The Secret of the Supers (The First Superhero Book 4) by Logan Rutherford Page A

friendships.

12

Amends
    “ A lright , gotta admit, that was pretty cool to watch,” Doug said from his spot on the couch.
    I smiled as I looked at my handiwork. I’d just boarded up the front door in five seconds flat. It was now closed off to the outside world, with only a teeny bit of light seeping through the small cracks between each plank of wood. “Not gonna lie, it felt pretty cool,” I said as I turned to him.
    “Does this mean we’re going to have to take the back door whenever we want to go outside now?” he asked.
    “Yep,” I said as I sat down on the couch next to him.
    “Oh,” he said as he turned back to his computer. “That’s not fun.”
    I looked on the other side of Doug, and sitting next to him was his Eximus rifle, the barrel sticking off the edge of the couch. It looked really futuristic, like something you’d see on a sci-fi tv show. I felt nervous looking at it, knowing it was something both made and used to kill Supers all over the US. “Where’d you get that thing?” I asked as casually as possible. “Didn’t know we kept one around.”
    Doug eyed the blaster next to him, and tensed up. It was obviously a conversation he didn’t want to have. “Well, I’ve had it for a while, actually.” He picked it up, and my heart skipped a beat. He pressed a button in the middle of the gun, and its metal form clicked and folded in half. It was now much smaller, and much more portable. “I kept it in my backpack.”
    “How come?” I asked.
    Doug hesitated. “To be honest, Kane, Samantha gave it to me…just in case.”
    “Just in case what? We were attacked?” I asked, wanting to get the full answer out of him. Assumptions were popping up in my head, but I wanted to know the truth.
    “In case we were attacked. By any Supers.” His eyes glanced at me and then darted away.
    “Samantha was worried I would attack you guys?” I asked, confused and hurt.
    “I don’t know, she just gave it to me and said that I needed to be ready to use it whenever I needed to, against whoever I needed to. She just wanted me to be safe, Kane.” He turned to look at me. “I don’t think she meant you specifically—I doubt she did. But she made it clear to me that I shouldn’t be afraid to, if I needed to.” His eye turned to the hole I boarded up where the front door used to be, and then behind him where the still gaping hole lead from my room to the living room. “It’s a good thing too, because last night, I needed to.”
    I sighed, the guilt and nausea piling up inside me. I couldn’t believe I’d done all of this. “You’re right, I’m glad you had the courage to use it,” I said. “What do you think about going to London?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.
    “I think it’ll be a good idea. We could use the change of scenery.”
    “You aren’t worried about Samantha?” I asked.
    “Of course I am,” Doug said. “But I’m also worried about what Athena will do if you make her mad by not going. She knows where Samantha is, she could punish her if we don’t do what she says.”
    I hadn’t thought about that. “You’ve got a point, although I don’t think she’d do that. Athena’s not like that. She’s never not been helpful.”
    “So you’re saying she’s a good person?” Doug asked.
    “I don’t even know if she is a person. I think she is, but there’s a lot we don’t know. I think the more we talk and work with her though, the more we’ll find out. About her, about Supers, about everything.” I paused for a moment, thinking about what I was about to say next. Whether or not I actually believed it. I decided I did. “I think she might be the key.”
    “The key to what?”
    I shrugged and looked away, thinking. “Everything?” I said with a chuckle. “She obviously knows a lot about Supers. She’s incredibly powerful. I think she might know how we can defeat Atlas, restore humanity; she might even know where our powers come from.”
    “And you