Overpowered (Powered Trilogy #2) (13 page)

In the three days that follow, I am called to stop sixteen drug-induced human fights. Eight humans were already dead by the time I arrived on the scene and two more died at local hospitals. The humans have done a decent job of keeping these incidents out of the media but the popularity of these fights haven’t diminished in the slightest.

I’m dying to check in with Max to see what he’s discovered about the
depowering machine but Crimson calls me just before I get home.

“We have a lead on Mara
Moone,” she says, sending GPS coordinates to my BEEPR while she talks. “Meet me in five.”

The thrill of possibly finding one of the missing Supers almost makes up for my disappointment about
delaying my talk with Max. I follow Crimson’s coordinates to a middle class residential wing on the outskirts of Central. Most Supers in King City live underground near Central in these residential neighborhoods. Sometimes the humans complain that we “isolate” ourselves from their species by living underground in the Grand Canyon. But most of the humans (and Supers) prefer it this way.

I
recognize the address as the same one from Mara’s files. “What’s going on?” I ask Crimson. “Haven’t we already searched her house?”

“Not well enough.” Crimson holds up a clue the size of a gum wrapper. It is a gum wrapper. I turn it over and read the words handwritten in purple ink:
Club Night Wing.

It’s underlined several times in what must have been hard pressed because two of the lines rip into the paper. “What is it?”

“I found it folded into a tiny square and shoved under Mara’s mattress in her bed frame. I researched Club Night Wing and get this--” Crimson taps her BEEPR to mine and a holograph from a website hovers above our faces. I read the tag line under the club’s logo:
Club Night Wing is an exclusive hangout for Super-born humans. We accept all species, even if you don’t accept yourself.

“Super-born humans..?” I look to Crimson for an explanation. If they covered this in school, I must have forgotten it. And Supers don’t forget anything.

She shrugs. “I researched it before I called you up here. It’s like a support group for Supers who feel like they should have been born a human instead of one of us. This was in Mara’s room and it’s her handwriting. Maybe she’s been planning to run away for a while. These people might know.”

I sc
roll through the holograph website trying to absorb as much information as I can. I’ve never even heard of something like this. I thought all Supers loved being a Super. I know I do. My finger hovers in the air over a part of the website. “Well that’s not rude or anything,” I say, pointing to the part in bolded red letters.

No Heroes allowed.

Crimson nods. “I know. How are we going to gain access and ask them about Mara if they’re clearly prejudiced against Heroes?”

“Are you kidding me? We’re going to gain access by walking up to it and opening the door. We’re Heroes and we’ll do whatever the hell we want, especially in regards to finding a minor.”

Crimson’s lips squish to the side of her mouth. “I like the way you think.”

“Someone needs to have an evil thinking ability around here,” I say as I
enter the club’s location on my BEEPR. “I’m glad it’s me.”

Contrary to
what its name alludes, Club Night Wing isn’t a wild party spot. It’s also not a club. Not in the nightclub sense, anyway. Crimson and I slip into King City’s Public Library unnoticed by everyone except the elderly librarian behind the front counter. She just glances at us through her thick glasses and then turns her attention back toward the Solitaire game on her computer screen. The look on her faces seems more like she thinks we’re just a couple of weird cosplaying teenagers and not real Super Heroes. The back of the library has conference rooms and various meeting rooms.

Meeting room three has a dry erase board on the door.

Junk food
and Journaling - Mondays, 4PM

Club Night Wing
- Tuesday & Thursday + all Super holidays

Crimson glances at her BEEPR. “Good thing it’s Tuesday.”

I push open the heavy wooden door, readying myself for conflict for when they see us dressed in full Hero attire. My enthusiasm for a fight slips away just as soon as I see the room
--a circle of empty chairs and a boring maroon rug on the floor.

“Um.” The meek sound
comes from a girl sitting cross-legged in the corner of the room, laptop in front of her on the floor. She can’t be more than sixteen years old but her blonde pixie cut hair means she’s not Mara. “Can I help you?”

