Back above, the sun blazed high up the sky, its golden rays falling over the sprawling campus of Academy High like the spotlight of the gods themselves.
Towering spires made of silver steel and transparent arcane glass loomed over the assembled students, their reflections painting kaleidoscopic rainbows over the open plaza.
The air buzzed with the excitement and nervous energy of hundreds of aspiring heroes, gathered like pilgrims before the altar of fate.
And at the very front, standing atop the elevated platform, was Professor Boom.
His name was not a misnomer. His every word shattered the air with thunderous tremors, his voice as explosive as his personality.
Clad in a red-and-gold reinforced tactical suit, his chest bore a glowing shockwave insignia that pulsed with kinetic energy.
His white beard, sharp as broken glass, twitched with every grin he gave. And he was grinning now.
Grinning like a madman staring at a buffet of dreams waiting to be crushed.
"NEXT!" Professor Boom roared, his voice a sonic cannon that echoed across the mountain ranges.
Birds scattered in the sky.
Windows rattled across the academy.
Several weaker students actually stumbled, clutching their ears.
The ground shivered.
A thin, lanky teenager in baggy clothes stepped forward.
He trembled as he approached the glowing test dummy in the center of the platform—a humanoid-shaped mannequin reinforced with cosmic alloy and reinforced underbinding seals, designed to take anything short of a nuclear blast.
"Name!" Boom thundered.
"D-Donovan, sir," the boy said, nearly whispering.
"Power!" Boom demanded, his booming voice causing Donovan's knees to shake.
"I… I can spit my stomach acid," he muttered.
Boom's lips curled into a sneer. "Spit your stomach acid? What are you, a lizard with a dental problem?" His voice blasted outwards like a shockwave, causing the microphone stand next to him to vibrate violently.
The crowd roared with laughter.
Some students chuckled, some smirked, and others shook their heads with pity.
A girl with gemstone skin turned to her friend and whispered, "He's gonna be labeled a Sidekick, for sure."
Boom waved one hand. "Go on then, Lizard Boy! Melt me! Spit! SPIT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!"
Donovan winced. Then, hesitantly, he turned toward the dummy. He took a deep breath, leaned forward, and spat.
A thin glob of greenish liquid flew out—barely enough to fill a teacup—and landed on the dummy's metal shoulder.
Boom opened his mouth wide, already inhaling the sentence of doom.
"SIDEEEEE—"
Then Donovan coughed and tapped Boom on the shoulder. "Uhm. Sir."
"What?" Boom snapped.
Donovan pointed. "Look."
Boom narrowed his eyes.
The dummy's shoulder was now hissing—melting, sizzling, bubbling into slag.
The reinforced cosmic alloy was disintegrating at an alarming rate, a hole now burned clear through to the other side.
The crowd fell silent. So silent, even the wind dared not blow.
Boom blinked.
Then he grinned.
Then he threw his head back and howled with laughter.
"SUPERHEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
A pillar of compressed shockwave burst from Boom's mouth and cracked the air like thunder, shaking every flag on the campus.
Donovan stood in stunned disbelief as the crowd erupted into applause. He stumbled back, his eyes wide, as students clapped him on the back.
"That's some nuclear-grade spit, kid," Boom barked, "you didn't tell me it's literal acid," slapping him so hard on the back he almost face planted. "Go burn some villains, Acid Spitter!"
The line moved.
One by one, students stepped forward.
Some were amazing.
A girl summoned a miniature sun in her palm. Superhero.
A boy created sound illusions so realistic that people believed they were in a war zone. Superhero.
Another created exploding confetti. Sidekick.
A boy turned his fingernails into glass pickaxes. Sidekick.
One girl could teleport—but only exactly one centimeter at a time. Sidekick.
Another boy could control shadows, warping them into blades that danced like reapers. Superhero.
Then came a boy who proclaimed he could communicate with ants. And only ants. Boom stared at him for a full thirty seconds before muttering, "Sidekick," in the most exhausted tone imaginable.
