Disclaimer: I do not own the DC characters Hawk and Dove, whom I loosely based my main characters on.

"Check it out, Phil."

"Frost bite?"

Phil nodded. "That's my power. Ice," he said, looking down at his hand, "I've been getting better at not freezing things since I've been here, but I'm still quite cold to the touch most of the time."

Dan stared at him, flexing his right hand. He's adapted to shaking with his right over the years although he was predominantly left handed. It usually led to a less awkward situation. Anyway, this couldn't be true. Dan could not have gotten randomly placed with someone who had powers on the opposite side of the same spectrum. It was too much of a coincidence.

"What can you do?" Phil asked, leaning against the counter.

"Er, fire," Dan replied as he tried to figure out what to do with his hands, "I'm pyrokinetic."

Phil raised his eyebrows. "So that's why we produced steam. You're hot and I'm cold. We're polar opposites," he said, a grin sliding onto his face.

"I guess so," said Dan.

"How weird that this should happen," mused Phil, crossing his arms. Dan was taller than Phil by a few centimeters, but Phil just looked bigger. "Do you think it was on purpose?" he added.

"Dr. Hurley said it was random," Dan muttered.

Phil let out a short laugh and looked down at his feet. "Right," he said softly. The kettle started to hiss behind him. He turned and unplugged it before producing two mugs from the cupboards by his knees. "Hot chocolate?" Phil asked.

"Oh," said Dan, "I thought you were making tea."

"Tea is for the weak," Phil replied as he poured two mugs full, "Also known as me after a morning of practice. Besides, tea is only good warm, and as soon as I touch a mug it becomes too cold to enjoy properly. I can only handle so much. So, hot chocolate it is."

Phil handed Dan and mug, and he found the other boy was right. The glass was so cold it produced another tiny cloud of steam as Phil handed it over to Dan. Phil took a sip, but when Dan moved to do the same, he found his drink steaming hot again. He supposed there was one perk to being warm all the time.

"It looks like you have the same problems that I do," said Dan.

"Really?"

He nodded. "I've touched things and burnt a hole right through them before. I once made an egg burst just by holding it. Convection or whatever."

"No way," said Phil, "That sounds so much cooler than what I've done. I just can't drink hot things, or hold onto doorknobs for too long."

Dan made a face. "Why not?"

"The next person who touches it would get stuck to the metal. It would be like sticking your tongue to a pole in the winter time," Phil said.

"That doesn't sound pleasant," Dan remarked.

Phil shook his head. "My brother hasn't been too fond of me for a while."

"How long have you been here?" Dan asked, placing his mug on the side table.

Phil blew out of his lips. "About nine months now," he nodded, "I haven't been getting much better at the whole control thing though."

"Great," said Dan sardonically. He thought that maybe it was alright that his parents turned him in on the hope that he would be able to control the heat. With that new information, his bitterness returned full force.

"I mean, others get better," Phil added quickly, "There's a girl I met when I got here, Carrie, who used to not be able to talk because it would burst people's eardrums. She's got a thing with her voice. Now, she talks perfectly normal, and decides when to burst people's eardrums."

Dan raised an eyebrow. Phil plowed on. "So it's definitely possible. I can things under pressure, and even though I still freeze things when I touch them, I know I'll-"

"Phil," Dan interrupted, holding up his hand, "I believe you. I'm just impatient."

The other boy nodded and took a long gulp of his cold drink. "Sorry. I just haven't let myself lose faith," he said quietly.

"It's good you have that quality," said Dan, "I don't think I'd still be optimistic after nine months."

Phil shrugged, smiling. "Well, what else do I have? Some plaid shirts, this tiny room, a few friends, and uncontrollable ice powers."

"And a pretty swag roommate," Dan added seriously.

Phil laughed. Dan smiled in response and finished off his drink. So far he liked everyone he met. Jenna, Zoe, and Phil were all normal and even nice. The rumors that circulated around the people he grew up with were false- they weren't weird. Dr. Hurley was right, Dan decided. They were all alike.

The next morning Dan was woken up by an insane beeping noise. He shot into a sitting position and glared around the room looking for the source of the noise. Seconds after he sat up, though, the beeping stopped. He looked suspiciously around the room. The hell was that?

"Phil?" he called, pushing his covers aside. The noise had been so loud; he doubted his roommate slept through it.

And he was right. "Yeah?" he heard Phil answer.

"Did you hear that?" he asked as he pushed the door open and went out into the lounge. He could see Phil in the bathroom brushing his teeth.

"What?" he asked through a mouthful of toothpaste.

