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

Dan and Phil had lunch with their usual crowd of friends that afternoon. Dan decided he could now consider Phil's friends to be his own, since he really had no intention to talk to anyone else. He still stuck close to Phil, but he was becoming less awkward around the others. Carrie especially seemed to like to beat him out of his shell. She was very sweet, but she was firm, and she was good at making him feel comfortable. PJ never seemed to show up for mealtimes, but today his roommate Chris was there. His power was a lot like Zoe's (whom Dan actually found himself missing) where he could mimic voices instead of appearances. He and Zoe would make a kickass team.

After their lunch hour, Dan said goodbye to Phil and made his way to the library for his meeting with Jenna. Phil didn't seem to think that meeting Jenna out of his daily schedule was such a good idea. Dan was excited though. He got to skive off that stupid library study time and maybe do something productive.

And speaking of Zoe… arms wrapped around Dan's neck suddenly outside the door to the library. "Dan! How've you been?" she said happily, right into his ear.

Dan chuckled and hugged her back briefly. "Hey, Zoe," he said, "I'm good. How've you been?"

"Fantastic," she replied and stepped away.

"So, what are you doing here?" Dan asked her.

Zoe looked around. "Alfie asked me to come. Apparently there are a couple others too," she said, "Something about a special meeting. I hoped I was getting exempt from this silly studying business."

"Me too!" said Dan, nodding in agreement.

Dan and Zoe waited outside the library on their own while they waited for others to show up. There were only a couple others who showed up. Dan didn't recognize any of them, but that wasn't much of a surprise since, again, he didn't want to socialize with anyone around him unless he absolutely had to.

Zoe was the first person to notice Jenna and Alfie, a broad shouldered guy with brown scruff, round the corner towards the small group. They were dressed differently than Dan expected. All the times that he had seen Jenna, she had been completely dolled up with heels and a dress. Now she was wearing tight workout pants and a t-shirt, and a ponytail. Alfie was wearing a pair of lounge pants and t-shirt as well. Dan exchanged a look with Zoe, who looked a little anxious. They were both wearing jumpers.

"This way, everyone," Alfie said, nodding back the way they came from.

The group followed wordlessly. Alfie walked slightly ahead of Jenna, who turned to talk to the group of them. "Listen closely, guys. This meeting is completely unscheduled for all of us. We are technically not here right now. Alfie and I have picked you all because we think you'll… understand," she said, "And because your powers are particularly useful."

"So we're breaking the rules?" asked a short girl in the back of the group.

"Abso-fucking-lutely," Jenna replied.

Zoe looked worried. "Won't we get in trouble?" she asked.

"Don't worry, Zoe," said Alfie as he peeked around a corner, "They have to catch us first. Come on, it's clear, cameras are off."

They proceeded around the corner and down a poorly lit stairwell. Dan looked around and noticed that this was oddly close to where he had heard Charlie and Jenna talking. And cameras? He never noticed any cameras around. It freaked him out they might be built in, like the alarm that had gone off again that morning.

"Where are we going?" someone behind Dan asked.

"You'll see!" Jenna replied.

At the bottom of the staircase they paused. There was a large white door there with old, black lettering that read "gymnasium". The tiny window that sat below the word was boarded up. "This is the old gym," Jenna explained, "This was used before The School started to have so many students. More than twenty years ago; people were either better at hiding or the government wasn't so good at spying then."

"What we're about to show you is top secret," Alfie continued, "Should any of you tell a soul outside of the people in this room, you will be sorry."

"Or we'll just have Concussion turn your brains to mush," shrugged Jenna.

"That too," he said, "Understood?"

Dan nodded along with the others. Concussion? They spoke about that as if it were a person. This was not what he expected from a meeting with Jenna. What was this, a secret club? Well, threatening to turn his brain to mush seemed a little over the top for just a secret club. Plus, it was obvious they had been sneaking around. They were breaking the rules. This had to be illegal.

