Max's fingers twitched in anticipation as he sat down in front of one of the computers in the Renegade server room. For two days he'd been itching to do this, obsessing over the theory that had taken shape in his mind the moment he'd read Maggie's papers from the children's home, and that had only been solidified later that same night when he'd talked with Nova on the roof. But there had been press conferences to attend, there had been a mandatory checkup in the MedWing despite the fact that the Healer woman had mostly taken care of his burns, and there had been concerned family members and friends and teammates who'd fretted over him and kept constant eyes on him. He'd only just now gotten the chance to slip off and make his way to this room full of information.

He logged in with his Renegade credentials, and found his way to the database that stored information about the city. He'd tried searching his queries in the prodigy database on his home computer, but had found no results, as he'd expected. He was eager to try again with the Renegades' more in-depth database about the city. Most of the digital record-keeping systems people had used before the Age of Anarchy had collapsed along with everything else when Ace Anarchy took power, and therefore a lot of transactions had gone undocumented for a long time. However, the Renegades' servers had been amassing more and more information over the past thirteen years, some contributed voluntarily by people who wanted to build the world's infrastructure back up to what it once was, and some gathered during investigations and help calls.

He started by searching Craig White. There was a Craig White who'd been brought in as a witness to a crime shortly after the Supernova, as well as property records for someone who had died four years ago. He tried the next name: Josephine White. The only result was a news story about an elderly woman who'd donated a large sum of money to help rebuild an elementary school that had been destroyed during the Age of Anarchy.

Max was not at all surprised by the results, or rather, the lack thereof. He'd already deduced that Maggie's supposed parents, Craig and Josephine White, had never existed. This was just one more piece of evidence to support what he already knew to be true.

But now it was time to search the name he was really interested in: Charlie Pinkerton, the landlord. Was that a fake name too? Who had brought Maggie to the children's home all those years ago, and why had they lied about her identity? Or was it the children's home that had lied? The lack of evidence supporting the existence of a Craig and Josephine White who could have been murdered around the same time Nova's parents were certainly reduced the possibility that the landlord had legitimately thought Maggie was their baby—as well as the possibility that it all these similarities between Maggie and Nova's sister were just a coincidence.

Max keyed in the name, which turned up a single result: a photocopied notice from twelve years ago of the Kingsborough Apartments going up for sale, with the point of contact being one Charlie Pinkerton. Okay, he thought. So that really was the name of the landlord. Which means…

What did it mean? It's not like Max could now track him down and ask him questions. If the sale had gone through, the guy didn't even own the apartments anymore, so he didn't even have that lead.

Frustrated, Max slumped back in his chair just as his communication band chimed.

The message was from Windstorm: Bandit, are you at HQ? Come down to the lobby, I have good news!

Glad for a break from his unfruitful research, Max logged out of the computer and headed down to the lobby, where his entire team was waiting for him. "Our case has been solved!" Windstorm announced as soon as he showed up.

"Our case?" Max repeated, taking a moment to realize that she must have been talking about the investigation into Dagger. "Wait, what do you mean, it's been solved?"

"I mean Dagger's been caught! I guess one of our international ambassadors heard from someone overseas—the Renegades all the way over in Parlow City caught her and pillow-head guy trying to rob another convenience store! I guess they stowed away on a cargo boat that was heading in that direction, since they knew we were onto them here." She rolled her eyes, then punched her fist into the air. "Justice has been served! You can't evade the Renegades forever!"

Max stared at her, openmouthed. "When did this happen?" he asked.

"Oh, I only found out just now, but I heard it from Airlock, who heard it directly from Lingo—the ambassador who was talking to the Renegades in Parlow City. Apparently Airlock was supposed to pass on the message to our team as soon as possible, but then the Flamethrower attack happened and it kind of pushed it from his mind."

Max's head spun as he processed this information. This fake information. The Flamethrower attack had happened only one day after he'd met Dagger in the theater. She wouldn't have had time to board a cargo ship, sail across the ocean, and rob a convenience store all the way over in Parlow City in just a day, would she?

"So does that mean we're off for the rest of the day, until we get a new assignment?" Yearbook asked.

Windstorm nodded. "I'm hoping the Council will finally decide to add us to the Flamethrower investigation, especially now that the Bandit's run into him twice, but I don't see them getting around to giving us a new assignment today, with how busy they are."

"Honestly, they're probably even less likely to assign us to Flamethrower now, since us investigating Flamethrower could jeopardize The Bandit's safety," said Clout, with an apologetic look at Max. "Sorry, Max."

