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Difference between revisions of "Summary:Steelheart"
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;Characters: David's Father, [[Steelheart (Epic)|Steelheart]], [[Deathpoint]], [[Faultline]]
== Part One ==
=== Chapter 1 ===
10 years later, David hurries through the understreets of Newcago, which is in perpetual darkness thanks to [[Nightwielder]]. He climbs up some stairs to the overstreets, coming out near the Reeve Playhouse. Quickly ducking into an alleyway, he starts to watch the Playhouse. He's relieved when people start pouring out, indicating he was on time, with a play having just finished. [[Fortuity]], a [[High Epic]] with precognition powers, walks out of the building, dressed in a red suit with a cape and with a woman on each arm. David waits impatiently, based on intelligence from an informant named [[Bilko]], expecting the [[Reckoners]], a resistance group dedicated to killing Epics, to attempt to kill Fortuity. David's musings are interrupted when a woman in a red dress approaches Fortuity, distracting him from his present company and seemingly encouraging him to join her at a nearby dance club. The woman leads him towards a dark, empty alley which would serve as a shortcut to the dance clubs, when [[Donny Harrison|Curveball]], an epic whose guns never run out of ammo, interrupts them. As he keeps on gesturing back to the Playhouse, David guesses that Curveball is summoning Fortuity, and that if Fortuity went with Curveball, it would ruin the Reckoners plans. Not wanting to miss the opportunity of meeting the Reckoners, he decides to help out.
=== Chapter 2 ===
David runs up to the two epics and the woman and pretends to have been sent by Spritzer, the man who runs the playhouse. He tells Curveball that Spritzer said to call him back, to not bother Fortuity. They believe David and so David starts walking to the Playhouse with Curveball. Curveball asks David which team he's in, and David gives him a name of a known team leader, [[Eddie Macano]], unaware that Curveball had witnessed his death the week before.
=== Chapter 3 ===
David flees as Curveball draws a handgun and starts shooting at him, until Fortuity tells him to stop. Fortuity is in handcuffs, as part of the Reckoner's trap. [[Megan Tarash]], the woman in the red dress, shoots Curveball and draws her weapon on David, but he convinces her that he is not with the Elics. Megan radios [[Tia]] to blow up the Reeve Playhouse, and she does, then tells David to stay where he is. The Reckoners set off a series of bombs to lead Fortuity into their trap. As Megan chases Fortuity, some thugs with machine guns appear, aiming at Megan. David draws his rifle and aims at them.
=== Chapter 4 ===
David kills three of the thugs with three shots, but the fourth thug escapes. David then catches up with Megan, who is pursuing Fortuity, and takes a shot but misses, and tries to have Megan help him lead Fortuity into a checkmate scenario which would nullify his Epic power. David steals a car and tries to stop Fortuity from escaping Megan but he shows superhuman reflexes by leaping onto the windshield then off the back of the moving car. David stops the car, and Fortuity returns to go after David, but he is shot in the chest.
=== Chapter 5 ===
Fortuity falls dead from a bullet wound. David realizes that Megan fired both his rifle and her pistol at the same time, cutting off Fortuity's path of escape somehow and nullifying his power. A dozen thugs show up, firing uzis and forcing Megan and David to take cover in the car. Megan throws a grenade disguised as a tube of lipstick at them, injuring some, and giving them time to escape. They encounter a garbage truck driven by a Reckoner, [[Prof]], and Megan and David get onboard. There are three other Reckoners beside the driver: [[Abraham]], [[Cody]], and Tia. As they ride along, the Reckoners debrief Megan. They abandon the garbage truck since it is now compromised. They enter the understreets and weave along a circuitous route for an hour to make sure they are not being followed, then stop to confront David.
=== Chapter 6 ===
The Reckoners submit David to scan and blood tests to verify that he is not an Epic. They then interrogate David about how he learned how they were going to take down Fortuity, and he explains that he used rumors and logic. David then tells them that he was there to join the Reckoners, but they tell him that they aren't recruiting and that they don't want to see him again, and Prof says they are just killing Epics, not changing the world.
=== Chapter 7 ===
As the Reckoners walk away, David shouts at them that they are negligent and cowards for not going after the upper echelon Epics like Steelheart, but they ignore him. He then says that he saw Steelheart bleed, and this gives them pause. David tells the story of the day he met Steelheart in full detail, which he had never revealed before due to the deadly secret that it contained. The Reckoners discuss his story and decide that it fits with what they know of events from that day. They interrogate David further and he deduces their next target, which impresses and alarms them. Prof changes plans and tells his team that they will instead remain in Newcago, in a safehouse known as [[Hole Fourteen]]. During the discussion, David realizes Prof's identity: Jonathan Phaedrus, the founder of the Reckoners.
