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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.
Max lifts an eyebrow when I come back in the living room. “What the hell happened to your sleeve?”
I flash him a wink before I slip out the door. “I fixed it.”
The KAPOW zooms me to Jackson Square, a park in the heart of Louisiana. I ignore the pedestrians’ curious looks as I exit the ramp and run, following the blue blinking dot on my BEEPR two blocks north into the heart of New Orleans on Bourbon Street. Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo has quite a crowd in front of it. My mission simply reads: Human fight club. Dissolve. Issue safety warning.
