It had been close to four years since Nova had last seen Magpie, but the girl still looked the same: glossy black hair, contemptuous eyes, and a permanent disagreeable expression, as if she was disgusted by the world and everyone in it. Even as they stood there, neither of them speaking, she caught Magpie's eyes roving down to her left wrist, where Nova wore the bracelet her father had made just hours before he was killed.
The bracelet Magpie had attempted, on more than one occasion, to steal.
Her eyes not leaving Magpie's face, Nova very overtly brought her other hand over to clasp around her wrist, securing the bracelet in place. Magpie's scowl deepened.
"Oh, hey guys," Max greeted Nova and her team with his usual cheery smile, though it was tinged with a sense of apprehension. Max had always been both intuitive and observant, two qualities that made him great at his investigative work. Surely he could feel the tension that existed between his brother's girlfriend and the girl he was walking with.
And why was he walking with her? Were they, like… friends, or something? Nova hadn't heard Max mention Magpie again after his random encounter with her the day of Simon's birthday party, so the vague thoughts she'd had about his potential interest in the little thief had faded away into the recesses of her mind—especially once Flamethrower had entered Gatlon City's radar and all thoughts of more trivial things had been replaced with worries about the villain's future attacks.
"Max! How's it going, little dude?" Oscar's voice sounded behind her. "And—hang on, I remember you." He snapped his fingers, and a tiny trail of white smoke drifted past Nova's shoulder. "Magpie, right? Cleanup crew?"
"Not anymore," Magpie's voice was haughty. "I got bored years ago of sitting around waiting for the Council to tell me what to do. I make my own decisions now."
Probably lives on the streets and pickpockets whenever she needs money, Nova thought disgustedly. Back when Max had first mentioned running into her a couple weeks ago, Adrian had suggested that she might have changed over the last several years. But aside from being a bit taller—the same height as Nova herself, annoyingly—she didn't seem any different than she'd been as a bratty little kid.
"I didn't know you guys knew each other," Oscar commented, stepping closer and looking from Magpie to Max. "Have you two been friends this whole time? Did you stay in touch after—well, whenever you left the Renegades?"
It was Max who answered. "Nah, we just met recently. Maggie's helping me with something today."
"Helping you with what?" Nova spoke up. She felt, more than saw, Adrian giving her a warning look from his spot beside her.
"My investigation into the convenience store robbery. She might have known one of the perpetrators when she was younger."
Or she might have helped. It was for Max's sake that Nova kept her comment to herself.
"We were just going to grab lunch at Luca's," Ruby told Max and Magpie, gesturing toward the pizza parlor a few paces down the street. "Do you guys have time to join us? Or are you on a tight schedule?"
"We're on a tight schedule," Magpie responded, her eyes still not leaving Nova's. "Places to go, things to investigate," she smirked. "Villains to catch." She made a big show of widening her eyes and opening her mouth. "Oh wait, I forgot. There aren't any villains anymore, are there? Everybody's a superhero now."
"Everybody gets to choose how they use their powers, whether that's for good purposes or not-so-good purposes," said Adrian. "Just because someone chooses to use their powers for something less than admirable doesn't necessarily make them a villain."
Magpie guffawed. "That's not the mantra I remember the Renegades spouting all those years ago. Then again, I guess it'd be sort of hypocritical of you to say anything different." She shot a pointed look at Adrian, then returned her stone-cold gaze to Nova. Nova stared back, just as coldly.
"We'll let you get to your lunch," Max said loudly, raising his arm in farewell and turning down the sidewalk in the opposite direction of Luca's Pizza. "Come on, Maggie, it's this way."
The loose-fitting sleeve of Max's long-sleeved shirt fell away from his wrist a few inches as he waved, and Nova's attention was drawn to a flash of red around his wrist—was that a ruby bracelet? Nova had just started wondering whether it had been given to him by Ruby or one of her family members, and if so, why, when she saw that Magpie was wearing an identical bracelet.
Her stomach lurched. Max and Magpie were wearing identical bracelets? What was the meaning of that? Had Max given her the bracelet?
Whatever was going on between them, it certainly seemed like more than just help with an investigation.
Nova's insides churned as she watched them walk away, not holding hands, not touching, not doing anything at all to signify a relationship beyond acquaintances—but perhaps that was just because they knew they were being watched. As soon as they'd disappeared into the crowd bustling down the sidewalk, Danna let out a low whistle. "You could've felt that tension from a mile away."
"Did you see the matching bracelets?" Nova demanded. They might have slipped past the notice of Adrian, Oscar, Ruby, and Narcissa, but Danna prided herself on her observation skills. In fact, it had been a long-running good-natured contest between Nova and Danna in regards to who noticed more in any given surrounding.
Danna nodded, a hint of amusement in her eyes. "I'll admit, I'm a little surprised. I didn't know Max was the jewelry type."
"He asked me if I had any tiny rubies when he was over at my house the other day," Ruby recalled. "I assumed he was going to use them for something in his city."
Narcissa looked from Danna to Ruby to Nova, her face a mask of confusion. "I'm sorry—I'm out of the loop. What exactly is the deal between you and that girl?"
Nova shook her head, trying to figure out the best way to explain Magpie's personality. The closest analogy she could come up with was the time she'd accidentally ingested some of Leroy's emetic syrup, but as far as she knew Narcissa had never experienced that, so she went with a more relatable comparison. "She could make a rabid dog seem friendly. Always complaining and being a jerk to everyone, walking around looking like she just ate a thundercloud..." she scowled, checking one more time to make sure her bracelet was still firmly clasped on her wrist. "And stealing people's possessions."