Max was barely paying attention. The case against Dagger was closed. He didn't need to worry about whether or not to tell his team that he knew where to find her, because they all believed that she had already been caught. He didn't have to betray Maggie's trust or lie to his team.

Except, wasn't it still lying to his team if he didn't speak up and tell them that what they all believed was most likely false?

"Well, if we're off for the rest of the day, I think I'm going to celebrate this case being over with some ice cream from the caf," Yearbook decided. "You all want to join me?"

"Absolutely!" said Windstorm.

"Sure," agreed Clout.

They all looked at Max, but he shook his head. "You guys go ahead. I've got some other stuff to work on," he mumbled.

Which is how he found himself pacing around the server room, after yet another unsuccessful attempt to glean information on Charlie Pinkerton. The search had proven to be a good distraction for maybe about five minutes before he'd given up once more and let himself get consumed by thoughts about all the secrets he was keeping.

He was keeping secret the fact that he knew where Dagger was, and that she hadn't been caught. He was keeping secret the fact that he knew—or, well, at least heavily suspected—that Maggie had been the one to break in and steal from the watch factory. And he was now keeping secret the fact that Nova and Maggie were probably sisters.

When exactly did he plan on telling them? And how? He'd started subtly laying the foundation for Nova that night on the roof, part of him maybe hoping that she'd come to the conclusion herself. But how could she? She was convinced her sister was dead, and probably had no idea that Maggie had become a prodigy as a result of being shot as a baby.

She and Maggie both deserved to know. But their mutual dislike for each other complicated matters. Would they be upset? Disappointed?

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening behind him. He turned around to see Adrian.

"Hey," Adrian greeted him with his usual easy smile.

"What's going on?" Max narrowed his eyes suspiciously. His family had been annoyingly protective of him lately, even while at Renegade Headquarters, which was without a doubt the safest place in the world for him to be.

Adrian looked affronted. "I can't say hi to my little brother?"

"How'd you know I was in here?"

"I ran into your teammates, and they said they thought you might be here."

"Aha. So you were looking for me."

"Yeah, I was." Adrian crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "Dad said tonight would be a good night to invite Magpie over for dinner, if it works for her. We're all off duty in the evening."

Max felt like something had just slammed into him. "To-tonight? Ask her over for dinner?"

Adrian seemed to be fighting back a smile. "Yeah. Dad and Pops want to thank her for what she did to help you in the fire, and ask her a few questions, remember? Only if she's comfortable, of course."

Max gulped, hoping Adrian couldn't hear how fast his heart was beating as he asked, "Is Nova going to be eating with us tonight?"

"Yeah, she said she—" Adrian broke off. "Oh. I get why you're asking. But don't worry about it. I'm sure she'll be polite. I…" He hesitated, looking minorly ashamed. "I might have told her about Magpie's role in helping you during the attack. I know you told us not to tell anyone, but I wanted Nova to—you know, maybe see her in a different light."

Max nodded, grateful that his brother, at least, was open-minded about Maggie. But Nova and Maggie's animosity toward each other wasn't at all the reason he was worried about them both being present at dinner.

"So," said Adrian, smiling once more. "What do you say?"

"Um," said Max, stalling for time as he tried to think about what he could say. "She—I don't really have a way of contacting her…"

"Well, you know where she lives, don't you?" asked Adrian. "We could walk down to the theater and see if she's there."

A spike of panic jolted through Max. Adrian knows about the theater? Had he accidentally let something slip? Did Adrian also know about Dagger, and how Max was covering for her, and how he'd just let his team believe she'd been caught when she hadn't really?

Adrian was laughing at his stunned expression. "Sampson told me you guys ran into her while running your investigation on the knife-blade kid, and that she's living in the old Starlight Theatre. Is that supposed to be a big secret or something?"

Max half-shrugged, relieved that it wasn't on account of him that Maggie's living arrangements had been leaked, but a little worried that Adrian might go over there sometime and discover that Max had withheld important information. He didn't think he could bear the disappointed look on his big brother's face if that ever happened.

Oh no—if Adrian knew where Maggie lived, chances were Hugh and Simon probably did too. And if they had questions to ask her about Flamethrower…

"I can go over and ask her about dinner," he found himself saying. "I'll go right now." Honestly, it would be nice to see her again, to check up on how she was doing after the trauma they'd both endured.

"Great," said Adrian. "I can draw us some bikes if we want to get there faster."

Max frowned. "You mean, you can draw me a bike?"

