The SVE club, reunited at last, sat in Mr. Lee's speeding automobile, packed in like sardines. Midas and Sam had quickly filled the others in on their situation and what they intended to do.

"They're not chasing us?" Taro asked from where he sat on the floor in the back seat, his knees drawn up to his chest. He tried (without much success) to look out the back window.

Evan, who sat on the backseat between Nate and Willow, glanced behind them. "That's odd. They didn't send anyone after us?"

"They probably can't spare anyone," Midas said. He and Sam had somehow managed to share the front passenger seat, although the arrangement was less than comfortable, which could be said for all since there were eight people packed in a five passenger car. "The containment facility was never fully staffed- And they've got other, more dangerous prisoners, you know. They'll put out warrants for your arrests and wait for someone else to find you."

    Nate groaned. "Well. Who else is on team 'grounded-for-life'?"

    He raised his hand along with everyone else besides Midas and Taro.

    "Wait," Rachel said, perched precariously on the middle console. "If we save the world, wouldn't that balance things out? I mean, you can't arrest world-savers, right?"

    Midas shook his head. "I wish that were possible. If we succeed, they might be a bit more lenient on us though." He looked out the window, watching the barren highway pass by. "I'm sorry I got you all involved in this. This was a bad idea from the start."

    "Hey," Sam said, "Stop that. We're all in this together now, like it or not. So stop apologizing and start coming up with a plan."

    "You don't have a plan?" three different voices asked at once.

    "Here's the plan," Midas said, turning around to face everyone. "We're about to enter the city again. When we get there, it's going to be pandemonium like you've never seen it before. We need to stay calm and stay together. Our objective is to find Insomnium and take away the serum. We get that, he won't be able to control the supers anymore. You got that?"

    Heads nodded all around, every face serious and attentive.

    "Rachel, you're our best, well, only fighter. You need to help us out against any short-range opponents that we encounter. You're our best bet against sensuns and forzatacs. You up for it?"

    Rachel made a show of cracking her knuckles. "Absolutely."

    Midas moved on. "Evan, Nate. Dynamopsyches and Technas have sight based abilities. You need to flood their vision. Aim for the eyes."

Nate held up his cards, stored neatly back in their box. "They never confiscated the rest of my cards. I still have five other decks."

Evan just shrugged. "I'm not sure how much help I'll be, seeing as I don't have any paper."

Mr. Lee sighed. "My binders are in the glovebox. You can use those."

All stared in shock at Mr. Lee, who had volunteered his precious binders to be torn up and used as ammunition.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Don't give me that look. If everyone's going to be dead or enslaved or whatever else in a couple hours, my theories on invisibility aren't going to do anybody any favors."

"Invisibility?" Sam asked.

"Theories. Anyway, I have photocopies of most of it, so go ahead." Mr. Lee seemed reluctant (in fact, if one looked closely enough, they might have seen the tiny tear that had welled up in one eye) but nobody wanted to press him. Midas pulled the binders from the compartment and began to hand them to Evan, but then thought better of it and gave them to Taro.

"Taro, can you supply Evan with paper? It'll make things a lot quicker if he doesn't have to carry the binders," Midas said.

Taro gave a thumbs up and took the binders. "You got it."

"Sam and Willow come into play at the end," Midas continued. "If Willow can sneak up on Insomnium and take the serum, it's over. If we can get Sam close enough to touch Insomnium, it's over."

"Speaking of that," Willow spoke up, "Where is Insomnium? Do you know?"

Midas shook his head. "No. But Insomnium needs me. If one of the supers sees me, he'll see me. Then he'll start steering us right towards him."

    "Look alive, morons," Mr. Lee said suddenly. "We've been spotted."

    Ahead on the road, their path was blocked by a line of young men and women, all built quite sturdily.

    "They're forzatacs," Midas said. "All of them. Don't get too close, or they could flip the car."

    Mr. Lee swerved the car onto the next road before the line of forzatacs as they drove deeper into the city. Eyes widened and jaws dropped as they realized what kind of environment they were now heading into.

    Midas stiffened as he realized that the scene around them was all too familiar. Supers swarmed the streets, herding groups of terrified civilians, who held their hands in the air in surrender. Explosions rang through the air, fires seemed to burn everywhere, and the smell of smoke was inescapable. In the sky, drones flew rampant. This could only be described as an absolute apocalypse.

"Getting a little dicey here," Mr. Lee said, weaving around the supers that were in the street. Some attempted to chase the car, others paid it no attention. A swarm of tiny drones, similar to the ones Hardwire had fought Midas with, attached themselves to the windshield. There was an electric hum. Mr. Lee turned on the windshield wipers and the robots went soaring into the masses.

