damian stated coldly. “Not you.”

  There were a few seconds of silence.

  “Hey guys, my dad said something about a new threat at the school. We should probably go and check it out,” Spencer said quietly.

  “Shouldn’t we make sure we don’t have to tie up any loose ends around here?” Rachel asked, turning back into a human.

  “No, I think everything’s fine here. We’ll do that later,” Spencer said.

  THIRTY

  In Which Spencer Makes a Sacrifice

  Everyone began heading to the school at a fast pace. Oliver looked around at all his friends as they were using their own in
dividual Powers to get to the school.

  “To think, it started out with just me and Jess sitting on our beds nearly two years ago, wishing for a new school. I never dreamed I’d meet friends as cool and different as everyone here,” Oliver thought. “I remember zooming around the classroom some time ago thinking about what would happen next, when I got yelled at by Mrs. Mel. Boy, how we’ve changed! First Teddy, then Darla, then Ondrea. Slowly all these wonderful people began getting involved in my life, and I began to get a good idea of what would happen next. Then Francis happened, and then I went to Mrs. Thomas’s class.

  “Then there was Mrs. Macintosh and then the whole thing with Francis, when he was kidnapped. That’s when all of this began. Then we met Will and found out about Rachel. Then we lost Rachel in New York City, but found Nick! Afterwards, the whole drama with Mrs. Thomas, and then there was Avery. She kidnapped Nick, which I guess led to the father-son reunion with Damian.

  “After all that, we finally got a break, but it all started up again when Mason and Jason, the Twins of Legend, arrived and helped us with that wind cyclone. All that led to more of The Boss, which then led Nick to Spencer, but before that, we had to deal with Luke. I thought all was lost, but my friends and family prevailed.

  “I can’t believe we’ve been at this for almost a year and still going strong. I’ve got to be careful though, because that could all change in a matter of seconds. We have all changed so much and discovered things about ourselves we never thought we would. Ha! And I wanted to be normal at some point! We better get through this fight here, or it’s all over.

  “I miss Mom and Dad! I have barely had time to do anything with them with this whole thing going on. Thank goodness Mom and Dad decided to accept their promotions at work a few months ago and have so much travel right now, or else they’d be having cows right now,” Oliver laughed to himself.

  “What?” Jessica asked smiling at him.

  “Nothing, just thinking about how far we’ve come,” he responded.

  “We have certainly come a long way. And to think, this all started because of Francis,” Ondrea remarked.

  Everyone laughed. “Yeah, remember when Oliver chased after that dude and totally psyched him out,” Teddy commented, smiling. He breathed a sigh of relaxation.

  “That was cool,” Jessica admitted.

  “Yeah, but good ol’ Teddy had to pull me out of the path of the bullet,” Oliver reminisced. “I wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for you, buddy.”

  “Nah, I’m sure you would. Ondrea could have given you a good Heal,” Teddy reminded him.

  “Hey guys, can I butt in?” Nick asked.

  “Sure,” Jessica said happily.

  “Oh, guys! Remember when I found out I could break open the Earth and almost killed Nick, but Ondrea Healed him?” Teddy asked.

  “Oh, yeah, how could I forget almost dying? To be fair, it’s happened so many times already,” Nick added sadly.

  “I remember that. I also remember when Nick got so sick that he had, in fact, died,” Oliver sighed. “Man, that was rough. But you’re still with us going strong!”

  Nick remained silent.

  “You good?” Darla questioned, surprising everyone. “Sorry, I’ve been listening for a good while now.”

  “What? Yeah. I’m fine. I’m just thinking about . . . how lucky I am to have you guys in my life,” Nick said softly, smiling once more.

  “Guys! We’re here!” Spencer shouted. Everyone shared a quick glance and raced to the front of the school.

  “By the looks of it, my dad could really use a hand,” Spencer yelled quickly, seeing The Boss being held up overhead by a giant monster bigger than the school building. Spencer sped toward his dad.

  “What’s going on? I’ve never seen this glorified beast before!” he yelled while being swatted by a house-sized paw.

  “This monster is called The Universe. It’s job is to protect it! Unfortunately for us, that means this thing is after all anomalies—Supers included!” The Boss yelled, “You kids have to get away from here!”

  “Wait, then why’d you tell us to come here?” Spencer shouted.

  “In case I needed help, but you just have to get away from here! The more Powers and attacks you hit this beast with, the bigger it will grow, since The Universe needs to defend itself from a greater Power,” The Boss explained.

  “Well, you’re coming, too, then,” Spencer mumbled, turning away.

  He jetted away and went for Nick, who was standing with the others and just staring open-mouthed at the beast. “Nick! Come on! We’ve got to help my dad!” Spencer pleaded.

  “As long as I’m doing it with you, bud!” Nick agreed.

  Spencer grabbed Nick’s arm and was about to jet into the air, but Oliver needed to say something.

