I can picture the look on his face now, even though I can’t see him through the phone function of my BEEPR. He’s giving me that Brother Look; the look that’s a little sarcastic and a little appreciative. It’s a look that only my brother can get away with. Anyone else would get a punch in the face.
“You’re right,” he says over the sound of a KAPOW pod door swooshing open. “I’m headed to the game store that George Goodfellow liked to shop for video games. Maybe there’s something on the security footage that’ll help. What are you doing?”
I reach the KAPOW pods on this end of Central. “Oh you know,” I say with a smile. “Just some research.”
“Destination Evan Letta,” I say aloud once I’m off the phone with Max and securely inside the pod.
The computer voice resonates throughout the enclosure. “Destination denied.”
Uh, okay. I try again. “Destination Research Facility in South Africa.”
“Destination denied.”
Curious Supers walk past the rows of public KAPOW pods, giving me an odd look. No one ever sits in these things longer than a split second before it zooms off into the tunnels, taking people to their destinations. I slouch back in the plastic chair and call Evan from my BEEPR, hoping to get some kind of explanation as to why I’m not allowed to visit him at home. He had said he was cleared to go back now, so I don’t know why someone with my Hero status would be denied.
He doesn’t answer.
“Destination home,” I say with a sigh, still annoyed as hell when I step out of the KAPOW pod in front of our home a few seconds later. I know I should be out in the field working on these missing persons cases, but I figure I’ll update Nova and show her how to work the microwave before I leave for who knows how long.
I palm the front door and hear everyone’s voices before it finishes sliding open. Crimson, Nyx and my brother all gather around the holographs on the coffee table in the living room. My two colleagues and friends appear to be content doing their research and discussing tactics for finding the missing Supers. They aren’t blood thirsty and cursing me out for hiding a wanted villain so that means only one thing.
Max gives a slight nod to the hallway when I look at him and continues his chat with Crimson about the Central High’s classroom structure.
“What took you so long?” Crimson asks, sliding over on the couch and patting the seat next to her. “Didn’t you read my message?”
I cringe and check the message on my BEEPR that I had neglected to notice when fighting with the KAPOW pod to get to Evan’s. Sure enough, it tells me to meet up at my place so we can discuss strategies. And order pizza, according to Nyx’s reply.
“Shouldn’t we be, you know...out looking for these people?” I ask, wishing I could think of a better reason to get them out of my house immediately.
Nyx, who I had thought was busy looking over mission information, looks up from his tablet where he’s ordering pizza online. “They’ve been missing for days. They can wait a little longer so we can fuel up first.”
I shake my head and go into the kitchen for a bottle of water. This is not the Hero life I was raised around. Heroes don’t kill time before completing missions. Then again, Heroes never have missions like this. They’re usually called to fight villains, and with villains, you don’t have time to fuel up first. After chugging the water, I excuse myself under the guise that I have to pee.
Nova’s shoulders shrink back in relief when she spots me, probably happy that I wasn’t someone else. She’s sitting in the corner of Dad’s office, knees pulled to her chest, watching the door like a hawk. I kneel down beside her, ignoring the rush of deja vu that comes from seeing her in this position again. “What’s going on?”
Her gaze pierces into me. “There are Heroes in our house. Three of them.” With her hands still wrapped around her knees, her index finger points straight at me. “Four, actually. How is this safer than when I was in the human world?”
“I’m not a threat and you know Max isn’t either. The other two Heroes are my friends. They wouldn’t hurt you.”
“You’re saying that four of Central’s Heroes are happy to break the rules? That goes against everything I know about Heroes.”
“Heroes do what is just and right and good. You’re only wanted because Central doesn’t know the facts. We will get this sorted out and you’ll be set free. I promise.”
She snorts. “A Hero is making me a promise.”
I nod. “That means you can count on it.”
Max slides to the left when I walk back into the living room. I sit next to him and answer his unasked question. “It’s okay.”
“What’s okay?” Crimson asks.
“The houseplants,” I mutter. “I watered them.”
My best friend rolls her eyes and leans forward, tapping her BEEPR so that it projects the monitor onto the coffee table. She’s made a side-by-side comparison of all four missing Supers, listing a rundown of their basic stats and photographs with identifying features highlighted. “I hate to say it, but…” Crimson trails off, looking up at us. Max nods. “The only thing they all have in common,” he says, stopping to scratch behind his ear.
Nyx finishes his sentence, “Is that they’re all losers.”
“What?” I lean forward, looking over the information. “That’s kind of...rude.”