Chapter Text
Adrian sighed deeply outside the doors of HQ, steeling himself for the inevitable chaos within. Due to the supernova, every single person in Gatlon now possessed the base requirement to join the Renegades, and the organization was in turmoil as a result.
He stepped through the doors, ignoring the posters for the newly-expanded Renegades Trials on every wall and pushing through the crowd of people filling out applications at the front desk. Sampson Cartwright was yelling instructions and passing out clipboards, weaving through the massive group. Adrian smiled slightly, glad that Sampson’s endlessly helpful nature was being put to good use, despite how annoying he found the constant crowds.
He made a beeline for the cafeteria, checking his watch to make sure that his patrol group’s plans were still on and smiling at the silly cat GIF that Oscar had posted to confirm his attendance. A day patrol was just what he needed to get his mind off the constant, looming presence of the media tour and the suffocating stress of his dads at home. And it didn’t hurt that Nova would be there… maybe he could direct the group to split up so they could finally get some time alone together…
He shook his head violently, putting the thought out of his mind. He couldn’t be abusing his power like that. It was bad enough that he was technically her boss (although his dads had reassured him that the relationship wasn’t problematic in the eyes of HR). Plus, Ruby, Oscar, and Danna would see right through it. They hadn’t exactly been subtle about the kiss on the float. Or really any time before that.
He sat down at the group’s usual table, eyeing the food options, but his mind refused to stop wandering. Nova… he hadn’t seen her since the float, which was strange, considering how often they’d been thrown together in front of reporters in the past few weeks. He hoped she’d been resting, or doing whatever it was that she did to recharge, since sleep was out of the picture.
He caught a glimpse of researchers in white coats rolling a tray of gemstones toward the elevator in the corner and snorted softly. It was public knowledge that the Renegades were experimenting with methods to recreate the supernova, but Adrian knew it was a foolish hope. Never again would such power exist in the world, and he knew that was a good thing. As always, the Renegades had slightly more hubris than was wise, at least in his opinion.
Oscar’s arrival at the table, toting three slices of pizza and a can of soda, shook Adrian out of his reverie. He plunked down on the bench opposite Adrian and cracked open the can, giving Adrian a pointed look.
“What?” Adrian shrank back, unaccustomed to such scrutiny from his best friend.
Oscar wiggled his eyebrows. “You know exactly what, Adrian! You know all about my love life, and I never get any updates until you snog your girlfriend in front of cameras at the biggest event of the year! It’s all over the papers, in case you live under a rock.” He threw the Gatlon Gazette on the table between them, and, sure enough, the black-and-white picture of the couple was probably big enough to be seen from space.
Adrian groaned, picking it up. “Sweet rot, Nova’s gonna freak out.”
“That’s what I thought! I figured you guys were gonna keep up that innocent little puppy love act ad infinitum. Peck on the cheek, side hug… did you even ask her about this?” Oscar gestured to the picture, which seemed to appear more intimate every single time Adrian glanced at it.
“Of course I did! I just– I guess neither of us were really thinking,” he responded indignantly, bristling at the implication that he would have kissed her in front of thousands of people without her consent.
“Thinking about what?” Nova appeared beside him in that unnerving way only she could, and Adrian felt his heart slamming against his ribs as he scrambled to shove the newspaper into his bag.
“Nothing! Nothing, Nova. How are you?” He looked shaky, and the question sounded absurdly formal. Oscar snickered, and Nova crossed her arms, ignoring the obvious diversion.
“What is this, Boys-Only Club? You’re literally in the middle of a public cafeteria— I doubt you’re discussing confidential material. What’d you put in your bag?”
Adrian groaned. She was too smart for him. He knew this. He sheepishly pulled the crumpled paper back out of his backpack, and Nova grabbed it from him immediately, brow furrowed as she examined the photo for what felt like five years. He watched her face, frowning a little at the red he saw rimming her eyelashes. Had she been… crying?
He took a long breath “Look, I just want to apologize again if-”
And then Nova laughed. A real, genuine laugh. Adrian startled, his ears going red as he looked around at the attention they were garnering from other units. “Nova…”
She sat down beside him, her arm pressed against him. “This is what you didn’t want to show me?” She rolled her eyes. “Adrian, I know we kissed on the float. I was there.”
