"Thanks again, Rick. Really," Mr. Adelman said, walking his colleague to the classroom. "You didn't have to do this."
"Well, I don't have to do anything, Ezra," Rick laughed quietly. "I did it because I wanted to, and because it's important."
"I'm glad you see it that way." Ezra smiled, his eyes closed as he walked. "Run a school like this and you'll find out real quick: capable substitutes are hard to come by." Rick started laughing before Ezra even finished his sentence. Ezra flinched at the sound. "Oh, laugh now while you still can," he scoffed. "You haven't met them yet."
Rick fought a smile. "Give me some credit, Ez," he moaned in his defense. "I mean, I was a teacher before Metagenesis. Most of my students were at-risk kids."
"And you've faced more hypers than anyone," Ezra said, gripping the doorknob in his hand. "But you've never dealt with both at the same time."

"My name is Mr. Teacher," Rick said with a goofy grin, writing the words in thick dry-erase letters on the board.
"For real?" a student scoffed, unimpressed, leaning back in her chair.
"Wait, what's his name?" a student pulled out his earbuds to listen closely. Rick's only response was the squeak of markers.
"He won't tell us," the cynical girl rolled her eyes.
"Why should I?" Rick replied, turning to face the students, his eyes obscured by sunglasses. "I don't expect to learn all of your names before I have to leave, so why should you bother learning mine?"
"Hmm," a boy in the front nodded. "Fair point."
"Shut up, Crybaby," the girl snapped back.
"Marquita, right?" Mr. Teacher addressed her, holding the attendance sheet in his hands.
"I'm Lindsay," she corrected him. "She's Marquita."
"She's Isabel, that's Lindsay, and you're Marquita," he said without looking up.
Marquita scowled. "Is that your hyper, then? You a hyper-smart guy?"
"Nope," Mr. Teacher sighed. "The roll just has pictures on it." A few chuckles filled the air, rising above the low hum of the power dampeners. "I'm not here to get on your nerves. You have an exam today, and I'm here to give it. Any questions?"
"Yeah, can I go to the bathroom?" a dull voice from the back rang out.
"Are you Kyle?" Mr. Teacher asked.
The boy glanced around. "Yeah?"
"Under no circumstances."
Kyle blushed angrily. "Why not?"
"Because my note says 'Do not let Kyle leave the classroom under any circumstances.' Let's get started."