Dan stretched. "That beeping. It was so freaking loud…" he said, looking around the room again.

"Oh, that was the alarm," Phil explained after he rinsed out his mouth, "It's built into the walls, or something. It goes off every morning at the same time in every room, except for weekends."

Dan cocked his head. "It's built in?"

"Yep," Phil replied as he walked past Dan and back into his room, "You should hurry and get ready as well. We're on a schedule."

"We are?"

Phil closed his door and spoke to Dan through it. "In two hours your first practice session will start. You'll want to get as much done before then as you can, including breakfast."

"What do I need to get done before then?" Dan asked, running his hand through his hair nervously.

The bedroom door opened and Phil smiled at him. However, Dan was distracted by the large bear on his shirt. "You'll at least want to stretch." he said and walked around Dan to turn on the kettle.

Dan wore a black a t-shirt –like any other day- and his one pair of lounge pants. Phil mentioned stretching, which meant there would be physical activity, which Dan was not a fan of. In fact, it made him dread ever having to leave this room. While the water ran after he brushed his teeth, Dan tried to tame his brown curls. He tousled them and patted them down, but nothing impressed him. He would just have to live with eternal bedhead then. When Dan walked out of the bathroom and regarded Phil sitting on the sofa reading a book, he felt insanely jealous of the boy's perfect hair.

Thankfully Phil offered to walk with Dan to the cafeteria, because he had no idea where it was. All the corridors looked the same. He could hardly remember all the turns Jenna took when she showed him around. When they came upon the cafeteria, which was a large white room with round tables and a couple wood burning fireplaces, they had an hour and half before "practice sessions" started.

Upon their entering, Phil paused at a kiosk with a computer screen sitting on it. He tapped it a couple times and then a little slip of paper the size of an index card printed out of the bottom of the monitor. Dan stared at it, confused, and Phil turned.

"You type your name in to get your schedule for the day," he explained, "It's a touch screen."

Dan nodded and tapped the screen. A message popped up asking for his name as well as a virtual keyboard. He put his name in and the screen turned off right as his own card printed out. He studied it for a moment before joining Phil in a line on the wall.

"What is the purpose of this?" he asked.

"It's your schedule, like school," Phil replied, "They don't really change day to day, at least not for people like us."

"Then what's the point?"

"To keep track of everyone, maybe," said Phil with a shrug, "They say the population here is rapidly growing lately."

"The man has to keep track of their freaks, after all," added a voice from behind Dan. He turned and found a curly haired blond girl, smiling coyly.

Phil leaned over. "Morning, Carrie," he said cheerfully.

So this was the girl with the vocal powers. For someone who didn't speak at all before she came here, she sure had a lovely voice. "Hi, Phil," she said, "Who's your new friend?"

"This is Dan. He arrived yesterday and is my new roommate," he said, clapping Dan on the shoulder.

"Pleasure," said Carrie with a wider smile, "How are you enjoying meeting fellow freaks?"

Dan blinked awkwardly for a moment. "Er, I've only met a couple, but so far they've all been pretty cool," he said with a nod.

"Excellent," Carrie replied, copying his nod.

It didn't take Dan very long to figure out that they were queuing up for breakfast. While he waited, Dan read his schedule card. From nine to eleven "breakfast" was listed. "Practice session" was listed at quarter past eleven and didn't end until one. He was nervous. What could he possibly be doing for three hours? It's not like he knew how to do anything.

Dan joined Phil and Carrie at a table towards the back of the cafeteria. He suddenly felt the feeling of being the new kid in school. Everyone had their group of friends and their special table. For a while it was just the three of them at the table. Carrie and Phil chatted, while Dan just tried to people watch. He wished he could tell what everyone's powers were. Maybe then he would be more social and not afraid that if he rubbed someone the wrong way, they could decimate him on the spot.

Two more people joined their table then. One was a tall ginger boy named Luke who could stretch way beyond human limits (which he demonstrated by ruffling Carrie's hair from across the table without standing) and the other was a girl with a pixie cut named Emma. Dan liked Emma. She was literally compelling- when Dan asked what her power was, she told him she didn't have any powers, and Dan believed her wholeheartedly. After they all started laughing, he made the connection that her power was what she called compulsion. Whatever she said, anyone would believe her.

Dan thought that was pretty sweet.

Breakfast did not last as long as he wanted it to. Carrie left with Emma and Luke the opposite way of Dan and Phil, who at a glance, seemed to have their practice together.

"It's because we have similar powers," Phil explained after Dan asked why, "They group people together like that. There will be other people in there that have natural based powers with us."

