Overpowered (Powered Trilogy #2) Read online

  “Where is he?” she asks, trying unsuccessfully to mask her curiosity.

  “He’s in the medical ward for a few more days.”

  A silence falls over us as we walk. In Nova’s malnourished state, I can’t discern what she’s feeling from her power levels. Only a thin pulse of energy emits from her, as weak as a battery-powered radio. This is hands down, the most awkward experience of my life. She’s a stranger but she’s my sister. But I guess being genetically related to someone doesn’t automatically make you friends.

  Lost in my own thoughts, I brush against her arm and jump backward. I have just enough time to shiver from how cold her skin feels when I hear a woman scream.

  In unison, Nova and I spin around and run toward the direction of the woman’s cry; back down First Street and toward the apartment complex from where we came. But we’re too late.

  The Hispanic woman and her half-breed son lie dead in a pool of their own blood, just outside the lobby of the complex. Nova slumps against the brick wall, slapping her hand to her forehead. She doesn’t notice what I notice—the dark figure that darts around a dumpster just seconds after we arrive.

  I slide a retriever hook from its sheath in my sleeve and take off for where the shadow had vanished. Nova curses under her breath, sounding more annoyed with me than distraught over the deaths of two humans. Well, one human and her hybrid offspring.

  I find him a few yards past the dumpster, one hand pressed against the brick wall in front of him, the other hand swiping the screen of a smartphone as he mutters under his breath. Supers don’t use human technology, but the power pulsing from him tells me he’s no human. I flick my wrist and send the hook straight into his back.

  His body goes rigid before collapsing like a fallen tree on a pile of garbage. Jagged wheezing breaths escape his mouth, lips frozen in an open-mouthed state of shock. I call for Nova, despite feeling her power and knowing she’s already approaching. I kick at the guy with my foot, rolling him onto his back. This shoves the hooks further into his spine, ensuring that he won’t be moving anytime soon. He groans as a mixture of silvery red blood oozes from one corner of his mouth.

  “Who the hell are you and what the hell was that for?” I spit out, so completely full of blind rage that I forget to state my name and Hero rank first. I haven’t forgotten that I’m not allowed to interact with villains, but I don’t care about that. “I’m Hero Maci Might,” I say through clenched teeth. “And you’re done.”

  He scowls despite being mostly paralyzed. Nova’s black Chucks appear next to my Hero boots and her hand grabs my shoulder. “I know him,” she says. “He’s Aurora’s.” Her hazel eyes dart to mine and she shrugs. “Well, he was.”

  “I have to call another Hero,” I say as I power up my BEEPR, preparing to call for my brother Max. “This murderer needs to be depowered immediately.”

  At this, the villain spits out a mouthful of blood, revealing yellow-stained teeth. “Screw…you…” he breathes through pained gasps. Nova pushes my arm, making me abandon the BEEPR attached to my wrist. “There’s no need for that.”

  She drops to a knee next to him, tilting her head to the right as she watches his teeth clench in pain. It takes him a minute to gather the strength to speak again, but when he does, his words are ice. “Traitor.”

  “I’m no more a traitor than you,” Nova whispers, pressing her hands to his chest, pushing the hook even further into his back. With a quick jerk of his elbow, he grabs her wrist and squeezes. I can feel the pain through her power—it hurts but she’s not showing it.

  He sucks in a deep breath. “You better choose your loyalties while you still can.”

  Nova slaps him. “There are no more loyalties, jackass. Aurora is dead.”

  I think he shakes his head but he could just be shaking from the pain. Blood and power drip out of the corner of his mouth and form a puddle on the asphalt. He takes in another labored breath. “You’re second in line,” he says. “You could rule everything.”

  My heart runs cold when I hear his words. What the hell does that mean? What if she chooses to go with him? I look to my BEEPR again, finger poised over the screen that would call Max. I should do it. I should do it now before Nova switches loyalties and things get really bad.

  I barely hear the crack a second later. Nova dusts off her hands. Stands up and shrugs. “Sorry about that. He’s dead now.”