"No, I mean both of us." Adrian sighed. "Max… I know you don't like it, but Dad and Pops are really concerned about you going around the city by yourself. At least if I'm with you, I can, you know…"

Max let out a frustrated huff. As much as he hated to admit it, Adrian was right. Max by himself was powerless against Flamethrower. Adrian, with his ability to draw anything he wanted into existence, plus all the additional powers he'd given himself through tattoos, stood much more of a chance.

But what about Maggie? If Flamethrower saw Max and Adrian leaving HQ and decided to follow them, he'd be led straight to her theater.

Max groaned and slumped down in one of the chairs. "I hate this," he muttered. "It's just like back when I was a prodigy. No matter where I go or what I do, I'm always putting other people in danger."

Adrian was by his side so quickly it was almost as if he'd obtained Sterling's power of super-speed. "No," he said, placing a hand firmly on Max's shoulder. "You're not. Everyone's in danger anyway. We don't know when Flamethrower will attack next or who his targets will be. But whatever he does is not your fault."

"It is if I lead him directly to Maggie's door," Max mumbled.

Adrian listed his head thoughtfully. "I think I have a solution to that," he said.

Twenty minutes later, they were walking quickly down the busy street, both garbed in the nondescript hoodies and black-and-white Dread Warden masks that Adrian had drawn to conceal their identities. Although the general populace's fascination with superheroes had dwindled a bit now that everyone was a superhero, it still wasn't uncommon to see people wearing Council-themed memorabilia— especially with Supernova Day so quickly approaching. Nobody on the street gave either one of them a second glance.

Still, Max's insides were twisting with anxiety. What if someone did recognize them? What if Flamethrower had people all over the city who were secretly working for him, and would report a tall, muscular, dark-skinned boy and a short, skinny pale-skinned kid who'd walked out of HQ together and were heading toward the more run-down section of town?

For that matter, what was going to happen when they arrived at the theater? Adrian would probably want to accompany Max inside, but Maggie would definitely not be pleased to see him there. And bringing Adrian anywhere near that place would run the risk of him seeing Dagger…

Thinking about Dagger reminded Max yet again of all the secrets he was keeping, and his stomach churned violently. He didn't want to keep secrets from Adrian. He didn't want to keep secrets from anyone.

But Adrian knew what it was like to keep secrets…

"Adrian?" Max spoke up as they turned down Earl Street.

"Yeah?"

"When you were the Sentinel… I mean, back when no one knew you were the Sentinel… you kept stuff secret from your team, right? Like, obviously your identity, but also, if there were things you learned as the Sentinel that Sketch wouldn't know, you couldn't share that with people, right?"

Adrian made a small "hm" noise in thought. "There were definitely things I couldn't tell people, but that I wanted to tell them. Like the time Frostbite's team framed the Sentinel for torturing and killing that villain, Hawthorn—remember that? I was there trying to stop them, and they pinned everything on me, making me out to be some sort of brutal killing machine. Great skies, that made me so mad."

Max nodded. He did remember the incident Adrian was talking about. He supposed that Adrian not telling the Renegades about Frostbite's team was kind of similar to him not telling them about Dagger, except that what Frostbite's team had done was a lot worse.

He wanted to ask more questions, questions about keeping secrets and protecting friends, but he didn't want Adrian getting suspicious about why he was asking, so he stayed quiet.

Eventually they reached the road that housed the theater, and Max stopped abruptly. "You stay here," he instructed Adrian. "I'll go in alone."

Adrian's face was hidden behind the domino mask, but Max could sense his hesitation. "She was pretty upset when my team found this place. She doesn't like people knowing where she lives. Seeing you would just—" He broke off, noticing a young woman standing nearby and seemingly listening to their conversation. "Do you need something?" he asked.

"What? Oh, no." She hurried away, in the direction Max and Adrian had come from, and Max squinted suspiciously after her, his unease increasing. Was she a spy for Flamethrower? Had she recognized him?

"I don't know if this is a good idea," Max confessed. "Maybe we should just—"

A jet of water soared straight through the eye hole of his mask. He yelped and pulled the mask off so he could press a hand to his eye.

"Thought that was you," came a kid's cheery voice from somewhere to his right.

Max turned, still rubbing his eye, and saw the mischievous-faced boy who'd been with Maggie and Dagger the last time he'd come to the theater. The boy raised his hand and pointed at Adrian's face, sending a stream of water out of his pointer finger and through Adrian's left eye hole.

