The Phenomena of Fireflies and Star... - Chapter 31: Chapter 31

Through the faintly translucent pink sapphire cocoon of energy that covered him, Max could see that everything else was white. Hot, singeing white. There was a strange warmth in the atmosphere, leaving uncomfortable tingles and sensations on Max's skin, which had returned to normal color. His blinks were involuntary, his eyes uncertainly protective against the palpable radiation of the ghastly illumination around him.
He lay on the floor, eyes up to a bright nothingness. The surface was rough on his back, uneven and spotty.
Debris. Destruction. Beneath him. All around him.
He could feel his energy coming back, but it was irregular in its flow inside of him, and his wounds were still there. The slightest of movements triggered painful throbbing in his head. It was a disorienting pounding. It wasn't exactly getting worse, but it wasn't getting better, either.
Max felt a shift in the flow of energy around him.
The whiteness of his surroundings faded like a massive cloud dispersing and dissipating into nothing, revealing the state of the Diameter. The whole place had been scalped. The sunny sky was now bare, and the dome was now no more than a ring of debris on the ground. The walls of the dome and the upper floors had been erased, leaving only jagged stumps and a circle of broken matter.
"Ungh!" Alpha's groan floated in from the left. Max turned toward him, finding him protected by another neon pink force field that was slowly dissipating.
Max noticed that his own protective cocoon was fading out slowly, too.
'Who else made it?' he wondered as he returned to the convenience of lying on his back. He snapped his fingers, sending out an empathic pulse. It was a bit of a mental strain, and he shut his eyes hard through the sudden harsh throbbing in his head. He could feel his pulse scanning Ames and the other Enforcers in the vicinity as it traveled. The old-timer Enforcers and the remaining NAIs were still alive. Max could feel not only what would be the deactivating force fields around them, but also their heartbeats and their subconscious.
Somebody was missing, Max knew, and he hoped that it was finally true.
He couldn't feel Current.
To Max's right, he found Ames still floating in his cruciform pose, neon eyes in full illumination. Max turned to the right to see the aftermath better. Before Ames, on the ground, lay a charred skeleton. With one crack from somewhere indeterminate, the skeleton collapsed into itself.
And disintegrated.
'What the--,' Max thought, speechless in surprise at the level of power that Ames had unleashed. In a second, the skeleton was no more. Traceless. 'Could it be?'
Max forced himself to a crouch. It was quite a mental stun. The throbbing was loud and hard.
"Gab...," he heard Alpha call out hoarsely from behind him.
Max dared not turn. He couldn't afford to confirm whatever Alpha was suspecting. Max pushed through the pain, grimacing through the sharp mental sting in his head as he returned to his black form. The sting persisted. It wasn't letting up one bit.
"Who are you?" Alpha asked, his voice struggling.
'Stay out of my way,' Max responded in his mind, soldiering through the psychic sting.
Ames's glowing eyes blinked, faltering. He looked like he was about to pass out, his posture failing from its former glory. In a few seconds, Ames's eyes rolled up. Max didn't wait for him to fall.
Max leaped forward into flight, feeling a stronger pulse of pain in his head as he flew.
"Ngggh," Max grunted through the disorienting sting, grabbing the unconscious Ames quickly and flying out of the location. "Gahhh!"
The throbbing in his mind was worsening.
Max kept Ames secured in his arm. He barely noticed the mass of people outside the Diameter lot. They gasped at the sight of him as he flew by. The pounding in his head was giving him hot white flashes. He pushed higher up in the air as he flew farther and farther away from the Diameter. Even though Ames was unconscious, his body was coated with a faint pink aura.
"Hang on, Ames," Max whispered, almost gasping from the pain in his head. The flashes were getting worse and taking longer to clear out. With every flash, he could see themselves getting closer and closer to the skyscrapers of the commercial district.
Closer to one.
Coming in fast.
"Shit!" Max flew upward, exhausting his energy hard enough to break off of his recent flight trajectory and spare themselves the impact. He managed to pull through with the abrupt change of direction, but as he got higher, he was angling closer to the wall of the skyscraper.
Dangerously closer every split-second.
And then it was too late.
"No!" Max cried out, shielding Ames with his arms as he made contact.
