Professor Why's Academy for Extraordinary Youngsters

Epilogue

Since school was effectively out, what with the principal being an incredibly wanted criminal who was recently brought into prison, we were all excused to visit Situ right away. She was unresponsive at first, but after a lot of emergency surgery, she finally came to. The entire time, I'm proud to say, there was always someone there for her. I would know. I was always there for her. Even better, the timing for her awakening could not have been better. Almost all of us happened to be there at the time. It was really crucial that we gave her a good impression as she woke up.

"Did she win?" She asked, looking at all of us.

"CRAP!" Arthur and Summer immediately yelled as they bailed out of the room.

"...Is that a no?" She asked, her face twisting into a frown.

I told Situ all about it. How she saved me from getting killed, and bought us just enough time for Ivan and October to run in and save the day.

"I'm so relieved! I'm the best sidekick ever!" She cheered. "Where are Ivan and October by the way?"

"That's the bad news." I said. "We haven't heard from either of them since."

"Okay." She replied. "Let's go out there and look for him!

"That's... the other bad news." I said.

"Ohh. Right." Situ said. She reached over to feel the spot where there definitely wasn't a left arm. She quietly whispered "My legend starts here", Then she looked back at me. "I want this prosthetic to be black, or at least crazy tan, this one can be Caucasian, and give me a straight up albino arm. Paper color. With super long fingernails like Voldemort."

"I understand why we're friends." I said back.

Summer and Arthur smashed the door open, punched Dennis out of the way, shoved me off the chair next to Situ's bed, and Summer personally chucked the chair out the window.

"I'll pay for that!" Summer shouted to whoever was below. "Not important! SITU ARE YOU FREAKING READY?"

Situ's face went dead serious. "Always." She said, sitting in her bed with her one usable limb.

Arthur presented a giant trophy with a picture of a kid in a karate uniform kicking the air.

"TAAAH DAAAAH!" Summer shouted.

The description read "Junior Karate champ 2008".

"We'll... get that description fixed. The point is, we've been rummaging through your stuff and we found your journal or whatever, right?" Summer enthused.

"You... read my journal?" Situ asked.

"FREAKING ALL OF IT!" Summer replied. "And we saw a list where you ranked all your classmates, right? Well... everyone? As we rehearsed!"

Dennis began. "Dennis, rank 11. Flare burnt the crap out of my nose twice."

Sonya continued. "Sonya, rank 5. I am correct half the time."

Guy, who I didn't even realize was there, continued. "Guy, rank 9. I... got the crap beaten out of me by Clint."

Venus continued. "Venus, rank 8. I think Flare and Situ force fed me a mask?"

Claudia tried her best. "Claudia... rank 7." She drifted up towards the ceiling.

Rob stomped over to the window. People screamed down below. "Rob, rank 6. Summer and Arthur beat me."

Cole stopped randomly weaving his head around to look at every part of the room at once and continued. "Cole, rank 5. I couldn't knock Arthur and Summer out in a fair fight."

Summer stepped in. "Summer, rank 4! Flare and Situ saved me back on the cruise ship!"

Then Arthur. "Arthur, rank 3! Situ defeated me in a fair fight back at the school."

Everyone looked at the two of us. I didn't know about all this, but I jumped in before Situ had a chance to.

"Flare, rank 2! Summer beat the crap out of me before class and during gym daily for two and a half months!"

All eyes were on Situ. She teared up a little.

"Situ! Number 1! I'll... I'll figure this out! If I can't stand on my own feet, I'll make some, and I'm going to be a professional hero!"

We all applauded her. None of us actually expected her to make it, but the speech was moving as heck.

Figuring out walking was a long process for Situ. The physical trainers were fantastic, but walking on rigid legs isn't exactly easy. Over time she graduated from walking with handrails, to walking with a cane, to eventually just walking. It wasn't fast, but it was a huge step forward.

Even Situ's family called in. They told her they weren't expecting miracles, she could come back to Hangzhou and live a comfortable life. Situ refused. My Mandarin was terrible, but from the little bits she taught me, I heard "I will" and "American friends" and then she hung up and asked what I planned to do.

This was the third little bit of bad news.

"I... don't think I'm cut out for being a superhero." I said. "I'll probably go through a normal high school and get a job as a mechanic. My uncle in Oklahoma knows a guy."

"Come on Flare." Situ demanded, while practicing her walking under the close eye of her physical therapist. "We're the best in the class! We have to be heroes!"

"Maybe you can." I replied. "But I froze up that whole time. I'm not good under pressure. I think the most heroic thing I can do is help people in smaller ways. Fixing tires, repairing cars, and stopping highway blowouts. The small hero stuff."

"Fine." Situ said, dead serious. "I'm coming with you."

I spent the next month and a half trying to talk her out of it. When I finally left Alaska behind, though, Situ accompanied me to the train station, purchased a ticket, asked if there was a "sidekick discount", and when there wasn't, she boarded regardless.