Chapter 18

 

Max knelt down by the man, putting her hand on his head while Penny did their thing, making sure he didn’t have permanent brain damage and fixing his wrist. He’d still hurt when he woke up, but at least he wouldn’t be spending the next five years paying off hospital bills and getting addicted to prescription painkillers. 

“You,” she said to the Superhero in front of her, “are very, very lucky we were here.” She looked over at where the other man had run off. “I hope.”

“I’m sorry,” Eric said, “I just saw them robbing a store and—“

“And you had to do something,” Maxine said, standing up. “I get it. We should leave. He’s gonna be waking up in a minute.” Penny enveloped her and she jumped as hard as she could. It was still tempting sometimes to just climb up a wall like it was made of clay, but the damage to the brickwork was hard to disguise and she didn’t want to owe the city thousands in damages. So now she just jumped, and at the height of her jump, she got sticky enough to cling to the wall. After a few bounces like that, she reached the top of the tallest building, where Eric was just folding his wings back up. Show-off, Penny chuckled. 

“We just wanted to help,” the boy said.

“Look, Eric,” Max said, then hesitated. “Do you have a superhero name yet? I don’t want to out you, and it feels weird calling you Eric when you’ve literally turned into a girl form to disguise yourself.”

“Redshift,” Eric and Amy said together. It was strange hearing them talk at the same time. There was a resonance to their voice, not quite like two voices overlapping but like two people speaking with one mouth. Eric cleared his throat. “Redshift. ‘I am Redshift,’ if I have to speak to people in public, of course.”

“Of course,” Max said. Penny giggled again. Secret identities were kind of baseline when you had a secret alien living in your head. “So, Redshift. I know you were just trying to help, but you’re aware that what you did was dangerous, right?”

“Yeah, of course, but I could have handled them—“

“Not to you,” Max scoffed as Penny retreated, and she sat down on the edge of the building. “To them.” She looked at her own hand. “Even when Penny isn’t out, do you know how strong I am now? I can bend rebar. I tried. If I hit someone too hard, we’re spending the next hour picking up teeth.”

Amaranth retreated too, leaving Eric looking like a regular girl for just a second before he shifted back into, well, Eric-mode. “But then you just make sure not to, right?”

“I, that is to say, we make sure not to hit anyone, except in self defense, and even then.” She sighed and patted the concrete next to her. “Sit.” Eric did as he was told, slightly sheepishly. He was easily a decade younger than she was, if not more, and it was hard not to talk down to him, especially considering the fact that too much pressure would just push him in the other direction. “If I hit someone, Eric, even if I don’t kill them, I can do a lot of damage. I could put someone in the hospital.”

“But what if they’re bad guys? What if there’s someone robbing, like, a pharmacy? People need that medication. Isn’t it better to fight off one person to save a bunch?”

“Nine times out of ten, people resort to violence because they’re scared,” Max said. “Most thefts happen because someone can’t pay for something they need, not because they don’t want to pay for something they don’t. But that’s not even really the point.”

“I don’t get it.”

“I think, when people see us, they know what’s up. They see someone who can fly, or who looks, you know, like Penumbra, or whatever. They know they’re outmatched. So if they’re fighting you anyway, what does that tell you?” She asked, looking at the city. She didn’t like thinking of it like that. She hated the idea that others could tell at a glance that she could probably kill someone if she wanted to. 

“Overconfidence?” Eric said. 

Max shook her head. “Nah. I know a lot of guys think they could take on a professional wrestler in a fight, but, you’d be surprised how often someone goes to punch me in the face after they’ve seen me lift a car. No, the problem is that their fight or flight kicks in.”

“That’s normal, right?”

“That’s normal to someone who is being threatened, yes,” Max said. 

“But I don’t—“

“Yes,” Max interrupted. “You do. The fact that you’re standing there is a threat. To someone breaking and entering, you are a threat of violence.” Eric was starting to protest again, but she held up a hand. “Yes. You are. Your very presence is threatening. That’s why, when someone attacks me, I let them, or I dodge if they’ve got a knife. We are fast enough and strong enough. If everyone knows I don’t hurt people, it’s much easier for me to help.

“But you have the strength to break up any fight!” Eric said. “You could probably walk away from, like, a GSW and be fine the next day.” Maxine blinked a few times. “Uh. Gunshot wound. Something my dad used to say so I didn’t have to hear the word ‘gun’ when I was little. Anyway, if you can stop someone from getting shot, and you can do that without anyone else getting hurt and you don’t really have a risk to yourself…”

“Yeah,” Max said. “I get what you’re saying. But I’m not making the world a better place by being better at violence than anyone else. I refuse to try, and I don’t think you should either. Besides, your mom wouldn’t want you to put yourself in situations like that either. You can fly, and I think you’re pretty strong together. Try doing something with that, instead.”

“Like what?” Eric said. “Getting cats out of trees?” He rolled his eyes and Max had to take a breath to keep herself from swatting him upside the head. 

“You have a literal bird’s eye view of the city, Eric,” she said. “You can see car crashes and accidents and people who have gotten hurt, and you can get them to safety or to a hospital before anyone else can. You can save lives. That’s what our ‘companions’ are made to do and if you want to do anything, do that.”