Max scraped violently against the barrier of the skyscraper's roof deck, breaking off of his flight path uncontrollably. It didn't hurt much, but he was now flipping out of direction, flailing for control as he traveled over the roof deck.
Ames had flown off Max's grasp, unsuspectingly flying off to a dangerous tangent and beginning to descend.
"No!" Max shouted, growling in resistance at the tormenting flashes in his senses as he forced himself back to flight control, speeding toward Ames. "Come on!"
Ames was still falling, pink energy wrapping him as he descended quickly to the traffic jam below.
"Gaaah!" Max roared through the pain, pushing himself downward faster and harder.
They were getting closer to the ground.
To hundreds of potential collateral damage.
Fast.
Max figured out a solution immediately, using his hands to wrap Ames in a controllable ball of black aura. The throbbing in Max's head almost felt like a burn. It left him in pained groans as he pulled the dark cocoon along and carefully lifted Ames back to his grasp while changing his flight path again.
'I can't hold it much longer!' he thought, his eyes flaring up, his breath strained. 'We need to get home now.'
He could see their house from where he flew.
A small box growing bigger and bigger in his vision as he flew Ames and himself closer and closer toward it.
And the hurtful reality was that it was still quite far.
"Hnnnnh!"
With Ames now back in his arm, Max deactivated his black form, focusing his energy on crafting an invisibility field around themselves just as they flew over the subdivision.
The burning sensation in Max's head was causing the field to glitch.
Max aimed down toward Ames's lot, his flight speed causing the roofs below him to shake.
'Almost there!' Max thought to himself as he flew over the block before Ames's street. He was within trajectory to land on Ames's garage. He slowed down in his flight speed, hoping to the heavens that he would land well enough.
He closed the distance and landed on the lot, feet buckling upon contact with the garage floor. It was in that moment that Max was finally out of control, the invisibility field deactivating. He couldn't see what happened next, for he was alternating between vision and blackness, but he knew they'd fallen off their feet and onto the floor before the blackness took over.
He could feel soft patters on his face.
They were wet and rather cold.
Before he knew it, the patters started picking up, turning into tiny poking sensations that eventually became a moderate shower.
Max opened his eyes, blinking at the rainfall from the dark clouds above him. The sky, in total, wasn't very dark, but it was dim. It was still afternoon, hours before sundown, but time almost felt irrelevant. Except, it wasn't.
'This feels familiar...,' he realized, trying not to get emotional. They had to leave the city. They should be able to hide out for a couple more hours, however. 'Two hours.'
Ames coughed from beside him. Max turned to Ames quickly, finding the young man he loved face down on the floor and looking at him. Ames's eyes glowed faintly in pink, his breath slightly hasty, his relieved smile restrained. His aura was gone.
"Are you okay?" Max asked, immediately realizing that he had healed from his wounds already. The internal pounding was also no longer there. His clothes, however, were still torn and disheveled. He needed to change. Ames wasn't looking good in his own clothes, either. Other than that, they were drenched.
"Are you okay?" Ames returned the question, shivering in his position. "I-I'm kind of not..."
Max could feel it, too. Ames's shivers weren't because of the cold. They were because of the energy inside of him, flowing through his veins with strength and lack of stability despite the restraint.
"Let's get you in," Max replied, relieved at the ease as he lifted his hand upward to cast an illusory field around the lot, redesigning its exterior's appearance and making themselves invisible.
'I won't let them find us.'
Max helped Ames onto the bed, lowering him gently onto it.
"Let's get you out of those clothes," Max informed him.
The pink in Ames's eyes flashed brightly for a bit, and at once, Max felt a wave of force push through him. It was like a gust of wind, but it had a smell: the smell of vapor.
Max looked down at himself, discovering that his skin had dried along with his clothes. The rips of his clothing were gone, fabrics seemingly resewn. The same was true for Ames, whose eyes had returned to a muted pink.
"What was that?" Max asked, more intrigued than surprised now.
"Dried us up," Ames replied, looking back up at him, right into his eyes. "Fixed our clothes, too. I dunno' how."
'I think I recognize his abilities...,' Max thought. 'I can kinda' understand what he's capable of.'
