By Melissa Meyer
Read in 9th grade
The second installment in the series opens with Nova, Adrian, and the rest of their team chasing drug stealers. They follow them, but one of the henchmen grabs a young girl and threatens to kill her. Because the Code says to avoid civilian casualties at all cost, Nova and Adrian let him go. Luckily, Ruby (Red Assassin) and Oscar (Smokescreen). Get him from behind. Danna (Monarch), Nova, and Adrian go after Hawthorn, the prodigy who assisted the burglars. Adrian slips away and puts on his Sentinel armor. When Hawthorn begins to get away on a barge, Adrian follows her. Unfortunately, he loses and is tossed into the water. He returns to his team with a bad explanation for why he is soaked as the Renegades search the river for the Sentinel’s body.
Nova is still after Ace Anarchy’s helmet. She joins the artifacts team on top of her regular patrols, because its head, Snapshot, supposedly knows where the helmet is. Later that day, the entire Renegade squad gathers for the announcement of Agent N. This is the secret research they were doing on Max, the type of secret Nova joined for. Agent N can neutralize any prodigy, or take away their powers. They bring in the Puppeteer for a demonstration. Within seconds, he is controlling two Renegades, but with an injection of Agent N, his powers disappear. In fact, it is like his whole identity disappears. The iconic crown face paint melts away. He wails, and is led away. Nova makes it clear that she thinks this is a horrible idea. To take away a prodigy’s powers, the very essence of who they are. She hates that.
Adrian asks his dad (Captain Chromium) to let him talk to Winston Pratt (formerly the Puppeteer) for information on his mother. Pratt promises info if Adrian brings him a doll from the belonging taken from him by the Renegades. Nova goes to tell Ace about Agent N, and the helmet in the artifacts department. He praises her, then tells her to try to get close to Adrian, as he is the son of the Renegades’ leader. Adrian heads to the artifacts department in search of Hettie, Winston’s doll. Nova helps him, and right when she is trying to get a kiss out of him, he spots Hettie. Nova wonders why he keeps avoiding her moves, and wonders if she actually likes Adrian.
Adrian takes the doll to Winston, and demands information. Winston doesn’t reply, instead blaming the doll for everything before calming down. Then he says he told Adrian he’d tell him something he wanted to know, not stuff about his mom. He says Nightmare is still alive. When Adrian tells his dads, they brush it off as a trick, to distract him from his missions. Meanwhile, Nova prepares for the first Agent N training session. Leroy (Cyanide) makes a fake bottle of it so she can switch it out for the real thing and bring it back. The trick works, and Cyanide starts studying the substance right away. Nova also asks Honey (Queen Bee) how to get Adrian interested in her.
At headquarters, Adrian is testing out a charm he found in the artifacts department. It is called the Vitality Charm, and it protects against harm. It turns out it can also protect against Max’s power. Nova catches him in Max’s quarantine, and questions him. She knows she needs to get the charm, somehow. She also asks why they haven’t used Agent N on Max. They already have, at his request, but it didn’t work.
At night, Nova tries to break the chromium case around Ace Anarchy’s helmet. She tries to corrode it, but it obviously isn’t normal chromium, because the whole experiment blows up. After she cleans up the mess, Callum takes her up to the top floor to show her something. He explains why Agent N is needed, showing her Galton City as she wishes it looked. That’s his superpower: sensing other people’s feelings. His alias is Wonder Boy.
The next day, Nova visits Adrian’s house to try to win his affection and steal the Vitality Charm. He shows her his art room, which he has repainted to depict a scene from a dream she told him about. He brings it to life, and she is mesmerized. At some point, she dozes off. When she wakes up, she is shocked to learn she slept for a full day. Adrian invites her to have dinner with his dads, Captain Chromium and the Dread Warden. Afterwards, they watch a movie and end up kissing. Nova takes the opportunity and puts him to sleep. She searches the house, finding some old comics that Adrian made and opening a closet by chance to find the Vitality Charm hanging with the dads’ superhero suits. She takes it and returns to Adrian just as he wakes up and the movie credits roll. Adrian is confused by the gaps in his memory, but Nova convinces him everything is fine.
Back with the Anarchists, Nova tells them everything she has learned, when they see a monarch butterfly. It’s Danna! She has always been suspicious of Nova, and followed her. They catch her in a pillowcase because without all her butterflies, Danna can’t reform and tell the Renegades that Nova is a spy.
Adrian has invited her to the annual gala, and she shows up and dances with him for an hour before leaving because her “uncle” is sick. She puts on her Nightmare suit and sneaks into Renegade headquarters. Stingray catches her while she disables the security cameras, but he makes the mistake of touching her skin, and she knocks him out. She heads down to the artifacts room, and is surprised that Callum is there. She puts him to sleep as well, and tries to break the chromium box with Captain Chromium’s chromium pike. After getting a mysterious boost from her bracelet, it breaks. She is making her getaway when Frostbite’s team catches her.
Adrian leaves the gala soon after Nova, and sees one of Danna’s butterflies. He follows her and finds the Anarchists’ lair. Phobia is guarding the entrance, but Danna distracts him while Adrian turns into the Sentinel to defeat him. Oscar and Ruby show up, and are going to fight the Sentinel when Danna swarms him, showing he’s a friend. Adrian reveals his identity and they enter the Anarchists’ lair. They find Ace, who looks weak, but his powers are still great. He traps Oscar and Ruby, but Adrian defeats him as the Sentinel. They get an alert from Max about Nightmare’s break in.
The battle breaks whole floors in the building, including Max’s quarantine. Nova throws gas bombs filled with Agent N at Frostbite’s team, taking down two of them. Then she tries to get through Max, when Frostbite accidentally stabs him. Nova sees that Max is stealing Frostbite’s powers, and that he is closing the wound with it. She forces her to give up the rest of her powers to help Max. The Sentinel shows up and she is forced to leave.
Adrian sees what happened to Max and thinks it was Nightmare’s fault. He takes Max to the nearest hospital, then goes to see Nova, who was talking to Honey and Leroy, finding out that Ace was taken by the Renegades. Adrian tells her that Nightmare hurt Max, and that he’s going to find and kill her. He asks for her help. She agrees, even though she knows she didn’t hurt Max.
Read book 1! Renegades
Read book 3! Supernova
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