A hiss of pain drew Adrian’s attention to Max. He watched as Max pulled the shard of glass from his thigh, then stood on weakened legs, dozens of cuts leaking blood into the gray suit. He kept coughing. Beads of sweat dotted his brow. But still, he scrunched his face in concentration, and the wall behind Ace began to tremble. A small vibration at first, until, all at once, the great slab of stone pulled free from its mortar and launched itself at Ace.

He was too distracted by his own glory to notice. The block hit him in the back and Ace fell, sprawling onto his knees as the rest of the wall clattered around him.

For a moment, the villain didn’t move, and Adrian could almost hope that this would be enough—he was still just a man, wasn’t he?

But then Ace released a guttural scream, and the stones shot back at Max.

“Max!” Adrian cried, unable to do anything as the stones collided into Max’s slim form. He fell, curling into a ball as the storm rained down around him. Adrian sprinted across the rooftop, in agony to know there was so little he could do. What he wouldn’t have given to have the powers of the Sentinel again …

“I will not be defeated!” Ace yelled. “Not by you! Not again!”

Adrian skidded beside Max and started pulling the rubble away. He was relieved when some of the stones moved of their own accord, Max lifting them with his powers.

“I’m … okay,” Max muttered, clearly not okay.

“Stop wasting your energy on attacking him,” said Adrian, scooping one arm around Max’s shoulders and helping him sit up. “Focus on getting close. You’re the Bandit, remember?”

“Not ready to surrender?” said Ace, chuckling as he watched Adrian and Max stumble to their feet. “You have no idea what I’m capable of! No idea of the power—!” He cut himself off and a wicked gleam entered his eyes. “Perhaps a demonstration is in order.”

Adrian and Max took one step forward, and Max’s body collapsed against him from the effort. Adrian realized that Max wasn’t putting weight on his right foot. Was his leg broken?

Lifting his head again, he locked his attention on to Ace Anarchy, who stood at the far end of the rooftop. The distance could have been miles.

“I’ve got you,” said Adrian. “We can do this.”

A shocking burst of light drew Adrian’s attention back up to the overhead barrier. His feet stumbled. The barrier was shifting. Starting from the opening that Max had created, the whole thing seemed to be splitting open. Sewer pipes, utility boxes, traffic lights. Jumbled architecture and found machinery, abandoned vehicles and wrecked buildings. All peeling outward toward the city. Being dismantled, bit by bit. The glare from enormous floodlights that had been erected on a series of trucks cascaded over the wasteland, making Adrian squint against their brilliance.

As the hole grew larger, it revealed the city skyline in the distance and a night sky with the faintest haze of electric blue along the eastern horizon.

Media helicopters circled overhead. It was disorienting, after having the battle relegated to Ace’s small bubble, to suddenly be thrust back into the real world.

That is, until Ace snarled and waved his arm as if swatting at mosquitoes. Both helicopters careened off course, plummeting from the sky.

Adrian ground his teeth. No time to worry about whether or not the pilots had parachutes. He tightened his arm around Max and started moving again, when he heard a new sound—a war cry, blaring from all directions.

His heart leaped. The Renegades had been waiting outside the barrier, desperate to get in. Now, with the wall torn down, they wasted no time in charging across the wasteland. The sight was mesmerizing—wave upon wave of identical gray uniforms. Thousands of superheroes from every corner of the world. Even many of the Renegades who had been neutralized at the arena were still among them, ready to be heroes with or without superpowers. He spotted Tamaya Rae, wingless and hoisting an electric trident that he recognized from the artifacts department.

She wasn’t the only one. The mob was brandishing an assortment of weapons and artifacts. Powerful ones.

They must have raided the vault.

The mob raced forward, more unified than ever. Though it was chaos, Adrian couldn’t help but seek out the people he cared for most. He found them easily, as if drawn to them. Simon. Ruby. And in the wasteland, preparing to join them—Oscar and Danna.

He was glad the villains had abandoned Ace and the cathedral. Seeing the Renegades now, Adrian knew this fight would have become a massacre.

Now, the only enemy left was Ace.

“Isn’t that charming?” said the villain, watching the Renegades come. The way he said it, unconcerned, even amused, sent a chill into Adrian’s bones. “Unfortunately … I fear they’re too late.”

Ace let the chromium chain slip from his hand and cupped the star in both palms. It flashed, and for a moment, Adrian saw streaks of energy in the air, flickering all around them, as far as he could see. Then Ace stretched his hands toward the city.