Max lowered himself to a crouch in front of Ames, scanning the young man's face and feeling his energy. It was strong, even when under control. Then again, Ames was barely managing.
Max gently took Ames's hands into his own.
"I won't leave you," he said reassuringly. "We'll figure that out together. No matter how hard. You hear me?"
The color of Ames's eyes tamed down to a lighter pink. Almost pastel. They were close to tears.
Max could tell that Ames was afraid. Interestingly, Max was picking up two pulsations from the guy: one of fear, the other of something more instinctive. It was distinctly strong, but it wasn't leading the duet of pulsations.
"I did what I had to do to save you," Ames said, his voice constricted as tears streamed down his face. The moisture in his eyes gave the pastel color of his irises a strange sheen. A beautiful one, but strange. "I thought I was too late. I never got to say..."
"I love you," Max interrupted Ames, holding the young man's hands tighter. At once, Max could feel his throat tightening. In his heart, he felt heat and light. He remembered that they had come from the void that he had felt inside of him, and he knew that Ames had been the reason why they had managed to break through the darkness. Ames was that light. That heat. The fireflies dancing under Max's starlight. Max's full circle in the clearing around the Astronomer's Rock. "I love you, Ames. I always have and always will."
Ames looked back at Max with runnier tears and a smile of joy and relief triumphing on his face.
"I love you, too, Max," Ames replied, his words breathy but clear. He lowered his head, connecting his forehead with Max's.
Max felt a spark of energy inside of himself, and he felt it from inside Ames, too. It was a comforting spark. It was very welcoming. Inviting. Addictive.
It felt like home, like two halves becoming one.
"We've battled our fates, defied our inevitable," Ames said intently, a slight tremble in his otherwise purposeful voice. "I choose you. You're the destiny that I choose. That I will choose."
"No grand designs," Max replied, lifting Ames's hands to his lips and kissing them reassuringly. "No more. Just you and I. Together. We'll persevere and rebel, and we'll make our own world."
"Look at me, Max," Ames said.
Max complied, gently pulling away from Ames a little to see the young man's face better. The rosy pastel in Ames's eyes had a soothing quality to it. It was beautiful, just like the rest of Ames's face.
"I'm looking," Max said, smiling. His heart was picking up speed, joined in by Ames's own heartbeat. The duet of their hearts carried a refreshing beat to it as it clamored for dominance over the fear and the rawness pulsating from Ames.
"May I kiss you?" Ames asked, his voice polite. Polite but with an undeniable longing.
"May I?" Max asked in return, gazing into the allure of Ames's eyes. "May I kiss you?"
For a moment, there was a brightening gleam in Ames's eyes, beautiful like the break of dawn.
A split-second later, Ames moved forward.
When Max received Ames's lips on his, he froze for a moment in surprise at the electricity that connected them. From within the electricity blossomed a vulnerability that warmed the pillow-like softness of Ames's lips, followed by the bravery in the push and the friction of his kiss. Max pushed back, his lips slipping over and under Ames's. Their lips almost felt like they were dancing with each other in an intimate dance, moving in and out in the smoothest coordination, lingering in the sweetest spark, and accompanied by the slightest of abrasions. Max couldn't stop.
Max gently cupped Ames's face with his hands, sealing in place the exciting flavors of sweetness, longing, vulnerability, and honesty.
"I love you...," Ames whispered in a stolen moment between the kisses.
Max returned to Ames's lips, savoring the effervescence he found in them for a few more seconds before slipping away. He could still taste it on his lips seconds after, the gentle gloss of Ames's kiss. A beautiful aftertaste.
"I love you," Max whispered back, allowing himself to get lost in the neon sparkle of Ames's pink eyes. Max willed his own eyes into glowing in sunny gold. He could see their reflection in Ames's eyes. It resulted in an otherworldly union of colors. A beautiful union that was more than a visual spectacle. A pleasantly electrifying phenomenon.
Ames's eyes, however, transitioned sharply from wonder to alarm. The neon pink in his eyes began to flare up. Max himself could feel something wrong. He snapped his fingers, releasing a pulse that scanned the vicinity.
'Irregularities,' he realized, feeling three strong responses to his pulse.