=== Chapter 8 ===
As they walk to the safehouse, Prof tired of David's constant questions, and tells Megan to keep an eye on him while the others walk ahead of them.
David tries unsuccessfully to flirt with her, and she refuses to reveal any top secret information about the Reckoners, but she does ask questions about his life and background and about the Newcago area. David mentions that he left notebooks filled with his research on Epics and the Reckoners in his flat, and Megan realizes that the woman whose car he stole could identify him to [[Enforcement]], which could compromise all of them.
=== Chapter 9 ===
Prof orders Cody and Abraham to blow up David's flat before Enforcement can get their hands on the notebooks, but David argues successfully that there is valuable intelligence that will help their own mission. Prof orders Megan and Cody to accompany David to retrieve the notebooks if it is safe, or destroy them otherwise.
They arrive near his flat, and Megan suspects a trap, which David confirms when he spies a shimmering garbage bin that is an illusion created by an Epic named [[Refractionary]]. David convinces them to ignore Prof's orders and retrieve the notebooks despite the trap. David tells them he has a smoke grenade in his flat that he can use to neutralize Refractionary's powers, and that he will spring the trap.
=== Chapter 10 ===
David enters his flat, which he intentionally leaves messy to make himself appear as a lazy teenager, and retrieves an emergency backpack and his notebooks. He wonders if he should have brought these items along when he went to meet the Reckoners. Three Enforcement officers, of a standard core of five including a sniper and epic, run into the flat to arrest David. David explains that he was just following Fortuity out of curiousity but is told that he is in trouble due to the death of the Epic. The officers rifle through David's possessions and find his notebooks. David recognizes the voice of [[Roy]], one of the officers who worked in the same munitions factory as David, and Roy vouches for David's "hobby" of following the exploits of Epics. Cody shoots two of the officers, fatally wounding one, and David shoots Roy in the legs to incapacitate but not kill. David deduces that the sniper is already dead. David sets off his smoke grenade but it doesn't have any effect since Refractionary isn't inside the flat. He takes Roy's cell phone and dials Refractionary's phone number from the contacts list, and this enables Megan to locate and kill the invisible Epic.
=== Chapter 11 ===
David checks on the Enforcement officers, then retrieves his notebooks, and his folders on Steelheart, Nightwielder, [[Firefight]] and [[Conflux]]. Roy says that David is working for the Reckoners, but David makes up a cover story about working for an Epic named Limelight who is coming to take over Newcago from Steelheart, and that Roy should leave his job while it is safe to do so. David sets his bed on fire and leaves to escape with Cody and Megan as Enforcement helicopters arrive on the scene. Megan berates David for leaving the two officers alive but he explains that they will throw their superiors off their trail with his cover story, and Cody agrees that they aren't the real enemy.
David removes the battery from his cell phone as a precaution at the advice of Cody, who doesn't trust the [[Knighthawk Foundry]]. As they return to the safehouse, Cody and David speculate about Prof's background prior to the rise of [[Calamity]]. Cody tells David about their protective jackets and the [[tensors]] that Prof developed after experimenting on Epics that allows them to disintegrate non-organic materials. They arrive at the safehouse and Prof seizes David's notebooks to assess their value.
=== Chapter 12 ===
Cody and Tia express admiration for David's research notes, and Tia inquires about his methods of classification, commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of his system. Cody comments that David needs to have a life outside of killing Epics, but Prof disagrees with this sentiment. They debate about whether attacking low-level Epics like Fortuity really achieves anything. Tia inquires about a unique photograph of Nightwielder appearing corporeal while in daylight standing next to Steelheart on the [[Day of Annexation]].
David claims they can defeat Steelheart but Megan argues that it would be impossible. Prof interjects and tells them to go with him, and leads them to a room where a device called an imager shows a projected view of Newcago on the wall, and tells David that if he wants them to execute his plan, that he would have to persuade Megan that it is doable.
=== Chapter 13 ===
Megan and Cody raise several important obstacles to defeating Steelheart, including the difficulty in locating him, and his array of abilities. David says that one part of his plan is luring Steelheart into a duel, which would resolve the issue of finding him. He then states that he would take out Enforcement by going after their leader, Conflux, who is a [[gifter]] that uses his abilities to power the officers' power suits and weapons. They pause their meeting to watch Reinforcement, a pre-recorded daily broadcast by Steelheart. They watch as a video plays showing Steelheart blowing up several inhabited buildings with energy blasts. The video motivates Prof to agree to David's plan.
== Part Two ==
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