"Oh, so you guys aren't related? I thought maybe she was your estranged cousin or something."
"Sweet rot!" Nova exclaimed, appalled at the thought. "No, Magpie and I are definitely not related. That would be awful."
"Says the person whose uncle was Ace Anarchy," Oscar commented with a teasing grin.
"Ace—" Nova hesitated, unsure of what she wanted to say. For years she had idolized her Uncle Ace, the supervillain who had brought prodigies out of hiding and stopped them from being oppressed, the man who had claimed to believe in freedom and personal choice for all. He and the other Anarchists had raised her for ten years, and in that time she'd come to embrace his ideals as her own. She'd remained loyal to him right up until the Second Battle for Gatlon, at which point it had been revealed that the deaths of Nova's parents and baby sister hadn't been orchestrated by the villain gang known as the Roaches, as Nova had always been told, but rather by Ace Anarchy himself.
Some nights, when the world was sleeping and Nova alone remained awake, she allowed her thoughts to return to Uncle Ace. She hated him, would always hate him, for what he had done to her family. What he had done to her. Murdering everyone she loved and then raising her to do his bidding as his little Nightmare, exploiting her powers, always telling her how proud he was of her whenever she did what he wanted her to do, manipulating her to trust him and love him and see him as the ultimate source of prodigy liberation. It was despicable.
But despite her fury and hatred over all the truly evil things he'd done, she couldn't deny that he had accomplished some good things. He had put an end to prodigy oppression. He had instilled in her, among some more questionable doctrines, the idea that everyone should have the freedom to make their own choices, to have a say in the way their world was run, to not blindly follow authority for authority's sake.
Nevertheless, Oscar had a point. Magpie may be annoying and unpleasant, but Nova was pretty sure she wouldn't actually murder anyone.
"Anyway," said Oscar, after her silence had gone on long enough that it was clear she wasn't planning on finishing her thought. "Are we heading in? My stomach can't take the waiting much longer."
They crowded into the small pizza place, where Oscar, Ruby, Danna, and Narcissa immediately started poring over the menu, trying to decide what they were going to get. Nova hung back, not really hungry, more focused on the memory of Max and Magpie walking side-by-side, wearing matching homemade bracelets.
"You okay?" she looked up to see Adrian studying her, his eyebrows knit in that adorable concerned frown. "Thinking about Ace?"
She shook her head. Her thoughts about Ace a few minutes ago weren't the ones that remained on the surface of her mind. "Magpie."
"Oh." Adrian's expression shifted, and Nova thought she detected a hint of amusement in his eyes. "I know you've never liked her, and I can't say she was ever my favorite Renegade either, but it has been a couple years. Maybe she's… different now?" He sounded doubtful.
Nova snorted. "You were there. Doesn't seem like she's changed at all if you ask me."
"Well, maybe hanging out with Max will be good for her. It's hard to be in a bad mood around him."
Nova gaped at him. "You're not at all concerned about Max hanging out with her? What if they—what if they start dating or something? You'd let your little brother go out with Magpie?"
Adrian fixed her with a reproving look. "First of all, Max is a smart kid. He's always been the voice of reason to balance out my crazy ideas, so I trust him not to make any rash decisions. Whenever he starts dating, whoever he starts dating, it'll be someone he genuinely likes, and if it turns out he genuinely likes Magpie, there will be a valid reason." He took her hand, lacing her fingers with his. "Second of all, what would you have said four years ago if someone had pitched the idea of you going out with the Sentinel?"
"That's completely different," Nova grumbled. "I didn't know it was you at the time. I always liked you."
"Didn't stop you from hating the Sentinel. I believe you used to refer to him as, what was it, 'arrogant' and 'infuriating'?"
"But that's not how you are. That was just your—your persona, or your alter-ego, or whatever."
"Exactly." Adrian smiled. "As the Sentinel, I want people to perceive me a certain way, so I tailor my behavior, acting a little differently than I do when I'm just me." He shrugged. "Maybe there's a side to Magpie we haven't seen."
Nova highly doubted it, but in thinking about her initial hatred for the Sentinel, it was impossible not to think about the other side of the coin—Adrian's deep-seated loathing for Nightmare, her alter-ego. Adrian was too nice to come right out and say it, but she knew that was the better analogy. She still cringed whenever she thought back to that awkward Renegades assembly, the first one after the Supernova, in which Captain Chromium had publicly announced to the entire syndicate that yes, Nova was indeed Nightmare, lifelong Anarchist and niece of Ace Anarchy, but that she had played a key role in the supervillain's final defeat, and was henceforth being pardoned of all crimes. She remembered the dirty looks she'd received from many of the Renegades for months afterwards, and how even Oscar, Ruby, and Danna had initially been slow to restore their trust in her. Worse than that, she remembered the looks Adrian had received, and the comments, those same insidious comments that were rolling around in her mind about Max and Magpie: You're dating Nightmare? Why?
"Should we go sit down while we wait?" Ruby asked, and Nova blinked, realizing the other four must have already placed the order. She had no idea what they'd ended up getting, but knowing Oscar and Ruby, it was probably enough to feed the entire city block.
"All right." The six of them traipsed to a table by the window, where Danna started a conversation about Flamethrower, and Nova forced herself to pay attention and contribute to the discussion. This was important—figuring out who Flamethrower was, what he was trying to accomplish, whether he was working alone or with others. Worrying about Max and Magpie wasn't going to solve a thing.