Max and Ames looked toward the window at the same time. Max gave Ames a kiss on the forehead before standing up and making his way to the window to look outside. His heart took a sharp descent at the sight of the three response epicenters. The piece of heaven he had just enjoyed now lay underneath the murk of alarm and disappointment. 'Sons of bitches.'
Alpha, Battle Cry, and Sun Dancer. His former teammates.
They now stood in formation outside the gate, suits on. Neighbors had begun walking out of their homes, trying to see what the fuss was about. The rain had already stopped, and Max hadn't even noticed.
'This isn't good,' Max complained in his head, his fists clenching.
"Firefly!" Alpha called out. Max recognized his old nickname back in the day. Hearing it again after all these years made his hairs stand. It was, however, rather smart of Alpha. Considerate, actually. Max would give him that much, but not much else. "We're not here for trouble. We just wanna' talk."
'How the fuck did they find us?!' Max wondered, his heartbeat definitely on a marathon right now. Except this time, he was on fire. If they really tried anything, he'd go against them, too. 'After everything they've witnessed, they should be very hesitant to be within a photokinetic orb's range.'
"Son of a bitch," he muttered, more than ready to engage if needed. For some reason, he felt that his count on the irregularities demanded a redo. He snapped his fingers again for a proximity scan. Again, there were three irregularities.
But there were ten more surrounding them: some positioned at the back of the house, some floating right above it, and some on the neighbors' roofs.
"How did they find us?" Ames asked, joining Max before the window. "You cast an illusion field all over the house, right? I destroyed everything that could rat us out, too. Current, the cameras..."
Max had a theory about that, and as mad as he was about the whole thing, he knew that there simply were things beyond his control. Key outliers. Like Ames.
"We're not here to fight, Firefly," Alpha went on. "But we need to speak with you. If you knew the reason why, you would know why that's for the best."
Max found the statement rather odd. From what he was getting from Alpha, there was a concerning truthfulness in the words. It wasn't what Max was expecting, and he surely didn't appreciate being found, but he also realized he wasn't about to put the neighborhood on the potential collateral damage list. That wouldn't sit well with his conscience.
"This is bigger than all of us," Alpha finished.
Max fought back the temptation to blast the front door, but it did swing a little too widely when he pulled it open. He marched out of the house, releasing a pathokinetic pulse through his arms. A potent pulse.
'You're all too sleepy to be disturbed,' he willed, targeting only the neighbors nosing around. Sounds of bodies collapsing came up, followed by surprised murmurs. He glanced behind him, finding NAIs in different positions around the lot. When he finally reached the gate, he opened the whole thing assertively, revealing behind it a closer view of his former comrades in their suits. The recent damages from battle were evident on their battle suits and leather domino masks. They didn't have their psionic scrambler helmets on, though. Despite the visible wear and tear from battle, they looked very good. However, they had yet to make an actual reaction. They couldn't see him yet, only an illusion of an empty lot.
A snap of Max's fingers caused the entire illusory bubble to glitch. That surely got a reaction out of the Enforcers.
The illusory field glitched more erratically one last time before deactivating completely.
The expressions on the Enforcers' faces changed from that of straightforwardness to that of concern. It was an immediate change and a more human expression that contrasted their regal demeanor.
Max gave each of them a telling gaze, and what he meant to tell was, "leave us alone". He made sure it stuck. He noticed in his periphery the nosy neighbors on the ground, deep in their slumber, clothes and skin dipped into rainwater puddles. Max's eyes, however, latched onto Alpha's face.
"Gabriel...," Alpha uttered, a confused look on his face. "Why?"
"You know why," Max reminded him. "You know very well why."
"We were siblings, all of us," Battle Cry spoke up.
"You threw away all that we've been through the first chance you got," Sun Dancer added.
"Everybody thought you were dead," Alpha said, brows furrowing. "I don't know if you understand what that meant. And all of a sudden, you return to stop Current from taking over the Diameter, over Apolaki. Imagine how that made us feel."
"And you?" Max returned the heat, looking Alpha right in the eyes. "All of you. Did any of you ever think about how I'd felt? The way they used me? Milked the shit out of me and abused me? Do you have any idea what I lost?"
