Justin knew something was off as soon as he heard Vice Principal Ackerman summon Alanna to the principal's office.

  Call it intuition, call it experience—whatever you wanted to call it—Justin just knew that Alanna wasn’t safe.

  And it had nothing to do with the fact that Alanna was very attractive and cute. No, it was a gut feeling, deep in his stomach, as he sat at his table during lunch, staring at his food tray and listening to the other students gossip about Alanna’s sudden summons.

  “Man, Alanna must’ve done something really bad to get called to the principal’s office in the middle of lunch!”

  “Bet it has something to do with that viral livestream of hers last night. You know Principal Classen—he loves to lecture people about obeying the law and being a good citizen and all that junk.”

  “I doubt Principal Classen cares about that. If you ask me, I bet Alanna got caught with one of her boyfriends in the girl’s room doing stuff they shouldn’t. Or maybe she got caught doing drugs or something.”

  It took every ounce of Justin’s resolve not to argue with the other students. They clearly knew nothing about Alanna or why she’d been summoned to the principal’s office. In all fairness, Justin didn’t know why, either—but at least he wasn’t pretending to know.

  More importantly, Justin had realized earlier that morning during one of his classes with Alanna why she seemed so familiar.

  The reason he’d recognized her name and face the night before was simple: They were classmates.

  That was why Alanna had seemed so familiar at the manufacturing plant. Alanna Lane was one of the most popular girls at school, someone Justin had barely interacted with until last night. He mostly knew of her because of her popularity and academic success. Alanna was practically destined to be class valedictorian by the time they graduated, and everyone knew it.

  What Justin hadn’t realized until last night was that Alanna also had a rebellious streak. It was the only way he could explain why she’d gone to investigate the Destiny Corporation plant at night—and livestreamed the whole thing. It made him see Alanna in a new light, leaving him wondering what other aspects of her life he didn’t know about.

  Regardless, Justin was thankful Alanna hadn’t recognized him during their encounter. His costume had likely helped obscure his identity, but it also had to do with the fact that they barely interacted at school. Alanna probably didn’t think much about him one way or the other, which suited him just fine. That meant she wouldn’t recognize him.

  He didn’t know how Alanna would react if she discovered he was Paradigm, but he suspected she might try to use that information against him in some way. She was ambitious, after all.

  Far more important, though, was the fact that Justin was an unregistered super. If the government found out, he could face serious trouble—and he also wanted to protect his friends and family by keeping his identity a secret.

  His dad had made it very clear the night before: the Destiny Corporation likely considered Paradigm a threat now and would undoubtedly be trying to learn as much about him as possible to take him down.

  Justin hadn’t fully considered that when he’d used the Gate System to investigate the Anomalies at the plant. But it made him all the more grateful for his dad’s guidance. His dad was a professional superhero with decades of experience—experience Justin fully intended to rely on during his own superhero career.

  Of course, his dad had insisted Justin graduate high school first.

  Dad’s reasoning was simple: he believed a good education was essential for any functioning member of society and didn’t want any of his children to be high school dropouts. Justin suspected that Dad also didn’t want to have to explain to Mom that Justin was planning to drop out of school to become a full-time superhero fighting against the biggest corporation in the world.

  But Dad had at least promised to train Justin—teaching him how to properly use the Gate System and its myriad gates, as well as giving him general superhero training. Dad had even pulled up the footage from Alanna’s livestream and pointed out several ways Justin could have handled the Anomalies better. Some of Dad’s critiques had stung, but Justin couldn’t deny that he had a lot to learn before he could even think of calling himself a proper, registered superhero.

  There was also the issue of legality. As an unregistered superhero, Justin was severely limited in what he could and couldn’t do under the law. Technically, Justin’s excursion to the Destiny Corporation plant the previous night had been illegal—he lacked the legal standing to investigate private corporations. The only reason he hadn’t faced consequences was that the government had no way to track him or uncover his identity. Still, Dad had warned Justin against going on any more unsanctioned outings, at least without telling him first.

  That was a little annoying, but Justin didn’t want to get in trouble with the government—or worse, get Dad in trouble with the government.

  What intrigued Dad most, though, was Justin’s apparent compatibility with Super Energy and his ability to sense Anomalies. Dad had theorized that there might be a connection between Super Energy and the Anomalies, but he said they needed more data before forming any solid conclusions. After family dinner that night, they planned to conduct further testing to learn more about Justin’s unique abilities.

  Justin was eager for answers. He hadn’t thought much about his powers until Dad brought them up, aside from the ability to sense Anomalies. That power had only started manifesting a month ago, right before the collapse of the Jack McDonald Memorial Bridge—a disaster that had claimed many innocent lives. As far as Justin knew, he was the only person in the world with this ability.

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  Dad believed this power could be revolutionary, given that no one had yet devised a reliable way to detect Anomalies before they appeared and caused destruction. But again, they needed more data before Dad could develop a proper scientific theory.

  As for the rest of Justin’s family, Dad had promised to tell them about Justin’s desire to become a superhero during dinner. Ashlee and her fiancé would also be joining them, making it the perfect opportunity to bring everyone onto the same page.

  Dad didn’t believe in keeping secrets from Mom, insisting that they’d be stronger as a family if they worked together.

  Maybe that was true, but Justin couldn’t shake the worry that Mom would freak out when she realized her ‘baby’ had nearly been killed by Anomalies the night before.

  But that was a problem for later.

