Page 55 of Supernova

Her voice slurred. Her attention was still on Adrian as her eyelids began to droop. Her foot skidded forward another half of a step, and then she started to fall face-first toward the linoleum.

Adrian narrowly caught her, scooping her beneath the armpits as her forehead crashed into his chest.

He gaped at Max, then down at the kid’s skinny, pale arms, the insides of his elbows mottled with bruises new and old.

He knew immediately what had happened. Judging from Max’s expression, they both did.

“I didn’t think you got any power from Nightmare.”

“I didn’t, either,” said Max. “I panicked just now. I didn’t really think about it—it just happened. But… but Nightmare didn’t seem affected by me at all when she…” He trailed off, eyes widening. “Oh.”

“Oh?”

“The quarantine. I must have gotten it when Nova came into the quarantine.”

Adrian swallowed hard. Right. Of course. The night that Nightmare stole the helmet wasn’t the first time she’d crossed paths with Max.

It was just one more piece of evidence against her, and though one more reminder of who and what she was shouldn’t have hurt, it still did.

He thought again of the tattoo he was planning and imagined putting another stone on the wall around his heart.

“Anyway, good job,” said Adrian.

The elevator door started to close and Adrian stopped it with his foot. It opened again with a chime. Spotting an empty gurney against a wall, Adrian lifted the nurse onto it. “I doubt you gotmuch of Nightmare’s power, so she probably won’t be out for long. Come on.”

They got in the elevator just as an obnoxious buzzing started to come from the doors, alerting them that the doors were closing this time, whether they liked it or not.

“I’d go invisible again if I were you.”

Max winked out of view as Adrian hit the button for the top floor.

Seconds later, they stepped out into a serene waiting room, the smell of talcum powder wafting toward them and the sounds of a crying baby drifting from a nearby hallway.

“No,” Max said emphatically, tugging on Adrian’s sleeve. “The maternity ward? Are you nuts? I don’t care what you say, there could definitely be a prodigy mom here—or what if there’s a baby! I can’t—”

“Would you relax?” Adrian whispered back at him, earning an odd look from the nurse sitting behind a reception desk. He smiled and surreptitiously took hold of Max’s hospital gown, dragging him forward. “Hi there,” he said, leaning his free elbow on the counter beside a visitor check-in sheet. “Is there a way to get up to the roof from this floor?”

Her already-suspicious countenance darkened more. “The roof isn’t open to the public,” she said, as if this should have gone without saying.

“Oh, I know,” he said with a mild chuckle. “I’m Adrian Everhart. My dads are Hugh Everhart and Simon Westwood?”

He was met with instant recognition. Her mouth formed a surprised O.

“Right,” he continued. “And, as I’m sure you know, my brother, Max, is a patient here and, well, the other Council members aregoing to be stopping by periodically to check on how things are going. We’re all pretty much one big happy superhero family down there at headquarters, and everyone’s really worried about the kid.”

A snort came in the direction Max was standing.

“So,” Adrian persisted, “Tamaya—er, Thunderbird—is going to be stopping by anytime now so I can give her a full report on Max’s condition, and you know Thunderbird, always flying around the rooftops. Never uses the main entrance. It’s kind of a superhero thing. I mean, if I had wings—”

Max jabbed Adrian hard in the side and Adrian stifled a grunt. “Which is to say… how do we get to the roof from here?”

The nurse led them to a plain door and punched a code into a keypad while Adrian assured her that a Captain Chromium autograph would be no problem. He made a mental note to actually follow through on that promise as he and Max bolted up the steps and pushed their way out onto the hospital roof.

Wind buffeted them from the east. From way up here, Adrian could see the Sentry Bridge, Merchant Tower… even the parking garage where he and Nova had staked out surveillance on the hospital when they’d been trying to stop Hawthorn and her gang.

He passed over the helicopter landing pad on the center of the roof, heading for the north wall.

Max, visible now, came to stand beside him, scanning the city rooftops—the water towers, the fire escapes, the windows glinting in the late-afternoon sun. “Did you order a helicopter for us?”

---