Jenna pushed the door open and led them inside. At first it looked like nothing more than a workout room with a small track straight out of the seventies, but then he noticed that one of the walls was blown right through. The hole was covered from the outside by a blue tarp. There were others milling about the room, and most stopped what they were doing to see the group of newcomers.

"Welcome to The Cause," Jenna said, gesturing to the room.

"The what?" Dan said sharply.

Jenna crossed her arms. "Dan, why were you brought here?" she said.

"Because my parents turned me in," he replied, unsure of where this was going, and nervous about all the eyes that were turned on him. Jenna was his case manager, shouldn't she know that? Geez.

"But why is that such a big deal?" Alfie added, a smile sliding onto his face.

"The government thinks we're dangerous…?" Dan said slowly.

"There hasn't been a fatal incident here for almost twenty years," said Jenna with a glance at the large hole in the wall, "They don't think we're dangerous. They think we're different. They think we're a threat to the peaceful world they're trying to create."

Dan raised an eyebrow, and he wasn't the only one confused. "Why would they think that?" Zoe asked.

"That's what we're confused about, love," said Alfie gently, "It's not just in Britain. It's everywhere. Jenna got sent here from America, she knows." The blond nodded, her face expressionless. He continued. "There are facilities all over the world like this one where people with special abilities are taken and kept until they're so brainwashed they can barely use their powers anymore. They make people like us into normal people."

"Why?" asked another of the group.

"Like I said," muttered Jenna, "We're a threat."

"Our purpose is to train you how to use your powers," Alfie continued, "While the government teaches you how to be good little citizens and forget about your abilities. We're special; here, you'll learn in secret how to fight with and without your powers… should you ever need to use them offensively."

"Which we predict you will," Jenna added, "We teach you how to control your powers and how to use them."

It all made sense now. Dan came upon Jenna and Charlie arguing about Dan being taught to use his powers to full potential during scheduled time. That's why he was "asking to be caught". The School was not teaching them the right thing, Dan thought. Dr. Hurley was wrong. She said they were all the same and that they could learn to be the same over time. She was feeding off kids' fears to fit in to her advantage to make the lives of people like her easier. To push those who are different down and confine them into one place.

Dan didn't understand why the whole of the student body wasn't part of The Cause. This sounded like a good deal. He wanted to know how to stop burning things. He didn't know that he wanted to learn how to fight, but now he knew that he did.

"But wait," Zoe piped up, her hands on her hips, "Why do we need to know how to fight?"

Jenna and Alfie exchanged a look. "We'll tell you later," said Alfie quietly.

Before anyone else could ask another question, Jenna clapped her hands. "Okay, newbies. You should probably know your compadres that are hanging around here, we'll start with…" she turned and looked to her left, "Cuss! Siren!"

A muscled boy leaning against the wall raised his eyebrows in recognition. "Yeah?" he said. A girl with big curly hair was sitting on the floor beside him, and Dan recognized her right away. It was Carrie.

Jenna waved them over and showed them to the group. "Guys, this is Siren, who could make you all deaf if she tried," she said, gesturing to Carrie. Her eyes fell on Dan and she winked quickly, "And this is Concussion, who we were telling you about. He could turn you all into blubbering babies in five seconds."

The boy rolled his eyes. "I'm Marcus," he said with a wide smile, "I'm telepathic."

"So he could melt all your brains if he wanted to!" said Alfie excitedly while Marcus rolled his eyes.

"Why did she call you Concussion?" Zoe asked.

"We all have nicknames here so we can talk about and to each other in the open without giving anything away," Marcus explained, "I'm called Concussion, because my powers have to do with messing with people's heads. Carrie is Siren because she uses her voice offensively. Alfie has superhuman strength-"

"So I call him Dumbbell," Jenna interrupted.

Alfie shoved her shoulder, and Dan was surprised she didn't go flying across the room after learning that information. "It's Stronghold," he told them. Carrie quickly swept in and hugged Dan around the middle before following Marcus and Alfie elsewhere.

