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Across the room, Nyx finds a way to wrap Nova’s stolen rubber glove around the spike and pull it out of her neck. She clutches onto him as he pulls her into his lap while her neck heals. The way he looks at my sister, with kind eyes and soothing movements, makes me both annoyed and protective.
Lately it seems like everything Nova does makes me feel that way.
I dial the emergency phone number for Central. Hugo Havoc answers.
“This is Hero Maci Might,” I say, clutching the phone to my ear as I look around the room. Everyone’s eyes are on me. “I have one hell of a situation to report.”
If there’s one way to describe the Hero Briga
de it is this: efficient. Within seconds of my calling for help, the sound of metal doors slamming open echo through the underground tunnels. They’re coming. And by the sound of it, they’re smashing any and everything in their way. With nothing left to do but wait, I scroll through Felix’s cell phone, a human device with the letters AT&T on the top of the screen. I find an icon called Messages but it’s empty. Felix is smart. He hasn’t left me a single clue on this phone. He probably has dozens of them. That’s what a good villain would do.
Nova’s neck heals and she and Nyx lean against the wall, both supporting each other’s weight. His power levels are nearly nonexistent, but he keeps a brave face on. Mara and Li and George brighten at the sound of our impending rescue. Corey is alive, but hasn’t moved from his place on the floor.
The air buzzes with the aura of at least a dozen Heroes. Blindingly bright light comes from the door. The room lights up in a haze. I blink and when I open my eyes, the silhouette of my brother stands in the doorway, massive and muscular. Max enters with a dozen of Central’s greatest Heroes. For the first time in hours, I breathe a sigh of relief. Everything will be okay now.
Heroes blur all around me as they get to work. Someone finds a way to turn off the power sucking machine. Medics arrive shortly after and tend to the kidnapped Supers. I turn away because I can’t bear watch another person get deharnessed.
Heroes Ernesto and Katia find me and ask to be briefed on the situation. I tell them about Felix first. About the kidnapped Supers who have been harnessed for their power which he sells to humans as a drug. I avoid the whole truth for as long as possible.
Which isn’t very long.
“How did you get down here in the first place?” Ernesto asks.
“Um,” I say. “Well it’s kind of a long story, but I was working on my mission to find the depowering machine. I suspected that whoever was selling power as a drug was getting it from the machine, not from kidnapping Supers.”
Nyx taps my shoulder. “Mind if I help explain things?”
I lift an eyebrow. He doesn’t know how and why I got here. But then his eyes give me this weird look, like he’s trying to signal something to me. Finally, it clicks. “Yeah,” I say. “Please do.”
I give a casual glance over my shoulder to where a dark, smoggy part of the cave-like room is. It’s off to the side and it’s seemingly unimportant. But I know the dark shadow sitting on the floor is Nova. When the Heroes find her, all hell will break loose.
You know, more loose than it is right now.
A medic approaches Nyx but he shrugs him off. “No care for me until all of the Supers have been treated and moved to a room in the medic ward,” he says. To the Heroes in front of us, he takes a deep breath and stands straight. His face is smooth and serene. “As fellow members of the Hero Brigade, I must ask that you grant me permission to tell you everything I have to say before you react.”
“Go on,” Katia says, sounding almost bored. “I have to make an official report of this mission so I’ll need every detail.”
“You don’t understand,” Nyx says. “You will hear what I say and you will want to react. I need your promise that you will remain standing right there until I am finished. I am risking my status as a Hero to conceal the details until you both agree.”
Katia’s eyes narrow. She glances toward Ernesto and they share a silent look. As partners for the last fifty years or so, they probably see Nyx and me as silly rookie Heroes who are prone to making a big deal out of something that isn’t one. If that’s the case, then they’re in for a surprise.
On the other side of the room my brother carries a limp Mara Moone in his arms, taking her out of the cave and back up to civilization. Other Heroes do the same to the rest of the Supers. Soon, the only remaining souls in this room of horrors are Nyx, me, my hidden sister, Felix and Heroes Ernesto and Katia.
Ernesto grabs Felix by the elbow and pulls him into a standing position, leaning his rigid body against the wall. Grabbing the jacket off the floor, the shoves it in Felix’s hand, then scans his BEEPR over him to report it back to Central. To me, he asks, “What happened to your BEEPRs?”
“The other unconscious woman had a device that broke them,” I say, nodding to where she had lain until another Hero took her away with the others. Ernesto frowns. “Keep the broken BEEPRs. We’ll have to get them analyzed so we can find a way to prevent another attack like this.”
I nod and Nyx shuffles on his feet, clearly annoyed that his epic speech got interrupted.
“Go on,” Katia says. “We will not react until you say that you are finished talking.”
Nyx looks at Ernesto and he nods in confirmation. My teeth dig into my bottom lip as I wait for Nyx to speak. Somehow, even with a Heroes’ promise, I’m still concerned that they’ll hear Nova’s name and throw her straight into the depowering machine without so much as an oops. At the same time, I am grateful that Nyx is the one vouching for Nova and not me. She is my sister and if I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t trust me either.
Nyx finishes his story with the words, “I swear on my Hero status that she can be trusted.”
“Where is she?” Katia asks. I have to give it to the two older Heroes...they keep their cool better than anyone I’ve ever seen. Nyx takes one step forward and brings his hand back, gesturing to where Nova huddles in the darkened corner.
I glance around, wishing Max would hurry up and get back. Maybe it’s just childhood nostalgia, where he was my big brother who always fixed every problem, but I know he would find a way to smooth over everything with Nova. Katia and Ernesto move toward the shadow in the corner, their expressions a mixture of disbelief and exhilaration. Nova looks to me for some kind of confirmation, some kind of reassurance that my promise to keep her safe will remain intact. But right now I’m not sure of anything. I look away.
