Overpowered (Powered Trilogy #2)

by Cheyanne Young

  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 watching 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.r />
  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.”

  She follows me around the room, fingering scraps of fabric on a nearby table. “What would he say?”

  “He’d tell me not to fret over something so small. He’d say, ‘You are Maci Might. You will embrace your depowered arm. You will turn your weakness into a strength.”

  “Why are you holding your hand like that?” Nova asks.

  I snap out of my Pepper imitation. Look down at my outstretched hand with fingers curled around an imaginary cup. “It’s my latte,” I tell her with a shrug. “Pepper always had one. If he were here then we’d have one too.”

  I spin on my heel, take a sip of my imaginary latte and point to the imaginary me standing in the center podium. I can almost hear Pepper’s voice in my mind. “You never were like everyone else, Maci Might. You don’t need a suit like everyone else, either.” I take a pair of scissors off the table and lay my suit flat on the floor.

  With a deep breath and a silent thank you to Pepper, I cut off the sleeve at the elbow.

  A tiny bark echoes through the room.

  “Did you hear that?” Nova asks as if she doesn’t even believe her own ears.

  Oh my god. Chewy. I almost trip over the scissors and my chopped suit in my mad dash across the room to Pepper’s private quarters. The door opens without the use of any security measures and a tiny, shaking white Chihuahua stumbles out of the room. I gasp. “You poor thing.” He crawls into my outstretched arms and licks my elbow. He’s always been a tiny dog but the way his ribcage stretches out his fur makes my stomach hurt.

  “We have to get him some food and water,” Nova says.

  “I know.” My heart breaks all over again over Pepper’s murder. “Hold him while I get my suit. We’ll take him home and I’ll order dog food from the Retrievers.” I sigh. “From a real retriever. Not these idiotic new ones.”

  Nova coos to the frail dog in her arms and I head across the studio to where I left my suit.

  A massive boot kicks in the double doors to Pepper’s studio. I’m on the floor in the next instant, diving behind a stack of fabric bolts and scrap material. Nova’s eyes go wide but she’s in the middle of the room with nowhere to hide.

  Crap. Crap. Crap.

  Two members of the Retriever Squad enter, looking both ways before one of them sees Nova standing there with a deer in the headlights look. Wow. I wonder what kind of training these idiots had prior to being given so much authority. A Hero knows how to spot people the moment they enter a room.

  The first guy gives Nova a prying look. “You are not authorized to be in here.”

  “She should be questioned.” The second guy sounds a little nervous. Both of their power levels are mild at best. Nova could easily overpower them. I hope she knows that’s not the right move.

  She cuddles Chewy to her chest and stands rigid. “I am Hero Maci Might and I should be questioning you if you’re going to speak to me that way.”

  “Sorry Ms. Might, I didn’t realize,” one of them begins. I don’t recognize the voices even though I know many of the Retrievers. “You aren’t dressed as a Hero, so--”

  “We have every right to question you regardless of your status,” the other one interjects. “Why aren’t you dressed as a Hero? Where’s your BEEPR? What proof do you have that you are Hero Maci Might?”

  My sister sighs impatiently. “Uh, look at me. I’m clearly Maci. Computer,” she says aloud. The massive computer screen wall sparks to life, much to my freaking chagrin. “Identify me.”

  The computer voice speaks and the familiarity of the sound from back when Pepper was alive stabs into me all over again. “Identifying...Probationary Hero Maci Might, daughter of President Might and Sophia Might. Identifying...Retriever Thomas Mason. Identifying….Retriever in training Thomas Mason Junior.”

  I can’t see Nova from my hiding place but I can feel the arrogant smile on her face. “Sorry to burst your authoritative bubble gentlemen, but I am who I say I am and now I’ll thank you to get the hell out of here.”

  “You are not authorized to be here. This studio is the property of Central until a new designer is assigned.”

  “I just came to get my friend’s dog. I’ll be leaving shortly.”

  The younger man speaks up next. “We’ll escort you to the KAPOW.”

  I wish Max could see me now. Hiding out like a good girl instead of taking matters into my own hands. It’s no easy task for me, but I’m not stupid enough to rush out and make a mess of things. My fingers cross and I breathe slowly, hoping that Nova doesn’t screw this up.

