Victor goes to STAR Labs to see Silas, and a guard, Casey Kleeba, stops him before he can confront his father. Silas tells Casey to let Victor in, and as he goes Casey unwittingly bumps a cable hooked up to the Reach device. Victor complains that Silas missed the game and the celebration afterward, and Silas apologizes but says that Victor won't need scholarships to get into college if he keeps his grades up. His son says that he has a 4.0 GPA, and Silas tells him that his work is important. Victor points out that Silas is ignoring his life, and then realizes that it's pointless and leaves. Silas starts to go after him, and Victor knocks the cable loose and the device explodes.
At Happy Harbor, Forager finds Brion looking at a news article about his brother Grigor. Brion tells Forager to mind his own business, and Violet and Artemis arrive. Violet is happy that it's the first day at high school, and Artemis gives Forager an amulet that Zatanna created to disguise his alien appearance. His teammate Violet picks a name for Forager, Fred Bugg, and Brion tells Violet to be careful about the boys. Megan and Lucas take them to school.
The sprinklers at STAR Labs go off, and the guards help Silas to his feet. They find Victor buried beneath the wreckage and get him out. Most of the left half of Victor's body is destroyed, and a scientist tells Silas that Victor won't survive to make it to a hospital. Victor looks up at his father, and Silas brings over the Father Box to heal Victor, insisting that it has to work. The Father Box weaves itself into Victor's body and drains power from the lab systems to create a healing cocoon.
At the school, the teacher Mrs. Parris introduces Violet and Fred to the class. Violet gets sick from the excitement, and Parris sends them to their seats. Harper Row comes in late and overhears Forager and Violet talking. They introduce themselves and Harper jokingly figures that she's going to like them.
The scientists continue to monitor Victor but realize that there's no heart or brain function. Silas insists on continuing. Meanwhile, the Father Box continues altering Victor's body and replacing the missing parts of his body with metal. His bodily functions start up and the cocoon pulses with energy.
Conner takes a motorcycle for a test run, and Brion tries to set the League teleporter for Santa Prisca. He doesn’t have proper authorization, and he's locked out of the computer after trying to access information on Tara. Nightwing arrives and tells Brion that Tara was on Santa Prisca but shipped elsewhere and they're trying to locate her. Brion blames Nightwing for delaying so she could be taken away, and tackles him. He easily knocks Brion away, and Brion change to Geo Force. Nightwing advises patience, and Geo Force says that patience hasn't gotten them anything. His opponent asks if it's about Tara or Markovia, aware that Brion has been following Grigor's every move. He tells Brion if he's going to look back or forward to what he might become, and walks away.
The cocoon opens revealing the transformed Victor.
Violet and Forager go outside for lunch and Forager notes that no students want to sit with them. He wonders if they're freaks, and Harper is nearby. She speaks up and says that they're all freaks, and Violet and Forager are cool unlike the other students. They eat and Violet says that she still feels sick.
Silas tells Victor about the explosion and he did whatever he could to save him. Victor stares at his body in horror and says that Silas murdered his future. Another guard tells him to calm down, and Victor easily subdues him and then Casey. When Silas tries to stop his son, Victor shoves him to his knees.
Harper goes off to her class, and Forager finds Violet crouched down where they were sitting. She says that she feels weird and generates an indigo aura for the first time. It lets her create a boom tube and walks into it, and it closes before Forager can follow her.
Violet arrives at STAR Labs and Victor thinks that she's an abomination. He attacks her and she instinctively protects herself. Violet manages to blast him, and Silas yells at her not to hurt his son. Victor charges at her, slamming her to the floor, and she reflects his next blast back at him. Violet feels strange again, goes over, and uses her violet aura on Victor. Victor screams in pain, and Violet says that she cleansed him of Father Box's influence. She admits that she can't remove the metal prosthetics from Victor, and Silas says that the prosthetics are the only things keeping Victor alive. When he says that they can figure it out together, Victor refuses to be a lab rat and says that he's a freak. Violet says she's a freak and agrees to let Victor come with her. Victor says that he needs to leave before Father Box does something to Silas, and the anger is his. He doesn't want to be anywhere Silas and leaves through the boom tube with Violet.
Forager brings Megan to the bleachers and tells her what happened. Violet and Victor return, and Victor walks out onto the football field and looks at his prosthetics.
At the beach by Mount Justice, Brion sits alone and ignores his phone when he gets a news article about Grigor. Nightwing joins him and asks if he's okay, and Brion says that moving forward he will be.
Written by Gadfly on Jan 25, 2019