Florence and Pip immediately jumped into action, as if they were in the midst of a crisis and not a fairly mundane classroom. Before Damien had a chance to decide if he was going to follow or not, Florence grabbed his hand, dragging him up and out of his seat and into the middle aisle.

People were already milling about the room, gathering in little groups that sometimes split and rejoined different groups, everyone trying to find their group for the assignment. Florence and Pip apparently knew who else they wanted, and bee-lined it toward Vivainne and Harper, a girl Damien couldn't figure out if she was dating or not.

"You're joining us," Pip declared, dropping into the seat beside Vivainne. The girl twisted toward her, a smile curving along the length of her lips.

"Is that so?"

"It is," Pip said, holding out the paper. "You're also going to do the writing for us."

That made Vivainne frown, lips pursing as she stared down at the blank paper. Damien had a copy of the same grasped in his prosthetic hand, crumpled between his fingers. The instructions were so minimal, he wasn't sure where to begin, or if he cared. It wasn't as if this was anything that would actually matter. As soon as Vora said the word, he'd be gone and she'd be free, and they'd be able to fix everything Vivainne had ruined by going to the heroes.

"If I write it, it'll just be illegible," Pip explained. "So, please?"

"All right," Viv sighed, taking the paper and pulling a pen out of her bag. "I have no idea what we're supposed to write."

"The good thing is, we do," Florence said. He leaned against the chair behind him, towering over their little group. "This is honestly, pretty simple. The point of the assignment is to put together a patrol team, with all the roles that would consist of."

"Roles? Artemis didn't say anything about roles." Vivainne shook her head. A piece of ink-black hair fell across her face, quickly swiped back into place by a quick movement from Pip's hand. On Vivainne's left, Harper frowned, looking away.

Things were complicated here, apparently.

"That's obviously part of the test," Pip said, keeping her voice low. "She wants to see how well we've understood the class so far, and how much research we've done on our own."

"Wow, Pip, I had no idea you knew how to research," Vivainne said, smile curving mischievously as she stared at the colorfully-haired girl.

Pip rolled her eyes. "I didn't need to. I've known this all my life, basically."

"Pretty much," Florence said. "We have a real advantage here. We already know what a good patrol team looks like, and how roles generally work in the hero world. And, you have me."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Vivainne asked, though she was the only one out of the loop, as Pip and Harper both nodded in confirmation. Damien, for once, was on her side. He had no idea what was so special about his… boyfriend?

"My parents are some of our world's top strategists. I didn't get bedtime stories, I got strategy and chess theory and all that good stuff. I know how this works. Piece of cake."

"Go ahead then," Vivainne said, motioning at him, pen in hand. She brought it down to the page, ready to begin writing.

"Since this is going to be a five person team, we'll have five different roles. Actually, this design is generally modeled after the Titans, in case you were curious. Anyway, we'll have a captain—that's me—a brawler, support, ranged, and recon/ intelligence. The scout, if you will. That would be you, Viv."

Vivainne nodded, marking it down at the bottom of the page. Pip rattled off a stream of information so fast Damien could hardly keep up, frowning slightly at the choice. His power wasn't good for much, but it was good for intelligence gathering, at least when it came to technology. And since so much of the world revolved around technology, it put him at an advantage.

But if Vivianne was taking that spot, what was he supposed to do?

Not that it mattered. He didn't care about passing the test or doing well, but… It just didn't make sense.

"Brawler has to be me," Pip said, only for Florence to stop her.

"Actually, that would be Harper," he said, nodding to the tattooed girl. "I'm sorry, Pip, but it makes more sense. She can take more of a beating, and you have more versatility."

Pip opened her mouth as if she would argue before shutting it and nodding. "You're right," she said, the words strained. "Support is a better fit."

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"That just leaves ranged," Florence said after he and Pip gave some instructions on what to write beneath each of the roles on the worksheet. He turned to Damien, who gave an awkward smile and dropped Florence's hand.

"I think I'd be a better match with Jaise," he said, stepping back. "Tech genius, technopathy… it goes well together."

Florence nodded, relief flickering across his face at not needing to say the words everyone knew would be coming. You don't fit in our team.

"That's probably a good idea."

He turned around, leaving the group as conversation sprung back up, their whispers not nearly as quiet as they thought they were. It didn't matter, with the rest of the room equally focused on their tasks. Nobody seemed to be trying to do the obvious, listen in on the other groups to learn about them ahead of time.

