Part of him wanted to hope it was a fellow student with a bomb, on the same mission as him.
The other part of him told him it was something sinister.
The latter was correct, and it was confirmed when the rebel flyer came, face to face, with Jack.
There was a mid-air wrestling, which no one standing on earth could possibly see, not unless they possessed a telescope.
I would like to say Jack was stronger and kept a firm hold on that explosive. But that is simply not how it happened. Even the strongest of us get overpowered, and tonight was just not Jack's night, it seemed.
Jack lost his grip on the bomb as the rebel gained the upper hand.
With sheer ruthlessness, the rebel struck out and kicked Jack downwards, down to earth.
Jack should have flown right back up and stopped that rebel, he knew. But something told him that his friends were needing him now more than ever.
As he let himself fall freely, he remembered something Rust told him.
"Sometimes, you'll lose the battles. But as long as you're alive and you have your team, you haven't lost as much as you thought."
Rust was in the cafeteria, securing Wepaynar's ties. His wrists and ankles were tied with duct-tape, ropes and hair scrunchies, to a heavy cafeteria table. A group of hero students were assigned to keep an eye on him, to make sure he didn't get away.
Audrey entered the cafeteria as soon as Rust was done double tying Wepaynar's bonds. Her eyes widened as soon as she saw the legendary hero restraining the history teacher.
"What happened? Why are you back? Why do I smell smoke? And why are you tying up Mr Wepaynar?" Audrey asked.
"You're slipping. I just got here and I know more than you," Rust said. "Seriously, where have you been?"
"I've been in the bathroom, suffering a panic attack because you left, Urban Danger arrived and the kids were nowhere to be found," Audrey replied, coldly.
"And you didn't hear the explosion?" Wepaynar pitched in.
"I thought it was music," Audrey admitted.
"Okay, well, this guy blew a hole in the gym, he's the traitor and I'm reinforcements," Rust summed up.
"Alright, I've got that. So why are you really back?" Audrey asked again, cross-armed.
"Why does no one believe I'm just reinforcements?" Rust complained.
"Because you are not reinforcements. Caleb with his army of lunch-ladies is reinforcements. What made you turn around?"
Rust was going to change the subject again, but before he did, a student barged into the cafeteria, running as if fire were burning at his heels.
His eyes darting frantically and panting heavily, he looked like he had grave news to convey.
"Watch him," Rust said to Audrey and the hero students as he strode across the cafeteria to the frantic teenager.
Before Rust could ask what was going on, the teen blurted, "We found all four bombs!"
"Have you given them to a flyer?" Rust asked. The system they had developed for disposing of the bombs was to get a flyer to take them as high into the sky as possible, as close to the time of detonation as allowable, and let it safely blow up in an empty sky.
"We didn't get a chance," the teenager said in between heavy breaths. "The rebels. They're coming back. They snatched it right out of my hands."
Rust thought the rebel students might make a comeback.
He hoped his team would be able to handle them...
35
In the time it took Jack to fall to earth and land in the gym, via new skylight, the school had been plunged into further chaos than ever before.
The rebels had grown in number, far outnumbering the hero students, the lunch-ladies, the teacher body, the veteran heroes and super parents.
They had even more of an upper hand than previously because now they held all five bombs in their possession.
The faceoff between good and evil took place in the cavernous cafeteria, where the rebels closed in on the congregated heroes like a pack of wolves.
"At least the school isn't in lockdown anymore," Caleb said, optimistically, as he stood by his brothers. Ty groaned.
It was a standoff, a staring match: no one made a move.
"I thought Big Bertha scared them off," some random hero student piped up.
"Like a stupid army of lunch-ladies could scare us off," one of the rebels replied.
A rather rotund, black lunch-lady made her way to the front of the line of heroes.
Hands on large hips, she addressed the rebel that had dared speak against her kind. "Excuse me?" she said, her "Oh no, you didn't," attitude shining. "Oh, boy, you may have the guts to say that to a faceless crowd but try saying that to my face and let's see how you fair."
Before Gloria could squash the puny rebel, Jack entered the cafeteria, a catalyst to kick off yet another chaotic event that evening.
Hopefully, it would be the last.
