by R. J. Ross
Phoebe Woods is coming to Missouri for a special filming set in a haunted hotel.
***
*That Afternoon*
I can't focus. I was going to brainstorm out some ideas for the graduation gig, but all I've managed to do is stare at the wall for half an hour. I get up, heading for the computer desk on the other side of my room. I drop down in my chair and pull up the Internet, logging into the Hall and bringing up the information I've known since I was six.
Well, sure, it's changed a bit--she's moved to a new house in the suburbs and they got a cat. I've never had a pet. I mean, sure, I could get one. The Liberty boys have that drooling abomination for a pet, I'm sure I could find some other experimental creature, but I don't spend enough time home for it to be smart, no one does. Even now Dad is working at the Hall, searching for any signs of the escaped convicts. I should be doing the same, since my brainstorming isn't working. Instead, I'm bringing up my mother's home on satellite.
There's a blue mini-van pulling into the drive, two kids getting out of the back, and the woman that gave birth to me getting out of the driver's seat. I have siblings. They're norms, and they don't know about me, I'm sure. I've got a step-dad that works at a phone company. I doubt he knows about me, either. In fact, sometimes I wonder if Dad didn't wipe my mother's memory of me, as well. I would have.
That sounds terrible, doesn't it? All of this is terrible. I'm spying on a family right now. Don't worry, I can't see what happens inside the house, but I can see the house. I can see them coming and going, I can see what they carry. That tells me what they've been doing. Right now the girl has a basketball under her arm and is wearing an orange shirt. They're coming back from their local YMCA. I went to the last game to see if she played. Nobody noticed me, because I dressed in civvies and stayed to the back.
The boy is about ten, two or three years younger than his sister. He looks absolutely nothing like me. I look a lot like Dad, thin and sharp, with dark eyes and black hair. This kid has brown hair, blue eyes, and is leaning to chubby. The girl looks like our mother--which means if someone was really looking closely, they might see a hint of a resemblance.
I shut the window, shoving away from the desk and looking up at the ceiling. The screen blinks and I look over as Dad's face appears on my monitor. "Max, I'm not going to be back until this weekend. That won't be a problem, will it?"
"No, it's fine. I've got to come up with a handful of plans by this weekend, I probably won't be here much, either," I tell him.
"Different plans?" he asks.
"I've got to pull off a job big enough to go viral internationally if I'm going to graduate," I say. "Didn't Nico tell you?"
"That's quite a task," he says.
"Yeah," I say.
"I can talk with him--"
"Panther's going to be helping me," I say. "Dad, Zoe--" I start out, only to stop myself.
"Zoe?"
"Won't be making it to our next dinner," I say, instead.
"That's a shame. I was looking forward to it."
"Yeah, me too," I say before hanging up. If I can't pull this off, how will I ever pull off taking over part of the Hall? That's why I'm sort of doubting the Phoebe Woods idea is going to work. No, I need something big, something over the top. It needs to be in Central, since that's my territory, which limits it somewhat (although I cheat when it's a sports thing. I owe all of the other Hall leaders a debt at the moment, ALL of them.) Politics are too sticky, especially after the whole Herold debacle. That leaves something smaller than the Super Bowl in sports, entertainment, or somewhere there are a whole lot of people.
There's always the option of going to the theme park--no. People expect villains to show up at the theme park and cause some havoc. I'm actually greeted by cheers whenever I swing by. I need to aim at something that would shock people...
Well, if no one else is setting something up, why don't I?
The thought slams through me so fast that I almost fall off of my seat. Who says I have to crash someone else's parade? Why don't I just set up a parade, or whatever, and crash it, myself? I have everything I need to do something huge, in fact, I might as well use what Central is best known for! Supers!
I move forward, tapping on my keyboard to call Pan. "Hi, Pan? I have an idea, already," I say. "I'm thinking of hosting a superhero convention."
"And?" Pan asks, raising an eyebrow. He's playing with Play-doh with Cubby, I note. He's got an entire tower built of the stuff in front of him.
"And I thought I'd crash the party," I say, my eyes gluing to the colorful toy.