Adrian’s eyes flicked between Oscar and Nova, laughing nervously. “Yeah, but… it’s kinda different to see it plastered all over newspapers, isn’t it?”
Nova shrugged. “Not really. Honestly, nothing was worse than realizing that Simon and Hugh saw it. What happened to all the bravado and swagger you had after the parade, huh? You didn’t seem all that embarrassed then.” She nudged his shoulder, and he saw just a hint of worry in her eyes behind the facade of nonchalance.
“I’m not embarrassed! Not of you! Of course not! It’s just–” he gestured helplessly at the paper. “I don’t know, I guess I didn’t really think about how the public would take it. All the press…”
Oscar shook his head. “It was probably just a slow news day. It’s not like there’s any gossip to be extracted from a photo like that. Everyone’s just gonna think you’re either a traitor for getting with an Anarchist— sorry, Nova— or they’re gonna be planning your wedding. I’ve already seen Pinterest boards floating around of–”
Both Adrian and Nova shushed him, looking mortified and flushed at the concept of strangers designing aesthetics for their wedding. Adrian gulped. Wedding. That was…
Nope. Not the time to be considering that. He hurriedly pulled out the maps he had tucked in a folder, spreading them over the newspaper, the picture, the drama… maps he could work with. Everything else… could wait.
“Alright team, let’s make our plans.”
—
Nova was not at all listening to the plans.
Her morning had gotten off-track when she found a bejeweled hairbrush at the bottom of her old backpack— a gift from Honey when Nova had turned sixteen. She’d had to throw it away, blinking back tears for almost an hour as she was plagued with Honey’s last moments in the bell tower. The Anarchist had practically raised Nova, and Nova had killed her. She couldn’t say that she regretted it— if she hadn’t pulled the trigger, Adrian would be dead— but the knowledge weighed on her daily. It felt wrong to be giving interviews, kissing on floats, enjoying her life in the newly-peaceful city… when that life had come at the cost of numerous deaths. Callum. Blacklight. The Librarian. Ace.
Collecting herself had been challenging, but she knew she couldn’t miss patrols. It would be the first time the team was on-shift since Nova’s identity had been revealed, and she was determined to prove herself capable and trustworthy, despite all that had transpired. While Adrian seemed to harbor no resentment toward her, she knew the rest of the team was more wary.
And the newspaper. She really didn’t care, she told herself. It was embarrassing, sure, but not insanely personal. It was fine. Except… a part of her cringed knowing that Ace would have probably torn down a couple of buildings if he saw that picture. What a disgrace of a niece she was to him. And while she understood completely how twisted his values had been, while she had literally conspired to take him down, a part of her still cherished the smile he had given her when she made him proud. Which she would never admit to anyone. So the newspaper was totally cool. She was fine.
As Adrian laid out a complex route twisting through the city map with his marker, Nova watched for Ruby and Danna approaching, her gaze flipping between Adrian (distracting), the cafeteria (nerve-wracking, knowing how many Renegades wanted her gone), and the newspaper peeking out from under the map. There was too much to think about— the patrol, Honey, the headlines, her appeals for reform to the Council, the upcoming Trials, the experiments HQ was running, Adrian…
Before she could get lost in her thoughts again, Ruby slid onto the bench next to her, with Danna close behind.
Adrian set down the marker, letting out a breath. “Oh, good. Glad everyone made it. You guys’ll have to look over the map on the way— we’ve got to get to Georgia and Park by 10:45.”
He picked up the map, folding it deftly and handing it to Danna. Ruby squealed, picking up the newspaper still lying underneath. “Ooh, front page news, huh? You guys have made it to the big leagues!”
Nova suddenly became very interested in the table, and Adrian swiftly scooped up the paper, setting a hand on her shoulder. “Well, it’s only proper. As you said, we are Gatlon’s ‘it’ couple.” He raised an eyebrow, daring Ruby to argue. Nova was relieved that he seemed to have regained his usual wittiness, although the way his hand twitched suggested that he may not have entirely lost his self-consciousness.
