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True to his word, Allen has diagnostic exams ready for the taking. A stack of personal screens from the media lab sits next to his work table in the Engineering department, all programmed with tests. Long ones, since they're diagnostic, not cumulative.

One of them is, in fact, programmed with Superboy's name on it. Because Allen is a smartass like that.

"You know Stace, it would be nice if I could have a sign for the door. 'Open Call for Students-slash-Teachers,' something like that," he says, as he roots through the engineering department, looking for just such a thing to make a sign with.

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This kid does not waste time.

He pops into a seat, and starts taking his test.

Math, okay. Science, cool. Englush and writing, no problem.

History...

"Uuuuuh. We got a problem," he says, looking over some of the questions.

"I figured." Allen spins around in his fleshseat to take a look at the test. "Alternate histories are gonna make it a bitch to teach." He looks over the history portion of the test. "Maybe everybody from specific universes should do their own timelines. Group project."

The DC kids will have fun with that one.

"Yeah, 'cause Hercules, the Greek Gods, and Atlantis aren't a myth, and this Greek history stuff leaves out the formation of Themiscyra," he says, leaning back in his meat chair. "Oh, and also, uh, I'm pretty sure from talking to Traci that the plagues of Moses and all that stuff wasn't just, y'know allegory. She said the Spectre killed all the first-born sons of Egypt for real. Dunno if that's all true, but a lot of this myth stuff isn't so mythological. Annnd the Egyptian history is way, way off, I can tell you that from personal experience, since I have a chuck of Egyptian history in my back."

He scrolls forward, "Annnd recent history, like this Cold War stuff, leaves out the sanction against superheroes and the JSA being called to unmask by the House Committee on Un-American Activities."

He scrolls through.

"Wow, y'know, from these questions, is everyone else's history really this boring? All these questions are about the kinda boring stuff."

"Hey, I put in some stuff about the formation of the Zulu nation, and William Wallace hacking some English heads. That stuff is pretty cool."

"As for all that stuff - you can pretty much strike anything supernatural from any of the histories of boring worlds like mine. I feel fairly confident in saying that most worlds not containing superheroes or people with significant supernatural abilities are going to have mostly old dudes making treaties and regular old wars with guns and swords and mundane human torment, and no islands of Amazon warrior babes. Most of the stuff regarding gods has yet to be proven as not a myth or allegory, and that includes your magical tech bug there."

He nods in the general direction of Jaime's back bug.

"I hypothesize there was little to no significant supernatural interference in the course of my history until current times. But I have pretty good evidence there's at least one god running around up there in the higher planes."

Jaime answers all that he can, and then finishes, getting it up and handing it over.

"When are they getting graded?"

"I'm gonna give the essays to Mei Ling and keep the commentboxes on the history for data collection purposes, but the multiple choice stuff is pretty much already totaled up." Allen takes the media pad and starts checking it. "Think of this as your personal student profile. You're not doing bad at all. If you're going the premed route I'm going to have you bone up on chemistry right away."

Jaime winces.

"This is basically the second time I never finished out chem," he says regretfully. "I got a lot closer this time. Although it wasn't easy 'cause I was doubled up in most of my classes, no study hall OR lunch, no electives 'cause to catch up I had to just take core classes..."

"Don't worry about it. This tells me what cores you're missing and which ones you can skip." Allen hefts Jaime's test. "I do not like time-wasting on unnecessary classes, or on classes you're not ready for when you could be relearning the basics. School systems are inefficient. This one isn't going to be."

"I'm just getting kinda bummed that it feels like I keep falling behind. At the rate I'm going, I'm gonna wind up graduating with the freshman. It'd be nice if the whole 'missing huge chunks of my life' thing could stop."

"Sorry, kid. You seem like the kind of guy who's all prepared for the future, and has been since he was old enough to conceptualize time, but the universe has a way of messing with everybody's plans."

Allen clicks through Jaime's test, looking at his notes on the history portion. "My wife had the same problem. Avid student, decent sense of ambition, got sucked into a dream world of magic for ten years." He glances at Jaime. "Not that I mean to discourage you, because the GED isn't that hard to pass, but there's no shame in going back to school once the world's been saved. Or even while it still needs saving. Heroes have to retire sometime."

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