Archenemies (Renegades, #2)(36)

“Did you find anything else … interesting?”

“What, like body parts? My abilities don’t translate to human flesh.”

“And … nothing from the tunnels either?”

The elevator dinged and Magpie turned away. “You’re the one who has to catalog it all, right? I guess you’ll find out.”

Nova glowered. She stood, still clutching the mask. “How do your powers work, anyway? Are you, like, a walking metal detector? Or a magnet? Or what?”

The doors opened, revealing a lanky boy with shaggy brown hair and a spattering of freckles. His face lit up when he spotted Magpie.

“Maggie Jo, say it ain’t so! Bring us some new treasures today?” He went to give her a fist bump, but it was ignored as Magpie brushed past him into the elevator.

“That’s not my name,” she spat, jamming her thumb into one of the floor buttons. “And my powers,” she said, returning her glare to Nova, “are none of your business.”

The boy stepped back as the elevator shut.

Using his distraction, Nova tucked the metal mask into the back of her waistband. Anything that wasn’t in the database had never been received, right?

“That kid needs to lighten up,” the boy said, spinning toward Nova. “She does bring in cool stuff, though. Once dredged up an antique music box from the bottom of Harrow Bay. It didn’t have any special powers, but still, how cool is that?” His grin brightened. “You must be the infamous Insomnia.” He practically skipped to her side and thrust one palm toward her. “Callum Treadwell. A fine pleasure.”

“Nova,” she said, shaking his hand. “Tina said you’d be able to show me around?”

“I can, indeed.” Callum picked up the plastic bin and tucked it behind the desk. “We have some of the coolest stuff here. You’re gonna love it. Come on.”

He marched toward the filing room without checking to see if Nova was behind him. Shoving open the door, he greeted Tina with the same zeal he’d greeted Nova and Magpie, then bypassed the rows of filing cabinets on his way to a larger metal door at the back of the room.

“This is the filing room,” he said, with a general wave to the collection of filing cabinets. “Any paperwork or historical documentation we have on the artifacts gets stored here, along with items that are so small they could get lost on the bigger shelving units. You know, chunks of lightning-fused fulgurite, ion-enhanced meteor dust, magic beans, stuff like that.”

“Magic beans?”

Callum paused at the door and shot her an eager look. “You never know.”

He waved his wristband over a scanner, and Nova heard the locks clunking. Callum shoved the door open with his shoulder.

“And this,” he said, lifting both arms like a circus director revealing a grand spectacle, “is the vault.”

Nova stepped in beside him. The door slammed shut.

The vault was enormous, taking up the entire fourteenth floor of the building, and broken up only by structural support columns and row upon row of industrial shelving. It was cold concrete and steel and fluorescent overhead lights, one of which was flickering in the corner of Nova’s vision.

Yet her breath caught all the same.

“Is that … the Shield of Serenity?” she asked, pointing.

“Oh, you’re a fan!” Callum bounced toward the shelf and lifted the shield as tenderly as a priceless vase. “The one and only. Donated by Serenity herself. Almost pristine condition, except this dent back here.” He flipped it over to show Nova. “An intern dropped it a few years ago. Not me, I swear!” He lowered his voice into a conspiratorial whisper. “But if anyone ever asks, the damage was totally incurred in battle.”

Returning the shield to its spot, Callum began walking along the aisle. “The vault is organized by category. Did Tina show you the binder? It’s all in there. Within each category, every object is given a number and shelved in order. Except weapon types, those are alphabetical, then by object number. So all the swords, scimitars, and spears are grouped together in the weapons section, but over here in artifacts, a chalice might be in a completely different aisle from, say, a chain-mail suit. Unless they were input into the system together, in which case, they would have back-to-back object numbers. Seems confusing, but you’ll get the hang of it.”

“Is there really a chalice?” said Nova.

Callum spun to her but kept walking backward as his arms flailed. “Yes! The Widow’s Cup. Put a marriage band in it, and it automatically turns any wine into poison. Awesome, right? Don’t be fooled by the gender-specific title, it works on wives too.” He shook his head. “I would love to know how they figured some of this stuff out.”

He headed down a central aisle, with rows of shelves stretching away from them, going so deep into the building Nova couldn’t see where they ended. She followed in his footsteps, trying to ignore the mask digging into her spine.

Callum recited the various categories as they strolled. “Body armor here, and costumes on this side. You know, iconic capes, masks, color-coordinated belt-and-boots sets, stuff like that. Lots of nostalgia. When you have a chance, you should definitely check out Gamma Ray’s jumpsuit. It is a work of art.”

Nova spotted a mannequin wearing Boilerplate’s unmistakable armor and another donning Blue Ninja’s original costume, which was, Nova noted, actually more of a seafoam green.