Through the explosions, the ice blasts, the acid puddles, the swarming fruit, the snaking vines, the actual snakes, a small Asian elephant, a eight feet tall robot, an animated rock formation, a six-armed maths teacher, a portal-creating senior student, and a conglomeration of other crazy happenings, Bella fought her way through the disorder to Jack's side.
Ethan, in his hologram state, walked through the mess as if it weren't even there, spooking one or two rebels as he passed right through them.
Caleb, with a shrunken Ty clinging to his shoulder, bounced high over the confused rage and landed, accurately, beside his brother, Jack and Bella.
Dean managed to claw his way through the crowd, Lacey Smallwood at his side, fighting off threatening blasts of ice or acid or fire or apple sauce or whatever with her rapidly growing barrier of roses.
The group of seven stood, back to back, in a circle, able to see any threat coming their way.
"Where are the bombs?" Jack called to his newly formed team (with new additions).
Caleb quickly bounced high into the air and back down again. "The rebels are playing hot potato with them," he said. "It's here, it's there, and then it's here again!"
"Above all else, our priority is to get those bombs outta here," said Jack. He looked over his shoulder at his band of misfits. "Wow, we're all together, for once."
"I see a bomb!" Caleb exclaimed as he pointed like a little child across the cafeteria at the device as it was thrown around like a dirty sock.
"Well, go after it!" Bella said. "Just remember to get rid of it!"
Caleb hopped away, chasing the bomb as it was passed from one rebel to the other.
A teenager caught the explosive as if it were a football and tossed it to his friend like this was a game on the beach.
Before his friend could catch it, though, Caleb snagged it right out of the air, quickly bouncing away as soon as he held the dangerous device.
Gaining possession of the bomb was not the problem. Disposing of it was the problem.
Hurriedly hopping out the cafeteria, Caleb stood in the empty hallway, alone, staring at the deadly device in his hands, wondering what on planet earth he was going to do with it...
Something in his peripheral vision caught his attention. He shifted his gaze from the explosive to the signs on the doors indicating the boys' bathrooms.
"Hey, that could work..." he said to himself.
As he scurried across the hall, into the bathrooms and into a secluded stall, he recalled a movie he saw a few months ago.
All pipes lead to the ocean, he thought as he disposed of the explosive device.
One bomb was taken care of and it was a load off every hero's shoulders. Nonetheless, there were still four bombs to sort out before everybody could go home.
"I think Caleb's got the right idea," Jack said. "Fan out and chase the bombs. We can worry about restraining the rebels after we've made sure Hero High isn't going to blow up like fireworks."
The team struggled to catch sight of the bombs and at the same time not get caught up in the frenzy. The truth is they probably c
ould have helped greatly with this showdown, but the teachers, the experienced heroes, the parents and the trained hero students would have to handle it for now. Right now, the priority was to dispose of the bombs.
The heroes were holding their own just fine.
The music teacher emitted an ear-splitting howl; Mr Beta used his extra arms to wield various cooking utensils, defensively; Audrey teleported here and there, transporting rebels away before they could tackle their hero targets; the invisible Professor Darkins tripped up everyone in his path (even heroes) and Rust zoomed around the cafeteria, just like a speeding race-car.
The lunch-ladies stepped up their game, too. The cafeteria floor became a minefield: you couldn't possibly know where it was hot or where it was freezing cold until you stepped on it. The army of Big Bertha's advanced and no puny rebel was safe. Vegetables and fruit flew through the air like bullets, pelting their targets relentlessly.
Janitor Darren, who did not seem to have any superpowers of his own, wielded his trusty plunger, fearlessly. No one really came up against him. Who wants to be hit with an unsanitary toilet plunger?
The High Heroes (minus their helmets and bulky football gear) teamed up. With all their training in teamwork, they became a force to be reckoned with.
The older, experienced heroes took the lead in detaining the rebels.
Parents stood alongside their children, working together to restrain the rebels.
"Hey, is that your mom?" Dean asked Jack, pointing across the room to a fearless woman wielding a chair as her defence.
"That's my mom," Jack confirmed, honestly shocked. Obviously, Caleb's "reinforcements" included his mother.
Though without superpowers, Alison protected herself