Nova’s gaze continued to dart around the room. “So why do you keep dealing with things like painting over graffiti, or stepping in on behalf of a clerk who can’t figure out the correct change? Why not set up a non-prodigy police force to deal with situations that don’t need a … you know. A superhero.”
“A non-prodigy police force?” said Oscar, amused. “No one would apply.”
“Why not?” said Nova. “That’s what they had before the Age of Anarchy.”
“Because now they have superheroes to handle these things for them,” Oscar said with a mild shrug.
“But it’s their city too,” Nova insisted. “Their lives, their livelihoods? They can’t expect prodigies to do everything for them all the time.”
Her attention switched to Adrian, but he wasn’t sure how to respond. It was true that it would help them a lot to be able to hand over some of the lower-priority assignments to a civilian police force, but he couldn’t help feeling like Oscar was right. With the Renegades willing to shoulder all the responsibility, why would anyone apply for such a force?
Nova’s shoulders sank a little. “Or not?”
“We could suggest it to the Council?” chirped Ruby. “Maybe start inviting people who were police officers before the Age of Anarchy to apply for a special task force?”
Adrian nodded. “I could mention it to my dads when I see them later.”
Beside him, Nova seemed to tense, and a moment later she shifted her weight, pulling a few inches away from him. He hadn’t even realized just how close they’d been standing. He scanned her face, but it had gone unreadable as she scrutinized a map of the Wallowridge neighborhood.
He cleared his throat. “Ready to go see the training hall?”
Nova’s face cleared as she spun back to him, and whatever discomfort he’d sensed vanished so quick he wondered if he’d only imagined it. Her smile was sudden and eager. “Absolutely.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THE TRAINING HALL was the only part of headquarters that was kept in the building’s sublevels. When the skyscraper was first built, its foundation had encompassed a massive parking garage. After the Renegades took over, they demolished floor after floor of concrete, leaving only the foundational walls and pillars to protect the integrity of the building overhead. What was left was a vast open space beneath the vaulted ceilings for them to exercise their powers.
Like the lobby and the call center, the training hall was a hub of activity, but all the chatter of the upper levels was replaced down here with movement and action. Renegades launching themselves over platforms, scaling walls, shooting at targets, facing off in large netted-off rings, swinging across an obstacle course of ropes and bars, and—more than anything—showing off their vast array of abilities.
Adrian headed the group as they left the elevator bank, heading down the walkway that passed over the training facilities. He soon realized that Nova’s pace had begun to slow, until she stopped altogether. Adrian glanced back to see her face awash in speechless awe.
He followed her gaze around the room, trying to imagine this was the first time he’d ever seen it. To their right, twin brothers were sparring with quarterstaffs, but one turned into orange liquid and the other into orange vapor each time they were struck. Next to them was a blindfolded boy firing a bow and arrow at a series of moving targets and hitting them dead-center every time. On Adrian’s left, an earth elemental turned the contents of a sandbox into a two-level sand castle without touching a grain. Ahead, there was a woman who transformed into a grizzly bear in the blink of an eye, then charged at a man with great bull horns erupting from his skull. In the distance, a girl had created a vortex above her head and was sucking her opponent toward it, while said opponent used his own barbed hands and toes to grip the floor and fight against the vacuum.
“Sweet rot,” Nova whispered.
“It is a little overwhelming the first time you see it,” said Adrian.
Nova stepped forward, wrapping her hands around the railing. “I had no idea there were … so many of you.”
“The numbers vary,” he said. “Our permanent staff is around four hundred, but we get prodigies from all over the world who come here to be trained for a few months, then leave. We have the best facilities for it, and the best reputation.”
“Trained for what, exactly?”
“To be superheroes,” said Ruby, fidgeting with the wire around her wrist. “What else?”