Firefight recap

With Steelheart dead, Epics keep arriving in Newcago to test the Reckoners, and the team works out that they are being sent by Regalia, a High Epic ruling the flooded ruin of Manhattan, now called Babilar. Prof takes David and Tia east to deal with her. Babilar is a drowned city of glowing fruit and fatalistic people, run by an Epic who can appear through any standing water, and David soon finds Megan there working for her. While the team hunts Regalia's lieutenants and the city-destroying Epic Obliteration prepares to incinerate Babilar, David works out that Megan's power is broader than resurrection and that an Epic who faces their deepest fear can use their abilities without being corrupted. Regalia's real plan proves to be her own succession: she is dying, and she manoeuvres Prof into using his powers under desperate emotional pressure so that he will fall. He does. Regalia dies, Babilar is saved, Obliteration escapes, and Prof turns on the Reckoners, leaving David determined to redeem him rather than kill him.

Previously: about a decade ago a red star called Calamity appeared in the sky and ordinary people began gaining superhuman powers. Almost every one of them used those powers to rule or destroy, and they became known as Epics. Chicago became Newcago, a steel city held under permanent artificial night by the High Epic Steelheart. David Charleston, whose father Steelheart killed in front of him, joined the Reckoners, the only organisation that assassinates Epics, and helped them kill Steelheart by working out that he could not be harmed by anyone who did not fear him. In the process David learned two secrets. The Reckoners' leader, Prof, is himself an Epic, whose forcefield, healing and matter-manipulation powers are lent to the team through equipment, and who avoids using them because Epic powers corrupt whoever uses them. And David's teammate Megan is an Epic who returns to life after being killed; she left after Steelheart fell. The Reckoners have since held Newcago against a stream of Epics arriving to claim it.

Newcago is now a city the Reckoners defend rather than infiltrate, and they spend their time killing the Epics who keep arriving to test it. David has become a capable field operative and helps bring down an Epic who fights as living electricity, working out what makes her vulnerable. It becomes clear that the stream of attackers is not coincidence: they are being sent, and the sender is Regalia, a High Epic who rules the drowned remains of Manhattan, now called Babilar. Prof decides to take a small team east to deal with her before she escalates. David goes with them, partly out of duty and largely because he believes Megan is there.

Babilar is nothing like Newcago. The sea covers the streets, people live in the upper floors of the towers and travel by boat, fruit grows on the buildings and glows at night, and the population is relaxed to the point of fatalism about the Epic who rules them. Prof, David and Tia link up with the local Reckoner cell, led by Val with Exel, Sam and the young demolitions specialist Mizzy, who resent being taken over by outsiders. Regalia can appear through any standing water, so nothing the team does is private, and she speaks to David directly, apparently entertained by him. The local cell takes losses early. David finds Megan in the city, working for Regalia, and begins meeting her in secret instead of reporting her.

The team works through Regalia's lieutenants while she watches them do it, and the operations cost the Babilar cell dearly. David keeps meeting Megan, who insists she cannot be saved and that using her power always drags her toward cruelty, while he argues that the corruption is tied to fear rather than to the power itself. He is increasingly convinced that his own theory is testable. Meanwhile Obliteration, an Epic who destroys whole cities and believes he is carrying out a judgement, is in Babilar and is being allowed to prepare something. Prof is using his own powers more often than he should, and Tia is openly worried about what it is doing to him.

The team goes after Newton, an Epic who reflects any force used against her back on the attacker, and the operation is expensive. David works out that Megan's ability is not simply returning from death: she can briefly pull objects and people across from other versions of reality, and she grows stronger the more she accepts what frightens her rather than fleeing it. Acting on that, Megan begins using her power without losing herself, which is the first hard evidence for David's argument that an Epic can be redeemed. At the same time it becomes clear that Regalia is not actually trying to kill the Reckoners, and that everything she has done in the city has been arranged for some other purpose.

Regalia's plan becomes clear. She is dying and wants a successor, and she has spent the book manoeuvring Prof into situations where he must use his powers under emotional pressure, because that is what makes an Epic surrender to the corruption. She intends him to fall and to inherit her city. Obliteration, meanwhile, has been gathering heat long enough to destroy Babilar and everyone in it. The Reckoners are left holding two crises at once with the local cell badly reduced, and David and Prof are increasingly at odds over whether Epics can be saved at all, with Megan as the case David keeps pointing to and Prof keeps refusing to look at.

The source of Babilar's glowing fruit and luminous murals is found: a hidden Epic whose power has quietly been feeding and lighting the city for years, which is exactly the kind of Epic David has been arguing must exist. The endgame then arrives on Regalia's terms. Obliteration turns loose the heat he has accumulated and the city has to be saved from being incinerated, while Regalia engineers the moment she has been building toward, putting David in a position where Prof must use his abilities at full strength, under desperate emotional pressure, to save him from drowning.

Regalia dies having got what she wanted: Prof saves David and gives in to the corruption that comes with using his powers that way. Obliteration's attack on Babilar is stopped and the city survives, but he escapes rather than dying. Megan, who has learned to use her ability by facing her fears instead of avoiding them, is fully back with David and their relationship is settled. Prof, now a fallen Epic and among the most powerful alive, turns on the Reckoners and breaks with them, leaving the organisation shattered and David, Megan, Tia and Mizzy holding what remains. David refuses to accept that Prof is lost, since Megan is proof that an Epic can face the fear the power feeds on and come back; the objective from here is to recover Prof rather than to kill him.

Regalia gets exactly what she was working toward and then dies. Her design was never to kill the Reckoners: she was dying, and she wanted a successor, so she engineered a situation in which Prof had to use his powers at full strength under extreme emotional pressure in order to save David from drowning. He does, and he gives in to the corruption that comes with them. Obliteration's attempt to destroy Babilar with the heat he has spent the book gathering is stopped and the city survives, but he escapes rather than dying. Megan, who has learned to use her ability by confronting what frightens her instead of avoiding it, is fully back on David's side, and their relationship is settled. Prof, now a fallen Epic and one of the most powerful alive, turns on the Reckoners and breaks with them, leaving the organisation shattered and David, Megan, Tia and Mizzy holding what is left of it. David refuses to accept that Prof is beyond recovery: Megan is his proof that an Epic can face the fear the power feeds on and come back from it, and the next book's objective is to do the same for Prof rather than to kill him.