Powered

The MOD screen lights up all black, as if the camera on the other side points at nothing. “Attention all Supers,” says a familiar female voice. “Maci Might has gone rogue. She is now a villain.”

This isn’t real. I’m dreaming. I refuse to believe that this is happening.

“She is wanted for immediate depowering. Anyone with information of her whereabouts shall alert Central immediately. Anyone who does not report known information, or those who attempt to hide or help her, will be depowered.”

I shake my head, wishing I would just wake up already from this horrible nightmare. None of this is real. It can’t possibly be real.

But it sure as hell feels real when Evan’s hand closes around my wrist.

Neither of us says a word as the MOD replays images of the person they’re claiming to be me. I watch in horror as grainy security camera footage shows a thin Super dressed in all black snapping someone’s neck and tossing their limp body aside in one of the hallways that leads to the Atrium. Then the screen flashes to an image that drops me to my knees.

Pepper’s lifeless body resting in a pool of his own blood.

“Bring Maci Might to justice,” the woman’s voice says as the screen shuts off and the alarm dulls in volume before silencing. Evan’s fingers cling tightly onto my wrist and his eyes stare at mine with the same intensity I’m giving him. But we don’t do a thing for a long time.

“I’m going,” I say.

Evan shakes his head. “You can’t.”

I suck in a deep breath and let out a burst of power, breaking his grasp on my arm, but not but not enough power to slam him into the wall or anything. Violence is a villain trait. I am not a villain.

Evan flexes his hand; probably trying to work out the pain from having his fingers bent the wrong way. “What if it’s a setup, Maci? You can’t trust this. Why did Lucy make the announcement instead of President Might?”

Lucy. That was the familiar voice. He has a point. She’s just an examiner. Examiners don’t make announcements during lockdown. Or maybe they do, I’ve never been in a lockdown. “Maybe you’re right. All I know is I’ve just been called out as a villain and I can end this lockdown if I go there and prove I’m not evil.”

“But why you?” Evan asks. “Why, of all ten thousand Supers in the world, do they want you?”

I let out a slow breath and my shoulders sag as I prepare to tell Evan something I had been keeping to myself. He looks at me expectantly. I drop my eyes to the ground. “That day when Pepper was murdered,” I begin, wincing as flashbacks of Pepper’s pained face flickers through my mind. “I heard Aurora arguing with him before I stepped in and tried to save him. I listened longer than I should, I—I should have stepped in sooner.” Tears pool in my eyes. My chest tightens into a thick knot. Evan stays so silent I pull my eyes away from the floor to make sure he’s still listening.

“What did she say?” he asks in a soft voice.

I close my eyes. “She said, ‘Where is Maci Might?’”

Evan’s jaw drops for a split second before he regains composure. “Have you met her before?”

I shake my head.

Evan tugs on the hair and the back of his neck. “Then why would she want you?”

“That’s what I’ve been wondering every single day. Maybe she heard the rumors of my Hero failure and wants me to join her evil army or something. I don’t know.”

“She’s a suit designer,” Evan says with several doses of sarcasm. “She’s just a glorified seamstress. What would she need an army for?”

“Pepper was afraid she would come out of retirement and take her job back.”

Evan lets out a deep breath. “She came out of retirement all right.” He takes a seat back on the couch, elbows on his knees while he looks at the floor, holding his head in his hands. “You said the lockdown alarm went off before she murdered Pepper?”

“Yeah, I had just left Pepper’s and was heading home when the alarm went off. I heard screaming and went back to check on him. That’s when I found Aurora and her two villains.”

“Aurora wasn’t a known villain. The lockdown alarm wasn’t triggered because of Pepper’s murder, but because she managed to breech security and bring two known villains inside Central.” He holds up a finger. “Which—we now know was probably with the help of Felix.”

“Why are they together? Why does Aurora want me? This doesn’t make any sense.”

Evan doesn’t answer me. He stares at his hands, his finger hovering over his own MOD.

Is he about to alert Central? To give away my whereabouts to save himself? I can’t say I blame him. My jaw tightens. “Don’t do it.” It isn’t a demand, it’s a plea. He stares back, showing no emotion behind his dark blue eyes. “Evan, please. I’m not evil.”

He glances at the MOD screen briefly before returning his gaze to me. He’s probably replaying the message we just heard in his head like I am. And now he’s realizing that he has to turn me in or face depowering. Evan likes me. But he doesn’t like me that much.