The gym was nearly full already when they walked in, and there was a half hour until the sessions started. "Do we practice all together?" Dan asked Phil.

Phil shook his head. "No, we're headed there," he said, pointing across the room to an open white door. It seemed empty from there.

"Is it fireproof?" Dan asked quietly as they passed a group of men in suits standing behind a balance beam.

Phil was watching them, an oddly suspicious look on his face. "Yes," he replied distantly, "Jenna had a lightning storm going on in there a few weeks ago."

Jenna. She could make electricity, which was technically a natural occurrence. As Dan and Phil entered the room, Dan hoped Jenna would show up. He liked her, and she was easy to be around.

The room was a lot bigger than Dan expected it to be. There was a row of punching bags, and a wall of targets, and other things he didn't recognize. There was also a mini track around the whole room, where a couple people were already jogging. "Should I be running?" he asked Phil.

The other boy shrugged. "If you want," he said. "I usually just end up making it snow or something if my heart rate gets too high, so I just stand here and stretch."

Dan raised his eyebrows. "I once set grass on fire during phys. ed." he said, "I'm not a good runner."

Phil grinned. "Looks like we have even more in common than I thought."

Once the room had filled up, a baby-faced blond boy stood at the front of the room and shouted over the talking. "Shut it!"

Everyone stopped talking right away. The boy put his hands on his hips. "You all know the drill. Just do what I say and nobody's brain will explode, yeah?"

Dan turned sharply to Phil. Phil smiled weakly. "Charlie can control pressure. So, he could make your brain explode if he wanted to." he muttered. Dan took a breath.

"Now," Charlie pulled his card out of his pocket, "Which one of you is Daniel?"

Dan's heart leaped into his throat. "Me." he said quietly, raising his hand.

Charlie beckoned him forward with a finger. "The rest of you, go about your business," he said. The crowd dispersed throughout the room and Dan walked over, his heart beating nervously, heat rising from his fingertips up. "So, Daniel," said Charlie, "Welcome to your first session."

Dan blinked. "Thanks."

"I know you must be confused, as no one's explained what this is, so here it is." Charlie grabbed Dan's upper arm and steered him into a corner, away from the others. "These practice sessions are for you to play around with your powers safely. Everything is equipped to survive any sort of natural disaster you can think of," he explained, "My job is to oversee everything, and to help if needed. I've been where you are. You'll catch on, okay?"

Dan nodded. "So I can just go over and try to set one of those punching bags on fire?"

Charlie grinned. "That's probably not the best idea. How about you just singe it first," he said, "Come on. Try not to burn anyone."

Dan decided he would try. He and Charlie walked over to the other end of the room and stood by a gray punching bag hanging from the ceiling. Dan studied it for a moment. Just singe it. He took a breath and flexed his hands before he pressed them to the nylon. When he brought them back, nothing was different.

"Concentrate," Charlie commented, his arms crossed.

Dan nodded, his nervousness growing. He's never been told to burn something before. He's always done it on accident when he wasn't thinking. Now he was thinking and he couldn't do it. Charlie said concentrate. He didn't even know what to concentrate on.

He tried a couple more times before Charlie shrugged. "It'll come. Baby steps," he said, "Keep trying." He nodded once before walking away to talk to someone else, leaving Dan alone.

He pushed his curls off his forehead. He honestly had no idea what he was doing. Okay, he thought, whenever his heart rate got too high he ended up setting something on fire accidentally. So, maybe he could pretend to be angry, or make himself angry.

Dan closed his eyes. He thought of Alex breaking up with him suddenly. He thought of his brother breaking his Sonic disc in half. He thought of his parents turning him into the government. He opened his eyes. He didn't feel any warmer and nothing had burst into flames.

This was ridiculous. "Come on." he hissed, smacking it with the heel of his hand.

Phil appeared from behind his punching bag. His hands were stuffed in his pockets. "How's going?" he asked.

"I've done nothing," replied Dan moodily, "Charlie told me to try and burn the lining of this thing. And I haven't even left a mark."

Phil gripped the bag. "Maybe you've gone cold," he teased.

"Oh yeah, that's rich," Dan scoffed, rolling his eyes, "Wouldn't that just be perfect?"

"You obviously need more work," said Phil, watching Dan intently.

Dan narrowed his eyes. "Gee, thanks, Phil. I appreciate your support as I try to use my powers on purpose for the first time," he said, some venom leaking into his voice.

Phil stepped away. "I'm helping." he said.

