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eyes; so much for honesty. “My dad got a little crazy … you know how parents are.”
    â€œKicked out?” Lorna looked around the room. “You’re staying here? At school?”
    â€œJust for tonight, till I can work things out.”
    â€œThat’s terrible.”
    â€œYeah. Who’d have thought I’d be spending more time here than anyone else?”
    Lorna laughed, then thought for a moment. “You could stay at my house.”
    Jake hesitated.
    â€œIn the garage. My parents won’t be using it. If it’s just for the night? Then maybe tomorrow we could … go somewhere?”
    Jake was touched by the generous offer. He looked around the basement as the lunch bell rang above them.
    â€œIt would sure beat sleeping here again. Okay, thanks. Just for the night though. And I have to go somewhere first, so it might be late by the time I get to your house. Like midnight, late.”
    â€œI don’t mind. I’ll keep an eye out for you.”
    She gave him a broad smile, which Jake matched. Then they both looked around awkwardly.
    â€œI better go,” said Lorna. “See you tonight?”
    Jake nodded. “Count on it.”
    Burning with embarrassment and excitement, Jake watched Lorna run back up the steps. It left Jake feeling happier than he had been in a long time. The mobile on the desk vibrated, signaling he had a text message. No doubt it was instructions to meet his mysterious benefactor.
    CLUNK! Chameleon stepped back as the bulky steel clamps moved away from the giant figure that was pinned to a vertical table. The staff at the Higher Energy Research Organization had named it, after much thumbing through dictionaries, Teratoid.
    What was once Warren Feddle, known to his friends and enemies alike as Scuffer, was now a lumberingmass of contorted flesh and rippling muscles. Standing eight feet tall, Scuffer was unrecognizable except for his face, which was puffed and distorted. A dark blue jumpsuit covered his body, leaving his enormous hands and feet free.
    Enforcers had found him like this on the outskirts of Moscow after Hunter had used a previously unknown superpower on him. Foundation scientists still didn’t know what Hunter had done, but guessed it was a mutated combination of a teleport power and some kind of strength increase.
    â€œFeddle?” Chameleon said from a safe distance. The brute did not seem to hear. Instead he was studying the pneumatic clamps that still bound his ankles and wrists. Since he had been discovered unconscious in the snow, the boy had seemed to have almost no memory of who he was. In fact he now possessed the learning capabilities of a dog. And even with his dubious school record, that did not bode well for Scuffer.
    â€œTeratoid?” said Chameleon. He hated the name, but the scientists studying him had thought it appropriate. Still no response. He sighed. “Scuffer?”
    The beast responded with a grunt; his nickname was one of the few things he did remember. “We’re going to let you out of your chains, but you must do something for us. Do you understand?”
    Scuffer made a gurgling sound and strained againsthis shackles. They had let him loose a few times, and at first he had behaved. That was until he got into one of his rages and became a wrecking machine. His strength was pushing the upper scales of any Prime ever recorded, plus he had the speed, agility, and peculiar teleport jumping power that made him a deadly opponent. The Enforcers kept a titanium shock collar around his neck, ready to stun him if he got out of hand. Chameleon knew that if the brute ever figured out that it was the collar that was keeping him prisoner he would tear it apart. For now, his stupidity made him manageable.
    With another asthmatic hiss of pneumatics, the final clamps released Teratoid and he dropped to the floor with such force the room shook. Scuffer sniffed the air and faced Chameleon with a dopey