Regret washed upon the trio before him. Max knew that they knew. He knew that they knew very well that they hadn't fought back. Alpha used to be a human rights lawyer. He was Atty. Francis Macarandang. Battle Cry used to be a dutiful missionary back in the day, and her real name was Annabelle Carlos. Sun Dancer, otherwise known as Bailey Soler, was a former astrophysics research lab intern. Once upon a time, all four of them had been people. They used to be humans. They'd had lives that they had valued because of the walls they'd been motivated to break down. Until their formal and signature-bound agreement to the contract. Max wondered why his former comrades hadn't thought hard enough about the truth of their situation. He questioned how they could enable Division this much.
"I understand your sentiments, Gabriel...," Alpha tried to say.
"No, you don't," Max interrupted him. "Because if you really did, you wouldn't be in that suit anymore."
"I put the safety of the public first," Alpha reasoned. "I signed up for that. I understood what I was getting into when I put my signature on that contract. I don't want to breach that."
Max shook his head at Alpha, as if commanding the man's silence.
"You signed up for human experimentation," Max clarified for him. "When they proposed the Apolaki, I'd bet my ass you quickly signed the papers for the project, too. I wonder if you even read through 'em."
"It's for the greater good...," Alpha rebutted. "Always the greater good in mind, no matter how hard the choices made. Didn't we learn that from you?"
"Ah," Max replied. "Learned from me. What then does it tell you now that I've turned my back on that?"
"We need you back, Kuya Gab," Sun Dancer's tone was kinder. "We mourned you. We need you."
"Division didn't need me," Max insisted. "It needed power. I just happened to be the next guy. After Midnight. After Mama Ana."
"When your friend shielded me from the blast, I absorbed his energy," Alpha interrupted, turning the flow of the conversation back to his port. "Led me here. What happened in the dome can't be overlooked. People died. An Enforcer died. Division and Wang assets, gone."
"I have a life now," Max replied. "We didn't kill anybody except Current. We did you a favor. Return it. Leave us in peace."
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Gab...," Alpha said, his gaze firm. "All the choices you've made have led to..."
"No!" Max resisted, blinking in the sudden skyrocket of anger and frustration inside of him. His aggressive steps toward his old friend were almost involuntary, but he didn't care. He could tell that Battle Cry and Sun Dancer were preparing for a possible attack. "No. Not again. I'm happy now. I have someone I love. Who loves me. I have a chance. Now, I have peace! If you take this away from me, I'll fight back."
Max could feel himself glowing. Heating up, too. He could feel his energy steaming out of his pores and his eyes.
"Beyond comrades," Alpha's voice sounded firm, but Max could detect the pain behind it. "I wonder if you ever learned to love us as family. Beyond comrades. Like we loved you."
The hurt in Alpha's voice couldn't be as discreet as the hurt in his eyes, and Max could feel it like hands gripping his jacket.
Max had to admit, he did feel guilty about not being able to reciprocate the siblinghood they offered so generously. He'd always been friendly toward them. Supportive. Caring. He just had never been really able to return how they felt for him with the same depth.
Not after Mama Ana.
Not after Stella.
"I did the best that I could," Max managed, sighing as he turned his energy down. As he spoke, his eyes traveled from Enforcer to Enforcer. "I'd already lost so much by the time I met you. All of you. That pain doesn't just leave. I needed the walls. But I mentored you to the best of my ability. I provided for you, guided you, shielded you. I was your friend. I just couldn't mirror you."
"I don't like insisting myself on anyone, and I'm not," Battle Cry commented. "But that hurts, brother. I don't expect you to understand, but I need you to know that we mourned you. It was never just another workday. We lost a loved one."
"Yeah, it hurts...," Sun Dancer added, a disheartened frown on his face. "It doesn't feel good, Kuya. At first, we thought you'd show up eventually. And then we had to deal with the belief that you're gone. That we lost a brother."
"I'm sorry to all of you," Max said sincerely as he looked at each of his former comrades. "For hurting your feelings. For not being enough."
"Oh, I would argue that you were enough for us," Alpha responded. "More than enough. But we weren't enough for you."
Alpha's eyes now had a prominent gloss of disappointment and hurt over them, too.