"Where are we going?" Mr. Lee asked frantically. The world seemed to shudder as the patch of road just behind them exploded. Shredded concrete rained down like hail.

"He sees us, alright," Midas mused. "So why isn't he leading us to him?"

"Look out!" Willow screamed.

    Everyone shouted as a manhole cover was hurled towards Midas' window. Mr. Lee was already yanking the wheel to the left. The metal disc missed the window, but bashed the door of the car and all inside felt the impact. The window cracked.

"He is not leading us to him, Midas," Evan stated without doubt. "He's trying to kill us."

"Unless..." Midas trailed off, glancing at Sam. Hadn't he said that Sam might be the only person who could stop Insomnium?

    Sam was apparently thinking the same thing. "He's trying to kill me," she murmured. "He knows about my... my power." Suddenly, she cried out and clutched her head with her free hand. She shut her eyes tight and kept her head down.

    "Sam?" Midas said.

    "Sam, what's wrong?" Evan asked.

    Sam didn't answer. A second later, she gasped raggedly and shouted, "The school!"

    "The school?" Midas repeated.

    "Insomnium's at the school... He's at our school!" Sam exclaimed.

"How do you know?"

"I don't know, but I know it's true! I... saw him. On the roof." Sam answered, looking terrified. "What... What did I just do?"

    "No idea, but if what you said is right, we need to get to the school. Fast."

    "What's Insomnium want with our school?" Taro wondered.

    "The school is in the center of the city," Rachel said. "It's probably the perfect place for him to keep tabs on everything. If I was picking a place to take over the world, being central would be the most important."

    At this moment, Willow happened to be staring out the back window. "Guys... Are you seeing this?"

    The others turned around and saw a huge crowd of supers chasing after the car. They hurled rocks, garbage cans, and anything else they could get a hold of. Random items exploded as they drove by and a flurry of drones and an assortment of machines trailed just behind them.

    "What is it?" Mr. Lee asked anxiously, trying to focus on his maniacal driving.

    "An angry mob," Nate answered.

    "Except they're not angry. Look at them," Rachel said, puzzled. "They just look really... scared."

    Indeed, the supers didn't look angry in expression at all. An unbeknownst bystander might assume that they were being chased as well.

    The car passed another small crowd of supers, which joined the mob in chasing it.

    "Insomnium's seen the car, so he must be sending all the supers towards it," Midas said.

    Mr. Lee's eyebrows shot up. "Wait, that's it! Hold on, kids."

    He took a sharp turn into a parking garage and everyone was knocked to the left, jostling each other in the process. The teacher then gunned it up through the garage, taking the turns fast enough to make the tires screech. The mob still followed them, but was loosing ground.

    "You guys," Mr. Lee panted, "Need to get out of this car. Make it to the school unseen. I'll distract them." They were nearing the top level of the garage now. "Hide in the stairwell until I lead them away. And for God's sake, take this Insomnium guy out."

    "Are you sure you can handle it? It might be a while before we can reach Insomnium," Sam said.

    Mr. Lee smirked. "I never told any of you about my misspent youth, did I? I was street racing back when I was your age. Believe me, I can 'handle' it." The car stopped with a lurch next to the stairwell. The supers were not in sight but could be heard well enough.

    Midas turned to Mr. Lee. "Thanks. We owe you."

    "Shut up and go save the world, Aldridge," Mr. Lee said, fiddling with the radio.

    The SVE club obediently got out of the car and ducked into the covered stairwell, descending a few steps. Meanwhile, Mr. Lee had turned his car radio on full blast. He put the car in drive, gripped the wheel, and shot off across the wide parking lot, giving a shout of determination. As the supers emerged onto the roof, they showed no hesitation as they surged towards the car.

    "He's got it from here," Midas said above the sound of screeching tires. "We should get going. What's the fastest way to the school from here?"

    "This passage leads into the shopping mall," Sam said, gesturing down the stairs. "We can cut through it- We might not run into any other supers indoors."

"No supers sounds good," Taro said, chuckling nervously.

The group headed down the flight of stairs and ran down a narrow hallway towards the mall doors.

"Please don't be locked, please don't be locked," Sam muttered.

They reached the door and Rachel tugged it open. With sighs of relief, the SVE club entered the building. They found that the inside was completely deserted, but the lights were still on, the escalators still moved and music still played from the speakers.

"Well, this isn't freaky at all," Nate said loudly, his voice echoing.

"There probably isn't anyone in here," Midas said, "But just in case, let's stick close. And keep our voices down." This last statement came with a significant look at Nate, who merely shrugged and looked away. It was obvious that he still held some resentment against Midas, and Midas didn't blame him for that.

    Sounding resigned, Midas said, "Let's head out."