  “You can’t do that anymore, okay? You can’t just kill people.”

  “He wasn’t a person, he was a giant prick.”

  “I’m sure he was, but we don’t kill. You can’t kill.”

  Her gaze floats across the horizon in what I think is a subtle eye roll. “We kill. I’m quite good at it.” She turns and looks me straight in the eyes. It’s hard not to flinch at what is essentially my own reflection glaring at me. “I know it is wrong. That is why I must die.”

  I don’t even know what to say to that. I’m still not even sure why I set out on this journey to find someone who didn’t want to be found. Dad will know what to do. Everything will be okay once I get us back to him.

  After a few miles of walking through filthy alleyways, we enter into the newer part of King City. It’s somewhere around one in the morning and I have no clue what day it is but it must not be a weekend because we haven’t run into anyone so far. I glance sideways at Nova. As long as we don’t run into any Supers in the human part of town late at night, our identities should remain a secret for now. The humans won’t know about the villain attack in Central a few days ago. King City’s elders keep that kind of thing a secret to avoid hysteria. I’m in my Hero suit, only I look like some kind of imposter since my right sleeve is pulled up halfway, revealing a bandaged arm. My sister’s ratty hair, dirty skin and tattered clothing draw attention away from her facial features that are identical to mine. If I’m recognized as a Hero then she will look like the human I’ve just rescued.

  Well, I guess that’s not far from the truth.

  My senses are on high alert but there’s not so much as a hungry rat scurrying around the streets. Max and I had assumed that the search team looking for Nova would have gone hundreds of miles away, thinking she’d disappear as far away from Central as possible. That doesn’t comfort me much; if I’m caught harboring a wanted villain then I’ll be just as screwed as she is. Only she wants to die and I definitely don’t.

  An entrance to one of the more popular KAPOW tunnels is up ahead, marked by the dozen tourist kiosks set up next to the thick metal doorway that is only accessible by Supers. We pass a stand of brochures that advertise the best times to see the popular Heroes at this gate. Nova’s sharp voice pierces through the quiet. “Are all your Hero buddies waiting on the other side for me?” she asks. “At least I’ll die quickly.” She stops short of taking another step. “It will be quick, right?”

  I check over my BEEPR and it’s just as blank as it was a few minutes ago. No one is looking for me. No one expects me. I shove her forward to the wall screen in the center of the KAPOW entrance. “Just...shut up,” I say, lifting my hand to touch the screen. A wad of old bandages press against the glass. The exhilaration of finding Nova made me completely forget about my shredded and now useless right hand. But now it’s right in front of me and my stomach clenches with painful memories of a few days ago when my arm got caught in the depowering machine.

  Nova had pulled me out, even when Max and Evan combined weren’t strong enough to do it. She saved me and now I’m going to save her.

  I’m going to try, at least.

  “Keep an eye out,” I tell her, squatting down to examine my bandages. Making her the lookout is just my pathetic way of making her do something besides stand there looking creepy as hell. My guard is never down. Especially not now.

  “What am I looking for?” she asks.

  “Anything. I have to get these bandages off my fingertips so the door will open. No one can see us or we’re both screwed. Once we get inside I’ll summon our KAPOW pod and call Max.
If we can get home without being seen, then we can figure out what to do from there.”

  Nova’s head tilts curiously as she watches me tug at the bandages around my fingers. Dried blood and dirt and some kind of pus collects around the once-white bandages. My stomach churns as I peel off the gauze, exposing my index finger. Or what’s left of it, rather. When the depowering machine ripped out my powered veins, the vein going down each finger split open my skin and popped off my fingernails. Nurse Martha had promised that my nails would grow back, but the thick layer of grossness covering my skin now makes me question that.

  I’m a total freak now. I’ll have to get a custom glove that I can wear all the time. Maybe Evan and his super smart research brain can put some kind of power device in the glove so I won’t be as handicapped without my natural power.

  Nova makes a tiny sound, almost like a gasp. Then she sighs. “You’re not turning me in.” It isn’t a question, or even a statement. It’s a fact. And she knows it now.