"You're the Alpha now," Max said to the former attorney. "And you have an army of superheroes protecting the country. You no longer need me. I have made my choice. I'm sticking by it."
"We both know what being the Alpha really is...," Alpha spoke, clearing his throat and trying to hide the stress in his tone. "It's always been for you. The Alpha Phenomenon. We both know that I'm just the next in line, and for me, it only serves as a position title. But you? You are the Alpha Phenomenon, whether or not you are leading the Enforcement. Losing you was not just losing a brother to us. Or losing a friend. We also lost the strongest superhuman Enforcer this country has ever had."
"Current would tell you otherwise," Max rebutted. "And you're a lot more durable than I am."
"You're the only one to withstand him in battle," Alpha pointed out. "We were just absorbing each other. And your friend..."
"He's not just a friend," Max corrected him. "I love him, and he loves me. And you will not touch him."
"He's too powerful, Gabriel," Alpha said. "He didn't just destroy the dome. He erased it. The radiation left in the place suggested the emission of telekinetic energy. Telekinetic power control at an atomic level. Erased every trace of evidence. Killed Current and erased every atom of him from existence. Your, uh, partner's potential for control of quantum particles is not something to sleep on. If he cannot influence them now, what happens when he learns to?"
'Atomic level?' Max thought, remembering Midnight Sambac's power level. 'Telekinetic control over matter at an atomic level? The last person who had that much power sacrificed herself to preserve humanity. I'm not about to witness that again.'
"Gabriel," Alpha said more quietly. He seemed to be hesitant. In fact, Max could feel that Alpha was hoping he'd never had to talk about whatever he was trying to talk about. "He's..."
"He's what?" Max urged him to continue.
"You're the Alpha Phenomenon because the Creaton bonded with you the best and brought out the best in you," Alpha prefaced, his tone careful. "Him? He's what Division's been trying to stop from happening. You have no idea how much more dangerous he is."
"But he got turned by variant shards. It should be temporary."
"You saw it yourself, Gab. I'm sure of it. A new Creaton was made out of the variant shards the moment a single one was triggered. Your partner took everything he could, and when the smoke cleared, there was no more Creaton in sight. He's the Omega, Gab. The Omega Phenomenon. The worst-case scenario. And you have him in that house, yes?"
Max noticed how Alpha's eyes traveled upward, toward the house. He noticed how the Enforcers slowly backed away. A strong emission of energy wafted onto Max's back, making him turn to what was behind him.
It was Ames.
Ames was floating forward slowly, arms slightly lifted sideward, hands coated with pink flares. His eyes glowed in blazing magenta, and the dark shadows around them made him look paler than usual. He looked ghastly. Behind him, something incredible was occurring. It was as if he had burst through the roof in flight, but Max understood that Ames had probably telekinetically pushed part of the roof off. There had been no noise to indicate such an explosion, but the debris of the roof and the ceiling frozen in air like a burst of lava from a volcano's mouth surely made it seem like the roof had exploded upward.
"Leave us alone," Ames spoke, his voice echoing in such a ghastly effect. It was almost wispy, and the echoes were thin, but the words were clear. "Or I will remove you from this place permanently."
Max watched in horror as the NAIs surrounding the house began to disintegrate, starting from their feet up.
'Oh my god...,' he thought, a shiver in his spine at the sight of the drastic aggravation of the NAIs' panic. Their mouths were open in terrified screams, and their eyes were wide with fear as they tried to claw at their legs, which were disintegrating slowly.
But the NAIs had no voice. They floated around the house, imprisoned in the voiceless fear of becoming nothing. Screaming and yet unheard. Trying to reach for the fragments of their legs to no avail.
"Alpha...," Battle Cry's voice called out shakily. "H-he's erasing them."
"You don't want to do that," Alpha talked back at Ames, his voice firm but placating. "You tried to do the right thing back in the dome. You fought Current. Deep inside, you know you wish no harm."
"Want?" Ames's reply, pausing his slow approach. "I don't want to do that. But I will, if you don't leave us in peace."
Max felt a chilling sensation all over himself as he watched the walls around the lot slowly breaking off in fragments. The car, too.