"What's your nickname?" Dan asked Jenna before she started to lead them across the room.

Suddenly the blue tarp moved and a curly head appeared. "Shutter," he said before he noticed the others, "Oh, hey Dan."

Dan blinked. "Hey, Peej," he replied.

PJ winked briefly before turning back to Jenna. "I think I've fixed it. You've got to come see," he said before ducking back under the tarp.

"Mingle," she told the group of them before following PJ. Dan turned to Zoe, who was rubbing her arms anxiously.

"Are you alright?" he asked her quietly.

She nodded. "I'm a little overwhelmed. I don't like that we're here in secret, we're being totally illegal. What if we get caught?"

Dan shook his head and looked around. Everyone else had gone back to what they were doing. Some were lifting weights, others were running on treadmills, and in the very center of the room there was an empty sparing circle. This looked quite relaxed for a training session. "This has obviously been going on for a while if they have an extremely," he rolled his eyes, "creative name and an entire group of people. Don't you want to learn to use your powers?"

"I already do," Zoe said, "I can change my appearance whenever I want without any problems. The only reason I wanted to come here is because I thought I was a burden on my family, dangerous. Now they're telling me I gave up my life for nothing?"

"That's what this is about, Zoe," said Dan, suddenly feeling a surge of excitement about the whole thing. He liked this rebel idea. He gently took her shoulders. "It's not for nothing. We're different, and that's good, and we shouldn't have to hide away. And we get sick nicknames… like we're super heroes or something."

Zoe nodded and looked away from him. "I'm going to go talk to Alfie," she said quietly. She stepped out of Dan's loose grip and walked past him.

Dan sighed. Now where was he going to go? Zoe was the only friend here he had, and he didn't want to go talk to Carrie with Marcus or Alfie around, because both of those guys could probably pick him up and throw him across the room regardless of powers. His eyes fell on the blue tarp where he saw PJ summon Jenna. Curiosity won out and he stepped over the crumbling remains of the wall and slipped under the blue tarp. What he saw made him stop dead in his tracks.

It was a poolroom. Or, it had been once. The pool was completely drained of water and cracking, and inside the pool was an old school bus. The front of it was propped up enough so that someone could fit under the wheels, and the hood was open, where he could see the lower half of PJ sticking out, his feet on the cement that said 18 feet deep. Jenna was sitting beside his feet.

But that wasn't even the weird part. Chris Kendall, PJ's roommate, was sitting in the driver's seat with his feet on the wheel and Phil Lester, Dan's own roommate, was sitting on the floor of the bus next to him.

The older boy lit up when he spotted Dan. "Hey!" he said, excitedly waving, "I hoped they would pick you!"

Dan stood there, blinking, and waved back halfheartedly. The sight of a school bus sitting in a drained pool with Phil sitting inside it was freaking him out a bit. "What is this?" he asked, his voice echoing around the mostly empty room.

"A bus, duh," said Chris, looking up from the tablet he had on his lap. Dan wasn't aware they were allowed to have those kinds of things. Then again, he was at a secret meeting of a rebel club.

"A project," PJ amended as he pushed himself out of the hood, "I've been trying to fix it for a long time. And I think I've got it." He wiped his greasy hands off on his jeans, leaving black streaks on his thighs. "Start her up, Chris!"

Chris took his feet off the steering wheel and dragged his finger across the screen of the tablet. The engine of the bus turned over a couple times before it caught, revving to life. PJ pumped his fists excitedly. Dan covered his ears; the engine sounded nothing like a bus, and more like a racecar. He could see Phil still sitting on the floor, holding his hands in the air and saying "whoooo".

PJ waved one hand and Chris turned it off. Dan uncovered his ears. "Well, it sounds like it works," said Jenna as she got to her feet, "Now we've got to figure out how to pull it out of here."

"I can get Louis on that," PJ nodded, although didn't seem too enthusiastic.