  I shake my head and keep working on the bandages. Nova kneels beside me, shoving matted hair out of her eyes. “I don’t want you to save me. I want to die.”

  “Well you’re gonna have to get over that because I’m saving you.” I wince as I peel back the layers of gauze, feeling my skin cling to the fibers as they unwillingly separate from my flesh. “Even if you are horribly ungrateful for it.”

  She sighs and slaps her hand over mine, grabbing the gauze and yanking the rest of it off with one quick pull. I cry out in pain before shutting my damn mouth so as to keep our location a secret.

  Untamed hair and wild eyes stare at me, searching me. Even with how weak she is, her power level is as strong as mine, but it doesn’t scare me. I can almost feel her emotions in the vibrations emanating from her chest. It’s the last feeling I would expect her to have.

  “I don’t understand you,” she says.

  In a flash of superhuman speed, Nova takes a nearby empty soda can and rips off the top. She squeezes the aluminum into a point. Runs it across the asphalt to sharpen it. I know from her emotions that she’s not planning to shank me so all I can do is watch in curiosity when she turns the makeshift knife and plunges it into her forearm. The precision stab pierced only into her power vein and now the silvery substance oozes down her skin.

  “Give me your arm,” she says. I hold out my shredded right arm. Keeping the can shoved into her vein so it won’t heal, Nova leans forward and lets her power pour over my wounds. A warm tingle permeates my skin as the silver flows over the dozens of cracks in my fingers, wrist and arm, soothing the pain. My mouth hangs open as I watch her power heal my injury. The rips and shreds of flesh knit back together and form a smooth layer of fresh skin. I gasp as five painful fingernails emerge, filling out my once-torn nail beds and making them new again.

  I clutch my healed arm to my chest. The power is still gone, but now I won’t be covered in hideous scars for the rest of my life. “I didn’t even know that was possible.”

  Something that might actually be considered a smile forms on her face. “This was my main job growing up. Aurora’s camp was made up of mostly depowered villains. When she wasn’t making me train, I was healing all the villains who sought refuge with us.”

  “So there are depowered villains without scars?” I ask. She nods. “A few dozen. Maybe more.”

  The Hero Brigade needs to know about this. Villains have never been a problem after they were depowered but that might be partly because the depowering leaves them so mangled and grotesque that they never resurface in public, besides the random appearance at a circus freak show. This new information means depowered villains could be walking amongst the humans right now.

  A half breed kid, my sister’s healing power, and a depowered villains without scars?

  Let’s just add all that crap to the list of things I didn’t know one hour ago.

  Footsteps on the pavement catch our attention at the same moment. She taps her chest. I nod. The group of people approaching are not human.

  But they’re laughing. And they stink of liquor, even from a hundred feet away.

  I back against the wall, turning to tell Nova we should hide. She’s already gone. Her power flickers from a photo booth to my left. I duck under the curtain and sit next to her on the narrow bench, sliding the fabric back into place. “Suck in your power,” I whisper.

  “I am.”

  “Do it better.” I take a deep breath, bringing in the pulse of my own power to undetectable levels.

  The group of Supers approach the KAPOW entrance. Only their shoes are visible through the tiny crack in the photo booth curtain. I don’t move or breathe or make a sound. They walk right past us. Press their palms to the door. Laugh and joke as the door slides open.

  The sudden wail of an incoming call sounds from the BEEPR on my wrist.

  Crap.

  “What the hell?” A man’s voice. I swipe across the screen to silence Max’s call. We were almost in the clear. Nova’s fingernails dig into my arm. She whispers, “We can take all of them.”

  I shake my head, press my finger to my lips to silence her. “Stay.”

  “Who’s there?” the same guy calls out, his footsteps retreating from the KAPOW entrance.

  “Josh, shut up and get over here,” a girl whisper-yells. “Let’s just get home!”

  I peek through the curtain and see her. Blonde hair, black mini dress. Frantic arm waving to the guy named Josh. “If you’re the Retriever Squad, we aren’t doing anything. Just coming back from the bar.” He steps closer, probably scanning the area. I could reach out and smack him and he still has no idea we’re here. Silly normal Supers.