Well, it didn't matter to him if no one thought of that. He didn't care enough to do it himself.

While Damien's effort had been focused on getting close to Vivainne, and her friend group by extension, he'd also done his best to build relationships throughout the rest of the class. Maybe not strong ones, but at least they knew who he was and shouldn't have a problem with him approaching their group.

"Hey," he said, waving a hand as he stepped toward the group bunched up at the top of the auditorium. Artemis watched from down below, observing everyone in their rush to complete her assignment by the end of class. "I'm not sure if you need another member, but I figured I'd be a good match with a tech genius."

He flashed the person a smile, going for innocent and a bit shy rather than charming. That might have worked on some people, but Jaise wasn't one of them. In their few interactions, Damien had learned that they were short and to the point, normally too occupied in their own mind to play along with polite niceties. Damien liked that, it made things a lot easier.

Jaise considered him for a moment, unnaturally blue eyes scrutinizing, before nodding once.

"Yes," they said, knocking a swooping piece of brown hair from their eyes. "That's a good fit. Have you controlled meta-tech before?"

Damien coughed before answering. The only time he'd touched meta-tech was when hacking into the tower, but nobody needed to know that. "I've had some experience," he said smoothly.

"Good," Jaise said, and jumped straight back into their conversation, leaving Damien to pick up the pieces.

Despite how smart Jaise was, it became obvious in a few minutes that their group didn't have nearly the experience or context that Florence and Pip had, and Damien regretted not paying closer attention. Florence's team would, if they performed well on the actual test, blow everyone else out of the water. It was just a matter of how well everyone else performed in comparison.

Perhaps Damien would have to do some research on his own. At the very least, it would give some context into how heroes operated, and that would no doubt be useful somewhere down the line.

Not to mention, playing the game here would make him less suspicious.

"I'll book us a training room," Jaise said, looking up from the paper as they finished scratching out the rest of the assignment. The words were hardly legible, and Damien hoped that wouldn't be a problem, but didn't get a chance to say anything before the tech genius walked away and down to the front of the stage. They handed the piece of paper up to Artemis without so much as a word, then turned around and returned to their seat, waiting in silence.

Damien watched them before turning his gaze back to the rest of the silent group.

Thomas, a boy Damien only knew in passing, shrugged. "You'll get used to it," he said. "Jaise is cool, just… thinks too fast to talk really, I think."

"That's fine," Damien said. "Guess I'll see you all for training?"

"I'll shoot you a text," Thomas said with a nod. "Make sure everyone knows what's going on."

"Thank you."

Damien walked back to his seat as Florence ran up to the stage, handing over his worksheet to the professor. He turned around, spotting Damien, and hurried back over to their seats. Pip had remained above, sitting beside Vivainne.

"Go well?" Florence asked, lanky body folding into the seat.

Damien nodded. "Well enough. I think it'll be a good fit."

"That's good. If you want to talk strategy or anything, let me know."

Damien found himself smirking as he shook his head. "I'm going to pretend that was innuendo."

Florence's eyebrows quirked. "Is that so?"

Damien shrugged, falling silent as the rest of the class slowly returned their worksheets, confirming their teams for the upcoming practical exam. The last person hurried forward, handing over the paper to a patient Artemis before running back to their seat.

Artemis stepped back to her podium, settling the filled worksheets on it. "This Friday, instead of the usual Philosophy of Heroes class, we will be having a practical exam. Train with your teams, put the time you have to use. Learn to work together, and put what you've learned to the test. I am excited to see how you all do.

"For a bit more information," Artemis continued, "from now until mid-terms, we will be having a practical exam every Friday to prepare you. After mid-terms, the professors and I will make our recommendations based on these exams and the mid-term regarding your path and the specialized classes to take in the second half of our training year. Keep that in mind as we go forward."

She dismissed the class, breaking into tense silence as everyone began to gather and leave. Florence lingered in his seat, gaze locked on Damien's face.

He rolled his eyes. "I have a meeting with Professor Canvas after this, so we can't do anything."

"Oh, right," Florence shuffled, but didn't move, keeping Damien in his seat as well. "Y'know, I don't think you've ever told me. What do you plan on doing for your hero career?"

Damien let out a sigh, staring off at the stage as he searched for an answer that wouldn't be a lie. He wouldn't graduate from the program, he wouldn't be a hero, but he also didn't know what Vora had planned for him beyond her escape. He should probably ask.

"I have no idea."

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