Archenemies

The second installment of the Renegades trilogy continues the story of Nova Artino, a young woman living a dangerous double life. In Gatlon City, where superpowered individuals known as prodigies dominate society, Nova serves publicly as Insomnia, a member of the Renegades, the superhero government that has ruled since defeating the villain Ace Anarchy a decade earlier. Secretly, she is Nightmare, an Anarchist spy working to destroy the Renegades from within and restore power to her uncle Ace, who raised her after a hitman murdered her parents and baby sister when she was six. Her mission is complicated by growing feelings for Adrian Everhart, her patrol team leader and the son of two Council members: Captain Chromium (Hugh Everhart) and the Dread Warden (Simon Westwood). Adrian harbors his own secret: He is the Sentinel, an armored vigilante whose identity he conceals from everyone, having inked himself with power-granting tattoos.

The novel opens with Adrian's patrol team, including teammates Oscar (Smokescreen), Ruby (Red Assassin), and Danna Bell (Monarch), staking out Gatlon City Hospital, where thieves are stealing medications to produce illegal opioids. They capture most of the criminals, but a prodigy named Hawthorn, who wields thorn-covered tentacles, escapes. Adrian secretly transforms into the Sentinel to pursue her, but Hawthorn wraps him in her barbed limbs and throws him into the river. His heavy armor drags him under, and Nova concludes the Sentinel has drowned. Adrian sheds the suit underwater and survives, but the Renegades believe the vigilante is dead.

The Renegade Council then holds a mandatory meeting to unveil Agent N, a substance developed using Max Everhart, Adrian's young brother whose rare power allows him to absorb the abilities of any prodigy near him. Max has lived inside a glass quarantine at headquarters his entire life to protect other prodigies. Agent N can permanently and irreversibly strip any prodigy of their powers once it enters the bloodstream. To demonstrate, the Council brings in Winston Pratt (the Puppeteer), an imprisoned Anarchist. After Winston seizes control of two young Renegades, Renegade researcher Dr. Joanna Hogan injects him with Agent N; his puppet-like facial markings dissolve as the audience applauds. Nova is horrified by the lack of due process. Danna, who can transform into a swarm of butterflies, notices Nova's intense reaction and begins watching her with suspicion.

Nova reports the news to the surviving Anarchists hiding in catacombs beneath a ruined cathedral: Ace, gravely weakened without his power-amplifying helmet; Leroy (Cyanide), who generates poisons; Honey (Queen Bee), who controls stinging insects; and Phobia, a shadowy figure who embodies fears. Ace instructs Nova to weaponize Agent N against the Renegades and, above all, to retrieve his helmet from the Renegade artifacts department. He also tells her to cultivate Adrian's affection, since Adrian's connection to the Council makes him a strategic asset.

Nova begins working in the artifacts department, where she discovers the helmet is sealed inside a chromium box that Captain Chromium forged to be indestructible. Her attempts to breach it fail. Meanwhile, Adrian questions the neutralized Winston about his mother Lady Indomitable's unsolved murder. Winston reveals not the killer's identity but that Nightmare is "very much alive" (174). Adrian's fathers dismiss this as manipulation, but Adrian remains unsettled.

During Agent N training, Nova steals a vial by swapping it with a decoy Leroy prepared and delivers the sample to Leroy, who begins developing a gaseous form for dispersal using explosive devices called mist-missiles from the vault. Adrian discovers the Vitality Charm, a medallion said to protect against anything that would weaken a prodigy. He enters Max's quarantine and, for the first time, embraces his brother. He plans to tattoo the charm's symbol onto his chest for permanent immunity and give the medallion to Simon. Nova grasps its strategic value at once: The charm could protect her from Agent N gas, allowing the Anarchists to deploy their weapon safely.

At the Sidekick Olympics, a competition for non-prodigy children, Nova asks Adrian about the chromium box's weaknesses, and he confirms that Captain Chromium could break it with one of his own chromium weapons. They visit a statue glen Nova remembers from childhood, a clearing with a hooded stone figure with outstretched arms, and share painful personal histories. A rival patrol leader, Genissa Clark (Frostbite), then captures Hawthorn. Adrian follows as the Sentinel and watches Frostbite torture the prisoner and order her teammate Gargoyle to kill Hawthorn, planning to frame the Sentinel for the murder. Adrian barely escapes, wounded by one of Frostbite's ice spears. He then tattoos the Vitality Charm symbol over his heart, making himself permanently immune.

Adrian invites Nova to his mansion, where he has painted a mural inspired by her childhood dream: a lush jungle overtaking a ruined city, with the hooded statue at its center. He brings it to life with his powers; a mysterious glowing star appears in the statue's hands. Nova tells him the full story of her family's murder, and Adrian shares his recurring nightmare of his mother's death. She falls asleep against his chest for the first time in a decade. After waking, Adrian asks her to the Renegade gala as his date, and they share their first kiss. Overcome with guilt, Nova uses her sleep-inducing touch to put him unconscious and searches the house. She takes the Vitality Charm from the Dread Warden's costume and retrieves the star from the mural; the star embeds itself into the empty prongs of her father's unfinished bracelet.

Before the gala, Nova presents her heist plan to the Anarchists: She will slip away from the event, break into headquarters, and use Captain Chromium's own chromium pike to smash the box. During the planning, she discovers a butterfly from Danna's swarm spying in the catacombs. Ace traps it with his remaining telekinesis, and the Anarchists imprison it in a jar; as long as this butterfly is captive, Danna cannot reform into her human body or report what she has seen.

At the gala, Nova and Adrian share a bittersweet evening. After he kisses her goodbye, she changes into Nightmare's costume and breaks into headquarters. She disables security, putting to sleep a Renegade guard called Stingray whose venom fails to affect her thanks to the charm, and reaches the vault. Her strikes with the chromium pike have no effect on the box, and she puts her colleague Callum Treadwell to sleep when he intervenes. In a final desperate throw, the star on her bracelet surges with energy through the pike, and the box shatters.

Nova seizes the helmet, but Frostbite's team intercepts her. Frostbite encases Nova in ice and shoots her with Agent N, which the charm neutralizes. Nova detonates a mist-missile gas bomb that permanently strips Gargoyle of his powers, frees herself, and neutralizes Frostbite's teammate Aftershock with a blow-dart. Aftershock's final earthquake collapses the quarantine, and Max falls with the wreckage. Frostbite hurls the chromium pike at Nova but misses; the spear impales Max, who has turned invisible while reaching for the helmet. Nova pulls the spear free and drags Frostbite close so Max can absorb her ice powers to freeze his own wound.

The Sentinel arrives, and Nova flees with the helmet while Adrian cradles Max and flies him to the hospital. Earlier that night, Danna's remaining free butterflies had led Adrian to the catacombs, where he, Ruby, and Oscar discovered Ace still alive. Adrian revealed his Sentinel identity to his friends and knocked the weakened Ace unconscious before racing to headquarters after receiving Max's distress signal.

In the aftermath, Nova hides the helmet at the Anarchists' row house, devastated that the Sentinel captured Ace. Adrian comes to her door at dawn, grief-stricken over Max's critical condition, and asks Nova to help him find and destroy Nightmare. Staring past him at the helmet glinting in the shadows of her closet, Nova agrees.