“I’m Hero Maci Might and this is Hero Crimson
Carlow. Are you a member of Club Night Wing?”

She swallows. Nods. Locks her computer screen.

“We’re not here to cause any harm,” Crimson says, walking over to the girl. I swallow back my annoyance and follow. “We’re looking for Mara Moone. It’s an official Hero mission, so I need you to comply. Have you seen her?”

The girl shakes her head. “I don’t think so.”

I pull up the holograph of Mara and set it on the floor, eye level with the girl. “Look familiar?” I ask as the three dimensional projection slowly turns around the holo-disk. Again she says no. Her power fizzles like a flashlight with dying batteries. She has no superior abilities and it’s as if she’s limited her natural-born Super abilities as much as possible. “Why don’t you want to be a Super?” I ask, unable to contain my curiosity.

“You don’t have to answer that,” Crimson says. I roll my eyes but I don’t complain. Our mission is more important than me questioning a troubled teen on why she hates her species. Crimson gives me a sideways glance and I know she’s about to pull a fast one. “Mara’s gone missing and her parents are worried. Are you sure you don’t have any information?”

Mara’s parents are dead and she wasn’t too fond of her foster family. If this girl knows Mara at all, she’ll react as such. Crimson and I lean in, studying the girl’s face. She doesn’t even flinch. “Sorry. I don’t know her.”

“She’s telling the truth,” I mutter, taking a step backward. “This is a dead end.”

Crimson’s BEEPR lights up with a call from my brother. She answers it privately, holding the device to her ear. “Yeah? No. No. Okay. Yeah it didn’t lead to anything. Okay, will do.” She thanks the teenager for her time and turns to leave, ignoring my super offended look of annoyance about her secret call with Max.

When we’re back in the KAPOW, I
cross my arms and lift my eyebrows as high as it takes for her to laugh. “It’s nothing, Mace. I promise.”

“If it’s nothing
than why can’t you tell me?”

Lights blur past the tiny KAPOW window as we zoom across the nation in our underground tunnels. Crimson’s super-blonde hair seems to glow in the dim lighting. “You’re my best friend,” she says.

I roll my eyes. “Those are just words. They aren’t the words I want to hear. What’s going on with Max? Why did he call you and not me?”

“Well…” her voice gets higher as she speaks. “He’s under the impression that you’re going to get mad at him if you know where he is instead of where you want him to be, so, he’s just kind of...avoiding you?”

“WHAT?” I bolt out of my seat, realizing a little too late that there’s nowhere to go in this pod but right back into the seat cushion. “He’s supposed to be investigating the depowering machine. That’s where he should be. That’s where he better be.”

Crimson stares at her silvery nail polish and gnaws on her bottom lip. “He found some leads about Li Gou that places him in Japan. So Max felt it would be…” she chooses her words carefully, “...more pertinent to look for a missing Super than to pursue the
depowering machine. At least for now. He’s still going to do it, Maci, I swear.”

My eyes focus straight ahead at the stainless steel wall panel in front of me, arms crossed so tightly over my chest that my circulation starts to get tingly. Crimson’s power fills with empathy and pity and that only makes my rage grow stronger. “Max promised me he would look into the machine. He said I couldn’t do it because of the stupid villains. He promised.”

“He hasn’t broken his promise.” Crimson’s voice is sharp like she’s speaking to a child. “We protect the humans but we also protect our own. His lead was stronger than the depowering machine lead, you have to understand that.”

“Really? His
lead
?” As pissed off as I am, I direct my glare at the wall instead of at my best friend. I love her too much to be a jerk to her. “Was it as good as the so-called lead you and I just followed?”

“I’m sorry. Don’t be mad at him. He’s doing what he thinks is best.”

“He doesn’t know what’s best,” I snap, dipping my chin to look at the floor. I’m pouting. I know. I just don’t care.