Jenna nodded and squeezed his shoulder. "Great. Oh, explain all this to Flame Prince here," she said as she walked by Dan. He glowered at her. "He looks like a lost puppy."

"I am not a puppy, Jenna," he snapped.

She grinned. "That's Shutter Shock to you," she said and touched Dan on the shoulder. He shrunk away when her tiny bolt of electricity jolted his skin.

Dan rubbed his shoulder and watched PJ as he approached. A soft, mechanical whirring noise echoed throughout the room as the bus was lowered back onto its front wheels. "Now, you must be curious," PJ began as Dan watched Phil and Chris dare each other to jump out of the bus door, "There is a whole graveyard of old vehicles outside this building. I decided to fix this one up. It's a bit outside my power base, but I'm still a technical genius, so I figured it out quickly enough." He stared at the bus with a proud smile, and Dan let him bask in the glory for a few moments before clearing his throat awkwardly. "You haven't been outside since you got here, have you?" the other boy added.

Dan shook his head. He hardly went outside anyway, so he hadn't thought to think that that would be strange.

"Well, this place looks a lot like a prison from the outside. In the back of the building, there are tons of broken down busses, motorcycles, and old cars. This was the only one we could salvage that could fit everyone in it," PJ continued, "Should we ever need transportation."

"You certainly think ahead," Dan commented.

"Too far ahead, in my opinion!" Chris offered as he climbed the ladder out of the pool, "What are we? A bunch of teenagers-"

"Not a teenager!" Phil shouted from the bottom.

Chris rolled his eyes and sat on the cement. "Alright, a bunch of young adults meet secretly in an old gym to teach each other how to fight, rebuild a bus at the bottom of the pool, and call ourselves revolutionaries. I think it's dumb."

"Yet, you're still here," PJ said, crossing his arms.

Phil's black hair appeared over the side of the pool. "And we're not learning to fight. We're learning control," he said.

"You're learning control, Jack Frost," Chris said. Phil narrowed his eyes. "I've already got my powers under control, thank you very much. PJ thinks I'm his mother all the time." The technopath rolled his eyes. "I'm only here for the free food and to question authority. Oh, and to watch Phil try to lift weights." Chris concluded.

Dan turned to his roommate as the boy got to his feet. "You lift weights?" he asked.

"Is it working?" asked Phil, flexing his bicep with a joking grin.

"Maybe your nicknames should be Flame Prince and Jack Frost," PJ laughed.

"No," said Dan and Phil together.

Then he wondered what his nickname really would be. Then he wondered why Phil didn't already have one. He inquired while the four of them exited the pool room, and all Phil said was that no one had come up with one that he liked and that everyone could agree on.

PJ was working with the tablet that Chris had been holding, explaining to Dan that it was his control panel for all the things he'd been doing to the bus. He can turn it on and off, flash the lights, open the doors, lock everything down, and even self-destruct. He didn't know why he included that feature, he said, but he just wanted to include a big red button that said SELF-DESTRUCT on it for fun.

Once the four of them had ducked under the tarp back into the gym, Jenna appeared. "Get legs, you two, you're coming with me," she said to Dan and Phil.

"Where?" Phil asked carefully, looking startled.

Jenna nodded for them to follow her. "The bomb shelter," she said simply.

Dan and Phil exchanged a look. "Why?" scoffed Dan.

"It hasn't been used since this place was built in the late thirties, but it's perfect. It's just over there," she said, pointing to a door near the far curve of the track, "Nothing in that room will catch fire nor be harmed by being iced over. We're gonna see what you two can do."

AN: Just quickly want to thank all my readers so far. Whether you're here because you found me on tumblr or if you stumbled upon the story by accident, I love you! Also, I need some help. I have no idea what Zoe's nickname should be, so I want you guys to come up with it. If anyone has an idea, just tell me what you think her name should be and why in a review. I'll pick the best one right before I post the next chapter! Yay!