Renegades

Nova rushes through the back door to make sure that the other Anarchists have left, then opens the door to an awkward, nervous Adrian. He explains that he was worried because she wasn’t answering her messages. She reluctantly lets him into the decrepit house and offers him food—of which there isn’t much. He notices Honey’s bees, and she quickly makes up a plausible story and is surprised when he believes it. He then draws her a vase of beautiful, living flowers for the table. Adrian tells her that based on the Puppeteer’s clues, the group should investigate Cosmopolis Park. Nova asks him why he wants to catch Nightmare so badly, and he admits to being frustrated that she got so close to killing the Captain. At first, Nova feels proud, but then she is sickened when she truly appreciates that she almost killed Adrian’s dad and he doesn’t even know. They make plans to regroup at Cosmopolis Park the following day, and he awkwardly leaves. Honey and Leroy almost reappear, and Honey wishes that she could have invited him to stay for dinner.

Cosmopolis Park never went out of business; it was once a haven for drug-dealing and other illicit activities, but after the Renegades took over, it was returned to its former status as a functioning theme park. Remnants of its darker past remain behind certain fences. Nova meets Adrian at the park entrance, and as they enter, he is completely unaware of her nervousness over Ingrid’s plan to stage a fight between Nightmare and the Detonator. She lets Adrian lead, not wanting to point out the clues that she left for him last night. They play carnival games for a while and discuss Adrian’s dads, after which Nova contemplates the mixture of hatred and awe that people have for the Renegades.

Nova and Adrian then discuss Ace Anarchy, and Nova asserts that Ace wasn’t singularly responsible for the violence during his “Age.” Her opinion amuses Adrian. She argues that without Ace, the prodigies might never have been able to live safely. To this, Adrian reluctantly agrees, although he disagrees with Ace’s methods; Nova finds herself agreeing with that point, too. He argues that the Renegades are good because people need heroes, and Nova angrily points out that anyone can be a hero, whether they have powers or not. She believes that people would be better off if prodigies didn’t exist, and when Adrian realizes that she is serious, he labels her viewpoint bleak. Suddenly, a large group of children runs up to Nova, inviting her to their birthday party. She redirects their attention to Adrian, who learns that the birthday boy wants a bicycle that his mother can’t afford. Adrian draws the boy a bike.

As Nova watches the birthday boy riding his new bike, she tries to maintain her cynicism but succumbs to Adrian’s joy at helping the children. A girl praises her, and Nova tells her that it is possible to be a hero even without powers. The girl accepts this idea and runs off to fetch Nova a piece of cake. Nova briefly admires Adrian, who is happily drawing the kids a life-sized pony. Then she gets his attention to make sure that she can maneuver him into position in time for Ingrid to implement her plan.

As they walk through a tunnel with pictures of the carnival’s history on the walls, Adrian spots a picture that Nova carefully doctored last night to get his attention; she renamed the Fun House as the “Nightmare.” He decides to check it out. When they enter the Fun House, Adrian sees the boot prints that Nova left deliberately, and he calls for backup. Adrian then sketches handcuffs; Nova realizes that the day wasn’t about finding Nightmare at all. She asks him if the outing was a date, and he tries to evade her question. She reminds herself that he would never be attracted to who she truly is: his enemy. They draw their weapons and head inside.

Nova and Adrian enter the haunted house, quickly falling prey to the tilting floor and strange mirrors. They eventually make their way upstairs, but Nova falls through a trapdoor, alarming Adrian. She tells him there may be two routes through the house and urges him to keep going on alone. Adrian finds a hexagonal room with six doors. Through one of them, he finds a sleeping bag and a duffel bag containing Nightmare’s possessions. Adrian goes through another door and finds holes in the wall that stare through paintings and into other rooms. He suddenly spots Nightmare, who disappears into the previous room. She then reappears and attacks him, but leaves soon after taking his gun. Adrian pursues her out of the haunted house, then turns to see her standing on the roof. She shoots at him but misses, and Detonator appears directly across from her, mocking her for missing her shot.

Adrian prepares himself for a fight but quickly realizes that the conflict has nothing to do with him. Nightmare shoots at Detonator, who falls backward with a scream, then continues to shoot. Detonator struggles back up, covered in blood, and tells Nightmare that she is a disappointment. Adrian, realizing that he needs Nightmare alive, draws a dart gun and aims it at Detonator so that she cannot harm Nightmare, but he misses.

Ingrid aims a real bomb at Nightmare, who responds with real fear. The bomb destroys half of the Fun House and seemingly destroys Nightmare as well. Ingrid reveals to Adrian that the gunshots, blood, and death were fake, but Nightmare’s death is real; Ingrid didn’t trust Nightmare and wanted to get her out of the way before she caused problems. Ingrid then attacks Adrian, who shoots her with his energy beam, revealing that he is the Sentinel. He then demands answers about his mother’s death. Ingrid refuses to give him any information. Suddenly, Thunderbird and the other Renegade Council members arrive. When Ingrid claims to have killed Nova, Chromium holds Adrian back from attacking her. Ingrid quickly laughs, saying, “What will people say once they realize that you were right here? You were so close… and you still couldn’t save them?” (536). She then reveals that she has placed hundreds of bombs throughout the park and can detonate them with her thoughts.

The superheroes scatter to save people as Detonator slowly starts to set off the bombs, but before Adrian can kill Ingrid to stop the total demolition of the park, Nova appears out of the rubble with a handgun and kills Ingrid herself. Adrian runs to Nova, who quickly goes catatonic from shock over killing someone. He carries her to his dads. One of the other Council members remarks that this is why they need “Agent N,” indicating that the Renegades intend to use a serum to take prodigy abilities away from noncompliant people. Hearing this, Nova panics. Adrian asks her again if she would have said yes to going on a date, and expects that they might kiss, but she runs away, claiming that she needs to tell her uncle that she is safe.

Now that Nightmare has been declared dead, Nova returns to the subway tunnels. She struggles between her joy at being with Adrian and being a Renegade—and her horror at the revelation that “Agent N” will strip powers from anyone who doesn’t cooperate with the Renegades. She does not trust them to draw the boundary between allies and enemies fairly.

Phobia finds Nova and immediately tells her that her fear of failure is particularly potent. (Nova is afraid that Ingrid’s death was a mistake.) He then tells her, “One cannot be brave who has no fear” (549), implying that he might be the one who killed Adrian’s mother. When he leaves, Nova slips into a secret tunnel and finds a plate set up with food and a candle next to a large stack of bones—the catacombs. She announces that the helmet isn’t destroyed and that she plans to get it back. The bones pull back to reveal a luxurious chamber filled with books. Ace Anarchy, levitating in the middle of the room, is alive and well. He praises her efforts.