"I can decimate the entire Enforcement with as much as a single thought," Ames continued. "Walk away, and I'll rebuild your juniors."
Max returned his gaze toward the trio of Enforcers before him, at the awe and the concern in their faces. They'd obviously never seen this much power before. The recognition of threat in their faces was evident in how their eyes glowed, in how they backed up into strategic formation.
"We don't want to have to fight, Alpha," Max said. In his periphery, he could see the disintegration of the walls and the car slowly approaching. Taunting. Threatening. "But you came to our home, disrupted our lives."
"That's the problem," Alpha looked back down at him. "If we don't rehabilitate him, neither of you will have a life together."
"Excuse me?" Max took another step forward, not liking what had been said to his face.
"You need help, sir," Alpha said to Ames. "If we don't find out how to fix you, your own power will destroy you. Please. You need to come with us. If you don't, you might become a threat to even each other."
"What are you saying, Alpha?"
"His power will control him eventually. Soon enough, he won't be the person you fell in love with. He'll be a walking nuclear blast."
"You're lying."
"Am I? You can tell me if I'm lying, right?"
Max cracked his neck, taking a thorough read of Alpha's pulsations: concern, fear, heightened alertness...
And honesty.
'No fucking way,' Max thought, glaring at Alpha, whose eyes no longer glowed. 'Not like this. Not again.'
Max couldn't afford to lose Ames. That was something that could never be. Max would never allow that. The frustration inside him was a worsening pollution. It felt like black oil breaking out to the open sea, threatening to destroy. He didn't want to feel such toxicity, but he and Ames had fought so hard already. They deserved a chance.
He would give the both of them that chance.
No matter what.
"You fix him," Max's words came out like a snarl. "You fix him, and you let us go. You hear me?"
"We need to fix him," Alpha replied, looking back at him intently. "The rest will be between you and Director Lazaro."
'Director Lazaro,' Max thought, gulping down the tension inside of him. 'I have a lot of words to say.'
"You should've spoken with him long ago," Alpha added.
"This time, I will," Max replied sternly before looking back at Ames, whose haunting display of power boasted of the worsening fate of his disintegrating captives. They had already lost their lower legs. "Ames. That's enough."
Ames looked down at him, eyes like that of an alarmed bird of prey measuring up a change in the winds.
"We're coming with them," Max could feel the increasing weight on his chest as he said the words. It was painful to hear from his own mouth, but Max knew that Alpha wasn't lying. Alpha wasn't the lying type. Ames's eyes glowed brighter for a while, radiating fiercely as his skin paled even more. "We need to. Or we'll never be together."
Ames's face expressed an even angrier, more terrifying visage. Fiery pink energy ejected from his back, sharpening into fine lines and forming a circle of rotating wheels behind him. The circle of rotating wheels looked like an ancient sigil, the parts of which moved in an intricate clockwork. Each wheel was studded with symbols. They whistled sharply with telekinetic energy.
Max had never seen that before, but the sigil looked intimidatingly sharp.
"I could tear them to pieces right now," Ames said.
"And we'll never be able to live the life we've always wanted," Max reiterated to him. "Please, Ames. Please."
Ames's glare was now directed at Max, aimed like rifles readied for destruction. It lasted for a while before the color of Ames's eyes softened into normal pink.
The sigil faded out, leaving behind smoky pink wisps. The fragments that now studded the open air quickly returned to where they'd broken off from: the walls, the car, the house, and the NAIs. Their reconstitutions were quick.
With that, an eruption of audible screams came from the NAIs, who finally had their legs back, reeling from the terror that they hadn't even been able to scream properly about for minutes.
Ames floated down, landing casually on the floor.
Max remembered the first time he had learned how to fly. He had done poorly. His mind had already been highly adaptable then, but trials and errors had always been important parts of his learning curves. Ames hadn't shown any weakness in his power use yet. In fact, he had already demonstrated a complex mixture of powers in such a short time.
Whatever he had become, he truly was powerful.
Too powerful.
"When did you learn to make detailed photokinetic constructs, Gab?" Alpha asked in a low voice.
"Over a month after turning...," Max replied, still looking at Ames. "Maybe two. Or a little bit longer."
"My point, exactly," Alpha remarked.