"Throwing a party just to crash it? Interesting," Pan says. "Draw up the plans and I'll look at them. But I still want three different plans."
"Sure, I've got a second that I'm sort of playing with, I'll write that up, as well," I say, thinking of the haunted hotel. "Hi, Cubby," I add as I see the boy watching me. "How's it going?"
The little boy points at his eyes and then points at me, just like he always does. "I know, I know, you're watching me. Good villain instincts," I praise him, grinning a little. "I'll just go write that up," I say, reluctantly hanging up.
I feel like a flight before I start working. It's a beautiful day. It'd be a shame to waste it, right?
It's gray and threatening to snow, but I ignore it.
***
"So what do we really do about him?" Jack asks. He and Ace are floating above the city, watching the super heroes do their usual rounds. Any moment one of their parents is going to call them up and tell them to get home, but with Deathblow out of the picture, it won't be that urgent.
"About who? Max?" Ace asks. "What do you think of hitting the amusement park this weekend? I haven't been back since I first debuted--I'd like to get some rides in before I actually do a show."
"Only if I can bring Aubrey," Jack says. "And then she'd want Morgan to come, and you'd be stuck on stupid until we actually went to work," he adds with a cheerful grin.
"I do not get 'stuck on stupid' around Morgan," Ace mutters. All those years of not having a friend, and now this; isn't he lucky? "I got over her when we went on tour together."
"Did you seriously?"
"Yeah, well... shut up," he says. That entire month or so of living in an RV with her, seeing her every time he turned around, well, it was no wonder he snuck out every chance he got. "She's got her entire life mapped out, did you know that? Like, she's already time-lined what country she's going to be in when she's thirty, or something. I don't even know where I'm going to be next week."
"Sure you do, you've got that fight with Emily, remember?" Max says from behind them. They both turn, not even that surprised to see him. "You two don't have to worry about mapping out your future. You've got a job for as long as you want it."
Ace and Jack look at each other for a second. "He's got a point. I suck at planning stuff, anyway," Jack says with a shrug. "I figure I'll just go along with the flow."
"What did you used to think you'd do?" Max asks him.
"Prison, probably," he says promptly. "Or I'd be in a gang, or I'd be dead. I didn't figure I had much of a future."
"What about you?" Max asks Ace.
"I... I had no idea," Ace admits. "I probably would still be sneaking into bars, and failing to get drunk."
"Your powers would have gone out of control, right?" Jack offers. "You'd be starting to go insane by now, I figure--I mean, we all saw that dragon when you lost control for a short while. Who knows, if we hadn't been there, you might have taken out a city."
"Thanks for the history lesson," Ace says dryly.
"What about you, Max? What did you expect to be?" Jack asks Max.
Max's expression is unreadable. "I'd still be a villain, just like I am, now. I've been planning on being one since I was six years old."
"Six? What happened when you were six?" Ace asks, startled.
"I found out my mom had a family without me," Max says. "But that's all in the past. Whatever reason I had for starting doesn'
t matter now. I love being a villain."
"That's a fact. This job is..." Ace looks down at the world below them, "even you guys," he admits, looking at them, "it's..."
"Yeah," Jack says, looking slightly embarrassed. "We know."
"What, is this where we have a group hug?" Max asks dryly. "Thanks but no thanks."
"You need a hug, don't you?" Ace says, grinning evilly. "Come here, Max, let me hug you!"
"If I needed a hug it wouldn't be from you," Max says, backing up.
"It's a bromance thing!" Ace says, moving closer with his arms out. "Come on, it's okay to admit you need a hug--" He grunts as a ton of pressure shoves him straight down.
"Keep your bromance to yourself!" Max says. "Or better yet, hug Jack." He waves a hand and Ace goes flying in Jack's direction.
"Oh hell no!" Jack says, racing away.
"Your bromance partner just ran away," Max points out.
"I didn't want to hug him, anyway," Ace says, sitting down on his little disk and floating over to Max again. "Look, we suck at it--I still can't get a girlfriend and I'm pretty sure Aubrey picked Jack, not the other way around, but... getting dumped by Zoe has GOT to sting, man. I mean, seriously painful, right? You must be kicking yourself over that one!"