Then came a girl who could alter the chemical composition of any material she touched, turning rocks into napalm. Boom called her "Superhero" so loudly that a statue cracked in half.
More came.
A guy claimed he could fly. He jumped. He didn't fly. Sidekick.
A shapeshifter turned into Boom and imitated his voice perfectly. Boom was not impressed. "There's only one Boom in this world, and it's ME!" he bellowed before blasting the student off the platform with a sonic burst. "Sidekick!"
Then came a girl with invisible telekinesis, picking Boom's clipboard and flipping through it midair. Boom raised an eyebrow. "Superhero."
Next came a boy who could multiply into twenty versions of himself.
One of the clones was a smartass who told Boom to eat dirt. Boom disintegrated that one. "Superhero. But only 19 of you."
One girl painted symbols into the air and controlled luck itself.
Another boy tore apart atoms with a touch.
Another could erase memories with eye contact.
Another summoned armor made of nanite birds that fused into a living exosuit.
Each time, Boom either yelled "SUPERHEROOOOOO!!!" with a shockwave that leveled clouds—or sighed with soul-crushing disappointment and labeled them Sidekicks.
Then—
Finally—
The line shifted.
Boom raised his head.
His eyes locked on the next name on the roster.
He squinted.
"…Rockson."
The murmurs started immediately.
Some students laughed. Others whispered.
"Isn't that the guy with a name like a stone?"
"I heard he's a joke. What kind of hero name is Rockson?"
"Wait, wasn't he the guy sitting beside that golden-haired guy with the attitude?"
"Why's he even here? His power's just 'rock,' right? That's so… lame."
But Rockson didn't flinch. He stepped forward with quiet resolve, his stony boots clicking against the metal platform.
Elius, standing among the spectators, narrowed his eyes. He said nothing, but his gaze was locked on his first friend in this world.
Boom leaned forward.
"Name."
"Rockson."
Boom raised a brow. "Really? That's your hero name?"
"Yes."
Boom smirked. "Power?"
Rockson raised a hand.
The stone around his boots cracked.
Then, suddenly, the entire stage rumbled.
Boom's smirk faltered.
And the crowd… went silent.
Rockson stepped forward.
"I'll show you."
And the test began.
Rockson stepped forward… and then something strange happened.
His body began to ripple—not with energy or aura, but like thick clay shifting beneath skin. The ground cracked gently beneath his feet. Dust swirled upward in soft currents. His arms retracted into his torso, his neck vanished, and his legs began to fold inward like a collapsing tower.
And then, before the crowd could even make sense of it, Rockson turned into a giant, round, brown boulder.
No limbs.
No head.
Just a massive, smooth, round rock.
There was a beat of silence.
Then—
The crowd exploded into hysterical laughter.
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
"Yo, is this guy serious?!"
"Somebody roll him down a hill!"
"What even is that?! A Pokémon evolution gone wrong?!"
"You trying to win with that? You look like a living pebble!"
"He turned into a meatball!!"
People howled, literally falling over themselves with glee. Students clutched their stomachs.
A girl with jelly limbs collapsed into a pile of herself, writhing with laughter.
A dude with four mouths laughed from every single one of them.
One of the students in the back began snapping pics with their phone. "Yo, this is going viral for sure!"
Even Blake and Slade—the werewolf brothers that Elius had insulted earlier—were practically barking with amusement.
"H-Hey, Slade," Blake wheezed. "We found a new chew toy!"
"I'm gonna use him as a dumbbell next workout," Slade growled between laughs.
Boom blinked. And then his grin slowly widened into that of a man given a free roast buffet.
"OHHH… now this is rich!" Professor Boom bellowed, cracking his knuckles. "Ladies and gentlemen! I present to you—THE USEFUL PEBBLE!"
He marched in circles around the now-motionless boulder, arms flailing with theatrical exaggeration.
"Perfect for construction work! Excellent for doorstops! A reliable paperweight in times of storm! Who needs a power when you can be furniture?!"