Her cool fingers touch my bare arm. She’s only two years older than I am but in this moment, she feels a lot older
than eighteen. Her power feels wise, caring. Mine is erratic and hungry. “Maci, Heroes have to think with a clear head and make tough decisions when necessary. We don’t follow our hearts, we follow logic. I know you’re mad but please try to see it from his point of view. Not everyone can just rush off making irrational decisions because they feel like it.”

This time when I bolt up, I have somewhere to go. My hand palms the MOD screen and I shout the word STOP. We lurch to a halt in the middle of nowhere, so deep in the underground tunnels that the overhead lights are just a scatter of dusty bulbs hanging from the ceiling.

Crimson’s eyes go wide but she doesn’t say anything. “Thanks for the pep talk,” I say as I yank open the KAPOW pod’s door. “I really wish I could stay and chat longer, but I just made an irrational decision and I need to go take care of that.”

I jump out and take off running before the door has time to snap closed again. Crimson doesn’t follow after me, but I knew she wouldn’t.

Because that wouldn’t be logical.

A sick feeling of nostalgia creeps over me. The medical ward looks almost the same as it did a few weeks ago, all white and clean and sterile and awful. Supers heal instantly. Supers never come to the medical ward unless something very bad has happened. Yet I’ve been here three times, each time worse than the last.

Nurse Martha isn’t behind the front desk like I’d expected. It’s another woman I’ve never seen before. Much younger,
with thin wiry hair and by the smell of it, freshly painted nails. She barely glances up from the MOD screen on her desk when I walk in. I give her a quick nod, an Official Hero Business nod, and she returns it then goes back to work.

Memory takes me through the empty halls, turning left and right and then left two more times. My heartbeat speeds up as I near the room with solid glass walls that I first saw on my sixteenth birthday. A deep breath calms me only a little bit; behind those walls lies the one creation that ripped out all of my dad’s power and almost took all of mine. It is a life-
ruiner when it falls into the wrong hands.

Aurora’s hands were the worst.

The taste of copper floods over my tongue. I swallow blood. Then release my jaw so it stops gnawing a freaking hole through my lip.
Get it together, Maci. You’re a Hero. Stop being nervous.

I mistake the open air for very clean glass at first. I stop in the middle of the hallway, feeling for the first time in a long time, absolutely nothing. Where a wall of glass used to be is now just empty open space. The big room in front of me that used to hold the massive machine that resembled a CAT scan
ner is now just a room. The floor is carpeted and clean. It’s as if the machine I’m looking for never existed.

But if that were the case, my right arm wouldn’t be a numb worthless piece of flesh and bone.

Back at the front desk, the nurse doesn’t acknowledge me until I clear my throat. “You work here?” I ask. She looks up and nods. “Well act like it.”

“We don’t have any patients today,” she says, straightening her spine when she notices the black and
white Hero suit I’m wearing. “Um, are you..?” The distinct smell of fear empties out of her pores and although I shouldn’t be so smugly satisfied, I am. I smile. “I’m Hero Maci Might.”

“
I’msosorry.” Her words rush out all at once as she jumps from her chair, smoothing her hair down at the sides. “My name is Casey. What can I do for you? Do you need someone?”

“Something, actually.” My thumb points to the right and I almost laugh at the irony of using my depowered hand to point for the atrocity that took the power from it. “The
depowering machine is gone. Where is it?”

“Um...I don’t, I don’t know.”

I lift an eyebrow. Her eyes flicker from her MOD screen to the phone and back. “Do you want me to ask someone?”

“Who would you ask?”

“I don’t know. I’m new. I do know that they moved pretty much everything out of here, to other floors. It’s all classified now.”

“Then what is this floor for?” I ask, annoyed that the Heroes weren’t made aware of this change.

“It’s for recovering patients. But we don’t have any right now.”

I feel like smashing my good fist through something but I take a deep breath and think about how my brother would handle this situation. “Okay fine,” I say with a sigh. “Call someone and ask.”

