Overpowered (Powered Trilogy #2) (4 page)

The morning sun shines into my bedroom, lighting up the glass wall like some kind of crappy Instagram filtered photograph of the Grand Canyon. My sister must be the world’s lightest sleeper because it doesn’t even feel like she’s still in my bed.

Okay, she’s not in my bed.

Laughter filters in through the kitchen and I’m on my feet a second later, tugging on a pair of longer shorts. I creep down the hall toward the kitchen, wanting to eavesdrop as long as I can. Nova and Evan have their backs to me, taking turns pouring pancake mix into a pan on the stove. Evan’s dressed in Max’s basketball shorts and a shirt. Nova wears the same leggings and tank top from last night. They’re both outsiders making themselves at home. In my home.

“Okay, I guess that was a nice try,” Evan says. He takes the cup of batter out of her hand and sets it on the counter. “I mean, it isn’t round or anything, but it might be edible if we don’t burn it.”

“Shut up,” Nova says in a lighthearted way that could be considered flirting, but I
know
she’s not flirting with my boyfriend. “I’ve never cooked anything before.”

“And it shows. It definitely shows.” Evan’s smirk is the kind of facial expression that can make a girl fall in love with him or make the girl who already cares about him punch him in the face.

“Good morning.” I step into the kitchen. Power emanates from my chest and I hope it feels angry, not jealous. Of course it’d be better if I didn’t feel anything at all because showing weakness is not something Heroes do. “What’s going on?”

“Good morning,” he says, turning back and giving me a quick wink. Evan flips Nova’s pancake. He’s really cute with a spatula in his hand but that’s the last thing on my mind right now. “Are you hungry? We’re making enough breakfast for a small army.”

“How did you know where the pancake stuff was?” I don’t mean to sound like a bitch, but it probably comes out that way.

“Max and I make pancakes every morning.” He hands me a plate piled high with perfectly round pancakes with a slab of butter on top. “Hungry?”

Overwhelmed by a growling stomach, I take the stupid plate and sit at the counter opposite of Evan and my sister. You know, just so I can keep an eye on them. Nova finishes making her pancakes and they join me at the kitchen island for breakfast.

I don’t appreciate the jealousy that bubbles up inside me. Before Evan came around, my life was easy. Now suddenly it’s complicated. I wonder if it’s even worth it to date people. I should be focusing on my Hero duties only. I should not be staring at Nova, wondering if any of the small talk between her and Evan means something more
than meaningless conversation.

The doorbell rings. They both look
at me. “What?” I say. “If someone was here to see me, my BEEPR would have alerted me. Last time I answered the door unexpectedly I got kidnapped.”

“Is this bad?” Nova asks. Her knuckles turn white over her fork. “This is bad.”

“It’s not bad. I’m just joking.” I hop off my barstool and head to the front door.

“She wasn’t really kidnapped,” Evan tells her. “It was for her surprise birthday party.”

Nova’s expression goes from nervous to disappointed. “Oh.”

I check the monitor on the wall MOD and two Retrievers stare back at me as if they know exactly where the hidden camera is mounted. “
Crap. We have to hide Nova,” I whisper, darting back to the kitchen. I don’t know why I whispered since the walls are soundproof. I grab Evan’s shoulder. “Take her into my dad’s office. Press her hand to the screen on the closet door. A secret door will open.”

I turn to my sister. “Stay in there. It’s undetectable. They won’t find you.”

She nods. Her hands tremble as she sets her fork on the plate. “You should hide my plate so they don’t think three people are here.”

“Good call.” I toss her plate, the pancakes and her glass of orange juice in the trash compactor. The doorbell rings for the third time. Evan takes Nova down the hall and I ruffle up my hair, yawn and open the front door.

“This is Hero Maci, what can I do for you?”

One is big and one is thin. But both the men in front of me are in the
Squad that Max had mentioned. Their well-tailored charcoal grey suits and utility belt full of retrieving hooks are all the clues I need to know that these guys aren’t regular Retrievers.

The bulky one on the left speaks first. “Our database shows that you have a houseguest named Evan Letta staying here for an undetermined amount of time. We would like to speak with to him.”

“Um, sure,” I say with a smile. The thin one grabs my hand when I try closing the door. “Excuse me?” I snap, twisting my wrist out of his grip. “I am a Hero. Don’t touch me.”

“You are excused. I am Gary Geiger, second deputy in command of the Retriever
Squad I am granted the authority to touch whomever I want. You will not close this door.”

“This is President Might’s house. Are you out of your mind with whatever amount of power you’ve been given? You can’t talk to me that way.”

“I am quite aware of who owns this home. He is, however, not our current acting president. We are here under the orders of Interim President Havoc.”

“Whatever you say.” My hand flies up to my forehead, making a sarcastic salute. “I’m sure as hell not inviting you inside.”

He nods. “Understood. But by law, you are not allowed to close this door while we are here. Please bring Evan Letta to us immediately.”

Evan emerges from the hallway, doing the same fake yawn thing I had done moments before. “What’s going on?” he asks.

I turn on my heel and head to the hallway, where I can both make it seem like I’m going out of earshot and also monitor the situation from hidden cameras screens in Dad’s office. “These pretentious idiots want to speak with you.”

Speak was an understatement. They cuffed Evan and took him back to their KAPOW pod without saying a word. Bastards. As much as I want to run after them, bash their heads into the concrete and
steal my boyfriend back, that would only put their radar on me. I need to lay low as much as it kills me to do so. Evan trained as a Hero once. I know he can take care of himself.

