Renegades

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes depictions of violence, including violence and abuse toward children.

The narrator—presumably the protagonist, Nova—explains that “prodigies,” or people with superpowers, were once hunted and persecuted because of their supernatural abilities. However, everything changed when her uncle, Ace Anarchy, united the prodigies and tore down the world, destroying governments and social systems in the name of justice for his people. Ace and his Anarchists did not bother to rebuild the world, so while some governments cooperated with their demands, others did not, and widespread violence was the ultimate result. Gatlon City was cut off from the rest of the world for 20 years while civil war raged. This period was subsequently called the Age of Anarchy. Eventually, a group of superheroes calling themselves the Renegades rose up against the Anarchists and promised to clean up the world and change it forever.

Ten years prior to the main events of the novel, a young Nova Artino collects syringes to build a makeshift elevator in her dollhouse, using principles of hydraulics. She hears her feverish sister, Evie, crying in a nearby room and wonders when her family will be able to get medicine from her Uncle Alec, who keeps them supplied with necessities as much as he can.