Page 134 of Supernova

It was awkward to climb the last of the tiny steps without being able to use his hands for balance, but Adrian managed to do it without falling on his face. He found himself in the belfry, where two enormous bells hung in the center of the tower, along with a series of smaller bells suspended in the openings around the exterior walls. The windows here had no glass, allowing the bells’ music to ring outward over the surrounding neighborhood.

Back when there had been a surrounding neighborhood.

Up here, the sounds of war were more pronounced, each strike on the enormous shield reverberating through the floorboards at their feet. Explosions. Grinding and chopping. A steady clanging that battered against the dome again and again. Adrian couldn’t help but wonder what sort of damage the Renegades could have done if they hadn’t suffered so many casualties at the arena. As it was, he was proud to hear them putting up such a ferocious fight.

He was led to a window where one of the smaller bells was hung a few feet overhead, where he could view the dead, faded wastelands. Ace’s barrier rose up a couple of hundred feet ahead of them, blocking out the city. Blocking out the sky.

To his surprise, Queen Bee extinguished the lantern. Though it wasn’t pitch-black, it was dark enough that, for a moment, Adrian could barely see the Anarchists’ outlines. Then Nova lit a few of her micro-flares and tossed them out the window. Some landed on the pitched roof of the cathedral below, a couple on the wide arcade that ran along the northern side of the church. A few more fell into the barren land beyond. Though they succeeded in pushing away someof the darkest shadows, their faint light only served to make the atmosphere even more menacing.

Realizing that Nova’s attention was on the front of the cathedral, Adrian followed the look and saw figures emerging onto the roofs of the two western towers that framed the grand cathedral entrance. His blood cooled to see Phobia among them.

Ace Anarchy himself appeared, recognizable by the helmet that seemed to have its own faint glow. The villain lifted his arms dramatically, and Adrian felt both Nova and Queen Bee tense beside him.

The collection of debris that had been forged together to build the dome began to rattle. Rivulets of dust streamed down.

Straight ahead, directly facing the cathedral’s western facade, a slim shard of light appeared unexpectedly from the base of the barrier. Not sunlight, but something blinding white and artificial, as if there were a giant spotlight trained on the barrier. Like massive doors opening, the wall peeled back on either side of the breach. Metal and wood and stone grated against one another, folding inward until an arched tunnel had opened between the wasteland and the world beyond. Adrian squinted against the unexpected onslaught of light, a swath cutting its way straight through to the main entryway of the church.

For a moment, all fell still. Adrian wondered what the Renegades would do with this open invitation, one that could only be a trap.

As soon as the pathway had been cleared, the assault on the dome’s exterior ceased. A heady silence filled the space. Adrian felt the hair standing up on his arms, apprehension hanging in the air with an electric charge.

They waited. In the stillness, he could hear Nova’s breathing. Though she was right beside him, she seemed to be taking care notto touch him and, strangely enough, he translated this as a sign that she still cared for him. He had a heightened awareness of her proximity, and he couldn’t help believing that if she felt nothing for him, then she wouldn’t be taking such care to avoid an occasional brush of skin.

He stopped himself before his thoughts could travel much further down that path, because it raised a series of uncomfortable questions about his own feelings, questions he wasn’t prepared to face. Not when Nova was wearing a black hooded jacket and holding a gun to his side.

Funny, he thought, how he’d been so ready to write off their relationship as nothing more than a game to her back when she’d been arrested, but now he found himself resisting the idea. Maybe, after having gone through those doubts once already, his heart was refusing to go through them again. Maybe denial was easier.

His dangerous thoughts were interrupted by a cruel chuckle from Honey Harper.

“Jackpot,” she whispered.

A figure had appeared in the opening. A single silhouette, and one that Adrian recognized immediately. Broad shoulders, accented by armored pads. Muscled arms and legs in skintight Lycra. Hair glinting gold in the light, not a lock out of place.

Captain Chromium entered, his head high as he stepped through the tunnel into the wasteland. He carried a long chromium chain in one hand and the Silver Spear in the other, every bit the superhero who had first risen to power in the Age of Anarchy.

As soon as he crossed the threshold of Ace’s barrier, the wall rumbled and closed up tight behind him. An enraged cry could be heard from the Renegades left behind on the other side, and CaptainChromium paused. When he realized he was alone, he squared his shoulders and faced the cathedral, taking in Ace Anarchy and the villains gathered on the front towers.

He stopped halfway across the wasteland and plunged the end of the pike into the ground. He looked ready to destroy the Anarchists single-handedly, and Adrian almost believed he could do it.

“Hello again, dear friend,” said Ace, his voice echoing in the vast chamber. “Are you missing something? Or… someone?”

If the taunting had an effect on the Captain, it was impossible to tell. He kept his gaze locked on Ace Anarchy, cool and unflustered. “We’ve had this fight too many times already, Alec,” he said. The silence, combined with the enclosed dome, made for an echo that carried his voice all the way to the top of the bell tower. “Are we really going to have it again?”

“Oh, I hope so,” said Ace. “I have plans for a different outcome this time.”

“You know you can’t defeat me.”

Ace laughed. “It is refreshing to see that your arrogance has not changed in all this time. Let’s remember, last time we stood here, you only bested me with the help of ababy.”

Adrian shivered at the mention of Max.

“This is pointless,” said Captain Chromium. “You know you can’t kill me. What are you hoping to accomplish here?”

“Well, to start,” said Ace, “I’ve long harbored fantasies of chaining you to a tank and watching you sink to the bottom of the ocean, never to be heard from again.”

“All so you can have control over a city that doesn’t want you?”

“I’ll be satisfied with revenge at this point. Revenge for ten years of being powerless, whileyouran around belittling who we are and what we are capable of. Your trials have turned prodigies into a sideshow, and the way you pander to the media is disgusting. You care more for your own reputation, for the citizens’ approval, than for taking care of your own. And maybe that was going well for a while. You were idolized. You were adored. But how has it been working out for you lately?”

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