Adrian looked at her confined hands, his gut sinking in horror.
The snap had been for show.
She could detonate those bombs with nothing but her thoughts.
Tsunami sprinted off toward the park while Thunderbird took to the sky, soaring in the direction of the explosion. A second later, another blast shook the earth and, in the distance, the pillar that held the giant swings toppled over mid-rotation. It spun out like a top, launching hapless riders into the fence and across the pavement.
The Detonator was laughing again, staring up at the sky, dazed and content. “By tomorrow morning, they are going to hate you…，” she sang.
Another explosion destroyed a leg of track on the rollercoaster. Thunderbird changed direction, rushing to get to the coaster before the riders plummeted off the edge.
And that faint blue haze grew brighter.
Bombs, everywhere he looked.
What if she set them all off at once?
Adrian clenched his fists and felt a surge of power rush into his forearm again. But the energy beam had been designed to stun, not to kill. And the only way to stop her, to be sure the rest of those bombs would never be detonated, was—
A gunshot rang across the grass. The Detonator’s head snapped back, hitting the boards of the theater.
The world seemed to still, hovering in a space without time. Then the Detonator slumped down. Adrian released his breath and watched her topple onto her side, leaving a smear of blood on the wood.
Real blood.
Adrian flexed his fingers, dissipating the building energy, and peered into the shadows of the fun house.
Nova pushed aside a blockade of wood scraps and crawled out of the rotating cylinder that had crashed down from the second floor and landed not far from the exit doors—or where the exit doors had once stood. She was holding a handgun. Her hair and skin and the iconic gray bodysuit were caked with dust.
“I found this,” she stammered, shaking the gun a little. “In a … a duffel bag.” She sounded worried, as if anyone would care that she’d stolen the gun that had stopped the Detonator.
Breathless, Adrian glanced back out toward the park. Thunderbird was at the crest of the rollercoaster, holding back the train of carts only a few feet from the gap in the tracks.
The rest of the carnival was in pandemonium, with civilians screaming and running in all directions, though he could imagine Danna and the others had reached the sites of the first two explosions by now.
Clouds of smoke were still swelling over the park, but the blue glow was gone. The rest of the spheres had extinguished, evaporating back into the atmosphere.
“All right, everyone,” said Simon, always the first to snap out of his shock. “Let’s get as many patrol units as we can here, pronto, to help with the injured and start getting this place cleaned up.”
Adrian ignored the order, turning back to Nova. His entire body was trembling with relief. “Nova…”
She stood amid the debris and tried to shake some of the filth from her hair. Then she looked at him and stumbled down the steps—tripping on a fallen beam. Adrian leaped forward, catching her before she collapsed into the wreckage. It was, he thought, a reasonable jump, even if he had used the springs on his feet a tiny bit.
But if anyone noticed, he wouldn’t care.
“You were in there the whole time? Great skies, Nova, do you know how worried I was?”
She dropped the gun and sagged into him. Her expression was dumbfounded. “I pulled the trigger,” she murmured.
Captain Chromium barged his way toward them, clearing a path in the rubble. “You thought faster than any of us. For all the times I went up against the Detonator during the Age of Anarchy, I never knew she could pull a stunt like that. By the time I realized how to stop it, I suspect a lot more people would have been hurt.”
Nova peered up at the Captain and swallowed.
“Nova?” said Adrian.
She switched her attention at him.
“I’m going to be chivalrous right now and carry you to safety.”
Her expression softened. “Okay,” she breathed.
“Really? You’re not going to fight me on that?”
Her only response was to slump into his arms.
Adrian set his cheek against the top of her head, briefly enjoying the closeness of her, the knowledge that she was okay. That they were both okay. Then he bent down and lifted her into his arms.
“You know,” said Evander, casting orbs of white light in Adrian’s path so he could see clearly as night settled over the park, “this is proof that not every prodigy deserves their powers. It’s because of villains like her that we need Agent N.”