Her fingers fly over the MOD screen until it lights up in a call. Another white-uniformed Super answers, his face appearing in the tiny square on the desk screen. Casey explains that she has a Hero asking for the depowering machine and needs to know where it is. The man on the other end runs a hand over his sandy blond hair and shrugs. “It was moved somewhere confidential. That’s all I know.”

“Can you ask someone?” Casey says through clenched teeth. I know she hates every second that she’s stuck here with me, an impatient Hero. She doesn’t have to say it because I learned it in training: the last thing any
Super wants to do is piss off a Hero. The guy shakes his head again. “I don’t know who to ask. I’m sorry.”

Time is freaking ticking away and I’m getting nowhere. “It’s fine, hang up.”

She does as she’s told and ends the call without saying goodbye. All my instincts are telling me to call Max and ask what to do, but I’m pissed off at him so my stubbornness will prevent me from doing that. No worries though, I get a better idea a second later. “Could you make another call for me?” I ask with my sweetest smile. Casey nods. “Call President Might, please.”

It’s best that I call him from the medical ward, that way he won’t answer the phone with Nova in view or accidentally say something he shouldn’t when I’m around other people. It’s better if he sees Casey calling instead of me. Unfortunately, Casey doesn’t command her MOD to dial my father-she sits at her desk, stone faced and pale.

“Call him,” I repeat.

“I-I can’t. He’s the president.”

“And I’m his daughter. Call him.”

Dad answers after several rings. I step in front of a very nervous Casey, relieving her of talking to my dad since she’s obviously terrified
at the idea of it. He barely gets out a hello before I speak. “Dad, they moved the depowering machine and I need it and I need you to find out where it is.”

The look he gives me slaps me across the face. I am a total idiot. “I thought we decided you wouldn’t be the one to go searching for it.”

“I, uh, something came up with Max. He doesn’t have time for it.” Now I really
really
wish I hadn’t made this call in front of Casey.

Dad surprises me by smiling. “Wish I could help you, kiddo, but I’m not sure where it is. I know they moved it to a more secure location somewhere in Central. I have another meeting with the elders in a few minutes. I’ll find out, but it’ll take a while.”

My finger hovers over Casey’s MOD screen. “Thanks, Dad,” I say before ending the call.

“He seems really nice,” Casey says with stars in her eyes. My thoughts go to Nova, hiding out in our home in what is probably the biggest act of defiance against Central that’s ever happened. “Yeah he is,” I say. “You have no idea
how nice he can be.”

Max hasn’t returned home by nightfall. I’ve been skimming his signal on my BEEPR all afternoon, waiting for his map dot to appear back at home and not where it’s been lately-hovering over Tokyo. Dad is still at his meeting and Nova isn’t in the living room when I get home. I assume she’s hanging out in the
safe room which she’s kind of made her own room lately, so I don’t bother her. No matter what, she always slips into bed with me at night. I know it sounds weird, but I can’t begin to imagine the life she’s had and what she’s been through, so if my sixteen-year-old twin sister wants to sleep next to me at night, just to feel the comforting rhythm of someone breathing next to her, I’m okay with that.

But I’m not okay with being alone.

My heart aches for that one boy who makes me feel lighter than air. I know I should probably be focusing on my missing persons case or trying to find the depowering machine without Dad’s help, but my heart acts on its own accord by dialing up Evan.

He tells me he’ll be here in five minutes.

Even with Hero status, I’m still a loser. My cheeks turn red when I realize I’m actually tiptoeing through the house so Nova won’t hear me welcoming Evan inside. What kind of mature Hero is embarrassed to be seen with her boyfriend? This one.

I open the door, grab Evan’s arm and pull him across the living room, down the hall and to my bedroom without saying a word. He closes my bedroom door behind us, turning around and facing me with a big grin. He smells like saltwater and body wash. His hair is a little wavy in the back as if he’s recently been sleeping on it. A goofy grin pulls at my cheeks when his slips his arms around my waist and pull me close.

“You’re all scruffy,” I muse, sliding my fingers up the dark blond stubble on his face.

