Overpowered (Powered Trilogy #2) (10 page)

Three guns point straight at me, their barrels cold. The police officers won’t shoot as long as I’m here, but that doesn’t stop them from hiding behind their weaponry. The human dispute is between two middle-aged men over the woman who was playing both of them.

She sits on the sidelines smoking a cigarette and rubbing salve over her fresh shoulder tattoo. Even under the makeup I can tell she’s half their age. No wonder they’re fighting over her.

The first guy was beaten nearly to a pulp when I arrived. All it took was a quick twist of his arm and an officer was able to handcuff him while I held him still. The second guy circles around me like a sumo wrestler, legs wide apart and shuffling, arms clenched into fists. He licks his lips, eyeing me up and down.

“You’re just a baby,” he says. He licks his lips again. “They sent a baby to take me down? Must think I’m too old to be powerful.”

I smile my polite Hero smile. “With respect sir, your age doesn’t matter
so much as your species.”

Another lick of his lips. “Why’s that?”

I hold up my arms.
Isn’t it obvious?
I want to say it but I don’t. “Look, I’m sorry your lady friend has been less than loyal to you, but if I can just get your thumb print and then have you speak with the officers, I’m sure we can get you home in no time.”

He stares at me, mouth slightly open as if he’s trying to think of some kind of joke or comeback. I reach out my arm, slowly, and motion for his hand. He gives it to me, still speechless. I press his thumb to my BEEPR.

Then all hell breaks loose.

“I don’t have to listen to you,
Super
.” He says the last word as if it were a dirty word.

“I am Hero Maci Might. We can play this game, but you’ll be sorry.”

His glassy eyes light up. He reaches into his pocket and the police cock their guns. I hold up a hand to let them know it’s okay. I’ve got this. No need to shoot.

The man holds up a slender metal tube. “If you want to play a game, we better make the playing field even.”

“Drugs,” I mutter, once again angry at Nova for figuring it out before I did. “Come on, dude. Drugs aren’t cool. You should know that.”

“This is better than a drug,” the guy says, positing the tube in the center of his hand, closing his fist around it so that only the pointy end sticks out. “This is a solution. This...this is invincibility.” The pointed part slams into his forearm. The man’s head falls back in pure ecstasy as the drug infiltrates into his cardiovascular system. As he soaks up the rush of his high, I high-kick him square in the jaw, catching the empty tube as it flies out of his hand. I slip it into the pocket on my sleeve that holds
retriever hooks.

A vein just off-center of his forehead bulges. He swings and I duck, knowing from experience that someone juiced up on this mystery drug can pack a punch I don’t want to absorb. This time, although he fights like a beast on steroids, I don’t have as much difficulty taking him down, hooking him in the throat and handing him over to the human authorities.

That’s because this time I didn’t fear that my fighting back would harm the weak human.

This time I didn’t hold back.

My BEEPR lights up with three new messages. Before I can read them, the sender calls me. His impatience is kind of cute. “Hey you.” I talk toward my wrist. Evan didn’t make a holograph call so I answer the BEEPR normally. I hear his voice in my ear. “Did you get my messages?”

“I haven’t read them.”

“What? It’s been like ten minutes.”

“Sorry, I was fighting an old guy on steroids.”

“Huh?” He doesn’t even sound surprised.

“I’ll tell you later.”

“You need to come to Research. Don’t go home.”

I stop at the entrance to the KAPOW. “Why?”

“Because I’m here!” The voice in my ear doesn’t belong to Evan. “Nova? I don’t understand.” I practically punch open the door of the nearest public pod. “Destination Evan Letta,” I say, settling back for the trip to South Africa.

Evan comes back on the line. “Apparently President Might had a meeting with the elders today but they wanted to meet at your house because they didn’t think he was well enough to be
traveling or accidentally running into other citizens in his...condition. So he sent Nova to me to hide out for the time being.”

The thought of Nova being in such close proximity to my boyfriend while they chat on his MOD sends a stabbing jealousy through my bones. How long has she been there? Having fun without me. Reading comic books and playing Xbox while I fight an old man. The sudden realization that other people live their lives when I’m not around seems unsettling and a tiny bit horrifying. As much as I may want to, I can’t control everything.

But I can trust Evan. I know I can.

“Did you find out if the humans are using drugs?” Nova asks.

“Maybe,” I say. “Be there in a minute.” My stomach may be twisting into knots but at least my voice is confident.

Spark hops into my lap on Evan’s black leather couch, eager for a scratch behind the ears. I wonder if he knows how lucky he is to be the dog that was randomly assigned to me. He could have easily been assigned to Nyx, had fate worked out a little differently. My stomach tightens and I drop my hand. Spark licks it.

Evan brings me a Gatorade. “Really?” he says a few seconds later when I don’t complain about the flavor. He shakes his head and then gives another bottle to Nova. She thanks him with her stupid little sweet smile and I almost make a gagging sound but all the repressed emotions I have over Nyx’s poor police dog keep me from spilling my pent up sarcasm.

“Details!” Nova says, leaning toward the very edge of the armchair. Evan plops next to me on the couch. “I would also like details. Nova told me that you guys are suspecting some kind of drug use that’s making humans stronger than usual?”

“
She
suspects it,” I say. “It was her idea.” I don’t know why I give her the credit because it just makes me feel like crap to admit my weaknesses in front of Evan. I reach into my sleeve pocket and slide the metal tube out. Only it isn’t metal at all. It’s glass.

