Those who would dictate everybody's station in life appear to be showing up everywhere. Some choose to operate with discretion. Others...don't. But all seem to respond to any defiance with sinister threats.
Darren and Keene have reservations on Vaughn wanting to "educate" students by allowing John to terrorize them. Seraphina continues to piece together John's history, and concludes that the catalyst for his major attitude adjustment must have been Keon and his Memory Recall ability. Meanwhile, John himself remains intent on destroying Safe House. After failing his mission, Zeke is ordered by John to infiltrate the club and get the names of all members.
As ordered, John's threat about Safe House is published on the front page of the Wellston Weekly. And as expected, it is ignored by a majority of the student body. Zeke thus barges in on opening day, choosing to have fun blatantly invoking John's name instead of following the King's clear instructions. For his hubris, Zeke is painfully ejected from the Room by Remi, who declares that members of Safe House will be protected from those who come with ill intent.
Remi, Blyke, and Isen celebrate a successful first day of Safe House at a fast food restaurant. The happy occasion is ruined by a news report about "Nobody," a familiar vigilante with an ability that Blyke's friends recognize. Remi is deeply wounded by the hypocrisy of the one who told her not to chase after criminals, especially since someone dear to her heart lost his life while living a secret life. The remorseful Blyke promises that he's done with his vigilante career, but they're not sure it's done with him. Later, Arlo invites Remi to chat with his Aunt Valerie over coffee.
At Cafe Royal, Remi is introduced to Valerie, a high-ranking member of the Authorities. Remi is disconcerted by the fact that Arlo's Aunt seems eerily familiar to her, and gets the shock of a lifetime when Valerie starts talking like Volcan! But she puts the troubling implications aside for the time being and gets into a heated debate over whether the Authorities should cooperate with vigilantes instead of denouncing them. When Remi is scolded by Arlo for her behavior, he reveals at her request that his Aunt's ability is Barrier, which catches Remi off guard.
Remi takes an early leave from the cafe, still uneasy about Valerie. Arlo gets a warning from his aunt to put all of his focus into his academics instead of wasting time meddling in affairs the Authorities are handling. Isen delivers his research into the Authorities' readjustment classes to Seraphina, who mentions offhand that she was supposed to attend such a class after she read Unordinary. She then shared her theory that the Authorities took such drastic action in order to discourage the public from deviating from their established order.
Arlo becomes so distracted by his aunt's warnings that he flakes on his Safe House duties. After narrowly diffusing an argument as a result of this, Remi angrily confronts him over his absence. Seeing that his goals didn't align with hers, Arlo formally quits the club. Meanwhile, Terrence gets a new mission from his mysterious superiors...
Though his vigilante struggles got him unwanted attention, not only did Blyke's adventures did glean new information about about the amplifiers, but two vials of the stuff as well. Isen comes up with a tempting idea to use the drugs to fight John, but Blyke reasons that the side effects made it too risky. Unfortunately, there's still plenty of risk when Blyke is forced to confront John and Zeke in order to rescue Safe House members who have come under attack.
Blyke easily deals with Zeke, but John remains an overwhelmingly powerful opponent. But not even getting pinned to the ground with serious injuries is enough to stop Blyke from calling John a coward for not personally approaching the Safe House. Suggesting that John is afraid to see that not every high-tier is as horrible as himself gets Blyke sent to the infirmary. There, he speaks with Seraphina, who says that John is an unfortunate product of their rotten society, though Blyke has lost all sympathy. Seraphina later finds a note containing a mysterious offer.
Seraphina informs Arlo of the message she received, only to learn that he has gotten cold feet regarding a personal investigation into recent incidents. Despite his reversal and insistence that they should leave things to the Authorities, Seraphina intends to take her chances in looking into this lead. John and Blyke are on each others' minds, and they both intend to take drastic measures in shutting the other down.
Alden gets inducted into Safe House, and learns that the rumors of it being the Anti-John club were overblown. Students carry out activities in peace, even from their regular bullies. One such activity is a card game Seraphina joins out of nostalgia. The present supervisor Blyke steps out for a moment, leaving members unprotected when John and Zeke barge in to escalate their hostilities.
Seraphina stands up to John's tyranny despite the massive difference in power between them. She calls him out for rejecting the bid for peace and prolonging his war by imagining enemies. John remains convinced that any ceasefire established after he began punishing people for their cruelty would never be genuine. Things nearly come to a head when Seraphina calls John a coward who couldn't face the problems around him like the other Royals, but Blyke returns just in time to keep John too busy to attack the other Safe House members.
With Blyke occupied with distracting John, Zeke sets about asserting his dominance over the other club members. Despite being the strongest person in the room, Seraphina and the others refuse to acknowledge his authority. Thus, Zeke attacks them until he is kicked out by a passing Isen.
John's assault is cut short by Vaughn, who uses his ability to force John to stand down when the King doesn't do so willingly. After forcing John to end open war with the Safe House, Vaughn expresses disappointment that his hopes that the late-bloomer would pioneer a better school environment appeared to be for naught. The headmaster is unable to dwell on the matter for long, as he learns he must look into the vial Blyke had on him. Arlo, still torn between his aunt's advice and the conviction of his peers, wonders just what his role is in current events. When he learns that Seraphina is getting ready to accept the invitation she received, he decides to accompany her.
Characters Introduced
Characters introduced in this arc in the order of introduction