CHAPTER FIFTY

THOUGH SHE COULD barely stand, Nova forced herself away from the wall. One knee buckled and she half fell onto the hard stone. A chip from a broken spire caught under her kneecap and she flinched. Planting both hands on the ground, she pushed herself back up. Wobbled unsteadily for a moment, then kept going. One foot in front of the other, even as a wave of dizziness washed over her. Step by step, even as her muscles rebelled.

Movement in the distance made her hesitate, the small momentum she’d picked up nearly sending her crashing down again. She barely caught herself.

Her jaw fell as she took in the sight.

Beyond the cathedral, beyond the wasteland and a rush of Renegades, more Renegades than she’d ever seen in her life, the city skyline began to rise upward. Hundreds of buildings shuddering, undulating, lifting into the air. Nova watched a multistory hotel torn from its foundation. She saw the stately courthouse, with its Roman pillars, disconnect from the imposing front steps. She saw the enormous backlit G on top of the Gatlon Gazette building topple over, while the structure underneath swayed upward. Building after building succumbed to Ace’s power, sending bits of concrete raining down on the streets below. Plumbing pipes ruptured, spewing water and sewage into the craters of empty foundations. Wires and rebar dangled from the bases of the levitating structures.

The power grid was disrupted, plunging whole swaths of the city into blackness. It was like watching someone flick off the lights neighborhood by neighborhood.

From the sudden blackness came screams. The screams of people who appeared at their apartment windows and saw the ground suddenly too far away. The screams of those below as they sensed the ominous weight of the buildings above them, with nothing to keep them from falling.

It was the screams that made the Renegades in the wasteland hesitate. They turned to see what was happening. To their city. To the people they’d sworn to protect.

A strange sense of déjà vu flickered through Nova’s memory, and she thought of the night she had caught Max practicing his telekinesis in the quarantine. She had seen him lift up the miniature glass buildings of his miniature glass city, letting them hover weightless in the air around him, almost exactly as Ace was doing now.

Nova had been surprised at the time that Max was powerful enough to lift so many glass figurines at once, a feat few telekinetics could have mastered.

But this …

She stared at Ace Anarchy, her uncle, and her anger and loathing were momentarily dwarfed by fear. Of who he truly was. Of what he could do.

Thanks to her father and his weapons.

Thanks to her.

She stumbled forward a few more steps. She was far closer to Ace than Max was, and she didn’t know how close Max would have to be in order to have an effect on her uncle.

Her fingers twitched, tempted to make contact, to put him to sleep.

But what would happen to the city if she did? Without Ace, it would come crashing down. All those buildings, all those lives. There would be no stopping it.

“Great powers,” she whispered, realizing the terrible inevitability of it. Ace was going to destroy the city. The few who survived would have no reason to stay, surrounded by rubble and ruins. Gatlon would become nothing more than a forgotten legend. A nighttime story to warn children of the dangers of power—having too much of it, or having not enough.

She remembered Callum’s words, as if he were standing right beside her. He killed and he destroyed and he left the world in shambles.

Nova tried to gather her emotions into a tight ball and spoke with all the calmness she could muster.

“Ace,” she started, taking another step forward. “Think about what you’re doing. You love this city. You want to rule this city. If you destroy it, then what’s been the point of any of this?”

He chuckled deeply. Though she couldn’t see his face, she could picture his expression—a cruel, crooked twist to his lips. “Oh, my wise young niece. You saw what I could do to this cathedral, and that was before I had this gift. Before I understood what was possible.” He clicked his tongue. “I can destroy this city. Tear it apart brick by brick. And when I am done … I will rebuild Gatlon to fit my vision of perfection.” He tilted his head back, as if basking in sunlight that wasn’t there. “The world will have learned its lesson. No one will dare stand against Ace Anarchy.”

The star in his palm pulsed, and one final tower rose up toward the sky. The tallest building in the city. Renegade Headquarters, its glistening glass facade an icon of hope to the world.

Nova watched its ascent, dwarfing all that surrounded it.

“Hang in there, Max.”

Adrian’s voice startled her. He and Max had covered half the distance but were still at least fifty paces away. They both looked ready to collapse.

How much farther did they have to go? How long before Ace felt the slow drain of his abilities?

It wasn’t going to be enough. They wouldn’t make it in time.

In the wasteland below, the Renegades were divided. Some had taken up the charge again, but Nova knew they would never make it in time to stop Ace. Others were rushing back toward the city, desperate to help the people caught up in Ace’s approaching catastrophe, but what could they possibly do against such power?