To the boy by the name of Luke Parks, being in high school is a bother, so to speak.

  Not because he dreams of rebellion or despises authority.

  That style...

  ... simply was not him.

  He could...

  But he simply wasn't like that.

  The final number to check was that of Maximillian Hunter.

  But that much being said, he checked it...

  And...

  Nothing.

  Max was an interesting guy.

  After all, as one would imagine, this was not the first time Luke had met a new member.

  And what would he say about the bionic Kenneth and the alien psychic Rose...

  ... other than... interesting?

  Not just their powers or everything around them that made them strange, but instead and also, their personalities.

  Ken was and is, sarcastic.

  That was just him.

  Sarcastic to the bone.

  Rose was, by and by, sweet enough to attract bees with a smile.

  That was just her.

  And Maximillian Hunter...

  Well...

  He was crazy.

  He was proud.

  He was stubborn.

  And he was loud.

  That was what he could say about him.

  He too, also, interesting.

  Perhaps it is a thing of life that strange people with strange gifts, or at least people who live different lives from everyone around them, are just strange.

  That was what Luke Parks thought as he scrolled down to see his name.

  That was what he was coming to believe.

  "That is good." he thought, before suddenly realizing that those same rules may not apply to him, seeing as he was new to the team.

  That could be a problem.

  However, as he thought to himself, that was still pretty unlikely.

  After all, it wasn't every day that one of them was kidnapped.

  8:17 am.

  The burrito would soon be finished.

  This was a product of the human internal clock.

  A strange mechanism that adapts itself to one's livelihood, and then, like some sort of robot, automatically times things.

  Because of this, Luke knew he was almost out of time just as he, in reality, was.

  In any case, he stayed on his number for a bit longer.

  Maximillian Hunter...

  He knew quite well that he was very likely going to end up joining the team.

  That, he had no problems with.

  After all, Maximillian Hunter...

  For all his positives and negatives...

  He was not a bad guy.

  At least, Luke did not perceive him to be one.

  Egotistical? Sure.

  Crazy? Absolutely...

  Clever? Even so...

  Gutsy...

  Yes, and yes...

  None of those things did come to him as a reason to say no to him.

  Not even one.

  "After all, we all have our flaws." he thought.

  And of Tiffany's decision, well...

  Stolen story; please report.

  That much he himself was just a bit perplexed by...

  That was, largely and truly, the first time Tiffany had ever made a choice like that with any of them.

  That, to him, was interesting...

  But, as he had learned over all this time...

  He would trust her judgement.

  And speaking of, there remained one glaring thing about the boy by the name of Maximillian Hunter.

  That night...

  That whole night...

  One after the other, revelation after revelation about him.

  That was...

  Interesting...

  Maximillian Hunter...

  Half-human...

  Half-alien...

  From a planet destroyed...

  That much was crazy enough in and of itself.

  But also, what Max said...

  "I'm the only one in the world like me."

  We all have our baggage...

  ... is what Luke Parks would say.

  And of all those revelations, well...

  To say little of it, Luke felt for Max for every one of them.

  After all, Max lost his planet...

  And thereafter, lost his father...

  That...

  That was plenty.

  After all, Luke himself...

  Knew what it was like...

  To lose a father.

  Well, he lost both father and mother, but the idea remained the same.

  Luke Parks pitied him.

  Or, in a sense, he felt sorry for him...

  It wasn't an entirely foreign feeling...

  Rather, the kind of feeling he would give to anyone he knew was suffering.

  But with that feeling came with it...

  ... wisdom.

  The kind that would keep him from blurting this out to Max all willy-nilly.

  After all, he knew Max...

  ... and of it, he knew guys...

  ... and of that, he knew, better than most guys do, that pride in a guy would keep him from saying a thing about their problems.

  Most especially, anything like that.

  And so, he decided, he would remain quiet...

  ... after all, it was Max...

  ... and knowing him, he was likely even prouder than the average guy.

  But still...

  ... one thing did ring in his head.

  That statement...

  "I'm the only one in the world like me."

  Why did he feel as though there was something in that statement...

  ... that was absolutely odd?

  The ringing sound louded in the air.

  It was the microwave, just as soon as his mind had predicted it.

  Yep.

  And of it, he opened the microwave door before he would set up a table with the few clean plates he had left, all for the purpose of eating it.

  8:18 am.

  This was it.

  The breakfast time.

  One of the few saving graces of Mondays.

  And of it, Luke Parks opened himself up a small cup of orange juice, before getting ready to eat.

  And of how he ate?

  As a king.

  Barehanded.

