Overpowered

“It’s none of your damn business how I talk to her.” In this moment, when everything is completely hopeless and I’m losing a grasp on how to maintain hope, how to stay positive, I feel the anger boil inside of me like a ravage beast that must get out. Months of practicing composure, of hiding my emotions and holding back. It’s all worthless now. I can’t do any of it.

A strange thing happens when I embrace the anger.

The stake in my side...moves. Surprise washes over me and it stops-steadying itself in my side again. Did I really just move something with my anger?

No. That’s impossible.

But power can move things. Power, if concentrated enough by a strong enough Super, can move and not just the pulse of energy that knocks over humans. I close my eyes and then open them, glancing toward the harnessed victims. I watch their pain, feel the anger fill me up again. I hear Felix telling lies to Nova. Telling her she’ll never be loved, never be welcomed in our community.

“Look at your sister,” he says. “You disgust her.”

My jaw clenches and my body trembles as I embrace my anger, concentrating not on Felix or Nova, but on the stake. I want it to move again. I want it out. I want to prove that Felix cannot control me or overpower me. He cannot win.

Felix moves closer to me. “If you only knew your true potential as twins,” he says wistfully, tossing a hand in the air as if what he’s thinking is floating just beyond his reach. “How powerful the pair of you could be. It’s a shame,” he tisks. “You remind me of another set of twins I used to know. They hated each other for the longest time. Always jealous of the other one. Never learning to work together until it was too late. They never knew how powerful they could be.”

The sound of his stupid voice is enough to send me over the edge. The stake oozes out of my abdomen as my body expels the unwanted object. It drops to the ground with a metallic clink that echoes throughout the tiny room. I suck in deep breath of smoggy air, reveling in the pain of my skin healing back together where a wound bled just moments ago.

Felix charges toward me. I slam my fist into one of the syringes of Evan’s juice and then throw out my arms, sending him crashing into the noisy machine in the center of the room.

“Help!” Nova cries. I grab the stake in her chest and yank it out. She gasps in relief, closing her eyes.

And then another stake slams straight into her throat. I whirl around to find Felix on his hands and knees, smiling with a cruel satisfaction at landing his target. Nova gasps for air. Her throat wheezing, spewing blood and spit everywhere. I grab for the stake with my depowered hand but it’s buried too deeply into the wall behind it. I am not strong enough to pull it out, not without risking my own power. If I were to use my powered hand, the magnets would incapacitate me.

Nova’s eyes plead with me for help, and I squeeze her hand. “Hold tight,” I whisper. And then I turn back to Felix.

Aiming my palms toward him, I unleash the power of the juice, sending jolt after jolt of unnatural power into his body. His tall frame flops around, smacking into the walls like a ragdoll in the jaws of a rabid dog. But every time I send a wave of power into him, he still finds a way to scramble back onto his knees. He’s still trying to get up. To fight back.

Tenacity runs thick in the veins of a villain.

Incredulous, I inject the last vial on my arm, sending it straight into my veins for maximum effect. I step close enough to Felix to avoid his frantic grasp. Power unleashes from my palms again, send him catapulting backward, spine cracking against the jagged wall. He should be done for by now. He shouldn’t be getting back up. No one is that strong.

Nova’s emotions lift into a feeling of enlightenment. It almost feels like she’s trying to tell me something. I glance back at her and swallow back my revulsion of seeing her writhing in pain with a rod of metal through her neck. “The jacket,” she whispers.

She’s right. Again. The stupid skin tight pants and trendy sleek jacket--I can’t believe I hadn’t realized it sooner. Just like with his female ally, he’s wearing something that protects from my attacks. He’s scrambling to his knees again, trying to push up onto his feet. And I am all out of juice.

With no more options, I slip into a fight stance. Spit out a mouthful of blood. “Take off that jacket and fight me like a real villain.”

Felix pushes himself into a standing position, a feat I wasn’t able to do for an hour after being hit with the juice from Evan. He wipes sweat off his brow, looking down at himself. With a smile, he shrugs off his jacket and drops it to the floor. “You think you can beat me?” he says.

I crack my knuckles, roll my head around. No, I think. “Yes,” I say.

With a cocky laugh, Felix shrugs and takes one step forward. Nervous jolts of pain shoot through my body, pooling in the pit of my stomach. I suck in a deep breath, clench my fists and prepare for an attack.

A thin blackness shoots across the floor. Felix curses as he’s surrounded by a blur of movement that takes him to the ground. The blur slows to a stop and Nyx rises. He wipes off his hands with a sly smile.

Felix is hooked.

“Where did you get those?” I ask.

Nyx pants from exhaustion. His power hasn’t fully regenerated yet. His hands grab his thighs and he hunches over to catch his breath. “You said there were hooks in the hallway. I went and found them.”

Fifty kinds of relief wash over me. “I didn’t even hear you move.”

He smiles. “That was the plan.”

Nova sobs quietly from the wall, even though she’s smiling. Her emotions are a mixture of pride and relief. Nyx’s eyes widen in horror when he sees what’s happened to her. “Maci,” he calls out as he rushes to help my sister. “Grab his phone. Call for help.”

Felix lies rigid on the floor. Only his eyes move to look at me when I approach him. I kneel down, grabbing the rumpled jacket next to his head. “Why’d you do this?” I ask, knowing I won’t get an answer. “Why would you care about supplying humans with drugs?” I dig his phone out of the inside pocket and turn it on. Looking back at Felix, I shake my head. “That’s like the lamest thing I’ve ever heard.”