—
By the time he herded his team into a Renegades van, they were already late. Adrian groaned as he climbed into the driver’s seat, stepping on the gas unnecessarily hard to emphasize to his team in the back how rushed they now were.
Danna sat in the passenger seat, surveying the area on the map. “Two burglaries with smashed storefronts, three pickpocketings, and a shoplifting of a drug store. All right near an old tunnel entrance.” Her eyes flickered for a moment to Nova, then back to Adrian.
Adrian gripped the wheel tighter. “Danna,” he muttered, warning in his voice, before straightening and allowing his voice to carry to the back of the van. “That’s why we’re heading over! Signs of repeated crime by one perpetrator— we’re possibly dealing with lightning abilities, judging from burn marks left at the scenes. I have some heat-proof jumpsuits in the trunk, but they’re not invincible. We’ll have to be careful.”
Danna snapped the map closed, pursing her lips. “Known or suspected affiliations?”
Adrian sighed loudly, feeling bitterness well up in him. Why couldn’t she leave Nova alone? The Anarchists had disbanded. It was foolish to even try to link new crimes to the old gangs, especially one decimated by the Renegades; Danna knew this. All her comments were doing were hurting Nova. He glanced into the rearview mirror, brow creasing when he saw Nova’s head down, dutifully inspecting her nails.
“It’s just a question, Adrian. We’ve been caught off-guard by Anarchists before.” She gave him a meaningful glance, and the bitterness subsided a little. Danna had been hurt by Anarchists— Nova herself had trapped one of Danna’s butterflies in a jar for days to keep her from reforming. He supposed that Danna’s caution was acceptable, given the circumstances. Even if he did think it was unwarranted.
He pulled up into an alley behind the drug store, checking his pocket for his signature marker. “Alright team. We’re just going to ask the shop owner some questions, and we’ll go from there. No shenanigans, everybody. Stick to routine.” There was a collective eye roll from the team that he pointedly ignored, starting toward the back door.
“Wait.” Adrian spun back around, surprised that Nova would interject. It was a simple enough plan, wasn’t it? She was pointing up at the bell above the door.
“Bells to signal people coming in and out of the store don’t need wiring like that. It should be a manual rigging system.” She traced the line of the wires down the edge of the door, crouching next to what looked like a generator. “Come look at this.”
Adrian crouched down beside her, tracing stenciled letters “PWR’D” on top of the boxy plastic. “Wha…?”
Nova was way ahead of him, prying off a panel and examining the mechanics within. Adrian peered over her shoulder. She shook her head. “I should try to figure this out, but I don’t want to stop the patrol. Go through the front entrance and ask your questions. I think I just need a little more time.”
Adrian straightened. “You sure? We can–”
She shook her head. “I’m fine. It would be boring to watch me stare at this anyway.”
He frowned. “If you say so. Call me if you find anything, okay?”
Nova nodded, and he shouldered his backpack, gesturing to the others to start around the building.
—
This was embarrassing. Nova Artino, Nightmare, expert in weaponry and design, had no idea how a simple bell worked.
The mechanics inside the generator resembled none of the patterns she had memorized, with a variety of colored wires crisscrossing in seemingly random twists and turns. Strangely, the wires running out of the generator led not only to the back door bell, but also around the side of the building. What bell could possibly require such advanced circuitry? Still, something in it felt familiar. She sat on her heels, cocking her head to the side and squinting in hopes that changing her perspective might help.
She thought back to her teen years, scavenging scraps of copper and twisting them in wax to power lightbulbs or fix toasters and lying next to Ingrid with books open in front of her, enraptured in wiring as she tried to come up with a way to mimic the strength of the Detonator’s ability through engineering on a dare. Ingrid had scoffed at her, but she'd done it. She even blew a hole in the Detonator's trailer with the device as payback for her doubt. It had been simple, really, to just follow the diagram...
Red wire over blue wire, blue across green, green under…
Nova surged to her feet, backing up toward the van. There were tens of decoy wires and the colors were inverted, but it was unmistakable. And the wiring around the edge of the building… led straight to the front door.
“Adrian!” Her voice came out higher than she meant it to. “Adrian?! Don’t-”
The bell over the front door rang.