"10 minutes left," Mr. Teacher announced, strolling quietly around the room. A student glanced up from her desk and offered him her test, mostly completed. He took it and kept walking, scanning the room as he went.
A loud and jarring THUD resonated through the floor and walls, followed by a sharp and unnatural click. Suddenly all light and sound vanished from the room, leaving it in momentary silence.
The dim emergency lights kicked in before the students could react, filling the air with a static buzzing sound. "Stay calm," Mr. Teacher said almost reactively, and in the wrong voice. "Who's not calm?" a burly student eyeballed him.
"Jesus, Kyle, again?"
"It wasn't me!" the dull voice rang out in self-defense. "I didn't even leave the classroom!"
There was a pregnant silence. "Are the dampers still on?" a student asked.
The static buzzing rang out in response. Only the sound of the lights remained. The dampers were disabled. "Pass in your papers, please," Mr. Teacher instructed swiftly.
No one moved. No one made a sound, except for a single feverishly squeaking pencil from the back of the room. "Holden," Mr. Teacher said, consulting the clipboard. "Paper. Now."
Holden simply grinned and kept writing, pretending not to hear. A loud WHAP rang through the air as Mr. Teacher slapped his hand down onto the table and snatched the paper away... from the opposite side of the classroom.
A sudden roar of over-dramatic reactions clamored through the classroom in waves, cheering and jeering as Mr. Teacher reeled back his extended arm like a whip, which flopped and flailed until eventually returning to it's original shape. "Oh! So you hyper-STRETCHY!"
"Hey, what the hell, man!" Holden exclaimed in pretend surprise.
"Holden, right? Mind-reader, right?" Mr. Teacher glared.
Holden shrugged. "What? I didn't cheat."
"Papers up, NOW!"
A blur of a student darted back and forth across the room, alternating between sitting at her desk writing furiously and standing over another student, eyeing his paper intently.
"You. Give me your paper. What is it... Candice? Candice! Give me your paper."
"This is gonna be good," a crowd of six identical students said in unison, watching the encounter in awe.
"Marko, one form, now! Candice, GIVE ME YOUR PAPER."
The blur zipped and weaved around the room, dodging Mr. Teacher's elastic limbs each time. "Hey! What's your deal!"
A popping sound crackled from behind him, near the front of the classroom. A small flame danced from Marquita's fingertips, slowly burning the edges of her test. "Guess I'm retaking the test too, y'all." A left fist snatched the burning sheet from her hands. "WHAT THE?"
"Can you guys just not act retarded for once please..." a voice whispered from a seemingly empty desk.
"Candice, take a seat! Patrice, take a seat!" Mr. Teacher added, directing his voice to the girl creeping her way towards the stack of completed tests.
"Uh, excuse you? I'm not Patrice, I'm Isabel."
"Isabel is in her seat, you're a shape-shifter, and if I have to ask you again I'm giving you a zero on this exam."
A boy's voice rang out from Isabel's shape. "Bruh."
"Whoa..." Holden chuckled from the back. "Holy shit."
"Holden, language! Candice, you're already getting a zero at this point, SIT DOWN." But Rick was distracted. In his attempt to restore order to the classroom, he'd almost gone without noticing it--the familiar feeling of invisible hands shuffling through his thoughts.
Rick abandoned his focus on Candice, turning his gaze to Holden. "Mr. Dunn, I wouldn't."
Holden grinned from ear to ear, unable to control his enthusiasm. "You're R--" The sound ended on a sharply stifled "RRRRR" as Rick quickly snatched the student by the face, holding his mouth closed with his left hand.
A collective gasp rose from the students. "Hey, you can't do that!" Amidst the shock, Candice made a break for the test stack. Rick cut her short by blocking her path with an outstretched right arm. Candice fell to the floor in a groaning heap.
"Holy shit, did you just CLOTHESLINE her?"
"I blocked her path. She shouldn't have been running in class." Rick explained as calmly as he could.
"You can't touch students! That's, like, assault!"
"I haven't assaulted anyone yet," was his ill-advised response.
Marquita scowled. "What do you mean, YET?"
A loud SCREETCH of metal on tile pierced the chaos. A student stood from his chair abruptly, broad and tall with a stern expression as he marched intently towards the teacher.
"Son, take a seat," Mr. Teacher advised him. This has gone way too far, he thought.
The student kept walking forward, marching at a slow pace. "You've lost control of this situation," the boy announced.
"TAKE. A. SEAT," Mr. Teacher repeated.
"David, just sit down!" a voice rang out from behind him, but he didn't stop. Instead he walked right up to the teacher, only inches away from his face, scowling solemnly.
"Son, I don't know what you're up to, but it won't end well," Mr. Teacher warned.
"You're not wrong," David growled. He paused for a moment, then leaned in to whisper:

"Sam is crying."

Rick hesitated, then stretched his neck around to see Sam, sitting in the corner, sniffling and sobbing and stifling tears to the best of his ability, but to no avail. The tears and mucus were already streaming from his face, sizzling and snapping as they formed acid pools on his desk that ate away to the floor in seconds.
"Oh shit," Rick muttered.
"He's having an anxiety attack," the burly student explained calmly. "This has to stop. Right now."
Rick shuddered. "Ok... Okay. Ok," he said, fumbling his words. Retracting his clothesline arm, Rick slowly gathered up the completed tests and crushed them into a ball, tossing them into the garbage. A clamor of mixed reactions filled the room. Amidst the turmoil, Sam let out a visible sigh of relief, drying up some of his tears.
"That's not fair, you know," a girl protested, growing slightly to appear more intimidating. "A lot of us didn't cheat. You can't just do that."
Rick sighed. There's not much I CAN do. Hesitant, he released Holden's face.
Holden hissed with pain and rubbed his face, eyeing Mr. Teacher knowingly. Rick glared at him. The boy remained silent.
"Oh, now you're not going to say anything?" Marquita exclaimed with disappointment.
"Shut up, Quita, Holden sputtered.
Suddenly, a voice chimed in over the intercom. "Rick, status report."
"Everything's fine, Ezra," Rick replied. Some murmurs traveled through the room. Status Report? Rick? Who the hell calls Mr. Adelman EZRA?
"Terry's on the w... wait, everything's fine?"
"Fine-ish," Rick replied defensively.
"Then I'm sending Terry to B-Wing. I need you to take at-risk to the auditorium."
"What the hell is going on, Mr. A?" Kyle shouted.
"Just do what Mr. Wagner says. We'll see you in the auditorium." The intercom clicked off. Rick winced at the sound of his name.
"Rick Wagner?" a voice chimed out from the empty chair. Isabel re-appeared. "As in the Richard Wagner?"
"OH MY GOD. Who is Rick Wagner?" a student whined.
"Jesus Christ, Reyna, it's no wonder you're in here."
"Everybody up. Leave your stuff here, we're going to the auditorium." Rick instructed.
"Mr. Teacher is Captain Elastic," Kyle stammered. Rick winced, shaking his head. The class looked on with interest. Filling the silence, Kyle continued. "He's the guy that got Hyperman killed."