"You started out well," Max says dryly, "but you're enjoying this way too much."
"Everyone's figured out that Noelle was your daughter from the future," Ace says. "This is no big deal, but seeing you all depressed, on the other hand, it's strangely cheering me up."
"You're a sadistic jerk, Ace," Max says.
"Nah, I just feel better knowing that the perfect high school couple can break up. You two could be pretty sickening."
"Jealous?"
"I was," he admits. "Not so much anymore, though. You're in the same position I am, now! Single villain, no prospects, I think I'll die a bachelor," he adds a bit dramatically. "Old, alone... old... really old, actually, since I'm going to be S-class."
"Okay, fine, I'll help you," Max says. "But it'll have to be quick because I've got a lot of crap I need to do, myself."
"Help me what?" Ace asks, suddenly worried.
"Help you ask Morgan out."
***
For a guy that once never talked to anyone, that epitomized the term "emo," Ace sure is cheerful, now. Who am I kidding? So is Jack. I guess having a job where you're expected to be over-the-top dramatic, only to just as dramatically fail can do that to a guy. We get PAID to act like idiots.
I--
The world blitzes in front of my eyes and I stare in shock at Ace. He's still dressed like a goth, but his eyes seem dead. I can't pick up any emotions from him, either. I glance around, looking at the barren land below. The air smells wrong--full of smoke, even this far up. The world below us is burning, I realize. It's burning so hot that I can feel it from here.
"Ace?" I say.
The dead-eyed Ace in front of me raises a hand, aiming it at me. I hear a scream from one of his dragons as it starts racing towards me.
"STOP!" I bellow, finally realizing that there's a foreigner in my mind. I shove with all of my power, both telepathic and gravitational. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" The world shudders and snaps back into place. "Where is he?" I snarl, looking around.
The only response I get is the sound of Ace cursing as he tries to stop himself from plummeting to the ground. He still hasn't quite gotten the hang of flying without a prop. Whoops. I take the pressure off of him quickly.
"MAX YOU--" Ace bellows up at me.
"Sorry, Ace!" I yell, waving at him. "Think happy thoughts!" He hits the ground at full force. "Those obviously weren't happy thoughts, man," I tease him as he groans and lies there, glaring up at me. He shoots me a very rude gesture before crawling out of the hole his fall created. Sure I feel guilty, but it's not like that's going to kill him--or even hurt him that much. Ace is really tough.
"What was that about? One minute you're meddling in my love life the next you're hitting me with a million pounds?" he demands. "Sure I was giving you crap, but that was NOT called for--"
Now that I'm sure he's going to live I ignore him, opening my mind ever so slightly to try and find my attacker. There are only a handful of telepathic types in existence. My dad wouldn't do that sort of thing to me, and Rochester isn't able to, even if he wanted to. He's a psychometric type. So is his son, but Cisco is one of the fledglings.
If I'd been with a fledgling when that attack happened, I realize with shock, I could possibly have killed them. I mean, they can't fly, so it would have been unlikely in this instance, but still... "MAX!" Ace bellows, right in my face now. "What just happened?"
"I was just attacked by a psychic type, and I have a good idea of who it might be," I say grimly.
I was the one that was supposed to be hunting Massteria, right? So why do I suddenly feel like I'm the one being hunted? I haven't even gotten the chance to graduate yet!
How did he break through my wall?
***
That... that hadn't been what she expected, Phoebe thinks as she runs. She stops a few blocks away, standing patiently as a pre-called taxi pulls to a stop, just as planned. She'll leave the taxi in the next town and then move on to a different form of transportation.
Sure, it was the first time she'd tried to use her powers on someone not a norm, but that reaction--it thrills her. That had been Dragon that was sent slamming into the ground, right? One of the most powerful villains around! Maximum had done it without even realizing! And his mind! His mind is the most powerful thing she's ever seen! (Since she's not looked into her father's, that would make him angry. Of course her father is more powerful, certainly!) But Maximum had tossed her out within seconds, almost making her faint.
