Aftershock

Missing

Chapter 03: Missing

Nova woke up, disoriented. Her head pounded, but she pushed the pain away.  How had she ended up here?

The room was dark, the floor she was laying on felt like concrete, and she could smell a pungent mix of rotting wood and mildew.

She would be concerned about her situation, except that she found her escape easy.

Her hands were loosely bound. Her feet hadn't even been tied. And she could see the silhouette of a door that the dim light outside revealed.

She didn't know how she'd let her defenses slip. Well, she had a theory. Adrian had made every defense she'd so carefully constructed come crumbling down.

Nova twisted onto her side to give her hands more room to work, and in less than a minute, her hands were free and she was sitting up. She felt her pockets, assuring nothing was missing, before taking a look around the space.

No clues revealed themselves.

Frustrated, Nova kicked the single chair in the tiny space, one of the rotted legs snapping as it landed on the ground. She took a deep breath, her lungs filling with the rotting smell of the room.

Spending another second in that room was pointless, she decided. She went to the door and opened it, bracing herself for some sort of trap, but instead was met with an alley, unoccupied except for a group of rats waiting for the garbage to be brought out.

Head pounding, Nova began walking toward the lit streets. She tried to turn on her com so she could message Adrian, but only a black screen answered. Of course she'd chosen last night of all nights not to charge it.

She started to jog, ignoring her stiff joints as she made her way to Adrian's house.

She passed the fountain in front, which she still marveled at, even though she'd seen it about a hundred times now. Two months had passed since she'd first been here, and yet she couldn't get over how nice the property was. She had her own apartment as part of an organization for prodigies without parents, but there was no outdoor space like Adrian's house had.

She slowed her pace to a casual walk as she made it to the door, and before she could knock, a cheerful face opened the door.

"Hi Max," Nova greeted, entering the house. "You look good."

Max grinned. "I am good, as always. I spent all day playing with kids while their parents talked with my dads."

Max and Adrian were both adopted by two of the Renegade leaders, Hugh Everhart and Simon Westwood. Adrian had told Nova the story before: about how his mother had died and both men had fought over custody, before finally deciding to share it as they had the house. Max came along later, and they decided they wanted an addition to the family.

Max, not getting to be around anyone other than Hugh in his childhood due to his powers, now spent all the time he could around other people, watching over kids and helping people learn how to better control their powers. His grin had been a permanent part of his face since the moment he had been able to hug his whole family, and Nova was glad for it.

The kid deserved to be happy, what with saving the world and all.

"Is Adrian here?" Nova inquired, peering around Max in the direction of the basement. The place where she'd shared a kiss with Adrian.

Several kisses, actually...

"No, he went out for a bit. Now that I think about it, I think he went looking for you. He looked kind of worried." Max's eyes widened. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Nova lied. "I went to Renegade headquarters to train for a bit. I took off my com while I trained and forgot to put it back on. I'm just going to wait until he comes back." Max raised an eyebrow but simply nodded, and Nova let out a sigh of relief and she walked down the basement stairs.

"Oh, and Nova?" She turned around. "You may have infiltrated Renegade headquarters and lied about being Nightmare, but even so, you are a terrible liar. Let me know if you need anything." A smile, and he was gone.

Nova glared at the place he'd stood. She was a good liar, just not always on the spot. Besides, Max was too observant for his own good.

In the basement, which doubled as Adrian's bedroom and studio, Nova sat down. And waited. She counted the seconds until she became bored, and then she looked at Adrian's comics, all of which she'd read at least five times. Then, she observed his new drawings and could already imagine the plot line of his next comic.

Once she grew bored, Nova laid down on Adrian's bed and stared at the ceiling.

An hour later, so bored that even she could have fallen asleep, Nova heard the basement door open and sat up. Adrian pounded down the stairs, and upon seeing Nova, let out a sigh of relief. Then, "Where were you?"

He didn't scream the question, but the inflection of it was just as impactful, and she winced. She slid off the bed and Adrian stalked over, grabbing her arms with a gentleness that his expression didn't reciprocate. "I'm fine. You know I can handle myself."

He hung his head. "I know. I was scared about you. I'm sorry."

She broke free of his embrace. She understood his protectiveness over other people, what with his hand in his mom's death, but she sometimes struggled to cope with his protectiveness over her. She hadn't felt protected since she was six, and that protection hadn't lasted long, nor had it ended well. "My com died," she explained, even though he hadn't asked. "And I have to tell you something, but you're not going to like it."

After she explained to situation of her being kidnapped, for lack of a better term for what it was that had happened, she went to sit next to Adrian.

"So what you're saying is that there is another anarchy rising up?" Adrian asked, running his hand through his curls, which he'd let grow out over the last month.

"No, not quite." Nova looked at Adrian's most recent sketch, one of a villain whose face was hidden under a hood. "I'm just saying that maybe we haven't yet won. That maybe there are still some people out there who aren't content with the way things are. And that maybe Gatlon City isn't as safe as we thought."