Maggie walked the streets of Gatlin City sour-faced and grumpy. Stupid Renegades and their silly parade, she thought as she turned on to a road full of crumbling buildings. One year after The Supernova and the city was still wrought with scars from The Age of Anarchy; this is why I need to find the helmet, she thought, to restore order to the city. Magpie bumped into something, shaking her from her thoughts. Hugh Everhart, better known as Captain Chromium, was standing before her; he was the one who took her from the orphanage and gave her a place amongst the Renegades.
“M-Magpie! Just the person I was looking for.”
Hugh Everhart said with a nervous smile.
“Captain?” Maggie said, wondering why he was
looking for her.
“We found your sister--” Magpie cut him off.
“Take me to her!” she said without hesitation. The
Captain led the way to Renegades H.Q.
Back at H.Q., Nova paced the
length of the lobby, consumed by her thoughts; Her sister was alive! Little
Evie was alive! She could hardly believe it.
“Hey Nova, how are you holding up?” Adrian asked.
“Just nervous, scared, and overthinking
everything,” she said with a nervous laugh. Adrian stopped Nova’s pacing. He
knew full well that Evie was Magpie; he was a bit scared too. His thoughts were
interrupted by the opening of the door. Maggie and Hugh entered the room.
“Well,” Magpie turned to face Captain Chromium,
“where is she?” She asked
“Meet your sister, Nova.” Both Nova’s and Evie’s
face turn from confusion to hatred, loathing, and disgust.
“Her!” the girls said in
unison. Nova turned on Adrian.
“Did you know about this?”
she glared at him.
“I-Ummmm…” Adrian fumbled
with the right words.
“You did, you knew!” Nova
turned and stormed out of the room.
Evie sighed. “Her? Really?”
she said with obvious annoyance in her tone. She shoved Hugh and Adrian past;
she just needed to be alone.
“That went well,” Hugh said
sarcastically
Nova went to Callum’s grave
to think about what had just happened.
“H-Hey Callum,” Nova choked
out with tears in her eyes. “So I just met my sister,” Nova whispered; he was always
a good listener. She sat there sobbing, wishing that he was still alive.
“Magpie, my sister, is
Magpie,” Nova let out a hysterical laugh. She remembered all the night she
thought about Evie, poor little innocent Evie. She would put the baby to sleep,
the baby that she left behind when the murderer came to her house. Was this all
her fault? One mistake in her life, one thousand regrets.
“Oh, Callum, help
me...please!” she breathed. She had to make it right. She was getting a second
chance that wouldn’t go to waste! Nova sets off to apologize to Adrian and find
Evie to make amends.
Magpie stormed down the
streets of Gatlin. Nova of all the people Nova was her sister. All those years,
waiting for some sister to come that never would. Maggie was done waiting; why
should she? Her entire life, she had waited, waited for a sister that would
never show up. Maggie waited to be noticed by someone; she waited and waited
and waited. She went to the catacombs to find Ace Anarchy’s helmet. She
was done with this dense city and its stupid rules. If Nova was indeed her
sister, that meant Ace Anarchy was her uncle. The helmet was her birth-right!
Maggie went straight to work to unbury her uncle’s helmet.
Adrian knew that he messed
up; he should have told Nova beforehand.
“Hey-hey Max…” Adrian tried
to sound upbeat, but he failed.
“What’s wrong?” Max asked.
Adrian was happy that he had his adoptive brother. Max was very mature for his
age. I guess being trapped in a glass quarantine your entire life can do that
to you.
“It’s just that we found
Nova’s sister,” Adrian said with a sigh.
“Really! Well, that’s great!
Who is it? Max asked.
“Magpie,” Adrian said,
mentally preparing himself for Max’s response.
“Oh…” Max winced, “how did
that go down?”
Adrian was thankful for
Max’s level-headedness. He observed his younger brother, his hair was getting
longer, and he would need new clothes soon.
“Not well,” Adrian said
honestly. “Nova left, and now I can’t find her.”
Max nodded sagely, “Give her
time, this is a tremendous change in her life, and Nova will need time to mull
things over.”
Adrian let out a shaky
breath, “O-Okay, Okay.”
Max put a hand on his older
brother’s shoulder. “It will all work out in the end.” Just then, there was a
knock on the door.
“I’ll get it,” Max says,
standing up.
“I-is Adrian here?” Nova
asks with an uneasy smile. Max nods and lets her in.
“I’m--” Nova was cut off by
Adrian hugging her.
“No, I’m sorry, Nova, I
should have told you,” Adrian says, breaking apart from the hug.
“I should have acted more
mature; it’s not your fault Magpie is Evie.” Nova said sincerely, “Have you
seen her?”
“Not since H.Q.,” Adrian
said, “maybe Ruby has?” he added.
“I’ll call her,” Nova said.
She turned to call Ruby.
“She said that Evie was heading
toward the catacombs under the cathedral and that she will meet us there.”
“Why would she be going to
the catacombs?” Max asked.
“The helmet!” Adrian and
Nova said in unison.
Back in the catacombs,
Evie found the helmet. She held it in her hands. The coppery gold material gave
off light casting an eerie glow on the skulls that surrounded her.
“It’s finally mine,” she
whispered to herself, as an evil grin spread across her face.
Nova, Adrian, and Max
sprinted to meet Ruby.
Panting and out of breath,
“We’re here,” Max said. Ruby nodes. As they enter the catacombs, an air of
foreboding settles in the pit of their stomachs.