My BEEPR lights up with a message from Max, telling me all is well with him but his mission will take him a little longer than usual. I let him know I received his message and then head down to the safe room to let Nova out.

She doesn’t look over when I slide open the heavy hidden door. She’s staring at a collage of photos on the wall inside the safe room. Me, Max and Dad throughout the years. “Your childhood looks like it was a lot more fun than mine was.”

I shrug. “Those are the highlights. Max and I spent most of our life in Hero training. And Dad’s always busy with president stuff. You didn’t miss much.”

She shakes her head. “I missed everything.”

The purple flamed torches have been extinguished. The lettering above his studio simply says
PEPPER
in clear glass bulbs that used to glow neon purple. I don’t know what I was expecting when I came here. The delusional nostalgic part of my brain kind of hoped I’d be greeted by my friend and he’d rush us into his studio, offering us lattes and a new suit for Nova so she could blend in while we keep her hidden.

“The coast is clear,” I call out to Nova who waits around the corner. I know
it’s risky bringing her here but I didn’t want to leave her at home when none of us exactly trust each other. We’re wearing matching outfits, the same ones from last night, only they’ve been freshly laundered. If we’re going to do this much longer, I’ll have to get more sets of matching clothes. The best option is to get her own Hero suit that matches mine. No one questions a Hero walking around in Central.

Well except maybe these new jackass Retriever
Squad people. When my dad gets back home, he’ll put a stop to that crap.

“I remember this place,” Nova whispers. She walks up to
one of the torches on the wall and touches the base. “This is where I ran.”

The memory of Pepper’s death crashes into me. How I found him held at arm’s length by Aurora herself. Now it all makes sense when she told me to get
back
in the pod. She thought I was Nova.

“Why did you run?” I ask, cringing when my voice echoes through the corridor. I’m supposed to be whispering, not bursting out my thoughts as if there wasn’t a bounty on our heads.

“I realized what horrible things she was going to do. I mean, I guess I knew it all along, but it didn’t feel real until that moment.”

“Where did you go?”

She points to the right. “I took off that way. Got all the way to the canyon ledge where we came in before one of her guys found me.” Her eyebrows draw together and she focuses on the floor.

“What happened?” I ask. She clearly doesn’t like reliving those memories but I have to know. What made her come back? What made her try to kill me if, just moments before, she bailed because the thought of wa
tching Pepper die was too much?

Nova turns,
staring down the empty corridor to our right. “They beat me. Strapped these magnet things to my wrists so I couldn’t fight back. Aurora said I was going to follow the plan or she’d make me wish I was dead.”

“I guess I understand why you tried to kill me,” I say with a forced smile.

“It was a lot harder than it looked.”

Footsteps echo from somewhere down the corridor. Nova’s mouth snaps shut. Her eyebrows narrow and she presses into the wall, hiding behind the large unlit torch. “Where do we go?” she whispers.

I’m impressed by the magnitude of fight that emanates from her chest. She’s not nervous. I mean, I’m even a little nervous. But I guess you have nothing to lose when you’re already considered dead. We duck inside of Pepper’s studio, which is no complicated task. The large metal doors swing open freely with just a light touch. Maybe the extra security has been shut off since Pepper isn’t around to pay his bills.

My breath catches in my throat when I gaze around the empty studio. It smells like electronics and cleaning supplies and a little bit like hazelnut coffee creamer in here. “Okay. We’re here for a reason.” Nova lifts an eyebrow but I ignore it. “We are not here to be sad. We’re on a mission.” I step into the podium in the middle of the room. It lights up. It knows my name. All of Pepper’s data about my measurements and my suit appear on the screen. He used to talk to the gigantic wall screen,
telling it what he wanted. I have no idea how to do that.

“Pepper isn’t here,” I say aloud. The screen does nothing. With a sigh, I take the crumpled Hero suit out of my backpack, peel off the black duct tape I had been using as a temporary fix and hold it up. “My sleeve is shredded here around the wrist. Can you fix this?”

A tiny camera on a mechanical arm swoops out of the ceiling and examines my suit. It focuses on the rips in the black fabric. A zoomed-in image of my sleeve appears on the wall screen, along with numbers and formulas and crap I don’t understand.

“Repair.”

Nothing happens.

“I need extra fabric.”

Again, nothing.

I let out the breath I’d been holding and sit down on the podium. My head falls into my hands. I will not cry. I will not think of Pepper’s death.

Nova’s cold hand touches my shoulder. “I’m sorry you lost your friend.”

“I don’t know what to do.” My fingers play with the tattered sleeve on my Hero suit. I waited so long to get this and once I had it, it only took one day in action to ruin it.

“Can I help you?” Nova asks. “There’s a sewing machine over there. Maybe we can fix it.”

“I don’t think you can sew this fabric. It’s all high-tech and fancy.
I’m pretty sure his computer made it like a 3-D printer. Only Pepper would know how to fix this.”

“
Okay then. What would Pepper do?” she asks.

“First of all he would complain that I’d put duct tape on his precious suit.” I stand, hold out my suit and scowl at it in my best Pepper impression. “Maci, Maci, Maci…” I pace around the room with my chest out and chin up. To Nova, I say, “I’d complain that my sleeve is ruined and the power in my arm is gone. I’d say how can I continue being a Hero when I’m partially depowered? I’m part freak now.”