  “Fine, whatever,” he mutters, turning back to the KAPOW entrance. “They’re probably turning this whole damn place into Big Brother. We haven’t done shit wrong. We’re all old enough to drink.” That last part was projected out into the dark air, meant for whoever was listening. I wait a beat and then call Max.

  “What’s going on?” he asks. I know he wants to ask a thousand other questions so I don’t make him wait for the answers.

  “I found Nova. She’s...she’s okay. Not nice or even remotely friendly. But okay.”

  “I’m right here,” she mutters.

  “She says hi,” I tell him. Nova huffs. “How’s Evan?”

  “Lover boy is sleeping. I’m sure he’d want me to tell you that he misses you and all that crap.”

  My heart fills with mushy goo at the mere thought of Evan missing me. That’s all the more reason to get home. “We’re at the east end of Central, about to get a KAPOW pod.”

  “No. No KAPOW.” He takes a deep breath. Sighs. “The elders have put together a group of Retrievers and they’re calling themselves the Retriever Squad.”

  “Why would I be afraid of a Retriever?”

  “They’re glorified hall monitors. They’ve been patrolling the KAPOW tunnels and they’re supposed to apprehend anyone who looks suspicious. Even Heroes. You can’t just go walking around with your twin who everyone thinks is dead.”

  “Then what am I supposed to do?”

  Max is quiet for an uncomfortable amount of time.

  “Be safe.”

  My shoulder goes numb from pressing into the corner of the cramped photo booth. All those years of Hero training had prepared me for every possible scenario. Everyone except for this one. We never trained for how to handle a situation where you can’t call for back up. Can’t call for help. I straighten my spine and breathe.

  I’m a Hero now. I don’t get the privilege of being scared.

  “We just need a plan.”

  “Leave me.” Nova slips out of the photo booth and I follow. “Just go. At least you tried. Or, you know...whatever.”

  “No.” My fists shove into my thighs and I swear to god I almost stomp down on my foot like I’m some kind of two year old. “I won’t let you go back. We’re going home and I don’t care what it takes to get there.”

  “Why are you so insiste
nt on this?” Nova looks ten years younger in the oversized sweater and with her hair all knotted up. She pulls at the sleeves that extend past her fingers. “I don’t even know why I’ve agreed to go with you. This is stupid.”

  “You agreed because you know it’s the right thing to do.” I stare into her eyes and don’t look away, even when it gets uncomfortable. “I don’t know you,” I say, feeling a weird déjà vu sensation as I stare into my twin’s stony eyes. “But I can feel you. I know what you’re thinking.” Her lips twinge. Her power level sucks back into her chest but it’s too late for her to hide things now. “You don’t know anything,” she says.

  “I know you won’t hurt me. And I know you want a safe place to sleep.”

  She folds her arms across her chest. Takes a step back.

  This is hardly the girl whose vicious fighting skill almost killed me a few days ago. Looks like I just won this argument. I lift an eyebrow. “Something tells me you haven’t slept well in years. Maybe not even once.”

  She swallows. “Fine, I’ll go with you. But if you try anything, I’ll kill you.”

  I start walking toward the city. “That’s the spirit.”

  The neon sign at the twenty-four hour pharmacy flashes the word welcome. The look the middle-aged woman behind the counter gives us is anything but. My Hero suit is wrapped tightly in a paper bag tucked under my arm. Yep. I’m wearing an oversized black zip up hoody I stole off the rack at one of those kiosks back at the KAPOW entrance. The most embarrassing thing ever is that it has my brother’s name emblazoned across the front in patriotic red white and blue screen-print.

  I know Heroes don’t steal, but this Hero had to make an exception. Fifty dollars for a freaking hoody? I only have forty-one dollars stuffed in the hidden pocket of my suit. Plus, the shop owner really shouldn’t leave a rack of merchandise all out in the open like that. I mean, anyone could walk up, break the glass, sneak past the laser alarm sensors and steal the thing just like I did. I make a mental note to send the kiosk money as soon as we get home safely.