  “Wait! There are people in the school. We can’t just fight this thing like that! They could get hurt,” Oliver warned.

  Spencer remembered something his dad said. The Universe sent this thing to destroy anomalies, so we have to get every Super as far away from here as possible, but keep them moving.

  “Oliver! You and everyone else has to get EVERY LAST SUPER in the school as far away from here as possible, but keep them moving! Also, do not attack it with your Powers! That giant monster is The Universe and it’s searching for people like us, so you need to get them far away from here. ESPECIALLY THE INCREDIBLY POWERFUL PEOPLE!” Spencer commanded. “Nick and I have to take care of something, then we’ll join you guys.”

  Spencer kept his brain active as he jetted Nick up to free The Boss.

  “Avery, Oliver, and Darla can stay since they have the weakest abilities,” Spencer thought, “but that’s also an issue because they could easily be killed. And most of their Powers are defensive not offensive. Jason needs to stay behind. He is one of the Twins of Legend and, because he only has two Powers, they aren’t that traceable. But he can use those two Powers pretty well.”

  Spencer got to his dad at last and said three simple words that made The Boss and Nick think he had gone absolutely insane. “Punch its hand.”

  “Didn’t you just say not to?” Nick asked, uncertain he made the right choice to go through with this.

  “Please. Dad, get ready to jet away!” Spencer said, weary.

  Nick punched it as hard as he could. The monster screamed in agonizing defiance as it released The Boss from its hairy grip.

  Oh no! Spencer purposefully dropped Nick in midair as his dad shot away from the beast. Oliver saw this and he, too, shot into the air to catch a falling Nick. He caught him and put him down just in time to see the monster slam its ugly hand into Spencer like a bat hitting a home run. Spencer went flying for miles into the distance.

  The next thing Oliver heard was both Nick and Damian muttering a string of curses too awful to repeat. “Like father, like son,” Oliver thought. “Thank goodness, The Boss didn’t see that.”

  Oliver knew the group needed a plan. He compiled a list of all his friends in his head: Ondrea, Avery, Damian, Darla, Jason, Jessica, Mason, Nick, Rachel, Spencer, Teddy, and Will. He’d already determined that Darla, Teddy, and himself would be staying put, along with Jason, to figure out The Universe.

  “I might keep one more person here,” Oliver thought. “But for now, we need all the people we can to round up our peers and get them as far away from here as possible.”

  Suddenly, he remembered The Boss and asked his friends where he was.

  “I think he went behind the school,” Ondrea offered.

  “Why? You know what, never mind, That’s not important. Look, here’s what needs to happen. Everyone, but Darla, Teddy, Jason, and I are going to get all the students out of the area and keep them moving! It’s like being a traffic cop. All right?” Oliver explained. “Teddy, Darla, and Jason, stay here.”

  “You got it, chief,” Teddy declared, looking nervous.

  “Guys, come on,” Ondrea demanded, pulling everyone toward the school.

  Oliv
er caught a quick look exchanged between Jason and Mason, as Ondrea was pulling Mason along.

  “Don’t be an idiot, and be safe please. Don’t get yourself killed,” Jason whispered sternly.

  “Don’t bore our friends with your talk—and don’t die, bro,” he responded, his voice cracking. With that, Mason was off with Ondrea and the rest of the group.

  Three minutes later, Darla got a phone call. “Oh, hey Ondrea. They aren’t with you? I’m sure they’ll show up. Yeah, we’ve got to plan something for The Universe. All right, be safe. Bye!”

  “What did she want?” Oliver asked distractedly.

  “Oh, it’s nothing too important. They’ll show up,” she responded quickly. Despite her sometimes-cruel nature, Darla didn’t want Oliver to have to worry about Nick and Damian.

  “Okay. Before we start trying to get rid of this guy, we need to make sure Ondrea and the others get everyone out of the school,” Oliver said hurriedly.

  30.2

  After saying goodbye to Jason, Mason and the others rushed to the floating cloud in the sky and entered the school. It was utter chaos. Kids were zooming around the school and, of course, the school was on fire. Everyone was panicking, but the gang didn’t know why.

  “I’ve got a skill that I haven’t used in the longest time,” Jessica mentioned. She began to read the minds of some of the kids rushing past her.

  “Apparently, all the doors are blocked,” Jessica said, shaking her head, confused.

  “But the back door is open!” Avery declared.

  “Yeah we just came through it!” Will agreed, throwing his hands in the air dramatically.

  “Right, you idiots!” Rachel laughed. “Now we just need to tell them!”

  “Wait!” Jessica yelped. “Where is Nick? Now that I think about it, where is Damian?”

  “We’ll worry about that in a minute! We have to warn them!” Rachel yelled.

  “Oh! Ondrea, you call Darla, I’ll handle this!” Mason called from a few feet away.

  “Are you sure about this? You’re pretty new. You don’t really have a reputation,” she replied quietly.