“A few years ago a recruit was chasing after a purse snatcher and sprained his ankle,” said Oscar. “So now the uniform comes with boots that have ankle braces, supreme slip-resistant soles, and every other feature they could think to put into them. Great cushion too. You’ll love them.”
Nova forced a wan smile.
“Either way,” said Ruby, “this uniform will be worlds better than what you’re used to wearing, right?”
Nova stumbled over her own feet, picturing Nightmare’s hooded jacket and metal face mask. “Excuse me?”
“I’ve been to Cosmopolis Park,” said Ruby, who was practically skipping beside Nova. “Those awful uniforms, with the striped pants and those hats…” She gestured down the length of her body, and though it had been years since Nova had been to the amusement park, she could easily picture the outfit Ruby was describing, with its red-and-white-striped trousers, yellow bow tie, and straw porkpie hat.
She shuddered to imagine herself wearing it. “You read my application?”
“We wanted to get to know you a little better before you got here,” said Oscar, grinning. “Don’t worry. Your talents were completely wasted as a ride operator. You’ll be much happier here.”
They reached the elevators and Oscar jabbed the up button with the butt of his cane. As they stepped inside, Ruby handed the bundle to Nova, then stepped back to inspect Nova’s belt. “Are these some of your inventions?”
“Just a few,” Nova said. It had been difficult to decide what to bring that morning. She couldn’t bring any of her favorite weapons or gadgets, as they would all be recognized as tools Nightmare had been seen with over the past year. But she’d been asked her to bring examples of her work, so she had to pick something.
In the end, she’d chosen the blow-dart ink pen, a shock-wave gun that could temporarily stun an opponent up to thirty feet away, and a set of exothermic micro-flares.
“Cool!” said Ruby, with more fervor than Nova thought the inventions warranted. “When we’re done giving you the tour today, you should go show these down at R and D. They live for stuff like this.”
“Don’t tell her that!” said Oscar, as if aghast. “They’ll want to take her away from us.”
Ruby feigned a gasp. “Good point. Nova, you should definitely not go talk to the folks in R and D. Ever.”
“They’re killjoys down there, anyway,” added Oscar. “The ones that always bring the vegetable trays to the party, you know what I mean?” He gave her a knowing look.
“That Nightmare had better look out now that we have you on the team,” Ruby added.
Panic raced down Nova’s spine. “Nightmare?” she said, her voice strained. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve heard of her, right?” said Smokescreen. “She’s been all over the news lately.”
Without waiting for Nova’s answer, Ruby said, “That’s kind of her thing too. I mean, her superpower is putting people to sleep by touching them, but she also has access to some really neat weapons. There’s footage of her from a few months back scaling a building like a spider, not using any handholds. They say it has something to do with the gloves she was wearing.” She shrugged. “R and D is trying to replicate them, but I don’t think they’ve had much success so far. Still”—she tapped the shock-wave gun on Nova’s hip—“if we’d had this at the parade, she’d be history.”
Nova attempted an encouraging smile, not bothering to tell them that the shock-wave gun fired at a much slower velocity than a regular gun with real ammunition. She was fairly certain that Nightmare could dodge the blast just fine.
The elevator doors opened, and somewhat relieved to be out of the confined metal box with two of her enemies-turned-allies, Nova exhaled and followed them. They led Nova into another open space, though this one was significantly more relaxed than the lobby. More couches and TV screens, though just as many had video games being played on them as were showing the news. Vending machines lined one wall, and a number of long tables stood in front of the windows, where men and women in gray uniforms were laughing over bags of trail mix and candy clusters.
Nova scanned the occupants of the table, searching for hints of their abilities and weaknesses, but there was little she could discern when they were just sitting around chatting. A man with wavy black hair had a ukulele strapped to his back. A young girl had a birthmark the shape of a skeleton key along one side of her face. A woman had a small cloud of purple dust erupt from her fingers every time she snapped, evidently trying to think of a specific word that was eluding her.