  Right now, Justin’s gut told him Alanna was in danger—and that he needed to save her.

  “Are you okay, Justin?” asked the easygoing voice of his best friend, Ethan Eclipse, who sat across the table from him. “You look super serious.”

  Breaking out of his thoughts, Justin looked at Ethan, having almost forgotten his friend was there. “What? Oh, I was just thinking about Alanna Lane’s livestream from last night and how weird it was.”

  Ethan frowned as he cut into the chicken breast on his plate before him with his knife. “Really? I figured you were still thinking about how you dropped your food all over the floor earlier, right before the vice principal called Alanna to the principal’s office.”

  Justin cringed at the reminder. “I honestly wasn’t, but now I am—thanks to you.”

  Ethan chuckled. “What are best friends for? But seriously, you got lucky. If Alanna hadn’t been summoned the principal’s office, everyone would’ve spent the rest of the day talking about your little accident. If I were you, I’d be pretty happy about that.”

  Justin shook his head but didn’t argue. “Maybe, but everyone already thinks I’m a klutz anyway. Doubt it would’ve changed much. But thanks for trying to cheer me up. I appreciate it.”

  Ethan was Justin’s best friend. The two had known each other since elementary school and were so close that Justin almost thought of Ethan as another brother, despite how different they looked.

  Where Justin was thin and lanky, Ethan was practically a bodybuilder, standing a good half-foot taller. Ethan’s short-cropped hair and dark skin were in stark contrast to Justin’s longer, messier hair and much lighter complexion.

  But what bonded them together was their shared love of superheroes. That had been the foundation of their friendship all those years ago when Ethan’s family first moved to New Gold City. Ethan, the new kid at school, had introduced himself to Justin after spotting his Alpha Man T-shirt. They’d spent the rest of that day geeking out over their favorite hero, and the friendship had stuck ever since.

  That shared interest made it hard for Justin to keep his identity as Paradigm a secret from Ethan. Dad had instructed him to keep his superhero identity within the family—after all, the more people who knew, the greater the risk of enemies discovering it.

  Keeping the secret also ensured the government wouldn’t find out that Justin was unregistered.

  Ethan winked at Justin. “No problem, bro. Anyway, what do you think about that Paradigm guy from Alanna’s livestream? He seemed pretty cool, especially with the way he could change his powers and costumes with that nifty utility belt of his, though not as cool as Fireworks if you ask me. How do you think that works?”

  Justin knew exactly how it worked, so he had to think hard to pretend like he didn’t. “You know, I’m not sure. It looked like he just moved a dial on his belt and that caused his powers and costume to—”

  An ominous clicking sound in Justin’s ear suddenly made him wince. At first, Justin thought that it had something to do with the school’s speaker system going haywire, but a quick look around the cafeteria told him that none of the other students heard the sound.

  A breath later, Justin realized it was his Anomaly sense going off. Another glance around the cafeteria, however, did not show him any Anomalies, certainly none that he could see.

  That was odd. Was his Anomaly sense just broken or—

  No. Justin could zero in on his Anomaly sense. It felt like it was coming from outside the cafeteria, though he couldn’t pinpoint its exact location at the moment.

  But it was definitely inside the school.

  And if it was inside the school, then that meant that Alanna and the other students and faculty were almost certainly in danger.

  Gotta take care of it, thought Justin, but can’t let Ethan know. Don’t want to scare him.

  Looking at Ethan, Justin grabbed his stomach and said, in the fakest sick voice he could muster, “Ugh, something about lunch didn’t sit right with me. I gotta use the bathroom.”

  Ethan looked down at his plate questioningly. “Was it the beef burrito? Because I always suspected that the beef burritos they serve here are expired.”

  Justin shoved his chair back and rose to his feet, barely paying attention to Ethan now. “Yeah, avoid the burritos unless you want to take a trip to the bathroom. See you in class!”

  Justin rushed off toward the cafeteria exit as quickly as he could. Shoving the doors open, Justin paused and listened to his Anomaly sense again. Now that he was no longer in the cafeteria, he hoped that would make it easier to pinpoint the location of the Anomaly in the school.

  Justin’s Anomaly sense worked somewhat like radar, although far less precise at range. Justin had learned that it was more accurate the closer he was to an Anomaly. He suspected it had a range limit—for example, he couldn’t sense Anomalies across the city—but he needed to do a lot more testing before he could determine what that limit was.

  But it certainly covered the school.

  There. The Anomaly sense was strongest down the hallway, so Justin walked as quickly as he could through the empty hallways of Alexander Fry High. He was grateful that all of the students and faculty were busy, as he didn’t want any of them to run into an Anomaly. Even a Level One Anomaly, the weakest kind, could kill a normal human with no problem.

  Justin’s Anomaly sense grew stronger and stronger the farther down the hallway he walked until he stopped in front of the principal’s office. His sense was strongest here, indicating that the Anomaly was inside the principal’s office.

  Where Alanna is, thought Justin, his hands balling into tight fists.

  As if in response to his thoughts, Justin heard a muffled female yell—Alanna, no doubt—along with the thuds of what sounded like books falling onto the floor. He also heard a third sound, like the sound of daggers digging into carpeting, but he couldn’t identify that one.

  Nor did he really have time to. He just needed to act.

  After a quick look up and down the hall, Justin lifted up his shirt, revealing the Gate System utility belt wrapped around his waist. He reached down, flipped open the fake belt buckle hiding the dial, and turned the dial to the Green Gate.