The laughter intensified. Some students were crying with joy now.
Boom leaned closer and cupped his mouth to the side of the boulder like he was telling a secret.
"Son… if I splattered you against the Wall of China, they'd promote you to national treasure."
Elius narrowed his eyes. He didn't laugh. He didn't smile. He simply stared at the boulder with interest.
That was no ordinary transformation.
Boom turned around and delivered the final blow. "I've seen more threatening things in my breakfast cereal! SIDEEE—!"
He lifted a leg.
"—KIIIIIIII—"
Then he kicked the boulder with a full-force blow backed by sonic propulsion.
"—IIIIIIIIIICK—"
CRACK!
The sound was not what they expected.
His foot stopped midair. A shockwave rebounded from the surface. A deep tremor shot through the platform.
Then…
Two massive, muscular stone arms burst out of the rock.
They didn't emerge—they formed. Sculpted by sheer force of will. The arms were thick as tree trunks, covered in moving veins of glowing magma and ancient script. The boulder spun upward with sudden, impossible grace. A carved face formed on the front—one chiseled from granite, yet undeniably Rockson's.
And yes—he was even wearing his signature stone-carved sunglasses.
The crowd gasped.
Rockson's floating stone form hovered silently for a moment. His arms crossed.
Professor Boom stumbled back, blinking. "Wha…?"
Then the face on the boulder shifted. Rockson's deep, echoing voice came from everywhere at once.
"Don't judge a stone by its surface."
Boom stared. Then, ever so slowly, a wide grin returned to his face.
"Well, I'll be…"
He raised both arms and took a deep breath.
"SUPERHEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
The crowd burst into cheers. Confetti cannons exploded. A flock of mechanical pigeons soared across the sky, activated by the announcement.
Rockson floated gently back to the ground, his rocky arms folding behind him, sunglasses gleaming beneath the sun.
But then—BOOM!
A shockwave rattled through the academy grounds.
Boom's voice was already done. Yet, the tremors continued.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The crowd began to murmur. Some looked around. Others glanced at Professor Boom.
"Was that… you?" a student asked.
Boom held up both hands. "I'm not doing anything."
Another quake followed. Then another. Each one stronger, deeper. A thrumming thunder, growing louder and closer.
BOOM!
Dust trickled from the marble columns. Birds fled the rooftops. The banners hanging above the plaza fluttered wildly.
The sky darkened just slightly, like the sun had dimmed out of fear.
Even Boom's expression shifted. From proud to puzzled… to deeply concerned.
Then came the footsteps.
Louder now.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Not explosions. Not quakes. But footsteps. Slow. Heavy. Thunderous. As if the very world shuddered under their weight.
The sound came from the Academy's main entrance. Every head turned. Even Boom turned—his muscles tensing, his fists subtly glowing with sonic charge.
From the golden archway beyond the courtyard, shadows began to stretch across the plaza. Wind swirled with unnatural currents. The smell of ozone and stardust filled the air.
And then, from the misty edges of that golden light—
A figure stepped through.
He walked with grace, but every step sent tremors through the stone.
He wore a tight, glowing bodysuit of platinum white, threaded with ethereal blue sigils.
A flowing golden cape fluttered behind him, completely untouched by the wind.
His hair was golden and long, falling behind him like a stream of molten sunlight. His skin radiated a soft, perfect light that made everything else seem… dimmer.
The students froze.
Boom's mouth hung open, for once speechless.
Then the man raised a single hand.
"Do not be alarmed," he said, voice calm, refined. "It has been resolved."
His words were quiet. Yet they carried across the entire plaza like they'd been etched into every eardrum.
Elius's heart stopped.
He saw the man.
And he recognized him.
He recognized the golden cape, the divine posture, the sunlight in human form.
He knew that face.
That perfect face.
"…Father?" Elius whispered, his voice barely audible.
Radiant Man stood at the gates of Academy High.
Smiling.
And Elius's entire world began to tremble.