I recount the mission to them, making sure to include every detail I can remember. Anything that might be important. “He jabbed this into his arm and then he fought me.” I twirl it between my fingers. “It made him way stronger than any middle-aged human ought to be. I’ve never seen anything like it though, have you?” Evan reaches for the vial but Nova slips in between us and snatches it out of my hands before he’s even close.

“It’s an injector.” She rubs her thumb over the smooth bulbous end of the vial and a needle the length of a thumbtack pops out of the other end.

“You know what this is?” Evan asks. She nods. “Felix made tons of them.”

“You know
Felix
?”

She shrugs. “Yeah. How do you know him? He hung out in the underground.”

Evan bolts up from the couch, hands twisting into his hair.  “No, Felix hangs out here. He was my partner in Research. My mentor.”

“Really?” Nova laughs. “Did he try to bring you over to the villain world?”

“Hell no.  I wouldn’t have even if he did try.” Nova looks a little taken aback by the absoluteness of his answer. She sets the glass vial on the coffee table. “Well it’s his. I can assure you of that. There’s a little F insignia in the middle of the tube. That’s how I know it for sure.”

I pick up the tube and examine it, finding the mark like she described. “Why would Felix be selling drugs to humans? What could he possibly gain from that?”

“Money?” Nova offers.

Evan shakes his head. “Villains have ways of getting money and they’ve never stooped this low. Maybe humans have stolen it or something.”

“Can you test the tube and find out what the drug is?” I ask.

He takes the tube and rolls it around under the overhead light. “There’s nothing left. I’d need a sample if I were to test it.”

I stand, putting my hands on his shoulders. “I’ll go get it.” I smile, hoping it looks as sincere as Nova’s stupid smile. “We can solve our first mission together. And bonus, Central will love my initiative.”

“I’ll come too.” Nova pops up and puts her arms around mine and Evan’s shoulders.

“That could work,” Evan says, glancing at Nova. “I’m sure you could do some kind of twin switch-er-roo to confuse people and steal the drug.”

My jaw clenches together. “No.”

Nova’s shoulders fall. “I just wanted to help.”

“Well you can’t. You’re a fugitive. I can’t risk ruining my mission because I have a wanted villain tagging along.”

Spark rubs his head on my leg until I look down at him. Then he looks outside and barks. “You need to pee?” I ask. He cocks his head to the right. Pee isn’t the correct police dog word to use. “I’m going to take him outside for minute,” I tell Nova and Evan. “Do you mind looking out for him just a little bit longer? I don’t want him with me when I’m searching for the drug. And I’m not ready for him to go back to the station.” I ruffle the fur behind his ears. “Not yet.”

“Sure thing,” Evan says. He wraps his arm around my back and I lean into the hug for a brief moment. I can tell from Nova’s energy that I’ve hurt her feelings by calling her a villain. I’m not sure if the truth would make her feel any better.

That I don’t want her to come with me because I’m afraid she’ll do a better job than I will.

“Is it true that dogs align themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field when they poop?” I ask. Spark ignores me as he sniffs around the sand behind the Research facility. “Fine, I’ll give you some privacy,” I say, turning around and folding my arms across my chest.

Evan walks around the side of the building, his arm up to shield his eyes from the sun. He smiles nervously when he sees me.

“What’s going on?” I ask. “You don’t trust me to let a dog out by myself on a secluded island?”

He shakes his head. He doesn’t even laugh at my stupid attempt of a joke. Evan always laughs at my stupid attempts of a joke. “I just wanted to talk to you alone,” he says, reaching out and letting his fingers trail down my arm.

I wiggle my eyebrows. “Sorry Evan, I can’t make out with you while the dog is aligning himself with a magnetic field.”

“This is serious,” he says. “I needed to talk to you alone. I’ve been given a job to do from the elders in Central.”

My blood runs cold. “What kind of job?” For a tiny second, I’m afraid he’s been tasked with finding Nova as well and now he’s going to arrest her and he came to warn me so I wouldn’t be mad at him. He might be my boyfriend but I wouldn’t hesitate to kick his ass to save my sister.

“They’ve tasked me with researching Hero and villain blood. They want me to see if there’s a way to determine if someone is evil before they show signs of it.”

“But you’ve already done that,” I say, shuddering when I think that evil DNA runs through my veins as we speak.

“I didn’t tell them that!” He grabs my elbows in his hands, pulling me closer to him as if he can’t possibly lose me. “If they knew I’d already figured out how to test for villain power then they’d make me test you. You know they would. They’d make me test every single Super kid alive. And I don’t want to be the one who sends children to the depowering machine. Besides, I feel like we could find a way to raise those kids to be good. Like you.”

I nod. He has his power sucked in tight so that I can barely feel his energy. “Well...” I sigh. Spark paws at the water as it washes ashore
before sweeping back into the ocean again. “You’ll just have to take a long time with your research.”

“I wish it were that easy.”

My eyebrows draw together. “It is that easy. Just don’t replicate your work. Keep screwing up your researching and tell them you haven’t discovered an answer yet.”

He shakes his head. “I know, but I can’t stop thinking about how many Supers might turn villain before I pretend to discover the evil DNA again. How much more havoc will they cause while I’m sitting here pretending I don’t know how to identify them. What if someone dies? What if it’s you?”