“When we see Evie, let me do
the talking,” Nova said, her voice barely a whisper. Just then, a loud crash
followed by a cacophony of toppling bones. Ruby, Max, Adrian, and Nova sprinted
towards the sound. Evie, Evie, Evie, echoed in Nova’s thoughts. She was going
to get her family back, and Nova wasn’t going to lose Evie again. The sounds of
the gunshots echoed in her head; her family’s killer appeared in her vision.
She ran faster!
Suddenly they found themself
floating in mid-air.
“Well, well, well,” Evie
says condescendingly. She stepped out of the dust, her face shadowed by the
helmet.
“Evie,” Nova said in
disbelief.
“No!” Maggie yelled as she
threw Nova across the room. Adrian managed to reach the zipper tattoo on his
chest and transform into The Sentinel. Nova lay in a crumpled heap on the
floor.
“Listen, Evie,” she croaked
out as blood trickled down her chin. Magpie lifted a boulder and hovered it
dangerously close to Nova.
“I’m not Evie; I was never
your little sister…” Maggie said calmly, as she slowly lowered the boulder as
if taunting her. Ruby flung her bloodstone toward Maggie catching her wrist.
“Stop!” Ruby declared.
Magpie let out a cackle.
“Why should I?” She said, lowering the boulder a couple of inches. Nova let out
a frightened whimper.
“Oh, does this scare you,
Nova? Good! You deserve it. I am going to put you through so much pain and
suffering before I kill you!”
This wasn’t what Nova was
expecting; to be honest, Nova wasn’t sure what she was expecting. Evie let out
an uncontrollable cackle. Nova had to find a way to have her listen to reason.
“Evie…” Nova croaked out in
one last desperate attempt to talk to her sister.
“I! AM! NOT! EVIE!” Maggie
screeched as she dropped the boulder.
“No!” Adrian cried out. In
the nick of time, Max pulled Nova out from under the boulder.
“You’re going to be okay,
you’re going to be okay,” Max said, reassuring himself more than Nova.
“Evie?” was all Nova could
manage. Max glanced back to see Adrian firing up his concussive energy beam.
“She will be alright, but we
need to get you out of here,” Max called for Ruby’s help. Together they
stumbled out of the catacombs.
“No...I...Help…” Nova
pleaded weakly. Ruby shushed her and ran back to the fight with Max. They
weren’t just going to leave me here, were they? Nova thought as she tried to
stand. This was her sister, her fight. She had to go back there, internal
bleeding or not. Nova stumbled forward. I have to get to her. She thought as
she fought through the pain. She crawled forward, reaching the battle.
“Stop! Please, we don’t have
to fight!” Ruby yelled as the battle raged on. Magpie collapsed onto the
ground. A wave of confusion went around the room until they spotted Nova
grasping Maggie’s ankle. Adrian un-transformed, and they all rushed over to Nova
and Magpie.
“H-hey,” Nova said with a
weak smile. She wished that she could fall asleep at that moment. Adrian
swooped down and cradled her in his arms.
“We need to get you to the
healers,” He whispers into Nova’s ear; She nods and closes her eyes. Ruby
scoops up Maggie; they rush off to the Renegades healing center.
Maggie’s eyes fluttered
open, a lady with bubblegum pink hair rushed around the room collecting data
and fiddling with equipment.
“What happened?” Magpie
asked.
“Well, Evie--” he starts to
say before Maggie cuts her off.
“Maggie or Magpie, if you
want to be formal, then Margaret White. Not Evie!” Maggie said with a
determined scowl.
“Okay then, Maggie, you got
into a fight with some fellow Renegades, and Nova used her power to put you to
sleep!” the lady said with a chipper voice. Magpie scoffed at the name Nova.
“What’s your name anyway?”
She said, blowing hair out of her face.
“Sanna,” Said Sanna. Just
then, there was a knock at the door. Sanna went over to answer it. Maggie strained
her ears to hear. She caught words like Patient and Doing great and visitors
and worst of all, Nova. Nova walked into the room. She seemed timid and
shy, which wasn’t like her at all.
“Hey Ev-- Magpie,” Nova
corrected herself. Maggie cocked one eyebrow and folded her arms over her
chest. What does she want, Maggie thought.
“I--” Nova stilled herself
and prepared for what was going to happen, “I am sorry! I’m sorry for leaving
you behind all those years ago,” Nova seemed truly sincere.
“Yeah, well, I’m sorry for
almost killing you,” Magpie said. Nova chuckled but with no heart in it.
“The healers work pretty
well, don’t they,” Magpie said, trying to lighten the mood.
“Yeah, they said give it
another day or two, and I will be up and running again,” Nova agreed. Maggie
nodded. They sat there in awkward silence until visiting hours were over.
Instant regret followed
Maggie; she wished she hadn’t dug up that stupid helmet in the first place.
Magpie wished that families weren’t so burdensome. That’s what they were a
family. Evie shot up from the bed and ran out to follow Nova.
“Wait!” She called out. Nova
stopped and turned around; Evie thrust her arms around Nova in a hug.
“Nova, I am sorry. I spent
all those years in the orphanage waiting for a sister, for-for you, and as soon
as you come around, I try to kill you.” Nova shushed Evie
“I am just glad that you are
here, and I hope that we can put this mess behind us and try to be a family,”
As Nova spoke, Evie melted. She felt five years old again.
“Of course,” Evie breaths.
“I may be a bit of a
neophyte at this whole family thing, though,” Nova said jokingly.
“Well, I guess, family is
family, and there is nothing that you can do about it,” Evie says with a smile.