  “Right,” she says with an indignant snort. “Maybe you should hold my hand too and make sure the KAPOW door doesn’t accidently hit me when it closes. I’d hate to have you not waste precious time on a Hero when you could be out there finding villains.”

  The Retrievers are silent for a moment. Finally the younger one says, “Come on, Dad. We should go.”

  I listen to their footsteps and the door closing. When their power levels dim out in the distance, I emerge from my hiding place. “That was brilliant.”

  Nova smiles and scratches behind Chewy’s ears. “I wonder what they would have done if my hair was still blonde.”

  “How did you know how to work the computer?”

  She shrugs. “Aurora had the same system back at home.”

  “This is your home now,” I say. “Central is your home.”

  She looks me straight in the eyes and kisses the top of Chewy’s head. “I know.”

  I don’t know what I expected when I brought Nova home. Maybe more than her initial hostility. Some fights for good measure. Maybe even a threat to have her depowered if she didn’t stop trying to fight everyone. But the truth is, she is incredibly easy to get along with and she’s just nice. Nice in every way.

  It’s really unsettling.

  Nova and I take turns playing with Chewy. He’s in a much better mood after he got a belly full of food and water. Dad has never allowed us to have pets because we’re a Hero family and Heroes don’t have time to give an animal the attention it deserves. I’m making an exception for Pepper’s dog. Even if I have to hire someone to give him attention while I’m away on a Hero mission, I will.

  Speaking of Hero missions, I haven’t had a single one.

  It’s been several days since my Hero status was awarded and I haven’t been called to duty yet. Crime must be slow lately because Max has only had one mission from earlier in the week.

  When he returns, Nova and I are stuffing our faces with pizza. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed at seeing my brother walk in the front door. I’m really missing Evan. Every second that he’s stuck in Central is a second my heart worries about him. Hopefully they aren’t waterboarding him or something.

  “Aw, come on now!” Max grumbles to himself as he walks in, arms full of Chinese takeout. “You girls are already eating? I brought food for all of us.”

  “I’m sure I can eat more,” Nova says with a sweet smile.

  Have I mentioned ho
w much I’m starting to hate her sweet smile?

  “What was your mission about?” I ask.

  Max answers me through massive bites of food that make his mouth look like a kung pao tornado. And he wonders why he doesn’t have a girlfriend… “A Super went missing a couple days ago. George Goodfellow. Have you heard of him? He’s twenty.”

  I shake my head. “What was he studying?”

  “Nothing apparently. His mom said he played video games and spent all his time on the internet. So when she came home from work and he wasn’t home, she got worried. Now it’s been two days and no one’s heard anything from him.”

  “What do you think happened?” Nova asks.

  Max shrugs and shoves half an eggroll in his mouth. “I don’t know. I mean, I take all my missions seriously but if you ask me, a twenty year old doesn’t usually go missing. He probably met a girl online and ran off to be with her or something. I hate to come home without solving it, but I followed every possible lead and talked to hundreds of Supers this week. No one has seen him at all. I sent his computer down to the labs so they can pull any relevant data off of it and I’ll look back into it tomorrow.”

  “No offense, Max,” I say as I grab one of his eggrolls. “But isn’t that kind of a...dumb mission? A guy who ran away? I mean shouldn’t you be saving the world from villains while Retrievers find missing Supers?”

  “Tell me about it. Nyx hasn’t had a mission since, well since you know. The Aurora thing. Crime has practically stopped lately.” He runs a hand through his hair. “It’s weird. I almost wish there would be an earthquake or hurricane or something to keep me occupied.”

  I slink down on a barstool. “This isn’t what I expected for my first weeks of being a Hero, either. I thought it would be more...active.” Even though I’m trying not to stress out about Evan, I go ahead and tell Max about the stuck up Retrievers who took him today. He doesn’t seem to care and that makes me feel a little better. If Max doesn’t see it as something to worry about, then I probably shouldn’t either.

  All three of us jump at the sound of my BEEPR emitting a Hero alarm. Such a sweet, sweet sound. I can’t help the goofy grin that spreads across my face. “Guess it’s show time!” I sing as I rush to my bedroom and slip into my Hero suit, all while trying to read the mission on my BEEPR.