Secret Super (Book 1)

41. Control Room

"Over here!" Anthony shouted. They sprinted after him.

Zadia nearly slipped on the oily floor. Smoke filled her lungs and stung her eyes. 

Anthony frantically waved a keycard in front of one of the doors, which slid open. They lunged through the smoke. Zadia squeezed through right before the door whirred shut.

Smoke cleared, and the screaming alarms became more distant. Zadia fell back against the wall. Hacking coughs racked her body; her breaths came in wheezes.

"Can they get to us in here?" Kara asked, wild-eyed and leaning heavily on one leg. 

Zadia looked around. In the inky, dark red haze of the room, glimmering lights flashed from computers and suspended holo-screens. The lights winked in and out in darkness like the City at night. A control room, probably.

"Not for a few minutes," Mira said grimly.  She ran to a console and her fingers flew over the keys. A grinding screech made Zadia whirl around. She gaped as another set of metal doors extended from the walls and closed over the first. Complex machinery whirred and snapped shut over the whole contraption.

"Sick, right? She won't show me how to do that," Anthony said to Zadia and Kara. He grinned. Zadia tried not to stare at the way his scars stretched and distorted when he smiled.

"Xavier doesn't want everyone knowing the passcodes, you know that, Anthony," Mira said in a patient tone. "I'm gonna check the cameras." She kept typing; as she did so, a switch clicked and white lights flooded the room.

Zadia blinked rapidly to adjust her eyes. 

"Hey, what's that smell?" Anthony said, wrinkling his nose. 

"Now that you mention it . . ." Kara frowned. "Smells like burning flesh."

"Oh," said Zadia, looking down at her leg. "That might be me." Where she'd caught on fire, her pants had been burned clean off . . . along with a layer of skin. The flesh was red and torn. Her stomach lurched at the sight. Strangely, she didn't feel any pain.

"He fried your leg," Anthony said, dumbfounded. "Uh, I'm gonna go over there now. Before I get sick." He backed away, looking queasy.

"Z, why didn't you say something!?" Kara stared at the wound in horror.

"Honestly, I don't feel it with all the adrenaline. I'm fine, really," she said quickly.

"Like skies you are! Is there a first-aid kit anywhere?"

"In this abandoned factory? I kinda doubt it." 

"No, there isn't," Mira called back shortly. 

Zadia gave a weak smile. "I told you, I'm okay."

Kara raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Could 'a fooled me, 'cause you look terrible. Like you got cooked by a power circuit."

Zadia bit back a laugh. "Oh yeah? Well, you don't look so great either. " She nodded at Kara's bloodied, scratched-up arms and singed jacket. "You look like you got chewed up by a trash compactor."

Kara made a mock-offended expression. "Wow, so we're going there? You look like you got vomited out of a power plant," she rejoined with a spark in her eyes and a barely-suppressed grin.

Despite the circumstances, that made Zadia giggle. "How about that limp arm, did you forget which way to point your gun?"

"Nice black eye, you try to sweet-talk a supervillain?"

"Yeah, you," Zadia said with a smirk. "And it worked."

"Touche."

"Hey guys. Guys,"  Anthony said loudly. He pointed at the holo.