Her father wants him to work with them. She'd thought it was a waste of time at first, since he's just another fake--one of the on-screen capes that plays the game like a professional wrestler. But he has power. He has far more power than she'd expected. This test proves that once again her father knows better than she does. Next, she'll approach him in person.
***
"HE'S hunting ME," I declare, storming into Dad's office and placing both hands on his desk. "I was just attacked," I tell him. He raises an eyebrow.
"Are you ashamed of that fact?" he asks.
"Of course I am," I mutter, pulling back and running a hand over my face. "The one thing I DO have is a very good wall. He must have found a crack, or something--"
"Who were you with?"
"Ace and Jack, well, actually Jack had just left."
"Then that explains it," Dad says.
"What does that explain?"
"Around your two best friends you lower your guard," he says, slowly, as if explaining this to a child. "You unconsciously want to read them, and allow them to read you. You do the same around Zoe. It's only natural that you want to relate better to the ones you care most about."
"Ace," I repeat, "and Jack; I can sort of see Ace, but Jack--"
"Is no longer even interested in Zoe and a fellow villain," Dad finishes for me. "I've seen the three of you together, Max. You might be somewhat mean about your teasing, but you all realize the others can take it. That isn't usually a problem, but you need to become conscious of it. How long was he in your mind?" he asks.
"Ten, fifteen seconds, max," I admit, starting to grow worried, especially when he furrows his brow.
"And what do you think he saw? Were you thinking of anyone recently that might be vulnerable?"
"I... well, Ace, Jack, and--Dad, Zoe dumped me," I say. "She says it's a break, and I want to believe her."
"I'm sorry, son," he says. "We'll arrange for the three to have psychic protection, perhaps those power blocking units Nico made, although I'm not sure how much Massteria's abilities will affect Zoe--"
"Wait," I say, remembering quite clearly what I had done before running into Ace and Jack. "There's another group of people," I admit, guiltily.
"Yes?" he asks. "The students?"
"No."
"Then who?"
"I... I used the Hall computer to check on my birth mother right before this," I say, groaning. I notice he only said a quick, "I'm sorry" about Zoe before going on with his work. My heart is breaking here, you know? You'd think he'd at least PRETEND to be sympathetic.
Dad goes pale. It's not something most would notice, but I pick up on it. "Your mother?" he says.
"Yeah," I say. "She was coming home--it looked like Layne had just finished a basketball game."
"Were they on your mind during this meeting?"
"Yeah, I guess," I say.
"Max... how long have you been checking up on your mother and her family?"
"Since I was six?"
He sighs. "She's going to hate this," he admits, tapping on his keyboard. "Nico? Can you arrange a safe house for a family of four?" he asks my principal. "In your apartment building would be best."
"What? Who?" Nico asks, looking startled.
"My ex-wife and her family."
"Wasn't she a norm?" Nico asks.
"Yes, and that is why we need a safe house."
"Okay, sure, I'll set up an apartment," he says. "Are you going to explain why?"
"I'll let Max explain it later. Right now I've got to go talk them into moving," he says before hanging up. "You can come with me," he says to me.
"But--they won't know who I am," I say.
"Max, EVERYONE knows who you are," he says as the ceiling opens up and he takes to the air. I pull out my mask and follow along, both dreading and anticipating this meeting.
CHAPTER THREE
"MOM! TELL HIM TO STAY OUT OF MY BEDROOM!" Layne screams from her bedroom. Wendy Brown inwardly groans. Her children are wonderful, she repeats to herself, her children are wonderful. They're just... a pain in the neck sometimes. All people can be a pain in the neck. They're normal children, well, except they can't be told that. They have to think they're exceptional in some way or another, that's what her books told her. Layne is a very good basketball player, Chet is extremely intelligent for his age, her husband John, is a wonderful man. She remembers these things every day, especially when her past arises in her mind. It's worse when she sees the headlines. She's absolutely banned all super related material, including the news, from the house. Her children hate that fact, but she's got several lies on hand if they start complaining.