“Weren’t you the one who told me that I’m the only one who decides what I do with my powers or something?” Eric asked, standing up a little unsteadily. Maxine worried for a second he might fall off the building and then realized that, of the two of them, he was probably in way less danger than she was if that happened. 

“Nobody can make you use your powers if you don’t want to,” Max said. “But you seem pretty set on using them, kiddo. I just don’t want you making things worse by trying to help.”

“I’m not some random kid, Maxine,” he said as he walked the length of the roof, and then glared at her. “But, like, you don’t really know anything about me, do you? You barely know me or my family, what we’ve been through. How about you do things your way, and I’ll do them mine? Don’t worry, I’ll “be safe” and make sure I keep my floaties on when I go in the pool and if I scrape my knee I’ll know where to find you to kiss it better.” He walked to the edge of the roof. “Stop treating me like…”

“Like a child?” Max said. 

“Like a dodo,” he responded, then jumped off the roof. Instantly, Redshift spread their wings, and they flew off.

“Uh,” Maxine said, looking at them as they flew off, a streak of red and gold, soaring through the sky and then diving out of view. “What does that mean?”

Dodos are flightless? Penny offered. Maybe it’s just “don’t treat me like I can’t fly because I can?” 

“But we knew that already,” Max said. She flopped backwards onto the concrete. “I don’t get it. Was I ever that annoying as a teenager?”

You were that annoying last year, Penny said. But I don’t know. I think they’ll be okay, honestly. They’re good people, both of them. I mean, Amaranth is literally a part of me. Maybe we’re holding on a bit too tightly, and they’re feeling stifled?

“Maybe,” Max said. “I just don’t want them becoming a cop. This city has more than enough of those already, it doesn’t need one that can knock someone’s head off.” She stood up and stretched just in time to see the fireball at the same time as the sound rolled across the rooftop. Two blocks away, something had just violently gone up in flames. “What is with today?!” She said as Penny enveloped her and she launched herself forward. 

Great, Penny thought as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop, more fire. That’s what we needed. I’m sure I’ll be fine, but let’s hope there’s nobody inside this time, yeah? Max agreed. Aside from the soreness, of course, there was always the fear that at some point there would be something Penny couldn’t recover from, that they were the one who would be irreparably damaged somehow. I’ll be fine, Penny repeated, but they sounded unsure.

Landing on the edge of the last building on the block, they looked at the damage. It was a fire station, and it was ablaze. “Don’t say it,” Max mumbled.

Ironic.

Max groaned as she looked on. A lot of people were standing outside, and while everyone looked sufficiently frazzled, nobody looked particularly distraught. Nobody was fighting to get inside. The firefighters themselves looked stumped, Max assumed, because all their stuff to actually fight the fire was inside, so they just had to wait for another station to come over. 

Redshift landed next to her. Thankfully, it was clear to both of them that the emergency was more important than a little fight. “Anyone inside?”

“Doesn’t look like it,” Max said. “Though it must’ve gone up fast, or they’d have pulled the trucks out.”

“Weird,” Redshift said. “Anything we can do?” Max nodded and pointed. 

“The fire could spread to the adjacent buildings. They’ve already started getting people out of their houses,” Max said, gesturing at the commotion below. “If you fly up to the top floors, you can make sure everyone makes it out in time.”

“Got it,” they said, and launched themselves off the roof.

“You know,” Max mumbled, “it would be cool to be able to fly.”

I’m sorry, Penny said. Before Max could reassure them, she heard them chuckle. I’m afraid we’re too cool for that, because we can bench press a cable car in a pinch. I’m afraid that’s going to have to be good enough.

“It is,” Max said with a grin. “Doesn’t help us here though.”

What’s that? Penny said, drawing Maxine’s attention to someone walking away. Someone wearing a fireman’s uniform, walking down the street at a brisk pace, away from the fire. I don’t think they’re getting help.

The figure stepped into an alleyway. “Definitely not,” Max said. “Let’s go ask them some questions.”

Didn’t we have a whole conversation with the kids about this exact thing, like ten minutes ago? About putting yourselves and others in danger and our existence being a threat of violence and all that?

“Yeah,” Max said as she moved from rooftop to rooftop, “but, one, we’re older and we know what we’re doing.”

Uh-huh.

“Two, we’re not looking to break their arm, just ask questions.”

Okay, fair.

“And three, if this is a firebug, being able to identify them might help us figure out who and what.” She looked down into the alley. The man was still walking steadily, so Max caught up with him, clinging to the wall, and cleared her throat as she landed behind him. “Excuse me, officer,” she said. “I couldn’t help but notice you walking away from the fire, and I was wondering if—“

“You,” the man said. His collar was up high, and the fireman’s hat obscured the rest of his face. He didn’t turn around to face her. “You can’t stop me.”

Crap, Penny said. Well, we found our culprit.

“I’m just trying to understand, sir,” Max said. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

“Someone always gets hurt,” he said. “Because of people like you.”

“I’m not sure I follow, but if you just… if you have another explosive or something on you, if you put them down, we can talk this out and—“

“An explosive? You think I have something on me?” He said, slowly turning around. 

“Uh…”

“I have a whole arsenal!” He raised his arm, pulling a weapon out of the fireman’s jacket.

Gun! Penny said. Penumbra moved to jump out of the way of a bullet, which was why neither of them was ready when a wall of fire bellowed out of the tip of the barrel and hit them in the face.