“I’ve been working so hard I haven’t had time to shave.”

“Whatcha working on?”

He doesn’t answer me right away. His lips drop to meet mine. I let myself get lost in kissing him. When he does answer, I’ve almost forgotten the question. “I’ve been trying to come up with fake research that looks believable. Something that looks like conclusive proof that there’s no connection between good and evil DNA.”

I nod. “Clever.” My fingers trace the silver chain around his neck. “Do you think you could get away with that?”

He steps toward my window wall and shakes his head as he looks out at the stars. “Do any of us think we’ll get away with this?”

My shoulders fall. I slink down, sitting on my bed across from him. “Look, Evan.” Pain shoots through me as I say the words and it’s worse than any pain I’ve felt while fighting the drugged up humans. “If it’s too hard dating me, or being around me, it’s okay. You can say it. We can cut ties or whatever.”

“Maci.”

I don’t even look up at him. But his hand touches my shoulder a moment later and I feel him sit next to me on the bed. “Look at me.” Reluctantly, I pull my eyes up to meet his. He takes my hands and places them into his lap, not letting go. “Dating you is hard work. You’re always busy. Your life is unpredictable. Sometimes we go an entire day only saying good morning or good night to each other.”

I hold up my hand. “Stop. I get it, okay? You don’t have to spell it out for me.”

He smiles, not even caring about my pain. “I do have to spell it out. And I wasn’t finished, so keep listening. Maci, I am crazy about you. I love every second I’m with you and when I’m not with you, I’m wishing I was.” He leans over and kisses my forehead. “You’re worth all of the hard work.”

“Thank you,” I whisper. My body melts into his and I wrap my arms around him as we fall back onto my bed. We watch the stars through my window until I’ve lost track of
time. “How long can you stay?” I whisper.

His fingers filter through my hair, down my back. “As long as you want.”

Evan doesn’t flinch when someone opens a door in the hallway and two power levels walk out of Dad’s office. “Who the hell is that?” I whisper quiet enough for only Evan’s ears to hear. He shrugs. “Nova? Max?”

I shake my head. “Max isn’t home and neither is Dad.” His eyes go wide for a split second before he jumps off my bed, holding his arm in front of me, as if he’s protecting me. Me. A
Hero
.

I close my eyes and focus on the power
approaching us from the two Supers in the hallway. One is definitely Nova. The other…I let out the breath I’d been holding. It isn’t a villain. But I’m still not sure who it is.

“Thanks for hanging out,” Nova says. “I’m sure you had other stuff to do.” I might be completely insane here, but it sounds like she’s more sweet and sincere than usual.

“It’s no problem. I’m here if you need me.”

Holy
crap.

My eyes almost bulge out of my friggen skull. Evan’s mouth falls open and we stare silently at each other, wide eyed and open mouthed as if we’re two
human kids who just saw a Hero for the first time, so freaking giddy and insane with the secret knowledge that we both share. I squeeze Evan’s hand and lean closer to my door so I can keep spying on my sister.

“Do you think the others would get mad?”

“No,” Nova says quickly, followed by, “I mean, I don’t know. I don’t think so. Maci wants everyone to like me so they’ll believe that I’m not a villain.”

“We’ll get you through this. Anyone who spends five minutes with you will know that you’re not evil.”

There’s a pause and some shuffling movement through the hallway and into the living room. Oh my god, is he touching her? Are they hugging? The suspense makes me want to burst open my door right now and ruin their private moment.

“You have my number,” he says. The front door slides open, muffling whatever it is that Nova says in reply. I hear her thank him and then he says, “I’m serious. Just call me if you need anything.”

The door closes. Nova’s power level is all happiness and elation and a little bit of embarrassment. I bounce on the balls of my feet, my hands covering my mouth to keep me from saying anything. Evan holds back laughter and keeps shaking his head like he can’t believe it any more than I can. When I hear her open the door to Dad’s office, I pull mine open and step into the hallway.