"Are you kidding me?" Dan snapped, throwing his hands in the air. At that motion, the face of the bag that was facing him burst into flames. He started at the sudden influx of light and heat, flinching away. Phil's eyes widened and he quickly moved back in. He pressed his hands to the opposite side of the bag, and soon the flames were out and the whole thing was coated in a thin layer of frost.

"I didn't know that would happen," said Phil sheepishly.

"Phil," Dan accused, "You were having a go at me on purpose."

"Of course I was. I would never be rude to someone for real. My abilities become more powerful when I get worked up, so I figured it would work for you too," he said. He looked disapprovingly at the frozen punching bag. "I didn't know it would set fire, though."

"You put it out pretty well."

Phil's grin grew. "I didn't know that would happen either."

Dan reached over and touched the frost. As soon as his fingers came in contact with it, it started to melt, dripping from the heat. Dan raised his eyebrows. He wasn't quite hot enough to damage the nylon, but it was enough to melt really thin ice. It was something. Dan dragged his hand down the layer of ice and watched excitedly as it dripped away. He did it of his own accord.

"Check it out, Phil," he said happily, "I'm a freaking super hero."

Phil laughed. "You're too skinny to be a hero."

Phil hung around Dan for the rest of the time as he tried to burn the nylon lining again and again just by touching it. Although Phil managed to freeze it over several more times, Dan could never make his skin hot enough to discolor it. He could melt Phil's ice though, and that seemed to impress Charlie.

When the three hour session was over, Phil and Dan went to lunch. Emma and Luke joined them once more, but Carrie never showed, and no one seemed to think that was weird. In the afternoon Dan's card said "class" in the library for an hour and a half. There a tall guy with a Jew fro explained to him that because he was new, Dan would spend time in the library learning about the history of The School, and of those like it all around the world, and how they're related to him controlling his own abilities.

It all seemed quite boring at the beginning, and after fifteen minutes of reading a textbook sized history book, it proved to be such. When it was time to go, Dan had nodded off, and the only thing that woke him was Tall-Guy-In-Glasses slamming his book shut before him.

And then it was time to figure out how to get back to his room. He wished he was allowed to keep his phone… not that his parents would have continued to pay the bill anyway. But it still would have been easier than turning down four hallways that all looked the same with a huge history book under his arm. He didn't come across many other people on his way, but when he neared the end of the corridor, he heard voice. There were at least two, and they were low and hurried.

"… asked him to set the fucking thing on fire. That is not subtle." It was Jenna. And she did not sound so welcoming and nice like she was the day before.

"I didn't ask him to set it on fire, Shutter," said the other voice, a male, "I asked him to burn it. Simple and small."

Dan pressed himself against the wall. They must have been talking about him, the male voice was Charlie. Unless there was another guy with fire powers who also knows Jenna. And why was Charlie calling her Shutter?

"You're asking to be caught. You are supposed to be teaching them to control their powers, not use them," Jenna snapped harshly.

Charlie sighed in frustration. "How can they control it if they don't know what they're capable of? This is all a waste of people we could use!" he growled, "We'll have to reteach them."

"And that's a selling point for us," said Jenna, calmer now, "Anyway; you should have told him to try and not burn the stupid thing. That's what a real instructor would have done."

"I'm telling you, he could be a serious asset to us. Especially if we start training him and Lester together. They have the whole opposite thing going on, and as far as I can tell, they really balance each other out." Lester, opposite. That must be Phil, Dan thought.

"It was his first day!"

"Which is why it was so amazing! He just needs to know how to use the fire," Charlie said excitedly, "Dan has some serious power-"

At the mention of his name, Dan's stomach twisted, and he felt his fingers sinking into the cover of the book he was squeezing. Unnaturally. Without thinking, he stopped gripping the book so hard, which resulted in it slipping from his gasp. It almost fell in slow motion as Dan watched it fall to the floor. The sound echoed in the empty hallway. Jenna and Charlie's voice cut off suddenly. Dan quickly bent to pick up the book, avoiding the burnt finger prints in the cover. When he straightened up, both Jenna and Charlie were standing before him.

"Sorry," he said quickly, "I got lost trying to find the stairs."

Jenna and Charlie exchanged a look. "I'll show you," said Jenna with a smile that looked genuine, but after eavesdropping, he knew that it wasn't.

Dan nodded and smiled back. Charlie clapped Dan on the shoulder before heading down the corridor, rubbing his temple. Dan turned and followed Jenna the opposite way, trying not to ask the questions that were burning in his mind. The one that concerned him the most was why they were talking about him and Phil.