  The only proper way to eat a burrito.

  First things first, he took a bite.

  That was just the way he was.

  And of it, the first bite came with a flood of familiar and welcomed flavors.

  That was just how he liked it.

  Burritos.

  He took his time to really enjoy the bite, chewing at it, chewing some more, and also, chewing some more after that, before finally swallowing.

  That burrito...

  It was good.

  And of it, he had two of them.

  And so, he started...

  8:19 am.

  Being a super hero of sorts came with an odd responsibility...

  That being, a secret identity...

  Not that any of their "work" was ever seen by the public.

  Rose and Ken made sure of that in so many ways.

  Ways he did not always understand.

  And also, the majority of the "work" they did, was done under the moonlight, so most people weren't even awake to see it.

  That was good.

  It meant less stress.

  That was real good.

  But there was something else that came with it.

  An identity...

  Or rather, that Luke had to keep up with some sort of identity.

  That was not to say that Luke Parks, hero, was in that big of a way different from Luke Parks, the student and pizza delivery guy, but rather...

  That because he was a student, he had to keep acting like Luke Parks, the student and pizza guy, a lot.

  And while characteristically, that was not too far from his own personality, some things had to change.

  For example, he was a jock...

  And because of all that, well...

  He did soon find himself, having checked on all those he fought alongside, checking in on the jocks.

  And one in particular being Vince.

  Luke Parks is one thing, and that being an enigma.

  A good example would be his relationship with Vince.

  Vince Herrington.

  Age: 16.

  One of the oldest guys in their class and also, the best footballer in the entire school.

  Also, also, one of the biggest guys in class, comparative only to Luke Parks himself.

  That was him.

  That guy.

  The thing is and had been for quite some time, that for, not only Vince, but also the very great number of students in their classes...

  Luke Parks had to be slightly different.

  How different?

  The answer lay in this...

  For example, since he was a jock, he had to act as a jock...

  For example here...

  Now, he had to talk to cheerleaders and other jocks...

  That was just a part of his responsibility.

  However, fortunately for him, a thing did happen to be of this, that he never actually really needed to change his genuine personality.

  After all, the difference between Luke the hero and Luke the student, footballer and pizza delivery guy "personality-wise" was so small, that it hardly ever really bothered Luke.

  After all, what would go wrong?

  It was then that he opened up Vince's text message.

  His was amongst the first in the line, hence the most recent.

  It was late at night...

  3 am to be exact.

  And of it, he read the last text he'd sent...

  A-game...

  Luke knew Vince wouldn't just say that, so...

  And then it dawned on him what was that day.

  No big deal for him, though.

  But in any case, he did enter his chat with Vince, after all, as he could see, there were a few extra messages there.

  The first one was a joke.

  The kind one would tell between friends.

  But the one in between...

  "Tell that Hunter kid that I'm gonna give him the one-two today."

  Yep.

  That was a message alright.

  And a worrisome one, in a sense.

  The fact of the matter was this.

  Max rejected Luke's protection.

  And of it, Max decided to oppose Vince.

  That, in and of itself, was a call to war.

  And of that, a war Luke could not easily participate in.

  He let of a sigh as he continued to eat the burrito.

  It was a really good burrito.

  Real meaty.

  The kind that Luke Parks liked.

  And of that, well, the boy continued this...

  The jock acting...

  After all, what kind of jock wouldn't have a bunch of cheerleaders' numbers?

  But first, his answer to Vince...

  That being...

  "Oh, brother..."

  Yep.

  That was it.

  Say what one would about the friendship between these two boys, however...

  Luke was fully and utterly capable of voicing his own opinion about Vince's own actions.

  That was just what they were like.

  And of it, did Luke have to do the rest of the "jock act."

  That being...

  Talking to cheerleaders.

  Hypercity High was no exception to the rules of high school societal protocols.

  And of it, the cheerleaders were the highest ranked girls in high school.

  Yep.

  And of them, number one was Clarissa.

  She was the head cheerleader.

  And of the others, well...

  Let's just say that they, like Clarissa, had...

  A something of an infatuation with Luke.

  In his text messages lay a huge number of texts from girls telling him to be ready for the day.

  Things like...

  "Don't forget to bring your cleanest clothes."

  "I could use your help to check out my cheer."

  "Don't be late, Luke."

  Luke Parks had already come to the idea that a lot of girls liked him...

  But, in an interesting sense.

  The thing was, even though any normal girl could see that they were all clearly flirting with him...

  He himself was never truly sure.

  In fact, he tended to wonder about this very rarely.

  That was just him.

  After all, he had bigger fish to fry.