He stepped into the school, lightly tripping over the last step, feet hitting the concrete heavily. His hands slapped the cold plastic tile when he fell, his bruised face held inches above the floor before his muscles strained to push him up. He limped achingly down the dark hallway wondering why, at nine o clock, he had come back.

"Only for you man," he cautioned out loud, wincing at the harsh breaking of his voice against the abandoned air. It was cold and few of the lights were on, though an aura of electricity seemed to surround the boy as he limped. Everything about him seemed to droop. His clothes hung baggily, and ripped, his shoes scuffed the polished floor. Even his black dreadlocks hung painfully down on his forehead. Dripping a watery mixture of sweat, blood, and thicker things better left unthought-of.

The evenings battles had been entirely fruitless, a series of rash beatings in search of information about a certain friend who had skipped lunch, French, history and a long walk home. A long solo walk home. As well as many after school activities that would never see the light of a college application. Somehow 'superhero' just didn't fit into the neat check boxes provided.
At the missed lunch he hadn't been worried, a long talk to a physics professor concerning the latest super string theory, or with the biology teacher questioning the leaps in nanotech would have passed the time. Even French hadn't worried him considering the super brain was already fluent. But no one missed history. No one, not even with the book memorized would one even caution to consider missing history. It was just not done.

So he was worried, more so when, upon calling home, found his friend not to have left school. Thinking the worst the now bedraggled superhero had rushed out to beat the whereabouts of his missing sidekick out of several of their more unsavory companions. And had returned to the school thoroughly beaten. The night hadn't been without its victories but they were shallow because his friend was still missing.

"You left out the metal thingies baka!" The voice interrupted his reverie, echoing down the empty hallway from the one light in the very bowels of the school. The one light he had assumed to be the janitors slacking off, though none of them were of the female persuasion of which the accusatory voice was definitely a member of.

"Did not!" an identical tone answered, made louder by his increasing proximity. He could just make out, squinting, the outlines of two girls sitting side by side at a lab bench. Their long, curly blonde hair was swept up in two identically messy buns and their red- black shirts seemed to flow together at the seem. Their pale necks even shared an identical freckle set slightly beneath the left ear. In fact their difference seemed to be the hand they were using to work at some unexplainable object out of his sight. Shocked he stopped in his dragging tracks.

"holy shit!" he cried out " I'm in a Dean Koontz Novel,"

"Actually, V, The Shining was written by Stephen King,"

"Shut up Rich," he paused briefly, reforming the word in his mouth, " Rich?"

"The one and only, why are you here at," he fumbled for his watch momentarily dropping the conversation. Behind him the girls continued arguing in some unintelligible language consisting of growls, cat noises and a few Japanese words thrown in for good measure.

"Do they always do that?" Virgil asked, holding up his left wrist to stop Richie's quest for a watch.

"Pretty much… It's nine!"

"yeah… you missed our meeting bro,"

"yeah well," he coughed politely and the girls stood up together.

"We'll just go check on the rest of the robot… hopefully Jake hasn't totally taken control again" one said.

"Just don't TOUCH our motors" the other completed as they walked out.

"Nice"

"Well I am president… but yeah sorry about that I just… well…the competition is next week and we're not exactly ready…" the blonde tugged at his hair ignoring the glare his partner was giving him.

"What competition, what are you talking about? Has that giant brain of yours finally short circuited or is the peroxide just getting to you?"

"Varsity Science," Virgil glared at him once more and the blonde found himself looking at the strange goo that jiggled from the drooping dreadlocks. "V, What happened to you?" he questioned, cutting his companion from mocking the science team that owned his soul.

"err… well… If you're so smart you figure it out" he smiled smugly at his scathingly brilliant comeback, one any third grader would have been proud of.

"Fine," he sighed and blinked, " I skipped out on the afternoon including history, you got worried and called my mom but she told you I hadn't left school yet so you went to find me…am I right?" Virgil stared in shock.

"How does he do it?"

"Funny," a female voice intoned behind them, " I would have thought you climbed through a few sewers in your spare time" one of the twins returned to the room, smiling at the tale end of the conversation.

"Very funny, seems I didn't catch your name"

" Tylah, though you've not given me the honor of yours"

"oh, I'm, ah, Virgil"

The other twin entered dragging a protesting boy by the back of his shirt. His shoes made long scuffs as he was pulled between the two classroom. "so you're Virgil" the other twin cooed, casually smacking the still complaining boy as she did.

"You been talking bout me Rich?" the blonde flushed and busied himself chastising the protester as he was unceremoniously dropped.

"Oh just scathes" the nameless twin said, adding in an undertone that Jake had in fact taken over the robot and had therefore been forcibly removed from the room lest they had another body to hide.

"And your name is?"

"Anya…don't you touch my motor T" she lost interest in Virgil and ran across the room, leaping over a desk as though by second nature. Virgil raised an eyebrow at Richie as Jake, thoroughly depressed, joined the twins.

"Varsity Science?"

"Yeah"

"Geek"

"Well with a brain like mine…." He trailed of and provided a smug smile enough to contest any of Virgil's .

"We lose at least a rank" one of the twins, or was it Jake, called from the back of the room before another argument ensued.

"Shut it Onion"

"Richard Osgood Foley you did not just call me Onion… sic him Jake" though all that amounted of this threat was a whimpering Jake and a side comment that sounded suspiciously like some boyfriend you turned out to be.

"Yeah… well… Rich what is Varsity Science?"

"It's a competition thing where we go places and compete and stuff…and we could use someone on physics lab this year who knew electricity" he smiled pleadingly at Virgil and the superhero was unable to resist.

"Just tell me I won't have to stay here till one"

"No of course not" Richie smiled, patting his partners shoulder.

"they kick us out at 12" one of the twins replied. Virgil shook his head, no way he was going to be begged into this. Richie could whimper, smile, throw puppy dog eyes at him. Hell Richie could wibble at him- it wasn't going to happen