If we can get home without being seen, then we can figure out what to do from there.”
Nova’s head tilts curiously as she watches me tug at the bandages around my fingers. Dried blood and dirt and some kind of pus collects around the once-white bandages. My stomach churns as I peel off the gauze, exposing my index finger. Or what’s left of it, rather. When the depowering machine ripped out my powered veins, the vein going down each finger split open my skin and popped off my fingernails. Nurse Martha had promised that my nails would grow back, but the thick layer of grossness covering my skin now makes me question that.
I’m a total freak now. I’ll have to get a custom glove that I can wear all the time. Maybe Evan and his super smart research brain can put some kind of power device in the glove so I won’t be as handicapped without my natural power.
Nova makes a tiny sound, almost like a gasp. Then she sighs. “You’re not turning me in.” It isn’t a question, or even a statement. It’s a fact. And she knows it now.
I shake my head and keep working on the bandages. Nova kneels beside me, shoving matted hair out of her eyes. “I don’t want you to save me. I want to die.”
“Well you’re gonna have to get over that because I’m saving you.” I wince as I peel back the layers of gauze, feeling my skin cling to the fibers as they unwillingly separate from my flesh. “Even if you are horribly ungrateful for it.”
She sighs and slaps her hand over mine, grabbing the gauze and yanking the rest of it off with one quick pull. I cry out in pain before shutting my damn mouth so as to keep our location a secret.
Untamed hair and wild eyes stare at me, searching me. Even with how weak she is, her power level is as strong as mine, but it doesn’t scare me. I can almost feel her emotions in the vibrations emanating from her chest. It’s the last feeling I would expect her to have.
“I don’t understand you,” she says.
In a flash of superhuman speed, Nova takes a nearby empty soda can and rips off the top. She squeezes the aluminum into a point. Runs it across the asphalt to sharpen it. I know from her emotions that she’s not planning to shank me so all I can do is watch in curiosity when she turns the makeshift knife and plunges it into her forearm. The precision stab pierced only into her power vein and now the silvery substance oozes down her skin.
“Give me your arm,” she says. I hold out my shredded right arm. Keeping the can shoved into her vein so it won’t heal, Nova leans forward and lets her power pour over my wounds. A warm tingle permeates my skin as the silver flows over the dozens of cracks in my fingers, wrist and arm, soothing the pain. My mouth hangs open as I watch her power heal my injury. The rips and shreds of flesh knit back together and form a smooth layer of fresh skin. I gasp as five painful fingernails emerge, filling out my once-torn nail beds and making them new again.
I clutch my healed arm to my chest. The power is still gone, but now I won’t be covered in hideous scars for the rest of my life. “I didn’t even know that was possible.”
Something that might actually be considered a smile forms on her face. “This was my main job growing up. Aurora’s camp was made up of mostly depowered villains. When she wasn’t making me train, I was healing all the villains who sought refuge with us.”
“So there are depowered villains without scars?” I ask. She nods. “A few dozen. Maybe more.”
The Hero Brigade needs to know about this. Villains have never been a problem after they were depowered but that might be partly because the depowering leaves them so mangled and grotesque that they never resurface in public, besides the random appearance at a circus freak show. This new information means depowered villains could be walking amongst the humans right now.
A half breed kid, my sister’s healing power, and a depowered villains without scars?
Let’s just add all that crap to the list of things I didn’t know one hour ago.
Footsteps on the pavement catch our attention at the same moment. She taps her chest. I nod. The group of people approaching are not human.
But they’re laughing. And they stink of liquor, even from a hundred feet away.
I back against the wall, turning to tell Nova we should hide. She’s already gone. Her power flickers from a photo booth to my left. I duck under the curtain and sit next to her on the narrow bench, sliding the fabric back into place. “Suck in your power,” I whisper.
“I am.”
“Do it better.” I take a deep breath, bringing in the pulse of my own power to undetectable levels.
The group of Supers approach the KAPOW entrance. Only their shoes are visible through the tiny crack in the photo booth curtain. I don’t move or breathe or make a sound. They walk right past us. Press their palms to the door. Laugh and joke as the door slides open.
The sudden wail of an incoming call sounds from the BEEPR on my wrist.
Crap.
“What the hell?” A man’s voice. I swipe across the screen to silence Max’s call. We were almost in the clear. Nova’s fingernails dig into my arm. She whispers, “We can take all of them.”
I shake my head, press my finger to my lips to silence her. “Stay.”
“Who’s there?” the same guy calls out, his footsteps retreating from the KAPOW entrance.
“Josh, shut up and get over here,” a girl whisper-yells. “Let’s just get home!”
I peek through the curtain and see her. Blonde hair, black mini dress. Frantic arm waving to the guy named Josh. “If you’re the Retriever Squad, we aren’t doing anything. Just coming back from the bar.” He steps closer, probably scanning the area. I could reach out and smack him and he still has no idea we’re here. Silly normal Supers.