"Hey, cut that out!" Max protested. "We're not here for any bad reason, okay? We just came to—" He broke off, feeling awkward about admitting he was there to ask Maggie over for dinner.

"To?" the boy prompted, returning his water-hose fingers to Max's face.

"To… see Maggie," Max answered, his cheeks flushing. "Is she here?"

The boy was eyeing Adrian distrustfully. "Who's that?"

"That's my brother," said Max. "Maggie knows him too." It was kind of a stretch, but not a complete lie. Maggie and Adrian had run into each other from time to time back when Maggie was a Renegade.

Adrian took off his mask, and the boy's eyes widened in surprise and recognition. "You're—"

"Yeah, he is, but we're trying to go incognito here, in case you couldn't tell," Max interrupted, gesturing to the masks. He cast another nervous glance around.

"We're probably okay now," said Adrian. "The disguises were really only important as we were leaving HQ and while we were in the more populated section of town. If he's watching us here, it's because he already knows who we are."

Sometimes Max envied his older brother's confidence. Of course, Adrian's powers and tattoos gave him reasons for such confidence, but still. Even back when Max had possessed multiple superpowers, he had never been as self-assured as his brother.

The younger boy was frowning. "Who are you trying to—oh." Comprehension dawned on his face. "Flamethrower?"

Max and Adrian nodded.

"I heard about what happened to you," the boy said to Max. "I'm really glad you're okay. I—" He cast a glance around, then stepped a little closer and lowered his voice, as if divulging some scandalous secret. "I really don't like that guy at all. He freaks me out. This—" he squirted a small jet of water a few inches into the air from his pinky "—won't really do much against what he can do." He looked up at Adrian and opened his mouth, then hesitated and closed it, looking down and scuffing the crumbling pavement with his feet. "Um… yeah, let me go get Maggie for you. I'll tell her you guys are here." He turned and started jogging down the road, but he hadn't gotten very far before Maggie stepped out from an alleyway, her face contorted into a scowl.

She's okay, Max thought, a small measure of his anxiety dissipating as he noted that her face, which had been caked in blood the last time he'd seen her, only held a few small scars now. He hadn't realized how concerned he'd been about her until just now.

"What are you doing here, Sketch?" she addressed Adrian, her tone bordering on combative.

"Oh! Maggie, um, I was just going to go get you and tell you these two were here…" stammered the water-squirting boy.

Maggie cast him a withering glare. "I already knew they were here. Zoridel told me. My question is why." She locked eyes with Max, and Max thought he could detect a hint of fear there, beneath her tough façade.

"We came to invite you over for dinner," he blurted. "My dads and Adrian—they wanted to thank you for, you know, what you did that day in the fire." It was only after the words were out of his mouth that he remembered how Maggie had expressly told him not to tell anyone she'd been there. "They were the only ones I told," he added hurriedly. "I promise. I didn't tell anyone from the media or anything like that, but I'd told my dads that I was with a friend, and then when I said you'd recognized Flamethrower as someone who used to be a Renegade, they wanted to know how you would have known, so… yeah. I told them it was you. But none of us have told anyone else." Except Nova, he thought. He'd probably be better off keeping that part to himself.

Maggie's expression was unreadable. Was she angry that Max had told his family about her role in his rescue? Was she relieved that Adrian wasn't here to arrest her for harboring a known criminal? Was she worried that his family might have ulterior motives for inviting her over?

She flicked her gaze toward Adrian again, and Max could sense that his presence was making her uneasy. She shifted her weight from one leg to the other, clasping her hands behind her, clearly making a conscious effort to appear nonchalant and relaxed—and failing miserably.

Max sighed. He didn't really want to admit to Maggie that Adrian was there as some kind of glorified babysitter/bodyguard for him, since that was kind of humiliating. But it was better for him to be humiliated in front of a girl he—well, a girl he was friends with, than for Maggie to think Adrian was there for a more sinister reason.

"He didn't want me walking across the city by myself," he muttered, jerking a thumb in Adrian's direction. "You know, since I'm supposedly a target now. Crazy overprotective."

Maggie's posture relaxed ever so slightly, but she still didn't say anything. Eventually, the younger boy spoke up tentatively. "If you don't want to, I'll take them up on dinner at Captain Chromium's house."

His words seemed to jolt Maggie out of whatever she'd been mulling over. She gave him another glare and slugged him in the shoulder. "Shut up, Chester. Why are you even still here? Go do something useful for once." She turned back to Max and Adrian and put on a bright, but surely fake, smile. "Dinner sounds great. Let's go."