The Legion of Nothing Graduation: Part 3

The next day at school, it occurred to that I should have been more scared after receiving that ssage.

I can't say that I wasn't scared at all, but I didn't freak out. Marcus and I called Isaac Lim, and the FBI traced the call to a payphone sowhere near Nashville. It surprised that Pri could even find a payphone.

I an, seriously, who uses them?

When I explained why we wanted the trace done, Isaac wanted to hear the call himself, and told us that he'd look into getting us so help. I almost told him not to worry about it.

Apparently, I was getting used to the idea that people wanted to kill .

Well, that was one possibility, the other was that I might be relying too much on Lee's assessnt of danger. He hadn't thought much of the professionalism of the Cabal or the little that was left of them. On the other hand, he'd been impressed by the Executioner (or the team that portrayed him).

So anyway, that's the sort of thing that was going through my head during the special assembly for graduating seniors (only). Which was okay because it was largely a waste of ti. We all gathered in the auditorium after first period, filling only the center section because we only had a quarter of the school there.

It lasted for an hour.

The principal, Dr. Williams, talked about his mories of our class, conversations he'd had with parents, how we'd all grown over the last four years, how we'd rember this ti with fondness for the rest of our lives, and that even the people in our class that we didn't like now would be friends in the future because they'd shared this mont with us.

After he finished, Assistant Principal Sledge went up to the podium, and talked about the importance of filling out the graduation paperwork that went ho with us the night before. It included ordering our robes, the way we wanted our nas to appear on our diplomas, signing up for the senior trip, and signing up for the post-graduation party.

So again, largely a waste of ti.

I spent the largest part of the assembly speculating as to why Pri had called us to let us know he was coming. Surprising us seed like the better strategy. Of course, they'd tried that twice already, and it hadn't worked.

If I rembered my world history class correctly, the Roman Empire's army had been full of barbarians by the end. Maybe Pri had been one of them? Directly challenging sobody seed like the sort of thing a barbarian might do. Of course, leaving the challenge as a voice mail sounded like sothing from a Monty Python skit.

If Pri were immortal, it could an he hadn't adjusted very well to the modern age. On the other hand, an immortal would to have centuries of experience with people to draw from. He might be using it.

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In the end, I decided I didn't have enough data to make a good guess.

When Mr. Sledge stopped, I left with everyone else, walking with Cassie and Kayla. Thanks to alphabetically assigned seating (Nick Klein, Kayla Ketchem, Cassie Kowalski), we were all near each other anyway.

"Ready to be out of here?" Cassie stepped between Kayla and I and put her arms around our shoulders.

"I can't believe it's almost over," Kayla said. "I feel like our class just started to co together."

"I don't know," I said. "I feel like I've barely been here this year."

Cassie laughed. "I believe you. You zoned out for the entire assembly." Then more quietly, she said, "Anything important?"

"Ask after school."

Kayla didn't say anything.

After we got back into the hall, I left them, and headed to my locker.

The halls were empty except for seniors and senior horoom teachers. Everyone else was still in class. I passed Sean's locker. It was only a few down from mine. He stood there, hanging onto the open door, and not moving, staring inside.

I wondered if I'd been that obviously out of it during the assembly.

I half-expected him to notice , and ask what I was looking at, or possibly give the finger.

He didn't. Dayton ca up, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, still upset?"

Sean turned around, frowning as he noticed , and said, "Not here. After school."

I knew what I wanted to talk about after school. What did he want to talk about?

Fortunately, death threats have a way of focusing the mind, and I'd co to school more prepared than usual. I'd worn the stealth suit under my clothes, and carried a bunch of roachbots with their PSP shaped controller in my backpack.

During study hall, my last class of the day, I texted Cassie, telling her to wait for because I might not co out imdiately.

Once I got out, I made a beeline for my locker, got out the PSP, and sent out a few roachbots around the school. It took a couple minutes, but I did find Sean. Instead of talking with Dayton, he'd gone into Mr. Beacham's room. He'd shut the door behind him, but the roachbot fit underneath it.

I sent in two. Then I started walking, backpack on my back, earphones in my ears, and pretending to be more interested in a video ga than where I was going.

"... I don't know who he was, but he called my house last night," Sean said.

Mr. Beacham and he stood talking in front of Mr. Beacham's desk. The roachbot gave a good view of the "I Have a Dream" speech poster, and the chalkboard.

"He knows where I live. He looked it up in the phone book, and he told if I got into his business again, he'd kill . Now what am I supposed to do?"

Mr. Beacham checked outside. "I'd call the police, or maybe the FBI."

"They can't do anything. You know they can't do anything. They just die when supers co to town."

"Then call the Heroes League. Teenagers or not, they seem to know what they're doing."

"But I thought you didn't like secret identities, and inherited powers. I thought it sounded like feudalism to you. You said you wanted supers to be public and accountable."

"I did. Sean, I'm a teacher. It's my job to teach you, and maybe in the future, you can change how the world works. For now, you need to work with what's here."

Sean clenched his fists as Mr. Beacham talked, and when he stopped, Sean started shouting.

"But they don't like , and they're not going to help . I'm public because you said it was the right thing to do, and I'm going to die, and it's all your fault!"

The plastic paperclip box on Mr. Beacham's desk fell over, and tal paperclips spread across it, pointing in Sean's direction.

Sean looked down at the ss, making a wordless noise, and left, slamming the door behind him.

The roachbot's signal blinked out for a mont as he walked under it, but then reconnected, much to my relief.

As Mr. Beacham took a deep breath, I wondered if Pri had been trying to provoke reactions like Sean's.